Category Archives: Arsenal

Too early to judge Premier League table

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You can not win the league in the first 10 games, but you can certainly lose it.

Over the years, too much has been read into sides poor starts. Likewise sides have had lightening starts and been crowned champions before the first international break.

Experience shows us that you should really ignore the league table, probably until after that magic 10th game of the season.

Last season was a perfect illustration of this.

Manchester City won their first 6 games of the season. With Pep Guardiola in charge, the Premier League champions crown was already being put on the bald Spaniards head.

The lost their 7th game, before drawing their 8th and 9th. On matchday 11, Chelsea went top of the league, having been as low as 8th 6 games in (the day they lost 3-0 to The Arsenal). They would be the immovable object at the top of the league for the rest of the season.

Manchester City ended up finishing 3rd. 15 points behind the champions.

Already this season we have seen fans and the media ignore the 10 game rule when analysing the season.

Upon beating Arsenal 4-0, Liverpool were crowned Premier League champions by the media. Their fans started to crow about how this year, it was there year.

It was almost forgotten that on the opening day of the season, they drew 3-3 at Watford. A side who Manchester City stuck 6 past at the weekend.

Liverpool were champions. It was written.

A 5-0 defeat to Manchester City, and a poor performance in a 1-1 draw against Burnley has quickly bought them back to earth. The Premier League 2017/18 champions elect slipped from 2nd to 8th. They were being crowned champions when they were 2nd!

They are 5 points behind Manchester City, and just a single point ahead of Arsenal. That crisis ridden team.

At the same time as Liverpool were winning the league, Paul Pogba was being put forward as a guaranteed winner of the PFA Player of the Year. He is now out for at least 12 weeks with a hamstring injury. Well done son!

Since Liverpool’s demise, from champions to 8th in the space of 2 games, the talk now is that the 2 Manchester clubs are going to run away with it. That the title is certain to go to Manchester.

They have been getting excited over Manchester City’s start to the season. 4 wins a 1 draw in the opening 5 games. It is a run of results that is worse than last season. They won the first 6 games remember!

Likewise, Mourinho is leading the Jose Revolution at Manchester United. He always wins the league in his 2nd season. United are currently second on alphabetical order in the league. Both sides have a 3 point lead on Chelsea. 5 on Liverpool and Spurs, and 6 on Arsenal.

But we are just 5 games in, and looking at who each side has played, both Manchester clubs have had the easiest starts.

Manchester United have thus far played (and beaten) West Ham (H), Swansea (A), Leicester (H) and Everton (H). Their only dropped points coming away to Stoke.

It has not exactly been a hard start to the season for Man U. There fans would have been deeply disappointed if they had of dropped any points to the sides they beat. They have also played 3 home games against 2 away.

There comfortable start to the season continues with games at Southampton and then at home to Crystal Palace.

Manchester City have only had a marginally harder start to the season.

They have played Liverpool, but it was at home. There 3 away games were against Brighton, Bournemouth and Watford – 3 sides who are expected to fight relegation. Whilst they dropped points at home to Everton. A disaster of a result taking into account the Blue Noses horrendous start to the season (they have had an incredibly tough start though.)

Tottenham have also had a relatively easy start to the season. Newcastle (A), Burnley (H) and Swansea (H) are 3 games you would have expected them to pick up a full house. 9 points. Instead they won just 5.

Everton away is a toughie on paper, but they are struggling, whilst Chelsea at home could have gone either way. It is not as easy a start as the Manchester clubs, but dropping points at home to Burnley and Swansea will hit them hard as the season go’s on.

Liverpool and Chelsea’s start to the season has been near identical.

Both have played 3 home games and 2 away. Both played Arsenal at home. Both played another top side away (Man City v Liverpool, Spurs v Chelsea). The other games they played – Chelsea: Burnley (H), Everton (H), Leicester (A); Liverpool: Watford (A), Crystal Palace (H), Burnley (H), really are games you would have suspected them to have got 9 from 9.

Arsenal have easily had the hardest start to the season, and results went as expected. Losing away to Stoke City and Liverpool, and grabbing a draw against Chelsea. They beat Leicester and Bournemouth at home – expected victories.

Over the next 5 games, we will see the table take shape.

Arsenal have 5 comfortable fixtures. Any less than 15/15 will be an underachievement.

The Gunners had a tough start to the season, but it is way to early to crown someone as champions yet. Lets see the state of the league at the end of October before judging too much

Keenos

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Stop getting easily offended at the football

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Football is a release for many. We all have a hard working week. Whether it be in the office, on site or down the mines, but we live for the weekend, for Saturday 3pm (or whatever time the kick off is). We work hard, and the majority of what we earn go’s on tickets, trains, booze and food for the football.

It used to be the working mans sport. A chance to release the stresses of the week. Whether it be screaming for your team till your throat go’s hoarse, drinking till you can not remember, or any countless other extra curriculum activities that happen on game day.

Sadly, football has been on a downward spiral for many years now. And recent actions by the PC brigade seems to be hammering the nail in the coffin.

