Dog's Football Thread Part Six.

[Trapper John]

Hey TJ, I managed to get tickets yesterday for Spurs v Arsenal 10th Feb, will be sitting just above the gooners in club Wembley section. Any chance you will be going? I will take pics for you to see. incase you don't make it.

Tomorrow at 10am tickets go for sale for FA cup against FC Wimbledon, which is Jan 7th....am going to aim for right up front near where Mauricio and players sit. I tried to get closer for gooners match but were all sold out , jeez they went quick!

One of my brothers is looking into tickets for it, normally we wouldn't get a look in but we reckon being the bigger capacity of Wembley we might have a chance. Don't know how many tickets they'll allocate to Arsenal it'll be a full house thats for sure, I'm guessing there will be a good few more than if it was at White Hart lane?

Yeah that Wimbledon draw was right up your street, shame it wasn't at Wimbledon eh, mind you you'd never have got a ticket in a million years if it had been.

Oh wow, hope he gets them, then I can sing to you from above where u will be sitting ahhahaha! Oh and what a massive diff of prices from Wimbledon match... for 3 of us to go to that one is only £25 but for gooners match £75 for adults and £28 for my kid. But something I have always want to go to is a match against the gooners, to feel the atmosphere and chanting will be amazing!....wish you get to go too.

Yeah I hope we do too. We want 5 tickets though, me and three brothers and our cousin. Back in the day, the five of us would go to Highbury regularly and do loads of away games, especially FA cup games. It will be just like the old days again

It was so much simpler when it was standing, you were just allocated a section and that was it. Now with all seaters it's all row and seat number bollocks ..... spoils it all in my opinion.

[Vicky]

If we hadn't lost stupid points to shite teams, Rangers would at least be level with Celtic.

Thats exactly the same mantra I've been repeating for almost a decade and a half.

Yes it's very frustrating.

Your lads are also in action tonight.

A London derby and hopefully Arsenal will get all three points.

We have to, no ifs or buts or excuses. This is the second spell of two away games on the trot we've had in recent weeks and we haven't been doing very well away from home at all.

Add that to the usual luck Arsenal get by drawing shit teams just as they've turned a corner and suddenly become Brazil or Italy. I'm not overly optimistic of a win here to be honest, I don't think we'll lose but another draw and 1 pt just isn't gonna cut it.

It's even more important for me tonight as well, I foolishly asked my daughter's OH if he wanted to come round and watch, him being a big West Ham fan. He ummed and arred then, when they were proper shit. Now since their win against Chelsea at the weekend, he's right up for it.......bastard.

I think West Ham beating Chelsea was a fluke, it was their first win in five games.

I wouldn't worry too much, I think Arsene will make it clear that anything other than three points, isn't acceptable.

Arsenal can't lose anymore points if they want to finish in the top four.

By the way..

Who does the wee fella support, it's not West Ham is it?

Bribe a child enough and they can be bought.

It worked with my Granda and brother.

Instead of supporting Albion Rovers like my dad, Cols opted for Airdrie like my Granda.

[Trapper John]

By the way..

Who does the wee fella support, it's not West Ham is it?

Bribe a child enough and they can be bought.

It worked with my Granda and brother.

Instead of supporting Albion Rovers like my dad, Cols opted for Airdrie like my Granda.

He's a gooner right down to the kit and pairs of jim jams. His Dad keeps trying to get him to say he likes West Ham but he then whispers in my ear later, "I like Arsenal really granddad"

[Sunny]

Hey TJ, I managed to get tickets yesterday for Spurs v Arsenal 10th Feb, will be sitting just above the gooners in club Wembley section. Any chance you will be going? I will take pics for you to see. incase you don't make it.

Tomorrow at 10am tickets go for sale for FA cup against FC Wimbledon, which is Jan 7th....am going to aim for right up front near where Mauricio and players sit. I tried to get closer for gooners match but were all sold out , jeez they went quick!

One of my brothers is looking into tickets for it, normally we wouldn't get a look in but we reckon being the bigger capacity of Wembley we might have a chance. Don't know how many tickets they'll allocate to Arsenal it'll be a full house thats for sure, I'm guessing there will be a good few more than if it was at White Hart lane?

Yeah that Wimbledon draw was right up your street, shame it wasn't at Wimbledon eh, mind you you'd never have got a ticket in a million years if it had been.

Oh wow, hope he gets them, then I can sing to you from above where u will be sitting ahhahaha! Oh and what a massive diff of prices from Wimbledon match... for 3 of us to go to that one is only £25 but for gooners match £75 for adults and £28 for my kid. But something I have always want to go to is a match against the gooners, to feel the atmosphere and chanting will be amazing!....wish you get to go too.

Yeah I hope we do too. We want 5 tickets though, me and three brothers and our cousin. Back in the day, the five of us would go to Highbury regularly and do loads of away games, especially FA cup games. It will be just like the old days again

It was so much simpler when it was standing, you were just allocated a section and that was it. Now with all seaters it's all row and seat number bollocks ..... spoils it all in my opinion.

Yes, I was told about those days and how much better they were...
In Australia I used to go to the 'SOCCER' matches in Adelaide and we all would stand up lol......the first time I used a mobile phone was there and this guy said to me would you like to ring someone with it and I was like what? no way really? was in shock, so I rang my friend in Greece and said guess what? am standing at a football match talking to you with this new cordless phone that has come out, (remember the brick ones TJ?) lol....they were like wow, fooken hell...


