0-5-1 - A decent away result

Fener 2 Arsenal 5

Not mixed from the lads, i think Wenger got his tactics spot on with Diaby playing in front of Fabregas in a surprise role, and he impressed. He has fantastic footwork and after a few neat touches he passed to Fabregas who slid Ade though and slotted home.

Moments later Theo was slid through by Fabregas again, he rounded the keeper and finished brilliantly after a bobble off the keeper forced him to an aquard angle. The boy is magic.

Sylvestre then got in way of Guiza, and it was 2-1. Utter shite defending and Almunia went mental at his defence, it was a shambles. We cant defend like this.

Long ball over top, set Diaby free and he slotted home nicely, a great display by the young Frenchman

Song, after half time, volleyed home, a nice finish, 4-1 and we are sailing! But...

A hoof over the top eluded Alex Song and Daniel Guiza flicked the ball beyond Manuel, again, shite defending. About as good as locking Gary Glitter in a children's home.

But, Ramsey hit a shot just outside the area that pinged in off the post in the dying seconds of the game, 5-2 and a first Arsenal goal for the Welsh hotshot, a fantastic week for him. A fantastic finish by all means.

A good win but not without worry. The Arsenal defence is shocking and the big teams may well be looking at us with relish after seeing how easily we gave goals away, it has to improve.

But, Fener were unbeaten in their previous 15 games at home in Europe and the win was no mean feat and was well deserved in the end, this is a team with a European championship winning coach at the helm, a World Cup winner in defence and a classy striker up front, a team that had beaten Chelsea, Man Utd, Inter Milan to name a few of the top class teams that have gone their and came home with nothing.

A good night, a good win but as i said, not without some defensive worries.

Back tomorrow with the latest.

Take Care out there.

Bad team news as we approach the trickiest week of the season so far

I will warn you now, what you are about to read will contain a lot of injuries!

Arsene Wenger spoke this evening about the state of the squad returning and the following are out of the visit of Everton and the trek to Fener in midweek.

Definitely out: Gallas (Hamstring) Bendtner (Ankle) Sagna (Knee)
Rosicky & Eduardo (Long Term)

Possibly out: Van Persie (Hamstring) Fabregas (Broken nose) Djourou (Concussion)

Well that is a right royal pain in the arse! The plus side of all this is that despite the break Fabregas should be alright for the weekends game, Wenger saying;

"It should not stop him playing. He is here now [at the training ground] and is being assessed."

Diaby will also be back in the squad for the weekend. I have a feeling Wenger will be really careful this time in bringing him back, building his fitness up gradually, maybe a few reserve games will do him good.

There will be one thing for certain and that is that its going to be a brutal week for the squad, many players put out 90 minutes twice this week and i would not be surprised to see a little bit of squad rotation with a very hardworking performance needed in midweek.

It seems we are always hit hardest by the international breaks, that's 5 injuries this time. Its damn unlucky.

It also seems Armand Traore may move on next summer if he does not get a guarantee of regular football. I found this quote particularly interesting though. He has been playing on the left side of midfield a lot this season but this, just maybe hints at the fact he prefers to play at left back;

"Obviously I want to play every game now but Gael Clichy is a great player in my position there at the moment."

Another youngster, goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny has stated their desire for first team football, i can really see this becoming a regular occurrence, especially when Merida, Lansbury and Randall are wanting first team football. We have to face the fact that many of them will leave.

I'm not really that eager to go over topics other blogs have covered but Fabregas's comments the other day do have me worried a little, maybe he is starting to get a little frustrated. However, the most concerning part is this phrase;

"We find it very hard to win matches, as we do not possess enough experience."

Winning is very much a habit and we are very inconsistent at the moment, that is down to the inexperience i am sure. But the question is, do we stifle youngsters with a more experienced player?

The answer, yes or no, will have people disappointed.

Right thats your lot, thanks for reading and i will be back with more team news when its about.

Post match round up

“I think it was perhaps the most complete performance of the season.” - AW

After the win yesterday Arsene Wenger has praised the teams attitude. I feel it was a much better overall performance, despite the opposition being total and utter rubbish, but you can only beat the team in front of you and thats what they did in style.

Wenger said;

“We were focused. I thought at times we were a little bit too tense, especially at the start of the game. But we were focused and at that level, whether it is the Premier League or the Champions League that is vital. I believe that on Saturday we were caught by a lack of focus.

