Wikipedia says this about her marriage.

“On 12 June 2013, Lowe married former Torquay United, Luton Town and Cheltenham Town manager Paul Buckle in a private ceremony in Santorini, Greece.“

Crystal Palace 1-0 up at Anfield. If they manage to get a result here our win against them away will look even better.

Anyone looking for a third tier team (now League One, formerly Division Three) to have a soft spot for, might want to consider Fleetwood Town FC. They play in the traditional Arsenal kit of red shirts and white sleeves, and their home ground is named Highbury Stadium.

Agreed ... I expect a push for the word MAN to be removed from the dictionary any day now ... far too sexist , racist , bigotted or some handle will be attached to it .
As you say this game and even our game against Leicester ... a mild coming together someone falls theatrically and and .... NO whistle ; play on ..so refreshing

A Pool loss here would have the added bonus of making them more determined to bury Man U next week

Darwin Nunez sent off for Liverpool, they're in big trouble here

The nonsense and shithousery in the league is ridiculous

We need to up our game in this

It’s difficult to have any positive feelings about a club that hired Joey Barton as a manager.

This is getting better Nunez sent off great the misery of other clubs is delicious

Bugger that didn't last long

A three match ban presumably.

Shame that the 10 men have just equalised.

Eze looks a player for palace. So good on the ball, wonder if Patrick would be willing a swap with Pépé

Eze was on Arsenal’s books as a youngster. The club released him when he was 13.

Two more dropped points for Liverpool. Draws against Fulham away, a possible relegation candidate, and Crystal Palace at home, who appear an almost archetypal mid-table outfit. I’m happy with that, even though as they haven’t lost yet it won’t stop our friend from across the Atlantic going on about them remaining unbeaten.

Liverpool are already four points behind City (and Arsenal). It’s far too early to feel confident Liverpool won’t win the title. But at least they’ve started slowly.

Exactly so.

Aubameyang already playing CL football, so maybe a matter of time if he and/or Xavi have a falling out, so to speak. Thing is, Tuchel probably feels Aubameyang can enhance Chelsea's chances both CL and the league. If he's hungry for trophies, won't matter which club he chooses to either stay or move on to win them.

Yes she was.

Yes, he should have one of those Guendouzi cuts...

Maguire's England performances have generally been of a high standard, so he can play. The guy is being slaughtered right now - it will be interesting to see if he can come through it strongly. It is an unforgiving business.

Do you not think a bit too much was made of his comment? Nobody seems to have considered he might have been making a distinction along boys v men lines, rather than having a go at women playing football!

I always liked Andy Townsend - not too hyperbolic and clearly with a real pro's understanding of the game.

You must have been a lot of fun to be around with in the 70’s. Whilst not as good as Robert Plant, my hair was not cut regularly in the 70’s. I am prepared to allow people to decide how long they currently wear their hair. It would be a bit hypocritical otherwise.

I had my tongue firmly, very firmly, in my cheek when I wrote that post. Although Cucurella’s hair (I’ve looked up the spelling since calling him ‘that Chelsea player’) is arguably more extreme (or unkept) than that of Guendouzi (and indeed David Luiz), OMOH pointed out the similarities.

That isn’t to deny Cucurella is still a long haired git though.

How england set up and how Man U set up are like chalk and cheese. I’d almost go as far as to say the england team is somewhat built to enhance all the things Maguire is good at and hide all the things he’s not. He also plays with better players for England. England play a back 5 with two holding midfielders and if they’re playing anyone decent they don’t play a high line. I bet there’s plenty of retired CB who lacked pace thinking they could have played for England in that set up.

I posted the other day about Arsenal’s 2-3-5 formation in build up, with inverted full backs. Here it is in a perfect picture.

The inverted full backs is really interesting. In a traditional attacking formation those full backs would be out on the touchline either on the overlap or as a minimum providing width and support for the winger. But then they are completely out of the game if you lose the ball. So your wingers give the width your 8’s and full back provide support on the inside and you string 5 across the attack so you don’t lack numbers, the full backs then form a midfield 3 block to prevent or slow down any counter attacking threat.

The problem with VAR showed itself again with the Romero/Cucurella incident. What the PGMOL have done is tie their own hands behind their back with how the implement this side of VAR. they say VAR is there to check the red card, that’s the only thing it can correct. So when they decide that it doesn’t quite meet the threshold for a red card they then let play continue even though there has been a clear foul. I totally agree that not every decision should be checked by VAR, there isn’t the time and you’d never get a flowing game…..but how often does VAR need to check a red card incident in a game? The games already stopped so restart with the correct decision. In this case the referee would have yellow carded Romero and given a free kick to Chelsea.

Rugby does it this way, they can check for serious foul play, decide it isn’t, give a yellow card and come back to that point and reverse any decision given after this.

Hi Rich,

Once VAR is brought into play on any incident it must have the power to award the appropriate punishment if it has not already been awarded.....be that a red, yellow, free kick or nothing at all.

The Cucurella incident was clearly at the very least a foul and a free kick and not giving a free kick effectively cost Chelsea a goal.

It's a system that would seem to suit the better teams who dominate possession because it can leave you wide open to swift counter attacks down the flanks. Even City get caught out occasionally by swift counters and they are arguably the best in the world at keeping the ball.

