By Walter Broeckx
I can imagine that Tony at the moment I move my trembling fingers over the keyboard will be signing in full voice in the Emirates, that Arsenal are top of the league.
After our loss earlier this week in the league cup I said that maybe we didn’t give our all in that game. If we would have won it fine, if not….no big deal as it only would put more games on the calendar. And if you have read carefully the words of Kroenke, Gazidis and Wenger the most important thing is the Premier League. All the rest is detail, as most certainly is the league cup.
But it gave the opportunity for some to finally come out of the place they had been hiding for a few months. About how useless we are and were and will be. I can imagine that some will now keep their mouth shut. Till the next defeat. Here is some hoping that we will not see them again this season.
On to the game. Arsenal had the better of the game in the opening stages. A first safe from Mignolet on a low shot from Rosicky was the first important thing. A run from Henderson and a terrible shot was the Liverpool answer and then they had a few minutes with a bit more balanced play on the field.
And then Arsenal stepped it up after some 15 minutes. Sagna who played his 250th game for Arsenal (CONGRATULATIONS BAC!!!!) was released on the right and he cut his cross a bit back behind Giroud. OOOOOOHHHH SANTI CAZORLA came rushing on and headed the ball from the penalty point against the goal post. The ball bounced back infield and Santi was there and oh my god how happy I am that he is really two footed and he blasted the ball in the net. 1-0 to the Arsenal. And what about keeping calm. In such a situation most players blast the rebound over the bar but Santi kept his composure.
From then on Arsenal changed their tactics and went on a ball hunt. Great pressure in midfield and it kept the dangerous front duo of Suarez and Sturridge away from the Arsenal goal. A terrible dive from Sturridge should have resulted in a yellow card but the ref let it go. Ramsey with a low shot but a good save from Mignolet.
In the second half Liverpool started better. And it resulted in two dangerous situations with the shot from Henderson going close. But after some 10 minutes we took over once again. Twice Giroud had the chance to put us 2-0 up.
First time he intercepted a poor defensive pass and his lob went over Mignolet but flew against the bad side of the net. Minutes later his low shot was well stopped by Mignolet.
But it was the sign of Arsenal going for the second goal. And what a goal it was. Özil held the ball on the right wing and instead of the easy option he went for a delicate lofted pass over a Liverpool defender in to the path of Ramsey. Aaron controlled it, let it bounce and released a thunderous shot that went in right under the crossbar passed the desperately diving Mignolet. Nothing he could do about that shot. One of the best strikes of the season by one of the best players of the season.
2-0 and still half an hour to go. And you could see that the team was having only one thing in their mind: we will not let this slip away. And we could have added another goal on the counter but it wasn’t to be.
But Liverpool tried to get a goal back on us. And Szczesny showed once again what a great keeper he is at the moment. Even though that we all had our heart in our mouths when his attempted clearance hit Sturridge and he could pick up the ball. Please Wojciech, no more if you don’t mind. I can imagine he was the most relieved man in the ground.
It would have put a big shadow over an almost perfect performance from the Polish keeper.
We became a bit sloppy and too casual at the back in the last minutes and almost gave Liverpool a lifeline. Something we should not do next time around.
But all in all this was a well deserved victory from a team that put lots and lots of effort in their game. All players worked hard to make sure we won. So it is difficult to pick a man of the match. Feel free to make your pick but I will go for the whole team for their effort.
Only negative point is that Gibbs went off with an injury, looked like a muscle injury. So I think Monreal will have to step up in the next weeks but he has shown that he is more than capable in the short moments he has played.
The only thing I want now is to have a draw between Everton and the spuds. But for now we are 5 points clear from the rest.
Who said we can’t win top games? We have done it in the past and today we did it again. 5 points clear. Who predicted that after the first day of the season? Well I admit not even I. And I am known as an optimist. By the way this is the second win we got against a team from the top 6 this season.
Not that bad don’t you think?
Arsenal were quite brilliant to day and if they keep this kind of lay up we should win the PL but it
Is a bit too early.
Congratulations to all our fans we past the first big test according to pundits. A really intelligent and composed win. We’ve been playing some good football lately and it’s getting rewarded.
I was watching through a kaleidoscope (so to speak) but it did seem that we made Lpool look very ordinary.
I do not know what AHanson will have to say for himself, haha.
He’ll probably blame it all on Kolo Toure 😀
Good team performance.
Good crowd noise (one benefit of a foreign stream).
Another AR classico.
Great stuff! Ramsey had me jumping out of my seat so that the lads who run the internet cafe (Turks/Kurds) came running over laughing to see the replay of the goal. They love Mesut who is a massive massive hero for them so they also keep an eye on the Arsenal(twice weekly now). I also distressed a woman after Cazorlas goal by waving my arms around everywhere, which wasn’t well received, but I didn’t care at that point as the all-knowing media had us down for a loss today.Sorry Mrs but you didn’t see Santi’s goal!
I thought Ozzel( said Carragher) was a bit quiet today.I was also a bit concerned at Sagnas foul (when he was yellow carded), it was unnecessary to maul the player and from then on I was worried he might get sent off, and swing the game Liverpools way, -however apart from that he had a brilliant game and kept cool.
I thought Rosicky worked his butt off, and he was miffed at coming off, which is a good sign that he wants to play and fight for a place,he made some great tackles and ran and ran.
Cool work by Monreal and TV5- rock soild when they came on, Jenks looked like he wanted to make up for things in midweek.
But the lads altogether made a great passing game today, I love watching their intelligence as they think and move and pass, working it until an opening and space appear for a proper attack.Sure left Liverpool a bit stunned.
But really really pleased, after reading all the groans and negativity that have been bouncing around this week.
Apparently Alan Hansen still thinks Arsenal are poop and wont win the league, who can tell? But I saw that tonight that his team were lucky to not lose by more!! What a goal Ramsey!!
COYG!
Amen.
Excellent win. I really don’t mind losing to BVB on Wed, as long as we beat or draw ManU next week.
Was very pleased with the crowd today. If we could actually get that every game, I think our home would become a fortress of sorts..
I wasn’t nervous before the match as I trusted that we were better than Liverpool, but while watching, I just kept getting the feeling that something bad will happen. Probably referee related. I also think we were denied a penalty (no replay) from the corner that came about after Rosicky’s shot. But we kept playing and we scored some fine goals. Liverpool could have made us pay, but on balance we were certainly the better team.
My worry is about the state of the squad. Wilshere out? OR was it just precautionary? What about Gibbs.. Hopefully Flamini, Walcott, Podolski and Ox can come back quickly. Dortmund is going to be a tough game. But what a way to go into it. Top of the league, 5 points clear. Long way to go, but I’m enjoying watching this team, and especially the rise of Ramsey. Rosicky also deserves special mention. I thought he was very good. As was Szczesny, except for the error, but we’ll forgive him that one.
