Morning all.
Sadly, it’s the ladies side who have snapped up a defender. 22 year old Jemma Rose has left the Bristol Academy and signed for Arsenal.
Let’s hope Arsene Wenger snaps one up next month too!
Last weekend was awful, lacklustre, lazy, schoolboy and really the worst first half of defensive play we have seen in a while. Well, apart from Chelsea and Liverpool last season – it really was sloppy and simply awful. After the match, a certain few fans made their feelings clear towards Arsene Wenger. They want him gone and didn’t care about the way they put that message across…
Shouting to Joel Campbell, telling him to get out whilst he could was quite silly in my opinion as what sensible fan would want to see an up and coming good footballer leave the club they love?
Anyway, Aaron Ramsey has spoken in support of our manager and now Olivier Giroud has followed suit in an exclusive interview with The Mail Online and according to the newspaper, he’d not long watched a re-run of that dreadful first half last weekend:
Talent is not sufficient and every team needs to fight to be competitive. We had a lack of commitment and we have seen it on the video and we made mistakes like we are young players. We have seen it but we want to learn from them and not do it again.
We know that we are strong, we have a good squad, that we have a lot of qualities in the squad but without sometimes commitment. And maybe when you are not at 100 per cent sometimes, then you pay.
We heard the people, the supposed Arsenal fans criticise some of us, especially the boss. It was sad. I’m not sure he deserved it. It’s always like that when you lose a game. You have to question yourself, of course. But you can’t say we have to change everything. He is the man for this situation and we aren’t even wondering if he is or not.
Giroud says he understands the anger and frustration.
Of course, because they want us to win our games. We play for Arsenal and we are a big team and they quite demanding with us and we understand that they are disappointed as well. That’s why we want to show our strength and our reaction.
However, have a go at Arsene and you are having a go at the team too:
We will show solidarity and answer on the pitch. It gives us more strength to fight together. We are a pack and when someone attacks the pack everyone wants to defend our interest and our team-mates, our boss.
We are all together. It was a really bad start at Stoke, especially when you are aware that we’re going to have a lot of duels in the air. It’s even more disappointing but for fans and for us, we will bounce back as soon as possible. We have a great opportunity to do it at home against Newcastle. We want to reach the top four as soon as possible.
Every player at Arsenal of course owes Wenger because he signed them for or promoted them to the first team but Giroud insists that their loyalty run deeper than those ties, the relationship’s more complex. It’s not because he signed me that he is going to be kind with me. When I play well, he tells me but when I play s*** he tells me as well. There is no special treatment.
Ollie is right on so many accounts there and as much as it’s good to read all he has to say but words are easily said, its the doing that counts and not enough of our players are doing the doing. Nor is the manager.
Today Mathieu Debuchy has to step into the centre of defence having had 24 hours notice. What a mess, what a gamble and I just hope it pays off. Why a proper Centre Back from the reserves isn’t starting I don’t know as surely playing Debuchy there is just as much a risk as playing Isaac Hayden or Semi Ajayi but at least the latter two are experienced in their own position and both are tall and very mobile.
Goodness knows what will happen today against a Newcastle side who will be full of confidence after beating Chelsea. I just hope that we are full of confidence too after beating Galatasary in Turkey and that shows on the pitch.
Perhaps the fan outburst last will spur the team on, perhaps it will spur the manager on and I truly hope it does because no matter what is going on, all I hope for is for the team to start playing better and string a good run of results together and that’s because Arsenal FC is all what matters to me on match day.
One thing is sure is if the team play like they did during the first half last weekend, it’ll be a very long ninety minutes…..
COYRRG’S
Have a good day all….
morning all!
First…
come on Arsenal!
Morning Jm and all…
Busy day for me so catch up after lunch….
Morning again
Picking a team, just at present, is like playing school yard football. All the kids line up and then we take turns to pick the starters and who ever is left, they can be subs! Somehow today I don’t think our back four will be selected much differently.
“Do you want to play in defence, Olivier? Says Arsene
“Non!”
“How about you Lukas? I will at least give you a start today!”
“Nein”
Imploringly, “Danny?”
“Nor”.
And so on until he finds 2 or 3 willing saps who will cop a shed load if we lose, or praise galore for Wenger’s inspirational team selection, if we win!
What a state to find ourselves in!
If history repeats itself this could end up as a no score bore, and I think we will do well to score 0 and even better if we don’t concede!
Morning all……
Bright and frosty here, lovely…..
Morning All,
Prehaps someone on here can tell me,
Has any player ever slagged wenger off?
