Hello and how are you?
As we digest the Christmas gluttony and head into the last game of the 2024 calendar, the Mighty Cannon will play host to the easterly Ipswich Town at Ashburton Grove for a late 8.15pm (western European time) kick off, on the 27th of December.
The 21st of August dawned bright and sunny. For one kid in the world, life would never be the same again. Time couldn’t go quickly enough that day, and the strange and eccentric events that filled much of the space of those daylight hours seemed to float by. The kid went to his friends house, it was his birthday or thereabouts. For the first time that day the grey clouds crept in and it started to rain. They then piled into the car and started to leave, but there was a commotion; the friends Dad had run over the cat, which had been hiding from the rain. The kid got out and had to be mature, his friend was in tears and the Dad was upset but pragmatic. “Is it dead?”. “Yes”.
Much of the journey was in silence but the rain stopped and they headed into north London. Destination : The Arsenal Stadium, Highbury. Yes, built by Archibald Leitch.
For the kid, Highbury was some holy place, never visited before, but hallowed and beloved, albeit through the television and the pouring over endless football magazines, endlessly. They parked the car somewhere nearby and made their way into the throng. Everywhere were masses of people, the odours of tobacco and alcohol that seemed strangely beguiling floated on the wind. Sporadic singing and chanting broke out here and there as they wended their way through the crowd, programme sellers and merchandise vendors. More people than the kid had ever seen in one place. Everyone taller, everyone stronger. Everything seemed bigger and very masculine and with an atmosphere that was electric, beyond all expectations, beyond all anticipations. There it was in front of them: the stadium itself, towering above, a place of history, of architectural class, that had soaked up both ecstasy and agony over many years, and many generations. The Arsenal.
They handed over their tickets in the creepy, dark Scylla and Charybdis trap of the turnstile and got into the East Stand, and after the Dad bought some refill, they found their way down to their seats.
The kid would never forget that moment, walking down into that arena, at first, at the back of the stand most of the pitch was obscured but taking more steps down the vista opened more and more; there was Pat Jennings in the goal at the North Bank, “its Pat Jennings!”. To see your team, stars, mates, heroes suddenly in the flesh before you was incredible. Like posters come down from the wall. Nothing like that which you’d seen on television. It took the kids breath away.
They were sitting a few rows up from the managers boxes (never again would the kid enjoy such privileged seats). This was the first game of the season, and it was against Ipswich Town. The memories of the hopeless 1978 final were still strong and a sore point. But The Arsenal had won the cup the season before in an unforgettable and utterly euphoric manner. And then to the kid and his friends amazement before the kick-off, the FA cup was paraded around the stadium by a marching band with the cup carried before them by two drum majors. “our cup!”.
The game started. 1-0 down at HT. “Butcher and Thijssen are big blokes” said the friend, the kid nodded in agreement. Not long before HT the kid shouted at Liam Brady, his ultimate hero, who was only a few meters away and must of heard him. The kid blushed in total embarrassment. “I’m not fit to shout even ‘come on’ at Brady, this man, this left foot, the left foot that scored the amazing goal against Tottenham, thought the kid. And didn’t do it again.
0-2 at FT. A loss, first home game of the season. The third match of what was to be seventy games played in 1979/80, a season that ended in the bitter tears of losing two finals in a week.
There’s a strike at ITV which means the highlights of this game will never be shown or seen. None of this mattered, it was still the best experience ever, to be there in that stadium, to have seen the Arsenal. The sights and sounds of the crowd (now I see it was only somewhat over 33,000 people there that night, which was way below capacity), the atmospheres, the anticipation and eventual abandonment of hope in winning were so overwhelming that this first time couldn’t ever be forgotten. It just didn’t matter that the Arsenal had lost. The kid had won.
At home in bed that night the kid thought only of Arsenal and Highbury, sifting through the memories and reading and re-reading the programme. First. Always? Life’s always changing so ‘always’ is a tough thing to make a contract with. But it seems that way. What else is there?
