@LaboGoon previews a day we will all remember for the rest of our lives – superb series of pictures by Stuart McFarlane @Stuart_PhotoAFC of the man last night at the stadium as the sun goes down.
12 October 1996 – Arsène Wenger’s first game in charge of Arsenal, away to Blackburn Rovers.
19 October 1996 – his first home game at Highbury, hosting Coventry City.
Two very significant dates in Arsenal’s history ……. and then there were three.
Arsène Wenger will walk out at the Emirates Stadium as Arsenal manager for the last time as we host Burnley. The 1233th game of his tenure, 2 more to go as we mark the final countdown to him signing off next Sunday at the John Smith stadium.
With both Arsenal and Burnley having nothing to play for except pride, one could be forgiven for anticipating the atmosphere to have that farewell touching feeling.
With ‘Le Professeur’, as he’s affectionately known as, being in charged for the last time at Arsenal’s spiritual home after 22 years at the helm, it’s bound to be an emotional outing for the Emirates faithful. A good chunk of them, us, have never seen any other man in the dugout, an even greater number of those who did has grown very fond of him since that 1996 autumn day… so it leaves one uncertain yet anxious to see how they will react to seeing him leave his (Emirates) seat for the very last time.
The emphasis of today will of course not be about the match, but about One Arsène Wenger. It’s going to be a celebration of an illustrious career with invited dignitaries, amongst them the Arsenal 100 Club and many, many travelling Gooners in attendance to pay tribute to a legendary manager. He himself will deliver a special message to everybody.
On to the game itself; it almost feel like it ought to be testimonial-esque, however we can be sure that each of the Arsenal players taking the field will feel motivated to give their manager, father and confidant a graceful send-off.
Sean Dyche may have ideas of his own though. During his time at Burnley they have played the Arsenal six times (five PL games, one FA Cup), with Arsène on the winning side in all six. The winner in the last three games came during extra time. Should be impetus for him to spoil the party.
The Clarets come into this game off the back of some good form, having lost just once in their last nine PL games – a reflection of an impressive season overall. Being crowned ‘the best of the rest’ they have earned themselves a European jaunt next season, and for a club with so little means it’s something their manager, players and all stake/pieholders can be very proud of.
For the Arsenal players this fixture will not be about our away record, nor Thursday’s result, but about a group of players who will be very honored to gave the great man a positive result for old times sake at the Emirates Stadium – conseptualized in his visions and now a lasting gift to generations of Gooners.
On team news: bar Cazorla, Elneny and Koscielny everyone else is available. Given the momentous occasion I would think a strong line-up will be selected. Still two games after this for younger and fringe players to impress the new man. Might we see a certain Saint on the bench… who knows!
The Emirates faithful will not be saying “au revoir” today, because the great man will forever remain one of us, their message will simply be:
Merci Arsène!
Positively Arsenal 
Am I looking forward to today ?
Yes I think I am – a day of celebration of the man and his achievements, the football for one is secondary ( perhaps even for AW). I sjall stay until 7 at the stadium, then I shall be gone. It will be a beautiful sunny, evening and a perfect time for the the curtain to come down.
I am not interested in agendas or the media or the referee or the self important bloggers and social parasites who infest our mighty club say or do not say. It is about me and him.
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Great stuff.
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Well done LG,
Burnley can still finish above us and so they definitly still have everything to play for.
It is up to the players to make sure they put on a performance for a manager that not only has done so much for the club but has done so much for them. We know that Arsene as a man not only as a manager looks after his players and they do “owe him something” in the last three games especially today.
I know there will be lots of hypercrites in the crowd today and apparently there will be lots of ex-players there and so you can guarentee the biggest hypercrite of them all, the attention seeking ian wright will be front and centre pretending to pay his respects.
I will have to keep my mouth shut today to avoid such people today and just try an enjoy the homage to the greatest manager in ARSENALS history ARSENE WENGER.
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A5, me and Steve will be at the Eaglet if your round that way ( I know your normally round the other side of the stadium) but anyway to all the Positivetas who are going and those who are there in spirit enjoy the day as always COYG.
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Good morning guys. The day is already emotional. A story that will told around the camp fire, over a few drinks, at parties for years to come.
