via @Batdesprez
Well good morning to you all… today, I blog from LONDON.
It’s good to be back sitting on the train, being repulsed by a person eating a prawn sandwich at 7am. It’s just what the doctor ordered. I even made a pal on the flight… we took the front row of the poor people seats AND had a middle row free. We were Kings… for me, that’s the real first class. You can be 6ft 9 and still have ample leg room… you get out the plane first… you have all the smugness of a 23-year-old BMW 3 series owner.
So anyway, a really great day. It’s good to be back in the hood. I’m eating a Gregg’s sausage roll as I pick through the news of the day… most notable of course is that it turns out, OGS IS A MASSIVE FRAUD. After moaning about the term, I now love calling people fraudulent. I said it to my mum the other day, caught her off guard BIG time. So good. Anyway, it does seem like xG catches up with you in the end. All those flukey results weren’t the return of Fergie’s United… they were just flukey results. Now the glow of being welcomed to training with a ‘hello, friend, may we hug’, versus… ‘get your tracksuit on you fat c*nt’, has worn off… United are starting to look Mourinho-esque.
Fair play to Wolves though… they were tenacious, ambitious and they worked harder than United. I am a touch worried about heading there if I’m honest.
The race for top 4 is tipping so hard in our direction it’s making me feel a little uncomfortable… it’s now ours to fuck… and Arsenal LOVE to fuck things up. However, at least the cushion for fucking things is now a little plumper (not sure if that works?)… we can make the gap 5 points between United if we win our game in hand.
You still can’t write off Chelsea… but they do have United, Liverpool, Watford, Leicester, Burnley and West Ham to deal with. There’s championship winning spirit in that squad, I just struggle to see Sarri unlocking it.
You also can’t write off Spurs… BUT they have to play City 3 times in a month which is not only tough physically, it’s tough mentally. There is only so much focus you can give when you’re Spursy by nature, I’m not sure they are going to handle the run, they are in a belief sinkhole of death if I’m analysing this correctly. They have Palace tonight PLUS Everton and West Ham to deal with. Not to mention that a new stadium is rarely a gift.
It is LOOKING very good for us.
But don’t count those chickens… or empty tubs of SUPER STRENGTH WET LOOK GEL out of the Colney bins. Just believe real hard…
Arsenal are being linked with Ryan Fraser. A good player. Doesn’t leave me feeling too frisky I have to say. I can’t even be bothered to write about it. I’m draining at the thought of mastering a hot take. I don’t have one.
I tell you who does… Wenger. He’s turned into the ultimate soundbite after refreshing his words over the last 9 months.
This is my favourite.
“You’re loved when you’re born, you’re loved when you die, in between you have to manage.”
Someone find me the applause emoji… and that squirrel story.
“The animal is survival. High-level sport too. It’s me or the others. But in a collective sport it is also me AND the others. The squirrel shares his body between the head and the top. Football is that, manage with the brain and legs. But if someone does not get up very often, it will never make him a very good footballer. ”
BRAVO SIR WENGER. More please… get me motivated that you can ALWAYS grow as a person.
“I wanted to test myself and on a whim I went there in a Nagoya team that did not win a match. At 47, it changed me at all levels. In the first ten games, we lose eight and I have an anecdote about it. The president calls me to his office and before I go, I tell my assistant to pack his bags because we were going to be fired. The speech seemed clear: “The results do not meet expectations and what I am going to tell you will not please you. But we have to face this situation … We are going to separate from the translator “. I was surprised and I managed to keep him working with us, we saved his head. By the way, he’s in the room tonight (Monday). He became a friend. After, on the experience in Japan, it is the perpetual isolation. Your only company is yourself. With the players, something new happened to me in my life. I banned the ball in training or in the game because they were already dead. They were preparing before to be level and they were cooked afterwards. They had to be channeled. ”
Oh man… this is TOO much.
He’s on FIRE… just like my ticket purchasing game. I am seeing Arsenal with a pal in DC. Cannot wait to yell about soccerball and maybe see Robbie from AFTV. #Dreams
Anyway, time for me to go and be with family and shit.
