Arsenal 2-1 Huddersfield – 30/01/11 – (FA Cup) 31 January, 2011

I thought we’d have to endure two tricky Yorkshire cup replays in a row until Cesc Fabregas came on, took the team and the game by the scruff of the neck and literally dragged us into the fifth round. It didn’t look like it was going to be our day again but we finally got a break in the final five minutes when a penalty was awarded and Fabregas stepped up to make it 2-1.

We started well enough and opened the scoring in the 21st minute. Bendtner had just laughed off a horrible air-shot before he found himself in a similar position a few seconds later and finished in the bottom corner with the help of a deflection. It’s the mark of a goal scorer to get over a miss quickly and yesterday’s goal was a good sign for Nicklas. That’s two in two for him now and he’s on the right track.

However an injury to Samir Nasri just nine minutes after that goal destroyed our momentum. Samir limped off with a hamstring strain after half an hour and it’s now obvious that he has a Cesc-like impact on this team because our heads went down with neither him nor our captain on the field. Wenger said it was a bit of a risk playing him but he did not think Rosicky was completely ready. Well it backfired and Rosicky was brought on for the remainder of the game. That’s football I’m afraid, you can’t get angry with Wenger because you probably would’ve been upset had Samir not started. The initial report is that he could be out for around three weeks which would mean he misses the home leg against Barcelona. I don’t even need to say that would be a massive blow for both him and the team, but I will anyway. We’ll get a more accurate diagnosis of the strain this week so everybody fingers crossed please but don’t get your hopes up.

Huddersfield capitalised on our misfortune and had a go at getting level before half time. They came close on a couple of occasions but although they could not score they we’re probably pleased that they’d be playing against 10 men in the second half. About five minutes from the break Squillaci was shown a yellow card for deliberately blocking someone advancing towards our goal. You couldn’t have any arguments with it but what frustrated me the most was that just a couple of minutes later he did exactly the same thing but this time was shown a straight red for it.  The foul was more central to the goal this time and he was the last man so I don’t have a problem with the straight red being shown; Squillaci was punished for not learning his lesson. He didn’t have a good game at all to be honest, and at half time the back four was strengthened by having Alex Song alongside Koscielny; he came on for Chamakh who had another quiet performance.

The League One outfit carried on where they left off in the first half and immediately put us under pressure. We were pegged back and having to make some crucial blocks which was illustrated by a rare occurrence at the Emirates Stadium, Andrey Arshavin tracking all the way back to our box and making a late slide tackle. Well I never. Andrey had an improved game I thought, he was obviously hungry starving for a goal and came close a few times. It was obvious that he was actively trying to put on a better show and that was great to see. I have absolutely no problem with players who aren’t doing so well but if they show that they are trying then I’m perfectly happy. He needs to keep up that hard work and I’m sure it will pay off soon. Especially with Nasri out for a few weeks there is a spot opening up in our first team.

Almunia made a great save minutes later, not a powerful shot but one that was going in to his right but he made a great dive and clawed it out. As the Arsenal.com match report pointed out, not too dissimilar to David Seaman’s save against Sheffield United. I was surprised to see Almunia start but it was a welcome surprise and as I said in my match preview I was glad to see him play well. He had me a little bit worried with his constant leaving of shots, he seemed to know exactly where his posts were and rather than making a lot of saves he let them go for a goal kick. Very risky business and as a bit of a goalkeeper myself I know I would never trust myself to know where the posts are that well but fair play to him.

Reports are coming from Poland that Fabianski could have to undergo surgery and possibly be out for the rest of the season but more on that when we hear more of it. If true though, Welcome back to the squad Manuel.

We couldn’t hold on much longer after Almunia’s save and Huddersfield equalised in the 66th minute. Lee headed home from Pilkington’s corner and the inevitable arrived. We needed sorting out, we needed Cesc. Huddersfield fans might not like Fabregas too much after his cameo but what he did was deliver a professional, captain’s performance to take us through to the next round. Immediately he showed his talents playing two great balls over the top for Bendtner to run on to but those chances we wasted. It wasn’t just his through-ball ability but his team organisation and inspiration that took us through.

