By Walter Broeckx
The team to start this match was Ospina, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rosicky, Cazorla, Alexis, Giroud. The subs were Szczesny, Bellerin, Flamini, Ramsey, Ozil, Campbell, Walcott.
So 4 changes since the last match with Ospina making his debut in the PL. Coquelin continuing as a defensive midfielder. Giroud taking his place upfront and Koscielny and Debuchy who had a rest in the cup match both starting. Chamberlain also starting again and Monreal at left back.
A first chance for Arsenal when Begovic had to save a shot from Alexis. Rosicky with an infiltration and again a super stop from Begovic. From the resulting corner Stoke cannot clear and Alexis with a new cross and Koscielny head it in from 6 meters out. That was a 1-2 combination as it was Koscielny who won the ball back. 1-0 to The Arsenal after 6 minutes.
Meanwhile Pires and Henry enjoying what they see on the pitch. But no more when Arnautovic pushes Debuchy outside the field and he falls bad and seems to have a serious injury. Bellerin comes on for the unlucky Frenchman. The ref didn’t anything wrong with the mean and unnecessary foul. Another victim from Arsenal and again the PGMO ref see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing. It looked to be a shoulder injury.
Next chance for Arsenal after 15 minutes was a low shot from Chamberlain that just went wide. And 5 minutes later another great stop from Begovic on a hard shot from Giroud who shot wide seconds later. With just under 25 minutes Ospina for the first time in action after a deflected cross that could have gone in. Good difficult stop.
Arsenal completely in control and speeding up when they want. Alexis, who else, on to a lose ball after a combination between him and Rosicky didn’t work out and he cut inside from the left and surprised everyone when he shot at the near angle. Amazing quick feet and Shawcross didn’t know what way it went. 2-0 for Arsenal after 33 minutes.
Minutes later Crouch once again waving his arms around full in the face of Monreal. The 3 monkeys from the PGMO once again in full force. After a few stitches Monreal could continue. Shawcross then stopping Giroud of the ball…3 monkeys stuff. Crouch planting his studs on the foot of Mertesacker… 3 monkeys… At half time it was 2-0 for Arsenal and that was about right.
A few minutes after the break a foul on Chamberlain. Alexis behind the ball and he planted it in the bottom corner, Begovic seemed to stop it but it trickled over the line from Begovic, the post and then again the keeper. .3-0 to the Arsenal after 48 minutes.
Giroud being fouled and Wollsheid gets a yellow card. Finally a Stoke player being warned. Arsenal now seemingly complete in control. Chamberlain with a good run but the cross from Alexis couldn’t find another Arsenal player.
Foul on Alexis ref gives advantage but only Giroud on the left flank so no real advantage. Ref gives a yellow against Cameron when the ball goes out. That is a good decision.
Tackle from behind from Crouch on Coquelin and the yellow card comes out against the Stoke player. A great combination between the Ox and Cazorla leading to a big chance but the Spaniard lobs the ball over the cross bar. That was the last action from Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo comes on after 68 minutes.
And a few minutes later Özil makes his return and Giroud comes off. Cazorla seemingly dropping a bit lower on the field after that. Alexis next with a long lob but the ball goes well over. Stoke thought they had a consolation goal but it was ruled out for an offside. When Crouch headed the boll the Stoke player was offside so a correct decision. On the other side Alexis away gives the ball to Theo who drags his shot wide. This should have been the 4-0.
An amazing backpass from Özil who without seeing sees Monral behind his back, but the cross ends up between a bunch of Stoke legs. Özil who could do nothing right for the ref it seems. Whenever he came close to a Stoke player the whistle went but he could be pushed without punishment. Özil then missing a shot with his weaker right foot after being released on the right flank.
Arsenal now playing the match out without really upping the tempo. The match was well won so no need to risk any more legs. Ospina being well awake on a backwards header from Bellerin. And seconds later Oooooooospina with a real great stop on a low shot from Ireland.
A good win from Aresnal and we could afford to play with the hadnbrake on for the last half hour.
Good Old Rosicky proving his worth again. Bellerin becoming better and better and he still has to learn a lot! Theo still being rusty but it will come. Özil being rusty a bit but wait till he gets his game together. Santi once again being great. Coquelin continuing to produce impressive performances. Oooooooospina being excellent.
And Alexis…. what more can you say about this little man. Just say it in the comment section yourself.
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Want to make a comment? Have a look at the rules.
Yes, it is a bad shoulder injury. Dislocation. I think if we are lucky, 6 weeks.
Seeing Rosicky – who wears No.7 just like Robert Pires used to – and Alexis – the best player Arsene Wenger has signed since Thierry Henry – making a combination before Alexis’ first goal in front of Thierry’s and Bobby’s eyes was poetic. 🙂
Was thinking to myself when watching the game , that Santi was the spark ,while Alexis was the accelerant – and whooshhhh Stoke were ashes !
Brickfields
Nice description about Stoke.
I wasn’t looking for “no punch line”, I was looking for something on wasps.
@ Gord – I ‘ve already voted that joke as the best one yet for this year , but will do my utmost to ‘sting’ you back !
Am buzzing off for now . See you on the morrow .
G’NIGHT.
