Gunnerrific

Robin Van Persie’s unfortunate injury during the Euro qualifiers has sidelined him for what will soon be a month. Van Persie recently stated that strikers need more protection from those trying to take them down. I can only assume he isn’t talking about birth control, but instead about referees. It’s easy to see how Van Persie could feel that way after seeing this horrible picture:

Lately we have been very poor offensively. I know, I know, we are scoring fine and winning or drawing all of our games. That aside, we haven’t looked very dangerous up front. Everyone has been saying how great we look with Henry, and that we don’t miss him. Well, we certainly could use a dangerous striker. In my mind, Van Persie is our best striker, and while he has been injured the side has suffered. I can’t wait for him to get back, just in time for our difficult schedule up ahead.

Let’s take a look at some schmuck’s opinion of Van Persie’s top 13 goals. Why is he a schmuck? Well he stole my wallpapers and used it for his goddamned video. At least he did mention me in the credits. Sweet.

Well that was a well won point… or was it? 90+ minutes of football in the freezing cold rain resulted in a total of 12 shots, 3 of which were on goal, from both sides. I don’t know if this should be attributed to playing away in Prague, the weather, or the squad selection. Regardless, I think I liked the squad selection given where we are in the season and the importance of the game. At least we got a point and kept our undefeated record alive.

We’re through to the next round though, so Come on Arsenal!

There wasn’t anything particularly attractive tonight but we cant hope for it every match. Surprisingly enough, Alex Song wasn’t all that bad. Typically when he steps on the pitch I get a case of the pee shivers out of concern alone. He managed to be all over the place, just like his hair.

Clichy looked formidable as usual, clamping down his side and providing plenty of offensive gusto. The more I see Clichy play, the more I like him. Almunia bailed us out as well, which was quite nice of him. More and more reasons to let Lehmann go…

Barcelona beat Rangers as expected, further hurting their chances of breaking through. I hope the Rangers can pull it off. I like that Beasley fella’. Henry scored a goal but I don’t necessarily want to see the highlight… he’s dead to me! United won, again, and are guaranteed a spot in the knock-out round. Booooo.

Liverpool won their Champion’s League tie today 8-0 against an embittered Besitkas side. Besitkas clearly would have been better off forfeiting the game to retain their pride in beating Liverpool back in Turkey land. Liverpool has been looking depressingly, or rather joyfully, inept in their last several games, domestic and internationally. Today they managed to turn the table on poor little Besitkas, who was thumped around like the red-headed stepchild that is John Arne Riise.

Jamie Carragher somehow managed to escape any more foul trouble despite his penchant for violence and flailing body parts. Perhaps he didn’t deserve any discipline today but he has certainly warranted it in the last 5 or so games leading up to today. At what point will the FA review his previous infractions and choose to discpline him? Never, cause the FA are idiots.

Anyways, on to the Arsenal. Sweet, sweet, Arsenal. Our match against United was well played and we managed to escape with a point. However, I don’t think that we looked particularly strong at any point in the match. Would it be fair to say at this point that united are looking like a more sturdy and resilient game-winning team, despite the fact that we are tied with a game in hand? You tell me. I’m just posing the question.

Tomorrow we are Prague to play against… Slavia Prague. I’d expect a standard match where we secure a couple of goals and then hold them to it. I’ll maintain this perspective even though Wenger has omitted four of our core players out of the team. Hopefully it will give the others a chance to get in a groove together. Let’s just thank God this is the first time we’ve seen a major rotation of the squad in a match that is crucial… how could someone really support this week in and week out? Supporting Liverpool must require a level of impatience not even worth having.

Come on Arsenal!

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!

Just one day after I wrote about how I disliked the way Hleb plays he puts on a clinic in Prague. Adding insult to injury he buried the game in extra time with a fine but scuffed strike. Kudos to Hleb and he has done quite well in starting the long journey to earn my trust back. Not that my trust matters much, I’m just a meager knob end. One nil to Hleb.

The volume and range of responses to my post yesterday was a sublime measure of human emotion. Nothing satisfies me more than being called an idiot, a pointless impostor journalist, and a goose *shock* in one foul swoop. If anyone that reads this blog thinks I’m a journalist go back to the stands at the Lane and stop calling me a baffoon. This is where you are supposed to come to listen to a die hard fan, download some cool wallpapers, and talk to other people in the comments.

I hope that my blog occasionally causes a positive stir in the Arsenal masses. Fortunately I have a thick enough hide that when someone calls me a vast turd it only brings a quarter tear to my eye. I would like to think that it is blogs like this that help push the Arsenal agenda forward, through controversy or not. However assuming such things might get me called the devil. Arseblogger led the way, the rest of us are just following suit.

Having 2 wins in 2 games is great! I hope we can keep this up for awhile. Hell why not the whole season. The Premier League is already off to a much more interesting start than last year. Manchester have suffered an injury blow with Rooney out for two months and Ronaldo has received a red card so he will be out for three games. Meanwhile Chelsea are continuing to survive despite being scored on by lesser sides. They’re in a bit of an injury crisis as well so maybe this is our first time in 2 years to be without injury problems. I’d better be careful saying that though because somebody could call me a dumb muppet.

On to other things… I think Gael Clichy’s secret identity is The Flash. I don’t understand how he is capable of running so fast throughout the entirety of the game. His burst of speed are amazing and I hope he keeps this up throughout the whole season. It’s strange to think that he was a part of The Invincibles on ’03-’04 and then to see how far he has come. I don’t even remember how many games he played that season, as far as I can recall just 17 minutes or so for one match. Somebody accuse me of knowing nothing about technique and then give me the exact details.

Our new right back is fitting in quite well. His run through the center of the field to create Hleb’s goal was quite impressive, and he hasn’t made any enormous errors in back. I can’t wait to see how Eduardo does when he debuts.

Oh and just to be clear I didn’t say I hated Hleb, I just hated the way he played. I really do hope he continues to score more goals though. Come on Arsenal!

There, I said it. I’ve never really liked the way Hleb plays football. He takes the ball too close to his feet. When he sprints and runs with the ball it’s right underneath him, so much so that he has to run awkwardly to prevent himself from accidentally hitting it. This results in him becoming off-balance, running into opposing players, and generally losing control of the situation. This of course is why he inevitably gives up possession.

It’s been like this for awhile. Don’t you try to convince me otherwise. His movement off the ball however is great. He knows how to get open and where the right passing lanes will be. But it’s this imbalance in his game that gives me a great lack of trust in him. Every time he gets the ball, I get nervous.

This year, I’m wiping the slate clean. During the off season, and indeed during the Fulham match, he seems different. So, Bon Soir mistrust for Hleb, hello new beginnings. It’s at this point that I hope he will turn his game around, retain possession better, and “be more selfish” to quote the man himself.

Tomorrow we have Sparta Prague. Eduardo will still wait for his debut but we have the same side that beat Fulham so I expect to see a thrashing… of Prague. Come on Arsenal!