This can’t be possible… well it is actually

By  Walter Broeckx

Well, well well. This must be a dark night for the dark siders. How on earth did the impossible just became possible.

The setting before this match was:

Wenger is clueless. Klopp is a master tactician who would bring Arsenal to another level. Possible but not really their current Bundesliga level if please.

We can’t defend. We will be torn to pieces by Dortmund. Dortmund will outplay us. Our players are not good enough.

If I would have had the time then I would have written a pre match report of the possible outcomes.

I would predict that if we would beat Dortmund the moaners would say: oh, well they weren’t interested so they let us win.  Or they would say we only beat the number 16 from the Bundesliga. Then they would completely ignore the fact that Dortmund had the maximum points in the Champions league group.

And if we would have lost this match…then they would say : we can’t even beat the number 16 of the Bundesliga. And talked about the genius of Klopp and the “evidence” that Wenger has lost it.

But let us start with the match. What a way to start the match on my blurry stream. I had to check the replays twice to see what actually happened. And when seeing it again what a wonderful combination of the surprise inclusion Sanogo with Cazorla and then Sanogo making an end on the foolish jokes from our own supporters. Warning on Untold: who from now on dares to write SaNogoal again will be banned to eternity.

What followed was that we saw a nice match. Arsenal very much dominant in possession and close to scoring a second goal but the Dortmund defenders didn’t let in a second. Sanogo was send away but I think a direct shot would have been the better option. Now the cutback was blocked and the shot then was blocked again and finally Alexis headed the ball wide.  That would have been a complete dream start.

Dortmund also tried to attack and got a few times near the goal in which we saw Martinez playing his second CL match of this season. I bet he will have dreamed about it at the start of the season but never really hoped for it. I can already give away that he played an excellent match. And certainly just before half time when Dortmund got a clear chance but Martinez could block the ball and a corner was all what Dortmund got. Well done!

The game went up and down and I found it a very entertaining first half. A few fouls and bookings that wouldn’t even have been called in the PL (as Chambers mentioned the difference in refereeing between the CL and the PL in an interview on arsenal.com).

In the second half I think I noticed that Arsenal tried to play in a very disciplined way. I leave it up to people who know and can see more about tactics but the work rate from every single Arsenal player was amazing to see. And we not just defended good and in sufficient numbers but we also looked for the attack whenever we could.

Alexis with a low and fierce shot that was just saved by Weidenfeller opened a few Arsenal minutes. A bit later a thunderous volley from Oxlade-Chamberlain (who ran his legs off)  clattered against the cross bar with Weidenfeller only looking in admiration to the unstoppable shot. That would have been a contender for goal of the season.

But again a few minutes later we got what we deserved: a second goal. Alexis, who else, cut in from the left and curled the ball past the German keeper. Not much he could do about that shot from outside the box. Take not you moaners that was 3 shots from outside the box in 10 minutes. We do shoot from distance despite you saying we don’t.

Two nil up would we fuck it up? The first worrying moment was when suddenly Arteta kicked the ball out and signalled to the bench that he couldn’t continue. My first thought was: oh no, not like against Anderlecht….. Flamini came on just like against Anderlecht.

But it seemed that our players did learn their lesson this time (despite the moaners saying we never do this). The energy levels shown by the players on the pitch were amazing. Every player ran, ran, ran and ran some more to cover every possible opening. And so we kept Dortmund away from our keeper in a rather easy way. It was clear that we changed the tactics and went for defending the lead. And trying to break when possible but always we kept a lot of players behind the ball and when the ball was lost every player worked hard an defended.

Sanogo came off …injured and Podolski came on. It took a while before he realised that he also had to run and defend. In fact I think it was Campbell who came on for the brillant Oxlade-Chamberlain who told him this as after that he really started chasing like he should.

In the last minutes Dortmund forced Martinez into another fine stop but that was only after the ref turned a blind eye for a blatant handball. But it sure was a fine stop. Again well done.

So here it is. We beat Dortmund. Wenger won from Klopp. Surely there is nothing to moan about this match now? Well don’t hold your breath as those who want to moan will find something to moan. Was it Wenger his fault that it was so wet this evening?

WELL DONE BOYS OUT THERE ON THE FIELD! YOU MADE US PROUD! YOU WORKED FOR THE SHIRT AND THAT IS ALL WE CAN ASK!

PS: Let me start the moaning. Who on earth came up with the idea of letting us play the opening match of this weekend so early away from home?

107 Replies to “This can’t be possible… well it is actually”

  1. Should have mentioned in my article: we beat Dortmund with a 4th choice centre forward (Giroud-Welbeck-Alexis) and a 3rd choice keeper (Szczesny-Ospina)

  2. should have also said second 😉 You know it gets you higher numbers in comments and so they can show off with that.

  3. Fantastic performance and result, well done to all the players and the management team.
    The downside is the calf injury to Arteta which could see him out for a long time according to Arsene in his post match interview. No doubt it will be Wengers fault for overplaying him!

  4. I would note the referee in this match once again made too many calls against us otherwise we would have won by 3-4 goals.

  5. Much, much better.
    Clinical when it mattered, and actually defended well while closing out the game properly. Delighted Sanogo got off the mark, and with how hard he worked. As for Alexis – world class.
    Hopefully we can build on it and defend our leads properly while cutting out the errors. At least this victory will relieve some of the pressure on the manager and players so they can get on with their jobs.
    But that was a proper, professional performance against a strong team. I’m critical of AW at times, but he got his stuff spot on tonight.
    Long may it continue.

