Thoughts on the Season So Far

Hello all. It's been a bloody month since I last posted, and I'm quite ashamed of it actually. Sometimes, when you write every day, you just get burnt out and feel like what you write isn't that interesting anymore and just don't really get in the mood to write very much. That's what happened to me, and I feel like I'm not doing my job as an Arsenal blogger when I go that long without writing. So I apologize and I'll try to get back to it. So for today I'm just going to write a bit about what I've noticed from the season so far.

I really like the 4-3-3 formation, I'm just not sure we have the right players to run it at the moment. I think ideally we'd have Theo as the forward on the right and Arshy on the left with RvP or Bendtner as the center forward. I don't think Bendtner is good as a wide player and I don't think he ever will be. He's a center forward, and he's the second or third best center forward at that, so I don't like seeing him start on the right. Theo can't get back soon enough for me. It's a bit weird how long he's been out. Same with Vela. I worry that they were supposed to have little injuries and now they've been out for quite a while. Hopefully they get back soon because we could use the depth. When you look at the bench we've had for some of these matches, it's just pathetic. I think when we get Nasri back, he should probably start next to Cesc to add some more creativity in the midfield.

Thomas Vermaelen is a fucking beast. The guy is a strong defender who spends most of his time smoking fools and lighting up chumps, while also making time to get up the field and score goals to the point that right now he's our leading scorer. Now it's not really good that a central defender is our leading scorer mind you, but it just accentuates the fact of how brilliant a signing he was. I can't get enough of the guy. Keep it up Verminator.

Alex Song needs some help. He was good the first few games but against both Manchester teams he looked like he was in a little bit over his head. It'd be nice if we could rest him every once in a while without having a drop off. And also, what has happened to Manuel Almunia? He's been pretty terrible this season so far in my opinion, and Clichy, even though he's one of my favorites, has also been sub-par.

I worry a little bit about Cesc. I think sometimes his head is in Barcelona. We really, really need to win something this year. Other than the Manchester games though, you'd say the season is looking pretty decent. We're beating the teams that are weaker than us, which has been a problem in the past, so maybe we're on the right track. Remember that we still get City and United at home to make up for those losses, and we still have a lot of players coming back from injury. I think the season still is looking bright. Keep the faith Gooners.

Cheers.

PS: Adebayor is a cunt.

Injuries, Wigan Preview, and 300th Post

Wow, this is my 300th post today. For those of you who have been reading since the very beginning almost two full years ago, thanks for sticking around. For those of you who are newer to the site, I hope you'll be here for years to come.

I haven't updated since after the Villareal game, but I'm sure you've read a match report for it somewhere else and if you haven't then you are out of luck because I don't think I'm going to do one. Adebayor's goal was something else though wasn't it? I've watched it over and over again. A real thing of beauty.

We head into the home leg of the tie next week 1-1 with an away goal, which is key. You'd fancy us to be able to win against them at home if we are on our game. In the first half in Spain we looked pretty woeful and Villareal looked like Barcelona, but in the second half we dominated. If we can play like we did in that second half then I think we should be able to win. Even if it ends 0-0 though we are through so let's hope we can shut up shop and keep them from scoring.

The match did cause us some problems though, in the form of injuries. William Gallas will miss the rest of the season, which is a big blow. He's been playing quite well since he had the captaincy taken off of him and his experience and skill will be sorely missed. I think Djourou is a very capable replacement but with Kolo and Gallas having been working so well together lately, it is a blow to lose half of that partnership. Gael Clichy was also injured in the match, and he will miss two weeks, while Manuel Almunia will miss three weeks with an ankle problem. So Lukasz Fabianski will be stepping in between the posts, and every time I watch him he looks better and better, so I'm pretty comfortable with him back there. Who plays at left back is the real question...Gibbs or Silvestre? Personally I'd rather see Gibbs out there. Silvestre hasn't done anything impressive since his arrival and I can't see him coming off a long injury lay-off and magically playing well. Gibbs is faster and probably a more capable player, just lacking experience. If I'm picking the team though, which of course I'm not, I'd pick Gibbs.


