Hello and how are you?
Sunday the 25th of May, will see the Mighty Cannon make its last manoeuvres of the 2024/25 season as we head south to St. Marys and play Southampton FC for the final game of the season. Kick off is at 4.00pm western European time.
For the last assessment this season our chums at Statto HQ have given the Arsenal 69.3% chance of winning and Southampton 12.6 %.
I’m sure Southampton will be glad to see the back of this season with just two wins and six draws.Of course its even more strange to have a quick butchers at the league table and seeing the Spuds fourth from bottom and ManUre one place above. Yet one of them will have some silverware very soon and their followers will be handing out the banter on that one and not care about the league positions at all?
Same at the top, does anyone care about the final pecking order of merit or just trying to qualifying for the champions league? And Arsènes words of along ago that were so often ridiculed, seem more honest and observant more than ever?
At this moment in the world of football blogging seems to be similar to being a silent film actor trapped in a world of films with sound?
The vlog has superseded the blog, and so the soft power of passive non-written creativity has won for the moment and the typed word put away on the high shelf at the footballing Sunset Boulevard address, along with the dreck, dust, goalkeepers roll-neck jumpers, rattles and unwanted periodicals and erotic etchings from the 19th C.
Like a lot of my last (bland) articles, I find most Arsenal outlets are merely saying: “it’s raining today, it could be sunny, and it was mixed in the past”? I’m not sure where that leads us, how many outlets do we need, as truthfully relative as they might be, to tell us the same thing; that which we already know or have already thought about?
Personally I still think there’s a lot of ground to be covered in blogs, for example the whole idea of counter- support structures in an unwanted sense hasn’t been talked about much ( I meant to do it for the Newcastle game, and it completely slipped my mind), but often teams/fans will latch onto another and try to create a rivalry that isn’t there (Newcastle and Stoke come to mind), even if it sounds a bit woo, it does exist, just needs thrashing out a bit and articulated at another time.
I tried this season to write about how supporting Arsenal (and the hope of Arsenal success) weaves its way into our lives, how it affects anniversaries, our dispositions, our insecurities, friendships, our memories, how we are persuaded in an utterly illogically way to be prejudiced. How the process of supporting, holds your hand or drops it even when your loved ones die. How it affects you physically as well as psychologically, day after night after day. Perhaps much of this is delusion, but even so any delusion is concrete and not an illusion?
Supporting is (perhaps) the oddest relationship we can ever have, married, non-adulterous, yet with the same spectrum of emotions, yet its unconsummated and abstract to say the least, no single connection but an ongoing stream of events, and identities that ironically isn’t even separate from anything else?
In a lesser manner has been like that on PA? Witnessing its vintage years and what a intricate, complex and full bodied brew they were,
Mr.Black each week taking you somewhere new, or to helping you to revisit places you’d partially forgotten. I used to love to wake up on Saturday mornings to see what he’d written, for me his words were as much a part of the matchday as any of the physics and emotions that played out on the pitch. That probably won’t happen again in my life. If anyone pushed blogging into new pastures it was him, certainly not me, and it was PA that supported such works. And without any kind of support structure any experiment or different perspective collapses and is quickly brushed away.
Of course Stew might have been the Messi of the blog, but he wasn’t he only excellent writer, the list was long and the standard was high for a long time, not just articles but posts too, there are utter gems hidden in the archives, especially when it came to Arsène Wenger apologetics.
Gone now, the raison d’être for the blog, and (most) of the people we ever swapped words with on what was a daily basis. How quickly times change?
It was always interesting how you could get to know people by the tone and feeling in their posts, almost as if you could hear them speaking? People also became their avatars, as you tried to create an idea of who they were, even more sad is that they were part of your life, then that’s it, they’ve gone and the memories of it all becomes a kind of spectre fading into the mist? Where have they gone and what are they doing now?
I hoped I might be able to pull some of them back but I failed on that one, or perhaps a less ego-centric viewpoint might be that the times have just simply changed, as stated before the vlog superseded the blog, plus peoples feelings change towards Arsenal? Plus we all have different ideas of what a blog might be?
