Well, what a difference a day makes.
Emotionally we’ve gone from disappointed and disillusioned to euphoric over the result of one game. Beating Blackburn 7-1 was the sort of result we needed to awaken our supporters.
Arsenal played the sort of football that we all love to watch and for once the end result substantiated the level of our overall performance.
It would be wrong to criticize any of our players on a day when they all excelled, our defence were solid and afforded Blackburn very few goal scoring opportunities the midfield were both dominate in their control and incisive in their passing, and our strikers were clinical in their finishing.
All in all a wonderful example of “Wenger Ball” at it’s very best.
What caused the change?
Were we that good or were Blackburn that poor?
Looking at the result it would appear that we were that good but we will rarely see a team play so badly as Blackburn. They had little, or no, ambition to attack which allowed our fullback’s the freedom of the park and they used the space to great effect.
Our midfield was creative and their passing was superb but when have we seen a less interested midfield than Blackburn’s, their tackling was weak and their coverage was woeful.
Our strikers had a field day, but Blackburn showed their lack of fight within 80 seconds allowing us copious amounts of space to exploit them with our speed and poor positioning in the box.
Going down to ten men at least gave them an excuse for the terrible result but in reality they showed no heart from the first whistle.
What’s up next?
Over the next month we will know whether the Blackburn game was an aberration or the real and re-vitalized Arsenal.
We have seven games, one approximately every four days.
EPL vs Sunderland
CL vs AC Milan
FAC vs either Sunderland or Middlesbrough
EPL vs Tottenham
EPL vs Liverpool
CL vs AC Milan
EPL vs Newcastle
These games will show us what we are really made of, on paper our best opportunity seems to be the FAC. We are up against weaker opposition which should be to our advantage but the FAC is always full of shocks and surprises.
AC Milan will be tough opponents in the CL and we will have to be in outstanding form to get through to the last eight.
The EPL is the most difficult of the three as over the past six league games we have accumulated less points than any our four opponents.
Sunderland = 15 – 83.3%
Newcastle = 12 – 66.7%
Tottenham = 11 – 61.1 %
Liverpool = 8 – 44.4%
Arsenal = 7 – 38.8 %
Which Arsenal team will show up and stand up?
Written by gunnerN5
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
Morning Gunner 5, I believe we take one game at a time. First up Sunderland, who ‘Boro tonight, hopefully with suspensions, injuries and extra time 🙂 . With our Fullbacks returning we should resemble the Arsenal that we know we are. I wouldnt worry about the comparison too much we have had an unusually bad January without actually playing that badly, that cant continue forever
oops that was meant to say ‘replay ‘boro tonight’
Morning all.
based on stats of the last 6 premier games Sunderland are top of the league and we are 13th. doesn’t make great reading but then again as results have proved on a weekly basis this season anything can happen. Which Arsenal will really turn up ?i ask myself that question every week.
Well one that has undoubted talent but just now has to add consistency keep motivated and string a few wins together., thanks for the posts and stats gunnern5.
Cheers, GN5. Let’s hope the Blackburn game gives them all the lift that’s needed.
WM,
Boro v Sunderland is Wednesday, even better for us if extra time etc happens. 🙂
Meanwhile, there was bad news yesterday for Emmanuel Frimpong who will miss the rest of the season, and beyond, have ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament playing for Wolves on Saturday. It’s the second time he’s had a cruciate injury, but if there’s any silver lining to the situation it’s that it was the other knee this time, and doesn’t suggest a recurrence or an ongoing problem. It seems to be just bad luck and shows that these injuries can happen at other training grounds, on other pitches and with other medical teams. All we can do is wish him well in his recovery.
I’m suprised some “fans” haven’t blamed this injury on our medical staff.
GM,
I’m suprised some “fans” haven’t blamed this injury on our medical staff.
Give them time, give them time.
We need to gather maximum points in all our home matches in epl. For d away game against L/Pool, we always perform very well against d Reds. It is our game against Sunderland that I am afraid of. If we can take our chances as we did against Blackburn,we can also have the 3 points. A football analyst on Nigerian Super Sport tv said that it was Blackburn that makes Arsenal to look so good. Is Arsenal not good? Arsenal is good. It is left for our boys to proof wrong those people who have written us off . If they can be consistence in our remaining matches, we shall surely qualify for champion League. Up Arsenaaaaal. Goonner 4 life
Hi Chas, thanks for the correction, even better as less time for them to recover. The timing of this game is actually a bonus for us as
a) Sunderland play in the week
b) We have a week to prepare, and hopefully get some of our players back
c) The champions league returns next week
@GM I do feel for Frimpong, but lets hope he gets his injuries out of the way early in his career eh
Ade Are you Nigerian? Will you manage to see the boys when they go to Nigeria? Or do you live here?
