EPL Match Day 3

Manchester utd 8-2 Arsenal.

Battered. Thrashed. Destroyed. But most of all, humiliated. That is the only way to describe how it felt yesterday to be an Arsenal fan. A day when we suffered our heaviest defeat under Arsene Wenger. Where we conceded 8 goals for the first time in over 100 YEARS. A day when Arsenal football club had its trousers pulled down in front of the world and was rogered for a full 90 minutes (plus stoppage time).

Rather than focussing on the specifics of the match, lets face it, 7 billion people the world over have seen the goals now, I would prefer to focus on the whys, the hows and the where to from heres, starting firstly with the team.

I'm not going to jump on the Wenger "we had a young team" bandwagon. Look at the average ages of the teams: Manchester United; 23 Arsenal; 23.6. So there goes that theory straight away. yes our team was young, but theirs was younger. So why was it better? Simple. The young players at United all have Premier League experience, David De Gea excepted. Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Johnny Evans, Ashley Young, Tom Cleverley and Danny Welbeck all had at least a season of top level experience and that list didnt even include the "older" Nani, Rooney and Anderson, three players with a wealth of premier league experience already. Add on top Patrice Evra and you have the perfect balance between youth and maturity, old and young. They were able to bring on Giggs, Hernandez and Park. They could have also called upon Ferdinand, Berbatov and Fabio. A truly impressive matchday squad.

Arsenals on the other hand was a complete shambles. Carl Jenkinson gave it his all, although he was woefully out of his depth, Armand Traore was immensly poor, and Francis Cocquelin has no business being on a premier league pitch yet, let alone the pitch at Old Trafford. The experienced heads of Tomas Rosicky and Andriy Arshavin were so poor, so pathetic, they might as well have not been on the pitch. Laurent Koscielny and Johann Djourou both have enough experience between them to be able to marshall a defence better than they did yesterday. Yet the pair looked like they hadn't even met each other before, let alone played football together. They were a total disgrace. Aaron Ramsey has no reason to hang his head, he was left woefully exposed in the middle of the park for the entire match, While Robin Van Persie and Theo Walcott also can carry the tiniest amount of pride from the match, having both scored. Although the captain did miss a penalty when the score was still only 1-0. I cant say that it was a game changing miss though. And once again, Woijech Szczesny was Arsenals hero. I've said it before this season, the man will be amazing. The fact that it was only 8 is singly down to the Polish stopper.

And what do we get from Arsene Wenger as a response? The same Typical retort about how new signings are not always the answer. Well guess what Arsene. They are. When the squad is as poor, as weak and as low in numbers as ours clearly is, then signings are most definitely the answer. You only have to take one look at our bench to know that. Fabianski, Chamakh, Chamberlain, Lansbury, Sunu, Ozyakup and Miquel. When you pair this up against the United subs that were shown earlier, only one word comes to mind. Pathetic. There is no way that these players should be left to bear the brunt of the press backlash because it is not their fault that their manager seems incapable of bringing in some new, experienced players in the same key areas that football fans the world over have been telling him we need. Fans who don't get paid the same money he does, but have had to put up with the same rubbish excuses and the same tosh on the field for far too long.

The worst sight in my time supporting Arsenal.

Ok so we have injuries. So did United. We had Suspensions. So what? we should have had the strength in depth to have been able to combat these issues, but due to the account, we havent bought anyone of note yet, whereas Alex Ferguson had all of his business done in the first couple of weeks of the transfer window. Although to be fair we have made a couple of bids. £6 million for Gary Cahill, an offer that was described as "not even derisory" by Bolton and £10 million for Jagielka, £2million less than last year. What a joke. You can not buy world class defenders for peanuts, so why bother trying? I'll tell you why, so that Monsieur Wenger can say "well er, we made some bids but er, they were not accepted. But I er, have full faith in my squad of players that I have now". Not good Enough Arsene!

So where to from here? Simple. New signings. We have two days and at least £50 million pounds to spend. Apparently we are signing another striker, called Park. ok, we dont need another striker but its a fresh face. We have been linked with Benayoun today. Excellent, he's experienced and has a touch of guile, just what we need right now. How about going £10 million for Parker? Over the odds but it should secure him. And please, please please offer £20 million pounds for both Cahill and Jagielka. You may think it is over the odds but WE NEED THESE PLAYERS. Just buy them and let the board worry about the funds.

