Gunnerrific

There are way too many rumors about Cannavaro being the winner of the European Footballer of the Year (Ballon d’Or). Apparently they have relaxed the criteria to win this once prestigious award. So much so that any diving cry-baby playing for a cheating team can win it. He’s a good footballer, don’t get me wrong, but captaining the World Cup wining team shouldn’t be a shoe-in.

Thierry Henry was the #1 goal-scorer in the EPL, the second highest goal-scorer in the Champion’s League, he was 10 minutes shy of winning the Champion’s League as a captain and ended up as runners-up, and he helped his National side to win runner-up in the World Cup in a shoot-out. *exhales*

I know Cannavaro has some accolades, but if you look at each player’s performance last year, this is no contest. Henry had better win this. Otherwise I’m going to shit a 2 liter bottle of tapioca pudding.

As The Cannon reports there is a possibility that Henry could be rested for the Newcastle match. I don’t know if I’m thrilled about this idea… but if Wenger thinks he needs it, then this is the match to do it. We’ve got plenty of goal scorers that could work. With all of our experienced players out, The Cannon author then makes the natural assumption that Toure could be captain. If Henry truly is out, that would be perfect. Although Jens normally takes that role…

Meanwhile GilbertoSilver puts forth an interesting formation that I think would work. Swap Van Persie for Baptista and I think we’ve got something. However, with Henry possibly resting that would throw the whole thing off.

In the comments yesterday a rather interesting idea was put forth regarding Kolo Toure. The basic-notion was that Toure could work out as a defensive midfielder. Being a fullback, he’s always going to be defensive and quite mindful of what would be needed to hold the line. On the offensive front, he has shown that he has a solid foot and decent touch, so he might only need a bit of work to develop a shot. The problem? Passing. If he’s going to play in that holding role, his pass percentage needs to hit 100% and I don’t know that he is there quite yet. Then again, I’ve seen Gilberto give up some real stinkers.

And on a non-Arsenal news note, Beckham is further pissing off Real’s coach (Fabio Capello) by attending Tom Cruise’s wedding against his wishes. Listen Fabio, you film-school-glasses-wearing pin-striped-suit punk, if Becks wants to attend an insane Scientologists celebrity-spectacle of a wedding, that’s his business, not yours. Leave the soon-to-be future MLS star alone.

I kid.

Well I’ll be up early as always cheering on the Gunners in normal fashion. I’m eager to see the line-up, and I hope we can pull off a convincing win. Come on ARSENAL!

I wrote yesterday’s post late last night while fighting a nasty throat infection. That’s no excuse though for the error in my reporting on the England match where I inadvertently swapped Gerrard for Rooney as the goal scorer. My apologies and thanks to the kind gents that pointed it out.

As for misspelling meager, I’m going to have to stick to my guns with the American spelling. More than half of my audience is in London but I hope you blokes can deal with my yankness.

Baptista, Lehmann, and Ljungberg have all recovered from various injuries and illnesses and are thus available for this weekend’s match with Newcastle. I’m sure Lehmann will be started in front of goal over Almunia, but the real decision is whether or not Ljungberg will play over Flamini. Arsene has a habit of easing injured an unfit players back into matches through substitutions, so maybe we’ll see both.

I’d like to see Flamini back in the squad as a starter though, he played really well against Liverpool. Maybe Freddie can come on for Hleb late in the second. There’s a bit of a problem as well with news that Gilberto has returned home for family reasons. I hope that everything is okay for him and his family, the red and white will miss him. Apparently there is an 80% chance of him missing the match, so we should probably just count him out.

The real question then is, what is our midfield going to look like on Saturday? With Rosicky out and Gilberto returning home, we’ll certainly look a bit different in the center of the pitch. Arsene recently stated that with Baptista back he will be featured in the squad. Maybe he will fill  Gilberto’s role as a holding midfielder. Despite being a forward/offensive midfielder, he does seem to have the ability to play more defensively.

Cesc is the natural choice for the middle, but who will our defensive midfielder and wingers be, who would you choose?

So far there’s been no new report of International injuries to the Arsenal squad. That’s good news for the team ahead of Saturday’s Newcastle match. We’re still waiting to hear a clear report on how Walcott is doing after his hand was smashed in the U21 friendly.

