Fulham Preview & Arsenal TV Competition 27 February, 2009

Our last three outings in the Premier League has produced three 0-0 draws against Sunderland, Spurs and West Ham. Before that it was a 1-1 against Everton and another 0-0 vs. Cardiff in the FA Cup. All these draws simply aren’t good enough and are resulting in us falling further behind Aston Villa.

Fulham themselves have had five 0-0 draws away from home so it’s no surprise the game is destined for a no-score draw.

We just need to win this one. Cesc has conceded the title and admits it is more important to look at 4th. He is confident that Villa will drop points between now and the end of the season. Wenger is confident we can make the top four and is hoping for a good run in from our young side:

“In football, nothing is unthinkable, but I am confident we will make the Champions League. There are 12 games to go, if we keep our consistency, spirit and attitude, and our focus, we will make it.

We have built a very young team, which is unbeaten since the start of November. Let’s keep doing that and continue to improve, keep our spirit and we will have a great spirit at Arsenal Football Club.
I never consider failure.

If you look at the fixtures, there are a few teams who have difficult fixtures. It is down to us to be consistent. We have 36 points to take, so let’s not speculate too much on the weakness of any other team. If we win our games, we will be there.”

12 games doesn’t seem like a lot but it is, out of the possible 36 points there are left I’m sure Villa will drop some of those, as will we I’m sure but we need to win as many as possible. This needs to start tomorrow. The four draws in a row means that from a possible 12 points we have taken four – not good enough.

Nothing has changed team-wise since Roma so there is no excuse. We did a good job on Tuesday night, I’m sure if we create that many chances against Fulham more will go in. Diaby was ruled out earlier in the week but today Wenger has confirmed he will be fit. Arshavin comes back into the squad but apart from that there are no arrivals. Therefore, I’m expecting the same team as Tuesday’s simply with Arshavin replacing Eboue:

Almunia
Sagna – Toure (c) – Gallas – Clichy
Arshavin – Diaby – Denilson – Nasri
Bendtner -van Persie

Toure and Gallas are forming a nice little partnership at the moment. All those 0-0′s do mean that we’re doing something right at one end of the field. Kolo handed in a transfer request because off his poor relationship with Gallas but he’s now saying that he’s happy playing with the ex-skipper. That’s good news, I’m sure the both of them are very professional about it, even if they’re not best friends off the pitch they’re still doing the right stuff on it.

Up front on Tuesday we played Nasri off van Persie with Bendtner on the left wing. I think tomorrow we will see the Dane back in the middle again with Nasri and Arshavin providing support from wide. Arsene’s been talking about our strikers saying he’s happy with what he has at the moment and not worried about recent missed chances. With Eduardo, Walcott and Adebayor all returning in the next couple of weeks we really are going to have some great options going forward this run in to the end of the season.

Fulham don’t have a single injury concern, which is just unthinkable as a Gooner. However right-back John Pantsil is suspended. I’m not too worried about Fulham; even though they beat us 1-0 at the beginning of the season I think we have enough to beat them tomorrow.

I do see us ending this drawing streak and boosting the confidence a bit with a win. Villa play Stoke on Sunday so we can go temporarily 3 points adrift of them but I do see them beating Stoke.

The game isn’t on TV but you can follow the game live over at Arsenal.com. Arsenal TV Online are offering 3 hours of tomorrow afternoon’s coverage completely free – That includes the full 90-minute audio commentary with Dan Roebuck and Ray Parlour, the first post-match interviews, live video post-match discussion and the chance to have your say throughout the show.

It’s something definitely worth getting involved in, I know I will be. You can find all the information here.

The guys at Arsenal TV Online have also given me a free 6 month subscription for me to give away to one of you guys. If you’re interested then there are two things I want you to do to enter:

1. Firstly I need your feedback for Arsenal TV Online. They want to know what you like/don’t like about the show, what could be added, what could be taken away or any other comments you would like to make about the show.
2. Secondly, a question on one of tomorrow’s commentators. What year did Ray Parlour leave Arsenal for Middlesbrough? Was it a.) 2002 b.) 2003, or c.)2004

Send your feedback and your answers to atvonline[at]the-cannon.com, you know the drill – replace the [at] for an @ sign.

I’m giving you until Monday midnight (English time) to answer, which should give you plenty of time to give any feedback of tomorrow’s free Arsenal TV Online coverage.

Well that’s it for today then. I’m back from Amsterdam now so normal service shall resume. Enjoy the game tomorrow.

Arsenal vs. Roma Preview 23 February, 2009

We need to forget about Saturday’s game now and focus on the big game tomorrow night. You don’t need me to tell you how important this game is – it’s the knock out stages of the Champions League.

I believe that Roma are a team that we can beat, but you just never know with us. We can either play like total idiots or geniuses. We seem to pick and chose our games to perform in and I’m hoping that tomorrow is one of those days. We’ve played well when it’s mattered and proven that we can do it.

On Saturday we were probably quite unlucky not to win. If one of those early chances had gone in then it would’ve totally changed the game and it could’ve been another Cardiff-style performances. We’re going to need to learn to take our chances, Roma wont allow us that many opportunities so if we do get through then we cant afford to fuck it up.

It looks like it’ll be van Persie and Bendtner up front again. Nicklas didn’t play well on Saturday, but he has shown this season that he can perform – he needs to step up tomorrow night. Arshavin is cup-tied and then we have all the same injuries from the weekend. I’m writing this on Sunday night so I haven’t heard any team news yet. Clichy could be out after limping off this weekend. I guess you’ll hear that today or tomorrow.

A bit early for me to guess the team but here I go anyway:

Alumina
Sagna – Toure (c) – Gallas – Gibbs
Eboue – Song – Denilson – Nasri
Bendtner – van Persie

Arsene Wenger has been talking about Denilson’s role tomorrow night. It’s going to be him and Song in the middle and they’re going to need to play well. Here’s what Arsene said:

“Denilson will have an important part to play in the Roma game and I believe the whole team will have an important part. When you play against Roma you know there is one battle you cannot lose and that is in midfield because that is their strong point. They play with a congested midfield and with a lot of short passing on the ground. If you lose that battle you will be second best.

If you look at the numbers and the amount of balls he wins, he is one of the top midfield players in the country on many indexes. He doesn’t talk too much be he is very efficient.

I am surprised how little credit he got for what he has delivered since the start of the season. I think he has improved tactically in his first pass and physically in the challenge. He is much stronger than a year ago. You can see today when he makes a tackle he wins the ball. I am convinced he will be even stronger in six months.”

Denilson has improved this season, I wasn’t his biggest fan at the beginning but he’s settling in nicely now. He isn’t very noticeable in games but he does his job well and is no doubt a full first team member now. He’s a good tackler and his distribution is good – Wenger’s right, he needs to have a big game tomorrow night.

The back five are also going to have their work cut out. Roma are a quick side and attack well. Our defence has been playing quite well recently so I’m hoping they’ll keep their recent clean sheet record.

I’m predicting a draw for this one. A 0-0 wouldn’t be a bad result but a score draw might put the pressure on in the second leg. A win would be great; not only would it obviously put us in a good position to get into the quarter finals but it would do our confidence some good. I’m worried that if we lose we could have too much to do in the second leg – but by then we could have some people returning from injury but we’ll talk about that all nearer the time.

If you read the Sunderland match report you’ll know that I’m off to Amsterdam today. In fact, by the time you’re reading this I’ll already be there. I was out there last year and I watched some of Euro 2008 so I’m thinking I’ll go back to that same bar for the Roma game.

I don’t think I will be updating the blog whilst I’m out there, so no match report. I’m back on Thursday night so I might talk to you then, if not then Friday.

Well I better be off now, got stuff to sort out. Enjoy the game and I’ll speak to you in a few days. Thanks for reading.

Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland – 21/02/09 – (Premier League) 22 February, 2009

It seems like I’ve done this too many times. Here I am on my journey back to Bournemouth contemplating how it all went wrong. Today I’m talking to you from the cramped coach back down to Bournemouth from London. Well, I’m going to actually publish this later when I get home but you know what I mean. Coming up for the weekend to see Arsenal from down south hasn’t held fond memories for me this season. I’ve come up to see the Spurs game (the 4-4 and came up to watch the away match in a pub) and seen us lose to Villa and Hull – those are the ones that stand out. I’ve seen a load of crap draws and a lot of last gasp efforts. I did us beat Everton, but that seems a long time ago now.

I can’t understand why is it though. Just five days previous to the Sunderland game we put in a great performance against Cardiff, finally scoring goals and proving how an early goal can really improve our game. I honestly thought that was a new beginning for this side, off the back of that with players coming back I thought this was when we finally kicked into gear.

Yesterday we proved just how unpredictable and hopeless we can be. Did we put all our efforts into the cup game? Have we got an eye on the Roma game? Or, have we just lost all appetite for playing teams such as Sunderland in league matches. I’m thinking the latter.

We started with a similar side to that that started against Cardiff. Clichy came in for Gibbs, Almunia was back in goal, van Persie replaced the injured Eduardo and Andrey Arshavin made his debut on the right wing in place of Vela.

Walking down the steps to my seat yesterday I saw Arshavin straight away as the team warms up right in front of me. He is a very short lad, fair enough he was chatting to lanky Bendtner at the time but even still you could tell he was absolutely tiny. Running around he takes little short steps and sharp turns and looks quite funny together with his stocky body. He does look very good though, he’s quick and has great ball control; to me he looked uncomfortable on the ball and always a second away from tripping over but this looked like just his style. He packs a shot too.

This was shown just four minutes into the game when he picked up the ball in the final third with no Sunderland player making an effort to close him down. He drove forward and with encouragement from the crowd he shot low towards the bottom right corner. It went inches wide of the post, nearly the perfect start for the Russian.

A few minutes later van Persie probably had the best chance of the game to open the scoring. Denilson put a clever ball through the middle that looked to be heading nowhere but Robin got onto it and was one-on-one. He drifted to the left making his job more difficult and the ‘keeper had come out. He attempted to chip it over towards the far post but it went just wide. A great chance, unlucky there.

After quarter of an hour Arshavin had another great effort, this time cutting in from the right he placed a powerful bending shot heading indie the far post however Sunderland ‘keeper, Marton Fulop made a great save to deny him his first goal.

The visiting goalie was in inspired form; he was making some great saves and cutting out the danger. This is always the case when goalkeepers come to Arsenal, we had to find a way to beat him.

Sunderland hadn’t just come to defend and they had a decent spell of attacks. Almunia having to make a couple of good saves. They were good on the break and the defence did well to get back.

We were back on the attack by the half hour mark, Arshavin again involved – he put a great cross in for Bendtner who headed inside the post but another great dive by Fulop put it round the post.

It looked like it was heading for 0-0 at the break but both teams came close in the dying minutes. First Toure’s header from a corner was cleared off the line then on the break Kenwyne Jones was in the clear but Bacary Sagna did really well to get back and make the interception.

So 0-0 at half time and both sides had missed chances. I think we will have been more disappointed not to be leading though. Those headers from Bendtner and Toure, the two shots from Arshavin and van Persie’s one-on-one were all great chances and all could’ve/should’ve gone in.

I wasn’t too worried at this point. I was happy with the chances made in the first half and confident enough we would find a way in the second half.

We didn’t come out with any ambition in the second half. I don’t know what was said at half time but it can’t have been very inspiring. This season, we’ve come out with a bang for the second half. This can be seen by the percentage of goals scored between 45th and 55th minutes. There was none of that this time around.

Arshavin was very quiet. He spent most of his time over on the wing where I sit and I was able to keep an eye on him. Whether he was tired, unfit or lost in the game – he looked lazy. A lot of walking about just watching the game. When the ball came to him he sprang into life but off the ball he didn’t look great. This was probably down to fitness and he was replaced by Carlos Vela after 63 minutes.

Vela did have some impact on the game but we were still struggling. We were well on top and bombarding Sunderland but it just didn’t seem enough. Van Persie had a shot from a free kick out wide punched away before two great chances fell to Vela. The first, a cross coming over the top missing everyone and falling at his feet and his shot went wide. The second came from a similar position and he went for the first time shot and he sliced it wide.

Eboue came on for Song after 78 minutes and Clichy had to go off with five minutes to go, Gibbs replacing him.

Our final efforts came in the four minutes of injury time. Gallas fashioned a shot from inside the area in a crowed box but it went wide; a decent chance and Billy looked pretty fucked off his with effort. Then right at the end Eboue’s flick sent van Persie though but he hit is straight at the ‘keeper.

So 0-0 it finished and disappointment rang round the Grove.

So what does this result mean for us? Well with Villa losing earlier in the day it was a big opportunity to close the gap and put the pressure on. We didn’t manage to do that though, even though we knew that points had been dropped and a win for us was vital.

It means that we’re still 6 points behind the chase. I know, not too bad but with the way we have been playing and they way they have been playing that gap looks more likely to increase than get closed.

I’m starting to think, ‘What if we don’t make 4th?’. It would be awful, that’s what. Not only would we miss an exciting season of Champions League football, it would be bad financially and some of our better players may believe they have to make a future elsewhere.

Also, once you’ve had a year out of the Champions League, it’s going to be harder to get back into it. Villa (if they got it) would grow stronger and be better equipped to defend the spot the following season. I’m not confident to say that we would be stronger in a years time to fight our way back.

This is all really stuff to talk about in the summer once our fate is confirmed, but results like yesterday’s make you think about this sort of stuff.

Fabregas, Adebayor, Eduardo and Rosicky were all watching from the bench yesterday and I can’t imagine they were impressed with what they saw. They will be thinking one of two things: Either a.) I can’t wait to get back in the side and help the team. Or, b.) What the fuck is load of shit, I need to get out of here.

Sorry for the depressing end to the blog but yesterday was just not good enough. We play Roma on Tuesday and I’m hoping we pull our finger out. They wont stand for a poor performance and will want goals.

I’m going to wrap this up now because it’s really uncomfortable trying to type in such a small space and I’m gonna stick a film on!* I’ll be home in a couple of hours and then I need to pack for Amsterdam as I’m off in the morning. I’m gone until Thursday night and I’m not sure whether or not I’ll get the internet out there. If I do I’ll bring you the reaction to all things Roma on here and on my Twitter (add me up if you haven’t done so already).

I’m off at 4am tomorrow so I’m going to have to write an early Roma preview this evening. I won’t publish it until the morning so tune in then for that.

Thanks for reading.

* Ended up watching the DVD of Arsenal 7-0 Everton. How things have changed in four years.

Sunderland Preview: First glimpse of the owl 20 February, 2009

With Eduardo out, Andrey Arshavin will be taking centre stage tomorrow. Although he might not start, we’ve been promised to see our latest signing at some stage against Sunderland. Wenger has admitted he isn’t quite 100% yet but says he is OK to play some part in the game. Le Boss has been talking about our new Russian midfielder:

He has personality and a strong character. The handicap he has at the moment is that he is not completely fit physically, but all the rest should be quite quick. He is maybe a week short to be completely fit to play at his best. He had three weeks preparation – two weeks with us and one week with Zenit – so that’s not too bad.

But we will take the needed time. We will not put him under pressure, if he needs a bit longer he takes a bit longer. But at the moment we have many players in that area injured like Fabregas, like Rosicky, like Walcott. So there is a position to take as a creative midfielder.

