Friday Update: Injury news ahead of Chelsea clash 28 November, 2008

Wow, a lot can happen in a week since I last spoke to you. Gallas was stripped of he captaincy, dropped, brought back in again, Fabregas been made Arsenal captain and our new Cheif Executive named. Two of the biggest problems at the club have now been sorted and spirits have been lifted.

The day Cesc was announced captain was an exciting day. I think a lot of people went on to Arsenal.com that day seeing the headline and felt positive about the åfuture. Cesc was born to wear that armband. The player himself has been saying all the right things and even led us to our first victory and first goal in what seems like forever in his first game. The future looks bright for Arsenal under Fabregas and I hope that’s the case.

The next game will be a big test for the new skipper as its Chelsea away on Sunday. He says we’re going out to win and we will not sit back. I think Fabregas can be a very inspirational captain, if he can re-capture his form his drive is all we need to get the team going again.

The 1-0 victory wasn’t the most convincing start to our ‘comeback’ so this weekend’s game is a perfect chance for us to officially prove we are out of that bad streak and off on a new tangent under Cesc Fabregas. I think the players will be well up for this game, and so does Arsene Wenger. He says we always pick up our game against the top teams, which is all good saying that but the negative is that we drop our game against lesser teams – this needs to stop.

Arsene’s also been talking about a couple of ex-Arsenal players now at Chelsea in Ashley Cole and Nicolas Anelka.

There’s some good injury news ahead of Sunday’s big game. Emmanuel Adebayor, Bacary Sagna and Samir Nasri have all been passed fit. Those are three important players who you expect to come straight into the first team. We have been a bit short on players recently so this is really good to see. We are still without Diaby, Walcott, Toure, Eboue, Rosicky and Eduardo, which is a shame, but most of those should be back soon and possible Rosicky early in 2009.

I’ll talk more about the injury situation tomorrow and what possible options we have against Chelsea. Wenger has hinted that Aaron Ramsey might get a start by bigging him up in today’s press conference:

“He is 17, nearly 18, and is a player who has personality and a fantastic engine. He is always available and doesn’t hide. He has good vision and I believe he will be a very big player in the future.”

From Wenger’s description there he makes him sound a lot like Mathieu Flamini last season. If Ramsey can get somewhere near that standard for us what a signing he will be. I do like him as a player and I do see good things for him but I’m not expecting much of him yet. However he has done well when he’s come on for us recently. In games where we’ve lacked spirit and imagination he’s come on and put in some great passes. More of that please Rambo.

That’s about it for today then. I just want to quickly apologize (again…) for not keeping the site up to date this week. It’s been a very busy week of Arsenal news but an even busier week for me personally, I had two projects to be finishing and whatever spare time I did have was spent with an old friend who came down who I haven’t seen in ages. With the busy month of December coming up I’m going to do my best to get back to posting every day.

Thanks for reading. Happy Friday.

Another injury and another Gallas outburst 21 November, 2008

Oh the good news just keeps on coming….I guess the top story has to go to William Gallas again who has been mouthing off. Yet again, some rubbish trying to make himself look all high and mighty, saving his own skin and bringing up other players’ faults.

I read Arseblogger’s piece this afternoon and I completely agree with everything he’s saying. It’s a long one, but definitely worth a read. His closing couple of paragraphs really hit home to me:

The Gallas experiment has failed, Arsene. You thought you could make him a captain the way you made Lauren a full back or Kolo a centre-half but you couldn’t. You humiliated one of our most professional and loyal players [Gilberto] to do it. You stood by him when every bit of you must have known he was the wrong man for the job. Change it now or this team is going to continue to suffer under his rudderless attempts at on-pitch leadership.

He might be suspended for this weekend but give it to Cesc. It’s time to give the young man a chance. Maybe it’ll help lift him out of this funk he’s in. Maybe the team will react well to having a new leader. And when January comes, Arsene, think long and hard about what’s best for Arsenal Football Club, not what’s best for your little experiments and projects.

We’re in a bit of a mess at the moment, but I don’t think we’re in that deep of a hole; this can get sorted. And I do think that Wenger must be blamed. The Gallas captaincy was a bad decision, I can understand him experimenting with it, and for a while it worked but he just has to take the armband away from Gallas now.

