The Goon Blog

Camp Nou...will you be there?

So, its Barcelona then. Not a bad draw for a number of reasons if you ask me: A) If we are going to go far in the competition we might as well get the big games out of the way first. B) It will be one hell of a game to watch. C) If we have to face either one of Barca or United, I’d take Barca.

There is plenty of time to chat about it in the next couple of weeks. If I had the funding, I’d be over there like a shot, flying in in the morning/afternoon – drinking, game-watching then catching the first flight home.

Are you going? What are your plans?

That was rather nice, wasn’t it? A fantastic display of attacking prowess put a hapless Porto side to the sword, it was a night where Samir Nasri found his talent, Nicklas Bendtner buried his demons of the weekend and pretty much every player played well, something we have not really had much of this season. I defy anyone to differ with my opinion that Arsenal are hitting form at the perfect time, and are really starting to purr.

The start was electrifying, Andrey Arshavin was tearing the Porto right-back a new hole every single time he had the ball at his feet, the first goal came after Samir Nasri slipped a Cesc-esque pass into the onrushing Arshavin, dividing the centerbacks and forcing the mistake that left Nicklas Bendtner with a sliding tap-in. It wasn’t quite as easy as it looked but it was in the back of the net, the tie was leveled and we didn’t take the foot off the pedal, we just kept on pressing.

It was Arshavin leading the Porto defenders a merry dance again that created the second. Dancing through three or four players then sliding a delicious ball across for Nicklas Bendtner to tap in a second. Was it tie over? No, but the hard work was done and Arsenal had seized the initiative.

After that the players took the foot off the pedal slightly and Porto did have their chances and it showed just why I don’t think we will win the Champions League this season – we give too many chances away and a better team may well have punished them, not to detract from a sublime showing of attacking football we witnessed last night though.

It ended up with us inviting pressure, Falcao had a snapshot which went straight at Almunia, either side of him and he didn’t stand a chance, they also had a header cleared off the line by Samir Nasri – we don’t usually have two defenders on the posts at corners but we are lucky we did last night or it would have been 2-1 and Porto right back in the game.

As it turned out, moments later Samir Nasri produced a spectacular solo goal – truly world-class. He picked it up on the right, twisting and turning through hapless defenders – its impossible to defend against when a player is changing direction so quickly and unpredictably, when through the defenders he absolutely hammered a shot in off the far post, it had to be perfect, an inch either way and it would have smashed the post and come out again or hit the keeper, he got it bang on and it was game over.

1 minute and 20 seconds later Arshavin broke and was overtaken by a lung busting run from Emmanuel Eboue, the Russian slid him in with a perfectly timed pass for the Ivorian to round the keeper and slot it home, 4-0, game well and truly over. It showed why we needed pace at that stage of the game and at first I was a little worried about the decision to sub Rosicky (who was very impressive) for Eboue, I thought it was a little too negative for that stage of the game, especially if Porto got a goal back, but I was happily wrong.

The last goal was created by Eboue, a jinking run was ended unfairly by some Porto oaf of a defender and who else but Nicklas Bendtner to step up and finish it off and complete his first senior hat-trick, its 6 in 5 games for the Danish international now – not bad going for a useless center forward, eh?

I watched the game via a stream on the SuperSport (or ShowSports) channel, they had two pundits – one was Carlton Palmer and the other was some old geezer who’s name I don’t know. The entire time they were slagging off Bendtner, even after the game, ignoring the goals and slating his attitude and commitment. He is probably the hardest working forward at the club and has improved a hell of a lot in the past year, if he wasn’t injured it would not surprise me if he had close to 20 goals this season, especially playing in a team as creative as this Arsenal side. Just no matter what you do, you can’t please some people. What the hell has Carlton Palmer achieved to slag off Bendtner? What right does he have to question his attitude and commitment? If I remember rightly he was a hated figure in the dressing rooms he occupied. It disgusts me.

The main talking point from this game for me is the position Samir Nasri is most effective in, and I find it no coincidence that with Cesc out the team and him slotting into Cesc’s role, we saw the best of him. It takes the pressure off the captain – even for the game at Hull at the weekend, he doesn’t have to rush back and risk a setback with his hamstring trouble.

All in all it was a fantastic performance to watch, not without its hiccups, but those aside it was beautiful football. Thomas Vermaelen is possibly the best blocker of a football I have ever seen and whilst Sol Campbell was a little sluggish every now and again he always recovered. I believe Vermaelen is developing into one of the finest centerbacks around and one day I can see him with the captains armband on his arm, I really can.

So, we are in the draw for the quarter finals yet again along with Bayern Munich. We won’t know what teams will be through until next Wednesday evening because of UEFA’s stupid publicity plans but if we get a kind draw we can make the semi’s and from there you never know… I’d take Barca though, that would be fantastic.

The focus once again now shifts onto the Premier League and the chase for the title, Hull away will be tricky so lets hope we perform as well as we did last night.

Til tomorrow.

So, after almost a month we can finally try and right the wrongs of the Porto game three weeks ago, and having not overturned a first leg deficit in Europe for over 30 years, there is a hell of a lot of work to do.

Lets put this in perspective: When this tie was drawn it was a good draw, Porto are not that much of a threat so anything but us going through tonight would be a failure in my mind. Are Arsenal better than Porto? Yes – so Arsenal should progress.

The task is made all the more tricky with Cesc Fabregas ruled out with his hamstring strain but Alex Song returns to the team after serving a league suspension at the weekend so he is a welcome return. It will be interesting to see if the boss decides to start with Andrey Arshavin after freely admitting he can’t last the 90 minutes. Will he go for it from the start to try and take advantage of the best team at our disposal and put Porto on the back foot? It will be interesting tactically.

In the Porto press conference yesterday their manager promised goals, is it a bluff or are they going to come out and attack? I think they might go for the away goal, if they get one, we need three to get through, so its vital we score the first goal to level out the tie, if we get in the ascendancy early on we can get into their heads, and when they start remembering they have never won on English soil thats when the heads could drop and we can capitalise.

In my book, Porto are not a great team so we should go through, after all we only need to win one nil, but as I said earlier, if we concede our lives are going to be made ten times more difficult.

With the absence of our top goalscorer someone is going to have to step up, be it Andrey Arshavin, Samir Nasri, Thomas Rosicky, Theo Walcott or Nicklas Bendtner – one of those players is going to have to perform better than they have all season and hopefully there won’t be too many nerves jangling come the 89 minute mark.

We need a commanding display from Almunia, Thomas Vermaelen and Sol Campbell, despite us needing goals the chances are they are going to have to mop up all the mess if moves break down and that brings me onto something else, over-comitting.

Its happened in every game against our rivals this season and we have been picked off, if Porto had an ounce of intelligence they will look to do the same. We must be careful.

We beat this lot 4-0 at home last season, they can’t have improved that much since then, call me ignorant but its my opinion.

Lets go and win this.

Til tomorrow. COME ON YOU REDSSS

Afternoon,

I guess the only negative coming out of this weekend is the tight hamstring Cesc has, his withdrawal was precautionary against Burnley but the worrying thing is that its the same hamstring that was torn earlier in the season. He didn’t train this morning.

The boss has said that if there is more than a 50% chance of his hamstring going in the game against Porto he will not play, personally I think if there is even the remotest chance of his hamstring tearing again there is no point in risking him, we can beat Porto without him. He is just too valuable a player to have missing for two or three weeks, 17 goals this season in all competitions is a remarkable total and he has at least that many assists to his name as well.

Porto will come to attack so we will not need as much craft to break them down unlike most teams that come to the Grove in the league, the most important thing that needs replacing is the sheer work-rate, Abou Diaby is a player that can score goals so him and Samir Nasri along with Song in the midfield could be very interesting – either way, we can survive without our captain tomorrow night.

If Theo Walcott plays like he did at the weekend then Porto will have a very different monster on their hands to the player they dealt with in the first leg, he terrorised Burnley and if Porto do what we expect and attack he offers so much pace on the break, we know what he can do when the game is end to end, another big performance please Theo…. remember he did it last season against Villarreal with that fantastic chip, one of those would be most welcome this time around.

