Evening Positives fans,

A point each, not a bad game of football, plenty of quality footballers on both sides. Ample cut and thrust although neither side had the guile to really open the other up. Half chances, and some good keeping, but the defenders had the edge over the 90.

However yet another game ruined by a player cheating . A slight contact on the Hazard resulting on an incredible tumble and writhing. Utterly fucking pathetic – but you know that.

Blame Taylor though – he is corrupt – incompetent – blah blah blah.

I have had enough of football.

Shotta is upon Friday.

Enjoy.

@ReverendGooner leads the congregation into the Feast of St Basil the Great 

Well hello parishioners and welcome to 2018 hopefully a year full of promise and success for each and every one of you. I know I said I would not be back in the pulpit until mid-January but needs must & our Lord Gooner is a most severe task master & came to me in a vision telling me to write this 1^st Psalm of 2018. Well actually id hit the communion wine a bit hard the night before and it dawned on me in my dishevelled and un-holy state to write about this topic. I guess we all sat there in total disbelief as that wretch of a referee Mike “Vlad The Impaler” Dean awarded West Brom a penalty for what can only be described as a decision which was ludicrous beyond belief. Not that I need remind you most learned of scholars but the rules for hand ball are very clear.

• the movement of the hand towards the ball (not the ball towards the hand)
• the distance between the opponent and the ball (unexpected ball)
• the position of the hand does not necessarily mean that there is an infringement
• touching the ball with an object held in the hand (clothing, shin guard, etc.) counts as an infringement

Regarding this incident Callum Chamber 1stly was very close to Kieran Gibbs when the ball was struck and had no chance of avoiding contact. The ball clearly moved towards the hand and not hand towards the ball and lastly his body was not in an unnatural position so what in god’s green earth was Mike Dean thinking as this clearly was not a penalty. When Petr Cech attempted to ask the Dean about the incident at the end of the game Dean said nothing and simply booked the goalkeeper even though Cech was clearly polite and respectful in his approach & manner. Furthermore, Cech whilst being interviewed states that Mike Dean had clearly gone against the latest FA directive on what constitutes handball in awarding the penalty but this this nothing new is it. Mike Dean has made a name for himself in football by making the game about him and his erroneous decisions rather than about the game itself. The issue here though is not about Mike Dean who many Arsenal fans rightly or wrongly believe is a cheat and openly tries to influence games with his decision making Its about the FA & the professional Referees Association’s (PGMOB) almost inquisition like vigour & secrecy in protecting itself & its officials from any comment or scrutiny even after a match official has had an absolute shocker of a game. Any manger. club official or player who dares to question the almost holy and divine right of the match official’s refusal to comment of clarify on a poor or wrong decision is immediately sanctioned without impunity.

Mike Riley the chief inquisitor rarely speaks publicly and even more rarely acknowledges that his match officials have fouled up & this all leads to allegations of corruption, favouritism or incompetence from the attending press and fans alike. His case has not been helped in recent times either with retired referees like Mark Halsey stating in his book that he used to chat to Sir Alex Ferguson on the phone prior to a game or Clattenburg’s recent tell all about looking the other way during an important Spurs match. Accusations that Howard Webb played favourites and was very anti Liverpool & who can ever forget Graham Poll’s 3 yellow cards at the World Cup. Whether the FA likes it or not the monster they have created in the EPL has too much money in it and more importantly too much money at stake. Those 2 points dropped or should I say robbed from Arsenal could mean the difference between top 4 & CL football and missing out on Europe altogether, the cost of that could be staggering in terms of both financial loss and competitions that they cannot play in. Referees should never be the reason why teams fail but all too often we are seeing more and more of it which is at the absolute detriment of the Premier League. In the Everton Utd match there was an identical incident to the Callum Chambers penalty and the referee just waved it away and played on. Where is the consistency from the FA & PGMOB? How can one referee adhere to the current directive yet Mike Dean basically do as he pleases. The FA have proven with the Kane & Ali incidents that they rule the game & the rules of the game at their discretion and they are the ones that need calling to account over the state of the refereeing standards in the PL and as for Mike Dean I’ll leave the last word to Garth Crooks and his famous rant. “It’s not about you Mike the game is not about you so just ref the game & stop seeking attention”.

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.