How many points will Arsenal get from the remaining games?

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League, FA Cup, Injuries16 Comments

To presume that Arsenal will now qualify for the Champions League this season is a very dangerous mentality. To presume that the FA Cup and the Champions League are the only genuinely important games remaining is a very dangerous mentality.

Image courtesy of dyobmit

Arsenal may well sit six points ahead of Aston Villa in the race for 4th spot, but there are some tough games remaining for the Gunners. Aston Villa are bound to pick up their form in the remaining few games as well, so the Premier League is still very much a priority for Arsenal.

With this in mind, I thought that it would be appropriate to take a look at the remaining league games for Arsenal and to reveal my football predictions as to how many points will be achieved. Will the unbeaten run keep going? Will the loss of Clichy and Gallas be crucial in the coming weeks? A little speculation never hurt anyone, so let’s take a look.

Saturday 11th April

Wigan v Arsenal: Forgive me for my pessimistic attitude on this one, but I think it is going to be a draw. The combination of being tired from Europe and the injuries will affect Arsenal.1 – 1.

Tuesday 21st April

Liverpool v Arsenal: Liverpool’s home form has let them down this season at crucial times. This will be a must win for them, but Arsenal have been good against the ‘big four’ this campaign. Another draw for me. 2 – 2.

Sunday 26th April

Arsenal v Middlesbrough: This should be a home banker. Middlesbrough will be fighting for their Premier League lives at this stage, but Arsenal should have more than enough. Arshavin, Van Persie, Adebayor and Walcott up against Chris Riggott and co? 3 – 0.

Saturday 2nd May

Portsmouth v Arsenal: This is a very difficult game. Pompey will need the win to steer clear of the relegation zone. For some reason, I see the unbeaten run coming to an end here. 2 – 1.

Sunday 10th May

Arsenal v Chelsea: In response to the Pompey defeat, Arsenal will start this game at an electric pace. The crowd will be loud, the players will be determined and the luck will be on Wenger’s side. 2 – 1.

Saturday 16th May

Man United v Arsenal: I think it is fair to say that Arsenal will have their say on where the title goes this year. In the penultimate game of the season, Manchester United will still need as many points as possible. However, they will drop two on this occasion. 0 – 0.

Sunday 24th May

Arsenal v Stoke: A nice home win to finish the season? I think so. After this hammering of Stoke, optimism for next season will be extremely high. 5 – 0.

Should these results come true (remember they are just predictions that you may disagree with), Arsenal will gain another 12 points to leave them on 70 for the season. This means that Aston Villa would need 19 points from their last seven games to overtake them. Quite a big ask, I’m sure you’ll agree.

However, Arsenal are by no means guaranteed the points I gave them. The games against Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United could go either way.

Overall, my message is that 4th place is by no means guaranteed. The Premier League is still my number one priority and I just hope the players are aware of this. A win at Wigan tomorrow would do no harm at all.

End of Season Update:

Not bad – We finished on 72 pts and took 4th place!

By Thomas Rooney

Villarreal 1-1 Arsenal. Good result served with injuries

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League1 Comment

Villarreal 1-1 Arsenal: Senna 10, Adebayor 66. Highlights here.

Arsenal came away with a valuble away goal against Villarreal last night, which places us well for the Quarter final second leg at home next week.

adebayor-villarreal-bicycle-kick

Adebayor scored an amazing bicycle kick in the second half to equalise after Senna had scored a long range goal in the fist half. The fact that we got the goal is most important – I will take the result, even though we could have finished them off in the second half.

The Fabregas/Adebayor partnership again provided crucial goals – making it 3 in 2 games for Ade, with Fabregas providing every assist!

I didn’t see the game, I downloaded highlights after the match – and I was disappointed to see us go a goal down. It hurt to lose Gallas and Almunia, and as Wenger said – this meant he couldn’t change things around at half time.

Gallas has knee ligament damage – so he may be out for the rest of the season – a blow seeing as our defence has been very stable since December. Almunia is out for a few weeks with an ankle injury – so we will have Fabianski in goal for the next few games which will define our season.

I think Fabianski will do good – but he has made rash decisions at times during games this season – this is his chance to prove himself – he made some good saves last night.