There are two plus sides however. Firstly we now have a two week break. Time to get players fit again is exactly what we need. But best of all? No matter how bad we think things are, we can always look below us in the league and see that Tottenham Hotspur are still below us. Happy days.

Week 2

Its been a very busy week for the Arsenal with 3 matches since the season opener against Newcastle united and, luckily for me, all of them have been televised.As there is so much to catch up with, here are three brief reviews on the matches. Lets start, logically, with the first game last tuesday:

UCL QR3; Arsenal 1-0 Udinese
                  Walcott (4)

Arsenal began their qualifying campaign for this years champions league against definitely the toughest oppenents that they could have been drawn against, the fourth best team in Italy, Udinese. The game began in a very open manner with both teams starting out on the offensive. However, it was Arsenal who took the lead in the fourth minute, as Aaron Ramsey crossed from the right flank, putting the ball on a sixpence for Theo Walcott to volley home from close range with his left foot. The perfect start. However it was downhill from there. Udinese found their feet and, spearheaded by the impressive Anonio Di Natale, completely dominated the rest of the game. The Italians created numerous chances and where very unlucky not to score and, truth be told, should have won the match but for the exploits of 'keeper Wojciech Szczesny who pulled of several fine saves. Arsenal hung on to their slender 1-0 lead and would take it with them to northern Italy eight days later for a match which was by no means a foregone conclusion based on the two sides very differing performances.

EPL Match Day 2; Arsenal 0-2 Liverpool
                                                     Ramsey (78 og)
                                                     Suarez   (90)

Arsenal's first home game of the premier league season was never going to be an easy one with suspensions and injuries decimating the squad coupled with big spending Liverpool strengthening their own, and so it was proved as two late goals saw the Merseysiders to their first victory at Arsenal for eleven years. Again, the game was a very open encounter with both sides playing flowing, open football that was very easy one the eye. There was a problem almost immediately for the gunners as, after only a quarter of an hour, centre back Laurent Koscielny was withdrawn due to a back spasm. He was replaced by eigtheen year old Ignasi Miquel, making his league debut. another full debutant, Emmanuel Frimpong, would not start the game very brightly, picking up a yellow card for fronting up to Dirk Kuyt after barely five minutes. It was an act of petulance that would come back to haunt the youngster. While the game was played at a fast pace, there where not too many chances created in the first half; Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson both having headers saved by Szczesny for Liverpool, and Frimpong and Samir Nasri, on his last appearance in an Arsenal shirt, both going close from long range.
The secong half followed the same pattern, both sides sharing chances with Arsenal with the slight upperhand until, on the seventieth minute, Frimpong went charging in to a tackle with Lucas Leiva, catching the Brazilian with a high kick, and deservedly picking up another yellow. He was lucky it wasn't a straight red. Immediately the difference between the two squads was shown, as Liverpool called upon Raul Mereiles and Luis Suarezto win them the match. They duly delivered. In the 78th minute, the two exchanged passes, finishing with a cross by the uruguyan. Miquel attempted to hook clear, but his effort rebounded back off Ramsey, looped over Szczesny and nestled in the corner. Arsenal immediately showed the weakness of their squad, as they were only able to bring on Henri Lansbury as a response and, as they searched in vain for an equaliser, a fine flowing move by liverpool was finished of as again the two substitues combined with Meireles teeing up Suarez for a simple tap in in injury time. As the final whistle blew moments later, the home side where booed off the pitch, the fans perhaps turning against Arsene Wenger's apparent unwillingness to spend and stregthen the squad. The mood was one of unoptomistic negativity as Arsenal headed in to the second leg of their Champions League qualifier.

