Good Morning Positive Arsenal fans,
A bit grey and blustery up on the Norfolk coast this morning, the Autumn beckons.
Our two stiff opening games are complete and I am satisfied with the performances. I had no complaints about the City defeat but I am a little disappointed that yesterday, after investing so much in the match, we did not collect the point we deserved.
Of the game itself it was the classic three halfer, or possibly more. The first phase saw Chels tear us smoothly into strips and what opportunities we created we squandered. At 2-0 it looked as through a dreadful afternoon was on the cards. Then phase two and finally we hit the target and broke our PL scoring duck, which caused the home side to wobble and we tore into them. The home crowd were silenced for the only time in the afternoon. Finally a second half where we wee pushed back and pushed back, to CFC’s credit s they were pretty good. We resisted stoutly, but the addition of Hazard gave them just that little extra spark as we were tiring. At 3-2 we had another, final chance of redemption, but Laca could just not pick up the rebound as Kepa spilled Ramsey’s shot – fine margins, fine margins.
Of our good performances I was massively impressed yet again with Matteo. He has earned his starting place and his energy and willingness to be involved in everything is exactly what we need. I thought Nacho had a good game too considering it is ages since he kicked a ball, Torreira too and Cech pulled off a string of important saves. Hector ran and ran and ran. I offer the young Spaniard an encouraging arm around the shoulder.
Of mild controversy during the game on social media, I thought Emry’s substitutions were spot on. To have gone to 10 men would have been terminal, and the baying Stamford Bridge mob were all over Xhaka. I cannot recall Ozil being withdrawn for tactical reasons but we needed more physical presence so Aaron’s arrival was right and referring back to my “fine margins” chance at the end the Welshman could, on another day, have been decisive.
What is gone is gone however and the important work this week will be toward sharpening out goal scoring weapons for the arrival of the ‘Ammers on Saturday. If our opening two games have been fixtures we anticipated might yield few if any points (well I did anyway) Pelligrini’s misfiring rabble must be the Premier League meat we feed on and build our strength.
There is always work to do. Enjoy Sunday.
Positively Arsenal 
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Thought Gwen was fantastic yesterday.
One thing we now know, it wasn’t just Wenger the media had it in for, it is the club.
Huge, maybe unprecedented levels of shite aimed at a team with a new coaching staff, given the two toughest opening fixtures I can remember , at least amongst the top clubs.
Almost as if there is a media driven movement to replace us in the top few clubs with the likes of Everton (ambition), sorry to use a Jim whiteism there. I suspect Usmanov has a few contacts in the media along with the aforementioned. And what has Xhaka done to the world? Murdered children or something?
The sooner the wins come, the better for everyone, I get the distinct feeling our goal difference is going to be vastly improved very soon. That said, Need to work on some of the errors at the back though.
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Too early to say I’m getting better (after an emotional involvement level that had grown unhealthy) but might be a good sign I smiled after the second one over the bar yesterday.
It really was a wildly entertaining game in the first half.
One of my hopes for new era was that our record would greatly improve of not conceding early in big games, that we could develop the option of starting those games with a tighter defence and take it from there.
Again, a smile maybe, though there wasn’t at time, but no dismay. It’s very very early days.
We don’t have the Pep option of saying ‘right, this player, that, that, aren’t ideal for how we’re gonna play…so lets buy those who are for whatever cost’
We’ll have to be smarter; logically, it should take longer or require considerably greater inspiration.
But it’s early, we have a bright and, I think, bold coach, many talented players in the squad, real talent in the youth ranks.
Maybe no big improvement defensively in big games or any games will come, but quite possibly it will.
All ahead of us, looking forward to the next game.
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I think playing a settled back four – the same players week in and week out – must reap some dividend Rich. Individually I think they are good players but the meshing together will take a bit more time under the new coach. That may be why Cech is first choice to add his experience rather than adding in the new Leno to the mix.
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The fact is, if we had taken our chances, the team could have been out of sight, doubt if they will be that wasteful on a regular basis. Add to that, if UA are to be believed, one or two iffy decisions by Atkinson as the game was coming to a close, basically, a fair wind, we would have got at least a point from that game. Add to that, still appears to be some confusion in the ranks with working with a new coaching staff, things will improve on that front .
Opening fixtures against two of the richest petro clubs going, no idea how the fixture computer works, but could almost get a bit conspiratorial here, Mike Dean for the Everton Ambition fixture anyone?
