Year: 2007

Middlesbrough loss means a low Monday for the Arsenal

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League, Injuries

A disappointing result yesterday, we lost 2-1 to Middlesbrough. I listened to the match on the radio in the car. From the sound of it we were pretty unfocused and they were much sharper.

We created little all day and their early penalty gave them the confidence to go on and get the win. Rosicky’s last minute goal was a mere consolation. It’s bad, and depressing, our unbeaten record is gone, but we are still top of the league by a point. Wenger took the defeat well and it looks like we might be able to put it behind us.

We need to forget about the bad result now and think ahead. Steaua Bucharest is our game on Wednesday in the Champions League, Wenger will most likely field a weakened side, fingers crossed we get top place in the group, but we are through anyway.

Looking to the next League game, we have Chelsea in the so-called ‘Grand Slam Sunday’ as it has been dubbed by the media. I hope that a few of the injured quartet: RVP, Flamini, Fabregas and Hleb are back. We have had a tough week without them, drawing and then losing in the North East. The backup we have is decent but not good enough, Gilberto has been quite poor in the games he has had, but Diarra has looked promising.

In any case they will all really need to be up for it against a Chelsea side which has been quietly progressing under Avram Grant, we really need to maintain our position at the top, and a Liverpool win or draw with Man Utd would be great too!

Sevilla vs. Arsenal tonight in the Champions League

On By jamesgillespIn Champions League1 Comment

Arsenal are playing Sevilla away tonight in our penultimate Champions League game. Arsene is resting Gallas and Adebayor, he defends his choice here. He makes a good point, that those two have played a lot of games recently, and the players coming in should be almost the same standard. Clichy has also not travelled due to a thigh problem he picked up at Wigan.

Against Slavia he made 8 changes and the team looked very unincisive, but tonight there is the incentive that a win will mean we top the group (and therefore play our first second round match away). Having said that even a draw leaves our fate in our own hands, with Steaua Bucharest at home to beat after. The younger players will hopefully take this as encouragement. I trust Wenger on this one, the players coming in are of good quality and fatigued and injured players are no good to anyone. Wenger says:

“Bendtner will get a start. He has played well when he has come on. But he had not the best game in Prague so I want to give him another chance.”

This is great, I think that Bendtner has looked really good when he has come on in games, especially against Wigan, he can win headers and is tall and powerful, as well as having passing, pace and goalscoring ability. Steve Bruce, who had him on loan last year with Birmingham, said he would love to have him back, so I reckon he has the potential to be a first team player. Lets hope he takes this chance to impress!

Kanoute says here that he is ‘relishing the challenge’..

Congratulations to Hleb, he has won the Belarus Player of the Year award, he must be getting used to it as he won it in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006 and was the 2004 runner up!!

Keown, the old stalwart has commented on Fabregas and I couldn’t agree more with him when he says:

“Cesc is the orchestrator of everything. He’s developed into an outstanding player and looks like a natural winner,”

What more is there to say!!!

According to the Mirror Henry wanted Tevez at Arsenal…

An interesting link here about Arsene’s rebuilding..

Ok then, here’s to a win tonight!!

Gallas Gets Us There

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal2 Comments

A good 2-0 win over Wigan this weekend. We were without Fabregas (suspended), Flamini (thigh), Diaby (back) and and Gilberto (fatigue). Also we lost Hleb for 3 weeks, these Opta stats on Setanta are interesting.

The match itself was not particularly entertaining. I went down to the Armoury to get a stripy scarf before the kick off, but they were all sold out! They are really popular right now..Its great when all of the North West corner start jumping and swinging them, the atmosphere is improving all the time in Ashburton Grove.

Wigan came out to defend and that is what they did with little in the first half of note. Diarra and Denilson in the centre of the park looked ok, but not as incisive as Fabregas & Flamini who are the centre of the team when they play.. We missed that a bit I felt.

Second half, more and more frustration from the crowd and players.. A dirty tackle on Denilson from Bent a few minutes after a shove was the cause for a bit of a scuffle.. Bent got off with a yellow.. We came close a few times but Wigan still defended well. I started to think we wouldn’t score. Adebayor was very quiet. It looked bad when Walcott went down and was stretchered off after a bad tackle from Heskey, it seems he is ok and not badly injured, he played well which was very pleasing. The Boss brought on Eduardo and Bendtner (who looks very promising). The in the 83rd minute a good passing move saw Gallas play the ball near their area and continue with his run forward, making it to the near post as Sagna put a great cross in.. The header was immense and the celebrations were great, Gallas ran over to us as he seems to a lot now and all was happy, the frustration over, within a minute we broke again, Bendtner making an excellent run and playing it to Rosicky who played a good shot just inside the penalty area in off the post.. Wigan were undone from then and it was a great feeling when we heard Man U lost, so top of the table by 3 points and a game in hand. Not Bad..

