On the Road Again!

Second match of the season for both clubs. Again no spectators allowed in the stadiums and so we are watching on TV instead. 1-1 at half time. Lacazette for Arsenal and Antonio for them on the stroke of half time.  In the second half it looked increasingly like West Ham would win it as they took control. But Arsenal had to dig deep. Nketiah on for Lacazette was on hand to stay inside and score after being setup by Ceballos. A lot of the "phew factor" for Arsenal fans.

Or at least the Premier League and EFL Championship are restarting behind closed doors to finish off the 2019/20 Season. Sadly all the lower tiers of the football pyramid in England were terminated "as is" weeks and weeks ago and this week. EFL Leagues One and Two voted to end as they are.  This means that league positions were decided on a points-per-game basis with I assume goal difference being applied where necessary. For me that means that Oldham Athletic were placed 19th in League Two. As for the Premier League. It means that games start again on June 17th with four clubs playing. This apparently is so that over the weekend of 19th to 21st June that all clubs start on the same number of games played. Arsenal are one of the four teams and they play away at Manchester City, before entertaining Brighton & Hove Albion away at the Amex Stadium on Saturday. It seems away games outnumber home games for the restart. I guess money counts more at the top two levels of the pyr...

You could be mistaken for thinking that after so many misfires of late,  and points being lost from winning positions, that at home to Southampton would be the cure-all for shite displays and lack of any seeming direction from the coach, Unai "Dick" Emery. The Xhaka incident still looks largely in the minds. That the fan-boys have their boy Ozil back in contention for a place and the boo-boys in general will be out in force, means that this looks like another day of infamy. It's also a 3pm Saturday kick off. Only the second we have had this season.  The last was home to Wolves where we led and then capitulated and were lucky to get away with a point. Whilst we moan we really need to give ourselves a slap.  We are currently 6th in the English Premier League.  We look to have little or no chance of catching the Top 4 who are already 8 points ahead.  We are behind Sheffield United on goal difference;  a club that came up from the second ti...

Typical.  With Bruv away on his Spanish MotoGP trip and Helen having a hospital appointment today, we decided not to go last night. It was the Carabao Cup (aka the League Cup) third round and Arsenal at home to Nottingham Forest.   Forest are currently languishing in the lower reaches of the Championship (second tier). A lowly existence from one of England's great clubs of the late 70's and early 80's, winning two European Cups under legendary manager Brian Clough. What a mistake to let someone else sit in our seats. Arsenal making eleven changes from the Sunday side that beat Aston Villa 3-2.  A chance for some debutants and some returning from injury. Arsenal, 4th in the Premership, winning 5-0. Yes.5-0.   Damn and blast.

Phew. Another heart attack inducing game.  After last week's 2-2 draw at bottom of the league Watford we had hoped that at home to third from bottom Aston Villa might have been different. In midweek in matchday one of the Europa League Arsenal had beaten Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0. Not convincingly as it sounds but certainly worth the win. Today Villa started the better. A poor referee didn't help and they scored first. Poor defending and McGinn scored. No one picked him up and he deflected a low cross into the net past Leno.  That Villa began time-wasting almost immediately is pathetic. With over an hour to play!  It got worse for the Gunners when Maitland-Niles got a second yellow card.  Commentators agreed it was harsh. I thought the first one was harsh as the player that was felled cut across him and it looked like a trip. Calum Chambers replaced 18yo debutant Saka for the second half. And then despite a man down we looked better. More determination.  It was 1-...

The North London Derby tomorrow. At least this is at the Emirates and so pessimistically that might give us the advantage. We won 4-2 last season after being 2-1 at half time.  Hopefully, Spurs players will not act as though they have a serious balance problem.

Made heavy weather of beating Cardiff. In fact the visitors had the best of the opening 25 mins or so. By the time they scored their goal Arsenal should have been miles away. Still. It was a win.

