I wait Nine years for a piece of silverware, and I’m buggered if two don’t come along at once !

Well ok, its not a real trophy, but its sure a lot better to be winning it than losing it.

We fans , and the club, have to listen as people tell us we cant beat the big team. Bollocks to them then, I’m counting that as a win.

At very least it should assure the players that they can indeed beat the top English teams. The importance of confidence cant be overstated.

When we had anything resembling a full squad we led the league., then when we got anything like a full squad back we won the FA Cup. Now this. The way I look at it is that if our players are fit we win shit.

More importantly the way we played in the first half speaks volumes. City players looked like sulking hound dogs after 10 minutes, as by that time they had realised that it was our ball and they were not going be allowed to play with it.

You all saw the game. Loads of positives. Sanogo, Chambers,Gibbs and Jack were all very good. Well, everyone was really, but they stood out.

However my man of the match would have been old “no legs”himself, our new club Captain, Mr “cant hack it in big games” Mikel Arteta. He never put a foot wrong.

Mikel is everything you would want in an Arsenal Captain and a lot more. The perfect professional and representative of the club.

So come on you Positistas, lets hear three cheers for Mikel…….hip-hip…………hip-hip………hip-hip

By pedantic george @Blackburngeorge.

It seemed a sensible time to review the “Closed Season” as 24 hours from now we shall be locked back into the 2014/2015 season.  Either our first silverware, will be safely on its way to the trophy room at the Ems, if not then the scarved mob will be forming up, pitchforks at the ready. Not of course that there is ever a ‘Closed Season’ in modern football, far too many people’s jobs depend on the 24/7 sporting cycle, but you know what I mean.

In contrast to the Summer of 2013, the past three months have been a serene and very pleasant interlude. For our mighty club to finish the season with the FA Cup victory, achieved in such dramatic circumstances, brought me into the break on a high.

There followed a great World Cup, best for 20 years +. Brilliant football, plenty to talk about incident wise ( steady Hunter), and the final won by the best team in the competition. With Ozil key in the German victory, Per playing a good part earlier in the tournament and Poldi, errrr , there.  I suspect Poldi is worth his place on character alone in the dressing room. Breaking into that German side would have been some feat for the boy.

And with the FIFA engraver’s tool barely back in its satin bag the REALLY IMPORTANT part of the closed season started, and the transfer window opened !

And Arsene moved, moved decisively, moved to secure the payers he had decided would take our club forward. And the Groaners made such a FUSS about his beach holiday. You know the names, you have a similar expectation of what they can and will bring to the club as I do. I need say no more.

Now there are 100 reasons presented on the internet and in the media as to how and why Arsene appears to have pounced like a panther into the transfer market and all or none may be true, partially true, or total bollox. I did not see one of the players who we signed as potential recruits on Cup Final day. “Callum who ….?” Now they all seem obvious targets. How clever am I ?

What is however pleasant for me as a simple supporter is that I have not had to put up to the usual CASCADE of abuse, contempt, disrespect, dislike, sneering condescension that degenerates over the weeks into outright hatred for the club from far too may who describe themselves as ‘supporters’. As I said in my opening remarks the pitchforks may only have been temporarily stacked but the past few weeks have nevertheless been a refreshing break from the civil war. Discourse has been sane, creative at times, funny even.  It has led to a wave of confidence in the players and the club that will carry us over a few obstacles in the next few weeks.

A final thought on tomorrow’s game, and in fact the opening weeks of the PL season, that occurred to me as I have been watching and England v India this afternoon. If you find yourself in a hole, stop fucking digging.

I am in Block 140 tomorrow so if anyone is about give us a shout.

I thank you for your attention and your patience.

And Thank you Andrew @anicoll5

So The Arsenal, one of the great clubs in the world, puts on a pre-season friendly tournament in the capital city, and invites three decent European sides, Benfica, Monaco and Valencia to come and join the party. They throw the doors open to their wider fan-base ensuring a full house of 60,000 on both days of the weekend, many of whom are children visiting the ground for the first time. There is a real carnival atmosphere, and although the Sunday game does not go entirely to script (it is after all a proper match, albeit one played not quite at full pace) a clear cut foul on the home team’s striker in the penalty area ensures that a moment of high drama will see the match end as a draw. Not quite the perfect result, but the young crowd will experience a home goal in front of the North Bank and glow as their heroes parade the trophy that they all but guaranteed in a five goal romp against Benfica on the Saturday. Just about perfect in every way, and the officials (who have been treated with the utmost respect and looked after all weekend so that they too can get up to match speed for the coming season) don’t even have to massage the rules to achieve the result desired by all those who flocked to the Emirates.  Just about perfect in every way. It is almost as if a script has been written. God, or at least Arsene Wenger, is in his heaven and all is well with the world.

