THE LATE DASH FOR THE ARSENAL EXIT DOOR

August 30, 2017

A little over 36 hours to the close of the window, and wow, it’s all happening at Arsenal.

Incredible really. Last season closed with ripples of optimism. The fabulous Cup win and the sexy new system. Add the three players down spine we needed, keep our best players, sell the obvious to clear the decks and free up wages and at least we’d have improved the on-field side of things 😊

The window began well. Now at August 30. What a bloody shambles. Sanchez, and Ox want out. We’re two CB’s down with Gabs away and Mustafi half way through the exit door

Let’s be realistic, it will be impossible to replace/upgrade all of those before tomorrow night, so we are in big time damage limitation. This means that any well thought out club transfer strategy is out of the window. This is by far and away the least professionally managed period I can remember in Arsenal history.

I won’t touch on names of possible recruits or exiters, but like many, I do wonder how this mess all came about so bloody late in the day. Something triggered the late dash for the exit as otherwise, for their own sakes, why didn’t these guys get their own careers sorted out earlier?

Written by mickydid89

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Obviously the best is still to come from Arsenal………

August 28, 2017

it has to be – as it cannot possibly get any worse than it was today.

I want to put this in perspective; now I’ve watched as a spectator or a viewer more games than anybody I know – over 2,500 and our performance (or lack of) against Liverpool ranks as the very worst that I have ever witnessed.

I’m neither a strategist nor a tactician I am just a simple supporter who supports the team of my choice and upbringing. As a kid I stood at the clock end in my short trousers in the rain and snow and froze my rear end off just to watch my team. I’ve seen games where we lost badly and I’ve experienced season after season where we started off and ended as no hopers but I was never deterred as in my heart of hearts I knew things would get better – and eventually they did. However I’d never seen an Arsenal team play without heart or desire – until today. I feel very sad and let down but I refuse to give up on my team and I will continue, as I have countless times before, to support my team with all my heart and soul.

I will not sink to the level of criticising our strategy, tactics, manager, players or staff as I have no knowledge or special skills in any of those disciplines. I am however an expert supporter and I was an expert business manager – so here are my views based on the things I am/was good at…..

courtesy of the Mirror

If an employee gave me notice that they were leaving then I would immediately realize that they no longer had the good of the company/club at heart then I would have them walked out of the door/sold so they could cause no further damage or disruption to the business/club.

If an employee who was trained/hired/bought to work in a certain discipline was found to be underperforming than he/she would receive coaching if this failed to achieve the right results then an alternative position would be considered – if in a new position they continued to under perform then due notice of termination/sale would be given.

If the overall business model was not giving the desired results then all areas of the business would be reviewed, including staffing, business strategy, competitors, employee compensation, techniques and decisions would be made that would create the results needed – maintaining status quo was never a consideration.

My hope is that during this convenient international break Arsenal conduct an overall business review that will bring about the changes that have become obvious to many of us supporters. In this supporter’s opinion, status quo is unacceptable and effective change, including player/staff departures, must take place before we play Bournemouth.

A loyal but deeply disappointed

Written by Gunner N5

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Next up we travel to Anfield to play Liverpool

August 24, 2017

I always get a thrill when I hear the traditional names of the stadiums, well that’s not entirely true as I get a totally different feeling when I here White Hart Lane or Old Trafford but generally the names strike a very pleasing chord with me. As commercialism has taken over the names of yore are fast disappearing. Recently Mike Ashley was forced to change the name of the Newcastle ground back to St. James Park after the Geordie fans echoed their horror at their ground being called after his Sports Direct business.

Anyway I’ve always been a fan of Liverpool and their style of football especially with my in-laws being Liverpudlians, on each family visit they always managed to get me a ticket and their fans were just incredible just being among them when they sang the “Liverpool Anthem” used to give me goose bumps.

I managed to see one game against Arsenal and even though I was in with the Liverpool crowd they treated me exceptionally well – that is they didn’t aim their rolled up newspapers at me when they took a leak.

Overall Liverpool has the edge over us – but as you can see below after playing 182 league games against each other there is a difference of a mere 4 games.

W D L GF GA
Total Home Games 40 31 20 140 80
Total Away Games 24 19 48 105 175
Total Games 64 50

68

 245 255

 

Now here is our complete league record (home first). –

Enjoy the game everybody and I hope the Arsenal strut their stuff and keep the Pool supporters in their seats.

