This time last week I was writing about the Arsenal first team playing yet again in the knock-out stage of the Uefa Champion’s league, then at the weekend I looked at our vital premiership away game with the league cup winners of Swansea. Exciting, nail biting encounters with much at stake, the very stuff we all signed up for and the kind of matches that define our season. And then like a child who walks through the bright lights and loud pulsing rhythms of a funfair only to find himself suddenly outside the line of marquees and beyond the rides and candy floss stalls in a cold darkness surrounded by whisps of mist and chilled by a wintry wind, we find ourselves plunged into the miserable wastelands of the International Break.

Could it have come at a worse time? We certainly had a good shape and were winning in some style before it landed like a plague carrying dirty bomb in the midst of the footballing schedule.  Funnily enough we always seem to feel the IB comes at the worst possible moment. I think it’s probably because it means we have to go without our football fix, let’s face it there isn’t a good time to have no Arsenal to watch. To then be presented with the possibility of our players coming back injured after performing for teams who we don’t support and who don’t pay their wages makes the whole thing as easy to digest as a dry shredded wheat in a sandstorm.

I don’t know about you but I can’t discuss football at work. My colleagues are at the mental age of an eight year old in the early nineteen seventies when it comes to the beautiful game. They believe everything they hear on the radio or read in the back pages. Their ideas and opinions are anything but their own and anything but informed. We will only end up coming to blows if we try to talk sport.  International breaks are the absolute worst though. Suddenly we are all supposed to give a hoot about England, talk about the manager and players he picks as if we care. Honestly,  tripping merrily through the mine field of sport related chit chat has been an exercise in obfuscation and temper control all week.

And so you can only imagine my relief at discovering the cameras were at Underhill last night. It was the second part of our Arsenal midweek methadone treatment. We couldn’t watch the ladies take a first leg lead in their Champions League match but we could and I certainly did watch the reserves (or whatever the Sam Hill they’re called these days) take on Man United’s youngsters. Many of the boys pulling on the red and white are familiar names having featured in first team matches on several occasions. But it only took three minutes for the less well known Hector Bellerin to announce himself with probing fast attacking forays down the right hand side. All too often mass defence prevented any clear opening and in the end too many short passes in and around the box ended in lost possession.

Coqelin and Eisfeld’s presence in the middle of the park provided a really classy fulcrum but it was Henderson who had the first decent shot from a free kick sending a skidding effort in to test the young United keeper after eight minutes. This was one way traffic. We were passing crisply and accurately at speed, and United were reduced to long punts up-field and scraps of possession. Martinez didn’t touch the ball until the eleventh minute and yet somehow the next thing he had to do was pick it out of the net half an hour later. It was a long shot by someone or other out of nothing and after we had dominated most of the half. Bellerin especially had caught the eye with quick feet, and direct running. United’s celebrations were mercifully short lived however, as Henderson equalised from the spot after that man Bellerin had bewitched the United defence once again, and they resorted to the Man United tactics we know and love by scything him down. Don’t worry boys, if Old Red Nose ever picks you for the first team you will never be penalised for kicking a skilful Arsenal player whether in or outside the box.

I’ve mentioned before that for a time in my adolescence I used to go to watch Bristol Rovers. I was taken to Eastville as a young lad by a neighbour and his dad but went more regularly when they played at Twerton Park. The Azteca Twerton was then and almost certainly still is now, famous for it’s sloping profile and watching the teams scaling the slope at Underhill last night certainly brought back memories. I could never decide whether it was better to unleash Rovers on the down hill run in the first half in the hope that they might build a lead before the opposition had gravity on their side, or save the advantage for the second half when the visitors would be tired. In truth it mattered little, as the ball spent most of it’s time flying back and forth through the air in those days the wind had a bigger influence on the match than the angle of the grass. Last night however, the ‘home’ side were determined to keep the ball on a bumpy wet surface and they certainly seemed less dominant in the second half whilst scaling the face of the pitch. Either that or Man U came out with a bit more fight. They certainly came out pretty aggressively , Francis Coquelin was hacked down on the hour by some bloke I’ve never heard of in a horrible foul. Unlike his counterparts in the Premiership the referee had no qualms in actually punishing United players and another one went into his book. Three minutes later and Hayden was chopped down and Arsenal made their first change, like for like Eastmond for Yennaris. Slowly but surely we began to tighten the screw creating more and more chances. Eisfeld, Ansah (substitute for Watt) and the busy Hayden all went close but were stopped by last ditch tackles or wasteful finishing.

