Welcome to Monday. I’m back at work. So are you. Life is shit and miserable.
Still, at least we can bask in the mini-glow of a decent run of three wins.
Chelsea fans? They are probably not feeling so good right now. Frank Lampard started the season badly and was called a fraud, then he had his team firing and he was lauded as the real deal, now he’s back on fraud watch because Chelsea lost again.
The hammer normally drops at Chelsea. Their owner has no time for sympathy or feelings of nostalgia. Though I will say, nearly every manager has had fans calling for their head this season. Ole G had United sniffing around Poch, now they’re apparently going to win the league. Jose was the king for a bit, then he dipped and Spurs fans were crying about their savagely bad football, now he’s somewhere in the middle. Carlo has had it. Nuno is getting it. It’s hard to make rash decisions when there are 10 points between 1st and 12th.
Arsenal has a very important three games coming up. We play Newcastle in the FA Cup, which is a back door to Europe, so we need to take it seriously again. Then we have two 6 pointers against Newcastle and Crystal Palace in the league. All three games are at home. Really, it’s essential we win all three.
In the league, Wolves and Everton are playing + Spurs and Villa. Adding three points moves us closer or further past a rival in the first weekend.
The weekend after Villa and Everton play. United and Everton. Leicester and Southampton.
Our Premier League games are on the easier side. We simply have to make them count. Palace have been all over the place this season, we know they can damage us, but if we’re on form, we should have enough. Newcastle are a really bland team, but they are capable of parking the bus and nicking draws. The shit teams are more often than not the problem. We need to find a way.
The two key games that’ll shape our season big-time are at the end of the month. If we can head into the Southampton and United games on wave of confidence, and deliver, then we’ll be in the running for top 4 this season. If we sputter into those games, and our top 4 hopes rest on them, I’m not sure we’ll have enough.
Southampton has a ghastly run of fixtures heading into our game facing Liverpool, Leicester, and Leeds. United has an extra game squeezed in and one less day of rest before we play.
People have been comparing Arteta’s December escape from hell to the sort of thing Wenger used to do. Say what you will, but Emery didn’t stop the rot from Jan 2019 until he was sacked.
The true Wenger signature move wasn’t escaping bad runs, it was looking well and truly out of the #Top4Trophy race, then delivering it against the odds.
I don’t want to start hyping people about the idea, because it feels a bit lost in this terrible season, but we do have some things Wenger had going for him.
LIKE A NEW SIGNING
An absolute Wenger classic. After he’d crushed his players before December by overplaying his faves, our best players would come back to fitness around the end of January. Those players had a forced break, they were fresh, and they could drive us when others in the race were leggy.
Arteta has his marquee signing from the summer coming back into the side. We’ve had him for 2.5 games. If he comes back ready, he’ll be immense for a side that needs his qualities. Gabriel Martinelli might not be scoring goals yet, but his impact on the backend of this season could be very much like the one Anelka had but on a less grandiose level. We’ve also discovered a young talent in Smith Rowe. He’s fit, he’s hungry and he doesn’t have the weight of half a season in his legs.
AN ACTUAL SIGNING
Can we really look past Andrey Arshavin as the ultimate #Top4Saviour? The little Russian landed in the Premier League and set it alight until he discovered North London takeaways. He arrived saying ‘I AM GOONER’, we all fell in love with him, and he helped us smash top 4 with 9 assists and 6 goals in 15 or so games.
Arsenal needs to make a smart January signing. We are desperate for a creative solution that fits the profile of what Arteta needs. The signing cannot be a glamour name for the sake of it. It needs to be someone that knows the league, can run, that is looking to shop window themselves. KSE shouldn’t be wasting the little money we have on perm signings that’ll come at a premium and stink of panic.
FALLING UP THE STAIRS
Wenger always found a way in the end. It might not have been pretty, but he always found a formula that let him scrape by. Whether it was that legendary back 5 that took us to the Champions League final, the discovery that Coquelin and Santi were quite good, or Mikel and Aaron… there was always a way.
Arteta has been mainlining Old Players, the street equivalent of cooking up dishwasher cubes. He’s been slipped something new though, that’s HUNGRY TALENT, the high is hopefully addicting, and maybe he’ll keep doing it now he understands the error of his ways.
