.........Play the Gooner Way

The return of the orange moustachioed villain to the Arsenal pantomime

2009-12-19T10:37:00.006Z

It was with a sigh last night, that I remembered today's kick off is a late one. I hate late kick offs. Those extra two and a half hours are the generally the worst two and a half hours of my life. I'm not even sure why it's a 5.30 kick off today. The only other match in London today is all the way at Fulham, so it's not like it's been delayed to avoid having two busy events at the same part of town. Perhaps, after all Wenger's complaining about fixture congestion, the FA took pity on him, and moved the match back two and a half hours to give Arsenal some vital power nap time.
The two and a half hour tedium is intensified today due to it being against the lying moustachioed (although he's not anymore, but looks like he still should be) perma-tanned tw*t and his bunch of little Tigers. You remember the lying moustachioed (although he's not anymore, but looks like he still should be) perma-tanned tw*t? The one who's story had more holes in it than a block of swiss cheese. And I don't mean those swiss cheeses which are mainly cheese, with only a few holes, I mean those swiss cheeses where it is mainly air with only a bit of cheese. One of those cheeses you could inflate with a bicycle pump. In my eyes, after his, and his assistant's, ridiculous antics, Hull were turned from a plucky newly promoted side punching above their weight (the way I feel about Burnley now) to a bunch of dicks who I wanted to get relegated and die.

So it truly is a shame that Cesc can't play today and run the game. But look on the bright side, if we do win, Cesc has the opportunity to come on the pitch afterwards to celebrate again, and that would really piss Brown off. Also, I want to keep a close eye on Brown. I want to see if he trots away down the tunnel, immediately after the final whistle, waving his hands in the air shouting "Even if I run away, it still counts as Wenger not shaking hands with me!" Just so this time, if he does say Wenger didn't shake his hand, he technically won't be lying.

On to the team news, and as mentioned above, Cesc is unavailable. Don't worry though, Denilson is back, and that could mean us fielding the midfield three of Denilson, Diaby and Song. Otherwise known as the most boring midfield three of all time, ever. Now don't get me wrong, I am a massive fan of Song, and I appreciate Denilson, but when you see those three names together on the team sheet it doesn't exactly invite you to think "wow......creative!". Hopefully Wenger will address this by playing Ramsey or Nasri in the middle. However, the prospect of playing his two love childs with Song in the middle may be overpowering, and for good measure he'll probably chuck Eboue into the midfield somewhere. Having said that, I wouldn't be upset at all if Eboue stood in at right back today instead of Sagna.

Tonight it may not be a bad idea if Wenger rotated slightly, although not completely. Giving Fabianski a chance over the rapidly deteriorating Spaniard would be nice and not entirely undeserved. Allowing Ramsey to play in the middle (perhaps even alongside Nasri, as this is a home game) would be nice, and maybe Vela and Eduardo together up front. Last time those two played together up front was against Burnley in the FA cup, and they ran wild. Merida must be cursing Fabian Delph that he is suspended, for this may have been a match where he featured briefly, what with all the injuries to the first team. For those of you who don't know what happened with Fabian Delph, allow me to explain. In a recent reserve match against Aston Villa, in an off-the-ball incident, cameras clearly showed Fabian Delph grabbing Merida round the face and taking a swing at him. Eventually after a five minute discussion with the nearest linesman, the referee proceeded to ludicrously send the young Spaniard off whilst only booking the angry little Villa midfielder. Anyway I digress, this is 3rd of Merida's three match suspension, so he won't be on the bench, chances are however that Wilshere will.

So this is the team that I want to play today:

Fabianski

Eboue Gallas Vermaelen Silvestre(only due to no other options)

Song

Ramsey Nasri

Arshavin Eduardo Vela

However, I am fully aware that this is not the team that will play. I am merely indulging in fantasies. Regarding a score prediction....God knows. Who knows what Arsenal team will turn up? If Brown continues his recent trend of having Geovanni on the bench in away matches, it should be immeasurably easier. If not, we should still win, although I can see our defence leaking a goal. I'll get behind the Arse and say a 3-0 victory today.

Right, I think that'll be all for today.
See you after the match Gooners.

Burnley's defending from the front frightened Arsenal into general dreadfulness.

2009-12-16T21:35:00.003Z

A quite embarrassing performance tonight saw Arsenal draw 1-1 with Burnley. As stated in the match preview, Turfmoor is a difficult place to come, so the result in itself wasn't embarrassing. It was the manner in which we played. Apart from a period between the 5th minute and the 20th, we could not keep possession at all. Part of that would be down to Burnley's excellent defensive play all over the pitch, but part is also down to Arsenal's dreadfulness on the few occassions we did have time on the ball. There was no penetration or composure, and the defending was quite frankly schoolboy. And that's being kind. Cesc took his goal very well, and perhaps should have had another (or at least got it on target). Having him come off just before half time was a massive blow, as he was our only player who showed class, composure and intelligence. We also madly missed Robin van Persie. As well as envious intelligence and goal scoring ability, van Persie is also a physical presence, and Arshavin (and Eduardo when we came on) could not compete with Burnley's centre backs.

On to the player ratings:
Almunia - 4. Unbelievably dreadful. His insane positioning almost led to a Vermaelen own goal in the opening stages before an admittedly good recovery by the Spaniard stopped this. The disallowed Burnley goal (which was a very iffy decision) should never have been allowed to present itself in the first place as Almunia inexplicably let the ball dribble through his fingers. His kicking was also way off tonight, slicing every ball he could into touch about 20 yards outside his goal area.
Sagna - 5. Rubbish. Found it difficult to go forward and was troubled all night by Chris Eagles (really Sagna?!). On this evidence Tyrone Mears is a better right back than he is.
Vermaelen - 5. Awful start, almost scoring an own goal. He later gave away a penalty with a dreadful challenge. He grew into the game as it went on, and this stopped him getting a lower rating.
Gallas - 5.5. Played slightly better than his centre back partner, but still looked panicked and liable to mistakes.
Silvestre - 5.5. Thankfully for us, not as much went down Burnley's right as it did their left. So Silvestre didn't have the chance to cost us the game. Still managed to be a liability, and showed he has the pace of a Slug being held down by heavy shopping.
Song - 7. Had the most difficult job of the team tonight, trying to compete with Burnley's physical midfield, and he did a goodish job. Him and Bikey were at it all night, eventually coming out about equal. In the second half Song took it upon himself to become the playmaker, as Cesc's absence was becoming increasingly notable, which he did fairly well.
Diaby - 5. Perhaps our worst player in the first half. Responsible for 80% of the times that we couldn't keep possession. As the game went on he became slightly better, and showed he has a physical side as long as he is in possession of the ball.
Fabregas - 7.5. Our best player when he was on. Took his goal very well. Almost managed to manifacture a second with a delightful piece of skill, and looked dangerous when probing forward. Showed some fantastic pieces of skill. Fingers crossed his injury isn't too bad.
Nasri - 6. Found it very hard to compete with the physical nature of Burnley. He showed some very nice touches and glimpses of vision though.
Walcott - 4. Absolutely disastrous. He is obviously still not quite up to pace with the game, but even so, he should have been so much better than he was. In the first half he was isolated on the right, and did nothing with the ball on the few occassions it did come to him. In the second half, he saw a lot of the more coming towards him, and then past him as it (almost with fail) bounced away from him following an abysmal touch. When he did eventually find himself in a dangerous position, he proceeded to blast the ball both high and wide, when a low cross, shot or pass would have been easier.
Arshavin - 6. He was ok. After Cesc, he was our most dangerous player. Again he made good runs, but too often his touch would let him down. Also found it difficult against Burnley's physical centre backs.
Subs:
Ramsey - 6. Came on to be the natural replacement for Cesc, but showed he still has a tiny bit more to learn and develop. Couldn't influence the game nearly as well as the captain. He battled very well though, and showed an excellent physical determination.
Eduardo - 5.5. Eddie came on for Theo and really didn't have much to do. Was put through on a couple of occassions by Song but didn't look sharp enough. His confidence really has taken a knock this season.

Well there we have it. We knew this would be a difficult game, but still it should be one of those that we win. We're going to have to play so much better against Aston Villa on the 27th. Credit must go to Burnley though for their indefatigable defending all over the pitch. However next time, when we're not being closed down, we have to use the ball better.

'Til next time Gooners.

Who knew that the media jumps on bandwagons? The arrival of the Arse at Turfmoor.

2009-12-16T13:19:00.002Z

By now I am well aware that those of you who have stumbled across this blog in the past have now given up on it, but Play the Gooner Way is back after a lengthy absence. Allow me to explain the circumstances. I was very busy. I realise that is a poor excuse, so I apologise.

Recently there have been numerous instances of the press finding a particular scenario and then bumping it up to garner higher viewings, readings, comments etc. This form of lowest common denominator publishings has seen intense hyperbole of: the Eduardo 'dive', the Henry handball, for some reason the Wenger rant at half time at Anfield, and many more. Today, the media are taking a swipe at poor old Mick McCarthy. It is well known by now that McCarthy made 10 changes to his side that went to Old Trafford last night. On Sunday, it will be the third time in 8 days that Wolves will play a match. McCarthy obviously knew his best team didn't have a cat's chance in hell of winning at Old Trafford, and it was best to save his team for Sunday when they play host to Burnley. A match where they are far more likely to get a result. As it was, the second choice Wolves team only lost 3-0 against the Mancs, which ain't half bad.

Now, I can fully understand the travelling supporters being thoroughly pissed off by splashing out on a trip to Manchester, travelling there, and then not seeing the first team. But to 'brand' (along with other painful mental images such as 'label') McCarthy disrepectful is shortsighted in the extreme. To make matters worse for the Wolves boss, the media have built it up so much that now the Premier League has formally written (oooh I bet McCarthy's scared) to Wolves to ask them to explain their team selection against Old Trafford. Presumably, McCarthy will explain what is written above, the Premier League fat cats will realise they are stupid and the whole thing will blow over. I don't know why there is all this speculation anyway. Ferguson was happy with the team Wolves put out yesterday, and what he says goes.

Yes I realise this is an Arsenal blog.

Arsenal travel to Turfmoor tonight, the home of Burnley. For those of you who think it will be a walkover, think again. For those who think 'well we won at Anfield, we will trounce Burnley', you lot can also think again. Make no mistake, at the moment Turfmoor is a more difficult place to win than Anfield. Burnley have only lost once at home, and have beaten ManUre there. Even so, it must not be forgotten that we are Arsenal, and these are the kind of games that we should be winning. In injury knews, Denilson and Traore are out. Eboue is back. Thus my predited line up is:

Almunia

Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Silvestre

Song

Diaby Fabregas(c)

Nasri Arshavin Eduardo

I reckon Wenger will decide on Arshavin in the middle of the front three because of all the talk about how good he was against Stoke and Liverpool there. Am I the only one who wasn't particularly impressed by him? Yes he makes good runs, yes he took his goals well against Stoke and Liverpool, and for his size he competes fairly well physically. But against Stoke, his touch was absolutely dreadful. The worst on the park. It let him down on every instance except his goal. Liverpool wasn't much different, although his increased work rate in the second half was commendable.
I would much prefer for Eduardo to play in the middle of the front three, and Arshavin to play alongside him where he seems to have better control but, as I said, I have a feeling this isn't going to happen. Speaking of preferences, I would infact prefer to see Nasri play alongside Cesc as he did against Stoke where he was magnificent (and in my opinion the best player on the pitch) with Walcott, Vela or even little Jack being the final player of the triumverate upfront. Failing that, Ramsey in midfield, with Nasri part of the front three. Whatever means Diaby doesn't start. Anyway, I will say it will be an Arsenal victory...3-1.

Finally, Wenger has said he will 'sort out Silvestre's contact', as it expires at the end of the season. The dot com say it in such a way as to suggest le Boss was just playing with us all along when he didn't think about renewing Silvestre's contract till now. In a kind of 'Ahh got you there guys. It's ok don't worry guys, it's ok, I'll sort his contract out. I had you worried there though didn't I? You thought I was just gonna let him go at the end of the season. Haha good times.' God I want Silvestre to go at the end of the season.

'Til tomorrow Gooners.

Arsenal 6 - 2 Blackburn Rovers

2009-10-05T08:35:00.004+01:00

I have long since resigned myself that this is going to be a rather futile post simply because I have run out of superlatives. Nevertheless I'll have a go.

I don't think I have ever seen a team attack so well. I don't think I've ever seen a keeper have such a good game yet still concede six. I'm not entirely sure I've ever seen Fabregas play so well. And I've never seen a team win six nil where each goal would be a serious candidate for Match of the Day's goal of the month. All of this in front of Thierry Henry who must be fairly upset that he now plays for a team who's football, quite frankly, pales in comparison.

Through all of the genial attacking play though, we must not forget the defensive side of the game. Although individually each of the back four had a good game, together they weren't so reassuring. The understanding establised between Vermaelen and Gallas seemed to have diminished ever so slightly, hopefully not permanently. One underlying moment was just after David Dunn had been felled in the box (I still say no penalty, but I would) the ball was sitting in between Vermaelen, Gallas and two other Arsenal players none of whom could decide who to take the ball. Eventually Dunn almost had time to get up and retake possession of the ball before Diaby managed to bundle clear with it. Worrying moments indeed, however this kind of school boy defending happened only once. Nevertheless, Blackburn's first scrappy goal should have been dealt with, if not by a defence that was not struggling and back pedalling, at least by a non-stranded Vito Mannone. As it was the Arsenal line were struggling and back pedalling, and Mannone was stranded. It was almost as if the back line had underestimated how far Robinson could kick it, and Mannone had overestimated.

Enough of that, it's almost taking away the glory of a sensational pure footballing victory. Something which Sam Allardyce seems intent on doing. It was hardly a turning point you fat toad. The way which Arsenal came back from the first two goals, would have happened again should Blackburn have got a penalty, and scored from it.

Each goal was sensational. Whether it was an individual effort from Vermaelen, Fabregas or Bendtner or the goals occuring from sumptuous approach play a la van Persie, Arshavin or Walcott, each goal was from out the very top drawer. And each goal deserved to be watched again and again today by myself. Which they will.

Onto the player ratings.
Mannone - 6.5. For the first goal I think he either should have come for the ball or stayed on his line. In the end, he did neither, and was stranded. Something I remember happening to him against Stoke reserves last year. However he made up for it somewhat with good stops from Olsson and Dunn.
Sagna - 6.5. I've said before that at home against easy opposition (yes Allardyce your team are shit), Eboue should start instead of Sagna at right back. And I maintain that. Although Sagna didn't really do anything wrong, Eboue would have offered a lot more in this match. Also, I've noticed Sagna side-foots a lot of crosses instead of whipping them in. Something for the training ground Arsene? Please?
Clichy - 7. Clichy is excellent at closing down high up the field, but recently has been known to allow a lot of space in behind him. He had a fairly good game today and joined in with the attacking more than the other wing back, but I think it's time Gibbs was given a chance, especially at home against a rubbish team. At the moment, he's just sitting on the bench, neither playing for the firsts not the reserves.
Gallas - 7. Gallas was ok. Can't really think of much else.
Vermaelen - 8. Well, as an allround football player, I honestly think Vermaelen is the best defender in the league. He may not be the best defensively (although he's close) but as a complete football player he's incredible. His goal was stunning, although at the back he was slightly more patchy than we're used to seeing from our consistent Belgian. That's right, I've labelled him consistent already.
Song - 8. He had a tough job, which must have required a lot of will power. Whilst everyone else was attacking (even the players who seemingly play behind him) he had to stay in the defensive midfield position all day. Which he did.
Diaby - 6.5. He didn't do anything wrong. Ramsey would have offered more in this match though. Still, he didn't do anything wrong.
Fabregas - 10. Man of the match. 4 assists, one goal. Forced three good saves from Robinson, and should have had a couple more assists, if only for better finishing (that's right, 6 is not good enough!). An absolutely mind-boggling performance.
Rosicky - 8.5. We've missed him. More importantly, Fabregas has missed him. They both play so well together. It was also evident that Rosicky is getting more and more up to speed with the game with every match. Offered a simply stunning cross with the outside of the boot for Fabregas.
Arshavin - 8.5. He really has now fused with all the other Arsenal players. Offers a different type of creativity than Fabregas, and with those different types, any defence in the world will struggle to cope. Didn't track back as much as he did against Olympiakos however, which was a shame.
van Persie - 9. A very underrated and subtle performance from boy wonder. He led the line exceptionally well, especially considering the physical and illegal play of the Blackburn defence. His goal was excellent, and his first touch and vision throughout the match were also exquisite.
Subs:
Walcott. He immediately added yet another dimension to Arsenal's attacking play, which Blackburn already couldn't cope with. His goal was born out of a masterful team effort.
Bendtner. Nik B came on and looked hungry for a goal straight away. He played somewhere in the front 3, although he was drifting to very good effect. His goal was an absolutely incredible strike, reminiscent of Pires against Liverpool all those years ago.
Ramsey. Looked very neat and tidy when he came on, and sent a few balls over the top that worried the Blackburn back line. Also managed to pick up the assist for Bendtner's goal.

So all in all, a splendid game. The best game I've seen in a very long time. Some praise must go to Blackburn for getting Arsenal going, although not much. Against a better team, Arsenal may not be able to score six (don't tell Everton that though), so we must work on the defending.

Next game isn't until the 17th. Yes that's right, we have to grin and bear another England match. Oh well, we have a win against Birmingham at the Grove to look forward to.
'Til next time Gooners.

Wow

2009-10-04T15:29:00.003+01:00

Well that was the best attacking display I think I've ever seen from team in any football match ever. Scored 6, if wasn't for an impressive Robinson, it could easily have been 12. I need to compose myself somewhat, before writing a match report later.
'Til then Gooners.

Arsenal 2 - 0 West Brom

2009-09-23T09:45:00.003+01:00

A really spirited performance by the kids saw them deservedly triumph against West Brom last night. The game may not have had the same air of quality about it that a first team match does, but they showed grit and determination to overcome a physical West Brom, who more often than not had 10 men behind the ball at all times.

The starting line up was:

Szczesny

Gilbert Senderos Silvestre(c) Gibbs

Coquelin

Ramsey

Wilshere

Sunu Watt Traore

The referee (Lee Mason) tried his very best to ruin a good game of football, but in the end just embarrassed himself. Apart from the sending off of Jerome Thomas, there was nothing else he managed to get right. On several occasions, blatant fouls by West Brom players would end up as a free kick to the away side, and the he also managed not to give Arsenal a stone wall penalty.

No matter, in the end the Ref was nothing more than an annoying little mosquito on a beautiful summer's day. The kids went about their job patiently without trying to force an opening. This took slightly longer than usual, due to not having the same quality of movement as the firsts, but the introduction of Carlos Vela soon changed that. His introduction meant a game that was in danger of going slightly stale was freshened up. His movement and acceleration was too much for a tiring West Brom defence and, in the end, he became the difference.

So on to the player ratings:
Szczesny - 6. Showed signs of being a top shot stopper, however came flapping for corners and without fail missed the ball everytime.
Gilbert - 7. Fairly impressive by the now 22 year old. He tentatively probed forwards, without fully committing himself to attacks, but did very well defensively.
Gibbs - 7. See report for Gilbert.
Senderos - 8. Brilliant performance by Big Phil. I would still be slightly wary against better class opposition because, on the turn, he is still very slow. But his positioning was excellent, good composure on the ball, and good distribution as well.
Silvestre - 7.5. Similar to Big Phil, I would be wary about Silvestre in matches against better teams. However Silvestre had a very good performance today. One slide interception to prevent a through ball to Luke Moore comes straight to mind.
Coquelin - 7.5. The young defensive midfielder showed positioning whch belied his tender age. His passing would occasionally, and only very occasionally be sloppy, but I'm knit-picking there. Deservedly received a massive standing ovation for an impressive first start for the club.
Ramsey - 8.5 My man of the match. It was very difficult to slice open to the West Brom defence, but out of anyone Ramsey looked like the one to do it. But more than that, it was a composed game which saw Ramsey a quite obvious step above the rest in terms of quality. His work rate was also excellent, especially whilst defending, he never panicked, and always seemed to play the right ball.
Wilshere - 7. Ok, but not great by little Jack. He played most of the match in the centre, where he found it very difficult to compete. He underhit a fair few passes, but the team did look like it had more energy whenever he was on the ball.
Sunu - 7. He looked like he easily had the measure of the West Brom left back, but unfortunately had a quiet evening, which meant we never saw that happen. Gilles is by a trade a more out an out striker than wide man, so he wasn't playing in his best position.
Traore - 7.5. A lot more seemed to come down the left than the right. Traore looked dangerous with his pace and experience against this calibre os opposition, however disappointingly never really managed to get a cross in.
Watt - 7.5. Sanchez Watt had a difficult game today. He was in the centre of the front three which meant balls were often played to his feet, and he would have to compete physically with Jonas Olsson. However he kept trying, and kept working hard, and eventually his goal came. In that respect, a good attitude for a striker to have.
Subs:
Vela - 8. Was the difference. After he came on the team had more of a spring in their step. Took his goal well, he was obivously under huge amounts of pressure as he dawdled on the goal line in front of a completely open goal, stopping for a few seconds, and then lofting the ball into the roof of the net.
Randall - 7.5. Surprised me with a composed and skilfull game when he came on. West Brom were in fairness struggling at that time because of being down to 10 men for so long, so there were big gaps appearing. Nevertheless, Randall looked like the Randall with confidence that we saw a few years ago. A stunning chip against the cross bar from 25 odd yards out, which had it have been Rooney would have had commentators and sports journalists all over England purring and running to their typewriters to write a piece on the art of a Rooney chip, led to Vela's goal.
Barazite. It was nice to see Nacer play. He wasn't on long enough for me to give him a rating. But he looked intelligent on the ball, and often would come in field to help dictate play. In that respect, coupled with his hair, he is very reminiscent of Bobby Pires.

So there we are. West Brom tried to intimidate the kids by leaving trailing legs everywhere, but it didn't work. The kids showed the kind of grit the first team could do with from time to time. There's some rubbish this morning about Di Matteo blaming Wilshere for Thomas being sent off. Di Matteo admits Thomas came clattering into Wilshere late (also with a high and vicious looking elbow), but then is surprised that Wilshere didn't accept Thomas' hand. Aparrently, this is what Thomas reacted to (if it was only this that caused a slap, I don't think I would want to hang around with Jerome Thomas). Whatever the case, it was a blatant red card, and it's not exactly like Wilshere asked Thomas to slap him, so I really can't see how Wilshere was responsible. By not reacting to being fouled, he's to blame for getting the person who fouled him in the first place to get sent off for reacting to him. Work that one out. It is probably more likely little Jack said a few words of disgruntlement that most players say when they've just been fouled, and for some reason Thomas overreacted to that.

Anyway, a great performance by the kids. As of today, I shall be away again, so there will be no articles for the next week and a bit.
'Til later Gooners.

Arsenal - West Bromwich Albion, Carling Cup Preview

2009-09-21T13:07:00.004+01:00

Ok so tomorrow is our first, and hopefully not last, chance to see the kids take the carling cup by storm. West Brom are perhaps slightly better opposition than Sheffield Utd were at this stage last season, but not nearly as good as Wigan, who we easily defeated 3-0 in the next round.

Of course, Wenger has started a tradition that a few managers have followed, in playing a mixture between firsts, reserves, and youth players in the carling cup. Regardless of the fact that no established first teamers will be playing, or even in the squad, we will still be a bit weaker than we wanted to be. Fran Merida and Gavin Hoyte have been called up to the infinitely pointless Euro U20s tournament. Henri Lansbury is on loan at Watford, Jay Emmanuel Thomas at Blackpool and Jay Simpson at QPR.

