Good morning bearers of the Positive flame,
Such are the risks of contesting the final of a competition, that the prize is tantalisingly within one’s grasp, and when one’s reach is not quite sufficient to make that final fingertip contact , so the disappointment is all the more acute. Wembley for the past seven seasons has been an almost perfect ground for us, so to experience defeat was an unusual taste.
In truth we were beaten by a better Citeh side yesterday and I have no complaints.The steepest defeat I have ever seen Arsenal suffer in a final. Our opponents were worthy winners and 3-0 was a fair record of their superiority.
Of the game itself ? Neither side started particularly well in a scrappy first half as we all saw. A moment of inexplicable defending by Mustafi allowed Aguero to pounce but after that both sides traded footballing blows. The Sky Blues probably made the better of their possession but we had chances to strike, with our best work coming down the flanks. Jack and Fernandhino were clearly excited. At half time I had no concerns.
Second half ? Well they stepped up a gear and we were comprehensively pinned down. I thought we defended solidly but when we did manage to get the ball out our midfield foursome just could not build anything with those scarps of possession, or keep the ball. I felt that where in the first half we had an ‘out’ ball to the wings after half time our attacks became much more narrow, and passes were cut out or misplaced as we tried to thread them through a very busy midfield. Even the usually immaculate Mesut appeared unable to pick out a team mate. PEA became increasingly isolated and we were reduced to the ‘long punt’ to make any sort of impression on the Citeh back line or to involve Bravo in the game.
Most ‘UnArsenal’ but Citeh worked very hard to contain us and to control the game. They had a confidence in that second half that we lacked. The inevitable happened and we cracked under the pressure, the result of great perspiration on their part. At 2-0 it was probably over, at 3 we were holed below the waterline and sinking to defeat.
I do not intend to engage in a witch hunt against individual players, coaches or our manager. Clearly we did not play to the standard that on other days we have managed, and will manage again. I thought Sead Kolasinac played well, as did Jack and Laurent. In spite of his early howler I thought Shkodran stuck to his work and made several good last ditch tackles.
We shall dust ourselves off, clamber to our feet and move on.
Enjoy Monday.
Positively Arsenal 
That post, Ladies and Gentlemen, is Positivelyarsenal.com in essence.
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a poor performance, mistakes leading to goals, created very little, never really looked like winning, had one chance before city scored. Mustafi was nudged off the ball for their opener, foul or not, he really should have been strong enough to not let it happen, I would say he had misjudged the long ball(not the first time we’ve seen him do it this season), but where was the cover, we had 2 more CB’s, not to be seen, an on his game Koscielny would have seen it coming and been there, but its been some time since we have seen Kos at his best, the achilles look to have done for him.
Midfield is the key to our game, and by and large if you look at our 12 defeats this season, we’ve been second best in midfield, leaving defense under pressure and our striker/forwards isolated. Xhaka, Wilshere, Ramsey and Ozil never got going at all, no ball retention, sloppy passing, slow passing and once again lacking tempo and energy.
rambo and jack are in and around our first team for 10 years now and they look no closer to forming a partnership. Wenger clearly does not see them as suitable central partners, invariably one or other is shuffled out wide.
Xhaka is having a hard time of it this season, he seems incapable of playing the role he is being asked to do, at international level he plays a different midfield role and is Swiss player of the year. For me he lacks the speed needed to be our deepest midfielder, he needs that little extra bit of time for his game to flourish.
For me I thought Chambers was our best defender yesterday, and I think it was wrong to take him off, either of the other two should have been off before him.
Final thought is that VAR will make no difference to how Refs “game manage” in Arsenal games. We had an opportunity on both of the first 2 goals for VAR to be used in a meaningful way. But the Ref refused to use it, despite AFC players asking him to do so on both goals. It could have been done as the city players celebrated.
Was Mustafi fouled on the first goal – I don’t know
Was Ospina’s view impeded by an offside player on the second goal – I don’t know
I don’t know, and I would suggest the Ref did not know either, but he was not willing to review it and find out for sure.
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going to be a half empty Emirates for our game v Man CIty on Thursday, tickets had already been on general sale pre the cup final, with that defeat its sure to see many fans not bother to turn up. But they say the love the club and ticket prices are too high, but they are willing and able to afford tickets and not use them, and abandon the team when it needs their support. But don’t dare call them self entitled.
