@LaboGoon says what he likes about Allardyce (?) 

Good morning one and all.

What a week we had, down in the dumps the one day, high on positivity the next – as the saying goes: what a difference a day make!

Speaking of days ……… Arsenal host Everton today at the Emirates, to not only shake off the disappointment of our last game but also build on the joy of events these last few days.

Everton is a different beast to the one we trashed 5-2 last time. And credit to Sam Allardyce, he inherited Koeman’s imbalanced side and there’s no denying that their results has picked at since. They had a bump recently losing 3 PL games on the bounce, then they signed Theo Walcott and boom, they drew vs WBA, Theo providing an assist, then beat Leicester, once again Theo scoring a brace. So he return to his old stomping ground riding a wave.

Of course Everton hasn’t basked in the glory of an Emirates victory yet, something Theo is quite familiar with but hopefully he won’t turn out being the straw breaking that particular camel’s back.

(any excuse for a picture of a camel)

Arsenal, oh Arsenal. What do we bring into this fixture. Swansea wasn’t fun eh? Over the course of this season we have seen our defense being absolute warriors, but we’ve also seen them looking completely lost in a few games too many.

With us looking a difference beast too in attack with the former Borussia pair, we should be expecting a response. Not one where “attack is the best form of defense”, but just finding a balance between attack and defense in equal measure. Because if you have defensive solidity to not concede unnecessary  goals, you don’t need to be handing out thrashings.

This will be an interesting game though, with our new talent it’s crucial getting all in roles that’s suited to them to maximize the overall output of “the team”. Sam will be aware of this and will set up to deny us space and making his defense difficult to penetrate.

Say what you like about Big Sam, but he enjoyed his battles with Wenger, not very successful but he did came out of retirement to renew the rivalry with his old foe.

To all going to the Emirates, do crank up the noise to give our new boys a warm welcome.

PS: on behalf of the PA community I just wanna say thanks to Mesut Özil for committing the rest of his peak years to the Arsenal. You are a model professional and truly deserving of the game’s gratitude.

Pep Guardiola is on a mission, He has started using press conferences and after match interviews to call for protection for this hugely expensive assembly of very talented and skillful players. He is demanding that referees give them protection from the deliberate assaults on them.

We now see many of the great and good journalists agreeing with him because it’s “only a matter of time” before one of the delicate little flowers get their legs broken. And do you know what? Pep is right and so are they. We have seen disgusting attempts to injure them in recent weeks.

These assaults are justified, by some, because less skillful players have to find a way of stopping them,otherwise they get battered. Even “good teams” like Spurs do it, with England’s finest, Kane and Alli, bang at it. Both of these two should have seen straight reds last time they met.

Every team, bar Arsenal and Liverpool perhaps, are at it. They are not going out to be strong and compete ,they are going out to injure. Of course they don’t want to break legs and ruin careers, they just want to hurt them enough to stop them playing well in that particular game. However, because the intention is to hurt, there is a huge chance that this approach leaves the victim with career changing damage. Its like driving past a school at 90 mph and then claiming you didn’t mean to kill the child you ran over, It was an accident, you are not that kind of driver. Dangerous play leads to injury. Simples.

Managers are sending players out to “get in their faces”, “leave some on him” and ” slow him down with physicality” They are asking players to overstep the mark and see how much the referee will let them get away with. They can deny it all they like, claim “its a contact sport, but anyone with half a brain knows what is going on.

Pep and his friendly journalist are right, they should be protected.

But here is where I have a problem, Arsene has been saying this since 2004, when United decided they couldn’t win a game of football, and with Mike Riley’s help, they would kick us off the park. That day they literally kicked José Antonio Reyes out of the game and all the way back to Spain.

In 2008 ,Arsenal were 8 points, clear, playing much like City are now, except with a far thinner and less experience squad. We all know what happened, rotational fouling of Fagregas ,Hleb, RVP and Rosicky was the norm and Eduardo was smashed beyond repair.  The injuries bit and we didn’t have anything like the required quality to come in (unlike City). The best football I have seen Arsenal play, was ended by brute force that was sanctioned by the referees.

Was there outrage in the media? Was there bollocks. We ,and specifically Arsene , were told to “man up”. We were told we had a soft center. Were not up for the fight. Were fragile. We were told we were a team of lightweights that were not up to the English game.

