Arsenal 3 Adebayor2, Butt
Newcastle United 0
Arsenal 3 Adebayor, Flamini, Fabregas
Newcastle United 0
Kevin Keegan had two shots at bringing down Arsenal but failed to even score a goal against the Gunners, which saw his team being eliminated from the FA Cup and remained winless since he made his second comeback to the Geordies.
But for Arsene Wenger, the most important thing for him to emerge from the two encounters was the fact Manu Adebayor has proven he is more than ready to take over from Thierry Henry as Arsenal main source of goals. The lanky Togo striker has scored nine goals from his last seven matches to become the club leading goalscorer.
During the two matches against Newcastle, Adebayor scored using his head, left foot and right foot and demonstrated that he has the strength and determination to hold off challenges from defenders.
Comparisons with the legendary Henry are inevitable but both of them differ in their approach to the game thus it would not be a like to like measurement. However, they share a common commodity which is goals. Now it is easy to see why Wenger is happy with the striker he signed from his former club AS Monaco during the summer of 2007.
One must note that it is not about Adebayor either. Another important player to emerge this season is Matt Flamini who capped a fine performance in the second meeting with a gem of a strike from 30 metres. The French utility player is steadily cementing his place in the middle of the park since the beginning of the season.
The fact that he has yet to sign a new contract with Arsenal is a worrisome situation for many Arsenal fans despite the assurances by both Wenger and Flamini himself. Even though there are a number of players who could easily fill the position such as Gilberto, Abou Diaby and Denilson; losing Flamini would be categorised as a 'disaster' to Arsenal.
The two wins over Newcastle saw Arsenal moving into the fifth round and a showdown with arch rivals manure in Manchester and also moving three points clear of the Red Devils at the top of the Premier League, at least for 24 hours.
Before the visit to Old Trafford sometimes in February, there is an earlier trip to the city with the blue half of Manchester expecting Sven Goran Eriksson to avenge their 1-0 defeat at the Emirates earlier this season, which saw them losing the top spot and Kaspar Schmeichel conded his first goal in the Premier League.
This time around, the red half of the city is equally praying hard for their neighbours to do them a huge favour.
...
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Saturday, 26 January 2008
FA Cup - Fourth Round
Preview
Arsenal versus Newcastle United
It is going to be an interesting match when Arsenal receive the visit of Newcastle United in this 4th Round tie of the FA Cup. Earlier this season Nicklas Bendtner scored twice to dump the Geordies out of the Carling Cup in our 2-0 win.
Things have changed a bit since that night. Big Sam Allardyce had departed and was replaced by Toons' favourite Kevin Keegan, taking charge of United for the second time in his managerial career.
With the elimination from the Carling Cup by local rivals Tottenham Hotsp*ds in midweek still fresh on his mind, Arsene Wenger would take this opportunity to restore morale to the Gunners ranks by dumping Newcastle out from the cup.
Although, it is easier said than done with a growing injury list and unavailability of key players away at the African Nations' Cup right now. However, Wenger would be able to call upon Gael Clichy and Phillipe Senderos again to form the back-line with skipper William Gallas and right-back Bacary Sagna.
With Robin Van Persie still unavailable, it seems the partnership of Manu Adebayor and Eduardo again will feature with Alex Hleb and Tomas Rosicky providing the width and support from the flanks.
As usual, Cesc Fabregas is expected to be the focal point for our creativity and the cover to the back-line would be provided by the reliable Matt Flamini. Jens Lehmann who turned down a move to his native Germany last week is expected to man the posts.
Probable line-up: Lehmann; Sagna, Clichy, Gallas, Senderos; Fabregas, Flamini, Hleb, Rosicky; Adebayor, Eduardo
...
Arsenal versus Newcastle United
It is going to be an interesting match when Arsenal receive the visit of Newcastle United in this 4th Round tie of the FA Cup. Earlier this season Nicklas Bendtner scored twice to dump the Geordies out of the Carling Cup in our 2-0 win.Things have changed a bit since that night. Big Sam Allardyce had departed and was replaced by Toons' favourite Kevin Keegan, taking charge of United for the second time in his managerial career.
