Good evening Positives,
For the first 55 minutes of the game against Everton today I admit I was apprehensive. A game against the Toffees for which every tradition and statistic had marked down for a home win, and probably a confident performance from us, had gone awry. Our football during that 55 minutes was wayward, our passing was scrappy, our defensive organisation shuddering.
And the visitors, a team we have beaten regularly and by a significant margin as stated, WERE NOT THAT BAD FOR ONCE. That Petr Cech had performed so well throughout those 3,300 seconds of early action meant my mild discomfort was not replaced by the vice-like testicular pain of being 0-1 or 0-2 down. No.
To be fair Arsenal did get over the half way line during that first half from time to time, but we did not rattle EFC. 0-0 at half time was right. And in the opening 10 minutes of the second half we were pinned back in our half. I saw Dave on here earlier pondering the half time talk for Unai Emery. If that first ten minutes of the second half were to be relied on the coach and the players may as well have been doing a jigsaw together. It all began to look a little tricky.
And then I was delivered. A swift interchange of passes on the edge of the Everton Box, a change of position of Auba and Lacazette ( no doubt worked out over the jigsaw) freed our French striker to curl his beauteous opener. The quality of the goal the absolute difference between Everton and Arsenal today. Where our opponents had half chances they fluffed them or Cech managed to get in the way. In sharp contrast Alexander put his half chance away inch perfect. As I saw pointed out later on the TV Laca did not even look toward the goal from receiving the ball, to the net bulging. The Frenchman’s instinct had the goal exactly in his mind’s eye, and his foot did the rest. Goals of that quality win matches, as today, and even win titles and cups (on occasions).
After that decisive moment the game continued but the result had been decided. Marco Silva’s lads were done. Their effort was maintained but their confidence had been popped, and never recovered.
An error by the lino gifted Arsenal a second but even without the official’s largesse I think we had broken them. The game rolled on, they pressed for a consolation marker but even there Cech was resolute. A commanding performance on his 6 yard line as the crosses and free kicks rained in. A deserved clean sheet in a busy game for our first choice keeper. Man of the Match – no doubt.
Elsewhere among our lads this afternoon I was pleased with Torreira who was productive. He is still learning but he has a good mixture of steel and creativity. He also appears to be able to take a kick and carry on. Hector dominated the right hand side of the pitch as he launched attacks all afternoon. As I have said before I would like Bellerin to shoooooot more. Xhaka was his tidy self, and Moss and the Albanian barely exchanged a glance, which was no doubt a surprise to both of them.
So onwards to the Bees on Wednesday – enjoy the remainder of your weekend.
(Top picture from the excellent Stuart MacFarlane – top AFC snapper) @Stuart_PhotoAFC
Positively Arsenal 
Firstly allow to just laugh at that headline – loooool. That was the story of the game.
Everton had quite a few good chances to go into the break with the tails up, so they got nobody to blame but themselves and we shouldn’t feel ashamed either because the boys didn’t feel sorry for themselves as they came out after the break with intend. It took a while going though but after Lacazette scored the PL goal of the month the Toffees lost all fight and never look like they were gonna score thereafter. The lino missing the offside on Auba’s goal made up for the stonewall pen denied. So all these sudden advocates for VAR amongst the pundits can go kick rocks.
Special shout out to Ramsey who despite not having one of his better games never crumbled, laid down and die when he delivered those two vital passes. Nor did the rest of the boys to be fair. They showed what you guys in Blighty call grit as they carved out that result.
We roll on!
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i’m glad Anicol that you write so well about Lacaaette’s great goal, cos since the end of the game today I’ve seen pundits and journos talk/report on the game as if the Aubameyang offside goal not only wrongly won the game for AFC, but some even went as far as to say it prevented Everton from a deserved win. One report never even mentioned Lacazette’s goal at all.
So incensed are some of them that they have gone from being anti VAR to now demanding its introduction asap. Oddly while extolling the virtues of VAR and how it would have condemned AFC to a loss today, they totally failed to mention how VAR might very well have seen AFC awarded not one but two penalties today, but then again maybe they think that VAR would judge both incidents like how the commentators on my stream viewed it
Penalty call 1 – “Arsenal don’t deserve the penalty as Lacazette was not smart enough to go down when fouled” – I fucking kid you not.