So we have Wigan tomorrow in the league, at the shite pitch that is the JJB. I remember playing last year and the ball was bouncing all over the place because of all the weird bumps in the pitch and it really messes up our passing game. Wigan have been pretty good this year under Steve Bruce and I've actually been kind of rooting for them to do well this year, just not against us of course. They got thrashed 4-0 by Everton last week so they should be motivated for this one, and it won't be an easy one to win. We'll have Eduardo and van Persie facing fitness tests before the match, so if they aren't fit I guess we'll see Bendtner come into the side.

If I had to guess the lineup will look something like this:

Fabianski
Sagna-Djourou-Toure-Gibbs
Walcott-Denilson-Cesc-Arshavin
Bendtner-Adebayor

We could also see Song come in instead of Bendtner (or Rvp/Eduardo if fit), and play a 4-5-1, but this is just what I think. Villa are now six points behind us but we don't want to take our foot off the pedal and give them a chance to get back in it, so we need three points here. Even with the injuries, I think we'll get it done. 1-0 to the Arsenal.

Also, on a side note, I'm really hoping Newcastle get relegated. It's just after my hopes that Sp*rs, Chelsea, ManUre, and Liverpool would get relegated that Newcastle get relegated so if you get some free time turn on the Newcastle match this weekend and watch the cunts languish about the pitch for 90 minutes on their way to the Championship.

That's about it for the day. I'll try to get something up before the match tomorrow but we'll see because I may want to sleep in as long as possible. It's been a long week. Hope you all have a good one and Come on you Gunners!

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.

Absolutely Gutted...Mental Mistakes Sink Us

Morning all. It's still early in the day and it's already been terrible. This is of course compounded by what happened yesterday at the Emirates...which we shall discuss.

If you didn't get to see the match, in which feelings went from distress to glee to absolute disaster, then you missed one hell of a match, if you were a neutral supporter. I, however, am not a neutral so the match was absolute shite for me. We were up 4-2 with 2 minutes to go in the match and managed to let them score 2 goals in those two minutes to tie it up, which was as good as a win for them. Let's face it, Tottenham are not a good team, they were way behind us in possession, never really looked that threatening, and yet came into our home and came away with an undeserved draw.

Some people will say that I should maybe give Sp*rs some credit for their comeback, but let's face it, it wasn't their efforts that created this result, it was mental mistakes by Arsenal players that let them come back and snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat.

Manuel Almunia has been a fine keeper for the last year or so, but yesterday he went back to the Almunia that was from a few years back. He pretty much gifted them their first two goals. The first one he should have been able to get back and make the save on. The ball was so high in the air it seemed like it took an hour to come down yet he couldn't get back for it, and Lord knows what he was doing that far off of his line anyway.

Then we got back in it through Silvestre of all people and it seemed like order would be restored. This proved to be the case when we came out and scored early in the second half through William Gallas who seems to be able to attack set pieces much much better than he can defend them. We got another on a great play from Nasri and finished by Adebayor and you figured that 3-1 up at home was going to be a win.

We didn't want to make it easy on ourselves though so we let them get a goal on yet another gift from Almunia. Huddlestone shot from outside the box and Almunia just let it drop in front of him after making the save and Darren Bent knocked it in after just coming on. It was a save he really should have been able to hold on to and it made you a little nervous at 3-2. Robin van Persie made it 4-2 just a minute later though and it was comfortable again.

What happened next was absolutely shocking. Arsenal went into a period where we held almost all of the possession, just trying to run the clock down, and it was working. Heading into extra time with a 2 goal lead and they couldn't even get the ball. Then the unthinkable happened. Gael Clichy had the ball stopped and was looking around for where to pass next and came under some pressure from Jenas, the cunt. Next thing you know Clichy trips over the ball, Jenas steals it, dribbles 25 yards or so and knocks another past Almunia. So 4-3 at this point but still almost know time left...we'll be fine right? Not so. A header dropped to Luca Modric who had a shot come back off the post which we failed to clear or save and Lennon came in to snatch a draw. They celebrated like they had won the league and I wanted to kill myself.

