Today’s post is by Finsbury

The magic of Wembley ..?

“I love the idea of Per & Laurent and the rest taking turns during half-time and the game to help dig the escape tunnel out from the dressing room (passing straight under Probert & Riley’s office, of course) out of Wembley and back to Highbury” – said a friend after the FA Cup Final.

There are great reviews of the Cup Final itself available, you all know where to look. Not forgetting the fantastic coverage of the parade and celebrations. So I thought it might be interesting to look at the two comparative stadiums, built at the same time in the same city to vastly different budgets and results. The similarities and the differences and how the experience of visiting Wembley compared with going to a football match at the new Arsenal stadium for me as a football fan. I took some photos but considering the problems I have keeping hold of my phone during a football match I chose not to take a proper camera. The soft focus in some of the following pictures is for artistic effect!

The 2014 FA Challenge Cup Final was my first cup final and my journey began on the morning of the final. Highbury and Finsbury Park were full of Arsenal fans from the early morning. It already felt like a carnival and I hadn’t even reached Finsbury Park Station. Memories of the carnage witnessed upon the Seven Sisters Road following previous victories and titles came flooding back. The weather was beautiful, people were excited, and the Arsenal had to win. I took the usual route to Wembley for fans using trains, meeting up with friends near Baker Street and then onto crowded carriages packed full of football fans on the way to Wembley. For the Arsenal this journey did not begin nine years ago, it began at the end of the last century when The Arsenal began to seriously discuss their plans for the future.

The comparative stadium projects for both the FA and AFC involved the complex demolition and rebuild of new stadiums upon, more or less, the same existing sites. That shift across by a few hundred metres in Highbury and the new housing matched the complexities with the Wembley site and that arch for the Wembley builders. The end result is that on match day football fans still get to enjoy the walk down the traditional routes of Wembley Way or Gillespie Road and still visit the same places, supporters’ clubs and associations, cafes, bars, restaurants, parks and friends on their way to the football.

Wembley Way- people like to parade on their way to Wembley, and afterwards they like to celebrate with parades.

Overall there seemed to be a great atmosphere between the fans with respect, rivalry and friendship. The experience of Wembley Way on cup final day matched its mythological reputation. A great spectacle. Let us hope that no one tells our groaners that Wembley Way was probably inspired by a Parisian boulevard.

Apart from Wembley Way there are not that many civic or green spaces for people to wander about in the area. The area around Wembley Stadium has been redesigned for cars and other motor vehicles. Islington retains some of its older human proportions even though the ancient Great North Road (Holloway Road/ the A1) now starts in Highbury. Dick Turpin used to rob the rich on the Great North Road, and you can find Dick Whittington’s cat loitering in Archway near the Whittington hospital, not too far from the new Arsenal Stadium. It’s possible that these rose-tinted specs inlaid with rubies and quartz distort my parochial perspective but as far as I can tell the main roads in Islington have more charisma then the main roads in Wembley. This makes for good parades!

Fans entering Wembley Stadium – note that the bottom left logo on the sign indicates that footballs are not allowed at Wembley …

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After Wembley Way there was a slow wait to get through the gates. The turnstiles looked flimsy when compared with the gates you get at the new Arsenal Stadium, which probably explained the slow progress.

Inside the ground the experience of the acoustics at Wembley have been previously described by many as awful. And they were correct. This is only because the stadium management choose to blast out an awful – as in cheap and awful – PA system that makes it impossible to talk or sing when the players are not playing, which is the only time they pull the plug on the awful racket. I was lucky enough to go to the game along with my friend’s Uncle who used to co-ordinate rigs for musical concerts back at the old Wembley stadium amongst other venues. And in his experienced opinion the quality and design of the PA was awful as well as annoying. We do not like the PA at the new Arsenal ground but it is not as poor as the one at Wembley and the people using it are not as stupid or annoying. After the trophy presentation it was very hard for the Arsenal fans to serenade their victorious team although they were happy to try! At that moment I almost wished that I could escape back to N5 so that I could appreciate what people were trying to say or sing.

I’ve written it before and I’ll write it again: broadcasters simply don’t care about the fans in the stadiums.

Visually the experience inside the grounds is similar. Great views, unobstructed by columns and other stuff. The incremental additions of colour and decoration inside and outside the new Arsenal stadium have been led by some talented designers, and the Arsenal stadium looks nice from the inside as well as the outside. The Wembley interior is very bland in comparison. (Props to Redaction for smuggling in some giant flags, they looked good.) The seating at the Emirates is also of higher quality.

There are many similarities with these two new London stadiums with minor superficial differences if we try to ignore the football pitch itself. But we can’t ignore the cost.

The cost.

Wow, the cost. Don’t mention the cost!

