Pre-Chelsea stuff: We’ll have to wait and see for Gallas 27 November, 2009

The top story ahead of Sunday’s big game is that William Gallas is a doubt. He’s still having problems with that swollen eye he picked up on Tuesday and it’s now a ‘wait and see’ kind of scenario, quite literally – William’s having trouble getting his contact lenses in and is having trouble seeing. Here’s what Wenger said yesterday afternoon:

“There is a big question mark about him at the moment. Today I cannot say that William Gallas will play, unfortunately. The ankle should be alright but the eye is still very, very, very swollen.

He wears contact lenses and at the moment he would not get them in. We hope on Sunday it will be better. He is not comfortable but I am optimistic because we still have three days. It is Thursday today and we play on Sunday afternoon so, we are confident he can make it. Arshavin is OK. He was shocked but he is OK.”

I’m praying Big Willy will be fit to face his former club; he always does well against them and I’m sure he’d be up for another goal. His partnership with new-boy Vermaelen has been outstanding and we need them both tomorrow.

November has been a bad month for us for injuries and if we were to lose Gallas as well I wouldn’t rate our chances so much without him. We’re already without Clichy, Gibbs, Bendtner and van Persie from our first team – Chelsea will be counting themselves lucky.

Lampard was set to miss out the game through injury but he could start now. Cuntly Cole was also a doubt but he’s back too. Their only absentee is Bosingwa. They have the upper hand but we are at home and we’ll want to keep our 100% record.

Theo Walcott says he’s fit and ready as he looks to get in the team for Chelsea. I posted a possible team yesterday on my twitter and I named Theo on the bench, I think it’s too early for him on Sunday and I’d prefer him as an impact sub option. He’ll have a tough job facing Ashley Cole who’s in his best form since leaving Arsenal, but if he’s given the chance I expect him to put more than 100% in, and that might just be what we need.

Cesc Fabregas has been talking about a number of things, being named captain, his responsibilities and he says the Premier League is the top prize in football. He says in Spain they look at the Champions League as the biggest honour but he knows that winning the League takes much more skill and endurance. Cesc would love to lift the Premiership as captain as Arsenal and he’ll do anything to get there.

The reserves lost 2-1 to Aston Villa the other night. It saw returns from injury for Fabianski and Wilshere but young Jack might be a doubt for Man City. He picked up a knock against Villa and will undergo scans. There’s nothing official on this but it’d be a bit of a shame if he missed out right after regaining fitness. Also, Fran Merida was red carded in the game; I’m not sure whether a ban would affect his chance for the Carling Cup quarter final too. Certainly missing Wilshere and Merida would be a big loss so fingers crossed on them both.

OK that’s it for today, will do a Chelsea preview tomorrow evening some time. Thanks for reading, Happy Friday!

Arsenal 2-0 Standard Liege – 24/11/09 – (Champions League) 25 November, 2009

We’re through to the knockout stages of the Champions League for the 10th season in a row thanks to last night’s 2-0 win over Standard Liege. Quite an impressive achievement, much more impressive than scoring nine goals against some shitkickers for example. That said, I doubt we’ll be bringing any DVDs out marking the occasion.

It was a slightly under strength line up but still enough to do the job. Eduardo was rested and Vela started as the centre forward, he was flanked by Nasri and Arshavin. Denilson returned to the starting line up for his 100th appearance and had a good game scoring a great goal for our second. Alex Song also had a good game, in fact he had a great game and was my man of the match by far. It’s just been announced he’s signed a new long-term contract which is great news. He’s come so, so far in the last year or two and has won over literally hundreds of thousands of Arsenal fans including myself. Here’s to a positive future!

We got going straight from kick off, keen to finish this one off early and get qualified. We could’ve easily been 3-0 up inside 15 minutes we were creating that many chances. Nasri should’ve scored in the 9th minute when he was put clear but pulled a totally unexpected Alex Hleb impression and decided to pass. A few minutes after that there was one of the most incredible goalmouth scrambles I’ve even seen including a powered shot from Vela six yards out blocked on the line and a Vermaelen volley only stopped from crossing the line by hitting Arshavin.

Whilst still at 0-0 there was a bit of a shock when Liege had a rare trip down our end and hit the post with swerving long-range effort. Ashburton Grove let out one of the biggest sighs of relief you’ll ever hear.

