Relegation Battle Heats Up, ArseNole Around 1 More Year

Gooood morning everyone. It's pouring for like the 10th day straight here in what is supposed to be sunny Florida. Shite is insane in the membrane. I do have some good news though. I got an email this morning telling me that the ArseNole.com domain was expiring in July, so I went and renewed it for another year, so I can at least guarantee you pretty average Arsenal coverage until July 22nd, 2010. How exciting is that? I think this summer will be a big one for the site. I'm thinking of changing some things up, adding some fun new stuff, getting a lot more and a lot better podcasts done, and maybe more. I'm calling it "taking it to the next level." I know, it's a really new and original name. So look forward to that.

So tomorrow is the last day of the Premier League season, and a pretty meaningless one for Arsenal. We play Stoke, and while it doesn't really matter and the grand scheme of anything at all, you always want to go out with a win. Fabianski will start in goal, while Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Adebayor will both miss out. Nasri has an injury, and Adebayor, well you can have your suspicions about why he is out again.

The more exciting matches take place for the teams at the bottom of the table, though, where Hull, Sunderland, and Newcastle could each be relegated on the last day of the season. Hull have a tough match against Manchester United, who even with a weakened side should be able to handle business against them. Aston Villa host Newcastle, who with a win will pretty much be safe, but Villa are tough even though they've been on a terrible run of form. Sunderland are pretty much safe, as they'd need both Newcastle and Hull to win to be worried, but they host Chelsea, so I'm expecting no better than a draw for them.

Who do you think will be going down? Obviously West Brom and Middlesbrough are doomed, but out of those three who do you think? I really hope it's Newcastle. I can't stand their fans who think they deserve to be in the Champions League just because they THINK they are a big club. I'd be bummed a bit to see Sunderland go down, as Newcastle and Hull are just filled with cunts and deserve to go down much more. Should be exciting though on Sunday.

So the FA Youth Cup first leg was yesterday, and Arsenal beat Liverpool 4-1 at home. Gilles Sunu, Jack Wilshere, Sanchez Watt, and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas all scored. So we take a hefty lead up to Anfield and I really want to thank the 33,000 Arsenal fans that came out to the Emirates to support the younglings. May 26th is the second leg, and it should be good entertainment with Liverpool needing to win by three goals at least.

The last bit of news for the day, which I personally am really excited about, is yesterday I got my tickets to AC Milan vs Club America in Atlanta July 22nd. I haven't even been able to see Kaka or Ronaldinho or Pato live and in person so it's really exciting. I'm going with my brother and we'll be painting our faces red and black. So that'll be fun.

If I don't get time for a match report tomorrow, enjoy the day full of matches, some much more important than others. Personally I'll be watching the Newcastle match, so sue me. Cheers all.

Song for the day, Rancid's "Last One to Die.":

New Arsenal Away Kit Discussion and Pictures

Hello everybody and welcome to this fascinating discussion of Arsenal's new away kit for the 2009/2010 season. I am writing about away kits simply for the fact that I don't want to talk about transfers yet, which is all the newspapers are talking about already. So you're stuck with away kits today. Deal with it.

So if you haven't seen it yet, this is the picture of the new Arsenal away kit for the 09/10 season:


My first reaction is, wow, that new kit is complete shite. My second reaction is, wow that new kit is complete shite. After giving it some intense thought, I have decided the reasons that I hate the new kit. First of all, I don't want pinstripes on any Arsenal kit. It's just not Arsenal and it's a bad move. Second of all, dark blue shirt with dark blue shorts with dark blue socks is never a good fashion statement. I actually kind of liked the old blue away kits but this one to me is just awful. I'm ok with football kits trying to look retro with the collar and stuff, so that's not an issue with me, but this one is just plain boring. Even Theo looks bored to have to be wearing it.

If you take a look at the away kits over the years, I'd say this has to be right up there with the worst ones. Here's a few to compare it to. Tell me if you think it's better or worse.

The infamous 07/08 white kit. It actually sold really well, even though 90% of Arsenal fans criticized it. I'll admit that I too have one, with Toure on the back. Why is this one so awful? Simple. Sp*rs play in white. Also, if you get it dirty it doesn't wash very well. Still better than the new blue one though.

