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Seeing Song and Denilson in the middle of the park makes me feel about as comfortable as I do every time I see that advert where Carlton Palmer turns up in that unsuspecting gamblers bath… imagine finding that twat sitting in your bath?

I thought it was a negative line up against a poor team and I didn’t really the benefit bar fitness? Does Wenger do it because he knows we’re going to maul the team we’re about to play, thus convincing us that maybe they are good enough? I mean honestly… couldn’t we play one half with Denilson and Diaby and one half with Song and Arshavin? Wouldn’t that be more interesting tactically? I mean surely we’re not contemplating those two as a partnership in a 4-4-2 next year?

I couldn’t tell you too much about the Hungarian team… when the commentator read the names out it sounded pretty similar to a conversation you’d have with someone who was in an area with a broken reception. So for today, I will mostly refer to the team as Salami FC.

Early on, Mannonne did his best to replicate Almunia’s moment of madness the other day. He dealt poorly with a bad back pass from Rambo but luckily it came to nothing. I quite like Mannone… he is a beast of a keeper, but I can’t imagine him displacing Fabianski as number 2.

It didn’t take us long to break the deadlock… Traore picked the ball out wide, raced past his marker and delivered a pinpoint cross for Thomas Bendtner who glanced it expertly past the keeper. I thought Nik’s half time interview was refreshing. He gets way too much stick in the press for his arrogance, but for me he has manned up over the last year. He works hard, he says the right things and I think he is going to be an immense talent for us this year.

The next goal incidentally was set up by the young Dane. He laid the ball off to a fit Eduardo, who nipped in front of the last defender and buried the ball low and hard across the keeper. A clinical finish from a player who pound for pound shames Huntelaar.

The third goal came from an Eduardo freekick. He hit it low and hard from about 30 yards out… a good strike, but really, the keeper should have done better.

The fourth came after Wilshere cut the ball back to Thomas B just outside the box, Nik looked up and placed the ball low and hard into the bottom right corner. A nice goal from a player high on confidence and perhaps life?

A couple of points that need to be made from the first half. Traore looks like more of a winger than a left back. His positioning was a touch dodgy as he seems more interested in getting forward… however, I think his crossing is superb. Song was pretty poor, his link up play was awful… he passed it to his imaginary friend twice despite having a lot of time on the ball. Yes, I thought the counselling had solved this ‘problem’.

Is this who Song was passing to last night?

If anyone has delusions of a league winning season with him in the middle… you should think again. I thought Rambo and Jack looked good on the flanks. Jack needs to bulk up though… he’d last about ten games in the prem… thugs will try and break him… and he still looks so fragile.

The normal changes were made in the second half and we saw the return of Big Phil to the middle of the park

Jack gave us a glimpse of his talent early on when he broke through Salami’s defence and chipped the ball over the keeper only to be denied by the bar.

What I like about Denilson and Phil is they don’t try and over elaborate. I like Phil in the middle more than Denilson because he was an ok defender and he is a massive lump. Phil just gets the ball out from his feet and plays it to the closest player… no nonsense, no frills and good in the air. I’d love to see how he fared against a good team.

I enjoyed the woman shouting ‘Come on you guuuuners’. If she did that at the Emirates, we’d probably hear her on the tele there as well!

Big Phil dispossessed a Salami player and drove through the middle of the park Yaya fashion, laid the ball off the Robin who couldn’t get a shot out. The ball went back to Phil who woefully crossed… I guess that’s why he keeps it simple! A nice run though.

Sagna put us under the kosh by losing the ball but luckily for him Gallas showed great recovery skills to make the tackle.

One of the Salami boys had a shot from the half way line… Chesney collected with ease. I didn’t need to tell you that, but I wanted to show you I’d thought about the spelling problems of the Polish keepers name (Wojciech Szczesny) and I’d found a solution. We never rest on our laurels here at Le Grove!

Bendtner got munched by the keeper on 66… Robin stepped up and showed off his penalty skills with a rasping top corner penalty. He sure is good at penalties…

Chesney picked up the ball and rolled it out (<- it really is a good nick name).

This is probably a good time to mention Arshavin… I didn’t realise he’d even come on. Annonymous is a word I’d mostly associate with his game today.