See you in the comments. x
P.S. One of my total fave football/biz writers, Matt Scott, has launched a NEW website called Football DNA that you need to go and look at. As always, he finds the next level, is the next level with an excellent blend of words and rock solid data. Proper data as well… with insights. None of this singular-data-point-to-tell-a-story nonsense. Jump on it!
READ FOOTBALL DNA HERE where he eviscerates Spurs rep as a big club (mostly)… and also follow @ftballDNA
Spuds can’t even fill their first ever home game at the soup bowl!
Their attendance declared is 59,215 for the “emotional” game.
Dissenter
Isn’t capacity 62,000 and something so best part of 3,000 down?
Even City can’t fill their stadium, and they win trophies every year now. Spurs won’t find it easy to conjure up 10k extra supporters every [other] week.
Spurs built a stadium, whereas The Arsenal built a stadium complimented by a magnificent precinct, with gr8 approach concourse that makes the whole home ground experience the best in North London. Shite Hart Lane is really just a 21st century Kennington Oval, bounded by roads. The Arsenal is far more metropolitan compared to the northern suburbs!
The Tottenham obsession has been amazing on here today with their new stadium. I mean for a club who is “not even a threat” there’s sure a lot of talk about it.
Thomas, time to go to bed, school tomorrow.
Thomas,
In case you hasn’t got round to listening to today’s sports news, Tottenham have just played their first match ever in their fancy new stadium, which cost quite a lot of money, and which may cause them a few financial problems in the near future..
It’s been all over the press, in case you hadn’t heard.
That’s why we’re discussing it.
Receding
I wouldn’t look too much into Napoli losing to Empoli.
They’ll be up for us next week. I reckon we’ll need a two goal buffer to take back to Italy
To be fair to Thomas it is very hard to know what is going on in the world when you live under a rock.
MidWest,
He lives under a rock? Who knew?
I thought he was suspended over the surface of a pond…..
Words on a BlogApril 3, 2019 21:27:41
Thomas,In case you hasn’t got round to listening to today’s sports news, Tottenham have just played their first match ever in their fancy new stadium, which cost quite a lot of money, and which may cause them a few financial problems in the near future..It’s been all over the press, in case you hadn’t heard.That’s why we’re discussing it.
___
So what? They’re not a threat right? So why the obsession over what they’re/they’re not doing?
This is the Telegraph/WySCout article on Emery and Arsenal that I mentioned the other day, for those interested. Inside Unai Emery’s coaching playbook: A breakdown of Arsenal’s resurgence Charlie Eccleshare Daniel Zeqiri Unai Emery’s coaching playbook Unai Emery has already matched Arsenal’s Premier League points tally from the whole of lasts season Telegraph Sport uses WyScout, the professional platform for football analysis After Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Newcastle, Arsenal sit third in the Premier League. It would be hard to argue that their squad is the third best in the division, and so much of the success can be attributed… Read more »
Thomas-
Wtf? who says they aren’t a threat besides you? I mean I know you only root for Chelsea.. but Spurs finished 3rd just last season.
How is that Jose Mourinho neck tat, by the way? Probably needs a little touch up work by now , huh?
Thomas comes on and Arsenal blog to troll because he feels threatened by us. Why else would he be constantly be talking about Arsenal? Sad.
Thomas
Ask yourself why you constantly find yourself commenting on an Arsenal blog and you may find your answer, it’s probably not that different.
Also the game of semantics you’re trying to play is childish. What’s your point, that an Arsenal fan caring about the rivalry gives significance to Spurs? And then you point and laugh at us because we cared?
You’re like my nephew that gets upset when I ask if he thinks someone is pretty.
Andoni Zubizaretta, wasn’t he one that sanctioned the transfer of Hleb, Song and Vermalaen from us to Barcelona?
Not really encouraging is it?
That fucking thing cost about the same as the Dallas Cowboys stadium. And theirs is bigger and it holds over 100,000 and it’s got the largest screen in the world covering the length of the pitch. They paid a billion for that.
Well if Zubizaretta was at Barcelona from 2010 – 2015.. That would include Macherano, Fabregas, Suarez, Neymar, Alexi Sanchez, Jordi Alba and Rakitic.
Not really fair to pick and choose the bad names. But I don’t know much about him. We wont have a Barca budget that’s for sure.
