Monthly Archives: March 2008

It kind of might make sense. Possibly.

Morning all. Well at least I think it’s morning. It’s afternoon here. Or yesterday, or something. 11 hours on a plane should be punishment for serial murderers or something, Jesus what a fucking chore.

Anyway, I’m in LA this week. Yes, Arsene has sent me to bring back Beckham but I’m not sure Victoria would do much for the squad at the moment. Thanks to everyone who sent emails but unless it’s really urgent can you hold off on the emails this week – for some reason I can receive them but I’m having big problems sending them.

I didn’t get to bask in all the fun of the Bolton game, what with being stuck up in the air and stuff, but I assume everyone’s still happy about it. I know I would be if I wasn’t as tired, jet-lagged and confused as I am. Arsene reckons this is just what we needed, it’ll get the players believing again. He says:

The players now believe anything is possible. But we needed the win as when you don’t win for a while, it plays on your mind. It’s a good way to prepare for Wednesday’s game. We know we face three difficult games and Man United on the back of it.

And of course all the focus is now on the Mugsmashers. Home, home and away. Not an Aussie soap, just the sequence of events, and Liverpool will be feeling a bit more comfortable after their win in the Merseyside derby yesterday.

Not much else going on really. Maybe there’ll be some stuff in tomorrow’s papers but I’ve been awake nearly 24 hours now at this stage and I’m beginning to hallucinate. It’s not normal to see giant ponies running across the bathroom at you, is it?

I thought not. More coherent thoughts when I’ve adjusted to LA time. Mañana, arsedudes.

A game of two halves

Sometimes a cliché is a cliché because it’s true. Yesterday’s game was the ultimate game of two halves. The first was full of misery and despair. After a great start in which we dominated the game and made plenty of chances, none of which we took, Bolton took the lead. A cross from the right and some terrible defending by Kolo allowed Matt Taylor to score. Some people suggested Almunia might have been at fault here but a header from 6 yards would beat every keeper in the world. The problem was the defending, not the keeper.

Then it got worse. Abou Diaby was rightly sent off for a terrible challenge on some Bolton cunt. I don’t know who he was but the tackle was over the top, badly timed and given how we’ve complained about how Eduardo was taken out there can’t be an Arsenal fan in the world who didn’t wince at Diaby’s challenge. No complaints from here about the red card and our task was made even more difficult when Bolton went 2-0 up. Clichy, eschewing the crudeness of just hoofing out of defence, played it to Flamini who got caught in possession at the edge of the box and the ball came to Matt Taylor. William Gallas won’t want to see too many replays of it, he turned his back on the ball and the deflection it took off him gave Bolton the two goal lead.

Half time. Seriously, I’ve never known the Arseblog community to be so downhearted and disillusioned and upset. We all knew what was wrong. Arsene needed to spend. These players didn’t have the character of the old school. They lack balls. It was the end of an era. And it’s understandable. 2-0 down to a pack of shit cunts like Bolton will provoke a serious and unhappy reaction from most Arsenal fans. And as the second half began Bolton put some serious pressure on. There was a series of corners and Manuel Almunia made a fucking awesome save from some Bolton cunt. I’m not sure how much he knew about it but 3-0 would have been game over. As it was the turnaround was coming.

First William Gallas made up for his terrible defending by popping up the back post to sidefoot home from a Cesc corner. 2-1 and sure anything could happen. Then some lovely football saw Flamini’s shot saved by the keeper, Hleb charged in for the rebound and was felled by Cahill. Robin van Persie slammed home the penalty to make it 2-2. And Robin, had he been sharper, could have won the game twice. First after great work from Theo Walcott who must be close to a start on the right hand side now and later from someone else but both times the shots went high and wide.