Last? Yes, last game of 2024, a year full of memories both good and bad and sometimes indifferent? We all know we should be leading the league but somehow keep stuttering like Roger Daltrey in the Who’s My Generation. But that’s where we are. But who knows where we are going?
Stat HQ says: The Arsenal have 84.2% chance of winning, and Ipswich a mere 5%. I haven’t seen the East Anglians play once this season so I don’t know how they look, set up or even play, I’m sure you guys do, and any insights would be great. They rest in 19th place which I’m sure is horrible, but life in the Premier League is unforgiving, both at the top and bottom.
That’s it, and so to everyone at PA: “Guten Rutsch!” into 2025, but hope the Mighty Cannon doesn’t slip and instead we see some crafty one-touch football and score five goals. COYG!
Well that’s it, lots of bits and pieces that I’m sure have made you feel like going off and counting the nano-seconds until Christmas instead of reading this.
Even so, here’s to a great game for us and lucky horses!
COYG and keep on keepin’ on!
Mills
Positively Arsenal 
…hollowed should of course been hallowed. Soz! COYG!
LikeLike
Wonderful. Such an evocative piece. Just wonderful.
The posters coming from the wall into real life in front of the eyes of a spellbound child.
You bring my own memories into vivid focus with your writing Mills. That’s a real gift. Thank you
LikeLike
Fixed it Mills, sorry my fault, shit editor I am.
LikeLike
Thanks George, faults all mine for being poor at spelling! COYG!
LikeLike
Amazingly, I was at that game as well, right corner of the north bank.
No one has mentioned the pun elephant in the room, their Captain Mick Mills. Bobby Robson’s sides of the late seventies and early eighties was the best Ipswich had ever seen.
Mills, Butcher, Wark and Talbot (who we had stole by then) provided the steel, the Dutch duo provided the flair and Mariner and Brazil the cutting edge.
I bumped into Brain many years later outside a shopping centre in Welwyn. He was very patient with an old fan and seemed a thoroughly nice bloke.
Today the teams are miles apart and it’s ARSENAL who are the more solid and dangerous side although the tractor boys style means they do tend to score plenty but concede a lot more.
Their manager wants them to be more pragmatic but it’s not really in their DNA and so even without Bukayo we should be able to create enough chances to score a hatfull.
In the last game of the year it would be great to rack a few up and slide in second place COYG.
LikeLike
Thanks Stew, nice of you to say.
That’s amazing Ian, probably happened many times over the years! Wished I had more memories of that night, but the mind seems to cut out images(memories) to make room for others and youre left with just a few? Some games I can recall going to the pub before and after but nothing of the match. Which says it all I suppose!
Nice that Brian was generous with his time with you. Do you remember his last season, when he seemed to run and run, I wondered if that might keep him.
There was a lad in my class who was a Watford fan who called me it (MM) for bit.
COYG!
LikeLike
Ian for me the only reason that Ipswich team of the late 70’s, early 80’s didn’t win the league was that Bobby Robson was blind to the different caliber of keeper at all other title winning sides, Paul Cooper was a good goalie but was not a special keeper, he was no Ray Clemence, or Peter Shilton or even Jimmy Rimmer, for me Cooper was just another goalie that could just as easily been in the second division and no one would have batted an eyelid. Brian Clough seen that Forest needed a top level keeper and went out and got Shilton, it won them the league and two European Cups, if Robson had got a keeper of that ilk he would have won it all, imagine if he had got Pat Jennings from spurs instead of us getting him, he’d have been the difference maker
LikeLiked by 1 person
and on the subject of goalkeepers, a guy who I forgot to mention the other day when talking about those who played for both Arsenal and ipswich, was the title winning Richard Wright, remember him, one of 3 goalies along with David Seaman and Stuart Taylor who won EPL medals in the same season for us, doubt any other club managed that feat, all 3 got at least the 10 games needed at that time for a medal
LikeLike
I was at the Arsenal v Southampton game on 27th December 1986, think it must have been the game Arsenal celebrated being 100 years old as there was a bit of fanfare before the game, 100 junior gooners on the pitch and I think some of our legends presented to the crowd too. Well before the game I was at the toilets and took a wrong turn going back to my seat and somehow ended up beside the dressing rooms, think I got missed by any security cos of all the junior gooners in the bowels of the stadium before heading out on the pitch, well anyway to my surprise out comes Niall Quinn, Kenny Sansom, Steve Williams, Martin Hayes and Paul Davis, before I was moved along by a steward.