Arsenal at home to Chelsea. What could go wrong? Nothing as it happened. A lot of huff and puff from Arsenal in the first fifteen minutes resulted in a goal. Lacazette turning and lashing the ball home. 2-0 before half-time with Koscielny steering his diving header wide of their keeper. It was fraught sometimes when failing to clear our back line but we hung on. Still fifth. posted from Bloggeroid

It's hardly unexpected since he was dropped from being the Arsenal #1 keeper with the arrival or Bernd Leno but still a shock to read that  Petr Čech will retire at the end of this season. https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/arsenal-goalkeeper-petr-cech-announces-retirement-111503195.html

Not the result we wanted after whooping their arses without a problem a couple of weeks ago. Started well, failed to take chances and they took theirs.  The better team on the evening won. They go into the semi-final against another London team in Chelsea.   With Manchester City against Burton Albion in the other semi, it would look like either Scum or Chavs at Wembley against City. Who to want to win?

Another Sunday and another lunchtime kick-off. This time away at 8th placed Bournemouth. One of the "little clubs" making headway and waves in the top division.  Always an entertaining team to watch but with many supporters from the third tier that jeer and moan all the time that they are "cheated" by the big clubs. And so it will be this week. They were "cheated" by the lino when he flagged a player offside as he shot them into what was sadly not the lead.  The TV replay showed that Mustafi laying on his back on the ground played him onside with his head. So a player lying on the ground has that effect.  Time to re-think the entire offside rule.  FIFA do it every couple f of years anyway. Arsenal started off at their usual pace with the opposition taking the initiative and had barely got into the game when Torrieia intercepted a stray pass and his shot beat the keeper but not the post and the ball rebounded to Iwobi who smash...

And back into the Europa League. This time Arsenal entertain Sporting Lisbon in Matchday 4. This ought to be the most difficult of the emaining three matches. Winning tonight should see us through into the next round Currently we top the group but can't afford any slip-ups. Let's see how it goes? Update Ten points from 4 games now after a 0-0 draw with Sporting Club Portugal to five them their proper name. Although Arsenal pressed to win the game, the final ball in the danger areas was generally poor. Sporting seeme dto have come for a draw. The dowmside of it is that Danny Welbeck broke/damaged his ankle landing badly from a header attempt on goal and then later Stephan Lichsteiner pulled up with hamstring problem. posted from Bloggeroid

And back to the Premier League. The toughest test since the opening two games when we lost, narrowly in one game, to the teams currently in the top three of the Premier League.  This time against the team in 2nd! At least it is at home. It's an evening kick off for television.  Who cares about the people that go to games? At least the Scousers will be able to get home after the game! Update: For the first time this season the Arsenal players started to play from the first whistle rather than let the opposition take the initiative.  It seemed to be working. The game would have been great to see for the neutrals watching on TV but it was more hard work for us in the Arsenal seats. In the end a defensive error led to James Milner scoring for Liverpool. A cross was parried out by the keeper Leno and Milner took his opportunity to strike the ball low into the net. Both sides had "goals" disallowed for offside in the first half and it ended 0-0. In the sec...

Another chance to see Arsenal play against lower league opposition in Blackpool of  League One. After two home games that I have missed because I was at home with Claire after her hip op, it's nice to be able to get to a game. Even one in the Carabao Cup where the Arsenal team will be made up of mostly the second string players.  Although last night the U21 side went away to League Two Cheltenham and got their arses roundly kicked,  So a lesson to be learned. This week it has turned cold although as "Two Jumpers" Devall I expect it to not be too bad. I do have a coat in case it rains! See what tonight brings. Result. What should have been a formality became the usual nervous breakdown inducing Arsenal display.  Down to ten men after the referee gave Guendouzi two yellow cards, the first a little harsh as his first tackle. But at 2-0 it should have been plain sailing but Blackpool sensed that with an extra man they could do seething and t...

To keep all the blogs I read about Arsenal FC in one place, rather than simply favourites in Chrome or IE, I have added a new area in the right sidebar for them. If there are any that you, as a viewer, read and that are good, then let me know. if not, feel free to have a read. There are several versions of the "Mind That Gap" poster. Only the Arsenal  fan produced ones have all the trophies the clubs have won in the last 22 odd years or something along those lines.  The imitation Tottenham ones don't.... for pretty obvious reasons as you can see above.... The above list is also subject to change every few weeks as the TV companies get the games and need to fit them into their schedules.  No one gives a damn about the supporters/fans.