It's not just the result that really makes this bad though. Of course I want to beat Sp*rs, who doesn't? But the point is the WAY that we drew the match. Mental errors and not being able to have the strong mentality to close out a game. Where is the leadership in the 89th minute when up 2 goals that says, "Let's close this game out and make sure we don't let them even have one chance of getting back in this." How do we let them score on 2 rebounded goals, and trip over the ball while trying to play keep away, and let David Bentley, the talentless cunt, score from 40 yards away when no other team has had trouble with them all year? I don't care if they got a new manager or not, it's the same players that have them bottom of the table and we made them look like title contenders with that comeback.

How much would a player like Gilberto Silva have helped in this situation? Imagine if he came on instead of Diaby or Eboue, would he allow them to make a comeback like that? He's the kind of intelligent, experienced player we need in these situations, and we let him go. I just can't see him coming into the match up 2 goals with 2 to go and not making sure everyone knew to keep their heads on straight and to hold onto the ball, and if they did get the ball from us I know he'd be fighting tooth and nail to get it back.

Everyone has a few bad games but Almunia was absolutely shocking this match. I thought Theo Walcott was fantastic but of course he came off to be replaced by Eboue who did nothing. I actually thought Gallas (who you know I am a critic of) had a very good game. He looked solid at the back and scored a great header. He is the captain though and some of the blame for a meltdown has to go to anyone in a leadership role. The team as a whole was at fault though. Silvestre could have closed down Jenas on the 3rd goal, Almunia and Clichy could certainly have had better games, but the fact is we completely blew it.

Arsene Wenger was as pissed as he's been in some time:

Well I am angry. I believe we produced an outstanding game and got the minimum result. We didn't keep the ball. We were there for the taking. We should have had a negative passing game but instead we exposed ourselves by trying to go five or six up. The team has outstanding potential. They learn from moments like that tonight.

It comes down to leadership and experience. You have to keep the ball away from them up by 2 with 2 minutes to go, and certainly after they pull 1 back. It should be common sense. My 8 year old team knows that.

I'm absolutely sick about it is the moral of the story. I don't want to think about the match anymore so I let all my feelings out on here. Feel free to do the same in an email or the comments and I'll read em on the podcast tomorrow. We've gotta recover from this loss and get ready for the next one, it's still a long season. Up the Gunners.

Toure Out Until November, Almunia Made Captain

Morning all. Just a few hours till match day 3 of the Champions League. Just a couple of things to run through this morning before the match.

First of all we do have some bad news regarding Kolo Toure, who will be out until November. He injured his shoulder against Everton and had to come off, and now he's going to miss at least two weeks. While this isn't anywhere close to our toughest 2 weeks of the season, you never want one of your starting defenders out of the squad, unless it's William Gallas. Speaking of which, I was hoping while Gallas was injured that Djourou and Silvestre would get more time to work with Toure so we could see just how bad Gallas is, but this totally blows that whole plan.

"I hurt my shoulder badly, it was very painful but it is a job of a defender to take pain."

"And we won the game after going behind in our own stadium, and the injury is not too bad as we think I should be fine in ten to 15 days and ready to make a challenge."

Yes, it is your job to take pain. And to kill people. People such as Dimitar Berbatov. Get well soon though Toure.

So our back four for the match today will be Eboue, Song, Silvestre, and Clichy. Not the ideal back four but it is servicable. Fenerbache has a lot of skilled players and they aren't as much of a "score from corner kicks over William Gallas" team, so I think we'll be ok. We're top of the group right now on 4 points so a win would take us to seven points with two home games still to go, which you would expect us to win. A draw wouldn't be awful, especially with the amount of injuries we have at the moment, but I'd like to see us go out that and take the game. I think it's certainly a winnable one.

