» The Gooner World

Sol Campbell's pain is Sol Campbell's gain

2010-03-09T23:49:00.000-08:00

If someone drew a productivity chart out of Sol Campbell's footballing career, the laws of Economics, more precisely, the law of diminishing marginal utility would be perfectly understood: Spurs defender -> the lowest ebb in the foodchain for a self-respecting footballer -> Arsenal defender - playing along side then defending giants of the English game - An Epl medal winner -> A Champions league losers medal -> An FA cup winner -> A league two player with no self dignity what so ever.

If the scales had been stopped then, Sol Campbell would have been a household name in all Economics textbooks as a perfect example for the above-mentioned law. However, Sol Campell refused to accept Morecambe to be his final resting place.

After quitting Notts County with no iota of dignity whatsoever, upending Notts County in the process, everyone must have been ready with a footballing obituary for Sol Campbell, even this writer read some.

But no one said this to Arsenal, more importantly to Arsene Wenger. He re-signed Sol Campbell, Arsenal's first ever player to come back during Wenger's reign.

Campbell's first match back, a romantic FA cup encounter against Stoke, was more about him testing out the elasticity of the legs, the thought process of his brain and the passion to be back, rather than keep a clean sheet to help Arsenal ease into the next round. He got a few headers of Sidibe and Fuller, lost some battles which had pace written all over it, but more than anything, the passion and the steely resolve was back - or did even disappear.

Then in that match where Ramsey was injured, while everyone were on tears or were consoling fellow players, Campbell wore a disinterested almost bone-chilling look: the message was clear, these things happen in football, let's get on with it.

After Vermaelen tapped in the third goal of the night, Campbell, with one foot on the hoardings, was fist-pumping while his much younger colleagues were gasping for breath.

For a 35-yr-old, let alone the physical tortures of playing at centre-half for a side like Arsenal, the body will already be crumbling under the weight of 20 years of intense physical training. But, for Campbell, even though the pain will not allow him to play more than 90 minutes a week, the eustress will guarantee him the physical and the mental satisfaction which will offset the physical pain.

Talk of playing for the Blighty at the World Cup would be a very myopic assessment, but with Ferdinand's injury troubles and John Terry's infidelity causing problems in the English camp, Campbell might yet don the three Lions jersey at the World Cup - on a more deserved basis than former Galaxy David Beckham.

For now though, Sol Campbell is discovering new boundaries of the term swan song, while Arsenal are breathing new life into a lost cause.

Transfer market closes, No fairytale return for Vieira

2009-09-01T09:49:00.001-07:00

As the clock struck 5 PM on a rather cold British summers day, people-footballers and agents-would have felt an involuntary, intangible window closing on them for the next for the next four months. Like a waft of thick air, circling over their heads and vulturing down on them to complete the misery.

On the other side of the closing window, there would have been guardian angels, guiding football players and angels on their lofty quest to extract the penny from the club before signing on the dotted line, to establish an allegiance with a new club-not for the love- but for the money.

This summer has seen curtailed transfer spending from most of England, London has been pretty frugal if you exclude Spurs, while in the North East, Manchester City went bonkers. They were the race car-like a Ferrari or should we say Red Bull- while the rest have been like the erstwhile Minardi's.

Spain, much to the irritation of every pundit with a cockney accent, have spent the most. It could be argued that Madrid's spending can be compared to Citeh while the rest have pretty much been content enough to develop their squad. Barcelona have spent more than a 100 Million quid themselves, Sevilla have snapped up Alvara Negredo, a very promising Spanish striker. Valencia and Atletico have managed to keep hold of their stellar men, undoubtedly the best bits of business done by them, while the rest have pretty much been shopping at any place which does not sound like HARRODS.

Arsenal created quite a stir after declaring an interest in re-signing their former captain Patrick Vieira, but much to the consternation of the romance writers, the Frenchman decided to stay at Inter. Thomas Vermaelen, the only notable addition for the Men in Red, is looking like a great addition and many have already labelled him as CHOTTA VIDIC (small Vidic).

But as far as i'm concerned, the best bit of business we have done-or not done- is the absence of not doing a deal with FC Barcelona over a certain MR Cesc Fabregas. Many people-me included- think his departure to the Nou Camp is a foregone conclusion, but the more years we keep him, the chances of us winning some silver will keep getting stronger.

Man United look like a school bound child without the school bag after C. Ronaldo's world record transfer to Real Madrid. The United mid-field were looking impotent against Arsenal-so impotent that Almunia and Diaby decided to give them a helping hand alongwith Mike Dean. With Valencia looking likely to put more hours in a gym than on the football pitch, they could have huge problems come the business end of the season. Their fortunes, however, will only be written of by a blind man. They are slow starters and are more likely than any other team to win an endurance test-which the 38 game long BPL is.

Liverpool have sold Alonso and got in G. Johnson, who has arguably has had the biggest transfer impact so far among all the English clubs, along with Alonso's replacement Aquilani. Sadly, the Italian punters will have to wait till October to see the Italian in action.

Portsmouth were a circus; First, there was a fire sale and then there were auction style buys on the final day of the window.

From an Arsenal point of view, we were always living in a surrealistic world hoping for the return of Vieira. At least, this time next week, we can herald the return of Mozart- no, not that Mozart, I meant Tomas Rosicky, who has finally washed all the plagues in his body.

Chamakh could have been a smokescreen for some other player, Wenger always likes smokescreens. I do expect Matuidi's deal to go through during the January transfer window-No, I don't have one of my drivers driving me to St Etienne. It is just knowing Wenger.

He might have spent on these two players but the team's strong start has meant the cash will be stored in the bank for the near future.

DIABolical Pompey annilihated by awesome Arsenal

2009-08-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

As Aaron Ramsey stroked in Arsenal’s fourth, in a sun-swathed Emirates stadium, Wenger might just begin to feel more and more vindicated by his stubbornness in not willing to invest to replace the outgoing players.

It was the Arsenal of old which turned up at Emirates; the blitzkrieg counter-attacking, the silk and delightful passing, the jaw-dropping one-two’s, this was the Arsenal which loved to play football.

Arsenal did take time to find their stride, but once they did, Pompey were always chasing shadows for the length of the pitch. They were resistant for quite sometime, but the once the wall was broken down, it was always going to be a rout.

Eduardo, who started his first EPL game since that fateful day at St. Andrews, showed some mesmerising down the left hand side and then squared the ball quite brilliantly for Abou Diaby who lifted the nall into the top corner of the net from 18 yards. The next goal came in the next minutes.

From a deep-lying Arsenal area, Fabregas released Eboue with microscopic precision and Ivory Coast man, starting his first EPL game of the season, put it on a plate for Diaby’s second from the edge of the six-yard box.

The bell-ringing visitors had hope around the corner. From a Krancjar corner, the ball found Belhadj, who put in a teasing cross into the six-yard box. Younes Kaboul escaped the attentions of his marker and Almunia went backwards to cope with the rising ball, but the young Frenchman took advantage of the situation to make ir 2-1 before half-time.

Second half saw Fabregas removed in place of Ramey, with the Spaniard suspected to have complained about a tight hamstring. Pompey had the better of the early exchanges in the second-half and could have had a possible last-man offence against them. But the referee ruled in favour of William Gallas the the gunners. When you are down at the bottom, things never go your way.

Gallas and Vermaelen combined to make it three on the day for the gunners, the Frenchman enjoying a great scoring start to the campaign. David James was substituted, while Arsenal called upon Merida and the impressive Bendtner.

Robin Van Persie cut a frustrated figure as he could not score from numerous opportunities but he will be satisfied with the pass which found Ramsey. This goal was the Welshman’s first in the EPL.

Manchester United played superbly to put aside any doubts on the frying pan with five unanswered second-half goals.

The stage is now set for the Arsenal and Man United, undoubtedly the doyens of the English game, to do battle next weekend and chalk up a victory in the psychological department.

Arsenal conquers parkhead with relative ease

2009-08-18T20:43:00.000-07:00

Whenever the Champions league music is played, there is that uncontrollable feeling of emotion. With the music plus a chorus of Scottish fanatics crying “You Will Not Walk Alone,” one might have wondered whether this Arsenal side had the bottle to cope with the situation and come out trumps. They did have the bottle and dismantled Scotland’s best, Celtic, two-nil in a warm evening at Parkhead.

Before the match three Arsenal players had fitness tests, one of them being Fabregas, the others being Denilson and Sagna. All three of them cleared the tests. Celtic also had injury problems going into the game but Loovens did manage to make the final cut.

The match started a bit sombrely with both teams testing each other out. Arsenal’s counter-attacking system was deployed more than once as the half wore on, but it was Celtic who had the first clear opportunity. From an Arsenal corner, the ball broke kindly to the Men in Hoops, and if not for Thopmas Vermaelen, who put in a last ditch clearence, the story could well have been different.

Arsenal, then began playing with their usual style and substance and the gulf in class was pretty evident. The first goal did come pretty soon but in the most unlikeliest of fashions. From a Fabregas free-kick, 25 yards out, the captain took his shot. The ball was deflected to the other side of the goal by William Gallas, completely wrong-footing Artur Boruc, the Celtic keeper. A lucky break for Arsenal before the whistle.

Celtic were the dominating of the two parties in the early exchanges of the second half, but they could not do anything with the possession they had. Arsenal flicked the switch with incoming Diaby replacing the Russian, Arshavin. It immediately paid dividends. Diaby showed some brilliant skill down the left hand side before passing it to Clichy and from his cross, Gary Caldwell put in to his own net.

Arsenal were well on thier way to the group stage proper. Marc-Antoine Fortune and Scott McDonald both came in for the Hoops but the Arsenal back-four stood the test of time and the atmosphere to return home with a famous result.

The return leg is fixed for next Wednesday and Arsenal might well ring-in the changes as they have two daunting trips to Manchester, first to the red-half and then to the blue-half, all in the space of a week.

Arsenal hit Everton for six

2009-08-15T22:54:00.000-07:00

With classiness and sumptuous football, Arsenal dismantled Everton 6-1, in a humiliation at Goodison park. By the time the final whistle was heard, boos rang around the stadium as thr Blues faithful were voicing their disgust at the Everton team and its manager, David Moyes.

With the Premeir-league, chuntering into life atlast, after 73 days of absence, it was a chance for the squads to have a good, long look at themselves before delving into the transfer market.

Chelsea eked out a win, the latest contenders to threaten the big-four cartel, Man Citeh, also started their campaign with a fine 0-2 victory against Blackburn Rovers. The pressure was on the Arsenal to suggest that their superiority would not be in question(against the smaller clubs)just yet.

Arsenal started the game with their new formation of a 4-3-3 (can also be interpreted as a 4-2-3-1) and it paid dividends. Bendtner, who seemed to enjoy Adebayor's absense provided the first goal. With quick feet and trickery, he evaded the attentions of Leighton Baines and passed the ball to Fabregas, who gave it an unmarked Denilson. Denilson, from 30 yards out, had only one thing mind, and he found it quite spectacularly. A curling shot into the corner of the net and Arsenal was buzzing.

Then Denilson had to clear off the line from a Fellaini header, the only instance of Everton's attacking presence in the first half. More impressive work from Bendtner earned Arsenal a free-kick in the right hand side. Van Persie curled in a delightful free-kick and Thomas Vermaelen was on hand to put the ball back across goal into the net. The Belgian was free and could not believe his luck.

Then Van Persie went under a physical challenge from Yobo, and from the resulting free-kick from Fabregas Gallas nodded home to make it 3-0. Again some shambolic defending. All this in the first half itself.

Things did not go on any better for the merseysiders in the second half. A quick counter from Arsenal down the left hand side saw Persie finding Fanregas, and the Spaniard stroked it home from just inside the penalty box. Moyes managed a wry smile. Fellani's rasping thirty yard shot found Almunia, who released Fabregas. The Spaniard ran the length of the pitch to make it 5-0 for the visitors. He then paid tributes to the departed Espanyol skipper, Daniel Jarque, who passed because of heart attack.

Wenger rung the changes and in came Eduardo who had the simplest of tap-ins after some good work from Arshavin found the post. As the final whistle loomed large, there was a consolation for the visitors; Saha found the net from 18 yards.

The pressure will be on David Moyes to find a solution with Joleon Lescott, who has been hangling on a move towards Man City. Arsenal next go to Parkhead to play Celtic in a Champions league qualifier. The EPL champions, Man Utd, open their defense of the title today against Birmingham.

The new season is finally upon us

2009-08-12T03:36:00.000-07:00

Get the drums out of the lockers, get the fireworks and the pyrotechnics to work in tandem, get your bottle of beer and a packet of chips, get the posters hanging from the walls, besiege your cable guys and forget about the outside world; The greatest football league in the world, after in-absentia for three months, is ready to show its face once again in a new avatar.

After meandering towards a close in May, people would have almost reached the point of temporary insanity. No more United-Pool or Arsenal-Chelsea matches to adorn their gold-plated diary for the next few months. No more watching Javier Mascherano swear in Latin at Steve Bennet. All those crazy moments deserted our TV screens, but they are back, bigger and better.

Citeh have bought enough players to fight a football war with forwards, Arsenal and Spurs would put a comdom company to shame with their defenses, Pool have bought a nobody and sold a somebody, United,as it would seem, has sold a footballing god, only to get a footballing novice. Chelsea have safely steered clear of transfers, avoiding it like swine flu.

What is it that made us all from a cricket watching, sachin adoring public into shouting Henryyyyyyyyyy or a Ronaldooooooooo in the middle of the night. Football brings joy, not only to the main pieces but also to the ones who are watching the spectacle. Someone who would have been following football for being a wannabe would be the walking 'encyclopaedia' within a month. That's what football does to you. It cannot be explained, cannot be written or cannot be expressed.

With just three days for the latest editon of the EPL to hit the stands, each and every fan's heartbeat will go up a notch only to come back to normal statistic, after nine months of being close to calling an ambulance or a mortuary rather than just a tablet.

Let the games begin.

Arsenal, Early season preview.

2009-07-10T22:03:00.001-07:00

With more than a month to go for the start of the next BPL campaign, this post is way too early. But my excitement has reached fever pitch and here goes my first blog about Arsenal for the 2009-2010 campaign. What I want to do in this blog is to give a quick run through on all the players who are expected to play a major hand in the season and the reasons why we should keep them (and why should not keep them).

Manuel Almunia: Generally a good, if not unremarkable or poor season for the Spaniard. He started the last season as the main keeper for the first time. He had his gaffe's along the way but did please his punters more than he disappointed them. His best performance saved Arsenal the embarrasment of a drubbing at Old Trafford in the UCL SF. With a shaky defense in front of him, he would be expected to have top games for him to come anywhere near the golden gloves.

Why keep him:

He his established now and a further change at the back could expose the defense even more and would bring in the stability factor even more. With finances, precious little and a very stable GK, the money could be used effectively elsewhere. With the 6+5 rule gaining ground and Almunia already a pseudo Englishmen, he could be a shoo-in for the next English GK job.

Why to sell him: He will never be your Buffon and is prone to calamities. He is hardly an inspiring figure at the back

Bacary Sagna: After a sensational first season, he did have his critics last season. He made a heart stopping goal-line clearence last season but apart from that, his defences were decent enough only. He still can't cross to save his life and was found out on occasions. With this being the WC year, Sagna would up the ante to get into the flight.

Why keep him: Was one of the best RB's the year before and is no mug with defending (something which need not apply to the other defenders we have). With an injury curtailing his presence last season, he will want to prove his detractors wrong.

Why sell him: The way Arsenal play, they depend so much on their FB's bombing forward and providing crosses/through balls and Sagna is not the greatest in doing them. With Madrid searching for a RB, we could sell him for a minimum of 20 million quid.

Gael Clichy: The quintessial Wenger signing; A little known French club: check, Small: check, Fast: Check, Great Potential: Check. Clichy, one of the few players to have shared the dressing room with the 49'ers and one player who has all the Arsenal principles inside him, has had a great last few seasons. He also slacked off at the end of last season.

Why keep him: Experience at this level is key and Clichy knows it all. Had a stomper of a season before last but triggered Gallas's head to gigantic proportions. But has learned from his mistakes and is usually brilliant. Was considered as captaincy material before Cesc got the armband. With this the WC year, he will be striving to beat Evra and Abidal to a first team slot.

Why sell him: With Madrid along with 10,000 other clubs in Europe wanting him, Wenger can make a killing with his selling. And this is also one area of the pitch where we are blessed with enough bodies to take into a war and still survive; Gibbs, Traore, Eboue, Gallas and Vermaelen.

Kolo Toure: The embodiment of Mr. Arsenal until last January where he sensationally demanded to be tranferred to Man Citeh. Is one of few remaining 49'er and one guy who has got pace to burn along with good defences. Has experience written all over him and is a great person to crank up the atmosphere in the dressing room.

Why keep him: With the arrival of Thomas Vermaelen, our defense seems to have improved but if Tour leaves, it will put us back to square one, with luminaries such as Senderos and Djourou as replacements.

Why sell him: He has lost most of his commitment at this club, or atleast seemed to have, and could be an influence to those who do not like Gallas. With the ANC coming up this year again, Toure will anyway not turn up for the best part of two months.

William Gallas: The one remaining World class CB and the one who cares for this team irrespective of all the AWOL's he has done. Plucked controversially from cross-town rivals, Chelsea, Gallas has come a long way since his 'Novembergate' against Wenger and Arsenal. Was one of the main reasons why Arsenal reached the business end of the cups last season.

Why keep him: With no experience whatsoever, Gallas is a crowning jewel while the others are still in their wombs in that regard. He knows what it takes to be a BPL winner and is an inspirational figure.

Why sell him: With age fast catching up on him, Gallas might anyway not sign a new contract in a year's time, so why not cash in when the opportunity is there. He has been prone to public outbursts in the past, something which the younger players might not take too kindly.

Thomas Vermaelen: A new signing at the Emirates, the only one so far, the Belgian has been described as a no-nonsense defender in many papers. At just 24, he is a new wave of Belgians along with Witslel, Fellaini, and Defour. Although not exactly like Vidic, he could develop like Vidic given the time.

No keep him and sell him for obvious reasons.

Emmanuel Eboue: An enigma and a unique player, one of the very few at Arsenal. A versatile player who can play in atleast four positions, Eboue has seen it all at Emirates. He was the part of the back four which gave nothing away in that incredible run to the finals. His fortunes crumbled last season when he was booed of by sections of his own fans.

Why keep him: A very good squad player for a top-4 club and can put in a decent shift at RB and LB when the first team players get injured.

Why sell him: Whenever he is on the pitch, he is a red card waiting to happen. He could still give us significant funds for us to invest in other areas of the pitch.

Phil Senderos: Was touted the next everything when he was signed by us, but hsa sadly degenerated. Went to Milan on-loan last season but has still not improved. Could be a good squad player against any team which does have the name DROGBA.

Why keep him: Has played about a hundred odd games for us and could yet develop into a decent player.

Why sell him: Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Johan Djourou: The other part of the Swiss duo at the club. Promised great things while signing but again one more embryo of the Arsene policy, which has not matured into a fully grown infant. Is usually bullied but sometimes does give it back. He could have utilised last season to show his worthfulnes but did not.

Why keep him: A known devil is better than unknown angel.

Why sell him: Could be the next Pascal Cygan

Kieran Gibbs: A magnificient Under19 and reserves player who was catapulted into the world stage last season, Gibbs played beautifully in the fag end of the last campaign. If not for that one decisive slip, Madrid would have put in a 100 Million dollar bid for him. Is one of the triumvirate's of a new English wave at Arsenal.

The Midfielders:

Cesc Fabregas: A precocious 16 year old, another typical Wenger signing. One of the few players who will walk into any team, our Captain Fantastic(or Captain Fabtastic). One of our most experienced players and the heartbeat of the team, is the idol for every youngster who signs for the club.

Why keep him: If we have to show any ambition and any interest in lifting a silver-ware, he will have to be here to oversee those particular proceedings. Besides, thisis how we lure our youngsters. Just follow Cesc.

Why sell him: Our most marketable player, Real and Barcelona will enter into a bidding war and Wenger can build a bank in North London from his transfer.

The rest of the players who could have a major impact in the coming will be on air (cyber space) tomorrow.

Arsenal's late surge claims Wigan

2009-04-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

With only 10 more mins on the clock, Arsenal were looking edgy, nervously looking towards that mid-week match against Villareal. But then as they say, its never over until its over, and Arsenal produced a scintillating late surge of three goals in the last 10 mins to win the game 1-4 to put the JJB in complete silence by the time the full time whistle blew.

Arsenal started the day looking to further consolidate their fourth place. But it was anything but consolidation as a rampant Wigan set about destroying a shaky and inexperienced Arsenal back 4. Arsenal never really looked comfortable and Wigan took a first half lead thanks to Mido, whose shot could only be parried into the net by stand in keeper Lukasz Fabianski.

The other stand in players for Arsenal also had poor first half's. Center Half, Johann Djourou was injured and in came Micheal Silvestre, while the stand in Left Back, Kieran Gibbs, probably should have been sent off for a last man offense, but only received an yellow for his troubles.

Nicklas Bendtner, Arsenal's much maligned striker, had the best chance for the men in red in the first half, but promptly put his header from six yards out so wide that Kirkland did not even bother to move.

Wigan could have doubled their advantage just before the break, but the post came to the rescue from a brilliant Ben Watson free-kick. The second half started with no sides bothering to change their personnel.

Arsenal upped the ante from the start and there were some tiring Wigan legs. As Robin Van Persie was preparing to come on, teenager, Theo Walcott put the visitors level with a smashing shot from 7 yards after being put through from Andrei Arshavin. In came Persie for the off colour Denilson, and Arsenal had found their passing game atlast.

Adebayor came on for the goal-scorer Walcott, and Arsenal had their tails buzzing. Clever work down the right, saw Cesc finding Silvestre with a clever pass, and the Frenchman did not need a second invitation to put Arsenal ahead from inside the six-yard box. The attacks were coming from everywhere and Wigan's defense were threatening to burst at the seams.

Arsenal thought they had a third from Van Persie, but the dutchmen was offside, following up from Arshavin's show which rebounded from the post. But they would have their third, when an excellent counter coupled with a mis-understanding in the Wigan defense allowed Arshavin to slot the ball home and Kirkland was rooted to the spot.

It was pretty much a case of damage limitation now for Wigan but a rampant Arsenal were not to be denied a fourth. Alex Song weaved his magic, dancing through the Wigan defense, before stroking the ball past a hapless Kirkland.

Arsene Wenger would be happy that his side would now be confident of facing the Yellow Submarines with their tails up. Arsenal have now moved nine points clear of Aston Villa, who entertain Everton in the late game on Sunday.

Arsène's XI

2009-04-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

By Saumeet Nanda

Over the years at Arsenal football club, we've seen many great players. Whether the glory days under Chapman in 1930s, the amazing double in 1971 or the legendary league winning victory at Anfield, Arsenal has seen great days in it's history and has always been one of the biggest club in the English football. But in 1996, Arsenal stepped into one of the greatest eras in its history.
The Arsene Wenger era.

The young bespectacled French manager came to Arsenal at took the reins of Arsenal in the beginning of an extremely momentous period. The period when English Premier League was going to get really popular all over the world, especially in Asian countries thanks to the widespread television coverage. And the beautiful football the gunners have played under Arsene Wenger has won the club millions of admirers from all over the world.

Being one of the aforementioned millions who fell in love with Arsenal thanks to TV coverage, I am really in no position to comment on pre-Wenger Arsenal. Though the likes of Liam Brady, Kenny Samson, Pat Rice, David O'Leary are players of great stature in the club's history and there are the Champion teams of the thirties under Herbert Chapman, the Arsenal that I have come to love is the Arsenal under Arsene Wenger. And the football players I love are those who took our club to great heights in these Wenger years. The following are the pick of the players under Wenger who get to make it to the Best 11 under Arsene Wenger.

GK - David Seaman: Unquestionably the best English Goalkeeper when Arsene Wenger joined Arsenal and years afterwards, David Seaman is perhaps the most straightforward of the picks for being the best goalkeeper under Wenger. Seaman was ever reliable whether guarding the Arsenal or England goals. Despite conceding the infamous Ronaldinho free kick, the pony tailed Goalie is still one player the English national team is finding it hard replacing, five years after his retirement.

DL - Ashley Cole: I know that Ashley Cole is a money hungry cunt and the complete opposite of the Nigel Winterburn in terms of loyalty. But man, could he play football! He was THE prodigy in his Arsenal days, the lad we hoped to cheer for years to come. His commitment was immense. A fighter in defense and a natural at attack, Cole never really achieved the potential he had or reproduce his dazzling form at Stamford Bridge. While Arsenal churn out one world class left back after another, some of us still keep wondering how good he could have been had he still been with us. It would be a great day for Arsenal, when Ashley Cole would be regarded as an England second choice to Keiran Gibbs.

DC - Sol Campbell: John Terry and Rio Ferdinand, the two defenders our rivals go gaga over had nothing on Sol Campbell during his glory days at Arsenal and Jamie Carragher wasn't even in the picture. Sol was scary as a defender for he was powerful, fast, tall, agile and had great technical skills as well. Nemanja Vidic is the only central defender this season in Premier League who reminds me of Sol of the invincible season. Only defender who was as good as him in his hey days was the great Dutch Jaap Stam whose sale was the mistake of Sir Alex Ferguson’s life. The very fact that he didn’t cost us a penny and was the Spurs captain before made his stay even more enjoyable. Sol Campbell was a defender who could scare any opponent.

DC - Tony Adams: Captain fantastic. Mr. Arsenal. A true Arsenal legend. Though he would serve Wenger only in his twilight years, the Arsenal captain was perhaps the only figure in the club whose stature could parallel Wenger and he channelized this respect perfectly to lift the team. A captain at 21, Tony Adams picked up multitude of trophies and is certainly the best leader in the whole history of Arsenal football club.

DR - Lee Dixon: The only pundit we all love, Lee Dixon was nearing the end of his career when Wenger arrived. But thanks to the dietary and training changes brought about by the Frenchman, the career of seemingly the nicest guy of the legendary back four, got elongated by at least three to four years. We all know Wenger works well with young players. But one has to look at the case of Dixon and co. to understand what he can do for old players as well. Dixon was a pivotal element in our 1998 double winning campaign and a club legend for his loyalty and commitment.

ML - Robert Pires: Talented beyond belief and the best player in the world in his position for about four years or so, Pires not only had the attributes required to make a great winger but was the best fox in the box Wenger has ever had. Talking about wingers scoring lots of goals, we think of Ronaldo. But the man who started it all is Robert Pires. The way he and Henry terrorized teams on the left flank and the partnership he had with Cole were at times mesmerizing. A terror to Spuds against whom he played especially well, Robert Pires was a truly great player and personality.

MC - Patrick Vieira: Who took on the bully Keane and gave him a taste of his own medicine? Our own Vieira. A player with tremendous stamina and energy, Vieira was not only one of the best tacklers in the premiership, but had great vision and passing range as well. But for Steven Gerrard, Vieira is probably the best central mid-fielder ever to have graced the Premier League. An opponent’s nightmare, Vieira always gave one hundred percent. Whether it was a title decider against United or a FA cup match against a lower league opponent, the inspirational captain of the invincible team always played like his life was on line.

MC - Cesc Fabregas: Only player in the current squad making my list is 21 years old Catalonian Cesc Fabregas. Last time a twenty one year old became the club captain, he lead Arsenal to 10 trophies including two Premier League trophies. Cesc Fabregas showed incredible maturity and talent from his very early days. Amazing creativity, peerless range of passing and composure beyond years are some of the hallmarks of this Spanish World Cupper at 18 and Euros winner at 21. The intelligence and coolness he displays in his off the field comments and the passion for the club displayed at the same time during the matches where he is unafraid to take on the likes of Ballack or Cole makes it doubly clear that this kid is special. People link him to Barca every year. But I say Cesc is a classier person than some other talents we've had so far. Something in my heart says, he'll be the greatest player Arsenal ever had.

MR - Freddy Ljungberg: Though he was flashing with brilliance at one stage and couldn't really maintain his amazing levels, he's still the best right midfielder to have played for Wenger at Arsenal. His astounding form in 2001-02 season was pivotal to Arsenal's double victory. Like Pires, the explosive Swedish player was always scoring in double digits in his days at Arsenal. The outstanding pace and acceleration along with his eye for goal of the Swedish who once sported orange hair has left many a great defenders red faced.

FC - Dennis Bergkamp: This guy might be the reason why so many people in the Indian sub-continent and all over Asia and Africa are Arsenal fans today. The most beautiful footballer to watch., Bergkamp’s game were filled with delightful chips, deft touches, blinding vision and he could use all of these abilities in one swift and deadly move. When Dennis Bergkamp had his good days, he was at another level. Even opponents couldn’t help enjoying the unique and rare brand of football Bergkamp provided. The only thing I can say about him is that it is better not to try and describe him in words for you'll always be doing him an injustice whilst attempting it. He's a player who is to be seen to be believed.

FC - Thierry Henry: Arsenal legend Thierry Henry is arguably the greatest player ever to have played in premier league till today. Little did anyone envisage that the French winger Wenger bought from Juventus could turn into the best striker in the world for quite some time.
He could score great goals. He could score tap ins. He could score in the biggest of stages. He could score in the most unimportant of games. He could score against the greatest teams. He could score against the weakest of teams. He could score one every match. He could score three in matches as well. Pace, physically strength, great finishing, brilliant technical skills, immense confidence and a degree of arrogance that is found so commonly in people who are truly special, Thierry Henry was the most complete striker of the decade.

Despite his heart-breaking departure from Arsenal, the joy that Henry gave the Arsenal fans by scoring goals on all possible occasions(except for the Champions’ League finals) is something we would never forget. Even today, I jump with joy when I see Henry scoring for Barcelona. And even today, a touch of class is apparent in the arrogant composure with which he curls the ball round the goalkeeper into the back of the net.

Best of luck, Thierry Henry. I hope we play him in Champion's league final one day and beat his team.

The Run-in: All set for a thrilling finale

2009-03-21T23:16:00.001-07:00

With more twists and turns than ever, this PL season, arguably is headed for a most thrilling home stretch: Two weeks back, United, it seemed, had the title sewn and stitched and Villa had the all important all last CL place firmly in the safest of deposit lockers. Two weeks later, both of the set theories has gone out the window. Liverpool produced a destructive performace to blow open the title race against United and the latter did its cause even more harm, after losing to Fulham 2-0. Arsenal have gone from strength to strength and are destined,now, to challenge Chelsea (who were embarrased by Arry's Spurs yesterday) and Liverpool, but only two weeks
earlier were combating Villa and Everton in a direct three-way shootout for the fourth spot.

Manchester United

Th entire season has turned on its head and among all the top gaffers in the league, Fergie surprisingly is the one looking over his shoulders to see the mostly beleaguered but recently rejuvenated Rafa, standing over him like an indestructible horcrux, images which have surely left Fergie, the unflappable Scotsman, flapping in thin air.

There were talks of an unprecendented Quintiple in the red-side of Manchester which has now been blown to smithereens. Worse is set to follow for United. Vidic and Scholes will atleast miss the next two games with Rooney also missing the next one atleast. And that game is against Martin O Neill's Villa, who themselves have hit a brick wall while trying to chase a very impressive Arsenal side of late, who seem to be back to their best: Shaky defensive play, excellent counters, scoring and missing goals for fun.

The Big four of English football have kept up their appointments in the last 8 of the CL, but what is happening in the domestic league is becoming far more unpredictable.

