Carling Cup Semi vs. Scum preview 31 January, 2007

The scores are level at 2-2 after the first leg and it really could go either way. Last week we were 2-0 to Tottenham at one point and you had to wonder if we were going to make it to Cardiff. However ‘the boys done well’ and the got the scores level again. Without being bias I’d say we have the upper hand going into the 2nd leg; with the home fans, the two away goals (is there an away goal rule in this competition?) and the return of Mr. Silva, Spurs should be worried.

I do not see us losing tonight. If you think back to before the game at Anfield I was saying I wouldn’t mind us being knocked out if it meant Tottenham weren’t the first team to win at the Emirates but I’m confident a weaker Arsenal team can hold the Spurs attack and progress to the final. If I’m going to be completely honest with you, I don’t think we’ll win the cup; Chelsea put a full-strength team out in this competition and it’s going to take an amazing performance for a reserve Arsenal side to beat the reigning Premiership champions. This year Wenger has included a few more experienced players so you never know the strengh he might go for but it definatly won’t be 100%.

The first half at White Hart Lane was awful and Le Boss must’ve had a real go at the kids in the break. We we 2-0 down to our rivals who haven’t beaten us in something like 7 years. In the second half the performance was much better and if we’d had a bit more time we might’ve stole the win. Another performance tonight like in that second half and I think this one is in the bag.

The team will be fairly simiar to last week’s with a couple of changes. Fabregas started last week but I think Gilberto will come in for him in centre midfield. Hopefully Diaby isn’t stuck out on the wing again and I’d like to see him partner Silva in the middle, or it could be Flamini. The right wing will be occupied by Theo Walcott but I’m unsure about the opposite flank. Last week Diaby played there unsuccessfully in my opinion, but the round before we had Denilson there and I was very impressed with him. He is traditionally a more central player but I hope he’s our left midfield tonight. There’s another option of sticking Eboue on the right wing and Walcott on the left, I think it’d work well but I think it’s unlikely Wenger will start like that. It was announced yesterday that Baptista will be unfit so I think it’ll be Aliadiere and Adebayor partnered up front.

It’s certainly not a bad team and definatley one that can beat the scum and go all the way to the final in Cardiff. However we are still runing the risk of Spurs being the first team to win at our new ground and that is just not acceptable. I’m looking forward to a good game tonight, enjoy it from wherever you’re watching.

Thanks for reading.

Arsenal 1-1 Bolton – 28/01/07 – (FA Cup) 29 January, 2007

A lot of people were expecting a result after last week’s win over Manchester United but Bolton held us to a 1-1 draw forcing us into a dreaded tie up at the Reebok. The replay will be played on the 14th Feb and the winners will play Blackburn at home. It would be nice if we got some easy ties but we face more tough matches and an even tighter schedule. All these games must be having an impact on the team, hence all our injuries. Oh and there’s one more to add to that list, Baptista picked up a groin problem yesterday and Arsene in thinking about making a signing due to all our injuries. There is a chance Julio will play on Wednesday but otherwise it’s going to be Ade and Aliadiere up front.

We didn’t play particularly well yesterday. There was no cutting edge, no final quality and to be fair we didn’t really deserve to score. Bolton weren’t amazing either and I think in the end a draw was fair. The visitors will be pleased to take us on at home but I’m bloody not. We lost 3-1 there earlier in the season and that was with a less injured squad. I really do worry about Arsenal sometimes. We could be out of the FA Cup here, the Carling Cup is a long shot with a full-strength Chelsea waiting in Cardiff and if we don’t get some players fit soon we’re going to struggle against PSV.

We started with the team I expected but none of them had a particularly good game. Walcott looks a completely different player to the one last year. Fabregas wasn’t brilliant but did, now and again play some good passes. Henry had a back-heeled chance just before half time but nothing else comes to mind. I imagine it’s going to be a fairly similar side on Wednesday with all our injury problems but with Aliadiere for Henry and someone in Rosicky + some other changes. Tottenham will be giving it all they’ve got so they’ve got to sort it out.

