Two days on and the warm glow of a much-needed victory away at United is still very much… well, warm.
In a sign of how ridiculous fan rage has become, we’re currently celebrating a manager everyone was doubting last week as the second coming, while United fans are all correctly suspecting Poch was on Monday Night Football to catch the eye of the United board of directors. The big flirt.
The Premier League is by far the most brutal league in the world. No one is given time to succeed, every club is getting better, decisions are made faster than ever before because there’s so much more pressure to survive/succeed.
This makes me angry… OGS does NOT deserve the bad words.
Give this honest broker MORE time, not less.
I personally think 6 more years would give us more clarity on whether it’s the players that are the problem or his infallible coaching.
It’s the players imo. Has someone like Roy Keane explained to them they are weak bitches? Has Rio shown them what the badge means? Can you really trust a ‘lazy’ midfielder like Paul Pogba who has only won pony trophies like the World Cup?
#SaveOle
Jokes aside, we do need to start to settle into some truths as Arsenal fans. Firstly, there will be bumps in the road as we progress through the season. We will lose games, the manager will make bad decisions, sometimes that exact line-up you think is right might not be picked. That doesn’t mean we should doubt the process. This season is about chasing top 4. Just because we’re not in it right now, doesn’t mean we won’t be towards the end of the season.
Currently, we’re 3 points from 2nd. We have played 4 from the top 6. We have the best defence in the league. That is progress. Even if we’d lost yesterday… we’d still have been in the mix for top 4.
Arsenal fans need to deal with their past. Arsene has gone, he’s flogging books these days. Our manager is not Unai Emery (happy birthday, bro). He can’t hurt you with his white witch now. Arsenal is now a safe space where you can dream. We are not going backwards, the path forwards is clear. The identity is obvious, if not slightly unexpected (did not expect Simeone-Lite out here). The culture is changing game by game. I think it’s quite interesting that professionals tend to really like what is going on at Arsenal because they understand where we were (limp damp handshakes) and can see where we’re heading (strong over-the-top-I-am-dating-your-daughter-handshake). Tim Cahill launched a blistering attack on the embarrassingly dated Roy Keane on this theme.
Love this from Cahill. AFC don’t have better players than MUFC, but MA is betting on a structure, attitude, and thinking. We are a fine margins team until we upgrade talent, but we are evolving game by game.
This time last year we were the uncoachables.
— Le Grove (@LeGrove) November 2, 2020
‘Winning games of football is the key but also understanding when you lose and why you have lost is just as important. Players react to managers that have clear structure and direction.’
Roy Keane looks at our losses as an abject failure, whereas I think most Arsenal fans – though pissed – understand the limitations of the squad and why those losses were happening. It wasn’t a motivation issue, it wasn’t a player leadership problem, and it wasn’t an inherent fault with the system if you believe that we’re playing this way out of necessity. We are a fine margins side this season, that is how we’ll play and it won’t change until we have the players to play like the greats of attacking football.
We should settle into a mindset that reflects our reality instead of breaking cries of ‘ARTETA PLAYS BLAND BECAUSE HIS FAVE EMOJI IS A CRAB’ or ‘TOO NEGATIVE FUCK THE HANDBRAKE’ or my new fave ‘WE MISS GIROUD.’ It’ll make the season much easier to deal with if we can all just calm down and go for a walk.
Part of the drama, I think, is the theatre of the internet. Everyone wants to be the first person to call something. Just look at how many people said ‘I’ve literally been calling Mo Elneny the Egyptian Zidane since he was at FC Basel.’ An example of how this fan drama plays out happened on this blog, people were telling me I had a right to gloat… erm, people, we just beat United… we ALL have the right to gloat. You can’t gloat at your own fans after a massive win. If your willingness to support our success is more wrapped up in your personal fights with internet people, versus, you know, just being fucking happy… then I’d suggest you stop making friends with strangers on forums and ask a friend to intervene (unless the forum is Le Grove then it’s totes fine). Same is true of the weirdos that visit here as a first port of call after we lose. Wtf is wrong with you?
Back to the football.
Outside of the Fulham opener, our run has been pretty brutal, where teams like Spurs have had a pretty favourable run. All that will shift at some point, and they’ll start playing beastly games, and we’ll start an easier run.
That’s not happening for a bit. We have to beat an Aston Villa (h) side that is having a great season, then we have to tackle Bielsa’s Leeds (a) after the break, before facing Wolves (h), followed by Spurs (a). We’re not going for the league title this season (sorry), we just need to consistently rack up points, bed in our new players, and push the process along. I’d rather this season be a steady slog of points than the boom and bust madness we’ll no doubt see elsewhere.
