Firstly, I apologise to you for not posting a Chelsea build up and prediction, I just never got around to it this weekend so apologies for that. I'll be honest, I was gonna predict us to lose 2-1. At the half I had the score, at full time I was miles.
So the game kicked off and it was clear that no side had set out to defend. There were attacks at both ends and we looked wobbly in the defence. Chelsea had 2 or 3 great chances to open the scoring as we were carved open. Then with the miss of the game, the ball was slid across the box to Gervinho who missed from 6 yards. Moments later RVP skied the ball from 7 yards. Then Chelsea were clinical, Mata breezed past Santos who apart from scoring had a shit game, and crossed for Lampard. The prick had a grin on his face after that went in, 80 minutes later he was skulking off down the tunnel.
The game was totally open and we engineered a chance or two, but the one that we needed came after 35 minutes. A beautiful ball from Ramsey through to Gervinho who unselfishly passed it across to RVP who had the simplest of finishes, 1-1. Chelsea then once again put the ball in the net, after again beating Santos who was a mess. But it was ruled out for offside and rightly so. 7 minutes later though, it was 2-1. Mertersacker beaten to the ball by John Terry who let it bounce off him and in, shocking defending. And that wrapped up the half.
As we kicked off for the second half, we came tearing out the blocks. Nothing could have prepared me for the second half. 3 minutes later Santos showed us that he should probably be a winger rather than a defender as Song slipped him in and he smashed it through Cechs legs. That drew us level and from there we never looked back. After 56 minutes of the game, we took the lead for the first time as Theo Walcott drove the ball home sending the 3,000 travelling Arsenal fans, me and my father into total hysteria. We dominated possession and battered Chelsea, but we sat back too much and they equalised 10 minutes from time. However Santos was blocked off by the lumbering Lukakalaka, whatever his name is.
It was this point that I picked the wrong time to get a beer. I opened the fridge to hear my father go ballistic and hurl a barrage of abuse at John Terry that I won't repeat on here. I charged in to see the racist fall over and allow RVP to run on to it, round Cech and pass it in, once again cue hysteria. Its a goal that Arsenal fans will watch over and over again, and will spark YouTube edits with the cartoon banana slip noise. Chelsea threw men forward in an attempt to grab an equaliser, but this ended up being their undoing and with 2 minutes of added time remaining, the game was dead. Arsenal broke 4 v 2 the ball was passed to RVP who fizzed his shot into the Chelsea net after a weak hand from Cech, at this point I was prancing around the room like I used too when I was 10 and I watched us score any goal. Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal. Stamford Bridge was even quieter than normal and as usual the Arsenal end was making all the noise. The whistle went and as the Chelsea players drudged off, our players and fans celebrated with scenes that reminded me of 2004 at WHL.
A truly remarkable game of football. Who says top 4 games are boring eh? A good start to the weekend and I have a shit tonne of fantasy league points with RVP's hat trick and Walcott's addition.
Till Monday, enjoy this weekend and brag horrendously on Monday!
Another positive result, 3 more points on the board and we are most definitely moving in the right direction. We started with Chamakh which is because Wenger is trying his best to protect RVP especially against a team such as Stoke. However Chamakh continued his well shite run at the moment, he just doesn't seem to have anything going for him which is a shame, especially as I like the song we sing about him ( here it is for those unfamiliar with the Chamakh song) after a fair amount of Arsenal possession we broke the deadlock with a fabulous ball over the top from Ramsey for Gervinho to chest it down and rifle it past the keeper. This was the start of what was to be a great day for the Ivorian.
However after a dubious free kick Crouch won for falling over we were undone by a set piece (surprise, surprise). The ball pinged around our box and fell to the lanky twat who poked it home for a yard out. This called for the introduction of RVP, who came on and immediately looked dangerous. He linked nicely with the Gerv who pulled it back for him to slot it home. The in almost a carbon copy, but on the otherside of the pitch, Gervinho once again pulled it back for Van Persie to slot it past the keeper (although he probably should have done better). And that was that, a good performance 3 points and up to 7th, lovely.
Well we play Bolton tomorrow night but I honestly haven't got a clue who we're gonna play because I probably don't know all of them. It would be nice to see Park start for a change as we spent a healthy amount of money on him, I'd like him to show us what he can do. I would also imagine that Oxlade will start along with the likes of Miquel and other err young players.
