Arsenal - Roma Champions League Preview

It's finally back. The Champions League if finally back! It seems like it's been ages since the group stages but it's finally time to resume and it starts off tonight against Roma. Is it a big match? Huge. Is it a match we can win? Certainly. It's one of our only chances for silverware this season, along with the FA Cup, so this should be taking a high priority right now. We haven't won in four league matches but hopefully we come out fighting tonight and go for the win.

The injury list is long yet again: Eduardo, Cesc, Adebayor, Theo, Rosicky, and Silvestre are all out with injuries. Andrey Arshavin is ineligible for the rest of this year's competition, but Abou Diaby is fit and could make a start. Arsenal.com says he may play as a deep lying striker, but I hope not.

Arsene Wenger confirmed we'll be going all out for the win though, saying:

“We will play with two strikers,” Wenger confirmed. “I haven’t decided if we play 4-4-2 or not but we will play with two strikers. We go for it. It is as simple as that.

Roma are a strange team, capable of getting very good results at times and other times looking like the worst team to make the Champions League. If anyone watched that 7-1 beating that Man United put on them a couple of years ago you'll know what I mean. I wouldn't mind a 7-1 victory for us tonight but in the grand scheme of things I'd take a 1-1 probably. We just need to get a bloody goal.

My guess at the formation would be this:

Almunia
Sagna-Toure-Gallas-Clichy
Eboue-Denilson-Song-Nasri
Diaby-----
--RvP

So I'm thinking a 4-5-1 even though Wenger said a 4-4-2, although this is kind of like a 4-4-2 since Diaby will sort of be in the Bergkamp role.

The match is in two hours or so. I have 2 hours and 10 minutes of Arsenal music on my computer. If I start playing it now I'll get properly done just before match time. I also have to rock every piece of Arsenal clothing I have. It's just matchday routine. I'll take us to draw 1-1, but a 0-0 wouldn't surprise me in the least. I'd love to pick us to win, but I just haven't seen it lately. I hope I am proven wrong though. Come on you Gunners!

ArseNole Is On Twitter

Just a quick one today guys because I've got to install the new washing machine we got yesterday, which is going to be a pain. And the Celtics are on as well, plus the fact that we were so shite yesterday...all of it adds up to not really wanting to write a long blog.

The popular thing going for bloggers right now seems to be having a Twitter, so now I have one as well. You can check it out here, or sign up yourself and follow my twitter and I can follow yours as well. It's a way for everyone to talk about Arsenal during the times when you don't neccessarily want to read or write a whole article. I encourage everyone to get on and participate.

More Arsenal tomorrow. Cheers.

https://twitter.com/ArseNole

Arsenal Leaves A Sour Taste Yet Again

Our third 0-0 draw in a row in the Premiership. First time it's happened in ten and a half years. The last time that happened, I was only eleven years old. I cant remember anything more frustrating in my entire life than watching this season's Arsenal team play. When a match is at home to Sunderland, you expect Arsenal to take care of business. You know they are only going to defend, so you should be prepared for that, but in the past we've been able to beat teams like this and that is how we have won titles. Our inability to break down opponents seriously has to be right up there with shooting yourself in the leg like Plaxico Burress. It's painful and ridiculous.

Let me first start with the good. Is it just me or did Kolo and Gallas magically become the partnership that we have all hoped they could be when Gallas first got here? I know it's Sunderland and they barely attacked but three clean sheets in a row is impressive no matter who it's against. They looked comfortable with each other at the back and while they are still shaky on high balls they are still both very good defenders.

