Sep

30

Stupid alarm clock

Filed Under The Arsenal | 373 arses

It was Match of the Day highlights only for me after catching most of the second half on the radio. There was only one goal in the game, well one goal that stood, and it came after 12 minutes. Adebayor held the ball up well before rolling it out to Hleb whose cross was headed in at the far post by Robin van Persie.

We then lost Hleb to a rather nasty tackle from Mark Noble who scissorsed Hleb’s standing leg which made his knee buckle and while the injury is not as serious as first though he definitely misses the trip to Bucharest. We had other chances too. Robert Green got a great fingertip to touch a van Persie shot onto the post, he then saved from Adebayor after van Persie had played him through and from a right footed Gael Clichy effort. Abou Diaby had thundered one over in the meantime.

Now, how many times have we heard about a player scoring against his former club and it so nearly was the case yesterday. Freddie Ljungberg’s run looked to be very well timed and we were saved by the linesman’s flag when he slid the ball under Almunia. A close call. Dean Ashton also had a good chance but headed straight at the keeper.

Match reports - BBC - TIMES -

It is a very good three points as Upton Park hasn’t always been an easy place for us to go. The commentators on the radio thought we were pretty much in control despite not playing as well as we have been doing. To me that’s a good sign. Away from home against a decent team and this result probably would have been different last season. The manager was pleased, saying:

There’s room for improvement but I am very proud of what the team is achieving at the moment. I believe we can challenge. We are very young, but we have to show we can eke out results.

Was that result eked out? I think it probably was so some proof of our eking abilities will have warmed Arsene’s heart last evening. Still top of the league and that’s an enjoyable place to be.

You’ll have seen mention of Arsene’s interview with France Football this week. The Observer picks it up and runs with it. Interesting stuff.

Some thing about Theo. Slept it out. Have to go. Laters.

Sep

29

Saturday round-up

Filed Under The Arsenal | 758 arses

Good morning to you all and a slight and rather fruity *boilk*.

Let’s start with the football and then move on to other things which are not football. That, to me, appears to be the way to go about things. We have West Ham today, a team that beat us twice last season so they’re a team that we should be looking for the ultimate vengeance from. No holds barred, straight into them from the off, don’t give them time to think etc etc.

We do have Alexander Hleb back but Eduardo is out with a groiny groin. He joins the rest of the injured who sit aboard a lonely ghost ship that sails the seas of the Lewinverse endlessly. Nicklas Bendtner should make the bench and with Arsene Wenger lauding Dean Ashton (a man described as ‘pathetically bad’ during the week by the Guardian) we’ll have to wait and see if our tall, weighty front man can get amongst the goals.

West Ham will be high energy and combative and we’ve got to be ready for that. Ashton, despite being fat and slow, is dangerous and capable of goals while they’ve been scoring from midfield too with Bowyer, of all people, in form. I think we’ll probably see Diaby on the left and Hleb on the right hand side with Adebayor and RvP up top. The rest kind of picks itself and we’ll have to keep the momentum going against a team who were beaten quite convincingly last weekend by a Newcastle team last we beat quite convincingly in the week. If only that guaranteed victory.

Gilberto, who has been missing for the last couple of games, will fight for his place according to the boss. Some reports say he was sick but even leaving that aside the form of Flamini and Cesc in the middle of the park makes it difficult for him to get back into the side. With Denilson and Diarra looking good and Diaby finding his feet again then there’s incredible competition for places in central midfield.

When Freddie Ljungberg left Arsenal he produced rather a bitter article accusing the club of failing to live up to promises to bring in quality players and he suggested that our time had passed. He’s been forced to change his mind by our start to the season and Arsene says ‘fair play’ to him for doing so. I also love the way he makes it sound as if leaving and going to West Ham was a decision Freddie made on his own rather than after being told his chances at Arsenal were limited. I still love Freddie for what he did when he was with us but I hope he has an absolute stinker today if he plays.

More from Arsene and he talks about signing ’superstars’ - here and here .

