Partizan Preview: Time for Gibbs to step up 28 September, 2010

After the disappointment of Saturday, tonight is a chance to repair the damage with a good win in the Champions League. Losing to West Brom at home is even shitter when you think about it so a good show tonight can help us forget about it a little bit more. It’s good having a match so soon after a bad result because it’s a chance to get back on track and hopefully go into the Chelsea match with a bit of confidence. The players will be really up for tonight’s game as they are just as upset with the weekend’s performance as we are, they’ll want to prove to us that they can do much better than that and bounce back.

However some players might not even get the chance to redeem themselves tonight. As we know Manuel Almunia is injured but also Abou Diaby hasn’t even made the travelling squad with no news of an injury from Wenger’s mouth. Whether he’s been dropped for his poor showing or he has picked up a knock I don’t know, all I do know is that I won’t exactly be missing him. Kieran Gibbs has made the squad though after his bruised foot picked up against Spurs and if fully recovered I want him to start.

I have always had a soft spot for Clichy, even when Ashley Cole was at the club and in fine form. I don’t know why exactly but he caught my eye from a young age so I was never bothered about the whole saga with Cole going to Chelsea because I knew we had someone potentially better in reserve. In fact he did turn out to be a whole lot better than Cole, Ashley took a few years to settle in the other side of London whereas Clichy was relishing the first team opportunity. He made the PFA team of the year in 2008 alongside Sagna and there was no doubting we had the best wing backs in the league. However since then I’m sad to admit he’s been on a gradual decline. Last season was a bad one by his standards, he made too many mistakes, was beaten too easily, looks scared in the amount of times he backs off players and is not as dangerous going forward as he was. I was hoping he would recapture some of his form this season but it hasn’t happened.

Other the other hand Kieran Gibbs has gone from strength to strength and in my opinion has just overtaken Gael in the pecking order. His attacking game is improving but he already looks the more solid defender than Clichy. He’s less accident-prone and is making himself more difficult to beat than his French colleague. He turned 21 on Sunday and I think he might get a belated present by finding himself the first choice left back at Arsenal.

In an ideal world I’d like to see Gibbs come in, continue his development as a player but at the same time see Clichy up his game and fight for his place back. Competition is a great thing and I’m sure Wenger would love the headache of two top left back to choose from each game. Anyway, if Gibbs is fit we should play him tonight in this team:

Fabianski
Sagna – Squillaci – Koscielny – Gibbs
Song – Wilshere
Nasri
Rosicky (c) – Chamakh – Arshavin

Szczesny is in the squad along with Fabianski but I don’t think Wojciech will start, It’s good to see him involved but Wenger said it will be Fabianski in nets and once again he’s given him his backing. Well he’s not exactly going to slate him going into a game he’s about to start but time and time again we’ve seen Wenger say he believes in him and wants to give him the opportunity to show how good he is before making a calamitous mistake costing us points. I’m praying that tonight it is not the case again.
Sagna, Squillaci, Koscielny and Song will have to up their game considerably from the weekend. We were poor defensively and that cost us big time, we cannot afford to do that tonight. Sagna was not good out on the right, he needs to be much more solid and I believe he can, he didn’t look himself on Saturday so I’m hoping it was just an off day. Song was awful protecting the defence and as our only defensive midfielder that’s not a good thing. I hoped he’s watched back his performance this weekend because he was all over the shop; he needs to stop aimlessly wondering forward and do his job protecting the back so other players have the license to attack.

We could see the return of Wilshere tonight who was rested on Saturday. If he continues his fine form of Cesc-lookey-likey then that’ll be a massive boost. We’ve also got Cesc-lookey-likey no.2 in Samir Nasri who has been our player of the season so far. I’m hoping he has another good game tonight and turns his magic on.

I’m excited, nervous, confident, anxious and worried about tonight’s game all that the same time if that’s possible. I’m interested to see how we respond as a team to the weekend’s disappointment and if we can get a good result in tricky Serbia.

Enjoy the game tonight, COME ON YOU GUNNERS.

