By Tony Attwood
I imagine that this will be another one of those moments (rather like last saturday afternoon) when the AAA to rise up in fury and demand the sacking of the manager.
It was of course a disappointing result – 65% of possession or something like that – and then to lose to a lower league club, yes extremely disappointing.
But the reaction that I imagine will happen, and the reaction that I have seen in such situations in the past, suggests we are forever getting deeper into the notion that at Arsenal you are only as good as the last game.
I repeat this point, which I made a short while ago, because I was thinking after the Leeds game that when Man U lost to Leeds last season I didn’t see many Man U supporters making a fuss about it. And if they did make a fuss (in terms of demanding wholesale changes at the club) it was certainly not the fuss that was made about us drawing with Leeds.
In fact looked at like this, we’ve done a hell of a lot better than Man U in the cups – drawing with Leeds when they could only lose, and getting to the semi of the little cup this year, where they have been knocked out.
And there’s another difference between Arsenal support these days and the support of most other teams that I come across. When we have a bad result, (and this was a bad result emotionally, but it was not as if we were actually knocked out of either cup during the last few days) the AAA don’t just moan a bit, and then pick themselves up and then carry on with their support (which is what supporters have mostly done in the past). Rather the rancid moaning and bitching goes on all the time.
As Walter pointed out in an article a while back, the AAA are making it so that it must feel awful for many players to play for Arsenal, the level of disgraceful criticism they get from people who proclaim themselves to be Arsenal fans. Quite amazingly these players still want to play for us. I really did suspect that Song (for example) would leave for good, the way he was treated.
For me, the Unbeaten Season was my once in a lifetime experience – as was the 49 that wrapped itself around that season. Before and since we have been back to life as normal. But sadly the AAA can’t stand that, and they will be calling for most of the team that played against Ipswich to be thrown out, and for the manager and his team to go. If we don’t win something this season it is all useless and hopeless. They’ve been told it by the newspapers so much they now come to believe it.
What happened tonight against Ipswich was what happens in football. You get upsets. It hurts, it is frustrating, it is annoying, but it is what happens. A bit like 1997/8 when (as I mentioned a while back) we played Port Vale at home and drew 0-0, and then went away and drew the replay 1-1. If the AAA had been around then they would have been calling for the manager to go.
And who knows they might have been successful – we could have got rid of Mr Wenger and got Bruce Rioch back.
Or maybe the following season when we lost 5-0 at home to Chelsea. Same again, time to kick out the manager. No messing, you are only as good as your last result.
Of course had we done something about those depressing results we would not have won the double in the Port Vale season, and there would have been no Unbeaten Season. But instant reaction seems to be everything.
I feel a bit fed up tonight, but I’ll do a spot of work when I finish this blog, have a natter on the phone with my partner who is currently 170 miles away, and then I’ll feel ok in the morning. It hurts, but probably not as much as it would have hurt had we lost to Leeds, as Man U did. And probably not as much as it would hurt if I were a Liverpool fan and having just lost to Man U we then toddled off to the seaside and lost to Blackpool 2-1. And I wonder how would I feel if I were a Chelsea fan. Yes they beat Ipswich 7-0. But would I feel that was fine, given where we are in the league. Or are Chelsea fans calling for the manager to be hung drawn and quartered as the AAA are about our manager and quite a few of our players.
I suppose overall what makes me feel ok is that most of the clubs at or near the top of football in England have no idea how they are going to carry on, because they are either broke, or they don’t have any way of getting themselves sorted in time for the new Euro regs. I know we’ll be plugging away in the next couple of years, doing our thing, but others won’t. And that continuity thing is fairly important to me.
Somewhere somewhen there is an alternative reality in which Arsenal won the league twice in the last four years, and also picked up a couple of cups en route. Unfortunately in doing that they also have got themselves into a situation rather like those around us – that is to say, they are hugely in debt. I know this scenario does exist, because the relativity equations that Einstein worked out always include lots of infinities – and in a multiverse of infinite possibilities every possibility is real. So there we have my Arsenal, with another version of me, writing another version of Untold Arsenal, celebrating four major trophies in the last four years.
And we’ve just lost 1-0 to Ipswich. And I demand action. Let’s buy some players. Now. Unfortunately we can’t, either because we are broke, or because we won’t qualify for the Champs League if we do. So, I demand, let’s bring up some of the youngsters. And we can’t do that either. Because we’ve let our scouting and youth systems crumble because all we’ve been doing is buying players to ensure we win things.