That suggests that he wont start tomorrow, or if he does then he certainly wont finish the game. I’m expecting him to come on for the last half an hour or so either to help us score or hopefully to get a run out in an already won game. Arsene was also talking about where we will be playing him:

Any position – right, left or behind the strikers. He can integrate well our combination game. He can move very well, he is very mobile so that is something we work on as well. He is a clever passer of the ball and that is something you need in every big team to open teams up.

I have not yet decided if he will start, I will decide that tomorrow morning. But he is in the squad for tomorrow and we will see. You have to give everybody who comes in time to adapt, to adjust. However, I know his vision, his passing ability, his quick brain and they are very important things in the modern game.”

It would be a boost to see Arshavin’s name on the team sheet tomorrow lunch time. Saying that, it would be a boost to se anyone’s name on the team sheet other than Eboue’s. Carlos Vela did really well on the wing Monday night so maybe he will be called up again.

Bendtner also put on a good show against Cardiff and with Eddy out I guess we’ll be seeing him alongside van Persie. Robin has been talking about his fitness this season saying that his target for the year was simply to stay fit! He’s revealed that the reason behind his terrible injury record could be from not listening to the medical staff – he says that he would ignore requests to take it easy because he just wanted to play. Well he’s doing something right this season and proving what an asset to the squad he is when he stays fit. Well done Robin!

The only other bit of team news is Johan Djourou returning, he was ill for Monday night but I’m expecting him to start tomorrow. Here is how I predict/want us to line up:

Almunia
Sagna – Djourou – Gallas – Clichy
Nasri – Song – Denilson – Vela
Bendtner – van Persie

I’m going to be walking around with a big grin on my face if I hear Arshavin’s been picked to start – but realistically, and after Wenger’s comments I think he will be on the bench. I don’t want him to be rushed if he’s not ready because that’s when injuries occur.

Sunderland have a few boosts of their own, Calum Davenport and Tal Ben Haim are available after joining on loan and Teemu Tainio is available after returning from injury, as is Paul McShane.

They’re sitting eleventh in the table but that only makes them 7 points clear of the drop zone. This is a game we really should be winning and I am confident we can do so after Monday night’s performance.

It’s Villa vs. Chelsea in the early kick off tomorrow which means we have an opportunity to catch up with them. Although we’re closer to Chelsea points-wise I’m being realistic and hoping Villa lose. Chelsea are more likely to pick up points towards the end of the season and if I had to choose between us catching Villa or Chelsea I’d guess at the midlands side. Whatever happens in that game happens but we need to make sure we win ours and take this opportunity to move closer to 4th place.

I’m back up in London this weekend and really looking forward to going to this game. It’s been a while and I’m missing my Arsenal at the moment! I’m also excited about seeing Arshavin play as Gooner for the first time and being a part of his welcome to Ashburton Grove.

I’m optimistic about tomorrow but this season has proven just how unpredictable we can be, you just never know. C’mon you Gunners!!

Thanks for reading.

Eduardo out for 2 weeks & Arshavin to make debut 19 February, 2009

Just as after Eddy’s reserve comeback, he’s picked up a hamstring injury on his return and will have to sit out for two weeks. It’s disappointing to lose him because he would’ve been a boost to the side this weekend but we’ll have to make do without him. Wenger revealed today how unfortunate the circumstances were in which Eddy picked up the injury:

“Eduardo is out for two weeks. He picked up a hamstring injury two minutes before I took him off. What a nightmare.

Nobody knows how it happened but I knew straight away after the game it would be a two-week job. It is nothing like he had before but I do know that little set-backs like this are part of being nine months out.

How unlucky. Wenger admitted it is a blow to lose him again because he played really well on Monday night and he is a proven goal scorer. This means that Eduardo and Adebayor will be returning from injury at the same time and directly competing for a place. On the basis of Monday night and Adebayor’s form this season – the Croatian will be getting the place.

It’s a shame but we just have to get on with it, these things happen. It was great seeing him back the other night and Martin Taylor has also declared how happy he is to see him back scoring. He also says that there was a lot of attention around him at the time of the leg break which he did not like but insists he did go to see Eduardo in hospital over the weekend of his injury and has sent his well-wishes to him over the past 12 months. This is coming back off the story from Eduardo himself insisting he has not spoken to Taylor since the challenge and has no intentions to. It’s a bit strange really, maybe Taylor did go to see him but Eduardo didn’t realise? I don’t know, I just want to forget about this now and look forward to Eddy’s fresh start. Not going to stop me still calling Martin Taylor a cunt though, mind.

One man who will be playing on Saturday is Andrey Arshavin. Arsene has confirmed he should be involved in some way or another but isn’t sure how yet. I suspect Wenger will wait until tomorrow evening to decide whether he is ready to start or not. Also, with Eduardo now out Arsene might consider playing him behind van Persie; it is an option but Bendtner played very well against Cardiff so I can see him getting another start.

Eboue is back after suspension, so if Andrey isn’t fit I guess it’ll be him coming back in. I think we are all in agreement that we don’t want to happen so lets hope Arshavin is good to go.

Johan Djourou will also be back after sitting out Monday’s game. He felt too ill to play that night but has recovered in time for tomorrow. I’m expecting him to start.

With those two back, the injury list is now as follows: Abou Diaby (thigh), Mikael Silvestre (thigh), Emmanuel Adebayor (hamstring), Cesc Fabregas (knee), Theo Walcott (shoulder) and Tomas Rosicky (hamstring tendon). Diaby, Silvestre, Ade and Cesc are due back in the next couple of weeks. Walcott and Cesc could also make that date but could need a little more time. I think Rosicky is about a month and a half away now, unless he suffers another setback.

‘The Beast’ has been talking about next week’s Arsenal vs. Roma game saying that Roma have a slight advantage over us because they have more experience than our young side. However he is still weary of us and thinks that all the Italian sides facing Premier League sides next week will have a tough task. It’s going to be a great game next week. I can’t wait. I’m actually going to be out of the country for the match, I’m off to Amsterdam on Monday morning so I’m going to have to find a bar out there to watch it, I’m sure I’ll manage….

Well that’s your lot for tonight then. A Sunderland preview tomorrow evening, until then.

Roundup: Bendtner, Wenger, Senderos & Barca friendly? 18 February, 2009

I never know how to start a post. Sometimes I sit here for ages trying to think what to say, today is one of those of days. Erm…yeah, hi.

I’ll just get into it…

Nicklas Bendtner has denied those recent stories about him saying he should be playing week-in-week-out. He says that he gave a perfectly fine interview to the Danish press and it was taken by the English tabloids and misrepresented. Hardly surprising really. I trust Nicklas, I know he does come off as a bit arrogant sometimes but I believe him.

He’s also been talking about his new role out widehttp://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/bendtner-wide-role-has-improved-my-game. We’ve seen him quite a bit there recently and in a strange way it has worked, I would never have thought that it would be effective but it has. He hasn’t been playing an out-and-out winger role, just one of two wide men in a three or sometimes four man attack and he’s been quite dangerous from there. He’s what he thinks about it:

“I had never played there before. Obviously it’s not my favorite position but I’m happy to do a job there if the boss asks me to. When I look back though I think I have done quite well there so it’s been good for me, it’s helped me develop as a player.

Good players can always play in different positions. It’s similar to playing as a second striker, but a bit wider.”

He’s also been talking about facing Burnley in the next round of the FA Cup. He was part of the team that was knocked out of the Carling Cup by them earlier this season. He said he was really disappointed with himself after the game and he thought that he should’ve put away his chances but he believes we’ll beat them this time around.

I think I forgot to mention in the match report for the Cardiff game, but he was really good and a possible man of the match. He should’ve scored at least three on Monday night and was a threat all over the pitch including setting up van Persie’s goal. More of that please Nick, nice work.