Except between them the linesman and referee manage to find a way to avoid making the right decision. Instead of the initial penalty awarded by the ref, the linesman’s intervention results in a mere free kick. The match ends in defeat and the spoils go to a Valencia side that few in the crowd have even heard of. The disappointment is tangible and the young fans drift away: some will return, many won’t.

I cannot think of any other major club in the world that would have its hospitality so cynically abused. And if, given all the peripheral reasons for ensuring that justice was done on the Sunday afternoon of an essentially meaningless Emirates Cup, the officials still choose to disadvantage the home side, what chance is there that a level playing field will exist when we travel to Manchester, to Liverpool, to West London to contest not friendlies but proper matches where points and prestige are at stake.

The mind quickly returns to the FA Cup Final, May 17^th 2014. The Arsenal, rocked by two early Hull goals, slowly but surely gain a foothold in the match through the excellent Cazorla and go about securing their first trophy for several years. Referee Lee Probert, who once infamously sent Arsene Wenger to the stands for having the temerity to kick a plastic water bottle in frustration at yet another anti-Arsenal decision at Old Trafford, turns down three obvious penalty decisions in a show of breathtaking indifference to the actual rules of the game he has been chosen to oversee. This time his meddling makes no difference and an extra-time winner secures the spoils, but few would deny that Probert made it much harder for the victors to impose their obvious on-field superiority.

Penalties are game-changing moments and as such spotlight the referee’s competence, not just in applying the rules correctly, but also and perhaps more importantly, of having the courage to do so impartially, no matter what the situation, no matter how hostile the home crowd. They are real talking points, and it is no wonder that at times it is obviously easier to wave play on. However, while penalties clearly do affect results, they are not necessarily the most important decisions that referees are called upon to make. An early Yellow Card not given for a professional foul sets in motion a whole series of cynical assaults, all designed to break up the rhythm of the better side – playmakers are targeted for rotational fouling, so lax officiating not only amounts to a cheat’s charter but also threatens the skilled player’s entire career. Any team that plays a passing game does so to maneuver their opposition out of position before making the final and telling assist: little unpunished professional fouls allow the out-maneuvered time and space to regroup. The Arsenal are particularly vulnerable to this tactic, but, and this cannot be stressed too strongly, this tactic cannot work if the referee is doing his job properly. Every time you see the official keep his card in his pocket when a yellow should have been given you will know that he is, either intentionally or unintentionally, favoring the transgressor over the transgressed. Every time you read an opinion that suggests that The Arsenal have been contained or beaten by a manager that does tactics, ask yourself whether the referee has also played a part in those tactics. And if you find that yes, in fact the ref has had an influence, then you might also begin to ask about the validity or the motive of that anti-Arsenal opinion.

Any Arsenal fan will have their own particular examples of games that have been refereed in a particularly anti-Arsenal way, and it will be interesting to see the comments section fill up with moments when the decisions have literally beggared belief. The best Arsenal site for detailing the vagaries of specific referees is Untold Arsenal, and it is always sobering to read their referee reviews before any game. There don’t seem to be many refs who call it evenly, and I leave it to you to think about why that might be the case, and why so few Arsenal blogs draw attention to that situation. But I think they should, and I think that all Arsenal fans have a responsibility to speak loudly and clearly about the way the games are officiated. If there is an anti-Arsenal bias then we should all draw attention to it. Fans interviewed on Arsenal TV should talk about the decisions of the referee, fans on Twitter should point to the man in black, influential bloggers should have the officials firmly in their sights. We all enjoy having our own views about what the manager should have done, and who has played well or not so well, and there is a time and place for those opinions, but I would suggest that in the immediate aftermath of a game the performance of the officials should be clearly and vociferously scrutinized.