The fight for Wengers art (in German art means ‘way or style’) even at a much-needed group therapy level has gone and here we are a couple of mangers down the line, grappling with new dilemmas, new thought’s and reactions. All systems (possibly) are conservative at heart and that always causes a problem as all life is changing. How to deal with that?
At the time of writing this we can still achieve second and reaching the CL semi was no mean feat, but something still felt like it was missing this season? Of course the Real Madrid game will stay with us till that which we call the end, so for all the feeling on having not really challenged in the league, who knows if this season might be the springboard for something a bit more glorious in the next? Hopes spring eternal?
Its ok, I’m not a conservative or republican for many reasons but one reason is that at the most basic level all life is change, certainly not in the way wanted, as life remains unfair and unjust to say the least, but to go against flux is a going against nature? But I do feel sentimental.
More practical, materialistic-minded people I’m sure would feel critical of me and see it as a weakness (and in many cases I would agree with them) and that’s fine, it might be a flaw but there’s also an element of compassion and agape that’s coupled with it? I miss how it was on PA. All those faces and names, some you become acquainted with and others, friends and here we are in the perhaps in the twilight of the blog.
“who do you think you are Uncle Monty?”
In 1947 Jack Lewis’s brother Warnie wrote in his diary how ‘nobody turned up’ which spelt the end of the Thursday night Inklings meetings that witnessed( whether they are to you taste or not) some critical evaluation of works that both added and changed the world of literature/human lives, that’s where we are now at PA, or close to it?
A blog isn’t only about the articles, those are introductions, but really its about its forum?
I want to personally thank Ian and Ed for being our backbone and being a perfect foil to my bits and pieces and keeping it all in check with football analytics. You guys have a vast knowledge of football and its been great when you’ve shared your recollections and times spent with the Mighty Cannon. And thank you for the support you gave me this season. You’ve kept the blog alive week after week, not me.
Words we could perceive through one lens are either black or white magic, some may curse and destroy, but others support and nurture and I was really grateful to everyone who said kind things, and also many thanks to Stew and Heady for their words of support and encouragement , especially as I tried to stretch the blog into other directions earlier in the season and your thoughts and presence have been much missed as the season progressed.
And thanks to all those at statto HQ for your % ratings, to Archibald Leitch for popping up time and time again and to Gee, Markyb, Arsenal Andrew, and all apologies to anyone I forgotten, and to all the people who clicked like on the blog but don’t comment, including those who were probably were bots. Merci!
Of course none of this is possible without George, who kindly tolerated me and the things I wrote, some of which maybe stretched things a bit far, but I’m not writer and trying to scratch together (sometimes) three pieces a week I found almost impossible, I’m just not that skilled. I only meant to write previews for the first three matches or so just to get things going.
Plus writing about that which you guys already know is insulting…which means scrabbling for another angle that’s hopefully interesting, isn’t easy at all. I’ve forgotten lots too, often recalling being at matches but nothing of the game itself, but of being in pubs before and afterwards, which isn’t a help to anyone.
I know I failed many times, but its ok to, failure rises with success maybe the place to aim for is beyond those two, and that’s closer to that where I was trying to get to.
After the ManUre cup game, George kindly stepped in without a complaint or word of criticism to me and held the torch, as he has done for this place since its inception. THANK YOU GEORGE! For this season and all the others and for your support and encouragement, and of course for PA.
Well that’s it. I don’t how we can keep the blog going next season I’m not sure I have much left in the artillery room. Perhaps we could get our heads together and work something out before the end of July when the Arsenal are back in action against AC Milan?
If that’s it and we can’t go any further, then know this, it was my pleasure to be acquainted/friends with you, and I will miss having somewhere to go and swap perspectives on the Mighty Cannon and sometimes more and enjoying reading that which you’ve written.
Its been a real Dance to the Music of Arsenal Time both this season and all the others that we’ve witnessed together, to sometimes talk about wider connected fields; all those teams, all those matches, misunderstandings, understandings, all those emotions, all those hopes.All those draws.
I’m ready for my close up now Mr DeMille…
Take care of yourselves,
Mills
COYG!
Positively Arsenal 
Well, fuck me , that’s hit hard. Thanks for everything Mills.
I’ve just this week paid WordPress for another year, so we will see what happens, but it’s fare to say there’s only the embers left of the old PA, but 13 years is a fair trot?
