Arsenal 1-1 Brighton - Sunday 5th May, 2019

[Stan]

5 hours ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Yes, very debatable. Surprised that the usual suspects aren't all over this crying and moaning about the officials. Oh you're not Liverpool...

Or perhaps I/they didn't watch the match? 

Bore off with your 'everyone is anti-Liverpool' agenda. Fucking boring. 

[CaaC (John)+]

4 minutes ago, Panna King said:

In end that was Wengers downfall with his mate Gazidis and it is why Arsenal are in the mess they are.

I bet you wished you still had Keith Edelman with your lot instead of Gazidis   

[Burning Gold]

Arsenal's penalty was soft, but how have we had absolute silence on Brighton's? 

Edit: Just seen the replay and Xhaka catches him with his knee. As you were

[SirBalon]

I'm not going to defend Unai Emery because he has made weird decisions this season and part of the reasons we find ourselves in the situation we're in are down to him.

The side isn't great, the club have made grave mistakes like renewing Özil with a crazy contract (for what?) and making a circus clown affair of Ramsey's imminent departure. But you've GOT to expect more from these players in the games we've messed up in recent weeks at such an important time of the season. They have been absolutely awful and they haven't managed to save face so as to be able to totally point the finger in one direction, the coach.

No money (apparently), a board that continues to make error after error and seem to be in the wrong job, a team that is totally unbalanced and a head coach that has obviously lost the dressing room in his very first season and doesn't seem to have answers for awkward moments.

What a mess!

[Inverted]

How are Arsenal so skint anyway?

They've hardly blown huge sums on any transfers, and I doubt their wage load is bigger than their competitors'. 

[The Artful Dodger]

52 minutes ago, Stan said:

Or perhaps I/they didn't watch the match? 

Bore off with your 'everyone is anti-Liverpool' agenda. Fucking boring. 

Okay matey. You make a point of watching every single Liverpool game though? Mixed emotions tomorrow night?

What was it... Rafa was throwing the game. Never heard such ludicrous nonesense. 

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, Inverted said:

How are Arsenal so skint anyway?

They've hardly blown huge sums on any transfers, and I doubt their wage load is bigger than their competitors'. 

I don't think we are are we? It's kronke I think

[Guest]

28 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

I'm not going to defend Unai Emery because he has made weird decisions this season and part of the reasons we find ourselves in the situation we're in are down to him.

The side isn't great, the club have made grave mistakes like renewing Özil with a crazy contract (for what?) and making a circus clown affair of Ramsey's imminent departure. But you've GOT to expect more from these players in the games we've messed up in recent weeks at such an important time of the season. They have been absolutely awful and they haven't managed to save face so as to be able to totally point the finger in one direction, the coach.

No money (apparently), a board that continues to make error after error and seem to be in the wrong job, a team that is totally unbalanced and a head coach that has obviously lost the dressing room in his very first season and doesn't seem to have answers for awkward moments.

What a mess!

You think Emery has lost the dressing room?

[Stan]

22 minutes ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Okay matey. You make a point of watching every single Liverpool game though? Mixed emotions tomorrow night?

What was it... Rafa was throwing the game. Never heard such ludicrous nonesense. 

Or maybe I was busy today and not yesterday? 

Do I really make a point of it though? Liverpool are on TV a lot as it is, like many other teams. I watch a lot of football. Therefore I'm bound to watch several Liverpool games? So I'll comment on them. Just like I've watched Utd, Spurs, Arsenal etc a lot this season and I'll comment on them. I notice how you've not made the same observation about those teams though.

No idea why I even find myself having to justify myself to someone like you with your warped thinking though. Utterly pointless. 

[Panna King]

18 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

You think Emery has lost the dressing room?

Emery has lost the plot. 

[Dan+]

Fuck me Balon's back!

[The Artful Dodger]

17 minutes ago, Stan said:

 

Do I really make a point of it though? Liverpool are on TV a lot as it is, like many other teams

 

17 minutes ago, Stan said:

Or maybe I was busy today and not yesterday? 

 Do I really make a point of it though? Liverpool are on TV a lot as it is, like many other teams. I watch a lot of football. Therefore I'm bound to watch several Liverpool games? So I'll comment on them. Just like I've watched Utd, Spurs, Arsenal etc a lot this season and I'll comment on them. I notice how you've not made the same observation about those teams though.

No idea why I even find myself having to justify myself to someone like you with your warped thinking though. Utterly pointless. 

You don't have to. You can ignore me, I think the fact you know I am right is probably the bit that niggles at you.

[Stan]

14 minutes ago, The Artful Dodger said:

 

You don't have to. You can ignore me, I think the fact you know I am right is probably the bit that niggles at you.

Right about what exactly? 

Why do you think/act like you know me so well ? 

Maybe use the ignore button for my posts as well seeing as you seem to get so worked up about them too 

[The Artful Dodger]

2 minutes ago, Stan said:

Right about what exactly? 

Why do you think/act like you know me so well ? 

