The King returns | Arsenal defender ok, I think | Starlet will definitely leave

January 11, 2011

So, I don’t have it confirmed yet, but according to Arsenal.com, Tommy V is still pencilled in for  a January return. There seems to be a groundswell of people who are desperate to tell us that he’s out for the season at every opportunity. I haven’t heard anything to suggest he’s out and I’ve been speaking the Pam the Arsenal tea lady on and off for the past 3 weeks.

So what are we going to talk about today?

Well, yesterday saw the arrival of David Beckham at Spurs. Fantastic to see that his arrival coincided nicely with the announcement that his wife is up the duff again. You’ve got to admire him, he takes attention seeking to new levels, even my needy cat looks embarrassed when he sees Beckham on tele. I bet Becks is chuffed he’s finally in a country that will massage his PR driven ego.

Anyway, a bit of debate was sparked in the comments yesterday. Thierry Henry has been at most of our home games during the break, he was spotted in the tunnel chatting to Yaya and Kolo at the Man City game… so I was thinking, why not bring him back for training? We had Beckham over here last time he was promoting a hair cut and the players spoke glowingly about training with such an icon.

So why not invite Thierry back to at least train with us for the next couple of months? He’s incredibly experienced, he’s been very humble since he left and I’m sure a genuine talent like him can be nothing but a boost for team morale. My guess is he’s waiting for an invite. My suggestion, Wenger should send one out!

Should have checked Arsenal.com

Welcome back Thierry!

In other news, Arsene Wenger won manager of the decade. A superb achievement. As much as we give him a hard time over here, we certainly appreciate the consistency he’s bought to the club and our superb brand of football. My argument would be that Wenger shouldn’t just have won it, he should have smashed it. His decision making has been off kilter in the past few years. Hopefully we’ll see a return to the early noughties form for the next half of this decade.

Lionel Messi stormed the Ballon D’or, he said he didn’t expect to win it, which was a bit like Qatar saying they didn’t expect to win the 2022 world cup after emptying the oil coffers into the pockets of the chosen few. He’s a super talent, one of the best players I’ve had the pleasure to watch live and the most amazing part about him is that he’s only 23. Could Jack Wilshere ever achieve the high standards set by Messi, Xavi and Iniesta? I certainly hope so. We might even land ourselves a Messi of our own in the young Belgian who goes by the name of Eden Hazard. Could he be our first ever £20million player?

We’ll wait and see, but the vibe is strong.

It’s Carling Cup semi final eve. If you’re unlucky enough to have the displeasure of travelling to Ipswich, a few words of warning. Don’t get into a tractor unless you know the farmer in question, don’t look the locals directly in the eye and for god sake stay out of their Liquid and Envy. It makes the hills have eyes look like a beauty pageant.

I’m not going to do team previews today, though I will say I’d like to see Bendtner and Arshavin given a run out. Those two need to find their form and there will be no better game to find it in than against Ipswich away. The defence is down to its bare bones, so it looks like there might be a debut of Miquel. That or we’ll see Song slipping back with Denilson allowed to roam free. I wouldn’t be too against that if he could repeat his first half performance of the weekend.

Our reserve team was absolutely spanked 10-1 by Aston Villa. A pretty disgraceful score line at any level, I’ll leave Young Guns to explain away that result. John Jensen is set to make a shock return to English football as Steve Kean’s assistant over at Blackburn, good luck to the man who scored less times than Rick Waller. I’m also pleased to announce that ITV1 are going to play the Leeds game live for our viewing. That makes up for all the times they don’t put us on the main channel for Champions League games.

I’ve heard that Carlos Vela will definitely be moving out on loan. He has a whole host of clubs interested in his services including Bolton, Wigan (I’m there today in a corn flake factory, I f*cking love my life) and a few overseas clubs. You’d have to worry about his future if he went abroad, wouldn’t you?

Transfer conspiracy of the day? Gary Cahill to Arsenal, David Wheater to Bolton… sounds plausible especially considering that we know Bolton are open to offers, Cahill was on our hit list last year and he has a close relationship with Arsene.

Why is no one talking about Hangeland?

I thought it might be worth telling you that long time Grover Kreshnik has kindly offered to build the site its very own iphone app. I don’t have an iphone, but I’m still very excited about being able to watch other people enjoy the exciting functionality he’s hoping to bring to the app. I’ll keep you posted on the progress!

Finally, picture the scene. It’s a cold grubby football cafeteria, the camera pans out away from two cold bowls of porridge to reveal David Bentley and Alex Hleb sitting at the table miserable, reminiscing fondly about the days when they used to have a future. Good luck Dave, I’m glad leaving Arsenal worked out so well for you. You have the money, but you’ll never have the prestige of a great career.

Happy Tuesday Grovers, see you in the comments!

Altinop won goal of the year last night, I’ll leave you with the top ten… a morning feast for the eyes!

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*UPDATE

Unless Vermaelen injured himself over the weekend, he’s in training and working towards full fitness. There is no conspiracy of silence. Also, had confirmation that Squillaci didn’t pull his almunia, he’s genuinely crocked for 3 weeks or so. Also, just so you know, Wigan is quite nice!

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Squillaci pulls his left almunia | 5 defenders on Arsenal shopping list!

January 10, 2011

I didn’t want to be the site that brought you the news, but information has reached my desk this morning that tragically, yesterday, whilst Wenger was watching Squillaci make numerous errors on the Leeds United replay DVD, the Frenchman’s left almunia inexplicably pinged causing him to be unavailable for the rest of February.

