Hello and how are you?
Sunday the 16th March sees a visit to Ashburton Grove from our west London neighbours, Chelsea FC. Kick off is at 1.30pm, western European time.
Years ago an artist called Hokusai (pron: Hock-sigh) made lots of small interesting sketches, these were know as whimsical pictures, or translated into Japanese: ‘manga’. There’s much debate about the linage of manga though, some think it comes down through old Buddhist didactic anthropomorphic scrolls from the 12th Century, others from the influence of the magazine Punch in the later 19th century.
Anyway, however the system evolved, contemporary manga publications are now banging out 13,000 editions a year. Manga covers all range of genres; nookie, romance, cooking, sports, fighting, and manga is for old or young and in-between and it has many different styles (including Gekiga which translates as dramatic pictures).
Manga is sometimes a collaborative effort split between artist and writer and even sometimes many assistants. In Japan Fine Art is less of a big deal than it is in the west with animé and manga being basically less elitist and really for everyone and there’s none of the shame that persists in the west of image and text being coupled together, although the French/Belgians are pretty accepting of Bande dessinée (translates: drawn strips) as they name it with their own particular invention, Ligne Claire (clear line), for examples of which, see Joost Swaarte.
Western art has been controlled for a long time by theory and theory is only just starting to seep in manga now, but you can imagine, publisher restriction aside, that artists (mangaka) are often more libertine in that which they can explore and create.
Fine art looks uncomfortably over its shoulder at manga, knowing its technically more advanced and is more and more challenging its intellectual hegemony too, but its bouncers are still keep it out, but for how long? Already some blue-chip galleries are allowing artists who blend the two (Perrotin)…with interesting results, see the video animation ‘rebirth of the world’ by Chiho Aoshima.
Yet the life of a mangaka isn’t easy, long hours, hard work and anti big-wad at the end of it. Of course it has its stars and an underground just like any other system. But we humans are hungry consumers like never before, hence 13,000 manga publications a year, all jostling for attention and its a tough thing to deal with. Which is no different from our beloved football, for which we are so hungry and want to watch it like never before, eager to listen and absorb all aspects of the game. Will Newcastle re-vamp their new stadium plans in the light of the new stadium proposals in Manchester? As the great oracle ‘mystic Mills’ (translates: the tool) predicted in midweek, talk of the expansion of the Emirates was revived. I’m sure all sorts of news like this will come pouring out over the international break…115 looming too…
Its amazing how stadiums have changed, accommodating a different populous, often without regard for them. Was that our old pal Archibald Leitch’s fault, he seems to have designed a incredible number of stadiums, now being razed to the ground and replaced with state of the art structures?
With the visit of Chelsea, it makes me think how the old Stamford Bridge looked. Its original massive earth-work diggings like a remnant from some early pre-historical forgotten ambition, the crowd far away from the pitch due to the old track on the outside. Of course there was the infamous Shed but that other oddball stand that was built in the 30s (the North Stand) and looked like it was always going to topple over and cause great injury was an eccentric addition to the mostly open-plan of SB?
But the Chelsea of the old Stamford Bridge is far away from todays outfit, long gone is the world of Alan Hudson and the workman’s ballet.This is Billionaire owned football played by millionaires. Ok, Chelsea are not what they were under the heavy financial doping years but are still a tough team on their day and full of pride when it comes to playing the Arsenal.
Currently resting in fourth, I can’t see this lot lying down and thinking of enabling a victory-through-harmony for the Guns. Yet they boast a team packed full of talent and I’m sure will be challenging with more intensity next season. Next season, despite all, it already feels like the collective Arsenal eyes are on next year? This February and March has felt like being trapped on a hamsters wheel, and I wondered if you felt the same toward the Arsenal this season: an endless ride on the hamster-wheel of fortune of almost achieving? Could be worse, we could be mid-table or snaffling around the old Hades end of the table like other clubs. No thanks.
I phoned up statto HQ and they’ve quoted me the stats and the Mighty Cannon has been given us a 52.7% chance of winning, and Chelsea, 21.8%. So statto thinks we have a spring in our step. May the stars be with you too statto.
