Arsenal v South Cornwall: everyone is injured, so business as usual

Posted on by Tony Attwood

By Bulldog Drummond

In the old days Manchester was the major city of the county of Cornwall, situated in the north of the County, but attracting tin miners and the makers of charming hand painted post cards from all across the fabled land of magic.  Retsehcnam Unys (to give it its fullest title) became the top club of the little kingdom and would attract huge crowds of 50 or even 100 partisan souls from across Kernow.

But then continental drift set in and slowly but surely Cornwall began to move south, while Retsehcnam turned topey turvey and moved north by a perverse force of nature trapped on a different tectonic plate, and the two were co-joined no more.

Thus every weekend coach loads of the True Sons of Manchester travel north to their ancestral homelands taking with the Excalibur and various other trinkets.  At first of course  they had to travel no more than a few yards extra, but as the workings of the earth’s inner core continued, now it is many hundreds of miles.  Yet still they go and you can see the little buses and coaches leaving Truro and Penzance at 5am to make the long and tedious trek back to the Fatherland.

The club, so physically divorced from the homeland of King Arthur  has seen good times under Sir Aleix the Incomprehensible, the first manager who has taken on a club without being able to speak a word of the native tongue.  Or English come to that.

But now he is long gone and is replaced by the mysterious King of the Missing.  Indeed in ancient times when Manchester Unys ran out of players they would list the position for which they had no regular first teamer as being occupied by A N Other in the programme, which I guess is what they could do for Arsenal v Man Unys today, if they listed the teams in programmes any more – which they don’t.

And it is not just these ancient sons of Cornwall that has injuries.   Theo Walcott has a groin strain (allegedly),  Danny Welbeck has a hamstring injury (allegedly) and Alexis Sanchez has travelled a lot for not apparent reason (obviously).  As a result Olivier Giroud may attend with his nurse.

Mikel Arteta, is however fit.

As for the side with the Cornish supporters we shall not see the likes of Radamel Falcao Marcos Rojo Phil Jones Jonny Evans Rafael Danny Blind and maybe Luke Shaw.  I’m not quite sure how many actual players that list includes but it must be several.

So we could see

Szczesny,

Monreal, Chambers, Mertesacker, Gibbs,

Arteta, Wilshere,

Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain,

Sanchez, Welbeck, Cazorla.

Which would leave us with any of Walcott, Martinez, Sanogo, Walcott, Flamini, Podolski, Rosicky, Giroud, Bellerín, Walcott, Podolski, Campbell, Akpom, Walcott, Gnabry playing with the sandcastles.  Or maybe not.

What the papers say

The Cornish papers don’t say much because they tend not to arrive until later in the day, but in London there are press reports saying that Mr Wenger has told Our Jack that Our Jack isn’t ready to play in a defensive midfield position which presumably means that is where Jack will start.

“I enjoy my role for Arsenal because I can get a bit further forward, but I wouldn’t mind playing the holding role for Arsenal. That’s the manager’s decision.” said our Jack.

The press meanwhile are clutching at straws and are going for a minus one all draw, so negatively do they now rate these two teams.  One newspaper compared Rooney to being a leader of the peasants revolt of some 600 years ago while another pointed out that in the Scotland England game the commentator on ITV shouted out the Rooney had scored when Alex OC did.   However it appears no one noticed as everyone was watching a cookery programme instead.

Confusing times indeed and one can only hope that Sanchez really did manage to get some sleep on the way back and is not utterly jet lagged (unlike our publisher who has been seen prowling around the Palace of Untold in the early hours demanding to know who turned the sun out and why no one is actually at work.)

Sanchez has scored in each of his last half dozen games including goals against Venezuela (whom everyone beats as they tend to play at bloody revolution and baseball rather than football) and Uruguay (where the phrase “biting the hand that feeds you” took on a new meaning in the last world cup).  Alexis Sanchez has also scored 12 goals in his last 14 matches for Arsenal in all competitions, including six goals in his last four Premier League games.

And what of Sanchez the man?   One toiler in the world of newsprint said of him, “His work rate is prodigious. His acceleration is breath-taking. His finishing has been unerring.”   To which his editor replied, “I think you have forgotten which club this Johnny Foreigner plays for – we don’t praise Arsenal men here.”   But it still got published in the Cornish editions which were on the trains heading south west before the editor demanded the change.

Anyway the view in the press is that when Arsenal take the lead they always lose, so the answer seems to be to let the other lot score first.  That should do it.

Mind you, David de Gea has injured his fingers so we will need to be careful on that one.

Aside from Rooney Man U have Robin van Cheque Book who is now surrounded by rumours that he has had enough and is off.   He has scored three this season.
The biggest problem we have however is history – our recent travails against Man U have given us just one win in 14 against the club from Cornwall.  We really do have to start doing something about that statistic.
But here’s a thought.  The Sons of Cornwall United haven’t won away from home this season, having drawn three and lost the other two.   Their last away win was at Newcastle in April when Merlin conjured up a couple of goals.  (Cornwall, Merlin, magician, conjure… oh never mind).
As the papers constantly tell us this is the worst start to a season for both clubs since 41BC when Julius Caeser played centre forward for a reshaped United team.

Mr Wenger said,

“Giroud and Arteta are both available.  It’s just a question of how ready they are. But they are available.

“Koscielny and Debuchy are doing well, they are out on the field again. We have to see now. Usually field work is three weeks away from full group training. Then there is fitness. It looks straightforward for Debuchy. It’s not inflammation, it’s just repairing surgery. For Koscielny, it depends how well he responds to training. At the moment he looks good.

“Ozil is doing well but he will not be ready before the start of 2015,”

As for the match, he said, “You have to look further than the table and at the quality of the players.  It’ll be a very exciting game.”

Exciting times for Untold to which due to events, leaves us without any sort of editorial team during most of today.   Sorry about that, but we’ll be back with a match report on Sunday.

The comments sections will be open of course, but if you have not had a comment published before, or you have been very naughty in what you have said and been put on the beach then your contribution may not appear until Sunday.  Sorry about that, but it is these football matches all the staff keep going to.  Cant understand why, but there it is.

