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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Whatever the new year brings, team and moment of the decade?

An FA cup run would be nice, but for some reason this year I feel the league is a big priority, that's just my gut feeling and given what's gone on there recently it may well not be the most reliable of twinges. Transfer wise Wellington has been snapped up in what appears to be a rather cunningly timed move given the Brazilian club's precarious financial position. I feel Arsene will buy in

Job done and pressure maintained

The starting eleven was as expected, Ramsey coming in for the injured Denilson and otherwise unchanged. Pompey started with a rather defensive line up, just the lone striker up front. The game was pretty bitty early on, both sides pressuring the other into errors, but we did gradually look the stronger side and it appeared only a matter of time before a goal came.Encouragingly Ramsey was very

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Diaby to fill the void? And Pompey Preview

Its still one match early, as Song is still available to play tonight against Pompey before flying off to Angola for the ACN, but one issue that is high up the agenda at the moment is who will play in midfield when Song is away?Song has had a great season and his good result in the blog vote for 2009 player of the year has surprised even me, one of Song's biggest fans. He will be missed, no doubt

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Come on Tunisia, Zambia and Gabon!

Looking ahead to January's African Cup of Nations, I can't help but hope that Cameroon under perform dismally to ensure the early return of Alex Song, while I would be quite happy to see the Ivory Coast do well to make sure that Drogba is away from Chelsea for as long as possible. In truth Tunisia are the only side unlikely to take points off Cameroon in the group stage, Zambia are pretty poor

Monday, December 28, 2009

Lazy Mail on Cesc

"Arsenal expect their worst fears to be confirmed on Tuesday when skipper Cesc Fabregas undergoes a scan to determine the extent of the damage to his injured hamstring."The Daily Mail is making a story from horse shite. The truth is that Arsenal don't expect anything, they simply don't know whether Cesc will be out for a few days or a few weeks. As Arsene explained after the game we will not

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Mission complete - Villa blown away

Not that I'm some kind of psychic but before the game I knew that if we got things right, we could tear Villa apart and run away with this biggie. Villa are no mugs but looking at the starting elevens there was an obvious class differential in the midfield area, Milner and Petrov are journeyman players, while Song, Diaby and Denilson are players with genuine talent. Having said that it was not

Villa preview, tactics and happy christmas

Happy Christmas, and on a footballing front it was a pretty good day all round yesterday. Chelsea stuttered to another draw, the spuds could only muster a draw away to Fulham and a very lucky one at that, the only bad result was the cheating scousers beating Wolves, even then they needed the help of a very soft red card before they were able to break down a very resolute Wolves side, and

Thursday, December 24, 2009

2010 - tips for stepping it up

I know it's a popular time of year to tip one's stars for the year ahead and that's why I'm going to bore you with my Arsenal tips for 2010. There is not a massive amount of rhyme or reason behind this selection, some aren't far off being pretty much first team regulars, while others have barely played a first team game, I just reckon from the limited amounts I've seen a few of these lads might

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Christmas round and general rambling

I am back, I won't go into the details of exactly where the pus was that kept me tied to a hospital bed for almost a week, but needless to say it was not a pleasant week. I still managed to catch the highlights of the Hull game on the morally vulgar patient pay-TV and that did fill me with a bit of winter cheer. It's almost nice to have enemies sometimes, the likes of Phil Brown and his Hull

Monday, December 21, 2009

The Green Green Grass of Money

As thoughts turn to the January transfer window, and countless blogs and press stories begin to link us with transfer targets, and link other clubs with our players, I thought I would take a look at 5 recent high profile exits from the club and ask the question whether the grass was, in fact, greener away from the Emirates. And on this basis, its a wonder that anyone thinks spending lots of money

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Tango, what's the score?

Well - I celebrated this most satisfying of wins by drinking 9% stout somewhere in London. I feel as rough as Phil Brown must look before his monthly spray tan session.Haven't seen any highlights yet, or seen any other match reports than the Beebs but I am assuming most people say the result flattered us? Absolute balls - 5-0 may have flattered us, but given Theo put a lob inches wide and Rambo

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Hull preview - Damage Limitation?

On paper, Arsenal should slip quite easily past Hull this afternoon. Its a home game, at fortress Emirates, in front of a passionate crowd of over 60,000 fervent Gooner fanatics. Plus Hull have had a pretty torrid calender year for 2009, they have not won away from home this season, Bullard is injured. So the odds would suggest an easy home win.But it just isn't like that in the Premiership. Last

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Burnley line up, to the wolves?

So there are two changes from Sunday. Silvestre replaces the hamstrung Traore and Denilson is replaced by the temporarily fit Diaby. The line up is Almunia; Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Silvestre; Cesc, Song, Diaby; Walcott, Arshavin, Nasri. No sloppy errors at the back tonight would be nice combined with some incisive counter attacking at pace.First half update. A good start thanks to a neatly

Monday, December 14, 2009

BBC farce, Rooney disgrace and media blackout

Despite being a Manu player I have to say Ryan Giggs is a great footballer and he has had a fine career, however the decision by the viewing public to vote him as the sporting personality of the year merely demonstrates just how bereft of intelligence so many people are. How can a player whose form last season was decent at best have picked up the PFA player of the year and the BBC sports

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Game of Two Halves Sinks Scousers

Well how the hell did that happen? In the most non-sensical game of bad football since the 4-4 mess at Anfield last year, Arsenal went from dreadful, to brilliant, and every shade in between, during a relentless game to beat the Scousers.And can I start by saying that I have rarely seen such a bunch of diving, cheating, moaning, fouling, toss-pot bastards as this Liverpool side. They really are

Saturday, December 12, 2009

The intensity builds

What a set of results for us before the biggey at Anfield tomorrow. City only take a point from Bolton, Chelsea draw at home to Everton, Spurs lose at home to Wolves, Manu lose at home to Villa and Wayne Rooney gets booked for diving. It isn't just foreigners that dive you know. Moving onto tomorrow, today's results have focused my attention somewhat.I remember the 4-4 draw from last season

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Another Brilliant Defeat

Well, the kids did it again. Yet another sterling silver exhibition of passing football, yet another good performance from a team where the entire XI cost less than Darren Bent, and yet another defeat, this time 1-0 to Olympiacos.Before the game, I was roundly of the opinion that anyone who was eligible and likely to play against Liverpool should not take the flight. And of the starting XI last

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Injuries, injuries and more injuries

Personally I think there are quite a few reasons for our injuries. Firstly we have a few injury prone players such as Tomas Rosicky, secondly we are not the biggest size wise and thirdly because of the fast passing football we play we are liable to being nailed by late tackles, both RVP and Gibbs were done by bad tackles for example. There is also that thing called lady luck and we haven't had

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Massive Relief as Stoke crumble

Morning all. And I think its only right that I make it clear from the off that any optimism in this post is largely caused by the news from Eastlands yesterday evening that Mark Hughes' despicable mercenary chavs had beaten Abromovich's moronic neanderthal mercenary chavs. And thats because it gives everyone in the top 6 or 7 spots in the table some hope that this season is not over. Until next

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Hughes the moronic chav leads classless City to victory

Oh dear oh dear and I'm not talking of Arsenal's performance last night, I thought our young side fought hard and gave a decent account of themselves against City's heartless mercenaries. For most of the game you couldn't tell which side was made of young hopefuls and which was made of thirty million pound internationals. The difference between the sides was that class and penetration in the

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Obsinho in Arseblogger Banner!

