Happy New Year to everyone and welcome to 2021.
2021: By the Numbers
1, 43, 47, 2021 – the only factors of 2021. Since it’s the product of two prime numbers, that makes it a “biprime”. Not really significant but interesting!
2021: Tim’s habits and goals
Try to make habits and goals actionable and simple. Instead of saying “eat more fish” try “make Saturday fish day.” Instead of “eat more fruit”, try “make a smoothie every morning”.
Also, if you have a huge thing you want to accomplish, try to get there using the same philosophy that you use when climbing a mountain: one step in front of the other.
Allow yourself to fail along the way. Maybe you don’t get there after a lot of work. That’s ok. You got really far! It’s like making bread: it takes about 100 loaves of the same formula to really get that one down. The first 10-20 loaves kind of suck (expect that the first 10 loaves will be inedible) and remember that sucking at something is the first step toward being kinda good at something.
Lower your expectations. A constant theme for me. One time my job sent me to a conference at great expense and when I got back to work I had a meeting with my boss. She asked for my highlights and I told her that I really only found two things interesting enough to bring back to work. I was worried that she would be disappointed but instead she said “that’s great! If I find one great thing each day at a conference, I consider it a success.” I have been trying to apply that philosophy throughout this pandemic: it’s hard to get anything done so if I can get one good thing done per day, it’s a success.
Plan for incremental change and find ways to make things easier. Yesterday I noticed that my dishwasher is in one place in the kitchen and that the cabinet I store the dishes in is six feet away! Lol! Why??? How did I only notice this now, after 15 years here? If you can… Put the dishes near the dishwasher! Simple changes like this make life easier.
Bake your bacon. Seriously, look up how to bake your bacon. Like the dishwasher thing, I was frustrated that my bacon didn’t quite fit in my cast iron skillet and how I would get crispy middles and soggy ends. After years of this (and cutting the bacon in half, SAD!) one day I decide to “stop the insanity” and bake my bacon. I lined a sheet pan with foil, popped it in the oven at 400F and baked. I haven’t looked back since! I almost never fry my bacon now.
Sorry about lecturing. Here’s my list of actionables this year:
- Don’t drink! (Carry over for a few years now!)
- Rank all 40 sandwiches when I’m done with my 40 sandwiches journey
- Go back through all 40 sandwiches (plus my favorite extras), study each bread more in depth, and make the sandwiches my own
- Begin my pizza journey! (My daughter bought me Marc Vetri’s Mastering Pizza book)
- Keep plugging away at those daily habits! (there are a lot of them)
- Friday is fish day
- Saturday is sandwich day
- Plan out how to eat more vegetarian/vegan
- Get that COVID-19 vaccine!
I have some others that are too vague to add right now.
Books of 2020/21
Sometimes talking about books that I read can be seen as bragging (this whole post could be a brag, I guess) but I don’t mean it that way. I get it: the world was depressing last year and I also get it if you thought you were going to go into this summer’s lockdown “reading a book a week” or “perfecting sourdough baking” and came up short. You might feel like “hey fuck you, Tim!” seeing all this crap above and below. If that’s you, I’m sorry. I don’t mean it that way.
I share this because it might inspire one of you to pick up one of these books. Whenever someone shares a book they read and why, it makes me wonder if I would like to read it myself. I don’t always agree with them, I almost never buy the book, but it makes me wonder. And if I get really inspired I but it (almost always used). That’s it. That’s the whole reason for this section.
Books I read:
We Say No – Eduardo Galeano. This is a collection of Galeano’s essays on Latin America from 1963 to 1991. He witnessed firsthand how the fascist right and capitalism destroyed his part of the world and writes poetically about that era.
Wenger: my life and lessons in black and white – Arsene Wenger. Has a few moments of genuine interest and reveals a bit about his childhood that may come as a surprise but other than that, this book is crying out for a ghost writer. Poorly constructed, meandering, and at times dreadfully boring. I’m not mad at Wenger for writing this book, he’s a football manager not a professional writer, I’m mad at the editor and publisher for putting this out.