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221 Replies to “Arsenal v South Cornwall: everyone is injured, so business as usual”

  1. Spot on good line up, I’ve just gone through my pre match preparations at the the ‘Harp’ in Covent Garden , now back at Highbury killing time .Think this could be a high scoring game in our favour obviously , 3-2. to the Gunners can’t wait

  4. Interesting that you’ve gone to even things up by including 12 players in your ‘predicted’ team. Well we are playing Messr Dean also!! Do you think he will notice?

  6. I see Chelsea have scored an offside goal to make it 1-0 and a WBA player has been sent off for a foul not as bad as Cahill’s on Alexis… oh well, business as usual. Do the PGMOL have a weekly day pass to board Roman’s yacht I wonder?

  8. Bulldog Drummond, I don’t think the boss will repeat the past mistake to start or play Monreal at CB against a Man Utd side that boasts of strong and pacy forwards of the caliber of Rooney, van Persie and Higuain. If the boss does this again, it can only mean the boss had decided to concede the result of this match to Man Utd. My starts: Szczesny Bellerin..Chambers..Mert..Gibbs. Arteta..Wilshere. Sanchez..Ramsey..Welbeck..Ox. Giroud.

  10. I rather approve of the 12 man approach. An interesting variation and one that should test the ref from the off.

  18. Man, does Alexis put in the miles (or kilometers)! I think Wilshere is lucky not to have been sent off. But we are generating chances. We need a finish.

    COYG!

  30. have you noticed the commentators keep going on about the wilshere headbutt?

    they would NEVER do that if it was a Man U player

  38. dan, you’re right, the media really need to hold the officials to account. no more excuses for them.

  40. i have just one…excuse
    young team and not in terms of age but simply no understanding between the players

  42. spot on el gringo – even if rooney wasnt offiside (and he probably was), it was VERY close, and the commentators didnt even mention it – how biassed is that?

  44. Blame the media and the referees for Arsenal’s problems – it’s their fault though.. it’d be a nice title fight if they didnt do this. Serves them right

  47. 1 shot on target yet lead by two goals how? No defense and there is only one person to blame. There is no excuse for Arsenal having their lowest points tally in 32 years. No more excuses lets actually address the problem at AFC! despite all our possession ManU always looked liked the victors. Gosh January so far away and I don’t hold any faith Le Prof will address our sorry defense.

  49. If Arsene Wenger has any bit of honour left in his body, he should resign at the press conference after this game ends. He simply can’t, he doesn’t know anymore and his incompetence in big matches has been a burden that we can’t afford.

  51. To be fair, dan, Man U also have a world-class keeper who’s in top form tonight. The Arse has exploited the defense, but De Gea’s been hugely impressive.

  52. ouch – the noise the media will make when it realises that the constant attacks on arsenal has meant that it doesnt have a title fight any more 😀

  54. De Gea has been MOTM by a mile – best goalkeeping performance ive seen in a long time.

    Second best – the Sky commentators

  55. Stupid thing is if we had our first choice defense we might have actually managed a draw which is ridiculous considering how we dominated. Woeful!

  58. me too alex

    did you hear sound in sky commenator voice as di maria was one on one (and missed) – desperately wanted him to score

  64. Alex the people who count aren’t listening. Giroud has pulled on back but we should have been 3 nill down.

  72. GREAT PERFORMANCE BY ARSENAL, UNLUCKY WITH THE RESULT. LET DOWN BY THE REFEREE AND THE MEDIA

  73. How’d the referee screw us this time? Oh he didn’t send Wiltshire off. Yes lets get behind the team but let’s not accept the mismanagement of the club!

  74. Didn’t I say if we let in a goal, we can’t make it back? How many chances did we miss in the 1st half?

  76. the referee was allowing time wasting – as soon as he let wilshire get away with the butt every 50/50 went man u’s way

  77. Yes only rose-coloured glasses allowed here. Come on guys we’re in serious danger of not getting the 4th place trophy!

  82. How can we play well and lose, not because the other team was exceptional, but when the other team were so non existent?

  84. Para – because we have no clue about how to defend. Wenger has never even tried to replace the awesome defensive line he inherited. He believes ‘we’ll score one more than you’ except… we don’t! Lets be honest, most of the saves made by De Gea had nothing in them!

  88. I have never cared much for ref. dean, I have always considered him one of the best “operators” out there, Earlier this week I had all my love for Arsenal sucked out of me by a certain £50,000 donation as it proved Wenger right about rampant commercialism. I have a soft spot for the club and it’s staff, but I fear we are now part of something bigger and uglier than I can stomach.
    It has been a fantastic ride while it lasted. Goodbye Arsechums.

    Flags: Bits of colored cloth that govts use first to shrink-wrap people’s minds; then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead” Arundhati Roy

  90. This we could’ve lost 3-0 thing is ridiculous.

    Why not the same yardstick for all the chances we created??!!!…. We could’ve won 7-3 then.

    Why wasn’t Fellini’s push on Gibbs a foul? From which they eventually score. And what about that studs up challenge by McNair. Ankle breaker? Why are they even called referees. Dummies. Shit dummies.

  91. Well played Arsenal, good performance all round. Lucky, lucky Man U. Our shooting could have been better of course but I was proud of our boys to a man. Fuck you doomers and gloomers.

  92. Dan – you’re right, Fellani is cr@p no matter what but if that’s the case we lost to 10 men!

  98. Mick – Yep I’m proud of our boys gifting ManU with their first away win of the season, Proud of ManU’s defense of nobodies showing ours how it’s done, proud of Manu only having one shot on target and losing 2-1, proud of all our shots having as much force as a fart in a batch tub, proud of having our lowest point tally since Terry Neil, yep I’m feeling proud right now!

  99. 5th gen.

    Aggression was from both parties involved there. Both send off. Both 10 man. Simple isn’t it.

  100. I was there how we lost I don’t know it’s unbelievable , first half never seen a poorer MU side . It don’t look good from my seat !