It was in injury time the winner came though. The ball came to Hleb in the area, he cut if back for Cesc whose mishit shot went off a couple of Bolton defenders and scutted over the line to make it 3-2 Arsenal. Honestly, I went mad. That was just amazing. For the 10 men to turn it around against Bolton like that was incredible. There may have been questions about their character, their desire and so forth, but fuck me they stepped it up and they turned that game around. Brilliant. And tremendously enjoyable. When you stop thinking about all the poor things that happened and focus on the result it’s great fun. Who can not enjoy last minute winners?

I have to be honest. In online and text discussion at half time I was seriously worried about these boys. Not through lack of support but realistically the recent form can’t have done anything but make you worried. At 2-1 I said to someone that a win would be an incredible thing, not just because we’d come back from two down with ten men, but for the boost it would give the squad, the belief it would instill. Sometimes it takes something extraordinary to get a season back on track and if yesterday wasn’t extraordinary then I don’t know what is.

Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:

I can’t remember a better comeback than that – to be 2-0 down, with 10 men and win 3-2 with just half an hour to go is a great credit to the team. The last 30 minutes we had chance after chance and in the end we were a bit lucky on the third goal but we did absolutely everything to win the game and we got a very important victory for us.

Seriously though, there is an element of getting out of jail on a technicality with this one. We dominated the early part of the game and poor defending saw us behind with their first chance. As much as we enjoyed this, and fuck me I really enjoyed this, we have to be mindful of why it was we were 2-0 in the first place. But that’s football. At half-time I wouldn’t have put too much money on us coming back and winning the game but as I said above it’s games like this that can get you going after a bad spell. Fingers crossed this will get this squad of players believing they’re capable of winning games again with so many important ones coming up.

I should also point out that the win yesterday was entirely down to me and my one eyed cat. At half-time he wanted to go out so was mewing at the back door. I said ‘Ok, you can go out but remember that we saved your life when you had cat flu and cat aids and cat spina bifida and cat plague and Arsenal need three goals so come on, give me three goals you little tabby bastard.’

He said ‘mew’. I took that as acceptance and look what happened. It’s all down to the one-eyed cat. Arsene, I’ll rent him to you for £500 a week.

I don’t have that much more to say. I’ve got a really early flight this morning so that’s as much as I can get together. But hopefully this is something that can kick start our season again. And hopefully it’ll help Bolton get relegated, the cunts. I mean how can you possibly have any sympathy for a crowd of cunts that sings ‘Same old Arsenal, always cheating’ when their own player is being helped off the pitch. Enjoy the Championship, motherfuckers.

I’ll talk to you tomorrow from the west coast of America. Till then, amigos.

Saturday round-up

It’s all about thinking positive this morning. Arsene Wenger is doing it, Cesc is doing it and …erm… I’m doing it!

The boss knows we just have to get back to winning ways today against Bolton, a team who are fighting for their lives at the bottom of the table. The focus now has to be very simple, just win the game in front of you. There’s no need to worry about who we’re playing and when or where we’re playing them. Win the next game and we’ve got a chance.

Cesc, who seems to have his finger on the pulse, says:

If we want to win the league we cannot lose any more points. We have to think positive. We have to believe we can do it. Whatever happens we fight to the end — that is what we are recognised for.

He also seems a bit upset by the media who delight in Arsenal’s misery, saying:

I feel every time we lose or we don’t play well it’s like everybody’s happy. I still don’t understand why everybody is against people who try to play nice football. We’ve been playing fantastic football. But it’s true people like to see us lose. That’s the way I feel.

There really is nothing like the motivation of cramming something down people’s throats. It’s true the football hasn’t been as fantastic in recent weeks but I’m with the number 4 on this one, there are too many people in the media who delight in reporting on Arsenal losses and Arsenal crisis and Arsenal misery and so on.

In terms of today it looks like Emmanuel Adebayor is going to get a rest. The boss is aware that he’s worked his socks off and looks jaded, saying:

I believe he has given a lot this year and so he would need a little breather, maybe. He has played a lot on his own up front and has had to fight very hard. So at the moment, to refresh him a bit would do him some good. He has not scored recently but then, as a team, we have made less chances. Also physically he was a bit jaded because he has played in nearly every single game since the start of the season.

