I finished Treasure Island. It’s odd to be an American and never read the book or seen the movies but it never interested me: for all of my life, Long John Silver was an overpriced fast food joint and Treasure Island was a place in Disneyland.
But the remarkable thing about reading Treasure Island is discovering how embedded into American culture this novel is. To the point where the characters and some of the settings from the novel have come to represent the concept itself. Long John Silver is a peg-legged pirate, with a parrot. When you think of “pirate” there’s a good chance you’re imagining old John Silver, right down to the whole Scottish brogue “arrrrr”. Or an X on a map, indicating buried treasure. Castaways, like Ben Gunn, living off their wits, dressed in rags? So much of this novel has passed from the pages into Western culture that you don’t even need to read the book to know the story.
But you should read the book! It’s not a difficult read, an adept reader could finish it in a few days, but it is worth the read only to marvel in its deceptive simplicity. There’s no conceit here. Robert Louis Stevenson didn’t write this book to wow you with his knowledge of literary methods or expose the world to some groundbreaking technique. It’s a straightforward story, with complex characters, written by a master storyteller. The beauty is in its simplicity.
It reads effortlessly but in there is the one deception. While you’re reading you might be tempted to think, “I could write this!” But that’s the secret: it takes a great novelist to craft a book like this. Just like you might think you could replicate Thierry Henry’s self-volley, or Dennis Bergkamp’s flick around a defender, the true artist makes the difficult seem simple.
In Arsenal news… we play Southampton, again. This time it’s a League match. The competition might be different but Arsenal have some similar problems.
Aubameyang is still out. I don’t know why he’s out, the club say personal family reasons, and I’m not going to pry. Get back as soon as your things are all straightened out, Captain.
In his place Arteta will start Martinelli again. Our young, enthusiastic action man has gotten himself into some great positions to score lately, yet found himself off the mark. Given how Southampton are so tough to break down, he needs to be on target with any chances today.
In the middle, barring a last minute date with tight calf, Arteta will play Lacazette with Smith-Rowe right behind him. Good.
On the right — ehhh… well, the good news is that we are getting that guy from Real Madrid soon. We will be able to help them increase his value for sure because he will be a nailed on starter for the rest of the season. In the meantime, I would guess we get Willian. But you know what? I would prefer Pepe, who is at least trying to dribble and carry.
Another big problem in midfield where we will have to play Xhaka because Ceballos is still injured with a tight calf. I want to get a Ceballos/Partey teaming but starting to wonder if it will ever happen (again). Can we please, at least, play Partey?
In defense, the failure to recruit a backup left back is going to bite us once again. I guess that Arteta is going to play Cedric Soares at left back. It’s either that or Maitland-Niles. Either way prepare for a lot of stopping just past the halfway line and thumping in low% crosses. Or what people will call “another outstanding performance”.
I guess we have all the center backs available, except Mari who wasn’t going to play anyway. And we also have a real backup goalie! Yes, I just said goalie to anger people “on the other side of the pond” that’s just what we call them in Soccer. He’s a soccer goalie.
Excited for someone to say “mate I quit reading when you said Soccer Goalie, just can’t take you seriously.” My question: why are you taking bloggers seriously? Didn’t your mom teach you not to believe everything on the internet? But more to the point: it wasn’t intended as a serious comment. Jeeze.
Anyway, Southampton: they will press, and harass in the middle, make us play wide, and snaffle the ball up in those wide areas. James Ward-Prowse is dangerous on all set plays but they can also hit us on counters. Walcott Walcott Sign da Ting will be eager to score against us.
This is a tough battle between two mid-table clubs. Three points are not assured for Arsenal no matter what the last ten match record looks like. Match today is only on Peacock Premium here in the States.
