I AM BACK GOOD PEOPLE OF THE INTERNET.
Sorry for the lack of delicious content this week, I am working on a pitch for a super cool client and it has dominated me. Not in a sexy way either. However, I am back now, and so is football.
So what’s going down in the hood?
Brexit? What a laugh. The only thing I really care about in this whole situation is whether it allows Arsenal to buy more young South American players. Really don’t understand why there are laws concerning the issue to start with. Of all the problems Britain has, one of them isn’t bringing in super rich high spending Brazilians.
Get me the next Messi, please.
Unai Emery has spoken about the beautiful Denis Suarez.
“He is OK for starting in the first XI, to give us this impact.
“We are going to need everybody, every player for the next matches.
“Now we have a lot of players ready, with a big mentality and with a big performance to play and help us.”
Love the crisp clarity of his prose. Suarez has looked a little bit bland so far, but I swear I can recall a pretty good counterattack he was part of that had potential. He is also pretty and I am comfortable repeating that over and over.
Arsenal are being linked with… BIG SAM UMTITI. The story is coming from the Independent, so about as reliable as Michael Owen’s hamstrings. My thoughts on this one:
- Arsenal don’t have big dick swinging money this summer, he’s not going for anything less than £80m
- His contract runs until 2023
- Umtiti is a very good player, even with Champions League we’d be a big step down
- Barca have nearly or have signed De Ligt for £80m, he’s a bit good, I’d suspect the Frenchman is a bit worried
- I think his agent is setting off warning flares to get reassurances from the Barcelona board
Needless to say, we are not shopping in that market this summer unless there’s been a serious change of heart OR Arsenal brought back more than a tan from Dubai.
Talking of the Independent writing bollocks, remember when they dropped a story about Sven leaving for Bayern after they read my piece? In a twist if DELICIOUS irony, he could end up taking over the technical director role over at Roma.
FFS, Arsenal have been bent over a barrel on this one. Once again making decisions on the fly without a really good plan a, b and c on the table. Sven is going to wreck our summer and he’s going to be a man possessed when it comes to proving out he’s capable of delivering.
Let’s see how that one works out!
Right, I am going to be back in the hotseat tomorrow, regular as The Sun and a morning whatever…
See you in the comments. x
One of the joys of being on this blog is that all my suspicions from years of following Arsenal have proven to be correct.
Too many supporters were consumed or, should I say, sucked in by our previous managers boring and predictable rhetoric.
Years of regression and they still hung onto his every word.
Incredible.
Still go for 2-1 tomorrow.
Hillwood Sorry, that was a typo, wasn’t act calling you Hollywood! I do understand the rivalry but not being a Londoner myself growing up in North London, and not coming from an Arsenal family with an Arsenal Dad the rivalry is secondary to me. However, I’ve ingrained it into my 14 yr old daughter and 12 yr old son as they have no memory of the Liverpool, Utd and Chelsea rivalry so I’ve taught them that Spurs are our main rivals in terms of who we absolutely must not lose to and how important it is to beat them. They’re… Read more »
I’m going with a two goal victory it’s at home and we need to win it and I expect us to knowing the importance
3-1 arsenal…
But I expect to have some heart stopping moments during the match.
Arsenal have a real incentive to achieve fourth, I expect them to take it and make no slip up tomorrow.
Wallet
We have every opportunity to get third.
Newcastle have beaten us at home twice in 20 years in the PL. We had idiots on here saying Southampton were going to beat us at home a few weeks ago because they beat us at St Mary’s a couple of months ago.
I’m not saying it will be easy but a little support and optimism wouldn’t kill anyone but supporters of other clubs.