How long he’ll be out is not yet known. What we’ve gathered is that coincidentally, Arsene Wenger said he’d only sign another defender if he was down to two before the end of January, so our guess? We’ll be making some moves for a centre back shortly.

Now, the Mirror are reporting that Vermaelen has had another set back, personally I haven’t heard anything to that effect. I didn’t actually ask that question the other day when I had the chance which in hindsight, was a bit like interviewing Harry Redknapp as a Gooner and forgetting to call him a wheeler dealer…

‘Harry, where you going, I’m not sorry you wonky tw*t!’

Anyway, let’s assume the worst and Vermaelen really is out for the rest of the season. We’ll have to buy in some fresh meat. So who could we purchase*?

*Not Sol Campbell for starters.

I’m going to tell you in order of realism…

1) Chris Samba: The reason this guy is top of my list is he ticks all the boxes for Wenger. We’re the worst in the league from set pieces, our back 4 don’t really communicate and we don’t like spending vast sums of money. We could pick this guy up for very little, he’s a captain, he speaks French and he’s the best in the league for defending high balls into the box. Not to mention he’s so big, he could bully JD in the showers… chasing him around with a wet towel. Oh, we could also sing his name to La Bamba. That’d be cooler than a spirit level iphone app.

2) Gary Cahill: Now I’ve got mixed feelings on this man. He’s a player I know we were in looking at in the summer. He probably would have made it into the England squad had he not had some sort of blood clot in his arm. This season he has been pretty damn good playing in a resurgent Bolton team. He makes mistakes, don’t they all… but he could be the man to slip into our defence and help give some reassurance.

3) Per Mertesacker: This guy makes more sense than a night in with a crate of Peroni and Megan Fox. He’s 6ft 19, he’s been capped consistently at the highest level, he has Champions League experience, he has a tonne of top class games under his belt not to mention he’s a self-confessed Gooner. The only thing he doesn’t have on his side is price or Premier League experience. For me, at 26 years old, he’d be a signing of intent. I also think he might be able to play in the Champions League.

4) Phil Jagielka: I really like this guy. He’s got passion and heart by the bucket load, he can play defensive midfield, he’s a very good defender and he’s experienced in the Premier League. Trouble from where I’m looking in? He’ll cost£15million, he has a suspect injury past and he’s not exactly a beast in the air.

5) Emir Spahic: Oh don’t… not after I kicked up such a justified fuss about signing this ‘nightmare waiting to happen’ in the summer. You can’t dodge the facts though. He’s unknown, probably not that good and he’ll be cheaper than a dinner date with one of those ‘America’s Next Top model’ girls. (As I don’t want to add a number 6 here, what about David Wheater of Boro? I’ve been hearing very good things about him this season… he was a contender when in the Premiership).

So, there are your choices, I reckon if we do sign anyone, the name will be coming from one of that group. What Wenger needs to do is make sure he doesn’t penny pinch with his club profit bonus in mind. He needs to make sure he goes into the negotiations armed with something more than a bag of KP dry roasted peanuts and a signed copy of the Arsenal Magazine. He also needs to accept that if someone values their player at more than £2million, that doesn’t mean there is something wrong with football, it means he is possibly buying a player older than 18 and that is the going rate.

I’m really concerned that he’ll go all stubborn on the situation and take a risk on Miquel. Wenger has blown most January transfer windows in the past few years, bar the time he signed Arshavin and the Russian saved our season. Do the right thing Wenger, get this wrong and you’ll heap even more unneccessary pressure on your team which could affect our trophy push.

Incidentally, isn’t it interesting what this number 18 shirt does to people? My brother usually struggles to muster a convo past what beer he is drinking and whose breasts he likes on TV, but in a rain man like conversation at the game the other day, he did point out that this shirt number has harboured the bodies of Grimandi, Pascal Cygan, Silvestre and now Squillaci.

Is it cursed? Who knows…

What isn’t cursed? Our domestic cup drawing ability this year. We’ve lucked out again when the Gooner ball drawer (did that introduction sound odd?) picked out Huddersfield at home.  Benik Afobe already said via twitter that he wouldn’t want to play against us… sweet as that is, it’ll be a great chance for him to shine in front of the home crowd and get us all excited about his introduction to the first team in 6 years time.

Right, many things to talk about! See you in the comments!

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Arsenal have an INDIVIDUAL problem | Crazy transfer target mooted

January 9, 2011

I’ve read people claiming that yesterday’s poor result was down to the team and it would be unfair to pick out individuals when critiquing the afternoon (as always…).

Sorry, but I shan’t be having that.

Yesterday’s issue was about the level of our second string not being as high as we’d like to imagine. We’ve seen that demonstrated twice in 2 weeks. It’s not a coincidence that teams that have Eboue, Denilson, Bendtner and dare I say it… Arshavin, suffer when they’re all mashed into our ‘strongest’ team of the day.

Now, I am sure I can muster a defence for a number of the players if I put my mind to it, so I’ll give you the run down.

Nik Bendtner

Simply put, he is not a F*CKING winger. Apologies for my bad language, but this isn’t like sticking Reyes, Wiltord or Theo out wide… this is putting a cumbersome 6ft4 lump out on the wing. You only have to look at him to see that he’s never going to work out there. He knows psychologically he’s no good there and that affects his game. His touch was atrocious yesterday, his finishing was diabolical and his attitude stank.

