Gunnerrific

I just read a story over at the guardian in which Dominic Fifield (great name) interviewed Dave Kiston after Reading’s match with Arsenal. Kitson, who has nothing but good things to say about Arsenal, played a terribly minor role in the match with Arsenal. The interview was a great read and had plenty of insight into what it is like to face Arsenal these days. The interview starts out with a wonderful quote.

The Reading striker Dave Kitson has offered an intriguing insight into the nightmarish reality of confronting Arsenal at present, labelling the swashbuckling style which has hoisted the Gunners to the top of the Premier League both “magical” and “unbelievable”, if hellish to counter.

I think we should have more players calling Arsenal magical, unbelievable, and hellish to counter. Reading played United early on during their slump to a 0-0 draw. Reading have also played Chelsea to a loss right after that. I’m guessing Kitson could have come out and said anything after those games, but instead he chose to talk about how magnificent the Arsenal are.

The thing that amazes you most is they are not just passing to each other. They are passing so that the next person can run on to the ball and, by then, his mind is already made up with what he is going to do next. It is unbelievable.

I like this previous quote because he isn’t just complementing the players, but the brand of football that they play. I’d imagine that after Wenger saw this article he’d have quite the grin on his face.

We beat Reading convincingly. It took us the first half to really settle, but we were dominant the whole way through. Chances were aplenty in the second. The only bad part of the game was the fact that Reading pulled one back. Also, the goal Adebayor had recalled was a complete farce. He was completely onside. That linesman had no business calling him offsides. It’s a shame too because if that goal had counted, Adebayor would be tied for most goals in the league.

Come on Arsenal!

I’ve finally gotten off my lazy ass and produced another wallpaper… the first one in a long while. Go check it out in the wallpaper section, as well as all the other ones that are still hanging around. I’ve gotten all sorts of requests to make new wallpapers, but I don’t think there is any way I can do them all. As I get going again I’ll definitely take them into consideration, but I make no promises.

Something interesting I noticed about my wallpapers… when you do a Google Image search for Van Persie, Arsenal, The Gunners, or Thierry Henry, my wallpapers show up. Granted for Henry you have to go to like page 8, but still, pretty cool.

A little while ago I wrote this post about how I disliked the way Hleb played. I still stand by my arguments (and laugh at the comments) that I made in that post. However, Hleb has certainly done his best to prove me wrong and make me want to like the way he plays.

In the most recent games, Hleb has shown that he is a masterful player on numerous occasions. His passing is precision, his tackling exact, and his running on the ball is quick. He has started to look much more comfortable this season. I would imagine a lot of it comes down to experience and feeling more comfortable on the pitch. His game is much more fluid and consistent and he could surely be called a staple of our squad now.

Let’s talk about Hleb’s hair for a little bit. It’s weird. Right? I can’t be the only thinking that he has a pretty weird look going on. It’s like soft blond feathers draping down from his scalp. I wonder if there are any Hleb look-a-likes out there that have the same thing going on with their hair. I digress.

We’re up against Reading on the Monday match at the Madejski. As of today there isn’t any significant team news. I suspect that we will see the return of Fabregas and Hleb in the midfield. Kolo and Rosicky are supposed to be fit in time for the match as well, so I’d imagine they’ll be called up. Reading are 12th in the league but have let in a massive 26 goals thus far. However, they’ve won 4 of their 6 games at home. Despite that, you’d have to go into this match expecting an Arsenal win. Reading have looked really flat and haven’t had a good start to the season. Here’s hoping we walk all over them.

Arseblog uncovered an interesting article about some Arsenal fans suing the club for ‘racist’ chants. I don’t really know what to make of that but it seems a little ridiculous. Wikipedia has some history on the word ‘yid’ which is pretty interesting. I am not going to off much commentary on this other than the fact if things keep going as is, every single word representing any group of people will at some point be called into question.

Come on Arsenal!

We’re top o’ the league right now and it feels damn good. What makes it even sweeter is the fact that we have a game in hand. So, realistically speaking, we’re top of the league and potentially a point or three ahead of Manchester United, the dastardly cunts. I’ve been thinking about the season thus far, and the season ahead, and trying to figure out what our chances of winning the league are. We’ve definitely got an uphill battle ahead of us.