Wilshere made a lovely run, passed to Nik who flicked a little pass perfectly into Niks path… Jack showed his lack of maturity by going for the audacious outside of the foot shot when he should have buried it. It’s a tough thing to manage… because you want players to express themselves but not at the expense of an easy goal.

Chezzers showed his metal late on when a Salami player hit a low shot… the keeper parried it, then made a superb reaction save to deny the Hungarians a goal.

Denilson got himself into a mess by not clearing the ball, Big Phil clumsily challenged and gave away a freekick. The ball was fired high towards the top corner, Chesney was equal to it and tipped it over in quite spectacular fashion.

Then shock of the night, Silvestre whipped a superb cross into Robin who headed low and angled past the keeper. Sadly he was unfairly declared offside.

Senderos over hit a pass to Nik… and the young Dane raced onto it at surprising pace. He is deceptively quick… again, not an important moment… but info I feel it would have been a disservice not to let you know.

Salami cheated to get a penalty… Chesney dived early, the forward paused… then clipped it wide. Chesney delivered the wanker sign in amusing fashion… did someone tell him that they have camera’s in Hunagary these days? Arsenal.com in traditional propaganda fashion cut that part out in the replay… well played chaps, Goebells would have been proud!

So to summarize…

A clean sheet, 6 5 goals and some very assured performances.

The commentators kept talking about us playing a 4-3-3… I didn’t see that, I thought we played a traditional 4-4-2. I think we will flick between that and a 4-5-1 next season. It all depends on the strength of our centre midfield. Song certainly isn’t capable of filling that role… Can Denilson make the jump? Well, he doesn’t look different physically and he still lacks mobility. People talk about his pass completion rate… but that’s like talking about how many girlfriends the man who went to school in an all female convent had. If you play in a team who specialise in short passing football, the chances are you will be making more passes than a team who play a more direct style like Liverpool.

Nik Bendtner looked very good today, his passing was good, his finishing clinical and his work rate was much improved. Eduardo did what he always seems to do… score goals. His only weakness is his team play. I don’t think he gets involved as much as previous greats of the club have done… but Bilic always champs his team play for the national team… so I’ll give him time! I hope all thoughts of signing Huntelaar have passed people by… I’ve watched him quite a few times and I can tell you first hand… he will drive you crazy… he isn’t fast at all, he isn’t a team player and I don’t think he is better than what we already have.

Finally, before we go (I too have an imaginary friend)… I just want to run an idea past you all. Adebayor is really starting to irritate me in his new found role as spokesman for Man City and the Association of World class footballers. We need a plan for him when he comes over to the Emirates, and one of my good friends gave me an idea today. Why boo him? Why don’t we all laugh at him every time he gets the ball? How humiliating would that be! Everybody opening up a 60,000 people can of laughter every time he spoons his first touch 14 yards in front of him!

Have a think about it… because he’ll enjoy the booing, it would seem like we cared about his departure… he needs to know that I threw a street party when he left!

Right, have a rip roaring day and remember to say happy Birthday to Geoff… not as some sort of practical joke… but because it’s his birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

It’s been a pleasure reading your blogs over the last year, may there be many more to come!

I hope I’ll be joined in raising a virtual Peroni to your 35th birthday! I’m also pleased to announce that after a year of solid contribution… the blog equivalent of a 50 game season… Le Grove Corp is pleased to announce that we’ve offered Geoff a one year extension to his deal. Geoff has accepted his new contract on pay as you blog terms and is confident he can take his blogging to the next level this coming season!

Cheers!

Italy's finest

So the latest rumour is Kalou, because the Chavs don’t want him and Wenger did a few years ago, I like Kalou but not in ACN year, and he won’t bring to the party what we need right now.

If we are to replace Ade, let’s do it with a big lump, like a Dzeko or such, this bloke from Roma I know nothing about, so I won’t comment, but buying Kalou would be like buying Diarra, we did it because he was available, but we didn’t really need him.

I still want a DM and a CB, the Kolo stories gather pace and if you listen to Man City’s spokesman, the great Adebayor then you get the feeling Kolo may take the bait, or as we used to call it, the money.