Sounds like a great game, haven’t watched it yet.
Walter, I have to disagree about the spuds game. I want Everton to win. They will drop points later in the season.
Well well well. Our special force aided by the welsh sharpshooter keeps the SAS quiet. Congratulations to the team and the great man himself what a way to silence the critics. The whole team were fantastic. And the mf sublime hardly noticed the great Stevie g was even playing. So we have beaten a quality team with a couple out standing individuals and wenger outwits one of the brightest of the new breed of managers. Over to you mr Hansen, cannot wait for that one!
Ah yes, Alan Hansen will have a face like a bulldog licking piss off a nettle after that result.
A bit surprised tbh, but happy nonetheless. Thought Liverpool would be much more formidable and we’d really struggle, but this was a great win.
SeedJ, you cracked me up with that!
Lverpool can be formidable but today we just did not let them
We played some great football and could easily have scored one or two more, but it was an excellent result and an enjoyable game. The whole team played well with some exceptional performances.
Like many here I am looking forward to MOTD – I might even keep the sound on tonight!
Did anyone also see coutinho slap Sagna when Sagna berated him for not kicking the ball out? That should have been a sending off if it was indeed a slap…. We didn’t need that anyway, as the pundits would’ve latched onto that and take any credit away from the team. Fair play to BR for admitting the better team won.
Meant for not kicking the ball out when Gibbs was injured….
Five points clear, crisis meeting at the PGMOL?
I saw the slap AL.
I was glad that the ref. ignored it (although I would have preferred that he said something) but was thinking – if that had been the other way around it WOULD have been red.
Al
I think Coutinho was terrified of Sagna glaring at him. Anything he might have done was just out of a sense of self preservation 🙂
First big test of the season? Oh poor spuds…
Today MOTM were our fans, they were brilliant and deserve credits.
Look how the confidence of the team becomes when our fans cheer them.
MOTM is for me, Arteta…. He is back to his best, this player is awesome.
And Wenger is brilliant tactician, in the end he did great subs, as always,its just the pundits are stupid to not see it.
Today our fans shut the pool fans in the stands, so our players dud shut pool players on the field, so keep it going.
Our GK is just, dont know, how could he pull of those saves? Full of confidence, and passion.
And hope sperez and co just not show up for a long time now.
Wilshere hurt his ankle before the game. The BBC commentary had a picture of Wilshere and Podolski all dressed up at the stadium. He didn’t look in pain. The comments before and after the game seemed to indicate there is a change he could play midweek. Gibbs picked up a calf injury.
glorious win today! truly a workman like effort as arsenal bossed the midfield almost as if they were wearing black and white striped kits today (as an aside, if pogba’s posturing to english teams a few weeks ago has any merit GET TO IT) and did what they had to do in order to shut down a potent scouse strikeforce that had been straightup flossing some of their previous opponents.
offensively, yeah, giroud’s gotta cash in on at least one of those three opportunities he had (especially the breakaway 1-on-1 w/the goalie he had after ramsey scored the second goal) and if this is the downside of ozil’s form you can truly live with it, as i think he still notched the assist to rambo, or at least was 2 passes ahead of it.
ramsey’s run of form has been an absolute joy to watch. in the pre/early-season i was calling for someone on arsenal to step up and stop the perpetual attempts to create goals like jack’s beautiful one against norwich and STRIKE THE DAMN BALL INTO THE NET.
rambo has done just that, and even though i’m catching flak from some of my IRC buddies for being a new fan re: my exuberance over being 5pts clear at the top (cuz it’s november 2nd after all, not march 2nd) considering we’re still 3 matches away from being 1/3 through the season…. still, F-YEAH!!! before the season if you would have told me all of the injuries that arsenal would suffer from then til nov 2nd i would’ve had a hard time believing you’re even within 5pts of first place, if not 4th place, let alone 5pts atop the league!
thanks to good ol newcastle for reminding us that while there aren’t ~20 teams that can actually win the EPL, there are indeed ~20 teams that can go out there and have a proper go on any given saturday and take 3pts from a heavily favored side, which is something to keep in mind heading into a dortmund/united week when the ABA/AAA/WOB/etc crews are out in full force trying to hedge their bets on predicting imminent failure in the hopes of looking like a “smart” fan in the case of defeat; naturally they’re the ones who will be out there taking full credit for “holding arsene/arsenal’s feet to the fire” should they win any silverware this year. it’s obviously tough love, eh?
I dont think it was an intended slap, i agree with florian, he was terrified of Sagna… Look at his face, even Sagna didnt care.
Oh I don’t know yassin I would be quite intrigued to hear the thoughts of sprerez this very evening
Yeah, it did look like it was an attempt to ward Sagna off, but could easily have been a red had it been the other way round.
I think Szczesny kicked that ball at Sturridge just to see if he was awake:)
Rosky, was brilliant today. Intelligent play!
It was Shard, but that’s fine:)
oh, also i’ve come up with the nickname “the home stretch” for nacho monreal. the first thought was “the victory cigar” but he’s not one of those subs at 88′ or whatever that truly lives up to the semantics.
so i was thinking about the nature of your average monreal sub and it’s usually around ~65-75′ when arsenal’s up a goal or two and shifting into more of a defensive mindset to hold onto a lead as they prepare to go down the home stretch, so that’s what i decided to go with: “the home stretch”
if gibbs’ knock means him missing a week or two i’m comfortable with nacho out there in his place, as at this point i’m not too keen on seeing jenks out there (and i think he’s a RB as opposed to a LB anyways)
of course, that means that the potential pool of substitutes will be that much more skint. today’s subs had verm and monreal and…. uhhhh…. that’s about it. i think bendtner’s there to backup giroud in case something happens in the middle of a game, but if giroud were to miss any significant period of time methinks they’d try someone else up front before going all guns blazing with the artist formerly known as b52.
Giroud second and third miss was due to low confidence moment after the first one, still that first one did dismantle liverpool defenses and made them do all the mistakes leading to Ramsey goal.
As for Giroud, other than his accelaration, and dribbling between players, his weakness is when he goes on the goal and has time to think, he just waste it, and then do the unbelievable and score or assist a hard goal, cause he didnt have that time to think, he should know that evem if he miss those 1 on 1, we will always be behind him, as long as he gives his all to the team. He did help in the end save 2 corners, brilliant player.
@Walter
Like you said, almost perfect all around performance from our club from Wenger on down with only few lapses of concentration, which during a 93 minutes match against any top club are unavoidable.
