I know there was a thread on this fixture before, but given the new date etc I thought we could start a new one.
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I know there was a thread on this fixture before, but given the new date etc I thought we could start a new one.
This is the type of side I'd like to see Arteta play
apart from Torreria and Chambers i think everyone is fit
I've not got much optimism about how Arteta will approach this, I think he'll rely on the 'same-old-same-old' approach, but personally I'd like to see him put out the kind of team I'd like to see next season (albeit Luiz might be off and so may Auba)
Say what you like about Ozil but at least he can keep the ball and prevent it all being one-way traffic
obvs Nelson and Saka would be on the wings but i can't find a way to get the post to do that - I see them as being able to form a second defensive line with Guen and Dani at times but also to go forward and make a four up front when we're trying to attack
Leno
Bellerin Luiz Mari Tierney
Guendouzi Ceballos
Nelson Saka
Ozil
Aubameyang
Good team except Guen and Ceballos are like two bambis involved in a stag fight. that midfield is too lightweight. Problem is, who else. That donkey Xhaka will start for sure
0-3
Yes, very aware of thatQuote:
Originally Posted by Globalgunner
Xhaka will indeed start, but as i say i'd be looking at next season and leaving him and mustafi out from hereon, if they didn't like it they could always f**k off, which if they did is i believe known as a 'win-win' :)
I think you wrote that the wrong way round - it's an away game remember :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
I know :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
#delusional
Sky are offering functions to have crowd noise, I think that's only if you have video groupings of supporters though.
Watching the highlights of the Charlton game, this whole behind closed doors thing is going to be awful.
Personally i don't want fake crowd noise - the Charlton game is wierd but especially so as there's no commentary, with commentary i think it'll be ok, albeit in an 'oddity that we'll talk about in future years' wayQuote:
Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
I just saw a training video on the arsenal site and Torreira looks ok, so if he's fit i'd have him instead of GuenQuote:
Originally Posted by Globalgunner
Leno
Bellerin Luiz Mari Tierney
Torreira Ceballos
Nelson Saka
Ozil
Aubameyang
Gwen's off anyway isn't he? Apparently he's pissed over something or another, or he's fucked up in some way. Can't remember. Saw it in passing. Torreira was talking about pissing off too I think.
Don’t know if he’s definitely off, but he’s supposedly got a bit of an attitude and he’s been told he needs to grow up. I wouldn’t be surprised either way, tbh...
i think the Torreira thing was about Emery, but under Arteta he was getting more games so not sure that's a live issue, hadn't heard about Guen other than that one-off incident when they were on pre-season tour or something but i think that was dealt with and they all moved on?
I'm more worried about who we can't get rid of given there probably won't be so many transfers, namely Xhaka and Mustafi, althogh maybe our being cash-strapped will finally make the club see sense and stop trying to get silly unrealistic prices for them.
It all seems incredibly trivial now, starting with Wenger and then moving on through each of these brat kids wondering if they will stay, go, whatever. Just shows how much of a distraction from the real world sport can be. We end up following the every move of those who might as well be living on another planet. Finally, I couldn't care less who will be coming or going. Let them get on with it, provided it's not funded from my pocket in any way.
I remember following football when I was growing up in the 80s - back then you had 95% of the games at 3pm on Saturday, maybe 1 live match on Sunday, and that was it really? Perhaps the odd mid-week cup game. All football demanded of your time was 90 minutes on a Saturday, while you had the vidi-printer on in the background on Grandstand, and an extra 90 minutes here or there , IF your team happened to be playing. And the rest of the week was yours!Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
These days it's a completely different beast. You have 2 or 3 live games on Saturdays, 4 live games on Sundays, games on Monday, games, on Friday, cup games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, European games on Wednesdays and Thursdays. You have 24hr sports news channels, Club TV channels, websites, news sites, gossip sites, online newspapers, twitter, fan forums, illegal video streams, radio stations. And if that's not enough you can watch the Spanish or German or Italian football, or any number of other leagues too!
