Twitter, blogs, podcasts and “click bait” presenters have changed the face of football support. The more extreme your opinions are, the more aggressive your delivery is, the more successful you will be if your goal is to profit from your supposed support of a football team. Being heard is more important than being informed to many of the new-age fans.

AFTV is both the most unpopular example of this and also the most successful. It doesn’t mater how repulsive the “stars” are, how ridiculous their opinions are, how much damage they do to the club, it’s reputation and standing, as long as enough people subscribe to and follow them, it’s job done. We saw Hector Bellerin point out that it was wrong, for so called fans, to profit from negativity, and what happened? They faked a recording of him slagging off the club, attacked him remorselessly and attempted to turn the fans against him. Their ploy was exposed, but did it matter? No it did not, more people listened , followed and subscribed. Again, job done.

You might think we would have learned, but no, hell no! We then saw the most moronic of them set up their own Youtube channels , some even broadcasting live from the front seat of their cars, they then get a huge following and make even more profit.

As if that isn’t bad enough, but we regularly see TalkSport radio, the biggest sports radio station in the world, going to these most uninformed and objectionable profiteers, for their opinion on matters they are hugely unqualified to give, it’s a joke.

Think about every “famous” blogger, podcaster and Youtuber ,then think of why they became well known. Almost every one of them are negative extremists. Are they known for their understanding of Arsenal, it’s business model, the players or the tactics? No, they are known for their attacks on almost all things Arsenal. Some are just outright rude and aggressive while others hide behind humour and snide analysis, but all have one common thread, they prey on negative feelings.

The question is, are these people driven by popular opinion, or do they drive popular opinion towards a place where they become the stars of the prevailing opinion? Let us not forget that popular opinion had us improving if we could just get rid of Arsene Wenger, it had Emery doing a great job and Raul was “the Don” ! Make no mistake, these people are looking for ways to attract attention and make a profit, the profit might be in direct £ or a surge in their own profile, but looking they are.

Recently, while having a discussion abut Mesut Ozil, I used names like Arteta, Wenger, Pep and Jose, to back up my opinion, the rebuttal expert witness they drew upon to counter me was “Clive from Arsenal Vision” , the justification for using this colossus of football knowledge was that because people paid to listen to him, he must have a valid opinion. This is where we are.

Currently , most people are behind Arteta, but make no mistake, as soon as some of these “fans” see a profit in turning against him, they will. The problem is that those of us that are still on board will give them the oxygen they desire by highlighting their negativity on social media. We have seen the backlash against AFTV and they have recognised the problem by pretending to be positive. But it won’t last because all the profit is in negativity.

Good day everyone.

There is no getting away from it, that was a disappointing result and a disappointing performance, we can almost taste the collective disappointment in the air.

Since Mikel rocked up there has been a swell of optimism running  through the club, from management to players to fans. The results haven’t been great but most can see an improvement in performances both individually and collectively from the players. So we went to Burnley and we expected a win and a good performance. Our disappointment comes from the levels of expectation we ourselves created. Had Emery still been in charged we would not have had the same levels of expectation, so the disappointment would be less. As Andrey Arshavin once famously said “Your expectations are your problems”. 

The problem with putting forward excuses, is that people dismiss them even when they are valid mitigation.Well for me there were good excuses why we didn’t play very well.  I say”very well” because in fact we did not play badly, actually for periods we were reasonably good, given the conditions. So lets look at the conditions for a moment.

The pitch was left with the grass long which clearly favours a less technical team. Therefore immediately we have to accept the technical side of the game will take a knock. And before people start shouting “it’s the same for both” it’s not, the more technical side loses more advantage because they have more to lose.

I felt that Arteta picked Guendouzi over Torreira partly because of the conditions and that Burnley mostly bypass the midfield, so he wanted a ball carrier rather than a shield. Unfortunately young Matteo had a game that he didn’t carry the ball well or progress it well with his passing. The problem was then made worse when Xhaka had to move from midfield to leftback, leaving us with Guendouzi and Torreira in the centre, a combination that has never worked.

One of the tactics seemed to be for Aubameyang to move more central allowing space for Saka to run into, a tactic that was working well until Saka literally got smashed out of the game. We lost our best CM ,who moved to LB and our best wide attacking threat. A double whammy.

The loss of Xhaka in CM immediately means Ozil becomes less effective  because he doesn’t receive the ball as often and in as good positions. More on Ozil latter.