Arsene Wenger has been talking about our title chances and for once he has admitted that it looks unlikely:

We are on a very strong run at the moment and we have promised to give everything until the last day of the season but at the moment Manchester United look untouchable. They are 12 points ahead of us and they have a game against Fulham (tonight) which they will certainly win. If they win that they are 15 points in front and that means they need to lose five games.

Let us say they lose one against us, that still leaves four. They still need to lose four other games, which they haven’t done yet this season.

But our basic target is to get into the Champions League and therefore the championship remains a priority.”

It’s true, United are having another great season and full credit to them. They have a realistic chance of doing the quadruple, which would just be insane. We need to just forget about them and take each of our own games at a time and see where that takes us.

Philippe Senderos will apparently be sent back to Arsenal after his loan period. He really hasn’t played much for the Rosseneri this season and hasn’t had much of a role for them this season. I believe that the loan came with an option to buy in the summer but with that looking unlikely who knows where his future lies.

And finally, there’s talk of a possible charity match between us and Barcelona this summer. Strasbourg general director Jean-Luc Herzog has said there’s a verbal agreement between the clubs and Unicef to have a match in Strasbourg on the 13th June:

We have given our agreement in principle, but it’s just the preliminaries. At this hour, there’s no written confirmation.”

It would mean a bit of a homecoming for Arsene Wenger who was born there and also began his career as a manager with the club’s academy. It would also meant a mouthwatering rematch of the 2006 Champions League final – a game that I know a lot of Gooners (including myself) have been anticipating.

I’m really excited at the prospect of this, if I hear any more news on it I’ll let you know.

Well that it for today then. Cheers for reading.

Arsenal 4-0 Cardiff – 16/02/08 – (FA Cup) 17 February, 2009

Last night was a great night. It was the first time in a while where I completely enjoyed watching us play. We showed great football, attacking flair, confidence, creativity and we had Eduardo back.

Eddy was named in the starting eleven and put in a great hour’s performance. He got a fantastic reception, as you would expect and he rose to the occasion. He was the scorer of our first goal after 20 minutes. A one-two with Vela set up Eduardo for a placement header at the near post. A well worked goal and one, which Eduardo has waited for, for a long time. He celebrated by sliding to his knees and kissing his wedding ring and then was mobbed by the rest of the team. It was an emotional goal for everyone but boy was it welcomed.

So we were 1-0 up after 20 minutes and it felt good, usually we’re scrapping for goals in the final ten minutes or so, so it was nice to make an impression early on. However we could’ve taken the lead much earlier than that, we had some great chances and Tom Heaton was forced into making some good saves.

6 minutes later the Cardiff ‘keeper wasn’t so impressive when he let a Nasri shot spill through his arms. Luckily for him though it rolled across the goal line and to safety. We wouldn’t have to wait much longer for the second goal though; Nasri’s corner from the left in the 34th minute was meant by Bendtner at the near post and headed across goal. A nicely worked corner by Arsenal but really poor defending by Cardiff, 2-0 Arsenal.

We really should’ve had a third just before half time when Bendtner missed an absolute sitter. Eduardo’s initial shot was spilt across goal to the Dane who was waiting at the back post with an almost open goal looking at him. His shot somehow hit the post and then his second shot was saved by the ‘keeper! An absolute miracle for Cardiff City. With that chance and Nasri’s shot rolling across the line I wondered if the game was going to turn in their favor.

Half time came and we were 2-0 up. It really could’ve been at least 4-0 by this point though.

We continued to pile on the pressure in the second half. Cardiff were really struggling against us. The did have one chance in this period after half time by Fabianski saved Jay Bothroyd’s shot.

The third finally came when Eduardo was tripped from behind in the penalty area. The replay makes it look like a slightly soft penalty but moments earlier the ref should’ve pointed to the spot anyway so luck evened itself out. Eddy stepped up himself to take it, the waited for the ‘keeper to make the first move and calmly slotted it away. He ran straight to the bench and hugged Tony Colbert, the man who helped Eduardo through his recovery and a big player in getting him back playing football. A nice moment.

A couple of minutes later he could’ve had a comeback hat trick when the ball fell at his feet in the area but it was blocked – what a story that would’ve been.

He wasn’t risked for much longer and he was replaced by van Persie. If we had kept him on I’m sure he would’ve completed a memorable hat trick but after the long recovery he has just made Wenger felt happy with the 67 minutes he put in and took him off. It was a great comeback for Eduardo, scoring two and playing an influential role in the game. He looked sharp, quick and feisty. He looks like just the player we need at the moment and I’m really excited about the season run-in. Eduardo has described last night as the best day of his life. It’s a game I’m sure I’ll never forget, not exactly the biggest match we’ve ever played in but one of the most emotional and important games for one of the club’s most loved players.

Samir Nasri was also taken off at this point and replaced by Aaron Ramsey. A few minutes after that Vela was replaced by Amaury Bischoff, getting a rare appearance. We started the tone the game down now, it was job done.

We did continue to have chances; Bischoff even had a shot flash across goal. van Persie added the forth in extra time, a great through ball by Bendtner and a calm finish through the legs of Heaton by Robin.

So 4-0 to the Arsenal it ended and we’re through to the next round of the cup facing Burnley at home. It was a great night of football; Eduardo’s return has completely lifted spirits around the club. It was a great performance last night, probably the best this season – it was the Arsenal of old and we should’ve scored 7 or 8, no exaggeration. Alright, it was only Cardiff but we proved that we can play well again and I’m hoping that will continue against Sunderland in the league on Saturday.

Wenger’s comments here.

Things are starting to look on the up! I’m excited for the rest of the season.

Thanks for reading.

Follow me on Twitter 16 February, 2009

Just a quick post to say that I have set myself up on Twitter and if you use it you can follow me here at twitter.com/the_cannon.

Only just had a look at it so I’m not exactly an expert yet but if you’re on there and you want to follow me I’m sure it’ll grow and be a new way of following the blog. You can expect updates of what I’m up to, news as I hear it, links and any other random stuff I feel like putting up on there.

Yeah that’s it basically, get yourself on to twitter! Speak to you tomorrow.

Arsenal, or Cardiff, or Burnely, or Sheffield United or Hull will play in the Semi Finals 15 February, 2009

We find ourselves in a weird position where we haven’t even got through the 4th round yet but we (or Cardiff or Burnley) have been drawn against Sheffield United or Hull in the FA Cup quarter finals. Quite mad really and some would say quite ridiculous that we haven’t even completed our fourth round tie. However it does give us inspiration to get a good run going because we now know we have 3 home games that we should be winning and then we will be playing at Wembley in the semi finals. They are all teams that we have beaten before and all teams that we should be beating again. They will all be well up for the possible semi final at stake but we have to show our class. Here’s this afternoon’s quarter final draw in full:

Cardiff City/Arsenal or Burnley vs. Sheffield United or Hull City

Swansea City or Fulham vs. Manchester United

Blackburn Rovers or Coventry City vs. Chelsea

Everton vs. West Ham United or Middlesbrough

Before we can even think about those ties we have our 4th round replay to take care of.

Tomorrow night Cardiff come to North London after the first tie finished 0-0. We were not good enough on that day and found it difficult to put the ball in back of the net; we could’ve been knocked out but we have a never chance to set things right. Things haven’t really changed since then; we’ve only scored one goal and haven’t won a game since.

The players have to live up to their word and prove to us how much they actually want to win this competition. We now know our schedule all the way up to a possible semi final so we now have an incentive to get there. Bacary Sagna and Gael Clichy have been saying how much they want to win the cup and van Persie has also said he is desperate for silverware.

