And merry Christmas to you too, Captain Cheerful

In all seriousness I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy new year. It’s a special time of the year to reflect on the good and bad and spend time with your loved ones. As you get older like me you no longer take things for like this granted anymore and cherish every occasion.

Try not to be dicks in 2020 folks and here’s to some better results

Son has more red cards for Spurs than Xhaka has for Arsenal. 2 of Son’s were for violent conduct. But he’s ‘not that sort of player’

Noticeable how spurs threw their toys out of the pram again yesterday, they do it so often when they’re playing badly and losing, Ali, Kane, Son all have a snide nasty streak

Back in May 2016, before Granit had even signed, one forumite thought he might be the messiah. Stupid Daz.

Mind you, Xhaka is apparently an aficionado of Proust. Cover to cover, he claims.

Glad you're back Bernard.

Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda i bawb.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

COYG

Happy Christmas TG and all you forumites, off down to the elderly parents now, packed with food and, importantly, plenty of drink

Surely he has to be Everton’s manager from the date of his appointment stated on his contract. If that is yesterday, Everton will start paying him from the 22nd December. So Ferguson’s last day as caretaker/interim manager was the 21st.

I once started a new job on 1st January, which from memory was a Sunday. That meant Monday 2nd January was a bank holiday to take account of new year’s day being on a weekend. But they paid me from Sunday the 1st as that’s when my contract said I started, even though my first working day there wasn’t until Tuesday the 3rd.

Happy Christmas and season’s greetings to everyone.

Many thanks.

Merry Christmas & a great 2020 everyone!

Mourinho is appealing Son’s red card yesterday. That is surely a ‘frivolous appeal’ and should add an extra game to the ban as has happened before. Son clearly aims a kick to Rudiger’s chest.

And if you can't help it, make sure no one puts you in a blender.

In today's Sun Mark Halsey says that one of the best prem referees has made a lot of mistakes in recent games - Antony Taylor you have been outed for what you really are ie bloody useless.

VAR this weekend gone has shown what it can do for the game. It has been excellent as have been the Var controllers spotting mistake after mistake made by the referees.

Merry Xmas one and all and a big thumbs up to Mr VAR.

you might have a point ; the much trumpeted boycott only lasted seven days , eight hours , sixteen minutes and thirty eight seconds

and yet the amount of gushy "welcome backs" being sprayed around it's like he was in the wilderness for about three years .

.

Arteta is keeping Ljungberg on the coaching staff https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/50896759 .

That disappoints me , I don't want any vestiges left of the Emery Disaster .

I don't think Fred showed any glimpses of improving Arsenal . He is a bit of a mealy mouthed clucker .

I'd rather Mikel had a massive spring clean , players / backroom staff ; brought in his own people to ensure a much needed style change .

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you, the Gleiber famaily and 95% of the forum.

God bless Brom

If you have a blend of elderly young and middle you’ll probably need a drink at some point trust me you can’t beat a british Christmas Sit back and wait for the argument

Have a good un

You too Bernard, have a great new year and Christmas

A great Arsenal fan, contributor to my favourite fanzine ever and all around good guy

98% of the time I’m pissing about,

Never change

Way better than Xhaka, Pépé, Özil, Willock, Saka etc etc

But consider: that is about seven days, sixteen minutes and thirty eight seconds longer than he has ever skipped the forum. It must have been torture. Imagine going that long without rum, for example

On a lighter note ... this is so ridiculous

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1208916201205833728

Well said. The absence of Bernard is like a universe without Planck's or Avogadro's constants. Too much ' plus ça change' and not enough 'le meme chose'.

First Xmas without any youngsters or oldies in the house for us.

Merry Christmas all ....

My Arsenal team of the decade:
Leno
Sagna
Mertesacker
Koscielny
Monreal
Arteta
Cazorla
Ramsey
Özil
Sanchez
Aubameyang

I think most of those pick themselves. Players like van persie and Fabregas could be in there but only played 1-2 seasons in the decade. Sagna edges out Bellerin for just being a better defender. Özil gets in through gritted teeth as he did have some seasons where he was very good.
Gk was tough, Čech didn’t make that many mistakes but also didn’t seem to save us that often. Szczesny did a bit of both. Leno just seems like the best in each GK’s time with us.

Ornstein: During the training session on Sunday when the players were doing the rondos - quite a few of the Arsenal players were flicking it with a trick to elude the defender and Arteta stopped each time and said "You don't do this during the match, so why are you doing it now?"

Totally on board with this. Clearly training has to replicate the match as close as possible. The invincibles said the training sessions were harder than some matches they were that competitive.

