I don’t know whether it was the abundance of beer, or just the reality. I’m hoping I’ll get some clarity. But I’m sure I just witnessed the greatest right back performance of the season and it came from a player I dislike with full blooded passion.
Yesterday was all about Emmanuel Eboue. He showed the skill he probably demonstrates in training every day and put on a master class in attacking full backery. His mazy runs and tireless work rate were a wonder for the home crowd to watch. If he could do that every week, not only would he start as our right back, he’d be the best one in the country!
Sunderland lacked everything a Steve Bruce side normally has. They played like a team who believed in their own hype after a nice 10 game streak at the start of the year. A real lack of effort on their part combined with a sparky and resilient performance from Arsenal… well, the result was only going one way this afternoon.
The first goal came when Eboue burst into the box with a penetrative run, he jinked in and out turning three Sunderland defenders inside out, he shot across goal allowing Nik to nip in at the back post to tap into the empty net.
Nik Bendtner had a great chance to prove his value to the team today and I’m afraid he didn’t give us his best performance. His control isn’t crisp, the ball usually ends up off the ground disrupting his ability to do anything thing with pace. His lack of instinct for the goal is also worrying. We can talk about work rate till we’re blue in the face but banging them away has to come into the picture at some point. 2 occasions today sparked cause for concern. The first was when Nasri crossed into the box, Ferdinand mistimed the header, Nik didn’t even bother to anticipate this and missed out on a simple header. The second was when he was cut in with a pass from out on the left, he controlled the ball with his left foot instead of his right, then duffed his chance onto the bar. Chances like that should be creeping in and in big games, you’re only going to get one… worrying from the Dane.
There were the usual lapses in concentration at the back. Almunia had to make a tidy save when Bent got through one on one, then Kenwyne Jones beat the offside trap, surged into the box and luckily hooked his shot wide. Bruce said his star striker was worth £30mill. Seriously, it’s that type of talk that gets Premiership clubs into trouble!
The second half was all Arsenal in the main. Sunderland did scare the Arsenal back 4 a few times but Almunia was out to impress today and he wasn’t going to allow the ball the chance to get cosy with his net today!
Arsenal huffed and puffed, but Craig Gordon was in an equally defiant mood and pulled out some classy saves to keep his players team in it. He looks very similar to Ian Curtis of Joy Division… errily so!
Our reward came late in the half, Cesc was bundled over in the box, the ref pointed to the spot! Up stepped Cesc to bury a pin point penalty into the bottom right corner. He ran over to the faithful and did some impressive air punching.
The ref blew up and Arsenal had taken an important 3 points. 2 points behind United, 6 behind Chelsea… and we’re really back in the mixing pot again!
Ratings:
Almunia: A top performance from our keeper. It seems silly that I have to praise our keeper for making 3 or 4 good saves in a game, but I will, because normally one sneaks in. 7
Clichy: I still don’t think he’s playing very well. He’s developed Howler Syndrome and I heard he caught it after sharing a towel with Senderos. I hope he can shake it off because if he doesn’t, Gibbs will surely step in next season. 6
Vermaelen: Had a powerful day at the office. He was quicker to every ball than the Sunderland pair were and he led the back line with much aggression. 8
Silvestre: He didn’t have a Sol Campbell type performance, but he did ok. He dropped a clanger when he set a poor offside trap that Jones took advantage of… but that is the Frenchman for you. 6
Eboue: If he could cut out the theatrics, I’d really like him as a player. Today he let his football do the talking with a superbly constructive afternoon of free flowing attacking full back play. The Sunderland boys didn’t know how to handle him because he was literally unplayable. Superb assist, deserved a goal. 9
Cesc: Not his best game of the season. His passing was sloppy at times and he got caught in possession on occasions. Still… he won a penalty and buried it. 7
Song: I thought he had a very solid game today, breaking up play where he could, distributing with efficiency. 7.5
Aaron Ramsey: Showed straight away why he should always get the nod over Denilson. He made surging runs, crunching tackles and had a few shots. He’s what you call real young talent. Shame he’s Welsh… 7.5
Nasri: I felt we got more for our money today. He covered his full back today, he put himself about and he made some telling attacking contributions. I just wish he’d do it more consistently. 8
Bendtner: He scored the tap in for the goal, which has to be credited. Bar that, it was a pretty cart horse like game for the Danish hitman. He needs to start scoring goals more regularly and he needs to work in his touch and alround play. He also needs to give up his penchant for hitting the wing… he’s not Thierry. His performances seem to have dropped from last season, he’s only got a few games left to prove us wrong. 6
Theo: £60k a week to watch him run up blind alleys, cross to Song’s imaginary friend and generally do very little. Today he did look like scoring twice, something I haven’t seen him threaten to do for a while. However, for the hype surrounding him, he’s really not delivering. If he can fuse that pace with any sort of productivity, we’ll have a top player on our hands… at the moment, it doesn’t feel like we’re anywhere near that. 6
So all in all, an expected win and a solid performance. Roll on Stoke City!