My point, things will get better. Maybe they should play that awful DReam song as the players enter the pitch against West Ham.
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Nice to see Kovacic putting his best Real Madrid diving training to good use in the buildup to their goal, and right in front of Atkinson, I am guessing MOTD didn’t make too much of an issue of that ?
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Though Hazard was excellent with the ball at his feet even in the short time he was on he performed a couple of diving, screaming, writheing efforts Mandy – Neymar would have been proud ?
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not sure if it was the taking off of Xhaka and the introduction of Torreira, or if there was an odd overhaul of our tactics at half time, but for whatever reason (maybe it was the second goal let in), but we went from defending with all four of our guys on the half way line in the first half, to being camped twenty yards from our goal in the second half. We by doing this invited pressure, conceded possession, cut off our attack. Now don’t get me wrong, that crazy high line got the punishment it deserved, namely a cfc goal, but surely there is a happy medium between sitting very deep and standing on the half way line.
I mentioned in the summer that my biggest worries about our defense is lack of a powerhouse tall CB and the lack of speed we have too, apart from Bellerin, but after two games of the season all I can say is Bellerin looks to have lost his famed speed. Take both of the CFC goals in the first half, when Hector first broke into the team, he would have burst back on the first one and stopped the forward outwide, and on the second he would have made up the ground and got to Moratta to help Mustafi defend. But now that burst of speed is not there, his biggest asset is no more, and it means we now have no real speedster in our back line, making that line of defenders on the half way line even more crazy.
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well xhaka and to an extent Mustafi too, really getting the boo boy treatment but its understandable, after all the other 3 prime targets Cech and Iwobi both played great and Ramsey only came on as a sub. Bellerin and Ozil are taking up the slack for those that need more than xhaka and mustafi to attack.
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how long till a blogger or some journo does a piece about Emery having x number of games to save his job
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Good summary Anicoll…
Stabilise our back four and we will be force to be reckoned with…
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OptaJoe
Verified account @OptaJoe
2h2 hours ago
19 – Alex Iwobi’s goal for @Arsenal yesterday ended a sequence of 19 passes and involved 10 of their players (all except Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang); the longest move for a goal so far in the 2018-19 Premier League. Encouraging.
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Looks like Huddersfield could be on the end of a cricket score if they are not careful,goes without saying, City are pretty formidable and there should be some context to our loss against them.
I curse those who bottled FFP.
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Arsenal Women
Verified account @ArsenalWFC
3m3 minutes ago
HALF TIME: Goals from @_KatieMcCabe9 and @bmeado9 have given us a two-goal advantage over the Hammers👏🏻
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DFB president Reinhard Grindel: “Given the racist attacks on him, I should have taken a clearer position here or there and should have protected Mesut Oezil more. I am sorry that he felt abandoned by the DFB in that regard.” [Bild am Sonntag]
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Arsenal Women
Verified account @ArsenalWFC
2m2 minutes ago
FULL TIME: We’ve kicked off our defence of the FA WSL Continental Tyres Cup with a hard-fought win over @westhamladies, thanks to goals from @_KatieMcCabe9 and @bmeado9
🔴 3-1 🔵
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‘I think playing a settled back four – the same players week in and week out – must reap some dividend Rich’
Definitely a reasonable hope. First thing that comes to mind is how the Real madrid defence were stretched and didn’t do well against Spurs at Wembley last year.
They are one of only a handful of teams I can think of- not coincidentally massive sides with huge resources- who as part of their style accept defenders may be left very isolated at times (though not that often as their attack subdues teams and provides a dilemma of how many to risk pushing on) with massive amounts of space.
That day against Spurs it didn’t look smart, but they were out of sorts at time, and went on to claim an unprecedented 3rd champions league in a row.
Biggest concern I have with that is that they’ve had 3 elite centre backs in those years with each of them, crucially, possessing great athleticism and speed, and also arguably the most important man of all to them these last 3 years has been the brazilian midfielder Casemiro, another top notch athlete (and good footballer).
I thought Sokratis signing signalled an intent to ensure centre backs had less space to defend. So far it’s not looked that way at all. We’ll see how it all develops but if the first two games are a guide to how we’ll play against all teams including main rivals, I’d guess number one task for Sven at present is identifying an athletic young centre back, ideally with good height.
