The North Bank – “It’s got va-va-voom” (An Arsenal blog)

Yesterday’s game was so disappointing from an Arsenal perspective. We just weren’t at the races at all. Too many players didn’t perform in a game when we needed a big performance from our key players. Unfortunately, Adebayor played like he did before Christmas, Fabianski clearly didn’t have the composure required for the occasion, Fabregas had a very quiet game. the only two players to come out of the game with any real credit are Walcott and Gibbs. I thought that Gibbs was probably our best player.

It’s immensely frustrating to look forward to a game so much only to see the team collectively fail to impress. Although never really dominating in the game, we managed to go ahead through a Walcott goal which deflected into the net off the hand of Cashley. The cross for the goal came from the impressive Gibbs, who showed little sign of his groin injury.

I suppose the most surprising thing was seeing Arshavin start from the bench, given that he had had a full week of rest due to not being eligible for the Champions League game against Villarreal. I had expected Van Persie to start from the bench in order to save him a bit for the Tuesday game against Liverpool. Diaby also came into the starting line-up in place of Song and, on paper, that should have given us more height and attacking potential from midfield. However, Diaby had a particularly poor day at the office and he was too hesitant too often on the ball and it is a side of him that he must work on if he is to become a good player for the club.

A problem that we had before Christmas seemed to return again yesterday, too many players didn’t work hard enough. Is that a symptom of the money that is now in the game? I mean, if you can’t raise your game for an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley then there is something seriously wrong. These are supposed to be the occasions that footballers live for. It’s also a chance to give something back to the fans too. Is it too much to ask for the team to put in a decent 90min of hard work?

I know it’s easy to sit here and write about all the negative things instead of focussing on the positive things. But, the fact is, there  really weren’t many positives to take from the game except the performances of Gibbs and Walcott. None of the other players did anything to cover themselves in glory. Fabianski’s decision making was truly atrocious and he was blessed to not have cost us a goal early in the first half when a rush of blood to the head saw him come rushing out and it took a Gibbs goal-line clearance to prevent the ball from going in off the post. That incident was a sign of things to come from the Pole and he never really recovered from it. His positioning wasn’t great for Chelsea’s equaliser and then for the winner he had another rush of blood to the head when he came steaming out for a ball that he never really had a chance of winning. Let’s hope that he can regain his composure and a modicum of confidence ahead of the game against Liverpool. We can’t afford for him to have any more moments of madness like that between now and the end of the season or else we can say goodbye to any hopes of silverware. The sooner we get Almunia back the better. It should also be pointed out that Eboue was poor for Chelsea’s equaliser and he didn’t get tight enough to Malouda.

It’s easy to blame one man and he was particularly poor for both goals as well as some other close calls but, the whole team were poor and should shoulder some of the responsibility for not protecting him more by snuffing out Chelsea’s attacking threat. In hindsight, I am sure the manager is regretting not starting Song instead of Diaby.

Before the game Walcott talked about teams fearing us, but after that performance teams will be relishing playing us should we play like that again. The goalkeeping coaches need to help Fabianski work on his decision making. You can argue that he is still young, but we can’t afford to have him making mistakes that cost us the chance of silverware or points in the league. Perhaps he needs a season out on loan somewhere to get a full season of competitive football under his belt and help him improve his decision making and composure.

The boss was understandably angry about the quality of the pitch, which was a joke. It’s incredible to think that the stadium reportedly cost the guts of £750m yet they have a pitch of such comical quality. It was cutting up from the first minute and undoubtedly affected us more than Chelsea due to our style of play. However, we have played on worse and should have adapted to the conditions. As bad as the pitch was today, it will be worse for today’s semi-final and could work in Everton’s favour.

The boss had this to say afterwards:

“The disappointment of the day was that we gave away two cheap goals and the second, with ten minutes to go, cost us. I also thought the two teams looked jaded physically. We have the biggest target now in front of us – the Champions League. And of course as well, the Premier League, to come as close as possible [to the top] and, minimum, to stay fourth. We have big targets in front of us.”