UCL QR3; Udinese 1-2 Arsenal
                   Di Natale (39)    Van Persie (55)
                                             Walcott (69)

Arsenal secured their place in the group stages of the Champions League for the 14th successive year after an impressive 2-1 win in Udine gave them a 3-1 aggregate successs.
The game started at a frenetic pace, with both sides having a chance inside the opening minute. Arsenal were lucky not to find themselves behind early on, Antonio Di Natale having a goal ruled out for offside after 8 minutes. Arsenal played some of their best football for quite some time, with new boy Gervinho the catalyst of all things good. His dribbling skills created chances for both Walcott and Van Persie inside the opening 20 minutes but the superb Handanovic in the Udinese goal was more than equal to whatever was thrown at him. Gradually however, the home side took control, and it was rich reward when that man Di Natale, who had finished as Italian footballs golden boot winner the previous two seaons, broke the deadlock after 39 minutes with a fine looping header from Pinzi's inch perfect cross. The home fans were jubilant, the few away fans were silent, no doubt fearing the worst as I'm sure every fan watching at home also was. They needn't have worried. The Arsenal side that came out after half time was a completely different side to the on of the first half. Tomas Rosicky came on for Frimpong and ran the show, dominating the midfield in every sense. After knocking on the Udinese door for the first 10 minutes of the second half, it was finally unlocked on 55 minutes. Another jinking run from Gervinho, a perfectly placed cut back and an emphatic finish from Robin Van Persie pulled Arsenal level and even more importantly, gained a priceless away goal. Udinese didnt give up and only 3 minutes later, following a corner, a debatable penalty was awarded following an alleged handball from the immense Thomas Vermaelen. Di Natale stepped up and fired his penalty to his top left. However, Szczesny flug himself across and pulled off a magnificent save to deny the striker. The home side looked broken after that as Arsenal went on to dominate possesion and, on 69 minutes, Sagna played the ball over the top for Walcott to race through and fire home, securing Arsenals place in the Champions league

EPL Match day 1

Newcastle 0-0 Arsenal

Rather than give a full review of the match which ended in a stalemate, I think it would make more sense for me to comment on the two main talking points from the game, those being the Alex Song stamp and the Gervinho r,ed card.

Lets start with the stamp, logical as it did happen first. Early in the second half, Alex song was tussling for the ball with the saintly Joey Barton. One thing led to another and suddenly, all that we could see was Barton rolling around the floor in agony, as Arsenal were awarded the free kick. On seeing this, he charged over to the fourth official and started giving it the verbal. But for what? Well there was a strong chance on reflection (and several helpful T.V replays) that Song had stamped on his calf intentionally, an incident that the referee had failed to spot, although he was unsighted. Unfortunately, I can't defend the Arsenal man for this. Although Joey Barton is not necessarily the nicest boy in the playground, there was no need for him to be walked on like a doormat and therefore i feel that the imminent three match ban will be fully justified. I for one would like to see violence like this stamped out of the game (excuse the pun).

Now to flash point two. Gervinho. About a quarter of an hour from the end, the new acquisition danced his way around a couple of defenders, into the penalty area and, although he could have shot, went down. On first view it looked like a stonewall penalty, on reflection, maybe less so but they have still been given. However, our man Barton took exception to what he saw as a blatant dive and stormed over to Gervinho, hauled him off of the floor and a huge brawl broke out. Again, St Joey of Newcastleshire went down rolling around in agony and suddenly..red card Gervinho. Up pops Barton proclaiming to all and sundry that he had swallowed a whole knuckle sandwich. Replays showed that what had actually happened was that the very tips of Gervinho's fingers had brushed against his face as he had attempted to slap Barton. Clearly the scouser isn't made of too Stern stuff. Barton himself picked up a yellow for the incident, a move which has quite rightly infuriated Arsene Wenger, as he feels both should have been given a red, or both a yellow, a point which I wholeheartedly agree with. Violent conduct is violent conduct after all. Unfortunately however, the new Ivorian must now sit out the next three league matches, against Liverpool, Manchester United and Swansea.

For those who are interested, the match itself wasn't much to write home about. It was a scrappy affair, only really coming to life after half time with the song incident and the introduction of Theo Walcott, who changed the complexion of the match with his pace, even unleashing the first shot on target of the match! Following the red card, the match petered out to a somewhat bore draw and, suspensions aside, Arsenal wont be too dis heartened to take the point away from St. James's Park. The were definite signs of encouragement, no more so that in defense, as Thomas Vermaelen's league return was faultless and his presence added an air of authority to what was last season a very shaky defense.

Next up in the league for Arsenal is the arrival of Liverpool for the first league match of the season at the Emirates. Before that however is the must win Champions league Qualifier against Udinese.

