Wigan Athletic 0 – 1 Arsenal
0 – 1 Arteta (60 pen)
For years Arsenal have been accused of not being able to win ugly, criticised for it. Having won by a single goal in a game that in all fairness they should not have, it is churlish to criticise them for winning ugly. It will happen, of course. The win lifted the club into third place before the 3pm kick-offs, putting pressure on those around them. Tottenham took psychological damage with their draw at home to Stoke; even an Arsenal in an apparent state of disarray, with work to do on the squad, can overtake them to finish the day in third. The inferiority complex manifests itself once more.
That is a pleasant side-effect of the result. Appalling conditions did not faze Wigan, who but for woeful finishing and errant passing might have been two goals ahead at the interval. They were not and found that Lady Luck is a cruel mistress with Theo Walcott brought down for a soft penalty as the hour mark approached, Mikel Arteta’s spot kick firmly driven into the back of the net to continue his good goalscoring record at the DW Stadium.
Arsène chose to give Theo Walcott another run in the central striking position, fielding an unchanged team from the victory at Reading on Monday night. It was a mixed afternoon for the England international, good movement at times, at others his learning curve was shown. Hindsight suggests that this was a match where the conditions might have favoured the inclusion of Olivier Giroud, his aerial ability and strength at holding the ball cleared from defence would perhaps have given the side respite as well as offering attacking opportunity. At times, it felt – rightly or wrongly – that the ball was cleared, too easily ceding possession. Walcott was not at fault for that, it is not part of his natural game. As it was, he did find good openings but was all too often blocked when shooting.
The manager was positive about the performance, perhaps killing him with kindness ahead of bullying the player into signing a new contract,
I wouldn’t like to judge him on one game. For me he has the ingredients to play there. I wouldn’t like to judge him on one game. He did not have much service today, he was a bit isolated. He can always be decisive, even if he does not have the greatest service. Today he made the decision because he got the penalty.
It’s right that Walcott isn’t judged on one game and nothing has gone wrong. The reaction inside and out of the club will be interesting if Walcott is playing when a single goal defeat. I think more acceptance of the role for Walcott will come when he scores the only goal of a game, perhaps like yesterday’s, where Arsenal are out of sorts. Can he lift the side out of a hole as you would expect a centre-forward to?
It matters little for this match, the points returning to north London. Arsenal had the first opportunity of note with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s shot turned to safety by Al Habsi. The youngster put in a strong performance, thriving in a run of games on the right. Wigan had a lot of the ball but were unable to find a decent final pass, thankfully. That changed and Kone’s finishing was found wanting after he outsprinted Mertesacker, Szczesny’s relief visible as he saw the ball slide wide of the far post.
Neither side was able to string together moves of note for long periods of the game, the conditions not conducive to the passing game normally associated with the clubs. Arsenal at times, were particularly woeful in that department but the win renders that irrelevant unless it is repeated in the Newcastle match. And that is what it boils down to now, the results count more than performances. Confidence is brittle and the squad need a sustained winning run to prove to themselves that they are actually a decent group of players. Perhaps a good cup run or two will erase the defeat at Bradford from the consciousness, or at least not make it so readily recalled.
The second half began with Arsenal more business-like, Walcott had a brief sight of goal but Al Habsi saved once more. The penalty came about because of the England international’s pace, his willingness to chase apparent lost causes. Gibbs woeful cross was retrieved on the right and a quick interchange of passes found Walcott in front of the defender and the merest contact led to the inevitable penalty. Roberto Martinez was right in pointing out it was a cheap decision to give, he’s right but they frequently are awarded when the forward gets goalside. Arteta made no mistake from the resultant spot kick.
Wigan responded and Szczesny made a great save from Figueroa. Chances for the hosts went high and wide, sometimes at the same time as they pursued a share of the spoils. It never arrived, aggrieved feelings exacerbated with two weak penalty claims for handball as the final whistle beckoned. Arsenal held on, the points taken.
’til Tomorrow.
Anicoll we all know your not bothered about us selling our top players .
i love it when you talk dirty to me george..
ooooh a xmas spanking up an alley..
theos our best player..simple as that..dont know how else to explain it..
