Football – Arsenal Opus Book Launch – Emirates Stadium – 13/9/07 Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger (L) with Chairman Peter Hill Wood Mandatory Credit: Action Images / Steven Paston Livepic
Top of the Premier League table with 51 out of a possible 57 points, second most goals scored, most clean sheets and yet to lose a game this campaign… safe to say the Reds haven’t a foot wrong thus far innit?
Good day one and all.
Arsenal are up north this afternoon to take on Liverpool in what is the headline fixture of this matchday weekend. Anfield has been an arduous place for visitors in recent seasons and this one is no different – P9, W8, D1. So the Gunners will need to do a lot better than lately if they don’t want to become another notch on the belt.
The Reds are undoubtedly a formidable force this campaign; not only did they smash a few teams, they also grinded out results when they needed to and are navigating the tricky waters of December with relative calm and fluidity. Questions are being asked whether they can go all way in pursuit of a first PL title in 29 years going into the second half of the season having opened up a six point lead, to put the pressure firmly on Jurgen Klopp as few of his players already said there’s no reason they cannot as well as maintaining their unbeaten run.
Going through a campaign unbeaten is something Arsenal knows about but fortunes has changed as we are now fighting to dodge a third successive season in the Europa League.
Since the North London derby at the beginning of month – a result that saw us move ahead of Spurs – we have gone off the boil a bit by dropping 7 points in our last five league outings. With the 22 game unbeaten run (in all competitions) now a distant memory, old problems returned as injuries at the back has become an obstacle for coach Unai Emery to circumvent as it got us playing on the back foot more than we would have liked. This Wednesday we had a few hairy moments, but luckily the Seagulls’ attack aren’t exactly the quality of the Reds.
I’m sure this is something the gaf’ will be mindful of; do you go into the game sitting deep and inviting pressure or do you take the game to the opposition with attacking players just as good as theirs?
Aubameyang and Lacazette have scored 19 and assisted another 8 goals between them this PL campaign, and should they both start they will need the support from all areas of the the pitch. Being up against the PL’s best defense we would also need to make the most of the few chances that no doubt will come our way if we want to take home the points.
Obviously wanting to round out 2018 on a high note will require hard work in front of the Anfield faithful in a fixture that usually brings goals but it’s hard to measure how much fatigue will play it’s part after such a long December, though, don’t the Reds players look rather fresh?
I’m not suggesting anything, not at all [insert mega toothy yellow blob]
On behalf of the Positively Arsenal family I want to say thanks to everybody being part of the year that was 2018, be it just reading or contributing in writing blogs or commenting. It’s been quite a rollercoaster that saw us wave farewell to our greatest manager and legend and the ushering in of a new era. Best wishes for the New Year and may it be better than the last.
@LaboGoon
Positively Arsenal 
A little correction; Auba and Lacazette has scored 19 league between them this campaign.
Feeling a bit twitchy today, but hopeful. With Mesut out I tend to agree with Mandy (previous thread), Starting Ramsey would give us a better chance at breaking down that Liverpool wall. We need to chip chip away at it from the onset then to rely on a rescue act later on.
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Fixed
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HI
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Hi Ian
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The fixture list has not been kind to us this season, obviously the first two games against the former two champions at a time we needed to bed down and familiarize with each other.
The last game of the year, when we have no defenders, a keeper who has lost a little confidence, political issues with our most creative two players and our main striker taking three chances to score and coming of the back of one of the most stale performances for years is a bad time to play and good side but to play the best side in the league with wonderful attacking flair and the tightest defence in the league is a nightmare.
I consider myself positive (not in Steve I’s league but still) and I know we are ARSENAL and on our day we can beat any team in the world but in my head I cannot see us getting even a point today. Where as small sides might go to anfield sit tight rely on luck and get away with something our playing style and our luck with anfield refs would suggest even if we play out of our skin liverpool are still dangerous in the air, on dead ball situations, diving and with shear quality.
I am falling back on the footballing quirks and those annomerlies that just pop up every now and then and the footballing gods give us three points to travel back down to London with so the real invinciples can start drinking tonight COYG.
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1950 cup final ARSENAL 2-0 1971 cup final ARSENAL 2-1 LEAGUE TITLE 1989 ARSENAL 2-1.
ARSENAL always beat liverpool in big games COYG.
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2-0 obviously what was I thinking
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Hey folks!
Hope everyone had an great Christmas!