Chas @7:22 am,
That’s a great way to keep abreast of the news!
WM,
I only looked it up because I thought it would give me a game to watch this evening. 🙂
GN5,
haha, it upset the management……well half of it anyway. 🙂
A propos of nothing in particular, I thought I would share an observation with you.
There are many who still slag off the Arsenal defence and claim it to be our weak link. Merson was banging on the same just the other day, saying that we’ll win nothing until we change the defence and it has become popular to rubbish Mertesacker, who I think is an excellent player, much better than Cahill.
So, how bad is our defensive record?
Well, we all know that Arsenal went through a trauma at the start of the season, losing three regular first-team players and then played the three games against Liverpool, Man Utd & Blackburn with three players suspended – Frimpong starting his suspension in the middle of the Liverpool game! On top of that, a number of injuries meant that we were unable to field a proper team in those games. So, it is unreasonable to judge the long-term quality of the defence based on those games.
We have now played 24 EPL games. Had we conceded goals at the same rate per game in those three fixtures mentioned above, as we have in the remaining 21 games, we would now be standing at 23 goals against for the season to date. That places our defence third best in the EPL, two goals worse than Liverpool and four goals worse than Man City. We are one better than Man Utd and Sunderland, two better than Spurs and six better than Chelsea. Taking the average over 21 games is a reasonable sample and I think it shows that our defence is not so bad, after all.
Morning all,
Thanks for the post GN5 asking the question that has been on our lips almost every game this season – which Arsenal will we see today?
As you say, Blackburn allowed us the freedom to play – I’m not sure what their manager was thinking?
Teams that press and harry will always make it more difficult to get the fluidity into our game that the system requires.
A resurgent Sunderland under MoN will be an altogether different prospect, winning ugly with the odd goal will do for me in that one.
Well said, Alistair,
If that data was graphed it would show the early ‘blip’ and that since then a more settled defence, even with the injuries to our first choice fullbacks, has greatly improved our overall defensive performances.
If all the Prem teams defensive performances were graphed, my hunch is that the co-relationship between teams when they are hit with defensive injuries, as opposed to those with settled defenses would be blindingly obvious.
Well done! 🙂
@ Alistair spot on, I’ve said on here recently that I believe our forwards are not producing a high enough goals to shots ratio. the disturbance to our defence seems to have been going on forever and must have a bearing on some of our results
Morning you lovely gooners.
What a day, sun is blazing, been for a run, going to have a kick about with my boy and feeling good. 8)
GN5,
Nice write up, Were gunner win all them games , no It`s not Terrydicktall Sawus with his telescope (Terradactyl Sauros ), It`s me feeling good ! 🙂
I`ve just been having a look (1st time ) at the Urban Dictionary ( have a look at Terradactyl , terry 🙂 ).
Just a couple for the regulars,
chas : good with the ladies or great in bed, also a term used by ladies for having “amazing sex”. you feeling good now chas ! 🙂
Terry : One who is fantastic at everything he turns his hands to, especially in the bedroom. 🙂
No wonder you do so much goonerbating, look up telesoping,telescopic swaphook ( what a great name ) and telescoping penis ! 😆
A few of us must be Arsenologist`s 😯
will the real arsenal supporters please stand up
Hi gc, would you like to expand on that one-liner?
We have published several posts recently imploring the fans to make their support more vocal and less condiitonal. Today’s post was not critical of the team as much as analytical of our status and upcoming games.
Vermaelan – check
Arteta – check
Song – check
RVP – Check
I think we will come out of this run of games in 4th place if those guys stay fit.
Especially if Sagna, Kos and the ox are too
Morning Gn5
What’s all this – loads of snow in Blighty and none for us in Canada! I want my money back.
Nice piece.
I think I gave my answer to your question yesterday: with no fullbacks it’s almost impossible for the real (ie good) Arsenal to show up.
With our FBs returning (and provided RvP and Arteta stay fit) we should see a return to the form that saw us climb up to 4th before we got hit by the long term loss of all our FBs.
It’s ridiculous to say our defence is no good (the Merse was never the sharpest knife in the block). With TV, BFG and Kozzer we have three of the best CBs in the league. And with our first choice FBs back we should start being really stingy at the back.
Alastair
A very fine comment.
The early results, before and just after the end of the transfer window, have skewed our stats for the season. We’re a much better outfit defensively than we seem to be on paper.
And if a few others can start helping out with the goal scoring we’ll be set fair.
I just took at look at our defensive performance both home and away and it uncovers some interesting details.