Written by GunnerN5

 

 

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Arsenal window Time Bomb

August 21, 2017

No idea how many days in August, so let’s pretend the window remains open for ten’ish days. That is not long at all, although I suspect a great deal more business will be done across Europe. I imagine Barca will be very active, and this will have the inevitable knock-on effect as to who goes where.

As we entered the summer, my only comment regarding The Arsenal summer activity concerned the importance of resigning Sanchez. One, he is our best player, and two, it would send out the right signals to both current players as well as transfer targets.

Here is/was my hit list:

  1. Sign up players entering final year of contracts. Essentials being Sanchez, Mesut and Ox.
  2. Sign Ian Wright….or similar
  3. Sign Patrick Vieira….or similar
  4. Sign Tony Adams….or similar

Additional to those players’ footballing abilities was that two of them were Leaders.

Ok, now the bad news. We’ve done just one of the above, in Lacazette. Yes, I’m very pleased with The Bosnian Beast, but that signing was cake icing.

So, here we are, ten’ish days remaining. I do not believe all the above will be done, so damage limitation could be the order of the day. I was staggered to learn about the sale of Gabriel, not because I believe he was an especially good defender, but because we’re thin, to put it mildly, in experienced CB’s.

Based on that sale, my money would be on a defender arriving as the most likely.

Sanchez leaving would be a complete disaster, and even having him stay on with a thicker weekly envelope fills me with awful memories of how Henry performed with 200k a week in his tight trousers.

What would you like from the last ten’ish days, because damn sure, not all your dreams will come true? I predict a disaster.

Written by mickydidit89

 

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Now we play Stoke City in the Potteries

August 17, 2017

This is my least favourite away game of the season; we play the ever repugnant Stoke City. My thoughts are always dominated by the FA Cup semi final games in 1971 and 1972, both semis went to replays and we won them both. The circumstances involved in those losses caused Stoke fans to have an everlasting dislike/hatred for the Arsenal.

The most infamous away game was seven seasons back on May 10th 2010 when Ryan Shawcross got a red card for breaking Aaron Ramsey’s leg. One of the headlines that sticks in my head was –

“Spare us the sanctimony about Ryan Shawcross being a nice lad”

Poor Arsene Wenger always suffers terribly at the torrents of abuse cascading down from their “fans” but he handles it all like a true gentleman.

Anyway  – our away record against them is as abysmal as they are – we have only won two away games in the Premier League era and to make matters even worse their manager is the equally obnoxious – Leslie Mark Hughes.

Historically we have only managed to get 33.3% of the points in our away games against them so based on the past we should not be too optimistic – but the past is the past and we are the ARSENAL.

 Here is our complete league record against Stoke City.

Written by GunnerN5

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Is the FA Biased?

August 15, 2017

Now I’m not one who endorses conspiracy theories but when I look at the opening seven games in the Premier League it gives me leave to at least wonder.

In my belief it is important to have a high degree of balance and fairness in the schedule in order to give every team an equal opportunity of success. However the opening seven games favour one team far more than others.

Take a look at this ——–

Is it just a quirk of scheduling or do I perceive bias? Of course in the end result each team plays a home and away game against every other team but the schedule gives Man U a totally unfair advantage as they do not face any of the other top six teams. They have a distinct possibility of winning all seven games which will be a huge boost to their confidence level while the other five teams are in a dog fight playing against each other.

Am I being paranoid or do others have a similar opinion?

Written by GunnerN5

 

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Friday Night Football at the Emirates

August 9, 2017

For the first time in the Premier League history the season will kick off on Friday August 11th when Arsenal will host Leicester City at the Emirates with the game starting at 19:45.

We played our first game against Leicester 125 years ago on January 7th 1895 – back then the teams were known as Leicester Fosse and Woolwich Arsenal, we lost the game 3-1. Overall we have played 124 league games against each other with Arsenal having an overall record of – W58, D38, L28, GF247, GA169.

Woolwich Arsenal 1895 – courtesy Arsenal.com

We have not lost a league game against them for 23 years when Leicester beat us 2-1 at their ground on November 23rd 1994.

