Tag Archives: Everton

Sky TV – Ruining every Gooners April

So yesterday lunch time, Sky TV and BT Sport announced what supporters they will be fucking over with their latest schedule of TV games for April – and the result was a big fuck you to Arsenal fans. The travelling support have been well and truly shafted.

March was bad enough, with only one 3pm kick off in the month – away to Stoke tomorrow. After that, Everton (Sat 12.45), Spurs (Sun 16.00 – what happened to ‘Health and Safety?), Chelsea (Sat 12.45) and Manchester City (Saturday 17.30). Luckily for Arsenal fans, the fucking about with the fixtures in March has little effect as the two main away games moved are against London clubs. All it means is plenty of drinking after Chelsea Away, and Plenty of drinking before Spurs Away (and plenty of sore heads at work Monday morning).

April, however, is a complete and utter fuck up for The Arsenal.

We start off with an away trip to Goodison Park. Sunday 13.30. That gives Arsenal fans 2 realistic choices. An 8.15 or 9.15 train out of Euston. Thanks Sky TV you utter cunts for the early start.

Next on the agenda is West Ham at home. A noon kick off on a Sunday. Not too bad, on the face of it. Two London clubs. Not far to travel. OK, so it means no beers before the game. But it means you can have a session after and still be home to grab some dinner before the Chinese closes. Until you notice that Sunday 13th April is the day of the London Marathon.

So not only have Sky TV said a big ‘Fuck You’ to one of the countries most important sporting days by scheduling a TV game at the same time the majority of fun runners will be on the streets of London (taking away important viewers from the charities) but they have also created a logistical nightmare for the police, who will now be stretched as they have to manage the millions who take to the streets to support the runners, as well as police a London Derby.

It was not too long ago that the police had the final say in fixtures. Based on safety grounds, games would get moved to an early kick off (I remember we once played Spurs at 11.45am) and made to ensure they would not clash with other big events in the capital. It seems nowadays, however, that it is the TV stations who are the king makers.

Have the police not questioned the scheduling of both the West Ham and Spurs match’s? Has some money been paid elsewhere by the TV companies to get their way? Or do the police just not really give a fuck and the previous excuse for awkward kick off times was just that, an excuse.

I feel for the London Marathon, I really do. Attention will be taken away from the once a year charity event for a football game. That is not right. I guess it is probably Sky TV throwing their toys out the pram knowing the London Marathon get’s a lot of viewers, and it is shown on BBC.

To make matters worse, The FA have also schedule the FA Cup Semi Final’s for the same weekend. So if Arsenal fail to beat Everton, you could end up with a scenario where Arsenal play West Ham, the London Marathon, and an FA Cup Semi Final are all on the same day. Add in the other FA Cup Semi Final the day before, plus Crystal Palace and Fulham playing at home, the police are going to have a field day with overtime and cancelled leave. Good job schedulers.

Next up is Hull City away. And just as you thought we had been fucked as much as the Everton game, Hull is scheduled for 17.30 on a Saturday. Ok, so we get a lay in. But wait for it, the last train leaves Hull City that gets you back into London the same day at 18.30. The game kicks off at 17.30

So fuck you Sky TV. Who will be picking up my hotel bill? It certainly won’t be you will it? Even the 6 hour, 3 changes and a bus journey is impossible. And £96.80 for that? Fuck off. Of course, I know I could take the ‘No booze, no fun’ club coaches, but fuck that.

Lastly we have Newcastle at home. This is where I feel for the away fans. It has been moved to a Monday 8pm kick off. So all the Geordies now have to take a day off work and like us with Hull, have no way of getting home (last train leaves King Cross at 20.00). Well done Sky TV again. You show you do not care about the true football fans. You show TV viewing figures are more important. To make this even better the club sold junior gunners tickets the day before this was announced, leaving a lot of fans with kids too young for games on school nights out of pocket.

And well done to the Premier League. Their recent campaign is #YouAreFootball. If we are football, then put your foot down. Protect the fans. Or do the Premier League only care about the bank balance?

So whilst all those who sit in front of the TV with their popcorn and Diet Coke will not give a fuck, those who travel up and down the country, the loyal supporters of Arsenal Football Club, are shafted.

Sky TV – You are a disgrace

Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC

The Great Arsenal Stadium Ticketing Mystery

17 Replies

I’ll be honest I was a little pessimistic about our chances against Liverpool in the FA Cup, considering how we ‘performed’ the week previous, but I, and I’m sure I’m not alone, was pleasantly surprised by how we worked hard to secure our place in the next round.

In fact I know I wasn’t alone, both my kids were delighted with our result and were begging me to get tickets for the quarter final, at home to Everton. Being the amazing Dad I am (go ahead – ask them) I promised to book them as soon as they went on sale – 10am yesterday morning.