“I think the team is maturing and there is big potential in the side. We want to be intelligent and in the end you measure that on how well we do together.”

The start was nervy but that wasn't surprising, i feel the crowd didn't help, there were massive groans everytime a player made a mistake and that cant be nice at all. Saturday is done, this was a different game and we needed to get behind the team, im not having a dig at fans i just feel we dont help ourselves sometimes. Liverpool and Fenerbache fans make their staduims a couldron, so should we.

Theo and Cesc were picked out for special praise after a fantastic performance from them. The boss said;

[cesc]“I think he was outstanding tonight. He was good defensively and offensively and overall it was the ‘complete performance’.”

[theo]"Theo was dangerous again and he makes big progress and a big improvement. It was the response I wanted. It is half of the response of the week, the other half comes on Saturday"

The boss also confirmed that Theo is not injured. Great news.

Manuel Almunia has also praised the performance and expects it to be repeated at the weekend, the 'keeper is an important part of our team i feel, he is not experienced on the pitch but he has sat in many dressing rooms many times and offers the experience of knowledge and also experience of life to the younger players, some of whom have not yet seen 20 years of age.

He has though admitted attitude was our downfall against Hull;

"I think Hull deserved the three points because our attitude wasn't very good during the game."

Onto Van Persie now; he seems to have really pissed Sneijder off when he was at the Euro's, apprently their conflict stems from Van Persie taking a free kick 'against his team-mates wishes' Just seems the latest bust up in a long line of bust ups in the Dutch camp.

He has also been spoken about by Adebayor, who believes their partnership can fire us to glory this season;

"We are working hard for the team - he has got the same ambition as me,"

"We are here to help this team, we are here to help win something so I'm very pleased with the way he played against Porto.

"I gave him a pass and he gave me a pass. That shows there is a good relationship between the two of us.

"We are very happy and hopefully we can help this team win something this season."

Why not? on their day they are two of the worlds best strikers so they really should be firing us to glory! I have faith in them.

Well thats about it today. Join me tomorrow for an interview with Yogi's Warrior from 'A Cultured Left Foot'. A link can be found on the links section to his blog.

Thats it from me, take care gooners.

Arsenal 4 Porto 0

Well that was all rather nice wasn't it? A great response from the boys with Van Persie and Adebayor among the goals again, but, it should have been much, much more.

It started off nervy, Porto had some great opportunities that again exposed our very weak defence, Clichy had to clear off the line after Gallas lost his man, again. However, Theo Walcott terrorised the back line of Porto all night constantly running at them, looking for the killer pass and just plain pissing off his full back! I have to mention a stunning save from Manuel Almunia, Gonzalez let off a thunderbolt and he dived full stretch to his left to deny the Porto forward. A magnificent piece of goalkeeping.

The first goal was a very nice poke home for Van Persie after Adebayor slid the ball across the goal, he managed to get the ball out of his feel to slide it in at the near post. 1-0 and the fans wanted more. Much more.

The second was from Adebayor as he headed a fantastic cross into the ground that bounced up and out of the reach of the disparing keeper, Ade and Van are back alright.

Van Persie's second and Arsenal's third was a result of some simply horriffing defending, VP skipped round 2 players, was allowed to stroll past Porto's most experienced defender and prod nicley home. We were crusing and with 43 minutes to go a cricket score was possible.

This was when we had a whole host of chances, Walcott somehow missed an open goal, same goes for Nasri and Adebayor should have made it seven. You have to wonder what this team can be if they are more clinical. Walcott had the defenders shitting their panties and Nasri was a threat from range. Fabregas also pulled a save out the keeper with a shot from the edge of the area. He was truly immense. He cant be 21 can he?

Enter Vela, his first touch was to skip around 3 players, lay it off to Nikki B who just couldnt work the space to shoot. The commontater was shouting 'Watch this boy go' and the nations eyes were fixed on him. what a talent. Bendtner has looked brilliant too.

Adebayor made it 4 after Bendtner was felled in the box, sent the keeper the wrong way, cue dancing and badge kissing and the like. I want to see that more often Ade.

There was even time for cult hero Eboooouueee to do some step overs Ronaldinho would have been proud of, sadly the second time he tried it he trod on the ball. I love Eboue, he has his haters but he never fails to either enrage or entertain!

Overall, a very positive performance from the boys, the same defensive worries are still there but it looks like Wenger is going with the policy; you score more than you concede, you win. I hope it works! Saturday is not forgotten but Arsenal are well and truly mixing the cement i mentioned earlier and thank fook for that.