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well its Southampton so that brings me to mention just the four players to play for both, yes yes yes there are lots more, and i could name a fair few of them, but I’ll just go with these four as they hit hard in different ways,
there is the man between the sticks for southampton this season, Aaron Ramsdale, I liked him at Arsenal, he was a surprise signing, but I liked his enthusiasm and his ability, I’m still not convinced we have upgraded with Raya, or if we have its not by the amount the transfers cost us. I hope rambo does not stop us getting the point we need for 2nd on Sunday
Now on to a guy we signed from Southampton one Christmas morning, Steve Williams, I was delighted with that christmas present, I had always like him, maybe that started when in one of his early games for the saints the commentator mentioned that Steve was an Arsenal fan, from an Arsenal supporting family, anyway he was the boss in our midfield for a number of seasons, he always gave his all, he had a poor time with injuries and less than stellar team mates, we could do with him in our midfield now.
Now on the other two, who played for Southampton and indeed shone for them at a time when Arsenal were not shining, Alan Ball who we sold to the saint in 76, at that time we were pretending to be trying to improve, we’d sign quality player but sell one too, we didn’t build the team and squad, we replaced, Alan Hudson came in and out went Ball, when we should have been keeping Ball and having Brady, Hudson and Ball, we done the same at that time with strikers, Kidd, McDonald, one in one out. A bit of ambition at that time and we could have won titles and european cups.
The other player I will mention, Charlie George, it broke my heart to see him play for anyone other than Arsenal, he was brilliant for Arsenal, and he was brilliant for Derby County, and then brilliant for Southampton. He should have been at Arsenal for the majority of his career, in the mid 70’s and early 80’s we needed to have more players like Ball and George and we would have been much better. Southampton in 1984 finished 2nd in the league, they were as they are now, a small club, with limited funds, but they had an ambition Arsenal lacked too much of those years
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Arteta has admitted that he wants Arsenal to renew Partey’s contract, that has not pleased all Arsenal fans.
and odd one doing the rounds re Trossard’s proposed new contract, reports suggest that its not a contract extension, but a pay rise.
on Trossard, reports also suggest that Arsenal want a new left wing signing, but are happy to keep both Trossard and Martinelli but would accept a bid of over £50M for Martinelli, but only if Trossard agrees to stay.
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Rumor doing the rounds is that Nwaneri has stalled on signing a new contract, that he is unhappy with how little game time he has got in recent months, and was not happy that he did not get game time v Real Madrid and only getting brought on in games after the 85th minute.
Also the clear intention of Arsenal to sign a couple of forwards, and also the stated intent to give Max Dowman game time next season, has seemingly made Nwaneri question what his future is under Arteta.
Liverpool one of the teams said to be very interested in signing him
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Nottingham Forest have BANNED Sky’s Gary Neville from Sunday’s game
Brilliant decision by Nottingham Forest, they have far more guts than Arsenal FC have ever shown in dealing with the bias media.
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Arsenal Women play Barcelona Women in the Women’s Champions League Final tomorrow kick off 5pm
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Not a writer my Arse. Mills your pieces have been true literature excellence and I’m sure Steww would approve. While I have not agreed with everything you have said, the real intention of the written word in to make the reader think. I am sure there is no one who can honestly say they have read your work and not been drawn to wonder either by debate or delving into their memories.
Your work has not only been well written but of thought provoking excellence and I will always be thankful for it. I must admit I have been dreading such a post but if this is the end it has been a wonderful ride.
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Not a writer my Arse. Mills your pieces have been true literature excellence and I’m sure Steww would approve. While I have not agreed with everything you have said, the real intention of the written word in to make the reader think. I am sure there is no one who can honestly say they have read your work and not been drawn to wonder either by debate or delving into their memories.
Your work has not only been well written but of thought provoking excellence and I will always be thankful for it. I must admit I have been dreading such a post but if this is the end it has been a wonderful ride.
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Not a writer my Arse. Mills your pieces have been true literature excellence and I’m sure Steww would approve. While I have not agreed with everything you have said, the real intention of the written word in to make the reader think. I am sure there is no one who can honestly say they have read your work and not been drawn to wonder either by debate or delving into their memories.