Arsenal 2-3 West Brom – 25/09/10 – (Premier League) 27 September, 2010

So not the best result then this weekend was it? I spoke before the game about being confident after the Spurs win but I think an over confidence turned into complacency and we never really bothered turning up. We failed to realise that West Brom would be coming down looking to give us a game and take whatever points they can off us, the team just looked like they thought that if they turned up they would win. Not the case, certainly not against against Premier League side. Those six and four goal thrillers had gone to our head and when on Saturday we faced a team that would actually require a performance to beat, we couldn’t do it.

This weekend Chelsea also lost and Man United drew to Bolton. So you can look at it two ways, 1. That is was a missed opportunity to gain points on our rivals, or 2. That at least we haven’t lost ground on them. Wenger said we don’t look at the results of our rivals, only ourselves and that’s probably the best way. It would’ve been brilliant to win and get within a point of Chelsea but it wasn’t to be and we have to move on.

This can act as a lesson to us. I’ve seen Arsenal many times before simply turn up expecting to win and be caught out, It’s the reason behind us dropping points to so many bottom half sides in recent years; I honestly thought that was out of our system now though. Hopefully this loss to West Brom will teach us that if you want to win the league you have to show that for all 90 minutes in every one of the 38 games. For some oppositions you don’t have to tell the players they need to be at their best, for example next week at Chelsea they won’t need reminding that their best is expected of them. But when you have say West Brom, Wigan or Bolton at home it’s easy not to get worried about facing them and just turn up knowing you’re capable of winning. The fans are guilty of it too, I was never worried about facing West Brom and to be honest I expected us to run out easy winners. Players and fans alike need to be at their very best every game, they need to know that every match is a big test and their 100% commitment is expected for the full game. Yeah we probably could, and have in the past just strolled out, not ever been worried about the opposition and won the game on superior quality alone but those times we have been lucky.

On to the game itself and I thought we started alright; we had plenty of the ball, we weren’t as dangerous with it as we could be but I just put that down to it being the opening stages. Arshavin came close with a ball crossed into him at the back post, I think he hit the woodwork with that I can’t remember, haven’t watched the highlights back. However the visitors began to realise that they could compete in this game and with every Arsenal mistake their confidence grew. They should’ve been 1-0 up going into half time if it wasn’t for another Almunia penalty save, that’s 5 in 6 he’s saved at The Grove. Credit to him for that but he gave the penalty away in the first place for rushing out and tripping up Odemwingie, it wasn’t all his fault as he was left exposed by his defence but still.

We were kind of lucky to go in at half time 0-0 then but 7 minutes into the second half we were 2-0 down, anyone late back to their seat after a half time beer would’ve wondered what the hell happened! At half time we needed a strong talking to, we needed to up our game and push West Brom back but whatever was said was completely forgotten. They went 1-0 up when Odemwingie tapped in a low cross and the second was a horrible mistake my Manuel going to ground to pick up an easy shot but he misjudged it and went in at the near post. Horrible ‘keeping.

We were just about trying to get back into it when we went 3-0 down. Almunia left exposed again had to come rushing out and the cross went into Jerome Thomas who scored into the unguarded net. Some Arsenal fans started leaving and I don’t really blame them, we were awful and at only 73 mintues gone there was still time for this to get embarrassing. I stayed though, I was interested to see what our response was. I don’t know if we got better but we put more pressure on West Brom and Nasri managed to squeeze two goals out of them setting up a tense finish. He was the only one who can take credit out of Saturday’s game and if we had managed to get any points it would’ve been all down to him.

Full time came and it ended 3-2 to West Brom, the Arsenal players left the field dejected and the West Brom players left elated to applause from the away and home fans – they had been the better team and deserved to take three points back to Birmingham. And that was that, it’s sad to lose on any day but to lose to anyone outside the top 6 is a bad day for Arsenal. Hopefully this will be a lesson to the players who didn’t turn up and that’s pretty much all of them, Wenger said it wasn’t all Almunia’s fault, the whole team was disappointing and he’s right. I’ll just run through what I thought of the team on Saturday:

Almunia – Good penalty save but back to his old self with too many mistakes. Record profits but still can’t afford a ‘keeper? 4/10
Sagna – One of his worst in an Arsenal shirt. At fault on a number of occasions, unlike himself. 4/10
Koscielny & Squillaci - First taste of defeat for them and they won’t like it. Could’ve been a lot better, left Almunia exposed too much. 5/10
Clichy - Since his PFA team of the year selection has been on a steady decline. Used to be a massive fan of him but finally accepted Gibbs is our better left back. 3/10
Song – Not good. Top stuff from him last season but hasn’t found his form yet. 4/10
Nasri – Best player on the pitch (again). He’s having a good season but can’t do it all on his own. 7/10
Eboue – Rubbish. He seemed to improve last season but offered nothing on Saturday. 3/10
Arshavin – Spent more time sat on the ground or stood watching the game than running and helping the team – his usual self but worse. 4/10
Diaby – Not great from him either, I can’t really remember much of him which isn’t a good sign but was right to be substituted I know that. 4/10
Chamakh – Struggled a little. Without the players around him he can’t work his stuff. He’s the new kid though so has an excuse. 6/10

So as you can see I’m not that impressed with us this weekend. We need to move on now though as it’s the Champions League tomorrow night. Almunia is ‘injured’ and Fabianski will play in goal, fucking great… Whether Manuel is injured or not who knows but the fact that Fabianski is getting another chance frustrates me. Part of me is hoping he fucks up again so we never see him play in an Arsenal shirt again.

Anyway I’ll look at the game tomorrow. Until then, thanks for reading. Oh and if you’re interested in hearing more from me make sure you add me up on Twitter or Facebook. See ya.

Arsenal vs. West Brom Preview 24 September, 2010

Despite drawing against Sunderland last weekend we go into tomorrow’s game on a high after a moral-boosting 4-1 victory over Spurs. There’s nothing like beating the scum to lift the sprits, yet at the same time a loss at While Hart Lane would’ve been more damaging to our confidence. That’s probably a big reason why Arsene fielded a stronger side and it worked, we go into tomorrow’s match vs. West Brom full of confidence. Well I do anyway!

However it did take extra time to see off Tottenham and a number of players served 120 minutes. Eboue, Koscielny, Djourou, Denilson, Wilshere, Nasri and Lansbury were all on the pitch for the duration so I’m not expecting all of them to be involved tomorrow. We’re a fit squad but you can’t take too many risks especially with a midweek game next week too. On top of those names we have others out injured and only Diaby looks like returning:

“The only player who could come back is Diaby. He will have a test on Friday morning and we will see from there.

Kieran Gibbs is a major doubt of course but we are just happy that he has not broken his foot. He will be short-term, maybe Tuesday, we don’t know but we will see. It is only bone bruising, there does not look to be any ligament damage. Let’s hope.

Thomas Vermaelen will be out for the next two games. Cesc Fabregas is out 100 per cent for the next two games. We have a small hope he could be back against Chelsea.

Song is back after suspension. I rested Squillaci because he had a small muscle problem but he should be back.

We have some problems about Rosicky with his ankle and with Eboue’s knee. They will both have a fitness test tomorrow.”

I have no idea how today’s fitness tests went but we can only hope for the best. Diaby could be important but so too Squillaci with Djourou and Koscielny playing 120 minutes on Tuesday and Vermaelen still out injured. I can only guess at how players have recovered but here’s what I think anyway:

Almunia (c)
Sagna – Koscielny – Squillaci – Clichy
Song – Wilshere
Diaby
Arshavin – Chamakh – Vela

I’ve left out Nasri as a wild guess really. He’ll probably play but he’s just come back from injury and Wenger might feel he can beat West Brom without risking him and saving him for the Champions League. Rosicky could come into that front line in place of Vela if he passes a fitness test and I don’t be surprised if you see Djourou start if one of our two French centre backs doesn’t make it.

We’ve got quite a few players out injured now and it’s starting to take it’s toll on the team selection; I know that when I have to look at the squad pages on the official site to see what options we have! We’ve got Chelsea away next Sunday so hopefully we’ll have a few back before that one.

I really do fancy us for tomorrow, West Brom are a side we really should be seeing off especially with out home record – whether we score another six past them I don’t know but I do believe we should be taking three points off them. They’ll come and give us a game that’s for sure, another early goal would help tomorrow so lets start quick off the first whistle and push them back.

I’m back in London and I’ll be at the game tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to it, I haven’t been since the 6-0 thrashing of Blackpool. Let’s hope I’m some kind of lucky omen this season.

