17th of Aug, 2019. A month prior, I had bought the Arsenal Red Membership with no hope of ever getting a chance to watch a match. It didn’t arrive for 2 weeks. I reached out to Arsenal support and they sent a copy of the membership card; it came with an Arsenal book, a red and white Arsenal muffler, and a woven winter cap. I was delighted after receiving the package and next thing was to try and get a ticket somehow.
Searched through reddit about how to get one, realised it’s almost impossible to get a ticket on Red Membership but I can buy one from the ticket exchange. So, I did exactly that. I didn’t realise how big the stadium is, at that time… and booked the cheapest one which was at the top.
And, the biggest mistake was, reaching 2 hours before the game. It was sort of empty outside, with mostly families lining up for pictures for their kids. No queues, and not much people once I went IN. An hour later, stadium was packed with 60k+ fans, players warming up. It was ecstatic.
It was the game against Burnley, under Unai Emery. Dani Ceballos started his first game for us on loan, we had David Luiz too starting his first game in Red and White after a move from Chelsea. We went ahead in 13th minute from a Lacazette’s goal, assisted by Dani boy. Happiness didn’t last long when Burnley scored one just before the half time. It was in the 64th minute when Auba scored the winning goal for us, stadium was buzzing, people were singing and I was on my arse for the rest of the game.
Wonderful experience. Brilliant atmosphere. Dream to watch Arsenal at Emirates was done. I managed to watch few more games before returning from UK, but the first game was special, even though I couldn’t see the players’ faces from up top.
The featured image on this post was the first pic I took of Emirates.
In this 4 years, my love and passion towards AFC has increased – so yeah, it affects my mood even more now. This love made me start a blog, which has 168 articles, 7,599 approved and genuine comments, and 91,500 unique readers. Things have gotten better, both at the club level where we are competing with Man City for the title, having one of the youngest and best group of players playing for us; and for LiR where the traffic is increasing as day passes.
Thank you, for all your support. LiR wouldn’t be anything without the readers.
Cheers.
Anyone writing Pool’s chances of challenging would be very foolish. It looks like Klopp had found his mojo again. Pool are purring I hate to say.
late last evening I was having a quick looksee into what was being bandied about in the rumour mill and I ran across several articles involving one Walker-Peters…hardly surprising on the heels of the Timber injury…not wanting to wade through a seeming ocean of speculative shit, I quickly decided that I would only read a couple articles from whom I deemed to be the most credible sources…just so happens the first in the queue declared that KWP could be open to a move if certain assurances were provided and it got me to thinking
now there’s nothing too revelatory about the notion of a player wanted assurances, although they tend to be more commonplace whenever the player in question has considerable status and/or when the team in question aren’t a highly desirable landing spot…so it made me wonder why this recently relegated stop-gap option would even think of making such demands to a European bound, PL runner-ups outfit…it’s pretty simple really, players don’t view us like that and they know full-well by now that MA hands out assurances like fucking candy on Halloween
just think about it, there’s a the reason why Rice was oft-times in more advanced spaces last week, why Havertz was never removed from the pitch even though he was clearly the weak link, why Timber was shoehorned in on the left, why we didn’t properly redress our Striker position, why Tierney and ESR can’t find significant minutes, why Saliba was sent back to France following White’s signing, why Partey saw the bench far more often after the winter window and likely why Raya will cause some undue havoc in our Keeper room before too long…of course, these are but a few examples of our assurance King’s short-sighted negotiational tactics, which can be traced all the way back to the ill-fated signing of the supposed contractual samaritan, Willian
now this doesn’t mean all his assurances have or will fail miserably, but it does explain away a few myths about our manager…player’s aren’t heading here in droves because they like the cut of his jibe or buy hook, line and sinker into his tactical ingenuity, it’s because he will gladly provide the two things players desire most, outside of winning trophies, exorbitant wages and playing time assurances…now you’ll undoubtedly get more than a decent wage from Pep, but you’ll never get the latter, as that would be incredibly short-sighted from a footballing perspective
now in the case of KWP, such assurances will likely not be forthcoming and thusly the player will probably not wear the kit, but not because MA doesn’t want to offer up all manner of things, unlike when he was willing to supposedly die on that hill when it came to Emi, it’s simply because to do so would be in direct conflict with all the other assurances he’s already handed out to players being deployed in similar positions…Cheers
Tony-agreed…BHA are in full Bloom and I’m likewise a big fan of Szoboszlai, who has hieght, great feet and pace to boot; sort of like a rich man’s Havertz…just think we could have had Mac and Szo for the same price as Rice….btw Mac’s red likely should have been a yellow
92nd winner, KP, that’s brutal mate. Junior is real moby dick, but should look less green around the gills tomorrow.
