45 thoughts on “Arsene Wenger hugs Pat Rice: 2011-2012 in a single photo”
+4Nikki
Yes. Happy St Totteringham Day.
A story of relieveness i suppose.
By the way Tim, don’t want to send another message to Jack Wilshere for trying to make Arsenal fans follow him to support Chelsea? Ha..
Anyway hopefully this is the start of something better. The start of the road of Arsenal to winning something. Today proves that this team finally didn’t choke when the pressure is on them. And hey, we actually won a trophy, although it’s an imaginary trophy, but from what i’ve seen, this experience might be “the” experience that might push us to walk the last distance. Just like we always hear whenever journalist and the like criticize us for not be able to do it. So, whenever this Arsenal team feel nervous and go to a cup final or title decider, this moment might be one of the moment that they can remember.
Fight until the end and be rewarded…!!!
+1m
I took wilshire’s tweet to be an anti-spurs tweet
+1jr
Manuel Almunia, getting a jump on next season and eager to show his gratitude to his now former club for the unending patience it showed, took his place between the posts for his new team, the only condition on his new employment being that he change his name, which he did, … to Martin Fulop.
Thanks Manu!!!!!!!!!!!!
+5les
Can i just say ‘thank pat rice’. Hope you have a great retirement
+2Bunburyist
Wow.
Honestly, the way we’ve been playing lately, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see us draw that game. I’m delighted, over the moon, etc., but this past month or so has taught us that this squad needs something… SOMETHING. I don’t know what. Arteta? Mertesacker instead of TV? A creative midfielder / playmaker? A disciplined DM?
I don’t know. Probably all of the above.
You look at the squad we have, and our injuries, and the poor decisions, and the way we’ve looked completely clueless so often this season, and you have to say it’s incredible we finished third.
Above the best Tottenham team in decades!
HAHAHHA!!!
+2pigmund
I guess Wenger is in agreement with me. Always thought Pat Rice had a rather comfortable looking bosom.
+1Merkin
Man of the Match for Arsenal, Martin Fulog.
Man of the Match for WBA. The near linesman. .
Thank you Pat Rice and good luck for your future. Thank you Roy Hodgson and good luck for your future.
+2Joey
Yes – Happy St Totteringham’s Day to you all!
Too many heart-attacks in that final game and a pretty woeful final 5 games of the season for us – all without Arteta who is definitely our rock.
Best wishes to Pat Rice – but have to add thank F*** Bouldy is the new assistant ‘cos he will not allow that kind of defending next season surely. Absolutely shocking all year! Sort it out Bouldy Son!
Happy Summer Goons!
PS Despite the hilarious factor of the Spuds being robbed a Champions League spot – I truly want Bayern to spank Chavsea! Cannot have them as Kings of Europe! No way!
+5Bunburyist
Oh, and congrats to Everton…playing for nothing really, but their fans must be delighted to finish above Liverpool today!
So then, will you be cheering for Chelsea or Munich on Saturday?
+2Bull
Munich can’t stomach that Chelsea could win the ultimate prize before us.
ak47
happy St tots!!!
what a ride, did anyone else get flashbacks while time stopped just before gibbs turned into leonidas?
come on bayern, give rubber johnny turd face a front row seat to HELLLLLLLLLL!!!!!
ak47
what a pic. screensaver, thanx.
+2nycgunner
We owe Martin Fulop a huge thanks for his hat trick of errors.
The last tackle by Gibbs was worth about 35mm euros. Well done to the team for turning the season around. Now let’s get the house in order. Happy St.totteringham’s day!!
Limestonegunner
Yeah, really. That man was clearly a double agent. Should have done better on all three goals!
Yan
What-a-season. Congrats everyone! Gibbs saved the day. Well done! Still don’t know how to feel about the champions tho. And of course I will cheer for Bayern, even tho I can’t stand Robben.
+1Andrew Crawshaw
Tim, thank you for your excellent blog which made the bad times somewhat easier and happy St Totteringhams day to both you and your family.
+1Osita Osama Anahquenzeh
Despite Man $hitty and Na$ri being champions of England, I believe that the Arsenal are the true champions given where we were in September.
ManUre and Man $hitty should lose their key players at the beginning of next season and let’s see how far up the table the will be at the end of the day.
Wenger’s clasp of Rice says it all: Pat is no ‘yes man’! The picture is worth a million words.
Here is wishing Pat a blessed retirement.