Well that’s it, time to catch up on our hobbies during the international break. Take care. COYG!
Mills
Positively Arsenal 
this is a massive game in our bid for a top 4 finish, Chelsea are only 6pts behind us, so a win for either team would be very big for the winner, AFC win we are 9pts clear of CFC, but if they win its only 3pts, and with Forrest winning today they are only a point behind us.
A win would put us 10 points clear of man city in 5th
so far this weekend Arsenal’s Womens, U21’s, and U18’s have all won, time for the mens team to make it a clean sweep
our U18’s today had two trialists in the subs, Brighton’s 18 year old Irish midfielder Ronnie Gorman came on to make his AFC debut, while Norwich’s 18 year old left back Jaiden Owen was an unused sub. In the U21 game yesterday we had Marcel Washington of Chelsea playing at left back for us.
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by the way Ronnie Gorman scored for Brighton v Arsenal in our U18’s 5-2 win away last season. He curled in a low free kick from edge of the area
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seems Jaiden Owen did come on for his AFC U18’s debut too
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FT: Bournemouth 1-2 Brentford
a good result for us, keeps AFCB 11 points back behind us
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Reports that Saka will be back in full training next week, and even has a chance of being in our squad for the Fulham game.
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This game marks the start this seasons run in for us and we haven’t won any of the previous three races.
Losing to the spuds once and city twice our run in record is not great. Last season, although we lost to city, we won nine of the final ten games and that haul would see us secure second place for the third consecutive season which is another record.
It was at the start of the run in last season we lost to villa and that game proved to be the difference between winning the league and failing again.
Chelsea have spent more money building their squad than any other club in the world, so financial doping is still alive and well.
Unfortunately this means this current chelsea side are very unpredictable and on their day are certainly capable of beating anyone but are also capable of misunderstanding within the team.
Our main advantage must surely be they won’t employ the low block we hate so much. If our short, fast passing game is on form we should create lots of chances and everyone in the team will have chances to score COYG.
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Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly; Partey, Rice, Odegaard; Martinelli, Merino, Trossard
Subs: Neto, Tierney, White, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Calafiori, Butler-Oyedeji, Nwaneri
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Chelsea: Sanchez, Fofana, Badiashile, Colwill, Cucurella, James, Caicedo, Neto, Enzo, Sancho, Nkunku.
Subs: Jorgensen, Bettinelli, Tosin, Chalobah, Gusto, Acheampong, Lavia, Dewsbury-Hall, George.
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would find it strange or odd that Nwaneri not starting this game if it was done by any other manger, but with Arteta I’d expect nothing less, he really does not trust the youth.
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checking for a handball penalty to AFC
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not given
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liverpool’s jarret gillet on var so no surprise that the penalty not given
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we are missing far too many chances
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Merinooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo makes it 1-0 to the Arsenal, a new corner routine worked out
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VAR checking a red for CFC, should be a red but its gillet so won’t be
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PGMOL are a disgrace
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the goal
https://x.com/i/status/1901270569581977999
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We really are officiated differently
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this game the way its being refed has all the hallmarks of one of those games Arsenal will see a player sent off for nothing
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Mesut Ozil is at the Emirates today
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HT: Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea
Merino with our goal, a flicked header at from a corner. We’ve been the better team by a distance, but have not taken the half chances, and the officials today are a complete joke, pgmol are a disaster.
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how is Fofana still on the pitch, and even more laughable is that he hasn’t even been booked
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Fofana finally booked, but not for any of the bad tackles he has done, he is booked for throwing a second ball on the pitch to delay play
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Nwaneri on for Martinelli
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Usual PGMOL treatment. so far i have counted a red and about 4 yellow card offences that forfana has done. he has not been booked for any of them. Blatant penalty not given against Chelsea left back. Its this sort of shit officiating thats has impacted us for years. Gaberielle got booked on his 1st yellow offence.
Liverpool get the soft decisions. i seen somewhere they had 9 pens this season (highest in the league no surprises) we have 2.