Thanks for reading.

Tottenham 1-4 Arsenal – 21/09/10 – (Carling Cup) 23 September, 2010

A bit late, this match preview I know but any win over Spurs is worth talking about whether two days later, next week or a year down the line. We all love it! On Monday I was considering not watching the game at all but come the day of the game there was no stopping me, you can’t just miss a North London derby whatever the circumstances or wherever I was supposed to be instead! I was expecting us to field a typical inexperienced youth side against a near enough Tottenham first XI but both sides went for a mixture of youth and experience which seems to make more sense to me now; Spurs if you haven’t heard are in the Champions League and being sensible you can’t risk you’re first team in the Carling Cup with Europe and the Premiership to still compete in. As for us well no one likes to go out of any cup in the first round, especially not at the ground of your biggest rivals, also it seems like we will be taking the competition a little more seriously now; we haven’t won anything in a few years now and a triumph even in the Carling Cup might be enough to spur push us on to a league title. It would just be nice to see us lift any kind of silverware this season and with Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City all being knocked out last night we’re in a quite good position to do it.

Anyway to our game on Tuesday night, we were magnificent. The mixture of experience plus a few understudies worked perfectly proving that any side we put out will play the Arsenal way. Jack Wilshere was fantastic yet again and was the obvious choice for man on the match. Once again the opponents only response to the teenager’s talent was to kick him down and kick him again, but he simply got up and carried on his game running the midfield and supplying killer balls all over the place. This guy is just as exciting as Cesc Fabregas was at 18 and if Barcelona do cough up the cash next summer we might have a ready made replacement. Samir Nasri might have something to say about that as once again in the captain’s absence put in a great performance in the middle. He snatched Sky’s man of the match award for his two penalties in extra time but I think overall you have to say Jack ran the show.

We absolutely dominated the first half; Spurs could hardly get the ball. The home side gave us a couple of scares on the break but other than them it was all us. We took the lead after 15 minutes when Henri Lansbury scored his first goal of the season. It was quite a nice goal actually, Eboue spotting Gibbs free on the left and switching the play to him, Gibbs to Wilshere who had got in a dangerous crossing position and then a killer ball across the goal mouth from Jack which Lansbury made the run to tap in. We should’ve probably capitalized on our first half domination more by turning it into goals but we went in at the break just 1-0 up. It should’ve been two though, the linesman wrongly flagging Gibbs offside after rounding the ‘keeper who was put through by a perfect ball by Wilshere.

I was pissed off with the linesman at half time so you can understand why I was furious that he let Keane’s goal stand just minutes into the second half. It was marginal, but he was offside when he was put through whereas Gibbs was clearly on. Fabianski should’ve done miles better though, Keane’s shot was poor and he even got down to it but the ball still managed to find the net. I don’t want to see this clown in goal for us anymore, luckily he didn’t have much else to do but how many chances can this guy get?! Szczesny was very unhappy at not being involved and so were most of the fans I think. I hope to see him in goal in the next round of the competition, he deserves his chance now, Fabianski has blown his too many times.

So the 90 minutes were up at it was 1-1, you could say luckily as Keane hit the post late on put then you could look back at the chances we could’ve converted too. I was pretty nervous in the second half of the game and more so going into extra time, it was getting tense now and I was desperate to win. However just one minute into extra time Nasri was dragged down in the area and the ref pointed to the spot. Memories of the miss at Sunderland were still fresh in the mind but this time Nasri picked himself up and took the spot kick himself. Wenger had told him to forget about these superstitions that if you are brought down you don’t take the penalty and he finished well. A few minutes later Chamakh was brought down in the box and he got another penalty! Nasri took it again showing great composure to read the ‘keeper and slot it in the opposite corner. 3-1 Arsenal and it had come out of nowhere.

It was pretty much game over from here. The Spurs kids were cramping up all over the pitch and once again a match has been decided by our squad’s superior fitness. Gibbs was brought off in the 102nd minute with a suspected broken metatarsal which was a bit depressing – he’d had a great game and recently whenever he’s been given the chance he looks as good as Clichy, if not better. He’s very close to overtaking Gael in the first team so another broken foot for him would’ve been awful news. Thankfully it’s only badly bruised and he will be out for the ‘short term’.

