Good morning to those who are staunch Positives,

Not the result we wanted, and probably not the result most of us expected, with the Baggies languishing in the PL depths on New Years Eve and our football at Selhurst Park having some great style.

Of the things we did well I thought Granit and Jack demonstrated very effective coverage of the central midfield. The Swiss was always available and tidy in his passing and tackling. The Englishman surging forward with the ball at his feet and forcing opponents to back-off or lunge in.

I thought the defence had another good game and in contrast to March when our back 4/5 looked a bit ridiculous at the Hawthorns. Yesterday we allowed the home side very little sight of the goal and nothing from corners. There was no dithering. All passing out of defence was quick and accurate. All clearances were decisive. The wing backs worked well with their defender. Considering we lost Sead and Kosc early, and Nacho is already crocked, it was an assured performance. With Chelsea in a free scoring mode I hope that confidence stays in place.

Individually I thought Sanchez and Laca played well. What gelled less well was our movement and passing around the box. What I was also surprised was our apparent reluctance to launch the high ball over Evans, Dawson and Hegazi to see who would win the 30 yards dash. Fair play to West Brom though, they defended well throughout the game.

Our goal when it came was a bit of a mess as it looked to me that the free kick was going wide before James Maclean’s handy intervention. 83 minutes and having controlled most of the second half it looked as thought that bit of luck had brought us the points.

And then………. I have no idea what Kieran Gibbs was doing in our box, I have no ideas what Deano thought he saw that caused him to make an entirely random and wholly wrong decision. I think I heard yesterday that Dean is the longest serving PL referee. If so he should retire. In any event that  that was our balloon ‘popped’.

I do not however intend to allow poor refereeing to spoil the first day of 2018.

Enjoy your Monday.

@LaboGoon eases us into New Year’s Eve 

Arsenal travel to the Hawthorns of West Brom this afternoon to bid au revoir to 2017 – and hopefully we do so in style.

After being victorious in the opening two PL fixtures of the season, WBA have failed to get another win since and has slipped all the way down to the foot of the table.

Tony Pulis (“should old acquaintance be forgot, and never thought upon…”) who of course set them on this barren run is gone and they are now managed by Alan Pardew – who is not only still looking for his first WBA win but also his first against his old foe Arsène Wenger, and honestly… I can’t see today being the day him or his side turn any corners.

We may have left the Hawthorns without a single point on our last two visits but they are on a sticky patch at the moment and their confidence shot. However that doesn’t mean our mere presence should be enough to win us the game. We still need to continue to work on being more clinical in front of goal, improve our awareness when switching between a two and a three at the back, when either in attack or defense, and to take better care of the ball in possession to quit giving away sloppy goals.

If there’s one thing football has taught us it is not to take anything for granted. When on the field you cannot afford having your thoughts somewhere else because there are no freebies, you have to earn each point you play for. So to get over the line, it’s still expected of us to put our backs in.

Team news: with Monreal, Ramsey and Giroud still missing out and no new injuries, the Boss is likely to stick with the same XI that beat Crystal Palace last outing, just so we can build some momentum and familiarity ahead of our clash vs Chelsea on Wednesday.

We have steadily improve on our away form and today is potentially another good one for the away and travelling support. So good luck to all of them and everyone watching from home.

***

Thank you PA community for another year filled with thought-provoking and insightful conversations. I wish all of you a very happy and prosperous 2018.

***

Mourinho’s latest calculated big play, talking about money and its impact, is pretty incredible.

He’s right. 100 per cent right, in that Man City’s crazy spending and greater wealth than Utd has made his task of trying to make utd top dogs much harder or, quite possibly, beyond him. But the hypocrisy of it…

Also the great flaw in the logic…i.e if City being the one club richer than his means it will be extremely difficult for him to beat them, doesn’t that mean all other clubs are at a bigger disadvantage to City and also at a disadvantage to Utd, and so forth, relative to all clubs spending power? And that then applies to all clubs over all seasons, past present and in the future.

