Good morning, and a good morning it is, at least for me.
I was hugely impressed with our team last night and I went to Twitter expecting to see unanimous joy. Oh how foolish of me. Honestly, I don’t know what people expect these days.
So let me put my cards on the table and state where I stand on how Positively Arsenal I feel.
To do that, an brief history is required, so please bear with me.
I was gutted with our fanbase and the club when Arsene was elbowed out. But I’m a bit of a pragmatist and I accepted he couldn’t go on for ever. I was prepared to more on and forgive and forget.
Then the Emery debacle made me yearn for Arsene again, fortunately that was short lived and he was gone.
By this point I had been advocating for Arteta as manager for some 3 years, in fact since he was in his last year of captaincy. When he came in I was overjoyed, I had my man and I thought the ethos and style of the Wenger years would return. Sadly I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Several things, but mainly the Ozil stuff, led me to believe that Mikel was a liar and his ego was way bigger than his talent. I might have gotten that wrong as well.
The way he stood by Xhaka, begging him to stay and the style of our play in Granit’s last season gave me hope again. Then over the next 3 seasons our style became more and more tedious and defensive, Not my idea of fun, I was fed up again with Arteta. I thought we were going backward and would never again in my lifetime win the League. WRONG AGAIN GEORGE.
Right, where am I now, having been wrong more tines than soft Mick?
I still have reservations about Mikel and his ego, however he has built a magnificent team that appears to get stronger and also, importantly to me, more adventurous and entertaining, all be in marginally.
We saw last night how, when a team comes to our gaff and attacks, how we respond and it becomes a good game. A good deal of our ponderous play is down to how teams set up against us, home and away.
I don’t understand how peoples opinion are more important to them than the facts. And the facts are that we are THE CHAMPIONS, and look more likely to win another than not. It appears we could do it in a more entertaining way and will add again in future windows,
I don’t have to like Arteta to accept his competence to do a job that I can barely comprehend how difficult it is.
I have my doubts about Noni, Big Vic and even Zubi, but as I shown in this article, What do I koww?
I don’t see any reason not to enjoy this team/squad getting behind them as much as my own ego will alow.
Chelsea are way better than I thought ,scored after a minute and we beat them with considerable style and dash.
It’s all good folk.
Pedantic George.
Absolutely George,
Sometimes being a fan, means it is difficult to look at your own team objectively.
I was one of those who believed ex-players rarely worked, haunted by the Leeds disasters, so early Mikel was not for me either.
The one thing we noticed early on was the way Mikel harmonised the squad and the staff. After the initial cull, the players who were left bonded fantastically and once that spread to the crowd and fanbase then something very special had been created.
We wouldn’t have been able to cope with the sixth place finish (behind the spuds) and the three second place finishes without this. Most squads would have been broken up and rebuilt, but ours got better by small adjustments, admittedly with money, rather than the meat cleaver approach.
Like I said, it is really difficult to critique your own team, were we too open or have we just played one of the best attacking sides in the league. I do think if this game had came ten games later we would have been tighter.
As George says, we can toe to toe with anyone, any style and any set of players and that is something to be truly joyous about.
LikeLike
We can go toe to toe with any side. So much so that we rarely get that chance any more in the Premier League. A season of endless low blocks and parked buses await. It is the only tactics most teams have to get even a point from us. Champions League is different and more open. Every team is in the top echelon of their domestic league and the low block teams don’t rise to the top of the continent’s leagues so we face teams that are adept at attacking first. Our depth is amazing and we could repeat if our team stays healthy. Player health is a problem for Arteta. He seems reluctant to rotate enough for my tastes. Players like Eze, Madueke, Gyokeres, Merino and in the past Norgaard exist not to be rotated but only to be inserted when the starting XI breaks down. Last year MLS gathered dust on the bench until Zubimendi was clearly gassed and running on fumes. Rotation would have benefited both. Saliba was played to sciatica and broke down in the summer when his cortisol shots stopped masking the pain. Rice is not far behind. We have the horses, but with a very short summer due to the World Cup, we will need a manager that relies less on the whip and more on rest and carrots. I can’t endure another 2nd half season of dire football like we had last year.
LikeLike
Nice peie George, honest and from the heart, its always interesting to read about everyone personal experiences as a fan.
I still feel a caution like we all did at the end of last season. As the darkness draws in the tougher games will be, this part of the season is always strange, like being in some weird dream. But Im on for the ride, and whatever happens, happens…
Feels great to have such a strong squad though, plus I liked how after Chelsea scored we just kept coming for them, selfishly I would like some more goals as the anxiety I feel hanging on to a one goal lead is pretty tough. But now we have a strong squad I hope all the lads get hungry, kind of helps the machine…
Alonsos boys will (probably) have clicked when we play them next time, I thought Chelsea missed Cucurella? I thought Ipswich and Coventry have played ok, Ipswich have been a bit unlucky, but they look a bit flat up front? Nice goals from Isak but Im still not sure how great he is, in a relative sense. Ainsleys goal for Eveton was a cracker for sure. Their first goal by Tyrique George was a beauty too.
Decs contract is up in 28 and I was listening to his old coach the other day and he reckons at some point Dec wants to go ‘abroad’ for some years and then come back to West Ham. He reckoned that Dec was micromanaged to his detriment and is better in the 6 role.Me know no, nor care, what can I do? He runs his arsenal off every week, and is a likeable guy, and will be an assest wherever he plays? Perhaps the onyl true 100mill player so far?
Im looking forward to napoli. Had a friend who went there once and some people threw a dustbin at the back window of the car whilst it was stopped in traffic and nabbed all the baggage they could! when I went the restuarants were all tucked away and tough to find. im sure its not like that now that was 35 years ago and in the old world. Southern Italy is really different from the north.Passionate fans for sure.
