Good Afternoon fellow Positives,
Sadly, for you, words do not fail me after that excruciatingly disappointing result from the SJP. Be assured though – you do not suffer alone. We have not won a point since the turn of the year on the road in the PL. Trust me every dropped point is a nail in my hand. I would however admit, looking back over those painful mostly Sunday afternoons, that we have not actually deserved to earn a point with some poor efforts.
I have not seen the stats for today’s game but I assume we had 75%-80% of the possession. And yet we lost, again, as we did in games in which almost exactly the same possession format developed, at Bournemouth, at Swansea, Watford, we play well, get in front. We have better players than them, technically, probably fitter and more intelligent. We are confident, in control and then, and then, AND THEN – we fall apart and lose.
I have read on here, and I have some sympathy, that these calamities are the defence’s fault, that they should defend better. Looking at the first Toon goal today, though not the second, I have sympathy there. It seems Rafa paid more attention to Shane long’s goal last week than Mustafi did. There is a lack of concentration at the back, I accept that. The notion however that we must win games, in fact the only way to win games, is by keeping a clean sheet, i.e. relying on a defence that we know is gash, seems wrong headed.
What distressed me more though is the lack of quality that we showed at the other end, in our attacking and allegedly creative play. We had oodles of possession throughout, yet barely tested the Toon goal-minder Dubravka. In the final 25 minutes with Toon ahead I don’t think he had to make a serious save. What is the point of having “stellar creatives” (*Copyright Mandy) if we never get a shot or header on target ?
What to do ? Away from the Ems we are not a team at the moment.
We had no “Number 10” today, or if we did I did not see him. We have Ozil, Rambo and Jack at the club, yet young Joe Willock had the job given to him, and he had no chance. He was eaten alive in midfield, in my opinion. Our creative output and goal threat, when it was badly needed, was negligible today. And if we cannot score goals then on the road we are f*****.
Having got that rant out of the way well done to Mo Elneny today, another AFC Man of the Match performance for the Egyptian. 95 hard minutes in Moscow and he still looked like a Spring lamb today.
Enjoy your Sunday.
Positively Arsenal 
Dan Critchlow
@afcDW
49m49 minutes ago
Coming up for the academy:
-Premier League International Cup final vs FC Porto B.
-FA Youth Cup final vs Chelsea.
-West Ham vs Arsenal in the Premier League 2, a win gives the u23s the title.
Exciting times!
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FT: West Ham 1-1 Stoke
stoke now 5pts from 17th placed swansea, with four game to play, their next two games are at home to Burnley and away to Liverpool, they might be getting LFC at the right time, between their two CL games
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I decided to take a trip to the Emirates to see the Youth Cup semi-final and what an enjoyable game that was. I must say that Emile Smith-Rowe is a very talented footballer. I really hope he can deliver on that promise at Arsenal. The whole team looked solid, strong at the back and in midfield and technically very strong all round. Very impressive.
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thought the ref was very poor in the youth game, let a lot go, looked like he was allowing Blackpool bridge the talent gap by fouling all game long.
one incident in the first half annoyed me, Thompson fouled a Blackpool attacker, free was called, the Blackpool player got in Thompson’s face and another one ran twenty yards to barge Thompson, several more from both sides got involved, Ref just stood there, looking on. when all settled he called over Thompson and the guy he fouled, but let the guy who ran the 20 yards to make something of it, off scot free
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passenal our right back, Daley-Campbell looks very good, Osei-tutu is keeping him out of the U23’s, we looked well stocked for RB, no wonder we are letting Johnson go
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Our 2 CB’s tonight both got released two years ago when they were 16, Medley by Chelsea and our captain tonight Ballard was released by Arsenal, but after agreeing to join Stevenage, while waiting for them to rubber stamp his scholarship, Jonker asked him to play in a friendly v Bayern Munich, he played the second half, impressed and was offered a scholarship here.
it must be said Ballard had been released after he had missed a large chunk of his last schoolboy season with a broken ankle.
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The centre backs weren’t really tested tonight Eduardo. It was hard to see how Blackpool managed to score 2 goals last time, because they did not get a sniff tonight.
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one if not both goals in the first leg were goalie errors, the second one certainly, he dropped an easy catch two yards out and it was poked home
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Eduardo.
Didn’t get refs thinking at all in just giving a talking to for the very strong yellow first half when guy jumped in with venom at full stretch as our player ran away from him.
