Well after much speculation Thierry Henry has indeed agreed a loan deal to join Arsenal for 2 months. The man who scored 226 goals in all competitions for us and was literally idolised by Arsenal fans the world over. But of course he's a different player to the one that left for Barcelona a few years back and is now 34 and playing in the MLS. It's important to remember that he isn't going to be the player we all remember and we can't expect too much of him. Players often under perform during their second spell at a club but I wouldn't put it past him netting at least one before he returns to the Big Apple. Class is permanent.
Anyway now that I've done the nostalgic bit down to business as usual and the visit of QPR in our last game of 2011. Now QPR are a side that have come up from the Championship and just tried to play the same football they played but stepped it up a gear and to be honest is hasn't really worked. Neil Warnock is man I absolutely detest because nothing is ever his teams fault, I'd love to see us smash them into the ground today.
I expect we'll line up similarly to Wolves with a few changes. Same keeper and back four. The midfield might shift around a bit though as Walcott recovered from a stomach problem quickly enough to get a start. I'd expect to see Song, Arteta and Ramsey across the middle as Benayoun drops the to bench. Gervinho on the left and of course RVP upfront.
QPR have got a decent team and a few decent players despite their current position. Helguson and Bothroyd upfront can link together well and provide a real threat the defence will have to be tight to make sure we aren't exposed. Wright-Phillips is another player whose pace causes issues down the wing and although he can't really cross he likes to cut inside so Djourou will have to make sure he isn't given free reign. I reluctantly include that prick Barton in this mainly because he's a thug hopefully Song will bash him about.
This is another match (like Wolves) that we need to win if we're going to occupy one of those top spots. We were unlucky against Wolves but we just couldn't kill the game off and that's what we need to do more clinically. Fingers crossed and Happy New Year to you all. COYG!
Prediction: Arsenal 2-1 QPR
3 more points in the bag after a nervy match at Villa. It was close and for a while the match could have easily gone either way. At 1-1 you just felt that there was another goal in it, luckily Benayoun was on hand to head us into the lead and onwards to a win. There were points in the match where we gave the ball away sloppily and against a better opposition we may have been punished but they were equally as sloppy. Their goal was given to them with a poor back pass from the usually solid Vermaelen, he put Mert in trouble and maybe if he had some pace then he would have got there, but he should know he's no Usain Bolt by now. I'm really glad Benayoun got our second cause I still rate him as a good player and he deserved a goal. In the end we got the result and that's all that matters.
So we now look ahead to the rearranged Wolves fixture on the 27th now (KO is the same time) cause the moaning tube drivers have to work Boxing Day (diddums). At the end of the day many people have to work during Public Holidays, so shut up and get on with it. Anyway this is a football blog not a political commentary. This is another game where we just have to win and to be honest we're going to be expected to win easily. Our full back problems are now starting to concern me. At left back Gibbs, who seems to be made of cardboard has suffered another setback and will be out for a further 4 weeks. Santos is going to be out for a while yet so there has already been talk of replacements, but I'll get on to that in a bit.
In terms of danger men, you need to look to their wingers Jarvis and Hunt. They do like to play down the wings and fire balls in all over the shop. I think Hunt will provide the problems as I expect we'll play Miquel who is the most inexperienced of our defenders, with Djourou also being injured. Fletcher is the man on form in the middle and he certainly has some talent. I think our defence however will be up to the task and hopefully will have a solid performance. I wouldn't be surprised if Benayoun earned himself a start after playing well at Villa, in place of Ramsey who has been off form recently. The rest of the squad I imagine will be fairly standard.
3 points would certainly make Arsene Wengers Christmas and keep us in the chasing pack which after the draw the other night is still fairly tightly packed. That was a good result for us and with the yid's game in hand we need to keep the pressure on.
Now I said I'd touch on possible replacements, well not replacements as such more stand-ins if you will. With our two left backs out for a while questions about whether Wenger may bring in a loanee to hold the defence together until we have Gibbs back. Now naturally I thought this was a good idea, until I heard a name banded around from many sources. Wayne Bridge. Now it doesn't take a genius to know that Wayne isn't exactly a world class left back and although his club list is impressive, its long for a reason. Now I respect Arsene Wenger, but a move for Bridge would be diabolical to say the least, luckily he played down speculation earlier, but not enough to stop people talking, please, please, please Mr. Wenger don't subject us to that!
