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 […]
Tag Archives | Rob Holding

An Exclusive Doctor’s Insight into the Old and New Bellerin, pre and post ACL
Unfortunately, injuries are part and parcel of sport especially at the elite level, and with the vast majority of them being unavoidable it often triggers a psychological response from the athlete. Whilst some minor problems can be treated with little to no disturbance on performance, others cause extended periods away from sport while inflicting significant […]

The Penalty Box Problem – how Arteta can fix Arsenal’s goalscoring disfunction
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 […]

January 2 December 0 – The December Old Boys given a chance but saved By January Boys
January 2 December 0 POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES I kid you not, I wrote that headline on my notepad before the game. I looked at the line up and wasn’t entirely disappointed as the key players needed to be rested, but I saw Willian and some of his buddies and predicted that the ‘December crew’ […]

Rob Holding and his potential signing of a new contract – Is it deserved?
FA Cup final, 2017. The match was barely underway when Rob Holding was already hustling and hounding Diego Costa – Chelsea’s ‘A’ class shithouse. As the two tangled together, the Spaniard brought him down and wildly flailed a leg, just missing the defender. Holding, having been warned by Per Mertesacker of Costa’s antics before the […]

It comes from within: how the Hale Enders can win games, save money and rescue Arteta
It comes from within POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES With the relief felt and a headline like that, this could be a ‘braveheart moment’, but the game wasn’t that yet. I could say I told you so, but I’m just one of thousands who have been saying the same thing. The truth of what happened yesterday […]

A sliding doors moment: how a scrappy 10-man draw at home could turn Arsenal’s season around…
A sliding doors moment POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES The headlines were being written. Two big hammers were about to be swung. ‘Arsenal with worst record in the history of the club.’ ‘Arteta has to go!’ As most of us react out of anger, that could’ve been enough. Done. Rip everything up and change it. We […]

If Maitland Niles does not start in midfield v Burnley I will Weep! – The team that’s not there yet!
The team that’s not there yet POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES I’m glad that I couldn’t watch the derby live. I got to watch it 8 hours after finding out the score. When I logged on to Twitter after the game many had unsurprisingly lost it with the manager and some of the players. Not living […]

Arsenal look to steady ship and exploit Red Devil’s Old Trafford shakiness (Match Preview)
Match Preview Arsenal travel to Manchester United on Sunday afternoon in the hope of not only turning around their wretched record away record at Old Trafford, but also steadying the ship after losing three of their last four matches in the Premier League. Arteta will be looking for a much needed reaction after last week’s […]

An Honest Assessment of the Positives and Negatives from 2 Anfield Trips
Our 3-1 league defeat at Anfield was an unusual one to analyse and consisted of several ifs, buts and maybes. Had Sadio Mane been sent off following the early incident involving him and Kieran Tierney or had Alexandre Lacazette taken his clear opportunity in the second half for example, we would obviously have been discussing […]