We summed up first half of our season with a win against our old rivals Manchester United in a thrilling (yet dominating) game at Emirates. I would get some hate for saying this, but last night win was much better than the London Derby where the other team failed to even show up. Yesterday, Man United showed up for a win and fought for it, though it wasn’t a match to what those young men in red and white where playing for.
A game where we went down 1-0 in 17th minute from a beautiful goal from Rashford, but then only took 6 minutes to level up. Eddie headed one IN from a Xhaka’s cross. We scored second in 53rd minute from an equally brilliant (compared to Rashford’s one) long-range shot from Wonder Kid Saka to go 2-1 up. However, Martinez headed one in for United from a corner which Ramsdale failed to punch away enough. 2-2 at the hour mark and you would have though this is one of those days where we see a hope, and see it dying slowly.
Nope, not this time. Nketiah decided to show the world he was no less a match to Jesus and guided the ball into Man United’s net of a Odegaard’s effort. This was in the 90th minute and you can imagine what it meant for the boys and the crowd. Unbelievable.
What does this all mean?
We are fighting for the league title. F*ck the naysayers. We have beaten Liverpool, Spurs twice, Chelsea, and Liverpool already. We are sitting at top of the table with a 5 point lead of City having played 1 less game. We have only lost 1 game in this season, which we dominated throughout and saw a valid Martinelli’s goal chalked off.
In terms of quality, we have a small team compared to City but it’s enough. Eddie stepped up in absence of Jesus and we are scoring more goals now. White was not in form yesterday and Tomiyasu took care of the business. Trossard is premier league proven player who can compete with Martinelli without any drop in performance. Matt Turner started slow but he is been decent enough in cup games. AND there is ESR and Tierney in the mix as well, who can do equally well and better when given chance.
We have concern in the midfield – both Partey and Xhaka are irreplaceable as of now but they are fit and we can hope it remains as is. A tiny bit of hope is not your enemy.
We have some of the young and passionate players in the world. Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard, Zinchenko, Saliba are years away from their prime and yet are considerably better than anyone in the league in their position. Ok, that might be an exaggeration but f*ck it, we have just beaten Spu*s and United in back to back games.
What’s next?
Reinforcement in midfield, and belief that we are going to win this year. It’s never too early to win something.
Apologies for not coming up with the match day article due to poor health, but Almunia is my savior. He has come up with another brilliant piece which will go live TOMORROW. Don’t forget to visit again.
And do you see that pub from your house? Give a visit. F*ck the Mondays.
Good analysis Ambarish
Finding LIR really having quality posts. Yesterday too, the Arsenal Fan greats AlumiasnoMore, Tony, Kroenkephobe, etc made this an interesting site to visit .
Hi Ambarish
Nice alliteration there in your title with the three M’s. How about Motherfuckingly magnificent massacre?
Hoopah
What I love about LiR is that all of us make contributions. I really enjoy your take on the club too. There is little or no light between any of us on our perceptions of strengths and weaknesses as a club. Round up all the Goa Based Gooners and get them on LiR. Reminds me that I once had a kick about with some lads in Goa in the 90s and they told me what they thought of English football. Do you play at all or have you hung up your boots like me (I’m 58 by the way so I have an excuse).
Ambarish
Thank you. Another great write up.
Beating manure is sweet but in my view it’s always going to be eclipsed by winning away at the cockerel jockeys even though, as you rightly say, yesterday was more of a test. The team is virtually unrecognisable from the one that spent the last few years never recovering after going a goal down.
It’s a bit of a questionable perspective but I also think the team’s attitude is transformed. Where we were once supine, we’re now spiky, confrontational and the players are ready to mix it and defend each other. Does that come through confidence? Success? Coaching? I’d be interested to know what others think. We’re no longer pushovers, neither mentally nor on the field. Another reason why, to me, this feels like 89 when we took shit from no one on our way to glory.
Just to cap off another good round of fixtures, I’d love to see one F in Fulham beat the spuds tonight.
KP
I’m gonna keep this for the day we win rhet league
“Motherfuckingly magnificent massacre”.
Ambarish
Hi mate. I hope you’re on the mend and steadily recovering. Take it easy for a few more days.
My feelings about football are rejuvenating. Despite still following Arsenal and Cardiff over the last few years, I think I’ve been a little out of love with football generally – the cheating, the shitty owners, the wankers on field, the money and the parasites in the game – all of it.
But OUR players are doing a tremendous job of competing and beating the other big boys with a flourish. It’s a real joy watching all the youngsters and feeding off their confidence and success. They set a really positive example and the last 8 or 9 days have been terrific. I suppose I need to keep in the present and the near future, but I can’t help reminiscing to earlier days when we were top of the tree, leading to memories of other things I was doing at the time with mates and in my career etc. I won’t lie, but late Wenger, Unai and Tets eras have all caused me to wonder if we’d ever be bossing Ingerlish footie again. That’s not to say I’m getting ahead to the end of the season: it’s more than enough just enjoying where the team is now. It’s a special moment although there’s a lot of games to go.
