Jul

31

Cheerio, Jose

Filed Under The Arsenal | 840 arses

So, what to tell you today? Gah, I feel ill? Wait, that’s not news.

In the Best Newsnow Headline Grabbing category, some absurd website has picked up on the Dein-Wenger meeting from the other day, with the headline “Wenger to get the sack?”. I’m not going to link to it because it’s just too funny. Some of these websites are great, aren’t they? The likes of Tribalfootball, EatSleepSport, The News of the World…

He’s not going anywhere, you morons, and he’s certainly not about to get the sack. What a crock of shit.

I just jinxed it, didn’t I? Yeah, maybe. Or maybe not.

Anyway, in less *cough* BULLSHIT *cough* news, it looks like we’ve finally palmed off Jose Antonio Reyes to Athletico Madrid. Now, I’m sorry that he never made it at Arsenal because the boy’s obviously a good player and he’s got bags of potential (remember his debut, and those 2 goals against the Russians?), but he was never going to make it for us because he couldn’t cope with the weather, or the physicality of our league (or certain individuals, if that’s what you choose to believe). I remember being at work and hearing we’d signed him and being absolutely thrilled, but he never quite lived up to the hype. Shame for The Boss personally who put a lot on the line by spending so much money on him, and it looks like we’ve only made back about half of what we spent on him (some £8m). Whatever the fee is, he had to go somewhere and Madrid (whichever side) is good enough. Anyway, cheerio, Jose.

In other news, Kerrea Gilbert as signed for Southend on a season long loan. He said:

I’m pleased to be joining Southend and we have good times to look forward to.

At Arsenal I’m not going to get the chance to really play this season because they signed another right-back, but hopefully I can help Southend.

I hope so too, because from the brief appearances I’ve seen of him, he looks not bad. Good luck to him.

Further to his comments yesterday (or part of the same), Robin Van Persie has spoken of the team spirit within the squad and how brilliant it would be to win the league with the players we’ve got:

It’s hard to fight with them [United, Chelsea and Liverpool] but I know we can do it. Football is not about age or money. It’s about if you want to run for each other, if you want to fight for each other and really play some ball.

Liverpool have spent lots of money, Chelsea have been doing that the last few years, I respect that. This is their way of winning things. But we can win things as well. We are young. So what? Age doesn’t matter. It’s about the way we play football and the way we like to play together.

To win the title with this team would be great. I really believe we can do that. I think the manager is thinking the same.

Since I started pre-season with these boys, every day I’ve seen their ability. Yes, they are young and young people make mistakes but that doesn’t really matter. Like in love, age doesn’t matter.

Feel the love, baby. Though, technically, in love, age can actually matter. Ask Chris Langham (sorry; I really am - I didn’t mean anything by it and absolve Arseblog of any responsibility for my comments). I really do think he’s ace though (Van Persie, not Chris Langham) and I think this team is capable of big things. Perhaps not this season - unless the manager addresses the areas we all feel he needs to - but they’re growing together and good as we can be, we can only get better (as long as we start putting those chances away).

In his own comments, Cesc said:

You never know in the future. When you are a footballer, anything can happen. But, right now, the best place for me is Arsenal. Since I signed this contract, everybody could see I really believe in this team and my commitment is the same as the first day I came here.

We have a strong team but we don’t have to keep saying: “We will win, we will win”. We have to keep going game by game, and if we can keep the concentration, we have a strong team and can win. Why not? I’m happy at Arsenal, I want to continue here and win many things.

Now, I’d love him to stay for his entire career, but I think we all know he’s going to go back to Spain at some point, though unlike that utter cunt Calderon, I think it’ll be Barca he goes to rather than Real. Nice quotes though and if none of Kolo, Gilberto or Gallas get the captaincy, I think he should. I know it’s a bit of a curse, but y’know. I’d be proud to have our little Catalan as captain of our club. He’s ace, so he is.

William Gallas is back saying the right things too:

We will show all the critics that we can do it this season by adopting a new attitude, because we have to be up there. In the past we have relied on lovely football to see us through, but sometimes you have to fight to achieve success and that will be the attitude we shall adopt this season. We showed against Inter that we can do just that.