Cazorla goal was a thing of beauty and more difficult than most can imagine.
Sagna was tremendous going forward and defending as well. Szczesny showed restrain from rushing out to challenge Liverpool strikers and apart from his risky outlet pass intercepted by Sturridge, he had a perfect game I thought.
But the most encouraging aspect of the lead up to this game and the game was Mr Wenger himself. For starters , he came out and said Arsenal were title contenders after previously dodging to answer that question in the affirmative.
It’s very difficult to reach a goal that you set vaguely for yourself and it’s been my position for a long time that this has been one of the reasons for our trophy drought.
Saying “we are still in four competition and we will try to progress deep into all of them” is a world apart from saying “we are title contenders and it’s a priority to win the league this year”
Players like hard targets to aim for and aren’t afraid of failure . Soft targets put doubt in everyone’s mind and suggest the team might not be good enough.
Secondly , I was very pleased to see mr Wenger being very active on the touch line directing traffic and giving his players the business . I was never one of those voices who accused Mr Wenger of being tactically inept but often times I thought he was too slow to react to events on the field when things were beginning to unravel.
Players get caught up in the moment and often times it’s the manager’s job to set them straight.
Case in point ; second goal for Dortmund where Arsenal overcommitted players forward and got punished on the break away.
Can’t wait for Walcott to get fit . We really miss his speed on the wing . Had he played today he might’ve scored a couple of goals on the brake
@bjtgoonner:
Seconded 🙂
Mandy
I too have declared I’m going to stay up all night and the next day till sperez/Rupert comment, I so much want to hear their thoughts.
@Anne
Lovely to see you back!!!! Great!!!
Yes it was Shard, thanks Florian.
Mandy Dodd, I wish i dont hears his negative thoughts at all, in all my life.
He is just annoying, but u know i may enjoy a bit of fun from commentators up here if he shows up, they seem to be waiting for him.
@bjtgooner:
Nice to see you again too
@Yassin
I think Giroud’s at his best when he gets a chance to fully extend his legs and utilize his pace to get in a position to tap in those wonderfully-assisted balls from ozil and co. he’s not one of those guys who i can picture getting the ball a few feet inside of the box and turning and belting one home, as i think he’s innately more of a creative type than that which means you’re going to trade off some of that raw striking ability for his more balanced attack that’s more likely to rack up very solid assist totals for a striker.
ideally i’d love to see someone who can be like ramsey and kick the snot out of the ball in the box, you know, someone who’s more of a pure through and through finisher/scorer than giroud…. whether it’s as an upgrade or as a supplement (cuz knowing you’re one tweak/pull/knock away from bendtner is a bit unnerving to say the least) — but hey, at least we’ve got ramsey stepping up from the midfield to do that… i’d just love for arsene to have another option who can provide that type of attack to a team that right now is almost-criminally lacking in depth when you consider you’re 5pts clear atop the table and thus if you’re able to have a 2nd half like last season…. well let’s not go there just quite yet, it IS early after all… but hey a man can dream can’t he?
I saw the game on an Al-Jazeera stream. Andy Gray and co whined on and on about the phantom goal. Glen Hoddle was in disagreement but he was made inaudible by the noise of Andy and co.
Walter,
Please your professional insight is needed here. I have always thought that once the ref blows for a foul, only he gets to decide when play resumes. Am I wrong? I have been reading comments about the refs allowing advantage and then issuing the cards later. The problem is that there was no advantage when Sagna brought Suarez down. Per was the last the last man and he was advancing towards Suarez who had no team mate to collect the ball as he was brought down. Once the ref blew the whistle, Sagna and other Arsenal players (including all reasonable and fair minded people watching) were waiting for the ref to issue the yellow card and then blow for a free kick.
Well, the rat did his usual cheating move and quickly passed the ball to his now arrived team mate. The ref (now this is very important) blew immediately for them to return the ball. I really can’t understand Andy Gray’s exasperation over the matter. It looked so simple to me.
What do you think Walter?
Had Arsenal lost this game, they would play with low confidence against Dortmund.
It was a very good game overall but some lapses put in danger all the good work. Fortunately, nothing happened.
When Cazorla lost possession and Arsenal had an defense disorganised, I fear the worse, but Henderson was terrible.
Then, near the end of the match, Mertesacker gave the ball away cheaply and Coutinho found Suarez, but the Uruguayan finishing was poor. 2X0 the most dangerous scoreline. It allows complacency to settle in if a team is not concentrate enough.
Talking about poor finishing…Giroud once again showed he lacks in this area. Sure, he brings other important thing to the game-good link-up play and hold up the ball-but he is not a great finisher. Besides,he doesn’t have pace and he is not the kind of player that creates something out of nothing. Wenger needs to buy a different kind of player to give the team other alternatives to explore.
There’ll be games against certain teams that Giroud will be great but in other ones, other approach is necessary.
So, Mourinho doesn’t like St. James’ Park at all. His Chelsea lost there and I couldn’t stop thinking why Wenger can’t beat him. Inferiority complex maybe?
@ sperez
“Inferiority complex maybe?”
I rather doubt that.
sperez, so all you could see was liverpool being wasteful, failing to punish us?! What a sad little something you are. SMH
@Anne
I am planning to have a glass of single malt later tonight to celebrate today’s win, but, seeing you back again I shall have two glasses!! Welcome back!
Guys, its official, sperez is t**t. Come on, what more evidence do we need than his post above. Walter, I know its a free world and you are all for freedom of speech, but is it enough to get banned for simply being a t**t?
I think sperez has been provoked into posting, but what a barbed set of comments! Next we will have some sly comments from the rupert.
AL,
I said it was a good game overall but with some lapses(these lapses happened, then I mentioned them. Do you understand that or it’s too much complicated for you?
Maybe Walter should ban you instead. You can’t even comprehend simple things. And to make things worse you resort to insults.
bjtgooner,
Newcastle 2 X 0 Chelsea.
A very good win. Glad to see Ramsey is keeping up the goal scoring. Great to see us overcome one of our rivals and leave Chelsea floundering in our wake in the table. Considering the lack of one or two our major players this has been a most impressive result. Gives us the boost we need for Dortmund away.
sp*r*z,
You wrote about half a row of positive comments, and then over a dozen rows of negative comments. I hail your progress, now try to write a full row of positives.
Well guess I said I would be interested to hear the thoughts of sprerez so I for one cannot really complain on hearing them. Let’s hope wenger can get the better of Jose in the game coming up soon so we can all forget about this hoodoo or whatever it is I think the team will have every chance with hopefully a few first teamers coming back. Great to see you back on here Anne!
sperez, your first line says it all, focus on the negative. After that one line in which you say overall good game(which can be interpreted either way, or in other words not to be viewed as giving credit to Arsenal) you then go on to say point after point why we should not have got that result. You just didn’t mention the lapses, your post is 99% negative, focussing on the bad as if there was nothing good you saw in that game. You couldn’t even resist having a dig at AW, trying to use Newcastle’s win against the chavs to show AW in bad light. Is it so difficult to just says congrats, and leave it at that?
