Good morning sons and daughters of the Positive persuasion,

I would say a measured step into the “Round of 32” of the Europa League achieved with minimum fuss last night. We expected a positive result, we got the result we needed. The A team v B team format in PL and Cup competitions is working very well indeed in my opinion. The B team combination of young players adding to their experienced, returnees from long term injury and players more used to bench duties were more than enough to overcome Serbians without an obvious ‘star’ anywhere in the pitch, red of otherwise.

Make no mistake though, Red Star were a difficult, professional opponent. Like us they came wanting a result and they got the result they wanted.

There was some frustration even at my end that we did not manage to overcome the Belgrade bus approach the adopted in the second half and score but hey ho. I managed not to break out into barrage of booing when referee Banti finally closed proceedings. I am assured on Twitter that a good booing and a collective tut-tutting is good for players’ development. I am not convinced.

Of our lads well done to Matt Macey for two good first half saves. He has waited for four years to even get on the pitch in a serious game for the club. Four years for a guy just past his 23^rd birthday must be an age , or it was as far as I can remember. It must be satisfying to know that all the hard work and energy Matt has put into training finally made a difference on the pitch.

I thought Jack had an excellent second half and he and Reiss Nelson running at the visitors defensive line with the ball at their feet seemed the most likely way we would eventually prise them open. And when Jack tumbled to the pitch or was on the end of a hard Balkan boot up he jumped. Interesting performance from Elneny who appeared to be all over the pitch for the final 30 minutes, managing to come back three, roving midfielder and even striker at one point as striker on the edge of the 6 yard box. Did Mo decide to do that or did Arsene just tell him to “express himself” ? AMN also deserves a mention for a decent evening and a good second half. I am still not sure he is a wing back but there is no lack of effort on his part.

A rather different set of problems will face Arsenal at the Etihad on Sunday, and  game I am thorough looking forward to. We will however be addressing them with an almost entirely different set of tools.

Brevity is the soul of wit so enjoy your Friday.

Good morning my positive friends.

Now, where to start? Perhaps we should start by crying about how good a team the UAE F.C. have bought themselves up in Manchester? Or maybe wallow in pity about Spurs managing to beat a Real Madrid team that find themselves in the middle of a doldrums rarely ever seen? No? Oh ok then. Lets do what most of our fan-base seen unable to do, and focus on the team we support, THE mighty ARSENAL !

I think we are going for our 14 consecutive home win? So I can well understand why the natives are restless. I mean the best they can hope for these days is a quick “boo” at halftime, or perhaps the odd misplaced pass to jeer at?

I suspect we will see a team very similar to the one that started the away leg. More match practice for our senior players returning to fitness or simply waiting their chance to get into our PL team and experience for our hugely talented youngsters.

I am especially excited to see Jack again, the boss says he has been at full fitness for some three weeks now and he will be keen to show he is ready for the PL team and exactly what England will be missing if they don’t see sense. Jack Wilshere my not be Arsenal’s best midfielder, but he is certainly England’s best.

Now then, as some of you will know I’ve somehow managed to get my @Blackburngeorge account suspended (you can now get me on @Arseblagger) so it will be up to the rest of you to promote the site on twitter for me,and I thank you in anticipation.

Enjoy your day and especially the match.

Good Morning Positive Arsenal fans,

A fine Sunday morning here, windy but bright Autumnal sunshine and mellow fruitfulness.

Of yesterday’s contest as expected a well drilled Swansea defensive side posed a number of problems for the first 45 before cracking and allowing us to pocket the three points, as expected.

Some comments I see have been made about our “laboured” first half performance, not least by the manager. I did not think we were poor, but as in previous home games despite 80%+ control of the ball we got no further than the final third and never really opened up a clear chance. Clearly compared to our ripping-Everton-a-new-one of six days before any performance was likely to be “laboured”. It may however be worth reflecting however that the Swansea were no Everton. They sat deep, had three solid centre back who Lacazette had to battled with on his own, and a screen of midfielders who dropped back to soak up and disrupt. Having gifted them a silly opener they dug in ferociously and denied us space and time in the final third. On another day that might have been enough for the Swans, as in previous painful encounters (!).

