Good Morning Positive Arsenal fans,
Another morning, another inquest into an away defeat against an ‘Ammers side who I anticipated would be put away with a little bit to spare. The aim was to be back on level points with Chelsea by 3pm, even in we knew the chance of Newcastle getting anything at the Bridge was remote.
We started well, had control of midfield and possession in the Ammers’ half, opened them up in the first twenty odd minutes on two occasions, but fluffed our lines. The home side got back into the contest, managed a couple of half chances themselves with Anderson v lively, and young Rice misdirecting a header from one of their many corners. The first half ended a respectable 0-0. No worries.
We switched off at the start of the second half and were punished. A poor clearance, Anderson and Nasri combine to clip the ball into the Arsenal box. Rice in three clear yards of space. No second reprieve. I hope Granit reflects carefully on his part in what proved to be the turning point of the game.
Within 30 seconds of the restart Laca bearing down on the goal only to put in another underpowered strike. And so it went on really. 40+ minutes of us trying to break into the Ammers box, with a change of personnel, with Aaron and Lucas on, and a change of formation. To be fair, for about 10 minutes of the 40 , we showed a real sense of urgency in our play to recover the deficit. After that flurry though the final 30 minutes the Ammers held us off with some ease. 2 shots on target all afternoon. Really not good enough. Of our players who emerge with a scintilla credit on a grey afternoon I would give Alex Iwobi a pat on the back as when the ball was at his feet he put the opposition on the back foot. Kolasinac did OK in working the flanks, and Leno did nothing wrong all afternoon. Ironically Leno had a quiet afternoon by our standards, away from home.
So another week off and then the mighty Chelsea roll into town. They have the advantage of being able to play for the draw and maintain their comfortable six point lead. If they were to win then six would become nine points and I suspect that the finance bods in Highbury House could start budgeting for another Europa League bonanza for the 2019-2020 season. If we were to win however the route to 4th reopens.
KBO.
Positively Arsenal 
“It didn’t make any sense to let either one of the young CBs go on loan”,
The inference being if you’re going to let one go this season it would be the rookie who wasn’t ready to be a staring CB for any top four team (He’s no Mangala at his cost but he is a rookie!)
I wish you’d read my comments Andy.
e.g.:
“Mike Dean is no Dickie Bird”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good luck and thanks to Cech , with his retirement seasons end.
What an amazing career, albeit at a dodgy club for much of it.
A bit of a surprise, to me at least, he seems one who could easily keep on playing .
Would imagine he could make an excellent coach should he decide to go that way
LikeLiked by 2 people
Looks like Kane out for a month.
If so, needless to say, he will be back in time to face us, as they invariably are.
Not only should he be back for us, the extra couple weeks should give him ample time to perfect a double somersault, treble twist ,reverse pike combination for the game at the beginning of March.
LikeLiked by 3 people
aftv tactical program : hindsight gives the illusion of the knowledge. Really? its actually during the game when all the insights, collaboration and understanding are needed. Hindsight might give one or two guidelines but anything theory is mostly a frozen concept?
And obviously its completely different for those down on the pitch than it is on the cameras and in the stands. A friend was at the City ground years ago when he heard this: “give it to O’Neil, give it to O’Neil” “oh what the fuck did you give it to O’Neil for?”
Managers and Coachs are pretty limited if you think about it once the game gets going as the whole thing is in flux, lightening speed flux, your team and the others, reaction to reaction to reaction etc. resting on psychological understanding of each other, speculation, your own feeling of self worth and a billion other things all morphing and surging. One element goes wrong for a few times and it spreads then the whole thing can go kacka. How to hold together, How to hold the training ground camaraderie together at an opponents ground when the are calling you a fotze every five seconds etc etc etc.
So opening line of aftv tactical program. ” basically Arsenal didnt create enough chances”.
Amazing insight. Except wrong, we did create enough chances its just they werent converted in goals. Different thing.
Two: any speculation on the future is a bet, 50-50, despite any odds on form, or gut instincts (eh?). Unless its a corrupt system and your are part of it. Telling anyone how its going to be is a speculative semi-lie, with the hope your coming up correct. 50-50.