Pep Guardiola is 100% right, its disgusting what is happening to his team, but it has been happening to us for 14 years and continues every time we take the field. Ramsey effectively lost two years, Jack for God knows how long, and I suspect we have lost Santi because of the constant assaults on his achilles, Diaby?, and many more.

Where is the outrage from the press been for 14 years?

Pedantic George @arseblagger .

Good morning Positives,

I can still feel the damp discomfort of last night’s result but the effect is gradually reducing, dulled by time and the opportunity to review the event and look forward.

It would be difficult for anyone to add much more to Arsene’s comments about the game pivoting on a number of mistakes by us, from experienced defenders on several occasions and the absolute  howler from Cech. Having had a second watch of the ‘highlights’ this morning that we went home beaten 3-1 was not as bad as it could have been.

I think as well as those crucial lapses there was just not enough quality in our attacking threat. A beautiful ball from Mesut and finish from Nacho for our first, a bit of trickery from Alex Iwobi, some nice movement from Aaron and Laca but it was nowhere near enough to unsettle the Swans back four.  I watched Klopp’s Liverpool lose at the Liberty last Monday, and Fabianski put in a MOTM performance and made a 10-12 excellent saves. Last night he had perhaps 2-3 stops to make. I saw a little bit of what I wanted from Henrikh but it was no night to make your debut, chasing a game in a monsoon.

A man I would excuse from criticism last night was Mo Elneny. He put in one goal saving tackle in the first half that was almost perfect. Not the man to replace as it turned out or the time to replace him, thought at the time I can see why the change was made.

Apart from the instinct to chase  the players and the managers’s through the streets demanding their blood and waving a rope can we earn anything from last night ?

Well my fourpence worth would be to decide to either play with a back four, or a back five. I don’t care which but stop changing from one to the other. Hector and Nacho seemed to be playing very wide and  up the pitch, as wing backs in fact, leaving Kosc and Mustafi on their own. When  Mo went off their isolation became critical.

At the other end of the pitch we saw the home side much better able than us to find space around and to open up the gaps in our defence, and they did that by aggressively running with the ball at their feet towards the aRsenal goal, inviting our defenders, Mo and Xhaka to either get stuck in or get out of the way. It was the SPEED at which they ran towards the defender with the ball that fractured us, not the quality of the attackers’ touch.

I would finally say a deserved win for Swansea. Clucas, Ayew and Mawson all stood out as impressive but a very good ‘team’ performance. Considering a few of them had played 90 minutes against Notts County in the Cup on Saturday they kept at it to the very end. If they are able to continue with that they surely will not end up relegated.

So six days on from the burst of joy and adrenaline the win against Chelsea gave us we bumped back to earth on the green, green grass of home.

We are fortunate to have a game on Saturday to clear the head and set the course for the run in with 13 PL games to go. Enjoy Wednesday.

@LaboGoon spies out the Land of My Fathers

Good morning Positivistas.

It’s the day before the transfer window slam shut and Arsenal is travelling to Swansea City, and as it’s known on these streets, to escape the transfer hoopla even if just temporary.

Last time we played Swansea they were in a bit of a mess but in Carlos Carvalhal they now have a new man at the helm. Life has been pretty kind to him thus far as his new team, while still rooted to the bottom, seem to be finding their stride a little bit as they come in this fixture having lost just once in his seven games in charge. Them playing in the FA Cup this past Saturday make this a short turnaround while Arsenal is coming in a bit fresher and off the back of two convincing victories, which they will want to follow up with another win to stay in touch of top 4.

When Carlos looked at the Swans’ fixture list and saw Liverpool and Arsenal in back-to-back PL games he probably told his team that if they can pick up 3 out of 6 points here it would be a great return. After picking up the 3 points vs Liverpool it now mean that although they can still fancy their chances, they can also afford to revert to a more defensive approach by looking to just restrict us whilst waiting patiently for chances to open up, which would be fair enough when even getting a single point will do it for them.

That being said, with our away form a bit of a worry we can expect a difficult game, so tonight we will have to put in another great all round team performance to batter through a proverbial bus.

On team news: Giroud is back from injury and our new boy Henrikh Mkhitaryan look set to make his debut in what is expected to be a very strong line-up and bench.