We are an older team now, more mature, and with better players. I doubt the teacups flew at half-time in the home dressing room. I suspect the message was more a reminder to the players that we had to use every inch of the pitch to stretch Swansea, and that it is important for players to be dynamic and quick in creating space for themselves to receive a pass.

If that was the message then within 11 minutes the scoreboard had been corrected and the wining goal despatched by Aaron. “Tidy” as they say in the valleys. Sead’s rocket for the first and involvement in the second earned him the man of the match.

The left hand side of our football team I thought stood out yesterday. Nacho, Sead and Alexis click together like the passenger door on a Mercedes-Benz, solid, dependable but with the potential to go very, very fast when required.

Good performances from Granit, Aaron, Lacazette and Ozil and they’d get a 7/10. The right hand side of our side ? Hector and Laurent are not quite in tune and the Frenchman has looked out of sorts since the start of the season. It may be he is playing out of position in the ‘three’ or playing while injured. His slip yesterday was uncharacteristic and just last week he was caught in a similar moment late at Goodison when picked up a deserved yellow card. He is a fine player but has just passed his 32^nd birthday. It may be he needs a few games officially injured to rest and recuperate as he has played a lot of football.

Of the opposition as I said yesterday Fernandez seems a capable centre back. At 28 years old he is no spring chicken but he knows his trade. And (inevitably) one top, top class save from Fabianski. Good to see his career has led to football every week, which his talent deserved.

As a general point, having watched Kosc and later Per slip and slide on what seems to me a perfect grass surface, would the club PLEASE STOP watering the f******* pitch obsessively before the game and at half time. The grass won’t die if you leave it alone, trust me.

So onward to the Etihad and a very different challenge next Sunday. In the interim I’d guess we can expect the B team to give Red Star a sound bashing on Thursday.

Enjoy your Sunday.

A guest post for Double Canister 

“Until Edward Nketiah came on we lacked ideas and creativity” said Arsene Wenger in the post-match interview, and who am I to disagree? The match line-up was predictably predicted in advance by most pundits, including our own Pedantic George and this is now clearly seen as Arsenal’s cup team for the foreseeable future, injuries depending for a few defensive slots.

The starting line-up was:

Macey;

Debuchy, El Neny, Holding;

Maitland-Niles, Coquelin, Wilshere, Nelson;

Walcott, Iwobi, Giroud.

Subs: Akpom 70’, Nketiah 85’, Da Silva 105’, Willock 114’.

This team was expected to give Norwich a right old thumping, but the Canaries had other plans, plans that nearly paid-off as they provided 120 minutes of hard work, defensive organisation and not a little skill to make a very competitive 4^th Round Carabao League Cup game go all the way to the final whistle. Giroud may have been feeling the effects of a late-night party after receiving the Puskas award for his wonder goal against Crystal Palace last season, he was not so effective last night. Certainly, many Norwich players were keen to give him several big hugs inside their penalty box, all of which Andy Madley chose not to see to clearly- a bit like Debuchy’s extra time incident – which for me was no penalty as there was not enough real contact with the player, but the less said about Madley the better. The miserabilists will all say that breaking down such a resolved defensive set up as Norwich created was all to do with Arsenal’s commonly perceived (you know: by the media and twitter and Troy Deeney) weaknesses, but please give to credit to Falke’s men who worked their yellow socks off and might feel they could and should have had more than Josh Murphy’s single well-taken chip shot from Maddison’s defence splitting pass. Oliveira, Murphy and Vrancic all missed chances to ensure Norwich were in tonight’s 5^th Round draw. They are 6^th in the Championship and showed they are an in-form team, and they were fresh from beating local rivals Ipswich Town in the Old Farm derby last weekend. As for some alleged controversial incidents – El Neny was rightly yellow carded for taking down a man, but in no-way was he last man back, so unless there is a new FA rule – he stays on the pitch, and thankfully he was – to provide the ball to the hero of the night.