This is the reason why the semi-finals are played at Wembley, so even if we wanted to we couldn’t ignore the variation. This huge difference (at least half a billion), the use of an inappropriate contract for the Wembley project tells us everything we need to know about the differences between the FA and AFC, and the two stadiums. For example, the specification for the grass for the football pitch in the new Arsenal stadium was written into the contract for Arsenal’s new football ground. The quality of a football pitch does affect the experience for the fans, the tradition of maintaining good pitches is understood and appreciated at Arsenal. Two women footballers I met on Saturday had been told off by the Arsenal groundsman for going onto the pitch to warm up before they were given permission during a tournament in the recent past. Not surprisingly he was upset during Saturday’s pitch invasion, heh!

I think it is safe to say the quality of the football pitch was not a consideration for the FA at Wembley when building the ‘home of football’.

Certainly not in the contract. This is why the FA has then had to spend further millions replacing their pitch. Several times. Meanwhile this year the numbers of amateur footballers and the facilities they require in the UK declined for lack of funding from the FA (according to our very own Keown). Those burning bins around the Wembley pitch before kickoff, I imagined that they were burning off the excess fertiliser that was used to salvage the Wembley pitch in preparation for this final? Who knows what was in the bins? Not the FA; perhaps they were full of melting black bin liners?

Irony alert: Black bin liners finally being put to good use.

As well as forgetting about the football pitch when building their billion pound football stadium it was also noticeable on the day that the FA had forgotten to organise any ball boys or girls for their cup final showpiece. The Lawn Tennis Association may not know how to manage a sport but they do know how to run their facilities when the world is watching. I initially thought that there must be no ball boys or girls because of a cup regulation, or at Probert’s request. But I was wrong. Eventually two ball girls – as in two – appeared after half-time. The FA cannot sort out a football pitch let alone a stadium, or even the ball boys and girls for their equivalent of the Wimbledon finals. No need to comment on the referees.

Do we need to ask the question: “What are the FA good for?”

Burn the PA rigs and introduce safe standing and cheaper tickets at all football grounds, that’s what all supporters’ groups in Football should be fighting for. It’s certainly not rocket science. I do not believe that they should be attacking people that consistently show and sometimes say that they “love football”.

Conclusions – We all know about the negatives and positives that come with these modern stadiums, the benefits in the UK that would come from adding some safe standing areas etc. Most of the lower tier at Wembley seemed to stand up for most of the game anyway. The best thing about both projects in comparison to other new stadiums is that they were kept upon or very close to their original sites.

For Arsenal there would have been advantages to relocate to Kings Cross, the third option that was available for the club to consider alongside moving to Wembley or staying in Highbury. Kings Cross was always a more practical solution, good transport links etc. The site was viable because it was not too far away but the Grove was always the more romantic option. And moving to Kings Cross would not have kept the strong links with the spaces and places that inhabit the club’s past. This was not a consideration in the early twentieth century when the club first moved, but I believe it is with today’s hyper real constructions.

In my possibly biased opinion there is no debate to be had regarding which is the better stadium when comparing Wembley with the new Arsenal stadium.

The Munich Allianze Arena is also a comparable project. They relocated to a new out-of-town site, which is why many who have seen both the Arena and the new Arsenal stadium prefer the new Arsenal Stadium.

A diddly/league cup wouldn’t have done the job and unlike an FA Cup it would not have been added to the list of trophies that circle the Arsenal pitch. Although the victory is recorded inside the ground there was not a parade in Highbury after the FA Cup was won in 2005.

What happened on Sunday was a housewarming party for the new Arsenal Stadium.

This carnival in Highbury started the day before, and would have kicked off when the final whistle blew in Wembley. On our return to Highbury from Wembley we conducted a grand tour around the stadium in order to investigate.

Many people were celebrating on the streets around the stadium – we stumbled upon a sound rig here by the Arsenal letters. Good tunes!

Unfortunately the police felt threatened by happy teenagers partying on the streets of London so we were forced, by law, to investigate many of the bars and restaurants and clubs on our lap of honour around the new Arsenal stadium and we found that even as the bands began to pack up and get ready to go home, that spirits remained high. No doubt many venues kept plenty of staff *coughs* on hand into the early hours to help clear up and prepare for the next day’s celebrations.

Arsenal fans would have gathered by the Highbury clock tower to watch local lad Pat Rice and his troops celebrate the double in 1971. The fans were there again on Sunday, all day long.

Arsenal fans on parade – people wanted to show their appreciation and I hope the German Gunners got to see this sweet sign. Great atmosphere.

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What it is the significance of reaching the end of this journey?

