Hello Positives.
A good win and more importantly, a decent performance against Brentford has lifted the spirits and keeps us in contention for the top 4 trophy. Sadly Spurs and United also won, so the status quo is maintained. In this podcast we admire how the 3 sections of the team, Defence, Midfield and attack are functioning well as units, but the team play overall is still lagging behind.
The role of the much maligned Lacazette is considered and we discuss how we should not be doing anything as a fanbase, to make the job more difficult for Arteta of any of the players.
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
Loan report – Ballard back in action; Runarsson keeps clean sheet; Norton-Cuffy features
by jeroge bird
Daniel Ballard was back in action after injury, with the defender coming on in the 64th minute as Millwall beat Sheffield United 1-0.
Folarin Balogun was brought on at the start of the second half as Middlesbrough lost 3-2 to Barnsley.
Brooke Norton-Cuffy played 90 minutes as Lincoln City lost 2-0 to Gillingham.
Jordan McEneff came on in the 68th minute as Shelbourne won 2-0 against Drogheda United.
Nikolaj Moller started and played 81 minutes as Den Bosch drew 0-0 with De Graafschap.
Matt Smith played the whole game and was booked as Doncaster Rovers drew 2-2 with AFC Wimbledon.
Alex Runarsson played the whole game and kept a clean sheet as OH-Leuven drew 0-0 with Anderlecht.
Hector Bellerin played the full game as Real Betis lost 2-1 to Sevilla.
Jordi Osei-Tutu was brought on in the 61st minute as Rotherham United beat Plymouth Argyle 1-0.
Matteo Guendouzi and William Saliba both played 90 minutes as Marseille drew 1-1 with Troyes.
Pablo Mari played 90 minutes as Udinese drew 1-1 with AC Milan.
Konstantinos Mavropanos played the entirety of Stuttgart’s 2-1 defeat to Hoffenheim.
Lucas Torreira was brought on in the 84th minute as Fiorentina lost 2-1 to Sassuolo.
Auston Trusty played the whole game as Colorado Rapids lost 3-0 to Los Angeles, for whom former Gunner Carlos Vela scored a hat-trick.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles was an unused substitute as Roma beat Spezia 1-0.
Tim Akinola was an unused substitute as Dundee United drew 1-1 with Aberdeen.
Reiss Nelson missed out through injury as Feyenoord were beaten 2-1 by AZ.
Karl Hein didn’t play in Reading’s 4-1 loss to Blackpool after suffering ligament damage in his finger following a fall at home. He could be out for six weeks.
Injury meant that Ryan Alebiosu didn’t feature as Crewe Alexandra beat Cheltenham Town 2-1.
Harry Clarke didn’t play due to injury as Hibernian drew 0-0 with Celtic.
Tyreece John-Jules didn’t play in Sheffield Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Charlton Athletic due to injury.
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Thank goodness Usamov dropped his shares when he did. Interesting Lampard stance on VAR.
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Wouldn’t like to play Everton in the next couple of games as all refs and officials will be told to give the toffees “the benefit of the doubt” on all occasions.
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isn’t it amazing how quickly and publicly the PGMOL have responding to Lampard and Everton’s concerns, yet we have years and years of their bias performances in our games and not one single word of apology from them, maybe we need fat frank as our manager if we want them to view us evenly
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Our under-23s are back in Premier League 2 action on Friday night – and you can watch the game LIVE on Arsenal.com.
Kevin Betsy’s side are currently third in the table with nine wins from 20 matches and trail the league leaders, Manchester City, by 10 points with a game in hand.
Our opponents, Tottenham Hotspur, finished third in the PL2 last season and currently sit in sixth place with only one win from their last six league outings.
Join us on Arsenal.com and Twitch from 7pm (UK time) on Friday for our free live coverage of the match.
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not sure if any of the rest of you have noticed the latest bit of nonsense Arsenal fans spout to not only exaggerate Arteta’s “achievements” but to belittle Wenger’s. Namely the little “take as fact” that the standard of all teams in the EPL is now way better, as in the lower teams are now full of quality players too, and that anyone can beat anyone, that the lower teams beat the better teams more often, etc etc.
This to me seemed wrong, so I decided to take a look at EPL Tables from now to right back to the Invincibles season. And its a whole load of bollocks. The remarkable thing is actually how similar the points totals of the relegated clubs and those who fought relegation are, season upon season. The age old adage that 40pts is a magic mark for avoiding relegation holds now as much as it did back then.
And just to further enhance the point that the tables are by and large the same for the near 20 years I looked at, 48pts to 52pts was in almost all seasons the total that would get a team 10th place.
This whole soundbite about the league being so much stronger below the top five or six teams is just another one of those fallacies that gets repeated so much it becomes taken as fact, goes unquestioned. Well next time you hear or see anyone throw it out there, tell them they haven’t a fucking clue.
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ha ha ha spurs are out of the fa cup
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Yep great to see another season the spuds go trophyless although they will now have nothing to distract them from league games.
