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.
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.
Carry on, you mighty Gunners.
Primary and Secondary for Arsenal
2 comments Posted by Arsenal F. C. Community at Saturday, August 02, 2008-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
1 comments Posted by Arsenal F. C. Community at Saturday, July 19, 2008Here 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
- By FelipeThat 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
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 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.