  101. A disappointing result but the team played well and it’s great to have Ollie back. And with a goal too!

    Onward, forward. No moaning.

  103. Arsenal 13 – Nop[e, Wiltshire put his face in Fellani’s, Wiltshire would have been the only one to walk.

  105. Oxlade-Chamberlain made a dangerous tackle on Shaw. Wilshere made a stupidity that could have ended with his red card. Rooney was in a dangerous position when there was an offside call right after Gibbs’ own goal.

    No, referees are not the ones that should be blamed. It’s either players who can’t score a goal (sorry, Danny Welbeck, you are a great lad with Kaba Diawara’s finishing) from zillion chances unless Alexis does that or the manager that can’t beat anyone.

    Unlike Arsene Wenger before the sale of Thomas Vermaelen, numbers don’t lie. We have won just four out of twelve league games this term and we are 15 points behind Chavs.

  106. Something is wrong here though. We’re the team giving away the fewest chances to the opposition, and yet they’re scoring so much against us. To me, that means the defense needs work. To lose 1-2 at home to the worst manure team in ages, with a makeshift defense themselves, with them having just one shot on target??? That’s worrying.
    And looking at our attacking talent, how is it that we’re struggling so much to score? I think e need the really productive attacking players back, namely Ollie & Theo. The panic they create should re-open the scoring spaces that Ramsey enjoys so much, and Alexis will benefit too. Could do with the return of Kos and Debuchy as well.
    Bloody hell, when are WE gonna get lucky enough to win 2-1 with 1 shot on target?

  107. C4 – When we get a manger that is tactically gifted and not one who sets out his stall for the entire 90 minutes!

  108. How we lose everytime?
    a first goal (game changer) was an offside and an obvious foul, which cost us a sub and a gk. And all Arsenal fans are doinh on the net is blame Wenger and put no pressure on PGMOL. And then they ask why? Where the f*ck is your pride? Everytimr you wamt to blame player x manager y, not for once the elephant in the room, you dont want to see? Why are you cowards to say it? For other team fans not to call you moaners? To be shown as logical and unbiased? Will you are biased and disgusting. That goal, that unpunished foul on Wilshere, and that time wasting from di maria and dean in the final minutes which he didnt give anything back, is a shame in you face that you ate betraying your own team. Instead of exploding the internet calling for justice, game after game the ref decide which team wins. Shame om yoi one by one, please go support any other team than Arsenal, you are not welcome, and dont start this “i ve been suppoting for x years” you are all lying

  109. Rooney looked on side for the second goal, however, Fellaini looked offside in the build up to the first manure goal.

    I thought our team played their hearts out and in many respects were the better side, but we were wasteful having created many chances – at times we had the manures on the rack.

    It was a disappointing result for all of us, especially for the team when they gave so much. But it is despicable for the weak minded AAAA turds and their apologists to snipe at the team and manager after such a wholehearted performance. The scum who fit the AAAA classification do not deserve to be thought of as fans.

  111. And that red o. Wilshere is not a red, I wish all you call for a red when a player form opposing team deserves one. But no you are all here to just blame Arsenal, and you call your selves supporters. Shame. By the way, had dean made his job there, this red fuss should have been a great attempt on goal as fillaini dived. But no you womt see that. And just remind me what did Di Maria do in the last minutes to chambers? Man up and support yiur team, we lost to an assistant mistake+ref cheating, and a counter attack. Defend your team for once, just for once.

  112. @ 5th GEn
    Don’t be a fcuking idiot. manure got lucky, this wasn’t about Wenger’s tactics. We were set up just fine, hence the number of saves their keeper had to make.

  115. C4 – Seriously? De Gea had nothing really trying to save for the entire match, they were either lose balls or powder puff strikes. If you’re happy with the last decade of performances and lack of squad depth then great. I’m not and today just proved the point. A woeful ManU beat us and there was no luck involved!

  116. 5th gen totally agree mate. We have become a pathetic joke any tom dick n Harry will be ready to have a pop at us now.

  117. @Yassin, we lost because our manager’s inferiority complex has been transferred on our players. They don’t believe that he can win a big match (because he can’t as a brief look at the numbers can prove). If there is a conspiracy against Arsenal, it’s the one that wants Arsene Wenger to manage Arsenal as long as possible (you can call it AAA – Anti-Arsenal Arsene). As long as Wenger is on our bench, Jose Mourinho and all the others can sleep tight.

  118. And the world is ending! Arsenal lost, it’s all Wenger’s fault, we played horrible, etc…

    Not sure if people making this comments actually watched the game or just moaning because the scoreline is the only thing they saw.

    Arsenal had lots of opportunities and played pretty good, we just couldn’t get the goals we needed to win.

    We made Fellaini look good? In the first 15 minutes, two Arsenal players literally dribbled circles around him. He got the Gibbs own goal, by 1 being offside and 2. literally pushing Gibbs into Szczesny (injuring him).

    Wenger forced into 2 substitutions because once again Wilshere’s ankles get targeted.
    When Wenger can actually use his sub for a tactical change (Giroud), it worked!

  119. arsenal-4ever (Arsenal): After all these years, I finally thought we’d haver a chance, but no, same old luck and same old manager, maybe time for a chance

  120. So as per the logic…if we had scored in the first half,then hairy wouldn’t have pushed Gibbs on to Szczesny. And if he had, the referee would have spotted it and called a foul. In simple words…. Its all our fault.

    Yes we were wasteful. But that doesn’t make any of those daylight robberies legal. That doesn’t legitimize a leg breaker.

  123. @C4,

    Its in the mind of the players, whenever anyone makes a mistake, he knows hell will break through on him. Why is Monreal not good enough in CB? How many mistakes has he done? The one against swansea (cause he was short or whatever?). Why should our players be under such pressure and lose concentration when it matters (last min defending, scoring goals).
    they scored a damn lucky own goal (after a ref cheating and assistant mistake) and thrn scored on the counter (85min) when we opened our defenses. We lost 2 subs for injury caused by their players. And not to forget the penalty on Wilshere in the first half ( I wish people who came here defending Hazard penalty last time do the same now)

    Our team is playing great football again, we need luck and justice. You cant blame Wenger for easy chances lost by our players, and not for those ref mistakes out there (nor you can blame our defenxe for it).