It was our defender running away from him at the edge of our box! Not a trip, a full on clattering no where near the ball and with no intention of playing the ball.
Player in question , later sent off, looked upset every time they panned in on him after a foul. Someone who has been told and shown that when up against it you increase aggression as much as you can, and if it doesn’t work then it’s ok to show you care by losing your head.
Can’t put into words how stupid the notion is that a ref should show that much leeway because it’s a youth player, or a semi, or because his team are losing badly.
English refs show no understanding in deed that their number one task is to do all they can to protect the safety of players. None.
And what for? What is it they hope to protect or foster in the game instead? Our famous fighting spirit. Which in the end game of senior international tournaments produces what exactly?
No one hurt tonight, but a talent like Smith-Rowe’s injury risk must be well over 50% what it should be, thanks to these total donuts and their foolish ways.
You could feel the likelihood increase someone would put a stupid one in on him, they were looking, but, tonight, his awareness kept him just about safe from harm’s way.
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Rich the media and pundits have for years put forward that its ok to kick the shit out of talented teams, its how you level the playing field, and I have no doubt that Refs go along with this view. It was very clear tonight that this Ref tried to even it up a bit, the lad who was sent off could have been off midway through the first half. Smith-Rowe avoided several lunging challenges, all bookable offenses but Ref seemed to be of the view, the Arsenal lad avoided them so no harm done, of course if one connected and destroyed Smith-Rowe’s career, it would have been the “blackpool lad is not that sort of guy and he loves his mum”.. There was a link put up a few days ago about Ryan Smith and how his career was ruined at 16, and how he is in constant pain, due to one of those sort of thuggish challenges. One that the Ref also let the Ipswich lad off with.
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I was shocked (not!) at how much the referee let go tonight. I was worried that someone was going to get seriously injured. It was notable how many of the AFC players were confident running with the ball, which you don’t really see at the first team level. But I did think that they would not be able to do that in a first team game as someone would have chopped them down and taken a yellow long before they got anywhere near the opposition penalty box. It put me in mind of a young Jack Wilshere, who played in a very similar way, now look at what he has become thanks to less talented opponents being allowed to ‘even the playing field’ with illegal tactics. Blackpool brought a strong contingent of support and the most excited they got was when one of their players chopped down an Arsenal player early on with a foul that was (of course!) not called. As long as that rough-housing is condoned by supporters and officials, I don’t see the national game progressing. It’s way past time for ‘pashun’ alone to be the benchmark by which players are judged. If the young English lads at Arsenal can be coached to achieve a level of technical excellence, there is no reason why that cannot happen across the board. It’s time for youth football to come out of the dark ages.
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Passenal
Good to hear from someone there. I’ve thought in past what would have happened if Messi had joined us at 16 when we tried.
I don’t think messi would be Messi basically. Someone would have badly crocked him before 18 if he’d had the temerity to be constantly dribbling at speed and all the rest.
He gets fouled a lot in La Liga and elsewhere but it’s rarely reckless stuff done at speed with force.
My previous post may sound like I didn’t enjoy game much at all and was too focused on ref, fouls, injury threat.
Not the case at all, but it’s definitely never far from mind watching games like that, and it does often impinge on enjoyment of watching our wonderfully skilful young players.
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I cannot be certain, but given reports of what was going on at the time, I suspect a young Messi would been provided with a number of ” benefits” not available at Arsenal.
Great to see the younger teams doing so well, things appear to be really progressing at that level
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I don’t think it’s a big mystery why a diving clogger has been lauded to the rafters and managed well as a “brand” by his PR consultants including broadcasters.
In Mike Riley’s world the ideal no.10 in football cannot dribble with the football.
L.O.L.
The PR whizz kids and management consultants in Branding (mules?) would be devastated but if the England manager can ignore the agents and pick a player who can play football to play at ten I’m happy to guess that most football lovers in this land will be enthused. I observed nothing but love for the sport in the comments above!
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< said diving clogger will probably dive to win a decisive penalty in the WC final now that I've written the above!
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<< but at least one can understand the compulsion/instruction to dive at every opportunity.
He can't dribble etc.
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In these Post History Revision times, there seems to be a quiet comfort to forgetting that sp**s have had to kiss lots of Rebrov, Soldado looking frogs, before they arrived at the best they have seen in 60 years to finish 2 nd and 4th.