First, lets look at the quantity of games. So far, we have played 11 games. Of those 11 games, we have won 8 and drawn 3. The interesting thing about these games is that a massive 7 of them have been at home. So, for you math whizzes out there, we’ve only played 4 away games, or roughly 36% of our games away. We’ve played the least amount of away games than anyone else. For the away games that we played away, two of them were in London (West Ham and Tottenham). Of course, we battled against an away crowd, but we didn’t have to travel far for those games. It would be within reason to say that we’ve only traveled then for two games this season.

Now, let’s look at who we have played against. Below is the list of teams we have played, and their current position in the league.

• 2 - Manchester United
• 3 - Manchester City
• 5 - Portsmouth
• 6 - Blackburn
• 7 - Liverpool
• 11 - West Ham
• 13 - Fulham
• 15 - Sunderland
• 17 - Tottenham (hahahaahahahaha)
• 19 - Bolton
• 20 - Derby

If you sample out the positions of these teams and divide by the number of games, it should equal about 10 (the middle of the table). This would represent a fair opposition in games played so far. If the average were less than 10 , the opposition would have been tougher than the average, and the same could be said for the opposite. Our average points of teams that we have played against is 10.72. So, we have had a slightly easier schedule.So, thus far we have had a *slightly* easier schedule than would be expected, and we have played 64% of our games at home. For a team of our caliber (and lets be honest we’re damn good) you’d expect that we should be at the top of the league. If you run these numbers for other teams, it’s not nearly as advantageous.

Now let’s move on to our games ahead. Specifically the next 9 games, which will take us through to the new year. Of those 9 games, 3 of them are at home. That’s right, just 2 of them. And, if you perform the same analysis on the opposition, you get the following.

• 12 - Reading
• 18 - Wigan
• 9 - Aston Villa
• 10 - Newcastle
• 16 - Middlesbrough
• 4 - Chelsea
• 17 - Tottenham (hahahhaahhaaha)
• 5 - Portsmouth
• 8 - Everton

The average position of these teams is 11, which is again a slightly easier position average. However, more of these games are away from home. So, does games away or position in the table matter more? An interesting note here is that Manchester United have 4 of their next 8 games at home, and it’s against considerably easier opposition.

Either way, it is clear to me that the next 8 games are crucial to Arsenal if we are to win the league. We need to take as many points as we can from these games. I wouldn’t be surprised if Manchester United overtakes us for a bit given the schedule, but that won’t worry me. We just need to keep scoring and winning! Come on Arsenal!!!!

Update: Thanks to AC in the comments for mentioning the Chelsea match.. It wasn’t listed on Soccernet.

Robin Van Persie’s unfortunate injury during the Euro qualifiers has sidelined him for what will soon be a month. Van Persie recently stated that strikers need more protection from those trying to take them down. I can only assume he isn’t talking about birth control, but instead about referees. It’s easy to see how Van Persie could feel that way after seeing this horrible picture:

According to the latest reports Van Persie is schedule for a return just in time for the Wigan match, after the International break. Let’s just hope Holland don’t pull a fast one on us and get him injured again.

Lately we have been very poor offensively. I know, I know, we are scoring fine and winning or drawing all of our games. That aside, we haven’t looked very dangerous up front. Everyone has been saying how great we look with Henry, and that we don’t miss him. Well, we certainly could use a dangerous striker. In my mind, Van Persie is our best striker, and while he has been injured the side has suffered. I can’t wait for him to get back, just in time for our difficult schedule up ahead.

Let’s take a look at some schmuck’s opinion of Van Persie’s top 13 goals. Why is he a schmuck? Well he stole my wallpapers and used it for his goddamned video. At least he did mention me in the credits. Sweet.

Come on Arsenal!!!!

Well that was a well won point… or was it? 90+ minutes of football in the freezing cold rain resulted in a total of 12 shots, 3 of which were on goal, from both sides. I don’t know if this should be attributed to playing away in Prague, the weather, or the squad selection. Regardless, I think I liked the squad selection given where we are in the season and the importance of the game. At least we got a point and kept our undefeated record alive.