Some people claim this club are on a downward spiral but there is enormous determination. Thierry has gone. Now we have to look forward to a new era. There is a tremendous spirit of togetherness and I’m ready for the challenge and want to set the right example.

Which is nice, and I suppose as long as he can translate that to performances on the pitch, is fair enough. I’m *still* not convinced that Phil and Kolo aren’t a better partnership, but there you go. We’ll see. Nice comments, but I still think he could’ve done better for Inter’s goal the other day, but whatever. Nice to hear him not-bitching.

Anyway, that’s it from me until next time. Blogger is back from living it up in Spain in the sunshine as of tomorrow, you’ll be delighted to hear. I’m off to spend the rest of my last week off getting drunk. Oh, etc.

Until next time that slacker goes on holiday I hope, Arsebloggers. Cheerio.

Jul

30

Arsenal 2 - 1 Inter Milan

Filed Under The Arsenal | 670 arses

And yesterday saw us win our first trophy of the new season with a 2-1 win over Inter Milan. Excellent.

We were pretty good yesterday, I thought, though it did look for a while (well, for 3 minutes in the end) that we were going to suffer from yet again not taking chances despite all the possession. It really is frustrating sometimes, isn’t it?

First half we were much better than against PSG. The stats at the end of the half made pretty good reading, with us having had something like 8 shots to Inter’s 1. The scoreline though, was 0-0.

The defence was good; Kolo and Gallas unflustered - not that they had much reason to be flustered - and Hoyte and Sagna were solid enough and got involved well. Sagna played pretty well and looked much more at home than the day before.

We looked better in midfield too. Surprise of the day was Kieran Gibbs starting on the left side and he did very well. He didn’t look remotely uncomfortable, supported the attack well and tracked back too. Impressive. Despite looking a bit slight, he was up for the challenge physically too.

And I’m going to say it: Eboue was really quite good on the right wing. He drew three yellow cards from Inter players (and not even through absurd diving either; he made sure the ref knew about it alright, but they were fouls, even if he went looking for them). The one for Materazzi was hilarious. I dunno what Materazzi was thinking, but Eboue was heading nowhere but the touchline with the ball running away from him so he kicked it forward, looking for the tackle and Materazzi slid straigt in, taking Eboue with him. Moron. Good to hear the boos for him. So, Eboue for right wing? Well, he does look more dangerous there than he does at full back (where he’s dangerous in defence too) and I thought he and Sagna linked up quite well. I dunno, maybe.

Central midfield was unfussy too, with Flamini anchoring and Cesc playing the more creative role, as usual. Despite what you’d have thought was a more defensive role, Flamini does get forward very well.

Up front was interesting. Hleb started in a supporting role with Robin Van Persie playing up front on his own, and some of the interplay between the two was excellent. One move where Hleb stepped over the pass and left it to Robin was sublime and ended with a good strike that he couldn’t quite bend round the keeper. Hleb gave the ball away a few times but he was twisting and turning and played well. Robin had a few free kicks too, one almost from the byline which the keeper had to parry. Another move involving Gibbs and Flamini was almost perfection, and if the shot had been anywhere other than straight at the keeper it was a goal.

Second half was more of the same, but there’s nowhere other to start than at the end with Van Persie’s goal which won us the game and the tournament. Put through by Eboue, and covered by their full back and centre back, he scored the sort of individual goal for which he’s getting a bit of a reputation. To summarise, he sold the defender a dummy, carrying the ball back with it somehow stuck to his left foot and then smashed it in high at the near post with his right, almost in one movement. Toldo had no chance. It was very special and if you haven’t seen it yet, I’m sure it’ll be on Youtube soon enough. It wasn’t even his stronger foot.

He was unlucky with another couple of chances. He could’ve/should’ve got a penalty when he was barged off the ball by Chivu (I think) on the penalty spot, and he got onto a lovely driven cross from Hleb via Sagna which Toldo saved well. He had a really good game and you could tell from his post match interview that he was delighted. It was really nice to hear his positive comments about the team spirit in the dressing room and “playing the Arsenal way” after the game. He’s a big, big talent with a great attitude on the pitch too. I love the fire about him - it reminds me of Dennis. Let’s hope he can step up.