In terms of the Bolton team we're going to play, well that's equally as mysterious. It will be a challenging team and they will no doubt give our kids a run for their money even on their current form. The likes of RVP and Ramsey will be rested and left to watch from the stands, well its two more on the attendance I suppose. Tickets are still on sale and some as cheap as £10, to be fair you'd pay more to watch most League 2 sides, so if you have nothing to do why not get down there and give our lads some support.
Good to see Vermaelen happy in training again, hopefully he'll be back soon. The prediction today is a total stab in the dark, so yeah. COYG!!
Prediction: Arsenal 2-1 Bolton
We cut it fine, but we did it, in the last minute of the game. When the cross was slung in I had given up, the game was dead and nothing was happening. Gervinho missed it (typical) but had he not, it wouldn't have fallen to Ramsey who had time to think (dangerous) but did well to fire it past Mandanda. To be fair Marseille offered nothing and were poor throughout, I'd have taken a point but obviously 3 is better than 1. It leaves us looking fairly solid at the top 7 from 3, 3 games to play and I'd say one more win and we're there, the magical 10 points.
Stoke are a team that we have struggled against in recent seasons, mainly away but Stoke are the sort of team that on their day give us many problems. They're Arsene Wenger's worst nightmare: they play physical, they don't give away space and they're good from set pieces. Also the lumber some frame of Peter Crouch and the bulk that is Kenwyne Jones are the sort of strikers we hate to defend against. But Stoke have suffered badly after playing in Europe this season and hopefully this week will be no different.
I think there will be a few changes to the team that beat Marseille on Wednesday. Sadly for the lad Jenkinson he picked up a knock and will miss this one so expect to see Djourou starting at right back. Another change that I really hope we see is Gervinho in for Arshavin who apart from a maisey dribble was complete shit on Wednesday and the Arsenal fans are rapidly running out of patience for the little Russian. Apart from that I think the team will remain from those that got a midweek run out.
Well Stoke threats will come from Delap's throws as always and Crouch who is the perfect man to nod them in, elsewhere Walters and Jones are dangerous on their day. Pennant is doubtful but no doubt he'll be a menace should be play any role. The true test for our defence will be tomorrow when they face a totally new threat from the speed of Marseille. We shall see how they cope.
I know I'm back-tracking but I just want to say that Koscielny was absolutely fantastic midweek and my hat goes off to him. Now he's not my favourite player and he has had a lot of, sometimes fair, criticism but he really showed what he can do and that can only be good for his confidence, a top class performance.
This is a tough game to predict but either way I can't see it being a romp by either side and a scrappy game is on the boards I think.
Prediction: Arsenal 1-0 Stoke City
We got there, after a blinding 25 minutes, a wobble and then a dominant second half, we got our 3 points and mainly thanks to that man upfront RVP. Our second goal was tremendous and as much as an equal for Larssons finish that gave Szczesny no chance, I instantly thought back to the goal I saw him score against Wigan in our final season at Highbury. He came to our rescue again and I began to think, where would we be without him? As good as his current form is it's worrying that he appears to be our only source of goals, should he get injured, touch-wood he doesn't, we'd be in trouble. People also seem to think that we're back to old ways, however this is ridiculous we're far from playing classic Arsenal football.
Anyway tomorrow sees us take on Marseillie in France and a game that I'm not sure about at all. They're having a few problems domestically at the moment, much like us and sit 15th in a 20 team league. However they took Dortmund apart at home last week and that proves that they are dangerous. Its gonna be testing tomorrow night and their fans will get behind the team. They have some real threats in Loic Remy who is on form this season, other threats come from Valbuena, Gonzalez and Ayew.
Apologies that this is late folks, I had a bit of a confusion yesterday but here we are. Sunderland at home tomorrow, in a game we really must win. With teams around us dropping points, we can capitalise and take a big jump to 10th possibly. I know 10th is nothing to write home about but its better than where we are. Sunderland are in equal amounts of shit, they sit a point below us in the table and also really need to win.
In recent years this fixture has been rather dull with last seasons game ending in a disappointing 0-0. So a goal fest it is. Sunderland to be fair haven't got much of a team with some high profile departures last season including the strictly "football-only" move of Gyan to the middle east. However with the acquisition of the worlds best footballer Nicholas Bendtner they should be doing much better.
Bendtner of course wont be playing tomorrow due to his loan terms. So that leaves them a little light upfront and I suspect they'll be playing Ji supported by Sessegnon. Both have been well lack luster so far but that can't last forever. Other threats include Lee Cattermole and Larsson on the left.