Can I blame him? Not really… he was hung out to dry being put out wide. His game was summed up late on when he lashed wildly at a floated pass. He should have struck it, however, a good standard of Sunday league player would have landed that on target.

Emmanuel Eboue

I’ve never bought into this whole cult thing we do for him. It irritates me because at the heart of it, there is a poor player who is mistake ridden in the extreme. His passing was disastrous and his decision making was laughable. There was also time for a standard injury feign and dive that was surprisingly ignored by the referee. Let him go to Roma, he’s too old to be back up right back. Surely there is a career he’s killing?

Denilson

On the receiving end of a lot of cyber anger yesterday. I’ve got to say, I thought he was superb in the first half. His passing was unusually creative and I thought he was playing his role very well. However, after we went one down, his good play was flushed down the toilet. He was missing tackles, jogging and guilty of poor decision making. He conceded the penalty and once again, his lack of mobility was on show for all to see.

Arshavin

Quite frankly one of the most embarrassing performances I’ve ever seen from a player who has so much talent. It rivals Eboue’s cameo against Wigan where he was booed. He completely missed the ball twice, he’s been hanging out with Song’s imaginary friend and can’t stop passing to him and again, his decision making was terrible.

I feel really bad for him, his confidence has been destroyed over the last month and the fans really did treat him badly yesterday. For me, when a player has that much talent, you have to give him a bit of love. Our lot have had enough and that’s very sad. What really gets me is that no one on the pitch put an arm around him and told him to pull himself together. For a team that has more spirit than a Jack Daniels factory, we seem to have very little communication on the pitch when things are going wrong.

… you know what, for a player that has given us 4 goals and 12 assists this year, the crowd were disgraceful.

There, I said it. I don’t like knocking people who pay to see the game but he was getting pelters for things that weren’t even his fault. Regardless of how poor he was, he still looked the most dangerous player out there and he kept plugging away.

One more player I have to throw into the mix is Thomas Rosicky. He was pretty awful all day. We’ve waited 4 years for him to come good, now he’s injury free, he’s next to useless on the pitch. He doesn’t score, he doesn’t assist and he goes missing for large chunks of the game. He is like a 100 year old time piece that has been left in the cupboard. It’s beautiful to look at becuase you can imagine what it was like in it’s prime, however, wind it up and put it into the real world, the timing is going to be all over the shop and it’ll never quite work the same.

That is really sad, but it highlights the harsh realities of top level football these days. Loyalty to perma-crocks gets you no where.

All of the above, combined with players who were doing a pretty good job ended up in us not being able to turn over a Leeds team who came to play football against us!

The game from a neutral perspective must have been fantastic, from where I was sitting, it was most awkward. Watching Cesc Fabregas and Theo come onto rescue us was a sad indictment of our second string. Watching the Spaniard play long balls was a grim reflection of the poor movement of our team.

Arsenal dominated possession in the first half creating plenty of chances. Arshavin went closest when he beat the offside trap, his problem was too much time, firing straight at Schmeichel junior.

The second half Leeds came out of the blocks and won a penalty after Denilson stuck a clumsy leg out in the box. Chesney dived close to the Snodgrass penalty but the ball was fired too hard for him to keep it out.

Arsenal fell to pieces from there. The midfield couldn’t keep hold of the ball and we nearly went 2 down from a corner, luckily Chesney pulled off what can only be described as a world-class save. We nearly shipped another goal when a freekick was zipped over the bar marginally.

Cesc Fabregas came on for Alex Song which was the first of the strange substitutions. I didn’t think the man from Cameroon was having a bad game and there were plenty of others who clearly were. Cesc boosted our morale and we started to pressure Leeds.

The next sub was Theo. He came on for Chamakh, again, a bizarre choice considering 1) Chamakh was our leading scorer out there 2) Bendtner was having a shocker out wide and was clearly not in the frame of mind to move into the middle and have a stormer.

The final sub was Carlos Vela who came on for Rosicky, which was a fair shout, but I think Arshavin would have been a better option.

Anyway, we pressed and nearly won a penalty but Theo dived, something he admitted after the game, along with stealing Tommy Turner’s pencil case in year 4 at Junior School. Theo, we forgive you, your honesty and good upbringing shames the likes of John Terry and Wayne Rooney.

Moments later, Theo bounded into the area again, his shirt was tugged by Bromby, the ref pointed to the spot. Cesc stepped up and silenced 9000 very loud Leeds fans!

Jeez, that was close…

If Wenger wants to win the FA Cup, he’s going to have to make some big decisions about who he plays going forward. His second string aren’t good enough in large doses and that was highlighted today. Still, the good thing is we fought till the end, our heads didn’t drop and we have secured a replay. It’s not the end of the world, just a bit of ball ache having to head up to the North for a replay.

Arsenal’s fortunes changed when Theo came onto the pitch. He was excellent. If his finishing was a little sharper, he’d have won us that game on his own. He’s a real pleasure to watch at the moment and it finally looks like he’s starting to understand what is required at the highest level. I thought a JD once again deserves a big shout out. He was calm and assured next to the typically erratic Squillaci.

I also thought Gibbs played well it’s a shame he picked up an injury.

Oh wait, he didn’t… sorry, that last line was a force of habit.

Leeds deserve a lot of credit. They were physical, but they took the game to us today and that is a very brave thing to do. I applaud Simon Grayson for showing guts like that. It’s a shame that our players couldn’t handle that. There’s no parked bus excuse to hide behind today.

