@GoonerReverend contemplates St Augustine’s advice to “Love the Sinner but Hate the Sin”- sort of.

It seems to be that wherever there is Mourinho and a football match there is drama. I don’t know what it is but the man and the headline just seem to morph in to one big soap opera right in front of our very eyes. Outwardly he is a fantastic coach & that cannot be denied. Whatever you think of his methods or his style of football in a result based industry he has the results to back up that argument but there is just something about him that makes you want to lash out irrationally. His long-standing rivalry with Wenger the ‘Mr Nice Guy’ of football is well known and even more widely reported on by the Jose loving media. Who can forget the day they squared up on the touch line. Everyone remembers that October day at Stamford Bridge in 2014 when their absolute dislike for each other boiled over into a shoving match on the touch line. The normally civil & urbane Wenger was ready to give as good as he got & his actions seem to scream “Ill F%#@in Ave You Son”. Mourinho gets under people’s skin. He coaches his players to get under opposing players skin, its his way of deflecting any scrutiny away from him or his team. His career to date has been either trophies or the sack. Virtually every club he’s been at has been asked to leave because his methods are toxic and ends up causing his club unwanted attention for the wrong reasons and it has been proven that it really does affect the moral and performance of his players eventually. His most famous and regrettable ‘Cause Celebre’ was the events that took place involving him and his team doctor Eve Carneiro during a game against Swansea in 2015. Even by Mourinho’s standards this debacle was off the Richter scale as far as damaging to both Chelsea and his reputation not to mention the absolute misery and insult he inflicted on the poor doctor just for doing her job.

This was Mourinho in full uncontrolled flight at his absolute worst. His team were playing poorly and had just conceded a penalty so he lashed out at the nearest person to come within his mounting rage. The poor team doctor.

Jose if only you had let it go at that & that being as bad as it gets when your Jose Mourinho but no he had to take it to the limit as a sign that he the ‘Special One’ whose authority was without question. He went on the offensive with even more diabolical behaviour against the good doctor turning the farce into a sexism row. This was in August and by December Chelsea had seen enough and the ‘Happy One’ was now the sacked one, Again. In 2016 Mourinho replaced Louis van Gael as the manager at Manchester Utd promising to bring back the Ferguson glory years while spending an obscene amount of money at the same time. To his credit he won the league Cup & the Europa League in his 1^st season at the club but on the down side he finished 6^th in the Premier League with the most expensive squad ever assembled. This season appears to be no different he has assembled a very expensive squad but the PL all but looks to be riding away over the hill to his noisy neighbour’s City.

He has publicly squared off with his City Rival Pep Guardiola a few times this season but yesterday’s incident outside the changing rooms after suffering a 1-2 loss at Old Trafford have Mourinho stamped all over it. Lukaku slinging a bottle at Guardiola’s deputy Arteta, Mourinho himself squaring up to City’s goalkeeper Everson and getting soaked in Milk and water for his trouble and a general melee was had by all if you believe the Press. It is Christmas folks so its pantomime season and there is no better panto villain than the MOU. What the FA will make of all this is anyone’s guess but the battle lines have clearly been drawn and you can be sure Pep won’t be on Jose’s Christmas card list anytime soon.

But if you take a closer look at yesterday’s events they bear a striking resemblance to his previous foibles* (steady on – there are children reading)  and his need to deflect any closer inspection of what could be going wrong at Utd. Its hard to see him taking down Barcelona, PSG, City or Bayern in the CL and with his loss the PL possibly bit the dust yesterday so where does that leave Mourinho this season after all the cash that has gone to fill his Christmas stocking this season. When you are at a club with the stature of Utd you have to win something or your rivals will start circling and then you’re no longer the shark in the goldfish bowl but rather just another one of the goldfish. In this new world of social media scrutiny and tall-poppy bashing we all want to see Mou get sat on his arse this season and go home with nothing because it makes for great drama. But every drama needs a bad guy and this soap opera that is the English Premier League needs its serial bad guy Jose Mourinho and we need him too because our Mondays mornings would be that little bit duller without him.