I got back to my seat just as the teams were being announced, 3 old guys in the seats directly in front of me didn’t quite catch who was our no. 11 was and I told them it was Martin Hayes, they said who, I say Hayes, again they said who and looked at me as if I was talking a foreign language, once again I said Martin Hayes, they looked at other and one of them said “oh he means aise”, they didn’t take kindly to me saying no I mean Hayes.
On players names the Hayes thing reminded me of the following season when a couple of fans in the seats in front of me at Highbury kept calling Nigel Winterburn, Winterbottom. I found it funny cos I had a neighbour called Winterbottom, and he was the furthest person from being a footballer as you could get, he made kenny sansom look like a giant
LikeLike
LOL!
LikeLike
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Rice, Odegaard, Havertz, Trossard, Martinelli, Jesus.
Subs: Neto, Tierney, Kiwior, Calafiori, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Partey, Merino, Nwaneri.
LikeLike
fucking hell that is some skewed up subs list, how many fucking left backs does Arteta need on the bench, I know they are all injury prone but fuck me
and not a single striker on the bench, in fact Nwaneri the only forward of any kind included
LikeLike
The fact that we have 4 left backs and 3 CM/DMs on the bench says it all about Arteta’s lack of trust in youth players, and his defensive first approach, there is no good reason not to include one of the u21 forwards on the bench, if you can’t include them at home to ipswich then there is not a game you can. As I said before to give youth a chance you first have to want to give youth a chance. Risk averse Arteta does not want to give youth a chance, that is why we have 4 left backs and 3 cm’s on the bench and only nwaneri
LikeLike
Ed, yeah that was the anniversary of our 100 years. Loads of legends there mainly from the 71 team. Big special programme for the day which I still have.
Lazy Hayesy used to get a lot of stick off the ARSENAL faithful but was a fantastic penalty taker though.
LikeLike
when Hayes went to Celtic it was so bad for him that the day he fell asleep in the car in the car park at training and no noticed he was not at training
LikeLike
ian as bad as hayes got it from the arsenal boo boys, none got it like Quinn, his name got booed when team announced
LikeLike
on the topic of Quinn, do you remember the Arsenal kick off routine, kick off and loft the ball out to the wing in the vague direction of Quinn and out across the sideline, if Quinn was in reach of it he would often duck it, a group of the AFC players were spread betting at the time, they used to clean up on the first throw in. It was rife at the time and is why the betting rules for players was changed. Vinny Jones used to have bets on the time of his bookings.
LikeLike
Havertzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz makes it 1-0 to the Arsenal
LikeLike
HT: Arsenal 1-0 Ipswich Town
Havertz with our goal, his 19th EPL goal for Arsenal, in his 53rd game, he scored 19 epl goals for chelsea in 91 games
Arsenal have totally dominated possession, but we have created very little, just the four shots, we need to get that 2nd goal and kill off this game, maybe bring on a couple of left backs
LikeLike
God this is dire stuff, so slow, paint by numbers football
LikeLike
odegaard down injured
LikeLike
Jesus off, Merino on, with Havertz going up front
LikeLike
Partey on for Rice
LikeLike
FT: Arsenal 1-0 ipswich town
Havertz with the goal, we are up to 2nd in the table, but 6pts behind liverpool who also have a game in hand.