There shouldn’t have been any real reason for Arsenal to look jaded. Adebayor, Silvestre, Walcott, Fabregas, Gibbs and Diaby have not played in a lot of our games this season and should have been fresh. Toure also was out of the squad for a while, Eboue has spent some time on the bench. The only player on the pitch for us yesterday that could have a claim for being tired was Denilson. Nobody else can have that excuse. The adrenalin of the occasion should have given the players extra energy, not less.

He also had this to say about our keeper:

“We’ll have to lift his confidence. I don’t like singling out individuals, but he’ll be feeling guilty and we have to make sure he responds quickly, like the rest of the team. I still believe that Fabianski is a great goalkeeper, but he perhaps did not have his best performance today.”

Sometimes you don’t have a choice but to single somebody out. I am not so sure about his assertion that Fabianski is a great keeper, he certainly hasn’t shown it yet. He has shown some decent moments, but not greatness. Time will tell on that one. Whether or not he gets that time at Arsenal is another thing.

Van Persie was substituted due to a slight groin problem and is a doubt for the Liverpool game. Given his injury history, you would expect him to be out for the Liverpool game and possibly returning for next weekend’s game against Middlesborough, or the first leg against ManUre.

Okay, that’s about all I have to say on a very disappointing weekend. It’s just hard to accept such an inept and spineless performance after being on such a good run. But, that’s football, I suppose.

More tomorrow (or Tuesday, not sure when yet. Depends what time I finish work.)

Apologies for not making many posts this week, I’ve been burning the proverbial candle at both ends and also in the middle too, just for good measure. Rest assured that it hasn’t all been work related and that a fair amount of alcohol was consumed on numerous occasions since Sunday evening. I was all set to write a match review last night, I was literally sitting in front of the laptop doing my research (yes, I do do a bit of research for each post) when I got a call from a girl in Tokyo and so ended any thoughts of a post and off I set for beer in Yokohama. So, I think you can agree that the match report was abandoned for a worthy cause.

Wednesday’s game was great from an Arsenal perspective and we played very well going forward. Given that were were down to our last four recognised first-team defenders our game-plan had to be to go at them and go at them we did. Walcott was an extremely effective outlet and is really beginning to produce the kind of performances that we have long hoped he would. If he can stay injury-free and continue to develop at the same rate then he will be a truly phenomenal player for us over the coming years.

His finish for our opening goal was simply fantastic, as was the flick from Fabregas that put him through. It was a finish that could only come from a player that is oozing with confidence, as opposed to the shit that oozes out of Lassana Diarra. Likewise, Adebayor finished his goal with confidence and it is a chance that he would probably have missed if it had fallen to him in the first half of the season. He is on a bit of a roll at the minute and it is a joy to watch this team when they play with the flair and confidence that they are currently exuding.

Our third goal came from a soft enough penalty, it has to be said. But, the tie was over as a contest at that stage anyway and so whether we got the penalty or not wouldn’t have effected the outcome of the game. We really did piss all over them. We gave the Yellow Submarine a golden shower, Arsenal style.

To think that just three months ago all but the most ardent of Arsenal fans were fearing for not just a fourth-placed league finish but for the future potential of this squad, to now being in the semi-finals of both the FA Cup and Champions League AND being eight points clear of fifth-placed Aston Villa is quite a remarkable turn-around for a team so young. Truth be told, it would be quite a remarkable turn-around for a team of any age and credit must be given to the boss and the players for keeping their belief when all around were losing it.

I myself was one of those that questioned the potential of this squad and feared for what may happen to the club should we fail to secure at least a fourth-placed finish in the league. That was back in the dark pre-Christmas days, when the squad was doing it’s level best to kick me in the stones on an almost weekly basis. Not that fourth place is secure by any stretch of the imagination just yet but, back in early December, if we’d been offered the chance to be in this position in mid-April every single Arsenal fan would have ripped your arm off to accept it. It’s a great achievement. Though, although the elation of Wednesday might’s result is still coursing through my veins, it would be best not to get too carried away just yet as there is still a hell of a lot to do to secure fourth spot in the league and to try and bring home some silverware.