No easy feat as whoever’s out there, everyone is looking at them and Pep or $thers could as easily decide they want five centre backs as four. We’ll likely have to try find someone at Manolas pre-Roma stage, Maguire Hull, Turkish fella we were linked with who went to Leicester, etc. Koulibaly from wherever he was before Napoli (Belgium I think)
Each year there are a couple who take that step- from being ‘worth’ say under 20 mill to double that or more; but more importantly from being promising to proving they can excel at very high level- and we likely need to find one of them.
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2-0 at the Amex – feeble central defence from the visitors.
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Not over yet in utd game, but in season that’s given us nowt so far in points for us or dropped points for rivals this one’s been enjoyable so far.
Lingered looks like he could make a difference so hopefully Brighton nick a fourth.
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Folks, what number is Granit now?
Think (small screen) I counted him involved three times in highlight someone posted of the move I think culminated in Iwobi goal. None were exceptional passes on difficulty scale but all looked decent (smooth, good option, well weighted,etc- i.e. him fulfilling one of his main functions- making himself available as passing option and keeping us flowing, with clever progressive passes, including first time ones, when possible- in the team).
Still don’t know if he was involved in any of the other moves for the chances we created, but half expect he was in a few of them at least. Even more so, I bet he was prominent in that excellent spell last ten of first half.
If he was.. that doesn’t necessarily mean he had a brilliant half or anything, but it does mean he’d have to have done a lot of very bad things or a few seriously awful things to have had the sort of half- woeful basically- many claimed he had.
Really doesn’t seem that hard to me to try weigh up a players performance and importance by weighing up… EVERYTHING- good, bad, ok, excellent, terrible- as best you can, with extra weighting for key moments, difficulty level,etc.
Then, as you see more and more of a player, try form an idea of how good they are over a large sample of games, i.e something like an average.
If I go on about it excessively it’s only because too many seem very bad at doing this, especially in Xhaka’s case. Also I feel extra inclined to defend him after the grossly unfair treatment he has received from Souness and the Nevilles’ in particular.
Just hope I’m right that he has a very strong mentality, and is less likely to be impacted by tremendous criticism than most players.
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Ed
I reckon we’ll get near conclusive answer next 48 hours if there’s been big change of policy with youth team footage.
Highlights never materialised for last week (though they were recorded by us as a player- Musah- posted his goal with our tv logo on it) and if they don’t again this, quite likely that’s how it’s going to be.
Also there’s an u23 game at Emirates tomorrow and I’m fairly sure they are always shown live on the website.
Fingers crossed.
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well Rich, normally the youth games at the Emirates are on player live, but when this is the case its normally advertised well in advance on .com, but not only has there not been a mention of this, there has not even been a preview of the game, just as last weeks not previewed, and so far no mention of yesterday’s u18 win.
it is starting to look like there has been a decision to give little detail of youth teams.
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Ed
I’d be sorely disappointed if that’s case. Get a lot of enjoyment watching youth teams from u18 up and it’s an intrinsic part of fan experience for me seeing who’s doing well, has a real chance of making it,etc… so you can already be familiar with players by time they get to first team door.
Also a chance to watch an Arsenal team- hoping for skills, good play, goals, a win- without being gutted if it doesn’t go well.
If it’s case…could it have something to do with trying to keep youngsters humble, with hope, among other things, of improving chances of them signing new deals when offered?
Could it even be to make life harder for rival teams to find out about them?
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well Rich, Per did say something about making changes so that young players stopped getting ahead of themselves and thinking they had made it or were stars despite not having actually achieved anything.
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With the ArsePlayer content and changes to it the reason may be no more than cost and hitting/or not hitting audience targets. A couple of years back Adrian Clarke had his radio show and podcast chopped for straightforward business reasons rather than it not being a good product. As with Adrian the club may find another channel to promote and inform on the youth set up.
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Interesting point about Arseplayer and on to the live match show. Personally I felt alienated (sorry Marx, alienation may not exist as a true phenomena, but my mind tells me otherwise) from the show so far this season.
I dont see how they are going to tap into the demographics of AFTV(media!!) when the Millennials and genZ want to watch things, not listen?
Also the graphics are poor and why pick out some tweets to read when we know they will be some thing “‘#COYG” or ” ‘thats better O’ zil”, as if we dont know really whats written on twitter.
I thought about writing to the club, but realised its a waste of time. I can only hope that the endless opinions/punditry at one point reach critical mass, and basically its recognised as the great bore that it is (for most of us).