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Safe drive home, KP. 🙂
TRVL
My thoughts were always buy Caicedo, Mitoma and when touted I was all for Timber. Had we done that I would have felt we could have an outside chance for the title. Sadly, we have Kai instead of Mitoma who works so well with Trossard.
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Timber being cut down in his prime, sorry couldn’t resist but seriously we have lost a seriously good and versatile player to extremely poor judgement by the medical team and ultimately Arteta having the final say probably in machine gun guns ho patter.
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All I remember is Arteta saying “we have to get this TW right!” Now Rice is the only righteous player we bought and we should have had Caicedo first.
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Sleep well if you’re not watching the Spud’s game with Manure.
Will I be shot for hoping spuds win? They haven’t got the quality or depth for a title challenge so I don’t see them as a serious competitor whereas I don’t want utd getting any momentum behind them.
All is good with me Tony, just busy with d kids. Have an afternoon off now so making d most of it!
Almunia
No when the Spuddies are a way behind us then its a tactical thing.
ManU’s keeper looking a good buy.
Manure look in control at Spuds who can only muster the odd weak counter and toothless up top without Kane early on.
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Onana’s distribution is very good far superior to his Spanish predecessor.
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On this display Manure are title contenders.
Tony
Strange I’m watching thinking ManU look light going forward.
From what we’re seeing today plus the Wolves performance I have a feeling the internal review on Greenwood will see him back in a ManU shirt very quickly.
Marc
Good call on Greenwood. Spuds hit a purple patch at the end so will be interesting to see who really wants it in the 2nd half.
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I’d be happy with a score draw.
Manure with 57% and 3 shots each on target. Is a fair reflection of the first half. Manure had 5 shots blocked and overall just shaded the 1st half in the end.
Got to say I’m amazed ManU weren’t in for Kane.
Marc,
Especially when you look at the money they spent on Mount who must be one of the most overrated players in the league. Totally anonymous, he reminds me of strikers in the 80’s like Rush,Lineker,Stapleton. If he’s not involved in a goal he’s anonymous. Except of course he’s meant to be a cm!
Almunia
I quite like Mount but he’s not the player ManU needed.
Got to say from what I’ve seen today and what I heard about the Wolves game (didn’t see any of it) I really expected ManU to be a lot better this season.
We might be about to have another strange season.
Marc,
It certainly seems that utd have more problems to fix than they might like. And Liverpool’s defence will cost them for all their attacking riches.
You may be right about Mount not suiting utd,they were horrible last week and Mount had the least touches of all utd players which is very surprising given his position. I’m actually amazed he wasn’t just taken off in that triple substitution, I haven’t heard his name mentioned all game. They’re making spurs look good.
Oh dear
That’s just piss poor.
Almunia
Yeah – we’re (football fans not Arsenal or even Arsenal fans!) in a strange place. Chelsea and Liverpool were so poor last season you think they just have to be better but that doesn’t mean they will be. ManU haven’t done what I’d thought they would. We’ve spent a lot of money and have huge expectations on us, something we deal with brilliantly and we certainly didn’t look great against Forest.
I think the midfield of Mount, Bruno and Casemiro don’t totally fit the preferred tactics, as the latter doesn’t have the pace to be the sole DM, which means that the other two can’t be as adventurous as they would like…to make matters worse they don’t have a bona fide target man, at least not until Hojland has been properly embedded
the Spurs might have some considerable work left to do, but they do appear to be enjoying having the shackles removed under the new manager…much like their opponents today, they likewise lack a clinical finisher at the top of the park…right now the PL is bereft of true out-and-out Strikers, which could once again give City a decided edge
Alvarez for £14 mil is beginning to rival our £3 mil purchase of Martinelli in terms of value. I really like him as a player. Is Pep bringing the 2 strikers up front back into the game?
Marc
Looks like you were right and Utd were poor in the 2nd half. Wishful thinking both sides were having big problems, but Spuds are a quick counter attacking side, which could cause us problems if Arteta doesn’t form a settled 3/4 back line.
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I couldn’t be bothered to stay up for the 2nd half, as I don’t like watching either team, I just watched the first half to see what we’d be facing.
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Killroy
Vinipola sent off against Ireland and Farrell sent off last week shows Bothwick for the coach he is: very poor by the look of it. Never really a stand out player through his career but made the England side on merit. I just think he’s been banged on the head too many times. England needs a Kiwi manager.
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Of the teams playing yesterday Pool look like they will challenge far better than last season. Utd and Spuds look lucky if they get any Europe place at the end of the season. Brentford have an indomitable spirit as they grow into the PL; Franc doing a good job there.
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Then we have my favourite 2nd team; Brighton. People keep saying the strategy cannot last and that it will run out of legs as all the top players are sold each season after replacements are on the rough diamonds’. conveyor belt. Yet, Bloom and De Zerbi are a match made in football heaven.