I also want to see Ballagon score the winner.
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a director of Marseille has confirmed Guendouzi is signing permanently for them on a 3 year deal
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Ed, I’m not so sure that I totally agree with you on the strength of the league. I am sure I can remember Arsene saying that these days there were a lot more good players about from all over the world due to better coaching programmes. And I think it is also probably true that with the amount of money now in the Premier League most clubs can afford at least first teams of very good players. I suspect also that the general level of managers and coaching is more even, given the rise of analytics etc.
But what I do think is ridiculous is this whole ‘Arteta is better than Wenger’ thing – or indeed vice versa. Wenger was brilliant, and would be so whatever era he coached in: I ahve not the slightest doubt of his ability not only to adapt, but also to be at the forefront of innovation. I happen to think (and I know I am in a minority here) that Arteta may prove to be a brilliant manager in time. Surely it is possible to have time for both of them?
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foreverheady there may be more good players at the lower clubs, but the bigger clubs have all got better too, and at the same percentage the lower clubs have if not more, that is my point, the stats show that the 3 relegated clubs will now just like 20 years ago have less than 40 points, the teams bang smack in the middle of the table will have in or around 50 points, so where is this mythical evening out of the league, its about as evened out as the uk has under the tories, but just like the tories its a damn good soundbite, but its just that, a soundbite, its a fallacy
don’t get me wrong, the game might be improved overall, but that is what happens over time, take a look at the standard of the game in the 70’s or 80’s, it was walking pace compared to now, but does that mean Best, Brady, Zico, Maradona, Cryuff, etc etc were not brilliant, no, it means they were the very best of their time.
But the gaps between the better teams now is still the same sort of gap it was 20, 30. 40 years ago. But stupid cunt bloggers with an agenda would like to convince us otherwise, but not with data, or stats, but with nothing more than an unopposed opinion, and anyone who dissents is shouted down by their eager followers. oddly but not surprising as so many of them used this tactic to hound out wenger
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Arsenal women v reading women is now live on BBC3
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So Roman is officially selling chelski probably to someone like Saudi Arabia who are currently bombing Yeman (with our bombs and expertise) or a billionaire from the US who since the second world war have either started or been involved in 83% of conflicts.
So it’s great we are finally trying to get rid of dirty russian money (although the conservatives are not giving back the 2 billion in donations from Russians lobbyists) we are prepared to accept dirty money from anywhere else.
It is a real shit stain on our country that we are one of the world’s biggest money laundering markets.
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Lol Ian, you and me would have been mates in any era.
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yes ian, and it seems roman is not looking for the £1.5bn in loans that he made to CFC to keep them within FFP rules are to be written off, so that his buying of success for CFC will not be mentioned.
its absolutely disgraceful that the so called sanctions imposed by the UK government actually are so weak he can sell CFC for a few billion quid, and write off another 1.5bn.
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afcstuff
@afcstuff
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2h
Stuttgart have agreed to buy Dinos Mavropanos regardless of their possible relegation. Stuttgart paid a €500k loan fee & have an obligation to buy him for €3m next summer, however, Arsenal have a sell-on clause in the deal, likely to be in the region of 10%. [@ChrisWheatley_
]
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We seem to have got lucky in the F.A. cup draw even though we are not in it.
Southampton have drawn city and had they won the tie we would have another game postponed.
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Wow even the government are showing their bias (though I think it might have more to do with Tory donations than football bias)
Usmanov has a travel ban and his assets frozen while Abramavich (who is a close ally of Putin, has links with the KGB and was allegedly a Siberian mafia boss) has just a few warnings and is given time to sell up and to get as much money out of the country as possible.
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Unbelievable news to lose both Rod Marsh and Shane Warne in close order. I can’t believe Shane has gone 52 is no age. I’m sure Tim will give us a more in depth homage to the pair.
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Arsenal U23s v Tottenham u23’s: Graczyk, Walters, Kirk, Ogungbo, Olayinka, Henry-Francis, Azeez, Lopez, Flores, Hutchinson, Biereth.
Subs: Hillson, Sousa, Ibrahim, Ideho, Butler-Oyedeji.
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HT: 2-1
Flores and Biereth with our goals
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FT: Arsenal u23’s 2-1 spurs u23’s
Flores and Biereth with our goals,
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Rod Marsh a standard Aussie legend. Shane Warne the greatest spin bowler that has ever played. Changed the game forever. Rock star iconoclast. Somehow appropriate that he died too soon. Wouldn’t have wanted to see him as an old fogie. Only the good die young.
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Also the best Aussie Captain they never had I reckon. Loved listening to him talk the game. Some really fascinating stuff about how he out thought batsmen and could still put the ball exactly where he wanted. Lucky to have watched him in his prime, though was a nervous wreck when he was bowling in the ashes
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Well chelski are losing their 20 year sugar daddy and lost two league cups all within a week.