It was a familiar tale for Arsenal fans. A lot of the ball, a gradual increase in pressure but a scoreline that didn’t reflect our dominance. Having said that there were some beautiful moves, excellent passing and some players who were quite simply head and shoulders above every one else on the pitch. I’ve mentioned Bellerin, and I know our own Arsenal Andrew really rates the lad having seen him in the flesh but for me Miquel looked a class apart last night; dominant, skilful, strong and decisive. Ansah looked very good when he came on and drew yet another clumsy foul from some United player or other as we entered the final ten minutes. From the free kick Henderson should have doubled his tally and put us in the lead but contrived somehow to bend the crossbar with whoever plays in goal for United well beaten. But then, just as a draw appeared inevitable, Señor Bellarin showed impeccable calm and control to bring the ball down in the United area and lash it home.

I enjoyed seeing the youngsters who were obviously thoroughly schooled in the Wenger Way and it isn’t hard to imagine many of them stepping up if called to plug a gap in the first team. Corporal Jenks could certainly have a very useful understudy in a couple of years time and Miquel is already really close to joining the elite.

Now pass me the syringe and the rope, this international break is about to begin in earnest and the methadone can only take you so far.

Part 3 of a guest post series by Red Henry. Feel free to take a look at Part 1 and Part 2 as well. 

Where do the outrageous demands arsenal fans have, come from?

What is it in the Wenger set up that makes them remember the past with such fondness?

I hear many say that Arsenal was a big club before Wenger’s appointment. I do not wish to argue that since my idea of stature is perhaps different to that of these fans.

Let us take a peek at the true reflection of a club’s status around the world, which is none other than the official UEFA ranking system. Whether we like it or not, European competitions and achievements in Europe is what separates the really big clubs from the occasional domestic dominance one club might experience in its domestic league. Looking at Arsenal’s past there is no other era where the club was dominant in its domestic league other than the 30’s. It is important to remember that this was 80 years ago. From there on till the late 80’s the club’s success was like that of a nomad. Some here, some there, totally inconsistent.

Between the 1953 League title, until the 1989 epic at Anfield ,the club really had only one serious feature to boast about, the 71 double. You could say that between ’53 and ’89, which is 36 years, the club won the title only once. Now that is quite a big gap for a club who’s fans want to boast about “greatness”.

Until Wenger arrived, Arsenal possessed 10 champion titles scattered across (1996-1886) 110 years. If we take it as an average it brings a title every 11 years, or one per decade to keep it simple. That is not the record of a big club. To give you an idea, Madrid has 32 champion titles, Barcelona 21, Bayern Munich 22, AC Milan 18, Juventus 28, Ajax 31, Liverpool 18, Manchester United 19. Yet here we are with our ten titles thinking we are comparable to these clubs, and as fans demand to be their equal.

The fact that Wenger added 3 in the space of 7 years and could have more should give an indication to our fans that it is only through Wenger that Arsenal was going to be able to catch those teams at some point.

But how do you do that when your venue is an old 38k seat stadium and your most famous ever world class player in the modern era was Brady?

This myth about Arsenal being a big club before Wenger might apply in the narrow-minded perception of the average English football fan, but trust me the Europeans didn’t really shake in their boots at the prospect of facing Arsenal.

That United has passed Arsenal in the title count shouldn’t be used as a stick to beat Wenger with,since United has also beaten Liverpool’s record and are a club who like it or not are very very serious with their marketing. Some even accuse them for milking their historical tragedy to attract worldwide sympathy. In the world of marketing and business everything is allowed apparently. Plus United started doing what we are doing now, a decade ( and more) sooner than Arsenal did and in an era where Blackburn could win the title with the likes of Sutton. A totally different situation to today’s environment where Arsenal had to face the influx of foreign owners pumping money of dubious origin into the system.

I studied the UEFA ranking systems to give me an idea of what stature Arsenal held in the eyes of the world and to my amazement i saw this “big club” occupying positions between 79 and 36 between late 70’s and late 90’s. I have allowed for the period where clubs weren’t allowed to participate in Europe (where English clubs were at position 209 and lower) and haven’t counted them. When Arsenal was winning the 71 double ..Ajax vs Panathinaikos were playing at the Wembley final for the European cup. Have you ever heard a lot talked about of Panthinaikos? Me neither…. yet until arsenal reached the final in 2006 clubs like them were higher in the UEFA ranking system than our “big club”. I found teams like As Roma, Eindhoven, Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid amongst others who were much much higher on the list than Arsenal.

Do you know what position Arsenal occupies today and for the last decade or so?

A fluctuation between pos 4 and 6. Considering Arsenal has never won it, I’d say their co-efficient is top top class.

Who has contributed the most for that?

George Graham and his back four?

Dein?

Is it not the consistency that Wenger has brought to this club at the highest level that has placed arsenal in the elite?

