Let’s start with the positives, this being Positively Arsenal and all. We won away from home, got 3 very valuable points and we are in the top 4. Fantastic, Marvelous.
Aubameyang did wonderfully well on 10 minutes to close down Foster and was brave to hang out a leg and get the goal. It was real Emery stuff. So that was great as well.
Troy Deeney, almost immediately decided to show five foot five Torreira, what a hard man he is. He deliberately elbowed him and was rightly sent off. That was more than fantastic, Deeney is a prick.
Mesut came on for the second half and exerted a little bit more control, but it was just a little bit.
That’s about it for positives because ,truth be told, that was a woeful game from Arsenal. In fact that might be me being kind, dreadful is more like it. I mean 83 minutes against 19 men and we were by no means the dominant team. Well I say 11 vs 10, but I thought Iwobi and Mkhitaryan barely added up to a man between them.
I’m going to say no more because the sooner this game is forgotten ,the better.
Positively Arsenal 
ianspace2014
April 15, 2019 at 10:45 pm Edit
Hope the haters noticed Mustafi was excellent tonight probably MOTM had that been Big Tone performance everyone would have been raving about it.
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Yes Ian. he was great. But fucking hell, he shouldn’t have had to be given we were with a man advantage.
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one more positive George, that was our first away clean sheet in the league this season
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Yes Eddy, more good luck than good play though?
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afcstuff
@afcstuff
44m44 minutes ago
Arsenal’s last three away PL clean sheets have all come in different years:
West Ham 0-0 Arsenal (2017)
Huddersfield 0-1 Arsenal (2018)
Watford 0-1 Arsenal (2019)
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Not the best performance, but I suspect some on the pitch, and the coaching staff may have had a little bit of an eye on Napoli
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what are people’s view on the red card, a clear red or should only have been a yellow.
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Next Generation Arsenal
🔴
⚪️
@scoutingindoors
37m37 minutes ago
Arsenal U19s got a 3-2 win against Real Salt Lake in the #dallascup Alfie Matthews scored with a header, then Kido Taylor Hart netted after some lovely work down the left. The winner came from Cottrell sliding in at the back post. Taylor Hart was a box of tricks all game.
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afcstuff
@afcstuff
2h2 hours ago
Shkodran Mustafi won 100% of his seven aerial duels contested against Watford, the most by an Arsenal player without losing a single one in a PL game this season. [@Squawka] #afc
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I thought red, Ed. It was an action that leaves no other interpretation than he was deliberately looking to give someone a whack head height with his arm. Quite funny really that his defence seemed to be saying it was forearm not elbow. That aint allowed either off ball- which is basically what it was- either Troy.
Think the bum got overconfident with what he can get away with- ie if balls in the air 19 times out of 20 or more you can get away with arm to face or back of head with more force than that. Defence is you didn’t mean it, arms raised for jump etc. He just didn’t have patience to wait for better opportunities.
He probably wouldn’t figure on the linesman effectively making the call either.
They shouldn’t have any credible room for complaint anyway as the two high studs up challenges would often be given as red cards. Both beyond anything Xhaka did to get his.
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Well summed up George,we’re gonna have to play much better than that on Thursday otherwise we’re bolognese.
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Red, not a normal running movement, and meant to brush his opponent away at the very least, may or may not have meant to get his face, but this player has history and they were clearly told to play in a certain way that usually goes unpunished by the PGMOL.
The blond player, Hughes? Also lucky to stay on the pitch
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“whenever I go up against Arsenal I say right, let me whack the first one, and see who wants it” – Troy Deeney
Of course it was a red card offense. The only surprise is it was rightly called.
Nothing to say about our performance.
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Doucoure’s first half revenge hack on Lucas was more red then orange IMO.
Watford really couldn’t have complained if the ref had big enough “cojones” and reduced them to nine, as Mandy highlights Hughes running into people at speed, not barging but running into an knocking them over even without the use of the arms as a grapple is still a foul in Football, and has been for about 150/200 years…
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Watched that u19 game afterwards. Interesting experience they are getting out there. Had a young female referee and she had a hell of a hard time with a fairly wild game.
American lads charged full pelt after ball whole game and straight into our players on many occasions. We got frustrated again, culminating in a big flare up with head-to-heads, pushing and a couple of almost punches as arms flailed around.
Think six schoolboys played for us in total. Ogungbo looked interesting again, Taylor-Hart caught the eye. Not sure I’ve seen anything quite like him over the years. Glides around, seems to have very quick feet, goes past people in a really smooth way. If the skills can survive senior football will be a brilliant player to watch.