You guys had a discussion over VAR last week that was interesting, but the comment I like the most was anicoll5 saying that he didnt want to be endlessly arguing, but wanted to enjoy the games-at what ever point we stepped into AFC, we did it through attraction and wanting to enjoy things.
I know all the counter arguments, but there was a time when supporting AFC was more enjoyable to watch, through thick and thin. But all things change, as will this time we live in, it could get worse, might get better, all perspective I suppose. I have no problem with diversity, but why is it somebody always feels disenfranchised?
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Utd’s troubles at CB have been obvious to everyone since their inability to replace their legendary CBs (hence the term legendary!) and this is underlined by their record of finishing underneath AFC bar all but one season since (they’ll be above us again this year?). So their problems at CB are not an opinion but a record. Who can forget that transfer window where they spent £60M+ on three LBs (ok ok Rojo does play CB, but CB in the PL is a demanding and different role…).
Thought I’d delve into the arseblaggers podcast out of anthropological curiosity this weekend and lo behold these click hunting fantasists were revising that Koscielny was the only decent defensive signing over the last decade.
Which is mad.
As it ignores the second most important defensive signing of the AW era! The German captain who arrived with 80 odd caps and two tournament finals under his belt. You all know that Koscielny was my favourite but only a blind fool or some e high from snorting their own powdered Gibberish would ignore what Per brought to the club at a time of vulnerable transition on and off the pitch. If in doubt please refer to the recent meltdown in the German camp, ably assisted by Lahm and Schweinsteiger with Germany and Arteta, Cazorla and Montreal as seniors at Arsenal .
But when you have made a career on running down the defence that matched the consecutive clean sheet record in the league just two years ago I suppose that painting oneself as such a cunning linguist is just a humble part of the job!
These blaggers have as they say a properly mental account of the Arsenal’s football over the years.
I wouldn’t rely upon them in the present as evidenced by the recent freakish fetish during preseason on pressing over the actual football played by Unai’s previous teams.
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“why is it somebody always feels disenfranchised?”
People have been making money out of this meme for over a decade now but I’m not sure how true it is. Arsenal still get bigger crowds then the swashbuckling team from the UAE.
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In this sense fp I meant me, that Im the div who suddenly felt left out. You cant pelease all the people etc…but the cat shall mew and the dawg have its day- could be tough the the AFTV media guys when it all goes kacki?
To be the pre match show wasnt always the greatest of progs, but the lastest offerings seemed just a yawn. But more fool me, for watching!
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And this constant misrepresentation of the Arsenal’s football was again in evidence after the final whistle this past weekend.
The big difference for me in the two halves for AFC was the positions of the FBs (though I thought Monreal was impressive for 90mins, carrying on from where he left off as our best defender?). Nothing we haven’t seen before.
However there was lots of focus on the subs.
The blaggers have over the last few years ignored the strong input of the physios to decisions made by the old gaffer, just as they will with the new gaffer.
Since the new structure began to take shape AW clearly deferred to other team members on decisions in all matters, not without some friction which lead to the odd field problems affecting the dressing room that the old gaffer mentioned the season before last. But with the physios AW was always open and happy to admit in public the dialogue and input.
Torreira and Xhaka both back late from the WC, three or four days difference in their schedules means that both have or are being nursed to full fitness in these opening two fixtures. Ramsey coming back from injury and Ozil same as the two above also didn’t have the summer off in this shortened pre-season, not forgetting the other factors. The club’s policy here has been the same as in 2014/2010 etc.
AFC do not have a squad where they can gamble and risk the fitness of their best players and rush them back early as others do, as seen with KDB. Rushing him back may have had nothing directly to do with his injury but any physio worth their weight would tell you that fatigue and inadequate recovery increases the odds of injury (therefore we have the three/four day rule guide).
So the subs were clearly primarily physio related. That’s it!
Xhaka on the yellow but Torreira was on the bench as he wasn’t ready to start. Ozil was oft hoiked at 60/70 mins for Madrid during his glory days with them as he’d run out of gas. with slightly more front foot pressing, with a slightly different style of mentoring from his gaffer, over time this season he will come off more often, but it will be different in the press.
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Dave
As you may have gathered I’m completely dienfranchised by the fantastical nonsense our self appointed blaggers and businessmen have been pumping out. Primarily as so much of it is even worse then any comical satire pumped out by alan partdrige.
