It is with great sadness that we announce the bereavement of David Faber aka ‘ Goonerholic’, in the early hours of the 25th December 2019. We are deeply sorry if this comes as a shock to some of you. Our thoughts are with you, who we know will miss him and his words. We have been overwhelmed and really comforted by the love and respect shown towards Dave and also the kind messages sent to the family. We have enormous respect and gratitude towards Dave’s Arsenal family. We have recently realised that the opportunity for you to post has been prevented, due to the lack of recent posting and that ..read more

What a weekend to be away. Yet another Arsenal capitulation, yet more points senselessly dropped. I may have only seen the highlights but mountains have been written about this game, so although everything may have been said I will briefly add my tuppence. It may add little that most haven’t already said or validated. I only caught Twitter once during the match. David Luiz flicked home an Alexandre Lacazette glancing header to double our advantage after Sokratis Papastathopoulos had finished superbly at the near post. 2-0 look like a statement. No messing around today. We need and must get a r ..read more

Let’s face it, there won’t be much in the way of change to the team for the visit of Crystal Palace after Thursday. Bernd Leno likely starts behind Calum Chambers, Sokratis Papasthopoulos, David Luiz, and Sead Kolasinac. Granit Xhaka to patrner Matteo Guendouzi behind Mesut, just kidding, Dani Ceballos. Bukayo Saka will surely join Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and  Nicolas Pepe up top. With Palace just a point behind us the result looks less convincing than pre-match last season when The Eagles inflicted a Champions League denying win at The Grove. The ‘holic pound My money is hopefully on ..read more

A team of mixed levels of experience turned out for the Arsenal. A back four of Hector Bellerin, Shkodran Mustafi, Rob Holding, and Kieran Tierney started. Lucas Torreira started in midfield and Alexandre Lacazette was up front. All of which suggests these players these players will not feature against Crystal Palace on Sunday. Oh dear. There was still promising youth in the shape of Joe Willock, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Emile Smith Rowe, and Gabriel Martinelli. In the 4th minute Vitoria Guimaraes had the first shot on target which thankfully was straight at Emilano Martinez. Four minutes later ..read more

Last season’s final weeks dispelled the majority of the positive Arsenal feelings I’d squirreled away. The prospect of this coming season left me underwhelmed. And then there were droplets of good news. Celtic had agreed to our offer for Kieran Tierney. William Saliba was coming (and then going, of-course, it wouldn’t be Arsenal otherwise), a barrow load of dead and decaying wood was offloaded. Martinelli was coming and he was better than anyone had ever been. Ceballos, the future of Spain was coming. And finally, we signed Pepe, a mega star so mega that I’d never even heard of him in his gala ..read more

I understand when Ive been  around for the last twelve years I have never missed a preview and it’s been something that’s been planned I have got a drinker to step into the breach. Here we are at 9.30 for whatever, and now, hopefully just this once I am not in a position to do the full preview and surely it’s too late to ask a drinker to take over at this short notice and particularly. I am only writing this because people will still want to discount the ‘holic pound from their bet tomorrow, when hopefully the Europa League team is back and they can repeat the form they have shown so far ..read more

A surprising selection saw Unai Emery play the same team as last time out with the exception of Joe Willock in for Dani Ceballos. Kieran Tierney, Rob Holding, Lucas Torreira, and Alex Lacazette all started on the bench. The hosts started on the offensive but a break for Nicolas Pepe and his cross was inches away from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the box. Sokratis Papastathopoulos got the wrong side of Egan and was clearly hauled back by the shirt, but who really expected Mike Dean to award the blatant penalty? Fleck’s late chop on Aubameyang brought about the first yellow card of the even ..read more

It’s been a full day, one way or another, and a preview post awaits. Let’s see what we can do at this hour of the night. Positives to take into Monday night? Middlesex, Yanited, and ‘Pool have all dropped points this weekend. Tougher is that we need to win at Bramall Lane to reclaim our top four berth having been overhauled by Chelsea and Leicester, both with home wins by the narrowest of margins on Saturday. The good news is that we are back to full strength, Reiss Nelson aside. Now Unai Emery really starts to earn his corn. Bernd Leno will retain his place in goal, but oh, the options ahead ..read more

The accursed interlull. This one crept up on me to be honest. This will probably sound incredible but it simply slipped from my mind at the backend of last week into Saturday. Normally, as you know, I would try to watch as many home nations matches plus as many as I can where Gunners are likely to feature. I still cannot believe England were playing on Friday and I simply didn’t know or hadn’t registered it. As it turns out it was to prove a turgid affair and I missed the Three Lions first qualifying defeat in ten years. Is that true? Although I’m obviously aware we have been producing the goo ..read more

Here is the post I had hoped to run with last night, but was probably best left for a day, as things turn out. It is a bit me, me, me for a while I’m afraid, but it’s an international break so there isn’t much fresh football news to discuss, and eventually it reaches a point I hope will resonate with many of you. By now most of you will know I have not been at my best of late and it is beholden on me me first and foremost to thank so, so very many of you for your good wishes and uplifting messages which have kept me out of dark places while with your great help I have been dealing with things ..read more