The Sirens of Titans – Kurt Vonnegut. Interesting science fiction novel from one of the most renown writers of the 20th century. Asks the ultimate question about the meaning of life and poses an answer. Constructed in such a way that you would benefit from a second reading almost as soon as you’re done. And you won’t be bored the second time through!
Moby Dick – Herman Melville. Classic “novel” ostensibly about a man’s journey to kill a whale; in reality it’s an anatomy of whaling, spirituality, and transcendentalism. If you want to read this book, approach it like my blog and don’t expect the chapters to flow together or even really tell a coherent story. Instead, the “story” is used to tell you about how smart Melville is and all the stuff he learned about in his super smart life (yes, I’m making fun of myself). Also, you will need a bible nearby and be prepared to read huge parts of it to understand all of his biblical metaphors and you will need to keep wikipedia open the entire time to research all of the non-biblical allusions. Or you could read it, knit your brow, and think “I wonder what he means by Judith beheading Holofernes?”
The Wee Free Men, Hat Full of Sky, and I shall Wear Midnight – Terry Pratchett. If you like Terry Pratchett and you’re looking for a series of book for a young adult in your life, these three are great (there’s a 4th called Wintersmith set between Hat Full and Midnight which my local library didn’t have). The adventures of a young witch who is thrust into the world of magic, nightmares and pixies. Especially fun to read if you’re a dad who likes to do voices because the Wee Free Men speak Scottish ( I think).
2021 readings
Treasure Island – I’ve already started, you know I never read this book? Weird?
Mockingbird – Walter Tevis. Sci-fi by the author of the Queen’s Gambit. Extremely expensive, out of print book, which I can’t get my hands on until my local University library opens back up.
Mastering Pizza – Marc Vetri. Daughter got me this. You can follow along here as I blog about it.
Loving Sports When They Don’t Love You Back – Jessica Luther and Kavitha Davidson. How can I not read a book which tries to reconcile my love of sports with how much I hate how sports are run?
The light at the bottom of the world – London Shah. Hopeful science fiction, this is a theme from here out. Ordered (used).
Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers. Collection of short essays on “solarpunk” which is not steampunk because (duh) it’s about solar. Dunno, sounds interesting!
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet – Becky Chambers. Another “hopeful” sci-fi novel. Look, man, if we are going to destroy our ecosphere and all die, the least I can do is read about how an alternative world worked out. It might even give me something to look forward to.
Seveneves – Neal Stephenson. Supposedly a bit darker and more dystopian but also has a message at the end that’s “hopeful” and “mind blowing.”
Arsenal 2021
Just stop sucking, please. That’s all I want.
Good luck on the pizza.. Happy new year Tim
Happy You Near, Les!
Long-suffering-Wife-of-1-Nil and I just rewatched “Miss Congeniality” for the like the 10th time. She says she’s only indulging me because of my massive crush on Sandra Bullock but I know she loves the movie too.
In the words of all the contestants, my true wish this year (and pretty much every year) is:
World Peace.
Barring that, in 2021 I wish for Arsenal to not just not suck but to kick a$s and take names. Happy New Year everyone.
I always had a crush on Sandra Bullock too. That movie is a keeper.
Lovely. This is worth bookmarking, all by itself.
Happy new year, Tim, everyone.
2021 .
Be wary of the referee and var.Arsenal have been denied stonewall penalties.
Progba went under the slightest of touches .
Looks like the spot kick got the MAN PENUTD out of jail again
Tevis – long underappreciated, love the insights – Happy New Year! Hopefully we can have a more positive 2021!
Baking your bacon is boss. Anthony Bourdain hipped me to that years ago…never went back.
What’s the Arteta equivalent of baking bacon?
