I was 15 at the time and vaguely recall it. I think England have a real chance of winning the last test. But every time you think they are in it they fail to take the crucial session or players do something silly. It’s a bit like having a Xhaka in the side. That Tongan incident is really concerning. I worked in Tonga for a month many years ago (it was an AusAID) project. Great place but *%^@ it is low and the sea will have caused a lot of damage and maybe a loss of life as well. I understand they only had 8 minutes to react.

He did and is massively pro spurs and anti Arsenal any time he opens his gob. There’s a phrase I love which fits him perfectly….”it’s better to say nothing and have everyone think of you as a fool, than open it and confirm it for them”
His Wikipedia page synopsis is interesting….

Yeah, I wanted him to do well but felt at the time we couldn’t have timed his sale better and extracted £25m for him that looks huge for us right now. Willock is challenging Iwobi as one of our best recent sales

Saw someone say that it is kind of ironic that Sky is up on its soap box telling people to think about the disruption to fans when postponing games this close to kick off when isn’t that exactly what Sky have been doing to fans for the last 30 years?! Think of all those midweek late games with long distances to travel and no trains running

Absolutely right. I got totally cheesed off with the sheer number of times that I got a ticket only to find that the match would be played on a different day and usually at a really inconvenient time. It’s the only entertainment industry that can get away with it.

When I first saw this random change on game day in the EPL I thought it was insane but soon realized it corporations over people. Even the NFL and the NBA won't try that. But then again, we have guns.

Joking aside, it is so disrespectful to the average fan it isn't funny.

We’ll I’m sure you know the way views are shaping on here. You’ve confirmed you still read my posts and I’d be amazed if that wasn’t the case for everyone else you are supposed to have blocked.

Next few prem games are ones I look at as a prime opportunity for us to push for 4th. Spurs play Leicester away midweek, tough game. Then at the weekend spurs go away to chelsea and Man U play West Ham where a draw would be perfect…..and we are home to Burnley. Looks like a good opportunity to put 3 points on the board with all our rivals dropping points. If spurs lose both their games and we win ours they’d be 5 points behind with 1 game in hand

Yeah, I'd be surprised if Sperz can come away with anything more than a draw at Leicester, even though its a down year for the Foxes.

Eventually we have to play the same sides, but if we are up to it, I'd fancy our chances against anyone below Chelsea, Liverpool and City for an outright win. And maybe nick a win against the aforementioned.

He hits it on the head. He's a Republican by the way. I don't think he's being hyperbolic or alarmist. One thing he does not say because he's not an economist (neither am I admittedly) but the interesting thing is what will happen in a crash. And I wonder what happens with an economic crash with a Republican controlled government. The last time that happened, it ushered in 20 years of the most liberal American government to date at that time (FDR).

The big questions are
* how will America's traditional allies react when sh*t hits the fan? When America no longer seems a functioning republic? What American history books don't discuss is just how much of an influence international pressure has played at times in our history. One example is the Civil Rights movement. As I understand it (and some of you were alive at that time), the British people were aghast and questioning the special relationship. The UN at that time expanded massively (former French and British colonies now independent) and the USSR telling these new Asian and African countries that they were never colonists or enslavers nor had an apartheid structure so vote with them.

* how will the American high command react in the military? The military has admitted to being infiltrated by the far right. At least a couple dozen former generals, admirals have signed an open letter supporting Trump.

* how bold will China and/or Russia react to this? What will they do assuming America is too pre-occupied or too weak? All of Ukraine? Taiwan? Other places?

I'd love nothing more (well, a CL trophy if I'm honest) than to dominate the NLD again. When I became a fan we either won 1 and draw 1 or won both, I didn't see us lose to Tottenham in the league till well into my time as a fan.

Same with Chelsea. It wasn't until when Mourinho came basically (we'll forget the CL loss). I don't expect to dominate them again. They have way too much money now for that to happen but I would like us to win more often than we have.

I loathe Man Utd and would like to see us repay that big loss. Looking back we are a better side than they are this season, we really should have beaten them. I'd like to nick Martial off them but it won't happen.

https://www.justarsenal.com/middlesbrough-boss-pleased-with-baloguns-debut-performance/301226

'...with Balogun replacing Connolly in the 67th minute with the score at 0-0. Reading immediately took the lead, but Balogun helped as Matt Crooks scored twice in the last 10 minutes for a great comeback win.'

I’m certain you’ll read this but I’m equally sure you won’t reply. But why are you so dismissive of Arsenal getting the upper hand over Chelsea, if the Kroenke’s are finally doping us now? However unlikely the transfer may appear, if we do end up signing Vlahovic I suspect it will be very close to the final nail in the coffin for claims that the Kroenke’s aren’t and using that as the reason or excuse for saying we can’t compete with Chelsea.

Takes me back to the proviso I’ve mentioned before and Decaf implied quite recently. For me the most vital question is whether KSE will raid Arsenal’s future income to get the money back. That’s why I was more disappointed about the interview with Josh that was praised so much by some here. That crucial issue was ignored by both the interviewer and ‘smoothie’ Josh, and for me it’s the most important issue that could have been addressed.

Hoping to see Balogun among the highlights.

https://twitter.com/legrove/status/1482 ... 79748?s=21

At last someone in the media talking some sense.