I really am warming to Gallas, Toure says here about how great it is to be playing with Gallas as captain! I was sceptical about him but he really is showing his worth. Leading the side, scoring goals when we need them most and looking solid in defence. The resilience and patience of the team is amazing and there is an interview with Wenger here.

Meanwhile, Gilberto going the other way, out of the team with transfer stories rife, the Sun has story on him wanting to go to Juve.

“I would adapt myself well to the Italian league, however Juve should know that I have no intention of starting a war with Arsenal.”

This is fair enough for Gilberto, not in the team now, he obviously wants to play and if that means moving in January so be it. I worry about this as he brings experience and consistency to the team, and while we are playing well it is fine without him in the team, but what happens when we are facing tough opposition with a weakened midfield and little cover. It does seem a bit dodgy, but ‘Arsene knows’ what hes doing!

Our Premiership next game at home is Chelsea on the 16th. That will be a cracker! Cashley Cole says in an article here:

“Compared to what happened to the England guys, I am sure I will get much worse when I go back to Arsenal”

I’m sure he will, he’s a complete idiot and I have very little respect for him. What a *£$%.. Clichy is better than him, as has been shown this year..

Anelka, good on him for the goal on Saturday, has said:

“If you look now at the situation Arsenal are in and look at where I am, then you could say maybe I should have stayed.”

That is so funny, I remember how petulant he was, the whole saga, him joining Real.. What an idiot, now look at him, played for Man City, now Bolton, fighting relegation. Just shows how some players don’t realise how great Arsenal is to be at till they leave. Anyway glad we sold him cause since he left there have been some excellent seasons I wouldn’t change!

Finally a little on the trial of Tresor Mputu, loads of people are reading the articles on this guy, Wneger says here:

“He is a creative player and wants a chance in Europe. He has impressed so far.”

So not giving to much away, that would only fan the flames of speculation, but it sounds interesting, Wenger seems to like him!

See you tomorrow, Sevilla on Tuesday..

Almunia Matures, Gallas Has Fun With Wenger

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal1 Comment

Almunia speaks here on how he is maturing into his role in the first team, he has come in and played well this year, looked solid, without really being tested too much. He is still adjusting and maturing as he hasn’t been playing first team football for us before. He reckons the team are playing amazingly well, but rightly says there is stil a long way to go.

“I like to compare myself to a wine which gets better with age. I hope that I can keep getting better when I am 31, 32. I do not know how long I will go on for.”

Hopefully he will keep maturing, but I don’t see him as the long term option for Arsenal unless something changes drastically. He’s obiviously worried about the threat of Lehmann saying:

“If I am thinking about January or February in the next game I could make a couple of mistakes and be back on the bench. Football is very cruel – and especially with goalkeepers. That is why it is such a difficult position to play.”

Well at least he has a bit of pressure to keep him on his toes, I’m sure Lehmann would quite like to see him slip up, but lets all pry that doesn’t happen. I like Almunia, so hopefully he can go on and continue to do well for us.

Willy Gallas really has fun talking to Arsene Wenger and he’s chuffed to bits that he got made captain (over Toure and Gilberto)..He tells SkySports

“Before, I used to keep to myself. But I like those new responsibilities. I really have fun with the talks I have with Arsene Wenger.”

He says the reason for his injuries last year were because he wasn’t properly settled, he is looking a lot better this year, I am starting to like him, especially for that goal against Man U, although he still can only make one pass.

Euro 2008 qualifiers gone, we can all get back to the good stuff. No teams from Britian or Ireland in the Euro, how about a Home Nations next summer? Not with McClaren thats for sure he’s out, click here..

Reuters look forward to the weekends games here. With “Arsenal look set to show England how its done“. Well yeah, cause we don’t just hoof the ball to a freakishly tall man..

Our women’s team has been knocked out of the UEFA Women’s Cup after losing 3-2 on aggregate to Lyon, so they won’t have the chance to retain the title this year. It was their first defeat in 21 months!! Click here for more..

Bendtner has scored twice in 5 days for Denmark, round up of his performances and the other internationals here at Arsenal.com

Hleb was taken off at half-time due to injury in the Belarus – Holland match last night, Gunnerblog says it’s likely he will miss Wigan on Saturday.

Clichy talks about the foreign quota rubbish which is boring now but he makes a good point we have heard before:

“The nationality is not the main important thing, it is just the quality you want your team to play.”

