Arsene Wenger's Failed Project

Removing the dead wood at Arsenal is something that basically every supporter has been calling for since about March of this year. I’ve talked to several of you on twitter and the list is long and varied as to who should be shipped out, but the general consensus is that we want most everyone gone. Denilson and Bendtner I think will both be on their way, and I don’t think anyone will be saddened if Rosicky, Denilson, Diaby, Vela, Arshavin, Almunia, and Squillaci follow them. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out fellas. Some people would add Clichy to that list as well, but I’ve always been a bit of a Clichy fan so it’s hard for me to put him on there, although if he and Nasri don’t sign new deals then they will be gone too.

Now that we’ve got the list together of who to ship out, let’s analyze the problem a little bit more. I think if you look at that list of players that aren’t up to scratch, it shows a problem with Arsene’s transfer dealings as a whole over the past couple of years. All of those signings, with the exception of Almunia, have been in the past 4 years. Wenger expected them to develop and build the foundation of a squad that would compete for the top honors in football, and it never materialized. Is it a case of poor scouting, poor transfer decisions, or just poor coaching? Sure, they have all had moments of greatness, Vela in the Carling Cup, Arshavin’s 4 goals at Anfield, etc…but the problem has been that none of them can be consistent enough to hold down a regular place in the team, much less compete for trophies.

The Invincibles, in my mind, was the culmination of Arsene Wenger’s first “project” at Arsenal. He had brought in the players, molded them into a team, coached them up, and reaped the rewards. He had taken players with a lot of talent and supplemented that with a lot of experience. For every young stud like Henry when he first arrived and Anelka, we had a Bergkamp and a Tony Adams. The problem with the current squad is there has never been that balance between youthful talent and energy to go with experienced players who have been through the wars. He sold off Vieira, Henry, Campbell, Lauren, and Gilberto, to replace them with the likes of Denilson, Diaby, Bendtner, and Eboue. When you look at it like that, this plan was destined for failure from the very start.

Arsene is coming to the close of his career, and much like most of the current squad, I believe his talents are waning. He has not shown the foresight and knowledge of the transfer market that we all assumed he had. We thought the genius would eventually show through and that his master plan would somehow come to fruition. It hasn’t, and it’s time for an overhaul. If Arsene Wenger is unwilling to change his ideas on how to put a team together, then it will require someone else making that change. He’s been a brilliant manager for us over the years but being stubborn year after year is absolutely mental. He’s so stuck on his ideas being correct that he is unwilling to branch out and accept that this time he might have been wrong.

I hope Arsene makes the right moves this summer and shakes up a lot of the current squad. Part of me is hopeful, thinking that it can’t get much worse than this and surely now Arsene has seen the error of his ways. Mostly though, I worry that almost nothing will change, that we’ll trot out a lineup on opening day next season with almost the exact same squad that collapsed this season. Maybe nothing will ever change while Arsene is in charge. But for now, we can all hope. Up the Gunners.

Arshavin's Brilliance Gives Arsenal Vital Win

We're back in it. This past weekend was just about as good of a weekend as we could have asked for in the Premiership. Chelsea dropped points at home to Everton, Man City drew with Bolton, and best of all, United lost at home to Aston Villa. Meanwhile, we played on Sunday, and it was a rough match up at Anfield vs Liverpool. Arsenal came out on top, and really showed some grit and character in the process. Down 1-0 at halftime, and inspired by a special Arsene Wenger team talk, the team fought back through an own goal from Glen Johnson and an absolute cracker from Arshavin gave us all three points and effectively put Liverpool in a position where they have a real uphill battle just to get fourth. So now we're only 3 points back of United and only 6 points behind Chelsea, with a game in hand. After we lost to Chelsea not many people would have put us in such a good position right now, but here we are and we're looking fantastic.

Arshavin's goal was really something special. This is the only link I could find for it now that hasn't been removed from YouTube. If you're really lucky, like me, you'll be a member of ArsenalTV Online and can just watch it over and over in high quality. It really was amazing though.

One of the main talking points for the match was Arsene Wenger's team talk at half time. Apparently it was a lot more harsh than it normally is, because Cesc had this to say about it:

"The boss screamed. I've never seen him like that before. He was really disappointed in the first half and said we didn't deserve to wear the Arsenal shirt if we played like that. And I think he was right. In the second half we turned it around."

Arsene Wenger gettin nice with it. I like that, even though I couldn't picture yelling saying that the players don't deserve to wear the Arsenal shirt. I think it's probably what the team needed though, as they turned around the result at a place where it's hard to get any result at all. He's normally a calm guy all the time, so you can see where this would have gotten a reaction from the players in this case, and that was exactly what was needed. He can't pull this out all the time, but he chose the time carefully and it paid off. There's only one Arsene Wenger!

After the match, Arsene had this to say:

"We were a bit lucky with our first goal, but the fear was in the Liverpool camp in the second half. It was an outstanding second goal and from then on Liverpool's pace dropped. Afterwards we were not under any real threat. For us, it gets us back into it. Mathematically we're in a good position again, especially with our game in hand. We knew with what happened with the results yesterday (Saturday), that we needed to win here. We did so and that's something very positive. Now it is down to consistency."

Consistency is exactly what it is down to. Beating Liverpool means nothing if we lose other matches that we should win. There are more losses by the top teams in the Premier League this year than I can remember in quite some time, so it's going to be all about who can stay consistent and beat the teams that they should beat.

So looking ahead to the next few league matches, we have Burnley away, home to Hull, home to Villa, and away to Pompey to close out the month. So three teams near the bottom of the table, and Villa, who just beat United at home. Burnley all really tough at Turf Moor so that one certainly won't be easy, just ask Alex Ferguson. It's a stretch of games that worries me honestly, but on paper you'd say it's easier than the last month we've had. We just seem to have most of our problems against the "weaker" sides in the league and we have three of them out of the next four matches.

It's a good time to be an Arsenal supporter. We play the best football, our players aren't cunts, and we're in with a shout in the title hunt. Raise your banners high, and come on you Gunners!

Thoughts on the Everton Match, Celtic Preview

Morning all, hope you're well. Been a bit busy over the last week or so so I haven't had much of a chance to write quality articles, and in my opinion it's better to post a few quality articles than post shite ones all the time.

