Good morning the Positive Arsenal crew,
As the digital clock on the scoreboard reached 10:00 to go I had this morning’s match write-up sketched out in my head. It was along the lines of “an exciting game”….., “plenty of chances at both ends”, …..”some noteworthy performances from players on both sides”…., “but an inexplicable result of 0-0″…. . I was going to ponder some dubious finishing by strikers at both ends, two generally solid defensive performances, great industry in midfield if not great quality, and pick a few names out on both sides that caught the eye.
I was, in fact, going to highlight what I thought was the key moment of the match, and still do, which was Bernd Leno’s save from Deeney’s volley on the 52nd minute (picture above). A curling free kick from Holebas picked out the Watford striker 10 yards out, a solid but well directed shot from Deeney, an a split second later, a decisive leap by Leno to his left low down, very little time to react, and he still managed not just to keep the ball out but push it round the post!! The art of goal keeping at its very best. If that Watford goal effort had gone in ? ( Sound of sucking teeth) Well the way the match was unbalanced at that time, with Watford on top and driving forward. We were rocking. It would have been a hard road back for us. As with Lacazette’s excellent opening goal against Everton last week on such pivotal moments are games won or lost and, when they are all added up, trophies decided. Last week a world class goal, this week a world class save.
And as often happens when a flash of talent changes the game the side that benefits goes on to win the game. In our case yesterday it took a almost another half hour but by that stage Watford wee out of energy and, like me perhaps, had settled for the 0-0. Iwobi and Lacazette combined and the opening goal is scored, or as I saw properly last night an own goal, followed by a second similar move which opens the Orns’ back door again, and a slick finish by Mesut. The One-Two to leave the visitors flat on their back. We all go home happy. Three points, fifth place, touching distance of the top four and all to play for.
Of the players who impressed me as described above Leno stepped in after Cech went off and did everything that our first choice keeper could have done, punched, saved and efficiently dealt with Watford’s rough-housing at the dead ball situations. Above all he kept that hard to acquire clean sheet. If Petr is out for a few weeks with a hamstring he may face a hard fight to get back in.
I thought Mustafi and Holding did well against an unusual two headed attack of Deeney and Gray. They saw off the muscle and physical aggression in the air of the ugly twosome, and it was not until Isaac Success came on that Les Hornets with his better ground game really got any space and broke through Holding. If you get booked for dissent again Shkordan, arguing over a f****** throw in on the edge of the Watford box, I will fine you a week’s wages. I don’t mind if a player argues with an official, if they feel it does any good or is to do with a game-changing incident, just don’t get booked.
Torreira was a one man bee hive of industry and ensured that the midfield battle was always vigorous. He seems comfortable enough in the PL. The Uruguayan had an eye on winding up Deeney and his spectacular tumble toward the end convinced me that Watford striker should have seen a straight red, never mind a second yellow. Looking at the incident again on the TV last night it was rather less certain which one of them might have picked up a second card, if Taylor had been in the mood.
Among our opponents Doucoure was very good all afternoon in central midfield, and Peyrera is a talented player, intelligent and quick with the ball at his feet.
On we go then with a little more confidence, another battle against difficult opponents – a long trip to Baku for an early game, I think, then the erratic Fulham at Craven Cottage to see whether we can convert 5 PL wins into 6. Interesting times.
Enjoy Sunday.
Positively Arsenal 
A further view of the save;
https://twitter.com/afcgif/status/1046074427002245127
Although the camera never lies as such I don’t think the gif quite does Leno or Deeney justice.
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Nelson get you up early Andy?
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Carpe diem
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I feel Xhaka is increasingly influential and solid. https://twitter.com/afcDW/status/1046116456688230404
Great review Andy.
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Top write up, covered all the ins and outs. Interesting times is bang on. Happy Sunday.
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Great write up Andrew, agree it had 0-0 written all over it from the radio commentary I heard.
Your article’s title has gone way over my head though!!
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I think Cech has done very well for us of late and what a fantastic career he has put together but I hope that Leno is our man from now on.