I think the players will put as much effort into this game as any other – the fact that it is Championship side Cardiff does not matter one bit. We need to find that extra bit of energy that we get to see against top four sides. If we can find it then Cardiff are in trouble. It would be nice to see us turn the heat on and build up the confidence with a decent win.

As for team news well there’s no fresh news other than what I told you in the week. Diaby’s injured, Eboue’s suspended, Arshavin is unavailable and Fabregas, Walcott, Adebayor, Silvestre and Rosicky will all be out for a few more weeks. Aaron Ramsey could miss out too, he picked up a knock away with Wales and Wenger said he would be assessed on Friday but I’ve heard nothing yet, I guess we’ll hear tomorrow. Clichy is set to play, he’s been out with that head injury all week but he is meant to be OK for tomorrow, if he doesn’t make it Gibbs will come in again. Eduardo is ready to go but Wenger hinted in the week that he might not start. I would be very surprised if we didn’t see him at all though.

With all those in mind I see us lining up otherwise full strength, other than Almunia I don’t think we’ll be resting anyone. Here’s my prediction:

Fabianski
Sagna – Djourou – Gallas – Clichy
Wilshere/Vela – Song – Denilson – Nasri
Bendtner – van Persie

I think Toure will drop back to the bench allowing Djourou to come back in; Gallas should keep his position after a decent game against Spurs. On the wings I’m not sure, I know that on one side we’ll have Nasri but on the other I believe Wenger’s going to have to make a choice between Jack Wilshere and Carlos Vela. Arsene has been reluctant to start either of the youngsters this season so he’s going to have to make a choice depending on what sort of tactics we’re going with. Both offer us skill and penetration but they have different midfield and attacking attributes for us. We’ll see, but either way it will be nice to see them play.

You don’t need me to tell you that Cardiff will be well up for this game. They are bringing massive support over for this game and they will have some volume inside the ground with that larger away section. We don’t do badly ourselves at night games so hopefully those going will get some support going.
Cardiff striker Jay Bothroyd has spoken about returning to his former club and is really looking forward to the game:

“It would definitely be great to score against my old team at the Emirates. I have not played at the Emirates yet and I would like to go there and score in front of the Cardiff fans and the Arsenal fans as well as my family and friends.”

It’s to be expected though and I’m sure we’ll have an eye on him. Not just him though, all of them will be putting in 100% and all of them would love to score tomorrow night. I wouldn’t be that surprised if they managed it either so we have to be on top form. If we do go a goal behind we have to show this ‘character’ Wenger keeps talking of and come back from it.

I’m really looking forward to the game, it’s a big one. I’m excited about the FA Cup this year, with a bit of luck it we can do it. It’s a 7.45pm kick off tomorrow and live on Setanta here in the UK.

Enjoy the game, speak to you Tuesday.

Ahhh shit!! Got to run…. 14 February, 2009

Ah fuck I just woke up and I’m meant to be at my mate’s birthday in an hour! Sorry but no time for a blog this evening, I’ve had a quick flick around and there’s nothing that important to be honest. Nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow anyway.

Sorry people, had kind of a hectic day, coach back to Bournemouth this morning which I woke up late for, straight to football practice, straight to sleep now here I am rushing.

Will have a full (and very hungover) match preview for you tomorrow. We’re playing ‘Ciderhands’ tonight which involves a 2 litre Strongbow bottle being strapped to each of your hands and you can only remove them once you’re finished. It’s going to be messy.

Speak to you tomorrow then, bye!

FA Cup Stuff 13 February, 2009

Being a Friday I was expecting a bombardment of news this evening but there isn’t really a lot of interesting things going on really. In today’s press conference Wenger spoke of Scolari and Adams’ departure’s this week and there’s also a short quote on William Gallas.

We don’t play until Monday night so all the news is going to come later this weekend. We do have a bit of early team news and that is that Eduardo is ready but will not necessarily start. He had a successful return for Croatia in the week and is full of confidence but Wenger still might not bring him straight back on Monday night:

“He is back and ready to go. I don’t know [about Cardiff]. I don’t want to promise anything. I want the freedom to pick the team I want to pick.”

Seems a bit of a defensive thing to say but whatever. I’d be very surprised if we didn’t see him at all but I guess it might be a bit sudden for him to start. Maybe we’ll hear more on this over the weekend.

The other team news is that Diaby and Adebayor are out with injuries and Eboue is suspended. Clichy is ok after that head wound last weekend but Aaron Ramsey is a casualty of the midweek internationals and could fall short. It’s nothing major but it could be enough to see him out of this game.

Andrey Arshavin can’t play because he wasn’t an Arsenal player before the first game against Cardiff. It would’ve been nice to see him but Wenger says we will benefit from it:

“It is a good thing for him yes. I was a little bit handcuffed against Tottenham because we were down to 10 men and if we had sustained an injury then you couldn’t bring on a player who lacks fitness when you are down to 10 men.

In between, he will now have two weeks before the next game and hopefully will be fully fit for Sunderland [on Saturday 21st February].”

I guess there are some positives about Arshavin not playing on Monday. It gives him more time to become adapted to the Arsenal way and even more time to get fit after not playing since November. I can’t imagine he’s fully fit by now but by Sunderland I expect he should be some way there.

Wenger says he’s really up for the FA Cup this year and I can feel it too. By the time we play Cardiff we will already know our possible route to the quarter finals with the draw being on Sunday I believe. If we beat Cardiff we have a home tie versus Burnley in the 5th round so we have a great chance to get into the last 8 here.

These are two Championship sides, therefore two sides that we should be beating. But, you really just never know. Not only has it been a strange season for us but this is the FA Cup and anything can happen. Cardiff are going to well up for this game and so will be the thousands of Welsh fans traveling over. We need to be up for it too and stand by Wenger’s word that we want to win this competition.

I’ll have more build up to this game over the weekend, but for tonight that’s about all I have to say. Thanks for reading, happy Friday.

International week news round-up 11 February, 2009

Not a great deal going on for you to talk about today, bits and bobs here and there. Our international players take the field for their nations this evening so all news of that variety will come in over night, I have heard already that Eduardo put in an energetic performance for Croatia including an assist which is very promising but more on that tomorrow. The youth players however played last night and Amaury Bischoff scored just four minutes into his debut for Portugal U21. You can watch it here, Bischoff capitalizes on a defensive mistake and finished well with a nice curled shot. He’s still a bit of an unknown quantity but he’s still got loads of time to impress.

Kieran Gibbs played the last half an hour in England U21′s game versus Ecuador. England were 2-0 up but managed to lose it 3-2. Apparently Gibbs wasn’t to blame for it and put in a good performance at left back but still, he should’ve really scored or something.

Jack Wilshere, Henri Lansbury, Fran Merida were all in action literally 200 yards from my house down here in Bournemouth. It was England U19′s vs. Spain at AFC Bournemouth’s Dean Court. Merida only played the first half of Spain’s 3-0 victory but Jack Wilshere got 90 minutes on his debut – he and England captain, Lansbury both came close to scoring.

It was Brazil vs. Italy at Ashburton Grove last night and the Brazilians beat the world champions 2-0 thanks to Elano and a great goal by Robinho. It meant returns for two former players, Gilberto Silva and Julio Baptista.

They both had a bit to say about their former club, Gilberto thinks that we made a mistake selling all our experienced players and that they would’ve been important to the development of our youngsters. He also said that he was shocked when Arsene Wenger said he was no longer part of his plans but is enjoying his new life in Greece.

Julio Baptista says coming back to Arsenal is a “very happy and emotional moment” because of the good reception he gets here. He also said that he has a lot of respect for us still and keeps in touch with our Spanish players Cesc Fabregas and Manuel Almunia. He says he’s looking forward to playing us in the next round of the Champions League in a couple of weeks and never imagined being able to do so.

