Hello and how are you?
Saturday the 14th of December sees the Mighty Cannon once again in action, this time at 3.00pm (western European time) against Everton FC at our Ashburton Grove HQ.
Over the course of my life I’m not sure how much I can truly say I’ve learnt, as often responses and considerations can fall apart as we are presented with new challenges? One day we can watch, read, eat things that we like and feel really inspired and excited, and the next day we can try the same formula and it just won’t work? This can be really frustrating, why we can’t repeat sensations exactly as they were? I have no explanation as to why, although all things are in a state of flux, often we can’t see it perhaps as daily life gets in the way, then we look around and the whole landscape has changed. Places gone, people gone, new places, new people.
Back in 1984 I had a small soft spot for Everton, I liked their kit, their players, I liked the city of Liverpool (but hadn’t been there) but not for one second ever Liverpool FC, but Everton seemed different? Don’t worry, I don’t expect anyone else to have such traitorous and daft a soft spots for other clubs and fully expect to be sent to the stocks!
My mates Dad was a milkman ( both hardcore Arsenal fans)and got free tickets for the Milk Cup final in 1984, as the League Cup was called that year.
Although spring was close it was cold,rainy and grey and horrible, I’d been to Wembley many times before, and had experienced being gobbed on by oddballs from Doncaster who ‘supported’ England and felt the urge to share and drench their fellow fans in spittle, witnessed a few internationals including watching a smart 1981 Brazil team, and going on the Wembley Stadium tour, coming out of the tunnel and lifting up a cup up just like dear old Pat Rice did back in ’79. But this game was something else. Speak false memory.
At that point I’d never been to Liverpool, to a little kid it seemed a mysterious place with unusual accents and here we were in the Everton (tunnel) end surrounded by a sea of blue scousers. Of course now perhaps such matters are normal and everyday, but back in them thar days critters didn’t travel much. I can recall the Specials talking about getting in a van to go down to London from Coventry was a major event like going to the end of the world.It seems a old timey joke now?
Back at the game: this match was a very big deal for them, first all Liverpudlian final, first Sunday final ever, high levels of unemployment and discontent in their city, Thatcher hating them and getting revenge on them as much as possible because they stood up to her, and somehow often disliked by the rest of the country; yet this was their day out, not just for regular fans but whole families with many members wearing both blue and red. I think many thought it would happen ever again.
Everyone around us seemed utterly assholed like they’d poured out from a Dickensian Gin house and into Wembley. The atmosphere was electric and every time Everton made an attack the sloshed-out Evertonians would come to life waiting for the moment of ecstasy as they hoped the ball would hit the back of the net. It didn’t come. It carried on raining. In my mind, I can still see Neville Southall making a save, I was right behind him, slightly to the right as I looked and about a block up. It all seemed in slow motion.
About a year ago the highlights of the game finally went up and I searched to see if I could see the moment, it wasn’t there or didn’t happen. Speak false memory! I would swear I saw it. So where did that come from? Grobbelaar? Some sort of compensation for not much action that day?
Chris Ware/John Kuramoto/Ira Glass examine this phenomena in the short animation ‘this American life animation from season 2’ in an articulate and more interesting detail than I can. Its on YT if you have any interest.
Anyway I don’t have any other pictures preserved in my mind (our memoires are singular images not films) of the game until after extra time the whistle had gone and both teams did a lap of honour, with the whole stadium, and I mean whole stadium united in a chorus of “Merseyside, Merseyside, Merseyside”, which made the hairs on your neck stand up. It was a remarkable moment in my footballing history.
As we shuffled back to the car I saw this kid talking to his Dad, now this kid wasn’t a scouser, but supported Everton and was explaining to his Dad that London clubs could never create such an atmosphere. Man, I got really irked by this and to this day don’t agree, as anyone whose been to a NLD knows.
At school on Monday we talked about the game with our mates and what is was like and recalled some of the songs we had heard, it was all a five minute wonder in the class room.
Everton lost the replay.Yet we still kept an eye out on that team for a while until like all sides they were eventually broken up. I saw both sides again (who got the tickets and why we even went I’m not sure) in the Charity shield at the beginning of the next season, this time down the bloody Liverpool end which wasn’t nearly as interesting and apart from the lap of honour, I have no memories of the game, which probably says it all?
