Gunnerrific

It was a thrilling last minute win at Wigan last evening to move us into third position on the league table. Adebayor worked hard throughout the game and was rewarded with a spot-on pass from Fabregas in the 88th. He trapped the ball deftly and slotted home a perfect shot through the legs of Kirkland.

This is a good sign for the Arsenal. We really didn’t play all that well and we had three of our youngster all-stars on the bench for a better part of the game. Despite all that, we did what we needed to do get the win. Three pionts, third spot.

The only thing I’m still upset about is how long it took Arsene to make the subs. I was calling for the exact same substitutions in the 55th, when it was clear that any locker room discussions hadn’t seriously impacted the game. Yes, Arsenal did put more balls on goal in the second half. However, we were never as potent as we needed to be and still looked lackluster in the midfield. The problems were chronic and weren’t getting better.

Waiting until the 75th minute to put on VP11 and Fabregas was a roll of the dice in my mind. You can argue that we came away with the win so all is well… but if not for several key saves from Lehmann and clearances from Toure it could have gone either way. For the majority of the match we had trouble moving the ball past the midfield, even out of the defense, and much too many passes went awry.

Cesc and Van Persie came on to do exactly what was needed. I really don’t see the point in waiting until the 75th and basically risking three points when we could have potentially dominated the whole second half from the 60th or so onwards. I’m just glad they pulled it off in the 15 minutes they were given.

First, I’d like to show you the brilliance that is the PinoyGooner. Here’s some mad gooners in the stands just after the goal.

The great state of Texas’ very own FC Dallas has hired former gunner Steve Morrow as head coach. I’m not sure how he found his way all the way to Texas but it’s good to see a former Gunner in the states. I guess this means that I’ll officially adopt F.C. Dallas as my MLS team of choice, although I never bother to watch.

Meanwhile the former Manchester United hopeful Freddy Adu has turned his attention to Real Salt Lake. It would normally be easy for me to make comparisons between two football clubs but Real Salt Lake and Manchester United are just a bit too far apart so I’m at a loss for words. But this finally does answer the age-old question: What’s the difference between Manchester United and Real Salt Lake? Freddy Adu.

John Nicholson wrote an article for the gents over at EPL Talk and it’s got me a bit confused. In it, he argues that Thierry Henry needs to leave The Arsenal. He makes several points about how when Arsenal play without Henry, we have a more harsh and direct approach about scoring goals.

This argument is a bit convoluted. First, he states a problem and an observation. He then states a solution that is potentially very unrelated. If the sidewalk is wet, I could assume that it’s raining outside. However, what if the sprinkler was on? Or some Tottenham cunt was pissing on the sidewalk?

Sure, we seem to be a bit more direct, and less fancy, when Henry isn’t on the pitch. However, that wasn’t always the case. It might just take some time for the youngsters to settle in fully. I’d much rather have Henry and the lads work it out than Henry just leave. The two major oversights Mr. Nicholson truly misses are that Henry is a world class player and he also loves the Arsenal.

I don’t think it’s a good idea for a team to let go of a huge player like Henry. Just like Barca would be stupid to release Ronaldinho, and Chelsea would be regretful to let go of Drogba, The Arsenal needs to hold on to Henry.

Jens Lehmann has apparently forgiven any wrongdoings that Drogba has committed against him. I’m a bit confused about this because, if memory serves, they were pretty much yelling at each other. Lehmann does share some very negative opinions about Fat Lampard.

Lampard is a specialist in insulting people very badly, but Drogba doesn’t say a word. He is a nice guy – he doesn’t insult people.

So apparently you can push and chest bump Lehmann as much as you want, just don’t insult him. Lehmann has really been heated in the last several matches and although it’s a joy to watch, I worry about the possibility of negative repercussions.

We’ve got Wigan away on Wednesday and the match should even out our games played record with the rest of the league. We need this win bad, as up until this point we’ve always been able to say ‘… with a game in hand.’ It’s time to drop that safety clause and get the points outright.

Arsenal left Stamford bridge with one point after upsetting Chelsea in a thrilling match. Arsenal were first to go up from a great strike by Flamini off a Hleb cross. Essien returned the favor minutes later with a long and bendy shot that Lehmann had little chance to stop. The finish to this match was amazing, and Arsenal were frankly a bit lucky to end it with a point.

This could be one of the better performances of the season for our young squad, especially when you take into account our injury problems. Our average age is considerably younger than Chelsea’s, yet we managed to really make them fight for even a draw. The squad dug in and held their ground while making very strong and accurate tackles.

Lehmann made several necessary saves and Cesc even cleared the ball off the line in a pinch. Our back four looked great today, especially Gael Clichy. Senderos did well to clamp Drogba down, but he made several errant passes and even let the ball through unintentionally on occasion. It still feels like he hasn’t found his form this season in what must have been his most disappointing performance yet.

Fabregas continues to dominate the midfield as our play maker. Gilberto was largely unnoticeable which as usual means he had a great game. I do remember several stops and passes from the Brazilian that kept us out of sticky situations though. Hleb and Flamini worked well along the wings and it was Flamini of course that netted home the first goal of the match.

Robin Van Persie and Adebayor both performed admirably in our front line. Each striker had several deft touches to work their way past Chelsea’s line or to hold up for the rest of the squad to advance. I though Robin outplayed Adebayor but only just. Robin also took more shots and I like that someone recognizes we occasionally do too much passing in front of the net.

So all-in-all it was a good performance to take a point from the champions at their ground. It was nearly a win and we should be happy about that. However, we’re still far behind the leaders. We’ve also proven that we can play under pressure. It’s when we aren’t under pressure or in an uphill battle that we have wavered.

