Friday the 13th felt different, and I hadn’t expected it to quite so much. I should have known better as I’d been aware that in the hunt for transfer news I was starting to refresh Twitter far too often over the past couple of weeks. But I wasn’t prepared to feel quite so jittery nervous all day, especially as it’s been a long long time since I’d battled match-day nerves of my own. I always felt it would be a tricky opener: newly promoted side buzzing, small stadium, the Arsenal worryingly lukewarm during pre-season. As one of my old coaches used to say when disaster loomed: ‘it’s got all the makings’. And so it proved with a disappointingly anodyne performance leading to a feeble 2 nil defeat. It wasn’t quite reach for the service revolver time, but I certainly made too much use of the whisky that night, and woke the next day saddened and wretched and not at all sure I wanted to carry on putting myself through all of this. What after all is the point of supporting a club that are not exactly down the road from me and which seem guaranteed these days to cause me pain?
Due to a long-standing promise to take my son to watch Reading’s first home game of the season I didn’t have long to stew in my juice, and it was fun to set off for a 3pm Saturday Kick off. I enjoyed walking down to the station, catching the train and then the bus to the stadium: it pleased me in some kind of atavistic way to see more and more home shirts mass at each stage of the journey, and all the more so for it being the first match anybody had been to for well over a year. There was real excitement in the air, and as we gathered outside the ground in front of the big screen showing Man U demolish Leeds, the time-honoured triplet of banter, beer and burgers seemed to announce that all was well in the world again. I wondered how many there had Reading as their first side, and for how many Reading were just their little bit on the side. And I wondered whether there would be any Preston North End fans, and if there were, how much it would have cost them to make their way to what used to be the Madejski but is now the Select Cars Stadium. And on that theme of cost I liked the fact that for me and my boy the travel and the tickets cost under £50. Would it be better after all to follow a local side again, as I used to back in the 70s, or does the proliferation of TV coverage and media interest now force the Premiership on us all?
It wasn’t a bad game at all, Reading scraping home 2-1 after missing a couple of easy chances that should have seen them home and hosed just after the interval. And yes, there must have been two or three hundred down from Lancashire, who supported magnificently throughout the game and who took, or seemed to take, the defeat with philosophical good humour. And that in turn made me think of what the coming season holds for all fans, and especially those who go to such lengths to follow their team. In a game of winners and losers what’s in it for the losers, and what defines loss? After all, and unless Olympic High Jump is your thing, only one side is going to win the Premier League, only one side going to win the cup. There are smaller prizes of course: Champions League places, Europa League, Promotion etc, but that still leaves an awful lot of sides and an awful lot of fans out in the cold and far from the podium. In August most fans are asked to consider what would make a successful season for our club: I wonder how many end up with their hopes rewarded? Precious few I think.
Certainly judging by the increasingly toxic social media storms that follow any defeat most supporters seem to be in a state of perpetual anger. I can only speak with any authority about the Arsenal (which is magnificently toxic at the moment) but I guess it is the same for most clubs, and especially so for those who have offered their allegiance to teams where the expectation is to win, and to win with style. If, Faustus like, you sell your soul to the devil then of course it’s hard to accept mediocrity and disappointment, and I wonder how many of the Arsenal fans who moan the loudest only began supporting the club when Thierry and Denis were in their pomp? What will Chelsea supporters feel like if they don’t go on to win the title this year, or Man Utd, or City, all of whom have bought shiny new toys. And what of Liverpool, with VVD no doubt ‘just like a new signing’? They are not all going to win, and writing that list and thinking of Spurs and Leicester too makes me realise that 5th or 6th place is probably the maximum that any fan could possibly hope for from Arsenal this year, and that even that is going to take quite some doing.
So what am I signing up for right now? Disappointment, despair and disillusion? Well probably yes, and obviously a classic case of the triumph of hope over experience, but there might be some good moments, some unexpected glories that are made all the better for their rarity. And, like those Preston fans I shall resolve to enjoy the journey, and take some refuge in being on board a bus full of fellow travellers who if they’ve any sense will secretly enjoy lapsing back into the old-fashioned supporter’s mindset of knowing deep down that their side is no better than they deserve – but that it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.
Now, about those new signings….
| TimHead @foreverheady |
Positively Arsenal 
I think all the new signings have been good but none I would put in the exciting box especially when you add them to the expectations of the managers performance.
The trouble is with expectations is they constantly change and although I believe we should come fifth at the moment I can’t see us getting better than sixth however win a few games on the trot and fans will start to believe of loftier heights.
The first game doesn’t worry to much as I don’t believe they tell you touch but we will know after ten games if we have something there.