In Arsenal terms we have the return of a defensive trio of Djourou, Koscielny and Squillaci. So with Sagna out I would hope we will play Jenkinson that will be both a test and good experience for the lad. The article on Arsenal.com headlined Koscielny - I'm happy to play right back, did give me a scare earlier when I thought Wenger was going to do something stupid, but reading through I fairly certain the back four will be: Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Koscielny and Gibbs, right to left of course. The middle will be fairly standard with Walcott and Gervinho on the wings and RVP alone upfront as usual.
I really hate the international break, mostly because England play the shittiest, dullest and most tedious football I have ever seen (and I've seen Gillingham play). On top of that they throw games away in the last minute and piss everyone off. The other reason I hate internationals is the fact that Arsenal seem to almost close for a few weeks, nothing comes out of the club and that makes blogging hard.
The internationals hopefully gave the team time to go away and clear their heads. I'm hopeful that some time away will do everyone some good. However in the current state I highly doubt it. Everything about the club that we all love is crumbling and we need to stand tall and keep the faith cause at the moment it doesn't look like anything will change soon so we just have to hope something clicks.
There are two ways to look at the situation. The first way is the "optimist", we're currently in a blip and we'll pull through and everything will sort itself out. There are very few people that are looking at it this way. Then we have the "pessimist", which is that the very foundations of the club are being shaken and the club is on the verge of collapse, this is the much more popular view. I don't quite think the club is going to collapse, but we need to sort the defence and everything else and sort it soon. We're seeing the same problems week in week out and its frustrating, we can all see it so why can't the team and the manager. I can't remember the last time the Emirates had hundreds of empty seats every week and practically anybody at the moment can get hold of them, not that they want too because we're playing so poorly.
The only thing we as fans can do is get down there and get behind the team and staff. They need us to fall back on at the moment and we need too. Great support at WHL as always aside from the problematic chanting from both sets of supporters. We need to bring that support home and lift the players.
Anyway now that I've set out my one point plan of how to save Arsenal from impending doom and ensure we win the quadruple, on to some real news. Well surprise, surprise Vermaelen doesn't look as if he'll be back for Sunderland. We really need him back soon. Brighter news in the fact that Djourou and Kosicielny appear to be fit to play. So we have a few defensive options to go with, unfortunately I'm not entirely sure we have the combination of players to do the job but we shall see.
Check back for the Sunderland build up on Friday. Also shocking plug but please check out and like our facebook page.
COYG!
It's that time again, the derby. After the so called "friendly derby" today we have what everybody whose associated with Arsenal and Tottenham sees as the best English derby, myself included. Forget West Ham, Millwall thats a thugs derby. The hatred between Arsenal and Tottenham is unrivaled in my opinion and that always shows on the pitch. So many historic moments have come in the North London derby, the most prominent for Arsenal fans being '71 and 04.
Before I go on to look at teams there are a few things I want to say. I'm genuinely nervous about tomorrow and that doesn't happen often but I really am. Listening to the SSN panel I agree with them on nearly everything they're saying (for once). The pricks are firm favourites to win tomorrow for the first time since I can remember and I'm not surprised. We are going into this shot of confidence and about as defensively sound as Burton Albion. If we fail to get ourselves up, we could get embarrassed, so its down to Wenger to do his job and really get the team motivated.
Call me pessimistic but I can't see anything other than a Tottenham win tomorrow, now people will be quick to point out that they haven't had a blinding start and so on but the derby is different to every other game of the season. They know we're weak at the back and I think they'll really give it a go. It also seems impossible for Adebayor not to score, its written on the wall. If I was a bookie I'd have him odds on to score in the fear of losing a small fortune. That brings me nicely on to teams.
It seems that Song will have to start at the back as we're out of fit centre backs. Expect to see Sagna and Gibbs start on the sides. The midfield I think will be Ramsey, Arteta and most probably Frimpong to try and give us some power in the middle, that will bee a key area tomorrow. I look at their players in the middle and they don't have a big powerful midfielder to hold the ground and that could be where we will split. They'll play Modric, Parker and Sandro (I'd say) who are all relatively attacking, when we counter that's where they'll lack numbers. We have to play Gervinho and Walcott/Oxlade it will be Walcott but the point I'm making is Arshavin was absolutely shit midweek. He was lazy and didn't look bothered and in a derby all 11 players need to pull their weight and we all know he wont. RVP upfront as ever.
COYG!
Prediction: Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Arsenal