P.S. If you have any spares to the Burnley game coming up, I have plenty of Grovers looking! Drop me an e-mail! Oh, and I’ve noticed it getting a little narkey in the comments section, lets keep it friendly… we’re all gooners and a multitude of opinion helps the blog go round.
gerrard got booked
i think eboue’s quite a valuable squad player for us – he doesnt get in our strongest team though. burnley at home for example in a fortnight he’d cause them problems. I kind of agree with i think it was gambon who said he’d prefer sagna at rb for stoke (a)
funny thing is that stupid commentator didn’t even mention anything … obviously … it’s Gerrard
Who do you guys want in fourth place. Liverpool for me, City disgust me. Villa or Everton will be okay as well.
And don’t say Arsenal!
Gerrard is such a cheating bastard, diving and then a dirty tackle from behind
mayank – yep liverpool. 0-0 would be tidy today between those two
wigan have gotta be up for the spuds today as well after that 9-1
Mayank;
Man Utd for me…
Seeeeeya!
City in 4th every day.
Liverpool would be utterly fucked, and have a sell off. It would mean the end of them as a title threat for the forseeable.
everyone seen cashley in the Screws today?? aint on track to be a great 2010 for the little twat!
i would mind who is 4th as long as it is not shitty or sp*rs.
mancs fourth would awesome too
lol about the quotation marks thing. They must be the most wrongly used punctuation in the language. Also has anyone noticed people who say should of instead of should have are mostly doom and gloom?
And we have a winner… Mangoonian!
Villa were 0-1 down within 10 minutes and now the score is 5-2 :O
let shitteh and liverpoo keep the draw!
draw is good
shitty getting hamered will put pressure on them to get a result at stanford beach
mayank – will torres and gerrard stay if liverpool finish outside top 4?
Gerrard will Torres won’t. Not because Gerrard is more loyal just because he won’t get the same princely treatment anywhere else.
as we’ve seen they’re terrible without torres
and may not get the dough to reinvest – that rings a bell
Mayank
I think they may have no choice but to sell one of them.
gerrard is so much below his last year form, shocking
gambon – in terms of financially or the players wanting out?
Zee
Financially.
They made a £44m loss last year WITH CL money. Without it theres no way they could go into next season with the same squad.
They would either have to sell Torres or a number of lesser players.
Andre Agassi is the keeper of liverpoo
gambon – yep that sounds quite appealing. city will be rivals anyway next season so it won’t hit them like it will liverpool. it’ll kill em won’t it, certainly put em back a few years potentially
Thats the thing. It wont have any effect on city, they will still spend £100m either way.
villa to finish 4th. then city, then liverpool then Birmingham, Everton and then the Spuds, please.
Does anyone think wenger will continue with ramsey against stoke??
I don’t mind everton getting into UCL.
nish – i think diaby will definitely come in if he’s fit, i might be over simplifying but i think we need all our big blokes
Zee-Wenger didn’t look really optimistic when he revealed about diaby’s injury.And since it is diaby you can expect the worst.I hope we don’t see denilshit for the rest of this season.Not even making 4 minutes appearances
nish – yeh maybe – i’d actually quite like sol to play at stoke – he can be an organiser and he’s up for the fight physically and aerially. i’d prefer ramsey to denilson but neither are ideal in terms of their physical stature for the muscular challenge you get there. hope diaby can make it
City are really poor without tevez.Hope he is back against chelsea
one thing re stoke – wenger said after the fa cup game there are no surprises with them. What an embarrassing statement to make when you’ve just lost to them. Well arsene you get a proper week’s preparation in then at the training ground with plenty of balls in the blender, players knowing what their roles are positionally etc etc
i’d like torres at arsenal
Actually, City targeted us assuming they are going to take 4th place from us. They were under the impression that we were the weaker team. If they don’t get 4th, they will target pool players this time. Talk about buy trophies or places. Shady.
seconded gooby!!! they can have bendtner and a couple of flats
Who wouldn’t?