I’m a bit uneasy about the current direction of the management. Ironically it started the last time we played Liverpool. Iwobi was on fire at the time and the manager left him on the bench, he comes on and provides the key pass for the goal!
Hoping for a win all the same. The boys do seem to get up for the bigger games.
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Many thanks to Labo for the final round up of the year,and for all your pieces before every game,and to everyone else who hits the keyboard in the name of the Cannon.
Because we’ve been written off by that nagging thought in the back of our minds, I think we have a chance today. No-one expects us to win, a loss against Soton. A draw with The Seaweed, then that failure to the Spuds, plus the media want 29 years no- league win Liverpool to beat the nasty Arsenal, and show that AW’s Invincible year was easy enough? Plus a slew of injuries that we could do without. Liverpool are in the zone and hence less injuries?
Whats the worry is always which Arsenal will turn up today? The one that gets a drubbing and is 3-0 down at HT, to lose 4-2. Or the team that rises up and is strong enough to dispose of the Spuds with great determination?
Salah shouldnt be playing and that hints at more bs behind the scenes. But fork it, we can rise and take them on Salah or not, surely?
Plus we will all be glad to know whose staying or going this January.
We can do, and Wolves can also do it. Lets hope!
COYG!
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And best wishes to you, too, Labogoon for your unfailingly excellent pre-match scene-setters that have become a very welcome element of match days this year.
These days, much more than ever, it’s so hard to judge what it takes to win the league.
At the risk of over-simplification, if we assume recent champions Leicester and Citeh represent two extremes on the expenditure spectrum, then Liverpool might be considered the median template of what might ‘reasonably’ be expected to put a club in the frame for success.
I say fair play to them – decent manager, significant (£450M?) but not infinite expenditure, and time. Time to develop, time to recruit, time to take the occasional one step back and two forward.
I say all this as I try to take a view on post-Wenger Arsenal, and what is now needed by the club.
It’s still early days for Emery and there are already initial signs that his honeymoon period is coming to a close, at least among the idiot wing of the fanbase. Most observers, however, for the most part, like what they see. Time will tell, in that regard.
There is speculation that the cost of Özil and Ramsey may be an element in the maelstrom of confusion and uncertainty that has enveloped their respective futures. To what extent limited available funds will hamstring our current and future managers of the club, is a real cause for concern. Game-changing signings these days tend to sit in the £50M – £90M bracket and the bargain basement Torreira-equivalent acquisitions are indisputably rare creatures. Will Kroenke’s Arsenal ever get close to Liverpool’s investment heights or are we closer to Leicester’s, long-term? The club appears to be aiming at the Spurs’ model of ‘excellence on the cheap’ but not only is their brand new trophy room still almost painfully empty, an awful lot rests with their ability to retain their world class coach.
And finally, the time required to develop and grow our squad. This last essential element to success is an interesting ingredient to assess. Admittedly Arsene had two decades, yet by the time he was ousted, merely winning cups and reaching semi-finals etc, was no longer nearly enough. Will Emery be allowed, say, four years of winning nothing, as per Poch and Klopp? Or will the thinning out of bums on seats, the lost cash from the Champions League, the knock-on effects, such as weaker sponsorship cash flows etc, all mean Unai really has to ‘get on with it’?
Will we end up being the next former Spurs/Liverpool who had an unenviable 20+ years of managerial merry-go-round before finding their current stability?
In losing patience with Arsene, will we end up with the premature loss of patience with his successors?
Yes, fair play to Liverpool and good luck to them. I suspect that, assuming UE is our man, until we can match their expenditure and their patience, we may find success somewhat elusive.
Yes, there is much to be positive about the Arsenal squad and the club’s overall set up. Yet as we exit 2018 with an injury-shattered defence and two of our best players on the edge of a bewildering exit, 2019 could well see us at a very ominous fork in the road.
Will the club find Emery the money and give him the time to develop and grow that Klopp has enjoyed?
Will our own fans even allow it?
And as Manchester United have so helpfully proved, merely having the cash, and simply allowing the time, are not guarantees of success in themselves.
Incredible as it seems, the end of 2018 sees more unanswered questions for the club than was evident this time last year.
One suspects we’ll all know so much more in 12 months time.
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Masterful post Andrew.
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Cheers and best wishes for new year yourself Labo, and the rest of you.
Andrew
Damn good post. Nothing for any of us to talk about now for the next 12 months after that, though. All covered. Or at least until kick off.
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Ramsey is captain today
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Spuds flushed down the Kasi by Wolves. Nice.
COYG!
