Hello! And on the off chance you sometimes still look in here…as you know the seasons back again! And if you start a blog like that no wonder the blog o’ sphere is more blocked than Old Toilet itself.
Being the start of the season its expected that I run through the signings and speculate on what will be and give you some scoop or valuable oblique insight, but it can only be speculation and that’s wasting my time and yours, plus I don’t have any kind of scoop or oblique insight to share and its much more interesting surely( don’t call me Shirley) that we shall see in our own time how new players will fit in and who will fly to new nests having said goodbye to the mighty Cannon. Anyway, the season doesn’t really seem to get moving until October starts creeping in, which in these dog days of August seems unlikely to ever happen.Until it does.
Really I wanted to write something in order to open up the comments section which closed automatically, as it seems a bit sad things have ground to a point and closed up like a necropolis and no chance of reading comments from the other side.
Personally I love the routine of the football season, and as much as the summer football festivals, baseball or speedway try, they don’t fill the empty space left behind during the summer. The Olympics did to a degree in our house and at times there seemed a lot of sportspersonship/ camaraderie and friendliness that seems missing in the world (or the world of the internet for sure) and the pole-vaulters seemed to exemplify that the most?
So its good to have football back. I don’t trust the preseason games as indicators of how things will be, and who knows the effect of the case against City will have on the season?And that’s what makes the fresh starts interesting, that we just don’t know…
There is a sense of expectancy though that this might be the year that Arsenal win the league again, but then we expect it every year until we run out of logical hope!
COYG and keep on keepin’ on!
Mills
If anyone is interested in doing some writing dor the blog, please let me know, be it previews,reviews of occasional articles.
George.
Positively Arsenal 
Yep the new season is upon us and just like previous seasons the first six games are a step into the unknown. For those trying to predict the future there is no form guide to base an opinion on and for a lot of sides even the starting eleven will be unpredictable
Our first six games are, on paper, a lot harder than the previous two but start well and other parts of the season where we have struggled should be easier especially the run in.
So far we have only made one significant signing however when you consider the poor start our big three signings made last year the side looks a lot more settled going into this opening campaign.
It is always difficult to tell, before all business has finished but if Eddie,Reiss and Aaron join Mo and ESR out of the club then the squad will look worse unless we bring in significant replacements in the next eighteen days.
We have promoted a couple of youngsters nearer to the bench but there have been big outgoings of the fringe youngsters as well. When this happens and it’s not the clubs choice then it’s not a good look.
Most of our competitors have all spent big this summer but at the moment it certainly looks like our team dynamic is greater than the individuals others are bringing in.
You would imagine the second half of the season is where some of these teams will start to gel and so getting a good head start in the first half will be vital.
This all points to an even more competitive league and maybe a winner with a points total smaller than in previous seasons. Obviously the team who finishes above city will be favourites to lift the crown.
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Nice one Millsy. Always exciting to look forward to a new season. Like you I’m not satisfied by the bland diet of tournament football nor particularly interested in synchronised swimming competitions.
I get turned on by the competitive cut and thrust of the league, of the FA Cup, the European Cup and even the League Cup. Although the latter was much more exciting when Arsène would field a team of kids, and we’d all marvel at their progress past older, more experienced sides.
The modern era is less enjoyable for many reasons. The remorseless, possibly illegal, certainly immoral, successes of The Oil City represents the logical conclusion of the era of financial doping introduced by Chelsea which did so much to destroy the beautiful dominance of the First Age Of Wenger.
We now face a pitiless, grinding attempt to overtake the loveless football machine which so despoils the landscape. Wonderful exciting talent is brought in then cast aside in an attritional war to find the tiniest advantage. And we as fans are told we can’t support with our hearts any more but only with our heads. It doesn’t matter if we love a player, feel a visceral connection to him, if the management see a 1% improvement elsewhere he will be discarded, benched, loaned and sold.
I don’t blame Mikel. It’s the cold reality of trying to win the league today. I support the Arsenal because I always have. It’s as crazy and illogical a thing as I’ve ever done and I accept it’ll always be there. But increasingly I find myself watching reruns of the days when our manager would say his favourite moments were when his players were playing with smiling faces. When he could just sit back and watch them enjoying themselves. Those are my favourite moments too. Football transcending sport and becoming art.