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santi cazorla after yesterday’s game
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For those watching and listening in the UK to Sky yesterday was it me or was Neville off his head ? Bizarre, rambling abuse of Arsenal from minute one to minute 94, a real personal hatred of Xhaka it seemed. And this from a bloke who lasted six weeks in Valencia !
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Yes, George you are so right.
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One good thing about losing the League Cup final: we (and the team) don’t have to sit around stewing about it all summer long. No wallowing in self pity, just get back up and get on with it. Plenty of football left, and there will be plenty of moments to enjoy, I have no doubt of that. And that’s what I intend to do. No doubt Thursday will be mentally challenging for the boys, and we may well lose that one too. I don’t know why anyone is surprised or angry that the most magnificent team in the land is better than we are. They’re better than everyone.
So, I won’t be talking about what a “poor performance” it was (I didn’t really think it was anyway, we just got beaten). No one will be any more disappointed than the boys will. And they don’t have time to be disappointed. Onward.
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anicoll
Can’t stand the fella. The only logical explanation for his treating our players as though they are freakishly bad is by saying he means within context of a top club, not just a top division club, but an elite club within that.
If that’s case, he still goes way too far, and maybe he should mention context of his criticism as well. This is a guy who now spends some of his time and cash working with and evaluating non-league footballers, so presumably he switches properly and totally recalibrates as to what a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ footballer looks like.
Many have accepted his odd and no doubt unique treatment of us is a combination of that ‘sweet spot’ we occupy as an elite club, whose players are judged vastly differently to all below, and some great respect he built up for us over his playing days, which is subsequently injured by seeing us fall from those standards. Bullshit, I say.
Him and Carragher are much the same in describing a bad performance for us as something grotesque, and largely the result of characteristics outside of footballing ability. All the result of that sweet spot, which no other club has ever, or perhaps can ever really occupy?
He’s a man, at the end of the day, who chose to deliberately ignore the truth in his book. His story there is that they wrestled control from us in game 50 and after when their great leader struck the idea we didn’t like being tackled. So they set out to do just that, and we didn’t like it. Then they knew how to beat us from then on.
The two options were that he genuinely bought the lie, and had little or no idea about how that day’s success relied on Riley performing abysmally, and so on through the rest of his career; or he more or less knows the score exactly.
He does often, though not always, seem to have a reasonable enough grasp about fouls and bookings et al in his commentary; he wouldn’t have set out to ‘tackle’ opponents in Europe or international games, as player or later coach, as he did Reyes. So at least to an extent he knows well enough, and chose to lie gratuitously in his book, and everywhere else about us.
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It did seem to me Rich that Neville was raising his criticism of Arsenal players, and Arsenal football, and Arsenal football club to a form of existential denunciation, that somehow what he was watching was the embodiment of FOOTBALLING EVIL, ranting at Ospina who he claimed made him “nervous” and with Granit as a Swiss Satan.
Totally bonkers imo
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Blimey it sounds like G.Neville was reading from his “Theatre” script!
Although the result wasn’t great I highly recommend syncing broadcasts to the Arsenal Player stream. Like many otherson this forum I couldn’t be arsed to listen to the biased and partisan and constant attacks upon AFC by such media as G.Neveille works for, going back many years now.
I even prefer watching Arsenal matches in unlnown languages!
As Brian Clough says: some people “were brought up to hate the Arsenal”
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Hence why I don’t watch football on TV. I suspect a lot of the over the top reactions to yesterday were no doubt fuelled by the overwhelmingly negative commentary with which they have been infected.
Spot on post Andrew
I think you’re right about the attendance on Thursday Eduardo, but I and a few other die hards will still be there.
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I think Gary Neville was genuinely upset at our performance. I’ve heard him speak of Arsenal and Arsene Wenger before, and he is far more rational than most of our “fans”. He might have gone a bit overboard, though.
The most worrying thing for me is that there is not way in hell our boys weren’t trying and or didn’t want to win – they were simply outclassed all over the pitch. Confidence played a big part, no doubt about that. And its fair to say, the first half as a case of fine margins, but we didn’t look like we could impose ourselves on the game at any point.