My predicted starting XI therefore is as follows:

Szczesny

Gilbert Senderos Silvestre Gibbs

Coquelin

Randall Ramsey

Wilshere Watt Barazite

or if it's 4-4-2:

Szczesny

Gilbert Senderos Silvestre Gibbs

Wilshere Randall Ramsey Traore

Watt Barazite

It is difficult to see where Traore will fit in if Wenger will play the talented duo of Wilshere and Barazite as well as one of his new favourites Sanchez Watt. On the bench there will be a few of Kyle Bartley, Francis Coquelin/Armand Traore, Oguzhan Ozyakup, Luke Freeman, Ignasi Miquel, Emmanuel Frimpong, Rhys Murphy, Connor Henderson, perhaps even extreme youngsters Benik Afobe and Chuks Aneke...who knows.

Whatever the teams, it'll be an interesting watch, apart from whenever the ball goes near the left side of the central defence, or to Randall. I hope Silvestre and Randall both play well of course, but past performances indicate they probably won't.

Right that's all for now. I'll be back on Wednesday me thinks.
'Til then Gooners.

Arsenal 4 - 0 Wigan Athletic

2009-09-20T11:50:00.002+01:00

Wenger has become all too predictable in his apparent want for unpredictability when it comes to choosing his starting XI every match. Consider the fact of Abou Diaby's inclusion. The man has played abysmally, and I mean abysmally, in every match this season bar the home game against Portsmouth. What happens when a player plays rubbish for several games in a row? Wenger selects him for the next game. And the next game. And the game after that. Then we come to a player who had a shocker midweek in his natural position. What does Wenger do? He plays Eboue in the next game too, except this time out of position. What I'm saying is, most managers would look to players on the bench who can play in similar positions but offer something different. Wenger is different that way, but only because he has his favourites.

When I looked at the starting line-up I was yet again disappointed. I don't know why I get so excited 45 minutes before each kick-off, because I know I'm only building myself up for the inevitable disappointment when I see Diaby's name instead of Ramsey, Wilshere, Merida (although Merida was unavailable yesterday) or even the exceptionally promising Barazite. With the exception of Ramsey, it'll be difficult for these kids to integrate themselves, not only because the midfielders ahead of them are more established, and used to playing at the physical level of the Premier league, but also because of the sheer numbers of midfielders who can play in the central position that Arsenal have. And it is in this way that it is clear Wenger has his favourites, because week in, week out the same players play, despite the previous 'n' matches where they've played crap.

The starting line-up was as follows:

Mannone

Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Clichy

Song

Fabregas(c) Diaby

Eboue v.Persie Eduardo

A very established team, yet not the most talented AW could have put out. Rosicky has only just returned from a decade on the treatment table, so understandbly he needs time, but there were so many talented youngsters on the bench. The case could be argued that Wenger was resting them for Tuesday's match in the Carling Cup, but be that as it may, the premier league is the priority. Is Wenger more concerned about the development of players who may or may not make the grade at Arsenal than immediate team success? That question swam through my head prior to kick-off but in the end it had some degree of futility about it as Arsenal strolled to a comfortable 4-0 win.

Arsenal were good, but Wigan were worse. Giving the ball away, allowing the Arsenal players huge amounts of space, and mindlessly crunching into tackles just outside the box. The stats at the end were mind bloggling. 18 fouls commited by Wigan to Arsenal's meagre 6. The possession stats were also heavily leaning towards Arsenal, yet they needed several goes to eventually break the deadlock. No absolute clear cut opportunites, but perhaps some that should have been taken better. No matter, after a while the best defender in the Premier league rose like a salmon and powered a ferocious header past Kirkland. The header made all the more impressive by the fact he was challenged by two burly Wigan players. Towards the end of the half RvP should perhaps have done better from a wonderful scooped Cesc ball.

The second half saw more of the same. Eventually we got our second. Vermaelen curling an absolute beauty into the top corner, after trotting out of defence and swapping passes with Eboue. Thereafter Wigan, slightly desperate to not let the game end there, pushed forward. This began to leave them exposed and our third soon arrived. Eduardo cleverly directing his shot towards the inside of Eboue's right leg so it would ricochet into the far corner beyond the reach of Kirkland. All this was done purposefully you understand. Wigan then gave up, apart from a brief spell which saw them have a goal correctly ruled out for offside. Song took advantage of the diminishing will power of the Wigan players buy going on the meandering run that allowed him to score in the reverse fixture last year. Unfortunately for him, his classy run ended when his low shot clipped the outside of the post. After Cesc's delicate finish from a good low Bendtner cross, there was just time for Rosicky to sting the hands of Kirkland before the full time whistle blew.

A good comfortable win, that could and perhaps should have been more. Nevertheless, after the previous 3 tense and hypertension causing games, a match where we were allowed to dictate and strut our stuff (without going into full swing) was just what we needed. Here are my player ratings:

Mannone - 6. Once again, he came racing for a ball half way inside our half that ordinarily Gallas would have easily dealt with. This put us under a spot of bother for a while before a combination of Gallas, Song and Cesc managed to clear. He made one good reaction save, that looks less impressive everytime you see it, and one save at the feet of Rodallega. Other than, a quiet afternoon for the young Italian. Which after midweek, is exactly what he needed.
Sagna - 6. Good without being excellent. Made some probing runs that worried the left side of Wigan, but didn't see too much of the ball offensively. Didn't get a chance to show off the defensive and best side of his game today.
Clichy - 7. Miles better than Wednesday. Probing runs, but also with backtracking, something that was lacking against Standard. Found Eduardo very well for Eboue's goal.
Gallas - 8. Again much better than midweek. Didn't have much to do, but what he did, he did very well.
Vermaelen - 9. Not content to show he doesn't have a weekness defensively, he also wants to show he can play anywhere on the park. Popped up with two maginificent goals at one end, and did the little he had to do very well at the other.
Song - 8. Broke up everything. Deserved a goal.
Fabregas - 7. Looked a little slap-dash at times, but these were interspersed with the usual passes that noone else could do. Took his goal nicely.
Diaby - 6. Not a bad game by Diaby, but that's because he wasn't influencing the game. Drifted in and out. He drives at defenses very well but the problem is that's all he does. It works when there's not a better option, but there so often is. Would have preferred to see someone more fresh though.
Eboue - 9. It doesn't matter that it was this fixture last year that he got booed off, because he has long since made up for that in his work ethic, and it's not like he's got some allergic reaction to playing Wigan. Nevertheless, the antics of last year did help to highlight his performance, which was full of powerful running and great tracking back. Man of the Match for sentimental reasons.
Eduardo - 7. Looks a bit shaken up. There's no doubting his outrageous kill and enviable talent, but he needs a bit of belief back. Played out on the left, when he deserves to be playing down the middle.
van Persie - 7. Not quite sharp. But to be honest, I still don't think he's reached his potential. Should have been subbed off in the second half, as he was recovering from a knock, and we don't want that to come back around. Still a good performance by the Boy Wonder who is becoming absolutely essential to Arsenal.

Subs:
Ramsey - Got half an hour and presumably will get a full 90 on Tuesday. Always very impressive.
Rosicky - I love his relationship with Cesc. Whenever Rosicky plays you can see Cesc's ears perk up. A lovely bit of interplay between the two little maestros led to a tricky defensive situation change almost immediately to a potential goal scoring opportunity which Sagna duly wasted with an awful cross.
Bendtner - Immediately became a handful for the already tiring Wigan defence. Got an assist with a nice low hard cross for Cesc to divert in.

Well, that result should have got a lot more smiles on the fans' faces, but more importantly on the players' faces. They do play so much better when they're enjoying it. This result would have done wonders despite the fact that in reality they were gifted it by Wigan's poor play.

Next match is on Tuesday. I'll be at the Emirates enjoying the kids beat fairly good class opposition. I've got a feeling it'll be a very young team this time round with the likes of Coquelin and Watt added to the more established yet very young Ramsey, Wilshere and (sigh) Randall. No Merida though, which I'm still very pissed off about.
Oh well, 'til Tuesday Gooners.

Arsenal - Wigan Athletic Match Preview

2009-09-19T10:26:00.006+01:00

Hopefully today will see a return to winning ways. Yes I know we won on Wednesday, but that doesn't count. I mean a nice win that was earned out of playing well, outplaying the opposition, and not letting in stupid goals. Arguably we have been the better team in every game this season, however the last 3 have seen us concede sloppily where quite clearly we should have dealt better. One excuse, albeit an exceptionally weak on, could be to say that we were away in those 3 matches. This excuse will not stand today. We are at home for the first time since the 26th of last month. The fact we are at home will hopefully mean Wenger will put out a slightly offensively minded and exciting first eleven.

There are still copious injuries. Walcott, Arshavin and Vela are 'days away', but will all miss out today. I find it slightly worrying that Wenger has been saying Walcott is 'days away' since the Man Utd match, but I hope that is more down to our Boss' notoriously bad judgement on sideline length rather than the injury itself being one of those nasty recurring ones. Denilson continues to be out, although again this is said to be for only a brief stint. Apparently Almunia is recovering from his illness but isn't match fit(?!) so he won't feature either, but should be back soon. Other than these, Fabianski, Djourou and Nasri are the ones we've got used to seeing on the sideline, and should expect to stay there for some while longer. Fran Merida is also unavailable, and annoyingly will be unavailable for the Carling Cup match on tuesday, because he's off to meet up with the Spain squad for the Euro Under 20s tournament. The most pointless international tournament in football, including the Confederations Cup. There are both an U19s and an U21s tournament (incidently both of which are more prestigious) so why on earth should there be an U20s? Merida's absence made even more ridiculous by the fact that only a few months ago, he competed in the Euro U19s tournament. Give the poor lad a break. With all these 'rising star' tournaments, he'll struggle to ever get into his squad's first team.

I've decided today, instead of predicting what the starting XI will be, I will choose what I want it to be. And, what I think will work best. As stated earlier, the fact we're at home, coupled with the fact that we've been the better team in all our away matches, I've gone for an attacking side that'll hopefully rip Wigan to shreds.

Mannone

Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Gibbs

Song

Fabregas (c) Rosicky

v.Persie Bendtner Eduardo

Now the first thing that may stand out to you is the inclusion of Gibbs rather than Clichy. I felt that Clichy played so utterly dreadfully on Wednesday (the worst I think I've ever seen him play) and to be honest hasn't been that great since I don't know when, the inclusion of Gibbs should give him a right kick up his posterior. And what better game to include young Gibbsy, than a home game against a team who are clearly weaker than we are.

Secondly, you'll notice there's no Diaby. Yes, I can hear you cheering, but remember this is only my fantasy XI from who we've got available, not who I think will actually play. Regrettably I think Diaby will play. Maybe either instead of the potentially not match fit Rosicky, or maybe the recovering van Persie. Wenger will see Diaby's assist on Wednesday and applaud him for it, but conveniently miss everything else he did in that match, and thus reward him with a start against Wigan.

Lastly, I have van Persie and Bendtner on the same team, but this time Nik B playing in the centre. Bendtner's massive frame will do well against the likes of Bramble, and this way we should see a return to what seemed to be the weekly delight of RvP cutting in off the right and whipping in a ferocious curling left footed effort into the far corner. However, should RvP start (and there's no knowing, as he has only just been passed fit), Nik B will surely play on the right of the front 3.

Well that's all. Let's hope Wenger's comment of 'the Liege match will underline our season' was only for the press, and in reality he gave the players a right old bollocking after the match. A nice fired up team, wanting to score loads, but keeping a clean sheet will be much appreciated. I think Gooners deserve it after what we've been put through these last 3 weeks.

All that's left to say is check out the Guardian football page where they've predicted Arsenal's starting XI (they've gone for a 4-4-2), and also what now seems like the weekly link to Dara O'Briain's column.

Right, here's to a 4-0 win Gooners.

Standard Liege 2 - 3 Arsenal

2009-09-16T21:34:00.004+01:00

Only match ratings today.

Mannone - 5. Not much to do, even with the two goals. Could perhaps have been positioned better for their first goal. There is something very wrong with our goalkeeping training though, teaching our keepers to rush out for balls our defence should easily cope with. Mannone did it today, Almunia has recently started doing it, we all know Fabianski does it. Even Szcezsny did it for the reserves on Monday.
Eboue - 4. Dreadful.
Clichy - 3. Even more dreadful.
Gallas - 4. Dreadful.
Vermaelen - 7. Thank god for Vermaelen. I don't know how many goals we would have conceded without him.
Song - 6. Ok
Diaby - 3. Dreadful. Worst player on the pitch despite bagging an assist. Should have been replaced by Wilshere at half time instead of being rewarded for an awful performance by being played the full 90 minutes.
Rosicky - 7. Pretty good. Not quite up to scratch yet in terms of the physical aspect of the game, but that will come.
Fabregas - 6. Ok
Eduardo - 5. Early shocker, and thereafter never really got into his stride.
Bendtner - 6. Ok. Took his goal well.

Shocking performance, mainly defensively. Should never have got into a position where we had to chase the game. And in that respect, despite dominating the whole game, we were lucky to win.
I may write something more constructive tomorrow, but if not, 'til the weekend Gooners.

Manchester City 4 - 2 Arsenal

2009-09-12T16:46:00.005+01:00

Unbelievable. How can a team who dominate the game from start to finish end up losing 4-2? City had 3 shots and a freak header on target the whole game and ended up scoring 4, whilst Arsenal waited patiently, worked the ball into wide areas, and stood there as Toure and Lescott would without fail clear Sagna's abysmal cross. The patient build up was to no avail as Hughes parked 10 men behind the ball at all times. Arsenal would work players forward, a City player would come crunching in and win the ball and off they would go and score. Matters weren't helped by the fact that Clattenburg was refereeing the game. A ref who Man City have never failed to lose under. This was evident as he was soon booking Arsenal players for nothing whilst letting Man City players off after stamping on Arsenal's players faces, or handballing in their own penalty area thus denying a goalscoring opportunity.

The bad dream became nightmare when Adebayor scored. A goal he hardly deserved. The only thing he was doing right was clearing weak Fabregas corners away from the near post. A point the commentators picked up on with delight, and failing to notice that whenever the ball landed at his feet or head further up the field he constantly gave it away. Adebayor's petty and immature celebration clearly showed he feels hard done by, by the Arsenal support. If he honestly thinks that we were harsh on him for no reason, then he's more stupid than I thought.

It was good to see Rosicky score on his first competetive match for us in 16 or so months. And RvP's goal was superbly taken, making Lescott look a fool when it was the City player's main intention to take out boy wonder. Apart from that, it was a dreadful afternoon.

No player ratings, as they'll all be pretty much the same. No player had a bad game, but nobody was good either. Let's just say everyone got a 6. Apart from Diaby who got a 5. The Diaby experiment as one of the attacking 3 just doesn't work, unless he comes on as an impact sub. Arsenal can't get into any controlling rhythm when there's a player who's just not on the same wavelength as everyone else. Eduardo should have started instead so we could have had some creativity on the left side of the pitch. A big mistake by Wenger.

Man City hardly deserved to win, especially not to score 4, but that's football.
'Til midweek gooners.

Manchester City - Arsenal Preview

2009-09-12T06:49:00.004+01:00

We should really try and win this game. Not just because Man City are sitting 3 points above us in the league, but also to wipe the smug grin of Mark Hughes' face. Ever since midweek when Adebayor started banging on about how he feels loved again, coupled with the fact he's scored 3 goals in 3 games, Hughes has presumably been grinning innanely to himself whilst going about doing every day things. This obviously needs to stop. Although the period of congratulations Hughes is giving himself will come to a natural end when Adebayor decides he wants to go to Real Madrid (also the fans don't love me anymore, I don't understand why....all I said is that I don't want to play for them anymore, and thus have stopped working hard), I'd rather we finished it for them.

We could have had a tougher test than we are already going to have. Robinho is doubtful, whilst Tevez, Santa Cruz and tough-tackling Kompany are all out. But then again, it's not like we've got all our players sprightly and niggle-free. News came a week or so ago that Djourou will be out for half the season, if not more. Now that's ok if both our first choice centre backs stay injury free, but we know that's not going to happen. Otherwise we'll have to play Song or (shudders) Silvestre at centre back unless Wenger plans on making an ubrupt U-turn and start playing Senderos. Walcott is still a slight doubt, although could return sooner rather than later. And Vela, Nasri and Fabianski will carry on working on the butt-groove they've established in their seats on the sidelines. However the most worrying news is that Arshavin is out for 3 games. Wenger was slightly moody after Arshavin played for Russia midweek, as apparently he shouldn't have. Russia manager Hiddink had said that it was up to Arshavin whether he'd play or not midweek, which was stupid 'cause a player will always choose to play. Especially if he's captain of his country. What is worrying about his injury is that it was his addition that rejuvenated us from our slump last season, and said slump involved that 3-0 loss at Eastlands. However there is no doubting the new spring in our step this year, and hopefully that will be enough to compensate for the loss of our pint sized Russian. Captain Fabulous should also be back after playing a full 90 midweek for Spain (and bagging a very well taken goal), however he may be seen as a slight doubt, and Rosicky returned midweek, playing precisely 56 minutes for the Czech Republic.

As we are away, I think Wenger will choose a slightly more stable side. In other words Diaby may be left on the bench only to be used as a potential impact sub. Wenger may revert to his questionable tactic of playing Eboue in away games also, and although Nik B scored twice in the interlull for Denmark, Eboue has been preferred recently. So I reckon the line-up will be this:

Almunia

Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Clichy

Song

Denilson Fabregas(c)

Eboue v.Persie Eduardo

I hope Bendtner does play instead of Eboue, but I just can't shake that funny feeling. We'll need all the help we can get up front, as Man City are the only team in the league not to have conceded a goal this season. We should also count ourselves lucky that they don't have their full strength strike force, as we haven't kept a clean sheat yet this season, although keeping one today may also be an uphill battle.

Righto. I'm unbelievably happy that Arsenal are back, so I don't have to hear anymore about England and the World cup, and read about overrated performances by Lampard and Rooney....until the 10th of October that is.
Enjoy the match Gooners, and I'll see you here afterwards.

Arsenal 3(5) - 1(1) Celtic

2009-08-26T21:43:00.006+01:00

Despite the impressive scoreline of a 5-1 win on aggregate, I came away from the 2nd leg in a relatively bad mood. The standard of play was poor despite all the goals being constructed in a good way. The main reason for the downswing of my mood was the big talking point of the game, the Eduardo dive. Yes, it was a dive, but that should not take anything away from the build-up play which was quite frankly excellent, and then a mind boggling bit of quick thinking by Eduardo to slip the ball by two defenders. Did the carefully and skilfully constructed build-up get a mention? Not a jot. According to the commentators and analysers in the studio, had Eduardo not dived, Celtic would have got their way back into the match and would have gone on to win overall. As if Arsenal wouldn't have found other ways to score. And that goes for the two goals in the first leg, yes they were fortunate goals, but do you really think that if they hadn't gone in, Arsenal wouldn't have found another way to score?

My bad mood continued when Donati scored a consolation for Celtic. The commentators again insinuating that Celtic deserved more, when in reality, that was their first shot on target. Not only does that mean again no clean sheat (which looks like it'll be a challenge for us this year), but it gives reason for Celtic fans to think their team are good again. Which clearly they aren't. Luckily Arsenal scored two nice goals to finish with, because at 3-0 on aggregate, it was clear the excuse was their for Celtic fans to say Arsenal fluked their way through the tie (and conveniently ignoring the hugh gulf of quality between the two teams).

Then we get on to Dalgleish who was unbelievably biased towards Celtic especially at half time. The disallowed goal for Celtic which saw McDonald loiter about a yard and a half offside before sticking the ball in the net, was apparently 'tight' according to the slow-talking scotsman. And the reason for the difference in ability in the two sides is not because Arsenal are miles better, but because Celtic don't play teams of the kind of quality that Arsenal do week-in, week-out.

The bad mood actually started half an hour before kick-off when I saw the starting line-up which was woefully uninspired. There was no creative central midfielder (I was rather hoping one of either Ramsey or Merida would start), and then there was Eboue and Sagna in the same eleven. Indicating that Eboue would be playing out of position, normally never a good sign. As it was, Eboue turned out to be one our better players, and thoroughly deserved our goal. In fact, the highlight of the match for me was to see Eboue chase the ball the whole width of the pitch, forcing the Celtic players not to go forward but to go back. Eboue very much deserved the cheer he got from the home crowd. A cheer that co-commentator Jim Beglin managed to mistake as a goodwill cheer from the Arsenal fans to the Celtic players for managing to keep the ball...retard.

Anyway, despite all the negatives, which in retrospect I may have overreacted to, there were a few positives. Fantastic performances by Vermaelen and Song complemented by the aforementioned Eboue. The second goal was wonderful. Started by a piercing ball down the left by Clichy, Bendtner flicked a delightful backheel into the path of Diaby who gave it to Eboue. The Ivorian side stepped whichever woeful Celtic player was in the way and drilled it low past the rather chubby Boruc. The third goal involved neat play by Denilson, Arshavin and Ramsey, with the Russian finishing off with aplomb.

No match ratings today 'cause I'm pissed off. 10 for Vermaelen though and 8 for both Eboue and Song.

Ok I guess that's all for now. I'm going on holiday on saturday which means I'll miss the Man Utd match, something I was seriously considering scrapping my holiday plans for. So I'll be back when I get back.
'Til then.

p.s. Vermaelen is the best defender in the league.
p.p.s I'm now sitting with two wannabe ManUre fans, a QPR fan, and a nothing. God help me.

Arsenal 4 - 1 Portsmouth

2009-08-23T15:35:00.007+01:00

10 goals in 2 games, can't say fairer than that. Add to that the fact that we've already seen goal of the season. You know which one I'm talking about. Instead of choosing the easier option of smashing the ball into a virtually empty net when it landed to him, William Gallas showed his glass by letting the ball role up his body before calmly tucking it away with his face into the corner where David James couldn't reach it.

In terms of match ratings, everyone got a 10. Well done for Ramsey, hugely impressive. I was also very impressed with Denilson, sure he may underhit a few (hundred) passes but his defensive anticipation is incredible, especially for someone of his age. I often lose count of the number of interceptions he makes during a match.

Oh and Diaby. He was playing as a kind of impact central midfielder, as opposed to the likes of Fabregas and Denilson who control the midfield. It worked very well, and he had a very good game.

Cesc faces tests today concerning a slight hamstring injury, but as I stated in my pre-match blog, he probably should have been rested anyway.

Celtic on Wednesday. Can't wait.
'Til then Gooners.

Arsenal - Portsmouth, and more....

2009-08-22T11:20:00.004+01:00

To be blunt, this is a game we should win, and in fact a game we need to win. It may sound silly that after only one game in the premier league, we encounter a must-win game, but it is so. ManUre lost midweek against Burnley (good old Burnley). Our next match in the league, after this one, is against Man Utd, therefore we must maintain a 3 point gap in case (heaven forbid) we lose against them. Portsmouth haven't got a point yet, and more importantly, haven't scored yet in the new premier league season. Coming to the Grove can't be doing much for the confidence. Nevertheless, we musn't let it slip, not that our defence have looked beatable yet this year.

In terms of Arsenal news, the usual suspects are still injured: Nasri, Fabianski, Djourou, Rosicky and Walcott. Eduardo has recovered from a scare mid-week to be available for todays match. Whether he'll start or not remains to be seen. The Guardian team predictors have plumped for Arsenal's strongest eleven for this match, in other words, the starting line-ups of the last two games. However, in my opinion, it's better that we rest a couple of players sooner rather than later when they may start suffering from fatigue. Cesc and Denilson for example, both came back from slight strains to play a full 90 minutes midweek. Perhaps Wenger would seize the opportunity of playing Portsmouth at home to rest these two. This would be a danger, as they have both been pivotal so far in the new season, so he may wish to bring them off when the points are safe. Whatever.....as long as he doesn't play Diaby and Denilson together in the centre of midfield.