16 years of continuous top four finishes domestically and 12-13 years always in Europe’s last 16. That’s what counts. A consistency that cannot be denied. A consistency that allows Arsenal to look at the big boys eye to eye, even without ever winning the top European prize, yet.

It is utterly stupid of Arsenal fans to ignore these realities and live in the “bubble” of domestic achievements, which again are scattered across a century of mediocrity with the exception of an era in the 30’s.

People don’t remember Madrid because of their Copa Del Reys nor do people remember Liverpool for their FA cups. They remember them because of the 9 and 5 respectively and the memories they have given to football fans at a global level.

It is also utterly stupid to attack the club and the manager on the basis of 6 or 7 or 8 trophyless years as the club has clearly prioritized healthy accounts and repaying their stadium rather than going for any titles.

It is a period where the fans are completely WRONG to moan about the trophy statistic.

So why do they moan?

Could it be that the media are pulling the legs of weak-minded arsenal fans who don’t know their club’s history or what status it enjoyed in pre-Wenger times?

Could it be that the rivals taunting have managed to mess with the arsenal fan’s mind and make him consider that the trophies are more important than the stability and health of the football club?

Arsenal football club chose to expand and use Wenger’s early success to launch the club to a new era. It was always on the cards that the immediate period after the move the club would focus on financial matters rather than offering Kodak moments to glory seekers. Perhaps that’s too hard a concept for the not so clever fans to come to terms with, but not for those who know what we used to be and the places we have been with Wenger at the helm.

This era of continued competence and consistent placement at the top echelons of Europe is actually unfamiliar territory for Arsenal football club. We are practically virgins. Of course this does not diminish our past domestic achievements. But it does perhaps put them into perspective.

Hello and welcome to this week’s round-up and what a week it has been.

A fire has been reignited around Ashburton Grove and it’s largely being fuelled by deadwood.

First up we’ll look at the furore that arose when our good friends in the media decided to create the team news ahead of the Bayern game. The cannon, along with the travelling fans, were to be disrespected as any player who gave us a fighting chance would be dropped. Szczesny, Vermaelen, Walcott and Cazorla would all join the list of possibly feigned injuries and not make the trip to Munich. Arsene came out and explained why the keeper would be left at home, he has gone mental, but what of the others? Why were we being denied our chance at victory in Bavaria? WHY?

Some news that wasn’t complete fiction was Jack Wilshere’s injury. It is believed that he will miss three weeks of football, which is just enough time for Wenger to get his way and guarantee that we finish below our neighbours who are obviously romping home to victory.

So the reserves went off to face the mighty Germans without a hope of restoring some dignity to the camp. Walcott absence made his assist for Giroud all the more impressive. It was five minutes in and suddenly the no-hopers had a shot. The game was fairly even until five minutes from the end when Koscielny made it 2-0 on the night. The push was too late and we were out. Bloody embarrassing!

So the media had been mistaken. Santi and Theo very much did take part in the historical European tie but one unexplained omission was that of our captain. Talk is now of the Arsenal armband claiming its latest victim with Vermaelen’s agent said to be engineering a way out of the club for his client. It is rumoured that the feeling is mutual and we never really liked him anyway so there!

Next up was the European hangover. The manager continued his policy of throwing games before they started by introducing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to the starting line up. Aaron Ramsey was left out and Gervinho was on the bench so fall-guy duties fell on the brittle shoulders of Abou Diaby. We didn’t take the lead for 74 minutes and Abou should be ashamed. Fortunately, Wenger found time to check his twitter page and see that the Diaby experiment was not working. He was hooked and a couple of scapegoats that we know and love were introduced. The first goal came but only served to highlight our inherent defencive weaknesses. Nacho’s feeble attempt at blocking his own shot failed and the ball trickled over the line. 1-0 to the Arsenal. Then our mortally challenged timbers combined to seal victory and the three points were ours. Ramsey found Gervinho on a counter attack and the Ivorian slalom skier slotted home with ease.

Per Mertesacker came out after the games to talk about the new perspective the defence had found. He attributed the new-found solidity and two clean sheets to watching tapes of their performances. A technique pioneered in the early 1950s and later mastered by Scotch Video Tapes. Re-record not fade away.

A deeply embittered saboteur also spoke about the fantastic attitude of his team. With just nine games to go, this will have a serious impact on the longest running case of espionage ever to hit the modern game. Wenger added: “We defended high up the pitch and nothing. I play Fabianski and nothing. This team’s mental strengths are now a little bit stronger than my handbrake”.

And finally! FIFA have decided that, in the most exciting part of the season, there should be a break up for some of those gripping international games we all love. England will be without Wilshere and therefore excitement while Ireland take on Montenegro. Whichever country you’re from will play in some boring game that is only distracting from what matters. Arsenal!

