https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUPVo_v49fg
So the great new dawn is upon us. We have rid ourselves of Arsene Wenger and his gang of incompetents, and replaced them with high class people that can bring us the success we deserve.
It’s absolutely fantastic. The players are drinking water, smiling,training hard, young players are involved and the manager is hands on on the training ground. These things never happened before , now did they?
That there have been major changes in personnel is undeniable. That they are all top people in their fields of expertise appears to be the case, they are certainly experienced with good track records. Its more people with more individual responsibility and a coach with much less. Modern football? Or should I not say that because “modern football” is frowned upon by the “we want our Arsenal back” hoards. But I digress.
The point is almost every fan is happy, us included, the future looks bright. But what has actually changed other than our perceptions?
We have spent about £70m up until now, I suspect there will be outgoing and our net spend will be considerably less. So are we spending more? Is the new regime spending the money Arsene refused to? Seems not ?
Have we dipped into the £250m in the bank that should be spent on making the team as good as it can be? Seems not ? Perhaps that’s not for spending then, or not anywhere like that figure?
Are we competing for the likes of Marhez ,with City, or are we still buying from the second shelf ? It seems we are not and we still are ! So what’s the big change?
Have we tied Aaron Ramsey down to a new deal, or is it dragging on? Dithering?
Now here is the rub, the moment many readers start shifting uncomfortably on their seat, searching for an answer that doesn’t destroy all their hard earned narratives.
If you are happy with all things Arsenal now, you have a certain Stan Kroenke to thank.
Without spending any more of the clubs money, and of its reserves ,or dipping into his own pocket for a single silver dollar, he has given everyone what they wanted ? Without being a football man or spending time at the club he has granted the wishes of the permanently malcontent.
His useless puppet (Ivan) is now the dogs bollocks. We are Kroenke FC , being driven by Ivan, and he is the very image of a none football man.
So if everything is rosy in the garden, and I hope it is, then we should be very much KROENKE IN ? He has come through big time and perhaps all the hate was for nowt?
Positively Arsenal 
our passing not been good, too slow and lacking accuracy
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aubameyang almost in there
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Bit of sustained pressure on the Chelsea goal. Good chance to see how they cope with a Chelsea counter…Moratta continues his profligate form against Arsenal!
Auba with a real chance! Not easy. But close.
Sokratis with an endearing tackle on Pedro.
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Half chance for Kolasinic.
Arsenal’s offside trap beaten on this occasion, Mustafi and Cech deny Chelsea a second.
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Another half chance falls for Kolasini.
Arsenal with a flurry of attacks through Bellerin on the right.
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HT: Arsenal 0-1 Chelsea
cfc the better team for first half an hour, took the lead with a free header at a corner, cech saved a penalty after bellerin gave it away. AFC found the cfc press hard to cope with, but for last 15 cfc not as sharp and AFC have really come into the game.
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Wasn’t so much surprised that Cech saved the pen as the Chelsea left sided attacker going past Bellerin at speed before being brought down.Guendousi is OK, but caught in possession three times leading to goal scoring chances on two of them.
Their press is better than ours and also doing us on passing.
Not a good first half for Arsenal
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Black Country accent is not one of my fav regional accents
With Lee Hendry constantly whinging on about ‘poor’ I just had to turn the sound commentary down.
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This cannot be our first choice central defence pick or double DMs.
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Rest more easy, is not the starting CM pair in this squad.
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made the mistake of leaving the sound up trying to listen to ‘Our Nige’ only to hear the commentator talk of a young player coming off the the much hearldid Chelsea production line (of young players) ,
I kid you not!
Volume down and some 70’s blue eyed soul for me this evening
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‘heralded’
Anger typing
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Miki warming up for the season, finding more consistency as the game goes on.
Aubamayang with a few opportunities to create so far this evening but he hasn’t found the final pass yet.
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WWB
That might’ve been the lead in to his chat on Eddie! Who might come on later in the game,
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Elneny pressing to create a chance, ESR shoots when setting up Özil on his left might have been the better option. Momentum swings the other way and some Arsenal pressure for a spell before Chelsea look to build again.
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ESR blowing after 60 mins as you’d expect, Iwobi comes on as Chelsea ring the changes.
A good prep then for the tough upcoming fixture.
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Chelsea a bit less cohesive as expected immediately after so many changes, Iwobi gets into the game straight away, now with a shot, tame but at least it was a shot on target,
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Elneny often pressing up the field and Chelsea keep exploiting that space.
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That looks badfor Kola
I hope it’s just a strain
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Kolasinac picked up a niggle first half now off after a lash of knees.
AMN on.
Nelson and Laca also on for Miki & Auba.
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finsburyp
No he was talking about Anderson
In the week where the ‘Production line’ stat regarding any team shows a massive disparity between Arsenal and Chelsea
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Oh Lacazette almost with a glorious effort. He’s saving his luck for the league game.
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Bellerin off for chambers.
IMO Chambers finished the season in good form at RCB.
The policy for AFC with players returning from tournament football follow the same policy as seen in 2014, 2010 etc.
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The Chelsea keeper impresses me with a save from Iwobi.
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Özil and Chambers with some serious passes in the lead up to that chance.
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Nelson fumbles the ball over the byline and his agent blubbers into his hanky.
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No outing for Eddie against his former team?
*sobs*
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Lacazetteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 1-1
late constant pressure brings us the goal our second half deserves
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Lacazette gets lucky with the loose ball but applies a deft finish after the keeper had saved his previous shot for a corner.
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FT: Arsenal 1-1 Chelsea
cfc the better team for first half hour, AFC came into the game more then, and were the better team in the second half, even if finishing like our passing the first half, was a little off.
Lacazette with our goal in last minute of injury time.
Our team found the cfc press hard to cope with, and our defense coughed up a few too many chances, midfield a little flat, although Guendouzi was pick of them again.
Ozil got full 90, and Iwobi was lively when he came on, but his shooting is not great, needs to put his foot through the ball a bit more.
Ramsey got injured in warm up, and Kolasinac went off with an injury too.
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ah did not realize, but its gone to penalties
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Özil with some seriously good stuff at times.
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Bit harsh Fins
Lacazette finished like a real Poacher/Fox in the box IMHO
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drinkwater scored for cfc, but cech got both hands to it, maybe should have saved it
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Lacazette rolls his in
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abraham scores
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Nelson sends the keeper the wrong way 2-2
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Cech reads the first penalty but enough power to skrim past him and in.
Lacazette as cool as you like.
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moses strokes his home
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Guendouzi fires past the keeper who had gone the right way 3-3
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straight down the middle
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Maitland-Niles powers his home 4-4
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sudden death now
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cfc score again
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Ozil beat the keeper who had again gone the right way 5-5
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cech saves from loftus-cheek
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Iwobi puts his foot through it and Arsenal win 6-5
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found it stupid the amount of booing of our penalty takers
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Victory!
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I couldn’t bring myself to watch the penalty shoot-out – I know it’s only pre-season, but it’s chelski! Good to hear that our players must have been honing their technique since the last time they took penalties in this tournament.
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