The ref in the Man Utd v SOTON game, Mark Halsey, is having a nightmare not giving Southampton any thing.
Moss from Manchester was terrible in our game, something is not right. Are they totall incompetent or biased?
This was a very enjoyable match with a fine result – it is always satisfying to beat the Orcs and Sparky also.
It was an excellent all round performance from our guys, with Sanchez really outstanding, what a player!
The downside was the totally unnecessary foul and injury to Debuchy – with possibly an extended recovery time – straining our resources once again.
The PGMO representative was exceptionally poor and certainly favored Stoke with a number of decisions – unfortunately just the usual nonsense from the PGMO.
Despite Moss and despite the thugs it was an excellent win and three valuable points.
I was over the moon when we signed him and must say had high expectations of him but now Alexis Sanchez is making me think we finally replaced Thierry Henry. Sheer class and even our friends the AAA mob could not fault him. What a magnificent signing by Arsene Wenger heh? By the way it was great to see Henry and Pires at the Emirates and both looking good and enjoying themselves.
I caught a glimpse of Robin van Judas walking to Old T dressing room and he looks soo unhappy!
Nice day and sunshine in London.
Arsene’s Interview is up at Arsenal.com
> on why he dropped Szczesny…
>> I do not want to talk too much about that because the more I talk, the less I inform you.
> on whether it was disciplinary…
>> No. Honestly, no.
Earlier, he was asked about the push on Debuchy. I have seen quite a few dislocated shoulders in broomball. Push a player just a little, about 3-4 feet away from the boards, and bingo, dislocated shoulder. To fall onto the ground wouldn’t normally be a problem, it is our reaction to the board being there, which makes the dislocation almost a sure thing.
Arnautovic is from Austria, and broomball is played in Germany. Would he have played when he was younger? Nothing at Wikipedia about this.
If the league don’t take action re the foul then I would like to see arsenal or Debuchy taking a private prosecution against the Stoke player and the referee for contributory negligence. I suspect neither will happen though.
@ Andrew – pigs will fly over frozen hell.
Unlike Liverpool game, Arsenal played a man down for a period of time rather than stopping game to treat man on the field!
It is also time to start a media campaign for retrospective punishment for violent conduct.
Debuchy smashed:
http://gfycat.com/DismalArcticImperatorangel
Stoke are a disgusting team, with a manager and fanbase to match.good to see them on the end of quite a comprehensive thrashing. Our boys were excellent, some great performances in a vibrant team.stoke could only exist among the dinosaurs who currently run the English game and the corrupt and biased officials that police it. I await motd with interest but little expectation.
The refs this weekend have been an absolute shambles, moss used to be one of the better ones , but he is clearly now towing someone’s line.
Don’t see how much longer Riley can survive with these performances week in week out. Some of these refs are so useless, only a matter of time before one of them accidentally costs one of the favoured teams, maybe that’s when they will act on the cancer that is mike Riley.
But again, well done the team and manager, Alexis really is something.
Hope Debuchy is soon ok.
And in other news – Shampton leading 1-0.
The ref is still very capable of helping the c***s turn it around, mind you.
Utd in desperate need of the pgmol cavalry
Others will make the headlines, but anyone else notice that Monreal is getting a bit good these days?
Mandy it’s coming – 5 minutes for WHAT ?!
Hope Debuchy makes a speedy recovery.
Every Arsenal player was great. Ref was a disgrace. Stoke were disgusting as usual. Special mention for Bellerin and Coquelin.
Some amazing reports, also: Debuchy injured after “colliding” with opponent — Monreal injured after “clashing” with Crouch.
Yep , even Fergietime couldn’t save em.
As pleasing as is to see Utd lose, almost wanted that match as a draw, Southampton are a serious threat to a top four place, and we know Utd will be given as much help as possible.
But, ultimately, well done Southampton.
Rantetta
Thanks for that link, didn’t watch due to other commitments, and how anyone can label that a collision is beyond me.
I really hope that section of our fans who refuse to blame these biased refs take note. I can’t remember if it was Menace who said, yesterday, that Crouch will be flailing his arms around hitting everyone around him like a demented octopus. And to think the exact same thing happened 24 hrs later??? The pgmob is corrupt, and anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded. Get well soon Matt.
Crouch is well known for using his elbows. When he played for England, foreign refs wouldn’t allow him away with such tactics, to the point he became a liability for England, especially in big matches when he picked up cards very very frequently.
Only our refs, who , for some reason seem to quite like bet365 Stoke let him away with using his elbows.
Some English refs are corrupt, some are biased, some are ambitious and do what they know their boss wants, and some are spineless, pathetic, useless. Seems precious few are none of the above, and the ones that are do not stay that way for long under mike Riley.
Looking through Google News for latest headlines, there are a LOT of Spanish language news articles!
Stoke fans were told there was going to be train problems on the way home. The power lines are down. Near Rugby. How fitting. 🙂
—
Ah, gee! ManU lost.
From the BBC:
> Something I never thought I would write – Manchester United did not have a single shot on target. Wow.
I don’t see a parade of BBC muppets calling for penalties for ManU. Nothing close enough?
—
In other news, Podolski got a start for Inter. During the game, an Inter defender clearing the ball, accidentally floored Mancini by hitting him in the face with the ball. In one picture of a series, you can see Mancini laughing. about it. Sitting on the ground.
