Match Report: Arsenal 1 – 2 Brighton

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Arsenal (0) 1 Brighton and Hove Albion (1) 2
Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Thursday, 5th December 2019. Kick-off time: 8.15pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Hector Bellerin, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, David Luiz, Sead Kolašinac; Granit Xhaka, Lucas Torreira; Joe Willock, Mesut Özil, Alexandre Lacazette; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Substitutes: Kieran Tierney, Nicolas Pépé, Calum Chambers, Reiss Nelson, Emiliano Martínez, Mattéo Guendouzi, Gabriel Martinelli.
Scorers: Alexandre Lacazette (50 mins)
Yellow Cards: Hector Bellerin, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, David Luiz.
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 48%
Referee: Graham Scott
Attendance: circa 40,000

Football history is being made this week, in the guise of a new football carrier, namely Amazon Prime Video, which is why we have the crazy kick-off time of 8.15pm on a Thursday night; is this yet another glimpse of the future? We’ll see. However, we have far more important fish to fry here at The Emirates; it is important beyond mere words to win this match against Brighton and Hove Albion, as we desperately need to pull ourselves together and start winning, as the alternative is far too dark to consider.

Well, it all started off fairly competitive enough, as it always seems to do with this version of Arsenal, irrespective of opponents; but soon enough, the usual frailties came to the fore. Despite both Alexandre Lacazette and David Luiz coming reasonably close to opening the scoring with their efforts, it was the visitors that impressed with their accurate passing, thus pressing our midfielders into submission. Brighton were so efficient in their work here at The Emirates, that it would be fairly accurate to say that we had trouble actually getting out of our own half for large periods of the first forty-five minutes. Bernd Leno, as we have seen in recent matches, is undoubtedly becoming the saviour of us all; but even he, with all his magnificent acrobatic saves, found himself picking the ball out of his own net after Adam Webster put the visitors ahead after some kind of ridiculous muddle in the Arsenal penalty area with nine minutes left on the clock before the end of the first half. After conceding such a ridiculous goal, we were simply playing catch up in various areas of the pitch, with almost no pockets of resistance becoming visible at all.

However, at last, at the beginning of the second half, Nicolas Pépé was brought on to replace the ineffective Joe Willock, and the stadium became excited as to see exactly what our record signing could do. For the next ten minutes, we did actually look quite impressive, which led to Alexandre Lacazette equalising the scores with a header from a Mesut Özil corner; but within a short while, we reverted to type, sadly. Despite both Kieran Tierney and Gabriel Martinelli being introduced to the play by Freddie Ljungberg (at the expense of both Sead Kolašinac and Alexandre Lacazette) we still managed to look ordinary. David Luiz did score after sixty-three minutes, but it was cancelled out by a VAR decision; it made no impact after all anyway, as Neil Maupay scored the winner with ten minutes left of the match with a glancing header from an Aaron Mooy cross. Although the play in the last few minutes was seen out in the Brighton half, it was basically, too little, too late again.

And so, Black December continues. This is now relegation form, pure and simple as that. No responsibility on the pitch, no responsibility from the Board of Directors, and in the middle of it all, a stranded Arsenal legend who is desperately trying to stitch together a winning side from this desperate group of players, who quite frankly, are just not good enough to wear the Arsenal shirt. This squad of players has literally just fallen to pieces in front of our very eyes, and are an embarrassment to everyone associated with the club. We hear rumours of who the new manager may well be, but realistically, just who would want to try and sort this mess out? We are in complete freefall, and unless a manager with backbone and purpose is appointed soon, then I fear for the immediate future of Arsenal Football Club.

Remember everyone, keep the faith. Our next match: West Ham United at London Stadium on Monday, 9th December at 8.00pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.

Arsenal Book Review: ‘We’ve Only Got One Song’

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‘We’ve Only Got One Song’ by Mark Andrews and Matthew Bazell (A book review from John Williamson)

Singing songs and chanting on the terraces of any given football ground is as old as the game itself; it’s surprising that, as far as I’m aware, no book has been written previously on this subject. In this day and age, there is a lot of speculation and controversy as to why atmospheres at most football grounds has been diluted which includes all seater stadiums, political correctness and in my opinion, the lack of the imagination of the chants themselves.

Arsenal fans, Mark Andrews and Matthew Bazell, along with the help of some of their Gooners friends have written a book dedicated to the terrace songs and chants of Arsenal Football Club that have been sung at home and away stadiums including ditties from the early days of the Clubs formation to the present, meaning that even though many of those covered are no longer heard, over 425 songs will remain with us forever.