What a start to the season we've had then, eh? I'll admit I was worried that we might draw or even lose at Everton to start the season. It's a tricky fixture every year and I'd say by far the toughest first match of the season out of the big four clubs. Some would argue that Liverpool had it tougher but since we haven't lost to Sp*rs in the league since about 2000 I don't really think of them as being any good. What a performance though by the Gunners. 6-1, and the 1 was in the 90th minute. I will say that I was a bit pissed off when we allowed that goal right at the end, because 6-0 looks just ridiculously good and a clean sheet would have given Almunia and the defense a lot of confidence going forward. But 6-1 is still bloody good and we're top of the league!

Just a couple of thoughts from the match then. I thought Alex Song was absolutely terrific, his work rate exceptional, his passing good, and his closing down extremely good. Something happened to Alex last year that completely turned him around and now he's become almost essential to the team. The problem is, he'll be leaving for the African Nations Cup in January...

I love the 4-3-3 system that we're using now. While I'd maybe consider putting Bendtner up top and RvP on one of the wings, I'm not Arsene Wenger so I have no say. I thought having Denilson and Song in there as defensive players behind Cesc was fantastic, because you saw what Cesc can really do when he can play openly and not worry about tracking back quite so much to cover in front of the back four. Cesc was immense, as he always is when we play well, and it's amazing to think that we scored 6 goals yet none of them came from RvP, Bendtner, or Arshavin. 2 from Cesc, 1 each from Gallas and Vermaelen (who had a very solid debut), an absolute gem from Denilson, and a late one from Eduardo who came on as a sub. That's what we've been missing the past few years is goals from players other than our strikers, and we really got it done against Everton.

Everton were clearly not at their best, and yes it was only one match, but it's just what we needed to start off the season. It should raise the squad's morale and confidence in the team, and push us going forward. Top of the league is a nice place to be, so let's keep it that way lads.

So in just over two hours we play Celtic in Glasgow. An intimidating place to go for sure, but you'd have to say that we are the better team if each team was playing their best on a given day. Injury worries are for Sagna, Denilson, and Cesc, who are all questionable according to Arsene Wenger. It's a problem if both Denilson and Cesc aren't able to go, although I suspect that Cesc at least will be out there. If neither one of them are able to go, who plays in the center of midfield? Song and Diaby, most likely with Aaron Ramsey, who looked good in the preseason but Celtic Park is a tough place to play for anyone, especially someone as young as Ramsey. He and Jack Wilshere exude the same confidence though in almost any situation you see them in, so if he is in there I have all the faith in the world in him to get the job done.

Walcott, Rosicky, Nasri, Djourou, and Fabianski are all still out for sure. The best news of all though is that Andrey Arshavin can finally make his Arsenal debut in the Champions League. Of course last year he was cup-tied after playing in the CL for Zenit St Petersburg, so this will be his first taste of contenental action for the Gunners. I'm going to go ahead and pick Andrey and RvP to score goals as Arsenal win 2-1. Looking forward to the match immensely, and I'll try to get a match report up tomorrow.

Cheers all!

Arsenal Need A Brazilian, 8 Youngsters Leave the Club

Morning all. It's been awhile yet again. I've decided I really do hate transfer season. It's the same every year for us. Teams are signing players for ridiculous fees that we would never ever pay for anyone, and we're linked with 34,592 players and don't sign any of them. It makes me not want to read about Arsenal, but I have been watching a lot of football lately in the form of the Confederations Cup, so I wanted to talk a bit about that today, so if you don't care about it then turn off your station.

First of all I have to give some credit to the US team. While I've been a huge critic of Bob Bradley, Landon Donovan, and the entire rest of the national team setup, I have never seen such a turnaround from the start of one tournament until the end of it. From losing against Italy and the 3-0 defeat to Brazil at the start to somehow getting into the semi-finals with a great show against Egypt, then going on to beat the best team in the world, Spain, was an amazing turnaround. Even in the final against Brazil, without one of our better players (Michael Bradley) we managed to go up 2-0 and had to withstand a second half barrage from a team that can attack as well as any in the world. Yes, the result was a loss, but the overall result is a lot of confidence to take forward to the World Cup next year.

Landon Donovan should have been named the player of the tournament for what he did. Off the ball he was amazing, and the counter-attack goal against Brazil was a thing of beauty. I've never seen the US score a goal like that.


Felipe Melo was a big player for Brazil in this tournament, and since he's a holding type central midfielder, he's been linked with Arsenal. I think he'd be a great addition personally. After watching him several times in the past few weeks I think he's the type of player we could really use. Problem is, he's just signed a contract extension with Fiorentina. It does say there is a buy-out clause in the contract, but who knows how much it is. If we could get him for 12-15 million though I'd be all for it.

Some youth team news today as eight of our young guns will be leaving the club and four have signed professional terms. The list is as follows:

Released:
Amaury Bischoff
Paul Rodgers
James Dunne
Rui Fonte
Abu Ogogo
Rene Steer
Vincent van den Berg
Anton Blackwood

Signed Professional Terms:
James Shea
Craig Eastmond
Luke Ayling
Cedric Evina

No real surprises there then. I'm glad Bischoff is gone. What a terrible waste of money he was. I know he was signed for free, but he still got paid, so don't leave comments telling me it didn't cost any money.

That's really about it. There's some bollocks in the paper about how Andrey Arshavin would love to play for Barcelona. So would I. But it doesn't mean they'll be signing me any second now, and the same is true for Arshy.

Leave a comment or follow me on twitter. Peace.

Gloom and Doom in the Arsenal Camp

Morning everyone. I could definitely use some coffee. Hang on I'm going to go make some. Alright, got that going now. On to Arsenal. Arsenal have been a bit puzzling lately to me. We'll start with two weeks ago at Manchester United in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final. The lineup we sent out onto the pitch that night was one that none of us would have picked in a million years. Putting Nasri in the center wastes his skill that he has the chance to use out in the wide spots, putting Cesc as a support striker wastes his ability to pick out a brilliant pass, and Diaby is just a waste period. United ran us into the ground with a lineup clearly designed to defend, and only some brilliant work from Manuel Almunia kept us in the tie. Yet we all know what happened in the second leg. In between those though, we played Portsmouth away in the league. With what you'd probably consider a "reserve lineup" with all eyes on the second leg against United, we wiped the floor with them 3-0. I know it was only Portsmouth but when you see how well players like Vela and Bendtner played, it makes you wonder why on earth they didn't get a chance against United. You can't tell me that Vela doesn't bring more to the team than Diaby does, and you can't tell me that Adebayor (even though I still do support him, mind you) is in better form than Nicklas Bendtner right now.