In other news Adebayor was named the African player of the year for 2008, a bit of a no-brainer really with the season he had but this year he has failed to prove it wasn’t just a one-off. Hopefully when he’s back in three weeks we can see some of that 2008 form again.

That’s it for today then. Oh, there’s some photo’s here of Arshavin training for Arsenal on his own whilst everyone’s away. He isn’t needed by Russia this week but there is a bit of news involving them, the manager Guus Hiddink is the new manager of Chelsea but will continue as manager of Russia at the same time. It’s not the first time he’s done this though, he has managed PSV and Australia at the same time and it worked out well for him. It a hell of a work load and you have to think that his priorities will lie with either club.

Also, what if Andrey is out playing with Russia and Hiddink decides to give his club side a bit of an advantage but wearing him out for us? A bit unsportsmanly but this is Chelsea we’re talking about…

Anyway, that’s your lot. Thanks for reading, speak to you tomorrow with news of all tonight’s internationals.

Walcott could be back for Roma and other news 10 February, 2009

To add to the good news that Cesc Fabregas might be fit for the Roma game, now Theo Walcott might be joining him. He says he will see a specialist on the day of the game and is hoping that he is given the all clear to play. It would be a massive boost for us if Theo and Cesc returned to the squad for the next round of the Champions League and they both would be expected to walk straight into the first team especially with Arshavin’s unavailability.

You don’t need me to tell you that we’re really missing the creativeness of Walcott and Fabregas. The signing of Arshavin shows that Wenger knows it too. We’ve really only got Nasri and van Persie who are naturally creative players at the moment and that is partly to do with our lack of success recently.

Things are looking up though. Cesc and Theo could be back in a couple of weeks, Adebayor should be fit again a week after them, Arshavin and Eduardo will be ready by our next game and Rosicky is due back at the beginning of April. Still a little while yet to see our no.7 but with Arshavin now in, we can now finally fill his role.

If we didn’t have van Persie right now, I think we’d be in trouble. He has stood up when it was time to be counted and carried this team. Wenger has praised him saying he has taken the Bergkamp form since arriving in 2004:

“At the start we gave him Dennis Bergkamp as a role model and he is growing into that role very well. Just look at the numbers. He is more of a goal scorer than Dennis and I think he has developed his vision and passing well.

Robin respected Dennis and listened to his advice. He arrived when Dennis was already 33, 34 so he accepted to play that kind of master advice [role]. It was not anymore about him [Van Persie] taking his place. He wanted to help him.

When he arrived here it was a big move for him physically and mentally but I believe he has survived because of his talent and his intelligence but mainly because of his passion for the game. He wanted absolutely to make it. He has developed less on his individual talent than as a team player. “

When you think back of the old, raw van Persie we used to know years ago you can appreciate how much he has developed here. I remember getting pissed off with him and was frustrated by his selfishness. He has changed a lot though, he has improved his skill and shooting but also taken on a new aspect of his game, which can be seen with the amount of assists he’s been getting. He has always been a skilful player but he now knows how to use those qualities to their full potential and in the right circumstances – just as Bergkamp did.

This was always going to be a big year for him, I was ready for him to pack his bags if he picked up another injury this season but thank God he has managed to stay fit and long may it continue.

That’s pretty much all I have to say tonight. There’s a round of international games tonight and even more tomorrow so no doubt I’ll have some fresh injuries news to report in the next couple of days to completely ruin this light-hearted, optimistic post.

Thanks for reading.

Tottenham 0-0 Arsenal – 08/02/09 – (Premier League) 9 February, 2009

Disappointing not to get the three points that we badly needed but it could’ve been worse. I suppose in the end a draw was fair, both sides could’ve had complaints if the other had won.

I was really looking forward to the game and I made my way in the morning to watch the game in The Gunners Pub near Highbury, I was shocked to see it so empty for the North London derby but the early kick off meant people were running late and it soon filled up and created a good atmosphere.

The team was pretty much as I thought apart from the experienced Toure/Gallas partnership was preferred meaning Djourou was sat on the bench. He was joined by two unfamiliar faces: Andrey Arshavin making his first appearance in an Arsenal squad and Eduardo Da Silva officially returned to the 1st team just under a year since that injury. It was great to see both of them warming up at the beginning and even though both of them were on the bench it was still a boost to see them both. In the pre-match interview Arsene said that we were likely to see one of them later on.

The opening 5 minutes was all Spurs, we took a bit of time to find our feet but once we did we were flying. It was Emmanuel Eboue who shined the brightest early on, he was really putting in that 100% he promised and showed us what he can do when he applies himself. He was surging forward and he got us our first chance of the game flashing a shot across goal.

In the 13th minute Eboue was almost rewarded for his efforts when he had the ball in the back of the net. I was talking earlier to my mates how good it would be if Eboue scored and I spilt half my beer when I saw the goal in but for the referee to disallow it. In the build up Eboue seemed to push over Woodgate in the area and the referee blew for this before the ball was in the net. In the replay I couldn’t see what was wrong with it but later on in the day I accepted the decision – it could’ve gone either way though. You can see Eboue putting his arm out but Woodgate was tripping anyway and if Eboue hadn’t of helped him along his way then we would’ve been 1-0 up.

That referee decision lifted Spurs and they found themselves back into the game. It was becoming quite an open affair and Almunia was called into action a few times.

Things turned in Spurs’ favor after the half hour mark; Adebayor pulled his hamstring whilst chasing the ball down and had to be stretched off. Wenger said after the game that it will be three weeks out for him but with Eduardo now ready to return that might not be the worst news. The Brazilian wasn’t quite ready to come on this early in the game though and Bendtner replaced Eboue.

But before we even had time to bring Bendtner on, we had another pay off; this time it was Emmanuel Eboue who was dismissed for a 2nd yellow card. The goal being taken away from him 15 minutes previous had rattled him and he left us with an hour of the game left to play with 10 men. He picked up his first yellow for not shutting up when the ref asked him three times to go away after challenging one of his decisions. The second was for a stupid, pointless and selfish trip on Modric after he had fouled Eboue. The ref gave both players yellow cards but for Eboue that meant time for an early bath.

It was a really stupid thing to do though. He should’ve known that he had to be careful being already on one caution but once again he didn’t think. He ruined our game plan for the entire afternoon with his narrow-minded actions. It’s just typical that he would show such promise early on in the game to show fans what he really can do, that he would go and top it with something completely stupid. Hopefully with Arshavin coming in we won’t see much more of this clown.

You can read Eboue’s ‘apology’ here but if anything it will just make you even more angry.

Arsene didn’t back down though and had us playing a 4-3-2 formation. It left us narrow minded but we still equaled Tottenham. The home side tried their best to capitalize on the extra man before half time but we were able to keep it 0-0 at the break.

Spurs continued to pile the pressure on and Almunia was forced to make some fine saves. The scariest moment came in the 56th minute when Lennon’s cross was met by Robbie Keane’s header. Almunia was beaten but the ball brushed the top side of the net.

Although we were matching Spurs in the middle, they were making that extra man count and were having decent attacks. Our best chance of the period came when a miss-kicked corner fell short to van Persie who blasted it wide on the turn. However 3 minutes later in the 69th minute we had a corner from the other side, which was so close to the opening goal. The ball came in and Song almost met it on the bounce perfectly on the floor. I think if that has been a striker on the end of that it would’ve been 1-0 but Song’s shot went just wide. Looked like a hell of a miss from so near to the goal but he did well to keep it low and almost direct it in.

It looked like we were heading for a no-score draw until injury time with great chances at both ends. Bendtner had a clear shot on goal when the ball was slid across it him. He fired high and centrally but Cudicini made a fine save tipping it over for a corner. From that, Spurs broke and had us dangerously outnumbered. Almunia capped off a fine game but cutting the ball on before a low cross or shot was put in.

