A week is a long time in football isn’t it? Last Thursday was according to many the biggest week of Arsenal’s season and make or break for the manager, Mikel Arteta. A week later, after a 3-1 win in Olympiakos and entirely outplaying the old enemy for 80 minutes and winning the North London Derby, […]
After a fascinating selection of midweek fixtures, which saw a selection of the side directly above Arsenal drop points, and after last week’s impressive away win against Leicester, the Gunners will be starting to dream again about chasing a European place in the League, ahead of their visit to Burnley tomorrow lunchtime. Whilst Sean Dyche’s […]
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 […]
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 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 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’ […]
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 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 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 […]
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 […]