Move up front and we had Lacazette, badly out of form, Aubameyang not at his best on the day and Martinelli playing on the side that suits him less. Their collective hold up play was poor. Perhaps on reflection Mikel will feel he got the selection wrong, but no one was complaining when the team was announced, it looked to most that it was the right starting three.

There has been a lot of moaning about Ozil’s performance, something that I seriously can’t understand. “Mesut Özil made the most ball recoveries, created the most chances, completed the most final third passes, succeeded the most dribbles and made the most interceptions of any Arsenal player when he was on the pitch.” I don’t know what more people want from him, he can’t pass the ball to himself so he is relying on the other players to either give it  back to him or do something decent with it, well on the whole they didn’t. He doesn’t have a playstation controller so he can move the others into good space and he cant make them pass the ball better. Ozil is definitely not the problem in this team.

On the bright side we look much better defensively, Mustafi didn’t put a foot wrong and play really well, Luiz looks a good player again and Hector is looking better with every minute he gets under his belt.

I have always said that we need a balanced MF, and I feel that the best one is Xhaka, Torreira and Ozil, but if circumstanced dictate that this trio is unavailable we struggle. Well circumstances did just that yesterday.

Nothing is going to stop me from being optimistic about our future under Arteta, the only question is how distant is that future and what levels of performance are we going to be happy with, because for sure, there will not be the levels of investment that will make us contenders for the league. We simply have to curtail our expectations or else we will be in a constant state of disappointment and anger.

Arsenal travel to Turf Moor this afternoon for their Premier League match against Burnley. As the Gunners look to end a run of three straight league draws, the Clarets will aim to make it three league wins on the bounce.

Good day all. Despite Arsenal still not having lost a league game since the turn of year, the improved performances and positive change in attitude, there’s still this sense that the Mikel Arteta era hasn’t really taken off yet.

I suppose this comes from us being closer to the bottom-three than top-four. It sure doesn’t help that we got our feet stuck in the mid-table mud. Still, this season is no write-off.

Going into this weekends fixtures, we were four points off both Man United and Spurs in 5th and 6th-place respectively. With them having a few tricky games coming up in the next game weeks, this is a good chance for us to reel them in, but we have to start turning draws, which are our main source of dropped points, into wins in order to move up the table.

It goes without saying Mikel started his tenure at a very awkward stage, smack in the middle of a very congested festive run, but things will now start to ease off a bit. With today’s trip followed by three straight home matches against Newcastle, Everton and West Ham, the Spaniard will be well aware that a result at Turf Moor could be key to generate momentum heading into last few months of this campaign.

Look, this team is in a really good place and that performance at Chelsea… followed by the young ones blowing Bournemouth away with a laudable first half display at the Vitality… we have grown in stature of late. And with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang now back in the side things can only get better. Who knows, if we string together a few wins in this next few weeks even 4th-placed Chelsea might start to look over their shoulder.

Burnley won’t roll over though. They had a dismal time since Boxing Day with four straight defeats, and heading into back-to-back matches against Leicester, Man United and Arsenal, there were real concerns they could get sucked into the relegation scrap. But boy didn’t they make some look silly; first they came from behind to beat the Foxes at home, before a 2-0 victory over the Red Devils at Old Trafford. With those games now chalked off, Sean Dyche will feel cocksure that his team can make it three league wins in a row.

I doubt it will even matter that they come into this game on the back of a disappointing FA Cup defeat against Norwich. Because for Dyche the silver lining will be that he can put all his focus on trying to get his side finishing this campaign as high as possible.

Despite some nearly moments the Clarets don’t have the best record against the Gunners though. Our 2-1 win in the reverse fixture back in August was the 11th eleventh straight one over them – a run stretching back to start of the last decade. They sure will be hopeful of beating Arsenal for the first time since 2008.

Team news

Arsenal made defensive additions of Pablo Mari and Cédric Soares this past week and there’s no doubt they should only help our cause, however, we should see them after the winter break.

We are also able to call upon the services of Auba and David Luiz, following their suspensions, with Shkodran Mustafi (ankle) and Sead Kolasinac (thigh) being assessed ahead of the game.

Prediction

Burnley got their season back on track with some promising recent results, but Arsenal are showing a different side to them under Arteta. Also Auba will be eager to get back in the goals, ergo we are favourites to grind out a result to get back in the race for a top-six spot.

As always, we need to remain switched on and got to make the most of our chances. Good luck all. COYG!

@LaboGoon

Good day positivistas,

I wasn’t going to bother with a match report because everyone saw it and most of the talking has been done in the comments already, however, there are a few things I would like to mention on reflection.

