It’s Monday morning and I feel good, Mr Wenger this is what Arsenal fans deserve.

October 31, 2011

Ok we won and we won handsomely, in style and beat the chavs with all their money by their biggest ever Premier League home defeat, justice!

I am I happy? You bet, am I satisfied? Not a chance, but after a win at Stamford Bridge, you’ll hear nothing negative from me, why? Because I am an Arsenal fan first, and seeing my team do that, whatever the politics makes my week, and now I go to work happy, and that is what I expect given the vast amount we as fans pay and what the management and playing staff earn.

Anyway I have to be happy with the summer, so why is that you may ask? All that complaining?

Ok forget how we got there, let’s go straight to the finish line first, we got rid of Eboue, Almunia, Clichy, Denilson and Bendtner, a combination of which we all wanted.

Cesc went and to be honest he was a crock for his last three seasons, a crap captain and since he’s been in the team we have won nothing, same with Nasri. So really, who cares? All I care about is spending the money on world class replacements.

And watching Kolo, Clichy and Nasri bench warm makes me almost as happy as seeing Ade screw up his career, the player that no one wants, ha, ha!

Enter Robin, uninjured he’s the best forward in world football, and a proper captain in the Vieira/Adams mould, what he did at the end of Saturdays game wasn’t about us winning, it was a thank you to the long suffering fans, I saw that, well done Robin, you are a top bloke!

Ok our defence is still all over the place but we still have Sagna to come back, Vermaelen is already back and Kozzer is starting to justify his cost at last. Mertesacker I like, he is the glue we have needed and he will start to get goals, of that I have no doubt. Don’t forget we were calling for him during the last World Cup.

Jack Wilshere really will be like a new signing when he returns and Ramsey is at last starting to fill Fabregas’s boots. If Ryo and Park kick on then we are starting to look like we can do some damage at last. And don’t forget OXO, our all new impact secret weapon!

I won’t name the duds, it’s not negative Monday, but a few top signings in the window could see us in the hunt for the first time in years.

I also know I have said that for years, it’s still true now so I hope he finally acts.

I would still bring in Cahill, Goetze will also do and Hazard, we will be screwed when Robin gets injured but Theo, saviour of England finally had the game that justifies his standing, and let no one ever say I didn’t believe in him because I always have. We still need another goalscorer though.

So all in all I am finally half-way happy and looking forward to seeing us qualify tomorrow, no flaky team Wenger, that’s what got us Barca last time. Let’s put out a strong side and win the group.

Have a great day today Grovers, tomorrow is the dessert to Saturdays main course!

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Posted by Geoff

Arsenal win their first ESPN Classic in years as they smash Chelsea! Ratings and Review

October 30, 2011

HIGHLIGHTS

Well, plenty of us had a good feeling about the game yesterday and we were duly rewarded in football heaven with a game that will go down in Premiership history as one of the best. For once though, we were not at the upsetting end of a classic. No, we were the team that came out victorious. The game was so ridiculous, if an American Film production company had scripted it as the championship game of the season, you’d have said it was unrealistic!

We started off incredibly shaky at the back, Djourou lost his bearings after about 2 minutes and allowed Ashley Cole to slip in behind him, the mobile full back cut a perfect cross across goal but Fernando Torres could only fire wide of the post. A pretty miserable miss even if it was early on.

Down the other end Robin Van Persie managed to work his way into the box, his cut back into the penalty area wasn’t met by anyone which was quite frustrating. Sometimes our players seem to have their sense of goal poaching smell switched off at vital moments.

We were under the most pressure, mainly because our full backs were having absolutely appalling games. The pace of Sturridge and Cole bamboozling the them time and time again.

Our first clear cut attempt on goal came when Theo managed to out pace Cole, he engined to the edge of the area and slipped the ball across goal to Gervinho who somehow conspired to turn the ball wide of the post in an attempt that could be classed as technically retarded.

The opener to the game came from a full back mistake. Santos dived in on Mata, who side stepped, created some space, whipped a cross in that evaded the falling Mertesacker, Frank Lampard put his diving header into the bottom corner.

Sturridge nearly made it two when he slipped into our box but sliced his shot just wide of the post.

We equalised on 35 minutes when Santos passed to Ramsey, the Welshman turned, fed Gervinho through the middle, the Ivorian cut to the side of Cech and Robin passed into the empty net! A goal the stank of the Arsenal of old.

Things almost turned to Chelsea’s advantage moments later down the other end when Sturridge turned in a cross that was fractionally offside. The worry for most Arsenal fans is that there was still a whole other half of full back exploitation to be had. Who knew that the Englishman was quite so polished these days?

Just before half time, calamity struck again. Chelsea won a corner, Lampard fired it into the middle of the box, Chelsea’s movement confused everyone and Mertesacker saw Terry’s run too late, he threw himself at the ball like a body guard throws himself at an assailants bullet, it looked like he made connection and it crept inside the far post. Yep, the far post Arteta was supposed to be standing on. Sunday league stuff, front post, back post… jeez.

The second half was going to be massive. We’d looked pretty sharp going forward, Robin, Theo and Gervinho were having a good game. The question was, could we stop ourselves leaking more goals and could we become more clinical?

Well, it didn’t take long to find out. Our full backs combined for the greater good, JD jinked inside from the right, he passed to Songinho who found Santos gallivanting outwide, the Brazilian breezed into the box and fired under the legs of Petr Cech. A surprisingly cool finish for a player having a weak game.

The team had come out fighting, we were controlling possession and looking far more threatening. What had Arsene said at half time?

Theo took the ball from outwide, cut inside, fell over, worked his way out of the pack, powered into the box and belted his shot inside Cech’s post! What a great goal! We were winning!

There was a good shout for a Gervinho penalty on 69 minutes when Ivanovic bundled him over just inside the box, it would have been a harsh penalty, but we were looking for more goals, a lead is never safe with us!