Overall a good result – some annoying injuries – but this looks promising. The fact that Porto got two away goals at Old Trafford means that they have a good chance of going through – no British team has ever won at Porto – and they have the advantage!

What do you think Arsenal’s chances are? Leave a comment below.

Brand new Arshavin Wallpaper. Arsenal wallpapers for your desktop

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal7 Comments

Welcome to the latest exclusive Arsespeak wallpaper post.

Today’s wallpaper is of our new signing – Arshavin – scoring his first goal for the club against Blackburn.

Just click on the image below for full size and then set it as your desktop background!

Arshavin Arsenal Wallpaper
Kindly designed for us by Zickart.

View more Arsenal wallpapers on our Wallpapers page.

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Arsenal 2-0 Man City, a sign of things to come?

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Injuries5 Comments

Cesc Fabregas and Adebayor returned triumphantly against Man City, Cesc set Adebayor up for both his goals – and it showed how much we have missed his incisive passing.

Image courtesy of mcaparrotta

The 4-2-3-1 formation really plays to our strengths and allows all of our more attacking midfield players to get forward – yesterday Arshavin, Walcott and Fabregas were all over Man City, whilst Song and and Denilson provide cover.

Another clean sheet was a good step in the right direction – Almunia made some good saves, and the defence looks a lot more alert compared to earlier this season!

The only thing that could worry me is that all of our victories have come against lower teams – but that is good, as these are the teams we dropped points against at the beginning of the season, and we know we can beat the other top 3.

This means that the team has started to raise their game against smaller teams and understand the value of every game. A few months ago we sometimes played like we had won the match before it began – and that cost us points!

So a great result, and with our captain back from injury things are looking up!

How many of Arsenal’s team would make it into Manchester United’s starting eleven?

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Transfers35 Comments

As much as the end to the current season could be extremely exciting and successful for Arsenal, they are still not quite where they used to be as a club. There was a time, of course, when they were unbeatable. There was a time when it was only the Gunners and Manchester United fighting it out for the league title.

So, what has happened in the last few years which has prevented Arsenal being one of the ‘big two’? For eight seasons in a row, Arsenal finished no lower than second in the Premier League. This was until the last three when their final positions have been 4th, 4th and 3rd.

One way to see just how far away Arsenal are from being Manchester United’s main challengers again could be to see how the individual players compare. How does Arsenal’s full strength team match up to the best team the Champions can put out?

This is something I would like your opinion on, so without too much analysis, let’s take a look at my views:

Edwin Van der Sar v Manuel Almunia – Has to be Van der Sar unfortunately.

Gary Neville v Bakari Sagna – Personally, I’d rather have Sagna in my team.

Patrice Evra v Gael Clichy – For consistency purposes, it has to be Evra.

Rio Ferdinand v William Gallas – This is a close one, but I think the odds would be in favour of Ferdinand.

Nemanja Vidic v Kolo Toure – For similar reasons that Evra won, Vidic is the winner.

Cristiano Ronaldo v Theo Walcott – For what he has achieved in the last couple of years, it’s going to be Ronaldo.Ask me again this time next year though.

Ryan Giggs v Andrei Arshavin – Giggs is still a decent player, but for creativity and variation the Russian wins this one for me.

Michael Carrick v Cesc Fabregas – No competition, Fabregas all the way.

Paul Scholes v Denilson – A number of players could fill this position for Arsenal and all of them will be as good as/better than Scholes at some point, but for now, the former England man has to get the nod.

Wayne Rooney v Robin van Persie – For me, this is the closest one of the lot. In fact, I can’t choose between them. This one is a draw.

Dimitar Berbatov v Emmanuel Adebayor – Neither have been fantastic this season. However, the Manchester United man (and Carlos Tevez) has produced the goods more often.

The end result for this ‘experiment’ is Manchester United 7.5 v 3.5 Arsenal. Whether this means much, I’m not sure. However, it does suggest that Arsenal are just two or three established high quality players short of challenging for the Premier League again.

This could happen in the next couple of years when the likes of Walcott, Clichy and Denilson really kick on as players – you never know. It certainly makes a change from the days of Thierry Henry and Robert Pires, or Tony Adams and Ian Wright and co when Arsenal would have been much closer to Manchester United in this type of analysis.