With the elimination from the Carling Cup by local rivals Tottenham Hotsp*ds in midweek still fresh on his mind, Arsene Wenger would take this opportunity to restore morale to the Gunners ranks by dumping Newcastle out from the cup.
Although, it is easier said than done with a growing injury list and unavailability of key players away at the African Nations' Cup right now. However, Wenger would be able to call upon Gael Clichy and Phillipe Senderos again to form the back-line with skipper William Gallas and right-back Bacary Sagna.
With Robin Van Persie still unavailable, it seems the partnership of Manu Adebayor and Eduardo again will feature with Alex Hleb and Tomas Rosicky providing the width and support from the flanks.
As usual, Cesc Fabregas is expected to be the focal point for our creativity and the cover to the back-line would be provided by the reliable Matt Flamini. Jens Lehmann who turned down a move to his native Germany last week is expected to man the posts.
Probable line-up: Lehmann; Sagna, Clichy, Gallas, Senderos; Fabregas, Flamini, Hleb, Rosicky; Adebayor, Eduardo
...
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Carling Cup - Semi Finals, Leg 2
Tottenham 5 Jenas, Bendtner (OG), Keane, Lennon, Malbranque
Arsenal 1 Adebayor
Arsenal lost 6-2 on aggregate
I missed the match. When the pages of ESPN Soccernet and Arsenal.com were fully loaded on this screen I scarcely could believe the scoreline. It has been a while since we last taste defeat at the hands of Sp*ds and I have had this feeling it is something that was inevitable to happen.
Well, it happened last night, or rather this morning considering our time.
After luckily avoiding defeat at the Emirates during the first leg, I had been bugged by the feeling that the second leg encounter would see us losing to them for the first time, especially Juande Ramos would definitely name his best eleven against our youngsters.
Nevertheless, we have last season experience to bank on when we came back from two goal down to draw at the Lane before finishing the job at the Emirates. This time around, there was no such performance from us.
We trailed by two goals after Jermaine Jenas had opened the scoring just after three minutes and the unfortunate Nicklas Bendtner headed past Lukasz Fabianski from a corner. Then the score became 4-0 after Robbie Keane and Aaron Lennon finished the chances that came their way.
Despite Manu Adebayor's scoring his 16th goal this season with twenty minutes to go, there was no comeback this time from the young Gooners. Steed Malbranque nothed the fifth at the end but Arsene Wenger was not that worried with the scoreline. Instead he saw it as a learning curve for the youngsters.
Furthermore, he insisted that his priority lies with the bigger prizes such as the Premier League, the European Champions League and the FA Cup. Hey! It seems that we are still on course for the 'Treble'.
Not bad, not bad at all.
...
Arsenal 1 Adebayor
Arsenal lost 6-2 on aggregate
I missed the match. When the pages of ESPN Soccernet and Arsenal.com were fully loaded on this screen I scarcely could believe the scoreline. It has been a while since we last taste defeat at the hands of Sp*ds and I have had this feeling it is something that was inevitable to happen.
Well, it happened last night, or rather this morning considering our time.
After luckily avoiding defeat at the Emirates during the first leg, I had been bugged by the feeling that the second leg encounter would see us losing to them for the first time, especially Juande Ramos would definitely name his best eleven against our youngsters.
Nevertheless, we have last season experience to bank on when we came back from two goal down to draw at the Lane before finishing the job at the Emirates. This time around, there was no such performance from us.
We trailed by two goals after Jermaine Jenas had opened the scoring just after three minutes and the unfortunate Nicklas Bendtner headed past Lukasz Fabianski from a corner. Then the score became 4-0 after Robbie Keane and Aaron Lennon finished the chances that came their way.
Despite Manu Adebayor's scoring his 16th goal this season with twenty minutes to go, there was no comeback this time from the young Gooners. Steed Malbranque nothed the fifth at the end but Arsene Wenger was not that worried with the scoreline. Instead he saw it as a learning curve for the youngsters.
