The Case of the Disappearing Full Back.

November 16, 2016

I can’t speak for you but these are impoverished times for the Raddy family. Times are hard and despite taking Raddy Junior out of Eton and selling Mrs Raddy’s minks we struggle to maintain Raddy Towers. So how is it that Arsenal can afford to throw away cash on a blighter like Debuchy?

Where is he? Is he training with Arsenal? Is he working in the marketing department or helping Mr. Gazidiz buy his Xmas gifts? No, he is on loan at Bordeaux in lovely  France.

images-1.jpeg

We paid ￡12m for the chap,  we got 12 games out of him! Arsenal have paid the man’s wages for two years and no doubt we pay a percentage of his stipend at Bordeaux. Given that his wages are stand at ￡70k a week, his cost to AFC, so far, is almost 20 million of Her Majesty’s finest. That is over ￡1.5m a game!!

Madness.

One cannot blame Debuchy. It wasn’t his fault that he succumbed to a series of injuries at AFC (thigh, ankle, shoulder, hamstring and groin) nor was it his fault that Bellerin so brilliantly took his place in the side. No, the responsibility lies with whomever signed an injury-prone 29 y.o.and paid him so much money.

Arsenal offered him to all and sundry in the summer break but no-one would buy an understandably unhappy Debuchy because his wages make him unsellable, so we loaned him out. Again, why?

I know Corporal Jenks is a Gooner and gives everything to the cause but he is not as good a RB as Debuchy, so the only reason the Frenchman is on loan is because he was so unhappy at Arsenal – the team who over-pay his wages – that he was gifted to Bordeaux thanks to the “rotten apple” effect.

I realise it is difficult to know whether a player will bring value to a team (just look at MU’s recent buys 😄) and Arsenal’s record is above average but this was one they got horribly wrong.

written by Big Raddy

 

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Posted by Erik the Red

Two Arsenal problems solved

November 11, 2016

 

“One can’t judge Wagner’s opera Lohengrin after a first hearing, and I certainly don’t intend hearing it a second time” –Rossini.

Just two problems, you may ask. Well yes, at the moment, because I’m not including the possibility that Sanchez plays against Uruguay and will therefore be fit to face Utd.

Right then, my two problems. Hector is out of action, and we have no position for Ramsey.

The solution is to go 3-5-2. Chelsea have a new continental manager with sensitive hair, and lo, he has transformed their season since going all Juve on them. For us, Monreal could snuggle up to Kos and Must at the back. Gibbs can charge up and down the left, which brings us to the right.

Some say Aaron is a Santi stand in. No he isn’t. Just not cultured enough as a footballer. Some say he is a Mesut stand in. No he isn’t. We’d be better off changing the system altogether and doing away with a No 10. You need Godlike skill to make that role work. Some say Aaron played well there for Wales. Wales?? Really?? They are a second division team who play in tournaments where the quality is so appallingly low that only third rate managers submit job applications. Any top flight club would win a Euros without breaking sweat.

Now the good news. I do have an excellent role for Aaron. Right side in the mid 5. Great engine, good crosser.

Soooo, we have our back three, our two flankers, Coq with Mesut and Santi either side and a front two of Sanchez and Theo.

 

…………Sanchez    Theo

Gibbs  Santi  Coq  Mesut    Aaron

……….Mon  Kos  Must

…………..Petr

 

It is possible you are still wondering about the relevance of the opening quotation. The answer is none whatsoever. Read it last night. Liked it.

written by MickyDidit

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Posted by Erik the Red

No Baked Spuds – A Point Gained or Two Lost?

November 7, 2016

15th of June – fixtures for the new season released and I scroll down the list looking for the Arsenal v Tottenham game.

6th November, yuk, 5 more months to go, but never mind, it will be worth it. Or will it?

Yep, sad old me was really looking forward to that game. Both teams were in good form, both have strong attacking abilities, mutual hatred going back 103 years and counting, it was going to be a game to remember. We were off to a good start, several chances to score, good tempo, looked promising. But……all the chances were wasted and with each ball going to row Z, I started to think that this could be costly. Fortunately, Spurs gave us an opening own goal and the team perked up a bit.

nld2

A silly mistake from Koscielny cost us a penalty, well executed by the not-exactly-Pierce-Brosnan look alike, Harry Kane. One all and I’m sitting deeper and deeper on the sofa, showing signs of resignation. The penalty was game changing, as it always is, and Spurs attacked with new belief and energy.

nld1

There were no more goals, hardly the goals galore I expected, but all in all, I think it was a good result for us. We played beautifully, technically beating Spuds hands down, but that is not a recipe for success.