As Gunnerblog pointed out, the fans weren’t helping the team much either. The atmosphere was poor and it really does annoy me. 60,000 fans but you could argue we made a better noise at ‘Highbury Library’. If you’re going to a football match, please get behind the team come on. If you’re not there for the atmosphere why are you there? Just watch it on TV. There is that one corner who try to keep the atmosphere up and I’m sitting there on Wednesday. Last time Spurs visited it was quite noisy so hopefully we can raise the atmosphere again for the youngsters.

Both goals came in the second half. Bolton’s came just 5 minutes after the break. It was a nice play by Bolton passing around the Arsenal defence with ease. In the end the ball came to Nolan in the edge of the six-yard box who had no trouble making it 1-0.At this point I wondered again if this would be our first loss at the new stadium as we hadn’t threatened the Bolton goal at all and I didn’t see us scoring.

In the 77th minute we did equalize. Fabregas took a free kick out on the right, swinging the ball into the box. A defender got his head to the ball first but it dropped at the back post for and unmarked Kolo Toure. His diving header bounced off the ground and over the ‘keeper. The Emirates made the first real bit of noise all night and with memories of the 2-1 over Man United still fresh in the memory there was belief that we could win this one (You can see the goals here).

However unlike last week, we had no threat going forward and realistically you knew it’d be a draw. 4 minutes of extra time went up again and we did have a chance in the added time but it was saved comfortably. The final whistle eventually came and now we have to look forward to the Reebok, hurrah. See you later.

Tottenham 2-2 Arsenal – 24/01/07 – (Carling Cup) 25 January, 2007

You’ll never beat The Arsenal, not even the Reserves. We found ourselves in an unfamiliar position 2-0 down to the scum but our youngsters fought on and could’ve even won. We started with Kolo and Senderos at the back, Fabregas in the middle and weirdly Diaby out wide. Denilson accompanied Cesc in the middle but I don’t understand why. Abou is not a wide player and neither is Denilson technically but he did an excellent job there at Anfield. Diaby didn’t get the chance to impress on the left, hopefully he’ll see a few games more centrally in his comeback. The man of the night was Baptista. He scored 3 goals, 2 for us and 1 for them; he had a nightmare first half but looked more like himself in the second.

Tottenham started well and were looking quite dangerous. They opened the scoring early in the 12th minute. Defoe crossed in, Toure wasn’t able to get to it and it arrived nicely for Berbatov who just had to nod it in past Almunia. A really simple goal and one we really should’ve stopped. The goal scorer was on form, he started very well but luckily for us he picked up an injury and was subbed off for the pikey.

I was feeling a bit more confident now but just when I thought we’d come back Spurs doubled their lead. Graham Poll (who was once again shocking, I can’t believe I used to respect this guy) awarded an extremely generous free kick to Spurs in a decent position just wide of the box. Huddlestone sent in a low cross with pace and went in off Baptista past the stranded Almunia. Arsenal 0 Tottenham 2 and the yidos were loving it. Our first half was terrible, we didn’t create anything and the full strength Spurs side were dominating the game. We nearly got one back just before half time. Fabregas’ corner cleared the heads in the box and the ball fell to The Beast’s feet, he swung a left foot at it and it must have hit his other leg or something and he missed an absolute sitter.

So 2-0 at half time but the Gooners were still in full voice. I love our fans. Losing by two clear goals to our most fierce rivals and still singing our hearts out. The teams came out for the second half and there was bit of a delay becasue Poll couldn’t remember who’d kicked off the first half, what a fucking twat. We started off much better in the first half but we were still lacking that final quality, a change was needed.