We’re through to the next round though, so Come on Arsenal!

There wasn’t anything particularly attractive tonight but we cant hope for it every match. Surprisingly enough, Alex Song wasn’t all that bad. Typically when he steps on the pitch I get a case of the pee shivers out of concern alone. He managed to be all over the place, just like his hair.

Clichy looked formidable as usual, clamping down his side and providing plenty of offensive gusto. The more I see Clichy play, the more I like him. Almunia bailed us out as well, which was quite nice of him. More and more reasons to let Lehmann go…

Barcelona beat Rangers as expected, further hurting their chances of breaking through. I hope the Rangers can pull it off. I like that Beasley fella’. Henry scored a goal but I don’t necessarily want to see the highlight… he’s dead to me! United won, again, and are guaranteed a spot in the knock-out round. Booooo.

Liverpool won their Champion’s League tie today 8-0 against an embittered Besitkas side. Besitkas clearly would have been better off forfeiting the game to retain their pride in beating Liverpool back in Turkey land. Liverpool has been looking depressingly, or rather joyfully, inept in their last several games, domestic and internationally. Today they managed to turn the table on poor little Besitkas, who was thumped around like the red-headed stepchild that is John Arne Riise.

Jamie Carragher somehow managed to escape any more foul trouble despite his penchant for violence and flailing body parts. Perhaps he didn’t deserve any discipline today but he has certainly warranted it in the last 5 or so games leading up to today. At what point will the FA review his previous infractions and choose to discpline him? Never, cause the FA are idiots.

Anyways, on to the Arsenal. Sweet, sweet, Arsenal. Our match against United was well played and we managed to escape with a point. However, I don’t think that we looked particularly strong at any point in the match. Would it be fair to say at this point that united are looking like a more sturdy and resilient game-winning team, despite the fact that we are tied with a game in hand? You tell me. I’m just posing the question.

Tomorrow we are Prague to play against… Slavia Prague. I’d expect a standard match where we secure a couple of goals and then hold them to it. I’ll maintain this perspective even though Wenger has omitted four of our core players out of the team. Hopefully it will give the others a chance to get in a groove together. Let’s just thank God this is the first time we’ve seen a major rotation of the squad in a match that is crucial… how could someone really support this week in and week out? Supporting Liverpool must require a level of impatience not even worth having.

Come on Arsenal!

Let’s not jinx this. But it feels good to be at the top. Arsenal played another brilliant game on Saturday at White Hart Lane. We won 3-1 in what I think was a much deserved three point affair. The side is really starting to look good and play well together. It’s great that goals are coming in from a variety of positions as well.

There were a fair amount of mistaken chances on both sides of the pitch. The goalies came up strong with several good saves but got off lucky just as much. Arsenal maintained possession in the midfield with a bit of brute force and a touch of class. Fabregas was dominant and scored a scorcher for our second goal.

Adebayor’s closing goal was a truly stunning strike. He flicked the ball up with his back to the goal, wheeled around, and drove the ball into the net. Robinson, god bless him, had little to no chance.

Robin Van Persie is currently my favorite striker on the side, but he was virtually nonexistent in this match. I hope to see him prevail more in upcoming fixtures. He usually runs rampant on the defense but something just wasn’t going his way. A more abysmal performance was seen from Gilberto though. I remember back when Wenger loaned Djourou and I thought to myself, “Great, Gilberto slipping and giving up balls in center back again…” And boy was I right. I have never liked Gilberto in the center back and he continued to reinforce that opinion. We need Senderos or Gallas back sooner than they will be!

We are now at the top of the league. We are also one game in hand. I’ll say nothing else in the hopes of avoiding any sort of a jinx. Come on Arsenal!

Just one day after I wrote about how I disliked the way Hleb plays he puts on a clinic in Prague. Adding insult to injury he buried the game in extra time with a fine but scuffed strike. Kudos to Hleb and he has done quite well in starting the long journey to earn my trust back. Not that my trust matters much, I’m just a meager knob end. One nil to Hleb.