With half an hour gone there was a bad clash of head between Arshavin and Gallas. Although Arshavin looked to come off worse with blood streaming down his face, Gallas seemed a bit confused as to where he was and had a massive swollen eye.

Both were still receiving treatment when our opener came. After all our nicely built up moves it was a defensive error that lead to the first goal. A long ball was put forward and right at the vital moment the centre back slipped. Samir Nasri was close by to out a cool finish past the ‘keeper.

10 minutes later it was 2-0, Denilson marking his 100th game and return to the side with a dipping 30-yarder. The ‘keeper might’ve done better but credit to the Brazilian for the shot.

So we were 2-0 up at half time and cruising. It could’ve been plenty more but then again we could’ve easily been 1-0 down earlier in the half. Gallas was replaced by Silvestre at half time, I was surprised he was allowed to continue as long as he did really but hopefully he’ll recover ok to face his former club this Sunday.

We took the foot off the gas a little in the second half – there was just a two-goal lead (and we know how to let one of those slip) but we were by far on top and there never looked like there was going to be a come back from Liege. We didn’t stop trying or anything like that, but I don’t think anyone was worried about the result.

Theo Walcott replaced Nasri on the hour and a few minutes later Denilson came off for Thomas Rosicky as we pushed to consolidate our win. Theo looked alright, he still needs more games though before we start seeing the best of him again. He had one chance with an early shot from the corner of the box but it went the wrong side of the post.

Clearly not getting back in the game, the visitors resorted to violence in the second half. As the clock ticked on, they started flying in more and more. They had a player sent off late of for a clash of heads with Fabregas, the two squared up face to face after a challenge and Cesc did well not to react when he was ‘nodded’. You’d see a lot of others players rolling around on the floor but there wasn’t much in it, it was still head contact though and the red card was shown.

Right at the end we paid for Liege’s strong challenges. Kieran Gibbs, who has just come back from a bruised metatarsal has now broken his foot and will be out for 2-3 months. Just when he thought he had a bit of luck just coming off with a bruising with England, he’s now really going to miss his chance whilst Clichy is out. It’s a terrible shame for Gibbs and I hope he makes a strong recovery.

It means that either Traore or Silvestre will have to fill in. To be honest I think I would prefer Sagna and Eboue to play wing-backs against Chelsea but we’ll talk more about that in the build up to that game this week.

Thanks for reading.

Monday round-up: Cesc, Vela, Chamakh and more 23 November, 2009

A few bits and pieces to discuss tonight so I’m just going to get right into it. First up, Cesc Fabregas has been talking about how happy he is at Arsenal. It’s not the first time he’s had to make one of these declarations. Barcelona have been talking about Cesc’s ‘Catalan DNA’ again and he’s hit back saying he’s Arsenal through and through… again:

“It does not affect me at all because it’s been going for years. To be honest I just don’t think about it, I don’t want to and I don’t think I should because I’m at a great club and in a great team.

I’m very happy where I am and there is very long season in front of us. The last thing I want to do is get disconnected from what I have to do which is to play football for my team and for the Club that pays me. I’m really looking forward to a great season with Arsenal.”

Pretty standard but pretty awesome stuff from the captain yet again. Most Arsenal fans take it as common knowledge that he won’t be with us forever and will one day re-join Barcelona. However, he was also asked whether he would consider staying at Arsenal his entire career:

“Why not? I have never thought about it. I’m only 22. You never know what your career will bring but why not? I’m in my seventh season now and I’m really happy, better than ever.”

I don’t think it’s set in stone that Cesc will join Barcelona one day, but he knows he will always be welcome and always be loved at Arsenal however many years he wishes to spend here. No one will hate him for leaving, I’ll understand – but how good would it be if he retired here? He’s only three years away from a possible testimonial, here’s to another after that.

Moving on and Wenger’s been bigging up Carlos Vela who is currently negotiating a new contract. We seem to be tying everyone down to long-term deals to stop people leaving for free, so Carlos has got a big decision to make. He’s not quite getting in the first team yet but he’s only 20 and has a couple more years to work for it. Hopefully he’s patient and signs himself up for a future at Arsenal.