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fucking have that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Maitland-Nilessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss fires home six yards out from an iwobi ball in
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bugger.
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oh brother.
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well it didn;t take us long to shoot ourselves in the foot, laughably bad from lichtsteiner
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good god that was woeful defending and we are now losing, its laugh or cry we are that useless at the back, crazy shit.
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Why can’t we just learn to concentrate a bit after scoring.
Emery really needs to sort this defending, and put as much energy into that as he does taking n midfielders
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Know injuries and rusty players offer some mitigation, but Emery and his coaches should be embarrassed at this level of defending. If Ozil, Ramsey and Lacca are ultra accountable for anything that goes wrong, why aren’t others?
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I had hoped we had overcome our tendency to concede a second goal quickly after letting in one, but it seems its still there, our concentration levels or confidence levels are not what they need to be or what you’d expect from experienced internationals.
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another nightmare at Liverpool. Bah! COYG!!!!!!!!!
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This is becoming pathetic, think Emery should be hauled in for a little pep talk!
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Xhaka was lucky there.
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pathetic defending, the more I see of Lichtsteiner the more I question why he is in the team ahead of Jenkinson
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we are currently at 28 goals conceded this season, that is the most we have ever conceded after 20 games in the BPL,
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Why can’t this wealthy elite club move away from pub team defending after so many years? Is it a prerequisite or something!
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soft.
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and it gets worse
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Can’t go near Salah in the area, think everyone knows that!
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Damn!
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Why cant we put up a fight ? We were having a good period, and were looking good in attack.
Now we must rely on St.Totteringham and the spirt of Newcastle to make some sort of comeback-
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how many goals have we let in near the half time break this season, its amazing
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Take all I have written back, this isn’t actually a shambolic defensive performance , possibly on a level not seen since that fateful day at OT, this is Emery being clever, and forcing the clubs hand to spend in Jan for reinforcements, or something.
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Salah shouldnt have been playing and that guys a great player, but he goes down way too easily.
Hopefully Emery gives them them the hairdryer.
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It’s not that Liverpool are playing great, it’s that our defending is about as bad as it can get.
Hoping for one of those great second half’s.
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HT: Liverpool 4-1 Arsenal
Took the lead through Maitland-Niles then within 3 minutes proceeded to lay down and have our belly tickled, LFC did not even have to work for a 3-1 lead, and then Oliver couldn’t wait to show his PGMOL bosses that the Salah diving controversy from a couple of days ago would not stop him giving him the softest of soft penalites.
we have created a few decent chances, but as long as we have defending that would embarrass a schoolboy team we are fucking up any chance we had.
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That pass from Alison to Firmino was top notch though.
Salah dives because he knows he’s above the law. The FA just released a statement to that effect.
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We never get nailed on pens let alone soft ones . Was Oliver trying to reinforce that Salah can do as he likes? Pathetic crooked competition
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Dave somebody would want to give Emery the hairdryer treatment, this is the guy that we are told leaves nothing to chance, coaches for every situation, knows every player inside out, yet we have let in more goals than we ever have after 20 BPL games, and this game isn’t over yet. Lichtsteiner, Sokratis and Torreira 3 of Emery’s signings were pathetic in their defending on the goals today.
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pauln71 a great second half would not rescue this, an amazing one just might, but I really can’t see it happening
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Think Emery himself deserves a bit of a hairdryer from someone Dave, there are certainly mitigating circumstances, injuries, fitness, but our defending is now even worse than that which ultimately played a big part in losing Wenger his job, and that is saying something. Teams with far less resources defend much better than us. The lack of ability to carry out the basics is deeply worrying, this will kill any confidence left.
At least Emery seems to know the root cause, Mesut Ozil!
The manager deserves backing, but he and his team really need to sort this out, by whatever means.
Still, let’s see what joy the second half brings
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We need to be quicker in the final third as well.
The defending less said the better.
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I just hate these embarrassing games Ed. Weird thing is Liverpools defence isnt that great, sadly ours is worse. I keep thinking how we miss a Diaby/Song/Viera– a commander in the centre mid.
Just hope we dont let in anymore.
COYG!
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Soft pen but tackling from behind is a no no,
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Listening to AW getting the blame for this. I note the 22 unbeatnen run wasnt put down to AW.
Mandy, is there anyone at the club that would give UE the old hairdryer treatment?
Just hope we can do something with this game…
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Eduardo, trying to keep hope alive.
I think the team needs to sit deeper. One long ball has done us in way to often recently,
Why didn’t Koscielny start again?
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