Now, away from football and Arsenal confirmed yesterday that they held a meeting with Farhad Moshiri of Fat & Orange. They then reiterated their intention of retaining their shareholding and said they have no intention of selling their shares. With Usmanov hoovering up shares like a fat boy gobbling up a packet of M&Ms that fell on the floor it was quite pointed to hear Arsene speak, saying:

English football is in danger of losing its heart a little bit. We have passed from the era of the owner-supporter to the owner-businessman.

The true danger today is that people who buy large clubs refinance their purchase by borrowing money, by putting the debt on the account of the club. Manchester United generates so much money which they can use to service their loan — but their example, reproduced on smaller scale, can be mortal. That is the greatest danger to English football today.

When the manager follows up that with quotes about how he can spend a fortune if he wants then it’s as close to a ‘We don’t need you’ as he can possibly give. I have to say I find it fascinating that almost every time Fat & Orange make a new share purchase or announce something there’s been a response from Arsene. I’m not sure if it’s deliberate or if it’s just been curious timing but the manager has made it abundantly clear which working model he prefers, whatever the ins and outs of his friendship with Dein.

The Guardian talks about Dein ‘looming’ over Arsenal and that’s a good way of putting it. At a time when financially the club is in great shape and we have what looks to be the dawning of another great Wenger team to have to the shadow of this hanging over us is not much fun.

The Mail reports that the board could be putting together a five year lockdown agreement. I’m not sure how accurate that information is but what is clear is that Stan Kroenke’s stake in the football club could be absolutely critical. There’s talk of him attending the AGM in support of the board but if an arrangement can be made between the board and Kroenke then it more or less kills off any chance Fat & Orange has of taking over. I expect there to be some discussion between N5 and the US in the days to come.

And there you go. Not much else to talk about this grey old morning in Dublin so I shall be off to make some breakfast and then out into the day. I might try and get to the Woolshed for the second half of the match, although I’m not sure if I can.

Fingers crossed for a good performance and three points today. Come on you reeeeeeeds.

Sep

28

Arseblog meets Wang Chung - Usmanov now at 23%

Filed Under The Arsenal | 814 arses

A happy Friday to you all. Let’s get going because the sooner you finish this the sooner you can get on with your work and the sooner you finish your work the sooner the weekend begins.

Ahead of tomorrow’s game against West Ham the team news sees the usual suspects out (Gallas, Lehmann, Rosicky) with Alex Song joining them and Hleb still doubtful. The boss will have to make a decision about him tomorrow.

In the continued absence of Jens Lehmann, Manuel Almunia will continue in goal and the Spaniard is determined to hang on to the number 1 position. He reckons he’s a better keeper now than he was, I don’t think I’d argue with that, but let’s hope he doesn’t get too flighty like he did in the Sp*rs game. You also begin to wonder if the rest of the lads prefer to play with him rather than Jens.

Playing West Ham means coming up against Freddie Ljungberg who left the club in the summer. He admits it will be strange to play against his former teammates but that’s football for you. There’ll be a fuller preview with more team news in tomorrow’s blog.

Eduardo talks about his first couple of months at Arsenal. He seems to be enjoying it so far.

Alisher Usmanov is fuming, according to the Mirror, at the ’slurs’ from the board over his ‘murky dealings’ and what he considers an ‘internet smear campaign’. He’s desperately trying to up his stake to 25% before the AGM next month, with another 2% purchase expected to be announced by Red & White Fat and Orange today. David Dein is apparently ‘hurt’ at the Chairman’s comments this week also. Poor Deino and Usmy. Perhaps they’re just misunderstood and they really do have the best interests of Arsenal at heart.

Nah, they don’t, they’re a pair of money hungry, power hungry pigs. And if you oppose Usmanov having any part of our club then I would urge you to sign this official government petition to enforce a more rigorous ‘fit and proper person’ criteria for owners of football clubs (as it’s official and governmenty it can only be signed by UK residents). I would also suggest to other Arsenal sites that the more publicity and coverage this gets the more chance it has of being taken seriously. I’ll leave the rest to you.

Update: It looks like they’re up to 23%, according to an email I just got. We should get more details as the morning progresses. And here’s confirmation of that.