Step forward Edward Nketiah, who took all of 15 seconds to make an impact. Another tactical masterclass move by the boss? “I brought him on because we needed to score goals and he can score goals. In the end we had eight strikers on the pitch,” said Wenger, in truth I had forgotten about the multiple substitution rules in this cup competition. The news is today full of ‘experts’ who always knew about this kid and that he is going to be the new Henry or Messi, well I didn’t. Eddie played for our U23’s for the last few years, amassing a substantial goal tally and was brought on for his debut away at Bate Borisov in the 89^th minute. Last night he made his real introduction with not one, but two headers , both from set-pieces no less. Nketiah is just 18 years old and is an England U19, and somehow, he managed to escape the abyss of Chelsea’s all devouring youth system at 14 before he joined Arsenal. I hope he has a bright future.

As for less impressive performances from Arsenal players last night , all I can say as the BBC and the gutter press are livid with Arsenal’s eventual triumph over the plucky Canaries, so compare the narratives with the BBC’s headline about how Manchester City ‘heroically’ defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers in a penalty shootout, (because they only managed 0-0 in regulation time), and which needed the services of Sane, de Bruyne and Aguero to ensure passage to the 5^th round. Playing your best, but highly fragile striker for 120 minutes against Wolves must be one of those ‘genius’ things Pep does that a mere layman like me can’t see. Every single Premier League team fielded weakened teams in this competition last night, and even most of the championship teams did as well. Nevertheless, the second sting selection from Wenger presented some conundrums, Coq and Wilshere were not working as an effective unit in midfield, the defensive line appeared to have no pace at all and the back 3 did not seem to know their positions, and the youngsters seemed to drift in and out of concentration on the pitch. Despite all these concerns, as the game went on and as Norwich did not go on to get a vital (for their hopes) second goal it did look as though Arsenal’s growing nous, guile, call it what you want and overall better football talent would eventually pay off. From what I could see on the telly -credit also to the Arsenal supporters who actually stayed and cheered on the team to the end, rather than join the mile-long queue for a tube home after 70 minutes. And for Theo – he meets lines men every single week who regard him being in-line with the last defender as an offence, have the rules changed again?

The draw for the quarter-finals will take place at 16:00 BST on Wednesday, 25 October.

Good morning friends.

Macey

Nelson Debuchy ElNeny Holding AMN

Coquelin Jack

Theo Giroud Iwobi

Would be my best guess for the starting eleven.

Norwich City F.C. seem to be on a bit of a high, but perhaps they might play a changed team ,as their priority will be the league, and they played a big derby game against Ipswich on Sunday afternoon.

The Giroud /Wilshere combination that gave is this

will be doing their best to do similar. Its not like they don’t make a habit of it

The game isn’t on TV , so good luck finding a stream. We might all be on Arsenal Player though as streams are hard to come by this season.

Enjoy your day and enjoy the game.

Good morning Positives,

A sumptuous Sunday lunch served up for Arsene’s birthday by the players yesterday and enjoyed by all who attended. I think that sums up our collective experience of the game yesterday – what say you ? Even those home supporters who had the mental strength to stay to the end will have seen football played with a quality and at a speed they have not seen in their ground before. It may have been an unpleasant experience for them, but The School of Science will have picked up the lesson.

The four horsemen of the Evertonian apocalypse were Sanchez, Lacazette, Aaron and, standing tall in the saddle, Mesut Ozil. The point is made that this is the first League game that Arsene has been genuinely able to call on all our best players and start them on the pitch together, unimpeded by injury or fatigue. The first thing I noticed was that ball was moved forward much faster yesterday, and the players were moving faster, to my eye at least. The second thing I noticed was that there was always a player open to take a pass in the final third of the pitch because of that sharper movement, and because the home side had a second less to set their defence in place and ensure their lines were fixed. Lacazette’s movement and ability to find a yard in the box stood out, Alexis and Rambo were both on the front foot and one or the other offering themselves to the passer. Mesut was the puppet master of the ensemble. He rarely wasted possession of the ball. Each pass was picked with a purpose. The only mis-controlled pass he made all afternoon was when he had slipped over.

Elsewhere on the pitch Sead and Hector were rampant. Absolute corker of a goal from Nacho – and I admit until it went in I was a bit nervy. I was delighted that Granit did not let the setback of the first Everton goal put him off his game and he dominated the centre of the park. Did you notice he stayed on his feet for every tackle yesterday ? And for an old guy who already has said he intends to stop playing in May Per put in a hell of a good performance.

Best goal of the afternoon ? Mesut’s header. Ticked all the boxes.