Anyway fingers crossed you and your brothers and cousin get to come! oh and COYS!

[Vicky]

By the way..

Who does the wee fella support, it's not West Ham is it?

Bribe a child enough and they can be bought.

It worked with my Granda and brother.

Instead of supporting Albion Rovers like my dad, Cols opted for Airdrie like my Granda.

He's a gooner right down to the kit and pairs of jim jams. His Dad keeps trying to get him to say he likes West Ham but he then whispers in my ear later, "I like Arsenal really granddad"

Nice on TJ.

[Vicky]

Actually both my Granda's supported Airdrie.

One was from Airdrie and the Northern Irish one was adamant, people should support their home team.

So when he was in London he supported Chelsea and when he moved to Scotland he supported Airdrie.

[Vicky]

India have unveiled a statue of one of the greatest footballers of all time..




I think an Englishman must have made it, because they hate his guts.

[Vicky]

The Scots don't hate him, we think he's great.

[Vicky]

Rangers only have one statue outside Ibrox and thankfully it looks fine.

It's a statue of John Greig who was the Captain the day of the Ibrox Disaster and has the names of the 66 Rangers fans who were killed on it.

[wutang]

The Scots don't hate him, we think he's great.

Same here

[Trapper John]

Well I better get this over with, it was as I predicted we wouldn't lose but neither would we win and a point from the game just isn't enough when those you see as the competition all win, with the exception of Liverpool who appear to be just as flaky as Arsenal.

By no means do I say this as an excuse but this West Ham side under Moyes is not the one everyone knocked about for fun just a few weeks back, I could pick out ten areas where they are so much better but suffice to say defending is Moyes forte and he's got them well drilled already.

The game itself was a carbon copy of pretty much every away game we've played against lower table opposition this season, plenty of possession and fuck all else and as it turned out, not the game to have given Olivier Giroud his first Premier League start. If you are going to play your big target man up the middle, then for fuck sake play to his strengths. It's as if they know no other way, try to thread the ball through the eye of a needle and in 1 out of 20 attempts you might be successful......this type of football is bollocks now and totally out of keeping in today's Premier league - staunch, packed defences will eat you up every time, they are all wise to the tricks and moves these days.

Wenger was completely clueless about how to go about affecting the game in our favour, continuing to believe in the players he started with even though they'd proved they couldn't break through the West Ham defence.

To highlight this point, he reverted back to his old tactics of substituting 15 mins before the end when he took off one of the few players who managed most of the night to retain the ball and muscle the opposition out of the way, Alex Iwobi, replacing him with a clearly fragile Danny Welbeck. Then with 8 mins to go, he puts on the striker he should have started with, Lacazette with absolutely no chance of affecting the game and taking off Alexis Sanchez who quite frankly is more of a hinderance than a help these days.

I suppose at the end of the night both teams got what they deserved, with Moyes and West Ham being the far happier. At the beginning of the month, West Ham faced the prospect of meeting Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal in their next three games, I doubt even Moyes would have predicted a narrow defeat, a win and draw from those, he must be ecstatic.

[Trapper John]

I can't do a report on the other games as I couldn't be arsed to watch everyone else progress while we stagnate, so I'll just do the results with a comment or two where necessary.

Is It just my imagination or are Man City getting to play all the teams when they are at their lowest ebb? ..... anyway unsurprisingly they whacked bottom of the table Swansea 0-4 last night.

In fact none of last nights results came as any surprise with:

Spurs beating Brighton 2-0 in what reports described as 'grinding out a win.'
Man Utd beat Bournemouth 1-0 in typical boring Jose Mourinho fashion.
Liverpool were held to a 0-0 draw at home by another club to stop the rot with a new manager, WBA
The other two clubs who seem to have discovered a new lease of life under new management, fareing even better with:
Everton going to Newcastle and winning 0-1
and resurgent Leicester going to Southampton and trouncing them 1-4

It will take an apocalyptic slump in form or a Munich style air crash to stop Man City winning the title this season, though I think the margin will be a lot slimmer than it is now, come the end of the season.

As far as the 'also rans' go though, only a single point separates Arsenal in 7th and Spurs in 4th. Chelsea are 3rd with 5 points above 7th spot and United 2nd, 8 points above 7th place. It's also worth noting Leicester coming up on the rails from way back, they are now 8th just 4 points behind 7th.

So it's clear that from 2nd spot down, the final resting places are far from a foregone conclusion at this point, with 21 matches and 63 points still to play for.

[Vicky]

Rangers won their 4th game in a row last night and stopped Hibs claiming their 4th straight victory against them.

It's a great time to hit a run of form like this and suddenly the Celtic fans aren't so mouthy about us.

Well we've had nearly two years of them lording it over us, so the game on the 30th can't come quickly enough.

[Vicky]

You know Trapper John...

It wouldn't kill you to mention Rangers occasionally.

It's not as if there's so many football fans in the thread, it's hard to keep track of who supports who.

[Trapper John]

Rangers won their 4th game in a row last night and stopped Hibs claiming their 4th straight victory against them.

It's a great time to hit a run of form like this and suddenly the Celtic fans aren't so mouthy about us.

Well we've had nearly two years of them lording it over us, so the game on the 30th can't come quickly enough.

Yep I saw that, a good win to keep you in touch is always a great feeling, of course the knack is to keep it going, thats the hardest part. Nevertheless 3 points against anyone, won in whatever fashion is good but doesn't last long because it's straight on to worrying about the next game, it's fucking relentless, football is.