Ok, well we’ll have to see how this all goes. A fat Uzbek bent on revenge - it’s like some kind of cheap horror movie. Do they realise just how unpopular they are? They remind me of Coldplay.

Again it’s quite uncanny how Arsene’s comments about the dangers of foreign ownership have coincided with another purchase by Fat & Orange.

Arsecast time.

Arsecasts

This week’s Arsecast sees our very first pop-star guest and as you’ll have gathered from the blog title it’s Wang Chung. Not all of them, just Wang from Wang Chung who kindly agreed to appear and talk 80s pop and Arsenal. What more could you want? As well as that there’s a player history from the Man in the Bar and other crappy waffle too.

Don’t forget the Arsecast is brought to you by OleOle.com and you can still enter their fantasy football game and win great prizes including a trip to the final of Euro2008.

To subscribe to the arsecast in iTunes - click here. To download this week’s arsecast directly - click here (14mb MP3). You can find the arsecast archives here. And you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

And that’s that. More tomorrow.

Sep

27

News round up and t-shirt winners

Filed Under The Arsenal | 783 arses

Good day to you Arsefans, and a fine sunny but cloudy but cold and somewhat grey morning it is here in Dublin. A fair bit to get through so let’s start.

Arsene has paid the youngsters the highest compliment he can by saying they all have the quality to play in the first team. No reserves, just good players. That kind of thing.

One of them, Nicklas Bedntner, believes we can win the Carling Cup and after reports of his attitude being a bit dodgy it was nice to hear him talk about taking his chances when they come and being patient.

Lassana Diarra talks about his debut here and according to Arsene Wenger we got him for a snip at just £2m. Based on the way people have been raving about his performance against Newcastle you’d have to think that was a bargain. Meanwhile his fellow Frenchman William Gallas has no idea when he’ll be back. This is beginning to look like last year’s injury when he was out for months with no real clue as to when he might return. The only thing you can say is that we’re not missing him at the moment when it comes to results.

Gilberto would like a new contract apparently but last season’s real player of the season seems to have been frozen out a bit this time around. Perhaps it’s just a case of the boss giving him a bit more rest after the Copa America but with Flamini (new contract please) playing so well and Diarra adding competition to the defensive midfield role it’s going to be interesting to see what happens. Personally, I think he’s a player we need to keep, his experience is vital, he can play at centre-half too in an emergency - I think we might see more of him in Europe than in the league though.

Niet - goonershirts.comEarlier in the week I gave you the chance to win a t-shirt from Goonershirts.com. The question I asked was ‘Invasive, dismal roundhead is an anagram of ‘David Dein Alisher Usmanov’. Is that a) True - ?

Now, this is probably the easiest competition there has ever been on Arseblog. And there have been easy ones before. Normally you pick the right answer when the other two options are just ludicrous. This was even easier. There was only one possible answer. I didn’t give you a choice.

So what has me scratching my head is the sheer number of entries from people who said ‘b - false. It is not an anagram’. What the hell is wrong with you people? It wasn’t a trick question, Invasive, dismal roundhead is actually an anagram of ‘David Dein Alisher Usmanov’ and even if it wasn’t the fact that there was only one option in the question given should have been enough of a clue that I only wanted one answer. I mean, there were dozens of people who answered ‘b - false.’

What b? What are you on about? Anyway, the vast majority got it right and the RNG did its thing and the winners are Kevin Lovegrove, Alistair “Joey” Deacon and Adrian Raffill. I’ll be in touch with you to get sizes and addresses and all that lark. Thanks to all of you who entered and if you fancy sporting one of those t-shirts you can get them at Goonershirts.com

That’s that then. Tomorrow’s Arsecast features a special guest, not from the world of football but from the world of completely awesome 80s tunes.

Talk to you then.

Sep

26

Arsenal the best club in the world for a young player

Filed Under The Arsenal | 971 arses

Well, for all his talk of knowing how to beat Arsene Wenger’s sides it was a sad trip back to Newcastle for Sam Allardyce and his team as they went down 2-0 to an Arsenal team that bore little resemblence to the one which beat Derby.

