One foot in the groups & The Arsenalisation continues

Apologies for no blog yesterday, the gaffer was in and I was busy. Not that anyone reads this anyway!

So, a competent performance on Tuesday night saw us come away from Parkhead as the first team to win there since 1983 and with a 2-0 lead in the tie.

While the goals were lucky and we didn’t quite click offensively we looked confident and settled at the back, Thomas Vermaelen looking exceptional again. I seriously like this guy, looks like Vidic, jumps like Cahill and defends like Adams/Bould/Keown. He’s putting his good start down to another guy who has started the season well, William Gallas, who is probably playing his best football in 2 years at the moment (and has scored in each game so far this season!)

Celtic offered little, and while they had a decent shout for a penalty the only other threat of note was a shot from a corner in the first half which Almunia gathered despite seeing it late. The much-hyped atmosphere seemed to last all of 5 minutes as well as you could only hear the away fans who made an excellent din, a bit like the Grove really!

So, one foot in the group stages, but I think we’ll see more fight from Celtic in the second leg next week as they look to score first and revive the tie. This isn't over yet!

In other news the Arsenalisation of the Grove continues with the introduction of a big cannon in the seats of the Lower East.

Ok, it’s just the one, opposite the cameras for show and will probably be painfully visible once people start leaving in the 80th minute to “beat the rush” (tossers), but its a start. Love the way its facing the away fans too!

Rumours that Bendtner has signed a new contract, nothing to back this up yet.

Righto, Pompey at home on Saturday, thoughts on that tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: Celtic,CL qualifier,Vermaelen,Arsenalisation

Another generic Battle of Britain headline

Right, Celtic away tonight in the first leg of the CL qualifier, and the team news isn’t great.

Theo is out for sure while Cesc, Denilson and Sagna face fitness tests. To make this even worse Diaby is fit.

Ok, a little harsh, but to lose two of our best players at the weekend to be replaced by a man who has one foot and uses that to run around in circles before being injured for 2 weeks with a “niggling knee” isn’t fantastic news.

Celtic defender Danny Fox says that the home fans can roar them to victory.

The boss says’ we need to silence the crowd.

Granted, its going to be an intimidating atmosphere tonight. Parkhead on a European night is one of the greatest atmospheres in the world and they’ve got some awesome results there in recent years against United and Barcelona amongst others, but lets not forget what we did the last time we went on a European trip to a hostile ground where the home side had an impressive record.

None the less, this will be a tough task tonight, we’ll have a real battle on our hands and I don’t expect Celtic to give us any time on the ball and to fight for everything, as they should have learnt from Everton at the weekend that you’ve got to get in our faces or we can run riot, but I can’t see them playing any other way.

COME ON YOU REDS!

Technorati Tags: Celtic,CL qualifier,Cesc,Diaby,Denilson,Sagna

Sixy

Ok, anyone who predicted that would happen is clearly mental!

I’m a bit pushed for time this morning so wont do a full review of the game as well all know what happened and have probably seen it. If you’ve not then allow me to point you to the Arsenalist who can enlighten you.

Thoughts from the game. It was a bit retro 2004 wasn’t, especially the 4th goal. The way we moved the ball upfield with quick passing and movement was superb and has been sorely missed the last few seasons. Was anyone else a bit scared by Bendtner’s effectiveness on the wing? I was. Other surprises were basically Song and Denilson. Song just won everything, Denilson wasn’t far behind him, plus some of his distribution was fantastic, a totally different player from last season. And as for that goal, wow!

I thought RvP and Arshavin were pretty quiet apart from setting up Cesc’s first and Eduardo’s goals respectively, however if they can have a quiet game and we still notch 6 goals that can only be a good thing! Plus we can add Theo, Nasri and Walcott and hopefully some potential signings to the mix over the next few weeks and months.

Vermaelen looks like a tower of power, granted one of those towers where the first two floors are underground, but a tower none the less. There was one moment, with Jo running at him, he literally just stopped and the ball arrived at his feet before he looked up and set Arshavin away on another attack down the wing. The guy has a top footballing mind to go with some obvious strong defensive capabilities. Oh, and he can also nail a header! Think this guy is going to be a fan favourite pretty damn quickly.