—
Walter, did you know Junior Malanda? I gather Bendtner now plays for Wolfsburg, he says something in the BBC note.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30764513
Rantetta,
UB starting off 2015 in great form! – what with that link to a criminal act. The Cretinous Coward Artinovauch is already two feet over the line when he pushes Matt D. forward with two front cloven paws. That is a blatant assault. AFC MUST protect itself and Demand reparations. The Guardian’s min-by-min online coverage produced a “Premier League” description that stated how Debuchy “then fell awkwardly.” Fell Awkwardly!!!
PGMOB is criminally negligent or perhaps just drop the negligent bit. The groundswell needs to demand competency and fairness for the good of the game; and the FAll needs to realize that we see through their masks. Oh, sorry, we do have goal line technology and have the honor to pay for its contractors with higher ticket prices.
On the plus side, the crowd – it was noted, even in the Guardian – BOOED OFF THE OFFICALS AT HALF TIME. Perhaps even the Refshite had to appear to do something by awarding 3 yellow cards to the Orcs on their way home to Mordor. Surely they’ll regard them as trophies.
So Debuchy out for a while now all because of a cowards completely unnecessary push that clattered him into the advertising hoardings – and not a word against the offender form the referee or the media. Its not as if we can even fight back – if we did our players would see red in an instant. Something has to change with refereeing or the game is going to die completely.
Wouldn’t you just know it. Mark Hughes has lept to the defence of his player. He is not that kind of boy, there was no malice.
http://www.goal.com/en-sg/news/3991/premier-league/2015/01/12/7868592/hughes-defends-arnautovic-after-debuchy-incident
It was a nice game to be at. I’ll try and write it up tonight or tomorrow. Just got in 6.30pm. It’s bloody cold out there.
and Moss was in clear line of sight to see the push on Debuchy. A Sunderland player got sent off for an accidental trip of legs yesterday near the touchline by a ref who was much further away from the incident. Ok, the linesman might have flagged for the free kick but I doubt he also ordered a yellow card be issued.
You know, you’d think after all the noise Poll has been making about them being incompetent they’d at least try and show they’re not over the next few weeks. But it seems like they’re trying their best to prove him right! Although I’d use the word incompetent with some reservations, bias is more like it. Any sane individual can tell which way the fouls/decisions will be going just by looking at the team names in 99% of PL matches even before a ball is kicked. Disgusting.
Happy with win
– great team performance
Not happy with the ref though – a dislocated shoulder, and a stapled eye all within 30 minutes – not a yellow card, or even a foul ??? I would love to see the justification of this!
On an unrelated note, i see that Man city are buying Bony from Swansea (via BBC – which is usually pretty reliable for this)
Now asides from the fact that spending £30 million or so on a FOURTH choice striker is ridiculous – i thought that City loaned / sold (who know what they do with contracts now – aka Lampard lol haha) Negrado, as they had too many players
– 1 – how is this passing FFP
– 2 – how stupid of them to loan/sell a similar player, and then 6 months later, purchase a similar one ???
Disgusting performance by the ref (whoever he was).
The foul on Debuchy was absolutely ridiculous.
Still, the plus point is that Arsene (who does not do tactics) proved to be an absolute master.
The way the team played and the individual selections were brilliant, to say the least.
And he had the good sense not to ply Theo, Ozil or Ramsey until he game was dead, and they were less likely to get a good kicking.
Got to love Allen Smith Stoke are not as combative as they used to be at this time we had one player with a dislocated shoulder and a one that needed staples in a cut over the eye.
If they where any more combative we’d need to start digging trenches at the emirates.
I think Arnautovic should pay for Debuchy’s wages AND his rehab, and that he shouldn’t play until Debuchy is fit again to play. Looking at some of those pictures, you would think that Arnotthatkindofplayervic was trying to get Debuchy to stand up because he was just faking injury.
—
Tony was saying it is cold there. Looking at the BBC front page, it looks like +7? Or was that the high today?
It’s a balmy -25C outside here. I can send you some snow, I’ve got lots. 🙂
Having been to the game today I am now watching a recording of the game. Am I imagininig it or are sky showing fewer replays of fouls and contentious decisions?
@ gunnerjoe
LOOOOOL LOL lol lol
i am actually laughing so much > trenches hahaahaa
When the commentator said Stoke are not as combatative as they used to at that time, i did take notice, but i just brushed it off as more biased bullsh*t from these “pundits”
Gotta love the reason for Crouch constantly elbowing players…..He’s tall.
Wonder if one day, our players will resort to this!
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/video-team-walks-pitch-anger-4959848
Here’s a report from someone at the game (far side from where Debuchy got mugged by Stoke). A small excerpt:
> However the crowd got very fed up with the referee who seemed to ignore the dirty niggling tactics used by Stoke, the first of whom I think of is Crouch. Who after every infringement held out his Giraffe forelimbs in a Bambi like gesture. The ref, who had cried all the way through Bambi, failed to notice much of this, but in the end he tired of Crouch’s tactics and booked him, huge cheer from crowd.
http://www.thefootballnetwork.net/main/s378/st188163.htm
Mandy, I have been begging Wenger to do something like this for a few years now.