It was starting to look like it wouldn’t been enough when we got a life-saving penalty in the 86th minute. Cesc played a through-ball to Bendtner who seemed to be toppled right on the penalty spot. He was under pressure from Jamie McCombe behind him, although it might’ve looked a bit of a dive they were both off balance and desperate to reach the ball and a spot-kick was given. Cesc was went crazy at Clattenburg for not sending him off when he was clearly the last man. It’s bizarre that he didn’t especially as Squillaci went for the same circumstances; my only thought is that the ref thought ours was deliberate where McCombe’s probably wasn’t. The skipper took the penalty himself stuttering his run-up twice to confuse the ‘keeper before sending him the wrong way. He went straight for the ball and took it with him in his celebration to the corner flag. Cunty time wasting? Yes. Professional modern game tactics to see out a win? Yes, I’m afraid everyone does it.

There was time for one more dangerous free kick for the visitors but we saw the game out in the end and scraped a 2-1 victory. It wasn’t a win to be proud of but in the cup all that matters is that you progess, performances are forgotten and we’re through. We drew local rivals Leyton Orient in the next round which should be a great tie. More on that one in a few weeks.

It’s transfer deadline day today but I think everybody knows we won’t be doing any late business. Squillaci’s red card is only a one-match ban, which will come into effect tomorrow night against Everton. So even if we signed a defender today it would surely be too soon to bring him into the team. We have Djourou and Koscielny, it’s fine – let’s just hope Vermaelen isn’t too far away now. If anything we might withdraw players from loan if need be. We’ll leave the deadline day madness to the other teams as Chelsea try to enlist Fernando Torres to help their push back up the table and Liverpool look set to replace him by spending £35m on Andy Carroll from Newcastle. Thirty five million pounds? There aren’t words…

Right well I guess I’ll speak to you tomorrow to build up to the Everton match. The games are still coming thick and fast and I bet the players and indeed manager will be looking forward to next week when it’ll be our first week since before Christmas that we haven’t had a midweek match to play.

Thanks for reading.

Huddersfield Preview: Almunia, Squillaci and Diaby in the squad 30 January, 2011

You have to love FA Cup weekend, unfortunately no big shocks yesterday – Southampton lost their lead against United and went out and Everton could only manage a draw at home to Chelsea. Well apart from my local team Watford went 1-0 down to Brighton… It’s now up to us to follow United and Chelsea into the fifth round by beating Huddersfield. You can’t go into these games too confident but the visitors are currently third in League One and it goes without saying that they’re a team we should be beating. They’ll come and give it a go though that’s for sure and it’s up to whatever team we put out to do the job.

Squillaci and Diaby are back in the squad having recovered from their injuries which was no surprise really, Rosicky could also make a return from a pretty bad case of flu but Sagna will be rested. Manuel Almunia has also found his way back into the Arsenal first team squad for the first time since September. The two Poles have cemented their place at the top of the goalkeeper packing order since Manuel’s last game, the 3-2 loss to West Brom and don’t look like being budged now. Arsene even referred to Szczesny as his no.1 in Friday’s press conference.

I think we all expected Almunia to have left by now, there’s not long left of the transfer window at all and unless something’s done right at the last minute he’ll be with us until the summer now. I think the change of heart is more down to us than Manuel and it’s because Fabianski’s shoulder injury was a bit worse that we expected. In recent games we’ve had James Shea sitting on the bench which is a bit scary especially when Szczesny seems to love collecting the ball right on the edge of the box at the moment almost giving me mini heart attack. I’m sure Shea is a decent enough ‘keeper but I don’t really trust him. So we’ve brought Manuel back in, or he’s recovered from injury whichever you choose to believe.