The double back to back losses for United, their first in nearly five years, might even have shaken the cold hearted critics. The reason: United are the best English side when it comes to a title run-in and while other teams have a fear of failure, United possess no such fears. The gap has now been reduced to four points (could well be one, IF pool beat Villa). Saying all that, its still United's title to lose anthough their seemingly impregnable defense is now less vulnerable. And a quick look at the fixture list reveals that United won't be having any dollies. They still have to play Arsenal in the top four, atleast three in the relegation battle and two clubs whose European ambitions are far from settled. Add to this the Everton tie in the Semi-finals of the F.A cup and Porto in the CL, rest assured, Sir would have to come up with a huge hair-dryer.

Liverpool

Two weeks back, there was Madrid, United and an unresolved contract. Two weeks later, the first and the second have been slayed without breaking sweat, while the contract has been settled with Rafa extending his stay till 2014.

What has turned Liverpool's season would remain a mystery buried in the deepest embers of Anfield, but the contribution of Gerrard and Torres cant be even for one moment be doubted.

After leading the table for such a long time, there was a flurry of draws coupled with an embarrasing defeat at the hands of Middlesborough. Pool's season was heading for freefall. This handed the advantage to United on a platter. But Pool are far from being done and dusted. They have come back all guns blazing and are now realistically in with a chance of dethroning United's unrelenting march to that magical No 18.

Their fixture run-in however does not do them any favours. The home fixture against Arsenal stands out like a sore thumb while their annual European clashes with Chelsea are also in there. They again, like United, face a no of relegation scrappers, which sure is no jolly ride. If Torres and Gerrard stick together, they will run United close and probably beat them in the battle as well. For Rafa, its going to one hell of a runin exercise which might still be unforgettable but at the same time unforgiving.

Chelsea

This has been a funny old season for Chelsea. Largely brilliant away from home, far from uncompromising in their forttress: Stamford Bridge, they arguably have had the most ups and downs in the fortunes for the year.

At the start of the season, they missed out on Robinho, but were producing some "SAMBA"
themselves, courtesy of Big Phil. They went on an incredible away run, while carelessly dropping points at home. Roman was not satisfied while Drogba went on an AWOL more than once. They got beat by Pool and Arsenal at home and United away, and Big Phil was sacked (people argued this still showed that Roman cared for the club, while others pointed out to a bizarre fact: paying compensation to four managers; Jose, Grant, Phil and Hiddink (their latest temporary manager).

They crawled their way up first, by beating fellow third place challengers Villa(which subsequently sent Villa into a downward spiral), then dumping Juventus out of the CL and generally returning to the tried and tested Mourinho years. All was well with Hiddink till yesterday night. That loss at Spurs will have hurt them and now they need to lift their game and keep chipping away at United.

Their run-in is a saving grace for them. They arguably dont have to face basement clubs till May by which time the places could well have decided. The ties at Arsenal and at home to Everton might well decide whether they will in it still, come May.

Arsenal

The season which promised most, only to drop bombshell after bombshell. In September, Arsenal were the early leaders, both in terms of points and goals scored. But six months later, Arsenal are mostly in anonymity compared to the title race (although mathematically still in it)
and are in the middle of a heated confrontation with Villa for the fourth spot.

Villa wrested the initiative early in December and O Neill, it seemed, had the Midas touch while Arsenal, it seemed, had lost the plot. Gabby, Young and Barry were turning out to be the chief antogonists for the Arsenal side. Then in January, Arsenal and its fans finally got something which would inspire them, and boy, has it inspired them. Andrey Arshavin.

The Russian, who showed us a prelude of his talents in the Euro championships last year, is now setting the league alight with some sparkling performances and an investment of about $23 million seems well set to see an immediate return of $ 30 million for an appearence in the CL, next season.

The retuning players: Cesc, Adebayor, Rosicky and Eduardo will further enable the Arsenal side of some deprived Arsenal and come May, quite ridiculously, they might still be in it. But they should have the singular ambition of keeping Villa off the their coat tails while looking to build for next season with the F.A cup in its cabinet.

Their run-in has a couple of interesting things: The only remaining side of the top four to face the other three, while also having to face some relegation contenders. The goals are back so why cant the trophies be?

P.S: This is a run-in of the PL season, so I have avoided talking about the present CL ties.

Arshavin inspires Arsenal victory

2009-03-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

As the clock struck one at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon, it all seemed way too familiar. United had just gone up against bitter rivals, Liverpool, but what transpired over the course of the next four hours, could have a telling impact over the course of this season as well as the next. As United were left wondering with what hit them, the diminutive Russian, Andrey Arshavin, was setting the pulses racing in North London with a brilliant display of passing and trickery.

Against a side which has caused us problems before (Blackburn Rovers) and against a manager who has come up trumps before against Wenger (Sam Allardyce), Arsenal produced arguably its best performance of the season as it climbed into fourth (might only be for a day), dislodging Villa.

There were 4 changes made from the side which played in Rome, the most notable one being Robin Van Persie, who dropped down to the bench, but Theo Walcott was starting his first league game of the year. Arsenal, after being goal-shy at home for nearly two months, took less than two minutes to break the deadlock.

Walcott picked a clever ball by Bendtner and raced along right hand side and put it in the six yard box and after a bit of ping pong, the ball nestled in the back of the net. Arshavin was claiming it, but replays suggested that the ball might have struck the defender, Ooijer last. El Hadji Diouf, not the most polite of footballers, could have been sent off for a challenge on Almunia, but there was a yellow card for his troubles.

The Emirates was singing at last and Arsenal had their tails up. The attacks were coming from the left and the right and sometimes through the middle, but some profligacy, mainly from Bendtner, was keeping the lead in check. Just before the break, Pedersen almost had the chance to equalize, but for some fine defending from the Arsenal center backs.

There were no changes from either side at half time and the second half started much the same way as the first. Arsenal was clearly in the ascendancy and if not for their cheap finishing, they might well have been two or three ahead by now.

As the second half wore on, the fans were beginning to get impatient. Then, the Russian showed some amazing footwork down the left hand side, before running past right back Danny Simpson, and slotting the ball into the roof of the net, past a hapless Paul Robinson. This one was most definitely the Russian’s first goal since joining from Zenit. Arshavin was not done yet.

There was a flurry of chances still being created but none went into the back of the net and Blackburn, quite amazingly were still in the game. Walcott and Bendtner were substituted and on came Diaby and Vela.

Vela played a clever little chip over the Blackburn defense to find an unmarked Arshavin but the Russian’s effort was parried brilliantly by Robinson only for Eboue to put the rebound in the back of the net and at last Arsenal had put this game to bed (Eboue had come in for Nasri only five minutes back).

Then in injury time, Vela was brought down by Danny Simpson and up stepped Eboue to put in his third goal in the last two games. Arsenal it seemed had at last started to play anywhere near the high levels they are expected to, while Big Sam will know he ran into a different class.

Tottenham 0 v 0 Arsenal

2009-02-08T10:14:00.000-08:00

Before going for the match analysis, I would like to draw the attention of fellow gooners to a few incidents in the week preceding this match. After a goalless draw with West ham at home, things were certainly looking a bit on the lower side for the gunners, considering the fact the villa are playing with great consistency and were not willing to let the Champions league spot go by.

Then a good news arrived in the form of Arshavin signing for the gunners. What impact he would have on the Arsenal style of play or to their trophy ambitions was not known, but still it brought a cheer to the face of supporters who were a bit let downby their team. Also the news that we will have our injured players back sooner than later was an added reason for joy. On Saturday that is on 7th feb Villa got a deserved win against Blackburn and took their lead to 8 points. However the good news was that Chelsea drew with hull and their lead was of 6 points. With these positives in mind the Arsenal team was ready to take on the spurs at White Heart Lane.

There were some changes in both the teams. Keane started as the captain of Spurs after his short love affair with the Reds, and Chimbonda made way for Corluka in the second-half. For the gunners RvP got a start ahead of Nick Bendtner (who replaced an injuried Adebayor), and Song started for the injured Diaby. No Start for Arshavin yet. While some people may be disappointed with this, this was the right thing to do considering he had not played a match for 2 months. Spurs started the game going on the aggressive front and forced to gunners into making some saves from the corners and free kicks won in the first few minutes. They were clearly the dominant team at that moment of time, however in term of chances the better chances fell to the feet of Gunners. The first one came when a beautiful through ball from Rapreleased Éboue and after a good run there was no one in the box to take his cross.

Second chance came when Corluka trying to be smart gave the ball to Nasri in his own box and clichy sent a cross which adebayor missed by inches. However the chance of the half was when RvP failed to control a ball and eboue running behind him took the ball and shot it towards the goal. Ade and two spurs defenders were at it and the ball fell back to Eboue who took it and shot it into the net,but by that time the eefree had blown a whistle for foul by Ade on Woodgate, and hence the goal was disallowed. In the meantime Almunia had to make some saves from Modric and Palacios, who was the best player on the pitch today. Two incidents in the first half turned out to be Arsenal's undoing. First Ade pulled a h amstring and he had to be stretched away. Bendtner came in to replace him. And then Eboue who was already on a yellow for a foolish act, got another yellow for yet another foolish act and was sent off. He had completely lost it and brought the gunners down to 10 men. Suddenly the draw which would have been a poor result for us, looked like a good result.

The First half ended at stalemate. In the 2nd half there was a tactical change of strategy by wenger and Nick played as the lone striker and RvP moved to the left and Nasri to the right, making Song and denilson play in more central roles. In terms of possession the 2nd half was better for gunners than the 1st half. To the credit of spurs Arsenal won their first corner in the 2nd half only. It was from a corner itself when the gunner’s best chance came in the 2nd half. A beautiful corner kick by RvP fell to the feet of Song and had he aimed it better the ball would have found the back of net. Also there was a very good shot by Bendtner which was saved by Gudicini. Meanwhile Spurs had chances of their own, and they went in vain sometimes due to brilliant defending by The defenders and Almunia and sometimes by the wasteful conversion by the spur strikers. The save of the match was made by Almunia in the dying moments of the match, when Modric just had him between the ball and the net. Clichy was replaced by Gibbs owing to the head injury he received while colliding with Bent. At last the game ended in a nil nil draw, and what would have been a disappointment in the beginning of the game turned out to be relief for the gunners. Only if there were 11 players for them on the ground, only if Eboue had kept his senses and not got the foolish red card, only if we had the pace of ade to trouble their defenders more. But then Rather than talking about negatives, why not talk about the positives. The players on the ground did tremendous work for the gunners. Another Clean sheet for us and the unbeaten run continues.

Alumina was superb, and made some really wonderful saves. The Back 4 played very well, and barring a few mistakes by Toure were very good. Bendtner, came in for Ade, and did a tremendous job as a lone striker. RvP could not produce his moment of magic today, but was overall very good with his play. Nasri, the creative spark in the midfield. Was trying to create chances. Denilson, not very good, but still good enough. Showed good commitment and worked tirelessly. Song, fGor me the performer of the match for the gunners. The screen in front of the back 4, and worked doubly hard when the gunners were down to 10 men. Also I would like to have a special mention for Palacios and Modric. Palacios was the player of the match with his tackling, with his shots, with his passing and is certainly a very good buy for the spurs. As far as Modric is concerned, he certainly is a very good player but he also seems to have mastered the art of Gamesmanship in football. Going down every time even on a faint touch, even the better dive masters would be put to shame by his display today.

So still 5th Place and 5 points behind Chelsea will be not seen as a good sign for our Champions League qualifying hope. Villa better by 7 points and We cant expect Chelsea and pool to drop points so easily. But then there are 13 games left and a whole 39 points to play, mind you 39 points. Anything can happen. And stranger things have happened. This is not the end of the road, by no means. The last part of the Premier League is the most crucial part and we have more easier games than rest of our competetiors. Also we have a whole lot of talented players ready to play or play again. So rather than being getting disappointed its time to cheer the gunner Spirit. It is the most Dark just before the Dawn. Cheers.

This article was written by Akshay from the Arsenal Orkut community.

Under construction!

2008-12-11T16:27:00.000-08:00

First of all, sorry for being so away from here recently. Tough times, you know. I am all wrapped by university and that is why I am finding it difficult to find some spare time so I can write something new here.

Yet, the holidays are coming and you already know what it means. But the reason I am writing here is to tell you all the blog is under construction and we will be back very soon with a new looking and daily articles!

Until there, do not forget to back our charity roots by clicking a Google link on the right bar.

All the best,
The Gooner World Crew.

Chelsea 1 v 2 Arsenal

2008-11-30T11:10:00.000-08:00

The word 'fan' comes from 'fanatic', I guess you know that. Defition of 'fanatic' according to the Oxford Dictionary:

Noun: informal a person with an obsessive enthusiasm for a pastime or hobby.
Adjective: filled with or expressing excessive zeal.

And when even some fans were writing us off, Arsenal do it again. I am not referring to the pundits, because we already know they are cunts. I am referring to the bunch of glory hunters who were not expecting us to win. If you do not expect your team to win, so do you really think you are a true fan? If you say you love Arsenal but do not have faith on your very own club, so, I am sorry, there is something wrong with you. True fans, no matter what, when and where, we are always singing our hearts out, doing what we are supposed to do.

It seems we like to play when we are considered the underdogs. I said before: that was just the most perfect time to prove ourselves, to show the whole world we are able to achieve big things. Captain Fabregas was probably keen on making history by beating the leaders at their very own turf, and he did it. After two humilliating losses, we emerged from the ashes. Yes, I feel like Arsenal are like a phoenix, beucase, in fact, we were dead after those two losses and, most importantly, after the incidents regarding the friendship of the group. And then Wenger appoints a boy as captain, and when we were praying for him to shoulder the pressure, he responds by beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

I woke up feeling a bit strange today. I did not eat my breakfast, I did not eat my lunch. I did not feel hungry, I did not even chat with my rommie: I was fully focussed, concentrated. I decided to leave home early so I could go walking to the Bridge, as I already live in Chelsea (believe me). As I arrived at the stadium, I felt very well because I knew I was not the only one believing in our team. I was surrounded by some exemplar Gooners who, even after the own-goal kept singing their hearts out and backing the lads. Now, being a bit unbiased, we looked very poor during the first 45 minutes. We lacked a playmaker, someone who could link the midfield with the attack. Song and Fabregas were fully committed to defending, and that made Denilson and Nasri our two options, but they are not player like Hleb, who is gifted with superb ball control and great vision. We missed someone with this function today. Denilson had a deplorable perfomance today, both defesively and offensively. He was not effective in the back and nor upfront as he had good chances to kill the game with long shots and he just messed they up.

The second-half begun and Chelsea were again superior. They were outplaying us and despite of the fac that the heat of the game did not let me think properly, I realised something should be done quickly. And then, something did change: the spirit of the players. I will not be able to explain what happened, but suddenly they looked more confident and that made them feel more comfortable on the pitch. And then, thanks to a rare chance upfront, Adebayor found an offside van Persie, who broke into the box and fired to the net. 1-1. But then, the game was not drawn. We were excited, we were not looking afraid as we did during the first-half. And then, when we regained our winning spirit, the spirit every single Gunner must have, van Persie dominated the ball with his chest, turned his body around and scored, courtesy of a fantastic finish. What a comeback. Then, sorry, I can not go any further as I went crazy. I turned to the Chelsea fans, said some bad words I can not say here, and then waited for the final whistle. One thing I would like to highlight: again, like we did against United, we defended very well the result. The Tottenham drawn is totally behind us and the team is more mature, that is clear.

Adebayor is really fabulous, is not he? He had an immense contribution on both goals. Robin van Persie. Wow. He may be arrogant, but who cares as long as he keeps scoring such decisive goals? Our captain, oh, Fabregas, what an exemplar committed player. He was a fighter, essential in the midfield, marking, blocking, shouting, creating. I am proud of him. Clichy had finally a decent game, a solid perfomance with good runs that created some problems to Chelsea. Anyway, today is not a good day to judge anyone as even Bendtner was crucial when he came on. He was mature enough to win some important balls and break the high tempo of the game thanks to his strenght and pace. To sum up: we played like a team. Every single player was crucial and they do deserve to be praised as they went to the Bridge shouldering a hell of pressure and managed to beat the favourites to win the title.

This is the kind of game in which you discover many things. I am completely sure that, from now on, we will be the Arsenal. I opted not to leave the Bridge early so I could enjoy the image of the players hugging themselves, celebrating, feeling happy with each other. Our lack of consistency was down to the lack of self-belief. The Man United game was at our very own turf, but now we defeated Chelsea at their own fortress, place that they were unbeaten for three years until they hosted Liverpool.

Now things will be different, believe me. We not only regained our morale, but we did regain our respect. So, our opponents should better fear us as the good old Arsenal are back.

It is very, very wasy to support a team when it is winning, playing beautiful football and topping the table. True fans are recognised the worst the situation is. Think about that. You are the next, Liverpool. Arsenal forever.

What the f*** is going on at Arsenal?

2008-11-21T14:56:00.000-08:00

Seriously, I do not know what is going on at North London.

Gallas may have crossed a few lines, but the real problem lay on Arsenal itself. The whole team is making noise when it is still not necessary. We have been pointing at ourselves, blaming anyone as soon as we drop some points. Is it really necessary to come up to the press and make our very own problems public? Why did not Liverpool did the same thing last year, when they had a very poor start of season? Even the Chelsea of Avram Grant had a few disappointing results during the first semester, but at the end of the day they almost stole the trophy from Man United.

It is not the end of the world not to be amongst the big four. It is not the end of the world not to qualify for the Champions League. Everything we fans want is to see our lads playing with pride, honour, commitment and ambitions. I reiterate: I do not mind whether we lose or win, everything I want is the Gunners to fight until the very last second, to show they really care about the club. Should we lose, I want them to say: 'we gave our best', then everything is fine.

But unfortunately that is not happening. I remember the way I felt as soon as Jenas scored the equaliser at the Emirates. It was not angry, not even disgrace. I was feeling sorry for the club I love. I felt disappointed, devastated, because I thought the lads deserved to win and everything went against him. That was a pity. But apart from that, things are different. I can not remember when was the last time our players looked clearly sad on the pitch. And that is the thing to blame.

Why are they feeling so down? Why are they feeling so 'beatable'? Agbonlahor said they do not fear Arsenal anymore. So why the fuck the player do not feel motivated enough to make him swallow his words? They are making fun of us. They come at our very own turf and laugh at us.

What is going on then? I really do not think a single player would devastate our morale. Gallas is a warrior on the pitch, no matter if he is a good or a bad captain. He is committed, I can feel he is always keen on winning. I do think he made a huge mistake by coming up to the press and making our problems public, but he would not have done that should his friends had not given a reason. Why on earth should van Persie disrespect him? No-one is allowed to disrespect a fellow Gunner. They are supposed to be like a family. It is totally plausible to have a feel discussions at the dressing-room, but it is something difficult to take to see them complaining about what happens inside the club to the press. It proofs they do not feel comfortable enough to talk between themselves.

I reiterate: I doubt the probem is the armband. How could it be the armband? There are things more important than being the skipper, for God's sake. We are the Arsenal, a club whose history is rich, we are respected and known all around the world. So, Gunners, I ask you to remember the club you play for. I ask you to know how the english people care about football. I ask you to walk on the streets and listen to the Gooners, let they say what they think about the way you are messing up the club we live for.

If someone is not satisfied, the exit door is wide open, walk away then. Let only the focused and committed players to stay. I do not care if our 'stars' leave or not. All I want is to feel proud of the club I support.

It is up to you to solve this problem, Monsieur Wenger. I hope you do not disappoint me aswell.

It's time to worry again about our midfield problems.

2008-11-12T13:59:00.000-08:00

Now that our season is ALMOST back on track, It's time to worry and look at our old problems again which can be decisive for our season and matches to come.
We played 4-5-1 against United, and had two defensive midfielders in the form of Denilson and Diaby, with Cesc in the attacking role, and so our midfield covered up a lot of ground.
But with the impressive form of Vela, or the return of Persie and Ade, we have to revert back to the traditional 4-4-2 Arsenal line up, and things in the center of the park are certainly not good for Arsenal in that formation because in the 4-4-2 we just have one player to partner Cesc in the middle of the park, and who is that one player? I have no clue. I am sure the gooners don't either.Is it Song? Is it Denilson? or is it the impressive Diaby?
Wenger in a recent article stated that he has Song and Denilson for that role and did not mention Diaby's name, which was a big disappointment for gooners, me in particular, because Diaby's rating would always be higher as compared to our other options.
The center of the park has been a big problem for us since Flamini's departure.
It's november, we still don't have a proper partner for Cesc, and we surely need someone here or we are in for some serious trouble.
Lets look at our options.

Denilson

Early injuries to Diaby and Song

led to Denilson's inclusion in

the starting 11 alongside Cesc at the start of the season.
Denilson's inclusion definitely meant that Cesc would be more defensive to our worries, and as expected, Cesc's flow in the game fell down immensly. Denilson's attacking traits led to Cesc staying defensive and reducing his own attacking traits.
Now, Denilson was off to a good start offensively with a couple of decent assists and even goals to his name, but as a whole, the gooners got frustrated of his inclusion regularly as he faded away. He was definitely

not the perfect player to

partner Cesc. Despite a few good assists and goals, he could not live up to the hype and was sloppy a lot of times.
As the season went on, Denilson got more opportunities and he wasn't as good as expected, He lost the ball at times, mis placed a lot of important passes and his attacking traits made Cesc stay back.
Now Arsene claims that Denilson has had a "fantastic" season in the middle of the park but a few gooners think differently and feel that Denilson is not the right option for Cesc. He has been effective at times and very costly at times as well.

Now option no 2.

ALEX SONG

The cameroon international had a fantastic African Cup of nations. He was one of the best cameroon players, and was also included in the "African Cup of nation best 11".
Alex Song was also one of Arsenal's best players in the carling cup last season with very impressive performances in the defense. A lot of hype was around Song as well after his return to the team. Alex Song impressed late into the 07-08 season when he put up impressive performances against the likes of United and looked assured but since the start of 08-09 season, He hasn't looked like the same player we saw in the Carling Cup and the African cup of nations though. He has been given time on the pitch and hasn't been much effective. At times he's very solid with his tackles, but at times he's out of sorts, and sleeping on the pitch. Wenger says Song has a great future, but in all fairness he hasn't been a flashy player up till now, and this is definitely not the time where we actually "test" different players? , We need someone who can assure Cesc of doing the dirty work behind him which would lead to Cesc getting more offensive. And some Gooners think that man is not Alex Song and cannot be Alex Song.

Then comes option 3 (the favorite).

Abou Diaby

Abou Diaby, often known as the next Patrick Vieira is the favorite among the options for the gooners. Abou Diaby was always destined for the CDM role but was forced to play at different positions, notably LW due to Flamini's emergence.
Injuries and other problems led to Diaby getting less opportunities and gave him a less chance to prove himself. Before the season, everyone was assured that Diaby will be the man to partner Cesc if Wenger does not sign a new midfielder, but his injuries costed him the opportunity.
Diaby returned for the first time this season in the game against West Ham and immediately caused impact creating a good assist for Walcott with less time to show his qualities. Then, Wenger started Diaby in the starting line up against Fenerbache and Diaby was definitely the MOM. Diaby was all over the place, let it be his tackles, long legged skills, or holding up the ball, he was just amazing. He scored a pretty decent goal himself and his work rate was very impressive. Just what was the missing part of the puzzle as per that one performance. Diaby's confidence was high, and then Diaby got his start in the league against United, and Diaby was once again very impressive. His work rate in the game was very good, and he looked very confident going against the likes of Rooney, Ronaldo and Carrick. But we still don't know how consistent Diaby is, it's just 2 games where he has impressed after his return, and he is an injury prone player. And from what i've seen in Wenger's recent articles, I've come up to the conclusion that Wenger is more into playing Denilson and Song in the CDM position and Diaby in more advanced positions. Though in my opinion, Diaby is the best possible option.

That sums up our BEST POSSIBLE options for the CDM role, which can be decisive for our season, who in your opinion is our best option?
Has the little brazillian lived upto his hype?
Is the cameroonian international worth a start?
or is the next paddy the man to cause the impact?

Arsenal 3 Wigan 0

2008-11-11T15:06:00.000-08:00

And the kids do it again. They gave Wigan a proper football lesson on how to pass, finish, build up moves, even tackle. Wigan put up a full strength side (bar Heskey who was injured), so it was Premiership opposition.

1st half
Wigan started off 4-3-3, clearly looking for a win. Aggressive line-up & formation, but they didn’t put enough bodies in the box. Zaki was well handled by Djourou on the few occasions that Wigan looked threatening and Song had a solid game too.

In the first half, Ramsey & Randall gave the ball away too easily under no pressure and that was hugely disappointing. I was hoping that complacency wouldn’t hurt these kids, and that a 6-0 win in the earlier game didn’t have them thinking that this one would be any easier. Randall had a mixed game. He gave the ball away on quite a few occasions but also put in some tough tackles and distributed the ball well.

There was also too much space down the left which Wigan looked to constantly exploit. Kieran Gibbs was caught of position too often but it wasn’t only his fault. He got no defensive support from Merida, or either of the mid fielders in Ramsey & Randall and had a lot of area to cover as a result. Obviously he found himself out of position.

Kirkland made 4 top quality saves in the first half in the usual routine of keepers having a blinder against Arsenal. Merida played a beautiful through ball to Vela down the left who only had Kirkland to beat. Vela tried to round Kirkland, but it was saved well, then Vela took too much time off the rebound, and didn’t take a shot when he could have. The ball went out to Simpson on the right, who only took one touch before loosening off a shot, which went off the crossbar. Good effort.

The next chance came when a quality ball was played by Vela to Gibbs who had made a good run down the left. Gibbs took a shot, instead of passing to Simpson who was clear in the box, but it was a good save from Kirkland who made himself big.

There was a free kick taken by Ramsey taken fromm about 30 yards which was going into the top right corner, but it was tipped wide by Kirkland.

A beautiful curler from Vela which was going into the top left corner was saved by Kirkland, again. Kirkland looked in pain, and it looked his back was bothering him, but that didn’t affect his performance.

Then came the goal. The ball was held well by Wilshere in between 2 Wigan mid fielders, sucked in the 2 central defenders as well, while taking his time before playing a beautiful through ball down the middle in open space. That left only the Wigan full backs to deal with the ball, but both Vela and Simpson had made runs, Simpson getting to the ball and finished excellently with his 1st touch. Deserved lead for Arsenal.

Defensively, there were a few moments of concern. Fabianski looked good, I like his aggressive side, he always looks to come off his line and command the box. His judgment was suspect a couple of time, but I like his attitude and his judgment will improve with time. He has the potential to be much better than Almunia (and I’m a fan of Almunia, so…..:)

Wigan didn’t defend their corners very convincingly and didn’t clear the lines very well. If Arsenal had a stronger physical presence, they could have made Wigan pay more heavily in the 1st half from set pieces.

2nd half
Wigan started off the 2nd half with more purpose and determination. They attacked the ball, harried Arsenal in possession and looked a lot more lively. Song was casual in possession and had the ball taken away near the box which was bad, but he made up for it later with a crunching tackle to win the ball.

Then came the turning point of the game. There was a throw in and the ball was flighted into the Arsenal box. Djourou jumped and attempted to head the ball away, but for some bizarre reason, stuck out his hand. The ref didn’t see that and Arsenal were very lucky to get away with it. A penalty at this stage could have changed the whole complexion of the game.

Ramsey then found himself with the ball, but 4 defenders crowded him giving him no space. None of them tackled him, so Ramsey took his time, waited for Gibbs to make his run down the left and played an excellent through ball. Gibbs' effort was saved well again by Kirkland.

Wigan had a corner which was punched out by Fabianksi, Ramsey played the ball long to Vela, who made a fantastic run down the left and Arsenal were on the counter attack. Vela waited for the keeper to commit, and passed the ball right to Simpson who calmly slots the ball into the net with a defender on the line. Superb counter attacking move, reminiscent of the invincibles ! 2-0.

Djourou then played a good ball to Vela down the middle, with Bramble harrying him, but Vela beat him to the ball and chipped Kirkland from the edge of the box – goal no.3 ! Arsenal had this match well sewn up.

Wigan’s body language had dropped soon after Arsenal’s 3rd and didn’t threaten much. Time for a few substitutions – Lansbury and Bischoff came on for Wilshere (candidate for man of the match) and Simpson (who had a very good game). There was too little time for Bischoff to make an impression, although Lansbury had a couple of good runs down the right.

There was another brilliant move in store for Arsenal, with Merida getting the ball down the left, and lobbing the ball in for an excellent Vela run. His first touch was just slightly heavy which made it easier for Kirkland to make the save. But another excellent effort from the young gunners. Vela was to come off and he looked injured, he was replaced by Rui Fonte.

Late on, De Ridder (Wigan’s best payer of the night) went through 4 Arsenal defenders, with a magnificent run that deserved a goal. However, Fabianski saved well from De Ridders effort. The rebound fell to Zaki, who had an open goal but Fabianski recovered fabulously to tip the ball onto the underside of the bar which was then cleared by Djourou. Top notch save, and the best of the night to ensure that Arsenal kept a clean sheet and wrapped up a well deserved win.

Wilshere is a class act, the more I see of him, the more I am continually impressed. He held onto the ball well, picks his passes precisely, has wonderful vision and good feet. He also defends well, and cannot be bullied off the ball. All excellent signs for the Arsenal. Merida is also excellent offensively, his vision for a pass is sometimes reminiscent of Fabregas but he needs to track back more often to help out his left back. Ramsey and Randall had a good game overall, although they surrendered possession too easily for my liking at times. Ramsey had some good moments to display his class, going forward.

Hoyte had a good game as well, defensively solid and looks to attack. Gibbs had an excellent game offensively, but he has to improve his positioning marginally. Song and Djourou (apart from the handball) had good, solid games. They did their job well without any fuss and put in a professional shift at centre back. Fabianksi had an outstanding game and I really look forward to seeing more of him in future.

Vela is a class act and showed that today with his finish, a beautiful chip over Kirkland. He has excellent pace, a very good 1st touch, and also had an assist for the 2nd goal. He made good runs down the left, didn’t hesitate to move back to get the ball and had a good night overall. Simpson had an excellent game. Before this, I wasn’t hugely impressed by Simpson and had doubts over his quality to remain at Arsenal. Well, not if he continues to perform like he did. He also has good pace and troubled the Wigan defence with his pace and physical presence. Good finishing as well.

Overall, an excellent outing for the Gunners. Pleasing, passing football and Wigan were out played. These kids made me proud, as they uphold all that is good about Arsenal FC. I’m looking forward to the quarter final as always. I hope Tottenham beat Liverpool (the 1st time in my life that I’ve wished for a Spurs win) as we owe them one, big time, for last season.