Before I wish you a Merry Christmas and leave you to enjoy the festivities I thought I'd throw my opinion in on the Blackburn/Keane/Venkys situation. I saw the protest today which had me wondering how high unemployment in Blackburn really is. But on a serious note, I think those people need to grow up. He's trying his best with the squad he has and it seems that some of the fans even want them to lose so they can hurl abuse at him. I must say I found myself agreeing completely with what Ferguson said earlier, firstly, full marks to Steve for dealing with it as well as he has so far. It takes a lot of bottle for him to take the sort of things that have been said about him and not make a remark about the supporters. Secondly, in the words of the gum-chewing Scot himself "for goodness sake give the man a break". I can understand that they want the owners to have more of a presence at the club, but forcing the Billionaires from India who lets face it basically finance the club to sell doesn't make much business sense now does it? Don't bite the hand that feeds you would be my message to those fans.
Anyway that's enough about about chicken farmers for now. All that's left is for me to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and I'll be back before our NYE clash with QPR. Until then have a good one!
Prediction: Arsenal 3-1 Wolves
Well when you look at the game on Sunday, we weren't outplayed, we had a goal ruled out and Joe Hart pulled off some good saves. Maybe a loss wasn't fair, 1-1 I think would have been a more even scoreline but there you have it, that's football. Now that's taking the positives from the game there are negatives of course.
Firstly, our full back situation is becoming more and more of an issue. Its all well and good shoving Vermaelen and Djourou in but there are situations when you simply need a trained fullback. When your 3-0 up and coasting there isn't an issue, when your playing league leaders and you know its going to be a tough match its a totally different story. Obviously Santos and Sagna are out for months and we won't be seeing either for quite some time, but there is encouraging news for Gibbs who Wenger said "He is I think one week maximum away. He could be present at Aston Villa
or the game after [against Wolves]. Of course, you want him back and to
play". Jenkinson on the other hand is neither here nor that at the minute, he was at least 3 weeks away 3 and a half weeks ago so read into that what you will.
Secondly when your 1-0 down and chasing a game it says a lot that the option you turn too is the two men who have a combined total or 2 goals between them all season. Arshavin clearly has something up with him and you can clearly see when he plays that he believes his time at Arsenal is over, bar a rapid return to form. You could tell when the ball fell to him just inside the box and he hit the side netting it was going to the be another one of those. Chamakh on the other hand, I don't remember touching the ball. His career looked so promising when he arrived and whether it was through lack of games or confidence he looks a shadow of the player he was. We just don't have the depth of the other big clubs (bar sp*rs).
Anyway the City game is gone and now we have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and look to the trip to Aston Villa tomorrow night. In recent years we haven't performed too bad up there but in the past it was a game we simply didn't like. We went there and even our own fans expected very little, thankfully though times have changed and they're on a bit of a poor run. Quite frankly with Chelsea playing the yids on Thursday a win will put the pressure on both and hopefully put some distance between us and Liverpool who we only lead by goals scored.
I would expect to see again a similar squad to the one we played on Sunday purely because nothing has changed. So our threats will again come from Gervinho and Walcott down the wings and of course Robin Van Persie up front. In terms of Villa threats well obviously Darren Bent causes problems (lets hope he didn't finish his shopping on Sunday). N'Zogbia has his moments but so far this season he's been pretty poor, hopefully that will continue tomorrow night.
Aston Villa have lost to 4 of the top 6 at home so far this season which means if we want to be challenging for the top 4 we have to keep up the trend and beat this lot. As always with the Premier League if you want the top prizes, you have to play the top football. We were on a nice little run before City and the players still seem upbeat after Sunday so lets hope we can pick up where we left off.
It's been a long one today so thanks for sticking with it. Just a quick word regarding Wolves at Home. Firstly the original date scheduled for the match may be changed. The tube drivers want more money which may make life very difficult for fans trying to reach the Emirates. So the date for this match may change over the next few days, so check the Arsenal site and Sky Sports News for updates. Regardless of that, the pre-match post will be over the next few days I would say probably the 23rd, until then COYG!
Prediction: Aston Villa 0-2 Arsenal
I have to say, I wasn't remotely surprised to see us draw AC Milan in the Champions League. We seem to have a habit of drawing the best teams out of the pot. Although I don't think we're going to get hammered, it certainly won't be easy for us. The away leg is vital, if we can nick a goal or two then we have a chance. Lets not forget we do like playing in the San Siro (Inter 1-5 Arsenal, AC 0-2 Arsenal) and Italian sides generally don't perform well against English teams so we shall see ho that pans out. Chelsea drew another Italian team in the form of Napoli.
So that was about the only piece of news that we've had this morning ahead of our huge clash at eastlands on Sunday. It seems that we'll play the same team that beat Everton 1-0 last week. So that means Vermaelen back out on the left, leaving Koscielny and Mertesacker to deal with pace of Aguero and the power of Balotelli. This is going to be a difficult one for our defence, especially Mertesacker who as Paul Merson put it "turns like a submarine". Now usually I'd go through the squad and identify dangerous players but it will be far simpler this week to just pick weak spots. With Clichy suspended I assume they'll play Zabaleta at left back and although he's good, I think Theo may cause some problems with his pace down that flank, especially with Silva prone to wander all over the pitch. Lescott is another player that I just don't think is up to scratch and if Van Persie can get in behind him then hopefully we'll have some joy that way.
