Sunday 30 December 2007

Premier League - Match #20

Everton 1 Cahill
Arsenal 4 Eduardo 2, Adebayor, Rosicky

Arsene Wenger seemed could do no right these days.

To his critics at least. After the drab goal-less affair at Portsmouth they said he lacked a Plan B when the opposition played a physical and defensive game Arsenal would left bereft of ideas. Then, when his side traveled to Everton and scored three goals through route one football the critics said he did not try to play the beautiful game.

For us Gooners, it was just as good as watching Wenger's team ran amok twice at neighbouring Anfield last season.

The home side was deservedly ahead at the break. Arsenal seemed lost and most of the traffic were going towards Manuel Almunia's goal. The Spaniard should be able to cement his position if he goes through this season without a stretch of high profile errors. The home side's goal came in the 19th minute when Arsenal defence failed to deal with a corner and from the scramble saw Aussie Tim Cahill getting the last touch.

Wenger started the match with the Carling Cup strike-partner. Eduardo and Nicklas Bendtner were paired-off for the first time from the start. This was the partnership that I have been advocating at the start of the season, our own little and large combo.

Arsenal were back on level term pretty quickly in the second half. Gael Clichy's long pass found Eduardo in the 47th minute and his control enabled him to turn and slotted the ball past Tim Horward. It was his first goal in the Premier League. Like a suddenly opened flood-gate, Eduardo found the net the second time just over ten minutes later. Another long pass and the Croatian international turned past Phil Jagielka before finishing the move in a calm manner.

There was a hint of handball but football fans knew better that it was a decision that could go either way, and today it went Arsenal's way.

Then Bendtner joined the Arsenal red-card club with fifteen minutes to go after getting his second yellow card of the match, even though many would not complain if referee Martin Atkinson decided to dish out a straight red. In a way it spoiled the day for Eduardo who was looking to complete his hat-trick. He had to make way for Manu Adebayor.

The Togolese nudged Arsenal further ahead four minutes later. Again it was route one football. Everton defender Joseph Yobo's hesitation in dealing with Almunia's long punt opened the opportunity for Adebayor to steal the ball and slotted it home. Everton were completely demoralised.

The home side was reduced to ten men themselves after Mikel Arteta caught Cesc Fabregas in the face to earn himself a red card from the referee. Tomas Rosicky came on two minutes from time and found himself on the score-sheet with a wonderfully taken shot from the edge of the box. A typical Rosicky goal.

The bigger picture here was the Gunners are back at the top of the Premier League, capitalising from the defeat of the manures at Upton Park. Ironically, while we are thankful to West Ham for defeating the manures, we must now beat them at the Emirates on new year's day to ensure our place at the summit is consolidated.

Up the Gooners!!!

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Thursday 27 December 2007

Premier League - Match #19

Portsmouth 0
Arsenal 0

It was a disappointing result at Fratton Park but to make it worse we lost the lead to the manures after their thumping victory at Sunderland. Despite it is just a point behind, we are facing another difficu;t trip to the Merseyside against Everton who on a few accassions managed to derail our title ambition in the past.

In a match void of inspiration, the goal-less draw perhaps a fair result for both teams.

Perhaps the match was another platform for Manuel Almunia to stamp his mark as the goalkeeper for Arsenal for the next few seasons though I still would like to see Lukasz Fabianski getting a few run-outs in the Premier League.

Playing Portsmouth at Fratton Park is never easy. Despite our 5-1 win in the FA Cup a few seasons back, the rest of the results there were not as sweet. The trend continued this morning. Then again, the ground is not a favourite destination for the manures too.

So, looking forward to the trip to Goodison Park this Saturday and hoping by the time the match kick-off, our neighbour Wet Ham would have done us a favour by getting a good result against the manures at Upton Park.

Up the Gooners!

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Sunday 23 December 2007

Premier League - Match #18

Arsenal 2 Adebayor, Bendtner
Tottenham 1
Berbatov

If being top at Christmas is a sure sign that a team would be crowned champions come May, then I would be a very happy man right now. But football is a funny old game. When you thought everything is set and sealed, there will always be a way to undo all the good things that have been done during the previous months.

However, we would be praying that Arsene Wenger will be able to bring the prized title of Premier League Champions home to the Emirates for the first time come May. Perhaps if we pray harder then it could be accompanied by the Champions' League trophy as well, right.

But watching the match against Sp*ds early on did not give you the indication that we would be getting the three points required to keep our place at the top. But Manu Adebayor certainly lifted my spirit with his sixth strike in six matches against our neighbour.

It was a wonderful move with the Togolese finishing a back-heel pass from Cesc Fabregas. Then the Sp*ds copied the move with Robbie Keane's back-heel being finished off by Dimitar Berbatov.

Then it was one of the moment when you felt like everything is conspiring against you when Kolo Toure fouled Berbatov inside the box. Then Manuel Almunia stepped up and be counted again in one of the big matches of the season. His safe from Keane's attempt certainly lifted my spirits and it certainly lifted the spirit of the players.