Whatever happens, won’t happen until the team get back from Austria and that is if anything happens at all.

I hope Terry goes to City just to show the Chavs there’s a new and richer, rich kid on the block, I think it may push Abramovich away from football and the chavs can go back to being that shit team in West London again.

Fergie thinks Arsenal are going backwards, Wenger thinks we are stronger, either way I would feel more comfortable if we strengthened with the Ade money just a bit, we are playing tomorrow and I’m looking forward to that, maybe we’ll have more of a clue as to the shape of the team, maybe not.

Last week Pedro got into a debate with someone about Ade whoring himself to the Mancs, that person said to Pedro ‘I suppose you believe everything you read in the Sun then’ well the answer to that was no, but Alex Ferguson is in the Mail today telling the world that Ade called personally offering his services, that blogger, we were right after all!

Man City have got themselves a real tosser there, I so hope he bombs out, much, much more so than Cashley.

Today was supposed to be a guest blog from A, but sadly he didn’t come up with the goods, never mind, you’ll have to suffer me again!

Have a great day today Grovers and dream about what tomorrow will bring.

How boring is all this money getting?

I said it a couple of years ago… there will only ever be one Chelsea in my opinion… there will only ever be one team who can buy there way to success in the fashion Abramovich did because he was the first.

I’ve just read the headline about Pompey using Maradona to lure Aguerro, Eto’o, Villa and Silva… apparently he is the going to quit his Argentina post and head to Portsmouth.

Firstly… Maradona, a gun totting coke head from Argentina… ambassador for a Premiership team? For me, that would be the corporate equivalent of making Fred West the face of Marks & Spencers… Pompey are making a mockery of the word! Secondly… what sort of man turns his back on his nation (David Bentley aside)? Thirdly… what type of player is going to go and play on the South Coast in that tin pot stadium for a club with no history? It’s getting ridiculous now… there is so much money in the game at the moment, it almost neutralises itself.

Mike Skinner wrote these lyrics,

When you’re a famous boy
It gets really easy to get girls
It’s all so easy you get a bit spoilt
So when you try to pull a girl
Who is also famous too
It feels just like when you wasn’t famous

I feel like Portsmouth are going to get similar treatment… I can just imagine Al Fahim walking into the Premiership Chairman’s Gala dinner, dressed in a white suite, bottle of Cristal in one hand, a wodge of fifties in the other, a necklace with a spinning diamonte Portsmouth crest round his neck surrounded by a bevy of blonde beauties… hoping to be acknowledged… only to be told to leave at the door…

‘Sorry Al, you’re so 2007… piss off.’

New Chairman get up.

Being a billionaire is only cool when you’re the only one… Admittedly, you still need to spend to keep up with the Jones’s, or the Sheiks… but if you want to compete in the top four… I’d guess you’d be looking at spending at least £500million before you could get close. I think the point about Arsenal spending some money is that we don’t need to spend a tremendous amount to challenge for the league… and it seems stupid to compromise a top 4 space over £20million… but I honestly think that even with all Cities flashness in the transfer market this summer, I still think they will struggle to make the top 6. I mean look at Madrid… £300million+ talent on display the other night and they only just managed to beat Shamrock Rovers! Money buys you great players… it doesn’t bind them.

Hopefully UEFA will be able to do something useful and push through their proposals to force clubs to live off their own means.

So following on from Geoff’s post yesterday, I am starting to believe… I had a bad start to the week… I was a little disappointed to read that we wouldn’t reinforce in the middle of the park… but you get over these things… you get that bug back after watching your first full game and then you have no choice… Faith or a damn miserable year! I am extremely excited about the new season… Diaby looked great the other night, and maybe his presence in the midfield is the reason Wenger hasn’t bought in the middle? Rambo looked fantastic… he is quite powerfully built already and Nik Bendtner looks like he could be in for a good year.

If Wenger can rectify the ridiculous problem we have from high balls and we can concede less goals this year, we could be a genuine threat from the off. That really is what it’s all about for Arsenal… when I read people talking about anything other than winning the league, I pity them… if that is what is acceptable to you as an Arsenal fan, I really feel for you… Thierry quite rightly points out,

‘What I know about Arsenal from my time there was not about finishing in the top four — it was about winning the league.’