Chelsea Chant

So Chelsea use the word Yid in their chants. As do Arsenal. As do Spurs. As do West Ham. Kick It Out (always trying to make themselves relevant) reacted to it. Complained. Demanded people who use the word Yid in a song get a life ban. They need to fuck off.

I remember 15 odd years ago, we sang a song about Sol Campbell (to the tune of Hey Baby by Dj Otzi):

Heyyy, Hey Yiddo,

You. Scum.

I wanna knoooow,

Where your captains gone,

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

(repeat)

The next game, in Arsenal’s programme, the club politely asked us to stop singing the song as it was deemed racist. They assumed we were calling Jewish people scum. We were not, we were calling Spurs fans scum. If you have been living under a rock for decades, Spurs fans nickname themselves the Yids.

Arsenal fans were not using the Jewish definition for Yid, but the Tottenham definition.

Recently Chelsea have been condemned for singing an alleged anti-semitic Alvaro Morata song :

Alvaro, oh, Alvaro, oh.

He came from Real Madrid,

he hates the fucking Yids

Like Arsenal’s song about Sol Campbell, Chelsea are not saying Morata hates Jews, but that he hates Spurs fans.

Now there are some very naughty songs out there, about Adolf Hitler, gas chambers and more, and these are in poor taste, and are anti-semitic. But the anti-Spurs songs are degrading to Spurs supporters, not Jewish people.

Too often this subject has been spoken about. Nothing will change. What annoys me is the easily offended snowflakes. They do not go football. They do not care for football. They hate football fans. The type who look at you like you are scum when they are on the way to a museum. Those that say English football fans shame the country.

The problem is too many of these sort of folk work in the media, and like to have their say about things. The type of people who called up Ofcom to complain about the Russell Brand, Jonathan Ross, Andrew Sachs voicemails without ever having heard it.

Many of those who complained over the Chelsea song probably did not watch the game live. They did not watch Match of the Day. They have not even heard the song. They probably do not even know who Alvaro is.

Leave our game alone.

Romelu Lukaku Chants

In very much the same way, Manchester United fans have been condemned for singing a racist song about Romelu Lukaku:

Romelu Lukaku,

He’s our Belgian scoring genius,

With a 24 inch penis,

Scoring all the goals,

Bellend to his toes

Our friends at the very easily offended anti-discriminatory group Kick It Out called the chant “offensive” and have raised it with the FA and Manchester United.

“Kick It Out is aware of footage of alleged racist chanting by supporters of Manchester United that emerged on Wednesday evening, ” a spokesman told The Times.

It clearly is not offensive. They are just saying he has a massive knob. Now whether this is because of the positive stereotype that black man have massive penis’s, or maybe a fan has actually seen him in the shower, it is just not offensive.

Arsenal used to sing a song about Emmanuel Petit:

His blonde

His quick

His names a porno flick

Emmanuelle, Emmanuelle

Would this be considered offensive? After all, we were making a chant about his hair colour. And the majority of blonde people are white. I would imagine Kick It Out are the type of group that deny racism towards white people exists. Some bollocks about oppression and the oppressee’s can not become the oppressors. Some mumbo jumbo invented by some idiot who got a degree in Sociology from SOAS.

Of course, the Petit song is not offensive, and neither is the Lukaku song.

Stop finding a reason to be offended by everything.

Women’s Football

The ladies game has been through hell in recent weeks. Hell of their own making. Players and the FA are to blame over a cover up where it seems a women was dropped, could not handle being called lazy, claimed racism, accepted a pay out to shut up, and then the cover up was exposed leading to the England manager being sacked.

Now I am not going to go into the in’s and out’s of what has happened, as there is a lot to come out. There will be court cases with all parties taking each other to court. Whether it be for discrimination, unfair dismissal or lose of earnings.

One side comment, Lianne Sanderson is clearly of the easily offended nature. This is a woman who refused to play for a black lesbian in Hope Powell, claiming unfair treatment. It seems she is making similar noises about her time under Mark Sampson. Maybe it is her who has the chip on the shoulder. The issues. She needs to look at herself, rather than constantly blame others.

It seems the women’s national side is full of cliques. Some supported the manager, some threw accusations at him and were widely disliked by some in the squad. Imagine tweeting that former-team mates celebrating is ‘divisive’, whilst you are sitting on your phone continually making divisive comments.

I feel ultimately, a few people have realised there is a few quid to be made and, with their careers coming to an end, are looking for an extra pay out, whilst also launching themselves into the media spotlight for a media career.

CBBC and I ‘m a Celeb beckons for some of these.

Anyway, I have digressed.

The FA covered up a banner which stated “Super White Army” that hung from the stand of Tranmere Rovers Prenton Park.

The banner is a nod to Tranmere’s nickname. A Tranmere Rovers Supporters’ Club said it did not know why it was covered, adding it was “not remotely racist” and referred to their team’s shirts.

It was taken down after England player Lucy Bronze tweeted a picture of her team mates training with the stand that contains the banner in the background.

