By Tony Attwood
1: Kane isn’t scoring
Apparently on Tottenham’s tour of Australia, so many fans buzzed around Kane while he was shopping he had to be rescued by minibus. And so highly esteemed is he in tot-land this season in plays in Adebayor’s old shirt which he told the Telegraph he had adopted in order to become a legend. He is now the club’s only centre forward.
So far this season he has played all the games but scored none of the goals. Not one. None. And he didn’t score last night. Oh!
2: Barriers are a serious health hazard that close to the pitch
We saw two barrier incidents in the game, and for the one with Joel Campbell I really thought he would be badly injured.
The fact that Tottenham is allowed to keep them that close, and have them designed without any way in which they can give when under impact is quite remarkable. It suggests that health and safety regulations applied by the Football League and FA really aren’t worth the envelope they are scribbled on the back of.
I wonder if it affects the way in which Tottenham players play at home, forcing them to pull back in the final yard of a run to the goal line?
It is reported that at the end of the game some damage was done to the advertising hoardings inside the stadium. I don’t condone any violence but if it happens I like it to be in a cause. If the cause was to show the danger of those barriers, then that is slightly less bad.
3: Mathieu Flamini is upping the scoring rate
According to the aaa Flamini symbolises all that is wrong with the Wengerian regime. But actually I thought he did rather well throughout. Indeed this time around he has double his scoring rate.
When he first played at the club in took 100 league games to score five goals. This time he has taken 50 league games to score five. And of course there are now these two in the league cup.
According to the TV commentators and interviewers Flamini was annoyed at not getting more games. According to Arsenal, Flamini was warned he might not get many games but he wanted to stay. Now which one am I going to believe?
4: Joel Campbell is coming on
Joel has now played ten games for us, and I must say I was surprised when I saw that he was staying this season. But I am beginning to see why. I think he is one of those players that Wenger has seen something extra in, something that can be developed over time, and when it is fully developed, he’ll be really quite something.
We know he can play and score, because we saw him in the World Cup, but the adaptation to the ways of the hearty roughs in the Premier League takes time and is a bit of a shock to many players.
He’s now played 10 times for us, I suspect there will be more.
5: Bring on Theo even when we are winning
Theo’s arrival looked odd in one sense since we were holding the score at 2-1. But his arrival caused Tottenham to look back from that moment on in case they gave away a third. They couldn’t be so gung ho any more, even if the manager was telling them to.
That was a really unexpected and clever tactical move.
6: Sky’s history department is run by Tottenham fans
More historic research has been done on the promotion of Arsenal to the first division in 1919 in the last five years than in the previous 90. But you wouldn’t know it from the Sky resume on the event which they gave before the game. It was as if they had simply asked a Tottenham fan what happened and then toned it down a bit.
It is a not very complex but still fascinating tale of match fixing, and cover ups, and it is told with lots of contemporary evidence on the Arsenal History Society Site where we even offer a prize for anyone giving any evidence of corruption by Arsenal. (Corruption by others is there for all to see if you read the tale).
I am sure Sky’s researchers went there for they used some of the cuttings, but why they refused to tell the proper story we can only guess. Even Talk Sport got it right – but that was because they asked me to tell the tale when they did the piece.
7: The push in the back is a fundamental
No one gets punished it goes on all the time, but really it is a foul as much as every other foul. Maybe refs are just told to take no notice which is a shame because Tottenham are the masters.
8: Mert is still of great value to the club
We know that Gabriel is the up and coming star and Mert is the old man, but he was solid and sound and still has a terrific level of ability. He shouldn’t be written off.
9. Tottenham give 2 cup matches with their season tickets
This was celebrated last night – how amazing to get Tot v Arsenal free with your season ticket screamed Sky is orgasmic amazement.
No mention of the price of entry though. Had the game been played at the Emirates the cost for visiting Tottenham supporters would have been £10. I gather Arsenal fans had to pay many times more than that. Just as this coming weekend when we go to Leicester. Our away tickets are costing £40, far, far more than Leicester fans pay when they come to the Arsenal.