He must be great to play for,
Imagine Diaby talking to a new friend,
the friend asks,
“What do you do for living mate”
Well I am a squad member of this team,and the manager pays me £50,000,
a week.
“Effing hell mate,your must be good”
Diaby says,
Not sure how good I am,I ain’t played for years now.
“What you get paid £50,000 a week for sitting on your arse”
Yep………….His like a father to me and I love him.
Fred, He wraps them all up in a safe comfy environment he pampers to their every need…
The Colney Creche is a prime example of that.
Very few ever slag him off because even if they don’t really like him he always looks after them.
Oh and morning you lot…..
Now his highness is telling the fans to get behind the team……………
What does he think that lot were doing in Stoke then…? does he think they got a train all the way there just to have a pop at him…?
Maybe if he did his job properly which he says is to win football matches then the fans won’t have to have a moan at him as well as going all that way spending a shit load of money and get served up a load of crap by the team he manages and the team they support and follow..!
Go get ’em Mr.GG……
Picking up on the team selection process,
If we never knew better after listening to
Mr Wenger talking about the back four,
you would think he was referring to a pub team,
He says to Harry…
I know you have never played centrehalf before,
but Tommys turned up half cut and spewing all over the place.
Just rung Dick his on his way,but says.
Start without me,should be their by half time.
If the senile demented old goat actually did what he was supposed to do Bt then no one would be having a go at him would they…! To spout such crap is to try deflect the fans annoyance with him onto them not being fans at all it seems just because he’s managed over 17,000 games as a manager bla bla bla…………
Fred, Why do we have centre backs in the reserves if he insists on playing a right back at centre back who never played there in his life… Doesn’t that just confirm he doesn’t rate any of the young centre backs…?
Not sure Wath,
Takes me back to the old reserve games,
seems to be a big divide now,
when you think back,all the players would play first team or second teamfoofball,
Injuries were here and their.
As Kev and Potter have said for yrs Fred, why we don’t just have a proper reserve league like the old combination league is beyond me… yet another FA cock up….!
Yes the divide is big but the kids are either good enough or they not, they train with the 1st team and putting one into a game isn’t like throwing 3 or 4 in and your playing next to seasoned pro’s, surely the french right back and ex German centre half can get a youngster through a match and least it’s their natural position and again give the team way more balance. Way to sensible I think…!
It’s a beautiful sunny day in London Town.
Afternoon All…
Good post Rico…
So i believe Kev.
My mate’s already in The Rocket….
Are you for The Railway?
BT, hello mate….
My son & his mate are going into The Cock, Highbury Corner.
They might go into the Rocket later on…
Boooo! Belated happy birthday, Kev. 🙂 Hope our boys give you a good prezzie.
Hiya, rico!! Still shopping?? 😛
BT, you’re pink with fangs, haha.
Come on you reds!!
Cheers Agag…
It’s been great thanks…
How’s things with you buddy…
Hi Agag, Rico must think i need to be more in touch with my feminine side…..lol
Mrs. BT was indulging in some retail therapy last week….tsk.. New shoes…
Hope your tickety- boo…
I trust you went wild with the credit card, Kev. 🙂 Now, that you’re thirty, you need a new wardrobe. 🙂
BT, you can change your gravatar, but I quite like you pink. 😛 Mrs BT, like Mrs Adam, is a girl after my own heart. I hope you gave her really pretty shoes for her birthday. 😉
As always, with Arsenal, I am half agony, half hope. 😉 Hope we win. I hate how stop start our season has been. We have some way to go before catching up with the non-invincible (yay!!) Chavs!
Agag, i think she’s trying to out do Imelda Marcos…
The last pair arrived in some weird and wonderful packaging……
Now, I like Mrs BT even more. Imelda’s shoe collection is quite the peg!! I keep telling myself to save, but online shopping will be the death of me. 😕
Chelski one up already….
AFC U18’s beaten 3-0 by Fulham…
Afternoon Agag, BT and all. Just getting the red thermal leggings on before leaving for the game.
Afternoon all…
Brr, it’s cold out there….
What’s the point in recalling Coquelin? He’s only played 4 times for Charlton this season.
Desperation or what……
Afternoon Rico. Just off now for the drive to the Emirates. Hope for a good result.
Later…..
Hi Adam, Rico.
Watched a bit of Chelski, boring.
Rico, didn’t carrying my big prezzie about not keep you warm?…..lol
Offski to the Syrup Bowl soon….
Agag, I’m saving up for the January sales… 😉
COYRRG
Afternoon Adam, Bt – hope you have your thermals on Adam….
