I read your columns regularly.. and like most I disagree a lot with what you say, however could never question your knowledge of the Arsenal.. but I just wanted to say that the one problem I do have is your insistence on saying “will not win” as such an absolute. You cannot tell the future any more than I can. I agree we most likely will not win, the odds are not in our favour, we should not win etc.. but to speak about a result, as a point of fact, before the match, takes away from your credibility.
best and keep it up,
Chad Malone/Tulsa
Part of the fun of ANR is that we have thousands of intelligent readers. Some of them are university teachers. Their constructive feedback is useful, to me especially.
This complaint from Chad Malone makes a very good point. It tells me to stop doing something I’ve done too many times. When I’ve said Arsenal will win, and they did win, that did not justify the manner in which my prediction was made.
When they lose, I get stick. Liverpool at Anfield was a good example. I thought Arsenal were playing well enough to win there. Why did I say ” Arsenal will win”? Mainly because I firmly believed it. And partly, I suppose, because I wanted to reassure fans who might be nervous before the game. I wasn’t nervous because, at that time, I didn’t think Liverpool were that good.
A lot of what I’ve written about Arsenal here is intuitive, impressionistic, off-the-top-of-my head stuff and that is risky. It’s written in the moment for the moment. You can come a cropper doing that, as I’ve done many times. Mistakes creep in at the best newspapers, despite armies of editors and sub-editors, so it’s hardly a surprise that Myles Palmer goes off the rails almost every week.
By the way, you should question my knowledge of Arsenal. I’m one of many football pundits. I do my best to write honestly and tell you what I think. But it might be be healthier if you questioned everybody’s knowledge.
After this wise advice, I won’t predict Bolton v Arsenal today.
Sagna is the best right back in the Premier League and you can’t afford to lose him for one game let alone three weeks. It’s been hinted that Adebayor may be rested, so Bendtner and van Persie may play. I sometimes think Bendtner is the best striker at the club. But I also reckon he will be sold in the summer.