Steve Coogan would’ve said pull the other one if we’d described the career of Crucial Robbie to him back in the early nineties when he first spoofed football media coverage.
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< as for the club's online content, I don't know.
Safe to say they appear to be appealing to a young market with their new pre match show? Not one for the stattos and geeks.
Can we expect any direction, any identity there when the dissapearing Ivan is foremost in people's minds/concerns?
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Or was AFTV Ivan’s concept of content? (JOKE! IBSF.).
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f p—I can understand, I think for a lot of the fan base its the same. I suppose we are just in for the long haul, and some blogs offer a bit of shelter.
I wonder if Paul Calf (shitty shit shoe shitter!) feels disenfranchised at Citeh? After his job at the Corner house who knows?
One thing I noticed was how sensationalist the pundits became last year( as they went for Wengers throat for the final kill), oh be back in a world without the 10 second sensation!
I thought the Chlesea fans we a bit cocky after the game, I wasnt that convinced by them, and another day the score line would have been much different. But I speak of what we all know.
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anicoll
You might just be onto something with the media rights!
http://dailycannon.com/2018/08/arsenal-end-media-partnership-with-company-in-complete-disarray/
Doesn’t sound like this should affect our youth coverage on website- as I said u18 game was definitely recorded as normal by Arsenal media (as player posted clip of his goal)- but you never know.
At the least, a big coincidence given what we were discussing
Reference to the book I recently read about Fifa at end of article. It’s very good if anyone wants excellent understanding of how grim that organisation became long ago.
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Looking at most of the football over the opening two weekends of the PL season I begin to wonder about the alleged ‘quality’ of a lot of centre backs in the PL fins, not just United’s. The assumption that if you pay a lot of cash for a CB he must be good has been proven way off mark by Bailly, Mangala, Luiz ( the most erratic player ever to wear football boots imo), and Keane.
Without wishing to be unfair to our two they have had two very hard weekends. Chelsea’s were pretty dreadful on Saturday and only poor finishing saved their blushes. I did not see Totties against Fulham but they wobbled at SJP the opening game. Liverpool have Van Dijk who is good but Loveren who is, at times, bloody awful.
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The sporting media rights sales business is a fundamentally corrupt Rich -I have not have had to look at it for about ten years but in the old days the associations including the PL would put the sale of their overseas TV coverage in the hands of “agents”, with the anticipated price they would receive in advance agreed ie for Chinese broadcast rights of 30 PL games for 3 seasons the PL would receive, say, £200 million. If the agency was able to negotiate a price of £250 million from the Chinese broadcasters then the £50 million extra was straightforward profit. If the agency was on a percentage of the eventual deal, as happened on other contracts and could be as high as 5%, then the option was also open to lever the buyer into agreeing to under the table payments for the agent to ensure they received a favourable price.
At least Dick Turpin wore a mask.
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On centre backs and how good they are, still think it’s under discussed how much the tactics etc of team matters.
Leaving aside the very handy help they got from refs ignoring all their grappling and fouls in box, does anyone think you could put Morgan and Huth from the title winning season in a team who doesn’t defend deep and counter and they would have done well, clean sheets aplenty?
The difference between their set-up, Burnleys, and many others, and teams who ask defenders to play high line, be heavily involved in build up, play from back, seems enormous to me.
Keane a good example, and Tarkowski looked plenty awkward for England trying to play ball into midfield.
Terry as well. Looked finished when Chelsea were playing a different, more open way. Reverted back to a more defensive way of playing, where he was rarely left with big spaces around him, and he had an excellent season
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fins just to add to your point about the physio’s and medics, you might have missed it, but team news/injury news on Arsenal.com no longer comes from the manager/head coach, its from the “medical team”
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andy
Overseas rights for the league are still sold through an agent company. I forgot the name but this was mentioned when the PL got its last contract. The Serie A has just sold it’s rights to IMG for 1.1 billion euros over 3 years. Good deal for them, but IMG will make money too.
Personally, this sort of thing doesn’t bother me much. Even if TV execs receive money to sanction higher deals for the agents etc, they are responsible to their own firms. (ManU’s deal with the recently bailed out GM and the resignation there, might be an exception) It’s a ‘pure’ form of corruption if I may call it that. It’s just about extracting money from the system, but without corrupting the system itself.