In that universe we’re rather more stuffed than we are in this one. (Of course the AAA don’t recognise that universe – they live in one where we win lots of stuff, and others don’t and the others don’t do anything about it.)
I’ll be at the rematch against Ipswich at the Ems, doing my usual thing, urging the guys on. Fortunately for me, although the ground will be filled to capacity, the AAA won’t be there. They never are. Which at least is one good thing on a rather sad night.
Cheers Tony, yet again the voice of reason, the silver lining, the calm in the storm. You’re right, it’s a disappointing night but we’ll pick ourselves up, win the return leg & the replay against Leeds. C’mon the Arsenal!!!
There are games you win, there are games you lose, so what… This is two legged system, next game we play home, next game we win. I see no reason why there should be such fuzz about it.
A lot of truth and reason in there. But it is very frustrating – we just seem very susceptable to these sort of results in the last year or so. Critics will point out a lot of reasons, including some very poor defending – but trouble is, our best defender has now not played over the best part of a year.
The club are going in the right direction in some ways but seem to go backwards in terms of these sort of results which seem frequent this year.
Still – not the end of the world, we will go through and will knock Leeds out – just this team do not like doing things the easy way
Um… Anything about the game? I was surprised that Cesc started. I was surprised that Nasri didn’t get the nod after being fully rested against Ipswich. We were opened up often due to Wilshere and Denilson playing too high. This was a tactical error by Arsene but he had no choice as there is only one defensive midfielder in our squad. Once Song came on Cesc was able to push further forwards. At the same time Chamakh changed the game as Bendtner had a below average performance. In my opinion the only player we should be buying this January is Jan Vertonghen. He should have been bought in the Summer and will probably only be available next Summer as I have rarely heard of a captain moving clubs in January. He Provides cover for Vermaelen, Cover at left back, A truly defensive midfielder that sits on the left, giving us the option of not only being able to rest Song without worrying but also to play alongside Song when tactics need to be changed. He would be one of our tallest players, as mentioned before he is captain of Ajax and has very good leadership skills, he has a large growth potential being 23. If we had bought him in the Summer we would be sitting pretty now with no need for a January signing. Instead we will most likely get a stop gap defender that isn’t as good as our current defenders. I just hope we don’t then get stuck with him like we did with Silvestre. This wasn’t the best of performances and Acknowledging that doesn’t make you an AAA it makes you a realist.
Thanks for that Tony.
A dissapointing evening but that is part of being a supporter. You win some, you lose some, you might get lucky now and then… and unlucky on a rare occasion.
But things can turn quickly in football. Last weekend Ipswich was down on the floor, they picked themselves up and went from hell to heaven.
We just got to do the same and try to put this right as soon as possible. And let us start this weekend and do like Ipswich and go from hell to heaven.
Come one you Gunners!!!
I thought the goal was offside. There were some very poor decisions from the linesman on offside calls.
The good thing though is that the return fixture is at the emirates
I read that Ajax would not sell Verthonghen last summer, if true they certainly will not sell in Jan. But I agree, he would have been a good buy, and we could do with him now. If you believe some reports, we also went in for Carvalho and Jagielka.
This team needs an easy game with a few easy goals to get some confidence back, a win at the weekend, followed by going through in the cups will put a completely different view on things.
But we do need a proper defender and quickly, just not sure how you get that in Jan
Usually, if not always, being a sports fan is utter bullshit.
Just read official site and Wengers conference – he refused to go into names when asked if Upson was on his way. Not sure what to make of that – if true, a defender lacking confidence put in our team! We dont usually sign Hammers.
Prob just rumours!
Great read. Didn’t realise their were any reasonable gooners fans left!
Personally I love the direction arsene is taking the club and reckon it will come to full fruition in another couple of yrs. Anyone who’s feeling down about Ipswich (me included) imagine a midfield consisting of fabregas, nasri, fully matured wilshire and Ramsey with song behind them and rvp up top! Szczesny looks half decent too.
The boys will get it done at the ems in 2nd leg.
Win or lose against barca, I think we’ll get a win streak going in the league over the next couple weeks. Come May we’ll be champions league spot at the very least, which in the short term is ok, keeps
the squad facing top quality teams whilst they hone their game. Next year I think it’ll be us and citeh fighting for the crown.