“…we silenced a lot of people…” – Kieran Gibbs

Ramsey said the same thing using different words. So did Podolski. Arteta. Mertesacker. Rosicky. They all said it, because they all felt it. The pressure. This pressure was more then the gibbering nonsense of wind-up merchants, or the consequence of consistently malicious propaganda. It was the task, the responsibility of completing this epic move, which is what weighed upon the Arsenal players. This pressure was too much hard work for the two previous captains and the previous squad had to be dismantled and rebuilt. As Thaksin Shinawatra discovered this is never a quick process. Fortunately during the times when Arsene Wenger had allegedly “lost it” and had to rebuild, he somehow managed to sign Germany’s best defender Per Mertersacker, Prince Arteta, the adored magician Carzola, and an unpolished gem in Koscielny who went on to sparkle against the world’s best forwards. Someone called Özil? And more.

On the 17th of May 2014 one chapter in Arsenal’s history came to end and another began. The new stadium has been baptised with St.Totteringham’s blessings. The pictures and drapes were already up and now with the bauble added atop the mantelpiece the new Arsenal Stadium finally resembles Home.

The party lasted long after the parade had finished

Journey’s end.

An appropriate place to close these rambling thoughts on the Royal Arsenal.

A team of lions led by a lion.

During last summer’s transfer window, when speculation was at its highest (AFC still hadn’t signed anyone anybody had ever heard of) Arsene was asked a direct question about Cesc Fabregas and said: “he won’t be going anywhere this season” or words to that effect. But he said it in a way that made it seem fairly obvious that he was still very much in contact with him, and was probably still someone who Cesc turned to for advice. It is entirely likely that that is the case, and even more likely that a number of ex-AFC players keep in close contact with him. If they do, then it is also reasonable to assume that Arsene has a better idea than most of which players are happy where they are, and which ones are looking for a move. He has, if you like, his spies everywhere. I suspect he also talks to his current players, many of whom will have friends in other clubs throughout the world, who no doubt also keep him informed about possible movements. He will also (as will all the managers) be contacted regularly by agents, and will have many conversations with those other managers. This is all pretty obvious, so when he says things like “it will be a very quiet January market because of the World Cup” or “not much serious business will be done until July 15^th” he probably knows what he is talking about. After all, this will be his fifth World Cup since managing Arsenal, and writing that makes me pause and think for a moment.

It may not be what people (or the press) are wanting to hear, but it does seem to me that if more people actually listened to what Arsene says (and tried to understand the sense of what he is saying) then they would not only be better off, but would also come closer to understanding how the professional game actually works. I could be wrong but few, if any, major transfers have been made yet. A number have been touted: everyone to Manchester United for example, Costa to Chelsea, Pogba to PSG – but I don’t think any ting has yet been signed. And why would they have been yet? Why would an agent sell before the World Cup if he knows a bold show by his player will push up the price? Why would a club sign a player before knowing that he had come through a serious competition with limbs unscathed and free from tropical diseases (Costa couldn’t even make it to the end of his League season, and hamstrings are not guaranteed to ever heal as good as new). No, it seems to me that the only deals that are likely to be done now are either the little ones that are unlikely to impact any of the major European clubs, or the ones where the agents are desperate to offload shop-soiled goods. Caveat emptor.

But journalists need copy, websites need hits, and agents need to get their goods into the market place, so the rumours are circulating with dizzying pace. Each fan will have their own ideas as to what their club needs, and each will have their own wish list. Some already seem to know the details of each and every contract, and the Twitterspehre is awash with release clauses, buy-back options and player-for-player deals. From my Arsenal perspective I have already been told which players are definitely leaving and which need to be sent out on loan (I always enjoy the serious tone people adopt when they tell me that, for example, “Jenkinson needs a loan-spell” sounding for all the world like a 1950s factory owner sending his son and heir for a spell on the shop floor. I know which positions need filling, who isn’t really Arsenal quality, which are “useful squad players” and, perhaps most bizarrely, exactly how much money the club has to spend – and that’s not even counting the extra revenue from the 3% price hike.

Except, of course I don’t know any of these things, and I don’t believe anyone else really does either. It doesn’t stop me thinking about them, and I too have some players that I hardly dare to dream might one day come our way – of course I do. But I also want to see some of our home-growns thrive. I want to see Jenknson, not on loan, but playing regularly. I want to see Wilshere become the player he has already shown he can be. I want Giroud to score 30 League goals next season. I want Ozil to weave more of his magic and I want Theo to become The Arsenal legend I know he will. And so for now I will continue to enjoy the Cup we have won, and get through the time between now and the Emirates Cup as best I can. I won’t bother claiming to know what is likely to happen on the transfer front, because I really don’t know  – but I will take comfort from the fact that the manager probably does. Arsene knows, and that’s got such a nice ring to it that I’m surprised no-one’s ever used it before.

Today’s article was brough to us by @foreverheady .