By the way, most of the ‘payments’ to execs in such negotiations are not made under the table, but openly, just in a different form. A different club/athlete might sign a deal with your network for which you get the credit with your bosses. You, personally, might get favourable access to an exclusive event where you can hobnob with the rich and famous, or your son’s favourite player might make a surprise home visit.
There’s plenty of ways of sweetening the deal which don’t qualify as corruption. Oddly enough, this sort of thing bothers me more because the implications go beyond simple exchange of money, and can distort the actual process. I know I’m in the minority on that one, but I find systemic corruption (legalised or not) much worse than the less sophisticated money changing hands under the table. (they are not mutually exclusive of course)
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@Mandy Dodd, “One thing we now know, it wasn’t just Wenger the media had it in for, it is the club”…
A: Absolutely. Many a player & a fan have chickened out under the incessant harassment. But with the likes of home-grown hard heads Bellerin & Rambo, summer’s-freshly vitriolic-attacked Özil & Xhaka (+compatriot Shkodran), spartans Sokratis & Mavropanos, Lucas-the uruguayan piranha-Torreira, JayJay’s goober-bred nephew, Armenia’s Mourinho-tazed finest, Alexandre WC-snubbed Lacazette, the critiquely-awaited Aubameyang, the undervalued Welbz & Nacho (“we took you to Russia just to warm the bench”), Petr the-great-but-archaic Cech, the Turin-grizzled championé swiss generalisimo Licht12 and all-action MatDouzy, our 19 year old-legendary captain-in-the-making under the watchful eye of Unai-the basque-Emery & his team, we are more than ready for the onslaught. AW laid the foundation. The Universe smiled and I fully believe in this team.
@ Rich, “We’ll likely have to try find someone at Manolas pre-Roma stage…”
A: One of Matthijs de Ligt, Benjamin Pavard or Dayot Upamecano could be ideal next summer. Top money but all young and part of the next best gen.
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You are right Rich – the best defensive performance of the weekend I saw was Brighton yesterday who held the red Mancs at arm’s length for most of the game, despite losing Dunk after 20 minutes. It was not elegant but every ball that came in was met with a head or a Brighton boot. Their ‘out’ ball was a long hoof to one of the wingers. The sort of game Jose usually hurls on Fellaini so I am not sure why that did not happen.
George will be pleased to see that it was Pogba who gave away possession 27 times yesterday – it is a virus that is easily spread.
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CORR:
JayJay’s gooner-bred + dread nephew
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Mangala doesn’t count for me! That much money splurged upon a young player with no reputation (unlike Laporte) was always a stinker. No need to speculate, we all know who his agent is. The same agent who was criticised by football managers in the championship last season for his undue influence upon the sport (please don’t shoot the messenger! Again…).
The young Chelsea CB not starting under their new gaffer looks good, but as with the Arsenal young CBs he is young! All those young players, they had to find one or two eventually. Hopefully they’ll get fed up and leave!
Good CBs with experience ready to lead a defence like Aldeweirald are not common which is why MP brought him in from Southampton ASAP to help the tinies become a top four regular ( not the system but the players doh! ). Hard for Arsenal a few years ago to have sneaked in there at that time and to ask such a talent to have sat on the bench behind Per and Koscielny (until last season or the year before).
Chambers looks like he’ll be starting every game for Fulham when fit, which is good if he’d be behind the new senior CB at Arsenal for this season, though his form was good and his style suites the new gaffer.
Goals For will even out an improve. I love to see players hitting the byline and that was a positive although this performance against Chelsea was less controlled with an even more porus back line then in any of the four fixtures between the teams last season, four fixtures that constituted one of the unacknowldged highlights from last season.
Goals Against remains the concern this season unlike two/three seasons ago when it was not! Injuries to Cazorla and Alexis led to concerns over the GF column as being the area where work was required at that time. The departures of the BFG and the early loss of Koscielny, the need for a little time for new CM who relplaced Arteta led to a reversal there and now we look to two new young CMs for the future, alongside Xhaka who was young when he arrived. Hunter and others long speculated that the recent big money signings were not individual decisions, as seen with the physiotherapist’s calls, and that does make some logic of the back room bickering we heard about over the last two seasons. It wasn’t just about contracts.
Arsenal will have to beat Chelsea to win the the Europa league so they’ll need to match last season’s form at best to pick up that bauble.
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I don’t normally get excited, but Sir Bob “liked” this tweet.
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We can already identify one meme.