Wengers policy of trying to polish turds is really being shown up now.
Remember this has been going on all season. We’ve been beaten at home by two newly promoted teams – Newcastle & West Brom. Against Leeds we were brutal, and we were even worse today
It’s time to face facts.
Our system of playing 3 creative players behind one central striker is slow and easy to defend against. Teams defend deep and try to hit us on the break. Teams know we’ll have 60% possession in a game, but they dont care. Possession doesn’t win games.
Playing one striker on his own can work if that striker is strong and can hold the ball up. Van Persie, Bendter & Chamakh cannot hold the ball up and none of these strikers will ever get us 20 goals a season.
We have NO wingers so we have very little width to our game. We try to use our full backs to overlap but neither Sagna or Clichy are good crossers of the ball and when they surge forward they leave us vulnerable at the back. Teams know to try and hit us on the break at these times. It’s so obvious it’s painful.
We NEVER score from corners and free kicks (teams that win the League always get around double figures from these set pieces).
We CANT kill off games (even against a poor ten man Wigan).
Wengers subs are ALWAYS made too late.
All of this is the reason why we’re not even averaging 2 points per game in the league; is the reason why Championship sides have made a show of us; is the reason why we’ll remain trophyless this year.
Man Utd & Chelsea figured Wengers system out a long time ago and now all other teams are sussing it out too.
Soon we’ll be playing Barcelona and I really fear for what they’ll do to us.
Wengers frugality is killing our club. But hes being penny wise pound foolish. In 6 years we’ve spent over £500m on wages – where’s the return for that? And I’ve no doubt under Wenger and his vanity project (of trying to polish turds) we’ll never win another trophy again.
Watching tonight I felt we only came alive when the subs came on and never really performed till that moment.
Thats not slagging off the players who were subbed just an observation. Its leg 1 with all to play for even if it may be a little bit uphill we should still qualify.
I would like to see AW sign a defender a quality one and I think he should. My reason for wanting to do this is the fact if we pick up more injuries we will be in trouble and its better to have 1 extra and sell someone in the summer than take a chance on what could wreck a promising season and give the AAA more momentum.
what is the AAA?
It’s true, but honestly Tony… this happens every season and there is so much one can say to the AAA in reason before you just want the boys to do the job, so you can just say look see. They did what they had to do on the pitch.
But tonight… i was ashamed of the teams performance. Wenger knows it. For AW sake we have to get Silverware this season. Just so the AAA can shut the hell up. They blame Densilson all the time, which is so so boring. Apart from Ipswich had 2 other chances… nothing to do with Den but obviously the one that did Denilson was sort of involved.
But your right…we are a supporter like any other club. And we do think of ourselves much more than others.. which is our own fault. A bunch of 17 year olds who know no better.
But this one hurt me tonight, and i am usually balanced and calm. Unfort Tony the Ems (which i will also be at) most certainly has AAA. I have to sit next to them very often. Such a shame.
Tony, it can’t be all rosy if we don’t win against west brom(home),newcastle(home),braga(away),wigan(away),spurs(home),leeds(home) and now ipswich(away). We see constantly no effort from the(some) players and it is astonishing that you never criticize them. We can beat the best but we can lose against the worst.This type of team will never win the Premier League. It is clear for all to see.We are too inconsistent and it will continue this way. Wenger has at least realized that Arshavin,Rosicky,Almunia and Denilson have to leave in the summer which is good.In the last 5 or 6 years , we have paid over 500 millions in wages and we have got no trophies.This is a lot of money wasted by Wenger.To spend so much on salaries and not get even 80 points from 38 games is a bit embarrassing, don’t you think ?
Tony- to be honest, you’re trying to pull away our attention from a poor performance of Arsenal. It was very poor performance, and probably we might hav even lost our chance to win our 1st trophy since 2005 bcoz i can already predict Ipswich parking the whole bus in front of the goal in the next leg. Ystrday was supposed to be a spanking when you see that we have Cesc n Walcot in the team. But we lost the game. Wenger should realise whether he should continue with the 2nd string players or not bcoz now we have the epl games coming. We still can win against Leeds and Ipswich but in epl, the points dropped can never be gained back.