10. The Independent is struggling.
It has a new web site design.. This morning it is showing “It’s the north London derby follow it here!” and “4 players Wenger should take a gamble on”. Meanwhile the Telegraph is still developing articles on Chelsea v Arsenal.
Ah well.
Anniversaries
24 September 2003: Six Arsenal players charged by FA after a 0-0 at Man U, probably with “failing to allow Man U to win” Lauren, Keown, Vieira and Parlour banned.
24 September 2010: Arsenal suffered their first league defeat of the season after six games – a 2-3 home loss against WBA. Nasri got both goals. Arsenal then lost their next game 2-0 away to Chelsea.
The way the electronic billboards are placed at Tottenham is very dangerous. The danger of such boards even further from the pitch is obviously known by Debuchy. The boards that are placed at Arsenal are much further away compared to Tottenham and even then when a malovent person wants to push you it can get you seriously injured.
Yesterday two players escaped serious injury. When I saw the replay of Kane hitting the boards with his head I thought his match would be over. But then on the other hand…. did he ever get started? 😉
I think the FA and the PL should look in to this and make sure that the safety distance becomes bigger between the playing field and advertising boards.
A good 10 points to digest. I see
Arsenal supporters are still being rooked on ticket prices though, and what with the con trick of annual shirt issues AND failure to apply a Living Wage, the Club has still much for which to answer.
I think the spuds must be ‘kicking themselves’ for allowing free entrance to season ticket holders for this game. For this game they would have paid to go to. Then to lose.
No I could be wrong may be the thinking was ‘How can we get a full house for a game we might lose?’ Answer ‘Make it free to season tickets holders. Yes that’s the answer :)’
Every one likes a freeby and spuds supporters are no exception, so they came.
They used to sing of one of their players.
‘Nice one Cyril’.
Anything they can sing we can sing better.
‘Nice two Flamini.’
Bringing on Theo I thought was a master stroke equally to that was keeping OG on.
And they tell us that Arsene is ‘no tactician. Shows how ignorant they are about football in general and in particular how little they understand the mind of Arsene.
Tony
“According to the aaa Flamini symbolises all that is wrong with the Wengerian regime”
Great comment Tony, 100% accurate.
It was actually very funny watching him play so well and score those goals. Pre-game the AAA were out in force to complain about Flamini playing. Apparently he is too old, his legs have gone and he is a waste of a wage. This has been a regular theme and one which Flamini himself seemed aware of. Its a shame these fans tar us all with the same brush, when in fact they are a very small but loud minority.
Watching his energetic play, his desire and two excellent finishes, all I could think of was how little football knowledge those who have decided to criticise everything about Arsenal have. Their obsessional hatred for our Manager has actually created a dislike for anything associated with him and the club. Not buying the DM the media said we needed and sticking with Coquelin and Flamini is one of those red rags to a bull.
These joyless wonders did not celebrate the win last night as you would expect a normal fan to do. Instead it was how Spurs had rested players & how the Capital Cup is meaningless. This proves that their anger at the club has nothing to do with trophies and winning games. It is about them not getting their own way. A bit like a fouryear old child would behave. (Although a four year old child would not have the vocabulary to use the vast range of insulting words that lot use).
What a shame they are not getting the same joy and excitement from supporting Arsenal as most other fans do. In many ways, that makes me enjoy these wins more.
You make valid point about the boards Walter but I would go one further in that adverts that get displayed on these electronic devices often include moving images which of course are so designed to show up to the watching audience but they distract the supporters, the players and in reality I can’t help but feel they certainly don’t help match officials
There is one particular advert at the moment that in effect is so designed to so to give the illusion of an animal running I know that someone commented on it at your game against West Ham but yesterday it was on display at Liverpool and appeared just before A Carlise player took their penalty
Nicky
The living wage thing is interesting and hopefully will be in place at all clubs soon although some are claiming they can do nothing about it if contractors engaged by them don’t in turn honour the living wage.
Very little was made about the London club that was fined for failing to even pay the minimum wage and I for one think that HMRC should have published more details of who this club was for they were quick enough to tell us the names of other businesses who likewise were fined for failing to meet their legal obligations
re item 6. I can never understand how people obsess over something that occurred almost 100 years ago. Get over it.