Speaking of the Guardian, last week Dara O'Briain became the new guest columnist for Guardian Sport, and he happens to be an Arsenal season-ticket holder (yeah, cause he doesn't make it obvious). His second column is in todays Guardian, and I very much recommend it. Gael Clichy has also been interviewed in the Guardian, but it's all stuff we've heard before about the team wanting to win trophies, and why Arsenal are performing better without Kolo and Adewantssomemore etc. etc...

Elsewhere, there's some drivel about Patrick Vieira, and how Wenger still hasn't ruled a move out for him. I can't help but feel this is Wenger stringing along the press for a laugh, a point shown by the fact AW can hardly keep a straight face when someone asks him about it at a press conference. "Yes-snigger, yes we're definately-snigger-not ruling out a move-snigger-for Patrick Vieira-snigger." If this is so, I find it quite endearing that our manager is so nerdy, that he finds that to be amusing.

Right, well it may be a belated Match Report tomorrow, but the win will make up for that.
'Til later Gooners.

Celtic 0 - 2 Arsenal

2009-08-20T10:08:00.002+01:00

It is a measure of how poor the standard is in the Scottish league these days that Arsenal could come to a place, where history shows is a difficult place for the best of teams to play, and come away with a comfortable 2-0 victory without having played outstandingly well. Make no mistake, we were in control the whole game, and the difference of quality between the two teams was frankly embarrassing at times. Arsenal played almost better defensively than offensively in this match. So poor was the ability of the Celtic players that all Arsenal needed to do was close them down all over the park, and the Celtic players would panic and give the ball away. Arsenal lined up with exactly the same formation and players as the game against Everton at the weekend, with Denilson being passed fit at the last second. Of course that didn't prevent him from playing a full 90 minutes. Nothing could prevent that. It was strange to see only one substitute used (Diaby for Arshavin) especially as a couple of players were coming back from some slight niggles.

Both goals had an element of luck about them, but that's not to say we didn't deserve them. The first goal came from Gallas who was desperately trying to get out of the way of a Fabregas freekick that looked like it was heading for the top corner. As it was, the ball skimmed Gallas' back and deflected into the far corner, completely fooling Boruc. The second goal came from Diaby who had only just come on (a future role as an impact sub potentially?), he fed the ball to Clichy who whipped in a low ball into the six yard box that Caldwell deflected into his own net. In all fairness to Caldwell, he had to get something on it, otherwise Bendtner would have been on hand to tuck it home.

On the subject of Bendtner, this match showed his importance to the team, especially in this 4-3-3 formation. I believe the team plays better when he is on the pitch, and that is because of all the front 3 players, Bendtner works the hardest and tracks back the most. Therefore it is very useful playing him on one of the wings, as well as the fact he towers over every full-back in the country. Another players who impressed was Fabregas, who ran his socks off the whole game. His passing was a bit sloppy at times, but he must have covered more ground than the rest of the team put together. I would have liked to have seen Cesc replaced by Ramsey to give him a rest, but this didn't happen. Vermaelen has continued his excellent start for Arsenal. He reads the game so brilliantly, to cover behind the other defender or to make interceptions. He's also not afraid of a good hard challenge. Excellent. Gallas also excelled, and it's nice to see the two first choice defenders building a good partnership. We haven't had a good central defensive partnership since Toure and Campbell. My man of the match however was Alex Song. Who said we needed a new defensive midfielder? (Seriously though, another DM would do nicely, even if Song is first choice).

What has impressed me so much about these opening two games is Arsenal closing down the opposition players, not just in defence, but all over the pitch. The lads are displaying levels of fitness I'm not sure I was aware of this soon after pre-season. Wenger, Rice and Colbert must really have put them through their paces in Austria. Arsenal also proved that they're working hard at adding a physical dimension to the game. In a match where Celtic were coming in late to challenges so much it looked purposeful, Arsenal never got intimidated and always held their own and got stuck back in.

I can't think of many negatives from the game. Perhaps a little note just to say Denilson was back to his old tricks of woefully underhit passes, the rest of his game though was impressive enough. That's it really. As indicated earlier, Arsenal didn't need to play that impressive a game. Continually closing down the Celtic players was enough to win us the first leg. It was hard to pick out a low point for Celtic, but in the end I've plumped for Donati (who seems to have the aura of one of Celtic's star players just because he arrived from Italy). I don't think I can remember a pass of his reaching the target destination. He should also have been booked for a challenge on Cesc right in front of their area, but unfortnately the Ref missed it.

Right that's all for now. We play and will win against Portsmouth on Saturday. Something to look forward to.
'Til then Gooners.

Celtic - Arsenal

2009-08-18T10:06:00.002+01:00

Tonight, we play the first leg, the away leg, of the European champions league qualifiers against Celtic. Not the easiest draw we could have got, but by far not the hardest. What makes me laugh about the fans of Celtic and Rangers is that they think their teams are fantastic, up there with the best in the world. In reality Rangers and Celtic would struggle not to get relegated after a season in the premiership. Having said that, in the past few seasons Celtic have had good results against teams like ManU, AC Milan and Villarreal at Parkhead. We have to be on our guard, but the difference between talent in the two teams is huge, and should we lose, it's because we have thrown it away. Arsene highlights Aiden McGeady as the biggest threat eminating from the green and white of Celtic. I have to say I agree with him, the Irish wideman does have an inkling of talent, other than that Giorgos Samaras will be out to prove the point against an English side that he isn't a total failure.

On to Arsenal news. Abou Diaby is once again fully fit, although for how long remains to be seen. Fabregas is a slight doubt although Wenger rates his chances of playing as much more than 50%. Denilson is a bigger problem, with a groin injury, and Walcott's return keeps getting delayed. Other than that, the usual suspects who weren't available for Everton once again won't be gracing the field of play: Fabianski, Djourou, Nasri and Rosicky. Wenger promises to play the strongest team that is available to him, as he keeps pressing that this is a tricky clash. Thus the team may be very similar to that which played against Everton:

Almunia

Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Clichy

Song

Fabregas(c) Diaby

Bendtner v.Persie Arshavin

We'll have to wait and see. Enjoy the game Gooners, and after this it's only a few days til we annihilate Portsmouth at home. I'll be back after the match.
'Til then.

Everton 1 - 6 Arsenal

2009-08-15T20:44:00.007+01:00

It says a lot about Arsenal fans' reputation of moaning and whining when at 3-0 up at half time, the only thought that was going through my head was "we better not f*** this up". The point exemplified when at full time I was pissed off that we hadn't kept a clean sheat. In all honesty though, it was a stunning display by everyone. The starting line-up was exactly as I had predicted, showing the 4-3-3 we've become accustomed to during pre-season.

Almunia

Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Clichy

Song

Denilson Fabregas(c)

Bendtner v.Persie Arshavin

Everton started as you would expect from the home side, on the offensive and looking like the home side. However things soon changed. Overall the first half was pretty equal in terms of possession and chances, but Arsenal were formidable and clinical in front of goal. Something that perhaps has been lacking in previous seasons despite the many created chances. The first goal was something particularly splendid. And actually something I certainly did not expect from Denilson. No disrespect to Denilson intended, I mean we have seen him score a right stonker in the past in the Carling Cup, but it's not something you see often and especially not from our tidy defensive midfielder. The goal's main highlight obviously was the strike, but the build up play (neat work by both Nik B and Cesc) was also worthy of note. Arguably another aspect of football that has been lacking from Arsenal's play is good delivery from set pieces. Luckily, two stunning deliveries from van Persie and Fabregas respectively led to two great finishes by our two centre-backs, Vermaelen and Gallas respectively.

The 4th goal came a few minutes into the second half, and was a simply breathtaking counter-attack. Breathtaking maybe not the word as it had started and was finished in less time than it took to draw breath. Denilson strolled out of defence after a period of sustained pressure by the home side. The Brazillian fed van Persie, who slipped it into the path of a typical late Cesc run out of nowhere and the skipper duly slotted home through the legs of Tim Howard. There was just about time for the inevitable Eboue appearance as he came on for the impressive Bendtner before Cesc scored again. It was good to see the side mix it up as the 5th goal came about purely by intelligent distribution by Almunia, once again Cesc duly obliged with a nice driven finish from around 20 yards out. Eduardo was on hand for the sixth, with a typical poachers finish.

Although it was a tad annoying that the scoreline was tarnished by a late Evertonian consolation goal, the defence could not be blamed at all throughout the match. Vermaelen's debut was mightly impressive, not only because of his goal. It was our first time to see him in a testing game and he did not disappoint. During the match he showed the uncanny knack of reading the game as easily as if it were a child's book. Vermaelen was also impressive aerially, more than making up for the fact he's by far not the tallest centre back in the premier league. The reason I'm singling Vermaelen out is for the mere fact that he was our summer signing, but that shouldn't take anything away from the fact that everyone in the defence was incredibly robust throughout. The midfield was tidy, creative and more than willing to join in with the offensive play, but the forwards today were simply phenomenal. Arshavin, van Persie and Bendtner showed sublime movement on, and off the ball as well as wonderful understanding of each other. It is easy to say that Everton were bad, and they were, but most of the time Arsenal made them play badly by harrying every Everton player and constantly closing down giving them no time on the ball. All in all, a brilliant performance therefore defensively as well as going forward.

And so on to the player ratings:
Almunia - 7. 7 is a tad harsh, but he did not have too much to do in particular in the second half. What was impressive though was, that when called upon during the rare Everton opportunities, he didn't make up for the fact that he had little to do by coming for a cross that should never have been his et.c. He was exceptionally dominant during crosses and free-kicks and, as an Arsenal fan who has seen a few too many goals conceded from set-pieces, for that I am very grateful.
Sagna - 8. My skeptical eye did spy a few embarrassing crosses but as whole they were better than any Sagna cross I can remember. Defensively solid as ever.
Clichy - 8. Was involved throughout the game, not only offensively but defensively. He showed today that he is the best left-back in the premier league.
Gallas - 9. Unbelievably impressive and composed. Always had the Everton front-line in his pocket. Supplemented with a well taken goal.
Vermaelen - 9. See above, in addition to added Kudos due to it being his premier league debut.
Song - 9. Strong, composed and solid but unremarkable. Exactly what a good defensive midfielder should be.
Denilson - 8. A slightly shaky start saw the usual underhit Denilson passes, but he grew massively in confidence after his goal and bossed the midfield. The first of many full 90 minutes to be expected from Denilson this season.
Fabregas - 10. Was relieved of some pressure due to playing with two more defensively minded players. This however didn't stop him from dropping deep to collect the ball, but did allow him to arrive late in the area, to great effect. He needed some time to grow into the game, but when it arrived, what a performance. 2 goals and 2 assists from the captain.
Arshavin - 8. Lovely intricate performance from the talented and gifted Russian. He has grown a great understanding between him and van Persie, and it was evident a similar connection has occured between him and Eduardo.
Bendtner - 9. Leighton Baines (a fairly talented left-back) just could not cope with with Nik B at all. Everything good, especially in the first half, came through Nik B. Shame he didn't get the goal he so thoroughly deserved (and perhaps needs for his confidence to stay high).
v.Persie - 8.5. It is evident that he will be the pivotal player this year for Arsenal. He will drop deep when the ball is at his feet and look to play in his fellow 2 forwards. We saw glimpses today from RvP in that role we all know he can play so effectively. Onwards and upwards now for our 2008/2009 player of the Season.
Subs:
Eboue - 6. Obviously Eboue had to come on at some point. He joined as a kind of wide man somewhere between midfield and attack. Didn't really have anything to do, which is a shame as he replaced the impressive Bendtner.
Ramsey - 7. Came on for Cesc so the skipper could be rested before the meeting midweek in Glasgow. Rambo looked nice and composed as well as showing some creative glimpses.
Eduardo - 7. 7 is obviously harsh for someone who scored a goal, but there wasn't too much other than that for Eddie to do. Still, lovely that his first premier league appearance for 18 months ended with a goal.

Right. Splendid. A wonderful game, and a wonderful performance, and let's hope it continues on Tuesday.
'Til then Gooners.

Everton - Arsenal

2009-08-14T09:59:00.006+01:00

As we go in to the start of the premier league campaign tomorrow, it becomes apparent that old habits die hard. Before the season has started we already have a fairly substantial injury list. Rosicky has picked up the inevitable post-lengthy-injury-knock that only Arsenal players seem to get a severe case of; Fabianski appears to be having a little struggle getting back into his stride after some surgery; Djourou picked up a little muscle pull whilst training for the Swiss national team; Diaby....well Diaby always has something or another; Walcott for some reason isn't available; and there's obviously Nasri. It must be stated that Wenger believes Diaby could be available, although whether that's a good thing I'm still not sure.

Don't get me wrong, I really hope Diaby wins me over this year, because it is obvious he's got a fair bit of talent there. At the moment however, his mentality is completely off. As well as always looking intimidated by the opposition (despite his size), Diaby also manages to look like he doesn't have to be there, and could have been somewhere else should that have taken his fancy. But the problem isn't all mental. His passing isn't quite up to scratch, and this is something which oddly has got worse during his Arsenal career. If Arsenal are on the counter attack and the ball falls to Diaby, he will spend too long looking for a pass, and when the opportunity does arise he'll pass the ball 10 yards behind the path of an on-rushing support player. If I'm absolutely honest I see Merida as a more effective player for Arsenal, not because he's a better all-round player (although that is debatable) but because he fits perfectly with the Arsenal style of play. An argument could be made that Diaby is useful because he gives us diversity. Well, diversity is only good if effective, and at the moment, it isn't effective enough of the time.

Speaking of Merida, there has been no conformation as of yet about his loan move. And according to Jeorge Bird, a list of players eligible to play in Europe has just been submitted, and his name is on it. It is my feeling that Wenger has just held back in releasing Merida on loan because of the sudden shortage of truly attacking central players (Nasri, Rosicky, Diaby et.c). Similarly I have a sneaky suspision that AW has also held back on selling Senderos to Everton until after we play them. I don't have any evidence for this, it's just the cynic in me speaking.

Anyway, back to the imminent league campaign. After all the pre-season friendlies I go into the season extremely excited due to the wonderful football we've been playing (on and off). I think the team have the cohesion to finish second this year, and we're only another centre back and defensive midfield beast away from dominating the world. We do have an exceptionally tricky start to the campaign, with Everton, ManUre and Citeh all coming in the first four matches, but after that we have a nice run all the way to late November when we meet the Chavs. Hopefully that will mean a nice build up of momentum and by Christmas we will still be up there within a shout of winning overall despite having played the rest of the top 3 plus Citeh and the Spuds.

We shouldn't underestimate tomorrows game. The first game of the season rarely goes by the rule book. Arsenal are obviously the better team, but everyone's second favourite manager (apart from Sir Bobby Robson (RIP)) Moyes has built a dynasty at Everton, and they are difficult to break down at all times, especially at Goodison park. Due to the fact it's away, I believe Arsene will have a slightly more defensive look to his side. Despite Denilson not being in the squad at all for the friendly against Valencia with no explanation (perhaps Wenger realised at last that his love child needed a break), I do expect him to start tomorrow, potentially alongside Song. Out of all the injury palava there has been some good news in that Vermaelen has returned from a slight muscle strain. And that means no Silvestre at centre-back (touch wood). So this means the Starting Line-up for Everton vs. Arsenal will be (probably, but maybe not):

Almunia

Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Clichy

Song Denilson

Fabregas(c)

Bendtner v.Persie Arshavin

I think Arsenal will sneak the win in the end, surviving a tough battle from the home side. I cannot wait. The match is a late kick-off at 17.30, presumably to extend my anguish and angst.

Elsewhere, there is no news on any potential signings. Everything has gone cold with the Chamakh case, presumably because Bordeaux are being short-sighted stubborn gits and not realising that £6million now is better than nothing in a years time. Hodgson and Hangeland are going on about being focussed on the game, and not thinking about Arsenal speculation. Although amidst all this fuss it's been forgotten that there haven't really been any rumours surrounding Hangeland to Arsenal for some time. Hodgson and Hangeland are making all the noise about it, thus they are creating all the trouble for themselves.

Well, I thought I'd end this article as I started it. With an example of old habits dying hard. Interviewed before their match against Man City tomorrow, Blackburn player David Dunn said: "It's important we do our best and kick lumps out of them". It's not hard to see why Sam Allardyce was such a natural choice as Blackburn manager.

It's time to be optimistic Gooners. I'll be back tomorrow for a report on our win against Everton.
'Til then.

Valencia 2 - 0 Arsenal

2009-08-08T22:31:00.003+01:00

Let me just get this straight first. Valencia are the biggest bunch of cheating diving scum outside of Italy. And the Ref fell for their pathetic play-acting everytime. Primary cheating diving scum (née Michel) scored their first, and David Villa got their second. Arsenal's starting line up was:

Almunia

Eboue Gallas Djourou Clichy

Song

Fabregas(c) Diaby

Bendtner v.Persie Arshavin

The match was played at an awful standard of play by both teams throughout the match, apart from a 5 minute spell just after half time by Arsenal. In this case, Walcott's impact was exciting but it soon petered out to nothing. The second half was notable due to the fact that Primary Cheating Diving Scum lived up to his name and unashamedly dived in the box after a fair tackle by Silvestre. The dunce of a Referee fell for it, and Fabianski produced a splendid save to deny David Villa. Valencia should really have got a penalty late on after Traore felled Joaquin. However the Ref, perhaps informed by the 4th official that he had been made a fool out of for the first penalty, decided against awarding a spot kick for the home side.

I can't really be arsed to talk anymore about a match that was hideous throughout, save for the fact that I hope to dear God that Djourou and Silvestre never have a chance to play in the centre of defence together this season. There was obviously absolutely zero communication between the two of them, and I lost count on the number of times a Valencia attacker got in behind them.

The season starts in a week. Let's hope we perform better away from home then than we did today. I'll be back either in a weeks time or before, if anything occurs which could be considered noteworthy.
'Til then Gooners.

Pre-Match chat, and some other stuff.

2009-08-08T08:17:00.003+01:00

So, the day after we get the news that we are to face Celtic in the champions league qualifiers, we play a far better european team in a friendly. Pretty good preparation. I think Wenger is likely to play 10 if not 11 of the starting line up he'll choose a week from today at Goodison Park. Then the lads will get a weeks rest, and BAM! straight into the premiership with a win away at Everton. Therefore my predicted starting XI is:

Almunia

Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Clichy

Song Denilson

Fabregas(c)

Bendtner v.Persie Arshavin

I hope Vermaelen has regained fitness, if not Djourou will cover. Rosicky obviously has picked up the standard return-from-lengthy-injury-hamstring-pull, and will be out for up to 6 weeks. Although it is not unexpected that Rosicky has such a niggle, I am still slightly wary, as this is what Arsenal told us that Rosicky had last time he got injured. And we know how that turned out. Walcott may play instead of Bendtner if the boss thinks that he's had enough training time since he came back from his prolonged holiday. As far as a prediction goes: despite this friendly being organised so cash-strapped Valencia can rake in a great deal of income (they played ManUre at home on wednesday aswell), Valencia will still give a tough battle and it'll be close. But I'll plump for a 1-0 win to the Gunners.

Elsewhere, it looks like Fran Merida will spend a year on loan to Spanish Valencia-based second division side Levante. If this is true, it is the most unbelievably pointless loan move possibly ever. It would have been far better for Merida's development should he play for a lower premier division club. We know now that he is premier league standard. Plus, the English league and the Spanish leagues have very different styles of play. How is someone meant to adapt to one league if, during a critical stage in his development, he's shipped out on loan to another league. Two years ago, Merida was loaned out to Real Sociedad (of the Spanish second division) for half a season. Are we really saying that in two years Merida hasn't progressed at all? I hope that this is just Sky Sports getting the wrong end of the stick, and Merida is in fact only in Valencia for the friendly today, and in a few days time it turns out he's signed a year long-loan at Birmingham.

In other loan news, Nordtveit has been loaned out to FC Nurnburg, but we've known that for a while, and it doesn't look like Traore is going on loan...yet.

Right, only a short one at the mo, but I'll be back after the match.
'Til then.

Arsenal 3 - 0 Rangers, and more...

2009-08-03T19:33:00.007+01:00

Yesterday saw a really comfortable 3-0 win to the Arsenal following a Wilshere brace plus a fine finish by Eduardo. The starting line-up was as follows:

Almunia

Eboue Gallas Silvestre Clichy

Song

Fabregas(c) Merida

Wilshere Eduardo Arshavin

I thought the two main stand-out players were Jack Wilshere and Eduardo. The performances of Wilshere have been talked about substantially already. Almost to the extent of actually overstating how good his performance was. Yes, it was absolutely amazing, but exaggerating the performance will not do well for Little Jack's progression. Eduardo was incredible yesterday. On numerous occasions pulling nutmegs out of the bag just because he could. Honorable mentions should also go to Fabregas, Arshavin (who in my opinion had his first good game of pre-season yesterday) and Merida (who popped up with a sublime assist).

Speaking of Merida, he is eager to learn his future. Whilst no doubts linger over his long term future, there are doubts concerning whether he'll go on loan next season, or conversely start playing with the first team. My initial feeling was to have him stay, as he proved so emphatically at the weekend that he is good enough to be in the first team on a semi-regular basis. However when I thought about it, I realised ahead of him in the central midfield pecking order are: Fabregas, Denilson, Song, Diaby, Rosicky, Nasri and Ramsey. That covers all but the worst injury crisis one could imagine. Perhaps sending him on loan to a lower premiership club with the option to recall him would be the best scenario.

In other loan news, Armand Traore has spoken of his desire to stay at Arsenal despite a season long loan spell at Birmingham being mooted and Scunthorpe want Lansbury on again. That wouldn't be a bad idea as Lansbury is now too old for the Youth Cup (he didn't play in the academy league anyway), and the reserves don't play often enough. As we know he had a very impressive loan spell there at the end of last season, and almost became a fans' favourite, thus I'm sure no one at Scunthorpe would object to Henri returning for another spell. Lansbury incidently played as England unfortunately lost to Ukraine in the Euro u19 championship final. Lansbury had been inspirational throughout the tournament as well as bagging 3 goals (including a right stonker against France).

Wenger has had a £5million bid for Chamakh turned down. That doesn't surprise me. After all the rumours concerning Chamakh having been bandied about for quite some time now, I can understand the Bordeaux management and board wanting more, especially for a player they consider to be integral to their defence of Ligue 1. However considering Chamakh has now just entered the final year of his contract, they can't really ask for that much more as Wenger would just laugh, say 'ok, we'll get him on a free next summer then', and put down the phone. There is no news on other transfer rumours (apart from the Vieira stuff which is still holding divided opinion as to whether it is actually true, or if Ian Wright just made it up). If Wenger is only going to spend one on person, I (along with all Gooners) would really rather prefer it to be on a defensive midfielder. Having said that, Song has been impressive pre-season, and Denilson's tackling and interceptions are excellent. Though his passing has really deteriorated.

Right, that's all for now. I'll be back when there's news.

'Til then Gooners.

Arsenal 2 - 1 Atletico Madrid

2009-08-02T07:46:00.003+01:00

Arsenal headed to the top of the Emirates Cup after their victory over Atletico Madrid. I'm sure they're speechless with unparalleled joy over this. In all honesty though the first half was ok. We kept possession well but lacked penetration. The second half was excellent, not only because the football was superb, but also because most of the Rangers fans had already gone back to their hotels, and that means I didn't have to travel back on the tube with them. Scary bastards. Jose Reyes made his return to Arsenal in the black of A.Madrid's away kit. The dot com said he was cheered. Don't let that fool you, he was booed the hell out of. Anywho, the starting line-up was this:

Mannone

Sagna Djourou Gallas Traore

Denilson

Ramsey Rosicky

Eboue v.Persie(c) Bendtner

Unfortunately Vermaelen had picked up a slight muscular niggle and therefore has been dropped from both days, but should return against Valencia. Nothing of great note happened in the first half. Rosicky thought he had scored, but was ruled offside. Fantastic finish though. Eboue really doesn't work as one of the wide three. He really struggled to adapt to the position save for a good cut inside and shot, which was straight at the keeper.