Maybe use the ignore button for my posts as well seeing as you seem to get so worked up about them too 

I am not the one who has quoted you, you dug me out,  despite no reference to you at all. I made the point at the time that you follow Liverpool threads, constantly sniping away...it's fine, we all have our biases. Just don't pretend to be neutral, you're an 'it's coming home' sort of lad, it's only natural you hate Liverpool.

[Stan]

2 minutes ago, The Artful Dodger said:

you're an 'it's coming home' sort of lad, it's only natural you hate Liverpool.

What does this even mean ? 

Enlighten me, please. 

Don't play dumb either, quite obvious the post you implied reference to me. No other reason you would say it if it wasn't on your mind. 

You say I 'snipe away' but I just call out stuff I don't like, just like I'd do with every other club? But like I said, everything or everyone is 'anti-Liverpool' to you if there's any hint of negativity about them. Let's ignore any praise that also gets sent their way, yeah? As I said, warped thinking your end and just some weird agenda you have about others. Maybe you need to open your eyes a little more? 

[The Artful Dodger]

5 minutes ago, Stan said:

What does this even mean ? 

Enlighten me, please. 

Don't play dumb either, quite obvious the post you implied reference to me. No other reason you would say it if it wasn't on your mind. 

You say I 'snipe away' but I just call out stuff I don't like, just like I'd do with every other club? But like I said, everything or everyone is 'anti-Liverpool' to you if there's any hint of negativity about them. Let's ignore any praise that also gets sent their way, yeah? As I said, warped thinking your end and just some weird agenda you have about others. Maybe you need to open your eyes a little more? 

Lad. You literally told me in a thread about a week ago that you do it to every team, yet yesterday you were crying all over the Liverpool thread about how 'rafa would throw it' and then got upset about a dodgy decision. Then one of the biggest clubs in England get a dodgy decision and suddenly 'you're not watching', you're all over every fucking game, you just don't care to watch it because it doesn't get your goat like Liverpool football club does. A lot wrong with Liverpool Football Club, but the way they wind up middle England gimps is fantastic.

[Stan]

I didn't watch any games today you melt 

You think I watch Liverpool because it may 'get my goat' whenever I do? 

Fucking weird logic that.  You really don't know anything about me. Keep making your assumptions though if it helps you get you through the day

As I said, warped thinking in that skull of yours. 

I'm done here. You can PM me if you want to find out my footballing viewing schedule for the week. Seems like it'll be a good idea to keep you updated. Goodnight.

[SirBalon]

6 hours ago, Gunnersauraus said:

You think Emery has lost the dressing room?

Who knows for sure, but it seems that way. The body language from the players just resembles what I've seen so many times over so many years with these sorts of things.

I do know for certain how Unai Emery organises his teams and that's mostly through psychological preperation. That sort of stuff is very personal in the sense of requiring a hell of a lot of respect and belief in the individual that's giving you all that information.

But if people start to only focus on where Emery may or may not have gone wring on all of this, they'll end up giving the players a big pass and in my personal opinion that would be a massive error. 

[True Blue]

Welcome back babes

[Chaaay AFC]

9 hours ago, Inverted said:

How are Arsenal so skint anyway?

They've hardly blown huge sums on any transfers, and I doubt their wage load is bigger than their competitors'. 

Our wage bill is £80m bigger than Spurs' I believe. Honestly doubt we are that far off the other teams in the top 4 barring City and United, but we have always had a horrendous wage bill for the level of our squad.

Also we have never spent vast amounts but we hardly bring anything back in through sales, so our net spend has been tragic as well. To top it all off our player recruitment has been absolutely shocking for about 4 seasons now and we have held on to mistakes for far too long.

[Harry]

9 hours ago, SirBalon said:

I'm not going to defend Unai Emery because he has made weird decisions this season and part of the reasons we find ourselves in the situation we're in are down to him.

The side isn't great, the club have made grave mistakes like renewing Özil with a crazy contract (for what?) and making a circus clown affair of Ramsey's imminent departure. But you've GOT to expect more from these players in the games we've messed up in recent weeks at such an important time of the season. They have been absolutely awful and they haven't managed to save face so as to be able to totally point the finger in one direction, the coach.

No money (apparently), a board that continues to make error after error and seem to be in the wrong job, a team that is totally unbalanced and a head coach that has obviously lost the dressing room in his very first season and doesn't seem to have answers for awkward moments.

What a mess!

Think that's a bold call to make mate but I can get why you'd say it.

That said I think something very strange has gone on in the past couple of months relating to all of the "big 6" except Liverpool and City. It seems all four of those competing for third and fourth place have been suddenly unable to even salvage a point against the most mediocre of opponents. It's so strange the way it's happened with all 4 teams in tandem that it leaves me wondering if it's four independent situations or some common affliction.

Have all four teams given up on their manager? Are some just fatigued? Is there some general pessimism of the gap to the top two where heads have dropped collectively? 

It has been so bad you could almost wonder whether the aim was to make top 4 or to miss it.... All four teams seen to have bottled it basically however there was nobody there able to administer the deserved punishment.

