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 
Sure do Dave,in fact like just about everything done by Glenn Campbell
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I dont know too many songs, the ones I know Ive liked. I always felt Brian was holding back on the production a bit on Guess Im dumb, but I suppose he would have had Mike Love or someone on his case if he had?
It s really disgusting to see such time wasting. Would a big clock that stops when the ball goes out of play and restarts when play gets going again be any good, a bit like in American Football?
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Yeah, Hylda Baker, not Irene Handle. Perhaps he did ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’ with Handle. Used to see him around Highbury (lived in Fieldway Cresc) in the ’60’s & 70’s. Bit of a wife beater I understand.
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Match Of The Day or The Big Match once condensed the whole of one games play into something around 45mins.
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That was with all stoppages edited out so that one continous play was shown.
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The Replacements, Alex Chilton
The Clash, Janie Jones
Superchunk, Learned to Surf
Archers of Loaf, Harnessed in Slums
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The play clock in American football starts once the ref has blown his whistle to start play, and counts down until the ball is snapped. Penalty for clock running out is delay of game, and costs you yardage on the field. I think a play clock could work in football, but what would the penalty be? Move the throw in further down the pitch? Make them take a goal kick from the goal line? If the play clock runs out, the ref adds 30 sec to stoppage time? Damned if I know. I don’t blame teams like Cardiff for doing it, though. The ref can currently give a yellow for time wasting, if he doesn’t, that’s not on Cardiff.
But even with that delay of game rule in American football, the average game has less than 15 minutes play time in a three hour game. So I can’t say that 30 sec of time wasting with throw ins or goal kicks particularly catches my eye. (Banned smiley)
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And time wasting can be counter productive.
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Alabama
How much by average do people pay to watch 15 mins of play? When they watch ‘soccer’ they must feel positively undercharged.
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Nice post Alabama, its a tough one to deal with! And we the fans lose out on game time! Although Im sure most players want to play too.
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WAY more than one pays to watch Arsenal, I can tell you that, SR. People that have season tickets to NFL or even college football live in rarefied air. And they get a lot fewer games for that money as well. EPL fans would die if they took a look at NFL season ticket prices.
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A friend used to watch London Monarchs at Wembley. She was really into the whole experience and loved it. Must have a word with her!
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It strikes me the largely idle 4th official could take of at least some of the timekeeping duties of the referee. The 4th official’s job at the moment consists of;
1) holding up a board a maximum of eight times for about fifteen seconds each, over 90 minutes – you could get Gunnersaurus to do that just as well.
2) inspecting the soles of the footwear of substitutes entering the field of play – have you ever, ever seen a 4th official actually discover a weapon attached to a player’s foot, razor sharp studs say ? Nor have I so totally pointless.
3) and finally being a sort of verbal punch bag for coaches to let off hot air when they are feeling aggrieved. Even more pointless. If the 4th official was dong something useful they would just shout at each other.
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Alright – what is going on here
Another day when our German viewers far exceed our British views …..
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Vielleicht mögen wir Ihre Website!
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Ahead of Unai Emery’s media conference in Baku on Wednesday, here’s the latest team news update from our medical team:
Emile Smith Rowe
Now available for selection following right hip issue during Brentford match last Wednesday.
Petr Cech
Left hamstring injury. Expected to return to full training in 3-4 weeks.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Small fracture to left fibula. Progressing well and now expected to return to full training in early October (initially aiming to return to training in November).
Dinos Mavropanos
Groin injury. Expected to return to full training by the end of October.
Laurent Koscielny
Right Achilles tendon repair. Now working outside. Aiming to return to full training in November.
Copyright 2018 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
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Watching Le Coq and Gabriel at work in Trafford Park – 50/50 game – If the Spaniards go in front it will get ugly #delightful
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Sanchez substituted on 75 minutes – furious – roll those dice Jose baby
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Great to see the arsesoles on aftv slagging each other off. Seen a video of clad e losing his
shit at some of the others saying they made money off ARSENAL losing, it was great he’s head nearly exploded. If they all turn on each other for causing the toxic atmosphere then maybe we’ll see the end of aftv and that stirring Luton town supporting fucker robbie.
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Heard Gabriel and Coq had decent games, good players,their departures made me uneasy and slightly baffled I must confess
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Mandy, thought Coquelin very decent, esp considering he’s not long back after bad injury.
Gabriel had a bit of a stormer. Looked speedy and sharp, timed tackles well and passing was pretty good,too.
Funnily enough, maybe best game he ever had for us was against Lukaku vs Everton and he won his battle with him decisively again yesterday.
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Still find the idea we had something agreed with Ramsey and then withdrew it strange.
His agent apparently commented on situation last night before deleting tweets.
Comments say he didn’t want to leave but now no choice.
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AFTV recent quote:”intelligent people listen to intelligent people, and fools listen to fools”.
AW shakes head in background…
Those people brought real bs and shame to our club, laying their toxic eggs.
“Get awf rrrrr land!”
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This Silver membership thing is good. On Saturday, on the train home from the Watford game, I picked up a lower tier North Bank ticket for the Liverpool game. One eye open this morning up comes a ticket to Tottingham just behind Pochettino’s dugout.
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On the play clock stuff. I’ve always felt each team’s time wasting should be added onto separate clocks. So if a team wastes time to get a favourable result, that time is added on ONLY if the other team chooses that it should be. It’s always funny to beat a time wasting team with a late goal and then see them rush through all of stoppage time that is only there because they caused that delay. Funny, but unfair. Shouldn’t happen.
