Positively Arsenal

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Arsenal vs WBA – Fingers Crossed.

Posted by pedantic George @arseblagger on September 25, 2017 in All Posts

A guest post from @Labo_Goon

Good day Positivistas!

We all know how pundits just love their top 6 mini-league tables,

because for them this is where Premier League titles are won

and where the divide between Champions League qualification and Europa

occur.

They have a point you know, but……

The other side of the coin is that many games vs teams in the

“also-run” category aren’t exactly cakewalks. How many times in the

past did teams fall a mere few points shorts from being crown PL Kings

or even making CL qualification because of slip-ups against the also-rans ?

This is what make these games so vital. If you drop too many

unnessacary points here, it’s irrelevent how well you did in the top 6

mini-league come May. Something we as Gooners know all too well.

Against the top 6 teams you know exactly what to expect, they have a

certain style, some cracking players that will punish you if you lose

focus for even a second. But this… this damn also-runs are the

banana skins man. Complacency can set in, Ben Foster can turn up like

a man auditioning for a ‘top 6 call-up’, and one or two of their

attacking players can get bloody slippery as hell. Don’t even dare

give them a set-piece anywhere close to goal, training ground stuff

can suddenly just fall in place.

Don’t forget the refs man. How many times did they become the subject of

discussion – for sucker punching us to create distance between

ourselves and sweetheart clubs at the top of log? A legitimate goal

being disallowed, a few of the most straightforward penalties not given,

a player getting stopped via chokehold being waved on, penalties given

against us from only god knows where? Match officials love stealing

the show!

Now today! With the expectation that WBA will play from deep, Arsenal

need to be on their A game and not too adventurous, the opposition

will be very patient as their primary aim will be not to lose. If we

over commit too much, a misplaced pass could lead to… … Let me

just say, whatever scenario, Arsenal twitter refers to it as: “typical

Arsenal”. So that is not needed tonight.

After an initial poor start to our season we seem to have pulled

ourselves up and are WWDW in our last 4 games. Most pleasing for me

about this is that we kept 3 clean sheets, conceding a solitary fluke

goal. So more of that defensive discipline wouldn’t be asking too

much.

On our opponents: Just last Wednesday they pushed a strong Man City

team to their limits. In Evans and McAuley they got one of the better

CB pairings of teams in the mid to bottom half, so chances will be

few, and we need to bury one as soon as it comes. Allowing them to

become too comfortable as the game moves along, could be very

frustrating for us.

Tony Pulis has been a long time admirer of Arsène Wenger and in the

very articulate Kieran Gibbs he found himself a gateway to the Arsenal

way. So no doubt our ex player has become the de facto technical

adviser leading up to the game all week. That should tell us they know

our weaknesses and our strengths, to the man.

If we play with the same discipline and care we did Bournemouth and

Chelsea, there’s no reason why we wouldn’t have joy at the end

whistle.

On team selection: I think we’ve reached the point where we can refer

to a predicted line-up as “the usual suspects”, with them one can

expect the distinguished Mesut Özil back after missing out last

Sunday, as well as Alexis Sánchez the obvious replacement for Danny

Welbeck.

Saed Kolašinac is a player that excites me, very compact and

disciplined, so it will be interesting to see the chemistry building

up between him and Alexis on the left side of the pitch. This is a

fixture for the Chilean to get back to his best, so stay in the

attacking half of the field and trust your team mates, there’s no need

to play fetch. If he can try more of those passes he gave Theo vs the

Donny’s, he’ll become a treat to even those he frustrates so much.

Ramsey and Xhaka were the ones pulling the strings last 2 PL fixtures.

If they win the midfield battle, it will make the job of the rest so

much easier.

As the boss always say, our most important game is the next one. This

is that game! And my buzz phrase is: play as individuals and we’ll be

left biting our nails, play as a team and we are in for a treat.

We are favourites to win this game but we also shouldn’t take anything

for granted, fans and players alike. Let’s keep the faith and trust

Arsenal to colour Monday RED.

