Tag Archive | Premier League
Arsenal Versus Watford – All Past Is Prologue
I usually start a new season brimming with a blend of optimism and ludicrous over confidence. I assume we’ll win every game, a delusion I maintain right up until the first dropped points when I cheerfully downgrade my expectations to an unbeaten season. After the first defeat I shrug and assume we’ll just win every […]
Fear And Despair vs The Arsenal
In the post Leicester City presser, Arsene Wenger made some powerful statements in what appears to be a continuing counter-attack against the mainstream media and their ever faithful echo chamber on the interweb who continue to slander and malign him for not “spending” in the transfer window. Speaking of Rob Holding, his most recent signing […]
Forecast: Arsenal 3 – 6 Liverpool
In that classic piece of American movie-making A Few Good Men, the then fresh faced, unspoiled, up and coming lead-man, Tom Cruise, is playing the part of the newly minted, inexperienced and unenthusiastic U.S. Navy lawyer. He is up against a mean, corrupt, brooding representative of the Establishment, in the form of Jack Nicholson, Hollywood’s ageing warrior […]
Arsenal and the Myth of Transfers
A Myth is quite simply “a widely held but false belief or idea.” Positivistas, how many of you, like me, first daily instinct during the transfer window is to reach for whatever internet device is at hand to check if there is any new transfer story affecting our great club? Yup, I see many of […]
Arsenal: Another Year, Another Wexit?
Greetings Positivistas! Whether we like it or not our football holiday is almost over. The Arsenal troops are reassembling, there is the smell of gunpowder, canons are being cleaned, occasional explosions are being heard; a clear signal that the competitive battle in the EPL is about to resume. OK my metaphors may be overblown […]
Just What Do We Support?
By the time you read this it is possible that Jamie Vardy may have been announced as the second major signing of the summer. If so it will be an almost Fergusonian transfer. Buying the star striker of a top four rival, spending big to cover a temporary injury problem on a player with only […]
COUNTERFACTUAL ARSENAL
Research on counterfactual thinking has shown that people’s emotional responses to events are influenced by their thoughts about “what might have been.” When Less Is More: Counterfactual Thinking and Satisfaction Among Olympic Medalists Victoria Husted Medvec, Scott F. Madey, Thomas Gilovich Despite my awareness that football fans, including yours truly, often react irrationally to the fortunes […]
Arsenal Versus Aston Villa: Mozart’s Requiem
So here we are. The goal posts are down in the local park. What used to be a pitch is now just a playing field. Bristol Rovers have won their by now customary promotion and I have one more blog to write before crossing my feet on the desk and lacing my fingers together behind […]
Arsenal: Friends and Enemies Within
So I finally made it to the Emirates nearly two weeks ago. Those of us who work for a living have to plan meticulously; identifying the appropriate home game, getting time-off, booking flights at the right prices, securing tickets. Damn, I felt like an event planner. Call it my English safari. Obviously I am testifying […]