Only Senderos, Walcott and Eduardo survived. There was a debut for Fabianski, a first start for Bendtner and Diarra, a return for Eboue, starts for Denilson, Traore, Hoyte and Walcott and Alex Song at centre-half. Newcastle, as far as I can see, put out their best available team.

Now, like most of you I didn’t see very much apart from a 30 second clip of the goals (some Sky Sports News highlights downloadable here). Bendtner’s was a great header (a ‘real centre forward’s header’) after a great ball in from Traore on the left and the big Dane has done what the boss asked of him. Before the game the manager was lauding his talent but making it quite clear he has it all to do yet. He urged him to take his chances when they came and a goal for a striker is pretty much doing just that.

Denilson scored the second but not before Senderos made a brilliant stop on the line after Martins had rounded the keeper. The young Brazilian’s first goal for the club was a rocket into the top corner after some trickery in the box from Diaby. I’m glad he’s finally gotten off the mark and what a way to do it.

Beyond that I can only go on what people at the game have been speaking about. There’s been a lot of praise for Diarra, Denilson is like Cesc II, the keeper looked reasonably good and Alex Song did very well at the back. That’s a surprise, I have to say, but a nice one. I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable with him there outside the Carling Cup but this will have done his confidence some good. Anyone else who was at the game feel free to let us know more in the arses. For the rest of us there are match reports: Guardian - Telegraph - Times - The Sun - Arsene BBC interview (real player required).

Afterwards a clearly delighted Arsene Wenger said:

We were good and intelligent, and I like that. The game was of the same level we played recently with the players who did not feature, and with a style of play with continuity. We have wave after wave of generation of young players. We work with them and when they have come in, they show top quality.

We did not play against an average team. We played against Newcastle. We have shown technical maturity and looked strong in every department.

And that’s the thing. I know it’s early season but Newcastle are fifth in the league. It seems that we have this ability in this competition to beat good teams, strong teams, with the youngest, most inexperienced players we have. It’s kind of weird really. A good and very enjoyable kind of weird but weird nonetheless.

Arsenal really must be the best place in the world for a young, talented player to be right now. You know you’ll get chances, you know that if you can repay the faith shown in you by the manager then you’ll be part of things, and playing the kind of football that purists dream of. Sure, it doesn’t always work but when it does it’s just great to watch. I mean, consider our goals this season. How many top quality goals have we scored? Not just decent, well worked goals, but top, top quality. Can’t be arsed to figure it out? Well, I did and the answer is loads. It’s fantastic. The better we play the better the goals are. Long may it continue.

In other news there are reports that Gilberto is uneasy about his future at the club, saying he’s not sure if he’ll extend his contract. With 18 months still to run though it’s not a big problem.

Stan Kroenke may attend Arsenal’s AGM in a show of support for the current board, according to the Telegraph. It does appear as if the relationship between Dein and Kroenke has fizzled out with Dein’s new friend Usmanov the flavour of the month. You wonder if Kroenke, whose 12%+ is a considerable stake, shares the same uneasiness that the board and Arsenal fans do about Usmanov’s background.

In an interview with the Evening Standard Peter Hill-Wood suggested that Kroenke, who he described as ‘perfectly decent’ after a recent meeting, had been misled by Dein when he first got involved. It’s thought that it was to do with Dein not revealing the extent of the differences between him and the board and Dein’s ultimate intention of masterminding a takeover which would put him in charge of the football club. It’s little wonder Kroenke was viewed as hostile to begin with.

If you want to read the full interview you can download it here and there’s no question there’s serious opposition from the board towards Dein, leading to this classic line:

When was the last occasion he saw Dein? “The day I fired him” Was it Hill-Wood’s saddest day at Arsenal? “No. It was the saddest for Dein”

Hahaha. If he ever retires as Arsenal chairman there’s a job here for him at Arseblog writing stinging one-liners. More from the Guardian here and an article by David Conn with a classic headline.

And that’s about it for today. Don’t forget you’ve still got a chance to win a t-shirt from Goonershirts.com. Just look at yesterday’s entry for the details and the very simple question. Some of the answers have been making me laugh though. I’ll tell you why tomorrow.

Until then.

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