To my eyes, it feels like we are further away from City at the moment than we have been from the CL winners in the period between 2010-2017 (with the exception of 12-13). I realize this is probably a bit of an overreaction, but I feel I’m onto something.
The Liverpool game at home earlier in the season was almost the same for me – masked by 2 moments of atrocious defending/goalkeeping by Liverpool that allowed us to get back into the game. There were better teams than us in the league/CL, sure, but before I never felt like teams completely stopped us from doing anything, or imposing ourselves on a game for at least some periods. Just look back to our win vs. Pep’s Bayern from at the Emirates from 2 seasons ago – they had the upper hand for most of the game to be sure, as all Pep’s teams do, but on the ball, we looked like a top, top side.
This is literally destroying my soul. I believe in this club and what it stands for, and in Arsene Wenger as the embodiment of all those values. For years, in spite of the (predominantly unfair) criticism, him and the club persevered. It genuinely looked as if there was a master plan behind everything, and that slowly, but surely, we were getting to the very top. New stadium, slowly investing into the team, getting one world class player every summer, pushing up the table from 4th to 2nd…They way things unraveled since December 2016 is something I will never truly understand.
I hope for the sake of everything that is good in this world, that Arsene can steady the ship once more, and then go on for a final push to earn himself a legacy that he deserves next season. And it starts this Thursday. COYG.
Lastly, the fans leaving the stadium before the final whistle…You absolute losers. So quick to speak of what they “deserve”, then they can’t give their team the support at the hour of greatest need. Entitled cunts.
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Sky, BT, MOTD they are all, always bizarre!
Ever wondered where Steve Coogan found his inspiration? Look no further then Gary Neville and chums. Steve was satirising football plunditary in general, which is fair enough though some bizarrely feel such thoughts are conspiratorial, but this coverage of The Arsenal is so consistently dishonest and surreal and yep bizarre that Salvidor Dali’s moustache would be quivering with outrage!
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Don’t be silly.
The cheat from the 50th game who clogged and AFC player out of the league was loving it!
If you think he wasn’t you’re just kidding yourselves.
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I think our last two Wembley showings prove that we are so,so vulnerable to sides using speed and space. We were caught so many times and our distribution became worse as time went by. And as for our ‘over the top’ strategy, where on earth did that come from? Poor Auba…
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Ta Andrew. Fair review void of any finger pointing. We were simply beat by the “greatest ever team in the Premier League”, well, according to the same media and pundits that slate us for losing to them, including Gary who’s losing his damn mind. Good comments from posters too.
santi_cazorler at 1:59 pm.
Fair comment. Mancity is not only better than Arsenal as they were at any time during the last decade but also further ahead to any other PL team over the same period.
This part of your post:
“The Liverpool game at home earlier in the season was almost the same for me – masked by 2 moments of atrocious defending/goalkeeping by Liverpool that allowed us to get back into the game.”
There was no masking going on. Arsenal scored 3 goals in quick succession through some moments of brilliance from Mesut Özil that caught Liverpool at sixes and sevens.
Mancity gained control of the game yesterday through a combination of a “moment of atrocious defending” (to borrow your phrase) and a lenient ref that allowed the foul on Mustafi.
No need for any over-analysis. The greatest team won at the end of the day and as previous posters said it wouldn’t do any of good to wallow in self-pity. We move on.
Roll on Thursday and may we get redemption.
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anicoll5
The performance of the team deserved some criticism definately some analysis, but the performance of Gary Neville was registering on the Rickter scale.
I don’t have to think, I know I have never heard so called “Colour” commentary like it.An at times personal attack on the manager and the players. Neville offered very little except sunshine for City and grey skys for Arsenal. It sounded like a pitch for a ranters spot on fantv.
What was the point?
Is Neville working for/with an agent of someone who wants the job ?
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Sometimes Neville can be knowledgeable and his comments reasoned and accurate Wwwb. Unlike a lot of pundits he seems able to string a sentence together that is not a selection of inane cliches a la Savage, Owen and the excruciating Lawro.
The boy let himself down bad ( as they say).
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anicoll
12.56 one got a good laugh from me.
Began reading it thinking ‘hmmph, sounds a bit mild; he’s worse than that’, and then delivered big time with the humour and not far out with accuracy either.
