Hello everyone, here is the lastest instalment of useless drivel from me and Shotta.
This is as positive as it’s been for a while. If you want to watch rather than listen, it’s also here on Youtube
Pedantic George.
24 comments on “Credit Arteta For Picking The Squad Up vs Norwich.”
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Positively Arsenal 
Good podcast Shotta and George, loads to agree with but also loads to disagree with.
Firstly on data and I know Shotts loves data, it will only tell you so much and you certainly can’t rely on it for football because of the way it measures things. If I rolled the ball from the half way line and the keeper sat down had a cup of tea and safely collected the ball that would count as a shot on target and by the same token if I volleyed the ball in the six yard box and the keeper made a fantastic save that would also count as one shot on goal. The two are not equal they are a million miles apart and only someone subjectively watching would know that.
I also disagree that Auba and Pepe played well and I have never judged players on what they cost. If Oli Giroud missed the chances that Auba missed he would have been absolutely castigated how can you say someone plays well when he has two golden opportunities to score and misses them both and that’s it he does nothing else for the team in the rest of the game unlike someone like Oli who would have so many other strings to his bow. Auba is not the same Auba, it may have been true we used to forgive him his weaknesses because at the end of the season he would be golden boot winner but when he doesn’t score he offers nothing.
We weren’t lucky with the decision on the goal, the goal was offside, if a ball hits a defender on the way to being played through its offside it has to have been played deliberately to stop this being the case.
Please please please people watch these games again if Pepe cost us fuck all I would still rate as an average player. He obviously has talent but doesn’t produce, I have been watching wingers for 50 years and while it is true you don’t have to dribble past five players every match you do have to get your crosses across and I’ve seen plenty of wingers who don’t even need to beat a man to do that.
He like Auba is another player who gives very little around the rest of the pitch so when you look at his whole game once again I cannot see how you think he had a good game.
While I agree the manager done well to get the team up as showed in the first twenty minutes and quite rightly should get credit for that we one a game at home against a side who will be relegated by two dodgy decisions. So if you look at his game management over the 90 minutes it once again has to be questioned.
I totally agree with George’s analogy that if you give a starving man shit food he will be happy because it is food and at the moment we are famished.
I think we are getting to the point where we are getting frightened of criticising because we don’t want to be negative all the time but we also have to get a grip on reality what we saw at the weekend wasn’t good even for an eighth place side.
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Ha, I thought of you Ian, as I was giving Pepe some credit and Shotta was giving Auba a pass. I agree btw.
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Ian I watched the second half on arsenal app.
I thought Pepe actually had a reasonably good game.
I agree that Auba if not scoring doesn’t offer much in terms of link up play. Especially when teams sit in and deny him space to ran.
I also thought the goal was good. Yes Auba was offside but the defender had a deliberate and clear touch.
I don’t give Arteta much credit for the win. I say this because I felt that as a team we still looked disjointed. I give him a pass as he had quite a few new players and partnerships that hadn’t played together.
I am glad Gabriel is back though its great to have pace at the back
Ben was good he moved the ball quickly and in the right direction.
You are so right on stats though. People just create complete narratives on stats without even watching the match.
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Hi George, been a while – Darius here. Finally got to hear the man behind the Pedantic voice after all these years. I should listen in more. And that was Shotta with you – WOW, Did a good number of ACLFers move up in here.
As for the game, I think we’re over analysing everything. We were never going to move from the bottom of the valley to the top of the mountain in one game. Let’s take the win, to hell with how scrappy it was, the details can only be sorted out game after incremental game. I suggest we won’t really know if we’ve made progress or turned a corner until at least Match day 12, and only when we’ve got to at least Match day 24 can we start pointing out what success looks like.
Meanwhile, I’ll just enjoy the wins. I dread what people will say when we next lose or draw a match – and that, we will for sure.
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Thanks.
I agree and disagree with Ian as I also agree with others here who see a potentially good player
His stats from last year were promising for this year given the lack of consistent games and minutes and strange man management all over the squad.
The big plus for me yesterday was the good and brave subs call. Dropping the 8 back to play as an 8 and adding ESR to the attack. Will we see such attacking balance as often as it will be needed this season?
stats do count there have always been stattos in the game because there’s no avoiding it! Like, Goals!! Points!!!
I have more hope for Pepe if he’d get played more often during games in the PL against deep lying defences off the left as it’d suit his more instinctive game IMO.
Saka still regaining fitness form and confidence though the England goal and that turn on the goal will help him settle into the season.
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Not an easy for Niles be teleported into the centre of a PL midfield battle with hardly any minutes or pre-season after publicly asking for a transfer for not playing.
for simply not making any big errors when clearly not match fit or focused he deserves a decent round of appreciation. Yes in context a good performance. Awful management. With Partey back and the new RB settling in well and combing with White as described on the podcast where and when will he play next? No one knows!
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Tfl VAR gave the goal because of the keepers touch as before that it had hit Pepe again the defender was irrelevant.
However once the goal was given you have to say that it was Saka who made the decisive move of the match beating his man in a dangerous area and then making a proper “key” pass.
Once again with stats saying each player made key passes and created chances and then if you have watched the game you know that cannot be the case because in reality we didn’t have that many real chances.
TBH I’m getting really fed up with these unreal stats that are distorting what we are actually watching before our eyes and it seems to be more for those who enjoy talking about the game rather than watching it.
