Good Morning this Sunday morning Positives fans worldwide,
The best game of football that I have watched for a long time yesterday evening. Both sides played quality football and had footballers in very position who were comfortable with the ball and had confidence in controlling and using it, despite the press of the opponent. A word of praise too for almost all the players who approached the contest in the right way yesterday. There was very little whining to the referee and diving and no serious foul play that I saw. The only player who let himself down was Mane whose dishonest efforts were correctly ignored by Andre Marriner from early in the first half.
Of the game itself ? I admit I was a little tense at kick-off to see how our defenders would stand up to the quicksilver Scouse front three in open play. For about ten first half minutes there was an early wobble but once the tremor had passed I need have had no worries. With Sead returned, though a little rusty, our back line played with full concentration for the full 95 minutes. Tackles were clean and decisive. When the ball needed clearing it was hoofed. Every attacking Liverpool thrust was met by coverage of at least two defenders. The opposition clearly had a few sights of goals but never the defence-splitting-racing-in-1:1-on- Leno of my nightmares. Praise too for Mhki, Auba and later Alex Iwobi for putting in the defensive yards to disrupt and harry the visitors’ work on the flanks. Our only weak spot on the night was on Liverpool corners from which Van Dijk appeared to have the run of the six yard box. A bit of work required on that one from Unai.
Apparently there may have been an offside goal ? No idea, collective sigh of relief around me and a shrug. I saw on the BBC website when Klopp was asked if the referee/lino had made a mistake with the incident he answered ” I don’t know, but he did not make as many mistakes as we did today”. Good response.
With the defensive platform in place we had the opportunity to play football going forward, with Lucas, Granit and Mesut playing intelligent football. My impression was Granit played a lot more simple, short balls yesterday. Possession was rarely wasted and we gradually began to open up gaps in the Liverpool defence, for Auba and Laca to exploit.
After our best first half of the season, even though we were still at 0-0, I was not sure what would come next. During the first 15 minutes we were definitely on top, and looked the more likely to score, so it was a kick to the collective North Bank bollocks to see the goal from Milner go in.
Within seconds of the disappointment though the crowd, and from the way the Arsenal players went straight back back to kick off them too, were back on the front foot straight away. No heads dropped and with half an hour to go the game was still wide open.
The substitutions ? Odd sequence considering we were 0-1 down but that is what head coaches do – shake the dice. Great calls when they work, and last night they did perfectly with Iwobi offering a trickiness and energy that Mhki had not against a tiring defence.
Beautiful and deserved goal from Alex Lacazette. His celebration, (caught by the Arsenal photoman Stuart McFarlane above) absolutely wild.
And with the score 1-1 I sensed both teams slipped slightly down a gear, although Hector could have capped a sparkling evening with a winner in the 88th minute.
Man of the Match ? An impossible choice but in line with my comments about the foundation being in place it is a split decision between Hector and Rob Holding, neither of whom put foot wrong all evening.
Enjoy Sunday.
Positively Arsenal 
Okonkwo did some very eye-catching stuff in that American tournament I saw 2-3 games of last year.
Pretty obvious why we were after Ampadu and Gilmour from what I’ve seen of them. Latter looks best Scottish prospect (and most unScottish -strongly reminded me of Modric- in his play) for a very long time. Think that’s three times now I’ve seen him slot in from edge of box centrally against us. Surely not first nor last time we lose out to them on youth contracts.
Still, at least we can be confident our best few pretty much always as good as their best few, and crucially have the better chance to play with us. Surprises me these kids parents don’t seem to see that, as it’s surely beyond dispute. Maybe they read the papers too much. Maybe the offers are life-changing.
Think there’ll be huge amount of ex Chelsea players in top 2 divisions in,say, five years time. Quite a number now have looked too good to me not to make it, but already there are a few who are not where I’d expect them to be.
Could be a lot of ours as well though. Real hope at minute some will be with us.
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Rich with the amount of success CFC have had in recent years at youth level, they have won 5 FA Youth Cups in a row, been in 7 finals in a row, doing same in the Youth league too, I would suggest that they are doing very badly not to have produced more players for their first team. For me if Arsenal had won 5 in a row we would have half our first team squad from that sort of talent.