Also, I’m so fed up with all these YouTube videos of footballers and kids (copying) just trying to nutmeg each other in training, then all running round giggling and screaming when someone manages to do it. Why is any footballer practicing nutmegs? It’s such a low percentage pass in real game situations. Grow up......Happy Christmas

RVP over Aubameyang for me. Not even close either. It ended very badly with his pathetic leaving statement, but he was phenomenal in that final season, POTY by a mile. He was very good the season before too.

Morning all,

I'd just like to wish Judith and family and all the board members and watchers a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Thank you to Warrior and all the boys who keep the board up and running

Let's hope that Arteta's appointment proves a masterstroke and we can climb the league in the new year.

Cheers.....Soc.

Transfer window around the corner, new manager in, lots of underperforming players......January is going to be very silly in he papers for us.
First one I read today:
Arsenal will offer £40m plus Xhaka for Ndidi from Leicester

Enjoying some of the interviews and soundbites from Arteta. Seems articulate and concise in his communication. Also very clearly not going to accept nonsense and wants accountability. Latest one of training where he talks about not receiving the ball with back to the goal and telling Lacazette that flicks and tricks are not allowed. Just wants discipline in the basics. Might not see an immediate turnaround in results but think we can expect to see effort levels increase and some more shape very quickly.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1209179409741160453

Same here ... Mrs Kiwi getting maxi stressed about the whole scenario .

Cool Hand Luke [ that's me ] says " Cancel it "

Mrs Kiwi ...splutter bu .... but ..." what about the kids " .
Cool Hand ... "they can stay at their place "

Mrs Kiwi ... but ... what about you , you enjoy a drink and a chat
Cool Hand Luke ... I can talk to them anytime and I can drink by myself .

So that's what happened ... no running around cleaning the goddamn three toilets , vacuuming , buying mountains of food , filling the Bar B Que bottle , we don't buy presents anyway so that didn't come into it .... Halleluhah

If you want a good read John Grisham's " Skipping Xmas " total departure from his usual format but very good .

Merry Xmas all

Merry Christmas to one and all. Well not Spurs supporters or .....

This exactly the philosphy of Guardiola ..... take your pick short version or long

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekB39vBno30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmjdfZd_iJ4

"Most difficult thing in football is to keep it simple ". I've noticed with Pépé , he always has to include several feints , shimmys , step overs every time he gets the ball .

Chambers , Luiz and Sokratis are hopefully going to get several chilli pepper curry enemas to drive home the point they have to get the ball forward at pace . ACCURATELY
This will play to Aubameyang strengths .

This has been the very key to our downfall under Wenger , Emery and Ljungberg ..... f***^% around playing possessional tripe .

Hmmm ... it might appear that way but wisdom would dictate he gets "his foot in the door" first before making wholesale changes .

Arteta seems more calculated like Guardiola I'd say he'll see what Ljungberg , Mertesacker and others are producing first before weilding the axe .

Ancelotti at Everton is entering Ranieri territory if he is not careful. Managers who were once at the top level but can't get back. I like Ranieri, like him a lot and its not meant as a slight. He was badly done by Chelsea but Chelsea can argue they made the right move.

Wenger hasn't gotten a top job and I don't know if it's because he's turned them down or they didn't materialize.

He's trying to change things and focusing on the belief is first and foremost and I totally support that. I'm reading he's focusing on being more direct and that's needed addressing as well.

Merry Christmas all and a good 2020. Enjoy Dave.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSU9vIz ... adio=1&t=0

Good grief, Arteta hasn’t had one game in charge yet. Don’t you think it’s a little early to start talking about him being here longer than 22 years? I doubt what Wenger and Ferguson did with regards being somewhere so long will ever be done again at the top level of the game anyway. I also remain to be convinced it’s a healthy thing for a big club these days.

I am suspicious that what has happened to Manchester United since he went could have something to do with Ferguson staying so long. Moreover I’m even more certain that what has happened at Arsenal is related to Wenger hanging around like a bad smell for so long.

Not sure if the Mirror is a paper to be believed but here is there summary of our salaries

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... l-21156503

Some eye watering figures in this list. I know London is an expensive place to live but....

Merry Christmas Everyone.
Hope you all have a great day.
Loving the interviews and training clips with Arteta. He seems focused driven and some ruthless streak bubbling under the surface.
I love the fact that he genuinely loves the club and sees it as an honour.
Im right behind him.
Let's hope we see some changes for the better over the coming weeks and months.
Welcome Mikel.