Arsenal Leaves A Sour Taste Yet Again

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

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

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

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

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

Leave thoughts. Cheers.

Nicklas Bendtner is an Arrogant Cunt, Usmanov Raises Stake

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The translation for this:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Man City is Mad, But Kaka is Even More So

Morning all. Haven't posted in what feels like forever when in fact it has only been six days, which is still far too long to go without posting. However, there has been very little news for me to go over recently, as everything seems to revolve around Andriy Arshavin. In fact, today, the news is still about Arshavin and nobody else. I'm hoping that this is a clever cover and we're doing some sort of business on the side. Like for a defensive midfielder and a center back. We probably won't buy either because that would be logical you know, and that's not how we do things at Arsenal.

Nicklas Bendtner is in the news, with reports saying that he gave Bolton our lineup before the match over the weekend. It seemed a weird story at the time it came out, but now it is even more strange with Nick's dad coming out and denying the reports.

"I can't even comment upon this. It is completely brain dead. No
footballer could in his wildest imagination do something like this. This
is talk for the devil. This is the English in a nutshell. This is the way they
are, and something we have to react to with laughter."

"It could be that he has passed on that information. That he said, 'I am
going to score against Bolton'. That's the story and situation in this
case."

So it's a pretty strong denial from Nick's father, but the strange part is that he admits that his son "passed on that information." The information is that he was going to score against Bolton? I don't think he walked into the opposing dressing room and said, "Ya know, I fancy myself scoring today. Just wanted to pass that along." I just can't see that happening. I don't know what to believe on this one but if he did pass information to the opposing team he's either a moron or really has a terrible attitude about the team. I'm not really a fan of his in either case but I am thankful that he did score.

The big news of the day though is not about Arsenal, but about Manchester City. Today they flew a delegation into Milan to meet with AC Milan officials and to lay out a 100 million pound transfer bid for Kaka. They also are willing to pay Kaka 250,000 quid a week, which comes out to 13.65 million pounds a year. Absoultely monster numbers and it shows just how badly they want a world class name at the Eastlands. However, there are some serious doubts as to whether Kaka will accept the deal or not, saying he wants to "grow old at AC Milan." Now I for one have never liked players that move teams or clubs just for more money (see Ashley Cole), but I think if I was Kaka here I would have to accept this deal. It's just too much money to not take it. No, City are not in the same class as AC Milan, but if Chelsea can buy some quality than City could be able to as well. Who knows who all they could bid for in the summer that could turn them into a team like Chelsea's and then they could indeed me challenging for honors. It's a scary thought that so much money can be thrown around on one player, especially when our club is hesitant to spend any at all, but I'd rather be in our position than City's. I'd much rather have our cheapskate board than a "sugar daddy" who blows too much money on players that will underperform. Just saying that in Kaka's case, you really should take that deal, it isn't coming around again.

Remember how Charles N'Zogbia was begging for a move away from Newcastle and really wanted to go to Arsenal? Well since we aren't bidding for him now he's begging for a move to Lyon. It's mental some of the quotes he comes out with. He has absolutely no commitment to Newcastle and while Newcastle are a bit shite and are cunts, if you sign for a team you should probably be a little more commmited at least.

And that's all I've got for the day. If there is any news other than Arshavin news tomorrow then I'll talk to you then. If not then the day after. Cheers.

Arsenal Transfer Window Preview Part 2- January 2009

Morning all. Last day of 2008 has come and I'm still alive and if you're reading this so are you so congratulations on making it through another year. Yesterday I ran down the first half of our January transfer preview for Arsenal and today I'm going to finish that off with the second half of who we should buy and maybe even a little who we should sell. We did central defenders and central midfielders yesterday, so that leaves us our wide and attacking players for today.

Let's look at what we have so far out wide. We have Nasri, who is certainly a quality player as long as he can stay healthy, which hasn't been as much as you'd like. There is Eboue, who is really a right back and has been forced onto the wing and really isn't very effective out there. Rosicky is ALWAYS hurt and probably won't play for us anymore barring a miraculous recovery from his injury that has kept him out for a year. And of course we have Theo, who is out for a couple more months but he really looked great at the start of this year until the time of his injury. Diaby is also used out wide occasionally but he is a central midfielder and we really shouldn't accept having to play someone out of position so much.


So it is clear that we really could use a wide player, at least to add some depth while Theo is out and hopefully to create some competition for places with say, Eboue. There has been a ton of talk about Andrei Arshavin ever since Russia's run at Euro 2008. He was good at the Euro's, yes I'll give you that, but do we really know how he would adapt to the Premiership? He's 27 years old and would command a huge fee, yet he hasn't been tested in a top flight league. I'm going to come right out and say that I don't want Arsenal to buy Arshavin. Sp*rs bought Pavlyuchenko because of his performances in the Euro's alongside Arshavin and he hasn't worked out great for them. I just don't see him as the best option and I hope we look somewhere else. That somewhere else could be Mikel Arteta of Everton. Reports are in already that we will make a 12 million pound bid for him, which could be enough to get him from Everton. He's a huge player for them who they won't want to part with but for the right price they would have to accept, especially since the player would most likely want to come play for Arsenal. He's been playing in the Premiership for a long time so he has that needed experience which would hopefully mean he could make an immeadiate impact. He is very versatile as well meaning that he could play in Cesc's role while he is injured and move out wide or alongside him when Cesc returns. He's also good on set pieces and he really just looks like a better option to me. Another option I could think of hasn't had as much talk as the other two but as I said yesterday, Valencia are strapped for cash and a very good player on their team just happens to play on the wing. I'm talking about Silva, who plays with Cesc for Spain. I have no idea what kind of fee he would command but he is a great player and would surely benefit any team he was in.

