Match Report Bournemouth 1 Arsenal 1

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AFC Bournemouth (1) 1 Arsenal (0) 1
Premier League
The Vitality Stadium (Dean Court), Bournemouth BH7 7AF
Thursday, 26th December 2019. Kick-off time: 3.00pm
(4-3-1-2) Bernd Leno; Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, David Luiz, Bukayo Saka; Granit Xhaka, Lucas Torreira, Reiss Nelson; Mesut Özil; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette.
Substitutes: Nicolas Pépé, Shkodran Mustafi, Emiliano Martínez, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Joe Willock, Mattéo Guendouzi, Emile Smith-Rowe.
Scorers: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (63 mins)
Yellow Cards: Lucas Torreira, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette.
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 61%
Referee: Stuart Attwell
Attendance: 10,324
More history in the making; today is the first occasion in which Amazon have bought the complete Boxing Day fixtures for the Premiership to be made only available to subscribers who are Prime account members. Also, more importantly, this match is the first one in which Mikel Arteta has taken charge of the team, so today is the start of the official Arteta era here at Arsenal Football Club. We genuinely wish him well.
Although the match started with chances for both teams, it was Arsenal who certainly made the best of the early action.
Alexandre Lacazette whacked a shot over the crossbar and high into the stands, whilst Mesut Özil, who has been creating chances for his team-mates and himself, had the nearest early attempt which was saved by Aaron Ramsdale, who tipped his shot over the bar. Most of the action was taking place in the home side’s half, and although they tried to stop Arsenal, it started to look as if this tide would wash completely over them, but unfortunately we got caught by a classic smash-and-grab movement by Bournemouth.
On the thirty-fourth minute, we lost the ball in our own half, a move that led to Dan Gosling getting the opening goal for the Cherries following a neat cut-back from Jack Stacey, which meant that despite all of our good work here at The Vitality Stadium, we got caught napping by a ridiculous move from the home team, who scored with their first shot on target today. We immediately came back at them, but it was obvious that the goal buoyed them up, and in doing so, it meant that every time we came forward, there was a Bournemouth man frustrating our forwards constantly. The goal really took the wind out of our sails somewhat, and we were most fortunate not to go two down when Joshua King’s shot was saved miraculously by Bernd Leno from close range just before the half-time break.
Mikel Arteta’s words of wisdom at half-time are appearing to bear considerable fruit. We certainly started the second half with some purpose, and it was not before long that our chances to equalise arrived. Despite the unfortunate Lucas Torreira receiving a booking from Stuart Attewell for a ridiculous challenge on Stuart Cook, we kept applying considerable pressure onto the home side’s goal. As far as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was concerned, it was a case of three shots on the Bournemouth goal within five minutes; the first two were complete and utter duds, but the third and final one hit the back of the Cherries’ net on the sixty-third minute, when a Reiss Nelson shot went awry, and our number one bandit was on hand to equalise the scores.
Now we have a game! Mikel Arteta substituted Mesut Özil for Joe Willock after 75 minutes (note: no glove histrionics today) and seven minutes later, Nicolas Pépé replaced a beleaguered Reiss Nelson and we smply ramped up the pressure on the home team. For the last five minutes or so of this game, we were looking more and more likely the team to grab a late winner, and Joe Willock nearly did, with just minutes left on the clock. But it was not to be, and Mikel Arteta’s first match in charge of The Gunners ended in a draw in the rain on the south coast on Boxing Day 2019.
Overall, we were by far the better team and should have won this game quite convincingly; we showed good heart and a desire to win, even when we were one down early on in the match. Mikel Arteta asked for commitment and overall, he got just that from this team of players. We have some big matches coming up and it would be nice to get maximum points from them; and why not? They certainly have the ability to do so; maybe all that they need is a little bit of lady luck coming their way at the right time, and hey, who knows what may happen?
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Chelsea at The Emirates on Sunday, 29th December at 2.00pm (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.

No room for racism

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Anyone else at work today? Or is it just me?

I am certainly the only one in my office today. That means the heating is up high, The Rifles being blasted out, and I am wondering how early is too early to have my first beer? It is a bit different drinking at 7am on the Eurostar to Liege to drinking before midday whilst still being in the office.

Putting Arsenal to one side, it is important that what happened at Tottenham does not go unnoticed.

Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger was subjected to ‘monkey noises’ during the away game at Tottenham yesterday. This led to the stadium announcer following the 1st stage of UEFA’s racism protocol being triggered with a stadium announcement reminding everyone that racism is unacceptable.

It does baffle me that people need to be “reminded” that racism is completely unacceptable. What the announcement does do is embarrass the club.

The game was live on Sky, and the announcement came through clear on the TV. Announcements will do nothing to stop these idiots making their noises or singing their chants. Only the fans around them can do that.

I am proud to be English, and proud that I live in one of the most diverse and tolerant countries in the world. Yesterday at Tottenham was a one off. It is important that all football fans do not get tarred with the same brush due to a few idiots.

Last nights incident would not even make the news in Italy, such is the racism in the stands over there.

What now needs to happen is the authorities need to act quickly and strongly.

Unlike in Italy and elsewhere where clubs actually come out with statements claiming racial abuse is not actually racist, Tottenham, the FA and Premier League should all not hide away from what happened yesterday.

Tottenham need to take the lead. Ban anyone involved for life. Make it clear that there is zero tolerance for racist abuse.

