ENOUGH OF THE HUMILIATING RESULTS OUR “GRIM REAPER FANS” LOVE TO POINT OUT WHENEVER POSSIBLE, LET’S LOOK AT THE SIDES WE HUMILIATED SINCE THE EMIRATES STADIUM MOVE… by Ken1945
It has been a regular need, it seems, amongst those who always have a half empty glass, to take every opportunity to remind us of our 8-2, 5-1 (2) and 6-0 defeats. I thought they needed cheering up by remembering the other side of the coin, so here goes:
PREMIER LEAGUE:
4/2/12…..Blackburn Rovers (H) 7-1
Same season Manure beat us 8-2 and they lost 6-1 to Man City! What incredible results.
11/5/12…Everton (H) 7-0
We finished 3rd, they finished 7th, 14 points behind us.
14/1/06…Middlesbrough (H) 7-0
We finished 4th, they finished 14th, 22 points behind us.
15/8/09…Everton (A) 1-6
We finished 4th and Everton finished 5th, 9 points behind us.
24/4/99…Middlesbrough (A) 1-6
We finished 2nd, they finished 9th, 21 points behind us.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:
25/9/02…PSV Eindoven (A) 0-4
We progressed to the next stage group, they did not.
25/11/03.Inter Milan (A) 1-5
After needing at least a draw to progress in the competition.
23/10/07.Slavia Prague (H) 7-0
We progressed to the next round.
14/2/06…Real Madrid (A) 0-1
First English team to win at the Bernabeu. (Watch highlights here…)
5/3/2008.Inter Milan (A) 0-2
Beating the reigning European champions.
FA CUP:
27/1/07…QPR (A) 0-6
We progressed to the fifth round, where we lost in a replay 1-0 against Blackburn Rovers.
LEAGUE CUP:
23/9/09….Sheffield United (H) 6-0
We progressed to the fifth round, before losing 2-0 to Burnley.
15/10/12..Reading (A) 5-7
After being behind 4-0 at one stage, the positive switch of the Newcastle 4-4 draw, except we won!!!
Along with these thrashings and humiliations of other clubs, it’s also worth noting a few of the other outstanding achievement at the Emirates:
14/4/07 started an unbeaten run of 36 games unbeaten:
25/4/07 started a run of 25 consecutive games where we scored:
07/1/09 started a run of 7 consecutive clean sheets:
24/5/09 started a run of 12 consecutive wins:
We competed in the CL for 18 consecutive seasons, reaching the final for the first time in 2006, during which we didn’t concede a goal in the knockout stages:
Achieved three FA cup wins in four years, becoming the most successful side in the history of the competition, with 13 wins:
The one and only Invincibles of the modern era, with the first foreign manager to win the premiership:
So, in summary, we will always have those Bayern, Chelsea and Manure thrashings as part of our history, but we also have some great results and records of our own to compare.
I guess it depends if you want to be in a permanent state of purgatory or bliss, fully aware that the good always outweighs the bad, or that one’s glass of wine is half full rather than being half empty.
Cheers everyone, have a full glass on me and take care of you and yours!!!
ken1945
Good, thanks so much.
Moving forward, it should be about fond memories, why traumatize about what’s past. For me, for sure le Professor, is a celebrity, a joy from football.
Arsene Wenger had for a few years the players he needed to play the football he love, the counter attack football. Box-to-box in ten seconds. He had Thierry Henry who could set up a killing pace. And he had so many other players who were able to adapt to that pace. When the Henry days were over Wenger never again get a pace player of that caliber. No more smash and grab football. I guess it made him confused. He wanted to play attacking football so bad that he forgot to buy decent defenders. But defending is all. That’s what life is about – defending. Defending yourself, defending your love ones, defending your country and it’s ideals. Defending. So even in football. You build a team by buying six good defenders, from a first class goalkeeper to a first class defensive midfielder. The rest of the guys are there to create glory. That is, scoring goals. It’s quite simple.
Its was fabregas who change wenger mind
Wenger never use playmaker before fabregas, in other word, fabregas is the first wenger playmaker player had.
He sold viera for fabregas, and when the flow attack change from side(winger) to middlefield(playmaker), wenger nerver buy pure winger again, except for gervinho.