Strangely enough I love history, economics and statistics but in football they seem to be bollocks most of the time. (Sorry Shotts no offense)
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Burnley allowed by the PGMOL’s finest Martin Atkinson to kick lumps out of Everton tonight, expect more of that on Saturday
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I’ll take anchor for the week ahead in the sheltered hope of those substitutions.
In the promising young players both new and graduates. a more attacking balance when compared to last season, when needed, and the hope that arteta did not avoid the helpful stats on this area (goals for and against IBSF). on current form and with the AFTV crew rinsing and repeating their dirge mantra on that awful Bleebing organ once again then Arteta needs this hope more then anyone else! A goal or dare we hope two at Burnley? Would take a brave punter to put out on two goals for the Arsenal away to Burnley, not sure I would recommend such speculation. But I can hope!
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I hate to say it but I’m expecting a ‘not that type of player ‘ type scenario against Burnley Thug FC. Hope against hope it’s not ESR or Saka on the receiving end.
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Going into the Burnley game I fully expect us to lose.
I expect us to be kicked up and down the park. The pigmol to do nothing about it. Instead we would probably get a yellow or 5, possibly a red to boot. And concede a penalty.
Hardly optimistic but that’s the only way I can approach our games now.
Gone are the days when you felt the game was won before even a ball was kicked.
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Mike Dean for Ref? Atkinson on VAR Fatty Moss as assistant
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Strangely enough Im quite confident, Burnley tend to win and lose in patches and I think their on abit of a losing streak at the moment.
We have played poorly in all four games but I still have hope we can start producing better.
The difficulty is not being able to predict Mikel’s eleven gives little chance of an accurate prediction.
Burnley is a great game to go for away supporters with Burnley opening the cricket ground next door for a great drinking and singing session, they a la so do great pies.
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Match officials for the Burnley game are
Referee: Andre Marriner.
Assistants: Scott Ledger, Eddie Smart.
Fourth official: Anthony Taylor.
VAR: Kevin Friend.
Assistant VAR: Matthew Wilkes
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Is the club no longer producing The Breakdown videos of each league match? Figures that they would not want to invite too close analysis.
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Meanwhile we at AFC are sitting bottom of the league & are a laughing stock in English football. Arsene Wenger is shaping the future of world football with his proposal of world cup and Euros every 2 years. A very bright idea imo cutting down players long traveling times and reducing meaningless friendlies.
Remember for 2 decades AFC was contender for a top4 finish and even were called favorites to win the league in some seasons.
See how time changes when you start following people who are fools and are over ambitious with zero sense of the factual situation on ground.
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‘There may be bumps, but I see bright light ahead’
Rob Kelly 16 Sep 2021
Mikel Arteta
Despite a tough start to the season, Mikel Arteta has never lost his innate confidence in his team and his optimism that things would soon turn around.
Now that we’re up and running after beating Norwich, our manager revealed how he dealt with those difficult times.
“Life brings you things and you cannot decide it,” Arteta said. “There are certain things that you cannot control. What is coming to you is coming for a reason. Sometimes we don’t want to see it, but it’s coming for a reason – and it’s probably for the right reason.
“Then it’s about how you take it and how you respond to that. The way that everyone around me responded is the way that I responded. That’s why it’s been fine.
“It’s tough because it hurts, because you want to see something different. But what you want is not always what happens. Things happen for a reason and maybe what is happening had to happen and [maybe] it’s going to be really good for the club and really good for myself and everybody experiencing that situation. We have to believe that.
“When I was a player, I made a decision in my career because I had a personal issue with my parents,” he continued. “I decided to go to my former club, Real Sociedad, and that was tough because I had other opportunities, but I did it to be at home next to them, because I thought that was important.
“I suffered. I didn’t play – I was on the bench and I always said that was the key moment in my career to have more success after. I don’t know how you measure success but to enjoy [it] more, to go to bigger clubs and do that, that was the right moment. Everybody that made those decisions, and the experiences that I had there, it was the right thing that I needed in that moment.
“At that moment, I couldn’t see it. I was annoyed, upset, angry. I was really bad with myself and everybody but, today looking back at it and reflecting on it, it was the perfect moment in the right time.”
So, having gained our first three points of the season against Norwich, how confident is Mikel feeling about the future now?
“I can really see the light,” he said. “I’m telling you I’m very positive most of the time. I’ve seen the light and I can see bright lights. There can be bumps in the road within that light, but I can see a lot of light.”
Copyright 2021 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
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Arteta telling the fans about the light
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This whole light thing and deep philosophical musings by Arteta is a bit cringe for me. It all sounds a bit contrived with the whole it’s been the best period of my career thing. And he does come across as a bit too eager to please. Just concentrate and get the basics right is enough. Solve the actual problems on the pitch like scoring a goal or two for example, addressing we are so shite at corners, having a pressing tactic that doesn’t involve one or two players running around like headless chickens while others are dropping back to halfway line, and how about using players in their right positions and none of these crazy pep like ideas of playing Xhaka at left back or Kolasinac at centre back, so a bit less talking and a lot more doing would be appreciated.
And congratulations to the club for extending Karl Heins contract looks like he is leapfrogging Arthur Okonkwo as he gets to play in international games thus getting big time experience
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900ft, I have been wondering about the Match Breakdowns, or lack, of them as well, not sure what’s going on there, always took quite an interest in them
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Maybe Adrian can’t do breakdowns any more because he can’t work out what the fucks going on.
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New post is up, such as it is.
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Maybe they were stopped cos they were critical. That would not surprise me
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