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SOCCER NEWS

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Partizan thoughts

Six points is a very decent start. Unfortunately I couldn't watch last night's game due to work commitments and had to make to do with the odd update via the Internet. I've now had time to watch most of the game and read the match reports/opinion.The midfield appeared much improved on Saturday. Certainly Denilson and Wilshere added some cunning and discipline, while having fully fit players

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Arsenal shorts, some small problems need solving

Having had a chance to reflect upon yesterday's poor result, I think there are a few things that need addressing if we are to sort ourselves out and make a proper challenge for the title.Goalkeeping: There is no doubt this has been woefully managed. Almunia makes an easy scapegoat for yesterday's defeat but this is not only shortsighted but also foolish. Almunia had a solid first half, he was

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Where were the leaders? A self induced capitulation

No game is easy, but to concede three at home to West Brom is frankly nothing other than woeful. A late equaliser may have papered over the cracks and salvaged a point, but perhaps in the long run it is better than we have not avoided this hefty kick in the nuts.I think Arsene got the starting midfield wrong. The middle trio of the unfit Diaby, Song and Eboue just doesn't have the right balance

Nutters and our dishonest media

Harry Redknapp, love him or hate him, has said some very fair things about Arsene Wenger. In some media outlets it has been reported very reasonably and factually. For example in the Guardian the headline is 'Arsène Wenger is one of the nutters now' and one can read the quotes in context:"It was strange, it just shows you what happens in football. We can all remember when Arsène first came to

Friday, September 24, 2010

West Brom, Money and Poles

So West Brom arrive at the Emirates tomorrow and three points will be expected, but they should not be underestimated, they have pulled off a few decent results already this season. Team wise Gibbs is out, the good news is that he may be back soonish, Diaby may return and faces a fitness test, Song returns from suspension, Squillaci will return to partner Koscielny at the back. Vermaelen and

Thursday, September 23, 2010

The FA lies/Dembele/Arsene

Having entered into a dialogue with the FA it does appear that they are squirming and not answering some rather straightforward questions. They claim that FIFA's laws of the game prevents them from reviewing incidents that have been seen by referees. This FIFA guidance is not easy to find, in fact I suspect there is no such guidance as the FA are currently refusing to say exactly where it has

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Fingers crossed for Kieran Gibbs/FA and cheats

So poor old Kieran Gibbs mat have done something nasty to his foot again, I really hope this isn't the case given just brilliant he has been in his few appearances thus far this season. Obviously he fractured his first metatarsal last season, which then didn't heal, this meant he had to have it fixed and bone grafted. The concern would be that he has re fractured the same metatarsal that he

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Cup run off to straightforward start

While some gloat in victory and others make DVDs at the drop of the hat, here we do not get carried away after beating average footballing sides managed by dishonest wheeler dealers.One man who didn't leave the stands early was that man Arsene Wenger and how he must have loved what he saw. Both sides had rather similar strength sides, although I am sure that the media will try to brush this

Monday, September 20, 2010

Spuds preview and sweet FA

Apparently Arsene has named a much stronger squad than expected for tomorrow's game against the Spuds, only three Reserves players are in there: JET, Lansbury and Eastmond. It means that the team won't be drastically different to the side that played at the weekend. Unfortunately Fabianski is set to start in goal, I'd also expect Gibbs to return for Clichy, Djourou and Eboue may well come into

Limp dysfunctional FA charge Wenger

So as expected the FA have charged Arsene Wenger after the media's massive over reaction to some very very mild behaviour on Saturday. In fact the FA charge relates to what happened right at the end of the game:"Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been charged with using insulting and/or abusive language and behaviour amounting to improper conduct. The charges relate to Wenger’s conduct towards

Dowd reviewed, Denilson and Defense

Here's my summary of Phil Dowd's work on Saturday:The good: foul on Clichy 8mins, Wilshere deserved his yellow card 22 mins, Bent penalty decision 27mins, correct free kick foul by Koscielny, a free kick for Arsenal!!!!! 44 mins as Sunderland player climbs all over Song, yellow for Wellbeck 47mins for a nasty lunge on Sagna, got the penalty decision on Nasri right, Malbranque correctly carded

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Calmer thoughts - frustrating but not a disaster

It is just so so frustrating to lose a game in the final minute. Nothing but time can take away that feeling of wanting to break one's head on a wall. Overall a point at Sunderland is a good point, three points was so close, but one must remember that one point is better than none.Despite the sloppy late goal Sunderland were restricted to very few decent openings, generally we defended reasonably

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Blame ourselves, but what planet?