Arsenal 2 v 1 Manchester United

2008-11-09T10:23:00.001-08:00

I always leave my home something about two hours before the kick-off, so I can get into the mood, drink a pint of lagger while chatting with some other Gooners and make the most of what is my favoutire hobbie. Anyway, today I decided to leave even earlier. You know, it is not always that we host Manchester United, especially after being defeated by Stoke City and held by Tottenham and Fenerbahce. That would be a crucial match, and that is why, despite of the kick-off at the lunchtime, I arrived at the Emirates just after the breakfast. I was so nervous, I could not even eat or drink anything, I just wanted to go to the Emirates, to be under the superb atmosphere of such an important derby.And as the match started, I preferred not to predict anything. Arsenal looked as nervous as me. And though we were not missing passes, we looked clumsy and United were pressing us by quick attacks on the wings. Ronaldo was completely unmarked and that was killing me. But suprinsingly, we were being effective defending. We were winning aerial balls, delivering good passes, creating good chances and though we were lacking some concentration up front, I realised the lads were doing well, especially handling the pressure very well.And by the half of the first-half, Fabregas took a set piece from the right wing, crossing the ball to the box. We failed to net the ball with a header, but luckily the ball ricocheted on Berbatov's head and stopped on Nasri's feet. The Frenchman turned his body quickly and fired. One-nil Arsenal. Actually, that was a strange situation. We are used to bounce back, we are used to comeback from behind, and taking the lead was something pretty unusual. Yet, that was a derby. And derbies are about heart and nothing else. And then we dominated the game until the half-time.

The atmosphere at the Club Leve inside the Emirates was priceless. The Gooners were laughing and smiling at everyone. Yet, though I was in heaven by that moment, could not stop flashbacking Jenas' goal in my head. I shaked my head and headed to my seat for the second-half. I could barely remain on my seat as Samir Nasri received a sensational through ball by Fabregas and netted our second thanks to a superb finish. Two-nil to the Arsenal! That was so good to be true. The Gunners and the Gooners looked like only one. Our souls were bounded and that is why we defended that well. By the end of the game, Wenger decided to bring Song and Toure on, and then I did not know what to think. Some people say that the same attitude let Tottenham equalise in the very last second, and that is why I preferred not to say anything, just keep singing my heart out. We kept all whole team behind the ball, inviting Man United to come and bomb our box with crossed balls. Before the 90-minute mark, Rafael da Silva dominated the ball and fired. What a shot by the boy. 2-1, and if I flashbacked Tottenham during the half-time, it is needless to say that I had my hands over my heads by this moment.Anyway, I kept believing and singing. I would sing until the final whistle so I could be sure the game was finally over. But luckily Webb blowed the final whistle after the longest six minuted of my Gooner life. Arsenal 2 Man United 1. The same team that were beaten by Stoke City had just beaten the title holders.I am still shaking and still voiceless. I could not stop singing after the final blow, I stood there for more twenty minutes, singing, celebrating and enjoying the moment. Not that beating United should be consider an achievement, it was just that was the most perfect moment for bouncing back. I said that the game would be tricky, because I could not even think about what would have happened should we have lost.

It was a perfect perfomance. Almunia was brilliant. He finally punched some aerial balls, and that gave us the strenght we needed defending set-pieces. The clash against Carrick was just a proof of his involvement. He is a leader, one of our most experienced players, a symbol of Arsenal. And what to say about Gallas? Simply brilliant. He was as solid as never. He was brave, he was a true leader. Our pointing at something, screaming and giving orders. A true leader, a true captain. Clichy and Sagna were great defending and covering our wingers. Were effective on tackles and great making some good runs up front. Denilson had his best perfomance with an Arsenal shirt. Hw did not miss passes, was a warrior, fighting for every single ball. And that is why Fabregas was also fantastic. He was everywhere, addind his touch of brilliancy in our game. Theo had good runs, created some troubles for United, but had an off day, just like Bendtner, who had some good (but few) chances to kill the game. Yet, the name of the game was Samir Nasri. The pundits were already saying we miss Hleb, but now let me ask them: Hleb who?The most perfect time for such a victory. I can not remember a better day at the Emirates, and that is just what we were in desperate need of.The players were fantastic, the commitment was clear. We could smell the passion on the pitch and that is why that was a hell of a victory. I was sick of those cunty pundits writing us off. I was sick of those glory-hunter fans moaning and booing our players. Now they are all saying good words about them. Yet, I do not blame them. I just want them to know that we are the Arsenal. We are always fighting for the title. We are always fighting with pride and honour.

Hope you all remember this day when you feel pessimistic. Even without Toure, Rosicky, Eduardo, van Persie and Adebayor, we were good enough to beat the European Champions at their best form. Remember, please, we are not a small team. Remember that there is only one Arsene Wenger, and that, no matter what they say, we are by far the greates team the world has ever seen.

Sunderland 1 Arsenal 1

2008-10-04T10:23:00.001-07:00

What a poor poor performance from Arsenal. Wenger said this would be the 2nd part of the reaction after last weekend’s game against Hull, and the team disappointed. The team lacked incisiveness, creativity and width. Song replaced Nasri in the starting 11 from the mid week CL game. The formation however was a strange 4-3-3, or 4-5-1 at times, with RvP out wide left, Denilson slotting in just inside him, Cesc & Song in central mid field, and Ade upfront. Sunderland learned from Hull City last weekend, started with a 4-5-1 with a plan to choke all the play in mid field, not give any space to Arsenal to play their passing game and it worked for large parts of the game. Clichy and Sagna were disappointing as they didn’t overlap and bomb forward, Sagna being defensively suspect having an off day.

Sunderland had more chances in the first half, the first of which came with Malbranque playing a nice through ball to Whitehead. Toure made a fantastic last ditch tackle to get the ball and clear the immediate danger. The first half chance for Arsenal came in the 12th minute, off a corner. RvP played the short corner to Cesc whose cross was headed wide by Song. Arsenal’s passing game seemed to be affected by the weather, with strong winds. The next Sunderland chance came off a poor backpass from Theo which was intercepted by Cisse. His shot was well saved by Almunia who has had some solid games in goal for Arsenal. Sunderland were keeping their shape well and were well-organised, it looked as if Keane had learned some lessons from Hull City.

The only other half chance in the half came off Theo’s cross from wide right which was palmed wide by Craig Gordon and then cleared by the defence. Arsenal created nothing else of note which was poor by Arsenal’s standards. On the break, Sunderland had a couple of chances. Cisse had a good run down the right, and he put in a good cross for Andy Reid, who found himself in acres of space on the left but couldn’t control his header.

The refereeing was a bit rubbish. He blew too often for fouls which spoiled the whole flow of the game, apart from frustrating both teams with bad calls for non-existent fouls. In total, there were 5 or 6 yellow cards dished out and there was not one rash tackle in the whole game.

The second half started off more promising for Arsenal, Wenger probably having a tough talk with the team. They looked sharper in possession, looking to build and create some attacking moves. But that was only for a period of 15 minutes, after which the fizz went out of Arsenal again. There was a corner from RvP which was headed wide by Ade. He did well to get to the ball, but the finishing could have been better. Then came the controversial moment of the game. Theo did well with a run down the right, and crossed from the byline into the 6 yard box which was put into the goal by RvP, making a good run. However, the linesman ruled that the ball went out of play before Theo crossed the ball. Replays were inconclusive on the subject. To me, it appeared as if the ball was still in play, but it was a very close call.

Arsenal made their substitutions, Bendtner and Nasri coming on for Theo and Denilson. The team looked to finally line up in the favoured 4-4-2 with RvP going wide left, Nasri going wide right, Bendtner and Ade upfront. Sunderland could have had more chances. Sagna did poorly and couldnt hold onto the ball from Almunia’s throw, when Reid challenged him. Cisse was in space on the right, but the cross was poor. The best chance of the game then went to Arsenal, the three strikers combining beautifully. Bendtner and Ade played a nice 1-2, and then Bendtner, from the edge of the box, played RvP into the penalty area with a nice looping ball in. RvP's point blank effort was saved well by Gordon. The closest Arsenal had come to scoring all day.

Then came the moment I had feared, a Sunderland goal. It was almost predictable, as Arsenal looked average all day and were always at risk of conceding a late goal to lose all 3 points. Leadbitter found himself in a bit of space, with Song not closing him down quickly enough. He let off a ripping shot on goal, and Almunia had little chance to block it. Sunderland up 1-0 and only had to hold on for a few minutes to earn all 3 points, deservedly so. Wenger then put on Vela for Song in an attempt to save a point. Incredibly it came in the 2nd minute of added time, RvP's corner met by Cesc, of all people. His first goal couldn’t have come at a better time for Arsenal. Arsenal were not satisfied with that and tried hard to get the winner, but there wasn’t any time to score that. Sagna’s cross was met by Ade with his hands up and he fouled Gordon for which he was deservedly yellow carded. So the game finished 1-1.

I thought Arsenal deserved nothing from that game and were fortunate to come away with even one point. A poor performance in general and the different formation (4-5-1, 4-3-3) didn’t help. When the team saw that Sunderland had blocked the mid field, the long ball route to Ade was not tried at all. There was no intelligence in the game, very little creativity and the full backs did not provide the additional option of width. This should count as points dropped by Arsenal, for the second week in a row. This team tends to blow hot and cold and certainly doesn’t look like challenging for the Premiership at this rate.

Arsenal 4 Porto 0

2008-09-30T14:06:00.001-07:00

It was a much better performance from the Arsenal in response to the disappointment against Hull. Wenger only made one change (Nasri starting instead of Eboue), as if to make a point to all of us that he still had the confidence in the same players to do the job. And did they do it well. To be honest, I knew that the 11 against Hull was good enough, so it wasn’t a matter of ability or talent.

The game started off slowly for Arsenal. They looked to keep the ball and build their moves slowly. The Porto defence was well organized and they had put their side out in an attacking 4-3-3. There were 2-3 shots on goal initially for Arsenal. RvP made some space for himself outside the box and curled one in with his favourite left foot which was saved by the keeper. There was a beautiful through ball from Cesc into RvP down the right who managed to volley the ball into the ground and over the bar. There was a shot from Theo down the right, who had created his own space, which was tipped wide by the keeper.

The 2 best chances of the 1st 30 minutes came to Porto. They attacked well on the break and did so with pace. A good cross from the right was headed into the ground by Rodriguez which came off the bar. A good chance for Porto to go ahead. The next good chance came off a corner, the Arsenal defence not picking up the ball in the box. The ball was headed into the 6 yard box where 2 Porto players were unmarked, Lisandro almost scored but the ball was cleared off the line by Clichy. A close shave for Arsenal.

The first goal came on the 30 minute mark. A good ball down the right from Theo, who looked sharp in the 1st half, into the box to Adebayor. Ade took his time, waited for RvP to make his run into the box and crossed the ball from the by-line. RvP managed to poke it in with his left foot. The lead for Arsenal, finally. This was followed by a period of domination for Arsenal and the fear was that Arsenal would relax again. However, on 40 minutes, Arsenal won another corner, RvP swung the ball in nicely and Ade beat his defender to the ball, headed well and into the ground. It bounced into the goal. Arsenal now comfortably 2-0 ahead.

RvP linked up play well which was a sea change compared to Hull. He was willing to come back till the half way line to get involved, good to see. He looked constantly dangerous.
The 2nd half started off well for Arsenal, attacking the Porto goal. The ball rebounded off a defender on the right flank to Theo who passed the ball to RvP. RvP converted well with his left foot. The goalie should have done better but it was a decent finish from RvP, for his 2nd goal of the night. Arsenal 3 goals up.

Arsenal then won one of several corners, which was passed to Toure in the box. He crossed it to Theo who missed an open goal. He really should have converted that for the 4th of the night.
Almunia’s clearance was kept in play well by Sagna which resulted in a great run from Theo down the right. He managed to cross the ball into Nasri but the ball went wide off his thigh. Arsenal looked dominant now, and Porto had no answer.
Wenger made his 1st substitutions when Bendtner came on for RvP and Eboue came on for Nasri.

Cesc took one of his shots Cesc 30 yards, and goalie didn’t hold onto it. Ade tried to chip the rebound but couldn’t. Then came a good break from Arsenal, Theo once again, with the run down the right. His cross was deflected to Eboue off a defender, who passed to Bendtner. Bendtner was taken out from behind by Guarin for a clear penalty in the 70th minute. With RvP off the pitch, Ade converted the penalty for a 4-0 lead.

Theo was then replaced by Vela. Theo looked a constant threat down the right with his pace. His final product was sometimes disappointing, but his overall performance was very good. Arsenal still continued to attack. The build up was good, the ball was passed around nicely. Vela found himself into the box, created space for himself till he ran out of it, then passed it onto Bentner who took a shot into the defender. Porto briefly threatened in the 75th minute, but the shot was wide. The Porto side completely went to pieces in the 2nd half.

Cesc’ delivery from corners poor on the night as against Hull. I think this is still his pre-season as he doesn’t seem to be fully upto speed. Ade had a good game, looked lively, fully involved and finished well. There was a tremendous run by Bendtner into the box, then a beautiful pass to Ade who spurned a hat trick chance, by shooting just wide of the goal. Another chance created from beautiful work by Bendtner again, cut the ball into Vela who cut the ball back for Eboue. Eboue’s shot came off the keeper, who knew nothing about it. What a lucky save and Arsenal should have been atleast 5 or 6 nil ahead !

Bendtner looked really lively and was involved in almost every Arsenal chance after he came on. An absolutely commanding 2nd half performance from Arsenal, a half in which Porto didn’t turn up, to be honest. A solid result, to banish the memory of Hull, for the time being at least.

Arsenal 1 Hull city 2

2008-09-25T10:20:00.001-07:00

Well well, this was not the kind of match report I thought I would be writing. Although I expected a tough match from Hull, a defeat was certainly a shock, and certainly, the surprise result of the season so far. I expected a 2-1 result in favour of Arsenal as our defence looked a little suspect.

Arsenal made 11 changes expectedly, from the side that faced Sheffield United mid week with Denilson & Cesc starting off in central mid field. Arsenal started off well in the first 20 minutes, good passing movement and created some chances. Ade passed the ball to Cesc who shot wide from outside the box when he should have been on target. There was another move in which Eboue passed the ball to Cesc in the box who took the ball wide to the right, and instead of taking a shot, passed it to Gallas who then passed it to Ade. Welcome to the world of Arsenal J. To be honest, I would have preferred a few more shots on goal, as the keeper was never really tested in the 1st half.

Eboue had a good run down the left jinking past a couple of defenders, fired a good shot but it was deflected wide for a corner. Adebayor actually managed to score a goal from a good Sagna cross but he fouled a defender in the process. So the goal was disallowed. There was another good move down the left with Eboue getting the ball and should have taken a shot, but preferred to square the ball to RvP but the defender was the first to get to it.

The best chance fell to Theo, from an Eboue cross from the left flank. Theo should have tried to hit it first time with his left foot, but tried to take a touch with his right foot which was too heavy. The half ended with a a good run by Theo down the right, managed a low cross into Ade but good defending from Hull took the ball out for a corner.

Hull defended well, kept good shape after 20 minutes. There were no real chances for them and good defending from Gallas and Toure cut out the few promising moves. Cesc was off colour as were a few other players like RvP and Adebayor. The whole team looked off colour. Initially, Hull seemed to come out with a plan to kick Arsenal off the park. There was a foul on Theo, Eboue was hacked twice and Boateng fouled Cesc. The problem with these fouls was that there was no attempt to play the ball, and it was clear that the man was the target. Theo lost a bit of confidence due to the kicking and this will be an important lesson for the young lad. This showed up later in the half when Theo had a decent shot at goal but preferred to pass it to someone else.
The 2nd half started off better for Arsenal with an excellent run by Theo down the right, his pace really telling. He played the ball in across the 6 yard box which rebounded off Ade and then off Mcshane (I think) for an own goal. Arsenal then continued to put in some promising moves and attack Hull but none resulted in a goal.

Then, completely against the run of play, Geovanni was allowed too much time on the ball just outside the box, hit a sweet strike into the top corner. Almunia had no chance and it was a fantastic finish. That really seemed to lift the confidence of Hull, and from a corner, Cousin put Hull ahead into an unlikely lead. Gallas was at fault for this coz he completely lost his man. I’m extremely concerned about Gallas’ defending, this is not the first time that he has lost his man in the box and he needs to work on his game. Based on current form, Djourou should start ahead of Gallas.

After that, Arsenal pressed forward for an equalizer, but I thought the urgency was missing in the 70th minute. It was only as time progressed that the Arsenal side really sensed that they need to push things up. Wenger threw on Bendtner and Vela in an attempt to force the pace, but Hull defended extremely well.
There were a couple of Cescy shots from outside the box which produced good saves from the keeper. RvP hit wide from a good through ball from Toure. The best chance came off a corner which Gallas headed onto the crossbar, it came down and ricocheted off Vela for a goal kick.
On the whole, Hull deserved the 3 points, although a draw would have also been a decent result. They believed in themselves, had a game plan, kept their shape well even when they were put under tremendous pressure. There are a few questions that Arsenal need to answer. RvP was anonymous in the 1st half, although he came alive in the 2nd, as was Cesc. A disappointing result for Arsenal, and a good lesson for the team. They need to bounce back quickly from this, in the same manner as they did after the Fulham game.

Should the Carling Cup team play the FA Cup also ?

2008-09-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

This is something that I've been thinking about and has also been raised elsewhere: Should Wenger play the Carling Cup team for the FA Cup as well ? There are several reasons for this:

1. For some reason, Wenger doesnt priorise the FA Cup anymore. His main targets are the PL & CL, probably partially in acknowledgment that the squad isnt big enough to challenge on 4 fronts. Last season, Arsenal practically threw the game against ManU. Playing the kids will give the first team the rest they need, as I feel we're already a small squad. This will enable excellent rotation.

2. It will give these kids more of an opportunity to play together and heck, they have earned it. I'm not basing this solely on the 6-0 hammering of Sheffield, but the record over the past 3 years reads like this - semi final, final, semi final. Thats consistently good performances and all of them were pleasing ones as well.

3. It may be time to take Wenger's experiment to the next level. So far, the kids have consistently justified all the faith and confidence bestowed on them by Wenger, so you can argue that they have deserved the 'promotion', so to speak.

4. From a fans' perspective, I love to watch the kids play. I said this in my first post of the CC thread - I prefer to watch the CC rather than the FA Cup. There is an unbelievable amount of pride watching these kids passing the ball around, outplaying seasoned pros, playing the exact same way as the first team so there is no let up in the entertainment factor.

5. The CC may not be enough games for a team. Even if the team does well and reaches the semi-finals, its just 5 games in the season and one more, if we go through to the final. A lot of these youngsters need more competitive games under their belt, and perhaps, less of them will be sent out on loan if they get more games with the Arsenal. A few of these kids dont have any more competitive games to play in the 2nd half of the season.

6. There are some who believe that, instead of playing the complete CC team in the FA Cup, a few kids can be played alongside senior pros, to enable them to progress in a better manner. It will be a different experience for the kids and the extra experience on the pitch can help them.

7. An alternate view is that the presence of senior pros on the pitch might hamper the development of the kids, as they might feel inhibited by the seniors' presence. Kind of like the Henry situation, where the team would pass the ball to him and expect him to deliver instead of doing something with the ball themselves. That may have been a factor in the 5-1 defeat to Spurs in the CC last season, as pros like Gallas ad Adebayor played in that game.

8. In any case, I believe that the team will be equally competitive in the FA Cup, as there is a confidence that this team of kids can take on a lot of Premiership opponents. So we will not lose out on the chance to win the Cup. Personally, opposing teams are as competitive in the FA Cup as in the Carling Cup. If you look at the Newcastle & Blackburn sides we defeated last season in the CC, they were as good as their first team, meaning they would play that side even in the FA Cup. Our kids are good enough to take on whatever teams throw at us, including ManU and Chelsea.

Some of the views above (namely, pts 6 & 7) have been picked from a few forums online in order to supplement the original points which I thought of.

2008-09-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

Take a bow, Arsene, take a bow! His philosophy of implicit trust and confidence in the Arsenal kids paid off with a comprehensive humiliation of Sheffield United 6-0 in the Carling Cup. What an awesome performance! When the team was announced, it consisted of several teenagers. In fact, at the final whistle, apart from Fabianski, the rest of the team were all teenagers. It was a fantastic vote of confidence in their abilities and the team did not let Arsene down.

The team lined up in their favourite 4-4-2 formation, with Song and Djourou at CB, Gibbs & Hoyte at full back, Ramsey & Randall as the central mid field partnership, Merida and Wilshere wide on the flanks and Vela and Bendtner up front. The first 20 minutes saw Arsenal settling down with their passing game. Mark Randall put in a couple of tough tackles and Ramsey looked comfortable in mid field. This team probably never played together, as it was a mix of a few first team players, reserve players and a few substitutes for the first team. However, it took only 31 minutes for the deadlock to be broken, Vela down the left and Bendtner combining well, with Bendtner curling the ball past Kenny into the right side of the net. A well deserved lead.

After that, it was Ramsey with a good run down the left, eventually crowded in the box with 3 defenders surrounding him, he managed to play a deft little back heel to Bendtner who finished off the chance with ease in the 42nd minute. Lovely play again from the Arsenal! Vela and Bendtner combined well for the 3rd soon after in the 44th minute, this time it was Bendtner with the assist and Vela finished off his chance well. It was 3-0 at half time, with Sheffield United not really testing Fabianski, apart from a couple of corners which he collected comfortably.

The 2nd half started off in the same vein, with Arsenal looking to extend the lead further. Gibbs played a long ball from left back and it was beautifully controlled by Vela with his shoulder, who then rounded the defender, waited for the goal keeper, Kenny to commit himself before chipping over him for his 2nd goal of the night. An audacious finish, and evidence of Vela’s confidence. Soon after, a corner was conceded by Sheffield in the 57th minute. It was taken by Merida and instead of crossing it into the box, it was played to Wilshere who was waiting a few yards outside the box, on the right. He took it well on his left foot and smashed it into the bottom corner. Arsenal were leading 5-0 and it was game over.

Fran Merida who had a good game, played a beautiful through ball down the right to Bendtner in the 64th minute, and he should have scored from an easy chance. He managed to put the ball just wide with the keeper beaten and no defender challenging him. A hat trick chance missed.
Arsenal looked really comfortable at this point and the intensity of the game reduced. The team looked to keep the ball, pass it around and not concede a goal which was important. Wenger made 3 changes in the 69th minute. Song came off with an injury (he landed awkwardly on his left foot while challenging for a header), Bendtner and Merida joining him. Their replacements were Henri Lansbury (normally plays mid field but played right back, I think), Jay Simpson (striker) and Francis Coquelin, the 17 year old French mid fielder.
The team still looked to attack with Coquelin looking sharp, and Lansbury had a shot on goal immediately. They contributed well to the build up. Jay Simpson had a couple of decent efforts on goal, but couldn’t convert any of them. Ramsey and Randall were controlling the game beautifully in the middle of the park. Sheffield had given up a long time back and were waiting for the final whistle.

In the 86th minute, Ramsey picked out Vela down the left who finished well again earning a well deserved hat trick. It was a solid, pleasing performance from the young gunners. The level of praise for each of them can never be enough. The team rarely looked like conceding a goal throughout the match, and always looked likely to score.

The full backs (Gibbs and Hoyte) had a good game. Whenever they had to defend, they tracked back. They overlapped very well with the wide players and were a constant attacking option down the flanks. The central defenders (Song and Djourou) were rarely troubled and dealt well with the occasional Sheffield attack. Fabianski had a couple of corners to deal with, but otherwise, was not called into play at all throughout the game. The central mid field partnership (Ramsey and Randall) was excellent. Ramsey looked real quality and the reason why Wenger paid 5M for him was on full display. He always looked to attack, had 2-3 assists on the night and his passing range was fantastic. I was also impressed by Randall, he showed a tough tackling side of him that I haven’t seen before, and the played the defensive anchor very well. Wishere and Merida were a constant attacking threat, combining well with the overlapping full backs. They preferred to cut in often and were not bullied off the ball.
The Vela Bendtner partnership is blossoming in full force. They looked good in pre-season, but they were simply fantastic on the night. They were both unselfish, setting up chances for the other and really seem to enjoy playing with each other.

Overall, an excellent performance. Its so pleasing to see the kids do well. On the evidence of this, Wenger could play the same team in the FA Cup as well, and progress far. It feels good to be a gooner.

Stand up, Gooners

2008-09-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

The transfer window is finally over and now it is time to raise our heads and be fully committed to the season ahead.

We all are a bit disappointed about the fact that we did not sign anyone to play alongside Fabregas, but before moaning and blaming Wenger, I want you to know something. Some papers here from the UK claim Wenger had positive talks with Liverpool, and despite of the fact that Alonso was keen on joining us, the Kops just did not want to sell him. You may say: [i]"Ok, but he should have signed an unknown player, just like Sagna or even Eduardo"[/i], but doing such a thing would be worth it? Firstly we shall remember that Inler spent the whole summer linked to us, and so did lots of players. However, if we are keen on winning something this year, be sure that no one wants to do it more than Arsene Wenger. He has been working day by day so Arsenal can improve, and that being said, le boss does know that bringing someone less famous in is not worth the gamble in such a crucial moment in Arsenal's history.

Taking a look at our current squad, there are some players who can step up and cover the gap in the midfield. As we have already seen during the pre-season games, if Diaby gets injured, then we have Denilson, Ramsey, Song, Silvestre, Eboue, Bischoff and even Djourou (why not?) to play alongside Cesc. We know some of them are young and lack experience, but last season we said the same thing about Flamini and look at him now. Denilson though lacks consistancy passing the ball, is a good tackler, and so does Eboue, who has improved a lot. Ramsey is only seventeen but has already played a FA Cup final and has been playing regularly for the Welsh national team, what is quite impressive for a teenager. Bischoff has not played a lot at Werder Bremen, and you know what? That makes me even more excited about seeing his debuting. He looks strong, and that is just what we need from a holding midfielder. Song is a former centre-back, but Rosicky is a former offensive midfielder and plays as a winger for us, for example. I really think the boy has a lot of qualities and seeing him in the midfield would not surprise me at all. Djourou is a gamble, but given his recent perfomances, he might surprise us a lot should he keeps his job. And then Silvestre. Honestly, I do not think Wenger signed him only to be a substitute. The boss is playing his cards close to his chest and may surprise us by playing Mikael in the middle sometime, adding experience and strenght in the heart of the midfield. Would it be nice? Do not know, because I have never seen him playing there. No matter if we do not like him, now he is a Gunner and then we simply must back him, simple as that. Let's put it behind us, please.

We layed the blame on our defense last season. Yes we lacked pace, tempo and most importantly focus against Birmingham City, for example. Months later, however, Kolo and William are know different guys. Toure looked different as soon as he returned from the Africa Cup of Nations, but know he had a good rest and looks as solid as ever. King Kolo is back and I do trust him. Now about Gallas. We all know he may not be the most indicated to wear the armband, and so does him, be sure. He is an experienced player who has been playing a lot during his career. He knows the shortcuts and that is why he still plays for Le Bleus and was wanted by Barcelona recently. And that being said, be sure he is really motivated to show us he is a good captain and player. He just can not wait to bounce back and then it is important to back him.

Our attack (plus the wingers) are just awesome. Rosicky, Walcott, Nasri, Wilshere, Eduardo, van Persie, Vela, Adebayor and Bendnter are brilliant players and then I think it is extremely needless to say a word about them, especially after the perfomance against Newcastle last Sat.
As I said before, now it is time to raise our heads, stop moaning, complaining or whatever. Last season we were complaining about Henry's departure, and by the end of it we were all proud of our lads. That being said, I may not agree with what I have just typed, but being a Gooner, now it is time to do what we are supposed to do. Now it is time to put the transfer window inidents all behind us and concentrate on supporting our team as much as we can, because we are not able to change anything. Now it is time to back the Gunners and remember that, no matter what happens, Arsene knows.

Come on, you mighty Gooners.

Arsenal 3 v 0 Newcastle

2008-08-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

The last two times I went to the Emirates for a match against the Magpies were: 3-0 and 3-0. One valid for the Carling Cup, the other, for the Barclays Premier League. Both this year, both in the end of January, if I'm not wrong. For this strange fact I thought the game earlier today would be a bit more different. Luckily I was wrong.

Superb Saturday morning in London. The sky was blue and the weather was really cool. The mood inside the tube was spetacular. Given I left home a bit earlier, I had enough time to spend at Arsenal, eating, drinking and chatting at Gillespie Road, before joining the atmosphere inside the Emirates. My seat was waiting for me at the Club Level today. The fans were all confident about a good perfomance, given our 4-0 victory over McClaren's side. They were all keen on bouncing back after that deplorable perfomance at the Cottage.

Differently from the game against Twente, we started the game very well. We dominated Newcastle since the very first minute. Our midfield was more efficient given our concentration. Cesc's presence was crucial, making a big impact in the heart of the pitch while we were very fast on the wings, as usual. Nasri was as sharp as always, and Eboue, who started instead of Theo. Yet, I was delighted with our effectiveness up front. Robin was sharp and fresh, whereas Adebayor looked more a support striker than the Dutch, curiously.

Just after the fifteen-minute mark, Adebayor tryed to cross, and N'Zogbia (who was linked to Arsenal a couple of weeks ago, heh) touched the ball with his arm. Van Persie took the penalty-kick and netted our opener. After taking the lead I've to admit it looked as if Arsenal calmed down. As I got a bit nervous, Owen almost scored the equaliser, what would've changed the game. Then the players felt the pressure and decided to make some impact again. On the right wing, Adebayor broke into the box, passed the ball to Eboue, who breathtakingly flicked the ball to van Persie, who scored our second goal. It was fantastic to see that almost the whole team celebrated with Eboue, recognising the crucial role he played during the goal. Nice to see the players are united and the friendship is that visible. And by the way, I'm really proud of Eboue. When his name was announced in the starting XI, I could see some fans behind me complaining about his presence, and then didn't even saluted him. Anyway, life's like that, and isn't it just awesome? When Robin scored after being brilliantly assisted by Eboue, I turned back so I could see the smile on the face of that guy. To complete such a great day, a superb change of balls between Nasri and Adebayor and then Denilson ended up in our third goal. Denilson, honestly, didn't have a great perfomance. Though he was effective defensively, he's far away from being a Cesc in the passes. However, he deserves the goal, due to the fact that I'm sure it'll have a big impact in his development as a player.

Overall, it was a perfect perfomance. Though, evidently, we made some mistakes, I'm pretty sure we'll achieve something if we keep playing this way. Finally the partnership between Kolo and Gallas worked and they looked solid. Clichy and Sagna not only were good attacking, but defending as well. Robin van Persie had a brilliant game. He not only scored twice, but created lots of chances and was a bit unlucky as Given saved his free-kick brilliantly. That's the van Persie we see playing for Holland and that's the player we want to see in Arsenal colours. We all know his capacity and that's why we want him to be on his top, playing the football he knows to play very well. And what to say about Adebayor? Simply fantastic. It was a pleasure to sing his two chants again, and seeing him perfoming so well was amazing. As I said above, he looked more a support striker today, or maybe a winger. He played wide open instead of playing in the centre, spot in which van Persie played more. The Togolese was the resposible for the three goals we scored today, and despite of the fact he didn't score, he played a crucial role for us today and was the man of the match, in my opinion.

It's impossible not to feel confident after such a perfect display. We scored 7 goals in the last two games and most importantly, playing very well. After seeing United being defeated by Zenit yesterday and Liverpool scoring only one goal with five minutes to go against Standard Liege last week proved the world that we're in the title race and ready to shut up pundits, managers and whoevever says we're not going to have a great season. Yes, we played very well, but to consolidate our high ambitions, signing one or two players until Monday is something imperative for us.

Poor Double-K and Barton. Nasri, you fucking legend!

Carry on, you mighty Gunners.

