A view from the ground from @foreverheady

I enjoyed the game and thought we were properly in charge throughout. The defence looked organised and apart from a spell in the second half when we seemed happy to concede possession, we always seemed in control of the game. I was very impressed with Campbell and felt he made a big impact: the ball seems to find him, and he was often involved. He provided excellent support defensively and his energy level seemed high – Monreal must have thought he was in heaven. Given that it was effectively his first proper match for Arsenal I thought he did well, and I would love to see him play again. There have been better players than him who have been one-footed and as the Tony Adams quote on the wall of the stadium says, “play to your strengths”. He seemed to give us a very different balance and it will be interesting to see how he is used. There is a line of thought that says that that left wing spot has been the hardest to fill effectively: Podolski, Ozil, Cazorla and Wilshere have all played there with varying degrees of success, and not all have embraced the defensive aspect of the role wholeheartedly, so it was good to see him trying so hard: he deservedly got an ovation when he left the pitch. Given the doubts over the fitness of our midfielders I wouldn’t be rushing to send him out on loan, although playing a dozen or so Premier League games for Palace, QPR or WBA would do him no harm at all I guess.

It was a good natured crowd, with a lot of youngsters there, and also a lot of empty seats, although I suspect that the official attendance was high as no doubt it was largely season ticket holders who were absent. Not many Club Level members seemed to have made it, and I can only guess that most were still on the ski slopes or wherever it is they head to over the Christmas holiday. Nice work if you can get it as they say.

And now we enter a period of brief normality with only a game a week for a while which will be very welcome for the players and rather dull for us. But thanks to our warriors yesterday we have the excitement of the Fourth Round draw to look forward to, and that is something to be more than happy about. I rather fancy an away tie at Old Trafford.

So I have just spent literally 10 minutes browsing for some quotes & I came across several quotes from several people at the very very top of football from 2 of the very best players of all time to some of the managers who have achieved exceptional success.

Jupp Heynckes – Feb 2013

“You have to take into consideration Arsenal are competing with Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City. Over the years they have been selling their best players and these other teams get in top world stars, so I don’t think it is fair to blame Arsène Wenger for that,”
“Wenger, is a great coach. You can see his team has a very great dynamic about it”

Pep Guardiola – August 2011

“”We should not forget what Wenger has done for football in general and for Arsenal in particular.”

Pep Guardiola – Febuary 2014

“Arsenal remains a good team and good club. I have a lot of respect for my colleague Arsene: he always likes the good, good players, the good style of football.”

Sir Alex Ferguson – August 2011

“The work he has done in the 15 years he has been at the club is the best in Arsenal’s history.

Sir Alex Ferguson – March 2014

I always enjoy watching Arsène’s sides – Arsenal play the right way.

Jurgen Klopp – Novemeber 2013

‘He is really something. I love him. He is Sir Arsene Wenger.”

Diego Maradona – March 2012

I would love to fulfil my contract and return to renew and be a kind of Arsene Wenger at the Al Wasl.”

Joachim Low – Febuary 2013

“I like Arsene Wenger a lot, because he stays true to his ideas and has been loyal to the same club for such a long time. With him, young players become stars.”

Johan Cruyff – Dec 2012

“Wenger will ALWAYS bring the club back to the top,” “People do not realise the ­achievement of this manager at Arsenal.
“I find it ­incredible that ­Arsenal have stayed at the ­highest level of ­European ­competition and ­England under his management without ever ending up in debt.
“I cannot remember red figures at Arsenal over the last 15 years. How many clubs in Europe can say they have qualified for the Champions League for 16 ­consecutive seasons under the same management? Arsene Wenger has put his life and soul into Arsenal.
“In 15 years, I have not seen him make any ­irresponsible ­purchases in the transfer ­market.
“That is why the work of Arsene Wenger at ­Arsenal is the prime example for every club in ­Europe.
“I cannot even imagine the board or the fans would ever think for a moment of putting Arsene’s position in doubt.”

Bare in mind I deliberately did not include quotes from any former players for Arsenal, even though people such as Bergkamp and Henry’s opinions are much more valid then anyone on twitter, they would immediately get accused of bias. Again this is all in 10 minutes of searching only.

So not only do these people at the very top of the game who understand football more than anyone have all come out with messages of admiration and support of Arsene Wenger in the last few years. Oh crap, I forgot these guys are all wrong and know nothing about football, just like Arsene, so maybe we should get some quotes from the twitter experts instead.

@TraderChris87

Of coure against them there are such colossus  as Le Grove, Durham and Morgan. So if you want to side with them here is what John Cleese has to say on the subject.

