Before the game yesterday I would have taken the point. Sod the context of Liverpool being nine clear of us and screw the fact that you don't get many chances to overtake City and make ground on them, this was an away game against a tough opponent who had been in decent form. Yet after [...]
There's no way to sugar coat it today. There is no way to dress up yesterday abysmal Arsenal performance. There is only the truth that needs to be spoken and sadly what you're going to read for the next 1,000 or so words is that of a disappointed Gooner with very little positivity. Arsenal's defeat [...]
That felt very much like a professional 'job done' from Arteta and the boys last night. It literally felt like the archetypal result that ticked all of the boxes: Minutes into legs of squad players Young players given the opportunity to shine Comfortable result Controlling possession and football played Arteta's way No new injuries (that [...]
In the pub before a ball was kicked, I said I would have taken a draw yesterday, so in the cold light of this Monday morning, it would be churlish of me to decry and bemoan the fact we dropped points against Liverpool yesterday. I was in a slightly unfamiliar territory in the upper tier [...]
If the hope was that last night's game was supposed to inject a little bit more swagger in to the Arsenal collective psyche last night, both for the fans as much as the players and coaching staff, I think it is fair to say that all didn't go exactly to plan. Ultimately, we got the [...]
Yesterday's 3-1 against Southampton had a real air of familiarity of it to me, following from last weekend's shenanigans: At home to a newly promoted opponent Expected to win and win comfortably Lovely weather 3pm kick off Opponent scoring and taking maximum chances from their minimum opportunities Arsenal pretty much dominant Late drama There were, [...]
Last season I wrote about Arteta's archetypal 'perfect' game being against Brighton; it was complete dominance against a team who wanted to have possession of the football, wanted to control the narrative of the game on the ball and Arsenal allowed Brighton to create basically nothing. We got two goals, albeit slightly later than Arteta [...]
You know how sometimes weird situations like history repeat themselves? I mentioned on the blog yesterday that The Management was coming with me to the game as I had a spare seat next to me. She'd been to the 5-2 against the Scum the first time around, then when she came the second time to the [...]
At 3-1 the Bolton fans were chuckling to themselves with a rendition of "Johnny, Johnny Stones" to the tune of "Daddy Cool" by Boney M. At 5-1, they were singing in the rain. It's good to know that the dying embers of hostility still exist for them. For us it was an opportunity to show [...]
If you'd have offered me a Desmond 2-2 in the morning yesterday when I was writing my pre match thoughts, I'd have bitten your hands off. If you'd have told me that Arsenal would get back in the game after the first 10 - 15 minutes of yesterday's game at the soulless Etihad I'd have [...]