Good luck to all watching the game from wherever and don’t forget

keeping them fingers crossed. Our boys need all the help they can get

and Arsenal supporters… know your role, we got one job!

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39 Comments

Balance.

Posted by pedantic George @arseblagger on September 23, 2017 in All Posts

We constantly hear pundits commenting on the “balance” of a team. But how does this state of balance come about? How is it developed, nurtured and maintained?

Where is the centre of balance in a team, and what is the perfect balance? I suspect Pep sees the balance of a team very differently to Jose, and yet both have produced very balanced teams in the past. Arsene, Klopp and Pep favour an attacking style, whereas Jose and Conte favour a defensive setup (despite Jose’s protestations to the contrary) and Pochettino seems to have found a very good spot in the middle.

Guardiola point blank refuses to compromise his attacking style. Why should he? It’s brought about unprecedented success and made him the most sought after manager in the world. Yet as soon as it doesn’t work, expert are suggesting he should?

Arsene is the same, achieved the impossible, playing with a style and panache never witness before, and yet he should change? I can understand if people don’t like a managers style, but to ask him to change? Do me a favour.

I see three ways of finding a good balance. It can be developed, bought or stumbled across. It think Arsene developed the Arteta/Ramsey partnership,has bought Xhaka to recreate it and stumbled across the Santi/Coquelin pairing. It would be lovely if he could just nip out to the CM shop and buy a Vieira/Gilberto pairing, but that ain’t happening.

We saw last week that the team looked better without Sanchez (and perhaps Ozil too?) but surely the answer is to find a balance that can include our star players. But its not inconceivable that the best balance does not include the best players.

The easiest way of building a balanced team is to identify what and who you need, and go out and buy that player. However, if you are Arsenal, rather than United or City, this is not a realistic option. So we can buy second shelf players and accept being second best, or we buy the best players we can, and try to find a balance with them. We have to accept though that this is a more difficult way.

Then there are players like Theo, that on the face of it don’t fit into the overall playing style of a possession team, yet his skill set brings a balance to the team. His constant runs off the ball are mostly unseen and unappreciated, but he gives a balance that isn’t quantifiable.

What seems easy for fans is in fact the most difficult of tasks in football.What we do know for certain is that when Arsene gets the right players, he can put out a balanced team, getting those players in today’s market place may prove impossible, but then again……..????

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41 Comments

A Disappointing Win.How does that work?

Posted by pedantic George @arseblagger on September 21, 2017 in All Posts

No Andy this morning , so it was on me to do the review, fortunately Passenal did a great job in the comments section last night.

Don’t listen to the ASB on Twitter . The game was fine. I think some people are just annoyed that we didn’t put a hatful past The Donny’s, but sometimes it’s just fine margins that stand between a win and a comprehensive beating. A few inches and Giroud’s 100th would have been a goal to remember. Bearing in mind this was another mix and match team with inexperienced youngsters, players who spend more time on the bench than the pitch and some on the long road back from injury I thought they all did well.

For me Elneny was the stand out performer. Reiss Nelson looked like a fish out of water as a wing-back, but he did grow into the game. I think some of our youngsters found it hard to maintain focus for the full 90 minutes as they are not used to playing at this level of intensity. Jack is showing promising signs of getting back to his best. I wonder if Giroud’s quest for his 100th goal is inhibiting him somewhat? He was much more involved than in the Europa league game, but he gets no protection whatsoever from the man in the middle – he is constantly dragged down and fouled with little consequence for the opposing CB’s.

I was pleased that despite their public proclamations there was little evidence of Doncaster trying to win through foul play. Maybe the officials had a word prior to the game. I understand they are struggling in their league, but maybe going toe-to-toe with The Arsenal and only losing by one goal will give them a kick-start – they were not terrible. Their goal keeper made a few good saves. And let’s say a word for our much maligned number 2. He had little to do, but did what was required when called into action. As for Alexis, I actually thought he was better than in the EL game, but he does hold onto the ball too long and fails to make the simple pass when it’s on in his desire for the spectacular or personal glory.