That said, more generally, it looked like we were going to see the same old story from last season where despite all the possession and shots, we were going to lose to the opposition’s only chance on goal. Coming against the run of play, they scored a fairly standard header in off the post which Gallas might’ve done better to prevent.

Three minutes later though, Hleb got the equaliser. Sagna cut the ball back and Hleb hit his strike straight at Toldo, who parried back to Hleb, who put it back across goal from a difficult angle. It was good reward for him, and Toldo pounding the floor in anger afterwards was funny.

Other than that, the second half carried on much as it had in the first, with us having most of the possession. Eboue was still very dangerous, and played really well with Sagna, who fitted in much better. On the other side, Hoyte did well enough and Kieran Gibbs continued to impress until he was substituted, when he got a deserved standing ovation.

So, first silverware of the season. Not bad to start with. Be nice if it was May and that trophy was a bit bigger, but that’d be to get carried away. Figo had a good chance just after Robin had scored which he was unlucky to head wide. It was a good win, a good performance, and certainly confidence building, but we’ve got to start putting the chances away. The stats at the end of the game were crazy - 14 shots vs 1 to us or something. Against Inter Milan. Not bad, even if it was a friendly, they were lacking fitness and a lot of their first team. It was encouraging.

Oh, and in the other game, PSG beat Valencia 3-0, scoring some nice goals and playing some very nice stuff. PSG had a player with a Mr T mohican. I think Kolo should get a mohican.

I do like these pre-season tournaments. One more blog from me tomorrow, I think, and then Blogger shall resume normal service on Wednesday.

Jul

29

The Emirates Cup day one

Filed Under The Arsenal | 455 arses

So yesterday saw our first pre-season game at home, in the Emirates Cup against PSG.

For what it was worth, we won 2-1, which was nice, but the performance, certainly in the first half left a bit to be desired.

Positives. Clichy was excellent and looked very fresh and I’m very, very glad we’ve got him instead of That Utter Cunt. His pace really is something to behold and he was easily our most dangerous player in the first half. We were murdering them time and again with Clichy putting in crosses. We’ve been blessed at left-back for quite a while now - at least in terms of playing ability - with Winterburn, Sylvinho, That Cunt, and now Clichy, who looks like a top player.

However, he had to be pretty good because we were playing four central midfielders and the team had no width at all apart from overlapping full-backs. I don’t know whether this is some grand master plan of The Boss, but as well as Clichy did, I can’t see how it’s really viable. We really need some out and out wide players, a la Overmars - or someone like Reyes (that can cope with the climate). Even if the full backs do overlap, that’s only going to end up leaving the defence exposed and we’ll get suckered.

In the second half, Eboue was again pushed forward to the wing, and it was better. I really do think he could play there. Like I said, it relieves him of quite so much defensive responsibility, he’s got a few tricks (as well as the theatrics), he can certainly cross the ball, and he’s not a bad shot. Be interesting to see what happens with that.

We saw Sagna too, and although he didn’t impress too much, he was okay. In a game where full backs were so important for us, I can forgive him for being a bit lost.

A word for Almunia, who - say it quietly - had an excellent game. There wasn’t much he could do about their goal and he made several very good saves including one on the volley from Pauleta which was outstanding. I like Manuel. I do remember the game against United (and I don’t think he was at fault in the Champions’ League Final myself) but he’s an excellent shot stopper and if he could learn to deal with crosses properly, Fabianski might well find himself surplus to requirements, at least until Jens goes.

In the second half, we improved, with Diaby and Hleb having a significant impact. Diaby was getting the inevitable comparisons with Vieira from the Sky commentators, and though he’s still very raw, you can’t help but be reminded of Vieira and his telescopic legs. He’s a ball winner and carrier and I think he’ll be an important player for us. Hleb too, was very good. He’s such a frustrating player; certainly I feel that he has all the skill in the world and he just needs to find his feet to be really, really good. He was playing more centrally in the second half and had a real influence on the game, turning away from players with ease with a drop of the shoulder or the odd feint. Good stuff.