Primary and Secondary for Arsenal

2008-08-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

-By Fuad Khan

When we take into account a club like Chelsea, we can clearly witness that Winning there, is taken as primary objective of the club or wait, let me rephrase it ; 'winning-everything' is primary but when we talk about Arsenal there is still some confusion as to what is primary for the club and what is secondary, winning or attractive play ? I for one feel that since football is more about entertaining than winning-the-game-at-all-cost, none are so special as the Gunners, who epitomize what the beautiful game stands for.. People may think that since Arsenal have won nothing for quite some years it is relatively easy to say that for Arsenal all that matters is playing stylish football.. When people say Arsenal have won nothing over the years, they are quite mistaken.. Through the beautiful game, Arsenal have emerged and developed an image of a World-Class team with a lot of potential.. Youngsters from any part of the world would be ready to join Arsenal's Youth Setup, a treat *for the neutrals* to see Arsenal play, great players regard Arsenal as the perfect embodiment of Beautiful Football.. Now if thats not an achievement, I don't know what is..

"When I Want To See Cabinets Full Of Trophies I Go To Madrid, Milan Or Manchester But When I Want To See 90 mins Of Pure, Magical and Spellbounding Football I Go And Watch Arsenal" - The Great Pele

When I say that Stylish play is primary for Arsenal, I don't really mean that Arsenal wants to play good football and winning doesn't matter to them. For a fan, thats not acceptable.. But the fact that some clubs value winning over EVERYTHING else is just not right.. I would rather prefer Arsenal playing some great and stylish football and not winning than actually winning by *parking the bus infront of the goal* =) With the very same entertaining-style Arsenal performs week in week out, it was a shame we ended up winning no trophies, but its not long when we have silverware in our hands.. It was more to do with luck than anything that saw Arsenal close their highly-entertaining season on a low..

In the end I just want to say that for all I care, we might not win anything this season aswell, but if they thrill me with the brand of football that they normally do, it's good enough for me.

The future is bright. The future is now. The future is Arsenal =)

Streaming Video Software Guide

2008-07-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick one for instructions on watching games on the internet. I will expand this later to put in more information, tips and links as I familiarize myself again with the different softwares.

Lets start with some of the softwares which we can use to watch the matches. There is no need to create a account for most of these softwares as you can login as guest or annonymous to watch several channels including sports.

1) SOPCAST
You can download it here. Simply install it, login as anonynomous and you get a host of channels to choose from. Simply choose the one you want and wait for it to buffer.

2) TVAnts
You can download it here. Install it but you may not find a lot of sports channels in the software itself. You will find streams which require the software to view them on various websites. There is no login required for this software.

3) TVU PLayer
Download it here. Refer to the User Manual for more help on how to use it.

Most softwares are similar in function and only the interface changes. I will add more players and more details in the future.

Below are a few websites where you can find streams for watching games.
Myp2p , ChannelSurfing , LiveFooty , RojaDirecta , GoalTube

Some of the links you will find will require external softwares like the ones mentioned above to view them. Clicking on the link will automatically open the external software on your computer or request you to download the software. There are quite a few links which use Windows Media Player so you may be able to watch games without downloading any sftware if you find the correct links.

While at times some links can be viewed in the browser itself using software plugins and may prompt you to download plugins to watch without any external. The plugins nay be browser specific so please take care of the version you may be downloading. Some of the plugins used are

Flash Shockwave Player
Sopcast WebPlayer

You will ofcourse need a broadband connection to view these matches. A stable 256 connection should be good enough to find streams for most matches. Sometimes if you are lucky you will find streams which you can view on as low as a 64kbps connection, but those are very rare.

Thats it for now. Start searching those streams now!

Fantasy Premier League 08/09

2008-07-15T07:08:00.000-07:00

Fantasy Premier League 08/09

- By Felipe

As we all know there are a lot of people from here who play the game, and that is why me and a few fellas from this community were wondering to open this thread so we could create a bigger and more competitive league in order to make new friends and have even more fun.

That being said, we decided to create our very own Arsenal Orkut League. So, if you are a Fantasy Premier League fan and a member of Orkut's Arsenal FC community, we would be delighted if you join us. The code to join the league is:

91561-23989

Build your team and good luck!

If you do not know the game, here is link for the frequently asked questions so you can learn how to play it before joining us: http://fantasy.premierleague.com/M/help.mc

Concentration Or the Lack of it?

2008-07-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

Arsenal last season were on a roll up until February. The underdogs were on top of the world, denying every self proclaimed expert on their way to the top. But did their success in proving their critics wrong got to their heads?

Three crucial games that people talk about when discussing “What went wrong for Arsenal”? are usually the ones against Chelsea at the bridge, Liverpool at Anfield and United at Old Trafford.

I’ll start with the Liverpool game. Now to be honest, after Torres had scored the second goal for Liverpool, Arsenal were all over the pitch. Liverpool were clearly the dominant ones at that time and they looked as if they would run away with the game. Theo then ran away with their pride after opening them wide open and leaving it to Adebayor to put it in the back of the net.

As I saw it, Theo should have been the one who Adebayor should have thanked. Instead of doing that, Adebayor celebrates alone infront of the fans as if he was the one who had torn Liverpool apart. Everyone went to Theo, they were all over him (apart from from Adebayor ofcourse) Wenger on the other hand had only one thing in mind, the game was NOT won yet. There was time on the clock and he was shouting at his players to go back and focus on the game. And the consequences we all indeed saw. People would go on and on and on and on about whether it was a penalty or not a penalty. I would rather go and ask the players why the hell is Ryan Babel allowed a free run at the defense just SECONDS after kick-off. Why was he able to get in the penalty box in the first place? Why was he allowed such an advanced position immediately after restart. Plain lack of concentration. Gunners celebrated as if they had won the match. I know it was a breathe taking run, I know what it meant for them, for us and for Wenger. But that doesn’t mean that you keep on celebrating rather then focusing on the task at hand!

The loss to United at OT is where our title challenge finally ended. Now it is said that this was the game where it all ended for us and we faced the prospect of yet another trophyless season. But the important question here is WHY DID ARSENAL LET IT COME TO THIS? For me Arsenal lost it during the sequence of 4 draws and the defeat at the hand of Chelsea at The Bridge. Those games dealt a crushing blow to the morale of a thin and injury filled squad especially the game at The Bridge which resulted in us going down thanks to Drogba and also loosing Sagna, one of our most consistent performers for the remainder of the season. As I saw the two goals which Chelsea scored, Kolo Toure of all people seemed to be the culprit. He made what appeared to be silly silly mistakes, completely misjudging the header on from anelka and ending up in no mans land when Drogba scored the second goal.

Out of the 4 draws, Arsenal conceded first against Boro and Villa once again due to simple simple errors. An offside trap not well played and we conceded to Boro while some woeful defending meant we gave yet another soft goal to our opponents. Chasing games for large part of it was what we did and even though the team did come back and scored the equalizer, there wasn’t much time to kick on and win the game.

Another game that comes to mind is the ill fated game at St Andrews where the first half Arsenal looked totally out of sorts and you can hardly blame them after the events of the first 10 minutes of the game. But they picked themselves up brilliantly in the second half only to throw it all away in the last minute of the game with an uncharacteristic error by clichy. Yes you could again argue that it wasn’t a penalty but the question here is WHY DIDN’T CLICHY SIMPLY CLEAR THE BALL? And the events that followed it with Gallas completely loosing it is also termed as the start of the breakdown of Arsenal’s season. Although we did pick ourselves up and put probably the performance of the season against AC Milan (Cunts) at San Siro but our BPL form remained woeful in spite of an awesome performance at San Siro.

Yes the Arsenal boys have made us proud of what they managed to achieve last season be it being at the top for two thirds of the season and playing arguably the best football in Europe but despite all these we ended up trophyless due to the most basic school boy errors which when made at any other time would not have proved as costly. Hopefully the lessons learnt from these mistakes would help the team go that extra step next season and decorate the glorious corridors of our new stadium with trophies.

Credit to Vinay Vikram for Adding and proof reading this article. This one is here largely due to his effort.

Adebayor the news maker

2008-07-04T05:32:00.000-07:00

Adebayor is making all the news for Arsenal recently. His comments to News of the World (NOTW), if true, were completely unacceptable. Initially, I believed that his quotes were fabricated, but its almost been a week and he has not denied them, leading me to believe that they were indeed his quotes. Very disappointing, I must say. But lets look at this from an Arsenal perspective.

Initially Ade insisted that he would see out his contract with Arsenal, which may have prompted his agent to whisper in his ear – “if you continue talking like this, then Arsenal will not give you the wage hike you demand”. So Ade issues a contradictory statement to Sky news that his future would be decided next week. Then came the infamous interview with NOTW.

I believe that the player wants higher wages, but he has gone about in a completely inappropriate way. He should have asked the club and kept this out of the media. Having said that, Wenger might decide that he is worth a wage increase (not upto £120K per week, of course, but perhaps to about £50-60 K per week). Or Wenger could decide to sell him to Barca or Milan for a fee in the range of £25-30M which represents excellent business for a player we signed for about £7M. No player is irreplaceable and Ade can certainly be replaced.

Wenger is extremely tolerant with his players. He was willing to keep Ashley Cole despite him talking behind our backs with Chelsea. So, I don’t think he would mind keeping Ade despite his comments to NOTW. Both Ade & Hleb have not covered themselves in glory with the manner in which they have gone about things this summer, but I believe this is part of the changing face of modern football and something fans will have to learn to put up with, in much the same way that Wenger has.

If Wenger does decide to sell Ade, then I think we should hold on to Hleb. I think the club can cope with losing two 1st team players, but losing 3 of them will hurt our chances next season. I would prefer it if we retained both these players, as with the additions in Nasri, Ramsey and whoever else Wenger decides to sign, we will be a much stronger squad next season.

In any case, I am not very worried about the summer events. Wenger has earned our trust and belief in his summer moves. He has let go of players at the right time and signed excellent players at the same time.

Gallas as captain

2008-06-16T04:02:00.000-07:00

Its time to analyse Gallas’ performance as captain last season. His appointment at the start of the season was controversial. Gilberto was supposedly the better candidate, he was arguably our player of the previous season and a calming, experienced presence amongst the younger kids. Wenger felt that a defender was a better judge of play and hence, would make a better captain. It didn’t help that Gilberto came back late from Copa America, and not only lost the captaincy but also his starting place to Flamini. There were a few minor voices who felt that Gallas was the ideal candidate, and I have to confess, I wasn’t one of them. However, if Wenger felt that he made a better captain, the least we could do was give Gallas a decent shot at it and evaluate his performance.

The season started very well, and one could see the tangible impact on team spirit. The squad looked together with their huddles (apparently Gallas’ idea), pre-game team talks etc. It certainly seemed to be Gallas’ influence. Performance-wise, the team started off with a few wobbles but still got the points. The resilience and fighting spirit was widely admired as the same situations last season led to dropped points. During the season, Gallas popped up with some crucial goals (Man Utd, Wigan, Chelsea, Bolton) to lead the team by example.

One marked improvement was overall in defence. The earlier part of the season saw a more organised defence, with Gallas largely pulling the strings. There was also a significant improvement in defending set pieces. The team didn’t look as vulnerable as last season. Gallas would bark instructions to the others, especially Clichy and Sagna, the junior partners in defence. Ironically, the team looked solid defensively when Gallas partnered Senderos during the ACN. The relationship between Gallas and Senderos was clearly defined, Senderos being the junior partner. Gallas could be clearly seen instructing Senderos on the finer defensive points. This may have been a small problem with Toure, as he is experienced at Arsenal and one of the senior players at the club.

All of the above positives were applicable till February when things were going well for the club. Then things went pear-shaped. The team lost all those points, starting against Birmingham. Clichy went AWOL in the dying minutes and an incorrect penalty call saw the team drop 2 points. Then came the response from Gallas. He didn’t defend the penalty, kicked a hoarding and was extremely upset with the result, sitting down after the game. The reaction was a bit over the top, but I believe that too much was made of that incident. The fans want the players to be passionate, but when we see such a display, we criticise it. Certainly not a reflection on his captaincy.

Silly, defensive errors crept in and we were looking more vulnerable. The Boro game saw Toure & Gallas culpable for the conceded goal, when they were more intent on claiming off side than dealing with the ball. The team displayed a lack of composure defensively in the game against Chelsea.

How much of this was Gallas responsible for, as a captain ? Certainly not for the individual mistakes that every member of the defensive unit committed. Gallas was also individually responsible for conceded goals. We must realise that the team as a whole, let the fans down with their performance since the Birmingham game.

I believe that Gallas has done a very good job as captain this season. The team would not have been on top of the Premiership till February without his captaincy. He could have inspired the team more during February-March, but thats really not a criticism. I don’t believe media reports that claimed he had lost the faith of his team, or that he is disliked by them. Some of the media reports about him were extremely mischievous (one about him not having any friends in Arsenal come to mind. Gallas was referring only to ENGLISH mates, but the media twisted his words). There have been several negative reports about him, and gooners would do well to take them with a heavy pinch of salt.

As for next season, that’s a different issue entirely. Is Gallas the captain who can take this team upto the next level, i.e. Premiership Champions? Maybe not. I trust Wenger to make the correct call, in the same manner that he made the correct decision to make Gallas the captain this season over the more obvious candidate, i.e. Gilberto.

The wage debate

2008-06-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of media debate about how Arsenal have a ‘rigid wage structure’ and are stingy employers. These are all far off the mark. The most recent available numbers pertain to 2006-07 and the wage bills of the top 4 clubs are under:
1. Chelsea at 133M
2. ManU at 92M
3. Arsenal at 89M
4. Liverpool at 77M
Now, these wages comprise all the employees of the club – playing staff, ground staff, stadium staff, administrative staff, public relations, Board of Directors etc. These numbers prove that Arsenal are competitive in the wage market.

There is simply not enough information to analyse which club pays an individual player better. There are media reports that claim that Ronaldo and Rio are paid in excess of 120K per week, which has Arsenal fans are up in arms complaining why our club doesn’t pay more. This debate has surfaced solely due to Mathieu Flamini, who left Arsenal for Milan for higher wages. I don’t know what the thought process of the Arsenal Board was, but I can guess. They made what they thought was an appropriate offer to Flamini, and Milan simply offered more. It happens.
In my opinion, it was not just the extra money to Flamini that was at stake. If the Board had given into Flamini, how long would it have taken for others players AT HIS LEVEL to demand similar wages? It would have had a knock on effect on wages at the club. Let me remind you that Arsenal offered Thierry Henry a significant contract to stay at the club – this, along with the total wage bill above, proves that Arsenal do not have a ‘rigid wage structure’. It simply proves that Wenger didn’t rate Flamini higher than what was offered. With Henry, there was no such risk, as he was clearly the senior-most player and the captain. So an exception could be made for him, and the club could afford those wages.

Another important indicator is the wage to revenue ratio. The norm is generally considered 55-60% and is an excellent indicator of sustainability - whether the club can afford the wages offered. The top 4 rank like this:
1. Chelsea at 70%
2. ManU at 44%
3. Arsenal at 50%
4. Liverpool at 58%
Chelsea are over the top, and its only Roman’s roubles that are bankrolling the club. So it makes little sense to even discuss Chelsea wages, as they are ridiculous. Arsenal are placed in a good position at 50%.

Now, from what I understand of the club’s policy, contracts are evaluated periodically and players are offered improved wages if their performances warrant it. During the last year, Eboue, Hoyte, Diaby. Adebayor, Almunia & Sagna have all signed improved contracts (read: higher wages) while Cesc & Clichy are currently re-negotiating theirs. So the club WILL improve wages regularly which is another indicator that media reports are off the mark.
Recently, media reports have suggested that the Nasri signing was held up due to wages. This was a clever manipulation of Wenger’s quotes as he answered two separate questions, one about Nasri’s signing, and two, about the wage levels of French players in general. These two were combined as if to confirm the myth that Arsenal don’t pay well. All I’d like to say to fans is – learn to separate fact from fiction. I hope this post has gone some way in doing just that.
Some fans are extremely concerned that players might quit due to a lack of wages. But a deeper analysis of past departures proves that’s hardly reason for concern. Of ALL the players who left Arsenal in the recent past, I can only think of two (Cashley & Flamini) who left for monetary reasons. Players like Vieira, Henry, Ljungberg, Pires etc were all satisfied with their wage levels.

I remember another concern of Arsenal fans last summer, that if Arsenal won nothing in the 2007-08 season, there would be a ‘player exodus’ and all our important players would leave. Well, we won nothing this season and Cesc, Ade, RVP have all affirmed their intention to stay put and there has been no such exodus. Yet, I hear such concerns being repeated this summer, only with the added concern of the wage level not being satisfactory. All unfounded.

The Board and Wenger are doing an excellent job in managing wage levels. Leave it to the professionals who know what they’re doing. They have proven that to us in the past and there is no reason to doubt their competence. Of course, there will come a time when we cannot afford a certain players wages and he will be transferred, but hardly reason for any alarm.

Loyalty in modern football

2008-06-08T05:35:00.000-07:00

The concept of loyalty is changing in football. From a players’ perspective, it certainly seems to have changed. They are constantly on the look out for greater challenges, more money and are less likely to stay loyal. But is that such a bad thing? We, as fans, demand loyalty from the players to the club, whereas the only loyalty the players owe is to their career and to their family.

So, is it then fair and reasonable to expect players to be loyal to their club?
In my opinion, its not. Clubs are rarely loyal to players when the players have served their usefulness to the club. Wenger is ruthless in determining when players need to be let go – Pires, Vieira, Ljungberg and a whole host of others will all attest to this statement. So why do we, as fans, expect players to be loyal to the club? After all, loyalty should be a two way street.
That’s why I find it strange when fans quickly turn on their own players for expressing a desire to leave. Overnight, the player was ‘never that good anyway’ which surely hides some obvious bitterness, that of being betrayed. Perhaps, this is the way we’d react if a woman scorned our love.

The only loyalty that one can find in modern football is of the fan to his club. The club is loyal to itself, frequently increasing prices and testing the fans’ patience. Players are loyal only to themselves. It’s the fans undying loyalty that keeps this game alive and kicking.
The concept of loyalty has not changed that much from a club’s perspective. Even in the 80s & 90s, players would be sold on by their clubs if they were no longer considered useful to the club, or the manager didn’t like them or didn’t think that they would fit into his team. During such times, contracts aren’t sacrosanct and are broken at will by clubs. Even with Arsenal, during the George Graham era, he sold players who he was suspicious of, for various reasons. Mostly, it was the players that had flair (Merson, Limpar) or the players who would stand up to him (Kenny Samson). Such incidents have happened during the reign of every Arsenal manager. So why are we outraged when a player wants to break his contract? Why cant fans thank the player for his service and wish him well?

Of course, this depends on how the player handles his exit. Recently, Flamini handled his departure well. There should be no bad feelings towards him. He got a good offer from Milan and moved there. Perhaps he moved for the money, but given the option, who wouldn’t? In everyday life, we weigh up decisions constantly, and I can personally confess to money being a major factor in a decision to change jobs. So why begrudge players that choice?

Another example is Hleb (I know he hasn’t quit yet, but I would prefer if he left now). I have no problems if he wants to leave Arsenal. He may have his reasons. But his agent talked such utter shite in the media – there was a veiled threat that he wouldn’t perform well next season if he stayed at arsenal, the city was too noisy for him (he realises this after 3 years in London?!!). All rubbish excuses, and that has led to me losing a lot of respect for Hleb. I had a lot of time and respect for the player, he offers some real skill on the ball and contributes in many ways to our overall play, but now, I would like him to leave simply because of the way he handed it.

Sometimes, I wonder, why do players hesitate to simply tell the fans that they want to leave for better opportunities? A lot of resentment towards Henry was created solely because he lied to the fans about the reasons for his departure. There would have been a lot more respect and a lot less resentment and bitterness had he been honest with us, his fans.

So, to summarise:
1. Loyalty should not be expected from players
2. Clubs are rarely loyal to players
3. Fans should not begrudge a player’s choice to move to better pastures
4. However, it all depends on how the player handles it and how honest he is with the fans

Gem from F365

2008-06-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

You've got to read this. 365 can trusted to come up with those occasional gems and here's one of them -

If you listen carefully to Manchester United's remarkable management duo then not only would you believe that the FA condones the multi-media abuse of their officials but you'd also find yourself acquainted with some of history's most controversial figures.

Just last week, Sir Alex of Redface name-checked General Franco as he disparaged Real Madrid while Carlos Queiroz has now condemned Spain's claims on Christopher Columbus as he strives to persuade Cristiano Ronaldo to stay in Manchester. That Ferguson has highlighted the work of a dictator and Queiroz that of an innovator is - as an aside - an interesting window into the success of their union.

There was also a geography lesson as Queiroz angrily declared "they will never take Olivenca again" in reference to what we are told is a 'small town on the disputed border' between Portugal and Spain. "Cristiano Ronaldo will never be Spanish!" he continued. "They already did the same with Christopher Columbus, and it now seems they want to naturalise Cristiano Ronaldo. Have they already forgotten what we did to them in the past?"

Of course, what seems to be forgotten is that Columbus was actually born in Italy, hence most listings referring to him as being an 'Italian navigator'.

There is also the small matter of Queiroz's naturalisation. If all it takes to become a Spaniard is a move to Real Madrid, then ManYoo's assistant manager has been Spanish since 2003, the year in which he left the world's rainest city to take over as Real's manager.

As he said at the time: "The Madrid offer is like one of those trains which comes along once in your lifetime that you have to take."

Over to you, Cristiano.

2007-2008, farewell

2008-06-04T11:02:00.000-07:00

So it's over! Season 2007-8 is done and dusted and packaged off to the
annals of time and memory, along with the hopes, disappointments and tears
of many a fan... and quite likely, an outgoing Labour Government. So the
arsenal didn't have it all their own way then!
Seasons come, and season go, but much has been seen and learned from behind
a barrage of misty eyes and an ever-growingly cynical public.

''They earn too much money'', they cry, but come in their droves to top up
those film star bank accounts.
''They've lost touch with their fans'' they boom, as the detached ones are
shuttled around in a fleet of Bentleys at speed, offering a cursory overhead
clap to punctuate a four hundred mile round trip.
''We're losing interest'' they cry, but come July, the eagerness to pay for
that new season ticket will be burning holes in a number of itchy palms.
You see, we're hooked, and no amount of therapy of will ever treat our
addiction. It's what keeps us coming back, and don't the 'suits' just know
it. The only loyalty in football is ours!

But if nothing else has been learned from 2007-8, it threw up a number of
questions in my mind, leading to a deluge of dilemmas...

For the last few years, I've listened to the taunts from fans of the usual
big four.
'Winning is EVERYTHING!'. 'We're BIGGER than you!' 'You've WON nothing for
years!
All reasonable comment, even if despatched with the gusto of a gloating
four-year old because he's got the biggest and best sweet - size an ever
debatable male issue.

So take the outgoing season for instance; Chelsea came second in the title
race, lost both the Carling and European Champions' League finals. Arsenal,
by consensus, played the most entertaining football, coming exceedingly
close to fulfilling their managers' [sometimes myopic] dream. Tottenham
Hotspur, on the other hand, were average at best, inconsistent at worst...
yet won a cup... at last!

So which is best, and which acceptable?
A retrospective look at the history books in ten years time will not show
the beauty of the gunners free-flowing play, or the passion of Chelsea's
assault on three fronts. Neither will it show the Factor 5 stains from
Tottenham Hotspurs' early sojourn to the beach after their impressive
Carling Cup victory...
Dilemma One; Football or win at all costs?

I promise you, nobody is more cynical of the same old top four than I. Good
luck to the usual suspects for their ability to fill those positions, but
please forgive me if I find it a tad tedious at times watching the same old
fare - and unfortunately, the same old petulance that follows them. So what
happened when the all-consuming quadruped got unceremoniously dumped from
the cup? Of course, I took the kids to the zoo, somewhat disinterested in
what the two [albeit deserving] protagonists had to offer me.
Dilemma Two; So-called 'attractive' teams in the final, or turn off
completely? - in my case, in favour of the meercats and ring-tailed baboon!

Dropping down a rung, I watched with great interest and excitement at the
relegation and promotion battles, totally consumed by the morally unfair,
but visually compelling play-offs. But what happens if Hull finally get
their [deserved] day in the sun? Will I feel compelled not to miss our games
with them? Will the pleas of my kids overpower my compulsion to travel to
the far end of the country to watch them play? And will Bristol City prove
as much as a spectacle as the meercats and their mates?
Dilemma Three; 'Big-name clubs in the Premiership, or a chance for everyone?

And so I wave goodbye to 2007-8 and all it had to offer; the winking
Christiano Ronaldo; the underdogs having their day; Didier Drogba, with his
middleweight boxer build and fairyweight ability to stay upright. Barnsley
beating Liverpool, and the delight on the faces of those free-scoring Havant
& Waterlooville boys;. Fernando Torres and his ability to take our breath
away; Michel Platini, and his interest in taking English cup places away in
Europe. Arsenal entertaining, Chelsea's powerhouse assault, Spurs ability to
offer the most impressive suntan!

So it's goodbye m. Flamini, and possibly messrs. Drogba and Berbatov. But
don't worry lads. We'll all be back in 2008-9 for more of the same, win or
lose.

Stat attack

2008-06-03T04:54:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has followed my posts regularly can tell you about my fondness for stats. So I simply cannot let this one go. The season end Opta stats package has a few interesting aspects to offer when it comes to Arsenal.

The top awards have 2 Arsenal players – Cesc as top passer with 2318 passes, and Adebayor with something more dubious as the one with most off sides (66). No Arsenal player features in the top 5 tacklers, while 3 Arsenal players (Cesc, Clichy, Flamini) feature in the top 5 passers. Cesc has an astounding 81% accuracy rate.

Adebayor is the 3rd top scorer in the Premiership with 24 goals. What’s revealing here is the goals / shots ratio. Torres has a ratio of 25% (24 goals in 96 shots) while Ade has a ratio of 23% (24 goals in 104 shots). Of course, Torres has only scored 2-3 of those goals away from home, whilst Ade has scored 11. I would suggest that evens things up. Yet, Ade is still not accepted as a striker who is good enough for Arsenal. Granted, he is not world class yet but he has shown a significant improvement from season to season, and deserves every bit of praise he gets (and a little less of the criticism, one hopes).

Cesc has the highest number of assists (17) and an (another) astounding 95 key passes. Not one player comes close to him on these counts together, and this only signifies what a special player Cesc is.

In terms of team stats, Arsenal have the 2nd highest goals scored (74) behind ManU (80) but only the 4th strongest defence (31 goals conceded) behind ManU (22), Chelsea (26) & Liverpool (28). Arsenal have only kept 15 clean sheets (5th in that table), well behind ManU (21). Its clear to me where the problem is.

In terms of shots on target, Arsenal is 3rd (208) far behind ManU (260) & Liverpool (214). However, its an exaggeration to say that Arsenal try to pass the ball into the net when such things are not mentioned about Chelsea who have lesser shots on goal than Arsenal. We have seen significant improvements on that aspect this season. Arsenal hold on to the most successful passes (15672), more than ManU (14026). No other teams come close.

Arsenal’s shot accuracy can improve, however. Its only at 44% with several clubs ahead, ManU at 48%, Everton at 47%, Spurs at 46% (probably the only thing they did better than Arsenal in the league this season), Villa & Birmingham at 45%.

Arsenal has the 2nd best home record (47 pts) compared to ManU (52) and ahead of Chelsea (43). Arsenal also has the 2nd best away record (36 pts) behind Chelsea (42), but ahead of ManU (35). For all the home advantage that Chelsea boast of, they only have one point more at the Bridge as compared to their travels - they can take their unbeaten home record and shove it up ‘you know where’.

In the disciplinary table (decided solely by the red & yellow card count), Arsenal finished a respectable 7th at 63 points, far behind Liverpool (49 points). No surprises on who finished bottom – its Blackburn with a whopping 92 points (6 red cards and 74 yellows). Chelsea finished 18th with 83 points.

If one considers the fair play table (which is more elaborate than the disciplinary table as this involves 5 parameters – red & yellow cards, positive play, respect towards opposition and the ref, behaviour towards officials), Arsenal finished 4th, behind Spurs, Liverpool and ManU.
For the fans, Arsenal had the 2nd highest average attendance at 60K, behind ManU at 75K. Understandable given the differences in stadium capacities, but on an average, it looks like Arsenal sold out every game which is heartening to see.

In terms of appearances, Clichy has the rare honour of appearing in all 38 games, joining a select group of 12 footballers who have done so this season. Kudos to the monster machine that is Gael Clichy – what tremendous work rate this lad has.

In terms of fouls, Flamini is the 17th largest fouler with 56, but far behind John Carew with 93 (what exactly is a forward doing with so many fouls?). The useless Alan Smith of Newcastle is at 4th with 78 fouls, probably the only notable thing he did all season.

That’s it – hope some of you are still awake and not reeling from this stat attack. The source for this information is Opta stats on Skysports and the stats section on the official premier league site.

The Arsenal medical team

2008-05-29T07:36:00.000-07:00

The performance of the Arsenal medical team has concerned me for some time now. Gary Lewin did an excellent job in treating Eduardo, but there have been several other cases, where the injury hasn’t been diagnosed properly, or the player has been rushed back too soon, or the comeback times have been predicted incorrectly. To back this up, I’ve done some research on the injuries this season.

Gallas – he had a groin injury in August against Blackburn. The official statement made on 20 August 2007 was that he would be out for 3 weeks. Scheduled comeback date was 10 September 2007. Actual comeback date was 20 October 2007 against Bolton at home. He was actually out for 2 whole months, twice the initial predicted comeback period.

Robin van Persie – he was injured on 17 October 2007 while on international duty for Holland. He was initially expected to be out for four weeks. He made a comeback on 12 December 2007 against Steaua Bucharest. He was actually out for 8 weeks, again twice the initial predicted comeback period. He did not play again till 9 January 2008 against Tottenham in the Carling Cup, despite not being fully fit, something which he has admitted later on. He aggravated the injury and was out till 4 March 2008 when he was named on the bench against Milan.

Rosicky – The strangest one of all. He had a hamstring injury in January 2008 against Fulham, where the medical staff felt it was a matter of days, not weeks. Arsenal fans didn’t see him in action till the end of the season.

Sagna – He damaged his ankle against Chelsea on 23 March 2008 and was expected to be out for a minimum of three weeks and a maximum 5 weeks. He is still injured and recovering and is even out of the European Championship, which is significantly more than the predicted 5 weeks.
Rosicky’s injury may be a one-off instance, as the medical staff seemed genuinely flummoxed at the nature of the injury. But the comeback times for the other players have ALL been exceeded, and its time someone took a serious look at this. Not only is this frustrating from a fans point of view, but should someone question the competence of our medical team? The diagnosis of injuries, predicting comeback times and proper treatment and rehabilitation of our players should be the main focus of the medical team and they have let us down in that aspect for the past 2 seasons. Whenever Wenger has anything to say about injuries, I simply ignore them, coz the odds are that he is wrong.

Latest news that Neal Reynolds will now be Assistant Physiotherapist at the club, joining from Norwich City. Hopefully, this will prevent some recurrences of the above incidents.

The defensive conundrum

2008-05-27T06:01:00.000-07:00

Will Gallas and Toure continue to partner each other next season? Or will one of them be replaced by a new signing? If so, which one will make way?

To me, these questions are more critical for next season, rather than wondering why Nasri hasn’t signed yet, or whether Ben Arfa will sign. Arsenal’s problems did not lie in the goal scoring department. We scored only 6 goals less than ManU, but conceded 9 more. Granted, the defence had to cope without Gallas for a month in September, and without Toure for the duration of the Africa Cup of Nations. However, during the critical period, it is this defensive partnership that let down the team, against Chelsea at the Bridge and ManU at OT.