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well LG just a couple of points, there most certainly is something at stake in todays game, the small matter of automatic EL group place, the team that finishes seventh has to play a qualifying round, and in the middle of July at that, if AFC finish below Burnley then we will actually have to cancel pre-season plans, a couple of tour games etc, and would have to play that round without any player who goes to the World Cup.
Secondly you do the big man a disservice, you do not know the man if you do not know that until the final whistle blows today, the day for Arsene Wenger will be all about the match, the performance of the team, the football, the result, only when the result is assured will it be about him, and I would say even then Arsene would rather that the players and their families are the focus of the lap of appreciation. Of course he will be emotional, maybe even before, during and after the game, but his focus will be as its always been all about Arsenal. To ignore this is to overlook the very essence of Arsene Wenger and his 22 years at Arsenal
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A draw or better is needed today to kill off Burnley’s chance of finishing above AFC
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Arsenal really need to announce today that the Stadium will be renamed the Arsene Wenger Arena, that would be the only fitting send off they could give him, Ivan Gazidis said that the send off today would make the whole world sit up and take notice, well anything less than naming the stadium after him will be a damp squib
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How could Arsenal do that having sold the naming rights, and wanting to sel them again in the future?
Perhaps a stand?
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Arsenal only need 3 points from their last three fixtures to finish above Burnley, our superior GD over them is worth a point. So bar a complete collapse due an emotional meltdown over Arsène’s departure I think we’ll be okay. I was already so long winded so didn’t wanna add any permutations.
I do concur that Arsène wouldn’t want to be the centre of attention but today is ‘Merci Arsène day’ at the Emirates after all. Smile and wave Wenger… just smile and wave.
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stand named after him is the bear minimum, yes the sponsorship of the stadium is an obstacle, but there are ways round that, it might be possible for it to be
the Arsne Wenger Emirates Stadium
it might mean extending the length of contract for no extra cost to the Emirates
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well labo lose today and we are needing 3pts from 2 away games, coming from a run where we have not won away in 2018, its six defeats from six, a point today, with our goal difference is all we need,
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next season’s home kit, long sleeve version
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I shall drop in Eaglet Ian and Steve – trains are predictably f****** to and from Kings Lynn today so driving to Huntingdon.
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#MerciArsène㉒
@MrArsenicTM
2h2 hours ago
beIN SPORTS have a six-hour Wenger special coverage:
1:30 || Wenger’s career episode 1
2:00 || Wenger’s career episode 2
2:30 || Wenger documentary
3:30 || Arsenal v Burnley studio
4:20 || Pre-match events
4:30 || Arsenal v Burnley live
6:20 || Post-match ceremony
(UK time)
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Arsène Wenger: “Don’t be scared to be ambitious. It’s not a humiliation to have a high target and to fail. For me, the real humiliation is to have a target and not to give everything to reach it.”
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Thanks Labo.
Not sure if I can even watch this game, work calls. It’s going to be very hard to keep focus.
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League titles won in Tottenham’s and Man Utd’s stadiums. The club’s biggest rivals.
The “journalists” and their sychophantic blagging hangers on told us in unison whilst screeching from their remarkably similar hymn sheets whilst at choir (work) that LCFC’s remarkable penalty bias and card count was the “greatest story ever told” in the premier league.
We might see another Clough. Though it is unlikely. And another team may have a penalty count statistic by April in the league that is again the unlikely equivalent to a test batsman in cricket with a. average of over 200.00 after a hundred caps, something equally ridiculous and risible.
But when will we see another club win the league at both the homes of Brand Scudamore and the BBC? Did they not like that!
The failed novelists and the little squeakers lurking in their shadows couldn’t hit a battleship with a bargepole when standing on the quayside.
Arsenal under AW has been the greatest story ever told in the premier league (91 & 89 were in the pre-Murdoch era).
The people who’ve been attacking the club had their chance in 2014, but fortunately for people that love football the third best midfielder from Spain’s golden age of Football had other ideas (about the Football. Heh.).
And I know you’ve all enjoyed it all as much as I have! Which is why it’s been a pleasure to share some of this story & our respect for those who have been writing it with others here.