Henry scored the match winner in France’s friendly with Greece. This takes him just two goals away from Michel Platini’s French record of 41 goals. It seems exceedingly likely that Henry will match and surpass this record in the years to come, adding to the already several accolades that our captain has achieved. Gallas also played a full 90 in this match.

The young and fabulous Fabregas starred in the first half of Spain’s friendly with Romania. It was only in the 58th however that Romania slotted home a surprise winner. Let’s just assume that had Cesc been on the pitch it would have gone the other way.

Fabregas is holding a live web chat Thursday where he will be answering questions from fans. I’m looking forward to see what sort of ridiculous questions the Arsenal faithful can pose to our young midfielder. It would be great to get some insight into what life is like for a 19 year old Spanish kid playing football at the highest level in London.

Meanwhile England continued to exhibit problems in a 1-1 draw with a meager Dutch team. Rooney scored the opener but the English squad was unable to hold the lead, and then gave up a goal to end even. It was a disappointing match but England showed more promise in this game than in some of their recent matches. At least McClaren has the common fucking sense to play Gerrard in the middle, where he looked god-damned fantastic.

And in Chelski news Drogba scored the winner for Ivory Coast against Sweden. This guy literally can’t stop scoring goals. It’s almost upsetting. No, it’s upsetting.

In Arsenal team news, Wenger has apparently given Birmingham permission to keep Bendtner for the rest of the season. He’s been a huge help to Birmingham so hopefully he can help them move up and then come shine for the gunners.

Both Flamini and Aliadiere have been talking about their hopes to become regulars on the first team. Aliadiere seems pretty grounded in acknowledging that he has some work to do to get there. Flamini on the other hand has almost got it, but there is just only so many good players we can put on the pitch. Hopefully he’ll find a way to be happy at Arsenal, I wouldn’t mind if it were on the pitch.

And finally I’d like to give a shout out to the ASSC based out of Edinburgh. Clearly the finest group of Scots around, one of these fine gents offered up a special honorary ticket to the match against Hamburg on Tuesday. If I didn’t have any Thanksgiving plans I’d already have tickets to London booked! Unfortunately the timing wasn’t right, but I couldn’t be more flattered and honored by their offer. If it were any other time I’d drop everything and go. God knows when I get a chance I’ll be able to write about it for weeks and have enough pictures for a million words. Bloody hell.

So I somehow managed to become a top story yesterday and received a lot of traffic. I think it was the fact that I mentioned the Lehmann and Toure fight in my title so I feel a duty to set things straight today. Several of you commented on the matter, giving a very clear recap of what took place. One of you even posted a link to the YouTube video, which was quite helpful.

I’m officially making an effort to put this little issue to rest because I feel bad for resurfacing it. Lehmann and Toure have clearly made up because since that match they have played very well together. To set it all straight, I present to you the following lovely image, let’s call it an “I’m Sorry” card.

It’s worth noting that this was handled internally perfectly with no press. Aside from me of course, but how could you possibly call me fucking reputable press. But of course even more impressive is how these guys acted in the heat of the moment. It’s certainly unfortunate to have a spat during a match, but just a couple of weeks ago all of the Arsenal faithful, including Mr. Arseblogger, were calling for more passion and fury in order to win. Looks like we got it.

There isn’t too much news going about today. Justin Hoyte scored an unlikely goal in the England U21 match. He got in the way of an attempted clearance from the Dutch goalkeeper and then slotted a low roller into the back of the net. It’s reassuringly impressive how well the Arsenal youth perform for the club, but even more awe-inspiring is their consistent international performance. Let’s wait to see who will perform ahead of tomorrow’s friendlies to represent the Arsenal, Denilson maybe?

VP11 is taking international duty off this week as his wife is expecting their first child any minute. Robin’s still a young lad but it’s nice to see that he will become a family man. A nice family life might do him well, although to be honest he is settling in as a phenom as it is. Did anyone else notice how well he played on Sunday? Although he didn’t score, he did set up Toure’s goal with a great cutting pass. He also played all over the pitch, and made himself available in dire situations along the left side for Clichy and Flamini.