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84 Comments

Arsenal v Four Yorkshiremen

Posted by anicoll5 on September 20, 2017 in All Posts

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So My Positive Friends,

It is the Carabao Cup tonight with our lads pitting their wits against Fergie Junior’s side, a team currently suffering a run of poor League form as they sit 19^th in League one with just one win from eight matches. They did manage to put away Hull in the last CC round however. Talk of 5,500 Donny fans in the Clock End. Given Spurs poor turnout last night I hope the Ems is at least half full and we manage to match them for volume.

Our Team ? We know it will be a very different starting eleven from that which marched into the arena to do battle with Chelsea on Sunday. I fancy we shall have an experienced core of 4-5 including Jack, Olivier, Per and Elneny and the remainder will be youngsters. Beyond that I shall leave it to Arsene and Bould to sort out. Clearly it is a night to blood a few new faces, but we want to progress into the next round. While the Carabao Cup is not the Champions League by the time the semi finals are in sight with Wembley to follow it is a trophy worth competing for and, hopefully, winning.

Their team ? I know nothing of our opponents’ playing personnel, other than they are led by a 36 year old striker, James Coppinger. Mr Coppinger @Coppinger26 is well known as a Doncaster “legend” so I hope if our young lads find themselves marking the old codger they treat him with due respect. Given their League difficulties and seven goals in their eight league games they will not expect to outscore us. They will however be on the big stage for once and will work hard.

No doubt our visitors are hopeful that they will enjoy the evening, even if they are spanked. And why not ?

I see in the media there is talk of Arsene accommodating ol’Bluenose himself at the stadium. After years of what seemed like real dislike between the two best managers in PL history peace has broken out, it is said that there is mutual respect bordering on affection. Aye – In time all things must pass.

Good luck with the streams tonight – I suspect we shall all need it. And for those attend the game enjoy your evening.

I attach below a link to the last time we took on Donny in the FA Cup in January 1953, a year we won the Cup. Mr Cholmondley-Warner commentating;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AesrP43kXo4

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60 Comments

Arsenal’s British Core Is Alive And Well

Posted by shotta_gooner on September 19, 2017 in All Posts

british-core

Aaron Ramsey’s Man-of-the-Match performance vs Chelsea last Sunday had me thinking. Despite the numerous “doubting Thomases”, some of whom have made every effort to slander and malign the Welshman especially after any bad team performance, he demonstrated a majestic show of technical prowess, maturity and boldness that to some degree repaid the faith Wenger had invested in him after he became the cornerstone of the British Core in 2012-13.

Let me explain why I think Aaron’s performance was specifically a victory for the British core. In 2012 Wenger and the club made a huge deal of the fact that five young Britishers (Jenkinson, Ramsey, Wilshere, Gibbs and Oxlade-Chamberlain) had signed long-term contracts making them the foundation for the footballing future of the club. According to the boss at the time:

“I believe when you have a core of British players, it’s always easier to keep them together,

“We are delighted that these five young players have all signed new long-term contracts. The plan is to build a team around a strong basis of young players in order to get them to develop their talent at the club.”

But during the last transfer window, with the sale of Chamberlain and Gibbs as well as the loan of Jenkinson, the usual suspects were quick to conclude the policy had been a failure and to heap scorn on Wenger in particular. This was done with the usual emotive, sensationalist language with not a shred of factual analysis to back it up.

This is the headline from one of the typical click-baiting, whoremongering blogs:

Is the “British Core” Wenger’s biggest failure?

USA Today:

British ‘core’ broken up at Arsenal

Not only did the American paper recount those who were gone but the writer, via the Associated Press, came to the remarkable conclusion:

“As for Ramsey, he can no longer be labeled a first-team regular. He was in the team for Arsenal’s last match, a humiliating 4-0 loss at Liverpool, but was substituted at halftime.”

