Le Grove

Good morning Grovers!

It is Carling cup morn and many people have been asking many questions about what will happen tonight. Will Wenger start Gilberto? Will Gilberto play if he is asked? Will Jens be our new Cup Keeper? Will Walcott start, or will he be saved for the Manc’s?

Many questions unlikely to be answered by Le Grove! What? You think I have a personal line to Wenger? Don’t be so damn foolish!

What I can give you is this:

Provisional Squad: Fabianski, J Hoyte, Toure, Song, Traore, Eboue, Denilson, Diarra, Diaby, Walcott, Bendtner, Mannone, Gilberto, Eduardo, Lansbury, G Hoyte, Merida.

And this:

Predicted Starting eleven: Fabianski, J Hoyte, Toure, Gilberto, Traore, Eboue, Denilson, Diarra, Diaby, Bendtner, Eduardo.

Whatever team Arsene ends up picking, you’d have to say it will be strong. A lot stronger than any team we played in last years Carling cup. It looks like being a team that will start with Bendtner Big Bollocks, who receives high praise from Wenger here.

Sheffield United fans will be hoping for a repeat of last years Prem result. This has been made all the more difficult because Fat Paddy is out through injury. It is thought the attendance may not be as high as normal, well, if VitalFootball are to believed.

In non Carling Cup related news, Alex Hleb is up for a contract extension. Yes, he wants to sign and no, he is not flattered by Milan and Barca’s interest in him. Makes a change, doesn’t it!

Willy G reckons he will fulfill his promise and win Arsenal some trophies. He also plays down talk of another invincible season. I do wish the press would stop building things up, its so transparent.

Xenophobe, Michel Platini is back on the rampage again. This time he is complaining about Arsenal pinching the best young players of smaller clubs, improving them and giving them great careers. Oh yes, Platini thinks teams like Milwall should be afforded protection so they can become top four contenders. Platini needs to understand France would have won fuck all had it not been for Arsene Wenger.

What is his problem? Maybe he is upset he didn’t join Arsenal when he had the chance, or maybe his underlying hatred of Arsenal is down to the fact an Arsenal trained player broke his national scoring record?

Fuck off Platini, you are a cunt…

Thierry bitch’s about not being 100% fit (Who misses that old chesnut?) and claims Barca play more like Bolton direct than Arsenal.

Before you read this, prepare yourself a comfortable space on the floor to roll about laughing on. Libelfootball.com has moved into comedy!

Onto Ian Wright Wright Wright!

Wrighty is claiming insider knowledge that is already in the public domain. Thanks for informing us Thierry was an unsettling influence and that we are better off without him. Thanks for telling him he should have left us two years ago. Thanks for going along with the rest of the worlds footballing pundits and claiming we would collapse without him. You are a great ambassador to the club Mr Wright.

Finally, I dug deep into Le Groves one Video Archive to find the last Goal PV04 scored for the Ars! Its a little motivational watch for the youngsters tonight! What a moment, in the worst game of football I have ever seen! Who said Club Levellers have no passion?

Oh, and if you took time to read this today, have a little vote in the side bar. We get huge amounts of money for every vote! Just kidding, but vote regardless!

Good luck to the boys tonight!

Adios Amigo’s!

Well that’s what Arsene Wenger said according to Bob Wilson, he’s the best 17 year old I’ve ever seen says Wenger, Bob Wilson said , but surely that’s Pele? Arsene said he was a striker, Cesc is midfield.

Some praise indeed.

Gilberto has refused to play in the center of defence against Sheffield, which I think is a real shame, a terrible way to end his career, and I think he’s being treated badly, but what can you do?

We’re being linked to Taylor, the Greenwich born Newcastle center back, I would have him in a heartbeat, we’re also linked with Karl Henry a wolves midfielder, but hey, we have too many now, who do we think we are, Chelsea?

Special mention to Chelsea summer signing Steven Sidwell for his ambition, good move Stevie boy!

Ronaldo thinks they’ll beat us, we’ll see big mouth, we’ll see!

Really I think we were, when Gerrard fouled Flamini and didn’t get penalised I knew a goal was around the corner, when Gerrard got the free kick I said to Pedro, bottom left, Pedro said top right.

Man I hate being right so often…

I thought the wall was the worst thing Arsenal did all day, after that we were awesome. I’m not getting too bent out of shape over it. I remember Keown charging down the ball a few years back to great effect, so I know what the Flamster was thinking.