The second half was much better, and this was down to the introduction of two people. Fran Merida and Jack Wilshere. These two were utterly superb, the best two players on the pitch, putting the more established players to shame. You can see why the would play well though. They are both exciting offensive players, who added huge amounts of energy and enthusiasm. They really wanted to impress and you can't really get more of a competetive friendly than at the Emirates cup. They really shined on the semi-big stage. The great thing was, they both impressed in different ways. Wilshere came on for Eboue and stayed in his role as the right side of the attacking three. He had so much dynamism in his running off the ball and dribbling ability on the ball. His link up with Sagna was also superb. Merida on the other hand came in for Rosicky in the centre of the park. He has exceptional close control, the vision was superb, and he really has the Cesc knack for finding the space between midfield and defence, where he can really do damage with his incredible creativity.

With 25 minutes to go Cesc, Arshavin and Eduardo came on, and this only added to our attacking impetus. Our XI was now:

Mannone

Sagna Djourou Gallas Clichy

Denilson

Fabregas(c) Merida

Wilshere Eduardo Arshavin

The goals were bound to come and eventually they did, with Cesc showing his experience and guile to calmly find Arshavin who prodded home. Most fans were still celebrating, however it was with a groan that I could see what was about to happen. A nice through ball by a Madrid player threw our defence into incredible confusion, and Pacheco slotted home. Arshavin would have the last laugh though, as he latched onto a soft back header by a defender, rounded the keeper and somehow, somehow managed to squeeze home from the tightest of angles.

So all in all there were a lot of positives for the fans to take out of this match. We certainly have two of the biggest talents in England with Merida and Wilshere, and two who have shown that they are of the ability to be in the first team. Whether they can yet handle the pressures of the premier league is another matter, but I have faith that they will soon. Our attacking play was excellent, however this seemed to have an inversely proportional affect on our defence. As our attacking got better, our defence got worse. Denilson also managed to quietly slip under the radar and get himself another 90 minutes. If Wenger had rang me up and told me yesterday that he was going to play Denilson for the full 90 minutes in both matches, I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised. Apart from the fact that Wenger was ringing me. As it is though, the non-appearance of Song yesterday makes me think he'll give Denilson a much warranted rest.

Right, Arsenal play Rangers today. I'll be back with more post-match chit chat after the game.
'Til then Gooners.

Hannover 0 -1 Arsenal, and Bye Bye Kolo, thanks for the memories.

2009-07-29T19:41:00.003+01:00

An absolutely flawless first half by Arsenal was matched by an embarrassingly poor second half. The team started off in a 4-3-3 formation.

Mannone

Eboue Gallas Vermaelen Traore

Song Denilson

Fabregas (c)

Bendtner v.Persie Arshavin

The game was marred by some incredibly dirty and malicious play by the German team, especially considering this is pre-season, as well as some shameless diving. The worst culprit was some angry guy called Haggui, and unfortunately his inability to make a tackle, and apparent want to hurt people frustrated RvP in particular, thus forcing the Boy Wonder into a bit of retribution. The Arsenal goal came from a delicious lob by Nik B followed by an equally sumptious through ball by van Persie. Cesc got there before the keeper, rounded him cooly and slotted home.

The first half was absolutely flawless. Literally nothing went wrong. Apart from a Bendtner miss, which was tricky as he was stretching for it anyway. Everything was amazing. Then came the second half, which was literally the worst thing I've ever seen. Hannover were crunching into everything, and Arsenal missed the guile of Cesc who came off at half-time. All in all though, a good test for Arsenal, and le Boss would have been encouraged by what he saw in the first half.

Onto to Kolo, who has now officially left the club for surprise-surprise an undisclosed fee. It is thought to be around £16million. When you consider he was bought for £250,000, this is absolutely amazing business by Wenger. Fans will understandably want the money to be spent on strengthening the squad. As do I. Unfortunately though as I've said in a previous article, I honestly don't expect AW to buy in anybody else, unless it is a Diarra or Silvestre situation, where a player he wants becomes available on the cheap. By the way, whisper it quietly, but Silvestre may not be a bad left back. Awful centre back. Let's hope Wenger plays Silvestre as a backup left back, and backup left back only. But anyway I digress. All the chat about Kolo has already been bandied about. So all I will say is, he was the only player left from the invincibles, his work rate was incredible, his grin was amazing and he was Mr. Professional. I understand why the boss has sold him, he honestly has not been the same since the last African cup of nations. I think his best years are behind him. Still, it'll only be really worth it if we strengthen.

So bye bye Kolo, thanks for the memories, and we wish you luck on international duty in the future (not for Man City though).

Next game is on saturday against Atletico Madrid, I'll be there. Can't wait.
'Til then Gooners.

Szombathelyi 0 - 5 Arsenal

2009-07-27T19:49:00.002+01:00

Despite the scoreline, it was a tougher test today than it has been so far in this pre-season campaign. Szombathelyi (from now on I will say 'the other team') were quite tough in the tackle, perhaps more so than they should have been in this stage of the season. In fact Wenger was seen on an occasion chatting to the referee, most probably to keep an eye on the tackles. The other team did start the better team but tired themselves out almost immediately. The first 4 goals all came in the first half. The first goal came about from excellent play by Armand Traore who continued to impress throughout the first half, not only offensively but also defensively. Traore's whipped cross to the near post was met by a wonderful glancing header by Nik B. More good play by Bendtner ended with a great finish by Eduardo into the bottom far corner. Eduardo's second was a nicely taken low freekick, although you would expect a premiership keeper to save it. The fourth, a lovely reverse pass by Wilshere offered Bendtner a chance to shoot from just outside the area, and he did so with aplomb, placing it around the keeper into the corner.

The second half brought many many changes. One sub who came on was van Persie, and he bagged our fifth from the spot. Throughout the game Wenger was playing a 4-3-3 formation, and I think it worked well once we settled into our game. In this particular game the stand-out players for me were Bendtner, Traore, Senderos and Ramsey. Despite looking lost in the previous game, today Senderos revelled in the defensive midfield position. He didn't do much offensively, but he was always there to cover and collect stray passes. Ramsey played with a maturity the belies his tender age. His passing range was phenemonal, his driving runs caused havoc in the opposition's defence, and the defensive aspect of his game also stood out (as this was a game in which he had less freedom than he did against SC Columbia). Honourable mentions should also go out to Eduardo, Vermaelen, Song and Szczesny. Vermaelen has an eye for the incisive pass out of defence as well as tracking runners behind Gallas superbly. A couple of his tackles were Bobby Mooreesque. He may well be the best defender in the premier league. Nothing like a bit of hyperbole. Song played a slightly more offensive version of the second half Senderos, and just as good. His anticipation was superb, as was his calmness in front of the back foor. Szczesny managed to unravel his massive frame to make a couple of wonder saves. Although he appears to be another one of those 'rush out off your line keepers' of which we have enough. It would seem that aspect of goalkeeping is very much a part of the training rota.

Arshavin was exceptionally disappointing as he has been all pre-season. To me, he looks like a big-game player, so perhaps he will be better against Hannover in two days time. That's my excuse anyway. He still looks unfit but there's plenty of time to work on that. It was also a shame and a surprise not to see Rosicky, but there's no point in rushing. It was also good to see Denilson not play the whole game for once. Although that did not seem to stop Wenger from bringing back on again in the second half after being subbed at half-time.

Well that's all for today. Only two days to Hannover where we'll get a better idea of where Arsenal are at.
'Til then Gooners.

Rumours, Szomb....Szombathl....the hungarian side, and more

2009-07-27T08:36:00.005+01:00

Yesterday was Sunday, and as we all know, these days Sunday brings about rumours of embarrassing validity in embarrassing quantities. In terms of incoming player news, there were stories about Wellington, Huntelaar and Kalou. First off, we know all the stories about Wellington. He came on trial around December time and played for one of our youth sides against Norwich bagging 4 against them. He's 17, and will be yet another wunderkind to challenge in the reserves, although he may be fast-tracked to the first team. The Huntelaar stories don't have anything to them. I have been surprised by the perceived lack of interest in a striker I consider to be one of the best finishers in the world. But, there we are, something's wrong, and I really don't think Arsenal will go in for him. Especially at £15m. The Saloman Kalou rumours seem to be stories purely because Wenger made a bid for him a year ago. This article states that Kalou only has a year left on his contract. He's obviously angling for an extension, so his agent just picked a story from last year about a team that was interested in him, and said it's happening again. Thus hopefully panicking Chelsea into offering him a new contract. NoTW reckon we'll get him for £7m. Generally, whatever NoTW say, the opposite happens.

Now, there are some interesting rumours concerning Kolo Toure circulating. The Sunday Times suggest that Man Citeh have already agreed personal terms with Toure, with the fee likely to be £15m or £12m depending on whether you believe the Sunday Times or the Independant. Firstly, the fact that these stories have surfaced in papers with a fairly good reputation immediately catches the attention and secondly, Adebayor has been gobbing off to the press saying he wants a re-union with Kolo (someone's not happy with their new team then?). Let's get things straight first and foremost. Toure is an absolute legend, and a player that I will always love because of his work rate, professionalism, and the fact that he's always smiling. But since the African cup of nations a year and a half ago, he hasn't been the same player. He's lost a yard of pace, and an inkling of anticipation. 2 years ago I would never dream of saying he wouldn't be in my choice of starting XI yet recently I have found myself thinking those exact thoughts. Toure himself also handed in a transfer request in January, just as Kolo to City reports were first coming to the fore. £15m is a lot of money, especially for a player who perhaps is not as good as he used to be (although still one of the best defenders in the league). If I were Arsene, I would seriously consider selling Kolo if I already had a defensive midfielder lined up. However, I'm not Arsene, Arsene's Arsene. Plus I honestly don't think we'll be buying anyone else this Summer (unless it's a Silvestre/Diarra situation) therefore there won't be an incoming defensive midfielder, and thus if we sell Kolo the money will only go to paying off the debt caused by the purchase of a new fangled drinks machine we bought for the training ground.

Speaking of Citeh, Lampard has said (whilst sipping Champagne in a 5 star hotel in Hollywood during Chelsea's American tour) that Chelsea don't need to spend huge amounts of money to compete with the best. Lampard's little dig at Man City obviously came at the expense of his memory.
News of the World have reported that SHOCK HORROR, Henry had recommended Redknapp to Vieira. According to the NoTW, Redknapp chatted to Henry, and Henry recommended Vieira. Firstly, why would Redknapp talk to Henry? Their paths would never cross, unless he purposely contacted Henry for an opinion over Vieira. A secondly, if he did contact Henry over Vieira, it doesn't appear to be much of a recommendation when Thierry just told him what everyone who has watched the Premiership the last decade knows.

'The man would give you so much presence'.

That's it. Shows how desperate Redknapp is to add to his squad if he buys someone purely on that. It's not a recommendation by Henry, it's just what everyone already knows, and just the NoTW being a sensationalist tabloid. My gut feeling is that Vieira won't go to the spuds. He knows exactly what it would mean to us Gooners if he went. I can't imagine it would be great for the spuds either, buying a player that their rival's Manager 3 years ago deemed no longer necessary to the club.

Right onto today's match. According to the Austrian News Bulletin on ATVO, both Eduardo and Rosicky will get little run-outs today. Cesc came back to training about a week ago aswell. Will it be too much to ask to have Eduardo, Rosicky and Cesc all in the same XI? Anyway, the match should be an interesting affair as the teams will gradually get stronger and stronger as it nears the start of the season. There is no news on whether Walcott and Gibbs are back in training yet, so I guess neither of them will be involved today. Another person who won't feature in pre-season for Arsenal is Fran Merida. I feel so sorry for him. Every summer he gets the chance in pre-season to prove he can play with the best of them, yet every summer he is selected for international duty. Don't get me wrong, it must be an honour to represent your country for every age group since toddler years, but he must be getting seriously frustrated that it comes at a time when he should be forcing his way into the first team.

Anywho, I've just remembered it's my Mum's birthday so I must be off. I'll be back later for post-match chat, and after that it's only two days to Hannover, and 5 days to the Emirates cup. I'll be there, hope you will be too.
'Til later Gooners.

Week Roundup

2009-07-23T08:54:00.004+01:00

There isn't much happening at the moment. Oh apart from Nasri having fractured his Fibula. Initial thoughts were bad, then it was only going to be 3 months, now according to Wenger it could be as little as 6 weeks. If it is that little, then that's fantastic news, as he wouldn't miss any competetive matches. Some people have been calling for Wenger to dip into the transfer market to sign a replacement. That's unnecessary. We already have Rosicky, Walcott, Arshavin, Traore, Barazite and Merida who can play there. Diaby is also occasionally played on the wing on desperate occasions. Let's hope we're not that desperate.

Cesc is back at pre-season training in Austria, pictures of which can be found at the dot com. It looks like he's been given an intensive workout by himself before being allowed to join the rest of the team. Elsewhere, Wenger says Senderos' future is 'open' (what we already knew), and Arshavin says we must put the excuse of youth behind us, and fight in all competitions to win.

Arsenal played SC Columbia on Tuesday and won pretty emphatically 7-1. It started badly for Arsenal, as they failed to break down their opponents in the first half an hour. Then Silvestre passed back to Almunia (admittedly not the best back-pass but manageable nonetheless), Almunia took a first touch instead of hoofing it, and his first touch went about 5 metres in front of him. This allowed a Columbia forward to slide tackle Almunia, and the ball spewed into the goal. This was the incentive Arsenal needed. In fact, one could see it as a tactical masterstroke by Almunia. It's like Arsenal thought 'hang on, we're not losing against a fourth division Austrian team', and they promptly went up the other end and scored. I was mightly impressed with Bendtner, whose second goal was the epitome of cool. Ramsey also had a very impressive match. For his first goal, any other Arsenal player would have played a reverse ball into Nik B, but he shot instead. That kind of urgency and directness is what most other Arsenal players are lacking, and it's good to see (as long as it doesn't happen too much).

Arshavin still looked a bit overweight and he was huffing and puffing since the word go. Senderos played the second half in defensive mid, and he spent the whole half looking like a lost little lamb. He played there before, in a match of similar stature last pre-season, and I thought exactly the same thing then. Wenger looks to be continuing the burning-out of Denilson philosophy he started last year, by playing him every minute of every game. It's a shame Barazite wasn't taken to Austria with the first team, and instead stayed with the Reserves. That's a bit of a waste. And that's it.

'Til there is something noteworthy Gooners.

Emmanuel Ade-no more.

2009-07-18T20:00:00.003+01:00

The transfer of Emmanuel Adebayor from Arsenal to Manchester City is now official. The fee is thought to be around £25 million. I'm not going to say anything anymore about Adebayor because I think everyone has heard too much about it this summer, and to be frank, I'm a bit sick of thinking about him.

I will say that at times he was skilful and showed tremendous talent, however his work ethos and attitude last year was unacceptable. His transfer could be beneficiary to the club as long as we spend the ca. £25 million. There have been replacements up front touted, but as I've said many times, the need for a dominating central midfielder must be paramount.

Right, hopefully that's the last time I will ever talk about Emmanuel Adebayor.

'Til tuesday Gooners.

Barnet 2 - 2 Arsenal

2009-07-18T17:02:00.005+01:00

So pre-season has officially started, and the game was a fairly entertaining 2-2 draw. It was also a chance to see us play in our new away kit. I like it, I know others don't. The starting line-up was slightly different from the one I had predicted. It was:

Almunia

Djourou Gallas Vermaelen Silvestre

Rosicky(c) Frimpong Randall Wilshere

Arshavin Watt

To be perfectly frank, I thought the second half team had a better game. These were:

Mannone

Eastmond Ayling Vermaelen(c) Cruise

Sunu Coquelin Henderson Barazite

Emmanuel-Thomas Simpson

Both teams started their respective halves well, but soon settled into a slump, the reason for said slump to me appeared to be the length of the grass, which made it very difficult to maintain a passing game. Towards the end of the first half though, good link-up play between Watt (who was impressive throughout the first half) and Wilshere, led to a clever cross from Watt being turned in with ease by Arshavin. The only worrying thing of note in the first half was that this was potentially our strongest central defence partnership, and it did not cope well defensively at all from set pieces. There is however plenty of time to work at that. Barnet capitalised on this frailty to equalise. During the first half, I thought the stand out players were Djourou, Rosicky and Watt. And this brings me nicely on to Rosicky. Although perhaps not match fit, his passing was fantastic, and he covered the pitch well. Strangely, the injury has seemed to make him stronger and more aggressive in the tackle. Go figure.....

Arshavin was the scorer of our goal, but all round I thought he was pretty poor. Perhaps a tad on the selfish side and stopping runs before teammates had a chance to pick him out. Also did not seem match-fit, although that is no surprise.

The second half started fantastically for Arsenal, with Barazite dominating things, and his goal was rather special. Running away from goal at an angle, he managed to wrap his foot round the ball, and the shot flew with plenty of curl and dip into the far corner. Barazite really reminds me of Pires, not just because of the slim build and long dark hair, but because of the way he cuts in from the flank, his passing, and his late surges into the box. Plus we've seen that goal a fair few times from Bobby. That goal incidently was the third year in a row Barazite has scored against Barnet.

Thomas Vermaelen, along with Rosicky was one of the major talking points before the game. It was good to see him have 90 minutes, and just as well, for I thought that after a slightly shaky first 45, he really grew as the match progressed. Vermaelen's second half was of the highest order, and seeing that kind of performance with the captain's armband was almost reminiscent of Tony Adams.

So overall, a fairly competent performance. Although it was difficult to keep stringing passes together due to the length of the grass, we certainly tried. The defence was shaky at times, and this led to the two goals Barnet scored. Having said that, I was also impressed by Luke Ayling at the heart of our second-half defence.

In other news, Emmanuel Adebayor is now undergoing a medical at Man Citeh, and Wenger has apparently told Sky Sports that he expects Adebayor to sign shortly, assuming everything goes swimmingly with his medical.

Only 3 more days to the next game, which is against SC Columbia, and I for one cannot wait.
I'll be back with Adebayor talk (hopefully for the last time) should he sign for Citeh, following that it'll be the next pre-match tittle-tattle in 3 days.
'Til then Gooners.

p.s. Arsenal have signed a 16 year old Swiss defender, to go along with Martin Angha-Lochter, named Sead Hajrovic from Grasshoppers. He has already been training with the first team, and as soon as the season starts, he'll link up with our Under 18s, and Under 16s. More details can be found at Jeorge Bird's Arsenal Youth.

OMGosh, it's finally here!!!

2009-07-18T09:54:00.012+01:00

This is the day I've been waiting for all summer. Yes, I know it may only be a friendly, but it's a chance to see our beloved, almighty, incredible Arsenal play for the first time this season. I was at a birthday gathering last night, and I was banned by my mates from talking about The Arsenal. If I mentioned them 5 times, I was allowed to be punched in the face. It's safe to say I lost that pretty bad. Towards the end of the night, I was going up to anyone who would listen (whether I knew them or not) and babbling on, in a rather excited giggle, about the game tomorrow. The dot com have announced a 21 man squad for this game, and my predictions for the starting XI are listed below:

Almunia

Djourou Gallas Silvestre Vermaelen

Arshavin Randall Rosicky Wilshere

Barazite Simpson

I'll start with the goalkeepers. The two keepers are listed in the squad are Almunia and Mannone. Almunia will almost certainly start with Mannone coming on at half time. Pretty standard stuff for a pre-season friendly at Underhill. Onto the defence, and there's not really a proper right back in the first team listed by Wenger. Djourou has played there before, although if I'm frank, I think he's dreadful there. He'll try his best, because he's a decent hardworking player, but really Djourou should only be centre back, or at a push defensive mid. On the other side, I really hope Silvestre plays left back instead of Vermaelen. Perhaps Silvestre would be best suited out on the side, where he can cause less harm, plus he did play most of his games for ManUre there. However, a lot has been made of Vermaelen's ability to also play at left back as well as his favoured position of centre back. So my hunch is Silvestre will be centre back. (Let's hope I'm wrong). Onto the midfield. It's great to see Rosicky back. Cesc said he couldn't wait to see him play again, and I think it's the same for all Arsenal players, and supporters. He was such a talented, gifted player, who offered Arsenal a lot of variety in their play. It would be fantastic if he still had that ability. Wilshere and Randall are the most established midfielders other than Rosicky and Arshavin, so it is likely they'll start. And I plumped for Barazite and Homer Jay upfront. Barazite is slightly more comfortable inbetween the midfield and forwards, so expect a lot of switching of position between him and Arshavin. In fact it wouldn't surprise me to see Barazite start on the right. Barazite also has a good goalscoring record against Barnet, and Simpson netted their too last season.

At half time, there will be SOOOO many changes. However, the younger lads will still cope well, and I'm going for a match prediction of 2-0 to the Arsenal.

Onto other things, and Adebayor is still an Arsenal player. I'm so bored of Adebayor stories, so I'm just going to say that I think he'll realise today or tomorrow that no other clubs want him, and he'll decide that Man Citeh are his best (only) option. Now, it's gone beyond the point of no return as far as stories of him leaving are concerned, and should he stay, it'll certainly have an affect on the Feng Shui in the dressing room.

Bordeaux want Silvestre plus cash for Chamakh. They must be crazy. Mind you, it wouldn't surprise me if their manager had a penchant for over the hill defenders, having been one himself. We have adequate cover for centre back, especially now as it is looking increasingly like Senderos is staying. Hence, it shouldn't be a problem, for Silvestre to leave. That's the understatement of the year. I'll try again. It'll be detrimental to the team should Silvestre stay. That's better. Chamakh himself has said that playing for Arsenal would be a dream, however talks with the club are not in as advanced a stage as talks with Sunderland and Blackburn. Let's see how that one turns out.

No news on any defensive midfielders. Weep.

That's all for today, I had a look at Barnet's ticket prices, and they were rather more than I expected/could afford. I will of course be watching Arsenal TV online, however those of you who aren't going or do not have ATVO, someone will almost certainly be streaming the game online.

Enjoy the match gooners, and I'll see you here afterwards.

Adebayor

2009-07-16T08:40:00.005+01:00

So unless you've been living in a hole somewhere far far away, like Aberdeen, you would have heard the news that Adebayor has undergone a medical and been granted a work permit for a proposed move to Manchester City (according to Sky sports sources). I was going to wait until it was official before writing about it, then I thought, 'Meh, what else am I going to do?' (apart from watching this year's excellent edition of the Tour de France). Oddly Adebayor had undergone the medical and work permit hearing before Arsenal and Man City had finalised a price. However as the latest news is that Adebayor is waiting to see if another club comes in for a bid, indications are that the two clubs have agreed a fee, and the rest is down to Adebayor. I don't think another club will bid for Adebayor. Those clubs that had expressed interest last year, have now turned their noses up at the Togolese-goal-post-marker. Even AC Milan who still haven't signed a replacement for Kaka are no longer showing interest in Adebayor.

So it seems that before long, Adebayor will be at the door of Ashburton, with only a pause and a last sad look back at Emmanuel Eboue, before becoming a Man City player. Although, the fact he wants to wait to see if another club comes in for him, can't be very nice for a City player/manager/staff/supporter to see. If I were Mark Hughes I would say 'Alright f**k it then, if you'd rather play for someone else, then we're not gonna sign you'. We've already seen how Adebayor plays when he'd rather be doing something else. Like flirting with Italian clubs, or counting his money.