The system he has now works. Hunger, energy, with technicians built for the vision. We need to remember how we fell up the stairs and stick with it, even if there are inevitable bumps in the road.
EXITING HELL
Final one, generally, Wenger would have his nightmare in November, or February. That’d be it then for the season. We had ours through October, November, and December. There’s a chance we might have knocked it out of the system. Sure, we’ll lose games, but the hope is the worst of our bad runs might be over.
All of the above is a big fantasy. We could get done by an Andy Carroll 93rd minute header, followed by Zaha reminding us why he’s the boss in the Ivorian national team. Us Arsenal fans NEVER learn not to touch the extremely painful HOPE button, but fuck it… it’s the first Monday of the year, no one wants to be reading warnings, so have a great day, listen to my podcast RIGHT NOW, then I’ll see you in the comments.
Why is anyone still talking about Ozil? Are they the same people still pinning of the nose diving Wenger days?
It’s done, the guy is a waster; obvious talent that didn’t have the application to go with it.
Move on, there’s nothing left to see here
Thought i’d seen it all on Le Grove.
London gunner Rashford is nothing but a virtue signalling moron. The government has a responsibility to all tax payers. If someone chooses to have 5 kids? Without the resources necessary to feed and cloth those kids? Why should other tax payers essentially pay higher taxes, so people who don’t contribute, can become full time nannies to their own children, curtesy of other tax payers? That is the very definition of an unfair system. There’s no such thing as government money, there’s just tax payers money, and money the government borrow, that future generations will pay the Bill for Either in… Read more »
It’s not it is Valentin going on a rant about school dinners.
Kids get free meals anyway if they’re on a low income bracket (which i assume they will be otherwise what’s the fuss?) so thinking about it again probably only breakfast snack that’s relevant – which means Ozil prob forking out bugger all and getting tax relief on the bugger all element
“ESR should absolutely be allowed to nail down the position until the summer, manage him properly and I’m sure there will be no injuries”
We need to purchase a CAM this January because it will be suicidal putting all hopes on esr with the believe he could be managed to avoid injuries.
Fans must know that injuries sometimes have nothing to do with number of matches played or club’s ability to manage a player. Ramsey/shawcross comes to mind.
FL
SCHOOL DINNERS? WHO CARES?
You and val apparently. Arguing over the price of a school dinner is a new low. Well done.
Ozil has done a positive thing. Let’s leave it there.
Blimey Rich, you must be glad to get that off your chest!
Seriously i can’t wait for Ozil to leave our club, a waste of space, well described in his recent comments by a legend that is Liam Brady. So many endless conversations that are just tedious now….
Personally, I think Rashford is a fantastic role model and a great footballer.
Ideally we get in another Cam of starting quality and another CM/DM of starting quality in the next 2 windows. That way we can switch it up depending on the opposition.
If we got for example Soumare + Buendia * we could play
Soumare/Partey at DM in easier home games with both ESR and Buendia in front of the DM, away or against top teams we’d play Soumare + Partey with ESR/Buendia in front of them. We only have 2 midfielders at the club worthy of the shirt atm.
*insert your favourite CM + Cam here
Rich loves a libertarian rant.
Easy there super wilko, think about that blood pressure.
Rich, The tax system is an aberation. I am not a bleeding liberal, but In my opinion children should not be the victim of a stupid and unfair system. We could have a system that states that if you can afford X kids but make the decision to have X+n, then the government will pay for it, but that the extra cost of n children will be substracted to your pension. Wants 5 kids but can only afford 2, then work longer to repay the extra cost that the government had to pickup. We could have voucher/stamp style payment that… Read more »
Theres more than enough for everyone, whatever number of kids the have
Tyrants have created a situation where a few ‘own’ the land which is the root of the problem
The same tyrants and their proxies then create tax havens which are, fundamentally, a bandits’ lair.
