Arsenal related stuff
A FEW random thoughts:
- Someone I know who was last season 13,000 odd on the season ticket waiting list is now 2,000.
- If Arsenal are supposedly struggling to sell tickets and the FA Cup has supposedly lost it’s glamour, can someone explain why 5,000 Arsenal fans are travelling to Stoke next Sunday for a game that is already on terrestrial TV?
- Patrick Vieira appears damned by his brilliant best. Yes, he’s not what he was. But some of the stick he’s taken of late has been absurd. The guy is only 33, has won three league titles in as many years in Italy and enjoyed a brilliant career in the Premiership. If Wenger can be tempted by him, Mancini sign him and Redknapp be spurned by him, is he really so over the hill?
- In today’s Times Tony Cascarino calls this Arsene’s worst side but also his best chance in five years to land the title because his rivals are weak.
The rivals are no weaker than the vast majority of the sides who won the title before 2002. Since then the bar has risen and the Arsenal, Chelsea and then United sides who have been crowned Champions have hit incredible heights. In spite of their supposed struggles, Chelsea will still hit 87 points at this rate – ten more than Arsenal and United were getting at the end of the 90s.
As for it being Arsene’s weakest side, what rubbish. In personnel and formation this is a different side to last season’s, to the one a year previously and that of 2006-07. The current lot are patently better than at least two of those teams. And you judge a side at the end of the season. Not now.
As for lacking winners, three of our four centre backs have each won the Premier League at least twice. Indeed age wise the squad now has a very balanced look, with a handful of over 30s, Arshavin and Rosicky approaching that age and players like RVP, Sagna, Eduardo and Clichy in their mid 20s. Even youngsters such as Cesc, Denilson, Song, Bendtner and Diaby have been at the club for quote a while.
- All that said, these are a massive few days for Arsenal. It’s as if Chelsea looked at the table this morning and realised they risked losing top spot on Wednesday night after our second game against Bolton – unless they gave Sunderland a good tonking today. They did and Ashley Cole scored a very, very decent goal.
- How weird is it to have Sol back?
- Some of you may have noticed I didn’t post a Goodplaya on Friday column this week. I’m thinking of ditching it: partly because I’m about to move to a work role where I’ll often be working until 11.30pm on a Thursday night and partly because I’m not sure how much of a fan I am of having compulsory deadlines on something I do voluntarily. I’ll still be blogging, but I probably won’t be continuing Goodplaya on Friday.
How do you find out where you are on the list and how can you ensure that you can sit next to a mate who is also on the list? BTW Sol Campbell was a great buy. All we need now is a striker.
I have to say GP, I stopped listening to what that Chelsea twat Cascarino has to say a long time ago…he has no perspective.
I think the same about Cascarino, but for once I had to agree with him stating our midfield are lightweight and goalkeeper not up to scratch. We need a bulldog terrier in midfield as back up to Song
How come so many washed-up has beens ( or never was in Cascarinos case) have a voice in the media ? All these idiots forecasted Arsenal would lose the 4th place to Man City this season. Most of them forecasted Liverpool to get stronger and challenge for the title !!!… Well , Cascarino, Alvin Martin, Jason Cundy, Mick Quinn, and all the other pratts that have not got a premier league winners medal between them…..it looks like you be eating humble pie soon !!!
GP how about just ditching the on friday thing and keeping the format for some occasional posts? I quite like it…
And also…..I find it absolutely incredible that people keep suggesting who or what Arsene Wenger needs in the team. Do you think he needs advice from pundits and “experts” on the internet ? Its astonishing that people keep telling the world what is needed in the team. I would love to witness just once, one of these people trying to tell Arsene Wenger what he is lacking…it would be hilarious. !!!
But I guess opinions are like Arseholes….everyone has one…..
That was rubbish, just like you as a fan. You missed the second half of the Liverpool game voluntarily. No one forces you to be a fan, so you aren’t really. Like so many c$$ts theses days, you are just a boring fraud with an inet connection. This blog is shit, so are you. Watch a game.
Jimmy – Go and take a long holiday in Somalia will you?
i always enjoyed the friday posts but your the boss and if its putting you under pressure , no hassle , either way keep up the good work …….
That mean troll Jimmy is so mean! Sad to see GP on Friday go–liked the format & looked forward to it each week.
Please, do not stop the GP on Friday! You can change it to GP on weekend, or something, but do not stop it!
We win our nwxt two games by a 2 goal margin and we are top of the league.
we win our next game against the same team with just one more goal (and at home), we will be on top of the league
Why do we bother with what Cascarino says? Do we, or should we really care? He can spew out all the rubbish he wants.
I’d say that this is our best squad since Highbury. And right now we’ve got half of it missing and we can still fight for the title. Incredible isn’t it?
“The opponents are weaker”…what the fuck is that guy on?
GP, top blogginh as usual.
I enjoyed the GP on Friday. Maybe move the format to the Monday to give you the weekend.
Ignore anything the pundits say, for the most part they are totally wrong. The other thing is they change what they say week on week, if you had the right to reply you could destroy most of what they say by simply dragging up the predictions they made at the start of the season.
As for the season ticket waiting list, I decided it simply wasn’t worth £10 a year as even as a Red Member you can get a ticket to pretty much any match you like. If there was a discount for having a season ticket there might be a reason but it’s the same price, if anything not having one means if there is the odd match you cannot make you don’t need to pay for it.
Keep on bloggin’….
GP I was 47,000 odd on the waiting list 18 months ago….now down to 32,000
Cascarino’s merit is that he is able to string a few coherent sentences together, unlike most of the ex-footballing community. That said, he is a prize c**t by the largest of margins and I’d sooner inhale somebody’s fart on a packed tube train than put any store in what that prick has to offer.
shame no gp friday. TA , When you book ticks online you should see on the bottom of the page where you are on the list once you’ve logged in. i jumped 8000 places this year. still think we need top defensive mid 4when song is not available,parker or veloso would do me.with big games coming up can we rely on eastwood. No,but he looks to be a goodplaya
Was the last red card Adebayor against Liverpool? If it was, that was one of the weakest red cards of all time.
cheers True gooner. I’ve still got a very long way to go.
A very satisfactory victory indeed. A great day out at the Reebok, and after a few pints of the black stuff, a great journey home.
BriTheGooner, it seems pretty obvious that if no-one is allowed to comment on ‘who’ or ‘what’ Arsenal needs in the team, then that would include Goodplaya, all the other Arsenal blogs, and you and I as well. We would all be reduced to sitting on our hands, taking them out only to applaud. But 90 percent of sports (or maybe all of it) is about identification — identifying with what is happening on the field and putting yourself in the position of the players and coach. Without that, there isn’t much left. So, perhaps you mean to complain about the quality of the pundits, the fact that real idiots have the authoritative platform of major newspapers, or the fact that they seem biased against the Arse. I agree that a bit more deference is owed to Wenger in this discussion, but I don’t think everyone else needs to shut up.
For all we know, playing Bolton thugs away and home back-to-back seems like the perfect prelude to some very physical games ahead.Imagine the thuggery of Villa, Man Utd’s Fletcher, Evra and Rooney;add to that the team of stonemen that Chelsea even without Essien, Drogba and Obi Mikel. If we can just cope with the Kevin ‘elbow-specialist’ Davies, Knight and hair-pulling Taylor and the others twice in a matter of four days(barring any more injuries), then we should be ready.
rest of the thugs without