The frustrating thing, as I said, is in attack. It's bloody Sunderland. It's not Barcelona, Milan, Man United, or Chelsea. It's Sunderland, and it's a game where you have to be able to score. Vela, RvP, and Bendtner all had decent or good chances, yet none really looked like scoring. Vela especially was poor in his short cameo. I feel for him because he doesn't get to play very much but when you are paid like these players are you expect him to convert some of his chances. I thought van Persie was going to score for sure when he had his chance in the 94th minute but even he kicked it straight at the keeper. I'm not sure what the team needs really. We had Arshavin, Vela, Nasri, RvP, Bendtner all in the game as attacking players, and on paper that seems like a group that should be able to create one goal. Alex Song is certainly no help to all that, because I can pick out a pass better than he can.

I think one of the real problems is our lack of a player who can just create that magical moment like Thierry could. RvP is the closest thing we have but Thierry was someone who could get the ball anywhere on the field and take it for a goal. I can't ever see Bendtner or Adebayor having a moment like that, and I think it hurts us. We rely too much on the creativity of Cesc Fabregas for goals, and while he's been out, they have dried up.

I don't really know what else to say, just a bit frustrated again. We needed to make up ground after Villa lost today, and yet we couldn't even manage it against a weak side at home. Fifth place is starting to look like a real possibility if something doesn't click into place soon.

Leave thoughts. Cheers.

Arsenal - Sunderland Preview

I titled this post wrong. It's called an Arsenal vs Sunderland Preview, but really there isn't going to be a whole lot about the match. The news today is all about Andrei Arshavin, who is probably going to make his debut tomorrow. This was something we all expected anyway so it doesn't really count as news. There isn't much that annoys me more than having multiple articles all on the same story, which isn't really even a story at all. The headlines on Sky Sports' page today:

Arshavin Set For Arsenal Bow

Wenger Ponders Arshavin Role

Sunderland vs Arsenal Preview, Arshavin Set For Debut

Is there even a point in all three of those articles being posted? They all say the same thing, that Arshy can't play against Roma so he'll get a lot of hard work in this week. He'll probably start I think, and if not then I'd expect him to play at least thirty minutes. There, I just summed up three articles for you in two sentences. That's talent.

So without going into all that Arshavin nonsense, we do have some bad news, and it is that Eduardo will be out for at least two weeks with a minor hamstring injury. It's a shame that he's hurt right away after his amazing comeback, but hopefully it won't turn into a long term injury. He's really a spark for us for the rest of the season and we need him back.

And my last piece of Arsenal news today is that Barcelona and Arsenal are arranging a friendly in the summer. It hasn't been confirmed by anything or anyone but apparently there is some discussion about it. How exciting.

So the Oscars are this weekend so everyone is talking about terrible movies winning awards. The favorites for Best Picture are Slumdog Millionaire, Gran Torino and some other shite. I've seen Gran Torino and Slumbdog Millionaire, and I thought Gran Torino was good and Slumdog sucked. But thinking about the Oscars made me think about something, and it's how the movies that I really like never are the ones to win awards. If I thought of my top FIFTY movies of all time, I would say that none of them have won an academy award. I don't really know how they judge these things. Like how did Top Gun not win like every award ever when it came out? Billy Madison, that should have won best comedy in my book. But yeah this segment really doesn't have a point but I just wanted to see if I could think of my top ten movies and see if any of them have ever won an award. So here goes.

1. Die Hard
2. Top Gun
3. Green Street Hooligans
4. Billy Madison
5. The Departed
6. Clerks 2
7. Blow
8. American Gangster
9. Lucky Number Slevin
10. Half Baked

After extensive research I have determined that the only one in the group to actually win an academy award was The Departed. So basically the judges don't have any clue about these things.

There that probably wasted at least five more minutes of your time, but feel free to leave your lists of movies or Sunderland previews or anything else. Cheers.

Pele Wants to Join Arsenal

Not that Pele though. Just some other dude named Pele who I've never heard of or seen play. If there were any other headlines I could have used today then I would have. It would be easier if you didn't have to have titles for posts. This one would be called Post 277. Christ, 277, that's a lot of posts. Considering sometimes I've disappeared for like a week or so every couple of months, that's a lot of shite I've written. You know how many hits I got on my first ever post on this site? Three. And I think one of them was me. You should go back and read it though, it's pretty hilarious and terrible. On to the news though!