As well as that they also have reviews of our 5 loanees, including Vela and Djourou here!!

Thank You, and Goodbye!

England Fail To Enamour

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal1 Comment

England just lost 3-2 against Croatia at Wembley. I don’t care about internationals, but I thought I should mention this from an Arsenal point of view anyway. Hey Modric looked good tonight, maybe we can sign him up, if we are in for him?

I won’t say much, I’m not bothered about England at all. The repercussions will be that McClaren is probably sacked, people will be going crazy about ‘so many foreign players in England’ sounding like the Church vs Darwin… Some people inevitably will be targeting Arsenal and Arsene over this…

The thing is the FA have been more bothered about Wembley than building a national centre of excellence, like Clarefontaine in France, to aid the development of players. I hate the crap that is said about foreign players, I think that people need to look hard at the facts.. They need a shock to realise that England are a load of rubbish and they are bloody lucky.

This should have happened earlier. They are not even comparable to N.Ireland or Scotland, or Ireland.. The media frenzy is going to be ugly and pointless.

Arsene’s Anger! Injuries & Transfers

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal1 Comment

So lets get it started:

Robin Van Persie has returned to full training, and will make the team on Saturday, not sure whether he will start. After 6 weeks out with a ligament injury it will be nice to have him back. Click here for more.

In all probability Flamini is going to miss the Wigan game through injury (not very sure what is going on here though!), ArsenalPies has an article here, Diaby is also injured. This leaves us without Flamini or Fabregas, never fear, we still have Hleb, Gilberto, Diarra, Denilson, and Song.. I’m sure Gilberto and Diarra will be salivating at Flamini’s misfortune, while Diaby curses in front of the telly at his bad luck.

Arsene has had a moan about the Ivory Coast’s “stubbornness” in calling up players for international tournaments. Toure and Eboue will both be called up over the winter for the African Cup of Nations. In 2006 both Toure and Eboue had to be pulled out of the FA Cup tie against Cardiff because they were called up for the maximum period, 15 days before their match! Just to go and sit in a hotel room! Wenger is really hacked off! Read here at the Beeb..

“They are so stubborn that there is no point in even speaking to them.” Arsene Wenger on the Ivory Coast FA..

Transfer rumours..

More sources are backing up the story that we are monitoring the Modric situation, with an eye to sign him, Chelsea are also moving in for a possible £30mill bid according to SkySports. The Telegraph says here he wants to move maybe this winter.

Apprently we are interseted in signing Martin Caceres, according to himself, as well as Juve and Real… The 19-yr old Uruguayan is a promising defender playing for Villareal (on loan at Recreativo). He has been compared to Montero in the Telegraph, click here. Seems a bit of speculation here.

Arsene has said he will not buy anyone unless they are exceptionally good, i.e. no buying for buying’s sake ! But will strengthen one area. Firstly on Caceres this is a rumour and I’m skeptical about it. Caceres would be a good signing for defence which isn’t so well covered especially as Toure and Eboue are both off to the African Cup of Nations this winter.

Luka Modric is seen as a great talent and obviously really wants to come to the Premiership, but we rarely sign players we are linked with in this way and I can see Chelsea snapping him up quite easily, only to assign him to the reserves.

Also on Agbonlahor, he has come out to say that, yes, the rumours about his move to Arsenal were pure speculation.

UPDATE: Seeing as the Mputu post is proving so popular I thought I’d do a bit more coverage on the guy.
Tresor Mputu, 21 years old, Congo striker with 3 goals in 12 caps for his country.

He has played for TP Mazembe since 2004, a prolific goalscorer. See one on YouTube click here check out the goalkeeper’s celebration.

He Scored twice during the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign. He started the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations well, scoring a goal against Togo, but he was sent off against Angola and was suspended for the rest of the tournament.<

His manager says he is the best young African striker.

He's currently on a 10 day trial at Arsenal, his agent says the transfer is 70% done.

Walcott on wanting to bring his Under-21 form back to Arsenal here.

Also Jol has rejected an offer from Birmingham City for him..

Plus Win a copy of The Arsenal Miscellany signed by Frank McLintock! on Arsenal-Mania.

Flamini Injury? Wenger’s Best Transfer Signings

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal3 Comments

Morning all!

Setanta run an article about Flamini missing France’s last training session, Domenech says he “suffered a little something”, meaning maybe he’ll miss Wigan on Saturday which means no Fabregas or Flamini, a chance for Diarra and Gilberto?

Arsene Wenger has spoken out against bullying with this Video on youTube, he also says he was “really sad” that Scotland didn’t make it through to Euro 2008..