Firstly here are the away goals against, per game, for the past nine seasons.
.63-.89-.95-1.00-1.05-1.11-1.37-1.47-2.08
Now the home goals against per game.
.74-1.00-.68-.84-.58-.84-.79-.79-.75
As you can see our away performance is a steady uphill climb with each season being worse than the previous.
On the other hand the home performance has been pretty steady and has actually been on a decline for the past four seasons.
The away goals against this season are the highest we’ve experienced in the EPL but why our our home goals against improving?
It’s pretty obvious from this data that we need to take a good look at our defensive strategy for our away games.
Morning Rocky,
It’ a pleasure not to have snow, at this time last year we had over four foot and I was shovelling 2/3 times a day.
More Urban Dictionary.
Manc : 1) Usually of low intelligence or morals and mainly inbred.
2) Officially, according toHome Office reports, Manchester has the highest crime rate in England and Is also home to some of the Countries worse criminals.
Dr Shipman
Ian Bradey
Myra Hindley
Mick Hucknall.
3) Home of the Worlds first Refereeing Academy ( the Theatre of Penalty`s ) , Ok ,I put the last one in ! 🙂
@ all
hope everyone is well (best wishes go out to dandan)
just popped into an internet cafe to say what a game the other day. bloody amazing.
can’t wait to catch up with all the comments and posts next week.
The title is still ours!
Don’t look, Micky!
http://twitpic.com/8gnhy4/full
glic,
thanks for leaving out the bad definitions. 🙂
Goonermichael, yes I am a Nigerian living in Nigeria. I shall be there live by the Grace of God. We Nigerians’ goonners are already dreaming of that day
@ Alistair, I also agree with that post of yours and in fact, I was explaining pretty much the same to an elderly Scot last night in my hotel, whilst we were both watching the Bindippers v Spuds. I futher explained to him that ‘goal scoring’ has been our problem this season, albeit the seven we put past Blackburn.
On another note, I was looking over at the Online Gooner earlier and one guy on there was openly blaming Koscielny for Pedersen scoring their goal.
I quote him here…”By the way I hope Arsene gives Kosceilny a massive b********g because it was his atrocious naive defending (our Registered Trademark for the last six years) which gave Blackburn the free kick from which they equalised”
No you plumb, it was never a free kick in the first place (IMHO) and it was a hell of a hit as well!
Only time will tell
Hi Bingham, whilst in football everyone is entitled to their opinion, I have come to the realisation that some people do not have a reasonable bone in their bodies and use football as some kid of stress therapy, for them we should win every game, never concede, never make a mistake etc….and god forbid the other team manage a good piece of play ala the free kick you mention
Myles Palmer (unusual to have a surname that describes your sex life!!) wrote thus:
———————————————–
The star of the game was Oxlade-Chamberlain.
He showed us disguise, acceleration, two good feet, cheeky moves, balance, composure, tremendous shooting ability – and a final ball.
He stands out. He’s eye-catching. A very rare animal: a good team player who catches the eye.
So AOC has the whole package.
But didn’t they say the same about Jermain Jenas? Where is Jenas now?
———————————————
Jenas wept.
Mrs Dandan still not at all well, She has slept almost continuously for the past 17 Hrs., Dr just been in again, pumping the drugs down her, worried the pleurisy might turn to pneumonia.
Thanks for your kind thoughts Oz.
DD I wish her a speedy recovery
Sorry to hear that Dandan. Hope she perks up soon.
I hope everything goes well dandan.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/first-team-at-the-training-ground-pictures?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arsenal-news+%28News+Feed%29
Is SANTOS TRAINING? sO LONG SINCE i SAW HIM i FORGET WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE.
Sorry about the capslock 🙂
Dandan,
Sorry to learn that. Fingers crossed that your wife rallies strongly soon. The strain on you must be terrible too.
Thinking of you both.
Dandan,
My thoughts are with you and your wife.
Here’s wishing for a speedy recovery.
Hi dandan,
So sorry to hear your wife is suffering, my sincere wishes for a speedy recovery
All the best to you and your wife dandan.
best wishes, dandan.
GM,
I think he’s just doing gym work, hence the Claire Rayners.
Rosicky really made a different in the midfield,he had great and fast thinkin,vision ability in our game on saturday.he should be played ahead of ramsey been our weak link in d midfield.ramsey prefers to play d ball sidewards and back,rather than linkin wit d attackers.ramsey loses ball without caring to get back d ball.pls,mr wenger rosicky should be given d chance to play ahead of ramsey,who is so poor in d midfield.
GM
I think it’s his first time seeing snow!