He set his stall out early did Nev.
Was annoying me early doors when he kept going on about us having to play out from back. Felt like he was asking us then to do the thing that would suit City most.
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Football Weekley headline:
“Arsenal’s decade long capitulation”
L’L’L’L’L’L’LOL!
Anyone pretending that these organisations don’t have an ideoligical problem with the Arsenal is only * themselves off, pardon me! When you watch European games in English a neutral would be forgiven for thinking that AFC are the ‘foreign’ team, people can object to us laughing at this if they want to, but, well, I’m still going to laugh at it. Sorry.
It’s so blatant and comical, these kind of absurd and risable headlines are actually taking the edge off the pain for me.
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The problem is Fins, they are doing a bang-up job riling up the mob. It’s sad that some so called AFC ‘fans’ are allowing themselves to be used in an attempt to bring the club down.
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Jack has surprised me a lot by drawing such explicit attention to decisions against us. He’ll get absolutely slaughtered for it.
As it happens nothing unreasonable about what he says, and he qualifies his unhappiness pretty well- something to the effect of ‘these things happen in football but it’s hard to accept when it does’- but that won’t save him from a proper media doing.
I’m nothing short of stunned that one of our players has finally done it, but have mixed feelings as, from tactical point, now was not a good moment to do so, and the decisions he highlights are tame compared to some of those that have gone against us.
Still, I’ve asked, sometimes in desperation, sometimes with the view it can’t make things worse, for players or club to directly confront the amount of decisions which go against us and don’t even out. He’s done something in that ballpark so I have to support him for it.
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If you guys think Neville was bad, you should have heard that great footballing legend, Craig Burley, doing color commentary on the ESPN feed to North America. The bias and animus toward Arsenal and Arsene Wenger in particular was palpable. For a man who achieved nothing in football to be publicly slagging Wenger while posing as a pundit is pretty shocking. But disparaging Wenger and Arsenal for not joining the spending excesses of the Premier League, not paying super agents, not overspending on transfers and wages, not playing negative, defensive football is par for the course in the mainstream media.
Correction: Craig Burley.
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Shotta
Seen enough of Burley to know what a rotten swine he is.
As well as his own football career, also worth noting his uncle had a fairly long managerial career.
Did ok, or even quite well, especially early on at Ipswich, while never operating at Wenger’s level- probably because those damn chairman don’t know a great British thing when they see one, eh!!- before fading away, lasting an average of a year on next six jobs, and finishing at Appolon Limassol, where he was sacked after two games.
Is Craig as harsh on uncle George? Family gatherings would be a blast- ‘you’ve won nothing, you don’t play good football, you’re a loser, a nobody; YOU’RE A DISGRACE… you’re weak; oh and pass me that gravy will you?’.
Or is it that ‘sweet spot’ I was on about earlier which means players who are undoubtedly better- German internationals, Colombian international with 50 or whatever caps- thaN most, can be talked about, or savaged, in terms they wouldn’t dream of using for worse players from further down the footballing pyramid ?
He’d be lucky to last two games at Appolon Limassol would Burley the younger.
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jeez anicol I thought you smarter than that, it all became clear after the game what Neville’s ranting was all about,
Thierry Henry the man to replace Arsene Wenger and rebuild Arsenal Football Club into the super power all in the media want
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Sorry, but if the AFC Board were ever stupid enough to appoint that ego-maniac as manager, I would certainly be rescinding my membership!
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Jack Wilshere has had this to say on the decisions during the cup final, it has left many who laud his every touch, but who love to whinge at AW, in a real pickle, they don’t know what to think
Jack Wilshere
“Hard to put into words my emotions about yesterday. City are a good team and deserved to win yesterday. Alot of people have had thier say on us and we have to accept cristism when we lose. That being said i can’t accept some of the decisions that went against us yesterday. What ever you say about the first goal, its a foul. The second goal is offside. There should have been a second yellow in the first half. Yes this happens in football but its still hard to accept. And people will say we are looking for excuses but these are facts. Anyway we need to respond, starting on thursday. Thanks to all the gooners for your support and trust me we feel the same but we need to stick together 🔴 “
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and you would be right to do so passenal, but that was clearly the stance taken by Neville and co yesterday, and of course the massive ego played along.