[RandoEFC+]

This is the second thread this weekend where @Stan must think he's logged into RAWK. Jesus wept @The Artful Dodger having a mare. Probably nobody's complained about this one because who cares about Arsenal v Brighton apart from Arsenal fans?

Even neutrals are going to be interested in Liverpool and Man City games because the title race is of much greater interest to the neutral than the race for top four. There's also likely been a lot fewer posts about it because the first person to comment was an Arsenal fan saying that their penalty was soft so nobody's going to come and argue they were being biased. Liverpool have had a lot of incidents these season of going down easily, and even if every single one was a correct decision, it has become a bit of a theme and the only reason you see a big argument about it in the Liverpool thread this weekend is because Mike was pissed and trying to argue the Fabinho one wasn't a dive. 

There is no anti-Liverpool agenda apart from the unwashed masses on social media. The people on here who actually have sensible debate most of the time generally acknowledge that it would be better for Liverpool to win the league than the oil barons of Man City, unless they have relevant allegiances like Everton or Man Utd. The media seem to be dying for Liverpool to win the league in general because it makes a better story, but also want to play up the Liverpool/Salah diving narrative because it generates discussion and Twitter furore on both sides and that's just what they do.

[SirBalon]

1 hour ago, Harry said:

Think that's a bold call to make mate but I can get why you'd say it.

That said I think something very strange has gone on in the past couple of months relating to all of the "big 6" except Liverpool and City. It seems all four of those competing for third and fourth place have been suddenly unable to even salvage a point against the most mediocre of opponents. It's so strange the way it's happened with all 4 teams in tandem that it leaves me wondering if it's four independent situations or some common affliction.

Have all four teams given up on their manager? Are some just fatigued? Is there some general pessimism of the gap to the top two where heads have dropped collectively? 

It has been so bad you could almost wonder whether the aim was to make top 4 or to miss it.... All four teams seen to have bottled it basically however there was nobody there able to administer the deserved punishment.

It is difficult to explain and one can only give their own personal opinon where in the end we could all be wrong. I do feel that there is no connection between the sides that have hit poor form in and around those positions battling for fourth and so on. It could easily be just coincidental that they've all hit bad regular form and that's it although each particular fan is more in tune with what goes on within their own clubs.

With Arsenal FC it's more than public knowledge that we've been unstable for a long while now which is what leads me to believe that on our case we have something wrong that's particular to us. What it is, one can only speculate really.

Unai Emery's coaching history on the main has been (PSG aside) coaching battling clubs that look to overperform and again, on the main he's achieved this on most fronts. We have an unstable board room that has made many erros but he was living that at Valencia when they were selling their grestest generation of players ever and still kept on qualifying for the Champions League. At Sevilla he had a stable boardroom and we all know what he managed there... Beforehand he was at Almería where he made his name by overperforming. So there's allsorts there but there is no doubt that if we analyse where he's failed, it's always been in the league side of things, but again with differing fortune from season to season, ups and downs. All of that can point to him being in question for a club like ours that requires dtability on all fronts.

But nobody can deny that our squad of players is completely unbalanced. If you go through the names one by one and think of each individual's attributes, we can easily see that no planning has been made in the confectioning of the squad and that very little matches.

Maybe it's all down to choices gone wrong innocently.

[The Artful Dodger]

1 hour ago, RandoEFC said:

This is the second thread this weekend where @Stan must think he's logged into RAWK. Jesus wept @The Artful Dodger having a mare. Probably nobody's complained about this one because who cares about Arsenal v Brighton apart from Arsenal fans?

Even neutrals are going to be interested in Liverpool and Man City games because the title race is of much greater interest to the neutral than the race for top four. There's also likely been a lot fewer posts about it because the first person to comment was an Arsenal fan saying that their penalty was soft so nobody's going to come and argue they were being biased. Liverpool have had a lot of incidents these season of going down easily, and even if every single one was a correct decision, it has become a bit of a theme and the only reason you see a big argument about it in the Liverpool thread this weekend is because Mike was pissed and trying to argue the Fabinho one wasn't a dive. 

There is no anti-Liverpool agenda apart from the unwashed masses on social media. The people on here who actually have sensible debate most of the time generally acknowledge that it would be better for Liverpool to win the league than the oil barons of Man City, unless they have relevant allegiances like Everton or Man Utd. The media seem to be dying for Liverpool to win the league in general because it makes a better story, but also want to play up the Liverpool/Salah diving narrative because it generates discussion and Twitter furore on both sides and that's just what they do.

Nonesense. Stan proclaimed only a couple of weeks ago thst he raises his concerns about cheating whenever they occur. This is demonstrably false. It's not a massive issue, we all have our bias. It's this pretense to be neutral which is is irritating. No wonder the Liverpool fans react when they have to wade through pages of shit in every thread with their name on it. 

 

[Stan]

18 minutes ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Nonesense. Stan proclaimed only a couple of weeks ago thst he raises his concerns about cheating whenever they occur. This is demonstrably false. It's not a massive issue, we all have our bias. It's this pretense to be neutral which is is irritating. No wonder the Liverpool fans react when they have to wade through pages of shit in every thread with their name on it. 

 

Why would I comment on something I've not seen?