Manchester City 0 – 3 Arsenal: Eastlands Turns Red
It’s hard to tell how much the early sending off affected yesterday’s game. I’m tempted to say not that much. At least it didn’t change the pattern of the game; City were always going to sit back, invite us on to them and spring quick counter attacks. That’s not an indictment of their ambition, it’s [...]
I’m Back / Jack The Lad / Man City Preview
Oh dear, oh dear. It’s been a little while, huh? I won’t offer you excuses. There’s been no big deadlines, no moving house or getting married. My dog didn’t even die. I have just been being lazy. Sorry. Catch-Up A lot of water has passed under a lot of bridges since my last post, we’ve [...]
Arsenal 2 – 3 West Brom: What a Waste
After Chelsea failed against their northern cousins in the early game yesterday we had an outstanding opportunity to close the gap at the top of the table down to one point before we play them next weekend. That we were unable to do so at home against a fairly average West Brom team smacked of [...]
The Shape of Things to Come / West Brom Preview
Afternoon Arsenalistas. So sadly we come to the end of a thoroughly enjoyble week in the Carling Cup, which, it’s worth recapping, saw us humiliate the Totts at their place, and brought about defeats for Chelsea, Man City and most embarrassing of all, Liverpool at home to Northampton Town. The other big teams found it [...]
Totts 1 – 4 Arsenal (Or 0 – 2, as it should have been)
The Team Sheet Fabianksi Eboue – Djourou – Koscielny – Gibbs Wilshere – Denilson – Rosicky Lansbury – Vela – Nasri Interesting lineup, clearly a departure from our Carling Cup policy of past years with Nasri, Rosicky, Denilson, and Eboue bringing a lot of experience between them. The only real non-first teamer in the starting [...]
Weekend Fallout / Totts Preview
As is customary following a disappointing result, I’ve withdrawn slightly from all things Arsenal (all things football, in fact) for a couple of days now. I don’t cope well with adversity, and after Saturday the first sign that maybe not much has really changed since last season, I’ve been working hard on repressing the memory. [...]
Sunderland 1 – 1 Arsenal: All Is Not Lost
The Team Sheet Almunia Sagna – Squillaci – Koscielny – Clichy Cesc – Song – Wilshere Nasri – Chamakh – Arshavin Against all odds we lined up at kick off with the same 11 who started against Braga on Wednesday. Whether it was fatigue, the notorious European hangover, or the stifling tactics of Sunderland, it [...]
Sunderland Preview: Feet Back on Ground
Us The bad news is that Thomas Vermaelen has still yet to recover from the very minor ankle knack he sustained on international duty. His absence, now running to three matches, means that Squillaci and Koscielny will continue their fledgling partnership. They have done well together so far, Squillaci has slotted in to the first [...]
Arsenal 6 – 0 Braga: Can We Get Carried Away Yet?
This will only be a brief (and late) match report, I’m afraid, thanks to time restraints and pesky work commitments. Gah, being a grown up sucks kids, make the most of it now. Anyway, onto things Arsenal. Braga pitched up at the Emirates yesterday evening as an unknown quantity. Reports of the quick counter attacking [...]
Braga Preview: Injuries & Opportunities
It’s a funny weekend in the Premier League when Man United, Man City, Liverpool, Villa and the Totts all drop points. In fact only two of last season’s top ten clubs recorded wins this weekend as us and Chelsea continued to build on very good starts. So poor have some of our apparent “rivals” been [...]
Pass Me The Bin / Bolton Preview
First some stats. Before our first game of the season, as I was sitting in the pub waiting nervously for it all to kick-off I picked up a discarded News of the World from my table and flicked through the sports supplement. It was a moment of weakness, something to distract me from my pre-season [...]
What Was The Cost Of This International Break?
Thank the footballing Gods that that’s over (for a month at least), the players will make their way back from international duty over the next day or so in their various states of disrepair, and we can start looking forward to Bolton this weekend. Sagna, Clichy, Diaby, Rosicky and Arshavin all played 90 minutes last [...]
Goalkeeper Thoughts / Pointless Squad Rules
So we didn’t buy a keeper. The Schwarzer deal fell through because of Fulham’s inability to find a replacement on deadline day, and with their reserve goalie facing a lengthy spell out too it was a total no go. For some reason we didn’t have any other targets lined up should the deal for the Aussie not [...]
Weekend Round Up: Wenger is Mr Popular
Our win at Blackburn kicked off a largely enjoyable weekend for all things Arsenal. Hearing Fat Sam after the match trying to explain that Blackburn ‘deserved’ a point for the number of times they managed to hoof it up into our area was amusing. The man clearly has a personal problem with Wenger, despite his [...]
Blackburn 1 – 2 Arsenal
The Team Sheet Almunia Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Clichy Diaby – Song – Cesc Walcott – van Persie – Arshavin The anticipated first starts for Cesc and Robin, meant that Wilshere and (surprisingly) Chamakh were relegated to the bench, while Walcott kept his place. Song’s return to midfield pushed out Rosicky, who played [...]
Champion Draw / Squillaci Even More Official / Blackburn Preview
So yesterday’s Champions League group stage draw saw us paired with Shakhtar Donestk, Braga and Partizan Belgrade in Group H. It’s a pretty forgiving draw when you look at who we could have got, but there’s a bit too much of an Eastern European flavour to it for my liking. We know from experience that [...]
Squillaci Confirmed At Last
To the frustration of many and the surprise of no-one, Arsenal remained tight-lipped over the Sebastien Squillaci deal until today. It took until Wenger’s press conference this afternoon, four days after Sevilla announced the transfer on their offcial website, and after the player had said it was “almost impossible” to turn down Arsene Wenger, before [...]
Squillaci Is Joining the Party, But Who’s His Plus One?
All I know about Sebastien Squillaci you could learn from a quick pootle around Wikipedia (guess how I learnt it?), but on the face of things he looks like a pretty decent signing. He’s probably not going to be a world beater, but I’ve always maintained that our next centre back signing didn’t need to [...]