Benching Willian
Son and Daughter of 1-Nil just gifted me a trio of autobiographies: Keith Richards, Elton John and Bruce Springsteen. Can’t wait to dive into those. I have a few stories to tell as well. Maybe someday…
Never been a better day to divulge than today. 😉
Tim: Mockingbird, by Walter Tevis, is available as an e-book from Amazon for only $2. You do not even need a Kindle to read it (though using one is better for your eyes). I am happy to buy it for you if you are not philosophically against e-books or Amazon. I have enjoyed this blog for a while now and this book would only make your writing more interesting.
Thanks Raymond! I should have been clearer in the post: I have access to the book via the Hathi Trust but I want the physical book. I struggle reading e-books. I can do it, but I don’t like to. I can wait.
Great post Tim. Happy New year to you and family.
Anything can happen but I fully expect a relatively easy win today. West Brom has the worst defense in the league and the worst goal differential by some margin. I expect a clean sheet and someone will find a way to score at least 1 for us, perhaps even more. The first part of this season was disturbing and this squad is going to struggle to finish in the top 8 but I never really believed there was any chance we would be in a season long relegation battle. We had that run of 5 games where we conceded 8 goals but overall Arteta has done a good job of organizing and keeping our defense solid and preventing the other team from scoring. Solid defense will keep us at mid table at worst. If Auba starts to score I think there is still hope for a deep run in the Europa league.
Happy New Year everyone! Here’s to a better 2021, both for Arsenal and for the world generally.
Good lists Tim. If you need a supplemental pizza book, I’d recommend American Pie. I thought Seveneves was good, but not at the level of the best of Stephenson. And Small, Angry Planet is on my list as well.
I’m almost to the end of one of my Christmas presents, the Miracle of Castel di Sangro. Very entertaining. If he had written a novel with that content, reviewers would have criticized it for too much unbelievable plot.
Spurs are now 3rd place after their win today. We certainly could use more midfield creativity but I think if we had Harry Kane and Son Hueng-min we would be competing for the top 4 instead of sitting in 13th place.
My kids love Wee Free Men and I love reading it to them
Crivens! Happy New Year ye Scunner
I enjoyed The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, but the best Sci Fi I read this year was Wool. Dark, dystopian and thought provoking with a positivity that somehow shines through in the end.
For young adults, I can’t recommend the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series and the Sabriel series enough. I read both and have since gifted them to several teen readers in my life.
I’m going to start off the year by re reading two of my favorites: Dune and The Master and Margarita. The only problem is that I have to get hard copies of both as I always end up gifting those books and so they never stay on my shelf.
Tim, have you read The Master and Margarita? I’m curious to how my re reading will go in the context of current events.
I have not read The Master and Margarita. Looks interesting, though. Wool (Silo series) seems interesting as well. Always looking for inspiration to get to writing something myself!
Thanks Tim – a *positive* look forward to a year that will sadly carry over a lot of the hardship of 2020.
But positivity is key – hoping, wanting, maybe getting.
Thanks again for all your sharing, your perspective and helping us through this ‘stuff’.
So much more positive today. Players making runs, looking for runs, taking on the defenders. What a difference. I don’t know if it’s all down to ESR and Saka, or a couple of wins, but where was this team a month ago?
SLC
The difference in form is rarely about 1 player. We have all been watching football long enough to know that a bad run of form can change to good and vice versa in a very short span. Over the course of 38 games those good and bad runs tend to even out and in most cases the team finishes at close to its proper level. In our case I think somewhere around 8-10th is where we will end up.
It’s not hard to look good against WBA They are the worst defensive team in the league by far. I am not sure how much better they are then Rapid Vienna or the other teams we played in the Europa league this year.
One player can make a massive difference.
A football team is like a motor. One creaky part slows the whole thing down, and incompatible parts can cause engine failure or malfunction. All the pieces have to fit perfectly for optimal performance, and of course quality parts help that fit greatly. I agree that it’s rarely as simple as exchanging one part for another but the right part at the right time can transform the performance of the whole, not necessarily because of the part itself but because of what it does for the function of the other pieces. That’s Emile Smith Rowe. Take no credit away from him either!
