Morning Positive people and it is raining heavily in Norfolk this Monday morning.

Despite that damp start to the week a satisfactory footballing start to the week with our CL qualification to the group stages all but* confirmed by Mr Dean’s final whistle and two games to scrape the point that will place our name in the pot in Nyon on the 5^th August.

The game yesterday ? Well having emphasised the ‘special’ nature of the Manc fixture in my comment on Stew’s excellent piece yesterday I sat glumly through the first half, watching what was a long way away from a good game of football. The home side defended deep and solidly, our passing was off target, our threat on De Gea’s goal totally missing. It just seemed our players not communicating as you would expect of a group have played together game after game in recent weeks. I can’t recall Santi knocking so many wrong passes in one half of football. I suspect after all the football he has played this season the man from the Asturias requires a rest.

My congratulations though to Phil Jones for the highlight of the first half pictured above, and provided by the Indy this morning. The boy has a talent for the ridiculous.

Manyoo were not any better during these exchanges  and it was surprising that they actually managed to hit the target after half an hour. Not even a bad tackle to spark things up and get the crowd roaring. Barely noticed Dean all afternoon.

Half time came and went and in the opening of the second period the torpor continued, Manyoo hesitant to chase a second, and us not still not clicking into gear.

And then, as so often happens in the mystery that is football, Robin came on at 61 minutes, Radamael waved a wistful paw at the unimpressed Trafford Park tourists for the final time, and we finally came to life. The passes found their target, the Mancs missed tackles and spilled possession. They weakened and we became stronger and more confident. Co-incidence ? The mechanism of cosmic balance for man’s wrongs to be expiated ? The sinister influence of Malaysian gambling interests perhaps ? No idea.

And in that final half hour I thought we were pretty damn good. I sensed a certain tension when RvP arrived and fear among even some stout hearted Positivatas that the bastard would score a second. In truth he was shockingly feeble, barely touched the ball. For us Mesut had been very quiet but was now in space and picking out passes and crosses. Giroud’s battering of the centre backs had drawn blood, Roja and De Gea departed, and we controlled the game as we have not done in a while at their place. For all you Aaron fans out there it was Christmas Day in that final 30 minutes.

The equalizer was inevitable although the part Blackett played was unlucky for the boy, though slightly less unlucky that Kieran Gibbs similar deflection that upset the Ems match for us in November.

Those final 12 minutes or so we pressed, the Mancs covered up and clung on. Flamini arrived and we knew it was a single point rather than the three that would be our reward for the afternoon’s work. Herrera finally got Dean to wave his card in the 94^th minute just prior to the final whistle.

And that was that. Some second half quality, not much incident or controversy. A professional performance.

It is just a short step to the Black Cats so enjoy the week.

* touches wood

This might come as a surprise to many of you, but I quite often get into arguments on twitter. I used to get into spats in the comment section of blogs too, until the ringmaster put an abrupt end to that bit of fun. The problem is that I tend to resort to sarcasm , abuse and mockery. I do this because on the whole most of the people I spat with base their arguments on no logic or perspective. Its just opinion and often opinion based on ignorance and misinformation.

People form opinions based on their limited knowledge (me included btw) then look to events for confirmation that their opinion was indeed correct. Obviously any event that challenges our opinion are, at best, given little weight, and usually completely ignored.

I want to look at how this has worked of late.

For quite some time people have been asking for a defensive midfielder. A real physical specimen that concentrates on breaking up play . You know the type, Maticesque.

So in Francis Coquelin we got one( Lets ignore that he is not a physical specimen and is in fact nothing like Matic ) Results improve. So, this is confirmation to these people that their opinion was correct.

Because results improved when Coquelin entered the fray,they were right , Arteta was shit and they know their stuff.

However, this is simply bollocks.

Before we cart on, I should say I do think he has helped to some degree or other.But lets look at what is ignored  and how this logic is flawed.

With this logic you could easily say ” Results have improved since Bellerin replaced Debuchy” or “Results have improved since Jack got injured”. I could even confirm such stupidity with “As soon as Jack played we lost to Swansea”.

There is no way anyone can say that with Arteta in this team, results would not have been better. Equally there is no way we can know if they would have been worse.

Its fine to have one opinion or the other, but its rubbish to point to events and say they are proof of an opinion being right.

The reality is that results improved because of many events.

Giroud, Ozil, Ramsey and Koscielny all came back around the time Coquelin was drafted in. Those four are absolutely the spine of the team. We know this because they are constants when fit.

See what I did? I confirmed my opinion with the recent selections.I ignored Sanchez bedding in, Bellerin being introduced , Santi finding a rich vein of form and many other circumstances.

This is what we do. We look for confirmation .

In other words, on the whole, we all talk bollocks.

A guest post from  shottagunna  ( @shotta_gooner )

By now we are all familiar with the recent punditry of Thierry Henry, when, from the comfort of his perch at Sky Sports, he declared that for Arsenal to win the league again “I think they need to buy four players – they need that spine. They need a goalkeeper, they still need a centre back, they still need a holding midfielder…”  

A visitor from Mars, scrutinizing the League table, may have cause to wonder if Henry is confused; is he mixing up the red of Arsenal with the free-falling Liverpool. The Gunners have been the best performing club in the top flight since January and in the last 6 games is ranked second only to Everton with 16 points compared to Chelsea’s 14.  

In my opinion Henry’s punditry is not only a public declaration of no-confidence in this squad but a virtual flip flop from his opinion two weeks earlier when  he was bigging-up Coquelin in particular, famously comparing him to the tv detective Columbo,  extolling his ability to sniff out any attack. Henry is no regular TV blowhard, he is an Arsenal legend who is still connected to the club, often working out with the squad at London Colney. Surely he should be aware that he is undermining confidence in players who see him as a mentor and in Wenger, whose approach to squad building is signing talented players whom the lazy pundits have doubts and turning them into world class players, a policy which he personally benefitted.