–RvP—torres
—-arshavin—
who is dreaming?
nish – fergie!
7 mins of normal time to play for between Shitty & Pools. A draw would be great for us as it will widen the gap.
lol start trading flats for players, thats an awesome idea.
If pool give usa torres we should give them almunia,denilson,randall.
clean penalty i thought for adewhore … anyone saw it ?
Macherano should have got sent off there.Awful challenge
that’s it sorted then nish. ps got any Rohypnol for Rafa?
Nish,
Torres plus £10m would be a good deal for Denilson…
Wrighty,
Cesc
Rvp
Verm
Arsh
King eboue
Any one watched Everton game. They look like a men. They really have players to stand up to EPL level of physicality. They even mugged Evra. So, finally Evra played against Men. He even got mugged for a goal i think.
could be a good day for those spuds. defoe shoulda been off before that goal
Lol Eboue should never take a penalty…not ever!
gambon – no, cos it involves running into the opposition area and knowing what to do
Liverpool are so so boring to watch. They don’t even deserve to finish 6th this season. I’d rather watch a championship team.
Rafa is so bad you never know.Imagine lucas and denilson in the midfield
has anyone ever seen a pro footballer blowing out of his arse after 5mins as consistently as carragher?
I have been having arguement with this liverpool fan for sometime now.Who is a better player?Cesc or gerrard
Cesc for me
keep holding on both pool and shitty … 0-0 is good enough for ya both
Nish,
Not sure if you put them in the same team.
Cesc over 38 games, Gerrard in the big games including CL.
Gotta be said, Bobby Zamora is not a bad player.
Yeah Gambon,
Gerrard in the big games for diving and getting penalties.
Secs to go…
0-0 muahahahahah … great
Game over. 0-0 result…
gerrard’s a better captain but cesc is more valuable on the market and therefore would rather have him as we could build more homes with the sale of cesc hehe
Yeah gambon.Gerrard in more of a matchwinner.Gerrard doesn’t do really well against top quality teams.I can’t remember the last time where he had a matchwinning performance against us,chelsea or united.Cesc wth his range of passing can always make an impact
I just decided that I hate Mascherano more than any other player in the EPL. He just beats Gerrad for the amount of diving, cheating, whining, moaning and number of nasty challenges he puts in! The guys a fucking idiot!
Would rather City had won, but nil nils also good.
Cesc has got 62 assist in 183 games in PL which is simply stunning for someone so young
need a wigan goal please and that would not be a bad weekend at all
64 assists
who thinks inter will beat the chavs at san siro on wed
What a shite game. Ade looked the best player on the pitch by a mile.
8 fucking years since mourinho lost a home league match.Unbelieveable!!!
Cant see inter beating Chelsea.
Chelsea are one of the best in europe.
Well that was a boring match. So is that 3rd place confirmed for us?
How many will be happy with 2nd?
that is a fucking stat nish. he was down to 9 men before ht last night and still didnt lose!
i do zee
the spuds on.
C`mon wigan!
i’d fucking love mourinho to dump them out in 2nd leg at stamford br
I hate Mourinho, might be supporting the Chavs. Or maybe Chavs to lose but Inter to get beat at home.
and after dumping them out i’d like jose to slap under his chin and tell them chavs to cheer up and finish 2nd in the lg
wigan are so poor
Nishant, Gambon and Zee,
Mourinho record of not loosing a home game for 8 years is amazing. Looks like, he never had a trophy less season as well. Considering Chelsea away from, i would expect Inter to get at least a draw. If Mourinho can’t stop Drogba, who wills top him. It has to be him. There is extra motivation for him as he is playing with Chelsea.
the pitch is so fucked up
moureen hates the eye brow raiser and vice versa so theres gonna be plenty extra in that game.