  6. Excellent post @Walter as of the sewer rats you wont see any today as they are back in the sewers, as of playing so early the morons want us to lose so as to sell and talk rubbish against us but i think we are back from the dead and we are going for a very,very,very good run.Hopefully we don’t get more injuries,Keep the fire burning

  7. why so much attention for AAA morans?!?
    is there any reason to react at all….
    the only site where you can find fellow gooners and 80% of articles about the stupidity of aaa f..heads.
    thanks again walter for article

  8. Great post man. Now please rub it in. All moaners, all who predicted that we would come to no good tonight, all you Wenger haters out there, shame on you! Say what you will, search all you can, for something to say so you can take the shine away from tonight’s victory. Well done guys. Round of 16 here we come.

  9. Professional, mature, organised, efficient at both ends. well done to all concerned. Rookies Martinez and Sanogo, a game to remember. Gibbs, Alexis, Monreal, per, Ox, Santi…..all of them really ….deserve a mention in dispatches.
    We needed that, a good result and CS against a tough team and qualification to face what we know will be Barca/Bayern/ real next.
    What a record of European qualification wenger has.
    Now time to move on. The only downside, more injuries. So many injuries. Arteta did great, but he must be considered a serious risk for the rest of the season, a risk that needs planning for. Sanogo, hope he is ok, but again, a huge injury risk.
    A little bit of relief from the aaa/ media shite storm.
    Hope the aaa didn’t embarrass themselves too much in the presence of their beloved Klopp.

  10. perfect article!!! the invisibles (yes you read correct NOT invincibles) are no where to be seen…guess its not quite ‘agenda night’ and can’t harp on about Wenger out!!!

    Well done to the boys, and here is proof what fair play can bring to Arsenal…reading PGMOL???

  11. Walter, u are quick to point out if the opposition get a goal from an off side position or an infringement I haven’t seen u mention Sanogos goal. Or did u? I am sorry if I missed it. Why the double standard’s?

  12. Great post Walter. I too noticed our players sticking a leg whenever possible to disrupt ze germans and generally putting in lots of effort. Some intersting stats – we held the ball less and and had fewer and less accurate passes then them but still winning back the ball was key to our success.

    My main hope is that Rambo goes back to his usual self since he is just so damn good but doesnt look sharp in his decision. My prediction is that he is going to come back big for us.

    Coyg !!

  13. I saw both Arsenal games today, two wins, combined score three nil and both teams looked ‘proper’. Well done Arsenal. I’m a very happy bunny.

  14. It really is very hard to not do any name-calling after a response like tonight’s. But do people have any drop of brain to write write this team off so soon? See what came of the face-off between the darling of the Wenger-Out Brigade, Jurgen Klopp, and the ‘clueless’ Wenger.
    How people can claim to be fans of Arsenal and buy into an agenda of pure hate against the club AND the manager, is beyond me. Klopp, Klopp, Klopp, more Klopp! Wenger out. Klopp come in! Shameless, (actually they are shamefull so an sos). They have a point though, it’s Wenger’s fault we won tonight!

  15. Gouresh your post helped me clarify something for myself, at least.
    There are matches when lose because we dont play well. If those matches also include ref mistakes that cost us I find it inaccurate to try and describe it as a muggery. Even more so when those mistakes are not blatant but just feel like mistakes.
    However when we play much better than the opposition and get constant bad decisions against us I totally blame the refs.
    It is a matter of allocating weight to different contributory factors.
    So regarding today we totally dominated and were the much better team so that tiny offside is irrelevant. In other words if I was a Dortmund fan I would have not felt robbed at all.

  16. Gouresh,
    why talking about double standards?
    Maybe you should realise that I mostly deal in facts.
    FACT: the TV station showed Fellaini his offside. they didn’t show Sanogo this time by drawing a line.
    So I talked about Fellaini his offside but not about Sanogo possibly being offside as I got no evidence.

  17. Gouresh, just be happy we won convincingly, you do not always have to find a negative you know. Unless of course you are depressed we won?

  18. Well done to them, was a good match 😀

    The thing is, getting out the group has never been a problem, its the knockout stages….
    When Wenger makes it to the Semis, the finals or even goes on to win it then I’ll be convinced.

    Well done tonight tho, good win and a good step

  19. Alex,

    Why are you so bothered by the ‘attention for the AAA morans’?

    No one else is complaining. Actually, we are all enjoying it very much. Don’t be a party pooping AAA sympathiser.

    Fuck the AAA in the Arsenal 🙂

  20. ‘SaNogoal’ became ‘San-ON-goal’ tonight! The way they were carrying on about his goal drought, you would have thought the young man WILL NEVER score, guarranteed. Now he goes out there and gets the opener.
    Martinez the rookie, keeps a clean sheet. Monreal can actually defend, and the ‘ubbish’ team can actually grind out a result against quality opposition. They were half-strength? So were we.

  21. Maybe it’s because of his height and the fact that he is a natural left back but I just absolutely respect and appreciate Monreal for what he has done for us this season. What a player, what a guy!

  22. Bootoomee
    cos attention is the only thing they wish for…
    and this site is too good for that
    and yeah…fuck AaA for the last time…

  23. Gouresh,

    Yaya was level ; therefore not off-side. A reliable clue was that Sky did not show replays with the line drawn, as that would have been conclusive proof that would have denied them the opportunity to cst doubt on our goal.

    So, no remarks about double standards, please.