Nice to see Thierry is part of the ‘I want it now’ generation.

If the fans start accepting second best, or fourth best… what will the players think? Lets not worry about how they feel when they receive criticism… because if winning didn’t run through the fans veins, would the players want to be there? I feel like there is a section of the fan base who probably champion kids sports days where there are no winners… you know the type.

'It's the taking part dear...'

Alex Ferguson has taken aim at us early doors… perhaps he sees something threatening about our team? Cashley Cole has taken a break from being a guniea pig at Nokia’s vibrating ringtone R+D department, specifically to wish bad things upon us… Cashers, stick to vomiting over two bob slag hairdressers in the back of cabs… I sit here safe in the knowledge that for all your money… you’ll never be happy, because no one likes you… that’s a hard thing to stomach, especially when the fame dries up.

So to sum up… We’ve got most of our players back from injury, the most exciting player in the Premiership on our books, we’ve just done the best bit of business in our history, we have a new leader in at centre back… and a group of players who are about to peak… oh, and did I tell you if things stay the same we’re about £26million up on the summer…

Exciting times or what?

P.S. If you clicked the link and just read this post, signing up to our fantasy league is legally compulsory… also, you may have read this new book out that suggests the best way to lead a healthy and fulfilling life is to sign up to everything I tell you to, so here goes:

We have Twitter, Facebook, the mailing list and a handy RSS Feed.

If you haven’t already, please do check out the two excellent guest post by regulars David and Duke.

Last but not least, here is a picture of our roving reporter; Bud, papping Ken Friar. Ken you’re a legend, Bud… your cheque is in the post!

Mr Ken Friar!

BREAKING NEWS: Liverpool have just announced two new Italian signings in the last hours. It’s believed the £25million pair will fit nicely into Rafa’s style of play and hopefully kick them on to title glory. Their names? Nikmota and Robbatelli.

… I am to humour what Jesus is to Christians.

Have a great Friday!

The last installment of the guest post goes to comment regular Duke! Pedro will be back in an hour with a 0900 post!

Good morning boys and girls,

I want to move away from all the talk of Adebayor, getting his replacement in Ronaldo’s twin brother (Who is now Sunderland bound) and how shite he is, discussing if The Hunter would fit our team perfectly and if we should break our transfer record for him or how desperately we need a DM. Those are all good topics, but we have discussed them on Le Grove, over and over again. Everyone has their own opinion on those topics, but all we can agree on is that we need a DM. Well what we also desperately need is a CB. Why you ask? We’ve got six already, you shriek!

Well let me break it down for you.

Ade has left and hopefully we will sign Hunteelar, Cana, Mautuidi and Vidic today and my post will be useless.

However, as this is unlikely, here is my take…

Our centre backs for the upcoming season as I am writing are (in order of importance in my opinion) Gallas, Verma, Toure, Sanderos/JD, Song, and another one who I shall not mention in this post at all, hence previously stated six CB’s and not seven.

Our main problem has been the defence since we last won the League, let me demonstrate with some statistics… and please… stop complaining, sometimes they are useful, seriously stop, Denilson is the best DM in the League. Seriously, in the season of 2003-2004 we scored 73 goals (best in the league) and conceded 26 (best in the league). That is to be expected, that season will probably never be repeated by anyone in our life time. It is the one to remember, and it is the one you will be telling your great great grandchildren about, in turn your children will tell their grandchildren about, and their grandchildren will be telling theirs and…  well, you get the point. That was a high point in most of our lives. So what do we expect after that? Well we expect to go on and become a dominant force through the decade like Man United did in the 90′s… it was not to be.

The 2004-2005 season came upon us. When we were everyone’s favourite the regain the title, but we finished a massive 12 points behind Roman’s Revolution. We did score 15 more goals that Chelsea though, we played some great football, what went wrong though? Why didn’t we win it? Well we conceded 36 goals, that is ten more than the season before, doesn’t sound too bad considering we scored 14 more than ourselves a season earlier. Well the answer is that Chelsea conceded only 15.