Systemic tyranny
Morning all, I see lots of news. Attaining Buendia is a no brainer. Why only rely on ESR as the second coming of Christ? Buendia right now is the better player and what does it hurt to have 2 creative players in the first team? Seriously!!! Perhaps he can partner with TP in the midfield, but to turn a nose at getting him is stupid. It also makes sense to loan Willock and Nelson that way. Smart biz…. We buy Buendia, lose 2 players who are not cutting it. SO far Kola is leaving, likely Willock and Nelson, so 3… Read more »
Imagine ESR and Buen on the pitch together? one as a central 10 and the other the creative 8….
We can do damage
Buendia or Bissouma make way too much sense, which means we’ll probably get Fat Isco on an overpriced loan instead.
Sid the Marxist rants again
Now Luteo has a serous god damn grasp of all things Arsenal.
Buendia and Bissouma would be unbelievable – then we would have options and with 2 players who already have Prem experience
Bob N16 If the government send the message that people aren’t responsible for their own actions? The whole country is on a really slippery slope One of the biggest problems we have in this country, is the single parent figures Putting out a policy that actively encourages people to become full time nannies to their own children, paid for by other tax payers, is complete basket case policy making Boys who grow up without a strong male role model in their lives, are significantly more likely to live in poverty, have no qualification or trade, and have criminal records. Young… Read more »
I don’t normally get involved in non footballing matters on here, but the cost of a school meal, round here it is £2.35 for one hot meal a day (these are basically microwave meals). They also get free fruit (no biscuits!) at snack time two times a day.
We won’t be able to afford Buendia. What are you guys smoking?
They won’t sell for less than 40m.
Thought i’d seen it all on Le Grove.
Welcome to Le Grove Sal….
I don’t think that Norwich will let Buendia go this window. They are chasing promotion, but who knows, perhaps they could be persuaded to let him go. . In my dreams we will get another CM, young, powerful and mobile….Sabitzer or Bisoumma. With Partey back we would enjoy climbing the table. However, I very much doubt any of this will happen….
Northbanker the clueless pawn in the game of chess
I would also like to see AMN given a chance in midfield.
Luteo
“Buendia or Bissouma make way too much sense, which means we’ll probably get Fat Isco on an overpriced loan instead.”
Neither is attainable in January imo
Norwich need Buendia to get promotion which is more valuable than whatever we offer to pay for him in January.
Brighton need Bissouma to try to beat relegation which is more valuable than whatever we offer to pay for him in January.
Buendia is apparently prepared to let Norwich know he wants to leave should we show solid interest.
Norwich will not lay down though, it would be at least £25 million, although perhaps he was a release clause in his contract.
Chris
They sold Godfrey to Everton for 25M. No way they’d let Buendia leave in Janurary, when they’re top of the Championship for the same price.
Dissenter
Agreed. Best we can do is get someone in on loan. Then go for proper players in the summer.
Doesn’t really bother me either way, this season should be all about the kids and finishing top half of the table.
Rich, I don’t believe you think that children should suffer because their mothers were either unable to establish a lasting relationship with the fathers of their children or for that matter are motivated to have children as a single parent ‘comfortable’ in the knowledge that the state will provide food so that their offspring will not go hungry. A society should be judged by how well the more well off, look out for the least advantaged. Extrapolating Rashford’s actions in the way you have is missing the essential’goodness’ of his actions. This is a man who was brought up with… Read more »
The system is stacked against men of a particular demographic since he is full of vigour and prolific alpha this scares the tyrant and his clueless pawns.
Money speaks, so lets tempt Norwich, we might be able to turn Buendia’s head.
For him, it makes more sense to move now to a top team in EPL. What guarantee is it that Norwich makes promotion and then gets relegated again the following year? These championship teams do this flip flop business often… going up, going down
He is 24, so now or never…
Send a good offer and lets see
Rich
Good points, the tax system should ease gradually upwards to stop the disincentive leap upwards.
Boris the other day was on about more government employees, so less people employed privately to pay for non producing government.
It doesn’t work.
Football and politics doesn’t work
Samir
That’s why I said at least £25 million, however there may be a clause in his contract we don’t know of, or if Buendia himself tells Norwich he wants the move.
20Mish and a loan of Willock and Nelson is being reported possibly,
Could work out?
If Edu can obtain Buendia and Bissouma now, all will be forgiven. He will be the Pele of Technical directors for me.