Tricky job for coaches out there with the schedule they have and the u18 title decider when they arrive back. Think Balogun may have got injured first day and while we are well stocked in attacking positions not so at cm or cb. McGuinness played two 90 min games in two days. Be in trouble if him or Smith out for that final league game.
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Mandy, Hughes seems to have been completely Ward-Prowsed. Both started playing really young, and looked good technically, and both seem to have concentrated on or been guided towards becoming foul machines. Doubtless with a trade-off between that and developing with the ball.
I read tweets afterwards from irate Watford fans who seem to truly believe Pawson shafted them throughout game. Makes my head spin. Hughes easily did enough for two yellows. Doucoure got sent off earlier in year for similar challenge to last night, and the second half studs up on Mkhitaryan was probably worse again. Also say they clearly did well on all the smaller stuff after the red.
Can imagine a dark laugh from Andy/Anicol, thinking ‘they are like you, Rich’- ie pinning bad results on ref- but if that’s the truth of it…oh boy, my brain is really doing a job of hiding it from me completely.
As it happens, think it is one of the things that makes it so hard to put forward a case that we are badly treated by refs- some fans of every other team apparently believe ‘they’ are the ones getting screwed on a regular basis, and rare is the time you won’t find some supporters of the defeated team blaming the ref.
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Thanks George
Just repeating my thoughts from yest.:
I thought the Gunners were playing with a good rhythm in the second half until the young Greek CB had to come off.
90 mins for Xhaka, Iwobi and Miki will help them be sharp when needed over the next two crucial weeks, if we’re being fair Iwobi has had more game time of late and it showed last night! Miki will hopefully regain his top form he was showing before he was dropped for those two players who apparently can’t play together*
*cant play together if you are disingenuous and hungry click baiting arsenal hole/Billy Big Blagger. L.O.L.!
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Vital three points against an overly physical and pointlessly uppity Watford side, all of whom rightly gambled that the ref would be unlikely to send off a second, in a month of Sundays.
Thought we defended with resolution and a spirit that was nobly represented by AMN’s world class (WORLD class, mind) block with our keeper we’ll beaten.
When we went ahead so early I thought there was no way we were hanging on to a one goal lead, it just didn’t look like a ‘one-nil to the Arsenal’ kind of night. How wrong I was, happily, if a tad nerve-wrenchingly.
Did the guys have one eye on Napoli? Not sure but I know I would have bitten your arm off for 0-1 at the start of the night, so no complaints from me, especially given the huge significance of those three points.
Onwards and upwards …
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Positives: As usual I take a dim view of the refereeing in yesterday’s game. In my opinion the mainstream media and others are making a lot of Troy Deeney’s red card in yesterday’s match but Doucouré tackle on Torreira was worse, apotential legbreaker that did not even earn a yellow card. More at https://uniteforvar.com/?p=1943
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I assume shotta when you say the media are making a lot of Deeney’s red card you mean they are trying to claim it was a yellow at best, even seen one pundit with the nonsense that Torreira being small made a legit attempt by Deeney look like a foul.
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Be interesting to see where the Lino turns up next week (if at all)
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Deeney been trying it on v Arsenal since the media convinced him that Arsenal were trying to sign him for £25M, and when that turned out to be bullshit, Deeney has had the huff with AFC
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Theres something about the horrible grey kit that seems to make the lads looked drained and weak (even if they arent)…
I want my Arsenal ( yellow kit ) back!
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It was Ian Wright Eddie that said that nonsense. We had him, Townsend and Hargreaves on our screens.
Townsend right off the bat said the red was harsh and as usual Wrighty went “I have to agree”. Talking about knowing Troy quite well, not that type of player yada. All this with Troy’s “give the first one a whack” quote on the screen behind them.
Wright said Troy just wanted to bump defender away side-to-side but because Torreira is short he “unintentionally” whacked his face.
If that was on a Manutd player Phil Neville would’ve called it physical assault.
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Former Arsenal goalkeeper Joao Virginia has won the Premier League 2 title with Everton after winning it last season with Arsenal
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You can’t make it up Labo.
And had a Spurs player been the recipient of Deeney’s tender attentions, the charge would have been murder.
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After the red, and yes it was a deliberate strike after the ball had gone with no intention of playing the ball, the ref was scared giving anything against them and was effected by the watford players and crowd. Capoue booking late in the second half was his third bad challenge and should of been sent off but the ref bottled it. Hughes also was another player who somehow come off the pitch without a booking.