Sadly I think the CFC model is Youth success is way of increasing their sale value, they have no real interest in actually bringing through these lads.
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I remember them edging us in a 4-3 cracker in that precursor to Uefa Youth League (Next Gen).
They’d already been ahead of us in results for a couple years by then I think, but I was cheered by thinking our best five players were as good as theirs even if they had more depth.
Stuck with me and have generally felt similar through all these years of them winning relentlessly.
Think it was six years ago, as Ainsley came on as 15 year old. Think the five I liked for us were prob Bellerin, Gnabry, Hayden, Olsson and Akpom. They prob had Baker, Loftus-Cheek and Ake, Cristensen at that time.
Sure they’d love many to make it, but when you keep buying expensive internationals while there are already expensive internationals not getting enough time because expensive internationals are keeping them out of team…chances are remote.
But yeah they’re also running the loan farm for money reasons too no doubt.
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Youth players who sign on with chelski are probably more motivated by money than progressing their careers, because whilst they are dominant at youth level, I can’t think of one player who has made it through to their first team (or any other first team) in recent seasons. They just don’t get the opportunities at that level. Clearly the lure of the immediate cash for them and their parents overrides the prospect of longer term success, which is by no means guaranteed.
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Mundo Deportivo claim that Barcelona are looking for a new centre back after Samuel Umtiti’s injury. Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny is part of their list of targets to sign in January.
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Taxi for Paul Merson?
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Mandy in reply to your comment from the previous thread.
Good points regarding how everything going well this, season and the change of manager and the staff has been quite positive till now. But I would still keep the cautious approach as I think it’s early days. We are still 5th in the league and I don’t see any signs of the other other big clubs stumbling. Infact I would take you people back in the seasons from 2013/14. 2014/15. And 2015/16. When we were on top of the league mid season,
only to crumble in the second half of the season due to injuries fatigue and the pigmob inflicted damage.
I fail to understand why media is presenting UE as the saviour of Arsenal and Wenger as someone who was halting progress. Why people are celebrating a draw with Liverpool at home?.I agree we lost to them last season here but cmon we have been victorious on a number of ocassions during Wenger’s regime even we beat them with Luis Suarez in his prime serving them. And who can forget that day at Anfield when Arshavin alone put 4 past them. Wasnt that the true Arsenal? Have we forgot those Wenger years when we finished in top 4 for 20 years .Today we are 5th in the league and everybody is celebrating like we have win the championship….
Infact we were at better standings in most of the Wenger years at this point of the, season.
Don’t celebrate too early positivitas…..
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So no chance of you collapsing with over enthusiastic celebrations yet then?
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rosicky we did not lose to LFC at home last season, it was a 3-3 draw, came from 2-0 down to lead 3-2, game ended 3-3
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Rosicky, dont think anyone is celebrating, maybe some, cannot speak for all are just enjoying progress of this new set-up.
I dont think it is fair on those involved past, or present to make comparisons, things have moved on, though I do believe there is an unwarranted degree of media legacy trashing on a great manager.
Said at the start of the season, and still believe, cautious optimism should be the order of the day, that aside,though there are faults in this squad, I love watching Torriera balancing our MF and enhancing Xhaka, I love the fact their heads dont drop when they go behind, their energy and apparent stamina, great to see Bellerin getting back to his best, Holdings development, Guendouzi, Lacca and PEAs goals, Iwobi!! the inspired substitutions. Not saying wenger wouldnt have all done this or more, but just enjoying Emery getting off to a decent start, but he says himself, they are a work in progress, there is a long way to go.
Some things are perplexing, -Ramsey- I have my own, probably massively wrong, theories on that. The word “agent* would be significant in my little world, but strange nonetheless.
Injuries and fatigue, they have certainly plagued this club, lets wait and see what this partly new, and we read best in class sports science/medical team can do. There will always be injuries, but can they make progress over time?, especially as training is now so much more demanding- a claim I personally doubt btw.