It appears Bendtner and Robin van Persie will start up top today – and I think we’ll see today’s team selection have half an eye on the first Champions League game on Wednesday. The right back situation will be interesting, it could well be Eboue today but I wouldn’t be surprised if the manager thought seriously about Kolo there for the Champions League games. We could see Theo start today as well although with Bolton’s physical approach he might be best coming off the bench when they’ve worn themselves out kicking and fouling us. I’m confident we’re going to get back on track today.

Going back to Cesc for a moment you might have read that he split with his long time agent Joseba Diaz and yesterday came the news that his new agent is none other than Darren Dein. I have to say the news is rather disquieting. Perhaps it’s just a case that Dein, through the SEM, group can secure more lucrative endorsements and sponsorships, but ultimately an agent really earns his money through getting players moves. Anyway, we won’t worry about it just yet.

Right, that’s about it really. I’ve got to get packed as I’m off on a little trip tomorrow. The blog will continue as normal but don’t be surprised if you get a Tom flavoured blog once or twice. Which reminds me, I should probably mention this to Tom. Tom … Tom… yeah, I think he knows now.

Hasta mañana and come on you goooooooners.

With Sagna out it's got to be Toure at right back + Arsecast 70

Good morning to you all.

We’ll start with the bad news first, get it out of the way, like a blind person at a pedestrian crossing. I mean, they can’t say who barged in front of them and the dog’s not going to say a word, is he? Not if he knows what’s good for him. Anyway, the point is that Bacary Sagna is out for ‘at least’ three weeks after picking up an ankle injury against Chelsea. This is bad. Arguably our most consistent player this season he’s made a mockery of all of us who went ‘Bacary who? Why do we need a right back when we have Eboue and Hoyte?’

With the greatest of respect to the two of them Sagna is obviously miles better than either of them and his absence is going to be sorely felt. The question is what will the manager do? Will he bring in Hoyte and continue to play Eboue wide right? Will Diaby’s return mean Hleb goes right and Eboue goes to right back? Could Theo come in on the right hand side? There are options but for me there’s only one real choice. Bring back Senderos into the centre of defence and push Kolo to right back.

That brings the balance back to the centre and ensures we play our strongest possible back four. Given the quality of the upcoming opposition I think we need to play our best players as much as possible. Eboue and Hoyte are competent players but if Gallas and Senderos can strike up that same partnership and Kolo can bring his energy and power to the right hand side then we’re lessening the impact of Sagna’s loss. It’ll be interesting to see what the boss does.

After some criticism and stories about William Gallas this week AW has defended his captain, saying:

William has my full support and my full backing and I am completely behind him, and behind the team as well. You have the same William Gallas – and the same people said it was a good choice to make him captain when we were five points ahead, and you have not to go too much overboard.

Which is all very sensible and hard to argue against. I think there are some questions to be asked of Gallas but I don’t think it’s as bad as it’s being made out to be. Further thoughts on Gallas and that teamtalk in today’s Arsecast. What was interesting was the boss being so candid about the captain’s performance on Sunday. He’s usually much more circumspect about individual performances so perhaps he’s trying to spark a reaction from a player who has been, by his own standards this season, below par in recent games.

More from the boss and more team news ahead of the Bolton game on tomorrow’s blog.REDaction have launched a new website – go take a look.

It’s coming up on 7 years since David Rocastle died. A new website has been launched and it’s aiming to pay tribute to Rocky and raise some money for charity – Rocky7.co.uk

Now, Arsecast.

In this week’s Arsecast, brought to you by OleOle.com, I chat with the Mugsmasher about the upcoming games against the Mugsmashers, there’s a player history, Talkshite radio, Eboue, thoughts on Chelsea, Gallas and more.

To subscribe to the arsecast in iTunes – click here. To download this week’s arsecast directly – click here (17mb MP3). You can find the arsecast archives here. And you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

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Right, early start, busy day, more tomorrow. Have a good one.