So 0-0 it was but by no means a boring game. There is no doubt that Emmanuel Eboue’s stupid actions changed the game. I’m sure we would’ve seen the introduction of either Arshavin or Eduardo had we still have 11 men on the field and you never know what might’ve happened with their influence. Eboue’s dismissal was also lucky not to cost us a goal, Spurs had a lot of space at times and some decent chanced but a mixture of some good defending and good keeping kept us in it.

Gallas and Song both had good games. They are two that do come under criticism but they really stepped up when it mattered yesterday so fair play to them. Eboue should be hanging his head in shame, not only did he ruin the game for us but he ruined it for himself. He was playing really well and looked like his promises of improving we true but he just had to show his true colours.

So just a point then and we are 5 points behind (manager-less) Chelsea and 7 behind Villa. Not good but those two play each other next in the league.

Before then we have a round of international friendlies this week and then FA Cup weekend after that. Eduardo has travelled with Croatia for their friendly and Slaven Bilic says he could get about half an hour for them. Gael Clichy has had to pull out of the France squad though after being taken off late on yesterday with a bad cut to the head. I’m not too worried about that, Wenger said he would just need stitches.

Next up for us is Cardiff a week tonight where we could see the return of Eduardo but no Arshavin – he is not eligible because he was not registered before the last fixture against Cardiff.

Right that’s it for today, thanks for reading.

Hugely Important North London Derby Preview 7 February, 2009

I’m not trying to say the preview is hugely important….the derby is hugely important. You get what I’m saying. This is a massive, massive game – psychologically, statistically, morally and mustkillthescumially. With Aston Villa winning today we find ourselves tonight EIGHT points behind them and six behind Chelsea. The way both of those teams’ form is going right now, we’re more likely to catch the latter to forth place!

Lose, and we have a massive gap to make up. Plus the blow of losing at the Shithole will be very damaging to our moral However, win and we’re looking at a possible new dawn to our season: We’d be hot on the heels of Villa and Chelsea, possibly into the 5th round of the FA Cup and looking at the arrival of Arshavin, Walcott, Eduardo and Fabregas who could be back at the end of the month. Exciting times if we were to beat Spurs and Cardiff – two very achievable tasks.

Playing Spurs is always going to be difficult but if we ignore the whole derby thing they are a team that are easy to beat. They are full of comical errors and allow the opposition loads of space. They have made some massive errors this season pulling them right into the relegation fight. However we’re not exactly perfect – a prime example was when we played Spurs earlier this season; losing our concentration when it mattered and letting them get back to 4-4.

So recent history, will tell you that this game has goals in it. I believe that both sides have great ability in scoring and conceding and we could be in for another goal-fest.

Robbie Keane is going to be a big threat on his return and we’ll have to keep an eye on him: he’s going to be well up for it. He’ll be partnered by Darren Bent or Pavlyuchenko. David Bentley is suspended for the game, which is a bit of a bonus. Not because I think he’ll score a 40-yard lob, just because I can’t stand to look at his face.

Our team news hasn’t changed much from the last game; we don’t have anyone returning from injury but Abou Diaby is suspended/injured. The sqaud hasn’t been announced yet but I’m going to make a guess that Arshavin makes the bench. I’ve explained in the week how I think he can help us and with 7 places on the bench I don’t see why he shouldn’t be in there. Eduardo is another one that could possibly make the squad. He’s been picked for Croatia in midweek so he must be fit enough. I don’t see him starting though…

Up front it’s certain to be Robin van Persie who is pretty much the first name on the team sheet at the moment. He’s after a new improved deal and so he should be. I said last season after he got injured again that he’s just not worth keeping if he’s going to be out for most of every season. Well this year he’s managed to stay fit and get into a great run of form. Lets hope he’s can keep this going.

He’ll be partnered by Emmanuel Adebayor who hasn’t been on the best form lately but that counts for nothing tomorrow. He will be well up for tomorrow’s game and keen to add to his impressive scoring record vs. Spurs. I think he is going to do it again; in fact I might put some money on it in the morning.

OK, so this is how I see us lining up:

Almunia (c)
Sagna – Gallas – Djourou – Clichy
Eboue – Denilson – Song – Nasri
Adebayor – van Persie

Gallas or Toure? I don’t know, I have just feeling it’ll be Gallas. Eboue? Well I don’t see Arsene starting Ramsey, Vela or Wilshere in the North London derby but you never know. Eboue has shown before that he can do a job on the right but has been acting a bit odd recently. These fresh quotes suggest that he is up for tomorrow’s game, I’m hoping that he puts in a team performance.

I cannot tell you how much I’m looking forward to this game. There is so much riding on it and I am well up for it. I’m back in London for the weekend and will be watching the game in The Gunners Pub, come join if you fancy, I’ll be the bloke in the Arsenal shirt.

That’s about all there is to say about the game. You know what you’re getting with the North London derby anyway with a preview: passion, aggression, rollercoaster emotions, last minute twists, great goals, massive results, great atmosphere and none of this is relative to form.

Right then, will speak to you soon. Enjoy the game and thanks for reading.

Early team news & first glimpse of 09/10 Away Kit? 6 February, 2009

With today being Friday, we get the usual load of quotes from Arsene Wenger’s press conference. The question on everyone’s lips is will Andrey Arshavin make his debut vs. Spurs? Well Wenger has revealed that he can officially play and that his work permit is sorted. He is currently travelling back from Russia so we only have tomorrow to see what sort of shape he is in. Wenger says he will resist rushing him back too soon:

“I will have reservations yes. The worst thing for a player is not being ready to play in a game of that intensity, or getting injured before having kicked a ball for the team. I will see what kind of shape he is in tomorrow to see if he will be involved in the squad or not. We are not in a hurry with him. He will be available. But at the moment he is somewhere in a plane. He had to fly back to Russia to get a visa and he is coming back tonight.

I believe he is talented, intelligent and motivated. When you have these things together, you always have a chance to make an impact. But you have to give him time as well. He is not fit at the moment because he had only 10 days preparation after a long break.”

Arshavin wont start on Sunday, but I’d like it if he made some sort of appearance. I think it would be a big boost having him on the bench. So what if he’s not fully fit? I’m sure he could manage 10 or 20 minutes football at the end of a game just doing what he can. I’m sure Andrey will be dying to get out there and show us what he’s made of, what a chance he has to do it against Tottenham.

If we’re struggling to find a goal late on in Sunday’s game, I think Arshavin would be a great introduction. He might just give us that little bit of creativity and determination going forward and it would also lift the team and fans. I agree that we shouldn’t rush Arshavin in too quickly but I’m not asking for a 90 minute performance, just a short cameo.

This photo of Arshavin has come to my attention today, it is supposed to be part of an advertising campaign for next season’s away kit:

The pictured has been leaked to The Mirror. I have no idea where this picture came from, or where it was taken but The Mirror claim it’s a “new publicity shot for Nike”. Could this be the look of our new away kit? I don’t mind our blue kits; it’s certainly better than white. I’ve heard that Man United are also getting a kit with this ‘V’ shape across it. Early days yet, if I find anything else out I’ll let you know.

Back to the team news and Emmanuel Eboue is available for selection this weekend. He was taken off after half an hour last weekend and presumed injured but this was just after a stupid dive and it wouldn’t have been the first time Wenger has replaced Eboue for acting stupidly. I bet he never actually was injured. I’m hoping we don’t have to resort to using Eboue on Sunday; there are so many more productive options we could go for. Wilshere? Vela? Ramsey? Even push Clichy up field and put Gallas at left back. I’ll talk more about our options tomorrow.