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Nice post Andy, thanks.
Arséne mentioned a worry with regard to Özil’s immune system. He had been sick again in the run up to the game. In combination with Ramsey just returning after weeks out and lacking match fitness, explains why they both waned in the second half. Neville did dwell on this observation and was rather harsh.
The question is why did he not mention these potentially mitigating circumstances?
I spend very little time these days reading about our club and yet still managed to hear this information about those players. Confirmation bias on my part or lack of preparation from a well paid pundit? Or both?
Anyway, I’m looking forward to Thursday. Arsenal are due a performance….
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Andre Marriner the ref for our game on Thursday v Man City
Kevin Friend the ref for our game on Sunday v Brighton
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The usual suspects our out with their pitchforks, Wrighty, Henry…shock horror to see the shambles meme on one backpage, wow I never saw that PR genius meme coming as it was packaged the last summer!
If only the likes of Gary “clogging cheat” Neville showed as much concern for the football team that couldn’t draw with Iceland, come to think of it he might’ve been an assistant in that match…blimey!
Yep. The more you think about it, the funnier this coverage is:
“The sight of Ragnar Sigurdsson bundling home Iceland’s equaliser, which came from the feared long-throw tactic that is a trademark of the Icelandic game, must raise serious questions of Neville’s role in the previous coaching set-up.
Neville will have been responsible for the defence and he would have focused on defending against the long-throw all week, only to then concede from that very set-play. Surely the next England manager cannot be a man who was sacked after four months and is partially at fault for England’s worst defeat in their history”
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/england-vs-iceland-six-things-we-learnt-do-we-want-gary-neville-as-manager-and-roy-hodgson-failed-to-a7107031.html
How on earth did Phil Neville get the managers job for the Woman’s team? Is a good question, and there ain’t no denying that!
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Funny old game.
Some Chinese investors sold their 17% per cent stake in Atletico Madrid the other day and have now bought some newly promoted Chinese side, and immediately sign two Atletico Madrid players for 40-50 mill.
Just one of those things you hear of that adds to my belief giant swathes of the market and football itself are not open and not clean respectively.
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11 EPL games left and 2-7 Europa League games left wipe the smirk off the face of every naysayer is just about how AW has learnt to do his thing every season for the past decade plus.
Some key players were clearly either under the weather or still recovering from injury.
Jack points at key decisions that went against us. Paraphrasing AW after the 3-1 loss @ the Etihad, “why give favourable calls to the richest and best team in the league?” ..most of us here have lived through this before with Man Utd, Chelsea, Barcelona….whoever is flaring the cash gets the “love”.
So yes, we were not on it yesterday. We lost.
Congrats to the citizens on being the League cup champs of 2018.
Hope more of our players are healthier over the rest of the season, starting with thursday @ home.
Some will boo but most goners just want to see their team compete better.
Lets hope they do so AFC can continue falling back into its own unique space in the world of football.
Polarities are free.
COYG!
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Jack Wilshere is being vilified for saying what everyone has seen but is unwilling to say they saw it because they fear being reprimanded by the media. Wenger tried, and it cost us a chance at the FA cup and a few league points not forgetting his wallet as well. It’s been the theme throughout the season, so much so I now expect it.Even Thursday I can almost guarantee we shall be done by more poor officiating that will then be explained away by saying we’d have lost anyway.
A political analyst in my native Uganda has a saying that “to undermine a revolutionary, make them undo their earlier achievements”. I think this is what is being done to Arsene through the media and pgmol. Arsenal have been made to look much worse than we actually are, Wenger blamed for every bad thing at Arsenal, while overlooking him for the good things. Negatives blown exceedingly out of proportion while diminishing and in some cases flat out ignoring the positives.
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I have seldom read or listened to such rubbish during or after Sunday’s match. Thank goodness for this small corner that at the very least keeps a sense of perspective. When this season is finally done and dusted and all the glittering prizes are handed out I expect to see all those sides beaten in finals or semi-finals or who fail to win their leagues treated to the same scrutiny and opprobrium.
But I sense I might be waiting for some time….
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I missed all the “Thierry for the Boss’s job” panto after the game. As a matter of principle I never watch post match interviews or the claptrap of the pundits (other than when Jose loses but that is just my little guilty pleasure – don’t despise me).