Dude, you’re lucky this blog is run by nice people, if I ran it you would have been history many moons ago. You’re clearly incapable of being happy, and for the sake of everyone else’s sanity I would have you banned so you retreat into your miserable hole, lest you spread your disease.
Great to see you back Anne 🙂
@AL
I second your comments re sperez wholeheartedly.
@AL
I second your comments re sperez wholeheartedly.
@AL
I also agree with your comments to sperez. I don’t think we should be giving him the platform from which he can launch AAA propaganda.
@Al, you don’t ban people for having opinions you don’t like or for being negative.
😀 no Hansen on MOTD!!!!
See hansen called in sick today…disappointing.
Well what a let down, no Hansen on MOTD. I wonder if it was pre planned or maybe he has had a nervous breakdown at the thought of having to eat a large helping of humble pie. Shearer is there though, it will be nice to see him squirm.
I know Rupert, which is a real shame, coz if I had the ability to ban people(for having opinions I don’t like being negative, or for being t**ts) then this place would be smelling like heaven.
You heard it from Shearer! Liverpool not a big team!:)
@Al, maybe so but it would be an extremely boring experience. Spice in life is derived from myriad opinions and views, it would be dull if we all thought the same. And to be fair to Sperez he makes his points and rarely resorts to name calling which I perceive to be the preserve of the frustrated and imbecilic, though I know we all do it sometimes.
Hansen lol!
Rupert, the key words to note are “if I had the ability”, and not the reason. Fortunately for some, I don’t have that ability.
I thought shearer said we had only played Tottenham so far, and would be found out once we played any of pool,Chelsea, city or utd. Let’s see what he says after we meet utd, “oh they haven’t played city or Chelsea’…pathetic.
Bjtgooner and Matt,
Thank you very much 🙂
@Al, well thankfully you don’t run the site. Both Tony and Walter have more self control and realize that you don’t ban people for daring to have a different opinion. If you so dislike what Sperez says why not argue the points sensibly? I’m sure neither of you will ever agree but at least it would be more illuminating than hurling insults at each other.
Just seen City destroy Norwich. Very imperious form at home but maybe City aren’t great travellers. Glorious football though, very similar to our treatment of the poor canaries.
@Al
“Ok, we’re leading but I’m not happy with Atkinson. He’s letting Liverpool get away with murder out there. Not happy at al.”
Al, judging by your post above , sperez isn’t the only one seeing things that aren’t really happening.
If creating your own reality and trying to impose it onto others might be basis for getting banned from social media, you might wanna be careful because you might be next.
Welcome back Anne. I hope you’ve been well.
Hmmmm banning such a tricky subject but I am unfortunate enough to have an aaa with even more extreme aaa friends in my household……banning……gives me an idea
it was imperative that we won, not for the points but for themselves and for the whole club in general. they will carry this confidence through to the CL game. i saw the game on the sky reply and looks like we were in total control bearing a few chances to Pool but then that’s expected as they are a good side. i was great to get the win and long may this continue.
Rupert/Tom
I do argue my points sensibly all the time, but anyone in their right mind can’t call sperez’s comments sensible. That IS trolling. And I don’t take kindly to trolling,especially from the same individual.
Regarding Atkinson yes I wasn’t happy about the way he was blowing his whistle in the first half, he wasn’t giving us anything at all. Now if you two don’t mind, I have a few mates over and a bottle to attend to.
I also like to welcome you back at Untold, Anne.
My god been a long time… 🙂
One more thing, look at his 10:54pm post to bjtgooner, what is that??? Sensible my foot.
Now this took a bit of the fun away….no Hansen on MOTD… LOL….. ROFLMAO…. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Maybe Hansen still gets flashbacks from this fixture
@admiral awesome
Agree with you mostly, yes we need a different style to Giroud, and Suarez today showed he is so good to be at Arsenal, his play just fit, its just i dont like him for him and his acts, so any suarez like CF would be welcome, and both will rotate.
Great game boys!!! I am proud as punch!!!
Man this game kicked off at 4:15am in Australia and finished around 6am and i stayed up instead of waking up to watch as too nervous. I took 20 Min to calm down after game then hit the sack, only to be woken up by my 18m old daughter at 8:30! Soo tired I have to get up my wife is pregnant with a boy, another Gooner in the making and maybe one day a GUnner?!? But anyway I am feeding her milk and ice blocks until wife wakes up and I can maybe go to sleep (if she lets me)
See the sacrifices us fans have to make, it’s crazy.
Anyway great game I was nervous but after we scored I knew they would come looking to equalise leaving space behind. When we get theo, podolski, ox and flamini back we will be more devestating still.
As per usual when utd have troubles they always seem to sort it out just before playing us! But I don’t care cos if we beat them the surely we have ‘stated something’ by then.
I m happy to be not thought of as contenders all the way until we can mathematically win it!
So bloody tired!
I’m just so bloody tired
Sooo bloody tiiiireeed,
I’m just so bloody tired!
COYG!!!
@bootoomee
I saw Aljazeera too, but in Arabic, and they had a ref talking about this incidence saying that Suarez had fallen then came up and played the ball 8m away from the foul location, and showed it on the TV, and said that the ref did well there and had to get the ball back.
@elkieno
No chance your daughter might be a gunner? Arsenal Ladies is an awesome team!
Have you heard of the Alaska Highway? It begins in Dawson Creek, BC, Canada, which is where I went to high school. Dawson Creek has had a population of around 13,000 a long time (probably 1960 or so), and only recently (last 2-3 years) is it growing. About 40 km from Dawson Creek is a German community called Tomslake. The people there were all originally German-Czech’s from an area called the Sudeten, and they all came to Canada because of WW-2 being about to start. When I was in high school, I played soccer (football) with many people from Tomslake at school, and also played for Tomslake’s team.
One girl in the same grade as I was, had 3 brothers, and I played soccer/football with 2 of them (at one point, I had all 3 of them as room mates). Well, their sister was on the Canadian National Women’s team for I think 7 years. She went on to be a coach for the Women’s team of one of Canada’s strongest university soccer/football teams. Another girl in my high school class played soccer/football as well (not from Tomslake), but I think she went on to either rugby or field hockey, and also ended up on Canada’s Women’s national team.