Sunday could be a day of classic Arsenal counter attacking football. However letting a strikeforce worth more than a space shuttle batter your defence is a very dangerous tactic so it will be interesting to see how Wenger plays it. That said last year we went there with little hope and won 3-0. However on that day Na$ri was playing for us and just a word on that little French money grabbing wanker, I highly doubt he'll play and if he does, he'll receive a torrent of abuse from our travelling fans much like he did in the Carling Cup clash. That seemed to put him off all evening which was visible when he wanted to be substituted, but sadly for him he misread the board (prick).
I've been trying to figure out if the game on Sunday is a good time to play City. Fresh off their first Premier League defeat to Chelsea, they will be wanting to bounce back. But that will have just reminded them that they aren't invincible and maybe we can use this to our advantage. Anyway only time will tell. COYG!!!
Prediction: Manchester city 2-1 Arsenal
Well I won't go into Tuesday night's game for two reasons: 1) It was totally irrelevant and 2) we had a shocker. Wednesday was far more interesting and I took great pleasure watching both Manchester teams crash out.
Moving on, today sees the club celebrate 125 years in operation and Arsenal yesterday unveiled 3 statues of some legends within the club.
Herbert Chapman who guided Arsenal to 4 league titles in 5 seasons, he was seen by many as paving the way for modern managers with his in depth analysis and advanced training regimes. The second was Tony Adams, the rock at the back who played for Arsenal for 19 years and was our most successful captain. The final statue was that of the true legend that is Thierry Henry, need I say more? Thierry was at the unveiling and he was clearly moved by the gesture and shed a few tears, the pictures on the Arsenal site say it all.
But to the match today. Everton are a club that I quite like, they always put a good fight and are the sort of club that can throw up an expected result here and there. But this season they've had a terrible start and a lot of fans are expecting us to walk this one and in reality we should. Similarly to last weekend this is the sort of game that if your challenging for the top four you really need to win. With Chelsea taking on Man City on Monday we have a big chance to close the gap on Chelsea who are only 2 points ahead of us in 4th.
After losing Andre Santos, we'll have somewhat of a makeshift back four with Djourou on the right, Koscielny and Mertesacker at the centre and Thomas Vermaelen on the left. The rest of the squad I assume would be first choice regulars. Arteta will face his old club and no doubt receive some hostility from the travelling fans but that's to be expected. And of course Van Persie will be upfront and hopefully can continue his tremendous form.
Threats from Everton come from either Saha or Drenthe, I would imagine it would be Drenthe as I don't think Saha will be fit to play. Cahill is always a danger and we know that Everton are pretty useful from set pieces so the back four will be in for a real test. On the left Billy boy can also cause problems on his day (I really couldn't be arsed to try and spell his name).
The club have got some special "celebrations" planned in honour of our anniversary and are urging fans to get to the Emirates early to join in with these. Hopefully the day will have a good atmosphere. COYG!
Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Everton
A comfortable win against Wigan on Saturday, to be expected really. When your a team competing for the top four and the title, there are just no excuses for losing a game like that. However we travelled to Wigan who need to start picking up points and teams in bad positions are always dangerous (Blackburn earlier this season). But we turned up and won easily with 4 decent goals from Arteta, Vermaelen, Gervinho and of course RVP. We're back on track after a little stumble against Fulham.
Tomorrow we return to European action away at Olympiakos. We've already qualified and top of the group to boot, which means the pressure is off and this is clearly reflected in the squad that includes Yennaris, Ozyakup and Eastmond. Along with these we have Rosicky who returns after his thigh issue and Park who is looking for some much needed game time. It will be good to see some of young players get some match time and it won't be easy in the intimidating atmosphere in Greece.
It will be nice being an Arsenal fan tomorrow night, knowing that Chelsea and Man United fans are needing results. To be honest Man City have got such a job on I can't even see their multi-million pound squad pulling it off. To think with one match to go in the group stages that Arsenal are the only British team through at the start of the season would be unthinkable, but here we are. It just goes to show how all that worrying has now disappeared.
If Liverpool fail to win tonight, we'll stay 5th only 2 behind 4th and in the right position. We're gonna be there or there abouts, talking to friends today myself and a Chelsea fan agreed Tottenham are over performing and we both expect them to be brought back down to earth with a thud. So hopefully we'll have a good Christmas period in preparation for the New Year.
Anyway I've drifted off topic but the game tomorrow is essentially irrelevant to us, if we win great if not then its no big deal. With Olympiakos needing a result I think the game will be open and a good one.
Prediction: Olympiakos 1-1 Arsenal