In all my research there was one blogger who disputed USA Today but even then he still had it partially wrong:

“…everyone seems to be missing is that the British core is not over. Not even close. In fact, I’d argue that it’s still going pretty strong in just one man – Aaron Ramsey.”

While Aaron is the bright and shining star of the class of 2012, the British core is alive and well. It simply needs so-called professional journalists, pundits and bloggers to focus on presenting facts to the public rather than alarming headlines.

First of all the British core has brought infinitely more success to the club than the foreign-imports of the post-Invincible era could ever dream. Three FA cups over four years can be directly attributable to domestic talent. Take the FA Cup final in 2014, two goals down and it took a goal line clearance by Kieran Gibbs to prevent a certainly impossible to recover-from three goal deficit. As it seemed ordained only in retrospect, it took Ramsey who, up till then had experienced a golden season until it was interrupted by injury, to return from his muscular “horribilis” to score the winning goal in extra time. Again in the 2017 final Aaron was on hand to score the winner. Don’t get me wrong, these were all great team efforts, but unlike the past, when the chips were on the line, there was a certain Welshman brave and bold enough to embrace, not shrink from, the opportunity fate had presented. To my mind, for that alone the British core spells SUCCESS.

Secondly, the British core was never presented as and neither could it be considered as fixed and frozen in time. According to the same brain-dead, sneering pundits and bloggers, who can never avoid a cliché even if it was lying in the sewer, a week in football is a long time. By that same token five years in football is an eternity. Who would expect the same talent to progress or even regress at the same rate. Only a fool would take the usual churn in football as a sign of failure. Take the following changes in the British core since 2012:

2014: Englishman Calum Chambers was signed from Southampton and was instantly promoted as a member of the British core. How quickly people forget. He is back at the club after a year on loan.

2016: Wishere and Jenkinson went out on loan. Based on media reports, that did not herald the end of the British core.

2016: Rob Holding was signed from Bolton on a long term deal and according to ESPNFC “is seen as one of England’s most promising defenders” and “could potentially form an all-English pairing with Chambers at centre-back in the future.” By any definition this was a strengthening, not a weakening of the core.

My third and final point is, as it currently stands, Wenger and Arsenal continue to recruit and grow the pool of domestic talent in the first team, not merely via transfers but by gradually promoting them via the Academy.

2015:Alex Iwobi, who started off at Arsenal as schoolboy, rose through the age-groups and was promoted to the first team where he has remained. By the way, he represented England at youth level but chose to be Nigerian, via his parents, for purposes of international football. A rose by another name or an English bull.

2016 : Ainsley Maitland-Niles who is also another academy product is promoted to the first team. He had sparing EPL opportunities in his first year but based on the 2017-18 pre-season he is set to get more games in his sophomore year.

2017-18: Reiss Nelson and Joe Willock, both young Englishmen, are promoted to the first team. Both showed talent in pre-season and despite their teenage years seem set to be gradually involved with the veterans. Nelson was already given minutes in the one Europa League game so far.

As I always emphasize, MSM journos, pundits and bloggers are simply engaged in “trying to fool some people all the time,” but doing any elementary research shows them as deceitful con-men and women. A good look at Arsenal’s 2018 squad shows despite losing the years of invested in Oxlade Chamberlain and Gibbs, the British core remains strong and growing.

The following is based on the publicly available EPL data from whoscored.com which only goes back as far as the 2009-10 season. (Alex Iwobi is excluded simply because of his FIFA representation but he is English by any other legal definition.)

British Players	Apps	Mins	Goals	Assists
Ramsey	206	13,634	30	32
Walcott	203	12,492	59	35
Wilshere	104	6,979	6	11
Welbeck	59	3,394	13	8
Chambers	36	1,976	2	1
Holding	5	967	0	0
Maitland-Niles	2	2	0	0
Reiss-Nelson	0	0	0	0
Willock	0	0	0	0
Total	615	39,444	110	87

I will end as started. Aaron Ramsey is simply the shining star of the British core. He shone brightly at Chelsea at Sunday. As is evident by the data, he is almost always relied on by Arsene Wenger. As he he has demonstrated consistently over the past four years, once he is at his best Arsenal will always have a chance against any club in any competition.

