Arsenal 3 –0 Burnley, 1 game from Wembley and new away kit?

Song
Set up
Eboue
Who scored..........

 

 

.......I'm sorry, I still can't get my head around that.

So, a stroll in the spring sun (and rain, lots of rain) for the Arsenal yesterday as we thumped Burnley 3-0 to book an FA Cup quarter final with Hull. Win that, and it’s the Chavs at Wembley for the semi final!

All three goals were of the highest quality. Vela pulled out his favourite finish, the cheeky chip, after turning well and holding off the Burnley defence to lob Jensen, looks like he learnt from the Carling Cup game at Turf Moor earlier in the year. The second has to be a contender for goal of the season.

Alex Song (yes, SONG) crossed the ball from the left wing, Eduardo popped the offside trap and vollied home with the outside of his left heel. Absolutely sublime.

The third, as you may have guessed, couldn’t have been in anyone’s wildest dreams, even if they’d dropped a bucket of acid.

A good passing play found Song (yes, him again), who BACKHEELED the ball into the path of Eboue (yes, him!), who took a few touches and rifled the ball into the bottom left of the net. Whilst others in the pub celebrated, I sat there and checked the sky for flying swine.

Arsenalist has the goals and highlights.

Song, to Eboue…….seriously, this has messed with my head!

So all in all a good performance but Burnley were poor and a shadow of the side we faced in the Carling Cup, so again, I hate to say it, but lets see how we do against Roma and Blackburn before we start saying Arsenal are back. But it was great to see Eduardo and Theo back again, the former making it 3 goals in just 130 minutes of football since his return, staggering considering the amount of time out. You’d expect to see them play some part on Wednesday night in Rome.

In other injury news Cesc is back in light training apparently 2 weeks away from returning to full training, so that’ll be a month from being ready for matches then. The official site has some lovely pictures of him running, jumping and this one:

Is it just gas or a trip to the clubhouse? Hmmm. But seriously, it’s looking like the team will be back at the crunch period of mid-April when we face Liverpool, the Chavs and the Mancs as well as the cup semi (hopefully) as well as the Quarters of the Champions League (hopefully), giving us a massive shot in the arm at a crucial time. It ain’t over till its over kids!

Looking ahead to Roma on Wednesday and they seem to be experiencing the opposite to what we have, with players dropping like flies left right and centre. According to the Times, Pizarro limped out of their game with Udinese at the weekend with a thigh strain, Menez and The Beast have the Flu (bless), Vucinic has a back problem, Perrotta and Cassetti are long-term injury problems, Daniele De Rossi is suspended, Christian Panucci is not in their Champions League squad while the latest to drop out is Cicinho, who apparently sustained a season-ending knee injury in training yesterday! But more on Roma on Wed.

Finally, these surfaced on the OGF over the weekend (Cheers to Tony Saunders) and seem to confirm the CGI’s that emerged earlier in the year of the identity of next season’s away kit. While I’m a firm believer that we should be in yellow and blue away, these have a certain something about them (mainly because I liked the original ‘83 away kit it is based on)

                        

So yeah, that’s your dollop of all things Arsenal today. One final mention that the Arrows went down 4-2 to the Southern Jets last night. While I felt fitter it was one of those were I came away feeling I could have played better, and I hate that, it gnaws away inside of you like a small, irritating rodent. One that needs to be crushed, fingers crossed I can do that in tonight’s friendly with the Southampton Jaguars, although they’ll probably spank us. Ah well……

¡Roca en, hombres!

Technorati Tags: Green away shirt,Burnley,Roma,Hockey,Eboue,Eduardo,Wembley

The sun is shining, but I’m not going to football

It’s a lovely sunny day here in Surrey, but it’s fecking freezing as well! Actually it’s been cold since I got my hair cut last week. Sods law eh!

News ahead of Sunday’s FA cup 4th (are we in the 4th round, or is this the 5th? I’ve lost track now) round game vs Burnley is that I wont be there as I’ve got my only hockey game for 3 months that evening, sods law again! In fact, damn you, sod, damn you!

Real news ahead of Sunday is the return of Theo and Eduardo (again!), or at least potentially. The manager said:

“I will see how they [Walcott and Eduardo] look Friday and Saturday but they will certainly be in the squad, especially Theo,” Wenger told Arsenal TV Online. “We have to wait and see how Eduardo reacts and responds to his injury.”

With Roma on the horizon and Adebayor still sidelined for both games you’d expect at least one of them to play a part, even if it’s only for 20 minutes or so. Kolo is also out of Sunday but Gallas should be back, which saves us the pain of Mikael Silvestre!