I think that the freshness of Arshavin, Fabregas, Walcott and Adebayor will be a huge bonus to us in the run-in to the end of the season. That little bit of an edge could be the deciding factor and let’s hope that freshness of said players will prove the decisive factor against Chelsea at Wembley tomorrow. It’s going to be a huge occasion and I can’t wait for it. I’ll be online well in advance of kick-off to make sure that i get my stream up and running so that i don’t miss a thing (that’s not a cheesy Aerosmith reference, bloody hate them.)

Our captain has had this to say on our achievements to date:

“Every day I dream of lifting a trophy in the Arsenal shirt. For me, it’s the best thing that could ever happen. But we still have so much hard work to do before we can realise those dreams. We are through to two semi-finals and three months ago we were praying to be in a position like this. What we have achieved is good but it is not enough. Semi-finals are one thing but we want to be in the finals. We have some huge games coming up and now it is all about winning. Every time we don’t win a trophy it is a major disappointment. But we’re not even thinking about that.”

He isn’t the only one dreaming watching him lift a trophy for The Arsenal. Let’s hope that it’s this season.

Van Persie seems like a happy camper and i imaging that his contract will be sorted by the end of June:

“I could not wish for more than these games — it is unbelievable, I have always had a belief in this team and now we can call ourselves one of the best four teams in Europe and that is about right. Now we want to move on and win things. The facts are that Arsenal want to extend my contract and I’m positive about that as well. We’ve had a good few meetings and everyone is very positive. Arsenal really want to extend it and I want to extend it as well.”

Personally i hope that we tie him down to a new long-term deal, even though he can sometimes frustrate you (what player doesn’t do that?), he is a player of ‘top, top quality’, to use the boss’s own words.

Ahead of tomorrow, early team news seems to indicate that Gibbs may be out after picking up a slight groin strain against Villarreal. I really hope that he is passed fit for tomorrow because we need every hand on deck in defence right now. It’s as if we have been cursed this season. The sheer number of injuries we have picked up is frustrating to say the least and if we can have a successful end to the campaign it will make the success all the more sweet.

Tomorrow’s team line-up will be interesting to see. Will the boss be tempted to rest Van Persie considering that he was a doubt for the Villarreal game in a bid to protect his chocolate groin? I expect Arshavin to come back into the line-up, possibly playing just off Adebayor. I also expect Sagna to return at right back and for Eboue to revert to the bench where he has been doing a good job as our new super-sub of late. I’d like to see Song partner Cesc in the middle of the field as his recent improvement really warrants a start in tomorrow’s game. Never thought I’d be typing that, but there you go.

***UPDATE: Sagna has now been ruled out of tomorrow’s game.

The excitement is building and I am buzzing. Roll on tomorrow.

Tonight’s game will tell us a lot about this squad and what they are capable of. Will they rise to the challenge and book their place in the semi-final? Or will they succumb to the pressure and have this game as the catalyst to the falling-apart of the tail-end of our campaign. Let’s hope it’s the former as a positive result tonight would set us up nicely for the game against Chelsea at the weekend, a team that has conceded seven goals in their last two games.

Apologies for no posts over the last few days, suffice to say that things were exceptionally hectic and there just weren’t enough hours in the day to get anything written.

Looking forward to tonight’s game, we are again without Gallas, Clichy, Almunia and Djourou joined that list following his injury in the game against Wigan at the weekend. We are stretched to breaking point in defence and can’t afford another injury in that area. Arseblogger talked about possibly playing Eboue at right back and switching Sagna to the left instead of playing Gibbs there for such an important game. I have to say that I don’t think that’s such a bad idea at all as Gibbs didn’t really set the world on fire at the weekend and Eboue has a fair amount of Champions League experience and so would be more mentally ready for the task at hand. Though according to the Mirror Gibbs is set to play in defence, so let’s hope that he rises to the occasion.

On a positive note, both Diaby and Eduardo are both set to return to the squad. It seems that we are getting all of our attack-minded players back at the same rate as we are losing defensive players. Looks like that’s something else Arsene will have to try and sort out in the summer, we have been caught a bit short of decent defensive cover. Now, I know that you can’t really legislate for losing Almunia, Gallas, Djourou and Clichy all at the one time but, having said that, letting Senderos go to Milan and not adequately replacing him was always going to leave us a bit short in the centre of defence should any injuries or suspensions strike during the season. Granted, this is a bit of a ‘perfect storm’ of a defensive crisis.