He is a failing captain and he’s dragging the whole club down with him. I’m fed up with this now, I’ve tried to get behind William Gallas but I can’t stand this any longer. Get him out.

Personally, I would drop him and get rid of him to whoever will take him in January. We couldn’t keep him if we wasn’t captain, he’s only in this for himself. It’ll never happen though, Arsene sticks to him whatever he does; it’s very frustrating.

I’d be incredibly surprised to see him dropped, especially as we’ve got more selections problems ahead of the weekend’s game as now Kolo Toure is injured. He’s picked up a calf problem away with the Ivory Coast to add to Theo’s injury away with his country.

That leaves the right side of the field looking very bare – no Rosicky, no Sagna, no Eboue, no Walcott and no Toure. No sure how long Kolo’s going to be out for yet but I don’t think it’ll be too bad.

So who are we going to play tomorrow against City? Well, I do know, but it’s not what I want to see. It’ll be Denilson, Song, Diaby and Nasri across the midfield and I doubt it’ll work again. I think we should get Wilshere in there, give Vela a chance, all those kids who have so much energy and desire is exactly what we need right now.

This won’t be the team, but this is what I would do…

Almunia
Hoyte(?) - Djourou – Silvestre – Clichy (c)
Wilshere – Ramsey – Diaby – Nasri
Adebayor – Vela

I have no idea who we can play at right back? I’m looking at the first team squad and no one can play there. All the defenders we have fit are out-and-out centre backs + Clichy. All the midfielders we have fit are more attack based; the only possibilities there are Ramsey or Denilson…

As for the rest of the team, I’m happy enough with that. I like Ramsey, give him a chance to run the midfield. Vela’s good on his day, you can’t really blame him for not getting in the game late on against Villa.

There’s no point in even discussing that team though. Unless Wenger has a big think about what is right for his team.

It’s a 3 o’clock kick off tomorrow, so not on TV here in the UK. Maybe that’s a blessing in disguise. Not going to lie, I’m a bit scared.

God I’m being so depressing this week! Lets hope we can pick things up after the weekend. Thanks for reading.

Proof things can get worse: Cesc & Theo out of City game 19 November, 2008

You thought things were pretty bad? Well it just gets even better: Theo Walcott has dislocated his shoulder in training with England and will be out for three months. Just fucking great. The one player we have that looks half decent game to game and actually creates something is out. For three months as well!

It’s quite ridiculous really. Arseblogger today has been talking about how we should get some sort of compensation for this from the FA and what a stupidly timed friendly it is in the first place.

Theo has established himself in our starting 11 this season and has done good things for us. So now we’re going to find out how much he’ll be missed It’s got so bad, were actually hoping Eboue is going to be fit again to play this weekend. It’s that bad people.

With Cesc Fabregas picking up another yellow card this weekend we’re also going to be without him this weekend. He’s not been in great form but he still does come out with fantastic passes from nowhere and we will struggle without him. With him + Theo out, that’s two of our most creative midfielders gone and only really new-signing Nasri who looks good enough to step in but he has been quite inconsistent. We’re going to need a top performance from him on Saturday.

I just don’t think it will happen though. I doubt there’ll be much spirit in the side when they return to Arsenal. Why should there be? As Wenger said there has been no rehabilitation time for the players this week and he’s got a lot of picking up to do once the internationals get back. Man City might be a side for the future with their recent investment but they’re not up there yet; why would our players be inspired for this game when we’ve dropped our heads already so many times when we just don’t feel like it?

Am I worried? Yes.

Do I know the solution? No.

Bad times for Arsenal at the moment. That Man United victory seems so distant now. Sorry to go all depressing! Speak to you soon.

Aston Villa Hangover 18 November, 2008

This week’s going to shit again. Not only is it international week, but we have a while week to think about the Aston Villa result. It was another poor performance off the back of a great show against Man United. Our inconsistency is frustrating, annoying and worrying – you now never know what Arsenal side is going to show up.

Sorry there was no match report this weekend. I’ve been really busy and I didn’t really know what to say about it. I sat down to write it up yesterday but it just baffled me. It was exactly the same team that started against Man United a week later with fresh legs and we were rubbish. It just doesn’t make sense. We even had a good result in the Carling Cup in the week so it’s not as if there could’ve been any pessimism going into the Villa match.