If we get third tomorrow, that will be another small sign of a change for the good. Under Wenger, more often than not, we could not take advantage of our opponents’ slip ups and use it. Anyone can win when the pressure is off, winning when you need to creates Champions in due course.
just watching the Madrid highlights for their win against huesca….. and I feel benzema is the most underappreciated striker in the past decade… the guy is too good and a complete baller…. the only problem with benzema, and that problem is the reason people don’t appreciate him, is the fact that benzema is too generous for a striker…. loving assist for the equalizer… and a fabulous goal for the winner. if Madrid ends up buying mbappe while still retaining the services of superbenze, mbappe will end up scoring a lot of goals… Now I understand the reason real Madrid sold… Read more »
Leeds
Newcastle are 7 points above Cardiff. Anything other than a win tomorrow will be nothing other than an embarrassing result.
when was the last time we were in a top 3 challenge in the league, bar the Leicester season when all the big teams flopped???????
give emery a chance and let him do his magic… if he bottles it, we throw him out the back door….
and also… can some please explain toe while after roughly a whole Wenger and arteta haven’t gotten a managerial job???
last I heard, Wenger was presenting the most useless cup trophy in Europe’s top 5 league.
We will crush them you all will see
today’s match is a done deal… arsenal=3points.
there no wag in hell, Newcastle gonna get a draw, no way… the only lunatic I fear is Solomon random… just need papa to mark mark him throughout the game, and we shouldn’t allow them to much space to bring crosses into our first third..
so much typographical errors…. mtcheeeeew, sleeping mode activated
3rd place staring us in the face tomorrow.
Don’t blink.
DD, we finished 3rd the season before Leceister’s triumph, if I recall correctly.
From DM’s Mike Keegan this morning: “Former Arsenal talent spotter Sven Mislintat has been resisting offers to return to football in Europe in the hope of securing another position in the Premier League. Mislintat quit his position as head of recruitment at the Emirates Stadium only 15 months after arriving from Borussia Dortmund, walking out because he was overlooked for the job as sporting director after Arsene Wenger’s exit. Stuttgart have offered him a swift return to the game, Bayern Munich were reported to be interested and Roma have emerged as another possibility for the 46-yearold as they look to… Read more »
Got to win all home games here on out
You have to feel for Warnock and the Cardiff players.
Roll on VAR. It might not be foolproof but better than relying on solely on human judgement.
Probably mean tin foil sales will go down in the Pierre household.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6870423/Graeme-Souness-blasts-officials-costing-Cardiff-Cesar-Azpilicuetas-goal-Chelsea.html
the real question is, if Wenger was still here would we be where we are ? of course the AKBs might argue that Wenger would have us sitting on top of the table.
If Mister Wenger was still in charge, we would be competing for all three trophies.
High quality, aesthetically pleasing football, no handbrake entertainment. The man is a legend of club. He was in great form at the French league cup final. Love to see it.
Looks like no Xhaka in training pics. Torreira suspended. Likely that Emery opts for a back three with Ramsey partnered by Guendouzi. Game won’t be easy.
Amn sok Kos mon
Rambo guen kola
Mik laca auba
433
Guns of SF
Can’t have Kola in midfield. Let him play down the sides. If we play a back four, one of Lacazette or Aubameyang.may start on the bench.
Perhaps
Leno
AMN Sokratis Koscielny Kolasinac
Ramsey Guendouzi
Mkhitaryan Özil Iwobi
Aubameyang
Dream
That lineup would work too and ozil could play being a home game and weaker opposition
I can roll with that lineup
D10
Good morning
I don’t think so.
Have a nice day.
Tony
The authorities have to seriously look at things. As I said yesterday, that decision had nothing to do with the absence of VAR. It was abject failure by the officials to make a basic call.
The 4th official should intervene instead of acting as an admin officer at the side of the pitch.
As we all know, the consequences were massive both for Cardiff and Chelski.
too easy to look at stats that say we would win the league with VAR.
Things change when you are fighting for the title, look at how spuds bottle it, look at our past where we used to cruise to 4th when the pressure was off. Every game start to look like a cup final when you are in a title race with your rival neck by neck.
I have a feeling, we would have bottled it that year by not getting the results from elsewhere.