    @Walter, when Szczesny was injured ( by their player), shouldnt the ref have stopped the game. He could have saved the goal maybe?

  124. We played well in spells, but wenger really really has to sort out defensive issues. We are being punished virtually every mistake.
    The problem, we are wasteful in attack at the moment, very very vulnerable to counter attacks against an inexperienced defence. Wenger really has to tighten things up against Dortmund, get at least a point , qualify to face Real Madrid the next round, then get to work sorting things out.
    This is going to be a long, hard and testing season. The manager and team can and must do better than they are at the moment. And they have to get over this thing with losing to the bigger teams.
    Hope the injured are not too bad, and good to see OG back.
    But make no mistake, this team and manager faces a big challenge to get back on track. It can start but stopping some stupid goals, tho the first one should not have been. Allowed.
    A rather awful song suggested that the only way is up. I fear things could get a bit worse before improving, just a horrible gut feeling. Need to back the team, whether you rate, doubt or hate the manager.

  126. @5th Gen
    Alright, then look for Rooney’s comments after the game, see the bit where he talks about how they rode their luck. Then tell me again how their win had nothing to do with luck.
    Fcuking Clown.

  127. It’s unfair to criticise the performance but please please do not blame the ref that’s unsporting and frankly childish

  128. Mandy Dodd – Well said! 🙂
    Yassin – You make your own luck and shouldn’t be looking at referees babysit. This is not a new problem and all teams suffer the same fate. There is no conspiracy!

  130. We’ll said Mandy but wen gear should walk at the end of this season,regardless.how can you justify not having a back up defender?

  131. C4 – They still won and we simply struggle to find the net and leaves ours wide open. Man up and take it on the chin!

  132. That was really depressing. Strange to see people saying it was a good performance. It wasn’t – when you miss that many chances you can’t say it as good and once again the defending was poor. Worst start in the PL history. So much work to do at Arsenal.

  133. Can someone explain when we loose its bad luck and when we win its a great win? Why not its a lucky win?

  134. Jayramfootball – Spot on! You make your own luck plain and simple. To have as many shots at goal as we had and yet to be bemoaning the ref for a couple of mistakes is ridiculous at best!

  135. Gouresh – Because every game is a great win just the pesky referee’s get involved. LOL!

  136. Yes there is a lot of work to do Jayram. As we all know, starting with defence. But have a feeling that soon, but perhaps not just yet, our attacking play is going to click into gear. Some of our woes are self inflicted, but we are also having freakishly bad luck at the moment…..absolutely nothing is going our way….anything that can go wrong is doing just that. We all have such spells, and they do not last forever.
    Looks like we are going to need a good second half of the season to reach our minimum requirement, wenger will see this and will hopefully act in jan.

  137. Yeah, next time let’s make our own luck by pushing the defender into the goal keeper, injuring him in the process, then we score a deflected goal. This chance creation thing we’re doing isn’t lucky enough.

  139. Other than Dortmund every game we’ve played we’ve all but dominated. The problem is our defense has more holes than an Amsterdam brothel and we need a dozen attempts to find the back of the net!

  140. It was just pure luck that Man u rode on to win this match. We had 64% possession. just our finishing was not that good. We could have easily gone up by 4 goals in first half if not for their keeper. It was just a bad luck. Lets not bash any players or our manager. he is the best manager in EPL. he will fight back. we ll get to top 4..

  141. @Ashwin Gunner – Arsene Wenger has been the best manager in the history of Arsenal but currently is not the best manager in London, let alone the league.

  142. @Josif,

    So you like numbers ha? then I am sure the numbers of bias against Arsenal that this side has concluded may interest you!!
    Against Hull ( one of the goals was a foul on Flamini)
    Against Everton (one goal was an offside and a foul)
    Chelsea ( the Cahill red card)
    Today ( Penalty , foul and offside and injured GK on second goal)

    BUt what did you see:
    The Wilshere red card which should have been a yellow on Fillaini for diving
    The Chamberlain tackle on shaw? really ? you call that a tackle?
    Offside on Rooney: Glad you can see those? just after an offside goal we conceded. Just WOW

    Man up and defend your team!!!

  143. C4 – Creating chances is not good enough if you can’t put the ball in the back of the net. Creating chances is not something we have a problem with, never have it’s just not good enough when we’re in the final third and we start tippy-tapping around afraid to shoot!

  144. @ Mandy
    I suspect we’ll see a very different team once we have our productive attackers from last season, Ollie and Theo. The return of Kos and / or Debuchy would be really helpful too, the team’s cohesion will be much better for it.

  145. 5th Gen Gooner; on a serious note, I really get upset when someone says oh, u hit the post, bad luck, or the goal keeper made a good save, bad luck. Bullshit….u hit the post because you were not good enough to hit it 4 inches inside the post or just wide of the goal keeper. Or when one makes a bad pass, oh bad luck. No it’s not bad luck. As an ex CD when our strikers missed, u new were in trouble, when they missed again, we knew that were in more trouble and do on because if we made a mistake at the back, were were punished by the opponents. There IS NO such thing as luck. you are either good or bad. Period!

  146. And yes Josif (numbers lover)

    To Win a match is a numbers thing where you have to outscore the opponent,

    Thus if a penalty was given to us and we scored it ( and dont start the “how can u be sure we would score it”). and with their goal being denied ( and I will forget their second goal was a result of the first (85th min, us opening defenses).

    By your NUMBERING logic, we should have won 2-1 today, but it was the ref….

  147. Yassin – And yet we have more yellow cards than any other team in the league. Wonder what Hull, Chelski and the Toffee supporters said about the ref in their respective games? We’re no more a victim to poor refereeing than any other team FFS!