With slightly higher pressing in some games Ozil will have to come off earlier, we’ll probably see more of that instead of him being rested for whole games now he has retired from international football.
But as evidenced by the uncontested mis-quotes of the new gaffer on BT by Rio Ferdinand no less the meme that Ozil doesn’t work hard enough are in full overdrive. We await to see what surprises the broadcasters have in store for us with Ozil as the season progress with great excitement eh? He’s gonna get it from the same people who’ve been gunning for Sterling, he already has been. He won’t get defended by Wrighty as his agent isn’t pals with the plundit, we know why he was so keen on Chamberlain’s transfer! It’s a hungry game alright (see “AFTV media”).
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Anicol
One of my favourite games of ours ,defence wise, in recent years was the Spurs win where Rosicky scored the early gem.
Sometime before end, don’t know how long, we were camped in our half defending box. Tons of crosses coming in. Memory is of Per being magnificent that day. *
That’s a different world of defending to me, almost, than if you’re pushed well up, with a fullback or two out of picture, big spaces for opposition to attack with just one or two good passes creating huge danger.
Not me advocating becoming a defensive team or anything. Just always felt key to me when even discussing defence these days.
*If, for whatever reason- score for instance- we’d been defending differently later in that game, and a situation opened up where speed was essential, someone badly exposed Per’s lack of it, goal scored…there’d be wails about bad defending, bad defender,etc, but for me that wouldn’t necessarily and probably wouldn’t- certainly not 2nd accusation- be the case.
That nasty day at forest for him last year- in their defence he could quite well, even at that stage, have put in a man of the match performance; in ours, life was almost guaranteed to be brutal for him with the way the game went/we played. Big space all around, a tyro against him, no Kos or other speedster beside him, very little midfield protection.
Simply put, if Mustafi or Sokratis were installed in a defensive/ non top 6 team here, especially paired with a big man, I’m confident it would go very well for them, rave reviews (probably clamour for us to sign them as they are ‘what we need’).
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Arsenal’s Nigerian Whizkid Provisionally Cap-Tied To England Selected To Represent USA
Published: August 20, 2018
Arsenal’s Nigerian Whizkid Provisionally Cap-Tied To England Selected To Represent USA
The United States Soccer Federation has leapfrogged Nigeria and England in the race for the services of Arsenal wonderkid Folarin Balogun, allnigeriasoccer.com reports.
Balogun, who was born in America, has received a maiden call-up to the United States U18 team for a tournament in the Czech Republic, and is in line to make his debut against Bulgaria on Wednesday, August 22.
The highly-rated 17-year-old, who is regarded as Nigeria’s top scholar at Arsenal Academy, is provisionally cap-tied to England, having represented the Young Lions at the 2018 UEFA European Under17 Championship in May, playing four matches against Israel, Switzerland, Norway and Netherlands.
Fifa has to approve Balogun’s request for a change of association if he is to play competitively for the United States because he has featured in official games for England U17s.
Since 2011, the offensive all-rounder has been on the books of the Gunners and ended last season as the top scorer for their U18 team with 13 goals in all competitions, including 9 in the U18 Premier League.
Balogun has also represented Arsenal U23 side in the Premier League 2.
Ifeanyi Emmanuel
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In all my AFC years, (41)Mesut is one of the most intelligent, exciting and truly creative players Ive ever seen.
His Achilles heal is his sensitivity-he lets him play some sublime football, but sometimes he seems to lack confidence (and even then usually turns in a good performance as the stats prove?) and seems plagued by a bad ass super ego(?).
A waste of time to speculate, but how would he have been in an 2000-2006 AFC side? Before the AFTV media (etc) started claiming false authority…and know some of them support him and others not, but generally theres a lot of negativity towards him.
It saddens me to see that he gets called lazy-“lazy” in itself is a term that doesnt mean anything, theres no such thing as laziness, but other factors at play.
The amount of kack the guy gets is astounding really, unfair ( I know lifes unfair but often its pure bullying). No wonder he jacked it in Internationally, who wants to be the scapegoat all the time, especially when the stats say youre doing most of the work .
The people who are most vocals didnt/could kick a ball to save their lives and yet they rush to twitter to judge him. What kind of weird world have we living in?
Im not going to change it, but at least Emerys got the lad under his wing, welcomed him “home” after the WC and looks to keep him up and working and concentrating-if it doesnt work out today, then theres tomorrow.
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