The decision against Cardiff were diabolical and beyond standard human error. They were all in Chelsea’s fabvour. It is an understatement to state that Neil Warnock is not appreciated by the head of the Referee association PGMOL. The decisions were courting favours to Mike Riley. None of the referees who messed up that game will see their note downgraded and them dumped into the Football League. They will continue to officiate in the premiership, meaning that they have no incentive to be fair and honest. They will continue to officiate for the benefit of Mike Riley. Like I said before,… Read more »
Arsenal’s remaining away fixtures are going to be very very tricky.
Everton, Watford, Wolves, Leicester and Burnley.
Maximum points from our three remaining home games is therefore a must.
One game at a time.
All very interesting.
Graham62
Totally agree with you.
I also don’t understand how the officials can get away unpunished for such blatant poor calls. They should be fired or demoted to non professional leagues.
We need serious accountability when, as you rightly say, too much rests on clubs’ financials.
Maybe club’s should try to sue the FA, then see them quickly rectify the problems officials if that happens.
I would love to sit with the rule makers just to gauge how out of touch they really are.
The 4th official( + managers) have the benefit of technology. It’s so frigging easy.
These governing bodies are made up of the same imbeciles who advocate a 64 team World Cup and line their pockets with the never ending riches of the game.
It’s a fudging joke.
My final point on all of this is in respect to Neil Warnock.
What a guy.
Salt of the earth.
Lichseiner; “This will need time,” he said. “The fact that I play at a top club at the age of 35 says enough. There have been talks [with Arsenal]. We have to see if it suits both sides.
‘
Aargh
FFS not those so called talks go awry.
Tony and Graham getting their knickers in a twist over refereeing decisions at the weekend after all those years of the club they support being stitched up by Mike Riley and his friends when they said absolutely nothing because of their dislike for our manager. Always better to be honest in your views Graham and Tony otherwise you tend to look rather silly. A bad decision is a bad decision whoever is the manager. At least now you are realising how incompetent the officials are instead of previously having blinkers on whenever Arsenal were stitched up by the officials. I… Read more »
Pierre
Sorry Pierre, what decisions?
List them before I go off to work and I’ll review them later in the day.
Your perceptions are based on a conspiracy against Arsenal, which most normal fans see as being totally ridiculous. I’m highlighting one specific incident not a serious of preconceived ideas in your head that the authorities had it in for Arsenal.
However, feel free to enlighten me.
Pierre
It basically all boils down to you and a few others, having something else to hold on to to justify all the gaffs of the past decade or so.
Whatever.
That’s the real cover up.
Golfing today?
I watched the game live and I checked the highlights again. IMO, the penalty incidents were really tough to spot because they were off the ball. For the first shout, the Cardiff player didn’t go down and they didn’t even “ask” for the penalty. It’d be incredibly brave by the ref if he award a penalty for that incident especially off the ball. For the second one, the ref, Cardiff player and Rudiger were happened to be in a straight line and the ref was blind sighted. The camera angle showed the ref honestly didn’t see it. Obviously both of… Read more »
@Graham, I had a few decisions in mind, but the most shocking was Phil Dowd in our 4-4 against Newcastle. The previous week, referees had allowed a goal against Arsenal where a player was offside and interfering with play. Fabregas made some choice comment about such atrocious decision. Phil Dowd went on TV and wrote a column condemning the fact that Fabregas was not charged for his comment. Arsenal needed to be taught a lesson in respect. His exact word. Next week, the referee for the Newcastle-Arsenal was switched and Phil Dowd was named. It was clear that Mike Riley… Read more »
Graham
The link below Says it all really.
https://positivelyarsenal.com/2018/01/05/the-pgmol-vs-arsenal-data-shows-a-clear-pattern-of-bias/
If the decisions yesterday were in Chelsea’s favour and against Cardiff do we honestly believe these mistakes would happen?
Not in a million years.
One rule book for Man City, Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea.
*”mistakes”
Very very harsh on Cardiff yesterday. They gave as good as they got, and deserved at least a draw yesterday.