Wenger trying to use tikitaka barcelona, its work for while, but the rise of sugardaddy chelsea (who ruin the players tranfer market and salaries) and stadium dept, make lot of our players was exit couse we cannot resist the power of money other club have.
arie82, So according to you, we never used a playmaker until 2004, despite winning two doubles and two PLs and finishing regularly in top two most of that time Hilarious and joke comment of yours! What exactly was Bergkamp then I wonder! After all he practically never laid on a goal for others, then I presume! Not in that parallel universe you inhabit, at least!
Bergkamp is striker mate! Or y also can say a forward
He also playing as second/shadow striker when henry at the peak and he get older.
He so majestic cause it very rare to see striker with fenomenal first touch at premier that day.
He had many assist, its dont mean he is playmaker!
Wenger never use playmaker before fabregas!
Who do you think wenger sell to give spot to fabregas, its viera!
Or y think viera is also is a playmaker
Wenger was good early because he was first to sign so many European players and the first to sign black players. But in 2005 Mourinho arrived also from Europe who did the same thing i:e sign European and black players. Ferguson adapted and won 5 more titles. Wenger refused to adapt and never won the title again. By 2009 Wenger was finished but was saved by Kroenke with his titles are too expensive mantra. So was born the 4th place sustainable model with the owner who did not want to win titles and the manager who no longer knew how to win titles. That torture lasted 9 long years. Then despite a terrible squad Unai Emery almost got CL in his first season.
But Emery was sacked and now Arteta has Arsenal in its worst league position in 25 years 🙁
Go figure.
Fergie didn’t buy European players? In Wenger’s 1st season winning their only signing was Henning Berg. They had just lost captain/talisman Cantona. French I believe? That squad contained Berg,Poborsky, Cruyff, Solskjaer, Nevland,Johnson, van der Gouw and Schmeicel from Europe. As well as Keane/Irwin who are also Europe but some might try to claim Ireland doesn’t count for whatever reason. Their top goalscorer was the black Andy Cole but yeah lets rewrite history. By the way the next year they signed the black Trinidad and Tobago player Dwight Yorke along with Stam, Blomqvist, Djordic, and O’Shea all European players. They did the treble.
Wenger suffered simply because of the City/Chelsea money influence and them being a competing draw for talented player who wished to play in the Prem. The fact much of our fanbase remains ignorant to the fact we shouldn’t have even been in the top 4 at that point (Liverpool were the bigger club) is mute and doesn’t change the fact it is true.
Brilliant read, thank you Ken 👍
I watched the 5-0 win over Burnley (Arsene’s last home game), the other day.. I’ll never tire of watching it!
And today at 3pm our win over Chelsea (FA Cup final) is on Arsenal.com – happy days!!
Some more great achievements
Signing of Sylvester, Scillachi, Andre Santos, Mesut Ozil and contract renewal, Elneny, Mustafi, Petr Chek, Welbeck, Gervino, Chamak, Sonogo, Park etc..
8-2 ; 10-2; 6-0 spankings
Selling our best players to rivals
Being too naive to change as per the situation, blaming rivals for their progress
Thank you for the good times, but it was not charity, you were well paid.
Good luck mate for the rest of your life’s journey
Very well said, mate!
Not to mention losing 5-1 to Bayern three times in row! 15 goals conceded in just three games against a team we’re meant to be competing with!
Here we have the first of the “Grim Reapers” – get over yourself mate and enjoy the positive side of our great club>
Keep dwelling on the negatives and that is what you become, a moaning old f**t!!
Nobody said mistakes weren’t made…probably to many to list here, but the positives is what drives one forward.
I could name twice as many players that were top class over your list of players, but that’s not the point is it?
Suggest you GET a life and actually enjoy supporting The Arsenal, rather than running it down at every opportunity.
That reply was for Loose Cannon,and thenup pops the second “Grim Reaper” TMJW as usual.
So, all the teams we humiliated weren’t competing with us then TMJW?
They were there just to make up the numbers were they?
As I said to Loose Cannon, get a life and start supporting the club just for once – what on earth ANYONE can find negative about listing some of our achievements is beyond me.
I guess it just shows what negative, boring, miserable “fans” you really are.
QPR, Blackburn, Slavia, Sheff Utd, Middlesbrough, PSV, were on our level were they? Are you sure about that?
Just like Loose Cannon, I do support the club, and in fact Ken1945, I support far more than you do, and do you know why?