He’s an exciting prospect and he should take some confidence from Wenger saying he didn’t replace Adebayor because of him and he probably wont sign Chamakh to allow Vela an opportunity. Chamakh seemed almost a done deal at one point but Wenger obviously believes Vela will be better in the long run. We’re low on strikers at the moment but we’re scoring goals (Saturday excluded) and Wenger will argue we don’t need anyone else. Vela needs to take his chances now while Bendtner and van Persie are out and try push into that first team. Equally as important though, he needs to get that contract signed.

Gallas and Rosicky are also up for contract extensions. Both have recently been doubts for new contracts for different reasons but I’d love to see them sign. After everything Gallas has been through he’s come through it a quality defender; he’s got his head down and kept his mouth shut and is now half of a strong defensive partnership. As for Rosicky, we’ll just have to wait and see whether he really is over his injury problems but if he is then sign him up too!

Finally tonight, Wenger has emphasized that his players should be concentrated on this season with Arsenal and not the World Cup by interrupting a reporter today. He was being asked about the likes of Theo Walcott looking forward to South Africa but Arsene stopped him and said we do not pay our players to play in the World Cup, we pay them to do their best for Arsenal. Damn Straight!

That’ll do for tonight I think. Tomorrow I’ll try do a quick preview of the Liege game but the team news is that Gibbs is back in. More tomorrow, see ya.

Sunderland 1-0 Arsenal – 21/11/09 – (Premier League) 22 November, 2009

Fuck Internationals.

If it weren’t for that bloody break we would’ve won yesterday. Not just because we were missing Gibbs and van Persie and everyone was tired (especially Gallas and Sagna). But also our good run was broken and we lost our focus. The players hardly had one day to get back into the Arsenal state of mind and focus on a tough Premier League game.

We weren’t at our best yesterday but we didn’t play all that badly. I think we badly missed van Persie and the front line of Rosicky, Eduardo and Nasri wasn’t lethal enough – Yesterday was the first game this season we haven’t scored; some achievement for Sunderland seeing as how free-scoring we’ve been of late.

You have to give credit to the home side, the result wasn’t just because we didn’t turn up. They played their football right from the start, they didn’t care that they were playing the team in second place – they have confidence that they can beat anyone if they try and they proved it again yesterday. Their goal was very lucky was due to our awful defending from a corner, the ball was loose in the area and Darren Bent was allowed to get to it first.

Arshavin, Vela and Walcott all came on in the second half but it wasn’t enough to score. To be fair once they went a goal down we really put the pressure on and Sunderland did well to keep the clean sheet. Our best chances were two low crosses across the face of the goal but no one could just reach a leg out far enough to stick it in.

Last year Fabregas scored in the 94th minute to make it 1-1 and I had this thought in the back of my mind right up until the final whistle but yesterday just wasn’t our day.

The players will be upset about the loss but we’ve got to get over it quickly. We’ve got an important Champions League fixture on Tuesday and then Chelsea on Sunday. We should really concentrate on Europe instead of looking ahead to Chelsea but yesterday’s loss has put us in an awkward position in the league.

We’ve dropped into third, three points behind United and eight behind Chelsea now. A win against the leaders would be massive for us but that game is more important simply not to lose now. An eleven point gap this early would be very difficult to close down, even with the game in hand we have. Avoid defeat on Sunday and we’re very much still in it, lose and then we’ve really got some work to do.

Wenger won’t be thinking about any of this yet, we’ve got Standard Liege on Tuesday and a draw is enough to take us through to the next round. We’ll be going for the win though and we’ll want to win well to boost confidence. More build up to come in the week. Thanks for reading.

Sunderland Preview: Players in and out means a re-shuffle 20 November, 2009

So the internationals are finally over, thank God for that. This break has brought up quite a bit of news towards the end and it’s been mostly been bad. Robin van Persie will be out for six weeks and will receive a bizarre placenta treatment; Wenger admits he’s not the biggest fan of it but is open-minded. Kieran Gibbs had a suspected broken metatarsal with the U21s but it turned out nowhere near that bad and could be back for Tuesday.