If we head into January within spitting distance of top 4, maybe the club will unlock some funds for a creator, even if it’s just a sharp loan deal. I have my doubts though, I think the exec team is wishing next June comes along fast so they can release big names on big money and start to savage that wage bill, but you never know how Stan is feeling these days. We have £650k a week that’ll leave the wage bill next year!
That’s a long way off, in the meantime, let’s make sure we keep things focused on not going too mental when things inevitably don’t go our way this season. There will be ups and downs, but the journey is mapped, and we certainly won’t be needing to shift on our manager anytime soon… so less of the doom.
On that note, why not jump into our podcast? It is full of the joy of A UNITED WIN!
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Szoboszlai scores v Bayern
Marc, voted for him but he kinda is.
Ishola
Jota should’ve squared his earlier ball for an easy assist
but went for goal,
Plea with the hat trick as Gladbach scored 6 away at Chaktior
Of course Biden is lame.
But the most important thing is to get the status quo back.
Like it was before Trump and populism.
I can’t quite remember who was chatting shit about jota or something negative but since then dude can’t stop scoring lol😂.It’s like Jota read legrove
Rich, gotta tell you, the people on the ground in America really didn’t give a shit about the israeli embassy went
Szoboszlai scores v Bayern
Wasn’t him eventually, my mistake.
Ion, Marseille are depressing, giving away 2 early goals and missing a pen through Payet
‘He has paid $27 million in fraud settlements just since becoming president, and his longtime personal lawyer went to jail for crimes that prosecutors said were committed “in coordination with and at the direction of” the president.’
‘but hunters emails’
It’s official – Rich is Don’s ideological twin.
Jota with a brace already. I swear Eagle is fuming! lol
p.s. It’s going to be a Biden landslide. Even Hillary won the popular vote. Biden will peel even more voters away in the swing states and ride it home.
The Dems taking the Senate would be the extra sprinkles.
CBS Champions League coverage is great.
Marc
“Whilst I’d clearly be President of such a movement (Ishola is VP) Cc thinks Xhaka is good so no unified opinion.”
Do you remember when the Xhaka-Partey double pivot was all the rage on here?
Just a few weeks back to be exact when Partey first signed.
They were going to compliment each other perfectly. Like hand in glove.
Born in Seville. Made in Madrid. Mr. 92:48. Elite baller. Middle name Yellow. Favourite colour Red. Master of the dark arts. Born winner. Ultimate villain. Penalty king. Big shithousery vibes.
Don Ramos just scored his 100th goal for Real Madrid.
Jota with a brace already. I swear Eagle is fuming! lol
—-
Not yet, but he might be if Jota keeps Firmino, the player he scouted, on the bench.
Two things make me angry in football:
One, Arsenal fans posting the OT United game Mike Reilly fucked us over
Two, watching Klopp’s Liverpool toy with a quality outfit in CL and thinking what might’ve been.
Maradona’s emergency brain surgery and Gerd Muller about to die according to his wife.
Not a great day for the legends of the game
Ishola nobody cares about your autistic Xhaka fetish, there has to be a Reddit dedicated to the Albanian where you can swap sock stories. The fact it’s literally a personality trait of yours is a concern
Anyone see that Dreyer striker for the Danish side? A beaut…
Celebrities are dropping like flies at the moment.
Prince Phillip keeps going though!
Jota hat-trick
Charlie
I’ve spoken about Biden, Trump, Aled Jones, Jota, Darren Grimes, David Starkey , Portland, Fred Perry T-shirts, Peter Cooke and fish today and one mention of Granit.
Don’t be so sensitive about our Granit.
Oh dear, going to hear about Jota for a long old time on here…
He has looked great tonight, took all 3 goals brilliantly. Barring a Morata-esque drop-off going to have to add this one to my Le-Grove Hall of Shame haha.
karim
It’s been a dbad few days with Stiles’ death and Charlton’s dementia.
Ishola
That is quite an eclectic range of subjects – it’s quite funny Cc picked up on you’re comment and ignored mine.
Salzburg putting up a pretty decent fight.
Pool have been electric all night but how amateur have Atalanta looked at the back?
Klopp couldn’t have asked for an easier side to play on the break all their second half goals have come off of through balls leading to 1 vs 1s.
Marc
“That is quite an eclectic range of subjects ”
Yes I’d like to think so and Granit himself should be mighty pleased he fell into this diverse range today
Vazquez… you need to bury that.
WE, we’ve all got a selection of shame in our LG transfer closets.
Baptista, Lorik Cana, Bendtner, Bouba Diop, Chris Samba… think you have enough good opinions not to worry about Jota.