  24. Talking about offside decision…the first offside goal from Anderlecht could probably cost us being top of the group. If that would have been called we would be both on 12 points

  25. An enjoyable match and welcome result. This was a much more measured and controlled performance and it paid dividends. Well played guys.

    Great to post on UA without having to read through a myriad of AAAA idiotic comments.

  26. Monreal deserves a lot do praise….courage in the line of fire….in football terms of course. He has been injured, left out, missed out on the WC, he has at times been exposed by those upfield but has stuck to his task manfully…whatever that means, and seemingly without complaint. Glad he is with us.

  27. Just looked at the headline on Pedro’s playground.. he sure was spot on. LOL.
    Yeah it was horrendous….for them… 🙂

  28. Good result and well played the whole team shame to have lost another couple of players to injury – Interested to see how the ref gets marked having missed our possibly offside goal – so onto Saturday and WBA see you all there ?

  29. Didn’t get to watch the game because it was on at 4:30am over here in Korea but from what I read it was a proper performance with responsible defending. A mature performance. Credit to the players but there’s no need to gloat and claim that those who criticized the last performance were wrong. Then mistakes were made, in this game the team learnt from those mistakes. Arteta injury is very bad news because he is the only player who plays effectively in that deep midfield position. I think that will cause us problems looking forward.

  30. @ bjtgooner -November 26, 2014 at 11:33 pm – You really READ the AAAA’s moronic comments ? Damn !
    Since I don’t read any of their crap ( nor engage them ) , my life is so much fuller and I don’t really have to smoke anything to be upbeat and positive.
    Blowing smoke up their arses and swatting them silly is just unbridled joy !

  31. Brickfields, I hope you had a good sleep. It is -17 outside here, with maybe 20cm snow on the ground. And the odd footprint from deer in the snow. Probably 30 above there.

    A food question. Properly Phillipines, but KL is supposed to have it too. Are there better spellings for kwek-kwek and tokneneng? I am not missing diacritical marks or something? The first is made with a quail egg, the second with a duck or chicken egg.

    Seeing as Charlie brough up the last game, which shocked the heck out of me. I seldom get to watch games, I watched that game up to the Gibbs OG. Winning wasn’t in the cards, and I could just see all the crap that would be here afterwards.

    Ignoring the fact that Gibbs scored on his own net, that was about the prettyist goal I have seen. But I completely missed Fellani pushing Gibbs into Szczesny in that same play. I’ve no idea how.

    But, if Gibbs could do something similar with the opposition’s goal, that would be a highlight reel goal.

  32. Wao! We fought for every ball, played at a high speed, defended together, attacked gracefully. This Arsenal team were pomped up for tonight’s win. And btw, ‘AW does not do tactics’… Ref decisions didnt kill the game tonight (something PIGMOB should learn from).

    ‘BvB are disinterested in the match that was why they let us have it’…that comment is an insult on J.Klopp and BvB.

    All happy gooners tonight deserve it while all ‘real fans’ AAAA can never find true happiness until they confess which opposition team they actually supported.

    Thank you Arsenal, thank you boys and thank you Arsene Wenger for tonight’s win.

    ‘We answer our critics on the pitch’

    COYG

  33. We fought for every ball, played at a high speed, defended together, attacked gracefully. This Arsenal team were pomped up for tonight’s win. And btw, ‘AW does not do tactics’… Ref decisions didnt kill the game tonight (something PIGMOB should learn from).

    ‘BvB are disinterested in the match that was why they let us have it’…that comment is an insult on J.Klopp and BvB.

    All happy gooners tonight deserve it while all ‘real fans’ AAAA can never find true happiness until they confess which opposition team they actually supported.

    Thank you Arsenal, thank you boys and thank you Arsene Wenger for tonight’s win.

    ‘We answer our critics on the pitch’

    COYG

  34. I think the frustrating thing about the second United goal was that it was the same mistake as from the Swansea game, in terms of being vulnerable to the counter. For that reason it is fantastic to see the team restrict a team like Dortmund to one chance. It shows that Arsene and Bould know what the problems are and how to fix them. It is a matter of the players following instructions. Let’s not forget that the defensive partnership is a new one. If Per and Kos partner each other for the rest of the season (with Kos almost back now) I don’t think we will have a problem, unfortunately we are rarely so lucky which is why another natural CB is required.

  35. On another topic does anyone have an opinion on whether Zelalem is ready for the first team now that Wilshere and Arteta will miss the busy Christmas schedule ? Reports say that he is better than Fabregas was at 16 when he made his debut.

  36. @Gord -November 27, 2014 at 1:16 am – It does not sound familiar , so I’m thinking its Filipino fare , but in East Malaysia we may have something similar .
    The Chinese have a variety of egg and chicken /duck dishes too.
    In the meantime let those juices flow with these mouth watering Malaysian offerings.
    I’m going to have number 5 for lunch .Yum , yum yummmmmy !

    http://travel.cnn.com/malaysian-food-334106

  37. Walter/Mick & John. I just asked the question. As for the game, when we win I sing and dance, but when we play like we did and win, I am ecstatic because this is kind of football we have been missing and the fans have been calling for. When we loose I get very very angry because we loose due to our repetitive mistakes. I blame ourselves for that. I was telling and pointing to my 7 yr old watching the game, how we got the chance and scored so now the pressure is on the other team, how the ball was being moved around quickly no one running with it unnecessarily, the midfield keeping shape, the defence and and the team being compact. My wife said, “wait till 70th mins and u see Dortmund might score”. I said they wont because the we are playing as a team. As a team. We all saw our BFG’s post match interview and he pointed out to what the problem was and so did AW in his interview. Which we have being saying all along, our defensive shape and inability to defend as a team till the final whistle. By the way AW did not invent the wheel, he just went back to basics. And this I ABSOLUTELY loved.

