...jumpers for goalposts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NeRoSFZWbs

Rush goalies! Takes me back.

Transparently Arsenal's match day income accounts for nearly 25% of our total income. The other 'big' clubs are around 15-17%
Our match day income is broadly similar to Liverpool and Spurs, £1m per game more than Chelsea and about £1m less per game than Man U.
Shows that we need to be doing far more with the other aspects of the club, both commercial deals and transfer deals.

Games behind closed doors, or even no games so no match day income have the potential to affect Arsenal the most

Please all of you on this Forum, keep well and safe! Hopefully it will be over soon! Any of you who have
lost love ones in this terrible tragedy, please except our greatest sympathy! The Gleiber family

Very best wishes to you and all the Gleiber family Judith.

Couldn't agree more. Top level football is about as irrelevant a human activity as you can imagine right now. The game itself is beautiful though. I watched a dad and his two kids kicking about in the park this morning. Lots of laughter and fun. Almost forgot myself and joined in!

Anyway, happy music time - enjoy these inspirational voices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nd4j6yw3lc

Thank you and please remain vigilant in staying safe during this crisis.

If only Arsenal had kept this. It could have come in useful for the foreseeable future.

http://barrettsonthisday.anorak.co.uk/u ... eiled.html

Perhaps Özil had a point after all?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/ ... 986227.amp

I think if the UK goes 2 years without another wave of the virus, things will go back to normal in terms of crowds, support, etc.

I say that using the 1918 pandemic as historical reference. The Spanish Flu was far, far more destructive in loss lives than Covid 19. Far more. Fans filled Wembley to the brim for the FA cup in the 20s when it first opened in '23. Prior to that the 1920 FA Cup at Stamford Bridge was well attended.

So, that in mind, with science being much better. As long as the disease isn't an annual event, things should go back to normal.

Seems Santi wants to return. At 35 and with his injury record with us, I'd rather give that pay and position to someone else. I love Santi. Wish he had stayed healthy and contributed more. Which brings up something else. He couldn't tie his boots without hurting himself with us and the minute he goes back to Spain he has the recuperative power of Wolverine. Something isn't right.

https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/07/arsenal- ... wsnow-feed
Arsenal set to complete deal for winger George Lewis

Concerning report from Italy about players testing positive and of more concern one player for the second time.

https://www.thenational.ae/sport/footba ... -1.1016484

Wilson, Rice, McNab, Storey, McLintock, Simpson, Armstrong, Graham, Radford, Kennedy, George, Kelly.

Happy Double Day

50 years ago next year. Blimey, I still remember all the goals, even Heighway’s one. Other things I remember is that our seats were right next to the Liverpool terrace, so the opposite end to the goal where Charlie scored. As season ticket holders we had got them from Arsenal, so all the people round us were our fans. These days the two ends roughly coincide with the half way line both sides of the pitch. Strange that wasn’t the case back then.

Another thing I remember is my dad (I was a young kid at the time) telling me during the game that we would end up winning. He thought the balance of the play was very much in our favour pretty well throughout the match. Can’t recall the point at which he told me that, but he became more confident about the outcome once the final progressed, well before any of the goals went in.

Were you at school at the time? Bet there were loads of disappointed Liverpool fans on the Monday. Were the Everton fans pleased?

Just about my first memory as a football fan. Was too young for Fairs Cup. But an extra year allowed me some memories.

All Everton fans are very happy when Liverpool get beaten.

Went to visit a friend who is recovering from a serious stroke a few weeks ago. I stood at his front gate and wished him well through the window of his house. He is a big Everton fan and his first words to me were that he hoped the season would not restart to stop Liverpool winning the title. The thought of all Liverpool fans missing out on the title brought a huge grin to his face. I knew then he had a good chance of a full recovery.

On Saturday afternoons at 5.00 pm, ITV are showing FA Cup Classics (the programme has that name). Tomorrow is the second of the series. Last Saturday’s was the 1987 final when Coventry beat Tottenham. Still my favourite FA Cup final that Arsenal didn’t win.

Anyway, tomorrow’s one is the 1979 final when we beat Manchester United 3-2 after letting them get back to 2-2 after we had a 2-0 lead quite late in the game. My favourite ever cup final.

One thing that game brought home to me was the huge support United have. There were loads of their fans in the Arsenal end. Wasn’t the case in 2005, but it was in 1979.

Good story. Like him, I hope the whole season is declared null and void.

3 classic Arsenal games on Sky this afternoon. Man U at Highbury 97 on at the minute. Arsenal 2 nil up!

It's one thing to be happy when a rival is beaten. To 'grin' when when your rivals are deprived in these circumstances seems positively ghoulish, frankly.

To me ‘deprived’ should mean things like not being able to afford food and drink, being imprisoned for a crime you didn’t commit, and so on. I don’t honestly think calling a season off under current circumstances if it means sides that probably (not definitely) would have won leagues or been promoted won’t enjoy such successes, hardly warrants the word deprived. Let alone wanting that to happen to annoy arguably the most up their own arses fans in the country deserving to be seen as ghoulish.