Sure enough we were right, Santos turned villain when his lazy pass was intercepted by a the footballing visual crime Meireles, he cut Mata in who took no time in firing off an absolute screamer past Chezzer. A ridiculous goal from a fantastic talent you felt should be wearing an Arsenal shirt.

No time for moping, we had a game to win. We’re incapable as a side of sitting on a 3-3 draw and praying for full time.

Our chance came when Malouda played pass an awkward pass to John Terry, he turned back to retrieve it falling over in the process, Robin sniffed out an opportunity, sprinted into the box, shimmied round the keeper and slotted into an empty net for our 4th! At that point I went so ballistic at the pub, I was told to calm down by my friends as a few Chelsea fans were looking less than enamoured with my well constructed JT opinions.

John Terry finally shows some respect to a foreigner…

Marvellous. Fitting. Deserved.

Things weren’t over though, this was either going to be a 4-4 like Newcastle or for once, we were going to make this an Arsenal Classic our kids and Grandkids could watch and talk about!

Rosicky helped forge a counter attack on 91 minutes, he passed to Arteta who held off, released Robin who powered a shot in brute force fashion for the 5th! What an amazing bit of attacking football to finish the game! Chelsea were buried, Arsenal were elated and the 3 points belonged to us.

The celebrations at the end of the match once again summed up the captaincy of Robin Van Persie. He’s injected passion into a passionless team. That’s such a massive difference this season. The players are a reflection of their captain, Cesc Fabregas wasn’t a leader. Robin clearly is, so full credit to him for an inspired performance and delivering yet again!

Conclusion

It’s tough to be anything other than over the top about a victory like that, away from home against the back drop of a truly dismal season so far. We’ve carved out a solid set of results recently and we’ve been quietly building our confidence. Today could have been dead and buried within the first 25 minutes.

We weathered the storm, built on our solid attacking play and out fought Chelsea with an inspired second half performance. Wenger sent the boys out with plenty to think about and they must have absorbed every word of it. That was one of the best games of the last 5 years for me. Beating Barcelona at home doesn’t quite hold the same weight as beating a team of Chelsea’s quality away and scoring 5 goals in the process. Wenger’s 500th win apparently? Superb stuff.

There were some gripes, I thought our full backs were pretty awful all game. Santos needs to up his fitness moving forward, he looked the weak link and for a Brazilian international, that’s not a good sign. His attacking play was ok, but pacey wingers are a regular fixture in the Premier League. JD was suspect, but he has the excuse of not being a right back by trade.

Mertesacker made some pretty costly mistakes as well. His problem is that if a player doesn’t do what he anticipates, he doesn’t have the mobility to react. Two of the goals today sat with him as the part of the problem.

Going forward we were inspired. Theo Walcott had a superb game, he was productive, he used his pace properly and his passes in the final third were well thought out. I also though Arteta had an industrious game in the middle. He really helped dictate play in the second half.

That leaves us 3 points off Chelsea and level with Spurs, though they have 2 games in hand. We’re back in the mix again, this year is going to be much like last in my opinion, every team is capable of losing 3 on the bounce because the league is so competitive at the moment. We’re still chasing down 4th as our trophy, what today told us is that on our day, we can still mix it with the best. It also showed great team spirit and that never say die attitude… something I’m not sure we had too much of last season. I guess that comes with experience eh?!

Onwards and upwards! Savour this day Grovers, gloat and get your smug on… Monday is going to be beautiful!

Ratings:

Chezzer: Conceded three but none were down to him. He did really well to command his box and dominate long balls in. 7.5

JD: A real mixed bag for the Swiss. He made some poor mistakes and he was continuously caught out of position in the 1st half. He improved with the game though. 5

Santos: A very weak defensive display, costing us two goals because of basic errors. Made up for it with a goal, but he seriously has to do better. 4.5

Mertesacker: Some clumsy defending combined to cost us. For me, he’s a good player, he’s just prone to lapses. He’s still finding his way into the game, but from what I’ve been told, he’s an absolute asset at the training ground. A class professional. 6

Kosicielny: I can’t really find too many faults with his performance today, he did everything pretty well. 7

Song: A strong performance and a great assist for the Santos goal. Held his position well and didn’t get bullied. 7.5

Arteta: Growing with the team and hardworking. His passing is improving and he’s starting to carve out a role in the team. 7.5

Ramsey: Covered loads of ground, landed an assist and made a general nuisance of himself all afternoon. 7.5

Theo: Used his pace and passing to great effect yesterday. He looked inspired, something he hasn’t done for weeks. Took his goal fantastically well. Top effort from a dangerous forward. 8

Gervinho: Guilty of a horrendous miss early on but didn’t let it affect him, went on to have a great game. 7.5

Robin: Man of the match performance from the man of the moment. Scored 3 superb goals, led us like a warrior and took the 3 points home for us! 10

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Posted by Pedro

Arsenal take on Chelsea at the Bridge… who’s dreaming of a win?

October 29, 2011

Chelsea host Arsenal today in a not so top of the table crunch tie. That said, a win today could put us within 3 points of the West Londoners, which you’d have to say, would be rather grand!

I’m not sure what has me dreaming of a win, but something does! I really fancy at least a point from Chelsea. They’ve blown hot and cold this season and apparently, they were totally riled by the reception they received from the QPR fans the week before, John Terry giving some back to the crowd at one point. The fact that they lost against such a weak team gives me hope and we know from seasons past that Chelsea have gone through some pretty serious dips after losing a game. Last years poor run was awful. Forget they recovered well in the end, they were out the running by Christmas.

