Fffffffriday, and Fulham tomorrow

Friday! Is there a better day? Well, yes, Saturday, but only when there’s football, otherwise Friday’s your man.

Straight into it, injury news for tomorrow. After a decent performance midweek Abou Diaby is, unsurprisingly, injured after straining his calf, however the Mighty Atom Andrey Arshavin will feature. And more importantly will have another week of fitness under his belt.

How this will affect Wenger’s team selection I don’t know. Ideally I’d like Eboue to start on the right and give him the chance to follow up his, erm, well, not great performance midweek, lets day not shit performance, play Denilson in the defensive midfield role with Arshavin the more attacking, with Nasri in his usual spot. I’m saying this because I’m now at the point where I’d rather anything, ANYTHING than seeing that f**ker Song in midfield. Nothing against the guy personally, but he’s just not good enough. And tomorrow is a game where we need to come out of the traps and get right at them, like we did with Roma midweek, Song isn’t they type of player that allows us to do that, he’s like driving with the handbrake on.

Fulham are shite away from home but have an awesome defensive record this season, whereas we haven’t scored in 3 PL matches. It’s a game that’s screaming draw, and not in a cool Clint Eastwood kind of way, in more of a painful, mind numbing rather eat your toes than watch kind of way. But we can’t let that happen! Surely, SURELY after midweek we’ve learnt that we’ve got to go at this lot straight from the off, especially with Villa playing Stoke which you’d expect them to get 3 points from.

I suspect we’ll know within the opening ten minutes tomorrow which Arsenal we’ll get….

COME ON YOU REDS!

Technorati Tags: Fulham,Handbrake,Arshavin

Interim financial results released

Ok, you get a double post today, you lucky people you!

Arsenal’s interim financial results were released today, click here to see the full shabang from the official

I just want to analyse a few quotes from newbie Ivan Gazidis that Setanta have got their mitts on from Arsenal TV, just to see if they worry you as much as they do me.

“Arsene is very focused on building one of the best young teams in the world, and we’re in the middle of that process,” Gazidis told Arsenal TV Online. “This is a team that is developing game by game, and month by month.”

Ok, fair point. We’re in the middle so we’re expecting and experiencing a bit of turbulence.

“When you look at the ages of the players that we’re putting out onto the field and the level of performance that these young players are producing, the next two or three years look very bright indeed.”

Ok, again, it’s a fair point that the current group of players, if kept together, will improve together and in theory create a good, dynamic and tight team.

“We will not, and Arsene will not, make purchases just to make a splash in the newspapers. We’ll only buy and sign players that we think add something that we don’t currently have. If Arsene believes there are players out there that can help the squad, the board has always been behind him in that. But don’t forget that we believe in the young players we already have.”

Nothing new here. But this is where the sh*t gets scary (I’ve skipped a few para’s out here as the rest was a bit same old same old.)

“If (hypothetically) we were to miss out on the Champions League next year obviously that would have a negative impact on our finances. But the impact is not dramatic so while we’d rather be in the Champions League for a wide variety of reasons, if we were to miss out we’d be very solidly positioned to be able to invest prudently and come back the following year.”

Ok, as you know, I’m thinking that unless we win the European Cup (we can dream) we’re not going to be dining at the top table next season. So basically, what Ivan is saying is, if my prediction is correct and we finish outside the top 4, we’re not going to be active in the summer transfer window. Unless of course any transfers are funded by players being sold on first, so either clearing out the dead wood (Eboue, Adebayor Song) or asset stripping (Cesc, RVP, Theo).

Can we get £15mil for Eboue, or am I reading this wrong?

Ha!

This gave me a giggle today….

You might get a proper update tomorrow, if you’re lucky!

One Nil to the Arsenal

 

Been a long time since that has rung out at Highbury/the Grove, but a Robin Van Persie penalty midway through the first half was enough as we beat Roma.

I could do a full write-up of the game, but a) I wouldn’t do it justice and b) I can’t be arsed. Arseblog has done a good job of it as always, and there’s always the official site and BBC reviews.

Looking back, Wenger has stated that his primary regret on last night was that we were “wasteful”.

"That is the regret we have tonight, I'm happy with our performance but there was room to score more goals - we know we can create chances."

He’s bang on. Last night gave us a great opportunity to put the tie to bed and take the pressure off for the second leg. Glaring misses from Bendtner (who has the first touch of a mule) and Eboue (who frankly just shat himself when he realised where he was on the pitch) could have put us with a little more than a foot in the last eight. However, these are pretty much the only negatives from the night, aside from Alex Song who is in absolutely no way good enough for this club, can’t pass 4 yards and in a game where we actually finally started fizzing the ball around the park proved himself mentally and physically unable to keep up.