After a bumpy start to the year this last week has been great for us. We can sense there’s a real feel good feeling in and around the club, so win here tonight and we will have an opportunity to really kick on as we approach the final quarter of the season.

Good luck to everybody going to the game and all watching via the small screen. With Deadline Day looming… the Arsenal squad look set to be in much better shape than we started the season.

Come on you rip roaring you know what’s!

( a little musical interlude to get you in the mood – very emotional the Welsh)

Good morning my positive friends.

When Andy Nic. and I arranged a job swap for this game, I have to admit I thought I might have gotten the shitty end of the stick. But no, not at all. I sit here in my bed in Blackburn (I’ll get up soon, I promise), with a smile on my face and an easy task.

We sent out the same team as we did vs Palace. No doubt hoping for a similar early display, champagne football , but no, Chelsea were all over us, pushing us back, forcing errors and rushed clearances, controlling the game and frankly making us look distinctly ordinary. They quickly worked a great goal, and i feared the worst.

Then we went to plan B. Dig in. Refuses to panic , roll up the sleeves and work harder on being solid. Monreal attacked the ball and fired a header goalward , It took two ricochets and ended up in the net . 1-1 . Better. For the rest of the first half it was more of an even game, but a fair man would still say Chelsea were shading it.

Then half time ,and the chance for Arsene to reorganise, plan C emerged . It appeared to me (I say “appeared” because I am far for a tactical expert) that we went to some sort hybrid system between 5 2 3 , 3 4 3 and 4 3 3 . The player dictating the changes was ElNeny.

He seemed to be playing as a CDM when we had the ball and a CB when they had the ball. Our wingbacks were more fullbacks off the ball than usual too.

There were odd moments of free flowing football,as you would expect, but this was a more grit,determination and sheer force of will performance . The winning goal was all about  effort over excellence from both Lacazette and Xhaka, fortunate, but earned.

Monreal was exceptional, ElNeny outstanding  and young Iwobi worked harder to contain them than we could have expected, and of course Mesut was glorious.

It was a fantastic effort from everyone involved. Working together as a team, fighting tooth and nail, just what the “experts” constantly suggest we cant do.

So we find ourselves looking for a 10th consecutive Wembley win against The UAE FC . I cant wait.

We can all enjoy this for a few days. and then a few days more.

Pedantic George ( @Arseblagger ) @arseblagger 

Good afternoon Positive Red People,

I trust we are all primed for his evening’s game which, by my reckoning, is our 8th serious contest with the Blues in the last 16 month. (W3L1D4). The semi final tie is perfectly balanced. Like us Conte’s men have struggle to score goals, despite bringing in an expensive striker in the Summer. Recent draws have been greeted  by the spoiled Stamford Bridge hoard with “Boooos”.  A home crowd booing ? Ridiculous.

I anticipate both managers will put out their strongest possible sides, so that for me would involve Aaron  back, with young Alex Iwobi tasked with filling the departed Chilean’s role this evening. Will Sead come back in ? I hope so. It will be a wet, cold night, and perhaps run into extra time and penalties. A tank is likely to adapt to the conditions better than the smoother wheeled vehicle that is AMN.

Of our opponents Conte appeared to say that Cesc and Morata were out with injuries yesterday, and this morning’s MSM report that he and Batshuayi have had another contretemp – perhaps a dash from the Potteries for Crouchie iis not impossible after all (no I have no idea if he is Cup-tied either!)

One moment of brilliance from one of the many excellent players  on show, or one catastrophic error,  will ensure that one club and their supporters returns home in despair, and one triumphantly matches on down Wembley Way determined to dent Pep’s ambitions on the 25th February.  To lose at the semi final stage – very cruel. What I absolutely will not tolerate is cheating from players on either side. I expect all the players, and both managers, to do their best to assist the match officials over what will be a tense 90 or 120 minutes. Like all of you my fingers are firmly crossed that VAR will improve decision  making and erase both the cheating of opposition players and the refereeing errors that have cost us so often.

And speaking of brilliance;

So settle in for kick off at 8.00 pm UK time. Lets have plenty of noise, clapping,  blowing your Arsehorns, and no sneaking out before the end.

