Morning all.
A couple of weeks ago Man Utd beat City. ‘A superb counter-attacking victory‘ wrote the BBC website. ‘Devastating’ said the Guardian. ‘Spectacular’ according to Sky Sports and a ‘continuation of their stunning revival’ said The Mail.
Invariably it’s the same when other clubs cause a bit of an upset, or shock result. The underdog always receives warranted praise. Yet when Arsenal win, like on New Years Day, the opposition were poor. Yep, the same team the same people were raving about just days before.
It seems difficult for those who write for the daily papers to compliment Arsenal regardless of how good we play. The first half against Chelsea was excellent but the focus as always was on the last ten minutes. Same with the Utd game, another excellent first half in which neither Martial or Rashford had a sniff on goal, it was down to Utd being really poor. Our defending has been criticised heavily for years, yet when we dug in against Utd, little about us being resolute and well organised was written. When Arsenal players commit a foul, ‘it’s a foul’, when the opposition foul us, ‘there was nothing in it.’ I loved seeing Granit Xhaka counting down the number of fouls Utd had committed without a booking to the ref.
At some stage, if this group of players carry on working hard and improving, the media and those idiots earning a living by talking rubbish on the likes of Sky Sport etc, will have to be more honest.
The club announced yesterday that Calum Chambers has undergone successful surgery having ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee against Chelsea. He’ll now be out for the next six to nine months which awful for him. Like a Rob Holding, he’d worked hard to get his first team place and was looking very confident and then wham, injured. Arsenal players don’t do minor injuries do they. Rosicky, RvP, Cazorla, Ramsey, Diaby, Eduardo, Holding, Bellerin, Vermaelen, Tierney, Welbeck, Wilshere, Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain are just the ones off the top of my head but I’m sure there are more.
With Holding still not fully fit, Mavropanos yet to really prove himself and Mustafi all too often a liability, one would like to think the board are desperately trying to sign reinforcements. A central defender who is likely to hit the ground running. Not too hard though in case he gets injured.
Transfer gossip.
Arsenal are interested in signing Bayern Munich defender Jerome Boateng, according to Sky Germany.
See you in the comments guys…
Good morning Rico, apparently we are in the running to sign Nathan Ake, Bournmouth’s twenty-four year old central defender. This will be entirely within the parameters set for signings over the years. Currently recovering from a hamstring injury, he hasn’t played for some weeks. Another name to add to the list, Kallstrom, Suarez, Tierney, etc.
HI Rico and All looking at our injury list I am wonder if our training ground has something to do with it, Please let me explain were I live we have a ground that has a fully opening or closing roof for Aussie rules The playing field is made up of sand / dirt base with grass top and a lot of our players and officials including medical specialist claim that the grass surface is to hard coursing a lot of feet, ankle and knee problems not straight away but over a period of time as some said it was like jumping up and down on concrete all day
Morning Cicero, I doubt it, isn’t he valued around £45m?
Hi Geoff.
Expensive certainly Rico, and I believe Chelsea have a buy back clause of £45 million so we would have to go somewhat higher.
I think we will go for an older, cheaper option. Do the Mancs have a broken down centre back we could get for peanuts…oh no we’ve down that route before. Sylvestre!
We haven’t seen Mustafi after Arteta has worked with him yet, and before anyone laughs that off, Luiz and Sokratis looked like new players this past week 🙂
Morning all.
Morning Rico and all. Arsenal v the media has been going on for sometime and since I was a kid, Arsenal have always been news. Sky have decided to go down the showbiz ratings route so every time Arsenal are featured, they get Souness on as Mr Grumpy. He hates us and has done ever since we took the title from Liverpool in their own backyard. He was even bleating, quite aggressively, about the ref’s failure to send Jorginho off when we played Chelsea, preferring instead to blame Guendouzi for diving.
