When will enough be enough?

When planning out this post for today last night, I was thinking of my different observations from yesterdays match.  Little nuances of different individuals performances and how it contributed to the collective.  How each member of the squad can do little things throughout a game to effect the result and then the events of Las Vegas occurred as I was getting ready for bed.  How it is possible for one deranged, motivated person to cause so much devastation and sadness?  The events hit home to me as I had several friends and acquaintances in the city at the time. Luckily none were harmed but as the coverage continued late into the night and the casualties continued to rise I couldn't help but think...





That, ladies and gentlemen, is where I had to stop the other day.  I was going to write something insightful and interesting but I couldn't.  The emotions I was feeling got the better of me and still two days later it is still difficult for me to express myself.  If you watched any of the videos from the terrorist massacre and heard the relentless stream of bullets, of these metal objects of death, raining down on a completely innocent crowd of people simply enjoying a concert it leaves you in a state of surrealism. At least it did for me. It felt like a dream; it felt like a nightmare. How could someone indiscriminately end the lives of innocent people?  You try to empathize, you, in this dream state, put yourself in this situation and it does not even begin to give you an idea of what these people went through. Ceaseless ringing of bullets being fired, each one having the potential of ending a human life. Many of them did.

As individuals we have a hard time of having empathy for people we don't know.  We see the total number of casualties and it's impossible to fathom the amount of loss of life.  We have a hard time connecting with victims. As the days go on we will have the story of these individuals, the family and friends they left behind as their lives were taken from them but that is not enough for us to feel the empathy necessary in a situation like this.  Instead of thinking about their stories, if you truly want to empathize, think about your own.  Think about how complex your life truly is, the interactions and thoughts you have on a daily basis with your world around you. That is what was lost. For every single one of the 59 that lost their lives, they lost that complex and deep interaction with those around them, something we inherently take for granted. These are people. We are all people. We the people owe it to one another to realize this, respect it and most of all cherish it.

This leads me to my title...when will enough be enough? How many reminders is it going to take? How many more mass shootings is it going to take for us to realize that providing people who are truly deranged with the means of causing so much devastation is something we can directly prevent?

Hardly a post on Arsenal but something I had to say.

-Best Coast Gunner

Goaliver Giroud

Last night (wrote this on Friday) Arsenal took on BATE Borisov in the Europa league, and it proved to be a historical night. Arsenal beat the Belarusian side 4-2 however the bigger story was for the 19th time in club history an Arsenal player reached the century mark for goals. Olivier Giroud stepped up to a spot kick in the second half of what was a thoroughly entertaining, open game and slotted it cooly into the bottom corner of the net sending the keeper the wrong way to put Arsenal up 4-1 at the time. Celebrations were quite subdued but it must've been a relief for the frenchman who had been sitting on 99 goals since his heroic game winner against Leicester in the first game of the Premier League. 7 games and a month and a half later he had finally done it.  He said after the game, "Yes, I'm very proud of that, it's been a few weeks. To be honest with you I was expecting this goal, but sometimes you shoot without looking and it goes in, while sometimes you are strugling a lottle more with bad luck or misfortune.  I'm glad and I'm happy for myself and hopefully more will come."

Giroud's time at the club has been divisive to say the least.  He came to the club with the burden of being the striker to replace Robin Van Persey, no easy task.  He had just won the Ligue 1 title with Montpellier in a season which he was excellent. He was named the leagues top scorer, netting 21 goals and creating another 9 for his teammates.  As the focal point of their attack, he big reason why they took the title that season.  He had some truly fantastic finishes and two hat-tricks that season and earned himself a move to The Emirates. He arrived to little fanfare as few were aware of his exploits the season before and had a price tag of 13 mil, hardly something to get excited over. When he got off to an agonizingly slow start, missing several sitters, questions of his finishing began to be asked. Ultimately labeled as a poor finisher, he's never been able to shake it. People have debated if he should be a starter for the club or even at the club despite being one of the most consistent performers. He's played a part in some of the best goals you will ever see on a football pitch during his time at Arsenal. Wilshere's goal against Norwich and his sublime scorpion finish against Crystal Palace last year come to mind.  Interestingly enough, his first season with the club he managed 17 goals and 11 assists. Hardly a measly contribution, but it's never been enough for many supporters.