Ambarish,
Nice one,have to back you on the upbeat tone,now is the time to spread the joy. One worry though, if you’re capable of such positivity from your deathbed,then I doubt you’ll ever naturally transition into the grumpy old cynic ,a role that many of us have have embraced with ease! Fair play though,you’re on the ball.
Kroenkephobe,
Yep I feel the exact same about the whole rejuvenated attitude to football. I think the 80’s were the pinnacle of football for me,so many wonderful characters and stories. The connection between the fans and the clubs/ players was still very real. I thoroughly enjoyed the 90’s also but in hindsight sky and the premiership laid the foundations for the corporate exploitation of the game that would destroy those bonds. Mourinho, Abramovich and Chelski then began the financial doping, as one French man described it,which utterly removed the game and it’s players from the average Joe.
Now I know that looks like sour grapes,the periods I enjoyed were periods of Arsenal success, my disillusionment matching Arsenal’s decline. But I genuinely feel that it was more to do with the fact that I was having real difficulty in finding any way to relate to the players,even the Arsenal ones. Saka,ESR,Martinelli, Salba et al are bringing this connection back regardless of whether it produces trophies or not. It’s a marvellous regeneration of an old feeling I once had.
And KP, you’re getting no sympathy from me. You should try having Charlton as your lower league team, Ireland national team,mayo footballers and wexford hurlers. I was going to audition for a role as the cooler,if they ever bring out a sequel…..
Tony,
Enjoyed your reflections on the match. KP is right,a career in sports journalism beckons! Your enthusiasm and joy shine through, it’s cathartic to read. Only one real test to go now. We’re going to have an unexpected poor result. If we recover immediately in the next match,which we never did last year, then you’d have to say that the transformation is both remarkable and complete. Although I know the city games are vital 6 pointers I wouldn’t consider losing against them as unexpected. It’s the other games I’m referring to. It’s quite amazing that we’ve lost only once,even I have to give management credit for that! Anyway, look forward to hearing from you again soon,mind yourself. Its Monday night here and I’m off to bed. It’s nearly 7.30 and I’m wrecked already! If I was in your time zone I’d never see Arsenal live again!!
Spurs wearing that rather fetching black, purple and lime green outfit. Avant garde? No, fucking sad.
I don’t know if we’re lucky to have such a dysfunctional and useless club as our main rivals. They’re hardly an incentive to keep improving are they?
Llorissaynomore. His decline and fall has been spectacular. It’s heresy but I almost get as much enjoyment from Spurs’s struggles as I do our success these days.
Almunia
Good point about being ready for a setback. Do many things are going our way rich t now that it could be the FA Cup against City. We were shite in the 1st half against Oxford with a partial second XI.
I also take your point about Charlton. The addicks and bluebirds are arguably the two biggest sick men of the lower leagues (having taken over from Blackpool and Coventry) . Charlton have been run by some seriously bad bastards over the years.
Willian looks in rather better shape these days but he still has a weird set (rack?) of moob’s. In any case, good to see him looking vaguely interested in football again which is a massive step up from his Emirates era attitude.
I think my opinion of the “state of the game” differs somewhat as I live overseas and I’m just not inundated with some of the obvious nonsense that goes on in the epicenters of footballing life…the most deplorable thing in my estimation, which permeates many aspects of everyday life, was the corporatization of the sport, which has oft-times placed far too much attention on non-football related matters…in order to survive and thrive, or so it’s presumed, one must milk every last cent out of the footballing experience…for me personally the sport would be exceedingly healthier if sole proprietorships were removed from the equation, then replaced by a much more communal-friendly model, and players were paid according to a performance-based model, which would include a formula that took into account a variety of intangible factors, thus eliminating the need for bloodsucking agents…a common sense meritocracy should always be the guiding principle in industries where there are appropriate measuring appartus to shape one’s fiscal policies…I could speak at great length about this subject matter, but this is neither the time nor place for any such soliloquy…that said, and just as an example of the ludicrous possibilities, in the MLS there are “import” players making 7M per season playing along side those, who are likewise regular starters, making $45,000
apparati
Morning all
Wife & daughter flew down to BKK for meetings and an interview respectively early this morning leaving me babysitting Pumpkin, as Junior is at school.
Great comments to read over my morning coffee. LIR is slowly coming to life in a good way.
Ambarish, I hope you’re feeling better now, and great war cries in your post game post. It was one of the reasons I wrote a long post yesterday in your absence with mal de something?. If in the future you are unable to write a pre or post game post or want something on current club affairs, I’d be happy to help out as I’m sure K’phobe and TRVL would be only too happy to contribute. Almunia already contributes brilliantly, so please know we are more than happy to help.
You have found the niche LG has lost. LIR has passionate and intelligent posters open to all points of view in an atmosphere of sitting with mates of many years. In time, you will see your/our blog grow. I say our as I feel we make it that way in wanting LIR’s success to grow over the years and some legacies nurtured here.
You have good friends here, Ambarish.
K’phobe, I gave more thought to your kind publishing thinking, and I thought the moment has passed now where its sentiments were unique to that moment as next-day after the game’s reading. I love writing when I’m in the mood and feeling creative, then the words just flow, as I’m sure is the case for Almunia and your good self.