As i was looking at Arseblog today, the uber-blog for all Gooners, I couldn't help noticing that one of our very own (very) small time bloggers was grimacing back at me. For whilst Arsene takes the applause in front of the Clock End (it looks like the last game at Highbury, but not quite sure) Another Arsenal Blog's very own "Obsinho" can be seen gurning back at us - he's far right in the picture

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Back to Basics

The fact that Arsenal took yet another beating at the hands of Chelsea on Sunday is hard to take, especially coming at home. 1979's match report is spot on, and whilst I tend not to blame the ref for everything, several key moments decided the game. Arsene Wenger has promised to unveil to the media today his statistical analysis that shows the gaps between Chelsea and Arsenal were very slim, and

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Chelsea's moneymen too strong

As I arrive home tired and slightly bedraggled I have had a fair amount of time to cogitate over today's defeat to our rather unsophisticated brothers from West London. Firstly Chelsea's side was full of experienced multimillion pound players who have played together for several years. Secondly I don't like them but they are probably the hardest side to beat in the world at the moment, there

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Injuries - oh f*ck and dodgy foreign surgeons

That's exactly what I thought when I heard the news about RVP needing surgery on his ankle injury which will keep him out for possibly the rest of the season. Watching the above video also makes me angry, to me Chiellini has gone in dangerously on RVP, this was a 'friendly match', he slides in with studs up and with a straight leg and nails RVP's standing leg, it was a bad tackle and it has cost

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Ten, metatarsals and dodgy refs at all levels

So it's ten years in a row in the CL, a comprehensive enough win over Liege means qualification is now guaranteed. The big negative for me was the injury to Kieran Gibbs. Not only does it mean we are short of our best two left backs for several weeks, but it was a great opportunity for the young Englishman to cement himself in the side as our first choice left back, it is really bad luck for

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Back down to earth

There were many contributory factors to this defeat. The fact that virtually our entire squad had played quite a few international minutes over the previous week combined with a lot of air miles would undoubtedly had an effect. The number of injuries we have been subjected to of late also made a difference, the recent injuries include RVP, Diaby, Clichy, Gibbs and Bendtner. Sunderland are no

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Injuries and tabloid misinformation

So the meaningless international week has left us with at least one significant problem, if not two. Firstly RVP has sprained his ankle and will be out for a few weeks, despite hacks at the Sun speculating wildly when they didn't even know the true nature of the injury, he will NOT be out for the season, and it is not possible to predict exactly how long it will take him to recover.I am amazed

Saturday, November 14, 2009

International football is toss

Just a brief post to say the above. International football is frothy warm urine compared to the clear red cabernet sauvignon of the champions league. Bring on the end of the inter-lull.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The Unwritten Rules of Penalties

I tread lightly as I am intending to bring up one of everyone's favourite subjects, namely diving, referees and what we do about it.I only saw the replays of David Ngog's acrobatics against Liverpool and he has been roundly criticised for his disgraceful and theatrical dive that earned the Scousers an ill-deserved point. At least that is what the papers said this morning. By the afternoon, some

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Tame Wolves pose little threat

Morning all, and a happy Sunday it seems this morning in trying to evaluate Arsenal's excellent 4-1 win at Molineux yesterday evening. With ManUre traveling to fortress Stamford Bridge this afternoon, we have a position for a few hours where all the teams at the top of the table have played 11 games. And Arsenal's 25 points looks very comfortable alongside ManUre, also on 25, and just behind

Friday, November 6, 2009

Mancs don't dive

This was a blatant dive. The clip above makes it look like a dive and it is the most forgiving angle. From the side one can clearly see Fletcher throwing himself down before any contact is made and the contact that is made is microscopic to say the least. The ref got it spot on and booked Fletcher for his gamesmanship.The media reaction has been an utter shambles. Both Andy Gray on Sky and the

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Rampaging russian catalyses dutch demolition

It is easy to take for granted, after all it is now almost ten seasons in a row of qualification for the knock out phase of the Champions League, what a fantastic record, it's just the cherry on top that Arsene is after now. No one really expected Alkmaar to pose much of a threat and this proved to be the case.Clichy was out with what I suspect is a stress fracture of a pars interarticularis in

Monday, November 2, 2009

Amusement from some idiots

Terry Venables was always an extremely overrated manager, and it appears that he is about as gifted as Harry Redknapp at being an oracle of the future. I chanced upon his Sun column from the weekend, in retrospect it makes absolutely brilliant reading but not for the reason that he intended: "Watch you back Arsene! Arsene Wenger today comes face to face with the man who provides possibly the

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Partisan media and Redknapp out of his depth

It is strange that Arsenal Champions League matches always play second fiddle to those of Chelsea/Manu/Liverpool when it comes to getting on tv, especially given how few supporters Chelsea have. It is strange how rarely an Arsenal game is featured early on in Match of the Day, invariably tedious games involving Manu/Chelsea and Liverpool feature earlier on. It is strange how Sky's advertising

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Spuds baked, fried, mashed and then devoured

Rarely can a football game be so very enjoyable. I think everyone was a bit twitchy before the game, there is just so much more for us to lose in these games, we are the big club there to be knocked down and if we win then everyone just says that that's what was expected. The atmosphere before the game was a bit special, I think all of us wanted to see all the spuds' pre match boasting rammed

Friday, October 30, 2009

No hiding place

So Liverpool were seen off in the week, an entertaining game and overall a deserved victory. Ramsey has taken a lot of plaudits, as has Fran Merida. Fabianski has apparently picked up a muscular strain which means that Arsene cannot hide from the Almunia question. Will Manuel start against the spuds? I do not know, I just hope that he does.The banter has been there from the spuds, Keane

Monday, October 26, 2009

Manuel Almunia

What is going on here? Manuel has missed over a month with a chest infection. He was fit for Birmingham but is still yet to start a game since his mysterious illness. Arsene has been cryptic in his backing or lack of it:“I wouldn't say Manuel is no longer our automatic first choice" I am perplexed. There must be more to this than the club is letting on. Manuel is by far our best goalkeeper and

Frustration and English cheats

I have deliberately taken 24 hours to calm down following the West Ham result, I thought that I would see reason and become more objective upon reflection. Strangely I am still seeing things as I did yesterday, my frustration at our ability to hold onto a comfortable lead is still somewhat raw.The game was a strange one. West Ham knocked it around nicely in the first ten minutes but as the

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Still got it Den

Sign him up Arsene! A big day's football tomorrow with Manu-Liverpool and our trip to Upton park. Eduardo is fit, Rosicky is not, Bendtner may be. Scott Parker returns from a one match ban for the hammers. Elsewhere Henri Lansbury looks impressive and demonstrated his fitness with a couple of goals on loan at Watford. The wealth of talent that Arsene has assembled in terms of young midfield

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Happy birthday Arsene - no pressure

Firstly happy 60th birthday Monsieur Wenger, thank you for the expert management over the years and hopefully we can squeeze a few more out of him before he decide sto call it a day. The club has been transformed since Arsene took charge, we have a new stadium, a new training ground and a new ethos. Football in England has also been revolutionised since Arsene arrived at these shores.It was

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Alkmaar trip - a learning experience

It is getting cold and miserable, so hopefully the lads can keep us warm with a few more sterling performances in the next few weeks. The starting eleven against Alkmaar saw the fullbacks replaced, Arshavin came in for Walcott and Mannone surprisingly held his place.Alkmaar are a good technical side and passed the ball around neatly, they did lack a real quality cutting edge though, it was neat

Monday, October 19, 2009

Walcott out for a few weeks

Theo has strained his medial knee ligament which means he is out of action for at least three weeks, pretty unfortunate given his recent bad luck with injuries. People have said it was a fair challenge, I disagree, it was an aggressive tackle and was definitely not fair. Ridgewell followed through with the leg that didn't win the ball and the venom shown with this follow through was clear. It

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Overall a good weekend

Three more valuable points won, it was not quite as stress free as it could have been but if Birmingham had managed to take anything away from the Emirates it would have been an absolute travesty of justice. It was a workmanlike and physical Birmingham side, they are not an easy side to break down but they do lack a cutting edge offensively and really need to add to their squad in terms of top

