Middlesbrough Draw Keeps It Tight At The Top

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

I am feeling pretty low about the result at the weekend.

It was similar to many games during the last few seasons, where we have started brightly enough, but never really got out of 2nd gear and dozed off after our initial spurt. The doziness on this occasion meant a long freekick found Tuncay who got away from Toure and crossed for Aliadiere to score, while Gallas was left claiming offside rather than defending.

This is the sort of mistake which will cost us and there is the possibility that we could finish 3rd this season with no trophies as Chelsea are only 3 points behind us and they have a game in hand. It really is very close between the top 3 and we have chosen the wrong time to dip in form.

We didn’t look right on Saturday, Sagna had a funny game and he has been a consistent performer for us this year, it was mirrored by the team, Eboue was our best performer which says something, possibly?? Theo made a good contribution to the game when he came on the right to replace Sagna, Eboue moving to right back. We did plug away in the second half, leaving it very late to get the goal. Toure’s header was a moment of ecstacy in a dour game by our standards. The goal was satisfying but there was always the feeling we should have claimed 3 points. Many decisions went against us and the refereeing at times was shocking, but theres not much we can do about that now and its not really an excuse..

In other news, Gilberto says he may leave at the end of the season if he doesn’t regain his place, I think it is likely that he will be off.

Anyway, I can’t face writing much more.. Onwards to Stamford Bridge, I will be praying..

From Milan to Wigan: 0-0

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal

Much has happened during the past 7 days! Beating AC and then dropping 2 points up at Wigan yesterday. It has been up and down. Euphoria on Tuesday, and then reality check on Sunday!

The result against Wigan was a disappointing 0-0 on an atrocious pitch, with Wigan battling hard and doing a good job of really limiting our passing and chances. Wenger’s post-match interview here.

We started with Fabregas on the right, Walcott injured himself in a behind closed doors match against Colorado Rapids earlier in the week. We seem to be suffering from a lack of wingers at the moment! Gilberto and Flamini in the middle, Senderos kept his place in defence. Good news is that Toure and Van Persie both started on the bench and then came on to play a part. You can argue that maybe it was unwise to play Walcott in the friendly with our current injury problems, it probably was, but that only comes with hindsight.

Within the fi<rst minute we could have gone ahead with Adebayor clear on goal, but Kirkland made a good save to keep it level. During the first half we played well we did lack width in midfield, and Gilberto played quite poorly in the centre. Nevertheless we had some good chances and seemed to be on good form.

The bad condition of the pitch, and Wigan's fighting mentality saw us go into half time nil-nil. The second half saw us lose momentum and dominance, possibly a bit drained after the win in Milan. Van Persie came on for Bendtner, nice to see him back, but he did look a bit rusty. Toure also came on for Gilberto, Fabregas moved inside and we had Toure on the right.

All in all, we dominated the first half, but had limited chances, and Wigan upped their game in the second half, we still were frustrated in attack whilst they kept us busy defensively with some good work by Valencia on Wigan's right. Fabregas had a great chance blocked by Kirkland's legs in the final stages. It was quite depressing really, by stoppage time although we had made some inroads, Wigan renewed their attack and might have even nicked a goal on the break.

It seems like we dropped 2 points, but that is the nature of the game. The press may make a big deal of every game we don't win but at the moment we are 2 points ahead. Man U may have a game in hand at Derby, but a win there only gives them a one point advantage. Unusually I have some praise for Andy Gray's commentary, he played down the hype about our league form and pointed out that the race is very close, and defintely not over yet!!

MOTD 2 picked up on Bendtner and Adebayor not linking up well, this was true at times, but maybe it just wasn't our day. Senderos deserves a mention, he has lacked in confidence in recent years and taken a lot of stick, but the guy is on form, and he kept Toure off the team sheet. Good on you Phil.

To cheer all you up: Tuesday, March 4th, the San Siro, that has to go down as one of our great European nights, I just watched the highlights hereat Gunnerblog. That made me feel better! Fabregas’ goal was fantastic, and we totally outplayed the current champions, and they admitted it. It was great to see Walcott run clear of Kaladze to cross for Adebayor to get his first goal for us in the CL. Pity he couldn’t get another against Wigan.