A couple minutes after that a bit of quick thinking between Arshavin and Wilshere made it 4-1. Andrey was brought down about 35 yards out but got straight up and made his run into the box catching the Spurs defenders completely by surprise. Wilshere put an easy ball through and Andrey finished well, low into the opposite corner. Arsenal 4, Tottenham 1, lovely. Just before the whistle blew for half time Nasri cleared off the line from Keane who lost his marker from a corner but it was kept out and that was that – I think maybe if they had scored there the second half of extra time might’ve been a bit nervier but it wasn’t to be and we ran out 4-1 winners at White Hart Lane. It was perfect revenge for the 5-1 thrashing we took there not that long ago and normality is restored.

The travelling fans sang, “Shall we make a DVD!” Which was hilarious! Obviously we won’t be making DVD’s, mugs, posters, mouse mats, t-shirts and tattoos because at the end of the day, it’s the Carling Cup. It’s still beating the scum though so we’ll enjoy it all the same.

The draw to Sunderland is forgotten and if we can beat West Brom on Saturday we’ll be back on track. Wenger is currently doing his pre-match conference this afternoon so we’ll get a load of news on that from the official site. We’ll find out just how ‘short term’ Gibbs’ injury is, whether Vermaelen is back and more. Oh, and Cesc looks on track to make Chelsea.

Happy days. Thanks for reading.

Cesc out for 2 weeks, Chelsea in 2 weeks. 20 September, 2010

Cesc Fabregas has confirmed via his twitter that he will be out for a fortnight with the injury picked up at Sunderland:

Good news on my injury. I have some fluid but nothing bad in the muscle. I hope i can be playing in 2 weeks.

I guess that is good news but we play Chelsea in 13 days and you know already we’re going to spend the whole of next week praying that he recovers in time. We need him for our trip to Stamford Bridge, it goes without saying, so everybody cross your fingers that there are no customary Arsenal setbacks with this injury.

The problem was picked up in our bizarre goal against Sunderland on Saturday, the ball luckily rebounded off Cesc’s foot, over the goalie and into the goal but unluckly jarred his knee and he was taken off a few minutes later. However that’s two goals in two games that have come from Cesc closing down the ball, others should take note and put pressure on opponents when they’re in posession because as he’s proved, you never know what might happen.

It was a very frustrating ending to the game but the goal was coming really. All game they looked like scoring it just a shame it happened so late. You never know though, if they had scored half an hour earlier they might’ve got another so you could look at it that way. It should’ve been settled from the penalty spot though, we were without all our usual penalty takers so Rosicky had to step up and blasted it over. After the game Wenger was obviously pretty pissed off and layed hands on the 3rd official, it’s earned him a one-match touchline ban and an £8,000 fine. A bit annoying I guess but Arsene hates losing and any of us in the same position would’ve probably done the same thing!

There’s been no match report from the weekend as i still don’t have internet, it’s getting installed on Wednesday according to Sky so I should be back talking about what happened at White Hart Lane the previous night. However, I’m undecided as to whether I will be watching tomorrow or not, I’m supposed to be somewhere else so it’s either go to the pub on my own and watch their first team again our reserves or just be where I’m supposed to be, let whatever happen, happen and watch the highlights in the morning. Does that make me a bad fan? I don’t know but at the end of the day it is just the Carling Cup, we have too many injuries to put out a better side and you know that they will play their first XI. It would be brilliant to beat them tomorrow but there’s a strong chance we wont and watching us lose to Spurs is not going to put me in the best of moods! Maybe I’m not being as positive as I should be, I think I’m just being depressingly realistic.

Either way, I’ll be back on Wednesday. COME ON YOU YOUNG GUNS!

Arsenal 6-0 Braga – 15/09/10 – (Champions League) 16 September, 2010

Some days you just feel so proud to be an Arsenal fan. It’s an honour watching a performance like last night’s and I feel so honoured that’s my team out there. Before the game no one underestimated Braga but once it got down to business on the pitch we were a class apart from the Portuguese side. I said in yesterday’s blog that I wanted to see some sort of signal of intent from us and I sure as hell got what I wanted. As much as the media might not like to highlight it we were the star performers of the opening week of Champions League games and we really should be one of the favourites for the competition this year. I do take the point that we will see what we’re really made of when tougher opposition comes along but if we play like we did last night then I’d fancy us against anyone. That’s without mentioning we haven’t even got our best side out.