It is only really productive to blame ourselves. Despite the fact that there should never have been enough time added for Sunderland to score, we could have cleared the ball, we could have slotted the penalty home, we could have kept eleven men on the field.Still Dowd was awful, soft free kicks for Sunderland time in time out without any reciprocation. The added time and the harsh yellows.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Fat Sam - comments dismantled

It's always tempting to react to Sam Allardyce's comments with aggression, anger and vitriol. However there's simply no point in getting angry, it's far more amusing to actually analyse the content of this fat walrus' words and systematically show that they are the bitter ravings of a very sad, paranoid and unpleasant individual. Sam seems to have a whole deep fat fryer full of chips on his

Only six? Arsene should be ashamed

Clichy-Cesc-Kos-Seb-Den-Sagna-Nasri-Seb-Jack-Clichy-Kos-Cesc-lovely one two with Den-Cesc-Jack-Cesc-Arshavin-Vela-Goal!!! That was the story of the wonderful fifth goal last night and wasn't it sumptuous? It's hard to find words to describe just how good we were last night.Despite what certain negative people in the media may say, you can only beat who is in front of you and Arsenal did that in

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

The FA's inconsistency and lies

One doesn't have to look far on the Internet to find countless examples of problems with the FA's useless disciplinary system. High profile examples include Gerrard's missed elbow (Stuart Attwell again!), Mascherano's missed elbow, the RVP and Adebayor exchanges, the Ashley Cole tackle on Alan Hutton, RVN's punching of Freddie Ljungberg and on and on ad infinitum. It has been clear that their

The FA are an utter disgrace

So the FA turned down Gary Cahill's appeal yesterday, they had no choice really, two footed tackles from behind should never be appealed, he should have been given an extra game ban for taking the p*ss. Arsene has had some very interesting things to say since the match, reported by John Cross here in the Mirror and also by Matt Lawson in the Express, I have taken a few bits to highlight for you:

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Cahill dismissed again as Diaby suffers

Firstly poor Abou Diaby is out for a period after Paul Robinson's shocking tackle, it would not surprise me if this turns out to be weeks, the fact that he could barely move his leg after the game does not bode for a quick return. Arsene says he is out til after the weekend at an absolute minimum. For those of you who need reminding as to the reckless and violent nature of the tackle, it can be

Noble Coyle speaks up for little clubs

Anotherarsenalblog has had exclusive access to Owen Coyle in order to obtain a special interview about events at the weekend, Paul Robinson and the clear bias against small clubs shown by referees. Coyle started off:"Maybe when the smaller clubs come to the elite clubs, they don't get the rub of the green."It's hard to disagree with him here. There are so many many ways in which Bolton didn't

Monday, September 13, 2010

Mark Hughes: breaking legs to win

On BBC Radio 5 Live this Saturday gone feelings were running fairly high following the horrendous injury sustained by Bobby Zamora and some rather interesting things were revealed over the duration. The program was introduced with Mark Chapman saying that Gary Cahill had done 'very little' to get sent off at the Emirates. Robbie Savage went on to say that kids should be taught how to cheat by

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Paul Robinson and the media blackout

Here is the video of 'that' tackle by Bolton's Paul Robinson. I thought it was a clear red card at first viewing and it only looks worse on the replays. If ever a tackle was designed to break a leg then this is it. A couple of chaps at the stadium sitting behind me felt it was a fair tackle, if they haven't changed their minds having studied in it more detail then they need their heads

The loss of control: Stuart Attwell

Being a bit of sad bastard I watched the whole game again on ArsenalTV online this morning. I thought I'd review my opinion of the referee's performance and the team in the cold light of day. Stuart Attwell was the referee and I think he brought a lot of the trouble on himself with some poor inconsistent decisions making, although he was certainly not helped at all by his linesmen who were

