Gunnerrific

Barcelona are now our most bitter of foreign rivals. I can’t wait until we play them again, when we actually have a team without any injuries.

Unfortunately that is unlikely to happen given our penchant for easy knocks and breaks.

I will say though that given the number of injuries we had, we did surprisingly well. Some may say that 4-1 is anything but ‘surprisingly well’. I would say that we practically fielded our B team, and against the best team in the world 4-1 is pretty damn respectable.

More to come.

Let’s not jinx this. But it feels good to be at the top. Arsenal played another brilliant game on Saturday at White Hart Lane. We won 3-1 in what I think was a much deserved three point affair. The side is really starting to look good and play well together. It’s great that goals are coming in from a variety of positions as well.

There were a fair amount of mistaken chances on both sides of the pitch. The goalies came up strong with several good saves but got off lucky just as much. Arsenal maintained possession in the midfield with a bit of brute force and a touch of class. Fabregas was dominant and scored a scorcher for our second goal.

Adebayor’s closing goal was a truly stunning strike. He flicked the ball up with his back to the goal, wheeled around, and drove the ball into the net. Robinson, god bless him, had little to no chance.

Robin Van Persie is currently my favorite striker on the side, but he was virtually nonexistent in this match. I hope to see him prevail more in upcoming fixtures. He usually runs rampant on the defense but something just wasn’t going his way. A more abysmal performance was seen from Gilberto though. I remember back when Wenger loaned Djourou and I thought to myself, “Great, Gilberto slipping and giving up balls in center back again…” And boy was I right. I have never liked Gilberto in the center back and he continued to reinforce that opinion. We need Senderos or Gallas back sooner than they will be!

We are now at the top of the league. We are also one game in hand. I’ll say nothing else in the hopes of avoiding any sort of a jinx. Come on Arsenal!

What a remarkable performance by “the kids” on Sunday. This final was by far one of the most wholly entertaining matches I’ve seen in a long time. I am still reeling a bit about everything this game included and I feel like I need to watch it again to see everything. However before that happens here are some things that stood out the most:

The Performance

Sure, a win would have been better, but barring that Arsene and the team proved everything they set out to prove (and more) about the quality of the youth program at Arsenal. We were the better side for the majority of the match, and there’s a special sort of joy that comes with seeing a team who’s average age is just under 21 make Chelsea’s costly first team look like the poorer side.

Oh, and Theo’s goal! What a magnificent build-up to a finish that was pure class. His first Arsenal goal really couldn’t have come at a better moment or looked any prettier.

I honestly can’t say enough good things about the team’s performance. Diaby looked immense out there and his ability to anticipate the flow of play and break up Chelsea’s moves was breathtaking. I might go so far as to say that he looked like Viera from the 03-04 season. His work on Sunday makes the news of his injury all the more frustrating. Let’s hope it isn’t too bad this time. Traore is really coming along, too. While he looked a little raw trying to deal with some of Chelsea’s seniors this was by far his best performance and any mistakes he made during the game were overshadowed by his promise.

The Controversy

I’m glad John Terry’s injury wasn’t as bad as it looked because it was definitely a tense few minutes in the pub while waiting for him to get medical attention. I’d also like to join in the applause for Arsenal physio Gary Lewin. It seems like he’s always the first guy out there to help out when someone is injured. Kudos to him.

The “brawl” was really not that bad. Toure definitely overreacted to the foul but didn’t do much more than yell at Mikel until Lampard tried to get involved which led to Cesc holding him back by his neck and things just descended from there. At least that’s how it looks to me. Adebayor didn’t deserve a red card and there’s been some talk that the referee might have carded the wrong guy, meaning to send off Eboue. That actually makes sense after watching this video. Arsenal have appealed Adebayor’s card with the FA so hopefully it’ll be overturned. And can we please get rid of Eboue already? He’s ridiculous.

Cesc has been getting a lot of stick for being “a brat” lately but I quite prefer Goodplaya’s take on him. A sore loser with impeccable taste in loathings.

Here’s a question: What’s the deal with the celery that was being chucked towards Cesc everytime he took a corner? Is there a meaning behind the celery that I’m missing or is it the only vegetable that Chelsea’s fans could get their hands on?

Thus concludes two relatively poor performances in a row by The Gunners. While the game did have a few highlights we never really looked like we cared until PSV slid one just past Lehmann. It’s a familiar tale where urgency only comes out of the risk of a loss.

Instead of writing a full match report, which I’m pretty sure nobody really wants to read, I’m going to outline a few things that I’ve been missing from Arsenal’s game in the past few fixtures.