Within 5 minutes, Hleb and Eboue came on for an injured Aliadiere and unimpreisve Diaby out on the left. Theo moved up front and Eboue took over at right midfield, that extra pace and quality really helped us and Emmanuel was getting down the wing well. Also Hleb’s dribbling ability was penatrating the Tottenham defence and causing problems. It made an immediate impact, Dawson cleared off the line from Senderos’ header and Baptista’s free kick hit the wall. Our first goal came in the 64th minute. Eboue on the right picked out Baptista on the edge of the box. He drove into the box and whilst falling, played a one-two with Walcott. Julio got back on his feet and slotted the ball past Robinson. We were still losing to the scum but the Arsenal section went mad, everyone was on top of the seats and I got on the fencing next to me. Have some of that you bagel-eating cunts.

We had confidence now but Spurs nearly got their third. Keane was played a ball over the top and was through on goal. He was given offside but the replay shows Senderos keeping him onside. It would’ve been a very different game if it had gone to 3-1 but luckily it didn’t. Not long after that we equalized, Fabregas spotted Hoyte’s run down the right and played a beautiful pass to set him free. Robinson, the fucking looney came out to stop the cross and Justin simply squared it to The Beast who finished in the empty net. The travelling fans went insane; I fell down about three rows celebrating but it was well worth it. “2-0! And you Fucked it up!” we sang and that’s exactly what happened. ‘England’s no.1′ did us a huge favour coming out but that goal wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for Cesc.

The yids shut up for the rest of the game showing they’re just as shit as the ground they play in. We should’ve won really, the home fans were desperate for the final whistle, we were on a roll. Tottenham nearly scored though but Almunia made a world class save. Manuel was forced to come out when Defoe got through, he tried a cheeky but Almunia pushed it wide. It finished 2-2 and probably a fair reflection on the game; first half we were poor but in the second half Spurs were equally as bad. It’s half time in the fixture and I’m extremely confident our boys are off to Cardiff to face Chelsea.

Three plays picked up injuries. Hleb’s going to be out for at least 4 weeks with a hamstring injury, he was only on the field for half an hour coming on for Diaby but Flamini had to come on for the last 5 minutes. Eboue’s and Aliadiere’s injuries aren’t as bad, both will be doubts for Sunday but are expected to be fit for the 2nd leg.

After the game there was a bit of violence in the streets between the rival fans. As we came out the stadium there were lines of police with dogs, I thought there might be a bit of trouble but nothing like this. Massive fights broke out and riot police tried to break things up. There was this one bloke in an Arsenal jacket being shoved around and getting stuff thrown at him. Me and this other bloke were trying to cover him up but the yids were ruthless and it became obvious I was a Gooner too so I just got out of there. I wasn’t up for getting my head kicked in. In the end a main group of Arsenal fans were diverted around the stadium and I was left with the Tottenham fans. I had my colours on underneath but I am never risking it by wearing Arsenal clothes there again.

Have a good day.

Liverpool 3-6 Arsenal – 09/01/07 – (Carling Cup) 10 January, 2007

What an extraordinary game. Well we thought that the game on Saturday was good but this was something else. We started with Kolo partnering Djourou at the back as captain with Hoyte and Traore on the wings. Then the midfield had Denilson on the left, Walcott on the right with Song and Fabregas is the middle. Upfront we had a partnership of Aliadiere and Baptista. Every player on the pitch played well, there was not a single one that played badly…including Song.

The strike partnership worked beautifully and we were extremely tight at the back as on Saturday. Denilson was in an unfamiliar position in left midfield but he was excellent too there and I never noticed he’s a great crosser of the ball. The game started just like it did on Saturday with Liverpool having most of the possession but Arsenal coping with their pressure. Mark Gonzalez picked up a serious injury early on and the game was stopped for about 5 minutes. That turned the game for Arsenal and we were away. There’s only really time to talk about the goals so here you go:

Jeremie Aliadiere opened the scoring in the 27th minute out of nowhere. The ball was in defence with Kolo Toure but the skipper saw Aliadiere up front and played a wonderful long-ball up to him which he took down beautifully to be one-on-one with the ‘keeper. Dudek saved his first shot but Jeremie was able to snatch the rebound and go past Dudek to slot it in the empty net. 1-0 to Arsenal, a good start for the young guns.