So next we play Man City. I want to know, are we going to play some great football and get a nice win against the Premiership’s richest club? Or are we going to play like we don’t give a shit again and curl up and die?

Gael Clichy says we must sort our our consistency but Arsene Wenger’s been saying that it’s not linked with experience in the side. I have to disagree, if you have a top player who has been through a lot of different scenarios as a player then he can inspire the team in the right direction, especially is he’s captain. We don’t really have anyone like that at the club anymore. When I look at the squad thinking who’s won things, lost things and played many games the only player I see is fucking Mikael Silvestre.

In that Arsene Wenger link above he explains the loss here:

“I think we were not, as a team, sharp enough to dictate the pace and be dominant in the fight [against Aston Villa]“

And here he also says this:

“We were beaten by a team who were sharper than us. You can watch that again on the tape; it doesn’t change.”

Gilbertosilver from Gunnerblog explores the meaning behind ‘lacking sharpness’.

As always with international breaks, they are brilliantly timed. Arsene Wenger has said how annoying this one is especially because he’ll get no chance to calm the players down after this defeat and some of them will even miss the City game with late arrivals back in London and the inevitability of more injuries.

One player who is definitely out of Saturday’s game is Bacary Sagna who is out for a month. He was stretchered off with an ankle injury in the build up to Villa’s opener. Here’s a list of everyone who has gone off to play for their countries.

Nicklas Bendtner believes he merits more first team starts. He’s been given that opportunity a few times recently and he has hardly impressed me.

Right I’m off, I’m getting pissed off with all this. I do apologize for my own personal inconstancy updating the site. Will do my best. Thanks for reading.

Arsenal vs. Aston Villa Preview 14 November, 2008

Now it’s time to prove our worth; was last weekend’s win against Man United just a fluke or are we actually going to continue this form?

I’m hoping it’s the latter and I have a feeling that it probably will be. A win over Manchester United is a moral boost for any team and we’ll go into tomorrow’s game with that little bit of extra confidence.

Villa aren’t on top form at the moment but that’s no excuse not to prepare mentally. Our problem is that we lose some spirit and determination for games outside the top 4 and just think that everything will turn out alright. Villa aren’t the greatest example of one of those teams, they’re a pretty decent side and arguably in the ‘top 5′. Even still though, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a slight drop in quality from us. We need to somehow go into every game with the same attitude.

Wenger needs to drill into the players that each game is just as important as the last, it doesn’t matter whether you’re playing AC Milan or Accrington Stanley – the performance should be of the same top quality.

If we play like we did last weekend then tomorrow should be another cracker and hopefully another important 3 points.

So should we put the same team out that beat United? Everyone from that team is fresh and fit to play after the kids took over in midweek. Almunia is fit to play but we’ve also got Adebayor back. So that means only Eboue, Rosicky and Eduardo are out now but we could be seeing Eddy very soon.

We could keep exactly the same team and not rush Adebayor back straight into the starting 11. Or maybe scrap with 4-4-1-1 with Diaby in there and play the traditional two strikers. Or we could just do a straight swap, Bendtner for Adebayor?

I’m not sure what Wenger will do really, depends on how fit Adebayor is, and how defensive he thinks we’ll need to be/not be. I’m guessing it’ll be something like this:

Almunia
Sagna – Silvestre – Gallas (c) – Clichy
Walcott – Fabregas – Denilson – Nasri
Adebayor – Bendtner

I don’t know….feels harsh leaving Diaby out but I don’t know how Wenger would accommodate him because I know he’ll want to play Denilson. I also think we’ll play two out-and-out strikers against Aston Villa.

It seems like Silvestre has slipped his way into our preferred XI. Gunnerblog explains why Kolo Toure has been missing out saying it’s Gallas or Toure, not Silvestre or Toure. Silvestre’s ‘attack the ball’ mentality works well with Gallas’ and Toure’s ‘sit back and clear up the mess’ mentality, hence the defensive frailties in the side when we play the Gallas and Toure combination.

I’m back up in London for tomorrow’s game and I’m really looking forward to it. I was so jealous watching those 60,00 Gooners going mad last weekend. My record for the games I’ve travelled up from Bournemouth for isn’t so good; let’s hope we make a step in the right direction tomorrow.