During the summer Giroud was linked with a move away from the club but I for one am happy the Frenchman decided to add another chapter to his Arsenal story as he put it.  He is an incredibly valuable asset to have coming regularly off the bench and provides the intangible senior figure leadership for the dressing room.  He's a proven goal scorer and you can alway count on him giving his all for the club.  The occasional worldie he has in his locker isn't all that terrible either. So congrats to Goalivier on becoming a centurion and long may his goal scoring continue!

-Best Coast Gunner

Hi I'm The Best Coast Gunner

As I sit here, in the computer lab at the student union, behind the keyboard of a computer I could only wish to some day afford, I am a nervous wreck. I've been contemplating whether or not to actually do this for years now, and, well, now that it's a real thing it is incredibly frightening. Putting my words, my thoughts and ideas into the big wide web that is the internet for all to read is something I've dreamed of doing but just writing each word is testing my shaky confidence.  I've always thought that this would be second nature to me but nothing could be further away from the truth. It's a scary proposition but ultimately this is something I want to do for me and hopefully whoever decides to read this will find some enjoyment within its words and paragraphs.

Now that that's out of the way, onto why were all here, The Arsenal. Arsene Wenger's men currently find themselves in their typical rebound from a disastrous result away from home.  The Anfield result has been analyzed, criticized, and chastised. It was a terrible result, simple as that, and I do not want to go back down that road again. After we had a rather routine home win against Bournemouth which took us to a London derby with Chelsea. The scoreless draw away at Chelsea was an incredibly positive result and really something we should all celebrate. Questions of our ambitions will undoubtedly be asked but if you were to offer me 0-0 draws away at the other big 6 teams of the Premier League I'd take that in a heartbeat. Winning is awesome but not loosing, especially away in those big matches, should be equally as important. After a somewhat rocky performance against West Brom at home, which saw us keep a clean sheet and take all 3 points, we sit in 7th position in the league table 3 points off 3rd place Chelsea and 6 points off league leaders  City. Hardly where we want to be but considering it's early days I'm not overly worried for our chances to get top 4 this season.

The most intriguing competition of the season for me has to be the Europa League.  We, as fans, finally get something different! Over the past few years (decade plus for some) it's become all too familiar. Battle for top 4, make it to the knock out stages of the Champions League, where were knocked out by either Bayern or Barcelona and some bright spots to make us feel like we could mount a title challenge. Europa League presents a genuine opportunity for us to win a European trophy. Wenger has said as much. Back in 2015 when we went out of the Champions League spectacularly to Monaco, Wenger said, "Perhaps it would be better to no go out like this and make the Europa League, we would be more likely to win." That didn't sit too well with gooners at the time but thinking back to it we now have a very real chance of winning. Apart from adding a trophy to the cabinet we've yet to win the competition gives the fans a chance to see the club's young, upcoming talent on display.  Players like Reis Nelson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Joe Willock, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, once he's healthy, will be on display in competitive matches, fighting for a spot in the first team. Youngsters haven't had many opportunities to impress lately with early exits in the League Cup and regular Champions League appearances meant it was very difficult to show the boss and the fans what they can do.

Anyways, tonight we have a Europa League match away at BATE Borisov which plenty of youngsters will be in the squad. Reis Nelson, Joe Willock and Ainsley Maitland-Niles will all start with a bench composed entirely of U23 players. These chances must be taken by these youngsters if they want a future at the club and hopefully they go out there and play with a hunger and desire to succeed.

Hope you enjoy the blog!

Best Coast Gunner