Take care out there.

Night.

Wenger, tackles, Platini, Cesc and youth

To start with then, Cesc Fabregas has spoken of how the young gunners are keeping him awake at night. No, its not them playing with their little kiddie toys, its their class on the pitch that worries him, he reckons they will be after his first team slot soon and recognizes the fact that he has to raise his game;

“I cannot go to sleep as one day or other they will want to play more and more and the manager will want them to play more.

“I will have to be better and better. Wilshere, Ramsey, Merida — they all play in my position. This is great for me. I love competition.

“If the players are so young you can feel your place is too secure.

“So it’s fantastic to have competition — to wake you up and make you a better player.”

Well if he raises his game he will be a truly sensational player, and you know what, the guy is years away from hitting his peak and thats a very scary thought for the opposition.

He has also pledged his future to the Gunners, as long as we continue to play football the way we do he will not go;

“It was not a hard thing for me to stay. I was really relaxed during the summer because I knew I was going to stay at Arsenal.

“I am so happy here that I will never think about moving as long as things keep going the way they are.

“For me it’s not a problem. My mentality is the same since the day I signed for the club.

“What’s the point in having millions and millions in the bank if you don’t enjoy playing and you are not happy?

“I am happy, I love the way we are playing and the fact I’m still here after three season’s without winning anything means something.

“It’s because I love the game, I love the club and I love the way we play football.

“I really enjoy the way we play on the field and for me, that’s the most important thing.”

What a legend he is, a truly remarkable player. I hope we get the success he deserves.

He says when this side wins something it will be very, very special;

“I won the FA Cup and that was a great feeling but I won it with Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp – the team was already done.

“To win something with this team that is completely new would be something really special. I really want to do it.”

You know what? i really think we can win any competition, we are good enough and after all, we've got Cesc Fabregas!

Sticking on the subject of youth, Wenger has spoken about why he didn't sign a player on deadline day, the youth we have. The Genius said;

“I believe we have many good players here and we try to sort out any problems collectively as a team,

“We lost some top-class players in the summer but we always try to produce good young players and develop them. I always feel with the youth policy, the Club has a security and even if one or two players leave, we are strong enough to cope with it.

“I was convinced by our season last year that we are strong enough to challenge again.

“Of course it is a long, long race, but we want to show we have confidence and belief in our players plus we have the stamina to do it.

“Having been in that position before, our determination not to lose our advantage is certainly greater than ever.

“We experienced a big frustration last season and, in a highly-competitive league, we want to stay where we are.

“We were very close last year and it will be close again. We want to show we have learned.”

Well who could argue with him, we will see if he is right in the last couple of months in the season when the shite usually hits the fan and things get all sticky. I think this season really could be the making of these young players. They have potential that beggars belief.

He also stated his thoughts on what constitutes a tough tackle;

"A defender has to be tough and committed, for me if tough is committed I don’t have a problem with it. If tough is the desire to hurt your opponent it’s not acceptable because that’s not the game.

And thats fair enough, but as he also says, you have to stick to the rules,

"The beauty of sport is to win in respect of the rules. If us as managers start to say we don’t have to respect the rules then it can’t be accepted. That’s in boxing, in football, in every sport. You have to respect the rules.

When you get clubs cheating points off you you have a right to be angry, when your players get kicked off the park its not football, its assault. What happens from this is evident in the injury to the Hull player the other week and our very own Eduardo.

The buffoon at the head of UEFA, Platini, has said that he was a bit harsh on Wenger the other day;

"I was too hard on Arsene.

"My dad [Aldo Platini] told me off. He was the one who gave him [Wenger] his break (at Nancy)."

But still went on to have a moan at Wengers policies;

"When I talk about business, what I am talking about is recruiting players when they are 13 or 14. I can't stand it."

What is wrong in making a childs dream come true Platini? what is wrong in making sure kids become the best players they can possibly be. Just look at Fabregas.

Thats about it for today, take care.

More tomorrow.

Urgent: Signings Needed.

Yesterday was poor. Very poor. As Arsene said.

If im honest we have stepped back 2 seasons on that performance. It seems we are back at the stage were we were when we were losing away to the likes of Bolton, West Brom, Blackburn, Everton etc.