Another game another hiccough – better than choking though.Le Boss has to dish out the punishment soon.If he can’t scare them out of their wits ,then a swift kick up their backsides should do the trick.
C’mon guys get your act together starting this weekend.Do us proud.
##Song 4 He’s no Viera & never
will be
Vela 1 Not Good enough
Chamakh 0 1 of the worst
Players Wenger has brought
in EVER!##
AAA rating players after the game…oo how i read there mourning and whining and Laugh
It’s only half time. Thank heavens for the 2nd leg, despite the usual bleating about having to play too many games.
I have been critical of Wenger’s lack of transfer activity since June. Keeper, center back and defensive midfield all needed strengthening. Squad wise, not necessarily ideal starting X1.
Of course the extremists will want Wenger’s head for last nights performance. Of course, there are the deluded who will Support Wenger in all he does . Both groups are as bad as each other.
The wind of change is coming, and sooner the better. The change is either the managerial shake up ( I would have Wenger as general manager rather than team manager) or Wenger will have to rethink his team building. For me, he needs to start planning for current seasons rather than always planning ahead. It seemed like a great plan, but has failed to deliver.
Even a cup or 2 this season would only gloss over the cracks. We should be in a much stronger league position given the form of other contenders this season
In Arsene We Rust
The most frustrating thing is when the problem is known and the manager seems to be beating around the bush instead of confronting it. In my opinion Arsenal needs 2 strikers desperately, strikers who can score goals and make all the donkey work by our midfielders fruitful. its the only way to make all our ball possession statistics count.(As long as the strikers are not scoring , the midfielders get desperate and careless and the back line gets exposed) and this is a recipe for another trophy less season!
Its only sad Tony if we dont turn it around at the ems.
DanGooner – you asked what is the AAA. Not sure if that is a real question or irony, but I’ll take the former, just in case.
It is a name we made up here meaning the “Anti-Arsenal Arsenal” – the little group of supporters who claim to be Arsenal supporters but you reject the notion of the club’s motto and yet still claim to be part of the club.
The number of these people is small – at the stadium you hardly hear them at all – mostly you don’t hear them – and on line they often use multiple names and email addresses to have arguments with themselves.
They do have their own web sites – one is particularly known for the fact that if a genuine supporter writes in then they will change his/her comment to read in a different way.
One interesting trait (and you will see it on this site sometimes) is that they have no interest in commenting on what an article is actually about, but instead just use the space to go across to their own agenda. So here I wrote about the emotion of being a supporter, the ups and downs of a lifetime with one club, and the way the ups and downs are treated in other clubs. What happens is that an AAA comes in and starts talking about how Vela isn’t up to it.
That gives a clue to the AAA – they don’t engage in debate, but instead engage in subversion (as with the site that changes people’s comments) and shouting.
But there’s worse: some of this little group can’t actually separate their emotional world of disappointment, from the factual world that exists outside their heads. Indeed you only need to read some of their comments to see that.
That’s worrying; that’s when you start believing Elvis is alive and that it is ok to hit someone because they don’t believe what you believe.
I’ve not been removing their comments that stray off topic, from my article above or from Billy’s bit of fun yesterday afternoon, because I think those comments show exactly what the AAA is all about. But that was a little pause, and I will take up the controls again now a new article is published this morning.
Sorry, a long answer, but if you want a simple one: the AAA don’t understand and don’t believe in Victory Through Harmony.
because of the way arsenal play we almost always need to score the first goal and if we dont the other team will park the bus and allow us to play in front but make it difficult to get in behind, and that is kind of what happened last night. we wasted our own time with so many square and back passes the whole team played so far up the pitch which cut off any space for theo or shava to run in behind.
I hope this is not taken as a criticism but I could see there was a problem at half time it needed changing around and once they scored first we were doomed. I cant see them getting anything at the ems we can turn a goal deficit around we have stopped scoring and that is a problem the normal arsenal would easily put 3 past this team
We need more flexibility in the way we play. I am confident we can turn this around, but we should never have been in this situation. Liverpool have taken some of the press off our backs
You are so so right,…Some comforting words,…wish all gooners in the world could see and read this….i always look forwards to reading your posts…Good job
Bexxy- agree with you that the drama at Liverpool has helped us to avoid becoming a target for the press. I think both Liverpool and Chelsea’s slump have removed atleast half of the press of Arsenal’s back.