Too many flow actually to begin with; it’s how I know I’m in a writing mode and I type away. With different cured herbs assisting my digits across the keyboard, it can get very messy at first, but then after the first edit there is a semblance of a post and so on.
It’s also fun to know others enjoy my brand of posting always trying to keep it jocular where ever possible.
That said how lucky are we to be witness to our potential rebirth after Wenger’s legacy crippling 12 years. We witnessed enough in the Manure game to know the signs. It may have been 97 KP, my flashbacks were so fleeting it was hard to pin down an actual game: subliminal positivity mostly.
Frankly, I believe Emery would have had us in the CL at his fiord attempt and probably won the E:L cup if he had had the support Arteta has had. Patience for another 2 years would have been supplanted by excitement, passion & trophies.
Look at Emery at AV and his results.
Almunia, Junior and I can’t wait for tomorrow’s latest satirical edition.
Always happy to hear your enjoyment of our musings, and also oddly enough my career did involve some features being published by Fleet Street as a contributor, not in the employ of. A dear old friend was an editor of Fleet Street and Wapping from my music days and thereafter. It was just a few articles, mind. Nothing ground breaking but fun nonetheless. Living in Thailand for so long has seen me read a book a week for many years. These days I have no time to read.
I agree It’s crossed my mind more than a few times how we recover from a loss or couple of losses? That was before we ripped the Spuds a new one and completely smothered Manure for most of 95 minutes making Neville eat his words and Keane to praise what he watched.
We have been building chemistry & trust for some time. Now we have tasted being at the top of the PL we have a rugged edge and toughness opponents feel. Then we have a controlled aggression on the pitch, but sadly not off it. Could you imagine Arteta having a rant against a manager like Lawrence McMenemy. The old cold stream guard was known for being handy with players. That exchange would have been fun to watch.
I think we’ll bounce back up and be even stronger such is the hunger in our players.
Injury was our potential nemesis but unless we are very unlucky with injuries to several key players, I feel we are covered, especially if we buy a certain Japanese player at Brighton. 🙂
TRVL, I miss the old days of the 60s, 70s, 80s and just about the 90s. It was generally blood, guts and glory with tackles that would be banned in UFC these days. More recently Keane on Haarland’s dad which curtailed his career.
Corporations/conglomerates are going to swallow up the world’s business, sports and industry, as they acquire lesser and sometimes equal sized ventures. At this very moment our award winning company has been shown serious interest by a £multi Billion corporation who doesn’t have a successful foot hold in SE Asia; proof in action as it were.
Negotiations could well start late next week, but we have the leverage in this instance as, because as a company, we are in very good shape financially and future business wise for the next 15 years. Our clients are billionaires and when you successfully deal with many over a couple of decades, your reputation precedes you for further business.
With football streaming tech improving all the time, it’s understandable why the wealthiest want to own PL football clubs.
It’s Rollerball without the violence. Country vs Country and corp vs corp. That’s the future of PL and CL top club ownership.
The old days of kicking lumps out or each other gladiatorial type football are long gone.
Sad really!
presently there’s some rather intriguing chatter regarding a variety of midfield transfer options:
(1) Juve’s McKennie, who clearly fits the “youth” narrative, but I find him a bit of a coin toss proposition…he needs considerable polishing and he’s had some issues remaining match fit…not to mention, you should always tread carefully when dealing with Juve, as they rarely offer up gems, even though their present financial woes might be a key motivating force…I would want to see more from him before making any serious overtures
(2) Everton’s Onana, who’s only 21 and 6″4 to boot…he’s relatively untested against top competition, but seems to have garnered considerable interest from some rather big fish…just not sure if said interest is more about Everton’s present vulnerabilities or his impressive performances this year…I’ve only seen him play twice, at this level, so it’s a relatively small sample size, but I did like what he had on offer both from a defensive and offensive capacity, especially from a set piece perspective…of course, he will get former Wengerite hearts racing, as he fits our former managers once preferred DM script, but I’m not convinced whatsoever that he’s the second coming of Vieira and I certainly don’t want to endure another Diaby shit show…the fact that he’s only listed at a buck 68, makes me worry a bit about his ability to handle the rigours of the PL over the long haul…that said, if the price is right, I’d roll the dice on this prospect, as he’s a DM, first and foremost, whereas the other two options prefer to play a little farther up the pitch
(3) I saved the best for last, BHA’s Caicedo…he feels like the real deal and a natural cover fit for Partey, plus he would undoubtedly force MA to rethink his whole untouchable Xhaka narrative…he’s young, incredibly polished and positionally versatile…there’s no doubting that he will be the most expensive get amongst the 3, but I think there’s a legit reason why that would be the case…the big lights certainly haven’t overwhelmed him thus far, so there’s a good chance he could provide a real spark both for the present and the foreseeable future…I would be over the f’ing moon if Moises arrived before the end of the TW and placed Xhaka firmly on the bench, but I really doubt that’s in the cards
Any thoughts?