this was once again sterile paint by numbers football, loads and loads of possession but oh so slow and risk averse. we do not look like a team that will win the title, there is not that sort of energy about us this season. something has to change, be it playerwise, tactics or attitude, but this possession for possessions sake is not going to do it
LikeLike
I see on twitter loads and loads of gooners going on about the lack of ability our attackers have, and not being able to understand for instance why Nwaneri can’t get on or Martinelli, and for me they are totally wrong on the lack of ability, the problem is a tactical problem, its risk averse football, and for good attacking football you need freedom of expression, that is a no no with Arteta, he stated after the Everton game that he did not want his forwards speeding up attacks cos that can lead to losing the ball, that sums up the approach. As for Nwaneri not getting on, well till he is as good defensively as Martinelli he will remain behind him in the selection order.
Paint by numbers football, and sterile possession is not a player decision, its the game plan, we set out to dominate possession, but to not risk being caught on the counter, so no over committing to attack, no risky low percentage attacking passes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team more reliant on having to take the lead for us to see any freedom in attack, and even then it usually takes a two goal lead for us to buzz.
Arsenal are 4 points worse off than at this time last season, at 18 games last season we were top and 3pts ahead of eventual winners man city, this year we are 6pts behind liverpool who have a game in hand. So potentially in our next 20 games we have to be 10pts better than Liverpool, that will not happen unless we find a better attacking balance tactically, we will not win the title with 1-0 wins.
LikeLike
Arteta confirms Bukayo Saka has undergone surgery on a hamstring injury. “He had a procedure, everything went well. But unfortunately he will be out for many, many weeks.”
Arteta on Saka timeline: “I think it will be more than two months. It depends… how the scar tissue starts to heal, the mobility of that.”
LikeLike
Ed, “you get better than the mighty Quinn” at least he had a good song. When he first broke through into the ARSENAL side he was the worst header of the ball for a tall bloke I ever seen. He was even subbed on late in the second half and was so bad he was taken off again after 15 minutes.
Ironically his timing improved so much he became an excellent target man but he had long since left ARSENAL by then.
LikeLike
20 games to go, and we likely have to win 10 points more than liverpool if we are to win the league title.
to put that into perspective Liverpool have dropped 9 points so far this season.
Arsenal have dropped 18 points, massive turn around in fortunes needed
LikeLike
ian the the improvement in quinn happened when he filled out, once he had the bulk to go with his height he became a fine center forward.
do you remember lee chapman, another who transformed once he matured physically but again that was long after his short stay at AFC
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t think ARSENAL supporters have ever been so disappointed at being second in the table with half the season gone.
After a game like that, it would be difficult to imagine winning anything. With our most dangerous player out for two months and our captain having a real stinker belief starts to wane.
However this is football and nothing is black and white (not even the magpies a lot of the time) so maybe we’re going to get some changes in the new year that reignite the spark and we start to fly because at the moment we are not just six points and a game in hand away from Liverpool we are a million miles.
LikeLike
the thing is ian that expectations have been raised due to the last two seasons title challenges, and the PR that went with it, the failings from the last two seasons have not been addressed and with city imploding and us not taking advantage fans are a bit down, the football is dominating in everything except in scoring or attacking play, and with Saka out for “more than 2 months” according to Arteta fans fear the worse, as Saka was the go to guy, the one attacker who could still do the defensive duties Arteta demands from his attackers and still do the magic up top. Our remaining attackers are good, very good in fact, but they don’t have that bit extra that Saka has.