From what I’ve seen, few journo’s, Castles aside, have been willing to support Mou on this, which was to be expected, as for reasons I don’t fully understand the entire profession is keen to downplay the relationship between spending and success at the very top of the league, most of the time.

However, not one of them has pursued the line of thought that if mourinho is right, or wrong, then what an incredible hypocrite the man is, and what low and lousy behavior from him during all the years he had the financial upper hand to, basically, refute suggestions money was key to success.

In particular, they should, naturally, consider the implications in his relationship with his biggest foe, Wenger. All the years of antipathy, all the low comments, all while doing everything to downplay or exclude the role of finances in any discussion of Wenger’s work and capabilities.

It’s so damn poor for none of the media to pick up on any of that. But again, it has to be expected. They couldn’t mention it without introducing a herd of elephants in the room relating to their own conduct. That is, the truth has been there all along, and they surely always knew it. Every manager should be judged in relation to the financial power at their disposal.

This was a post in the comments section for Rich ,that I’ve stolen.

Good morning and welcome to the 29^th December 2017 Positive Arsenal fans,

Did you enjoy that after six days of sporting abstinence ? I did. A genuinely good game of football last night I thought. I fancied it might turn into a bit of a boot’n’fist carnival but I could not have been more wrong.

Of the build up there seemed to be a little nervousness in the Arsenal camp about the fixture, based on our admittedly dodgy away form and the Woyist wevival down in SE25. When I say the “Arsenal camp” I mean my “camp” of course, my emotional tent flapping in the wind, my pegs loosened. Having watched our top 4 rivals rattle in easy wins in the days preceding the fixture we needed all the points and a limp effort would not have been acceptable.

Within a few minutes of kick off however our concerns had been settled. We had the game under control, with 70-80% possession and, yet again, an opponent pinned back in their box and desperately hoofing the all away. The first goal was inevitable because of the dominance, but what a tidy finish from Shkodran ? An absolute poacher’s finish into the bottom corner. Having marked our scorecard we then streamed forward, teased, tricked, chipped and waltzed at the Palace defence, and should have had the second and third goals before half time but the killer blow eluded us. Chances came and went, saved by Speroni, narrow misses by Lacazette. It is the Arsenal way.

And then the half time whistle, Zaha in a right teenage tantrum over goodness knows what, and the Selhurst crowd quieter than a church mouse.

And then !!! Well I don’t know what Steve Parish is paying Hodgson but he is worry it. He managed to haul his lads back to their feet and send them out with a spring in their step, most significantly Zaha who decided to drop the strop and play football, which he did directly and effectively for the second half. It may actually have helped Wilfried to be given a yellow card by Oliver as he shut up and got on with his job. A bit of highly dubious defending provided Townsend the space for his shot, but a good finish nonetheless.

And then it came – the wobble ! The seven to eight minutes we suffer so often in games (that we should be 4-0 up in but aren’t) when we were under pressure, and unable to string three passes together. The home crowd roared – a bad, bad sign.

To our considerable credit we settled the wobble down, cleared hard and deep when necessary, and tackled cleanly around our box. Not once last night did the referee have a serious penalty appeal from Palace to look at.

And having regained control of the match we surged forward again, capitalising on our dominance through Sanchez with two well taken goals. A final late flurry by the home side was snuffed out by some competent game management in the corners. Three goals, three points, as it should be.

Standout performances ? My man was Mustafi. The opening goal I have mentioned above but last night on the pitch was a Palace striker by the name of Christian Benteke. I shall say that name again Christian Benteke. And that is the total number of times you heard his name in open play last night, over 94 minutes.

And second in the queue for awards is Jack. He has become a force again with his runs from deep, his strength and tricky feet. Add in the best pass of the evening for Sanchez’s second goal and you have the full package coming together in Wilshere.

That will do me. Bit of work today to keep my hand n then a lazy long weekend. See you Sunday.

@LaboGoon shakes off the tinsel to preview the Second Act 

Hello Positivistas…

Today marks the start of the second round of fixtures for the Arsenal, and it goes without saying the we need to do a lot better than in the first. We won’t be facing Liverpool in this round but in it’s place Crystal Palace (twice), so if we can beat them on both occasions we will be well on our way by turning a first round 1 point into 6.

