Gunnerrific

What. The. Hell. Was. That.

That was probably the craziest last-day-of-the-transfer-window ever. There were some pretty high figures being bounded about over some equally high name players. Sort of. The new Liverpool owners are literally going for broke to try to rescue their season… I think. Letting go of Torres was an inevitability, especially with the price tag they let him go for, which was definitely worth it. But then turning around spending almost as much on a player like Carroll is an even bigger move.

With Liverpool having signed Suarez and now Carroll, Kuyt and N’Gog ought to be shaking in their boots. Instead of swapping colors of their kits, they my lose them altogether.

So Torres is in blue. Carroll’s in red, and Kuyt is shirtless on the bench.

I’m such a terrible person. But it’s not like I was the first.

There’s certainly a positive out of yesterday’s madness. Arsenal were uninvolved.

Yesterday we won against Ipswich at home in a 3-0 victory (a score I predicted). It was a great game that had a fair amount of tension built up after a scoreless first half. We never really looked in doubt though, given the amount of pressure we were putting on their goal.

I was a bit nervous after seeing the line-up. Leaving Nasri and Song on the bench always seems like a gamble to me. Song in particular acts as a real backbone to the team, and Nasri is better offensively than Arshavin. But in the end, despite some wayward passes and dispossession, Arshavin contributed significantly. He assisted the second and third goals.

1. Bendtner Scores When it Matters (and Shaves his Chest)

Bendtner - Aerodynamic

Yeah, they aren’t related.

Bendtner was pretty frustrating to watch in the first half. Thankfully he came through with a really solid goal in the second. A classy goal, even. It was the goal that was the most important and was desperately needed in that match.

Either Danish people aren’t hairy or he shaves his chest like some sort of underwear model. That or he has a full chest of thin, blond hair. I just gagged a little.

Does he also swim for the Denmark Olympics team?

2. Sagna the World Beater got Beaten

Sagna - Down But Not Out

Get this man some fire win, stat.

Sagna was taken out early after a bad collision with Szczesny. If Szczesny had been hurt who knows what our keeper situation would get like.

I haven’t heard any word on Sagna as of the writing of this post. Hopefully we’ll hear from the Arsenal camp soon about his condition. If there is ANY justice in this world, Sagna will be just fine.

Less relevant to Arsenal was the significant head injury that Rafael sustained, which sidelined the eventual Manchester win for a good 10 minutes.

Sagna would never need 10 minutes.

3. Djourou got his 100th cap

Djouro's 100th

This is what happens when you follow players on twitter. You end up seeing tweets like this directly from players. It was a fun way to learn that this was his 100th appearance.

Wikipedia seems to think he has more than 100, but I’ll trust the statisticians that told Djourou about it over anybody else.

Djourou has been great for us since coming back to the first team. As usual he was solid in defense against Ipswich. Here’s to 100 more.

4. Koscielny Scores… Celebrates Pregnancy

Koscielny

Koscielny scored the winning goal after a perfectly placed cross from Arshavin. Koscielny always look threatening in the box and it’s great to see him snag a header like that. I still think he’s a great signing and he fits in with the rest of the squad perfectly.

Koscielny’s goal celebration revealed that he’s expecting a newborn. I hadn’t seen anything in the news about that yet. Since he’ll have to drop out of the squad for 9 months we’ll definitely need another center back now.

5. A Voice is Silenced

Misogynist

In case anyone is wondering, it’s not okay to make completely idiotic, misogynistic statements in the work place. It would be one thing to say things like that as a joke making fun of misogynistic people, but to actually say that and believe it puts you on a whole different plane of stupidity and ignorance.

Fairwell to Andy Gray. I’m sure you’ll end up just fine, but it may be wise of you to think a little about what you said. And even more-so, why you said it. Unless you’re Will Ferrell’s hilarious “The Anchorman”, you can’t get away with saying things like that.

“You’re just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It’s science.”