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Interesting about Chelsea. Thing is, they were close to going out of business before RA, but with the foundation of his cash, they should at least be sustainable unless they are complete idiots, which spending near £100m on 7 toucher Lukaku suggests they may be.
I suspect they will be on a slow downward trajectory, could win one or two trophies in the mean time for their proven classy fans , but the way is down.
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Can’t see that myself RA has not only spent millions on the pitch but in every area of the club. The youth set up is the best in the country by a long way, training facilities and hospitality are top notch he even spent over 300,000 on a specially designed coach for away matches that has massage benches etc on it.
They say there are at least ten bids from billionaires all of which would take quite a while to dismantle the club.
Ironically most bids are from the US, the money laundering experts of the world who are currently bombing Somalia, are supporting Israel in their land grab of Palestine and have started or been involved in 83% of conflicts since WW2.
But there you go some aggressors we like some we don’t.
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Back to us and the importance of today game, although we still have to play chelski, Liverpool,spuds, manure and the hammers these so called smaller games are still must wins in the battle for forth.
Old Woy is a clever manager and will have a few suprise wins between now and the end of the season, obviously we need to make sure we put on a strict disciplined performance today to put pressure on manure and spuds in the next two days.
I think West ham have to much ground to make up on two many teams now so I’m hoping a win today would rule them out of the running for fourth.
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Can’t see the officials allowing us to win this one, especially with United playing later.
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The relatively gentle schedule in February was very good for these Arsenal youngsters many of whom benefitted in my opinion, Saka and Gabriel in particular.
ESR is a miss but fortunately Martinelli & Pepe can score goals! The RB is the bigger miss.
0-0 for Watford in their last game against Utd,
Roy will be up for this game
COYG
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Arsenal: Ramsdale, Cedric Soares, White, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey, Xhaka, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Lacazette.
Subs: Leno, Holding, Pepe, Tavares, Lokonga, Elneny, Nketiah, Swanson, Hutchinson.
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Watford: Foster, Femenia, Cathcart, Samir, Kamara, Cleverley, Louza, Sissoko, Cucho Hernandez, Denis, Joao Pedro.
Subs: Bachmann, Etebo, Masina, Sema, Kabasele, Kalu, Sierralta, Kucka, Kayembe
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1-0 to the Arsenal, Odegaard with the goal
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1-1, Hernandez with a wonder goal
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Saka with a wonder goal of his own, to make it 2-1 to the Arsenal
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The left side of our defense is way off so far. But final third work has been very good.
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3-1 to the Arsenal, Martinelli with a fine strike, he had for me been poor so far today, but a great finish, Lacazette with his second assist of the game
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pepe on for martinelli
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nketiah on for lacazette
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very poor defending and watford have pulled it back to 3-2
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holding on for odegaard
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5 minutes of stoppage time to be played
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FT: Watford 2-3 Arsenal
Odegaard, Saka and Martinelli with the goals that see AFC up to 4th in the table.
a well deserved win, but we were a bit open at the back today
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Absolutely had to win that one to state top-4 credentials, and we did. But we made it a lot harder than it needed to be.
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Excellent result. Some great moments and a few sketchy ones. Think had Xhaka played to his normal high standard it would have been a lot more comfy. Wouldn’t be surprised if he turns out to have been unwell.
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That United result useful for is in the grand scheme of things. Should the unthinkable happen and United fail to get European football then it could lead to a bit of a melt down.
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Again it pains me to point this out but four hours after an interesting away win that has seen the team progress in their Europe ambitions (i still think top 6 more likely than top 4) the silence seems deafening on this ‘positive’ site.
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Because the league cup and what looks like the F.A cup going to top of the table sides seventh will qualify for Europe so manure will qualify for something because of wolves dropping away.
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In an alternative multiverse where the Yorkshire Handicap was nowt more then a figment of Farage’s fetishes I’d have put a healthy punt down at the Thai bookies on the Gunners beating Chelski to 3rd.
In this world, it’s a trickier call.
As always up against these stinking odds getting into top four will be a great achievement same as it always was. If Utd continue to implode and with the Gunners benefitting in the league from their early exits in the cups then the appreciation of Arteta as a lucky manager (luck is good!) will be a popular understanding.
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Foreverheady.
Could it be that people feel that the result was excellent, albeit against a team that has
lost its last 7 home games and is second from bottom in the league, being a game that, in the end, we scraped through by the skin of our teeth, having mustered 4 shots on target, 3 of which were excellent goals, whilst Watford had 5 shots on target, requiring Ramsdale to make saves.
Being used to hearing commentators including Alan Smith waxing lyrical about how bad our performance usually is, it was strange to hear how positive they were when we could see that it was somewhat underwhelming.
If that was our best performance the season, as suggested, then the rest just have been real rubbish.
Let us take away the good result for what it was and not dwell on how well we did or did not play.
We were given a good run for our money by a poor team and let us leave it at that.
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