Fascinating reading tonight- that Marco Reus states that Ozil is the best player he has played with in Germany.
That is indeed ,high praise.
Dortmund have produced some sensational players over the years.
Reus, interestingly- would be an apt Replacement Arsenal ( if Rambo does depart).
(Having said that – we are top heavy with ex Dortmund players)
Is Mike Dean Jasper Carrot’s brother? He definitely is a joke of a referee!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6881351/Mike-Deans-best-worst-moments-finally-dished-100th-Premier-League-red-card.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_JQDfuMZi0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbTQ8SqpRw8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eedH28a4Fus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DdofvSKhgM
A real comedic prima donna on the pitch with all the flamboyancy of a member of Village People.
Anyway some fun to wake up to. Jasper Carrot is one of the UK’s funniest observational comedians.
For me his insurance claims was possibly his humorous sketch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxMjeWj3O7g
Although not as funny as Pierre’s trolling and priceless stats
most humorous*
Is Ozil the new Wenger?
Why don’t we try to offload Elneny and Jenkinson to Leeds United if they get promoted? They will be hungry for EPL proven players and if we could receive £15m for both of them that would be money we could add to our transfer kitty.
Leeds
United looking to offload 6 players being reported today; their 6 are certainly better than Elneny & Jenks.
We couldn’t get rid of players last summer, probably not going to be easy this summer either.
Overmars being reconsidered? Didn’t he turn us down?
Do we really want dinosaurs like Andoni Zubziaretta?
We need a younger dynamic TD not some guy verging on extinction.
Actually we need a real footballing CEO first or a CEO with a proven successful track record in sports teams or produce background.
Not a power hungry rolodex guy who can’t attract the right people to the club.
The latter is very telling.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6882553/Arsenal-interviewing-new-candidates-technical-director-role-missing-Monchi.html
Reus is RVP Mk 2.0
talented but just as injury prone, don’t want a player that plays half a season.
We need to really look for a Ramsey replacement though. Ramsey has been good. Though if he had gotten his contract extension, I doubt he would be playing like this. All to do with his motivation.
Another question, if arteta had gotten the Job, would he have handled the ozil situation and would we be where we are ?
I believe ozil is still very marketable
He’s still the biggest name in our squad. He’s still the one the non arsenal and non football watching people know. He also still shows up here and there with a genius performance to top up his sliding rep
In or out of our and the German team, he’s still ozil and that’s not changing any time soon imo
Marko
Two words London and Dallas.
Property and costs in the capital are mindblowing.
We live on the South Coast just 60 miles south of London.
3 bedroom terraced house here costs in the region of £325-350k. Same house in and around London in the region of £750k upto £1m.
The arrival of Emery has helped some of the players in a positive way .. I would say Bellerin has benefited with his final ball ( not so much Positionally and defensively)/ Kolasinac is slowly gaining defensive awareness and is very good offensively. Ramsey in the last 3 games has shown that he is capable of playing a disciplined central midfield role which I believe should be attributed to Emery. Mustafi any improvement is negligible. Iwobi is slowly improving tactically because of Emery’s help. I would say our offensive players have always been at a good level . There was… Read more »
“Andoni Zubizaretta, wasn’t he one that sanctioned the transfer of Hleb, Song and Vermalaen from us to Barcelona?”
I think he is calling in the favours……
If it was up to me I would extend Aaron, Petr and Danny’s contracts,
Hard to replace first team and squad players. Also some of our biggest natural winners in Aaron and Petr.
Don’t forget AMN.
Big improvement over the past few months.
All down to Emery.
Ramsey and Ozil have also bought into the new philosophies.
“Fascinating reading tonight- that Marco Reus states that Ozil is the best player he has played with in Germany.”
Not really surprised. Not a whole lot of competition when you look through their squad in the last decade. Muller, Schweinsteiger, Kroos, are all good but tend to get overrated. Functional more than anything. Lahm is probably the elite player out of the rest of them. Not surprised he went for Ozil.
Mr. B
“”If it was up to me I would extend Aaron, Petr and Danny’s contract””
Totally agree.
All brilliant professionals
Hugely popular amongst their peers
All experienced and proven internationals
Winners. ( They have many medals.)…….