The first thing I noticed was the odd position that Xhaka had taken up. He was playing as some sort of leftback/quarterback/centerback hybrid. Now we have recently seen him moving to the left, I thought that was to help out Saka with his defensive duties, but this was something different. It appeared to be his starting position, Saka was mostly in advance of him and Guendouzi was on his own in the DM position, rather than it being a double pivot(get me with the know-it-all jargon), it certainly worked because in the first half Saka and Martinelli were free to run riot down that flank, often with Martinelli moving inside to give Saka acres of space to run into. It was noticeable because Mustaffi keeps pinging long diagonal balls out to our young flying leftback. It worked well , but if we are put under pressure, it will leave us short handed in centre midfield at some points, as it did in the second half where we were not as dominant on the ball. The four players involved in this tactic ,Xhaka, Saka, Martinelli and Mustafi, all have very good games, it worked a treat.

The second thing that struck me was how once again we were not as good second half as we were in the first. There are several possible reasons for this, they include

Perhaps Eddie Howe worked out our tactics and made adjustments at haft time

Maybe we just ran out of gas.

Or, and this is much more likely, Bournemouth started to kick the crap out of us and the referee allowed it. I mean Martinelli, among many others, was assaulted several times, and not only were yellow cards not given, but often it was not even seen a a foul. We were hugely lucky not to suffer some serious injuries. During the first half, the terminally boring BT commentator Steve McManaman actually said, and I quote the prick ” They’re not even kicking the Arsenal players” Until this attitude, and the acceptance of it, is considered unacceptable, we will forever be on the end of it. I might be bias, but I can’t imagine any referee allowing it against either City or Liverpool.

Anyway, it was a good game and we march on into the next round. I love Atreta and his team.

At Christmas 2007 I was given a laptop. I was introduced to the internet for the first time. Within months I had found Newsnow and a lot of Arsenal blogs. This was fantastic for me as previously all I had had was newspapers and Sky Sports, also I seem to remember there was an official Arsenal channel on Sky. Anywho, these blogs were a great new thing for me, I could read, comment and be in contact with other Arsenal fans, for the first time almost.

What I soon found was disturbing. The vast majority of these Blogs were absolute negative crap, and the comments sections were worse. Then I struck gold. I stumbled across peach of a blog and a peach of a blogger at A Cultured Left Foot.

This was a daily blog written by Yogi’s Warrior, or simply just Yogi, as we called him. It was well written, and fully positive, the vast majority of the comments were from smart and articulate fans. I started commenting and it almost became an obsession. The next 3 years I spent on that blog, constantly commenting and occasionally Yogi published a blog I had written. It was a wonderful place and I really enjoyed my time there.

Sadly the prevailing wind on the blog changed and I found myself fighting more than having fun. Yogi tried to keep me in check and despite his best efforts, I overstepped several marks, and my time there came to an end. But a wonderful time I had there.

I still had occasional chats with Yogi on twitter and in twitter DMs. He was always polite and humorous, and that’s not easy with me rattling at his cage. We also had The Slow and Dirty Show, with our friend Stew Black in common, Yogi loved music as well as Arsenal

When some of the regulars on A Cultured Left Foot were expelled and some others decided the mood of that blog was unacceptable, we started Positively Arsenal, basically in the hope we could recreate a comments section like the one Yogi had cultivated. So this very blog came about because of Yogi.

I learned today that Yogi (Stuart) had passed away after some weeks of illness.  It’s a sad loss to all that crossed his path, both real and virtual. He was a lovely man, a true gentleman and he, his blog, his enthusiasm and love of Arsenal will be badly missed.

I thanked him many times for all he did for me and all he gave me, and I thank him again, one last time.

Rest in piece Yogi, you will never be forgotten.

Good day you wonderful positive gooners.

Next time some miserable git declares “only winning matters”  remind them about the feeling we had a getting a mere draw. We beat United at home, but let me tell you this point away at Chelsea felt much much better to me.

The game started with Chelsea slightly on top, they were energetic and quite fluent. We appeared to have the intention to attack down the flanks, this was evident from Ozil’s positioning out wide. Him being wide did leave Xhaka and Torreira outnumbered in midfield, It was a tactic that may or may not have worked, but we will never know because about 25 minutes in, disaster struck.

