So Here We Are

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.

I sat down on Sunday night and watched a recording of the match with my girlfriend. She doesn’t know a great deal about the game, let alone Arsenal. I was telling her that Arsenal never score from corners, and as such I count a corner as a lost opportunity. Within minutes we scored from a corner. I have to say that I was pretty happy. Next up was Arteta (I think) who did really well in the box to tee up Podolski for the tap in. 2-0.

I then explained to my partner that I was still nervous, as Arsenal are renown for giving up big leads, and this time Arsenal didn’t fail to deliver. Some poor defending and some very poor play from Arteta lead to us being down against a clear mid-table side after having a very solid lead. How can we go from having a very solid defence (best in the league) and unable to score, to the opposite of each in one game?

Giroud scored a second and put us level, but I just had this feeling that we wouldn’t be able to go in front. Then we got a penalty. Being Australian, I am quite familiar with Mark Schwarzer’s ability to stop penalties, and I honestly didn’t think that Arteta was our man. He would have been a bit low on confidence after giving away the penalty earlier in the match, and as such I thought Giroud or Cazorla would have been the better option. Podolski would have been even better.

Anyway, I’m sure you all know how that ended up, and we don’t need to go over it again. I guess the fact that it shouldn’t have been a penalty didn’t bother me too much given what happened to us at Old Trafford last weekend. At the same time I thought we deserved the win (despite the commentary claiming Fulham deserved the win).

One thing I did take from the game was that we really could have done with signing Berbatov. I know it would have cost us 15 million pounds over two years, but I think given the money we brought in over the summer from selling another goal scorer, it really would have been worth it. An experienced striker up top would have been very handy. I’m not going to be too critical of the fact that we didn’t sign him though, I guess its a lot of money to pay for an older player, and I can’t say I’m that familiar enough with the guy to get stuck in over us not signing him. It is purely an observation.

And on that topic, Julio Cesar claimed this week that he was in contact with Arsenal before his late move to QPR about a potential move. I guess there are two ways to look at this: it is good that the club are actually trying to get hold of an experienced, quality keeper to provide some competition to Szczesny. The other way of looking at it, is why didn’t Arsenal sign him if we were interested. Was this a Schwarzer incident all over again? Did he not have faith in where the club was going? I am more in favour of the latter to be honest. He claims he moved to QPR because of their ‘project’, but I am more inclined to believe that he was offered a bigger pay packet by QPR. Whether that was because they made him an excessive offer, or because we weren’t offering what he was worth, we will never know.

Anyway, back to the present.

So here we are. The worst start Arsenal have ever made in the Premier League. Last season was worse thanks to that drubbing, but at the same time, after the deadline signings, there was always hope. Last season we had Robin, and this season we don’t. I can’t speak for everyone, but I just don’t feel like we have hope this season. That is really concerning.

Looking at the table and seeing that we are only 4 points out of the top four is nice I guess. But the bottom line is that I am not even really paying much attention to the three teams above that fourth spot. We are only 11 matches into the season and we are as many points away from the leader.

I’ll leave it at that for today. I need to get to training, but I will put up a better post tomorrow I think, a bit more structured.

Thanks for reading.

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Category: Arsenal News