The lead was short-lived though, Fowler equalized 5 minutes later. Song was booked for a sloppy challenge outside the box giving Liverpool a free kick in a dangerous position. Fabio Aurelio shot and Almunia saved well down to his right but the ball went to Luis Garcia just wide of the goal. He played it back in and Fowler scored with this little back-flick right in front of Almunia and it would’ve been a very difficult save to make. 1-1 now and you wondered how the youngsters could bounce back.

Baptista regained out lead in the 40th minute with a brilliant free kick. With a similar attempt a few minutes earlier Julio mucked up a pass to Toure for one of his belters but this one was all his. You could see the look in his eyes as he was about to take it; he was just standing there breathing heavily like a beast. He knew he could score it and I said he would to my mates at the pub, and so did Arsene Wenger to Pat Rice. I had known that The Beast is a superb free kick taker and a lot of people we expecting this to go it. He hit it over the wall with an unbelievable amount of dip and bend and it went right in the bottom left corner leaving Dudek stranded. 2-1 up, now the challenge was to keep the lead and not give it away like we did last time.

There was added time in the first half of 6 minutes because of that bad injury at the beginning and we scored two goals in those 6 minutes. The first came from none over than Alex Song. When I saw him in the box for the corner I was like oh god what’s Song doing there and then started explaining how shit he was and as I was talking Song netted our third! Denilson whipped in a great free kick and it missed the heads of about 3 players and the insane Dudek who’d flung himself in the air to get it. The ball came down the back post where it bounced in of Song’s arm. I don’t think Alex knew a great deal about it but he’d scored! Alex Song had scored! It wasn’t a handball, he didn’t stick his arm out or anything, it just hit him, but I don’t think that’ll worry Alex too much.

Baptista added the forth just before half time. Alex Song on confidence from his goal played a great ball to Julio who did some nice little tricks to confuse the defence and then played a ball into Aliadiere. Baptista continued his run and he was open in the middle for a shot at goal. All Jeremie had to do was square it to the Beast and he tapped it into the net to take us to 4-1 up at half time.

10 minutes into the second half and we won a penalty, it just wasn’t Liverpool’s day. It was a bit of a dubious decision and you might say Hyypia got the ball when he tripped Aliadiere. The Beast didn’t care though and placed the ball on the spot hoping to complete his hat trick. He shot to the left and it was a comfortable height for Dudek to make the save. No hat trick for Baptista just now but it didn’t take much longer for it to come.

Just before the hour mark The Beast did manage to get his third. Djourou defended well right by the corner flag stealing the ball off Bellamy, he then played the ball to Cesc who delivered a great long ball to Aliadiere on the left and we were the complete opposite end of the pitch in a matter of four seconds. Jeremie got past one defender and played a great square ball to Baptista who was unmarked 30 yards from goal. He took a couple of touches and powered the ball right into the bottom corner to complete his hat trick, it was an excellent goal and Dudek had no chance in saving. Out of The Beast’s three goals so far it was hard to pick the best one.

5-1 up surely game over but the Anfield faithful inspired there team to go on a bit of a comeback. In the 67th minute a free kick was played in by Alonso from the right into the box, it went deep and was headed back in. Then it was nodded it Gerrard on the edge of the box who unleashed one of his specialist volleys into the opposite corner of the net. A stunning goal to take the score to 5-2. No ‘keeper in the world would’ve been able to save that sweetly struck bullet by Gerrard.