In the second leg, Kieran Gibbs made a crucial error at the beginning of the match that allowed United to score. I don't blame him at all though, it happens to everyone. The problem I have is that Gibbs was having to play in that match in the first place. An 18 year old should not have to start at left back in the Champions League semi-final facing off against arguably the best player in the world. If Wenger didn't want to bring in someone as cover for Clichy, then he at least could have used Eboue at left back, who played well there against Portsmouth and has shown himself to be quite a capable full-back against top opposition, including the clean sheet streat in the 2006 Champions League. Silvestre as well, is not someone who I'd ever dream of lining up to face a team like United in such a big game, yet a refusal to buy last summer when everyone knew we needed to left us in such a position.


My main issue with how Arsenal have been managed though in the last few weeks is Arsene Wenger's prioritizing of competitions. He seems to be quite willing to give up some competitions to have more of a run at others. We already know he plays a bunch of kids in the Carling Cup, and I'm fine with that because I like to see what they can do against some top clubs and it is good experience for them. The FA Cup being pushed to the side though, is something that does not sit well with me. Wenger's quote to Sky Sports was this:

For me there’s two trophies really. The Premiership and the Champions League.

It shows why, even though Arshavin couldn't play in the Champions League anyway, he didn't play against Chelsea. Alex Song, who has been in the best form of his life, was left out in favor of Abou Diaby. We were in the FA Cup Semi-Final. A match that all of us were excited about, with the hopes of our first trophy in four years if we could just win the last two matches of the competition. Yet Arsene never cared if we won the cup at all. His thoughts were on the Champions League, which we went on to get crushed in anyway. So instead of having the FA Cup to still look forward to, our season, yet again, must be marked as a failure.

I've always enjoyed the FA Cup. It was the first trophy I ever saw Arsenal win live. It isn't like the Carling Cup where nobody really cares and not many teams put out their best sides. This is a prestigious competition that has gone by the wayside for Arsene Wenger's dream of winning the Champions League. When you prioritize competitions, you need to make sure you are winning the ones that you make a priority, or else your strategy was a waste. If we are not going to play our best team that gives us the best chance to win a trophy, why not just send the team out to lay down on the pitch? Because that's essentially what we were doing.

This isn't a bash Arsene Wenger post, but the signs are worrying that his stubborness has gone too far now. His refusal to buy in the summer when it was SO clearly needed still irks at me, and probably at the rest of you too. Imagine if we had bought Arshavin in the summer, so he wasn't cup-tied in the Champions League and we had had him against United. Does anyone think that that tie wouldn't have gone differently with him in the lineup? Yet we waited till January so we could save a few quid and we couldn't use him for our most important match of the year. In fact, we didn't use him in our second most important match of the year either, the FA Cup Semi. If we bring in some players for next season, should we expect them to start the year or just wait until halfway through? The youth project is not a failure, but it is not a success either. Success would be titles and trophies, none of which we have since the old guard left and was never replaced.

The upcoming offseason troubles me greatly. I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't worried about the potential of Cesc Fabregas leaving. He clearly needs and wants help in this team, and even asked for it in the for of Xabi Alonso, but help was never given to him. Lose Hleb, lose Flamini, lose Gilberto, and replace with only Nasri. That's never a good move, no matter how good you think your team is. If a bid comes in for Adebayor, I'd expect him to be sold. I've always thought he was a good player, unlike the majority of Arsenal supporters, but a decent offer for him won't be refused. I don't know that Bendtner is good enough to lead the line for us, which means we might need a striker in the transfer market too. I'm at the point though where I don't expect one to arrive. I don't really expect a midfielder, or a defender either. I'm getting to where I'm resigned to sending the same team back on the pitch to watch them fall short yet again.

It's painful as a fan, one who lives and dies with the club, to see them continually miss out on it's goals and nothing be done about it. We had to sign Arshavin just so we could finish in the top four this year, and that just isn't how it should be. I don't buy that this club has no money for signings, it just doesn't make any sense. It's just stubborness that says this team is good enough, and Wenger wants to prove every doubter wrong by winning with this young team. The problem is, when these young players get sick of not winning, they won't be in this team anymore. Just like Flamini, they will be seeking greener pastures. The time to win is the year that you are in. You can build to the future and still have a great squad. Look at what United have for example. They play a 35 year old in Ryan Giggs, who is a cunt of course but they still get the best out of him, and also have young players like Nani who can play in his spot. It gives them options and versatility that we don't have, and allows players to develop in training instead of on the spot like Kieran Gibbs had to. I'm sick of the excuses about how he doesn't want to stunt the growth of the young players, because competition only makes you better, not worse. And if bringing someone in the compete DOES crush their development, than they weren't good enough to play for Arsenal anyway.

It could be a tough transfer season this summer yet again, but I hope, for the club's sake and for the fans' sake, that Arsene Wenger decides enough is enough and makes some changes. Cheers.

Leave your thoughts. I'm going to try to do a podcast later today too on the new computer, so I'm hoping for some good quality. If you have any ideas or things you want to hear on there, leave them in the comments or email me. Peace.

Who sits, Nasri, Theo, or Arshy? Should Arsenal Play 4-2-3-1?

Morning all. Not a whole lot going on this week. I really wish I had a lot to write about but there just isn't anything to write about. Everyone is away on international duty for the next week plus, so stories are few and far between, but I'll try to come up with something mildly entertaining as I drink my morning coffee.

First off we may as well start with some transfer rumors, and the first one is Raul Albiol of Valencia saying he would be interested in a move to one of the "big clubs in the Premiership." While I don't watch him week in and week out I do think he's at least the type of defender that would be a good addition to our squad, and with Gallas not getting any younger and Valencia being cash strapped, it could maybe happen.

Gael Clichy has been linked with a move to AC Milan, and was asked about it by a reporter.

"I don't know anything.

"I am very happy at Arsenal. It is true AC Milan are a great club. It is flattering to know you are followed by such a team."

I think Clichy is the type (hopefully) that would like to stay at Arsenal for a long time so I don't really see a lot to this story. Hopefully we'll secure our Champions League spot for next year pretty soon and that should kill off some of these transfer rumors of our big players leaving. Clichy hasn't been at his best this year but there is a reason that AC Milan are following him and a reason he was in the team of the year last year, and that's because he's absolute quality. Not only that but he's a perfect team player, never runs his mouth, and always has a great attitude. He's the type of player great teams are made of.