Of our opponent’s then Pickford flung himself around with commendable effort to ensure the thrashing did not move into the territory of total humiliation. Sunlun last season, the Toffees this season. He does like a goalkeeping challenge that lad! I rather liked young Vlacic as well, but I cant really explain why (?)

No complaints on Pawson and a reasonably clean game. Gueye was never going to last another hour after his first card and I think even he knew that.

So with that gushing waterfall of clichéd and purloined prose I shall bid you auf wiedersehen for the week as I head up to Windermere.

Nelson has brought his lead  so I shall not be too lonely wandering as a cloud.

Enjoy your week.

Good Morning Positives Arsenal,

A satisfactory result and, I thought, a good display last night from a line –up formed from returning casualties and youngsters, with just a hint of je ne sais quoi with the surprise insertion of Mo Elneny into the centre of the back three.

Of the game itself I admit just 14 hours on the details are fading and thee was not a lot of high quality football. My abiding impression of the evening is the crowd rocking noisily  from the appearance of the teams to the final whistle, all except one moment that is. On the pitch I have flashes of Jack surging forward with the ball at his feet, Francis crashing in and out of tackles, and Reiss Nelson always available and in space to deliver a series of good crosses. Petr Cech was the busier first half goal keeper and he was very much in charge at the back last night, shouting and pointing at his makeshift defence with gusto. For a long period each time Matt Debuchy touched the ball I crossed my fingers but for a man who has played no first team football for a season he looked genuinely sharp and fit. He has come a long and no doubt very frustrating road. His return does however open the options up for Arsene to rest Hector, if required.

If the game of a swirling mist of half images then it is illuminated by one shaft of light, a few seconds of footballing quality that will remain in the memory long after the 2017/2018 Europa League campaign is consigned to historical record.

The neat and speedy build up to create the chance for Giroud was good by Jack and Theo, but Olivier’s finish with his back to goal, surrounded by defenders and with a gently looping ball was superb. There was no luck, no random chance in his careful guiding of the ball into the corner of the Belgrade net. For at least five seconds even the Red Star hordes were silenced. I have stolen this from elsewhere this morning but the line “he may not be a world class striker by the conventional measure, but he scores plenty of world class goals” sums up our Frenchman perfectly. It was a night on which, until the 86^th minute not a lot had gone right for him, with much sweat but no reward, but he persevered. He who endures conquers. When the season is over that goal is still likely to be among my best moments.

The only disappointment I had last night was the red card for the Rodic which I thought was a little harsh and Francis’ involvement in the player’s second yellow regrettable.

So off to Goodison on Sunday. I watched the closing few minutes of their game against Lyon last night. Dead man walking Ronald, dead man walking. Needless to say we shall have probably ten different starters at kick off time but, as Arsene made clear in his pre and post match, Jack is not that far away from the Premier League start he craves. The momentum is positive.

Enjoy your Friday.

Dobar Dan Positive Arsenal fans,

My apologies on behalf of the Board that we have been lax in failing to produce a proper pre game review for the  tie in Belgrade a little later but I trust you will find the evening nonetheless enjoyable.

Red Star are tucked into 2nd place in the Europa group and at home, in front of 50,000+ excited locals, they have to fancy their chances of nicking at least a point. Our last Champions League evening in nearby Zagreb was a little aggravating, if you remember. Red Star have not lost in Europe this season, are top of the Serbian Super League  and their home form has always been the foundation of their success. Given the largely comfortable results this week in the CL from English clubs my heart says be bullish, my head says we should be controlled and  wait our chance. No gung-ho, no charging in. A French referee and linos which may assist us. Let us take the points, which would pretty much guarantee progression to the next stage, and get back home.

Clearly we shall see a much changed Arsenal side from the starting line up at Vicarage Road and Jack appears to be champing at the bit to get at the Serbs. Olly is surely to lead the line and is it time to give Theo his chance?  There is one player who has no risk of fatigue depriving us of his talents this season. And the is a rumour of Matt Debuchy starting !!!!

For those of you with an eye for coincidence it appears that Dusan Savic,  who scored the winner in our only other game against to Serbs, has a son playing tonight. Listen to the strangest commentary from way back when. Nice goal though.

Kick of at 6pm UK – enjoy the game.