Three: ” I would have expected” Expect all you like, its based on false understanding that change will go the way you want. Dont expect anything, which can mean leading to reaction, and adaption and subconscious connection,(in flux), and holding as a unit.
Football is so complex, and has been reduced to “go on, stick it in”. In the same way transfers and money have been reduced to Monopoly in the minds of many. And its got there through gaslighting and other forms of leading the ignorant up the garden path.
Four: The false idea that buying a player means that they will work together and have an automatic understanding. The physical game isnt the computer game.
Five: Comparing last season to this. Cheese and chalk. Anyway they were slagging the poop out of last season, and now we see it was “better ” than then/statistically ,so far.
Should have stopped bullying Wenger then, and stopped creating a negative atmosphere and let him get on with the job, instead of thinking you are the only ones who “know”.
Six: I switched off before I got there, got to do other things.
Look, Im not saying they arent allowed, or probably dont have valid things to say,what I am trying to saying just dont attempt to manipulate people with propaganda and your own agenda. Theres more to this than helping the club out with guidance, this is about their authority, and many other things. They are close to 1mil subs.
COYG!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Good luck to Petre although maybe he is going a little early 37 isn’t that old for a keeper and as they say your along time retired.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’m surprised Cech has hung up his gloves as I thought he had another 2-3 seasons in him. Hopefully we can send him out on a career high with a trophy in May.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Today’s grand , unsubstantiated rumour, Sven M is leaving.
If true, has to be Wengers fault.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Only a couple of days ago I wondered about too many cooks on back of the Edu rumour, now this Sven talk.
Got to think the most likely reason for a recruitment supremo wanting to bail is because…the job isn’t what he believed it would be? Either in terms of not having as much say as he’d like or not being as active as he wants to be.
Always thought that prominence to a transfer guy, like Monchi at Sevilla and now Roma changes the dynamic a bit as it seems more likely they’ll want lots of activity each year than a traditional chief scout.
Anyway, guess you’d have to file it under ‘maybe this means things aren’t great behind scenes’. In addition to Gazidis, that would leave us perhaps one more big one from having to think something really is up.
Think it would be lousy news, partly because there’s been that reasonable hope he is good at his job, but even more so because if he were to go to Bayern ,say, it could mean most of the targets we have picked up in his time automatically become their targets.
LikeLiked by 2 people
‘Banter’ like the following:
“can the USB stick play at CB”
is what you will hear when the Arsenal can only find one fit CB (with some doubt on their fitness too!) to see them through the Xmas and New Year fixture crunch.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And it’s not like this wasn’t a concern last season. Well. Not for the Billy big blaggers it wasn’t! Lol.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t see why keeping six centre backs, Kosc, Mustafi, Chambers, Holding, Mavro, Sokratis at the club makes any sense. Chambers is playing football at Fulham and that is preferable for him, and for us, than not playing at Arsenal.
I appreciate there will be injuries in your first team squad, but how do you know how many extra players would be required when you sit down to plan your squad. And what happens if 6 centre backs is not enough, if 5 aren’t ? If you have six centre backs then presumably you need to ensure you have at least 3X players to cover every position Fins ? In which case no one would ever go out on loan !!
LikeLiked by 1 person
From one who knows;
LikeLiked by 4 people
Another oddball day in the Arsenalverse,made worse by the unhappy Arsenal people.
Incase it was a bit unclear, my above was a bit on one of aftv’s latest vids. I know you guys dont look to often at that place, but seemed part of out world that needed exposing.
Looking around today (at the most nefarious web site of all amongst other places), I was shocked at why people are wanting Mesut to leave-is it because he seems to earn a lot gross? Any ideas?
Quite a testing time in the world at the moment, for club and planet.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“I don’t see why keeping six centre backs, Kosc…”
–
“Andy if you want to list Koscielny as a match fit PL level CB this season, you are entitled to that opinion!”
“Andy if you want to argue that Koscileny is a match fit PL footballer (must be close now) at the start of the season, I won’t be stopping you.”
“I’ve made an objective observation (around about 2014 when we could all appreciate the quality of Bacar Sagna as 4th/5th choice CB) that the Arsenal tend to do reasonably well (trophies! Hello!!) when they have a healthy stable of good to top level CBs to call on. To be fair it seemed like an easy and innocent observation!”