Good morning Positivistas,

That was much much more like it. Football reared its lovely head across a wet North London Saturday afternoon. The players, all of them in fact,  delivered the fans 90 minutes of entertainment, and a comfortable three point win.

I have to admit a cloak of trepidation swaddled the Arsenal faithful on the way to the ground, after recent on pitch disappointments and off pitch shenanigans. It was understandable with January so far having been a month of one-step forward, two-steps back. Palace came into the game on  good run of form, over their past dozen Premier League games their only recent defeat to us and points take off Citeh and beating Chelsea.

Looking at the line up I sensed Arsene decided that that is was a key game in our season, and it as the best 11 who were available on the pitch, never mind future games or player “fatigue”. Elneny coming also gave us more energy in the centre of the park and freed Jack to rove forward. A fit again Ozil will always add quality to our movement and attaching threat. To start for what seems the first time this year (? maybe longer) with Nacho, Kosc and Mustafi gave us a more confident base from which to build.

And so it proved. It was a dream opening, no other word for it. After weeks of frustration with us struggling to create chances and thwarted by good goalkeepers when we did the Palace gates opened and we streamed in. 6 Nacho, 10 Iwobi, 13 Kosc and finally, our long suffering strokers, 22 Alexander Lacazette. Did you see him smile after the goal ?

It has been a while since he has enjoyed the grinning feeling, so to speak.

And CORNERS eh ? Who said we cant take corners ! Pffft.

I read somewhere it is four years since a team has been 4-0 in the PL in 20 minutes ( yes it was THAT game). And none of the goals were breakaways, none were lucky deflections, OGs or  glaring defensive errors from Palace. It was good Arsenal football, crisp finishing and thoroughly deserved.

The second part of the match ? Clearly 4-0 up we slowed a little and consolidated our hold on the game. Hodgson appears to have done a fair job in rousing his lads at half time to ensure they did not end up totally thrashed and the visitors came out with a lot more purpose. Apart from the goal they eventually did get Palace had another couple of chances that Cech dealt with well. Zaha had an ‘interesting’ afternoon. The referee Kavanagh who I think was making his PL whistling debut had obviously read upon young Wilfried and gave him absolutely nothing, despite the full repertoire of theatrical tumbling and heart rending moaning from the Ivorian. Good.

With 15 minutes to go we wound down the game, packed the picnic away and headed for the car park. The job was done. And thoughts turned to the next fixture that kicks off on Wednesday !

(If he plays his cards right he may get a selfie opportunity next time).

Enjoy Sunday.

@LaboGoon opens the curtains 

January eh – don’t you just wish this month was over already? Well, at least not without a few wins under the belt, a ‘departure’ and one or two “top top” additions to our squad. Now that will really help to lift this gloom.

Arsenal host Crystal Palace at the Emirates this afternoon, with the goal being us making up lost ground on the top 4 teams. Albeit temporarily… but one never know.

What we do know is that when Roy took over the Eagles they were low in confidence and in desperate need of points. It was a bit touch-and-go initially but through immense fortitude they overcome their nervy patch and are now a formidable unit that take nothing for granted and give even less away, because they know they are not completely out of the woods yet as far as PL survival is concerned, ergo they go out there and play each game as if it’s a cup final, to not be left wondering.

In the last 12 rounds of PL fixtures Palace lost just once and that, of course, was vs us at Selhurst Park, which was also the last time we won a game in all competitions. Since then we lost our way a bit, starting with bad luck in the form of few questionable refereeing decisions, then doubts crept in, culminating in us looking short of ideas vs Bournemouth last Sunday.

That we are in the midst of a very unsettling period goes without saying, but we are just one good result away, that may not necessarily silence some of our critics but at least it will change the tide for these players, on and off the field.

To get over the line today we will have to up the intensity from what we’ve seen these last few weeks, as well as have a real go at Palace from the very first minute, because we’ve seen so many times if you leave things too late you are leaving it to chance.

The Emirates has been treating us good though, so I see no reason why we shouldn’t put in a solid performance to get the desired result.

On team news: Monreal and Koscielny are back in good health and Özil should also be fine. So even without Alexis we should still field a stronger side than in recent weeks.

Good luck to all going to the Emirates. I got a feeling today will be a good day to re-ignite the Arsenal torch.

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