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Starting XI and updates

Arsenal : Mannone, Eboue, Gallas, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Fabregas, Song Billong, Diaby, Walcott, van Persie, Rosicky. Subs: Almunia, Sagna, Ramsey, Silvestre, Wilshere, Arshavin, Traore.Good to see Theo back on the team sheet. Plenty of ammunition on the bench that can be used later on if neccessary.A high tempo start with Hart's goal peppered early doors, Rosicky looking sharp and goes close twice.1-

Friday, October 16, 2009

Enthisiasm on the return

Is this a mirage? Or are we about to see some exciting football return to our planet as the boredom and general dullness of international football is replaced by the hustle and bustle of the Premier League. I certainly hope so. God FIFA and UEFA have a lot to answer for. The international game is so bloody dull, we so so rarely see decent teams play each other, there are so many meaningless or

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Taking the Chelsea Pension

I was intrigued to see Thierry Henry on the pitch before the Blackburn game. Particularly given his appearance as a spectator followed his comments in the press during last week that he hoped to return to Arsenal, and was even willing to take a job as a water boy.The warm applause and chants that Thierry received were befitting for an ex-player of his status, but it was unusual nonetheless to see

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Blackburn dismantled, the walrus whines and Chelsea grind on

The attacking play was outstanding, I lost count of the excellent chances that came and went, somehow Blackburn stayed in a game for a lot longer than they deserved, but in the end our extra quality told. The midfield three of Cesc/Song/Diaby with the attacking trio of Rosicky/RVP/Arshavin, then the predictable back four plus Mannone in goal made up the starting eleven. Cesc sparkled, Rosicky

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Pathetic weak FA

If Emmanuel had done what he did on a rugby field he would have got far more than a three match ban. The deliberate stamp on RVP's face was beneath contempt, he should have got at least a six game ban for this act of clear malice. He knew what he was doing, it is obvious from the footage that he saw exactly where he was raking his filthy studs. The FA have given him a very lenient sentence. In my

Wenger's Lucky Thirteenth?

There is always an element of subjectivity in any analysis or judgement, particularly so, perhaps, in matters of the heart. And football.Along with the Corrs dilemma, the other seminal philososphical debate of the modern era is if you had a straight choice between Arsenal winning the Champions League and the Premier League - which would you choose?Now, before you choke on your cornflakes, take a

Monday, September 28, 2009

Luck, profits and balance needed

I can't be arsed to write a match report for the Fulham game. I though it would be wise to concentrate on analysing the interesting bits, rather than reproducing yet another description of a match that has been described many times elsewhere. So a 1-0 win, exactly the kind of juice we need, the slight problem I had with it was it was not a convincing grinding championship winning 1-0 win, it

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Pondering preview

Well, it's been a pretty hectic few weeks, the fixtures have been coming pretty thick and fast, whole there certainly hasn't been a lack of controversy. I have been away on holiday in France so have been catching up with things since my return, luckily or maybe not so luckily i did see our defeat to Man City while abroad and the utterly pathetic behaviour of Emmanuel Adebayor, what an arrogant

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

West Brom pushed aside

The youngsters lined up as follows: Szczesny, Gilbert, Senderos, Silvestre, Gibbs, Coquelin, Ramsey, Wilshere, Traore, Sunu, Watt. Of note the absence of Fran Merida appeared strange, injury must have been the cause of this after his fine pre season form. The opposition were West Brom who have been on fine form of late, beating Boro 5-0 at the weekend and their starting eleven contained a lot

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Easy 4 the Gunners in the Sun

The warm september sun bore down in Islington this afternoon, and the 59 odd thousand Gooners in the Emirates were treated to something of an exhibition of football from an Arsenal team that looked to have recovered well from the trials of a mid-week game away in Belgium.Vito Mannone retained his place in goal as Almunia remained in the sick bay, Rosicky dropped to the bench, Eboue came in to the

Friday, September 18, 2009

Wigan Preview

Tomorrow afternoon's game at the Emirates against Wigan should, on paper, be a stroll in the park if Arsenal turn up mentally and physically prepared. However, its been a funny start to the season so far and things are rarely as predictable as we would like them to be.Over recent years, Arsenal have had a habit of drawing games at home that we should really win 95% of the time. You can never

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Liege Stadium Mystery

Well, where to start on the shambolic performance last night against Standard Liege? Was that 3-points and move on? Or a disastrous reflection of the weaknesses of our squad?I'm not sure on the answer just yet, but it really was an exercise in bizarre football. The first 5 minutes was just a shocker. No complaints about their first goal - a stupid mistake by Eduardo and then a good finish.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Liege Preview

Pre-match posts are almost pointless given that we all kind of expect to beat Liege tonight, we know very little about our opposition, and the overriding feeling is that things are still a bit low in the Arsenal camp following consequtive defeats in Manchester.Objectively, the team news is not good. Almunia, RVP, Denilson, Arshavin, Nasri, Walcott, Fabianski, Djourou, Vela are all out. Its not

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

The winning attitude

As the dust begins to settle on the events over the weekend at the Eastlands, its fitting to remind ourselves just how fickle the game of football is.Yesterday's arch villain, Eduardo, is a forgiven man and I have not seen an ounce in this mornings papers to suggest that UEFA was not correct to over turn the two match ban. Yet, if that is right, then 99% of the press was wrong to criticise

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Naive Arsenal pay the price

The last twenty minutes against Man City at the Eastlands was a terrible repeat episode of what we perhaps had too quickly thought was last season's weaknesses. Whilst I strongly applaud the sensible comments that are doing the rounds on the decent blogs this Sunday, there is no escaping the fact that shipping 4 goals against Man City is a shite result, albeit coming from a performance that was

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Pre city thoughts

The last post on the Kakuta story and the general topic of the transfer of young players provoked a lot of good banter, thank you one and all. It is clearly one very complex area and it seems that most people agree that blanket bans on the transfer of young players is not a clever way to solve the problem. As always FIFA and UEFA are rushing to bring in new rules and regulations before engaging

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

A hypocritical rethink - Kakuta and slavery

I am no Chelsea fan, also the full facts are not yet out, but having collected my thoughts it does appear that they may have been rather harshly treated by FIFA. Tapping up adult players under contract is something that should be punished severely, but time and time again UEFA and FIFA have ignored the big Spanish and Italian clubs of doing this, what Chelsea have been banned for this time around

Monday, September 7, 2009

Good taste in chanting? Never going to happen.

The recent success of the informal campaign to bring the deeply unpleasant nature of Man United's fans chanting against Arsene Wenger to the wider attention of the public is to be applauded. Led by Arseblogger, the issue made it to the wider press last week, at long last, and led to widespread condemnation against Man United, and also against Amazon and Play whose website carried a CD including a

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Djourou shocker, honest Wayne and BBC inadequacy

The bad news about Johan Djourou's knee means that he is going to be out of action for around 6 months. I suspect the problem with Johan's knee is an osteochondral defect, I shall try to explain this to those of you without the medical knowledge. An osteochondral defect means an area where the smooth joint lining, the cartilage, has been damaged, this is different to the meniscus of the knee

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Round up as boring weekend commences

I have to start with the noble John Terry's words of great wisdom this morning, he has felt the need to let everyone know what he thinks about Eduardo:"Diving is something the England lads don't do. Sometimes we're too honest. Even in the Premier League, we see the English lads get a bit of contact and try to stay on their feet and score from the chance. The foreign mentality coming in is any

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Manure fans reveal their cretinous nature

Reading Arseblogger this morning I was pleasantly encouraged that the media have finally (finally finally) started to talk about the disgraceful abuse that has been dished out to Arsene Wenger ar Old Trafford for over a decade now. This Guardian piece is particularly spot on, 'chanting cretins' sums it up nicely. These moronic chants are well below anyone's belt line and should be stopped. It

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The Scottish FA - meddling self interest

One of our readers has kindly alerted me to some rather interesting information about the Scottish FA and their recent influence in all things UEFA related. As we know the Eduardo decision is a very strange one, it was a borderline dive for one thing, there was some contact and the Celtic keeper did make an uncontrolled lunge for the ball, so to see him banned for two games in the context of much

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Appeal and UEFA idiocy

So UEFA have banned Eduardo for two matches, the club are set to hear the full details by Thursday and will then have three days in which to appeal:“We have been informed that we will receive a “reasoned decision” from Uefa by Thursday of this week. Once we receive Uefa’s rationale, we will make a decision on the next steps.
 We have been deeply frustrated by the perfunctory and apparently

Monday, August 31, 2009

McGeady vs Eduardo

"Is it a dive? Never in a million years. A dive is when you try to influence the referee, you throw your arms up and so on."The quote above is what Tony Mowbray said following Aidan McGeady's yellow card for diving yesterday. I have a degree of sympathy with McGeady, we have seen in the past few days just how randomly the media can react to extremely similar incidents. After all what is a dive?