So after last week's debacle and gutless performance against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup Final at Wembley and the follow up Premier League game with the same opposition, and the same 3-0 scoreline, I had expected that when Sunday came around again and Arsenal were playing away on the south coast against lowly (!) Brighton and Hove Albion, that there would be a sea change in the performance. HOW DELUDED I WAS! It was a case of  "same shit, different day". Gutless and outplayed by Brighton. They deserved what they got and I feel for the travelling supporters that went down there for the game. Two-nil down after 25 minutes due to terrible defending and ineffective slow build up in attack/offence. Whatever the Brighton game plan was it was working. Some glimmer of hope when Aubamayang flicked the ball into the Brighton net after 42 minutes was soon extinguished when the second half followed the same script. Our venerable manager was rooted fo...

So off we went to Wembley to see Arsenal play Manchester City in the final of this cup competition.  This is a home trophy that Wenger hasn't won in the 20+ years he has been the manager despite getting to this stage on a few occasions.  ​ And he still hasn't. Pitiful might be a decent word to describe the quality of play from the Gunners.   Manchester City are one of the nouveau-riche clubs with a long history but always in the shadow of their bigger and more illustrious neighbours Manchester United. Although they have won things in the past they sunk a few levels down in the English football pyramid and then came back to the top league. With the help of the Arab oil barons that bought the club and the millions spent on players and being gifted the state funded City of Manchester stadium that was built for the Commonwealth Games for less than half the conversion from athletics venue to football stadium, they have started to...

Not a misprint.  Or a typo. Given the "Wenger Out!" post earlier in the week. We are still going to spend a tenner** each to sit in our grand (cash not surroundings) seats at the Emirates Stadium to watch the second string and yoofs take on League 2 Doncaster Rovers. History is on our side. In 8 meetings since 1901 they have come out on top only once, 115 years ago. More credibly we last played them in 2005 and the game ended 2-2. Given the "sell, sell, sell" attitude of our under-fire manager and the clowns on the board we may see them extend their winning streak to 2 from 9 in 116 years. h ttps://www.11v11.com/teams/arsenal/tab/opposingTeams/opposition/Doncaster%20Rovers/ Fingers crossed Amugos! ** plus £1.65 charges on top of the ticket!

Sunday 27th August 2017.  A day of infamy. Our glorious team of Arsenal Gladiators went out in the Anfield sun to do battle with the Lions of Liverpool and came back battered and bruised.  Humiliated some may say. The lack of fight from highly paid professionals leaves a nasty taste in the mouths of fans. "Wenger Out!" is the cry on those same battered lips.  "Wenger Out!" is the cry from even committed Gooners and ex-players like Ian Wright. The apologists for the French Professor keep repeating the mantra that he has done so much for the club in the 20 years he has been in charge. So many victories. Invincible even. "It's not his fault" they cry in return, but the "Wenger Out!" Cries begin to double, then double again. "How is it nor his fault?" The cry goes up.  His starting eleven contains one of the finest right backs in the country starting on the left. He leaves out a German international cent...

It kicks off again tonight and Arsenal has the inglorious task of being the first new season to kick off on a Friday evening.  I suppose it means we can have football and a free weekend. http://www.totalpremierleague.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Arsenal-Vs-Leicester-City.jpg Update: 11/08/17 22:00 Won 4-3.  Supporting Arsenal isn't the easy job it might be if you have a tame billionaire from Russia or a middle east oil state that spends money as though it is going out of fashion. Mr Wenger decided that the potent striker Vardy for Leicester wasn't a threat and chose to play a rookie centre back and no other recognised central defenders.  That proved wrong. As Vardy scored twice. In the end what he will call "mental strength" seemed to work and we came from 2-3 to 4-3 in a two minute spell in the last ten minutes of the game. At least we won it.  Usually, we lose or at best get a draw to start the season.