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I couldn’t help but had a bursting laugh at the end whistle because I too though with 10 minutes to go “don’t tell me we are gonna draw against this bastards”. Then BOOM! 2 quick goals to settle the tie. That headline of last week popped in my mind:
“Do you think we’d crumble, Did you think we’d lay down and die?”
Lol, we might have thought it would end 0-0 but the boys had Deeney and his yuge mouth in their minds when they said, “Not today bitch”.
7 in a row sounds nice [insert satisfied smirk]
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yeah another good en Andy,
Winning without dominating is becoming a habit and teams who have good form are getting beat without domonation or panache.
Although the first ten wasn’t great I thought the first half went well and were unlucky not to be in front with Laca missing a golden opportunity to put us in front and although there was plenty of half chances the game did look like a bit of first goal wins about it, to have gone ahead on 14 minutes may have made our afternoon alot easier.. We could of done without the half time whistle as we seemed to be getting on top.
We started the second half poorly but other than that deeny chance watford didnt really create much until Torreira went into a tackle from the wrong side (I was always taught you stood your man up so he couldn’t turn or tackled goal side so if you lost the ball the player was still going backwards, modern players seem to try and tackle around the wrong side) leaving the player free and his back line exposed. The ball for success was a, well success and his dinked chipped hit the post although it was always spinning away. Like Laca’s chance earlier a goal there could have proved decisive.
We lost the midfield for several patches yesterday and Torreira is not yet proving the stableising influence everyone was saying he would be or is for that matter. You can see he will be a great player but not quite yet.
Again the forward line is not quite linking and firing but at any moment in any game we can score and Evertons 3-0 win proved the last couple of weeks we are starting to overcome very good teams. We have lots of areas to improve so our recent results have been a joy.
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Delighted with another win. Not much beats the high of a late goal or two to turn one or potentially nought into three points.
That moment when you see the update and then have to make double and triple sure your eyes aren’t deceiving you. (or is that just me?)
This time it was on dot.com and listed as 1-0 to us with Cathcart the scorer, but no OG next to it, so had to jump over to BBC to make sure it wasn’t some cruel,cruel mistake.
Then followed immediately by the second. Great stuff!
Was half way through washing car just before and thought came in head how shitty it would be going back to it if we conceded late. Instead, nice and pleasant. Thanks, lads.
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Bit less pleasant 10 mins ago was reading an article linking Ramsey to a bad place and with the line :
‘The Gunners are in the midst of a drive to reduce the club’s huge wage bill – ‘
Really? Last I saw we were at around 200 mill with Utd 100 million more.
If it’s true (2/3rds of Utd and trying to bring it down) it won’t be easy in the next few years and presumably we’ll be relying heavily on Sven unearthing young players, plus our own coming through, in which case, for latter point, we should surely use Carling Cup as a platform for youngsters.
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One moment I really loved yesterday, was the goal celebration by Mesut, Lacca and Iwobi, Danny is a bit cut out from the cameras ( fantastic,brave tackle to set the move up) which is a shame, but the joy on their faces, man that was a moment that you could share in.
I was amused to think that GG or Supermac would have claimed the og for themselves, but Lacca was a bit more honest. Crooks was a bit worried he might to the old disco jig?
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I don’t know about the club in a drive to bring down the wage bill Rich. It would depend on what sort of planning they had for not qualifying for the CL and dropping the £40-£50 million a year in direct income that follows.
One thing I did notice yesterday, and I have not really looked at it before, is about 50% of the Executive/VIP boxes had no-one sitting in them. 25% were chokka, and the other 25% half filled.
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Bit of mangled Sartre AA – Age of Reason – the “moment” as eternal, and a little diamond – in this case the moment Leno’s hand connected with Deeney’s shot.
Pretentious bollocks but hey ho.
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The absence of Champions League income is far less important if we stay in (or close to) a zero net debt situation. Increased sponsorship fees should take care of other planned outgoings. All future stadium debt payments are already in the bank so the football side of things must now be self sustaining and when a player reaches that last contract time (like Ramsey and Welbeck) they need to be making a contribution that makes them undroppable to make them ‘worth’ the money. With plenty of youngsters coming through there needs to be holes to fill in order to get to our desired position of being the club to join to progress the furthest/quickest.
