The Em’ Curse!

Be interesting to hear Marc’s thoughts from ring side

Villa v LCFC is end to end fun football

KP—I knew you wouldn’t let me down with your unabashedly honest take of our manager and his amateur hour transfer practices

what a limped dick first-half performance and if it weren’t for Dunk gifting us one, we likely would have lost this affair…both sides had some slear-cut chances, most notably Saka’s two footer that he should have potted, after a rare good cross by Havertz, and Ayari’s failure to lift his head, when Raya was down and out…Havertz actually looked like a Striker for a brief moment when he finished that dink-over, as that was by no means a given considering his propensity to get things wrong in front of goal….as for the Rice red, it will always seems a tad harsh in light of the action taken and the time of the infraction, but he should no better….maybe he would have gotten away with it if he hadn’t gone down so theatrically, which seems to be an all-too-common practice during MA;s reign…ultimately I think we were saved by the fact that their junior high coach not only waited too long to bring on Adingra and Enciso, but he likewise took off the only player who seemed willing and able to take on players, Mitoma…all in all, it was poor managing by both sides today

so to sum up the events of the day, we lost Rice for our away Spurs match, Timber appears to be a bit of a wafer thin mint, our supposed big-time midfield signing is caught on camera looking like a slinged-up bitch and Ode took a knock that seemed to impact his performance from that point forward…all I know is that City would have taken that match at home even if they had 9 men on the pitch, as that BHA backline is dangerously slow and their stagnant movement in our final third would have been easily sussed out by Pep…I guess it made sense from a karma perspective, considering how we misplayed that whole fucking window…If Arsenal were a stock and I were a stockholder, I would be looking to sell

Ipswich Town vs Fulham.
Looks like ESR has succumbed to his junk food predilection. Looked pedestrian and is rightly taken off.

Leno has vastly improved his play off his foot. Used to look confused over here. But kicking is still not accurate

On point post TRVL, I added my comments during the game with it being slow in case KP was on the road. Rice will be a big miss against the Spuds away. Who comes in Jorginho? I said a couple of days ago Ode getting injured derails our season as we only have Nwaneri as his deputy.

With Ode being our only creator it’s just a matter of time before rotational fouling breaks him for a few weeks. I agree Timber is looking a different player this season and not suited to LB: should be played in his preferred RB.

I think El B has finally fcuked himself royally where injuries will come to bite him for the last time, where TWs were his major downfall with Edu as well. Both are culpable.

2 shaky wins and a drab draw does not make us look a title chasing side.

LCFC play chaos football under Cooper and will run us ragged, as they almost did Villa today. Another potential banana skin home and away.

Hi All
It strikes me that Arteta is on the horns of a self inflicted dilemma, namely a critical shortage of midfielders.

Rice – suspended for 2 (?) games
Merino – the second coming of Steven Morrow
Vieira – loaned back to a team that has already ripped the fuck out us once.
ESR – doing well on the other side of London

The answers? Jorginho, a rejuvenated Sterling as a box to box midfielder (yes I am taking mind bending drugs), an arguably disaffected Reiss Nelson, Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly,Arteta or even Edu coming out of retirement. Any other ideas?

I was amazed. Amazed, amazed, amazed because of how inconsistent decisions can be,” he said.

“In the first half, there are two incidents and nothing happens. Then, in a non-critical area, the ball hits Declan, he turns around, he doesn’t see the player coming and he touches the ball. By law, he can make that call, but then by law he needs to make the next call, which is a red card so we play 10 v 10. This is what amazed me. At this level it’s amazing.”

Whereas I’m only ‘amazed ‘ that he ever became our manager. Fucking knob.

What’s the opposite of amazed I wonder. Unsurprised? Underwhelmed? Unmazed? He’s sooo amazingly embarrassing.

Tony
Not sure I agree with you about Leicester. They are properly piss.

Imagine the nasally bunged up, greasy hippy Neil from the young ones saying that Arteta quote.

KP—you know as well as I that this whole blame game is nothing new in North London…Wenger loved to use this wag the dog, low hanging fruit ploy, as he always knew it would find widespread support amongst his loyalists…now Arteta has taken up the cause, which he undoubtedly feels shields him from blame…is he so self-absorbed that he doesn’t understand that any manager on most any given evening can offer up a similar officiating critique? it will be interesting to see how this week unfolds, especially leading up to our Spurs affair

KP & TRVL
I only see LCFC as annoying, I can’t stand Vardy, but he does get in defenders faces to make them uncomfortable on and off the ball where mistakes get made too easily. He drags CBs all over the place like an annoying wasp.