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Alan Green - complain to the BBC here

Go to the BBC I-Player link and listen from 23 minutes exactly, listen to the Arsenal caller who dares to politely suggest that Rooney may have taken a dive and won the penalty for Manu. Listen to the way in which Alan Green, an ugly version of Eamon Holmes if this is possible, is downright rude to 'Dominic' from London. Alan Green is not only biased, he is rude, offensive and brash when it is

Pathetic Dean hands game to Manure

I was slightly surprised to see Bendtner left on the bench, Eboue retained his place after a fine performance in the week, while the midfield trio of Denilson, Diaby and Song played with Cesc missing out due to injury. Manu started with the lone striker Rooney flanked by the irritating Nani and the expensive Valencia. The game started as it continued with Arsenal domination.United were poor, they

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Rooney a saint and Eduardo is scum

I am fuming. I will keep this brief and come up with something more in depth tomorrow, but the manner of our defeat today was incredibly cruel. Watch the replays of the Rooney 'penalty', it's a very soft decision indeed, he has lost control of the ball, he throws himself down before contact is made, the contact is also not great, Almunia does largely pull out of the challenge. It can go down

Beyond contempt

It is at times like these that one gets a real handle on the complete lack of objectivity in the media, they love telling people what they want to hear and care little for the truth. Whether it be the Sun blaming immigrants for all our problems or insulting foreign footballers because they are an easy non-English target, it's the same lame pathetic stuff that we've become sadly used to putting up

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Moronic media makes me mad

The media reaction to Eduardo's dive last night has been completely out of proportion to the crime, if ever there was an example of just how inconsistent their reactions are then this is it. It was a very soft penalty, it was a 1% penalty, we were indeed lucky, however it clearly did not affect the result, Celtic are mediocre and offer a similar threat to Hull City in the attacking department.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

New solidity continues as Celtic's challenge fades

Celtic were outclassed in both games, whatever the ins and outs of both games, whatever the excuses, whatever the pundits say, they were simply not good enough to threaten our passage to the Champions League group stages. Part of this was down to Celtic's lack of quality, but a decent chunk of it was because of several improvements Arsene has made to the side and setup since last year.The whole

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Hart attack and Pompey demolished

The squad was rotated as many of us had expected, the 4-3-3 formation showed it's considerable versatility as Eboue, Diaby, Gibbs and Eduardo slotted into the side. The beauty of the 4-3-3 is that when it is going well and the players are moving for each other, it is so hard to defend against as players can roam around and pop up where you least expect them, midfielders can join the attack

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Half job done, morale and spirit

A lot has been said by various pundits about lucky Arsenal's win against Celtic, I would suggest that these idiots listen to what Pat Nevin had to say on events, he clearly wanted Celtic to win but was freely able to admit that Celtic had been utterly outclassed and that Arsenal thoroughly deserved their victory. There's not much more to say than that really, we didn't need to climb through all

Sunday, August 16, 2009

What storm? Lodging it up one's critics derrieres

As usual I got things horribly wrong. An expected battle turned into a veritable stroll in the park, a lot of credit must go to Arsene and the players for dismantling a very decent Everton side so comprehensively. We saw pretty much the eleven we expected, Diaby's injury resulted in Denilson's start, while the tough decision was which two of three to start out of RVP/Eduardo and Bendtner. RVP

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Goodblog and quiet before Goodison storm

There are blogs and there are blogs, undoubtedly one of my favourite reads is Goodplaya and he has just recently revamped his site, it looks rather impressive and I suggest anyone who hasn't checked it out does so. There is so much dross out there, so many people just repeating the same old tired rumours and made up stories, that's why I think I find Goodplaya so refreshing. He offers balance,

Monday, August 10, 2009

Valencia, 4-3-3, the defense and the squad

So we lost 2-0 away to Valencia in our final pre season game, the result matters little, and there were some definite positives as well as negatives to take from the game. Our first half side looked solid enough, while the second half eleven did not look as handy, the most interesting thing we've seen in the pre season has been Arsene's deployment of the 4-3-3 formation.I am in two minds over

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Celtic await and last minute action?

So it's Celtic, it could have been better and it could have been worse. Under Mowbray you can guarantee that Celtic will play football the right way and that will be to our liking. Undoubtedly the away game on the 18th of August will be the tougher of the two fixtures, especially given as it comes just three days after our away game at Goodison Park. On the rare occassions that I have watched

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Big Friday

So it's almost underway, and an early pivotal moment tomorrow is the Champions League draw. We are in the 'non champions' path and will play one of five unseeded sides, as we are seeded. The teams we may face include:FiorentinaAtletico MadridCelticAnderlechtFC TimisoaraThere's not much doubt that the top two of these five would be the toughest, Celtic would be in the middle and the bottom two

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Regrets and offensive gluttony?

I have always like big Phil Senderos. It therefore saddens me to hear that he is on the verge of joining Everton. Everton have today confirmed that the two clubs are locked in negotiations. Obviously big Phil has only a year left on his contract and is not a first choice player, so the money makes definite business sense. Football is not just a business, it is more than that to us the fans, I am

Monday, August 3, 2009

Monday Bumblings

In many ways 1979's short summary of the Emirates Cup is all that need to be said about the pre-season friendly tournament, in which we used 21 players I think. Its a nice little run-out for the players and the fact that 110,000 tickets were sold over the two days is a nice little earner for the clubs involved.But its bad measure to try and guage how the squad is looking. The biggest surprise,

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Jack in the box? Bullet points

Unfortunately I didn't get to watch the whole of the Rangers game yesterday, some of us only managed bits of the game and were interrupted by pesky work related problems, damn it. I happened to stumble upon Goodplaya's review of the Emirates Cup and agreed with most of what he said. As I'm exhausted having worked all weekend I'm going to sum up my thoughts in lazy bullet points, please feel free

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Emirates Cup et al

Two fine Andrei Arshavin goals capped an exciting afternoon's activity at the Emirates, we also got a few hints as to how the boss is seeing things for the season ahead. Wilshere was the stand out player for me, jinking past defenders with ease and showing a maturity beyond his years. Djourou got the nod at centre back, as Thomas Vermaelen was nursing something minor, and looked solid enough.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Poker face?

It never ceases to amaze me just how much criticism Arsene gets at times, imagine if he had actually had a really bad season, by that I mean a Tottenham style season, he would then deserve some stick, but just remember what he's done with limited resources and how the club has been transformed in recent years. So many clubs have spent so much more money on players and achieved so much less than

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Bye bye King Kolo

I still remember Kolo's debut season, the dates and the opposition don't immediately spring to mind, what stands out in my memory is the amazing enthusiasm that this young lad from the Ivory Coast showed every time he pulled on an Arsenal shirt. He started out as a bit part player, sometimes on the wing and sometimes at full back, he was initially rash, his raw enthusiasm sometimes getting the

Good on yer Tel!