The volume and range of responses to my post yesterday was a sublime measure of human emotion. Nothing satisfies me more than being called an idiot, a pointless impostor journalist, and a goose *shock* in one foul swoop. If anyone that reads this blog thinks I’m a journalist go back to the stands at the Lane and stop calling me a baffoon. This is where you are supposed to come to listen to a die hard fan, download some cool wallpapers, and talk to other people in the comments.

I hope that my blog occasionally causes a positive stir in the Arsenal masses. Fortunately I have a thick enough hide that when someone calls me a vast turd it only brings a quarter tear to my eye. I would like to think that it is blogs like this that help push the Arsenal agenda forward, through controversy or not. However assuming such things might get me called the devil. Arseblogger led the way, the rest of us are just following suit.

Having 2 wins in 2 games is great! I hope we can keep this up for awhile. Hell why not the whole season. The Premier League is already off to a much more interesting start than last year. Manchester have suffered an injury blow with Rooney out for two months and Ronaldo has received a red card so he will be out for three games. Meanwhile Chelsea are continuing to survive despite being scored on by lesser sides. They’re in a bit of an injury crisis as well so maybe this is our first time in 2 years to be without injury problems. I’d better be careful saying that though because somebody could call me a dumb muppet.

On to other things… I think Gael Clichy’s secret identity is The Flash. I don’t understand how he is capable of running so fast throughout the entirety of the game. His burst of speed are amazing and I hope he keeps this up throughout the whole season. It’s strange to think that he was a part of The Invincibles on ‘03-’04 and then to see how far he has come. I don’t even remember how many games he played that season, as far as I can recall just 17 minutes or so for one match. Somebody accuse me of knowing nothing about technique and then give me the exact details.

Our new right back is fitting in quite well. His run through the center of the field to create Hleb’s goal was quite impressive, and he hasn’t made any enormous errors in back. I can’t wait to see how Eduardo does when he debuts.

Oh and just to be clear I didn’t say I hated Hleb, I just hated the way he played. I really do hope he continues to score more goals though. Come on Arsenal!

There, I said it. I’ve never really liked the way Hleb plays football. He takes the ball too close to his feet. When he sprints and runs with the ball it’s right underneath him, so much so that he has to run awkwardly to prevent himself from accidentally hitting it. This results in him becoming off-balance, running into opposing players, and generally losing control of the situation. This of course is why he inevitably gives up possession.

It’s been like this for awhile. Don’t you try to convince me otherwise. His movement off the ball however is great. He knows how to get open and where the right passing lanes will be. But it’s this imbalance in his game that gives me a great lack of trust in him. Every time he gets the ball, I get nervous.

This year, I’m wiping the slate clean. During the off season, and indeed during the Fulham match, he seems different. So, Bon Soir mistrust for Hleb, hello new beginnings. It’s at this point that I hope he will turn his game around, retain possession better, and “be more selfish” to quote the man himself.

Tomorrow we have Sparta Prague. Eduardo will still wait for his debut but we have the same side that beat Fulham so I expect to see a thrashing… of Prague. Come on Arsenal!

I think making Billy Gallas captain of The Arsenal is a great idea. Call me crazy, go on if you must, but I think this is another change in a positive direction. It’s a departure from what we are used to and that’s why I think it will be good.

Gilberto is a great player but he is no captain. I haven’t seen him yell, motivate, or push the team while on the pitch. Gallas however has regularly spoken out against the club. I think it’s poor form that he has spoken out against the youth and inexperience, but it shows that he cares and he wants to make things better. Outspoken people are often great leaders and passionate about what they want. Coupled with the fact that he is a strong central defender and I think that he will lead the team to success.

It’s further proof that this Arsenal team isn’t anything we’re used to. With TH14 and Freddie out, it’s now more about the team coming together than ever. Youth be damned, this one is going to be a team effort.
The biggest key to the season ahead though is not Gallas by any means. It is without a doubt… Robin Van Persie. He must stay fit and he must score goals. It would be nice if they were all magic like his last two in the pre-season. Come on Arsenal!