Now? I have no relationship with Everton at all, I don’t like Goodison (old Archie Leitch again!) much anymore, although watching the drone footage of them building the new stadium has been interesting, if that’s yer kind of thing. How can this be? Affections fade? What was Everton in 1984 isn’t at all now, except in name? One day this works and the next day that? To sustain any kind of relationship needs small and attentive loving care? Zen and the art of football maintenance?
The Arsenal stayed always front and centre with me though, even in the barren, unhappy years before Mr Graham started the Arsenal revival.Is it still possible these days to have experiences that are bigger than us, that are really exciting, that stay with you throughout your life? A trip to Mars? It wasn’t Arsenal but it was a memorable, unrepeatable day- out.
Arsenal have a 77.8% chance of winning according to stat HQ and Everton only 7.2%. Arsenal proved last time out against Monaco that we can score in open play and also proved we can miss some sitters. But maybe if youre feeling more confident its easier to feel hungry and able to score and less susceptible to over thinking things? Everton are in 15th place.
I don’t expect us to lose this one, but a draw would be also another damaging result, so come on you Gunners!
Well that’s it, lots of bits and pieces that I’m sure have made you feel like going off and watching Ghost Theory on You Tube rather than reading this.
Even so, here’s to a great game for us and lucky horses!
COYG and keep on keepin’ on!
Mills
Positively Arsenal 
Thank you Mills. As ever, a wonderful start to my day. I always had a vague soft spot for Everton because they weren’t Liverpool. Back when Man City were a real football club I liked them for the same reason. They weren’t Man United.
Like you I’ve followed the drone footage of their new stadium, and it’s been a fascinating journey. Odd how their form has collapsed since they started building it.
For some reason they’ve been a thorn in our side on more than one occasion so when I think of them I like to remember that sunny season opener when we put 6 past them. I just checked and it was 2009. How the hell that was 15 years ago I cannot grasp.
My other treasured memory of the toffees is of course Arsène’s Arsenal beating their 11 man defence to clinch the title at Highbury. Tony Adams’ stunning strike is one of the greatest moments of my supporting life.
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Phew. Thanks Stew, I really thought I’d strayed into no go territory with this one. Its funny how we have relationships with all the other clubs, some a slight soft spot other utter dislike.
The Adams moment was cracker! Its true Everton were a pain in or Arsenal for many years up at Goodison. I’m sure Dyche will go for the draw and park the blue bus in front of out goal, but I feel confident we can win this one.
COYG!
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Another brilliant set up for hopefully another brilliant display by The ARSENAL.
I hated Goodison as a trip, although the ground wasn’t bad. The coppers would always escort you from the station or put you on buses and then push you in to the first part of the ground which was like a keep. The turnstiles to actually enter the stands were deliberately not open so you was trapped in the holding area.
The Everton fans knew this so would throw bricks and whatever debris they could find over the top, it was a nightmare.
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Apart from having to avoid the brick and debris missiles another great anecdote Ian, you have some many stories, it always great to read them. The system a Goodison sounded like an accident waiting to happen?
COYG!
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Heady sent this to me yesterday and I wanted to share it( with his permission) as I thought it tied in with the some of the things Im always trying to get at ( supporting and what does it mean etc) and of course the Everton game, I hope you like it too.
COYG!
Everton tomorrow, a side we often seem to struggle against. I think Everton provided me with my first footballing memory, the 1966 Cup Final where they beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-2. My next memory was the 66 World Cup final, and I recall watching it with my father and his friend Uncle Charles who lived close by (not a real Uncle, but back in those days it would have been unthinkable for a boy to address an adult simply by first name, so I had a lot of Uncles and Aunties). It was only quite recently that I realised the significance of that World Cup: Uncle Charles, fresh out of school, had flown bombers over Germany in the war, and my father was involved in the D-Day deceptions, being seconded to a unit in Scotland where, aided by a few Magicians and illusionists (I kid you not), they planned phantom armies to hoodwink the Germans as to where the exact point of attack would take place. Thinking about it, probably not dissimilar to the work done by Nicholas Jover on the set-piece training ground. My father ended up in Ceylon (where he met my mother) briefing and debriefing brave young men who were dropped behind the lines in the Malay peninsula. Knowing as I do now how brief a span of time 20 years is, how imbued with meaning that World Cup encounter must have been for all (on both sides) who’d been so bitterly involved in the earlier contest.
