Arsenal banter 5

04 Mar 2026 21:56:23
Amazing, amazing result tonight. One game at a time. It's just about the result at the moment and getting it done. COYG! So happy!

04 Mar 2026 21:51:14
Well done boys! That's what champions have in their locker. Really happy.

Would love to see done decent football but at the business end of the season, it's about getting business done.

{Ed025's Note - i remember when football was in the entertainment business SY, this is just drudge mate..

04 Mar 2026 23:03:19
I posted another post that did moan about the performance, but praised the stubbornness. I still love great football and miss it.

05 Mar 2026 07:59:00
Personally, I was too nervous to notice or care what the game was like! It was all about the 3 points. If Hurzeler wants to talk about 'only one team played football', his fan base are after him for, yep, boring football! You can't make it up.

Maybe, over the season, they should play a bit more and not score the same number of goals as Spuds 🥔. A new pantomime villain, who will be gone soon. Poor game, but three points, apparently. Coyg.

05 Mar 2026 08:33:14
It wasn't pretty, Sussex mate, but at this stage of the season, who cares. As for Hurzeler, if we are so bad but points ahead of his team, then what does that say about Brighton?
I know it's great to entertain football fans, but what with the last 3 seasons playing great football and finishing runners up, and all the pundits saying we need steel and have to learn to win ugly, and all the latter Wenger years of playing great football and being 20 Pts behind at Christmas, if we win but it's ugly, well, so be it.

Hope you and the family are all safe and well, Sussex mate.
Take care.

05 Mar 2026 09:18:06
All good here, Bill, and trust the same with you and yours! Moanio, let them have the ball, we'll take the points. Fergie, we'll take the ugly 1-0 and 3 points. Arteta, the anti Christ, boring, dark arts, etc, etc. Teams rolled us over in the past, not now. They would give their right arm to be where we are. Are we the new Millwall, 'No one likes us but we don't care'? Remember, we played great football under Wenger in his later years and didn't win the league, and were admired for the football but didn't win the league.

Don't believe everything you read - most of it is lazy thinking. Check out Opta ball-in-play stats and also 7 minutes extra time. Appeasing Hurzeler, and taking into account any time wasting, so nothing to see here. Coyg.

04 Mar 2026 23:01:17
I 100% agree with you Ed.

I couldn't watch too many games like that & I bet everyone here would agree

However when things gets serious & we need to fight / dig in; we've melted. Tonight we stood and fought. Champions have always needed to do that in every sport. Every winner needs a dark side

Agree - we need to be entertained

{Ed025's Note - i have to say SY i was hoping for better, i have said from the start that i would love Arsenal to win the league...but you know what mate i dont really care if they do or they dont anymore, this is not entertainment or football as i know it mate, it resembles all in wrestling with a mix of cheating and play acting rolled into one...sorry but thats just how i feel..

05 Mar 2026 20:18:56
Hi Ed - I've not been happy with the poor performances all year. Zero creativity & entertainment. I'm with you. I would not pay to watch that week in / out. I don't think Arteta knows how to attack & defend at the same time & couldn't pick a striker if his life depended on it.
However - I was tired of us being bullied and getting rolled over. Being naive in games and being out "street smarted".
So it was nice to see when we are playing shat that we can be more street smarted and have some fight. There will be the ODD game that's required. I don't want it every week but to show we can't be bullied is a good statement. Now we need to show we can play also. Always thought United of old could out play, our fight whoever and whenever when they were at their best.

Do you really think we cheat?
Do we really have lots of people diving?

Yes corners are boring, playing to win corners is terrible etc

{Ed025's Note - all of the above actually SY...and i think its getting worse, this is not Wimbledon of the 80,s mate this is Arsenal ffs and you have a style and a history to live up to, when you do win it you will become the worst team the history of the premiership to lift the crown and always be tagged as that imo and deservedly so, the thing is that with the players you have you could be so much better than this and should be the toast of the footballing world, that might not bother you one jot of course my old friend...but it does me..

04 Mar 2026 07:39:17
{Ed's Note - EHL2020 has posted a new article entitled, Rangers and the Youth Pathway Bottleneck

03 Mar 2026 13:57:47
Hurzeler having a pop at us taking our time at corners yet over the season the ball is in play the same amount of time as.? Yep Brighton. My ST mates at the Amex including my son are really fed up about not being entertained and want him gone and surprisingly having a pop at the club just not caring about the supporters.

They've had two wins in two which makes them safeish, relaxed and a bit more dangerous. Concerned but a win is huge here! COYG.

04 Mar 2026 10:25:15
It's a huge game tonight. A win, and that's 3 in very quick succession, and, in a blink of an eye, only 8 games to go.

Come on, the lads, full steam ahead, and then rotate at the weekend.

04 Mar 2026 11:08:27
Looking at our schedule, all the remaining games may look easy, but they are all banana skins, and we could easily slip up. I'm sure Arteta and the team are aware of this.

I hope that we put in a performance today that makes us all proud, but, most importantly, we bring home three points and no new injuries or red cards, please.

04 Mar 2026 11:17:46
No easy games in the PL, ask Liverpool and Villa.

04 Mar 2026 12:41:41
Yes, not easy being at the top.

04 Mar 2026 22:06:36
We have two home games, then City.

City have two away games, then us.

That's good going into that big game.

Don't want to need a result against Palace away in the last game of the season.