  149. Oh yes lets go there 5th gooner.

    Please Untolders someone guide 5th gen gooner to the article/post of how many yellow cards for fouls do we get?

  151. Everyone is forgetting our mental strength, for the big games we need to start asking questions.

  154. Yassin – Come on seriously? Do you really believe we are in the position we’re in because of referees for the last 10 years?

  155. Why the hell are we going on & on & on & on about the ref? Would we be having this discussion if we had taken our chances in the 1st half and defended well?

  156. C4, would add a fully fit Ozil to your list. Sadly, the season may have run away from us a bit by then but we have been in the wars, our injury situation has been horrendous, and undoubtedly, mistakes have been made but things will improve. Mid week would be a good start.
    This teams needs some uninterrupted quality time on the training fields, and until things improve, perhaps the manager needs to sacrifice a few cherished principles on attacking football for a while….cos at the moment, some of them are not helping matters.
    Think we are in a bit of a perfect storm of shite for now, the usual arsenal World Cup hangover, injuries to key players, squad depth issues, very wasteful in front of goal, mistakes, confidence issues, decisions going against us at times. Some undoubtedly self inflicted, but bad luck has played a role as well. Lucky our manager sees himself as a bit of a psychologist!

  157. Gouresh – exactly, I’m tired or all this ref bull, we failed to do our job, let’s talk about Mertesecker charging forward, Ramsey shooting in the upper stands, Welbeck losing site of goal, Wiltshire shooting straight at the keeper….

  158. @Yassin – I’m actually more than happy to point a finger at the refs when they screw us up but I’m not afraid of pointing out mistakes that goes into our favour as well. Mike Dean should change his name to Mike Mean for his blatant work against Arsenal but today’s defeat is not his fault.

    I wrote about our inability to defend our aerial space during preseason. Before our season started. We conceded a header after a set-piece against New York, Benfica and Monaco respectively. What happened after that? We sold Vermaelen, we signed nobody else for our defence despite Wenger saying something else (which makes him a liar) and opponents kept scoring goals via headers. In my match preview for the game against Crystal Palace I wrote that we would concede a goal from Haangeland’s header. That’s exactly what happened. Coleman scored a header after dreadful defending from Özil, Ulloa scored a header for Leicester etc.

    We didn’t sign a defender to make that part of our game stronger. Why we didn’t do that? Because people who run our club don’t question the manager’s ability as long as he makes money. And they should have done it last summer.

  159. Mandy you need to be careful and get with the program on here or you’ll be in the AAA soon – it was the ref and the media who lost us the game today didn’t you know ?

    Mandy Dodd
    November 22, 2014 at 8:17 pm
    We played well in spells, but wenger really really has to sort out defensive issues. We are being punished virtually every mistake.
    The problem, we are wasteful in attack at the moment, very very vulnerable to counter attacks against an inexperienced defence. Wenger really has to tighten things up against Dortmund, get at least a point , qualify to face Real Madrid the next round, then get to work sorting things out.
    This is going to be a long, hard and testing season. The manager and team can and must do better than they are at the moment. And they have to get over this thing with losing to the bigger teams.
    Hope the injured are not too bad, and good to see OG back.
    But make no mistake, this team and manager faces a big challenge to get back on track. It can start but stopping some stupid goals, tho the first one should not have been. Allowed.
    A rather awful song suggested that the only way is up. I fear things could get a bit worse before improving, just a horrible gut feeling. Need to back the team, whether you rate, doubt or hate the manager.

  160. Mandy Dodd – as you stated ‘as usual’ the problem is we don’t prepare for the ‘as usual’ as though it’s a surprise!

  161. @ 5th Gen Gooner,

    Yes I do, I got eyes and I know what I see. and there are numbers and statistics that shows I got something. Now being sarcastic is not gonna help here. so please show me how am not right and you are?

    @Gouresh,

    So? the game is a 90min game. IF we cant score in the first half, that doesn`t mean we should be cheated ( and not for the first time) to lose all our 3 pts we deserved.

    I remind you all, again, with the Nani red card incident, and hope you can all put pressure on the media at least as they did back then. But you know what, forget it am deluded. Anyone remember Calciopoli? where that Judge deluded too?

  162. John from Wellington you must be in some sort of institution and your nurse should stop you from watching football as it’s not helping your recovery.
    How did the media help us to lose the game today ? I cant wait for the answer

  163. Yassin – Referees have never been perfect, why do you expect them to be when ever we lose? This is nothing new in football. We had the chances and wasted them. If we had put 20% of them away we would have won 5-2!

  164. @Josif, Great so we agree on that: We should have signed a CB. Then what? what does that have to do for today? please enlighten me!

    @4evered and 5th Gen Gooner, how about you go and watch the match, since you all agree we lost cause of our defense, please enlighten me of the mistake we made in our defense which costed us the match?

  165. We are a shambles, yet our manager is off masquerading as a tv pundit during the international break. The same guy who went off to see the pope on deadline day. Who it transpires knew about Kos’ s achillies problem in pre season..We have no effective management or leadership from a playing point of view. Disorganised, no fight. The team looks a reflection of the manager-lost .

  166. This was the worst United defence in fucking history and we couldn’t win a game at home. What a shambles. What a mess. And what the fuck are we going to do from here?

  167. Yassin – Do you know anything about football? What daft question is ‘mistake made in our defense?’ Did you actually watch the game or listen to it on the radio?

  168. @ 5th Gen Gooner,

    Please go back to the numbers this side has calculated (and you can refer to other sites as well) and tell me why it DOES NOT even out and its mostly biased against Arsenal? please its not the first and not the last time we are affected by the ref. and the wasted goals does not justify the the mistake the ref made today for us to lose points.

    I cant believe I am trying to have Arsenal fans defend their own team when they are cheated.
    Wake up for God sake

  169. 23 shots, 9 on target and we score a single goal but the couple of dubious mistakes made by the ref cost us the game? Is it me or does this not make sense?

  170. Mick – you are right. I’ve just returned from the Ems and we were unlucky. Felaini should have been booked several times but got away with it all. Dean was brilliant. He cheated football so well you wouldn’t know it.

