Controversy is the life blood of football, from the shenanigans of the governing bodies FIFA and UEFA who are no strangers to dubious practices, which are nonetheless seen as acceptable by half the world, and as reprehensible by the other half, as well as the all powerful clique of clubs and the cabal of managers noted for their self serving behaviour, often to the detriment of the fans, and then the football tribalism of the same passionate and committed fans warring among themselves.

As passionate, knowledgeable Gooners we would not find it at all strange or contentious to wholeheartedly agree with the question posed in the Post headline because, with certain reservations about the transfer policy of the manager and the Board, or the exorbitant cost of seat tickets, and similar concerns raised by one faction, or the other, we do believe that Arsenal are indeed the best club in the world, and that is why we support them, and many have done so for the whole of their sentient lives, and will continue to do so until the grim reaper taps them on the shoulder.

It does rather beg the question though as to why the supporters of rival clubs will vehemently disagree, if told by Gooners that Arsenal are the best club in the world, and will enthusiastically, if rudely, respond that their own club is the best in the world.

Why is this? Can’t they see they are wrong? 🙂

Perhaps it is the human condition of tribalism that is at play here, and the urge or need to conform to community norms albeit in the differing environs of North London, the Midlands or Oop North to share a ‘belonging’ with those we have grown up with or, in footballing terms, the sense of belonging to the community of fans who support a particular club. Not that this necessarily speaks to the many fans throughout the world who are equally supportive of their chosen club.

It would be futile in a short article to try and look at this issue at every level, so in addressing only what makes fans tick, let’s have a look at some current-ish issues that have cropped up recently.

There has been a big hoo-hah over the very public admonishment and shameful questioning of the Chelsea club doctor’s professional competence which Mourinho lamely tried to disguise as a footballing knowledge requirement on when to run on the field of play to help an injured football player — in other words when Dr Maureen says so. Pissht.

Many fans, including most of us Gooners, thought this was a shabby display of dictatorial and sexist behaviour on the part of the manager even though he had in fact belatedly included a male employee in his tirade.

But that was not the view of the vast majority of the Chav fans, who were supportive of Maureen and gleefully told themselves this was an example of the manager’s winning mentality – even though they did not win that game – or the one against Man Citeh, where two Chelsea players went down simultaneously and the replacement Chelsea doctor had to be helped out by the Citeh medical team running on. Did they respect your medical/football knowledge wishes too, José?

This not a refection on the Chelsea fans who saw nothing wrong with Mourhino’s stance, because it is unquestionably the case that if this scenario had been played out at Old Trafford, instead of Chelsea, the ManUre fans, who for years were well versed in supporting Old Red Nose in some of his wildest rants, would have supported their manager in the same way – and conversely the Chav fans would then have joined the rest of us in pillorying the ridiculous attitude of the Manure manager in this hypothetical instance.

Was it the case that, in these instances, the outcome was the result of the tribal instinct to which, as fans, we are all prone?

Well, it has been said on here, and elsewhere, that the support Maureen got was borne out of misplaced loyalty, and that the Chav fans really did know he was in the wrong, but were more than happy to indulge in a little bit of cant and hypocrisy as part of the ‘defence’ of the Chelsea community and a manager who has been successful for them.

In human beings there is a complex and powerful desire to conform to the group mood or ethos, and those fans supporting their manager are not knowingly intending to lie or pretend. This human condition actually makes our brains rationalise the facts and to change the way they are perceived, which is different to how others see them.

Take the rationalising of penalty incidents, for example. This inevitably results in opposing sets of fans seeing the same incidents in very different and opposing ways too. “He deliberately chopped our player!” “No, he is a diving cheat!” and so on, and on.
The same incident, if reversed, would have the same fans crying out the opposite views, if it were the other team’s player involved.

There is a phenomenon that occurs on all blogs, and it is something that we are all aware of and it relates to the fact that we can quickly become aware of other people’s biases, whether it is towards certain players, or the behaviour of the managers, or the ethos of other teams, or, dare I say it – other bloggers – and yet at the same time we are completely detached or impervious to our own biases, which are obvious to others.