I hope Richard Keys gets what’s coming to him. After this video surfaced, the evidence is really starting to pile up (via arseblog). It’s nice that these old fuddy duddies who are making so much money think they have the capability to say such stupid things, let alone with cameras all around them.

Surely by now you’ve seen the photoshop of the female linesman as seen by Gray and Keys. I’m embarrassed I didn’t think of it first. Does anyone know who made it?

6. Blackpool Can’t Keep a 2-0 Lead

Blackpool - Football Club?

I guess that isn’t terribly surprising, if I’m being fair. It was really unfortunate that they dropped their lead. Manchester United is now 5 points ahead of us, and they are going to have to drop some games for us to have any change.

In addition, they’re long unbeaten run still continues. This threat of equaling the invincibles is worrying.

We still have United at home, so that might be the saving grace.

7. Adebayor Is Out of the EPL

Adebayor - Sayonayor

Adebayor. Adebayor. Adebayor. Good fucking riddance.

Now that Adebayor is leaving the EPL, hopefully for good, we’ll more than likely never have to deal with him showing up at the Emirates again. What a nuisance that guy turned into. He’s the very definition of a troll.

I’m really surprised that Mourinho picked him up out of Manchester City. For one thing, if a player can’t find first team action on Manchester City, that should tell you something. In addition, Mourinho has traditionally been a better judge of talent than this.

Who knows though. Maybe Ade’s lanky style of play will suit La Liga perfectly. That and the laziness.

The real thing worth considering is if this loan deal will really pan out for everyone. Ade may end up even worse off.

Come on Arsenal!

I don’t need to tell you that Arsenal thumped West Ham in a convincing 3-0 win. I also don’t need to tell you that it was a huge return to form for most of the squad, save for Eboue. But, what I do need to tell you is that Robin Van Persie has finally made me the fool. Several weeks ago I wrote about how unconvinced I was of Robin van Persie’s return to form, in particular that Chamakh is capable of delivering more. I’m thrilled I was wrong.

Against West Ham RVP was hugely invested in the match. It was easy to see how hard he was playing, and how much he wanted a goal, or two or three. As we all know one of the big issues we have is pulling the trigger in the box. RVP is not afraid to do that, and for that I am thankful. He is great at taking quality shots at goal, even with his off foot, and even from strange angles. I can’t wait to see him the rest of this season. I just hope his glass bones and jello muscles will hold shape.

Aside from a couple of grave errors in the defense, some of which we were lucky to get away with, the team looked great. Szcz?sny had a couple of gaffes but managed to keep things together. I think the communication between him and the defense needs some serious work. Aside from van Persie, my man of the match would probably be Alex Song. He’s just a stalwart figure in our midfield. He’s great at shepherding the ball from defense to offense, he buckles down on any loose balls, and he provides pressure when the back line gets out of shape. Nasri was also fantastic. And Walcott… that boy’s got jets.

But seriously, what hell was Eboue doing? Don’t get me wrong, he was no Matthew Upson, who decided he’d rather spend his Saturday out on a stroll rather than play football. But Eboue was horrendous filling in for Sagna. He would’ve been better off in the stands in that 90′s rapper get-up that he is so fond of. Actually, maybe that’s the problem. Does he need to play in that outfit? Is the Arsenal kit just not stylin’ enough? Maybe he could just get away with the hat.

Eboue Needs a Cap

It’ll be interesting to cheer on the scum as they face United. But we just need to keep our game going. Come on Arsenal!

PS. If you leave a comment, could you answer these quick questions? How’d you get here? Should I add (pic) in my titles when I make funny pics?

Hello.

My brother’s girlfriend has started to use the more-southern pronunciation of terrible as turrible. It’s a great way of saying that something is terrible while simultaneously trying to eek out a laugh at the situation. I think it’s an apt way to describe Arsenal’s performance against Ipswich. It was turrible.