We started with a bang and had two penalty appeals in the opening stages before finally getting one in the 9th minute which Fabregas had no trouble in sticking away. Once the early goal had gone in there was only one was this was going to go, we absolutely bombarded them, everyone was having a go at getting forward and everyone looked hungry to make an impact. Braga made it easy for us though really, they allowed us (and especially Fabregas) far too much space and they were heavily punished for it.

Every attack we looked like scoring but eventually the second came after half an hour. They allowed Fabregas time on the ball outside the box which is always dangerous, he took his time, waited for the pass and put Arshavin through who stuck it nicely inside the near post. He looked relieved to get on the score sheet after missing all those chances at the weekend.

The third came just a few minutes later and it was a beauty. Chamakh took the ball down, played a tight one-two with Wilshere before finishing in the bottom corner. There was no space to work with but a lovely little back-heel touch put Chamakh through and he stuck it through the defenders legs on its way into the net. It’s probably a good time in this post to point out how brilliant these two have been for us, Jack has been involved  more than most people expected this season but he’s done brilliantly and hasn’t looked out of place at all. For just 18 years old he looks quite a player already, it’s scary to think he’s got years of maturity to come. He’s learning from the best, he’s got Fabregas to look up to and work with every day and that experience is invaluable. As for Chamakh well he just looks perfectly suited to us already doesn’t he? He looks a great bit of business and looks so settled, he’s a proper Arsenal player – switching from the wings the the middle, he’s got pace, he knows where the ball is going to go and he knows where he needs to be. It’s great to see a new signing fit in so well so quickly.

The forth came 8 minutes into the second half and it was the skipper again. He chased down a lost cause and got enough on it to deflect the ball to Arshavin, Cesc immediately got into space in the box making it easy for Andey just to cross the ball onto his head and it was 4-0 to The Arsenal. At this stage the game could’ve gone on to be any score but in the end it ended 6-0 with Vela coming on and getting two. One trademark chip and one driven inside the near post completed the scoring. It should’ve/could’ve/might’ve been far more than six though, Chamakh rounded the ‘keeper before being wrongly flagged offside, Arshavin hit the post and there were loads more opportunities that if it was 0-0 I would’ve been pulling my hair out over.

Cesc deserved a hat-trick last night just for his efforts alone. He nearly got it when he was put through and his little chip over the ‘keeper was just saved and he had another great chance late on when he chose to pass to Vela who made it six instead. I wanted him to be a bit more selfish and complete his hat-trick but you have to feel a bit proud that he didn’t and even at 5-0 up he made the pass to set up the easier goal. I missed his performance against Bolton but last night he was incredible to watch, he’s back to his best and is showing us just what we’ll miss if he does decide to move on. After the game the Barcelona story was brought up and he simply answered saying he always has been very happy at Arsenal and you can’t say that he’s not telling the truth. If he continues to play as he does this season then it’ll be murder if we don’t win anything, a boy of his talent truly deserves it.

So happy days then, 6-0 on the opening night in the Champions League and things are looking good. It was pretty much the perfect performance. I haven’t really spoken about the defence because they didn’t have a great deal to do, bigger tests will come for them but they were impressive when called upon. It’ll be nice to have The Verminator back though.

Next up it’s Sunderland away, a fixture which we have struggled in, in recent years. They wont allow us as much space and time on the ball as Braga did but after seeing how we played last night you can’t help but be confident. Every game we go in seems to be a ‘test’ for these ‘Arsenal kids’ but everything that’s been layed in front of us so far has been passed with flying colours. Here’s hoping for more of that this Saturday afternoon.

Braga Preview: The road to Wembley 15 September, 2010

So tonight we begin our Champions League adventure at home to Braga and there’s an extra incentive for the English clubs to do well this year with the final behind held at Wembley. Spurs made their Champions League debut by letting slip a 2-0 lead and drawing 2-2 and Man United also dropped two points by fielding an under-strength side against Rangers only managing a 0-0. Despite that I still think this could be another year of English domination in the competition. We are dying for a first Champions League title and so are Chelsea who also play tonight, I expect United to bounce back from last night’s disappointment as they will also be itching to make this year’s London final. As for Spurs well I don’t expect them to get very far, as good as they think they are they will soon realize the difference in quality between the Champions League and the Carling Cup. They won’t make it to Wembley, if they do then I’ll struggle to watch football ever again.