Then the Premier League and FA need to punish Tottenham if it is found that it was more than a single individual involved.

Whilst clubs can not be held for a single idiot making a monkey motions or throwing a banana, they do need to be held into account if multiple people are involved.

Spurs need to be punished within the full extent of the current regulations and need to ensure that they do not appeal.

The FA have spoken tough against other nations in the past over racism before. They now need to act tough.

This is not point scoring against a rival. I would fully support sanctions against Arsenal if we had racist elements within our crowd who decide to sing racist songs or make monkey noises at black players.

Luckily Arsenal is the most diverse club in English football.

A history of fighting off the National Front in the 1970s and 80s, Highbury (or the Emirates) has never been the cauldron of hate other clubs in London and beyond have been.

2 years ago a journalist tried to claim that Highbury felt like “no go zone” for black fans. Hundreds of fans called him out as an idiot, especially when it transpired that he was talking about the early 2000s and not the 70s and 80s.

You only have to go in the pubs on a game day, or look at the faces in the crowd. No one cares if you are black, white, Asian, Muslim, Jewish, male, female, straight or gay. You are all Arsenal. And that is how it should be, not just in football but in society. We are all one no matter our differences.

Over the weekend I have seen some label Arsenal’s away support as “racist coke heads” with “right wing undertones”.

I am an away season ticket holder. I can happily put my hand my heart and say that Arsenal does not have a racism problem. And anyone trying to paint our away support as “racist thugs” is clearly trying to change the narrative.

Anyone that speaks about the racism they faced at football growing up is probably talking about when they regularly went to games at a different club. It did not happen at Arsenal.

There is no room for racism in our game. There is no room for racism in society. If you see it, if you hear it, do not stay silent, call people out on it.

Have a good Christmas.

Keenos

Match Report: Everton 0 – 0 Arsenal

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Everton (0) 0 Arsenal (0) 0
Premier League
Goodison Park, Goodison Road, Liverpool L4 4EL
Saturday, 21st December 2019. Kick-off time: 12.30pm
(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Calum Chambers, David Luiz, Bukayo Saka; Lucas Torreira, Granit Xhaka; Reiss Nelson, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Substitutes: Alexandre Lacazette, Nicolas Pépé, Shkodran Mustafi, Emiliano Martínez, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Joe Willock, Mattéo Guendouzi. 
Yellow Cards: Calum Chambers, Bukayo Saka, Joe Willock.
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 57%
Referee: Kevin Friend
Attendance: 39,336
And so, the wort secret of the week has been finally revealed, and Mikel Arteta has finally been unveiled as the new Head Coach of Arsenal Football Club. Of course, he is not the first ex-Arsenal footballer to take the helm of our club, and undoubtedly he will surely not be the last; but this appointment is one with a difference. Because he has not managed a club before, the risks are tangible and too obvious to be repeated here, but it is to be pointed out that Arsenal have taken calculated risks at managerial level before; was not Herbert Chapman a risk? Or George Allison, Bertie Mee, George Graham or even Arsène Wenger? Their appointments all paid off, remember, and their impressive haul of trophies are there to be seen and admired.
A new era starts today, ironically in the city that has given us our greatest individual triumph in living memory; so let us stand proud and tall together behind our new coach and remember just who we are, what we have done, and where we are going. To the top!
But today, Freddie Ljungberg is at the helm for the last time, and Mikel Arteta will observe from the stands. We can only imagine what he must have thought of both the team and the performances from high up above the pitch as the first half became scrappier and scrappier as the time wore on. The good thing was that we played some of our youngsters, all of whom impressed and did the best that they possibly could, in front of an extremely partisan crowd on an unforgiving Saturday lunchtime engagement. Yes, there was tough tackling out there, and with it mistakes were made; but overall the first half played out fairly even between the sides. Our possession was good, and there were some good off the ball movements, and it was a surprise to everyone that it took forty four minutes for us to register a shot on the Everton goal.
We can only assume that Mikel Arteta gave words of encouragement to the team at half-time, as we came out of the blocks a bit sparkier for the second half. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was extremely unlucky not to score within five minutes of the restart, whilst Lucas Torreira was instrumental in several of our attempts on the Everton goal that unfortunately came to nothing. What would a Premiership match be without a VAR controversy? Everton demanded a rather tenuous penalty when it was claimed by several players that a shot had struck the hand of Lucas Torreira; quite rightly, the appeal was denied by VAR HQ at Stockley Park in South West London, which, for once, they got the decision absolutely correct. In his last match as stand-in manager, Freddie Ljungberg brought on Joe Willock for a weary Emile Smith-Rowe on the sixty-sixth minute, and a little later, Alexandre Lacazette replaced the frustrated Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang; despite several late chances on the Everton goal, the match finished an extremely exasperated goalless draw on a cold winter’s afternoon in Liverpool.
Overall, we were the better side today, and the defence certainly showed more cohesion in keeping out a lacklustre Everton side. Although the strikers didn’t always get the service they demanded (particularly in the first half), we still managed to notch up two more strikes on goal than the home side did! It was a shame that we were unable to go back to London with three points on Freddie Ljungberg’s last match in charge, but the important thing was that we didn’t lose and the team surely must have give Mikel Arteta some points to ponder when he takes charge of his first training session with the first-team squad shortly. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: AFC Bournemouth at The Vitality Stadium on 26th December at 3.00pm (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.