Good Afternoon Positive ladies and gentlemen,

Well the positive  news is clearly that we gained a point on an afternoon when, I admit, I had my doubts that we would exit St Mary’s with anything other than a damn good jeering.

As matters turned out a fine headed finish from the old French master above. The best ball flighted in that we had all afternoon. An intelligent header from Oli and the decisive moment. Hard evidence that we must never give up, and a harder lesson for the home side that  in a game of professional football concentrating for 89 minutes and 45 seconds just won’t do.

Of the game itself an appalling opening, no other word for it. For the second weekend running a highly experienced German central defender under only slight pressure scuffed a clearance and gave the ball to an opposition player 40 yards from goal. The aforementioned highly experienced German defender then scampered after the Saints player who had bypassed him and then slipped  over!  His defensive comrades were too far away to the right, Kosc, and too far away to the left, Nacho, to offer any real challenge of barrier. The wing backs in the back five arrangement ? I have no idea where they were. Defensive cover or a hasty foot in from my man Granit ? No – not today.

Straightforward one-two, tidy finish, Austin – just three minutes on the clock.

There then followed another 5 minutes of three other similar almost disasters, with the lino intervening twice and Cech pulling off a good save to stop a second bulge in our netsack.

As I believe Mandy said earlier to be caught cold and punished once is slightly embarrassing, to be caught twice in a row, is FUCKING inexcusable.

Let us move swiftly on.

After we managed to wake up individually and collectively we dominated possession but, other than a tidy shot by Ramsey on 43 minutes we did not achieve much. There was loads of good approach work but no decisive ball to open the Saints’ defence. Unlike De Gea last Saturday Foster was under-employed. We just never seemed to have enough players in the box.

I was expecting a little more vim in the second half but, sadly, the pattern repeated itself with Saints firmly entrenched, with an occasional worrying breakaway, and AFC passing it back wards and forwards, forwards and backwards et cetera.  We have players of huge attacking ability, Mesut, Sanchez, Aaron, Lacca  but they seem reluctant to take an opponent on.

Serious question as I may have missed it. Other than Sanchez’s free kick which Foster punched way did we have a shot on target in the second half ?

This week hurling Giroud, Jack and Danny into the contest just got us enough momentum to cause the home side to crack eventually, but it was close, damn close.

Enjoy your Sunday.

@LaboGoon opens the programme on Arsenal vs Southampton

Arsenal travel to Southampton this afternoon looking to bounce back after shooting ourselves in both kneecaps last weekend.

In that game from 10 minutes in till the end whistle we put in quite a credible performance, but it was ultimately the “Oh FFS” moments in the initial 10 that did enough damage. And that’s the lesson in humility that should accompany us for not only today, but onwards.

Going to St Mary’s has never been an easy trip for Arsenal. Our victory there last season has been the only one in the PL this decade.

Mauricio Pellegrino have his boys well organised in recent weeks. In their last three matches they scored 4 goals vs Everton thanks to a good attacking display, turned Pep into a demented banshee after keeping his gunslingers at arms length defending in numbers, before coming from behind to draw vs a very spirited Bournemouth team. That they can take a lot of heart from that performances, varying tactics, should be enough to give us pause for concern.

In our four matches following the FIFA week we’d been in good form, playing with energy, confidence and togetherness, besides that 10 minute freak show of course.

With the PL so unforgiving it’s hard to gauge how hard you need to go one game to the next during these congested times. So as default we need to keep the intensity and tenacity up, without getting ahead of ourselves. The PL is a steeplechase we go one hurdle at a time.

Chelsea allowing West Ham to pin them back in the opening stages of their game gifted the Hammers an opportunity they didn’t look back from. That’s a risk we can’t afford to make (again). When the ref blow the whistle to signal the start of the game we switch on, and stay on till full time.

Being the “most important game of the season” I have no doubt Arsène Wenger will field his strongest team from the available players. Those are the same as last week beside Shkodran Mustafi who’s missing out with injury. We could see either Holding or Mertesacker taking his place. Might be too soon for Chambers who only just came back from injury.

Arsenal are going into hostile territory as the St Mary’s crowd will be on our players’ back from start to end. So let’s keep our fingers crossed they keep their wits about them.