LikeLike
as i mentioned yesterday our next four games are all away, Napoli in the CL, Sunderland in the EPL, Ipswich in the CC, and Brighton in the EPL, so if ever our great squad needs rotation its in this batch of games, and I really hope he does some rotation in the CL game on Wednesday.
We are a bit hamstrung as to what rotation we can do in defence at the moment with Timber and Saliba out, and Mosquera a doubt, so depending on Mosquera availability Hincapie looks the main option, be that for the injury prone Calafiori or for Gabriel at CB, it should be done. Midfield is where we can rotate at our ease, we had Bruno G, Zubimendi and Merino all in reserve yesterday, so no excuses not to rest who is most needed for Sunderland on Sunday. Up front yesterday we had Eze, Madueke, Gyokeres and Dowman in the subs, so again we have real options to rotate.
Lets hope Arteta has learnt how to rotate by choice before being forced in to it.
LikeLike
Mills Italian stadiums can be dangerous place to go, I recall the famous incident at the San Siro when a moped was thrown from an upper tier of the stadium, and older gooners will remember when Arsenal fans had fires lit around them at the old Juventus stadium in 1980, the Paul Vassen game
LikeLike
sorry for this, i know the transfer window closed this day last week but there are lots of Arsenal transfer stories about, we are being linked to Kroupi of Bournemouth, oh how i hope this one is true, I really think this lad will go all the way to the very top of the game. We are being linked with a move for any of PSG’s front 3. And the new link is that Gyokeres will in January join Martinelli at Al Halal and we will bring Ivan Toney the other way.
LikeLike
the Havertz goal yesterday was the first time this season in the EPL that a goal was scored where every member of a team touched the ball in the build up
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember the fires back in 1980 in that second leg. And the utter silence. Werent we the first team from Britain to beat Juve at home? Still got the ticket from the first leg, but the programs missing. Whats nice though is how much Paul sort of turns up, tragic lfe but that moment was pure magic.
I didnt know about Jimmy from Quadrophrenia chucling his wheels over the egde at the San Siro though! Thats nuts! I was Rome years ago and it was Roma v Lazio, my word before the game it was like how it is in other countries when a team wins, driving around with flags and the hooters going off constantly. Kind of brought a smile to your face though. I nearly ended up in a scrap in Italy though,when all started to get sweaty, a guy who won the Turner prize years later ask me if I needed a hand, trouble was he was sloshed out of his mind. He couldnt have even beaten himself up! Somehow it all calmed down. A few days later I ended up in the mountains with some famous artists from East Germany he wanted to look at these churches in the Alps and I ended up gonig with him, they were amazing, the energy that came out of them Ive never experienced before. Anyway we were driving back and he starts getting all nasty and saying to me the English are the worst dressed in Europe. I couldnt be bothered to say anything as obviously he had one going on under his bonnet, but I just looked at him and thought: ” what? And folk from the DDR are the best dressed?”. by that time Id seen the DDR not long after the Wende and came across soem oddball (but interesting Im not so snobby) sights. Lots of people go to Berlin but when i first went (not long after)all of the Eastern sector was untouched, notshops or cafes, some makeshift place selling Kafee for 1 mark. Everyhwere was a ghost town, grey stained, broken still bullet and bomb shells in most buildings fromm the battle of Berlin. History was all around. There was no postdammer platz and it was just a hole in the ground for the underground. Hard to imagine now. No Hauptbhanhof in Potsdam, just old ladies selling pickled cabbage and gurkins from massive barrels at the end of the line, not evem a makeshift shelter. Oddest was going up to the Olympic stadium, it was like going through a portal back to the 1930s.Its cleaned up and they renovated the stadium, but that was one strange experience for sure. Some evil energies lingered on roudn one side where they had held rallies back in the day. (pukes).
A friend of ours went like a few weeks after the wall came down and said you still had to use a pass to get past the guards.She has some amazing stories. Sorry Ed, gone off track as always…
During the 1980s CWC run we played against Magdeburg ( didnt we beat them at Highbury and draw away?) anyway twnety years later driving through still trigger that game. Football it weaves in and out of all aspects of your life.
LikeLiked by 1 person
yeah mills Arsenal the first british team to beat juve at their place
ah paul vassen, the man who was going to replace Frank Stapleton, but his career cut short by a knee injury that would only see him miss about 6 weeks now but back then it finished careers, and in reality it finished his life as he never came to terms with what might have been. Richie Powling was another of that era that was set for a big career before a dodgy knee cut his dreams short, and lets not forget supermac who had to retire at something like 29 after a couple of years destroyed by a dodgy knee.
LikeLike
mills do you remember the defeat or should i say defeats to spartak moscow in the UEFA Cup in 1982/83, everyone thought after the fist leg where we lost 3-2 that it would be an easy turn around in the second leg, not just because of the strength of English clubs in Europe at that time but also that Russia clubs were notorious for being bad travellers, but they absolutely destroyed us in the second leg, 5-2, to win 8-4 on agg, I think this was the start of a sustained campaign by some fan groups to get Terry Neill sacked. He lasted about a year after this.
LikeLike
Ah Magdeburg, they played in a Brighton strip and were one of Germany’s best teams at the time, qualifying for Europe every season. That was at a time when it was difficult to qualify for Europe.
LikeLike
I do Ed, it was that Terry Neill transition team half FA cup(etc) veterans, half new boys. Everyone had a massive sense of shame as it equalled th biggest loss in a UEFA cup competiton.
Great memory Ian! They had that open air stadium too.
All those memories and that type of football, seems a world away now?
LikeLike
George, sent the Napoli preview over. COYG!
LikeLike
It’s up.
LikeLike