Next up… Ipswich Town in the Carling Cup… I’ve heard we’re on our way to Wembley if we smash these lot?!

Transfer Roundup

Arsenal are rumoured to be back in for Sol Campbell for a third time. I love Big Sol but Wenger opting for him over Chris Samba, Brede Hangeland or Gary Cahill would be a showing a severe lack of ambition. If he’s not good enough for Newcastle, he sure as hell shouldn’t be anywhere near our line up. We need a player who can play more than once a week.

Another player we’ve been looking at is Falcao of FC Porto. He is the clinical Columbian many clubs have been looking at for a while. He’s agile, technically gifted and I’ve always been impressed when I’ve seen him play. He’d come at a price but when you’re one of the richest clubs in the world, that matters not providing City or Madrid aren’t sniffing around as well.

I have been assured that we are scouting players at the moment, so there is a chance that we might have a new player this window.

Don’t hold your breath though!

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Arsenal take on resurgent Leeds… | Wenger leaves door open to superstar

January 8, 2011

So we’re just a few hours away from opening our FA Cup campaign against a Leeds side hoping for promotion to the Premier League. We can laugh and joke about how easy this game will be, but we have to be honest with ourselves, this is going to be tough. The Northerners aren’t coming down to take a spanking, they’re coming down to turn us over much in the same way they did against United last year.

Complacency is a massive problem with the fringe players in our squad, so all the players need to be on red alert today. Going out the FA Cup in the first round will be hugely embarrassing for Wenger who is insistent everyone in his 25 man squad is top top class.

Chesney

Eboue Squillaci JD Gibbs

Denilson Eastmond Rosicky

Arsh Nikki B Vela

I’d imagine that’s roughly how the team is going to line up. I’d like to see Aaron in the starting line up but he’s still short of match practice. I think our midfield will be terribly weak regardless. Eastmond for me is not a player I relish in the starting 11. He switches off and his passing is often poor when I’ve watched him.

I’m not sure he has the physicality at the moment especially against the hustle and bustle of a Championship side. That really is a pet peev of mine (yeah I said peev). If you’ve ever tried to put on muscle mass, the main obstacles are advice, time and the effort of doing it along side a job. If you’re a pro footballer and you’re light weight, how hard would it be to jump on a weight gain programme and manage it with the best coaches in the world?

Nik B has a great opportunity to shine today. He’s looked off the pace all season, so this will be a big chance for him to climb the pecking order again. He has to want to play as a striker this afternoon, all that dropping deep into midfield stuff is a nonsense. He needs to get into the box, use his height and work his way onto that score sheet.

If I was Arsene Wenger, I’d have Robin Van Persie out there today. He’s not scoring and he needs to be. A couple of goals against Leeds could kick start his year. Shame he’s made of glass…

It’ll be interesting to see how Carlos Vela plays. Apparently he’s a gem in training, he’s just not flavour of the month with Wenger. Seems odd considering he’s exactly the type of player Wenger normally goes crazy for. I guess 14 hookers in a hotel room is a bad career move these days. Times are changing…

Andrey Arshavin needs to recapture his early season form. He’s a wonderful player who has lost his way mentally over the past month. He’s playing for his future with us at the moment. I heard in the summer extra attention was being focused on his work rate in training and in games due to his lackadaisical nature.

Wenger’s admittance that he’s interested in Eden Hazard yesterday reinforced what I heard. It’s hard to see Wenger passing up the chance to offload a lazy 29 year and buy the best young player in France. That really would be an exciting move… though I’d be somewhat sad that we’d lose a true character and genius of the game in the process.

Players to watch out for from Leeds? Well, after watching them extensively this season, I’d say we’ll have to be careful of Beechio. He’s a fat striker who can be magnificent on his day. He has a shot on him and he will put himself about against our back 4 if given the chance. Leeds are coming to attack and will use their wide men to cause us problems. They’ve got two wide men who’ve got plenty of pace and trickery in Snodgrass and Gradel… so Kieron Gibbs and Eboue will have to be switched on today.

Leeds are not coming to defend according to Grayson,

“No, we won’t be doing that. We will try and play how we play on a regular basis. I want us to score goals. That is my philosophy.

It’s a great philosophy and one that we’ll hopefully punish with a glut of goals. We need 100% focus out there today for confidence going forward and for the chance of another piece of silverware. It’s an early kick off, so make sure you drink as much beer as you can on the train on the way in.

Enjoy the game Grovers, I’ll be back on tomorrow with a match report!

FA Cup day eh? There’s nothing quite like it…

P.S. One of my good pals works for premium Karaoke chain Lucky Voice. They’ve got a swanky cocktail bar in London’s Upper Street. I’ve had a chat with them and they’re currently offering anyone with an Arsenal ticket two hours private singing for free between Monday and Thursday. It really is one of my favourite bars in London, so I can’t reccomend it enough… it might also be a great way to appease your partners if they’re sick to the back teeth of Arsenal!  For more details, check out the Lucky Voice site.

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Exciting youngster flirting with Arsenal again \ Drug scandal \ He’s on his way out!

January 7, 2011

Good morning Grovers!

When I watched the Arsenal game on Wednesday I drank 5 pints of Guinness and woke up fresh as a daisy, last night I drank 5 pints of Vedette (It meant nothing Peroni) and sadly, this morning it feels like someone beat me over the head with a pair of Eboue’s dancing shoes.

Anyway, plenty of stuff to be getting on with!