Before I go any further, I must just mention that all of this started with 'Sky sports news sources understand that...'. Those are precarious words. Right, now I can go further. I was watching a youtube video of Adebayor the other day, before all this broke, and there's no doubt he's talented (although a youtube video can make anyone look good). Even in this last season, with him being lazy, and a disruptive influence, as well as being injured a great deal of time, he managed to bag 16 goals. That was a goal every 2.31 games. That's pretty good by anyone's book. However, most of the time it looked like he'd rather be somewhere else. Also do you remember a goal he scored against Everton in the 07/08 season, when there was a mix up between Howard and (I think) Yobo? Adebayor pounced and scored with an open goal. That only came about because Adebayor charged it down as quickly as he could, even though ordinarily it would have been a lost cause. I cannot remember a single example of this last year.

There are pros and cons for Adebayor, however when push comes to shove, I have to trust Wenger. Despite the trophyless seasons, he still knows what he's doing, and if he thinks we can do better without Adebayor then so be it. I would be happy to see Adebayor leave, even if it is to another English Club, as long as Wenger spends the cash. Not even on a replacement striker, but on a defensive midfielder. Word is Matuidi is available for around £3million, and Cana for £6.5million. From what I've seen, I prefer Cana, but only Le Boss knows best. Of course, it's now common knowledge that we're interested in Chamakh aswell, as a more direct replacement for Adebayor, as well as our scouts giving Eden Hazard the eye.

However, I don't care if no replacement is bought for Adebayor should he go. Up front we have van Persie (our new player of the season), Eduardo, Bendtner, Vela, Walcott and Arshavin. With a huge talent in Rhys Murphy waiting in the wings. Anyway, Adebayor's apparently imminent departure coupled with Arsenality's recently finished poll, started me thinking what Arsenal's best eleven is. And eventually I came up with a 4-3-3 formation a la Barcelona, with some bewildering interchanging between the front three. I think this is our best eleven:

Almunia

Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Clichy

Song

Fabregas (c) Nasri

Arshavin van Persie

Eduardo

Subs: Fabianski, Toure, Djourou, Denilson, Walcott, Vela, Bendtner

Yes yes I know I left out Ramsey, but that's because I would send him out on loan with the option of recalling him. Plus I think it's about time the Boss called up Merida every now and then, he's ridiculously far above the level of the reserves. Of course there would be a place for Rosicky depending on injuries.

Speaking of Rosicky, the dot com have released an indication of who might be in the squad for the Barnet match (only two days!!!!!) and Rosicky is there which is excellent news. Of course they haven't said anything about the Adebayor saga (yes that's right I've dubbed it a saga already).

Right that's all for now.
I'll probably be back tomorrow with pre-Barnet match tittle-tattle.
'Til then Gooners.

Arsenal Fans piss me off

2009-07-08T09:56:00.008+01:00

Ok, now I have your attention, allow me to explain myself. Of course most of them don't piss me off. Almost all Arsenal fans will support their team through thick and thin, and won't get on the backs of players. Unfortunately for the majority, there are a minority who are just horrible people. Gooners have come to expect success from Arsenal, and rightly so. We are one of the best teams in the world, and should be winning things a lot more than we do. However the success of Arsene Wenger has led to some supporters developing a spoilt attitude. And when things don't go right then all of a sudden the players are crap, the manager has lost it, the players don't care et.c. In fact this spoilt attitude can go almost as far as blinding the fans as to the ability of certain players. I am, in this case, talking about Nicklas Bendtner. I realise last year he missed a couple of sitters. However, if you understand football at all, you should be able to see the contribution that Nik B makes to the team. He works so much harder than our other forwards, he links up the play between the midfield and attack, he is actually a creative player, he is a handful for the defence, and he keeps putting himself back in scoring positions even though he might miss. That shows confidence, and that is vital for a footballer of any kind, especially a forward. Even more importantly, Bendtner achieved the same goals to start ratio as van Persie. Eventually ending up on 15 goals.

This is all in response to a 'FanZone' article on skysports.com, so I am going to name and shame a few of the commenters.

Rob V says...
My Outs will be Silvestre, Denilson and Nicklas Barndoor.

Josef Biggz says...
My biggest FLOP of the season is Bendner (He should be sold and replaced with Chamach) , he just doesn't have what it take to be an arsenal player.

Steven Haig says...
the striker i would love to see the back of is nicholas bendtner. he has showed this season he can only score against teams like west brom. could you honestly see bendtner scoring in the last 5mins at old trafford...

Jim Cahill says...
Arsene Wenger has the full support of true Arsenal Supporters I'm sure, however he has to see that the boy Bentner is shocking and has to go.

Simple Life says...
Benther for me is arsenal's most inefficient player. He has been consistently poor in the last 3 or so seasons

Ok so there are things wrong with everybody listed above's statements. Firstly Rob V, your a c**t, nicknaming our third top scorer isn't clever and it doesn't help matters at all. Josef Biggz (if that is your real name) how can Bendtner be a flop when he cost us £75,000? When a player costs £75,000 and scores 15 goals in a season for a team with the quality of Arsenal, well that's a pretty amazing deal isn't it? Also Josef wants Chamakh to replace him. Chamakh incidently scored 13 goals last season, and appeared more times than Bendtner. Possibly the statement which is least correct factually is Steven Haig, who states Bendtner can only score against West Brom, and you can't imagine him scoring in the last 5 minutes against teams like Man U. Conveniently forgetting that Bendtner scored in the dying moments against Chelsea last season, and in fact was our only threatening player when he came on. Jim Cahill obviously does not watch Arsenal games week in, week out, so only sees the misses which Match of the Day play, and Simple Life (who got Bendtner's name COMPLETELY wrong) says Benther is inefficient and has been consistently poor for the last 3 seasons. Don't tell me you were watching and judging Bendtner's performances when he was on loan at Birmingham? Yes that's right, Bendtner has only been in the Arsenal first team for 2 years, and when he played for Birmingham the year before that, he was seen by everyone as the most promising player in the championship.

Fortunately, these people are in the minority. Visiting other blogs relieves me of my worries that all Gooners hate Bendtner. A little encouragement can be taken by the fact that none of the people above can spell, therefore any opinions they have must be taken with a pinch of salt. I have a ManUre supporter mate who thinks Bendtner is crap. The reason for this is he only sees Arsenal games on Match of the Day, if he can be bothered to watch them at all. And sadly this is the same for the people above. They call themselves Arsenal fans, yet if they were like me, or the guys from Arsenality, Arseblog, Le Grove etc they would be watching every game, and they would see that he's not crap. Either that or that they are in fact just plain stupid. And see that the only thing a striker can give to a team is goals. A thing Bendtner actually can still give. Their arguments are flawed and it grinds my gears no end.

It all comes down to the fact that they're spoilt, and blinded by the anger that Arsenal aren't winning things. I am as annoyed as the next Gooner that we haven't won anything for what seems like a decade, but getting on a player's back, especially when he doesn't deserve it, is unnecessary and shows a complete lack of understanding of the sport on your part.

As I said earlier, these people are in the minority. Most people realise Bendtner's worth to the team and his immense potential. It's just the kind of people that are attracted to write comments on skysports.com that come out with this dribble. In a year or two we'll be saying I told you so. It reminds me of a few years ago, during the world cup, when all the England fans were on the back of Owen Hargreaves, purely because they weren't seeing him play week in, week out. A rational person would have watched the 20 minutes of every England game he played, and thought 'Yea this guy is an energetic, yet tidy midfielder. He can provide good cover for Lampard/Gerrard when they get forward.' Yet as it was, when England fans were interviewed before the knockout stage one of them blurted out 'Yea they're all gonna be great. Apart from Hargreaves, he's gonna go home, but the others will be great'. How stupid he must have felt after the world cup that he'd embarrassed himself so on national television. And this is what Bendtner must do, to all his critics. The minority don't understand football, the rest of us believe in you Nicklas.

Right, well that's my rant done for the day. In other news, van Persie's new contract is official. Melo looks like he's going to Juventus, and Wenger please PLEASE sign Cana. Also in the background of one of these pictures, it looks like Pat Rice is desperately trying to explain to Silvestre what a mat is. 'It's grass? I play football on it?' 'No Mikael, it's a mat, you do stretches on it.' 'So I play football on it?' '(sighs) Yes ok, play football on it.'

Well that's all for now.
'Til later Gooners.

Training is back.

2009-07-07T18:32:00.003+01:00

As I'm sure you've all seen, the photos of Arsenal's first training session of pre-season are up on the dot com. There isn't much to say about this really. It gave us our first opportunity to see new signing Vermaelen in action, even though said 'action' is just a still of him running, and pulling some weights. Interestingly it appears that Vermaelen has the number 30 something on his shirt (it looks to be either 30 or 31). Even more interesting is the fact that Senderos doesn't have any number on the front of his shirt. Then again I don't know how meaningful these numbers are as Arshavin seems to be wearing number 28, as opposed to last season's number 23. And Lansbury is number 56, whereas as last year he sported the number 42. Surely a player touted to have a bright future, who is meant to be working his way up the team, won't be relegated 14 numbers. So this just shows these numbers may not mean much, if anything. On a positive note, it's good to see Eduardo and Rosicky back in training.

In other news, Dennis Lachter appears to have forgotten that he was dismissed as Arshavin's agent about a month ago and has told Barcelona to bid for Arshavin. Let me join the cue in wishing Lachter to shut the hell up. Lorik Cana was interviewed a while back and he stated that, although he wanted to leave Marseille, he wanted to wait until they had found a replacement. Word on the southern french street is that they have signed Stephane M'Bia, and thus Cana is available for only £6.5 million. I'm not sure how reliable this is, but wouldn't that be a bargain and three quarters?

Lastly Arseblog interviewed Ivan Gazidis yesterday, who did a very good job in recognising that the fans view on the club is important and all that.

Right I'm off. I'm still praying to the transfer gods that something interesting happens. I'm beginning to think it won't.
'Til later Gooners.

Happy Start of Pre-Season Training Day!

2009-07-06T10:31:00.007+01:00

So, some of the wait is over. Arsenal begin pre-season training today at London Colney and in 12 days time we will have our first friendly: the annual Barnet match at Underhill. Of course some people won't be starting just yet. Fabregas, Walcott and Gibbs will be given extended breaks after their international adventures this summer. Vela is off in the North America and Carribbean version of the European Championships. Merida, Lansbury and Hoyte are all going to be involved in the Euro under 19 competition which starts on July 21st, and word is the African players won't be back yet either after a few international matches which also took place during the summer break. So perhaps not the raring start we were hoping for, but a start nonetheless.

In other Arsenal news, congratulations to Manuel Almunia, who came third in the Arsenal player of the season, and congratulations to Arshavin who came second. One would think that had he been at Arsenal the whole season he would easily have come first. As it is, presumably van Persie will take the honours this year. That brings me on to another point that I have touched upon before, but it annoys me so much. And that is that we find out who has been our Player of the Season a week after training starts for the next season. Surely it shouldn't be like this.

But anyway, Melo stories refuse to go away. As I stated in a previous article I can't help but feel there may be some truth in the stories of our pursuit of the fiery Brazilian. It draws parallels to stories of Nasri, Arshavin and Vermaelen, which also failed to go away. Then we signed them. Let's hope it's the same this time. Fiorentina, for some reason posted on their official website that they wanted most of the escape fee clause for Melo, along with a swap for Eboue. To which we reportedly responded 'Are you crazy?! Get out of here, we can't lose Eboue!! Have Senderos instead.' I expect this to go on for a while. More importantly, now pre-season has started, will Wenger even try to bring anyone else in for fear of disrupting team gelling? Only time will tell.

In the last week, the Werder Bremen manager actually told the press that he was looking at selling one of his players (Naldo) for about £8million, and Arsenal looked the most likely destination. I honestly don't think this is the case. Surely? What manager actually says that to the press? I mean it would be great if it did happen. I really rate him, plus he's as tall as Canary Wharf. Also Cesc is being bullied by the two Spanish superclubs and The Sun again. This time, apparently we've 'slapped' a £40million price tag on our captain (sounds painful). This evidently is in preparation for bids to come in from Barcelona and Real Madrid. We have to consider the source. It's The Sun. Therefore it is lies. Also isn't it about time Wenger reported Barca and Real Madrid? It's illegal to intentionally make a player uncomfortable in his current club so he'll move to you. What they are trying is pretty damn transparent, almost to the point that Fiorentino Perez and Joan Laporta are saying to the press 'Our aim is to grind down Cesc Fabregas so eventually he can't be arsed to play for Arsenal anymore and undergo all this speculation, and then he'll move to us.' Yet somehow they get away with it!

Oh by the way, I like the white kit. I understand it's not traditional Arsenal colours, but who on earth thinks it looks bad? How does it look bad? It looks very stylish and I for one like it, I don't care what anyone else thinks.

That's all for now. 'Til something happens Gooners.

p.s. Apparently Harry Redknapp is trying to lure Luis Figo out of retirement, so he can play for the spuds. Hahahahaha how desperate are they??

Melo has signed a new contract...so what?

2009-07-01T12:45:00.002+01:00

So apparently our interested in Felipe Melo has ended purely because he's signed a new contract. Let me tell you, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Firstly, Melo has only signed a one year extension. Who only signs for an extra year unless they're over 30? One year is hardly commiting yourself to your club in the long-term. The only reason Melo signed a new contract was because Fiorentina wanted a 'buy-out clause' on him. To add something like that, a new contract must be signed, and the minimum extension possible is one year. Melo's contract didn't have a buy-out clause before, so surely Fiorentina moving to ensure he has one plainly means they expect bids to come in. Also, we were going to have to spend money on him anyway. It's not like Melo was previously available on a free before signing his extension. It may indeed be the case that we give up on Melo, but it won't be purely because he's signed a new contract.

Our attentions have also turned to Lorik Cana. Tabloids have sweeping headlines such as: 'Arsenal turn to Tottenham target Cana.' Thus trying to make us look embarrassed by missing out on one potential target and having to turn to a player that our arch-rivals want. As if they saw him first. Several years ago Wenger wanted to get Cana on a trial but Cana unfortunately couldn't obtain a work permit. Now he's been playing in France for several years as well as playing every game for Albania, he would be able to get one. This, coupled with the fact that Marseille seem resigned to losing him, may mean this is the most opportune moment to swoop in and get ourselves a tough defensive midfielder.

Right that's all for now.
'Til later Gooners.

Oh for God's sake

2009-06-30T08:31:00.004+01:00

When pre-season commences in a weeks time, I think the first thing Arsene should do is gather everyone round and say "Ok guys, new rule. None of you, ABSOLUTELY NONE of you, will ever speak to anyone from the press ever again. Ever." This comes off the back of a story where Arshavin reportedly has said that he would like to play for Barcelona. Seeing as he's 28, and only just signed for Arsenal, and Arsenal are likely to keep him until maybe 30, plus the fact that Arshavin wants to finish his career at Zenit St. Petersburg, he's not giving Barcelona a terribly appealing prospect. Having said that Henry is the wrong side of 30 yet has just had a great year of Barca (nowhere near as good as he used to for us though) and still looks like having a career after 2012 (albeit probably in the MLS). I'm just going to ignore this story, it's a continuation of the press (led by the spaniards) to bully Arsenal. I suggest you ignore it too.

Just a few words on Gilberto Silva. What a gent eh? What a proper gent. Despite the fact the AW treated him pretty shabbily in his last season, plus the fact he found out on Arsenal.com that, after Henry's departure, he would lose out on the captain's armband to an immature sulky defender who just joined from Chelsea the year before (despite Gibo having lead the team admirably when Henry was injured in his last season (which was a lot)), he still told Felipe Melo, that if Arsenal were interested in him, he would jump at the chance of joining without a moments hesitation. Silva said that Arsenal were a great club, and that Felipe Melo is just the sort of player we need at the moment. I'm still not sure anything will come of this, but now Milan are giving Wolfsburg until thursday to decide if they're going to keep Dzeko (something they appear to have already decided), it's making it look increasingly like they may bid for Adebayor. This will give us some cash to splash. Or to spend on training a flock of sheep to keep the Emirates Stadium grass to it's ideal length, as a long-term solution to having to spend money on a lawnmower.

Finally, Usmanov's plans to get the fans on his side continues this week with a proposal that will be discussed with the board. Whatever Usmanov promises I will be sceptical over, seeing as he's a ManUre supporter, and won't want to pump money into Arsenal just to clear debt and provide a transfer kitty, without getting anything back. The board have varying opinions over this depending on who you read, I would go with the Guardian however, who state that the board are pretty hostile towards it.

Well it's only a week until pre-season training. As Wenger stated he wants an acquisition or two more, so it could turn out to be a busy week for Gazidis.
Here's to hoping Gooners.

As nothing is happening, I will talk about something that isn't important.

2009-06-28T08:58:00.003+01:00

So nothing else has happened yet. There have been some extreme rumours first put forward by Sky Sports at around 10.30 last night that Arsenal are ready to 'high-jack' ManUre's bid for Karim Benzema. Sure Benzema would be a great signing but he would apparently cost £30million. It all hinges on Adebayor, if he's sold for £25million, then we may have enough dough for Benzema. HOWEVER, firstly Wenger had a brief interview in l'Equipe where he said Adebayor and Fabregas aren't going anywhere, and secondly even if Ade was sold there's no way on earth Wenger would spend £30 million on a player. The income from Adebayor would presumably go to producing robots who clean up the Emirates Stadium lavatories.

There is nothing else going on so I'm going to talk about Arsenal.com. Arsenal.com, isn't it the most boring piece of crap you have ever seen in your life? All I want is to see who has won player of the year. And sure 2nd, 3rd and 4th can be mentioned in brief as they deserve it. But having a week dedicated to each one is ridiculous. What makes it more ridiculous is that they can never find anything to write about. Last week Nasri was voted 4th (I would have given him 3rd, and not counted Arshavin at all). The whole week was: an article of his best bits, some old videos dug up about Nasri's perfect footballer that were given a while ago, and a video of Nasri scoring his brace against the Mancs, something (as beautiful as it was) we have each seen a thousand times over. That is all they could think about. Now it appears I have to wait 3 weeks to find out who won. That is such a long time! And so long after the season ended. Most teams anounce their player of the season in the last week of the term.

Arsenal.com also never have any news, of any kind, ever. They also have an uncanny knack for unveiling signings after every other site including BBC.co.uk. BBC.co.uk the website that usually waits for a player to play his first game for the club before announcing he's signed. On match day morning I log in to Arsenal.com hoping for some hints as to who may play, but there never is. They just mention that Eduardo and Rosicky will be missing out with injury. Something that had remained the same for the better part of a year.

I long since abandoned Arsenal.com, having been disillusioned with it. But that's what these blogs are for. For opinions, fantasy and why not a bit of gossip every now and then?
So I guess this has been a round about way of saying long live the Arsenal blogs! (Especially mine).
God how bored must I have been to have written that....

Oh by they way there is quite a nice article concerning Robin van Persie on the News of the World site. It's not nice because it was written by NotW, purely because it concerns the boy wonder. Had it been written by the Guardian it would have been a very nice piece of journalism. It highlights RvPs passion for the game, and his strive to be seen as one of the best players in the world in tandem with winning trophies at Arsenal.

So, that's it. Not much to talk about. I'll be back sometime, I guess.
'Til then Gooners.

Time keeps ticking away....

2009-06-27T12:11:00.003+01:00

Despite my promise of almost daily articles from now on, there just hasn't been any news worthy of being put into letters and words recently. The other day Le Boss proclaimed that he had a couple of targets that we was aiming to purchase before pre training commenced. He went on to say however that identifying targets, and getting them were a different kettle of fish. It appears that he is right there as there has been NO news on anything. I don't count the Melo rumours as news. I do find it encouraging that there is continual speculation surrounding him because usually when there is this much speculation it goes beyond rumours and must have some element of truth about it (for example Vermaelen, Nasri and Arshavin). However the only 'news' (and I use that in the loosest possible way) is that Melo has said he's happy at Fiorentina. That's no surprise, everyone says they're happy at their current club. If they say otherwise there is the potential that they could forfit a signing on fee for the new club. Apparently Gilardino had the feeling on the 24th that Melo would be sold, yet a couple of days later BBC claim that Arsenal's hopes of signing Melo have ended due to the player himself ruling out a move. Reading the article to which the BBC refers, there is no indication that the player in question ruled out a move, merely that he was settled in Italy. That's it. That's all there is that constitutes as news about Melo. God it's boring.

Shall I bother saying anything about Chamakh? Go on then, as I'm bored. Rumours concerning him appear to be sluggish and indecisive. Have Arsenal lodged a bid, or are in fact Bordeaux offering him a new contract? More importantly, last season Chamakh scored a grand total of 13 goals. Is it me, or is that actually not impressive? I'm not doubting his ability but Bendtner scored more and still managed to gather some boo-boys. Although we have to consider that said boo-boys may in fact be mentally retarded.

In other news, Arshavin has dumped Dennis Lachter. Not really surprising when you think about it. Although he was insturmental in securing Arshavin's move to Arsenal, he didn't half make it as uncomfortable as possible, and every now and then still says things that make him seem like a pain in the arse. There is some good news! Drag queen-faced Ronaldo's move to Madrid is complete. We don't have to see his face nearly as often anymore! Yippee! I bet Andy Gray is upset though.

Cesc is being bullied by the media again. Cue every Gooner in the world, and indeed presumably most other people who aren't Barcelona or Madrid fans, groaning to themselves and rolling there eyes to the tune of 'oh no not again'. Cesc himself said he doesn't know how many times he has to prove his loyalty to the club. It highlights an act of pure desperation by the media that they continue to go back to this story. In future if I were Cesc I would think twice about talking to the Spanish media at all. As Arseblog state, if he does give interviews, he should end every sentence with "I'm not leaving Arsenal". Gerard Pique, who I previously had a lot of respect for, has announced in a rather pompous fashion that Barca will snare Fabregas, and that (whether he wants to or not) he will end up in the blue and red. Pique also stated:

"I wouldn't be happy at all (if Fabregas signed for Madrid)"

Hahaha like anyone gives a crap about whether you're happy. Didn't I say pompous? There goes that respect Gerard....

Well done to Theo and Gibbsy who both netted penos that got the under 21s through to the final in a match that England tried their best to throw away.

That's it. That's actually it. I hope something...anything happens tomorrow. Otherwise I'll try and think of something interesting to write about.

Um......

Do do do we've got Thomas Vermaelen

2009-06-22T12:19:00.006+01:00

Hi all, please accept my profuse apologies for the lack of posting recently. I've had exams and other miserable excuses for trying to get my concentration away from Arsenal. As I'm sure you're all aware by now, we recently signed Thomas 'Tommy Boy Vermaelen' Vermaelen from Ajax. The fee is thought to be around the £10m mark, and it's a good capture if you ask me (which you probably don't). The centre back was captain of Ajax last season at the age of 23. Ajax, although in a slight slump at the moment from past great teams, is still a good team, and being the captain shows he must have excellent leadership qualities. In his first interview (available on youtube) he also states he is a physical player. That's very much needed, although being a centre back one would assume he is physical. Let's hope he means more physical than the norm. His height appears to fluctuate between 5'11 and 6'1. His official height is apparently 6'. I don't think we should get carried away with all the height malarchy. Let's remember that Abou Diaby is 12 ft 3 yet as soon as the ball approaches his head he let's out a stifled cry and runs as far away as possible.