“I wish you’d read my comments…”
–
Cheers!
LikeLiked by 1 person
What is Andy Murray moaning about?
He had another leg that still works!
LikeLiked by 1 person
<has/had, that's the consideration.
I'd tell the best British athlete of our time (no asthma looooooooooool! Couldneverhappenheremeoldmate)
to hang his boots and racket up tomorrow but being a professional athlete he won't be listening to any such advice until the last moment, as you'd hope and expect from him. These guys and gals will always play on at risk of further injury.
Not sure if Papa had been niggle free but am happy to accept that the Arsenal went through the Xmas crunch with one fit CB. I'm nothing if not consistent (for new readers I was gibbering and gurning and panicking over Koscielny's ankles and the extra wear and tear his admirable style puts on the body for some time! He won't be back to his top level. My favourite ever defender…therefore couldn't understand why the club went down one CB last season unless they were waiting for Papa, and will happily be consistent this season!)
LikeLiked by 1 person
< the loss of that half yard of acceleration is a big loss for Koscielny. He'll adjust better now he's not in constant pain/ doped up on painkillers, and as he regains full fitness he'll be very good notleast for his passing ability – – – hello Chambers! Holding only matched Chambers' promise in that area this season.
I believe most of you will be able to appreciate that letting Chambers go from a squad that aspires to play out from the back when you only had three fit CBs at the start of the season makes little sense. There may be some sense somewhere. But we ain't gonna see it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anthony Taylor the ref for Arsenal v Chelsea on Saturday
LikeLiked by 2 people
Good if painful reading from The Brain.
Personally my instinct, in case it wasn’t clear from the above, having only one fit CB through the fixture crunch period, playing Xhaka out of position at, wait for it, at CB, have impacted upon the cohesion and identity and ability for the squad to play as they had been
(before the “smashing” at Southampton/Old Trafford etc.)
Confidence comes slowly but can be lost quickly. Something like that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
< tried posting the link to Arsenal Column, but failed!
LikeLiked by 1 person
So you would not have sent Chambers out on loan Fins, I would. And so did Arsenal. In July or August.
Because in December a number of injuries, and suspensions, combined to leave us short in central defence.
In fact you’d never send anyone out on loan because we might be short.
I think I’ve got that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Because in December…”
Is your opinion.
I never wrote that.
I wrote that having three CBs at the start of the season was too few. I supported my opinion with some data from recent years. I didn’t ever ask you to agree.
Please read my comments when referring it commetning upon them, I wouldn’t like to say you are anti the English language.
Cheers!
LikeLiked by 1 person
As for my spelling?
The less said the better!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Think the horror of the Ramsey situation is starting to pass for me, I’ve only been moaning about it since Chambo was sold – and I’ve also never asked anyone to follow me off that cliff!
I hope that you are all having a good start 2019.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“…couldn’t understand why the club went down one CB* last season unless they were waiting for Papa, and will happily be consistent this season!”
Cheers!
For those who don’t like to count, are allergic to aritmatic means even though they are typing upon a calculation machine, that translates, in English, to mean one less CB* then the season before 16/17. As in 15/16!
Cheers!
–
* As spurious as it was asking one and a half appearances to be considered as “form”, it would be even dumber to include the green if very promising rookie on that roster ahead of someone with one and a half seasons proven success as a PL defender.
LikeLiked by 1 person
For me as said a few times in the past the depth in quality at CB 2014-17 was the best it’s been since the move. the most obvious highlight of this being the 2017 FA cup final and semi final performances at the back. Made a few posts bidding farewell to that great squad here over the summer.
It’s reasonable to expect the current squad will develop from now at the back. Will Koscielny be here next season? Back to Lorient he said?
I’m more concerned about Ozil’s fitness. Given his fitness record in 2018, with no recovery window in that summer, could be he’s in a Ramsey type scenario of needing even more breaks then previously? Hopefully he’ll be fit and in the team for Chelsea, I won’t expect him to be a hundred per cent if he does start after his spell out.