The PGMOL, again, remains to be seen. As one who firmly believes Wenger didnt get a level playing field with them, interested to see how a new manager gets on, for me at least, the jury is out,thought we were unlucky at Palace, some suggested lucky against Liverpool, but I dont know the rules well enough to comment on that offside. However, for now, we sit with our frequent negative penalty balance, over time, unique for the top clubs.
Each will have their own definition of progress for this new setup, but avoiding the pitfalls, and expense of Utd when they also lost a great legacy manager (of whom it is said had some influence on the aforementioned PGMOL) would be a good starting point
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rosicky
wenger is never going to win anyways. if any player improved it is thanks to emery who came on time to save arsenal from wenger. if any player isnt doing great, its wenger who has bought a robbish player not arsenal quality. eeven if players who were world class under wenger suddenly start playing poorly, its still wenger who didnt train them well enough to fit into unai work ethics.
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One of the key things that Wenger was trying to do was to makemore technical defensive midfielders into centre backs so that we could play out from the back more easily. The fact that he was struggling to do this (not least due to injuries) meant that he retained the option of hitting it long to a forward like Giroud. Emery has said we’ll do it anyway and has been given the time to get it right on the pitch because he’s new and needs to be given some breathing space.
As Wenger said – his main problem was being too successful, too early and raised expectations too high too quickly.
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Mandy with an early entry for POTM (Post of the month)
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Thank you PG! You are too kind!
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In don’t think there’s anything wtrong in defending the legacy of the greatest manager in the history of Arsenal Football Club especially when people in the media are still on a mission to discredit everything he did for English football (helping is not anti-English BTW HTH) I only made it a couple of mins into the wright-laca interview before it bcame obvious what the slimy old agent rep. was up to, no mentioning of Laca’s big injury last year, what an idiot Wirght is, he’s not kidding anyone, transparent as you like, less honest then Merson. Give me Paul’s coke and booze addled rants anyday please!
Last year the 3-3 was best football game in n5. And this 1-1 was a good ‘un too.
Last year Ozil and Salah shone on the night, this year the two new signings for both teams further back impressed, the CB for Liverpool and our new shiny CM who’s playing so well, both players’ efforts making the difference in the score line. That was the difference on the pitch, and with AFC having a LB available this time out their own defence was stronger for this game – Liverpool only salvaged a draw last year when a tiring AMN made his only significant vague/half-error at LB
Some blaggers and writers have completely forgotten about the likes of Flamini in 08 which a week after Hleb and Fabregas had their renuinion shows them up for the classless clowns that they are. Perhaps it is the decandent lifestyle impacting upoin their selective memory, I don’t judge but I can’t help but observe the gaping holes in their constructs/logic.
Amidst all the stinking revisionism the new gaffer is simply playing the same formation the old gaffer would sometimes go for as we saw, say, against Napoli, and we are all sat here waiting for the new gaffer to not be impreded by those above him and to finally play Ramsey on the right or even in the middle if Xhaka ever needs a breather to finally complete The Revolution. Heh.
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Whether Wenger did better or not is irrelevant and making comparisons with Unai is unfair. It is his time now and he is worthy of our support just as we did his predecessor. I’m upbeat about the future, especially with him transitioning into his role almost seamlessly.
Also think why it seems some are/were in celebratiry mood after the Liverpool draw is because it was a poke in the eye of the pundits who had written us off weeks ago leading up to game. Many of them couldn’t wait to see the back of Wenger and thought the club would go through a period of difficulty like Manutd at present and Liverpool did too not so long ago. It really irritate them that Arsenal is refusing to go away and the look of disdain on Alan Shearer’s face following the LFC game told its own story.
Too early to be positive? Not a damn! If we keep putting away the “bottom 14” and scrap it out with the those at the top… we stand just as good a chance as any to fight Mancity for the crown.
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There are those that are perversely waiting/hoping for Emery to fail in order to say ‘this is what you wanted?’. It’s OK having Wenger withdrawals (I had them myself), but please show some respect for the world class coach we now have.
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I think that the problem is the need to say that AW was bad in other to say Unai is doing well
It is that AW left a generally solid foundation and Unai has the skill to build on it. Both can be true and no need to define one as bette than the other!