From an attacking point of view, there are few teams in Europe that can touch us when all players are fit. The summer should be a time for defensive signings, including a holding midfielder (but not Inler if the ridiculous price his agent has been spouting are to be believed.)

I can’t wait for tonight’s game and it could really be a game which helps this squad move to the next level. There are plenty of negative things you could say about the squad, but the fact is that they are knocking on the door of a Champions League semi-final, have an FA Cup semi-final coming up and are sitting in a nice position in the league (compared to 4wks ago), while all the time being ravaged by injuries. So, you really have to give credit where it’s due to this group of young players. They have probably over-achieved, in terms of their collective experience, this season.

It’s easy to forget just how young and inexperienced this team is. It’s easy to say they are rubbish and we won’t win anything with them, but the fact that they are young means that they will continue to improve and grow. It bodes well for our future if we can keep the important players at the club.

Just a mention of Diarra and how he didn’t learn anything from Wenger. Well, I can exclusively reveal that the reason for that is because dolphins don’t have ears. Dolphin-headed cunt.

I don’t really want to say too much about the game tonight. we all know how important it is and right about now our bowels are beginning to move a bit faster. Anyone reading this will already have checked out the myriad of stories on NewsNow. What matters tonight is the result. That’s all.

I fancy Theo to have another ‘Liverpool moment’ tonight.

Come on you Reds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A big result for the team yesterday against Wigan at the JJB stadium. I gave a detailed match report yesterday so I won’t go into that at all now but, suffice to say, the team did what was needed and got the all-important three points. It seemed that the result would not go in our favour after an hour gone but all credit to the team for managing to get back into it by not playing at all well in the opening hour. We were very poor for large parts of the game and the defining moment came in the fourth minute of first half stoppage time when the referee was very lenient by only showing Gibbs a yellow card after hauling Valencia down outside the box. Truth be told it was a red card offence as he was the last man back as Silvestre would not have been able to get back to make a challenge.

Luckily the resulting free-kick struck the inside of Fabianski’s left-hand post and rebounded out. If we had gone two goals down on the stroke of half-time then it would have been game over, ball burst. But, it didn’t and I have to say that it is nice to get a big slice of luck for a change. After all of the injuries and bad decisions that have gone our way over the last two seasons maybe this was a bit of karma. We were a lot better after the second goal and were in complete control as Wigan tired.

Afterwards, the boss had this to say:

“I feel we have shown great character again. This young team has a lot of mental strength. We have shown some qualities that make it very interesting for the future. Wigan were very strong and committed in the first-half. We had problems with their man-to-man marking. But I felt in the second-half our technique took over. We looked dangerous every time we had the ball.”

It is good to see that the team can play woefully but still get a result, especially away from home. This should fill them with confidence for the remainder of the season and for the future. Not that they should be happy with their contribution in the opening hour or so, but they kept plugging away and made the most of the few chances they did eventually create. I’m delighted with the result and it gives us a nine point lead over fifth-placed Villa who will play Everton later today. I suppose a 0-0 draw would be the best result for us in that game.

Wigan boss Elephant Man had this to say:

“The disappointing thing for me was the second and third goals. It was comical stuff really. We have gifted Arsenal goals after a great hour when we worked so hard to deny Arsenal space. We are a bit shell-shocked. It would be difficult to say it was schoolboy stuff as that would be disrespectful to schoolboys.”

We weren’t at our best and maybe we were lucky that Wigan seemed to be on a mission to out-shit us with some really laughable defending. I don’t feel any sympathy for them, oh no, not with the Elephant Man as their manager. Unusually for a player/manager with ManUre connections, his team didn’t get the rub of the green at the end of the first half. I’m assuming that is the ‘shell-shocked’ feeling that the Elephant Man was referring to… I think Alan Wiley is a bit of a cock, but he certainly did us a favour yesterday. This may sound a bit of Patsy Palmer-esque hyperbole, but that result yesterday could be a defining moment of our season. Had we lost, we would have gone into the game against Villarreal with dented confidence. As it stands, the team will go into the game on a high and we will have Van Persie available and, hopefully, Eduardo too.