France’s 2nd leg play off with Ireland also kicked up a lot of stories, most of which were about Thierry Henry’s infamous handball. He’s had the finger of all tabloids pointed at him and a lot of people aren’t very happy with Thierry at the moment. I’m not in the best place to comment, I didn’t watch the game but I have seen the incident now. Yes it was the wrong thing to do, and yes he has cheated but why is everyone acting so crazy about it? It’s just like the Eduardo vs. Celtic incident – it’s not like this kinda thing has never happened before. It’s like there’s some sort of witch-hunt against Arsenal players…

Anyway Thierry apologized and you can sympathize with him for doing it in the split-second-heat-of-the-moment, now can everyone just calm down about it?! He’s even said a replay would be fair and Wenger agrees. I fell kind of strange commenting on this essentially unrelated Arsenal story so lets just leave it at that.

In that game Gallas and Sagna played 120 minutes so Wenger has hinted they might not start tomorrow but with Clichy and Gibbs out too it’s leaving us quite light at the back. I don’t know what Arsene will do, I don’t know the state of our French players but he has got a decision to make.

Walcott, Denilson, Wilshere and Vela are all back though so at least we have some options up front. With van Persie out until January there will be some competition for places and with the season Theo’s had so far I think he will be looking to get some games.

It’s hard for me to choose a team line up with all the news as it is but here’s my guess after all the hints Wenger has dropped:

Almunia
Eboue – Vermaelen – Gallas – Traore
Song
Fabregas (c) – Denilson
Walcott – Eduardo – Rosicky

If Gallas doesn’t make it then I guess one of Silvestre or Senderos will get given their chance but I hope that new central partnership doesn’t get split up tomorrow. Denilson will come in for the injured Diaby I expect, and I see one of Nasri or Rosicky joining that front line.

It’s a slightly re-shuffled team but one that has to perform well at The Stadium of Light. Sunderland have taken points off Liverpool and Man United this season already and will be well up for another upset. They’re doing well under Steve Bruce, sitting comfortably in 8th and are not a team to get complacent about.

They are without goalkeeper Craig Gordon but they have Martin Fulop as back up and Kenwyne Jones & Michael Turner are suspended too.

It’s a 3:00pm kick off tomorrow so it looks like an internet stream job for me. I know they’re showing it inside the ground for those who have tickets to it, that should be good but for everyone else I’ll try find a link and put it up on my twitter.

Three points tomorrow would put the pressure on Chelsea but any more injuries and they could have an advantage in the game next weekend.

Thanks for reading.

Correction – Robin could be back for New Years 16 November, 2009

Arsenal.com have officially announced RVP’s injury and are estimating him out for six weeks. He’s very lucky because it really could’ve been anything. He’s not actually back under Arsenal care yet but he’s flying back this week and will continue his rehabilitation with us.

In my last article I said he could be out as long as March. This is what I was told, probably shouldn’t have taken it as the final word but I wasn’t really thinking. So sorry about that. I’m kind of taking today’s announcement as a bit of good news but at the same time I’m not going to expect him to be fit and ready on New Year’s Day.

Although in the last year or two he’s turned his injury record around we all remember how Robin used to suffer with his problems. I’m not counting on him coming back in six weeks but if he can return inside January that’d be great.

I’ve got to shoot off but there’s a full round up of all our players on international duty here.

Laters.

Robin out until March with torn ligaments 15 November, 2009

I fucking hate International week. You hate international week too and I’m sure you loathe it even more with the news that Robin van Persie has torn ankle ligaments in a friendly vs. Italy which will see him out for about three months.

What a piss take.

“The ankle ligaments are definitely torn. After the match our medical staff did not mention a break in the bone but the doctors will be able to tell us for sure. It does not look too good.”

That’s the word from the Dutch FA regarding our top striker. The challenge (video) happened just 10 minutes into the game and he looked in quite some pain as he was stretchered off.

It’s typical, just as things are looking good for us we’re dealt a big blow. We’ll certainly miss Robin and although we might be told we can expect him back in March, he’ll take time to work his way back in and get fully fit. The next three months are vital to a title race and we’re without our main target man.

It’s time for Eduardo to step up now really. He said the other day he’s hungry for goals so he must deliver. With Bendtner currently injured too I’m expecting Eddy to be named the central figure in that 4-3-3. He’s lost his touch a bit recently but we all know just how clinical this guy is and I have confidence that he’ll show us once again in our time of need.

I found out about RVP’s injury last night just as I was thinking about Chelsea possibly being without Drogba, Lampard, Bosingwa and Cole for their visit in a couple of weeks. They have a few injuries too and you could say they’re in a worse off position than us, but it’ll be a tough one whoever plays and I’m looking forward to it already.

