steww

Arsenal Versus Basel: What Year Is This? Who Is The President?

I must confess you’ve caught me with my pants down this morning. I woke up still reeling from a stinging rebuke delivered by our very own Foreverheady, which reproof came in response to some perhaps ill advised and waspish comments I made last night. I was responding to the childish and frankly embarrassing shambles which […]

Arsenal Versus West Ham: Esprit De Corps

I was lying in my bath last night reading a yellowing, dog eared paperback when something unexpected popped up. The tome in question, I should add, is the rather excellent To Sea In A Sieve by Peter Bull. First published in 1956 it is an unvarnished account of the author’s experience in the Royal Navy […]

Arsenal Versus Southampton: Wither Young Yaya?

I probably don’t need to tell you what happened the last time we played Southampton in this competition. What did surprise me however was to discover that the match took place more than two years ago. I believe this is a common problem as one gets older, the memory plays tricks and our understanding of […]

Arsenal Versus Bournemouth: Juggling and Balance

So it’s nearly over. The colonists have celebrated their annual feast of thankfulness and the retail addicts have fought in the car park of the shopping mall. The dreaded dark month of November of which many were, just a few short weeks ago, so scared, has nearly passed.  The disastrous run of unbeaten games which […]

Arsenal Versus Paris St Germain: Get Orf Moi Land

I was listening to BBC Somerset on the car radio yesterday. Not proud of it, obviously, but Radio 4 had decided to lead with Nigel Farage and I didn’t want him in the Hyundai with me so had switched channels in haste. They were interviewing some poor beleaguered soul from the Environment Agency or National […]

Arsenal Versus Man United: Sceptic Stew’s Septic Stew

The international break came at rather a good time for me. In one way at least. Not in a ‘let’s all sit down and enjoy some great football kind of way’ – chance would be a fine thing. I refer more to my Quixotic attempt to add a couple of thousand words each day to […]

Arsenal Versus Spurs: Love Your Neighbour, But Maintain Your Fence

Because we have a strict door policy here on Positively Arsenal we were, in the early days when anybody cared to take any notice of us, decried for all sorts of reasons. Elitism, snobbery, and being anti democratic to name but three. Yesterday, in a spirit of what I can only assume was one of […]

Arsenal Versus Ludogorets: The Norway Of The Year

The last time I had anything even remotely resembling a proper job, and we are going back into the halcyon mists here, there was a rhythm, a recognisable pattern to my work year. I was shackled in the engine room of academia, not teaching of course – they don’t allow inarticulate, uneducated oafs from the […]

Arsenal versus Reading: A Royal Flush

I don’t know what Arsène wanted for his birthday, there is in any case little about this most cerebral of football managers to suggest he is particularly motivated by material possessions. I’ll bet he didn’t have a nil nil draw with Middlesbrough particularly high on the list though. Fortunately we weren’t the only club with […]

Arsenal Versus Boro: Discipline and Fizz

Let’s get the grovelling out of the way first. And the excuses, let’s get those out of the way first too. Oh heck. Is there a mathematician in the house? Can I have two first things? Even if I can you’d need to discount the preceding five sentences wouldn’t you? All I was going to […]