Yeah.Inter could beat chelsea.Zhirkov got injured yesterday.And inter are a real threat from the right where they have maicon and stankovic.Will be a cracking game!!
People go on talking about ryan giggs playing at the age of 36.Javier Zanetti is fuycking brilliant.Has started almost every single game this season and his workrate is awesome
Team v Stoke (assuming no arshavin or gallas)
Coco
Sagna Campbell Vermaelen Clichy
Song Fabregas Diaby
Rosicky Fabregas Nasri
cescis everywhere even where bendtner should be
spu*s are as poor as wigan
double cesc! i want triple eboue!
Zee,
Looks good. Except we have only one Fab. I guess you meant Bendy. Any idea if it is possible to play right back player in Left back position. Sanga and Ebou looks assumed than Clichy at the moment.
Defoes goal was miles offside
spuds go 4th if it stays like this
Mayank … for me we are getting the title this year and it’s a done deal.
you can still get 7s on us for the title kreshnik. great name by the way.
4th place is really exciting this year, so much challenge.
That’s positive thinking. I think we can nick it too. It’ll be interesting stuff. If we get RvP back and in some sort of form by mid April I’d say we’ll win it.
thanks zee … I would have absolutely loved UCL instead though … especially since we don’t have any … but without RVP doesn’t seem realistic … with him Arsha and Diaby in good shape would have been a completely different ball game …
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has insisted Wayne Rooney must improve his finishing if he is to become the best player in the world.
“All the great strikers, Denis Law, John Charles, had that courage to be in there [the penalty area], get the battering, take the hits, score the goals, be in the right place, at the right time. There’s more there, more to be developed, and I know he [Wayne Rooney] can do that,” explained Ferguson.
“When Rooney first came to us he was the best I’ve ever seen at turning round a defender and running at him. There was a period when he stopped doing that.
“So we spoke to him, took him in a couple of sessions after training, and said ‘get back to turning on the defender’. It’s as if he’s walked in another door.
“He’s a one-off in terms of the modern type of fragile player we’re getting today cocooned by their agents, mothers and fathers, psychologists, welfare officers. Rooney’s a cut to the old days. His attitude is: ‘Give me the ball, I’ll tell you how good I am.”
Sir Alex also took time out to praise Rooney for his temperament and his off field demeanor.
“His temperament’s improved. He’s not rushing about doing the silly things,” added the 68-year-old.
“He’s a fantastic boy, he’d give you anything. He’d give you his last penny. He’s that type. I say to him – there’s someone here who wants to meet you, and he says ‘aye, no problem’.
“He’s so free with his time. He has these wonderful qualities that you don’t get a lot in people today. And I don’t think he will change. His wife [Coleen] seems exactly the same. She’s clued in, wise, clever, she listens.”
PFFFFFFF. What about the granny shagging and diving..
Mayank, I wouldn’t be happy with 2nd until 1st is impossible (and there are a lot of tough games for Chelsea left)
BUT you have to say 2nd isn’t won yet and if we can do it it would be a big step forward espedcially if we’re close to 1st (and if we can keep the team together for another year)
Kreshnik,
Problem is with Wenger his motives. His aim is not to win Silverware. It is to win a Silverware with his scouted kids so that he can prove. He can showboat in newspapers about his eye for talent and his financial skills.
As soon as we move to decent position, he is going to screw up by filling team with his clowns. Remember FA cup against Chelsea.
We do have very good 10 – 15 players. We just do not have proper backup / first team players for stopping goals and as a target man. If Alumunia plays well and some one steps as a target man, with fit Song, Diaby and Fab we can really make it to the end.
it would be great to somehow get the to ucl semis and have rvp available – although wenger seems to think more like late april at best. spuds (a) apr 10 and then ucl semis apr 20/21 and 27/28 with man city (h) sandwiched in between
fuck those wankers scored
Arsenal’s abysmal record against English opposition in recent years. They have all knocked us out.
I fancy Arsenal’s chances against ANY other European side bar Barca. Yes, even Madrid. Italy is a home away from home for the Arsenal. We’ve beaten them all on Italian soil to boot.
