We have suddenly discovered a new rivals in Aston Villa since Emi Martinez opened his mouth, and Emery returned to Premier League to manage them. It’s one of the game where the emotions will be high, and there is a lot to prove from both the sides and managers.
Emery first, he loves to be the underdog and bully the big guys, and that bitterness of being sacked from the position of Arsenal manager must still be in his mind. He would be out their to prove a point. Arteta on the other hand, has lost 2 games, drew another one in last 3, and have lost the top of the league position to Man City. Confidence is on the low and he would be more than eager to get back on winning tracks. A loss today would derail the title ambitions and put immense criticism and pressure on the players and the manager.
Team sheet is out, and we have Trossard starting his first premier league game for Arsenal in place of Martinelli. I will have to agree with it now, Martinelli needs a rest and Trossard has done well coming off the benches since joining us. Ben White is back at RB and there is no Partey again. A midfield of Jorginho and Xhaka do not give me confidence but Jorginho has an okay-ish game against City, today we can judge him better whether the gamble we have taken will pay off for the remainder of the season. We have a good news in Emile, he has made the bench and we need him. Reiss Nelson is back too, but his contract situation is very confusing, I don’t see any point in giving him any game time if he do not sign. If we are in a winning position, I would also love to see some of the Kiwior in later half of the game.
Here’s the team :
Line up looks good to me, we should, on an ideal day, get away with a win. However, things aren’t going so great and I hope the team shows up which beat Liverpool, United and Spu*s.
Right, short one today. It’s Saturday evening, sun is still visible and I am off to a place where they are playing it on a big screen. Hopefully I will return back happier and top of the league where we belong.
#COYG
TRVL
We could have had Overmars and Ten Hag as a team – a top level manager and a DOF who has a previous connection with the club.
Marc—don’t I know it…not to mention that the DOF would have a “real” club connection…I would suspect that Overmars extracirricular activities might have precluded him from the equation, but I would have gladly taken ten Hag regardless of that particular situation…I still haven’t gotten over the fact that we stayed the course with the far beyond it Wenger, when Klopp was available for the plucking…thankfully our current players are outperforming their manager
TRVL
Wasn’t he caught texting pictures of his cock to female staff members? Just give him a company phone where the camera’s broken!
Marc—what a dick move on his part, pun intended, but I think his more recent issues are health-related, as he suffered a heart attack this past December, which probably puts him out of the mix for at least a year or so…I would suspect the heart attack came as a result of his wife hiding in the closet, a la Cato Fong, with a Lorena Bobbit instrument of penile destruction frimly in her grasp…he’s obviously done exceptionally well for himself, financially-speaking, so he needs the game far less than the game needs him, but hopefully he will get a second chance at a profession he clearly excells at…Cheers
Mad weekend lads. Went on the beer,to hell with the consequences, a man has to take some pleasure in life! Watching Arsenal is probably worse for my health anyway. Anyone else getting ’89 vibes yet? We have it. We’ve bottled it. We have another chance. Definitely fucked now. Hold on….
City are throwing us all kinds of lifelines and you’d have to imagine with their focus on the champs lge there will likely be a few more. Then again we’ll definitely be sharting points the whole way home also. Buckle up.
Watching the snooker from Llandudno at the moment,cracking match. That near you KP? Pity there’s no event over here,I used to always go to Goffs for the Irish masters.
Tony,you’re playing a stormer with the articles and posts,I never got back to you about the idea of a poker school script,not a bad one at all. MB is slowly turning you towards the light, be careful, it’s the hope that kills you,there’s great comfort in the dark side!!
KP,poor old Steve Cooper. Reminds me of the old Newcastle joke. Gazza and Chris Waddle went back to St James’s after signing for Spurs but as they were driving through the crowd they were recognised and some of the fans started giving them abuse. In response Gazza pulled down his pants and stuck his arse out the window. The fans were infuriated,shouting ‘And fuck you too Beardsley’. Apologies, I’ve probably told you that one a few times already…..
Bobbit and Beardsley… It’s definitely been a good weekend.