For eg, Lacca and Auba have settled more than last season which was their first so they are now showing what they are capable of. it is not like they got bad under AW and then became good under Unai Recall that Lacca had some weeks out injured if I am not mistaken.
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No one here has indicated they want or desire Emery to fail. Have they?
What a strange and unintentionaly reflective (oops) comment to put upon this forum.
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Think partly why Auba and Laca is doing so well, and its Fins who said it, the second half of last season, with the additions of Auba and Mkhi, Laca having shaken off his injury troubles, it were used a a glorified pre-season to transition them into the side. Which of course gave Emery a good platform to start on, considering we don’t hv to financial muscle of others.
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apart from laca and auba who have settled in more this season, the likes of bellerin, iwobi and holding are just going through the normal curve for most young stars. rise, plateau, and rise. if reiss nelson hadnt gone on loan this season, his rise will as well be down to emery being so good and wenger so bad. btw none of the pundits is giving wenger credit for alexis being so good alt arsenal or discrediting moreen for his poor form at united
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i dont think there is anyone here who will disrespect emery for any reason. wether he is a world class or not. rather people here are the ones who will remain with him long after all the sudden super fans are long gone aginst him. we will still be here fighting for him against those who will like to distroy any of his legacies. but if you thing the person who put iwobo and bellerin in the team at 17 or bought holding for 2m from bolton at 20 should be discredited just becuase another manager is doing same thing wenger did and get attacked for, be my guest.
one of the undit even said he has never seen holding play like he did against liverpool. well go watch the fa cu final against chelsea.
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I don’t think we should fall in the trap of comparing Wenger to Unai, because if we do are no better than those who sing “we got our Arsenal back” with the intentions of having a pop at the former. Wenger did an amazing job for Arsenal and no one can ever take that away.
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Indeed layksite those people hailing the weekend performance from Xhaka have forgotton his control of the midfield inthe 2017 FA Cup Final against the petro-champions. Similar to those who say Welbeck is prospering under the newsystem, they ave forgotton his game in that final, or indeed last season at the Bridge.
At the least I think that we are entitled to laugh at people who have to lie to themselves in order to excuse their own classless behaviour in the past. After all, are we not entitled to our opinions?
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All the good managers copy and inspire each other.
I’ve been loving Emery’s homage to his Gurus’ (that would be plural) 4231 formations that looks like a 244 on the ball and a 4411 off the ball. Seen it so so many times it’s impossible to not appreciate what we have with the new gaffer!
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Slight change of subject : what do you think Emery wants from his wide forwards?
In other positions it already feels fairly clear what he’s looking for : character and balls to play from back, passing through pitch; full backs push on; lot of running from everyone.
But I don’t know yet what he prefers or prioritises out wide- speed, control, goal threat, trickery, retaining possession, directness, covering fullbacks, coming into centre to help there, or variety on either wing?
Or is it horses for courses?
Makes sense that this is an experimental stage where he has to give players a chance, and use the varied talents we have, but i’ve not been able to discern much more than that?
Anyone picked up anything more specific, or know what widemen he used elsewhere, other than Neymar and Mbappe?
Or anyone have their own idea about what’s best.
I’m pretty torn: like the idea of defensively responsible players helping full backs, like the idea of Ramsey there to link up with Ozil high up pitch, make some of his runs in box, but also help in centre when needed, but I also love idea of tricky speedy winger, who can go inside or out. More so than any other position perhaps, you can’t have everything within the one player.
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Triggered to think of it by another link to Nicolas Pepe.
Looks a very exciting player and one who would be in team almost exclusively to attack.
See City were linked with him yesterday though. As with any serious player we could be linked with, there they are, and it especially pisses me off thinking of that these last few days, with the apparent details released of what everyone must have known was the case, but none of our media even obliquely hinted at : fiddling the books, contempt for rules and principle of them, concerted effort to cheat through self-sponsorship and cooked books. Fuckers
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APO, just wait until we lose a couple & you’ll see exactly who’s who in that respect… here & on the conspiracy blog.