Spot on my good doctor! I couldn’t agree more.
WBA isn’t very good. On the other hand, we lost to Burnley, didn’t make easy work of BHA, and only beat Sheffield Utd 2-1. So I was very happy to see us finally make easy work of a team towards the bottom of the PL. It’s pretty much the first match that was the case since opening day. And as a double bonus, it came against Big Sam.
After the poor run we’ve had, I’m not taking much for granted.
Going to try to teach myself to read German this year (for work). Other than that goal, I’m going to try to work on my health a bit. I’m approaching 50 at an alarming rate, and I’m way too sedentary for how much I enjoy feasting!
A great win from Arsenal to kick off 2021!
My New Year’s Wish came true with our first match of 2021.
We emphatically did not suck and did in fact kick a$s and take names.
Saka was unplayable on the right side in the 1st half, creating havoc with almost every touch. Smith-Rowe was excellent and Tierney! You will never see a better goal from a full-back. He actually passed it to himself before cutting inside to curl it in at the far post. Magnificent,
When Saka was subbed for Willian it was like trading an Aston- Martin for a Brazilian-made Fiat Uno. Yikes.
Great match, total domination and we’ve erased our minus goal differential to +1. It is too much to say that we’ve turned the corner?
A few things stood out for me today…
Are you watching, Bill? A properly coached team with individual acts of footballing sill, can produce goals from players “not named Auba.” And more importantly, a superb performance. That was the sort of festive season game that even peak Wenger teams would have lost.
Hat tip to Arteta.
Using all the space available to you as an attacking team is easier said than done. The inclusion of Saka and Smith Rowe give us two players capable of doing just that. Power up the thrusters of the attack and suddenly the whole team has their tail up. Down our best central midfielder and center back, the team has produced its best performances of the season just when the night seemed it’s darkest, and find ourselves one point ahead of where we were this time last year. Small changes can make great ripples in the fabric of a team sport.
“The inclusion of Saka”?
Bukayo is an ever-present in our best XI, Doc. Or as they say, one of the first names on the team sheet. He picks himself. ESR was the (continuing) tactical tweak, and it worked. And sure, the two (and Tierney) brought energy, but it ESR’s give-and-go and off the ball run was a “head” thing, knit together by Laca’s ability to read the big picture in the moment.
“Power up the thrusters?” Maybe. You can run fast, but you still need a coherent plan when you get to your destination. This is the beauty of Saka’s play, and something that it’s hard to coach into a player… he makes good decisions with the football most of time, and he knows when to go from 2nd to 5th gear i the blink of an eye. He is most certainly not operating at full throttle all of the time.
In football, it’s not so much about pace as change of pace. We killed West Brom in the middle of the park by upping a few gears, not by running faster than them.
Yes, Saka has been almost an “ever present”, but invariably on the left hand side of the pitch. What we’ve seen in the last two matches is him playing on the right. To my mind, it’s improved the team’s efficiency and given us a whole new lot of options. Apart from anything else, it’s given Tierney a lot more space to run into. I always thought the left hand side could get congested.
Makes you wonder why we spent all that money on Pepe, doesn’t it?
Regarding Smith-Rowe, the very thing he has got is football IQ. He doesn’t just run about for the sake of it. He gets in the right position at exactly the right time. His work off the ball has been quite remarkable, bearing in mind his lack of experience. Added to that is his temperament. He’s perfectly calm with the ball at his feet. He’ll be going nowhere else at the end of the season. You can bet your house on that. My only worry is that Arsenal go out and buy some over the hill parasite looking for an end of career pension plan, who cuts down his playing time. Arsenal have a poor track record for doing that.