Update: Cesc out of Porto game with a small chance of making the Hull game next weekend.

Days like this are always good for a bet on the football. There are some tasty odds flying about so as well as possibly qualifying for the quarter finals of the Champions League, you could pocket some cash too. Happy days!

Its good news that the only injury is Cesc, with a lot of players making their comebacks against Burnley it would not have surprised me if we had another niggle or two, I suppose confirmation of that will come in the boss’ press conference later but on first hearing, the only casualty has been Cesc.

It is the first game I’m going to be able to sit down and watch for a week or so now after work commitments keep getting in the way (and will for the foreseeable future). I just have to savor the games more I suppose!

The William Gallas contract scenario seems to be leaning on the side of him leaving the club in the summer now, on one hand its very bad news considering his brilliant form this season, on the other, it means the boss could try and solve the problem of our leaky defence that has been shipping goals despite the great form of both Gallas and Thomas Vermaelen. Roma seem to be interested in the Frenchman.

REDaction are calling for people to arrive to the Grove early tomorrow to create a hostile atmosphere. It worked last time against United – though not on the pitch.

Right, thats about it for today. More tomorrow.

We know what has to be done today – win.

With City and Chelsea meeting in just a few minutes there is a chance Chelsea could drop a point or two, if this happens we have to capitalise, if it doesn’t we need to keep snapping at their heels like an angry Pacman.

Stoke have no surprise up their sleeve, we know how they will play and it is the third time we have faced them this season. We won at home and lost away in the FA Cup, losing there last season as well means our record at the Brittania is shocking. Stoke are a team that we should beat every single time, no disrespect intended.

As it happens they are in very decent form, not losing since December and beating Man City midweek – hopefully we can put a spanner in the works and neutralise’s their most valuable and publicised weapon, Rory Delap. The way he gets built up in the press would have you believe he is a potent mixture of Ronaldo, Kaka with a sprinkling of Pele too, when in fact all he does is throw the ball a long way. Its a throw in, not a super-human capability.

As Arseblogger was saying in the Arsecast yesterday – just stand someone in front of him, he is flouting the rules wiping the ball down with a towel anyway.

William Gallas missing the game could be a blessing just this once because it means Sol Campbell will partner Thomas Vermaelen in defence and they are both good in the air, hopefully they can shore up the defence and mean the possibility of having a shaky keeper behind them won’t be so important.

You get the feeling that the first goal will be key in this game, its what undid us last time and we were always chasing the game. Hopefully Bendtner does some damage up front and I’m tipping him to score today. In midfield its important we assert our authority, we can’t match Stoke in stature but with some clever play we can drag them all over the place and if they go behind they should start feeling the game from Wednesday night, this is a game we must, and can win.

It feels like people are scared of Stoke but there is no reason to be, we should win games like this and we won’t win the title if we can’t. I think we will win today, two or three goals to one.

I’m gonna miss the game again through work, hopefully I can catch the highlights. Blehh, I hate missing matches.

Til tomorrow.

It was a disaster waiting to happen, it was a disaster that should spell a new goalkeeper in the summer because by God do we need one. Come back Almunia, all is forgiven.

I suppose it really isn’t that bad of the face of things, we got the important away goal and are still in the tie, a 1-0 at home will put us soundly through. So is it so bad considering we were without most of our best players?

Fans are probably so angry because both goals were preventable in the extreme, the first was an incredible piece of incompetent goalkeeping and after the Stoke disaster and the FA Cup semi-final display under Lucasz Fabianski’s belt, it is hard to see him staying at the club much longer if fans have their way. The ball was crossed into the six yard box and somehow he fumbled it into the net, it was Roy Carrol-like. He has just done it too many times now and whilst he has obvious talent, there are massive question marks over his mental strength.

I feel sorry for him, for whatever reason he isn’t good enough right now to be Arsenal’s second choice, Almunia isn’t good enough to be first choice. We need a world class keeper badly, especially given our attacking game.