Penalty call 2 – “its a penalty in any other league, but not in the BPL, as we know, us in England disagree with the rest of the world on lots of things”
As we seen last week with the eye gouging incident in the spurs game, the media decide what is worthy of punishment and the pgmol, fa and dive panel, etc fall in line.
Some pundits after our result today have decided that VAR must be brought in to stop the travesty of AFC getting a wrong goal, oddly they still clearly feel VAR should not be used on penalty incidents, that will only change when we get away with one in our area.
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spot on LaboGoon on Ramsey, he certainly had an off day, but he still provided the assist on both goals, so even when poor he contributed big time in this game, of course his haters now say that all that matters was that he had a poor game, his “lucky” assits should not detract from his display. Of course these same guys tell us that Xhaka, Bellerin, Ozil and Mustafi all were awful today too, so really we should just hope that someone supervises them and stops them from coming to any harm, or harming themselves.
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Andy has made a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Well played that man.
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Think a good bit of luck as well as a brilliant keeping display helped us to the win today.
Been plenty of games though where we’ve played good stuff and got nothing, and media have been quite emphatic about the getting nothing as the only part that matters.
Bit different on that front today…just finished an article which I think reflects media mood and the negativity is fairly off the charts in it. The stuff of the game does now matter an awful lot apparently.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2018/sep/23/unai-emery-system-dull-rhythm-arsenal-everton
It’s not like this review invents things from thin air, though it’s extremely one-sided in its telling, more the incongruity of the demonstration there seems to be an on/off switch when it comes to focusing mostly on result or on performance.
Think how easily in particular costly decisions against us have been played down or ignored entirely on so many occasions.
Anyway, don’t know what it was that seemed to upset the media so much today. Guess the combo of a bad first half, with a few gilt edged chances, unpunished, plus the offside goal was just too much for them. Diddums
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Anyway, delighted to get the points.
Bit concerned by performance until goals, to be honest. For pretty much our strongest eleven and with some wins behind us, we didn’t play as I hoped.
Seemed to be an issue with getting both Ramsey and Ozil involved enough in game to bring their skills to bear.
Suppose much was down to how Everton were set up. Plenty of energy, hunting turnovers, good numbers back in defensive phases (meaning hard to pick out Ramsey and Ozil and no time for them on ball), then with three speedy players to hit on break.
Positives in there as well. We did seem to improve defensively after Holding’s introduction (though Sokratis was best defender till then). Xhaka maybe best outfielder for me. Steady for most part, many nice passes, particularly left to Monreal, who got stronger after looking tired early on. Encouraging display from Torreira. Laca with a beastly finish and showing again with some of his closing down and work that injury effected him badly for a spell last year.
Strongly feel title is City or Liverpool’s this year and so the aim for us is top 4, and that would represent a good first year under Emery.
So, for now, it’s going ok, and in the next 5 league games or so, ten definitely, we should gain a much better idea about how this season is likely to go
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the last dew days have been good for AFC teams, the First team with 2 wins (Thursday and Sunday), U23’s won on Friday, U18’s won on Saturday and the Ladies won 2 games (Wednesday and Sunday).
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Jaysus wept! The hypocrisy of the Guardian, Gary Lineker and company is so shameless. They are suddenly advocates for VAR simply because Arsenal benefited from an offside goal which, as they all know, was not the winner but prefer to pretend otherwise. As Eduardo correctly observed, if VAR was at work, using FIFA standards, Arsenal would have had two penalties prior to Lacazette’s beauty.
But as PA knows, there are some of us, who, regardless of the cost to Arsenal, have stood on principle and demanded that the PL and its PGMOL stop their foot-dragging and avoid incidents like today by implementing VAR as soon as possible. “If not Now, When.”
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We’re not any less watchable now than we’ve been for big chunks of the last…five(?) seasons. Have a fond memory of Iwobi’s performance in a slick win away to Everton in 2016 – it was like meeting an old friend because we’d been largely stultifying for months. We had the same long patch last season, and the season before.
Teams that want to control the game but aren’t confident/haven’t built combinations will always end up passing side to side.