First up, did you hear the one about the drug smugglers who used a framed Adebayor painting to sneak £3000 worth of cannabis into the country? No? Well, it’s true. Seriously, 1) Who in their right mind would ever import a picture of that muppet to put on their wall 2) The painting was sent to a Tottenham address.

Blimey, they don’t make drug dealers like they used to…

There’s a humorous quip in there somewhere and it’s Friday… I’ll leave that to the joke merchants in the comments!

Rumours are abound that Samir Nasri is about to put pen to paper on a new deal worth a whopping £75k a week. That’s good news for Arsenal. I had my doubts about the previously chubby Frenchman. His talent has never been under question, though his character and levels of fitness were conversation topics on numerous occasions last season.

This summer he lost some weight, took some mean pills and he’s focused his efforts into becoming one of the most exciting players in Europe. Long may that continue!

Alex Angelo thought he’d e-mail me in a new song they’ve been singing about Nasri in the ground. Apparently the timing is a touch shocking for the other one.

If your happy we got Nasri clap your hands (clap hands twice),
if your happy we got Nasri clap your hands (clap hands twice),
were so happy we got nasri,
and this song will surely show it,
if your happy we got Nasri clapp your hands (clap hands twice)

That is a nice song isn’t it? Learn it and sing it tomorrow regardless of whether he’s playing!

Arsenal take on Leeds in the FA Cup, a game that I will be attendance for. Geoff’s brother is a massive dirty Leeds fan. I asked if he wanted to join me tomorrow to which he declined. He doesn’t want to sit in the Leeds end, despite being an ardent away follower because the jibes about cockneys make him angry. Surprising the Bear has an angry relation.

Arsene Wenger will probably be making 62 changes to the starting 11, hopefully that won’t affect us too badly, we really shouldn’t  be struggling against any Championship side regardless of how well they’re playing.

The exciting news is that we should at the very least be seeing Aaron Ramsey and Kieron Gibbs in the squad. It’ll be great to have those two coming back to full fitness in January. According to sources close to the club, Arsenal.com already have this article drafted ready for February 1st.

Leaked Arsenal.com document

I’m looking forward to seeing Chesney between the sticks tomorrow. He’s a very good goalkeeper and though he’s not been offered the number one spot at the moment, I’m surely he’s only a Fabianski injury away from taking over. Tomorrow, he must not be complacent, every home game is an opportunity to curry favour with the home fans. I hope he goes into this game 100% focused.

I occasionally catch a glimpse of what he writes on twitter. The shame of that platform is that it highlights how ill educated the English players are in comparison to the foreign guys. Craig Eastmond can hardly spell, I have no idea what JET is writing half the time and don’t even get me started with some of the younger ones. The only player Le Grove follows is JD, just so you know we don’t do any of that kissing up malarkey.

More exciting news hit LG towers yesterday. A team from a faraway land who go by the name of Galatasaray have shown an interest in taking world class goalkeeper, Manual Almunia back to Eurasia. If you’re a fan of the Turkish club and you’re thinking of writing an article to garner support for this purchase, let me tell you Le Grove and all its readers believe the Spaniard to be the most underrated keeper in Europe, sign him and you’ll be signing a gem.

FFS Sarah, I said wink!

Inbound transfer news once again sees us linked with Eden Hazard. The 19 year old Belgian is ripping up the French League at the moment and he’s drawing mental comparisons of Ribery. The difference this time is that we have the money to pay whatever is required, we have the desire to move from the player and contractually, I’m sure we’d be able to play him before the watershed.

This is a prime example of a player who clearly has it all to be a world-class. Like Bobby Pires and Freddie before they left their clubs. You can bang on about knowing nothing from Youtube, well, I hate to break it to you, but Samir Nasri and Andrey Arshavin were Youtube sensations as well.

Snap him up Arsene, before Madrid do!

Finally, before I go, a few after thoughts about the City game.

To all the City fans moaning I wouldn’t let them on yesterday, well, I was stuck in Ellesmere Port, Geoff is in Thailand and we can’t currently afford a comment moderator to work in our absence. Something I’m sure the Sheikhs lay on for City bloggers.

I think as Arsenal fans, sometimes we do have a blinkered view that teams should come and play to our strengths. We’ve been starved of tactically astute management for the best part of 15 years. That’s not a criticism, we’re usually stocked full of players who are too good for tactics. That’s why we shouldn’t get too bent out of shape about City’s approach. They knew if they came to play, they were getting a spanking. Instead, they parked the bus and came away with one more point than Chavski and Spurs did on Wednesday.

£300million really should be able to buy your manager more options than that, clearly it doesn’t, which goes to show you how well we do on our comparatively limited budget.

Dare I say it, perhaps Arsene should be having a think about what City did when considering how to play against Barcelona.

Another point I was thinking about yesterday was the unfair treatment Chamakh appears to be receiving. His goal record has been far superior to Robins this year, yet he’s been demoted to 2nd substitute. Robin is a class above the Moroccan and we need to get him fit, but selection clearly isn’t on merits if he’s constantly getting in ahead of a striker who’s scoring goals. The pitfalls of a competitive squad I guess. This time last year we were wondering where the goals were going to come from full stop (until Nik B stepped up)!

Right, that’s your lot today… if you’re feeling frivolous, drop a comment in the section below, we’d love to have you onboard!