I wasn’t too impressed with Eboue, it’s like Wenger feels he has to play him somewhere, I’d sooner see Hoyte getting a run out occasionally, maybe at center back.

I thought Bendtner and Theo looked lively when they came on and Bendtner should have scored.

We would have lost that game last season, so I think we’ve come on leaps and bounds and we are playing such great football as well. It all seems a bit of an anti climax today?

I watched Barca afterwards and felt sorry for Thierry, he doesn’t even take penalties any more, he looked sad and dejected, still, it’s his own fault.

Cesc was special, after playing like shit for most of the game and giving away the free kick that led to the goal, so it was quite a comeback.

Carragher getting man of the match was a joke, cheating scouse git award, yes, but man of the match is just a joke, it will catch up with him soon though and as Pedro said he’ll get blown for a penalty when he shouldn’t, that will be justice.

Okay we’ve got the academy team up tomorrow before the Mancs on Saturday, can we go unbeaten…yes, we can.

This of course should have been the Pennant headline, not ‘he didn’t play me because I’m English’ Benitez should sack the stupid little drunk moron.

Enough on that.

I’ve read everything frontways, sideways and backwards on today’s game, it’s made even worse by the fact that Chelsea scored 6 and ManU won handsomely again.

We’re going to fortress Anfield today in what is arguably the toughest fixture we have all season, we win our fair share at Old Trafford but Anfield is always tough, unless of course you’re Arsenal’s kids.

Remember the cups? They were our kids, more or less the same team as we are playing today.

When we played them in the league, they were at us from the off, if we let them do that again, we’ll lose, we have to shut them down, which in fairness is what we’ve been doing all season.

I would prefer 4-4-2 with Eduardo up top and use Theo later, but with half an hour to go, not 10 minutes. This could be Eduardo’s day.

I would play Rosicky and Hleb on the flanks. I would let the scousers know from the off, we’re here to win.

I lost all my fingernails last night watching the rugby, so I’ll be trying my toenails later today.

I will however, be watching the game in Spain with Pedro, so it will be more alcohol fuelled than usual.

So picture us drinking beer, chewing my toenails and seeing Arsenal taking Liverpool apart.

3-1 Arsenal, after going a goal down.

I see it hasn’t worked out for Thierry, and Liverpool and Chelsea are sniffing around, I think we should have him back and give him Liam’s job should Liam go back to run the Irish. Isn’t it a shame?

I can’t wait for tomorrow! I’ve read everything including the Liverpool papers and they’re nervous, it seems Alonso will be back as will Torres and Crouch, good, if they play like they did against Besiktas, we’ll clean their clocks.

Don’t get too confident and don’t give them too much respect.

Play Theo at some point but don’t expect too much, we used to do that with Thierry and sometimes he didn’t turn up, but I can’t remember playing Liverpool when we’ve been favourites, so I’m going to enjoy it.

Don’t forget they almost lost to Spurs!!! Two unbeaten records on the line tomorrow so someone won’t be happy.

The good thing about two players coming back from injury means that won’t be back to match fitness yet…we hope!

An interesting thing about names of managers, ours is Arsene…Arsenal, see the connection? Spurs is Juande Ramos, pronounced, one day… see the connection? One day they’ll be a force! One day we’ll be millionaires Rodders, one day!

Hopefully Wenger will get the boys psyched up for Sunday.

It doesn’t get better than this does it? 7nil on Tuesday, Besiktas beating the scousers, the spuds losing to a shit Spanish outfit and that fat obnoxious twat Jol getting his P45, oh deep joy!

So top4tottenham hit the skids, not to worry they’re bringing in Ramos, remember him? He manages the outfit we beat 3-0 at the grove the other week, it’s good to see them learning from their mistakes.

Have to ask why Ramos would go to Spurs, the Leicester job is vacant and they’re a bigger team, still that’s spurs for you, always improving and should challenge for the league soon, maybe not the one we’re in but next season should be their year, it does after all end in a one, oh, sorry it’s a 9, still not long to wait then.

Onto other news, Kaiser Franz has told mad Jens to shut his gob and Stan the man has backed the board, Jens is on his way and the board did a lockdown so they’re scraping the barrel there.