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This is such an obvious point that I almost hesitate to make it, but sides that have really good seasons tend to have one forward who seems to score at will. You know, the kind of player who makes other fans think “and of course bloody Salah scored again” or Vardy, or Kane or Drogba or van Persie or whoever it may be. And we haven’t had that player for a while now, no one really replacing RVP, although I suppose Alexis almost did for a season. But when Lacazette scored that wonderful goal, hot on the heels of that other rasping winner of his the other week, I begin to wonder whether he might be the man, and this might be the year when we do a whole lot better than people expect us to. Yes – there were obvious frailities on show yesterday (neither Ozil or Ramsey, my two favourite players, at their best so far this season) but goals win you games and I like Laca’s style.
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Fingers crossed Sokratis knee ok. Was thinking about current cb options if he is unavailable.
Started pre-season with five contenders. Chambers loaned, Mavropanos seems to be injured. Meanwhile in u23’s, Bielik loaned, and I think next two in line, Sheaf and Pleg, are both injured at present!
So if Sokratis out and we want a true cb for bench etc, we may be looking at call up for 9th choice cb at start of season. I wouldn’t be dismayed as think that’s Ballard, who i like a lot.
Wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Ballard train with first team this week.
Maybe Pleg or Sheaf will be back, or Mavropanos soon, but it just shows how injuries can strike even in areas you’re well stocked in. Also the luck you need as a young player as it must be a killer to be out when a rare opportunity opens up.
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Rich with Kolasinac now back in training it could free up Monreal to go CB if needed, maybe even Kolasinac could play there himself too
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you really have to laugh at what pundits will complain about when its Arsenal
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I cannot, indeed I must not, allow the Geoff Shreeves’ interview with our two goal scorers after yesterday’s game pass into digital oblivion without marking it’s uniquely awful character. This is just an excerpt of the “balls’ highlight but trust me it was 2 minutes of excruciating agony. Auba andAlexander clearly recognised that they wee speaking to a total idiot within two questions. I even felt sorry for Defoe who was physically cringing at the inane questions Shreeves was coming out with.
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a)”disco jig”, wtf is that? Country dancing plus night fever? Lacca didnt do that. And why was it appalling? Says who? Who was the judge and jury, Nanny and Gwandad Finchley-Gore? Wot about my opinion, I liked it. And how would it have affected the quality of the goal? What is it you dont get? Sometimes other people do what they want not what you want. Running into the crowd means you get booked, and the molecules in the air are naffed awf that they get punched all the time. Air molecule rights man! And you started off with “in the end”, where is the end and where is the beginning?
b) why would it be spine chilling? Shurely shome mishtake? My understanding of the term is one thats associated with horror etc. Not cringing, which is what you meant?
c) its cold, and green, grey with big waves, lets all go jump in it!
d) for democracy
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there was a fans forum yesterday, it was to have been Ivan’s last one before he leaves and would also include his two replacements, but there has not been a single tweet about it, a total media blackout it seems. Normally we get full run down from those at it. Maybe the club intend doing a piece on it.
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Dave that piece was from Gareth Crooks, it shows the awful level of pundits, especially at the BBC
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Thats what I thought ed. I wanted to have a bit of fun with the guff he came out with. I lost touched with the BBC after they said that BFG meant ” big friendly giant” some years ago and the time they cut up a Wenger press conference vid and made out AW lost his rag. I saw the whole vid and it wasnt so, but some sneaky editing meant it looked differently later.
Q is: do pundits have to comment on everything? That was the (poor) joke I was trying to make back. I agree, it just seems bizarre in the end.
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Emery on the game: “In 90 minutes, there are moments for the opposition & moments for us. We need our goalkeeper to stop their attacking moments & our strikers to score in our attacking moments. I think today is a good example. Three points were important for us in the table.”
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Bk,
Sounds like you’ve just read the Santi Cazorla interview regarding his comments on belief at the Arsenal! Or been reading Zaha’s interview from last week?
Safe to conclude that the last great team under Wenger was more circumspect then some imagined or like to give the impression of given the greater resources and therefore talent available to a greater number of rivals in the league. But that previous team/squad were still showed enough consistency to have picked up the golden glove twice in those five odd years (with two different keepers), with the 2-0 or 2-1 signature score line being the the theme/key to the team’s confidence and nous (gameplans) as kindly underlined for everyone at the time by our very own Mel (Mel should have his own podcast! If he didn’t have better things to do…Hehe.), alongside all those FA cups etc.