02 Mar 2026 18:51:50
Just wanted to mention Ed001 and all those living in the absolute nightmare going on in the Middle East. Take care Ed and I hope this madness is soon behind you xx.

03 Mar 2026 06:12:04
Well said Sally.

I hope Moe, Trish and the rest are ok.

{Ed001's Note - cheers mate and Sally, all good out here. Apart from being stuck with my parents for longer than expected, as they were meant to fly home yesterday.}

03 Mar 2026 16:41:49
Hello Ed 1, hope you are well.I hope you don't mind me asking but you obviously enjoy living inout in Dubai I believe.What was the reason for moving out there was it work or lifestyle change or both.I have never been but I know people that have and they all say it's a lovely place and very law abiding and a good place to live
Take care Ed hope the mayhem going on our there doesn't effect it to much

{Ed001's Note - a number of things, but initially because I had a bad liver infection and the doctor told me I needed the sun as my body was not metabolising vitamins properly or something. He told me sun and sea air was what I need, so I thought Dubai would be the place. It worked and I am better, but I would not want to leave, I love it here.

I like living in the mix of hundreds of different cultures and it is a very friendly place.}

03 Mar 2026 21:11:08
Cheers Ed, thank you for the insights and stay safe 👍

{Ed001's Note - you're welcome mate and I will.}

02 Mar 2026 12:58:03
Just want to shout out for Raya. What a signing and what a player he has been this season, the saves he is currently making are out of this world. Long may he live and long may he continue making these saves.

Good decision by Arteta. We have some right gems in our squad We fans need to stick behind the team as I think that will make a huge difference.

02 Mar 2026 16:30:01
He has completed his metamorphosis into a cat.

03 Mar 2026 10:25:44
I have to hold my hands up and say I was wrong. When he first came in, I said he was no better than Ramsdale, but he had turned out to be one of the best, if not the best, keeper in the league this season.

03 Mar 2026 15:50:40
Lots of us said that as well, Dracred! lol

02 Mar 2026
New image uploaded to the
Arsenal Player Sightings page entitled,

Click picture for larger image

02 Mar 2026 11:20:41
In today's Premier League set pieces are extremely important. While we Arsenal fans certainly have seen our team benefit from that, do we really want to see this type of football in the future?

For me the answer is no. I want to see open play being the more important source of goals. So how do we change that?

At this point we need to not look just at Arsenal but the league as a whole. We're not the only team emphasizing set pieces. I think the league needs to change first so that the football can get better.

I feel like the refereeing has a big impact on the kind of football we're seeing. Corners are just ridiculous because of the amount of wrestling that is allowed. Rice could have conceded a penalty for handball last night, but frankly the kind of hold he had on Hato should already have been enough to warrant one. But it has become standard to allow that kind of play sadly.

If you allow players to wrestle each other to the ground and you have a good corner taker who can consistently deliver the ball in a dangerous area, then of course you have a massive weapon at your disposal. But if you stop allowing players to hold each other, maybe it decreases the chaos and thus makes defending easier. Meaning teams have to start figuring how to actually play again.

The referees on the pitch become more clueless by the day. They are afraid to whistle because they fear they get the decision wrong. But not whistling is a decision in itself. VAR only intervenes if the mistake is clear and obvious (and even then they might miss it or get the decision wrong) . I for one can't believe that the financially biggest national league has one of the worst sets of referees. It's hurting the final product a lot more than is being talked about, at least in my opinion.

02 Mar 2026 12:52:40
Hi Ice, mate. I totally agree with you on the set pieces. I just held back on raising it because this year (after 3 consecutive runners up) we have to win the league, however it comes. We have an overreliance on set pieces, and it feels like we play for them and sacrifice fluidity, so it will get boring in a year or two.

During Wenger days we played beautiful football but could not defend and get results, and we used to cry when teams like Stoke bullied us with our current tactics. So I will enjoy the results this season and hopefully celebrate the championship, and worry about the tactics for next season.

02 Mar 2026 12:40:38
I've been scrolling round the other sites and the consensus is the same Ice.
Not only is it ridiculous but the keepers are so boxed in, especially shorter keepers like Raya. I think he has been a warrior this season. if this sort of bundling was in open play it would be penalised.

I know we have become experts at set pieces but surely this doesn't have to mean it always ends up with practically the whole of both teams in the box?
Perhaps its time to move on from this tactic and dream up something equally as successful to catch other teams on the hop?

02 Mar 2026 14:27:42
Good points from both of you. I will certainly enjoy it immensely if we win the league, no matter the style. But, at the same time, I hope that in the future more is done to de-emphasize set pieces in general.

I don't blame us for exploiting tactics that the referees allow. They just need to stop allowing that and maybe then the league as a whole will change to a more entertaining one.

01 Mar 2026 21:45:09
We achieved the win we set out for today and at this stage getting three points is all that matters.
It wasn't a pretty game and we were laborious to watch. Last few games we are struggling to keep hold of the ball and give away possession easily. After the red card, we should have controlled the game better but we didn't and invited the pressure.

Not controlling the possession in the last 10 mins has cost us lots of points. These are the fine margins that will decide our fate in the last 9 games but tonight I can sleep well.

01 Mar 2026 10:38:00
Leeds gave a proper go but city rode their luck yesterday. Slightly nervous for today still hoping to get the win we need! COYG!

01 Mar 2026 15:29:05
We have to concentrate on our own game. Nothing but a win will do. Come on, you Gunners.

28 Feb 2026 17:27:15
Come on Leeds! COYG.