Then perhaps drawing inspirations from that Niclas Bendtner came on and with his first touch won the match for us, maintaining our lead at the top during yuletide and with it came the all important psychological motivation the leaders during Christmas will be the champions come May.

But of course, Arsene Wenger would not buy into that theory and would certainly ask his players to give their all again when they visit Fratton Park on Wednesday.

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Wednesday 19 December 2007

Carling Cup - Quarter Finals

Blackburn 2 Santa Cruz
Arsenal 3 Abou Diaby Eduardo 2


Woah! what a match!

It has everything a cup tie supposed to have. An early lead (happy), then the lead increased (happier), then a shot against the bar which would effectively end the tie... the home side scored (remained calm), then our former player (David Bentley) who seemed to play out of his skin against us, created the chance that leveled the score (a bit agitated but still calm) but the last straw during normal time, the sending off after the altercation with that f*ck face (AARRRGGHHHHH!!!) felt like kicking the TV (but I am not that well to do enough to do such things) then the injury to our young talent (very concerned) before celebrating the winning goal from the new guy (happy but moaned at the amount of time left to play) then the final whistle (happiest)

Now, what are the chances that we are going to meet the Sp*ds in the last four...

I believe Lukasz Fabianski is our long term solution between the post, as I always stressed before. Hopefully he will make his first appearance in the Premier League soon, or the FA Cup for that matter.

I really hope Lassana Diarra will not leave the club. He is an asset and I believe his time will come. Who knows Matty Flamini will be out for a long time (God forbid!) I believe he would be the perfect replacement.

Alex Song looked good and his final ball that led to Eduardo scoring the winner was some sort of a reminder why Arsene Wenger put so much faith in this young man.

Perhaps the press in the UK will have a field day with another red card to an Arsenal player, apart from Wenger being dismissed from the pitch himself against Sevilla the other day. But the way I see it is there are so much resilience in the current Gunners' squad that even a different
starting eleven still managed to see off a full strength physical side such as Blackburn.

Rafa Benitez must be green with envy.

Eduardo is settling in well and I believe that he would be able to find his groove in the Premier League soon, especially with the coming of the busy period at Christmas. It seems Brazilians like this tournament very much, right? Remember four goal at Anfield, Julio Baptista?

Up the Gooners!

Monday 17 December 2007

Premier League - Match #17

Arsenal 1 Gallas
Chelsea 0

Nothing is sweeter this weekend than giving the Blues more blues. Furthermore it was inflicted by one of their former player made it even sweeter, though wishing for the Cashley Cole to be red carded seemed like pushing it too far (but one can always dream...)

Anyway, it was our first win since... uh, I cannot recall when we last won against them but it sure felt like a long time ago. I believe it was when Patrick Vieira scored the winner at their ground in 2004.

Thus making this win more enjoyable.

If Petr Cech wished to follow Carlo Cudicini's footstep in gifting goals to Arsenal, I am all for it. Despite William Gallas said it was a lucky goal I believe it was just sheer anticipation on the Arsenal skipper's side.

He was at the right place, at the right time.

I had wished for the Scousers to do us a favour by beating the Manures into submission but it seemed to be the Mancs had the home side number in their pocket everytime they meet at Anfield.

Nevertheless, it showed that we got the ability to climb back to the rightful spot without help from others.

Go Gooners!!!

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Thursday 13 December 2007

A Mini Comeback

It is sad when you have to miss something that you love doing, but that the way life goes.

I have missed blogging five Arsenal matches and during the stretch Arsenal have lost their unbeaten record both in all competitions and also in the Premier League.

Many Gooners would have felt confident of taking three points at the Riverside on the weekend but Middlesbrough have this habit of doing the unexpected against Arsenal. Remember the defeat a couple of seasons ago, they were also on a bad run with Nigerian striker Benny Yakubu was yet to score since arriving from Portsmouth.

What happened? He broke the scoring duck with two goals in a 2-1 win and Arsenal left the North East empty handed, despite controlling much of the match.

However, the present crop of players in my opinion have much more resilience thus would be able to comeback from this bad patch starting with a win against Steaua Bucharest at the Emirates.

Manager Arsene Wenger had decided to start with Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann in goal which I believe a good thing to do. In a way, I sympathise with the big German as he needs quality playing time in order to keep his place in his national squad for the European Championship next year.

With Manuel Almunia playing well so far the best way for Lehmann to get first team action is to go on loan during the January transfer window, perhaps to one of the Bundesliga clubs, though this would mean a big dent to his massive ego.

Finishing second in the group would probably a good thing as a draw against Europe big guns would see Arsenal raising their game, especially against teams that would go on a winter break.

We thought the passage to the quarter-finals would be clear when drawing PSV Eindhoven last season but in the end we could not raise our game to the necessary level in order to progress all the way in the Champions' League.

Things would look more settled after the Steaua match which would be nice in order to be totally focused for the big task at the weekend, a match that could see the Premier League race being blown wide open or us pulling away from the chasing pack.

Of course, I prefer the latter.

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