The book contains not only the words to the songs themselves, but also the tune as well as the story behind each song where possible, which results in a well written and researched book that contains not only the popular songs but also those that in this day and age are deemed as controversial.

When I started going to football in the late 1960s, nearly every player had their own song, even those who were less popular, each one was sung during the warm up, with the players acknowledging the Arsenal faithful. Today, this rarely happens, fans have some for their favourite players but most are generic songs where the tunes are taken from other clubs chants.

As well as covering these songs, the book looks at chants mocking other teams and portraying football violence which was rife during the 1970s and 80s. In modern day football, a lot more chants are becoming anti Arsenal, as any fan knows, there have been chants against managers which have caused fractions amongst fans and of course those against the owner of the Club.

There is also a chapter dedicated to our ‘friends’ from N17, Middlesex which are in the main, related to their lack of trophies. Whilst there are no anti-Semitic chants in the book, it does cover this subject on as to why certain words or phases were used in the past and are no longer.

While most of these songs will never hear ‘the light of day’ again, its has to be noted that big cup ties and European matches away from home where the Arsenal following appears to be older, a few of the past songs can still be heard including two of my favourites; ‘She Wore a Yellow Ribbon’ and B’Jesus said Paddy’

My hope for this book is that well as us older fans reminiscing the past, it will provide inspiration for those younger fans who are making their mark on the Club, hopefully a few old songs will be heard once again on the ‘terraces’………

‘We’ve Only Got One Song’ by Mark Andrews and Matthew Bazell can be bought here.

What is delaying Arsenal replacing Unai Emery?

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It is now nearly a week since Unai Emery was sacked and a replacement has not been bought in.

Within 24 hours of sacking Mauricio Pochettino, Tottenham announced that Jose Mourinho was to be their new manager. It was quick, it was clinical.

So what is holding up Arsenal?

Remaining Classy

The old school fan in me that still calls us The Arsenal and remembers the days when we were a classy club makes me look at Spurs and think “stabbed in the back” with just how quickly they moved Pochettino out and Mourinho in.

The seat on the private toilet in the managers office had not even cooled down.

It does lack class agreeing a deal with a replacement manager before the current manager has been sacked. The “open secret” that the manager has been sacked and replacement already recruited. But it is hard to “stay classy” in business.

Regardless of the industry, if you are planning to sack a manager, CEO or director, you need to be talking to potential replacements before you give the incumbent the chop.

The firm I work for planned to replace the CEO a few years back. They employed his replacement as a Regional Director for 8 months before chopping the CEO. He was then installed as interim CEO before getting the job permanently 4 months later.

It might have “lacked class” but in business it is what needs to be done. Especially if that business is struggling.

You need to do what is in the best interests long term of the business, or football club, and not have to worry about “looking classy” in the short term.

I imagine the lack of replacement has nothing to do with the club deciding not to talk to a replacement for Emery before they gave him his P45.

Board Incompetence

The situation could further highlight a long term problem at Arsenal. That those running the club are simply incompetent.

We know the board is not fit for purpose and there have been talks to introduce fresh faces. We know Stan Kroenke is a hands off owner, leaving the experts he employs to do the job they are supposed experts in. That then leaves it to Raul Sanllehi.

Sanllehi was supposed to be a superstar. Recruited from Barcelona, he replaced Ivan Gazidis overseeing the football side of the club. Replacing the manager is his job.

Has he been infected by the incompetence that runs through others within the club? Is he not the big dog that we hoped we were recruiting? Or does he have a plan and it simply is not one that can be completed within 24 hours?

I hope it is the later.

New Manager is Currently Employed

Prior to Emery being sacked, we could have been having discussions with his replacement and/or his representatives. A contract could even have been agreed and he is ready to take over. But he can not take over if he is currently in a job.

What allowed Tottenham to replace Pochettino so quickly is that Mourinho was out of work. All they had to do is get a signed contract back from him and he was ready to go.

The situation takes longer if you are targeting a manager currently in a job.

If Arsenal want Wolves’ Nuno Espirito Santo, Brendan Rodger of Leicester or even poach Carlo Ancelotti from Napoli, they will have to enter negotiations with their respective club to buy them out of their current contract. This could only be done once Emery was confirmed as leaving.

A deal could have been agreed in principle with a currently employed manager, but it then takes time to do the deal with his current club.

And what if when going to do that deal, his current club refuses to enter discussion? Or asks for a huge fee? It can delay things further.

It is more complicated recruiting someone in a job than it is recruiting someone out of work.

My hope is that these delays are because we are talking to someone in work; and it is just taking a little longer. My fear is it is competence and we failed to speak to anyone before letting Emery leave.

Hopefully the situation is resolved over the weekend.

Keenos