So about that Pele guy, it's a goalkeeper that plays for Le Mans named Yohann Pele, and he says he'd be interested in a move to Arsenal. Really? You play for Le Mans and you'd consider playing for Arsenal? Wow what a shocker. I can't believe somebody would make that move. That'd be like if I played for Oxford United and I said, "You know, I think I might be interested in a move to Real Madrid." Ok it's not quite that big of a step up but really, not many people would not be interested in a move from Le Mans to Arsenal. His contract runs out at the end of the season and we're reportedly interested in him, along with Bordeaux. As I said, I have never seen him play and don't know anything about him, but I suppose if he's any good then it wouldn't hurt to have him. Fabiasnki does look promising though.

My brother just brought me in a quesadilla for lunch. Pretty exciting stuff.

Remember Martin Taylor? He's the wanker that broke Eduardo's leg and then said he went to the hospital to apologize to him. Well according to Eduardo, who is most certainly a more trustworthy, kind, and generally is a better person, says that Taylor has never spoken to him, even to this day.

"I have received lots of mail from other people. I've had around 25,000 emails - from Croatia, Brazil and England - wishing me a speedy recovery and I've had letters by the sackful.

"But he's never sent anything directly to me.

"But I don't want to talk about the incident. It's probably best left alone now."

What a horrible cunt that Martin Taylor is. Hopefully someone breaks his leg, then rips the lower half off, beats him over the head with it, then feeds it to a pack of lions.

Emmanuel Adebayor has said that he is putting his personal accomplishments far behind the club's goals.

"I know having scored 30 goals in a season that people will always be waiting for more this season but the most important thing is to keep on going and to progress. "I have 12 already but to score another 18 now would not be easy. "But I don't care if I stop on 12 goals if we win something with the club. "To win trophies is more important than scoring goals but if we are to win trophies I will need to score some goals.

And that's the kind of attitude you want from your players. Adebayor has taken a lot of shite this season, and I've always probably rated him higher than most Arsenal fans. I think he really, really wants to win, and I think his words there are genuine. So no, he hasn't scored as many goals as last year, but wouldn't we all take a trophy over a 30 goal scorer? The answer better be yes.

That's about all I've got today. Time to go eat this quesadilla and play some rugby on Xbox. I start culinary school tomorrow too. Craziness. Talk to you tomorrow. Cheers.

Edddduardo! Edddduardo! A Magical Arsenal Moment

What up dudes? Yesterday was a pretty awesome match wouldn't you say? I won't bore everyone with a match review that includes a minute by minute rundown of all the action, but I will just go over what I think are some of the most awesome parts of it.

Obviously the important thing of the day was Eduardo's return to first team action. And what a return it was. Eddy scored the first goal as well as the third goal from the penalty spot. The response from the first goal was immense. The roar from the crowd was deafening, and the joy shown by Eduardo and the rest of the team made it even more special. I've got the clip right here.



The most amazing thing happened when the whole stadium started chanting Eduardo, Eduardo. It was the first time in a long time I've heard the Emirates sound like that. What I also noticed about the third goal that Eduardo scored was when he was fouled in the box he picked the ball up with resolve, almost as if he was going to prove a point right then and there with that one kick that he was back. When you saw the look on his face you knew there was no chance he was missing that kick, and once again the crowd broke into chanting of his name. It gave me shivers hearing it like that, and I wish it was like that all the time, but we all know there are some fans there that just aren't going to chant and sing no matter what. It does make me very proud to be a fan though when we see someone so deserving get such a warm response. I was singing along way over here in Florida.

I think Eduardo may be just the inspiration this team needs to get the season back on track, in the same way that his injury sucked the life out of the squad last season. He certainly looks like he's fully recovered and ready to roll, and he's already scored half as many goals as Bendtner has scored the entire season, in only one appearance! Keep it up Eddy, we all wish you the best.