In other news Senderos is thinking of leaving in January as he’s getting no football here. You can’t blame him to be honest. I really thought that he might get another chance this year but clearly he’s not in Wenger’s plans at all and is just here as a back up. To be fair, neither Vermaelen nor Gallas have been injured (praise God/touch wood/crossed fingers/etc) so Big Phil hasn’t had a chance to play yet, if one had picked up something then circumstances might’ve changed but as it stands Senderos isn’t happy at Arsenal.

If/when he does leave we definitely need another defender. At the moment we have Djourou, Silvestre and Senderos as our central defensive back up – but Djourou’s injured, Silvestre is not good enough and Senderos looks to be off. It’s more likely that Wenger will promote a youngster but we’re close to being very thin at the back.

Sorry I haven’t been around much recently, been busy working and there hasn’t really been anything to talk about. Hopefully next time we meet it’s not to discuss more bad news. Until then.

Wolves 1-4 Arsenal – 07/11/09 – (Premier League) 11 November, 2009

I know it’s a bit late for this but there might be someone out there who wants to read about my trip to Wolverhampton on Saturday. Maybe it’s just me or maybe it’s just that it’s Interlull and there’s nothing really else to talk about, but this is what you’re getting.

My day actually started the day before travelling up to London from Bournemouth the day before but that’s irrelevant to you. We set off from North London Saturday lunch time and headed north up the M1. We arrived in Wolverhampton at a safe, but very keen time of about 2.30 and set out to get some food and some beers. The first thing that struck me about the town was – ‘fuck me, what a shithole’. The overcast weather didn’t really help but it seemed like a really gloomy place to be.

Anyway we went to a local Whetherspoons for a burger and couple of beers and it gradually started filling up with home fans. The few Arsenal fans that were in there started filtering out and we joined to see where all the Gooners were headed. All the pubs around town were ‘home fans only’ and were packed, there was literally nothing for an away fan to do so we thought we may as well head down to the ground… a full two hours early.

It was bitterly cold and with nothing to do it was turning into a bit of a disappointing away trip. However all of a sudden fans started arriving and we made our way into the concourses for a quick beer. The atmosphere was great in there; this is what I’d come all the way up here for! Been a while since I’d been to an away game and I was loving it.

Our seats were pretty much dead on the halfway line, quite a good view. The away fans had the full length of one stand but just the lower tier, with home fans peering down from above. At first I thought it was good but I soon realized that the long and thin allocation we had made it hard contain any noise. Of course there was singing and it was good but there were no acoustics and it took some time for songs to reach one end to the other. Quite clever of the Molineux staff to give away fans that area.

The home fans themselves were quite loud and there two things together made it very difficult for us to be heard. They had something to sing about too as we found it very difficult to get into the game early on. Alex Song had been rested for this afternoon’s game and for my very first time as an Arsenal fan I heard some one say how much we missed him. It shows just how incredibly far he has come here but it was true.

In the 23rd minute Abou Diaby limped off and Song came on with a chance to sort things out. His impact wasn’t immediate but he had a fantastic game. He calmed things down in the midfield and was even showboating in the second half.

The goal came soon after the substitution. We got a free kick wide on the left near the corner flag, it was swung in by Fabregas and came off someone and appeared to go in the back of the net. I started celebrating, I had no idea what had happened but it looked like 1-0. The ball had actually gone behind the net, but out for a corner.

Fabregas stepped up to swing one in again, and again someone got a touch on it but this time it actually went in the back of the net. I couldn’t tell who the scorer was and it didn’t help that there was no announcement of the scorer or scoreboards to check. Later on I found out it was an own goal and so too was the second…

We found a gap in midfield and sent Eduardo racing through with acres of space one-on-one. Thoughts of Tottenham when he missed that one-on-one came to mind when his chip over the ‘keeper looked to be going wide. It ended up in the back of the net though even when it looked to be going wide, oh well I just took it as an amazing chip. However when I watched it back that night it took a deflection off the defender’s head helping it into the bottom corner.

So we we’re two-nil up thanks to a little hand from the home side. We didn’t overly deserve the position we were in but who cares? The third came right before half time, a great passing and moving display ended up in van Persie laying it on a plate for Fabregas who easily added to his impressive goal tally.