Okay, I admit, I let them down a little bit, I was travelling with little or no internet access, but at the first opportunity I logged on to Arsenal.com to book up. I’ll be honest, I got logged on pretty quickly – normally there is that progress bar that crawls along the screen slower than one of Ivan’s transfer dealings, so I was pretty confident. I must add, as Silver members I have never had any problems getting tickets for any game that we’ve wanted to attend, whatever category game it is.

This was different. At 10:20am, it appeared that there was very limited availability in the family enclosure – there was a row of 15 green dots showing available seats, but whenever I clicked on one, it just wouldn’t select it – I tried different seats all with the same result and within three minutes all of the family enclosure was completely sold out.

I put it down to it being a popular fixture – but there was still plenty of availability throughout the rest of the ground, but this forces me to pay full adult prices for my kids, pushing the cost up to north of £130 for tickets, plus travel, food/drinks etc., I’m looking at a £230 day out. I’m not going to start on the ‘The working man is being priced out’ argument, think we’ve banged that drum plenty already, fact is the Champions League game against Bayern had already rinsed me out financially.

I took to Twitter last night and it seems lots of other people had similar experiences, in fact it seems a lot worse than I first thought – some were logged in and looking for tickets in the family enclosure at 10am sharp, only to find it was sold out already!! How can this happen? How can tickets go on sale at 10am and be sold out at 10:01? Something doesn’t sound right to me.

People tweeting me things like;

‘Kids have gone to every home game this season in Family Encl, tickets sold out by 10:02’

‘Logged in at 10:00 and all downstairs FE was sold out from the word go’

‘Something isn’t right…did they just let them tickets go over the phone and not online?’

‘Can’t see how four sections can sell out in 0 minutes’

I later learned that block 117 (Upper Tier) had also been nominated as ‘Family Enclosure’, but again I logged on to find it had also sold out, and quickly. I’m not sure there was any specific messaging from the club or on the website about this being released – seemed to be a ‘back door’ policy on it – why the secrecy?

Arsenal v Everton ticket ‘availability’

The Family Enclosure isn’t any smaller than normal, it doesn’t appear to be a hugely popular fixture – the above image was taken at 8:15pm last night, showing plenty of availability, yet all ‘Junior Gunners’ concessional tickets are gone? This is completely the opposite experience to that I have ever had buying tickets in the FE at the bowl.

I logged on again at 8.34, and to my dismay, it seemed more tickets had come on sale…

Further discussion concluded that this was Season Ticket holders who have opted out. This brings up a further question. The opt out date is 3pm Thursday 27th February, after the date tickets went on sale to Silver Members. Surely the club should have put the opt out date deadline before the tickets went on sale? Are the club hoping that all upper tier tickets are sold (at the higher price) before offering the lower tier season tickets to the market?

I’m not one for conspiracies, but there is something amiss here, something we will never learn about, because as sure as eggs are eggs, we will not get a straight answer from the club. In fact, having written to the club before, and having their reply featured in a double page spread in The Sun, I know asking the question would be futile, my time would be much better spent elsewhere.

So, best I leave this to the comments section on Shewore.com – so if you have any idea as to how all these tickets can be sold so quickly, feel free to leave a comment. Would love to hear from anyone who had a similar experience or those that were successful in getting a ticket in blocks 26-29.

Hammy
Follow @DHammy1971

Munich defeat, Referees, Mesut Ozil, Silver Lining, Yaya Sanogo, Coefficients

7 Replies

Munich Defeat

Ok, we lost. 2-0 at home. On the face of it, we should be disappointed. Out of the Champions League 1st knock out stages once again before the second leg has been played. However, where as last year and against AC Milan, we had every right to be annoyed and ashamed, this morning Arsenal fans can hold their heads up high.

Before we went down to 10 men, we showed how good we were, matching Bayern Munich all over the pitch. This Bayern Munich side who are favourites for the Champions League. Who beat Barcelona 7-0 last year. Had Mesut Ozil (more on this later) scored his penalty, had the referee (more on this later) been more consistent, it might have been a different result. Unfortunately, that’s football.

Down to 10 men against a world class side is always going to be an uphill struggle. And we did ourselves proud. You only have to look at ‘distance covered’ by all players to see everyone gave 100%.

Lazy Ozil?

We can hold our head’s up high, and go into our next 3 games confident that we are not just one of the best teams in England, but one of the best in Europe. Hopefully this defeat leads to a similar negative spiral as we had last year (hi AVB!)

Referees

Before I start my rant, Sczcesny was right to be sent off. He bought down his opponent denying him a goal scoring chance. For those saying the rule is wrong, is unfair, if you changed it, you would simply see an increase in keepers run out, charging into the man, knowing that the worst that can happen is giving away a penalty. With the rule as it is, it means that keepers at least have to be controlled and make a valid attempt at getting the ball.