Re Flamini. I can’t think who it was, but somebody here on UA said during the summer when we were supposedly trying to buy a DM, that Flamini was like Coquelin on acid, has a goal or two in him and never lets you down. How right they were..
colario
You do realize don’t you that Arsenal also give free entrance (to the first seven cup games) to season ticket holders. It’s a very generous practice that other clubs ( are you watching United ) could follow.
Wow Flamin won me $600 yesterday i wish he keeps those morons under the sewage. By the way the Arsenal scored all 3 goals anyone who wana to bet on this i still have $400 to bet on. Arsenallllllllll
A nice reflection on quite a tricky match last night.
During the recent test series one of the cricket commentators noted that the boundary rope was now 20 yards away from the seating ares – due to H & S stipulations – very obviously OTT.
Such levels of separation are not practicable in football stadiums, especially in long established grounds – but H & S seem to have gone the other way with the electronic billboards – which is almost unbelievable.
Apart from impact injury risks, the billboards will be carrying some voltage – I don’t know how much – it may be fairly light – but these things do fail in strange ways. My preference would be to remove the electronic billboards & replace them with old fashioned static but impact friendly types.
“Barriers are a serious health hazard that close to the pitch ”
Yes a very real safety hazard they are.
//
Was hoping Flam would get the third goal so he could take the ball home. 🙂
What a beautiful, wonderful strike.
Was hoping to see our Adelaire in action really. Is he injured?
Just checked, he is, probably out 2 months. Bummer. 🙁
@ serge
Yes I do serge. I didn’t comment on that point in my post because i wasn’t sure if the game had been played at the ems if it would have been one of the seven freebies.
I was laughing at the spuds problem. Every supporters wants to be at a derby game. Therefore don’t make it a freeby because the fans will pay up.
However how do you encourage them to come to a game you have every possibility of losing? Make it free.
when the game was pulled out of the bag I didn’t think to check the spuds mug site to check the price on the gate but I think it was £25 but as I wasn’t sure I didn’t make the comparison between our price and there price for the game.
I of course noted how wonderful and how generous spuds are by making two games free for season ticket holders according to the two ignoramouses talking the match. It was what you expect from brainless wonders.
To comment on Arsenal and in particular Arsene you need a good brain and you need to know how to use it.
We all know that you can be intelligent on a particular subject and clueless when it comes to a sport.
It seems to me the controllers of the media who employ former players to commentate or comment don’t understand the reverse is also true.
You can be good at thinking when playing a sport but clueless off the pitch. One reason why it is that very few good players make good managers.
This being so we get players who are rubbish at thinking about what they are watching.
Mind you, it could the reason for employing clueless ex players is because it is easier to get them to stay on the given agenda of the media bosses.
Thus our brains are bombarded with drivel from the people who should be there to inform us.
In reference to advertising boards we will have to wait until Rooney gets injured smashing into one 2 month’s before the Euro 2016 starts to have any chance of the inept imbeciles so called running our game to do anything about it or maybe a certain referee to injure himself!!
Serge
“You do realize don’t you that Arsenal also give free entrance (to the first seven cup games) to season ticket holders. It’s a very generous practice that other clubs ( are you watching United ) could follow.”
Unfortunately, this doesn’t fit the narrative that Arsenal “Rip Off” their fans. You don’t ever see any weighting used in regard to the artificial inflation of the average ticket price, caused by the price of Club Level.
Interesting that the commentators last night were praising Spurs for the two cup games that get in their allocation.
Football is too expensive but that’s partly the fault of the money the doped clubs have been spending on player transfers and wages. Paying players an average £100,000 per week or £5.2m per year is beyond a joke but never gets a mention. TV money helps but instead of going into players pockets it could be used to subsidise tickets. Just saying really.
Instead, its almost as if Arsenal get blamed for what fans have to pay.
Actually, we seem to get blamed for everything. We are probably the only football club in the history of the game that has been criticised for having well behaved players and for not surrounding refereees……….! Even Koscielny has been criticised for being naive Saturday – because he did not hold his face and fall on the flooor screaming when assaulted by Costa. You could’nt make this bizarre nonsense up if you tried.