Canada’s Women’s program is highly rated, the Men’s team is a poor second. But Edmonton, Alberta has hosted games, and gotten lots of fans to watch the Women’s team. And most of the fans were cheering for Canada. Which is strange in Canada, as in the last 20 years or so, most “home” games have more people cheering for the opposition.
But please, go get some sleep. 🙂
Yep agree with Rupert (wtf?) we asked for spurez comments when we were winning and he came.
I won’t type much as tired and on iPhone but Liverpool are still a great side, we were just better tonight and are a better team in general but EVERY team shit or not will still have some possession of the ball when playing us, it’s just what they do with it. If Suarez had another chance then maybe they would have scored a goal or if Giroud had another chance he could bury 2 of those chances last night. My point is that teams will let you impose your game a little bit or a lot, if your a good team then that is only a bit most of time. Look at all our games and see that each one has had chances but not enough to beat us, it’s all relative and so far Arsenal are doing really well.
City, UTD and Chelsea still to come then we could be quite far away if we get wins and some draws.
I feel this is very possible if we only had 1 comp to go for but doing CL and FA cup will make it harder
For sure but give rub outs to returning injured.
Spurez you need to look at positives to be an optimistic person for looking at negatives is only to improve oneself not to diminish the performance
Nice Victory and now i am Looking forward to Dortmund and Manure games
Amazing COYG
Yassin,
Thanks for that. The Arabic pundits are not agenda driven lying sacks of shit like their English counterparts despite being on the same channel.
Andy Gray was livid with indignation at what I saw as a ridiculously straight forward incident. Suarez tried to cheat (as always) but the ref didn’t buy it and some tossers were left whinging.
To be fair, Glenn Hoddle tried to talk some sense into them but they wouldn’t listen. Andy Gray said the incident would be the first thing that Brendan Rodgers complains about after the game. Except BR is not an agenda driven idiot. He did not even mention the incident in the after match interview at all. I just saw MoTD, and stupid as they are, none of them mentioned it as an issue either.
I guess I am normal (contrary to how they made me feel as I screamed at their horrible punditry).
Great result.
When will the British media award some praise to Per Mertersaker. One of the most intelligent central defenders around. Rarely concedes possession, rarely gets caught out of position.
See no mention of sturridge dive or the slapping of bac on motd. Ok maybe the latter a non event but wonder how it would be reported if it were our players. Back to bac please get that legend on a contract extension
Gord: Funny you say that cos just 20min ago I was playing with her and she was kicking the ball really well straight and side footed kinda while I was watching the replay just before. I said to wife that the women’s gunners have been kicking ass for a while.
But as long as they happy I am happy football or no. God I am tired!
@elkieno
Maybe you have 2 Gunners?
Please, enjoy your children. I haven’t and never will have children.
@ Robert Cooks11.43pm
I disagree with you that Sperez makes points or debateable comment what he does do however is espouse Anti Arsenal, Anti Wenger propaganda at every opportunity this site gives him.
MOTD tonight these so called experts just keep getting worse what idiots’ unbelievable rubbish that passes for analysis’
Just a quick historical quote “ALAN HASSON!. ALAN HASSON! WE GIVE YOUR BOYS ONE HELL OF A BEATING! ONE HELL OF A BEATING end quote. LOL.
Arsenal 2 MOTD / Liverpool 0.
A random thought from a happy gooner: the spuds’ game tomorrow echoes ours exactly, except at a different section of the table. It will be the same test for them that today was for us.
In all fairness, I think they can win. In all honesty, I don’t think they will. Everton is a hurdle no team in the league can handle easily, and I feel even a good team needs something special on the night to clear it. Something I’ve yet to see in VB’s charges. Or it may be that I don’t like the idea of our neighbors tickling our underbellies for the second time this season. I’ll settle for a combination of both.
@Bootoomee
You asked for Walter’s assistance in explaining the Suarez/ Sagna incident. One hasn’t been forthcoming so let me take a crack at it. In my playing days we were allowed to restart the play after a foul without a referee whistle as long as the ball wasn’t moving and was placed roughly at the spot of the foul. Unless the rules have changed , Suarez didn’t do anything wrong and if anyone did any cheating according to the rules of the game it was Sagna who’s rugby style tackle prevented Suarez from going one on one with Gibbs . I’m glad Sagna did what he did but if I was a Liverpool fan I would be furious with the referee for not allowing the play to continue
One could say that Liverpool got penalized twice on the same play; firstly when Suarez was brought down and secondly when he wasn’t allowed to restart the game quickly.
The advantage should always go to the aggrieved party , Liverpool in this case.
@Bootoomee,
Aljazeera has a good relation with Wenger, as he commentates for it on international competitions, and he sometimes gives them more info than other media, as in the transfer window.
@Tom,
As for the incident, first the ball restarted some 8 meters away from the spot, so according to rules, liverpool should have played it from another place, now i dont consider that cheating from suarez, still according to rules it should be re-played. Another thing is that win ref wistled, he called Sagna to yellow card him immediatly, now that put Sagna and our defense in a bad position as they all stopped waiting for that. So i think Ref was fair there.
As for Sagna, that wasnt cheating,its fun how u call it cheating, while when other teams do it u dont all the time against us i dont hear this from u. That is a professional foul, and he did it and deserve a yellow. Now think of how much were Arsenal fans Nervous that Sagna may take another yellow, and then apply that on teams facing us, all the time and fouling wilshere…. If the ref usually gives them a yellow card, that will make them not foul him as blatant as they always do for the rest of the game. Now that is the most decesion i feel gives us a disadvantage all the time.
Anyway good game, we deserves the win, hope tottenham get the worst result today.
Super win. Waiting for Arsenal Player to show the games “outside Europe” so I can see them.
Welcome back Anne : ). When do we see our first article? : )
Someone on the BBC website commented:
‘Well that saves 40 million plus £1’.
I think that says it all.
We were the superior team in every department and the noise from our fans was great.
Sunday is ‘Smug face day’ then back to nervous anticipation for Tuesday’s game.
Who’d be an Arsenal supporter.
There is a little cream on the cake from another club about 5 miles east from Arsenal the Orient.
They had like us their first real challenge! Away to Peterborough who were 2nd to the Orient’s 1st. The O’s won 3-1. So what’s that got do with us. Peterborough are managed by a son of Fergi – he is a Ferguson and he lost 🙂
Great a win and a few results elsewhere bringing out the sun. AKBs rule ! Welcome back Anne ! I would also
like to see Everton win as they are a good team – really !
No ulterior motive intended !
I was planning to write an article about the foul from Sagna but in short:
Sagna made foul and that foul was a bookable offence. In fact if Atkinson would not have given a yellow card for that foul he would have been in trouble with his review. This was a 100% yellow card foul.