Match report to come on Sunday. Until then.

So, are we good again? 11 November, 2008

Beating Man United is always a brilliant thing, but under recent circumstances it was a fucking miracle. Something got into the players and they produced a fine game beating the champions 2-1. We tend to raise our game a lot for the big matches and find it hard to get inspired playing the lesser teams. We need to try and get out of this habit though and be more consistant.

I was not expecting anything going into the game hence not being nervous at all, however it turned out to be one of the most tense games I have seen in a long time. United had some great chances but the difference was that we took ours. 2 fine Samir Nasri strikes won us the three points, but what an important win that was.

Another loss or even if we’d drawn after taking the lead and it would’ve been the same old negativity. However after just one win spirits are on the high again and the dreaded month of November doesn’t look so daunting.

So does that mean we’re back to normal then after just one win? Well, no. Wenger will talk as if everything’s all rosey again but there is still cause for concern. The real test now is if we can carry on that form and confidence from the United game. The big test will be Aston Villa next week.

It was a great win though and I don’t want to take anything away from it. I think it officially puts us back in the running for the title after being written off in the last couple of weeks.

Wenger says he never even thought about losing and never lost confidence in his side. i can’t say I shared his optimism but fair play.

I do admire Wenger’s belief in his set of players. Even when they’re not doing well he sticks with them. Fabregas says the team won it for the manager, which they really did. Wenger was under a bit of pressure and was losing a bit of support from the fans so another loss here wouldn’t have done him any favors.

As I said before, the true test now is whether we can carry on winning or whether it was just a fluke one off. We play Wigan in the Carling Cup next up but that’ll be the kids so you can’t judge form. Wenger says it’ll be 90% of the team from Sheffield United 6-0 thrashing so expect Vela, Wilshere, Ramsey and crew.

Fabianski will be in goal but Almunia will be back for the weekend. Fabianski had to replace our no.1 on Saturday after he was kicked in the head by Michael Carrick. He looked pretty shaken up by it but he’ll be fine to start against Aston Villa.

Right that’s all for tonight folks. Speak to you soon and thanks for reading.

Man United Preview: Possible 10 players out 7 November, 2008

This is it now, tomorrow is the big one. We’re going into one of the biggest games of the season in some of the worst form we’ve had for a long time. To make matters worse, we have shit loads of injuries and a suspension. About a week ago we had an almost fully fit squad but now we face the possibility of 10 absentees:

Almunia (sick) – Sagna (ankle) – Silvestre (broken nose) – Gallas (hamstring) – Eboue (knee) Walcott (shoulder) – van Persie (suspended) – Rosicky (dead) – Adebayor (ankle) – Eduardo (broken leg)

Almunia, Sagna, Silvestre, Gallas and Walcott could all still feature. Wenger will make a late decision on those 5 tonight. I’m expecting Almunia, Sagna and Silvestre to play and I’m praying that Walcott will be back. He did train today with Silvestre so it’s looking good.

However Wenger has suggested he might only call upon a couple of those five:

“We can take a risk with one or two but not three or four. If something happens you have no capacity to change anymore. But I have a squad of 20 players who are all top quality.

I am not concerned about who doesn’t play at the moment even if they are top players. I am more interested in giving the players who are playing the belief, confidence and desire to win.”

He has a point. If Almunia started puking up everywhere, Sagna took a dodgy step on his ankle, Silvestre took a knock to his nose, Gallas felt his hamstring going and Walcott needed to come off….then we’d be fucked. So a decision must be made there.

Adebayor and van Persie are definitely out though, so we’re going to have to change things around up front. Are options are Bendtner, Vela and possibly Walcott. If Theo’s fit then I think he’ll have to start up front because we have problems with the other two. Vela is very exciting but Wenger says he isn’t physically ready for the English game and I can see that. He would find it very difficult against United. Bendtner would be the obvious starter but he has been awful recently. He looks uninterested and unable to do anything with the ball.

If I were him I would be loving this chance he’s got at the moment and I’d be making the most of it. However he has not been doing well, so much so that I think his almost guaranteed starting place against Man United is now at risk.

Despite this, I still think Wenger will go with him, most likely with Diaby in behind. Hopefully he’ll live up to the moment and not let us down.