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Absolutely shameful. Arsenal vs Manchester City match review + player ratings

January 6, 2011

There was a bit of relief worry when Fabianski was thought to be injured before the game. Luckily he wasn’t…

The line up was unchanged from the Birmingham game, could we defeat the might of the petro dollar, could we pull away from the pack… well read on and I’ll tell you!

Alex Song has gone all David Beckham of late, as Geoff correctly called yesterday, the man from Cameroon rolled out onto the pitch with yellow hair and a yellow beard to match. I’m struggling to see why he’s decided to model himself on Portuguese drug cheat Xavier, but regardless, he’s managed to get an additional paragraph of PR on this Arsenal blog, so 1-0 to Mr Song!

Manchester City lined up in desperately negative fashion and in the opening 45 minutes, they were subjected to what can only be described as a mesmeric display of Arsenal power and dominance.

Almost instantly Samir Nasir and Cesc played some neat one two football in the middle of the park, Jack was found in space, he cut the ball across goal to Robin who failed to make connection by 2 inches. If only the Dutchman had eaten one less pie before the game (Euro 96 Gazza reference before food disorder groups get on my case).

Soon after, Jack Wilshere ripped a shot at Joe Hart’s goal, it was so fierce, the Englishman could only parry it. Proving this was not a one-off, Robin found some space with a Cruyft cut back and unleashed another thunderbolt at goal. Who told the boys they could shoot?!

Jack Wilshere nearly broke the deadlock again after placing a controlled volley to the right of Joe Hart. The City keeper was equal to the shot again. This was starting to feel like the Arsenal of old, pummeling the goal with little reward. Give me this type of game over a flat impotent possession football any day of the week!

As the game wore on, City started to gain a foothold, they were trying to control the pace of the game and keep it as dull as possible. They had their first chance from a set piece. The ball was launched to the back post, Sagna missed his header, Tevez cut the ball back but Song was on hand to clear.

We went up the other end, Cesc’s placed a shot at Hart’s near post, only to be denied by the woodwork, Theo was on hand for the rebound and hit the post again! It’s worth noting he was offside.

The final bit of controversy of the half came when Theo was slipped in by Robin, Kompany went to defend, Theo crossed and hit the ugly Belgians claw but the ref deemed it accidental handball. If you took your £6.99 Arsenal branded goggles off, you’d probably say that was a fair decision.

The second half started off with slightly less fanfare.

Van persie went close when he weaved his way into the box but selfishly tried to fire in from a nightmare angle.

He then unleashed a powerful shot from 30 yards that Joe Hart managed to tip round the post superbly well.

The second half was a much flatter occasion, it seemed as though we’d peaked too soon and we never really recovered the same excitement, tenacity or creativity. That was a shame, but I guess you have to hold your hands up and say City are an exceptionally talented squad of top professionals. You can’t really expect to dominate in the way we did for 90 full minutes.

The only real excitement came late on in the half when Sagna and Zabaleta clashed down the right. It was a bit of a nothing challenge, but the Frenchman felt aggrieved, jumped up and butted the City man twice. They both received red cards, which was probably a  bit unfair on Zabaleta.

I really hate to see players head butting, it’s a vile act and not really the Arsenal way. It’s also very odd to see a player as placid as Sagna act in such an ill disciplined manner? Maybe he was upset that the worst haircut in the team no longer belonged to him? Maybe he was frustrated by the light blue chavs failure to play football. Who knows… it’s just a pain we lose a top performer for a minimum of 3 games.

Thoughts on the game?

Well, on the strength of that game, if City are title contenders, then so are we. The first point is that we didn’t lose the game and we’ve taken 4 points off a top 4 rival this year. We absolutely showed  we were the better team out there today and we played some superb football in the first half.

I think it’s absolutely shameful that a team worth £170million can come to London and play that negatively. If I were a City fan I’d be embarrassed I had a coach as wimpy as that. Playing surrender football in the Premier League goes against all we know, blasphemous if you will. Playing defensively with that side is like buying a £3million country manor and sleeping in the shed.

I’m a little disappointed we didn’t go for the jugular in the second half. I thought maybe the coach could have changed things up earlier in a bid to snatch the three points, but the simple fact is that if win our game in hand, we’ll be second, though a massive 7 points off the top of the table (assuming United win their game  in hand).

For me, tonight simply proved how wrong Wenger was to rest 8 players against Wigan and how costly those dropped points were early in the season. It’s ok saying it was a tactical masterstroke because we had players fresh for Birmingham, but when you look at the festive mini table out of the top 5, we finished 4th. Those 2 dropped points mean that instead of United having to drop points in 2 games for us to catch them, they’ve now got to drop points in 3 with us taking the maximum from ours.

Insurmountable? Of course not… A big ask? I think so. United have all the experience going into this home stretch. On the flip side of the coin, it is always nice to be the underdog. Arsene certainly thrives on that label and it relieves the pressure. It’s United’s to lose and we’re only in January. It doesn’t matter how great you are, that is a lot of pressure to carry for 4 months!

From now until the end of the season, the tinkering has to stop. Rest players by all means but not to the detriment of  team understanding or shape. Dont try to appease the dressing room sulkers and don’t try to spin us a yarn that the team with the youngest average age (you do keep reminding us of this fact) needs the most rest. I read an interview last year from Alex Ferguson and he said you shouldn’t need to convince players they’re not tired in the home stretch, the adrenaline carries you home.

Wenger, be a winner from now until the end of the season. Show us you’ve got the courage to see this season through. We won’t get a better opportunity than we have now… with the right decisions, we could end this May with something more exciting than a Carling Cup, it’s down to you though to be ruthless and intelligent with your team.