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De Zerbi’s honest tactics for each game are well honed throughout the squad, which if I’m honest tempo or the team’s cohesion isn’t marred with substitutions; it’s a well oiled machine playing hard for each other with or without the ball.
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My team of the day yesterday.
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As for England’s World cup hopes? There are none. France followed by Ireland/NZ for the top 3 final outcome for me.
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City scraping 1:0 home over Newcastle shows how far Eddie has come with the Bar Codes who will be challenging again. City’s stats are a little more dominant with 60% possession that Newcastles, but without seeing the game I can’t comment further.
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Nothing but at win at Palace will be acceptable. We are superior pretty much all over the park when players are in their best positions.
Wily Woy will want to wain down shots at Wamsdale or Waya’s goal.
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Joking aside with dependable with a highly respectable football resume, Roy will make it very difficult for Arteta where I only see us winning by a single goal margin. No idea who will is going to play and no point putting up a wishful thinking set up. However, I’d go with 433 but leave Kai on the bench and play Trossard or ESR as our 8.
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KP
Recovery day for you I’d imagine after 500-mile round trip.
2 different moods for your Sunday morning coffee if you’re in the mood for music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Whfuz-hvJc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJwX0gdfJU8
Different ways to energize your day; have a good one 🙂
For any team with serious title aspirations anything other than a decisive win on Monday will be a serious red flag scenario…that said, it’s got potential banana skin written all over it…on the road, tough environment, some bus parking tactics and a built-in injury-related tactical excuse to boot…on the other hand, maybe Havertz will actually make his first official appearance of the season and all will go swimmingly
“We got to get this TW right” will come and haunt Arteta. A Chelsea reject, an overpriced DM and 36mill out of the window with the outcome not known for years. He has 12 days to save it.
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Watching the matches so far it is going to be a war for the top 4 as it is no longer a top 6 but more like a top 8. With the exception of City after watching them last night, no other team is a sure in. Our 2nd place finish last season is deceiving and I expect 4th place will be a surprise.
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But all is good because if we finish outside the top 4 it is a good chance that our MIT will be gone.
Tony
The RWC is a most welcome event and for me I love to watch Scotland but they are in a group of death. Shame on the guys who drew this up.
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For me, would love to see the following teams winning it in that order: Ireland, New Zealand, France.
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Will be back in the US Sep 5th just in time for the first game. Been for a week in London it has gotten so much worst since I left it 15 years ago, except the mentality of the Brits as deluded as the Arteta fan boys.
Good day out at King Power. Result was sickening but check out Rambo’s equaliser which was as good a goal as any he scored for us including that one against Galatasaray. Cardiff fans gave it the big one so there’s hope. Leicester’s fans were mute til that second goal went in. They’re already imagining they’re going straight back up so I’d like to see them disabused of that thus autumn and winter. A long day but not without the usual fun bits. After this one and the draw to Leeds I just hope they can start converting some of these performances into wins. Runnarsson looked totally shite in the warm up!
TRVL & Killroy
Agree 100% with both of you – Monday nights an important game, we were poor against Forest and need to show some form.
This season is going to be an absolute battle for top 4. If Liverpool don’t make it Klopp will be out of a job. Chelsea have got to make it with the money they’ve spent (how the fuck aren’t they breaching FFP?), ManU expect to be there, Newcastle have big ambitions, a couple of good performances / results and the Spuddies will think they’re the second coming and then you’ve got the chance of a surprise team popping up.
For the neutral its going to be great for the fans its going to be exhausting and emotional.
England women are as devoid of self belief as England men. Spanish women try to get the ball unlike England women consumed by “It’s coming home” media hype. No10 should have been taken off earlier. Lauren James has been no nonsense tough though
England women lost to Spain 1-0, with Spain looking more dangerous . England centre back has been good ,so also Eaps. The rest mostly meh.
Everton are awful, they should just relegate them now and give everyone 6 points.
Kilroy
The RWC placings your have could well ring true.
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Marc
That made me chuckle. I think it’s the spreading of the players’ contracted’ payments spreading the fee over I think I read up to 8 years.
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Of course Newcastle can loan any decent player from Saudi, so they have the perfect soft sand shuffle past the FFP.
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See how the Chavs do tonight with Poch. Probably not the game Moyes wanted for the Hammer’s 2nd game.
West Ham don’t seem to be missing Rice. Going to be a tight game if the first 17 minutes are to go by.
@Marc
Chelsea and FFP is very easy. FFP is a UEFA thingy and since they are not in any European computation it doesn’t apply. For the EPL it is Financial Sustainability and it is far more relaxed then FFP. In addition since they hand out 8+ year contracts, the whole transfer fee is amortized. So for £96mill it is only £12mill per year. They sold Havertz which was £65mill so if they buy a £96mill player hand out an 8 year contract and sold Havertz they still got £53mill to spend as they are that much in the black.