I’ve said it time and time again – any team that allows us to play beautiful football will be punished. Any manager worth his salt knows by now that you can get a result against Arsenal by playing a disruptive game – don’t let the Gunners dominate the game and you can match them on their own turf. And that is exactly what Tottenham did yesterday.

The second glaring reason for yesterday’s poor result was, in my opinion, the absence of Santi. He is the player who can deal with the kind of pressure Spurs inflicted; he will cherish and distribute the ball and make sure it stays with us. He was missed, both yesterday, and in the previous 2 games. When is he back?

I am not angry, I am deflated, which is probably worse. We will not win the league, 13 years on the trot. That is really poor from a club that claims to be one of the best in the country.

Player Ratings

Everyone gets a 6 to match my feelings about an average performance.

Maybe Cech a 7, because of that save from Eriksen

nld3

Written by Eddie

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Posted by Bongo Hedge

The Righteous. Arsenal vs Them

November 6, 2016

What do you think when reading the following?

Sheringham,  Hoddle, Ginola, Berbatov, Robbie Keane,  Perryman,  Archibald, Graham Roberts, Paul Allen. I could go on.

I cannot say what you think, but I think ,what a bunch of execrable shitehawks. The very worst of footballing abominations.

And what links them all? They are in the Top 30 Spurs players of all time!!

What does this tell us? Plenty. Let’s start with the moral bankruptcy of a club steeped in the dark arts (Alan Sugar??). Then carry on by pointing out the total lack of a Title medal (Berbs had to leave to get one).

They are Pretenders. They exaggerate their abilities, exaggerate the size of their club, all we have to do to counter their pretensions is to point at their trophy cabinet in the last 25 years.

Arsenal remain the Premier Club in North London. Q.E.D.

And yet …

They have improved and in the past couple of season have almost but not quite achieved their main ambition which is to finish above Arsenal (LOL). And I like it. I prefer the frisson of a NLD which we could lose – for way too long it was so one sided it was like playing Islington Schools Second 11.

 

This afternoon (lunchtime) will be tense. Really tense. Because Spurs have finally got a team capable of challenging  – not for the PL, but to finish above us.To suggest they could be PL Champions is farcical and only truly considered after a night on the pop.

If Pochettino sends his team out to attack rather than PTB and play on the counter, we could be in for a terrific game. But he won’t. He will hope for an early goal and then we will see 80% AFC possession as usual.

Why will he do this? Because Spurs have a very good defence and defensive midfield but a weak attack. Eriksen is a terrific player and should be at a big club (not good enough for AFC though) but apart from him ….??

Enough of the Knuckle Draggers.

I wrote this on Nov 8 2015 : “Any NLD is exciting but this one is special. Spurs are unbeaten in 10 and we are joint TotL. A draw seems the obvious result but quite frankly the idea of the blue-bellied Scum leaving the Emirates with anything other than a damned good thrashing is unacceptable. Just think 5-2. This is a reasonable and just scoreline.” Uncanny that the situation is exactly the same.

Let us hope that Theo is recovered because he loves a goal against the Heathens.

Unknown.jpeg

My Team:

Cech

Bellerin    Mustafi    Koscielny    Monreal

Xhaka     Coquelin      Iwobi

Walcott    Sanchez      Ozil

If Ramsey was at 100% I would start him ahead of Iwobi, but what if Santi is fit? Does he start ahead of Xhaka in what is likely to be a physical midfield battle against Wanyama and Dembele?

I would love to see a Spurs red card this afternoon. Clattenburg is our referee – could be worse. Any man who sends off Me-rinho is OK in my book.

Can we win against a very strong Spurs team with a likelihood of Kane returning? Of course we can – Just read the opening paragraphs!

If Arsenal can start fast – which we have struggled with in recent games – and maintain defensive solidity – which we have struggled with in recent game, then we will win. We are at home, we have better players, a better manager, better fans, better playing style, better history.

The path of the Righteous man is beset on all sides by inequities (in this case The Miscreants).  We are The Righteous.

COYRRG

 

 

 

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Posted by Erik the Red

The November Curse – Real or Imaginary?

November 4, 2016

It now seems to be accepted fact that November is always a bogey month for Arsenal.

A calamitous November last season is still fresh in the memory. In the League we started with a drab 1-1 with the N17 miscreants. This was followed by a 2-1 away defeat to the Baggies (they had 1 shot on target); Le Coq was injured early on and Arteta, his replacement, put the ball in his own net before being replaced himself. Santi missed a penalty after some spot-tampering by Olsson. What could go wrong, did go wrong.