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George, Tim – what a magnificent article. It encapsulates how I feel perfectly. And none of the toxicity that you refer to, or hyper-criticism of owners, managers, players. I have no doubt that escaping, however briefly, from the whirlwind whipped up by Sky and social media surrounding the Premier League, and revisiting “ordinary” clubs with “ordinary” aspirations, would be good for us all. Amidst the hyperbole, it’s good to be reminded of the simplicity of a game played by two teams on a (mostly) level field. Thank you for the elegant writing and publishing of the above.
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I love this article.
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Yep I have been to watch Orient just to remind me what initially attracted me to the great game.
Great article.
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The simple joy of enjoying a game of football, like many pastimes, eroded upon the advent of big money. As crony capitalism squeezes options from our daily lives, sports, gambling, drugs, porn, and social media increase their hold on people, especially the youth.
This is the sad state of affairs in the 21st century where hope has been set up to diminish by the day.
AW and Arsenal were light bearers. He had to go.
The cloud of negativity that’s been hanging over Arsenal post-Highbury that was bought and paid for, has now spread far and wide beyond Gunnerworld.
But every dog has its day. Everything has its end point.
Life recycles. A simple piece of magic can eliminate much darkness.
1 or 2 correct decisions, and it’s happy days again.
Once you’ve witnessed magic, it’s hard to stop believing.
I remain hopeful.
I remain ARSENAL.
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Gawd. How I wish for the Top-4 trophy amazingly entertained along the way.
Thank you Tim!
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Thank you Tim.
Every journey has an end & sometimes it’s more important to keep your eyes on the next step then the distant horizon.
Think I’ll be heading down to the Orient more often then the Arsenal this season.
Apologies for any toxicity but I’m not sure I want o pay money to watch or expose kids to a coach pushing injured players back onto the field of play. Those are not the Corinthian values that I am interested in and is against the history and traditions of the club. I did not enjoy watching how the fitness of the young players including the new Norwegian was comprehensively mismanaged last season it was a real turn off. Such desperation is not for me.
Expectations for the Gunners are as low as they’ll be ever be. Hopefully I’ll be impressed.
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A good article. Thanks.
The wishful thinking of so many fans is most probably par for the course at this stage of the season.
Like many of you, I have lost much interest and suspect will lose even more over the next few weeks.
I will watch games on sky, but won’t be entertained and will most probably do so in the hope that the game is over soon.
The pro-Arteta hype is so sickening that think my blogging days are over the time being and this may the only one I bother to look at most of the time,
They say watching flowers grow is really interesting.
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Youve tuned into the PA zeitgeist well Tim! I was (nicely) envious that you could watch Reading on Sat,and glad you had a good time, and am also a bit envious( in a nice way) that BB went to see the O’s and fins is going that way too.Enjoy yourselves this season!
By Saturday afternoon I was so sick of it all I spent all afternoon watching the Scottish PL games, and it was a relief to see the matches; away from the endless negativity, speculation and over exposure and indulgence of the EPL. Once you start digging further into the lower league and the leagues that qualify into them it gets pretty interesting.
Later in the week I saw the vid of the kid at Brentford that got high fived from Franks and some other players as they did the lap of honour and I thought despite the foul on Leno, and maybe the ball might have been out when Chambers tried to clear it and Deanos glee at the end: ” dang I cant begrudge this kid a wonderful moment, him or any of the Brentford, including the older fan with tears of joy streaming down his face”. They deserved it. We have a long history of messing up at Arsenal and its in our DNA. So what.Sometimes its ok to lose and enjoy watching the joy of others as Tim says. And who knows who else might get it at that Park? The Wenger years are over, wlecome to the Arsenal!
If you want to check out something have a look for the new Japanese wunderkind at Celtic, 6 goals in 6,Kyogo Furuhashi. Its been great to see him and how into playing he is.
Cheers Tim and nice to see everyone also feeling the same ( it good to not feel too alone and stuck in all the lunacy of things)…
COYG!
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Looking at our team from an experience perspective dilutes expectations quite a bit.
Only Granit and Lacazette carry enough grit & guile befitting their experience.
More toughness is going to be required to fortify this much inexperience sooner rather than later.
There are too many forces ganged up against the Arse right now which leads me to think it might be better to bring in Bissouma instead of Aouar. If indeed MA still intends to add 1 more player.
PL-experienced, rugged, full of guile and defensively relentless. Bissouma would reduce the defensive workload of the entire team like Ngolo Kante does for any team he plays for. Players like this don’t come a dime a dozen.
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And he already has a strong on-field connection with Ben White.
The only sticking point is AFCON 2022.
Yes, he’d be unavailable for 5 weeks but in the long term I just don’t see why not.
He will not be this available come next summer.
