ArsenaLOL

[One8Seven1*]

Arsenal flew their precious little players 14 minutes to Norwich.

[stealthpapes]

I genuinely don't see why that's a problem. The pedestrianisation of Norwich city centre is a nightmare.

[Royal With Cheese]

Hey, aye. I reckon it’s a really good idea, like. What about mothers with pushchairs and little bairns and that?

TBH it's a moot point as Carrow Road isn't in the middle of Norwich.

[From Despair To Where?]

Arsenal flew their precious little players 14 minutes to Norwich.

Have you tried driving in Norfolk? It's a fcuking nightmare even on straightforward runs to Norwich.

[One8Seven1*]

Arsenal flew their precious little players 14 minutes to Norwich.

Have you tried driving in Norfolk? It's a fcuking nightmare even on straightforward runs to Norwich.

Many times. But this is relevant in regards to the environment and clubs now being targetted re their footprint. Unnecessary flights in particular. From North London, what are we looking at? 2.5 hours? Just a guess as it used to take us around 3.5 hours from Reading. Which is greener? Coach or Plane?

[SpaceCruiser]

ArsenaLOL are not going to win ANYTHING this year.

[John Smith]

ArsenaLOL are not going to win ANYTHING this year.

Superb posting there mate. Keep it up please

[LUX]

General round of applause for Crystal Palace, please.

[Winston Smith]

Wenger

We lost the championship at home against lower teams as we played sometimes at home in a very difficult climate. Away we are championship winners

How not to get on with your own fans

[genome]

Or how to placate a crowd on the eve of a protest

[genome]

Away we are championship winners

Urrm

[genome]

Huge protests at the Emirates

[Ian Royal]

Away we are championship winners

Urrm

Ouch, how shit must Chelsea have been at home!

[Ascotexgunner]

Possibly one of the most sh+t protests of all time.

[Royal Rother]

Great story!

Arsène was so clever at identifying great players to come in. But there were one or two gambles that didn’t quite come off. In the summer of 2000 a player turned up on trial at our pre-season tour. He was a tall centre-half. Now, Martin Keown was always worried about people coming in to steal his position. If we had a centre-half on trial, Martin would say he was useless. This big guy from Latvia, Igors Stepanovs, turned up. He was a unit, but seriously, he was not up to standard.

A few of us were on the bench watching as he played in this trial game. Stepanovs is out there and every single pass he made, the boys started applauding, just because we knew Martin would be getting a bit steamed up by it. Dennis Bergkamp was sitting behind Arsène and kept doling out these compliments about this defender. “Great header! Unbelievable tackle!” Igors kicked this one ball 20 yards away from where it was meant to go but it still went to one of our players so we all stood up clapping. Martin’s muttering: “He’s not that good.” He started to point out where he missed a tackle or a header.

That night we went for dinner and laughed about it as we were only trying to wind Martin up. We all knew Igors was nowhere near the standards set by Tony Adams, Martin and Bouldy. But Martin is such an easy target because he bites. Once someone bites it’s too tempting. Dennis seldom missed a trick because Martin would kick him every day in training. He always came out with a blinder to explain it to Dennis: “I’m just getting you ready for what you are going to face in the match.” Martin was a great player, a great character, a great winner. I think we all cared so deeply.

When we got back to the training ground at London Colney a week later we had a surprise though. Igors was sitting there. I said: “What are you doing here?” “They signed me. Four-year contract.”

Incredible. Arsène didn’t know we were just trying to tease Martin. He just kept listening to us heaping praise on this player. And if Dennis Bergkamp stands up and says: “What a player,” Arsène would be entitled to take a bit of notice. I suppose it looked like a bargain at around £1m. No disrespect to anyone from the lower leagues but Igors was a yard behind us on the pitch, it was like taking my brother to training.

The next thing we know we’ve got the biggest injury crisis we’ve ever had at centre-half. And the only fit centre-half we’ve got is Igors and who are we playing at the weekend? Man United at Old Trafford. Going into the game our back four looked a bit dicey really. Oleg Luzhny, Gilles Grimandi, Igors and Ashley Cole, who had to go off at half-time.

Dwight Yorke ran us ragged. Seriously, it was humiliating. They scored the first goal and we managed to equalise. We thought: “OK, we’ll take that.” And then all of a sudden the goals started pouring in and we were 5-1 down by half-time. There is a massive walk to the tunnel at Old Trafford and you could see Arsène was fuming. He hardly every swore or shouted but he did that day. I remember doing the long walk to the tunnel alongside Dwight Yorke and he asked: “Where the hell did you get that centre-half from?” “Look, it’s a long story …”

We sat down in the dressing room and it could’ve been 9-1 as David Seaman actually had a blinder in goal. Arsène started letting off and he’s not a swearer, it just doesn’t suit him, and I’m really desperate to laugh. I’m making no eye contact and I could see Pat Rice in my peripheral vision sending me a look that said: “Don’t laugh. Whatever you do. Do. Not. Laugh.” Arsène was going mad. And that was the only time, in the eight years I played under him, he went crazy at half-time. He was always focused on being calm, recovering and keeping concentrated on what we needed to do. We lost 6-1 and poor Igors barely played again.

[stealthpapes]

That and the Steve Bould nine dinners one, lovely.

[stealthpapes]

Are Arsenal actually about to finish second? Poor spurs

[Winston Smith]

I wonder if there is a cancellation period in Pochettino's new bumper contract

[Pepe the Horseman]

Newcastle down to 10.

[AthleticoSpizz]

and 4-1 upspurs