Arsenal have on paper a relatively good track record against Newcastle, Everton and Leicester. However, all three of these clubs have proven this season when they are playing well that they can make life difficult for even the better sides in EPL. Frankly Arsenal need to win at least two of these games and get at least 7 points if we are going to remain in frame and qualify for a top 4 place in EPL this season. The real concern for me is that Arsenal have 5 away games and our form in away games has not been great… Read more »
LOLZ Alderweireld.
More than a fucking must win tonight.
I don’t care if win 1-0 with an OG from Benitez, 3 points, nothing else.
*we win
Pierre The shocking foul by Phil Neville on Reyes in the first five minutes of that game was in my view a game changer. Neville should have been red carded for that tackle. As we know Reyes was never the same player after that match. Riley’s performance in that game was absolutely appalling. Man Utds tactics throughout that game were clearcut and yet the referee did absolutely nothing to curb their fouling. Apart from Nevilles we should not forget the horrible foul of Scholes later in game. The so-called media pundits made always an excuse that Scholes could not tackle… Read more »
Mike Riley is still alive ??
Very disappointing.
Mike Riley is alive and kicking. He is in charge of PGMOL, the powerful referee association/union, that decides who referee the games. Contrary to all principles of transparency, they have steadfastly refused to increase the pool of referees, the notes given by the assessors, how the referees are reviewed, and how the promotion and relegation to premiership and EFL works. They keep coming up with stats that referees decisions are 90% plus correct. However when they have been challenged on that, they have refuse to justify their numbers. There was an article in the Daily Heil after a game where… Read more »
He must be very sad to see that his colleagues are not capable to bring the PL title back to Old Toilet.
Huge game tonight, where is Pedro ??
Emirates
Chelsea still have to go to Liverpool and ManU, they’ve been so hot and miss this season I do think they’ll drop out of contention over the next couple of weeks. Our concerns should lie with the Spud’s and ManU.
Spurs outside of going to City in the league have a decent set of fixtures so they could afford to lose that game and still make top 4. United have Wolves, Everton away which could potentially be tricky as well as City and Chelsea at home back to back so there is more scope for them to drop points. We have put ourselves in a position where if we do what we need to do in these remaining fixtures, it won’t matter what our immediate rivals for Champions league do. Alot of the teams we all face won’t have much… Read more »
Really pleased to see Warnock going all out against the corrupt/inept referees in the EPL. About time someone made a big fuss and hoopla about it for the matter to really escalate. Most managers are often very measured and circumspect in their criticism of poor referring decisions which I think has led the issue to be brushed under the carpet. I hope a few other managers also come out and raise their voice.
Leftside The Spud’s also have Bournemouth away which is never a straightforward match and 2 of their remaining home matches are against Palace and West Ham. I wouldn’t be surprised if they drew one of those matches. I think we’re looking at them getting 14 or 16 points so finishing with a maximum total of 77. They also have the 3 matches against City in 11 days with Huddersfield sandwiched in between which could cause issues. So to finish above them without getting goal difference involved etc we need the 3 home wins and 9 points away from home. I… Read more »
@TR7,
A lot of manager have tried to raise the issue, but quickly shut up when they realise that that lead to retribution by the referees.
For example all the new managers have expressed surprised how Tony Pulis’s team kept avoiding conceding penalties despite playing more rugby and wrestling than football. Invariably the following week their team was conceding a penalty or got a players sent off for that very same infringement. They quickly learned the lesson and never mentioned that ever again.
At least with VAR, the most egregious decisions will be eradicated.
TR7
I agree it happens far too often to go with the “it balances it self out” line. Being in the PL is worth upwards of £60 million, where else would something with so much money riding on it be allowed to be handled by such incompetent officials?
“At least with VAR, the most egregious decisions will be eradicated.”
Tell that to PSG!
Yes, this week is important for our chances Marc. Hopefully we pick up where we left off tonight as we’ve built up some momentum since our loss to City in the league (just like at the start of the season).