Furthermore, he insisted that his priority lies with the bigger prizes such as the Premier League, the European Champions League and the FA Cup. Hey! It seems that we are still on course for the 'Treble'.
Not bad, not bad at all.
...
Sunday, 20 January 2008
Premier League - Match #23
Fulham 0
Arsenal 3 Adebayor 2, Rosicky
It was a workmanlike performance by Arsenal at Craven Cottage last night. A good result was needed in order to keep up with the manures at the top of the league. I thought we would snatch the lead outright when their match at Reading was still goalless coming into the last twenty minutes.
Unfortunately, it was not to be.
But why do we give a damn about other teams' performance? Arsene Wenger never really think too much about other teams tactics and approach. Instead he just focuses on his team strengths and their approach to the match.
Thus from last night's performance Arsene would be very happy that Manu Adebayor did the damage from the position that he should be concentrating on; upfront and in the middle. Most of his headers this season have been on target thus adding to the variety of the Gunners attacking options this season.
Just to stress home this point was when Tomas Rosicky finished off Fulham nine minutes from time with a typical Arsenal goal, finishing home with a fine volley after receiving a cut back from the by-line from Eduardo.
William Gallas did a superb job again at the back but the partnership with Phillipe Senderos did not really look totally convincing. But it is something that us Gooners have to live with for the next few weeks unless the Ivory Coast fail to progress from the group stage (an event that would bring much joy to many Gooners out there).
Another London derby awaits with the visit to the Lane on Tuesday for the second leg of the Carling Cup semi-final tie against the Sp*ds. It will be interesting but I really hope it will be us that will be making the trip to Wembley in February.
C'mon Gooners!!!
...
Arsenal 3 Adebayor 2, Rosicky
It was a workmanlike performance by Arsenal at Craven Cottage last night. A good result was needed in order to keep up with the manures at the top of the league. I thought we would snatch the lead outright when their match at Reading was still goalless coming into the last twenty minutes.
Unfortunately, it was not to be.
But why do we give a damn about other teams' performance? Arsene Wenger never really think too much about other teams tactics and approach. Instead he just focuses on his team strengths and their approach to the match.
Thus from last night's performance Arsene would be very happy that Manu Adebayor did the damage from the position that he should be concentrating on; upfront and in the middle. Most of his headers this season have been on target thus adding to the variety of the Gunners attacking options this season.
Just to stress home this point was when Tomas Rosicky finished off Fulham nine minutes from time with a typical Arsenal goal, finishing home with a fine volley after receiving a cut back from the by-line from Eduardo.
William Gallas did a superb job again at the back but the partnership with Phillipe Senderos did not really look totally convincing. But it is something that us Gooners have to live with for the next few weeks unless the Ivory Coast fail to progress from the group stage (an event that would bring much joy to many Gooners out there).
Another London derby awaits with the visit to the Lane on Tuesday for the second leg of the Carling Cup semi-final tie against the Sp*ds. It will be interesting but I really hope it will be us that will be making the trip to Wembley in February.
C'mon Gooners!!!
...
Monday, 14 January 2008
Carling Cup - Semi Finals, Premier League Match #22
Arsenal 1 Walcott
Tottenham 1 Jenas
Arsenal 1 Adebayor
Birmingham City 1 O'Connor
It was really a happy week for us Gooners after being held to these stalemates at the Emirates. Of course the we would have another go against the Sp*ds at their own den though it seems the advantage would be on their side against our 'youth' team.
Juande Ramos would be looking forward to ending his side winless streak against us but I am hoping that we would pull it through against the neighbours. A positive result would see us taking a trip to the new Wembley Stadium against either Chelski or Everton, my preference would be the former.
However, the second draw was of more consequential nature as we were knocked off the top of the Premier League by manure, albeit on goal difference. Losing Kolo Toure to the African Cup of Nations seemed to have taken its first setback, even though Arsene Wenger would rather put it on the team lack of defensive alertness rather than putting it on Toure's replacement, Phillipe Senderos.