Here’s to the new season, here’s to hope. Here’s to the love of the beautiful game and the moments of beauty it can still produce.
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Thanks Stew. Great points in your post; like you, Im not sure sure I can support the Arsenal from the head, only with the heart, which makes me alienated I suppose, or just coming from another era?
“Oi Grandad! Wot the fk du you want?”
“erm, loads of money and a week in a whore house: I can’t understand why you would even ask that you young roister doister!”
Sometimes I shocked when I hear other fans talking about players, almost as if they’re no longer human but just ‘useful until otherwise’… They would say I have got a clue or Im sentimental. And I might say the same, and that they could do with some compassion. Perhaps that’s the pluralistic nature of things living side by side, there’s going to be conflicts as some values and ideas can’t live in harmony?
Im not going to be able to change though! LOL!
For me the most devastating element of the doping years was in the FAC, where there was always that fools hope of winning a game. And of course, we were many times on the wrong side of it, but even as humiliating as it was, many times ( but not always) I didn’t begrudge other fanbases its moment of glory despite sulking about it for some weeks.Or years. Or decades.
Plus in the FAC final a team might still have a chance, now its seems not so as the gap is far too wide? It just doesn’t seem the old classic, epic slug-it-out big Wembley pitch-tired but still fighting game it used to be. And we’ve all lost out on that one. But Im sure that people might argue that a loss there was a win somewhere else?
But as you say…here’s hoping!
COYG!
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Well this is a nice little trio of commentators, I must say.
I will do my best to write some more this season, rather than just publishing the podcasts, but I have to admit I’m better suited to one liners than 500+ words.
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I’ll do the Villa game George, and hopefully the Seaweed and the Chickens too. Just short pieces though, to keep things going; no problem for me to be subbed off though if anyone with smarter shooting boots than mine wants a go.
COYG!
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as things stand with the arrivals and departures the squad look weaker than last season, couple of weeks to put that right, but any dropped points can’t be re won.
interesting rumor, a possible replacement for Ramsdale if he leaves might actually be Szczesny who it seems has terminated his contract with Juventus by mutual consent.
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Ed, I think the Szczesny rumour is just wishful thinking from the fanbase as I would be very surprised if he goes anywhere as a number two.
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well ian doesn’t arteta keep telling us that whoever plays well will get in and stay in as long as they play good enough
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Emile, Bernd and Alex take on Man United this evening. I still can’t believe Emile wasn’t given his opportunity for us. Absolutely wonderful player. I shall follow his Fulham progress with interest.
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Yes Steww, if he stays fit, we will live to regret his sale.
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Our 21’s beat manure 4-2 with KK back and scoring a brace. Nwaneri was the only youngster from pre-season not to play so maybe he will be on the bench today. Because of the news rules around naming the team, we will find out 75 minutes before kick off instead of the usual 60.
It would be nice to see our new signing, Timber, at some point today maybe giving a clue to his effect on our season, which could be very important.
Opening games are always difficult as players get back up to speed with the rigors of proper combat.
Three points with no injuries is the order of the day with performance coming only as a bonus COYG.
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Dreadful game to open the season last night. Poor Emile surrounded by lesser talents – it was painful to watch. I suppose it was a little more exciting towards the end as it lost all semblance of shape and order. The possibility of a break away goal from Fulham kept me half interested, but some bloke I’ve never heard of won it for Manure, who are doing their best to be hateful by having that loathsome cheat in their coaching team.
I expect zero surprises in our line up today. Hopefully we can raise the standard from yesterday’s dross.
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Raya
White
Saliba
Gabriel
Zinchenko
Partey
Odegaard
Rice
Saka
Havertz
Martinelli
Subs:
Ramsdale
Timber
Calafiori
Jorginho
Nelson
Nwaneri
Trossard
Jesus
Nketiah
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Havertz make it 1-0 to the Arsenal, a power header
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Saka makes it 2-0 to the Arsenal,
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