As for our chances, well as always it depends on luck and injuries; so far this season we’ve done alright for results but our troubles with injuries continue. You could make the point that in 2006 we made the final with a mix and match side but I really think that with a fully fit squad we could definitely challenge for this trophy. I’d love for us to do well this year more than any year, the atmosphere at Wembley on the 28th May would be incredible if we made it. Last year we were knocked out by a very impressive Barcelona side which you can’t have many complaints about but Bacary Sagna says we’ll be looking to right those wrongs this year.

I missed this weekend’s match against Bolton but I’ve seen the challenge on Diaby and he’s set to be out for a few weeks at least, Wenger doesn’t want to put a deadline on the recovery just yet. He and Vermaelen are both out of tonight’s game which means Squillaci and Koscielny will continue from the weekend at the back. So that means no Walcott, Van Persie, Bendtner, and plus Vermaelen and Diaby; those are some key players but I think we can cope without them and hopefully we’ll see all of them back in the next month or so. Samir Nasri could make a return tonight which would be a nice boost, if he does I think we’ll shape up like this:

Almunia
Sagna – Squillaci – Koscielny – Clichy
Song
Fabregas (c) – Nasri
Rosicky – Chamakh – Arshavin

Even with those injuries I think that is a strong side there. There’s a chance Nasri might not be rushed back, if that’s the case then Wilshere or Denilson will come in for him but I hope Samir is involved tonight, before his injury he was one of our star performers. Also, from what I’ve heard and from what little I’ve seen of the Bolton game Cesc Fabregas showed his true self in an Arsenal shirt for the first time this season and he was supposed to be fantastic. I’ll be looking for a repeat performance tonight in the Champions League. I’m sure he’s also dying to do well in the competition this year in what could be his last season at Arsenal.

For some reason I’m confident about our chances this year. We’ve got a group which we should be winning with our quality, the players are getting better and better every year and I really think we are capable of it now. With a bit of luck in the knock out stages we could easily find ourselves in the final. I want to see a performance tonight that backs my thinking up, Braga will be tough but three points tonight would be a great start to build upon. I don’t want to end up like Man United and Spurs did last night with a draw, especially with tonight’s game at home.

We’re live on ITV1 and I can’t wait, it seems like forever I’ve sat down to watch an Arsenal game. COME ON YOU GUNNERS!

The Cannon’s extended international break. 8 September, 2010

Just a quick update really encase anyone was wondering where I am. I’ve moved into a house with no internet which partly explains where I have been this international break. I haven’t really missed much though, the only news came out yesterday when Theo Walcott was stretchered off against Switzerland but Capello says Theo told him he’ll be back in less than to weeks. Still a blow though to lose our player of the month.

There’s more injury news on our already suffering players, which had quite a predictable outcome – Nasri is making yet another speedy recovery but Robin van Persie is unsurprisingly not. We’ll be without RVP for at least another month. It’s a huge disappointment but you can’t say it’s nothing we aren’t used to.

Also Denilson, Squillaci and Djourou all started in a 4-3 win over Blackburn reserves last night.

So the internationally break is over now, we can look forward to the Bolton game and assess Walcott’s injury when he returns. I won’t be here to report on any of that though, I’m off to the Isle of Wight today for Bestival which means I’ll miss the match itself too. If anyone else reading is going, I’ll be the only one in a football shirt on Saturday! Clichy 22 if you’re wondering.

Have a good weekend, enjoy the game and I will be back next week. See ya.

Goalkeepers are no longer the problem, it’s strikers. 1 September, 2010

So the transfer window deadline came and went yesterday and we never brought anyone in. It means Manuel Almunia keeps his place with Fabianski and one of Mannone and Szczesny as back up with one of those two likely to go out on loan. Much like Manuel’s future, I was up in the air yesterday on a flight back from Los Angeles. I have to say I rather enjoyed being on a plane in an internet free and Sky Sports News free environment, my flight landed at 4.30pm so I skipped right to the ending of the story just in time to see that nothing happened. It turns out we never even made any final day bids so I didn’t waste a day sat in front of Twitter waiting for nothing.