I know Quasimodo was a figment of Victor Hugo’s imagination but in a weird time warp, I’m sure P Beardsley was in his mind’s eye when he created the character.
Hi Almunia. A weekend on the beer… I’m envious. By contrast just been at a rather prosaic dinner party with a Manure fan (who’s never actually seen them play of course) . Worse than that – the menu was vegetarian tagine with boiled cabbage and an apple strudel with inch thick pastry. A welsh/Moroccan/Irish/Austrian fusion menu of the lowest calibre. I broke a new years resolution and had a big mac on the way home.
You know those times when you take beers round to someone’s house? I rather over shopped and got 6 large cans, stupidly handed them over and only saw two of them. Nowhere near enough to wash away the tagine-y tang. A fucking disaster – a bit like the two results today. Ah well.
Llandudno’s a Victorian/Georgian seaside ‘resort’ with a funicular railway on the north coast. I’m right down the other end on the west coast. I did my usual stupid thing and stopped following it towards the business end. I’ll have to catch up. So there’s no actual internationally recognised tournament in Ireland now? An afternoon in an overheated auditorium in Dublin with lashings of Guinness and the clanking of ivory balls sounds like heaven.
Morning lads – what a weekend!
Fair play Almunia opting for the Wicklow mountains’ water best extracts after being brewed into Ireland’s most well known & favourite export. As for export? That is when the Irish have done their collective very best to deplete stocks and thus lessening the pleasures for the Jackeens and people in lands further afield. What a wonderful tool Google is. 🙂
No chance of leaving the dark side, Almunia, it’s where I was born among its murky depths of labyrinths to find solution in whatever is your passion, love and pleasure is? That being for me The Arsenal, sex, drugs and rock and roll not always in that order, and at my age, sometimes the sex gets crossed off or put to the back of the list.
For point of clarification alcohol, vaping and tobacco are also drugs. 🙂
Ronnie Scotts in London and The Saxophone Pub in Bangkok: 2 very worthy music establishments with over 25 years of welcoming some of the finest musicians to ever play on this earth: worth visiting if music is part of your very soul.
One of them was Jeff Beck who lit up so many peoples’ lives and sadly departed this year. While calibrating my Room my friend, Steve, dug out his Blu-ray of Jeff Beck Live at Ronnie Scotts to leave with me.
Tal Wilkenfeld on bass was about 16? Her Bass solo from the legendary Ronnie Scotts live show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIBNh5VyiVk
She’s 36 now and played with all the greats. Worth checking out.
Jeff Beck had the creative genius of Zappa, but in the more jazzy blues and rock. Zappa in the sky with diamonds would have been a good Beatles follow up to Lucy. Certainly would have been apt.
Yolanda Charles Robbie William’s female bassist is also other worldly with her music, but Tal is another level above.
https://knowyourbassplayer.com/tag/bass-player-with-robbie-williams/
Back to the beautiful game and our return to the PL summit.
Points and game number crunching is of little use this season where reality has completely left the league both on the playing and officiating side. When I heard Lee Mason had resigned I dumped my tin foil shares pronto.
Ex policeman (5-0 in street talk), Howard Webb, will solve the VAR issues and weed out the culprits with his trusty truncheon in hand (where is LG Sid when you need him) :). Again, seriously I’m hoping Webb can create a new model closer to the Rugby Union and other sports successfully using the technology.
Seriously, Webb has to be better than past & current options. We don’t need a Mason 2.0.
I’m sticking with my latter thoughts of last night my time plus what I feel needs to be done from here on in.
Bring Bolagun back for the umpteenth time of saying. Change tactics and play Bolagun & Eddie up top using a 442.
K’phobe, If Party isn’t 100% fit for Leicester, then play Kiwior, Ode, Jorginho – Zinch at LB and Tomi at RB. When Jorginho tires bring ESR on early in the 2nd half who will instantly add pace and power to the more fleet footed, pure football thinking and slower Jorginho.
It’s a win at all costs game and we have the squad if used tactically who can beat Leicester in their back yard.
One game at a time for me.
Once Partey is fit, Arteta has a host of options in line who are well before Xhaka!!!!