Nice piece Tony I think The Blackpool v Liverpool game has proved in one fell swoop what the LMA and Sir Alex have been saying for a long time. You don’t change results by changing the manager. Kenny Dalglish isn’t a king or saviour, he’s just an out-of-retirment manager who has inherited a very poor team. This isn’t Hollywood. A manager needs a long-term plan, a vision for the future, and the time to implement that plan. The owners of Liverpool FC have achieved only one thing by appointing Kenny, whipping their fans up into an incomprehensible frenzy. They didn’t have that with Hodgson. But the liklihood is Hodgson had a long term plan for the club, which now Liverpool don’t have. They just have a false messiah.
And i think with wenger has honestly come to the end of the line with your club. He has put faith in the mediocre players and is hoping they pull it together…but as the saying goes…”You can fool some of the people for some of the time…but you cannot fool all the people all the time”
so on that note i want to say a massive Well done to Ipswich, a thoroughly deserved vistory.
who showed:
More desire
More passion
More fight
More application
More goalsMore hope
Cmpared to over-paid spoilt bunch of wanabes who thought they just had to turn up and the goals would flow.
Make no mistake, they will score at the Emirates – this is very much an up hill battle with no away goals. Couple this with the trip to Leeds and we could be going out of both cup competitions to lower league sides.
This Arsenal side surprises me less and less – defeat is routine and dross like last night is becoming more and more frequent. To a lesser extent like the end of Graham’s reign.
West Ham away on Saturday? Keep dreaming Wenger.
United4ever!
Morning fellow posters, trust to see that idiot terry on here gloating. here’s my 2cents for what its worth. the pitch was terrible but who cares
there’s no excuse for how bad we were
the worst thing was it actually looked like we were trying
to quote a certain movie ‘it was the sh*tness’ that was our prob
and they shut the station hotel bar post match so I couldn’t even drown my sorrows on carlsberg in plastic and buy burger bun with some manky fried oven chips for £2.50 (which I was genuinely planning to do- because that blonde barmaid was relatively saucy and gave me a wink). So instead I got to stand on my, packed delhi style, £35 one hour train…joke
denilson was actually one of our better players which is as damning an indictment of our performance as I’ve given for a while
as is now the norm half our away support wr out of their minds on gack, this was exacerbated by the struggle we all faced getting booze that wasnt 70% water which would at least have levelled out all the amphetamines (big cubicle queues easy urinal access) – dont understand how these teenagers hearts can take that shite coupled with our performances. The twitchy paranoia was palpably kicking in all around me after about ten mins (that said the twitchy paranoia on the pitch came not long after)
saw fights nearly kicking off between gooners several times. it was a microcosm of this message board.
-this is the worst arsenal team ever
-I dont think so
-eff off you c-u-next-tuesday u will be gone when wenger leaves
-actually I’ve been going for 60 years and seen far worse teams tis you who is a feckwit who should eff off and support chelski etc etc
I was too dispirited and knackered to even get involved. (my 2 year old has an ear infection so I’ve not slept for 3 nights)
djourou was actually decent till he fell to bits 60 mins in
kos and denilson undermined decent performances by throwing in horrific unnaceptable errors every 20 mins. Arshavin had his standard mare, did Bendtner play? Poor Gibbs, who’s the only one our crowd excused for his mistakes – made a hell of a lot of them. Actually who cares about the match review, everyone was pretty much rubbish (Song OK off the bench I guess). We failed to get the ball to walcott who was nearly decent when he did get it I suppose. wilshere couldnt deal with the plowed pitch.
every champ team has terrorised this lot – their pitch is pants but champ teams just play 4-4-2 and push them back. Wengers tactics were as bad as any players performance. 2 def mids wtf WHY?
everytime either team punted the ball long the other side looked in loads of trouble. was a low quality embarrasment.
the only positive I can drag out of this week is
– last friday if you wr offered 1 win 1 draw and 1 defeat from the next 3 we would have delivered the 1st 2 results so far…
just to cheer everyone up the tube will be fecked home from shitty east london on Sat. I’m seriously thinking about getting a motorbike taxi back to Islington, will be about £40.
we’re still in with a genuine shot in 4 competitions. it could be a lost worse
we could be scousers (or worse those gloryhunters old enough to pick ‘Pool rather than ManUre)
A lot of individuals under performed last night. Cesc and Wilshere gave many passes away, while Denilson actually performed admirably and was very efficient (I wasn’t at all surprised to see Wilshere make way for Song). Not that it will stop the AAA from slating the Brazilian! Bendtner and Arshavin’s patchy form continues, Gibbs looked a bit rusty.