Watching the last two Liverpool games shows me they can’t deal with pace and fast passing, so keeping Theo and Ade on makes sense, we need to control midfield so Flamini and Cesc seem the best option and Hleb and Rosicky could make it perfect for the incisive game we need to beat them, maybe Hleb and Eboue for pace but Eboue gets a bit theatrical in tough games, so maybe Diarra or Diaby for strength would make more sense.

Back 5 picks itself.

We have to watch Gerrard having a pop and I’ll have money he plays Torres and not Crouch, if he does play Crouch, Kolo will be ready for him, he owes him.

If we want to win the league we have to do well against teams like this, a draw would suffice but on form we should press home a solid win.

How good is it, that most of us now expect, it’s testament to how far we’ve come, even that other fat oik Jewell is tipping us to win the league, he said he has since day one he says, well if he did he was the only one!

All the sites are a little boring at the moment, though I did see one that showed 2 Liam Brady moments of yesteryear, don’t leave Liam, we love you.

Thierry has realised what a Pratt he was to leave, but sorry Thierry, we don’t want you back, live with it, and Cesc, please take note, that’s what happens when even the best leave the hallowed turf of the Grove, because they’re greedy egotistical bastards.

It’s good to see we are getting regular bloggers on the site, and all having some fun, which is what it’s all about, no slagging each other, just Arsenal fans having some intelligent banter, keep it up bloggers.

We are regularly getting in the top 3 stories on Arsenalnews.net, the number 1 news feed, so we must be doing something you all like, thanks for your support.

Next week we’re going to smarten the site up a bit, we’d like to get some pictures on but these agencies all want huge sums of money, any suggestions would be welcome.

Have a good day and a fabulous weekend.

Shame about Liverpool… Oops sorry, I’m being sarcastic!

I watched our next up opponents Liverpool last night, against a very ordinary Besiktas side, if they play like that on Sunday, we’ll hammer them, I don’t suppose they will though, but I would think their confidence has been dented a tad.

Liverpool games are a bit like north London derbies, the form book tends to go out of the window.

In all honesty though, we should win this one, I think our movement will be too much for them, and Gerrard aside the only match winners they have are Alonso and Torres and they may not even play, we have 6 match winners, at least.

The high praise for the team goes on, it’s great to be a gooner at the moment, I watched the highlights again and the goals were just top drawer, even the own goal and the Bendtner tap in, have to say though, I don’t think he’ll be around long, he didn’t look too happy when he scored, it was a ‘how can you be playing anyone ahead of me?’ look to Theo, and when Theo came over to say well done, he sort of patted him on the head, not encouraging.

Laughable reports that we’re going to buy Sissoko, like we don’t have enough midfield options already!

Onto the goodplaya editorial yesterday slagging off club level, today they did publish a kind of sarcastic retraction and have offered a truce, so well done to Bud, Pedro and anon for sending them a message and proving the power of the written word. I did leave an acceptance comment on their blog though.

Well done to Jimmyfingers for an acceptable bit of plagiarism on a Spurs site, good to see you spreading the word.

People read our blog because in the main we talk about football, we try to be articulate and conversational and only slag people off that slag us off, enough said let’s move on.

Robin is pledging his future to Arsenal and Wenger which is good and mad Jens doesn’t know when to shut up, I doubt we’ll see him again, frankly I think he should be told to go back to Germany and be done with it.

Drogba is tipping us to win the Premiership so thanks for the support and we’ll try our best not to disappoint you, how good is it to read stories about us winning again, instead of team in transition stories?

This next few months sees us playing a lot of games so I think we’ll see all of our whole squad in action, I hope he does it gradually though and not as two teams like the Carling cup.

Last week I would have settled for a point apiece from the next two games, but now I think we can get six, I really, really do.

Well what did you expect? I have to say it was on the cards, the time when every chance went in had to come against someone, but Slavia Prague were no slouches, we just made them look like they were. Don’t forget this mob beat Steaua and scored 2 in Seville.

Theo got his big chance and was what we all expected, he was simply awesome, the boy wonder we thought we bought from Southampton, he’s 18 and we have at least 12 years of watching him get better, but we’ll lose him one day as he’s vowed to return home, to Swindon, and you have to accept that’s his ambition, we’ll probably lose Cesc too, as he’ll want to play for the team that has superstar Henry. You have to admit Barca were entertaining against the mighty Scottish team Rangers last night, I hope Cesc took note.