If they play at the chaos pace they seem to be able to keep up, it’ll unnerve us and rush us into mistakes particularly in midfield and big Gabs in defense. They kept Villa on their toes until the final whistle and they will do the same to us.

The point is Villa took their chances, will we?

The red card was a stupid red, but was in keeping with the new rules, and Rice was on a yellow, so why give the ref a decision to make in a nothing position on the field. To moan and make excuses after the fact is just pathetic of El B. The ref officiated to the letter of the law.

A ready excuse now for not winning the league in game 3. Had the biased red not been shown……………….. El B will lament.

We don’t look anywhere as secure at the back now teams are coming to play against us at pace, rather than trying to keep the score respectable. Teams feel they can get something from us, and they are right.

Why? Because we are playing exactly the same as last season with no real improvements to our side other than a misfiring has been from the Chavs, and lurch Merino our busted 6/8 or whatever – LB anyone?

Last season we were The Dirty Dozen or (14) if we were to use a war film analogy: this season; however, we are more like Hogan’s Heroes with El B doing a good Private Shultz rendition of proving he knows nothing about producing a winning team. El B’s prime talent is rearing also rans, where this season will follow previous losing seasons, and we are only coming up to game 4 after the break.

City look their unstoppable self, and I fancy Slott to do well in his first season and push City far more than we will.

We look disjointed with our only really calm players are Ode and Maya, where Maya has kept us in all 3 games producing Emi like performances that I would have never thought possible given Maya’s lack of height. It will be interesting to see how Ramsdale does at Southampton, as I felt Ramsdale was the better shot stopper, but Maya is at least as good flying between the sticks like his boots are spring loaded ala PatJennings, as the cat as he was called. Another keeper with rocket fueled boots.

Timber looked positionally lost and was unusually poor at LB, he doesn’t invert well and was exposed too often: shocker I know considering he’s a RB.

We looked unfashionably poor in defense losing our usually steely composure far too many times, and now becoming porous through the middle with Rice and Partey being too similar on their walkabouts, and especially down our left side when Timber inverts or too easily beaten. Looked like he had another knee issue in the 2nd half.

Rice is not an attacking anything period!

He’s a CB and good DMF. Nothing more and never will be. He’ll get the odd goals, as Xhaka did, but he won’t score enough to win the league: we need someone better playing 8, and in the final third to win the PL trophy, Eze or better, as I’ve consistently droned on here.

Up top Havertz is being lauded for his goal, but his stats are far from impressive for a striker:

Goals 1 A rare gift from Dunk
Passes 11 with 7 successful at 63.6%
Offsides 2
Possession lost 4 times

That’s it in 90 minutes. Live Score reports no other shots on or off target, and he’s our starting 9. I’m sorry but this kind of striker does not win his team PL trophies because the above stats are the norm for Havertz.

It’s ok because we’ve got Sterling as back up, but he’s a winger…. ooooppps!

We’ve got a band of misfit brothers who will give their all on the field for the badge and club.

There is no plan B, there never was, and won’t be this season because we are playing the same dreary football of right side centric with little penetration down our middle, and using our left attacking options sparingly because we have no 8. We boringly go left to drag defenders away from Saka, and then get the ball back to Saka as quickly as possible, and rash rinse repeat.

Compared to the top 8, we look very average – well below City’s proactive level with little to no likelihood of matching Pool and City, where as proved today, we’ll drop more points needlessly.

Looking at the PL I’d say if you drop more than 9 to 12 points you can forget winning the trophy. That’s how tight I think the fine margins are going to be this season. We could very well be 4 or 5 points lost after the Spuds game at game day 5!

This season is going to be tight especially for us as we look beatable: home and away.

We’ve made no statement of intent. We play our usual first high tempo 30 minutes out of the traps, and then lose our way regardless of being a goal up or not, we visibly wilt and slow down. We let our opponents in when we cede the control of the game we had and start to defend deeper as a team.

Front foot to back foot if you like. City do this but they still contain the game on the back foot as they lull teams forward.

Brighton had 52% possession if the first half and we were the home team. Let that sink in. BHA enjoyed 63% for the game, but 74% after the red card when the game became attack v defense in our half where Maya saved our blushes.

Nothing else to say other than looking forward to Marc’s thoughts when he sobers up after a lively Tolli afternoon maybe? You needed something to get you over that performance and last points.

Have a good Sunday and looking forward to Pool V Manure tonight and the 2 earlier games. Will be good no mater how boring it is to see the Spuds play this season.

