Good morning PositiveArsenal fans,
An excellent night at the Ems and a contest that I will remember for a long time. Two very good football teams both playing with the metaphoric handbrake off. Arsenal with the ability to attack and create chances, the visitors with formidable organisation in their defence and a desperation to keep us out.
The final result of 1-1 was not what we hoped for. After the sending off we were almost totally dominant in the first half, and totally dominant in the second. Our one goal was fairly poor reward for that effort and for the constant pressure we kept up on the Spaniards. We made chances though, oooooh we made chances, posts were brushed and missed by inches, and Oblak hurled himself about all evening.
Of our lads I thought Jack had a very good game and balanced his two attributes of creativity and combativeness perfectly. Danny was tireless and Laca always on the front foot, looking for that edge against Atleti’s steel eyed pair of centre backs. Granit was his ever dependable self and barely put a foot (or a pass) wrong all night, and Hector and Nacho provided constant width and pace on the flanks. Mesut had a quiet night but he was heavily policed every time he touched the ball, no space, no time.
For the visitors while I do not like Greizmann’s constant chucking himself on the deck to win free kicks and get opponents he stole the equalizing goal from absolutely nothing. People point to the error by Kosc and the slip by Mustafi, (with little bit where was Ospina? kicked in). but the ball hit French forward in the face forty yards and four seconds later it was in the roof of the net. An exceptional finisher.
What does all this ‘mean’ though ? Well from the sudden rush to the exit on the 82 minute around me one might think we are doomed. Not at all.
Even had we gone to the Wanda Metropolitano 1, 2 or 3 ahead only a fool would have expected anything less than a 95 minute battle to ensure our progress into the final. Equally while in theory Atleti could settle for 1-1 and rely on their away goal Simeone is not an idiot. He and his team has had a rocky season in European competitions. The Argentine’s team will have to play a different and more attacking way at home to try to get that important next goal against us. It will not be the same 10 man defence we faced for 80 minutes last night. There will be an inch more space, their will be a half second more time. We played well last night. We can score against AM, and I expect us to score in Madrid.
And then we shall see.
We are still 90 minutes from Lyon. Enjoy your Friday.
Positively Arsenal 
Which BPL manager, or manager at any big club across Europe, are at odds with their clubs board, & riles against his clubs policies.
I ask, as I keep seeing people claim AFC need a manager who will “stand up to the AFC board” & silly stuff like that. So what manager does that
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A manager with a desire to be sacked
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Eduardo and Mandy – On wanting a mgr who stands up to the board: This is truly an example of wishful thinking. A manager is an employee of the Board. When did the tail wag the dog?
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odd thing, or should i say laughable, Shotta, is that most of those that say we need a manager who stands up to the board, are the very same people who say Wenger dictated to the Arsenal board.
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when you have fans turning their nose up at Enrique, who has won
La Liga: 2014–15, 2015–16
Copa del Rey: 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17
Supercopa de España: 2016 UEFA Champions League: 2014–15
UEFA Super Cup: 2015
FIFA Club World Cup: 2015
then you know no one will unite the fan base, it is in too many people’s interest to keep the AFC fan base divided
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Will be hard to unite the fanbase.
I have no idea what the board are going to do, but they have my full support and best wishes, I suspect they will need a bit more than that.
A new manager and coaching team, with new methods will unsettle the players to a degree.
Do they choose an established manager, a new German kid on the block, an ex player, the Monaco man or a mystery off radar man?
So difficult, hence my frustrations our greatest manager is leaving before his contract is out ,and my preoccupation with poor team , not individual defending which may or may not have caused his premature exit.
I sincerely wish the board the best and back them with whoever they choose, within reason .
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mandy the fan base will never be united again as its not in the interest of too many people, bloggers, AFTV, twitter fame seekers etc. not to mention the media.
as I pointed out when the prospect of a manger who has won the lot is scoffed at, it shows that no matter who we have as a manager from now on will start with some fans against him, and them and many more only waiting for their first chance to be against him.
by and large those that backed AW will support the next man, almost totally regardless of who he is, and by the same token, those that hounded AW, will only be looking for reasons to not support him. they know it won’t take a decade to get rid of the next guy, so great opportunity for them to quickly show their power and gain clicks and followers by hounding out the new guy, one after another.
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Almost half wish they would chose Rogers, just for the banter angle as opposed to thinking he is the best man for the job
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AFTv can just feck off, hopefully support for the new man will make them irrelevant for a while at least.
AFTV get rid
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Some interesting players available on a free.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/43866156
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ed
Even if Henry were to get the job and he should fail, these sorts of ‘fans’ lack any self awareness. It’ll make no difference. They’ll come up with some bizarre reasoning to continue their attack on the club.
The only way this will change is if the media coverage of Arsenal changes. And I think that won’t change unless Arsenal start to pay mega agents mega fees.
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New post up
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shard that article has to be fake, as only Arsenal let players contracts run out.
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