Arteta has shown that he has not developed the tactics to cope with the low block consistently and it seems that more teams have realised this and are using it. I have been saying for a few seasons now that Arteta’s game plan is totally reliant on taking the lead but that lead has to come about from the one or two chances planned for. Yes once we get a lead, and especially if we get 2 ahead we can rip teams to bits, but I ask you when was the last time we dropped points cos the opposing keeper had a wonderful game, made loads of saves, or defenders were throwing themselves in front of all sort of goal bound shots, it doesn’t happen, no even when we are behind. Arteta has developed a game plan that gives us in nearly all, if not all games a better expected goals stat than our opponents, but that is usually cos our opponents expected goals are below 1, lots of times a fraction of 1, a low fraction at that, but our expected goals are not massive.
at one point tonight we had 90% of the play but had one shot, we had 4 shots in the first half after near complete domination, its sterile domination. Arteta has to take the shackles off and not only trust the attackers to attack, but trust the defenders that they can defend breakaways when we commit bodies to attack and to attack at speed, cos Arteta is right when he says attacking at speed and committing extra players into attack will leave us susceptible to counter attacks. But goals wins games and we need a lot of wins in our next 20 EPL games if we are to cross the Rubicon
LikeLike
And yet despite those reservations we are 2nd in the league at not quite the halfway stage (6 points behind) and with the 2nd best goal difference (19). We sit fairly pretty in the Champions League, we are in the Carabao Cup Semi-final, and have a home tie against Utd in the FA Cup. All this and yet there’s been barely a game when we’ve been able to call on our best starting 11, so it does feel a little bit of a first world problem to paint such a gloomy picture after reverting to the One Nil to the Arsenal DNA!
LikeLike
well forever as I said the last two years of title challenges has raided the expectations, and of course the non stop PR from the club has also raised expectations, but what we are seeing is the same problems in the squad and team, in the tactics, and its a odd kind of 1-0 to the Arsenal, its not the sort of 1-0 wins where we score on the break or from little possession and then rely on the backline to hold out, we are dominating possession, 84% in the first half v ipswich, and we managed 4 shots, now if we had the 16% possession and had the 4 shots it would be the old type 1-0 to the Arsenal, but this has sterile possession. Also as odd as it may seem we had more attacking freedom in the old 1-0 to the Arsenal, it was get it to the forwards and let them try a bit of magic, now we have a manager saying he doesn’t want the team to speed up in attack, as we might lose possession.
How many shots would a Wenger team have had with 84% possession, when it comes to it how many shots would a Graham team have with 84% possession, Ian Wright would have had more than 4 on his own.
The club talks a good game, “utilising every transfer window to his max” is their spiel, and here we are with the manager admitting we started the season with a thin squad, but lets remember we were not even looking at signing Sterling, he was offered by a desperate CFC on deadline day. So we were happy to go in to the season even shorter than we did. And on that we signed a cup tied back up keeper. We have only filled 22 of the 25 senior players allowed, and that 22 includes injury prone Tierney who we want rid of, and the injury prone Zinchenko, the injury prone new signing Calafiori, the injury prone new contract Tomiyasu, the injury prone Partey, the injury prone Jesus, and we knew going into the season that White was carrying an injury for a year, a cup tied goalie and Timber who was out for all of last season. Does that look like competent squad building. And my complaints about the squad is not hindsight, i’ve pointed this out for the most of a year. i said it was madness extending tomiyasu contract etc etc etc.
And on that topic foreverheady the reason why we have barely been able to field our first choice 11, is the same reason why the squad is so thin, we have far too many injury prone players in the squad, which means we flog our fit players to bits and we have a manger who does not trust young players, for God’s sake he put 4 left backs on the bench last night over adding one of the youth forwards.
LikeLike
just seen it stated that the normal recovery time for the sort of hamstring injury Saka has is 5 and half months, that would see him out for rest of the season.
LikeLike
fortunately top class premier league players very rarely take the usual time to heal.
They are getting the top class medical and recovery experts looking after them that money can buy.
On top of that footballers are hyper fit and Bukayo is only 23 so a good age for a quick recovery.
The unknown is usually once they get out on to grass and then how long it takes to rebuild match ready fitness.