Wenger has been talking about racism and abuse, saying both are the same. He’s kind of right there. If we’ve got a problem in the Premier League, it’s knowing where the line is. Trouble is, how do you manage abuse? Is singing about a players wife too far? Is singing about John Terry’s mum stealing dog food too far? Is singing about John Terry being a racist too far? Is singing about John Terry’s Dad being a convicted coke dealer taking things too far? Who dictates what is and what isn’t acceptable? A question to big for me and maybe the universe.

Back to the game…

Do Arsenal have it in them to grind out a win? We certainly have the fire power in Robin Van Persie to score. Do we have the spark in midfield to create the chances for him? Do we have the concentration at the back to mark the runs of Torres? Have we learned the lessons of the Old Trafford spanking? Big questions will be answered today.

Vermaelen has worked his way back into to contention, but for me, he has to start on the bench.We have something that resembles a unit in the centre of our defence at the moment, I don’t think breaking it up for a massive game is a good idea, regardless of how sharp Thomas thinks he is. Still, it’s nice to have a player keen on returning. I doubt Diaby would be declaring himself that fit.

I think the midfield will line up with Arteta, Ramsey and Song. Pretty much standard these days. Song has to do the basics today and make sure he tracks runs into the box from midfield. I don’t want to see Songinho out there today. Arteta and Ramsey just need to keep the ball moving and take a chance. Be direct and make sure Robin isn’t left isolated up top.

I’m not sure which wideman he’ll go for out of Theo and Arshavin. I guess he’ll probably go for Theo because of his burning pace. I’m not sure how many problems he’ll cause Ashley Cole, he used to deal with Ronaldo expertly, Theo is a far more basic player even if he is getting on a bit. Gervinho will take to the other wing and we’ll have to hope he has one of his more inspired days.

Personally I’d prefer to see a ground out 0-0 than see us go gung-ho and leave ourselves exposed. A point is good enough today, a win, well, that would be dream stuff!

How do you see the game panning? Let us know in the comments!

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Posted by Pedro

PHW puts in a poor AGM performance, Wenger puts in a solid one + some exclusive tidbits!

October 28, 2011

As the years pass, the Arsenal corporatism increases and you do sense that AGM’s become more of a chore than the civic ritual it deserves to be.

100 Fanshare slots were allotted to the people who had invested in buying up a tiny fraction of the club, the remaining 600 shareholders (down from 2000 in the summer) mostly took up their seats in a packed hall. Arsenal fans care about the way their club is run, it’s almost a uniquely Gooner thing, partly to do, I imagine with the manager and the club obsessing over finances over the past 10 years.

Before the white wash began, Myles Palmer sat next to me, one of my favourite Gooner sites over the years so it was good to have a chat with him.

The event kicked off with an embarrassingly under par Hill-wood bumbling his way into the introduction. I don’t mean to pick holes in a supporter of 70 plus years, but my gosh, has his involvement as the lead speaker has gone beyond a joke now.

He said Stan was due to speak, the crowd laughed/grumbled.

Ivan stepped up and gave his usual slick impassioned speech about the class of the club, how amazing the finances were (all we have is the ‘affordable‘ stadium debt now).

He said big investment had been made in the Arsenal website to help push the brand globally, apparently 110 million people across 80 countries now access Arsenal Player, couple that with 10 million highly engaged Facebook fans and you can see that the platform is there to kick on commercially.

They announced the much-needed medical centre (we’ve been invited to take a look around by the way) and how world-class it is and he also spoke about raising £600k for Centre point which helped them rebuild a property in Soho.

He also gave a massive shout out the Friar and Fiszman and said he was in awe of their achievements. He finished by saying a football club is about more than football. He’s right, it’s about community and giving something back as well.

He speaks! Via LG Instagram

Stan took to the mic… He’d flown in that morning and opened up by saying…

‘Hi there, it’s great to be here!’

He said they looked at clubs Europe wide but we interested him because we had a tremendous management team, a great manager and tremendous support.

He said he was in it for the long-term and that his family liked London. For me the speech was poorly put together and smacked of, ‘oh sh*t, you want me to say a few words’.

He kind of irked the room when he said, ‘I don’t know why people are so interested in what I have to say.’

Well Stan, we’ve seen plenty of clubs crumble under a sea of failed promises from failed investors. What you have to say is of utmost importance for fans keen to see us progress from the last 6 years of austerity. Last thing we want is a leveraged debt situation which would effectively put us back to square one.

The submitted questions were a bit of a laugh. Things started to get heated at this point. Well thought out questions were given short, non-committal answers read out from a script by a man the fans really have lost patience with.

The jist of the questions in a few lines is the club will stick to self-sustaining, they won’t take an equity injection, Ivan met all his targets which is why he was bonused, Tom Fox and his bonus scheme are private, no answer on price reductions if we miss out on champions league this year.

Someone actually called for PHW to stand down, then someone said we should bring back Dein! A touch clichéd by now, but it was clear, people weren’t happy looking at a board of old boys only interested in keeping the status quo. PHW wasn’t voted in unanimously, nor was Ken Friar. The Chairman actually forgot to vote in Stan Kroenke which was typical.

Red & White were also kept out of the loop, Hill-wood citing the vast banking experience on the board, just the sort of background you want to be bragging about now! There was plenty of heckling from the audience and plenty of jeering, which was very unusual for an AGM. Before Wenger took over, Peter unveiled a bust of Ken Friar which looked great and it was well deserved. I thought you usually had to be dead before you got one of those? Regardless, most of us were still in shock it wasn’t Eboue under the cover, maybe next year?

Wenger took to the mic to a standing ovation. He looked humbled by why he’d heard and like all good orators, he reacted accordingly. He took a moment to dig the media for twisting his words before beginning his impassioned plea for fan backing.

He went on to say he knows he is privileged, he hoped the club was on the right track and he defended the values of the club and praised our class ambition and bravery.

I do think Arsenal use this whole class thing to cover up failings.

‘Oh we ballsed up, but jeez, give me a break, it was self sustaining’

Imagine doing that at your work place?