A caller to the tedious and now rather boring drive time show on talk sport on the Monday after our FA cup win went on about how Mr Wenger is rubbish at buying defenders. He went on about Cygan, Senderos etc. and also how he had not replaced the defense. I am not sure which defense, he was saying had not been replaced either the 1997/98 one or the unbeaten defense of 2003/04. So I thought I would look at Mr Wengers record of buying defenders

Season 96/97

M. Upson  £2m Appearances 56 (39 starts, 17 as a sub)

Season 98/99

Oleg Luzhny £1,8m Appearances 110 (91 starts, 19 as a sub)

Nelson Vivas Free Appearances 69 (29 starts, 40 as a sub)

Season 99/00

Lauren  £7. 2m Appearances 241 (227 starts, 14 as a sub)

Sylvinho £4m Appearances 80 (66 starts, 14 as a sub)

Season 00/01

Igor Stepanovs  £1m Appearances 31 (29 starts, 2 as a sub)

Season 01/02

Kolo Toure £150,000 Appearances 326 (295 starts, 31 as a sub)

Efstathios Tavlaridis £600,000 Appearances 8 (7 starts, 1 as a sub)

Sol Campbell Free Appearances 211 (208 starts, 3 as a sub)

Giovanni Van Bronckhorst £8.5m Appearances 64 (39 starts, 25 as a sub)

Season 02/03

Pascal Cygan £2.1m Appearances 98 (80 starts, 18 as a sub)

Season 03/04

Gael Clichy £250,000 Appearances 264 (230 starts, 34 as a sub)

Johan Djourou Free Appearances 144 (123 stats, 21 as a sub)

Philippe Senderos £2.5m Appearances 117 (105 starts, 12 as a sub)

Season 04/05

Armand Traore £250, 000 Appearances  32 (28 starts, 4 as a sub)

Season 06/07

William Gallas Swap Appearances 142 (142 starts, 0 as a sub)

Season 07/08

Bakari Sagna £6m Appearances 284 (272 starts, 12 as a sub)

Season 08/09

Mikael Sylvestre £750,000 Appearances 43 (37 starts, 6 as a sub)

Season 09/10

Sol Campbell (see above)

Thomas Vermaelen  £10m Appearances 150 (136 starts, 14 as a sub)

Season 10/11

Sebastien Squillaci £4m Appearances 39 (35 starts, 4 as a sub)

Laurent Koscielny £10m Appearances 165 (160 starts, 5 as a sub)

Season 11/12

Per Mertesacker £10m Appearances 123 (121 starts, 2 as a sub)

André Santos £6.2m Appearances 33 (21 starts, 12 as a sub)

Carl Jenkinson Free Appearances 57 (43 starts, 14 as a sub)

Season 12/13

Nacho Monreal £8. 3m Appearances 33

That is 25 defenders signed by Mr Wenger in his time at Arsenal; I am looking at that list and thinking that over half to two thirds of those signings were good and were what the squad needed at the time. Some were awful, while others were just not good enough for the style of Arsenal play. Supporters like the man who called in to Talk sport label defenders like Senderos as rubbish, but they fail to look at his contribution to our run to the Champions League final, he played in eight of the games helping keep clean sheets in all eight games he started including the games against Real Madrid, Juventus and the first semi-final against Villarreal. Perhaps the European style of play, he was facing and his partnership with Toure suited him better than playing Premiere League football and partnering Gallas? Cygan French defender of the year signed for £2.3m but a limited run in the side and a difficulty adapting to the English game meant he was moved on, but you also have to credit him with helping with Arsenals unbeaten season playing 18 times that season.

There were poor buys by Mr Wenger, Santos, Squillaci and Mikael Sylvestre for example, but to say that Wenger cannot spot a defender is I think an over the top statement by  section of fans who wish to see Mr Wenger leave the club.

Perhaps before condemning some of these buys we should also look at the position they held within the squad and how many were signed as back up players to the starting back four. Unless you are willing to pay high wages for players to be called upon for League cup games and the odd run in the first team, you are left with either young players making their way in the game or those who are coming to the end of their careers who are happy to be bench warmers.

*if I have missed any players Mr Wenger has signed as a defender please let me know

@Swales1968

Well that was two days of the most extreme emotions.

In the run up to the kick-off I was quite calm. I was sure we would win. In fact I was sure we would win at a canter. But that wasn’t to be. No, it was like the script for a Rocky film, with us continually lifting ourselves from the floor before finally landing the knock-out blow. A triumph of spirit and heart .

I watched the game at home with a United supporting mate of mine. My little dog sitting cuddled up next to me and a beer in hand. I was even feeling well enough to partake of some nibbles the Mrs had laid out for us. I was going to pontificate on the wizardry of our play and bask in the reflected glory. Well, so I thought.