I think it’s a good thing, I mean it’s a bit harsh on Almunia not letting him know if he’s wanted or not but we can’t help the injuries we’ve got and it’s just the way football is. If he has got a problem with it then he should think back to the time when he took over Lehmann’s role as Arsenal first choice goalie, Jens was professional and saw out the season with Arsenal; he might not have enjoyed sitting on the bench but he did it and fair play to him. So at the moment he’s just got to do his job and do what the club want him to do and then he can be on his way in the Summer – at the end of the day he’s under contract with us so we can use him however we like. He’ll probably just spend the near future on the bench and then once Fabianski returns he’ll go back to being ‘injured’ or whatever but that’s just the way it is I’m afraid. I’d be surprised if he started today but stranger things have happened, I wish him all the best if he does and it would be good to see him put in a good performance but I don’t think it would change anything with regards to a first team place.

I reckon we’ll continue with Wojciech in goal with a slightly weakened XI that I guess might look something like this:

Szczesny
Eboue – Squillaci – Koscielny – Gibbs
Song
Denilson – Diaby
Bendtner – Chamakh – Arshavin

To be fair I literally have no idea what kind of team we’re going to put out, we’ll just have to wait a few hours and see. In fact that team I’ve chosen there could probably do with a Nasri, Cesc, Rosicky  or van Persie really, I didn’t even know who to put the ‘(c)’  next to their name! Hopefully it’s not too weakened and it would be nice to see a few more first teamers in there but I can understand leaving a few out with Everton in a couple of days time. I’m expecting Arshavin to start though and this could be a real chance to him to get a goal or at least put in a good performance, everyone including the player himself knows he’s going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment but Arsene insists he is not worried about him:

“If you look at the best passers in the Premier League, he’s still up there. Even the other night he has given two assists against Ipswich – one to Fabregas and the corner.

He is not as consistent technically as we are used to because it is a lack of confidence because he’s very harsh on himself. Sometimes we forget how good we are and more times than we are conscious of it. Andrey at the moment is in that position, so we have to remind him how good he is.”

So hopefully today is a good day for Andrey, the other night against Ipswich was a step in the right direction with those two assists. It was similar to the performances he was putting in at the start of the season where he seemed to be having an off time but kept coming up with the goals and assists which made him hard to drop. If he at least gets back to that level where he becomes important in our goals I’ll be happy; he can work on improving his all round form from there.

As for our visitors today I can’t really say I know a lot about Huddersfield apart from they have Benik Afobe who can’t play anyway today. I’m not quite sure why he can’t play but Watt could, maybe it could be that Wenger rates Afobe more but he claims it’s down to some weird ruling. It was quite nice to see Watt in action actually but I guess that could’ve backfired if he’d done really well. I can’t say I’m that bothered about not seeing another loanee this time.

I don’t really have a lot more to say about the game so I’ll wrap it up and let you get on your way to the ground/lounge/pub/whatever for today’s early kick off. If you’re in the London area today then I think the game still isn’t completely sold out so why not get yourself down and support the boys. Or not, it’s your life man. I’m off to the pub because Bournemouth is a bit of a commute and I don’t have ESPN at home, anyone else find it a bit weird having the FA Cup on ESPN? Yeah me too.

Right well I best be off, thanks for reading. COME ON YOU REDS!

She wore a yellow ribbon in the merry month of February 27 January, 2011

So, we’re the famous Arsenal and we’re going to Wembley. Happy Days. The other night against Ipswich was pretty tense but I had feeling we’d get there in the end and so we did. It was a pretty strong side, only Walcott, Nasri and Song we missing from our current preferred XI and I assume we’ll continue our new Carling Cup policy in the final versus Birmingham. Don’t forget to sort out your tickets (details here), Away Scheme members and Gold Members with 3+ away credits have from Monday ’til Wednesday to buy their tickets but if you’re a gold member without credits don’t forget to register your interest before Monday by following that link.

- – -

By the way, anyone who has a season ticket and isn’t planning to go to the game I’d be ever so grateful if I could use your details to get a ticket. Just thought I’d ask on the off chance, drop me an email at lasagnechef [at] the-cannon.com (- [at] + @) if you think you can help, cheers!