Tomas Rosicky has kicked a ball for the first time in a year this week. His long road to recovery takes another step forward and Wenger says he is positive about his return. The manager has put an estimation of six or seven weeks for his return – if correct that could see him return against Man City on the 4th April. Hopefully he makes it.

That’s it for today then. Tomorrow I’ll have a full match report ahead of a massive North London derby. Until then.

We have to beat the scum this weekend… 5 February, 2009

If not for the points, for this:

[If you're in a bad mood or of a nervous disposition I'd avoid watching this]

One of the worst North London derby moments has to be eradicated from the memory this weekend. It is one of the most frustrating moments I have ever experienced as a Gooner and still infuriates me to this day. When I got home yesterday I collapsed on the sofa and switched to Sky Sports News; as I flicked over they were showing a highlight of that 4th goal and I kicked over the coffee table in front of me. Since that moment I have been really up for this game.

I’m desperate for us to win this one and win it well, but it’s not going to be easy at all. Spurs are going to be boosted by the return of (new captain) Robbie Keane and other signings. We are on a bit of a high at the moment with Arshavin coming in but he’s not going to be able to play for a while and we are a bit short for Sunday’s game.

I’m not going to lie to you; I’m a bit worried about this game. The importance of this match is incredible. We need a win – forget we’re playing Tottenham for a second, we simply need to points to catch up with Aston Villa. Now anything other than that is not only going to really fuck up our chances for 4th, but it will be really damaging psychologically.

The players have a lot to prove after letting that lead slip so dramatically when Spurs came to The Grove. Around the time there were a lot of apologies and they players were saying they would give 100% in all their matches. Well now is the time they can officially put it all right.

Adebayor hasn’t been playing all to well recently and has looked a bit lazy. However he is a player that admits to love playing against Spurs and I’m hoping he will be well up for this game again. He has a great scoring record against the scum already so I’m hoping he can continue it.

I’ll talk properly about the game in Saturday’s proper match preview but today is a little teaser ahead of the weekend. Plus, there is still no news to report today. Tomorrow we’ll get loads of stuff from Wenger in the press conference and a bit of team news to think about.

I’m now coming back up to London this weekend. I’m hoping to watch the game in The 12 Pins on Sunday; I crave some Arsenal atmosphere so bad. I was actually offered two tickets today, so tempting but I just can’t afford to go. Sucks.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Speak to you tomorrow evening.

The Calm After The Storm 4 February, 2009

With Arshavin now Gooner it’s all gone incredibly quiet. The last month has been a frenzied panic with more news and twists than I’ve ever seen before.

Now that we actually have him there’s nothing really to talk about. There’s some bloke talking about Arshavin who is an expert on Russian football. What alarms me is that he has a lot to say about Euro 2008… Hopefully we haven’t just bought a player that just had a couple of good games in the summer. Arsene says he’s been watching him for a while; hopefully he is worth the money we’ve paid for him.

Also in that report, he confirms he hasn’t actually played football since November and will take at least a couple of weeks before he is fit to play. Tottenham away at the weekend would be a dream debut but I think it’s going to be far too soon for him. I’ve heard that he’s gone back to Russia to sort things out back over there so Spurs is really out of the question.

Diaby is suspended (and injured) and Eboue is likely to be out of Sunday’s game leaving us with little choices in the midfield. We could really do with Andrey now but we’re going to have to be patient and wait even longer for Arshavin!

With the derby at the weekend the news will start coming in tomorrow, I’m sure. If not I’ll make something up. I was looking today whether I could get the coach up to London just for the day to watch the game in the pub but I’m not going to be able to do it. Really missing going to Arsenal at the moment. I’ve booked to go back up to London the weekend after next but they fucking arranged the game for a Monday night and I’m going to miss that too. I’m really looking forward to this weekend’s game already; build up to come the rest of this week. Thanks for reading.

“Arshavin is Gooner” 3 February, 2009

I’ve been waiting to link to this article for a very long time and now that I finally can it doesn’t seem real. A massive 24 hours after the transfer window shut all the paperwork was finally done and one of the longest transfer negotiations ever is now done. The past day has been incredibly stressful but I’m so glad that we can now move on to looking forward to what he can do for us. We were given special dispensation from the Premier League to go ahead with the signing and his official join date is a quite strange 3rd February 2009.

I was listening to an interview on Sky Sports News with an agent who was representing Arsenal in the deal and he revealed all the problems with the move. He said we did absolutely everything to get this deal done and got all our paperwork done way before the 5.00pm deadline but the Russians were a few hours late on it, putting everything in doubt. He says there was one point today when Arshavin was knelt on the floor in distress that it all might not happen. Also, at the last minute – after all the flirting, Zenit realized they’re losing a great player and started to have second thoughts. The agent was also saying that he was wondering around last night in an Arsenal shirt like a fan and is genuinely excited to be joining us.

This evening Andrey Arshavin was finally revealed in front of gathered Arsenal fans presenting the no.23 shirt. You can watch an interview here from that first glimpse of Arshavin as an Arsenal player – he says he has “been Gooner” for a long time and is really happy he “is now officially Gooner” and that he can concentrate on his football. He said that he was surprised and grateful to see the fans show so much support on his signing. He also said that he is lacking a bit of fitness at the moment but remained optimistic about a possible debut vs. Spurs and knew it would be up to Wenger. I think he could be named as a sub; he would have some impact if the game wasn’t going to plan.

Here’s what Wenger said on the signing:

“We are delighted to have signed Andrey Arshavin, he is a player I have admired for a long time. He is a versatile player with great experience, who will add real quality to our squad. Andrey is an exciting impact player with a huge amount of ability and has been an influential force with both Zenit St Petersburg and the Russian national team in recent seasons.”

I guess Wenger plans to use him immediately on the wing; he likes putting attacking midfielders in that role. He is also very capable coming through the middle and an option as 2nd striker. It think he will be a great addition to our squad, especially at this time with all the injuries we have.

You can read more shinfo* on our new signing if you like, but none of that matters to me – he needs to prove himself on the pitch now and show us what all the hype is about. I’m excited about the future of our season now; he could just be the key to lifting some spirits and providing that bit extra going forward.

That’s about it for today, I need to rest after this emotional rollercoaster. Good luck Andrey, I’m glad you are now finally Gooner. Thanks for reading, speak to you soon.

[* Shinfo - Shitty Information]

8:00pm – Arshavin signing still uncomfirmed 2 February, 2009

First off, I’d just like to apologize for my disappearance over the last few days. A mixture of work, university, depressing football and rushing about and I just haven’t found a chance to get on the blog.

I’ve been saving myself for tonight’s post in what should be a final confirmation of our January 2009 transfer window action. Well as I type it’s now quarter to 8, two and three-quarter hours after the window has shut and there is still nothing!

The Andrei Arshavin deal has been on and off all day. This evening at 5:00pm it appeared that a deal had been done however an hour later news broke that it had fallen though.

The latest is that Arsene Wenger has spoken to Sky Sports News and said that he is confident some good news can be announced soon and that the deal should’ve all gone thorough.

There is so much information coming from all angles involving this transfer I just can’t confirm anything. I’m not believing anything either until I see it up on Arsenal.com.

I’m still very, very hopeful it does all work out but this insane frenzy at the close of a transfer window just drives me mental. There’s nothing let to do now except wait until the news breaks.

There is one piece of big news today and that’s that tomorrow night’s game vs. Cardiff has been called off due to the snow. The pitch is fine, it’s just the transport to, and around London will be a nightmare making it almost impossible for the away fans to get down to London and creating chaos after the game. It’s fair enough really. The game has been rescheduled for Monday 16th February.

So there will be no match report tomorrow, instead a January 2009 transfer window report – Presuming this has all been worked out by then!

Right I’m off now, good luck to you all refreshing Arsenal.com.