It never sounded particularly true that Theirry Henry would have helped out the gruesome 'Arry Redknapp by advising him to sign Patrick Vieira, and indeed so much is Tel's love for Arsenal that he has felt the need to come out and openly declare that he would never help Tottenham in any way. Very well done that man:"I am Arsenal through and through. I'd never advise anyone to sign for Tottenham,

Monday, July 27, 2009

Zombies versus Gooners and more news

As I wait for kick off I felt the need to comment on John Terry's pathetic defense of his extensive silence, is there a single soul alive who believes that this despicable chav loves Chelsea as his thieving mother? If Terry loved Chelsea he would have spoken out immediately to refute the rumours, he did not, he was silent, his silence spoke volumes for me. This will undoubtedly mean that the

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Sensationalism and excessive coverage

Every year I think to myself 'surely meaningless pre season friendlies can't get over hyped more than this in the future?' and each year I am amazed to see that the excessive hype increases by another notch or two. An example of this was Real Madrid's completely inane and meaningless game against Shamrock Rovers being screened live on TV, not only this but the media were commenting on the

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Nasri injured, lucky old Arsenal

The club have confirmed that Samir Nasri has broken his fibula whilst training at the Austrian training camp. Not good news. Apparently the injury was as a result of a Diaby challenge, I suppose at least it's a sign that Diaby can have an impact on occassions (bad joke I know). However having a bit of medical knowledge and making a few assumptions that are likely to be correct, it appears that

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Rosicky is back & Midfield Options

I didn't watch the 2-2 draw with Barnet on Saturday, mainly because there was plenty of meaningful sport being provided at Turnberry and Lords, so I will not comment on the game. I am also not going to dwell further on Adebayor.However, the news that Rosicky has taken part in a competitive game is excellent, as for long parts of last season it looked a distinct possibility that Rosicky's knee

At last, good riddance Emmanuel

The fact that I am absolutely delighted that Emmanuel Adebayor has left the club speaks as loud as any words about the Togoan striker's departure, whatever the real reasons for the protracted nature of the transfer, whether it was down to Adebayor trying to move to a decent club or trying to extort yet more money from the club in the form of 'loyalty' payments, I couldn't care less, we simply do

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Mirko Vucinic gold dust

Morning all. Just a quick mention of something that was in the papers this week and made me laugh.Mirko Vucinic, the Montenegran striker at Roma (who was excellent in both legs against us but missed the crucial penalty) is being linked with a move away from Rome, and one possible destination is Spurs. This is what he had to say on a Roma website interview:"At the moment it's useless to talk

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Ade-bye-or: mixed emotions?

As the Usmanov propaganda appears to be swallowed whole by the BBC (how can anyone take a report commissioned by the walrus like fatty seriously is beyond me), Emmanuel Adebayor is on the verge of signing for Manchester City, I hear that he is currently being fondled by the Manchester City doctor. I'm just praying that don't decide to scan his head as they may just find the rather vacuous space

Monday, July 13, 2009

Can City help us out?

The problem known by the name of Emmanuel Adebayor may be about to be solved by the generosity of Manchester City. It's a shame on one level as Adebayor has all the physical attributes needed to be a top striker for Arsenal, unfortunately the bit between his ears has been his limiting factor. His greed and consistent lack of application have let him down. Winning trophies requires a team that

Strange leanings - Terry vs Usmanov

It seems to me that John Terry has shown his true colours this summer, it means nothing whether he leaves Chelsea or not, it is quite blatant that if he was such a loyal Chelsea man then he would have nipped these rumours of a transfer to Man City in the bud a long time ago. It was not long ago that Chelsea's club captain, the repugnant JT, signed a record breaking 135 grand a week contract. He

Saturday, July 11, 2009

False hope? I hope not

If something sounds too good to be true, it often is and I think this story from the Mirror may well be a classic example of this precise phenomenon. The story appears to be based on no concrete evidence at all, there isn't even a quote from a friend close to the player or even a liar in the newsroom. Mikel Silvestre to Bordeaux? God I would be so so happy, almost as happy as on the day that the

All quiet on the Gooner front

Well, ho hum, not much appears to be happening at the moment, I have decided to make a conscious effort not to link to rubbish stories as this merely increases their traffic which is precisely what they are after, the likes of Piers 'lowlife' Morgan and the Sun rely on this kind of reality which is pretty damn lame in my opinion. The Sun was particularly guilty of more low quality journalism

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Exclusive news - Bulgarian quadroped signs

I can exclusively reveal that 99.999% of the football related stories on the Internet are complete and utter fiction, it never ceases to amaze me just how much crud is churned out these days, the incessant river of football related fiction doesn't appear to be running dry as yet though. Since our ancient ancestors changed their lifestyles from that of hunter gatherers to permanent settlers using

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

July Musings

Well, the first pre-season friendly kicks off on 18 July against Barnet, and the new premierleague campaign will begin against Everton away on 15 August - a tricky place to start and no mistake. However, I am delighted that we get to go up to play Manure early in the season on 29 August - its a real chance to take a big scalp, and I hope Arsenal have a real go at Manure early in the season.And

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Fantastic signing

As Manchester United are rumoured to be signing the, cough, over the hill, splutter, Michael Owen, Arsenal have announced some fantastic news that will disappoint a host of clubs who were keeping a crafty eye on things, Jack Wilshere has signed a new long term deal at the club.This boy is a special talent and this is great news. It is certainly worth remembering that players of Jack's age have

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

More shock horror

I can't believe it, it turns out that the rumours linking us to Karim Benzema are complete and utter bollocks, well stone the crows that really is a turn up for the books, I am genuinely surprised again. Mr Benzema shall be joining Real Madrid who seem to be printing bank notes this summer. Incidentally I look forward to enjoying every single game which their overpaid players fail to win next

Monday, June 29, 2009

Gilberto the great

In my humble opinion if ever there was a player who should have been our club captain for longer then it should have been Gilberto Silva, most certainly we should have kept him on as a player for last season given our lack of depth in the centre of midfield. The man oozes athleticism, professionalism and dedication, I really cannot speak highly enough of him, the likes of Ronaldo and Adebayor

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Cesc gets stuck in for once

An interesting series of quotes can be found here at the Telegraph which apparently emanate from Cesc Fabregas whilst with the Spanish squad. The story is all over the other papers, but you can actually read the quotes at the Telegraph, rather than the spin that the media wants to whip it into.The quotes reveal, I think, a lot of stuff that has been apparent to us fans for a long time. The

Sunday, June 21, 2009

What a bunch of tits

I know footballers have never been the best role models around, but the behaviour of some of them this summer has definitely plumbed new depths. I am certainly not naive enough to believe that all footballers should be as loyal to their club as the most hardcore of the supporters, however they are professionals, they are paid to play football and are often rewarded with very lucrative long term

Friday, June 19, 2009

Vermaelen signs on

It has been confirmed by the club today, Thomas Vermaelen is an Arsenal player. Although he can play at left back he will surely be our first choice left centre back next season, with this having some interesting implications for some other centre backs at the club. Importantly Vermaelen is a leader, he comes with experience as a club captain, something we have sorely missed at the back in

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Momentum building? Lucas signing close

So having listened to a few unbiased scousers I must concede that Xabi Alonso is the new messiah, a true gent, a great all round footballer and a one paced wonder, oh sorry I just couldn't keep those lies flowing. I will be so very disappointed if we don't sign the one paced wonder this summer, maybe scousers only value Alonso because they know the rather useless Lucas would have to play more

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Alonso can't tackle

FIFA's Pointless Cup(TM), what a steaming pile of poo it is, not only is Cesc not getting a nice summer off to relax and get ready for a very long and hard season ahead, but he has now been injured by the immensely overrated Xabi 'I'm a big headed tosser' Alonso. It's just such a waste of everyone's time to be playing such a meaningless competition this summer, the only winner is FIFA thanks to

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Money flows as the summer burns on

Despite the rumours the only actual confirmed news of the summer so far is that Lucas Fabianski has signed a new long term contract at the club. Fabianski has made some errors, but overall he's shown he does have the ability and one would never expect a young inexperienced keeper to look like a commanding senior pro straight away.The money being thrown around by Real Madrid is nothing but obscene