Without stating the obvious I think the better players we have in our team and the more possesion we enjoy the better it will come to suit us.

Good job it did cost Chelsea a goal.

Its going to be fun watching Martinelli develop this season.

When he first joined and was so full of raw talent and youthful exhuberance I thought we might have unearthed our own Cristiano Ronaldo, then he had the injury and took a long time to recover and his form dipped and I thought perhaps my initial hopes were just wishful thinking.

Last decent he was decent without being spectacular and I had kind of resigned myself to thinking he would become a very, very good Arsenal player if perhaps not a worldbeater.

This season he looks like a man rather than the boy of recent seasons. He looks stronger physically and is making better decisions more quickly. I am sure Gabby Jesus joining has helped as they seem to have a great understanding and Zinny too and it is certainly making our left side much more of an attacking threat. This is great because for the last couple of seasons our attacking play has been a bit lopsided, with the threat mainly down the right. We can now attack with equal threat down both flanks which makes us hard to deal with.

I hope that Martinelli can keep up this kind of form and become one of the best players in the PL. Fingers crossed eh.

In my defense, I have said ever since Man Utd signed him that not only did they pay an astronomic overprize for him, he’s just not good enough for the level they want period. So at least I’ve been consistent and I’m not just jumping on the bandwagon! He’s mid table at best in my view, a poor man’s John Terry in a footballing world that has largely moved away from John Terry-esque defenders.

Morning Soc.

It really is. Martinelli is one of those players who would terrify me if he played for another team. He is a beautiful player to watch and has the potential to go to the very top. The interplay between him and Gabriel Jesus is going to be so important to us.

I also think Arteta needs a big nod. The turnover of players on his watch has been immense and he's really getting his side together now. It really does feel such an exciting time to be an Arsenal fan again.

Maybe because I played what was called centre-half in my day, I have some empathy for guys who play there. Along with the keeper it seems to be the position that generates most fervent hyperbole from pundits and fans. Remember how Tony was considered a donkey at one time! OK Maguire is no Adams, but I think he is nowhere near as bad a player as some consider him. He was a pivotal figure in United's last successful Premier League season and England's World Cup and Euro campaigns. He gives everything to whichever team he represents and is a durable character. Right now he is probably the least of United's problems. If they are to recover their grandeur there is every chance he will be part of the solution.

Maguire is more of what is called an old fashioned CB. Rugged strong good in the air. If you need a CB that defends deep as part of 2 banks of 4 as he did at Leicester he's your man. At Manure he's has recently been asked to play a highline in the new shiny geggenpresse football and he simply isn't suited to this.

Yes, and I would add he's not even an exceptional one, merely 'good'. Add in the fact that he's completely unsuited for the type of football pretty much all top clubs wants to play and he quickly becomes an anchor because of his hig wages. They need a big clearout at Man Utd and he should be one of the first to go in my opinion.

Very quiet on the transfer front.

Seen it suggested AMN is off to Germany but apart from that it’s very quiet on incomings. Still harbour hopes for a dynamic midfield player coming in but I’m not sure the club will see it as pressing especially if we beat Bournemouth at the weekend and continue our great start.

That Villarreal kid could come in as he would count as a homegrown player but I’m not sure that’s a logical signing really. Have a feeling our business might be done. Also I can’t see us slamming in a big offer for Tielemans either if we continue to win matches but I hope Arteta hasn’t forgotten he’s only ever 1 injury away from elneny in our starting line up.

Yes, United have recently been caught betwixt and between tactically, and the central defenders are often left vulnerable by the lack of cover from their midfielders. While Maguire may not possess the speed or nous of a Kolo or Ricardo Carvalho, he is no mug. Also their very good keeper is not at ease with playing out from the back, so why make him do it? If you have the core of the defensive side of the team feeling uncomfortable then the question arises should the players be changed or the tactics? The great United sides of the past were based on a combination of sound defence, untiring midfield and quickly getting the ball to deadly attackers. They were never a passing team for the sake of it and tactically they were straightforward.

I watched a series of clips of Anderson doing a complete number on Nunez all game last night, constant niggles, pushing, shoves off the ball. Nunez eventually got so frustrated he lashed out. No doubt to me Anderson knew exactly what he wanted to do and Nunez was stupid enough to fall for it.
I don’t recall Anderson doing anything like this against us so he must have targetted Nunez to test him out.

We really are a class club.
Loving the unity.

https://www.arsenal.com/news/welcome-home-heroes

So checking the table, we are in solid second place with Brentford nipping at our heels and United in relegation territory.

Yes, this is exactly what I predicted would happen.

https://twitter.com/hltco/status/155954 ... nUE0ZHaMhA

Laura Woods talking about the criticism Souness recently gave Tyrone Mings. She speaks so well on this and so many aspects of football.

As I’ve said before I don’t mind Souness as a pundit, I think he does add value and certainly has a personality that you do need as a pundit. There’s no need having so much good stuff to say if no one can be bothered to listen to you. But I do think Souness falls in to the ‘in my day’ role too often. This episode with Mings was his reaction to Gerrard taking the captaincy off Mings, Souness is obviously a very biased Gerrard fan and immediately took that to mean there is something wrong with Mings character and slaughtered him for almost daring to speak away from on mundane cliches. Sadly it is attitudes like this towards footballers who do express an opinion that leads most of them to not open up more and just stick to tried and tested answers