It’s a bit hard to guess the team without an answer on so many players but here’s my guess anyway:

Almunia (c)
Sagna – Djourou – Silvestre – Clichy
Ramsey – Fabregas – Denilson – Nasri
Diaby
Bendtner

I’ve left Toure out but I wouldn’t be that surprised to see him captain the side. If Sauna’s not fit then he’ll almost certainly come in at right back. I hope Djourou starts though, he did well against Fenerbahce and Kolo has been sloppy in the middle.

After the Stoke game I was absolutely dreading this game. To the extent that I was considering not watching. I just can’t not watch though, it’s Arsenal vs. Man United and even if we do get humiliated I want to witness it.

Anything can happen though. Form can be irrelevant in these games, it just comes down to one thing: Spirit – The one thing we’ve been lacking recently. Tomorrow we have to recapture our passion for the team otherwise we are definitely screwed.

I’m strangely optimistic. I don’t know why…I’m usually full of nerves going into this match but I’m fine. Maybe I just feel that we have nothing to lose. Amy Lawrence was on today’s Arsecast and was talking about an interesting statistic. In 2001 we played Man United in November on the back of a really bad run, beat them thanks to a couple of Fabien Barthez mistakes and never lost again that season going on to win the league.

Here’s hoping for the same again tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

Arsenal 0-0 Fenerbache – 05/11/08 – (Champions League) 7 November, 2008

How comes we can stick 5 past this lot easily away from home but can’t even score one at the Grove? Not a good result last night and our last chance to get a bit of confidence before Man United – blown.

It wasn’t the worst performance I’ve ever seen, you could say it was an improvement from Stoke, but that’s not really saying much. There were some positives, Fabianski kept a Champions League clean sheet after Almunia was taken sick before the game…read into that what you will. That clean sheet might’ve been helped by an appearance by Johan Djourou who has put himself in the good book ahead of the United game. Aaron Ramsey also had a good game starting from the right of midfield.

van Persie looked lively in the first half and was our biggest threat going forward. He was picked out a few times by Fabregas but he just couldn’t put it away.

So it was an odd looking team but it was something along the lines of what I would’ve picked. Maybe I would’ve started Diaby but I can understand him being rested for United with all our attacking options out; I’m thinking it’ll be him behind Bendtner on Saturday.

Int he first 20 minutes of the game we were bombarding Fenerbache. We really should’ve scored in this passage of play but somehow we just couldn’t. van Persie had some incredible chances but just couldn’t get it in the net.

On the half hour Robin had probably the best chance of the game. Toure found him on the byline but he turned the defender with some great skill finding himself one-on-one at an angle. I thought this had to be a goal but somehow the ball came off the bar. Couldn’t believe it. The replays showed that it was a good save.

Half time came and we really, really should’ve been at least 1-0 up. The way we’ve been playing recently suggested to me that this just wasn’t going to be our day again.

There was a bit of a scare in the second half when a Fenerbache striker went straight through from a long ball forward. Watching the TV I was just expecting to see Fabianski come from the right of the screen any second to clear the danger but he hesitated and stood his ground. Luckily the striker took and early shot which went wide but if that was Almunia last night we would’ve been straight off the line to boot the ball away.

We had lost our attacking edge from the first half and Wenger made a double substitution on the hour. Bendtner and Ramsey came off, Diaby and Vela came on. Not sure why Ramsey came off, maybe he was tired or maybe he’s earned himself a place in the side to face United. I know why Bendtner came off though – he was fucking useless. One of the worst g

Fenerbache Preview: Sort it out Arsene 4 November, 2008

Last time we played Fenerbahce we scored 5 past them in an incredible attacking performance. Since then, things have changed. The past two league results have not been good for us and confidence is at a low.

With Man United coming up on Saturday we need a good performance tomorrow night to show what we’re made of again. With everything that’s happened recently another poor result here would be disastrous.

Although Fenerbahce are a far better team than the likes of Stoke, I’m not too worried about the game. I dunno, for some reason we seem to be playing better in Europe this season; maybe Wenger has got the players concentrating on that hence the poor league results. It would be a very odd thing to do though.

I just think hope that we’re going to come back in this game and show the Arsenal we’re used to. I’m not expecting us to win, but what I am expecting is a much improved performance and work effort.