There was no grit in the defence, they didn't know where to put themselves, who to mark and what to do when the ball was delivered. The midfield was shocking, in not sure that that midfield would win an away game in the Championship, let alone the Premiership, Denilson was hopeless, Nasri wasn't in the game at all, he lacked the final ball, Eboue was probably the best of a poor bunch. At least he threatened on occasion, Walcott was poor again, he seems to just run and run, no matter what the direction, his development is starting to worry me.

The strikers were poor too, Adebayor dropped deep to try and influence the play but it didn't work, Van Persie was selfish with the set pieces, even his corners were poor. As i said yesterday, i don't know where he has gone.

Now when it comes to our prize assets it seems that we struggle to keep them, sod their age, class is perminant and a 33 year old pires is better than a 22 year old Eboue. Vieira was missed when he left, yes Cesc stepped up but we missed that force in midfield, Henry is missed, he was that special special player that could change a game in an instant.

Now we suffered after losing those players, but if we lost Fabregas we would be in dire dire straits, thats why we have to appease him. If he wants Xabi Alonso, give him Xabi Alonso. We could do a hell of a lot worse than buy this player i tell you, he is younger than you may think at 26 and would add another dimention to our attack, 3 midfielders that are good from range is a dangerous proposition for any defence. His passing is also fantasic.

Cesc also said;

"For me, Arsenal is Arsenal and this club has something special that no others have.

"We have to take care of it, that's why you have to be intelligent in your decisions "

Wenger can't afford to make a mistake now. We need an addition or 2, theres no denying that. Cesc trusts Wenger and believes he can guide the club to success. Arsene, don't fail him, for the sake of the club.

Now, onto something that really interests me. Tony Adams has again said how much he would like to manage Arsenal one day. And i think he would be a fucking great manager, we know Arsene wont be around forever and i think that recruiting TA back into the ranks would be a masterstroke, he can learn from the great man and it can only improve his management.

Don't laugh but I believe I am stronger in some areas and in others he is far greater than me."

Hes a confident guy and i think, in the future, he is a cert for the Arsenal management.

Theres also news of yet another Rosicky injury setback, he is set to miss the Czech's World Cup qualifier. I recon he is made out of breadsticks.

Now i don't trust BBC Sport, but this worries me, Maybe Wenger is just playing his usual games?

The Gossip columns are turfing out their usual shit. A paper claims that Djourou might me on his way to France on loan... I dont trust a source that cant spell his name right to be honest.

Also, apprently Xabi Alonso will cost 16 million.

Note: There is a poll currently going for 6 more days. Please take part and i will write about the results when it closes!


I would also like the thank the people that have helped me since i set this up.


Il be back this week with the latest news and why i think Spurs are immune to a 'crisis'.

Is this really RVP? + Show that cash AW!

I dont think ive seen Van Persie this poor before. Honestly. He was poor today, and last week too. Ok, he has not had many games over the last two years but he looks a shadow of his former self. On the two games so far this season he has seemed to have lost a bit of pace, become fustrated and therefore maybe tried too hard. This showed when he took freekick after freekick and put them either in the crowd, or the wall.

Remember against Ajax in the Amsterdam tournament and he had a go at Walcott? He did it again yesterday. I think he is trying to re-pay the faith put in him, and re-pay AW and the fans for being injured so much.

Robin has the talent to be one of the best in the world but it seems to have literally disappeared in the last month or so.

Now, it might just be the time for Arsene Wenger to get his cash out and buy a proven class player, be it Alonso, Barry, whoever. Just get your chequebook out Arsene because another trophyless season is just not on. Denilson isnt/wont be ready, he looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights. We need cover for Cesc because without him, we are much much weaker. Nasri may be that player that can replace him but he didnt look too great today either, he still has to adapt, like any other foreign player needs to. Adebayor was good in the build up, he has really improved this side of his game, but the chances were wasted in the end.

Today i think Eboue played well. He ran at the defenders, caused problems and that led to freekicks in our favour. I like the player. He adds a bit of personality (all be it OTT at times) and is very loyal to the club, he gives his all and that is all you can ask of a player.

Now, before i get dismembered by people calling me a pessimist, i really do think that the international break screwed the team up. Denilson and Almunia were the only players training last week and that showed in our passing today, players didnt really know where each other were and we lacked the player to drive the team on when it was needed.


There is something missing from this team and Wenger has days to fix it.

Earn your Money Arsene, and SPEND IT!

Back tomorrow with all the transfer speculation and Arsene's thoughts on the loss at Fulham.