But, like I said, we actually finally started fizzing the ball around the park. There was pace, movement and attacking intent straight from the off. Its almost as if Wenger had read this blog! Na, course he doesn’t. In fact I only know of 2 people that do, and they’re family so that doesn’t really count I guess….

And even Eboue, yes, the f**king lovechild of Wenger, had a decent game last night. Granted some of his passing was a little erratic and there was a tiny bit of his usual playacting that we know and love, but he drove forward well and added width to our play, something that had been missing recently (amongst other things), and his work rate couldn’t be faulted. Has the penny dropped?

So, the lead isn’t as big as it should have been, but it’s a lead and more vitally a clean sheet. Nick a goal out there and they need 3, it can be done but it won’t be easy, ask the Mancs and Chav$ki!

Fulham at the weekend, but as it’s Wednesday I’ll deal with that nearer the time. Work calls…..

¡Roca en, hombres!

Technorati Tags: Eboue,Roma,One nil

Roma & The Beast returns

 

I love the big European nights. Sitting at work all day, thinking of nothing else. Hitting the pub early before getting the train up to town. There’s a buzz all around Arsenal and its great to be part of.

Tonight is no exception, I can already taste that first beer and I’m practically bouncing at my desk to get going. Trouble is, I keep thinking this may be the last time I get this for a while….

Tonight sees Roma come to town, with 2 familiar faces amongst their ranks. Riise, who I have always rated, and the very familiar Julio Baptista, who for those who have blanked out his time here in their heads, was a bit of a donkey in the red and white.

So sods law says he’ll notch one tonight!

From an Arsenal perspective Diaby is our only returnee, while the diminutive Arshavin is cup-tied. So you’re really got to be expecting our usual 4-5-1 with Bendtner playing alone up front and RVP playing in the hole behind him. I’m hoping Vela gets a start on the wing instead of the Love Child, but I’m expecting it to be the other way around.

Fingers crossed all goes well, enjoy tonight and lets make some f**king noise, we may not get another chance for a while!

ALLEZ ARSENAL!

Arsene Knows?

 

I won’t go into Saturday as an actual report, primarily as I wasn’t there but also as it’s too depressing. But if the official site’s report isn’t as rose-tinted as usual then things must really be up! The man from East Lower gives a good write-up too

On the plus side, Arshavin started brightly, the boy looks class and will light up the league, but as his fitness faded as did our hopes of getting 3 points.

I caught the game on MOTD later Saturday night, I’d already spoken to my cousin and my old man who had already informed me it was, in unreserved terms “shite”. From the 4 minutes of highlights we actually looked creative, pressed forward well and created chances, forcing a few decent saves from Fullop.

Then I sat there and thought about it. 4 minutes of highlights from about 93 minutes of football. That’s pretty poor. The second half on MOTD started with a box saying that Arshavin had been replaced by Vela. That switch took place on 63 minutes. So what the hell happened in the minutes between 45 and 63? In fact, that highlight could have been the 67th minute for all we know. However I have a pretty good idea as to what happened, and it probably bears some relation to a crab. Sideways, sideways, sideways!

 

There’s the problem. I previous years we’ve started the game and really gone for the opposition lots of movement, overlapping runs and lashings of trying to get the early goal. Nowdays we rarely get this until the last 5 minutes when we realise that passing the ball sideways against the massed ranks of opposing defenders isn’t going to work. Why does this happen? Well, put bluntly, the players in the middle of the park at the moment aren’t good enough. Denilson is a squad player at best (at the moment) while Song just isn’t “Arsenal quality”, and don’t even get me started on Eb**e! However even the worst player in the world can understand the basics of attacking and ca

n be motivated. So Mr Wenger, here’s where I look at you. Jumping up and down in the last 5 mins and complaining about timewasting after giving moody gallic looks in the previous 85 minutes isn’t enough. This lot need motivation, be on your feet in the first 5 mins, prowl the touchline and let them no that this current malaise cannot continue. If we have got to watch sub-standard players, lets at least get them trying.

As for qualifying for the Champions League, well, lets just say that I’m preparing to have Tuesday and Wednesday evenings free next season.

Roma up next in what I’m expecting to be our last Champions League game at the Grove for a while, so I’m planning to get drunk and enjoy it while I can!

¡Roca en, hombres!

Technorati Tags: Champions League,Denilson,Song,Crabs

Arsenal 0 - 0 Sunderland - Thats all folks?

I didn't go today due to financial reasons, I'll do a full write up on Monday (when I can get paid to do it!), however from what I heard it's probably a good thing I sat this one out as another mediocre (at best) performance potentially sees our hopes of Champions League football next season go up the swanny, although I'm now worried I'm repressing a lot of rage.....