Tags: Aaron Ramsey, Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, British Core Permalink

45 Comments

Arsenal: defensive drills and Luis blows

Posted by anicoll5 on September 17, 2017 in All Posts

Good evening Positive fans,

I watched the best performance of the season we put together over 90 minutes. Very few clubs put together such a thorough defensive performance at the Bridge and our game without the ball was excellent today. Mustafi did not put a foot wrong all day and left Morata a petulant heap, Kosc was tidy and rarely under pressure and Nacho cleaned up whatever crumbs his partners dropped. A well deserved and hard earned point – more satisfying because the scarfists and the ‘experts’ had marked us down for a Good thrashing – idiots one and all.

Looking slightly forward and across Hector’s return to his position as the best young full back/ wing back in the PL takes another step. It was at this ground his progress was derailed. And the Bosnian eh ? First name on the team sheet at the moment.

Congratulation to Alan Smith for the most inane comment I have ever heard, to the effect that he hoped “someone had had a word” with Aaron and Xhaka After the Anfield game because if no one had “it’s criminal”.

No Alan the players and the coaches and the manager sat round in total silence for 3 weeks. Very energetic from both, controlled the midfield after the first 20 minutes.

Up front two first half chances, Danny’s header and Laca’s rebound, both difficult but on another day …..?

For a manager who I think is very good at his job Conte allows his players to plead insanity for too often. Luis is a f******* liability.

No complaints with Oliver – always a tricky game to control and at times the home side tested his good nature.

Overall a point was a fair result.

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92 Comments

Arsenal vs Chelsea – A Bridge Too Far?

Posted by pedantic George @arseblagger on September 17, 2017 in All Posts

The last time Arsenal beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge was over 5 years

ago. That was a looong time ago.

So it’s no surprise that this, along with Arsenal rather dismal record

vs top 6 opposition last season, is the leading narrative used in the

media space building up to the game, while adding a bit of a twist to

the David and Goliath story, where David, who ran out of gummyberry

juice, is now left in total “shambles”… at Goliath’s mercy.

Fair enough! Going to the Bridge, or rather, leaving the Bridge hasn’t

exactly been a joyous exercise these last few years, not even with the

world-class talents of Mesut Özil and Alexis Sánchez in our ranks. But

then again, the Chelsea teams of then have been bus parkers

extraordinaire, their primary form of attack being the counter, and

with great success compared to the low-budget forces from elsewhere.

This Antonio Conte outfit however is different, he wants his team

playing the good stuff, and that suits our style better.

So last season vs top 6 opposition aside and looking at Chelsea in

isolation; the last 12 months we played them 4 times, beating them on

3 of those occasions. Granted none of those games won were at

Chelsea’s spiritual home, but it was recent and it should tell us that

there’s no need to be apprehensive about these pricks.

Arsenal players know they can beat Chelsea, Chelsea players are aware

our players know they can beat them. Stamford Bridge? Meh! We just

need to play to our potential.

We now also have Saed Kolašinac, an absolute beast that just wanna run

through players and with a left boot Podolski would be proud of, and

Alexandre Lacazette that looks extremely calm in front of goal.

With me touching on the last 5 years, and a little bit on the last 12

months, what does the last month tell me leading up to today’s

fixture:

Chelsea started their PL campaign in embarrassing fashion vs Burnley,

since then it look like they have pulled themselves together. Our

moment of embarrassment came at Anfield, so hopefully that was when

our lightbulb went on.

Following the international break Chelsea beat Leicester 2-1 in a

close contest, of cause with the help of a ref and lino, allowing a

Morata off-side goal, then their first team (scared much) wiped out

Azerbaijani giants, Qarabag. We beat Bournemouth pretty convincingly,

with a wonderful display of Wenger-ball, then comfortably in the end

dispose of Köln with an experimental team short of match fitness. So

we go into this game fairly even, the one advantage Chelsea could have

though is that they, well, have home advantage. But as I said; meh!