Whilst Arsenal were becoming weaker, and weaker, year on year, right before our eyes, and fans like myself were begging for change, it was fans like you that were fighting it. Blaming anyone, and everything for our failures, apart from Wenger. Coming out with stupid sayings like “be careful what you wish for”. So well done mate! You got to keep your messiah until 2018. And look at the absolute mess he left!
So I wanted what was best for Arsenal, whilst you put Wenger before the club, and it cost us big time!
And I enjoy some the great victories, and style of Wenger as well. I have been watching lots of old clips recently, but I do not shy away from the truth like you do. Wenger was just as big of a success at Arsenal, just as he was a failure.
P.s. Maybe stop attacking people for their opinions, and for telling the truth. Because you do not come across as a nice guy.
TMJW, this article was not about Wenger, it was about great victories achieved by the club under Wenger.
Strange you didn’t mention Real Madrid, Inter Milan (2) in your description of lesser teams by the way.
No mention of the achievements our club have made, just the normal negativity that you are an expert at.
As for attacking me and my views, if you think that I will sit back and let you say what you want without replying, you are very wrong.
So go back and enjoy this positive article, forget about the many mistakes we all know happened, including Wenger staying too long at the club.
Enjoy the fact that we were the very first English club to beat Madrid at home (adminpat even thought it good enough to put a link in, so we could all watch it again)!!!!
Forget the humiliations for once and enjoy the positives, it will make you smile, be happy and put you in a positive frame of mind.
Ken, I think I’m in agreement with Thirdman here. Stop attacking people for their opinion and saying the truth only if the truth is taking us forward. If otherwise please continue being the positive fan of our dear club as you always are. Wenger is in the past and for the sake of peace and sanity I enjoined everyone to leave him totally in the past. Let’s us keep looking for word guys. To be clear I’m a fan of saying the truth but if the truth is irrelevant and not helping as in the case of Wenger I bin it. We have had three managers after him and spent over 200m in a season and half therefore we can’t continue making everything wrong now about him.
Mobella, the title of this article was not mine, it was given by others.
What I wanted to do, was create some good vibes, remember the good times at our club since moving to the Emirates, instead of keep repeating the humiliating defeats.
If someone criticizes me for doing that, then let them live in their world of negativity for all I care.
Meanwhile, ‘ll continue watching the videos of us being succesful and I don’t need to apologize to anyone for being a positive human being.
Great article i miss the days of wenger even if some don’t thanks ken
Loose Cannon, your knowledge of our club is quite awful actually.
You obviously have no idea WHY we had to sell our top players, believing then, that one can build a £390,000,000 stadium for peanuts, while still finishing in the top four of the most competitive league in the world – go away and see if you can work out what our club had to do to raise that figure.
By the way, if you have a job, are you well paid? If not, work for the qualifications needed to become a premier league manager and then get paid for what your worth…it’s called life.
Just go back and check who offered what to whom from the list you have produced…I’ll give you a clue, Mustafi signed a 5 year contract in the 2016/17 season, when gazidis, and his three musketeers had taken over the issue of contracts, salaries etc etc. OR what about Yaya Sanogo? He was offered only one contract and left when his contract expired.,,,leave you to double check the others, as I get tired of trying to explain FACTS to those who, obviously, never use them when running down our club.
Mustafi should have read 2016/17 season – sorry.
Mr Ken, thank you for calling me out and your Grim reaper etc tosh at those who don’t mirror your views.Sad such words are used for a fellow support but it does not bother me one ounce, hope it does not reflect your thought process.
I am employed in a very competitive market and i have to deliver results month aftermonth.My salary is not a luxury.So I evolve and strategize my functions to achieve my results. My appraisals are not based on the past glories but on what I have achieved and what is my plan for achievement.( i brought this up as you were enquiring if i had a job)This was what Wenger should have been doing. After Mou came he remained stagnant receiving his compensation while Sir Alex evolved and won things.
Spurs built a new stadium and were in the UCL final, so we were fed lies all these years.We were in the UCL for 16 seasons and never won it.Disgrace.
Ken, the problem with me is that i do not accept mediocrity either in my profession or my passion for Arsenal.No one can advise me on how i should support my club.
We are supposed to be winning things. I’m ok with a respectable loss after a fight but not a surrender or a spanking.Wenger never evolved and that was his downfall. The Fa cups were good but that never made us a European powerhouse.
