Good morning Positive Arsenal fans,
We enjoyed a marvellous, historic day yesterday. As I said yesterday morning on here it is a day that will be with me for the rest of my life, and will be a recollection of the best kind, warm and clear. The whole stadium paid tribute to an Arsenal manager, and probably a man, we will not see the like of again at the helm of our club. Everyone who was there yesterday was a Wenger fan, or at least seemed to be. Even Stan was there !
The humour on the afternoon came from the 3,000 Burnley fans who, after the usual run through about their Lancashire homes and “You’re Only here for the T-Shirts”, gave us a full throated rendition of “There’s Only One Arsene Wenger” – followed by a witty “You two-faced bastards, you got him the sack”.
Of the game itself we ran riot in football terms over Burnley, as we have against opponents in all but one home PL game this season. At the front Mkhi, PEA and Laca pulled the Burnley defence apart. Iwobi weaved and prodded and our new, soon-to-be-cult hero Dinos roughed up Barnes and his replacement Vokes with commendable ruthlessness. Five good goals, and Laca’s first just before half time a real Wengerball pearl. Just one save for Cech all afternon so dominant were we. Perhaps it was Jack’s last time on the Emirate pitch in red and white. He played well, and got a good hand when he was subbed, so we shall see. And finally we got to see the BFG whose every touch was cheered to the rafters. It certainly won’t be Per’s last involvement with the club but that opportunity to play a few minutes a final time must have been a tremendous burst of emotions.
The closing presentations and the speeches I am sure you have seen.
I was impressed that those final 20-25 post game minutes were efficient. Bob Wilson was exactly the man to provide the opening. The original gold trophy the right award, valuable in itself, and irreplaceable in the club’s history. Vick Akers was rightly cheered and Alex Scott’s presentation was followed by a few choruses of “You’ve won more than Tottenham Hotspurs”. And then on to Arsene. Nothing mawkish or soppy. Eloquent, dignified, a delivered with light humour. There was an excellent balance between affection, mutual respect between Arsene, the fans and players past and present, and typically his first words were for old Blue nose. The manner of his leaving matched the work that AW has done these past 22 years.
And I miss you Arsene, I really do.
“si monumentum requiris, circumspice”— if you seek his monument, look around you.”
Positively Arsenal 
Is it correct to say that the goals which were scored against us were from Xhaka’s mistakes?
Surely not.
It seems to me that many, if not most ,stem from one defender or another losing concentration.
Those goals conceded from breakaways resulted from poor passes from all over the midfield.
If we accept AW’s judgement and most of those of us here do, then the fact that he played every game this season must indicate the confidence that he has in Xhaka.
No player is perfect and they all make errors from time to time.
Good player learns from his mistakes. A better one does not make that mistake again.
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Interesting post from Untold for all the Statto’s out there:
Florian
06/05/2018
A few interesting stats:
Before this match, Burnley were statistically having a good defense, with 32 goals conceded, and were the only other team in the Bottom 14 with a positive goal difference. We were bang average defensively, having let in 48 goals, and our attack was good, just on the cusp, with 67 goals..
After today, we have officially crossed the line between a good attack and a great one, with 72 goals scored, putting us third, after $ity and ‘Pool, ahead of the Tinies, United and Chel$ea. Tinies fell below the 68.26 goals bar which represents the statistical boundary, standard deviation considered. Also, Burnley fell below the 36.61 goals baoundary, so they no longer have an overperforming defense. They do remain fifth, behind $ity, United, Tinies and Chel$ea, ahead of ‘Pool (38).
So the arrival of Auba and Miki and Laca getting fit pumped the attack up from a good one to one that can be great (if the defence can chip in!).
And the defence is about as good as one could expect after the squad lost all the leaders that brought home the trophies,!and the one left to carry the mantle and armband Koscielny to pain killing and stupefying injections before every game. SM is a good player but like Luiz not someone you want in charge at the back, Chambers showing how good he can be after those early season injuries….all par for the course.