Nicklas Bendtner was partnered with Van Persie from the start, and he set up Flamini for the opening goal, scored the sort of goal We Just Don’t Score from a corner, and missed a penalty. It was a bit of a mixed bag. On the face of it, he did well, but he seemed to a bit lazy at times (and his penalty was rubbish) - in sharp contrast with Robin, who was all over the place, slide tackling and testing the goalie. But a good home debut (I think that was his debut, was it not?) and he got a goal which should give him some confidence.

A bit of a strange game, but we got the result even if we didn’t have the fluency. For what it’s worth, we’re second in the table for the Emirates Cup, behind Valencia on goal difference, who beat Inter 2-0 earlier in the day.

In his post match interview, Arsene Wenger made some very cryptic comments which GilbertoSilver has kindly transcribed over on Gunnerblog. It all sounds like a bit of a smokescreen to me but intriguing nonetheless.

Today sees us play Inter, again at 4.15 on Sky Sports 2 (not 1 as I thought yesterday).

Time now for the ’scandal’ of the day. The News of The World (spit) is reporting that The Orange Man, David Dein, had dinner with Arsene Wenger in a London restaurant on Thursday (outrageous!). Their ‘eyewitness’ said:

They spent much of their time talking about Arsenal. It was definitely business.

The conversation was intense, Dein mentioned ex-skipper Thierry Henry a couple of times and I heard words like ‘plans’ and ‘the way forward’.

The News of The World has an eyewitness that can testify to the content of the conversation do they? Lucky they found that witness. Otherwise they could’ve been meeting for dinner because that’s what people do and we’d be none the wiser. Thank Heavens for The News of the World and it’s incisive, investigative journalism.

What a load of bollocks. So they met for dinner? So what? Bollocks do you know what they were talking about.

Anyway, that’s your lot for today. Enjoy your afternoon to all those that are going. I’m going to drink yet more beer, enjoy my Sunday and look forward to the football later.

Jul

28

My head hurts leave me alone

Filed Under The Arsenal | 467 arses

Stupid waking up too early with a hangover and a sore head and not being able to go back to sleep. But cheers for dinner on the company credit card, the-company-that-I-will-shortly-no-longer-be-working-for.

There’s quite a lot of news about this morning. Or news to me, anyway. Gilberto is to miss the start of the season after winning the Copa America with Brazil. He should be back around the 6th August. Good for him. Let’s hope he comes back fresh and ready for action.

Arsene Wenger has had quite a bit to say in his pre-Emirates Cup press conference and has distanced himself from any takeover bid for the club:

It’s important that I don’t go beyond my role, that I recognise my place as manager.

At the moment, we have a very special mentality at this club linked to certain people.

It is important that I concentrate on what is my role. The players and myself are focused on what we want to achieve together.

The “linked to certain people” is the most interesting bit I suppose. Not sure what he’s on about there but I’ve no doubt he’s canny enough to stay ambiguous enough on the subject that no matter what happens at board level, he’s going to be okay with whatever happens; whether there’s a takeover bid or not. Some people seem to be worried about his contract but I don’t think there’s much chance of him going - I think he feels he’s started a project with the youth policy and he wants to see it through (for good or for bad).

He also diplomatically responded to Freddie’s comments about signing players:

He was a great fighter and did extremely well for us. The club did very well for Freddie. But football is a team sport. I didn’t make any promises. The company works well when everybody does what he’s responsible for. The player is responsible for his performance in the team, not the policy of the club. We can replace these players [Henry and Ljungberg] and the spirit of the team can compensate.

Lets just hope team spirit is pretty good then. Seriously though, he’s pretty unambiguous about what he didn’t say to Freddie and (I think) he’s pretty much saying that as good as he was, it was just time for Freddie to go. I don’t think anyone would really argue with that.

He also expects to be fighting for the Championship this season:

It is only acceptable that we fight for the championship and to do well in the Champions League. By the beginning of November last season, when we were 16 points off the leader, that wasn’t acceptable for us. We should be fighting in March. We showed in spells, and in the Carling Cup, what we could do. We knew we were facing major competition in England with clubs who invest a lot of money. We went a different way [by buying young players] and need to be patient. But, while we have a young team, we have experience. We must show the quality.