Still, back to the FA Cup final, and my mother supporting Sheffield as she’d spent time there as a girl, shunted around various branches of the family as the child of a divorcee (what scandal back then) and me, seduced by the glamour of a team named Wednesday, following her lead and experiencing that first sharp disappointment of seeing a two goal lead evaporate and translate into inevitable loss. And as you’ll know, being a keen football historian, the Toffees’ comeback inspired by two-goal hero Mike Trebilcock. By 1967 I’d got properly hooked-in by Football, and Pompey became my team, who I worshipped with all the ardour that only a10 year old knows, so imagine my delight when Trebilcock, having failed to cement a firm place at Everton, made his way down to the South Coast to take his place alongside Albie McCann, John Milkins, Harry Harris and Nicky Jennings in my pantheon of heroes. I still get kind of goosebumpy just hearing those names, which is ridiculous but the truth.
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The Tony Cotter transfer saga always comes to mind when we play the toffees. All summer it dragged on, would he choose us or them. In the end he went to Merseyside stating they stood more chance of winning things and we wouldn’t win anything in years.
Obviously he won nothing and we went on to win all sorts of trophies.
The two legged semi final of the league cup in 87 or 88 was the next big memory for me. We piled into a mini, during the days when having the same number of passengers to seats really wasn’t a thing, and the whole car was filled with ARSENAL supporters apart from the driver. If my memory still holds we won 1-0 from a Perry Groves goal and won at Highbury 3-1 I believe.
The journey home was interesting with a pissed off driver and the rest of us slapping his head and rocking the car all the way home especially when other cars with trailing yellow scarves went past
The league title win with the Bould and Goal was an absolute cracker. I was up the clock end and everyone was smacking the big metal doors separating us from the away fans and the noise was defening.
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Of course Everton are the only team that has played more seasons in the top division than us. Obviously some of these were due to corruption, so I always want them to be relegated.
We are slowly getting players back and lts hope our play is more in the style of the games against west ham and sporting rather than Fulham.
Personally I always feel good against the toffees at home and I’m hoping dyche doesn’t crock our players and we score plenty of goals COYG.
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I was in the supermarket when I read your posts Ian and burst out laughing at the anecdote with the taxi driver. The bloke on the till asked me if everything was alright, I replied yes!
Great stories! Great memories.COYG!
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Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Odegaard, Rice, Merino, Saka, Martinelli, Havertz.
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Arsenal v Everton, some of the players I can recall playing for both clubs, Alan Ball, Trevor Ross, George Wood, Alex Iwobi, Kevin Richardson, Martin Keown, and of course the late great Kevin Campbell who made his league debut away to Everton while still in the U18’s, I remember the headline in a redtop the next day, Souper Kev debuts for Gooners
ian seeing as you mentioned the transfer of Cottee, what about us stealing Steve Bould from under Everton’s noses, we got Bould for a tribunal set £390K, after Everton had offered Stoke over twice that much, but our Steve was smart enough to know to join the Gooners.
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Arsenal Subs: Neto, Tierney, Kiwior, Partey, Jorginho, Trossard, Nwaneri, Sterling, Jesus.
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Talking about players to play with both clubs, the Everton sub keeper today is former Arsenal youth player Joao Virginia
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Mickey Arteta too!
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HT: Arsenal 0-0 Everton
possession for possessions sake, not creating enough, risk averse football once again
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jorginho and nwaneri on
rice and odegaard off
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merino and Mls off
jesus and partey on
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well Arsenal got exactly what their performance deserved, a sterile draw, its now only 8 wins from our 16 EPL games this season,
18pts dropped so far, the draws are killing us, and Arteta accepts the draws, oh yes he brings on subs, but its like for like, the football stays the same, sterile possession, tippy tappy no risk paint by numbers football. He doesn’t change formation, he doesn’t change approach, we never see a CB thrown up to try and cause a bit of chaos, no its rigidly stick to the same ol same ol, and I bet anything that Arteta will come out after this game as he does all games we fail to win, and say we should have won cos we had all the possession and we had 2 good chances to score. And that my friends is the problem, Arteta believes having 2 chances means we should win and deserve to win.