Oh by the way, NBC is scrapping their sports channels soon. Get ready to pay for Peacock plus and also have a monthly fee just for Premier League matches next season. My first thought was “cool, now I can ditch youtubetv” but for folks on FUBO this is a pretty bad development. All I know is that they aren’t going to make this cheaper for us, they never make it cheaper. My guess is that they will try to find a way to charge $70 a month for Premier League matches. They have to know that a lot of folks (like me) don’t care about all the other “cable” stuff and subscribe to these services just for one league. Hey! Think of it like this: executives at NBC found a treasure map with a big red X on it, and that X is over your house, my house, and all the other Yanks who love English football. We are their treasure island.
You really think he’ll start Willian on the right instead of Saka? I’d be surprised.
True. But then Willian will have to start against Man U?
That’s a tough one. I’d guess Saka will start both, but I suppose Arteta could start with Pepe tonight (and sub in Saka later), and start Saka on Saturday. Man, we can’t get this Odegaard deal done soon enough, though I’m hearing he hasn’t played a full 90 minutes since last June, so to expect him to hit the ground running isn’t very realistic.
Yes I read he’d been suffering recurring Patella tendinopathy. I’m guessing he’s over it or wouldn’t pass his medical.
Pepe and Saka, no Swillian
I must admit, I feared for the left hand side with Pepe and Cedric. Couldn’t have been more wrong. I thought Soares ran it close for man of the match. He somehow managed to used his right footedness to his advantage. Not an easy trick.
When Tierney comes back in, then Cedric gets my vote at right back over Bellerin, based on current form.
Pepe looks a lot more productive on the left hand side as well. You lose that bit where he cuts inside and curls a shot into the corner, but you get a whole lot better link up play.
I assume Mari is still unfit? He looks to be the best fit to play with Holding.
Laca continues to excel. Another pleasant surprise.
Cedric is a decent, experienced and functional full back, which we got for not much money. Not sure why he gets called a poor signing. Not a spectacular KT – type signing, but he fills a squad role well.
I’ll be pretty upset if Arteta starts Willian. Seriously, he has no business in our Premier League squad… I mean, my head can get around the idea that we have to manage fitness and injuries, etc., but my heart says never play him ever ever ever. He actively makes us worse.
By the way Tim, nothing wrong with the word “goalie”. A bit dated, in fact a lot dated, but perfectly good English. I got all misty eyed thinking about the playground kickabout before school.
There was also such a thing as a “rushback goalie”. Basically, everyone was an outfield player, but a designated player was allowed to handle it when the ball got near goal.
Sweaters for goal posts, obviously.
History lesson over.
Reminiscing isn’t what it used to be.
It has to be Saka every time. The best option on the right by a million miles.
I’ve given up watching live. I just avoid the news and then watch later in the evening. I don’t have a tv/cable anyway.
Lately, I started checking the score before watching, cos watching crap football and losing was just a total waste of time. Ridiculous, I know- maybe someone can explain what this means.
And since we got better, I’ve had no time to do any of it (avoid news, look for a recording later, or check the results and then look for a recording).
Did the same during the dark times this season, not watching live but I ended up watching all of them so I could experience the suffering the manager is always talking about. I checked scores too so I could get set mentally. Only so much suffering one can endure during a pandemic. I’m back live now.
A mate of mine does that, who is a Spurs supporter. Yeah, I know. Difficult to use the words “Spurs” and “mate” in the same sentence, but there you go.
He always records Spurs games, but avoids knowing the score. He then gets his Spurs supporting friend to text him to let him know if it’s a game he should watch or avoid. He explained to me that he simply can’t cope with the opposition scoring a winner in the last minute of injury time. It simply does his head in. That’s his coping strategy.
The thing is with being a football fan, at an early age you have to come to terms with disappointment. It’s a requirement. Without that, you can’t really enjoy the elation you get, when the football gods are with you.
Maybe play Saka at LB/wingback, and start Pepe right?
As far as watching, live sports was pretty much the only thing that had me still paying for Comcast cable TV package. Going to think pretty seriously about cutting the cable and switching to all on-line.
A little ashamed to reply to the LJS portion of the post, but read David Cordingly’s “Under the Black Flag” Very good history of privateers and pirates.
Did I miss some news? Is Tierney and Saka hurt?
You can play them today and Saturday, I don’t see a problem there.