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Arsenal 4 Bolton 1 - a victory for football

As I stood up for another action packed ninety minutes at the Emirates I have to admit the starting eleven wasn't the one many of us had predicted. It was great to see Kieran Gibbs and Jack Wilshere get the nod, Tomas Rosicky also deserved his starting slot on the right of the front three. The full eleven was Manuel: Eboue, Seb, Kos, Gibbs: Cesc Wilshere Song: Rosicky Chamakh Arshavin.The first

Seb and 'No woman, No Kai'

Not much more to really add to yesterday's pre match amble, it's just that a little bit more mocking of certain individuals may be in order. Seb Squillaci will make his debut and it will be a baptism of fire for him, playing against Kevin Davies is a bit like playing with a chainsaw without protection, those swinging elbows, not forgetting his relatively impressive falls to ground for such a big

Happy 700 Sir Alex, it's lucky Manchester United have forgotten the 99 questions!

I thought I would preempt the media fanfare that will greet the might Sir Alex Ferguson's 700th league game for Manchester United. If anyone wishes to know the background to Sir Alex's and Manchester United's dirty business past then read here and here.Essentially Sir Alex is not whiter than white. He took on men far bigger and more powerful than himself in John Magnier and JP McManus, he was

Friday, September 10, 2010

A boring post saying nothing that exciting

I thought it would be nice to have a completely honest headline for once, so many headlines on the Internet these days are designed to suck readers in, often the headline makes it out that something very exciting is to follow, however the actual article is invariably just recycling something tedious. Take this from today: 'Arsenal defender plots Emirates exit', it makes you think that a big

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Bloody ankles and more dross

So Theo is going to be out a bit longer than expected, the club are saying between 4 and 6 weeks, really bad luck for the lad given his great start to the season. It's always a bit of a guessing game with ankles, he could be back in less than the 4 weeks, the estimate is just that, an estimate and can sometimes be a bit off. All we know is that he's had a scan which will show that he hasn't

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Theo, injuries, Squillaci debut and Bolton

So Theo is the latest of our injured strikers, if you look at the first England goal carefully you can see that he is chopped down from behind as the cross comes in, he has twisted his ankle in the process. It doesn't sound too bad though, he wasn't in that much pain and apparently when talking to Fabio Capello about it he was fairly optimistic about a quick return. Hopefully no more than two

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Expected news as proper action nears

So the club have revealed that RVP is likely to be out til mid October ish with his ankle injury. It was obviously a nasty sprain so that's what was expected really, about 4-6 weeks give or take. RVP needs to stop diving into tackles when he is not fully committed, it's only inevitable that he'll continue to get these kind of injuries if he does so.A shed load of Gunners are in international

Monday, September 6, 2010

Shawcross the brave

There was a youthful clogger from Stokewho was a terribly lovely kind of bloke,in fact he was so nice that I am at a lossto find words suitable for Mr Ryan Shawcross!The Daily Mail and Sun have made it rather clearthat this young man is a dear,a beacon of control and disciplineand most certainly someone not known to sin!He's had a rather glittering career,it started off with Fergie gripping his

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Wayne Rooney rhyme

There once was a young lad called Wayne,and it was from near the Mersey that he came.From quite a young age he developed a tastefor the ladies upon whom money you waste.The rumour went that it was around the bingo hallwhere our Wayne used to trawl;looking for that special grannyand then trading his cash for fanny.Since those old days a lot has changed,some would even say that our Wayne is less

Friday, September 3, 2010

Poem of the intertull: boredom

So another day passes of the interlull,isn't it too soon for life to be this dull?England are playing against the mighty Bulgaria,but that doesn't make me feel any less wearier.The Sun continues to report the so called news,but they're mainly concerned with who's being screwed by whose.Young Jack Wilshere is the subject of their latest concocted tale,but at least he wasn't climbing trees like

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Squad announced amidst ridiculous tabloid fury

So our first team squad for the coming season has been announced. It's both smaller and larger than others around if that makes any sense. It's smaller in the sense that we only have a squad of 20 over-21 year old players, but it's larger than most in the sense that we have a fantastic depth of U-21 talent which includes the likes of Walcott, Wilshere, Gibbs, JET, Vela, Szczesny and