I’m never really sure of what to make of Everton when we rock up to Goodison so it’s a game that could go either way. We need to win it to give us confidence for the remaining away fixtures.
Jesus Christ the level of understanding of statistics above is embarrassing. Unless you can demonstrate via objective, long-term data that certain biases exist and that certain teams receive more favorable or more unfavorable calls, you must assume that all good and bad calls are distributed equally. This isn’t that complicated.
If someone has the requisite data, please present it. Otherwise you have nothing save conspiracy-theory mongering.
Bamford
I think it’s more a view that the level of refereeing is no where near good enough. Officials are supposed to be accountable but it’s all done behind closed doors by a body that seems incapable of admitting that improvements are required.
You’ve only got to read the Mark Clattenburg interview form a year or two ago and the Spur’s Chelsea match to see there’s an issue.
If Mister Wenger was still in charge, we would be competing for all three trophies.
High quality, aesthetically pleasing football, no handbrake entertainment. The man is a legend of club. He was in great form at the French league cup final. Love to see it.
Epic trolling from Dream but no seriously if he was in charge we’d be in a battle for 6th with Wolves.
Marko
I think 6th is a little optimistic!
I think it’s more a view that the level of refereeing is no where near good enough. Officials are supposed to be accountable but it’s all done behind closed doors by a body that seems incapable of admitting that improvements are required. This is true but it’s getting lumped in by certain types to include conspiracy against Arsenal that has cost Arsenal titles over the years and therefore it wasn’t Wenger’s fault. Which is ridiculous. These people are more than comfortable blaming a fictitious plot to destroy Arsenal’s chances of winning trophies under Wenger than blaming the sheer incompetence of… Read more »
I think 6th is a little optimistic!
You’re probably right. Nothing to suggest had he stayed on that we would have addressed the midfield or the goalkeeper situations.
“High quality, aesthetically pleasing football, no handbrake entertainment. ”
lol
“Arsenal will consider new contract for Danny Welbeck, says Unai Emery”
WTF is that story ?? Why not keeping the money to buy another player ?
@Bamford, This was exactly the same argument used in Italy and Belgium before the corruption was exposed. Even in UK, studies have proven that some big teams have advantage. Strangely enough out of the big 6, Arsenal and Spurs were the two teams who had been the fewer time on the receiving end of favourable erroneous decisions. ManUtd and Liverpool were the biggest beneficiaries. A few month ago, a German study showed the following: 1) teams that are overtly violent will be given more leeway than the rest. It is like knowing that a team is physical, referee automatically adjust… Read more »
Epic trolling from Dream but no seriously if he was in charge we’d be in a battle for 6th with Wolves.”
Not a far stretch but best case we wouldn’t have as high a point total that’s for sure. He had lost the dressing room and that is almost impossible to get back once it’s gone.
Valentin respectfully given your propensity for bullshit and outright falsehoods when you talk about corruption and studies I personally will take it with a grain of salt a cup really. A German study? Sounds as credible as that time you heard. Water tight in fact
“but best case we wouldn’t have as high a point total that’s for sure”
Yes but wouldn’t we be playing attractive sexy football ?
@Marko,
This is getting ridiculous. You spend your time attacking people and spreading falsehood.
When you are exposed you take exception and double down on your rant.
You will then spend time to personally insult whoever you feel wronged you without ever posting anything of value.
You disagree with the conclusions, what is your opinion?
Or you don’t have any opinion as long as you oppose me.
PapaSok has already 9 yellows. Another one we’ll lose him for 2 matches. Hopefully, he won’t get one today. After the Everton game, we’ll need to rotate for the Cup games anyway.
New contract for Welbeck ?! What the fuck? He wasn’t good enough before the serious injury. His strength was his agility and speed, both of which will have suffered. This is Wenger behaviour if so.
That’s what I think, too…
Emery out.