    Arsenal were head & shoulders better than ManUre but unlucky. Our shooting was poor but then Wenger has sufficient coaches to teach his players how to kick a ball. I got a letter from his PA a couple of years ago stating this after offering my services for shooting /kicking technique. Santi & Alexis have the technique but Jack doesn’t. Vela would have finished Jacks chances.

    I am disappointed but not having a level playing field does make a subtle difference.

  171. Yassin – Wake up? You don’t score and you concede you lose. The ref has only a slight influence if we cannot score!

  172. Thought we showed some encouraging signs today. We battered them for long periods but finishing wasn’t good enough. Players coming back, starting to gel. That is football, unfortunately.

    Negatives:

    – Result
    – Finishing
    – Loss of discipline after going one down.
    – The mentally weak section of the fanbase who, as usual, take ANY defeat as an excuse to trot out the idiotic “Wenger out” line. Absolute nuts. It will come good – and sooner rather than later.

    Our poor start is down to:

    – Injuries
    – Need to integrate number of new players
    – Post World Cup fatigue (as happens after every World Cup).

    That’s all.

  173. Pete – Hope so but another month of this and I think even you explanation will run a bit thin.

  174. In fact, I can not remember us dominating a game against MU to such an extent for a very long time.

    Can someone tell me when we last had more than 20 shots in a game against MU? When was the last time MU didn’t manage a shot on target until 80+ minutes?

    But the best team doesn’t always win. That is why football is the biggest game in the World!

  175. 5GG – Linked to getting players back fit.

    If Wilshere and Szcz are out for a long period then it may become more difficult.

    A pity about Jack – my son was scheduled to face a penalty from him tomorrow!

  176. Johnshaft – The Pope may not have blessed the team – only the man?

    Alexis on the otherhand must have come from heaven.

  177. Guys at the end of the day you win some and you lose some that’s football. The trick is learning from the defeats and moving forward. Unfortunately we don’t as it’s the same story every season. Lack of squad depth, injuries, missing a fox in the box, no quality DM, need a quality GK… the list goes on. Now we can keep blaming the referees as much as we want as ultimately it’s the guy at the helm who should be steering the ship through rough waters. Seems our skipper has a problem with rough seas so perhaps to avoid another Titanic we should find a replacement. Getting dizzy going around in circles!

  178. Pete – Sorry to hear your son will miss out on facing a Jack Wiltshire penalty. Reckon that would have been something special! 🙂

  179. @5th Gen Gooner,

    OK here it goes:

    The first goal was a damn offside and a foul. this means they should not have been 1 up. so our defenses wouldnt open (for them to score the second) and we would still be pressing them to score. this may result in a lot of scorelines, but I know the ref decided that when he didnt whistle the foul.

    Now the questions u asked comes back to you:
    Do you know anything about football?
    Did you even watched the game?

  180. Think you are writing a lot of truth there Pete. Just wish we weren’t so consistently naive at the back though, surely defending is one of the easier aspects of the game to perfect…..and we seem to get it wrong more than most this season! We absolutely battered Utd at times, but their defence held firm…..partly due to the keeper and us shooting straight at him….but just cannot see us holding out like that, even though their defence was even less experienced than ours. Know wenger believes in attacking football, but just wish they would focus a bit more on the defence…if this game, Swansea and anderlecht does not hit home a bit, I begin to worry.
    From what wenger said post match, Szcz should be ok, though Jacks prognosis up unknown for now, always fear the worst with him.

  181. Yassin – Yes I watched the game enough to know that the reason we didn’t win was because we didn’t make use of our advantage and our defense was caught out. My question to you is perhaps you should stop watching the referee and pay more attention to the team you support?!!

  182. BTW – Without instant replay no official could have called the first goal offside as it was damn close – maybe an ankle or an afro?

  184. We often use the word naive to describe why we keep losing in the same way but can we really say after so many years of not improving the same areas it is nativity or simply poor planning, preparation and management?

  185. BTW it was an obvious push by Fellaini on Gibbs which made him collide with Szczesney. It was so obvious. but you was concentrating on your team by then, so was Dean.

  187. Mandy

    As we are Arsenal I’m sure Jack will be out for a while, seems to be the in thing at present!

  188. Quincy…..meaning defending as a team rather than so much the defenders themselves . The second goal was a real sucker punch counter attack we should have been expecting, then there was the counter attack by Di Maria who should have scored when all our players were idea in their half.
    Playing such attacking football is great when we are scoring loads…..ok I know, anderlecht, but very risky when we are not. Was hoping we would leave this defensive silliness behind, move on from it, but it rears it’s head regularly, especially against the big boys. Easy to see what they were trying to do, but such things were reminiscent of recent games, have been costly….and needs coaching out of them. We are getting caught virtually every time we do that. Sorry, ranting, but very frustrated, thought we kind of threw that one away to be honest. Was hoping Arteta could calm a few down, but even he did not seem able to do so once we went behind.

  189. Dan, yes that is a worry, looks like an ankle which is never good news with Jack. Shame he was getting back to form as well..

  190. Sorry guys for not reading the comments to the end, I don’t have the patience now. Depressing. But even so, I can tell we’re heading in the right direction- upwards.

    We were wasteful, but I wouldn’t credit DeGea with anything. All the shots he stopped were targeted straight to him. The first shot that was away (Oli’s) went in. A bit of practice and mental set up should solve this easily in training. Just flipping shoot in the empty space between the keeper and the posts.

    The first goal had Dean written all over it. Even the TV replay showed the offside position, and from one angle you could clearly see the push in the back of Gibbs. Sorry trolleys, and sorry whoever mentioned this already, that goal shouldn’t have stood. And that was the tipping point.

    The team has mental strength. They kept going after the first goal and put good pressure on the opponents. The second goal was a shock, but not mush one sole defender can do about it. And Martinez almost got the ball, it flew inches wide of his glove. Oh well. But he was alert, and dealt well with the challenges he faced in his spell. Martinez will be a fine gk in the years to come.