Had I watched it I think I would have advised our former French striker to dangle his rod off someone else’s bridge. It will not happen son, not until you put some serious skin in the management game.
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I se the tickets for Citeh’s Thursday night visit are moving like granite and have been since they have been on sale. I fancied the game myself but not an upper tier expensive ticket. All those 60,000 on the season ticket list see a bit sheepish. Trouble is if the main allocation does not sell out the ticket exchange is not switched on.
I predict empty spaces, wide, wide empty spaces.
Ah one, ah one, ah one two three;
“Oh, give me a home where the Buffalo roam
Where the Deer and the Antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the sky is not cloudy all day.”
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Jeri Moses – February 27, 2018 at 5:28 am
Boom! “A political analyst in my native Uganda has a saying that “to undermine a revolutionary, make them undo their earlier achievements”. I think this is what is being done to Arsene through the media and pgmol.”
Those of us from the ex-colonies with any brains and historical experience of the wiles of our OLD and NEW colonial masters can easily identify the tricks and games being played on Arsenal Football Club and its supporters in particular.
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anicoll
If you’re getting poetical, what about this one the chief donut of aftv posted after the game?
No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,
More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring.
Comforter, where, where is your comforting?
Mary, mother of us, where is your relief?
My cries heave, herds-long; huddle in a main, a chief
Woe, wórld-sorrow; on an áge-old anvil wince and sing —
Then lull, then leave off. Fury had shrieked ‘No ling-
ering! Let me be fell: force I must be brief.”‘
O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
May who ne’er hung there. Nor does long our small
Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep,
Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all
Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.
Or at least that may have been what he posted.
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Fucking left footers – they do go on
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Rich
Why do I feel like a philistine when I read poetry?
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Georgaki
I struggle with a lot of them- give me a gloomy Russian any day to try understand the world- and even with this one there’s a couple of points I can’t get hold of and just skip over.
Think I got the gist of it though. He aint happy and the mind, unhappiness and the world can be a real bastard.
Poor guy presumably didn’t have football and football managers to pin any of it on.
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I think that all hysterical criticisms after Sunday’s game seem to forget that Guardiola style of football has to prongs to it.
The first and I think a major one is the intention to prevent the opponents from playing. This is done by retaining the ball in the 1st place and secondly, when they lose the ball, extreme harassment of players that get it from the opponents opposing side.
The successful operation of this plan, which happened on Sunday, is that it demoralises the opponents and makes it look as though they are either not trying or not good enough.
I daresay if one looks at the statistics as to how far our players ran, I think will see that they certainly did try, but they were denied the ball and, therefore, unable to do as much as they normally would.
It should be remembered that man$ity had only 3 shots on target and we had 2. They had 7 shots off target and we have 5. Whilst they may have dominated the ball, they certainly did not dominate the chances and, in truth, it is the shots at goal that are more important to how long you have held onto the ball.
How many times have we had’s 60 or 70% possession in a game and still lost.
The weaker teams who specialise in parking the bus and have very efficient defences find it easier to cope with this sort of attrition, hence Wigan and Burnley did well against them, whilst teams who actually try to play football, like ourselves, find it difficult to cope with.
Yes, I was profoundly disappointed on Sunday, although not surprised, and thought perhaps they might have done better but on consideration realised that one mistake against a team like this can be fatal, as it clearly was.
For my part, I thought it was arguable that it was a foul on Mustaffi, but it was most unlikely.
This is to be nothing that the media and our former players like better than to have an opportunity to slag off the team and manager.
In my honest view, the team and their performance was nowhere near as bad as has been portrayed. I can understand why Jack feels so hard done by.
Henry manager? You must be joking.
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jigsol
Aye, they’re having a good old fashioned Roman-style orgy, replete with Collymore at the window doing something to himself for a modern touch, of Arsenal bashing in the press and elsewhere. Absolutely everything is being thrown at us during their feasting, on top of any legitimate analysis.
For the strong-stomached I recommend a look at Barney Ronay’s piece. Morbidly fascinating for me as he accidentally comes close to identifying us as being outside of the anything-to-win culture ( ‘desperation to succeed… brutally in love with winning…lacking some vital element’- to me he could be describing us exactly in comparison with a true, rabidly cynical, anything to win team, where the latter is positive and anything else negative) which dominates football and puts us at a significant disadvantage.