After eight minutes the dog had scurried upstairs and hidden under the bed. Assorted random articles and ornaments were flying across the room and the air was blue with choice words. Two minutes later I was just slumped in the chair with a stupid grin on my face, shaking my head in disbelief.

The wife came in, saw  the desolation around the room and asked me what had happened. In a panic I told her it must have been a poltergeist, something I  regret, as she want to move home now.

Now we have a free kick and Santi is standing over it. I turn to my mate and say “Don’t fucking shoot from here Santi” he replied – “Wow, there you go, back in  it”

We were. I thought “Another seventy minutes to get an equalizer – no problem.” Well I suppose I was right but it was a heart-wrenching time.

Although we were on top the goal just would not come.

Ozil pulled a Gervinho and completely missed the ball on its way past him when any touch would have done.

Gibbs? Well only he know how he managed to miss.

I counted four stone wall penalties waved on by someone in black doing an impersonation of a referee.

Finally, the man who makes a habit of scoring crucial goals managed it again in rather a scruffy situation.

On then to extra time.

Aaron confirmed his legendary status and we were the 2014 FA Cup winners.

When the final whistle went there was an outpouring of joy from the fans, players and staff, such as I have never witnessed.

The consequences of us losing were frightening. Arsene said his future was not going to be determined by that one game. I think it may well have been.

The meltdown from the fans would have been simply overwhelming. I honestly think the tide would have turned too much for both him and a lot of the players to turn back.  Spurred on by a blood thirsty pack of second rate journalists, unemployed  experts and attention seeking bloggers, it would have been a veritable feeding frenzy for the dimwitted.

Anyway, win we did and that meant a parade with all the fun and joy that went with it. A great day was had by all.

Now we are told that the great man will be signing a three year deal.

Life just does not get any better.

I was reflecting yesterday on days past, football memories and others. The exercise probably the result of too little motivation to get on with real work on a sunny Friday afternoon. Some great days and vivid images flooded back. More often not the pivotal moments of a day or an event, but the incidental and personal details are what stick.

Having gathered my wits we come to a day that will, five years, ten years, twenty years (crosses fingers) hence join that pantheon of historic days with the long awaited FA Cup Final.

The paths to this final for our club has been challenging but comparatively smooth. Difficult matches against Liverpool, Everton and our neighbours but all at home and, even allowing for a slight rose tint to the specs, all easily enough won.

Plucky Coventry came and went, the highlight of the Friday evening a demo among the visiting supporters about something or other. At the Ems we are never a crowd to ignore a good demo.

Then….. and then ……. Wigan………. (frowns contemplatively). Obdurate opponents, yes. Well capable of causing an upset as Citeh know, it’s true. In the end put away through a combination of good keeping and penalties on our part, and   poor penalties on theirs, indeed. Our performance that day on both sides of the ball did not however do us justice. I have formed fifty plausible reasons for the hiccup, and read and heard a hundred convincing explanations from fans, pundits and everyone in the global village who has access to a keyboard or a telephone. I am unpersuaded on cause. One of those inexplicable afternoons that as a fan I must accept as penance for my hubris. I believe there is an explanation when there is not. Still, better to have it at the semi final stage than find the engine has seized with the Cup with ribbons on and ready to go.

So today, the team(s), who plays where, who I fancy to score and who I see as our killer player and their weak link I shall say nothing as it would antagonise Fate. Anyway you can read that sort of stuff in 50 other blogs and in the papers, and to be frank most of it is factually better informed than I am.

Two final points.

First, I am determined to enjoy today, and drink in the reward our great football has bought this season. I hope to see a great display of football from both teams, a hard, fair fought contest decided by a flash of goal scoring skill or gravity defying keeping. I hope we win but if not, and the goddess has decided that it is Hull’s turn, then so be it. My day, and the small details stowed away to be retrieved in due course, will not be spoiled.

Second, somewhat off topic. I have watched Hull at Wembley twice before, the rugby league club and they won one, lost one back in the early 80s. The city is a great stronghold of the northern game with two sides, Hull FC and Hull Kingston Rovers, expending the usual family splitting mutual hate. You might think, just once and with the city’s football club stepping onto the pitch at Wembley for their first ever final, that the implacable detestation might be shelved for a few hours, set aside to cheer on their round balled cousins in their first ever final to land a real trophy. If not cheer then at least watch the game. Not a bit of it. The 222^nd Hull derby kicks off today at 5 pm.

We shall speak later !

Once again we have Andrew ( @anicoll5 ) to thank for today’s article.

The Official Arsenal Supporters Club – Arsenal Mumbai SC (www.arsenalmumbai.com/) has organized a massive screening for the FA Cup Final at Zouk, Andheri. Over 350 Goonerettes and Gooners have registered already for the event – including me – and from past experiences, it is a foregone conclusion that the screening will be a raucous, passionate affair!

