The Goon Blog

So, the poll i did asking what trophy we were most likely to win has finished, the results were;

So out of the 51 people that voted, 20 of them think our most realistic piece of silverware is the FA Cup. I happen to agree with them as well, i think Wenger will take it more seriously this season and not field a few kids, though we were unlucky we drew Manchester United.

I do find it quite ironic that as soon as we won yesterday, the 1 vote on the ‘Premier League’ turned into 4 votes!

People may think that the Carling Cup is the easiest cup of them all, i don’t happen to agree for a couple of reasons;

1. The mid table teams will fight for it as its really their only realistic peice of silverwear.
2. We field very young sides, lacking experience, as we found out last season.

I have found another article about William Gallas with Dixon speaking out against his captaincy.

“I was at Fulham last weekend and spent 10 minutes watching Gallas,” he told the Daily Star.

“He just walked around, never said anything and his body language was very poor.

“That scares me because, though I support the manager’s policy of bringing in young players, they must have a leader on the field.

I happen to agree with him, Gallas is not captaincy material, i think he may have lost the teams respect and that is bad news.

Anyway theres nowt else really, il be back tomorrow evening with an update.
Lets hope RVP is ok.

Final Score: Arsenal 3-0 Newcastle
Scorers: Van Persie x2 Denilson

I felt that was a terrific display, the fluent passing was back and Van Persie was truly exceptional. He looked his old self and you could see his relief at scoring, Eboue had a very good game and the name Fabregas just speaks for itself. One day he will be the Worlds Best Player, im sure of that.

If we were more clinical we would have finished 6 or 7-0 winners, Adebayor was a handful, Nasri was very good and Denilson was alot better but im still not convinced of his defensive qualities. Song was good at breaking up the play when he came on too.

Vela got his league Debut and looked very lively, you can see why fans rave about him because he is young and has bags and bags of talent in those boots.

Overall im very pleased with the display but additions are still needed.

One last word, Im all for 2nd chances but Joey Barton should not be on a football field, he should be locked up behind bars still. Nasri got booked for giving him back some of what he recieved.

I will give an update on Robin’s injury when i hear about it. Hopefully it was a precaution but i cant help but worry.

Update:
Wenger said;

“He is having an x-ray and we have to check his ankle. Hopefully nothing is broken but I dont know yet.”

Thats all, back soon.

Now, a team that loses its first choice left midfielder, one of its greatest ever players, a couple of defenders and its goalkeeper could well be considered to be in a ‘crisis’. But for Tottenham its not. Its considered ‘building a top 4 team’ for some bizarre reason!

I just don’t get it. We lost Flamini and Hleb and were all of a sudden in a crisis even though Nasri had signed! Ok, Abebayor’s future wasn’t exactly clear but does that sound like a crisis? Does is fuck!

The spuds even face losing their best player, that means their two best fucking players will probably leave, that’s what i call a crisis! And, add to that 0 points in 2 games isn’t the best of starts is it?

I know Arsenal haven’t had the best of starts but it takes the slightest thing for this club to be labeled as ‘in crisis’, i know we are not the most popular club but it is totally ridiculous sometimes. Tottenham are a media favorite, bigging them up, saying how they will break the top 4 but i really don’t think they will, they are not good enough. Ok, they beat us 5-1 last year and they played very well, but it was not our strongest team by far! and they are still going on about it!

If anyone is in a crisis, its Tottenham without a shadow of a doubt!

Now, Patrick Vieira has done a great job of pissing people off since he went for a little Italian adventure. He loves sticking his ore into Arsenal’s business and having his say; today its no different.

“This season they need to sign a midfield player, a big leader in the middle. Arsene has made good signings over the years and I hope he will find somebody right for the club.

“They may struggle at the crucial moment in the season when they need to win the big games. They have the quality and potential but lack the experience to be competitive in all of the big games.”