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Core Values

Its been a slow couple of days in Arsenal world, if not weeks. However, recent events are making me feel a sense of great disillusion.I am not a modest man, but I am good at my job and could probably earn more if I moved employers. However, I am relatively happy where I am, like most of the people I work with and the stuff I do. The point is that I feel a sense of loyalty to what I do and the

Monday, June 1, 2009

Have I Got No News For You

Wasn't the Cup Final disappointing? Of all the average toss-pots to score a left footer to win the Cup, it had to be Frank "Ginsters" Lampard.So, its the 1st June and the 09/10 Premierleague season does not start until... I don't know when. Not for months anyway. There is also no major summer footy tournament this year and Britain Has Chav-Talent has just finished on TV (I voted for the fat

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Positive Vibes and Player of the Season

With the end of the season now comes a couple of months of self analysis. But before we get too far into the never ending debate of who Arsenal should sign, and having given Monsieur Wenger a bit of a bashing last week, I thought it would only be fair to try and put some positive spin on next season. So here are my three top reasons to be positive for next season:1. Andrei Arshavin - What an

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Barca power to victory

Ronaldo's venomous long range free kick, Eto's fabulous opener, Henry's jink and low shot, Xavi against the post, Messi's brilliant header, Ronaldo's petulance, Scholes disgraceful lunge, Iniesta's cracking shot, Puyol's header, Barcelona's cheers, Manu's despair, Ronaldo's tears, Messi's joy.What a game, even if it was rather one sided with Manu only really threatening a makeshift Barca defence

A trophy at last and good luck Manu, don't break a leg

So the youth team convincingly dispatched Liverpool 6-2 over the two legs in winning the FA Youth Cup, there's no doubt this is a great achievement, but as the man known as Arseblogger says we should not put too much weight on these young men's shoulders. The midfielders do seem to be the ones who are the most talked about, Wilshere is the obvious one, but Coquelin, Frimpong and Emmanuel-Thomas

Monday, May 25, 2009

Over and out, mental season commences

"90, 86, 83, 71"It was great to see the season finish with both a win and a show of support for the boss, who has not deserved to be criticised in the manner in which he has been criticised for the last few months by the media and certain sections of our own support. The four numbers above though show that we have been significantly off the pace in the league, United's points tally is very

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Dust settles and trophy near

The season is almost gone and despite our lack of success it´s hard to claim that it hasn´t been packed with excitement and drama, personally I´ve enjoyed things a lot more than I´ve not enjoyed them if that makes any sense. Some of the lack of enjoyment has come as a result of certain so called Arsenal supporters who have not covered themselves in glory with their words outside and inside the

Friday, May 22, 2009

Hull chatting breeze, who would have thought

As many of us had suspected would be the case, the FA have found there was not enough evidence to come anywhere near to proving that Cesc had done anything wrong after our FA Cup victory over Hull. Really it is a disgrace that charges were even considered given the contradictory nature of Hull´s accusations. Even the FA couldn´t dare charge a player for daring to celebrate a victory, no matter

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Eduardo update

Arsenl.com has reported that Eduardo has undergone further ankle surgery on the same ankle that he injured last season against Birmingham. Given that the media are trying to whip this story up into something that it is not, I thought I should post a bit more detail on this. Do not believe the spin in papers like the Sun, this is not a 'new injury'.As I have expertise in this area I can say that

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Wenger Boy

Morning all. Its going to be a long summer at Arsenal and its disappointing to see that the rumour mill is already in full swing. Given Real Madrid's season, along with the tedious manifesto promises that are generated by their presidential election, its no suprise that the Wenger to Madrid story is back again. But what is a slightly bigger surprise is that the story was not met yesterday by a

Sunday, May 17, 2009

A clean sheet away to the Champions

That was much better, another defeat would have seen many a Gooner tear shed into pont glasses up and down the country, thankfully a little pride has been restored and we didn't fall apart again at Old Trafford. Overall I thought we were the better side, although we didn't create a massive number of clear cut chances, we had more possession, hustled well in the midfield and defended well on the

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Old Trafford again, business and ten things

So it's the mancs again, anyone expecting to come away with anything more than zero points put your hands up, I thought so, we're hardly on the crest of the wave at the moment. Arshavin returns but it's the state of our defence that is of real concern, Almunia looks to be out, while Gallas and Clichy remain out, only a mad Arsenal man would be feeling confident going into this one. Amazingly

Book review: Love, Death and Football

Jason Cowley is a British journalist and Arsenal supporter, his latest offering is a book entitled 'Love, Death and Football'. This book is an interesting mix of stories and opinions focused around the author's family life, Arsenal and that infamous Michael Thomas goal in 1989, Hillsborough and football culture in general with a bit of a sociopolitical slant.The narrative spans a time frame from

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

A new Arsenal XI

Seeing as our current Arsenal side is so unfit for purpose I have decided that it would be sensible for Arsene to sell our whole squad and replace it with fresh new exciting talent. This is a great idea, it would involve no risk as all the new players would gel instantly and form a brilliant new title winning side, probably not in their first year, maybe they could win the Championship in their

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Smudger's spine surgery would result in a paraplegic Arsenal team

Seeing as silly season is almost upon us, added to the fact that there is no major tournament this summer, I felt the need to comment on some of the rather ridiculous players that we are already being linked to before it gets out of hand. This is a bit of a tirade against lazy journalism, whether that be on the TV, radio, in a newspaper or on a blog.It's very easy to claim it's all down to a

Monday, May 11, 2009

Reflecting on the porous leakage

That was out biggest home defeat for 32 years, it really puts conceding four goals at home into perspective, especially given that we had more chances, attacking territory and possession that Chelsea, it was a quite bizarre 4-1 defeat. It's almost as if we have forgotten the reasons for our former glory, our double winning sides were razor sharp on the counter attack, we could win games in which

Sunday, May 10, 2009

The cheating chavs expose our dodgy defence

I was heartened to see Emmanuel Adebayor left out of the team today following his apathetic performances against the mancs, we started with the 4-5-1 formation, RVP leading the line, Walcott-Diaby-Song-Cesc-Nasri in the midfield and Silvestre coming in for Djourou at the back. The first half performance was excellent, yet somehow we managed to go in at half time 2-0 down, this is the bizarre

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Still laughing, the gulf, arrivals and departures

I am currently listening to some fairly wise words from Charlie Nicholas on Sky's Saturday news program and I found myself agreeing with a fair amount he said. He pointed out our lack of experience and leaders, something we have to address this summer if we are to challenge next season, while I am starting to agree that we need to ship out a quantity of players this summer, we need to clear out

Friday, May 8, 2009

Midfield Dilemmas

Its far too early in the summer for any proper reflection on this season, and the wounds suffered during the three semi-finals are still too fresh, but I get the impression that many Arsenal fans are a little bewildered at the moment and some early stock taking might ease us through this. If nothing else, we need to avoid a massive knee jerk reaction.The starting point is to look back to where we

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Let's all laugh at Chelsea!

I haven't laughed so much in quite a while, what a fantastic finish to the Chelsea Barca game last night, I can't stop smiling this morning, thank you very much Mr Iniesta!As you may have gathered I am not a big Chelsea fan and last night showed precisely why. Of note in the first leg Barca had a genuine 'stonewall' penalty not given, while Ballack should have been sent off for a second yellow

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

The capitulation

The first few minutes saw us start with a drive and tempo that we had so sorely lacked at Old Trafford, the noise and atmosphere showed that there was still some hope, unfortunately when Gibbs slipped and Park slotted home, one got the feeling that everyone knew that was it. A moment of bad luck killed us, sometimes that's all it takes. Ronaldo's dive that was bought by the referee a few minutes

Death or Glory

A combination of the bank holiday weekend, a comfortable scoreline against Portsmouth (which seemed to flatter us from the highlights), and the result from the first leg, means that expectation levels are relatively low for tonight's game against Manure.But that's not a bad thing. Time after time in recent years, decades even, its exactly this sort of situation that sees the best from Arsenal.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Rolling on, outplaying Pompey

What a spoilt bastard I've become, a 3-0 away win should be something that is savoured and enjoyed, not that I didn't enjoy it, but we all know there are bigger fish to fry in the week and that it was not the most important of games. Even if we'd have lost the chances of a struggling Villa or Everton catching us would be pretty slim, still it's nice to know that we cannot be caught barring a

Friday, May 1, 2009

How good are we?