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As suspected, it was COVID after all…
https://www.arsenal.com/news/team-news-aubameyang-lacazette-partey
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Oh I forgot Bissouma’s mates with Pépé and Gabriel too…surely a plus too.
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That is 4 players testing positive.
How can that happen especially just before the start of the season?
Do the players not take care, or are they so busy spending their money that they don’t care.
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Aman we play with 2 CM. when fit they are Xhaka and Partey, where would a £50M signing like Bissouma fit in the team, are you suggesting a new formation, if so what formation
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this is someone who has nearly 27k followers, but its so typical of so many Arsenal fans who slag off the players all the time
JBTrade mark sign
@gunnerpunner
·
7h
I think Ramsdale is not good but also I’ll admit I’ve never actually watched him play properly.
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I agree with Aman ….we need more guile and grit….always good to have b@stards on the team who are a PITA to play against. We area bit lightweight in the aggression department. We need a leader like Martin Keown or Viera schooled in the dark arts of $hithousery to distract/occupy the opposition.
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“Aman we play with 2 CM. when fit they are Xhaka and Partey, where would a £50M signing like Bissouma fit in the team, are you suggesting a new formation, if so what formation” – eduardo792
Bissouma won’t cost £50M. More like £35M methinks.
We never have all players fit/available during a season. Our style of play is very demanding.
I envisage (like Liverpool), a 6-man CM/DM with players of different qualities, able to rotate and play in different positions and formations depending on the opponent.
#6: Xhaka – Partey – Lokonga (+ White, Chambers)
#8: Bissouma – Aouar – Elneny / MaitlandNiles
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eduardo792,
also remember Partey and Elneny (+/- Bissouma) will be off to AFCON in January.
By the summer Elneny will probably be off.
Ainsley staying and buckling down actually helps MA offload Cedric as well in the summer (though I quite like Cedric and don’t see what MA’s problem is with him).
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I never knew Covid had to be kept secret sounds dodgy to me. Surely we made Brentford aware of the situation or was we worried about having the game called off and maybe even losing the points either way it’s extremely unprofessional of the club and management.
By the way Keown would not survive in modern football, although he could play the ball as his career developed he was just a stopper (especially under GG less under Arsene).
The modern day midfielders who control the game are ball winners, usually high energy and recycle the ball quickly. The idea you need Biffo Bacon in midfield is very outdated.
Without seeing the stats the impression I got from Bissouma was he gives away lots of free kicks this will only be exaggerated if he joins us and the PGMOL have there way.
At the moment we are the PL biggest spenders at a time when the have just recorded a loss of 100 million we would surely have to get rid of a raft of players to afford a Sunday league player currently.
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“Without seeing the stats the impression I got from Bissouma was he gives away lots of free kicks this will only be exaggerated if he joins us and the PGMOL have there way”
He brings so much more than free kick gifts Ianspace2014.
Bissouma is box-to-box @ all speeds, as skillful as they come, full of nuance, guille, ball control, nacity and grit beyond compare. Even scores a worldie every season.
The most complete box-to-box CM in the league in my opinion..world class (in the making). Perfect for us as he would set the new standard required of an Arsenal midfielder.
We truly need this player.
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corr: tenacity (not nacity)
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Oh and lets be candid…Bissouma is better than all of our present CMs.
Partey included.
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Yes he looks world class in the video but then so do I. In the couple of games I have seen him against us he certainly didn’t. I know that is a ltd view the only other time I have seen him is in short clips on Sky and Motd.
Being better than Partey is hardly a ringing endorsement and seeing as we have tackled less and less as a deliberate tactic over the last five years especially this year ( see Untold for stats on this)
Remember Brighton do not sit on the half way line and try and break most teams down like we do.
He may well be very good or even world class eventually but it’s difficult to say that for certain until he gets here.
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Aman, if he was so good and available, why do you imagine that none of the bigger and wealthier teams throughout Europe have not yet been in for him?
I have asked the same about Partey and yet no one has tried to answer.
I think we have seen why.
We have been spending silly money on players we either do not need or do not need now or who, so far, have shown to us that there is a good reason why they cannot get into their club’s first-team squad.
Perhaps Arteta has persuaded the powers that be that he is such a good coach that he can turn them into world-beaters.
Perhaps they have looked at the blogs and seen so many bloggists saying what a great coach Arteta is, despite the fact that they can see with their own eyes that he is nothing of the sort.
What a mess.
Now that there is a shortage of HGV drivers in the UK, perhaps they can make use of our squad who seem to be experts at parking the bus.