And perhaps most importantly of all, those who go regularly to the stadium should be very loud and proud in support of their team – and even louder and more hostile towards the referee if he shows any signs of getting it wrong. The season ticket holders need to be the 12^th man, and referees should expect any decision not correctly given Arsenal’s way to lead to a violent storm of ear-splitting hate. We expect marginal decisions to go against us at Old Trafford, the Bernabeu, and the Allianz for that is the way of things, but we must do all in our power to ensure that when we play at home we at the very least get the rub of the green. It would be nice to think that on match days all Arsenal fans would put aside their differences, and unite to make The Emirates a proper fortress that our players adore and opposing teams and referees fear. Make some noise, create merry hell and make the referees mind up for him. Together we can indeed be stronger and when we go to matches we need to remember that supporting The Arsenal means exactly that – and that proper and noisy support can and does lead to key decisions going the home team’s way

Today’s article was given to us by Tim Head @foreverheady

Yesterday I tweeted this:

“Same philosophy, same tactics, same vision, but increased spending power.  So, NO, ARSENE HASN’T CHANGED, his credit limit has.”

A few days ago I had this to say:

“Wenger isn’t back, because he’s never been away. He hasn’t changed and he certainly hasn’t  listened to fans, or the media.”

It doesn’t take a lot to irk me [No shit – Ed] but the insistence from certain sections of the fan base and the media that Arsène has changed infuriates me to the point where I could punch a puppy.

They are adamant that Arsène has changed. Well, he has. He is older and wiser.

He has not, however, changed in the way they are insinuating.

These idiot halfwits (trust me that is the nicest description I could muster) want us to believe that they were right. He had “lost it”.  He did want to feed his enormous ego by trying to win with a bunch of kids and cut price players. He was choosing not to spend the money that was available. He was happy with 4th and a last 16 place in Europe.

They have to think these things otherwise they would have to accept that they have been wrong.

Very wrong.

Completely wrong – and they won’t do that!

They have been wrong about Arsène.

They have been wrong about Ivan being incompetent.

They have been wrong about Stan being an asset stripper.

In short, they were wrong about everything.

However, having spent years talking absolute bollocks, they have to find some way of justifying their stupidity.

They want us to believe that they were right. Their lack of support for the great man – our greatest ever manager – is to be excused because “Arsène has changed“.

You hear things like, “we wanted him to buy world class players and now he is“.  Completely ignoring what has been clear to anyone with even half a brain for 10 years.

He didn’t have the money to spend!

Or this little gem  “We wanted to win trophies and now he has!”  Again ignoring that he didn’t have the players to do it given that there were three clubs spending north of a billion pounds to buy up the said trophies.

I repeatedly hear “mistakes were made” and yet the vast majority of these perceived mistakes can be put down to the simple lack of funds.

They will do anything, and say anything, rather than admit they were the ones that were making mistakes.

Arsène is the same as he was last year, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, and 18 years ago when he first tipped up.

These people were unable to understand the simple economic realities that hamstrung the club. They spent years writing blogs, doing podcasts and tweeting about how they could do a better job than Arsène and the board. Make no mistake, if you are telling someone how to do their job, it’s because you think you know better.

Well they didn’t, not a single one of them.

The divide in the fan base was caused by them. It was not caused by those people who held their position of simply supporting the club. Both sides of the divide were not to blame. It was the uninformed pea-brains that thought they had the answers. Not those who just wanted to support the club.

It’s alright to be wrong. We are all wrong from time to time. But it’s not alright not toaccept being wrong, look for an excuse for your wrongness and hide behind it.

The most popular excuse seem to be Arsène has changed. 

Well he hasn’t, so admit that and stop digging.

By pedantic george @Blackburngeorge

So, Arsene – what’s changed?

Yesterday I tweeted this:

“Same philosophy, same tactics, same vision, but increased spending power.  So, NO, ARSENE HASN’T CHANGED, his credit limit has.”

A few days ago I had this to say:

“Wenger isn’t back, because he’s never been away. He hasn’t changed and he certainly hasn’t fucking listened to fans, or the media.”

It doesn’t take a lot to irk me [No shit – Ed] but the insistence from certain sections of the fan base and the media that Arsène has changed infuriates me to the point where I could punch a puppy.

They are adamant that Arsène has changed. Well, he has. He is older and wiser.

He has not, however, changed in the way they are insinuating.

These idiot halfwits (trust me that is the nicest description I could muster) want us to believe that they were right. He had “lost it”.  He did want to feed his enormous ego by trying to win with a bunch of kids and cut price players. He was choosing not to spend the money that was available. He was happy with 4th and a last 16 place in Europe.

They have to think these things otherwise they would have to accept that they have been wrong.

Very wrong.

Completely wrong – and they won’t do that!

They have been wrong about Arsène.

They have been wrong about Ivan being incompetent.

They have been wrong about Stan being an asset stripper.

In short, they were wrong about everything.

However, having spent years talking absolute bollocks, they have to find some way of justifying their stupidity.