One of the best aspects of being a Gooner in India (also called “Desi” Gooners) is that we enjoy the unique distinction of being branded neither glory hunters, nor plastics, nor history aficionados.

Most of us have been hooked on “The Arsenal Way” since the days of Robert Pires (almost unanimously everyone’s favourite Gunner) Henry, Viera, Bergkamp, Laurent, Laurent et all strutting at their peak, with that unmistakable swagger that no other team possesses.. Arsene Wenger’s highly cerebral and pragmatic approach to football – and life on the whole – found many takers as Le Professeur waltzed his way in our hearts with his imminently profound, intellectual, quote worthy quips (“Everyone thinks they have the prettiest wife at home..”)

Now we enjoy the attractive football put on display by the likes of Rambo, The Ox, Jack, Theo, Rosicky, Podolski, Kos the Boss, our very own BFG and lastly – Mesut Ozil!!

It’s been an undoubtedly hard journey to see fans of all the other clubs enjoying success after success as time passed by. I reckon it is doubly hard to stay loyal to your club when one is an overseas fan, what with the constant goading by others and the incessant taunts and reminders aimed at our lack of trophies.

Some of us have been lucky enough to make trips abroad to multiple football stadiums, and swear that The Emirates is one of best modern football stadiums, while Highbury was truly the Home Of Football.

We’ve all had frequent debates and discussions defending our move to the Emirates, all the hardships that followed thereafter, the financial restrictions we have had to live with, the heartbreak we’ve suffered as we’ve seen our beloved players like Henry, Cesc move on to greener pastures, the anguish as we’ve seen some of the mercenaries jump ship to our enemies, the constant humblings at the hand of our direct rivals and the helplessness as we’ve suffered because of our never ending injury woes.

Hopefully, all the prayers, tears, hopes and dreams will be rewarded this Saturday as we will once again witness our beloved Monseigneur Wenger lift the FA Cup Trophy at the Wembley.

The screening will witness all the Goonerettes & Gooners sing our hearts out, with songs old and new. “She Wore…”, “We’re The Arsenal..” will surely kick off the evening’s proceedings, followed by latest crowd favourites “NaNaNa Giroud”, “We’ve got a Big F*cking German..”, the many Santi Cazorla songs and also feature some of our unique desi/Hinglish songs about our dearest Arsenal!

Like every other Gooner across the world – i can’t wait for Saturday to arrive!!

#GunningForTheCup #DesiGooner

– Sudhir Ramakrishnan (https://twitter.com/DesiEPLFManager)

P.S. – It’s no surprise that the Mumbai chapter has been featured in Bleacher Report Best Overseas Locations to watch an Arsenal Match (http://tinyurl.com/BR-BOPTWArsenal)

You can find Sudhir on twitter  @DesiEPLFManager

Today’s post is by Blackburn George

It all seems so obvious …

If there is a stick to beat Arsene and Arsenal with then it appears to me that there are multitudes of halfwits ready to pick it up and brandish it with a flurry.

The opinions of agenda driven plebeians are picked up, digested and regurgitated as facts. Theories are accepted and embellished if they in any way make the club look bad. Rumours are started and accepted because dimwits want to believe them.

I’m sick of it and the moaning cretins who do it in the name of passionate support.
My old friend and ally Shottagooner (@shotta_gooner) said this and it exposed several of these misconceptions in a few short lines:

“Such a brilliant morning-after in my part of the world. That glow in the cheeks after a night of …. watching Liverpool, the pundits favorite, simply choke on hubris and self-entitlement at the hands of Tony Pulis and Crystal Palace. What the hell were they smoking in the dressing room at half-time?

Karma is a bitch as many of us said on twitter last night. The lying and cheating in the Suarez buyout affair for one. Even more galling was the gloating that they were succeeding without oil-money despite having the 4th largest net transfer spend in the league since 1992 (£287M according to transferleague.co.uk) was a stick the Arsenal 5th Column and the media was swinging heavily at our club.

All myths exposed and defeated in 10 minutes.

I must save a word for the pundits who are now hopping on the bandwagon of critics of Liverpool defending. Such amazing hypocrisy. I was monitoring the game online on the Guardian’s M-B-M service and later saw replay on America’s NBC network and all were urging Loserpool to go for more goals and put pressure on City.

Turned out very well, didn’t it.”

The thing is, it was not that Liverpool fans were churning out this drivel, or even that pundits were.

Oh no, our fans were at it with gusto.

Brendon was being hailed as a tactical genius, and that was evidence that Arsene was not! How is that looking now I ask you? Roberto was a similar cut above poor old inept Arsene, until he managed to lose 3 of 4 games at the business end. All the time our moaning fans were happy to ignore the fact that both were playing far fewer games than us and we had catastrophic injuries.
Then we have Maureen, dishing out masterclass after masterclass. A serial winner who couldn’t come up with the tactics to not get beaten by Sunderland at home, evidently can’t out-tactic Fat Sam (or even score a goal) – again at home – let alone Norwich.