Wenger is not one to criticise his team in public. However, he had this to say about our defence after the Chelsea game:

“We were 1-0 up and had it all in our hands. We needed a bit more defensive authority as the game was there to be taken. We had plenty of chances on the counter-attack when they went 4-4-2. It was just a matter of time to score the second goal. We were not serene enough defensively.”

"We conceded an easy goal against Middlesbrough, an easy goal against Aston Villa. Defensively, we lost control of the game. We got caught when Nicolas Anelka came on to the long balls and the physical battle. We lacked defensive authority.”

These are huge indications that changes will be made to the defensive partnership. In the last few games, when Sagna was injured, Wenger chose to break up the Gallas / Toure combination and play Song at CB instead of playing either Hoyte or Eboue at RB.

Gallas & Toure are two excellent CBs, but they do not gel as a partnership.

In Premiership Games in which Gallas & Toure have started as our centre pack pairing our record reads (these stats have been borrowed from an Arsenal forum):
P 19 W 9 D 8 L 2 F 29 A 16
Win ratio: 47% Clean Sheets: 6 Goals Conceded per game: 0.85

In Games in which the partnership has been broken our record reads:
P 12 W 10 D 2 L 0 F 30 A 8
Win Ratio: 83% Clean Sheets: 6 Goals Conceded per game: 0.66

Although its harsh to blame the partnership for each defeat when that’s certainly not the case, these statistics do show that the partnership needs to be broken up. According to me, Wenger never wanted the Toure-Gallas combination. At the time (in 2006), he didnt want to let Cashley go to Chelsea and was more than happy for the Toure-Senderos partnership to flourish. I feel that Gallas impeded Senderos' learning curve, as he was progressing nicely. Senderos dip can be traced back to him losing his 1st team place to Gallas.

This team needs a defender in the mould of Vidic / Skrtel. A tough, no-nonsense defender who will get in the way of those long balls down the middle and deal with them effectively. That leads to the next question – who should make way? Is Gallas the better defender, or is it Toure ?

Gallas is, no doubt, the more experienced campaigner. His positional sense is excellent and he compensates for his slight lack of pace with intelligent positioning. He has been instrumental in our improvement while defending set pieces, barking out instructions to his junior colleagues and pulling them back into position to defend free kicks and corners. We have only conceded 3 goals from headers this season. He has had a defensively solid season, for the large part.

Toure, whilst lacking the positioning of his more experienced partner, makes up for that with his blistering pace, making several excellent last ditch tackles. However, even his more ardent supporter will have to admit that Toure had a poor season, especially after the African Cup of Nations. He was exhausted, which is understandable given that he has played non-stop for more than 3 seasons now, with little injuries. He had to be taken off from the RB position in the last few games coz of his exhaustion. But he will be back next season, rested and raring to go.

Did the fact that Wenger take Toure and put him at RB for the last few games an indication that Toure will face the axe at CB next season? And if he doesn’t play at CB, where will Toure play ? Sagna is the better RB, and Clichy is a top class LB. I think we will have enough options at LM / RM.

Centre of mid field? That is the only position he can possibly play in, apart from wide mid field. But we seem to have enough options there as well.

This issue vexes me as I do not see an easy solution. This is far more important for next season than putting out a wish list that includes 20 wingers and 40 strikers.

The Cesc Fabregas Show

2008-05-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

As you all know, our very own Cesc Fabregas held yesterday a TV show that will be broadcasted on May 19 on the telly. However, a very lucky man who had the honour to be on the crowd to watch the show personally discribed how it looked like, plus revealed a lot of nice stuff such as our new kit.

For the article written by Milo Hewitt, click here: http://www.epltalk.com/cesc-fabregas-show-review-photos/2092

Now you have just read the article and are just delighted thinking: "Jesus, I really wish I was there!", I bet (because so am I, heh). Anyway, time for some words about it: really nice to know Nike is giving that attention for Arsenal and, most importantly, for Cesc. The boy is becoming a legendary player, even though at the age of twenty one, and due to this fact I read somewhere today that Arsenal is set to offer him a £100,000-a-week deal. Going ahead, I got really interested by our new kit. Although our friend Milo has not received his yet, I looked for some pictures through the internet, and I found some really nice. Before giving you the link I would like to highlight they are not official, but who knows? Here they are: http://img2.putfile.com/main/1/1608442069.jpg and http://img2.putfile.com/main/1/1608442099.jpg and http://a901.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/71/l_9250341673471641ad29ac918d431824.png (looks awesome, though I do not think Nike will change our white kit, given it was released this season).

Take a look at the slideshow featuring photos from behind the scenes: http://s185.photobucket.com/albums/x298/LemonSQ/?albumview=slideshow

Always nice to see the old Arsene that happy. Cesc looks like his father. Cesc's mother looks nice. Bendtner looks like a rapper in the pics and I would just love to play PES2008 with Cesc.

Sunderland v Arsenal pre-match plus a plenty of transfer rumous

2008-05-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

Well, at first I would like to apologise for the time I have spent without posting here. You all know the life in London is not that easy, plus London School seems to be keen on fucking me. However, thanks God there are our very deserved weekends so we can chill, relax and, of course, prepare for the Arsenal games.

I will be traveling to Sunderland in a few hours so I can watch our very last game of the season. You know I have been affirming here that I am very proud of the team, as we did overachieve this season, so that is why I will be there screaming my heart out until the last second of such a good season.

Talking about the match, I am really excited about it as the boss affirmed he is going to play some lads such as Randall and Gibbs. We all know that Fran Merida and Carlos Vela might return to London as soon as the next season starts, so taking a look at the already-here boys will be amazing as Flamini is gone and Hleb may leave as well. Before talking about Hleb, here is to a two-nil victory with Adebayor scoring twice and owning Nando Torres once and for all.

Now about the belarusian, well, you also know that I do not really care about the rumours about him. He has scored only thrice this season, one goal less than captain William Gallas and only one more than Phillipe Senderos. Poor, poor numbers for a winger. No matter if he can dribble and is skilled, Merida and Vela can do the same plus will score more often than him, I bet. After reading articles claiming he had an ice-cream with an Inter Milan agent just before such a crucial match against Milan in Italy, I just do not think he is as committed and focused on Arsenal as he should be. So if really wants to leave, just let him go, Wenger. We do not need/want a player who does not want to play for Arsenal.

The Sun and Goal.com claim Arsenal have signed Lyon Hatem Ben Arfa for something between £16m, £20m. I say we should wait a little bit more before being happy for such a great news, given these sources are not that reliable. However, fingers crosses it is truth, because Ben Arfa is just a fantastic, gifted and skilled winger who can score goals. Plus, Goal.com also links us with Gennaro Gattuso, Niko Kranjcar and Gareth Barry. Gattuso was a big surprise. Though I do not really believe Wenger would go for a 30-year-old player, I have to admit that it makes sense because the boss did affirm he would add an experienced defensive player. Kranjcar and Barry, both are classy players and are already used to the Barclays Premier League and would add some quality and skill in the heart of midfield.

That is it, my friends. Let's hope the season ends just the way it should. Hope the boys get crowned by an excelent perfomance and result over Sunderland later today. About the champions, though I have to admit I would hate to see Ronaldo winning one more trophy, I would be difficult to swallow Avran Grant's side as the champions. So, let's see what the day will bring.

Have a nice day.

Edelman...I would of sacked him years ago

2008-05-05T03:30:00.000-07:00

Where to start on our out-going MD. The Arsenal we had and loved back in 2000 when he took over no longer exists, everything a lot of us held very dear to our hearts has been destroyed.

His biggest claim to fame will always be the smooth seamless transition from what we used to call THOF (The Home Of Football) to a place some call Emerties, some call Ashburton, some just simply call it the new place.

Yes we now have decent views from every seat, yes a lot more of 'us' can now get tickets to every game, but what we have lost far out weighs what we have now. Give me a 30,000 ground with the lads I grow up on the terraces with any day, to a ground that by design was built to fleece as much cash out of people pockets on a match day as possible.

The main reason we was told we had to move from Highbury was so we can compete with the Man Utds, Barca's, Ac's and Liverpool's The extra money generated was to make us able to bring the worlds best players to The Arsenal, by being able to afford not only there transfer's but also there wages. Well Edleman, that fucked right up didn't it. Not only have we got rid of the highest wage earners since moving grounds, we have also carried on our nice recent tradition of make a profit on transfer sales/buys.

Edelman is also the man who boasted about us having the biggest match day revenue in Europe. Nothing to be proud of when you have a ground half full of people who are either on a jolly up or want entertaining opera style on a Saturday/Sunday/Monday or whenever Sky tell us we have to turn up these days.

As i said before more of 'us older fans' can now get tickets to games, by being on the season ticket/ TRS waiting lists for 10years plus. Before Elderman when you was on the old TRS you used to pay £20 and in return you got a quid off every ticket you got. Now you have to pay £26 plus a season AND have to pay the totally useless online booking system a few more quid just for buying a ticket. So now if your on the silver list and buy a ticket for every home game, not only are you losing the £20 membership fee, you also have to fight the online system at 9.30am to try and get one of the lower tier seats before they are sold out. As a silver member myself i can tell you that Elderman LIED to us when he said more cheapER tickets would go on sale on a game to game basis.

Our badge has also sadly gone, the reason behind this ? simply to earn a few more quid out of us.

The copywriting of the word "Gooner" again just to make a few quid.

So to sum up, Edelman you can stick your £750,000 a year right up your arse, I would of sacked you years ago, you have done nothing for The Arsenal except fleece more and more money out of our pockets. But I would like to wish you good luck in your next job for BP or Shell, the way they also rob people suits your style.

Arsenal Vs Everton 1-0

2008-05-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

Overall, a flat performance by Arsenal, but good enough to get all three points through a Bendtner header against an Everton side that perhaps deserved a point from the game. Everton were defensively solid for large parts of the game and had a few good chances, but couldn’t convert them. Joseph Yobo had a very good game, keeping Adebayor largely quiet.

The game had a definite end of season feel to it, with Arsenal dominating possession in the 1st 15 minutes, but doing little with it. Everton’s tactics were to put 10 men behind the ball to defend, and hit Arsenal on the counter attack. Effective tactics by David Moyes. The 1st half marginally belonged to Everton in terms of chances created. Pienaar put Andy Johnson through, only for Fabianski to bring off a good save to deny him, Song with the clearance. Jagielka, left unmarked off the subsequent corner, headed the ball to the near post. However Denilson did his job and cleared the danger. Everton looked dangerous.

Arsenal came back well in the half. We saw a bit of the elusive ‘Plan B’, with Toure playing an effective long ball to Adebayor whose 1st touch was very good. His shot tested the keeper. The best chance of the half went to Adebayor again, with Eboue pinging in a good cross only for Adebayor to miss the header when he really should have done better.

Eboue was poor overall, he gave the ball too easily, he would not track back when he did lose the ball. Another frustrating display from Eboue, and one that will only increase the calls for him to be sold.

In the 2nd half, Arsenal started brightly, but couldn’t finish with a goal. There was a penalty claim from Leon Osman for a ‘foul’ by Song which was soft, to put it mildly. Hardly a foul. Alex Song had a solid game in the centre of defence. This lad impresses me with every game. He’s had a good season overall, marred somewhat by injury, but has stepped up each time he’s been called upon.

Then came twin subs by Wenger – Lehmann on for Fabianski in his last home appearance for Arsenal, and Traore on for Toure. Eboue slotted in at RB (where he should have started), Theo moved to RM and Traore slotted in at LM. Traore played a good one-two with Bendtner, and his cross was very good, sharp with pace. Bendtner came flying in (ala his Tottenham goal) and headed the ball in to put Arsenal ahead. Bendtner has also done well this season – you cannot expect more from a back up striker who’s 19 years old.

I must express my reservations about Traore at LM. Its déjà vu of a kind. Last season, Eboue was moved to RM for the last game of the season and he had a promising game, which prompted Wenger to move him there permanently this season. That move didn’t quite work out. The same thing seems to be happening with Traore as well. He looked lively, sharp against Everton.
I have seen a few reserve games featuring Traore who has scored a couple of good goals. However, his crossing on a consistent basis leaves a lot be desired, as does his finishing. He doesn’t look like the kind of player who will score 8-10 goals every season. I hope this doesn’t prompt Wenger to move him to LM next season.

Moyes introduced Yakubu and Anichebe but they made little difference. Everton lacked the urgency in the final minutes to force an equaliser, and they now need a point from their final game to ensure UEFA Cup football next season. Denilson & Gilberto had decent games, but special mention to Clichy. He is a machine ! What terrific work rate and commitment in a game of little consequence, running all over the place, contributing consistently to our attacks. Solid defending as well. Gallas marshalled the defence adequately.

Farewell to Mad Jens. He had made some mistakes during his time and a few unnecessary comments about Almunia and Wenger this season but at the end of the day, I will remember him fondly for his positive contributions to the club, especially during the unbeaten run in 2004 and our CL run in 2006. A quality, world class goal keeper. Thank you Jens.

With ManU winning on Saturday, the ‘5%’ chance of a title win is now gone. It will be interesting if Chelsea drops points against Newcastle on Monday which may open the door for Arsenal to pip Chelsea to 2nd. Otherwise this season is well and truly over and Wenger might experiment with some of the kids for the final game. I’d like to see Gibbs, Randall, Barazite or Fonte given a chance to show us whether they are ready to make the step up to the 1st team next season.

Friday Transfer Hearsay – The Michael Johnson & Mark Milligan Squib

2008-05-01T22:26:00.001-07:00

The deadline for Flamini to sign a contract has passed but there's still no news from the club about where the frenchman has chosen to play football next season. Hopefully we should hear something soon when AW speaks to the press. There have been reports circulating in the Italian media that Flamini has already agreed a deal with Milan.

It is rumoured that AW is interested in signing Man City's highly-rated young midfield star Michael Johnson, who is likely to become the Gunner’s prime target if, Flamini leaves for Milan. Johnson is currently one of the hot properties of English football. Johnson's energetic, lung-busting runs and all-round midfield ability have drawn comparisons to current England midfielder Steven Gerrard. He scored his first goal for City in the 1-0 win over Derby at the City of Manchester Stadium. He, while on the pitch, showed sparks of brilliance and scored the brilliant goal against Derby where he took on the Rams and raced into their territory and scored a magnificent goal. He impressed the pundits early this season but was sidelined after a groin and abdominal injuries. Johnson, aged 20, just rightly fits into Wenger’s maturing youth team. Though it isn’t a guarantee that he would prove as effective as “The Guttuso Of Emirates” in the first season itself, but still, with all the media comparison and the praises, he is sure to become a classy player under the right guidance and we all know that AW is the right person to make it happen. However, if AW wants to land the English starlet, he will find a tough opposition from the scousers who are planning to hijack the player for 12 million pounds. Maybe he would opt on a move to north London over Liverpol, as Arsenal is a breeding ground for fresh talents.

AW could also be on the verge of landing Australian U-23 captain Mark Milligan (age 22), who is currently out of contract at Sydney FC. He was one of the best performers for Sydney FC this season. He is elegant, quick, composed and a total utility player who could play as a RB, CB or at the center of the park. Reports say that he was on a secret trial at Emirates and had impressed AW. Sources say that Wenger sees him as a potential replacement for Flamini. The only thing left is the completion of the deal and an awaiting work-permit. He has also been linked with clubs like FC Metz, RC Lens and Blackburn. Will he be ale to adapt to “real football” or will he be just another “socceroo”? Only time could tell, that is if he signs for the club.

Derby County 2 v 6 Arsenal

2008-04-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

The trip to Pride Park was ok, though I should have had classes, but as soon as the match started I realised I really should have been there. No regrets at all, they only hurt!

Well, at the same time I have to admit we played really well, I have to say that conceding two goals for the weaker Premier League side ever is a bit frustrating, especially after reading so many times from Wenger that we would improve it. I would have played Eboue on the right-back and Toure instead of Song alongside Gallas, for reasons I have been affirming for such a long time here.

However, lovely to see Bendtner, van Persie and Walcott scoring. Fabianski had a great perfomance for a Premier League debute. About Theo, one more good perfomance. Though Fabregas did not shine, his assitance for Adebayor's hat-trick was superb, what a through pass and what a goal by the Togolese: he dribbled the goalkeeper and then scored his third goal in less than fourty five minutes. Impressive, Bayo is fantastic, no matter what people say. At the moment he is our best option and we should praise and thank him for such commitment and improvement. I do not know if you saw that he showed the Arsenal crest for us after scoring his second goal. I was quite close to him and could notice after that, that he really loves the club.

Great overall perfomance by the lads though we conceded two goals. Scoring six goals is a morale boost, especially at the moment we are in. The climax of the season is now. United and Chelsea may drop some points next round plus they may lost some points after the incident at the Bridge last Saturday.

The title run is still alive. Let's keep fighting, believing and giving our best until the end. Come on, you Gunners and Gooners.

Derby County FC v Arsenal

2008-04-27T06:25:00.000-07:00

Victory at pride park would see the gunners within 6 points of reclaiming the premiership title that they won so stylishly in the invincible 2004 season.

Seeing the Arsenal once again rightfully crowned as champions would restore most peoples faith in the beautiful game after a couple of scrappy seasons dominated by the efficient millionaires from the bridge and fergies scrappy kickers!

Arsène Wenger has all three goalkeepers fit and available but he may choose to hand out some valuable experience to the 23-year-old Polish international Lukasz Fabianski.

Abou Diaby's season is over, the French midfielder a tendon in his thigh playing for the Reserve on Monday. Bacary Sagna has also joined the list of players that will not feature again this season after damaging his ankle at Stamford Bridge. Tomas Rosicky and Eduardo complete the list on the injury front (due to a hamstring strain and broken fibula/open dislocation of the ankle respectively) and are joined by Alex Hleb who is suspended for the final 3 games. The Flamster is also missing Monday with an ankle injury.

With Derby already well gone this is a game the Arsenal should win easily and I expect Wenger to play a fairly young side. My guess would be:
Fabianski, Eboue, Song, Toure, Clichy, Randall, Denilson, Gilberto, Van Persie, Walcott.

Transfer rumours, inspired youth plus Champions League semi-finals

2008-04-23T18:05:00.000-07:00

A lot is being said by the press, as usual. Anyway, I have to say that some of the articles are getting on my nerves.

You all know Flamini is linked with Juve, and some reports claims the italians arrived today here in London so they could talk personally with the Frenchman. Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood says we did offer Mathieu a really good deal (around £50,000 a week) whereas the italians offered him £10,000 a week more. Honestly, I am sure Flamini does not need more money. He also does not need to improve the quality of his life, so, being honest, I am almost full of this story. He has already affirmed he would like to stay, plus he was one of our players of the season, so why can not we just increase his salary once and for all? Simple as that, he deserves it (given we lack consistency, energy and pace in the midfield when he is not playing).

Hleb's season is over as he got a three-match ban after punching Reading's defender. Just can not understand him. After having some ice-cream in Milan, now he really lacks commitment doing such a thing. Plus, let's admit he has not being the one he is expected to be. He is a winger, and that being said, he must have scored (or even assisted) more in the season. Look at Ronaldo, Young, Petrov... Scorers wingers. You all know I really admire Hleb, but being honest, I do not think we really should keep him (yes, he is also linked with Juve), given Walcott's current form and that Rosicky is about to return (we hope).

About midfielders, Martin O'Neill, according to the Daily Mail, claims Gareth Barry might leave Villa in the summer. We all know Barry and I would love to see him in Arsenal colours. Liverpool and Chelsea are keen on signing him, but given money is not a problem for us, I really hope Wenger to splash some money for such a classy player. Plus, Lahm is set to leave Bayern Munchen this summer. I know the kid is a stunning left-back, but I have to say I would love to see him on the wing, given he crosses very well and is fast paced. So, some interesting news, Monsieur Wenger.

Palermo's president says he has not received any from us to Amauri. As I posted here earlier this week, I do not think the brazilian would be a good signing as the defence is the place to be strenghten. We already have Adebayor, van Persie, Bendtner, Eduardo (get well soon, son) and now Walcott, who, according Wenger, will get more starts and as striker. So, lots of kids who deserve to start more given their great development this season.

According to Reserve's captain, Havard Nordtveit, Wenger will not need to go for someone by the transfer market as the youth claims he is set to play regularly for the Gunners. Though I admire such commitment, we definitely do not need a young defender. If even Kolo and Billy lacked experience this season, needless to say that we need an extra experienced centre-back (how I miss Sol, by the way).

About the Champions League semi-finals, hasta la vista, Rafa. Riise definitely was out of mind. Why on earth should he had headed such a low ball? Poor you. About United, though I got to say Ronaldo's deceptionated face after missing a penalty was hilarious, fantastic and everything, they got the result they played for. Thierry looked sharp despite of his illness, fingers crossed he can be match fit for the match at Old Trafford.

Well, that is it, my friends. Keep backing our initiative as we are keen on raiing more, more and more money so we can donate it.

Until tomorrow.

Monday stuff

2008-04-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

After such a pleasent perfomance from your lads against Reading on Saturday, we'd better start looking forward.

On Sunday more games and interesting results, but one in particular really impressed me. Martin O'Neill's side scored five times against Birmingham City (that now are about to be relegated) and Ashley Young looked fantastic, superb, breathtaking. Wow, the boy's on fire and I do think, at the moment, he's the young player of the season (from that list, of course). So if you couldn't watch such a good game of football, enjoy: http://www.tvgolo.com/football.php?subaction=showfull&id=1208709536&archive=&start_from=&ucat=40&/

After watchig it, let's talk about Aston Villa. Recent perfomances: five-nil against Bolton, six-nil against Derby County and now five-one against Birmingham City. Quite impressive. Laursen, Barry, Agbonlahor and especially Young are on fire. The last three names are british and young, so if Wenger needs to improve our midfield or attack, I'd go for one of them (at least, of course).

Talking about our lovely club, Fabregas admitted he really wants to be a Gunner for life. The boy's an idol, without a shadow of doubt. Though he had a poor mid-season, now he looks back on track, assisting and, most importantly, playing his socks off with his energy and commitment in the heart of the midfield. So, no matter what the press claims, we just can't trust it as Cesc said:

"My future belongs to Arsenal, and it is the truth," he said. "I do not know why [it was brought up]. It is always the same with my situation, always putting my name in another team.

"I have always said I want to play for Arsenal, it is the best team I can be at, the best club for me. Before I even say anything, people put me in another club and I don't understand that."

So, please, screw you, bloody press.

Sportinglife.com claims we want Vela back. Well, more than expected, wasn't it? The boy has been being great in Spain and his fast runs, pace and skills will strenght our team without a shadow of doubt - though we might see him coming from the bench next season, unless Hleb leaves us or Rosicky keeps injuried. Can you imagine Vela and Walcott as our wingers? Can't wait for this day.

Anyway, quiet Monday. No more transfer rumours, despite of Amauri and bla bla bla, bollocks. As Wenger already affirmed he won't sign Villa, I don't think he's going to sign a striker.

Have a good week, Gooners. See you tomorrow.

Back on track

2008-04-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, finally a clean sheet. Lovely. It will be a boost for the morale of our defence that has been being under a lot of pressure.

What a good atmosphere at the Emirates. We have been missing wins, but winning at our very own turf was something we could not do since the match against Blackburn Rovers on February. So, always a pleasure to keep singing "we love you, Arsenal!" with the crowd for twenty consecutive minutes after the final whistle.

The boys had a decent game and Fabregas is really an idol. Despite of the fact that he needs a breather, he looked sharp. Nice to see the young Song starting as well as Theo. Both had a good game and I hope they keep playing until the end of the season. Pleasent to see Gilberto scoring again. Adebayor did it as well, once again. Robin van Persie finally had a good game, hope he keeps improving his pace. Good overall perfomance though we could have scored more.

We have been missing crucial players. Sagna, Flamini, but, most importantly, Eduardo. I was watching the highlights of some of our perfomances on January/February, most specifically, the games against Fulham, Newcastle and Man City. Ok, Adebayor scored six times, but Eduardo was a must supporting him. Passes, flicks and whatever, we do miss him as Arsenal is lacking a good finish since when he got injured. So, if you have the files in you computer as well, take a look, please.

Well, seventy percent of the possesion of the ball in the first-half proofs that we have enough quality. Everything we need is to be even more focused, though I have to admit it is difficult especially after such a sequence of disappointing results. Though without Flamster, we defended well, so fingers crossed Gallas & Toure are finally back on track.

1-0 Adebayor (30')
http://www.d1g.com/video/show/?id=1941547

2-0 Gilberto Silva (38')
http://www.d1g.com/video/show/?id=1941540

van Persie Freekick (29')
http://www.d1g.com/video/show/?id=1941572

van Persie Freekick (71')
http://www.d1g.com/video/show/?id=1941641

Wenger on the perfomance
http://www.skysports.com/video/0,20285,12606_3445659,00.html

Until tomorrow.

Arsenal V Reading Preview

2008-04-19T03:16:00.000-07:00

It would be nice to win a game and Reading at home has got tricky home game against a team fighting for there life's written all over it, So expect yet another team to come to ours looking for the draw.

We need a decent run in our last 4 games to try and get 2nd, or the way we have been dropping points over the last month, to try and stay 3rd. There's no reason why we can not get maximum points from now on, but I guess with our luck, IDIOT ref's and bad finishing Id settle just to see us win a game between now and the end of season.

I like Steve Coppell, Even if he's an ex manc, But he always comes across as an honest decent bloke, Who wants to see his team play good football and it would be a loss to the Premiership if they do slip out of it at the end of the season, Especially when there's other teams who add nothing to the league. They have lost there last 3 games and only 3 points off the drop zone, Which is a shock after there decent league position last season, Guess they need to buy a few Arsenal rejects for next season !

Team News..

Almunia late fitness test on his wrist
Diaby back from suspension
Denilson back from the mystery of why the fuck he was off
Ed is in Brazil
Flamini out
Sendros out his head
Sagna out
Hoyte out
roSicky of course he's still out !

The Next Season Starts Now

2008-04-16T00:04:00.000-07:00

-By Sajit



With Wenger officially conceding the title as lost, I believe its already time to start preparing for the next season. Players may be busy thinking about the coming Euroes but Le Prof should be getting into action as soon as possible.If we properly utilize the time starting now, we can hit the ground running in August and make a definite impact next season.

I believe that these are the biggest priorities for Wenger as of now, to keep going and to make Arsenal successful.

Priority 1: Get Flamini to sign

Remember all the hue and cry about getting Henry to sign in 2006? This is just as important, if not more. Number 1 priority for Monsiour.

Priority 2: Keep the core set of players intact.Fabregas, Flamini, Gallas, Adebayor and Hleb.

Its been three years since most of the above players started playing together and for me today these 5 are the most important players on the pitch. Of course Sagna is there but i dont think hes going anywhere yet immediately. These are ambitious players and to keep ambitious players you need to show ambition. Wenger said his biggest challenge would be to keep the team intact . Trust me its one hell of a challenge, when the Barcas, and Milans come calling.

I hear that Gallas has lost the respect of the team mates. If that is the case, then he may step down as captain but as far as im concerned  he has been the most consistent of all our CBs - including Toure and Senderos. Gallas may be moody but he is still a world class defender. One will have to pay something in the range of 15 million minimum to get a defender of his quality.

I believe that Hleb along with Fabregas, Flamini , RvP , Eduardo, Sagna and Gallas are the only truly world class players we have at Arsenal.

In the list of the 5 players we desperately needed to hold on to , I had Adebayors name but did not say he is world class. He is not a world class striker by any means but he brings so much to this Arsenal team that its very difficult for Arsenal to win without him.

Priority 3 : Accelerate the growth of fringe players.

Probably the biggest disappointment for me personally this season was the apparent lack of progress of players like Denilson, Diaby and Hoyte. They had good seasons last time around but have not made the next step this season, which is basically to challenge the first team players for their positions. Not sure about how good loans are. Other than Song, no one seems to have actually been better after coming back. This will be a tough call for Wenger, because ideally the progress should come without the need for them to go out on a loan. Wenger needs to have more faith in these fringe players and must compulsorily use them in the matches against lower placed teams. This should be done early in the season when the pressure is not really on you, rather than wait till the likes of Fabregas and Flamini are knackered.

Priority 4: Remove the dead wood.

Critical as far as i am concerned. Worse than having no player is to have players who count for nothing when it matters. You already know who i am totally pissed off with so i wont delve too much on that.The problem of being an Arsenal fan is that you tend to overlook the faults of most of your players which is why I am patient with players like Hoyte, RvP, Djourou etc. However for me there are two players who absolutely need to go - Eboue and Rosicky.

Priority 5: Only reinforce those positions where we are lacking badly.

This is somewhat related to priority 2. My biggest fear is that under pressure to buy big due to apparent lack of trophies for 3 seasons now , Wenger will buy a bit too many. We just cannot lose the team chemistry as of now. We need players but not that many. Almost sure that Wenger will never do that, which is why this comes as one of the lower priorities but its one nevertheless.

So Wenger must be looking at ways to keep this team competitive till the money from the flats start to come in. Once that happens, that along with matchday and TV revenues should mean that we have an excellent spending capacity.

Discuss:
http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=4553&tid=2594695176385324417&start=1

Down, out, but unbelievably proud

2008-04-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

Excelent perfomance by the lads though we were, once again, unlucky. We conceded two goals from set-pieces and, guess what, our loss' down to the ref, once again.

Adebayor scored the opener after overplaying United in the first-half. A few minutes after taking the lead, the same Gallas that affirmed the team lacked experienced playing against Pool, handed the ball and conceded United a penalty and, consequently, the equaliser. And then, from another set-piece, Hargreaves scored the winner. Gilberto didn't touch anyone and that's why I think we were unlucky again. Holding United at Old Trafford would be a good result, yet unfair, given the way we responded after such a disappointing sequence of bad results.Wenger finally gave up and I'm not sad at all. Though disappointed due to the fact that I do think our boys should've won something this season, I'm proud of them and the way they've been responding so well after being written off and under so much pressure.

I'm proud to say that I've been following this team and the boys this season. I'll remember every single chant I sung around Britain, especially the one I sung yesterday after the end of the game at Old Trafford alongside lots of passionated Gooners like me. The video wasn't recorded by me, though I was right there. It's touching for every single Arsenal fan, hope you feel the same way I did.

Enjoy: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=55MFxXS-Ans

Thank you for such commitment this season, Gunners. We're proud of you all.

Man Utd v Arsenal, April 12 08, Preview

2008-04-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

Old Trafford for a title decider, well it should of been, But sadly the footballing gods/ Ref's have conspired to make every game we have played in the last few weeks a must win game.

Facts are simple really, If we do not win Sunday the fat lady will be singing her lungs out. We win, then its only a 3 point gap with the mancs still having to go Chels and having a few interesting games Vs Barca to get past.

Fergie had the luxury to rest Ronaldo, Rooney and Scholes mid week, While we are down to bare bones and a win is going to take one last huge effort on the already looking shattered squad. They will go for our throats, Thinking we are weak, If we have an off day they will take full advantage and hammer us.

BUT hopefully the players who are still fit and got some gas left in the tank will put in one final performance and fight like dogs against the mancs. It needs us to take control of the pace of the game, hold onto the ball, take what chances we create and stop Ronaldo.