Now the only way you can delay handing out a yellow card is when you play an advantage. But when a foul is made and the game is stopped, you cannot restart the game without giving that yellow card.
In the instructions they give the refs in regards to quick restarts it is written when you cannot allow a quick restart and there are a few things mentioned and one of them is when you have to take disciplinary actions. And as the ref had to give a yellow card it was impossible to allow a quick restart.
Once again all the pundits are useless once again. In fact they explain the rules according to the teams in front of them and their favourites.
Confucius Says.
It is better to lose a lover
than love a loser.
Should admit I’m kinda surprised at the number of comments trying to defend sperez. Yes we asked for his comments, but that was to see what he thought of a near-flawless performance, to see if he would have anything negative to say. Sure enough he didn’t disappoint, 99% of his post was negative.
What I took execption to was using that to attack Wenger. Since when did it apply that if team A beats team B, and team B beats team C then it naturally follows team A beats team C. What kind of thinking is that. And it’s hitting below the belt to use the Newcastle result against Wenger, instead of giving Wenger credit for getting his tactics spot on against one of the in form sides. The reason people end calling sperez names is he’s like an incessant pest, here winding Arsenal fans up everytime he gets the opportunity. Can anyone defending sperez explain his 10:54pm comment “Newcastle 2×0 Chelsea”? What does it mean, and does it have a place on this thread? People will get wound up and the result is he will get abuse, he seems to be asking for it and it’s only fair he gets it. If I go onto Liverpool boards and started attacking their team at every turn I’d expect abuse to be directed my way(you can take this to be an accusation sperez is NOT an Arsenal fan, just look at his name).
Thank you for that explanation Walter. The studio pundits, well at least one of them, even went so far as to claim that ‘morally’ Sagna should get a red card because he’s denied Liverpool a goal.. The rules of the game mean nothing to these people. Most of them don’t even know them. They just go with whatever they feel should happen. They don’t like Arsenal winning, so it has to be wrong.
I’m quite happy with Motd still saying we won’t be champions. Let them keep saying that all throughout. I have no problem with us being underdogs while sitting pretty at the top of the league.
Sagna’s foul was proof to me that football needs a sin-bin. Anti-football ploys like that merit some kind of immediate sanction, and a sin-bin fills the gap between yellow and red.
Oh and welcome back Anne 🙂
On a lazy , quiet Sunday afternoon….
Some Logical Thoughts & Statements….from
http://www.filmy18.com/some-logical-thoughts-statements-t14239.html
Whenever you find the key to success, someone changes the lock.
To Err is human, but to forgive is not a COMPANY policy.
There are three sides to every argument: your side, my side and the right side.
All the desirable things in life are either illegal, expensive or fattening.
Since Light travels faster than Sound, people appear brighter before you hear them speak.
An expert is someone who takes a subject you understand and makes it sound confusing.
Never argue with a fool. People might not know the difference.
When you’re right, no one remembers. When you’re wrong, no one forgets.
Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.
Well done is better than well said .
Everyone makes mistakes. The trick is to make them when nobody is looking.
Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.
marcus
Normally I’d agree with you, but I am reluctant to give referees more powers to affect the game unless they also open themselves up more. Like officials in rugby. Wear mics for the crowd and tv audiences. Use tv replays when you have a doubt for a penalty decision or something. Be ready to face the media after every game. Stuff like that.
I think hansen also had a no-show after a very good Arsenal win, last year or the year before, when everyone’s waiting for him. Just can’t remember that far back unfortunately. Just goes to show what type of individual he is, if he can’t bear to come on TV because Arsenal won, forgoing his appearance fee in the process presumably.
I don’t see why a lot is being made of the Sagna foul, he committed a foul and was rightly penalised for it. Suarez tried to gain advantage by taking the free kick from the wrong spot, and the ref called that back, which was the correct thing. I’ve seen vertonghen pull the shorts off an attacking player almost all the way off when he was the last man, didn’t even get punished for it, but never heard much of it again in the media. Double standards.
LOST IN TRANSLATION –
Don’t disgrace your family
A young is girl going on her first date. Her mother warns her….”First he ‘ll kiss your cheeks ; then he’ll kiss your breasts, you’ll enjoy it and then he’ll want to go on top. You must not allow it so as not to disgrace our family name.”
Next day girl told Mom, “Everything happened exactly as you predicted. I didn’t allow him to go on top so I went on top and disgraced his family.”
Wife & Husband
Wife : How have you managed to get home so early today?
Husband : My boss lost his temper with me and shouted “Go to hell”. So I came home.
Not at all
70 yr old man asks his wife “do you feel sad when you see me running behind young girls?”
Wife replied “No not at all, even dogs chase cars but they can’t drive it.”
Wedding nights
Man to wife on wedding night- “Are you sure I’m the first man you are sleeping with?’
“Of course honey, I stayed awake with all the others!’
Walter: your description of the Sanga foul is correct. I was listening to the radio and Stan said that the ref was wrong and as he should have allowed the quick free kick and should have booked Sanga afterwards As you have mentioned, once ref blows the whistle for a bookable offence, he cannot allow the free kick to be taken unless he books the offender.
MUGS-smashed….Oh and we have now passed the real real real test. The real real real real test awaits this Wednesday, and then in the weekend, real real real real real test….
@Walter, every season start, I predict us to be on top and win the league in the end, but sadly due to some unavoidable situations we lost out….may be, this is our season. I think Mr Wenger feels the same way. Some of his decisions during the game, and his post match interviews points towards the confidence/belief….
And why wasnt Sturidge booked for a dive in the first half?? No one talks about that????
And did someone say Ramsey is in top form???? Well, its not form……This is pure class.
Well done that team. I expected pool to be a little tougher but we did not let them play at all.
We are stretched a little for Dortmund and Manu, due to injuries but i still think we will win at Dortmund.
Concerning Manu, i want to humiliate them, it needs to be done, first to remove all doubts we have ever had against them, and second because they deserve it to happen.
Forward gunners.
@gouresh
It’s bad enough these pundits have an agenda. But to not know the rules is just plain shameful.
Now I admit I didn’t know the rule regarding the requirement for the ‘caution’ to be given before the game could be restarte but lets be honest here, in retrospect, of course it does. When have you ever seen a game restarted, and then a caution administered later? Never.
But hey this is Arsenal they are having a go at here so lets just change the rules as we go along.
Collymore, Gray etc. If you want to be a pundit on football maybe you should learn the rules first. I would of thought that was important wouldn’t you? Or maybe not. Maybe it’s more important to just hate Arsenal, in which case they are over qualified.