–
Perhaps yesterday was Cech’s best performance at home for the Arsenal?
However his best run of form to date was when he equalled the clean sheet record just three odd years ago. A spell which our uncredible blaggers describe and i quote as a “spiral of decline” and perhaps they are compelled to pump out this retrospective misinformation because, who knows or can guess the reasons for their idiocy? Apart from click baiting. Why would these gibbering lemmings choose to quote a former manager of the tiny totts? Your guesses are as good as mine.
Anyway as with the previous squad the new gaffer wants two playmakers to oil his engine, and between them the two conjured the goals yesterday. Is that not interesting?
I remark upon this easy observatiob because our selfless blaggers have been wailing and moaning (or is it whaling for these click baiting anglers and fishermen) at Ramsey’s football yet whilst he’s barely been match fit he’s been quietly involved in most of the Arsenal’s goals of late as he finds his way back to full sharpness (listed as ‘fatigued’ this past week, and he was not quote up to speed in his duels with Gueye in the second half yesterday). Same old same old with the same old Arse Experts, never mind the football, keep those clicks coming!
Alongside the exceptionally weird hatred and misrepresentation that accompanies almost every report on the Arsenal it is all quite amusing. Even more so when we accept that there are hundreds of millions of reasons to consider why the broadcasters don’t like the Arsenal.
Yes it is exactly as described by Phil Neville, the new owners of Everton have spent 350M not inclduing wages on transfers (at about the same rate as the tiny totts were spending before their stadium budget quadrupled, or that Liverpool have been since they decided they could afford to spend 20m on loanees like Markovic….).
The pleasant looking chap who is now the director of AFC’s business affairs following Ivan’s Italian Job, he has been described as having the club’s ‘values’ close to his heart. These ineffable and inexplicable values! What could they be! It’s a mystery! L.O.L.?
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< essentially the new gaffer is playing the same formation we saw, say, against Napoli four years ago. With Ramsey in the centre and Ozil on the right as their nominal starting positions.
I could understand people discussing switching the two around, for example Ozil wasn't comfortable cutting the ball back for Ramsey on the second goal etc. but our bullshitting blaggers, pardon me, have been pumping out the fluid spluttering message that these two players can't play together for weeks now, it is the new Meme lord help us all.
The big difference this season is not then the tactics we have all seen before at various times, it is of course the greater squad depth now that the replacements for Gabriel and Coquelin have both settled in and impressed.
We can also confirm and see how the Arsenal target players and squad build in the long term, and even though there was a period here the squad lacked the Coquelin/Toerrira type of senior/experienced CM i think everyone is happy and impressed with the quality of the new signing and appreciate why the club went for the upgrade as the squad was drastically rebuilt over the last 18 months. However I won't hold my breath and hope for any of the blaggers to point out this Method (nowt to do with the manager/coach, save for them being on board) that the Arsenal follow. Why let such simple observations get in the way of a derogatory soundbite about the club you support when it can earn you some pennies?
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“In the end, one goal was enough to win the game against Everton.”
Garth Crooks clearly made up his mind that will not acknowledge Auba’s goal. Fkn pundits.
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Torreira was ok in parts but his all action style wasn’t controlled and was lucky not to have seen red. If he had gone the score could have been very different although the form Cech was in we still may not of concerned.
I’m sure he will adapt to the premier league and turn out to be an excellent player but his importance at the moment is being overplayed.
I must say it was ironic Everton saying we need VAR in as soon as possible after they voted against it last year, Arsene again being proved right even after his departure why they don’t just listen to him in the first place I don’t know.
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Crooks did (comfortably) win the 2016 Sun “Worst Pundit on TV” award;
1 GARTH CROOKS – surprised, yet haunted
Like Theo Walcott embarking on a mazy run, Crooksy starts a sentence with no idea where it’s going to end up, usually disappearing up his own a**e halfway through.
Fancying himself as an intellectual, wide-eyed Garth wears the surprised yet haunted look of a man who’s just been told what dogging is.
HE SAID IT!
“35% of black players are non white.”
“Make no mistake, mistakes will be made.”
“Football’s football. If that weren’t the case it wouldn’t be the game that it is.”
“Having watched a replay, there’s absolutely no doubt; it’s inconclusive.”
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Anti- pundit Monday, has had me cracking up with laughter today! Nice work fellas!
