Early start, Carling Cup preview, competitions

A quick one this morning because I have to head out early early early.

Cesc has been talking about how much he enjoys playing football at Arsenal. He said:

Our type of game makes me feel so happy, and when I go home I can relax and enjoy it on the television because all of our goals today were great goals, even the penalty because of the pass Thierry gave me. When I am on the pitch I really enjoy myself, and this is so important for a player. I’m not sure if I could play in a team which played long balls all the time.

And what a nice little dig at Chelsea that is. You have to say that he suits Arsenal and Arsenal suits him. He probably wouldn’t have developed as quickly and as well in a team playing a different style of football. Right place, right time for both parties.

Meanwhile Arsene Wenger has ensured that no expectations will be raised ahead of January by saying he won’t be buying anyone in when the transfer window opens. When you consider we have Senderos and Clichy now back from injury with Diaby, Lauren, Baptista and Ljungberg still to return it’s hard to see where we need anyone. That won’t stop the tabloids linking us with all and sundry but he seems quite emphatic on the matter. If you think about it since last January we have signed Adebayor, Walcott, Diaby, Rosicky, Baptista, Denilson and Gallas. That’s plenty.

Ahead of tonight’s Carling Cup game the boss says he’d like to win the competition as it’s the only domestic trophy he hasn’t won. There was no squad released yesterday but we’ll see Philippe Senderos make his return from the injury that he picked up in the World Cup. Gael Clichy will play, Almunia will start in goal, Adebayor, Walcott, Denilson and Aliadiere will also start as well as whoever else was on the bench against Reading which means Alex Song. I’m not sure what has happened to Mathieu Flamini but if he’s fit I hope he starts.

I’m not sure where the game can be seen, perhaps on one of those stream things.

Don’t forget our Blue Square competition. If you haven’t already got an account with them just click here to sign up, place a bet of £5 or more on anything you like, then email marketing@bluesq.com with your username and phone number. The prize? Two tickets to watch the Everton game from their executive box at the Grove! Remember, you have to be able to be at the ground at short notice as they’ll call the winner on Friday afternoon.

Finally, if you have any questions for Friday’s arsecast please email arsecast@[remove]arseblog.com. You can still download the first one and enter the competition to win the 94 home shirt thanks to www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk

Ok, I have to run. See ya’ll tomorrow.

Arsenal just four too good for Reading

It’s been a long time coming but there has always been the suspicion that when this Arsenal team clicked they’d give someone a bit of a hammering and so it was yesterday against Reading.

We played the kind of football that made us so fantastic to watch in the unbeaten season. In fact, to me it looked even more refined, more clinical and more precise. We opened the scoring on 58 seconds when Cesc chased the ball into their box. Most players would have tried to win the corner off the defender but he controlled it, laid a ball back to Thierry who used the pace of the ball to sidefoot it home to make it 1-0.

We might have had another couple through van Persie and Justin Hoyte before Alexander Hleb played a sweet one-two with Rosicky and blasted it home to make it 2-0 before half-time.
The third was the pick of the bunch as our slick, one touch passing brought us to the edge of the box, Henry fed Hleb who could have shot but pulled it back for Robin van Persie to score with his right foot. As much as 30 yard screamers are great to watch so are goals like that. It was 4-0 with about twenty minutes to go when Henry played Cesc through, he was upended by the keeper and Henry slotted home the penalty off the post.

We then brought on Adebayor, Walcott and Song for Hleb, van Persie and Rosicky and then just cruised for the last 20 minutes. People might point to the fact that it was ‘only Reading’ but don’t forget Chelsea were lucky to scrape a 1-0 win here and Man United could do no more than draw 1-1 with Steve Coppel’s team. They’re no mugs and although they were probably a bit naive yesterday the way we played would have caused any team in the league problems.

As others have pointed out Cesc was just fantastic and that was a great way to celebrate signing his new deal. That said I don’t really want to single anyone out above anyone else because the team as a whole was just excellent yesterday from back to front. Having Hleb, Rosicky and Fabregas confusing opponents with their passing and movement while Gilberto mops up behind them looks very tasty indeed.

There’s an obvious hunger in the side that hasn’t been as apparent previously and I enjoyed seeing Hleb, van Persie and Rosicky chatting and laughing at the final whistle. They’re young, talented players who are obviously enjoying their football and I think that’s true throughout the team.

Now, one swallow doesn’t make a summer and all that but I think we’ve all been waiting for a sign that we’ve stepped up a gear. The win against United at Old Trafford came on the back of three relatively poor results and instilled belief in the players that the manager professed to have in them all along. The subsequent league wins, that’s five in a row now, should have done the same for the fans. We’re not perfect, of course, but it would be churlish to focus on any of the negatives this morning. What we do know now is that we are capable of playing the kind of football we’ve threatened for some time, that we can go away and win, that we have goals from all over the pitch and that a title challenge is not beyond the realms of possibility.

Afterwards Thierry Henry said the midweek defeat to CSKA Moscow was the spur for the performance while Cesc said:

When we play like that, I don’t think a lot of teams can do anything about it against Thierry and players like that. The important thing was that we played as a team, we defended as a team and we’re really happy with the peformance today.

Arsene Wenger was again quick to talk up his confidence in the side and the belief the players have that they can challenge for the title, saying:

I feel strongly that the hunger is there, the quality is there, the competition is of a very high level but we believe we can do it. Let’s see how consistent we can be and I think we will be, but we go from game to game now and give everything in every game like we always do, but we believe we can do it.