‘Boss, that mistake was mine, but I did make it wearing a bow tie, a classy mistake eh?’

You can do self-sustaining and spend money. No one is asking for the club to plunder the overdraft. We’re asking for the cash to be spent where it’s desperately needed.

Anyway, he continued.

He urged the fans to be united as this was key to us competing. He said we’d been magnificent recently something I’ve reported on. The stadium may be 5000 short a game, but if those are the jolly come lately brigade (the fans given a ticket after the development bypassing the queue), we’re now left with the true supporters, which is making for a much livelier atmosphere.

He said last year was his toughest, he said he felt to blame for asking to players to win it all. Not sure why you should feel guilty about that.

Barcelona is the clubs greatest victory, I’m not sure about that. There are plenty of games I’ve preferred, like Old Trafford away when we won the League.

He said we lacked petrol to get over the line and having Cesc and Robin out for so many games was detrimental. Yes it was, but not having sufficient quality in reserve was the bigger issue.

He also took time out to praise himself on the keeper front, forgetting it took 2 years, him telling us Almunia was world-class and the fact Chezzer was 3rd choice. It’s all by the by, but that was a ridiculous ordeal.

He said he was involved in the decision to put up ticket prices, which was very odd.

Still, the overriding theme of togetherness shone through. I agree, say what you want outside the pitch, but 12th man in the ground has to be all of us if we’re to take a 4th position trophy this year. I do wish we were celebrating a great year from Arsene rather than a great speech… we need action on the pitch, not in the AGM hall.

I had a chat with the some of the commercial team after. That tour of Asia combined with Park Chu-young has reaped rewards already. Asian memberships of Arsenal player stand at 350,000 and apparently a recent Asian web chat with Arteta, Mertesacker and Yossi brought in a staggering 2.5mill viewers. Tourist packages to the ground are also selling much faster as well, like it or loathe it, if the home support won’t by them, the foreign apparently will.

We’ve also got a new state of the art interactive stadium your which has been designed by the guys who did Alcatraz and the Taj Mahal. Apparently we used to have a 100k limit on capacity. Barcelona tour 1.2mill a year. Now capacity has been lifted so the world is our lobster.

Overall a bit of a disappointing afternoon, but I guess it was to be expected. No open floor questions and no chance for the fans to get some real answers. I’d be very surprised if PHW is brought back to fulfill that role again next year, he’s so far past his sell by date he’s almost damaging our reputation.

Anyway, onwards and upwards, it’s Chelsea tomorrow and that my friends, is a massive, massive game! I’ll give you the preview tomorrow morning and a bit of insight that might float yer boat.

Have a great day and let us know your thoughts in the comments section!

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Posted by Pedro

Arsenal AGM – What would you ask? | Vermaelen fit, but would you play him?

October 27, 2011

Good morning Grover’s, the hot news this morning is that Thomas Vermaelen is not injured and is available for the match on Saturday against our blind-ist friends down the road.

It’s always super having a player like that available… If they’re match sharp. I’m not too sure how comfortable I’d feel having a player who should be eased into action, being thrown into the deep end 4 days after his first full 90. He’s never played with Mertesacker or Santos before and I fear this might be a little early for him. Thomas disagrees.

“Personally I don’t believe in that [needing games to regain sharpness].

“If I come back from injury after a long time I don’t believe in coming back and getting rhythm.

“I think it is just in your head and a mental thing – if you are a football player you have to be there straight away.

“That’s why I wanted to play today and I think it’s good.

“It was a good game for us, we fought hard and it was a deserved win for us I think.”

“It was great to be back and to get time on the pitch.

“I felt fresh, I’m okay and am available for Saturday.”

Interesting Vermaelen doesn’t need games to be sharp, Wenger said you need 3 months or something along those lines last year. It’s somewhere in the middle if you ask me. Still, you have to say, a selection headache I’m sure the boss will relish… and the best news? He’s on for his 50 straight games. Number 2, here we come!

Colin Lewin reckons the stats say our injuries aren’t that bad.

‘There is a perception that we suffer a lot of injuries and it takes our players a long time to come back’

‘The evidence is different. We don’t suffer from more injuries, on average, than any other team. Of course it varies year on year. We are very open with our reporting of injuries and the last couple of years have been good with regard to numbers of injuries.’

Well Colin, it depends how you spin the stats. I did a piece a month (injuries) or so ago that conclusively proved that last season United kept their key players for 25% longer than ours. You could say our injury record was good if you weighted the fitness scores across all 920 professionals we have at the club but I’m not sure you’ll get much agreement suggesting we’re no worse off.

However, what has to be said is that last year, we did see a marked improvement on the year before. Is that down to GPS? Maybe…

Fabianski has said he’s willing to stay and fight it out with Chezzer. I think his chances are slim but one thing is for sure, he’s a helluva lot better than Almunia! Though I must note, the Spaniard pulled off some blinding saves against Brighton the other night!

Today is the AGM, it starts at 11, I’ll be twittering away so if you like the channel, may I suggest you get following?

Stan is apparently due to mumble some words. It’d be nice to know what direction the club is taking. It would also be nice to know if he’s going to bin the same old tired sustainable business model rhetoric. There’s nothing sustainable about fleecing the fans every season. It’s outrageous when you consider the club spent £3mill on lawyers fees ratifying Stans offer to buy the whole club. Not good use of ticket increase money of you ask me.

I’ll also be interested to see of PHW gets some stick. He’s had another year of boozy PR quotes that don’t sit too well with me or the other cretinous fans who help fund his massive pension pot.

Wenger will probably take to the mic and answer some questions like he normally does. I hope people don’t forget where we are as a club right now. A few wins don’t disguise the total lowering of expectation we’ve faced inside a summer.

