More Reaction To Eboue, and More

Morning all. It seems people still want to talk about what happened with Emmanuel Eboue in the match Saturday, and since there isn't much else to write about today, that's what we'll continue with. I said yesterday that paying fans should be allowed to boo if they want, and when a player plays terribly and/or doesn't show effort, then why should he not be booed? Just because they play for Arsenal means ANY type of performance is acceptable and we should just clap them off? The way I see it, we want players who want to play hard and play well for Arsenal, and while everyone has a bad game once in awhile, Eboue's appearance Saturday was absoultely abject.

Richard Williams of the Guardian says that Eboue's treatment was unfair and his tears shamed all of the booing fans. Richard Williams is wrong. There is not a single case I can think of where it would be acceptable behaviour for a proffessional footballer to cry over being booed, no matter who does it. You get paid more than most of us can even dream to do something most of us would do for free, playing for Arsenal. Man up Eboue. Crying like you are ten years old and just missed a penalty is not going to make anyone feel sorry for you and regret booing your shite performance. Man's game bitch. Eboue isn't good enough to play in our first team anyway, and if we actually had a deeper squad he probably wouldn't, so it's not like this is his first bad performance for Arsenal. If you pay tons of money for tickets and you get pissed off at Eboue, go ahead and boo him. He needs to play better or accept criticism better.

Emmanuel Adebayor says it doesn't matter how we play, it just matters if we win. I think he's half right. We all want to play beautifully yes, but I think more importantly we want to win. It'd be nice if we could always do both, but that isn't going to happen. I think against the sides that go out to defend against us we need to have a "score at all costs" motto going into it. These seem to be the games where we have great build up play that leads to nothing. In the second half of the season we really need to get results against these weaker teams and Adebayor is right on there, we need to win, not play beautifully.

So we have a match against Porto tomorrow that will determine who finishes top of our Champions League group. It's a rare match we can all enjoy without any stress at all. We're already qualified and I don't really think it matters much if you finish 1st or 2nd in the group. You have to beat every team left in it anyway at some point, so I don't think it matters in what order they fall. I'd like to see Kolo get to play with Djourou again, and I'd suspect some fringe players like Bendtner and/or Vela will get to play. I think we can get a win. We beat them 4-0 at the Grove and we are the better team. It is tough to play in Portugal though, so it may turn out to be a draw. Either way I'll just enjoy watching the match.

And for the people like C10-Goona who think you are not an Arsenal supporter if you don't agree with their definition of a supporter, please go read another blog or just keep your mouth shut on this one. Just because I have an opinion different from yours does not mean I am not a supporter. I don't think I would write an Arsenal blog for over a year if I wasn't a fan. I don't have that kind of time and neither does anyone else. So like I said, Arsenal fans need to quit telling other Arsenal fans they are "not supporters" or should "go support Chelsea" because it's just stupid. Last I checked there isn't a chairman of Arsenal fans that decides whether you are a fan or not. So please shut your mouth or get a new site to comment on.

That's about it for the day. Hope for a win tomorrow and hope Chelsea, Liverpool, and United all lose just because life is better that way. Cheers.

Hammering Porto, Just What The Doctor Ordered

Morning all. Happy times again. After being embarrassed by Hull we really needed a good performance and three points at home against Porto in the Champions League, and that is just what we got. A 4-0 and a great performance will lift everyone's spirits.

The changes Arsene Wenger said he was going to make didn't really materialize, and the only change ended up being Nasri in for Eboue. I was kindof hoping to see a more changed lineup I'll admit, but I certainly can't argue with the result this lineup produced.

Porto had us a couple of times early, and one I specifically remember was when they got us on the break and had a 5 on 3 and managed to hit the post. Luckily we were only bending and not breaking and managed to keep them out until we opened the scoring.

It was Robin van Persie who got on the scoresheet first, after some great work from Adebayor. Ade made a good run into the box with the ball that Cesc had played to him, made the keeper commit to coming out for him, then cut it back for the on-rushing van Persie who easily finished into the open net. A nice team goal from our strikers and they worked well together all night. It was good to see from them because I think there styles compliment eachother perfectly when they are both fit and on their games. 1-0 to the Arsenal.

Adebayor got one of his own next from a corner, taken of course by Robin van Persie. Adebayor rose up to meet it and headed into the ground and it bounced over the keeper's head and in. I think Adebayor does that almost better than anyone I've seen play the game. When he rises up to meet corners and free kicks it is like he can hang in the air for hours. Not to mention he is tall and gets higher than almost everyone. I really think we should use him more from set pieces because he is almost impossible to defend. 2-0 to the Arsenal was the score at the half.