Theo 5 goal 5 assists (striker)
Cazorla 7 goals 4assists(misfield)
And yet Duke says “Take Theo out this year and we’re up the creek ”
How does that work then? Would we be up something bigger than a creek without Santi?
Podolski 5 goals 5 assists(striker) Another creek required over here boss!
Top players normally manage to be first choice in their own position after nearly 7 seasons Duke
IMO
yeah coll i seen it ive seen alot of him since you mentioned him
sign him up ffs..
theos our best player..simple as that.
OK
Haha fucking ha .Sorry that was a spontaneous outburst .I apologise
It’s so stomach churning Sky won’t show a clip of it until after the watershed Anicoll. Thank god someone is upholding standards on our behalf.
Thanks Bob, for your relentless support :p
but not as a replacement for theo..
for gervinho or arshavin..
george have you posted those stats to be pulled apart like a cracker..
i could do so if you wish..i’ll put that many holes in there you’ll be able to grate cheese with it..
I could understand if I was receiving a bit of grief about Sagna, an excellent reliable performer season after season not being signed but a flakey performer like Theo
Mwahgagahah Ho Ho Ho
Giroud fit next Saturday I expect to see Ox on the right after yesterday’s performance – Best attacker yesterday by a distance
well
funny duke brought up arshavin
he was once regarded as the 6th best play in the world..
therefore he must be the best player in our squad..
but…hes not..
coz theo is..
Just saying JJ .he has not exactly been like RVP last year,now even you can get that? Or can you?
George Theo is our leading scorer in all competitions, no?
Theo will never be as good as Arshavin was.
Run Forrest run
Yes C he has been a regular starter in the COC .
Rather makes a nonsense of the idea he is our best player .Dont you think?
Fukin el Anicoll your as bitter as a pint of john Smith’s. You and george belong on le grove the way you are dissing an arsenal player.
And george being an avid reader of the blog.
theo has appeared less times than rambo george
starting and sub..
all comps..
yet hes our top scorer…
all comps..
santi and podolski have had more starts than theo has starts and sub combined and….
you guessed it….hes our top scorer..
and our top assister as well?
mmmmm
yeah fuck off to le grove you bastards with your anti walnutt shite..
Theo has scored one goal as a striker george. Most have come from…er midfield. He is a midfielder isn’t he.
Another group for whom I have lamp posts marked
When the last member of Team Walcott has been straggled with the entrails of the final member of the Scarfistas the cycle of history may move forward
Or not
If I were any more moderate I would be called meek
I have not said Theo is not a valuable player for us and I want him to stay.
But don’t tell me he is our best player .That’s just fucking daft.In fact its beyond daft.
Call him your favorite player by all means .But Best? Have a word with yourselves.
Anicoll do you hate it as much when diaby tries to take on 3 players an loses the ball as much as when Theo does ? What with your hatred of inconsistent players.
Homeland – I’m gone
sturridge for 12 mil?
missed a trick with that one..
good player..good feet..good finish..
and quick..
and english..
the stats say hes our best
jacks my fave..
No Duke He and Podolski are strikers .We play 433 .Incase you dont know let me explain
4=defenders
3=midfielders
3=forwards
Or if you need more explination
forward=striker
Its like shooting remedial fish in a barrel of sedatives tonight.
Are you and JJ giving me an early Xmas ?
weve only just started playing 433
weve been playing 451 all season..
until arsene read aclf, give his head a shake and weve put a run together..
Yogi needs to come in here and stop this carnage.On humanitarian grounds.
flip him dukey..
So Podolsi and Gervinho are MF now .Fuck me it gets worse.
I will consider myself flipped JJ
Fukin. El between you george and Anicoll you are sapping my festive mood, I’m off.
I wanted some light hearted banter but I’m getting Theo bashing.
double flipped big man..
im bailing too i gotta work this xmas..
its a travesty, i get myself into loads of debt buying things for the kids to make their day and the fat cunt with the beard takes all the credit..
should never have married her
merry xmas guys and gals..
bah humbug george..
have a good one..