That brings us to matters of today, we are of course away to Crystal Palace and although considerably less daunting than a journey to Stoke or Burnley for example, let us not let their league position disguise what a pretty decent side Roy has turned them into. They didn’t have a goal, let alone a point after waaay too many games… now they got their mojo back, turned the proverbial corner if you will, even the atmosphere at Selhurst Park is better – where they are having a real go at teams and had scored 2 goals in each of their last six home matches. So our defence better watch out, and better not pout.

Be that as it may, on paper we would probably favour a relatively comfortable win for us, but unfortunately I’m anticipating a much more difficult affair… with the same result.

With Monreal that has joined Ramsey and Giroud on the sidelines, it would interesting to see whether we stick with two centre backs, in Kosc and Mustafi. With the concerns surrounding the former though either Holding or Chambers could be drafted in as a third CB to ease a bit of pressure, something I’m sure both would relish.

Playing three games over the next seven days also brings up the conundrum to rotate or not rotate. This being a “must win” game I hope anyone with a level of consistency do play each game regardless of rotation policy.

On what is expected of the team, not only today but onwards, Arsène Wenger couldn’t have been more clear in his pre-match presser: “What we want is to stop conceding goals and stop missing chances.”

See… not difficult figuring out this football malarky.

Good luck to all Gooners watching the game on the small screen. To the away Arsenal support, I really hope you get more in effort and passion from the team than you got on your travels thus far this season.

Enjoy!

Good morning Positives,

A sumptuous evening of entertainment last night from two of the three best attacking sides in the country last night. The perfect paradigm of the two half contest. Thrills, a couple of goalkeeping spills, a point apiece the only fair result. Yes, yes, yes I know three points would have been handy but what we got is what we deserved.

First, a word of praise for Klopp’s boys who in Firmino, Mane and Salah have a very talented strike. If they were given a sight of goal anywhere around the box they pulled the trigger. The bloody irony is that all the Liverpool goal’s we the result of either a deflection from an Arsenal boot or leg ( the first two) or Cech muffing a shot from outside the box the would deal with nineteen times out twenty.

Second, I read a few comments last nigh to the effect that AFC’s defending was woeful in the first half. Well perhaps, but during that 45 Liverpool’s movement and passing in our half was excellent in our half. Like a boxer trying to move up a weight we found ourselves pinned back and hanging on under the flurry of blows. On the intermittent occasions we managed to get the ball over he half way line nothing came of it. Mignolet snoozed. To go in at 0-1 was a relief to me, though apparently not for those AFC fans who see booing anyone in red shirt as constructive criticism.

To go two down on 52 minutes from a breakaway was a potential knock out but like any shock to the system it worked. Within seconds we reeled up from the canvas, swung in a speculative cross any our favourite Chilean rippled the onion bag. Like a balloon meeting an angry knitting needle suddenly the Scousers could not keep the ball, and in their turn staggered sideways and back as we finally roared.

Mesut, who had been quieter than a church mouse suddenly was everywhere. Xhaka hit a decent but saveable shot which Mignolet produced the most inept one handed effort to keep out. Even from 0-2 to 2-2 in three minutes.

Taking the lead through Mesut’s individual craft was, by that stage, entirely unexpected and for a few minutes afterwards Liverpool were dead and we could ( and probably should) have scored again. However, the goddess of football had other ideas and cast a spell on Cech who gifted Firmino the final equalizer. Is it me or is our keeper looking a little older of late ? We huffed for the final 20 but our game was run. Liverpool hoped to catch us on the break again but even they were running out of energy. Atkinson finally blew his whistle. I slumped exhausted to the carpet.

So finally to the mentions. Of our lads, Granit, Ainsley, Mesut, Jack and Alexis get upon Santa’s knee for a extra special extra present. You deserve it boys. To be fair I was satisfied with everyone last night.

So five clear days off before Palace. A few games today to keep an eye on.

Enjoy your Christmas and we shall meet later.