Alright so on to my main topic today, and that is one I have been discussing with Joaquin over the last few days. With the return of Cesc soon after the international break, where do all of our attacking midfielders play? Obviously Cesc, being the captain and being brilliant and amazing, gets in the side no question. But what about Theo, Nasri, and Arshavin? While Theo was out and Cesc was out there was lots of space to move Nasri and Arshy around, but with all of them healthy, as well as having Adebayor back up front, it does give you lots of options.

Of course this is a good problem to have, much better than having everyone injured like we did, but I really want to know what you all think. What is your ideal first eleven for Arsenal with everyone healthy? I suppose mine would look like this:

Almunia
Sagna-Toure-Gallas-Clichy
Nasri-Denilson-Cesc-Arshavin
RvP-Adebayor

But Joaquin had an interesting idea that I'd like to throw out there now. What if Arsenal switched it up and ran a 4-2-3-1? I know 4-4-2 and 4-5-1 are Arsene's ideal formations but with the players we have a 4-2-3-1 could work effectively. Have a look at this:

Almunia
Sagna-Toure-Gallas-Clichy
Denilson-Cesc
Walcott-Nasri-Arshavin
Ade/Nik/RvP/Eddy

Obviously RvP and Eddy at least have the ability to play in that line of 3 instead of Theo, Nasri, or Arshy too if needed and Ade and Nik can both play a lone striker role fairly well. I think it's something that should be considered maybe because the possibilities are endless. Imagine what all of those guys on the pitch at the same time could create. I'm actually about to try it out on football manager now and see if they can pull it off. Not that that is a good sign or anything but its still fun for me.

So I want to know your opinions on this one. If we stick with 4-4-2, where does everyone get into the team, and what do you think of at least the IDEA of the 4-2-3-1? It gives you something to think about over the international break at very least.

Hope you all have a good day. Cheers.

Rosicky Injured Yet Again, Theo Walcott's Birthday

Morning all. Been a busy weekend I'd say so I haven't written anything. I actually had time to write something Friday but I just wasn't feeling it. Sometimes that happens. I actually didn't even get to see the Blackburn match because the match started at 11:00 here and I had to coach my team at 11:30, so I missed the whole thing. And it wasn't worth it either because my team got crushed 10-2 and Arsenal won 4-0 and unbelievably Eboue scored two goals! What is this world coming to? Then to follow that up I had to cheer for the Scum from the Lane to beat Villa! They did, thankfully, which kept us in fourth place, but it meant that I had to go puke for hours on end. My body doesn't react well to supporting Sp*rs, even for two hours.

So on to today's news then now that I've recapped the weekend. The first one is really some shite news...Tomas Rosicky has had another injury which will prevent his return to full training for an additional two weeks. *Sigh* It's really tough for me to come to grips with this. Every time he has come the least bit close to regaining match fitness, his hamstring flares up again. It has happened at least four times that I can recall just during this season. I don't see how it is ever going to get better if it hasn't yet. I think Rosicky could help us out this season if he could make it back to fitness ever but it doesn't appear that he will and I'm going to say that I think we've probably seen the last game Rosicky will ever play for Arsenal, and maybe in football period. If he can't get healthy and stay healthy than how can he ever be counted on to contribute to any team? Paying him to nurse his hamstrings for 14 months is getting a bit old. I'm sorry Tomas because it's not your fault, but please stop stealing your wages while you set in ice baths and never heal.


In other news, Andrey Arshavin has been getting some praise heaped on him from Arsene Wenger, and he has heaped right back.

"I like players like him who, in the final third, can give you hope and create something you don't expect. I felt we needed that with the players we have and with the type of game we like to play. But also he has won before and he has experience. We are very, very young. We sold (Alexander) Hleb, and (Tomas) Rosicky we have lost for 14 months. They were in the right age category, between 27 and 30, and we were a bit short at that level."

I won't even throw in the "no shit" that is deserved when he says our team is very young and needed some experience, but it's true about what Arshavin does give us. I watched his goal against Blackburn several times and it really is a fantastic goal that I don't know that any of our other players could have scored. He wasn't scared to take on the defender by himself and when he made his move he went with it to the goal and made sure it went in. We could use a bit more of that from the rest of the team. He's going to be a big factor for us the rest of the year.

Today is Theo Walcott's birthday! C'mon you guys, let's bust it out for him:

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday Lord Theo, happy birthday to you."

I'm sure he does really appreciate that, because he reads this site every day of course. He's not a teenager anymore, as he's turning 20. Arsene Wenger was talking of Theo on his big day:

"He gives us something that is important as well when we play at home. He goes behind the defenders and creates room and he has a direct game. We need that, especially at home. It is important to have him back and he gives you something that can make a difference in any game. Compared to one year ago there is no comparison, which is what people sometimes have problems to accept. At that age, every three months you go higher up but how much, you can never predict."

If you have read this site before you know how much I love Theo and think he's going to be amazing. He really made a huge difference in the Blackburn game, and while almost anyone would be an improvement over Eboue, Walcott is a HUGE improvement over him. With Arshavin on the left or up front and Walcott on the right...oh just imagine when Cesc gets back...think of how much better our team will be instantly.

So our next league game is Saturday at Newcastle, who are shite but not so shite that we can just say we'll win easily, especially since we have played badly against the worst teams in the league all season. Our next match though is tomorrow night against Hull City in the FA Cup. It's the quarter finals and the winner gets to head to Wembley to play Chelsea and I'd really love to win this. It looks like a lot of youngsters will play, including Gibbs and Fabianski, but the full squad hasn't been released. Andrey Arshavin says he is "desperate" to play against Hull, but he had eight stitches at half time against Blackburn so we'll have to wait and see. This is a really big match for us. Just getting to Wembley I think will give a big boost to this young team. C'mon you Gunners!

That's about all the news today. Maybe a match preview tomorrow but we'll have to see. I've got a midterm later on tonight, wish me luck. Cheers all.

An Optimistic Outlook on the End of the Season

Morning all. We're going full out optimism today. It's a good day so far. I just got my final roster for my team of Under 8's which start Saturday, I'm making baked ziti for lunch as I write this, and my six pack abs are looking nice. So those are all good things. What would really top it off though is a win today against bottom club West Brom.

The good news going into the match is that Arsenal have a thirteen game unbeaten streak going in the league! The bad news is that we have drawn five league matches in a row, including four 0-0's in a row. That is all going to change today. You know why? Because West Brom are shite. You know what else? I'm going to take Man City to beat Aston Villa on Wednesday too. That would put us within three points of them and I'm feeling confident.