LikeLiked by 1 person
<typo: 17/18 compared with 16/17, above
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jeez. Finding Arsenal world on twitter and internet in general a bit of a horror show at the minute.
It’s an uncertain time, and there’s certainly cause for concern with recent form, things to question manager over, etc, but a lot of it is excessive.
I guess some of it can be put down to the platform, with twitter especially resulting in plenty of reasonable comments and complaints getting lost a little and mingling with the unreasonable or bullshit stuff, but overall it’s real fucking unpleasant.
Urgh, and I may well be adding to the negative orgy with this complaint of mine!
In short , it’s all doing my head in at the moment.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Sven on his way as well it seems, not looking good
LikeLiked by 2 people
Rich my big hope right now is the Chelsea manager remains uninterested in developing the Hazard and Giroud partnership.
Morata’s finally got his goal against Arsenal so hopefully his usual form heh will return against Arsenal if selected.
With players returning from injury or to full fitness I’m expecting a stronger performance then of late from the Gunners.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fins
Weekend’s game feels absolutely huge.
As of now, gonna look forward to it and show sense, hopefully, to avoid too much of internet till then.
As for if it doesn’t go well…may really have to avoid twitter et al for a while after that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not expecting the best atmosphere with fan favourites on and off the pitch looking like they are off! But that’s not new.
A return to goal scoring form at home, more and more players returning. The Arsenal might even reduce the “unplayable Hazard”, as the Spurs plundit said during the league cup semi final against Spurs, to nothing but dives like last season heh.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ornstein: Arsenal are looking to appoint a technical director. Mislintat was expected to be a contender. But it is likely the German, will be overlooked for the role and that is among the factors which could result in his departure.
Sanllehi has been seeking a candidate who is either well known by Emery or has a connection to Arsenal.
Might fit with the rumors in Brazil last week that Edu was likely to take up the technical director role at AFC.
Maybe Mislintat is leaving cos he thinks he should get that promotion
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tyreece John-Jules has tweeted that he has picked up an injury so he will miss our FA Youth Cup game v Spurs on Thursday.
LikeLiked by 1 person
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/intligen/startseite/740092/artikel_verlaesst-chefscout-mislintat-arsenal.html … Verlässt Chefscout Mislintat Arsenal?
german newspaper @kicker saying Bayern Munich have made no contact with sven mislintant (journalists contacted the german club)
LikeLiked by 1 person
When I shared my musings upon the stupid decision to start the season with three fit CBs I after letting Chambers go one week before the season started I wrote here in the first few months (some people must have missed the text!) that the new gaffer would do well and be satisfied with a reduction in the GA column.
five less then last season would have been an unreasonable expectation considering the lack of numbers therefore even a tiny decrease would’ve been a significant achievement given the self inflicted handicap at the back. i won’t waste your time considering whether the semi-retiree from Serie A is a viable back up RB or RCB in the PL over Chambers or even me old mam (why not Mustafi!!!!! If you had another CB….) – as he is not!
About par now in the GA.
hopefully we’ll see some improvement by the end of the season.
Perhaps the opinion, the belief, that the Greek rookie will miraculously play like a starting CB for a top four team from his third PL game (we can discuss his “form” after several games wink wink) is worth considering but as I can’t recall a single rookie footballer who has done that in the demanding PL in the most demanding role in any team, there isn’t anyone – I’ll pass on that!
Don’t get me wrong, please don’t fail ignore the words I have written. That would be: poor form.
I hope he goes on to play like a cross between Sol Campbell and Beckenbauer. If he does, it ain’t gonna happen this season!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Meanwhile it looks like the club are letting the chap who bought in Torreira (?) to the Arsenal and Dembele to Dortmund for relative peanuts leave in favour of the fellow who signed Dembele for Barca for the price of a small nation, and also the chap who obviously made the call to let Ramsey go.
He’s also the person who signed Paulinho for lots of wonga, a player we enjoyed watching whilst a young Chamberlain ran around around him in circles.