Team news;

ED out
roSicky out
Flamini out
Denilson out
Diaby out
Sagna out

Van Persie both thighs strapped up and not looking anywhere near fit.
Fabregas; how does this lad carry on playing and covering every blade of grass every game for god knows how long.

My guess at Wenger's team selection

Almunia
Toure Senderos Gallas Clichy
Walcott Song Fabregas Gilberto Hleb
Ade

COME ON ARSENAL !

Liverpool V Arsenal Champions League preview and team news

2008-04-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

After drawing the home leg 1-1 the mickeys go into this as favourites having got the away goal. The home advantage the press go on and on and on about will only serve to inspire our lads, who unless are totally blind to our past will know (or fucking should do) all about one May night in 1989 when we didn't just need to win by one goal we needed two. Wenger should make them watch that game, It shows an Arsenal team being strong in defence, Taking there chances, Silencing the Kop and fighting till the bitter end and most importantly getting the job done.

We have proved over the last two games that Liverpool cant handle us, Sadly we have also proved we can not press home our advantage. At times we have so much of the ball that at Liverpool have looked ordinary and just another mid table team that HOOF's it up the pitch, Or has a flash of genius, Then spends the rest of the game playing some kind of 6-3-1 formation. But to our own downfall we hadn't got the all important first goal.

I can see Liverpool not really knowing what to do in this game. Do they scrap there defence/ hoof game plan and try to bring it to us in an open free flowing match, Or do they try and lock up shop for 90mins and hope to hang on to a 0-0 for dear lifes...Only Rafa Knows ...

Arsenal's 18 man squad...

1 Jens LEHMANN
2 Abou DIABY
4 Cesc FABREGAS
5 Kolo TOURE
6 Philippe SENDEROS
10 William GALLAS
11 Robin VAN PERSIE
13 Alexander HLEB
16 Mathieu FLAMINI
17 Alex SONG
19 GILBERTO
22 Gael CLICHY
24 Manuel ALMUNIA
25 Emmanuel ADEBAYOR
26 Nicklas BENDTNER
27 Emmanuel EBOUE
31 Justin HOYTE
32 Theo WALCOTT

Bolton Vs Arsenal--Preview

2008-03-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

Last match of a dreadful March for Arsenal and they would be hoping to end it with some sort of consolation.After going down 2-1 at the stamford bridge,Gunners will be looking to get all 3 points after 5 Epl matches.Arsenal dropped 11 points in the last 5 matches and that could have effectively ended their Epl campaign this season.

However the team would be keen to get their focus back and get all 3 points out of a Bolton side which is very much in the relegation Dog fight.Arsenal certainly do not fancy to go to Bolton in recent years and that is one more thing that wenger would be looking to set straight.Wenger rightly pointed out that now they need to take one game at a time.Let the season end and then the analysis can be carried out.Right now though,the attention has to shift to the Wanderers.

The Trotters produced a spirited performance against citeh and were unlucky to settle for only one point.They would no doubt approach this game with a physical and aggresive way.Arsenal t have lost Bakary Sagna at stamford bridge due to an injury, the extent of his injury being 3-5 weeks which was confirmed by Wenger.Diaby returned to the side so that leaves Rosicky and Eduardo as the only absentees.

Fingers have been pointed at Adebayor and company for not scoring enough goals when it matters and i am sure they would be looking to prove their critics wrong once again as they have done so well in the past.

Team selection would be interesting.Personally i would love to see the likes of walcott,Bendtner,Denilson and Gilberto start so as to give Adebayor,Fabregas,Flamini etc a much needed rest.Would Wenger be willing to make drastic changes after his current first teamers were unable to produce the 3 points in the previous 5 matches? That remains to be seen.

We haven't waved the title goodbye i think.There are tricky games coming up for all 3 teams in the title hunt and Arsenal need to believe that they can win the title.Wenger has come out and appreciated his players' mental strength but we haven't really seen it in the last 5 games.There are many who have to step and perform,including our captain fantastic.

This is the time for leaders to step up.This is the time to show that strength.This is the time to show the class,the time to get our act together,the time to inspire the team to victory.The question is, who will take that responsibility?

Arsenal Line-up according to me should be :

-----------Lehmann-----------

--Eboue--Senderos--Gallas---Clichy---

Walcott---Denilson--Gilby----Diaby-----

----RVP-----Bendtner---

Kick off Timings :

15:00 (GMT)

20:00 (PST)

20:30 (IST)

Live On ESPN

Millionairessssss

2008-03-28T01:16:00.000-07:00

In news that will enrage English Soccer fans throughout the world David Beckham is the only first team regular who has made himself available to play the friendly international in the Stade de France on Wednesday night.

“Yes I’ll play, why the fuck not.” said a bare chested Becks yesterday.

However it is scandalous that many members of the squad do not seem to share his enthusiasm for the game.

England physio Mark Leather has confirmed that no fewer than 13 first team regulars have made themselves unavailable for selection for the meeting with the Gauls tomorrow night:

“So far Gerrard, Robinson, both the ridiculous looking Neville Brothers, Bentley, Walcott, Ferdinand, Lampard, Woodgate, Joe Cole and Gareth Barry have all pulled out due to injuries they said they picked up during training this morning. Ashley Cole has said he might be able to play but given the circumstances he will have to ring Cheryl, his wife, first. Crouchie has said that he wants to go and see his girlfriend Abigail Clancy who is doing a topless photo shoot for Nuts magazine in Leeds. Theo is desperate to join him ”

“Michael Owen has said that he might play if the weather isn’t too bad and Stewart Downing has told me he’d prefer to watch the match on TV because he reckons he gets a better view at home. I have never known a situation like this in all my time with the England team.”

With fans paying upwards of £70 a ticket plus travel for the match it is a matter of some concern that the England players appear so apathetic towards the game.

New England boss Fabio Capello was due to attend a press conference this afternoon to discuss the situation but unfortunately pulled out at the last minute due to “unforeseen circumstances”. However he was later seen skating with his wife and a small child at an ice rink in Richmond, Surrey.

When asked by our Sports reporter or not he intended to be in Paris this week, the England boss replied, without a hint of irony: “Forse”. [Perhaps]

On a brighter note old warhorse Emile Heskey appears to have recovered from a knock he picked up against Blackburn at the weekend and is set to lead the England attack against the French. Just who he will partner up front is a cause for concern with reports that 1970’s icon Mike Channon is planning to make himself available for selection again.”

Jose - son of god

2008-03-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

By deciding to ‘celebrate’ his semi retirement by floating across the length and breadth of Britain in what he is cheekily calling, ‘my own last supper’, Portuguese sex symbol, Jose Mourinho has finally announced what many of us have suspected for some time, he truly is The Son of God.

Coming down briefly to use a urinal just outside Derby Coach station, the ‘Special One’ told our reporter:

“Of course I have known for a while. The problem I had was keeping it a secret from the Chelsea squad. I spoke to my wife about it and she said that it might adversely effect team moral if they thought that not only were they playing for their place in the first eleven but were also potentially playing for a place in heaven. She thought players such as Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips wouldn’t be able to take it all in. To be honest a few of them had problems understanding a basic 4-4-2 formation. Christ knows how they would have coped with talk of the after life.”

However recent events have allowed the Portuguese boss to finally come clean about the true nature of his existence.

“It was during my second home match at Stamford Bridge against Aston Villa that I realised I was in fact the Son of God. I can’t go into too much detail but suffice to say the proof was unequivocal. I now plan to float up and down Britain to say my final farewell to an England that has taken me so close to it’s heart.”

However the revelations are bound to have ramifications that could rock the very foundations the football in this country.

Talking from his Cheshire home, the Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson told our site.

“If this is indeed true I will be asking the Football League to hold an enquiry into the validity of Chelsea’s two Premiership titles. If, for example you can simply ask the Lord God almighty for assistance when you find yourself 1-0 down at half time, we are not competing on a level playing field are we. Chelsea should be stripped of their titles if this proves to be the case. ”

Pug ugly Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp added to the debate.

“This don’t come as no surprise mate. He used to look at yer funny, know what I mean. Good luck to him I say. I always thought that if you could get the Big Man on your side it would be worth at least 20 goals a season!”

Give Mickey his Cup back

2008-03-11T06:18:00.001-07:00

Spurs won their first trophy since , err I forgot when they last won a trophy actually but hey does it really matter? Anyway , Spurs won the Mickey Mouse cup and Mickey Mouse is rather pissed off. He calls White fart plain every day to get his beloved mug back, but the board of ***** won't give it back to him.

Lets support Mickey Mouse in his quest for the stolen cup!

SCUMS GIVE MICKEY HIS CUP BACK!

Wigan Athletic Vs Arsenal--Preview

2008-03-08T23:17:00.000-08:00

From Milan to wigan,this is what it is all about.

A trip to JJB stadium isn't going to be a walk in the park for Arsenal but one thing is for sure.Confidence will be sky high after producing one of the best performance of the season against Milan at the San Siro.

Wenger faces a problem regarding the team selection with new injuries to both Diaby and Walcott on Thursday against the Colorado Rapids behind closed doors.Robin Van persie however played that game and came unscratched.Wenger said Persire was OK but felt a bit tired.

Wigan on the other hand have the luxury of a full fit squad with both kevin kilbane and Ryan Taylor back and ready to go.

There has been much talk regarding the pitch at JJB and obviously it doesn't seem to be the perfect pitch on which Arsenal can bamboozle.Whatever the case may be,Arsenal have to go out and get the 3 points needed.These are the games where titles are won and lost.We have to get a good run in before going into crucial games against Bolton,Chelsea and Liverpool.

The main question would be as to who Wenger plays in midfield.Flamini and Fabregas showed their brilliance in midweek and would surely retain their position no doubt about that.Hleb impressed once again with his role as a second striker/Freelancer.Would be interesting to see the eleven Wenger picks.No matter what the eleven is,Arsenal should go on to do the job and with united and chelsea getting dumped out of the F.A Cup yesterday we wouldn't want the pattern of upsets to continue.Anything less than 3 points would be a disaster.

I hope Persie gets some time on the pitch,we need him to be fit and scoring for the last run.

Wigan have had a good run in the last few games with 2 wins and a draw in their last 4 games which makes them rise up to 15th place.Teams like Wigan are always dangerous.They are in the relegation Dog-fight and would be fighting really hard against us.The performance always steps into a new gear when these teams face a top team.Question is: Can they stop the young guns from North London ?

Prediction : Wigan Athletic 0 Arsenal 2.

Teams:
Wigan (from): Kirkland, Melchiot, Scharner, Boyce, Edman, Valencia, Brown, Palacios, Koumas, Heskey, King, Sibierski, Pollitt, Bramble, Olembe, Bent, Taylor, Kilbane, Granqvist, Aghahowa, Skoko.
Arsenal (from): Almunia, Clichy, Senderos, Gallas, Sagna, Denilson, Fabregas, Flamini, Hleb, Adebayor, Bendtner, Gilberto, Van Persie, Toure, Lehmann, J Hoyte, Traore, Song.

Milan vs Arsenal

2008-03-04T21:42:00.000-08:00

To Senderos, Thankyou for making just one mistake in the game.

To Clichy, Thankyou for backing up and covering that mistake

To Walcott, Thankyou for remembering that Adebayor missed the header in the first leg and delivering a low cross.

To all the players, Thankyou for such an awesome performance. Proud to be a gooner.

To all those who doubted Arsenal..... F*ck You !!

(To those who will be picking up the next set of draws, Thankyou in advance for giving us Fenerbache )

--

Wordless victory.

And due to this fact I'll post some words I found through the internet:

"Crisis, what crisis? Arsene Wenger's side came into the game without a win in their last four outings and having failed to grab a lead from the home leg.

However, they turned in a masterful display in Milan, dominating the match to prove youthful exuberance can overcome experience."

In Arsene we trust, no matter when, where or what the circumstances are. He boosted the moral of a young team and make history. The whole world was against us and the boys didn't feel any pressure over their shoulders. Hats off to Wenger, because he's the one who gives the squad the mental strenght to carry on.

Once again the whole squad was brilliant. Anyway there're a few names I'd like to highlight. Fabregas, finally he had a classy moment on the pitch, and how I was missing these moments! What a shot, his pace was fantastic and Gattuso couldn't even mark him. Adebayor was at the right place, at the right moment when he scored our second goal. That's what I praise in a striker, congratulations, Ade. I hope you have found the way to the goals again!

But Walcott was the one that impressed me the most. It's just fabulous to see him playing well, I'm really, really proud of Theo. As soon as he replaced Diaby he controlled the tempo of the game and his run was absolutely amazing. What an assistance for Adebayor. The goals scored at Birmingham did have a real effect over him. Well done, Theo.

Though you doubted me, I told you all Pato is crap.

An epic match, an epic perfomance and a fair result. We're proud of you, young boys. Keep playing this way and we'll be champions.

--

well no1 i mean no1 gave us a chance at the San Siro even though true gooners always believed...

and we dominated them...we just didn't sneak a win...we KILLED them...outplayed them,out thought them and out scored them....posession says it all...a team of young kids go to the san siro against teh defending champs who have 1 of the best defences and the world player of the yr and they demolish them...u couldn't dream of somethin like that!

Bernabeau....Arsenal 1st team to beat madrid
San Siro.....Arsenal 1st team to beat milan
San Siro....Arsenla thrash Inter 5-1
White Hart Lane....won the tile
Old trafford....won the title

u name the big ground and we have made history there!!...

kaka was handled amazingly....hleb and cesc and flamini were phenomenol doin that...

pirlo and ambrosini....were they on the pitch..??

pato....2 legs and the wonder kid was even worse....i thought he was RUBBISH in leg 1....but that means he had to be worse than that today!!

1st 15 mins we were under serious threat and couldn't get out of our half...after that....milan just defended and defended and defended....

what a moment by cesc....out of nothing ...near the halfway line...goes past gattuso(??) and from 35 yards....WHAT A BEAUTY!

and walcott...is his pace for real...bloody hell..and what a cross and this time ade puts it in...

another fantastic night and wenger has done it again...

win dedicated to dudu...get well soon

P.S- i feel sorry for maldini...last game in europe...he has announced his retirement....what a player....a true gentleman....all i can say abt him is 1 word...LEGEND

Milan vs Arsenal - Preview

2008-03-03T10:37:00.000-08:00

- By Siraj Ahmed.

Winning the BPL is more important to the club than the Champions League. So Tuesday’s game is not the most important in context of our season. It was the Villa game that was important. Before the game I had my mind made up. We win the match, we win the league. We lose and it’s all over. We drew, so it means that we are still in running for the title. From now on we have to win every match against the non-Big3 opponents. The matches between the Big 3 would even out. We don’t need to worry about them.

That means that Wenger’s policy, of taking each game as it comes, applies to the CL now. The players know this, and anyone who thinks that we would carry Saturday’s form into the Milan game is absolutely wrong. It’s a different competition and we have a different plan for it. Just like what we do in the Carling Cup.

We go into this game at 0-0. That means we score 1 and Milan would have to score 2. Even if Adebayor had scored ‘that’ goal, we still would have needed to score at the San Siro. Anyone who thinks that Milan would not score at home is being tooooo optimistic. So the equation remains the same. We need to score ONE goal and we would score it. It is the fact that we did not let Milan score an away goal, that is going to decide the tie.

Even if Milan score first, the equation remains the same. If they score 2 before us then the tie is over. Whatever is said about Milan’s experience nullifying our team’s fitness and stamina is utter bullsh*t. The fact remains that they have old legs, and that would start showing after 60 minutes of the game. The longer the game goes on, the more would Arsenal be dominant. If it is 0-0 after full time then the extra time would give us 30 minutes of ‘running’ Milan off the pitch. They know this and they would want to score those 2 goals in the first 60 minutes, and kill the tie. Just like what they did against Manchester United last year. Scored 2 goals in the first 20 minutes and the tie was over. But on that occasion they had an away goal. They do not have that luxury here.

That means that the first 20 minutes of the first half, and 10 minutes either side of it are extremely crucial. We do not concede during these periods and we have every chance of going through. And to do that we need to ATTACK well in those periods. If we try to defend, Milan would score. We are not good at shutting out teams. That’s what teams like Milan are good at. So the saying of “attack is the best form of defense“, applies here. No need to ‘kick’ Kaka out of the game. No need to pay special attention to Pato. We just need to play our natural game and keep the ball in those periods, and we would go through.

To the team news now. Eboue is available for selection. Van Persie is ‘medically’ fit but would obviously short of form. I so very much wanted Rosicky to be fit for this match, but he is still out.

Knowing Wenger, he would deploy a 5 man midfield, with Adebayor upfront. Eboue would start on the right and Diaby on the left, giving us strength in midfield. Flamini and Fabregas get themselves picked automatically, with Hleb in his floating role in front of them. If we do not score after 60 minutes, then Walcott and Van Persie would replace Eboue and Diaby, giving them a chance to run the ‘old legs’ of Milan ragged.

Alumina would start in goal. I do not rate him much and would have preferred if Lehmann had started, but Wenger does not change his policy of not dropping players albeit an error. That means Almunia starts.

Our defense struggled against Villa. But that was because they had, in Agbonlahor and Young, two wingers with serious pace and a targetman in Carew, and they ripped us apart. Senderos lacks pace and he struggled. Our full backs could not go forward like they do, because as soon as we lost the ball, Villa’s winger were running with it and Clichy and Sagna had to track back quickly, which on occasions they could not.

Against Milan it would be different. They are a team who play a central game. Their passing is through the center and none of players in the midfield (except for Kaka) can be called pacy! Gallas and Senderos did not have much trouble against them in the first leg, and they should not expect any different in the second. Clichy and Sagna going forward, give us width, and 8 players when we attack. They will not have much defensive work to do and would be the key in getting that crucial ONE goal.

That pretty much sums it up. I hope all the fans would support ‘our’ team throughout the game, whatever the score may be. They are ‘our’ players fighting out there for ‘our’ team. Each one of them would surely give his 100% and there should not be any doubts about that. All I would like to see is an honest performance. If a win accompanies it, then it would be the icing on the cake. Good luck ARSENAL !

Following is the squad and my prediction for the game.

Jens LEHMANN (GK)
Abou DIABY
Bacary SAGNA
Cesc FABREGAS
Philippe SENDEROS
William GALLAS
Robin VAN PERSIE
Alexander HLEB
DENILSON
Mathieu FLAMINI
GILBERTO
Gael CLICHY
Manuel ALMUNIA (GK)
Emmanuel ADEBAYOR
Nicklas BENDTNER
Emmanuel EBOUE
Justin HOYTE
Theo WALCOTT

Formation 4-5-1:

Lehmann
Sagna Senderos Gallas Clichy
Eboue Fabregas Flamini Diaby
Hleb
Adebayor

Keys to winning the game: Sagna and Clichy. And keeping the ball and attacking well in the periods 0-20, 35-45 and 45-55 minutes. (Yes no marking Kaka or closing down Milan’s midfield and blah blah. We play our game well and we would go through)
Prediction: 1-1

Arsenal v Aston Villa - post game

2008-03-03T02:58:00.000-08:00

A 5 point lead down to 1 in just 2 rounds of matches. Are we bottling? Are the injuries a bit too much to be able to compete at this time?

--

We're losing points at the crucial stage, our game overall was poor and spark was missing in the team. Ade enjoyed a good form but he is back to his missing ways. Unlike Invincibles our team lacks the ability to find players on the cut back pass in the box, we hardly find a player in the box to tuck the ball in.

Senderos was average, what a stupid own goal to concede when our team is lacking the fire power. Eggborninlahore bamboozled our defense.

The only positive was Ade cushioned the ball for the Dane, i guess its been three matches since they last shared a pass between them.

Villa were the better team and we were lucky to get a point out of the game. Very disappointed with a home draw but its not over till its over. We need to lift our game and certainly a knock out in the UCL will prove to be a hammer blow.
--

senderos was awful... not to mention he got bullied badly by gaby and crew and later harewood...brought back memories of drogba takin him to school

we really need a solid winger as eboue is NOT a winger and rosicky is very injury prone...and we need a good backup DC...toure and gallas are top class but if 1 of them is injured then it kinda gets seriously worrying...

i am the 1st to admit we didn't play well and villa did...they came with a game plan and executed it perfectly...almost perfectly...

ade missed 3 headers in goal and hleb and walcott were denied by world class saves but almunia had to pull off a few top notch saves too IMO....

but the pt shows AGAIN that the players never gove up and keep goin till the end...i thikn its now 14-15 pts this season that arsenal have rescued from losin positions...and 27 goals (if i ain't mistaken) from a total of 55 we have scored this season have come in the last quater of the game...

and ppl say the pt was a poor result but i think a loss would have had a BIG effect on the players coz of what happened last min (both the non calls for the 2 brum goals and the dudu injury) added to this...

and we have stayed on top..even by 1 pt which wouldn't have bene the case and put more pressure on the boys as a tough tough sequence of games is comin up!
--

avge game. did not deserve to get anything. cesc is of colour. he needs a rest. all the next epl games are must wins before the ot showdown on april 12th. senderos if only he shows half his love and passion of arsenal in his playing he ll be a good defender. still have my doubts about almunia. seriosly poor positioning more than once inclu the own goal.

i feel we have had our blip . its now time to put the points into the bag.

P.S[did any1 see aguero last night against barca].worldclass
--

Now it’s time to face the truth and think about our current situation.

Being sufficiently mature, I just can’t say we’re the favourites to win the title at the moment. Considering our last three games, we’re very poor and some of our players, though fully commited, are really feeling the pressure over their shoulders.

Adebayor was probably the most important player for us during December and January. His scoring spree was fantastic and we really thought he had finally improved and changed. We thought we wouldn’t miss a top scorer anymore. However, Adebayor’s last perfomances lack goals, and that’s something we can’t live without at the moment. As he’s our main striker and goal scorer, he’s the one to make the difference in the box. And we’ve to admit that our team lacks scorers. Theo has just scored his first Premier League goal. Hleb and Fabregas hasn’t been scoring for a long time, and Flamini is just not used (and expected) to score very often. So that’s why Adebayor’s shots must meet the net again.

Though we were dominated by Aston Villa I’ve to say that Almunia saved us a couple of times. Clichy was a bit lost today, I guess he hasn’t put the Birmingham incident behind him yet. Hleb was the poorest, he couldn’t even pass properly. Fabregas was also lost and Theo didn’t have many chances.

To sum up, that’s not the way we should play. We’re doing exactly what we can't do. We should have been playing even better with less than ten matches to go. The time we could think about dropping points has already gone. We dropped four points in the last two matches and now even Chelsea’s approaching.

Now we’ve to face Milan and being defeated would be a disaster as it’s clear that our self-confidence’s becoming lower and lower.

I really, really hope van Persie’s return can make the difference and our ambitions to get even higher as I don’t think we’re playing like champions.
--

Its a lot frustrating these days to sit through an Arsenal match... Villa didnt even try hard for us to salvage a point between the skin of the teeth... They were just doing their regular game and for the first 90 minutes of the game, there was only one teamw eho wanted to win the match, and it was not Arsenal..

After Flamini's statement over the weekend abt winning the PL for dudu, the performance yesterday was far from anything in that showed a character. The only point was the goal that kept our home record in tact....

Clichy is so short on confidence, that there is always a doubt before clearing out teh ball. He is also slightly worried running down the flanks, fearing moving out of position. Sendoros, less said the better.. He's a good player honestly, but his moments of turning to villain makes him look so idiotic on the field.

Arsenal's failure to win should be attributed to none other than Cesc.. The guy hardly gets into positions these days where he can get a decent strike on goal...let alone have a well directed shot. (may be once in a game). Where did he stack away those defence splitting passes, and cheeky touches??? Only good thing is he's winning the ball... Still our most potential player. Ade's first touch is like a clearance to the half...

The most dissapointing figure was Diaby, (if his injury is the excuse then i'll reserve this comment for later) who would not recieve any ball facing the opposition when layed to him. Arsenal's style of play does not expect wingers to give the cross, but atleast needs them to be involved in teh attack. 90% of the moves came from Hleb side. Diaby's inability to backtrack has clipped Clichy's runs too..Wenger realised Diaby's ineffectiveness and took him out... though I think it was delayed.

The "kid" has been slightly promising to show rare but glimpses of what his "Arsenal" holds..

This type of football would be like playing into Milan's hands at SanSiro.. If Kaka has a good day, which Ashley Young didnt have yday...we'd be back only in EPL..
--
Oh I forgot to mention that, if it were not for Almunia, I'd have gulped the whole bottle in despair...
--
missed the game but from what i read :

- bendtner and ade are still some way off cooperating with each other but both were rubbish
- they didn't celebrate with each other
- poor senderos does it again. some claiming a bad moment and some blaming it all big phil's inconsistency.
- clichy yet to recover some confidence
- diaby, shite as usual these days
- despite leading the table and with a potent strike about to return along with a lw we are still struggling in the league (accor. to the press)
- villa fans were up to their c**tish selves, sang the traditional 'european cup' song and a sad song for ed. which led to a fight and some gooners sent home earlier than normal
- fergie claiming lucky arsenal score in the 7th minute of added time (clueless hypocrite)
- sp*rs losing ;)
--

Those f**king Villa fans returned with a lesson taught by the Gooners. One even had to leave for the hospital.

Ironically, just when they chanted on Dudu moments after that Curtis Davies got injured and was stretched off. That will teach them a lesson. What goes around, comes around.

--

I only saw the 2nd half, but the lack of penetration upfront was a bit disappointing. The full backs had an off day, as did Flamini but thats a rarity. 2 drawn games at home is not good enough.

However, I'd like to remind people here - ManU took the lead twice (?) this season and gave it up soon after. For all the talk of bottling under pressure, Arsenal have been able to hold on to the lead for far longer than ManU. This is not the time to lose faith in this squad. Yes, we had an off day and have made things more difficult for ourselves with tough games against Everton, Chelsea & Liverpool, but lets take things one game at a time.

With RVP & Rosicky back, things might change for the better.

Arsenal v Villa'ns - preview

2008-02-29T21:22:00.000-08:00

A bit of a rare thing,. But after the last 7 days this game cant come fast enough for The Arsenal.

Villa currently sitting nicely in 6th, joint on points with Liverpool, come to us with strong ambitions to land a Euro spot for next season, They must fancy their chance's after the last game with us. Ok we was without Cesc that day, first half we was all over them but we totally lost our shape after Carew played henchman and kicked Hleb out of the game and in the 2nd half they were all over us, we were brave to hold on to all 3 points.

I've never been a big fan of Martin O'Neil as a person or for the style of football he plays. When he was at Leicester they liked a good HOOF and the same at Celtic he's always liked a big bruising center forward to put himself about and in Carew he has that and expect to see them try and close up shop, hit a few long balls. They also have the added danger of the pacy Agbonlahor.

Villa fan's will at some point sing there "have you ever won the European cup" song which harps back to the days when they challenged for the top prizes and wasn't just another team with fickle fan's and a half empty ground when things are not gonig there way on the pitch. Be interesting to see if they start any IN-GER-LAND songs up, especially now dodgy Doug finally hung up his axe and sold them to a yank.

After last week's game at Birmingham there's been much debate over poor Ed's injury and lets hope this weeks ref has the bolloxs to go into both dressing rooms before the game and tell the players to settle into a game and not to "get the first tackle in hard", Taylor will never be forgiven for his act last week, some say he just got done by Ed's pace some say he's just slow and late, but if you look at his record, one sending off in 200 odd games before, He's never been that late or that high before. How he's not getting further punishment bemuses me and how Allidere has ended up with a harsher 4 game ban is a joke. One Boro fan said to me he deserved a 10 game ban for slapping like a girl, But yet again shows the FA do not have a fucking clue.

Gallas showed last week he cared more than anyone else had believed possible before, Lets hope he shows it in a positive light this week during the game and our defenders start talking to each other again.

Despite last weeks dropped points we are still top by 3 points, with DOUBLE the amount of points of the deluded lot up the road, expect cries of "next season" coming from that lot until the back wheels fall off for them (around next September) £100million spent on players in under 2years and yet he sp*rs 11th and closer in points to going down than they are 8th place. Yes they won the League cup, but in the scheme of things these days that's little better than winning a pre-season tournament.

We should have Diaby and Denilson back in the squad this week, Which will give us more options top change things up this week. The way i see it Wenger has 2 choices this week, 4-4-2 with either boy wonder or the lad Adebayor wont pass to upfront or go to a 4-5-1 with Hleb, Cesc and boy wonder all causing mayhem for Villa, Personally i hope he goes for the latter.

Injury news:

Ed; see you in about 9months time, good luck son.
Van Persie; might be back soon.
roSicky; might be back when it warms up.
Toure; maybe another game out for him
Song; few more weeks on his PS3
Djourou; still having groin problems

Non-story:

Well only one this week, Dein' sugar daddy has bought more shares and is now the biggest single share holder in the club, under the banner "Red and White Holdings". Wont be long before they will sadly try messing with things at the club. This story will run and run...

Ramos!!

2008-02-27T10:46:00.000-08:00

After Spurs' fantastic victory in the Carling Cup, I thought I would expose one of the greatest myths in the modern era. The Jaundae Ramos is a great manager.

Spurs fans would have you believe that he is the messiah, the man to take them to the next level. The man who will get them the elusive 4th place (wasn't that man Martin Jol 12 months ago?). However, when you break down his record, he is simply not that good.

A bit of background first off. At 53 (just 5 years younger then Wenger...). The great Ramos has had 11 jobs in 14 years. Not exactly what you would expect from a top class manager.

Since he took over Spurs, they have been a revaluation! His Premiership record currently reads:

P - 16
W - 7
D - 4
L - 5

Not exactly a great record for someone who has supposedly had a fantastic start to his managerial career.

And in Spain, a finishes of 5th and 3rd, then jumping ship when they were mid table is pretty decent. But in my honest opinion, Seville in the league was more to do with having a lot of good youngster's, who were already at the club, growing up and coming good, and not as much to do with Ramos being a superb manager. Out of interest, after Ramos left, Sevilla rose from 9th to 5th under the stewardship of Manuel Jimenez (WHO? I hear you all shout)

But one thing is not in doubt, he is a fantastic cup manager. 6 cups in 2 years surely shows how great he is.

But wait a minute, lets look at his 'fantastic' cup victories:

Copa del Rey - A competition taken so seriously in Spain that Barcelona have note won it since 1998 and Real Madrid have not won it since 1989. When you consider that the FA Cup, Arsenal or Man U have won 7 of the last 11, it shows how little respect the Copa del Rey gets in Spain! Well done Ramos, this is the first trophy you have won that no one gives a fuck about

Supercopa de España - AKA the Charity Shield.

His record is starting to sound like Houllier's of the early 00's, were he won shit loads but bar the FA Cup, it was shit loads of shit! But it must get better?

UEFA Cup - The competition that many teams that are in it dont care about. I remember Parma a few years back playing there youth team in every match and winning it! So he won it twice. Beating Middlesborough (out thinking that legendary England Manager Steve McClaren), and also beating Espanyol (the spurs of Barcelona!). The 3rd trophy won by Ramos that no one gives a fuck about

UEFA Super Cup - AKA the Charity Shield of Europe

Wow, his record is looking more and more like Houllier's fake '5 trophies in 6 months' record.

Carling Cup - A cup that, like the previous 4 that Ramos has won, no one gives a fuck about and, will always be the bottom of every fans wish list. Well done, 5 trophies

So whilst he has won a lot of trophies, if everyone is honest, he has won a lot of shit.