The second half was all Arsenal. Porto definitely seemed to realize they weren't getting back into the match and Arsenal ran the ball up and down the field on them, creating chance after chance. Walcott had a good effort, RvP got another goal, Nasri had a chance and it really could have been about 6-0 at this point.

Some substitions were made, with Bendtner and Eboue coming on for RvP and Nasri. Bendtner won a penalty and Adebayor made it 4-0 to the Arsenal. Vela came on for Walcott after that and he really looked good I thought. Man he is an exciting player. Such quick feet and he's so skilled on the ball and with his runs that he will always be a thorn in any defenses side.

So I predicted 2-0 to Arsenal, but you have to double that to get the final, 4-0 to the Arsenal in a great performance.

Man of the Match: Emmanuel Adebayor - 2 goals and an assist make a pretty complete day for Ade. I thought he was brilliant and he really looks like he's getting back to the goals like last year now.

Needs Work: There isn't much you can say needed work in this particular game as I thought everyone played pretty well. So my needs work for this match will be the criticism of Manuel Almunia. I don't understand why this man takes so much shite. He's a bloody good keeper. People say he doesn't win us matches but I've seen him make several good saves this year and last that have either given us a win or at least kept us from losing. Keep it up Manuel!

So it's back to the league again but it's good to get a good performance and three points in. Cheers and up the Gunners!

Arsenal - Porto Match Preview

Morning all. We've got the Champions League again tonight and I'm pretty excited about it. Not only is European competition great to watch but it gives us another chance to rebound from the defeat to Hull before we play in the league again. It's FC Port tonight, a Portuguese team known for producing great young talents such as Deco, Paulo Ferreira, Ricardo Carvalho, Maniche, Costinha, Benni McCarthy, Jose Bosingwa and Ricardo Quaresma, and won't be an easy match to say the least. However, if you follow the "10 points and you qualify" rule in the group stages, this is probably a match we need to win. At the moment Porto are 4th in the Portuguese league but they are undefeated and will definitely be looking to have a crack at the team after what happened to us on Saturday. Arsene Wenger stated how important this match was:

“In this Champions League group you know you go through with 10 points,” said Wenger.

“The calculation is quite easy. You win your three home games and you are through.

“In some groups you have two good teams and two weak teams. In this group you have four strong teams. That is why home form will be vital.”

He's right, we really do need to take all three points from this one. I'm hoping for a really good atmosphere at the Grove tonight to get all the players' spirits lifted and push them on to a good result.

Injury news is as follows: Samir Nasri is fit again, but Abou Diaby (he's been out forever hasn't he?), Eduardo, and Tomas Rosicky are all out. Alex Song has also been ruled out for this one. It will be nice to have Nasri back again because he provides creativity in the way that Cesc does but is also capable of a good long dribble or a powerful shot from distance, which is always a bonus. I think we've missed him in the side and while Theo has of course done well for us, he does need a rest sometimes too.

Speaking of resting, the boss has said he will rotate players for tonight's match. He says the changes are simply for resting players and not for punishment, but I think certain players probably could use the rest along with the punishment. He wouldn't really say which changes would be made to the eleven we had against Hull but I'd like to see Gallas get a rest, along with one of the strikers and maybe Denilson. The problem is who do you put in their place if you do sit them down. Striker is easy because we have Bendtner and Vela on the bench who are both of immense quality. Midfield could maybe be Aaron Ramsey, but we don't have many other options there. In defense we have Djourou and Silvestre, and I'd love to see how a Djourou/Toure partnership would do, but I doubt we'll see it. The boss really seems to hate "resting" Bill Gallas.

So even with the rotation I'll try to go out on a limb and pick the lineup here:

Almunia
Sagna-Toure-Djourou-Clichy
Eboue-Ramsey-Cesc-Nasri
Adebayor-Vela

It's probably wrong but I think I would probably go with that if I was Arsene today. It'd be nice if Clichy or Sagna could ever get a rest but they never really can. I suppose Silvestre could cover at left back so maybe the boss should consider that one match. Seems like if anyone would need a rest it'd be those guys. They run the full 90 minutes every match.

This is Porto's 11th trip to England in their history. They have never won. We need that to continue. While they have lost maybe their best player, Ricardo Quaresma, to Inter Milan over the summer, they still have lots of quality, notably Lucho Gonzalez. It's going to be a tough match for sure, but one that we have the quality to win and need to show it.

My match prediction: 2-0 to the Arsenal. I think we'll have enough quality and the defense seems to do better with Djourou in there, so I think we'll be able to keep a clean sheet. Scorers are Adebayor and Nasri.

I'm excited for this one so let's go out and get three points! Cheers all!