I watched the match at the Fox and Hounds in Studio City. It was quite a good time and there were many other gooners in attendance. However there was quite a wretched Chelsea cunt in the corner who screamed like a banshee and clearly didn’t understand the game. She made a good case for watching the game at home, despite the atmosphere at the pub. Oh well.

I hope to post more wallpapers this week so stay tuned. Come on Arsenal!

U.S. Soccer has really done it once again by not signing Klinsmann. Instead, they nominate a temporary coach from the MLS in Bob Bradley. Hardly comparable, although he is a fine MLS coach. But that’s not at all what our national team needs. This article does a pretty good job of summing up why we are just moving backwards. I’ve said it before but at this rate we’ll never catch up to the rest of the world.

Meanwhile there is a baby step forward for the American bound football fanatic. We’ll be having coverage of Euro 2008 on our major networks and that is pretty much unheard of. The problem however will be when they get the likes of Marcelo Balboa and Eric Wynalda to commentate. Sure we’ll have the games, but the guys talking about the match will be worthless.

The club has released a statement that any Arsenal supporter set out to make defamatory remarks about Chelsea players (through the use of bank notes, etc) will be ejected from the ground. That’s a pretty harsh punishment but I suppose the club has its reasons. This game has the potential to get quite nasty but hopefully the fans and players can keep it under control.

There are a couple of interesting points from the arsenal blogs. Goodplaya, like Arsene Wenger, is quite worried about the potential for violence. The statement that Arsenal made about player abuse really only incites the gooner crowd further. Meanwhile The Cannon implies that if the gunner supporters all show up with bank notes, they can’t turn away everyone. True, true. The tension mounts!

Senderos and Djourou are fit so there should be no surprises in defense. Without Henry, Rosicky, Gallas, and Toure this will be a tough match. The champions will be feverishly playing for all three points in order to catch up with United, and that might give us the advantage we need. In short Chelsea have everything to lose, we’ve got it all to win.

I’ll be visiting a local pub for the match at an early 8a.m. There’s nothing like drinking first thing in the morning. Come on Arsenal!

Ahead of our Sunday clash with the Russian giant Chelsea there is news from the camp of more center-back injuries. Johan Djourou picked up a hamstring strain and is fortunately recovering quickly. Hopefully he can make it back in time for Chelsea as we will already be strapped for support in the back line.

Toure will also be missing the match due to yellow card suspension but I believe Senderos will be back from his red card suspension. That still leaves us without a vital center back so Arsene might have to pull something special out of his magic hat.

With so much pressure boiling in the center back, how worried should we be about the currently on-fire Didier Drogba? Plenty. It’s like Drogba has an illness and the only cure is scoring goals. He just won’t stop. If the defense makes any defensive error to let him through we’ll be regretting it. Couple his fearlessness and determination with Shevchenko’s waning precision and the Arsenal is going to have it’s hands full.

The rest of Chelsea’s squad are to be just as feared. However, it’s quite conceivable for us to walk away with another three points after having done so at Old Trafford. Cashley Cole will be feeling the heat from the gooner crowd, especially with the aid of this fake cash. I sure hope that the cameras capture the mass bill waving that will be going on. It’s quite a nice gesture I think. He’ll be getting what he deserves.

I crunched some numbers on goals against for the Champion’s League. Not only did all the English clubs win their groups, but they also allowed the least amount of goals. You’d think these stats go hand in hand but thats not necessarily the case.

English Clubs GA Average: 4.25
All Teams GA Average: 7.53
Italian/Spanish/German/Portuguese (13 teams) GA Average: 6.38

I’m not really drawing any huge conclusions from this quite yet. Only that the English clubs perhaps played the best they ever have in the Champion’s League. Arsenal came away with the least goals scored against in the group stage of the competition.

In other, quite disappointing news, Juergen Klinsmann has withdrawn from the selection for U.S. national team coaches. This is a huge blow to U.S. soccer and leaves us really hanging. I don’t know why he didn’t sign, but it must have something to do with some matter that the U.S. Soccer organization was unwilling to concede.

That’s flat-out stupid, and I see this as a pretty big setback. We’ve got our first friendly in early January so we’d better set up something real quick. Since it will be such a rush, I’m sure we’ll make a horrible decision.

Arsenal played Porto to a draw to make it through to the knock-out round of the Champion’s League at the top of their group. It was clear that neither side was particularly interested in risking any sort of overwhelming attack, although Porto looked dangerous when hitting the post twice. Hamburg managed to upset Moscow in the other match which made our result obsolete. For a great review I’d just send you to the The Cannon.

As usual the announcers were complete cunts. They made absolutely ludicrous remarks about how fans of both sides should be upset about not going all-out for a win. While there was definitely a bit more passing between the defense than normal, and Porto looked more guilty than we did, it’s ridiculous for an announcer to sit there and complain. They’re just upset they don’t have a thrilling match to commentate on.

I was very pleased with the match. Certainly The Arsenal have played better and with more dominance, but a draw was all we needed.  Our midfield had serious problems in pushing the ball up the pitch.  We also had a lot of trouble maintaining possession, opting instead to pass the ball back to Porto all too often.

It was basically a stalemate and although we had some shots I think both sides have the right to play for that. That’s what we get for winning games earlier in the competition. I’m still shocked at how biased and ridiculous the commentators were. I should have just muted the TV.

It’s worth noting that all four EPL teams have made it through to the next round by winning their group. This should make the next stange pretty interesting because at least three of these teams are sure to make it through the first round. The draw is on Friday the 15th and I wouldn’t be too surprised if we drew Barcelona. Then we’ll be able to give them the payback they deserve, right up the arse.

Come on Arsenal!