City have spent a Kings (An abosolute Shitload) Ransome, to get knocked out before the semi-final of the CL. Not forgetting the best coach in the world, with the best team /squad, the most expensive defence in the world, were set on fire by World class Will Grigg. The upside they have won the League and in the main play great. But it has taken backing of a Nation state.
Maine Road was a ground I used to enjoy on away days, Chips and gravey and 3 pts were all my memories on trips there
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OMG twitter is down, I’ll have to go out on the street and shout at random strangers.
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Watched the excellent youngsters last night and saw many yellow card challenges going unpunished. Was certainly worried that at 4 nil they were going to really go for the rough stuff and hurt someone badly. Their Number 4 should have been off already.
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‘Watched the excellent youngsters last night and saw many yellow card challenges going unpunished’ And the same thing could be observed with the senior team on Sunday, and on other occasions…
…meanwhile during the Life of Riley the national team has gone from beating leading teams and consistently making tournament SFs & QFs to being unable to beat Costa Rica or draw with Iceland. Though i am also predicting a WC victory for England this Summer! To quote the great plundit, the master expert:
“The proof is in the pudding and the pudding in this case is a football”
Or in the amusing spectacle of number tens who can’t dribble etc. have you ever heard of such thing? If you’ve been watching the PL “Theatre” you have now!
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“meanwhile during the Life of Riley the national team has gone from beating leading teams and consistently making tournament SFs & QFs to being unable to beat Costa Rica or draw with Iceland”
Unless you are talking about some other country Fins England have been fairly shite as an international team since Alf was sacked, we’ve failed to qualify for more Euros and World Cups than we’ve been in the late stages of either tournament. Pinning the desolate decades of English international football on Mike Riley seems a teensy-weensy bit extreme, purely in my opinion obviously
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Especially Andy, when we all know the real culprit is WENGER.
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SSSHHHHH – not on here
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Cuz of all them furriners, Fummin. Got to play the inglish lads, cos playing em turns em into technically gifted players by majik.
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Jonjo Shelvey either has, or an agent that has a lot of influence in the media.
He is a fairly run of the mill long ball merchant that I can see, yes he did us at the weekend, but so have far too many journeymen this season.
But every time he does something half decent, there is wall to wall, blanket coverage ” Jonjo for England” ok, his style might suit the limited patterns of play of England I guess.
Compare and contrast shelveys media treatment to that of the admittedly far lesser talented Mesut Ozil
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We will play two pre-season matches in Singapore this summer.
As part of the International Champions Cup, we face Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain in July. Both matches will be played at the 55,000 capacity National Stadium at the Singapore Sports Hub.
The first match will see us take on Atletico Madrid on Thursday, July 26, with the match against PSG being played on Saturday, July 28. Both matches kick off at 7.35pm local time (12.35pm UK time).
Arsenal legend Robert Pires, together with representatives from Atletico Madrid and PSG, are in Singapore to celebrate the official launch of the ICC matches. Further details and ticket information can be found here.
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/club-announces-pre-season-matches-singapore#KarUprMZyUr57qt4.99
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/club-announces-pre-season-matches-singapore#OtUOveVqbAwRfmAb.99
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Andy. They were never shit until they started to struggle against Iceland and Costa Rica in successive tournaments. Better to fail to qualify for one tournament a decade then be shown up that badly on the big stage over a prolonged duration (though I’m expecting better this summer if the footballers get selected ahead of the actors).
I do recall that they lost a game to the USA, in the nineteen fifities.
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I enjoyed the semi finals of my infancy and youth.
Desolation is not the word that I would choose to use to describe good football or a good football team.
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Fins you seem to dismiss Iceland as some sort of joke team – they had an excellent Euros and more recently beat the Dutch in a World Cup qualifier in Amsterdam. Simply because teams are from small countries does not automatically consign them to being poor quality or easily beatable. On the night Iceland won fair and square.
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I don’t recall dismissing them.
By my limited understanding they hover somewhere between Switzerland and Andorra.
The joke is on England.
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I wouldn’t even dismiss Costa Rica.
Real Madrid keeper?
On of our recent own?
Nope. Not for me.
But I would expect an England team to have played better football against them. That is reasonable? I hope.
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Extra 2 mins on the 2 mins first half injury time for Spurs. Pphhhh. Was someone down for 2 mins in that injury time?!
couple days after Taylor booked someone for wasting time in injury time, then blew a little early.
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English football can easily follow Scottish football.