Our starting line up then was:

Goalkeeper David Seaman

Defender/Right back Lee Dixon

Defender Steve Bould

Centre back Martin Keown

Centre back Andy Linighan

Left back Nigel Winterburn

Midfielder Jimmy Carter

Midfielder Stefan Schwarz

Midfielder Ian Selley

Forward Paul Dickov

Forward Ian Wright

Ian Wright scored from a penalty in the 19th minute while Leicester’s goals came from Andy Linighan 16′ (og) and David Lowe 28′.

Here is our league record against Leicester for the past 40 seasons.

After our performance against Chelsea in the Community Shield I’m feeling very confident that we will win our opening game to set us on the right track for the season ahead.

Written by GunnerN5

(Ed – other notable Friday night Arsenal fixtures….)

Friday May 26th 1989

Friday April 16th 2004

 

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Life without Sanchez

July 6, 2017

So before talking about options for life without Sanchez lets just talk about what happens if he stays. Personally I think this is rather easy. He lines up as the left sided of our double number 10’s (with Ozil as 1st choice to the right of centre) behind our new boy Lacazette. That front 3 should have creativity and goals in it and would be exciting to watch. It could be a title defining front 3 in a formation where they all compliment each other. There is also excellent back up to each of the front 3 players.

In essence I hope Alexis stays but this is far from certain and the most recent rumours are of him demanding £400,000pw. This could just be paper talk of course with no basis whatsoever, but if it were true I am giving it the thumbs down. At that point I am looking to get us the best deal, but what is that?

Probably the worst deal would be a straight cash deal with an EPL rival. A straight cash deal would be better with an overseas club. Probably the best deal would be a swap with another big club. If it were Munich could we nab Lewandowski in return? One of our bloggers described Lacazette as a true 9 ½ so could he adopt the left sided 10 role behind a prolific 9 like Lewandowski? Ditto with Aguero. Could that happen?

Both of those latter mentioned deals would still leave us looking pretty strong with a lot of fire-power even without Alexis. Other possible considerations could be Sterling or De-Bruyne but for some reason they don’t appeal to me quite as much.

With all the Sanchez talk there is another player issue that, although receiving some media coverage, is flying slightly more under the radar. We are in danger of losing Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, a player I really like. It is hard to believe that he has been with us since 2011 yet is still only 23 years old.

In many senses he hasn’t had a dissimilar pathway to Sanchez had to their respective 23rd year. The stats for both are not hugely different, where Sanchez was with Udinese to 23. Sanchez has slightly more favourable stats but then I have always maintained that AOC has been a slight victim of covering a multitude of positions, so a significant amount of games would have been in less favourable positions that would allow him to boost his goal-scoring stats.

Sanchez really only started to thrive as a goal-scoring wing forward from his 23rd year when he moved to Barca. It is time to nail down a regular position for AOC or risk losing him. He was excellent at right wing back but I am still not certain this is the position where we will see the best of him. Similarly I don’t think it is the position he feels is really best for him. We have Bellerin, who is excellent there in our back 3 formation, and I am sure we can find other alternative cover there.

I say that if we lose Sanchez then it is time to unleash the Ox. Give him the opportunity that Sanchez had at that same age to show the world that there is a world class left inside forward in there waiting to burst through, one that as his confidence increases in the position is full of goals and pacey attacking intent.

Is it a risk? Some would say yes and that we need to get some big foreign player to replace someone like Sanchez. But there is a risk there as well. Even some celebrated names have historically struggled in the EPL. There is as much risk in any player coming in as there is in one of our own changing to a new role.

Back up would be required, but Welbeck is adept from the left attacking position. We may need to bring another in though. Perhaps a player that can cover this position but could also cover Ramseys more attacking of the central 2 role. I like the look of Lemar at Monaco but I also like the look of the lad Golovin from CSKA that we have been linked with. World of football describes his strengths as dribbling, acceleration, flair and passing. What is not to like? Even better when listing preferred foot their answer was both.

I wouldn’t be unhappy if AW released AOC and just see if at 23 he is primed to become our own English Sanchez. There are no guarantees in football and sometimes you just have to be brave enough to take a chance on a player and put your faith in them.

Written by GoonerB

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Prêt à acheter, Arsène

June 13, 2017

Come on, you get my drift. Pret à Manger, Pret à Porter, Footballers to Buy.

Anyway, France v England tonight (and on proper telly) in a friendly, and oh garçon, do they have some good footballers.