Still no real news about what is or isn’t happening to Benik Afobe. But apparently someone at MK Dons made a t-shirt in honour of what Benik Afobe has brought to them this season.
http://www.mkweb.co.uk/BENIK-AFOBE-T-shirt-paying-homage-Arsenal-loanee/story-25807259-detail/story.html
It looks Benik is at least getting a name, and starting a career. Congratulations, where ever you end up.
Debuchy caused a foul by thrusting his back into the fist of Arnautovic and should have received a yellow. He must pay for any damage to the advertising hoarding.
Similarly, Monreal deliberately and dangerously stuck his head in the way of Crouch’s flailing arms and got rightly hurt. Should have received a yellow and warned about his future conduct.
Don’t forget Alexis getting a stern telling off for reminding the ‘Ref’ that deliberate hand ball is a yellow card offence.
Beautiful, Hahahahah stoke or was that a stroke?
Fat Shit of a ref, i’ve questioned these fat useless bags of lard officiating a game.
praying Debuchy recovers quick. Well done, celebrated with 6 points.
Whilst keeping the right arm lower, get the left up high, them smash backward. Remove the eye socket. Job done.
http://gfycat.com/FastMadeupFish
bob
You’re correct.
Al. Thanks.
I really think this whole thing should be highlighted in whatever way possible. I know some of us like to blame manager/boardroom/tealady – for not coming out with it, but if you thinl about Reyes, Diaby, Adebayor (Stoke’s chief Orc kicked his ankles away with an approving nod from the ref – 3 weeks out), and so, so many more incidents, after which Arsenal have complained – they’ve ALWAYS lead to even more violence on our players.
Simultaneously the P+P, Press and poodits (Ta, Va Cong) slurp the anus of the narrative; Whingers. whiners, pussycats, lightweight…
Match poodits inc. the one I suffered today, Jim Beglin???????? I mean – ****!
Sorry, I can’t take it. It can’t go on forever. I’m conflicted about feeling hurt at the treatment of my team – because my hurt isn’t anything like that of M Deb 2.
I daren’t say any more.
Pleased to say that the crowd sang a rousing chorus of ‘Your’re not fit to referee!’
Comments about ref disgrace and injuries are quite right.
But it was an incredibly enjoyable game to watch, and we played brilliantly!
The self inflicted defeat by two mistakes against Southampton are a bit more hurting right now by me. We should and could have had a draw at least there and then now would be level on points with them and Utd.
Bellerin and Coquelin the unsung heroes today, Stoke were a joke!
BBC, bullshit broadcasting Corp only influence paedophiles and lie about anything questioning their sick agenda.
Walter
I think we will finish ahead of both Southampton and man cheats.
The BBC’s part-time muppet looks to become more permanent. Earlier today, Joey “I can hack anyone down” Barton was telling Arsenal to pick up some kid from Everton in the transfer market. Now that mental marvel is telling us what sets Alexis Sanchez apart.
Joey, go find some other team to be interested in. I am sure Blyth Spartans would be overjoyed to have your sparkling personality focused on them.
Just watching a re-run of this match, Giroud could easily have a got a penalty after that thug shawcross shoved him off the ball with no attempt to play the ball. I’m supposed to be happy with this one but I’m seething inside, an injustice like this has no place in football; not on our home ground, not anywhere else for that matter.
Good job Alexis manged to squeeze that free kick in, the wall was something like 5 yards away from the ball! Is it me or does this fat guy moss look like he has something weighing down on him heavily? He doesn’t appear to have the arrogance of other tw*ts like probert/dean/taylor, he looks confused most of the time, like he’s trying to follow someone’s instructions but clearly struggling. He looks clumsy (is he the one that sprayed Carzola with the vanishing foam in the eyes?), almost troubled in fact. I’d say him and Marriner certainly don’t look like they are enjoying their job at the moment. Maybe I’m just imagining things, but would be nice if he’s having sleepless nights about something 🙂
….happy with this win**
Interesting about Chesny. And interesting comments from Mr Wenger. Think that was a stern warning rather than an end of career thing.If reports to be believed, the keeper was furious and surprised at his omission. As ever with our press, that if is a big if , in the very biggest font, and in bold.
That said, Stan collymore writing in the mirror today to the effect that our manager has lost respect and authority as he is too soft on players and should be replaced at haste by Diego Simeone. I take it mr collymore either does not research what he writes, or he wrote it before seeing today’s team sheet. Or maybe he was too busy up to his well documented, unsavoury practices.
Dumb press.
The BBC (for example) has: “Debuchy suffers dislocated shoulder”.
What a dumb title! “Debuchy suffers influenza” is about as useful and accurate. I’m sorry, how one acquires a dislocated shoulder requires more information.
Yes, Debuchy was walking out of his home to his car, and stopped to look at the tire on his car, and suddenly his shoulder dislocated itself. Doctors at the local hospital are baffled, “This just doesn’t happen, that a shoulder spontaneously dislocates”.
Shoulder dislocations take force to happen, large force, and self-preservation usually keeps us from self-dislocating our shoulder.
Did you know that all of the players at Stoke are chosen for their technical skill, and their abhorence to using illegal physical means to influence play? Did you know that Mark Hughes has decided that once he has accomplished all he can with thisw perfect bunch of ethical athletes at Stoke City, he is going to become a monk and live out his remaining days doing penance for all the evil things he did at Manchester United as a player.