@Al, exactly what was wrong with Sperez comments at 10.52? You called him a twat and a sad little something. I think he’s showed remarkable restraint. There’s a whiff of lynch mob on here sometimes just because people like to examine the potential of the team and don’t agree with the UA consensus.
Sperez made some points about the game and whilst I don’t necessarily agree with them all I see no reason to declare UA an enclave of North Korea. Yes he’s too quick to point out every mistake as if he can’t accept that in a 90 minute game a player won’t make a mistake or two. Players do and if their mistake comes to nothing let it go.
I agree with his comments on Giroud. That’s not to say I don’t rate him as an extremely useful member of the squad but he’s no Aguero, RVP or Suarez and I think we need a striker of that calibre to win the league. But no striker can finish every chance, Suarez missed as easy chance as Giroud yesterday.
I do agree that Sperez seems to revel in negativity but then is that any worse than some on here who are forever criticizing every decision a ref makes that doesn’t favour Arsenal? It’s as if are players are saints. I don’t think I’ve seen more than one or two people ever claim that our opponents deserved a penalty, it’s always us that suffer. I crave objectivity which many on here seem to equate with bias against Arsenal. I want what we all want, Arsenal to win every game they play. I expect Sperez wants that too despite his desire to be critical a bit too often.
Rupert
I suppose you’re referring to his 10:54 Post(or 10:31?). What is right about his 10:54 post? What does it mean? Maybe you could assist by shedding a bit more.light on that one, and I’ll apologise if I got.it wrong. Can we talk about that before moving on, thanks.
Just to clarify, with regards the.lynch mob factor, I’m one person who rarely calls people names. At least not without justification.
Walter, Yassin & co,
Thanks for your responses. They make sense.
Tom,
Your response is why you are often confused with the notorious AAA. Can you please provide ANY example of a ref stopping play for a foul, allowing quick replay and then booking the offender later. If you cannot then you post makes no sense other than to beat up an Arsenal player and call the rest of us hypocrites for advocating common sense.
To be clear, I have seen the incident more than 5 times now. Suarez was advancing at a good speed and the attack looked promising. But Per was in good position as the last man and while Sagna was on his left, Arteta was the closest player on his right. In other words, he was surrounded by 3 Arsenal players. At that point, there was no other Liverpool player in view. Sagna brought him down and I am absolutely glad he did, to be honest. The punishment for the cynical offence is, and has always been, a yellow card.
When the ref blew his whistle, even the most biased Arsenal fan (e.g. yours truly) was expecting a yellow card to be issued. Arsenal players therefore stopped playing waiting for the ref to punish Sagna with a card and for him to then indicate resumption of activities. The Biter, in his usual character tried to play a fast one. The ref blew for the ball to be returned as soon as Suarez passed it, long before it got to Henderson. The only reason why some here and elsewhere are suddenly developing new rules for the game is because of what they heard from the retarded pundits. It’s why myself, jambug and others believe that the media is the problem.
The yellow card is what I would expect another team’s player to be given in that situation. It is disturbing that some people are asking for extra-judicial punishment. The law is the law. This is similar to people calling for extra punishment against Suarez after getting red carded for using his hand to stop a certain Ghana goal at the 2010 world cup. But it was only because Ghana failed to score the resultant penalty! The law is the law. We don’t change it because some people feel extra aggrieved.
And in this case, while Suarez’s attack was promising, he was never in a goal scoring position. NEVER. So enough of the talk of him being punished twice.
@ jambug: in defence of Stan he does speak well. In fact 5 mins before our 1st goal he mentioned that Pool were playing with 3 defence and our chance will with Sanga overlapping if sissoko moves in and that’s exactly what happened.
@gouresh.
Fair enough but does that excuse him for not knowing the rules or indeed having a clear anti Arsenal agenda along with all the rest of them at Talkshite ?
Sorry, last man was Gibbs and not Per.
Bootoomee
What I find the most annoying is our fans, yes our fans, examining what can be almost called a non-incident in such a minute detail and concluding that the opposing team was robbed. We had that again with the Altidore incident. But the same people don’t do the same when this happens against Arsenal, in fact you hear them say the ref got that spot on, e.g.,the Koscielny & Arteta incidents. It leads to one question; what kind of fans are these?
@ AL
I know what you mean. Baffling.
Al I am sure some of these fans you refer to are devout passionate fans…..of other teams, well one other team especially
AL,
It is such an incident that the MoTD pundits didn’t even mention it and BR never complained after the match. It is such a no brainer call by the ref that only agenda-driven people can have any issue with it.
Our own fans parrotting this nonsense are either faux fans or not very bright i.e, lemming being led by the nose by what they hear on TV.
A great team performance with extra plaudits going to Arteta and Giroud who were both amazing! Sczcezny’s minor loss of concentration near the end almost cost us a goal, he must be reminded that he needs to keep his focus for the whole game! The defence made the supposed SAS look more like Dad’s Army for most of the game, so credit must also go to them! Dortmund and OT next so we need to keep concentration and effort to the max in these games and I’m sure we can get something from them?! COYG!!!
@Matx
2 draws would be a fantastic effort. 2 wins amazing. 2 defeats, well 2 defeats, no more no less. Not that the media or AAA types will see it that way.
Another crisis. The end is nigh !!! yada yada yada.
As I’ve said before I am by nature a bit of a pessimist and it’s with that pessimism to the for I predict a narrow defeat in the week and a draw at the weekend.
Not a disaster. We can still progress in the CL and I would always take a point at OT no matter what.
Mandy,Bootoomee,jambug
It’s strange that a fan would
view things that way, consistently. I admit I’m biased towards Arsenal, as any fan would naturally be expected to be. I’m the kind of fan who’s naturally inclined to think the ref got it wrong when he punishes Arsenal, and right when he punishes the other team. It’ll have to take a lot of arm twisting & persuasion for me to see things otherwise. But what kind of fan is the fan who will always think the ref is wrong if he gives an Arsenal player the benefit of doubt, and right whenever an Arsenal player is punished. Simple profiling will show us fans belonging to other teams like utd,spurs,city etc would behave this way. And it is expected. But when that fan calls themselves an Arsenal fan it gets a little disturbing. I am left with no choice(as if I didn’t want to:)) but to agree with Mandy that they’re passionate fans of other teams. If only they wouldn’t be such cowards and back their teams openly, then there would be no problem.
“Back to bac please get that legend on a contract extension.”
Mandy,
Second the emotion, and I’d add Rosicky to the mix. These guys have what it takes, oozing with experience, and as we’re getting more depth so that any injuries to these two can be absorbed. The trade-offs are so worth their skills.
a very good match by arsenal
Bac is back to his magnificent best and Rosicky is a goal or 2 away from the top top player we all know is in there.
