Hello and how are you? I already know the answer! Sunday the 24th of May sees the close of the Premier League and champions(!) Arsenal will make a short trip down to south London and take on Crystal Palace at the Nest. KO 4.00pm local time.
Well, we did it! Happy days toy town! It was a long hard journey. Normally on Saturday nights I watch Ghost Theory, because they really make me laugh, but they couldn’t put any videos up this week, so I ended up (somehow?) trawling through some of the 2020/21 archive on PA.
It’s all there, a fascinating document, witnessing Arteta getting lost in the reorganisation of the club, people leaving PA in their droves, unhappiness, frustration, popular players leaving. In the end I stopped, of course, if I had carried on reading it would have led me to better times. And eventually the best of times.
Why am I mentioning this? Because one thing struck me, how an utterly absurd and (probably) illogical a game being played on a planet at the edge of just one system in perhaps two trillion, spinning at 17,000km per hour, can so deeply weave itself into your emotive life and the lives of others, a vast stream, and that stream includes those designated as enemies.
Yet as Tuesday’s nights wave upon wave of euphoric joy showed us, a relative sense of unity can be achieved. Arsenal (like much of the world) was divided into many factions and perspectives, yet oddly everyone wanted the same thing, (just believing in different methods) and when crowning glory turned up on Tuesday night everyone came together in a collective sense of joy, putting aside niggles and differences.
And since that evening our lives have visibly changed, our emotive outlook and our day-to-day feelings. From now on our lives will not be the same as they were for the last 22 years. But it is striking how all life is in flux but major events change us more, bring us closer and walls do come tumbling down, even if just for a while?
For me, and perhaps for you, today’s game about Palace is just about us lifting the trophy and getting through the game injury free and we turn our eyes to the Champions League final and Palace to the Conference Final ( good luck Palace).
I went around to Statto HQ and they had left a note pinned to the door. It read: ‘we can’t give you any clear stats as its not sure who’s even going to play but based on prior games : Crystal Palace have a 22.5% chance of winning and champions of the Premier league, Arsenal have 53.6%.’
Well, that’s it for this season, thank you again to everyone here for your support and friendship. We did it! Next up a trip to Budapest as we take on PSG in the Champions league final. SO COYG!
Mills
Well champions we are, we celebrate while looking forward to what might be our first Champions League win. It’s all dizzyingly exciting. Unity has broken out across social media and we all are winners for now. Arteta’s critics are muted and his adorers are vindicated. it’s like a game of football has broken out in no mans land, again “for now”. Well I “for now” will keep my powder dry until after Saturday, when I wil have more to say on the subject, a lot more.
I couldn’t care less about todays game, not the selection, the tactic or even the result, by I can’t wait to soke up the atmosphere with the guard of honour and the presentation of the most coveted prize in English football, and I include the Champions League, for me THE BIG ONE is already in the bag.
Drink it all in, these moment are as rare as hen’s teeth.
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
Fantastic last game of the season previews lads, especially as it would of been easy to just right “we won the league”.
If both teams were at full strength, most of the stats would be in our favour. We all know that is not going to be the case.
Most people want to see the guard of honour and then the trophy presentation, even the Palace fans just want to say goodbye to Oliver possibly their greatest manager ever.
A game where both teams need to save energy and avoid injuries may be a damp squib or a feast of end to end fantasy football. It could almost be like a pre-season fixture and I think the league should have let both teams have unlimited subs.
The ref is a newbie and loves to give you penalties and has even ignored VAR in one of his five PL games.
It should be a great day, a great time to be a Gunner and a joyous occasion COYG.
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Dowman to start and become the youngest player to ever start an EPL game
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Arrizabalaga; Mosquera, Norgaard, Hincapie, Calafiori; Zubimendi, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman; Madueke, Martinelli, Jesus.
subs: Setford, Gabriel, Saka, Ødegaard, Eze, Gyökeres, Merino, Havertz, Rice.
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Martin Zubimendi is at right-back, with Cristhian Mosquera at centre-back & Christian Norgaard in midfield
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Jesus hits the post
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Jesus misses again
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its going to take a miracle for West ham to stay up.
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Crystal Palace 1-2 Arsenal
Jesus and Madueke with our goals
Champions will get the trophy in about half an hour
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Xhaka’s Sunderland have qualified for Europe for the first time in over 50 years.
Bournemouth have qualified for Europe for the first time, and Brighton make it too.
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so in the end Arsenal won the EPL by 7 points
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Arsenal won more points this season than Liverpool did last season
Liverpool 24/25 G38 W25 D9 L4 GF86 GA41 GD45 Pts84
Arsenal 25/26 G38 W26 D7 L5 GF71 GA27 GD44 Pts85
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Arsenal the first team in EPL history to go through a season without conceding a penalty or having a red card.
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Arsenal are the only london club to qualify for Europe next season.
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remember when they used to say the Kroenke’s were the worst owners of any sports club. Ha ha ha
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reports in Ireland suggest that Arsenal Women decided to let Katie McCabe leave due to her age, she will be 31 in September. Seems a bit rash. there was some claims that Arsenal did have a late change of heart, and had offered her a new one year deal, but she wanted longer deal, at the very least two years, and so she decided to leave.