I am conditioned to accept this shit, no one will look at, no one will ask the question officially, just like Michael Olivers record against Arsenal.
Oliver has officiated over 55 Arsenal games and has given them 8 red cards in total. In comparison, Wolves have the highest number of red cards of any team over the last four years, with 14 in 156 games.
The bias is real.
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odegaard off, Tierney on
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FT: Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea
Merino with our goal,
a win is a win is a win but that was as dull as dishwater
Arsenal now 10pts clear of 5th placed man city so top four is completely in our own hands.
St Totteringham Day can happen in next round of games as we are 24 points clear of them with 27pts to play for.
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I know we are supposed to be positive, but fuck me, that was awful to watch, I feel like I’ve been mugged for 3 hours of my life.
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Ok my positive take.
Thought we started quite well and was very positive and had a few efforts on goal that on another day might have gone in and turned the tide of the match. Rice had a few efforts, Merino hit the post and we really should have scored when Sanchez passed the ball directly to one of our players. The refs(var) didnt help, like i said should have had a pen and (according to letter of law) Chelsea should have been down to 10. Had the officials acted we may then have played with a little less pressure and maybe the football would have flowed.
The longer the match went on without us pressing our advantage the more Chelsea got back into it but overall at this stage of the season just get the points on the board and minimise injuries for upcoming Champions League game.
Not a fan of playing a left back at left wing tho that needs to stop.
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Well Gee its clear to me that someone higher up in the club is stopping Arteta from giving young players their chance, bar when we have an injury crisis. I know for a fact that Arteta would have used Butler-Oyedeji as sub at left wing today if he had been allowed, but he clearly is not allowed, and I know this cos Arteta keeps telling us he loves giving youth a chance.
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Talking of youth, Ayden Heaven starts for Man Utd again tonight, and Obi-Martin is in their subs, and another former Hale End lad Stephy Mavididi is a sub for LCFC
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Well as everyone said a studs up tackle in any other game would result in a very quick red card but not where ARSENAL and PIGMOL are concerned.
If you count the bookings that should of happened as well then Chelsea would of been down to eight players, of course against us that’s never going to happen.
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I see we are still training with medicine balls as any time we have a shot on goal it ends up in the upper tier.
In the first half we played some good football but if every time you have a chance to shoot you pass or go for a rugby style drop goal then it becomes a hard watch.
Please someone take Odegaard’s head off and put it back on the right way round the lad is becoming an expert in going backwards or round in circles.
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Gee, although your right normally you wouldn’t want to see an orthodox left back playing left wing, especially when we’re already committed to letting him go, but unfortunately he’s the best crosser of the ball at the club. Obviously when he does come on you then have to give him the ball and fill the box.
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The biggest positive about todays win is it leaves the tiny tots teetering on the touchline of ST Totterings day…..Oh Happy Day.
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Arsenal U21’s are due to play Cardiff’s first team this week in a friendly, some suggestions that Saka will play in this game
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Dermot Gallagher, on his weekly show defending the indefensible, that sky call ref watch says the officials were correct in all the incidents in the ARSENAL v chelsea game.
apparently Fofana was lucky but the officials still got everything right, work that one out.
Corruption at it’s finest and it will probably be backed up again when the voice recording comes out. PIGMOL double and triple backing themselves and still getting it wrong.
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ian the thing you have to remember first and foremost about the Ref review show on SKY with Dermot gallagher, is that Dermot Gallagher is employed by the PGMOL, he is on SKY to excuse the inexcusable decisions of his fellow PGMOL employees.
Dermot Gallagher is only doing the job that the PGMOL pay him very well to do, that is excuse the inexcusable decisions of his fellow PGMOL employees.
So that only leaves one question that certainly needs answering, and that is why do SKY pretend that Dermot Gallagher is giving unbiased and neutral analysis of his fellow PGMOL employee’s decisions.
Sky have never mentioned that Dermot Gallagher is still employed by the PGMOL. But they do constantly remind us that he is a “RETIRED Referee”. They are complicit in all this, and why is a question that needs asking too.