Remember to come back to Positively Arsenal, the best place to find no coverage of this week’s internationals.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading.

Up the Arsenal!

Wonderful. Simply Marvellous. Till tomorrow.

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Well Ok, But the rest will only be padding.

I’m sure you don’t need me to analyse a game that everyone will have seen for themselves, but here are my thoughts.

We won. And won well.

Three points, the first three of the thirty we spoke of last week. The first cup final down, nine to go.

The magnitude of yesterdays result should NOT be overlooked.

We went to play Swansea just three days after a gruelling game in Munich. The statistics show that it is very difficult to win an away game after any CL game. For any team, not just Arsenal.

I am also told that no top five team has won at Swansea this year. So it is a hard place to win.

Watching Swansea it is easy to understand why. They kept the ball as well as any team we have played this year. They were calm on the ball and very patient with their build up play.

The fact that they did not have a single shot on target is a little misleading. They had nine shots, some of which went very close. I thought the home team played very well.

However, after the first fifteen minutes we matched them for the rest of the first half, perhaps even shading it.

I must admit ,after The Ox hit the bar for the second time, I started to fear the worst. I thought we might struggle in the second half due to the exertions of Wednesday night.

No such problems.

From the whistle we were totally dominant. By far the greatest team the world has ever seen.(Sorry, I could not contain myself for another minute).We were well worth the result.

So let’s look at some of the positives.

Lukasz “safehandski” gave us not a single reason to question his inclusion in the starting line up.

The back four as a unit preformed peerlessly. Moving up as a unit and dropping off as a unit.

Jenkinson was magnificent, Laurent too. Per and Nacho (scorer of his and our first ,well done lad)were very good.

Mikel was so assured it makes a mockery of those who insist we need a DM.

Santi was the best player on the pitch by some margin, that was until Gervinho entered the fray. Then he was the best player on the pitch. I thought the Ivorian was superb and deserves to be lauded .Folk are quick enough to disparage the lad ,will they eat humble pie? Will they bollocks.

AOC was very threatening in the first half ,but seemed to run out of steam somewhat ,prior to being substituted.

I felt that despite the odd moment of genius, Diaby looked a little off the pace. I was asking for him to be removed at half time. Yet I was glad he got the minutes he needs to get back up to speed. We should not underestimate how much of a difference the lad can make when fit.

Theo and Giroud were not at their  best, but hey?

Oh, and Ramsey. That boy is just what you want when an energy injection required. Two nil up and in the ninety second minute he is running forty yards, at break neck speed, to close their keeper down. I love that kid.

On top of all that Rosicky got a full game on Wednesday and is back well and truly in the picture.

Also we had Podolski and Jack unavailable, both of whom should be back for our next game.

All in all, I loved it, enjoyed every minute, and can relax now for two weeks.

Positively bloody fantastic.

Abertawe.  I have many memories and associations but very few of them are football related. Dylan Thomas, Cwmdonkin Park, Twin Town, Mumbles Pier, The Gower peninsular, stopping for fish and chips at Monni’s on Brynymor Road on my way to visit the Boat House in Laugharne. All happy reflections on that ‘ugly, lovely town’ but football wise Swansea City never featured particularly largely in our house. Mum was a Newport County fan and her four brothers and her dad all played for Tintern, so a club as far West as Swansea didn’t get much of a look in.

There was of course that one crazy season when ex Liverpool striker John Toshack took them to the top of what was then rather prosaically known as the First Division. They had been in the fourth division three seasons before and Toshack performed one of the most remarkable feats of management of my lifetime in winning successive promotions  getting from the bottom to the top of the pile in double quick time. They even led the table on more than one occasion, finishing sixth in their début top flight season. Sadly for them it couldn’t last and they dropped like a stone in the following two years and I and many others assumed we’d seen the last of the boys from the Vetch Field. Entertaining but extremely temporary.

As it transpired  we were in a way correct. The Vetch is now a sadly dilapidated rectangle of turf, partly turned over to allotments and merely a memory for the old timers of the town. Swansea moved to Stadiwm Liberty eight years ago and have enjoyed remarkable success for a relatively small club. It isn’t a big secret to many of you that I don’t have a great deal of time for any club other than Arsenal. I watched Bristol Rovers in my adolescence and will always have a place for them in my heart, but as far as top flight teams go, well, lets just say I’d rather see my grandparents having sex than watch almost any other side play football. However, I’ll let you into a secret. I have a lot of time for Swansea. They play the game properly. They survived their first Premiership season without resorting to Pulis vile brand of anti football and have survived losing their promising young manager this time around. When they beat us last year I was pretty shocked. I had made the mistake of believing the  ‘It’s only Swansea’ brigade. But it was the manner of their victory that impressed me. They did it by outplaying us, pure and simple. No need for hopeless or bent refs, no need for leg breaking challenges, no need for the kind of feeble brained gibberish the press like to call mind games. Instead they just came out and played fast, free flowing, inventive, pacey and attractive football. And I applaud them for that. When Arsene spoke yesterday he  said that Swansea were “one of the teams of the season” and we at Positively Arsenal aren’t in the business of pretending we know more than one of the game’s greatest minds. In any case I agree and will even go further – they are one of the teams of the last two seasons and apart from when they play us I wish them well.