Dandan, do u believe in miracles? Do you believe that Jesus Christ can heal your wife? If u are with her now or anytime that u are with her, lay your hand upon her and say I believe. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, receive your healing now. Amen. She is made whole in Jesus name. Waiting for the good news from u Dandan.
Thinking of you Dandan….Hope all goes well.
Dandan – sincerely hoping for a speedy recovery for your missus…
DD – Bollox, bollox, bollox. I’d seenm good wishes being sent your way, but had kind of missed the gist of it all. Then thought it had passed
Best wishes to you both, especially to Mrs DD of course.
Excellent post GN5, I really thought our days of ‘not turning up’ were behind us, but the 2bd half vs Bolton had me worryng if that really was te case.
Your analysis of the away goals trend is pretty scary. Is that last figure (2.08) this year to date or last season..??
Dandan sincerly hope everything will turn out for the best…
good post Gn5
and finally today we finally know what we have suspected.The Arsenal is just in it for the money,Wenger himself admitted to that today and he was for the first time honest about it,seems to me that he is forced…
secondly no need to wonder why we bought park anymore,it was/is part of a financial scam,,Arsenal Insider leaked that Our summer tour will be to Seoul,:)Beijing,Hong Kong,…money money money…
great win on sat,but against a very poor Blackburn,and for the most part with ten men…S’land will be crucial…
so Gn5 i can aonly agree with You post..will The Real Arsenal please stand up !!
Nowt worse than having a loved one ill, you’d rather take the illness upon yourself
chas,
Just noticed that number 3 definition, thats stretching It a bit !
Sharkey,
This season 25 away goals against in 12 games = 2.08 per game
This season 9 home goals against in 12 games = .75 per game
The premise of missing full backs being our defensive problem only seems to apply to away games?
Gn5
If you take out the ManUre and Blackburn away performances the stats look a lot better (12 fewer goals conceded).
Of course you might say “Why should we take them away? They are real results that really happened?”
Which is fair enough.
But it was such an unusual start to the season, with AW clearly thinking until late in the Window that he would be able to hang on to Na$ri (and possibly even Cesc) that we seemed to be thrown into chaos when they both decamped.
In the 8-2 defeat in Manchester we fielded a team that wouldn’t even be recognised as a decent second team (and none of the last-minute buys had arrived, like Arteta, BFG, Benny etc). Then we were all over the place for a few games as the newbies tried to settle in in the most trying of circumstances.
So… obviously this is self-serving if you are optimistic about our prospects (as I am)… but I prefer to think of our season as having started after the 8-2.
In other words, I think the figures are skewed by a short “freak” period.
Of course, we could ask who is to blame for the freak period… and that’s a whole other discussion…
Hi G5, I suspect those numbers are skewed by a couple of factors.
A) I would have expect our home performances to improve then tail off as we settle into the Emirates as our home. Your numbers would suggest we are close to replicating Highbury at the Ems now in terms of stinginess
B) Teams by definition are more attacking at home than they are away from home. Bearing in mind that attack is a form of defence, our lack of fullbacks reduces our ability to attack therefore encouraging the opposition to do so, with obvious success
The rise in the numbers is concerning though
If we had conceded just two goals in each of the Blackburn and ManUre games, our ‘average conceded’ say from home this season would drop to 1.4 goals.
Not great, but better than 2.08 !
Rocky,
I’m afraid I cannot agree with your premise.
Even if one was to apply last years away goals average of 1.47 per game to those two games the average is still 1.33 goals against which is 37.1% higher the our historical EPL average of .97 away goals against.
I still maintain that our defensive tactics for away games needs to be reviewed – having a worse season over season away defensive record for 9 consecutive seasons is a very disturbing trend.
Hi Rocky, there is no doubt that those two results which were “irregular” to say the least have affected the average
Wonderman
I think I’m right in believing that there was a higher amount of goals scored overall in the EPL in 2010/11 and 2009/10 than there had been for the previous 10 seasons.
Which presumably means that most teams’ “goals against” tally will have risen somewhat over those two years.
A sign of more open play, or worse defending, or whatever – but a general trend.
Gn5. Entertaining post. My hope is that we fight in all the games, perhaps not win every one but be competitive.
Re: The defense. Could it be that the quality of teams in the PL is better today than previously, particularly when playing at home ?
It would be interesting to see MU stats.
Gn5
I agree the worsening trend is not encouraging.
But I also feel happier about our defence (once the first choice FBs return) than I have done for years.
So I guess I’m saying that, while not disputing your figures, I expect (hope?) to see an improvement from here on.
RL. I have a sneaky feeling that we are looking at the best AFC defence since the Fab Five. As I said to Kelsey at the beginning of the season ,they need to bed in.
Next season, should they all stay we will dominate.