Good luck to all watching the game wherever you find yourselves, and don’t quit speaking out against those who seek to divide the Arsenal fan base. COYG

**

Good morning Fellow Positives,

A very relaxed evening’s viewing, the qualification ‘jobby’ long ago done, and the only purpose of the evening was to put on a decent display so as to not let down the sides playing in Belgrade, and to give the lads on the bench a good run out.

And so it proved. A real deck chair of a performance for the Arsenal armchair fan like me, and even for our opponents;

Bate Borisov coach Aleksandr Yermakovich: “It was a totally different level for the team and it was very difficult for us. We were not prepared for this match, we were trying to play for our fans and play attacking football, sadly it didn’t happen.”

Good grief that is “honest” from a coach. Is he mad ?

He is right though. Arsenal were always in command of the game and had pinned Borisov back in their 18 yard box for long periods. 6-0 hardly did us justice. At half time and 3-0 it was over. Only 71% possession compared to 75% on Saturday, and just 23 shots,  but we can work on that.

Of our brave lads Jack was bright and confident. Theo had the best evening he has had in 2017, and I enjoyed Elneny working hard and showing what a box to box midfielder should do. Reiss Nelson – get him on the big stage. My congratulations to the visitors’  young keeper Denis Scherbitski – good effort and at 21 years old a very mature performance.

Not much else to say.

I’m off to bed. Enjoy Friday.

@GoonerReverend 

Well the aftermath of the Man Utd game wasn’t an Arsenal fan Twitter melt down as such it was a bit of banter gone badly wrong between an Arsenal legend and some overseas fans. It is understandable that emotions were running high after such a game but what transpired after cannot unfortunately be put down to losing and a high emotional state.

https://twitter.com/IanWright0/status/937149062553440256

Ian Wright is an Arsenal legend & without doubt one of our greatest ever players to lace up a boot. These facts are undeniable, the great man was one of our all time leading goal scores with 185 goals in 288 appearances and is only eclipsed by Thierry Henry (228-377) but is this on field immortality enough to excuse an ex player of acting in the manner in which Ian Wright did. The issue with some ex-players in the media and on social media is they think that they have a divine right to criticise anyone and pass judgement without consequence and then take it as a severe affront to their standing if any mere mortal dare questions their opinion. To many long-standing Arsenal fans dismay Ian Wright questioned the value of overseas fans as supporters & their right to support a team arguing it’s a game they simply do not understand. This and his other tweets smacks of bigotry and Xenophobia and we should expect better from anyone let alone an ex player with a well-established media presence in the UK.

Many will come to the defence of the great man because of his standing in the game and his media personality but unfortunately there is no defending this behaviour as it is completely ethically and morally wrong as well as totally unprofessional to say the least. It wasn’t just one tweet that upset so many it was a number of tweets where Ian mocks overseas supporters because they dared to question something he said. To his partial credit he did try to apologise for his comments later but it appeared that his apology was more to do with the fact that he didn’t expect the furore his tweets caused rather than genuine remorse. Arsenal fans come from all parts of the globe and Just because they don’t live in England and go to the game every weekend doesn’t make them any less of a supporter of The Arsenal. To openly mock someone who has to get up at 3:30 am to watch their team live and then question their reasoning for doing so as well as their ability to understand the game is not an honest mistake its arrogant and deeply offensive.

Only 60,000 can attend an Arsenal home game yet Arsenal have an online presence of over 12 million fans on Twitter alone and they are fans that take the time to love and support their club through all the emotional trials and tribulations that’s comes with supporting one’s team. Ian is no stranger to off field controversy but this time he has shot himself in the foot because he has done the inexcusable on his own doorstep which is the greatest of football’s cardinal sins.

https://twitter.com/IanWright0/status/937624028885471233

Ian. Overseas fans are just as passionate loyal and knowledgeable about The Arsenal and the greatest game of all and to suggest otherwise is sheer folly not to mention extremely damaging to your standing as the great man you are and rightly should be in the Arsenal family.

https://twitter.com/IanWright0/status/937985074259222528

Good morning Positive Gooners,

What a phenomenal game of football ! 95 minutes of unrelenting battle, waged by 22, and later 21, warriors, the classic ‘end-to-end battle. Talking points – pivotal moments? There were at least dozen. The stadium absolutely rocking. What more could any fan want ?