We were slightly lucky in mid-week with the Theo Walcott equaliser but lady luck took a break on Saturday as we bombarded the Blues goal looking for the winning goal but to no avail. There were a number of Arsenal alumnis returning in the shape of Seb Larsson and Fabrice Muamba and did their job well to deny their former club from taking all the three points.
Now we are hoping they would be able the same against manures and chelski in the coming return fixtures this season.
...
Tottenham 1 Jenas
Arsenal 1 Adebayor
Birmingham City 1 O'Connor
It was really a happy week for us Gooners after being held to these stalemates at the Emirates. Of course the we would have another go against the Sp*ds at their own den though it seems the advantage would be on their side against our 'youth' team.
Juande Ramos would be looking forward to ending his side winless streak against us but I am hoping that we would pull it through against the neighbours. A positive result would see us taking a trip to the new Wembley Stadium against either Chelski or Everton, my preference would be the former.
However, the second draw was of more consequential nature as we were knocked off the top of the Premier League by manure, albeit on goal difference. Losing Kolo Toure to the African Cup of Nations seemed to have taken its first setback, even though Arsene Wenger would rather put it on the team lack of defensive alertness rather than putting it on Toure's replacement, Phillipe Senderos.
We were slightly lucky in mid-week with the Theo Walcott equaliser but lady luck took a break on Saturday as we bombarded the Blues goal looking for the winning goal but to no avail. There were a number of Arsenal alumnis returning in the shape of Seb Larsson and Fabrice Muamba and did their job well to deny their former club from taking all the three points.
Now we are hoping they would be able the same against manures and chelski in the coming return fixtures this season.
...
Monday, 7 January 2008
FA Cup - Third Round
Burnley 0
Arsenal 2 Eduardo, Bendtner
Eduardo da Silva is fast becoming another gem unearthed by Arsene Wenger. The Brazil born Croatian who was virtually unknown outside his adopted country of Croatia before this season has increased his goal tally this season to 11 in all competitions after putting the Gunners into the lead at Turf Moor this evening.
Perhaps Wenger has finally found the fox in the box he really sought for so long, with failed experiments such as Francis Jeffers, Kaba Diawara and a few others that have long gone from our memory.
The good thing is about Eduardo is he is not just a fox in the box but a fox in the box that comes with a wide array of variation to his game. He is equally comfortable playing on the flanks despite not having the pace of the illustrious but already departed Thierry Henry.
One thing about him that will put him above the Frenchman in my book is his willingness to get stuck in physically when Henry would just stop and give the offender the look while expecting the referee to share his point of view and award him a free-kick.
The opening goal certainly illustrate my point to a certain degree. Running to a wonderful pass from Kolo Toure, Eduardo shrugged off the challenge from Burnley's Steven Caldwell before slotting the ball past Gabor Kiraly with consummate ease.
It was not all Arsenal in a match that saw the Championship side putting up a more fluid display of passing than the Premier League leaders. Perhaps if they were clinical in their finishing the scoreline would be a bit different.
Wenger admitted later that it was Arsenal's fortune that Burnley did not make the most of the chances that came their way, aided by Armand Traore and Phillipe Senderos lax defending. But after the dismissal of Burnley's Kyle Lafferty for an open stud challenge on Gilberto Silva the match was effectively over.
But it did not stop Eduardo from capping a memorable evening with a wonderfully weighted pass that put Niklas Bendtner through and the big Danish international did not have any problem beating Kiraly to secure Arsenal's path to the next round.
...
Arsenal 2 Eduardo, Bendtner
Eduardo da Silva is fast becoming another gem unearthed by Arsene Wenger. The Brazil born Croatian who was virtually unknown outside his adopted country of Croatia before this season has increased his goal tally this season to 11 in all competitions after putting the Gunners into the lead at Turf Moor this evening.