He had nearly died and he was trying to get some pleasure from wherever he could. I would imagine most Everton fans are also hoping the season is voided. I do not think ghoulish is the word he would be thinking of. It was just great to see him alive and being able to consider something else other than the
long recovery from his very serious stroke

Rubbish Decaf. Football is all about rivalry. Were Tottenham deprived of their first title since 61 I would be grinning.

Is that the game where Mustafi gives up the equalizer?

I definitely think so and I think Wenger was being petty when Anelka wanted to come back. Wenger is a legend but he has on occasion acted against what was best for Arsenal and what appeased his ego.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... a-21978579
Martin Keown claims Nicolas Anelka could have done what Thierry Henry did at Arsenal

At least someone thinks your jokes are funny, even if it’s only you.

Baking hot that day at Wembley. From memory it wasn’t much of a spectacle but we were the better team throughout normal time.
I still have my rosette I wore to Wembley that day!

Truth is the much-travelled Anelka never got anywhere near the achievements of Henry. After he left Arsenal he played for enough very big clubs to have done so, but fell well short of his potential. He was a tremendous young talent, and Keown might be right about him being a great at Arsenal, but the player chose to part ways too quickly. As his own words indicate, he was vindictive towards the fans, which was immature.

"When I started the season there was a poll because I had taken the place of Ian Wright. I thought the fans really wanted it to be me and were pleased with me. But seeing the result in the papers and on TV hit me hard because I had done things for nothing. I thought 'So that’s how it is. This is how you thank me. Okay now you watch what is going to happen. I am going to play, score my goals and just when you are saying Anelka, Anelka that’s when I’m going to leave'. And that is exactly what I did, because I was furious with them."

Or, more likely, his brother got him a massive contract at Real Madrid which he couldn't ignore. Either way Anelka was not hard done by ever by Arsenal or our fans.

As for knocking Arsene Wenger don't forget he made Anelka - put him in the team at 17 and gave him every chance to become an Arsenal legend. Although there is not a big age difference beween them Henry was far more mature as an individual, and a million miles more of a team man. That, rather than pettiness or ego, is probably what led to Arsene's disinterest when Anelka's gravy train pulled into the Premiership station a few years later.

Currently 0-0 at Old Trafford in 2002. Both Ljungberg and Wiltord looking lively on the break.

Jees Veron really was shite

Fair enough, Wirral.

I disagree with Bromley, however. Football isn't just about rivalry. It's also about sportsmanship and fairness. The fact that football fans are so tribal is part of the problem. We are willing to put up with anything--Russian oligarchs, petulant, overpaid players, etc. etc. so long as we think it contributes to the immediate success of our team--or hurts a rival. It make it so so easy for the moneybags to exploit us.

Naturally I disagree with Bernard too for purely logical reasons that I won't go into now

What do you think is so logical about misusing the words deprived and ghoulish, which is what you did?

Thanks Judith.

Thank you for those kind words.

I hope that you and your family are all well.

These are very difficult times, I just hope that a vaccine or an effective treatment appears soon.

His brothers managed him more for profit than a career. He owed everything to Wenger agreed, but like the prodigal son, he wanted to return. His return would have been mutually beneficial. He may not have done well at RM but he did well at the PL sides he played for.

He was young and immature like many of us who achieved things at a young age. He was chastened. More mature when he wanted to come back. That's what happens when you are playing the Bernabau one season and then find yourself running through the mud at then Reebok Stadium...lol.

Had he not left, there is every indication he could have had a fantastic career.

I saw him at his game and he was very good in LA. First time I saw Man Utd play (and last..cough spit) but you are right, he was terrible for them. Not a bad player, just a bad situation.

I love the 'Benny Hill' style music at the beginning of the show. I haven't heard the name 'Eddie Kelly' on here. He seems a decent player. The PK from Charlie looked good to me but I'm biased. I think its also the first goal I've seen Pat Rice score.

If you want to insist that it is not ghoulish to derive pleasure from something directly caused by a crisis that has caused 275 000 deaths, you are welcome to do so. Knock yourself out. Ditto defining 'deprived' in any way you like. You won't find any argument from me.

That kind of character never stay stays at one club, so your premise is flawed. To be successful at the highest level you need more than just great talent, you need character as well. Henry is a case in point. Sadly, in Anelka's case, the degree of entitlement and petulance he displayed cannot be excused as mere immaturity. We did well to cash in.

Obviously football is completely irrelevant when cast against a backdrop of even one death - never mind 200,000 or more. Still, you'd have to have a hard heart if you didn't think that Liverpool potentially being deprived of a Premier League title so arbitrarily - after 30 years' wait, the poor dears - isn't even a little bit funny...