Good chance to see what we’re facing in 2 weeks time sans Rice………

What saved the weekend for me, was a most thrilling rugby match between New Zealand and South Africa being played in Johannesburg. When the tickets went on sale they sold out in 90 minutes. What an atmosphere in the stadium, made me totally forget the Rice v Veltman shithousery were Rice got caught holding the bag. For the moment if there is a scheduling conflict rugby gets the nod.

Watch the Sp*ds and Pool winning which will put us 5th in the table even on points with the Sp*ds going to visit the toilet bowl. Let’s see if Arteta can pull a rabbit out of that toilet bowl without a proper midfield to boot.

Hi Kilroy

I’ll check out the highlights of that AB game – cheers. England got close-ish to the ABs in the summer series but didn’t really convince as likely winners did they?

The toilet bowl and rabbit imagery was very entertaining too although the scatological side of my mind took over wondering how a hitherto white rabbit was going to get all the brown stains out of its fur. 💩🐰💩

Spuds look poor with new not much better hence 1:0.

Need a much better 2nd half from
Both teams.

On this showing Rice shouldn’t be missed with Spuds being so dull. But it is the north London derby…

I’m straying into the realms of reductionism here, but Manure are fucking terrible. What a mess.

KP—they won’t make sense until they replace Casimiro in the midfield, which should happen in their next match with Ugarte

he was so bad they subbed him off for a kid who’s never seen the PL pitch before

Tony

Agree about Vardy. He and his thick as pig shit wife deserve everything they get. I guess you know about their spat with the Rooneys.

Everywhere JV goes, fans sing to the tune of sloop John B, ‘Your wife is a grass’ etc. Indeed I had a go at tickling my tonsils to that very tune at LCFC last season. He’s a pantomime villain hated by everyone except fans of the foxy filberts. The sooner they slip off of the popular culture misery go round, the better.

https://m.sundayworld.com/showbiz/roisin-gorman-rebekah-vardy-will-learn-that-being-rich-thick-and-mean-is-a-losing-combination/162375101.html

The paragraph about Davy Jones’s locker is priceless. An utter bastard. This is the state of public life in Britain, Tony. No wonder you choose not to live here any longer.

Liverpool on fire making Msnure look like relegation fodder. Could have been 5 up by now.

Pool v City look mouth watering prospect games.

it appears Arne has slotted in perfectly.

Slot has Liverpool purring in a few weeks after replacing a legendary manager, and yet we still have this cunt in charge and his obsession with defensive percentage football.
Brighton’ spotty manager treated him like a mug as well.

So he deserves some respect.

I must say it’s still rather mystifying that so many seemingly intelligent people have been fooled by our paper tiger of a manager…maybe the fact that this isn’t our first rodeo makes us more susceptible…it’s almost as if our past experiences haven’t better informed us, in fact, quite the contrary, they’ve actually turned a sizeable portion of the fanbase into glutton for punishment types…I guess I’m just wired differently, it’s likely why I never revisited past relationships, especially those that ended badly…why the fuck would I…isn’t that the very reason why they’re part of the past…of course I’ve known all sorts of folks who’ve felt otherwise, but hardly a one who ultimately had something positive to say about their attempts to defy logic

so what exactly is it about our organization that seems to attract these types…we’re like some sort of cultish religious faction, where the congregation becomes so enamored with the messenger that they lose all their objectivity in the process…maybe it has something to do with the little engine that could narrative that was first spun during the Wenger’s second term, when money was supposedly tight and the underdog narrative was all the rage…of course it never made a lick of sense, as we had a brand spanking new stadium, the highest prices in the land and a multi-Billionaire owner, but it pulled all the right heartstrings…shit “I think I can” should have been etched into the Wenger Cup…now to be fair, the Arteta Cup seems to have a bit loftier goal in mind, but, like it’s predecessor, it still rewards failure…at some point in time an organization has to take the necessary actions when it becomes clear that the manager cares infinitely more about doing things “his” way than the far more plausible way

when you closely examine what’s happening here you can quickly see the negative effects of “his” way…besides a few settled positional pieces, like with Saliba, Gabs, Saka and Ode, everywhere else it’s a bit of a shoehorner’s wet dream…or should I say nightmare…as far as I can figure everything we do, minus the logical incorporation of Saka within the tactical plan, is predicated on the defeciencies/misplaced aspirations of 2 individuals, Havertz and Rice…this isn’t meant to suggest they aren’t worthy of some consideration, but they’ve quickly become a nonsensical preoccupation

Cheers AF===it’s been awhile since you last posted here…now that we’re in full swing, hopefully you’ll bring the heat on a more regular basis

Real.
This cunt has totally ruined my passion for the club.
And I have been going since 1970′ s, the Richie Powling days, if you know.
The fucking ego of the little cunt. You are a no mark slag. So jog on, you little cunt.
Slot will make him look a bigger cunt in the next few months as well.