I hope not. But the gulf in technique is widening.
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Somebody with clearly too much time on trheir hands has extrapolated some data and produced a table:
It tells us that currently:
Iceland are ranked 22nd
Netherlands who they beat are 19th, that’s just two places above them.
England are 12th
Switzerland are 6th
Andorra are long long way down
Scotland are currently riding high in 34th!
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Haha three places above them!
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Iceland’s recent record places then midway in the table between England & Scotland.
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Arm in unnatural position there from Kayal, by his side, as he slid along ground.
Should’ve had it above his head
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Costa Rica?
25th
(Above Scotland. Not too far from Iceland.)
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Costa Rica beat Uruguay and Italy in the Brazil World Cup before ‘only’ managing a draw with England – they were then victims of the evil van Gaal and his penalty antics to go out to the Dutch on spot kicks.
No I have no problems at all with England’s recent results against these boys.
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Some interesting reading in the Mail and Telegraph today. Ok interesting and Mail may be a contradiction.
Basically, articles saying Wengers future has not been decided, and in addition, general apathy and crowd numbers would be accounted for when deciding his fate.
Normally, I wouldn’t mention such things on here, prob wrong to do so now, but they were written by Sammy Mokbel and Jeremy Wilson, two journalists some say are sometimes fed some info from some elements within the club. Used the word ” some ” quite a bit there.
It is most likely made up drivel or guesswork at best.
But it will have the effect of justifying or increasing the rising of the people or whatever they think it is within the fan base and at the ground at the moment.
In addition, although this is not been a great season, there is still a big trophy to play for with a Champions league place. And we are led to believe Wenger has another year on his contract so what’s to review, except perhaps a review of how to improve things away from home.
Really hope this is just mischief making from agenda driven journalists, the alternative, I don’t really want to even think about it.
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Mandy they are just parroting what well know Arsene and Arsenal hater Chris Sutton said yesterday.
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Sutton said that? fair enough, will dismiss accordingly.
If anyone knows what goes on behind the scenes at Arsenal, it is certainly not going to be Chris Sutton
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When Arsenal appoint a new manager Mandy it will be a carefully managed and probably lengthy process. It will not depend on whether a place in the Ems has an arse on it or not on any given Sunday, particularly if the fee had been banked. If a new Arsenal manager is to take over in July he had already been appointed. And Jeremy Wilson and the other chap will probably not know any earlier than you and I when it happens or who the lucky man will be.
Or that at least is my take on how Stan operates.
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spot on anicol, these journos have no inside info on any decision on Wenger’s future or who might or might not be his replacement, you only have to look at all the different people journos name as “the main target” to replace him. Its like their transfer stories, throw out as many links as possible, and if eventually one lands, claim “we told you”.
this sort of story, when a real leak, is done by clubs to stop any backlash from fans for sacking a manager. I don’t think even any one on here expects any kind of backlash if the board decided to replace AW this summer. Also the club know full well that we have a noisy group of malcontents who a story like this would only encourage them to try and get others to actually stay away. So the club has not one thing to gain by it. But guess what, the journos and their rags have something to gain. So guess how accurate the story is now.
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I think you are probably correct there Anicoll, Arsenal keep things quiet well, some of these stories hint at people on the board breaking ranks, which I would assume unlikely.
If Arsenal replace Wenger this summer, it must be done with respect. League form , away at least might well put him in sackable territory, at some clubs I could mention, but we still have something very major to play for.
My guess, unlike those who believe he is clinging on for money, for dear life and fear of retirement, if comes to the point where Wenger genuinely thinks he can do no more, the club will not have to sack him, he will walk. If that happens this summer, I fear it will be our loss, I believe he is only a player or two away from a very decent team.
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Not so much Stan as The Arsenal
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one thing anicol I would disagree with you on, is the length of process that will be undertaken when club decide to replace AW, for me we will have a new man ready to be announced on the news of AW leaving. Only way it will not be quick is if AW springs a decision to leave on them.
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With the possible talent we have in the academy at the moment whoever comes in could have a George Graham situation, i.e. inheriting something to eventually dismantle.
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mandy I laugh when I see the nonsense about Wenger clinging on cos he does not want to retire as his life would be empty etc etc.
As if there would not be a whole host of clubs worldwide willing to hire him, anything from right across France, to far flung places like USA and China. He could write his own cheque in China. the Japs would love to have him back, I would even say Everton would jump at the chance of having him
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