I do think that while not everyone likes the fact that the Club is owned by one man it at least means that a long term strategy can be followed without carping from the sidelines from conflicting egos.
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imo pretentious bollocks is always important, otherwise we might end up with AFTV media telling us whats what. Question is, is it pretentious bollocks?
But it is difficult to mix football up with other things (philosophy etc). Everyone has a fear of being part of the prawn sandwhich brigade lurking? But in life theres always someone calling you something.
This week there was an article on Frieze about Mesuts “minimalism”. I knew it would get me hot under the underpant elastic, so I ignored it. The only thing that Mesut is often minimal with imo( as far as I can see at this mo) is his facial expressions and emotional reactions to things, not his game? To me its his trick, and of course its gets him lots of neg press. What struck me as odd is my own reaction: “football should be in art mags”. By why not? And who is the authority that says so? Are we worried that football is take away form the working class? Im working class, and have often had shite for being the councillor philosopher, but I take it as its on the spot, so what can I do. l like some working class culture, and some not. And the same for other classes etc.
Soz gone on again, but I love it when things like this come up.
Its also fascinating to see the Leno Diamond save from the front as it looks even more like its going in. Hope the lad does well for us.
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anicol the boxes are like the empty seats in the rest of the ground, paid for, both are season tickets, even if different kinds, only way it impacts on club finances is if the boxes are not renewed and no one else takes them up.
The club do not provide the hospitality, its already paid for, we can only lose out if when that contract comes up for renewal the providers offer less due to their expected income having been hit. Same goes for all of the stadium. The club shops are direct to the club, but its the “tourist” fans who I’d suggest spend the most in them, you know the once in a lifetime, or at least the once in a while visit, so buy goods to mark the trip, etc etc.
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soz that should have read ” football shouldnt be in art mags”. In this case especially Frieze.
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one thing that has so far this season made me laugh is the Emery subs soundbite, you know the one, he is not afraid to change things to get the result, not afraid to bring on subs at half time, sees the problems we have in the first half and makes the changes, I laugh at it cos whenever Wenger’s subs changed the game these same people used to tell us that it was admission he got his tactics and selection wrong, if he had picked the right team to start with we would not have needed these major changes.
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the bit of Ozil’s goal celebration I liked yesterday was him fixing the captain’s armband
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Ramsey and Lacazette are at the Ryder Cup
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I think, when the stadium first opened Eddy the boxes were all pre let and the leases wee for 3 or maybe 4 seasons. Most went to companies and the very well heeled and there may even have been a waiting list. Over time I am not so sure what proportion have been renewed or are currently leased. It is of course possible that the 50% of empty seats and darkened boxes yesterday are all paid up to date but that not one person in an organisation would want to take advantage of a football match and the free booze and food seems a bit odd.
I see you can also just buy a whole box for any game -if you fancy it; https://premiumconcierge.arsenal.com/arsenal-vip-hospitality-packages/executive-box-vip-hospitality/
A little something for your birthday George ?
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anicol I was just going on something Gazidis said last season at one of the Q&A’s with the fan groups. Think he even said that some of the boxes were in limbo, paid for but the company no longer in operation or in receivership etc.
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Ah – got it – if you look at Wembley even for the biggest games there are empty spaces in the vvv expensive seats but yesterday the whole Ems box tier looked patchy – as I say I have not really looked before but it caught my eye
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anicol I’m not saying there may not be a problem with boxes, only that IG dismissed it last season when asked, but second season of EL and who knows. I suppose it all depends on renewal dates and how we are going at that time.
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any one know how SKY are selling their Super Sunday today – Cardiff v Burnley
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The club is in the process of adding an extra tier of seats to the middle tier, halfway done I imagine they’ll finish off next summer as the club usually does this kind for work to a plan, employing normal solvent reliable and whisper it professional people, just a little bit different to the Great Businessman up the road beloved by the hacks and Groaners, as the club, whips it, follows a different economic/business model (a solvent one).
So I don’t think the Ramsey decision is affected by this spurious coincidence. What are events have occurred in recent times that could impact on financial strategy.