Did Torreira come back injury free? It’s good that he’s getting a rest. We’ll need him at his best when we play Napoli etc. If he’s comes back firing on both cylinders I can see us going on another winning/unbeaten run… especially with both of our main strikers firing now.
Ffs had to retype this comment. Anyone else having issues with le grove?
In regards to our away games. Everton, watford wolves will be on vscation mode with nothing to play for as they aren’t catching up to chelsea in 6th.
Burnley moat likely will be safe from relegation by the time we play them as well.
Pierre Having my lunch break and have taken time to skim through your link, or let’s say the Arsenal link and will have a more detailed look later. I love the pretty graphs and the colours are really awesome. The thing is, if I had the time and inclination to draw up a counter argument, I could definitely highlight hundreds of incidents that have gone in Arsenal’s favour over the years, even well before the Wenger years. I tend to believe in the realities ie shambolic defending, poor tactics and mental frailties which generally were the cause of our problems… Read more »
Valentin when you say a German study you shouldn’t assume that people will just believe or take you at your word given you have a history of bullshitting. Post the link give evidence don’t just assume that people are going to believe a known liar
Let me use a very basic probability calculation to prove how wrong and foolhardy it is to say wrong refereeing decisions even themselves out. Assume there are 8 wrong referring decisions in all the games involving a football team. If I use symbol ‘A’ to represent referring decisions going against the team and ‘F’ to represent decisions going in favor of the team. Now let us see samples of all the possible 9 events : (8F, 0A), (7F, 1A), (6F, 2A), (5F, 3A), (4F, 4A), (3F, 5A), (2F, 6A), (1F, 7A) (0F, 8A) Probability of things evening themselves out :… Read more »
@Marko,
Stop pretending that you are going to read and accept any links posted.
You trashed an arsenal.com link that conclusively disproved your assertion that Arsenal would never use Steve Rowley as a consultant.
Just admit that you do not care about facts. You’re a flat Earther “I don’t like you, so no matter what you post I will disagree” type of troll.
Lost track of the amount of times over the years we’ve been f** kd over by refs since Mike Riley’s all time disgrace of a performance at old toilet in the 50th match of the invincible run.2nd has to be as Valentin pointed out that shameless performance by down at the barcodes.or try mikeDean ,too numerous to list.& no I don’t want to hear any bollocks about it’s the same for all clubs & it evens out.As “ fat sam “Allardyce claimed it doesn’t 🤫
(8F, 0A), (7F, 1A), (6F, 2A), (5F, 3A), (4F, 4A), (3F, 5A), (2F, 6A), (1F, 7A) (0F, 8A)Probability of things evening themselves out : (1/9)Probability of decisions unfairly costing or favoring a team : (8/9) Checks out. I know it probably seems like I’m taking the piss out of the logic of what you’re trying to say and that’s only because I am. 8 bad decisions a game? Define a bad decision? One that leads directly to a goal? A sending off perhaps? A corner? Unfair yellow card? Offside decisions? I think the point a lot of people are trying… Read more »
You trashed an arsenal.com link that conclusively disproved your assertion that Arsenal would never use Steve Rowley as a consultant. Again that article of him being fired never actually proved that he has consulted on anything and it certainly doesn’t prove that he is back at Arsenal to cover the Sven departure. Just admit that you do not care about facts. You’re a flat Earther “I don’t like you, so no matter what you post I will disagree” type of troll. You’re the one who doesn’t like facts you numbskull. Saying that Steve Rowley is back at Arsenal and then… Read more »
@TR7, Your math are incorrect. You are mixing probability of a set of events and probability of an individual event. In order to make it easier, just assume that a decision is like tossing a coin. Head: decision for. Tail decision against. The probability of head or tail is 50%. If you toss a coin once, you have a possibility of 50-50. If you throw the coin twice, you have a 25% chance to have two heads, 50% to have 1 head and 1 tail and a 25 % of two tails. Extend that to 8 draw and you can… Read more »
Hum… Valentin aka karim ??
That is worth a bet…
Laca takes too many touches in the box. Bang the ting man!