Góðan daginn Positivistas,

Another Sunday morning, another FA Cup victory to ponder. On seeing the starting line up I admit a little quiver of nervousness crept in. Multiple changes of personnel from what would be regarded as our PL starting eleven at the moment, a start for young Iwobi, two returners from two months out through injury in Alexis and Le Coq, and the debut of a player who no one had heard of five weeks ago. And not just the starts but looking at the bench Mesut and Aaron had been given the weekend off to catch up on those long delayed DIY jobs that had been on their to-do list for months. Yes I felt just a twang of concern.

Needless to say my worry was misplaced and swiftly set aside by a strong opening with Arsenal controlling the ball and pinning back the custard shirted/rhubarb shorted opposition in their own half.

The Ox was at number 10, pulling the strings, constantly busy, running at the opposition, trying to slot THE PASS through to Olivier. Alexis was doing what he does, bouncing like Tigger, after a long sleep. Le Coq showing absolutely no sign of rustiness as far as I could see and the way he was getting stuck into tackles there was no hesitation that can crop up after a player is seriously injured in a challenge. Credit to Iwobi all afternoon who tried to play his game. He is still raw but was not put off by the physical approach of the opposition and the lack of time he was given to play.

On 19 minutes we took control of the tie through Chambers excellent finish that curled into far corner. Any strike with the outside of the boot that beats a keeper from the edge of the box deserves praise and I see in the media we have a multiple Samba theme. I am sure you will all have seen in on television from several angles. The nice thing was the time Callum takes in choosing how to hit the ball, and where to place the shot. That is a really very confident finish from such a young player.

Just after our opener there was a big roar from the Arsenal fans in the West Stand lower as Tomas began to warm up. And picked up round the stadium. He has been away far too long.

There followed another 25 minutes when Burnley, to their credit, did what they had to do and forced their way back into the game. They played two strikers throughout the game and Vokes and Gray were ever eager to pounce on any error along our back line. I was also impressed with Burnley’s centre back by the name of Michael Keane and their full back Darikwa, both comfortable on the ball. As is our style we fell victim to a little carelessness with the ball in defence, and the visitors struck with what was a very good header. As the half finished however we were back in control.

Ten minutes into the second period the tie was effectively over. Having stuck to the job of defending in depth and in numbers Burnley were unable to cope with the speed and movement of first the Ox and then Alexis. The Chilean’s finishing was efficient and unstoppable. Once in front there was no chance of our allowing Burnley back into the game. It would have made life smoother to have converted one of our many chances for a third but Gabriel and Kosc policed Burnley’s strikers carefully and Ospina did not have a busy afternoon. And what our Colombian keeper did have to do, particularly when called on to deal with crosses, he did impeccably I should say.

And so to mention the man we have all been waiting for Mohamed Elneny. I was not sure what to expect and the reports of him being a holding midfield player seemed to be accurate as, in the opening few minutes he and Le Coq both patrolled a narrow corridor in the centre of the pitch. No disrespect to our East Lancashire cousins but that did seem slight overkill. After that little defensive phase however Mo spread his wings and popped up all over the pitch, at various points taking on Ramsey’s job on the right wing. He is a big man, with big hair, who is not going to be easy to knock off the ball. He was calm, he tackled cleanly, he stayed on his feet. We have a BFE I’d say.

Great to meet up yesterday with the chaps.

Enjoy your Sunday, 5^th round draw tonight. All the usual suspects are still in it. I fancy a big game.

Good morning Positivistas,

Three years ago today Arsenal Andrew delivered the first blog on Positively Arsenal, and in his elegant analysis moved swiftly over a rousing victory over Brighton in the 4^th round of the Cup, the closing of the transfer window, shook his head in pity at incessant and self destructive traits among our following, with fan against fan in the ground and on line. He delivered the ethos of the site, that we are together here to support Arsenal football club, win, lose or draw. New born, but fully formed.

On those days when the footballing sky fell in PA was a haven to retire to, away from the madness. On the days of triumph, of great results and great performances, of silverware and victory, a forum to celebrate on and together. Just support, enjoy yourself, it is really not that difficult.

And so in the intervening three years it has remained so. We remain unique.

I am delighted that contributions came in from our Leader and DC pre birthday but I trust any who have a few words to say, on whatever topic takes their fancy today, will do so;

Blackburn George: Three years ago, even previously supportive bogs were losing their shit and throwing their toys out of the pram, together with Arsene ,the Board and half the team. It was a grim time for those of us that believed the future was bright. 

For me, the saddest thing was seeing fans that not only jumped ship, but climbed on-board the ship that was sailing in the absolute opposite direction.