- – -

Tickets are proving pretty hard to come by, it’s probably our most popular Carling Cup ever. As everyone keeps reminding us it’s a chance to add to the trophy cabinet for the first time since 2005; and what a chance it is. I went to Cardiff in 2007 and that was a pretty decent day out but back then the Carling Cup was for kids and reserves only. Now some of those youngsters have grown up to become our first team and are looking to right the wrongs of four years ago and lift this trophy, this time at Wembley. It’s our first cup final at the new Wembley too and I don’t care what competition it is – that’s pretty exciting. We had Chelsea in the FA Cup semis there but this is a final now and a cup is just 90 minutes away.

No one is saying that the Carling Cup is enough though. It’ll be nice to get another bit of silverware again if we can do it but it is the least preferred of the four cups and I think the general feeling is that hopefully this triumph could lead us on to greater things. Victory here will hopefully give us the taste of winning and inspire us in the remaining three competitions. Only really Gael Clichy knows what it’s like to win things for Arsenal so it’s time for the rest of the squad to have that same feeling. I’m quite confident we can do it, Birmingham have proved tricky in the past but we’ve shown this season we can beat them and the fact that it’s at Wembley rather than St. Andrews looks good for us too! However this could also go the other way and be totally demoralizing for us; if we were to slip up and lose the final then I think the damage done by that would far exceed the good achieved by winning. To get this far and to have none of the top 6 teams left in the competition and then to not win it would be totally embarrassing, you’d have to say that if we can’t win the Carling Cup in those circumstances then what can we win? Hopefully we don’t have to think about that scenario but it is something that’s in the back of my mind. Anyway, more build up to that one next month, we’ve got a hell of a lot to come before that game.

First up at the weekend we have Huddersfield in the fourth round of the FA Cup. It’s a decent home draw and I think after seeing the team we fielded on Tuesday we might have a slightly less strong team on Sunday, especially with Everton to play on Tuesday night. I hope we’ve learnt our lessons from the first legs’ against Leeds and Ipswich though and don’t go too under strength. To be fair it’s probably more about attitude and application but I’d hate to see us make 8 changes from the team in week and see us struggle again. A bit of rotation is fair enough, Squillaci should come in and give a rest to Djourou or Koscielny, we’ll also probably see Gibbs and Eboue come in on the flanks. Then maybe Song, Nasri and Walcott will be involved after not starting on Tuesday but I think Sunday will be a big chance to Bendtner to build upon his performance against Ipswich and yet another opportunity for Andrey Arshavin to find some form. To be fair to him he did assist two goals on Tuesday but he still doesn’t look himself and he knows it, here’s hoping Sunday can go some way to sorting out his confidence

I should be back for a preview of that game. In fact yes, I promise you I will be! Sorry yet again for the lack of blogging, a number of reasons again for the absence but followers of my twitter will know that it’s been a particularly bad week for my family as my Grandma died just as we kicked off against West Ham. But yes I will try to get back blogging more again, I have been on my twitter a bit more which you can follow at twitter.com/the_cannon. Also on there I’ve set up a list of all the Arsenal players on twitter and you can check that out and follow them for yourself at twitter.com/the_cannon/players. The list includes, Jack Wilshere, Cesc Fabregas, Johan Djourou, Bacary Sagna, Robin van Persie and more. I’m personally loving hearing about what the Arsenal players are up to and for the first time in a long time I feel some sort of connection with the players. It’s great to see the banter between them and the evidence of a strong team spirit there, it’s great.

You know what’s also great? This whole Richard Keys and Andy Grey saga recently. I’m so glad they’ve both left and I think it’s hilarious they’ve been embarrassed like this on the way. To be honest it wasn’t the whole sexist thing that wanted me rid of them, their views are terribly outdated and bias and it’s about time the Sky Sports panel got freshened up, they’re both cocks and not because they clearly despise Arsenal. I don’t know who they’re going to replace them with but I quite like Jeff Stelling and it’d be good to see a bit more of him. It’s just a shame Keys couldn’t drag Jamie Redknapp down with him, nevermind.

Right so I’ll speak to you soon building up to the Huddersfield game. See ya.

What? Transfer window? What do you mean? No, never heard of it, sorry.