Fans say all that is needed is to buy better players, but what is far more important is a change of approach. I tell you why Pepe failed to make it big at Arsenal is cause he is an off the cuff player who is a maverick and that is not part of the Arteta plan, its why Ozil was never going to be an Arteta player, and its why we’ve found it so hard to find attackers since Mikel arrived, the top forwards do individual things and their first thought is to get forward, whilst Arteta wants his forwards first thought be stay in formation, keep possession, defend etc.
Draws and defeats are hard enough to take, especially when sucker punched, but you know what, its far worse when draws and defeats are accepted like they are under Arteta. We never throw the kitchen sink at it to try and get the result, its paint by numbers football, it only works well when we score first and in fact only is better suited to playing against the better teams who come to play, come to take us on. Once we have teams sit with two defensive rows we haven’t a clue how to break them down, its all about taking one of the two chances we might create with our 70% possession
There is no EPL title in this team/squad/management
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Trevor Ross…. Oh yeah I forgotten about him but he was a real favourite.
Poor again today, slow and steady won’t win you games consistently in this league.
Dyche’s teams are the same and there were no surprises today. You have to play wide and quickly against his sides but we played slowly all game. There was no fast start like the games last season, there were no kitchen sink in the last twenty either.
My heart sank when your hoping for the game to be played at a faster pace and Partey and Jesus come on, players who will naturally low the game down.
I think in that moment it showed the difference between last season’s squad and this. Today’s game answered the Odegaard question, good but just not in the same league as our former great number 10’s.
It also answered Mills question from last week “do we still have a chance at winning the league”? Well I think we’re in a battle for fourth place this season, which I believe we will win.
As I said at the time, the cups are our journey to success this season starting with Wednesday night against palace.
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serious question ian, have we ever under Arteta thrown the kitchen sink at it in the last 20 minutes.
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just seen a stat for Arsenal after 16 games in each of the last 3 seasons
2022 – 43pts
2023 – 39pts
2024 – 30pts
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Looks like we’ve drawn our way into not contending for the league?
In the last couple of season we seemed to often snatch a late winner, an element that seems to elude us now?Plus in the last couple of season the crowd were mich more behind the team today you could really feel the frustration.
Ghost theory later! LOL!
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Mills the fans in the stadium often can feel if a goal is likely or not, this season they are not feeling it, they see the football is slow, its like for like subs, there is no risks being taken to turn these draws into wins. We have drawn 6 games, but in none of the 6 games have we gone full on for the win at the risk of losing, but the thing is if we had turned 3 of those 6 draws into wins, at the cost of losing the other 3 we would be 3pts better off, but Arteta won’t risk that cos those 3 losses would mean a stat of 5 losses so far and that would never do. I keep saying it, Arteta is risk averse and accepts dropped points over risking taking a big beating. The game plan is totally reliant on scoring first, its a flawed game plan.
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as I predicted earlier, Arteta has come out and said we totally dominated the game, had overwhelming possession stats and should have won the game cos we had a couple of good scoring chances.
I say it again, Arteta fully believes this, and that is why our attacking play is not progressing.
We drop points without the opposing goalie having to have a good game, let alone an outstanding game
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Ed, you’re right I cant remember the last time the kitchen sink was thrown.
Last season the bench brought more reaction from the crowd and so the atmosphere went up a level when the triumphant of Emile, Eddie and Reiss came on. You could probably even include Vieira in that to a certain extent.
The one for one never really gets anyone excited now, especially when the players coming on are on the way out of the club and maybe be lucky to still be here (Jesus/Partey)
That’s probably a result of the misspend and finance lost paying of players rather than selling them in a natural transition. The cost of the absolutely wonderful Edu era.
We still have some wonderful players and will undoubtedly produce some great wins going forward but that extra step to take the league will not be achieved under this management.
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It is ironic that our struggles this season have been blamed on missing players, when a mid-table team can beat the champions while leaving two of their best, fully fit, players out because they’re not towing the company line.
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Arsenal U21’s are currently playing Sunderland U21’s, we are behind by a goal early in the game. A new name in the Arsenal line up is Lennon Patterson, he has recently been pictured training with the Arsenal first team, its not clear if he has signed with AFC yet or is still on trial, but he a 17 year old left back who is or was part of the Wolverhampton Wanderers Academy teams.
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A new post from Eduardo is up.
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