At 5-2 we were still three up but Liverpool were pushing for a comeback. In the 79th minute Hyypia made up for his terrible defending by scoring a header taking the score to 5-3. The ball was crossed in from the left and Sami was there at the near post to nod it in. I wondered if the youngsters could maintain that 2 goal lead and with 10 minutes + extra time there was every chance for Liverpool to complete an incredible comeback.

Julio Baptista got his 4th and Arsenal 6th to put the game to bed with 5 minutes of normal time remaining. We were defending near the corner flag again and I think it was Toure who smashed the ball to the other end. Cries of ‘HOOF’ rang around the stadium, not sure what set of fans it was from but we scored from that hoof. The long-ball went down the right wing and Aliadiere sprinted from the centre to get it, look here when they show the replay to see how incredibly quick is. So he ran over and got the ball and did brilliantly to muscle out his defender, then he squared the ball centre for the charging in Baptista to slot the ball in and make it Arsenal 6, Liverpool 3. It’s not everyday you get to say that. The credit for the gaol has to go to Aliadiere though; he did really well in that move and in the whole game. If it weren’t for Baptista’s 4 goals he’d be man of the match by a long way.

So the final score was 6-3 and you can see all of the goals here. A magnificent display from the youngsters and I’d be very exited about the future if I were you. With the exception of Cesc and Kolo all of these players were reserve or youth players and to put 6 past Liverpool is some achievement. Okay, the home team didn’t have their strongest team out but it was one that included Gerrard, Dudek, Alonso, Hyypia, Gonzalez, Garcia, Carragher, Bellamy and Robbie Fowler. Another positive thing was the return of Abou Diaby, he cam on in the 73rd minute and got a good run out. It was nice to see him back playing and I thought he played quite good for the time he was on the pitch. I look forward to seeing him playing some more over the course of the season.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted us to win this one but I was absolutely loving the game and now looking forward to playing Spurs. I’m quite sure Wenger will play a reasonable side for the two-legged semi final against Spurs but we’ll think about that nearer the time.

Next up it’s Blackburn on Saturday, another one of our bogey ties but hopefully we can find confidence from these two wins at Anfield to win at Ewood Park. We beat them 6-2 down here but it won’t be so simple up at Blackburn. Build up that in the week. Thanks for reading, have a good day.

Liverpool 1-3 Arsenal – 06/01/07 – (FA Cup) 7 January, 2007

What an amazing day. I got the 11 o’clock train out of London Euston and arrived in Liverpool at about half 2, stupidly I started walking to the stadium not having a clue how far it actually was. Along the way a Scoucer told us that the ground was miles away and we got a bus to the ground. Anfield is a really nice ground; The Hillsborough memorial is a nice touch too. There were plenty of Gooners about singing before the game and everyone felt pretty confident before the game. I was sitting lower tier, 10 seats from the edge of the stand, not an amazing view but I could still see everything and we were right next to the Scoucers which was good.

There was a massive following of Gooners there, we’d been allocated a large number of seats and they were sold out for some time. We made a great noise but so did the Anfield faithful. One of the things I was interested to see (or hear) was the famous atmosphere, and it lived up to the expectation. They did this 6 minutes for 96 (the amount off people that died) thing where they sang about the Hillsborough disaster and held things up saying ‘The Truth’ which was to do with what The Sun newspaper said about the disaster. When the six minutes was up there was this massive roar from the Liverpool fans, it was quite inspiring really and you wonder what Ashburton Grove would be like if we had different fans. Our ground has become too corporate but yesterday they stadium was full of all the die-hard fans.

The team was as I expected apart from Manuel Almunia was in goal, I still can’t understand why he was but he did alright. He made no mistakes but to be fair he didn’t have alot to do. Liverpool were dominating possession however they couldn’t really form any dangerous attacks. They tried to but we were excellent at the back. The two centre defenders had a massive game. They got something on every hoof Liverpool tried and made it so difficult for Liverpool to create anything.