I can't see us not winning this match today. If you can't get up for a "must-win" like this, then none of these players should be playing for the club. I can get myself up for coaching an Under 8's match, so these guys should be able to get up to play in Europe next season. Theo, Cesc, Eduardo, Adebayor, Rosicky...all of them need to be at their best when they get back, and I think they will.

Adebayor said just today that we need to win every game the rest of the season to get into the Champions League. He's probably right. While we've been counting on Villa to drop points, they haven't dropped many at all and when they have we haven't been able to capitalize. And unlike most of you, I actually DO think Adebayor cares about the team and wants to win. All of you that hate on him every day should piss off. He's way better than Bendtner, he pretty much made our entire season last year, and he's still potentially our best striker along with van Persie.

He also spoke about the booing that came after the Fulham match, saying:

"It is difficult for the boss, difficult for us as players, for them as fans - so they just have to keep doing what they love the most which is keep pushing us on."

Maybe the fans should actually try that. I live in Florida, so I don't get to go to all the matches obviously, and nothing makes me feel worse than watching games on TV when the Emirates is completely silent. We have 60,000 bloody supporters in the building and we can't sing a few songs? Come on you guys. I know it isn't the difference between winning the league and getting fifth place but it could at least push a team on to a winning goal against a team like Fulham.

Andrey Arshavin says he's still finding his fitness in the English game. That was certainly clear in the second half of the Fulham match, where he pretty much couldn't move at all. I don't blame him, I don't think I would have put him out there for 90 minutes so soon, but it isn't my call.

"Even before the end of the first half I felt as if I had spat my lungs out. It was a hard match for me. In the second half my legs simply refused to serve me."

Hopefully he'll find his fitness soon or it'll be a waste of a signing. We signed him to help us this season, and if he can never play 90 minutes then what's the use? But I'm sure he'll get it together soon.

But on to the match today. Injury news is Gallas, Eduardo, Walcott, Rosicky, Fabregas, Adebayor, Silvestre all out. Arshavin could also be rested, which leaves us a little bare.

Almunia
Sagna-Toure-Djourou-Clichy
Eboue-Denilson-Song-Nasri
RvP-Bendtner

It's not a great lineup when you look at it but we'll win. Trust me. We just will. I can feel it. I'm going to use a different coffee cup and wear my Kolo away kit today. It will definitely change our fortunes.

2-0 to the Arsenal. Still rockin the clean sheet, and getting the win too. You heard it hear first.

Come on you Gunners.

Nil-Nil Has Become The Norm, And That Needs to Change

What's up all? I'm now 22 years old, having had my birthday last Friday and contributing to my absence from writing for almost a week. I had a great time, got to hang out with my best friends in Orlando and it was pretty much awesome/crazy/hilarious, so what more can you ask for?

But while I had a good weekend, Arsenal yet again did not. We played Fulham at home and you'd normally expect a win there, but as I was turning the match on I just had a feeling with this team that it wasn't going to be good. After three straight nil-nil draws in the league and four draws in a row overall, I'll admit that I wasn't too confident even against a weak team at home. Fulham actually played decently, their passing was pretty good but we really still could have won. RvP had a couple of chances, Bendtner had a chance, Arshy had a chance, but the theme of this season seems to be a lack of goals and we were fruitless in our efforts yet again. While our defense looked fairly solid again, we just don't look at all confident going forward.

The problem with the current team, as has been said by many, is that they play down to the level of our competition. We get up for Chelsea, Roma, Man United, etc; but then we lose to teams like Fulham and Hull City. Take a look here below. I've gone over the points that what we would consider "weaker" clubs have taken from Arsenal this season. It's quite stunning really.

Fulham - 4 points - Lost away, Draw at home
Hull - 3 points - Lost at home, won away
Sunderland - 2 points - Drew home and away
Sp*rs - 2 points - Drew home and away
Stoke - 3 points - Lost away
Boro - 1 point - Drew away

Not to mention the loss at home to Villa, the five straight league draws in a row, and more. All those teams I listed above are in the bottom half of the table and are teams we should be taking maximum points off of, especially at home, yet we have taken less points or the same amount of points from all six of those teams.

The most frustrating part of the whole season is that this team doesn't really have an identity. Half of the time we can't defend a lead against anybody (the 4-4 against Sp*rs comes painfully to mind) and now this second half of the season we can't score against some of the worst teams in the league. So is this Arsenal team one that can only do one thing at a time, whether it be attack or defend? Wenger buys Arshavin to help us score more goals yet we can't win any matches once he's in the team. I'm not blaming Arshy by any means, because he's been decent for us, but the fact is that buying Arshavin hasn't helped us to win matches at all.

The good news in all of this of course is that our injured players will all be returning in the somewhat near future. Walcott, Theo, Eduardo, Rosicky (hopefully) and Cesc are all big players from us that should be back in the coming month or so. When they all return that will take Bendtner, Eboue, and Song all out of the team which can't possibly be a bad thing.

We play West Brom tomorrow, another weak team that we need to beat. We actually beat them 1-0 the first match of the season, and I'd take another 1-0 win for us in a heartbeat. We've said lots of matches are must win matches lately, but I'd say this is the final must win. If we blow this one and lose or draw, we can go ahead and make plans for the UEFA Cup next season, although we really need to watch out for Everton who are sneaking up on us for 5th place.

Even Arsene Wenger seems at a loss lately, which is something I've never seen before from him. If you listen to his press conferences he really seems bewildered, and if he is bewildered then everyone is. It is his job to right the ship here though, so we have to hope he can do it quickly. Come on you Gunners.

Cheers all. Oh yeah and Justin I added your link. I've been meaning to do it before now but there you go. Oh and by the way wasn't it great watching Sp*rs miss out on the Carling Cup, even if it had to be to United? Love it. Peace.

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.

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.

Arsenal Granted Arshavin Work Permit, West Ham Preview

Hello all. Last night was a little rowdy for me so I slept in pretty late today, hence the late post. Not a whole lot going on with Arsenal today ahead of the West Ham game tomorrow. Arsene Wenger gave an interview to Arsenal TV Online, and said he wants to get the Arshavin deal done before the match tomorrow. He also said he has looked at other targets besides Arshavin, but given the fact that the transfer window is just about to close there isn't a lot of time to get any other deals done before the deadline. So it looks like the only signing this window will be the Arshavin signing, and you probably know my thoughts on that already.

The good news today is that Arsenal applied for a work permit for Arshy and it was granted, so he will be able to move and play right away as soon as a deal gets finalised. That's pretty good news just so long as the deal actually gets done. Even though I am not particularly excited about us signing Arshavin, I'm sort of excited just because of the fact that we're actually buying SOMEONE.