“This being so we get players who are rubbish at thinking about what they are watching”
Bang on comment.
They wheel out all these dinosaurs and ask them to comment on decisions. As Gary Neville and Danny Murphy proved, they are either crippled with bias or don’t know the rules. To claim none of what Cost did was violent conduct, including Costas backhand swing at Koscielny is beyond me. To then say Gabriel and Costa both either deserved yellows or reds is even more bizarre. They then all agree that Cazorla should have walked. No mention of Ivanovic foul count. No mention of Costas attempt to get Coquelin booked with first the dive and then the waving of the imaginery card.
As for Keown and Shearer claiming Arsenal should be surrounding the referee.
I’m half expecting some paleontologist from the 1970’s to be wheeled out to explain what the hell is going on – because from where I am sitting, it’s like a weekly repeat of Jurassic Park broadcast from North West England.
@Colario…wow, man you do know how to put things succintly. Not everyone can think outside the box you know.
Great article Tony. Congratulations to all true-blooded gooners. To all who think the worst of Wenger and his team, you can eat your hearts out. Shame on you…
@Proudkev,
Your suggestion that the obscene rise in players’ wages and the cost of transfer fees is never mentioned, is quite incorrect.
The folk who comment on this and other up-market sites, regularly express disgust at the increased cost of attending football grounds.
Clubs treat captive attenders with complete indifference. High ticket prices, the cost of poor quality catering and the annual exhorbitant issue of newly designed shirts are all part of an organised rip-off of fans.
One day, IMO, the worms will turn.
Let’s be clear about it. Arsenal are no different from any of the top clubs in the land. Football is now big business whether we like it or not and making money alongside the sporting aspect is now of indivisible importance.
11. Unless I missed something, the Spurs players ,and ours of course, all just got on with it on the occasions there were hefty challenges. It was a pretty physical game and featured the increasingly rare sight of battles of strength playing out fairly with no one feeling the need to jump to the floor- Campbell and Rose being one, Chambers and Kane the other I noticed. Really enjoyable stuff and something you only tend to see in football now when some unusual combination of in game factors allows it to happen
I thought Arteta, Flamini and Debuchy were all bookings- with the first two, it is so easy to imagine on a different day players rolling around more for the same challenges, colleagues rushing over to the scene,etc. Could anyone rule out Dean, among a crowd of furiously protesting players, making a red from Arteta’s challenge?
Probably the same would apply to the two players who crashed heavily into the hoardings. There was nothing to either incident, but if you’re wired to look for those things, you can make something of it. Jostling, a push, see if you can get a reaction, raise the temperature while figuring your extra cynicism and perhaps your knowledge of the referee means you will fare better once you have.
No card waving, no theatrical Spanish weasels running on the scene beseeching the referee, no one playing as though they are juggling football with the parallel occupation of cheating at football.
The game is immensely better when played like that. Which is what makes it so amazing that referees and the media don’t fight to ensure it is played that way. On the ‘fool me once’ principle there is no good reason for them not to do so.
Mou likes rugby and says Costa played as game has to be played? Well, this is how rugby deals with deliberate contact to eye area. Zero tolerance. loooong bans.
http://www.3news.co.nz/sport/galarza-banned-from-world-cup-after-eye-gouging-retallick-2015092406#axzz3meanJjJr
Rich – you are right about how the game should be played – and that in turn follows from how the manager sets up his team and the instructions he gives the players – we all could see the effect of the malevolent influence of the Odious One last weekend aided and abetted by a corrupt or incompetent referee.
The other point I would make was that despite all the attention created by Gollum51’s incompetence/corruption last Saturday, the refereeing in our match last night, while better was still unsatisfactory.
Nicky
“Your suggestion that the obscene rise in players’ wages and the cost of transfer fees is never mentioned, is quite incorrect.
The folk who comment on this and other up-market sites, regularly express disgust at the increased cost of attending football grounds.”
Obviously I miss those sites, because I rarely see it mentioned.
