So that’s two home wins in two and I call that a great start to the season. We very nearly went unbeaten at home last season and we’ll need to do something like that again to put the pressure on United, Chelsea and Liverpool. Hopefully this time with a few more wins and a few less draws.

It was pretty much the team I expected except Rosicky started ahead of Walcott and an injury before the game to Senderos meant a first appearance of the season for Gilberto who started at centre back. Adebayor was also making his first start of the season alongside Van Persie.

I’ve heard that Phil’s injury is not serious. But if he’s going to miss some game then we’re in serious injury trouble already. Also Sagna picked up an injury yesterday but it seems that’s not too bad either. However it is getting really worrying and I think if Wenger doesn’t make another signing then he’s really running a risk. The Djourou loan was not good for us but I’ve heard that Johann wanted first team football and forced the move to Birmingham.

The first half we were playing really well and had by far the more possession and attacks, the thing we were really lacking were shots to test the ‘keeper. The visitors went closest early on when a Toure error near the halfway line let a City player through. Clichy did well to try and get back but in the end the shot was poor and Almunia wasn’t troubled.

Manchester City’s shooting was consistently bad to be honest. They had a few shots in the first 45 but I don’t remember Almunia having to make a save.

10 minutes before half time we came inches away from opening the scoring. A ball was played along in front of the goal and Van Persie slid in at the far post but couldn’t quite reach it. It was a good first half of football, very enjoyable but I think it’s summed up best by the arsenal.com match report: “creating much, converting nothing”

The second half was a different story though. Man City came out the better side and we didn’t really look organised at all. Adebayor had a chance early on but it was all City for a long period after that. Almunia had to make a decent save to deny the visitors the lead. We just started to get back into the game though and our attacks were awarded with a penalty when Hleb was brought down in the area.

Hleb was getting round the left side of City’s defence and cutting in well but despite the screams of shoot he decided to try and make a difficult pass into the middle every time. It was very frustrating but at least he’d got a penalty from this attack. Despite Gilberto being back Van Persie placed the ball down for the spot kick. It was a poorly taken penalty, along the floor and slightly off centre, if you’re going to put it down the middle you’ve got to get a little bit of height on it. Schmeichel saved with his legs and it was still bloody 0-0.

The young ‘keeper was getting taunted with “Ian Wright Wright Wright” chants but I don’t really think that bothered him, he was having another great game and made two great saves from Van Persie and Fabregas before the goal went in with 10 minutes to go; Cesc got himself into a similar position on the right wing as Hleb was doing but this time instead of trying a stupid pass Cesc did shoot, and did score. He hit it high into the top of the net, sort of similar to RVP’s goal in the Emirates Cup.

Eduardo could’ve made it two late on but I don’t think he realised how little time you get in the English league. Also Schmeichel came up for a late corner at the end that Almunia caught, he could’ve thrown it out and we could’ve scored on the counter but he put it out for a throw because Flamini was down injured.

Anyway, we won 1-0, that’s three points. Performance overall wasn’t great but that doesn’t matter. A few players didn’t look very fit or on form but I’m really not bothered because we won. We face Sparta on Wednesday now, a vital game. more on that to come. Thanks for reading.

So the latest news is Lehmann’s injury and Gilberto’s possible return. Diaby and Eboue I believe are still out. Also there was the news that we will play two strikers and not Hleb supporting Van Persie. Alex has done a good job there but Arsene has said a game like this needs us to have two strikers.

So I’m thinking this as the team: Almunia, Clichy, Senderos, Toure and Sagna as the defence. Then Hleb, Fabregas, Flamini and Walcott across the middle. Then Van Persie and Ade/Eduardo up front. I cant decide which one Arsene will go for, I’m gonna guess with Da Silva.

However Denilson could start ahead of Flamini possibly or maybe Gilberto will get his first game of the season but I think he will be on the bench to be honest. Adebayor is back but unless Arsene thinks he’s fully match fit I don’t think he will start him.