Anyway, should be exciting regardless of how sanitised I fear it’ll be… Push comes to shove, I’m sure I’ll drink my weight in tea and I’ll defiantly bag myself a Arsenal bottle of mineral water which i’ll auction off tomorrow.

Right, see you in the comments, throw me some questions and I’ll see if I can get them answered!

P.S. Theo to Barcelona! Haha! Funniest rumour since the same paper linked Eboue there last year!

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Posted by Pedro

Andrey stakes claim for the hole-ing role | Park Chu-Young announces his credentials | Arsenal Ratings and Review

October 26, 2011

Fabianski,

Yennaris, Squillaci, Vermaelen (c), Miquel,

Coquelin, Frimpong, Benayoun,

Chamberlain, Arshavin, Park

Thomas Vermaelen started as captain last night and Arshavin started in the hole just behind the striker. The midfield was pretty strong from a defensive point of view, but the back line really did look worry with only Vermaelen in there as proven quality.

Parks first contribution was to fall over, then get up, lay off Chamberlain who played a silly back heel. The opening 10 minutes was that dull, that’s all I had in my notes.

Frimpong started the first good move doing well to feed Oxo in from a wide position, the wideman breezed into the box but took too long on the ball and with it, failed to take his chance.

Chamberlain was taking a bit of a continental approach in midfield, the second time he was caught in possession in the opening half an hour nearly cost us, Pratley dispossessed him, sped away and only a good save from Fabianski kept the long range shot out.

Park was trying to make things happen down the other end, he dropped his shoulder on the edge of the Bolton box, made some space and fired a shot across goal from 22 yards, Bogdan was equal to it with a good save.

Kakuta, the future of world football, tried to catch Fabianski at the near post despite having two better options inside him.

Our possession play, even for a Carling Cup side, was poor. Lots of stray passes flying around the Emirates greenery.

Arshavin teed up Vermaelen from a freekick, the Belgian rifled it at goal, Bogdan saved, possibly breaking 4 bones in his wrist in the process.

Arshavin was at it again, creating space for Park to take a low placed shot, which was tipped round the post well by Bogdan.

Kakuta was running the show down the right, Miquel was giving him far too much space, he really did look Bendtner-esque outwide.

The second half started badly, Muamba dispossessed Frimpong in midfield, slipped in the impressive Pratley who cut it back to Muamba who took no prisoners roofing the ball.

Park strayed offside a few times, but two things appealed, a striker making the runs, a midfielder making the chances. It was like Wright and Bergkamp!

Benny was doing a solid job in midfield, he’s very similar to Hleb in style. He received the ball just past the dugout,  he dummied his man, cut the ball into the path of Andrey, he breezed into the box ad buried a shot past the keeper after being given the freedom of the area to shoot. A great finish.

Our second came not long after, Park ran into an offside position looking to be fed by Andrey, he held off with the pass, Park recalibrated, the pass was fed into him, he took no touches and  slotted the winner into the top right hand corner. Hello Thierry or Bobby!

The game wasn’t dead and buried for us yet, Eagles rifled a speculative shot at Fabianski who manged to fumble it over the bar… Very lucky! He made up for it on 76mins by denying Klasnic who was through on goal. His denial of Cahill from an unchallenged corner was pretty spectacular as well.

The game closed, the home fans got great value for money, we moved into the quarter finals! Hooray!

The victory train moves on… next stop, Chelsea.

Key Player Reviews…

Park Chu-Young – His first start for Arsenal was very impressive. He’s a sizeable Korean at 6ft and he’s quite strong to boot. He hangs off the last defender and looks like a more classic number 9 than we’ve had in the past. He’s intelligent, he’s not afraid to shoot. A massive thumbs up from me. 8.5

Yennares – He looks like Theo’s younger moustached brother, shave that off son, it’s not a good look! He was solid in defence and again, without blowing us away, he had an impressive debut. 7

Chamberlain – A much quieter game from the on fire man of the moment. He had a few telling runs but he was terribly sloppy on the ball at times and could have cost us. The folly of youth… He’ll learn, hopefully fast. 6

Frimpong – the sooner you realise 70% of his game is fire and brimstone the sooner you’ll realise how far he has to go. Far too casual in possession and at times thoughtless in the pass. On the upshot… His pace power and hunger for possession still excites. Passion is half the battle one. If Denilson had half what Frimpong had he wouldn’t be struggling away in Brazil. 6

Arshavin – Get in the hole! Yeah, that’s what Wenger shouted at the Russian pre game and it paid off. We created chances, we scored two goals and we looked dangerous going forward. He’s built for that position he has twice the genius anyone else at our club has trying to play that role. It feels silly not to give him a go. 8.5

Fabianski – Some top draw saves meshed in with a couple of scary fumbles just to remind you of why he’s number 2. 7.5

Vermaelen – Good to have his welcomed presence back in the side. He’ll be a big boost for the rest of the season, slightly humorous that after Wenger declaring hed be good for 50 straight games, he has a calf strain so is out for Sunday. 7

Miquel – Played at left back for some reason and he looked very suspect. He was pretty much solely responsible for giving Bolton any chance of winning the game. Kakuta took him to the cleaners on numerous occasions. In the first half he tried to stay tight to him, only to be roasted for pace, in the second, he backed off him, only to be foiled by his dangerous balls into the box. 5

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Posted by Pedro

We finally get to see Park at the Arsenal, but will it be a walk in one tonight?

October 25, 2011

So good, he levitates footballs with his mind

Tonight’s the night then, we will finally get to see our Korean wonderkid that we have for 2 years, but will he shine? I hope so.