It’ll just be typical of us to do really well in the Champions League tomorrow night, building some confidence up before rolling over in the Premier League at the weekend. That’s pretty much what I’m predicting will happen now but we’ll talk about the Man United game later in the week.

We go into this game with some selection issues. van Persie got sent off against Stoke but that suspension wont come into play until after this game. However Gallas, Walcott, Adebayor and Eboue are all out tomorrow night along with Eduardo and Rosicky. Sagna is fit again after being forced off at the weekend. Adebayor and Eboue have slightly longer-term injuries but we could see Gallas and Theo against United.

Along with those injuries there are a few players that have been playing shite recently. However Wenger doesn’t seem to take any notice of this and carries on playing them. We’re short on options but sometime you just have to take someone out.

Anyway, this is the side I think Arsene Wenger will pick:

Almunia
Sagna – Toure (c) – Silvestre – Clichy
Nasri – Fabregas – Denilson – Diaby
van Persie – Vela

Now if it were up to me, I’d take out Toure and play Djourou, I love Kolo but he was terrible at the weekend. Also Denilson would be nowhere near the side, I’d have Diaby playing in the middle but we haven’t really got anyone else to play on the wing; one of Vela or van Persie could, but then who do we put upfront? If only there was a rule where managers where aloud to sign players or something to bolster the squad…

I hate seeing Diaby on the wing but I fear Wenger will do it again tomorrow night. I wouldn’t mind seeing Ramsey start this one too, he made a decent cameo when we last played them. And I don’t really want Song playing, he was also not good enough at Stoke.

Whatever team he does pick, I want to see 11 players who at least look like they give a shit for the cause. Only Gael Clichy showed that on Saturday and that just isn’t good enough. Fabregas is usually the one to keep the team going but he is fucking exhausted at the moment, you can see that in his play. How can you blame him though? He’s been ‘partnered’ by Denilson all season which means Cesc has to do all the dirty work for himself. He needs someone in there who can help his play.

I said it before Stoke, and I’m going to say it again. I want to see how the team reacts to the previous result. This is not a good time for Arsenal and I want to see some kind of spirit in the players to get us out of this mess.

Another shite performance and I’m not going to be angry, just upset. A good performance will confuse me, I’ll be asking, ‘why couldn’t we do this before?’ and be thinking about what kind of Arsenal are going to show up against Man United.

The game’s at 7.45pm and it’s on Sky Sports. Enjoy (hopefully).

Match report on Thursday, until then.

Stoke 2-1 Arsenal – 01/11/08 – (Premier League) 2 November, 2008

We must beat Stoke in a week to forget – lasagnechef

“This game at Stoke has come at a perfect time. They will be difficult to beat and it will take some spirit, which is exactly what we need to show right now.”

“I don’t think the players will be down in the dumps. I think they will be really up for this one and keen to prove a point. Stoke should be worried, we will be angry.”

“I’m really interested to see how we play tomorrow. The players will know the fans are upset with them and they will know we will be looking for a reaction.”

Well I got my answer. A heap load of fucking shite.

I, along with a lot of other people were looking towards this game expecting something from the team, and the manager. Were we going to fight on, give everything to go for this title like they keep talking about or were they just going to carry on with that same attitude. Well if you saw the game, it was well and truly the latter.

Gallas didn’t start the game, but if anything we learned yesterday that we can still be shit and spiritless without him. Arsene started with an odd team which had me worried from the start:

Almunia
Sagna – Toure (c) – Silvestre – Clichy
Denilson – Fabregas – Song – Diaby
Adebayor – Bendtner

You know the team were bad when I had to just double-check that starting 11. They were that anonymous. They created fuck all throughout the game and defended like amateurs.

I was expecting a reaction from Arsene Wenger, he was angry after the Spurs game so I was looking towards the starting 11 to see a reflection of that. But no, it was the same old bollocks.

I mean, what kind of a midfield is that? Obviously Cesc starts, but what the hell is that around him? How can Cesc play his best game when he has those three to work with.

Song – shows potential but not good enough. Denilson – not good enough yet, a piss-poor and frankly lazy replacement for Flamini. And, Diaby – played well since his comeback but he is not a fucking left-winger, poor game for him yesterday.