Jens Lehmann picked up an achilles injury after this weeks internationals. Whether that’s a blessing in disguise, something made up by Wenger or an actual injury we wont know but it does seem awfully convenient. Le Boss has confirmed that Almunia will start with a tribute to our no.2. I know Manuel can do the job and I have seen him perform many times. However the biggest positive I’m taking from this is that when Almunia came into he first team ahead of Jens before, it made Lehmann a lot better so maybe something similar will happen again, or maybe this time Manuel will really prove himself with a decent run of games and become our new preferred goalie.

Tomorrow should be very interesting anyway. Anything can happen. I’ll have a match report up soon. Until then.

“We can cope with the injuries we have but it’s getting down to the bare bones. Ade should be back for Man City and Gilberto comes back in September. All the others will return in one, two or three games I hope. We’ll be alright then but touch wood we’re not adding more names to the injury list come Monday.”

Before you ask, yes I did actually touch wood when I wrote that but obviously not hard enough. William Gallas picked up an injury which will see our captain out for 3 weeks. I’m not the biggest fan of Bill as captain but I do believe he is a very good centre-back and we will miss him. He’s done something to his groin and Philippe Senderos will come into the first team in his place. Now Wenger’s decision to loan out Djourou will be put to the test.

No match report for the Blackburn game I’m afraid because I simply didn’t see it. I tried internet streams but nothing came of it, I was just stuck with the infrequent reports on Sky Sports News as they wanked over the Chelsea and Liverpool game. That was 1-1 by the way and City beat United. United controlled the game but City must’ve been alright to hold them off; we play them next week at the Grove.

The Arsenal.com match report is here if you want to read. What I did pick up from the game was it was another physical match, but that was to be expected. We got 4 yellows as did Blackburn, two of which going to Ryan Nelsen who dragged down Van Persie as he was going through on goal.

We scored in the 18th minute thanks to a goalkeeping error by Friedel and Van Persie was the one to knock it in. Blackburn equalised in the 72nd minute thanks to another stupid mistake from Lehmann. Dunn shot well but it was going straight to Jens at a comfortable height, the home fans behind the goal sighed in disappointment but Jens scuffed the save and the ball went in behind him.

I know Jens is probably more upset at this error than us fans are and I’m sure he’s going to try his best to focus from now on so we shouldn’t be harsh to him. But FUCKING HELL JENS! You can’t do that at this level. That cost us 2 points and at this stage of the season we might not think about it but silly silly mistakes like that all add up. I would be in favour of Almunia starting against City but he won’t. Please Jens, sort it out, concentrate.

I would’ve taken the point before the game but they way we conceded it feels much worse. Wenger is satisfied with the result anyway.

Thanks for reading.

First thing first, the underground are wankers. Not only is because of them we had a stupid kick off time of 12:00 on a Sunday, but they also made me 20 minutes late for the fucking game. I went to my local station to find it was bloody closed with some stupid bus replacement service, I wasn’t going to wait for that so I had to go to another station miles away where I knew my ticket would cost double. When I finally got there I realised I’d forgotten my fucking railcard so it was even more over priced.

Then I had to wait half an hour for a train into central London. The station was full of United and Chelsea fans making their ways to their home grounds. I swear about 20 people saw me in my Arsenal shirt and said something along the lines of: “Aren’t you playing at 12? You’re gonna miss the game.” I didn’t take too kindly to these comments. Now there are a number of things that really annoy me in life…I hate waiting for trains, I can’t stand missing a single second of an Arsenal match and I hate Manchester United and Chelsea. I wasn’t in a great mood.

When I finally got to Highbury and Islington I started running to the ground and as I passed a pub they had Sky Sports News on and it came up: Arsenal 0-1 Fulham. I just stopped and stood there with my mouth open I couldn’t believe it. The guy was saying something about a terrible Lehmann fuck-up. So by the time I finally reached the ground my temper was at it’s highest setting and I was fucking exhausted, not being the fittest of people running in the ground in the sun.