They want us to believe that they were right. Their lack of support for the great man – our greatest ever manager – is to be excused because “Arsène has changed“.

You hear things like, “we wanted him to buy world class players and now he is“.  Completely ignoring what has been clear to anyone with even half a brain for 10 years.

He didn’t have the money to spend!

Or this little gem  “We wanted to win trophies and now he has!”  Again ignoring that he didn’t have the players to do it given that there were three clubs spending north of a billion pounds to buy up the said trophies.

I repeatedly hear “mistakes were made” and yet the vast majority of these perceived mistakes can be put down to the simple lack of funds.

They will do anything, and say anything, rather than admit they were the ones that were making mistakes.

Arsène is the same as he was last year, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, and 18 years ago when he first tipped up.

These people were unable to understand the simple economic realities that hamstrung the club. They spent years writing blogs, doing podcasts and tweeting about how they could do a better job than Arsène and the board. Make no mistake, if you are telling someone how to do their job, it’s because you think you know better.

Well they didn’t, not a single one of them.

The divide in the fan base was caused by them. It was not caused by those people who held their position of simply supporting the club. Both sides of the divide were not to blame. It was the uninformed pea-brains that thought they had the answers. Not those who just wanted to support the club.

It’s alright to be wrong. We are all wrong from time to time. But it’s not alright not to accept being wrong, look for an excuse for your wrongness and hide behind it.

The most popular excuse seem to be Arsène has changed. 

Well he hasn’t, so admit that and stop digging.

By pedantic george @Blackburngeorge

I have just read Mick Channon’s comments on Talk Sport about how young players like Calum Chambers are wrong to move to a club like Arsenal from Southampton. I can see his point, young players, perhaps should show more loyalty to their clubs, but what I can’t understand is why it’s taken a player who played 20 games last season to make this point. Or as I and a few others seem to think it has little to do with the player, but more to do with the club he has gone too. 

Southampton over the past month or two have sold  £27m for Shaw, £25m for Lallana, £4m for Lambert and £20m for Lovren. Shaw’s move was hailed as a great move for the future England left back, he goes to Manchester United and learn his trade at a top club. The other 3 to Liverpool was there any questioning of their loyalty to Southampton after they left? Not that I read, they were congratulated for their ambition to go to a club to win trophies. Chambers moves to Arsenal and all of a sudden we have ex players questioning his motives and radio stations questioning his skill and his value.

Yes, you can call me paranoid, I don’t care, but Arsenal do seem (to me anyway) to get a different treatment from other clubs in the media. Season after season Arsenal are held up by the media as having the most expensive season tickets in the PL, which on the face of it is true, but, what is failed to be mentioned is that Arsenal fans get 26 games for their ticket while other team’s fans get 21 or mostly 19 games (and some conditions that they must buy all cup tickets). If these prices are evened out Arsenal tickets, although are probably still the highest are very close to those of other clubs.

Arsenal were criticised for the price of away tickets by Manchester City and the media after fans were asked to pay £63 but again I saw little condemnation of the same club charging Arsenal fans £58 for an away ticket when their home fans are charged much lower for the same game. Also, there seemed to be little mention of Manchester City’s policy of charging home fans more money the closer they are to the away fans. £63 is a lot of money, but at least they have a clear line of sight at The Arsenal not like some tickets at Anfield, at least at The Arsenal they are not stuck miles up at the back of the stadium like Newcastle and the fans are not squeezed into tiny seats like at Manchester United. The media are quick to criticise about the cost of away games at The Arsenal but there was a lack of congratulation when The Emirates Stadium was voted the best away ground in the PL by the football fans survey last season.

You only have to read the Daily Mail, listen to Talk Sport or watch BT sport to see the unevenness of reporting towards Arsenal from “Ozil nicking a living” to “The Daily Arsenal” to Michael Owens yearly “Arsenal to finish outside the top four”. It was nice to see the bitter Alan Hanson apologize for his comments about Theo Walcott the other week, but for an ex professional player to question a 21 year olds footballing brain when he was still young and learning his trade was in my mind disgusting (Chris Waddle was just as stupid for saying the same thing). How many other young players from other clubs are roundly criticised by ex players in the media?

Arsene Wenger is the only manager I know of who has a running red card count, every time an Arsenal player is sent off we have “Wengers 1002 player sent off” (ok slight exaggeration but you know what I mean). The media always say “it’s great talking to Wenger as he will answer any questions put to him” but then moan about him talking about other teams/players when it’s them who have asked the question. Can you imagine how short press conferences would be if the media treated Jose Mo(an)urinho the same.