Manure, City are our closest rivals for the title.
The Trossard, Kiwior and Jorginho window finally negates the need for Xhaka. We were more coherent with Xhaka off the pitch Saturday and why we were able to sustain so much final third pressure and fortunately the goal to turn our fortunes round once again.
For me if the last TW means no more Xhaka I’ll be happy now I’ve had a good look at Jorginho. Yes! Partey is a big miss, but much less so than playing Xhaka because he needs covering, as he goes walk about and getting in the way of fluid football.
I think an injury free Jorginho can be a stabilising glue/factor in our remaining games. A literal midfield general marshaling those around him.
All eyes on Arteta as right now there are reasons to be cheerful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIMNXogXnvE
Best Album: Handsome.
Howard 5-0 says, ‘book him Dano’. Cue the long canoes, the grass skirts and the music.
Nice clip to end with Tony. I’ve always loved Ian Dury. I think of his first two albums I slightly favoured ‘DIY’ although the mere mention of clever Trevor, Billericay Dicky and that tune that begins ‘arseholes, bastards, fucking cunts and pricks’ will never be forgotten. The cover for DIY was available in, I think, 6 different types of wall paper. Still got my album. I’m particularly fond of a very poetic and hilarious song called, ‘this is what we find’ where he describes the lives of some properly eccentric fuckers in London including this verse about a guy walking his dog and wiping its arse…
Single bachelor with little dog, Tony Green of Turnham Green
Says whose a clever boy then girl? yes you know whom I mean
Cos the mongrel laid a cable in the sandpit of the playground in the park where they had been
And with a bit of tissue, he wiped its bumhole clean
Guy was a poetic genius. That B side to rhythm stick, ‘ain’t half been some clever bastards’ and ‘common as muck’. Funny as fuck and very clever.
Err, I need to find something football-y to justify posting this on LiR. Ah, yes here it is… Ian D would have made for a better Arsenal manager than Arteta. His rants on the touchline and his post match media interviews would have been magical. He’d also get some production out of ESR.
Almunia
We’re you an ID fan? Did your older sister like him?
I think that little verse is an AAAA rhyming pattern which is pretty rare.
Ian Dury passed me by KP although I am surprised at how many of Tony’s musical references mean nothing to me. I thought I had an eclectic knowledge of music but you two operate at a different level altogether.
Delighted for Milkins last night,it’s great to see the money spread to guys like him who have struggled by for years. He won 230,000 which was more than he had earned in the last decade. There are so many really average footballers who now earn that in a month. Little wonder they lose their way so quickly. The hunger is satisfied before they’ve begun for so many of them.
That documentary on Brady was brilliant. Did you know where he got his nickname? Have a guess. I’ll tell you later.
I always thought it was because when he joined Arsenal, he was staying in digs as an apprentice and either didn’t like what was on his landlady’s menu or he was so conditioned during his earlier life in Ireland that his diet solely consisted of chips, chips or chips.
Millkins is a good egg. Crazy name, crazy guy. That tournament where he got absolutely fucked up before playing. Some formidable cue power. Definitely a maverick. It’s good that he’s in the money.
Did you say that documentary about Chippy was on RTE? I might have a dig around for it. I cannot recall if he ever wrote an autobiography but I can imagine him doing a decent and honest job. As you know, I revered him when he played for us and was deeply disappointed when he didn’t come back as a player. Just checked his wiki – he was in Italy for 7 years. He was the face if Arsenal in the 70s. A forerunner to Bukayo in his importance to the team despite his age. Every time I re-watch that 5 minute final, I’m staggered by his skill and work rate. Did you ever see him play for the national team?
Listening to Ian Dury can provide some genuine laughter. He never held back and was a true original. Only he could have recorded that verse about the dog having a shit.
Cardiff having a recent renaissance which needs to continue. O’Dowda got motm against Reading the other night. He’s a real fan favourite. I love the guy. And Callum Robinson looking increasingly like Dennis Bergkamp now he’s playing deeper! Addicks are mid table right?