AF—I just wish he hadn’t been so fucking fixated with adopting the worst possible traits of his former bosses, including Moyes…there was so much he could have gleaned along the way, which is why his choices have been so perplexing

AF
Welcome back and you are right about Slott. TRVL sung Slott’s praises here when we all thought not another Dutch manager after TH’s ill-fated Manure post.

I said around the season start that Slott could well be the next best thing from Holland after Yohan Cruyff where last night Slott tore TH a new one and making a solid statement to Pep’s City and us that they are firmly in the mix to win the PL crown.

KP
What is worse than a wag? A non relevant WAG.

Rooney, Vardy and Posh et al all need their publicity fix for their fame hungry life. The Beckham brand says it all, but what does the brand do other than make money from Saudi and other revenue streams their brilliant management team negotiate for them?

You have to applaud the Beckham king makers for their successful work keeping the family almost daily in the public eye. Shame Garlick and Lewes are not as successfully ruthless as the Beckham management – I mean The Arsenal brand is bigger than the Beckham brand, right? I do wonder sometimes.

They do have a son who thinks he’s a chef practicing hard for his muppet chef guest spot with the Swedish Chef’s demise. Apparently, he was an aspiring David Bailey prior to working out what a kitchen was, and was excited when he saw all the appliances he could play with: far more interesting than a camera lens I would imagine.

Unfortunately, KP, I get to witness such futility here now the Internet has made the world a much smaller place to live in. I left the UK because the future I saw did not compute with me or my thinking. ADHD with a touch of autism tends to make many things not compute with me unless it’s creative or interesting business.

The biggest motivation to get out was because I saw the UK becoming a nanny state, where I prefer to live by my rules not some idiot’s who somehow has attained enough power to make life a misery for others – choose any Brit government leader; they are all the same.

I didn’t see Brussels and EEC ruling the UK with their micromanagement of the Brit’s life. Dodged that bullet. We eat any size bananas here regardless of shape or bend. Pattaya has the world record banana eaters in situ but that’s not new news.

I know it’s frustrating waiting to check out of the UK, but you’ll be out soon enough and living your expat dream; that is a given, it’s just a matter of time.

TRVL
You and I could go on until the cows come home with tactics and me being a broken record about our misfit squad. I’ll keep mum and suck it up I guess, and try to write objectively. We both know, along with others here; what the problem is and who is responsible for the problems; just that our owners seem to be clueless, with heads in the sand types until we don’t make the CL this season.

Even for the Kroenkes that is too much of a bitter financial pill to swallow with our current CL wage bill.

You were so right about Slott.

Klopp who? I said a few weeks ago.

The press were fawning over him, and I like his calm manner, and the way the squad instantly took to Slott, which would have been no mean feat after such such a successful, legendary and much lauded departing manager.

Pool and City are the teams to beat this season where I don’t feel we are equipped to take either team on and win the title.

We will be back to 4th is a trophy with El B carrying on Wenger’s mantra. Except we’ll probably finials 5th because this season will be much finer margins more than previous seasons.

Does anyone think we can?

finish 5th*

Tony—it’s still early days, but it’s difficult to deny that Slot has hit the ground running…by not coming in too hot, like ten Hag, or trying to surround himself with “yes” men, like Arteta, Slot appears to have found a way to thread that oft-times tricky new manager needle without alienating his most senior members…this isn’t like a new manager bump situation, as that tends to only apply when a club is flailing and the previous manager is forced out…in that case, the players might be reinvigorated by having a new voice in the room and/or be intrinsically motivated by concerns about their own futures…this scenario is infintely more rare, as how often does a much beloved and highly successful manager opt out…as such, he was kind of flying blind and if he didn’t get things just right, it could have been incredibly messy, at least in the short-term

kudos to Slot and his staff for simply reading the room and acted accordingly…he didn’t try to bully the most senior players out of the club or shoehorn in a couple of his old players to forcibly reset the locker room, instead he targeted only a few specific players so as to not upset the apple cart, albeit with mixed results, then went to work putting his stamp on the tactical side of things…by the look of things he’s found a nice hybrid model that incorporates both Klopp’s quick strike offensive tactics and a more balanced possession-based approach, especially when they’ve got a 2 goal lead…I guess we’ll see if his message continues to resonate if they experience a bad run of form and/or if future contractual concerns rear their ugly heads after Xmas…Cheers

acting accordingly

I guess the key question from Saturday (and I only saw bits of it which makes me even less expert than usual) is, Would Arsenal have probably gone on to win had Rice not been red carded? Any opinions on that?