What these two players have done, along with Tierney and Martinelli, is get Lacazette playing. Something I didn’t think was humanly possible. Come on, Auba. It’s your turn now. You’re going to have to lift your game somehow, mate.
Mark, correct about Saka playing on the right. The WBA player would have shown him the outside-right being a left footer, but he roasted him for speed and stood up a delicious cross, from which Laca eventually scored.
Doc, metaphor understood, but I think we carry on too much about youthful energy and speed from young players. Auba is faster than all of them… but he’s been in a funk. What Saka has brought all season and Martinelli and ESR have brought these past few games are movement and IQ. Still, Emile’s give-and-go doesn’t work if Laca doesn’t read the play. So, yes, they are making Laca play with zip, where Pepe and Willian have been ponderous.
And Josh, no, Laca has not been playing well for most of the season. That he got his groove back these past few games is probably due in part to a spell in the bench to evaluate things, but certainly due to the fact that the new formation and fresh injection are bringing more out of him.
Playing Saka wide right is what good tactical coaching does, something we have needed from Mikel. You don’t just throw on speed merchants and hope that they execute
Metaphor, Claude…
about pepe, he’s extremely talented but that doesn’t make him a good player. to paraphrase a cruyff quote, during the course of a 90 minute game, the average player will have the ball at his feet for about 3 minutes…so what are you doing the other 87 minutes?
this is pepe’s limiting factor and my biggest complaint about him; despite his clear talent, he can’t seem to be effective without the ball at his feet…and he needs too many touches, meaning he slows the game down, becoming easier to defend. bottom line, he’s got good technical skill but poor tactical skill. it’s why i preferred zaha. the questions is can arteta make him better tactically?
as for lacazette, he’s not transformed…he’s been that good all season. for some reason, arteta, like guardiola, seems to have a blind spot when it comes to truly understanding the nature of a #9. bottom line, they’re weird and need the freedom to be weird in order to be at their best. likewise, lacazette and nketiah are not aguero and gabriel jesus…so arteta can’t manage laca and eddie like pep managed his center forwards at man city.
Like you say, it’s what you do off the ball that counts. Whatever system or tactics you come up with, it will always depend on that.
what you do on the ball counts too. it’s just that’s so obvious. pepe has gotten to where he is, primarily, because of his talent. he’s learning that the premier league requires more. if he doesn’t figure that out, it would have been a tremendous waste of money.
lovely performance and lovely result.
special shout goes out to kieran tierney. even when arsenal were losing, tierney always brings “that smoke”, as the kids say. then he scores that goal. wow! i’ve become a huge fan this season. he’s still my choice for player of the season. if he stays healthy, i think he’ll move ahead of ashley cole…and he should be ahead of andy robertson, such is his trajectory.
can someone tell me why lacazette was ever dropped? the class he brings leading the line has always been there to see…if you know what to look for. when you add his goals, it elevates him even more. being his team’s leading scorer is not foreign for him. i’d like to see eddie still get minutes but he has to be the clear understudy and not split time evenly with laca…or even worse, when arteta started eddie in 3 consecutive games with laca on the bench in december.
matteo scored another beauty yesterday, although it was against helpless schalke, lol. btw, being a dortmund fan, i absolutely despise schalke…almost as much as i despise tottenham or bayern. arsenal can’t afford to lose matteo without giving him another look.
what’s with hector’s substitution? was soares injured yesterday? if not, why did the club give him a contract? how will they manage chambers and partey’s return to fitness? how about the return of gabriel with pablo mari? exciting times ahead.
For me, Gabriel and Partey come right back in when they are ready. That said, Pablo Mari has proven he belongs at this level and having him as an option is a tremendous benefit. Clean sheets don’t keep themselves, and although we’ve had some fortunate bounces on that end in recent matches, generally I thought his decision making and physical tools are there. Looks like a solid defender.
