Nobody wants to live in a world where Jame Carragher is right
So, a new football season, and all the joy it brings, is upon us once more, and I’ve decided to have a go at bringing back the season diary.
I’ve not written in quite a while now for one reason or another, so if this is shit you can blame it on that.
I was going to revive the Pre-Season Diary during the summer, but in the end I couldn’t be bothered.
It went as predictably as ever anyway:
Tenuous link to superstar signing around the time season ticket renewals – a little moan that we are being linked with a player in order to fool people into renewing – people renewing then moaning when the speculation has died down after the renewal deadline – a kit launch – people moaning that they don’t like the kit – “Puma are shite” – a couple of early signings to give people hope that we will splash out this summer – pundits with their predictions for the season telling us how terrible our season is going to be – no more signings before the season starts and people worried that we are not prepared for the season again……
I could go on, but you know the score. I’ve not even bothered chucking in the manager signing a new contract, I think that may have been covered elsewhere somewhat…..
We started the season in a way that can only be described as “Arsenally” (It can probably be described a few other ways too, but they all come under the Arsenally umbrella at the end of the day) – an early goal from record signing Lacazette, after just two minutes, giving us the perfect start and a fleeting moment of hope that we were going to start the season with a bang, followed by a Leicester equaliser a few minutes later.
It don’t get much more Arsenally than that.
So Arsenally
Some hilariously Arsenally defending, and Jamie Vardy putting Leicester ahead twice had us all thinking that this season was going to start the way every season has for what seems like the last 100 years, but then up pop our two subs, Ramsey and Giroud no less, and our Friday night took a major turn for the better.
Obviously, you do not want to be winning games every week in a manner that you have to score four goals to make sure you score more than the other lot, but sometimes there is just nothing better than a late winner. It is like winning big at a new casino and as a season opener on a Friday night things could have been a lot worse.
Yes, there were a few things to raise concerns that some of the issues that need addressing haven’t been addressed and that we could be in for another one of those seasons, but we’ve got Stoke away next so let’s just make the most of the win before we start flying planes at each other again.
Also so Arsenally
Speaking of umbrellas, the most annoying thing about Friday night’s game for me was the blabbering spittle fest that was the co-commentary from Jamie Carragher.
How he’s got that job I don’t know.
Honestly, it’s like giving a bloke with no arms a job as a lollipop man.
I did make out the odd phrase from “Commentating on Arsenal for Dummies” amongst all the phlegm though;
“That defending is just typical Arsenal for me” is one that I think I just about made out, something along those lines anyway.
They all do this, and the most annoying thing is that they’re quite often right (they’re also quite often wrong, I hasten to add), but it’s not like they put any thought into it – it’s now become generic, commentary by numbers. This in turn means that they can stick any old twat up there that can barely string a sentence together, as long as they can throw a few buzzwords in there every now and then and make sure they mention the problems with zonal marking at least once a game.
It’s this kind of thing that has driven my desire for Arsenal to win things for as long as I can remember. Not for the players, not for the manager, not even for us supporters.
No, it’s to shut up people like Carragher, Danny Mills, Glenn Hoddle and his man minge, and any other idiot they have spouting crap on whatever channel every week. Dear Jamie has been on about zonal marking when it comes to Arsenal since 2014 at least
Hoddle with Man Minge
These people are why Arsenal need to win the league this season.
I’m pretty sure that if there were no such thing as zonal marking, some of these people would be out of a job.
And that, my friends, is why zonal marking must be banned at Arsenal.
Nobody wants to live in a world where Jamie Carragher is right.
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Interesting piece and well written. Of course the media and blogettas go into hyper-drive off season and spout out fake news every five seconds in the hope that they can say we called that correctly.
Now of course zonal marking has nothing to do with why we conceded vardy’s second goal it was down to the players not doing their jobs properly blocking running lanes etc allowing ball to clear first defender. For first goal not sending people out to thwart a short corner. As for Cech being to blame for one goal definitely maybe two but not for all three.
As for the scoring more goals than your opponents that will be exactly what Man City will be trying to do this year. Don’t think that was wengers plan you score three we will score four but just worked out that way. Of course it was fortuitous that it did work that way.
We then had a boost with Chelsea losing and Liverpool drawing, which was dampened by Utd and spuds and city winning my dark horses Everton for a top four spot also won. With current managers and teams this is how I saw this top 4. 1: city 2: arsenal 3: Everton 4: spuds. City pip us to title on goal difference only .for me Chelsea have a hard task now with a slim squad losing both Cahill for next three matches and fabregas for next one will hurt. It wasn’t talked about much but Cahill challenge was reckless and could have broken a leg had he connected properly with the player, asfor Fabregas he got lucky his tackle was worthy of a straight red but as he was on a yellow a second yellow was adequate enough.
We will be better defensively for the Liverpool game where I suspect our back three will be either mustafi koscielny Monreal followed by chamberlain Ramsey Xhaka kolasanic Sanchez Oziil and lacazette only other changes might be mertesacker for mustafi bellerin for chamberlain and wellbeck for Sanchez if Sanchez is not match fit
What makes me laugh is that there were dozens of goals scored at the weekend where teams were using man to man marking but you never hear Carragher (or any of the other twits) blaming man to man marking for the goals conceded like they do with zonal.
The truth is that either system works provided they are implemented properly by the players.
Zonal marking is liked by half the players and disliked by the other half. The attackers like it ! Defenders don’t ! Try jumping off a standing position while an oppo. takes a run at it. And for example, count the number of goals or near goals from corners short of the near post – with an attacker making a late run to it. If the corner is accurate there is no good defence to it. I do not believe for one minute that Steve Bould is in favour of zonal marking but he just has to sit there and keep his mouth shut (like Pat Rice before him).
You haven’t got a clue whether Bould is in favour of zonal marking or not and I suspect you haven’t got a clue as to the proportion of players favouring one system over the other. You are guilty of letting your personal prejudices cloud your judgement without any concrete evidence to back up your claims.
According to Danny Murphy yesterday on the radio there is no general consensus amongst the coaches and players as to which system is better. What is important is how well whichever system is employed is carried out by the players themselves.