We weren’t creating anything either though but we were very dangerous from the counter-attack and all three goals came from these. For the first goal Rosicky picked up the ball in the middle and played Hleb down the right wing, then some clever link up play gave Alex some room out wide. Liverpool packed the box expecting the to cross and left ‘Super-Tom’ unmarked on the edge of the box. Hleb passed to Rosicky who shot first time with a looping shot over the ‘keeper, as soon as it left his foot you could tell it was going it and Dudek was struggling. When it went in I and thousands of other Gooners’ who’d made the long trip north went fucking mental. The goal was against the run of play but we were not complaining. Arsenal were 1-0 up with 8 minutes of the half to go.

We weren’t finished with the first 45 though; Tomas Rosicky added another just before the whistle. Henry gave the Czech the ball in a fairly safe position as far as Liverpool were concerned but Tom just drove and drove and avoided tackles from about 5 defenders. He shot low into the far corner, which the stretched Dudek couldn’t get to. Arsenal were now two goals up in a matter of minutes and the Arsenal fans went insane again. If the Scoucers were to lay the blame on anyone it would have to be Steven Gerrard. Just before Rosicky shot Gerrard was there for the tackle but his attempt at getting the ball was so feeble I just don’t have a clue what he was doing. He just sort of stuck his foot out a bit and spun round. It was him who won the Cup for Liverpool last year but you might say it was him who lost it for them this year.

So we went in at half time two goals to the good. The bloke in front of me said it is a very dodgy score line and he was right. The next goal was so important, a third for Arsenal would put it to bed but a Liverpool goal could start a comeback and we all know how good they are at those. The home team came out with a bang in the second half, they’d obviously been told to go at us from the word go and we were struggling with them a bit. However, that sort of play does suit us attacking-wise, as soon as we got the ball all we had to do was pass it around in all the space from Liverpool’s lack of shape. However as in the first half they were finding it hard to create any clear-cut chances. They did come close a few times and Ashley’s boyfriend was getting down the right wing well.

In the 72nd minute Liverpool did mange to get a goal back. It came from a corner which Crouch headed towards goal and then Kuyt got a flick on to confuse Almunia. There was nothing we could’ve really done about it to be fair, it was a well taken corner and the only thing really was that nobody challenged Dirk Kuyt for his touch. It went straight above Almunia but you can’t really complain at him for not saving it.

After the goal Liverpool really looked like they were going to come back. All I could do is just stand there and watch nervously. We just couldn’t keep the ball to save our lives; every time we won it back it was only a matter of seconds before we gave it away again. It was incredibly frustrating to watch and you just hoped that we wouldn’t concede again. Thankfully Senderos and Toure were excellent at the back and let nothing pass. As time went by I believed more and more that we were going to hang on to the lead and win. We needed to get the ball and slow it down to keep possession but the home side were having none of it and really made it hard for us to do anything.

In the end it took a single-handed effort from Thierry Henry for us to get our third 5 minutes from time. He picked up the ball near the centre circle and played a through ball to himself down the left. Carragher nearly won the ball but Henry’s speed and strength won through and Jamie was left on the floor out wide. Henry drove into the box, skipped passed the defender and shot low underneath Dudek to make it 3-1. It wasn’t a particularly great shot, a better goalie might’ve saved it but it wasn’t to be. Thierry ran over to the fans saying: “I’m back. I’m back!” And he is, I fancied him to score today and he did.

Nothing much really happened after that, the remainder of the game was just spent singing about Wembley and waving goodbye to the Scoucers. It was a bit of a rush after the game as we packed onto a bus and it looked like we were going to miss the last train home but in the end we made it to the station in plenty of time and there was even a few minutes to get a pasty and snacks for the journey home.

It was an amazing day and one I will never forget. Just an amazing day out and I will definitely be going to more long distance away games. If the score went the other way it could’ve been a very different day but I think we played well enough and deserved the win in the end. And as we sang at Anfield:

“We’ll be back, we’ll be back. We’ll be back on Tuesday night.”