@LaboGoon gets the big Friday game underway

Hello Positivistas…

Arsenal host Liverpool tonight at the Emirates in a game where the result, much like last season, could be the difference between Champions League or Europa qualification. So for both teams a win is important.

This won’t be an easy game, Liverpool’s attack have an undeniable air of ruthlessness to them when given space, the kind that has already see them made light work of us at Anfield back in August. That is how Liverpool play, and that what we can expect. So if you want to take them on at their own game, as a team you need to work harder than them and strike a good balance between attack and defense with little room for complacency, or risk getting picked off.

Few teams – Burnley, Newcastle, West Brom, Big Sam’s Everton, Manutd who all took points off them – this season has worked out that by sitting back, flooding the midfield and defense, it can result in their “Fab Four” being ineffective.

Now I’m not suggesting that Arsenal should set up for a draw. There is a theory though that if you can keep their ‘gegenpressing’ tactic at arms length in the first half that they will open up more in the second. As legs grow tired their defensive deficiencies will start to show, leaving them vulnerable on counter attack or otherwise.

That is what I would like to see, especially with the visitors coming into this match in good spirits after scoring 4 first half goals vs Bournemouth.

As I already said, this will not be an easy game but if we can carefully navigate between attacking impetus and stay switched on in defense, be it playing with a back five or four… we should give ourselves a pretty good chance of coming out of this with all 3 points.

On team news: with Ramsey already out until the New Year, we’ve lost Larry too for at least the same time frame until further notice. Shkodran Mustafi however is back to bring more calm to our defense.

On the previous blog’s comments thread it was highlighted that fixtures will be a bit tight over the next few weeks. So ‘flair and panache’ could be sacrificed as our players are going to have to play through aches and bruises, putting their bodies on the line for each others and us.

One of those things man, because as the saying goes: “It’s the most wonderful time of the year”.

To the Emirates faithful, you guys have had a great year, keep it up and going into next year. Gooners watching on the tv…. don’t ever quit losing hope.

Merry Xmas to the PA community and all readers.

Good Morning Arsenal Positive,

Another solid step for the B team last night against an ‘Ammers side who, on paper, looked strong enough. The players Moyes had picked wee good enough to win the tie and have had some good results recently, but never seemed to put in the 100% effort we saw from them a week ago. Maybe in the back of their minds the Premier League fixtures over Christmas were looming and on a Tuesday night they did not have another good performance in their tank. Complex creatures are footballers, very difficult to know what goes on between the ears.

However, not for a moment should the Ammers performance detract from what was good about our own lads. Danny poaching and eventually, after a dozen half chances buries it off his shin. Joe Willock (69) had a very good 85 minutes and Arse.com had his match stats up earlier to emphasise his effectiveness. (69 touches, 46 successful out of 50 passes, 4/5 dribbles, 3/3 long balls, 3 interceptions, 2/5 tackles, 1 key pass)

Callum Chambers and Holding were always too sharp for the West Ham strike force and Debuchy also took another step toward PL redemption. I am not sure if Sead will be fully fit enough for Liverpool but I suspect a Back 5 will return on Friday so I hope so.

Other than that not much to say. Another game, another hamstring, or two. Kevin Friend displayed the Christmas spirit to poor, poor Joe Hart. Another headless performance from the former England No1. Do you recall the fuss in the media a year ago when Pep dropped him and sent him off to Torino ? Well it is all quiet in the press box now.

Citeh slithered past Leicester, the red Mancs play Brissel and the Rent boys Bournemouth tonight so the most likely turn out of the top four teams in the country will face each other. The draw is after the end of tonight’s games, for those who are still awake. Whoever comes out of the hat it will be a hard two games for both sides.

Thanks to David Price  @priceyd101 for the top photo – Arsenal’s ‘other’ photographer with Stuart MacFarlane and always top quality. Love the night work.

Enjoy Wednesday.