Although I was crapping myself until the whistle went I don’t think we were lucky, I think Watford were lucky because we missed a plethora of chances ourselves. Their chances were stopped by good defending or Leno I can’t remember a chance they had where they actually missed.
Mistakes were generally made up the pitch Alex and Miki losing the ball often and all of those going forward being wasteful. The defence was generally sound and deserved their clean sheet.
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Mustafi certainly helped to earn that first clean sheet Away from home. Strong performance.
As you all know I’ve long had the feeling that he’s made to play RB in a four in such contests. Evidence is so far suggesting that to have even a considered opinion heh!
It’ll be an option for the coach going forwards.
I hope so, and hope to see AMN get more minutes in CM next year (to help fill up that huge void in CM…).
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always fear some sort of PGMOL punishment when the media herds analyse things as forensically as Deeneys red card.
They appear to have spent more time today looking at the incident, plus what they view as Torriera and Xhakas roles, than they have spent on some of the more unsavory genuine simulation events involving Spurs and Liverpool players combined
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Remarkable stuff with Ajax. For no reason I made assumption there was element of fluke and good timing with their victory over Real Madrid.
Believe they also fared well against Bayern in both group games. So that would make 6 games against absolute elite they have done well in.
Probably near unique in recent underdog, in money terms, big success stories is that it is not being done with Mourinho/Greece/most games where team beats one with much bigger resources strategy- defend, defend, defend, spoil, cynicism, break, set pieces, etc.
Not to diminish their achievements one jot, but do think they have near optimum conditions for bringing through young players and giving them significant 1st team football domestically.
Nevertheless, still seems a real source of hope for anyone hoping to upset money odds, although it may be brief, unless Overmars can work magic with Champions League money they get this year and maybe 150 mill for players sold.
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UEFAs revenge on Man City. Two marginal VAR decisions against them at vital times
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It won’t happen, but Liverpool winning the league, and Spurs the Champions League would make the media a no go zone for the next decade.
Should be worried, but I strongly suspect a cruel fate awaits Spurs at some point in this competition, cannot say exactly when, but Ajax are a dangerous, relatively unknown quantity, apart from beating Real and Juve that is, Liverpool will beat Spurs in a one off, and Spurs won’t be so lucky if they need VAR should they face Barca
Let’s hope this helps us to third
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Is it ‘nauseous’ or ‘nauseated’? Still in a bit of shock over that ending.
After all that mad action, the change, from the late reprieve and joy (and the chance to enjoy all the ‘Spursiness’ talk!), to…this…phhh.
If he was off, he was off, and VAR did its job properly. Apparently it wouldn’t matter either way whether the touch on from the City player to Aguero was deliberate or not.
I never doubted VAR would lead to moments like these- shattering, if correct decisions- but it doesn’t help any when they come.
Anyway, lets hope Ajax can work some magic again.
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Minor note: think our u19’s Dallas cup tournament is over. They won 6-5 and finished group on 6 points, but only one runner up team goes through.
In one of the groups two teams have six points as well, before playing each other, and have 6 and 9 plus goal difference respectively; we finished on 0 goal difference so that must be that.
Hopefully good experience for the younger lads especially, and spares them another two games before final league game next weekend.
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The ball hit Llorentes arm Rich, shown by this replay that the ref clearly didn’t see
https://mobile.twitter.com/Atishay_Agarwal/status/1118615467424227329
Two very marginal decisions against City, I don’t like them or their funding model, but they were hard done by in this game, they should have got one of those decisions in their favour at least, and that would have put the, through.
Guess VAR was never going to be perfect!
Just hoping Spurs luck, or whatever it is in this competition this year runs out, that is overdue
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New post is up
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The second half tonight will be interesting, hopefully entertaining.
Second leg at home is always an advantage IMO but that Advantage for Napoli is reduced by their lack of an Away goal.
Napoli supported by their FA would have rotated heavily on the weekend/Saturday, The Arsenal not supported by the FA (we can state his fact here without offending anyone I hope!) played on Monday night.
I’m guessing that Ancelloti will gamble on the Gunners starting with three at the back and target those pockets behind the wing backs.
And I also guess that the almost damaging switch from four to three against pumped up opponents away rom home on Monday night will be in Unai’s thoughts.
Will this be the game where we see a midfield three of Torreira Xhaka and Ramsey with Ozil floating in from one side of the Arsenal’s front three?
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