There’s also the unintentionally comical suggestion, in a piece savaging us in every way he can dream of, that what we ought to do to sort ourselves out is to study Man City’s ways. (Their whole way is money- crushing money, more money than anyone else. To put it down to anything else is a joke. If we really want to copy their model, we don’t need owners willing to spend as much, we need owners who can outspend them to the degree they can outspend us)
Hows that for an author undermining their credibility- and I think that becomes very important when you are ripping something or someone apart- in grand style! Or maybe it’s part of his unstated approval of anything-to-win. Anything-to-win or course meaning, ideally, from a position of immense financial strength. The quickest, surest and near enough only way to really get to and stay on top.
Anyway… as a bonus he also wrestles with why things are so bad- and they are so bad, so, so bad- even though in many ways things shouldn’t be so bad, at all, but they are.
It’s rare for anyone in the media to go near that sort of talk. Dangerous territory for them, or in many cases they might actually be as dense as they often appear, so they naturally wouldn’t go there.
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There are times when I think that I am living in a different dimension from a lot of people.
Unfortunately, younger supporters may be so used to success that they cannot cope without it.
In 10 years time, will Man$ity and Chel$ki still have all that money and can buy any and as many players that they want?
At what stage does this attitude turn our beloved game into a complete nonsense?
People might say that I only say this because we do not have our snouts in the trough.
My answer would be, perhaps, I would not be interested in the game at all then.
I know that this may sound stupid but I do remember there was time when I found our constantly winning somewhat boring and uninteresting.
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They are Sharks jigsol and they think they can scent blood so they are feeding the malcontents while they stand back and wait for AFC to implode. Watch the hypocrisy when AW leaves and they start start writing mountains of crap filled hyperbole
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2 Monday night games, an early Sunday at SJP and the full SuperSunday at Trafford Park (maybe).
We can now confirm that the following games have been rescheduled as a result of TV selections:
Arsenal v Southampton
Monday, April 9 (originally Saturday, April 7)
Kick-off: 8pm
Live on: Sky Sports
Newcastle United v Arsenal
Sunday, April 15 (originally Saturday, April 14)
Kick-off: 1.30pm
Live on: Sky Sports
Arsenal v West Ham United
Monday, April 23 (originally Saturday, April 21)
Kick-off: 8pm
Live on: Sky Sports
Manchester United v Arsenal
Sunday, April 29 (originally Saturday, April 28)
Kick-off: 4.30pm
Live on: Sky Sports
This match is subject to change should Manchester United be involved in the UEFA Champions League semi-final the following Tuesday.
Leicester City v Arsenal, postponed from Saturday, March 17, remains undated.
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I think the problem with that Ronay piece is he pretty much gets the Edgar in King Lear reference wrong and if I had more time and intellectual energy I would write to him to explain. But given the poetry we have had here today, and the excellent scholarly talk, plus the strong desire to find some fun and also maybe seek solace in a hostelry, here is an offering that amused me when I received it today.
A bar was walked into by the passive voice.
An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.
Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”
A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.
Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.
A question mark walks into a bar?
A non sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly.
Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Get out — we don’t serve your type.”
A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.
A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.
A synonym strolls into a tavern.
At the end of the day, a cliché walks into a bar — fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.
A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little sentence fragment.
Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.
A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.
An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.
The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.
A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned a man with a glass eye named Ralph.
The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.
A dyslexic walks into a bra.
A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.
An Oxford comma walks into a bar, where it spends the evening watching the television getting drunk and smoking cigars.
A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.
A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.
A hyphenated word and a non-hyphenated word walk into a bar and the bartender nearly chokes on the irony.
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Oh shut up !!
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Sorry I have been busy and just now scanning through the article and comments.. Can I just say, Shotta..
“Those of us from the ex-colonies with any brains and historical experience of the wiles of our OLD and NEW colonial masters can easily identify the tricks and games being played on Arsenal Football Club”
Boom shot! as you like to say.
I’m not sure why this resonated with me because I haven’t drawn all the parallels logically, but I guess notionally I know it is the same way it works.
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