    Last, it’s another list battle, but the war is still on. Can’t stop now, we got to carry on supporting the club in this difficult moment. COYG!

  192. Florian

    Can’t agree with you any more, the same problems persist season after season. I’m starting to think mentally we are shot and have been for some time. It’s typical Arsenal now, if Wenger can’t steady the ship then may be it is time to call it a day. Today I knew we’d fuck up some how and we didn’t fail. I’m not calling for Wenger’s head but this is going on every season. Every man and his dog knew we were 1 injury away from a defensive collapse.

  194. @Yassin – it would. We wouldn’t have conceded so many headers, we wouldn’t have spilled so many points, we wouldn’t have conceded so many blows that leave a psychological impact on the team.

    Take a look at our team over the years. Every time we have suffered a draw with a taste of defeat (Newcastle, Spuds in 2010-11, Spuds in 2008-09, Birmingham in 2007-08) or a big defeat (City, Liverpool, Chavs last term), a run of bad results would start. After our defeat to Atkinson’s City, we failed to beat Chelsea at home. After we lost to Liverpool, we failed to beat David Moyes’ Manchester United. After we lost to Chavs, we drew with Swansea at home.

    Now, since we are all about “what ifs”, I will join the game: if we had signed another central defender, we wouldn’t have had to play Nacho Monreal there, we wouldn’t have spilled a three-goal-lead to Anderlecht, we wouldn’t have conceded a Gomis’ header against Swansea and, finally, we would have lost to United today as we would have had more self-confidence in all lines of our team.

  195. What is the answer for the Gunners’ problem? What is the remedy to the Gunners’ failure? Where can we find the solutions that will halt the Gunners’ woes? Unbeaten at the Emirates Stadium in 25 games. But beating today not by Sir Alex, but by a LVG that is struggling to steady his defence. But rather, it is our defence that needed steadying. They shook, cracked and broke down. I noticed earlier it might happen and I notified the Gooners through the private media-Untold, thinking the message will be relayed to the appropriate concern. But nobody listened to me. I was reduced to just a lone voice crying foul in the wilderness of Gooners. I said, that CB should not be started for this game. Because he has shown to be such a woe to the Gunners’ defence in two back to back games. He shouldn’t be given another room to occupy with his woes for the 3rd time of asking. What was Gibbs doing in the center of the defence to have deflected the ball past Szczesny? Where did the centry of that CB gone to? Had the boss done something different from the status quo, and it didn’t jell, the lost will not have pained me as it is paining me now. I hope this woe will not be given the room again to sleep in it. Bellerin..Chambers..Mert..Gibbs vs Dortmound. And I think we have to now re-prioritize our priorities as follows: 1stly..Uefa Champions. 2ndly..The FA Cup. 3rdly..The 3rd place and 4thly..The Premier League Title as a long shot. The boss should please seriously bear those priorities in mind and pursue them to a successful conclusion.

  196. Yes the TEAM has had its defensive issues, but today specifically it was not our defence that cost us.

  197. Quincy, a few things cost us today. But one thing is becoming so clear…..how good is Kos and how important is he for the team!
    Chambers is showing great potential …and some good present day performances as well.
    But Kos….what a loss!

  198. Yassin; I am not suggesting that we defend of 90min, we are not capable of doing it. All I am saying is that you make sure you score your chances and you defend well. To your other point about being cheated, well do u have any proof? We are watching replays and making decisions. U will say see the data, analysis etc on this site, yes agreed but then what? We can all say that sometime after 2004/5 the decisions started going against us, so then what has the club done? Diddly squat, because is there anything to be done? We don’t know. The management at the club has more resources to do a proper investigation / analysis on these matters and if they had found something wrong, I am sure they would point this out. We can only speculate. We can only comment on the game as thats what we can see and as for the decisions we can debate all nite. Now did the ref interfere when we created all those changes? Did he disallow a perfectly good goal? We have a very good attacking set and its the job the opponents to stifle us. Our weakest link is the defence, so logic would tell u that they WILL make not 1 but a few mistakes. Which means, if u miss chances most likely u will loose the game as the opponents will not be so kind when they get their chance. At 1/2 time when i heard the score I commented that if we let in a goal, we will find it difficult to come back, not because of the ref but because we cannot defend and that’s what happened. I will not debate on the refs because when we loose, its our fault.

  200. Another point on the refs. In my playing yrs, we have had a few refs who’s decisions you may call ‘strange’. I remember one in particular and our club wrote a letter to the association that we would not play when this particular ref is officiating the match and pointed our various decisions to back our claim. Do u know what happened? Our club was reprimand, we were fined and banned for 5 games. We then decided to make sure that we would not allow that ref to get a chance to screw us. I know it difficult but that’s what we did.

  202. Yes, it’s PGMOL that forced Jack Wilshere to shot straight at De Gea today and all our other players to pick the worst solutions when they had an opportunity while Giroud got off the hook because the game was practically over. They forced Wilshere to squander our best chance to equalize against Chavs as well. And it’s Mike Riley’s ugly head that made Welbeck scoring just two goals in 786 minutes of league football in Arsenal shirt (Giroud has scored the same number of goals in 85 minutes). Alex Ferguson was probably at fault for Santi Cazorla’s contribution of a single assist in eleven league matches this term.

    I expected much, much, much more from this team. I expected 100+ goals in the league because if Liverpool with The Racist, Sterling, Sturridge, Gerrard and Henderson could do it, so could we with Alexis, Özil, Cazorla, Welbeck, Giroud, Chamberlain, Ramsey… I expected us to be the title contenders.

    Wenger did spend money this term. He signed a world-class player. He got us the fitness-coach of the world champions. He signed the goalkeeper I wanted to see at Arsenal. He signed a versatile young defender who has a bright future ahead of him (but not if he gets used to disappointments). He signed a right full-back with Premiership experience. He signed a pacey striker who is not afraid to work hard for the team and is a very likeable character. Despite all that, Wenger hasn’t found the way to make all those ingredients work.