So Spurs, enjoy your messiah, you have a manager who has never won anything of note, has a very average record, and, quite frankly, is a fraud surrounded by a great media machine. but then again, he suits spurs, an average team surrounded b a great media machine which makes them seem bigger then they are.

Send your messages of support to Eduardo

2008-02-25T08:09:00.000-08:00

Arsenal striker Eduardo broke his leg in the opening minutes of the game at Birmingham on Saturday.

He has since had surgery and, thankfully, is on the road to recovery. However it may be a long journey.

If you would like send a message of support to Eduardo please e-mail here.

Please keep your messages down to just a couple of sentences. Also include your full name, age and where you come from.

Arsenal.com will collate them, put them into a book and give them to Eduardo.

Give Eduardo a gift

2008-02-24T06:05:00.000-08:00

A gift for Eduardo

He turns 25 tomorrow and he's done his bit for us.

Lets make his B'day an opportunity to show our support for him and tell him how much we care.

Carling Cup is conducting a poll on the player of the tournament which will be decided by polls. We can add our vote here if we feel he deserves it.

http://www.carlingcup.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/0,,11995~1240719,00.html

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Last time I saw Jenas was leading with 47%, followed by SWP with 30% and Eduardo with 13%. Lets make it happen for him

Get well soon Eduardo

2008-02-23T08:51:00.001-08:00

Get well soon Eduardo.

Our thoughts are with you and we wish you a speedy recovery.

For the extent of injury there's a guy Rohit Saha who sums it up in the arsenal community.

"Actual Extent And Effects Of The Injury

Speaking from a personal experience i had an identical injury on Oct 2006,Judging from the pics its a sure case of ankle dislocation, but the scans will tell if there is a fracture along with the dislocation or not. No fracture would mean he can be back within 6 months. Also dislocations causes a lot of damage to the tissues,blood vessels and nerves which are pressurised by the dislocated bone and the skin, causing a lot of damage, and those things usually take a long time to regenerate.Nerve tissues wont, they simply die causing loss of sensation in that area.

I know all this biological shite because i have had the exact same injury, i had a couple of operations, takes around 6-8 months, to even start walking normally, they might even insert steel plates so training and running is a complete no-no. I am telling you, it will be atleast a year and half till you see the best of Eduardo again, if there is a case of fracture along with the dislocation.

Get well soon lad, you will need all the wishes !"

Slur Alex,mind games and idiot man utd fans

2008-02-21T04:35:00.000-08:00

By H H F

It appears that the Auld rivalry has once again appeared between Man Utd and us after a brief respite over the last couple of trophyless years. We currently stand top of the table, 5 points clear of United and Old Red Nose has now decided it is time for the mind games to begin.

Already he has tried to add insult to injury in the aftermath of Saturday’s humiliation by trying to convince the FA that William Gallas should be punished further for his kick at Nani, even after they have said that there will be no further action.

This is where the rant takes a step back in time and covers things said before, but bare with me…

What gets to me the most about the man is just how hypocritical he is. After we drew 2-2 against United back in November, it was reported in the press that Ferguson had been subject to ‘verbal abuse’ from sections of the crowd behind the away bench. Not content to leave it at that, the F***wits at Old Trafford deemed it necessary to take things further. “Our security people are compiling a report on it”, said Ferguson.

Now, I don’t know exactly what was shouted at Ferguson, but I do have an inkling of what was likely to be shouted. But could Ferguson really admit that he was that shocked by it all. After all, he is one of the biggest C***s in football management, even if he is one of the most successful. Even so, the press jumped onto the bandwagon and lapped up everything the crazy Scotsman said on the issue.

So, what made Saturday’s game, and every other game we have played over the last few years at Old Trafford all the more infuriating is the total lack of coverage in the press of tens of thousands of United fans chanting defamatory remarks accusing Wenger of being a kiddie fiddler.

So, what is worse? A dozen or so fans calling Fergie a F***ing thick C***, or thousands of fans accusing Wenger of sickening acts? We all know the answer to that.

The trouble is, however, the hypocrisy of the club and the manager seems to be rubbing off on the fans too. I have been unfortunate in my life to have grown up surrounded by JCL United fans, unfortunately I consider some of them to be friends, so I have seen at first hand just how contradictory they can be. I have seen them take the piss out of Liverpool fans for Hillsborough and Leeds United fans for the incident where two of their fans were stabbed and killed in Istanbul with such vitriol it is untrue. But as soon as Liverpool or Leeds fans mention a thing about Munich, it is seen as being out of order and unnecessary.

Even worse is how the United fans hate anything scouse yet praise the fat scouser Rooney and hail him as the best thing since sliced bread. What is it to be? The only explanation I have heard for this glaring contradiction is; “Oh, he must have seen the light by signing for us”. Numpty.

It is nice to see that our club conduct themselves with a bit of decorum. It would be easy for Wenger to turn round and demand a security dossier and CCTV footage of the Old Trafford crowd chanting things at him, but he quite simply lets it go over his head. The man has more class in his little finger than Fergie does in his entire, alcohol soaked body. Without wanting to jinx us, to use a quote: “I would love it if we beat them”. The best thing that our players can do is laugh at Ferguson for the clown he is, don’t get involved in the slating, and keep their minds focused on bringing the Premier League trophy back to where it belongs.

Arsenal 0 v 0 AC Milan

2008-02-20T16:29:00.000-08:00

I really don’t know what to think about the result. I’m as excited about our excelent perfomance as I’m frustrated by the chances we missed.

I won’t tolerate any bad word about Senderos anymore. He was classy, consistent and solid today as he put Pato (and then Gilardino) in his pocket. Clichy & Sagna are superb players. I’m afraid we’re becoming dependent of their perfomances. Hats off to Flamini, once again. He was super, tiredless and crucial today. Gattuso looked like a kid when compared with the Frenchman, and that makes me really, really proud of him. Hleb was good and Eboue was fantastic. What a good perfomance and that’s why I avoided affirming I would let him leave in the summer. I do know he’s important for the team (as he’s loved by his team-mates) and especially by his perfomances. He had good pace, crossed good balls to Milan’s box but, unfortunately, our strikers couldn't make the most of that chances. Though Eduardo looked poor he was definitely better than Bendtner who lacked experience. And poor me, Adebayor. My heart almost stopped at the moment your header touched the bar. I just can’t believe the Togolese lost that chance and that’s why I almost defenestrated me just after the full-time.

However, the game belonged to Cesc Fabregas. The Spaniard was stunning today as we has simply everywhere on the pitch. He marked, he was the responsible for creating plays and he attacked as well. I just can’t stand people who says Fabregas hasn't been scoring frequently. For God’s sake, he’s a midfielder and marking is more important than scoring when you play in the middle of the pitch. He was fully commited and played with his heart. Simply perfect.

As we were running out of time we did miss experienced players so they could calm our nerves down and finish the game. We were imature and nervous in our decision making, and that’s why we were held today despite of dominating Milan for almost 90 minutes.

As we responded so well the defeat against Man United last Saturday I’ve to admit a goaless match was not so fair at all.

I guess nil-nil at home wasn't a bad result at all. If we play the way we did today, I’m sure we’re going to go through the next round. And, honestly, beating Milan at San Siro would be a boost for the Premier League title race and, most importantly, for the confidence of our boys.

Eboue should be sold

2008-02-19T09:09:00.000-08:00

He's made himself a hate figure amongst a lot of fans . There was a topic on selling Eboue (Seen on the left with his wife and son- who looks like the ever grumpy Fran Merida) in an arsenal forum whose members come here regularly. This is a discussion for everyones benefit.
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Now, this is not a knee jerk reaction to Eboue's sending off against ManU. His attitude is a disgrace in football, let alone Arsenal FC. He dives, cheats, feigns injury, makes needless / rash challenges and is generally a tool.

As a footballer, I believe he has some ability. This season, at RM, he has shown glimpses of quality, putting in some good crosses and combining well with Sagna. Given time, he could be a good winger and a very good squad player. The question is - Are you willing to give him that time at Arsenal FC ? Well, I was, but not with the attitude he has on the pitch.

His attitude on the pitch has been getting from bad to worse to disgraceful, over the past 2 seasons. This season itself, there was the slap to Pogatetz against Boro, an incident in the Liverpool game, and now this - he must have touched the ball exactly 3 times before making that challenge that deserved the red. He let the team down coz we were down to 10 men.

Apart from the obviously pathetic attitude, it also impacts the team from a football perspective. The point is - this could happen in any game. Imagine a CL game against Milan, and we desperately need to hold on to a 1-0 lead with 10 mins to go, I wouldnt trust him. He might go mental and get sent off.

I was hoping that Wenger would sort him out in the summer, coz there were signs last season itself that his attitude was poor. However, he shows no signs of improving, and its only become worse this season.

I think he should be sold at the 1st available opportunity, i.e. in the summer.

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well i do agree...i was 1 of the few behind him askin for him to be given time but he doesn't seem to learn...unless there is a drastic change between now and the summer i think he should go and we can get a good value for him...

i still say bring in ribery...any1 seen how well he is doin at bayern...sigh!

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Long and short of it... yes! He's becoming a liability. Wenger does not take any nonsense from anyone (Anelka, for example), and Eboue's attitude is going from bad to worse. I am never one to want players sold on a whim, but I feel he's had enough time to mature, and frankly, he hasn't and there is (and should not be) no place in the Arsenal squad for a child.

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the dive against barca in the cl was embarrassing. he's been doing this for three seasons now and no amount of stick seems to put him in place. diving is cheating and he's doing this consistently.

he looked strictly ok when making runs or beating players for pace or a one off fancy flick but there's nothing this season to show for him. he's also lazy too, not bothered too much to track back and help the RB or staying down really long to give an advantage to the opposition. he also gets involved in things he shouldn't and his antics are a disgrace.

needs to go.
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One more thing - how on earth can he get this stupid - i mean the only reason why Wenger fielded the team he had was because he wanted to rest key players and then Eboue made them play with one man down for 45 minutes.

My dead dog was more intelligent
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I remember Wenger giving him warning about his attitude last season and badly though he has not improved a bit...He was good at RB but at RM he is not so good and with such disdraceful act its hard to digest him !! i think Wenger will sort it out and lets pray he does it in coming transfer window

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We need not vote on this...Even if it means giving some money to the buyer..... YES YES YES...!!!!!!

He has some skills but lacks the intelligence to use it... The challenge of that sort, was stupid to begin with, clumsy in approach and not at all required considering on what situation it happened... Its pretty frustrating when u are three goals down, in your welcome match... but he is not the guy who can do the dirty work if required... He just makes it dirtier and tough to clean up for the rest....

Not even a single cross to the tall Dane...
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well he did say the itlian league was lookin for him...well go off then...BYE!

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I won't sell Eboue just for his antics and play-acting. Some counseling and harsh words from the manager can help him avoid that aspect of his game. I would rather sell him for his performances, that don't make-up for his appalling attitude. Ronaldo dives, Gerrard dives, Henry dives (for France), but then, we remember them for their superior quality as footballers. No matter how much we hate Ronaldo, he is one footballer every team would like to have. Eboue neither has the sublime skills, nor a good sportsman spirit. The only thing he can do is beat defenders by his pace, but often runs into them. The only problem I have with selling Eboue is the fact that we won't have any mid-fielder (Eboue is a transformed mid-fileder?) who can put in crosses from the right. With all the hollow skull that he is, if he is free on the wing, he puts in point perfect passes in the box (last season Henry's header against Man Utd comes to mind, along with many other crosses to Adebayor when he was shite ). If only Walcott had developed according to expectations, I wouldn't have second thoughts on selling Eboue.

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Why not, Amod ? There must surely be some kind of limit that we can put up with, in terms of his actics. Whenever he has behaved poorly in the past, we have always expressed hope that he will improve his attitude. His attitude has gone from bad to worse in the past 2 seasons.

You talk of Henry, Pires diving etc but they were rare occurences. They didnt happen so often in one season itself, while with Eboue, I can remember atleast 3 incidents off the top of my head this season.

In terms of football ability, like I said, he is ok and not a bad squad player (he is only 2nd choice RM behind Hleb).
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I have never seen a player who was sold for his antics. There is no doubt that he is not Arsenal quality, and I would sell him for that. I would still sell him and I agree with the title of this thread, not the reason though.

Eboue is a RM for plan 2, that is when teams start defending, and intricate ground passing becomes difficult to break them. That's when Eboue comes on for Hleb, and mostly fails. Replace him with someone who can put crosses in, or give Walcott more opportunities in training to make crosses and only crosses (if he is not given them already).

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Amod - antics to be read as attitude here. Anelka, Pennant etc.

Eboue needs to go. Now.
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Lazy.
Does not track back. Does not make runs. Does not attempt to take on defenders.

Talentless.

cannot dribble with ball.

Dives.

Feigns injuries.

Hurts other intentionally.

all this adds up to one screwed player who needed to go. I said he should not have worn an Arsenal jersey after the Boro game (where he put his studs into Downing) and I stand by that.

Ade incident

2008-02-18T09:30:00.000-08:00

The truth why Adebayor went down. From the capture its pretty clear the defender went for his feet and didn't get the ball. Maybe not malicious but cynical, yes.

Penalties have been awarded for crimes lot lesser!

Now we tried speaking with Ferie but:

Sir Alex Ferguson does not speak to us for legal reasons, however his assistant Carlos Queiroz said this morning,

“O Nani é louco. Ele cheira de mackeral e sua prostitua por o sexo com alsatian”.

Again we have to apologise that we don't have access to a Portugese translator. However with more law suits against us than Private Eye, we believe this might be a blessing in disguise.

Every cloud has a silver lining

2008-02-17T04:35:00.000-08:00

Ok, so we are out the FA Cup, but there has been one MASSIVE advantage thrown Arsenal's way.

Our next 3 league games are Birmingham, Villa and Wigan, As discussed already, we should win all 3.

Due to the FA Cup QF, Man U no longer play a game when we play v Wigan, thus meaning, we could justfiably be 8 points clear of them with 9 points to go. That will put the pressure straight on them!

"We'll be back to win the league" says it all I feel

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yup. true.
we will be back, and we win the league. but i hope we do that after we geet our pride back at the theater of wet dreams.

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lets remember that after we lost to Boro, people said we were finished

After we were raped by spurs, people said we were finished

i expect to wake upo in 12 hours time and read how our season is over.

in my eyes, our season begins today.
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i had some fun and games with a manc who was in front of me... needless to say at least someone won today!!...and it werent him :-))

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Yep, we should be winning those games, and no distraction of the Cup (although I would have liked a distraction of playing Bristol Rovers but anyway).

If we can get players back fit, manage to get Van Persie fit, United will always be on our tail, and having that dreaded game in hand, whereas we could have the points on board.
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shit happens, dont think Le Boss will allow another performance like this. We've got UCL and EPL to complete. while Man u still have the FA Cup.
It is good to see Lehmann be put in his paces.

lolz. cant believe Liverpool lossed.
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What is going on here ? are we suddenly finding it acceptable to lose to our biggest rivals, and justifying it by saying we MIGHT still win the Premier League or the Champions league !

Why aren't we trying to win every trophy ? If it doesn't really matter, why enter the comp in the first place. How many thousands of fans have had to fork out their cash, to see another crap performance. It was bloody depressing, and once again we have to face the onslaught of e mails and texts, while we say we MIGHT win something....that's crap !

What if the unthinkable happens, and we get dumped out by AC Milan, all of a sudden we MUST win the league, and the pressure really is on us. I don't agree with all this 'at least we have the advantage in the league' Man U are winning big games, Tottenham are already in a cup final, and will probably get in the Uefa cup final too, how good will we all feel if they win silver, and we don't.....

Losing is never acceptable.....it is crap

I have to ask myself, would George Graham have let his side roll over....?

Let's hope this season has a happy ending, the alternative is unthinkable.

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FA CUP 5th Round

2008-02-17T04:06:00.000-08:00

Dicey aint..!!! The loser of this tie definitely has an undue advantage in the PL title race... I guess if we see that we are drawing the match the best thing to do would be pick up the ball and score an own goal...! . A loss wont be as bad as a replay ...

IMHO, play the kids... (as suggested, the second team)... No Faby... not even on bench.. No Alex either... we need him to join with Rosky on 20th.. I dont mind if Adebayor also is on bench coming in late to score the winner or smthng...

Since both the Ivorians are back, our defence does not look all that depleted... Pray tell me now that Sendy has put in a goal why not have Toure too in the middle like what Makelele do to Chelsea??? Wouldnt that take Mans by surprise.. Also he could shoot at will at Vandersaars holes in the gloves... As crazy as it sounds.. would not be accepted by the professor...

he'd put Eduardo and Bendtner upfront, Eboue, Alex, Gilberto, Walcott and the back four.. Poor sendy as he had just found his scoring touch back...

I guess Diaby Denilson RVP Rosck would miss the match... who'll fill up the bench ??

Also Eboue should get a red card for putting Cronaldo out of action for 10 months...no..i didnt mean it...
The Ronaldo is out for nine months... So i hear Kaka and Gattuso also will miss... Win the first leg at home.. without conceeding..we'll look at the away, after confirming the lead in PL....

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it seemed the players gave up even before the game had begun. traore was screwed in the first half. maybe this season has been a good experience facing some quality wingers will make him better next season.

their players were passing around ours and simply walking through the players.

hopefully the injury worries would be resolved for the wednesday clash and our defense turns up.
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i really don't care abt the loss...the margin hurts coz now we have been dumped out of the 2 donmestic cups by our 2 worst rivals and thrashed in both....

but seriously i couldn't care coz it was not imp this yr...EPL is our goal and wenger proved that by the team he picked...

the only thing i am upset abt is the reaction of the Man U fans...suddenly we will have a barrage of them sayin they r the champs and the gr8est team in the world and we can't win a thing...the same fans who last week didn't say a word and said their team was gone...TYPICAL!!

anyway onto milan and the return of sagna and clichy along with every1 els will make us stronger...

and maybe Man U will now get over arrogant abt the game in april and how i would love to seal the deal there!...

and all will be forgotten and forgiven if they take out milan and i am hopin benzema,ben arfa and co can take out united....GO FRANCE...i mean lyon and arsenal
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This cup was our 3rd preferrence. So the exit doesn't hurt. But we have been eliminated from two competitions in a very embarrassing way indeed.
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Arsenal was just unrecognizable.

Despite of the fact that I said I wouldn't really care if we were beaten today, the truth is I just hate to lose, especially by Man United.

Our defensive duo looked poor. They both play international matches, are getting older and really should've done a better job. Toure didn't play Ivory Coast's last match and that's why he really disappointed me today. About Gallas, he's our captain and an experienced player. He's almost 30 years old and should've looked solider. The best thing the Frenchman did today was his attempt to break Nani's legs (what I would've done if I was on the pitch).

Hoyte was the poorest on the pitch, and that's why our right side was really vulnerable. Yet, I must admit Nani was on fire. No matter if I just wanted him to have his head cut today, he did put lots of pressure over our young right back. I know the Portuguese and that's why I can say that Ronaldo wouldn't have done what Nani did if he had played.

Fabregas, Hleb and Eduardo looked tired. I really hope them to rest as much as they can until Wednesday morning, because they just can't look clumsy against AC Milan.

Well, what an embarrasing way of leaving the FA Cup. We shouldn't have been beaten by our main Premier League race rivals by four-nil. It was a key match and no matter what they say, our feelings, hope and concentration were really, really affected by the result of the game.

To make matters worse some players who shouldn't have played did play. I wanted Flamini and Adebayor to rest at least a little bit, but due to the circumstances they just had to play some minutes today. Hope they weren't sufficient to make them tired (as I'm sure Adebayor is a bit bored due to the fact that he didn't score again, because his sequence of goals is now over).

Hope we can return as focused as we did when we lost five-one to Tottenham last month. Now it's time to see how focused our players are, because I'm a hundred percent sure we, fans, will be always behind them no matter what happen.
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No matter what the priority of the match to Wenger was, we still had Cesc, Hleb, Toure, Gallas and Eduardo playing. All players who are practically first team, and we were pushed aside. Man Utd made changes to their team aswell so i dont think injuries are an excuse. A woeful performance by our team and if this carries on against MIlan, God help us.
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The performance was a disgrace. Before the game, I didnt mind a loss, but looking at the performance, it still hurt. Coz the players didnt seem to want to be out there, this is unacceptable when they are wearing the arsenal jersey. Completely outplayed from the 1st minute to the last. Injuries, reserve team etc are no excuses, I expected a better fight at the least.

Eboue is a fucking idiot. He touched the ball a grand total of 2 times before his red card, and there was no need for that challenge. The squad is already thin with injuries, and he now needs to sit out 3 domestic games.

Looking at the bright side, we can focus on the CL & the Premiership. I hope the response to this defeat is the same as after the CC result against the 'mighty' spuds.

Ronaldo suffers serious injury

2008-02-14T09:52:00.000-08:00

Ronaldo has been stretchered off in tears after sustaining what could be a very serious left knee injury.

The Brazilian had only been on the field for three minutes in Milan’s rescheduled Week 16 match with Livorno when he collapsed in the box.

The referee awarded a penalty for Jose Luis Vidigal’s handball – later converted by Andrea Pirlo to equalise from Nico Pulzetti’s effort – but all attention was on Ronaldo.

He was stretchered off screaming and crying in agony, clutching his left knee, and initial reports suggest it is a very serious injury to the tendons.

The fall was not entirely dissimilar to the April 12, 2000 collapse that happened minutes after his comeback for Inter against Lazio.

That kept him out for almost another year and with the recent rumours Ronaldo is considering retirement, there are fears another setback could force Il Fenomeno out of football.

The player was taken immediately to a local hospital in an ambulance accompanied by Milan director Leonardo.

Milan have now confirmed Ronaldo has completely severed the tendon in his left knee, effectively ending his career.

What sad news . . I hope he doesn't retire too soon . . All this coming from an Arsenal fan . .
We might never see another player like Ronaldo ever again . . Hope he recovers soon not only for the sake of Milan but for the sake of football . . Lets wish him all the best . .

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Luis (?) Ronaldo- he was my favourite player before i started following club football...our own eduaro kind of reminds me of the 'in form' ronaldo (they are both 'fox in the box' kind of players arent they?)...i always respected this guy a lot and it is sad how the carreer of one of the best players of the game has come to an end...a few injuries and its over...wish him luck for his future...thanks for those great goals in the world cups Ronald

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Ronaldo was an amazing player

he was setting the world on fire a couple of years back,and then being over weight stepped in and he lost his form gradually
But i hope he gets well soon
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If his career does end this way then I have to say its very tragic. Ronaldo is one of the legends of the game, no wonder people called him The Phenomenon. But the thing is, as mentioned above, he is still 31 but this injury might take atleast an year or two to get fully cured by the looks of it and I dont think Milan would want to keep him if thats the case. Lets hope he can recover well and end his career on a better note and not like this.

Hail the great man.
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I believe that RonaLdo is player who will live in the history of football for good.

Names like Pele,Beckenbauer,Maradonna,Zidane and Ronaldo will live for ever.
No other.

He's been the role model of billions in this world.
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I hav to admit here..i started watching football coz of this guy...I used to follow brazil only coz of him.I will always b thankful to him...Im feeling very sad :(

An ultimate player wit gr8 skills n talent...He sufferd frm injuries br this...he recoverd frm them but cudt be the same Ronaldo.I still rem his glory days at Inter then Barca then Real...

I wish him best luck to recover frm this injury...I want him back....
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I'm really, really sad, depressed and ashamed by what happend with Ronaldo last night. I would be a bit selfish saying I'm his fan, because every single football lover praises Ronaldo and knows he's a living legend, an icon, a phenomenon. But the fact that I'm brazilian makes the pain even worse. I'm behind Ronaldo since when he was a little teenager boy playing for Cruzeiro in Brazil and I'll stand alongside him until the end.

All I can say is that Ronaldo has the strenght to carry on and his passion for the football will never bring him down. No one really expected him to come back when he got injured for the first time in 2000. Surprisingly he returned in 2002's World Cup and being its top scorer led Brazil national team to its fifth victory.

Ronaldo is used to surprise the world when he returns, and this time will not be different.

Song in ACN best 11

2008-02-14T08:57:00.000-08:00

alex song has been named in the best 1 at the ACN....thats quite amazin seein g the quality of players that come out of africa...he played central defence adn also central midfield helpin in attack....

very proud of the young boy and maybe wenger was right to stick with him...

hopefully this will lead to him showing some of that form for arsenal as well...

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Shocking!!! Not really. Despite what was reflected by his early performances with the Gunners, he had shown glimpses of quality this season proving all criticism was mere an early judgment by the critics. Honestly, he had been bashed a lot in the media in his early matches but credit to him and Wenger.

His performances this season had been solid with Arsenal. This ACN and CC gave Song much needed experience and exposure. I still think it while take a little more while before he is ready for the starts in Epl.

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Read some article that he was the "find" of the tournament.

I cant believe im saying this ,but he really impressed this year and in CC. Glad for him.

Another thing , he played CDM for Cameroon, not Cb, so maybe thats his future - with both Diarra nd Bert out .

But he does not get involved in attacks as much as Flamini , which is something he can / should work on.

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I saw a couple of games of the ACN, esp the semi-final where Song was impressive.

It was a smart move from Wenger slotting him at CB. That position does not have as much responsibility as CM, and that seems to have settled him down a bit. I'd like that to continue for this season anyway.

He was not slated by the media, Vacas, but mainly by the Arsenal fans, unwilling to give an unheralded kid a chance. If a kid like Cesc, Theo have obvious talent, the fans are willing to wait, but not with someone as unfashionable as Song. Looks a bit clumsy at times. A pity, really. To be honest, I didnt see anything special in him last season, but it was too early to judge him as a player (including slating him for a poor performance).

Now, he seems a more confident player. A good squad player to have.
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Song and Gilberto aren't in Wenger's best eleven and are just crucial for their national teams. That's fantastic. It's not that easy to have your players summoned to represent their countries, and it makes me really proud to know that even our players that are not playing regularly are sufficiently classy to play great competitions.

Song has impressed us especially during this season. I just can't forget his Carling Cup match against Blackburn and I'm just excited about his skills because I know he will improve and improve as he is getting confident about himself now he is playing regularly for Cameroon.

Gilberto may leave in the summer, and that's why I think Song is already an important player for the team as he can play in different roles and handle different kinds of situations and, what's better, playing very well.

Carry on, Alex!

Sherwood and Spurs connection

2008-02-14T07:30:00.000-08:00

Firstly, it is not slander to call someone a c***, so f*** you all. Secondly, I would like to know why Setanta continue to employ someone who is clearly clueless about football, is clearly biased, and is clearly jealous of the success of Arsenal.

Back on December 1st, he wrote in his blog, published by Setanta, that Arsenal’s 'bubbles would burst'. Next, he claimed that we didn’t deserve to beat Villa – a match which we had 14 shots to 10 – and that the crude challenge which took Hleb out of the game was justifiable. Now if this was not bad enough, a couple of weeks later, we lost to Boro. This bought the old Sherwood back: ‘I hate being right,’ he said. Yes, if you predict something enough, it will eventually come true.

According to this 'football expert', we lost to Boro because we lacked an English spine. Chelsea had Lampard and Terry, Man U had Hargreaves (£17million), Ferdinand (£30million) and Rooney (£30million) and Liverpool had Carragher and Gerrard. "They are the ones you build your teams around and the ones who will win you the titles, where’s Arsenal’s spine?" He argued. Yet I thought that Chelsea built their team around Cech, Carvhallo and Drogba, and United were held together by Vidic and Ronaldo? But don’t tell the expert that.

What I loved about the blog on December 14th was the comment, "Sunday against an in-form Chelsea side will be interesting". Yes Timothy, it was. Arsenal won. Comfortably. He did not write another blog ‘til January 11th.

Bit embarrassed sir?

And now, the man who has been proved wrong (Arsenal: top, bubble hasn’t burst, no Englishman; Liverpool and Chelsea: way behind, bubbles has burst, loads of Englishman) has come out and claimed “Almunia will cost Arsenal title”.

Yet despite the title of his blog, the first line sums him up: “The most successful time Arsene Wenger had at Arsenal was when he had the old English back four.” You mean to tell me the double team of ’98 can be considered more successful then a team who WENT UNBEATEN? This guy is clearly clueless. I do not understand why Setanta give him the platform to write his crap views.

Despite his great title about Almunia, he does not actually explain why Almunia will cost us the title; he merely argues that our back four were better in ’98 than now. You are an idiot Tim, learn how to create an argument and justify it. Do not write a title then talk about something completely different. Not only that, his newest blog is an entire 4 paragraphs long. Great writing sir!

Tim, we are top the league. Our bubble has burst, your predicted it, and we don’t have and Englishman. Your constant bashing of us having no Englishman does come across as slightly xenophobic. Make of that what you will.

Spurs fans must be embarrassed. He has shown himself up in the past as being a clueless ***. It is time Setanta realised he knows fuck all about football and got rid.

Finally, I would like to point out that Setanta claim that he is an ‘intelligent and honest pundit’ – maybe they should think of removing that from his profile?

PS To make up your own mind on Tim Sherwood, I thought I would link his blogs to the board:

http://sports.setanta.com/en/Blogs/A-to-Z-of-Bloggers/Tim-Sherwood/?facets/blog-space/great-britain-locale/tim-sherwood/

Make your own decision.

The title race continues

2008-02-12T15:50:00.000-08:00

By Felipe Hassin

Five points clear and now everything is much more settled than it was yesterday night. Alex Ferguson believes the four big teams will drop lots of points from now on (link here: http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_3135510,00.html), and I have to agree with him as Arsenal is about to play Chelsea and Man United away, and Liverpool at the Emirates. I think if we can make five or even six points over them it would be fantastic and enough to win the Premier League.

About Arsenal, however, Senderos was happy to win ugly (link here: http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_3137287,00.html). And, honestly, that's the point. I know our players were pressured by the other results and the fact that they would look really pathetic if they had dropped points after having such a chance to be five points clear, but I'm proud they defeated Blackburn and didn't care too much about the pressure over their shoulders. It makes me really happy to see that our kids are getting even more experienced as they're handling the pressure very well.

Wenger talked about our perfomance to BBC and I do think you should listen to him as he affirms he's proud of his players as well and reveals some nice stuff about our match against Man United next Saturday. He says he's probably going to rest two or three players (Cesc included) due to the fact that the FA Cup is not our priority (link here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/sol/newsid_7240000/newsid_7240900?redirect=7240943.stm&news=1&nbram=1&bbwm=1&nbwm=1&bbram=1)

Adebayor claims Henry is like a big brother for him (link here: http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=487482&lid=NewsHeadline&Title=Adebayor+-+Henry+keeps+me+focused+on+title). It's nice to see the Frenchman is still conected with Arsenal and I think it's very kind of him "teaching" and giving Adebayor some advices. It looks as if Henry still has his mind at Arsenal. Don't know if he's keen on returning now that we're topping the Premier League, but the truth is that we're doing very well without him.

That's it. See you all tomorrow!

Arsenal 2 v 0 Blackburn + Gilberto's uncertain future

2008-02-11T18:17:00.000-08:00

By Felipe Hassin

Finally we all can say that this round was perfect. On Sunday Man United dropped three points at Old Trafford as they were beaten by Eriksson's boys in the Manchester derby whereas Chelsea dropped two, as they were held by Benitez's Liverpool.