Something to think about isn’t it? Let me know your thoughts.

By Thomas Rooney

Fabregas was tapped up by Real, but Ivan says it doesn’t matter!

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Transfers3 Comments

It turns out that Fabregas really was tapped up by Real Madrid in the summer, the tide of transfer rumours is rising and it’s only the beginning of April! There are rumours over RVPs contract, Clichy, and of course Fabregas. So Ivan Gazidis has stepped in to put the record straight:

“I can’t marry the stories that I read with reality,” “We are very confident that this team will stay together, progress together and achieve success together.”

He went on to firmly state Cesc’s commitment to Arsenal:

“Cesc is extremely happy at Arsenal and totally committed to the club, and that’s every message that Arsene Wenger or I have ever received from him or his representatives,”

“Arsenal offers good money..It offers a great development programme and a superb environment so it is difficult for me to imagine why players would want to leave.”

Some people will raise the old arguments that we don’t spend as much as the other big teams, but Gazidis went over some of the sound economic principles behind our policies:

“Arsenal is not a gambling club, it is a very conservatively-run club… The revenue levels to service the contracts are levels we are comfortable with and those players’ contracts are at levels that are sustainable to us.”

Basically, stay sustainable and prosper is the rule.

Fabregas and Van Persie will be here for a while longer, but don’t expect them to stay at Arsenal forever – the call for them to leave will get stronger every year we go without a major trophy.

Arsenal will be soon be Kroenke’s club

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal5 Comments

Stan Kroenke is manouvering his way to the top of the pecking order in the Arsenal board. Since his introduction to the club in 2007 we have seen him steadily accumulate shares, and this culminated him being invited to join the Board as a non-executive director in September 2008.

He has now taken a 20% stake – buying 8% from Danny Fiszman, and becoming second largest shareholder after Usmanov – spending £42 million – he is serious about this.

Kroenke took an 11.26% share off ITV in April 2007, and the Board were initally hostile – it was the beginning of a period of turbulence which saw Dein lose his position on the Board, and is still having repercussions today. Dein then sold his stake to Usmanov and suddenly Kroenke seemed like the good guy. The Board invited him in and is now setting him up as the defence against Usmanov and Dein.

This sale has come at a very important time – April 2009 is the end of the lock-down agreement set by the Board – they may now sell their shares to whoever they want. By increasing Stan’s share they are effectively blocking Usmanov. The situation was dangerous as Lady Nina is known to be unsettled and may sell her shares very soon.

Share in Arsenal

  • 25.0% Alisher Usmanov
  • 20.5% Stan Kroenke
  • 16.1% Danny Fiszman
  • 15.9% Lady Nina

Fiszman has given up his position as the second biggest holder, but still wields considerable clout. Usmanov seems unlikely to increase his stake; owning 30% would mean that he would have to launch a take-over bid – not likely at a time when his personal wealth is dwindling.

The lockdown agreement allowed Board members to trade between themselves – and this is the important part – it allows them to leave Usmanov in the cold. This is why Kroenke was invited onto the Board; to allow him to acquire shares. Kroenke is the Board’s choice to lead Arsenal.

The fact that Gazidis was appointed in January 2009, a man who has had contact with Kroenke in the MLS, is important. He may well have been Stan’s choice and hints further at the large scale shift in power within the club. The partnership with Colorado Rapids – Stan’s US football team also points to closer ties.

Personally I would prefer the Board to stay in the hands of the ‘old guard’, but Kroenke has made some promising comments:

“I will continue to work closely with my board colleagues to maintain the stable environment in which the club operates and to preserve the self-sustaining business model enjoyed by the club.”

This makes me hopeful that Stan is the right man for us. It seems inevitable that Arsenal will be in foreign hands in the near future, but Stan has experience in sports clubs and is a proven stable investor.

If he really is interested in maintaing Arsenal as a sustainable club then I am all for him.