“make no mistake, mistakes will be made”!!!
I had the gut- cramp laugh when I read that!
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Had it been Dean rather than Moss with the whistle Ian I imagine we would have had another talking point today. Other than the offside goal I thought the officials did OK yesterday and the players, even Richarlison, behaved themselves.
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The tunnel side lino had a fine match but his colleague opposite missed a few calls for Everton in the first half, one that had the lower tier very irate as it nearly let Everton in! One extremely loud and sarcastic solitary observation that ‘it was offside’ had a large part of the east stand chuckling in admiration of such projection.
This was before his second half error almost evened out his errors for both teams – almost, but not quite.
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I always look for replays from Sky just after things that look offside in favour of our opposition. If one doesn’t appear quickly I’m always suspicious
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Never seen a song and dance made about a Man U or Spud offside goal or dodgy pen before either. One season Man U had about four or five early part of the season.
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markyb
Same here with offsides. The early Richarlison one looked distinctly off first view. Big delay for a replay, shown very briefly, and appeared to confirm it was offside, but instead of acknowledging it Smith * said something like ‘as I said, marginal’
Another two for them in very dangerous situations looked off second half, showed a lightening quick replay of one of them, where again their player looked ahead, but no comment, let alone the line-on-screen treatment.
We got the giant stroke of luck with the offside, but for me an offside goal is no bigger a mistake than should an offside opportunity be missed.
*almost unfailingly he plays down anything in our favour instantaneously, before a replay is even in. Not quite the exact opposite with the reverse- i.e something against us- but pretty damn close. I think he might be snakiest of the lot, thanks to his extra shrewdness
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Ed
Good shout on Kola. Think my first viewing of him was at centre back in 2014 world cup. So he or indeed Monreal could be considered. Timing isn’t great with one on way back and Monreal needing a game off in my opinion.
Elneny played at back last year but pretty sure that was always in a three.
Had a look this morning by way and day before our next checkatrade game we’ve a scheduled u23 fixture away at Swansea. Really hard to see how they can make that work without shifting u18’s up en masse for one of the fixtures, presumably the Swansea game. They tend to play an older, tough team at u23 level so not ideal either way.
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The Crooks thing is funny- ‘appalling’, ‘spine-chilling’. The guy is so pretentious and downright daft.
‘Spine-chilling’- wtf is a spine-chilling dance? (if Crooks wasn’t black I’d suspect a touch of deep-seated racism in that one)
Almost seems too…obvious (?) to be true that it’s a familiar case of a football person being pained by a result (maybe it just hurt so much more because of the first half tease, and that rare thing for them, seeing Arsenal benefit from a big wrong call) and not having the wit nor self-control to manage their emotions afterwards as they thrash about in discomfort.
Probably a similar thing with this infamous Shrives interview which I turned off after a few seconds and can’t force myself to watch. Maybe a couple of glasses of wine involved in that one as he seems type to tuck in.
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That is the thing about Crooks – suddenly he will introduce a word into a sentence that is totally out of place, and on the basis of that random use of language, nod knowingly and try to persuade the audience he has offered a profound insight.
Truth is Garth’s mouth works faster than his brain and he blurts out the first word that comes into his empty head.
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An interesting interview by Cech
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2018/sep/24/petr-cech-arsene-wenger-style-arsenal-unai-emery-football
I will let you all make what you will of it. But it seems strange to pick the Everton game on Sunday to illustrate his point as this is one fixture where Wenger’s teams always triumphed with ease.
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Garth. Crooks eyes are huge and always seem to be about to pop out of his head! I always found his eyes scary
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Have to say, I have been extremely impressed with the work of Agent Alexis so far this season
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If those quotes from Cech are true, I think it is a disgrace that he would speak that way about the last manager. He comes across as a total suck up. I’ve never really warmed to him and now I know why.
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I’m going to put this as politely as I can…………………..Cech can fuck right off.
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If and when we show any evidence that we know how to “shut the back door” and “win 1-0” and “ugly” as Petr Cech suggests on any consistent basis I shall return to the piece.
We have always had the occasional hard fought narrow win but yesterday
was no different to most other games our defence have played and I have seen for the past five seasons.
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Anthony Taylor has been appointed as the referee for Saturday’s match at home to Watford.