About Man City win over United I have to say we are all a bit impressed by Dunne and Richards. The boys were really solid and very mature, they were playing away and against their biggest rival after being defeated by three-nil by Arsenal last round and they didn't give a damn about the pressure over their shoulders. Capello should've been in Manchester instead of London as he would be impressed by Richard's improvement.

About our win over Blackburn Rovers, I must admit that our perfomance was not as good as it should have been - but, ok, we're with no players. Despite of the fact that Lehmann didn't have much to do during the match he wasn't safe, definitely. Gilberto was really, really poor and it makes me really sad as I have to admit his times at Arsenal are coming to an end. Highlighting some good perfomances, I'd say Senderos was crowned today by the early goal he scored after such a sequence of good perfomances. I'm sure his confidence is now higher, despite of the fact that he's not going to play regularly from now on as Toure is back. Sagna was brilliant, and what a player he is, really talented. He's completely settled in Premier League style during his first season, quite impressive. Hleb was fast and furious today whereas Fabregas looked a bit tired despite of his effort to score twice in the second-half. Anyway he did a good job especially because he wasn't feeling well this week and played at the wing. Wenger on Cesc appearing on the right:

"I had no real choice, Fabregas was three days in bed and credit to him, you know, not only did he play but we took him out of bed to play tonight and we played him in a different position. That shows you as well how much these players are up for it."

So fingers crossed Fabregas will be back on business from now on. And it's needless to comment about Adebayor. He's just keen on scoring. It's fantastic to see how disappointed he gets every single time he misses a goal. He's improving his skills day by day and he's becoming an important player for the team as he's becoming a leader.

Anyway, it was good to see that even when we don't play well we win - though I really hope we play better against Birmingham City next round (I still replay our last match against them at the Emirates when they hold us every single time we face a solid defense).

Talking about rumours, The Sun claims Gilberto affirmed that Wenger made he feels useless this season.

"I thought I had a good season last year and I saw no reason for what has happened. If I continue not to play, then leaving Arsenal is inevitable.

I could not cope with another season like this one when Wenger has made me feel totally useless."

As I've already said above that I feel sorry about Gilberto (once I like him), all I can do is to back him if he really wants to leave, especially because Flamini is being superb and Song is improving fast.

That's enough for today. See you all tomorrow.

‘Lack of sponsorship affected our performance’ admits Giggs

2008-02-11T06:14:00.000-08:00

As sports journalists throughout Britain tried to make sense of the amazing scoreline at Old Trafford today, United captain Ryan Giggs has given his honest opinion as to why a team, who hadn’t lost at home this season, capitulated so easily to their long term rivals Manchester City.

” We were just not used to playing in shirt’s without sponsorship. Ever since I started playing in 1991 we have always had a logo on our kit, be it ‘Sharp’ ‘Vodafone’ or nowadays ‘AIG’. It didn’t feel right just playing for Manchester United, my heart wasn’t in it. The players are commodities now. We know we are walking billboards and we feel comfortable with that. I have talked to the other lads and to be honest they all said the same thing. We felt naked out there today. You can’t throw yourself into tackles if you think your souls are hanging out of your shorts.”

We think that recent signing, Brazilian wonderkid, Anderson supported Giggs. Talking to our reporter he said,

” O meu amigo é correto. Eu quis os meus testicals estiveram na demonstração hoje. Os bastardos, o fundo, os arsehole ”

Unfortunately our paper does not have access to a Portugese translator. However one can only assume Anderson was not happy about the situation.

On similiar lines, 29 year old, mixed race defender Rio Ferdinand, said,

” I agree with Giggsy. We didn’t stand a chance out there today. The boss allowed us to change our underpants at half time. I wore a pair with ‘Barclaycard’ written down the side, whilst Scholesy had a pair sponsored by ‘Toys ‘R’ Us’. It felt slightly better and I think that reflected in our second half performance but it was too little too late. Do you know that not wearing the ‘AIG’ logo cost us all £30,000 each today. I worked that out at £333 per minute or £5.50 per second. It’s difficult to concentrate on a cross with those kind of figures racing around in your head. I only hope for the clubs sake that they don’t do the same thing in another 50 years time “.

Mr Ferdinand thanked our Sports correspondent and told us that he would expect the bill for the 2 minute interview to be settled by early next week. Further he said that he would like it to be known that his, ‘whiter than white smile’ was thanks to ‘Aquafresh Extreme clean toothpaste’, and that his close shave was due to, ‘Gillette,.. the best a Man can get’.

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Now before you start questioning red this line -This article is a light hearted SPOOF :P

What's the future of England?

2008-02-09T09:29:00.000-08:00

Simple... play Arsenal and ex-Arsenal players. Problem solved

For a formation this would do

--------------------------Wright------------------------------------

Hoyte--------Campbell------------Upson---------------Cole---------

Bentley------Sidwell--------------Muamba-------------Pennant-----

---------------Walcott----------------------Harper-------------------

All legal, ethical, english, etc questions raised can be thrown into the dustbin then.

When will an African nation win the World Cup?

2008-02-09T01:59:00.000-08:00

I don't it'll be the next world cup (even though it's in Africa), but the one after that (or at least the semi-finals). Their are more African stars in the major European leagues than ever before and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

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Their are good African teams. I wouldn't be surprised to see a hardworking (and lucky) team make it to the semi-finals next world cup like South Korea did in 2002. The more talented team doesn't always win.

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i agree. we do see a lot of decent african players in the prem, but this is largely the cream of the crop and as teams go they aren't good enough yet. 2022 at earliest i reckon. they definitely have stars. individually there are some top players

here's a question, would an all-african 11 win the world cup. even then i'm not so sure. if they got all their french deserters back then probably

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I think not until the infrastructure and organisation of their domestic leagues gets in line with that of European leagues. They need to keep producing players and giving their players a chance locally before they move to Europe.

African leagues will never ever come in line with the money of European leagues, but if there is a good infrastructure in place, with proper officials and none of the disorganisation and shambles that you see now, then they have a strong basis to work from and maybe a team in the future will have a chance. Its good what some players like Vieira have done, with football centres, which should help youngsters and give them a chance they might not have had years gone by.

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It would be interesting to see an African team with the 'deserters'. Think of African players who have moved to France and played for them - Desailly, Vieira, Diarra, Zidane, Benzema, Nasri, Ben Arfa, Sagna - world class players who are of African origin.

In Zidane you have arguably the greatest European player of all time, yet he's Algerian. Desailly is as Ghanaian as you can get. So Africa can produce world class players but they choose France when moving there as children.

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An African country will win the WC After the United States win = not very soon. Although they have an abundance of talent coming out of Africa i don't believe any team out of that continent will win the world cup any time (too) soon.

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l havent watched any of the africa cup of nations games.
the last world cup l thought ivory coast and ghana were pretty good.played with skill as well as physically.

however they both could not defend to save their own lives, it seems they all want to be strikers or attacking midfielders.

goalkeeping and defending was atrocious, until they sort it out they will always flatter to deceive.

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I wish football would take off in America. But basketball, American football, and baseball is where all the money is and gets all the media coverage. Maybe it'll get their in 15-20 years but that is so hard to predict.

At least in African countries kids dream of being football stars. Not so in America.

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No time soon. A world class goalkeeper in a decent team might help. Oh and all you ivory coast bandwagon jumpers they just got tonked 4-1 by Egypt so that bandwagons about to pull up a lil short of competing with the worlds best. Minus the terrible goalkeepers they really are miles ahead of the rest of the teams in the tournament player wise. Egypt play some great football but cote d'ivoire goalkeeper is terrible and his sub maybe worse. No world cup talk here its just more depressing for me knowing theres a chance vogts might still be the manager when WC comes round.

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You have got to be kidding. The African Nations have some of the greatest teams, and players. Some of the best players for the European teams are naturalized, or the sons of naturalized Africans. The real problem is that the racist FIFA gives Europe 16 slots for the WC while giving Africa 5. Or 5+1 this year because they're hosting it. While Europe and Africa have almost the exact same number of teams.

You can call it racist, unfair, or good marketing, but the fact remains that the chips are not stacked in the favor of African teams. England has been to the WC Final once if my memory serves me correctly, is it fair to call them a quarter-final team at best?

Arsenal and RedAction

2008-02-09T01:55:00.001-08:00

I am totally pissed off with our club, alongside RedAction, for trying to manufacture an atmosphere: whether it is the ‘shout the names back to me’, the fake anthem, the scarf waving or the crap songs, it should not be found at The Arsenal.

Firstly, shouting the names back, it happens all the time in Germany, and it works, but after 2 and a half seasons, surely the club have realised that it’s not working at all? Most people are still trying to find their seats, the rest just mumble the names, and who the hell is ‘GILL’…‘BERTO’? It’s just retarded….Stop it now! Thanks.

Secondly the fake anthem…why? What is the point of ‘a wonder of you’ (or whatever the hell it’s called)? Firstly, it’s a shit song; secondly, it doesn’t get the crowd going; thirdly, it encourages fans to put their scarves above their heads as if they were on the Kop signing YNWA. We are not Liverpool, so why do our fans pretend we are? Someone said to me the other day that they should bring back ‘Right here, Right now’; I agree, that got people buzzing. Let’s stop this hunt for an anthem, the fans signing ‘and its Arsenal…’ as the players come out is more then enough.

And now the scarf waving: I hate it. This brings up two issues to me: 1) Fans holding their scarves above their heads straight like they were at Kop: it’s gay, stop doing it; 2) Swinging your scarf above your head: it makes you look like a kid on crack. What is the point of doing it? Someone has yet to give me an explanation of why it’s good….All I know is whoever sells the scarves has made a mint out of gullible JCLs.

Finally, the shit songs: ‘Sing up for The Arsenal’ is one of my most hated. It’s just retarded. Why not just come up with a decent song to sing instead? The second is this new Adebayor song: it is depressing, it is slow, and it is shit. I was waiting for the funeral to start when people started singing it. It’s crap.

Now people will say ‘Well RedAction do so much for the atmosphere and at least try’. I’ll tell you what, if they allowed another certain group to stand up for the whole match and not be bothered by the stewards, the atmosphere would be even better, as would the songs. But it seems the club would rather embrace RedAction, a bunch of do-gooder JCLs who are as plastic as the club is turning into, than real fans who have been through the good and bad and will forever remain loyal. One rule for 1; one for another I feel.

I always ask the steward when asked to sit down, ‘but why can they stand up over there’; they always reply, ‘they are allowed’. Everyone around me wants to stand, everyone is happy standing and signing, but it seems the Arsenal officials are trying to kill the atmosphere in certain areas to ensure that other areas seem like they are better than what they are.

The stadium is no longer filled with real fans who bleed Arsenal. It is now filled with JCLs and Johnny Foreigners who don’t know anything about the club and just jump on the next trend. If the club really wanted a good atmosphere, they would drop the ticket prices, allow fans to stand and get rid of the Hitler stewards who want to chuck you out for swearing. But we all know the fans who would then come in won’t be buying a scarf…

Our home support is no worse then any other clubs in the premiership. Anyone who travels away will agree with me. Other than when teams sing a couple of songs (YNWA, bubbles) home fans are quiet. West Ham, bar bubbles, was awful; Boro, despite beating us, were awful. We are no worse then others, so why force a change?

Stop trying to manufacture an atmosphere.

Stop trying to mimic other clubs.

The solution is simple.

Playing abroad + Monday's match news

2008-02-08T17:20:00.000-08:00

By Felipe Hassin

Most of us are aware about FA. brand new idea of adding one more game to Barclays Premier League's calendar, what would make us have 39 games instead of 38. It would be tremendously meaningless, being honest.

First of all because there's no point in playing a respective team for three times during one only season, what would be really boring. Another point is that the Premier League, for example, is an english competition. And where on earth would it suit better than in England?

The season is already long and exhausting. For example, our current situation is not so good. We have players in the Africa Cup of Nations, some that are injured and the available players (that are less than seventeen) are just too tired to play three/four competitions at the same time, and that's why the Carling and the FA Cup are quite boring, because they're not priorities. So, I do think the foreign games would be just like the ones for Carling or FA Cup: games that look more like a play than a real and coveted competition.

If people want to make more money by using Premier League's teams, so I think they should hold some event like The Emirates Cup or something like that, so they could have four or more top teams playing wherever they want, and, most importantly, during the summer without disturbing our already busy calendar.

Anyway, Arsene Wenger himself has backed (or not) the project saying it would be nice to promote the League, English football and, of course, giving the chance to foreign fans to watch some matches. But he also dismissed it if the main reason of it would be only to raise more money. He said:

"If it's just to make £5m or £6m more then it's not worth doing. We have to check that it is really to give something competitive to the rest of the world, not just a chance to make a few more millions because that will go into the wages straight away and it will all be equal again. It's not worth doing it only for money.

"What you can say at the moment is that 10 per cent of our fans have access to our competitive games, and 90 per cent have no access at all to competitive games. Do you want to give them something? I can agree with that idea. But is this the best way to do it? That has to be checked because I am not completely sure."

As brilliant as always. Hats off, once again, to him. Nice to see that we share the same opinion. If they want foreign fans to watch some matches there're other ways to do that without disturbing our calendar.

And, by the way, do the Barclays Premier League really needs more advertising, sponsors and spots over itself? It's already the biggest club league in the world and it's full of rich clubs. All we don't need is more money! I mean, Arsenal has become one of the richests after being sponsored by Emirates and we simply don't spend lots of money buying players so playing for raising money would be meaningless, especially when the league is sponsored by a bank like Barclays!

So, please, don't mess the Premier League up.

Anyway, let's keep with the current season. After such an exhausting sequence of tough matches our players finally got nine days for resting. And as the next match is coming lots of speculations and breaking news are being reported by the british press. And as Ivory Coast was beaten by Egypt a couple of days ago, Wenger is tempted to call Kolo Toure back so he can play against Blackburn Roverns on Monday. The Boss said:

"Ivory Coast play on Saturday afternoon. I have not called him yet but I will try to see if he can take a flight from Accra to London. Otherwise it will be Gilberto, who is back, or Justin Hoyte at centre half."

It would be fantastic to see King Kolo back. We are short as Emmanuel Eboue, Alex Song (both international duty), Johan Djourou (groin), Philippe Senderos (knee) Robin van Persie (thigh), Abou Diaby (calf), Mathieu Flamini (hamstring), Manuel Almunia (sick), Denilson (hamstring) and Tomas Rosicky (hamstring) are all out.

However, Goal.com claims that Almunia, Senderos and Flamini are ok and will play. Let us hope they all feel better until Monday morning so we can keep the pace against Blackburn.

That's enough for today. See you all tomorrow.

Arsenal's Silverware Credentials

2008-02-02T18:39:00.000-08:00

- by Abdulrehman Nazar

The King of Highbury has departed and has left Arsenal in the middle of a crisis. No superstar, just some bright prospects…. as always. This was the general feeling when Thierry Henry left Arsenal to join Spanish giants Barcelona. There was even uncertainty over the future of Wenger. David Dein had left, and many (the London newspapers) really thought Wenger was going after the end of the season. There was debate about what Arsenal would do without Henry, after all rivals regarded us as a one man team. And now that ‘one man’ had left. There was no man left, literally. What remained were a bunch of talented kids only. There was no doubt about their talent, but could they possibly fill in the void left by Henry? Some even went to the extent of counting Arsenal out of silverware contenders even before the season started. This was to be the beginning of a new era in north London. Not for Arsenal, but for their rivals Tottenham Hotspurs. A mouth watering contest for the 4th place between Arsenal and Tottenham was expected. According to many, this was the season that finally Tottenham would finish 4th and Arsenal would not qualify for the Champions League.

I wouldn’t go into the details of how we shut the mouths of all rival fans and indeed experts who thought Arsenal would be down and out of the premier league title as early as December. I would just say 'take a look back at 15th September 2007'. Tottenham 1 Arsenal 0. We are in the second half, Dimitar Berbatov gets away from Alumina, open goal, only Kolo Toure to beat, and the Ivorian comes up with a thunderous tackle. Arsenal goes on and scores 3 of the best goals in the premier league this season. “Dynamite, absolute dynamite”. Really sums up our season so far.

Even now people are betting on Manchester united to win the premier league title. Apart from Arsenal fans, no one really gives Arsenal a realistic chance. 25 games played, 13 left. Arsenal on top of the table after defeating Manchester city 1-3. United drop points at White Hart Lane. Eduardo’s finish today at the city of Manchester stadium showed everyone why Wenger went out and bought him after Henry had left. I am one of those who think even after 25 games that it is too early to predict a winner. But I am just irritated at the fact that we aren’t considered as a serious title threat. Arsenal, to be really honest, have now got only 2 daunting away trips, Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge. The rest of the away games are to bottom half teams. And like Wenger said, Van Persie would be like a new signing when he returns. He is back in training and would most probably return for the game against Blackburn. With Adebayor scoring goals for fun (yeah you heard it ...Adebayor scoring goals!) and the team winning games when it matters most, I see us pushing United all the way. I am not going to predict a winner. It’s too early as I said before. But if I was to bet, I’d bet on Arsenal. Not just because I am a gooner, but because I think we have more than a decent chance of bringing the trophy to Ashburton Grove for the first time.

The F.A Cup is in the 5th round and we face Manchester United at Old Trafford. Once again, Arsenal are the underdogs. Arsenal are supposed to bow out of the F.A cup in the 5th round. But how often are we ‘supposed’ to lose a match and we end up winning it? Hasn’t that been our story this season?

There has also been much talk of Arsenal’s match up against AC Milan. Out of the possible options that we had, AC Milan may well be the worst we could have got. I don’t care how pathetic they have been in the Italian league or whether they have been knocked out of the Coppa Italia. It is their ability to rise for a UCL game that scares me the most. No team keeps a bunch of oldies. This might be a little far fetched but yeah they do play only for the Champions League. Gattuso has picked up an injury, good for us? Not at all. Not a single player would want to be injured. It’s a footballer’s worst nightmare. Being kept on the sidelines hurts, and those who play football will agree with me. Also I would prefer Arsenal facing a full strength Milan squad so that our team is really tested! A mouth watering encounter indeed. But there is no way one can say that Milan will humiliate us. No underdogs in this game I think. Arsenal has as much a chance of winning it as Milan does. I can’t see why we would not put up a fight.

Carling cup is over. The defeat in the semis doesn’t hurt at all. It is the fact that we lost to Spurs that hurts the most. Having said that, let’s not forget the performance of our CC team at Ewood Park and at Bramall lane. I am sure they make us all proud to be a gooner. There are still some 3-4 months left in the season, but to count Arsenal out of any competition would be foolish. It can go all wrong for us in a matter of a few days. We may be knocked out of the F.A cup on the 16th and Milan may add insult to injury. At the same time, it could go all right for us. We may win against United and keep a clean sheet at Ashburton against Milan! I haven’t been more excited than this in years. Certainly the coming few months would tell us a lot about this Arsenal side. It’s a three horse race for the title. And as Richard Clarke writes on arsenal.com “Many expect Wenger’s side to falter when the teams turn for home but Wenger would argue, while the horse is young, the rider has been there before”

IN ARSENE WE TRUST!

All hail the muppets

2008-02-02T11:15:00.000-08:00

John Terry & Drogba: Arsenal have no chance

Red Nose: Premiership is ours, arsenal will drop points.

Press: Arsenal are doomed, Scums will overtake Arsenal

Our season started well and we were supposed to go down once we played the other members of big 4. our season was supposed to collapse after we lost to boro. when pompeii draw happened it was doom doom and more doom. manyoo were supposed to drill their way up up and chel$ki were supposed to come back strong. manyoo press slated us for an 'undeserving draw'

now with 13 games to go what's the sound? arsenal are top. what makes this a terrific achievement is we manage without a BIG name in our squad. (there are decent players but no one who is hailed by the press as next maradona or pele). the costliest player in the XI is hleb who cost us 10m, a complete third of a few manyoo players and a third of a shit ukrainian striker. our x'fer balance was positive and compare it with the obscene $ spent by the american and russian teams.

we now have seen manyoo struggle when ronaldo does not play. on the other hand though adebayor and cesc were out we somehow manage a win. we reached the league cup sf and are in fa and cl.

AND we achieve all this with the free scoring rvp out!

Irrespective of what happens this has been a fantastic season and a memorable one.

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Its been an amazing run so far. No Arsenal fan would have dared to dream of such a season last July.

It has been a great journey , proving everyone wrong -one by one. It took determination , guts and plenty of hard work.

Irrespective of the end results , I am sure every gooner out there will be proud of their team this season.

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Well, i would have LOVED to hear what Mourinho would have said, had he been related to Arsenal in any ways ./....
He's a master of spoken football

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We can add MANY MILLION OF PEOPLE in that Muppet list - those who said that without Henry, Arsenal would fight against relegation.

I feel so sad to say that there were many Arsenal fans in that list too!

Personally, in my school-life, me and my friend's brother were the ONLY Arsenal fans in the school after Henry left!

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yeah i would be disspointed if we end up 2nd or 3rd after this amazing run...it's that we are so close and can win this.......but as said earlier.....no matter what the end result is,arsenal have made us proud. they have proved everyone wrong but most importantly have shut the mouths all those losers who thought spurs would take the 4th place away from us!

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St. Totteringham's day will come much early this season around.

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and even Henry,
after being rejected by Juve.....

Arsenal nursed him to be THE BEST!
and he's STILL THE BEST, even bigger a person than the likes of Eto'o, Adebayor and other strikers

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Exactly what I was thinking about yesterday. The kind of so called tests that we have had to go through this year

At the start of the season, it was No Henry, only kids left.
After a good start that changed to we will fakter soon(no real reason).
Then it changed to, we cant cope with injured players(We had a fair share of injuries throught out the season).
NExt was the matches against Liverpool and MU. We came out of that still on top.
Then we were supposed to fail when we had played an equal number of away matches, that got corrected in early December still on top.

Ofcourse the busy season was always going to be a mountain too big for Arsenal. Add to that some people believed that one loss and it would be all over. we lost the lead for a game in between but guess what , we were top after the holiday season too.

And after the first weekend in Feb we have regained the lead again. I am sure the next thing people are saying is wait till the UCL games restart. Well bring it on! and we need to shut some people up!

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I feel the most important moment of the season so far was the Hleb goal against Fulham that made it 2-1 to us late on. It clearly sent out a message that no more stupid 1-1 draws that cost us big time last season. The way players celebrated especially Fab and Flam showed that they wanted to prove the critics wrong and boy have they done that so far!

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Muppet talk

1: Arsenal are doomed

Arsenal have a great start to the season.

2: Arsenal have had a easy run of games in the beginning

We go to WHU, Liverpool, Reading etc and come off with good results

3: Arsenal cannot win without Fabregas

Arsenal play without Fabregas for close to three weeks. Apart from one loss at Boro , we come off well.

4: December will be Arsenal's downfall

Excellent december!!!

5: Arsenal will fall during ACN

Some one forgot Phil!!!

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Now the new talk is about how good Milan are in UCL and how Ka-Pa-Ro is the best attacking combination to have ever graced the planet earth. I hope we beat AC Milan convincingly and shut these whining Mancs up.

Anyways, the good news is that Gattuso is injured and will surely miss the first Arsenal games (maybe second one too-lets keep our fingers crossed.) With him gone who is going to stop the Arsenal Middies- Ambrosini? Emerson? I don't think so?

And regarding Ka-Pa-Ro, Kaka is a class act,but, Pato is too young and Ronaldo too fat to trouble us when Toure gets back in.

And coming back to BPL, Arsenal will get strengthened when RVP and Toure return. The season is still wide open and it is foolish to make tall claims now. But, looks like we are just destined to win BPL this year. Here is to Arsenal.

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Discuss more here

http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=4553&tid=2581168879120707833&na=3&nst=11&nid=4553-2581168879120707833-2581171563487692539

Wenger: We were close to signing Ronaldo

2008-02-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

This comes as a sensational revelation. The British press are going to love this. This is quoted from the club's official site:

"I knew about him yes," said Wenger at Friday's pre-match press conference. "We were very close. Manchester United had a partnership with Sporting Lisbon when Carlos Queiroz came in - that made the difference.

"One day I will tell you more about that story and you will be surprised. But you will have to ask him how close it was."

I am speechless at the moment.

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Ok. It is very easy to hate Ronaldo for everything he's influenced on the pitch - but even Rooney has put that behind him! And in truth, it's been easier to like Ronaldo this year because he has stowed a lot of the diving kicking and screaming routine. Whether or not it stays that way, we'll see. But I for one am always happy when a player puts away the petulance and gets to football.

All his personality aside, he's the genuine article - he's a game breaker. This is a player who can be anonymous for 89 minutes and then win a game for you. Or he can be on the pitch for 90 minutes all over and destroy the opposition when the rest of the team went to sleep. That is a remarkable talent. It's all I can say. He'll be footballer of the year in England and perhaps Europe if he A) takes Manchester United deep in Europe and B) has a great Euro. No question.

I respect his skill and watch him because he's that good, and as long as he keeps up the good sportsmanship, the only thing I'll have against him is that he plays for Manchester United. Which, if we win, doesn't matter either. :-)

Honestly, I'm not sure I really ever hated him. Dislike. Hate is a word I use for guys like Robbie Savage and the other thugs.

Man City vs Arsenal - EPL

2008-02-02T11:04:00.000-08:00

A tough match, City had caught few eyes by their performances but their form of late had been poor, they won just once in their last four games.

No time better to boost their confidence before playing Manyoo next week by getting something out of Arsenal's game. They will be playing for a point surely, up to Arsenal or Adebayor to break them down . We're relying on him for goals lately, aren't we?

Dunne and Richards on their day can piss off any team but the form Ade is in, i'm sure he will make them sweat. Petrov can cause trouble and anyone else thinks he acts like Ade when someone fails to provide him with a pass when he wants? I remember few matches before he was so annoyed he didn't make the run just because someone didn't give him the ball earlier.

Scums will play Manyoo, they screwed it up in the Fa Cup, should make Manyoo drop two points on the least.

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A nice point about this round is that we're facing Man United's rivals, and they, ours. I'm sure Tottenham wouldn't be happy to help us to be back on top as well as Man City wouldn't like to see Man United comfortably leading the Premier League. Anyway, I'm sure Tottenham and Man City are keen on winning as they need points. Eriksson needs his team to be back on business as they dropped lots of important points and Ramos does need to win as his team is keen on beating Man United after being eliminated by them from the FA Cup.

Tough match, no doubt. I don't think we are going to see lots of goals, specially because we're playing away with a team that plays very well at home. Anyway I've to admit that Man City were impressing me by the beggining of the season, but now it looks as if they lost their pace. They drawn twice playing West Ham and now did it again with Derby County last Premier League round. So I do think we're going to beat them once again this season.

Latest news from City of Manchester Stadium is that Bianchi was sent on loan to Lazio (that's really good as the italian was scoring nice goals) and Johnson is injured and is expected to be back in the middle of February. Elano is ok and might play.

Now I hope our players are resting after beating Keegan twice in four days so we can beat Eriksson and hope to see Man United droping points here in London, and Chelsea in Portsmouth as well.

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They have a tremendous home record this season. United lost there, the Fools came out with a single point. But we are back in form. Though Rosicky, Persie and Djourou are still out in addition to the Africans, Senderos, Dudu and Diaby have risen to the occasion well. We cannot afford to lose points in this stage of the season, especially because the season will get a bit busier when the FA cup and UCL are back.

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SPuds have added some impressive players in thier Back four...Hope they play and stop Ronaldo and Tevez from scoring !! Woodgate , Hutton and Gilberto all have been signed...Nice signings at least on paper Man City started the season on a high but now all their confidence , they once had is lost some where in between...Kasper Schmaichel conceded his first goal against us and where is he now ?? Bianchi never found his feet here at BPL... anything less then 3 points would be un-bearable !!!
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Hehehe... I won't shoot you. So long as you didn't mind me wearing a Spud's jersey on Friday to try and align the fates. The good ol' '98 Gunner's shirt did it today! Woohoo! First loss for Man City at home. The team keeps rolling.

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City started the game trying to stay back and hit us on the counter and after the first 5 mins it looked like it was going to be another slow game unless we scored early. Luckily Ade's is still in great form and got us off to a quick start after a brilliant run and cut back by Sagna. Sagna had another solid game as usual. Amazingly even after that City were still holding back and didnt seem to be going for the equalizer. The second goal was another case of good finishing by Eduardo. Eduardo had a good game, made decent runs even when he was playing on the left. The encouraging thing for me is that his linkup play with the first team has improved and he fits in well now. RVP will have a tough time breaking into the first 11. The second goal brought City out of their shell and I think they actually surprised us with the change in tempo. Clichy made a few mistakes in this game and his was the crucial mistake which prevented the clean sheet.

City was more adventurous after that and it was a better game. We still created openings but failed to make the most of them. Diaby was poor again on the left. He just dosent know when to pass the ball and gave the ball away too many times. He seemed to get into less trouble after he was moved into the centre. Flamini and Fab has decent games and Fab played for sometime in the hole. Fab is always more effective when central and I wonder who among Fab and Hleb would be first choice to play in the hole if we need to play a 4-5-1 against Milan. Gallas had a decent game and Senderos has really picked up his form in the last few matches. Reminds me of his form duriing the CL match where he used to stick his leg in with confidence and make the challenges count.

Three points to us, GD reduced for now and Ade closing in on Ronaldo's goal tally. Now we have to wait and hope things go in our favour this weekend.

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Points dropped by both our rivals. But only 2. Being 2 points up is kinda worrisome... but as long as they keep winning, doesn't matter.

Arsenal 3 v 0 Newcastle + new pics of the Emirates

2008-01-31T07:14:00.000-08:00

Believe or not, but Keegan was defeated twice by three-nil in four days. Some of the londoners newspapers reported that he could be facing problems as Newcastle have not win a single match and, to make matters worse, withouth scoring a single goal in three games.

Anyway, despite of the fact that I'm sorry about Keegan's Newcastle, everything is ok with Arsenal, thanks. Adebayor scored again and we finally could see Fabregas & Flamini playing well again. One more clean-sheet and a superb perfomance. I do hope us to keep the pace and focused, as we are going to have tough matches during the second semester, like Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and Man United at Old Trafford, for example. But thinking about the near future, we're going to have a tough match on Saturday as we travel to Manchester.

About this round: cne nice point about it is that we're facing Man United's rivals, and they, ours. I'm sure Tottenham wouldn't be happy to help us to be back on top as well as Man City wouldn't like to see Man United comfortably leading the Premier League. Anyway, I'm sure Tottenham and Man City are keen on winning as they need points. Eriksson needs his team to be back on business as they dropped lots of important points and Ramos does need to win as his team is keen on beating Man United after being eliminated by them from the FA Cup.

Tough match, no doubt. I don't think we are going to see lots of goals, specially because we're playing away with a team that plays very well at home. Anyway I've to admit that Man City were impressing me by the beggining of the season, but now it looks as if they lost their pace. They drawn twice playing West Ham and now did it again with Derby County last Premier League round. So I do think we're going to beat them once again this season.

Latest news from City of Manchester Stadium is that Bianchi was sent on loan to Lazio (that's really good as the italian was scoring nice goals) and Johnson is injured and is expected to be back in the middle of February. Elano is ok and might play.

Now I hope our players are resting after beating Keegan twice in four days so we can beat Eriksson and hope to see Man United droping points here in London, and Chelsea in Portsmouth as well.

As we are just waiting for the weekend to begin, here are some pics of our very own Emirates Stadium. Hope you all feel admired and like it, as you did like the ones I posted a couple of days ago.

Have a nice time.

Posted by Felipe Hassin from London