Well…. I know , I know what we wanted. After all that effort, after dominating three quarters of possession, 33 shots, 14 (fourteen corners!) and drawing as good a goal-keeping display out of David De Gea as I have seen, we wanted a tangible reward. Three points, one point, half a bloody point would have done. But no. The goddess that is in charge of football smote us down.

Of the game itself I would guess that most of you reading this saw far more of the detail of the incidents than I did in the upper tier. We knew what to expect. Jose would defend in depth and hope to nick a breakaway. And we were absolutely correct.

The first two goals or the visitors looked to be individual errors from first Kosc and then Shkodran, inexplicable that early in the game when we knew that the United tactic would be. To make one error is careless, to make two very similar errors indicates a collective lack of concentration. I have no idea if the German was injured before his tussle with Lingard or after. His crest was definitely fallen. Fair play to the visitors. They took both chances faultlessly.

Nevertheless with just 11 minutes gone there was not the slightest doubt in my mind, nor I think anyone around me, that we would recover. The roar went up. We have far too many good players, as well as at least one world class player, to allow 80 minutes to pass without tearing at the Mancs with our sharp claws and monstrous jaws.

And so it transpired. We absolutely battered them. Time and time again, wave after wave, short sharp passing around the edge of he box and into the area, blocked shots, crosses whipped in, shots tricking juuuuuuust wide, even Lukaku had a go at beating De Gea (his only notable contribution all afternoon). Much as I Loathe Jose, and there is much to loathe, he set up his side to defend and by Gawd did they did that job well. Massed ranks of men in black shirts, always a boot in the way, or a head, and if all that failed there was still the man in shy blue/green to keep us out.

How we went in at half time at 0-2 I shall never, ever know. There was however still no doubt hat tis game was not just the to recover and draw, but to win.

And then the breakthrough !!! What seemed to be a failed offside trap let us in – how bloody ironic that the Mancs let themselves down by trying to be too clever. 40+ minutes to go – we flooded forward – the result was surely in our hands now.

As so it proved – a sequence of small individual errors that started with losing possession, failing to intercept or put in a solid challenge, failing to pick up the single United attacker, led to Lingard tapping in a deadly third. Talk about popping our balloon. Mayhem broke out around me as the man in the row in front was hit with a coin thrown from a few rows back, just missed his eye but still a nasty cut. The perpetrator was hauled out by stewards with the victim in hot pursuit (I hope the idiot is banned for life).

After that we pressed again, we pushed, we flung on Danny and then Oli, but I don’t think we looked as likely to score as we had with just Laca as the tip of the spear. As we threw on attackers, Jose threw on defenders. Who would have guessed? The quality of our attacking in the last 20 minutes was just not as sharp as it had been.

Even the dismissal of Pogba, another idiot who deserves a lengthier ban than he will get, did not quite produce the midfield dividend that I hoped for. And errr yes Paul – it was a red card.

How the 4^th official came up with 5 minutes additional time I have no idea. Even had he put up the 10-12 I was expecting I don’t it would have been enough. We did not give up physically, mentally I think we ‘knew’ though.

A game that will stick long in the memory, and that is what good football is about.

So Bate Borisov next, and St Mary’s to follow. Enjoy your Sunday.

@LaboGoon chalks his cue this Saturday morning 

Arsenal host Manchester United at the Emirates, with the visitors 4 points better off than us after 14 games but trailing Man City by 8 points.

So you can imagine this as a game where both will be looking to underline their credentials as a team not ready to throw in any towels yet.

Both are coming off the back of good results, with Arsenal putting 5 goals past Huddersfield and Manutd 4 past Watford in their most recent. With Arsenal however unbeaten at the Emirates and conceding just 1 goal (at home) since opening day, Manutd keeping 9 clean sheets in their 14 PL games, it’s unlikely this will be a high scoring affair.