Early team news ahead of the 2nd leg against Villarreal is that their scorer from the first leg, Marcos Senna, is a big doubt for the game having picked up a hamstring injury during their weekend 0-2 home defeat against Málaga. Let’s hope that it is serious enough to keep him out of that game. They also have doubts over Mati Fernández (left ankle) and Cani (thigh). Santi Cazorla, of course, is out until next season with a broken leg.

Kudos to Alex Song for getting on the score-sheet with a well taken goal. I’ve hammered him a bit lately so it’s just right to give credit where it’s due for his run and finish.

Gunnerblog has some very interesting quotes from Wenger about our early season woes here. Read it. It shows that his faith wasn’t as un-blinkered as his media comments suggested. We had all hoped that he didn’t really believe everything that he was saying publicly at the time, that surely his faith couldn’t be so unconditional and unwavering. Now we know. Arsene knows, he just doesn’t always tell us.

Walcott has had this to say:

“It is such a young team but we have that experience from last season and I think it has definitely paid off this year. We had our bad spell in mid-season but there are some absolutely brilliant players in that dressing room. We dig in when we go 1-0 down, we just need to keep a clean sheet, but we are scoring goals from different positions which helps the team and we just want to get in the Champions League spots.”

He makes a good point that it isn’t only the strikers getting the goals. we are now scoring from attack, midfield and defence and that bodes well for our chances of silverware this season. Let’s hope we don’t pick up any more injuries from here on out as we are now beyond bare bones in defence following the injury to Djourou yesterday. Hopefully his injury won’t be too bad and he can return to the squad sooner rather than later.

***UPDATE: This gives me a nice warm feeling inside. I’m glad we are controlled by people that feel they are custodians of the club and that our debts are serviceable. Happy Easter!

Okay, that’s all for today. It’s sunny and warm outside, so it’s time for me to go and enjoy what’s left of the evening heat.

Today’s game was a frustrating one. We were extremely poor, to say the least, in the first half. We just didn’t get into the game at all. Gibbs was given a bit of a rough ride in the opening half hour. The goal, when it came, was a fairly soft one for us to concede and Fabianski will be annoyed with himself that he didn’t get enough on the ball to turn it around his left post rather than into the left corner.

Things went from bad to worse when our injury crisis was heightened after the half-hour mark when Djourou collapsed in the box and it looked like his left knee just gave way and he fell in a heap. That was his final contribution to the game. Let’s hope that it isn’t anything serious as we are now down to the barest of bare bones in defence. Silvestre came on to replace him and he had one of our best chances of the half soon afterwards. He really ought to have done better with it. The other good chance we had came when Gibbs crossed into the box and Bendtner rose unmarked but couldn’t get his header on target.

Right at the end of the first half, in the fourth minute of injury time, Valencia was put through on goal and Gibbs hauled him down just outside the box. He was really lucky to get away with just a yellow card for the foul as the referee obviously deemed that Silvestre was covering him and that he wasn’t the last man back. Personally, I feel that Silvestre wouldn’t have been able to get back to make a challenge and that Gibbs should have gone. Luckily the referee was unusually lenient and the resultant free-kick hit the inside of the left-hand post and bounced clear. A very, very lucky escape. Overall, a truly woeful first half from The Arsenal.

In the 51st minute we did some Keystone cops defending of a simple high ball which the defence allowed to bounce, then an onrushing Fabianski got nowhere near it and it took a goal-line clearance by Gibbs to stop Mido’s header going in. Yet again, really poor stuff by Arsenal. You got the feeling that this game just wasn’t going to go our way and, to be honest, the way we played for the first fifty-one minutes we didn’t deserve to take anything from the game.

The goal for us came totally against the run of play, a goal out of nothing. Bendtner flicked the ball on to Walcott, who somehow managed to play it to Arshavin (accidental or not), Arshavin couldn’t keep his balance and as he fell he managed to get the ball to Walcott who tucked it into the bottom right corner of the net. Against all odds, we were back in the game.

Van Persie replaced Denilson in the 63rd minute to give us a bit more attacking impetus and to try and take advantage of our somehow getting ourselves back into the game. Adebayor then replaced Walcott in the 68th minute. Personally I would have taken Bendtner off instead, but maybe Arsene wanted to save Walcott for the second leg of the Villarreal game.