The issue with the referee was inconsistency. Last night (and the Manchester City game) perhaps showed that, despite claims otherwise, European referees are no better than their Premier League counterparts. Why was Boateng not sent for giving away the penalty? He denied a goal scoring opportunity. He then later committed a couple more tackles worthy of a yellow card. Dante seemed untouchable, committing fouls at will, yet no booking. Lets look at some stats:

Arsenal: 8 fouls, 2 yellow cards, 1 red card
Bayern Munich: 16 fouls, 2 yellow cards

To quote Manuel Pellegrini, “The referee decided the game. He was on ~~Barcelona’s~~ Munich’s side from the beginning until the end. He was not impartial”.

Mesut Ozil

Firstly the criticism. What was that penalty about? For the second time this season, he has taken a lazy penalty and missed. It is now the 3rd penalty in a row he has missed. I do not know his overall record, but 3 in a row is enough for me. Surely we take penalties in training? Surely we can see who the best penalty taker is? Surely that person should be on penalties? The only rational thinking is Ozil scores everyone in training, or (and more likely) he has it in his contract that he should be taking penalties. Yes, Arteta & Giroud were not on the pitch, but after yet another miss, it is time for someone else to step up.

On the other side, he has once again got a lot of criticism for his performance, which is once more very unfair. People called him ‘lazy’ yet he covered the 3rd most amount of ground in the side. His season statistics show he has been one of the best midfielder’s in the Premier League this season. In my opinion, he could do with a bit of a rest.

With Sunderland at home this weekend, the time for a rest is now. With Rosicky, Cazorla, Podolski, Oxlade-Chamberlain & Wilshere all fit and raring to go, lets give Ozil a rest. I would line up:

Flamini Wilshere
Ox Cazorla Podolski

With our next game against Stoke 9 days off, it will give Ozil a chance to re-charge his batteries.

Silver Lining

Losing could be good. There could be a silver lining. As I explained yesterday, I would have thrown the Champions League and chucked in the kids from day one. Now we have lost 2-0, we should seriously consider putting out a ‘b’ team in Germany – yes, if you are going, I feel for you, maybe the club should refund all tickets, so you at least get your ticket for free. We have a chance of winning the FA Cup & League. Let’s put our eggs into those baskets and concentrate on those competitions.

Looking at the upcoming fixture’s list, it looks a lot lighter without Champions League football – especially if you ‘remove’ the Munich game from the minds of the 1st team:

Arsenal v Sunderland Sat 22 Feb
Stoke v Arsenal Sat 1 Mar
Arsenal v Everton Sat 8 Mar
Arsenal P-P Swansea
Tottenham v Arsenal Sun 16 Mar
Chelsea v Arsenal Sat 22 Mar
Arsenal v Man City Sat 29 Mar
Everton v Arsenal Sat 5 Apr
Arsenal v West Ham Sat 12 Apr
Hull v Arsenal Sat 19 Apr
Arsenal v Newcastle Sat 26 Apr
Arsenal v West Brom Sat 3 May
Norwich v Arsenal Sun 11 May

Yes, the Spurs, Chelsea, Man City, Everton run of games is difficult, but we can now face them without having the distraction of mid-week football. With the Swansea game required to be re-arranged (plus if we beat Everton, West Ham will be arranged), we will only have 2 mid week games between now and the end of the season. Tiredness should not become an excuse. Losing last night means our focus can fully shift to domestic competitions.

Yaya Sanogo

Another solid performance in the fledging career of Sanogo. Yes, he might not have scored (better players have taken longer to score their first goal), but he once more did not look out of place playing up against International class players. Would I play him against Sunderland? No. If Giroud’s head is back in the game, he should be straight back in. But in Sanogo, we have a talented player who’s style could be a useful change coming off the bench. Next season, if we buy a striker, I will be more than happy with the enw striker as first choice, Giroud as second, and Sanogo as 3rd. And with his natural ability, he would be pushing Giroud hard.

Coefficients

For those worried that yet another 1st knock out round defeat is going to dame our coefficient rankings, do not worry, it will not, we will still be seeded for next year. To be top 8, you need, on average, 100,000 coefficient point’s. You usually accrue around 20,000 if you make the knock out stages.

The current ‘live’ update of points puts Arsenal in 6th place. With Manchester United unlikely to qualify, that puts us in 5th. The winners of the competition usually get 35,000. That means only sides who are within 15,000 points of us can finish above us.

Only Porto (knocked out), AC Milan (9th in Serie A), Valencia (not in CL) and Atletico Madrid are within 15,000 points. So realistically, only Madrid can beat us, and they need to win the thing to do so – which is unlikely. Yes, our place could be under pressure in the future with the rise of Dortmund, PSG and Manchester City, but they are at least another season from being near us, and with Manchester United likely to drop out, our place in the top 8 will remain secure, as long as we keep making the knock out stages.

Out of the Champions League, but in with a chance of 2 domestic honours. Back the team. Up the Arsenal.

Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC