Gunnerrific

Well that’s more like it. Arsenal beat Blackburn 6-2 in a thrilling match that shouldn’t be soon forgotten. Despite periods of inconsistency with appalling play the team played extremely well.

Blackburn went up 1-0 inside the first three minutes. This is a trend that is now to be expected. Toure was called for a foul inside the box that could certainly be argued both ways. Nonda, who scored both goals, slotted it home despite Lehmann’s best efforts. And again hopes were dashed early at the Emirates.

But fear not readers. Vice Captain (and now Captain) Gilberto equalized just 7 minutes later. For the rest of the first half we dominated play, and even went up 3-1 through goals from Hleb and Adebayor (penalty). Save for the penalty goal we suffered, we were pretty much dominating the match in the first half. It was a glorious period to be a gunner.

However, it didn’t last long. Coming out of the gates in the second we lost all semblance of good play. Passes were shoddy, turnovers were frequent, and possession was slim. Blackburn took one back in the 69th to everyone’s surprise, and the game was once again on. Blackburn had several chances that they could have capitalized on, but we somehow managed to keep them at bay despite some questionable defense.

I believe it was around the 72nd when Flamini came on that Arsenal started to shine again. Passes became more accurate, touches more deft, and we looked like the good old red and white again. It was no surprise then that three more goals poured in.

Robin Van Persie scored twice within three minutes, and then Flamini two minutes later. We stuck that knife deep into Blackburn, twisted it around real good, and then poured some salt in the wound. It was a lovely way to cap off the match. If there were any more of those early-leavers in this match then I hope they feel adequately depressed.

I wasn’t able to see all of this match live. I am currently back in Oklahoma City, where apparently a pub doesn’t exist that carries Setanta Sports (the network showing the match here in the states). I managed to find some live feed from a Japanese network though, but it was quite spotty.

There were two ten minute periods where I was only able to hear the commentary from ATVO. This was a blessing in disguise though, as the commentary on ATVO is directly from the stadium itself. The chanting and random shouts from the crowd are thus all the more prevalent, so it felt more like I was there.

Fabregas and Gilberto are really starting to work well together. Gilberto’s unsung antics in the back of the midfield continue to impress me, while Fabregas is starting to really develop his own style of play and dominance. He does well in setting up the flow of the attack and really controls the pace of the game. Rosicky looked really good until the start of the second half. I’m pretty impressed with how well he has settled in to the Arsenal style.

As I mentioned earlier the defense was a bit spotty. It will be quite nice to have the experience of Lauren back as I think that is where the real root of the problem is. Inexperience in the strikers or midfielders can always be masked by the opposition, or covered up by just yielding with a pass-back. Inexperience in the defense though will always result in goals being scored. This is just the nature of the beast, and like consistency with the rest of the squad, we as supporters should always be ready to see goals slip in.

Around the rest of the premiership, all of the rest of the teams that we needed to drop points did not. It’s disappointing when the the rest of the teams above and around us continue to win. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do and we are dependent upon other teams dropping points.

Lovely Christmas time means that we have matches back to back every week. On Tuesday we’re up against Watford away. This is another should-be-gimme match but I’m sure that the youngsters will make it thrilling like they always do.

Come on Arsenal!

I’ll start by calling Portsmouth a disaster. Yes, we pulled off a draw after going down by two. But, we went down by two. It’s completely unacceptable for The Arsenal to go down by two goals after 47 minutes, at home, against Portsmouth. If it were yesteryear and the team of 03-04 were on the pitch, this would have been a walk in the park.

I think I could best describe the team’s effort in the first half as pedestrian. It was a pedestrian pace that resulted in a mediocre effort. We did have several opportunities that James continued to push away, but we lacked an urgency and conviction that we ought to always have with us. There were several periods of that first half where we basically looked masturbatory while passing around the back line, back and forth. Where was the movement? Where was the tenacity? I know some of it was in the stands in a black coat.

I wouldn’t call the first half as bad as everyone else has been. Just mediocre, with no goals. The second half, after we went down from the second goal, resulted in quite a few opportunities and much quicker play. After Gilberto equalized you felt like we really had a chance, but some of our urgency was lost.

It goes to show that when backed into a corner the youngsters will fight hard. As I’ve said before, when it’s not a juggernaut team and when we aren’t backed into a corner, we just don’t look threatening enough.

The two goals were brilliant though and I’m thrilled we were able to escape with a draw. We needed a win badly but you take what you get. We really did have a slew of chances in the second, and any one of them could have gone in. It was an absolutely thrilling match in the second.

Aliadiere had his first start in quite some time and he looked fine by me. You can argue that after Adebayor came on, the game changed entirely. However, it was only ten minutes after going down by two, so I wouldn’t blame Aliadiere with all that. Aliadiere had some good chances and even better passes. He gave the ball up in some pretty silly situations though so I can see how he would get blamed for this. I still think he deserves a bit more of a chance. Alongside Henry he might look better, not that anyone wouldn’t.

The stand-out defender for my taste was Clichy. He was tenacious, he pushed up the sideline, and he defended well. Djourou, Toure, and Eboue played alright but played scrappy when both goals were scored.

Hleb had a good and bad game. On one side, his leading pass to Walcott through four defenders, that led to Adebayor’s goal, gave me a boner. On the other hand, he still has some problems in holding up play too much.

The average age of the Arsenal squad that played on Saturday, minus Gilberto and Lehmann, was 22. In the scope of football, this is too young not to expect problems. We’ll always be the Arsenal, and we’ll always be contenders, but when the average age of your squad hovers in the low 20′s, you can’t expect us to win every match.

Given the tender young age of the squad, we really should be quite happy. We’re in 4th right now and we have had some really big wins this season. If we can hold on to these players for awhile things will be quite different. It just goes back to the same old points, which almost aren’t worth bringing up anymore. We need to be consistent, capitalize on our opportunities, and dominate the midfield, but it’s hard to do that with youngsters.

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.

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!

Today was a good day to be an Arsenal supporter. The squad fought hard, played well, and won convincingly. We finished the day 3-0 with two well placed penalties from our captain Gilberto. Tottenham looked completely lost in the midfield and especially in the back, which allowed the Arsenal to apply constant, frustrating pressure.

Cesc Fabregas, Freddie Ljungberg, Robin Van Persie, and Adebayor were today’s stand-outs. Cesc dominated the midfield by constantly showing himself for the defense, holding possession under stress, and jump-starting the offense with decisive passes and movement forward. Ljungberg reclaimed his status as a rugged, determined player willing to do whatever it takes, anywhere on the pitch.

Robin Van Persie and Adebayor partnered together up front and looked very comfortable together. They played smart passes to each other to trouble the defense and create opportunities along the wings. However, the most important contribution from RVP and Adebayor was their constant pressure. Tottenham’s defense never had a moment to relax or even think about how to get the ball out of trouble. This pressure resulted in several turnovers that we successfully turned into offensive counters time and time again.

Clichy was quite strong in both holding up play along his flank and driving forward. On the other side, Eboue worked extremely well with Ljungberg when pressing forward. Unfortunately Rosicky looked a bit lost today, giving up several errant passes and not causing much trouble. He did make the drive that got us our first penalty and second goal though.

Our stalwart captain netted two penalties and otherwise had a very strong game. He cleaned up well in the middle and added extra support to the back line. Djourou and Toure looked confident in the middle and they both put in another great performance. I believe Djourou was cheered while on the ball several times. Good for him.

For more player ratings, I recommend Goodplaya as always.

The determination of the Arsenal in this match is what won it for us. We fought hard for every ball and retained possession well. Add to that a consistent and dominant defensive showing and you have what truly was a magnificent Arsenal performance.

I saw more fans leaving early in the 80th and 85th. After such a thrilling performance against our most despised rivals, you’d think people would stay in their goddamned seats till the end. Oh well, the rest of you lot sure sounded like 60,000 strong regardless, so cheers to the ones that stuck it out.

This is a short post tonight as I’m much too inebriated to write a well composed, thoughtful post on what was truly a wretched game. We went down early to an American striker, which I unfortunately have the responsibility in calling out in my pre-match report.  The only saving grace was a set-piece from VP11 which saw a bit of fight left in the Arsenal side.

I don’t know what Arsene was thinking with the line-up.  I understand that the team is playing 2 games a week for several months.  I understand that some of our players need a rest.  But did he not understand that we abso-fucking-lutely needed a win?  Song was wretched, and we only looked decent after Cesc came on. If anything Song should have come on in the second, after we’d secured a win. I was fine with Flamini and Hoyte in the back line, but without Cesc and Gilberto constantly showing for the defense, we couldn’t even successfully get the ball out of our own half.
Senderos looked particularly lost in defense and gave up several balls unnecessarily.  Then he went on to claim a second yellow, that was absolutely deserved I feel, and with 10 men and a goal down all hope was lost.

Lehmann was my man of the match as he was forced to make much to many necessary saves.  Without his goalkeeping we would have lost by much more than a goal.  After him was Cesc, who despite playing for 45 minutes, helped to give the Arsenal a bit of respite.
There really isn’t much else to say about this match.  We lost, we didn’t play well, and we’re in trouble.  All that we, the Arsenal faithful, can do is get behind our team.

Oh to be a gooner.