Arsenal
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The ever growing saga of the present day Arsenal “fan” runs along the lines of “Wenger out!” When I recently polled a group of Arsenal supporters during the half of a match, the consensus was the following:
- How long have you been an Arsenal fan? Most answered with a date range of when Wenger was already on board.
- How do you think we fix the current situation? This one was simple, most answered with “Wenger out!”
- And of course my final question was, who should replace him? The answer was something along the lines of what crickets do, “chirp, chirp, chirp.” They gave answers I’ve seen in this blog from some, as well as some showing their knowledge or lack thereof of who could actually be a suitable replacement with all things considered at AFC(transfer budget, wage caps, style, etc.)
So you’re probably wondering where I’m going with this? Well here’s where I’m going. The overgrown dissent amongst Arsenal fans that I’ve seen of late seems to be common with those who have only seen the glory years of this club i.e. the last decade and not what I consider the dark years. As an Arsenal long, its difficult for people like myself, some posters in here like ‘Tom’ and a few other objective thinkers, to see the backlash against a manager who brought us back from those dark years. With that said, I am not going to say the Professor is without guilt here. He is as much as part of the current problem as he WILL be as part of the solution. The difference in what I believe and what I’m finding the “Arsenal fan opposition” to believe in is simply that I still trust in our manager to fix the situation.
The following will be my first of two posts about the outlay of the current affairs at our club amongst our players and staff, as well as how we WILL climb out of this funk and head back in the right direction… Read the rest of this entry »
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Afternoon Gooners,
Match starts in roughly 45 minutes and although lineups are not just in, I’ll do my best here to provide what I think should be our starting XI today. Look in the LiveBlog for the most update-to-date lineup as it comes in.
Predicted Arsenal Starting XI: Szczesny; Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Vermaelen; Arteta, Cazorla, Wilshere; Walcott, Giroud, Podolski
Match streaming can be found @ atdhenet.tv (or directly: http://atdhenet.tv/55917/watch-everton-vs-arsenal)
I expect a hard fought, exciting match as I stated in yesterday’s preview. Both clubs are desperate for the win, so I expect to see some good scoring chances at both ends.
Come on you Gunners! Chat you guys in the Liveblog…
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5th place on the horizon.
Let me start with a quote from our beloved Gigi via Arseblog:
“There’s obviously been lots of discussion about Villa and where it all went wrong over the last few days. And perhaps it’s a sign of the times that it all going wrong is a 0-0 draw. As frustrating as it was it’s not the worst result in the world, and maybe at a time when Arsenal fans can find the cloud in every situation, we need to look at the silver lining a bit.” Moving on from that draw and the angst that ensued from some, I’d like to fiddle this little fact your way: Arsenal, fresh off a scoreless draw with Aston Villa Saturday, are unbeaten in their last five matches. To add, even though we did not score against Villa, we have scored 10 goals in our 3 prior matches including the thumping of the Spuds and the end-to-end win against Montpellier.
So while we sit in 6th place right now, “the season of no defending” has us sitting only 1 point behind 5th, 5 points behind 4th, and 6 points behind 3rd. Doom and gloom? I think not.
Moving on to tomorrow’s matters then, shall we…
Read the rest of this entry »
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Good Morning Gooners,
Today we visit a very desperate club in Aston Villa at Villa Park. Villa is currently sitting 18th in the table and in the relegation zone. Villa, fresh off their humiliating 5-0 loss to Manchester City, need this win today badly so expect them to bring their best game. We all know how these lower tier clubs seem to always “show up” for matches when they play us, so equally Arsenal will have to be their best.
Arsenal are fresh from two consecutive victories; the 5-2 win over Tottenham in the league and our midweek UCL 2-0 victory over French champions Montpellier. We MUST find a way to use this boost to our advantage because today is as good as any to make up some ground and inch closer to 4th (and hopefully continue our run to fight our way to 3rd).
Many of our players – Cazorla, Giroud, Poldi, Walcott – are in great form at the moment, so I don’t doubt we will pose a great threat for Villa, who have only 1 win in their last 6 Premier League games.
Aston Villa will be hoping to take advantage of our leaky defence which is always suspect to letting in the odd goal or two. Even when we thought we sealed the win against the Spuds, somehow we gave them hope…hopefully we can keep a clean sheet today as it’s good as any opportunity to do so. Although we have conceded a total of 13 goals in 12 games, our defence is still on paper one of the best in the league due to our 3 clean sheets at the start of the campaign.
We will need to keep our eye on Villa striker, Christian Benteke, the Belgium whom Arsenal targeted over the summer. He’s a pretty dynamic striker, so if he finds some space, he could give us trouble. Darren Bent is may return from injury for Villa, but would start on the bench if he does make it back.
Team News
Arsene Wenger confirmed that Theo Walcott remains out with a shoulder injury picked up in the win over Spurs. Andre Santos is also out with a stomach problem, but Kieran Gibbs and Gervinho are both back in contention after returning from injury to be on the bench against Montpellier.
Abou Diaby is still four weeks away from fitness, but Tomas Rosicky is due back on Monday. I’m really excited to see Rosicky coming back!