So all these genius managers that are better than Arsene failed, despite the advantages they have had.

We have some malcontent going on Arsenal TV telling the world that Stan wanted to increase prices by 8% and had to be talked down. (No mention of the heroes within the club who talked him down, even if it were true).
When I challenged this and suggested it was no more than shit-stirring in order to make Stan look bad, I was told:

“We have people in high places at Arsenal who told us!”

Of course they would not tell me who these high people were, I suspect because they don’t exist. Now it is accepted by thousands of fans as fact, simply because some moaning malcontent said so.

FOR NO OTHER REASON; NO FACT, NAMES OR EVIDENCE OF ANY TYPE.

The AST had an analysis done (I suspect they were disappointed with the results) which proved beyond doubt that Arsene overachieves every year (with one exception) but this actual evidence is ignored in favour of a purely fictional notion that he does not.

Detractors point to the wage bill, claiming that we are the 4th biggest and therefore should expect to be 4th. They conveniently forget that we have a huge staff because we are NOW a huge club.
But more than that they disregard transfer spend as if it is totally irrelevant.

However, a big wage bill is the result of big spending in the transfer market.  Simply put, big transfers in, expect big wages, and get them. So it’s the transfers that drive the wage bill.  Not the other way around. Therefore it’s transfer spending that is the main measure of where a club should expect to finish. Not wages.

The wages are a reflection of the transfer spend!  Got it now?

This though does not suit the detractors so it’s disregarded.

A stick, a stick – my kingdom for a stick!

We have experts telling us how much we have in the bank and jumping to conclusions about how and when it should have been spent, without one iota of knowledge of what plans may have been made – let alone cash flow considerations.

Don’t get me started on the pricks organising protests.

Just who the hell do they think they are?

All in all, it’s sad and pathetic what is going on.

You can tell George exactly what’s going on via Twitter @Blackburngeorge

Like every professional football correspondent I intend to completely ignore the football I have seen during the match and I will concentrate on my own pre-prepared agenda(s).

Anyway – I will get rid of the football bit first. This really was an end of season stroll around by both teams, the relative league positions before the game saw to that. There were a couple of beachballs bouncing around in the clock end – I don’t know if our fans or the baggies brought them but that spelt-out the character of this match. The Albion rarely even bothered to try and foul us, and if they did we didn’t even retaliate. A few yellow cards came at the end but there was not much at stake for either team to fight over – this game could have been played wearing flip flops.

The game itself was decided by a typical piece of Oliver Giroud finishing (i.e. excellent) from a Santi corner. Giroud has been exceptionally good for us this season – a fine example of Wenger’s shrewd purchasing policies [Giroud’s goals alone have been game-changers no less than 11 times this season, not even counting the contribution of his assists and general hard working hold-up play and defensive presence]. Lukas Podolski also came close yesterday with another chance, It should not be a surprise to us to think that Wenger was deliberately keeping him in reserve for this part of the season. Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla showed glimpses of their exquisiteness in a match that really didn’t need any. Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini will hardly ever get an easier day in the middle of the park, and Per and Kos didn’t have a lot to do and dealt with pretty much everything the Baggies feebly threw at them very comfortably. The biggest laugh of the day was Berahino’s slip and our fans singing “are you Gerrard in disguise?” to him. Diaby and Theo were walking around after the match, with Aaron Ramsey carefully packed away in cotton wool for the final. All told a nice n’ easy day’s work at the office.

So no excitement or drama from the Arsenal at the end of a season? The Spuds and Everton safely disposed of ? Sky, BBC and the press must be rightly disappointed with us: there goes the narrative and story arc they so badly wanted Arsenal to deliver for them. So here we are, comfortably ensconced back into the top 4 and an FA Cup final to look forward to; but isn’t there just a little sense of an anti-climax around ? A sense of the what might have beens’ this season?

Arsene Wenger promised us last summer that we were about 2 years away from competing against our rivals again for the title. This season we were 128 days at the top of the table, we have had a spectacular first half of the season and were right up there in the race until we went to Stamford Bridge. Arsenal don’t do bus parking at away games and there isn’t really a game plan for damage limitation when it sometimes goes a bit Pete Tong, as Arsene says – he designs his team formations for our attacking strengths. 

We have seen very positive signs we are still improving: 23 wins so far, 76 or probably 79 points will have been gotten this season, it all amounts to a tangible improvement and when you look at the much tighter closing of the gap between Arsenal and the top of the table compared to recent seasons it should give us succor to know the same group of players can get even closer next season. We haven’t been this good since ’07-’08 and if we look back at some of the points dropped this season which might have been saved by a team with just a little bit more confidence in themselves that they can close games out, we could have been right in it to the very end. Were we to go on and win the FA Cup that will give this team a huge boost in self-belief. 16 clean sheets has been decent too, and if you ignore the away drubbings (I do all the time) then the defense has been reliably solid.