Just a quick happy Christmas gents and I hope Santa brings us what we wish for in the transfer market, if he doesn’t he’s a fat judgemental bastard
What happens in our hearts when an Arsenal player leaves the club?
On the emotional side, as long as a player plays for Arsenal, we love him, so he is a good player. When he leaves, we start hating him, and he becomes a bad player.
The devil is in details.
What if a player is effectively off but still wears the short and scores for the club? Not an easy one, hence the differences in opinions about Theo.
I’ve forgiven Cesc because he had done so much for the club.
I’ve not forgiven Nasri. With him playing well 5 months out of 3 seasons the feeling is he shirt changed the manager and the fans.
I would have forgiven the Dutch if he had gone abroad or may be even to ManCity. But ManU made him unbearable. I can not even mention his name.
Speaking to many Arsenal fans in the past, they never doubted the loyalty of the Dutch. He was talked about as Mr. Arsenal. And then ManU…
Who is this Mr. Arsenal then? Arsene? I’ve heard he refuses to extend his contract.
Who then?
The fans are Mr. Arsenal. You and me. And ACLF. George and JonJon, irrespectively of their differences.
Yogi is the real Mr. Arsenal.
Now that is something I have never claimed to be.
No ,but you will do until the real Mr.Arsenal shows up.
Night, night.
Big day tomorrow.
Walk. Pub. Cooking. Wrap presents. Wine.
Bloody brilliant.
Sounds it bob. Have a good one. And the rest of you!
@ Bob and YW
Sorry I was on the road and just read your posts. I will not prolong this spat but I have been very disappointed by the recent empowerment of a bitter, mindless minority who now gleefully trash every thing this blog once stood for. In my opinion there was a clear turning point in the autumn. Today I felt moved to express when and how this came about.
I apologize If I suggested or implied that Bob allows or disallows posters. However as one of the leading voices for many years he is quite a force in setting the tone for those who come on board. I will leave it at that.
George to say theo can never be as good as arshavin is total non sense. The boy is 24 and isn’t he clearly improving..How the hell can you say he won’t improve to be a better player than arshavin and? btw i’m guessing you must have seen arshavin play only since the euro 2008
Hasn’t Merts been are most consistant player this year?
I personally think Theo will go, I think he feels a bit disrespected by the club ( slow to offer a contract, left out of the squad early this year) and he will be tempted by offers elsewhere. I don’t want him to go, but it will be intersting to see if he improves his known weak areas at another club. This will really show us how good Arsenal is at developing young talent, or is he more of a talent scout?
I have to come out and say I have much sympathy with a great deal of Shotta’s sentiments although I recognise blaming poor old Bob for everything may be somewhat wide of the mark.
I can go to any number of ‘Arsenal’ blogs and whilst many have excellent ‘owners’, few if any have the supporting cast ACLF has been able to boast for many years now.
For me Yogi is the standout writer on anything to do with Arsenal and has been for as long as my online memory goes, and probably will continue to be for as long as he so chooses.
But it is undeniable that a ‘fault line’ has opened up on ACLF and both Yogi and Bob, as is their right, now sit to one side of that line. Doesn’t lessen them in my eyes, and neither are no less a supporter of the club than they ever were, to me.
But the problem for the likes of Shotta, myself and certain others is that the old ACLF – the one that rose like a colossus above all other sources of Arsenal commentary, has now been compromised to the point that regardless of the result on the pitch, ACLF, in common with the rest of the media, has become another happy hunting ground for those who would seek to do the club down.
There has been an anti-Arsenal narrative in the wider media for years now.
So much so that I frequently find myself watching away games on the tv with the sound muted (listening to the magnificent Stew Black on the radio on a Tuesday evening) to avoid the appalling negatively biased anti-Arsenal commentary. I’ve abandoned the sports pages of most newspapers. Ignore Match of the Day. That someone I disliked as a player is now, for me, the only commentator with genuine integrity in depth tells me all I need to know about how far sports journalism has fallen in recent years, and how highly regarded Gary Neville now is in my formerly unforgiving eyes.
I missed the original posts but I understand it may have been Bob who once claimed the Doomer Wars were over. Yet the battle for the spirit of the club – and of ACLF in particular – is still raging – and raging fiercely – from where I’m sitting.
