Johan Cruijff: "Chelsea winning the CL final is a defeat for proper football. I'd rather not win
it than to have to play this way."
Recently, I have been extremely grumpy and needed a bit of time to reflect on a bad week for
honest, beautiful football, which started with the Northern Oilers succeeding in buying the title,
and finished six days later, with the London Oilers getting their greasy hands on the ‘Cup with
the big ears'.
Johan Cruijff: "Chelsea winning the CL final is a defeat for proper football. I'd rather not win
it than to have to play this way."
Recently, I have been extremely grumpy and needed a bit of time to reflect on a bad week for
honest, beautiful football, which started with the Northern Oilers succeeding in buying the title,
and finished six days later, with the London Oilers getting their greasy hands on the ‘Cup with
the big ears'.
Monday's disappointing result has added pressure to an already difficult fixture. Failure to
gain three points from the Chelsea game will seriously jeopardise our push for a third place
finish. Not only will it add impetus to the chasing pack but it will make the rest of the
season's fixtures must win games not want win games.
Written by TotalArsenal
Today, Arsenal had a chance to make a statement of where it stands in the current hierarchy of
English football. This was not just a game we needed to win to keep us in contention for a top-four
finish – no, this was also a game in which we needed to demonstrate to ourselves again how good
we really are.
Written by TotalArsenal
Today, Arsenal had a chance to make a statement of where it stands in the current hierarchy of
English football. This was not just a game we needed to win to keep us in contention for a top-four
finish – no, this was also a game in which we needed to demonstrate to ourselves again how good
we really are.
Having endured the first 60 minutes of the Chavs' vs. Spuds' collective attempt to discover the
best cure for insomnia, I was extremely pleased to find a half-decent stream to watch the mighty
Red & White take on the Villains. I expected AV to put in a performance, partly based on their half
decent effort during our last encounter with them in January (FA-cup), and partly on the fact that
they have nothing really to play for anymore, which makes these sorts of games a bit of a bonus for
them.
Having endured the first 60 minutes of the Chavs' vs. Spuds' collective attempt to discover the
best cure for insomnia, I was extremely pleased to find a half-decent stream to watch the mighty
Red & White take on the Villains. I expected AV to put in a performance, partly based on their half
decent effort during our last encounter with them in January (FA-cup), and partly on the fact that
they have nothing really to play for anymore, which makes these sorts of games a bit of a bonus for
them.
On Wednesday night the planets were clearly aligned in a perfect pattern to benefit Arsenal.
We got a hard-fought win at Goodison Park, a ground where Chelsea, Manchester City and the N17
Reprobates have all crashed and burned recently.
And while we were doing that the Spuds, with their enduring sense of comedy timing, were
dropping two points at home to Stoke and the Chavs were losing at the Oil Refinery.
On Wednesday night the planets were clearly aligned in a perfect pattern to benefit Arsenal.
We got a hard-fought win at Goodison Park, a ground where Chelsea, Manchester City and the N17
Reprobates have all crashed and burned recently.
And while we were doing that the Spuds, with their enduring sense of comedy timing, were
dropping two points at home to Stoke and the Chavs were losing at the Oil Refinery.
After an incredible run of five PL wins in a row, we find ourselves now very well positioned to
qualify for next year's CL tournament. Who would have thought that after the deep-dark triple
losses against Fulham, Swansea and the Mancs in January, followed by a goalless draw at Bolton on
1st February, we would bounce back in such an emphatic manner by beating Blackburn, Sunderland, the
Spuds, Pool and Toon – scoring 18 goals and conceding 6 goals on the way?
After an incredible run of five PL wins in a row, we find ourselves now very well positioned to
qualify for next year's CL tournament. Who would have thought that after the deep-dark triple
losses against Fulham, Swansea and the Mancs in January, followed by a goalless draw at Bolton on
1st February, we would bounce back in such an emphatic manner by beating Blackburn, Sunderland, the
Spuds, Pool and Toon – scoring 18 goals and conceding 6 goals on the way?
Back in October Rocky predicted we would be top three by New Year. He was actually close to
being right as a win at home to QPR on New Years Eve took us into the Champions League
qualification spots as we popped Champagne to wave bye bye to Arsenal's annus horribilis.
Unfortunately defeats to Fulham, Swansea and United followed, by the time we drew away at the
Reebok even the most positive bloggers on here were waving goodbye to any hope of Champions League
football next season let alone finishing above the cretins from N17.
Back in October Rocky predicted we would be top three by New Year. He was actually close to
being right as a win at home to QPR on New Years Eve took us into the Champions League
qualification spots as we popped Champagne to wave bye bye to Arsenal's annus horribilis.
Unfortunately defeats to Fulham, Swansea and United followed, by the time we drew away at the
Reebok even the most positive bloggers on here were waving goodbye to any hope of Champions League
football next season let alone finishing above the cretins from N17.
So we lost two valuable home-points today against lowly placed Wolves, and now we are all
feeling down?
Man City drew against West Brom and Liverpool could not kill off Blackburn yesterday, and
neither could Chelsea see-off Fulham. I am as disappointed as anybody for dropping two points
against Wolves at home.
That little table on the right shows we are still one point behind last seasons cumulative
total, one problem with that table (other than the lack of progression in 2010/11 from game 27
onwards) is that it does not take into account the opponents played. On Saturday we made a big step
forward, like for like games compared to last season we are now 3 points up.
January 20, 2006.
This is the day a fresh-faced (and he remains fresh-faced, and lovely, and the kind of guy my
Mammy would love to see me bring home for dinner) Theo Walcott signed for Arsenal from Southampton
for a then British record fee for a teenager. SIX YEARS ago, can you believe it's six years
ago?
Arsenal – Marseille: 0 – 0
Match Report
After THAT win against the Chavs, the big question for this match was: should we start with an
unchanged team, or make a number of changes in order to keep our great momentum going?
This was a difficult call for Wenger: although a win would be great, it was not a necessity –
after all, a draw would keep us top of the group tonight and then there was to be considered the
risk of fatigue/injury, as a result of potentially overplaying those players who pushed themselves
to the very limit only 80 hours ago.
No, I haven't been taking the Kool-Aid.
If you look at the fixture list between now and the New Year (well, January 2nd to be precise)
you can see that we have every reason to be optimistic.
We have 11 games between now and then, taking us conveniently to the half way stage of our
campaign.
Such is the vacuum in good news about Arsenal at the moment that our site which is graced by a
plethora of great writers (and many not shy of giving their opinion) cannot generate a post for
today ..... accept this modest offering.
Everything is currently just speculation in the transfer market, but the pattern of hierarchy in
the movement in players is much as most of us would have suspected.
You would need to be serious numbskulls to not believe Wenger has excelled himself by creating a
squad based primarily on players who have been promoted through the Academy and brought into the
club at a very young age.. at a fraction of the price we would have paid had we signed them a few
years later.