Expecting a bigger pool of CBs available for 1st selection perhaps a new starting berth at CB up for grabs for anyone who can show the fitness and quality for the job to raise tha stat for the defence next season.
Unless the new manager for the Gunners is a misfiring blunderbuss. Fortunately I imagine and I hope that the usual chancers who jump on and off the merry go round won’t even get a mention.
It won’t be Neil Warnock. I’m off to the bookies to make sure.
Hehe.
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< quote is the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs above the rest is me!
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Liverpool fans offering me their condolocences ATM.
They know the value of the boot room.
Whereas the new CEO up at the Damned Utd knew the value of his commission when they overpaid for Shaw after clearing out the old guard of coaches (all of them not one or three, I think this chap called Phil Neville was involved in the boondangle. His name keeps cropping up!)
And one or two others. Memphis Depay cost the same as Alexis more or less, pure comedy!
If IG and others fook up the transition upstairs (which should not be immediate) will it be truly tragic? That’s the thread to mull over the summer months when we know more.
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There’s going to be a few embarrassed experts and ” knowing ” types if Senor Allegri doesn’t become our next manager.
Maybe he will be, who knows, but I would be surprised if Arsenal have been allowed to speak to a manager under contract and fighting fighting for the league title with the aim of poaching him, unless Juve want him gone
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Pornstein has spoken
https://mobile.twitter.com/bbcsport_david/status/993559846321557505?p=v
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Mandy
On the Allegri talk. Actually got to see what an ITK looks like today. Quite a comical experience- he looked exactly as I would imagine.
16-19 or extremely young looking if older, bit geeky, most likely possessor of a very lively information, by no means absolutely thick (there’s not much life in a fake ITK unless they have a bit of a way with words) and looking very happy to get attention.
Goes by the name of AFC Plug or something on twitter and the clip I saw of him was with Robbie guy from AFTV.
Was saying the type of stuff they often say- house hunting, discussions last year- and going into such detail that the only way he could know it, if true, is if he was in contact with at least one high level figure at club who had gladly, presumably, given our young charge the full details.
The burning question, one i’ve never seen an ITK address in any shape, why?
Why did the club insider want this kid to know our business, and was said insider happy with idea the kid would then go and eagerly share it on the internet?
Further questions of what will the club do when some kid is spilling the beans like that- i.e. who needs to be slapped.
It’s one aftv clip I recommend watching. If, as is surely likely, it is pure invention from the young fellow, wow. I can only hope it is done knowingly in that case, as a true prank which he enjoys for the love of absurdity and not for anything else.
I typically get sense from them that even in act of lying, for the attention they must deeply crave, they are somehow fooling themselves into believing there’s truth in it, perhaps because they diligently scour all rumours and believe there’s an art to being plausible and picking better ones.
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if allegri becomes the next manager then all the WOB will have to be AKB’s
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Yes, have heard about these kid ITKs , apparently known to Sir Chipps grand daughter and things like that. Or maybe incredibly skilled hackers.
Having said that, I wouldn’t be greatly surprised if it was Allegri, or indeed one of several other names.
Allegri knows best, has a ring to it, as does Ancelotti, Rogers maybe less so
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several media outlets reporting tonight that Wilshere is close to signing a new deal with Arsenal
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usual suspects the s*n and daily fail stirring shit about ozil, and of course the usual suspects in the AFC fans base helping them do it. pathetic
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Yes, apparently it is all true that Ozil can pick and choose what games he plays in, and doesn’t have to play at all if he doesn’t want to when a World Cup is coming up, ITKS report it was all included in his £350kpw contract. Right.
Either that or he is just actually injured.
The idiots cannot go for Wenger now, Ozil next
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yeah Mandy and Martin Keown complicit in it too, they don’t make legends like they used to
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Lovely stuff Andy,I’ve finally sobered up enough to read this and the programme. An emotional day alright, we’ll always love him. How good is that Greek kid by the way?
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New post up
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