The Liverpool/Spuds/ Man U mafia monopolise the Sky, BT Sports cabal and I am really hoping that Amazon see the inherent lameness of the others and plough a new path. Getting Keown off would be a start. He was dreadful against Man Utd and could barely offer a positive word presumably because he had the team down as a bunch of losers and just couldn’t find it within himself to admit that he might be wrong or at least to reassess. And of course he is desperate to carve out a long-term career as a TV pundit. Gary Neville too has been very quiet after telling the world that the Arsenal defence couldn’t be coached but I expect him to shift perspective as he is a whole lot brighter than Martin.
As for injuries, look at the refereeing. How many fouls did Fred commit the other night? Kolasinac, rather stupidly gave a push in the back and got an immediate card. In doing so the ref set the card bar very low and then failed to live up to it. The ref was an inexperienced twat but that’s precisely the reason that Riley selected him.
rico. I wrote some comments yesterday, that have been lost/removed? Basically about the unfair handling/decisions towards “The Arsenal”.
Many bloggers have now re-iterated such sentiments.
There were so many blatant bias decisions given by the referee on Sunday, who incidentally comes from ? …… yes, you’ve guessed it Manchester.
Constant fouling by Fred, offence by Matic moments after a similar offence by Kolasinac who received a yellow whilst matic never. Wan Bassaka committing a dive trying to con the referee into giving a penalty, and not given a yellow, even after VAR had agreed it was simulation, etc, etc, etc.
And whilst we are talking about rubbish media/reporting, I would like to add talk-sport into this category. They are becoming a dictatorship radio station. “Do as I say and not what I do”. Their handling of Robbie from AFTV recently was bullying in the first degree. Whether you like/agree/dislike AFTV, they are only doing exactly what talk sport are doing, but talk-Sihte want sole readership and are afraid of competition. Double standards personified.
That muppet, sheep no talent Jim White is one just bully.
Rant over
COYG
Hi Adam,
I agree that the kicking our guys cop each week plays it’s part in our injury list.
I’m certainly not discounting Geoff’s Theory., but we do cop it relentlessly.
The fact that everyone thinks our players are soft makes our card count each week laughable.
Hi Rico, thanks for another great post.
Nathan Ake? Nah, not for me and certainly not for £45m, jog on Bournemouth…
They actually look like they’re going down this season, they’ve had a raft of injuries and don’t look capable of turning it around.
Conor Coady from Wolves, yeah, all day for me, very mobile, great tackler, good in the air, loves a physical challenge but good on the deck, a great passer of the ball.
Jerome Boeteng on loan maybe, but a permanent deal, not sure about that, he’d want massive wages etc…
Hi Scott. The number of non-impact injuries has been a concern for a while and many theories have been put forward. I have no idea why they keep happening. But I have strong feelings about where on-field referee bias is concerned.
Adam, one thing I know in Oz is many footballers (various codes) refuse to wear the blades boots, opting for normal stud layouts due to the ankle and knee injuries the blades have been proven to promote, for want of a better term.
I even know of a specialist football gear shop who won’t stock them as the owner saw the stats over here, again, over the various codes, and blades were 4 or 5 times more likely to be inclined in these serious injuries compared to normal studs.
Better traction is offered by blades, but something has to give………our joints.
There’s definitely a few factors and maybe even good old fashioned luck lol
Newspapers are dying, nobody I know buys a newspaper anymore, certainly no football fan.
Online? Well except for NewsNow I never read hardly any of those online publications. You can suss their narrative from the headline, the more vague the more shit it’ll be…
Most of it is made up to get clicks, but I still get sucked in.
Sky, BT, MotD, just look at the quality of the cardboard cut outs they have analysing the games.
The same old faces with nothing new to say, not least the supercilious Gary Lineker.
But in truth, whenever I’m at a friends house or my sons watching a live game, we never listen to the half time or full time analysis, that’s have a cuppa time or switch it over time. MotD is always recorded and I mostly fast forward the chat unless Ian Wright is there.