You see what teams like Swansea and Norwich and Wigan bring to English football is the clear, unarguable evidence that Pulis, Brown, McLeish and Allardyce and all their knuckle dragging apologists in the press are a bunch of lying scumbags. They all want us to believe that in order to survive at the highest level the smaller teams have no choice but to play violently brutal percentage football based on a thuggish spoiling mentality.  Look at Stoke, you say, look how well such a small club have done with this revolting anti football. Well I say piss off you awful little pillock, look instead at Swansea and see that you can be brave enough to play the beautiful game against a club as good at it as Arsenal are and still survive. In fact never mind survive, you can thrive.

So that’s Swansea. What about us? While our opponents are on a high after defeating Bradford City in the league cup, we are coming off the back of a stunning away leg in our champions league clash with Bayern Munich. I can’t speak for the players, that would be silly, but I know a lot of fans are confused by the events of Wednesday night. It’s impossible not to be happy about such a startling victory. About being the only team to keep a clean sheet there this season. There were times we contrived to make  them look ordinary, and they were not and are anything but an ordinary side. And yet, and yet, we’ve just been knocked out of the champions league. A tournament we still haven’t won and one Arsene so deserves to win. It’s fair to say our emotions are conflicted. It’s here that having a first class manager with first class staff ought to pay dividends. Arsène will, I believe, use the spirit that earned us that clean sheet in Germany to make his players believe they can do it again. They showed such desire, such commitment and combined with the skill we all know they posses those are the qualities we will need this afternoon and for the next nine games.

Arsène believes we have ten cup finals between now and the end of the season. Exciting times to be an Arsenal fan. Exciting times to be an Arsenal player. While the most important thing today is of course that both sets of supporters get to enjoy a really good game of football,  we are now down to our final target for this season so every point becomes more important. Let’s pray our enemies falter and when they do, let us be resolute, let us be victorious.

 A guest post from Red Henry

One of the more recent strands of popular criticism of Arsene Wenger includes the description of the Arsenal Manager as a dictator.

It is claimed that the manager listens to no one, that he does everything his way.  The claim came from Stewart Robson, after he had been sacked from Arsenal Player, some say for being too negative in his commentary.

But fans and commentators picked up on the ‘dictator’ label and before we knew it, it was effectively official, signed, sealed and delivered.  And the damage was done.  Someone – could have been anyone – who had once had a tie to the club had said it.  So of course that today now means it’s 100% fact in the minds of some.

You then start thinking:

“Hang on. Are these people serious? Have they forgotten who managed Arsenal before Wenger? NO, not Bruce…”

One of Arsenal’s most recognisable features as a team back in the Graham years was the strict discipline between manager and players and how the order of dressing room was brought out on the pitch.

Lee Dixon described it as “A sergeant -major approach to management”.

Paul Merson has alluded to it being a case of  “If you weren’t working hard, you weren’t playing.”

Alan Smith talks about how Graham wanted to be the one earning the most money.

Then we had the fees the manager would get for making his own transfers, practically blocking even David Dein from any transfer negotiations so that George could handle them personally. We all know how that ended …

Dein himself talks about what a wonderful duo he made with Arsene, with Dein handling the transfers while Wenger trained and revitalized existing players and integrated the new ones.

Wenger on the training ground, pitch and dugout with Dein behind the scenes in the boardroom, attending meetings and controlling transfer negotiations.

The ex-players who had experienced both regimes talk about Wenger being liberal with regards to his players … sometimes, apparently, way too liberal.

They all seemed happy to follow his “orders” and his diets and his advice while being treated like professionals. The manager himself treated everyone as equals, as any respectful manager -no matter what line of business – surely should. 
What I have said above is just a reminder of past events and some quotes, as I recall them.

What follows is not a criticism of George Graham’s playing or managerial style or even professional ethos.

Nor is it glorification of the Wenger managerial philosophy and playing style.  I recognise that each manager has his own ways.

No.  What baffles me is how the word ‘dictator’ can be used to describe a manager whose operational and technical framework simply does not allow for such insulting and outdated concepts.

