Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

The apprehension and excitment of Tottenham away

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Morning all and Happy North London Derby Day.

Tottenham away, a game I look forward too and at the same time dread. Today is my first visit to their new ground.

Not much will beat the nervous energy, the antacipation walking down the High Road. With your mates. Us against them, ready for whatever happens.

But White Hart Lane has not been a happy hunting ground for us in recent years. The North London Derby has massively favoured the home teams over the last decade or so.

We have not beaten Tottenham away since the 2015 League Cup, Mathieu Flamini with those two goals. I was there that night, and what a night it was.

Our last league win was 2014, Tomas Rosicky with the only goal.

Before you think “Keenos is a luck omen, glad he is going today”, they are the only two occassions I have seen us win at their place. Three if you include a FA Youth Cup game when Jack Wilshere pulled the strings!

Since Tottenham ended out 21-game unbeaten run against them in 2008, we have won just 2 of 16 away games at White Hart Lane (or Wembley). Both mentioned above.

And in recent years, the away game against that lot have been where our hopes and dreams have crashed and burned.

Last season, a victory against Tottenham with 3 games to go would have guaranteed us a top 4 place, and finishing above them for the first time since 2016. We were turned over 3-0 with Harry Kane opening the scoring with his customary North London Derby penalty.

2019 is also a North London Derby day that bitterly sticks in the memory.

1-1 and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang is bought down for an 89th minute penalty. Our talisman gets up, dusts himself down, and takes tne penalty. SAVED.

And then to add insult to injury, just as Aubameyang looked set to tap into the empty net, Jan Vertonghen makes a last-ditch slide challenge.

Vertonghen had encroached deeply into the area on the penalty but he got away with it. Without that, he would not have been able to make the tackle. And there was no VAR in those days.

Two points dropped, and they ended up being crucial as we finished a single point behind Tottenham, and failed to make the top 4.

So I make no apologies for feeling apprehensive ahead of the game today. Although after a few beers in Islington and that journey to the stadium I will be bang up for it.

It does feel like we are in the middle of our most crucial period of the season.

We have already faced Brighton (A) & Newcastle (H). Both sides in the top 8.

Today it is a trip to Tottenham (5th), followed by a resurgent Manchester United (4th). We then have a tricky away trip to Everton – Goodison Park is never an easy win despite how poor they are.

That is followed by games against Brentford (9th) and Manchester City (2nd).

I have refused to get to embroiled in the title talk. Yes, we are in the race but we are certainly not favourites. The bookied have had Man City odds-on since before the season began. It should not be seen as a failure if Man City overhaul us and we end up 2nd.

If we are still above City after we have hosted them, I might allow a bit of belief to slip in. But even then we have a double header away in the Midlands against Aston Villa and Leicester City.

It is only really in March that it eases up a bit – we have a run of 3 out of 4 games at home , facing Bournemouth, Fulham (A), Crystal Palace and Leeds United.

And then we have the 6 games that will ultimately decide our future – Liverpool (A), West Ham (A), Manchester City (A), Chelsea (H) and Newcastle (A). The only bit of restbite is Southampton at home.

Today is all about getting the 3 points against Tottenham. And I think we will do that if Harry Kane does not get his usual penalty.

We will never hear the end of it if Kane equals, and breaks, Jimmy Greaves goal scoring record against us. But that will never make up for signing their captain for free, 1971 and 2004.

UTA

Keenos

Tottenham fans ‘most deluded in the Premier League’

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We all know Tottenham fans have delusions of grandeur, but I have not stopped laughing at their latest show of petulance.

The only team in the “Big 6” to have not won anything in the 15 years, they have spent the last half a decade telling anyone that would listen how good they were. And how much better and bigger than Arsenal they were.

The old saying is form is temporary, class is permanent. And it was only a matter of time until the class of The Arsenal rose again, and the good form of Spurs (15 on the all-time English champions list) evened itself back down.

But last week their fans go ahead and write a letter to the board “seeking answers to fundamental questions” about how the club is run.

Spurs fans are crying because their team is 5th in the table, 2 points off the Champions League places. 5th or 6th is probably Spurs’ par position. They only slipped out of the top 4 2 games ago.

This season they had their best opening 10 games to a campaign since the Premier League came into existence. The bad run of form they are complaining about is 2 losses in their previous 6 games. They should speak to Chelsea about bad runs.

Since 2019, they have spent €524m on player. And average of €131m a season. That is the 5 highest expenditure in the league, and just €12m less than Arsenal – they have also been very noisy about how much we have spent to top the league.

During that period, they have the 3rd highest net spend in the Premier League (for those that love net spend stats). Only Manchester United and Arsenal have a higher net spend.

Their fans are very loud about them having the World Cup winning goalkeeper. The best centra defender “in the world” (still not sure who they are talking about?). The best footballer Asia has ever seen. And England’s best ever striker.

They have a transfer guru who has secured them some of the “best talent in Europe” in Romero, Bentancur, Kulusevski, Perisic and Richarlison. In the summer they “won” the transfer window.

And they have the best manager in the world (according to them) in Antonio Conte. The Italian much better than the novice in charge of Arsenal.

They have spent so much, on so many top players, all whilst spending £1bn on “the greatest football stadium in the world”.

I don’t really get what they are complaining about.

Spending so much on a new stadium was always going to see them take a backwards step. Did they not see what happened to The Arsenal?

The Emirates had huge implications on our finances. Throw in the credit crunch and we had to sell to service the debt.