There’s no point in walking you through the game as I expect you all watched it somewhere, if you didn’t, you missed a fabulous team display, the only people in the whole world would didn’t enjoy it were both the Spurs fans and mad Jens Lehmann.

Which brings me on to his latest rants, is he stupid or what? message for Jens, go home mate, you’re finished, you are doing nothing for team spirit and you are what stands between 25 and 27 points, it wasn’t Almunia that fumbled the ball to give Blackburn a goal, it was you, so shut up complaining. Wenger comments here.

He must be really screwing up team harmony at training, my advice to Arsene is send him home before he causes any more problems.

Bendtner did Ok but goal apart there wasn’t much between him and Ade, it will be interesting to see who he selects against the scousers, I expect Gilberto and maybe Diarra may get a look, but certainly not mad Jens.

Arsene had a pop at me last night when he said ‘people said I was mad not to buy players’ fair point boss, but I still think you should have bought a center back, a winger and a world class keeper, but you are proving me wrong so I apologise for doubting you, that’s the end of the subject though, any more and I’ll be feeling humiliated.

I think it’s the near perfect way to be going to Anfield, what would make it perfect is if they lose tonight and their morale goes south, I’m not one of these people that wants English teams to do well, not when we’re still in the same competition and they could get in our way, so Liverpool, I hope you get stuffed.

I thought the noise was fab from the crowd last night, I just wish everyone would wear a scarf.

I’m looking forward to hearing what Thierry thought about last night, he’s bound to talk about it somewhere, Cesc there’s a lesson for you.

Finally we are on Arsenalnews.net news feed but not on newsnow, they tell us we have to be going for a year, which will be next July, so please keep reading, tell your mates and bookmark us, we’re in for the ride, we’re going nowhere.

Talk tomorrow.

Good morning to you, and how are we on this fine autumn morn? Fucking cold like me I bet!

Today is a two part blog.

We are mostly going to talk about Adebayor and Spurs.

Lets get cracking on Spurs to start with!

One of the great phrases of the German language is shadenfruede I think it means to take joy from other people’s misfortunes, the other one is ‘I’ll be back for the Bolton game’(I was kidding with that one!

Cast your minds back to August, and all those muppet journalists and football commentators like… Well all of them actually, they were tipping Spurs to not only challenge, but to replace us in the pecking order.

Well here we are 9 games on (10 in their case) and top4tottenham are a massive 18 points behind us, that’s right, that fat Dutch simpleton Jol, has wasted some £40 million on players with no hope, bragged his big fat man-breasts off about being the new power in North London and is a massive 18 points behind the new Premiership leaders, us, the mighty Arsenal.

I’m not sure Top4tottenham will end up with the same points we’re on at the end of the season, and I think there’s a real chance they’ll get relegated in the year we’re crowned as champions. Wouldn’t that be something!!!

Now onto Adebayor. This article on insidearsenal.com basically questions the big man’s ability to retain a place in the Arsenal starting line up. It questions his mental ability, composure in front of goal and his touch. The writer also talks about how he has been worried about him for 3 years – clearly the writer had been keeping tabs on him at Monaco. Or maybe the writer is a scout for Arsenal who was against his purchase? Who knows!

Anyway, here is my defence of the big man!

Firstly, Adebayor to my knowledge is only 23. Young enough to learn, and young enough to improve his game.

Some of you out there are suggesting that Bendtner Big Bollocks would score more goals than Ade, apparently he has a better touch and more composure in front of goal? I don’t understand where this conclusion has come from? There is only one person who has seen enough of him to come to that conclusion and that’s Arsene Wenger (Read here to find out his views on unhappy players). I would also draw your attention to the fact that Bendtner wasn’t exactly prolific at Birmingham last year, and some Birmingham fans have suggested he is a touch lazy.

Maybe a few of you have been reading his myspace profile where he lists his occupation as Professional footballer and full time legend.

Some bloggers have been comparing his situation to Henry, saying Thierry was missing open goals but they could see that he had greatness in him.

Really?

I remember an interview with Tony Adams and he said no one at Arsenal ever envisaged him becoming the player he did. So lets stop the “I could see he was going to great” bull shit.