The captain for tonight's game will be Manuel Almunia. Good for him too. I like Almunia and think he takes way too much stick for nothing. He's played well for us last year and so far this year and if he is the captain while Gallas is out I have no problem with it. In fact I'd rather him be captain than Gallas all the time. Actually I'd rather anyone else be the captain. But that's neither here nor there. Almunia says he'll feel "nothing but pride" while wearing the armband for Arsenal. Don't really know what else he would feel but there you go.

Luis Aragones, the little shit who called our beloved Henry a couple of awful things very similar to what I just called him except with more racism involved, says he's not worried about facing Arsenal. He's a terrible person and I hope we run them into the ground. The only thing better would be if Thierry Henry was here to do it. Don't get me wrong, I was cheering for Spain in the Euro's but it was in spite of Aragones, not because of him. I can't stand the man.

Andy Gray writes an article about how bad Sp*rs are and it pretty much says what everyone else says, that they're moronic for letting their two best strikers leave and not replacing them. I just can't resist laughing at the cunts though.

That's about all I have. We're getting some good emails in for the next podcast in so keep them coming, ArseNole@arsenole.com. Anything funny, informative, inventive, or anything else that would be interesting to read on the podcast this Friday, get it in to me. The best emailer will receive a $10 gift certificate for soccerpro.com, and maybe a little something else from me. Also I still want to hear more feedback as to what you think of the podcast, so those comments are appreciated too. Enjoy the Fenerbache match, and cheers!

Manuel Almunia Takes Too Much Shite

Good morning everyone. Not a whole lot going on today so a quick news round-up I think? Yes, sounds good.

Remember yesterday when I said Almunia takes too much crap and he's actually a good keeper? Well today he came out and spoke about being the Arsenal number 1 and says he's growing into the role.

"I'm very happy to wear this fantastic number for Arsenal and I'm pleased with how things are going; I'm feeling very well and we have not conceded too many goals, although we always need to improve.

"I think this season I am growing as a goalkeeper and hope I can grow more as the season progresses."

You've got to hand it to the man. He's always had a good attitude about everything in his time here, even when Lehmann was giving him stick for nothing all last season. I think he improves really with almost every game. Really though is there a better option for us? I think he is one of the top three goalkeepers in the Premiership right now at the very least. He made another great save against Porto and his reactions are excellent. Keep it up Manuel and I for one will be rooting hard for you!

Emmanuel Adebayor talked about his and Robin van Persie's partnership, and said he hopes it will lead to winning trophies. It's weird with those two. Sometimes, like yesterday, they look like they are the best of friends and play together wonderfully, but then other times they seem completely lost out there with eachother. But with more games comes better understanding so the longer RvP is healthy and they are able to play together, the better off we will be. Adebayor said exactly the same thing:

"If Robin is fit for the whole season we have a chance to do something special, that's for sure.

"We talk off the pitch about the way we play.

"You must discuss what you have done well and what you have done badly."

Their partnership really could be the key to our season. Remember last year Adebayor was scoring for fun but when he finally did go through a drought there was nobody to pick up the slack because RvP was injured. Now it seems like we have a lot more options. RvP is healthy (knock on wood), we have Vela and Bendtner that can go in, and Eduardo will be back by the second half of the season. So let's hope van Persie can keep up his fitness and keep this partnership going.


And to put a smile on everyone's face, Tottenham are still the only team in the league without a win. Yes, even West Brom and Stoke have wins before Sp*rs. Isn't it absolutely wonderful? Good job spending all that money you cunts. You're the worst "top 4 contenders" in history.

Why Arsenal Will Win The Title This Year

Morning all. Not a lot of news following the demolition of Burgenland yesterday. Cesc Fabregas came out and killed off anyone saying that he was going to Real Madrid, in fact saying that he made no statement about Madrid at all. Good work from Cesc yet again. I think he does everything well, football, handling the press, his hair, etc.

