Good morning Positives,

A stylish victory brought fans, and it may be a few players, back to footballing life after the international break and the trough of our preceding result.

We played high speed football, with passing accurate and our players’ movement crisp. Our two Summer signings Lacazette and Sead stood out all afternoon. Ozil performed immaculately, Ramsey and Xhaka raced back and forth, all industry and nicking the ball first. And Danny Welbeck eh ? If ever a player deserved a wave of the wand of luck, as I’d say Danny had by being served a tricky but scoreable chance in the 6^th minute. The stadium erupted. If Welbeck’s first strike had a whiff of fortune his second was a controlled finish, bottom corner, no chance for Begovic. And Alexandre’s goal in the 27^th, or was it the 28^th, minute ?

As AW on Danny said;

“Yep, I’m pleased with his performance, I kept faith in him and overall I think he is getting stronger and stronger and more confident. Confidence plays a big part in his game and I loved his finishing on his second goal.”

“Kept faith in him”. It was Welbeck’s day. Nice snap from the Daily Mail today at the top to celebrate.

Defensively ? Arsene stuck with his three formation, and my view for what it is worth is that Kosc, Musatfi and Nacho are our best 3. Kosc made just one tackle yesterday and Petr Cech just one save, just one.

And Giroud and Sanchez for that final 15 minutes – they looked HUNGRY.

No controversies, did anyone notice the referee ?

We were much too good for Bournemouth, simple as that.

Of our visitors they did not seem the same ‘together’ team that turned up last season and put up such a battle at the Ems, and then gave us an even worse fright with the 3-3 evening on the South coast. Third season syndrome ? Eddie Howe has spent a lot of cash but his probably more talented players do not have the same organisation as his earlier group. Swift action needed.

We have an interesting week ahead. Our first Europa League game ever and our first game in a second tier Euro completion since Galatasaray in May 2000. I see the stadium is sold out. It should be a good night. You will be pleased to know that Cologne suffered a sound 3-0 drubbing in the Bundesliga by Augsburg yesterday, the hat-trick of goals scored by a player well known to England fans Alfred Finnbogasson (shudders). Our German opponents sit firmly bottom of their league with 0 points from three games. I trust we’ll not take them lightly.   Even so …….

I shall not be with you on Thursday as during the game I shall be high over the Atlantic. The Chelsea game however I shall watch somewhere in NYC and, technology permitting, get straight back to you!

Enjoy your week.

Good morning all you positives.

We go into today’s game with me not having a clue what team will play, what players will play and what shape we will adopt. So anyone hoping for the least little bit of insight can stop reading now.

For a while it looked like we had jumped on the “3 at the back” bandwagon permanently. Now it seems less sure. I’ve noticed that when Arsene wants the team to buck up, he makes a change to the tried and tested 4 across. The 3 seemed to play to the strengths of Xhaka and Ramsey, but recent results, and performances, have not give much confidence that it was more than a fleeting glimpse of a working partnership. The problem is that those two don’t seem to work too well in a 4 2 3 1 either.However they are both top class and I really can’t imagine a best 11 without either of them in it.

So what to do?

Go 4 3 3 and introduce Francis? It would make us stronger in the middle and offer more protection to a 4 at the back, but leaves us shoehorning the 3 (who I suspect will be first choice) of Lacazette, Alexis and Ozil ,into the front 3, meaning Ozil will be asked to play wide right.

So all in all, just about anything could happen. But whatever happens, it really has to work. Another bad result, with Chelsea away, up next, will see a meltdown not seen since Pompeii.

However often we tell ourselves that its a minority of fans that are against Arsene, the board, the team and Doris the tea lady, there are definitely enough to put the cat among the pigeons if the worst, or anything near the worst, happens this afternoon.

Make no mistake, it may only be game 4, and it may only be Bournemouth at our gaff, but this game is huge.

Lets just hope all goes well, otherwise I’m building a bomb shelter.

P.S. I’m sure it will.

Good Evening any Positive fans out there,

I am not man to spend an entire evening crouching behind the sofa so I thought I’d get straight to the post-match review, cauterise the wound with trite expression, lance the boil with the balm of language, suck deep on the f****** lemon of defeat. Please help yourself from the plate above.

A shocker of an afternoon, more so because with the return of Sanchez and of Kosc I rather fancied that as an attacking force we might be more penetrative, and across the back line the Frenchman’s experience would steady us in the face of the expected Liverpool onslaught. A little surprised at Welbz up front alone but I could see the sense of the set up.

As it turned out my expectations were not met, and in reality we very rarely looked as likely to get the white bouncy thing into the oblong post thing. Zero shots or headers on target in 94 minutes sums up the afternoon in that respect. In respect of our defensive attributes the return of Kosc provide no discernible improvement. In fact I thought Laurent played quite well as he has not kicked a ball in anger for eight weeks but his fellow defenders touch at times resembled that a skittish kitten, jabbing at a tempting ball of wool, all nervous and fluffy.