Had Djourou not been playing, the entire squad would be at fault. Save for him the over-all performances were far below average. Fabregas looked like he was not invested in the game at all. Denilson was sloppy and gave up possession regularly. Walcott provided some significant spark through his speed, but he continued to make the wrong decisions when choosing between passing and shooting. Bendtner… not quite sure what he was up to. Chamakh looked promising when he came on, and even pulled off some decent shots. Eboue was unconcerned. I can’t be bothered coming up with negative descriptions for each player, it’s laborious, and you know the story already.

But enough ragging on the team. They know what they did. Arsene surely hasn’t let a performance like that go without a decent helping of criticism aimed at each player. It’s important that they get over this and move on, yadda yadda, blah blah blah. Upwards and onwards so they say.

Rumors continue persist about Upson, who I think would be the best pick-up we could manage. I certainly hope we don’t sign Joleon Lescott. Cahill, sure.

Fortunately this period of 2 games a week is still in full swing. I can’t get enough of watching this side play, even when they are playing terribly. It’s all part of a great story and I can’t wait to see what happens next. As long as its winning.

Come on Arsenal!

Well that was a hell of a match. What a way to lose two points. I think time slowed down in the last 15 minutes of that match, it was torturous. You could almost feel that we weren’t going to escape with a win given the circumstances and the way the match was going.

To begin with, Sunderland surprisingly outplayed us. We spent far too much time in a defensive position struggling to prevent shots on goal. When Arsenal did have possession, we uncharacteristically lost possession. There were fleeting moments of potential when strings of passes worked perfectly around the Sunderland midfield, but ultimately our chances were far too few. Perhaps escaping with one point was lucky enough, just as Fabregas’s goal was lucky enough. In the end, the game was never truly in Arsenal’s control.

Alex Song’s sending off was far too harsh. Both yellows were very light. Although he was certainly getting gritty, he didn’t deserve to be sent off. If that were the case, there’d be a sending off in every league match. Although maybe that’s the way that puffy Dowd would want it. He really should lay off the fish and chips. This season Song has been playing lights-out. He’s been all over the back-end of the pitch, protecting the defense and picking up lose balls. In addition, he’s been a threat when he moves forward (when he isn’t giving up possession that is). Having him sent off not only meant playing a man down, but also playing without one of our cornerstones. Escaping with a win in those conditions was always going to be difficult.

One could also argue that, in addition to Song’s sending off, Rosicky’s missed penalty cost us the match. I thought the ball just grazed the top of the post, but no matter, it was always rising. I’m not sure why he chose to blast that penalty… in a situation like that I would’ve suspected he’d take the placement shot.

Despite all the bad I think that Chamakh, Koscielny, and Squillaci are really coming into their own. Despite a loss, we should take away from this match that we have three exceptionally capable players that have been added to the squad. That’s a necessary thing though, given the players we lost and the players that are constantly injured. Chamakh is showing real promise as a striker who is capable of any offensive or even defensive situation he is in. He made consistent efforts at pressuring the defense and in a game like this I think that helped postpone the inevitable.

So:

• We gave up a potential win to a lower team.
• We were constantly on our back foot.
• Fabregas picked up a knock.
• We are still struggling with several injuries, resulting in an inconsistent squad.
• Phil Dowd had it out for us.

But:

• We almost came away with a gritty win.
• Chamakh, Squillaci, and Koscielny are the right men for the job.

Overall it’s a terrible day for the Arsenal, but it’s still early.

The writing is on the wall. Barcelona want Cesc. Cesc wants Barcelona. This is the way it was a year ago, this is still the way it is now. Wenger managed to persuade Fabregas to stay for just one more season, but given the same-old lackluster could-have-been-a-trophy performance, he has no reason to stay.

We have lost a lot of players to Barcelona. I have no doubt in my mind that Cesc will be the next. I have resigned myself to it, not just because we are seeing the same patterns in the media from all sides on this story, but also because Cesc himself has said he wants to go back to Barcelona. Qualifying such a statement by saying “but I’m still under contract with Arsenal and the World Cup is next” doesn’t really mean anything.

The more important question that Arsenal supporters should be asking at this point is how exactly the team is going to look next year without Fabregas. Who else can Wenger bring in?