This tweet drew criticism from the PC brigade who claimed the banner was offensive.

Arsenal call themselves Red Army. Is this offensive to Red Indians, ginger people or sunburnt Brits? Plymouth call themselves the Green Army. Everton, Chelsea and others the Blue Army. These are not offensive terms.

What next? Homebase can no longer sell white paint? Screwfix fix stop selling white spirit? Great White Sharks have to get renamed Great Sharks?

It is just a perfect example of what I am talking about. People who probably do not even care about football getting offended about something that is not offended.

Why can’t they just stick to having a go at the Conservative Party, abusing Theresa May, moaning about Brexit and taking in asylum seekers? Just leave our game alone.

The problem is the more the PC brigade do, the more the game dies a little bit. The more atmosphere is killed.

We already can not drink in the stands. Swearing is unacceptable. And we are requested to grass fellow fans up by texting the club if you feel the remote bit offended. How long till football stadiums have safe spaces? Many already have prayer rooms.

I look at cricket. I went to Australia in 2010 for the Ashes. It was brilliant. Boxing is a top crack. The atmosphere at the darts is electric. Rugby is full of posh twats. Even cricket now has a better atmosphere than football – no longer do old folk sit around and politely applaud. Snooker has an incredible atmosphere in its own special way. Even ice hockey now, a few Arsenal lads I know have started going to Gillingham, Lea Valley or Milton Keynes.

I always laugh when I am watching boxing, at 11pm, and someone swears and the commentator apologies’ if you heard foul language. It’s 11pm and its two people fighting FFS. No one is going to be offended.

If football keeps going down this root, its key selling point, the passion and atmosphere, will be no more.

I travel up and down the country and very few stadiums have hostile, vibrant atmospheres. Everyone now sits on their hands and claps politely.

Being in the crowd is no longer as enjoyable. And the more this continues, the less people will go. They will drift to other sports where the atmosphere, the release is still there, and football l will die.

Remember, without fans, football is nothing.

Football has had its troubles in the past, and every now and again these rear their ugly head. But let’s not go too far the other way and make the game completely sanitised. It will kill the game.

The likes of Kick It Out and the Society Of Black Lawyers need to take a step back a little bit. Understand their role in society. And realise that you should not be offended by everything.

We are all consenting adults. Stop trying to sanitise our once-great game.

Keenos

Why Wenger deserves more respect

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Arsene Wenger has received a lot of criticism over the last 12 months, perhaps more than ever before. In that time, Arsenal have averaged 1.9 points per game in the Premier League and won the FA Cup thanks to a final victory against champions Chelsea. Given that the club are only willing to make one high-profile addition each summer while other clubs spend routinely, that return is respectable.

After every defeat, it appears that almost all the discussion among fans and the media is regarding Wenger and whether he deserves his job and the power he has at the club. That debate is exacerbated by the team’s frequent capitulations in big games, for which the Frenchman must take a degree of criticism. However, the discussion has become self-perpetuating. When players see that so much of the blame is going on their manager, it becomes a sub-conscious excuse. If those players knew that a performance like the one at Liverpool would result in themselves facing a media hounding, we can be sure that those capitulations would be a thing of the past. The problems at Arsenal therefore say as much about player power in the modern game and the lack of accountability as they do about Wenger.

One of the major criticisms of him is that he is too trusting of his players and lacks the versatility to adapt his tactics based on the opposition. And yet, when he dropped Alexandre Lacazette at Anfield or Alexis Sanchez at Stamford Bridge, both in favour of the more industrious Danny Welbeck, he received a lot of pre-match criticism. If Jose Mourinho had made a similar decision and his side put in a performance akin to the one in the 0-0 draw at Chelsea, many would proclaim it a ‘masterclass’.

Some suggest that Arsenal have the same old problems, which is debatable. Immediately after the stadium move, the club signed too many lightweight midfielders who lacked the muscle to compete in physically games. For that, the manager was partially at fault. In the last few seasons though we’ve seen Granit Xhaka, Mohamed Elneny and Francis Coquelin join the first team setup, all of whom are powerful, even if they lack in other areas.

Wenger would like to sign another Patrick Vieira, who was excellent at everything, but those types of players cost the kind of money that Stan Kroenke and the board aren’t willing to spend. With that in mind, recruitment this summer has been positive with Sead Kolasinac and Lacazette impressing early on, and performances have been in line with what the expectations should be.

Away to Stoke, Lacazette had a perfectly good goal ruled offside and Olivier Giroud missed a late sitter. At Chelsea, they created the better chances but Welbeck, Lacazette and Kolasinac could not score from good positions. The Gunners could easily have an extra five points and sit third in the table, one point off the leaders, without Wenger doing anything differently – they are 6/4 with Betway for the top four.

It is understandable that a lot of Arsenal fans want their long-serving boss to be gone. However, focusing solely on him relieves some of the pressure on the players and board, which then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Maybe Wenger is no longer the genius that built the 03/04 Invincibles, but he is still doing a reasonable job amid the challenges he faces.

LS