@Bexxy
I feel we need to offer more of a threat out wide. When we put in a good cross, often there’s nobody there to meet it; when there is men in the box, the ball played in tends to be poor. It’s not just high crosses, but low ones too, and cut-backs. It will probably all come together soon and we’ll put six past someone, just like we were earlier in the season.
I think Terry has a split personality disorder. He supports united and yet he talks in terms of “we” when it comes to Arsenal.
Strange….
I think the players have qualities, our style of play is good, we were just not good enough. I think the main issue is we have a full squad, which didn’t happen for a long time. Actually, everyone was used to play “a little” because of injuries. For the first time in years, almost everybody is available, and and “natural” first XI has emerged. And mentally, some players have to go past that mind-hurdle saying “your a substitute, really not the first choice”.
Let’s remember that last year, Denilson was almost a starter. Of course, he was benched sometimes, but when he was on the starting XI, he wasn’t like “an alternative”. Bendtner had no competition up front, there was no strikers. Arshavin, he was “the spark” of the team, etc. I think what we have lacked against both Ipswich and Leeds is a level of concentration and assurance. Those playing were like, you know how we are before a final exam at school, like the situation is binary: “you fail to impress or you succed in it”. Nope, it should be “you have to play the game, and just win it”.
And what is amaeing in football, is that everything is contagious. A player a good mood can be contagious to the rest of the team. Tonight, it was the inverse situation. The likes of Arshavin, Delison and Nicklas were contagious to the rest of the team. So what can Arsene do about that? I don’t know? Here, start a new work for him. But definitely we have to win this cup. It’s like a natural step. If we win it, for sure it will be the beginning of something huge.
Hi all I had been browsing so many blogs and all were full of absolute crap. Pure negativity aimed at the players and fans. This website offers a perspective which i like. However I dont know Where to start after yesterdays performance? Firstly a limp excuse from Wenger that we have to many games in succession .That was a diabolical team performance,and I stress the word team.When you follow Arsenal fervently as many of us do,one can usually predict the way the game will most probably pan out after only 10 minutes,as was the case tonight and on several other occasions recently. Where was the urgency and motivation to win the game and secure a place in a final, even if it is only the C.C..Ipswich stifled our game as did Leeds and City.Passes went astray, there was no fluidity in any moves of note and when it gets to the point that one cant even be bothered to watch the dross from the team i have supported for many a year,one has to accept that we have real problems within the squad,and that includes our captain who is partly just going through the motions.there is an arrogance running through the team and at the same time one senses a couldnt care less attitude if we win or not.No point in picking out individuals performances,they were all pretty poor and West Ham, Leeds and even Ipswich is the return leg,will not be losing any sleep having to play us.A disappointing night would be an under statement.Finally, credit to Ipswich who took advantage of our inept display. Good players dont suddenly turn into bad ones but there are noticeable exceptions who just simply arent of Arsenal standard.I hope this gets through to you Mr.Wenger.Barcelona must be quacking in their boots.
west ham must be quaking in their boots
@ walter
He is triple, Terry, We and united forever, mentioned almost whole big four, just probably as he dont know who is forth member now, keep us wandering could maybe his nickname be Terry Gerard or, Terry Crouch, or Terry Tevez (that sound nice as TT)…
a nice article would be on why UTD fans need to be on other blogs esp when they lost to leeds last year went out of carling cup to a team that is in serious trouble and have team in decline have so called stars like rooney that are way over rated, rooney wouldnt get in an arsenal starting 11 he has had one good season and then people have the cheek to talk of him being world class and as good as messi and ronaldo, UTD are on the decline they just havent realised it or may be they have and thats why they are on UNTOLD
@walter and co my Dad was a United fan and I was brought up as one. By the time I was old enough to decide my club myself I was United through and through and I can’t imagine following any other team.
Personally I just see good fans or not good fans – a good fan doesn’t have to go to every game, they just have to be passionate about the club, if they have to work during a match they will sneak in a radio so they can find out what’s going on, or they will be constantly on their phone to get the score update.