Willock is not going to make it , half asleep dreamboat of a player.
Loan him to Norwich is a good move, he will grow up abit
Guns of SF,
Yes a loan for both Willock and Nelson who clearly will not be used and the purchase of another player would be beneficial to both as long as they are semi-guaranteed game time.
Personally right now, I would prioritise a strong No8 over another creative player. Somebody who could act as part of part of double pivot with Partey.
That would mean no Xhaka and Elneny, the Axis of slowness and backward passes.
Willock is a “dreamboat of a player”
Agree.
The talent is there but the visible desire isn’t.
Rashford is an elite multi millionaire, regardless of how he grew up. I am fed up of being lectured on morality by super rich celebrities.
Stronger family units would negate the need for so much welfare but you don’t hear too many celebrities promoting that. However, they all seem to be in favour of socialist types of governments distributing free stuff to people who make lousy decisions in life.
Bob N16 It’s a tightrope If the state are feeding people’s kids? Then we should scrap the child benefits of the people who aren’t using those benefits to feed their kids. I agree we can’t have kids starving, but we should never introduce policy, that actively encourages or rewards parasitic behaviour. If someone chooses to have 5 kids, with no qualifications, trade, or the necessary resources to fund those kids, without the help from other tax payers. Without giving other tax payers a second thought, then that’s selfish, unfair and irresponsible Then why should other tax payers have a higher… Read more »
If clueless because I’m not a Marxist then happy to be in that space Sid. Your cynicism and warped politics have never worked since the dawn of time. It also ends up being a real career killer too.
The very wealthy, the top 1% should be sharing their wealth to help the support the least well off. Sorry got political, will stop now. Just think the target of people’s anger and frustration should be directed at the obscenely rich and the status quo that protects them from sufficient scrutiny, not a well-intentioned, altruistic young man who happens to be an outstanding footballer.
“He should be spending all of it though, since he hasn’t earnt a penny of his salary since he signed his new contract. That would earn him some respect.”
Take a bow, Freddie 🙌🏻
One of the problems with this otherwise great country is the way that success is despised by those who haven’t worked hard enough and invested carefully enough
GoonerDave Completely agree, You can only have a public sector, if you have a large enough private sector to pay for it. We need to put a metaphorical bomb fire to huge sections of the civil service. The private sector is nature’s change agent, it wipes away inefficiency, and provides progress and innovation, through destroying what’s bad, and creating way for what’s better The public sector rewards failure, gives you no meaningful way to measure progress against stagnation, and is all about self preservation The left want to destroy private schools, because it makes them look bad, and they get… Read more »
Rich, See the point that I made earlier. The issue is not the Rashford of this world who have their heart in the right place. The issue is the system that reward parasitic behaviour. That happen at every level of society. The difference is when it is done at the lowest level it is frown upon whilst it is down at the top level it is viewed as smart business. Use somebody else money to raise your kids and you are a sponge, do the same thing to pay for your yacht and you are a smart business person. Look… Read more »
‘Your cynicism and warped politics have never worked since the dawn of time’
Lol, incase you havent noticed the current system has failed. It is feudalism repackaged and it will continue failing. Get out of your box learn about the Nordic model(and many more concepts) and where they are coming from..
I don’t know why people hate Jeff Bezos or Bill gates? They have created job opportunities and probably feeding about a million families (3£ or 10£, doesn’t matter).
What’s frustrating is, when a middle class pays 40% tax, works for 6 more years to buy a ‘enough’ home for his wife and 2 kids…and the billionaire companies pay pennies in taxes and claim a moral highness in the name of charities and humanitarian work.
We need another civil war to get rid of the ‘democracy’ and ‘taxation’.
I think the government should euthanize all hungry kids of poor ( lazy) parents who can’t afford to feed, clothe and educate them. Call it the very late term abortion. The abortion contracts should be awarded to wealthy companies that have supported politicians with hefty financial donations as a thank you gesture ,which is only fair considering they are the job creators deserving of every brake coming their way for putting up with the minimum wage losers. Btw, the minimum wage is a scam perpetuated by the greedy masses so they then can go and spend lavishly on big screen… Read more »
@Valentin,
Its systemic functionality. You need a system to maintain a society and rules and these change over cycles. Democracies have a capitalistic system at their base.
