A Tale of Two Free Kicks

from the Factory Floor

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE

Ground: Ashburton Grove

Referee:  Martin Atkinson

Arsenal             1-2              Chelsea                 29 September 2012

Gervinho [42]                      Torres[20]

                                                  Mata [53]

For the first time in very long time I woke up for this one not knowing it was a match day immediately when I opened my eyes. Maybe that’s down to the crap sleep I've been getting lately, but I thought it had something to do with the supreme confidence with which I approached the visit of Chelsea to our emerald shores, erm, pitch. I really thought we’d tonk them.

I arrived earliest at the Factory, got a Guinness from Jack Keane and was shortly thereafter joined by the Kaiser, sporting a new Vermaelen home kit.  We were soon met by tEd, Tin Lid, the Captain, and Barry.  There was a fair smattering of chavs around the place, but not nearly as many as for a normal kick-off. One of the things I noted right away was the absence of the NY Blues flag in front of the bar. Ours hung in all its glory though. It didn't turn out to be any kind of portent of good fortune to come, but I enjoyed that we got that privileged position on the day.

Point Taken

from the Factory Floor

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE

Ground: Middle Eastlands

Referee:  Mike Dean

Manchester City 1-1 Arsenal                            23 September 2012

Lescott [40]                Koscielny [82] 

I'm a fan of the kind of odd symmetry football can produce at times. When the Arsenal last met Manchester City, it was a magnificent strike from Mikel Arteta that settled the contest, capping off a commanding all action display. On this instance, given Vermaelen's flu induced absence, the Spaniard stepped forward to marshal the side and did so with the same level of performance. He was as immovable as his follicles in the heart of our midfield.

Also due to the Verminator-shaped hole in our defense, up popped Laurent Koscielny from Steve Bould's Center-Back Pez Dispenser and into the core of our burgeoning rearguard. He would enjoy his own brand of symmetry, but we'll get to that in a moment. Whisper it quietly but such is the depth growing in our squad that the last minute absence of our captain before visiting the champions had zero impact on my expectation that we would get something from this game. So it was with great anticipation that I greeted tEd and Aubrey at the Factory to take this one in.

Goldi Poldi Halelujah

es gibt einen Fußballgott!

So, Lukas Podolski smashed his duck at the mugsmashers. For all of us this goal had a sense of being overdue, not necessarily for the German, but because it was the first Arsenal goal full-stop this term. The "seven years no trophies" jibe was about to be reincarnated as the "x hours no goals" klaxon. He clearly enjoyed the goal as his own first strike but also as the release valve on the pressure cooker that was building in the absence of last season's talisman after two scoreless draws.

What A Difference A Year Makes

from the road

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE

Ground: Anfield            2 September 2012

Referee:  Howard Webb

Liverpool 0-2          Arsenal           

                                          Podolski [31]

                                          Cazorla [67]

Owing to a pretty grueling work travel schedule, prior to Sunday’s match I had not seen a full ninety minutes of Arsenal football in this nascent 2012-13 league campaign, nor have I made it to the Factory as a consequence.  But if I can’t get my drinks off of Liam or Jack Keane, I’ll more than happily take them off of Jack Bradley from his own lower level bar. Not only did the racket of his blender suggest some delicious frozen rum drinks, it nicely obliterated the grating noises that permanently flow from Stewart Robson’s gobby mouth.

With that fuckwit providing the ‘color’ commentary and Howard Webb governing proceedings, Ted, Jack, and I set about taking in this season’s visit to Anfield with some trepidation. The customary atmosphere was lacking. There was the usual air of injustice from the home support at any perceived slight by the opponent [perhaps why they staunchly defend a guy like Luis Suarez?] but outside of that the Scousers had little to shout about. We were looking dead solid and it was nice to see the emergence of synchronized movements on defense in this Arsenal side.  In other words we had some seriously decent team shape. Over the past years I have grown accustomed to the team weaving patterns on attack, but it was beautiful to see the team move in unison when they didn’t have the ball to thwart the opponent.