Pedantic George (@Blackburngeorge)

I keep hearing this “nine years of failure” .

Now, lets for a moment forget that for many of us the last nine years has been a tremendous success. Perhaps Arsene’s greatest achievement. And run with the nine years shit.

Why nine years?

Why “nine years and only one real trophy”?

Why not one year and one trophy?

Or two years and only one trophy?

Well its simply because that particular snapshot suits the malcontent in their attempts to discredit Arsene.

It wouldn’t be as good if they said “2 trophies in 10 years“.

Or 3 in 11

Or 5 in 13 !

No, they want to pick a start date that suits their stupid notions , while ignoring the stadium move that coincidentally matches their chosen parameters.

For their 9 years , these halfwits demanded world class signings, despite it being obvious to all but the specially stupid, that Arsenal did not have the money to get them. However, now we have some money and world class talent is being bought they still refuse to accept that the wheel has turned.

The very first year Arsene was able to keep his players and add world class, we won a trophy. But no. they cling to the period of austerity while simultaneously refusing to accept its existence. Irony gone mad?

They point to an article in one newspaper that claimed Arsenals wages MIGHT exceed that of Chelsea’s as evidence that we should be on a par with them. Yet when you look at it, just about every player in every position at Chelsea is on far higher wages than his counterpart at Arsenal.(including the manager) so how the hell can our wages be greater than theirs? Its beyond stupidity to think that. Sadly though, these people are all beyond stupid, and accept it gladly.

Another thing that they are happy to ignore is that the squads of Chelsea, City and United cost around twice that of Arsenals. Twice. Did you hear me? I said twice. Yet were are supposed to be on a par because for 2 years we have been able to buy one world class player . They are also happy to ignore that in these last two years they have been buying more than one world class player per year.

In short these “realists”, as they like to call themselves, not only do they completely ignore reality, but they move the goalposts every single time their stupidity is exposed. The goalposts are moving with such pace at the moment that Theo couldn’t keep up with them.

Now the parameters have narrowed to “he hasn’t beaten Jose“. How narrow will they become before these tools shut up and get on with supporting?

NINE YEAR OF FAILURE ??? DO ME A FAVOUR.

I don’t know where to start, so this might be quite a disjointed ramble. It’s supposed to be the season of goodwill, but I’m not feeling it. Not one little bit.

Once again I don’t intend to  give a detailed account of a game you have all seen and who all know enough to form your own opinions of what went right or indeed wrong. So I’ll just give you a feel of how I felt.

Before kickoff I had some good news, Tomas Rosicky was to start. Now, anyone who knows me knows I’m a huge for of the little Mozart. Well he didn’t let me down. He was my man of the match. I thought he and Santi were subline.

Sanchez got MOTM from Alan Smith and at times was unplayable. At other times he was annoying and wasteful. It was clear that Santi was the designated penalty taker and that Alexis pushed him into the shadows and stepped into the limelight. He them proceeded to do an impersonation of Mesut Ozil taking a penalty and rolled the ball to Green. He and Ozil might be our best two players, but neither should be allowed near a penalty kick again. Frankly, it was a pathetic attempt.

Had we gone one up in 7 minutes , the way we were playing, I am convinced the floodgates would have opened and Arsene would have been in a position to make early substitutions and saved some legs for West Ham.

Instead, with only a one goal lead at half time, a moment of utter stupidity in the second minute of the second half, saw Giroud leave the field and the game changed. Now it became more of an even contest and we ended up working hard to the very end.

However, despite the incompetence of the referee in giving a penalty against Debuchy for making an excellent tackle, we won. With 10 men for half the game and some third choice players on the pitch.

Once again despite winning, the usual twitter experts when into meltdown. Moaning that we should have scored double figures and talking bollocks about “in-game management” and poor substitutions.

The thing is that had it been me, I would have left Debuchy at right-back and had Chambers sit slightly in front with Flamini. But that does not mean I think that is what should have been done, I just think thats what I would have done.

It seem to me that no matter what Arsene does, these know-it-alls say he got it wrong. Even if he does what they would have done, they claim he should have done something else.

The bottom line is WE WON. And I cant think of a single player who had a bad game.

Its our job to support the team, not manage it.

Here is an extract from something somewhere on the internet ,written by someone. The full post can be read in the comments section of the previous post at 4:05 pm. I highly recommend that you go back and read it.

