Good morning positives, how are you doing?
As if losing last night wasn’t enough, no Birdkamp today, so that leaves me to spout my inane nonsense, so don’t be expecting me to tell you anything you don’t know or didn’t see.
We lost a home game to a team I believe to be the best in the world. However, judging from the meltdown on social media, you might think we had been thrashed by a non-league pup team from the heart of Tottenham, with huge swathes of our fanbase behaving like demented toddlers that got the wrong Christmas present. Quite frankly, the reaction has been nothing short of pathetic. Sadly though, it was entirely predictable from the emotionally stunted morons.
I though it was an even start to the game , with us just shading it, until The Emperor hit a horribly short back pass for KDB to pounce upon and shin with his weak leg into the top corner. This of course instantly turned last years successful Japanese signing into the worst player we have and he should never represent the club again. Or so I was reading on twitter. For the rest of the half i thought we were very good. Jorginho and Xhaka completely bossed the game and in the 5 years of Pep, I’ve never witnessed City so comprehensively outplayed. Eddie earned us a rightly given penalty, which Saka dispatched with aplomb, and we went into the break with the very least we deserved.
City had been reduced to time wasting while kicking lumps out of our lad, in particular, Silva had 4 bookable fouls before he eventually was carded just before halftime. I say again, I’ve never before seen Pep’s City side reduced to playing second fiddle with possession and having to resort to thuggery. What came after the break seems to have made people forget just how good our young guns were before it.
However, in the second half things went badly wrong. To me we were pushing to hard, trying to be just too cure, and twice it cost us goals. As good as Xhaka had been before the break, he started to misplace passes, over hit ball and make some wrong decisions. Odegaard went AWOL and the control of midfield we had had, was no more.
Over the course of the game we made a few chances that we didn’t convert and we gifted them 3 chances that the did convert. The idea that we played badly a notion that I really can’t understand. This was a brave effort against a team that most others fear to take on in a game of football.
If we play as well as that until the end of the season we will still be in the mix for the big prize. I’m hugely proud of the way we took the game to them and like Mikel, I think I now have even more belief that we can hold up and keep our challenge going.
Although it’s disappointing to lose, remember, we have gone from a side that City simply brushed asise, to a team that van not only stand up to them, but actually put them on the back foot for most of a game.
Chin up.
Pedantic George (@arseblagger)
Positively Arsenal 
Thanks for doing it George, I thought you were fair in yr assessment of the game. Going into it I didnt expect to win or lose but knew both were possibilities,(you donr say?) but at HT I thought we might win it, but we were beaten by a classy side( despite Silvas booting of Saka which wasn’t classy and tbh Silva should have been off in the 1st half). I felt Tomis booking was total bs in the 2nd half as if to put pressure on him(?) Some of Taylor reffing was pretty pants…
Grealish kind of nudged Tomi when he was about to boot it back which may have messed up his physics? Personally I love Tomi and think hes a top defender, ( but I like Lee Dixon so maybe my opinion is less valid) but perhaps he shouldn’t have been put under that pressure in the first place but it unlike him to make mistakes. But there was a good response by the crowd to get him going again.
Im surprised he (Tomi)hasn’t been blamed for the Grealish goal, (everyone was all over the shop for that one)but City have the power to pull all players out of position. They are a great side with a top squad.The best side in the league. But as you pointed out most of our lads were making mistakes in the 2nd half. Its unusual for Xhaka to have a bad half, in fact I cant think of the last time he did.
Ok its normal, people and players make mistakes (even if aftv are unforgiving), and if Artetas smart he can calmly get on it and work through it with the lads. It will always be a mystery as to why we lost shape, form and confidence in the 2nd half, maybe Pep sussed something?
Shame we really did well in the first half, and theres a lot to be taken from that?
Plus City havent won it yet and we have a game in hand. I think we have Villa next(?), it will be tough but it would be great to bounce back.
Fkn top penalty from Saka,( loads of pressure on him to score/miss) shame Eddie didnt convert his chances as he would would have been elevated to another level by the old socials. First time I really missed Jesus. Martinellis get left in the cold a bit esp in the 2nd half and Zos cuts often inside sometimes a bit too much?
Darth Haarlands goal was magic, fk hes quick, Gabs had no chance. What a goal, that guys lethal.
Its a shame to lose but plenty to get interested in.
COYG!
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I don’t think Xhaka had a bad half but he, like the rest of the side, was loose in places.
I know city like to put pressure on players but I generally we were pretty sloppy.
In the ten minutes before the second goal we consistently lost the ball with easy passes on. The start of the second goal was Gabriel giving away an absolute Sunday league pass.
We did play well in patches but overall the 101 minutes wasn’t a good performance.
Strangely city didn’t play well either and you would assume that was down to us.
Although we have been effected by officials the second half of the season has not been our best form.
The next two away games have now become very important
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Agree with PG, we were just beaten by the biggest club in the world and the world’s best 22, for whom there is never an injury crisis and only ever well-seasoned world class alternatives if any should be below par or struggling.
We gifted two of their goals and refused to accept any reciprocity that was on offer in return. Ed confirmed his inability to head the ball (twice) and a disinclination to put a player in a better position in on goal (once). It has to be said all of our shooting from range over at least the last 3 games has been pants. As in Row Z Pants.