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Bissouma would be a great signing though without Europe money and a huge slew of bloated salaries from our deadweight players for whom we can’t find takers, I can’t see how we can afford him…especially since we re-signed Xhaka. I think they looked at the myriad of holes in the squad and selling Xhaka would have created another expensive one (since Roma lowballed us). During the Wenger years we always won the game in the midfield. This is where we are losing the games now. A great midfield helps in both attack and defense. Sign Aouar and Bissouma and we are set but the hard part is offloading the extraneous surplus to needs players in a time when non-EPL teams are skint.
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Last season our two deep lying midfielders weren’t the problem with attacking or defending the problem we have had under arrest has been creation.
Our play in the final third is unimaginative and although we sometimes seem to have plenty of shots really when you’ve actually seen the game they are hardly first class chances.
Although the Brentford keeper seemed very assured, I can see why were linked with him, he only had to make one good save so the 22 shots and four on target were very misleading stats.
This year we conceded the third least and the two goals conceded against Brentford were not midfield issues.
I think Granit has proved once again he is one of the top European midfielders and when Elneney is policed by him they make a good pairing.
I’m not for one minute suggesting Bissouma is a bad player or won’t go on to be a very good player but I certainly don’t think he is the missing piece of the Jigsaw (like Cantana).
CBs need time to blend with each other and the keeper so when big Bob is back it will certainly help.
Personally I think Leno is a great shot stopper but is overall not a great keeper so I’m hoping Ramsdale potential is fulfilled quickly.
I think this windows business is good but we still have players that offer little to the team.
As older players value goes down every season just keeping them makes no sense.
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That’s obviously Arteta and not arrest although well you know.
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Arsenal U23’s have just taken the lead over Crystal Palace U23’s, the game is live on Arsenal.com, Hutchinson with a superb goal after 7 minutes
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Hutchinson makes it 2-0 to Arsenal u23’s
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Just nailing my colours to the mast here but very pleased with our two new signings today.
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ah Aman, Bissouma scores a worldie every season, does he really, that one goal he scores a season, as for him going to be world class, the guy is 25 this month, he better hurry up then.
the only thing Bissouma has over xhaka and Partey is that he is quicker than both of them, and i would also say the fact that he will be off to the ACN which would mean 3 of our midfielders out for 6 to 8 weeks, would be a very good reason not to sign him.
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palace pull a goal back just 2 minutes after we went 2 up
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foreverheady I fully agree with you on that, so far the transfer window has been good for Arsenal. Still 11 days to go, and Arteta says several of the fringe players would be better off leaving as they are not going to see game time here. Kolasinac and Runarsson would seem to be the two furtherest down the pecking order, and then when you look at the right back situation it seems Bellerin and maybe even Cedric might get very limited minutes this season. Nelson, Nketiah, Willian and AMN might all struggle for game time too.
It remains to be seen if we want to keep Lacazette, there are lots of rumors that we want an old style center forward and we have been hearing all summer Arteta wants a new first choice right back. Don’t be surprised if Bellerin leaves we bring in Trippier
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And I know that they will probably end up disappointing, but with so many young players signed or promoted recently it does seem like a very deliberate change of approach. And i am trying to subdue my cynical self that tells me its all about the sell-on values.
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And following your logic there, Eduardo, and remembering something you said several months ago, might that almost namesake of yours be stilll in the mix?
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well foreverheady one guy on twitter who usually is spot on with the few transfer rumors he mentions says AFC are after a right back and striker and that both are French, but says AFC want loans with buy option for next summer.
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I see Arsenal suggest Aaron Ramsdale will be in the squad to face Chelsea on Sunday, Odegaard not likely as he needs a work visa
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Biereth scores his first AFC goal after his recent transfer from Fulham, to put AFC 3-1 up after 40 minutes
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Arsenal U23s v Crystal Palace: Graczyk; Norton-Cuffy, Kirk, Rekik, Ogungbo, Swanson; Patino; Hutchinson, Azeez, Taylor-Hart; Biereth.
Subs: Ejeheri, Monlouis, Cottrell, Butler-Oyedeji, Ideho.
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Crystal Palace down to ten men after Banks sent off for two yellows, both warranted, Place players have been pulling our lads back every time we go on the attack
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HT: Arsenal U23’s 3-1 Crystal Palace
Hutchinson x2 and Biereth with our goals
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for the start of the second half Arsenal have taken off their two players who got booked in the first half, Hutchinson and Norton-Cuffy, with Ideho and Monlouis coming on
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The Youtube is up as a podcast
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palace make it 3-2, with 8 minutes plus left
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Butler-Oyedeji on for Taylor-Hart
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Ideho wins a penalty
Azeez has it saved, there are four minutes of stoppage time to be played, it remains 3-2 to AFC
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Swanson makes it 4-2 to AFC very late in stoppage time on a breakaway
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