• Robin Van Persie, who’s obsession with scoring incredible goals has been sorely missed up front since his injury.
• Aliadiere, one of the few sources of creativity in Arsenal’s distressing performance against Blackburn.
• Henry, who despite a few nice chances here and there looked absent for huge stretches of the game. The way he receives a ball and holds it for 5+ seconds, standing still while looking for the perfect opportunity, frustrates beyong imagine.
• Top-form Gallas. It’s nice to have him back but it was painful watching him give up possession and get beat so often today. Our right side was entirely exposed as a result.
• The Beast. From underwhelming at his start for Arsenal, to overwhelming in his four-goal role in the Carling Cup evisceration of Liverpool, to underwhelming again. Why can’t we get “The Beast” on a regular basis?

So we look forward to meeting PSV again in two weeks at the Emirates. The pressure will really be on if we want to stay in the Champion’s League, but before that we meet Chelsea in the Carling Cup final. I’m hoping Arsene left Aliadiere on the bench to rest him for a starting spot in that game.

All that being said, I don’t think the loss today is going to be too much of a disaster for Arsenal. Considering some of the brilliant performances the team has put in, I would be more surprised if we didn’t find our form again in the next game. Yes, the last two performances have been pretty shoddy, but we’ve had an amazing run since the new year and it won’t be hard for the gunners to find their form again.

So what do you think Arsenal has been missing lately?

Well I think I need a stiff drink after that. We can’t make a habit of coming from behind to win… we need to just win outright. Here are the five things that struck me most during that match.

Firstly, thank you Tomas Rosicky. That header was brilliant and it saved the Arsenal from more potential embarassment. Adebayor sent Baptista through on the right and the Brazilian sent in a perfect cross just a yard or so out for Rosicky to smash in. Rosicky is starting to get an eye for the goal and he had a great effort earlier on too.

Second, thank you Fitz Hall. Sure, you may be a Latic cunt, but you scored on your own team for us. I appreciate that, I really do. In any future enncounters with Wigan I’ll surely be cheering for the Arsenal, and you.

Third, Mr. Dowd, you are incompetent. There were too many calls on both sides that were way off. Be it yellow cards, fouls, or offsides, this ref is right up there with Mike Riley as far as I’m concerned.

Fourth, Lehmann is hilarious. Just flat out hilarious. Sitting there bouncing the ball against the back of the advertisement boards to waste time like that, I’m surprised that he was so surprised to get a yellow. Not many goalies suffer the 5 yellow card fate but not our Jens Lehmann.

Fifth, Henry got a bit of that Fabregas fire in him today. After the Wigan own goal Henry pushed the ball into Kirkland’s chest as if to suggest he could waste more time if he wanted. Granted, Kirkland was definitely taking his sweet time with the ball after they went up a goal. Henry was yellow carded for the incident and the spat between the two continued for the rest of the game. I never saw if there was a handshake between them at the end of the match. In all a total of 6 of our players were carded. Ridiculous.

Over-all the match was as exciting as it could be. We went down at the Emirates yet again, only to find the net twice to escape with a win. We remain undefeated at the new stadium, but we’re getting too damn close.

If you haven’t noticed I’ve acquired an assistant blogger in the form of Otto. He’ll be helping me fill the void when I’m unable to keep a constant flow of posts coming. Don’t bother being kind to him, he’s too drunk to care most of the time.

Well I’ve been away for quite some time haven’t I? My apologies. I was busy enjoying my time off during the holidays and getting engaged.

It was a splendid day today as Arsenal beat Liverpool 3-1 at Anfield. This is the second time we’ve beat Liverpool this season, the first at Emirates 3-0. It’s great to see our young side show up and play for such a big game. We’re playing them again on Tuesday with what will surely be a different side.

For my first post back I figured I would just share the Arsenal goals via YouTube.

My thoughts on this match: Flamini gave the Liverpool midfield a hard time by hassling their every move, Senderos and Toure were both mighty in defense, and RVP was amazing. I don’t know how he got that shot off from the right side with his left foot. Too bad it didn’t go in. I think Senderos cleared more balls from the goal front than Liverpool had shots.

Rosicky finally put some shots in the back of the net. It’s been a long time coming and I’m glad he’s finally done it. There were some potential injuries to the squad so we’ll have to wait to hear the news.

Oh and for those who haven’t found it yet, ArsenalClips is a great, great site with really quick updates and video. Check it out.

Come on Arsenal!