They buy papers and sign onto internet sites just to see any news relating to their club. They come on sites like this to talk about their club and enter into football debate. My seat at OT is about 7 seats from the Corporate sections – there are people in there who could be seen as “true fans”, but I don’t think they are – yes they are from Manchester, their Dad may well have been a United fan and they may have grown up in a United shirt, but they didn’t come in the 80’s when we weren’t successful and they now come because United are successful and it’s a good way to entertain clients. They miss the first 10 minutes because they are finishing their drinks, they then miss the first 10 minutes of the second half because they chatting and finally they leave 5 minutes before the end so they can have a drink or miss the traffic.
The point I was making is that all cases are different, you can’t label anyone as a better or lesser fan because they live 5 miles or 2000 miles from the ground. A Surrey based United fan, born in Manchester and now in Surrey because of work, but a season ticket holder who travels back every week for games may be a far better fan than a Manchester based season ticket holder, who misses a game because it’s “only the Wigan game”. Cheers
Does anyone actually realise the Carling Cup semis are over two legs? I am starting to think Arsenal are out of the competition and yet another chance of silverware has gone!! Back at the Emirates in two weeks, lets see how we get on.
@ANtohny – Must admit, when the commentators on the news went on about the shock defeat, I thought Ipswich had made it to the final already
i luv untold and am a regular reader.,but i must confess it’s no different from le twat. People over there make unnecessary noise, beat around bushes and don’t nail things and discuss current important thing. Similarly untold make noises about corruption,fifa,refs,finances(meaningful things but not having any immediate importance)etc..
Eg. there will be no article explaining what went wrong at ipswich acc. to untold. No kind of tactical analysis of the game.
It defends players even if they were woeful..le twat attacks players even if they have potential…none explaining what’s wrong with them or their strong points,.
Untold is footballing blog related to arsenal, if u want 2 support wenger in all he does then give gud arguements in favour of him in ALL HE DOES, not just financial stability but also tactics, team selection, astronomical wages paid to some potentials like diaby,denilson,wilshere etc. What will happen when they finaly come good..their wages will blow over the roof, i guess.
Present article sums up untold, arsenal were poor last night with same expected type of goal and author creates a debate about AAA…just ridiculous.!!
I agree with dark prince on this, and now understand what rhys was talking about after win over charity.
@gooner80: Yes we lost to Leeds and yes we are out of the CC but last season what did we win and what did you win? Hmmm silence please. And this season you may win the didly cup – the cup your lot have been so quick to negate yet this year it seems its your only chance to win a trophy.
People have accused of being mystic meg but c’mon do you honestly think with your defence you can last it out in the league? I honestly think we will win the Prem and you may be runners up. But Barca will be lickin their lips at the prospect of running rings round those two so called defenders of yours/
We have trophoes to prove we are competitors wheras you have nothing so I really dont think you can argue mate.
@Critic – you have hit the nail on the head. I have browsed the various articles on this website and after every loss there seems to be articles which have nothing to do with the defeat – and they are just bleating on about blaming the ref.
I mean how many times does the ref have to influence the game?
I think the editors are sugar coating the losses for some major problems with your team….
aahhh to be a UTD fan last night –
Who is this mug Terry? I think he actually thinks he has a voice. I started to read one post then just scrolled through the rest. Pointless reading but there you go.
Anthony… that comment was absolutely brilliant. Loved the writing and you really described the atmosphere well. UNTOLD, sign this guy up! Absolutely funny as hell. It is comforting to see that as someone who was there, players like Den got his dues. He did play well, fact. This whole rubbish about him affecting the others is an excuse not to complain about others. I’m starting to think online Arsenal fans can’t think for themselves. Cesc was horrific but still Den, B52 and Arshavin will get the blame.
But great weighting mate, I loved it. And the whole argument you will leave when Wenger leaves lol. I don’t get how that’s an argument.. did the person say this was so young that’s the only manager they know? Or had they been going for 60 odd years? Weird.
who would turn up to the ems if we stomped them 5 nil? its all bout charity and revenues baby 🙂
Yes Town do deserve credit, most definitely! However, we need to sort this out Wenger, 3 games without a goal from open play is ridiculous – especially considering 2 of those games were against Championship sides!!!! It is clear to ALL Arsenal fans that Arshavin is not firing on all cylinders and yet you start him again and again, Bendtner is just woefully inept at shooting, passing or keeping the ball, just plain crap basically, everyone can see this why oh why can’t you? Your subs beggar belief as well, Wilshire was playing well and you take him whilst leaving Denilson on – seriously what has happened to the Tactical Genius that we had 10 years ago??? As for not rushing in to buy a defender, who are you trying to kid, we need someone NOW, not on Jan 31st one minute before the deadline – NOW!!!! Please sort this out asap, my faith needs re-affirming quickly! Anyone out there looking forwards to playing Barca????