German Training Camp

F.C Cologne 1-2 Arsenal
Jenkinson (og) 45   Gervinho 7,15

Gervinho shines in debut victory
For the second game of their pre-season preperations, Arsenal found themselves at the RheinEnergie stadium in Cologne. The match was notable due to the debut of Arsenals marquee signing of the summer so far, the Ivorian Gervinho.

The match kicked off at a frantic pace and a strong Cologne line up caused all sorts of problems early on, Lukas Podolski earning a free kick on the edge of the Arsenal penalty area after only 2 minutes following a superb jinking run. However, after that early burst, Arsenal started to show their superiority, and after only seven minutes, Jack Wilshire played a delicious ball over the top of the German sides defence. Gervinho timed his run to perfection and provided the finish that the pass deserved, dispatching the ball over the top of the onrushing Michael Rensing with aplomb for his first Arsenal goal on his first ever appearance.

Gervinho celebrates his first goal

If the new front man thought his debut couldn't get any better, then he would be proved wrong almost instantly. Once again, Wilshere was integral, as his pass found Theo Wallcot on the right wing and he found the delivery that has so often been lacking from him, picking out Gervinho at the near post to flick past the keeper. 2 goals in his first 15 minutes in an Arsenal shirt.

Those two goals came either side of a classic Thomas Vermaelen break from defence which provided shades of Tony Adams against Everton almost 15 years ago, only the big Belgian will be disappointed to have not finished off his chance.


The rest of the first half was played at a frenetic pace with chances at either end for both teams. Gervinho had left the stage after half an hour to be replaced by Ryo Miyaichi, and the Japanese starlet was straight in the thick of the action when, following a cologne corner, he picked up the ball and ran the length of the field and fed Walcott on the left wing. TheEnglish winger then was caught in 2 minds wether to shoot or cross to the totally unmarked Marouane Chamakh. In the end he did neither, in the process frustrating Arsenal fans who were no doubt prematurely celebrating the third goal.

The half finished on a some what bizarre note for the gunners when, with the very last kick, Carl Jenkinson attempted to volley clear a hopeful long ball with his right foot from all of 25 yards, only to see his effort spoon over the stranded Wojciech szczesny and nesttle in the back of the net. The dismay was evident as the youngster buried his head in his hands as the whistle went to end the first 45 minutes, and end his match in the process.

The second half never really lived up to the billing of the first, as Arsenal replaced the entire squad at half time and Cologne made their changes more sporadically throughout the half. There was no flow to the game and it eventually petered out and Arsenal won the game 2-1.

On a slightly sour note however, there was a possible serious injury to Conor Henderson, whose knee appeared to badly twist as his studs got stuck in the turf. No doubt Arsene Wenger will be hoping that the young man is not too badly hurt as he was expected to break through this season, having made his debut last year in the F.A cup.

Arsenal will now finish a week of training in Germany before returning home for the Emirates cup, whereI will be attending Sundays games, including the gunners against Thierry Henry's New York Red Bulls.In anticipation of this match, expect a thierry themed blog during the week.

It all starts now

You know how you always get in the build up to Christmas, thinking about all the exciting things you might, but probably wont, be getting? Thinking about how you will have the greatest time of your life because everything will be so perfect? Then you actually get nothing that you wanted, only a load of toiletries and maybe some new socks, turning your day in to one of crushing disappointment? Well, that is exactly how I, and no doubt all other football fans, felt in the build up to 9:00 am yesterday morning.

The day the football fixtures for the new season are released is always a day that draws great interest among fans, a day that I consider to be the actual first day of the season. And boy, do I feel like Arsenal were screwed badly.

Starting off a season by making the long journey to Newcastle is bad enough, but following that, a home game against Liverpool and then an away trip to Manchester United? It feels like Santa came down the chimney and kicked me in the nuts.

I don't think we could have picked a more difficult start to our season if we tried judging by last seasons results in these fixtures:. Newcastle; the scene of an embarrassing fall from a 4-0 half time lead to a 4-4 draw with ten men. Liverpool; somehow throwing away a 1-0 lead earned in the 98th minute, to draw 1-1 after 99 minutes. and Manchester United; where we went down without a whimper 1-0 to the eventual champions.