3-0 up at half time and surely no way back for Wolves. We hadn’t even played that well; their defense was just shocking.

We picked up slightly in the second half, our passing was better and although we didn’t seem to put in much effort we were all over Wolves. It was just a case of when we would add to the three-goal lead.

It took until the 65th minute and it was Arshavin the scorer. Firstly he exploded down the left, took it inside the box and tried to smash one inside the goalie’s near post but he read it and made a great save. However from the resulting corner Arshavin found the ball land at his feet on the end of the box, put a foot through it and sent it inside that same post at the second time of asking. Lucky to find the gap through a busy box like that but a good goal.

Soon after Rosicky and Nasri were given a run out. I thought one of the two might start on Saturday but hopefully we can look forward to that after the international break.

The second half continued in the same sort of fashion, however Wolves were putting a bit more into it as their fans got behind them. They were trying to wind us traveling fans up, one of the more ridiculous chants was, ‘We support our local team!’ Right OK then good for you, we’ll just get off down the M1 and back to the train to London and think about how we should do the same then shall we? ‘You support your local shit’ was the response.

They got one back late on and intelligibly the place went mental. You’d think with the scenes in the stands, the music and the PA announcer they’d just equalized but oh well it’s just a bit of fun.

So 4-1 it ended, we never really played our best but it was way more than enough to beat this lot. I can’t wait until they come to the Grove because they really are awful.

So that was my first trip to Molineux, and hopefully my last! I haven’t come away from Wolverhampton the biggest fan of the place to be honest.

We’re now in second place after United lost to Chelsea and five points behind the leaders who we play at home at the end of the month. It’s getting a little bit exciting now.

Thanks for reading.

That was my first and hopefully my last trip

Wolves Preview: A win would be a massive 3 points 6 November, 2009

On Sunday it’s first vs. second at Stamford Bridge, which leaves us in third a chance to make some ground. As it stands we’ve played 10 and have 22 points, United and Chelsea have played 11 and are on 25 and 27 points respectively. If we are to take three points away from our trip to Molineux we’ll draw level with United and be just two behind Chelsea.

Obviously in some way or another one of the two are going to drop points on Sunday so winning tomorrow has become vital.

I don’t want to sound too cocky though – in no way are we going up there tomorrow expecting to win. It’s not going to be that easy. They haven’t been beaten in a month and are proving a tough little side.

We might be in good form but even Cesc Fabregas knows it will be a test

“We will have to be at our best as usual because today there are no small teams in the Premier League, everyone makes it difficult if you are not up for it, so we will have to be motivated to beat them.”

That was our problem last year – we’d beat all the big teams but then turn up at the lesser teams simply expecting to win and not put the effort in. I think (or at least hope) that this year things have changed. Wenger will emphasize the importance of these points and send us out all guns blazing.

As for the team news, not much has changed since the last game but Wenger has reminded us that Rosicky and Nasri are back. I’m not sure how Wenger feels about starting them yet but they will certainly be in the squad tomorrow. It’s a shame Bendtner’s out but we have fresh options with these two back.

Here’s how I’d like us/think we might line up tomorrow:

Almunia
Sagna – Gallas – Vermaelen – Gibbs
Song
Fabregas – Diaby
Rosicky – van Persie – Arshavin

I’d like to see Rosicky featured somewhere because he’s been fantastic when he’s played this season. However, I think you’re more likely to see Eboue in that right-forward spot.

As for Wolves they’ve got a couple out but last season’s top scorer, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake will start against us. I said they’re unbeaten in a month but they also haven’t won since their victory over Fulham in September. They’ve also conceded 18 goals in 11 matches and are about to face the top scorers in the league.

We will fancy ourselves tomorrow, which is natural when it’s 3rd vs. 17th but as I said we need to concentrate and apply ourselves like we would any other game.

I’m driving up to London tonight ahead of the journey to Birmingham tomorrow lunch time. I can’t wait for this one, should be a good trip. You might have to wait until Monday for the match report but whenever I do get round to it I’ll give you an account of my first trip to Molineux.

Thanks for reading.