As you say, get ’em signed up !!!
@Al, I think that 10.54 post is Sperez being a little provocative. Obviously comparing Newcastle’s subjugation of Chelsea in comparison to our capitulation a few days earlier.
A silly comparison really as no two games are the same. I always think comparing different games is ridiculous. If you go by that logic you’d expect Bradford to be capable of beating Bayern Munich away last season as they beat us in a cup game.
Rupert
Thank you. It’s that kind of provocative posting that elicits abusive responses. A difference in opinion alone is never, and should never be, enough reason to cause conflict between two people who supposedly follow the same club.
It is all very strange the fan behaviour thing Al. I am not saying every Arsenal critic is a Spud, nor are they all unreasonable unthinking people, or I hope not, being related to at least 2 of them, however there are a lot of Spuds in disguise out there trying to spread discord amongst our fans, and some of these spuds are media spuds.
As for this site, critics howl in derision at its bias…good and long may it continue that way. If we need other less favorable opinions of our club, there are plenty of other sites out there, I sometimes visit them, but will always return to the site whose mission always backs the manager and players,biased or not
I fail to understand why they don’t go to other sites offering less favorable opinions about Arsenal, Mandy. They’ll be appreciated more there.
But yeah, I agree not all spuds are unreasonable people. My son’s teacher is a spud and she’s the nicest teacher I could ever want for my son. Of course she knows my son is a gooner and we joke about it. From a personal point of view, I find scourers the most irritating fans. Very difficult to talk any sense with majority of them.
Scourers? Meant scousers:)
Agree on both your latest points Al they certainly go on other sites as well maybe we are more of a challenge than a WOB who would sometimes agree with them . My brother in law is a spud and a tribal one at that but giving our team due praise at the moment
I find Chelsea fans to be the most irritating. They are in complete denial about the Russian money. They all seem to of convinced themselves that they would of won the PL CL with or without the 100’s of Millions GIVEN to them. It’s like “yeah it helped but we’d of done it anyway”
Yes of course you would.
Then you point out that they was actually sold for ONE POUND not long before the Russian showed up and they get all uperty !!!!
Agree on Chelsea fans jambug and they also forget roman wanted pep and Jose wanted utd it could still end in tears
Lol jambug. It was a difficult choice between them and Liverpool tbh. The scousers just edged it simply because they’ve been around a lot longer.
Mandy,let’s hope the team keeps delivering to keep brother in law in check.
The thing about the scourers (love it !!) is they are soooooooo funney !!!!!
Tarby, Doddy, Liverbirds, bread the list goes on……and on and on !!!!
Geee, as Edmond Blackadder said, I’m glad I’ve got my corset on as I think my sides have just split !!
Enough said!
It is now a tradition, since the Sunderland BS pseudo-goal, that all teams will continue the action after a foul by an Arsenal player, so to have extenuating circumstances vis-a-vis the anti-Arsenal media when they get soundly beat, outplayed, outmaneuvered, and outcoached.
How can you allow a goal when the referee asks a player to come forward to collect a yellow card? How can you allow a fouled player to pick his spot yards away from the location of the foul? And how can claim that a goal would have scored when every single Arsenal player stopped playing upon noticing the referee was pulling a card?
The same non-existent discussion went on and on after the BS during the Sunderland game.
But the worse goal was awarded to Braga during the Braga-Arsenal UEFA CL game in Portugal a few years back. There was a misunderstanding between Campbell and Fabianski whereby Campbell barely touched (but did indeed touch) a Braga ball heading to the Arsenal surface, and Fabianski handled about 15 yards from the goal. That day, the referee gave a super-quick card in a flash of time, and two Braga players combined to score with the referee obstructing an Arsenal player who was trying to help defending the free kick.
I was just trying to say that there is no consistency, and there should be. And, yes the UEFA CL referees can be very pathetic too.
Years ago, Bayern Munich were being outplayed by Saint-Etienne with the Saint-Etienne players hitting the posts twice. Yet, Bayern won 1-0 because the referee gave a foul against the French outfit, and a Bayern player took the shot and scored before the defensive wall was formed.
Thierry Henry has scored a couple of times in similar circumstances. Football needs to get rid itself of interpretation(s) and judgement(s) of any sort; this is where the referee’s powers need to be curbed. This, of course, brings me to the opinion that video review is a must.
Congratulations Jack MOTD viewers goal of the month
I continue my crusade against BS.
This time, it is about how Arsenal collected more points from the same fixtures last season, which is true, and how pundits use that as fodder to say that Arsenal cannot possibly be a contender.
I assigned the three promoted teams the “role” of the three demoted teams according to their table position:
Hull (now 10th) for Wigan (18th last season)
Cardiff (12th) for Reading (19th last season)
Crystal Palace (20th) for QPR (20th last season)
I tallied points and compared to the fixtures from last season; here are the results using my mental-only-math-skills for the top pretenders:
Arsenal: -2 points compared to last season
Chavs: -3 points compared to last season
(upon reading this, Roman A. fires Mourinho and hires Pocchetino instead; you will see why)
Man Shitty: -1 compared to same fixtures last season
Now the pretenders:
-Mugmashers: +4 (+6 before they lost to us)
-Manure: -8
-Spuds: +4
-Everton: +2
And the unlikely champion:
-Southampton: +14
Yes, PLUS FOURTEEN.
Apparently, the bookmakers are unimpressed.
I’m sure that every player/ex-player would know that you cannot take a quick free kick when the ref is going to give a card and I don’t think it is possible to play at any decent level without knowing that is the case.
While some of the ex-players that have become pundits aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed, it is far more likely they did know that but were just using it as an excuse for the failings of their favorite team or to disparage a team they don’t like.
@Ray, from Norfolk 12:06
I remember that quick free kick and we got crucified for conceding it. We were called naive. This would have been even worse because he pulled a player back and out of position to defend a quick kick.
Ray,
“Roman A. fires Mou and hires Pochettino” – Magnificent!
Ray you talk sense man, but whats the point when the language you speak is not understood by the people that it is directed at?
I feel its like when I try to explain to my 18month old girl who wants an ice block, that first we go to shops, then we get an ice block. I think it registerdd but then after a minute she starts saying ice block, ice block dada again.
No point gettign frustrated it is not her fault she just cant grasp it YET.
Its the same with these pundits and media punks they just cant grasp it, they look like they understand but its only because you think you explained it well and they nodded a bit.
COYG…
Thank you for your comments, GoingGoingGooner, Florian, and elkieno. I have also noticed that we NEVER seem to get the advantage rule when we have numerical advantage, but we are always granted advantage when we do not.
PS: I have a theory about the Chavs loosing against Newcastle, but it needs to be verified.