The Arsenal Women Journal – One Stumble Too Many [TOT 0-0 ARS]
Hello, Arsenal Women aficionados! The Gunners didn’t win a must-win game, and that’s pretty much it. After throwing away a two-goals lead in Munich, Arsenal Women couldn’t break down Tottenham at Brisbane Road and find now themselves eight points off the top spot – which means that their title challenge is over. As sad as […]
The Arsenal Women Journal – A Night of Regrets [BAY 3-2 ARS]
Hello, Arsenal Women aficionados!It was too good to be true, wasn’t it? During more than an hour, the Arsenal Women team were all over Bayern Munich, in Germany, and could have scored five, six goals. The intensity, purpose, aggression and organization showed by the players, masterfully directed by Renée Slegers, were sensational, and the hosts […]
The Arsenal Women Journal – A Good Result, but Heavy Consequences [ARS 1-1 CHE]
Hello, Arsenal Women aficionados! I purposedly waited before writing about our draw against Chelsea at home, because I feared my writing would be negatively impacted by the way the match ended and the fact that emotions were very high when the final whistle was blown. The result means that Arsenal Women have likely missed the […]
Arsenal 1 – Chelsea 1 – VAR 2
56,500 were in attendance to the only recorded moment in history when fans, management and players pleaded for VAR to be clear and obvious. At mid-day, deep in the control room at Stockley Park, a lonely VAR official put on his headset,and settled in for his afternoon shift. Chelski went 1-0 up after 9 minutes […]
Has anyone ever…..? (Positives Needs & Hopes) [BUR 0-2 ARS]
Has anyone ever…..? An Arsenal blog from a coach’s perspective You may have heard this before…. I was at a tryout/trial for a good team back in the day. The first activity was simple. The coach wanted everyone to simply run around touching the cones. He said that we could stop anytime we wanted to, […]
The Arsenal Women Journal – Much Better from the Gunners, as Chelsea looms [LEI 1-4 ARS]
Hello, Arsenal Women aficionados! Our girls returned from the international break and won comfortably against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium, recording their third consecutive win in all competitions. Goals from Alessia Russo and Stina Blackstenius, plus an own goal from the host, saw the Gunners breeze past Leicester and remain within touching distance […]
Arsenal 2–0 Brighton/Burnley: Another Win, But Did Someone Hide the Set-Piece Playbook? #JoverBall
Arsenal beat Brighton 2–0 at the Emirates, and eventually, it was the kind of calm, confident performance that makes you start Googling “how to emotionally prepare for a possible title run.” Goals? Delicious. Possession? Dominant. Brighton? To the most part, harmless. But let’s address the glaring issue: no set-piece goals. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Has Nicolas […]
‘The joy of predictability’ (Positives Needs & Hopes) [ARS 2-0 BHA] EFL Cup
‘The joy of predictability’ An Arsenal blog from a coach’s perspective I pondered whether to write about this game. Why? It was exactly how I thought it would be. ‘No news here’ kind of thing. Not in a dull way though. In a quite delightful way. Here is how it played out; Arteta starts his […]
The Glitch in the Arsenal Matrix is Resolved
And so we are back to normal programming, everything is right with the world, Neo took the correct pill and the system has been rebooted. Gary Neville has toed the party line and laid into Arsenal’s set-piece coach, Nicolas Jover, again: (Sky Sports) “I called him the most annoying man in football recently and I’m […]
When others pray (Positives Needs & Hopes) [ARS 1-0 CRY]
‘When others pray’ An Arsenal blog from a coach’s perspective Before the Palace game, I’d had a handful of conversations with fellow Arsenal fans. Everyone seemed nervous, but for some reason I didn’t. I can’t pretend that the nerves didn’t have me pacing the last 15 minutes but pre-game I was fairly lucid. I think […]