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I hate to imagine what Cech would be like as a pundit. To effectively accuse Wenger one of he most driven and competitive managers of actively playing to not to win games is just mindboggling.
I find it ironic that players who fail to give a 110% straightaway blame the manager. Really if you were not motivated under Wenger I am not sure anything will change under Unai.
Get a mirror Cech mayhem the problem lies in you, you know just like that panicked pass to an opposing player suggests you do not have the composure or the intelligence to adapt and learn to play from the back. But it’s so hard to front up and admit that maybe you are just not that good.
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I think Cech’s problem is that he was used to playing behind Maureen’s 2 banks of 4 parked buses and found the transition to an attack-based team a difficult adjustment. Based on Emery’s own words he is more like AW than JM i.e. he would rather win 5 – 4 than 1 nil. Cech, should just shut his hole and get on with his job. It’s easy to blame the man who is no longer in a position to defend himself (apart from being too classy to do so!) than to accept that he, like some of our other players let themselves and the club down at times in recent seasons. He had a good day yesterday, but things can change quickly in football.
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First Per, now Petr. Clay feet, indeed.
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It’s poor form and weird from Petr for reasons a few have mentioned above : there’s been no sign yet of us becoming a more defensive outfit and nor do Emery’s statements suggest that’s the plan.
I agree that it must have been an odd transition joining us, as he came from a defensive minded team with a very high level of cynicism to their play. Occasionally, I thought I saw signs of the difference when he would slow things down a little if we were leading later on, or aim for big distance on kicks with ball in hand to Giroud if the action was a bit frenetic and opposition looked like benefitting.
There are a few isolated signs perhaps of us becoming a bit more cynical- which I believe is an inevitability following Wenger- but they seem mostly to have come from the new players. Lichtsteiner certainly knows how to win a free kick, and Torreira looks like he’ll bring some Uruguayan knowhow to the table.
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The more I think about it the more I think fuck Cech. This has really annoyed me.
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Bit unpleasant seeing you know who from you know what shitty media something or other meeting Wenger yesterday.
Makes me wonder about certain things, including how the guy got access to the event. I don’t get it, really, the whole phenomenon of celebrity fans.
What’s the aim? Is it supposed to be that a love of Arsenal and football is behind it? Is it now his job?
I’m sure some would say I’m jealous or something, but that really isn’t the case. I just do not get it. But then I don’t get a whole lot of social media and the like, nor what people are pursuing with their quest for attention without any particular goal or talent etc.
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Seems like a typical bitchy article from the Graun. UA were always exposing their nasty articles about AW.Certainly not even true what Cech said, Arsène always wanted to win every game, but didnt want to be Stoke. Whats wrong with that? ManUre shat their panties after the first double, they themselves said ” and Arsenal can actually play football”.
There were plenty of games where we dug in and got defensive when we had to. But I personally saw some of the greatest, most beautiful winning football in the EPL conducted by AW. And Cech wasnt around for most of it. The paying for the new stadium and starting a new era was the real problem to me.
But hes welcome to his opinion, it is part of the tapestry of things, but I dont see it the way he does.
Lets face it, we are behind the lads and UE, but who isnt missing a bit of the flowing football?
Its a bet and not concrete, but as time goes on the context of AW and his teams will be seen in different ways, but I think he will be the one remembered as someone who wanted to play, not cheat and the one who took things to new levels, who wasnt as successful as should have been, but did things like nobody else.
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Not taking claim particularly seriously (if it’s correct, what can you do?) but the other claim, that Can’s agents got 16 million for the Juve deal, is quite alarming.
Again, you just have to hope in all individual cases now that player’s have a strong mind of their own, aren’t motivated by money above all else, and that their agents are somewhat reasonable.
The incentives for agents to encourage not signing contracts as deals near their end are clearly gigantic, and could easily involve money that is life-changing for them
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whoops, here’s link/ claim in question
https://www.calciomercato.com/en/news/exclusive-arsenal-star-offered-to-juventus-for-free-98923
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Even if Cech really believes it,nothing to be gained by such an article.
You can encourage and respect the new without laying into what came before.
If Cech has opinions like that they should have been discussed with The Man behind closed doors back in the day, not in the media after his departure.
He should play no part in the clear media agenda of trashing Wenger legacy.
Sadly I think we might hear a few of these annoying rumblings
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