In financial news, yesterday I mentioned that it would be disastrous for Arsenal to finish outside of the Champions League Places.

We can't afford, in the current economic state, to not qualify for the Champions League, and at this rate it won't happen. We're developing the Highbury Square flats, we're paying off the new stadium, we have fairly high player salaries to pay, and the Champions League provides a lot of revenue towards those expenses.

Well apparently Peter Hill-Wood reads the blog because he directly responded to that today, saying that it would not be "financial armageddon" if Arsenal finished outside of the top four.

"But although missing out on the Champions League for one year would be a big disappointment, it would not mean financial armageddon for Arsenal. When we worked out our budget, and did our fund-raising calculations in respect to the new stadium, we did not assume we were going to be in the Champions League every season. That may be an assumption at other clubs, and it's not for me to comment on the way they are run, but we did not want to get out of our depth in terms of paying our bills."

It makes some sense I suppose but it's disheartening to hear that it would almost be accepted if we were to finish outside the Champions League spots. Yeah sometimes you have bad years and you have to work through it but I think of all people PHW should be saying we NEED to make the Champions League. Accepting mediocrity does not bring trophies to the club.

So tomorrow we have West Ham, and it's a match we need to win. West Ham handed us our first ever loss at the Emirates and we've got them at home tomorrow. Villa have continued to take three points from their matches and we've got to do the same. As I told Joaquin yesterday, an unbeaten run means nothing if they are all draws. West Ham also are on an unbeaten run, theirs is 7 games, so it's another team in good form and could be a dangerous one for us.

The injury news is the same. Rosicky, Eduardo, Theo, Cesc, Silvestre are all out. I'd like to see two goals from RvP and another from Ade. 3-1 to Arsenal. Cheers.

Arsenal Needs More Than Just Arshavin

Morning all. We had a pretty big match yesterday against Everton, and after going the inevitable goal down, Robin van Persie managed to equalize. And I have to say, it was a fucking fantastic goal. The problem is that we gave up a goal before that and had almost no attacking presence until that goal in the 92nd minute.

As I was watching the game I tried to picture how Andrei Arshavin would help us during the match. I decided that he would have probably taken Denilson or Diaby's role, either in the center attacking role or on the right wing. Denilson wasn't especially good, but he is no right winger and when he's in his natural position in the middle I do think he's pretty good. Diaby wasn't very good either, but he did at least make the assist on the one goal we scored. Could he add something where those two couldn't? I think yes, he could. The thing is, we have players already that play in the central midfield attacking role and on the right wing, named Cesc and Theo. I still can't see, when everyone is healthy, where we are going to play Arshavin. I haven't really found a good answer from anyone and it's hard to see where he fits into a healthy lineup. Mind you, Arsenal seems to almost never have a fully healthy lineup, but I just worry about what the implications of his signing could be. Theo's contract is up in the summer and if we didn't renew him because we signed Arshavin I'd be pretty upset about it.

I've mentioned all those points before though, about him not really having a natural place in the squad when Cesc and Theo are healthy (and there's also Rosicky, who should be back soon), but the real problem is still in defense. The goal Everton scored was not spectacular, they didn't break the defense down with skillful passing or immense skill; they just crossed into the box and Tim Cahill (one of only two or three players that you would worry about scoring on Everton) headed it in over Clichy. I love Clichy but one thing you can certainly say is that he is not the tallest defender in the world. Baines had way too much time to cross the ball and had nobody even attempting to come close him down. It's like someone giving Ray Allen an open three pointer in the corner, it's going in. Same way here, if you give a professional at a top flight club that much time then he is going to hurt you. Just poor defending all the way around and that seems to be the theme of our matches this year. Clichy hasn't had a good year, Toure/Gallas haven't been good, Silvestre is just terrible, and only Djourou has really looked decent and shown his potential.

Does Arsene really not think we need a new defender? No, he knows we need one, because he said we needed a "powerful defender" just last summer, when we were all saying the same thing. Silvestre cannot have been who he had in mind to fill that role. I can't imagine what is possibly going on in his head but anyone who has watched Arsenal this year would see that we have a number of deficiencies that Andrey Arshavin will not fix by himself no matter how well he does.

Aston Villa continue to win, with all the luck of a team having horse shoes stuck up their asses and leprachauns in their dressing room. We can't afford, in the current economic state, to not qualify for the Champions League, and at this rate it won't happen. We're developing the Highbury Square flats, we're paying off the new stadium, we have fairly high player salaries to pay, and the Champions League provides a lot of revenue towards those expenses. Surely Arsene Wenger, the economist, can see that some investment now will prove to be a good expenditure down the road.

I just worry about the potential problems the club could face if we don't get better soon. Yes, we are on an unbeaten run, but there are a lot of draws in that run against some teams we should probably beat and need to beat if we want to be where we want to be at the end of the year. I know it's unlikely, but I'm still holding out for a couple of new signings in the next week.

And last but not least for the day, The ArseNole turned 1 1/2 years old this week and I'm in a very thankful mood today, so I'd just like to thank everyone that reads or has ever read the site and I especially thank those that keep coming back, like Mike, Joaquin, GPS Justin, Theresa Smith, Danking, Andre, Conolly's Agent, Jamesgillesp, and all the others who have stayed with me through all this time. I can't thank you guys enough. If you're ever in Jacksonville (or in Mike's case if I'm in Tally) then there's a beer for you on me. Cheers all.

Oh by the way! I might actually do a podcast tomorrow...if I come up with some good material. If you could please send in your emails with anything you want me to talk about on there or anything funny or anything at all, then it would be much appreciated! Thanks! ArseNole{at}arsenole.com.

Arshavin Signing For Arsenal, Rosicky Back in Training

Hello all. It's 1 am here which means 6 am in London but I've only just checked the news and seen that Zenit St Petersburg and Arsenal have agreed a fee for Andrei Arshavin. Zenit officials confirmed that an agreement had been reached on a transfer fee and all that remains is working out personal terms.

"The fundamental understanding over the transfer of the player is achieved between the clubs," read the statement. "At the moment the basic obstacle in realisation of the transaction is Andrei Arshavin's personal requirements."

So there is no word on what the agreed fee is, but it does seem as if the deal will be done very shortly. The good news from all this, besides the fact that we're getting a player who could help us hopefully score more goals, is the news that Arsenal are still actually capable of signing players! It looked for a while as if this would go the same way as the Xabi Alonso deal, arguing over a couple of million and eventually getting no deal done at all. Thankfully though everything should be worked out with Arshavin very soon and he should be an Arsenal player in the next few days. He's certainly been begging to come so it shouldn't be so hard to agree to personal terms.