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The Kronkes were a problem majority owner at one time because they didn’t want to spend any money because of Usmanov.
That boardroom split and the control they took away from Arsene caused the club to lose several years at the very top.
This was all caused by David Dein backing two horses and abandoning Arsene.
It was only when the family got total control they started to back the manager.
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https://x.com/i/status/2058611301983690840
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Stan would have had to be financially illiterate to invest his money for Usmanov’s benefit, driving up the share vale of the very shares he wanted to acquire. But he did make the mistake of backing Ivan over Arsene, for that he should never be forgiven.
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Yeah, I know it was a stalemate that put the club in a straight jacket. That wasn’t Stan’s fault and although David Dein created the problem I’m pretty sure he always made decisions in the best interests of the club. Remember he also was angling for a superleague in the nineties.
Although the fans would of hated it, the financial doping of Chelsea and city would probably never taken place or at least would have been delayed.
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Normally I hate Jamie O’Hara, the bitterest man in football, but when you need him and his celebration police he’s nowhere to be seen.
The scenes at the Toilet bowl were disgraceful. While I can understand relief at the final whistle, celebrating avoiding relegation by running around the stadium with your arms in the air like you’d just won the world cup was a disgrace to the fans they had let down for the past couple of seasons.
They should of been bending over giving it the were not worthy bow, as they certainly weren’t.
The courage from sky was also a disgrace and if I paid for sky football I would cancel it.
ARSENAL had just won their first League title in 22 years, Palace were saying goodbye to arguably their best ever manager and sending the team off to a European final,
Other teams were celebrating really successful seasons and saying goodbye to their managers and yet they stayed with the spuds for ages.
Their has got to be something very wrong with the football media that they celebrate failure and ignore lots of fantastic achievements by lots of clubs.
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The much-maligned Swede has been only a qualified success but he still ranked second for holding the ball up in the Premier League and – as the table above shows – fourth for runs attacking the back line. Gyokeres gave Arsenal something different and it worked.
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The statement above is from Genius IQ. It picked a team of the season that didn’t include the eight players nominated for player of the season although the stats they used did include them.
This, plus what we have seen with our own eyes, illustrated just how important Victor has been this season.
When you also consider the injuries he had, the injuries to our other forward players, the adaptation needed in a first season, the experience of winning a title and the affect of dealing with pressure on the rest of squad, we must consider this signing was an absolute steal.
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Ian if you take a look at the highlights of the season put up on Arsenal.com, you might, like me, be surprised just how much of an impact Gyokeres had. Also the quality of his goals. I said for much of the season that we were not using him right.
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the EPL season is just ended and Arsenal are being linked with several players who shone in the EPL the season just gone.
right back Michael Kayode from Brentford
midfielder Mateus Fernandes from West Ham
oddly both those players were born on the same day, July 10th 2004.
midfielder Sandro Tonali from Newcastle
forward Eli Junior Kroupi from Bournemouth
are all being heavily linked with Arsenal today.
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Kroupi would be a good signing
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Not sure who to contact but I was Markyb not this exuberant lark. Seems someone has used my email to set that up.
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we are now being linked with Morgan Rodgers of Aston Villa
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Arsenal Supporters Trust say that Arsenal and the Police expect a minimum of half a million at our parade on Sunday. If we win the CL it will massively increase the numbers.
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Arteta tonight won the Manager of the Year Award
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Nottingham Forest midfielder Anderson is being linked with a move to Man City or Man Utd with him said to prefer city. Many believe he would be an ideal partner to Declan Rice at Arsenal
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In a rubbish team, Anderson’s stats are absolutely ridiculous. Too many overlaps with Rice though?
I think England are going to be extremely solid at the World Cup with those two, but may lack a bit of inspiration…or need to balance it with flair and freedom elsewhere.
Which is not to say that they’re plodders. Far from it; but by definition nether is a playmaker. Both seem happier carrying the ball?
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Ceadach O’Neill has received his first callup to Northern Ireland senior squad
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Barcelona have reached agreement with Newcastle for the signing of Anthony Gordon, €80M fee plus a sell on clause.
When Arsenal were linked with him a few weeks ago I asked my neighbour who is from Newcastle and a big Toon fan and goes over regular to their games, what he thought about Anthony Gordon. He said that when Gordon is good he is exceptional, but that he has too many games where he has no impact what so ever.
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Jurrien Timber completed a full training session today, and will be travelling out with the squad tomorrow for the CL final, it remains to be seen if he will be considered fit enough to be part of the match day squad.
He has been selected in the Netherlands squad for the World Cup
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Mateta has given Crystal Palace the lead in the Conference League Final
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David Ornstein says that reports Arsenal would accept £5M fee for Gabriel Jesus from clubs in Brazil is way off the mark and that we want £18M – £20M for him, and are prepared to keep him for next season if we don’t get that sort of fee and let him leave on a Bosman next summer.
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Stan and Josh have said they are working on a new contract for Mikel and his staff as a reward for the success this season.
Jesus won’t add much to the team next year and so it’s not really about the amount we would get for him but the amount it frees up in wages for new signings.
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George, for the final time this season, sent over the preview. COYG!
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Barcelona have announced the signing of Anthony Gordon from Newcastle.
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The post is up.
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