Leeds Utd are giving it a real good go away at West Ham. Here’s hoping that they get a result.

VAR nonsense. Leeds 4th chalked off. Ridiculous
If WHU beat us by a point to CL place I’ll remember this decision
Probably technically correct but nonetheless horrible

Academic now. Well done Leeds.

It was a tough decision, and they’d hit the bar when 3-2 up.

The good news is that they got the win. Happy days.

It’s us v spurs for 4th.

Getting todays game postponed was huge

Unbelievable. Post match analysis of the Leeds game - Graeme Souness says what a good honest side Leeds are (fair enough) and then uses that as a basis to slag off Arsenal for calling off a game. Talk about a non sequitur. More anti-Arsenal rubbish.

An annoying decision for a Leeds fan but has to be right in the laws. It hit a Leeds player in an offside position and went in. The laws (as far as I know) don’t allow for any interpretation or subjective view in the case of it hitting an attacker in an offside position

This is what the Mail put out today. They reckon this is an 11 Arsenal could have played v Spurs and ‘proved’ it was worth more than the spurs 11.
A number of points to be made:
The rules aren’t 11 they are 14 with 1 gk
Some players are given their transfer value and others are given current value to suit the agenda of making the arsenal team look more expensive
Skip and winks are chosen ahead of Ndombele (£60m) and Lo Celso (£40m) again to suit the agenda
Mari has to play right back and Patino right wing

When your agenda is so clear it makes the level of journalism an embarrassment

Jamie Carragher has sarcastically tweeted “all ok for Thursday?” In response to Arsenal getting today’s game called off. The lack of any self awareness is astonishing. Someone needs to ask Carragher why it is Arsenal are even having to play this Thursday at all!

And, Arsenal are simply using the rules to their advantage. Liverpool very clearly cheated the rules. Klopp suggested Liverpool had “lots” of false positive covid results which meant they couldn’t play us when the statistical chance of getting just 3 false positives is 1 in 8 billion

In one sense it’s crazy to see the anti-arsenal bias in the media it has had a galvanising affect for the fan base all pulling in the same direction right now which it hasn’t been for a while. I hope Arteta is using a similar them against us mentality in the dressing room. Showing especially the new players that this is what it’s like when you play for us and use it as motivation to stick it to them by winning games

The league still has a winter break scheduled in. With the amount of games postponed wouldn’t it make more sense to arrange some of those games in the winter break than be forced to cram them in at the back end of the season with teams playing 3 times in a week?

Great weekend for us.
Game postponed.
Utd lose 2 goal lead.
West ham lose!
Great chance for them to go 5 points clear though we would have has 2 games in hand.
Expected them to so Leeds did us a huge favour

I don't think we can discount Man U just yet for 4th. And West Ham, while underdogs, are not to be taken lightly either.

Marseille transfer ban for 2 windows

https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/ ... r-22764490

Basically means guendouzi and Saliba will have to come back

I think Guendouzi will still have to go there. The contractual situation of the obligation to buy was set prior to this ban. It’s the same kind of situation that allowed Chelsea to buy Kovacic despite their ban

Bromley, I agree about Manchester United. I’m not ignoring Tottenham’s chances either. West Ham I’m less convinced about, although in Rice they arguably have the country’s second best midfielder after Kante. But I honestly think we’re stronger than them all and if we do sign a top forward this month, I’ll be extremely disappointed if we don’t finish fourth.

Hope you’re wrong about that Rich, but that’s hope not expectation. I’d love to see Guendouzi back. I simply don’t believe he can be as big a troublemaker as his reputation suggests.

https://dailycannon.com/2022/01/transfer-ban-marseille/

Guendouzi should be fine. If this happens.

He is still bitter with our 89 win at Anfield

The problem for the duck head ( just to test out the Warrior swear barrier) who constructed the table is that Kane is apparently worth about a 150million according to Levy so they are well ahead of us.

Would like to see Saliba finally playing for us.
Won't mind giving Guendouzi a place too. He might spring a positive surprise.

Here's hoping

Nice goal by Pépé for Ivory Coast. But for a real laugh have a look at Sierra Leone’s late equaliser. Shades of Gary Sprake.

Our youth player Omar Rekik also came on as sub for Tunisia in their game at AFCON. He’s 20 and plays CB. No idea how close the club see him to the first team squad.

Prem wages league.
Accounts from last year mostly but it shows how we’ve reduced our wage bill hugely. We used to be up alongside Liverpool at least and not too far off the other big spenders

Big 6 sponsorship deals.
The area we fall behind the rest is our shirt deal with Emirates. It is £40m per season but it includes the naming rights for the stadium and training kit sponsorship. Liverpool are getting £20m a season just for training kit sponsorship. City get £20m per season for stadium naming rights which is a bit harder to gauge because their deals are a bit dodgy.

I’ll be glad to see the back of Emirates. I prefer short names on the shirts like JVC and O2. I suppose everyone looks on the Emirates as the stadium’s name. The point that we don’t have a common non-sponsor name like Old Trafford, Anfield, Stamford Bridge, (even the old ground commonly called Highbury was actually named Arsenal Stadium), it might take a while before people start thinking of it as whoever the new sponsors name might be rather than the Emirates.