Sahil
LOVE this pic. The best man-hug there has ever been.
tino
Wow, what an amazing end to an incredible season!
My thoughts on this season are tied to the squad. The team seems to be able to cope with some long term losses but not short term ones.
It’s remarkable how we managed to finish one position higher with two more points and two more goals than last year. It’s easy to forget that last years team was fairly close to winning something. A squad that had Cesc, Nasri and Clichy. Vermalean was gone the whole year. This year Wilshire and Diaby contributed nothing.
It seems to me that once the squad has a fairly clear starting eleven they develop a good understanding and can be quite convincing. Unfortunately once we have short-term injuries the cohesion in the team falls apart. Last year it was Cesc being in and out of the team. This year it has been Arteta and the fullbacks.
tunde
tks to martin flop
Limestonegunner
Relief and exhaustion. What a season! We have a hard fought 3rd place an improvement in league place and points over last year despite everything. Well done Arsenal. Let this be a platform from which to build. All to do this summer. If we get it right–hang onto our players, trim the fat, and recruit one or two genuine talents. We’ll be challenging, I think.
Ssinderias
Happy St. Totteringham’s Day to all Gooners! Glad we didn’t have to rely on Scums’ result. But three goals, and not one by RvP?
Ssinderias
Don’t think I’ll be able to bring myself to root for Chelsea though. Hope the Shite get turned over in their CL qualifier. There will be no London teams greater than the Arsenal
+1Caribkid
Happy St. Totteringham day to all.
Arsene’s wife may get jealous if she sees that man hug. Hope he hugs her when he gets home on mother’s day.
Fulop the MOTM as we limped home to our 3rd place trophy. A good reminder to all that a lot of work on and off the field needs to be done for us to be competitive next year.
My lucky Arsenal red jocks did its work once again and now I have no excuse to get drunk on Mother’s Day Sunday. (DARN)
craig
screw that! I’m crunkd! Hope the little lady likes beer breath. Happy St Totteringham’s and Mother’s day gooners
Bunburyist
Well said, Caribkid.
But isn’t winning an “excuse” to dip into the Appleton’s???
Caribkid
Half a bottle later all I can say is “wooooooow, we woooon” and then burp.
-2abel
Thanks to marton f_lop.and @caribkid arsene aint married.he considers Į̸̸̨ƭ a distrction to him and d management of arsenal
CarsonWells
He’s married to Annie Brosterhous. They have a kid.
Noel
Tim,
A very relieved St Totteringham’s Day to all of you.
The end of the season has seen a few strange games, and on reflection, it all seems to have changed with the departure of Arteta. I didn’t realise how much he meant to the team until he was gone.
I wonder if at some stage of the off-season, you would be able to find some stats that either prove or disprove my perception.
Thanks.
jax
I’m sure that this was the only Premier win we had with Arteta not playing.
+4GoonerNC
Happy St. Totts Day! Three players that Wenger was mocked for provided the goals. The unreliable Gibbs came up with the game-saving tackle. RVP DIDN’T score.
Sometimes I just feel like Wenger should end the day by jumping on the table in front of the media and give the double wanker sign. The man is an absolute legend and thoroughly under-appreciated in England.
I’ll hug you any day, Arsene!
craig
Well it wasn’t pretty, but it worked. 3rd is one better than last year, and there were some great moments along the way. I’ll be buying the DVD this year… have to get Thierry and Robin’s great goals.
Kevin Davies, welcome to the championship, it’s your kind of place. Totts and the diving Chimpanzee, enjoy another summer behind Arsenal, knowing you choked it away. Rooney, Fergie, cry yourself to sleep tonight. Nasri, Fock you, you’re still a cont. Kompany, congratulations.
Thanks for all the great work this season Tim, and cheers to everyone who comes by. Lets hope for a productive offseason, and 4 more years of RVP and TW14.
Bunburyist
Too right about Kevin Davies.
+2Tee Song
WBA beat us last season, at the Emirates, 3-2 with Almunia gifting them two goals. Guess they paid us back with interest.
jaymin
I love this team so much. Thank you Arsenal FC for such an amazing performance over this season. Arsenal make me so happy.
Bunburyist
On St. Totteringham’s Day, Gooners celebrate with a traditional lasagna dinner and alcohol of any kind (so long as it’s bottled), though some sects prefer a roast chicken (one that has been ritually killed with cannon shot by a priest of St. Totteringham).
Any other traditions I should be aware of?