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I see that the U21 game against the Cardiff first team this week is actually so that our older U21 players can put themselves in line for moves to other clubs. The game will have lots of scouts from other clubs there to run the rule over the Arsenal players.
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forgot to mention it at the time but last week one of Arsenal’s favored journos, maybe in fact the most favored, David Ornstein, gave his opinions on this summer’s transfer window and what was likely at AFC. He said Isak is the dream signing for Arteta, but that Sesko might be more likely as he is easier to sign, Martin Zubimendi deal is very far progressed and very likely to be done, that we are looking at signing another left back, maybe Ajax’s Jorrel Hato, another goalie in the offing, most likley Joan Garcia of Espanyol, and despite the club having a massive budget available that we might see one or two big first team sales.
On the same day he said this a story broke in Spain that Real Madrid want to sign Calafiori this summer and that Arsenal want £70M for him. This might explain why AFC are still keen on Hato.
if whats above happens, it will be some laugh to see another summer transfer window where we sign a Goalie, a left back and a Defensive Midfielder. But very predictable
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Brilliant Ed,
If David Ornstein is correct, and he is usually very reliable, then we must be setting some sort of record for buying keepers. Edu, who actually won an award for his prowess, must be an absolute laughing stock as the man who got rid of the best keeper in the world and cost the club millions in the endless replacements.
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The one thing I can’t work out Ed, about David’s statement is that the club have lots of money. FFP is surely grappling us by the bollocks. When you think of the loan signing of Raya and the hesitation about how much we could spend on a striker then it looks more likely that we are restricted
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Mikel prefers Cala over MLS in the long term so seeing as the later is pure profit maybe he would go.
Saliba is another who’s name has touted about as being on the Real list.
Generally the amount of players who have come, naturally, to the end of their time as a gooner is high so this season’s outs and ins will be difficult to negotiate.
As Ed pointed out some months ago our squad could look very different when the summer window closes. If we are restricted by FFP then the quality overall will fall. Looking at the holes in the squad this season that is a major worry, especially when you consider the improvement in some of the other squads.
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@ Ian.
It is my conclusion that the PGMOL is corrupt as they come, you can only blame incompetence for so long. And they are enabled by the FA, Premier League and Media.
Just read that they are delaying automated VAR as they couldn’t get it to work!!
This after they delayed the introduction of VAR in the 1st place, then adopted unique method of not allowing the ref to view the pitch side monitor, then finding unique ways to interpret what they see on screen, forgetting to draw lines, not even referring to VAR on blatant incidents etc, it’s a joke and for me none of them deserve the benefit of the doubt as these things have been happening since I was a child (dodgy decision not VAR). And it’s aways explained away with incompetence and never corruption.
They are allowed to be incompetent but let’s not question the refs let’s all accuse each other of being deluded tin foil hat guys
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Gee, that’s an excellent summary.
It is unbelievable how there has been corruption all around the world but in a league with the most amount of money in the world the media and all those that surround English football deny even the possibility of corruption.
That anti logic can only mean they are complicit which is even more depressing.
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The ladies 1-0 down on 22
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ian the FFP thing or whatever its called now is on a rolling 3 year cycle, so it changes each window, and of course we now have 2nd year of CL money to add to the pot. We also have several sales coming in such as Tavares, Lokonga and we will sell some this summer, maybe Vieira if he keeps up his current good form. If we do sell Calafiori for £70m then that would be a big profit on it.
As for an incoming striker we could do worse than that kid that is on a scoring spree for Monaco in France, Mika Bierieth, the name sound familiar but I can’t quite place it, ah I know now where I heard it before, he was an unused sub on a few occasions for Arsenal, but Arteta had no other alternative but to bring on a defender in a forward position and so could not do what he loves doing, give youth a chance.
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FT: Real Madrid Women 2-0 Arsenal Women
will need a massive result in the second leg to progress
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Jebus, still twelve days till our next game and having to listen to boring England shit.
At least the Women and younger youth teams are still playing.
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seems that Calafiori is out injured for 2 to 3 weeks, went off late in the Italy game with a kneee injury
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