If we were to take five points from these games I would be absolutely delighted, but I think taking two would be a lot more realistic. This could however leave us way of the pace already. Man City should have at least 7, Chelsea should have 9. Not ideal for the gunners.

The only saving grace about all this I guess is that we are getting the difficult fixtures out of the way early. Even before the end of October we will have already travelled to Stamford Bridge and White Hart Lane, so come the business end of the season we will have the big games at our place. I could of course be completely wrong and Arsenal could once again surprise us, taking maximum points form the 3 games with a massive goal difference, but only time will tell.

The one other stand out fixture for me is the home game against Chelsea, April 21st. The day I get married. Should the sky TV people want to leave it on this date and make it a 12:45 kick off, there is a very good chance that I wont be turning up to my own wedding. If I should make it, then what better present than to have the mighty gunners beating one of our biggest rivals? Fingers crossed.

In review

So that's it. The football season is once again over for arsenal fans.  But where did a season that promised so much to start with go so badly wrong?

I think the first thing to remember is that at the beggining of the season Arsenal were all but written off by all the pundits, unlikely to finish in the top four we where told. Our squad is too small, not enough depth, not enough experience. How could we possibly compete with the financial might of chelsea, manchester united and manchester city? Tottenham are on the rise and surely this could be Liverpool's year. Well we should them all right? Right? Erm, not quite...

We did manage to finish in the top four, but we had led the league for so long, against all the odds. Our threadbare squad doing me proud. In the middle of February everything was looking great, we were flying high in the league, still in the FA cup, about to face Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions league, and, perhaps best of all, a Carling Cup final to look forward to. A chance for our first silverware in 6 years. Since Patrick Vieira smashed home the winnig penalty in the 2005 cup final. Things couldnt possibly get any better could they? Nothing was going to stop the might Arsenal on their charge for four trophies, the unprecedented quadruple.

Nothing perhaps, except the ineptitude and inexperience of an Arsenal backline that wouldn't look out of place in a pre-school. A backline that was lacking in a true leader , an organiser, someone in the mould of Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Steve Bould. If only someone, or 60,000 people every week, had pointed this out to our esteemed manager.

For in the 90th minute of our first Wembley appearance since the famous two towers where brought down to be replaced by the arch, the dreams of all Arsenal fans where brought down in much the same fashion as the old marble. A simple long ball down the middle, the bread and butter of defenders and goalkeepers the world over. Except at Arsenal. For we do things a little differently. As Laurent Koscielny, several million pounds worth of centre back, forgot the one golden rule of defending. The one thing any school boy will tell you; if in doubt get it out. But oh no. To cut a long story, hes a muppet, Wojciech Szczesny isnt old enough to know better and Obafemi Martins decided to pick this one moment in his Birmingham career to do something useful. Cheers Oba.

Oh well, it was only the Carling cup, we still have the big three to look forward to. And who's next forus? The mighty Leyton Orient, bring it on. Promptly dispatched  5-0. And a hat-trick for Bendtner? Wow things are on the up.

 So on to Sunderland and our relentless pursuit of the league title we hadn't won since 2004 and the mighty invincibles. This should be easy. But 90 goal free minutes later it was clear to see that Birmingham was a little more than a blip. Confidence was low and we never looked like scoring. Not ideal when your next opponents are the mighty Barcelona.

And so it proved. We were hammered. Destroyed. Not even a single shot on goal. We were humiliated. Out of two cups in the space of two weeks, about to head to Old Trafford for an FA cup tie, and not looking like we could buy a win, as if Wenger would buy anything anyway.

We lost again. This was not good. We were becoming a laughing stock. Out of three of our four, our season was decending in to farce. We only had the league to play for, but four draws out of our next six games put paid to that. Even though we then beat Manchester United we knew our season was over. A season that promised so much but ended with so little. Not even the guarantee of Champions League football next season. The doubters were proven right. Finishing the season in fourth, 12 points away from the league champions.

And there we have it. A season that offered so much but ultimately gave so little. But will i give up on my Arsenal? No chance. I'll be there next season, fighting our corner, cheering us on, defending the un-defendable, Because there is no better feeling than seeing your team lifting a trophy, any trophy, on the final day of the season, and its even sweeter when its the team you have worshiped since you were a boy.

GOONER 'TIL I DIE