This of course is a blockbuster event, and after a comprehensive victory over Spurs in the NLD we answered the question on whether we have a squad capable of winning the big games. So I have a feeling José Mourinho may be a bit apprehensive, especially about Manutd returning to a ground where they were beaten 3-0 and 2-0 on their last two visits respectively.

With Manutd’s first choice Centre-Back pairing on the injury list, they will be extra vigilant to smother us in the final third. Meaning scoring opportunities will be few, of which we have to make the most of.

That said… I think it’s great that Arsène Wenger said he don’t expect Manutd to “park the bus”. Meaning there will be an awareness of their attacking quality that could hurt us if given any openings.

Alexandre Lacazette is not available so I suspect Giroud to be leading the line, Alexis didn’t quite work out vs Mancity did he? Giroud will also give Manutd’s back-up CB’s quite the work out in those physical battles, for Welbeck to exploit later on (am I getting ahead of myself). Other than that all others from “the best 11” are available.

Good luck to all Gooners going to the Emirates and continue making both the visiting team and referees feel very unwelcome in our house, and good luck to all watching around the globe.

This promises to be a thorough gripping encounter. One with a very good chance where the opening goal may prove to be the winning goal.

@GoonerReverend puts his head above the parapet

We won’t be taking It to the Max

There is a lot of talk about the succession at Arsenal. Wenger has supposedly signed his last contract and will be departing the Arsenal shores in May 2019. The King is dead long live the King. Arsenal fans as with everything are divided on the subject of Wenger and a possible new manager. On one hand you have the loyalist a supposed band of deluded, out of touch and mentally backwards supporters desperate to see Wenger re-instated no matter what the cost. On the other side of the coin you have the self-titled ‘enlightened ones’ the intellegensia of the Arsenal fan base who have every answer to every question regarding the running of the Arsenal football club no matter what their true station is in life.

This of course makes for fascinating back copy on the ongoing saga that is the Arsenal football club. Like Jason and his Argonauts some believe that by simply vanquishing the old zipper failure and replacing him with either Massimiliano Allegri or Leonardo Jardim it will immediately cure all of Arsenal problems. In turn the ever-present fan dissatisfaction will be swept aside in big Moses style and we will instantly be in the mix to win the Premier League and Champions League titles. Other less devout outers maintain once the current dictator has been removed from power and the Arsenal board do the most un-Arsenal board thing ever and appoint a world class manager with a bottomless pit of check book moolah he will still need time to settle in to the demands of the Premier League and more importantly fix all of the major issues at the club caused by that destroyer of football clubs Arsene Wenger. Loyalists argue that if Wenger is in fact so inept and clueless then any manger should be able to come in and immediately improve Arsenal’s current position winning both the PL & CL at a canter. The truth is somewhat different to what some of the more radical fans on both sides believe. We have all seen the recent comings and goings in the backroom at Arsenal which many of the more astute observers believe is the start of the succession planning for when Arsenal’s greatest ever manager finally hangs up his sleeping bag coat & moves on to National team football. The PL is littered with the wreckage of former managerial flavours of the month who have one good season and then are sacked the next term without as much as a bye your leave only to try and resurrect their careers at a lesser club and in lesser league. The hardest thing to maintain in the PL is consistency, just ask Moyes, Van Gael, Koeman and Laudrup etc:

Remember those halcyon days when Owen Coyle was the saviour of Burnley and then moved up to Bolton and some Arsenal fans were calling for him to take over from Wenger just before he got Bolton relegated and then disappeared from the scene as most favoured son. In fact, our wonderful fans switch from one flavour of the month to the next as easy as you might when choosing between a cappuccino or latte at your local coffee shop. Now I’m not accusing some of our more easily influenced fan base of being fickle but you have to laugh at some of the more recent suggestions regarding the type of new manager we should be looking for. I am of course referring to those 2 beacons of football enlightenment Mauricio Pochettino manager of Power shift Utd and Marco Silva manager of Cajones FC. These two managers are glorious examples of fan fickledom and if they could only live up to the hype then maybe they would be in with a shout but likely as not they might not be in their current positions next season such is the demand for stability in the PL these days. Now I know that we are a club in crisis and that our manager and board could not run a piss up in a brewery. There are far more intelligent and qualified people both in the press and on social media who could easily turn Arsenal’s current squad in to world beaters if only someone would listen to them. Just ask the Daily Mirror’s John Cross, he has all the answers as does that beacon of truth Piers Morgan. ‘Friends, countrymen & Arsenal fans lend me your ears’.