Your work has not only been well written but of thought provoking excellence and I will always be thankful for it. I must admit I have been dreading such a post but if this is the end it has been a wonderful ride.
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Mills you are spot on how the football supporters relationship effects their lives.
Joking with my wife yesterday I informed her that this weekend would see the end of the season and because she hates football and her Birthday is in June, there would be no football in June as a present (of course there is never a time when there is no football).
She replied she didn’t hate football, she just hated the way football shaped every part her life as everything had to be planned around it
Both my lads ha lived abroad at different times but still managed to link up on the PC so we could all watch ARSENAL together.
My dad (who was from East ham) passed just as West Ham won their first trophy in years and my Mum (who was from Wood Green N22) passed recently just as spurs claimed their first trophy in years.
The history of my life is often measured in football terms and dates.
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Excuse the multiple posts my wordpress is playing up. Extra posts there any one missing !
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Thanks for your generous and kind words Ian, I don’t feel I deserve them, but I am grateful for what you wrote and was also moved by the post you wrote about how football has moved in many directions through your family.
Have you ever thought about writing some articles here on PA? I think they would be great…
Thanks again, for now and all the times this season, seems to have flown by?
And heres the the Arsenal women tonight, hopefully bringing the silverware home.
COYG!
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Cheers Mills, over the years I have wrote a couple of pieces that George has posted. I can contribute every now and again, although my offerings are no way of the quality of yourself, Steww, and Heady.
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ian any arsenal fans in your family on their last legs, so that the title or CL might be ours next season,
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Sunderland have won the play off final, 2-1, and so will be in the EPL next season, former Arsenal academy player Daniel Ballard is one of their key players, glad to see him get promotion to the EPL.
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Half time in the womens CL final, 0-0, Arsenal had a goal rightly ruled out for offside, its a tight game
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Arsenal women are getting a nil nil drubbing.
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stina, stina, stinaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa gives arsenal women the lead
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Arsenal win the Womens Champions League once again, 18 years after our first win
so glad it was Stina Blackstenius who scored the goal as she is often the target of the boo boys in the fan base.
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fucking hell that brought a tear to my eye, don’t know what I’ll be like if I ever see our mens team win the Champions league.
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Me too Ed. Great to have something to cheer about! COYG!
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well Mills I really didn’t expect it to be so emotional, its not often an Arsenal win hits me like this. So for it to be an Arsenal Women’s team win that does it surprises me even more. But God its good.
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I hope the Arsenal Women now add a few more top quality players to this team/squad and take over at the top of the English game again.
Imagine how Chole Kelly must feel, she was out in the cold at Man City and is at Arsenal on loan and she wins the WCL, I’d say she will be signed up permanent
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Ed, after trembling through the remainder of the game after we scored I then read your post and then starting checking to make sure all the ARSENAL members of the family are ok.
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Going back to players who have played for both clubs, I know Ed has already mentioned Stevie Williams but what a lot of people don’t realise was what a unique player he was.
Stevie was a brilliantly creative player but he was also an enforcer. If any ARSENAL player had been hit by a thug from the other side, it would lead to chants of “Stevie’s gonna get ya” and most of the time he did.
You just don’t see that from creative players nowadays.
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In more recent times their have been a plethora of players who played for both sides. Perry Groves, Neil Heany, Scott Marshall, Luis boa Morten, Steve Taylor, Richard Wright, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlin and of course Theo Walcott have all wore both shirts.
I am sure I’ve left a few out.
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I have been down to dingly Dell many times and although nowadays it’s St Mary’s, this away fixture always reminds me of one particular trip to the coast.
We had just arrived in Southampton when the news broke over the radio that the captaincy had been taken from Kenny Sampson and a young upstart by the name of Tony Adams would captain the side. The rest is history as they say.
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Today, yet another last game of yet another season, We would all love a free flowing high scoring game to send us into the abyss of the close season.
We are just about nailed on for second and so there is very little jeopardy for the players other than pride.
We know Aaron will be absolutely all geared up for a clean sheet but again because it’s last game and they are all ready relegated putting eleven men behind the ball can’t be an option.
Flying free flowing ARSENAL scoring loads of goals to close the season is what I need today.
Yesterday was brilliant but I do need today as well COYG.