Who have been Arsene’s top 5 signings, Sportingo.com ask here, the author came up with these as his top 5:

1.Thierry Henry – Who else! Our record goalscorer, winner of countless awards, possibly the best player Arsenal have ever had..

2.Patrick Vieira – Another brilliant Frenchman (or Senegalese..) was the lynchpin in midfield tirelessly working. Sublime.

3.Francesc Fabregas – the future of Arsenal, Barca are eternally bitter that we nabbed him and see him as ‘theirs’. Passing, goals and pace.

4. Marc Overmars – Arsene took a risk in bringing him to Arsenal, he was so fast, really great winger and goalscorer, sold along with Petit for £30mill to Barca.

5.Kolo Toure – Our best defender, totally versatile, he has pace, power, he can tackle, head, pass, shoot, dribble.. I love Kolo…

I reckon that’s pretty good, but it doesn’t even include Pires, one of the best midfielders I have ever seen (remember the chip over Schmichael at Villa!!). What about Ljungberg?? Another one for the future, Van Persie, who I’m sure will prove himself, and countless others. Arsene has brought these players in for meagre amounts of money, transformed them, and also has always sold them off at exactly the right time, look at us without Henry this season, generally at a profit too. He is fantastic in the transfer market and much has been made of our scouting system. It always amazes me, the sheer talent he brings up.. Of course there are always flops – Diawara! Stepanovs! No matter though, Wenger is a fuckin brilliant manager!!

Arsenal.com interview Justin Hoyte, who is frustrated at the lack of chances in the first team this season, Sagna, has played brilliantly, out of the limelight but solid defesivly and great going forward. Hoyte says:

“I want to be an Arsenal player…It is frustrating but I am a professional and need to behave that way and focus on the job in hand.”

He is hoping that injuries and suspensions can help him push his way into the team. Truthfully, i don’t reckon Hoyte is quite good enough to get into the team on a permanent basis, he may leave at the end of the season..

They also have some interesting statistics, only the ‘Invincibles’ did better in their first dozen games, compared to other championship winning seasons. The statistics look good, and we have had a few hard tests, but with Man U playing well and other contenders around too it looks like it will go right to the wire if we can stay in the race the whole way.. Check out their table here, it does look good!

Arsenal Pies talks about Vela here he can’t wait to get back to Arsenal and play, he does look exciting!! Arsenal Pies also has a nice round up of all our players international performances.

Walcott tells SkySports he is finally over his shoulder injury. Good stuff Theo!

Great news here about Arsenal’s season tickets, finally you will be able to resell them through Ticketmaster if you can’t find anyone to take them off you. It has been a problem for years that Arsenal refused to buy back unwanted seats and people would either give them to touts or not use them at all. This system makes so much more sense to me!

On the transfer front more rumours we are moving in for Modric and Jaaskelainen…

Steve Bruce, that lovely man, is back at Wigan and his first game will be against us on Saturday at Ashburton grove.. looking forward to that.. So.. till tomorrow!

Usmanov The Fencer? Theo, Lehmann

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

Good morning to you all on this most fine Monday, I have to be off by 8.30 so I shall write fast…

The Guardian has done an excellent profile of Alisher Usmanov, the man who desires to gain a controlling stake in Arsenal with Dein through their Red And White Holdings company.. Here’s the summary

There’s coverage about his alleged crimes during the 1980s in the Soviet Union for which he was imprisoned. Usmanov was convicted of financial crimes, but, according to Russian journalists, rape too. In September Schillings, his legal firm, took action to remove similar allegations from the website of Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan. There are also suggestions of relationships with drug traffickers and questions on his close connections with former KGB. He said:

“You are trying to turn the acquaintance of any Russian with members of the KGB into a crime. This is simply not appropriate.”

Usmanov has investments in a subsidary of Gazprom, owns Metalloinvest and Komersant a newspaper. According to Tom Wise MEP his jail pardon came from heroin trafficker and mafia lord Gafur Rakhimov, apparently his mentor.. Usmanov says he only knew him as he was his parents neighbour!

Then there is the case of the death of the man from the Komersant office building, Ivan Safronov, defence correspondent, which he may be linked to.

He admits he considered buying Spurs, but fell in love with English Football when England won the World Cup 1966!?!

The article suggests that possibly Usmanov is using Arsenal to hedge his bets in case of any sudden decline of fortune in the former Soviet Union countries for him as Putin rounds on oligarchs in Russia.

Also he competed on the Uzbek Fencing team.