Oh God who is this mehoot geezer now – seems we have UTD lovers from afar. Listen up you plonkers we aint out of shit yet but @ least we are in all 4 comp’s figting….just focus on your own team then talking drivel on here
WEnger has turned a team of invincibles packed full of world class players in every position, into a team of gutless, mediocre, mercenary losers. I hate looking at his gormless turnip head, I hate looking at a once unflappable manager jumping up and down constantly moaning at the 4th official for 90 minutes. I hate looking at yes man Pat Rice sitting next to turnip, yes boss, no boss, Bendtner’s world class boss. Arshavin, Denilson, Almunia, Diaby, Eboue, Squilacci, Vela, Bendtner, CRETINS to a man.
His refusal to buy, his stubbornness to do things only one way, his way, his project, his blind belief that the dross he’s surrounded himself with, the dross on massive contracts despite being gutless losers can win trophies makes me physically ill. I want him gone, I want him sacked, humiliated, the same way he has humiliated the fans time and time again over the past 6 years.
TURNIP OUT.
gandiv OUT!!111!!!1
Thank you Gandiv, that was a thoroughly entertaining journey through the mind of a fool.
Tony, I assume after my comment I would be in the AAA club.
So let me engage in a little debate with you and at least put one argument to bed.
You worte “So here I wrote about the emotion of being a supporter, the ups and downs of a lifetime with one club, and the way the ups and downs are treated in other clubs.”
The title of your article is Ipswich 1 – Arsenal 0, and you mainly speak about tonights match. The reason why we lost, is the same reason why we’ve been strggling ALL season. This is not just about the ups and downs of being a supporter this is a SERIOUS problem.
As a TRUE Arsenal supporter I want the best for my team, 3rd and 4th place every season isn’t good enough. If we were competing to our best and had players that were willing to die for their club then thats one thing. But to see the nonchalant half assed performances turned in by our players every week is just unacceptable.
The only person I see who cares is Wenger, and if they had half the passion he did our performances would be far greater.
However where Wenger is at fault is his complete inabality to see that his tactics and formation have been utterly found out and in the second half of the season we will be lucky to remain in the top 4 the way things are going.
Secondly, Wengers blind loyalty to players such as Eboue, Bendtner, Denilson, Almunia etc is also ruining our team. These players, no matter what gloss you wish to put on it, are just not good enough. We pay the best wages in the premiership to sub standard players.
Players like Charlie Adam, Mark Noble, Stephen Hunt etc might not be as fashionable as Denilson and Arshavin but they’ll bust a gut for you every game. Our players just don’t care.
You also wrote -“That’s worrying; that’s when you start believing Elvis is alive and that it is ok to hit someone because they don’t believe what you believe.”
So rather than you actually engaging in debate you accuse people who disagree with Arsene Wenger as violent. Thats character assassination and you should be ashamed of yourself for that.
Your partisan support is for Wenger not Arsenal Football Club, so how you can call anyone else anti Arsenal is beyond me. And unless you take off your rose tinted glasses it’s more far more likely you’ll be seeing Wenger and Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk in Never Never Land.
I dont think for one minute that last nights result is why people are frustrated I think since we beat chelsea we have underperformed and thats the real issue.
Against Wigan we were the clearly better side and drew no complaints there the boys played well enough
Against leeds we probably were even on the day cant say we should have won hands down
Againts Ipswitch we clearly didnt look like the best side at all despite the ammount of possesion.
When we play the first 11 we always look good but things have been shaky recently.
We can win at ellen road, we should with a full first team win the carling cup second leg and probably the final.
we should keep pace in the league looking at the fixtures.
BUT they have to step up now and show that nothings lost yet its all to play for BUT now is the time to start playing.
If we were to have a small blip those were probably the games to have it in as now we can get back down to business.