  38. Someone said, enjoy the win. Enjoy? I am bloody over the moon. I could not sleep till 11.00 pm and
    am up @ 3.50 am UK time because I am soooo happy.

  39. As we Silver Surfers know, sometimes we have trouble with our computers.
    I had a problem yesterday, so I called Eric , the 11 year old next door, whose bedroom looks like Mission Control, and asked him to come over.
    Eric clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem.
    As he was walking away, I called after him, ‘So, what was wrong?’
    He replied, ‘It was an ID ten T error.’
    I didn’t want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, ‘An, ID ten T error? What’s that? In case I need to fix it again.’
    Eric grinned…’Haven’t you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?’

    ‘No,’ I replied.
    ‘Write it down,’ he said, ‘and I think you’ll figure it out.’
    So I wrote down: ID10T
    I used to like Eric , the little shithead.

  40. @Brickfields

    Thanks for trying. A different news site (for technical people) has articles about things to eat after drinking too much EtOH. And one particular article, was about something from the UK called a Scotch Egg. Which is an egg surrounded by sausage meat, which then gets a breaded coating. But, people started making variations, so I started to summarize everything. Including gluten free and other kinds of variations.

    In terms of ingredients, I think Roti John is pretty close to tokneneng. Presentation are probably much different.

    —-

    Still no news if the Dortmund U21 captain got a broken ankle.

    This was the Ox’s 100’th appearance for Arsenal.

  41. @Brickfields

    Apparently Einstein’s teacher wanted a break one day, so he told the students to add together all the numbers from 1 to 100. Einstein had his hand up in short order with the answer, 5050. Maybe give that problem to your neighbour?

    Answer?

    100 99 98 97 … 51
    ……………….. 50
    ___ 01 02 03 … 49

    The first column sums to 100, the second column sums to 100, and so on for 50 columns, 50×100 is 5000, and we have a 50 left over. 5050.

  42. We have one of the best left backs in Gibbs. He needs to improve a few things(Nickys recommendations). He can be ‘the’ best.

    But can we find such a consistent player? I doubt. Since last season, he has performed at a consistently good level every time he was on the pitch. Silently efficient.

    Way to go Gibbo.

    When people say we are shit at defending, are they even looking. Yes we have been some what leaky this season, but there are number of reasons for that. But shit we are not.

    To see how good we are at defending just look at the last game(Dortmund) on aresnal.com. I see a pattern(the real tactical experts please correct me). We are not interested where the opponent players are. Instead we look at the player with the ball and cut off his possible passing channels by minor repositioning. This, when all players are not in sync may lead to open defense. But when every thing is dialed in, saves energy and quick counter attacks can be launched and can be very stubborn defense as Dortmund found out.

    As for performance yesterday, just awesome. Rambo looks like is almost there. Ox. What can I say. Superb. No words. Monreal, no words again. Alexis, electric as usual. Arteta, Chambers and Per, the usual calm. Santi. Well he was just….the way he got out of tricky situations, splendid. And Sanogo…..well yay yay yay yay.

  43. Anyone else notice that the English press made excuses for Dortmund the entire game?

    I had the BBC open and was watching on a Sky stream and constantly saw the only reasons we won the game was because:

    Dortmund were already through and therefore couldn’t be bothered to play
    Dortmund’s injury list is long and has cost them.
    Their league start has zapped them of confidence and a flying Dortmund would beat us.

    I kept hearing/reading this and to be frank, was disgusted. I am not asking for full on bias from the press for Arsenal (like they give Man Utd/Chelsea – Andy Townsend I’m looking at you) but at least give us some credit when we do well.

    I thought we played with passion and we closed their players down with pace. This is The Arsenal I want to see every week.

    On a final thought, the commentators kept saying how many injuries Dortmund had and how bad their start has been and used it as an excuse but then kept reminding us that this is the worst start for 32 years and we have loads of injuries but that can’t be used as an excuse. I was and am confused on that one. Why not?

  44. Come on, someone must’ve watched the youth team a bit this season. Dan Crowley or Gedion Zelalem to be picked on the bench following the recent midfield injuries ? It’s exciting in a way, Arsenal have a history of very young midfielders making a big impression.

  45. Well done Arsenal – I watched on TV in Goa. No offside for Sanogo. Some strange fouls given by ref. He evaded clear handball by Kagawa.

    Arteta was kicked by Ramos(?) on the calf. Ref gave a foul but did not book Ramos(?). The injury manifested after a few minutes. Initial pounding of muscle causes contraction, subsequent expansion allows bleeding.

    Yet again Alexis was kicked several times in full vision of the referee. He eventually gave some of the fouls but didn’t book anyone.

    @Walter -Referees do not seem to realise the pain or injury that kicks cause. Do they have any training or visibility of injuries so that they act appropriately?

  46. From – Inspirational World and Stories

    Today I smiled, and all at once things didn’t look so bad.

    Today I shared with someone else, a bit of hope I had.

    Today I sang a little song, and felt my heart grow light,

    And walked a happy little mile, with not a cloud in sight.

    Today I worked with what I had and longed for nothing more,

    And what had seemed like only weeds, were flowers at my door.