There weren't many downsides to the performance yesterday, as it was pretty much vintage Arsenal, but I thought Song in particular was pretty bad. His passing was miserable, it seemed like every time he tried to pass it went straight to a Cardiff player. The good news of course is that we kept the clean sheet, so it didn't hurt us too much. After having such a good performance against Sp*rs though, I was hoping for much more from Song.

Man of the match, for me, without being too sentimental and giving it to Eduardo, goes to Bakary Sagna, who I thought was immense. His forward runs drove Cardiff mad all game and he was on top of every defensive situation on his side. What I like just as much as his play though is his attitude. I'm pretty sure if you looked at the statistics I bet he's played more matches in the past two years for us besides anyone but maybe Gael Clichy, and that is only because he was injured for the end of last year. He never runs his mouth, rarely even gets carded, and is one of our top players. I love the guy, and he played a great game.

Kieran Gibbs, Eduardo, Nasri, and Fabianski were the other players who I thought did quite well. Nasri is a real creative force and I really liked him up in front of Sagna. It will be nice to maybe see Nasri and Arshavin being able to switch flanks when needed to switch things up. Fabiasnki looked very comfortable and confident in goal all game, and while there weren't a whole lot of saves he had to make, he did what he had to do easily.

So hats off to the team, and specifically Eduardo, and let's hope his return is just the boost we need to really kick this team into high gear. Cheers all. Podcast to come soon hopefully. Maybe Thursday.

Nicklas Bendtner is an Arrogant Cunt, Usmanov Raises Stake

Morning all. It's been a while. First order of business is to tell you all that I'm growing my hair out like Sergio Ramos has his. Won't that just be pimpin? We play Cardiff today in the FA Cup 4th round replay, which is odd because they have not only drawn for the 5th round but also the quarter finals already. It's a game we should win today even with the injuries. Arshavin still won't be able to play because he wasn't registered for the first match but hopefully we'll be able to win even without him. I'd expect nothing less at home.

What I really want to talk about today is Alisher Usmanov and Nicklas Bendtner, who are both cunts. Yes, I just called an Arsenal player a cunt. Watch I'll do it again. Emmanuel Eboue is a cunt. There, twice. We'll start with Nicklas Bendtner, who never knows when to keep his mouth shut and let his play do the talking. He's about to (most likely) get a good run in the team with the injury to Emmanuel Adebayor, and instead of just trying to play well, he's gone off and run his mouth, saying he should be playing every minute of every game. There's only one problem with that Nick, and it's that all of our other strikers are much better than you.

'I'm very sorry to see Adebayor injured as we need him fit and to be playing in the league. But it does not really matter to me who is fit and available. I should start every game, I should be playing every minute of every match and always be in the team.''

Who filled his head with this nonsense? He's only scored three goals in 18 appearances this season, why on Earth would he play every minute of every match? I don't have a problem with confidence and swagger among players, in fact I support it as a needed part of the game to succeed, but this crosses the line. A lot of things in life are things where a big step is learning your place, and Bendtner has never done that. His cockiness and outright arrogance wear me almost as thin as his terrible performances on the pitch, of which there have been many. Adebayor has been in not so good of form this season, yet I'd pick him over Bendtner every time. Robin van Persie deserves a spot every game regardless of who it's against because he's been out best player for most of the season. Eduardo isn't even completely healthy yet and I'd still pick him ahead of Bendtner even before this quote came out.

Nicklas then went on to basically say he has no idea why we bought Andrey Arshavin, and indeed says he has no idea how he plays.

''I've never seen Arshavin. I did not watch Euro 2008,'' he said. ''I've no idea what sort of player he is.''

Here's an idea Nick, turn to your left or your right in training and he'll be standing near you! So not only is he completely oblivious to where he fits into the team but he's also a complete idiot. What a great combination. I used to like Bendtner and thought he had a lot of potential, but God is he not ridiculous?