Mostly it seems the ones who call Wenger a dictator are people who are in the age-bracket where they experienced the Graham years in full.  But it is a totally absurd concept.  Maybe what they mean to say is that Arsene is stubborn in his methods…

Mr Wenger is a highly qualified player-development manager who together with his staff  (Boro Primorac, mainly) have a ton of knowledge and experience in working with both youngsters and experienced players in general.

Let us not forget that between them they have hugely contributed to the development of Weah and, amongst others, Patrick Vieira, Henry and Cesc Fabregas, so forgive me for saying that they can be as stubborn as they want since their work shows exceptional results through various decades.

They clearly know a few things

Recent success can be seen in Theo Walcott, a boy who some years ago looked more of an athlete than a footballer, yet, is now one of the first team’s main attacking threats.  Oh and he provides  assists too.  Wenger and Primorac know what they teach and how to teach it.  Aside from their work at Arsenal they have won major titles in France and Japan.  And all over Europe, those clubs who want to progress, will take a peak to see how Wenger does it.

When we played Barcelona last time at Camp Nou, the coaching and playing staff of Feyenord and Eindhoven (fierce Dutch rivals) were at the game and were quoted as saying “We are here to watch two proper football clubs play proper football.”  Now this might not 
mean much to the pre-Wenger-era aficionados, but for those who know how to value their club’s progress, they understand that such words would not likely have been uttered prior to Wenger’s appointment.

It’s one thing trusting the working practices and routines that have produced you a Weah and an Henry and given you doubles, unbeaten seasons and champions league finals.

And quite another calling this manager a dictator and a stubborn old git whose lost it just because you don’t know what his job is about or what he brings to the game and the values and methods he represents.

His practices have produced results that shouldn’t be questioned by ignorant punters who can’t separate a dictator from a facilitator.  These tried, trusted and proven methods are presented as the stubborn methods of a lunatic dictator bent on proving all his doubters wrong.  When in fact it is quite the opposite.

They employ a liberal and responsibly mature approach to management that has brought results, records and built entire reputations.

Why would anyone of sound mind deviate from something that works?

Maybe only those with a poor grip on reality themselves would describe adherence to such outstandingly successful methods as dictatorial.

At the very least, it’s a funny kind of label.

I said last night as I was watching the game that we had three objectives for the first half. Get through the first 45  without conceding had to be the most important. We had a hill to climb, nothing could be worse than that becoming a mountain. Then we needed to match them all over the pitch. Hassle and harry and close down space when they had the ball, forcing them to punt it up-field rather than build, a bit  like teams do against us. Then and only once those criteria were met should we hope for the third. Plant the seed of doubt in their minds by capping off a free flowing attack with an unstoppable shot and half the deficit.

I know it would’ve been super to have gone it at half time three goals to the good but this is an exceptionally good Bayern side and that would be a big ask even for a squad as talented as ours. While we’re at it, lets have a word for that squad. Isn’t it rather satisfying to have somebody as utterly peerless as Tomáš Rosický to step in when one of our promising youth team graduates gets injured just before a match? Doesn’t it make you feel just a little smug to have another Polish international keeper waiting in the wings in case the other one has to miss a game? No Lukas Podolski on the left wing? No problem, we have Santi Cazorla. Best right back in the premiership for a very long time out injured? Step up corporal Jenks. How the manager has assembled this incredible group on such a (relatively) limited budget defies belief. He truly is an extraordinary man.

The conditions were atrocious last night with a playing surface like a polished ice rink but that didn’t prevent Corporal Jenks keeping pace with Robben whilst running backwards then perfectly timing his tackle before skipping around Muller and away up the pitch in what for me, as an ex defender, was the highlight of the half. I know Fab showed some great decision making and safe hands and the goal obviously was quite important but that was as good an example of the defenders art as you’ll see.

Ten minutes into the second half and I thought Giroud was going to get that crazy screamer he’s been promising me when he volleyed  from midway inside their half but it went over and Arsene reacted just as he did against Sunderland. One day Olivier, one day. I thought we continued to close them well and forced mistakes and fouls. Theo was clearly onside and clear through but was flagged off side for reasons known only to the linesman and his bookmaker. Sure Bayern had a few chances but this isn’t a Bayern blog so who gives a damn? Santi took a free kick just outside of their area and was outraged when denied by an apparent hand ball in the wall and the game resumed the pattern of the first half, both sides probing and inept officials making surreal uneven decisions.

The game burst into life on 67 minutes when Fabianski pulled off a fine point blank save from Bayern’s balding Dutchman and a flurry of shots brought out the best in our defence. With time running out we pressed further and further up field and began to look a little stretched. Arsene rolled the 70 minute dice and the seemingly tireless Ramsay and Walcott were replaced by the Ox and Gervinho. Robben was showing his traditional greed near the goal which was all the better for us but whenever we tried to attack we seemed to be held back by accidental hand balls or passes an inch off their target and on one occasion the linesman lost his contact lens and denied us a corner.