Debuchy didn’t just develop a dislocated shoulder, some thug on Stoke dislocated his shoulder. Debuchy was at the touch line, shadowing a ball rolling out of touch. And one of the perfect darlings of Stoke decided to give him a push in the direction of the hoardings to express his discust at Debuchy not letting the Stoke player stop the ball from going out of touch. Oops, I am sorry. The Stoke players are all little darlings, and don’t suffer from disgust. One of the blades of grass at the Emirates in that region was 37 microns (0.037 mm) longer than than the rest of the grass blades in that immediate vicinity, and the Stoke player tripped over this HUGE obstruction, and in so doing accidentally pushed Debuchy towards the advertising hoardings. Surely Debuchy heard the surprise in Arnotthatkindofplayervic’s voice upon tripping over this HUGE obstruction, and hence should have anticipated being pushed by Arnotthatkindofplayervic? Yes, Arnotthatkindofplayervic did slightly push Debuchy. But Mark Hughes feels that the Arsenal player was looking to take advantage of the situation, and decided to fall in such a way that his shoulder dislocated. Mark Hughes insists that no amount of fault be applied to his player Arnotthatkindofplayervic because he is such a perfect darling. In fact, he is insisting that Debuchy be charged with Simulation, because he embellished the push, and actually damaged his own shoulder in doing so.
And as far as that other incident 5 years ago, Mark Hughes remembers talking to Shawcrossateverylivingthing about this incident after the emotional turmoil within Shawcrossateverylivingthing settled down at having accidentally broken another living creature’s leg. Apparently Shawcrossateverylivingthing said that he was just running along, and the grass looked so nice that he just had to go sliding on it, and it was only after he started sliding that suddenly he seen that leg in front of him and seen that he was going to collide with it. And it was so horrible, hearing that crack and seeing that unnatural bend in the leg. Hughes said that Shawcrossateverylivingthing had nightmares about that incident for a couple of years afterwards.
Apparently Shawcrossateverylivingthing had never hurt any living thing before this. He never stepped on worms on the sidewalk, he never pulled the legs off spiders, the wings off flys or any of the other things you often hear young boys doing. And he was sick for months after he heard that one of his friends had skinned a live frog after trapping it between the chain and the sprocket on his bicycle after catching it at the local wetlands.
Bridges for sale. I have a perfect copy of Tower Bridge, London situated on the upper Thelon River in the Northwest Territories, Canada.
@Gord
Well put.
I do remember that nice guy Shawcross had previous – if I remember correctly he was involved in possibly two pre Ramsey leg breaks.
Gord My bloods boiling again it’s making if me want to do a drive. Let’s go!
Yes, Gord, Yes.
Anyway, Crouchio ain’t that kinda playaarrr:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JURU3iFmRxs
BJT
I have done athletic first aid for so many years, I really dislike injurying people. I research how to rehab the injury, and I (used ot) have a good idea on how long rehab is going to take.
I started with football, but then for a couple of years a bunch of us football people decided to try broomball. And yes, I dislocated another player’s shoulder. A new rule had come in about hitting from behind (meant to cut down on shoulder dislocations in the sport). And this player in my corner of the rink received the ball and then seen me coming to check him, and he turns his back to me, so that I end up hitting him from behind. And in hitting him from behind, I dislocate his shoulder. If he would have not of turned, he would never of gotten seriously hurt.
But if this Stoke player from Austria has ever played broomball, he knew almost exactly that Debuchy would dislocate his shoulder from what he did. Heck, even just having friends playing broomball would have been enough.
This is what the referees are supposed to protect players from. It is just so damned stupid. You get some brain dead referee who spends entirely too much time kissing Mike Riley’s 😈 ass, and he gleefully ignores fouls, and we get another player out for 6 weeks (quite likely more).
He just got off 3+ months injury, because some idiot broke his ankle. Under some PGMO directive.
I suspect that Stoke thug probably had 80+% certainty in his head, when he pushed Debuchy, that he would dislocate his shoulder. And truth be known, that damned thug will probably get a bonus at the end of the season for this.
And The FA will probably rule the referee seen the incident, and so they can’t do anything. Deliberate injury at no cost. No red card, no yellow card, not even a foul. Bunch of chicken shits!
You should’ve seen motd2. They had Barton on there! Check out his rap sheet.
Following the highlights Barton introduced a piece showing Stoke and Chelsea’s way of stopping Alexis – by fouling him. ‘This is how you fuck up Arsenal’, he might as well have said.
The Shawcross Scythe:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o67ftN-B6r8
Crouch probably has said forever, “I am so tall, I can’t help what happens”. Or something to that effect.
A few days ago, I seen a picture of Mertesacker. He was probably heading a ball, and I don’t remember where I seen it. And Mertesacker is not much shorter than Crunch (sorry, I mean Crouch).
It was the PERFECT jump to head a ball!!!!!! His arms were at his sides, his legs were straight, his toes were pointed at the ground. He was trying to get as high as he could, and all of the force and actions he applied were just to attain height. All players regardless of height should strive to jump as he did.