Something had to be done by someone to create a safe haven for those that stayed strong. Well some of us did something, and this is it.  

We could of course make the comments section much larger, by opening the door to the malcontent, miserable and stupid. But guess what?

I hope everyone feels part of Positively Arsenal, and I thank everyone that contributes to the articles and the comments.

Onward and upward. COYG 

Double Canister; Thoughts on PA

“The difference in winning and losing is most often…not quitting.” – Walt Disney

The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” – Pele

Just over 3 years ago, Arsenal’s supporters were being pushed into a very dark place. Very few rationally minded supporters were left  resisting the barrage of constant negativity aimed at us from the media and the hate-fuelled perma-bitter fringes of our own fan base. Looking back, we might remember the constantly repeated memes that Arsenal had an exceptionally long trophy drought? as if other so called big clubs have far worse and on-going ones? Remember the meme that they couldn’t win a big game? Arsenal were the perennial chockers and bottlers, led of course by the biggest eejit of them all in the coat with the dodgy zip?

Such was the state of near universal censure aimed at Arsène Wenger, I found it hard to find anyone to discuss our football club’s genuinely upward progress in a sensible and intelligent manner. Mercifully and quite luckily one night browsing through other blogs I heard of people in the underground, people who weren’t drinking the kool-aid, people who were laughed at for driving in the sunshine bus, who were pariahs from other more ‘sensible’ minded sites where the mantra was the boss’s time was up. I found Positive Arsenal as a beacon in the fog, a place of hope and reason; not for the reason that George and Co. were defending Arsène’s and the Club’s actions to the hilt no matter what he did- but that you were prepared to look at actions the correct context: the stadium building, the financial doping going on by rivals, the low value sponsorships the club had to deal with, the post invincibles rebuilding of a weaker team piece by piece and the desertions of key men who wouldn’t wait or wouldn’t understand.

Positively Arsenal for me stands as a paragon of rational and clear thought; Sometimes brave, always encouraging. It must be deeply unfashionable to be a staunch and proud believer in of our club’s continuing achievements and to have the temerity to actually trust the current incumbent in the hottest of hot seats leading our great club to be doing his very best each and every single day to ensure that Arsenal continue to achieve greatness. In terms of Arsenal’s future: no one else is looking over the horizon as far as Mr. Wenger does.

In the 3 years since PA has been around, it has remarkably paralleled Arsenal’s own up-turn in fortunes and I’d like to wish we had something to do with that- but that would be pushing the boat out too far. Suffice to say though, that George’s and Co.’s stalwart defence of our clubs actions and manager here and in the wider online realm has kept the flame alive for many, and for the many regular contributors here, I count you all as good friends and I’ve been lucky enough to meet several of you in person to watch Arsenal games. I hope to get to the Emirates again a few times this season and would love to help out with giving PA a few match reports.

A final word to some of our lost friends: Paul Brickhill, Adam Brogden and to where ever Frank has disappeared to. Arsenal are doing you proud – you believed in them when no one else wanted to. Thank you.

Worst PA Moment – Hunter

May the next three be as good as the past three. Enjoy our birthday !

Good morning fellow Positive Arsenal fans,

Another Sunday afternoon passed in a blur of frustration as Chelsea made off with all the points in a game where I fancied, I think almost all of us fancied, that we would win and stamp our footballing superiority, indeed our collective moral superiority, over the faltering Russian Empire of SW6. A team struggling along at 14^th in the Premier League facing a side that only requires a win to return to the top of the table. What could go wrong ?

As for the ‘why’s’ of the setback no doubt the gallows and bonfires of the mainstream and social media have identified and despatched their scapegoats by the cartload since the final whistle, and in some instances perhaps before !

For my part I thought young Shotts had it about right during the game yesterday when he noted that we had begun the game too keyed up, too anxious to rid ourselves the blue monkey. There was very little relaxed about our possession, our passes were too hard or too timid, and when an occasional chink opened in the visitors’ defensive armour we lashed at the ball. It was a collective nervousness, and one that it took us an hour to really get out of our system before we settled down and began to play our football. It is not the first time we have blown up against Chelsea – different players yesterday but still the same edginess that allowed Chelsea to settle – one anomaly for the manager to ponder.

As for our visitors the format we anticipated developed exactly as expected. Deep defence, hard tackling, ugly but always retaining their organisation. If they were to hurt us it would come through a swift counterattack, and so for our BFG it proved. With his dismissal nervousness turned to five minutes of panic and for the only time in the whole afternoon Costa slipped his leash. With their lead the visitors returned to the trenches.