The FA Cup presents an awesome opportunity for some silverware, and we already know that if we beat Burnley and Hull at home then we’ve got a semi-final at Wembley, which would be great alone just to shut those c**ts from up the road after their 2 tin-pot finals there. So here’s hoping we play more like Tuesday Arsenal than Saturday Arsenal, and not like that Sunday Arsenal that we saw earlier in the year at Cardiff.

Actually, one final thing, as I mentioned those c**ts from up the road, well done to Steve Bold and his Young Guns for beating them 3-1 in the FA Youth Cup with two goals in the 90th minute to take the tie with apparently 2,500 Gooners at the sh*tehole, well played! Next up are either City or Norwich.

Ok, I’m off to take the car through it’s first MOT. Have a top weekend and COME ON YOU REDS!

Football, you’ve gotta love it!

What do the two below have in common?

Well, they are one and the same.

At approximately 5:15pm on Saturday we were all nursing our pints and thinking of far-flung teams in Finland or the Faroe Islands that we may be visiting in next season’s EUROPA League, if we were able to hold off Everton.

Sunday afternoon saw Villa go 2-0 up against Stoke to confirm our fears on the race for 4th place, that it was over and we’d be 8 behind. What followed is what makes football great.

• Stoke get 2 goals to draw 2-2, leaving Villa 6 points ahead.
• We then win away to WBA to go 3 points behind Villa and level on goal difference and 5 ahead of Everton but having played a game more
• Then last night Villa lost 2-0 away to Man City, swinging the goal difference in our favour, while Everton are held 0-0 at Blackburn.

From being 15 minutes away from being a dot on the horizon, we’re now right in Villa’s rear view mirror and with several key players about to return from injury.

How will this rollercoaster ride of a season conclude? Let’s hope there’s more ups than downs.

Rock On!

Technorati Tags: Villa,City,Rollercoaster,Everton

Well that makes a change from 0-0, doesn’t it!

Ok, after my fruitless attempts of following last night’s victory at West Brom online I’m going to write this as I watch the highlights.

FIRST HALF

• No club has ever drawn 5 top flight games 0-0 in a row, another record I guess! =)
• As I said on my tweets before the game, with Song, Denilson, Eboue in midfield and RVP rested I really thought Wenger had thrown this one
• Good movement from the off tonight
• Oh, that’s class! Good work from Nasri to earn the corner, Denison does well to control the ball from the clearance and Bendtner, well, there was a first touch, a bit of dribbling and a sublime finish! Piss test please! 1-0 Arsenal!
• EBOUE! IF YOU’RE GOING IN THE WALL DON’T MOVE OUT OF THE F**KING WAY WHEN THEY TAKE THE FREEKICK!!!! Just one step to his right and the ball goes where he was. Twat! 1-1.

• Quite end to end this. Should we be end to end against a championship-bound club? Moving the ball well though.
• Oh, you can see why WBA are heading back down. Great ball into the box from an Arshavin free kick finds Kolo Toure totally unmarked to head into the bottom corner. He’s not been great this season but since the turn of the year has steadily re-gained form, so great to see him score. 2-1 Arsenal.
• Great finish from Bendtner! Can we have a piss AND DNA test please, I don’t believe this is the same guy we’ve been watching the last few weeks. A long ball from Toure finds Bendtner, who’s marker is watching planes in the sky or something, takes the ball well on his knee (First touch!! He’s developed a f**king first touch!) and lashes the ball in from a tight angle! Sublime finish. 3-1 Arsenal

SECOND HALF

• Kolo off injured for Diaby, lets hope it’s not too serious.
• Bendtner is playing really well! Sets up Arshavin who should have scored but Carson saves.
• Gooners behind the goal making plenty of noise. Well played.
• Bendtner, you’re not Bendtner. Seriously. Who the f**k are you? He’s gone past 2 players, a nice bit of footwork before playing the ball to Arshavin who missed the goal by a whisker. Actually, that’s a good save from Scottie Carson.
• Diaby bursting forward as he’s been doing more recently, shimmy and shot but deflected over. Denilson did well to win the ball initially.
• Bendtner hits the post after more good foot work on the edge of the area and cutting inside, his left footed effort comes back off the base of the upright. Please Nick, stop now, I fear this may be all the creative goodness in your body coming out in one game!
• Good give and go between Bendtner and Eboue but the latter shoots straight at Carson. On target I suppose. How many times have I written Bendtner in this! 9 already? And none of them have had the words “touch”, “rapist” or “f**king donkey” near them? I’m scared…..
• WBA spring our offside trap but the shot is tipped wide by Almunia. Done well when called upon tonight.
• The Ole’s are ringing out now.
• Arshavin forces a good save from Carson. Getting better with fitness for certain.
• F**k me, I thought our place emptied out early but this place is deserted before full time!