Last night might not have been the desired result, but we’re starting to find our style again and we kept a clean sheet.

Lets take the positives and move onto the next game!

See you in the comments!

P.S. According to the media yesterday, Spurs were in it, Chelsea were not despite the muppets down the road only being a point above the Chav’s. They both lost last night, so as far as I’m concerned, they’re both out the race.

Ratings -

Fabainski – Very little to do. His kicking was good. 6

Sagna – He nearly cost us from a set piece and managed to land himself a red card. 5

Clichy – I thought he had a solid game. No drama. 6.5

Kozzer – Always plays more advanced than JD mopping up on the ground and on the floor. He likes playing with the Swissman. Again, no drama. 7

JD – Made a couple of super interceptions and kept City boys very quiet. 7

Song – I thought he had an excellent game. Is it a coincidence I have blonde hair and so does Song? Probably not. He had great discipline today and did his job well. 8.5

Jack – Much more of an attacking threat than he has been of late. Combative in the middle of the park, crisp with his passing. 8

Cesc – Menacing in the middle as always. Chipping away City all game. Unlucky not to score and assist on a few occassions. 8

Walcott – Starting to use his pace in a more productive way. He’s also showing that he knows how to turn defenders and create space for himself. Very impressive. 8

Nasri – He’s a dream to watch this year, he’s skillful, aggressive and powerful. I love him. 8

RvP – Slowly beginning to find his feet. I think his freekicks are poor and wasteful though. Needs to get a bit more snap into his first time shooting. 7

Subs -

Bendtner – Didn’t really do much. 6

Arshavin – Clearly not the impact sub I’d hoped he’d be! 6

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Posted by Pedro

Cesc warns Arsenal fans on Twitter we will see a new player today, but fear not!

January 5, 2011

What? A new player and Cesc says don’t be scared! What is this all about? Wenger has already said Arsenal will not be buying a new player unless Tomas Vermaelen contracts bubonic plague.

Le Grove can tell you it’s a new Alex Song hair do, thanks goodness, not that we aren’t signing a new player, you all know my views on that, but that Song is getting rid of the worst hairdo I have seen on a human being.

I also hope the players wind up Kolo Toure on winning his first piece of silverware he left us to get, I didn’t think he was after a tear up trophy though, I wonder who won that bundle and I wonder what that was all about?

Toure – I wouldn’t have left Arsenal if I knew you were coming Elephant head

Ade – IdowhatsbestforAdebayorIwanttobelovedsobogoffbanjoarse

Yes it was all meant to be joined up, that way it sounds like Ade, still I hope he’s not playing tonight, although booing him was massive, massive fun, he is the sort of irritating git that would score against us.

I think the team will be up for it tonight and I really think we’ll win big, we will send a message out to the rest, the others have to start losing soon, maybe this is the beginning, beat the Northern chavs tonight and we are back in the top two, what a great start that would be to the new year.

This is the team I expect to see tonight.

Fabianski

Sagna Djourou Koscielny Clichy

Song

Wilshere Cesc

Walcott Robin Nasri

Put this lot out and expect the same pressing game we had against the chavs and the brummies, I feel the crowd will be noisy tonight and if they give us what we want I know they will hear and feel the love back.

Pedro has a Club level ticket available for £75, you deal direct, nothing to do with us, we merely put you in touch, we are fun facilitators.

If you are going tonight, enjoy the game, if you aren’t, enjoy the game, this is a big one, isn’t it great that these days we get so many big games?

Spare a thought for all those poor sods in Rockhampton, Queensland, floods poisonous snakes and Crocodiles, still it could be worse, the could live in Tottenham, seriously though, I hope the water goes down soon, we have a lot of Australian Grovers in our worldwide family and our thoughts are with you all!

Have a great day but a better night!

964 Comments | New Review | Permalink
Posted by Geoff

City lose their flair player, so advantage Arsenal!

January 4, 2011

The latest news is that David Silva is out of the big clash and that has to be good news for the Arsenal, if it could just be arranged to bang Tevez on the head I will be celebrating earlier than expected!

We are apparently after the 6ft 5in giant Per Mertesacker, but have offered £1.5m less than the German club’s valuation, and it’s because we are offering less than they want I believe there may be some truth to the story. He is just what we need, imagine him and Johan or him and Vermaelen, awesome. Dream on though Grovers, you know what Wenger is like at admitting he was wrong.

Barca have now turned their attention to our new star Samir Nasri, I hope that’s true because that will show Cesc their love for him was a one season wonder, Nasri wouldn’t go there, he loves us way too much, but life wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t have Barca after half our team would it!

Only one day to go to the big one, I think they were lucky to beat Blackpool and that was at home, we were unlucky not to score more at Birmingham so it promises to be a good night for the boys, I am confident we’ll stuff them, I honestly fear no team anymore, the way we’ve played with this team against the chavs and the brummies has lifted my expectations.

If anyone out there hasn’t seen the Alex Hleb clip then they need to, it’s priceless, in it he says that Cesc is his best mate and he regrets leaving Arsenal, I hope he tells Cesc that leaving to go to Barca was a massive error and not to do the same.

How strange that old red nose is praising Pulis, just before they go there to play them, is Pulis that thick he will fall for it like the Crow did with the Cheese and the Fox. (Aesop fable)

So unless Wenger surprises us with a tasty couple of signings, it’s another quiet day in Arsenal land.