Now, i think if your good enough you are old enough. We have lots of experience if you look at it, Fabregas has played a lot of games, Rosicky is experienced, Toure and Gallas have experience, Van Persie has experience, CLichy has been around a while now and Sagna has played a good deal of football in France. Adebayor has been to a Champions League final as well.

So, i really do think we have a decent amount of experience. I agree with the leader part though, we really need one.

Update: We host Sheffield Utd in the Carling Cup.

Anyway, not much else today, Newcastle later;

Prediction: I think we can win this 2-1. Newcastle have had a good start to the season and a win today would make it their best ever. They have let Milner go and Obi Martins is out injured. But, Owen is hitting form. The squad is the same as Wednesday night so expect a similar team. I think Walcott will drop out the side and the midfield will be Nasri, Denilson, Fabregas, Eboue.

But, i may be wrong.

Lets just hope for a better result than last weekend!

There is one think that frustrates me more than Theo’s sometimes blind running, and thats his decision making. Van Persie has torn into him on at least two occasions because of his poor decision making, thats whats holding him back at the moment.

My take on it is that he thinks too much, he muddles himself up and therefore makes a decision in a split second whilst he is also thinking about the other options, he is maybe trying to be a bit too clever and also lacks a tiny bit of self belief that makes you world class.

I feel he is a game away from really kicking on, maybe a brace against a top 6 club will make him think that he can really be one of the best players at the club because he is universally thought of as our best young player (bar Cesc).

I would really like to see Theo go to the next level, like Ashley Young has done and like Lennon hasn’t. Walcott could be something this country has not really seen before and if he can go one step further than the majority of English youngsters he will be a very very special player.

Later, i will add my Spudling rant.

Well, im still recovering from my exploits last night. I feel like im going to puke any minute.

But anyway, it seems that we have a very tough Group draw with games away against Fenerbahce and Dynamo Kiev. We have to get points out of those away games as both games vs Porto will be tough as well, Chelsea’s luck just makes you feel sick to the back teeth, time and time again they and Liverpool get easy groups. This group makes failing to get to the last 16 very very possible. This is Danny Fizman’s view, his worry is the travel.

4-0 was a good result on Wednesday night and the team seemed to be better passing wise and played as more of a unit. Here are the goals, Nasri’s goal was brilliant, along with Walcott’s strike that was somewhat ‘Henryesque’. Bendtner’s goal was the result of strength on Bendtner’s part, vision and skill on Denilsons part. I didn’t watch the game but from what ive heard it was a good performance all round.

News afterwards though said that Gallas and Theo were doubts for Saturdays game, both have slight knee knocks.

Guzman was linked with us this morning but his cunty agent has since said that its very unlikely that he will move

I think thats all the news from the last couple of days, i will do the Spurs article soon.

Not long to go in the poll now so get your vote in and keep reading Goons!

We just want a couple of proven quality players in midfield. Now we all think we could manage Arsenal in our own right and if i managed Arsenal i would buy Cana and Alonso. But, im not the Arsenal manager and we will probably get neither player!

Arsene said at his press conference;

“There are no names and there is no news,”

“We do not have to worry about too many other players. I believe we have the needed squad and a strong squad. ”

Im sorry Arsene but we do not have the needed squad, if Fabregas gets injured again we are in the shitter, who can replace him? nobody. Who can even partially replace him? nobody. No, not even Eboue!

Sorry, but this is starting to get a little fustrating!

Arsene also said;

“I do not know why we are always under pressure to buy £30 or £40m players,”

Arsene you are not under pressure to always buy those sort of players. The real fans want players the calabre of Sagna and Eduardo, who were bought for about 3 – 8 million, i dont want to risk the clubs long term future for some brazillian nob thats more interested in shagging birds than playing football.

I can understand letting one of Hoyte or Senderos go. But, i feel we really lack a couple of players that are prepared to sit on the bench and wait for their 5-6 games a year, players like Brown (before last season), Fletcher and O’Shea. They are not bad players to come in in an emergency. Chelsea, they have a depth of world class players.