Speaking of good play on Sunday, I watched the match again last night and noticed how much Gilberto stood out. There is something to be said for watching a match again because you really pick up on all of the movement off the ball. It’s of course much easier to watch a match in which we absolutely thump a strong team, but I would recommend it to everyone.

Gilberto was nearly a mind-reader on Sunday, being in places where it seemed like the ball or a player wouldn’t end up, but always did. It’s almost like he has a sixth sense for on the football pitch. He truly is our unsung hero.

The other player that stood out in my match replay was Henry. He backtracked several times and even made some clutch clearances. We don’t often see him in back but on Sunday he was working extra hard. Hopefully we’ll see some more of that great workmanship in the future. He mentions on the Arsenal website about adjusting to his new role and the formation change. There’s some good insight there.

Arseblogger attended the match on Sunday and I’m supremely jealous. I’m still trying to find a way to get to a match this season but it’s looking unlikely. I’ll just have to keep living vicariously through the other bloggers, Flickr photos from the matches, and best of all YouTube videos from within the stadium. Well that’s it for today. I eagerly await to see if our players can escape injury in the absolutely meaningless friendlies.

I’ve uploaded a new wallpaper image today. It features Henry again in a fabulous pose while applauding the crowd. It’s pretty basic but I hope that everyone is enjoying these wallpapers. I think they are by far better than some of the other crap that’s out there. I hope I’m right. The Best Arsenal Wallpapers on the Internet… yeah…

The only thing that could have made Sunday any better was if Chelsea and Mancehster United had lost. Tottenham and Newcastle both lost which was absolutely fantastic, but those teams aren’t really putting up much of a fight to begin with. Hopefully some losses for the top two will come sooner rather than later.

Freddie Ljungberg was named Sweden’s player of the year today. Good for him. Hopefully we’ll see him on the pitch in Sunday’s encounter with Newcastle and he can score a goal to celebrate. He is reporting for International duty on Wednesday and if we’re lucky he won’t pick up another injury. Damn that International duty.

In other news Wenger has finally spoken about his spat with Pardew. He has stated that he regrets the confrontation and even went so far as to say he should have shaken hands with Pardew after the match. I pretty much expected this sort of reaction. He reacted the way he did for a very legitimate reason, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t wish he could take it back. It’s just unfortunate that Mr. Pardew could cause that sort of reaction out of our generally well behaved manager.

Many of the players, including Henry, have been talking about how important the win over Liverpool was for the team. Indeed even Arsene has stated that this win has been the build-up of an internal struggle for the team itself. No amount of media buzz or build-up will help matters, it’s just a matter of the team coming together to win.

There’s still no talk of action against West Ham for the coin-throwing-cunt incident. However this article does mention that the F.A. is trying to buckle down on the situation. I can’t imagine fans throwing things at players in any American league… and if it did happen that fan would get fined and banned for life most likely. The arena for a football sporting event is a bit bigger than that of the NBA or other sports though, but hopefully the F.A. can find a way to catch these wankers.

Flamini has come out to say that he wants a more central role in the team and is even asking to be a regular start in that position. I don’t know that I’m really opposed to the idea, but with Fabulous, Gilberto, Hleb and Rosicky, and Ljungberg… I can only see him in an alternate role coming in when necessary. That being said though, he performed quite well in the match against Liverpool and I think he deserves a shot. If he continues to perform like that, I think it would behoove us. He was quite well composed in the ATVO interview, check it out. Behoove means to be ‘proper for’ just in case you were wondering.

And finally, does anyone remember the incident between Toure and Lehmann during the game against Moscow (or was it Everton?). If so, please speak up. I recall Lehmann screaming at Toure, and in return Toure shoving Lehmann, and then it went back and forth. I assume the incident was resolved internally and the two are chums again, but it’s never fun to see two players on the same team fighting with each other during a match. Especially gunners. If you recall this spat or have any other insight into it, speak now or forever hold your peace. It seems to have faded away into the night and I want to seek some closure.