Michael Brown needless gave away a free-kick outside the box for a foul on Cesc in the 71st minute and from the resulting free-kick Cesc made himself some space, received the ball and slid it into the six yard box where Silvestre stuck it in the back of the net. Unbelievable. We had somehow managed to come from a goal down to lead two-one and hadn’t played at close to anything that you could describe as good. The goal definitely lifted us though, as you would expect and Arshavin was unlucky not to get on the score sheet when his 77th minute shot hit the inside of the left post and came back out to Van Persie who put the ball in the back of the net, but he was in an offside position and the goal was disallowed.

I must say that Adebayor did very well when he came on. He had some great touches and it looks like he is a changed man since getting his three goals after his injury comeback. Long may it continue. Van Persie gave away a silly free-kick just outside the box for a foul on Valencia in the 83rd minute, for which he picked up a yellow card. The resulting free-kick was easily saved by Fabianski.

Our third goal, I know I couldn’t believe it either, came after a Wigan free-kick was cleared to Adebayor who played a poor ball to Van Persie that was intercepted by Koumas. However, having made the interception he then went to sleep and played the ball straight to Arshavin who smashed the ball home from around the edge of the box.

Our FOURTH goal, if there was a word for super, super, ridiculously unbelievable I would use it now, came after a marauding run by Song into the box and he finished it with aplomb. Final score, Wigan 1 – 4 Arsenal, the most unlikely of score-lines that you will see for a long time.

For two thirds of the game we were simply woeful, there’s no other way to put it. For the final third we played with confidence going forward and looked dangerous as Wigan had visibly tired. We got the three points we needed, but we will need to play much better in our next two games, against Villarreal and Chelsea, in order to avert a trouncing.

That’ll do for now. Time for bed. More reaction tomorrow.

I’ll keep this post short today as I have been out at a baseball game and am currently nicely toasted, so there is a high risk of random rambling.

Tonight’s game is yet another big one for the club as we take on Wigan at the JJB stadium. this game is big not only because we need to win it to stay in contention for third spot, while consolidating our fourth position, although that isn’t to say that we have secured fourth spot by any stretch of the imagination. There are a lot of points to play for between now and the end of the season.

Team news for today sees Fabianski replace the inured Almunia and Djourou replacing the injured Gallas, while Gibbs looks set to start in place of Clichy. Arshavin is likely to return to the starting eleven and he may start in place of Theo, who may be given a little breather on the bench ahead of the 2nd leg against Villarreal next week.

I wonder will the boss also be tempted to play Eboue and Bendtner and give Adebayor and Nasri a bit of a breather. One thing’s for sure, Cesc will be involved. He is the heartbeat of the team and the sooner he gets fully match-fit the better.

Having lost Palacios in January, I fancy our chances against Wigan today and I am looking forward to seeing how we apply ourselves after the euphoria of the mid-week result against Villarreal. That’s the latest test for this team, knowing they are so close to the semi-final of the Champions League can they still raise their game and stay focussed enough to see off Wigan?

We will see in a few hours time.

Right that’s it. Short and sweet today as I need to go and rustle up some food to soak up this alcohol.

I love a Friday that falls before a weekend game. You begin to get that kind of giddy, child-like feeling that can only come with the anticipation of the weekend’s Arsenal game. When you combine that feeling with the end of a week’s work, then it all makes for the perfect ingredients for beer and football.

The team news was touched on in yesterday’s blog. Van Persie and Eduardo will both undergo late fitness tests ahead of the game. Gallas, Almunia and Clichy are all definitely out. It really is frustrating, to say the least, that we can’t seem to get our entire squad fit and injury free at the one time, or for any period of time at all this season. It just leaves you wondering what might have been. As it stands, the team has done well considering that the deck seems to have been stacked against them, injury-wise, all season.

I have to say that I am not a big fan of Wigan. That’s not particularly because of their players, but more because of the heritage of their manager. That being said he has taken a few of our players on loan over the years, but it doesn’t mean that I have to like the man.