The Western systems have peaked and need to be reinvented, But in general, these tend to fail and are then replaced by new systems after wars. These changes take time to happen, it might take more than a generation for the West.
rich I’d say increase taxes on billionaires/millionaires and corporations that avoid taxes and give some of that money to school meals for kids going hungry. My point isn’t that these parents who aren’t providing meals for their kids are good or bad as I cant comment on every case. My main priority is the kids who weren’t asked to be born and can’t work themselves to provide themselves food. Kids shouldn’t be the ones who get the punishment of going hungry when they have done nothing wrong. also IQ and educational performance have been linked to malnutrition so having poor… Read more »
I think people living off benefits are scumbags the thing is that both and England and America forget is the social wealthfare queens aren’t just the ones in the council estate or trailer parks it’s also the ones in wallstreet and mainstreet. it’s amazing how these guys who take the most off the tax payer are forgotten about instead the clueless masses focus on the single mother when behind their backs billion of taxes are going unpaid and these businesses are the first to get huge bail outs. also my point isn’t that we shouldn’t have big companies and socialism… Read more »
‘They have created job opportunities and probably feeding about a million families’ Amazon told investors it paid a federal income tax rate of 1.2% last year — that’s about 13 percentage points lower than the average American’s tax rate paid in 2019 multibillionaires see tax savings of at least 40 percent—which, for Bill Gates, would amount to $14 billion—when you factor in the tax benefits that charity offers to the superrich: avoidance of capital gains taxes (normally 15 percent) and estate taxes (40 percent on everything over $11.58 million, which in Gates’s case is a lot). For all the pawns… Read more »
https://youtu.be/M1Sv2GzBUpk
@ LG I doubt that would do it. The issue is with the distribution of capital. Over the past 5 decades there has been an erosion of wealth from labour to big capital. Small businesses have suffered as a result. The backbone of an economy has to be small businesses as it has a better effect on the velocity of money. The amount of debt required to produce a unit of GDP has kept growing at unsustainable levels in the West and the distribution of wealth has been impacted as a result. It is easy for capitalists to fool what… Read more »
Who said kids can’t work to support themselves?
Purchased any Nike’s lately?
I say put all those poor kids on job programs to relieve the anguish of people like Rich making hard choices whether or not to work overtime.
I will let the Trotskyites debate among themselves. Usually they comprise people who haven’t worked or invested enough and are now bitter at those who have
Let’s get back to football asap
Think we need some Arteta haters back on here so we can change the conversation back to about Arsenal
All this politics is making my eyes burn.
Where’s Marc 🙄
@Sid
Good point but if you increase taxes, it would be difficult to create asset price inflation/reflation to fight off recessions.
The issue is also that many countries have been expending much more than they can afford. The fact that they have lost their innovative edge does not help.
Bitter at those who have?
Dont want to sound like Tony, but i live a comfortable life with many choices of residence though i do not like it in the city, filthy places, and thats without having to report to anyone.
Pedro needs to bin off the politics talk… Christ. Don’t y’all get enough of that in your life?
Anyhow… Probably need Pool to win today to help us out. And as I say that they give up a goal in about 60 secs.
If Ozil had been picked to play #10 against WBA he’d have taken one look at the weather and pulled his hamstring before getting off the coach.
I don’t care how many kids he supposedly feeds, he’s not up to it and hasn’t been for a couple of years.
northbanker
been working all my life, what’s so bad about big business paying taxes when I have paid my way all my life?
Lacaqualidie
Exactly.
Those that don’t see that are only kidding themselves.
McGooner,
I remember reading a book when I was a teenager about a society where every 5 years, your career/prospect were re-established based on the need of society, your ability, the benefit to society at large but also with a random element.
The random element was added to force people to act with altruism. If you know that you could end up garbage man, you end up treating garbage people with more respect.
Loaning out saliba looking to rid off Nelson n wilock ..
Whilst retaining musrafi. Luiz. N xhara
John for you
Art the beach bum out.
Welcome to Tier 5 folks.
I think the government should euthanize all hungry kids of poor ( lazy) parents who can’t afford to feed, clothe and educate them.