My manc colleague has just recieved a leter from the mancs offering him a season ticket for the remainder of the season for £120. They obviously struggle with thier ticket sales
Agreed BR
I can’t understand why some people are so down on Mertesacker. I love watching him play – he gives so much composure to our back line and orchestrates the transition from defence to MF/attack like a real “libero”.
GM
They’ve still got that almighty debt hanging round their necks.
Yes Raddy, I look forward to our Dominatrix era ,Glossy Rubber kits will look good ! 🙂
If they got rid of the Refereeing Academy they would probably be self-sustainable like us !
Wonderman,
THe fact is that our average goals against per game at the Emirates is better than our EPL record at Highbury,
Emirates = .77 per game
Highbury = .83 per game
True GLIC
But where would all the world class cu… sorry, talents, like Webb and Dowd come from then?
Gn5
So the Ems is a fortress!
(It doesn’t feel like one though 😦 )
Rocky,
City will probably open one up !
Going back to AW’s comments about needing to make 15-20 million quid profit annually…
In the year to May 31st 2011, Arsenal’s “group turnover” was 255.7m.
Any company making less than 10% profit needs to start worrying. Ten per cent of 255.7m would be around 25m. I guess this is what AW is referring to.
However, I have never been inducted into the shady freemasonry of Accountants Anonymous, so I could be misinterpreting things.
Redders, where are you when I need you?
GLIC
I believe they had a big bid for Webb turned down during the summer, but he’s entering the last year of his ManUre contract next year so who knows…?
Raddy
It’s funny how Kozzer is lambasted on another site. He’s becomeing one of the best defenders in this country. I like BFG too. I have a man crush on Santos 🙂
Rocky,
This stinks of Ashley Coleism, meeting`s in shady restaurant`s and brown paper bag`s. is there no honesty in their profession ?
Rocky,
You are correct that for the past two seasons the goals scored have been higher that any of the previous ten seasons
2009/10 = 1053 goals scored
2010/11 = 1063 goals scored
The average of the previous ten seasons was 987 goals scored.
Based on the year to date average this season will = 1064 goals scored.
When one considers that there are 760 games in a season an
increase of 76 goals per season is .1 per game -which is quite insignificant.
Darn it Gn5
There goes that theory (that our increase in away goals conceded was part of an overall trend).
I’m going to start looking at star signs now… maybe it’s something in the heavens.
G5 interesting especially as our defence is continually criticised
BR,
I’m not at all confident that we will win anything this season but I must say that our current trend is encouraging and leads to me being more confident about our future – with the proviso’s that we need to keep AW and RVP, add another “real” striker and a better back up goalie.
OK, we are livening up here — too much, maybe? I am going to put you all back to sleepybyes!! 🙂
GIE was talking about GKs and I countered by mentioning the force = speed a ball is hit on average by a professional footballer, and the highest force/speed by the hardest hitters.
The top team analysts also have computers to measure the reaction times of their GKs, and the quickest reaction times = the best keepers.
Have a go yourselves, to see how you compare, and without the aid of computer software.
All you will need to see how you measure up is a 12″ ruler (with a cm scale); a calculator, and a naked woman.
(sorry, my bad, the naked woman can be replaced by any consenting, clothed adult) 🙂
Ask your assistant to dangle the ruler (i.e pointing down) between their thumb and index finger.
Line up the thumb and index finger across the ruler level with the zero on the cm scale.
Keep your digits as close to the ruler as possible but not touching it. The naked lady, (or whoever) should now DROP the ruler.
As soon as you see the ruler move, grab it between your thumb and finger.
Note the point on the ruler where you caught it. (e.g. 10 cms; 15 cms or whatever).
An ‘average’ person can catch the ruler at approximately the 14cm mark. What does that show? — because we will compare your score against that average. 🙂
Here’s a bit of science (I think I can remember this from my junior school) :-).
Newton calculated that objects are affected by gravity, and accelerate at a constant rate of 9.8 metres per second per second.
Basically, he determined that at the end of each second, the object travels faster by 9.8 metres per second than it was at the end of the previous second. OK?
Leaving aside extraneous considerations, because you and the naked lady are pursuing a serious piece of research indoors, these will have no material affect on our work.
Now for some basic math: 🙄
The formula we will apply is:
— reaction time = square root(distance fallen / 980) —
So our Mr Average caught the ruler with his dirty digits at the 14cm mark on the scale.
Therefore, according to Newton, if the ruler is travelling at 9.8 metres per second, per second (or 980 cm per second, per second) we divide 14 (the distance travelled) by 980 = 0.01428571428 and then take the square root = 0.119
The reaction time was 0.119 seconds, or 119 thousandths of a second.