Gervihno seemed to have done enough with a delicate pirouette and toe poke but the ball rolled agonisingly past the post. Then Robben managed to get Per booked by running into him as our giant German turned away but by this time the drunken refereeing had ceased to surprise anybody. Another brilliant stop from the excellent Fabianski and we entered the final ten minutes with the second crucial goal still eluding us.

Five minutes to go. A corner from the right. Santi takes it. Kosser stays low. Gets there first. Two nil.  Game on.

But there was to be no famous third goal and you don’t need me to tell you what happened next. Just three minutes of  injury time after all those subs and stoppages and with the connivance of the officials aiding Bayern in their time wasting, we went out on a technicality.

I am nothing but proud of the amazing effort and performance. Clean sheet, away to one of the best teams in Europe and clear two nil victors on the night. Sad to be out of the tournament but not in any way disheartened. We are all a little sick to have suffered yet again at the hands of an inept referee on such an important occasion but we can be proud of the fans who travelled and the players who pulled on the shirt and gave it their all.

Hello and welcome to this week’s Round-Up.

First up is the news from last week that Santi had won the Arsenal Player of the Month Award for February.  Cazorla just pipped Wilshere with 44% of the votes to Jack’s 43%. That is a substantial pile of per cents for just two players.  The biggest revelation to come from this story, however, is that 13% of the voting populous have clearly been smoking a lot of crack.

Cazorla also pipped himself to the Goal Of The Month award for his second and winner against Aston Villa.  The goal went something like

“Wilshere, oh nice ball. Well done Nacho. Very well done Nacho! AAAARRRGH SANTI AAAAAAARGHHHH!!!!!! GOOOOOOOAAAALLLLLLL!!!! GOOOOOOOAAAALLLLLLL!!!! GOOOOOOOAAAALLLLLLL!!!! ”

You know the one I mean.

With no weekend tie for which to prepare, Arsene Wenger came out late last week to talk to Arsenal Player about the up-coming game in Munich.  The boss said 327 times in his interview that we have to believe.  I think it will take a sit down with Paul McKenna round Derren Brown’s house to convince most people.

But without hope we have nothing; a performance to be proud of would do me, or failing that, a shed-load of luck.

Carl Jenkinson also did an interview which spelt out his love for the Champions League.  He spoke about how it’s what you dream of whilst growing up, the music that sends a shiver down the spine, and how he would tell his school friends that he was going to watch a Champions League tie.

What is the Europa League music anyway?  Whatever it is, Arsenal fans tend to have plans on Thursday nights and we don’t want that to change next season.  We are the very fabric that makes the Champions League what it is.  We are the Champions League!

The absence of Arsenal at the weekend forced many Gooners into watching less important teams.  Many will have seen Ryo Miyachi’s return for Wigan against Everton on Saturday.  After months out injured he was brought on as a sub for some player and was doing pretty well until a good hearty Premier League tackle from behind, sent him crashing into the hoardings and carried away on a stretcher, clearly in considerable pain and distress.  Kevin Mirallas’ mother was unavailable to pick him up from the game but is believed to have said he too is “not that type of player.”  Mirallas joins the growing list of footballers who will get theirs!

Lastly, and devastatingly, news broke on Monday night that Jack Wilshere had picked up some kind of injury and is a “major doubt” for the away leg against Bayern.  Without any official confirmation from the club at that time, theories were being created and dispelled through the night.  Some were saying that it’s just ‘mind games’ from the manager while others believe that Wilshere has been left on a waiting-list for surgery as Kroenke is forcing him to go on the NHS.

The truth, as always, will be somewhere in between.

That’s all for this week, thanks for reading.

Up the Arsenal!

The second and final part of the guest post from Poznan In My Pants (PIMP), part one of which appeared on Positively Arsenal on Monday

Exhibit A Of How To Criticise: Tim Stillman

Being constructively critical while striving to be positive is a duty of supporters, in my opinion.

It’s a form of leadership.  In fact, let me give you Exhibit A by Tim Stillman: As We Forgive Those… , a pretty critical post on Arseblog that I recently.  And while I feel it was harsh in the assessment of the talent in our team, I thought it was superbly written, thoughtful, balanced, and not without an element of problem-solving as well as leaving open the possibility of hope.  It might be my favourite critical blog of this season.  I don’t know if Tim was striving to be positive, per se, but he clearly strives to maintain perspective.

And one of my favourite things about Tim is that he continually reminds us that football is something you should enjoy regardless of your standing in the league, any league.

