Notes from the highlights from the match against Sydney

I watched the highlight package of the match against Sydney

  1. Welbeck looked sweaty. I think it’s hot down there.
  2. Walcott got about 100 shots. All but one of them were on target. All saved.  I hope he gets 1000 shots this season. He is sure to score at least 25 goals.
  3. Walcott earned a penalty that clearly wasn’t a penalty. It hit the defender straight in the back. Walcott should have scored. I mean, every shot he had was open and on target.
  4. Welbeck took the penalty and it was horribly taken – weak shot, poor placement, didn’t even get the keeper to move – and easily saved.
  5. Mertesacker scored a bicycle kick goal and then got left flat footed, out of position, and left for dead a few minutes later. I’m not sure what was up with his goal celebration. Him and a few of the other players did like a jumping-into-each-other thing.
  6. THIS GAME IS A MICROCOSM OF ALL THINGS ARSENAL THIS SEASON YOU MUST TAKE IT SERIOUSLY AND THIS POST SERIOUSLY TOO
  7. The black kits look like black kits. BUT THEY HAVE PINK BITS.
  8. Cohen Bramall had a great shot in the second half. He controlled a looping cross and struck across the ball, left footed, and curled it back toward goal. Quite a bit of skill there. It was saved.
  9. Ox hit a great free kick as well. Nice bend on it. It was saved.
  10. This kid Willock dribbled and lost control
  11. Lacazette scored a wonderful one-touch goal. Perfect run, perfect placement. I really hope this is a sign of things to come from him.
  12. Giroud didn’t celebrate Lacazette’s goal – or maybe he celebrated internally. Like, he didn’t celebrate outwardly because inwardly he was baking a lovely little cake and decorating it for Lacazette. Then putting on a little hat and setting a single candle on the cake. The candle lights up Giroud’s cherubic cheeks as he smiles broadly and blows sweet kisses. Anyway, this non-celebration fact is now in articles on computer web sites for eyeballs and stuff.

Finally, I have a question: what rules would you like to see for our little discussion forum? I think we do ok with self-policing but I would like at least one major rule which is that we don’t attack people personally. That means no calling names (yes, even “stupid”). You can argue with people’s ideas but not with their personality. That’s a pretty simple rule and if you violate it, I think you get a week long ban. Or something. I dunno. What do you think? Sound off in the comments you mutton-headed toe-gurglers.

Qq

29 comments

  1. Having just violated your own rule, does this mean you’re off on vacation next week? 🙂

  2. This game was a perfect example of situations where we would lose. Start great. Dominate, but not convert chances. Lose the game on the other teams couple of chances which they convert.

    2. The exact reason why we couldn’t challenge for league last season. Not just Walcott in particular, but the team in itself. So many chances. So little goals.

    And your numbers after 9 are messed up. Unless you intentionally marked them that way.

  3. 1. It’s the Australian winter, but hey, they may have laid on special weather for us.

    2. Theo, you know, got 19 and two assists last season., one of the best returns from the wing in all of the premier league. It strikes as frankly stup… er, insane to advocate getting rid of a 20 goal a season wide player (phew. hopefully dodged a bullet).

    4. Welbeck’s penalty was clearly telegraphed, and hit at that beautiful height, 1.5 feet off the ground and midway between keeper and post, that keepers always save.

    13. Iwobi looked really tasty on the right. And it was like he and Laca read each other’s minds. A potential partnership to watch.

    Overall, a nice gentle trot, and we didn’t learn much except that young Willock and Nelson looked really hungry, and will get League Cup games. Hopefully we go far in that competition. The Sydney skipper had a good game.

    On self-policing, I sense a conscious effort to keep it civil since that really rancorous post of a month ago. I mean, just look at the comments on the last post. I like the idea of a yellow card first… i.e., a warning.

  4. 1. it’s winter time south of the equator.
    2. walcott had shots but they weren’t of his own making; others made chances for them and he blew them all. he was awful.
    3. walcott’s shots were poor.
    4. i don’t think welbeck tried to score the penalty; everyone knew it wasn’t a penalty. however, if he did try to score, it was an awful attempt.
    5. when mert got beaten, anyone would have. the kid was at about a 90% sprint and had a perfect ball delivered to him. he dipped the shoulder and went around per.
    6. IT AINT THAT SERIOUS, KID!
    7. the shorts looked black but the shirts didn’t.
    8. agreed.
    9. agreed.
    10. willock had a very decent game.
    11. as long as lacazette isn’t playing center forward, i believe he will score a lot of goals.
    12. giroud celebrated the lacazette goal. it’s just his run that made space for lacazette to score was to the back post so he was late getting to the celebration. before the group hug broke, giroud was there. we all know how much giroud loves hugs; no way he misses out on a group hug.

    olivier giroud is a top class center forward. you’d be hard pressed to name more than a dozen in world football that are better than he is. where he really shines is if he has someone who stays close to him in the attack like griezmann, payet, or mbappe when he plays for france. in giroud’s first season at arsenal, cazorla played behind him and they were both brand new to the bpl but still did alright. in his second season at arsenal, ozil came in and he likes to take positions in wide areas away from giroud. i believe lacazette will stay close to giroud and it will be good for them both; it might see lacazette push griezmann a little harder for les bleu minutes. we’ll see.

    i’m glad you’re back from your vacation (sabbatical). you needed it but i missed you anyway. personally, i don’t have a problem with you permanently banning anyone that resorts to name calling. this forum is supposed to be for adults, not second graders. i’m on record putting a name on someone’s behavior with some less than tasteful words but i’ve never called anyone a name. i don’t understand that. some people needed to get punched in the face when they were kids but it’s never happened so name calling is acceptable to them. i’m not condoning violence but sometimes it’s good to keep things primal. it’s like we used to say when i was a warfighter, “give violence a chance”. the next best thing is a ban (temporary or permanent).

    1. Disagree. It’s very hard to distinguish between naming behavior and name calling, e.g., saying someone is condescending is tantamount to saying they are condescending.

      Violence is a suboptimal method of resolving intragroup conflict. Unless of course the group isn’t really a group, i.e., there’s an elite intent on maintaining an otherwise untenable situation. That said, there’s clearly something to be said for limit setting and consequences.

      More to the point. What happens the next time some Chelsea trolls show up and acting provocative? Typically what happens is they insult Tim and Arsenal and we insult them personally.

  5. Yeah, we all need some self-policing from time to time.

    Violators of the no ad homimem attack rule should be forced to sit down, have a cuppa and talk about their feelings.

    Or we could go in the other direction like that ridiculous movie, “The Purge” and once a year just have at each other with the vilest insults, rudest comments, etc.

    I’m OK either way.

  6. Walcott and Welbeck were Wasteful. Ah, Welbz. When will he become the striker that all United fans thought he would be, once upon a time? Still, as, uh…Tim Stillman said today, it’s true that with Welbeck in the team, we look more like scoring than without him…just that it won’t be him doing the actual scoring.

    The penalty should not have been, but justice was done when Welbizz didn’t do any actual scoring. He should have passed it to the keeper because a) everyone knew it wasn’t a penalty, and b) everyone knew he wouldn’t score it anyway! But I like how Welbiz runs and works hard for the team. Seriously. I do. But boy oh boy boy I wish he was a finisher…and that he had a first touch.

    Re: policing the forum. I agree with JV that for the vast majority of the time, there is no problem here. But occasionally it can get a little fiery. Personally, I don’t mind getting in the occasional handbags with posters if I feel they’re out of line (I’m looking at you, Doc!), but if others don’t like it, fine with me, put the personal uh…abusers in the sin bin.

    Questions for you: Are you making a distinction between calling a *post* idiotic (for example), and calling a *poster* idiotic? Or are you conflating the two? Pretty much everybody takes personal offense when their ideas are criticized or labeled as irrational, etc. So does that qualify as ad hominem, then? Curious.

    1. Thanks for the shout-out Bunburyist, but that wasn’t me. I try to restrict myself to smart-arse one liners, when possible. Already broke that rule though. 😉 And may I just say, the old thumbs-up, thumbs-down helped me slip past an awful lot of offal in the past.

      1. Oh, right, it was claudeivan.

        Do you think Tim should bring back the thumbs up / thumbs down feature? I do.

        1. I’d love that! It really helped navigate some of the more, shall we say, garrulous posts.

  7. If lacca isn’t playing cf, where will he be next season? The 3-4-3 formation has ozil and Sanchez in it as starters .. that kid Nelson looks promising.. reminds me of what chambo was like at his age

  8. I don’t mind things getting a bit feisty at times.
    I can dish it out and take it as well but I wouldn’t go as for as calling someone an “idiot” over a difference of opinions as related to football or Arsenal.

    Politics ? That’s another issue.
    When millions of people’s lives are at stake and hundreds of thousands can face a life or death situation because of policy change, then yea, I might unload on someone who’s talking out of their ass where facts are concerned.

    Having said that, I don’t think there’s a problem with lack of civility on here.
    As for thumbs up/down for comments, sorry , I think it’s a popularity contest and a bit juvenile.
    But that’s me.

  9. Correction/clarification: While “What you said is condescending” *is* better than saying “You are condescending” the two are often read the same way, as a personal attack.

    The conflict resolution people say that if the goal is to encourage the person to *willingly* modify their behavior, then you are better off appealing to deep group norms, be specific, factual and focus on behavior, “Saying any fan who feels let down by the club is irrational is condescending.”

    For even better results shift the focus to the effect the behavior has on you. “Saying that anyone who feels let down by the club is irrational makes me feel disrespected, like my opinion doesn’t count.”

    Now I get it, no one talks that way in real life with their friends. But that is because the stakes are low and the trust is high. On the other hand, it works well in high stakes situations, e.g., fighting with your wife and in low trust situations, e.g., negotiating with aggrieved co-workers.

    You could argue that this is the internet where smack talk is the coin of the realm. And it is. But I would argue that we aspire to be more of a community than r/soccer and to have room for more divergent viewpoints than Le Grove or Positively Arsenal.

    Instead of saying something is irrational and leaving it at that. We could try and use less judgemental, more factual language, “I disagree because x, y, and z”

    Comments that are read as aggressive personal attacks will lead to either a breakdown in civil discourse or disengagement.

    Even if we can’t bring ourselves to adopt what could be called “PC” speech patterns, then could we at least agree that if someone, whether it’s the person we’re talking to or a third party says, “ouch” or “easy there”, that we could be big enough and care about the community enough to say “Sorry, I didn’t mean that as a personal attack.”

    Repeat offenders should be banned.

  10. It looked to me as though Welbeck was asking team mates if it was OK to miss the penalty. Good sportsmanship by him.
    That was a good point made by Tim Stillman (about Danny), and he did have a superb cup final. Hope to see him often, but in a wide left/right role if the new formation permits.
    Yes, please do not allow the trolling of commenters. It doesn’t occur too often here, but just look at how it’s ignored by the moderators on Untold & Le Grove.

  11. I am yet to see the game on arsenal.com. No spoilers please (I hope we won).

    From the comments I have read it sounds like everyone played well except for Theo. Color me shocked.

    I am looking forward to seeing this kid Reiss Witherspoon play. I hear his game is just like heaven.

    On the self-policing thing, I don’t have a problem with frictions once in a while. They are quite entertaining in fact. As long as there isn’t any name calling or personal insults, I think they should be allowed. I do have a problem with people posting with distasteful handles. Like “Wenger is a Nazi”. It’s disgusting and should not be allowed to post.

  12. I think a more accurate term for political correctness is politeness, or even just basic human decency. Maybe if things start to turn nasty again, instead of taking sides, those not involved can attempt to try to diffuse the situation.

    1. Trump is our president. Turns out human decency isn’t as basic as we thought it was.

      1. Trump being President doesn’t say anything about basic human decency. He’s brash, disgusting, pompous and arrogant, and probably poorly qualified to be President. But I refuse to believe the reason he won is because the majority of people (or even majority of those that voted for him) revel in his filthy behaviour.

        The reason I wanted him to win is because I didn’t want Hillary to win. And the reason for that is that she seemed to be the crazies in the war lobby’s choice. Her track record with Libya and her statements on Syria suggested that too. Obama’s decency masked the fact that the US continued and extended its illegal wars (and use of proxies) and killed hundreds of thousands if not millions. Trump represented a chance at a different option, and I believe the vote was basically a punt on that. (As well as a vague and misguided attempt to address an economic status quo that inherently seems unjust) Yes it brought out the loudmouths and hidden racists, but they never did speak for the human race and we shouldn’t contend that they do so now.

        1. I don’t buy into this excuse that he represented a chance for something different. Maybe for domestic policies but definitely not for foreign policy. American foreign policy is what is. That’s not going to change regardless of who has the presidency. Thinking otherwise is either ignorance or naïveté.

          There are race related incidents all over the US now and Trump being the president has been used as a justification multiple times. If decency was as common as we thought it was, Trump would not have been elected. Maybe it’s different for the rest of the world and common decency still prevails over everything else. That certainly has been proven not to be the case in the US.

          1. I’m not overly in touch with domestic US stuff, but haven’t there always been race related issues there? They might have increased right now, or maybe they get more coverage, but the idea that Trump won only because of racists, sexists, idiots, or Russia is, in my opinion, not a great assessment.

            More just that it allows an outlet for your disappointment. The fact is that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were the two best candidates your polity threw up, and despite her being more of a politician, (and him being a boor), she lost. I think that strongly suggests that they voted for what they saw as an ‘outsider’. You seem to think he won BECAUSE he’s a boor rather than despite it. But I think that would be true of only a small percentage of people.

            For the rest, in my experience, Americans are among the most polite and personable people I’ve met and I don’t think the result of an election between two candidates of that ilk takes away from their basic decency.

            On foreign policy, I’m pretty sure that Hillary would have been banging the war drums louder than Trump. The very fact that he is being pushed into being more antagonistic towards Russia (Including in Syria) shows that he’s not quite on the same page as the powers that be. On the whole though, you are correct that the US ‘foreign policy’ stays the same regardless of who is in the White House.

        2. Yeah Trump was seen as an outsider but my point was that DESPITE his blatant racism, sexism and countless other faults, people voted for him. That’s where common decency failed. Most Americans I know are great people but I live in my nyc bubble and when I travel most Americans I meet also seem to be from the coasts… but that’s what makes this election even more shocking to me.

          I am not so sure Hillary would have been more hawkish in Syria. Obama set the tone by deciding not to attack Assad when he had a chance to.

      2. It’s a weird one for sure.

        Trump getting elected was, I think, I bit of a shock for people outside the US. I think it’s changed what people think America stands for, whether that’s ultimately fair or not.

        I mostly mentioned politeness because I think political correctness as a term is such a poor description. The name itself politicizes something that’s more just about human empathy and understanding.

  13. My internet was being really slow yesterday and so I was unable to watch the live stream. I was hoping to watch the full match today but it seems Arsenal aren’t putting that up on the site. So I watched the highlights.

    Can’t really tell about the flow of the game, but by all accounts Reiss Nelson was impressive, Welbeck and Walcott were not. Though I do think Welbeck at least was in two minds about whether he should try to score the penalty.

    Lacazette scoring was good. I was happy Iwobi picked the right pass. Joe Willock did well too it seems, with Wenger saying him and Nelson can have hope to feature this season. I hope we give Niles a start in the next game. I’d like to see what he can bring in the midfield position.

    Nice day put for the Aussie Arsenal fans, and ultimately that’s what this is really about. The matches in China should be more competitive as we build up fitness for the season, but for now, I’m just happy to have the Arsenal back.

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