Perhaps Wenger has finally found the fox in the box he really sought for so long, with failed experiments such as Francis Jeffers, Kaba Diawara and a few others that have long gone from our memory.
The good thing is about Eduardo is he is not just a fox in the box but a fox in the box that comes with a wide array of variation to his game. He is equally comfortable playing on the flanks despite not having the pace of the illustrious but already departed Thierry Henry.
One thing about him that will put him above the Frenchman in my book is his willingness to get stuck in physically when Henry would just stop and give the offender the look while expecting the referee to share his point of view and award him a free-kick.
The opening goal certainly illustrate my point to a certain degree. Running to a wonderful pass from Kolo Toure, Eduardo shrugged off the challenge from Burnley's Steven Caldwell before slotting the ball past Gabor Kiraly with consummate ease.
It was not all Arsenal in a match that saw the Championship side putting up a more fluid display of passing than the Premier League leaders. Perhaps if they were clinical in their finishing the scoreline would be a bit different.
Wenger admitted later that it was Arsenal's fortune that Burnley did not make the most of the chances that came their way, aided by Armand Traore and Phillipe Senderos lax defending. But after the dismissal of Burnley's Kyle Lafferty for an open stud challenge on Gilberto Silva the match was effectively over.
But it did not stop Eduardo from capping a memorable evening with a wonderfully weighted pass that put Niklas Bendtner through and the big Danish international did not have any problem beating Kiraly to secure Arsenal's path to the next round.
...
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
Premier League - Match #21
Arsenal 2 Eduardo, Adebayor
West Ham United 0
Arsenal maintained their lead at the top of the Premier League after this win over London rivals West Ham United. The Hammers remained the only team so far to inflict defeat to the Gunners at the Emirates Stadium when they won 1-0 last season despite being pounded senseless.
This time around, there was no repeat of such surprise result with Croatian international Eduardo da Silva continuing his rich goal-scoring form by netting inside the opening two minutes. The strike was his third in two matches after getting a brace at Goodison Park on Boxing Day.
Togolese striker Manu Adebayor who would not be going to the African Nations' Cup this month added the second in the 18th minute 'against the run of play'.
Eduardo began to look the part on why Arsene Wenger splashed nine million pounds during the close season. His arrival perhaps would end the search for a 'fox in box' kind of player to convert most of the chances that are created by our players. Having said that, there are more to the Brazilian born game than just being a goal poacher.
The way he controlled the ball after receiving it from Cesc Fabregas certainly demonstrated his ability and his finish was top drawer. The same could be said with Adebayor whose pace enabled him to nudge the ball past Robert Green while his ability to find the net from the most acute of angle (albeit with a little help from the far post) would win him a few more admirers.
With the match effectively ended at the interval, there was no real threat to Arsenal lead at the top of the Premier League.
...
West Ham United 0
Arsenal maintained their lead at the top of the Premier League after this win over London rivals West Ham United. The Hammers remained the only team so far to inflict defeat to the Gunners at the Emirates Stadium when they won 1-0 last season despite being pounded senseless.
This time around, there was no repeat of such surprise result with Croatian international Eduardo da Silva continuing his rich goal-scoring form by netting inside the opening two minutes. The strike was his third in two matches after getting a brace at Goodison Park on Boxing Day.
Togolese striker Manu Adebayor who would not be going to the African Nations' Cup this month added the second in the 18th minute 'against the run of play'.
Eduardo began to look the part on why Arsene Wenger splashed nine million pounds during the close season. His arrival perhaps would end the search for a 'fox in box' kind of player to convert most of the chances that are created by our players. Having said that, there are more to the Brazilian born game than just being a goal poacher.
The way he controlled the ball after receiving it from Cesc Fabregas certainly demonstrated his ability and his finish was top drawer. The same could be said with Adebayor whose pace enabled him to nudge the ball past Robert Green while his ability to find the net from the most acute of angle (albeit with a little help from the far post) would win him a few more admirers.
With the match effectively ended at the interval, there was no real threat to Arsenal lead at the top of the Premier League.
...
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