When the negativity that now routinely subsumes ACLF – even after an Arsenal victory – is pointed out, my intelligence is insulted by claims that it isn’t so. Yet, some weeks on, Yogi’s “End of Era” post continues to provide the oxygen for the flames of derision here routinely heaped upon Arsene Wenger and his colleagues on and off the pitch.
It is one thing to ask whether Wenger still has it in him to deliver. Indeed, Sir Alex Ferguson has had to answer those exact same questions over many years. From a position of economic strength (albeit somewhat compromised these days), SAF has answered those questions with trophies, medals and near misses. Arsene, in recent years, has ‘only’ had the near misses.
But it’s quite another thing to witness the diatribes of those who have made up their minds that the club can only go in one direction and who take every opportunity to run the club and its staff down, regardless of the club’s situation on any particular day or stage of the season.
It could be that Arsene, Kronke et al, all need to go. I don’t believe that to be the case.
It could be that most of our players are rubbish and the coaching staff isn’t all that. I don’t believe THAT to be the case.
But if I DID believe it to be so, then there are no shortages of places I can go to to have those views reinforced, nurtured and supported.
Any newspaper. Any radio show. Any tv broadcast.
The reason Shotta, myself and certain others feel the way we do, I’d suggest, is because ACLF was formerly the ONE place one could go to for a debate and a discussion as informed, balanced and well-measured as Yogi’s main posts always are.
This is Yogi’s blog and he’s more than earned the ‘right’ to take it in whatever direction he chooses. He has Bob for company and the companionship of all manner of other contributors. That some of those contributors only ever used to show their face following a draw or defeat tells its own story.
But for those of us left on the other side of the fault lines, sitting on what might now be considered the ‘wrong side of the tracks’, that’s a matter of the deepest regret. For me, personally, more gutting than Arsenal’s recent loss of form. Because I believe Arsenal will get their form back.
But I’m not sure, sadly, that ACLF will be quite the same again.
No doubt I’ll again be invited to step down off my high horse. To stop talking ‘tosh’. Maybe even substantiate my claims regarding negativity, to explain myself further and take off my red tinted specs.
But let me wish a happy Xmas to every single one of you.
I hope and expect to see Arsenal continue their return to winning ways, decent runs and, who knows, a trophy or two in the New Year and in the coming seasons. I’d love to see the likes of Paul N, Stew Black, Frank, One of Us, Dexter, Passenal, First Lady and numerous other real stars of ACLF back on the blog on a regular basis, rejoining the likes of the heroic George and Shotta, and Irish, to name just three stalwarts. The place – specifically this commentary section – IS poorer without them.
We are all Arsenal followers and a lot of us are huge admirers of ACLF. It’s certainly felt like a real privilege to make my comments here, from time to time.
A big thank you to Yogi for that. And to anyone who’s trawled through my meanderings and made the occasional kind (and less charitable) remark.
But whilst most things of value do take time to put together; dismantlement, sadly, is usually a far swifter affair.
And that’s why I share many of Shotta’s sentiments.
Arsenal Andrew’s lucid, scrupulously fair and composed post perfectly captures issues of concern to number of long time readers of ACLF. Don’t shoot the messenger, in this case Shotta. We know perfectly well what he means. A dozen and more notable posters have said the same or just abandoned reading. For PaulN it was simply “ACLF has lost its soul”.
After several such views similarly expressed there have been protestations from YW. But the honesty and integrity of ACLF and its founder, author and editor is not at issue.
The cause is simply that ACLF has altered its editorial perspective, shifting position, and not-too-subtly either. Since the change in perspective has been supported in a reasoned way and to a degree by CBob, but accompanied – most unfortunately one feels – by an awful lot of rude noise from the idiot, and an ever more repetitive tone from for example JJ, Bill and one or two other respected posters, the effect has been amplified, and dumbed down.
I think you will find that those who question ACLF these days suspect or have decided (rightly or not) that ACLF is not the neutral journalistic voice it was known for: fearless in criticism of the club when called for; fearless in defence of the club against the more grubby and snide attacks of its detractors; always sunny in disposition and honourable in its loyalty, above all honest and factual.
