Ian Tanner
On Sunday, due in part to transport isshoos, Arsenal were turning on the style before many had gone through the turnstiles. For the second time in twenty-one hours, I saw one of my teams hit the woodwork in the second minute; Jermaine Defoe having struck the Leicester City crossbar, albeit with nothing like the venom in Alexandre Lacazette’s pile-driver. It’s not every weekend that AFC Bournemouth play in front of more fans than do FC Barcelona, who definitely are more than just a (football) club, as they famously claim. In Catalonia, beatings were administered both on and off the pitch. The message is clear: Don’t mess with Messi, or the baton-wielding police. Such beatings are likely to continue until morale improves. Catalonia’s world-famous footie team succeed in Spain; Catalonians want to secede from Spain.
Apparently La Boss didn’t even realise that Sunday marked twenty-one years since he (Arsene Who?) took over officially at Arsenal. That seems hard to believe; I suppose it will lead his detractors to diagnose senility. But there’s no place in top-level sport for senility, nor sentimentality for that matter. That said, I was sad to see home-grown and one-time England international Kieran Gibbs leave, but he bagged a contract with The Baggies, a middling team from The Midlands, when Arsenal, rightly IMHO, decided not to offer him a new one. As if to prove a point, Nacho Monreal, Gibbs’ main competitor these last four seasons, was MOTM when Kieran returned home last week. But surely the main reason for Gibbs’ departure was the arrival of Sead Kolasinac.
Without wishing to commit an old Colemanball, Sead’s strength is his strength, or at least one of his strengths. He also makes interceptions aplenty, is good in the air and is no less backward in going forward than Hector Bellerin on the other flank. I’ll concede that our Bosnian star conceded an unnecessary free-kick, from which Brighton almost stole a march; Solly March’s left-footed shot rivalled Lacazette’s for power. Had he scored, Solly would have sullied our latest clean sheet.
Sead was selected über alles by voters in last season’s Bundesliga Team of the Season, no mean feat considering the competition. And you know what, we got him on a free contract. If we’d paid £20 million for him, he’d be described as one of the buys of the season. There’s nowt so queer as folk, as the saying goes. Surely, somebody somewhere inside the Club is doing something right? Though not in every nook and cranny, I’d contend. In what is grandiosely called The Official Matchday Programme, I’m not content with all the content. The Fixtures etc. pages STILL has us playing Watford at 3pm on Saturday 14th October (5.30pm), Everton at 3pm on Sunday 22nd October (1.30pm), Tottnum at 3pm on Saturday 18th November (12.30pm) and, last but definitely not least, Burnley at 3pm on Sunday 25th November (2pm on Sunday 26th November). Come on guys!
A top Gooner mate wonders whether Silent Stan will attend the AGM (11.30am on Thursday 26th October, or so I read in The Official Matchday Programme). Bit unfair if you ask me; Stan’s never missed before and, besides, he’ll not want to miss The Canaries two days earlier. Our majority shareholder will be able to kill two birds with one stone.
