Pay attention to Arsenal POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES When love is present it is hard to be objective. I try to be objective when writing about my team but I have to breathe after the game and wait. I wait at least 4 hours so I can divorce emotion from reality. I hope I’m not […]
The New and the Familiar POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES Arsenal are sneaking up on us. As we have seen ourselves as a dominant possession team for the largest part of the last 20 years, I don’t think we give this current group the credit they deserve for their current improvement. For at least the last […]
A coaches coach POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES I wasn’t really ‘Wenger Out.’ I wasn’t ‘Wenger In’, either. I was more ‘Wenger frustrated.’ I spent the post 2010 period largely frustrated. Whether it was the fact that we always seemed 2-3 players short of competing or the more pertinent point, that it became clear that he […]
…… and the door slides open POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES In the 14 months that Mikel Arteta has been at Arsenal he has experienced every curve of the rollercoaster that most managers would enjoy and endure in a decade. I sit here a few hours post game and I wonder if he knows that he […]
The absence of automatic POSITIVES, NEEDS AND HOPES Everyone seems to be dealing with their own level of disappointment after yesterday. Some have gone for fire-face emoji-man. Others are emotional because it just happened and it wasn’t very pretty. There are a batch who see a 0-1 to City as ‘not bad considering.’ Then there […]
The Journey and the Scoreboard POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES In a strange kind of way I was interested to see Benfica yesterday. I’ve researched many of their players for my transfer blogs but we don’t much get to see the Portuguese league and we all know that there are frequent gems sold from this league. […]
When the Coach got to coach POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES I was really looking forward to yesterday’s game. Off the back of two losses and another potential fan meltdown, that may seem a little crazy. My excitement was based on knowing that the game came with a full weeks preparation time. Something our coach hasn’t […]
The Penalty Box Problem POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES Well, that wasn’t November and it wasn’t January. It was somewhere in between. The Keeper was very good, defence was uncharacteristically nervous, the midfield dominated but it was the attackers or more to the point, the attacking, that was stuck deep in November. There are multiple layers […]
Have you noticed? POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES I think it’s pretty normal for football fans to notice the following; great performances, poor performances, glaring opportunities, eye catching individualism, big effort, lack of effort and man of the match candidates. There are more but that’s enough. What I’m starting to notice with the current Arsenal team […]
When it’s the Coach POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES Every game can be won or lost by a coach. Something they do or don’t do. Often it’s plural. Yesterday, Mikel Arteta and Ralph Hassenhuttl got to show themselves. Two games, same opponents, back to back. A real coaches game. Just played each other so we were […]
