Hear hear Gaz…nicely put. Agree wholeheartedly

Well said Gaz.

Well said.

Thank you!

I was there , Luton’s second goal ,don’t think it was a foul, Gus Caesar trod on the ball , it’s funny ( or not in our case ) how the league cup final defeats are peppered with catastrophic errors at the back , Wilson / Ure against Swindon in 1969 and also koschelny / Szechny against Brum in 2011. At least Gus’s was a solo effort . I actually think that 20 mins when we battered them from Hayes goal to the pen miss , was the the blue print , for how we played in the following season

Interesting also , how the Arsenal fans in the background are still in the ground , nowadays by the time the trophy is presented one end is usually empty

Pete it must have been painful for the very fact that we must have been fairly heavy favorites. We beat Liverpool in the league cup but lose to Luton. We beat Man Utd but lose to Ipswich and West Ham.

True about setting us up. I don't think we would have went unbeaten in 2004 if we had won the game against Bolton (where the referee let fat Sam kick us off the park) and the title in 2003. I think we would have won the title in '04 but not unbeaten.

Missed the game. Glad we won easily.

No additional words needed from me. Gaz has said it all. Thanks Warrior
And to Judith & family too

Hi Steve

I watched a programme last night where Ed Stafford went to spend a few days on the Northumberland Park housing estate, which is quite literally on the doorstep of Tottenham's billion pound stadium.

It was a real eye-opener, the crime and drugs, the rising damp and mould infested flats and people having to use the food banks just to survive amid rising energy and fuel prices. All in the shadow of one of the most luxurious and expensive stadiums in the world.

Haringey Council admitting they have a 12,000 waiting list for accomodation and that it takes about 12 years to reach the top of the list!

You didn’t know this anyway ? You can’t be a local.

Always historically been an area with massive social deprivation Soc. Broadwater farm is only a mile away from the ground which is a notorious housing estate known even back to the 80s when a policeman was tragically hacked to pieces during a riot. Real tragedy

More recently Mark Duggan was from the same estate and was shot to death by police whilst carrying a firearm then triggering more massive social unrest that spilled over all over London. The area is always good for a riot every few years.

You may remember the horror of the murder of baby p in more recent years? well that was literally a couple of streets away from the ground.

Total khazi. Just thinking about this stuff makes me despair for human life

Don’t get me wrong there’s sadly social depravation in Islington too and it makes me angry when I hear Braverman and Boris harp on about Islington townhouses and lefty lawyers when that’s hardly the whole story about Islington but it’s not Tottenham trust me.

What I know about London could fit on the head of a needle compared to you guys. That said, I've always heard there was one London south of the Thames and north of and the one north was better off socioeconomically.

Was the area always like that? From what I understand it was a Jewish area hence the Jewish references to the club (sorry, but I was never comfortable with that). My assumption is the area transitioned socioeconomically. Same thing happened in parts of NYC. Harlem is no longer Black but predominantly Latino, Dominican and Puerto Rican as an example. The South Bronx is Puerto Rican but before was a working class Jewish area that gave us Carl Reiner and Penny Marshall. East LA in the 1950s and prior was poor Irish, Jewish , Black and Latino before becoming Mexican American.

Interesting to see White at CB and Partey at RB for the past two games. It’s like Arteta has decided a full back must invert in to midfield and of he’s without Zinchenko and has no one else able to do that from the left then he’ll do it from the right. I think it’s an element of experimenting with the season over, but I think it shows that we’ll more likely go for a right back who ‘could’ fill in at CB rather than a CB who ‘could’ fill in at RB. And so White will be used more as a CB next season.

Caicedo offers up an option a bit like the job Partey has been asked to do in these last two games.
Rice is able to play as a 6, an 8 or in an emergency as a CB.

Athletic, mobile, physical, quick ad importantly flexible and intelligent players have to be on the agenda.

You don’t need 2 players for every position if you have flexibility in players being able to play multiple positions.

If Nelson signs the contract offer it’s maybe more likely we go for a striker rather than a winger - there haven’t been as many rumours about the forward positions as there has in central midfield

Yes, I can see Partey being employed regularly as an inverted fullback if we are able to get the quality midfield signings we need. Formidable. White would become basically a utility player able to fill in at CB or FB as required, without us losing too much in terms of stability and cohesion.

What to you think of Nelson? My sense from this season is that he might be worth keeping, if he can avoid continual injuries.

Thanks all

We’ve got a pretty unique set of circumstances for both Rice and Caicedo.
Both players clubs have said they can leave
Both players (we’re lead to believe by many sources) would jump at the chance to play for Arsenal
We can offer Champions League
We can offer a title challenge
We can offer a stable environment with a clear tactical plan
We can offer a manager who can sell the vision and has a decent record of improving young players
We can offer a clear route to the first 11
We can offer very good salaries given the recent wage cull

So the only question for me is can we negotiate to the right fee to get them both through the door?

I’m ok with Nelson as a squad player IF it is to facilitate our top targets in central midfield and defence. The big concern is giving Saka enough rest. He’s played some part in every prem game for 2 years. It’s a huge amount of football for a player so young, we’ve been very lucky he hasn’t been more seriously injured especially given the treatment he gets. We need another forward though

The north is indeed slightly more affluent but it’s London right? the whole place where you can have 5 million pound houses next to a football stadium but stones throw from people who have simply nothing…

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/135081068

There is a big jewish community in north London that’s right, where as south London has a large Afro Caribbean community. Street crime is worse in some areas like the one being mentioned but largely pretty even across the capital. Organised crime however really in recent years has largely stemmed from East London with major crime firms based out of Canning Town operating however its well known that the biggest crime family in London actually resided in Islington themselves and owned a night club on Islington high street where a former Arsenal captains mrs at the time worked behind the bar for them.

Spot-on Gaz,

Warrior does an amazing job keeping Steve's legacy going, despite having endured some really tough times himself.

I take my hat off to him.

Hi Rich,

I'd be surprised if either end up at Arsenal, just because there are clubs out there desperate to close the gap and who will pay stupid money for outstanding PL proven players like these two. Especially if United get taken over.

I feel we have a limit, like with Mudryk, and will not be forced into a bidding war and will not pay well over the odds.

PSG are sniffing around Ødegaard, I don’t think for a minute he’ll go, but as annoying as it is to deal with rumours of other clubs wanting our players it has to be seen as a good thing especially when those clubs are in the top elite bracket.
There will come a time when there will be pressure to sell one of our gems- especially if we’re not winning enough. That is a tough decision for the club but it has been proven before that you can sell star players at the right time and for extortionate fees and get better yourself.

Of course I hope the likes of Ødegaard, Saka, Martinelli etc stay with us for ages!

Why do I feel like we'll get hijacked for Rice?

Mourinho in another European final. Part of me wants him to fail, part of me wants him to win, which I can't explain why.

Greetings Bored ..... Thanks for the enquiry , health reasonable although I must admit crawling around under the wife's car trying to do repairs to get the MOT , changing brakes , shock absorbers , sway bar links , welding the muffler is proving challenging .

Re .....Leaving grounds early . I did once Arsenal v Everton .... can't remember what year "74 maybe Everton were leading 2 -0 Bob Latchford and Martin Dobson were killing us
Five minutes go I thought B****& ger this , Arsenal underground into Victoria hung around waiting for the train to Croydon got the Evening News ...
we'd scored two late goals to draw 2 -2 .

Did a double post somehow ....

Unaware you have been having issues but hope all is well Big Guy .

G'Day TG

Yes I saw that. I didn't read it that way. They've changed the e-tickets on my iPhone so that the information is now communicated to the turnstile via a data connection, not by scanning a barcode as before. I never tried it myself but I think you could send a screen screen grab of the ST via message or WhatsApp and the bar code would work. You cant do that with the new passes. Either way, I think the cards will still work.

Realistically, they couldn't make access to the stadium entirely linked to a smart phone. There are still a lot of people who don't own such a device. Pretty sure the cards will still be an option.

The reason behind trying to draw everyone into the data route is to delve deeper onto their customer base. They want to know precisely who is sitting in each seat for each match. Either for marketing or for control, knowledge is power. At some point, they may choose to make a charge for passing on your ST to a friend or relative. They could also block such a transfer or exclude a known trouble-maker. As I recall, within the Ts and Cs, you have no absolute right to pass on your ST since each is personal to whoever is registered to that seat.

Sent you a PM

0-1.

I got there 'early' at about 3:30 only to find what seemed like mile-long queues all around the ground. Luckily, a nearby police horse started rearing up and scattered the queue who were all terrified. Me and my mates didn't miss the opportunity.

I still have a clump of SHL turf somewhere.