Tottenham are in huge debt due to their stadium and have also had to contend with the impact of Covid on their finances. Did they really think they could build a new stadium whilst also spending big on players? They have actually spent a lot more than most of us would have expected.

I am not really sure what their fans want. What they are crying about. What their demands are.

The real reason they are upset is probably because of us. Because we are top of the league.

They are having breakdowns because they have realised the last half a decade has been wasted.

All those seasons finishing above Arsenal came to nothing. And it was all they could hold onto whilst we won FA Cup after FA Cup.

Now we are back on our pedestal, and they are both below us and trophyless, they have lost their minds.

Their issue is not with ENIC, with Levy and how the club is run. It is with KSE, with Arteta, and how we are performing.

Instead of writing a letter for Levy, they should have written one to Josh.

“Dear Josh,

Please stop Arsenal being so good. Them being bad was our only bright light in football.

Thanks

A Spurs Fan.”

They mocked us for our “banter years” but the truth is the last few years have just been a respite from their banter decades.

I bet if we were 6th, and they were 4th, there would be no complaints.

Being top of the league has broken them. Imagine what will happen if we win it?

Spurs fans really are the most delusional in the league.

Keenos

Media finds new reason to spread Arsenal negativity

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For years now, The Arsenal Football Club has been the medias punching bag.

They have made millions from spreading negativity about us, knowing that every article would be linked, every comment on TV or radio shared widely. Our recent league struggles has filled their pockets.

And some (so-called) Arsenal fans have also jumped on the bandwagon; realising that being ultra negative got them attention, made them a little bit of money (although the majority of them barely anything by spreading their poison).

They have hated Arsenal’s return to form under Mikel Arteta this season. It has angered them and those that have tried to encourage the doubters have become a laughing stock.

So no longer can they mock or criticise our on-field performances, they have has to look elsewhere to drum up their hatred. And that has come in the form of criticising Arteta.

Led by the Chief of the Celebration Police Richard Keys, over the last couple of weeks their have been countless column inches, tweets and hours of radio time dedicated to Arteta’s touchline antics.

Much of the criticism around Arteta has come from the chief boo-boys. Those that have been loudest in their criticism of Arteta and Arsenal in the last 2 or 3 years. The likes of Keys and Chris Sutton.

The usual suspects, the Arsenal-incels, have also come out from under their rock to pile on.

These people hated Arteta from day one. They were tweeting #ArtetaOut before he even got the job. And they have struggled to come to terms with the fact that maybe the likes of Arsene Wenger, Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino were right with their comments about Arteta.

So the latest thing is them labelling Arteta “classless” and that his toucline antics and post-game interviews are disgracing the clubs.

Interestingly, these people also used to criticise Wenger for “showing no passion on the touchline” and “sitting in the dug out doing nothing”.

So thewy criticise Wenger for not showing passion; and then criticise Arteta for showing passion. What do they actually all want? And I think we know the answer to that is “attention”.

After the 0-0 defeat to Newcastle (yes, its a joke), some of the rats reappeared claiming that “with Manchester United and Tottenhams good form, we will be out of the top 4 within the next month”. So keen are they to paint Arteta as a man failing, they are creating implausible scenarios.

Yes, Arsenal have a tough run of games, with Tottenham, Manchester United and Manchester City to come. But we are top of the league for a reason.

It also ignores that over the next month, Man U face ourselves, Man City and Liverpool. Tottenham meanwhilse face ourselves, Man City (twice) and Chelsea.

So let’s all stop pretending that Man U and Spurs are both going to win every one of their next 7 games, and we are going to drop points in more than 3 – we might drop points in more than 3 of our next games, but they will not win 7 on the trot considering their best winning runs so far is 4 games and 2 games respectively.

We have dropped points in just one of our last 6 games, topping the form table and gaining 1 more point than the resurgent Man U in that time. Spurs have lost 2 and drawn 1 of their last 6. But apparently we are in bad form!

All sides have also been going OTT with Gabriel Jesus’s injury. You would think we were the only club to have a player come back from the World Cup with an injury (no mention of Richarlison).

Someone recently commented “it will be our lack of goals without Jesus that will see us drop below Man U in the next month”.

Since football returned from the World Cup, we have scored 7 goals in 3 games. Only Brighton (9) have scored more. How many have Manchester United scored? 7.

So our 7 goals in 3 games is proof our strikers are misfiring, whilst Man U’s 7 in 3 is proof they are on form. I just do not get it.

These people are so filled with hatred, wanting us to fail, that they end up building their own scenarios in their head and end up thinking they are true. No matter many of them live in bedsits talking into a camera or live their life through social media.

As for the media, we know bad news generates money. And we know Arsenal generates them money. All they care about is trying to combine the two and generating even more money.

The likes of Keys, Sutton et al will do anything to paint us as a club in crisis.

Even if we win every game between now and the end of the season and win the title at a canter, they will criticise us for Arteta’s antics, or due to Saka being booked for diving, or for us surrounding the referee like every club does. Their bitterness forces them to hold us to a higher standard than any other club.

On a final note, I do always laugh when something Richard Keys says goes viral.

He often talks about “class” and “dragging the name through the mud”. This is a man who took media exile in the Middle-East after UK organisation would not touch him with a barge pole.

A man who was sacked by Sky for his derogatory comments about female referee, before further comments came out which just showed he is a nasty old misogynist. A man who was caught shagging his daughters pal whilst his wife of 34-years battled cancer.

If you looked up “classless” in the dictionary, a picture of Richard Keys should be there.

The fact these people are having to look for off-field reasons to criticise Arsenal is brilliant. It means that our on-field performances are upsetting them.

UTA.

Keenos