🙂 Bt, no shopping today, out for lunch and stuff…
Rico, you high flyers….
🙂 Bt, hardly….. lol
Chelsea are always boring, BT. 🙂
Adam, enjoy your day out in your red leggings. 😛 😛
rico, it’s December and still rainy here; I hate it.
Cahill should have had a second yellow for diving….
Agag, it’s baltic here…lol
Costa booked for diving…
Hull down to 10, Fat Tom off.
Afternoon Rico and the House.
Pretty cold down south, you really need thermals for watching football today.
BT todays defeat makes me think things are going wrong at youth level.
At the end of Sept the U18 side were top of the league with a recored of
P6 W4 D1 L1 Goals f 19 a 8 pts13.
.
Since then they have P8 W0 D4 L4 Gf 4 GA 14 Pts 4
They are now 8th(out of 12) and fifteen points behined the leaders.
The 2nd win of of the season was a 5-1 thrashing of Chelsea who thrashed us 3-0 in the return fixture.
I would like to know how this has happened.
Enjoy Kev, hope it’s a great game and three points to us….
Hi Rick, it does seem very strange, perhaps the change of style you mentioned before isn’t paying dividends….
Costa 2-0
It’s bitterly cold here Agag but lovely and sunny…
Afternoon Rick, could be why Jonker wants a change ……
Dark and cccold here….
Todays team Chessny, Bellerin, Debuchy Merts Gibbs Flamini Carzola. Ox Alexis Wellbeck Giroud.
Ajayi Coq, Niles Campbell Poldoski Sanogo Bench.
Rick, who is the under 21’s Cdm please?
Its Ajayi Rico. Livid Isaac is not on the bench .
Thanks Rick, the times I watched, Ajayi was in defence I think..
Could be hayden isn’t quite match fit, there can be no other excuse surely…
who are the central defenders? Debuchy and Mets?
Yes Jm..
COYRRG’S!!!!!!!!!!
Come on you REDS!!!!!
Is that Taylor again with the whistle???
Lee Mason!
How has he missed that on Alexis??
Studs into the stomach, disgraceful!!!!
Bloody Shoot!!!
G ROD!!!!
Great goal jude
Morning all…….way too early in the morning lol.
Great work by Bellerin for the goal, superb!!
Hi Scott…
Come on boys we need a few with Mason in charge….
Oh my oh my, that would ha been awesome….. If….
Penalty claim?? What about Gibbs being pulled over??
Hi Scott….
We look sharp in attack, but surprisingly nervous in defence…NOT lol
What save by Szczesny a few minutes back……more of that and he will be the keeper we all hoped.
Hi all,
I think the one commentator must be Michael Owen. Totally negative about anything Arsenal and pumping up anything Newcastle.
So nausiating, I feel like muting the game
Just about sums it up Scott….
Crackin’ goal…..
Newcastle will go for it second half, smash them on the break…
Should be 2-0 Imo, no way was that a foul for Danny’s goal….
Love to see us bang in one early, as they will open right up and it could end up 3 or 4.
Need to keep an eye on Hector in the second half.
weell: one ball hits the bar; 2 goals (clear ?) but just one; two probably penalties, one Newcastle player should be sent off…. but we have a yellow card and Newcastle none.
Ref has double standards so expect the worst Bt..
Get your card out you twit!!!!
I know Rico, as long as he gets help from those around….
Are we remotely surprised?
SANTI……..
AWESOME!!
Incredible.
No Scott and there’s another example wit OC…
Shocking!
Why the fuck do we cop such soft yellow cards yet our guys endure chainsaw attacks for nothing??
That’s 3.
How the heck???
G ROD!!!!!!!
Alexis has been seriously beaten up today and that got Mason has allowed it!
Got – git
Bugger
JEEEEEZZZ
I shouldn’t be feeling nervous but I am……
I’m cool, calm and collected 🙂
The Hammer!!!
COYRRGS
No yellow Mason??
I’d rather see Ajayi than Coquelin!!
Fook -a penalty from Mason 🙂
Cheeky 🙂 🙂
🙂
Great result against a very in form side……
Well played!
Smile ya miserable buggers hahahahahaha.
That’s a performance worth watching again.
Newcastle had conceded 3 goals in their previous 11 1/2 hours of play.
A great birthday pressie for Kev.
Looking forward to hearing his thoughts.
I’ll wait for your match review Scott seeing you have the whole day ahead of you 🙂 🙂
Totally agree Scott!
Who’d have predicted that scoreline? Play like that for the rest of the season and 4th place will be ours!