Some people seem to treat Arsenal as a self-help group where you unburden yourself of all your angst and traumas whilst burdening the poor therapist who has to listen to your shit (ie the rest of us).  This is football.  If you can’t fucking keep it together when it’s about your football team, how are you going to hack it back in the real world.  Man up, you pussy.

If you can’t come out with 3 or more genuine positives about supporting Arsenal for every negative you express, you might not be a realist.  You may in fact be a downer, and you should seriously consider adjusting your ratio for the sake of yourself and the rest of us, though I will grant you that Arsenal doesn’t always make it easy for you.

And then again, Arsenal, or in this case @arsenal, provide reasons to enjoy being a supporter every day. Take, for example, this Gooner:

Her joy at hearing that her beloved Arsenal would be coming to her country, Vietnam, in the summer, was matched only by our joy at what kind of other names these Vietnamese Gooners might have.

The Terror

I notice that the new Sport du Jour is to find some previously unexamined flaw of the manager or his team to add to their already lengthy list of crimes against Goonerdom.  But it’s getting seriously out of hand right now, akin to the French Terror of 1793-94, you know, when they mounted guillotines on the back of carts to dispense quick justice across the land.  (The Frenchies of “The Terror” could teach modern day commerce a thing or two about speedy customer service and convenience.)

And right now, no player but Jack W is safe from us.  The great crime of our age is mediocrity, and every player is accused of it.  The squad in general is accused of it.

And right now, some Sans Culottes have most likely broken into Arsene’s laundry room and are inspecting their way through his dirty undies.  No crime is left unpunished these days.  It is getting extreme in the extreme.  There is no achievement of Arsene that cannot be chiseled away at, undermined or even attributed to another.  I have recently debated with twitteratti as to whether the Emirates Stadium was a vanity project; whether Arsene receives far too much credit for the Invincibles; and whether Arsene has ever won anything with a squad of players that were 100% signed by him.  (I actually don’t know. Has Mourinho?  Has Pep?  Possibly only SAF has.).  The manager’s achievements are being steadily down-graded.  I would imagine it feels easier to guillotine someone once you have diminished them entirely.

Maybe You Will Listen To Gary Neville?

We all seem to rate Gary Neville highly at this point.  He has been part of a winning club, a winning team and has been coached by a great manager.  And, as he said himself, he is no lover of Arsenal. But let me answer the above with this:

And also…

He says we should feel grateful.  Are we feeling grateful?  Or are we feeling screwed over?

You will also remember that he rated our squad highly at the start of the season, as did many of us.  The prevailing view was that we were just a couple of top players short.  I think that’s still true today.

Now where was I?  Oh yes…

I Saw A Puppy…

I saw a puppy playing in the park today.  It was gamboling.  I was about to go over and reprimand it since only lambs are supposed to gambol when all of a sudden it stopped gamboling altogether and lay down.  It took on a depressed and melancholic aspect.  You could tell.  It was clear from its aura that, where just moments before it was full of play and puppiness, it had suddenly been overwhelmed by a crushing existential angst, a stark awareness of its own mortality and the fragility of life in general, the inevitability of its aging leading inexorably to slow decay, a debilitating illness and an excruciating death.

Let me tell you, that killed the mood in the children’s play area nearby.

I tried to coax the puppy out of his stupor.  I threw a ball.  Nothing. I tossed a stick and shouted “fetch.”  Nothing.  I got down on all fours and attempted to gambol.  Nothing.  I sniffed his nether regions, as dogs do, and then offered up my own nethers for sniffing.  Jean-Paul Sartre could not have been more ennuied than this puppy.

But to be fair, who could argue with this puppy about where his life was headed?  No one.  He was right.  After all, life doesn’t end well for any of us.  He was just being realistic.

And so, in the end, for every one of us, it all comes down to whether you are a glass half empty of diseased and decaying puppy kind of person, or a glass half full of gamboling in the park puppy kind of person.  Choose carefully.  And re-choose it often.

Gooner Puppies

We are in the quarter-finals of the NextGen and it will be played at the Ems.  These are our Gooner puppies gamboling about the park.  I hope we sell every last fucking seat out and give the young lads a backing that blows their socks off.

It won’t be long until life crushes the joy out of these young faces, too

For every one of the players, it will be a once in a lifetime experience.  And I hope we all remember what enjoying our football is all about, win, lose or draw…you know, just before we all age, contract diseases and die.

There! I told you this blog was about the NextGen.

UP THE ARSENAL!

I’d like to dedicate this post to Anna Lvova, @madruskigunner, one of the joys of twitter, as well as her wonderful @AFCphotobank account which might be my favourite thing on twitter.   You can find me on Twitter @posnaninmypants.