This post wouldn’t be complete without a mention of the FA Cup this year:

Barnsley 1- 0 Chelsea

Man U 0 – 1 Portsmouth; against all the odds, Man U ended up with Ferdinand in goal after Van der Sar’s injury and Kusczcak(?spelling!) was sent off. Fergie went mental about the ref.

Middlesborough 0 – 2 Cardiff

Bristol Rovers 1 – 5 West Brom

Amazing results, only one Premiership side in the semi’s for the first time in 100 years. All the big four out; it’s up for grabs.

Middlesbrough at home this weekend, another team fighting for their lives in the Premiership.

Arsenal Snatch A Vital Point

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal3 Comments

The game on Saturday was not the best I have seen Arsenal play this season, 1-1 against Aston Villa. I would have been disappointed with that result had you asked me before the game, afterwards I think I will take the point. Villa are a team who are very hard to beat and we did struggle at times, 1 point is better than none!

To see the highlights click here.

Villa scored in the 28th minute through a Senderos own goal. Gallas lost Agbonlahor while trying to claim offside and the England U-21 striker put in a low cross which bounced off Senderos at the near post and past Almunia. It was disappointing and we did seem jaded to be honest. At points I though Gallas looked really lost and the same for Adebayor. Although in the opening 15 minutes we didn’t play badly, once Villa had taken the lead they played well, with very organised defence and made a lot of quick counter attacks utilising the height of Carew and Agbonlahor as well as the pace of Ashley Young.

Clichy looked quiet for much of the second half, he did his job but normally he does rampage up and down the flank, he looked a little subdued, whether that was because of last week or because Ashley Young was a handful I don’t know. In any case things were looking desperate as the second half went on. Theo had made some good moves in the first half, and played well on the right cutting in but little came of our attacks. Bendtner came on for a struggling Diaby and made some difference, but the bench looked sparse, Arseblog seems a little worried about this, and true, when I saw Gilberto and Denilson come on for Flamini and Senderos I did think it looked like a sign of a threadbare squad. In any case we kept pushing for the equaliser. As I counted down the minutes of extra time and the stadium emptied disgracefully(a very sad and annoying sight which shouldn’t be happening to a great and successful team like Arsenal), I became more and more nervous, there was still some hope, and in what must have been the last 10 seconds, just as the Villa fans started singing in celebration at their victory, Clichy put a deep cross into Adebayor at the back post who headed it down for Bendtner to control and finish from the edge of the 6-yard box.. The relief was incredible, everyone went crazy and it felt good to get something so so late out of a game which looked lost!!

Wenger said after the game:

“We had a hangover from last week definitely – you could see that in the first-half…I must say that I was impressed by Villa. Until the last minute they didn’t give us any space, or time on the ball and they are team who are very difficult to beat…I believe the point we gained today will have a big impact on the Premier League, and staying top helps. You know you go through a spell like that and I believe that the point gained can have vital importance.”

That point could indeed be crucial, now that we are sitting only one ahead of Man U in the table. This title race is one of the most tightly contested of recent years, it doesn’t make for easy watching!! Arsene makes a good point that even going through a bad spell we are still gaining some points, its good to see the likes of Bendtner and Theo getting the crucial goals when others aren’t playing so well, Gunnerblog picked up on that here.

One bad point that Wenger picked up on was the Villa fans singing songs about Eduardo which weren’t so nice. I heard them myself and really it was just sad. Wenger says:

“You expect better from people who come to football stadiums. It looks that intelligence and stupidity can have no limits. Unfortunately stupidity has won.”

There was some trouble between fans after the chants and several have been arrested, one Aston Villa fan is in hospital for head injuries after falling down steps according to the Telegraph.


We have to face Milan at the San Siro midweek now, the players will have too pick themselves up for this game, we are the underdogs, but that will suit us. Milan are masters of two-legged matches and we will have to aim for a goal, meaning they wll have to push forward and get two. That might give us more room to counter attack, but we shall see how Wenger plays it. Hopefully some of our injured players like Robin VP will be back, but that doesn’t look too promising at the moment. We shall have to wait and see.