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Raya, Partey, White, Kiwior, Tierney, Zinchenko, Merino, Rice, Nwaneri, Sterling, Martinelli.
Subs: Neto, Lewis-Skelly, Jorginho, Henry-Francis, Odegaard, Saka, Kabia, Trossard, Havertz
now I had expected Partey at Right back, but I was not expecting Tierney at left back, or Sterling or Nwaneri in the starting 11
not sure why Arteta is rotating for on the last day of the season
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just to point out if Arsenal lose and city win with an 8 goal swing they end up 2nd
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Strange transfer rumor, Raya to leave for either of the Madrid clubs and Arsenal to sign Emmi Martinez from Aston Villa, really don’t see this as a goer at all, but maybe the Raya bit is why we are so keen on Joan Garcia
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currently and for the first season in the EPL Arsenal do not have a player with 10 goals, Havertz has 9, Martinelli and Trossard has 8 each, and Merino has 7, so some goals required today
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well i feel very seen Mills. I’ve had a poor and difficult year. A lot of personal stuff I don’t need to go into here, but bless you (and one and all) and hope next season is easier.
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seems ben white is right back, tierney left central defender, zinchenko left back, merino at CF
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Im sorry to read that Heady, I hope things get on the upward turn soon and that youre back posting regularly.
Looks like here at PA we’ve all had a tough one, but we are still all here.
Thanks for all the support you gave me this season and of course in seasons past.
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HT: 1-0 to the Arsenal
Tierney’s first goal for Arsenal since he scored against Zurich in November 2022
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currently 1-1
we have brought on Saka, Trossard, Havertz, Lewis-Skelly and Odegaard for Tierney, Sterling, Martinelli, Nwaneri and Zinchenko
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Odegaard makes it 2-1 to the Arsenal, couple of minutes to go
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it seems that the PGMOL have really cost Aston Villa a CL place today
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7 minutes of stoppage time to be played
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odegaard goal
https://x.com/i/status/1926681811905613860
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FT: Southampton 1-2 Arsenal
Tierney on his last AFC game got our opener and Odegaard got our winner, Raya joint winner of golden gloves
2nd for the 3rd year in a row.
first time in EPL that no Arsenal player got to 10 goals for the season.
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Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea and Newcastle in CL next season,
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oh and spurs in CL next season too
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Thanks Mills for the shout out.
Don’t always get to read or comment on every post but always enjoy Positively Arsenal gathering.
For me always been a chill, easy going place where you can share our Arsenal experiences over the years.
Big up everyone
Next year gotta be ours god willing.
COYG
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Considering the Mish mash of a team that started, that wasn’t too bad.
I really don’t understand the reasoning behind playing Stirling but that’s Mikel for you, his selections are sometimes puzzling.
It is nice to finish the season clear of city and the rest and not be separated by GD.
Minds now turn to recruitment and how we can plug the gap from second to first or a get a pot or two.
The CL places will again be very closely fought and to secure our current standing will be difficult but to become Champions will be a massive upgrade.
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yeah Ian the Arteta selections can be mind boggling, I see reports that 3 of the young lads who have been regular subs the last couple of months, NBO, Henry-Francis and Gower, are all to leave the club this summer when their deals expire, which questions why youths who will be here next season were not on the bench instead of them, seeing as we all knew those 3 were not going to get game time. Its like the bringing on of Tierney and Sterling v Real Madrid and not Nwaneri. There is no forward planning with Arteta. Risk Averse, dare I say
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some rumors that Neto may be back with us next season, but this time as 3rd choice goalie, behind Raya and a new back up. It might depend on if we go back in for Wigan’s Sam Tickle, who we failed to convince last summer that he would be better off as AFC 3rd choice, would actually have been 2nd choice if he’d joined, than playing a full season for Wigan in League One.
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reported Arsenal target, Sporting Lisbon striker Viktor Gyokeres scored a penalty in the 10th minute of added time in the Portugal Cup final v Benfica to bring the game to extra time where Sporting won to complete the league and cup double this season. It was Gyokeres’s 54th goal in 52 games for Sporting this season.
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I mentioned above that this is the first season that Arsenal failed to have any player score at least 10 league goals in an EPL season, in fact its the first time its happened since the 1923/24 season, Artetaball
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