The old blue kit that I liked much better than the new one. The yellow lines down the side gave it some pizazz and it just looked a lot better with the crest in the middle I think. The color was brighter too which made it more lively. Plus we were a much better team back then...

The yellow from this past year I thought was actually kind of nice, although it definitely had to grow on me. When it first came out I didn't like the yellow they had chosen but now it's one of my favorite kits to wear, especially because mine has Fabregas on it.

Alright that's about enough on the away kits, although I do think it is ridiculous that Arsenal now comes out with a new away kit every single year. I'm sick of buying them all frankly, but as a loyal supporter, I do as I must.

The first leg of the FA Youth Cup takes place today between the Arsenal young guns and the Liverpool young cunts. The first leg is at home and it's something we haven't won since 2001. It'll be a good look at the youngsters like Jack Wilshere, Coquelin, Sunu, Frimpong, and Emmanuel-Thomas. I'm really looking forward to this match a lot more than I'm looking forward to the Stoke match Sunday. It's on at 3 pm EST so if you're in England, go support them, and if you're not, at least watch the match. You can find links to watch the match here. If you don't get to see it, I'll be tweeting about the match, so follow me on twitter.

That's about all I've got today. Let me know what you think about the new kit, and if you want to talk about the Youth Cup then I'll talk about that as well. Or even if you want to look ahead to the Stoke match we can talk about that. Have a good one everyone. Cheers.

Arsenal Beat Sp*rs In FA Youth Cup

Check it, you know how I be. Hello everyone. How is everyone doing today? That's fantastic I'm actually doing ok but I'm a little sick, sore throat and all that fun stuff. Not a whole lot going on in the world of Arsenal today, but I did watch the FA Youth Cup game Arsenal versus Sp*rs last night and it was great, so I figured I'll talk about that a little today.

When I turned the match on it was just about to start but I had to shower so I missed the first part. When I came back we were already 1-0 down. We settled in though and we were playing well. I thought our passing was as good as, if not better than, our first teams passing and movement. Watching Jack Wilshere among the rest of the younglings is like watching men against boys. While he isn't THAT much better than all the rest of them, every time he touches the ball I still half expect him to score.

I was talking to Joaquin throughout the match and we picked out a few players that really looked the business to us, and had a chance of making it to the big time. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas scored a great goal to give us the win in extra time, and I thought he played a great game. His versatility is astounding, as he looks comfortable really at any position on the pitch. There was no better example than in extra time in the 2nd half. He was playing up top as a third striker, brought the ball in, dodged two defenders and launched a cannon into the net to give us the lead. Next thing you know, he was back playing as a third center back to make sure Sp*rs didn't get another of their own. That doesn't even mention that he played in the midfield almost the whole game. It's fantastic and I really am looking forward to seeing what he can do in the future.

Gilles Sunu looks like he also has a great future. The guy is just electric quick and can accelerate and turn on a time. He should have had a goal probably late in the first half but he still looked very good when he was out there. I wouldn't be surprised if he maybe went on loan somewhere in the lower divisions next season.

Emmanuel Frimpong and Francis Coquelin pretty much ran the midfield along with Thomas and Wilshere and they both look pretty good too. Coquelin was the one to set up the final goal with a long ball to Rhys Murphy on a counter attack. Rhys Murphy is one of the top scorers for the youth team for the season and his finish after bringing in that long ball was out of this world. Bendtner and Adebayor could use some tutoring from Murphy on half volleys like that.

So it's on to the FA Youth Cup Semi-Finals for the youngsters. We'll face the winner of Manchester City and Norwich city, who play tomorrow. It'll be a two-legged affair, with the second leg of it being back at the Emirates. Liverpool is already into the other semi-final, and they await the winner of Birmingham City and Ipswich Town/Watford. It'd be great for our youth academy to win the whole thing. Imagine the kind of talent you can attract if you have the best youth academy in all of England, and maybe all the world judging by how they have come through in the last few years.

The matches really are enjoyable to watch and as soon as I get the date of the semi-final matches then I will get it all to you.

Tonight I have my first practice with my new team of 8 year olds, so it's time to whip them into shape. Let's go Green Monkeys!