I hope Wenger gives him the number 6 instead of some silly number. Of course the question is what will happen to the part-time nightclub bouncer now that Milan aren't interested and if we can't get rid of him. 28 appears to be available now Bischoff looks like he's leaving, and Kolo used to have that. Dave said to me the other day he hopes if Senderos stays, he'd be given the number 18. Implying that Fish head should be sold. I hope to god Silvestre does leave, but I have a nasty feeling that it's not going to happen.

Talking of Senderos, there have been rumours flying about that he could be used (along with plenty of cash) to agree a deal with Fiorentina where Felipe Melo would come to Ashburton. Melo has come out with the standard, I want to commit myself to my current contract chit-chat, but to be honest everyone says that. Apart from Ronaldo. God i'll be glad if i don't have to see his drag queen face in the premiership again. But anyway I digress. Melo is a tidy defensive midfielder with a crunching challenge, and an excellent long pass. 'Just what we need' I hear you shout. Yes but only if Arsene were that simple. From watching the Confederations cup it's easy to see why le Boss is interested in Melo, if indeed he is.

That brings me nicely to Cescy boy. He was very impressive in Spain's first game of the confederations cup bagging a goal and an assist. He was everywhere on the park (stats showed he covered the most distance by the end) and was clearly enjoying himself. He missed the second game against Iraq apparently because in training Xabi Alonso took him out again. Steady on Xabi, some may start saying that you're jealous 'cause Fabregas just walked into the Spanish squad at the age of 18, and you're still not quite a regular in the starting XI. (That said, I think Alonso is a fantastic player). In the latest game against South Africa, with Spain already qualified, Cesc once again played the whole match, but couldn't quite get into the game, coming in off the right flank. He started off trying hard to get into the game, but eventually gave up and had a lazy kind of game. It was only at the end when Pablo Hernandez came on and got moved to the right, that Cesc could move into the centre and strut his stuff. Still it's nice to see an Arsenal player playing this summer. Let's hope he's not too tired by the beginning of pre-season training.

Walcott and Gibbs have also been playing. Gibbsy has been taking many plaudits for his performances at left back, with Walcott receiving less praise. Walcott still proved his undoubted talent, when coming off the bench against Spain, he provided a superb assist to James Milner.

That's all for today. The articles will be more plentiful now, probably almost daily. I've only got one exam left and I really don't care about it.
'Til next time Gooners.

Poll results, and general tittle-tattle.

2009-06-13T09:00:00.006+01:00

Hi all, sorry about the lengthy absence, I've had several exams not to revise for. I have several left as well, so there may be another week long break coming up.

So the results of the poll are in, and thank you to everyone who voted. There aren't too many surprises, apart from the people who seem to want Cesc Fabregas to leave this summer... 'Who would you most like to see leave the club this summer' kicked off the poll, and we had a tie for first place. It seems 28% of you would like Mikael Silvestre to leave, and the same amount of you would like Emmanuel Adebayor to leave. There were also votes for Diaby, Fabregas (which I shall ignore), Fabianski, Arshavin (again which I will ignore), and Eboue. So it would appear a bad attitude means as much to you people as an incredible lack of ability. I personally would have voted for Silvestre, but I can understand the people who went for Adebayor. In my opinion, the Silvestre signing was just an embarrassment, and kind of said a lot about what was going to happen the coming season. He is just absolutely, incredibly bad, but I'm not going to go into it again, because I can feel my blood pressure increasing. Word is that Silvestre was about to sign for another (worse) team, when Wenger heard he was available, and brought him in. That to me sounds like a hurried and panicked transfer. Apparently we spent £750,000 on him, and rumour is he's attracting interest in the MLS (poor saps, they don't know what they're getting themselves into). I reckon we could make a slight profit there. We could fool the MLS into believing he's worth at least a million, after all they're american, what do they know about football?

Adebayor on the other hand does have talent, it is obvious, no matter how much you are starting to dislike the guy. As I stated in a previous article, Adebayor used to be the hardest working striker in the premiership when he was rubbish, but now he has the attitude of someone who thinks he's made it big. There has been some whimpering coming from his corner, stating that he thinks he has worked as hard as he could this year, and that it's not his fault people are interested in him. We all know what he does however when team's are courting him, and it hasn't been forgiven yet. It is also plain to see that he hasn't been working as hard on the pitch as he used to. Football fans aren't that hard to please, as long as they see a player chase down everything on the pitch they can, they're going to appreciate the player. As it is, Adebayor has got better, got paid more, and stopped working. Perhaps, for the sake of the work ethos of the front line in general it would be best if he left. Abou Diaby is another person I would like to see leave. He's 23 now and older than a lot of more established players in our squad. Despite this, his inconsistency is perhaps that of a 12 year old, as is his willingness to get stuck in. His lack of commitment into tackles and aerial battles does not justify Wenger including him in physical games. Nor does Diaby have any vision, or any idea when is the best time to release the ball. I think it's time Wenger raised his hands and admitted defeat. Now i've said that, Diaby is likely to have an incredible season next term. If he stays, let's hope he does.

On to 'who do you actually think is going to leave this summer?'. Run-away winner with an incredible 50% of the vote is surprise, surprise Adebayor. We've talked enough about him though, apart from to say that Milan, and Chelsea have made noises about signing him. I'm not convinced he will leave however, I think it's more likely Senderos will leave, and he occupies second place with 25%. He clearly isn't happy at being an Arsenal player any longer, and he personally believes he's more suited to the Italian game. Unfortunately Milan appear not to be making his loan permanent. Wenger will find another club for Senderos to go to though, le Boss won't want a player in the team who doesn't want to be there. There were also votes for Silvestre, Arshavin (ignoring) and Gibbs. That last one is very strange....

'Who would you least like to see leave this summer?' was the next question, and it was a hard fought battle between two players. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise these two were Cesc and Arshavin. Arshavin just edged it with 30% as opposed to Cesc's 20%. The rest were Gallas, van Persie, Walcott and somehow Adebayor. In contrast to all the people who voted for him in the above two questions, it does appear there are still some fans of him.

It seems people are undecided as to which position needs filling the most. Centre back, and defensive mid ended up equal on 37% each, with the rest of the votes going to right-back and striker. I too can't decide which one needs filling the most. Hopefully players will get bought for both positions this summer, but I'm not so sure about the defensive mid. That would mean Wenger admitting Denilson and Song aren't ready yet, and he's too stubborn for that. As much as we need a player there, Wenger may stick to his principles over logic. Right back is a strange one, recently Sport.co.uk have linked us with Maicon, although from reading that article they appear to have just made the story up. Striker I can understand if Adebayor leaves. If he doesn't, we won't get another Striker, we already have van Persie, Eduardo, Bendtner, Vela and Walcott.

So on to the final question, which was 'which realistic signing would you most like to see at the Grove?'. 36% of the vote went for Yaya Toure, 27% Gareth Barry, 18% Xabi Alonso, and 9% each of Lorik Cana, and Mamadou Sakho. I hate to say it, but I find it highly unlikely that Yaya Toure will come to Arsenal. Wenger could have had him on a free several years ago, when the younger Toure came on trial, but he did not make the grade. As we have discussed our boss has pride in abundance, and is very stubborn. If he does make on offer for Yaya, it's not going to be big enough. Wenger is not going to splash large quantities of cash for a player he could have had for nothing, it's simply not going to happen. I would love Xabi Alonso in an Arsenal shirt, but again who honestly thinks it will happen?

Since this poll was made two weeks ago, one of those targets (Gareth Barry) has decided that the size of his wallet is more important than his integrity, and as jumped ships to Man City, however there have been the appearance to two other players. It would appear Thomas Vermaelen is now all but an Arsenal player. Rumours have it that the bid has been accepted, and now they're in the stage of discussing personal terms, with Vermaelen seemingly keen on becoming an Arsenal plaer. However, they seem to be taking a lot of time in this stage. If it were me in advanced contract talks with Arsenal, I would shout 'I don't care, they can pay me with flat pack Ikea furniture, just make me an Arsenal player!'. Evidently, it doesn't work that way for Vermaelen, but let's just hope it happens quickly, we don't want to have another Nasri saga on our hands. Another player who has been linked to us a lot recently is Luc Castaignos for either £4million of 4 million Euros depending on what source you believe. I don't know if any of you have ever seen him play, but he is dynamite. A striker who reminds me a lot of van Persie, except, quicker, and more clinical. This guy is going to be absolutely massive, and 4 million of whatever currency is great value, but it is understandable if Wenger just wants to see what's available to him for the first team, before spending on a 16 year old. Interestingly, in all the articles I've read (an example of which is this one) no one has actually said Arsenal have made an offer for the young dutchman, just that his agent has said he would be 'open to a switch to Arsenal'. I think there are a lot of players who would be. I'm sure Giuseppe Sole of Woking FC would be open to a switch to Arsenal, doesn't mean it's going to happen.

Lastly, Mamadou Sakho's Mr 20% has been chatting to the press. He says his client his highly likely to leave Paris St-Germain this year with Arsenal the likely destination. That's great, as 9% of the voters show. However if we read on, his agent states that:

'Arsenal are interested, but the club are too cheap at the moment....Arsenal are a good club, but Manchester United is a better club.'

Oh great. Let's hope that's just the opinion of the agent, not the player. The thing about Manchester being a better a club that is. Not the thing about us being cheap. Everyone knows we are cheap.

Well that's all for now. Must get back to not revising.
Have a good weekend Gooners.

Arsenal transfer rumours kick into gear.

2009-06-04T10:17:00.005+01:00

Yes I know there has been a lot of stuff about Adebayor, but I'm talking about interesting rumours. And rumours that concern incoming players. Stories circling about Thomas Vermaelen have been gathering pace, quite so that they're now an unmistakable whirlwind which culminated in Wenger almost tying up a £10million deal for the Belgian last night. The article in question where this story presents itself does not state why the deal wasn't finalised or if there were any stumbling blocks, or whether the bid itself was in fact accepted. Actually the whole article is devoid of anything worthy of actual journalism. There is however our old favourite friend who we affectionately like to name 'the insider' giving his 5-daily quote:

"It's true. He's a very good player and could certainly be a success at Arsenal."

I don't know what made this insider say it's true he's a very good player. Presumably someone from the Sun asked 'Is this guy a good player?' followed by 'considering Arsenal's frailties in defence, and the fact this guy is a defender, could he be a success at Arsenal?'. Plus what makes the insider an expert? If this guy says Vermaelen could be a success at Arsenal, then christ we better get him quick because he must know all there is to know about Arsenal, he is after all an Ajax insider. Anyway that seems to be all the information the Sun need that Arsene almost tied up Vermaelen, because they certainly don't give any other evidence. Saying that, I do think Vermaelen is a good player, and I do think he'll do well at Arsenal. He must be doing something right to be the captain of Ajax at 23.

In a transfer rumour that has no where near the velocity of the Vermaelen whirlwind (this is more of a zephyr), the Times reckon we want Chiellini. Well who doesn't? Doesn't mean we are going to get him though. We'll presumably be priced out. Sky sports 'believe' (have made up based on transfer rumours from a year ago that were only rumours in the first place) that Arsenal, Aston Villa and Everton are all interested in Oba Martins after Newcastle were unceremoniously dumped from the premier league. Sky sports state that Martins' agent has said that three clubs in the upper echelon of the premier league are after his client. To be fair to sky sports it seems possible that these three clubs may indeed be the three clubs they believe, but then again their article inexplicably changes to italics half way through, and remains like that for the rest of the piece.

Well that's it for the incoming rumours. Perhaps I was a bit mis-leading with 'kicking into gear'. In outgoing news, Eboue admits he is unclear in what his stance is at Arsenal. It's usually on the floor Emmanuel, after an opposition player has come within a metre of you. Apparently Inter are keen on our Ivorian cult hero. Eboue goes on to say he will make his decision before the season starts.

The Sun can apparently see the future. As well as their gift of somehow finding the notorious Insider the eludes every newspaper except for them and the Daily Star, they seem to somehow know that AC Milan will bid for Adebayor this week. Do you how I know they can see the future? Because they haven't given any quotes from anyone, or any evidence in general, that someone told them about this. Therefore they must have looked into their crystal orb and saw that Milan made an offer. Unfortunately they didn't go on to tell us whether it was accepted or declined. That would have saved us a whole lot of bother. Or perhaps the Sun actually subliminally control Milan, and line "AC MILAN will make a bid of £15million for Emmanuel Adebayor this week" was actually an order. Wouldn't that be interesting? Still though, £15 million. Would prefer something around the £20m mark.

In other news Hleb is a target for Aston Villa. Whether Hleb can handle the hustle and bustle of England's second city after arriving from the spanish equivalent remains to be seen. The star reckons Barca will sell Hleb for £7mill less than they bought him for last year to raise some cash for Cesc. Go away Barca, stop bullying us. I don't think Cesc will go to Barca just yet. He knows that if there is one midfield he can't get into yet in the world it is Barca's. However Xavi is flirting with 30. In a couple of years time these Cesc rumours will turn into a worrying reality. Real Madrid appear to be gently nudging us away from Xabi Alonso, as they flex their financial muscles. As a result Liverpool are upping their valuation of the player. That pretty much rules us out for now.

Right, i reckon that's it for now. I'll be back should anything interesting happen. Which it won't.
'Til then Gooners.

Johnny Quest thinks Gareth Barry is a sellout.

2009-06-02T19:14:00.003+01:00

And he is. Last summer, Gareth Barry: "The time has come for me to move on with my career, I need champions league football." Fair enough, looks he's heading to Liverpool. This summer, Gareth Barry: "The time has come for me to move on with my career, I need champions league football." Fair enough, Liverpool don't care anymore, maybe he'll come to Arsenal. This summer: Gareth Barry signs for Man City. You greedy sellout. Word around the campfire was that Barry, no longer wanted by Liverpool, was desperately wanting a switch to the only team in North London. Clearly Barry wasn't really that fussed about champions league football. Barry just wanted lots more money. Apparently he's getting £60,000 a week more than he did at Villa, just to go to a team full of other sellouts who don't really care about their club, just about being paid. I'm glad Arsenal didn't manage to sign a sellout like that, even if it was £6million less than Villa were asking for last year.

Oh well. In other news Arsenal have been linked to Blaise Matuidi. Again. Boring. And the times have a supplement on how football transfers are meant to work, as opposed to how they actually work. More interestingly there is a section about net transfer spend of premiership teams over the last 5 years. Yep Arsenal are the only team to have a made a profit overall. £4.79million in fact. Considering that, it's remarkable we finished 4th, and made it to 2 semi finals of major competitions. Obviously there is an argument that we could spend more money and win trophies, but there is still substantial doubt over how much money AW actually has.

Right that's it for today. There is sweet f*** all happening at the moment. I'll be back when I can no longer hear the grasshoppers churping outside.
'Til then Gooners

Poll

2009-05-30T10:40:00.003+01:00

Ok, as you can see to your right, there is a new poll. This is for no particular reason, as there is no way the Arsene will take any note of it, but it's just for fun, and to see the opinions of fellow Gooners. The questions are 'Who would you most like to see leave?', 'Who do you actually think is most likely to leave?', 'Who would you least like to see leave?', 'If only one position could be filled by a new signing, what position would you want it to be?' and 'Who, out of these likely potential signings, would you most like to see at the Grove?'.

Off you go Gooners.

Things that commentators say about Arsenal that annoy the hell out of me

2009-05-28T14:10:00.000+01:00

I haven’t missed an Arsenal match this season (either by going to Ashburton or by watching on TV) and as such I have noticed some phrases that keep coming up about Arsenal. So I’ve decided to list a rough version of them, and get them out of my system. Let me know if you agree.

1) (When Eboue comes on as a sub with about 15 minutes remaining.) Commentator: “So Eboue comes on for Walcott/Sagna. Eboue was of course booed by his own fans and substituted after coming on against Wigan earlier on in the season.” I heard this against Stoke on the last day of the season. The aforementioned incident came at home to Wigan on the 6th of December. The above quote therefore has been said approximately once a week for five and a half months. Commentators are meant to know tit-bits of knowledge that hardly anyone else know. If they knew anything about Arsenal they would know that Eboue himself has moved on, and so have the fans. Plus the fact the fans have actually been fairly impressed with the way Eboue has conducted himself and the way he’s played ever since.

2) (When Bendtner comes on for Walcott in the second half, towards the end of the season.) Commentator: “So Bendtner has come on for Walcott, and he will be moving into a more central role upfront. Oh well, Bendtner appears to have moved out to the right side of midfield in a more direct swap with Walcott. That’s a different approach isn’t it?” No, no it isn’t you saps. Watch Arsenal more than once this season and you’ll realise that Wenger almost always utilises Bendtner out on the right. He’s pretty effective there too.

3) (Bendtner comes on as a sub, whilst Adebayor is also on the pitch.) Commentator: “So Bendtner comes on for Walcott and he’ll partner Adebayor upfront (presumably Bendtner will actually play on the right). These two of course famously had a clash on field last season against Tottenham.” Yes they did. But you said it yourself, that was LAST season. How many times have they played together since? How many times have they trained together since? You would have heard had there been any more conflict, so I think it’s safe to say they’ve moved on, so shut up about it.

4) “Arsenal have often been accused of trying to walk the ball in, but here they scored from a cross!” Conveniently forgetting that in the 2007/2008 season, Arsenal, along with the spuds, scored the most from crosses out of anyone.

5) “It’s so often been said that it’s men versus boys, but the boys have beaten the men today.” David Pleat (I can’t help but shudder with disgust every time I think of that man) said this after we beat Fenebahce 5-2. Shut up David Pleat, you are the worst commentator ever and you shouldn’t be allowed on TV. Furthermore think about the amount of games Arsenal have won this season, and the fact the average squad age hardly deviates. Then you’ll realise the boys regularly beat the men, if you want to call it that, and the above was not just a one off, therefore your comment was stupid and you’re stupid.

6) “Manchester United this, Manchester United that.” Admittedly not about Arsenal, but I had to get it off my chest. It must have killed every commentator and referee in the land when the mancs lost against the better team last night in CL final. Kudos to Clive Tyldesley though for the quote “Manchester United are not going with much grace here.” Brilliant.

7) Whenever anybody gets someone’s name wrong repeatedly. This is usually co-commentators rather than commentators. These guys are meant to be experts. Sure if they get it wrong once, that's fine everyone makes mistake but if they keep getting someone’s name wrong then they clearly aren’t experts and should be fired. The last example I can think of is Jack Wilshere being referred to as Luke Wiltshire by some half-wit parading as a Setanta co-commentator. And that brings me nicely on to my next point….

8) Setanta co-commentators. I know this isn’t a single example but they’ve just said so many annoying things I can’t keep track. First thing is first, they are usually from west London, or the north of England. Therefore by principle they hate Arsenal. And you can hear it when they commentate. Secondly they usually are very stupid, ex-third-rate footballers who can’t make a living for themselves after they’ve retired from football, so are given a life-line by Setanta. They also have a tendency to use the word ‘again’ in completely the wrong context. For example: “Eboue had been put through well by Fabregas but again his shot was tame”, when it was actually his first shot of the match.

That’s all that I can think of for now. It was good to get that off my chest. Let me know if I’ve forgotten anything good.

‘Til next time Gooners.

Barcelona - well deserved champions.

2009-05-28T10:41:00.000+01:00

The best team throughout this years champions league won. I've been saying for a while that it would be a travesty should Barcelona not win (apart from if Arsenal won obviously). If you watch some of their previous games, particularly against Basel, every goal seems to be perfect. Despite them tapping up every Arsenal player at any opportunity, I'm glad they won, but more than this I'm glad at the manner in which the mancs lost. After Messi scored Barca's second, they just kept the ball, and the mancs did not like this one bit. They couldn't hack the fact that they clearly are not the best team in the world like they all thought with their swollen heads. So cue Ronaldo, Paul 'worst tackler I have ever seen in my life' Scholes, Rooney and Vidic throwing themselves into tackles with no intention of getting the ball. And they got properly shown up. Fantastic. You have to admire the little Barcelona players for their bollocks. Big techniqually worse, oafish players vent their frustration by kicking out at the little guys, and still they carry on. They do not get intimidated like perhaps Arsenal sometimes do (although our recent up turn in form against Bolton and Blackburn would suggest to the contrary). I am also glad for the sake of commentators that the mancs lost. Maybe they'll get off their little cloud decorated with topless Ronaldo posters and scarfs with silly little devils on it, and their 'ooh is this the best Manchester United team of all time?' and realise that they should stop brown nosing ManU so much, because they clearly aren't the best team in the world, and they are in fact leagues behind the spanish champions.

On to more Arsenal related news: Walcott has been called up to the England under 21 squad for the Euro championships. Wenger will not be happy about this, and this is because playing for the Under 21s, as well as playing for the seniors, means Walcott will get exactly 7 days of rest this summer should England Under 21s go all the way to the final. Although the Under 21s did pretty well during the last tournament, they haven't been playing well recently, so chances are, we may still have a fresh Theo. Well done to Kieran Gibbs by the way, who has made the England Under 21s again.

It appears that we're on the verge of signing 15 year old Jamie Edge from Cheltenham, to go with our previous signing of Angha. If you, like me, follow Jeorge Bird's Arsenal Youth, you would have noticed his name on team sheats for the last few matches as well as the Atalanta Cup. He's obviously impressed enough, so well done to him. Cheltenham will also reap a small financial reward for their part.

Right that's all for now. As promised there will be a Play the Gooner Way special on 'Things that commentators say that annoy the hell out of me' later.
'Til then Gooners.

Silverware at last! and some more dribble.

2009-05-27T10:11:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to the kids who absolutely demolished Liverpool's under 18s over both legs to lift the FA youth cup. This along with winning the Academy league means Arsenal have won a prestigious double, and the first team do have done so since the Academy was instilled back in 2002. How fitting it was that Steve Bould once again could lift a trophy at Anfield exactly 20 years after winning the premier league there. Liverpool needed to come straight out of the blocks after losing the first leg 4-1, however Arsenal coped well and soon began controlling things, particularly in the form of Henri Lansbury. Sanchez Watt netted our first with a smart dink over Dean Bouzanis, however Liverpool came straight back with Finnish Under 21 Lauri Dalla Valle calmly slotting the ball home. The final goal came courtesy of a Watt drilled ball across the box that Liverpool Daniel Ayala unfortunately (for him, to the delight of us) put into his own goal. Full match reports can be found at Young Guns and Jeorge Bird's Arsenal Youth. The kids went crazy at the end, and so they should. They showed that they are the most talented bunch in England, and by some way. As I said earlier Lansbury was very impressive. But he always is when I watch him, not only for Arsenal but previously for England Under 17s and now England Under 19s. Wilshere obviously was good, as was Emmanuel-Thomas but many still question his work rate, at any rate we destroyed Liverpool, so well done to the lads, and well done to Steve Bould.

So we've won silverware. If a chav or a manc ever take the piss saying about the lack of trophies in four years, just say 'What are you talking about, we won the youth double this year' and then proceed to put your fingers in your ears and shake your head from side to side saying 'it does count! it does count!' as they start protesting.

On to the future, and it looks promising for this bloke we've just signed. Well I say bloke I mean child. His name is Martin Angha-Lochter. He's Swiss, he's 15, and we poached him from FC Zurich, and he impressed in his first game for us, in the under 15s 2-1 win against Chelsea. Apparently he's most comfortable as a centre back, but can play anywhere across the back four. Sounds like we really wanted him because we offered him and his family an executive box for the match against Stoke. So we have another promising youngster, let's hope he gets immense.

In other news Patrice Evra just won't shut up. Does he not realise that no one in this world, presumably even ManU fans, give a damn about what he says? After saying the CL semi final was babies versus men and many other comments following, apparently Cesc tried to hurt him in a challenge at Old Trafford. Watch it again. It was nothing. Evra claims that he will see Cesc again off the field and there won't be any referee to give him a red card. Sounds like a pretty stupid thing to announce to the press. Hopefully other authorites will be alert. Evra went on to say:

"I was really disappointed. Everyone understood that he (Fabregas) wanted to hurt me."

