Kalm down kalm down kalm down

Posted on by Tony Attwood

by Bulldog Drummond

It is strange the way that journalists seize on some issues and not others irrespective of consequence.

Arsenal beat Liverpool 2-0 at Stadium Wenger on 2 November 2013, lost 5-1 at the building site on 8 February 2014, and then beat Liverpool again chez nous on 16 February 2014.

Of course the big score match made the biggest headlines because it was the easiest story for the journalists to write, but if we take a look for a moment of the consequences of that match, we’ll see a different story.

If Arsenal had beaten Liverpool in February this year, as we did in the other two matches between the two last season, the league table would have seen Arsenal finish in third on goal difference and Liverpool fourth (yes it was that close, but don’t expect any journalist to tell you).  They would have had to play in the prelim round of the Champions League rather than us.  As it was Liverpool automatically got into the group stages and won one in six and got knocked out.  We got through the preliminary round and are in the knock out.

But what about the Cup match?  Had that result been reversed we would have not won the cup and the journalists and their fellow travellers, would now be talking of ten years without a trophy.

So, all told the cup result was infinitely more important than the league result, but it harmed the journalist’s story so doesn’t now get mentioned.  Funny that.

Now we have another story – the continuing notion that players can be bought and sold at will, irrespective of their own wishes, and because Arsène didn’t buy a defender, he is a meanie.   The boss was even moved to respond to that saying, “There is a huge difference between the perception that people have of me and [the reality]: I’m not scared to spend money.  If you go out with me one night, you will understand that.”   Not that he’s likely to be seen in the company of the mob that have hounded him since literally first day at the club.

Brendan Rodgers however is the man of the moment after having beaten Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic (as they were called for most of their life).  So that’s all right although their most recent league form LLWWDL isn’t quite so snappy.   Ours is far from perfect but LLWWLW is a little better.  Maybe we’ll both lose.

[Is this what you youngsters call ‘gallows humour’? – Tony]

 Szczesny

Debuchy Chambers the BFG Gibbs

The Ox, Flamini, Cazorla

Sanchez Giroud Welbeck.

If anyone can find the bench among the building work and house demolition, then upon that place we might see one or two of these:

Martínez, Hayden, Bellerín, Coquelin, Podolski, Campbell, Akpom, Sanogo, Monreal, Walcott

But of all those listed we also have “the doubts” afflicting Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, and Monreal.   Bellerin, also has been improving game upon game, and he might get another shot.

There’s been a lot written here about Liverpool in the build up to this match but in essence their problems can be expressed readily enough… Luis Suárez has gone to pastures new, Daniel Sturridge is injured, and Mario Balotelli was never likely to make a big impression.  But their manager compares Sterling in his current role with Alexis Sánchez which is an interesting thought.  Maybe he’s right.

And it is worth considering for although few Arsenal fans that I know have much time for anything Liverpudlian, we really must do the decent thing and acknowledge what Rodgers said this week about Arsène.

“He has been an iconic figure for football, he has been amazing.  You get criticised when you don’t win games but some of the personal stuff he takes is disgraceful, absolutely disgraceful.  He fell over in a train station and they were videoing it, taking pictures of him, and then people print it. What happened to him the other week at West Brom was absolutely disgraceful, as a leading figure in football, a real statesman of the game, it was really poor. But that is the modern world, unfortunately. Six or seven months ago, I was the manager of the year. I was going to be this and that and tactically I was this and that. But because we lost two world-class players one out of the club, one injured I am useless.”

So, good words from Mr Rodgers, but otherwise same tedious stuff from the AAA and the journalists.    No contemplation how Arsenal might have been with some of the injured players not being injured but instead, would Arsenal be getting ready for relegation were it not for the fact that Sanchez came our way.  It is all a bit daft.