So yeah I finally got there and we playing the team I pretty much expected with Hleb behind RVP but with Flamini in for Gilberto. We seemed to be on top of the game but Fulham were frustrating us really well. We had a number of decent attacks and some good shots but the reserve Fulham ‘keeper Warner was making some excellent saves. I found out after the game that Auntie Niemi got injured in the pre-match warm up but his replacement was having a blinder.

Half-time came and Fulham were very lucky to still be leading really. I wasn’t too worried at this stage as we had 45 minutes to go…and we only score this end. I saw Fulham’s goal Lehmann’s stupid mistake in the half time highlights. I couldn’t believe it, what a twat. Why did he pass it to the other side? Jesus.

The second half continued much the same and it was incredibly frustrating to watch. Could we lose to Fulham again? Well it was getting more and more likely and you wondered if it just wasn’t going to be our day.

Wenger threw on some more attacking players in the hope to find a goal; just after the hour Walcott came off for Eboue, and Bender replaced Rosicky 10 minutes later. Bendtner looked sharp and was winning all the headers as usual. Theo wasn’t as impressive as I thought he might’ve been after seeing him in pre-season but he was still causing Fulham problems. Toure and Gallas were getting forward too now, we needed a goal. Toure was really getting between the Fulham defence and for a while he looked our best player going forward.

In the end it was him that earnt us the goal. Kolo picked up the ball in Fulham’s half and drove into the box past a few defenders. I thought he might go all the way but his was brought down in the area and it was a fair penalty. Robin Van Persie placed the ball down and the whole stadium were biting their fingernails as he ran up to take it. It was a fantastic penalty screaming into he roof of the net, unstoppable for Warner. The goal lifted the fans and for the final 7 minutes of normal time the crowd were at full voice urging on a winning goal.

And it came…in the 90th minute…from Alex Hleb. Perfect. It was a really well taken goal by Hleb actually. He took down a long ball and sent the goalie the wrong way placing it in the corner. A great goal by Hleb and I hope there’s more to come. Ashburton Grove went mad apart from the Fulham corner who started filtering out.

It was a very frustrating game to watch. If you hadn’t of know you would’ve thought it was still last season. Nothing’s changed. In the end it was a great opening weekend for us: We got all three points, Tottenham lost to Sunderland in the last minute and 10-man Reading held Man United to a 0-0 draw in a game which Rooney picked up another foot injury which’ll see him out for two months. Lovely. Birmingham were unlucky not to cause an upset too at Stamford Bridge, but Chelsea were 3-2 winners.

Thanks for reading. Next game is Sparta away on Wednesday; build up to that to come.

Yes the opening weekend of the Premiership (or whatever the fuck it’s called now) is finally here and it’s started with a bang…a 94th minute Sunderland winner against the scum. Haha love it

We play tomorrow at home and Fulham are the visitors. I mentioned yesterday that Gilberto is out and Ade is unlikely to play, well you can add Eduardo to that list now as he’ll have a late fitness test. He looks likely to feature though and this is what Le Boss said about him:

“Certainly I would not be scared to play him. Maybe he will need a little bit of time but he is a fighter. He has the ability to score goals, he is quick and a team player so you are never scared to put in these players.”

If there’s any doubt about his injury I don’t think Arsene will risk him in a game like this. We could go with Hleb centrally behind Van Persie but that might be a bit defensive so there’s also the option of having the hungry Theo Walcott partnering the Dutchman.

The result of tomorrow’s game could really be anything; we’ve looked up for it this pre-season and we could thrash Fulham by a few goals, or maybe just nick it by one. However, I’m sure Fulham won’t be there just to make up the numbers, we cant underestimate them…last season Villa came on the opening day and frustrated us to a 1-1 draw. Don’t be too surprised if that happens again.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the atmosphere will be tomorrow, it was quite disappointing last season at times and with the departures we’ve had this summer we really need the fans to get behind this young side. I’m thinking it’ll be good but we’ll have to wait and see.

Right-i-o I have to get to work now. Enjoy the game tomorrow and should have a match report up Monday.

So, what’s your predictions? Mine? 2-0 Arsenal.