No they didn't you imbecile, otherwise Fergie would have whined about it. The fact that a man who complains about everything didn't even complain about this shows how inocuous it was. Now stop crying Evra, you're just bitter 'cause you're not the best left back in the league.

Speaking about hated figures from Manchester, Ronaldo apparently is a late worry for the Champions league final. Good, I hope it turns out to be a Tomas Rosickyesque injury for him. Although realistically, if it's only a doubt then he will be risked, and probably score. Cue the moment that everyone in England who isn't a red manc, throws up everywhere.

Adebayor is in the news again. 'When is he not?' I hear you ask. Never, i respond, never. Although this time perhaps for the right reasons (at last). Ade has stated that although it is an honour to be wanted by AC Milan, he never wanted to leave, and he still doesn't (at least for a few seasons). Ade reckons he's given 100% this year, to which we all shout Noooo, but also took time out of counting his money to say a few things about his manager and his captain. About Wenger, Adebayor told Marca:

"It's impossible to see Wenger leaving, it would be like a father abandoning his sons."

When asked about Cesc, Adebayor seemed even more complimentary:

"For me it is an honour to play with him, he has quality, personality, he has made Arsenal and Arsenal have made him."

So Adebayor reckons the three of them will stay. Well that's good about Cesc and Arsene. It could be good about Adebayor too, as long he works hard next season, and proves he's worth more than the £20-odd million we could sell him for this summer. Ade couldn't help but adding that he wanted to play in the spanish league in a few seasons time, but for now he's happy here. That's good Ade, we're glad that we're the kind of club that'll do for now.

Well I guess that's all for now. Allow me to direct you to youtube where, if you haven't already seen it, there is a twelve part series showing highlights of every single one of Arsenal's 49 unbeaten games. As well as this there is another 12 part series showing highlights of the 03/04 season narrated by Peter Drury, including FA Cup, League Cup (where a certain Fabregas scores at the age of 16) and Champions League. Also allow me to direct you to Arsenality where there is a good article concerning Wenger, his legacy and the talk surrounding him and Madrid.

Stay tuned in the near future for a Play the Gooner Way special on 'things that commentators say about Arsenal that annoy the hell out of me'.
'Til next time Gooners.

2008/2009 Player Ratings

2009-05-25T10:40:00.001+01:00

It's now the end of the season for Arsenal Football Club, and it's been a season of ups and downs. Despite the lack of silverware again, we managed to reach the semi finals in both the FA cup and the champions league. No mean feat for a side which obviously need a couple of additions to be at full strength. So i've decided to do a player ratings for this season. Marks are out of 10, with 10 being best and 1 being worst. Obviously. They are in squad number order:

1 – Manuel Almunia – 8
Came in to the beginning of the year as a doubt, but Manuel has really come to the fore. I can only remember one mistake (as in MISTAKE mistake) this year, and that was away to Chelsea earlier on this season. Manuel has shown everyone he is a superb shot stopper and has even become somewhat of a leader in the Arsenal camp thus I agree he is a fitting vice-vice captain. Definitely should be the next England keeper.
2 – Abou Diaby – 5
Well, I don’t really know what to say about Diaby. Sometimes, and just sometimes, I can see he is talented, for example the goal away to Aston Villa, and he is occasionally very difficult to dispossess. Despite this, I really REALLY don’t think he has what it takes to make it at a club the stature of Arsenal. He shies out of tackles despite his size, his first touch his very often abysmal, and he has no eye for a pass. He is older than a lot of more established players in our first team, and surely Wenger’s patience must be wearing thin. Sorry Abou.
3 – Bacary Sagna – 7
Probably our best defender this year, although I thought he had a better season last year. Like all defenders, makes the occasional mistake, but normally is very defensively stable. Bacary loses marks however in going forward, and is without a doubt the worst crosser of the ball in our team (his cross against Chelsea for Nikki B’s header was lucky). Despite this (and his god awful hair) he is a brilliant right back, possibly the best in the league.
4 – Cesc Fabregas – 7
The skipper. His mark would no doubt be higher if he hadn’t been injured for several months. He is the best passer of the ball in the team, and the league, by some distance (although he seemed a shadow of his former self in the last few games of the season) and probably all-round still the best player in the team. We really need to start winning trophies if we’re to keep Cesc otherwise he’ll start getting restless.
5 – Kolo Toure – 6
Something seemed to happen to Kolo at the African Nations all that time ago that caused his form to fluctuate wildly for the following year (could have been the malaria). Kolo was not his usual beaming self for the good first 4 months of the season, had obviously lost a yard of pace, and even handed in a transfer request which was unceremoniously rejected. Following this however he regained his form somewhat only to see it drop again at the climax of the season. Still, a complete legend.
7 – Tomas Rosicky – n/a
Poor old Tomas. Our little Mozart has been out of action for a season and a half with what at first seemed a minor niggling injury. I really hope he will come back and be as brilliant as he has been in the past, but age is no longer on his side, and the general consensus is that he may no longer have a future at Arsenal. Let’s hope he does.
8- Samir Nasri – 8
At the beginning of the season I thought our major summer signing was going to walk away with player of the year. He is a massive talent, with an eye for a pass, superb close control to match his pace on the ball, and a cool finish. As the season progressed though, his roaring start to the club simmered down somewhat, mind you the club form in general dipped around Christmas. Has been employed mainly on the left side, as well as centre mid and in the latter part of the season in defensive mid. I believe he’ll grow into the defensive mid role, but perhaps at his age, now is not the time. At any rate he has an exciting future at the club.
9 – Eduardo da Silva – 6
I admit 6 is a bit harsh because in the odd few games he played Eddie managed to bag 3 goals. Remember that one against Burnley? Lovely. He has done exceptionally well to overcome a serious ankle break, but alas succumbed to the inevitable post injury knocks at a worrying frequency. After perhaps only half a season of week in-week out football at his time at the club he has already achieved legendary status.
10 –William Gallas – 7
No matter how you look at Willy G, this season will be all about his stripped captaincy. His antics prior to said event were just silly. HOWEVER, I really appreciate how he has conducted himself since then and I still believe he is our best centre back. This is why he has achieved the rather generous rating of 7.
11 – Robin van Persie – 8
This has been RvP’s most consistent season yet. He is unfortunately injury prone, but has luckily stayed away from serious injuries this year. He has ended up our top scorer, and as usual has bagged some absolute gems. Not only gems though, he has scored us some crucial goals. To talk only of his goals would do him a disservice as his touch and vision are wonderful to say the least. Sometimes though he is very stroppy and his form dipped dramatically in the last couple of months save from the last game of the season.
12 – Carlos Vela – 6
Our little Wonderkid. Exceptionally talented but should have been used more. Hat-trick against Sheffield United was obviously the highlight but performances against Wigan and Portsmouth were also impressive. AW prefers him upfront but he can also be utilised on the wing, sometimes effectively, sometimes not. Had he been used more, his mark would no doubt be higher.
14 – Theo Walcott – 7
Theo really brings another dimension to your team, and never was that more painfully obvious then when he was out for several months. I still think his play is slightly too one-dimensional and often he takes too long thinking about what he’ll do next. However I believe his destiny lies up front where he’ll develop more all-round. Despite the few negatives, this season he has become essential to the team, and he was ridiculously close to getting an 8.
15 – Denilson – 6
Denilson has been given numerous opportunities to succeed this year at Arsenal, and his success has been somewhat limited. Sometimes I really like Denilson, he works the hardest out of almost anyone, he is tidy, and not afraid of putting himself into the tackle. His forward pass however leaves a lot to be desired. Almost every offensive pass is intercepted. I used to think of Denilson as a poor man’s Cesc but now he is almost growing into a Gilberto Silva character. That position however requires experience of which Denilson has none.
16 – Aaron Ramsey – 6
Similar to Vela in that Ramsey’s mark would have been higher had he been used more regularly. His range of passing is simply staggering for someone of his age, and as good as Cesc’s was in his teens. Unfortunately for Aaron, the unfair treatment of Cardiff fans on his return to the Welsh capital in the FA Cup seemed to shake him up and his form dropped as a result. He soon regained himself with a notably majestic performance away at Portsmouth towards the end of the season.
17 – Alex Song – 7
Had Alex not had such an awful mid-season his mark would have been an 8. It seems everyone was wrong about Song, but the question still remains: is he good enough to play for Arsenal? Only time will tell. Towards the end of the season Song as well as Arshavin and maybe Nik was our best player. Especially at home to Chelsea where he seemed to be the only one to give a damn when we went behind. His positional sense is developing nicely, his work-rate has sky rocketed and he can actually pick a pass very well.
18 – Mickael Silvestre – 3
Fish-Head, Alien-Head, whatever you think, the fact remains Mickael Silvestre has a very oddly shaped head and he is a god-awful defender to boot. The fact that we had to get a ManU reject in the first place is embarrassing enough, but some of his performances were just woeful. I can remember countless times (examples being 4-4 draw with Liverpool, FA cup loss to the chavs, humiliating 4-1 loss to chavs, and so on…) where Silvestre has single-handedly cost us goals. He is slow and crap and useless and needs to go. Please.
19 – Jack Wilshere – n/a
This looked like it was going to be a break-through year already for little Jack but unfortunately it didn’t materialise. Scored on his full debut at home to Sheffield United and a wonder goal against Stoke reserves. This along with his pre-season were his highlights in a term which saw his form dip around mid to late season.
20 – Johan Djourou – 7
By miles our tallest centre back, and that goes along way. I think Johan has a lot of potential and he started tapping into it this year. At his age he is obviously prone to the odd mistake but coped very well throughout the season especially against the big team.
21 – Lukasz Fabianski – 6
As soon as a Keeper makes a mistake it is suddenly his big weakness, and he is a liability. Until the FA cup semi final, Lukasz’s strength was coming off his line, as well as shot stopping. Obviously his confidence has wavered but Fabianski has the potential to be a truly great goalkeeper and it is a shame people have forgotten about some of his fantastic saves early on in the season (particularly the double save against Wigan in the league cup).
22 – Gael Clichy – 7
I don’t think there is much to say about Gael. He has made a few high profile mistakes this year but he oozes class, plus he can actually cross the ball AND he’s much better than Cashley.
23 – Andrey Arshavin – 9
To be honest had Arshavin been at Arsenal the whole term he probably would have achieved a 10. They might as well give him next year’s PFA player of the year now. What an incredibly gifted genius our little Russian is. His arrival invigorated the team out of their mid season slumber, and he has said there is more to come. Wow.
24 – Vito Mannone – n/a
It will probably be another year till Vito is our league cup keeper. To begin with I thought he was rubbish, but wonderful performances against West Brom reserves home and away in the last two games of the season, as well as his first team debut against Stoke has changed my mind somewhat.
25 – Emmanuel Adebayor – 6
And now we get to Adebayor. I was contemplating 5 but then realised that would be harsh on our second top scorer. But his attitude infuriates me. At least when he was crap he was the hardest working striker in the premiership. Now he has the aura of someone who thinks he’s made it. He is lazy, always offside, should finish more chances, and is constantly flirting with other teams. Notably now Milan, saying they are sexy as Beyonce. The next day, Adebayor says he’s definitely an Arsenal player for next season. I don’t believe a single word that comes out of that man’s mouth.
26 – Nicklas Bendtner – 8
I’m sick of Bendtner haters. Nik has had a really good season in my view. His only fault is his finishing, which will come with experience (saying that he has bagged 15 goals this season with an exceptionally good starts to goals ratio). I hope to god he will be at Arsenal next season in which I fully expect him to become a fixture in the first 11. I can understand why Bendtner can be frustrating, but despite his laid-back exterior, he works hard (Adebayor can take a leaf out of his book), he has exceptional awareness of those around him, and is always in the right position. I was toying with either 7 or 8, but decided to go for 8 in case Nikki is reading this (haha right). Hats off to everyone’s favourite Dane.
27 – Emmanuel Eboue – 6
Well good god didn’t he start the season off badly? However since the hairdryer treatment by the fans mid season he actually finished off quite well. He has been played constantly out of position, but as soon as he is reverted back to right back or even left back he is twice the player he is in midfield.
28 – Amaury Bischoff – n/a
Amaury arrived from Werder Bremen in the summer on a one year contract and as of yet has not signed a new one. He has done well to overcome a serious long-term injury, and has shown he has talent whilst playing for the reserves, but I’m not sure he has quite what it takes to make it at Arsenal. He could well be off, with Sporting in particular sniffing around him.
35 – Francis Coquelin – n/a
Cisqo as he is affectionately known is a huge talent, and although hasn’t made any appearances for the firsts, I thought it was well worth noting him down here. He is a formidable talent who operates in defensive midfield. He is fast, has a lot of stamina, is a good tackler, a good passer of the ball, and has a great touch. Can also play at right back.
38 – Jay-Emmanuel Thomas – n/a
Jay spent this year as Under 18s captain and also made a few appearances in the reserves. Jay is massive but has a fantastic touch for such a big guy. Question marks are now over what his best position is, as he seems to be able to play anywhere.
40 – Kieran Gibbs – 7
Chin up Gibbsy, no one blames you for what happened against the Mancs. In fact I think you played very well on both occasions and indeed every time you filled in for Gael. Kieran definitely has a bright bright future at Arsenal as long as Gael, Traore and Pedro Botelho don’t impede his progress.
42 – Henri Lansbury – n/a
Lansbury is the captain of England Under 19s. That achievement speaks for itself. Although Henri has the occasional injury problem, he is a tough yet flamboyant central midfielder who has just come off the back of a sensational loan spell at Scunthorpe United.
43 – Fran Merida – n/a
Merida in my opinion is the most talented of our reserves. Whenever I see him play I can’t help but think he is leagues above everyone else. Fran really should be pushing for appearances in the first team next season. He has a wonderful touch, and creativity and vision that honestly is only second to Cesc.
44 – Rhys Murphy – n/a
Rhys has the talent to be a clinical finisher at the very highest level in England. He now just needs to try and overcome frequent niggling injuries.
47 – Mark Randall – n/a
I for one, think Randall has no future at Arsenal. He is a scrawny central midfielder who is only chosen for that position ahead of the likes of the younger Lansbury and Frimpong because of his age. Every pass of his seems to be intercepted, his tackling is erratic, and he has a foul temper.
56 – Emmanuel Frimpong – n/a
Simply put, Emmanuel Frimpong is a beast. He seems to operate now mostly in defensive midfield. He has the ability and drive to succeed at a very high level.

Let me know what you think.
That's all for today. 'Til next time Gooners.

Arsenal 4 - 1 Stoke City

2009-05-25T09:18:00.000+01:00

Well we got a nice big score to end the season. It was a disappointing line up from the boss. I was hoping for fresher faces like Ramsey and Vela to perhaps start with the likes of Merida making the bench. But it didn't happen. I also had to stifle a shriek when the starting line-up was announced and Diaby and Denilson were in the same team. But it ended up alright. To be honest I thought we were good, but not fantastic like the scoreline would indicate. But that doesn't matter when Stoke knew we were going to win, and played like they knew we were going to win. All over the pitch we were winning individual battles (apart from maybe Diaby), and I haven't looked at the possession stats yet but they must swing hugely in our favour. The first half brought about all the goals. RvP and Cesc neatly worked a corner, with the latter drilling it low into the area for James Beattie to clinically slot home into his own goal. RvP then banged home a superb peno, and delivered an outstanding freekick for Diaby to power in a header for 3-0. Denilson then brought down Fuller for a penalty to stoke. Fair enough, that was definately a penalty and no complaints from the Brazillian. That kind of foul Denilson does all over the pitch, and normally it's ok, he's just letting the opposition know he's there, however, when it's in the penalty area Denilson, you don't go for those. There was no way you were gonna win the ball. Anyways, what's done is done. Fuller sent Mannone diving before dribbling it down the middle. We were gifted the fourth when trying to header it back to Sorensen, Rory Delap proceeded to head it straight to RvP, who chested up in the air, swiveled and volleyed it low into the corner. Clinical finish. We could have scored a couple more that half, notably when RvP smacked the woodwork with a ferocious free kick and Kolo was allowed to shimmy this way and that about 10 yards out before striking the ball left footed against the post.

In the second half, Stoke continuously had 10 if not 11 men behind the ball at all times. So we just set up camp outside their penalty area, and every now and then prodded at their backline to see if we could get through. Once or twice we did. RvP could have had his hat-trick after neat play by Bendtner, but Diaby's pass forced him too close to Sorensen. Diaby himself could have finished on a brace, but he flashed a header wide after an excellent Eboue cross.

And so on to the player ratings:
Mannone - 8. 8 perhaps is generous, as Vito didn't have much to do, but what he did do, he did exceptionally well. A very promising debut from the Italian.
Sagna - 6. Again Sagna is superb defensively, no one, just no one, beats him to the byline. But he is ridiculously bad at crossing. I'm beginning to think that at home games against lesser opposition, perhaps Eboue should start at right back.
Gibbs - 8. Brilliant as always. Starting to get better and better defensively, and going forward he was a real threat the whole afternoon.
Toure - 8. Didn't have much to do defensively so decided to join in with the attacking in true Kolo style. Hit the woodwork, and produced some nice lofted pass into the area.
Song - 7. Like Toure, Song didn't really have anything to do. Produced some nice incisive passes from centre back.
Walcott - 6. I'm just trying to remember what Theo did in this match. We were told by the commentators that Walcott prefers to play through the middle, like Fabregas. I don't know what channel I was watching, but they were retards.
Arshavin - 7. A good game from the Russian, but not outstanding like we're used to. Some very neat touches and some passes that indicate phenomenal vision.
Diaby - 6. I don't care that he scored. I still don't think he's good enough. His header was good, I'll give that to him, and he was better than he was against Chelski and the Mancs. His touch however is abysmal, his passing is abysmal and despite his size he shrieks out of physical confrontation, all of which were on display against Stoke.
Denilson - 8. Excellent game from Denilson. Inexperience showed when he gave away the penalty, but he had the stoke midfield in his pocket. Tackling was excellent, anticipation to intercept passes was superb, and neat passes to start attacks.
Fabregas - 8. I still think Cesc is a shadow of who he was this time last year. This match however he was running things, almost as well as he used to.
van Persie - 10. Man of the Match. Its easy enough to give man of the match to the player who scored the most, but RvP had an absolutely immense game. His deliveries from free kicks were consistently of the highest quality. He linked up exceptionally with the midfield, which was vital as he was playing up front by himself. As always he showed a superb touch, and great vision. He deserved both goals and should have got a hat-trick, as well as getting the assist for Diaby's goal, and the assist for the Fabregas cross that caused the own goal. Well done Robin, what a great game.

Subs:
Bendtner (for Walcott) - 7. Came on at half time, and immediately provided a link between midfield and RvP. Work rate was good as usual as were his touch and passing.
Eboue (for Sagna). Good contribution from Eboue when he came on, some good crossing and direct running.
Vela (for Arshavin). Unfortunately for Carlos, he wasn't too involved after he came on.

So that's it for the season. It was nice to see the lads run round the pitch at the end saluting the fans. That was a nice touch. The next game is the annual pre-season friendly against Barnet. Stay tuned on Play the Gooner Way for the 2008/2009 player ratings.
'Til then Gooners.

The kids, transfers, Arsenal vs. Stoke, and the end of gobgate!

2009-05-24T07:47:00.000+01:00

Well, first thing's first, and didn't the kids do us proud on Friday night? An enthralling encounter against Liverpool that ended in a 4-1 trouncing. Of course there still is the second leg of the FA cup youth final to go (on Tuesday), but we've pretty much wrapped it up. Surely? Unfortunately we'll be without Emmanuel Frimpong for the second leg, however Sanchez Watt replaced him in the first leg, and did alright. Even bagged a goal. The other goals came in the form of Gilles Sunu, Little Jack Wilshere and skipper Jay-Emmanuel Thomas. Alexander Kacaniklic scored for Liverpool. The goals can be found at http://www.101greatgoals.com/ for those of you that haven't seen it yet, and as always there is a comprehensive match report at Jeorge Bird's Arsenal Youth. Stand out performances, I thought, were Kyle Bartley, Henri Lansbury, Little Jack and Jay-Emmanuel Thomas. Rhys Murphy was also impressive when he came on, and rather unfairly had a goal disallowed. A quick note on the setanta coverage of this match. The co-commentator regularly refers to Jack Wilshere as Luke Wilkshire, who by the way is a rubbish australian footballer who now plies his trade somewhere in Russia - Dinamo Moscow I believe. It's hilarious how Setanta co-commentator's just do not have a clue.

Right, what's next. Yes...transfers. After today's match against Stoke, there will be nothing to keep us entertained for 12 weeks apart from lots and lots of transfer stories. Although these stories can be entertaining, thrilling even for any Johnny Arsenal Fan waiting on tenterhooks for David Villa to sign for us, it can get a bit silly. Football-Rumous, I'm looking at you here. The News of the World is almost as bad, they are about as aware of what is going on around them as Mikael Silvestre. That has not stopped them thrusting copious amounts of rumours in our direction this morning. Not resigned to the fact that Adebayor might be leaving, NOTW have thrown Man City in the ring as potential £21m buyers of our offside prone striker. I'm really bored by Adebayor transfer stories, so i'll move on. Apparently Wenger has opened a door for Thierry Henry to return to Arsenal. Really? Apparently AW has said he would be open for any player of Henry's quality to come to Arsenal. This simply is not going to happen, so i'll leave that one there. There's more Xabi Alonso talk. NOTW have predicted a bidding war between us, Real Madrid, Juventus and Man City for the £18 million rated Spaniard. Yup, 'cause we're going to win that one aren't we? Interestingly enough, NOTW have dedicated 4 lines to Rui Fonte returning to Sporting Lisbon. Labelling him a flop striker who didn't bag a senior goal for Arsenal, funnily enough failing to mention he only played, what, 15 minutes? While i'm on Fonte, how is that he was loaned out to Crystal Palace whilst he was on loan to us? How does that work? Anyway, enough of News of the World, it's giving me a headache. And so on to the Evening Standard. Sigh. They reckon that due to Champions League revenue, our transfer kitty will be around £25 million. Add to that the sale of Adebayor, and that'll be around £50 million for us not to use.

Well done Wenger on telling the board to shut up. It is perhaps detrimental towards Le Boss that key members of the Arsenal board are continually saying to the press that Arsene can have £50m if he wants, or he can buy a £30m player if he wants. This news positively encourages Arsenal fans to expect big money signings that never happen. AW clearly doesn't have that much money to spend, and he's now told the board to stop saying we do. Good. Well done boss.

And on to today's match. Unless you've been in a Borneo jungle suffering from Amnesia for the last few months, you will be aware, i'm sure, that this is the last game of the season. So let's go out on a bang lads. Early news is that Samir Nasri will miss out with a slight knock, and both Almunia and Fabianski are 50-50 to play. This presumably means Vito Mannone will make his first team debut, with Wojciech Szczesny (whom many people already rate higher than Mannone) on the bench. I hope that Arsene plays a few youngsters. There has been talk that Wenger wanted to end the season with his strongest team, but I really don't see the point. A mix between first teamers and some youngsters will easily be enough to see off a Stoke team that will probably still be drunk from celebrations of staying up. A bit of Carlos Vela, Aaron Ramsey and Fran Merida wouldn't go amiss. Plus they're better than Diaby anyway. Adebayor will probably miss out, with Injury being the official excuse. Interestingly enough, last week I noticed that Wenger in his pre ManU match interview said that Adebayor was missing out with a hamstring injury, whereas the Sky commentators stated later that the official report was a groin injury. Interesting. Not sure whether that is significant or just human error on Arsene's part. Since then it has been confirmed that 'Groin injury' was the official reason Ade was left out. So as far as a starting XI....well I don't really know. I'm willing to stick my neck out on the line however, and it goes something like this:

Mannone

Sagna Toure Song Gibbs

Walcott Denilson Ramsey Arshavin

Fabregas

Bendtner

I don't know why I ended up on Bendtner playing up front ahead of an available van Persie, but there we are. Perhaps because as of late he has been one of our best players, and deserves a chance to add to his impressive goals to starts ratio. Also my choice of Ramsey ahead of Diaby is controversial I know, but Diaby is rubbish. Go on Wenger, give Ramsey a go. I have also opted for Song ahead of Djourou due to his impressive performance against the Mancs last week, plus the fact that Djourou is suffering at the mo from some niggling injuries. Vela will make the bench, and hopefully make an extended appearance. Merida will hopefully make the bench. There are various players coming back from loans, Barazite et.c. But they are likely to be rested after many first team appearances already this season. So I see a comfortable win today with some nice flowing football now the pressure is off. 4-0 perhaps. Make it happen.