LikeLike
9pts behind liverpool with 20 games to play
LikeLike
just seen a stat that Arsenal were the only team in Europe to go the entire calendar year without conceding more than 2 goals in a match,
yet we haven’t a pot to piss in.
so all the clean sheet, all the goals scored, all the wins, etc etc etc, says to me that the game plan has a fatal flaw, it shows a lack of attacking intention. I’ve been saying for a long time that Arteta accepts draws and even defeats as long as they are not big defeats he accepts them. And that is why we have failed to win the last two league titles and its why we trail liverpool by 9 points after 18 games this season.
we don’t concede more than two goals in a game cos we, even when behind, don’t commit to attack to try and save the game, its fucking cowardly.
LikeLike
Barca are interested in Partey? Can we have Gavi in exchange?
LikeLike
they wouldn’t even give us olmo on loan for him
LikeLike
FT: Ipswich 2-0 Chelsea
LikeLike
FT: Aston Villa 2-2 Brighton
LikeLike
FT: Man Utd 0-2 Newcastle
LikeLike
Well this has been an excellent year on P.A. Mills writing is far and above the literary content on other sites, ARSENAL or on other clubs.
The comments and debate has also been excellent and it’s great to have reasoned arguments rather than name calling and slagging of our club and players that you get on those who align with ARSENAL TV.
Ed and Foreverheady are absolutely correct there is certainly a debate around how the place we see the club at the moment is success or a plateau from which the current staff cannot break through.
If the league was judged between year on year rather than season on season, then ARSENAL would have won the league having got more points in 2024 than any other.
Arteta started by breaking the wrong kind of records continually creating some historical poor stats. However the new team has improved year on year and has broke some positive club figures and has also come second in some to only the Invincibles.
The 24/25 season may prove the season when there is not a statistical improvement and if there is no silverware then obviously questions will need to be and will be asked.
Our small squad has seemed to be chickens coming home to roost because of the huge historically high spend in Mikel’s first five years at the club. This has undoubtedly hurt us in Mikel’s first season where injuries and suspensions have been substantial.
The goals that were setting records seem to have dried up and the manager has retracted with it, especially as his defence hasn’t been as solid this season as Mikel’s reputation has been based.
The criticism’s we leveled at the manager and the sporting director in the first season are still there and if we don’t win anything and probably more importantly the optimism starts to drop then the way we got here will undoubtedly be questioned.
We started by cutting the head of the Wenger snake and destroying anything that reminded us of what comes before. When the dream of a league title is there and goals are flowing then the crowd will forgive anything but when things start to slow the demons the previous managers faced start to come creeping out of rows of red seats.
We are not mid-table, we are not out of any cups and we are still a very good team so why should we worry. Under Arsene the crowd made the mistake of not realising that our club did not have the money to compete against city, chelsea and even manure over a sustained period of time.
The difference then was everything was achieved with beautiful football. Even in the worst times there was always the beautiful constant that kept us on here and alot of fans content with what we were watching at least. If anyone can be brave enough to watch the 8-2 at OT, even there some of the football we played was good. Obviously the fact Arsene had designed, made and sold the tee shirt had us believing he could do it again unfortunately that’s something the present incumbent doesn’t have in the bank.
Personally I didn’t want Mikel at the beginning and I have always had criticisms and reservations but I certainly don’t think his end should be near.
History has shown us you do have to be careful what you wish for in football but I totally understand the debate.
Anyway whatever side of the debate you’re on HAPPY NEW YEAR.
LikeLike
Nice post Ian. Not sure I agree about the Mills bloke and his writing though, but the rest is a great read, measured and smart, could have been an article itself. Personally I thought both Heady and Ed seemed to bring up very interesting points, which you fleshed out even more.
Glad to be on a blog where these viewpoints are being kicked around and even taken further.
HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS! And here’s to a happy, healthy one! May the Mighty Cannon pip Liverpool to the post. COYG!
LikeLike
New post is up.
LikeLike