Your brain is calculating your hand, eye, muscles incredibly quickly. Phew!!
Have a go and see how you compare to Mr Average — then I will tell you how the average GK’s reaction time compares!!
Anyone still awake???????????????? 🙂 🙂
dandan,
I hope Mrs D makes a full and swift recovery.
RA,
My wife held a metal ruler, I blinked, she let go, I have a bloody digit – what’s the formula for that?
By the way, I am not ignoring GN5’s data, it is very interesting, but we have had similar chats before about how difficult it is to agree on how such data should be interpreted.
Comparing this year’s part data with last year has to be put in context. Are we comparing like with like?
For example, the opposition teams are affected by the three relegated to the Championship, and another three being promoted.
That’s a 6 club change in an 20 league (net 19) [or 31.6%] and is a substantial variant etc.
Interesting.
Nice chatting with you today, I have to leave now and won’t be back until about 10/11 pm UK time.
GN5,
Was it an excuse for the Mrs G to duff you up, mayhap? 🙂
G5,
Great post and a massive question.
I believe a full strength Arsenal can beat anyone, anywhere on a good day. However, we are very vulnerable to injuries, on top of having shocking bad lack on that front. Also, irrespective of the individual quality of certain players, I believe with the likes of Sagna, Arteta and even the young Ox, we have some real winners and fighters for the remainder of the season. So yes I believe the Real Arsenal will “stand up”.
Now for the stats. There is nothing I like more than bending and twisting facts and stats to fit my angle.
The loss of full backs doesn’t weaken our defence nearly as much it weakens our attack. Our poor goals against is down to our inability to get the opposition onto the back foot early enough. I am thinking along the lines of the best form of defence being attack.
RA,
Going from 12 away goals against in 2003/4 to 25 already this season with 7 away games still to play is something other than interesting – how about disastrous?
I think that “disastrous” could be an emotive over-reaction.
Teams have won the old First Division/EPL with between 75 points and 85 points (I haven’t looked it up – so approx).
A rubbish 75 or a brilliant 85? Alternatively, the 75 points might have been a really tough scrap between two brilliant teams in a very good league, or the 85 pointer may have been a walk in the park by a poor championship winner in a weak league.
As I said its all in the context and the relevant interpretation.
This is why I could not be bothered to get into this sort of thing — it always ends badly!
This picture has just gone up on Twitter under the tag “Arsenal for the last 7 years”
http://lockerz.com/s/181608348
Interesting and apt
Anyone got stats on our “Invincible” Season, like how many games we had key players missing ?. All this stat stuff can put me to sleep quicker than a Redders 5:48pmer ! 🙂
When we`re doing well, It is strangely coincidental with us having a full strength team/squad and when we`re doing bad It is also strangely coincidental that we have Injuries and suspension`s. Strange Isn`t It !. F**k all this historical % stuff. Trust me when we`ve got a half decent team/squad out there ,we will win !. Gasp, was It so simple I here you say !. yes It was Sherlock. 😆
Glic,
I could not have said it better.
If we win every game from now until the end of the season we will win the EPL. Fact! not F*cked! 🙂 Just ask TerryM.
Redders,
I thought I was going the opposite to crazy with all this data, %, stat stuff !. I want some crazy stuff to amuse me whilst Mrs glic feeds me grapes, where`s Terry ? 🙂
Great post G5. I have to differ with you that Blackburn lacked fight, thats one thing i dont think they can be accused of this season. Basicaly we were brilliant, they had a bit of a nightmare and the end result was a jolly good thrashing.
Its a real shame about Wilshere, I always believed from February onwards that the emergence of him and Ox would lead to us finnishing the season as the best team, well never mind, next season those kids will batter everybody.
Love that pic Irish, very apt.
Sorry to hear about your wife DanDan,i hope she makes a full and speedy recovery mate.
No sooner than I rub my lamp and Terry appears ! 🙂
And your 3 wishes are?, get in quick before Redders nicks them
1) Spuds to disappear from the face of this planet
2) Spuds to disappear from the face of this galaxy
3) Spuds to disappear from the face of this universe
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Shit, there might be a Potatoe famine now, I mean`t Tottenham !
Cornwall, i dont like to disapoint, but ive been wishing that for years and the vermin are still here.When we rise to the top it would be nice to see them suffer again, so its probably for the best.
Glic,
Is that what you call it? Your lamp? 🙂
MerryT, how are you? Do I get three wishes?
My first wish is that I want you to give me 3 more wishes when I reach the end of my first three wishes.
My second wish is that you give every AA er 3 wishes.
My third wish is that you carry on being you and cheering us all up!!