Oh Cesc Fabregas, you are the love of my life 5 November, 2009

Last night we beat AZ Alkmaar 4-1 (as I’m sure you’re quite aware…) and Wenger has labeled it ‘a brilliant performance’. The emphatic win wasn’t enough to put us through to the knockout stages though after Standard Liege beat Olympiacos 2-0 but we’re in a strong position going into our final two games. Highlights and goal videos are, as always, available on arsenalist.com.

Cesc Fabregas got another two goals to make it 8 in 14 appearances, Samir Nasri got one to mark his return from a broken leg and Diaby got the other. Arshavin had one of his better nights assisting 3 of those and all four were really well worked goals and taken brilliantly. A shame for Almunia not to keep the clean sheet after making a great save onto the bar but we were caught on the counter from a corner and Manuel got his balance wrong.

So another two for the captain and what form he’s in at the moment. Wenger has described him as the best he’s ever been and said the other day that he couldn’t have had scored that goal against Spurs aged 20. He’s been an absolute legend recently, not only has his football been sublime but he’s wearing that armband like it should be done. You can tell he really cares about this team and gives everything to the cause; He inspires the whole side and is easily our best player aged just 22.

He’s been named the best player in the league by fans this week too as he’s been awarded the PFA Fans’ Player of the Month. Well deserved, I don’t take much notice of how well players of other teams are doing but this boy’s been a star to us. Oh Cesc Fabregas, you are the love of my life, oh Cesc Fabregas, I’d let you shag my wife.

Anyway moving on and Arsene Wenger’s been talking this week. Firstly he’s thanked Ferguson for asking Man United fans to stop the ridiculous pedophile chanting. I don’t think it really gets to Arsene as much as the United fans would hope but it would be nice if they stopped. Man U. travel to Stamford Bridge this weekend and Le Boss says we must make the most of this chance to make ground. If we win at Wolves we’re guaranteed to catch up on one or the other and Wenger says he doesn’t care what the score is as long as we win our game. We’ll have a game in hand either way too so winning at Molineux will really put us in a good position. We need to get our heads down and concentrate on that one.

I’m going to Molineux on Saturday and I’m pretty excited. I’ll be my first away game of the season and I’m really looking forward to the trip. I’ll do a preview of the game tomorrow when we’ve got a better idea of team news but we know already Clichy and Bendtner will definitely be out. Gael’s picked up a stress fracture in his back which will see him out for a month or two at least. It’s the same problem he picked up last year allowing Kieron Gibbs to step up and he’s got his chance again now. Clichy played well against Spurs I thought so it’s a shame but hopefully he makes a speedy recovery.

Bendtner’s also out after coming off in the first half at the weekend. He’d just come back from a groin injury but was risked and ended up aggravating it. He’ll probably be out for another month but luckily we have cover in Nasri and Rosicky who’ve just come back.

Stan Kroenke has reached the magic 29.9% mark in shareholding and it has been officially announced on the website. He is now in a position where he can make a bid for the club but Wenger doesn’t think we’re going to get taken over. We still have no idea what Silent Stan’s intentions are but I’m expecting to find out very soon. We’ll just have to wait and see…

There’s a deal in place for Fran Merida according to Arsene, it is just yet to be officially signed. There’s been a bit of speculation recently about him moving away when his contract expires in the summer but I always knew Wenger would do everything to keep him. Sign on that dotted line Fran so we can all get giddy and excited about your future at Arsenal.

Finally before I go a shout out to Who Ate All The Pies for the mention, the cheque is in the post.

Right I better go now, this is turning into a bit of an essay. I thought I should make more of an effort though this evening after being a bit lazy on here recently… Speak to you tomorrow, thanks for reading.

Arsenal 3-0 Tottenham – 31/10/09 – (Premier League) 2 November, 2009

I know it’s a bit late for a match report but I’m buzzing about this game. It was my first Arsenal game for about two months so I’m was looking forward to it despite it being the derby. When I got to the station on Saturday morning to head into Finsbury Park the butterflies started kicking in. You know when you don’t know whether you’re nervous or excited or both but you cannot wait for the game, well it was one of those ones.

I loved being back at Arsenal, and the atmosphere was extra special on Saturday. Walking to my gate I caught my first glimpse of the ‘Arsenalization’ and made it into the ground a very keen half hour early. The stadium slowly started building up though and as the teams came out the place erupted.

There was a fantastic noise coming from the crowd all game and it was nice to see. Shame we can’t just do that every game but at least I was there when there was that atmosphere.