The final League game of November 2015 was a 1-1 draw with Norwich in which Santi was injured early in the 2nd half but played the whole game for some strange reason (causing him to miss most of the season) and Alexis was withdrawn with a hamstring after being shoved into a camera dug-out!

In the Champions League, the month had started with a 5-1 battering from Bayern with the only consolation, a 3-0 win over a poor Zagreb side.

alexis-dugout

On the basis of that evidence, it certainly seems as though November is cursed for us, but I wondered just how bad it had been over the past 10 years, so decided to take a gander.

The snapshot below shows both Prem and CL games won, lost and drawn and also details of any fixtures played against our next two League opponents. The bottom row shows our win, draw and loss percentages over the last 10 Novembers.

november

Arsene Wenger’s overall percentages are 57.5% wins, 23.2% draws and 19.3% losses. (Based on 1,136 total games including 653 victories, 264 draws and 219 defeats)

It immediately becomes clear that, in the League particularly, there is an 18% increase in defeats compared to the average. That is huge. In the Champions League the defeat percentage is about average and an increase in draws maybe due to the nature of the CL group stages.

What could be the cause of such a large anomaly in the League?

Injuries? Possibly.

An increase in snood and glove–wearing nambypambyism caused by colder weather? Doubtful.

Excrement happens? Maybe so, but why always in the same period of the season?

Has anyone got any theories?

On a more positive note, November has had some highlights and in some seasons has even been pretty good.

November 2008 saw us beating our November nemesis, the mancs, 2-1. This victory was easier than it sounds. Two goals by the FFBW, one a belter from a snake-like pass from Fabregas, were followed by the mancs getting a late consolation.

November 2012 included the second glorious 5-2 (in one calendar year) against the spuddies. Adebayor, both put them in the lead and then, in true secret agent style, revealed his Arsenal roots and deliberately got sent off a few minutes later.

November 2013 saw us win 3 of our 4 Prem games. A 2-0 win over Liverpool, including a stonker from Rambo, one of the highlights. We also won 2 out of 2 Champions League games that month; one of which, a 1-0 away win in Dortmund, is fondly remembered by two of our AAers and their Ford Focus.

rambodippers

November 2016 started with a fine, hard-fought CL win on Tuesday capped with a goal of rare beauty from our German maestro. Hopefully we can continue to build a head of steam with the NLD on Sunday and our visit to the Old Cowshed the following weekend.

The next two fixtures probably won’t make or break Arsenal’s season, but they could certainly go a long way to breaking the ‘bogey November’ idea and launch us forward into a successful winter.

We’ve recently broken the Swansea hoodoo, let’s continue with this theme and banish another skeleton from our closet.

Written by chas

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Posted by Bongo Hedge

Who Will Top the Premier League at the Halfway Point?

November 3, 2016

The current top six teams’ records after the first ten games are –gn5-spreadsheet1

It’s one of the closest title races that I can remember with Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool all on twenty three points while Chelsea are only one back on twenty two points. If it remains this close we can look forward to one of the tensest and most exciting seasons that we have experienced.

Manchester City started off strongly winning their first six games but they have faltered in the last four picking up only five points out of twelve.

Liverpool have the weakest defence leaking 1.3 goals per game and Tottenham have the tightest giving up a meagre .5 goals per game.

After a slow start Arsenal are unbeaten in the last eight Premier League games, only dropping points to Middlesbrough who put up a stalwart display of defence. While in those eight games we have outscored the opposition by twenty goals to six.

Chelsea faltered against Liverpool and Arsenal but have rebounded winning their last four without conceding a single goal. Manchester United cannot be counted out as although they are eight points adrift in eighth place, Mourinho will be foaming at the mouth and urging them on – plus they will most likely bring in new players during the January transfer window.

mourinho

Games against each other may well be the deciding factor and the record of those games so far this season is below. In this area Liverpool are unbeaten and have the edge with seven points already in the bag, Spurs and Everton are also unbeaten.

gn5-spreadsheet2b

The next nine games, listed below, will take us into 2017 and to the half way point in the season.

gn5-spreadsheet3

Liverpool appear to have a distinct advantage in the next nine games as they only meet two of the top six and starting with Watford they have a run of six very winnable games.

klopp

Arsenal have yet another difficult November ahead and the outcome of the next two games against Tottenham and Manchester United will give us a measuring stick on our season.

Will we see the newest version of Arsenal or will we see a return of the “old”?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Written by GunnerN5

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Posted by Bongo Hedge

Ozil is better than Bergkamp. Match Report.