I think we win today because Southampton played their first team on Saturday and believe it or not, I think we can give Man U a go this coming Saturday. Saka v. Luke Shaw? Yes, please.
Tierney is hurt
Great post Tim
I know this is a bit of creative accounting but we have scored 12 goals in our 4 games against teams in the bottom 5 in the table and we have scored just 11 goals in the other 15 games against teams above 16th place. It just shows how much difficulty we have had scoring against teams who play solid defense. Anything can happen in any game and we might go out and score 5 today but the most likely outcome is a very low scoring game even Auba and Tierney. Without them its going to be even tougher. We need to keep another clean sheet and hopefully a 1-0 win.
It’s actually a really good point, Bill.
Just did a quick table sort:
Arsenal have scored 14 goals against teams below us in the table (1.6 GPG) and conceded just 4 (0.4 GAPG) with xG of 1.5 and xGA of 0.8
Arsenal have scored 9 goals against teams above us in the table (0.9 GPG) and conceded 15 (1.5 GAPG) with an xG of 1.2 and xGA of 1.4
This is what I mean when I say we haven’t fixed the defense. You can just watch the matches and see that we are getting lucky and not really controlling matches the way we should if we were a good defensive side.
The form table has Southampton around15/16th. They started the season well but have tailed off big time. Reasons to be optimistic COYG
Correction -.14th in their last six games
Their last matches were
Arsenal – D (should have won)
Man U – L (whooped)
Fulham – D (lucky, their xG was just 0.1)
Wham – D (probably should have lost this too)
Liverpool – W (not a terrible performance, kept them to just 1.1 xG)
Leicester – L (whooped)
If this was Arsenal of 5 years ago I would agree with you but we are pretty similar to them now and not a top table team.
Just on the side note, I should whach the Disney’s Treasure planet. It is adaptation of the book. My kids are big fans of the movie.
Treasure Island is a great read, but I’m still not supporting the Buccaneers! Har haaar.
“Kidnapped” is another Stevenson gem. Really enjoyable.
That started well! Shades of a Wenger side hopeless at defending corners. F&%k me.
Loved Treasure Island all my life. Read it and Kidnapped back-to-back as a kid. Pepe! makes 1-1.
I have a lot of time for ESR, but Smith Rowe will never be truly great unless he rolls up his socks like a proper footballer. C’mon, man, stop showing off those pasty white legs!
A man of the match performance from Cedric. Good on offence and defence.
And three good goals by players not named Auba!!!!! 😉
Speaking of whom, I hope that he resolves his personal issue soon.
Really strong performance. Saka starting to dominate, and some life from Pepe. Credit to Mikel for the rotation on Saturday – I think he made the right choices to have everyone available today. Or maybe he didn’t plan on KT and Auba being unavailable, and it just worked out, lol. The team are playing with a lot of confidence, and I’m looking forward to United on Saturday.
Pepe played well… and more importantly, he was switched on defensively. The whole team was. Pepe winning defensive headers. Laca pressing like a demon. Smith Rowe everywhere, linking back and front, left and right. I hope he ran himself to exhaustion and nothing else.
I wanted more from Bellerin. At the moment he’s playing like an inside-right and offering us no natural width. He and Bukayo are supposed to be swapping overlaps. Hector seems to me to me overly keen to join the play in the middle.
On their goal, one of Saka or Pepe needed to pick up the run of the goalscorer, but it was a prettily worked goal by the Saints. David Luiz mostly shackled Theo. Partey and Xhaka were tidy.
Know a sign that a defender played well? When you didn’t notice him. So big up Rob Holding.
But Cedric caught my eye. He may have pushed AMN closer to the exit.
Cedric definitely had his best performance in the Arsenal shirt. I’m not ready to jump on that bandwagon yet, but I am pleased to see progress, and he might turn out to be a decent deputy. My grain of salt for today is that KWP wasn’t in this game. I think Cedric and Pepe look different with a better RB there. But I will take any positives from either one!
KWP? You’re going to have to help me on that one.
KWP -> Kyle Walker-Peters. He gave Cedric a hard time in the previous game.