Could we also take a moment and realise that Thierry was a super player, in the same way PV04 was a super player. He played the game like no other. He was the Premierships greatest player. He was in essence, the complete footballer and a one off.

Most other clubs have to put up with strikers that do a job for the team. You have your work horse strikers (Heskey), your second strikers (Rooney), your pacy strikers (Owen), your goal poachers (Van Nistelrooy) and your target men (Crouch). Adebayor seems to be a combination. I know this sounds like rubbish, but I was going to say a cross between Drogba and Kanu, I swear I didn’t read here first! He holds the ball up well, he brings other players into the game and he causes Crouch like problems in the air and he is surprisingly pacey. He is also a big game player. Look at how many times he has come up with the goods when we’ve really needed him.

Okay, he sometimes makes a meal out of the easy chances. Sometimes he takes one touch to many. Maybe he picks out the wrong pass. But you can’t fault his effort. His attitude reminds me of the Flamster, and how many of you slated him last year? If you have great technique and you have a great attitude its only a matter of time before you come good. That’s what my Dad keeps telling me, you’re never too old to become a professional footballer. I can still do it right? I haven’t missed the boat at 25, surely? In all seriousness though. I think he has the basics needed to become a great footballer for Arsenal.

Think about the players that have come good over the years, the players who had question marks over their ability to succeed.

Edu, Freddie, Pires, Henry, Bergkamp (Ask Alan Sugar) and Lehmann to name but a few! How about players from other clubs? Drogba, Lampard, Tevez and Hargreaves all spring to mind!

I think we should all give the man a chance, he can only get better and I think he will! This is his biggest season for the club and he has started well, 6 goals in 9 games is pretty prolific by any strikers standards. Let’s stop to nit picking and get behind our players.

We are close to going on our longest ever winning streak, we are top of the Premiership, top of our Champions league group, Top of the money list, we’re on a 5 year lockdown, Wengers signed, Robin isn’t long term Le Listed, Willy G is happy, we’re playing stunning football and we’re only 2 and a half months into the season!

Its good to be a Gooner at the moment, so bloody well enjoy it! Good luck to the boys tonight!

We’ve shown we can win with style, we’ve shown we can come back from a setback, we’ve even shown we can win ugly, but against Bolton, we showed we can be patient, a virtue you need to win the league.

Bolton had 11 men behind the ball for most of the match and added their usual array of filthy, dirty tackles that went largely unpunished, as usual, we had a couple of penalty shouts, that we didn’t get, then enter Lewis Hamilton! Who looked very lively and Rosicky, who looked like he wanted to score and bingo.

I’m guessing Kolo scores a lot of goals like that in training and he has had many free kicks this season, the goal was a little bit of a scuffer, but it was a goal, what we needed and when we needed it, so well done that man.

After that we could have had three, Bolton had to come out and gaps were left.

I counted they only had one shot, but last season, that one would have gone in, so I’m glad we had Almunia, I felt confident that one wouldn’t get squeezed in from 30 yards or more.

I read that

Diarra may have to consider his options and I feel for him and Bendtner, games like Bolton are when they should get a run out, the last thing we need is players disrupting the squad, and good players too.

Eduardo may as well have not been there, but that’s what happens with no match practice, I would sooner see these players having a run out in the reserves, than not even getting on the bench.

It will be interesting this week as I think with the Champions league we may well see a little shuffle, with Liverpool coming up, Sheffield and ManU to follow, I suspect these malcontent’s will get their chance, so boys, stop whingeing and get ready to show why you should be in the starting eleven.

I saw many people streaming out of the ground on Saturday and when I went home I could see why, The ‘complete tosser’ who is Mayor, decides to close the circle and Met lines, severely delays the Piccadilly and stops all the overland trains at Hackney and lays on a bus service, it takes people longer to get out of the area than it does to watch the game, it’s no wonder people leave early, especially if they have kids with them.

I don’t even bother with the transfer gossip as it’s all bollocks anyway, but I’m sure come January he’ll do something, though with so much discontent in the midfield, I can’t see him signing

Modric (All3points has him playing for Kiev, show’s how well researched their transfer gossip is!) or Mollo.

But to coin a much used phrase, who knows? Only Arsene does!

Top of the league and only dropping two points, who could argue.

Until tomorrow my friends.

Oh and bad luck with the F1 thing Theo, it was bad management, 3 stops? What a twat you are Dennis.