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UEFA did away with the amortization over longer then 5 year contracts and so if Chelsea where in an European competition they would have had problems. The corrupt EPL will not look at closing this loophole of 8 year contracts until next season.
Chelsea were excellent and rather dominant for the better part of 80 minutes, but, in a similar vein to our current lineup, they have a glaring lack of clinical finishers…why else would Enzo be first up to take a penalty…it’s clear that the Nkunku injury could be a real stumbling block for them, which is likely why they’ve been sniffing around for Balo…that said, they will still remain a tough out for anyone this season, considering their tactics and now totally revamped midfield…on this day though, Caicedo was a step behind, Enzo was underwhemming in the final third and Sterling, albeit spectacular on the dribble, still can’t seem to buy a goal for the boys in blue…with Chelsea, United and Newcastle failing to secure any points this weekend, we had better take all 3 against a bang average Palace side
Killroy
Completely forgot Chelsea aren’t in Europe – its just something you assume.
A lot of us here are old enough to remember the calamitous start that the Bruce/Pallister partnership had under fergie. They were a laughing stock. But we all saw how that went. That was one of my earliest lessons in not judging a player too early. But I’ll tell you what,if that Chelsea player,Disasi, turns into a quality player I’ll go off the drink and return to mass. He is deplorable. Christ, Chelsea fans must be aghast that they’ve signed someone this bad. £38 mil/€45 mil for a 25yr old from the French lge. William Gallas said he was shocked when Chelsea signed him(disasi), politely saying he didn’t think he was ready to play at a club like Chelsea. He was poor v Liverpool, though he did score. But I was keeping an eye on him today, brutal. I only mention this because I’m fascinated by the chelsea ‘project’ and the bulk signings. If they can get one as wrong as this then ,like I said, Chelsea fans may be worried.
Well done to the hammers though, Antonio on his day is a phenomenon, while I’ve always liked Bowen. Not sure that Paquetta is the answer to Man city’s problems,though he is neat and tidy.
Everton are horrendous. That’s one particular board that should have a health warning for it’s directors. Things will get very nasty there very soon unless someone finds a wad of cash under the couch before the window closes.
Villa at home are going to be quite formidable this year but Emery tends to be a little too open on the road by epl standards. Still,they’ll be entertaining.
Did any of you take note of how smoothly Gvardiol fitted into the city defence last night? Fuckers have a diamond there. There still a few players short though. Worst city bench I’ve seen in a long time. Interesting to see where they go to resupply. Fati is available seemingly, has he fully recovered though? Someone should whisper to Pep that we’re willing to part with the Egyptian Pirlo if the money is right,he’s right craic in the dressing room!
as for the earlier Everton/Villa affair, it’s fairly obvious that the former are going to be in tough when it comes to their pending relegation fight, as their only viable Striker is both paper thin and has potted a grand total of 7 goals in 2 seasons…in regards to Villa, the Buendia injury will severely hamper their offensive capabilities, unless Zinola can find his Roma form from a couple years back…that said, if Diaby and Ollie can both pot 15+ goals, they could still compete for a Europa/Conference league invite, but I very much doubt they will equal or better their results from last season
injuries are clearly an issue thus far, which is rather disconcerting considering it’s only week fucking 2…this sucks shit because it means a whole host of excuse-making chatter, which I can only accept from those with obvious fiscal limitations, and a lesser brand of football, especially in light of the bigger names involved…hopefully this early days disturbing trend will be relatively short-lived
Almunia-agree with you on you Disasi take…he was a bag of toys today leading up to Antonio’s goal…not only did he make an amateur hour pass in the middle of the pitch, that led to a needless turnover, he gave him his preferred foot then made it even more difficult for the Keeper by trying to block the shot with his legs too far apart…I get it that it’s tough to stay compact in those situations when you’re a taller defender, but it’s not like you shouldn’t realize that very fact and act accordingly…he reminds me a bit of Matip, when he struggled for form during VVD’s time on the shelf…all defenders make mistakes from time to time, but the good/great ones don’t compound matters by doing dumbass shit afterwards
your Disasi take
Almunia
Agree you need to give players time to settle especially if they’re coming from overseas.
I think Its something I’m going to have to keep telling myself with regards to Havertz.
TRVL,
It was far more than just the goal though,he genuinely seems to have no technical ability whatsoever, considering he’s a professional that is.
Marc,
Except Havertz isn’t coming from overseas so I have made my mind up on him already,rightly or wrongly. If he changes it I’ll hold my hands up. I agree that even just changing clubs can be unsettling ,but every time I see that face……..
Almunia-agreed…I was just addressing the most obvious example of his footballing deficiencies from today’s fixture…Cheers