There is a formulaic phrase that is becoming common, and which some see as essential to protect good relations between bloggers with opposing views, after it has become all too obvious that further discussion has descended into being a pointless dialogue of the blind, and that is “we will have to agree to disagree” which is immensely useful when it becomes clear that no purpose is fulfilled by further debate.

So, Arsenal are the best club in the world, right? Umm – Yes —and no — it depends on who is being asked. 😀

Written by RA

How long does it take for the dust to settle on a loss that included even the Boss saying that no-one had been convincing?

I was there and sadly my team looked unable to mount a convincing attack. This comment from GoonerB eloquently suggests that the tactics of the team selection were to blame.

Raddy your earlier comment about lobbing balls into the box. I feel the presence of Giroud invites us to attack in this way. It seems the support cast all want to play a different way but at the last minute dont see the opportunity so resort to this more basic final ball. I dont think a big less mobile forward really suits us, whoever it is, and the natural way we want to attack breaks down on this.

Micky, your question answers the other main problem for me. Ozil just starting to look the deal at number 10 so lets put him on the left mostly? Cazorla forming a good partnership with le coq so lets put ramsey there instead,who is not as good bringing the ball out from deep, and push cazorla into more Ozils role? Winning games with the quicker striker so lets change to the slower striker?

Aaaahhhh. With Ranieri back do we now have 2 tinker men in the epl? I dont care if its in room 101 but….square pegs in round holes….it is deja vu to early last season when we did the same thing and were looking disjointed.

Square pegs in round holes again!!!

I love AW but he’s going to have his work cut out for himself this week.

There were times yesterday when shots at goal were taken and there was a better option. I love it that we’re taking shots again instead of always trying to walk the ball into the back of the net but ………… can we expect to go back to 30 passes before someone shoots?

If only a couple of those chances had gone in in the first half it would have been a different story.

Maybe Benzema will come and AW can fine tune the balance and learn to use his squad instead of squeezing them all in 😉

Written by peaches

So today the 2015/16 Premier League season kicks off. The first game of the new season presents a tough one for Gooners to want anyone to win the fixture – Man U vs Spurs, I’ll be hoping for my normal which is 0-0, 22 man brawl, points deduction and suspensions, it would be funny to see ManUre lose on the opening day after spending £80m this summer, but wanting Spuds to start off with a win at OT, no thanks.

Enough talking about bile inducing teams, time to focus on us.

Looking through BBCs pundits forecast of the league placings most still put Chelsea as the team to beat, strangely quite a few think we are finishing second and four brave souls even put us down as winners, I say strangely because for the last four years we have been the pundits pick to drop out of the top 4, have the pundits finally woken up to the fact that Arsene has been steadily building a very good squad of players and are a lot better than many have given us credit for over the last couple of seasons.

Keymen:

Coquelin personally rediscovering his natural position was the turning point of last season, prepared to do a job that no one else in the squad can do, according to Arsene there was a time when Coquelin fancied himself as a bit more of a box to boxer, despite Arsene telling him to focus on being the best at what he could do well rather than being average in a more flamboyant role, the lad can do more than break up play, he is actually a good passer too long and short. But his aggression and will to get in the face of his opponents has been a real catalyst for others in the side. It also hasn’t done any harm that his selection and continued run in the side means no one at the club is guaranteed a place. No matter what the wages or assumed status within the team.

I also think the way Alexis approaches football will have been a wake up call to the squad, here is a player gifted with immense talents on the ball, but who is prepared to work his socks off when not in possession, it feels like he may have had a similar impact to that made by Bergkamp. I’m not saying before Alexis arrived that the team was full of drunks and partying types like Bergkamp found on his arrival, but Alexis shows that talent with ball at feet is only half of the equation, the other half is made up with how you play, with passion, with commitment but most of all intensity. Alexis showed up, every single game, that hust has to rub off on others, especially our younger players.

Squad

Last season as we all know was reasonably successful, a second FA Cup in as many years, and a fantastic run from February onwards apart from that Champions League game with good results against teams we have not always done brilliantly against in recent seasons.