You can't even get away from it when you leave the house because of mobile tech! It's a monster that literally wants your attention 24 hours a day, 7 days a week now, and I don't think many fans have realised that they've gradually become addicts?
Think about... if something makes you miserable most of the time (and it does, if you listen to most fans), but you can't walk away from it... if you've started spending all of your time and money on it to the detriment of everything else in your life... that's an addiction. And like all addictions, when the come downs start getting longer and worse than the highs - when you're only doing it to take the edge of the withdrawal symptoms and because you don't know what you'd do without it - then you've got a toxic relationship with that thing and you need to walk away.
This is where I'm hoping that the lockdown might - might - just turn out to be a positive thing for football: it's literally forcing the entire football-sporting world to detox, take stock, and get a taste for having their free time (and money) back. At the moment fans still seem very angry about everything - for the first time in decades they're seeing clearly just how one-way their relationship with the game has been, and I think they've started to resent all of the disappointment and misery they've had to endure, and the colossal expense of it all. They've started weighing the costs and rewards, and the scales are looking massively out of balance.
But mostly, I think they're angry with themselves for putting up with it for so long. I expect most of them will still want to go back, but hopefully this pause might have been enough to make a lot of fans realise that they can actually walk away at any moment, if it's making them unhappy - that they don't just have to sit there, hand over their money and eat whatever shit sandwich they're served. And that's got to make for a healthier, more equal relationship with the game.
i've very little faith that any attitudes will change towards anything tbh - the queues of morons at KFC and Ikea as soon as they open tell us that
the right-wing press will continue to foam at the mouth about any progressive ideas and also going on about football ad infinitum, and all the stupid masses will continue to swallow it
Agreed. As things return to normality most people will revert to many of the same patterns.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
When will things return to normal, though? Autumn? Next year? It's a long time for fans to get used having extra money in their pockets, and enough free time to spend it (if they're lucky enough to even still have jobs at the end of this). It's a long time for fans to get used to having a lie-in at the weekends, and being able to choose to stay warm and dry when it's shitting down with rain outside. Anyone who has other commitments / friends / dependents will surely already have noticed how much easier every other part of their life is without the hassle and expense of following a football club around.
Being a ST holder isn't a casual undertaking - it takes years of relentless effort and commitment, and that kind of effort eventually takes a toll, even if you're unaware of it. I have no doubt that some fans can't wait to get back to it - those real die-hards, whose entire life and social circle and self-identity revolve around following their club - but for others, I can see this enforced break hitting them like a ton of bricks, as all of those years of effort suddenly catch up with them.
Has anyone else on here commuted for years? And have you found that you've really been struggling to wake up in the mornings, no matter how much extra sleep you get, now that you've finally been allowed to stop? I certainly have. Honestly, I'll start doing it again if work tells me to, but if they give me the option of WFH then I'm 100% working from home, no matter how much I might miss my colleagues and the office atmosphere. If nothing else, this whole experience has highlighted just how exhausted I was and how much I need a break from it...
:gp:
Ps. Remember Ceefax and Teletext? I used to watch those pages for 90 minutes, hating having to wait while it cycled through all the lower league stuff and the Scots league, waiting for the 0 to flick to a 1.
I won't. I'm already twice as fit as I was before this, and have a taste for it now that I won't go back on. Changed my diet. Cut down on the stupid hours I used to spend working, staring at a screen. Stopped buying anything unless it is essential. Haven't missed sport one bit, even though I joke about it. Cut down on the booze. Still smoking 20 packs a day but that's because tobacco smokers seem immune to this virus (has nothing to do with addiction, fortunately). Spent more time with family and actually enjoyed (some of) it. Talked to family a lot more. Etc, etc. Many changes, all for the better, like hopping the track and leaving the rut.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
Not sure we're ever going back to "normal" life anyway. The fallout from this hasn't really even started yet.
Yeah, and then someone would ask you if you wanted a cup of tea or something right at the crucial moment and you'd miss your page again - good times!Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Did you ever try to sneak a few minutes on Clubcall when you got really desperate for news?