    Today I loved a little more and complained a little less,

    And in the giving of myself, I forgot my weariness

    Poet: Unknown

  47. @ Gord -November 27, 2014 at 5:42 am – On problems , here’s a quote from the same site ( Inspirational World and Stories ) , a gem –

    ” Handle every stressful situation like a dog ,
    if you can’t eat or play with it , just pee on it and walk away !”

    Works for me – Probably explains why I toy with the AAAA and piss on them !

  48. Even after the good performance last night it seems that Arsenal are still not fully firing yet, and there is still lots more in them.

    Be clear, Dortmund were not going to “break a leg”, they were secure, but by no way were they going to make it easy either. It was up to us to show them they would have to fight if they wanted it, and we did.

    Has anyone else noticed that Chelsea is now a clone of Arsenal too? The way of their play is now somewhat Arsenal style.

  49. Thanks for the report. Your first three posts cracked me up!! Have you been reading Le Merde?I heard UA gets a tough crit.over there?
    COYG etc

  50. We played as a team – we played with our heads and our hearts and we beat a decent European side. We now need to apply that to the PL and get a run going. That starts on Saturday, just after breakfast

  51. That’s better everyone s happy again amazing what a win can do, now on to the Hawthorns, my Manor see you all there I hope

  52. Charlie,

    I have watched all three home U19 Champions League games this year and in answer to your question :-

    I think that both Crowley and Zelalem are currently too lightweight to be considered for the first team. They were both very good yesterday afternoon, Zelalem in the deeper midfield role, Crowley more advanced.

    Zelalem was more involved than he had been against both Galatassaray and, particularly, Anderlecht where too often he looked scared of challenging for the ball. He needs to spend more time in the gym and gain some muscle before being considered for the thirst team in a Premier game. His range of passing is fantastic and some yesterday were breathtaking.

    Crowley is a different case, physically he is even smaller than Zelalem but what a heart he has. Given time he will become like a cross between Alexis and Wilshere but at the moment he needs to develop at his own level, he would get squashed in the PL.

    Both fantastic prospects but not ready for the big league yet

  53. That result and performance was just what we needed.

    It had discipline and attacking threat, Wenger got it just right.

    BUT, lets be perfectly honest, that’s his job. One decent performance does not make amends for the awful results against Anderlecht, Swansea or Man Utd.

    This site will of course go into meltdown as if everything is peachy at the Emirates and that Wenger has proven all his critics wrong, well in short that’s nonsense. However, one swallow does not a summer make.

    This result will mean nothing if it’s not followed by us playing the same efficient but disciplined way week in week out.

    The likelihood of this has been hit because the loss of Arteta is a big blow, as Flamini can’t do what the Spaniard does on the pitch.

    For all my “Wenger must go” statements I still would love to be proven wrong and for him to set right all of the damage he’s doing to the club. Nothing would make me happier for Wenger to be able to leave the club he has shaped over the past 18 years with his head held high following a successful season.

  54. @Ghouresh, @Tommiegun

    John Barnes, when asked on TV and he was asked if he thought the Sanogo goal was offside responded that it was not. He felt Sanogo leaning forward to start his run was maybe a fraction of an inch offside but that his feet were actually onside. My take? Ambiguous and hard to call according to John Barnes. And John Barnes was a pro footballer.

    I am just glad I won’t have to listen to all the rubbish from the Chelskis and Mancs at work today. Hope to see you back on the pitch soon, Cap’n Mik. COYG!

  55. I only come on here when we lose…

    …but can’t let khitb77 get away with “all of the damage he’s [Wenger] doing to the club”. If this is “damage” I will have plenty more of it thank you! Anyway, Wenger has 2.5 years left on his contract and I very much hope he will be extending it, health permitting.

  56. I have one question for the Wenger out brigade. How well would the team have done if the money teams were taken out?

  57. Wasn’t that Cazorla with two assists yesterday? Good for him as he was getting on the who to give some stick list.

  58. One complaint, well…..for the same of it, I have is that when counter attacking both Ox and Alexis made runs inside a bit too early. Theo is excellent in this. He stays wide long enough to give midfielders that extra option of a safer pass. Ox will learn that with time…. Happy 100 The OX.

  59. I looked at the BBC live feed for the match.They allowed a blog from some idiot that said,Hummers and Reus will take Arsenal apart.Can you believe this.Both out injured and had no chance of playing.I will complain.Great win,very disciplined,it had to be after Saturday and the second goal that was conceded.

  60. Of course I lied – I come on here win, lose or draw as you know!

    An interesting new stat from Arsene in his post-match interview on .com referring to the Man Utd game:

    “We had 60 penalty area entries on Saturday and Manchester United had 17”.

    Never seen this before, but quite an interesting one. What it also shows is that the club are far ahead of bloggers in terms of analysis. Doesn’t seem to be helping much with the injuries and referees though!

    Five injuries in last two games (Wilshere, Szcz, Welbeck, Sanogo and Arteta). They just keep coming. Why? Why? WHY? I actually saw Wilshere on Sunday and he was wearing a protective boot and looked in some discomfort.

    Central midfield looking a little thin now, with just Flamini and Ramsey – although Santi and Ox can fill in as well I guess? I sort of assume that Diaby is off the scene and Ozil still a little way away?

  61. Well if “Mr Wenger is damaging the club”, then let him continue this effort of his for a long long into the future……

    Great job Mr Wenger. Keep damaging.

