leffe186

You can’t cultivate anything if the soil isn’t fertile. He’s got the best soil in the country to work with.

I’d have loved the first post-match question to Arteta to be. “Another red card then Mikel. Why do your team keep cheating?”

The ref called him over and away from his position because he’s the captain.

…and those boos at the end were lovely.

That first Chelsea goal is hilariously easy.

Just catching up with the Hull game by skipping through. Some things never change - Stoke getting away with fucking murder at home. The penalty could have been two penalties and the fact Stoke have only got two yellow cards out of this is nuts. Gibson could have got four or five and a red to boot.

Everything they do will be with the Super League in mind, whether that be trying to keep the big clubs happy to stave it off or trying to make it happen and provide a staging point on the way. I was just looking at it from a fan’s perspective. If you’re in the competition it’s pretty cool playing so many different teams. If you’re not it’s whatever the diametric opposite of compelling is.

This is exactly it. As a fan it’s great because you get to see a whole load of different teams home and away. As a neutral it’s not very interesting at all. At least until the latter stages.

Yeah. So much of it is confidence and getting on a roll. Tonight was generally shite - we play in a way where if everything clicks it’s absolutely devastating but if something’s a bit off it’s the toss of a coin what will happen. Ange was getting a ton of stick for resting so many players but you’ve got to be able to win these games properly with three or four regulars in. Defence was all right, goalkeeper not good enough (and hasn’t played a game for a million years), midfield wasn’t quite working, final third decisions and movement were terrible. Werner should be tearing these teams apart and he was terrible, Solanke ran around but wasn’t really involved, Johnson was OK and did everything right for his goal. It was structurally poor and individually unconvincing in front of the defence. As soon as they brought Kulu and Maddison on it started to work, and Spence did a nice job out of position, apart from their goal. Bad night but job done.

I quite like it just because of the variety. Far more interesting if you’re in it than watching from outside though.

That’s a sick Bern.

Yeah. Barring utter disaster this year.

I think feelings are mixed. Said it before - the first few games kind of made a rod for his own back. There are obviously frustrations that we seem to keep making the same mistakes, but like everything in football there’s a ton of impatience and frankly if you win everything’s great and if you lose everything’s shit. My take? I was only ever going to make a proper judgment at the end of year three. Like Arteta, if he wins a cup this year it buys him time. We’ve nearly completely revamped the entire squad and been changing the entire philosophy of the club and team. The one thing he hasn’t done is be especially cautious or pragmatic, and I think that’s both fair enough and also what frustrates a lot of fans. I’m happy with the long- and medium-term outlook but of course it’s frustrating that we only have four points this season.

Absolutely agree. That might be a key reason why refs in general are reluctant to book players.

The problem - as ever - is that it’s inconsistent. I believe we have the same amount of bookings in the first half today as Man City have all season. And they are the kings of the spoiler foul. Edit: I take it back, City have 8 according to the PL site.

Well not quite every foul. We have five bookings but the only ones they have are Timber and Saliba stopping the quick free kick.

Walking the dog and then walking to Sainsbury’s. Arsenal shirts fucking everywhere. Not seen a clearer sign that civilization is collapsing and the end is nigh.

Genuinely surprised me. Obviously you’ve been in and out of the Prem but we have loads over 50 - even Chris Armstrong has 48 for us FFS. I guess I presumed someone would have been around long enough but Bellamy didn’t score as many league goals as I remembered and Shola somehow only got to 43 after all those years.

I saw Watkins was now your second highest scorer in the Premier League behind Gabby, and was surprised that you had only three above 50 goals. Then I saw Newcastle only have one - Alan Shearer - since Cole left after two years in the Prem. Is this true? Seems a bit mental.

That was what I thought he meant at first which is why I was going to reply, then thought maybe he did really mean what he said but figured I’d make the point anyway

We pissed all over them at ours and they somehow came away with three points, then we pissed all over them at theirs and did them 4-0. They’re good, but much in the same way you are built to exploit our weaknesses we seem to exploit theirs. Just hope we have Solanke fit at Villa Park.

Got into a bit of a scrap with a guy nicking stuff in Moorgate the other day (just inside the City of London, in between Liverpool St, Bank and the Barbican). His parting shot was something suggesting I should fuck off back to where I came from, and I genuinely enjoyed pointing out to him where my Grandad came from down the road, and taking the one tiny bit of self-righteousness he could cling to.

You Mackems are all the same...

Can't speak for the rest of the match but the little bit at the end I saw there could have easily been five or six cards just for people time wasting and being twats.

They're not Cockneys - they're West London and Surrey. Yer Cockneys are West Ham, Millwall, and a bit of Spurs. Arsenal are less Cockney - I believe the technical term is a "shower of cunts". Edit: Sorry, forgot the mighty O's, although like Spurs they're maybe a touch too far north. Both Spurs and Orient bleed into Clapton and a bit lower though which is close enough.