    Because he can’t do it anymore.

  203. Josif….he has two recent trophies in his cabinet lest you forget…..trophies his critics said he would never win again. Other teams cite the community shield as a trophy so should wenger.

  204. Josif – how long ago was your last child born? is it because you can’t get an erection? Well that’s the kind of logic you use. Wenger is evading a showdown with the FA. His teams play good football and get robbed by PGMO crooked decisions. I don’t have a problem with our results because I have been in worse situations. The assistant on the North bank end was poor. In fact I would say biased.

  205. Gouresh – you can’t buck the system. It is run by an elite sect in our society. That is why even Geography is challenged.

  206. Blaming the ref for today is childish.

    All things come to an end & this era with Mr Wenger is just that.

  207. @Mandy – whilst I agree regarding trophies, our results against the big teams say it all when it comes to Wenger’s abilities.

    @Menace – I don’t have children yet but it’s not like that it has anything to do with poor erection, Arsene Wenger, PGMOL, lack of a central defender or a defensive midfielder. 🙂

    “A Good football”? The worst league start since 1982 constitutes as good football? Inability to beat anyone from the top half of the table constitutes as “a good football”? Inability to keep a clean sheet against the top half teams constitutes as “a good football”? If we were talking about teams from 2007-08, 2010-11 and 2013-14, I’d agree with you. This one lacks spine, lacks solidity, lacks shape.

  211. dan,

    1. The same refs are shafting us season after season. Today Dean was his usual useless self.

    2. The team’s only fault, which has actually been pointed out already, is profligacy. Our shot precision and conversion percentage are at the bottom of the table. If there’s something that they need and can fix, this is it. While offensive record is still in the top 6, the changes we create would normally entitle us to at least a podium.

  212. Remember a few weeks ago when a large portion of the Newcastle fan base wanted Pardew out at all costs? Tell me again what position they currently hold in the table. It’s a long season full of ups and downs. This team will come good especially once some of our injured players get back. Until Giroud came on we had only 5 first choice players on the field and our third choice keeper.

  213. I want to address Pete.

    I like that you take a positive outlook but there are points I want to put forward to you, which I observe.

    1. This result, this performance is a carbon copy of many other performances against United. Have a look at Fergie’s book for documentation on United tactics.

    2. Finishing, how many times have we seen this sort of thing before? How many times have you heard us being mocked with… Arsenal play the football gets the win. Peter Drury loves that line doesnt he?

    3. Defensive frailty. Looking at the statistics again, you see that United had two shots on target which resulted in two goals. I ask that you look beyond this match and see if this has happened in other games as well.

    4. Last 15 games, 1 win, 11 losses, 3 draws.

    The positives are indeed that we pressed better and were not penetrated as easily this time round. However with Wenger we always seem to remain short in some area. This is not me trying to find an excuse to bash him but we see the same issues popping up time and time again.

    Unfortunately Wenger is finished at the top level against top sides. He refuses to look at all our issues, because I dont believe he cannot see them. He is comfortable at Arsenal and will not be shown the door. I love the man but he is killing me now, at least I was prepared and can disengage emotionally pretty quickly.

    The question I ask is… will we ever be complete again?

  214. SA Gunner:

    1. Disagree – it was not. We battered them and lost because of poor finishing.

    2. In this game, yes. But our general chance conversion rate is decent – just not today.

    3. I would have taken two MU shots on target before the start if you had offered me.

    4. OK – but most of them have been very different to today.

    You either want Wenger to stay or want him to go. But today’s result should make absolutely no difference to your assessment. I thought we played well – it just didn’t run for us today. Assessment of Wenger should be based on long term trends. This season so far is a blip – otherwise we have steadily improved over the last four seasons.

  215. Florian
    Yesterday’s game was not Dean job.
    wholeheartedly agree with point 2.
    Manu were for the taking, but I do think the team including the manager need their heads checked, mentally we always come short.

  216. Yesterday I somehow knew we’ll screw up. I don’t know if it was the media or the other supporters around me, we all knew we’d lose this game. That’s why it’s so hard to take.

  217. @ menace: I will disagree with ur post. The system that u refer to, does not stop u from playing good or rubbish football. Neither does it stops u from defending well or badly. The system did not stop us from creating 22 odd chances and not taking them, so why do have to rely on this system when we loose? We have enough data to show that decisions do not go our way so is there a conspiracy, we don’t know. How do we avoid getting shafted? Take your chances but the pathetic thing we do everytime we loose is look for some other reason. Eg. If city loose or Liverpool loose, we immediately say, oh they have spent so many millions and still they lost, so if we loose we have done well.

  219. Pete, thanks for responding.

    Lets agree to disagree on the four points. I could go into detail but that is not the point of me raising them.

    I would add to those original points, the point of Mourinho as well. Wenger not ever gaining a win over him is more evidence, to me at least, that there is something more than on the day action involved here.

    Re your comment on Wenger I agree, we cant base his ability to do this job on one game, but rather a longer period. I also disagree with you when you mention that we have gradually improved over the seasons. We can focus on statistics yes, but as you know they do not tell the complete story.

    I feel we are going in circles, looking at the grand scheme of things. We make attempts to improve however we are always pegged back by other areas that pop up. If its not numbers, it will players moving into non natural positions. If not those then it will be our tactical inflexibility. I dont want to bring up injuries because that is a result of unfortunate circumstances (or planned?) but ultimately that falls into the managers jurisdiction as well.

    In short, I think Wenger does not have what it takes to push us to the elite level anymore. At least on the field of play. He is still at the club because of two things, namely his satisfactory record on the field and history with the club.

    I believe he knows that he is not performing anymore because we have heard him speak about him sticking with the club before and that he knows the club will stick with him.

    Personally I believe he should retire at the end of the season, with a more modernised management style.

  220. On my above note on tactical inflexibility. I must also state that in fairness to Wenger, I have been impressed with our approach in the Man City, Chelsea and United games from a tactical and overall shape point of view. This proves to me that I am not fully correct regarding Wenger not being tactical.

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