As the laws require (except PGMO can’t figure out what the laws are).
Excellent point Gord.
Mandy
I don’t think Arsene Wenger could ever lose the respect of his players but I do believe some of his players need a less than a friendly reminder every now and again they are there to do a job and not just enjoy themselves and collect a hefty paycheck.
Players such as Alexis or Fabregas or Henry before them, are consummate professionals who don’t (didn’t) need reminding to stay focus, but I think it’s safe to say there are some players who seem just happy to be there ,so to speak.
Szczesny being the prime example here. His comments regarding Ospina, right after Wenger had signed him ,were less than welcoming and professional I thought. His latest incident and especially how he reacted in the aftermath of it , stating how he fully expected to remain the NR 1 keeper and then sulking on the bench during the game when dropped, were lees than desirable. He needs to realize that he’s never going to become an Arsenal legend by mocking the Spurs on social media alone.
Also, seeing Arsenal players laughing it up during the practice session the day after the Anderlecht game was very telling I thought. Guess who wasn’t smiling though?
Alexis ,off course.
Thanks Rantetta and VaCong.
Let’s say that PGMOL headquarters (and satellite offices) get wiped out in some “accident”.
The next day, Mike Riley appeals to the public to find who did this dasterdly deed.
“We need to find our records, because otherwise we need to assume that all referees are honest, attentive and honest”.
Tom
You may be assuming facts not in evidence. I have no evidence to say so, I am just putting up some information which may help.
For whatever reason, Arsenal has decided that if you don’t run Windows or Mac, they will not support you. Hence, I can never get a significant fraction of product that Arsenal produces, as I will not run any M$ product or Apple.
That notwithstanding, you are making claims about data. When did you download the data? Is that the date that is tripping your analysis? The files may have creation, modification and access dates. Have you looked at them? Many picture formats have date fields (evif?), do the dates in those fields agree with the other date fields?
Please, check all the date information you can find. If the picture is bright and sunny, and the weather office says that at that time it was raining or snowing, something is wrong.
It is entirely possible that what you have found is correct. I am just suggesting a way to check that the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed.
I hope you enjoyed Arsenal winning this weekend.
More musing about things I am not competent to muse about.
Loic Perrin seems to make sense. More for a loan than a purchase. We need temporary cover at center back, he is a capable center back in the French 1st Division. Arsenal would like to see Yaya Sanogo go on loan to the EPL, but maybe they could see him go to France. Supposedly Benik Afobe is to be sold to Wolverhampton, something seems to be holding things up. Maybe Benik is to be sold to St. Etienne?
I am not competent to muse in this. But to send one or two strikers to France in exchange for the loan of an experienced cetral defender might make sense.
@ Gord – just re the shoulder dislocation thing, as someone who suffers from a dislocated shoulder, I must say that it didn’t take a lot of force – I was surfing at zero speed, end of the day, quite tired, talking to my friend and was not minding the terrain. I hit a bump at really, zero speed – and due to being so out of focus (lack of speed does that to you) – I stumbled to my bum, and stupidly sent my left arm backwards (never do that! Our bums are very suitable for absorbing impact). Dislocated left shoulder.
Maybe Tom, as I saw do think the keeper took a bit of a broadside this weekend, and not for the first time. Take your point about player attitudes, the trouble is , many of them, or perhaps the Europeans at least will have come through the academy system and been relatively cosseted right through it. Some of these guys, and I included our keeper are talented and know it. They might have not all have the hunger or work ethics of Thierrys generation, or those who came before him, or a player who grew up in poverty. Alexis is a great professional , hope his attitudes rub off on younger players. Every day I become more amazed Barca let him go, but glad they did.
@ Mandy – Barca let him go because he wanted to. It seems that it’s not easy to live under Messi’s shadow / dictations (choose whatever you believe). Sanchez did have good stats @ Barca but was not free to do whatever he wants – which is basically what he does for us. To be limited to the wing is not suitable for Alexis – he needs freedom. Same goes for Suarez, who only yesterday produced a fine performance after quite some time; it also took Neymar a whole year to get into the program.
Gord I meant drive by shooting lol
@ TommieGun
Hope the shoulder’s sound now mate. I’d just like to make a couple of observations that came to mind though. Firstly, we weren’t even a quarter of the way through the game so Debuchy wasn’t tired. Secondly, you say that you were out of focus. I’m assuming this means you weren’t expecting anything to happen. My take on that is, that neither was Debuchy but something did happen i.e. he was fouled quite unexpectedly since the ball was already out of play.
I don’t thin for one moment you were defening the Stoke player but I think your experience throws some interesting light on the incident which still leads to the conclusion that this was a bad foul which should have resulted in a booking (as opposed to the MotD commentary where, on seeing the replay, the pundit stated “nothing happened there”!!!)
well Tommie, whatever the reason, just very glad we have him, he looks pleased to be here as well!
Mandy
“The refs this weekend have been an absolute shambles, moss used to be one of the better ones , but he is clearly now towing someone’s line.
Don’t see how much longer Riley can survive with these performances week in week out”
You said you didn’t hold out much hope regarding how MOTD would reflect on the Debuchy/Monreal incidents. You where right.