One question someone might enlighten me on. Why did it take four+ minutes to make the Gabriel substitution ? It did not matter as the Brazillian was on the pitch when Costa scored but it seems bizarre that in those circumstances, i.e. your centre back has been sent off, both the player and the bench are not better prepared. It is hardly an unforeseeable occurrence in an AFCvCFC game is it ?

There is very little I can find to say about our first half of football.  I said we started poorly, it is enough. The red card disoriented us further, the goal punished us. A risk was taken, apparently, by taking of Olivier and using Theo up front. I do not think it is an arrangement that is likely to be used again unless the Frenchman is seriously injured. I can understand however that down to ten men and a goal down it took some time to regroup and by the very end of the half and in the opening few minutes of the second we were just beginning to show a spark of quality.

After the hour and with the arrival of Sanchez we finally began to put some pressure on Chelsea, pulling their shape about, getting into shooting positions( even if the reluctance to pull the trigger persisted) and making them commit fouls that drew cards. We began to take control of the ball for the first time. Ten of our men were taking the game to eleven of their men. The Chilean was very much the catalyst of the change but his vigour, and the need to have three Chelsea players chasing him freed up space for Aaron and Mesut and they began to create. During the final half hour I thought Hector was very good on the right, very, very good in fact. We never had the visitors’ goal open before us but during that final 20 minutes we were on top and an equalizer seemed entirely do-able.

Despite five extra minutes the doing remain undone however, and so the tale I had in mind for this morning of a spirited recovery against the Fates remains unwritten, for now.

Third birthday of PA on Thursday – for those who have already produced a piece I thank you, for those who are still contemplating the floor is yours . In either circumstance don’t forget to look in and light a candle.

Dzǎo-anh Positivistas,

Sky and BT often blather on about the “superior quality/best in the world etc” of the Premier League with no apparent justification but in terms of entertainment that was a great contest last night. Congratulations to both teams and both managers for putting on a spectacle that gripped from the first whistle to the final seconds. Action packed, end-to-end. You name the cliché, this game had it. Technically the football was probably no better than 7/10 but whatever the game lacked in precision it made up for in sweat and a mutual desperation to finish ahead. Even the foul weather added to the drama !

Of the players in old gold picking out names from such an intense match is difficult, but I shall try. There may still be one or two out their purporting a knowledge of football who have their doubts about Joel Campbell but last night he stamped his excellence on the game with two beautifully weighted and directed passes for the opening and third goals. When Joel was not the creator he was tirelessly working, tracking, running, tackling and putting himself about. I get the impression he is a lot “tougher” than two months ago, much, much harder to knock off the ball, much quicker back on his feet. His combination with young Hector has flowered in recent weeks, and last night they presented with an unstoppable combination on our right flank.

The second name out of the hat must be Olivier Giroud. To lead the line against two large centre backs away from home is no easy task. The Frenchman had to content himself with scraps in the opening, but from those meagre pickings he made a tasty meal for first Aaron, then provided the deftest of flicks to leave the Liverpool keeper embarrassed as we pulled back level for the second time. Olivier’s goal in the 53^rd minute was the pick of the night, and could be one of the best he ever scores in his career. Perfectly engineered movement to turn, to strike the ball and to place the shot into the far corner. Magnifique young man.

Of the home side I thought they were a credit to their club which are words that I could not have uttered on the evidence of their feeble Premier League form and watched them crumple at Vicarage Road a few weeks back. Firmino finally provided a clue as to why he cost almost £30 million in the Summer and while Henderson is the Nissan Micra equivalent to Mesut’s Mercedes Benz the Englishmen ploughed up and down all night to some effect.

What is perhaps baffling is Klopp’s reliance on Simon Mignolet who I thought should have done much better with two of our goals. And his cack-handedness is hardly a one off is it? The Belgian has made error after error in games for the Merseyside club ever since his arrival. In a world where league tables based upon snatches of data dominate could anyone direct me to the one which lists goalkeepers graded on points costing errors ? Mignolet would surely have dominated that unwanted competition season after season. By way of cross reference to the Liverpool keeping puzzle I checked Pepe Reina’s age. He is younger than Petr Cech. Nice one Brendan.

Overall a fair result, a point apiece on a night when had either side lost it would have been a cruel ending for such endeavour.

A test for our title credentials last night which we passed, another to come.

Onwards to the Potteries on Sunday and I am sure we are expecting another rollicking ( I think that is the word I am looking for ?) contest at the hands and probably the gloves of Sparky’s men.

Enjoy your Thursday.