 What we have going into this game are these facts

  • As noted above, out of the three matches between the two teams last season Liverpool won one and Arsenal two.
  • The single match Liverpool won last season was Liverpool’s second win over Arsenal in the last 14 Premier League games between the clubs.
  • Liverpool v Arsenal has generated five hat tricks – more than any other fixture in Premier League history.   You can read about one of them by T Henry in today’s piece on the Arsenal History Site
  • In the last six league games between the two there have been four goals in added time.
  • Liverpool’s magnificent defeat of Bournemouth was their third win in their last 11 games.
  • Last season Liverpool did have an excellent scoring record – we can’t doubt it, scoring in every league game save two.  This season so far they have failed to score in five.  Arsenal have failed to score in one match this season – the defeat to Chelsea..
  • Arsenal have only lost one of the last six matches in all competitions (the Stoke defeat)

The Untold Index

 

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172 Replies to “Kalm down kalm down kalm down”

  5. We will play football so sexy all they can do is stand and watch and cum in their pants. Should have been 7-1 but keeper gets man of the Man of the match and a dive my sterling.

  6. COYG !

    And in the immortal words of Michael Palin from A Fish called Wanda – “R R R R R R R Revenge !!!!”

  7. “Not that he’s likely to be seen in the company of the mob that have hounded him since literally first day at the club. ” 😀 😀 😀

    The impression I get is that Liverpool fans are not fancying there chances for this one. I think The Ox is still doubtful. I wonder if we’ll see Coquelin in midfield, which seems like the best solution.

    The problem for Liverpool is that Balotellitubby has been awful and Sterling has been off form recently so it’s not clear where the goals will come from.

    Our problem, besides injuries, will be Michael Oliver.

    Anyway, it’s good to finally hear Wenger get the praise he deserves from his fellow managers, who after all know what they’re talking about, rather than the media hacks who sit in their armchairs pouring ridicule on managers having never managed themselves or having utterly failed at it. I respect Brendan Rogers much more now.

  8. This game smacks of a Scoring draw, perhaps a Desmond. if we take the lead, or are in the lead with time running out Oliver might try as hard as our opponents to redress the situation. If they take the lead, they will be able to time waste and use whatever tactics required to disrupt our passing and movement, not for the first time this season.
    Just hope this game is about the players and not the ref, as is increasingly the case.
    As ever our players will have to be very careful over cards, and any tackles in the pen area I am sure the diving antics of the likes of Gerrard and Suarez will have rubbed off on others who saw how many pens they were given last season.

  9. I take Arsenal to win with a clean sheet. Our defense is back to almost normal & our attack has more bite than Suarez. 😛 😛

  10. ARSENAL PRECAUTIONS: (1) The slow to react quickly early-on from the start of the game like it happened at the Britannia must be avoided by the Gunners today. (2) Playing to the gallery like in our home game with Man U must not be repeated by the Gunners at Anfield today. (3) The lack of holding fort at the Liberty Stadium must be abhorred by the Gunners today. And (4) the CL Emirates Stadium capitulation to Anderlecht must be buried for goods by the Gunners today. AGAIN MY ARSENAL PLOY: Szczesny. Debuchy..Chambers..BFG..Gibbs. Flamini..Coquelin. Sanchez..Cazola..Podolski. Giroud. My Bench: Martinez..Welbeck…Ajayi..Bellerin…Oxlade…Cambpell..and ? Because of cover, let the boss pls not start his 3 top strikers at once. Monreal should rest for QPR. Podolski is my joker for this game. He is to attack from deep mid-field to wide left and tracks back to cover the overlapping Gibbs. In the absent of Ramsey, Podolski has the skills and the physical attributes to do today’s holding midfield job for the gunners.

  12. And Bulldog nails the line up (according to a twit that Squawka passed on).

    Arsenal team v Liverpool: Szczesny, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Chambers, Gibbs, Flamini, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Alexis, Giroud, Welbeck

  15. My predictions: Sanchez will be hacked at least once and Michael Oliver will ignore it, and Chambers and a few others will concede soft fouls and get soft yellows.

    Well,

    COYG!
    and
    AHA!

  20. I love the traveling gooners today…

    Shouting louder than the home crowd.
    Yyyeeeeaaahhhhh.

  31. Defensively great but nothing else to talk about. Hope we step up a gear soon otherwise we’re in danger of conceding a goal.

  35. games with liverpool were never easy ones…
    almost like derby
    and arsenal almost never start fast

  40. Despite Liverpools midfield dressed in black Arsenal are showing better than the cheats

    The dive to get Flamini booked for a 2nd yellow is pathetic.

  44. Prefer to see either Debuchy on the right and Chambers in the middle or take Chambers off for Bellerin. Seriously lacking pace on the right.