ACLF gives every appearance of having shifted feet.
The problem IMO is that some posters are hankering after “their” ACLF which actually never existed, they just misunderstood it completely, which is a bit in keeping with their limited reasoning ability.
ACLF as I understand and understand it, has always been about reasoned and intelligent debate. It is an Arsenal site, and therefore the owner and posters tend to discuss Arsenal and Arsenal interests, generally from an intellectual and reasoned standpoint, not a blind cult perspective.
IMO ACLF has never been about blind dogma and unthinking adherence to some sort of cult following.
The fact that intelligent, thoughtful, and sober posters like Bob (and indeed Yogi himself) have raised questions is not some sign of impending doom, it is merely and indication that there are questions regarding the club’s current situation.
Those that genuinely love the club have every right to be concerned, and to fondly imagine that all is well after a few wins is short sighted in the extreme.
I’ve said it before, there is no difference IMO between the radical pros and the radical antis. They are cut from exactly the same cloth. They have the same blind inability to reason or see any other point of view, no matter how well reasoned. I see no difference between a George or the recently older version of Ateeb, they are cut from the same cloth imo. In fact Ateeb is probably a lot more reasonable recently.
There are no “sides” other than we are all Arsenal fans.
Some of us can see issues and are willing to debate them intelligently and in a reasonable manner (that’s where we differ from the media morons and other hate fests), for others, it’s a case of some unquestioning dogma not unlike some religious cults we have seen.
To each their own, but posters need to learn to accept that as long as someone is prepared to debate an issue honestly, their views should be taken into account and given the respect that anyone else is given, even if it is at odds with your own.
That means that silly comments and put downs are not “being clever”, or “good support”, they just mean you’re being an arsehole.
Bob has already expressed disapointment at the approach taken by some on here, and I second that. There are a number of posters who see fit to deride and belittle anyone who’s views differ from theirs. Quite frankly that reflects rather more poorly on them than it does on their “targets”.
To put it bluntly, it indicates a lack of mental maturity and intelligence.
Furthermore, I would suggest that Yogi and Bob are very close to the middle of the road rather than “one side”, and a favourite target, JJ, is also a lot closer to the centre than many of the radical pros on here who seem to spend a lot of time spitting bile and venom than demonstrating any hint of intelligence.
Learn to debate intelligently, and if you can’t, then ignore the posts you struggle with, it’s really not too difficult, even for those of the more fascist leaning tendencies.
http://www.aclfarsenal.co.uk/?p=10263
Today’s dose of Bah Humbug!
mikesa your right in the sence that this the most logical and reasoned blog out there and most of the debates are brilliant however you cannot
stop the debate about whether this is the right time to question the club if, you check our history and the money spent by the other teams in the league, that this is still a very sucessful time for us.people may be reasonable and niddle of the the road but whatever your debating you have to start with that fact.there are many things i am unhappy with the club for but sometimes you have to look at the overall picture and get real.
I agree with the general gist of your 7:25am post, especially..
“To each their own, but posters need to learn to accept that as long as someone is prepared to debate an issue honestly, their views should be taken into account and given the respect that anyone else is given, even if it is at odds with your own.”
BUT to say,
“JJ, is also a lot closer to the centre than many of the radical pros on here who seem to spend a lot of time spitting bile and venom than demonstrating any hint of intelligence.”..makes me wonder.
OR,
” I see no difference between a George or the recently older version of Ateeb, they are cut from the same cloth imo. In fact Ateeb is probably a lot more reasonable recently.”…..REALLY?
You conveniently negate history in judging some of the so called “radical pros” or maybe you just opt to perceive every new discussion from a clean-slate perspective.
The “constant battlers” here rarely forget their historical positions and just continue to try to prove their points day in day out.
Makes for tedious reading but hey, more than enough time between games allows for this.
Using your words,
the key point is, “as long as someone is prepared to debate an issue honestly”…not rudely or dishonestly…
a lot easier to be civil if it was about a game like tiddlywinks,
football is a tribal sport…
and we are but emotional beings.