I'm Going to Marry Cesc's Sister, Portsmouth Preview

Hello everybody. How's your Friday going? First home match of the year is tomorrow, and we're playing Portsmouth, who are shite. In face, they're probably going to get relegated. I've put some money on Arsenal to win -2 goals, so we pretty much need to win by three for me to get paid. I'd very much appreciate it if you could pull that off Arsenal.

Theo Walcott, Rosicky, Djourou, and Nasri are all out with injuries, and Carlos Vela is apparently sick at home with Spattergroit. I really have no idea what has happened to Vela, but I wish he'd get a chance to play sometime, yet there's been no sign of him. Eduardo is passed fit for tomorrow's match though and he could maybe make a start.

We need a win, simple enough. For one, I can't handle seeing Sp*rs at the top of the table, and for two, we need to keep ahead of Man U after their loss to Burnley. We play them next weekend too so this match is really important to take all three points from. I don't think that sentence even made sense but you know what I'm getting at.

There's really not a whole lot more to say about the match. Let's just get three points and get it done and get out of there. That's like the shortest preview I've ever done but I really can't think of a lot to say about it. I'd expect to see most of the same team we've had for the other two matches to play, but maybe we'll give Song or Denilson a rest along with RvP. Diaby could start or Ramsey could start, but we'll see.

Now on to more important topics.

I've figured out how to be related to Cesc Fabregas. It's going to be tricky, and take a lot of work since she lives in Barcelona, but I've got the right attitude and resolve to see that I complete this goal of mine. You see, I've decided I'm going to marry Cesc's sister, Carlota. How am I going to pull this off you ask? Well. That's the tricky part. I suppose I'll just move to Barcelona and woo her with my delightful American charm. I haven't really thought it through much more than that, but that's the plan anyway. I can cook pretty well too, seeing as how I do attend culinary school. Now I just have to learn to speak Catalan. I believe with hard work and perserverance and a lot of luck, I'll soon be related to the Arsenal captain. Love it.

Wish me luck.

C'mon you Gunners.

Cheers.

Arsenal 3-0 Pompey Report

Hello all. Nice match yesterday wasn't it? It's great to see some of the younger players get a chance to play in the league games, especially when they take full advantage of their opportunities and we get a win. With everyone focused on Manchester United on Tuesday, this match had been pretty much forgotten about by most of the Arsenal community. It wasn't really a game we had to win, but win we did, and with some style.

The lineup was an interesting one.

Fabianski
Sagna-Song-Djourou-Eboue
Ramsey-Denilson
Walcott-Arshavin-Vela
Bendtner

The bench was all reserves as well, with the likes of Coquelin and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas on the bench and no sign of Adebayor, Fabregas, Toure, or any of the regulars. You could definitely tell that the focus was on Tuesday's all-important match by the lineup.

We pretty much dominated the match throughout, and while Portsmouth had chances to score, Fabianski did well and Pompey's finishing was dreadful. They had several chances but none came that close to going in. Attacking, though, was where we were at our best. I thought Vela and Arshavin were outstanding, their movement and passing was great fun to watch, and Bendtner also had a good game, netting a header and a penalty.

Eboue looked really good attacking down the left and pretty assured in his defense, even though it is not his prefferred side. Having watched him at fullback a few times the past couple of weeks, it makes you realize what a mistake it is playing him in midfield. Eboue is a very good fullback who knows when to get forward. He is, however, a terrible midfielder, with no end product whatsoever and a poor decision maker. I wouldn't mind seeing him play left back against United. That's right, I'm supporting starting Eboue against United. Even though Gibbs has played pretty well, I think it'd be the right choice to go with.

After we were up 3-0 in the second half, we got to see the likes of Randall, Bischoff, and Fran Merida come on. It's a few players we haven't gotten to see a lot of so it's nice for them to get some experience in a real Premier League game.

Fabianski will be thrilled to have kept a clean sheet after the disatrous game against Liverpool, and I was really happy for him. With young keepers, you really need them to get confidence and keep it, because it really can affect them long term. With that said, this clean sheet will go a long way to helping his confidence and I really do think he can be a future Arsenal number 1. The way Almunia has been playing though, it could still be some time to wait, so lets hope he's ok with being the number 2 for a while.

Man of the match for me though was Carlos Vela. What a player that young man can be. I'm really surprised we don't see him come on more often than he does. He brings an added dimension of cleverness that not a lot of our current squad have with the ball. The goals he scores are usually spectacular, and his movement and strength is really good for being so young. Arsene certainly showed good vision signing him a couple of years ago, even though he couldn't get a work permit right away. It's looking like it's going to be well worth it.

We really miss Arshavin in the Champions League games. It's been said before, but his experience and quality is something we've desperately been needing. If he was eligible we could have played Cesc in his prefferred central midfield role and played Arshy in that support striker role, which he loves playing. Getting to see him next year against those European clubs should be a real treat, but we'll have to make do without him on Tuesday.

Ok that's it for today because I've got to go to work. I'll get up a Manc scum preview tomorrow, and some additional stuff the day of the match. Leave your thoughts on Vela, Arshavin, Ramsey, Fabianski, or anything else you want to discuss in the comments section. Cheers all. Have a good one.

Quick Arsenal-Portsmouth Preview

Morning all. Just a quick one today as I've got a busy day ahead and honestly I'm really so tired that I can barely write. We play Portsmouth in 45 minutes and see the first return of Tony Adams as an opposing manager. Pompey have been pretty terrible since he took over, and since we're playing at home we really need this to be a win.

While you never like to see anyone injured, I can't say I'm too bothered that Alex Song will miss this game through injury, and possibly Johann Djourou as well. Clichy should be back giving us a back four of Sagna-Toure-Gallas-Clichy, which on paper looks really good but we have seen that it is clearly otherwise. Emmanuel Adebayor is back after serving his suspension for a B.S. red card against the scousers. Obviously Eduardo, Rosicky, Cesc, and Theo are all still out.

We really need to pull off a win today. We're on our best run of the season, 5 games without defeat, and Pompey have had three straight defeats. Our class needs to show through to get a result here, and we could really use a Villa loss; and while we're at it how about a United and Chelsea loss too.

Arsene Wenger has said that Tony Adams will one day become a great manager, and I hope he does. I just hope it isn't today against us.

"He [Adams] was a great leader but there is a difference (between being a captain and manager).

"He will certainly be a great manager and he has the qualities needed to become one."

Alright that's about all the time I have this morning. Match is in thirty minutes so everyone kick back and enjoy what we'll hope will be a convincing win. Come on you Gunners!