Make no mistake though, Chelsea might be suffering a fall from grace

in punditry circles as they are now only seen as the team-elect to

“put pressure on” – ahem, Spurs busy with some voodoo or whatever –

after they sold Matic to a rival to finance a replacement for a player

that is still part of their squad… they can be very destructive on

their day.

Team selection: I think with Oxlade now gone, and hopefully putting a

curse on Liverpool, selecting a matchday 11 became a bit easier for

Arsène Wenger, as it’s one less of those pamper type players. Leaving

Bellerín and Kolašinac first choice wing backs on their respective

sides and the rest pretty much selecting themselves if available.

A spot of bother could be Mesut Özil. Unconfirmed news going around is

that he could sit out today due to injury. I would like to think that

the manager will leave the decision up the last minutes with fixture

difficulty easing a bit over the next 4 weeks. If he can’t play, Mo

Elneny look very sharp on Thursday and had a near perfect successful

pass rate. He’s not a flamboyant player, but he does do the basics

right, even in games we seem to struggle. So he could have dibs coming

in for the German, with either Ramsey or Xhaka possibly making a

positional switch to compensate.

Here’s the selection conundrum…

Arsène’s one headache though could be whether to Alexis Sánchez or not

to Alexis Sánchez.

Welbeck might not be everybody’s cup of tea but he is a team player

first and thus vital in the application of the manager’s tactics. This

is the one area I feel a tough decision need to be made, because

Chelsea will exploit a not fully match fit yet Alexis Sánchez’s

weakness. It’s one thing carelessly giving away possession when we are

on the front foot vs sub-standard opposition, another doing so vs a

team filled with truly world-class attacking players.

In media circles they say Arsenal is only one defeat away from a

“crisis”, I say Arsenal is always one big victory away from going on

good run. Playing as “a team” today will be key.

“Alles van die beste” to all going to the Bridge and those watching

the game at home/pub today.

Let’s keep hope alive, because it’s the hope man, it’s the hope…

A guest post form @Labo_Goon

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56 Comments

That Was A Riot.

Posted by pedantic George @arseblagger on September 15, 2017 in All Posts

Good afternoon Positive Arsenal fans,

I did not expect to be writing the post match commentary on the Cologne game as I was travelling to the US and, having taken off at 6.00 pm by 8.00ish I was very long way West of Ireland, quite a long way South east of Greenland. According to the polite chap from American Airlines we are at 34,000 feet (and he knows).

No1 son however was fiddling with the seatback entertainment console and lo and behold …. what pops up ? Lucky kick off was delayed.

Global game eh – there is no escape, no release from the Arsenal – even when the air is thin outside the game will get through.

Admittedly I’d missed the first half hour and other than the gruesome replay of David’s little difficulty I saw nothing else. A decent line up, enough good players to do the job. Good to see Sanchez and Giroud starting.

That final fifteen first half minutes was ok, a little reminiscent of our Britannia trip. Good to the edge of the box but solid defence and a lack of sharpness/guile took us no further. Midfield of Elneny and Iwobi not used to working together produced a lot of effort but not much creative output.

Second half kicking off so I will be back from time to time, optimistic we shall trouble the scorer…….

Get the F*** in you beautiful Bosnian – he really is very good.

This is more like it, let’s concentrate though lads – no silly second for the visitors. Enjoying Hector Bellerin tonight.

Cometh the hour cometh the Chilean assassin – super strike – and that is why I think he is a man to keep.

Just crossed the Newfoundland coast. Jack bright, surely the 3rd is within our grasp?

And Hector obliges, first to the block and a good finish, intelligent dummy from Jack. I think that is the Germans done for.

A harder game than I expected but credit to Cologne. From the hour I saw Elneny can be pleased with himself and his push for first team action. Sanchez is looking fit and dynamic again( ed. I hope he was joking?)