Let’s do the unthinkable and swap Arsenal’s position, ground, manager and board with that of Spurs. Can you imagine the column inches (perhaps that should be miles) and radio time spent slaughtering The Arsenals playing record, their inability to build a new ground, their transfer policy, their management policy and the motives of their owner (who is happy to stay in the Caribbean and hardly visits the ground). Yes, we do hear and see some, but not to the extent of that of The Arsenal. 

Just think, I still haven’t got round to the media’s treatment of that nasty Eduardo (yes him of the broken leg by that “he’s not that type of player” Martin Taylor) diving against Celtic or why The Arsenals use of zonal marking seems to be the only one mentioned when there are plenty of teams that use it. 

How come George Graham was the only manager to be found to be taking ‘brown paper bags’ where was the in depth investigations into other managers by the media? Or was it a case of we’ve got one lets sweep the rest under the table. 

I in all honesty I could go on for ages at how the media treat The Arsenal but I will finish with a true story.

A few years ago I took my two boys on a tour of the old Arsenal Stadium (Highbury to you & me). It was a legends tour with Bob Wilson, we get to the old home changing room where Bob recalls a couple of stories about his time at the club. He then gives us all time to take pictures with the players shirts etc Bob is left standing by himself so I decide to ask him a few questions. The first was about why he quit so early in him career the second was “why do the media dislike Arsenal so much” now I was expecting a ‘your just seeing things through Arsenal glasses’ type of answer but the answer I received was “it’s down to jealousy, officials from other clubs all wanted their clubs to be like The Arsenal, players from other teams wanted what the Arsenal players had. The media they do not like Arsenal because The Arsenal do things the right way, from the boardroom down to the tea lady. There is no gossip, no leaked stories just things done correctly”. 

So when you read the daily mail, listen to Adrian Durham or watch MotD etc. on TV just remember what Bob Wilson told me it’s not because they hate us it’s because they are JEALOUS of THE ARSENAL 

Todays post was by @Swales1968

A post by @Swales1968

How many of the fifty five thousand Arsenal supporters that will be at the Emirates to watch the opening game of the season against Crystal Palace could be called “loyal supporters”? How many would turn up if Arsenal were in the position that West Ham or Aston Villa find themselves in season after season. Their main objective is to avoid relegation, a good cup run will treated as a second team try out and a hindrance at the expense of three points on a Saturday

So how many supporters would there be?

I started going to watch Arsenal in 1976. Attendances were good then at around thirty thousand, if memory serves me right. (If this figure is incorrect I am sorry)

In the early nineteen eighties regularly, there would be figures of sixteen to twenty thousand. On one snowy night just over fourteen thousand turned up. Yes the standard of football was poor, we were cheering when an Arsenal player had a shot, it didn’t matter that it missed, someone had a shot.

It was the period just after “Chippy Brady” went to Italy, and if you think the Dutch skunk RVP’s move to Manure was bad, it was no where near as bad as Frank Stapleton’s move in the same direction. This was the start of the bad feeling between the two clubs, reports at the time said that at the following Arsenal V Manure game at Highbury that the Arsenal board refused the normal hospitality given to opposition boards. I think this was just hearsay because the one thing that Arsenal have always been good at is to rise above such petty things (personally though, I would love to know it was true)

Anyway, I digress. Attendances?  How many of those fifty five thousand would have turned up thirty years ago. Nowhere near the fifty-five to sixty thousand Arsenal get today. Expectations were lower, could Arsenal have a good cup run, could Arsenal qualify for the EUFA cup?  Win the league; you’re having a laugh, not the league. It was the same level of expectation that a Spurs supporter has now.

Would the Arsenal fans standing on the old NorthBank and ClockEnd get at the players the way Eboue and Ramsey were got at by fans? NO, we laughed, please don’t get me wrong, we wanted to win, we wanted the best players. We were even happy for a game or two when Lee Chapman signed. (And for all those who think Wenger has signed the worst duds they really need to look up Mr Chapman’s career at Arsenal)

Of today’s supporters and their expectation from Arsenal, I think maybe ten to twenty thousand would be bothered to turn up if Arsenal were in the same situation as Aston Villa or West Ham. There would be more attending than fifteen thousand attending as younger fans that have no chance of getting tickets today would be able to attend.

The atmosphere would be better as these younger voices would get behind the team. The people attending would be going because they love “The Arsenal” and will go whatever position the club find themselves in.