If the answer is yes, then Mr Amazing, Amazing, Amazing (triple barrelled twat henceforth known as Amazing³) isn’t really to blame for the draw. I saw the second booking which was fucking ludicrous because Rice was backing off rather than standing still. I used to use the Brighton player’s tactic when I played to try and get someone booked and to whack it at their bollocks at the same time.

The latest news snippet is that the ‘amazing’ El B and smiling Edu (whose facial expression looks as if he has just had a pineapple inserted up his arse) are to receive bumper new contracts.
What have they done to be rewarded – they have taken a leaf out of Vivien Nicholson’s book.

Fair comment TRVL it could all blow up and El B could go on a 20-game winning streak, I think the likelihood of either would proffer equal odds lol.

The elephant in Slott’s room: Salah, is happy, had a haircut and really enjoying his football again even though he’s saying this is his last season. If it is, then he’ll want to go out banging to leave his legacy intact. There has been a noticeable happy demeanor emanating from all we hear and see about Liverpool. I also agree with your view of their possession based, Klopp’s marauding counters and attacks in general, as they flood forward in numbers and attacking from all directions at pace.

It would take a string of injuries to derail Liverpool from gathering momentum this season.

KP
Rice gave the ref no choice for not retreating, as is the new law, and he was on a yellow. Stupid as it looks and is , it is also the law and Rice was play acting and got punished, so why take a chance. El B’s stalling tactics back fired. Rice also kicked the ball away, which is also a yellow, so take your pick.

That really is a difficult question as to whether we would have gone on to win? I’d say it was 50/50 as Brighton were pushing and we were ponderously countering. We were also tired, and still not up to full game fitness, which showed after the first 30 minutes.

Brighton had 53% of possession for the first half of a home game. We got gifted our goal by Dunk, and Maya had to pull off saves to keep us in the game before Rice saw red.

We looked leggy in the 2nd half, so like I said, it was anyone’s game. Fabien the young Brighton manager made the mistake by taking Mitoma off because, had he stayed , we would have lost. He had White in his back pocket and Willie found it tough with Mitoma once he broke into our box at speed with White done – naturally worrying about giving away a penalty.

KP, we are severely hampering ourselves by not having a quality 8. We have no, left attack. Only right sided and very little centrally.

Just to outline our issues look at our squad make up:

2 keepers with the back up a rookie
2 Naturally footed CDs in Willie and Big Gabs
5LBs
4 DMs
No 8 AM – we have to see what Merino will bring late in the season when healed
1 natural RB who plays LB and a CD playing RB not very well this season even with Saka
2 9s where both need 3+ clear chances to score or be gifted goals
5 wingers (Marts & Saka) including Reis, Sterling & Trossard

It’s a misfit shoe horning squad at best. We have no one on the bench who can change games or worry our opposition when we make our ineffective subs.

Tony
I’m not expert on hair manoeuvres but I reckon Salah has had as a few baldy bits painted over, carpeted or filled in too a la Rob Holdinho and our very own Gabriel M. Here’s an interesting snippet (pun intended) about Liverpool. Salah, VVD and Trent all have contracts which run down at the end of this season. The kind of ineptitude that Edu can only aspire to. Junior thinks we should get Trent on a free but I told him forcefully that I disagreed. An expert crossing machine with no big man in the box ain’t gonna make a difference.

While he wasn’t exactly running backwards from the site if the free kick, Rice to my mind was backing away. It’s a crap reason for the second booking in any case. We’ll do it against Bissouma or Sing next weekend and the Arsenal player will be booked for hitting it at him.

Good analysis by the way.

Viv Nicholson is a great analogy NORG. I was talking to someone the other day about pools (8 from 10) and the even more obscure spot the ball competitions.

I think Saturday might be viewed later in the season as a ‘what if’ moment.

Remember on other dogshit stinking sites if you ever uttered any praise for other teams/managers (yes I’m talking about piss poor Pedro and LG)?

Some absolute wanker like AFCF or Zacharse or even catweasle himself would come on and say…if you like Mauricio Pochettino/Tony Pulis/Jamie Vardy etc. so much, why don’t you fuck off and become a spuds, stoke, leicester fan?

KP
Them were the days we had no choice but to deliberate with neanderthals when they weren’t minding their caves……..

No one did caveman better than, Don. The funniest thing with Don was he was always blowing smoke up CC’s arse not realizing CC was Pedro who treated Don like a silly annoying puppy dog.

I migrated from online goober to lg when it stopped producing material. The ups? ‘Meeting’ you lot.The downs? Too many to mention. I got bored kicking against the pricks. There were some seriously knowledgeable people at online gooner too who understood Arsenal.