Get Well Soon Eduardo!!

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal2 Comments

Today all our thoughts should be with Eduardo. The poor guy was on the end of a horrendous tackle on Saturday against Birmingham, at the beginning of what turned iut to be a very frustrating match. He suffered a broken leg after Taylor charged into him, it took nearly ten minutes to get him off to hospital. He is now in London in hospital, Arsenal.com is taking emails of support for him here.

It looks like he’ll be out for about 9 months, which is reasonable seeing as there were worries that it could have ended his career. We will miss him but hopefully Theo can step into the breach now, its a real opportunity for him to make his mark, now he needs to perform. Martin Taylor has been to the hospital to apologise to Eduardo, which is admirable.

The match itself had high and low points, we looked a little shell shocked in the first half, after the injury, and went behind to a McFadden freekick. In the second half we came out much more positively and within 10 minutes we were 2-1 up through 2 very well taken goals from Theo Walcott, his first in the Premiership. It all looked very good, but we didn’t capitalise on subsequent chances and come the 93rd minute Clichy had a moment of madness and took his eyes off the ball in the penalty box, allowing birmingham to steal in, Clichy’s tackle resulted in a debatable penalty, which was scored.

Gallas was visibly frustrated, kicked advertising hoardings and stood past the halfway line whilst the penalty was taken.. After the final whistle he remained on the pitch. It wasn’t good leadership and really he needs to step more into the role of a real captain, that isn’t what you want to see in the chase for a title bid.

Anyway, we have a few days now to get our heads straight and refocus. its Aston Villa on Saturday, they will be a tough test, playing well under O’Neill and in the race for fourth place. Flamini says the team is determined to win the title for Eduardo and we have to keep consistency in these last 11 games.

Right Lets Go – Forget the Man United Defeat

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Champions League, FA Cup

Much has been said about the defeat on Saturday, what I can say is:

  • We missed players in key areas.
  • We weren’t up for the game like United were.

That is what it comes down to, it seems a case of priorities. The CL and Premier League are seemingly more important to Wenger, and maybe, when the squad is thin as it is at the moment, it is right to prioritise.

I would like to see us go for every trophy, and I think we need to, but we shall have to see come the end of the season. Football is all about the winners. I don’t know whether those players should have been rested, and the defeat was very depressing but we have to look forward.

Enough has been said about the game and all we can hope is that it hasn’t had too much negative impact and that we can gain momentum over the next few games to take with us through the rest of the season. The season needs to be put in perspective, hype helps nobody.

AC Milan on Wednesday is another big game, the players need to be up for it and with the players back in the team who were rested on Saturday we could play well. I can only hope, we need to really go for it because we are in 2 competitions now and we need some trophies for a great team playing in a new stadium..

I don’t want to say any more about that!

In other news, Red and White Shareholdings and scummy Usmanov have upped their stake to just over 24% of the club. This isn’t good news and all I want to see is these crooks leave our good club alone, we don’t need the distraction, we are very well run as we are…

Arsenal Injury Injury, now on to Old Trafford

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, FA Cup

So, Man Utd at Old Trafford tomorrow, 5.15pm.

It looks like we have quite a big list of injuries to contend with, Kerrea Gilbert was on the bench against Blackburn, that shows how little coverage we have at the moment. Traore may start tomorrow, against Ronaldo, which doesn’t bode well.

In the end it is not the first priority, and I would rather have the Premiership than the FA Cup, As much I’d like to win everything the league is 38 games of consistent form and the cup is one off ties, so anything could happen tomorrow, whether we have a stronger team or not. As long as we keep winning I don’t mind!!

Adebayor is cool, so is Willy Gallas, against Blackburn it was so satisfying to see Adebayor get the goal he deserves and for him and Gallas to celebrate together.

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Adebayor, Give Him The Ball And He Will Score!

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal2 Comments

The quickest post ever!

Adebayor = Goals

Arsenal 3-1 Man City = Two point gap at the top of the table & Man U and Chelsea draw.

Walcott to play for England U-21s, plus New signing Freeman impresses Wenger!

Love the Arsenal

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..