I hope Milan and Inter do us a HUGE favor. Aston vIlla to do us one next weekend as well by starting the United collapse at Wembley.
offside
Zee,
We need to get out of this Porto mess first. Though we have a away goal advantage, if they can score a goal at Emirates we are screwed. Then we need to get 3 goals to go through. We are not scoring that many goals as of now and it is not that difficult to concede a goal with our screw ups. We really need a get some luck in that game.
we gotta get past porto first. ok they looked fairly shit the other day and i think we will win but its not an ideal scenario. we all thought we’d beat fucking psv after losing 1-0 away
ha – maurya great minds
maurya = i cant see us not scoring against them – but i’m not certain we’ll keep a clean sheet
Maurya, it’s not done but if we can’t win at home gainst Porto we don’t deserve to go through.
We only need to win by two if they score twice.
chris – absolutely
I think 2nd will be a good foundation to build on. Of course we should be gunning for 1st.
Maurya … I agree and think that all of this “prove them wrong” thing is mostly down to his stubbornness, and … believe it or not also to a certain degree to his principles. I have always thought that people with a strict line of principles only go so far because the same principles play against them often. That’s why when he went mental on our first game vs pool he actually seemed sorry after the game, even thought that won us the game. He was almost hurt that he crossed the line. Red nose instead breaks all sorts of shit day in day out, including sneaking away from media when he loses and he gives no flying fuck about it. But guess who has won more …
The comments that made me the most happy were the ones by which ManGoonian and Gambon made up after some heated comments.
After all we are all arsenal fans and we want to see them win.
Loved it. Here is for unity among us
This ‘Wenger is stubborn’ cliche is really getting tiring. In my opinion (and it’s only my opinion, nothing more) the money is not there to be spent and he’s been asked to do a job until the club steps back on its feet. Paying off the Highbury development on top of the new stadium seems to be a huge mistake by the board and could’ve been catastrophical, had it not been for Wenger’s ability to spot, nurture and develop talented young footballers. Should Arsenal win the League this season it will have to go down as the biggest achievement since the Premiership started as we’ve been fighting tooth and nail to stay up with the top two, who undoubtedly have much vaster resources (at the moment) and bigger, more experienced squads.
Kreshnik,
I agree with you. I think, he reached as far as he can.
Spuds are in top four now…
‘guess we will have to wait for St Totteringham’s Day a bit longer this time around
here is a statistic on when we could celebrate it over the years:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~mikepitt/totteringham.html
Dobbie
you may be right mate. we can’t know everything about the clubs finances.
SUGA3 … this year it will be on Saturday April 10th. Fact.
Kreshnik,
at least something to celebrate: STD (heh) at Shite Hart Lane…
Lane is to STD is what Lapland is to Xmas – or whatever
Why didnt we loan Pavlychenko?
He came on and scored 2 in 20 minutes for the Spuds….
Suga … LOL
But I for one will have 2 days to celebrate … STD … and the day we win the title … FACT
BUT wy did Spurs (a worse team than Arsenal) have him on the bench to start with?
Louis Saha would have been miles better but he’d be probably injured by now – there was a load of others but maybe their clubs didn’t want to sell/loan and there’s no guarantee they would have fitted in straight away for whatever reason
Chelseas’s run in:
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Uefa Champions League
Inter Milan v Chelsea, R1, L1, 19:45
——————————————————————————–
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Barclays Premier League
Chelsea v Man City, 12:45
——————————————————————————–
Sunday, 7 March 2010
The FA Cup
Chelsea v Man City/Stoke City, R6, 16:00
——————————————————————————–
Saturday, 13 March 2010
Barclays Premier League
Chelsea v West Ham, 15:00
——————————————————————————–
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Uefa Champions League
Chelsea v Inter Milan, R1, L2, 19:45
——————————————————————————–
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Barclays Premier League
Blackburn v Chelsea, 16:00
——————————————————————————–
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Barclays Premier League
Portsmouth v Chelsea, 19:45
——————————————————————————–
Saturday, 27 March 2010
Barclays Premier League
Chelsea v Aston Villa, 15:00
——————————————————————————–
Saturday, 3 April 2010
Barclays Premier League
Man Utd v Chelsea, 12:45
——————————————————————————–
Monday, 12 April 2010
Barclays Premier League
Chelsea v Bolton, 20:00
——————————————————————————–
Saturday, 17 April 2010
Barclays Premier League
Tottenham v Chelsea, 17:30
——————————————————————————–
Sunday, 25 April 2010
Barclays Premier League
Chelsea v Stoke, 16:15
——————————————————————————–
Saturday, 1 May 2010
Barclays Premier League
Liverpool v Chelsea, 15:00
——————————————————————————–
Sunday, 9 May 2010
Barclays Premier League
Chelsea v Wigan, 15:00
goal.com has got an article that Real Madrid is trying to pull a Wenger move in the summer if Pellegrini fails with Lyon. I say … blah to that …
but interestingly an old friend of mine living in Madrid was saying a few weeks back that Perez has a thing for Wenger, according to him Perez thinks that’s a great business move (huh ???) since Wenger-ball is a fan magnet given the appropriate funds, and Perez obviously is pretty good at shirt and shit business.