Thank you George, all the Andrew’s, Stew, Labo, Shotts, I’ll miss some names out so I’m just say to everyone else too.
Up the Gunners.
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Labo, thank you so much for that nice piece.
I’m here in London, Hornsey, visiting my mum. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to go to the Emirates. I’m disappointed. I’m sad, so sad. The Wenger years were my Arsenal…
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Am totally unashamed in telling this blog, as I have done often before, that I fell in love with Arsenal because of Arsene Wenger. 13 years later, I literally breathe AFC. On reflection, it is partially due to the fact that Arsene and I are from generally the same era, those of us who became fans of the beautiful game because of the great Brazilian team that won the 1970 World Cup. That was the first time in my life I saw breathtakingly, brilliant, technical football at the highest level. Arsene has said it was a team of ten #10s. That may seem a stretch with Pele but, even he, while a striker was technically gifted as evident by that brilliant assist he made in the Finals. For a Jamaican brought up for years on a heavy dose of the then overly physical English Division I football, the Arsenal of 2005 was an out of body experience. Finally an English club which believed-in and played the beautiful game. on a consistent, professional basis. Arsene Wenger later crystallized his philosophy; his vision is of football literally being an art. That trans-formative role of Arsene in making Arsenal a club that is associated with great technical football is what sets him apart from all other managers of his generation; he has had the same effect on Arsenal as the 1970 Brazilians had on football. That is why, without doubt, Arsene Wenger is one of the greatest managers in football. A grateful gooner says Merci Arsene!
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Let’s not ignore the dummy from Poldi!
Football is not about the individual, it is not about the narrative written by some bitter failed writer as they drown their sorrws, or a Expert fan who is honestly unwell and exploued by the Simon Cowell’s of this world, it’s just a team sport with moments of individual brilliance (or the opposite!).
Just kidding Shotts haha!
Cazorla. What a player!
To play like he did in the PL, in midfield, against quality opponents Away as at City, now that was ridiculous! It’s players like Cazorla and yes Miki* too that people pay the money to watch, otherwise surely it’s more fun to go and play in your local park with the kids?
*The comparison last week with Sanchez was favourable, unfortunately he wasn’t fit to start Thursday – IMO AFC would not have been the underdogs if he’d started both legs.
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There’s been an awful lot of gibberish written by the usual hypocrites about ‘Defendinfg’ & the Arsenal this season.
These experts are the very same people who called the Spanish Golden team boring for being able to defend a single goal led by holding onto the lead (as Arsenal were when the team had both of Ozil & Cazorla playing – the sequence 2-1/2-0 results and runs to the top of the league, two seasons in a row is data that can’t be denied).
No wonder they’ve been ignoring all season long the obvious observation that Kosciely was playing on one ankle *sobs & weeps for my hero*
Atletico’s best defensive weapon on Thursday, that which negated Arsenal’s attack the most, in the tie not just on the night, was the exceptional performance and danger from Griezman in their attack. Been a long time since I’ve seen a single attacker lead an attack so well against us. Not having Miki and Auba as options was a big blow for a non-petro squad.
If you lot won’t tell the Football experts what happened on the Football pitch then I promise neither will I!
*wink wink wink*
Nevermind the Narratives!
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<in the build uo for their goal last week Costa took advantage of the space and distraction caused in that first half by AG
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It’s bloody hard work revising admin gibberish when it’s beautiful outside and you can hear the songs of “one Arsene Wenger” from the pub down the road.
Come on the Gunners. One last time.
Hopefully as witnessed at Roma but not Madrid midweek someone will handcuff the people who run the PA system at the ground and actually allow people to sing before KO, and afterwards too.
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Arsene Wenger: “Personally, I expect today will be dominated by sadness. It’s the end of a long story for me at Arsenal. But I will also feel grateful for having led this club – that I cherish so much – for such a long time. I tried to commit completely, for so many years, to make people happy and I wish just that people who love this club will be happy in the future and get what they really want and love.
I’ve met people for whom I am the only Arsenal manager they have known, so now this is a good opportunity for the club to have new people and new ideas to continue to move the club forward, which is what I’ve tried to do my whole life.
I’m proud that over the decades we could maintain an identification of players to the club. The players have a special attachment. Part of life as a player is to experience a special place, and that’s Arsenal.