Enjoy today, this is my last posting from Spain, today I fly back to Blighty!

Read more: Mertesacker

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Posted by Geoff

Arsenal’s Wellington off to Spain, back in 2 years! Just like Carlos…

January 3, 2011

As far as I am aware Wellington Silva will have to go on loan to Spain for 2 years, I think it’s 2 and not 3 but either way it’s not going to be an exceptional talent visa that Denilson and Song got, not sure how those visas work out but I don’t understand as we are all in the EU, the Spanish work under a different set of rules though don’t they.

Thing is we waited all that time to see the incredible talents of Carlos Vela who chose us over everyone and we never see him, me I’d get him out to Bolton and give him some Jack Wilshere treatment, I like Carlos and only wish he was one of the chosen ones that get chances galore, Song, Denilson, Diaby, Eboue and Fabianski spring to mind.

The window is upon us but unless we find another 16 year old somewhere we won’t be signing anyone, as usual I see more out than in and even though we desperately need a world class centreback he won’t admit he screwed up with the ageing Squillaci and the centreback that can’t head the ball, Koscielny. I would however use him as a spare DM until Frimpong is fit again.

Years ago you bought 2 English pups, Francis Jeffers and Richard Wright, they weren’t cheap either, I think Franny was £7.5mil and Wrighty was £5mil, either way you decided soon after you made a boo-boo, you got rid of them both in a hurry, you need to do the same with your summer (French) signings, we need better, our defence is worse than last season and we can all see it, I can’t believe you can’t, study the stats Arsene, you normally do.

Big game coming up on Wednesday and I see no further injuries, fantastic, play the team that beat the chavs and the brummies Arsene and you won’t go wrong, your first team is awesome and would beat anyone (plus a world class centreback) but your spare team is very ordinary and I hope like hell you don’t put them out again all at once, Eboue is a great right back, but bad anywhere else, Diaby is a waste and the rest you all know about.

Our first team however is a joy to watch, bring them on boss! Also let’s get Aaron back into the team quickly, he is a class act, send Lansbury and JET to Bolton with Carlos, they’ll train and play together and get great EPL experience. Win, win!

Finally a question for Ade-the-whore, Ade, are you still feeling the love at shitty? You muppet!

Have a great day today Grovers, we have a big 6 pointer coming up and fortress ‘the Grove’ is becoming a fortress again, just in time eh!

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Posted by Geoff

Arsenal contain Birmingham’s scummy tactics | Wenger makes 8 correct changes

January 2, 2011

Just a quick report from me today, I’ll leave the discussion for you in the comments section.

Arsene Wenger demonstrated clearly the difference between first team and the second team. He brought back all the players we needed back and they put on a great show of skilful football and came out on top.

Birmingham turned up to boot us off the park. Roger Johnson weighed in with a horror tackle on Cesc early on then had the cheek to whinge like  Cesc had purposefully put his boot under his studs up foot. I really hate that. If you’ve done something reckless, hold you hands up and be man enough to admit it. Pathetic. Generally the sign of a simpleton. No wonder Tony Adams dropped him when he was at Wycombe.

Anyway, a few freekicks later, Robin was fouled outside the box. There were rumours the contact was light. Well, there were also rumours that the referee had left his red card in the dressing room. So to be honest, who cares how much contact there was because there was contact. If it was Rooney who went down, the commentary team would have been praising his intelligence.

The Dutchman stepped up and walloped it through the wall into the goal. I’m sure it took a deflection along the way which made it all the sweeter. Seeing that Scottish thug on the sidelines going apoplectic was pretty hilarious.

Did anyone see Robin handball it in our box a little later? Oh… I didn’t (snigger…).

Samir Nasri scored next after waltzing through the Birmingham midfield and banging the ball into the bottom corner. His celebration said it all, he was over the moon! I also liked seeing Theo go for the high five with Nasri, miss and hit him in the face.

The final goal really made me laugh, after some fancy interplay between Cesc and Nasri, the end cross came off one Birmingham player, Johnson switched off and the ball bobbled in off his shin. A shocking own goal, but karma certainly was restored.

Fabianski had his input into the day making a couple of very decent saves. He is still very weak from crosses into the box, his poor punches nearly left us exposed on a couple of occasions. A clean sheet was pleasing regardless and he did roll a superb throw to Nasri which nearly led to a goal.

I thought Kozzer played well in defence with JD. They’ve got different skillsets and it seems to combine well. Jack Wilshere had an industrious evening in the middle of the park against the Birmingham onslaught and Alex Song found the right balance between defence and attack again.

Arsenal have come out of the Christmas period with 7 points which on paper looks great, but in reality, that’s two points dropped in what looks like the tightest Premier League in history. Wenger shouldn’t have made those 8 changes last week, he should play to win with the best team as often as possible.

Anyway, it’s Manchester City up on Wednesday. That’s going to be a very tough game, but one I have no doubt we can win. It’s a six pointer, the boys will have to be at their best because it could be the catalyst to send us on a run until the end of the season. Manchester United are the benchmark this year, if we can keep pace with them, we’ll be in with a shout this year.

All in all, a fantastic start to the year. Beating Birmingham at their own ground was a strong achievement. It didn’t show mental strength, as Wenger alluded to, it showed what putting a decent side out does.

Have a great day Grovers, see you in the comments!

P.S. I have 2 pairs and a single for the city game. Drop me a note using the contact form if you’re interested.

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Posted by Pedro

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