Talk Sport is click bait radio, wall to wall advertising, the last resort if there’s bugger all on anywhere else. Even during the commentary of a match the commentator is advertising sponsors and other rubbish, it’s really annoying and Sam Matterface has to be the biggest idiots on radio.
Seems Stewart Robson is suddenly an Arsenal fan again.
Then, maybe it’s just that’s he is an Arteta fan.
Tonight was the first time I’ve heard him speak glowingly of the club in years!!!
We have Scott, he gifted Chelsea their winner…. lol
Any praise given to Arsenal has always been begrudging , London based journos are all Totts or Wham people and oopp Norf they just don’t like us because we keep interrupting their little share things around between Liverpool and manchester. Only in the Thierry Henry time did they come round a bit especially when opposing fans stayed to the end to applaud us off the pitch.
Hi Adam, Kev and thanks.
I’m in agreement re the officials, and pundits who I’ve always said, if as good as they talked the game, they’d be in management/coaching but a warm seat with freedom to spout garbage is a much comfortable place. Idiots.
Anyone would eventually break down if kicked enough and our players certainly take a lot of kicking.
Keys and Gray were naughty I know, but if my memory serves me right, their football punditry and comments on the game were more true.
Vcc, I’ve no idea what happened but I haven’t removed any. Weird… ☹️
Robson had an issue with Wenger I think Scott, or the other way round.
Rico, not sure about that lol
Though against Utd we saw no sign of players simply backing off attackers on the ball, so a massive change within a week.
Luiz and Sokratis were rubbish 2 weeks back, so it can happen quickly.
True on Robson, Rico, but it carries over through the Emery period as well.
He’s changed damn quickly.
I still can’t stand him though 🙂
I fimly believe that the perfect condition of not only the Emirates pitch but the identical training pitches is part of the problem .
The difference between running on a road and grass is that on grass there is less impact and also because it’s not a perfect surface the muscles and tendons in the ankle and knees have to flex more which strengthens them. Get a bad sprain and the club physio puts you on a board with a spike facing down to make it wobble and strengthen the ankle , it’s the same principle.
Watch it again Scott, honest, he left Abraham too much space..
I think Robson talks a lot of sense. Apparently he’s very big on tactics so it was understandable he was critical of Wenger. I don’t know him but enjoy listening to him talk about football.
I don’t think Robson said anything vastly different to what many fans were saying back then..
Hi Scott I liked to see a report done about injuries in regards to the boots the players are wearing today and then compared to the old boots that covered the ankles and see what the injury difference is
A belated Happy new year to Rico and friends.
Always liked Ake when he was at Chelsea could have bought him for a snip.
The good news is that we have 2 players coming in ,in January one we have been after for a long time but probably have to sell Elneny or Mikkitarian to soften the blow.
Scott really hearbreaking in Australia.
Have a nice day
Hi Potter the ground I am talking about was built to be the state of the art ground but nearly got scraped as players refused to play on it and the stats even proved it the ground had more injuries in the first 3 month than most grounds had in a season and a lot of the players would complain that due to the hard surface you go out feeling like a grey hound and by half time you felt like a broken down Clydesdale I do believe the ground has a lot to do with it but also agree with scott about the studs in the boots today should be looked at
Happy New Year to you Kelsey, have you been on the ketchup? 😂
Jerome Boateng is so horrible that it’s ridiculous. Against Weder, Rashica was abusing him so much that he was sub at the half. He has no pace or strength and can’t play in the EPL; he couldn’t play in EPL when he was young, much less now. He has been horrible for the past two seasons. Ake is much better than advertised, and a proper EPL defender with pace, positional awareness and strength.
The euphoria and relief of beating United was felt by us all and not one person could have predicted that every single player gave their all though as already mentioned it is pretty clear that a number of them had downed tools whilst playing under Emery and it was allowed to continue for far too long .That should have been addressed much quicker but nevertheless it’s great to enjoy one of our games something we haven’t witnessed for far too long
It’s only newspaper garbage Obi.
Having seen the improvement in the previous two games Kelsey, I think the majority, certainly here, very much expected a good performance against Utd.