… count them – if in doubt.
We need all these attributes.
Let’s hope they stay with us.
I think we can forget the “we need time to be acclimated to this new stadium” factor for the Spuds… the new darlings of the kingdom.
C*nts.
I see that all the Ozil lovers are here this morning.
The post above from CGF is absolutely priceless.
Let’s see what Mesut will show us when we will play Napoli (or Chelsea/another big one if we pass the next round)
*CG, sorry…
Paulinho
I note with interest that you are not that impressed with Marco Reus choice as best player he has ever played with .
I also note your high regard for Aaron Ramsey , so Just out of interest, do you think Marco Reus would have chosen Aaron Ramsey as the best player as he has ever played with if he had ever played with him .
In fact , do you think any other player ever would say that Aaron Ramsey is the best player they have ever played with .
Leg end
Might as well give Ozil man of the match now for the Napoli game …will be a breeze for him.
Just read an article on goal about how Renato Sanchez is frustrated with lack of minutes at Munich and wants a move.
Could be a decent shout on the cheap (since he seems to be actively looking for a move to play more football), he was great at Benfica.
Typical day on LG’s comment section: -Pierre (probably knows what Ozil’s bathwater tastes like). Constantly feels he has to defend and talk about Ozil, and froths at the mouth when Ozil is mentioned in less than stellar terms. -GOH with his daily nonsensical remarks then makes a bad joke when he’s called out for his nonsense. – Then comes Steve (or Thomas as he’s calling himself now) to talk about how much disdain he has for Arsenal and criticise Arsenal fans on an Arsenal blog for talking about..you guessed it…Arsenal! – CG blabbering on about nonsense (best one so far… Read more »
LOL nice one Left!
Pierre – Whenever they ask these questions to players they always choose someone with a talent for making things look easy, and always refer to the things they did in training etc, along with on-pitch performances. Ozil is always going to stand out next to a functional midfielder like Schweinsteiger and a hack like Muller. They remember the flicks rather than the off-the-ball runs, no matter how effective those runs were.
It’s why Bergkamp is always the favourite answer of ex-Arsenal players even though Henry was clearly the better player when it came to consistently delivering over sustained periods.
Leftsidesanch I am here to educate people like you who don’t understand the finer points of the game. The negativity that spews from many of the posters on Le Grove about our own players is something that I like to address. There are some that are beyond redemption but I will continue to give my words of wisdom in the hope that they can see that football is a game to enjoy and watching players with sublime skills is what the fans want to see ( hence the ovation Ozil received v Newcastle when he was substituted). To my relief,… Read more »
Pierre – Would you start Ozil against Everton, Wolves, Watford?
Paulinho
Ramsey is not averse to trying a few Hollywood flicks so I’m told.
Leftside,
Lol, I hadn’t realised that Pierre was “here to educate” us miserable ignorant people…
Now I know I can rest easy.
Paulinho
Personally I would play Ozil v Everton and Napoli ,leave him out for Watford away and play him Napoli away …..after that ,see how things go …
I have always said it should be horses for courses with Ozil ..some games he is ineffective but Everton and Napoli away , no problem.
Pierre,
I’m going to Restaurant Gordon Ramsey this evening.
Would you please Give me some advice on what fine wine to have?
I was thinking of a Turkish-German Chateaux red wine, subtle and smooth
Your can’t go wrong with a pint of guiness.
Pierre,
Jokes aside, I agree with your take on which matches Özil should be played in.
Does Emery trust him for away games yet …I’m not so sure.
We may not be able to resign Rambo but we can definitely resign Cech and Welbz
LeftsidesanchApril 4, 2019 09:44:53
– CG blabbering on about nonsense (best one so far was that we should resign Aaron Ramsey) even though he’s leaving to go to Juventus in the summer.
Can’t believe the “Leg end” joke is still makes him laugh…
“Does Emery trust him for away games yet …I’m not so sure.”
Thank God you are not Arsenal head coach.
I am here to educate people like you who don’t understand the finer points of the game.
How you’ve managed to conclude your understanding is superior to “people” like me I don’t know. Go on, tell me what I’m going to have for dinner this evening and what my future will look like in 5 years.
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