@ReverendGooner goes easy on the media 

Now I’m no fan of the weekly pantomime that is Arsenal Fan TV but for now they are here and here to stay or until Robbie gets picked up by one of the majors to become a real football reporter which I’m sure is his dream job. The former reggae boy from the BBC created this monstrosity with his mate and AFTV cameraman Tai to supposedly take on the established professional pundits who comment on our games from a position of detachment in their finely appointed studios. In fairness if you look at the likes of Robbie Savage, Michael Owen & Jermaine Jenas et al its not difficult to disagree with the boys from AFTV. Some of the collective lack of wisdom from the established punditry genii makes you want to give your kids a damn good thrashing for not finishing their homework. Who can forget Owen’s immortal quote ‘whichever team scores the most goals normally wins the game’. Stone the crows if that quote isn’t full of divine wisdom from a man who played the game for 20 years and its living proof that you don’t need to be intelligent to be successful at football.

Based on this there was a definite need for a fan based TV punditry collective to put across real unbiased views from real fans. Well that’s what was supposed to happen but to be honest that would have been as boring as bats s**t and Robbie the brains of the outfit knew this. If you look at AFTV’s early offerings back in 2012=13 it was all pretty mundane stuff but they soon worked out that nothing sells like bad news. The shock jocks of the online fan tv had arrived. Robbie the skilled facilitator loads the proverbial gun and then gets his carefully selected Arsenal experts to answer the questions. These so-called experts are fans just like you and me but in the main they are anti establishment and anti Wenger. This is the crucial ingredient to the mix that either makes or breaks the YouTube views. The original go to pair were Claude & Ty the ‘Who’s on First’ duo of AFTV. Ty is one of the those rarest of species on AFTV, the eternal Optimist whereas Claude is just as he looks, Mr Grumpy. Its not a big stretch to think this is all partly scripted in an ad hock sort of way. I have it on good authority that Ty is a genuine sort of guy who truly loves the Arsenal and has followed them for over 20 years. Claude on the other hand is a bit harder to get a handle on because of his outward persona of just being perpetually miserable 24/7. Let’s face it the majority of their viewers are not Arsenal fans they are opposition supporters who want us to lose so they can watch the shenanigans unfold like a carefully scripted soap opera. Research has proven that when Arsenal win their views drop dramatically and I’m talking in the 100s of thousands which is a pretty compelling statistic so of course from AFTV’s stand point its better when we lose and even better when we lose badly like at Bayern and Liverpool.

I have been a harsh critic of AFTV at times because I’m a bit old fashioned and I believe in loyalty to the cause even under fire but hey that’s just me. The new Arsenal fan circa 1990 comes from the ‘want it now’ generation and are little less forgiving when we don’t spend half a billion every transfer window and don’t match their line up on FIFA 18 or fantasy football manager. Now before all the hate mail starts pouring in I’m not knocking those supporters its their right to support the team anyway they like but it is also very clear that we have two very different types of fan within our fan base. Robbie knows this and he knows his apples and his favourite apples come in the shape of DT and Troopz and I got to hand it to DT because I think he missed his calling in life, the man should have been an actor. Some of his rants are legendary and have football fans from across the different leagues and right across the globe tuning in for a laugh. Even celebrities like Gary Neville and Liam Gallagher tune in for a dose of the giggles because of the entertainment value they get from watching Robbie and DT do their Morecambe and Wise stand-up routine. Unfortunately for us its at the expense and dignity of the Arsenal football club and usually involves personal insults aimed at Stan Kroenke, Arsene Wenger and any number of players. These are not captains of industry or titans of the game dishing out the verbal battering’s, they are blokes off the street who until now have not tasted any fame or success in life. They want to be stars and have online fame I get it, they are trying to get their names out there in the media, I get that too. What I don’t get is all the hostility and agro that comes with it. Fights at the lane the lads from AFTV employing minders to get them in and out of the ground and Arsenal Fans turning on Arsenal fans on the Emirates concourse. This is not entertainment and its definitely not funny football is a family game these days and we don’t need or want the terrace wars of the 70’s. AFTV are well established now and have the real power to do some real good. They are not going to influence who owns Arsenal football club that’s done and dusted and as Stan Kroenke and his son Josh pointed out in their recent interview with the Daily Mirror they will never sell and they are here for generations. They are also not going to influence who manages Arsenal despite DT’s banner waving, marching and on line stamping of feet Wenger still got a new 2-year deal.