“This is the dilemma which Arsenal fans here find themselves in. They are obsessed with Wenger out, board out, and majority shareholder out mentality such that they do not miss the slightest of opportunities to demonize the manager, club and the majority shareholder. That is why most of the criticisms levelled against the team following the Liverpool game were contradictory. For them the objective is to find something to blame the manager for.
The following are the contradictions in the criticisms:

(1) The team should not have set back in the face of Liverpool marauding attacks. But when they did that Liverpool did not have clear cut goal scoring opportunities, when Olivier decided to retain possession by passing to a heavily marked Gibbs possession was lost resulting in a Liverpool goal.
(2) Team did not have counter tactics to deal with Liverpool offensive play. But despite Liverpool dominance the team maintained shape defensively resulting in Liverpool having few chances, is that not a sufficient counter strategy?
(3) Wenger did not have tactics to deal with Lallana, Coutinho, and Sterling. Why is it that Coutinho had to score because of Giroud’s reckless play rather than Liverpool’s superb build up play with the dominance they had?
(4) Wenger made wrong subs in removing Giroud for Francis. So we should have kept an offence player when we needed to defend our lead? Between Olivier, and Danny and Alexis who puts least shift defensively? The same story goes for the replacement of Alexis with Nacho. The club needed to defend what it had. The offensive players had not offered much going forward anyway.
(5) Wenger should have put Walcott in. Really? What is Walcott’s defensive record apart from his pace going forward? Are you not the same people who have been complaining that Campbell was not getting game time? Why complain when he has been given one?
(6) Flamini should have been subbed. Really? The team is defending for dear life and you want your defensive players subbed.
(7) Szczesny was rash to come out when the ball was lobbed behind the defenders. Are you serious? If he had stayed back Sterling would have controlled the ball with no pressure and scored. As it turned out Sterling had to scoop away the ball from Szczesny with his hand because of pressure.

I can go on and on about the contradictions in the criticisms. This clearly shows that it’s more about the agenda than team performance which brings all these reactions. Unfortunately organizations are not run on the basis of irrational reactions by stakeholders but facts. As long as you continue to shun facts for these self serving agendas you will forever remain hurt by decisions that are made by the club. You can go on social media to denigrate the club, and become resident callers and writers to PL fanzone as one Mcbernard (or something like that) from South Africa has been ranting on today’s program, claiming that if he sits on the Arsenal bench the team will do wonders, but that will not change anything. At the end of the day you will become a perennial moaner not only in matters football but in other aspects of your life. Here in Zimbabwe we say an empty vessel makes the most noise so once I start seeing and hearing all those hate filled rants I make my conclusion.

Digest that.”

PS. That reminds me, spare a thought for ZimPaul and is family over the Xmas period. I will be a sad time for them. I miss him and he barely touched my life. 

An early Xmas gift from @anicoll5

Good morning from a grey and windy Norfolk on match day.

Let me open with a quote from the genuinely immortal Mr Shankly in response to a question from a journalist concerning the ‘pressure’ of his Liverpool side topping the First Division at the time.

“Pressure is working down the pit. Pressure is having no work at all. Pressure is trying to escape relegation on 50 shillings a week. Pressure is not the European Cup or the Championship or the Cup Final. That’s the reward.”

Ah yes Bill, and as you had as a teenager worked down the pit, then been on the dole in the early 30’s when your pit shut down you understood this. Drop in serving in the RAF, defeating Naziism, and helping AFC win the League Cup south during those war years and I guess you had the gravitas to opine.  You understood the glaring but eternal truth that football is there to be enjoyed and success revelled in, not shied away from or complained about or feared.

It is a quote that should be marked in every match programme, learned by heart by every football fan before they are issued with access to the ground or social media, chanted rhythmically by Arsenal supporters seeking Buddhist enlightenment, even bannerized (new word alarm bleeps ! ).

The awakening would not be  intellectual, but a change in how we, as fans,  experience and perceive. But no, you’re right,  perhaps not bannerized.

The ‘cherrypickers’ reference btw – Bill’s Ayrshire village team of Glenbuck when he was a boy.

And so on to the game. Plenty of coverage in the media of which I am sure you are all well aware. There seems to be a lot of ‘fence-sitting’ on the outcome. The Scousers first home game since their disaster against Basle, but two good football performances from them since, despite the score line at Trafford Park.

For us the nasty but receding recollection of the equivalent contest last season(shudders) but scoring goals smoothly and good players all over the park. A game in which we have a good record of wins and draws over the last decade, and the ground at which the 49 Invincibles game got underway. Would such a happy glacier begin this afternoon ?

Looking at the pictures of the Ox in training yesterday and apparently actively involved suggests Wenger’s cautious optimism concerning the young man’s groin was well founded. I shall revisit that comment on Ox’s fitness about 4.30 this afternoon however. Indeed if by 4.30 we are still 0-0 or better I shall have a strong fancy of us taking an important step this afternoon.