Pedro
Ha, yeah I’ve had some shocking calls too can add Joelinton, Xhaka before we bought him, didn’t rate Harry Kane from the outset. Loved me some Yann M’Vila.
Probably why I didn’t quite make it as a scout eh?
Bac
Forgot about those two, my bad
Oh man, I love Yann too… he was Thomas Partey of 8 years ago.
I do wonder if some of the unsexy signings we didn’t make could have been something at Arsenal.
Cahill, obviously a huge miss when he was at Bolton.
Love the spirit of this Salzburg team
WE, we’ve all got a selection of shame in our LG transfer closets.
____________
Speaking of which.. Eagle tells me Balotelli is available.
Any, chance we can bring back the
#Balosdeep Hashtag.?
Asking for a friend, who most definitely is not me.
Biggest miss in last 10 years?
Suarez for me.
Madrid – Inter good stuff, Madrid back in lead. 3-2.
Felipe Melo
Jokes. The biggest miss was obviously Yoann Gourcuff.
Suarez was never gonna happen though… Red Sox wanker wasn’t gonna let it go through.
£45m and Suarez was ours.
Middy #Ballosdeep was a big one as well, i’m w/ you.
£45m + 1
Not going to delve into the politics here tonight even though I’ve been amused reading through some of the comments. Simply put don’t know enough about it to really put across an informed opinion. Both are terrible candidates and terribly flawed, I’d be much more invested were I to actually live in the States. Having said that quite enjoy reading political talk on here from posters much better versed in the subject, tends to be like Religious talk though rarely ends well. Rich, TR7 and London Gunner are all good posters that I have time for, remember that half of… Read more »
WE
Talking of spotting talent early..
My son just reminded me that he sent me this message on may 19th 2019 .
“Looking at jota’s stats since he started , he’d be a great buy. Only 22 and premiership and championship proven.
We should go for him”
He wasn’t wrong.
#Ballosdeep
Unreal campaign.
Gourcuff was a baller, remember some shady stuff seemed to go on at the World Cup in that toxic French camp directed towards Gourcuff, seemed a fragile enough personality and his footballer never really recovered afterwards.
Cladio Reyna’s son… Gio Reyna at Dortmund will be really good. Only 17 will be very very good atatcking midfielder. . I’m laying down my marker now.
Middy
He is Murican and called Balogun, what more could you ask for?
As Sal said, that poster on the wall must stay blue-tacked on.
Eagle
He was Zidanesque when Bordeaux won the league in 2009, some of his goals were out of this world.
Bayern putting on the beatdown now.
Inter on 2 points after 3 CL matches, Monchengladbach top the group on 5 with an insane GD.
Could get pretty ugly for Conte if they were to get booted out in the groups and fall back in the league, especially if AC Milan are still topping the table.
Conte really does have a shocking record in the CL, even at Juve. Why I always preferred Allegri.
Gourcuff was immense, one of my faves for a spell.
Clement Grenier also super smooth operator.
Nuri Sahin was a player too.
Then there was Ricky Alvarez….
Pedro
Ever any sign of Cesc Appeal on here?
Was one of the best posters, other top ones like Romford, N5 and gambon still pop on every once in a while but haven’t seen him in an age.
And we got Middy back from the wilderness, through brute force.
Arguably Arteta’s biggest accomplishment.
Ricky Alvarez!
I loved that there was always someone on the internet that was an expert in a shite player wenger picked off.
‘Amaury Bischoff is a shrewd signing from Wenger, top of his class at his Alsace summer school’
Thomas Eisfeld. Remember him?
WE, he threw a hissy fit over Unai Emery, then I think the pain of Mikel Arteta being decent sent him over to Untold Arsenal.
Think he’s the editor there now.
Charlie
Were you on that Grenier train? Never did it for me, destitute man’s Gourcuff.
Alvarez on the other hand, oh how I was a fan. of ol’ Ricky.
Ben Arfa was a gut-wrencher too, the whole summer we were linked to him only for us to pull off Nasri last minute.
Ben Arfa made for a better highlight-reel, safe to say we made the right choice though.
Adidas apparel brought MIddi back
Pedro
He a big Unai-stan? Never good company when Redtruth/Bam are in your corner.
Shame that.
WengerEagle
Thanks for the kind words, and not writing me off as a loon.
Hopefully I’ll get one gloating shot in tomorrow, and then we can get back to the really important stuff, TheArsenal.
Asano was a baller too. Nearly as impactful as Park for us.