Now since there is no news today I want to go on a bit of a rant. Bear with me. I'm going to go over a few things I have learned this summer and in the season past.

Football is a tough game. The English Premier League is a tough league. There are twenty teams and no matter how well all the teams play, only one is going to win the trophy at the end of the year. Over 38 games in a year, you have to be the best and most consistent team. So you have to ask yourself, is Arsenal ready to make that step up with the likes of Chelsea and Man United out there? I think we can be. Arsenal will never be a club like Chelsea that goes out and buys every player that has a good season or superstars that are past their primes. We probably won't be like Man United either, spending money that will knowingly increase the club's debt. So we have a manager that majored in economics, and his job is to keep the ship afloat, WHILE managing our club. Arsenal are the smallest spenders of the big four teams, yet have we ever been considered the least successful? Liverpool haven't won the title since 1990 and Chelsea just started winning win Abramovich came.

The transfer market has changed, but Arsenal Football Club will not. As long as Wenger is our manager, we will be shrewd spenders, with a focus on the future and youth. Has this not been successful in the past though? Tony Adams was made the club's youngest ever captain back in 1988 at age 21, did anyone say he was too young and inexperienced to win a title? Cesc Fabregas is that same age, maybe he is the right man to lead us in that same way.

Do we need a lot of major signings to make sure we win a trophy? Will a Gareth Barry or a Miguel Veloso really be a huge improvement over Abou Diaby? Maybe they are somewhat better right now, but Wenger is one of the very, very best at getting the most out of his players' potential. Imagine if Diaby got a lot of games in the holding midfield role under Wenger's tutelage. I think he could easily be at that level.

Is it a crisis to lose Gilberto, Flamini, and Hleb? I don't think so. Nasri has been brought in to be a new and hopefully improved Hleb, and as I said I think Diaby can fill in next to Fabregas admirably. Who thought Flamini was going to be the player he was before last year? Not one person, I guarantee it. The summer before last season everyone thought he was going to be off to Birmingham for a couple hundred thousand pounds, and now he's playing for Milan. It just shows what the boss' guidance and a run in the team can do for a player.

What is so wrong with Manuel Almunia? I see loads of comments saying he is a rubbish keeper and we need to bring in someone else, but when did he make these awful mistakes that you base these claims on? He played well throughout the entirety of last season. Every keeper allows some goals and he was no different, but he kept us in more games than he lost us. And if we did get a new keeper, who would you have brought in that is so much better? Don't give me Buffon or Casillas or Cech, because it isn't happening! We have a solid keeper right now that gets too much stick and I'm sick of it. Keep up the good work Manuel.

Emmanuel Adebayor is probably staying. While he's messed up badly this summer, it does make us a better team with him staying. If van Persie is healthier and can properly partner with Adebayor all year, we have one of the most dangerous strike forces in the league, if not the world. Hate Ade all you want, but he is a good player. Some people say "well a proper forward would have scored 60 goals with the service he got this year." Remember that he was on his own up front for most of the season and he scored as many league goals as Fernando Torres, who is worshiped as a god almost. He scored a lot of important goals so I don't know why everything thinks he's a terrible player, because you're just dead wrong. Runs his mouth yes, bad player no.

My point in all this is that I never want Arsenal Football Club to be a huge spending club like Chelsea or United or Liverpool. I want my club and your club to stick with what has gotten it this far, dedication, intelligence, and passion. Give Arsene the chance to run the team. He has won lots of trophies before and he can do it again. Remember that Eduardo, van Persie, and Rosicky are all potential starters that were hurt a lot of last year, as well as Sagna's injury at the end of the year. If we can get all those players back and healthy it's like 2 1/2 singings that we didn't have at all last year, when we almost pulled off the title. We are not as far away as people think, we are not in a crisis, we are just Arsenal Football Club, and this is how we work.

So that's all I've got. I hope that made some sense. Agree or disagree, you can put it in the comments or the forums. Cheers.