+3Jon
We normally do our traditional “Whack-a-Spuds-fan” on St. Totteringham’s Day, but now that I’ve got my whacking stick out, I can’t seem to find any. All I found was this empty bandwagon.
Cheers,
Jon
+2Cliffy
Thumbs up to Gooner FC…right said friend..
To all those fans who were wanting Arsene to step down while we were in the doldrums of the season…i have one thing to say..
(quote Pumpkin…) Any of you fucking pricks say that again, and I’ll execute every motherfucking last one of ya…!!!!!!!!!
Its been a really tough season…with all the odds stacked against us. We saw how Tots, Pool and Chelsea got thrown off the roots because of their shortminded approach and lack of a cohesive philosophy when it comes to transfers or game play.
Despite what you will say, I think we have gotten the otherside completely from the losses of two key players and the media frenzy of how we are not spending and going for it like King Kenny or Roman…
Arsene knows..
JimPossible
This was a delightful season. I am positive for next year.
Some predictions for the rest of this decade…
Manchester United = Liverpool 2.0
Manchester City = Barcelona 2.0
Mark Cuban will own a Premier League Team
Arsene is nowhere near retirement
Remember, it’s only a drought if you are accustomed to rain. When I travel through the desert, I don’t consider it a drought when it’s dry. Arsenal fans… It’s gonna rain, often.
santori
Just love predictions.
Arsenal are not going to make Top 4.
Liverpool will challenge this year.
United will endure as they are so professional.
Change in heirachy in North London because no Arsenal player with the exception of RVP will make the Spuds team.
Arsenal won’t win anything because we haven’t for 8 seasons much like Liverpool for 22 seasons without the title or Coty for 44 or Montpelier or Dortmund.
Personally, I felt like someone walking out of the Sahara after this particular season. Glad to have made it across the finish but scorched.
Word on the defending. Fundamental issues have never really been worked out of the kinks. We have been slightly better but if we remember shipping 2-3 goals against Spurs and Chlelsea despite our win, is it much of a surprise that we are still shipping them at this point?
Work needs to be done in trainnig and much as I wish Pat all the best, I hope Bould comes in and offers a fresh approach to the matter.
Better from us this season overall considering 3 points in 7 at the start. But still a long way away from fully competing on 3 fronts although I think (IF we keep RVP), we are closer to competing with the Mancs then we think (And if we iron out the defensive issues of course)
Finally Fulop, I expect Wenger was pointing to him at end of match as he was going to make the rare exception in buying the fellow a round of drinks. A glass of Red and a glass of White. Cheers mate.
Yes. Happy St Totteringham Day.
A story of relieveness i suppose.
By the way Tim, don’t want to send another message to Jack Wilshere for trying to make Arsenal fans follow him to support Chelsea? Ha..
Anyway hopefully this is the start of something better. The start of the road of Arsenal to winning something. Today proves that this team finally didn’t choke when the pressure is on them. And hey, we actually won a trophy, although it’s an imaginary trophy, but from what i’ve seen, this experience might be “the” experience that might push us to walk the last distance. Just like we always hear whenever journalist and the like criticize us for not be able to do it. So, whenever this Arsenal team feel nervous and go to a cup final or title decider, this moment might be one of the moment that they can remember.
Fight until the end and be rewarded…!!!
I took wilshire’s tweet to be an anti-spurs tweet
Manuel Almunia, getting a jump on next season and eager to show his gratitude to his now former club for the unending patience it showed, took his place between the posts for his new team, the only condition on his new employment being that he change his name, which he did, … to Martin Fulop.
Thanks Manu!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can i just say ‘thank pat rice’. Hope you have a great retirement
Wow.
Honestly, the way we’ve been playing lately, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see us draw that game. I’m delighted, over the moon, etc., but this past month or so has taught us that this squad needs something… SOMETHING. I don’t know what. Arteta? Mertesacker instead of TV? A creative midfielder / playmaker? A disciplined DM?
I don’t know. Probably all of the above.
You look at the squad we have, and our injuries, and the poor decisions, and the way we’ve looked completely clueless so often this season, and you have to say it’s incredible we finished third.
Above the best Tottenham team in decades!
HAHAHHA!!!
I guess Wenger is in agreement with me. Always thought Pat Rice had a rather comfortable looking bosom.
Man of the Match for Arsenal, Martin Fulog.
Man of the Match for WBA. The near linesman. .
Thank you Pat Rice and good luck for your future. Thank you Roy Hodgson and good luck for your future.