FULL TIME: WBA 1 – 3 ARSENAL

So, what have we learnt from that? Well, Arsenal play better on Tuesday nights, that’s for sure. But more than that, there’s seems to be a decent, skilled and most importantly, hungry footballer in Nicklas Bendtner. Tonight he had pace, strength, movement, an eye for goal and a first touch (I still can’t believe I’m writing this). I’d actually say at times some of his touches and movement was akin to Henry.

Ok, I’m going to sit down now…..

Lets think about this more. Yes, Arsenal were good last night, straight from the off we went at them, got the early goal I mentioned a few blogs back (yeah, I called that one!), moved the ball around really well with some great one touch passing. It was like the Arsenal we all know and love.

But, as good as it was last night, it has to be taken in context.

This was West Bromwich Albion. We have to remember that this lot concede goals for fun, not as many as Derby but they’re having a good go at it. And without Jay Simpson in attack they were pretty toothless as well. This lot are probably going down and there’s a good reason for that, they’re not good enough for the top flight. As a result of their poor play we were able to take advantage and play our football, albeit with extra motivation and sense of urgency that has been so so badly lacking in recent weeks.

Sorry to piss on many bonfires, but lets see how we follow this up in the against Roma and Blackburn (sorry to discount Burnley but in terms of comparison they’re more akin to WBA than other future opponents) before we declare that Arsenal are back.

One final thing, I think we’ll all be Citizens tonight as Man City (minus Bellamy and Robinho typically) play Villa. Come on City, help us get the challenge for 4th back on!

Red Army!

Technorati Tags: WBA,Bendtner,context,Roma,Arshavin,Villa

And one more thing!

Just to brighten your day!

 

FNM stick the knife in, and WBA away

Just when things couldn’t get shitter one of my favourite bands who recently announced they were getting back together after 11 years, Faith No More, decide to kick me while I’m down:

Faith No More have confirmed that they are re-forming, and will headline Download Festival at Donington Park this summer.

Faith No More’s appearance at Download 2009 will be their ONLY UK date this year.

So FNM's only UK date this year is at a festival that a) You can only get weekend tickets for at £160 a pop plus booking fee and P&P and b) has Limp Bizkit.

Utter pish!

In football news, we’re away to West Brom tonight, a team at the polar opposite of our current defensive record. However they’re pretty handy up front, so thankfully Jay Simpson won’t be able to face us due to the conditions of his loan to the Baggies.

I’d give my soul for a 1-0 win, I’d give my balls for anything greater*. If we can’t score against this lot tonight then we’re well and truly f**ked.

Team wise, Gallas is out and will be replaced by Djourou, but otherwise expect the same side that forced 60,000 people into a collective coma on Saturday. Looking further ahead Le Boss has hinted that there’s an outside chance that Eduardo, Theo and Ade will be fit for Burnley. I’d expect substitute appearances from at least one of them in this match with Roma away in just over a week. Cesc and Rosicknote are about 3 weeks away, although the latter was meant to only be 3 weeks away a year ago, so I’ll believe that when I see it.

Please, God, Satan, Allah, Buddha and Keith Moon, end this poor run and give us 3 points!

Tonight, Arsenal, please just f**king win.

*This doesn’t mean I will actually give up either a) my soul if we win 1-0 nil or b) my balls if the margin is greater.

Technorati Tags: WBA,Faith No More,Pish,God

Booooooooooooooooooo!

Like the Arsenal team on Saturday, I can’t really be arsed.

To be honest I’m still f**king livid from the game.The last ten minutes when we couldn’t even be bothered to chase their shadows were abysmal, and it actually got that bad before Wenger got off his arse and tried to motivate the players. It actually took things to get that low! Everything I said couldn’t and shouldn’t happen in my previous post did.

The thing that makes this even worse it that this was pretty much the same group of players that played Roma off the park just 4 days previously.

The blame lies with the manager……..

At least David Bentley and the Spuds brought a smile to my face this weekend. Couldn’t have happened to a bigger rat-faced t**ser!

Technorati Tags: Boooo,livid,Fulham,Roma,shite