Arsenal 1-1 Leeds – 08/01/11 – (FA Cup 3rd Round) 10 January, 2011

Well that was almost a mini disaster wasn’t it? I didn’t have a chance to write a match preview for this game but I mentioned on my twitter that Leeds aren’t exactly my favourite team, I’ve been waiting a long time for us to face them again and I was looking forward to us hopefully knocking them out the cup.

We should’ve been 1-0 up after 10 minutes, Rosicky played a great ball over the top of the defence which Arshavin made a perfect run on to but never got his shot away and in the end he was far too close to Schmeichel by the time he did stick a boot on it. It was a chance that you’d expect Andrey to take with ease but it just demonstrated his lack of form and confidence. He’s not playing well at the moment and he looks like he knows it, his last few performances have not been up to scratch and he’s lost his place in our preferred starting XI to the now fit Walcott. Ipswich might be another chance for him to regain some form but I fear he might be dropped for that.

We had a string of chances around the half hour mark, Schmeichel Jr. doing well again making a few blocks and saves and we had one cleared off the line by Becchio. We were a bit unlucky to not be leading at the break but Leeds scrapped for the clean sheet so you have to give it to them. Kasper was making his dad proud but the best was yet to come from him.

We began the second period in the same form going forward but 10 minutes into the half Denilson gave away an easy penalty leaving a leg out for Max Gradel to go over. Snodgrass scored it despite Szczesny getting a hand to it.

Just after the hour they could’ve made it two. Becchio had a decent header from a corner but Szczesny made a great save down to his right. Either side of that chance Fabregas and Walcott were brought on and they changed our fortunes. Leeds were terrified of Cesc and they couldn’t deal with Theo’s pace and skill.

We saw out the game in attack but the visitors seemed to be holding out. I was going mental in my living room; nothing seemed to be going right for us but I just kept thinking how we always leave it late. I was not ready to go out of the FA Cup, not this early, not against them.

Snodgrass came close again from a free kick wrong-footing Wojciech but it went just wide.

A few minutes from the final whistle Walcott went down in the area and it looked like we had a penalty. I jumped off my seat and it turned out the linesman had flagged for an offside that happened after the challenge! I couldn’t believe it. It turns out Theo dived which he admitted and apologised for after the game. Interesting admission, I’m not sure about how I feel about that but you have to say fair play for his honesty.

A few minutes later though we were awarded a penalty and Theo was fouled. Leeds might feel a little hard done by for it but Walcott was pulled back in the area and that is a foul. The skipper stepped up and curled it down the middle with confidence to keep us in the cup.

Naturally, we went for the win and Bendtner was gifted the opportunity to make it 2-1 in injury time. I think it was Cesc who played a great ball over the top for him but he completely fucked it and it went wide. In that position he’s one of the few guys at the club I would expect to convert that kind of chance. Maybe it was tired legs but I felt he could’ve done well for himself then at a time when he’s trying to play himself into the team. Since his little outburst about not being in the team he hasn’t exactly done much on the pitch to prove his point.

There was time for just one last chance though. Denilson ran onto a dropping ball on the edge of the box and stuck his foot through it shooting across goal. It was firing into the top left corner but Schmeichel came out of nowhere to pull off a blinding save. I couldn’t believe it I would’ve gone mental but I had my head in my hands! It would’ve been the perfect victory, a volleyed screamer right at the end but fair play to their ‘keeper, he kept them in it. Denilson, like Bendtner could’ve made up for a poor game there with a late winner.

So we go to Elland Road next week and what a game that should be. I wonder if Arsene will play a stronger starting XI for that one but we’ll see. Fabregas was named our man of the match for his game-saving performance, I don’t know if it did but the official man of the match should’ve gone to Schmeichel.

Huddersfield await the winners of this tie in the next round which is a decent home tie for whoever can come out on top at Elland road. As I said, I’m not ready to go out of this competition yet, especially not to Leeds.