Yes – Happy St Totteringham’s Day to you all!
Too many heart-attacks in that final game and a pretty woeful final 5 games of the season for us – all without Arteta who is definitely our rock.
Best wishes to Pat Rice – but have to add thank F*** Bouldy is the new assistant ‘cos he will not allow that kind of defending next season surely. Absolutely shocking all year! Sort it out Bouldy Son!
Happy Summer Goons!
PS Despite the hilarious factor of the Spuds being robbed a Champions League spot – I truly want Bayern to spank Chavsea! Cannot have them as Kings of Europe! No way!
Oh, and congrats to Everton…playing for nothing really, but their fans must be delighted to finish above Liverpool today!
So then, will you be cheering for Chelsea or Munich on Saturday?
Munich can’t stomach that Chelsea could win the ultimate prize before us.
happy St tots!!!
what a ride, did anyone else get flashbacks while time stopped just before gibbs turned into leonidas?
come on bayern, give rubber johnny turd face a front row seat to HELLLLLLLLLL!!!!!
what a pic. screensaver, thanx.
We owe Martin Fulop a huge thanks for his hat trick of errors.
The last tackle by Gibbs was worth about 35mm euros. Well done to the team for turning the season around. Now let’s get the house in order. Happy St.totteringham’s day!!
Yeah, really. That man was clearly a double agent. Should have done better on all three goals!
What-a-season. Congrats everyone! Gibbs saved the day. Well done! Still don’t know how to feel about the champions tho. And of course I will cheer for Bayern, even tho I can’t stand Robben.
Tim, thank you for your excellent blog which made the bad times somewhat easier and happy St Totteringhams day to both you and your family.
Despite Man $hitty and Na$ri being champions of England, I believe that the Arsenal are the true champions given where we were in September.
ManUre and Man $hitty should lose their key players at the beginning of next season and let’s see how far up the table the will be at the end of the day.
Wenger’s clasp of Rice says it all: Pat is no ‘yes man’! The picture is worth a million words.
Here is wishing Pat a blessed retirement.
LOVE this pic. The best man-hug there has ever been.
Wow, what an amazing end to an incredible season!
My thoughts on this season are tied to the squad. The team seems to be able to cope with some long term losses but not short term ones.
It’s remarkable how we managed to finish one position higher with two more points and two more goals than last year. It’s easy to forget that last years team was fairly close to winning something. A squad that had Cesc, Nasri and Clichy. Vermalean was gone the whole year. This year Wilshire and Diaby contributed nothing.
It seems to me that once the squad has a fairly clear starting eleven they develop a good understanding and can be quite convincing. Unfortunately once we have short-term injuries the cohesion in the team falls apart. Last year it was Cesc being in and out of the team. This year it has been Arteta and the fullbacks.
tks to martin flop
Relief and exhaustion. What a season! We have a hard fought 3rd place an improvement in league place and points over last year despite everything. Well done Arsenal. Let this be a platform from which to build. All to do this summer. If we get it right–hang onto our players, trim the fat, and recruit one or two genuine talents. We’ll be challenging, I think.
Happy St. Totteringham’s Day to all Gooners! Glad we didn’t have to rely on Scums’ result. But three goals, and not one by RvP?
Don’t think I’ll be able to bring myself to root for Chelsea though. Hope the Shite get turned over in their CL qualifier. There will be no London teams greater than the Arsenal
Happy St. Totteringham day to all.
Arsene’s wife may get jealous if she sees that man hug. Hope he hugs her when he gets home on mother’s day.
Fulop the MOTM as we limped home to our 3rd place trophy. A good reminder to all that a lot of work on and off the field needs to be done for us to be competitive next year.
My lucky Arsenal red jocks did its work once again and now I have no excuse to get drunk on Mother’s Day Sunday. (DARN)
screw that! I’m crunkd! Hope the little lady likes beer breath. Happy St Totteringham’s and Mother’s day gooners
Well said, Caribkid.
But isn’t winning an “excuse” to dip into the Appleton’s???
Half a bottle later all I can say is “wooooooow, we woooon” and then burp.
Thanks to marton f_lop.and @caribkid arsene aint married.he considers Į̸̸̨ƭ a distrction to him and d management of arsenal
He’s married to Annie Brosterhous. They have a kid.
Tim,
A very relieved St Totteringham’s Day to all of you.
The end of the season has seen a few strange games, and on reflection, it all seems to have changed with the departure of Arteta. I didn’t realise how much he meant to the team until he was gone.