Hi Almunia
Sorry, one more and then I’ll shut up. Thinking about Brady, who would you say are the top 5 footballing royalty in Irish football history – players, managers whatever? Doesn’t have to be Arsenal people. Just wanted to get your take on who are regarded as the 5 most influential figures.
You’re not wrong there,the story in the documentary was that when he arrived in London his mother accompanied him and to impress them both Arsenal took them to a restaurant. When offered the menu the mother told them it was pointless as all he ever ate was chips hence the nickname chippy.
The documentary was called Liam Brady an Irishman abroad and was broadcast on the the national channel RTE 1. I’m not sure if you can get RTE Player over there but it’s well worth a watch. His time in Italy was absolutely incredible particularly his first two seasons at Juventus but he will always be an Arsenal legend to those of us who remember his early years. Your comparison to Saka is on the money in terms of one player carrying the team though Brady ,like a lot of players at the time I suppose, did not receive the acclaim or treatment from the club that his talent warranted imo,though the fans certainly appreciated him. Compare that to Saka and how he is being treated. No wonder we have the clichéd ‘bitter old pro’. But to be fair to chippy he is anything but bitter. A real gentleman. I saw him several times at Lansdowne for the NT and my heart was broken for him when injury denied him a place at Euro 88,our first ever major tournament. He fell out with Jack in 89 and didn’t go to Italia 90 either though it was unlikely he would have had a role to play at that stage given the emergence of a new generation of talent. But he remained a positive influence in irish footballing circles and of course qualified for the euros as assistant to trappatoni who had been his manager at Juve.
There’s an interesting chat in the documentary between Brady and Scezney in Turin when the latter reveals how all the hale enders were intimidated by chippy.
Glad to see the Irish boys settling in at Cardiff. Charlton at stuck in mid table obscurity, may aswell end their season now,another huge disappointment. Think big Mick Mccarthy is going down with Blackpool, would be some job to keep them up now. His biography ‘Captain Fantastic’ remains one of the most refreshingly honest and humble footballing books I’ve ever read. A far cry from the game as it is today I fear.
That’s a tough one about Irish football. Anecdotally speaking there are four players who divide opinion each one with a very strong case to be considered Ireland’s greatest. They are Chippy,Johnny Giles,Roy Keane and Paul Mcgrath. Very tough call but I’d say Keane shades it for most with the utd connection being a strong factor. For me it’s Mcgrath,Chippy, Keane and Giles in that order. 5th place us a lottery with Houghton,Whelan Lawrenson,Given,Moran,Irwin,Robbie Keane all worth a mention but for me it’s Kevin Sheedy pipping Given. Just for the record I couldn’t consider anyone pre 1970’s as I have very little knowledge of football from that time. As for legends off the pitch. There’s only one. And he was English!
I liked that list and your arguments. My only other thoughts were David O’Leary ( betraying my bias just a bit). Niall Quinn never quite did enough as a player did he?
I remember that Everton team from the mid 80s. Sheedy was a beautiful player and universally liked. Honorable mention too for our friend Eamonn Dunphy?
I remember that towards the end of his playing career, Paul McGrath was excused from training because his fitness was so fragile. Yet he continued to play excellently and through an evident pain barrier. I’d say Villa AND Manure supporters would happily have him in their all-time XIs
Could you imagine Tets being that flexible and strategic with, say, Partey?
Gotta love Dunphy,off the pitch anyway. O’Leary was unfortunate in that Ireland had Mccarthy, McGrath, Moran and Lawrenson all at the same time. But Genoa 1990 will always be his. Quinn and Cascarino were household names obviously but both were also synonymous with big Jack’s anti football which while being successful, doesn’t help while looking for a place in the pantheon of footballing gods.
Your turn. 5 greatest English players. I’d say we will disagree here!
OK. I’m going to try and be objective. We might not be too far apart…
1 Bobby Moore
2 Geoff Hurst
3 Rooney
4 Gordon Banks
5 Kane
Managers, you’d have to think about Ramsey and Bobby Robson.
Wales
John Charles
Bale
Southall
Gary Speed
Maybe Ramsey
Scotland
Dalgleish
Archie Gemmell
Bremner
Lambert
Jordan