Rich, you do have elite football opinions, no doubt about that.
ovember 3, 2020 19:46:28
Ivanka Trump doesn’t take a government funded salary.And Kushner was central to the peace deals in the Middle East, so I think he’s earned his crust
Trouble with you Rich is you don’t think
Park did score that one lovely goal.
Who was that South American keeper we had for preseason?
Adidas apparel brought MIddi back
__________
This is more true then I care to admit. 🙁
Rich
Meant it, I like pretty much all the posters on here barring a troll or two. Don’t agree with many but that makes for this being the best blog around.
Arsenal and football is what we all bond over and what brings us all back time and time again even if we disagree on most other life aspects because of people coming from all different walks of life.
No different to the average man on the street in that sense and your average pub. Try chatting to them about politics/religion and see how long it remains friendly.
Did you get a humarace top?
Who was that bloke with no knees that we kept getting linked with on a free, Essiens’s Ghana team mate around the time we had that kiddy CM?
Appiah? Played in Turkey IIRC.
I was all for anyone that had that epic South American commentary you’d find hidden in the 240p part of YouTube
The “Rrrrrrrickkyyyyy Alvarez” was enough for me then.
But yea Weagle, liked Grenier although he was no Gourcuff. Remember being right into Mavuba for a spell too.
No.. humarace..shirt but it did bring back some good memories… Grateful Dead Alpine valley. 1989, to be exact.
I was a massive Lisandro Lopez fan, that bloke that Lyon signed to replace Benzema.
Our CF’s that season were Bendtner, a crocked RVP and 5 foot 7 Arshavin.
The Portuguese national team is one formidable machine, with or without Ronaldo. The attacking talent available is crazy.
They have another generation of excellent players, in the same mold as the Luis Figo era.
CC
Can’t for the life of me get how Mavuba got so many caps for France, another crab passes expert
Was ready to forgive you for Grenier but this is too much 😂
AVB:
“In order to be shit in the Champions’ League, you have to at least qualify for the Champions’ League. We did it and we are being shit.”
For incoming transfer years, I’ve always had a soft spot for 2012/2013 when we picked up Santi, Giroud, Monreal and Podolski (who was a bit crap really but fun to watch).
I’m hoping this year will match or exceed it with Gabriel and Partey leading the charge.
I would just like to officially thank Arsene for not signing Malouda.
Eagle
Man like Lisandro. Lucho Gonzales was very good too
Malouda always lost on me
Podolski really was an international specialist, like Klose.
Never the same player at club level. Had that one top season at Koln but besides that, quite ordinary.
Having said that, he scored some beauts here for us. That goal vs Liverpool in the Cup was crucial too. Loved a worldie strike, maybe the best left foot of any player we’ve ever had besides RVP.
Pedro
12 losses in a row for l’OM !
Sal won’t like it.
I had high hopes for Podolski., too. Willian is starting to give me that same.. vibe unfortunately.
The remember when I wasn’t shit for all my other teams vibe.
2012/2013 also was the year we signed our 20m man, Emiliano Martinez for about 1.5 million.
karim
Ligue 1 had some ballers, remember Niang for Marseille too? Used to love a CL goal.
Karim
Haha I love a story, lad was born on a boat so instantly I wanted us to sign him. Grenier was more about potential, he was so technically good even though ultimately he went nowhere with it and was a crock.
I do Eagle, good times.
CC
He’s a charming bloke.
Agree Dissenter, the Portugal NT on paper is spectacular.
Joao Felix, Jota, Trincao, Rafael Leao, Guedes, Podence all competing for attacking spots.
Outstanding full backs in Ricardo Pereira, Guerreiro, Cancelo, Semedo.
Solid MF in Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, William Carvalho, Moutinho, Danilo, Andre Gomes, Ruben Neves.
Just a shame that Ronaldo and Pepe aren’t both 5 years younger. Otherwise they’d be legit tournament favourites along with France.
Has Trump won yet?
Marc, Trump is a huge fan of Xhaka, not sure if you knew?
Karim, AVB had so much promise… the sauce wore off!
Pedro
That was quite good for you – almost funny. Who know’s one day you might even make it from Marketing into Sales!
Looks like Trump has taken Florida…..
Rich
Didn’t they say who ever won Florida would sweep the election?
Marc
Pennsylvania, which might not be declared for a week
I don’t if you remember, I did say about a month back, we might not find out the winner today.
Rich reading the tea leaves on Florida, 0% in.
BBC reporting with 30 minutes till polls close the Biden camp is concerned he might not make it that long.
Rich
“Looks like Trump has taken Florida…..”
You’re a proper nutter.
Voting doesn’t end till 7.00pm ET.
Let’s stick to football.