I am worried about Hector in a defensive and physical sense. He is not ageing gracefully on that end of the ball. His timing and anticipation in attack are, dare I say, world class, and his delivery is very good. He plays with his head up and can pass his way out of tight spots with accuracy and calm. But the other side of the coin is he gets beaten for speed and power and height by pretty much any opponent, and doesn’t tackle well. It’s a head scratcher for Arteta and Edu. When do you cash in on him? Given the alternate options, he’s absolutely essential to the team this season, but I would mark him as a player we might think about selling before his value drops.
Players like Tierney don’t grow on trees but it’s obvious what the combination of physical potential and attacking prowess does for us at that position. That’s what we should be looking to add at RB this summer. Maitland Niles needs to show he can be that player but where I worry about him is between the ears. I’m not sure he has the mentality you need at the top level, the drive to keep adding tools to your game each season. He has massive potential and it would be a shame if it was left under utilized. As things stand we have one offensively gifted but defensively vulnerable player, one absolute physical specimen with major technical flaws, and one replacement level veteran at the position.
Yeah, I loved Tierney’s goal. It was all about desire and determination, and no little skill. Reminded me of a goal Nigel “Nutty” Winterburn scored against Wimbledon, God knows how many years ago. 30? Same sort of thing. Winterburn never used his right foot, not even to stand on. He charged up from his left back position and you could just tell nothing was going to stop him. Unleashed a right foot shot that just screamed into the top corner. The Highbury crowd went mental. I suspect he dines out on that goal to this day.
Arsenal have had a number of really good left backs, going back through the years. Right backs less so. I’ve never been completely convinced with Bellerin. He went off early. Was there a fitness issue? There is talk of him going back to Barcelona. A good player, but it wouldn’t break my heart.
Meanwhile, Tierney is very obviously “officer material”. I was impressed with the way he conducted himself in the post match interview. I suspect he’s been earmarked as a future captain and quite rightly so. Wenger apparently didn’t believe in captaincy and it showed. Giving it to “the best player” like some sort of gong never struck me as a good idea. PEA? He doesn’t inspire me. Far too moody. It always felt like he got the job, because no one else wanted it.
Wenger apparently didn’t believe in captaincy and it showed. Giving it to “the best player” like some sort of gong never struck me as a good idea.
Unfair on Arsene there. He gave the captaincy to Arteta and Gallas, for their forthrightness and dressing room presence. Neither was close to being the best player at Arsenal at that point in their careers. Neither was Mertesacker when he took over the armband from Mikel.
I do agree about Tierney, and Auba. Auba remember got the job of Chief Captain of Emery’s Five by default, after Xhaka flipped off his own fans.
But if we could toss everything back into the hat, start over and pick a captain from this current lot, I’m going with David Luiz. I don’t know how much stock to put in those “dressing room disruptor” stories, but (1) CBs make better captains as they see the field from where they play, (2) from what I can see game after game, he’s the one Arsenal player out there who’s vocal, gives directions and brings organisation.
That said, we’ve scored 8 goals and conceded 1 these past 3 games, and Rob and Pablo look a nicely functioning unit. Even Gabriel will have a hard time forcing his way in, although in festive season football, ringing the changes is a must.
“It’s a night for the team to stand up, more than any individual. I believe in a shared leadership and we have many leaders. I have given the captaincy to eight or nine players because I believe in more than one leader sorting everything out.” Arsene Wenger (March 2009)
1nil, i just watched the first hour of the brighton game against arsenal…i agree that bissouma had a fine game. likewise, i watched him again yesterday against the english-based portuguese national team and he looks a decent player. apparently, you aren’t the only one who’s noticed as his name is being tossed around by plenty of gooners this weekend. interesting. we’ll see.
To add…
Mikel has won 3 games in a row not by going to the market, but by using the players he already has more efficiently, as some of us have argued he has to do. It’s been argued that he is a great manager/coach who is hamstrung by a crap squad. I disagree(d). He has been a coach who had made poor use of his squad resources, to the point that AFC were i the bottom third of the league table. That was not sustainable, and he may have saved his job in past week.