There’s only one Arsie Wenger!!
I predicted 3-1 and almost got it, but bloody Aaron could not get one let alone 3.
Sell him 🙂
Rico, no worries 🙂
Just dropping in to say… VERY good performance and couldve been more. Just a wee blip on the near post set piece marking. We missed Giroud didnt we, nice to see goals coming from others that Alexis, Welbeck unlucky, Debuchy GOOD performance at CB cover. 🙂 Happy
It’s all good….enjoy the night….
Kev, the Rabbits Foot…..
I saw Lee and Adam singing “one Arsene Wennnnngggggggeeeerrrrr” 🙂
Fab Scott lol
Good one Scott…..lol
Roger, I too thought Debuchy had a great game, As did Bellerin. Actually, apart from the blip for their goal, they all did…
I’ll be honest, I thought we’d struggle tonight, we didn’t so well done Arsenal..
And credit where it’s due, well done Arsene Wenger! He took and gamble and it really paid off…..
Just got home. Good all round performance. Exceptional from Debuchy and some others. I liked the hunger and intent the team bought to the game too. Nice bottle of wine with dinner I think.
Gosh Adam, are you feeling ok? 😉
Vaped, Adam?
Not bad Rico. You?
BT. Mmmm, let me think about that. 🙂
I’m fab thanks Adam….
Night all, need to see who makes the final of X Factor lol…
Great result today,,,,
Bellerin is starting to look like he is settling into the team, Debuchy was very impressive alongside BFG…
Cazorla was superb and linked up brilliantly with Sanchez for the 2nd goal…
Santi, Alexis and AOC were the driving force behind probably Arsenals best performance since the Charity Shield.
There was a drive and detirmination that we have only seen briefly this season, but wS sustained for most of the season.
Even after Newcastle scored and threatened for a period in the 2nd half, the team kept its cool and after the 4th Arsenal goal, we cruised home…
*sustained for most of the game*
Night Rico…..
I missed the first 10 minutes due to the traffic congestion around The Angel Islington…
Got in ground just in time to see Sanchez get down the right-wing, swing over a perfect cross and saw Giroud soaring ‘Radford-esque’ to put away a textbook headed goal… Quite sublime…
Kev. glad to see the boys put a show on for your birthday……
Rick, like you I was disappointed not to see Hayden on the bench…
And why not give Maitland-Niles a bit more than 3 minutes at the end?
🙂 thanks BT….
How did your mates enjoy it?
They’ll have loved it Kev, smiles all round tonight…really happy for them and yourself of course..
Yes BT, it was a very enjoyable afternoon, I couldn’t fault any of our players…
If they play like today at Anfield, then you gotta say that we could get a nice suprise next weekend…
I might even watch MotD this evening, for a change.,,
Hope you and Mrs BT had an equally enjoyable couple of days…
Night Mate
Night All
Cheers Kev, very chilled few days for Mrs B and richly deserved….
Ditto, Dipper Central next weekend, fingers crossed…
Good night and enjoy it.
Isn’t it a lovely feeling to wake up without a thing to moan about yesterdays match……
Morning all….
Morning Rico and all. Thick white blanket of crisp frost here this morning, covering the car like glittering icing sugar.
Yes, it’s truly wonderful Rico. 🙂
Morning Adam, really heavy frost here too this morning. It’s just starting to cloud over with the temperature at zero and my thought is some of the white stuff is on it’s way…..
I can understand why AW didn’t bring Maitland-Niles on earlier, everyone would have been nervous after last weekend and even at 3-1 had he got more playing time and 3-1 became 3-3, AW would have been roasted for making the change and bringing on a youngster….
Tiote was at it again yesterday I see. Shocking assault on Sanchez completely missed by Mason. What a surprise.
Couldn’t believe he missed that, shocking!
Just seen the Cahill dive. More shocking officiating, he should have been off!!
Rico. The whole Chelsea team had a dive-fest yesterday. Cahill should have gone for the first tackle rather like he should have done for his tackle on Sanchez when we played them. The cheating culture within that club is becoming so apparent that Mourinho is now claiming they are ‘clean’ of that sort of stuff.
Mason and his merry men missed quite a bit of off the ball stuff but it was men against boys for much of the game.Shame we couldn’t keep a clean sheet but perhaps yesterday was the perfect chance to make that mistake and have highlighted so that Sanchez I think it was won’t make it again. Any how bacon sandwich and a cuppa, sit and watch the Sky play back and see all the things that they picked up on that we missed in the ground. Just a question to the others that went , I got the impression that the OAW chant at the end had a degree of aggression about it , it was if they wanted someone to argue about it. A bit uncomfortable I thought.