In fact, all I see the media doing is praising the doped clubs who are responsible for this. You dont see Chelsea, Man City or Man Utd criticised for the obscene sums they spend – the opposite is true.
IMO players wages are rarely mentioned as a reason why football is so expensive. Amongst fans maybe. Whenever the subject gets raised, the wages are excused as these footballers being entertainers. In fact it is more often the case that the reasons for football being expensive is because clubs are milking the fans.
Now the latter may in part be true, I would agree that the amount I have to pay for a hot dog or can of coke at the ground is a rip off. Is that the fault of the club or the concessionares I don’t know. Tickets are expensive. £240 quid for 4 of us for 90 minutes.
But we have increased revenues streaming into football, the TV money has increased rapidly over the last few years now BT have joined the party and Sky have competition. Does this filter down to fans? No, it goes mostly into the players pockets. Fans are hypocrites too. They complain about the cost of attending football and then in the next breath start screaming ‘spend some fkg money’.
So I partly agree with what you say. BUT I do not agree that the doped clubs or the players are criticised for the wages and the affect that has on attendance prices. What I see is the club getting the blame.
Tony, we also learned or rather been confirmed – we have some very stupid fans unfortunately!!
Destruction of property in that manner and with potential to injure is unacceptable – and I hope the book is thrown at the 10 arrested and any others involved!
Rivalry is one thing, and God forgive me, but I do have some Spud friends, we even watch games together…be sure I don’t trash their house!
Complete fools!
Walking back after watching the game I was luxuriating in the knowledge that nobody I could recall had tried to get someone else sent off.
That got me thinking about the PFA. The Professional Footballers Association. It’s been known to call itself a union. What is it supposed to be for? Compared with a full scale union, the associations were always mangy dogs but this one for footballers – no bones, no flesh, not even a hide.
Allowing managers to employ players to do over other players physically, at whatever cost? Allowing managers to employ players to get other players sent off? Allowing managers to send off a qualified doctor called onto the pitch by the refeee?
Then you saw the Campbell fall over the hoardings last night. Who are the idiots that allow this to exist as a possibility? There are several stages between the pitch getting laid out, and the hoardings positioned, where decisions have to be taken – why is no-one concerned about injuries to players?
Why hasn’t the PFA been called in beforehand to sanction that sufficient space exists between the touchline and the hoardings for the players to move in safety? Why hasn’t the PFA demanded to be called in, in order to sign off the Health & Safety Regulations covering the protection of their members?
The structure that is supposed to underpin the playing viewing, watching and the following of football, is disintegrating in front of our eyes. It’s always worth remembering that the headman of football on the planet, if we were to match up against Mars and needed a dignitary to stride out onto the pitch with his hand out for the shake, representing each of us, would be Sepp Blatter.
One of the curses of today’s high cost of football watching is, IMO, the vast revenue clubs receive from advertising and television. Instead of passing on this largesse to reducing the price of tickets and improving catering and ground facilities, clubs use it to improve general finances, with players salaries and transfer fees taking the lion’s share.
If only this unearned finance could be allocated more equitably, away from the clubs’ coffers, the attraction for foreign investors would cease and a return to sanity be assured.
The photos I saw were of the damage done to WHL halfway up the stadium that say things like “Tottenham is my team” etc. It seemed to have nothing to do with the fixed advertising hoardings that ring the pitch. Stupid thing to do at another club’s stadium…just invites retaliation and we look like thugs.
@Serge @Colario.
With all of the misinformation and media misdirection over season tickets (which as always makes Arsenal look bad), you have to wonder if the club should change how our extra games are described, just to drive home what season ticket holders get.
I’d like to see how they approach things, if next season it was explained that the season tickets give you: the Champions league group games for free, along with the last 16 game, and the first three home FA cup games as well.
If the club doesn’t play all of those games, then the holder either gets another cup game instead, or their money back. I know it actually comes as a discount on next season, but since the media are constantly twisting things, we should try a little PR of our own.
Things like last night with SKY fawning over the neighbours for their policy while ignoring ours is always frustrating. Its worse when they completely ignore the policy at other clubs.