As Spurs will protest, the first 40-odd minutes were fairly even. Well is wasn’t particularly but if you ask any Spurs fan it was. They had a great chance right at the end of that period when a ball was put through for Robbie Keane who couldn’t quite get his little legs onto. He knew that was a big chance and we were lucky he was born a pikey midget.

Minutes later we made it 1-0. RVP reacted quicker that King to a ball Sagna put in low and squeezed it between the post and Gomes’ butterfingers. The Spurs ‘keeper had made a fantastic save from Fabregas earlier in half but he really let his team down here.

When the first goal went in the place was mental. I feel sorry for the bloke next to me, I’m pretty sure I broke his foot when I landed on it after a giant leap. We we’re still celebrating the first when the second went in. Sloppy Spurs handed the ball to Fabregas in the centre circle who took on the entire team to go one-on-one within seconds of kick-off. The finish was cool and collected and the celebration was spine-tingling.

The Grove went fucking mental, two goals against Spurs in the space of a minute and that incredible run from Fabregas just got a bit much and I didn’t know how to express how happy I was. Just sort of jumping around, screaming and punching the air like a lunatic.

We didn’t stop singing until half time and when the whistle went for the break there was a huge cheer as if we’d won the game. We hadn’t though. There was still 45 minutes to go and we had only just found ourselves in this two-goal lead. We needed to keep our heads up and not get carried away; this game was nowhere near won yet.

The third goal game on the hour. Just before that Spurs had another chance with a free kick in a decent position but Almunia simply palmed it over the bar. If that had gone in then things might’ve changed… but it didn’t… and we went on to open a three-goal lead.

Eduardo was taken out on the right wing, everyone inside the ground stopped expecting a free kick to be given. The incident happened right in front of where I sit and I was just about to shout at the ref for not allowing the advantage when I noticed he was waving play on… oops. Sagna saw this too, got the ball and carried on down the right. He played it in for van Persie in the middle but Ledly King got ahead of him and Gomes was in a good position to collect it. However both of them fucked it up allowing the ball to squeeze between them both onto the foot of van Persie who made it 3-0 to The Arsenal. Comical defending from the ever-hilarious Tottenham Hotspur.

It was really game over from here. I was never 100% sure it was over after last year but we were way on top. Eduardo had a fantastic chance to make it 4-0 and really put it to bed when he went thorough on goal with acres of space. Gomes came out, he thought about the chip, steadied himself and went to place it in low along the ground. I watched the ball trickle past the left post in disbelief, you’d expect Eduardo of all people to finish a chance like that – he had too much time.

We should’ve made it 4-0 in injury time when Ramsey and Cesc broke on the Tottenham defence. It was hilarious watching Bassong pull his hamstring chasing Ramsey leaving just one defender to pass around; I don’t know what was going through his head but Aaron passed straight to that solitary defender and the attack was over. Oh well.

So 3-0 it finished, a solid win but 4 or 5 nil would’ve been much, much sweeter. We could complain about those two sitters but when you’re three goals up I guess it’s not that important. All that’s important is the win and watching the scum in the corner walk quietly up the stairs with their heads hung low.

Almunia returned but never really had a save to make. Apart from that free kick stop he made some good catches from crosses but that was it.

I was a bit disappointed with Abou Diaby who I found myself shouting at countless times. He was sloppy, a bit lazy and made poor decisions. I really just wanted to see him do something good but he really didn’t have a great game. Everyone else was great though, Clichy looked like his old self I thought, Sagna got two assits, Vermaelen + Gallas were solid, Fabregas bossed the midfield, Song was on top form and van Persie was on fire. Arshavin wasn’t amazing again, I’m not going to say he was bad because he did create some good stuff but he just wasn’t his best. Bendtner went off injured in the first half and afterwards Wenger said it could be bad, maybe about a month out.

Lets not concentrate on that for now. Let’s look at Harry Redknapp twitching in the corner looking at loss with his side. Let’s look at all the shit that was said before the game from their camp and how they didn’t even come near us on the day. Let’s look at Cesc Fabregas taking on that whole bunch of useless twats from the halfway line and scoring like we’d just won the world cup. Actually yeah, lets look at that.

Well enjoy the victory as long as you can, I know I am. Thanks for reading.