Alright enough about Bendtner and on to Alisher Usmanov, the fat cunt. When last we heard from him, he owned 24.9% of Arsenal but seemed as if he was content with that as he didn't buy more shares for the greater part of a year. Well now he's back in action and today he's increased his stake to over 25% in the club. The official statement from his company Red and White Holdings read that the purchase was:

"In line with Red and White's previously stated intention to secure a significant shareholding in Arsenal and ensure that its position is protected. "We are pleased to have now secured over a quarter of the shares of Arsenal. "We are committed long-term investors and supporters of the club and are comfortable that we are now in a protected position."We also welcome the strengthening of the squad and look forward to a successful conclusion to the season."

The translation for this:

"Alisher Usmanov is a fat Usbek cunt who wants to take over Arsenal. We're going to act like we're just in this as an investment, but soon enough we'll be making a takeover bid. If your board had not signed a lockdown agreement, it probably would have already happened. If you guys liked the Abramovich thing at Chelsea, you'll looooove this. We really have no interest in the history of Arsenal or anything that the club has accomplished since 1886, we really just want to make it like Chelsea because hey, if you make all your money by sketchy means, you have to get rid of it somewhere right?"

So yeah, not good news. Thank God for that lock down agreement and let's hope it stands for a long time. That's about all I've got. Going to get some things done for a little bit and then watch the Cardiff match. Cheers.

"I Have Seen Him On YouTube A Lot." - Theo

That is one of the best quotes in history from a professional footballer. Theo was talking to Arsenal.com about his rehabilitation on his shoulder, and he said he hopes to be back in the next month. He also talked about how he had a problem in his other shoulder that they had to fix as well.

"I am nearly there, and hopefully [will be back] by the end of this month. I am doing a lot of rehab work now with the shoulder, landing on it, and also in the gym with a lot of weights to build the muscle strength back. I just feel it will be when I am ready. Obviously I do not want to do it again, so I have got to be 100% fit.''

Then they asked him about Andrey Arshavin, which led to the best line ever.

"Hopefully when I am back fit again, I can play a lot of football with him. When he gets his [match] fitness back up, he will be a top player for us, definitely. I have seen him on YouTube a lot, watching how he plays, the balls he can spot. He can do unbelievable passes."

I effing love Theo already, but this just makes me love the guy even more. Can't you see Theo reading NewsNow, seeing that Arsenal are trying to sign Arshavin, then going and looking up clips on YouTube? I think that is amazing. I don't think you'd see William Gallas or Alex Song on YouTube looking at new signings. Theo, you are the man. Free beer on me if I ever happen to see you. And not just one either, you can have all the free beer you can drink. You're the best. Get well soon mate.

In other good news, Eduardo is going to be back in action this week, playing for Croatia. I think in this second half of the season he can be a huge player for us, one we've certainly missed. If he comes through this game without getting any injuries (cross your fingers) then he could be ready to play for us against Cardiff or at least Sunderland. That could especially be huge while Adebayor is out. We've been needing goals lately and this man can certainly provide them. I'll be watching that match on Wednesday and hoping for the best for Eddy.

There isn't a whole lot else to write about, there is an article about how Nicklas Bendtner hopes to make his place in the first team while Emmanuel Adebayor is out but honestly I don't ever think Bendtner will become a first eleven player ever, and I'm not complaining. I don't think he's that good and I think he has a terrible attitude.

And last but not least, the best band in the world, blink 182, got back together Sunday night at the Grammy Awards. It was also confirmed on their website that they are putting together a new album and a world tour. It's amazing that they are back playing together after four years of not talking, and I'm pretty stoked.

That's all I've got. Leave awesome comments. Cheers.