Looking through their squad there are quite a few who I reckon would look excellent in an Arsenal shirt, and don’t forget, the list does not include Benzema or Martial.

 

Hugo Lloris

Defenders: Lucas Digne, Christophe Jallet, Presnel Kimpembe , Laurent Koscielny, Benjamin Mendy, Djibril Sidibe , Samuel Umtiti, Raphael Varane, Kurt Zouma

Midfielders: N’Golo Kante ,Blaise Matuidi, Paul Pogba,  Adrien Rabiot,  Moussa Sissoko , Corentin Tolisso

Forwards: Ousmane Dembele , Olivier Giroud , Antoine Griezmann , Alexandre Lacazette , Thomas Lemar , Kylian Mbappe , Dimitri Payet , Florian Thauvin

 

Personally, I can’t stand England because of the filth that follow them, so couldn’t care less who wins, but I will watch with my Arsenal eyes glued to the French.

Guessing we’ll buy three players this summer, and with one excellent looking signing in the bag already, I would be very happy to select two more from that French lot.

Written  by MickyDidIt89

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Stand up if you Love Arsene Wenger

June 7, 2017

Well I’m already standing and I have more hope for the future of our club than I have had in many a long year.

You may ask why?

The answer is that I want the Arsenal Football Club to be a club that all future generations of supporters can be as proud of as I have been in my seventy years of support. It is my opinion that in order for us to achieve that we need a manager who is honest, successful, and brings us stability along with common sense player decisions that are within our fiscal budget. Arsene Wenger brings all of that in spades and his twenty one seasons have been the most successful in our club’s history.

2016/17 was the only season that Arsene has not got us into a Champions League place – but with sixteen games remaining we were still in a good position to gain our accustomed spot. However the next eight games were disastrous causing Arsene Wenger to reconsider his tactics and switch to a back three in defence against Middlesbrough and it turned out to be very successful, as is shown in the chart below, but it proved to be too little too late as we missed our customary CL spot by a single point.

Not to be forgotten was our fantastic victory in the FA Cup Final when

Arsenal beat Chelsea 2 -1 while utilizing the same back three system.

There have been many periods; some lasting for many years, when I have been disappointed in our lack of success or ambition but my pride in the club has never waned.

The very worst period that I have personally experienced lasted for thirty three seasons.

During this period of thirty three seasons we won one League title, two FA Cups and one Fairs Cup and for the vast majority of the time we started off the season with little or no hope of winning anything. Looking back at these years is a stark reminder of just how bad we were as a team and how much we suffered as fans. Our first double in 1970/71 was, understandably, one of the few seasons when we fans could hold our heads high and we all oozed with pride.

Then along came George Graham (1986 to 1995) and he helped to lift our heads up by winning two League titles, one FA Cup, two League Cups and one Cup Winners Cup, ending up with an average league position of 5.11. Unfortunately his demise was one of my lowest moments as an Arsenal supporter when he was fired after being caught accepting illegal payments from an agent whose players were transferred to Arsenal.

However the black cloud that it cast over Highbury turned out to have a silver lining as in 1996 Arsene Wenger was hired as our new manager and he quickly turned our frowns into huge grins as we won our second double in 1997 -1998. His record to date has made him the most successful manager in our long history putting him up on the same pedestal as the great Herbert Chapman (1925 – 1934) who won three league titles and one FA Cup and was a trail blazer in introducing multiple new innovations to the game.

Arsene’s level of consistency over his twenty one seasons with Arsenal is deserving of high credit and the only manager in history to have a better record over such a long period of time is Alex Ferguson. However, that is not a simple comparison as the conditions they managed under were very different.

Fergie inherited the Class of 1992 and these young players became the nucleus of the United team that dominated the Premier League; given United’s deep pockets Fergie was able to import some of the World’s top talents to round off his team.

Arsene inherited our famous Back Four – they were a top class but aging group of players. Ian Wright was approaching the end of his career while Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira had just joined Arsenal. These players formed the core of Arsenal’s initial team. Arsene, unlike Fergie, has had to work within a strict financial structure that became even tighter with the decision to build a new stadium.

With the signing of his latest contract it means that Arsene he will be with us until at least the end of the 2018/19 season. Given that we have to win our way back into a Champions League spot it will mean that Arsene will only have one season in which to win the trophy – if he wins then he will retire – if not I predict that he will extend it for a further two seasons.

Written by GunnerN5

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