Instead of building the whole AFTV premise around Arsenal negativity, division and conflict why not promote the club its players and the fans. Sure, deliver constructive criticism where its due but be balanced in your opinions and display a measure of objectivity in your analysis. If you need to rant for content and views sake then rant about how many times the referee failed to award us a penalty or how many fouls and dives the opposition got away with’ Surely the FA and their inconsistent application of the rules deserve some measure of rage & of course the premier league for trying to schedule games at midnight on Christmas Eve in Siberia deserve a large slice of DT mania. Surely you can still build up an inarticulate rage frothing at the mouth while turning blue at any of these topics so why oh why do Arsenal have to be the butt of all the jokes?

Arsenal have never in their entire history been a European power house and even after Wenger goes in 2019 who is to say we will. We have won the old 1^stdivision/Premier League in patches through our history and our most successful period was in the 1930’s winning the league five times. We have never been consistent like Utd and we were mostly considered a cup team in the 70’s and 80’s so why try to make out we are something we are not. Money?  Its all about the cash, because there is so much cash in the game now and so much more in clubs like Utd, City and Chelsea some people think we should be matching them dollar for dollar. In their 112 year History Chelsea have won 23 trophies 14 of which they won after Abramovich took over from Ken Bates in 2004. Manchester City were playing in the 3^rd division as recently as 1999. The game has moved on in to a new era of even more money and sadly for many teams they are never going to win any trophies let alone the FA or league Cups but AFTV and many of their fans say that the domestic cups are worthless or secondary trophies yet Chelsea, Utd and City have won the EFL Cup a combined 9 times in the past 12 years so they obviously don’t think so. We all want to win the league but because of the influx of cash it’s getting harder and harder every year. Leicester was a one off and its highly unlikely that will happen again. A supporter from one of our most bitter rivals told me that they love watching AFTV because they have turned our club into a sad pathetic joke where are own fans and fan tv hate us more than our rivals do.

Food for thought.

Good morning Positive AFC,

As we all anticipated our excellent home form carried us over the line against Toon. It was a little messy at the end and as we discussed last night by not slotting a second and ideally a third goal we left the chance available for the visitors to scuffle something from the game in the final few minutes. Despite a couple of misdirected efforts from Ayoze Perez in that phase we were ok.

There has been a bit of debate as to the quality, or lack of it, of Arsenal over the 90 minutes. As Arsene had suggested in the pre match press bash a little more speed and craft were required to score goals.

Mesut is always creative although first half he seemed to be playing further back than usual. His goal was a peach, the work of a world class footballer.  I’d say with Alex Iwobi and Jack starting that more creative spring was in place. Alex would pop up one moment on the left side dribbling into the Toon box, in the next move he’d be crossing from the left. We shot more and we shot accurately. I think therefore that ball carrying/crossing/using the full pitch was better. Newcastle were pulled about and opened up. As in the West Ham game all they could do for long periods was clear it them wait for our next attacking wave to arrive.

Where more work is needed is in the finishing as having opened the opposition up wide twice more (at least) we did not add to our goals tally. Laca’s chipped effort that sailed over Elliot and the bar by six feet was a shock – for the Frenchman as well as the 60,000 spectators. To be fair, and I’m always fair, I thought our Chilean did rather better yesterday than in recent matches and put in a couple of excellent crosses, one to Hector first half and a second to Larry, either of which could/should have been converted. Sanchez can cross a ball superbly – and that is what wingers do. Do more of it.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles ? That crazy slalom first half run! The finish that hit the side netting with Elliott flailing. A right footed midfielder at left back ?!? What is it all about son? In any event your first PL home debut and hardly a foot put wrong. You may therefore receive the MotM award from this fan. Please enjoy the day.

So on to the Ammers and the Cariboo on Tuesday, a very quick turnaround, before a big Friday night in prospect. B team to dispatch what I guess is likely to be the Claret and Blue B team. We have more than enough quality to put them away. Friday though …………… that is the game I am already looking forward to.

Enjoy your Sunday.