Even though we are beset with injury, I feel that we still have more than enough to deal with this Wigan side. Though it won’t be an easy game, i feel that we can shade it 2-1 or 3-1. Arshavin will come back refreshed from a week break and will be ready to renew and develop his relationship with Cesc and Adebayor and to be honest it is a relationship that I can’t wait to see grow into one of the most, if not the most potent attacking forces in the premiership. You then throw Walcott and Eduardo/Van Persie on top of that and I think that we have the potential to blow any team away when all are fully fit.

I think that most Arsenal fans have given the team a hard time at some point or other this season and, to be fair, it was justified. There were times when we were simply abysmal, there’s no other way to put it. However, we are now on the longest unbeaten run of any premiership team this season and the squad must be given great credit for turning what looked to be a sinking ship around and putting a run together that could salvage our season and maybe even have something more than Champions League qualification to show for it at the end of the campaign.

Is it just me, or has the addition of Arshavin and the return of Cesc filled Arsenal fans with a level of optimism and confidence that we can achieve something that we haven’t had for a few seasons now? I actually feel like our games will be exciting again whereas before Christmas I often felt like “ah, Arsenal are playing tonight, I guess I’m going to have to endure ninety minutes of passing the ball sideways and generally doing fuck all with it and then, just for good measure, we’ll concede a late goal and I’ll go to bed narky and cranky.” Are narky and cranky the same thing? Is narky an Irish-English word?

But now, I feel that we are just around the corner from giving some team the mother and father of all beatings, like we are the LA cops and the riots are just about to kick off. Will Wigan be our Rodney King? I certainly hope so, in a purely footballing sense, of course.

Wenger has said that Gallas hasn’t played his last game for the club and with his current form, I hope he hasn’t. He got hammered earlier in the season for his antics and performances but since being stripped of his captaincy he has turned things around and he deserves a lot of credit for that. I hope that we keep him because he is a good defender and he has a lot to offer our younger players. We can argue that he isn’t suited to play alongside Kolo due to their height etc, but we are a better squad with him in it than we are without him. So, even if he doesn’t sign a new deal, I hope he stays until the end of his current one.

Bayern are rumoured to be interested in trying to lure the boss away from the club, but I think we all know that this story is a load of cock. Journalistic masturbation, if you will. How many times do our players or manager have to reaffirm their commitment to the club before the press will take heed? They’re all a crowd of ballbags. Lazy ballbags at that. Luckily, living in Japan means that I don’t get bombarded with as much shit as European based folk who get the whole tabloid and Sky Sports News bullshit around the clock. That and not getting so much grief from mates when we lose are the only two advantages of living so far from the Emirates.

Anyway, that’ll do for today. More team news and random consciousness tomorrow.

Sorry for the late post today. Thursday is my busiest day and I don’t get home from work until 21:30, so am not expecting to be able to make a long post on Thursdays.

Looking at the news doing the rounds today, Cesc talks about how proud he was to be on the field on Tuesday night fighting side-by-side with his Arsenal brothers. Those aren’t his exact words, but that’s the general gyst of what he was saying. It’s great to hear him say it, too. He’s the most vital member of our squad. Can you have a most vital, or is vital enough? How many vital members can you have? Hmmmm….

It seems that Gallas has been ruled out for the remainder of the season. This is undoubtedly a huge blow to us and even though Djourou is a decent replacement, we will need to pray that we don’t pick up any more defensive injuries or suspensions from here on out.

It really is frustrating to see how much our campaign (and last campaign too) has been catastrophically affected by long-term injuries. How can one team have so much bad luck with injuries? These aren’t just injuries to squad players, but are injuries to key members of the starting eleven. I know that the world is full of what-ifs but, IF we had even had half of the injuries that we’ve had, then we would undoubtedly be challenging for the title this season. When everyone is fit, we really do have a good squad. That’s not to say that it can’t be improved upon, but we can beat any team in the world on our day.

Let’s hope that we can keep this squad together in the summer and add one or two defensive players and we should be a formidable proposition next season.

Hopefully these latest injuries will help to galvanize the players and that they’ll want to go out on to the field and get the results for their fallen comrades and we might end up with some silverware at the end of the season.