Just remember how Mourinho took his Porto team to success . Sometimes history repeats itself.
Adam. Couldn’t agree more. Seems Riley is sorting out the right officials for their matches. They would suffer badly had Cahill got a deserved red card for that studs up tackle. No hesitation in showing Huddlestone a red though….
I detest the way they cheat and foul all the time, if that’s what it takes to win the league, then how can they be proud….
Wonder if the FA Panel will review the assault on Alexis Potter.. Somehow I doubt it….
Even Savage and Murphy on Motd thought if was a straight red..
Rico. That’s unusual. 🙂
Boring Boring Chelsea…
Morning All…
Morning Rico, yes isn’t it pleasant to log on and only have positive things to say about an Arsenal performance…
Now to replicate that level of performance and take all the points at Anfield would definately constitute progress and maybe a much better second half of the season…
Very Adam and the commentator on the match even said Danny Welbecks goal was a good one and never a foul…
😮
Morning Adam, did you enjoy your supper?
I had some chips at the Chinese chippy in Gillespie Road yesterday, before joining the queue for Arsenal tube…
Long time since to used the tube to the Arsenal…
Potter. I know what you mean but it encapsulated the whole Arsenal experience at the moment. I came away thinking, for the umpteenth time, how sad it was that Wenger hadn’t properly equipped the squad with some depth. At the moment you never really know what team is going to show up and every good performance seems like a reaction to a bad one. Consistency would make us much more competitive over a season. When the team pressed Newcastle yesterday and played the ball crisply and quickly we really looked like a unit. You have to congratulate Wenger for getting them in the right frame of mind.
Rico, the Welbeck ‘offence’ was at the opposite end to me, so I kinda assumed that there had been an ‘off the ball’ foul somewhere, but I didn’t see Welbeck do anything and seeing it later confirmed the validity of the goal.,,
It was an easy game to referee and just again emphasised how useless some of our officials are…
Yes thanks Kev. Full of Eastern promise. 🙂
Morning Kev.
Well said, three points at Anfield are a must surely….
Booo! Nothing like an Arsenal win to put a smile on one’s face!! 🙂
And criticism of Cazorla’s pen is nothing short of unreal. Seriously???
Hello, all!!
The general decline in refereeing standards has, it seems, accelerated since Riley took charge…
He seems to have brought a general lowering in standards during his tenure in control…
Mason really a very poor referee, but I still don’t think that Arsenal and Wenger do enough to put pressure on officials…
Despite any kind of fine, it would have been great to have seen a playback of the Welbeck goal on the big screens yesterday…
It was a good goal Kev, a very good goal and one Welbeck deserved. You are right, the decision just proved how poor Mason was….
Morning Agag, I thought that the Santi penalty showed confidence, and that’s what we want to ses from our team, and why not, we have a very good team?
All they need is to get their heads right and go on a run…
And Arsene needs to do a bit of January business.
Kev. I agree. When you give a ‘small’ man like Riley some power and the ability to influence externally he will always twist the knife. I imagine he as bullied at school and if he wasn’t, he should have been.
Yes my chips had an Asiatic quality to them.
Tasty but soggy. 😀
Hi Agag. I was sat right alongside the Santi penalty. It was great but I don’t think he got as much on it as he wanted. It seemed to take about 10 minutes to hit the net. 🙂
Yes, I’d love the opportunity to bully Riley, it’s not in my nature, but I’d make an exception for him…
Gotta say Adam, that Giroud had a very good game yesterday…
Also think his new haircut suits him… 😉
Kev. I would roast him before an open fire. 🙂
Morning, Kev and Adam. 🙂 Tbh, I was worried about that pen not going in. So relieved it did. I like how Santi is scoring again though. And of course, Big Ollie. 🙂
I simply don’t understand the criticism. He scored for crying out loud. 😉
Adam, are you warming up to Le Quiff? 😛
Agag. As long as he doesn’t have to run anywhere quickly, I love him. 🙂
Roasted Riley certainly does it for me Adam… 🙂
Then give him a thorough good beating with a split-ended cane…
Kev. How very ‘Flashman’ of you old boy. 🙂
I thought Bellerin and Debuchy were excellent yesterday in fact the whole team played well and the score line flattered the bar codes! TIote is a thug and should’ve seen red…. All in all a solid performance shame we couldn’t do it against manure or the chavs!
Morning Agag…
Santi was cheeky, loved it….
New post up now….
Agree there Lee….