The signs were there a couple of seasons back, attendance figures stopped being read out at the matches, people stopped attending matches even though they had already paid for their tickets and this was in a season when Arsenal finished forth(again)

This is what Arsene Wenger has done to the majority of the supporters, he has raised expectations. He has moved the club forward, a huge leap forward. And today’s supporters expect trophies, demand trophies, forth is seen as a failure without a trophy. That’s why I believe only around ten to fifteen thousand out of the fifty five thousand would be bothered to attend if Arsenal were in the same situation as Aston Villa. Fans only seem to be loyal if a trophy is on its way.

Yes, Yes, Yes, what about the eight seasons without a trophy, I can see the replies now. Look at my inbox hundreds of replies from fans saying “I stayed loyal during this period; I paid for my season ticket which went up when Arsenal wasn’t winning anything. It was a disgrace that it took that long to win something”.

During the eight seasons without winning a trophy, Arsenal have been playing Champions League Football, finished in the top four every season, they have not been relegated like West Ham they have not struggled season after season like Aston Villa have done on a very regular basis.

In the early eighties the fans’ expectations were a cup run and/or qualify for the lowest ranked European competition the EUFA cup. Clubs like Aston Villa or West Ham don’t even have these expectations in today’s league; their only aim is SURVIVAL

Under Wenger Arsenal have won trophies, qualified regularly for the Champions League and are now after a period of belt tightening and careful spending are spending again.

So the question I am asking is: –  

WOULD YOU GO TO WATCH ARSENAL IF SURVIVAL WAS THE ONLY TARGET?

Last night I read this that Ivan Gazidis  had to say in America.

“Think about this club. In 2002 and 2003, it’s really at the top of the world. And Arsene is at the top of the world. We have fantastic players. It’s us and Manchester United battling at the top of the Premier League. It all looks amazing for the Arsenal Football Club. But what does the club do? And what does Arsene do? And what do the board members do? They say we’re more ambitious than this.

Most people would have just sat back and said, ‘This is great. Everybody loves us.’ But what do they do? They throw all of that up in the air, a massive risk. They say, ‘We’re going to commit all the resources of this club to building a stadium that we think we are going to need 15 and 20 years from now if we want to be a really global football club.’

It’s an incredibly bold decision. They do it, they see it through, go through all the difficult times. Arsene continued to do an incredible job, threading the eye of the needle on the pitch. The board does an incredible job threading the eye of the needle off the pitch. We are now, just now, all these years later, beginning to come out of that. Arsene navigated us through that.

Yet it seems people just assume, at Arsenal, we’re going to be in the Champions League. They assume we’re going to be near the top of the Premier League. There’s nothing that really distinguishes us from the other clubs in England, other than this man.”

Of course “this man” was Arsene Wenger

For years I’ve been banging on about Arsenal being the most ambitious club in the country. For the very reasons Ivan mentioned.

It still staggers me that our ambition is questioned.

If we don’t sign Cavani( insert any expensive player you can think of )   it’s a lack of ambition.

When I ask Arsene’s detractors why they think we should ovecome clubs with far greater wealth, they seem reluctant to say its Arsene. But its really is.

To be quite honest I’m sick to the back teeth of the stupidity. I think Ivan said it all in these few words.

 ” There’s nothing that really distinguishes us from the other clubs in England, other than this man.”

Every day we should thank some deity or other that we have him.

By me. pedantic george @Blackburngeorge

Yesterday I read this.

” Manchester United’s troubled defence of the Premier League title is harming the English flight’s world wide brand, says competition’s chief executive Richard Scudamore ” he said “ It’s a double-edged sword.when your most popular club isn’t doing well, that costs you interest and audience in some places ”

Two or three years ago I suggested on ACLF that it was in the interests of the Premier League , that MUFC continued to win . I also suggested that with the huge sums of money at stake trough Sky and other broadcasters there is every possibility that they had been given a helping hand over the years.

Obviously I was attacked and accused of making up conspiracy theories and told to sit in the corner with some tin-foil on my head. I was “just making up excuses“.

The fact that penalties against MUFC were almost as rare as Chicken’s teeth was dismissed as mere coincidence.

That they were allowed to foul us at will , while a sideways glance at one of their players got our lads a booking was just incompetence by a nervous referee.

But it went on for 20 years. The same things over and over.

Remember Vidic tipping over the crossbar with the assistant Ref looking right at at ? It was a great save , but fucking hell !