Squillaci picked up a hamstring injury on Saturday which puts us in real trouble because we only have Koscielny and a rehabilitating Djourou. Wenger says:

“If he [Squillaci] has a problem then we must quickly go for a player,” said the Frenchman.

“Squillaci came off with a little hamstring problem and if we only have two centre backs then that cannot work with the number of games we have.”

So I guess today and tomorrow we will be assessing the injuries to our defence and we might be having a little browse of the transfer market. More on that as I hear it.

Thanks for reading.

Man City Preview: This game is bigger than Chelsea 5 January, 2011

This tie used to be about hatred of Emmanuel Adebayor, and stopping an up and coming team fulfilling their potential, well now it’s ‘six-pointer’ against a genuine title rival. I hate to admit it but City are now Premier League Champions contenders, I’m wouldn’t bet on them winning it yet but you’re not second in January by coincidence. They’ve snuck right into the mix after a slow start to the season and now they’re a team that needs to be beaten.

The last home game against Chelsea was a massive test for us but we came through with flying colours. Chelsea are in a bit of a dip of form at the moment so it’s good that we took advantage of that, now they find themselves 5th, 9 points off the pace. Man City though are just 3 points behind the league leaders and a win tonight would be huge for them. It would pretty much cement their place in this year’s title race and be a big confidence boost. It would also leave us 5 points off them and United with the latter having a game in hand over us; and I think that’s against Blackpool.

So we can’t really allow that to happen. Going into the Chelsea match I would’ve taken a draw but tonight I fully want us to win, and I believe we can. They might be a tough opposition but I’m confident in us at the moment; we’ve won our last two at home but we haven’t won three on the bounce there all season. Luckily our away form has been good but we need a win tonight to continue things in the right direction at the Grove. The 3-0 win at Birmingham was a big result and despite the draw at Wigan I think we’re a confident side right now. In that game we had a weakened XI, however the one that beat Chelsea and Birmingham I’m sure will start tonight:

Fabianski
Sagna – Djourou – Koscielny – Clichy
Song – Wilshere
Fabregas (c)
Walcott – van Persie – Nasri

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Chamakh maybe come in but otherwise I expect it to be as above. Yesterday Cesc said on his twitter, “Don‘t be scared if tomorrow you see a new player in the squad……” Some have hinted it might be Ramsey but I think that’s a bit soon seeing as he only got back to the office today. I think the answer could be Alex Song who has apparently died his hair red. Interesting…

City are without David Silva and Mario Balotelli but that probably still wont leave a place for Adebayor, Johnson and Tevez will be the ones to watch upfront. The whole back four have to be on their toes tonight, they’re quite a threatening side going forward and are dangerous from set pieces too thanks to their height. I’ve been really impressed with Djourou recently so I’m hoping he can step up again and his partner at the back Koscielny needs to have a good game too.

There’s not really a lot more I can say about this game, last year I was at the match and it was one of the dullest 0-0′s I’ve ever witnessed but I’m not expecting that. I’ve got a feeling there’ll be more goals tonight and I’m fairly confident we can win. 3 points would move us into second, keeping the pressure on United, lose and it’s another dent in our title challenge. Should be a good atmosphere there tonight and I’m a bit gutted I can’t make it so if you are going get behind the lads and cheer us to victory.

I’m looking forward to this one. COME ON YOU GUNNERS.

New Year round up / Hello again 3 January, 2011

So as I briefly explained in the previous post I haven’t been around for a while largely due to academic reasons, however the break from the blog hasn’t really done me much good so I’m bringing The Cannon back. I’m currently entering a very busy couple of weeks so don’t expect updates every day in the immediate future but I’ll be around. I understand how it might’ve been a bit frustrating for those who follow the blog for me to just disappear with no explanation so I’d just want to clear that up and say I’m sorry about that!

So what’s happened since we last spoke? Quite a lot actually…

We qualified for the Champions League, just. Not really the ending we hoped for after a promising start to the group and we’ve paid the price for that failure now by being drawn against Barcelona in the next round. I’m not too bothered by all that though; you’re going to have to play against one of the top teams at some point so it might as well be now. We have nothing to lose in this one, everyone expects Barca to win but we will sure give them a good game. If we do get through, what a confidence boost it will be, I’m sure you all remember beating Real Madrid at this stage in 2006 and look where that took us.