So with that around him, Cesc had a poor game too. You cant just expect Fabregas to play his very best week-in week-out and everything will be fine. That’s the impression I’m getting from Wenger at the moment. We’re heavily relying on Cesc at the moment. He needs support. Wenger has let so many midfielders go without replacing them, we all saw it happening, now this is the result of that.

Wenger isn’t stupid, he would’ve known there was a problem. However he just chose not to replace them. It was very frustrating to watch him simply make that decision. Ok, I know we’re not rolling in cash at the moment but the board clearly said that if we needed a player fund would be made available. AND WE CLEARLY NEEDED A FUCKING PLAYER.

We went 1-0 down after 11 from the first long-throw of the game. Delap lobbed it in towards the far post and Toure just let the ball go over his head and Fuller got the slightest of touches to send it in. Terrible, terrible defending from Toure. He made no attempt to win the header, you could see the fear on his face when that ball was coming in and concentrated too much on trying to keep to his man. Awful goal to concede.

These long throws from Delap are fucking lethal, but we would’ve know about them and practiced for them (Or at least we should have done). We didn’t look organized at all and conceded the goal.

There was no reaction from Arsenal. No urgency to get up the other end and pull it level.

We couldn’t create anything. Our best chances were shots blazed over the bar. Frustrating and depressing to watch, not so long ago we could’ve been 4-0 up against a side like this, what has happened to us?

So half time came and something needed to be done. We weren’t working, we needed changes. The most obvious one was Theo Walcott, Stoke were slow and narrow-minded so a player like Walcott would’ve caused havoc.

So what did Wenger do? Fucking nothing. He just did his usual thing of, ‘oh, it’ll be alright, the players will do something I’m sure. No need to panic.’

BOLLOCKS!! We’re fucking 1-0 down to Stoke, being outplayed and creating nothing. How can you just carry on with that shite??!

So inevitably we carried on in the second half with Wenger just standing there. We did have more of the ball in the second half we there was still no inspiration, no penetration.

After an hour Wenger finally called upon Walcott taking off Sagna, moving Toure to right back and Song alongside Silvestre. I thought, ‘right, here we go, come on Theo!’ I hoped Walcott’s energy might inspire the team to get forward and create something. Theo’s pure determination is infectious so at this point I was optimistic.

5 minutes later the hopeless Denilson was taken off and Robin van Persie was brought on and we moved to a 4-3-3. And in the 73rd minute Wenger was forced to bring on Vela for Adebayor when he fucked up his ankle. I wasn’t really fussed, Ade wasn’t great again and Vela would probably do a better job.

Seconds later we’d conceded again. Exactly the same as the first. It was quite incredible really. I thought about switching off at this point because there was no way we were going to come back the way we were playing. But I didn’t, I wanted to see if this side had any spirit whatsoever.

Finally, there was a bit of urgency. So it takes us being 2-0 down to Stoke fucking City with 15 minutes to go for us to show some bloody urgency. Yesterday Hull went 1-0 down to Man United but did they roll over and die? No, they got stuck in, showed some much needed urgency and got themselves back in it.

I’m glad I did stick around though. Long enough to see van Persie get sent off for a fucking stupid challenge. The boy is fucking selfish; we all knew what Robin felt there when he bundled Sorensen over for time-wasting, but you just don’t do it. You show some restraint, hurry him up then get back in position.

He did not care about being sent off. He did not fucking care. That was his ticket out of here, and his way out of the Man United humiliation next weekend.

To add insult to injury. Walcott popped his shoulder again in injury time meaning we had to play the rest of the game with 9 men. Fantastic. He was down for some time so you know it’s not good.

From the resulting free kick we scored a consolation goal. Fabregas took the free-kick and confused everyone squaring it to Clichy outside the box who drove it low into the bottom corner.

I’ve been waiting a long fucking time for Gael Clichy’s first goal and I feel sorry for him that, that was the way he had to score it. That was my only highlight from yesterday, shame we didn’t get to celebrate it properly.

So, there’s a lot to be sorted out at this football club. And January will be a telling time. With Man United, Chelsea, Villa and Man City yet to come this could be a very depressing month.

Next up it’s Fenerbahce in the Champions League. Thanks for reading.