Wenger had this to say about him…

‘Some people judged our players very quickly in a negative way and slowly they changed their mind through their performances. I prefer it that way round than the other. Some players like Pires and Henry took four, five, six months and they became exceptional players, Park arrived two months ago so that’s normal’

Well I’m not sure what that meant, a bit Cantona’ish if you ask me. I think all we have been asking is why hasn’t he played yet, when he continues to play the donkey that is Chamakh and Park doesn’t get a look in, you have to wonder. So I welcome the chance to see him play against the EPL new whipping boys Bolton tonight.

I think he’ll do well, for Wenger to mention him in the same breath as Henry and Pires is a big shout, such illustrious company, let’s hope the boy does good.

I think we’ll smash them tonight, we’ll have Oxo, Park, Frimpong and Coquelin on show and I hope he plays Miquel and not Squillaci with Vermaelen as that will be an interesting combination and we know Squillaci is a disaster waiting to happen, if I see him and Chamakh trot out I will be disappointed.

I think our reserves are much stronger this year so seeing players like Aneke out there won’t fill me with dread like his Carling Cup teams used to.

I’m going for a tonking tonight as there will be a few out there wanting to show their boss how good they are.

Here’s my wish for tonights team.

Fabianski

Yennaris Miquel Vermaelen Santos

Frimpong Aneke Coquelin

Oxo Park Ryo

I say this team because I would like to see them and I believe they all trained, I suspect though he will have Yossi in there as captain and Squillaci in place of Vermaelen. I hope I’m wrong though, Yennaris was born in Leyton so it will be interesting to see another young English talent on display tonight. I know he’s a midfielder but he also plays at right back so I put him in there in hope.

I put Ryo in there so Park has someone to talk to. I’m kidding, I know he’s Japanese, but I saw him in training and the thought of watching him and Oxo on the flanks is a mouth watering prospect, so I hope he gets the nod.

There are a bunch of stories out there about Robin signing a new contract, don’t get too upset people as Robin will be 30 at the end of this contract and Wenger doesn’t sign 30 year olds on big contracts, forget Keown, Adams, Wright and Bergkamp, they were all useless.

Anyway, if he wants to keep Robin he needs to sign a world class strike partner to play alongside him, if he’s not learned from losing Nasri and Cesc by now, he never will.

So lets all hope for a convincing win tonight and extend the confidence for the game against the racists in West London.

Have a great day Grovers, and hopefully a top, top night!

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Posted by Geoff

Arsenal season gathers momentum as Robin saves the day… again. Ratings and Review

October 24, 2011

The big German tracking the big Englishman

Highlights

What.a.weekend.

The best are always the ones you don’t expect. Beating Stoke was great, watching Andy Carrol blaze a last minute penalty was joyous, seeing United humiliated at home was superb but finishing things off with Chelsea being beaten by QPR and listening to John Terry wriggle his way out of being a racist… Well, that was just gold!

The game…

The line up was minus Robin, the coach opting to rest him in favour of Chamakh. He went with JD at right back and gave our defence quite a physical look.

Stoke stole in with the first attempt at goal when Etherington dragged a hopeful low shot wide. We were controlling proceedings though. Chamakh had his first attempt on goal when he latched onto a corner that bounced in the box, he could only steer wide.

The first long throw of the match took forever to come in, Delap’s time wasting is awful, it came in like a bullet but Mertesacker dealt with it without panic.

Stoke wanted to make a violent impact on the game and had their chance when a ball headed out for a throw and their full back smashed through Arteta (sunshine in my eyes, name check please!).

It has to be noted, Stoke weren’t playing with their usual intent. A draw at halftime was on the agenda for them.

We broke them though, Rambo chipped a delightful ball over their defence, Gervinho chested it down and fired in. No mistake today!

’1-0 to the football team.’ reverberated around the ground!

No sooner had the Ivorian made himself a hero, he’d made himself the muppet. Stoke had an innocuous freekick about 35 yards out, Gervinho managed to miss the dinosaur of Shawcross behind him, the defender made his move, the ball not the player was tracked, he picked out his header and after a bit of head tennis, Peter Crouch knocked it in.

Bad defending because of a switch off. I hope he was boll*cked for that.

The second half exposed that lack of spark we’ve suffered from most of the season, we had plenty of the ball but finding a decent outlet was proving tough. Theo was back to his infuriating worst and as Stoke got closer to a point, their gamesmanship started to shine through. Mertesacker was pulled down with two hands in the penalty area right in front of the lino who ignored the foul.

We werent helping ourselves, our forward three were playing far too narrow which played right into the hands of a defence who train to be an impenetrable wall of 8.

It was time for some changes. Off came Chamakh and Theo, on came Arshavin and Robin. The difference was immediate. Gervinho switched flanks and Arshavin put Stoke on the back foot with his unpredictable play.

It didn’t take long for us to pull ahead, Arteta chipped a ball out wide to Gervinho, he pushed into the box and cut back to Robin who bundled it over the line. Fancy that, a striker making a run into the box!

It didn’t take long for us to stretch that lead and bury the game, this time Gervinho took to the other winger, found his way past the dozy stoke defence, cut back and whadya know, Robin was there to help the ball over he line in quite grubby fashion!

3-1 up… The crowd were over joyed, the players even brought out some one touch football for us! Most stayed till the end and gave the players plenty of love and applause, was that because of massive train delays? Maybe. Who cares though, the players won’t know!