Common sense and the history of decision making by the Arsenal powers that be should tell us all that Arsenal will not be appointing an Allegri, Simeone or Jardim as the next Arsenal manager because that is simply not who we are or what we do. If we were playing managerial poker then I’ll raise you a Dyche or van Bronkhorst over your Allegri or Jardim and id win because we are a bigger chance of appointing a manager like Sean Dyche, Giovanni van Bronkhorst or Eddie Howe than we are some big-name coach from Juventus, Atletico or Monaco. I am certainly not saying that the trio of Dyche, van Bronkhorst and Howe are the only ones in the mix what I am saying is this is the type of manager Arsenal will look at as a replacement for Wenger. The structure at Arsenal throughout our history has been about stability. Ever since our 1^st permanent manager Thomas Mitchel was appointed in 1897 we have only had 21 permanent managers in 120 years with one unknown taking charge for a few months in 1898, Steve Burtenshaw taking charge for a few months in 1986 and Stewart Houston and Pat Rice taking the reins for a couple of months in 1996. If you take out Wenger’s current tenure that’s an average of almost 5 years per manager in just under 100 years of football and not 1 big managerial name amongst them. Based on current statistics the PL manager lasts an average of 2 years and 7 days in the job so based on all of this data what makes Arsenal fans think that AFC PLC is suddenly going to change a 120 years of modus operandi just because a group of fans are screaming for it on their YouTube channel. ‘It isn’t going to happen’. The Arsenal board will select someone like a van Bronkhorst or Eddie Howe because they believe he will embody everything they believe in regarding the running of the football side of the club.

They will want a manager that is level headed and not over emotional or temperamental. In short, they won’t want someone who is hard to deal with like a Conte or Mourinho and who will not cause unnecessary chaos and trouble for the club and they certainly won’t be spending half a billion pounds on new players either. Whether you like or not or even believe it the traditions at Arsenal are set in stone and are the foundation of the running of the club. Even though the ownership and board have changed significantly over the years these founding principles have not and are not likely too either so you can run your social media campaigns and hold up your bits of A4 at the ground or even froth at the mouth in inarticulate rage on YouTube but I think you can take it to the bank that we won’t be taking it to the Max we will in fact be doing what we always do and that is playing it safe.

Good Morning Positives,

A wintry morning up here in Norfolk with a swirl of snow across the grey sky.

I trust that those who did not attend last night’s game have, like me, had a chance to review the highlights of the game since.  Very enjoyable it was with our players finally cracking the Huddersfield defence and goals pouring in after the hour, with the visitors clinging onto the ropes. In truth the game could/should have finished about 8/9-2 but for some last ditch defending and a good goalkeeping performance. Huddersfield managed a couple of good quality strikes on Cech’s goal, so they were a little unlucky not to manage their first goal on the road for five games.

Stand out player in red for me was Aaron, a hand in all four of the opening goals and his back heel to set Lacazette on his way for the first was evidence of a player on top form. Sensible to take him off with a quarter of an hour to go and keep him fresh for Saturday against a team he generally does well against. Well done to Olivier too and he must have relished a full  45 minutes of hard running. The other laurel wreath this morning goes to Sead Kolasinac , for a ‘tank’ he showed some lovely touches.

I rather liked Huddersfield – they have a bit of quality and a good spirit – I hope they don’t go down.

As for those readers with an eye to the ethnic minority of referees I see the man  in black last night Graham Scott was born in Oxfordshire. In most people’s  atlas that is ‘Southern’. I thought it was an easy game to referee and I imagine we shall see more of him as he moves up the PL whistling hierarchy.

Not much else to say, busy Saturday coming up. Mr D.Cannister and I shall be indulging in a small libation before the Manchester United game at the Bank of Friendship so if any are passing drop in.

Enjoy your Thursday.