Every expert in the world has concluded that we need a new striker. All I want is Giroud, Walcott and Podolski to be all available for Arsenal next season then let’s pick and choose someone new who will complement these attackers and who can play along with a midfield of Ozil-Diaby-Ramsey. To be honest we do need more goal scoring options, we have scored 40 goals less this season that City or Liverpool and the team that scores the most goals usually wins the league in England.

It’s also a commonly held truth that Arsenal are in possession of more money hoarded away than Smaug the dragon. This is the club’s rainy-day savings, I suspect it has been kept for use when our rivals will be under a huge strain with FFP, so if the right players come into the market this summer, I fully expect Wenger will get whoever he wants  – adding to the team we have now which is very damn close to being right up there as it is.

I will trust Arsene Wenger’s judgement only on who and who isn’t an Arsenal quality player.

It was nice to see a lot of the fans stay for the lap of appreciation at the end. Bacary Sanga got a big shout-out to stay, and there was a big cheer for his little boy running onto the pitch and kicking a ball into an empty net, (see what I did there – that’s journalism!). You won’t get that wherever else you go Bacary, just remember that and thanks anyway for your time here.

As always, it was a pleasure to meet up with the fellow Positivista’s before the match. We are becoming quite the handy little firm. Anicoll5, ArsenalAndrew, Billy Boots, Georgaki Pyrovoltis and of course Hunter13. Their real identities will be kept perfectly safe with me.

Today’s post was brought to us by Double Canister.

“It is at times like these when, for a manager, the world can seem a dark place. As methods are pilloried, tactics crucified and past glories forgotten, friends can feel like foes and adversaries appear as assassins. When criticism is flying at you from all angles, self-belief is the only solace.”

A well written rare piece of sports journalism. You would immediately think, the article talks about Wenger, but no. It is the Guardian defending Guardiola after Bayern’s defeat against Real Madrid. Sure, defend Guardiola. He is certainly much better than the likes of Mourinho. However, why is there no sincere defense of Wenger?

Wenger has consistently shown remarkable self-belief during plenty of dark days in the past 8 years. Spending figures show that the club has overachieved. Despite all the challenges, many of them unfair, the club is still on track and is now becoming a beast about to be unleashed. So, why isn’t there a defence of the club and manager? All that the manager consistently gets is, “Arsene did some good things, yeah yeah , but blah blah, cliche cliche, spend spend or go go…”

It is not as though these people in the media are dumb. Sure, you have the Michael Owens, but what about those cunning pundits/writers who are professional sports journalists?  The likes of Amy Lawrence, Henry Winter, etc.. These people are not dumb. They clearly know what they are pushing and how to sell it.

Many of you here say that we need to ignore the media agenda and think for ourselves. I agree with that. However, the media also has a social responsibility. Not just in sports, but this applies even more so in the general world. We all have a part to play in society, especially voices that are heard by many. When, page 3 girls are pushed ahead and real issues affecting a society are hidden, those driving such agendas must be exposed. While every media outlet should have the freedom to write what they want, there should also be accountability.

For Arsenal, the media has been successful in building this image of a manager who is afraid of spending big, doesn’t know defence or tactics, a board interested only in money, keeping away the saviour Usmanov and last but not least, the poor shortchanged fans. An air of weakness has been built around the club. This mood must be shattered and those who made it shown wrong.

We have made a lot of progress in the past 8 years. The club and manager are highly regarded throughout the world. The media darlings Guardiola and Klopp, look up to Wenger and seek his advice. Players respect him. As much as we have mixed feelings about Cesc, he still calls Arsene boss. Theirry Henry calls him boss even in interviews these days. That, to me speaks volumes about his coaching. The club has been self-sufficient even when it could have taken the easier route, especially during times of financial difficulty and sold it’s soul to Usmanov. Instead, now club is about to burst into a self made super club. There are a lot more points, a lot more things going well for Arsenal that are written, discussed and shown very well by those of you who fight for Arsenal. People like you are needed, to fight back and push away the agenda.

Lastly, I would like to repeat a point many of you here have mentioned as I think it is quite important. As the man representing the club, Arsene is more than capable to handling the media vipers. Just read his responses to some of the media comments and I assure you, you would be enjoying his put-downs. It is the boos, jeers and criticism of the fans that hurt the man.

Please don’t do it.

Don’t be a Piers Morgan. Support the man (people like him are rare) and the club.

Today’s post was by Sensational Arsenal.( @Madras_Periyar )