Apparently, Xhaka started the season 4kg lighter than last season. Certainly made a difference to his mobility. I'll be sad to see him go - wouldn't have said that last season.

Echo that, Rog. Tough year for you. Respect for carrying on.

Can't thank you enough.

If the world had piles, they wouldn't be far from SHL. It's one of the reasons they got permission for that (admittedly high-class) stadium which failed all the clear planning criteria for scale and transport links - to name but two transgressions. You could've built a mile-high turd there and it would've been an improvement.

Having said the, the owners and backers of the Totts have acted quite shrewdly by buying up much of the strategic land and property in the vicinity, often with the help of a compliant Local Authority by the use of Compulsory Purchase orders. The new stadium and some of the enabling developments have definitely improved the place - would've been difficult to make it worse. As such, there's been a lot of new public and private investment in the area and values have increased significantly. The new stadium development has dragged up the whole area. Smart ITK investors have made a lot of money.

Setting aside the rivalry, you'd have to say it's good for London.

I should have known about this game.

Interceptions:

1. Declan Rice: 92
2. Moisés Caicedo: 86
3. Idrissa Gueye: 56
4. Cheick Doucouré: 56
5. James Ward-Prowse: 55

Huge difference from the top two to the rest.

Ornstein tweeted that Arsenal have no intention of selling Emile Smith Rowe

EDIT - another reason for the digital pass is the entirely laudable attempt to cut down the options for selling tickets to touts. All gets a bit awkward for them if they can't transfer a screen grab with a barcode. Means the purchaser can only gain entrance with a smart phone or a card, which would need to be returned.

I was there....great night....Ray Kennedy nutting the winner.....I also remember Gilzean sliding in on Bob Wilson...very painful......great Monday night and then off to Wembley to face Liverpool on the Saturday.....I was 17 and loving life!

Great if it's true, Rich. Emile Smith Rowe is extremely popular with supporters - one of our own!

I posted this a while back - can't remember the source but it came to me via Twitter:

It's been reported Mikel Arteta is coaching Emile Smith Rowe the number eight position, where Granit Xhaka currently plays, ahead of next season.
We saw when Gabriel Martinelli picked up a long-term injury, Mikel Arteta took his time introducing him back into the side and it's expected the Arsenal boss is doing the same with Arsenal's number ten.
Smith Rowe is currently training to play in the central midfield area as Arteta aims to teach him a deeper role ahead of next season, when the player is expected to play a more crucial role in the side.
Arteta's previous success in transitioning David Silva at Manchester City could bode well for the England international.
He's expected to have a much more important role next season and it's extremely unlikely he'll be sold this summer.

I have to say that when Emile Smith Rowe came on as a direct replacement for Xhaka on Sunday, he gave no real impression that he understood much about the role. MA has his work cut out in the close season.

We were in the Park Lane, Andy - at the other end from the goal. Got on the pitch at the end for the first and only time. Walked home to Highbury after , calling in a few pubs on the way. Last one was the Manor House were guys were all on table tops and swinging from the light fittings. Detoured via the ground where we did a few 'salaams' in front of the Marble Halls. Loads of people wandering around smiling and swaying. Got home about 2:00 I think. Wrecked. Slept on the stair. Unfortunate incident in my parents wardrobe.

Happy daze.

The number of people outside the grounds is insane to me.
Must have been crazy. Didn't know it was one of those statistical dilemmas like '89.

It certainly was a night to remember.....I was in the Park Lane end too and also got on the pitch at the end.

As far as I could see it was all Arsenal.....some of the lads had managed to get in the Directors Box to celebrate!

I was on my tod because my friend who I went with didn't like the look of the crowds trying to get in....honestly it was extremely tightly packed shoulder to shoulder...but I managed to get through to the turnstiles and am well pleased I did. An historic victory.

I still have some great photos of that night...Bob Wilson jumping for joy at the end and a really nice one of a very gracious Billy Nicholson presenting Bertie Mee with champagne.

Happy Daze is spot on.

I really hope this is true but I still have a sneaky feeling he won’t be with us in august even despite hearing this.

It seems a classic Arteta behaviour to say something pointing in one direction when your behaviour and decisions say the total opposite. I mean honestly if he was killing it in training then start him againest wolves. Seems similar to saying he values KT.

He’s a player we aren’t compelled to move on really so you maybe saying to a prospective buyer you are aware of “look we ain’t going to let him go cheaply our fans will give us a kicking if we did that”