  55. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  58. Wenger bet let rip. That was an awful performance. Liverpool out passed us 3-1. Thinking body snatchers. LOL!

  61. Well that was against the run of play but perfect timing. If the ref was as biased as we would all like to think then we would have 10 men by now. Hopefully the liverpool goal is a wake up call and we can actually turn up for the second half.

  64. The cunt in black is playing his part like last year. The beauty is that Arsenal know what to expect and keep the best for the last few minutes. Notice the booking for Flamini was for a similar foul to the free kick we got for our goal. The PGMO cheat is an absolute cunt!!! Please forgive me cunts because you are better than the cheats in PGMO!!!

  65. Is this half a consequence of Michael Oliver booking Flamini so early for what may have been his first offence? Such an early yellow card suggests that pressing the ball is futile as more cards would follow hence dropping off; just hope we don’t get a red card after half time…

  66. andy bishop
    he’s lucky not because of the rule of the game…
    first yellow was almost white… cos it wasnt card at all…
    “second” was a dive from liverpuddla…

  67. I am sorry we but cannot even make 10 passes together my 7 yrs counted 9 passes before be lost the ball. The only bright thing about the 1st half is the equalizer. Absolutely shambolic 1st half.

  68. I think we’ve played terrible.

    Hardly any of the ball, a quarter of there passes, and when we have it we don’t look dangerous, and worse still we keep giving it back to them.

    Flamini getting a Yellow for his first foul, even if it was a foul, is par for the course, but apart from that I don’t see that the refs been that bad.

    On the other hand we have.

    Flamini HAS to come off otherwise he WILL be sent off.

  69. Micheal Oliver First Half vs. Liverpool

    1 yellow card not given to Lucas for sliding tackle foul on gibbs
    1 yellow card wrongly given to Flamini (he got the ball first)

    4 wrong fouls (they were given away in quick succession)
    1 wrong foul against Debuchy
    1 wrong foul against Giroud
    1 wrong foul against Sanchez on Markovic
    1 wrong foul against Sanchez
    1 Advantage not given for Arsenal while we played on after small foul.
    1 wrong foul against Flamini on Lallana

  70. Gouresh – so you think the PGMO was ok with his booking of Flamini and giving a foul against Ox for a good challenge? There is an issue playing against the team that won last season with the same cheat in the middle. Remember they got a lot of goals through bad officiating.

  71. I don’t agree Famini is ‘lucky’ to still be on the pitch.

    The booking was very soft. Actually got the ball but I can see why it was ‘possibly’ a foul for ‘coming in from the side’,

    As for the 2nd, yep a foul, but he did not ‘throw’ an elbow and again was never a booking.

    To those who go on about an enforcer, surely you can see how we would just NEVER keep such a player on the park. In fact I doubt we will today !

  72. Come on Arsenal, lets get hold of the midfield, the rest will come….
    COYG aha and Amen!

  73. Jambug – I agree that we have to get Flamini subbed before he gets a red for Christmas. The Liverpool midfield in black is playing as expected. I hate the commentators but I have to listen just to get passion.

  74. I know many of you mean well, but whether or not Flamini got the ball first or not is irrelevent. Did he foul the other player? I am not watching the game, just reading commentary.

    I agree that it might be a good idea to substitute Flamini. We have Monreal and Coquelin on the bench. Monreal probably has more experience to play in midfield (in front of defence), but we did recall Coquelin. Give the youngster a chance?

    COYG!

  77. Menace. What has your comments got to do with the fact that we cannot even pass the ball? We are last on every 2nd ball. What about flamins elbow?

  81. Sterling has certainly inherited the Anfield diving syndrome, and refs buy it for them every time it seems

  87. Either substitute him or take him off the pitch. It was nasty but accidental, the guy needs medical attention off the pitch.

  92. Thought head injuries were supposed to be taken seriously this season. Stub your toe you have to be taken off for attention, What a joke!

  94. Surely Skirtle had to go off to have that bandage put on?

    Similar head injury in the Newcastle Sunderland game and he went off to be bandaged up.

    Still, wouldn’t do to have Liverpool down to 10 men for 5 minutes would it.

  95. Despite the wounds no sympathy for Skirtel,…

    What!!! !…

    ESPN standard of commentary.

  96. The kind of head injury they are trying to treat more seriously, is a concussion. What I am reading is that Skrtel’s head didn’t move in the incident. But, you people have the video links. Was there a chance of concussion?