Commentator:
Debuchy: “Nothing in that, they just ran in to each other”
Monreal: “No nothing there, Crouch just going for the ball. They both had there arms raised”
Post match analysis:
Neither event discussed.
Also as Rantetta points out, they where actually ‘highlighting’ how trying to kick Alexis off the park is the way to go if you want to stop him. And what’s more, it wont get you a Red or even a Yellow card, or even a talking to. In fact it will get you plaudits for ‘bravely’ ‘getting in his face’. That is the term used these days for putting our players in Hospital isn’t it?
WalterBroeckx
“The self inflicted defeat by two mistakes against Southampton are a bit more hurting right now by me. We should and could have had a draw at least there and then now would be level on points with them and Utd.”
Been thinking the exact same thing. I was so gutted after that defeat. Listening to the pundits, seeing some reports, I was dreading watching MOTD etc. and the shite we would get, so I didn’t bother. Felt better after the Hull victory so I thought I’d brave it and watched it on Arsenal TV, and guess what? It was nothing like the impression given by the media, and as usual was much closer to the UA match report. No surprise there. Apart from shooting ourselves in the foot we where OK. Not brilliant. OK. As they have proved many times, not least at the Em’s, twice, Southampton are a very very good side. United where totally out played at St. Marys and never got at sniff at OT. In reality we at least deserved a draw at St. Marys but blew it. As you say, hind sight is making it even more painful.
Get well soon Matt and thanks lads for putting that bunch of thugs and there vile fans in there place.
@TommieGun
I had a friend who had a loose shoulder, but that was because he had dislocated his shoulder a number of times. Yours was lose on the first occurence?
I’ve run across treatment methods for backcountry resetting that are painful.
Because as a ball and socket design, it is so ineffective, the ligaments have a hard time holding things in place. The first place to start, is strengthening all of the rotator cuff muscles. And typically, they are just small muscles. Getting them stronger takes a while. But if you don’t, you leave yourself open to recurrences.
In the old days, if the joint was too lose, it got pinned. Which restricts motion. Today, they might go in a shorten ligaments, or put in shorter ligaments. Arsenal’s doctor will be up to date on this.
@TommieGun
> I had a friend who had a loose shoulder, but that was because he had dislocated his shoulder a number of times. Yours was lose on the first occurence?
It was on his Nth dislocation of the right shoulder, that I took him to the university hospital late in the day. They had 2 emergency wards, and he was the last admission of the day into the one of the two that shut down for the night. There was 1 nurse and 1 doctor in the ward. They were giving him a combination of 2 drugs to prepare him for the reset. They asked me to stick around, just in case they couldn’t find another nurse to assist the reset. The other nurse was located, and he was anchoring the sheet wrapped around the torso, and I watched the doctor take hold of the arm and put his foot up near the armpit and reset the shoulder.
—
But going back to broomball, the force of the push was almost irrelevent, because nobody had a stable body position (we were standing on ice after all). It seemed to be mostly the distance to the boards. Right on top of the boards, or quite a distance away, there was no problem. When you go to be about 1 body length away from the boards, there was a problem.
@ Goonermikey- thanks, it happened 10 years ago so I’m fine now and re Gord – since then I suffer from a loose shoulder, but I wasn’t up until then. It hurt like hell to put it back in place and I have a limit in my range which the doctor said would last forever (for instance: can’t do the chest butterfly machine @ the gym, or for that matter, anything that takes my arm beyond [backwards] the imaginary line of my torso). Other than that I had to work a lot to strengthen certain muscles in my upper back and in my tricep in order to compensate.
You are correct that I was tired and out of focus – which contributed 100% to my injury (no one bumped into me, it was zero speed). I was just making the point that a shoulder dislocation is not NECESSARILY due to impact.
And re exonerating Arnautovich the thug – NEVER. It was deliberate and cheap. A push to the back, like a coward. It was bad luck that it ended with an injury but it was 100% his fault and he should be banned for 3 matches (at the very, very least).
TommieGun, you are younger than me I believe. I don’t think you should have accepted a permanent disability diagnosis. I ran across someone who had been scrambling in Arizona, and damaged his shoulder in a fall. He would have been 50 ish at the time. He was told permanent. Which was dumb.
Get a small handweight. Pretend it is a pitcher of beer. Bring your arm up and forward, so that your wrist is the same height as shoulder, arm is parallel to floor and perpendicular to the plane of your back. Swing your arm to 45 degrees off the plane of your back. Rotate the upper arms such as to pour the beer on the floor. That is the starting position. Flex and extend your elbow.
Because it is the lower arm (radius and ulna) doing the moving, it is a tricep exercise. But, because of the peculiar geometry, it is also a rotator cuff exercise, and it almost isolates one in particular.
Can you do that with either no weight, or very little weight?
Access to a cable crossover, or stretchy bands. Need an average sized towel. Set cable or band at the same height your elbow is at alongside your body. Two different exercises, one where the cable crosses in front of the body and one where it doesn’t. The idea in both, is to rotate the upper arm, keeping the elbow still. One is an internal rotation and the other is an external rotation. Okay, now roll the towel up. Take hold of the cable, and place the towel between elbow and your side. The towel is forcing you to keep your elbow a couple of inches proud of your side. Do the rotation, then set up for the other one. There is a more difficult rotation pair as well.