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I don’t think Emery is a ‘winger’ kind of guy Rich – he reset the position of Jordi Alba and Moreno who were managed by him at Valencia/Sevilla from wingers to attacking wing backs. At PSG he had lots of attacking flank players but even with Mbappe, Di Maria and Neymar but still had Dani Alves charging forward (I think) and Berchiche
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the latest edition of my Rock Music show, The Yorkie Show, where the puns are cringey but the music is great, have a listen and don’t be shy about sharing it
https://www.spreaker.com/user/cavanonlineradio/the-yorkie-show-5th-november-2018
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anicol
Interesting, especially about Alba (he can make your average attacking full-back look like a Pulis full back in comparison some games)
May well be the norm these days, with all the variations on 4-3-3 going on, but I was struck a while back by how different our various wide options tend to be from one another.
Starting back a few years and in no order : Podolski, Gervinho, Walcott, Ramsey, Mkhi, Ozil (sort of, for a while at least), Santi, Welbeck, Auba, Ox, Joel Campbell, Iwobi, Sanchez.
No two particularly similar, and so the team commensurately different with the various choices.
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Right as well with Alves. Vague memories of being amazed at how heavily he was involved in attack.
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Can’t see why we don’t go back to 2-3-5. If it was good enough for Chapman….
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With some time to reflect on Saturday’s performance, I’d make just one additional comment: A major reason Torreira & Xhaka – both excellent in their own rights – were able to control the midfield was that Özil was pulling Liverpool’s midfielders hither and yon ahead of them. Fabinho and Wijnaldum were so preoccupied with Özil & his movement that they couldn’t otherwise engage. I can’t read minds, but my instinct is that Özil knew this and moved around accordingly. Those who say this was another big game that Özil failed to influence are really just revealing their limited vision.
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Ed, how often do you do your show? Is there an archive of prior shows? I keep thinking about when you asked everyones favourite songs, my list is getting longer and longer.
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lots of reports today that Arsene Wenger is about to be named AC Milan coach, Ivan and Arsene back together
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dave todays show was only the second episode of that particular show, The Yorkie Show, I’m involved in other shows, there is an archive of shows, currently well over 100 hours worth of shows, with all sorts of music, and shows covering all sorts, even an audio book of the Hobbit.
on the link I posted you can click on Cavan Online Radio link bottom right of the screen, under Author, this will bring you to the latest show put up on the Station, if you click on the Episodes option it brings you to a list of all available shows.
Or you can try this link
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Dave I would recommend The Mixed Bag, its music show with a different topic each week, 3 songs from each host, marked out of 10 by rest of the panel, and the panel sometimes includes guest scorers who do not put up any songs of their own. Topics can be anything from a decade, last week it was in fact 60’s Music, another week it was guess the link between the 3 songs, we’ve had No.1’s on the Panel’s birthdays, the edition planned for this week is non 20th Century Songs, so basically anything pre 1900 or post 1999
If you’re into Country Music then Country Sounds is the show for you
Recently a Blues show has been added, its called Blue and Beyond.
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Well it is Christmas coming up Tim …
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Dave if you have some favorite Rock or Metal songs list them and I might use some of them in future editions of The Yorkie Show.
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My compliments to the Positive members today
We could have lampooned Thierry’s desperate efforts at Monaco – we could have highlighted how very different his opinions about managing and/or a football club ( of any size) compare with the shocking results he has achieved.
We could have used a cruel jibe about a chap trying his very best to his first pair of long trousers, and to fill out the new clothes, but only being comfortable in a younger child’s short trousers.
But we did not.
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Thanks Ed! Loads to have a wade through, re some rock and metal I’ll have a think and pass them on. Cheers!
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anicoll
I was too busy arguing elsewhere that Phil Neville was half (was being generous) the player Xhaka is.
Pointless, I know, as the best that can be hoped for from previous Xhaka bashers is this claim he is a man transformed.
In process had a look at a highlight vid of Xhaka from last year. Not normally one for watching highlights of even my favourite current/recent players, but quite enjoyed this one.