Finally Ken you have your opinions and I have mine.My only wish is to Arsenal lift the UCL sometime soon and return to the top of the table.Until that is achieved I will always be critical of those responsible for not achieving results and letting us (or should i say me as some people accept mediocrity and lies) down.
Loose Cannon, read the article again if you would, then tell me why you didn’t comment on, for instance, the Madrid win, or the knocking out of Milan the CL holders for starters?
Why did these excellent results not please you in any way at all – rather the opposite, by bringing up negatives that have been hammered on here time after time after time?
You seem to want to dwell on the humiliations and mistakes, but want to deny the positives that this article highlighted.
There was nothing judgemental or contentious in the article, it was a celebration of some great wins versus awful defeats.
Within seconds you come on to remind us all not to forget the bad old results – grim reaper indeed.
I also worked in a results orientated industry, where results mattered, along with the previous results being taken into account, when judging the worth of any individual in the future.
I was judged on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis and the overall picture was part of what kept me employed for the whole of my working life, not five or six bad results.
If every person was judged on their mistakes and not their successes, we would eventually have a world full of redundant individuals, as the only person who is judged to have lived a “perfect life” was a certain religious soul.
However, this article, once again, was aimed at bringing some happy memories in these trying times, by remembering some of our great wins – you decided to bring back the gloom and doom memories.
Enjoy your way of looking at things, I’ll most certainly enjoy mine, by watching yet another positive game, The Arsenal beating Real Madrid…you will probably watch the 8-2 drubbing by manure, each to their own….Happy days!!!
ken we all do mistakes and we are expected to learn from them .Wenger did not or how can you explain 15-3 spanking by Munich?He did not evolve sadly it cost our dear club a lot.As for the Madrid and Milan games we are Arsenal and are expected to fight and win. Wenger did no charity he was well paid to deliver results which he seldom did. And by the way we made it to the finals only once in 16 seasons, not an achievement to be proud of for the compensation he received.You may enjoy victories in small battles I enjoy only a victory of a war.That is perfectly acceptable considering all people do not have the same passion for success.
Stay safe and take care Gunners
Loose Cannon, and the reason for bringing up the negativity was for what reason?
After all, we all know about the humiliations, but very rarely mention the successes do we?
So what was it you found so annoying about celebrating these great wins for the club?
It had nothing whatsoever to do with whether Wenger had or hadn’t evolved,it was about happy days.
Of course you couldn’t answer how you expected the club to pay for a £390,000,000 stadium, during which time russian roubles and an oil rich country decided to enter the premier league…no you expected AW to carry on as if our club was still fighting the “war” on a level playing field!!!
I just hope Mikel Arteta has the your backing as he tries to compete with clubs who have the complete backing of their owners, both in transfer dealings and visual presence…if not you will have to wait much longer for your miracle worker.
@ LOOSE CANNON
Are we to understand from yours that Arsene Wenger wasn’t up your standard of footbal management .
This why you bewailed, you cried, your heart bled for Arsenal for 22 years because you so much wanted a manager of Arsenal who meets your high knowledge of football.
Well I agree you have every right to wollow in the mud of pain like a tired out hippopotamus who can’t find the mud.
I have the perfect cure for all your agonies, the perfect remedy for you I can assure there is none better than this.
Cross Finsbury Part and become a spudite.
No league championship for 59 years
No FA cup final place let alone win the F A for for 28 years.
Oh they won a league Cup – too small for Arsenal it doesn’t count as a trophy (so the knowall pundits regularly inform us.
A coach load of clapped out or second hand mangers
As the Americans say have a nice day at the spudhole.
I bear you no grudge in fact I am happy for you
I wish you a spuds nice 50 years of nothing to shout about.
But if you don’t change your name you will have big problems over there.
You might like to change your name to
“Loose Chicken or may be
‘Loser Chicken’.
With lots of love from Snowden.
BRILLIANT SNOWDEN -ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!!!!
Snowden Hi, That is your arrogance to compare Arsenal with some spudies down the road. The benchmark should have been Man Utd (during Fergie days).Its fans like you who accept lies and mediocrity that you all accept from being title contenders to top 4 to top 6 next what top 10? or top 17?I dont blame you pal, after all the color of snow is white of course!! And i have no love for white jerseys!