All I hope is that he keeps hands off Arsenal and away from England, it would be a bad day for Arsenal. The board have entered a lockdown on selling shares for the next few years, which is good as this prevents him increasing his 23% stake. The slogan goes – Love Arsenal – Hate Usmanov, I couldn’t agree more…

Moving on! Website ‘The Voice’ has an article about Pele being an Arsenal fan saying

“Arsenal are my favourite team right now and I think they are the best performing team in the Premier League.”

Its always nice to get praise, especially from one of the World’s most famous players of the beautiful game.. You just have to hope thought that:

1. This sort of praise doesn’t go to the teams heads and they keep playing well.

2. That the team doesn’t get too much hype too early on in the season..

SkySports report that Lehmann has received praise for his performance in the Cyprus match.. It seems to me that Low really wants Lehmann to be playing first team football at Arsenal so he can justify playing him for Germany. A lot of the debate surrounding the transfer has involved Lehmann’s international career, which he probably sees ending after Euro 2008, so he is probably desparate to play more, having been stuck behind Oli Kahn for all those years.. In any case, fair play to Lehmann, and he did make some good saves.

Duncan White says that Theo is the future for England and that McClaren should play him against Croatia. McClaren has obviously not agreed with this view because the Scum’s £16million, 40 goal a season, world class hitman, flop, Darren Bent has been called up…… Anyway enough of that, the article still makes interesting reading, and some good points about Walcott.

“Just playing has been giving me more confidence. If I get more games, I’m sure I can improve further.” Theo

This is what we want to hear from him, the more he scores and plays the more confident he looks and I think he has a bright future as long as he keeps his head down.. The guy is bloody quick.. Interestingly one of my mates played against him at schoolboy level a few years ago.. He told me that they just got the fastest guy on the team and the harshest tackler to mark him and he ran the show.. Anyway…

It looks like Steve Bruce will become Wigan manager today, so I guess we will see him in charge for the first time against us on Sat…

Also according to the Guardian Willy and his French chums were sharing a glass of champagne as Scotland’s defeat ensured their Euro 2008 qualification.

That’s all, I’m off for a jaunt, enjoy this most grey of Mondays and the cold weather…

Walcott’s Rage, Lehmann Crazy

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal2 Comments

Firstly a very strange article here about Jens making insulting gestures to fans during Germany’s 4-0 win over Cyprus.. Apparently he claims he was scratching his head. I don’t know why he would have done anything like that.. Jens is a bit mad but that just seems random, unless he was being abused by the fans??? I didn’t watch the game but I’ll have a look on the net later to see if there are any videos of it!

Also Chelsea have been linked with Luka Modric in several papers, some claiming we have also joined the race as we have been interested for a long time.

The Mail here has an article about Theo’s ranting at Milner and Stuart Pierce while claiming his penalty on Friday evening, Psycho says it shows his coming of age!! The Guardian also has coverage here.

Also the Scum have been linked with loads of players all over the place, Villa is apparently coming, as well as the Beast, who Ramos worked with at Sevilla, if he plays like he did for us then I would be happy for them to sign him. Also the People have an article about how David Comolli, our ex-scout, now their Director of Football wants to sign Diaby, Denilson and Traore. I doubt this, although the £7 million price tag on Diaby could be good if he is really desparate to leave.. In any case I can’t see why we would let any of those players go to Spurs….

Not too much else going on, Scotland lost out on the Euro 2008 finals last night through a late Italian goal to make it 2-1, and Israel beat Russia 2-1 to give Engalnd an undeserved chance of qualifying.

Mputu, Bould, Boring Internationals, Come on Scotland!

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal1 Comment

Just a quick one today, there isn’t too much news which I haven’t covered yesterday..I have to get off for a 5 hour train journey to Kent in a minute, joy…

So news on another man who wants a bit more playing time, Diarra.
In the article it mentions how ironixc it is that he plays more for France then Arsenal.. In the end it comes down to when the team is getting results and on form there is little point in disturbing a good line up. Diarra knew how congested our midfield was before he came and if he expected to walk straight into the team then he is a bit naive. He will get his chance if things go his way but I wouldn’t expect to see too much of him this season, especially as Gilberto has vowed to stay and fight for his place..

There’s a Q&A with now 45-year old Stevie Bould on the Arsenal Website

Also I haven’t made much comment on Tresor Mputu, the Congo striker who is apparently on a 10 day trial at the Arse.. According to his coach he is the best thing since sliced bread but it sounds like an awful lot of hype… Thirdgen’s Blog has a good bit on him from yesterday here

Finally a little question on Theo, what do you think about his penalty last night? Comment whatever you think, I want to hear.