But people assumed I was saying it because I was an Arsenal fan. When the reality was it happened to evey team they played.

Well I hate to say I told you so but I told you so

When you are selling a product, such as the Premier League, it helps to have a flagship club. That was United.

Just look at Golf. When Tiger Woods is out the viewing figures are down together with course attendances. Why? Because he is the PGA’s flagship player. And they will help him in any way they can, because its to their benefit.

The Premier League needed MUFC to be successful, I believe they made it so.

Where there is muck there is brass.

I cant for the life of me think of any massively rich institution where there has not been skullduggery ,illegality and corruption when there are large amounts of money to be made.

Governments all over the world- corrupt

Churches all over the world throughout the ages-corrupt

Big Business-corrupt

Local governments-corrupt

Time and again, we see the evidence of this

Sport then? You bet your life !

Cheating and corruption being exposed with monotonous regularity.

Just recently we have had Cycling, Swimming, Snooker, Horse racing, Cricket, Rugby, Boxing and on and on.

Football then?

Well hell yes.

Not on Hackney Marshes, but in Italy, one of the world super powers in the game.

Of course that could never happen in England though ? Eh? What with the English being so free of such greedy bastards?

Oh, it could you say?

But it doesnt. Or at least its yet to be proven. But seriously, what are the chances its not when everything else in this country seems to be ?

Its not just MUFC that I feel there has been a dark hand in, oh no !

The Premier league is watched(and paid for by subscriptions to Sky and all) by millions of people world wide. That’s  of  £billions of income. Its sold as an exciting and close league. Where any team can beat any other team. Thats why its the most sold League worldwide. That image must be maintained to keep sales up. It has to be competitive and blood and thunder. Thats the “hot spot” selling point.

I believe if Referees applied the rules as they should it would be far less competitive. It would become like La Liga where the big clubs routinely dispatch the lesser teams without breaking sweat.

This would have a terrible effect on their ability to sell games.

The English game is about “power and pace” (thanks for that Mr. Hansen) because they make sure it is. Not because its good (the England team has proven that for almost 50 years now) but because it sells. Nothing can be allowed to damage that selling point, especially some intellectual French bloke and his team of sissies .

Play blood and thunder football or play at a disadvantage. That’s my opinion.

Of course City and Chelsea did go some way to altering the landscape. They started introducing new selling points ,like Galacticos . They greased the wheels and have also benefited. Again the huge sums of cash they injected helped the League sell itself.

I know we don’t like to believe it but City got into the Champions League that first year by benefiting hugely from Referees being lenient and generous toward them and the opposite with their treatment of Spurs. Spurs were the better team and the Refs effected about a 12 point swing in City’s favour. Coincidence ? Yeah right !

In short, I cant prove it , but I’d bet my life the game in England is bent.

Written by pedantic george  @Blackburngeorge.

If The Arsenal make it through the Champions League qualifying matches they are guaranteed to play 48 matches of competitive football this season. Reasonable form and a bit of luck with Cup draws would see that up to about 54 games. That’s a lot of football – and when every game matters and is keenly contested it puts a lot of pressure on the squad.

At times matches come thick and fast: August alone is pretty congested.

Charity Shield against City.

Crystal Palace (h).

CL Qualifier.

Everton (A).

CL Qualifier.

Leicester (A).

Six games in three weeks, all of them important and one involving a trip overseas.

There will be time enough to analyse each of those games, but for now  I think it’s fair to suggest it’s unlikely the same players will feature each time, as tactical requirements, injuries, possible suspensions and simple rotation will all play their part in selection, as indeed will be the current form of each player. Substitutions, both tactical and forced will also come into play, so as we are constantly reminded (when pundits want to put us down) squad depth is as important as the starting XI if realistic title challenges are to be considered.  If you were setting the spread on the amount of players who’d kick a ball in anger in those August matches you’d probably set it 15 to 17 -and I think I’d be a buyer in that market.

Which is why all the talk about who’ll make the best XI, while a great topic over a couple of pints, ever so slightly misses the point.

There is more than a hint of hypocrisy in the air too, as many who spent last season saying that Arsenal had no chance of winning the title because of lack of depth and the unwillingness of the manager to rotate are now only too ready to consign Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla to the scrap heap.