  62. Will
    November 27, 2014 at 9:52 am
    I have one question for the Wenger out brigade. How well would the team have done if the money teams were taken out?

    Hard to say really Will but if your excluding Man U as one one the money teams we have beaten them 1 time in 15 attempts so maybe not so great – if your including the Mancs in the money teams then we would surley have done much better but then I guess people would have been calling us the money team as fans always have some angle dont they ?

  63. Great comments Walter, as usual.

    On ‘that blog’ last night several commentators said they were gutted Arsenal won. My son says it was the same on twitter. Who are these people masquerading as fans?!

    We have more points than Man City and Liverpool combined in their Champions league games but it is only Wenger that has been ganged up on by the media and the AAAA. Jamie Carragher was excusing Liverpool and their defending yet cannot wait to dig the knives into Arsenal.

    This was a great performance. Almost identical first half to the Man Utd game where we also played very well.

    A man who doesnt do tactics has just qualified us for the last 16 of the Champions League for the 15th consequetive season!

    There will be a lot of pain today for the AAAA but relief for our beleagured club who deserve so much better.

  64. WalterBroeckx
    November 26, 2014 at 11:49 pm

    bpuwahahha

    have been sending them love notes since last night..congratulating on their spot on analysis …

    poor pedro couldnt sleep all night thinking what to write ..how to twist it .. what a git…

  65. khitb77
    November 27, 2014 at 9:38 am

    ZZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzzzz….

    but when i read this i had to laugh :

    “For all my “Wenger must go” statements I still would love to be proven wrong”

    who are you to be proven wrong or correct?

    wenger has proven his worth to arsenal many many times and for so many years with proven track record…in the real world.

    who are you again ?

  66. funny how a bunch of nobodies DEMAND that wenger proves himself to them

    hilarious really ….. 🙂

  67. After having spend a few minutes on there (yep Le G….) I notice that they really didn’t enjoy our win. And they don’t enjoy us.
    But who cares…

    I enjoy our win. I enjoy Untold. 😉

  68. now thats what im talking about

    last night we were compact and efficient, we always seemed to have someone in the right place at the right time. I hope the manager and players can be smart enough to analyse what went right and why

    Caz should always get a cm position over wilshere imo, best ive seen him in ages last night

    big shout out to yaya San1goal, happy for him

  69. All is well again. We beat an injury ravaged Dortmund team who sit 16th out of 18 teams in their domestic league. They have 11 points from a possible 36!

  70. Come on guys wind it in

    The absolute undeniable shocking naivety of the way our team has played of late has to fall at wenger feet in some way

    Wenger doesnt care about defence he thinks we’ll score 10 if they score 9 kind of thing.. Which does make for excitement but the ship has to be steadied when things arent going well and i get the impresssion that last night something changed just for a little. Im not an expert in tactics as none of us are but it was clear we were doing something different. Was it wenger or was the players? I really hope it was wenger

  71. WalterBroeckx
    November 27, 2014 at 12:15 pm

    they are so predictably stupid they give validation to the axiom football is for dumb/simple people

    it was always going to be a struggle for 21st century primates to understand intellectual wengerball

    and finances? ..mpaaahhaaa …one banana, two banana, three banana…

    nom ..nom ..nom

  72. MadeToLoveMagic
    November 27, 2014 at 12:29 pm

    the only difference between last night and saturday is that sanogo put it in the back of the net while wilshere didnt.

    you might not knwo tactics or psychology of sports/games …i do..so you listen to me for guidance.

    😉

    and no i wont wind it in

    the hsip has to be steadied ? lmao..its been steady 18 years now..as steady as its ever been…

  73. The Martinez interview should put to bed the criticism that Wenger don’t do defence. But who am I kidding. It will be Bouldy who gets the credit. Wenger was playing beach football at Brighton beach when Bouldy changed the training session.

    Anyone read Positively Arsenal? Another positive site to go to.

  74. @4evered. I meant more league position. Something that is thrown at us is we aim for 4th spot and Wenger will never get us to the title.

    Well, Man City and Chelsea have spent almost two billion pounds to get where they are, so, take them out of the league and we would have performed much better.

    It is like the Carl Lewis race where he lost to Ben Johnson.

  75. Mark
    November 27, 2014 at 12:26 pm
    All is well again. We beat an injury ravaged Dortmund team who sit 16th out of 18 teams in their domestic league. They have 11 points from a possible 36!

    We have an injury ravaged squad who has had its worst start in 32 years. What’s your point?

  76. Yes Mark, and you know what? We beat them while our own team was also ravaged with injuries. Ozil, Walcott, Welbeck, (Giroud should have been still injured), Debuchy, (Koscielny not really match fit I guess), Szczesny, Ospina, …
    That’s 8 players missing or not being completely fit for a quick count.

    So that should not be an excuse for Dortmund. Some people never take it as an excuse for Arsenal. No, they blame Wenger for it.

    You see I even missed one…how could I… Jack Wilshere.

    And we lost Arteta during the match also…

    Yep, Dortmund was injury ravaged…

  77. Injury ravaged… a website that lists both PL and Bundesliga has Arsenal with 11 players injured for the moment and Dortmund with 8.

    Injury ravaged you said???

    Let us certainly give no credit to Arsenal at all…. sigh

  78. hunter13,

    Nice to see you posting here. Your 12.13pm post is just spot on.

    Arsenal has been ridiculously steady since Arsene’s been our manager. The whiners can moan about 2 trophies in 10 years (current version of “no trophy in X years”) but stability is one thing that we have always enjoyed on his watch.