So, it should be a pretty happy Monday for Arsenal fans. And I can make your Monday even happier with another fab competition.

Arseblog has teamed up with Blue Square to give you the chance to win two tickets to see Everton this Saturday. All you have to do is go to Blue Square and open an account. Make a bet of £5 or more on anything then email marketing@bluesq.com with your username and your mobile phone number. On Friday they’ll choose the winner, give you a call and arrange to meet with you on Saturday and you can watch the game from the luxury of the Blue Square box.

Please use this link to sign up for your Blue Square account.

If you already have a Blue Square account you’re not out of it either. Again, just place a £5, or more, bet and email your username and mobile number to them. Couldn’t be easier. Please remember you need to be able to be at the stadium on Saturday afternoon at pretty short notice as the winner is not being announced until Friday lunchtime or thereabouts so bear that in mind when you enter. Also, make sure you email your details to marketing@bluesq.com and not to me!

Ok, we’ve got Carling Cup action tomorrow and we’ll no doubt see some of the kids involved there. A more detailed preview of that tomorrow.

Bye for now.

Sunday round-up

Hello, arsebandits. No, wait. Erm…arsefans. That’s a bit bitter.

I must begin today’s blog with a wet, fruity, beer smelling *boilk*. My mug smashing brother is entirely and 100% to blame and I have to say playing Pro Evolution Soccer when neither of you can actually see the screen is quite a challenge. Anyway, let’s round up the Sunday stories, of which there are quite few.

With the greatest respect to Steve Sidwell, who I think is a very good player, I’m a bit tired of reading about him and his connection with Arsenal now so I’m not gonna.

After finding out that Arsene reads the blog it’s obvious that Jens Lehmann listens to the podcast. He says:

I am thinking about wearing headgear to protect myself.

Cool. He should wear a helmet from a suit of armour. One of those really pointy ones that makes him look like the dark night of doom and pestilence. It probably won’t do much for his vision but he’d look as scary as fuck. Maybe he could even use a jousting pole to get those pesky players who stand on his feet at corners out of the way.

Update: This Gunneriffic bloke is brilliant. I suggest. He photoshops.

Arsene Wenger says he was so affected by defeats when he was a young manager he once vomited after a bad result. I understand. I vomited after we lost the UEFA Cup final to Galatasaray. Admittedly that was after a million and six beer and a dodgy burger but when it comes down to brass tacks vomit is vomit.

And on that vomity note I shall leave you because I have to eat something and let one of the stupid cats in. We let him out the back and he climbs over the neighbour’s wall then sits outside wailing until someone lets him in. Stupid cat.

Ok, a feast of football today. I’m off to get the papers then lie on the sofa. Come on the Arsenal! Oh, and happy birthday to the boss.

Saturday round-up

Good morning all, a quick Saturday round-up for you.

As usual Arsene Wenger spoke to the media ahead of Sunday’s game against Reading. He dealt with Cesc’s new contract and said:

I feel there is a lot more to come from him in the next three years especially because he is only 19-years-of-age you know.

We know! Obviously there are benefits to having him on such a long term deal, the least of which is that it puts the club in a very strong position when the Spanish clubs come sniffing around him. This line made me rub my eyes a bit though when the boss said:

Although 2014 looks a long time when you think about it at the end of his contract Cesc will be just 27.

Jesus. In 2014 I’m going to be a hundred and six and Cesc will be in his prime. I’d like to be nineteen again.

With us facing former Arsenal players Steve Sidwell and James Harper the boss again addresses the issue of English players saying the academy, at Arsenal at least, was just about catching up to those across Europe. He also spoke about how proud he was to have played a part in the education of the two Reading players – you watch a video of that here (Real player reqd).

After mentioning Lauren as a ‘forgotten man’ it’s obvious Arsene reads the blog because he gave us an update on his situation yesterday. The club has never really gone into detail about the knee injury he suffered but it must have been as bad as any injury anyone has ever suffered (apart from the man who got run over buy a train then trampled by elephants then set on fire then throw into a bath of acid then chopped into tiny pieces while being kept alive by a strange alien single cell organism). The boss said:

I don’t think you will see Lauren in the team before January. He played up to the limit of his pain and then maybe he played a little too long. That created some damage in his knee which had to be repaired but he is a tough, tough boy.

Excellent. I’m looking forward to seeing him back.

Thierry Henry talks to the Sun about how he was made clean footballs, manage luggage and carry out the goalposts to the training ground at Monaco – and this was after he’d been a World Cup winner. As he says it’s a far cry from how today’s young professionals are treated. I think the saddest thing about the removal of terracing from football grounds was the fact you couldn’t make the trainees run up and down them before giving them a sweeping brush and telling them to get them clean.

You look at Theo Walcott and you know the way he’ll be educated by Arsenal will be great for him but there have been more than a couple of young players who could have done with reminding they weren’t as great as they thought they were. Some menial labour would have done them the world of good.

Michel Platini wants to reduce the number of English teams in the Champions League to three. Not a particularly big story on the face of it but the fact that he seems set to take over at UEFA is worrying. His ideas about football scare me. Remember, he is the man who thought a biennial World Cup would be a good idea and if you think a lot of the physicality has gone out of the game already that’ll be nothing compared to what will happen if that curly fucker gets his way.

And that’s about it. Thank you all for your comments and feedback on yesterday’s first arsecast. If you haven’t already had a listen you really should, not least because you can win a classic Arsenal shirt from www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk. There’ll be another one next Friday so please feel free to email questions to arsecast@[removethis]arseblog.com

Right, till tomorrow.