Ratings

Chezzer:  Hard to fault him for the goal. In the main, a solid game, his passing is improving and he doesn’t let high balls into the box phase him. Capello said yesterday that you don’t win anything without a good goalkeeper, at least we have that area covered now. 7

Santos: I can’t really work him out yet, one minute I think he’s the new Sylvinho, others I think he looks a bit slow and cumbersome… and dare I say it, a touch casual? 6

JD: I like the fact he’d clearly read my last match report and taken the Cesc comparisons literally. A few hospital passes had to occur before he decided that he should just stick to playing right back. He dropped a few Senderos like clangers but as the game grew, he started to play much better. 6.5

Mertesacker: I think it’s difficult to put the goal on him or Koscielny. When you have all the time in the world to pick out crouch in the 6 yard box, it’s always going to be tough to defend against. Overall though, things were far less fraught than they usually are. Less panic and no real aerial problems. A marked improvement. 7.5

Koscielny: He’s really starting to grow as a player next to an experienced centre back. I love his tenacity and the snapping at ankles he does. He doesn’t give anyone much time and I can see him being a solid asset for us this season. 8

Arteta: A much better performance from the Spaniard, he roughed it and he tried to play ball. His long range pass to find Gervinho for the second was top notch. He still isn’t sparkling, but I think that is more to do with him finding what his role in the team is than anything else. 7

Song: He’s certainly playing a deeper role this season, the bounding into the box of last year has been curtailed for the solidity of the team and when he just plays in front of the back four, he’s fine. His dodgy passing in the final third leaves a lot to be desired, but in fairness, if you watch defensive midfielders across Europe, there aren’t many that ooze class on the distribution front and his isn’t that bad in comparison. 7

Ramsey: A very encouraging performance from the Welshman. He covered plenty of ground and made it known to Stoke that he wasn’t a shrinking violet. Loved his energy, loved his assist and I’m pretty pleased he’s starting to find some much needed form. 8

Theo: A bit of a garbage game from the wideman. Sometimes he looks like a footballer, most of the time he just looks like a very fortunate sprinter. He struggles to dribble past players, he makes poor passing decision and unless a team lets him run at them, he’s a pretty impotent force. The crowd are far less forgiving of him this year and it’s a shame that after 5 years of dross, he’s not going to leave us next summer with us all regretting his loss. Must up his game, or the only club interested will be Everton. 5

Gervinho: Many have questioned whether he’s been a duff buy, I haven’t thought so. I think we’ll have form like this from him all year. He blows hot and cold, but when he blows hot, he’s hot. He was awkward, busy and clinical yesterday. His first goal was Thierry-esque with some superb control to boot, his two assists were fantastic as well, a proper wing wizard contribution! His best game in an Arsenal shirt and the perfect lift before the Chelsea game next week. 9

Chamakh: He’s just not a very good player. His movement is telegraphed, his control isn’t top four and his passing is at times, is horrendous. If Robin gets injured, I’m not sure how we’ll cope in his absence. 5

Subs

Robin: Came on and done the business as always. The big worry is how dependent we are on his talent. Outside him, there are no goals. He’s a massive boost for the crowd and he’s a massive boost for the team. Our whole game changed with his introduction and he stood up and let himself be counted when it mattered. A captains performance! 8.5

Arshavin: A great cameo appearance out wide or wherever he fancied playing. He gave balance on the wings. What I mean by that is that we went from 10 men with Theo on, to 11 men when Arshavin came on. 7

Frimmers: Came on, then lost it, then won it back. 6

Quick Conclusion…

We’re building a bit of momentum now. We’ve got a reasonably solid base to work from and we’re starting to find out way in attack. Chelsea don’t look quite so daunting after their loss yesterday, so overall, things are looking up. It’s an interesting step change in expectation amongst Arsenal fans at the moment, we know we’re not great, so every win holds that little bit more joy. 4th place really is going to be a trophy this year and after the weekends results, it looks like it’s at least attainable if we can grind out some consistency.

Roll on Bolton!

P.S. Make sure you follow the Le Grove Instagram for a bit of pictorial insight into the Arsenal, if you don’t have that on your mobile, check out our Tumblr account to see the images.

I’m off for a cup of delicious blind coffee to kick start my day…

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Posted by Pedro

Arsenal host the brutes of Stoke today… big game preview.

October 23, 2011

Good morning people of Le Grove! A massive game today against a team I know the players usually dread lining up against. Stoke come to town on their having jumped the barriers at Kings Cross, ready to mix it with Arsenal and prove that they are a force in the league. It’s up to us to show the Premiership that we’re no longer push overs and that we’re ready to kick on and give Chelsea a bit of a challenge next weekend.

Chezzer

JD Mertesacker Koz Santos

Arteta Song Ramsey

Gervinho Robin Theo

I’m guessing the above is how the team is going to line up, I’d have said Ramsey might not be in the line up considering his previous with Stoke, but the boss was full of high praise. When asked if he thought Ramsey could replace Cesc he said,

“Aaron is a different player. He’s more the type of guy to get into the box at the right time, a good finisher. I feel he has strong physical qualities. He’s a strong runner, he’s quick. If he develops his game he can finish in double figures for goals in the Premier League.”

Something I touched on the other day. Ramsey isn’t a Cesc replacement, he’s a different beast. If anyone is going to replace Cesc, I’d imagine it’ll eventually be Jack Wilshere. It would be great to see a super performance out there today from Ramsey, it’d be even better if he could change the game for us and send Shawcross and his chums back pointless.

Wenger has also done his best to forewarn the referees that Stoke tend to go in a touch more heavy-handed against us than they do against, say, Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.

“Tackling, if it is done well — with the desire not to hurt, but to win the ball — is a fantastic technique. I’m not sure that the referees always make the difference between the intention behind a tackle.

“I like players who are brave. but with the right spirit. I think the bravest players I’ve met are those who were physical, but did not hurt people. Usually, the people who play to hurt are cowards.”

I think he’s right there and this is definitely something refs get hugely wrong in our country. Because most officials are career officials, they didn’t play the game or weren’t good enough and that’s why they’re officials. They rarely see the intent, or if they do, they turn a blind eye to it because Arsenal have a tendency to moan and complain.

Arsenal need to show some proper team spirit today. We need to be in their faces if they do something violent, we need to match them if they want to rough it and the players need to stick together. If Robin is having a ruck in the Stoke penalty area, the rest of the players need to be there standing shoulder to shoulder, not slinking off back towards the half way line. That’s real togetherness, that’s real team spirit and it’s not something we’ve shown since the break up of the invincibles.