"The player will travel to London this week to finalise terms, even though Gunners boss Arsene Wenger entertained Arshavin at Arsenal's training ground before Christmas, when much of the detail was agreed." - The Herald Sun

While Arshavin wasn't exactly the signing a lot of us had hoped for, he will help the squad, especially while Cesc is out. It won't help our central midfield or our defense, but you can't win without scoring goals and that is what he can certainly help with.

In other news, there are reports unconfirmed by the club that Tomas Rosicky is back in training, which is the first time in months. If he gets back and we get the Arshavin deal done we'll have a plethora of similar players to play on the left side of midfield. I think Nasri or Arshy will play in the middle though while Cesc is out and maybe another one of em could play on the right until Theo is back and healthy.

And in other transfer news, Micah Richards, who was linked with us yesterday, says he is "flattered" by the interest in him from Arsenal.

"It's always flattering being linked with a club like Arsenal, and they have one of the best managers in the world in Arsene Wenger."

As I said, I think Richards would be a perfect signing for us. He hasn't been outstanding this year, but with the turmoil going on at Manchester City it isn't a surprise really. He could be a great defender for us for years to come, and I'd love to see us get that done.

I'll get back to you guys in the morning if there is any more news on the Arshy deal. For now, take solace in the fact that he will almost certainly be an Arsenal player in the next few days.

Cheers. Hopefully we'll be seeing pictures like this one soon. Yeah I'm terrible at photo editing.

Micah Richards Would Be A Great Signing, FA Cup Replay

'Ello all. Just got home from eating a burrito at Moe's. Delicious. Celtics play in 10 minutes and my bed is calling my name for a nap, so it should be a good day. We played Cardiff earlier today, and played to a 0-0 draw. My thoughts on that in a minute. Just a quick thought before that though. I've been reading through my Official History of Arsenal book that I just got, and I've really realized how much legendary Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman did for the club and the game itself. Arsenal hadn't won a trophy in almost 50 years of existence before he led the club to three FA Cups and several championships in the 1930's, and really changed the whole way the game is played. He got the tube station at Gillespie Road renamed Arsenal Station, and made Arsenal the biggest club in the world at that time. He is the real reason Arsenal is what it is today, and I think every Arsenal fan should be thankful for that man coming to our beloved club. He died at age 55 this month seventy-five years ago. Cheers you to Mr. Chapman.


Enough history though, and on to today's match. Sure they are a division lower than us, but I don't think 0-0 is such a bad result for us. For one, it's much better than a loss. Second, we kept a clean sheet, and defense has certainly been our weakest point this season. So while our attacking wasn't what we'd like it to be, it does give us a home replay and extends our unbeaten streak. We had a lot of young players in like Kieran Gibbs, and also some shite players like Alex Song. Obviously a win would be prefferred, but it could have been like Portsmouth, who were knocked out 2-0 by Swansea City. I feel bad for Tony Adams. He hasn't had a great start as manager there but I don't think it's all his fault. They have lost several players, including Diarra and Defoe, but I don't think the fans will be very forgiving after Harry Redknapp led them to the FA Cup last year.

In other news, the News of the World reports that Arsenal are going to make a 7 million pound bid for Man City's Micah Richards. If this was true I would be jumping for joy. 7 million for an English youth international with a big future ahead of him? It'd be a dream come true. We all know Richards is an Arsenal fan, and even though he hasn't been in the best form this season, I think a lot of that can be attributed to the way Man City has been run this year. They have had horrible team chemistry, with a lot of players coming in and leaving. He was great last year with Richard Dunne, and I think he's the type of player that could work well with any of Kolo, Gallas, or Djourou. If he is really available for that little amount then we should be signing him today. It'd be a much better use of cash than Andrei Arshavin.

Speaking of Arshavin, there is no news about his situation, so we haven't signed him but the deal apparently isn't dead either. Still crossing my fingers we use the money somewhere else.

Ok, short post today but I'm going to watch the Celtics game. Let's go C's. Cheers.

Arshavin Deadline Today, Who Cares?

Morning all. Today is a big day for Arsenal and for me. I just got my copy of the Official Illustrated History of Arsenal and I am facking stoked. I'll probably read through it a good seven or eight times this weekend. For Arsenal though, it's the last day (supposedly) for us to work out a deal for Andrey Arshavin. Zenit say if there isn't something worked out today then he won't be coming to Arsenal.

I'm just going to come out right now and say, to quote John Leard, "Fuck 'em." If they won't take 15 million for a 27 year old who is probably not any better than Nasri, who is younger than him by six years and only cost 12 million, then why would we want him? He's not worth as much as they want to our team, and I'm sick of this story over and over with him. Zenit should be nutting themselves over 15 million for someone who is going to buy out his contract in a couple months. Then we can get him for free and laugh in their faces. Arsene Wenger has been asked if Arshavin was the only player he was targetting, and Arsene Wenger said no, so there are other options. This isn't the end of the world.

I don't see why everyone cares about us signing him anyway. He's played in the Russian league, doesn't really fit into our team once Cesc is healthy, and he'll have no resale value. If I asked people who they WOULDN'T like to see leave the club, I think two answers I'd get for sure would be Theo and Nasri. Both are young, they keep getting better, and they bring something special to the team. Of course Cesc will always have his place at Arsenal, so where does Arshavin fit into that team? Does he take Nasri's spot on the left? Then we've wasted 12 million in the summer buying him. Does he take Theo's place on the right? I think we need Theo's pace down that wing, which Arshavin can't match. And while Theo and Carlos Vela may one day be strikers, right now I think they are at their best on the wings and I'd sure as hell rather have them than Arshavin's whiny ass. Wenger says it takes most foreign players six months to adjust to the English game, so would he help us this season anyway? I don't think so. In 8 months his contract can be bought out for free, so why pay 15 million now for a player who is free in 8 months if you want him.

So my question is what would Arsenal get for the 15 million? A player we don't need in a position where we do actually have some semblance of depth. Let's move on to what we really need, which is defense and defensive midfield! Maybe instead of ignoring the obvious holes in the team and signing an attacker, we could actually address the team needs and get someone defensive minded! What a novel idea.

I think us losing out on Arshavin would be just about the best thing that could happen to Arsenal right now. If we make NO signings just because we can't get him then that would make me upset, but I think us signing Arshavin would make me even more upset than that. It just isn't good business.