Internationals throw up three more injuries + Rocky7 Anniversary

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, History, Injuries7 Comments

As expected the first round of international matches have provided us with an extended injury list. It doesn’t make for good reading:

  • Robin Van Persie – Groin
  • Abou Diaby – Hip
  • Nicklas Bendtner – Knee

Bendtner’s injury may be serious enough to make him return to London, but Denmark seem to be trying their best to rush him into Wednesday’s game with Albania. Denmark assistant coach Peter Bonde:

“If he is ready then he is ready. We cannot be thinking about Arsenal. We treat players well, but we will play them if they are fit.”

So basically it doesn’t matter who owns the player – we need him to play against such top quality teams as Malta and Albania. This is a joke – for players to be injured playing games of such little quality, and returned to their clubs crocked.

We have seen this many times, and now Diaby has been withdrawn with the hip injury and RVP – our best striker this season is out too. The teams they were playing – Lithuania and Scotland.

There will be no end to this saga – international football is at the centre of FIFA and UEFA’s plans – I don’t mind internationals – but when they interrupt the club season at random intervals and cause injuries it doesn’t make sense.

It would be better to introduce a winter break in the UK like in many European countries – and play internationals then.

At least one player has returned from injury – Adebayor – after several weeks on the sidelines, during which we have regained our form. Ade got a goal for Togo against Cameroon, and although he is unpopular he is a dangerous player when on form. If he comes back into the squad plaing well then we may not miss Van Persie.

Finally, a mention for David Rocastle, a true Arsenal legend, who played for Arsenal from 1984 – 1992, winning the League Cup and two League championship medals, including the famous 1989 season. Today marks the 8th anniversary of his death, RIP Rocky. Arsenal Insider has a great tribute and interview with his sister Karen here.

Image Courtesy of wonker

Rocky7 Website

Let’s show Chelsea what real fans are like at Wembley

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, FA Cup, History, Video11 Comments

I’ve got my ticket for the Arsenal Chelsea FA Cup semi final at Wembley and I guess that many of you reading will have too. It is going to be an interesting game – but one of the things that these big stadium occasions can lack is a real atmosphere.

Arsenal aren’t renowned for having the most noisy or active fans in the world, and Ashburton Grove is not the hive of activity that some football stadia are, but with a bit of effort we can out do the Chelsea lot at Wembley.

This follows the Red Action plea to ‘turn Wembley red‘ on the official site which says:

Let’s see those colours, let’s hear those songs, and really get behind the boys on our day out at Wembley. It’s not Liverpool, it’s not Manchester Utd, it’s not………Swindon Town, so no danger of a colour clash and the need for away kits, so lets turn our end of Wembley RED RED RED on the 18th and show our support.

Wear Red, bring a scarf, bring your AFC flags, shout and scream for the Cannon on our chests, and show our passions in the right way. Get right behind the Red and White, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll be back in May for another day out.

So lets do it – flags and banners and noise always create an intimidating atmosphere, how do you think Turkish clubs play so well at home? We need to turn Wembley into a cauldron of noise, and cheer on the team – because this time it is serious – if we want to see a bit of silverware this season we are going to have to work for it.

We might even see something like this:

Read more about Red Action here.

Hull submit their Spit-gate accounts – what will come of it?

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, FA Cup, Video66 Comments

Phil Brown and his chums at Hull have finally submitted their accounts of the alledged Cesc Fabregas spitting incident after being given an extension for submission by the FA. This follows the disapperance abroad of all witnesses – just the one – Brian Horton.

Phil Brown was decidedly shifty when interviewed the morning after the game (read here), and didn’t seem to clearly remember all of his accusations – many of which seemed to stem from a blinding case of bitterness at Hull’s season collapsing in front of his eyes.

Since the original allegations it has become clear that Brown suffers from some sort of memory loss applying to handshakes, and post-match comments, but is a good northern lad, who calls all women ‘darling’ and has very strict dress codes.

Cesc Fabregas has vehemently denied all allegations, and has never spat at anyone in his career, contrary to claims that he spat at Michael Ballack in 2005, which was ruled by UEFA as untrue.

The ‘fake tan man’, as he is known in Hull, has commented:

“We really just want the truth to come out. If the truth comes out then we’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Good for you Phil – you don’t need to worry about any of the disrepute you have brought upon Hull City – a team who before this were high in most Arsenal fans’ estimations.

I can’t see that much will come of this, but if the FA do rule that there was no spitting incident then Hull will be left very red-faced indeed.