Mustafi, who up until that point had look as nervous as a kitten on the ball, played a horrendously under hit ball to Leno, who seems a bit slow off the mark to me, Luiz tried to get back ,made the foul and got his marching orders. There has been a big discussion on social media as to whether or not it should have been yellow or red, I think it could have been interpreted as a yellow, but was probably a red. At this point I was about to tweet “that’s that then” but thought better of it, lucky old me? What followed the dispatching of the resulting penalty was about 70 minutes of football that made me proud of Arteta and every player involved, it was a magnificent effort.

Every single player stepped up to the mark, the effort an bravery was clear for all to see,  What impressed me most was that although we sat deeper, that did not in any way mean that when we had the ball we didn’t try to both keep it and attack with a passion.

Soon after the sending off Arteta had Rob Holding stripped and ready to go, but he was not introduced at this stage. Odd? I though as this would be the stock response of more coaches. What was going on? Xhaka had dropped into centerback and stayed there for the entire game, he was , by the way, magnificent, an absolute warrior and played fantastic to boot. Arteta has since explained his decision.

“on whether he was thinking of bringing off Martinelli for Holding…

Not Martinelli, but I did change my mind. I was thinking about that and I said, ‘I don’t want to send that message to the team’. We decided to keep it as we were and give them a chance. I wanted to see how they could respond to that. I didn’t want to make the response for them because I want them to be accountable for what they do and I didn’t want to make a decision so they wouldn’t decide for themselves. It’s a great response from them”

I can’t stress how brave a decision this was for Mikel, had it gone wrong the media and many fans would have rounded on him, because that’s not what they would have done, but that is what makes some managers special.

Last night I said this on twitter

“Some credit” is an understatement, I can’t imagine how low he must have been, but he fought like a gladiator.

No need for me to describe the goals, Martinelli, with the assistance of Kante, showed speed and composure that is incredible for such a young man and Hector surprised the world with a left foot shot that will be remembered long after his career is over.

That was as good a point as I can remember us winning.

Arsenal take the short trip across the capital for their Premier League clash against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge this evening; with Mikel Arteta looking for payback having suffered the only defeat in his short reign against the Blues.

Both sides come into this match on the back of disappointing results this past Saturday; the Gunners drew 1-1 with Sheffield United, with Newcastle United scoring in the last minute to run out 1-0 winners against Frank Lampard’s side.

It was always going to be a trying season for Lampard as his arm got forced by their transfer ban over the summer to bring in quite a few young players into the side.

But after just one point from their opening two league games they went on a decent run, winning eight of their following 10 (D1, L1), and things started to look on the ups. Then with fixture congestion after the November inter-break, the inexperience of his young side showed with them struggling to find consistency, losing six of their 11 matches since.

All things considered though, even with their ‘implosion’ thus far this winter months, they’re still in control of their own top-four ambitions, thanks to their strong start to the season.

In comparison the North London side have struggled all season, despite recent “improved performances”. Not because of matches lost per se, only three teams got less defeats than our current six, but largely due to a league high 11 draws from 23 matches.

Since the Spaniards arrival we drew four out of six league matches, including our last three away at Everton (watching from the stands), Bournemouth and Crystal Palace. Only one of our draws ended goalless and we surrendered the lead in seven of the other 10. This is such a frustrating stat because you’d expect us to do a better job seeing games out, especially with seven of those coming against sides outside the traditional top-six.

Another bit of info is that, despite our issues on the road, we haven’t lost an away match since that 2-0 loss at Leicester on November 9th. But once again, the draws are keeping us mired in midtable. If we are to claw our way up the table, we have to find a way to convert draws into wins so our results can start match our performances.

Just looking at our two recent fixtures; the Gunners looked on their way to wins against both Crystal Palace and the Blades after going 1-0 into the break, however, we failed to hold on. It’s true that we were let down by questionable officiating in both outings, but we also didn’t do ourselves any favours by being so off-colour in front of goal. These two results can be seen as wasted opportunities because if we had that four-point swing, we would be going into this game with a chance to close the gap on 4th-placed Chelsea to three points.

Which begs the question; are we really having a crap season that merits the term “relegation form”, or just an unfortunate one?

Team news

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is suspended, with Reiss Nelson and Sead Kolasinac only expected back after our trip to Burnley. Sokratis, who missed our last game due to illness, will be assessed ahead of the game.

Prediction

Chelsea have struggled at home in the league recently, winning only two of their last five at the Bridge. So Arsenal definitely got a chance here if we take the game to them, we have to put away our chances though, because that has been our biggest letdown since Boxing day.

Difficult games to call, especially with history not our side; we haven’t win there since the 5-3 back in October 2011, a game both head-coaches played in. I do fancy our chances though, with both teams to score. COYG!

@LaboGoon