At the end of last season the populist position was we were still a striker, a centre back and a goalkeeper short, we’ve added the goalkeeper and for some that’s enough to put us right in contention, Cech is undoubtedly good, is he really that good? Let’s hope so.

Perhaps we will still see another addition or two to the squad, but it is all ready quite full and would take some juggling, Arsene has already got his work cut out keeping the current squad happy.

Playing style/formation

After the Community Shield Maureen wanted to tell everyone that we left our principles in the dressing room and came to put ten men behind the ball, whilst I’m not really sure that’s true, do we need to sometimes play like that if we are going to win the title, or can we do it playing open attractive football every weekend? Some say that our trip to the Etihad last season was a sign that we are ready to change, whilst we may have sat deeper that day I still think we played the better football when we had the ball, and as soon as we got the ball we were making purposeful movements forward. We have played defensive against teams before, Barca would be one I could think of, but in those games when we got the ball we did nothing with it, so I don’t think parking the bus will be the answer, I think it’s collective defending and having players who can get the ball out of tight situations whilst still moving forward with adventure.

Other than those few games where we will have to worry more about our opponents in the main I expect us to continue with the possession football, and lots of little one twos, the key to this being successful is movement and speed.

4-5-1 or 4-3-3 have been our stock in trade formations for the last few seasons, I think this was altered slightly last season to more like 4-1-2-3, that formation has allowed us to be tighter at the back as full backs are not required to push on constantly, this left us a lot less exposed than in previous seasons.

I wonder whether that’s why Theo is being moved inside to compete with Ollie for the number 9 role, he is not the greatest when it comes to running the touch line with the ball with only an opponent or two for company 9 times out of ten he will end up overrunning the ball or crossing to nothing or stopping waiting for support and being relieved of possession compare that to Alexis, Ozil and even Ox we have better players to play those wide roles who do not require full backs to bomb up the pitch to help them out, they can trick their way past a couple of opponents and change the direction of play without losing momentum of attack.

Is this our year

Arsenes first squad post Emirates contained Cesc and friends and in 2008 we had a good chance of winning the league only for it all to fall apart in February, I think the current squad is at a very similar stage in terms of development and having grown together, the failure of that side to win a trophy plus increasing financial pressure eventually led to the break up of that squad before they had really achieved anything, this current squad whilst picking up a couple of FA Cups is at a similar stage, we need to really challenge this season, it’s ok if we come up short by a point or two, but we really have the squad to push Chelsea and City all the way. Let’s hope we can at least do that starting with West Ham.

Written by Gooner in Exile

The meaningless pre-season tour to Singapore is over, the Emirates Cup done and dusted. Just one more pre-season game to go before the real business starts.

I know that “Selling Arsenal” is the reason for playing two friendly games in hot and humid Singapore and luckily we got away without any injuries, but was the long trip worth it? I have my doubts.

The Emirates Cup provided an opportunity to look at most of the first team squad and one or two others and at least it was played in the weather conditions likely to prevail once the Premiership gets started. Although the opposition wasn’t too hot, a more than comfortable 6 – 0 win against Lyon and a much tougher game against Wolfsburg which was won by the only goal in the match scored by Theo Walcott.

One Arsenal youngster was particularly impressive. Jeff Reine-Adelaide looks to have the build, pace and technical skill to make it big in the Premiership. It was from his pinpoint pass that Theo scored. He is only seventeen and a lot can happen in a couple of years but hopefully he can become a star in the not too distant future.

Now it’s on to what I hope will prove to be a more competitive game altogether. The Community Shield against the Chavs. Could this prove to be the match where Le Professeur finally puts one over the charming Senhor Mourinho? How sweet that would be.

Looking at the all-round performance, there is definitely a feeling of confidence in the squad, goals came from a variety of sources, the various combinations in defence all looked sound, Petr Cech had no hesitation in ordering his defenders about at corners.

The transfer window is still open, money is available and Wenger has admitted that he could still make a signing or two, if the right player/ players became available.

All in all the future is looking rosy, I think we could do very well in the coming season, I might just have a bob or two on Arsenal winning the Premiership.

Written by Norfolk Gooner.