Not much to ask for, and I think you will find that Glic will agree!! 🙂
My Gravvi Avvi thingibobbigiggythings colour Is crap, It`s the colour of what comes out of JT`s mouth after he`s sucked Roman off, after Roman had shafted AVB from behind. Redders one is a nice red.
Come to mention it Glic, your thingymebob does look like the color of MerryT’s little periscope. 🙂
Having been good and kept quiet most of today, unfortunately, just as you have come out to play – I have to be like Terry the Genie in your lamp – and disappear! 😦
Redders,
Whats your`s called, Terry has that extending thingy. By the way Terry, have you looked up Telescoping on the Urban Dictionary yet ?
It`s right up your street !. 🙂
Wishes in perputity Redders? i was sure you were going to ask for a hotel room, Caprice, and the super bowl to be on everynight? Mind you, i thought Cornwall was going for hotel room, Beyonce, and a rubber mask. hahahaha
Poofff and he`s gone ! 🙂
DanDan. Wishing your wife a speedy recovery.
I`ve already got two of them terry, Beyonce is beyond me though ! 🙂
TA6 had a go on Caprice …. Lucky chap. It should have been me
Redders
You didn’t send me to sleep – I have simply been at lunch.
I am now back at my desk and have all the requisite parts for the ruler experiment apart from one…
…I can’t find a ruler.
And the naked lady is getting cold.
And muttering something about some telescope or something…
GLIC
Your 7.07
😀
BR
Notwithstanding your fondness for fairies, I’m not sure TA6 would see you as his type.
hahaha, weve realy got to get a strap on our behavior here Cornwall, its a toss up on who gets banned first i reckon.
Adam`s was from Dagenham and more likely had his knob up the rear end of a Ford Capri Se ( special edition )!
RL. Surely you agree TA6 is one sexy hunk? Can’t see the attraction in Delap but TA………
But given the choice Caprice is sjust a smidgeon more my type
Terry , I take that hahaha was you finding the definition of “Telescoping”. 🙂
Bloc. Very clever
“I love him, I honestly love him,” said Van Persie. “I don’t understand the criticism. On Saturday he gave three very clear assists, two for me and one for Alex.
“He was sharp, he was playing fantastically and, like anyone, he misses chances. But I miss chances. Ronaldo misses chances, Messi misses chances. It’s life, you know.
“Sometimes I feel that people are a bit harsh on him. I don’t know why. If you look at his assists rate then it is unbelievable.
“And he will score. Trust me, he will score. He will get 20 goals at least every season. You will see. Have faith in him.
“He has given me so many assists. And for me, if you give an assist then it is worth a goal, especially if you give a great assist. It is as important as scoring a goal. For me he gave two simple tap-ins. That makes it more his goal than my goal.”
-Well, the club captain said to have faith in him. I WILL!
“I have a sneaky feeling that we are looking at the best AFC defence since the Fab Five.”
Seems like the best kept secret is starting to get out.
Dont you just want to punch the so called Arsenal supporters who used to write Ko-shite-ny?
I know I do.
LB
I don’t often stray too far from AA, but when I have gone ‘off piste’ I have been staggered by some of the comments about the BFG.
You’d think he was a lumbering, inept oaf.
He is not fast and he is not as dominant in the air as his height would lead you to expect, but his all-round game is fantastic.
Rocky
Koscielny has got to be the most improved player this season. It is going to be interesting who Wenger thinks is his best CB pairing. Koscielny and Vermaelen are good but the BKG has been so reassured recently.
You have probably already noticed this but watch as a high ball comes his way, he always, always, with German reliability and efficiency finds an Arsenal player.
LB
Spot on with that observation. I take real pleasure in watching the way he controls and distributes, almost always taking the best option without ever seeming hurried, never playing a colleague into trouble.
As for our first choice pairing, obviously it’s a nice problem to have.
I have seen people argue that it should be BFG and one of Kozz/Verm for the “muscular” teams like Stoke. I think that’s a lazy assumption based purely on the fact that Mertesacker is very tall.
But I think those are the games where I would not play the German. Although he’s a big lad and not bad in the air, he doesn’t attack the ball with the aggression of the other two.
His game is more about anticipation.
So I would start Kozz/Verm against the “lump it up to the big CF” teams, and use the BFG in games where we know people are going to try and play football against us – because in these fixtures his reading of the game and ability to snuff out moves early on (as well as his passing and distribution) will be very useful.
There’s probably the basis of a post in that (although we have already had a couple of posts ruminating about the various CB combinations).
Sorry LB – just realised I was ignoring the first sentence of your 9.01, with which I agree wholeheartedly.
Have had no time to catch up with comments only just read post.