Stay safe.
Loose Cannon, and that is EXACTLY what we were doing…toe to toe with united – and then along came abramovitch and the sheik to inject money that we just couldn’t compete with – especially as we were building a new stadium.
By the way, how did you say we were to pay for this stadium?
One way was to ensure top four finishes, qualifying for the CL and all the revenue that twenty years of such brilliant results gave us… whilst having to sell of our best players and getting peanuts to replace them.
Ken, although I dislike our noisy neighbors, but they too moved into a new stadium but were in the UCL final and not so recently they fired their coach to aim higher.Ken its ambition, its passion ,its determination which takes you places, We fed lies and some gullible people digested them.Ok sell your players not to your rivals, choose live wire players not useless dudes.I do cherish Wengers moments but when he systematically dismantled the invicibles the end was near. Loris Vertogan and Erikson chose them over us so Arsene had lost his midas touch when we were crying out for a goalie and defenders.Wenger did not evolve to meet the requirementsof the modern game and he dragged us too. The system was immune to losing or else how can you explain Emerys EL heroics with Seville and our surrender to CFC despite we having a superior squad? Man,it does hurt to see us so low in the table and players play without passion or determination.Was the Olympiacos squad better than ours?
Caressing the useless players wont take us places.Wenger was the reason for our downfall.Period.
Yet still, you do not address the fundemental issues surrounding the building of the Emirates, the rise of chelsea, with their new found wealth or city backed by an oil rich country.
It’s no coincidence that city raided us on a regular basis, buying our players is it?
How many times did wenger have to start re-building his squad when the likes of these two clubs and united came around?
It was vitually every single season – and he was given peanuts with which to do it….simply because we were paying back our debts for the stadium.
Interesting you bring up the spuds CL final, no mention of our one at all!!! Let me remind you, we were 13 minutes away from winning it while playing with ten men for approx. 70 minutes.
We were also playing Barcelona, the club that had dominated football with such awesome play.
We also reached two semi-finals of course, but your negativity regarding AW refuses you to see anything good.
I’m more than happy to blame AW for twenty years of top four finishes, Cl football, 7 fa cup wins, three doubles, The Invincibles and the incredible new stadium.
I’ll leave you to remember the humiliations, the spuds three years of CL football and their £1 billion debt.
Let’s hope that Mikel Arteta comes up to your expectations and no other premier league club is purchased by owners who give their managers 100% support and that city and chelsea stop buying any player they want with unlimited finances.
@loose cannon.
“Bench mark with Manure”
Okay Okay no problem.
Go on the websites of manure pigmol united and yak on an on and on as you do here only this time yak about the millions and millions Fergi wasted on bum players.
ken’s article is not a compare this with this type of article as you seem to be determined in to making. It. It is a recording of some good memories.
If you cannot see that or are not prepared to accept this then it seems to me you have the brain power and thinking ability Donald J Trump. Note I am not accusing I am noting what you seem to be saying about yourself.
I thank you for your end wish ‘stay safe’ I have the same desire for you and those you love at this terrible.
I really miss the style of play that Wenger introduced in Arsenal. Football was interesting, but not now
It is interesting that there are supporters of Wenger here and those who have mentioned the faults under his reign.
We have a lot to be thankful for his ability. It was a wonderful time to have two young sons who got to see the best that Arsenal had to offer under his guidance.
I know your article was a reminder of the good times and we should not forget them. My only wish (wine glass half empty) is that he had made the move upstairs or gone out on a high in the same way that Fergie did when he was still at the top.
SueP, mine also as I have often said.. I wonder if he thinks the same as well?
@SueP,
Your wish or desire have been made by lots of AW admirers, but he had a vision with Mr Dein, even before Stan came on, and was trusted to achieve it. He accepted the challenge, and was in charge of everything, absolutely. He set his goals and players costs within the revenues model he was working with, and on his personal capabilities on football and revenue management hung the GUARANTEE ( collateral, so to say ) for the Emirates Stadium loan. He could not leave earlier. His overstaying was just the last contract, which was simply due to fact that Stan and Gazidis were not ready to bring in another manager. They ask AW to stay one year more, for them to recruit, he rejected, except at least 2. Of which he was backstabbed due to dissenting fans agitation.