Tottenham 0-0 Arsenal, Eboue Costs Arsenal Again

Another North London Derby, and another draw. While not nearly as traumatic as the first match against Sp*rs this season at the grove, this one was no more fun to watch. Eboue is once again to blame, as he was sent off for two yellow cards in the first half. The second one was just a stupid, stupid thing to do, as he tried to trip Modric when Modric tripped him. They were both booked and Eboue was sent off. He's a clueless cunt that has no place in top flight football, and I really wish he would never play for Arsenal again. Every time I see him in the lineup I know it's going to be almost like playing like ten men, and this time I guess he just wanted an early bath or just wasn't feeling like playing a match at all. I can't stand him. He's a diving, cheating, mindless wanker who I wish had never stepped foot into Arsenal Football Club. It's hard enough to win derbies as it is, and having ten men for an hour of the match doesn't make it any easier.

Adebayor went off injured as well in the first half which meant Bendtner had to come on. While Adebayor hasn't been in great form, he still scores a ton of goals (8 in 8 matches) against the scum. Clichy later went off injured when that cunt Darren Bent thought Clichy's head was the ball and smashed his head into it. He went off bleeding and Kieran Gibbs came on for his Premier League debut.

I don't have time to spell out everything that happened in the match line by line, but I will point out a few things.

I thought Almunia was fantastic today. After the collapse of the defense and the goalkeeping last time against Sp*rs it was great to see such a good performance from Almunia today. I've been saying that we don't need to buy a keeper and I still don't think we need to. I think Almunia has earned his spot and see no reason why he shouldn't keep it. He hasn't gotten to play behind a great defence since he began starting between the posts, and yet he has a pretty good record. Big ups to Manuel.

I thought the defense was good in general as well. While Tottenham certainly had some chances, they were mostly long shots or half chances. We also defended the corners pretty well, which as we know is our weakest spot. Any time you keep a clean sheet after being down a man for so long, you have to say it's a good defensive performance. Kolo and Gallas may have finally found some kind of a working system because it seems to have worked well the last two matches. Let's hope it continues.

Alexandre Song, for me, stood out. When I saw him starting in the midfield next to Denilson, I'll admit I was a little bummed to see him in there. Our options in the center were limited though, so Song it was, and he did not disappoint. I thought he broke up a lot of attacks well and generally did a good job protecting the back four, but I was most impressed with his work rate. Every time I saw him he was running try to make a play, and it's something we haven't seen enough of from this team this season. If you've read my blog very often, you know that I have not been the biggest fan of Alex, but if he continues to play the way he did today, then I will be more than appreciative of his services. I think without him today we would maybe not have been able to hold on to the clean sheet, so full credit to Mr. Song.


While our attacking was certainly not what you would hope for, it's understandable in a way seeing as we are without our best player in Cesc, our true right midfielder in Theo, Adebayor went off injured in the first half, Eboue gets himself sent off, and Arshavin was not match fit yet. At eleven on eleven, we probably score the goal that gets us three points today. With Theo or Cesc in, you certainly would have liked our chances. Even if Arshavin had been ready to come on I think we may have scraped it. Nasri was good today, but there just wasn't a lot in our attacking and it's somewhat easy to see why. I think as Eduardo (who was on the bench today, woohoo!), Theo, Cesc, and Arshavin work back into the squad you'll see those goals start to pile up for us. Let's just hope the defense can stay solid when that happens.

I think, due to Eboue's absolute retardedness, that we have to count this as a point gained instead of two points lost. We're four points back of Chelsea with thirteen games to go, so it is certainly not an insurmountable deficit to get to 4th spot. That 4th spot is absolutely critical.

Leave your thoughts on the game, Eboue, or anything else. Cheers.

Arshavin Finally Signs For Arsenal

Photo Courtesy of Arsenal.com

Hello all. What a ridiculous day yesterday was, eh? I think the Arshavin deal was off and then on about five different times in the span of about three hours. When we went past the 5:00 pm deadline it looked like we weren't going to get him signed at all, but the news broke an hour and a half later that Arsene Wenger was confident we had him signed but the Premier League office had all gone home so they couldn't approve the deal yet. It sounded pretty strange but that was confirmed this morning when the Premier League confirmed that Arshavin is an Arsenal player. To quote Arshy:

"Now I can say only one thing - that if I play for Arsenal, it will be at number 23."