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99 Comments

Arsenal vs FC Köln .

Posted by pedantic George @arseblagger on September 14, 2017 in All Posts

Per_Mertesacker_2662132b

I’m here again with my deep insight into team selection and tactics. I hope you all appreciate it and learn.

Tonight we play the strongest German team in the Bundesliga. Its clear they are as they are holding up everyone else. In other words they are bottom of the league. On the face of it this should be a straightforward game. A sure recipe for disaster.

Its an impossible task to predict the team but none the less, I’ll have a go.

Ospina will play in goal.

Three centre backs will play, two of them won’t be Koscielny (rested) and Chambers (injured). I suspect Per will start, and I hope he does.

Goodness knows who will play at wingback, I suspect it might be our first choices of Bellerin and Superman(sorry I mean Kolasinac)

Our midfield two will most likely be Elneny and perhaps Jack. Although I’m not convinced Arsene will want to start with Jack just yet, so perhaps Maitland-Niles. It certainly won’t be Rambo, who is excused boots along with Ozil.

Of the front three the only one I’m confident will start is Giroud. Sanchez I think will and also Iwobi.

So that’s my best shot at being Mystic George.

Lets hope for a good game in a good atmosphere giving us a good win.

I’m looking forward to it, a little light relief before the trials of Chelsea come Sunday.

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73 Comments

Arsenal vs Human Stupidity – The Bournemouth Experience

Posted by shotta_gooner on September 12, 2017 in All Posts

Einstein universe and stupidity

So two weeks after an embarrassing loss to Liverpool, Arsenal has a complete turnaround vs Bournemouth, demolishing them 3:0, toying with the Cherries for long periods. You would expect from mainstream media and Arsenal bloggers-tweeters-podcasters unreserved appreciation for the manager and the team for putting the ignominy of Liverpool behind them. After all prior to the game, they were universal in stressing the importance of this fixture:

Blogger #1:

It’s clear what we need to do: win.

Blogger #2:

The reality is that today is a match we’re expected to win. Bournemouth, just two places below us, are sacrificial lambs, even though I’d expect them to be obdurate. Not agriculturally like a Pulis or Allardyce side but well-organised as they have been since joining the top flight.

Blogger #3:

Didn’t even do a pre-game review spending the days prior to in an orgy of self-congratulatory pieces stressing the importance of his opinion.

Not surprisingly, like Charlie Brown in the long running comic strip Peanuts, the manager and the players must have felt perplexed with little gratitude shown for matching or exceeding expectations set for them by those so-called supporters.

Blogger #1:

The players will know that it was bread and butter stuff though. If this was getting back on the horse after falling off at Anfield, it was a Shetland Pony.

Blogger #2:

It was half-decent preparation for next weekend’s trip to Chelsea but let’s not go overboard in proclaiming we’re on the rise again. That was one good performance in a match we were expected to win.

Blogger #3:

Don’t get me wrong, it was a lovely performance, but the big test is at Chelsea next week. For all the fun of our game today, it has to be said, Bournemouth were appalling.

The mainstream media were just as reluctant to shell out any praises.

ESPN:

The Gunners had lost to both Stoke and Liverpool heading into the international break but they were never in trouble here as Welbeck inspired them to a 3-0 win against a poor Cherries side.

BBC:

The home fans needed a performance and were treated to a clinical one as the Gunners cruised against a poor Bournemouth side.

Daily Mail:

At the moment Arsenal feel like one bad result away from chaos every match.

Now most of my readers would immediately dismiss this as the usual anti-Arsene, anti-Arsenal whingeing by mainstream and social media, trying as usual to make light of any Arsenal success. My aim in today’s blog is to argue there is more at play at here. What we are witnessing is a demonstration of stupidity as outlined by professor Carlo Cipolla, an Italian economist who while at the University Of California, Berkley identified The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity.

Before I progress, let me first get this out of the way; not all Arsenal fans are stupid. But, to be sure, there are a lot of stupid fans who “support” Arsenal Football Club.