Ah right. Now there was I thinking Ward-Prowse had a younger brother called Kevin!
It’s a Double-Barreled invasion!
Was about to write this. Cedric was fantastic. Pepe also had a good game.
That was really good. It looked like hard work out there but they stuck to it, pressed hard, stayed organised and got the goals with some real quality.
Tim love your writing style but after reading the first part of your blog on tonight’s game.. oh my gosh.. Don’t get into punting/predictions and stick to writing good man
Teams grow and change. The Arsenal of two months ago absolutely wouldn’t have won this game.
Sport is unpredictable. The gambling industry makes billions off of fans who think they can tell the future. I don’t think a low scoring draw was a bad bet on this game based on what we knew of the two teams. Happily, it didn’t turn out that way. It’s always fun when your team beats the odds!
Dr G i agree ( hey that rhymes, mayb I’m a poet and don’t know it) goodnight from across the pond y’all
hey now, one swallow does not a summer make
Sheeesh – just give up on the Cedric hating. He’s a perfectly decent full back.
if he keeps playing well, sure.
Tim, just a small nit-picking, but we all love the details, don’t we..
ESR’s name is in fact Emile Smith Rowe, not Smith-Rowe.
His name is a “barreled” name and until recently everyone used a hyphen.
A small nit pick: LJS’s “Arrrrrrrrr” is not Scottish brogue. Had he been Scottish, LJS would have said, “Ochhhhh, Jim laddie!” “Arrrrrrrr” is a figure of speech from England’s ‘West Country’ (and remains so in rural parts to this day) and during the period in which Treasure Island is set, many British merchant sailors and pirates came from England’s south-west, sailing out of ports such as Plymouth and Bristol.
Robert Newton’s Long John Silver in the 1950 movie is the definitive West Country pirate. Newton exaggerated his own Devon accent. Anyone talking like a pirate since 1950 has been impersonating Newton.
This comment is brought to you by thirty minutes of wikipedia and youtube videos, thanks a lot Tim.
I think the name Bath Gooner gives the game away.
What are Gooners doing out west?
Rugby country, surely.
I am also Scottish so qualified to comment on a vernacular basis also.
Bath is indeed a rugby town though Bath City are a worthy if underachieving lower league football team. I have never been a rugby fan despite Bath RFC’s success in my early years in the town and the occasional outing to a Pilkington Cup Final at Twickenham. I have been a Gooner since 1971 when Charlie George’s flamboyant play and iconic celebration were televised nationwide and a 5 year spell working in London in the mid eighties did nothing to disabuse me of my preference. I was a ST-holder of 2 seats for a decade until the owner’s failure to show up to support the team in Baku was the final disincentive to me to shell out the best part of £3k up front for the ST’s. Nonetheless I have been at almost every home game since I gave up my STs until fans were banned from matches due to SARS-Cov-2. Further west than me there is a very active South Wales Gooners Supporters’ Club and I believe there is a Gooner even further west in Spokane, WA.
I’m in Tacoma. So, I’m west of your Spokaloo buddy
there’s a clear correlation. when lacazette starts at center forward, the arsenal attack is very decent but when he doesn’t, it’s dreadful. folks wanting to sell him this summer to make a little bit of money? nuts! swallow that pill and extend him two years.
center forward is not a “skill” or “physical attributes” position. it’s about guile and know-how leading the line. top center forwards all have different attributes. lewandowski is nothing like suarez but both lead their domestic leagues in goals and are world class.
top center forwards are way too hard to find. look no further than barcelona’s decision to sell luis suarez to atletico for ≈ £5 million. he’s still world class, leading la liga in goals at a brand-new club…and barcelona miss him mightily. atlético are ten points clear barcelona with a game in hand because of barca’s decision to sell suarez for the price of a hotdog and a bag of chips.
even giroud has a different skill set and can lead the line in a way that few players in the world can do. he and suarez are completely different players, both world class and both 34-years old. benzema is 33 and near the top of the scoring charts in spain. lewandowski is 32 and out of sight in the bundesliga…all older than lacazette and all world class. lacazette is only 29 and entering his prime! arsenal would be fools to sell him this summer.
btw, the challenge is still valid: name a half-dozen center forwards in world football cheaper than £50 million who are clearly better center forwards than lacazette and that you would sign on a significant multi-year deal.