Jack interests me because his situation can be used both ways by the Arsenal haters outside the club and the Arsene haters among the fan base. This is how it goes: “when we sign (let’s say Khedira for argument’s sake) Jack won’t make the team, and this proves he isn’t really top quality and this is because he was over-rated by AW, or not developed by AW, or AW has caused him to have so many injuries.” Or, alternatively, “when we sign Khedira Jack won’t make the team and this is a classic example of a foreign manager acting against the interests of the national side.” Either way, it is Arsenal and Arsene’s fault and the disappointing  thing to me is that I don’t hear this comment: “When we sign Khedira, it will be excellent because at various times during the season (and perhaps even at various times during the same match) Khedira will play alongside Jack, and he will play alongside Ramsey, and this will take the pressure of all three of them and they will benefit and learn from each other. “  How many games is it realistic to hope a player starts in – 30, 35, 40? Not much more than that I think, and there will be plenty of opportunity for Jack and Aaron whoever else is signed.

The role of the substitute in the modern game is also interesting, and is worth a brief mention. I am guessing that statistics suggest that the optimum time for a tactical substitution is around 65 minutes on the basis that there is less time for injuries across the field to occur  (at least one player needs to be kept for emergency)  but enough time for the substitution to have an effect on the course of the game. If used efficiently it can either give a sense of the cavalry coming to relieve a beleaguered situation or of a coup de grace being delivered when the opposition has been softened up and just needs to be dispatched with a killer blow. Both of these scenarios were in evidence in the recent Cup Final, and it almost felt like bullying when Jack and Tomas injected match-winning pace in the closing stages.

I am not suggesting players be only used as substitutes because few would be happy with just that role, but do feel that any talk of squad composition should bear substitutions in mind. A clever manager will make his players very aware of why they are on the bench and will have rehearsed the various scenarios when they might be called upon to make a contribution.  I like the thought of a fully fit Podolski coming on with 20 minutes to go, scoring a goal, starting the next match and then perhaps making way for Campbell after 65 minutes.  It is never as simple as that of course but it illustrates a general point.

There was dismay among the Twitter ranks yesterday as various speculations became hard fact among the doubters.

First of all came the news that Thomas Eisfeld had left the club to join Fulham, and this was seen by many as an act of gross stupidity on behalf of the club. Despite not many having seen him play that much, he had become a something of a fan’s favourite, and he did have a magnificent match against Reading in the astonishing game two seasons ago. But he was older than many thought (21) and was increasingly unlikely to make a breakthrough into our first team. I suspect it will be a good move for him and for Fulham and I hope it works out.

Hot on the heels came an article by John Cross in which he speculated that both Wilshere and Diaby could play a holding role and that therefore the search for another midfielder was not absolutely essential. Of course any mention of Diaby is likely to get certain supporters incensed (I always see him as human litmus paper, there to reveal a fan’s true allegiance – the acid test, if you like), but I was a little disappointed to see so many come out so strongly against Jack, especially as some had been railing against the decision to transfer Eisfeld only hours earlier. And so mischievously I thought of the following scenario, which while unlikely has some logic behind it, and wondered what the reaction would be.

Liverpool are in the process of building a new side, and under Brendan Rodgers are very much a work in progress. It is no doubt heresy to say this on an Arsenal blog, but I think he is a good manager and it amuses me that my local club, Reading FC,  let him go because they simply didn’t understand what he was trying to do. Rodgers knows he will  need to replace Gerrard soon (and England need to replace him immediately). Fuelled by paper talk and awareness of fan disaffection expressed through social media he senses that Wilshere would be willing to leave Arsenal and take over that holding role at Anfield. And if that were to happen, would the Arsenal fans still be saying that Wilshere couldn’t play anymore, or that he needed to do this or that if he were ever to play the deeper role, or would they realise that they had yet again contributed to a great player deciding to leave The Emirates behind ?

You see, Jack is good enough to play in a variety of midfield roles, just as all of our players are: of course he could be a DM, or a B2B, or an AM, or a WM, or a faux 9, because he regularly takes up all of those positions, and several more besides that as yet haven’t been given names, in most of the games he plays. It is The Arsenal way for players to switch positions, and that is one of the joys of following the team.

So with regard to transfers I think we are in the privileged position of not needing to sign anyone new (apart from a reserve GK), because with even average luck with injuries we have enough players to rotate successfully throughout the whole 54 game season. But we also have the money (quite a lot of money, actually) to be able to add to that highly-talented squad should the right top quality players become available. And if we do add a Pogba or a Cavani, then who knows we might just be looking at a 60 game season, which would see all of our very best players more than happily occupied, and perhaps even bring a smile to those fans who apparently have already forgotten we have signed Alexis Sanchez.

Today’s piece was by @foreverheady .Thanks Tim.