Number 23 huh? That's a big act to follow since the great one wore that number. That's right, I'm talking about Michael Jordan. I wish he would have said more than "only one thing" though, like that he was determined to help the team, was going to score 45 goals in this half of a season, and would once again kick John Terry in the face.

It's a relief to me that we were able to bring in somebody to help the squad out in this time of need. I would have prefferred a defensive midfielder or a defender as you all know if you've read the site before, but we do need some help with goal scoring lately so he should be able to help with that. However, I don't like that we've pursued this player since last summer and it took us until almost February 3rd to finally get him signed. Don't say it was to get his price down, because it wasn't. To quote Zenit representatives:

"The conditions of the contract are very favourable for Zenit," Petrov said. "The value of the deal is much more than £12million."

So chances are the deal is around the 12 million + 3 million in installments. So why did it take us so long and why were there not other options when it looked like the Arshavin deal had collapsed?

I think we really do miss David Dein in a way. Yeah, he has a totally different way of thinking than the rest of the board, but maybe he is half right. He is certainly wrong to team with someone like Alisher Usmanov, and I'm not saying we need a sugar daddy, but maybe we do need a board a little more willing, maybe even one that encourages, spending money. To me it seems like Arshavin was our only target and that does concern me because we haven't even adressed all the team needs. Maybe Arsene thinks that Alex Song is good enough...errrrrr...capable of playing in this league...errrrr...no he's shite. We needed a defensive midfielder. Gallas isn't getting any younger or any better either, so we're going to need a defender soon too, but no, we wouldn't want to go ahead and sign say, Micah Richards while his value is at it's lowest point because of his dip in form.

For now though, we must be happy to have Arshy the Gunner. I'm sure he'll help the team, especially while Cesc and Theo are out, and maybe with a little luck he'll win us the game over Sp*rs this weekend, who may start the old duo of Defoe and that cartwheeling cunt Robbie Keane. Sp*rs and Liverpool are really just a bunch of horrible cunts are they? Selling players back and forth six months apart, good business you wankfests.

I don't have much else today. Looking forward to seeing some pictures of Arshavin in training soon. Cheers.

1 Hour To Get Arshavin Deal Done, Big Transfer News Of The Day

Morning all. The Premier League extended the transfer window this morning, and it should go to about 5:00 pm London time. That gives us one hour to finalize the Arshavin deal, or any other deals we could possibly be making (good one I know). Reports say that Arshavin took a private jet into London to try to work out a deal, but his wage demands were too high and we broke off negotiations with him, but he couldn't leave because of the snow storm. Apparently the deal is back on now as of an hour ago, going by this article:

"The on-off-on-off-on-off transfer of Andrei Arshavin from Zenit St Petesburg to Arsenal is back on and "very close" to conclusion, according to Sky Sports. There is plenty of time for the £15m-ish deal to be off and back on again before the transfer window closes."

I've heard that Arshavin is asking for about 90,000 quid a week, which has to be about triple what Zenit pay him. I think he's mental if he thinks we're going to pay him that, and really don't want us to bother with him if those are his demands. I want signings for sure, to improve the squad, but not at that cost for that player in that position.

There is a slim possibility that we have put in a 7 million pound bid to Sp*rs for Giovanni Dos Santos, best friend of Carlos Vela. Two bids were accepted by the scum, one from Portsmouth, which has now collapsed, and one from an unknown club. I don't think it's us but as long as we have connections to the player then it wouldn't shock me.

Robbie Keane looks set to head back to the Lane for 15 million pounds, as Tottenham continue to buy all of their former players. Maybe next they will bring back Berbatov too, and Sol Campbell. Rafa Benitez only gave him six months at Liverpool before opting to sell him, and we've seen a lot more of that lately, like with Diarra last year for us.