Ok, Everton were pretty poor, their biggest mistake being that they let us get the ball down and play rather than getting in amongst us, although you could probably argue not tracking Vermaelen and Gallas from the 2 free-kicks was also pretty big on the mistake scale too, but lets not take anything away (yeah, Alan Hanson, just get over Anfield ‘89 ok!) we did play exceptionally well.

However, it’s important to keep our feet on the ground, one swallow does not make a summer (although I’ve seen films that might disprove that!) Lets see if we can keep this going during the run at the end of the month and into September before we start talk of being legitimate contenders.

Anyway, closer on the horizon are Celtic tomorrow night at Parkhead, who will have no-doubt learnt a few things from watching us at the weekend. But more on that tomorrow.

Hoşça kalın (that’s goodbye in Turkish y’know!)

Technorati Tags: Everton,Celtic,Vermaelen,Cesc,Eduardo,Song,Bendtner,RvP,Arshavin

It begins…

Yes, after much waiting and the infinite joy of a summer of transfer speculation the season gets underway tomorrow…………………….and predictably we already have some injury problems! What, it wouldn’t be the same if we actually started a season with a full squad would it?

So, we have:

Walcott: Out (back)

Djourou: Out 1 month (knee)

Fabianski: Out (knee)

Nasri: Out 3 weeks+ (broken leg)

Rosicky: Out 2 weeks (Hamstring Rosicky)

But don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll be like new signings when they return!

So not ideal for Everton tomorrow, and leaving us pretty damn thin at CB for a month, that is assuming that we don’t make a move for Brede Hangeland, who has said he’s only focused on Fulham but would consider a bid in we made one (if that's not a come and get me I don't know what is!). Offensively there isn’t too much of a concern as we’ve got quite a few options up there.

So yeah, I’m guessing the lineup will probably be something like Almunia, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy, Song, Fabregas Denilson, Arshavin, RvP and Bendtner (going for size rather than the pace of Eduardo). That way Wenger can switch between the mooted 4-3-3 he’s employing this season or the 4-5-1 that Wenger tends to employ in Europe. Everton have a few injury concerns themselves, as well as the giant, green, money-infested vulture of Manchester “The Project” City circling over Joleon Lescott as a bit of a distraction.

Anyway, fingers crossed we start the season with bang and get a win under our belts early doors.

COME ON YOU REDS!

Technorati Tags: Everton,Injures

Vieira, Hangeland, atmosphere, not long now…..

A few snippets of news about at the moment.

Looking like the Vieira story was all Wengerbluff as Sky Sports are currently believing that he’s going to stay at Inter, however I always question it when people “Understand from their sources.” Who are these sources? Are they real? Do they have tentacles with dildos on the end*? Who knows….

Brede Hangeland says he’s in no rush to leave Fulham. I’ll take that as a “come and get me” plea then!

REDaction are placing 57,000 red and white scarves in the ground for the Pompey game in a bid to improve atmosphere. I know its a bit fake and the idea of having scarves in August is a bit mental, but we at least its a start. Lots of people say “our atmosphere is sh*te” and it is, but when someone tries something that’s also branded as sh*te. This may not be the best idea, but at least its a start. They have also revealed designs to “Arsenalise” the exterior of the Grove with a series of images depicting former legends.

Personally I like it, and the retro-soviet style will make Arshavin feel at home, although I can understand it not being everyone’s cup of tea.

Speaking of tea……

*Apologies, Leanne is away so I have no morals……

Technorati Tags: Vieira,REDaction,Hangeland

An afterthought

You lucky people you, 3 posts in one day!

Something my old man mentioned to me regarding a Wenger quote.

"Usually the transfer market only speeds up from August 26 up to midnight on August 31 – and especially in the last two hours."

9:30pm on August 26th is the time we’ll know if we’re in the group phases of the CL or not. It’s at that point we’ll know if we’ve got the ludicrous money from Europe’s top table, or if we’re £30mil down.

So you’ve got to ask, if we stumble against Celtic, is the money available for transfers and from the sale of Kolo, Greedybollocks and potentially Senderos going to fill that gap?

Food for thought.

Technorati Tags: CL qualifier,Celtic

Celtic

 

Anyone shocked? Course not……

Technorati Tags: CL Qualifier,Celtic