I shall not detain you longer this Sunday morn as you have presents to buy, gifts to wrap and, perhaps, some chanting to get on with.

A guest post from @foreverheady

One of the comments that irritated Arsenal supporters after the four goal romp against Newcastle last Saturday was the one made by Richard Keys about Santi Cazorla not showing their 21 Year Old Goalkeeper, Jak Alnwick  any respect when he chipped in his Panenka penalty. The idea was put about that this was in some way bullying, and, because The Arsenal was involved, attracted more than its fair share of interest. It got me thinking, and reminded of a time when I was much younger, and similarly treated by an older and much respected pro. Different sport, but essentially the same.

Sussex were going well in the Championship and travelled to Coventry to play Warwickshire at the Courtaulds ground: winning the toss and batting first, runs came easily, courtesy of a Gehan Mendis century , and it was not until late afternoon that I went in to bat. Bob Willis was the bowler, and I was excited (and slightly apprehensive) to face such a Test star. I took my guard, looked round the field and settled into my stance to wait for his long, long run-up, that I had seen so many times before on the TV. Except he hadn’t walked back to his mark, but instead bowled immediately – almost from a standing start. I wasn’t ready at all, although technically I was, and didn’t have the experience or confidence to pull away. The ball clattered into the stumps before I knew it, and I trudged off, out for a Golden Duck, to the sniggers and derision of the Warwickshire team. I had been properly done, and felt humiliated and wretched. Bullied? Maybe, although it was perfectly within the rules. Taught a lesson? Yes, certainly, and also made aware that at that level no quarter is asked for or given. And that is the point about Santi’s penalty. He knew that the keeper was likely to dive too soon, and he also knew that if Alnwick was serious about being a first team player in the Premiership then he deserved the respect of being taken as an equal – and not as a young greenhorn for whom allowances should be made. But perhaps more importantly, Santi knew he was going to score, and I expect the keeper did too – and it is that type of one on one confrontation when sport ceases to be just about physical skill and becomes something far more psychological.

Much was made the following afternoon of David de Gea’s contribution to Manchester United’s ultimately facile dismissal of Liverpool, and it is certainly true that his early save from Sterling allowed Rooney the chance to score only moments later. As the plaudits rained down on de Gea, my Twitter timeline was full of indignation, claiming that he only made these saves because the ball was kicked straight at him, much as had been the case when he frustrated so many Arsenal efforts a few weeks before. But that slightly misses the point, and although Gary Neville talked about the excellence of his positioning, that is only half the story too. De Gea made the saves because he was mentally stronger than the attacker – he had won the psychological battle if you like – and that is why so many of the shots were weak and safely struck at the middle of the goal. I have seen decent first-class bowlers bowl absolute rubbish at top batsmen for the same reason: they momentarily become like rabbits in the headlights and freeze at just the moment that they need to be instinctive and fluid. Sterling’s weak effort in the second half when he had a far more obvious one on one with the keeper seems proof of that, and I suspect it will be a long time before he, or indeed anyone else, will go past De Gea when they have time to think about it. It will take a stronger player to do it, and I shall be interested to see who it is, although I’d wager it will be one of the world’s greats. Aguero or Alexis maybe, seeing as we won’t see United in stronger competition for a while.

Those one on one moments are most obviously in focus when it is striker v keeper, but in truth those little battles happen all over the pitch, and being better or stronger than your immediate counterpart is so important to the overall result of the game. But there are some players who are so much better that they impact a whole game just by their presence alone. It is not just their outrageous skill that does it, although that is obviously important, it is more their force of will. They take games by the scruff of the neck and bully it into submission. Suarez won games for Liverpool last season, just as Bale had done for Tottenham the year before, that they had no right to win, and you could literally see defenders quake when those two were anywhere near. George Best and Giggs did it in their pomp, and at times Rooney has it about him too.  Ronaldo and Messi do it on a regular basis, and it is always exciting to see them go up a gear and do something extraordinary, although often their presence alone means that they frequently get away with not having to do very much, so readily do the opposition wave the white flag. Thierry Henry was one such, and as people celebrate his retirement and use the excuse to spend happy hours replaying golden moments, I hope they will also remember his mental strength as well as his vast talent. Time alone will tell whether we will ever have one to match him, but although he is not yet a personal favourite of mine, I have a sneaky feeling that Alexis might be the one to assume his mantle of sublime game-changer, and a player whom even the greatest keepers respect and fear.

A guest post from   @double_canister