So the week draws to a close and our season's hopes hang by a relatively flimsy thread, we have preciously little chance of catching Chavski, the FA Cup is gone, all that is left is Tuesday's second lag against the mancs. Football can be a fickle old world, when things are rolling along nicely you can only see good in your boys, when things fall apart you cannot see where the next point is

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The Battle of Old Trafford

The team line ups are as follows:Manure: Van Der Saar, OShea, Vidic Ferdinand, Evra, Ronaldo, Carrick, Anderson, Fletcher, Rooney, TevezArsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Silvestre, Gibbs, Walcott, Song, Diaby, Fabregas, Nasri, AdebayorIt looks like 4-5-1s times two. It will be interesting to see if Nasri or Fabregas plays deep, personally I hope it is Cesc in the deeper role. The one thing that

Lets get ready to rumble

Wow. This is a big day. A really big day. The butterflies have been going all week. There will be very little productive work done today by Gooners worldwide, thats for sure.This is one of those days where nothing else really matters. So what if some Mexicans have a bad cold? The government should cancel the order for pointless facemasks and start handing out aspirin and beta blockers to football

Monday, April 27, 2009

The mancs await

I must firstly apologise for my lack of attention to the blog over the past few days, I make no excuses for the improved quality of writing in my absence courtesy of Obsinho, I was simply sunning myself and enjoying not working for a few days, unfortunately I have now returned to the grind and a combination of alcohol/caffeine withdrawal leaves my head sore and my mind bitter.Anyways onwards and

Unbeaten run continues at a canter...

Much less to say after this game than the freak Anfield game, which given the importance of this Wednesday was exactly what the Dr ordered. It was a comfortable 2-0, Boro never tried (which in itself I found embarrassing on behalf of the travelling ‘Boro fans) and I think (crosses fingers toes eyes and anything else crossable) we have not picked up any more injuries.There were some interesting

Friday, April 24, 2009

The FA love the colour of TV money

Happy Friday. The best day of the week, but it is better when there is a game on the Saturday. However, for us there is no game this Saturday as we have to wait till Sunday. Unlike, our opponents on Wednesday who get to play on Saturday.Why the hell are Utd given an extra 24 hours (almost) before such a huge game? Without doing Boro a huge disservice, our game against them is hardly a Classico,

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Liverpool 4-4 Arsenal

There is a hell of a lot to pick out from the rubble of last night. First up – that was incredibly entertaining, yet somehow not very fulfilling. I imagine neutrals and Sky executives loved it, but it left a sour taste in the mouth somehow. After that Chelsea Liverpool goalfest a few weeks back, I told all and sundry that it was not a classic as both teams were crap, and lots of goals do not

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Cheer yourselves up Gooners!

The defeat to Chelsea has not made the weekend the most pleasurable for Gooners up and down the land. This has been tempered somewhat by Manure's hilarious penalty shoot out defeat to Everton, their hopes of the treble are now gone (I don't count the Mickey Mouse cup as a trophy anymore). Watch the video above to cheer yourself up if you're feeling a tad depressed today.Having had a browse of

Cowardly and a deserved defeat

The FA Cup is now gone and the next day I am still bitterly disappointed with the manner in which we went down to Chelsea. I don't think there is anything to blame but the tactics and the team selection. I think the players who were selected tried hard and put the effort in, they do not deserve the criticism. Neither is it the fault of the pitch. The one saving grace of yesterday was the fact

Friday, April 17, 2009

Mincing before the biggie

There seems to be a lot of mutual loving going on, RVP praising Mr Hiddink, Mr Hiddick praising Andrei Arshavin, Frank Lampard praising the AFC club pies, et cetera. Certainly since the childlike and petulant Mourinho left Chelsea their managers have behaved in a much more appropriate and less disrespectful manner towards other clubs. Ou major concern is obviously our defence. On the positive

Thursday, April 16, 2009

On song and into the semis

It's quite amazing how many goals one needs to feel safe in a football match, even at three nil I had paranoid ideas about a quick flurry of Villareal goals, luckily it didn't materialise and we march onwards and upwards. The strength of our squad was shown as we did this with four of our back five our injured, all injuries that have occurred in the last two weeks. Thankfully Arsene opted for a

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Villareal, PFA and other bits'n'bobs

There's no doubt that tomorrow's game against Villareal is a rather big one, certainly getting through to the semis of the champions league would be quite some achievement, having said that it will not be an easy game, far from it, Villareal are a very good side and have the ability to cause us problems. Marcos Senna's injury at the weekend is a massive blow to their hopes though, he is their

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Good and bad news, fortune favours the brave

It's time to roll out the cliches again, yesterday truly was a game of two halves as all football matches are, there really was a stark contrast between the Arsenal sides we saw in the first and second halves. The formation was the obvious thing that changed, 4-5-1 it was in the first and then to 4-4-2 in the second when RVP came on for the anonymous Denilson. It can't all be put down to the

Friday, April 10, 2009

Musings and meanderings

Firstly apologies if I'm repeating anything that Ted has said in his Wigan preview, I just felt the need to reflect before a busy weekend of Premiership action. The big news is obviously the absence of Gallas, Clichy and Almunia; the good news is that Gallas has not done his anterior cruciate ligament which would have put him out for almost a year and prevented him from moving on in the summer

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Early Wigan Preview

Its an early preview for the Wigan game on Saturday, given that tomorrow is Good Friday and I'm unlikely to be near a puter. I am always far more tempted to get blogging when I am wasting my employers time, rather than my own.And the news this Thursday afternoon is rather mixed. The least surprising news is that Rosicky did not play for the reserves after all this week and his comeback is on hold

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

1-1 Ade sinks the Sub

Its a game of two halves, jumpers for goalposts, they don't like it up em... the old adages are dangerous ground in terms football punditry, but tonights 1-1 draw at the El Madrigal stadium against Villareal was a great example of football being a very funny old game. Its also not usually wise to go for a match report straight after the game, as your objectivity is usually as absent as Tomas

Monday, April 6, 2009

"We all shit on the Yellow Submarines...."

Early preview for the game tomorrow, with the news just out that RvP is not available. Not sure how big a blow that is, as I would imagine Wenger was going to line up with the 4-2-3-1 he used on Saturday. With Nasri coming in for Arshavin in a straight swap, I'd expect to see us line up the same formation. This can nominally change to a 4-5-1 when defending, but the onus is on the wide players to

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Arsenal 2 - 0 Citeh

I was a bit nervous going into the Emirates. Not at the thought of Citeh whose inability to travel left me in confident mood, but in case I didn’t recognise The Arsenal. It had been such a long time since we’d last met, and in desperation had even tried watching some other team playing football to see if that floated my boat. The sight of John Terry & Cashley Cole singing the national anthem put

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Less exciting than watching Joe Cole dribble

Unfortunately I was subjected to enduring a rather workmanlike England performance against the Ukraine yesterday, fortunately ITV decided to make it a bit more entertaining by including Joe Cole on their pundit panel, I have to say it was the first time Teddy Sheringham has ever appeared intelligent, it's a bit like watching a race between a tortoise and a traffic cone if you know what I mean.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Passing the time

So Ade has scored for Togo after some cracking Cameroon defending, RVP also got in on the goalscoring act with an unchallenged header against the mighty Scotland, England managed to defeat the mighty Slovakia, I can hardly contain my excitement, what a fine weekend of international football, who needs the Premiership? If only the Premership was run as nobly as the international game is run by