Which I think is a pretty accurate statement that it’s hard to disagree with. Patience is a virtue, I suppose. But it’d be nice to see him address the areas of the team where we’re short. Like the wings, for example.

And an ex-player has had some nice things to say about us for a change. Edu, who I always thought was thoroughly underrated (remember the game against Everton at the end of the Double-winning season - was it that game? - he was truly outstanding and was playing all the party pieces), and a very nice guy, said of the ‘new’ team:

It is another generation. There have been a lot of changes and it is hard to compare with when I was here. The players were more experienced before, we had three or four of the best players in the world. But time goes. This is another generation with Cesc Fabregas and Gilberto, and I hope they continue winning and bring trophies to Arsenal.

…

Because I am away I always try to follow Arsenal and I wish them luck.

Cheers, Edu. Speedy recovery to you and it’s a shame you won’t get to play at the new stadium this weekend.

In tenuous transfer news, Arsenal prepare £4m Diarra bid. That’ll be Lassana Diarra. From Chelsea. Wasn’t he supposed to be the new Makelele? Anyway, sounds like bollocks to me. We’ve got enough ex-Chelsea cunts playing for us as it is.

So. Today sees us play our first game in the Emirates Cup against PSG. Here’s to a good result, and thank the Lord it’s actually on proper TV (well, Sky Sports 1 anyway) and I might (note: ‘might’) be able to give some kind of accurate opinion of what actually happened.

That’s yer lot. I’m off back to bed to try and sleep (I have to do this all again tonight - it’s hard bloody work). See you tomorrow. Possibly.

Jul

27

Gallas for captain? No thanks.

Filed Under The Arsenal | 677 arses

A slightly shorter blog today than usual, mainly since there’s not alot about.

I’m going to ignore the obvious story about former players scoring for their new club on debut because it still smarts (I resolved my dilemma - much as I appreciate what the man did for us, I can’t quite get my head around seeing him in another team’s shirt just yet. It was always strange enough seeing him play for France).

Rather worryingly, Arsene Wenger seems to think that Gallas has the ‘ingredients’ to be our new captain. Now, unless he really is an avid reader of the blog and he does believe in the curse of the captaincy, I find that a very strange one. I know Gallas is a senior player in terms of experience, but a) he’s ex-Chelsea, b) he’s not been at the club that long, c) it practically ties him to a starting place which I’m still not sure about, and d) basically, he’s a bit of a cunt.

Though, since I said yesterday that I’d rather Gallas left than Phil, maybe AW isn’t a big fan of the blog.

For me, Gilberto is the obvious choice, closely followed by Kolo. Personally I’d prefer Kolo because he’s younger than Bert and is therefore likely to be around longer, plus that also fits in with the manager’s youth policy. To be fair to the manager, he does mention Gilberto and Kolo in his comments. I just hope he really means it and isn’t about to give it to Gallas who, frankly, doesn’t seem like captain material anyway. The way we play, I think we need a strong captain who’s willing to give people a bollocking when required (i.e. when there’s “Too much fannying about on the edge of the box”…). Maybe that is Gallas, but since I don’t respect him enough, I don’t see why the players would. But that’s just my opinion. I suppose Kolo doesn’t really strike me as the sort to give someone a bollocking either, but he’s our first choice centre back, he’s been around a while, he’s got huge heart and he always gives everything. In short, I think Kolo’s ace.

Enough of the Kolo fan club.

Gael Clichy has taken aim at Freddie’s parting shots with some of his own by saying the team has quality, is up for the challenge, is growing together and will achieve success:

This team has quality, is up for the challenge, is growing together, and will achieve success.

He almost said (you can read what he actually said here if you don’t believe me, but that’s pretty much the crux of it).

Anyway, that’s your lot. I’m off back to sleep for a while, then I’m going to drink myself to oblivion (it’s a special occasion, not just the average Friday) and then go out for an extremely expensive dinner and pay for it on my company credit card (I’m leaving my job anyway so it’s my leaving present from them, to me - James, if you’re reading this, haha, get it up you! Incidentally, if you ARE reading this, you should probably know I’ll be giving notice when I get back from holiday).

Tomorrow’s blog may be somewhat tardy/drunken/absent. Normal service will resume shortly.

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