“Protect the values of the club”
Yikes!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Paulinho was on the pitch during Ozil’s supreme moment of footballing greatness cementing his place Fooball’s Hall of fame, orchestrating the destruction of hosts Brazil during the now legendary 1-7 SF.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting that you focus on the goals against column Fins – not really where Callum made his best contribution either with us or in his short stint at the back four at Craven Cottage. Pity the manager got sacked, very unlucky. But you think CC is the centre back answer at the Ems ? Well I admire your support for the player. I have to say that.
On the Sven story, if indeed he is going anywhere Labo and I were musing on this on Twitter this morning. Is it, as you seem to think, some “power grab” by Raul, or could it be a change of focus at the cub away from the “sign more players” mantra that seems to be the mantra. Wee do seem to have spent a lot of cash in the market in recent years with not much obvious return on the pitch. Certainly in Sven’s times some good players have come in, but so have some questionable purchases. Not very different to Steve Rowley in fact. What we do not seem much focused on is that, instead of obsessively “buying more players” more focus is on bringing our in house youngsters through. As an example it does not seem to me Eddie Nketiah has moved forward at all in the last 12 months. Perhaps, as discussed above, if Sokratis had not been signed in the Summer then the young Chambers would not have been sent on loan.
It may even be that Stan and Josh, having had a few months since their taking full control of the club, have had a look at the various layers of managers and directors and thought “wtf do all these people ‘do’?”
Interesting times.
LikeLiked by 2 people
In the text that above I described Chambers as a back up CB and RCB.
As per the form in the thread above Andy you can only infer what has not been written for some reason. Consistent form there at least. Don’t worry the reader can read the thread in spite of my grammar and spelling horrors.
Well done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hunter was the first to raise obvious concerns over the role of people like Sven on big money signings like Mustafi.
And that happened here.
I agreed with his opinion on that. And disagreed with his opinion on idiosyncratic football genius like bergkamp (didn’t fly) or Ozil (doesn’t smile). But I never made an arse of myself attempting and failing troll his opinion.
LikeLiked by 1 person
But as I have been asked:
Sven or Raul?
Analytics vs gut instincts and “relationships” with agencies that churn out frauds like Paulinho? “Protect the values…”
Right not I’m hacking a 3d printer to make something from bespoke computational code, so there’s your answer!
Also I would like to remind everyone that the only time AW said he came close to quitting the club was when Daddy Kronke came in with the good old boys. That is not a misinference or stupid suggestion: it is an accurate reference to what he said (or wrote).
There it is folks. The old gaffer said it along long time ago. Still no discussion out there on the Fizman to Kronke handover. That’s the story worth researching.
LikeLiked by 1 person
But Raul is the friend of the super agent, we all know what amazing deals clubs get off those boys! Some say Pogbas agent generously set the fee for Pogba signing for Utd to a pittance fee of £45 million.
Assuming, as it appears, SM is off, some are making assumptions of power struggles etc, but none of us really know the true reason. But, if Stan is the type of owner we are led to believe,I would assume alarm bells should be going off all over the place if a guy like Sven , tasked with finding bargain gems, really is being forced out by, erm, Raul.
Is all is as some are reporting, and Stanreally isnt concerned, or getting involved, perhaps he should reconsider, the last thing this club needs is ego driven power battles, if indeed that is what is happening.
The Danny F Stan handover, intriguing, guesswe will never know. All I ever understood was Danny wanting to stop Dein at all costs, but maybe simplistic
LikeLiked by 1 person
apparently Arsenal would have to sell Ozil to fund Carrasco from China..
Why does that sound so wrong on just about every level imaginable?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Amy Lawrence’s latest in the Guardian reads like a Sven PR piece.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Reading Amy’s piece I get the sense she has never spoken to Sven. She does not give a sense of knowing what he does, or doesn’t do, at the club.
LikeLiked by 2 people
As I said earlier perhaps Stan has enquired what all these bodies “do”, which for the owner may well involve measuring their contribution to the bottom line.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes Andy, If only we had one man that could do it all?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Emery admit to deliberately causing friction between himself and certain players. I don’t understand the “tactical reasons” how that will benefit team performance over the long term.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We had a vey long serving chief scout in Steve Rowley who was got rid off so Diamond Eye could be appointed back in November 2017 George. Somebody had to carry the can for years of perceived poor performance in the transfer market.
Collateral damage.
LikeLiked by 1 person