Everyone, including me, Joaquin, you, Kolo Toure, my mom, my dog, your dog, Samir Nasri, and Samir's mom, knows we need help defensively, so that is where the money needs to be spent. I like goals as much as everyone else but it doesn't matter how many you score if the other team scores more! Gallas and Toure can't play together, and Silvestre is shit. Djourou has been a bright spot but for the love of God can we just bring in a quality, established defender for once in history? Arsene has worked with Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Sol Campbell, and other great ones, so he does know what a good defender is, he just seems to have forgotten we need them. As for defensive midfield, when you lose Flamini, Diarra, and Gilberto all within six months, you probably need a replacement for at least one of them!

If you can't tell, I'm a bit pissed off and it's led to a bit of a rant this morning. I want your opinion. Do you agree about Arshavin not being needed or are you a part of the Arshavin blow-fest that a lot of the Arsenal community has become this month? Do you think defense is the more pressing need? Leave your thoughts. FA Cup tomorrow, get excited. I think Little Jack Wilshere might get a run out. Fingers crossed. Cheers.

Arshavin Deal 50/50, Rosicky To Return Soon

Morning all. We are in the midst of a mighty 8 match unbeaten streak which is pretty exciting don't you think? Problem is that Aston Villa seem to keep winning. Which needs to stop. Seriously.

So there are a couple of news items today, and of course the top story belongs to Andrei Arshavin, who assuredly is making some people sick of hearing about him other than me by now. Sky Sports is reporting that the deal for him is only 50/50 now, because "negotiations have taken a step back" and because of Man City not being able to sign Kaka. They think City may go in for Arshavin which honestly wouldn't bother me too much. If it means we'll spend the money on a defensive midfielder or paying someone to take Eboue off of our hands it would make me happier. I still think defensive midfield and defense should be our main priority but Arsene Wenger doesn't agree and he gets payed to manage while I do not.

Still, there is a lot of time before the end of the transfer window and I'd expect that we'll get a deal done for Arshy before it's all said and done. He clearly wants to come and if we're getting him in then the sooner the better so he can get used to the team.

In other creative midfielding news, Tomas Rosicky has hinted that he may be back in action for Arsenal soon. He's been out for over a year and I personally have wondered whether he'll ever play for the club again. We really could have used him this season but mabye he finally is actually nearing a return.

"Everyone surely knows that I am not in my ideal state of mind, the one I used to be in when was in Arsenal's starting line-up two or three times a week," he told his own website.

"Now I am playing a different game. I have been working hard every single day and want to be back soon. I need to be patient.

"I have to respect Arsenal management's decision not to comment on my state of health, as it's their choice and they have been doing their maximum to have me back in action.

"I am not the first or the last football player who has been sidelined for a year.

"I am looking forward to when I will be able to say to the fans 'I am fit and going to play at the weekend'. I believe it will not be a long wait."

I know that is a really long quote but I didn't think any of it should be taken out because there are a couple of interesting things in there. The strangest part of it is where he says that Arsenal management made a decision to not comment on his health. Presumably this is so they don't say he'll be back in six weeks and then he isn't yet again. It is still interesting though that they would just decide to not comment on it at all. The last sentence in there though is the best news, because he clearly feels that he is indeed getting healthier and is getting nearer to a return. I really hope he does get back and healthy, because we could really use him. I'm not holding my breath though, with the way he's recovered in the past, or not recovered.

There really isn't any other news besides Gallas saying he'll see out the rest of his contract at Arsenal. Can't say I really care on that one. I'd just as soon sell him today.

So that's about it, big thanks to my mate Patrick for hooking me up with the new header design, I think it's pretty sweet.

Cheers.

Wenger Confirms Arshavin Inquiry

What up hoes? So I said I wouldn't post today if the news was only about Arshavin, but of course it is and I am still going to do a post. Why? Because today Arsene Wenger confirmed what we have all long suspected, that we are in talks with Zenit for him. He says we aren't close to signing the player at the moment, but the negotiations are ongoing. He finished by saying that he is very hopeful. I'm very hopeful too. I hope it doesn't end up like the Xabi Alonso deal in the summer where we wouldn't go higher than 12 million and they wanted 14 million so we just got nobody instead. We won't pay the 20 million they want so I'm thinking it's probably a similar bid to Nasri's, 12 million or so.

Meanwhile, Arshavin's agent, who in typical agent fashion has been ridiculous throughout this month, says there won't be a move this week but is hopeful about next week.

"It looks like nothing will happen this week now, but there may be some movement early next week."

So we'll ahave to wait and see but it looks like this one might very well get done. I still think defensive midfield and defense are more pressing issues but it's typical Arsene Wenger. We need help in defense and in attack though so I can see how maybe if we help the attack it could help the defense along with it.

We play Hull this weekend and it's a game we absolutely must win. They beat us 2-1 at the Grove in one of the worst home results I can remember (losing to Sheffield United a few years ago and the first loss at the Grove to West Ham spring to mind also) and so we need to avenge that defeat and also just because we really need the points. Villa haven't been losing very much at all so we need to match them win for win and when they slip up we have to take advantage. Hull is one of the teams that we really should be able to get six points a year against, yet we've lost three of those already, so we have to turn it around. Luckily, we haven't lost since we played Middlesbrough at the end of November, so we are on a bit of a hot streak. It's going to be tough without Cesc for the next couple months but the Champions League qualification is still a goal we have to achieve. Hopefully bringing in a player like Arshavin will make up some for Cesc's absence.

Roy Hodgeson says it will take "something special" to get Jimmy Bullard from Fulham. I would think something special wouldn't be more than a couple million quid. Fulham aren't exactly loaded with cash and they aren't going to be contending for top honors anytime soon. If we want him, we can get him, but you can never really tell who Arsene wants.

I've added a nice little widget to the side panel from Footbo.com that has the upcoming fixtures for Arsenal. It's pretty nice and I like looking at it, so if you like looking at it consider checking out Footbo.com. It's a football community website and has prediction games, things where you can pick your all time and current Top XI, and a lot more. I don't get paid for telling you to do this either I just think it's a nice site. You can even friend request me on there if you want.

That's all I've got. I'll get back to you all tomorrow with some more exciting Arshavin news, woohoo! Cheers. Also I've changed the banner for the top of the page, which really shows how terrible I am with graphics. If anyone is good with graphics and feels like touching that up to make it look a little better, that would be awesome.