Despite all that, we dominated the first half and they dominated the second. Play to that standard the rest of the season and we are still in with a real chance especially with the return to life of Jesus. Remember, Pep is mainly interested in winning the CL before he probably scarpers the inevitable day of reckoning for the 100 charges relating to his abominably assembled £1B squad.
Incidentally I thought the much maligned Jorginho did very well and Trossard continues to please. One more decent summer transfer window should equip us with the squad depth we still clearly lack, which is very exciting. Jorginho and Trossard’s acquisition suggests we have yet to lose our eye for a decent transfer, so the big picture looks terrific, in my view.
Onwards to those pesky Villans.
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We all know city have the best resources in the world but they weren’t at their best on Wednesday.
While it’s we great we celebrate our good passages of play we have to accept our flaws.
We made so many mistakes in the first half and to say we dominated the first half is really a statement of a supporter rather than a football analyst.
Both teams weren’t at their best and mistakes ruled the day.
In fact the best ball of the game was Xhaka’s little chip that won us the pen.
The anomalies with the ref and the city bench did have major influence on the game.
However going forward we can’t be slack against sides that press in midfield and higher and whoever our main striker is we cannot give them just two headers in a game and call them wasteful. If you look at all the top strikers most need three chances at least per goal.
If you contrast Eddie to MO it was the latter who give the ball away more.
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we have 16 games left to play in the EPL, if we win 14 of them and draw 2 we win the league regardless of what any other team does, its still in our own hands. I’m more worried about what the PGMOL will do than I am about what Man City or Man Utd will, and that is a sad reflection on the EPL and how its run.
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Just read that Lee Mason has left his position as VAR by mutual consent.
If true, a ref has lost his job over a “ blunder” against Arsenal . Not sure of that will make the PGMOL wary of doing similar to the club, or just out to get them even more, suspect the latter
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seen a tweet earlier about when Lee Mason got promoted to the PGMOL list, and Neill Warnock sent him a congratulations message, saying that his club (who were in the Championship) was delighted as they would not have to put up with his inept performances again
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Good old Neil Warnock, in general says it as it is!
Makes you wonder why Riley tolerated such ineptitude, though I’m sure he had his reasons
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Anyone have any thoughts on todays game? I havent a clue, could go either way or no way. Which is basically no insight whatsoever, good jb Im not a pundit.
Unai will want to prove something and we will be feeling wounded,( by a run of less-than-wanted form and of bad reffing decisions) but I dont feel like this is set up like the Leaver Dyche wall of hate game at Everton…
Even if we shuffle and scrape a win it would be great.
COYG!
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I think if we don’t win it today in the first half, we will struggle, given only 2 & 1/2 days rest. And yes, I am getting excuses in early.
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Good point George. I hope Arteta has instilled even a small bit of confidence in the lads in (as you point out) the short amount of turn around time.. It will be interesting to see how we start off, hard and fast or feeling wobbly and negative or wandering and aimless.
I also wondered how long it might take to the team to adjust to J20 and Trossard, bringing in reinforcements was a great idea but we had slogged on under anther set up. Of course thats football and adjustment and understanding is all every side is trying to achieve, he said adding nothing new.
Be nice to win today and irritate the critical vultures!
COYG!
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grrrr!
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get fkn in there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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bah!
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Again we are not defending from the front although there were several errors for the second goal you cannot let a player pick up the ball in his own box and run a long way and allowed to play a ball unchecked to his forward players.
This is a million miles away from what we were doing earlier in the season.
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As usual the ref and VAR are asleep with pens not being looked at. The one with Xhaka in an arm particularly obvious.
When you’re not playing well you need these being called.
COYG.
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Come on you Gunners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!
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Thats it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Magical second half!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COYG! COYG! Smoke that one City!!!!!
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What a second half
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Much, much better 2nd half. The biz. Back in the hunt for the league. A big win.Phew!
COYG!
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City draw oh happy day
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When you are having a run of poor form or results sometimes you just need something to go your way to turn it round.
Although we go to an in form Leicester next week this could be the thing we need to give us some time and confidence to kick on again.
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Loving Millso’s onomatopoeic commentary. Who’d a thought City would stumble the moment the momentum was with them, or that Chelsea, clear winners of the JTW trophy would lose out to Southampton at home. Almost as if winning games in the Premier League is actually quite hard. (As Arsene predicted it would be a few years ago when few cared to listen.)
All we can know right now is we have a group of players who seem to be trying their hardest and seem very keen to keep on doing so.
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15 games to go, 10 wins and a draw is the maximum we need for a top 4 finish, 14 wins is the maximum we need to win the title
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a bad day for chelsea teams, their first team lost 1-0 to southampton, their u18’s lost 4-1 to Arsenal, and their u16’s lost 3-2 to Arsenal, all 3 games were home games for cfc
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Jeorge Bird@jeorgebird
Brian Okonkwo starts for Hitchin v Nuneaton. He becomes the first of Arsenal’s 2022 scholars to make his senior debut. It’s also nice that he makes his senior debut in the same season as his brother Arthur.
the game ended 1-1
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New post is up
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