While Wenger is talking about extra points for positive goal difference, he should also put forward the idea of teams with lon-term injuries to key players getting a one goal head-start. If nothing else, it’d get on Platini’s tits.

Oh, I’m going to add a new page soon detailing football friendly bars in Japan. So, if you know of any please post them in a comment and I will get them all together and put the page together and on-line sometime soon.

Right, that’s all I’ve got time for tonight. Just one more day or work until it’s the weekend again. Nice.

**UPDATE: It now appears that Clichy will be out for two weeks with a back injury. Jesus fucking H. Christ. On a more positive note, we may have Van Persie and Eduardo back for Wigan and both will have late fitness tests ahead of the game.

**UPDATE 2: Rosicky is out of tonight’s reserve game. Can’t really say I am surprised to hear that…..but not being surprised doesn’t dampen the disappointment. It doesn’t rain but it pours…

Big result for the team last night. While we didn’t quite reign in Spain, the lads did what was needed to get a positive result. I suppose the less said about the first half the better, we didn’t perform well at all. Adebayor was fairly woeful. Walcott was probably our best outfield player. We picked up three yellow cards for Song, Cesc and Adebayor and lost Almunia and Gallas to injury.

In the second half we were much better and put them under more pressure. The goal came after we had a chance when, with men forward, Nasri played the ball out left to Walcott but he played it a little too far wide for Theo and as a result Theo just got off a scuffed shot. From the resulting kick out, the ball eventually came to Fabregas, he played the ball into Adebayor who controlled it on his chest with his back to goal and bicycle-kicked it into the left corner. A great finish and one you would never have expected given his overall performance up until that moment in the game.

There were one or two dangerous moments for us when the ball went across the face of the goal, but luckily nobody got on the end of it and we were able to clear. There isn’t too much point in writing an in-depth match report, because there are heaps of those spread across just about any sports news site that you can think of. Independent. Guardian. BBC. Goonerholic also talks about it here.

Getting the away goal was absolutely vital and sets us up well for the return leg at the Emirates. The 1-1 tips the balance slightly in our favour and we will need to make the most of home advantage to wrap things up. Villarreal’s away form isn’t great and we will need to capitalise on that, but it’s a decent start so far and we now have the tricky away tie out of the way. It’s nice to get a positive result when the performance as a whole wasn’t all that great.

In the evening’s other game, ManUre drew 2-2 at home with Porto. So, I think that we will definitely be more happy with our result than ManUre will with theirs.

It appears that we have now lost Gallas for all, or most, of the remainder of the season with a medial ligament injury which is a shame as he was actually playing quite well since he was stripped of his captaincy. however, i think that Djourou will be an able deputy and will give us a bit more security on high balls into the box. Nevertheless, Gallas will be missed. Also out for a few weeks is Manuel Almunia and this will give Fabianski the chance he has been craving for to prove that he is worthy of a place in the starting eleven. It will be interesting to get a look at him over a number of games but losing two defensive players in one game is bad for us as we aren’t exactly blessed with a great deal of quality cover in that area. Let’s hope that Almunia can bounce back quickly from his ankle injury and that Fabianski does well while deputising.

The manager was understandably delighted after our second half comeback and it’s a testament to the character of the team that they got the goal they so desperately needed/wanted after trailing 1-0 for almost an hour away from home. He had this to say about the character of the squad:

“This team has shown the whole season they are mentally very strong and when they have back to the wall, these young players always find an answer which is very interesting for a young team. I believe we have created momentum. We are a very young team, but are able to focus. We have shown with the consistency we have in the Premier League that we are able to concentrate every three days, and at that age, that is a big quality.”

While taking a corner, Cesc had missiles of various description hurled at him and it will be interesting to see what, if any, action UEFA takes over the incident. No doubt, because it involved an English club, Platini will brush it under the carpet and it will be made ‘go away’.

For sure, the extreme tiredness of getting up at the crack of dawn (03:45) to watch the game has been made up for by the pleasure of a comeback to get a good result. We can spend today enjoying the result, if not the overall performance, and tomorrow we can start thinking about the next game, away to Wigan this Saturday at 11pm. It’s live on J-Sports 1.

That’s all for now, it’s almost time to finish work. I need to go home and collapse on my sofa.