We need to play our game today, we need to make sure our passes find their man and the forward three need to make sure they’re moving and creating options for the midfield. We can’t afford to let violence dominate the game and we can’t afford to feel sorry for ourselves. If it starts getting silly, lets give some back and let the ref deal with it.

The most important thing we can do today is service Robin, he needs to be given chances, if he is, we’ll score. The second most important thing that needs to happen today is a big, dominant performance from the keeper. I hope he’s been practicing claiming long balls into the box. If Pennant is playing, he’ll put the ball on the 6 yard line nice and high, hoping Crouch or one of their lumbering forwards will match the keeper and knock it in. We also need to be aware of the long throws, they’re a nightmare to judge, so I hope plenty of after training practice has been happening.

I’m confident we’ll win today but it won’t be easy, they have quality to add to their brute strength. This is a big game for us, it’ll prove whether we’ve got the fight to kick on this year.

Lets have a massive day from the crowd as well and plenty of vocal support for Aaron if he’s playing!

Right, I’m going to start making my way up to the ground, remember the Victoria Line is closed and that the under 18′s are playing after if you want to stay and watch!

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Posted by Pedro

Arsenal’s main hope of success is returning to the George Graham days

October 22, 2011

Good day to you Grovers, there’s plenty of press conference goodness to get through this morning!

First up, Arsene has been reading Le Grove this week and he’s hit back at claims the team lacks creativity. He insists, if you analyse the spreadsheets deep enough, you will in fact see that we’ve been very creative.

‘However if you analyse deeper our games and, if you watch them again, then although we have some improvements still to make it is not as bad as people say.’

Well Arsene, it pretty much has been as bad as people say. We’ve seen steady improvements over the past two games but more on the defensive side. I do appreciate we’ll improve with confidence, but the fundamental issue seems to be more about spark from the midfield than it does about the front three.

I think this season is about playing as a unit and driving out results that way. A return to the George Graham days. The only way I can see us grinding out results this season is by creating a solid unit and performing from there. Much in the same way City did last year. They sucked the joy out of football in a bid to secure first place. We have to ask ourselves as a club whether style over substance is the important factor this year. People won’t like it, but they’ll enjoy the result at the end more. It was interesting to read that Mancini believes in the unit over the individual.

Something I’ve said we’ve forgotten as an insight for years. You can take 4 average players and created a world class unit. We instead opt for 4 brilliant individuals and forget they have to be able to play together. We make the assumption good players can just defend. Ignoring the fact the best clubs work hard and give players all the video and coaching help they need.

Mancini is so anal about the unit, he drills them without the ball so they know which are they are responsible for and they have ultimate accountability. His attention to detail was rewarded last year, I think Joe Hart broke a record earning 27 clean sheets. A feat we could only dream of. So much for people saying he’d have been a risk as a keeper way back when!

I can imagine when Theo picks himself up he’ll be great, I can imagine that a consistent Gervinho could also be a bit of a monster on the pitch, my worry is who is feeding them regular high protein, low carb passes? It doesn’t feel like Arteta has that sort of game, I don’t think Ramsey will pick up that style in a season and Alex Song, bless him, he’s just never going to be that player.

The real danger comes with the managers love for fielding Robin Van Persie.

“On Monday I decide always to rest him and on Friday I play him again.

“I don’t know about Sunday. We will assess everybody on Saturday morning, then I’ll make the decision on the day. But I will have to rotate a little bit.

“Robin has scored 28 goals in 35 games so you always have that dilemma. This season he is certainly [the best all-round striker in the Premier League] and, in the last six months, certainly the most efficient.”

Echoes of Bobby P before he crumpled out of the Newcastle game.

That Arsene, is why you make sure you have two world class strikers in the team, or at least make sure you have a hungry young pretender to pull off the bench. We can pretend there was no one out there this summer, but we all know that’s nonsense, other clubs seem to find these players. Instead, we lumbered ourselves with Park Chu-Young, who might be good, but he’s clearly not trusted enough to bring on at the moment and even worse, we kept Chamakh, who the untrusted Park Chu-Young replaces in the squad.

We don’t have a Wiltord for a Thierry or an Anelka for a Bergkamp. We don’t even have an Adebayor for an RVP. Players like Robin aren’t supposed to play back to back games every week, he’ll be in the red zone before you know it then we’ll be treading dangerous water. The trouble is, so much of the teams fragile confidence is wrapped up in the Dutchman, if you took him out now, what would happen? It’d be a serious dampener. But when do you rest him? Stoke? No way. Chelsea? No way. Marseille at home? Of course not!

The realities of a weak squad. The trouble with being scared of unhappy players on the bench.

It was interesting reading the coach defending Arshavin.

‘He is a great player and you have to give him credit for that. He stands up for his performances. I personally respect him highly and I think he’s a great player.’

I kind of agree with him, the fans seem to have it in their heads that he’s slightly over weight and therefore he is crap. They totally forget that he’s marjorly talented and that he is a contributor, in the main, to the things that matter. No, not pass completion rate, not most through balls that didn’t reach anyone, not final third shoulder barges. I’m talking goals and assists. In 2.5 seasons he’s managed 28 goals and 30 assists. That’s pretty good going and it certainly beats anything Nasri did for us (27 goals / 13 assists / 3 seasons).

It would be interesting to see him in the middle though, if he works as hard as the manager says, why not play him where he plays best?

Injury news is as we expected, Jenko, Gibbs, Diaby, Vermaelen and Sagna.

We’ll talk teams and anti-Stoke rhetoric tomorrow… have a grand day, rumour has it, it’ll be quite warm for the match tomorrow!

See you in the comments…

P.S. Remember to check out the Arsenal America podcast if you haven’t already.

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Posted by Pedro

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