Will be an interesting few weeks GN5 for sure. I think it will be for all teams tho.
As far as I am concerned we need to get to end of February and be within 1 or 2 points of top 4 (altho part of me thinks we will be in top 4 by then).
The FA Cup will be nice but CL football is more important.
Red Arse says:
February 7, 2012 at 6:45 pm
Glic,
I could not have said it better.
If we win every game from now until the end of the season we will win the EPL. Fact! not F*cked! Just ask TerryM.
…………………………………………………………………………………..
RA,
I’m not sure if you meant the above to be tongue in cheek or humorous, but it’s most definitely not realistic or factual.
If we win the rest of our games we will end up with 82 points.
For our 82 points to win the EPL Man. C will have to drop 18 out of their last 42 points, Man. U will have to drop 16 and Spurs will have to drop 11.
I acknowledge that you dislike stats but our chances of winning all of our remaining games and for the others to drop that amount of points is close to impossible.
Not entirely happy about the commitment of our southern hemisphere crew. Oz lying about the beaches of Bali, and no sign of Pat. To compound the early morning void, we have Evonne buggering off on holiday.
All this does beg the question, what the hell are International breaks for?
Timing lads. Timing.
Help me out here Chas with a sneaky “clip”.
GN5,
I was being tongue in cheek, as I often am with that rascal Glic. 🙂
As someone with a mathematical bent (luckily Glic and TerryM are not around) :-), I do not dislike stats, and I genuinely do find your info interesting.
What I have said on a number of occasions, perhaps not as clearly as I wanted to, is that collecting the data, which you do very well, is only the starting point.
How the data is interpreted and what loading is put on it for relevant variables, or comparisons and apparent trending makes it difficult with a wider audience to arrive at meaningful conclusions, as consensus can be difficult to arrive at, and without it any chance of arriving at a conclusion is remote.
Not that I would want to stop others discussing their views.
As you know there have been many multi million pound research projects working for years collecting and interpreting data regarding the climate and whether the earth is heating up — or not — or whether it is normal — or not.
Even then eminent scientist “x” says we are doomed; whereas eminent scientist “y” says it is part of the normal earth cycle.
Perhaps they should ask us? 🙂 AA will put them right! 🙂
RA,
Good point. There are so few universal formulas that hold up under all circs. The only one that springs to mind is that if you leave a man on his own in a room with a tea cosey, he will put it on his head.
Chas to the rescue.
The mind boggles as to what you put into the search engine to find that one!
I’d really rather not know either.
Hey Micky been enjoying the longer daylight hours with daughter and the new family addition – Fred the kitten… trying to make the most of the summer! Many apologies for the unacceptable absence 🙂
Hmm climate – my dad used to be in the navy and was pretty high up the food chain before he retired. A staff course he attended in Canada actually had two presentations regarding climate change / global warming – one presenter took the “for” argument and the other took the “against”, neither could seem to convince for sure either way… however I believe my self that the big ball of fire in the sky is going to have the final say on how things are going to turn out…
I got to Private Frazer from RA’s ‘we are doomed’. 🙂
Morning.
“dont panic Mr Mannering!” Corp Jones was always pretty funny
Has everyone seen this? God ‘elp us.
This made me laugh yesterday. It was linked to from arseblog. The comments are good.
http://threeandin.com/2012/02/06/spurs-need-to-know-their-place/
Ade the “Nigerian”, “David” Villa 😆
Redders,
I was going to say , I like “rascal”, but then I looked It up on the Urban Dictionary !. 😆
Micky at 8:03, 🙂
Chas, you are a genius! 🙂
Glic, baby, I hope it wasn’t too rude! 🙂
Morning Pat, “Mr Mainwaring”, 🙂
Off to the docs now – fingers crossed!! 😦
Funny article and even funnier comments but completely understandable.
Imagine the scene … you are a young person in the schoolyard. Everyone around you is into football and you being inbred know nothing about anything. Arsenal are the top club and you, being an imbecile, decide to be cool and say “I hate Arsenal,”
So, you are called out and asked who you support. Not knowing anything except that Gooners actively dislike Spurs, you shout out “Spurs,” – once again trying to be the cool rebellious one (you know the type – the loner who grows their fringe over the face to hide the spots).
That’s it. He/She is a Spurs fan and is now committed to a life of misery and derision 🙂
One word can ruin a life.
Good luck Redders.
Chas,
That Opic (whatever his name) is easily the most sensible Liberal footage I have seen.
Hope all goes well Redders.
Morning all
New Post ……………….
Hey GLiC. Have a look at Rasp in the urban dictionary.
SSSHHHHHH don’t tell him I told you.
upcoming games…
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