I think AW will either retire or become French National manager at the end of this contract. No way will he go to RM.
I have just watched wigan v spuds and I have witnessed a refereeing performance that beggars belief :
1. A goal at least 2 yards offside
2. Both Defoe & Huddlestone should have been sent off at least twice
3. and Whiley who failed to give huddlestone his second yellow booked a wigan player 30 secs later for a far more innocuos challenge
The fact it was spuds is irrelevant what is relevant is that whiley is not fit (not the fergy sort of fit) to be a referee
Why didn’t we loan Pavlychenko?! Because Spuds would NEVER have let him go on loan to us, obviously!
melvyn
it was shocking, shame english players don’t get equal treatment as forgeiners
Cunt Ronaldo just scored a fucking beauty of a free kick.
Real 2-0 Villareal. Kaka penalty
2-1 Senna free kick.
Also, Bari 0-1 AC Milan, Boriello goal.
If Wenger wanted to go to Madrid, why wouldnt he have gone last year?
Because he had unfinished business with us luke. If thing went to pot between now and the end of the season, we were knocked out of the champs league by porto, and ended the season 10 points behind the champions there’d be a chance of his leaving in the summer, and if he did i reckon that’s where he’d end up.
luke
he doesn’t imo. there is the money motivation he could have gone. huge salary and budget. but if he decided to stay he may not care that much for money.
it’s plain logic, don’t rush and call me an AKB
Wenger doesnt want to go to Madrid imo. As you say he had the chance in the summer and didnt go because there is no job security there.
He waited a while before saying no to them in the summer because he wanted the fans to sweat. However much most of the fans hate him i think the majority of us realise another manager wouldnt be able to do the same job Wenger does for us because the board wouldnt give someone new the money needed.
Lol, Wenger gets paid £6m per year, hes not exactly struggling for money.
gambon
humans are greedy by nature” anyone would like the double salary even if it’s huge
Now were debating philosophy, not Wenger…haha
Whats the news on RVP/Arshavin/Diaby/Eduardo/Gallas ?
Not a chance of wenger going to RM for the simple reason that the El Presidente tells him what he can and cant do, and he wouldnt be able to handle that……
Arshavin tore stoke apart at the emirates…we need him back for saturday
I love the fact that Manure play on Tuesday…hoprfully they will be tired snd West ham can fuck them up…
West Ham are in the middle o a resurgence, they have won 2 in a row and haver lifted themselves out of the relegation zone their spirits must be high now..and Manure must be down a bit from a draw and a loss..and hopefully physically tired as well….Hopefully West ham can atleast hold them to a draw
They then play Villa on Sunday..hopefully Villa piles on the misery on them..Villa must be feeling good after scoring 5 goals..Hopefully this series of games is the start of a big collapse from manure…
Gooby, I don’t think it’s human nature to be greedy… it’s in some humans nature, but not all.
They did quite well against the Chav’s earlier in the year didn’t they?
Real Madrid now 5-2 up. Kaka with the 5th.
What if barca ends up trophless this season. Already out the copa del rey and only two point gap with real.
There is no way wenger would go to madrid.
Diving cunt Ronaldo up to his old tricks again. Penalty ‘won’
Why didn’t Wenger go to Real madrid – easy – real Madrid want a manager who will win La Liga and CL not a CEO who will qualify for CL by coming 2nd or 3rd in La Liga and make them a big profit every year – Wenger knew that and didnt want to be sacked after one year – better stay at Arsenal where he is unsackable
6-2 First set to RM !!