    These days I am careful to not let people know that I am an Arsenal fan until I know them a little. I met a Liverpool fan last weekend and as we spoke he came across as a reasonable person so I opened up about by Goonership. Then, just as I had experienced on countless occasions, he started listing the number of things wrong with Arsenal. Yes, you are reading that right: A LIVERPOOL FAN IS LECTURING AN ARSENAL FAN ON WHAT IS WRONG WITH ARSENAL.

    Apologies for shouting but this shit can’t be made up. Of course, and naturally, I went medieval on his ass and he succumbed by the time I finished summarising the history of the 2 clubs in the last decade.

    The fella was reacting the way people react to Arsenal fans who usually encourage the nonsense with their own incessant whining. God, I hate Arsenal fans (you know the sort I’m talking about). My new acquaintance had every reason to be despondent about his club while I have very little reason to be about mine but guess who was expressing sympathy for the other. But can you blame him? He must have played the therapist to lots of cry-baby Gooners in the past who are always looking for avenues and listening hears to express the woes that Arsene Wenger not “winning trophies” or “beating the big teams” is bringing to their lives.

    In summary, a Liverpool fan whose club is trying to but is no where near building a new stadium; have been out of CL for a while; royally fucked up a near certain PL win; are struggling in their CL group; haven’t won the league in the PL era – IS sympathising with me, a Gooner, whose club doesn’t have any of the listed problems AND it is because what other fans have learnt over the years from the media and our pathetic fans IS to be sorry for Arsenal.

    Honestly, I don’t get.

  79. Bootoomee
    November 27, 2014 at 1:16 pm

    hi there

    two nights ago i took offence to a poster describing the last decade as failure

    he chose the period where we had to repay our stadium as the period to moan about not beating abramovic, glazers and sheiks.

    thats the level of intelligence we are dealing with sadly…….

  80. Good to see you alive and well Hunter. If we could ever get the majority of our players fit at the same time we would show a few people I think.

    Just imagine the praise that would go any other manager’s way if he secured Champions League qualification and then a last 16 place twice with the injuries that The Arsenal have had since the ill-fated opener against Villa in September 2013.

  81. @ hunter13

    re your November 27, 2014 at 12:08 pm comment

    “who are you to be proven wrong or correct?”

    This is such a moronic thing to say. I have as much emotionally and financially invested in supporting Arsenal as probably 90% of the people on this board and am entitled to my opinions like everyone else!

    If you are so blind as to see that an awful lot of the exceptional work Wenger did in his first 10 years is being undone by his mistakes of the past few years – i.e. not addressing obvious areas of weakness (season after season), continually playing people out of position – think Ozil, Chambers, Monreal, ignoring some excellent talents to the point where they could want to leave the club – Rosicky, Podolski and Campbell, allowing us to go into new seasons with a clear shortage of quality players in vital positions and then being surprised when we suffer injuries and fall off the pace and possibly the most damaging is his stubborn refusal to adapt our tactics in the past (last night will probably not be a glorious tactical rebirth) against teams that change their own play to counter ours!

    If anyone on this site can give me a sensible explanation of how it is not Wenger’s fault that we are always getting hit on the counter attack by the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd etc and WHY changes to our approach are not made then I would love to hear it.

    We can’t always be blaming the officials, or thug opponents, or an astronomical anomaly for us losing games that we should be winning given the resources at our disposal.

  82. khitb77
    November 27, 2014 at 2:12 pm

    i dont care about your opinion mate…you are obviously stupid and the opinions of stupid people do not interest me

    in the ten years were we all knew it could go to shit and ruins you moan about mistakes and titles?

    sorry my friend i wont entertain such nonsense. Come back when you mature as a personality and can keep a perspective.

  83. Afternoon all Gooners.

    Great performance last night – which proves we have a very good team despite what some people want to deny. We played with a higher tempo in the first half, which the Germans couldn’t handle, a bit like in the Man Utd game. This time we took our chances and the in game management from the players was much improved. Individually they kept to their responsibilities. Arteta is going to be a loss, I have no idea why he gets so much criticism from a section of our support. Reads the game so well and no coincidence when we lost him against Anderlecht at 3-0 up, we weren’t the same side. I don’t care what anybody says, we are bloody unlucky with injuries!!

    On the injury front, I was not surprised to see Dortmunds’ defeat being attributed to their injuries, whereas Arsenal are not allowed to use injuries as any excuse.It really is weird.

    If we can get our players fit and playing together regularly, I believe we have the team to challenge for top honours. Who plays football like us when we are in the groove?

    PS: Can somebody please explain to me why some so called fans were going on other blogs and twitter claiming they were gutted we had won? Is the anti-Wenger agenda really that much more important than results.

  84. khitb77. You are asking us to provide an in depth technical analysis of our players and the various tactical options available to us. You are asking us to explain why players you want us to sign have not been signed. You are asking us why what you consider to be obvious problems have not been addressed.

    This is where some fans go wrong. You make an assumption that everything you think is correct.

    Arsenal Football Club employ an experienced ‘Professional’ football manager to manage the team. Arsenal Football Club also employ coaches, scouts and medical specialists to carry out other functions in the club.

    The Manager of Arsenal FC has a pretty distinguished CV. As well as winning the top domestic honours including 2 doubles, he also guided the team to an unbeaten season. His ability to improve players became a key performance indicator when the club were forced to make profits on player trading.

    Now you ask us mere amateurs to answer questions on his tactics?