Lampard is injured? Oh well, lets give Ballack a run out.
Terry’s dead? Oh no, better get Alex ready to play.

See what i mean? who replaces Fabregas?

Denilson? – not good enough

Diaby? – will be on his sickbead

Ramsey? – hes barely old enough to spout pubes!

Wilshere? – he will have to leave halfway through to be home for tea.
Come on Wenger, its clear we need Midfielders!

Now ahead to tonights game. I think we will line up similar to the weekend, with Fabregas possibly coming in.

Prediction: I think we will win, but the result will flatter our performance. A 2 or 3 nil win is probably on the cards but what we need to do is play well and give them a big kaning. Sadly though, it will probably not happen. We will go through with something to spare though.

Final score: il push the boat out and go 3-0. Van Persie to grab one with Adebayor and Walcott getting the others.

I will be back sometime tomorrow (not before 6pm) as i will probably still be pissed from tonights exploits.

When Silvestre arrived i finally thought Wenger had decided to add depth to the squad, preparing us for when the games will come think and fast after Christmas…
But no, it seems we were all wrong and one of the club’s potential filled, and one of the most criticized players is on his way out.

Senderos was hyped up as the next Tony Adams, who at his age was probably a worse player. He is most certainly a confidence player and i can’t help but think that William Gallas’ rants got to him, i think he is a thoroughly shit captain and needs to be dropped and stripped of the duties.

Arseblogger makes a brilliant point when he said that he had problems with Drogba, but, there was not a centre back in Europe that didn’t have problems against him!

Now, unlike me, I’m going to look on the positive side. He is going to AC on a 12 month loan and Wenger has confirmed that he is not sure if he will move there or come back to Emirates Stadium. If he returns here, he will be a better player, of that i am sure. He is a very very intelligent bloke (speaks more than 5 different languages), and he will have learnt more about defending from some of the Italian defensive greats ( Nesta, Maldini). The slower football and emphasis on defending will help him out too. So just maybe, it could be a Wenger masterstroke. We will find out in just less than a years time.

Interestingly Tony Adams is sticking up for William Gallas;

“If he thought William was the best captain for the club then he is the man to call it. I am not really there. A lot of people throw stones but I am not prepared to do that, because I don’t know the situation. He thinks he is the best captain for the club and I am not going to argue with his record.”

He has got a very valid point at the end of the day, Wenger has not made many mistakes over the years and who knows what Gallas is like behind the scenes?

He also makes another good point;

“They need a bit of experience, a couple of players, You are looking at Diaby and Cesc.

“He believes in his squad and the talent he has got there. I just think you need a couple more winners who have been there, seen it and done it.

“For me they made a big error and the big mistake was not keeping on Sol and Ashley a little bit longer.

“I know they had the situation, if you speak to Arsene, Ashley wanted to go and whatever, but I would have got them in my office and handcuffed them! Even though they weren’t performing.

“It was just for the transition, all the kids come in and all the kids are there together. Everyone retired together, the back four retired pretty much together, Patrick went, Dennis [Bergkamp], all the people who knew the club inside out and knew how to be winners, knew what to do.

“All the kids, they are tremendously talented, probably technically better than he has ever had. It is the most technical squad he has ever had but they need to learn to become winners. There is no-one really who has made the transition.

“The turnover has been really quick. They say the turnover of squads is five years on average, he has turned it in about two I think.”

I think he sums most people’s feelings and thoughts up there.

Arsene Wenger also needs to sort his signings out now, Inler has signed a new deal at his club and options are fast running out. Lornik Cana has been suggested in the past, and the other day Stephane Mbia was linked. But that was with Djourou going in the other direction.

I would just like to say this to all the fans that have called for Wengers head. Would you like to see a title first thing in the morning saying ‘Wenger walks out’?

I doubt it. So shut the fuck up.

I will do that spuds article at some point. Honest!