I’m not involved in who my successor will be, that’s not my job, but what I would say to him is that he should follow what he thinks is right for the club. I’ve been guided by that my whole life here. You have to think and act for the club like you own it. That’s the advice I’d give to him, you have to prepare to have that strength to fight every day to do the best possible for Arsenal.
My final message is to the fans. Thank you very much for all your support down the years. Continue to stand behind and support the club that is so special to all of us. No matter what happens in the future, keep faith in what the club is going.
Like you, I will continue to support Arsenal for the rest of my life.”
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Arsenal FC
Verified account @Arsenal
20s20 seconds ago
Here’s how we lined up for for Arsène Wenger’s first home game…
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Ozil not in the squad
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Vic Akers: “I said to the gaffer a year ago that I would give him another year and in that time we could organise things so that they would be in place for when I left. It feels even more right that I’ll be leaving at the same time as the gaffer too.”
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Ozil has a ‘reoccurrence of a slight back issue’ according to Wenger.
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afcstuff
@afcstuff
14m14 minutes ago
Mesut Özil, who Wenger says is not in the squad today due to a reoccurrence of a back injury, greeting captain Per Mertesacker upon his arrival to the dressing room earlier. #afc
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FT: Napoli 2 – 2 Torino
means with 2 games to go Juve are 6pts ahead of Napoli and have +16 better GD, so sure to be title winners for the 7th year in a row
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Anyone got a stream?
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It’s on Bein Sports 5
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Aubameyangggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg 1-0, iwobi to lacazette who shoots across goal and PEA is there to tap home six yards out
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clear handball but no penalty given to AFC, oh what a surprise
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barnes runs into xhaka from behind, both go down but barnes goes off injured
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for fucks sake, despite it being xhaka who was fouled and AFC who had possession, the ref told AFC to give the ball back to burnley at the drop ball, utter bullshit from the ref
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Lacazetteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 2-0, fires home Bellerin’s cut back, no more than we deserve for a fine performance, Burnley pinned back most of the half
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HT: Arsenal 2-0 Burnley
Aubameyang and Lacazette with the goals, Mavrapanos, Xhaka and Kolasinac over powering the Burnley players and they don’t like it one bit. Iwobi and Jack buzzing about, PEA showing great work rate and speed, a good half of football, and 2-0 is the least we deserve for a dominant performance so far.
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Can’t watch but happy we are on track for the day. Place looks beautiful from the clip I saw just now.
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Granit by name, Granit by nature.
The Greek kid nailing down one of those CB roles for next season (Europa league games)
Chambers continuing his good form in this spell and making his own case too after injuries in the first half of the season. I feel that it makes a noticeable difference having two fit, healthy and therefore confident and importantly two legged athletes at CB!
The other young players given their debuts this season, in particular AMN
The shiny new speedy striker continuing to impress, more then I hoped I confess.
Lacazette now fully fit and showing that he is a “a finisher, a goal scorer” as some described to me during the period when it was hard to sense his game as he was not fully fit.
A happy Miki as opposed to a sulking Sanchez. What a goal that was at OT!
Fair to say that AW remains true to his word and will hand over a stronger squad then the one he had at the start of this season.
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Kolasinaccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc oh what a strike, from left corner of the area, he just drove it low and hard to the back of the net, bullet 3-0
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Owobiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii a pile driver into the roof of the net from the edge of the area,
the bein stream i’m watching get very excited every time Iwobi get the ball, so i’m sure they are happy now, to quote the commentary, “alex, alex, alex, alex, alex, alex Iwobi, alex, alex”
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Burnley have a minus goal difference, and people in the media still keep asking why Dyche is not in the running for either the CFC or AFC jobs. Open you damn eyes, and take off those little englander glasses
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Ramsey on for Wilshere
Welbeck on for Lacazette
Mertesacker has been warming up too, so we might see him get one last run out at the Emirates
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Aubameyanggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg from a Bellerin pass, 5-0
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Cech to Bellerin, to Mkhitaryan, to Xhaka, to Ramsey to Bellerin to Aubameyang – goallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 5-0
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Per hugs Wenger, and then Akers and comes on for Chambers, bye Per and Thank You
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