Gunnerrific

There isn’t too much to say about this.

Come on Arsenal!

I can’t believe how many news stories I’ve seen over the past couple of days analyzing Arsenal. Our beloved club has become the foremost subject of scrutiny. It’s as though every journalist, analyst, and commentator has come out of the woodwork to take a sliver of Arsenal and put it under the microscope. If Arsene Wenger reads the news like the rest of his he must be feeling a bit overwhelmed for a manager that has managed to finish third in the English Premier League (or so we assume at this point).

Is this all deserved?

Wenger Overhwlemed Much?

I don’t think it is. Yes, we should all be talking about Arsenal. Yes, we should all be critical of Arsenal. But no, we should not talk as though the club is ending as we know it… or that Wenger needs to be let go… or that huge drastic changes must happen immediately… it’s just too easy to try and sensationalize the situation we are in. I will not play into the histrionics, but merely laugh at it. I bet Arsene Wenger is doing the same. I imagine him to be daydreaming about responding to all of this with just one long, drawn out, Frenchly accented, “Uhhhhhhhhhhh…”

Rumors today swell about Arsenal making a bid for City keeper Joe Hart. The part of the article I love the most is “A fifth consecutive year without a trophy…”. Great. Because we need more reminders of that, and using that sort of statistic is pretty ridiculous. Am I wrong here? I mean, it’s not like there are 10 trophies handed out every year to all the different teams… it’s hard to win a trophy. And for each competition, there is only one winner. Sure, given our history, we are expected to be winning some silverware. But at the same time, a dry spell for five years surely can’t be used as a statistic in every single case one makes. If that’s the case, let’s start talking about United and Chelsea as the teams that ‘have never had an unbeaten season’.

There’s not too much news today ahead of the Manchester City match. Bayern beat Lyon. Inter surprised Barcelona. Frankly, I hope Barca come back to win it. It would look better on us.

I’ve added several mobile resolution versions of my popular Arsenal in Gold wallpaper. Go check it out and snag one for your mobile. All my new wallpapers will have mobile versions, and I’ll start adding them to my older wallpapers as well.

Arsenal in Gold became a pretty big hit with the Arsenal fans. I regularly see it on message boards, other sites, and even videos. I figured it would be the right choice to start with mobile backgrounds. I’ve even got it set on my Droid right now.

Three ex-Gunners, yes three (or four if you count Sylvinho, like you should), are playing for Manchester City and it would seem as though at least two of them actually respect their former club. It should be no surprise that it was Toure and Vieira that had a little talk with Adebayor about ‘keeping calm’ in this weekend’s match against Arsenal. We wouldn’t want a repeat of Adebayor’s behavior from the match earlier this season, so it’s good that more respectable ex-Gunners are stepping up to the plate. Thank god for the classy ones.

I have mixed feelings when former gunners play against us. Only in so much as I want us to make them ashamed to have left, to be honest. In Vieira’s case, it will be fun to watch him playing at the Emirates. Let’s not forget that Vieira played at the Emirates on July 22, 2006 at Bergkamp’s testimonial. I certainly expect to hear the Vieira chant from the stands as I watch the broadcast on Saturday. Woa-oh-oh-oh.

Manchester City is in danger of becoming Formerly Arsenal Football Club if they get any more ex-gunners. Just wait, over the summer they’ll pick up Flamini, Hleb, and even make an offer for Henry. If you can’t find success on your own, why not go buy a bunch of good players from other teams? If only we’d thought of that.

Hopefully the rift between manager and players that Carlos Tevez has exposed will grow between now and the match. We could really use every advantage possible. Our youngsters will need it.

Arsene Wenger has been suffering under a media  frenzy as people from all over have been climbing out of the woodwork to hurl insults and questions at him. According to the Independant, he says that Arsenal have improved. Hmm… I think I would agree with him on the condition that we only improved as much as we could have given the fact that he didn’t buy any players outside of Arashavin and Vermaelen (2 great buys). We may not have gotten any worse, given that we were contenders for the title for much longer, but that doesn’t mean the improvement has been significant. To really improve, he has to get some experienced players in the squad.

Campbell's Soup

Sol Campbell has been left wondering if he will be playing for Arsenal again next year. He still doesn’t know if Wenger wants him or not, which now has him talking to the press about it. I’m sure if there is anything that will tip Wenger in his favor it’s going and talking the rags about all his problems. Typically Wenger gets a hard-on for those sorts of things, right?

I think, at this point, it would be good to have Campbell around next year. He has proven surprisingly quick and capable. Although you could place some share of the blame on him for the recent goals that have ruined our season, I think that over-all he has helped far more than he has hurt. What’s the consensus here?

I wore my pull-over jersey for the second half of the day since it is miserably rainy and windy in Los Angeles. It’s tough wearing the Red and White right now, given the terrible last two games and the fact that we are now out of the race. But, if you are going to call yourself an Arsenal supporter, you’ve got to get out there and do your part. Thanks for reading, Go Gunners!

The Daily Mail has a new article up in which 6 ‘stark’ questions are posed that could Wenger should answer. Then, Jamie Redknapp and Andy Townsend wax philosophic about the possible answers. I don’t really know what makes these questions ‘stark’ other than that it sounds like a nice headline. No, Tony Stark doesn’t answer them. The questions are:

1. It’s five years without a trophy for Arsenal. How has that happened?
2. What should Wenger have done differently this season?
3. Do we still admire Wenger’s football philosophies?
4. And anyone who questions if he is the right man for the job should be locked up, right?
5. In which areas does he need to strengthen the side?
6. Liverpool have been caught and overtaken by Manchester City and Spurs. Are Arsenal vulnerable next season?

Some of these questions are silly and can be answered rather quickly. So I will.

1. It’s been more than 5 years for every other club in the premiership except Chelsea and Manchester United as well. Go ask those clubs first, since we’re consistently in the top 4.
2. He should have found a way to prevent such a big number of significant injuries (which may be impossible) and he should have bought players that have more experience to the squad.
3. Yes.
4. Pretty much.
5. That was the same as question 2 but asked differently.
6. As long as its mathematically possible, yes.

I have some questions for Jamie Redknapp, but I don’t know that they are fit for print.

Ian Wright for The Sun (WTF?) has come out and said that Arsene should step up and admit he has been stubborn about the money situation. I agree, if this has been the case. I’ve always read stories that say Arsenal has no money… and then other stories that say they do and Wenger just doesn’t want to spend… and like usual with these news sources it’s one day this and one day that.

If it is true that Wenger has opted to not spend money on more experienced players, he should fess up. In the long run, these last two losses, which is the main source of all this controversy, are down to the fact that our uninjured players don’t have the fortitude, mental strength, and discipline that they should.

Oh and don’t forget to check out that new Fabregas wallpaper.