Lastly, Cesc has been cleared of gobgate, and from walking onto the pitch after the final whistle in inappropriate clothing. Inappropriate clothing being his normal clothes. Normal clothes which by the way Rio Ferdinand also wore at the title celebrations at Old Trafford last weekend, and I didn't hear us complaining Phil Brown you perma-tanned second-hand car salesman.

Right that's all for now. I'll be back after the match.
Here's to a free flowing easy win Gooners.

Wenger, Transfers, New Kit

2009-05-21T09:58:00.000+01:00

First thing's first, the new away kit was released today (although it had been leaked some time ago) and I really like it. From reading other blogs it seems the consensus is that it's ok. Nothing more, nothing less. I'm not sure why dark blue was chosen, on the Arsenal site it mentions something about celebrating London, but anywho I like it, so that's that.

Secondly, all this rubbish about Arsene Wenger leaving and jetting off to Madrid has been squashed by Mr Wenger himself. At least for now. Le Boss told the Daily Mail:

"There's nothing to worry about, it's not an issue for me. I'm staying here."

Good good. Now that's all cleared up. Wenger will have around £13 million to spend (which surely isn't very much) and he'll add to that by selling some players. The Mail also reckon we're after Joseph Yobo of Everton who is willing to run down the last 12 months of his contract to switch to the Gunners. I don't think the Mail have any proof that Arsenal will look to get Yobo apart from that a couple of years ago Wenger said he was kind of alright. To be honest, Yobo can't get into the Everton team at the moment, so I don't think there's any way Wenger will deem him good enough for us. The spuds and chavs want Edin Dzeko (hands off we saw him first) of Wolfsburg, and pretty much everyone in the world is certain that Adebayor is going to one of the Milan clubs.

That's it. A short one today as I have an exam and really should be off. Allow me to direct you to le Grove where Pedro has written a fantastic article this morning.

Have a great day Gooners.

Wenger to Real Madrid?

2009-05-18T11:20:00.000+01:00

Hi all, hope you had a good weekend.
Just a quick note today. Various sources have claimed that Arsene Wenger is on his way to Real Madrid under probable future chairman Florentino Perez. Speaking on French TV, Wenger said:

"With Florentino Pérez in charge, the project he has put forward would be interesting for any coach but I would prefer not to comment on this....In general I usually stay until the end of my contract."

AW's contract expires in 2011.

I for one still think Wenger is the best man for the job, plus I don't think he would have built up this long-term project youth not to stick around to see how it works. Arsene has firmly reiterated his desire to stay in the past, and I reckon it's the same this time round, despite the impassiveness of his reply. However, I, presumably like many people, at times of madness (perhaps during a loss) have wondered out loud whether Wenger is the right man for the job. I am certain a new manager would have brought in some new faces, and experience, much sooner, which is what we desperately need. Conversely, if Wenger did leave, expect a lot of players to consider leaving aswell. The likes of Fabregas have in the past suggested, that should Wenger leave, he would also depart. I expect Wenger to stay, and hope he does.

In other news the Mail on Sunday reckon our transfer kitty is only at the £13 million mark this summer. Wenger has in the past said that for us to buy in, a fairly valuable player would have to be sold. But in all honesty our transfer kitty would be more than £13 million, even taking into account Adebayor's apparently imminent departure. Also consider the source of this quote. It's the Mail. It has the accuracy of a Bacary Sagna cross.

Gooner Talk have stated several interesting transfer rumours today. One is the older rumour that we are following Sebastien Bassong, who despite playing for Newcastle, has actually impressed this year. The second that, we could swap Mikael Silvestre for long-term target Mamadou Sakho of PSG. Because Silvestre is crap and Sakho is good, there is likely to be some money heading in PSG's direction aswell. Sakho's contract runs out next year so PSG may want to cash in while they can. However these are just rumours so lets see how they pan out.

Well done to the Under 18s who beat the spuds to become Premier League Academy champions. Despite Luke Ayling heading for an early bath for two bookable offences, the kids hung on after a Rhys Murphy goal. Henri Lansbury also made a return after a hugely successful loan spell at Scunthorpe Utd. A full match report can be found at Jeorge Bird's Arsenal Youth.

That's all for now. Until next time Gooners.

Manchester United 0 - 0 Arsenal

2009-05-16T14:55:00.000+01:00

So Man Utd are champions, and it was at our expense. In truth though, it was a fairly good performance by us, and we should really have won. I know ManU were perhaps not as offensive as they would normally have been but we absolutely out-played them. It could have been different at the start. Ronaldo was put through but luckily decided to cut back as Gibbs recovered. The first clear cut chance fell to van Persie, as Arshavin's sumptuous cross/through ball found the Dutchman in a surprising amount of space. I think Robin himself was caught off-guard with the amount of time he was given, and he duly panicked his header over the bar. That chance set the tone for the rest of the half with Arsenal dominating, and although the match itself was exciting, chances themselves were few and far between apart from Rooney who flashed a header wide.

At half time Dave from Arsenality and I were saying that now we hadn't taken advantage of our dominance, Man Utd were gonna end up winning. If you don't take your chances against them, you normally pretty much end up on the losing side. But actually the second half was more of the same for Arsenal after a shaky start. There was a brief concern about 15 minutes from time as Song executed a perfect shoulder barge on Ronaldo who shamelessly threw himself to the ground, leaving Mike Dean completely fooled flashing the yellow at poor Song. Thinking about it, it wouldn't take much fooling to cause Dean to give Man U a freekick and book an Arsenal player. In a non-physical match entirely, 5 of our players were booked, one of which (Arshavin) actually made no contact with the Man Utd player, compared to the Mancs who didn't pick up a single card. Anyway, Ronaldo dusted himself down, applied some more grease to his hair, and sent the freekick just over the angle (I'm positive Fabianski knew where it was going). With minutes to go a good move saw Fabregas brush the fingers of Van der Sar before hitting the outside of the post.

I was happy with the way we played. We kept possession superbly (with a few exceptions), won most 50-50s and created a few chances. Maybe not as many as we should have done though, but that can be put down to good defending on Man Utd's part. Diaby was a problem again though, in match where I noticed he was actually wimping out of headers. The post match stats were in our favour, apart from the possession which somehow was 50-50. This in a match where Sky Sports were constantly flashing up graphics showing how Arsenal were dominating possession. Speaking of Sky Sports, Andy Gray's bias towards ManU sickens me. Plus the commentators should total inadequacy and lack of knowledge as to where Arsenal have been playing Bendtner recently, when they were bamboozled as to who would play on the wing as the Dane replaced Nasri.

One thing that delighted me was Wenger's decision to play Song at centre back as opposed to Silvestre. The place was going to go to Djourou but unfortunately the Swiss international was injured in training yesterday. Finally the message might be getting through to Wenger that Silvestre is just awful (but probably not). Speaking of training, Dave has informed me that Pat Rice didn't take the pre-match warm up. I don't know the significance of that.

And so on to the player ratings:
Fabianski: 7. Lukasz didn't have too much to do. He came and gathered a couple of crosses confidently and comfortably, and he did exceptionally well when Tevez turned Toure during the second half, to put off the Argentine.
Sagna: 5. I thought Sagna was just awful. Defensively he is ok, then again he usually is, but his attacking play (or lack thereof) infuriated me. Every cross was crap, and every pass in the final third was intercepted or mis-placed. I thought Eboue would have had a better game at right-back today.
Gibbs: 7. As usual Gibbsy gave a confident and assured game at left back. Getting forward whenever possible, and covering for whoever was on Man Utd's right side.
Toure: 8. Kolo had a good game today. He didn't have Silvestre as excess baggage next to him, and came up with a few vital interceptions.
Song: 8. Like Kolo, Song came up with a few brilliant interceptions, and had the Man Utd front line in his pocket. Played a better game at centre-back than Fish Head Silvestre ever would.
Nasri: 7. Was ok. Showed a few glimpses of quality but not his usual influential self.
Arshavin: 6. I didn't think this was Arshavin's best game today. Apart from a direct dribble into the ManU penalty area, and the brilliant cross for van Persie, he didn't really do much. I thought Kolo, Song, Gibbs, Denilson and Fabregas all had a better match than our little Russian. Was unfairly booked aswell.
Denilson: 8. Denilson was great today. Was stuck into tackles, was neat, and let the creativity be down to someone else. Usually Denilson annoys me when he tries to pick out tricky offensive passes, because he fails everytime. He didn't do this today.
Fabregas: 7. Either a 7 or an 8 really. Somewhere in between. Had quite a good game. Some nice passes, good tackles, and showed moments of really good strength on the ball not to brushed off by bigger Man Utd players.
Diaby: 5. Well he wasn't as bad as he was against Chelsea. That's the one positive I can think of. He just cannot pick a pass, and has absolutely zero awareness of what is going on around him.
van Persie: 7. RvP was fairly good today. It must have been tricky being a lone striker against a physical Man Utd defence, and he coped quite well.

Subs:
Bendtner (for Nasri): As usual was quite good when he came on, linking up well.
Walcott (for Arshavin): Very quiet, didn't see enough of the ball.
Eboue (for Gibbs): Was not on the pitch long enough for me to think of anything to say.

In other news, Adebayor was interviewed by Football Focus venting his frustration at the fan's lack of support to him. Ade said when a club want to come in for you, it's not your fault, and you shouldn't get booed for it. No Adebayor, when a club are interested in you, it's not your fault. Milking it for all it's worth and spraying it round the media, to get an increased contract offer, so you don't have to work as hard on the field, is. Adebayor also mentioned that the motivation from the fans is not the same as last season. That's because you're a lazy git. The motivation was the same at the start of the season, but we have just come to accept that you're lazy. It's not the fan's motivation that is the problem, lazy, we just don't expect as much from you anymore. You're an over-payed professional footballer for gods sake, make you're own damn motivation. We still sing at every match. To be fair to him, he did say that it was bang out of order that Evra called us babies after the Champions league semi-final because we didn't call them that after easily seeing them off in the league earlier on in the season.

Well that is all for today.
Until next time Gooners

Manchester United vs. Arsenal

2009-05-16T08:53:00.000+01:00

Morning all,
Today we travel to Old Trafford with the hosts needing only a point to secure the Premiership. We are without Manuel Almunia, Gael Clichy, William Gallas, Eduardo, and despite his return to full training, Tomas Rosicky will also miss out. In turn ManU will be without Rio Ferdinand. Although Ferdinand is obviously key to the Mancs and his loss is discouraging, how come they only have one person out injured? (I'm not counting Hargreaves). It must be the same luck they have in the dying seconds of every crucial game.

Arshavin will likely start again after missing out with illness against Chelsea and after being ineligable against ManU in the champions league. There have been question marks over Djourou's fitness the last couple of weeks, but I hope to god he has recovered enough to play instead of Silvestre. The last thing we need is more embarrassing defending against a ruthless attack. As stated a couple of days ago, Merida, Bischoff and Fonte were not played for the reserves against West Brom on Monday, and with no word from Banfield whether they had a knock or illness, they could well make the bench today, although it is difficult to see who they would come in for. I believe Merida thoroughly deserves the chance to be in the first team squad, but Wenger is unlikely to remove Diaby, Denilson or Ramsey from the squad alltogether to include the young spaniard (even if he does deserve to replace Diaby). Fonte is the most unlikely candidate of the trio to make the bench, but you never know. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if none of them were in the squad, and in fact the only reason they didn't play the last reserves match was because of injury.

Right, as far as the match itself. Well I want to believe this team can snatch a win and delay the title celebrations for another week, but I just don't think it's going to happen. I reckon a draw. Perhaps 1-1 (although are our defence capable of limiting the Man Utd attack to just one goal?). Maybe 2-2 then. It doesn't matter, I just don't want to say I think we'll lose. Wenger could experiment and start playing these two last games as he wants to play next season, in terms of new players stepping up. But my inkling is that he'll save the experimenting for the last game of the season, at home to Stoke, who are now safe and sound and perhaps who therefore will have less drive.

Therefore my predicted starting XI is:

Fabianski

Sagna Toure Silvestre Gibbs

Nasri Song

Walcott Fabregas (capt.) Arshavin

van Persie

To be frank, I actually hope it's not that. I think Bendtner should play up front. I think Fabregas should play deeper, I think Nasri should be on the left, and Arshavin should be the supporting striker behind Bendtner. Although the above (with Arshavin replacing Diaby) is the team that started so promisingly against Chelsea on sunday, I don't think it works. 4-5-1 to begin with is obviously not the formation we're comfortable with, and secondly Cesc should clearly CLEARLY be playing deeper. He's a great player which is why he is Ok out of position, but he himself has said he lacks the pace to play in that advanced role. Cesc needs to be back in the centre where he can dictate play and be our quarter back.

Well that's all on the game. A quick mention about Martin Laursen. I feel for him. He was an excellent defender and it's a shame he's been forced into retirement. In one way it's lucky for us that he got injured, because (and there's no doubt about it) that was the major contributing factor to Villa's dramatic dip in form, but it is never nice to see a player forced to retire.

Also, well done to the people that prosecuted those spuds who shouted homophobic remarks to Sol at Fratton Park. They are clearly imbeciles who are covering up for their own insecurities.

Right then. I'll see you after the match Gooners. Have a good day.

Wenger's question and answer sesh, is Adebayor actually going to Chelsea? and Rosicky

2009-05-15T10:38:00.000+01:00

So it was Wenger's question and answer session yesterday with the share holders. Usually these things are drab formal affairs, where the questions have to be pre-submitted, yet yesterday Wenger threw away the rule book and allowed a more direct question and answer session. So what came out of it? Well nothing new really but it seems to have generated a lot of publicity. Wenger defended the players, mumbled something about 21 match unbeaten run and that the club won't change it's stance in the transfer market. However AW did state that should the team not win a trophy in the next 2 seasons, his policy would have been a failure. Sorry? Is that Arsene suggesting he could be wrong? Surely not. Admittedly he did give himself leeway of a couple of years.

Although much of this is same old, same old, it is good to see how passionate Wenger is about the current crop of players. Apparently it was getting fairly heated in the room. One questioner claimed that the players don't have the stomach for battle. I disagree. And so did Wenger:

"It is the easiest thing to sit in the stands and say they are not good enough, that they do not fight....It is always that negative way of thinking, that the players do not care."

Wenger turned some of the blame onto the home fans stating that the players were playing in a negative environment, and in fact the fans at away matches were much better than those at home matches. I have to say, I agree with him again there (obviously i'm not saying those who go week in week out do a bad job). I think the players agree with Wenger aswell. At the time of this article, Arsenal have scored 10 goals more away from home than at Ashburton. However it is unfair to criticise those fans who attend week in week out no matter whether home or away and extremely petty on Arsene's part.

I want to take a moment to pause here and congratulate the guy who labelled Silvestre as a 'geriatric'. Well done that man, and whoever you are you deserve a pat on the back. Although it is good to see Le Boss leap so vehemently to the defence of his players, extending it to Mikael 'Slower turning circle than a tank' Silvestre is just going too far.

Something unusual happened today. The Guardian (normally one of the most reliable papers, and not one to comment on dribble) started going crazy about Adebayor going to Chelsea. If you go to their football page (www.guardian.co.uk/football) not only is the main article (and this is actually the main article, not the ever amusing rumour mill section) concerning Adebayor's apparently imminent departure, but there is also a poll - Should Adebayor go to Chelsea? All of this on the back of a story that the Mirror seemed to have plucked from thin air. I can see the thought processes of a young go getter at the Mirror now. 'Drogba's getting a bit old isn't he? They might wanna sell him. Who's going to be the next Chelsea manager? Ancelotti? Where do I know that name from? Oh yea that's right Milan. Hang on, Milan wanted Adebayor last season didn't they? Arsenal fans don't really like Adebayor at the moment do they? That's it! Ancelotti will bring Adebayor to Chelsea with him as Drogba's replacement! I'm such a genius. They should have, like, an award for journalists like me who do good articles and stuff.' This actually lead to someone yesterday asking Wenger if he would sell Adebayor to another premier league club. To which Wenger responded:

"If I feel that a player should go, or could go, why not sell him to one of the other top four?"

That's a player mind, not necessarily Adebayor. So this apparently has paved the way for Adebayor's switch to the chavs. I for one, would love to see the club cash in on the lazy overpaid lanky git, but I know that if he goes to Chelsea, he'll suddenly become amazing, and he'll score a hat-trick everytime they play us.

So on to a summer of discontent, as Arsenal fans live in hope of the arrival of a few world class players that ultimately doesn't transpire. Despite all the talk of needing to bolster the squad, Wenger won't 'deviate from his cautious approach'. What Wenger wants is one or two players in defensive positions who have experience. Please Arsene, not the type of experience that comes in the shape of a 30 something reject of another big four club who is crap and the biggest liability since Pascal Cygan. A mid to late 20 year old with a proven track record would be fantastic, thank you.

Right, that was fairly long, and most of it was rant. So I'll end on a happier note. Tomas Rosicky resumed full training with the first team on thursday and apparently everything went swimmingly. Rosicky will drop plans for a summer holiday in order to work on being 100% for the new season. Good for you Tomas, and we hope to see you soon.

'Til later Gooners, have a good Friday.

Gazidis, Rice, The Board and Adebayor

2009-05-14T11:38:00.000+01:00

There has been news aplenty off the field at Arsenal recently. The most shocking of which was the revelation that Pat Rice was going to retire at the end of the season. These rumours were swiftly rebuffed by Rice. I'm not sure about this one way or the other. Obviously Pat Rice is a legend who has been amongst the backroom staff since 1984 and was a player here prior to that. However it seems to me that Rice sometimes doesn't want to go against Wenger when Wenger is making a mistake. Rice needs to say at times 'No. No Wenger. Stop it. We're not going to buy a 8 year old Ivorian winger'. Or 'No Wenger, you ARE going to play Arshavin, for gods sake this is a FA cup semi final!'. And occasionally I don't think Rice has the personality to deliberately go against Wenger. Especially when le boss is having his stubborn tantrums. But then what do I know?

Speaking of which, Gazidis has come out in defence of AW saying he is not stuborn after all and is constantly questioning himself and asking for others opinions (before presumably ignoring them). Gazidis, who seems determined to fill a Dein shaped hole at Arsenal, has also taken time to comment on Arsenal's final position in the league and transfers.

"I am not happy where we ended up but I am pleased we are disappointed by it.....There are other clubs who would feel this is a good position"

Yes but we are not just any other club Ivan. To be fair to him he does go on to say we have expectations and that with our players' young age, we are in fact in a promising position. Gazidis then went on to say:

“Does it need to be supplemented? Quite possibly but it is a very, very promising situation for the next four or five years."

I agree Ivan, and its good to see a senior staff member saying we need signings.

Another backroom fat cat who has also come out and said we need new first team players with experience is Alisher Usmanov, who owns the second largest portion of the Arsenal stakes. Not only that but Usmanov is determined to get rid of the debt we have which is blatently getting in the way of competing on a level with the likes of Manchester Utd and Chelsea in the transfer market. The debt generates £17 million interest a year. That is a lot. According to the Telegraph, Usmanov is so peeved by this debt that he has rallied to all the investors that they can inject fresh cash to try and reduce this debt.
Now that's good on the surface. This (at first) seems that Usmanov really cares about the state of Arsenal, and really wants to see the club compete at the top of the premier league and in major cups. Plus 'Red and White Holdings' maintain that they're only motivation is to reduce debt for the club not to increase its shareholding in the club.
Surprise, surprise the directors are reluctant to accept this because it doesn't fit into 'the model of self-sustainability'. And I can understand that, and I can see what kinds of mess ManU and the chavs are in now because of lack of sustainability. Apparently Usmanov is in fact a Man utd fan. As Arseblog (http://www.oleole.com/blogs/arseblog) put very well. You don't put that amount of money into something that you don't personally like without expecting something in return. Usmanov is clearly trying to win the fans round to his side. Freezing ticket prices is one way to go apparently. Except that Arsenal anounced months ago they were freezing ticket prices for next season. Usmanov has a very sketchy past and yes his cash injection works in the short term but look at how much debt clubs like Chelsea have now. Luckily it looks as if it'll be a while before our board and Usmanov see eye to eye.

Lastly, the Mirror reckon Drogba will leave Chelsea in the summer and Adebayor will be the man to replace him. Shocking, I know. This article would be a whole lot more believable though if they had any quotes from either party involved.

That's all for now.
A good day to you Gooners.

Round Up

2009-05-13T21:53:00.000+01:00

So as all of you probably know this year has been exceptionally disappointing. Despite reaching the semi finals of both the FA cup and the Champions League with a squad with an average age of what 23/24 , I, and no doubt countless more Gooners, will be left dissatisfied. In our last two fixtures we have succumbed to defeat 3-1 against the mancs, and even more embarrassingly, 4-1 against the Chavs. A game which we frankly dominated. With the help of awful finishing on our part, clinical finishing on Chelsea's part, and awful referring by Phil Dowd, I had to walk back to Finsbury Park (no Picadilly lines above King's Cross ever seem to work on a Sunday) with many gloating texts coming in from chav friends.

And so on to saturday where lucky us we get to play ManU again. ManU win the title if they draw against us, after annoyingly just beating Wigan 2-1. So they'll be super motivated, and with us with nothing to play for other than our dignity, you're left to wonder if that sole reason is enough.
With various players back from loan and Fran Merida, Amaury Bischoff, and Rui Fonte being left out of the reserves game against West Brom on monday, le boss could be set to experiment. Arshavin should be back from his bout of flu (he hasn't been chummy with Vela's mates don't worry) and that will invigorate us no ends. What the players can think about though is how painful it will be to see ManU win the title at our expense. Lets try and stop that happening lads.

Stay tuned in the coming days for pre manU match write up, post match analysis, pre stoke match write up, subsequent analysis and no doubt other musings along the way. Also there will be a end of the year ratings system on our player's performances throughout the season.
'Til tomorrow Gooners.

First ever Play the Gooner Way blog

2009-05-13T21:28:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
Welcome to Play the Gooner Way, a blog all about Arsenal. At the time of this blog, the 2008/2009 Premier League season has only two games remaining: away at ManU and at home to Stoke.

I am a university student who really likes nay worships Arsenal much more than he should do, and critically much more than he likes his course. I've been meaning to start a blog for a couple of years, but dammit all to hell if my gooner housemate didn't manage to set one up first. This has therefore given me the proverbial kick up the arse. (His site is http://www.arsenality.blogspot.com/ by the by).

I realise that due to the incredible number of Arsenal fan sites and blogs that most people won't get round to reading this (tactical labelling for posts is in order), however those of you who do get round to reading my blog then I hope you enjoy, and you're feedback and comments are more than welcome. As long as they are tasteful of course.
Have a great day Gooners.
Alan