Unfortunately for me it doesn’t look like I’ll be making the trip this year, last year was an epic trip, literally – I took a 27 hour coach there! This year though, 1. I don’t think I can afford it and, 2. As I mentioned I’m pretty busy with work at the moment. More on this game nearer the time but all I can say for now is: Come on AC Milan.

In the cups only Ipswich stand in our way of a trip to Wembley in the Carling Cup which is all quite exciting and we’re at home to Leeds in the FA Cup third round which is also a pretty big game. Looking forward to both of those.

In the league well recently we’ve seen some right ups and downs. We narrowly lost at Old Trafford which was a bit disappointing and then we had all that snow, I was on my way to the Stoke game when a blizzard hit North London and it was rightly called off; bit of a shame for me though as I was looking forward to going to three games on the bounce. Next up was Chelsea and what a night that was! The Grove was rocking and rightly so, it was nice to see us outplay Chelsea for once and we were deserved winners. Then a couple of days later I got the train up to Wigan with the sous chef and was a bit let down by a 2-2 draw. It wasn’t the worst result in the world but it was just a bit of a shame that’s all, conceding a late goal to 10 men and it was made even worse when I got home to see that it was a dive for their penalty too. Ah well, the train back was quite eventful though as it turned out the Arsenal team and staff were occupying the first carriage. It was good to see them walk down the platform past our windows but even better when the team got off at my station, Watford Junction and I was walking through the station will all the Arsenal players! A bit surreal to say the least.

Then the other day we responded brilliantly with a 3-0 win at Birmingham. It’s a place we have struggled at recently so I was happy to see us do well there under a tough physical test. There was a lot of bad tackles and stamping going in from the home side so I’m glad to read today that Bowyer could face the consequences for his actions but we were lucky not to come away with any more St. Andrews injuries really.

I was listening to Talk Sport yesterday (I know, I know) on my drive back down to Bournemouth and Stan Collymore was chatting on there about how the top four always get decisions going for them. It wound me up and it was so tempting to ring in but I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of it and switched over. I just wanted to point out how we got kicked all over the park for at Birmingham and got nothing for it, yeah van Persie might’ve gone down easily for the free kick which resulted in his goal but the ref was so fucking blind to everything he didn’t have much of a choice. Not just Birmingham but at Wigan too, the officiating there was dreadful. I’ve already mentioned the penalty awarded for them that was a complete dive but there were countless other poor decision from the ref that night.

Anyway moving on and we’re in the transfer window now and Arsene says we’ll ‘only buy in exceptional circumstances’. To be honest I’m not expecting many signings, of course a defensive midfielder or a defender would be nice but I’m used to Arsene not addressing that and I guess if we buy a defender that means Vermaelen’s problem looks no closer to healing. Looks like there might be a couple out the door though, Manuel Almunia looks like he’s off and there could be loans for the likes of Emmanuel-Thomas and Vela but we’ll talk more about and ins or outs when we’ve got a clearer picture of things.

Well that’s about it, everything more or less rounded up for the start of 2011 which is set to be a big year for Arsenal Football Club. We go into the year of our 125th anniversary with a massive game against Barcelona, a trip to Wembley just one round away and still in the title rac. We’ve started the year well at St. Andrews but we’ve got a big test on Wednesday night against Manchester City, more on that one to come.

Remember you can follow The Cannon on Twitter or Facebook by clicking the links on the right-hand toolbar.

Thanks for reading.

The resurrection 3 January, 2011

Right it’s time to turn over a new leaf for 2011 and get this thing up and running again. I’m really sorry for just abandoning ship without saying anything and I’m going to try and sort that out now by getting back on the blogging.

Basically the main reason for stopping is that I’m going through an important time with my University studies and I thought giving this a bit of a rest would help me concentrate but really, it hasn’t – so I’m bringing it back.

Right I’ll speak to you soon then. Sorry about the wait.