My memory says that Benzema must surely be at least 39 by now, and Lewandowski late forties. They’ve been considered by many to be too old for years.
“btw, the challenge is still valid: name a half-dozen center forwards in world football cheaper than £50 million who are clearly better center forwards than lacazette and that you would sign on a significant multi-year deal.”
This was the exact same logic for giving Mesut Ozil a huge deal and if we give a big contract to Lacazette (he’s already on 200k a week) we will be sitting here next year decrying a three year deal for a guy who turns 34 when the deal ends and has very little product left. You are riding high on a wave of Lacazette having a few good games but seem to have forgotten how awful he/we were for a long time with him leading the line. No thanks!
As for your challenge, yes, that is the job of the Arsenal administration who are paid multiple millions of dollars to do exactly what you say that they need to do! I too hope they find the player you suggest that they need to find.
it’s not the same logic that was used with mesut. that was about arsenal saving face, trying to prove they weren’t a small club who couldn’t keep big players. the idea behind what i’m suggesting is to highlight that it’s not easy as people think to upgrade lacazette.
with that, i didn’t know lacazette was on £200k a week. has he always been on those wages or did he get a raise? likewise, i never said anything about keeping him around until he was 34…just highlighting that barca were fools to sell their 34-year old for no reason. i suggested arsenal keep him for the next two years…when he’ll be just turning 32. after that, arsenal would have to consider his quality and their options.
There are a ton of parallels between the arguments you made that we need to keep Lacazette and the multitude of arguments folks made online that Arsenal were smart to keep Ozil, saving face was just one facet: which I will point out that you also sort of said when you said that Arsenal “would be fools” (paraphrasing) to sell him.
But the main argument that was used was that it would cost way more to buy a replacement for Ozil. Wenger was asked about re-signing Ozil in 2018 and he said “when you look at the transfer market today, overall if you can keep a player of that caliber, it’s good news.” It’s a logic (that the cost to bring in a new player is higher than giving a Bosman player a big deal) which I’ve discussed here quite extensively (going all the way back to the Flamini debacle of 2008) and which has been debated by nearly every football blog.
When you said to find a player like Lacazette for less than 50m, it seemed like a variation on that theme. But the main problem with that argument is that Lacazette has zero sell-on value: so his entire contract is a sunk cost. On the other hand, if you find a player like Lacazette on the way up and even if you have to pay a premium (which you would), the player typically has good sell-on value. Of course, that can also come back to haunt and you can make bad buys in that area, overpaying for example for Pepe, but as an overall strategy it’s best to move on older players and bring in younger players because the younger players still have some ceiling left while guys like Lacazette do not.
Lacazette is on £9m a season (roughly), so, 180k a week or so. Maybe if we could get him for 3 years at a total cost of less than £20m it might be a good deal? Tough to say because we don’t know when he’s going to fall off the proverbial cliff. It’s hard to tell when that will happen. His npxG+xA per90 has been remarkably steady for the last 4 years at 0.54 – it’s eerie. My guess is one more season like this before the decline.
By the way, it looks like Auba has hit that cliff edge. He’s gone from 0.68 npxG+xA per90 to 0.49 last season, to 0.40 this season. It’s not a huge coincidence that happened after he turned 30.
Awesome result. I certainly did not expect us to concede in less then 5 minutes and I was just as surprised with a comeback win and a 3 goal outburst. Saka continues to impress and if he scores regularly there is a chance he can become as influential as Alexis Sanchez or Bobby Pires were for us. We had less possession and fewer shots but playing solid defense and hitting on the break is the formula we used to beat ManU earlier this season and its how we won the FA cup last season and the model for how we can use to compete against the better teams in the league and in the Europa league.
Who has finished it in 1 day?