Call it the very late term abortion.
WTF???? This is the stupidest and most wrong thing I’ve ever seen. I teach in low income neighborhoods asshole. Punishing kids because their parents suck is the stupidest logic ever. Fuck you.
Sid
“Dont want to sound like Tony, but i live a comfortable life with many choices of residence though”
Park benches?
Yep Ozil Talk is pointless.. he hasn’t played as a traditional number 10 anyhow for years.. All his managers shunt him out to the wing. He likes to flit about and try and create overloads and he doesn’t like to get the ball under pressure. in the center of the pitch. Hence why people say he disappears in matches. and wasn’t favored in away matches. . ESR has done more in 2 games then Ozil in 2 years. Plus the idea he is somehow going to come back and light the place on fire after sitting out a year and… Read more »
Sincere sympathy Graham, tough times.
Pierre, that spring to my mind, but thought that was being rude for a new poster, though read the blog for many years
Midwest
“I’m sure Pierre probably was trolling the notion earlier so it was a topic on here again for like 200 days running from him.”
Not guilty…
@Valentin
Society has changed. It would be interesting to compare the consumption of alcohol and use of illicit drugs for both periods.
Caligooner
Sarcasm isn’t your thing I take it.
Oh well.
Pierre – lol
Sid is so full of shit it’s quite funny.
Hahaha Pierre well you looked guilty… anyhow.. I’ll move on..
Not a fan of whatever color Pool is wearing? seafoam green?
Tom, I got it!
@ Pierre
That sounds like sour grapes 😉
Tom people get very touchy when it comes to politics and humour, best stick to jokes about Xhaka.
Sarcasm makes more sense then that asinine bullshit. Sarcasm is a tone of voice doesn’t always translate on a message board where all sorts of awful things are written. Especially in the era of social media where everyone spews all sorts of shit on the regular.
Midwest – if Pool win that could stop us winning the title 😜
No please not two years running
Midwest – if Pool win that could stop us winning the title 😜
—
Hmmm yes.. I shouldn’t have been so negative.. hahaha
On a separate note, I hope the UK does not import its toilet rolls from the EU
On a more serious note, I hope that tier 5 has no restrictions in case we want to move Mustafi and o. That would be cruel
CaliGooner
Obviously you are new to this forum so I’ll explain myself. My comment was a tongue in cheek to another poster’s self responsibility rant.’
Making it so over the top should’ve been a dead giveaway even for a new guy.
I’m guessing your views probably align closer with mine than you think.
Mgooner that’s given me a cunning plan. We can say bacause of Brexit all EU player contracts are null and void. Though this may leave us with having to field a few under elevens.
I am still confused. How can the so called the next Raphaël Varane and we have valued him at closed to £30m for a defender be so bad???
I’m hoping they both lose to increase our chances of a top 10 trophy.
As if we didn’t have enough reasons to cry for (Mustafi, Xhaka, Auba’s poor form, Runnarson, Ozil), this 2020 covid crap has entered to 2021.
Tier 5. 60k cases/day. Stay safe guys..
Football and Le-grove are helping in tough times.
Tom I’m sure you are a fine person.
I’m over it. Seeing underprivileged kids blamed for shit is something I run into a lot in my line of work. It’s a trigger.
Onwards and upwards.
Would rather have Saliba as back up to Holding over Mustafi. Mustafi won’t be putting his body on the line and scupper a signing on fee in six months.
I must admit Pierre thats much better than your Ozil poopoo
I just assume everyone on here is being a sarcastic dick… 9 out of 10 times they are. I do hope Marc comes back… The epic battle between Marc and Pedro makes for good reading. Bit like Batman and the Joker or Superman and Lex Luthor.
If Saliba does well on his loan and isn’t a complete tire fire then there will be plenty of opportunities for him next season as we are going to clear out half of our central defenders this month and in the summer.
I’m still hopeful that he and Gabriel are the future of that position for us. I’m enjoying the form of holding and Mari in the meantime though. That is a good foursome for next year is my hope.
Good post Pierre.
I would like to opt out of paying for other people’s kids ‘free’ meals via my taxes. The same goes for Foreign Aid.