Seeing as you know gridiron football (NFL), I don’t know if the law was first USA then Canada or what. But wasn’t there a law instituted to keep players from being hit when they were out of bounds or standing on the line. They were falling into people and equipment, and among other things, dislocations of the shoulder were happening. It’s been more than 30 years since I paid any attention to gridiron, so I don’t remember specifics.
Back again. Had to read about QPR game.
Just like that paper on knee injuries, the push driving the injury doesn’t have to be large, it is setting up the geometry. Typically, the force is just that of the torso falling to ground level. Lots of people can be put in the “position” and “dropped”, some will dislocate and some won’t. Some that dislocate, will look muscular.
Lots of guys, including gridiron, want the big pecs and the big V of the lats in the back. And they get those muscles strong. But they ignore the rotator cuff. Now I believe the lats attach to the front of the humerous, and the pecs to the back. So these great big muscles front and back, which have lots of leverage on the shoulder joint are at least partially responsible for arm rotations.
Then you go look at people not as obviously muscled, and they seldom dislocate. Mechanics, electricians are among their occupations. Every day, they do arm rotations. They develop strong rotator cuff muscles, which keeps the shoulder tight.
The falling, or the part of th push driving the fall, that cause the problem, is the over-rotation of the torso with respect to the center of gravity. The arm comes up to try and arrest the rotation, and it can’t. What should happen, is the arm comes up to increase the rotation rate, with the person doing a tuck and roll contact with the ground. But your mind says, those boards are so close, we don’t have room for the roll. Never mind brain, do the tuck and roll. Your big boned hips hitting that board are not going to get hurt. Now if the boards are strongly assembled and not tall, the lower back is at risk from the top edge of the boards.
Having strong pecs is useful in getting to our feet quickly in football. But are all these athletes doing the rotation exercises which strengthen the rotator cuff? Big strong pecs/lats and weak rotator cuff, coupled with that little bit of push, and the shoulder comes apart pretty easily. The big muscles are probably reducing the dislocation force necessary. They certainly can’t keep the joint accurately located.
Debuchy I hope & pray that you get better soon. You are a wonderful player and Arsenal love you.
The bastard Arnautovic pushed Debuchy while Debuchy was in the air trying to prevent Arnautovic from getting to the ball. The push was so viscious that Debuchy hit his head on the hoardings and dislocated his shoulder through the fall. If you observe carefully you will notice the bump on the left of Debuchy’s forehead as he is taken away on the stretcher.
The elbow to Monreals face was deliberate. It is part of Crouch’s routine. He holds or pushes players down when he goes to head a ball at goal – check out any of his goals.
The PGMO crows know all this yet ignore the nasty fouls that Stoke use as part of their skill set. Mark Hughes is a liar & knows full well that his team were trying to create an unsavoury atmosphere before playing Arsenal. This doesn’t come from sporting friendship.
All of our players played well & I hope Chesney has a good think about his position & learns a few positional points from Ospina. The returning players showed their rustiness by playing their chances wide of the goal. They need match practice. Looking forward to the next Arsenal match – slippery encounter is promised.
One newspaper is reporting that Arnautovic will not be punished as Moss seen the incident.
Regarding Debuchy, he was pushed whilst he was off the ground which makes it even more dangerous as he has virtually no control over how his body reacts to the push and how he lands. In rugby, any contact or attempted tackle with an opponent who is airborn automatically results in a penalty being awarded as it is regarded as dangerous play. In bad cases when the fouled person is badly injured a red card often follows.
True Mick. In rugby a high tackle is also a card offence & what Charlie Adam did to Alexis was a red card. The FA have ignored the violence of Stoke which allows me to call them vile, racist, evil bastards. They choose who to target & managers who rightly feel cheated get punished by bans & fines.
Spot on write-up Walter!!
Its truly disgusting how we almost always end up with casualties when playing these THUGS!!
It can’t be coincidental and certainly brings home the extent of bent officiating.
That Schawcross is such a poor example of a footballer.
When will it stop?!!
On the positive; as most of the UA faithful have already written, we had a super game – I totally enjoyed our fluency and creativity!!!
On to Man$$
COYG
@ Gord- that’s actually one of the excercises I was doing to get better. I can easily do that, with weight.
As I said, my only limit is extension of the left arm / shoulder backwards, beyond the torso line (imagine sitting chest butterfly – and pulling your arms in an angle smaller than 0 degrees, beyond your shoulders) – which in any event is not such a necessary movement.
As per your theory re muscly people and injuries – I find it more related to “knowing” how to fall, how to roll and use the energy of the movement to decrease impact; those things are well learned in martial arts or parkour. I think that it has a lot to do with Debs not expecting the push (hence not being ready to roll it out) or me not ready to fall on my bum in my case.
Ah shit!
Telegraph (from somewhere, I have seen nothing at Arsenal.com) is saying he might need surgery, and be out 3 months. And the goon from Stoke gets to continue playing.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/11341458/Arsenal-send-Mathieu-Debuchy-to-specialist-amid-fears-he-may-be-out-for-three-months-with-shoulder-dislocation.html
It could be that Telegraph just looked up worst case rehab times, because even at the game AW was saying a specialist would be seen. I was kind of guessing 6 weeks (no surgery).