As disappointed as you might be in the lack of signings there’s nothing we can do about it now. Sebastien Squillaci’s arrival pretty much sorted out our defensive issues so it was really just a goalkeeper we wanted; our options were Given or Schwarzer, Man City wouldn’t sell to us and Fulham wanted too much so nothing happened. I’d just like to say at this point that I have no insider information on any of that but that’s how I see it. We were willing to Spend £2m on Schwarzer which I guess is about right for a 37 year old with injury problems and a year left on his contract but that wasn’t enough for Fulham. In the end for whatever reasons it didn’t happen and we shouldn’t get too upset about it. He’s not all that much better than Almunia really if you think about it, I think we just wanted someone that wasn’t Almunia.

Now we just have to get behind our no.1. A couple of weeks ago I started to wonder whether Manuel is all that bad and I remembered how not that long ago he looked a decent ‘keeper. So now I’m hoping that with our support he can get back to that level. We don’t really have a choice now, it’s him or Fabianski and I think I’d rather have Almunia play with one arm tied behind his back than the Pole, I have absolutely no confidence in him. I do know that on his day Almunia can be a good ‘keeper, this season so far he’s shown that, apart from one missed cross at Anfield he’s had a solid start to the campaign and lets hope it continues. He is a bit accident-prone but so is every ‘keeper, we have to get behind him now because as I said it’s him or Fabianski.

So I’m not going to worry about the goalkeeper any more, I’m going to put those concerns on hold and see if Manuel makes the most of this opportunity. I would’ve felt a bit better with Schwarzer on the books as well but never mind. My concern now is our attack, the one position that’s looked fine for months! We’re now just one injury away from having no proper central striker again, with these injuries to RVP and Bendtner we’re relying on Chamakh now. Robin’s knock at Blackburn was initially going to see him out for just the international break but now it looks like a few weeks, and we know with Robin his injuries can go on and on. Also, this new Casualty List I’ve got there on the right has highlighted to me anyway how much Bendtner’s injury has gone on and on and on. Initially when I set it up I had him missing the Liverpool game and since then it’s been extended every week and now he’s looking at November! It’s a real shame for both Nicklas and Arsenal if that story in The Sun is true, before this latest article he was due back in a couple of weeks and now it’s another month. Apparently this is all to do with that car crash he had last season, I hope this is the last set back he has because we really need options up top.

We have Walcott and Eboue on the right, Arshavin and Vela on the left and Rosicky who can both either side. However it’s down the middle where we’re lacking now, Chamakh is the obvious choice but then who’s behind him? It’ll have to be one of those other names coming from the flanks into the middle into a less natural position. It’s not just whether Chamakh stays fit now but it’s also unhealthy not to have options in any given position. Touch wood, Marouane can stay fit otherwise I if Theo can keep this form he might find himself in the middle earlier than expected.

On the subject of Walcott he’s been talking about his improved start this season. He has said before he wanted to make an impression after missing the World Cup and so far he’s doing a good job of that, he says he doesn’t blame Capello – he just wants to improve his game. He’s been spending more time in the gym and says he wants to bulk up more which is good. He says he doesn’t want to lose pace but strength will help him beat defenders just as much as speed.

Also in that first link he talks about being a winger and is doing a lot of crossing work in training. I don’t think he is ready just yet to start as a central striker but it has been nice to see him getting into those positions at times during games. He has a bit of work to do before I consider him a back up to Chamakh but the progress he’s made already is fantastic. Keep it up Theo.

The only bit of transfer news we did have yesterday was that Armand Traore has gone on loan to Juventus which I expect has an option of permanent move and Nacer Barazite has been loaned to Vitesse Arnhem. Good luck to the both of them on their season abroad, we will have to wait and see if we’ll see them back at Arsenal again.

Today Premier League teams have to name their 25-man squad for the season. Ours isn’t out at the time of me writing this but I’m not expecting any surprises or anything, we’re comfortable with making all the requirements and we have plenty of players under 21 who don’t have to be named.

That’s it for today, thanks for reading.