Arsenal Lineup:
Starters: Wojciech Szczesny, Per Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny, Carl Jenkinson, Kieran Gibbs, Mikel Arteta, Lukas Podolski, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey, Olivier Giroud, Santi Cazorla
Subs: Vito Mannone, Bacary Sagna, Thomas Vermaelen, Jack Wilshere, Francis Coquelin, Andrei Arshavin, Gervinho
Big surprise I must say to see both Sagna and Verm on the bench today, very unWenger-like. However, definitely a good opportunity to have some squad rotation today and rest some players. I’m also glad to see Jack on the bench, and likely subbed in later in the match. Can’t stress enough that he needs to continue to be gradually eased in. Very nice to see we’ve got some players coming back from injury to give us some much needed depth. Can’t wait to see Rosicky back in the team in the next few weeks.
Prediction:
Arsenal 2 – Villa 1
Match starts at 12:30 EST and can be streamed here: http://atdhenet.tv/
Chat you guys in the LiveBlog…COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!
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Morning All,
Well, here we are again. Another season, another North London Derby. I’m not going to even discuss our current standings, our current form, nothing, all I’m going to say is that I CANNOT wait for this match to start. I so look forward to these matches every season, and just knowing a win today puts us ahead of the spuds, it will feel all the better.
Lineups are:
Starters: Szczesny; Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Koscielny; Arteta, Wilshere; Walcott, Cazorla, Podolski; Giroud
Subs: Mannone, Jenkinson, Santos, Coquelin, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arshavin
You will notice Wojo is back in goal and Wilshere is back after his 1 game suspension. We are fielding likely our strongest squad we’ve got outside of Gibbs absence in the back, so I really hope our players are up for today’s match. On paper we are a better team that the Spuds, but we all know that doesn’t mean much of late. My only hope is that the unnecessary mid-week international friendlies haven’t fatigued our players such as Santi (though he was an unused sub).
For Tottenham, interesting that all of the Americans on the squad have been dropped to the bench, and Lloris is getting a big start today. Let’s hope we make him wish he joined Arsenal and not the Spurs. We will need to be very cautious of Tottenham’s squad, however, with their formation today being 4-4-2 with both Ade and Defoe both starting up front.
Anyhow, UP THE ARSE and we start in 10 minutes! Catch you guys in the chat…
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I would like to start by apologising for the lack of activity of late. I have just finished my med school exams, and as soon as they finished, my computer died, leaving me without a way to post for a few days. However, I’m now quite free for a few months so I should be able to contribute a bit more than I have been. I’m actually away for a Radiohead concert and a wedding for all of next week, so I’m not sure whether I will get the chance to do a post next week or not. Fingers crossed.
So on to my post. I was going to do something yesterday. I sat down at my computer and couldn’t work out what to write. I mean, what is there to say? The game on the weekend was very disappointing, and in general, our season is looking very disappointing. I am getting a bit upset about it to be honest.
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Hello Gooners,
Apologies for no elaborate preview today, but nevertheless we’ve got the liveblog up and running for your lively banter. Needless to say and as we are well so accustomed to, today is yet another required win or draw. A win puts us at the top of our group, a draw puts us in prime position to finish in the top 2, and a loss, well let’s not go there.
Lineups are in and we’re fielding a very strong one indeed. Not sure if it’s truly due to his weekend debacle – not only his play, but his poor shirt swapping decision – but as expected, Santos has been dropped from the starters and replaced with the captain at LB. Thank god the rumors weren’t true and Djourou is on the bench because my jaw dropped when I heard he might replace Ramsey who picked up an injury over the weekend. Also, you’ll all be happy to notice Walcott overcame his weekend illness and is starting today. First start in the UCL this season, show us what you’ve got Walcott.
Starters: Mannone, Sagna, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Arteta, Wilshere, Walcott, Cazorla, Podolski, Giroud.
Subs: Shea, Santos, Djourou, Coquelin, Arshavin, Jenkinson, Chamakh.
Match starts at 2:45 and is being televised internationally on many outlets. Links for streaming can be found at atdhetv.net
Look forward to chatting with you guys shortly…off to grab some lunch…
COME ON YOU GUNNERS, YOU OWE THIS ONE!
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As all too often is the case, I can’t stress how important tomorrow’s match is for us. We all know what we said last year when this match arrived and what the outcome was, so I’ll just let that be. This is not a case of deja vu, it’s sadly the reality of the situation we are in. There are clubs who we really want to be ahead of in the table by the day’s end, and there are clubs who we have a real opportunity to make up ground against. Tomorrow’s match in my eyes is at the very least a MUST DRAW, but as Gooners, we always play for the win. We are not bus parkers, we are not ball hoofers, we are talented, exciting group of players who can show their intent once again tomorrow. For the sake of the team’s confidence, a win away from home at Old Trafford could give us that injection of life to kick start a solid run of wins. There is no more belief that can be forged into our players’ minds than to know we beat the traitor at his new home ground; you’ve got to believe some of the players i.e. Verminator want that more than anything tomorrow.
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Okay, I will start off by apologizing for the blogging team being MIA for what might be one of the most exciting Arsenal games in recent memory (even if it was just the kiddie cup). I hope some of you were able to watch the game as it truly was a memorable one, but more on that in just a bit.
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At a time when I think I could really do with a boost by the team performing well, they have let me down a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not too concerned for the long term. I think if we continue to fail to score goals, then things will change in January, but I don’t foresee that happening.
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