I wonder if at some stage of the off-season, you would be able to find some stats that either prove or disprove my perception.
Thanks.
I’m sure that this was the only Premier win we had with Arteta not playing.
Happy St. Totts Day! Three players that Wenger was mocked for provided the goals. The unreliable Gibbs came up with the game-saving tackle. RVP DIDN’T score.
Sometimes I just feel like Wenger should end the day by jumping on the table in front of the media and give the double wanker sign. The man is an absolute legend and thoroughly under-appreciated in England.
I’ll hug you any day, Arsene!
Well it wasn’t pretty, but it worked. 3rd is one better than last year, and there were some great moments along the way. I’ll be buying the DVD this year… have to get Thierry and Robin’s great goals.
Kevin Davies, welcome to the championship, it’s your kind of place. Totts and the diving Chimpanzee, enjoy another summer behind Arsenal, knowing you choked it away. Rooney, Fergie, cry yourself to sleep tonight. Nasri, Fock you, you’re still a cont. Kompany, congratulations.
Thanks for all the great work this season Tim, and cheers to everyone who comes by. Lets hope for a productive offseason, and 4 more years of RVP and TW14.
Too right about Kevin Davies.
WBA beat us last season, at the Emirates, 3-2 with Almunia gifting them two goals. Guess they paid us back with interest.
I love this team so much. Thank you Arsenal FC for such an amazing performance over this season. Arsenal make me so happy.
On St. Totteringham’s Day, Gooners celebrate with a traditional lasagna dinner and alcohol of any kind (so long as it’s bottled), though some sects prefer a roast chicken (one that has been ritually killed with cannon shot by a priest of St. Totteringham).
Any other traditions I should be aware of?
We normally do our traditional “Whack-a-Spuds-fan” on St. Totteringham’s Day, but now that I’ve got my whacking stick out, I can’t seem to find any. All I found was this empty bandwagon.
Cheers,
Jon
Thumbs up to Gooner FC…right said friend..
To all those fans who were wanting Arsene to step down while we were in the doldrums of the season…i have one thing to say..
(quote Pumpkin…) Any of you fucking pricks say that again, and I’ll execute every motherfucking last one of ya…!!!!!!!!!
Its been a really tough season…with all the odds stacked against us. We saw how Tots, Pool and Chelsea got thrown off the roots because of their shortminded approach and lack of a cohesive philosophy when it comes to transfers or game play.
Despite what you will say, I think we have gotten the otherside completely from the losses of two key players and the media frenzy of how we are not spending and going for it like King Kenny or Roman…
Arsene knows..
This was a delightful season. I am positive for next year.
Some predictions for the rest of this decade…
Manchester United = Liverpool 2.0
Manchester City = Barcelona 2.0
Mark Cuban will own a Premier League Team
Arsene is nowhere near retirement
Remember, it’s only a drought if you are accustomed to rain. When I travel through the desert, I don’t consider it a drought when it’s dry. Arsenal fans… It’s gonna rain, often.
Just love predictions.
Arsenal are not going to make Top 4.
Liverpool will challenge this year.
United will endure as they are so professional.
Change in heirachy in North London because no Arsenal player with the exception of RVP will make the Spuds team.
Arsenal won’t win anything because we haven’t for 8 seasons much like Liverpool for 22 seasons without the title or Coty for 44 or Montpelier or Dortmund.
Whatever.
So… Joey Barton.
Enough said.
Too much, in truth.
Barton…goaded by two Argies and fell for it.
What a plonker.
Clinging on for dear life.:D
Personally, I felt like someone walking out of the Sahara after this particular season. Glad to have made it across the finish but scorched.
Word on the defending. Fundamental issues have never really been worked out of the kinks. We have been slightly better but if we remember shipping 2-3 goals against Spurs and Chlelsea despite our win, is it much of a surprise that we are still shipping them at this point?
Work needs to be done in trainnig and much as I wish Pat all the best, I hope Bould comes in and offers a fresh approach to the matter.
Better from us this season overall considering 3 points in 7 at the start. But still a long way away from fully competing on 3 fronts although I think (IF we keep RVP), we are closer to competing with the Mancs then we think (And if we iron out the defensive issues of course)
Finally Fulop, I expect Wenger was pointing to him at end of match as he was going to make the rare exception in buying the fellow a round of drinks. A glass of Red and a glass of White. Cheers mate.