Moving onto the season of 2005-2006, now for the first time we have fallen out of the Top2 since Wenger took over, Chelsea were a new force on the block and that was expected. We weren’t just overtaken by our everlasting rivals Man United, and the new no-limit cash Chelsea, but also Liverpool. Finishing the season in 4th place, only two points ahead of Spurs, who if not poisoned, would probably take our oh so precious Champions League place. The reason? Well we conceded 31 goals, compared to Chelsea’s 22, and Liverpool’s 25. Man United did concede three goals more that us, but also scored four more. That season we finished 24 points of the top, even though scoring only four less than the Champions. We did however make the Champions League final, setting a new defensive record.

Season 2006-2007 sees us finish 4th again, conceding eight more than Man United and Liverpool and 11 more than Chelsea. With the worst goal difference in the Top4. Nothing else of note to mention that season regarding out subject.

Now we go to the season of 2007-2008 our best attempt at regaining the title. We finish 3rd and only four points off the top. This season is still fresh in all our minds, we all remember it, and we all have our theory why we didn’t win it. Mostly being that fateful day in Birmingham. But once again we conceded the most goals in the Top4. Wenger tells us that he sees the problem and that it is the defence and he will defiantly reinforce it, instead he sends Senderos out on loan, and gets Silvestre. Good reinforcement. We thought finally we will challenge, but instead we took another two steps back. Conceding 37 goals, against Man United’s 24. No point going into more depth as you all remember the season which just finished.
What was the point of me breaking all this down for you? Just to prove a simple point off, you build from the back, defence wins you titles. Take note Real Madrid.

Finally this transfer window we got a player in a position we have been begging for years. In comes Verma. I was ecstatic, I’ve seen the boy play for Ajax and he is class. However my childish happiness disapated when I analysed the situation, I realised we are in a very vulnerable position at CB.

Let me take you back to our best challenge in years again, the 2007-2008 season. We start the season with 6 Central Midfielders, sound familiar to our situation with CB’s this season? They are Cesc, Flamini, Gilberto, Diarra, Denilson, Song, and we could also throw in Diaby in there as we could throw in the CB I promised not to mention. But what happened at the end of the season? Flamini, Gilberto and Diarra are all gone, we are left with 2 players last in the picking order to partner Cesc, and knowing our luck, what happens? That’s right, Cesc get’s a long term injury. Not only do we not challenge, but we almost lose our 4th place, and take a huge step back.

Now what will happen at the end of this season? I don’t know, but what I do know for a fact, is that Gallas, Toure and Senderos are all in the last year of their contracts. So hypothetically at the end of the season Gallas would leave, he already said many times that he will at the end of his contract, Toure will leave because we didn’t give him enough playing time, and Sanderos will leave for the same reason or maybe because he stepped up, had a good season and does a Flamini. So what are we left with? Our new signing Verma, who might not be all that for Arsenal, JD and Song.

That’s right, Song, the same person who was a stop gap this season after Flamini left. So say Verma has a bad season, and it’s Gallas and Toure who play, or Gallas and Senderos. Then we are left with 3 CB’s who have been on the bench the whole season, and with no real partnership in the position where partnership is most important. Even if we buy a new CB next season, who do we pair him with? How good will be their understanding? How long will he take to settle in? Remember even Vidic took over a year before he started preforming, and that was next to Rio, not a player who was on the bench the season before.

The good news is that we gave new contracts to Fabianski, Gibbs, Jacky and Ramsey who all had 3-4 years left on the previous ones.

Defence is the part of the team which you don’t change around, you don’t substitute, it has to have the same players every week. Our 2 main Centre Backs from the last season could be both gone the season after next, if not in this summer window.

Wenger, Gazidis, whoever is in charge, please look what happened to our Central Midfield a season back, learn from your mistakes, that is how you become better. We always throw the book at the players saying “You never amount to anything after you leave Arsenal”. Well let’s give the Summer of 2008 Arsenal Transfers book to Wenger and tell him to take a look at the CM position, and then point to the last season and how our performances dropped.

Why do we always get a player we need a season too late?

Sign a new CB, extend at least one of the 3′s contract. Do something, make a move. Remember, if you concede the least goals over the course of the season, it will make you title contenders.

Duke Over and Out.