I'm going to try to keep this undated every hour on the hour today so everyone is up to date with all the big happenings. Cheers all.

Serious Questions Must Be Asked About Arsene Wenger

That title for a post will piss off a bunch of "fans" who think they are better than everyone else, but I don't care. After another ridiculous draw at home against West Ham yesterday, I'm sick of the "In Wenger We Trust" bollocks. Yeah I think he's a good manager and we all know he's accomplished great things for the club but at some point he has to be told that he is wrong and things have to change. This is one of those times. His youth experiment or whatever you want to call it has led to no trophies in what will probably be four years and no titles since 2004.

The current squad that he chooses to put out there is not good enough, yet he refuses to strengthen. When we lost Diarra, we said, "Ok, well we still have Flamini and Gilberto." But when Gilberto and Flamini left, who did we bring in then? Nobody. Despite the fact that every Gooner from California to Russia knew we needed to bring someone in, Wenger bought nobody.

Cesc Fabregas is by far our most influential player, but did Arsene really think that it was impossible for Fab to ever get hurt? Why was there nobody who can at least fill in that role adequately enough? Diaby does not even come close to what Cesc can do, and while Nasri is good at creating, his moving into the middle leaves us short on the wing.

Emmanuel Eboue has never been good enough to play on the wing for Arsenal, or any Premier League club for that matter, yet there is a new contract in the works for him. Playing Denilson and Nicklas Bendtner out on the wings is just ridiculous for a team with title aspirations, because those aren't the players natural positions! Yet Theo Walcott goes down and we're running midfields of Denilson, Diaby, Song and Nasri. Yeah that looks like a team that can compete with the other top clubs...

What really got me questioning though was the fact that Robin van Persie started on the bench yesterday. He's been our best player (indeed one of our only good players) since Cesc went out, and yet the manager leaves him on the bench to start Adebayor (who has been absolute shite) and Bendtner, who clearly have never worked well together and even Stevie fucking Wonder could see that. He said the reason he left van Persie on the bench to start was because he didn't want to risk an injury. That's the most ridiculous reason I've ever heard. You don't not play your best player just so he DOESN'T get hurt, you assume that he will make it through the game healthy and will make plays for you. I have an apple in my fruit bowl but I won't eat it because it might turn into a core. I don't want to get a job because I might get fired from it one day. I don't want to get married because my wife might divorce me. Do those sound stupid and ridiculous to you? Because that is basically Wenger's reason for sitting RvP.

We've only scored four Premiership goals since we played United way back when, so you can see why Wenger is after Andrey Arshavin. Yet Wenger is nonchalant about it, saying he doesn't care either way.

"Nothing is happening - maybe, maybe not. It doesn't worry me either way."

It really should worry you Arsene, because you've had all of January to try to fix at least SOME part of this squad that's got us in 5th place and can't defend and has forgotten how to score. I'm not asking for big money signings. Bakary Sagna wasn't expensive yet he is a key player for us. Why can't we find some more signings like that to come in and strengthen the squad a bit? The reason is because Arsene Wenger doesn't ever want to be told that he was wrong.

I've been very very faithful throughout this youth movement for Arsene, but my patience is wearing thin. Draws against Everton away are acceptable, but draws against West Ham at home are not, especially when we could have brought in better players before now.

A lot of you will disagree and call me a cunt, but guess what, you can piss off and get hit by a bus. Wanting to win trophies does not make you a fake fan. I think Wenger deserves time to fix this because of all that he has done for Arsenal, but I don't think his position at the club should be there regardless of results. If he remains stubborn, if this Arshavin deal doesn't get done, and we miss the Champions League and go another year trophyless, then I think his time at Arsenal may be nearing it's end.

Leave your thoughts, although if they are not at least somewhat thought provoking I'll just delete them. Cheers.