This window and he next he will phase out players he doesn’t want, and buy new players that he does, but Arsenal FC does not have the resources to give him a mega-overhaul of the squad. Plus he’s got Willian — his guy — for 2 more years after this season. Willian is not the LeBron James of soccer, so we’ll have to suck up that one.
Mikel will earn his corn more through smart internal solutions, than through expensive external ones. And if he’s the coach that we’ve been told that he is, he will polish a few of the rough diamonds already in his possession. In at least one instance, he looks to be off to a good start.
Emphatic result yesterday. Long way to go before we can qualify Mikel’s coaching skills. Three weeks ago he was hailing crossing as the be all and end all.
Dr Gooner
We have all seen over the years just how fast a teams form can change from good to bad and vice versa for no easily defined reason. The idea that one player like ESR is the reason the entire team suddenly has figured out how to execute seems like quite a huge stretch. Whenever something changes fans like to search for an some easily definable explanation but there does not have to be one. A perfect example is the FA cup run last season. You can’t explain that by some tactical change or some piece of managerial brilliance. This Arsenal team is not a relegation level team and the fact that it was playing like one was bound to change at some point. I don’t think Arteta has suddenly become smarter now then he was 1 month ago. The team has hit a run of good form that it was due for. The vagaries of a teams form usually can’t be explained.
The vagaries of a teams form usually can’t be explained.
Oh but they can. And a few smart, thoughtful people spent some time doing so, upthread, in a considered manner.
You can’t explain that by some tactical change or some piece of managerial brilliance.
You absolutely can. Playing Saka right instead of left is one such example. Pepe is very one-footed… Saka’s two-footedness created the third goal. Mari and Xhaka (left footed) giving Tierney more roaming security is another. ESR’s mobility, dragging defenders out of place and disrupting shape, is another (did you see how he beat a static block for Laca’s goal?).
In fact, I’d say that the analyses offered by other posters have a lot more substance to them them than this continued insistence that this amorphous thing called “form” is the sole reason for our performances.
Oh btw, here are some tidbits on form. We almost never win 3 games in a row over Christmas. And we almost never win on winter days against Allardycian* teams, in places that look like Fargo. We upset the odds in 2 ways. Logic and recent history say that neither condition was optimal for hitting “form.”
*copyright Tim Todd.
During the Wenger era we went thru some runs of really good form but we always balanced that out with runs of bad form. I remember a couple of times where we had the last played really well in the second half of one season and the first part of the next season and we actually had the best record in league during a calendar year. Unfortunately we always balanced those good runs with a relatively bad run that prevented us from competing for the league title. Best example is the terrible run in the first half season after the 2014 World Cup which put the top 4 in danger. We played really well starting around Jan 2015 in the second half of the 14/15 season and then we played well in the first half of the 15/16 season only to lose form in the second half and Leicester won the league.
Happy New year everyone. Just a thought on wenger’s book- i was really disappointed, yet not surprised by how guarded he was about his time at arsenal. Revealed very little of what fans craved to know about his arsenal journey.
10 points behind Liverpool, the chase is still on.
West Brom was an excellent performance in a potentially tricky fixture. If we win the next 2 home games against Palace and Newcastle and do so comfortably, working Partey back into the side, then I’ll start to feel a lot better.
Next up after that will be Southampton away and Man U at home, and psychologically those are both big games: seeking revenge on the home defeat at our nadir of form, and seeking home and away wins over arch rivals at the top of the league.
Either way it’s such a relief that the football is attractive again, and that makes every game interesting.
Tierney has been so great that it feels churlish to complain about his lack of a right foot that ensures a backward pass if he gets square on against the touchline. And now I know he’s actually got a right foot after all. My favourite goal of the season so far.
timo werner is NOT a center forward! we already saw this b-movie in the last world cup and how poorly it worked for germany.
Greae post! Happy new year tim