Fair play to Liverpool who in Salah and Sane had two decisive contributors, sure in possession, hungry for the ball and decisive in their finishing. We were rocking on our heels at 1-0 and Sane’s second delivered the blow to decide the afternoon. 4-0 was the correct score. No excuses.

Losing to a team in which Alberto Moreno plays though ………(shudders)

Of our lads I thought Hector put his back into it for 90 minutes. When Le Coq came on I thought we finally had energy in midfield that was missing in the first 45. Nothing Cech could have done more than he did. Laca and Larry ? Too late to save our balloon that had gone ‘pop’ long before half time.

That is it – you saw the rest of our players and you know. Barely recognisable from the crew that hammered Chelsea in the Cup final and as recently as just a fortnight ago stormed back to overcome Leicester. A sombre dressing room. I have no doubt eddy will update us with the words of the (ashen-faced) manager.

I suspect the starting line up against Bournemouth on the 9^th September will have a few changes, both of personnel and, more importantly perhaps, of mind-set.E shall be back, stronger, faster, hungrier.

I am off to seek solace in a generally more reliable mistress of earthly pleasure. Enjoy your Sunday evening.

Sadly for 90 minutes we will be distracted from our jobs of management, transfers and coaching today, and we will have to watch a game of football. This game couldn’t come at a worse time for those of us that are busy running the club in our own image. But still, we should at least consider what annoyingly lies ahead up at Anfield.

Let’s start with the good news, Sanchez and Koscielny are available to start. Of course the bad news is it’s their first outing and they will be useless, rusty.

I’m going to stick my neck out and say Xhaka and Ramsey will play in midfield with Sanchez, Ozil and Lacazette in front of them. Apart from that, I must admit, I am clueless as to who else will play and where.

It seems Liverpool are in fine form, following their comprehensive win in the Champions League. It’s 5 years since we went there and Abou, sorry, we won, so it’s a big ask. It would be nice if Lacazette or Sanchez could do an Arshavin and score with their every touch, as I feel someone will have to perform at an exceptional level for us to come away with the points. We do though have a number of individuals capable of such heroics.

With last year’s FA Cup now 3 competitive games away and no more than a distant memory,  the robbery at Stoke confirming how useless we are and the Transfer Cup seemingly out of our reach now, we have lurched into our first crisis of the season. Our entire season depends on this game.

What a short season that was!

So a big performance is needed.

CARMON ARSENAL

Good morning + people,

Well the six game winning streak came to an end yesterday evening as we all saw, the defeat more of a breathy whimper on our part than the blood soaked orgy of violence that I have come to expect at the Britannia. As recently as the 13^th May we had thumped the same opponents on the same ground, so there you go. Football eh.

This morning I see the experts are out in mainstream media and on social media with 101 theories to explain Arsenal’s oh-so-obvious deficiencies; the players chosen and not chosen, the positions they played in and did not play in, players bought and sold -v- not bought and not sold, the tactics, the strategy, the team psychology, the physiology, the medical team, and don’t imagine you are off the hook for your part in this “debacle” Vic f******* Akers. Oh yes there is nothing like a 0-1 defeat at Stoke to stir the juices of discontent.

I admit I don’t think we played as well as we can. Stoke did not match our football yet when they had one half chance, caused by our defensive hesitation, they scored. Ironically against our usual bête-noire in against the Orcs – the long high ball – we coped almost perfectly all game. When we were firmly in charge of the ball, as we were for long periods before half time and for the final half hour ( when my guess is the possession percentages must have been 90/10 to us) we did not score. We created but no egg hatched. The longer the game went on it seemed to me the less likely it was that we would crack the home sides defence and earn at least what would have been a respectable point.

Of our players I thought Hector and the Ox were excellent in their wing back roles. As we all saw, though Mr Marriner did not, Hector’s bursting run could have been the key we needed to turn the Stoke lock. I thought Granit and Aaron controlled midfield all afternoon and quelled the usually lively Orc toilers, Fletcher and Allen. Alexander Lacazette I thought had his best game for us so far. Yes I know he did not “score” but he ever so nearly did, and no doubt some will say the goal should have stood. Strikers have many facets to their game, of movement, imagination and anticipation, and he demonstrated them throughout the game. On a side note unlike many French players who have joined us over the years Alexander looks very fit and well able to last 90 minutes.

Of our opponents I would have to pick out Jack Butland who looked highly competent. He has a fine future, somewhere and in the meantime will get loads of goalkeeping practice under Mark Hughes.

Where are we then – two games in ? I think in receipt of a sobering slap to wake us up to the realities of League football. Despite our excellent form and Stoke’s poor recent results nothing can be taken for granted. I have no doubt we shall be working hard in training all week on the art of converting overwhelming possession into strikes on goal.

Onwards to Anfield next week and I see a 4pm Sunday kick off which gives us a few days of reflection on yesterday, and on or recent performances, and to identify what we are doing well, and where improvement is required. I do not expect any radical alteration to our set up or our approach to the Liverpool game. I anticipate Kosc will be back on duty which will make us a little steadier at the back but I warn you – it will be goals goals goals !!

Enjoy your Sunday…