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If the volatile nature of much of what makes up AFTV is leading to its implosion, that can only be a very good thing.
Free speech and all that, but they give too much platform to the lowest common denominator, people who mouth off issues they cannot back up or produce evidence for.
The compulsive attention seeking, those who seek to profit from the negative, and those not sufficiently mature to formulate reasoned and balanced opinions should be seen as what they are, a noisy minority
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odd report of the day is that Juventus CEO Beppe Marotta is in talks with Arsenal over taking the CEO position at AFC
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Mkhitaryan not in the squad for tomorrow’s game due to the bad relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia
Aubameyang misses out too as he has been ill on Monday and Tuesday
Ramsey also did not travel as his wife is due to have a baby, actually think its twins
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don’t forge guys that kick off tomorrow is at 5.55pm
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Oh dear I’m devastated, Barcelona just scored…..
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Paul Tierney has been appointed as the referee for Sundays lunchtime KO away to Fulham.
Mike Dean is the 4th official.
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Four mins in and the first tackle in Poch’s PL style is called rightfully as a foul. Poch’s pressing style witnessed especially in our away matches at one of their many stadiums is nothing like Klopp’s, c1850 it was defined as “hacking” and outlawed from the game.
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Mandy
I was also confused by the sales of those players, only in the last few weeks did our Billy big blaggers mention this hole that had existed in the squad in these two areas, but I’m happy to speculate that this is in hue he pattern of the club’s MO, good if not but better replacements, not bought in not as quickly as we’d have liked but they were on the way, eventually.
Similar to last season’s Iwobi and Chamberlain reflection we discussed amongst ourselves here, which the Billy big blaggers are again having a season or two out of date: both good players offering that dribbling attacking and direct quality, one was just simply years behind the other (meaning a loss to last season’s squad, which was my concern) being younger in spite of Chambo’s injury setbacks, and needed a little time to develop and grow (touch wood injuries permitting!) before he’d be able to fill that particular void in the squad, as Chambo had proven himself a useful player and contributed to those trophies etc.
Since pre-season a thread only now picked up by our retarded blaggers, our main thread and the main discussion amongst AFC fans has been whether the new gaffer will or wanted to experiment with Rambo in CM. Looks like that call has been taken out of his hands/made for him etc.
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Compare and contrast this pro spud commentary with what we get. Truly sickening
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I was looking forward to seeing the new gaffer start Ramsey on the the right of his three or eventually in CM.
Would’ve tickled me greatly to see the new line up look a lot like the old one (it already is if jump back to slightly older teams), give or take a replacement for Coquelin and Gabriel here and there. Won’t happen now due to these developments.
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Dirty Spuds shocked that they are being called out by the non pig mob ref
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If you imagine the plundits wearing their leather undies like their hero alan whilst practising in front of the Mike, Stewart Robson I mention no names, then I just find the plunditry greatly amusing.
Save during Arsenal games. Sync up to the Player or practice some Spanish, that’s my best advice. Don’t go there, you all deserve better.
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At least the mystery of how Danny “bleeding ears” Murphy keeps his gigs is no longer a mystery.
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*smiling face emoiji*
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Barça are doing that “football from another planet” thing again. This could get bloody. (Crosses fingers)
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The worry is that having realised that they can score at will that the Barca players will now naturally ease off the pressure.
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Last three results for Barca in la Liga:
Barca 2 Girona 2
Leganes 2 Barca 1
Barca 1 Atl.Bilbao 1
Will the Barca players save their legs for tougher tests on the weekend?
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Schooled – and the Catalans not really at full throttle. Look and learn.
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Barca playing some great stuff but think what has drained life from Spurs even more is being properly reffed.
Almost always the case when extra aggression including fouls is a huge part of gameplan and a ref simply does their job- calling the fouls and trying to ensure fouling doesn’t pay.
What to do when you keep getting called for your fouls, and your two dirtiest on the night already booked?
Their fans meanwhile are proper Burnleying it. Get the sense it’s nearly entirely genuine, and they are judging it again what they can get away with in prem.
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Shocking second half from FCB – I’m full #ValverdeOut
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And rotten luck for the Scousers – you have to concentrate for the full 90 minutes though (nods Head wisely)
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Fortunately I resisted the urge to take a punt on 2-5 at HT. Almost.
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Kane’s fitness the key then for 5pur2? Possibly.
The young FBs and now CB are Liverpool’s real success of late IMO.
Shame for AMN to miss out these EL games. Hopefully he’ll be back and in form long before the time Arsenal face 5pur2 in the EL. Heh.
Going to be an interesting season.
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To be fair, it was a very entertaining game. A real treat watching Messi in that form.
Not sure how the hell game went as it did after Barca’s third though. Maybe should credit Spurs for giving it a go but Barca seemed to totally run out of juice.
Don’t know if he’s carrying an injury or something but was surprised by how heavy legged Vidal looked when he came on. Looked like his race is almost run.
Maybe beaten by Wanyama in ungainly running stakes today though.
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looks like our squad that traveled for the game tomorrow is something like this
Leno , Martinez, Illiev
Bellerin, Lichtsteiner, Monreal, Kolasinac
Mustafi, Sokratis, Holding
Toreirra, Xhaka, Guendouzi, Elneny, Willock
Ozil, Iwobi, Smith-Rowe
Lacazette, Welbeck, Nketiah
so 3 of them to miss out on the match day squad, Iliev almost certain to be one to miss out, I’d suggest Willock will miss out too, and I would say one of the four fullbacks in the squad will miss out too, maybe Monreal will be the one rested
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