In Cipolla’s analysis stupid people are seen as a group, more powerful by far than major organizations such as the Mafia and the military industrial complex, which without regulations, leaders or manifesto nonetheless manages to operate to great effect and with incredible coordination.

Are there any groups more uncoordinated than mainstream football journalists, pundits, Arsenal bloggers-podcasters-tweeters-and supporters group, many of whom claim to support Arsenal and who function at complete distance from each other but are completely united by the most outrageously stupid ideas?

Every quotation above is uniform in discounting how important it was to not only win, but win so comprehensively. Despite their diversity these groups act in total conformity with Cipolla’s model, i.e. they are uniform in their stupidity.

Contrast this with the very experienced Petr Cech who expressed in his post game presser, that this was an enormous result:

‘I’m happy with the response but I hope it’s the last time we have to do that because I hope from now on we actually play at this level in every game because in this league if you are a fraction off the level then you can get easily beaten like we were at Liverpool.’

Clearly the result was inconsistent with social and mainstream media’s ad nauseam dooming and gloom for the past 8-9 years and predictions of Wenger’s imminent Waterloo, which as Mark Twain would have observed is more than premature. So they continue to make stupid statements and promote stupid behavior which is clearly inimical to the success for the club they claim to desire.

They give truth to Cipolla’s five fundamental laws of stupidity:

Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

Some may argue the number of stupid Arsenal supporters are not that many based on the failure of the extremists to mount a decent-sized crowd in any of their demonstrations which up to now, at best, have seen a few score with bedsheets and A-4 paper. But if one notes the hundreds of thousands who support certain bloggers via Facebook and twitter showing their apparent sympathy for their consistently stupid point of view then Cipolla’s thesis runs true.

The probability that a certain person (will) be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.

Most of these journos, pundits, Arsenal-bloggers, tweeters and podcasters are eminently “handshakeable” people. Some are from the professions, many have advanced degrees and diplomas from eminent institutions and others are self-made. Yet many are singularly united in their stupidity, at least when it comes to the football club.

A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.

You have to wonder what these bloggers, podcaster and tweeters gain in doing everything to damage their club despite it being the 3^rd most successful in the Premier League over the past 21 years while being massively outspent by three other clubs, two of whom enjoy almost limitless sources of external funding. You would think they have more to gain commercially and reputation-wise if the club overcomes the odds to win the PL. Even then 3 FA cups out of the last 4 would be something to brag about and a base for further success.

Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.

When we closed the door to all and sundry at Positively Arsenal it was based on our experience of how stupid people can easily takeover a blog so long as the blogger is willing to deal and/or associate with stupid people. I would argue that Cipolla’s law completely vindicates our decision.

Cipolla concluded: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

Consider for a moment if the Arsenal board, particularly the owner had given in to the uniform stupidity of the mainstream media and Arsenal’s uber bloggers-tweeters-podcasters. If the owner had given in to stupid people inside and outside the directorate, the club could have easily lost its most important asset of the past 21 years. Apparently it was touch and go right down to that fateful meeting last May between Kroenke and Wenger. Now we know Arsenal’s loss would have been PSG’s gain and Real Madrid’s before that and Bayern Munich at some point, all of them willing to snap up Wenger before the ink was dry on his goodbye letter.

Yet we have an eminent blogger declaring that as of August 31^st:

“The current ‘team’, consisting of Wenger, Gazidis and Dick Law, is not big enough, decisive enough, or well-connected enough to cope with the modern transfer market.”

Well f*ck my old boots. Over 100 years combined experience at the top-top level, having outsmarted every greedy agent, selling club and 3rd party owner on the planet has been reduced to one outrageous sentence. Isn’t this the definition why stupid people are so dangerous?

This is the level of low denominator stupidity that our various media set itself as it guarantees revenue via buying of newspapers, clicks online and viewership on tv. But don’t expect them to publicize Cipolla’s findings even though they have been around since 1956. Should his laws gain currency all of them would be out of business sooner or later.