It seemed the damage was limited when Sol Campbell scored to make it 1-1, credit must go to Rosicky who flicked the ball back across goal – into the danger area – for Campbell to head it home. What a story, Champions League final to Notts County, back to scoring in the Champions League again. Incredible.

The goal to make it 2-1 Porto was just unbelievable. The ball was played back to Fabianski after Sol Campbell accidentally made contact with the ball, and Fabianski picked it up. A) No free kick – the back pass was unintentional. B) Fabianski should have put his foot through it but panicked.

It got worse.

Fabianski threw the ball back to the ref quickly, who allowed a quick free kick. Fine. No problem. We have done it in the past. No complaints about that. But, the ref gave the go ahead whilst blocking Sol Campbell completely. How utterly ridiculous is that?

Then there was the penalty appeal, a blatant foul on Rosicky – cast iron. His legs were taken. Arsenal will never get a penalty again it seems, its so frustrating, on another day, with another ref the game could have been so much different.

We can’t hide the same old failures though, the naff defence and keepers who are just not up to standard, we must stop conceding if we are to go anywhere in the Champions League but I just can’t see us tightening our defence. If we were playing a better side it would be game over. This time its Porto though, who are really not very good.

It is frustrating, so frustrating but we are only at half time. We have the advantage of a three week gap until the return leg so whilst the missing players will probably not return for the Sunderland game, they should be back in those three weeks.

I said yesterday that it could be a case of damage limitation, but we made our own damage, we dug our own grave and what Cesc Fabregas described as ’schoolboy errors’ will frustrate him more than anyone. He deserves better if I’m honest. He addressed the fans on the plane as normal after the game and promised us a win in the return leg, and we will get one, no doubts about that.

This team don’t seem to get much in the way of luck, and wouldn’t it be just their luck if we drew one of the few teams we fear in the competition? Barca, Chelsea, United and at a push, Bayern Munich. There is a lot of work to be done though.

Til tomorrow.

This Porto team seem to be getting  a lot of hype, but they really are not very good. Yes, they have reached the last 16 but so have CSKA Moscow and Olympiacos, they have not achieved anything special. They sold their best players in the summer and haven’t scored in something like 4 or 5 games – their manager has said they are going to set their stall out and defend. If we fall at this stage the team has failed, the only real teams I fear are Barca and the other English sides, thats all.

Of course, it is wrong to underestimate them, PSV Eindhoven dumping us out of the Champions League is still quite memorable but we should have enough to beat Porto over two legs, even with all the injuries.

Here are the missing names:

Almunia

Gallas

Gibbs

Song

Arshavin

van Persie

Eduardo

Vela

Djourou

I think thats all of them, if its not, tough – but you get the idea. The biggest misses are Song and Arshavin, the out of form Denilson will come in for Song but I think if the manager wants to get the tie over and done with today, Ramsey could come in. Arshavin has hardly been at the top of his game and a few games out will probably do him good, but we hardly have a wealth of options up front, Nasri and Rosicky flanking Bendtner is a pretty samish frontline, Id start Theo instead of Nasri.

A clean sheet is really important, but an away goal is even more important. If we can get an away goal or a one goal lead it means Porto will have to take the game to us at the Grove which always means there is more space to exploit. They do not really have a stand out forward (there’s Hulk but he is shit) that will worry our defence, a lot of always made of ‘Hulk’ but he is just a big oaf, he’s hyped and hyped but has never done anything, I think he has 2 goals this season.

Apologies for this blog being all bits and pieces.

Just a note about all the plaudits for United’s win against Milan last night. A few years back I seem to remember an Arsenal team most people said was poor go to Milan and win 2-0 –  at the time Milan had the best player in the world, a young Pato, and a much younger version of the players they currently have. Did I hear this sort of praise? Not taking anything away from United’s win but Milan are past it.

Hopefully we can get a win tonight, get on a good winning run in the two competitions we have got left to fight for.

til tomorrow.

_______

Oh pleaaaaaaaase. Give up will you. Jesus christ.