    I am sorry to disappoint you, but this world where you know better than Arsene Wenger is the stuff of Fairy Tales. You are entitled to your opinion on tactics, players you would like to sign and the medical care of our players, absolutely. And I defend your right to have those opinions.

    But please stop assuming you know best and being so bloody arrogant as to ask us fellow armchair amateurs, why Wenger does not see what you do.

    You lot are quite something.

  85. I am sorry to disappoint you, but this world where you know better than Arsene Wenger is the stuff of Fairy Tales.

    🙂 hahaha

    hey dont be cruel…let the dreamer have his 15 mins ….he has practiced a lot in fifa the last few years…

  86. Well, according to the news, the World’s Best Striker is playing against Everton tonight. It seems that Bendtner’s ego is alive and well.

  87. Well this site is full of WKBs.Theres nothing like blind optimism.No doubt this post will be removed just like the wenger out banners in the stadium.

  88. Proud Kev, I don’t think most moaning Arsenal fans think they know best. I moan often and I’m certain I don’t know best. I’m just puzzled. I’m puzzled because the team appeared to handle last night’s game very well indeed in that they were better balanced and defended sensibly with discipline whereas in previous matches they appeared to have no regard at all for the much needed art of seeing a game out. Puzzlement at this inconsistency turns to moaning when the inconsistency appears to haunt us every season. I think it’s reasonable to expect a man who is, as you say “an experienced football manager”, to have found a solution to this after 8/9 years of trying. That’s a long time. How to find a solution? Nope, I have no idea. But Mr. Wenger should know. After all, he did it before. The fact that he hasn’t found a solution good enough or sustained enough in all this time makes many, including me, question his ability to do it now. I hope with all my heart that last night was a sign that he and this season’s squad are turning a corner together. Although they didn’t take their chances against Utd, they have scored some great goals over the last 4 weeks or so (as they have every season of course) and perhaps we are closer to making a step up than I often feel we are. Here’s the thing: me, you, the moaning fans, the AAA, pundits etc, none of us know what to do but the key question is, does Arsene? Anymore?

  89. @Fishpie
    ‘none of us know what to do but the key question is, does Arsene? Anymore?’
    Well he obviously does, he’s always kept us in the top four, seventeen clean sheets last season, what further proof do you need.

  90. Don’t worry be happy ……

    Advice from my investment guru – in hindsight ….

    If you had bought $ 1,000.00 of Quantas shares a year ago , you would have $49.00 today.
    If you bought $ 1,00.00 AIG shares one year ago , you would have $33.00 today.
    If you bought $1,000.00 worth of Lehman Brothers shares one year ago , you would have $0.00 today .

    BUT….if you purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer a year ago , drank all the beer , then returned the aluminium cans for recycling…

    YOU WOULD HAVE RECEIVED $214.00 !

    Based on the above , the best current investment plan is to drink heavily and recycle !
    CHEERS !

  91. It is insane that some people are asking for justification from Wenger/Arsenal about so-called mistakes made by the team. Get off your high horse and support the team. Using the excuse that you have invested years of your time supporting the team to seek justification is just absurd. It is like going to watch a crap movie and demanding the director/producer/writer to explain why this movie is so crap. Amazing.

  92. @Mick, don’t you think that the proof you refer to really only suggests that Arsene has become very good at getting us so far but not far enough. I completely acknowledge that “getting us so far” is, in this case, a slightly damming way of describing getting us into the top four season after season which is undoubtedly a high level of achievement. I am grateful and consider myself fortunate that Arsenal had a man at the helm capable enough to do that without having had the financial resources some other clubs have had. But we are now in The Promised Land (FFP, new commmercial deals, big spending, star players) and despite this, last season’s 17 clean sheets were completely undone by the infamous big (and I mean BIG) away defeats in which Arsenal’s defensive frailties were dramatically exploited by the better teams. And this year our defensive frailties again are undoing what we all hoped would be a season of real progress. These defensive frailties go well back to before the Promised Land and across a number of defenders and defensive line-ups and so, therefore, the evidence points towards a manager who just might not know how to get the right balance between attack and defense. Can’t think of any League or European champions that didn’t have both aspects of their game sorted (albeit in different ways). And League and/or European champions is what we ultimately aspire to, isn’t it?

  93. @Fishpie
    We on Untold have heard all this bollocks a thousand times from the likes of you. You are wasting your time, better you go to Le Grove where your point of view is welcome. This is a PRO Wenger site.

  94. @ ProudKev

    re: November 27, 2014 at 3:05 pm comment

    You have got it all wrong about me.

    I don’t believe that I know more about football than Arsene Wenger, you can dismiss me as “arrogant” if you like, but your “arrogance” is too dismiss the MILLIONS of other people out there who when faced with the same data have come to exactly the same conclusion as me!

    What I do know and these are undeniable, irrefutable facts is that:

    1. we consistently get battered against top clubs
    2. we went into the season with SIX defenders, one of whom is not an experienced player and his long term position isn’t even decided
    3. season after season we lack defensive organisation and throw away leads far too often to win major titles
    4. our squad has insufficient numbers to go a whole season without these slumps

    Now, no one on this site wants to engage in a sensible debate about how it is only November and we are already 15 points behind Chelsea and out of another title race, because no one on this site can imagine that Wenger makes any mistakes!

    It is deluded beyond belief that you can all be so myopic to think that all of our very obvious shortcomings are the result of external forces beyond his control.

    To use your term “You lot are quite something.”

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