Moving on to the strikers and you'd have to say that if we were totally set for players in a posititon then it would be at striker. We have two good strikers in RvP and Adebayor who can get the job done at the top flight as well as Eduardo, plus some youngsters like Carlos Vela and Nicklas Bendtner in waiting. I'll admit though that I'm not a big Bendtner fan. I think he gives off the impression that he is not trying hard a lot of times when he is on the pitch and it really bothers me. A lot of times when he plays it is up front by himself and when you're up top by yourself it really requires a lot of movement from you, which he doesn't seem to have. Sure he scores the odd good goal sometimes but I think his attitude of entitlement is a problem and if we received a decent offer for him I suggest we take it. If we were to bring in a striker, which we won't, then my personal choice would be Sergio "Kun" Aguero.

Last but not least we need to talk about which players we want leaving if we had our choice. Players that are not Arsenal calibre who are playing for Arsenal and should not be. Alex Song immeadiately springs to mind. He's not good enough in midfield or in defense to ever be a first eleven player and really makes me nervous even when he comes on in reserve or as a sub. When you look at other top clubs do you see players of Alex Song's skill level? Not really, and if there is one, then they don't play nearly as much as Song does for us. I also think Eboue would do well with a change of scenery. He hasn't really improved on the wing ever since he was moved there and he certainly won't ever be better than Sagna at right back. He's decent cover but even when Sagna has been out the boss has chosen to use other people instead of him at right back, which should tell you something. As I mentioned, I don't think Bendtner has much of a future here at Arsenal and I think an offer for him would see him gone.

Now by point behind this is that we can't afford to sell ANY players without having signed or having every intention of signing quality replacements for them. Our squad has shown that it is too then and we really need to grow it not sell more. We sold Hleb, Gilberto, and Flamini (I know, he left, he wasn't sold) without really bringing in any replacements and we can't have that again.


So that's about it. The transfer window opens in 12 hours, while we'll all be ringing in the New Year. I hope all of you have a fantastic 2009 and that Arsenal do as well. Everyone drink up, hook up, do drugs if that is your thing, just make it a great start to the New Year! Make sure you check out the forums if you never have or leave a comment and let me know what your thoughts are! Cheers! I'll leave you with this video to go into the New Year. Warning: Semi-offensive and also hilarious material.

Questions Remain About Arsenal

Morning all, or afternoon, depending where you are and when you read this. I really need to write more on here. I'm still trying to get the new site ready for it's debut and it's taking much longer than expected so I'm going to be sticking with this one for awhile.

So what has happened in the past week? Well, we played Chelsea last Sunday. It was one of the rare Sunday matches I got to see and I even got my girlfriend to watch it with me. And the match was stressful and fantastic all at once. Coming off defeats to Villa and Man City I'll admit I wasn't too optimistic going into the match and when Djourou was unlucky with the own goal I figured there wasn't much of a way back considering the opposition. I was wrong however and we got a gift to make it 1-1 on a goal where RvP was clearly offside but I haven't heard one Arsenal fan complain about it. Just a minute later we scored again and this time nobody could have any complaints about the referrees or anything else, it was just brilliant. RvP acted out of instinct I think and just sent it in the far corner and I got a rug burn from sliding on the carpet when it went in. We held on pretty easily after that and it was another great result which brought about yet more questions.

Why is it that we can lose 2-0 at home to Aston Villa and 3-0 away to Manchester City but win 2-1 against United and Chelsea? It's frustrating to no end and there isn't a clear answer in sight. Is it a lack of effort against the "smaller" teams or is it only being able to really get themselves up for a match against the top top clubs? When your losses on the season are mostly against teams from the bottom half of the table you really have to question a lot. It's wonderful beating all our big rivals but when you are losing to Stoke and Fulham it doesn't mean nearly as much.

We know that our squad isn't deep enough, certainly, but we've had lineups like the ones that beat Chelsea all season. It was lucky to have Sagna and Adebayor back for sure, but we should have a large enough squad to make up for their absences when they do get injured. January I think will probably see us buy a couple of players, although the victories against Chelsea and United I fear may lead Arsene Wenger to vindication for his experiment and say that no changes are needed. But two wins do not make a season. Sylvestre was a useless buy, and we still need another defender. I think if an offer comes in for Gallas, we should probably take it. Djourou should be starting every game for us now. We need a new midfielder or two as well. Song isn't good enough to play for Arsenal consistently and while I love Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey, having a 16 year old on the bench isn't a good sign. I think with Eduardo coming back we will be set at striker, as Vela has shown his quality plus we have Ade and RvP. I think Bendtner is a terribly frustrating player who looks lazy every time he comes on the pitch, but he does have his moments. His pink boots though, are awful.


So to sum it up I suppose, is that the team needs to be able to get itself up for matches against the lower teams just like it has for the top 4 teams. Cesc is undefeated as captain and may his reign be long and prosperous. May the footballing Gods shine on Arsenal through this busy christmas season and January transfer window, and let's hope we keep playing like we did against Chelsea! Up the Gunners!