United for example actually force season ticket holders to pay for all cup games, so its just good PR on their part as their season ticket prices don’t represent what the fan will actually have to pay.
Worse,their only exceptions are for kids (for all cup games) and league cup games, but if you opt out, you get penalized in ticket ballots — don’t go to the league cup games and you risk missing going to semis and finals. Not nice.
Apo Armani, completely agree with that.
The idiots who did this hopefully will be punished and no longer allowed in at Arsenal matches for a long time.
I have always been proud of the way Arsenal supporters have behaved over the years and scenes like that fill me with disgust. And there is nothing that can be said to condone it.
I’m totally against bringing harm against persons but also material goods. If I would catch any of my supporters club members doing such a thing I would throw them out immediately!
Mourinho is most definitely not funny.
Flamini is a rare Football Player who seems to not like Football Agents, that’s a speculative guess and one that could be wrong.
A player who was signed on a free, scoring both goals to defeat Tottenham a club that are seen as charitable benefactors by some agents: Now that is funny.
I’d add my voice to Apo’s, the first person I saw at work today was my Sp*rs supporting colleague and he got his reaction in first with regards to the damage to WHL. I could laugh it off to him but in all seriousness there’s no justification for it. I know the TTs are going to have to demolish parts of their stadium soon but there’s no need for Arsenal fans to start the process early.
Didn’t Danny Rose hurl one of our players (Theo?) into these same hoardings a season or so ago?
I contacted the Health & Safety executive (14/9/2015) about the advertising hoardings at football grounds but had to specify a borough (I chose Kensington & Chelsea).
This is their response: Health and safety at work etc act 1974
Thank you for taking the time to report your concern to the Health and Safety Executive. The enforcement of health and safety matters in this particular premises does not fall to HSE. The HSE do not enforce football stadiums.
The Enforcement of Health and Safety Regulations 1998 divide health and safety enforcement responsibilities between HSE inspectors and Environmental Health Services at local councils and we are not permitted to inspect or influence issues in the premises we do not enforce.
If you have any further questions please put them to your local Environmental Health Officer with responsibility for health and safety, as they are your enforcing authority.
It seems there isn’t one responsible authority for safety of sports people at sporting venues. God forbid,I wonder what happens if a stand during the Rugby World Cup has to be cleared quickly? Whose responsibility will any injury to fans be?
@Rich comment @ 12:04 PM is the best and most meaningful of the lot. Especially in light of the events and comments f the last week. that was a FOOTBALL match. Give and get, back and forth in one of if not the most intense Derby match in the EPL. Thanks, Rich.
Tony, great analysis as usual. Especially #5. Great move by AW, and he left Giroud on; as someone else pointed out above. Good squad selection and tactics. Oh, sorry, I forgot AW doesn’t do tactics, lol.
Mike T – I covered the use of electronic advertising & its impact in ‘Progress, Progress Blind Progress’. I am also concerned with sufferers of epilepsy. Safety of players in the wet – electric shock. The adverts must be switched off during play. I do not think it is right to give PGMO another excuse for ‘not seeing’ incidents that is their job.
The hoarding at the Lane were more dangerous than I imagined as they hid a deep gutter behind them. Campbell fell into one which also had camera equipment. It is a total breach of Health & Safety standards for a footballers workplace irrespective of his/her income.
As far as Costa goes, even Harry Redknapp thinks it was OK. Eye gouging is OK! These ex players & ex coaches need to get their heads examined. Harry would you like my grandkids to eye gouge your grandkids? It is obnoxious. Do not condone filth in the name of sport. The FA are empty when it comes to morals. They are totally devoid of respect & control of the Beautiful Game. Their appointment of PGMO with Riley at its head shows their position.
SAF was as bad if not worse. His was the shocking lead into the filth in the modern era.
I do not have words to describe Keane & the rest of the United morons who abused the Game for financial gain.
On the evidence of that, would like to see more of flamster. Nice and direct, just what we need sometimes, especially in this fixture.
I kept seeing, Liverpool legendPhil Thompson on Sky’s Gilette soccer special last night. Never realised he was a Tottenham fan,. He was very very excited when they scored and appeared to be on the up.