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Win an Arsenal shirt competition

Firstly my kind thanks go to Soccerpro.com for kindly donating the pricely sum of one Arsenal shirt as the prize to this slightly bizarre and random competition of my own creation. The full range of Arsenal merchandise available at Soccerpro.com can be seen here, if you are lucky enough to win then they may even give you something other than the standard home shirt if you ask them really nicely

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Flash Diaby and chums

Seeing as I'm off work at the moment I thought I'd use my time productively to produce a colourful image containing some of our favourite football heroes, I can hear 'don't give up the day job' echoing around cyberspace already. It's a good effort for a three year old anyway.The international break is now upon us, so we can be guaranteed some rather substandard football, the typical chorus of

Monday, March 23, 2009

The lowest common denominator

The way the media selectively report the facts is hardly isolated to football, if any of you have an interest in science then Ben Goldacre at the Guardian is always excellent at pointing out lazy and irresponsible journalism. At least when it relates to football no one dies because of the media's sloppy standards, however when news relating to health is reported innaccurately in can quite easily

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Toon destroyed

Like Arseblogger the poor quality stream made it tricky for me to get a great picture of the first half, I was also rather compromised by something a little closer to home which meant I had to be in close proximity of the toilet, I won't go into too many details on that front though.The thing that stood out for me though, other than our scintillating attacking football in the second half, was

Friday, March 20, 2009

The media manure factory

The utter tripe that has been faithfully swallowed by certain sections of the media in recent days has beggared belief. This nonsense in the Mirror typifies the kind of journalism on offer these days, even a three year old without a brain would be ashamed:"However, as footage from a Champions League tie with Bayern Munich appears to prove, not only has Fabregas apparently spat at a player on a

Thursday, March 19, 2009

A poem for Phil Brown

It's a great shame that the whipping of your dour football team,has been clouded by the imaginary events that have been vented from your spleen.Sometimes it is much harder to take defeat like a man,even if losing was not part of Hull's great world dominating masterplan.The match itself saw your team fight with all their might,even if some of the delaying tactics were somewhat less than being

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Let Phil Brown do the talking

It's never a bad tactic to let the dust settle before commenting, certainly those who shoot from the hip without thinking are rather prone to making themselves appear first class tits. Obviously this statement is in no way related to Phil Brown's comments following Hull's comprehensive defeat at the Emirates yesterday. Here are some of Phil gems from the last 24 hours:"Arsène Wenger's got my

Magic Midgets

I am not going to mention Phil Browm's post-match sideshow that is covering the back pages this morning. Crap. I already did. Well, I won't again.Instead, I want to spend a moment or two basking in the warm sunshine of our first FA Cup semi-final for four years. There is something magical about the cup competitions, and the FA Cup in particular, and although the FA Cup is the least important of

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Win an Arsenal shirt: send me some poetic abuse

Once I have confirmation from the company involved I shall confirm the details of the small Arsenal related prize on offer, however I though I should first give you a heads up on what kind of competition I was going to plan.One great pleasure of being a football supporter is learning to mock one's rivals and enemies, so I though a good competition would involve the penning of poetry to mock any

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Sublime, bring out the superlatives

I'd be surprised if anyone could be negative after such a fine performance, other than fat Sam our course. Blackburn came to foul, cheat and niggle as all fat Sam teams do, so what a great pleasure it was to see them served up a good portion of roast fatty northern walrus with a side of humiliated onion bag dwelling ex-spud.The early goal made a difference, Arshavin striking after an incisive

Friday, March 13, 2009

We came, we saw, we almost lost

Apologies that this match report is so late, but the world needed some justice today, and thankfully I was there to dispense it. All for a very reasonable fee. But here we go. Its the Roma match report, Ted stylee.I believe it was Tigger who first sang the song "the wonderful thing about winning, is winning's a wonderful thing'. It was also Tigger who pointed out to everyone else in 100 acre wood

Thursday, March 12, 2009

The bias and the spin

I wish I could have been in Rome last night, unfortunately my lack of a commitment to the cause and the fact that my job has the flexibility of an ironing board meant I couldn't be there. I shall leave the match report to the boys who made the trip but I do feel the need to pass a little comment on the coverage of the game by various bits of the media.The Arsenal-Roma game was shown so little

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Thank the lord

It wasn't the best we've played by any means. It wasn't the prettiest of games. But we are through and it's these kind of moments upon which seasons can be turned. Let's use our luck and ride it onto the final in Rome. Come on you Gunners. Anyone for a nice cold Tonetto?

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Roma nerves

Morning all. I've Wednesday and Thursday off work to go to the Roma game with Obsinho. We don't fly until tomorrow but I am already nervous with excitement.The Champions League is not a perfect format, by any means, and the purists out there deride it compared to the straight knock-out format of the European Cup, but I am a massive fan of the Champions League. In the last ten years, we have

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Progress continues

The wheels go round, the unbeaten run continues and Burnley have been calmly dispatched. A good day all round. I will dare to predict that the media report a la Cardiff and concentrate on Burnley's weaknesses rather than our excellent performance. I won't tire you with a detailed match report, there are many other places you can read to your fill on this front, what I will do is tire you with my

Saturday, March 7, 2009

6 plus 5 - plain stupid

"Definition of 6+5- At the beginning of each match, each club must field at least 6 who are players eligible to play for the national team of the country of the club. - However, there is: - no restriction on the number of non-eligible players under contract with the club, - nor on substitutes to avoid non-sportive constraints on the coaches (potentially 3+8 at the end of a match)."FIFA defines

Sensible writing by a journalist - surely not......

Not actually a post just a pointer for an excellent article that actually sums up 99% of the opinions of the writers of this blog;We should bow before Arsène Wenger, not deride himGood to see respected journalists willing to stand for some proper footballing principles, rather than bowing down at the altar of Sky Sports and its instant gratification football porn.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Burnley, Bischoff and buckets of b.s.

Given 1979's prior commitments this week to carry on Dr Shipman's good work on the frail and needy, you get another instalment today of Uncle Ted's rambling nonsense. So shut up in the back row and get your note books out.My self-serving campaign for positive mental thinking has paid off big time. We beat West Brom on Tuesday and Citeh beat Aston Villa on Wednesday. It has nothing to do with what

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

West Brom - A step forwards

Morning all. I can't really write a match report on last night's game, as I didn't see it, but frankly, the result is far more important than the performance at this stage of the season.From the limited goal highlights I have seen, its nice to see that some basic football from Arsenal resulted in goals. Toure heads in a free-kick. Toure punts a long ball down the park to Bendtner, takes a touch,

Monday, March 2, 2009

Musings of a pensive Gooner

To put this little diatribe in context I would firstly like to say that our recent performances have been considerably better than the results gained, even though I would never claim that we are near to challenging for the title I would claim that five points from the last potential fifteen has been very unfortunate indeed. Having said that, there are some rather clear problems with our squad

The luck of the draw(s)...

Its a bit difficult at the moment for us Gooners. Why has it all gone wrong and how does it become better?Arsene Wenger has never done that which the tabloid press would like him to do. He has always defied convention and expectation. That is what has made him the most successful manager in modern football, based on the trophies won against money spent. Any idiot pub "know-it-all" can be given

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Goals, goals, my kingdom for a goal....

Roy Hodgson has been on my list of "Good Managers" for many years, and it's no real surprise that he has put together a compact Fulham side who play tight, attractive football. And for a good deal of a frustrating 90 minutes yesterday, Fulham were the better side.I have struggled overnight to come up with the right balance for this match report. I am quite sure there will be many blogs posting

Friday, February 27, 2009

Adebayor for Chairman of RBS

I wish I had a £650k pension. I wonder what kind of pension package Adebayor is going to have, given that he was thinking about retirement was back in the summer. Maybe Ade should run RBS – that’s be great.Even though Arsenal still managed to generate increased profit, and delivered a very healthy set of financials for last year, the Telegraph still focused on the looming property loan repayment