Phone was on the wall in the kitchen. Very hard to get to without drawing attention. It was easier once everyone had gone to bed. Not that I would ever ring those kind of numbers.
Amazed you bothered, given the scores were provided by those fake-news stalwarts of mainstream media, the BBC and ITV - why not just get someone to make up the scores on the back of a fag packet for you?Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Mac, don't be a wanker. Don't get so silly about things.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
Ha, broke him down at last :haha:Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
No, I mean even in times of black votes matter, there's a limit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
Can honestly say I’m not looking forward to any of this coming back. I was already in and out of love with the game but now fans won’t even be involved that’s pretty much killed it for the time being. There’s only so much you can consume of anything before it becomes a bit sickly and I don’t think football is any different. I’ll always be an Arsenal fan and I’ll never stop rooting for us, but the all encompassing coverage of the game, overpriced tv subscriptions, tickets, merchandise etc can do one.
Football is definitely an addiction and it does seem to create an unhealthy relationship with fans. I’m pretty sure in my early 20’s I was heading the way of the loopy fans you see on YouTube with how up and down I was with results. Thankfully I managed to take a couple of steps back and can now enjoy the highs when they do come and get on with my life like everyone should when the lows happen, because it’s not important and it really doesn’t matter in the slightest.
It's entirely artificial, isn't it? It's not part of the real flow of life. It used to be, for me, when it was just about me. I think football, and sport, is probably the most selfish thing you can engage in. When life is crying out for some input, we all say, don't bother me now, there's a vital, crucial, earth changing event happening in sport.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Hypnotised. Drugged,. Distracted.
Just re-subscribed to Sky. £189+vat a month. Plus £10 for HD. Bargain.
You went for the woke deal? Smart move.Quote:
Originally Posted by GP
Letters will have to get on the phone now. I hope he updates us on the outcome. He usually does.
You have to pay extrra for a guy to come round and stand on your throat WITH COVID
It's what makes it different. You could go for NOW TV, but that's 100% impersonal.Quote:
Originally Posted by GP
I got my new router, if that helps?Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Shitting hell, I thought our bill was high! Wow.Quote:
Originally Posted by GP
Pretty sure we'll be ditching Sky as soon as we can - the only things that are really keeping us with them at the moment are the Disney and Nick channels, which stop the girls from destroying the house for at least a few minutes each day, and the fact that it's really hard to get anyone to come out and install something else.
Yeah, I took a big step back from all things football about 5 or 6 years ago, and I feel like my relationship with the game and the club is much healthier now. At the time I was really angry with everything about football - the state of the club, the detachment with the players, the corruption, the coverage and reporting, etc - but looking back at it now, I guess the truth was life just got serious in the middle, and I suddenly found that I didn't have the time (or energy) to be a super-fan on top of everything else. Something had to give, and it wasn't going to be my kids or my job.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
I'm sure it will creep back into my life at some point, and I'll end up getting way too invested in it again (maybe years down the line when the girls have left home and I have nothing but free time again), but right now being a casual, armchair fan suits me very well. The game gets very little of my time or money at the moment, I can walk away and do something else whenever it's pissing me off, and because of that I've stopped taking everything quite so personally - I don't feel constantly cheated and betrayed by it all (which was always a ridiculous way to feel about it, but there you go - you can't see it when you get that close).
I've got to say, I'm almost looking forward to next season for the first time in a long time - Arteta intrigues me, and I'm hoping the club are finally going to be forced into reform, even if it's in spite of the executive team. But I have almost zero interest in seeing out this current season, and I really couldn't care less about any of our remaining games. At the most, I'll be viewing it as an extended preseason for 20/21, and keeping an eye out for any interesting call ups or deployment of players.
he went for the Icke special, complete with 'free' tin foil hatQuote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
this is what interests me too =- as i said on the match thread i hope Arteta just treats this as a kind of pre-seeason, and looks to the future in the sides he picks and who he focusses on - but as i also said, i am a bit pessimistic about that, i think'll be short term and conservative - hope he proves me wrongQuote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
A week to go before this nonsense draws me back in. :sick:
It's self-assembly!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76