With a three-nil win over Liverpool at home Arsenal have regained the third spot (on goal differential) and boosted the club’s confidence. Arsenal played a wholesome 90 minutes dominating play nearly 60% of the match and allowing very few chances for the Liverpool side. The game was decided on midfield domination from Flamini, Fabregas, Gilberto, and Hleb, while goals came from unlikely sources. Fabregas played a great game although he had a bit more errant passes than normal. That being said, the youngster performed adamantly.

Ahead of the match it was announced that Almunia was starting ahead of Lehmann, and Mart Poom was on the bench. The commentator quickly informed us that Jens had showed up with a it of a sore throat, so clearly the medical team must have determined he needed to sit this one out. I’ve been quit ill as of late with a sore throat so Jens, if you need any Zithromax, I’ve got some on standby. Almunia played consistently throughout and made a couple of good saves. He was rarely called upon and came out of the box once to clear a leading pass before it became threatening.

The first strike came from Flamini after a brilliant set-up in the mid-field that yielded a Cesc-y cross. Flamini somehow managed to sweep the ball into the next from 6 yards out despite falling down and the ball behind a bit behind him. It was a great goal and a better way to go into the locker room just minutes before the whistle in the 41st.

Ten minutes after the restart Kolo Toure nutmegged ‘Pool keeper Reina after build-up and a sliding pass from Van Persie. Toure powered himself all the way up the center of the pitch and the combination play left him in a one on one situation with the keeper. Kolo deserved this goal and you could see how excited he and the rest of the team were. Aside from his solid defensive contributions Toure showed in this match that he is also capable of scoring goals and providing meaningful opportunities in the midfield.

The third goal came as a header from William Gallas in the 80th. It was a well-placed cross from Van Persie that saw Gallas completely open just a few yards in front of the center of the goal. Gerrard and Riise were seen arguing right after this goal, and rightly so. You can’t leave any man, even a center back, open in front of net like that. It was a comfortable finish for a comfortable win.

There was some sloppy tackles from the Liverpool side out of frustration of their situation. They were lucky to end the match with 11 men as there were two particular incidents that could have resulted in a second yellow or a straight red. The first was a second card-able offense on Jamie Carragher after his first yellow for a tackle on Henry. The second was wildly errant tackle on Flamini from behind by Jermaine Pennant. Arsenal received cards for Flamini’s goal celebration and on Van Persie for a bad tackle. This is Van Persie’s fifth yellow card of the season.

It’s interesting that our goals came from two defenders and a defensive mid-fielder. I think it’s great that these situations arose for goals to pour in from unlikely sources. Henry and Van Persie played well up front, but were unable to put the ball in the back of the net. Each player had a couple of opportunities but the keeper.

Arsenal looked comfortable and in charge for the entirety of the match. I’m glad to see the team perform so well against a strong Liverpool side. To be fair Liverpool didn’t look as good as they normally do today, but it’s important to realize that any win over The Reds is still a major victory. Meanwhile however Liverpool remain left behind the league leaders with little hope of contending for the title. Arsenal once again proved that they have the gumption for winning and fighting for the top spot. Consistency will remain key.

And there was a bit of silliness in this match as well when the Ref needed some care from the Arsenal medical staff. The ref collapsed after stretching out his right leg while trying to avoid getting hit with the ball right in the nuts. Unfortunately it didn’t work and as a result his leg was hurt and his nuts were sore. Poor guy. The fifth official even starting warming up like he was ready to come on. I was waiting for a whistle to blow and the fourth ref to hold up a substitution for the officials.

We’re still a game in hand and securing the third spot with a win over Liverpool is a great start at making things interesting for United and Chelsea. If we win our game in hand we’ll be just 4 points from Chelsea and 7 from United. Both Manchester and Chelsea have looked absolutely brilliant this year and are showing no signs of stopping their progress.

Drogba sunk another hat-trick on Saturday as the striker hits top-form. He appears to be a truly unstoppable goal scoring machine. However, if Chelsea suffer an injury blow to any of their first squad, it will make things very difficult for them. The same could be said for United. We’ve been coping with out our injury problems just fine while the two league leaders have remained fairly unscathed.

Well it’s a great day to be a gunner and I’ll be wearing my jersey with pride. I thought we would win this one, but I didn’t think it would be so easy. And I certainly didn’t expect a hat-trick of defensive goals. Come on Arsenal!