In my opinion our greatest ever goal-scorer is just another hapless victim of a certain media narrative, echoed in blogs and on twitter until it becomes conventional wisdom with barely a shred of factual evidence.  This is exemplified by the repeated nonsense that somehow David Ospina is inferior to all the top goalkeepers in the PL. But as footballrepublik.com observed:

 “Comparing Ospina to arguably the other top 2 goalkeepers in the league, David de Gea and Thibaut Courtois, he has the best clean sheet ratio, makes more saves per game, more saves per goal & has conceded the least goals per game.

He also boasts the best win ratio out of the three and has the most successful punches per game. Comparing him to his Polish counterpart (Szczesny), Ospina concedes a goal every 150 mins compared to every 71 mins for Szczesny.”

Those statistics are pretty overwhelming but, no matter how well he does, Ospina’s performances are discounted and subject to thinly disguised skepticism. This is best reflected in a recent headline in a very popular blog which stated “David Ospina’s win ratio makes him the second largest oil producer in the Universe.” Admittedly that was a very funny headline, but certainly a perfect example of being damned by sarcasm, a technique which this particular blogger excels.

All of us with experience of the last 11 years know that at the core of this false narrative concerning Ospina are the following facts;  he only cost the club a reported £4 million, he wasn’t signed from a big club and he is not the stereo-typical huge 6ft 6in plus European type goalkeeper. Too Almunia-esque in my opinion.

Hence the usual suspects went into overdrive in the last transfer window demanding Wenger sign Chelsea’s #2, Petr Cech.  Ray Parlour, who like Henry is loved by the media for being a famous ex-player (get the pattern) stated in the London Evening Standard. “It is nothing against Ospina but when you look at the games Cech has played in and the trophies he has won, he’d be a great addition for Arsenal. If you are going to challenge for the league, you need a top quality goalkeeper which Cech is.” One very popular tweep who also writes for the Metro went so far as to suggest that “A move to Arsenal would keep Cech in London, a city that has been the home of his evolution into a world class goalkeeper.” Imagine that, Arsenal has a duty to keep him in London.

Look out for more of this guff in the silly season coming up in July, worse if Ospina proves he is only human and by making a big mistake in one of the four upcoming matches. The main thing that keeps us serene in this nonsense is the wise words of our manager who said of our players in a recent interview:

“Every moment is analysed of every event on television. Just after the game the players open the television and hear ‘Why did he move on the right and not on the left?’. That was not the case before. It is the price to pay for the popularity of the sport. We have the good sides and have to take the bad sides as well.”

Good morning Positivistas and a glowing Summer morning up here in Norfolk.

A fine game yesterday between what the succession of televised games over the weekend showed were clearly the two superior footballing sides in the EPL at the present time. Both demonstrated a quality of football and of purpose that the Citehs, Yooniteds, and Spuds and Saints are deficient in at the present time. And therefore while the result disappointed me as I would have preferred the flame to flicker a little longer in the season, the football I thought was pretty damn good.

And to the grit of the game itself which I had the opportunity to view from on very high indeed, and again on the TV last night ?

Our starting line up, no significant changes though with Bellerin back into after his Wembley break – it seems Arsene has decided who is our first choice right back and after the young Spaniard’s careful patrol of Hazard all afternoon, and some striking runs forward, who is to argue ?

My first ‘surprise’ was Chelsea’s decision to start with no recognised striker, even allowing for the attraction of them leaving with a point that seemed an odd one. Not so and in the first half I thought the visitors looked more dangerous, their best chances of the game from Oscar and Ramires. When Droggie came on at HT the attacking threat faded, with the poor old Ivorian reduced to shouting, waving and pointing after Michael Oliver in desperation. Should I feel pity to see a former footballing nemesis reduced to a toothless, dribbling old crone ? Probably, but it make take a year or two yet.

Overall though a very good defensive performance from all our back five. And did you see the number of cards we picked up in the last few minutes as we pressed and Chelsea threatened to cause problems with a breakaway ? Does that tell us we have players who have learned ? Yes it does.

Two midfield units worked hard throughout the 90 minutes and effectively battled each other to a standstill. There was very little time for any player to take a touch or look up to choose a pass and even Ozil, generally a man who can find space inside a telephone box, saw his usual poise hustled and harried. Coquelin and Matic tackled the heavy work, Santi and Ramires picked up the scraps and tried to create something with them. Aaron, like Hazard, found it difficult to get anything going on the flank against the capable Azplicueta.

My only criticism of our creative engine was that until the last 15 minutes or so we did not seem to move the ball through midfield fast enough, there was an extra touch, a half turn, that just allowed the defenders to regroup. That change may have had to do with Danny’s introduction, it may have had to do with slightly tiring legs. It did seem to me that last ten minutes that we were at our best, and they, blowing hard, leaning on the ropes.

But we all know it is goals that win matches and we have two of the best goalscorers in the PL.

Sanchez and Ivanovic was a chess match, the Chilean leading the large Balkan on, pushing the ball inside, down the line, at him. But never quite breaking young Branislav, though his late yellow card following a frustrated lunge at Alexis indicated that he understood the game that was in progress. For all his cruel taunting of the Serb however Alexis could not break open the Chelsea lock.

And up front Olivier ran, he hustled, he charged, he darted and flicked but against the double coverage of the ever popular Mr Terry and his sidekick Cahill he was always going to struggle. And Giroud did, but he was game to his final kick, he will have easier afternoons and more profitable ones.

So a good game, a timely reminder we have still work to do, and peaks to attack and conquer.

Enjoy your week.