November 2, 2016

Character building, yes, character building is the way I would describe that win and probably the best preparation for Sunday we could have had. What, I hear you say; surely another six-nil win would have been better giving us the chance to rest Ozil and Sanchez after seventy minutes? Not necessarily, there is no way it is going to be a stroll in the park on Sunday and if we go a goal behind we will have had very recent experience in knowing how to put it right. The same goes for if we are two down but I don’t want to dwell on that possibility for too long. What I am saying is that we are in good shape and are now completely prepared to face the knuckle draggers.

Ludogorets looked pretty good in the first twenty minutes at the Emirates and if it wasn’t for a couple of fine saves from Ospina we could have just as easily have been two down inside the first twenty minutes then. Things didn’t fall inch perfect for them in that game but they did last night and they also had luck on their side: the ball was drilled at speed towards Xhaka who no more than turned away but the referee who was poor all night wrongly gave a free kick from which they scored; our defending wasn’t at its best, but it was one hell of a good cross. Shortly after, Gibbs was given a Brazilian by one of their nippy players who played a slide rule pass into our box for another one of their nippy players to slot home. Don’t ask me their names I don’t know and I don’t care.

gibbs

Two down, things weren’t going to plan and we were looking rattled which showed in our hurried passing and unnecessary loss of possession; still, we do not sing that “we are by far the greatest team the world has ever seen” for nothing.

The fight back was on.

Özil of course was involved it was his cross from the byline that was missed by several players in the penalty area before falling invitingly to Xhaka who guided it home and brought us back into the game. The goal steadied the nerves, confidence returned and with it the accuracy of the passing. We were the better team overall but they were still looking dangerous on the break.

giroud-ludo

Enter our two returnees.

Ramsey was everywhere or so it seemed; a tireless engine, superb vision and my man of the match, it was his pinpoint cross that enabled Giroud to bring us back on terms: a well-taken header from the man who seems to push himself just that much more when he perceives his starting place is under threat. Do you remember the last time he was out for a while and Theo seemed to have taken his place? When the FFP did start again he scored something like four goals in four games. Two on Sunday, Ollie, and the world will be a wonderful place.

Chances fell to both teams in the second half and the game could have gone either way, I had resigned myself to a draw and had already persuaded myself that two-two was not a bad result away from home and all that. But Mesut Ozil had different ideas which leaves me in the really bad situation of having to try and put that goal into words; save from a long list of superlatives, I can’t.

mesut2

Goal of the season, yes, one of the best Arsenal goals I have ever seen, yes, I am trying to stop myself from gushing ahhhhh, I can’t, it was fantastic, brilliant, breathtaking, sheer class from the best player I have ever seen play for Arsenal. There I said it; forgive me Dennis, I couldn’t stop myself. lol

Nothing left now but to watch that goal over and over again and purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Written by LB

 

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Posted by LB

Let’s get this one over with as quick as we can and move onto Saturday

November 1, 2016

November. We usually struggle.

I could stop the post here and just re-blog it as the PM for every game in the month but that wouldn’t be very entertaining , would it?

As to tonight’s game, it is eminently winnable. We smashed the Bulgarians at home and should do so again tonight …. but we are The Arsenal and there is many a slip twixt cup and lip etc etc.

Unknown.jpeg

Our form is good though untested against decent opposition, our players are fit apart from a couple of centre forwards, our results are better away from home. What can go wrong?

Complacency; both from manager and players. They will expect to win, as we expect them to.

Ludogorets have earned the chance to play in the CL, having won the Bulgarian League and beaten among others, Red Star Belgrade in the qualifiers, they have also drawn with Basle so they are no pushovers. Less than 100% effort will result in a loss of important points.

Why are they important? You already know 😉 so I won’t waste your time.

My Team:

Ospina

Jens   Mustafi     Kos     Gibbs

Elneny    Coq      Iwobi

Ox    Sanchez    Ozil

Should Xhaka start in place of Elneny or Le Coq? Not for me – he has to stay on the Naughty Step and learn that making stupid tackles like the one v Swansea is not the Arsenal Way.

The only other question mark is whether Arsene will rest players (see :complacency). He may choose  to play Ramsey and Giroud in order to rest Ozil and Sanchez, however AW has been clear about giving Ramsey time to bed into the team again, so I doubt he will start. Whereas the FFP has shown why he is important and that sometimes Alexis can be the Plan B.

Ludogorets ground has a capacity of just over 8,000 and is sold out. I expect to see the crowd fervent for the first half, less so in the second, followed by some heads down muttering  allowing our travelling few to be heard celebrating.

Let it be So.

COYRRG

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Posted by Erik the Red

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