Well, there have been one or two events around the Arsenal of late. Off the pitch matters, I can’t really care for them but I wouldn’t try to ignore them either.
Shotta’s reading of Ivan was prescient given that he just happened to decide to leave just before the ownership model amazingly surprisingly changed in the wake of the old gaffer’s departure, and the end unmentionable deal that was made with Fizman that no one ever talks about which is no longer set in stone/ has expired/ has evolved etc.
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Whips it? That’s an interesting typo. Sorry scratch that from the comment above.
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yes fins the redevelopment of the middle tier will be finished off next summer, it will bring the capacity back up to its original levels, maybe even a few hundred more
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Dave at 1:59pm
I believe and feel that many of themes are in that beautiful book The Damned Utd, the movie isn’t too shabby either. Topics close to the author’s own heart.
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As well as acknowledging that the new gaffer will be wanting less then 45 in the GA column without a significant drop in the GF column as AFC chase a higher spot in the table it would be remiss to ignore the pgMOB handicap. One goal created for Cardiff by yesterday’s official, yet this same apparently charitable official was in the mood to ignore a call not as soft as the one awarded to Rose yesterday (Rose was playing away, Laca was at home, which underlines and emphasises this variation in interpretation excuse me I mean “game management”), and without this observable handicap with this individual official the Arsenal would be in 4th. There it is chaps. Cheers.
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A clean sheet whilst just about stopping Watford scoring in the league for the first time this season is encouraging.
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Oops I meant to write an extra row of seats to the middle tier.
Doesn’t really make any sense to go through the trouble, forget about the cost for now, of organising all of that if you were not going to be able to sell those seats. Unless you had a stake in company being paid to do the works, please refer to the amazingly successful financial strategy in evidence in n17 for your own amusement if nothing else! Hehe.
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it seems we will be without Mkhitaryan on Thursday as he will not be allowed into the country for the game
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Ed, I’m pretty sure EUFA will sort that out
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they haven’t in the past, so why should they for us
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Barçelona want Wenger to replace Valverde, according to RAC1.
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Who is RAC1 ?
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The top hospitality packages this weekend were in Paris so guessing that’s where much of the middle tier went.
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I don’t think UEFA will sort Mkhi out as Armenia and Azerbaijan are technically still at war and access to each country is barred to passport holders of the other. And even were Arsenal to get to the final I doubt the Azeris would budge. Caucasian politics eh?
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“Chelsea and Arsenal are the Dirtiest Clubs in the EPL Top 7” according to the PGMOL. Facts and figures at http://uniteforvar.com/?p=1294
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RAC 1 is the main Catalan language private radio station. It is mainly owned by media group Godó and is based in Barcelona. It has a sister radio station, RAC 105, dedicated to chart music. RAC 1 is a spoken-word radio station, and focuses on news and current affairs, politics, sports and culture. Wikipedia
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One of the things that pleased me on Saturday was the near post run that led to the own goal. I’d nloticed that since the HFB went down the road those runs had dried up, leading to the inevitable cutting out of the pull back when we reached the byline.
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seen a report that Man City are offering their 18 year old midfielder phil foden wages of £250K a week,
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Arsenal U23’s are away to Leicester city U23’s this evening, it will be interesting to see our squad with the EL game on Thursday, would say anyone involved tonight will not be in contention for the EL game
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Hey Rich. Am trying to get you by email. Would appreciate your response.
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Arsenal v Blackpool
Wednesday, October 31
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Kick-off: 7.45pm (UK time)
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Arsenal U21’s play Cheltenham Town in the Checktrade Trophy the day before our CC game v Blackpool
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Leicester City u23’s v Arsenal U23’s is live on LCFC TV, just register for free to view
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Arsenal FC
Verified account @Arsenal
5m5 minutes ago
📝 #AFCU23 are 10 minutes away from kick-off against @LCFC – here’s how they line up…
Starting XI: Iliev, Pleguezuelo, Ballard, Medley, Omole, Bola, Olayinka, Burton, Saka, Coyle, John-Jules
Subs: Hein, Olowu, Thompson, Smith, Balogun
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