Evening Rico and the house.
Its half time at Boring wood in top of table clash
Derby winning 1-0 with pen.
John Jules has had 3 good chances should have done better
Morning all.
Rico, Robson had nothing positive to say for years about the club, so that’s just a man being a bitter arsehole.
Also, Mustafi was just doing what our defenders have been doing for ages, so let’s see how he shapes up over the next few months before totally discarding him.
I mean, did any of us believe Arteta would have such an impact on individual players in such a short period of time?
Not even his biggest fans would’ve expected this 🙂
Then, if we get a decent offer, I most certainly wouldn’t be against selling him.
Geoff, the blades grip the turf too well so that the foot stops suddenly, but the bodies momentum carries for that split second and its knees and ankles that bare the brunt.
Thanks Kelsey, today is expected to be the worst conditions on record for fires, taking into account heat and wind, combined with the amount of fires already alight, so our fire fighters are preparing for a horrible, horrible day.
More people have been charged with lighting fires.
Two teenagers were caught yesterday starting one a few minutes from us.
Why???
I doubt anyone could explain it
Evening Rick, An Arsenal Player missing chances. Sounds familiar…
Only the Wenger years I think though Scott, after he was given the boot I read…
0-2 down, came back to draw 2-2, can’t see many if any of tonight’s squad being a part of Monday evenings encounter with Leeds…
XI: Hein, Olowu, McGuinness, Medley, Bola, Smith, Olayinka, McEneff, Tormey, John-Jules, Balogun
Substitutes: Omole, Hillson, Greenwood, Cottrell, Clarke
Finished 2-2.
With 10mins to go Derby were coasting to a deserved 2-0 win.
Then Greenwood scored with his first touch and on 88 mins
a Derby og made it 2-2.
JJules was subbed on 60 mins and threw a strop
I think Bouldy will not be very pleased with the performance.
Tonights game showed that Bola is not ready for the first team,
Medley looked better than he has done in recent games,
but I have my doubts with him,
Rico, he’s on a show here that we get nightly-he’s not on every night, but a few times a week-and even in the past 18 months he’s been down on the club.
Thanks Scott do you remember the old stoppers on football boots that were nailed in or am I showing my age
Hey Rick, no Robbie Burton in the squad tonight (yesterday) – Now unless he’s injured it could be that he’s gonna be part of the squad for the Leeds game.
I noticed that Arteta paid Leeds and Bielsa a lot of respect, which is good to hear as it’s going to be a tough game with plenty of Leeds fans congregating in the Clock End.
How thoroughly enjoyable it is to listen to Mikel Arteta speak in his pressers, such a change from Emery who was incoherent and tedious. Gotta say it’s so refreshing…
Jeorge Bird
@jeorgebird
·
23h
Arsenal youngster Mauro Bandeira has been called up to the Portugal U17 squad.
You must have a few years on me, Geoff hahahah
Dom Best needs to tie down an end and owes us some wickets.
Him and Crawley contributed a total of 2 runs – not good…
Hey Scott, I heard some stuff on the radio of your Liberal PM visiting a devastated community in NSW (I think) and getting dogs abuse from the residents, and rightly so.
Tell me, do the Liberals have some kind of tie up with the Greens in your country?
Interesting to listen to some of the comments of Labour MP’s in the U.K. since the election and their distain of those Northern constituencies who voted against them for the first time in several generations, no introspection of course, that would be too obvious, no all those northern voters were ‘thick’ it seems. And there you have it, blame everyone else…
Well the quality of politicians around the world seems to be at an all time low, to be the lowest I can ever remember and I can remember a lot of them and how inept and corrupt they’ve been in my time. But now they have this Teflon type of attitude, an arrogance and thinly veiled contempt for the electorate that was probably always there but now they don’t bother to hide it.
Personally I hate all of them…
We gave away cheap wickets yesterday Kev, I watched some of it. Schoolboy errors..
Morning to you and all.
New post up now.