Sue P,I woud call Wengers long tenure a “game of two halves”. Firts half magical, exhilarating , glorious. Second half, still overall, way better than average but running out of steam, ideas, ambition and bcoming, ultimately, stale.
I will be submitting an article giving Arsenals ten most important ever people and arguing why. Quite a number will not be players, which when you really think about it is obvious. Top of my list will be Sir HENRY NORRIS. Oh, Wenger will be in that list too, of course he must, but in what position I have yet to fully work out.
Jon, you didn’t give your thoughts on the content of the article however.
Some wonderful memories in there for us all in these somber times wouldn’t you say?
Just to add, this wasn’t about our ex manager, it was about some of the positives achieved since our move, so you and I won’t get in to a Wenger debate!!!
Ken I must apologise as only just NOW, on reading your reply, has it dawned on me that it was YOU who wrote it. Slapdash of me, esp as I am so frantically busy, NOT, doing sweet FA all day long. Actually, dog walking, practising my singing and watching endless performers of all types on YouTube ,plus frequent visits to this mostly empty (these days) site. Sad life or what!
I wanted to send in my list of most ten important Arsenal folk ever with Sir Henry at No 1 and not too many players in that ten either. But no one reads this site much now, so I’m inclined to wait to see when or if this site gets busier again. Doubt it frankly, given the banality and endless rehashes of poor articles, though not this one of course!
No arguing with your factual lists of achievements obviously and so it comes down to that old glass half full or half empty matter. And further down that road I will not go but I much enjoyed your article. It was an oasis in a dry and dusty desert of late.
Hope you and all the family are fit and healthy and not as bored as most of us. Best of luck for now Ken!
BTW, what is your best guess on when we will restart matches again? I am most pessimistic and just do not see how this season can ever be completed now. Best to end it now ,imo and award prizes as the positions are currently, even though unfair on some teams. Whatever happens it cannot now be fair, as everything is changed fromwhere it was, so we may as well leave the proverbial goal posts where they are now,rather than continue altering them.
Thanks for the comments Jon, at least you can see what I was trying to inject in to the debate.
I can’t blame “justarsenal” for some of the articles we are reading and there have been some really good points from Dan, Patrick and yourself.
The one regarding city was excellent and I was surprised you didn’t join in!!
Also enjoyed our discussion on full backs, you left that in mid air!!
The rumour mill gets sillier every day though and I only click and read, normally, if it’s the first time mentioned.
Must be really difficult for Pat to keep interest high and it needs everyone’s input to support this great site in my opinion.
As for when we will see football again…eufa have now used the word “indefinitely” and I assume national leagues will follow suit?
I really can’t see this season, in any competition being finished and I can only see the season itself being void…only my opinion ofcourse.
We are well up here and, because we have countryside all around us, can walk about with impunity, but have had to cut ourselves off from family contact.
So difficult when our great grandchildren knock on our windows asking to come inin order to raid my sweetie jar!!!
Take care and keep on board this site – we’ll find something to argue and debate over!!!
Whatever some people may want to say, it took Arsene Wenger’s tactical nuance to keep us in the top four on a shoe string budget for about 12 consevutive seasons. I have excluded the earlier seasons before the construction of the stadium. Perhaps what some people forget is the fact that Arsenal became a world brand name because of Wenger’s game. Many people were attracted to Arsenal because of the free flowing game which at times seemed like play acting. Arsenal is one of the most popular clubs worldwide mostly because of Arsene Wenger. Is it any wonder that FIFA has recognised him by awarding him a role in world football? While some people engage in Wenger bashing, the world of football treats him like a cult figure because of his achievements at Arsenal. The reality is that Arsenal under Wenger was a powerhouse in football. This is one reason that I appreciate Ken’s article and his general positive attitude towards our beloved club.
Once again the invisible Mike Riley smiles and lafs at us and Arsene in the fog of the office of the PGMO..
Through it all Arsene stood firm and gave us heights of memories the like of which only pre war Gooners knew.
But for team leader Riley who knows the number of great memories Arsene Wenger might have given us.
Merci Arsene. Merci.
Thanks for a good read ken. 🙂
Thanks snowden, glad you saw the point of the article.
The news is so demoralizing at the moment, any positivity is welcome.
Needless to say, for some it was too much of a leap of faith to take the article at face value….hence the “grim reaper” comments.