Easy to see why many don’t get him. Makes huge contribution to build up from deep or from advanced positions and with packed box (very difficult skill), but also does plenty of good defensive work, with the caveat of he needs sufficient help on the defensive side from other non-defenders, in an attacking side at least. But that’s true of all to a large extent, even someone with phenomenal running power and stamina like Kante.
Meanwhile which top level midfielders with as much passing responsibility as Xhaka are also first-rate physically and mentally in purely defensive actions?
It’s almost as though if a player’s game can’t be properly described in the space of a tweet (old character limit) they are liable to be wrongly described, and if they happen to play a central role for us, then Neville, Souness and co are never going to ’round up’, so to speak.
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Think he may have picked up an injury recently but got to say I’m gutted for Chambers with how the Fulham loan is going.
Had hopes after his games for us at end of last year it could be a great move- playing every week in decent, footballing team; building confidence to high level; going up a level and building on what we saw at end of year.
I’d say already it looks like there’s big danger it will be a disaster instead.
Very leaky, struggling team, constantly changing centre backs, fans very critical (if Twitter can be half trusted on that front)
I don’t know where the hell that would leave him confidence wise for next year if it doesn’t turn around.
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Thanks Andy for that wonderful example of Apophasis. Poor old Thierry: this getting real life humans to do just what you want them to is not as easy as it seems.
As for GX, he gets fulsome praise from the ever excellent Adrian Clarke on this week’s breakdown.
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And Thierry is an honourable man
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Tim
No doubt Big Weng & Young Pep were big fans of Chapman’s old skool WM formation, but they both had to be more pragmatic in our brutal unforgiving modernity, and went for 244 instead of 235 hehe, with their experiments towards the end of the last decade and since*
Mustafi-Holding
Bellerin-Torreira-Xhaka-Kola
Miki-Özil
Lacazette-Aubamayang
*as Young Pep observed very few have commentated on the arsenal back three and why it was tested (&worked), the comprehensive victory over Chelsea at home during their title winning season came with a back four, but the cup victory with a back three. Was Alexis really that much of stinker on and off the pitch in his last two seasons? I know what George thinks, and he is probably right. Still, I enjoyed what he offered till his ego went supernova.
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George I get the impression that someone is not a fan of your many admiring fans.
“Just wait until we lose a couple & you’ll see exactly who’s who in that respect… here & on the conspiracy blog.”
I appreciate that data can be embarrassing for the self smearing gritting idiots out there but bear with me if you can, please:
Arsenal 2018/19
P 11
W 7
D 2
L 2
Pts 23
Yes the two matches that were lost were indeed lost as a couple at the start of the season, but given Arsenal’s good record against Chelsea in recent seasons (doesn’t match up to the gritting idiots’ Narratives) I personally am optimistic that Arsenal can make up the points in the return Home fixture. And I certainly didn’t see any of the quoted and desperate lies above in evidence, anywhere.
Less gung-ho regarding the trip to City. Hopefully they won’t go unbeaten this season.
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Going to be tight on sneaking that GA column under 45 but they can do it. With the Goals For rate as it is if they can reduce the rate of goals against by just a fraction we’ll all be very happy come May. The margins are so tight. Could be a big scrap from second down to fifth or sixth.
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You may as well laugh:
‘Der Spiegel reports that, in an internal email, City’s chief financial officer Jorge Chumillas wrote: “We will have a shortfall of £9.9m in order to comply with Uefa FFP this season. The deficit is due to RM termination. I think that the only solution left would be an additional amount of AD sponsorship revenues that covers this gap.”
The email also allegedly presented details of the contracts that would be adjusted, with Der Spiegel claiming that Etihad, Aabar and the Abu Dhabi tourism authority all paid more than had been agreed at the beginning of 2012-13.
Der Spiegel quoted another internal email, sent by club executive Simon Pearce in April 2010, regarding an annual £15m deal with investment company Aabar.
It read: “As we discussed, the annual direct obligation for Aabar is £3million. The remaining £12m will come from alternative sources provided by His Highness.”
City representatives have said the Abu Dhabi-based companies are independent sponsors.’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46101803
‘An additional amount of AD sponsorship’, ‘alternative sources provided by His Highness’
Don’t know which of those two is my favourite to be honest.
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