Gunnerrific

Theo Walcott has really come into his own in the 2010-11 season. Proof: He has more goals already this season than any of his previous seasons. Supplementary proof: He already has more assists than any of his previous seasons.

Theo’s maturing nicely, and his game shows it. As we all know, a key aspect of Walcott’s game is his blinding fast speed.

My favorite super hero (come on, everybody’s got one) is The Flash. He’s the fastest man alive after all. It’s not a far cry to think of Theo as The Flash. If Arsenal would just come up with a fourth kit combining the red and the yellow, my dream of seeing Theo skipping up and down the pitch as The Flash would come true.

Theo Walcott - The Flash

The only issue that has been creeping up a bit is that his speed doesn’t come into play quite enough in some games. The style of play from the Invincible season, fast breaks and passes at a lightning pace, may suit his style more. But when we get a bad case of pass-the-ball-around-goal-itis, the options for his breaks become shorter and narrower. Regardless, when he still gets those shorter breaks inside his box, his crosses and passes have been spot on.

I wonder who the second fastest Arsenal player is… I would guess Clichy… Are those stats available somewhere?

Let’s all have a moment of silence for the career of Richard Keys. Or not. Speaking of… that interview he did where he tried to defend himself was unbearable. It was like watching David Brent in team training.

This has been yet another tumultuous season for Robin Van Persie, at least in the sense that it has been full of missed games due to injury and fitness. Fortunately the table doesn’t provide any indication that our star striker has been sidelined, primarily due to Chamakh.

Chamakh has been a natural fit. He’s the sort of striker we haven’t really had the opportunity to get to know for the last several years, even before Henry. He’ll take on opponents, be fierce on the ball, capitalize on chances, and position himself for ideal headers. Chamakh is the perfect lone striker up front. Looking back on it, it’s both surprising and lucky that he’s fitted in so well for both his first season in the premiership and with the club. In my mind, he’s our bets man up front.

That’s why things were awkward for me when Robin Van Persie regained health and fitness. I’ve always been an RVP fan. In fact, one of the many kits I have has his name on it. However, while he’s been sidelined Chamakh has really shined. I don’t know that playing RVP up front on his own is the best option for us right now. Obviously Wenger disagrees with me (but that guy knows shite about football right) because he’s started him ahead of Chamakh a handful of times.

The last match against Birmingham was an example of why I’d prefer to see Chamakh starting, either paid with RVP or alone up front. There were a number of good opportunities RVP had that I really think Chamakh would’ve finished properly. Instead, RVP is still flopping about a bit and protesting for calls when things don’t go his way.

Don’t get me wrong, I love me some RVP, but right now I think we need Chamakh starting.

In other news, Fabregas is rumor-mongering about a new squad signing to be announced today on twitter. What a tease.

Manchester City will be a tough match for us on Wednesday. I expect us to pull of a display similar to the clinic we put on against Chelsea. And perhaps RVP can put on a show to restore my faith in him, not like he needs it.

Come on Arsenal!

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!

Well that didn’t go too well. The stars and planets have aligned and Tottenham’s “once every 11 year win-at-home against Arsenal” was apparently due. The game was pretty one sided except for the 2 goals Tottenham managed to produce. Arsenal maintained 66% of ball possession and pulled off 8 more shots on goal, although only 1 of those was actually, you know, on goal.

Words really can not describe how tingly I felt inside to see Robin Van Persie on the pitch. When he cam on, the game instantly changed. Given that he only played for a bit, he produced some wonderful changes, played well, and seems to be his old self. As usual I will keep my fingers crossed that he comes back with a vengeance.

What Arsene Wenger had to say after the match.

Arsene Wenger said before the match that if we didn’t win the chance to win the title was over, and I have to agree. Given the amount of injuries we have sustained it would be unrealistic to assume that we can win every game for the rest of the season. In addition, both Manchester and Chelsea need to drop points, which is just as unlikely.

To top it all off, Vermaelen was injured early on and is expected to be out for 3 weeks. Great. Someone really does need to do some investigation into what our players are eating and/or drinking. Just as someone comes back from injury, someone else goes out. This has happened regularly every season and I think it is probably our most significant issue. We are just too susceptible to injuries that cause multiple week-long absences.

Our season has just deflated with the same sound a large, uninspiring, two-day old birthday balloon produces. Pfffffffffffffffffffft.

*Photo courtesy user Gordonflood.com on Flickr via CC w/attribution license.

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Lady Bracewell-Smith is looking into the option of selling her shares of Arsenal stock.

Phew. That was a lot of links. It’s like Google news or something. I hope you didn’t click any of them.

Anyways, this rumored sell-off of 15.9% of the sum of Arsenal shares could create some boardroom turmoil resulting in a potential take-over. Like most things, there’s little use in worrying over it. And attempting to project some sort of possible outcome is likely to be fruitless too, given the number of individuals involved. In either case, it might result in Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov having another throw-down. I expect it to be just like Mad Max… Two billionaire enter, one Arsenal owner leave!

Can anyone spare a kit?

The only question I have is… how much of an Arsenal fan is Lady Bracewell-Smith? I can’t find a picture of her at a game or in a kit. What gives?! And selling off all her shares? Well… I can’t really speculate to that. Maybe she just needs the cash.

In other news, Robin Van Persie may see some action against Tottenham on Wednesday. I’ll be shocked, SHOCKED, if he plays at all. We all know how long Mr. Wenger likes to rest his players before they are truly ‘match fit’ so why would it be any different for someone that has been out so long? Especially after gambling with Fabregas and losing horribly? I think we can still handle Tottenham without RvP, so I’d just as well like to see him behind the bench.

The Bleacher Report has a great write up of the derby and why it is a must watch game. Given the desperate need of points on both sides it has the potential to be a classic.

We’re top o’ the league right now and it feels damn good. What makes it even sweeter is the fact that we have a game in hand. So, realistically speaking, we’re top of the league and potentially a point or three ahead of Manchester United, the dastardly cunts. I’ve been thinking about the season thus far, and the season ahead, and trying to figure out what our chances of winning the league are. We’ve definitely got an uphill battle ahead of us.

First, lets look at the quantity of games. So far, we have played 11 games. Of those 11 games, we have won 8 and drawn 3. The interesting thing about these games is that a massive 7 of them have been at home. So, for you math whizzes out there, we’ve only played 4 away games, or roughly 36% of our games away. We’ve played the least amount of away games than anyone else. For the away games that we played away, two of them were in London (West Ham and Tottenham). Of course, we battled against an away crowd, but we didn’t have to travel far for those games. It would be within reason to say that we’ve only traveled then for two games this season.

Now, let’s look at who we have played against. Below is the list of teams we have played, and their current position in the league.

• 2 – Manchester United
• 3 – Manchester City
• 5 – Portsmouth
• 6 – Blackburn
• 7 – Liverpool
• 11 – West Ham
• 13 – Fulham
• 15 – Sunderland
• 17 – Tottenham (hahahaahahahaha)
• 19 – Bolton
• 20 – Derby

If you sample out the positions of these teams and divide by the number of games, it should equal about 10 (the middle of the table). This would represent a fair opposition in games played so far. If the average were less than 10 , the opposition would have been tougher than the average, and the same could be said for the opposite. Our average points of teams that we have played against is 10.72. So, we have had a slightly easier schedule.So, thus far we have had a *slightly* easier schedule than would be expected, and we have played 64% of our games at home. For a team of our caliber (and lets be honest we’re damn good) you’d expect that we should be at the top of the league. If you run these numbers for other teams, it’s not nearly as advantageous.

Now let’s move on to our games ahead. Specifically the next 9 games, which will take us through to the new year. Of those 9 games, 3 of them are at home. That’s right, just 2 of them. And, if you perform the same analysis on the opposition, you get the following.

• 12 – Reading
• 18 – Wigan
• 9 – Aston Villa
• 10 – Newcastle
• 16 – Middlesbrough
• 4 – Chelsea
• 17 – Tottenham (hahahhaahhaaha)
• 5 – Portsmouth
• 8 – Everton

The average position of these teams is 11, which is again a slightly easier position average. However, more of these games are away from home. So, does games away or position in the table matter more? An interesting note here is that Manchester United have 4 of their next 8 games at home, and it’s against considerably easier opposition.

Either way, it is clear to me that the next 8 games are crucial to Arsenal if we are to win the league. We need to take as many points as we can from these games. I wouldn’t be surprised if Manchester United overtakes us for a bit given the schedule, but that won’t worry me. We just need to keep scoring and winning! Come on Arsenal!!!!

Update: Thanks to AC in the comments for mentioning the Chelsea match.. It wasn’t listed on Soccernet.