    COYG!

  108. Well done Giroud! Now let’s be very careful of this ref and his cheating friend Mr Sterling!

  118. Our holding lay has been pants throughout this game. Really need to start digging deep!

  120. I never paid attention to the betting odds during a game. SkyBet recently (moments ago) had:

    Liverpool 16/1
    Tie 10/3
    Arsenal 2/7

    They don’t think Liverpool will catch up. I am hoping they are correct.

    COYG!

  134. Seems like a fair performance by ref. correct decision for both yellows but he could easily have not given either.

  142. Can’t blame the ref today guys. We were never really in the game despite the goals!

  150. Amazed Skittle was on the pitch. Something we can blame the ref for! – 9 minutes FFS!

  153. Liverpool win a draw with a PGMO midfield. The cheats go on. A straight red becomes a 2nd yellow – cheating bastards PGMO officials.

  156. & don’t ask me to kalm down!! I’m pissed off with the cheating that seems to rob us almost every game!!

  159. Frustrating but overall it’s hard to say we even deserved a point.

    Certainly better in the 2nd half as we at least looked dangerous but we still looked desperately exposed to the counter attack.

    The ref wasn’t great but I think it would be a bit risky to use him as an excuse today as it would, I believe, seriously undermine the situations when we really do have grounds for serious complaint.

    There are much more important issues to address today such as why, with what I believe was a far better man for man side than Liverpool, we allowed them to dominate the game for long periods?

    Or maybe we should just put it down to a bad day at the office, take the point and move on.

  160. menace

    I sympathise as the ref wasn’t great again, but neither where we, and there is no way I can put todays performance or lack of a victory, down to how the referee performed.

    Sometimes I feel it’s best to just take it on the chin and move on.

  161. helter skelter match. arsenal didnt do enough to win the midfield battle. although with arteta, ramsey, wilshere, ozil out its understandable. we worked very hard, but were never able to control the tempo of the game. great response after conceding late in the first half, and a wonderful goal from santi and giroud.

    9 minutes possibly seemed a little generous. is there a rule about treating players on the pitch for a head injury? i was suprised they didnt remove skrtel from the pitch to dress his wound.

    absolutely gutted we couldnt hold on, but probably a fair result in the end. not a bad result away at anfield but the nature of it hurts…..

  162. Borini spat at the Arsenal dug out on his way to the tunnel. I hope he gets a big fine & 4 match ban. Dirty cheats.

  166. The bastard Rodgers says Alexis dived for the free kick!! I hope the FA fine him for bringing the game into disrepute.

  168. Poor performance. Reminds me of the 4-4 – were rubbish throughout but still threw away a win!

    Bad days happen. Suffered through injuries but too many didn’t play well.

    Let’s hope we get a few more back for the Xmas programme. Quite a tricky one this year.

  169. gouresh

    And perhaps YOU should be pissed off that the referee allowed Skirtle to be bandaged up on the field of play rather than making him go off to have it done, leaving Liverpool down to 10 men of course, as happened in the Newcastle game.

    But we cant have everything can we.

  170. Although the ref was sh*t, still we drew because of our indiscipline, why dont we play park the bus in the end? Yhe midfield? Chamberlain was not fit, no other mid was fit? What the hell? We lost the mid battle, still we were winnig, buy qhy cant we hold the ball? Through it to front and defend like our lives depend on it? We need our injured back, really its affecting us.

  171. and I forgot to say, therefore not giving them the rather generous 9 minutes with which to equalise in.

    But knowing you as I do you’ll see straight past that.

  172. I hope Kos comes back soon. Every team are taking advantage of the poor Chambers. He had a nightmare, especially for the last minute equalizer. For a 19 years old new signing, I think the amount games and pressure has gotten into him. He needs a derserving rest. Despite the result, I have high hopes for the future considering the team is not fully ready yet. Cazorla just showed to the world he is guaranteed first eleven, what a performance! Watch and learn, Wilshere and Ramsey. Giroud is still the best forward in Arsenal, the amount of running and pressure he put the GK through was amazing. Debuchy was class act, he actually outjumped the giant Srktel. He had Sterlings in his pocket in 2nd half. Worry not, my fellow gunners, the stage is set after Christmas.

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