The Goon Blog

Sadly I don’t have much time this morning but I’m going to look ahead at a week that could define the next few years of the club.

On Wednesday we take on Villarreal without a fair few of their players, Cazorla and Senna are the ones that really stand out, if we take advantage of this and grab an early goal we might end up with a quite comfortable game, if Villarreal score first expect fireworks. That really would get the Arsenal going and the whole look of the tie could change very quickly.

I am of the opinion that the result on Wednesday night will have a lot to do with the result on Saturday, we also have to take into account Chelsea play 24 hours earlier than us in the Champions League so they will be fresher than us. If we beat Villarreal spirits will be high and the tails will be up, if we do the unthinkable and lose from this position Saturday becomes vital, we are in such a good position and to not go on to win something, or at least to a final this season would be criminal.

I’m really, really looking forward to this next week and I really do believe we can win both games. Villarreal will have to attack and we can hopefully pick them off if Cesc’s partner has a good game, I’m very glad Wenger is the one with the decision of who to pick next to Cesc because I certainly couldn’t pick one of Denilson or Song at the moment, Denilson did look very tired on Saturday though.

The enormity of this week is unpreceidented from recent years, I really can’t remember the last time we were fighting for the CL and the FA cup at this stage of the season.

This team is a big game team though, we have proven it against Man Utd, Chelsea this season, AC Milan last season and in years before Real Madrid and Juventus. We have certainly beaten the big names in recent years but came out of it with nothing to show for it.

Maybe this season things can change. They deserve to.

In other news, Gooner Talk have reported that the teams involved in the Emirates Cup will be:

• Inter Milan
• PSG
• Rangers

This has been leaked to the Daily Record, a Scottish newspaper. If its true I was hoping for possibly Real Madrid or Juventus again but Arsenal historically have a good relationship with Rangers so its no suprise really, I guess.

Wenger talks about Cesc’s most effective role – Personally, i’m of the view that we can only fit him in the side in a 4-4-2 formation.

He also talks about how the team have grown as the season has progressed.

Right, must dash. There will be a preview tomorrow along with updates on injuries.

Til then.

All in all a successful weekend for Arsenal, another win offset my another defensive injury but we do not yet know how severe it is.

Picking up the mere morsels around today captain Fabregas has called for the lads to go unbeaten for the rest of the season and clearly state our intentions to win something:

“We want to go all the way, We have said to ourselves we do not want to lose another game before the end of the season, and that’s exactly what we will try to do. It is a good 10 days we have coming up, now. That’s what a professional wants to do, come and play big games like these. We will play some very important games for the players and the club that will decide our season. We have been playing quite well throughout the whole season. For some reason some people decided to go a little bit against us and to have a go at us. Some people tried to create a little bit of a bad atmosphere. But we dealt well with it. It’s not been a problem for us. It is now 18 games we have gone without losing in the Premier League. We can answer the critics by winning things and that’s what we are aiming to do over the remainder of the season. That’s why these next few days are key for us. We have Villarreal in the Champions League, then Chelsea, an amazing team, in the FA Cup semi-final. We still have a big say in the season.”

No shit Sherlock. This next week is massive. It is probably the most important set of games since we reached the CL final in Paris, a win on Wednesday will put us into the semi’s of the CL and a win next Saturday will put us in the FA Cup final, this week is, in effect, our season all boiling down to 180 minutes. Good on Cesc though, he is leading by example on the pitch and is saying all the right things off it, he knows the enormity of this week and we need him to stand up and help guide this team to two wins in a week.

Yesterday I linked you to the Arsene Wenger interview in the NOTW. Sadly, I couldn’t find the original source but after a read through I came to the conclusion the message behind it was that he will not give up on his policy as long as he is at the club, he firmly believes in it and this season it could really come to fruition. The chances to sign Alonso and Barry were there but I concur when he says it would have ‘killed’ Song, Denilson or Diaby (providing an injury didn’t kill him first).

Looking back on it now maybe he did the right thing but most importantly Wenger has shown he is human and admitted it really did get tough.

Remember, Arsene Wenger is not just an Arsenal manager, he is a fan as well.

Hopefully later today we should have news of the squad for Villarreal and the extent of Djourou’s injury. More on that tomorrow, though.

’til then, enjoy the bank holiday.

We really didn’t deserve to win by a three goal margin yesterday and the defending was really worrying. Silvestre does not have a clue, he is rusty and has not strung two games together for about three years, Djourou may be out for a while with a knee injury and before that, he flattered to deceive as well.

Highlights | Wenger

This is all very negative but we could have been two goals down at half time, down to ten men and on our last legs in defence. Let me say this now, Gibbs should not have been on the field after the pull back on Valencia, he was the last man and even if Fabianski might have got close to Valencia when he was rushing out Gibbs stopped a goalscoring opportunity, he was also the last man. Wenger admitted at the final whistle that he should not have been on the pitch. We got very lucky. AfterwardsWigan hit the inside of the post from a free kick, on another day Fabianski would have been picking the ball out the net again. On the Fabianski’s performance, well, it left a lot to be desired. He is young, he pulls off spectacular saves but he flaps at crosses a hell of a lot, in certain respects he is mad and doesn’t demand confidence.

On the positive side we fought back from going behind again and when the system was changed to a 4-4-2 at half time the game changed in our favour, Theo Walcott leveled after the brilliant Arshavin managed to sneak a little ball through to him to finish with the outside of his right foot into the top corner. Classy finish.

Second up and who pops up with a poachers goal? Our fish faced Frenchman who was diabolical at the other end, Silvestre. It was a nice finish, i will grant him that. He has a chance to win affection from gooners in the next month or so, if he gets injured he could be on his way out of the Grove in the summer. He has a chance to produce, its got to be now or never for him.

After that Arshavin got the goal he really deserved, a counter attack started by Adebayor who had a big impact, finished off with a defensive mistake that fell to Arshavin on the edge of the box and he drilled it home first time. Before that we were starting to come under the cosh a bit and it really released the pressure. Arshavin almost won us this game on his own, I forgot to mention his fantastic pass through to Cesc that started the move for the second goal.

For the fourth Alex ‘Messi’ Billong Song finished after a fantastic run, he rounded two defenders and finish nicely into the bottom corner in the dying moments. Its was so unlike him it was surreal and capped off a fine performance from the dancing Cameroonian.

At half time Wenger introduced van Persie into the mix, this was to add attacking impetus I am sure, but I also feel that Denilson has looked very tired during his last two performances. He will be needed to mark Senna on Wednesday night providing he is fit and I think Wenger may just have had that in mind.

You can see what Wenger said after the game in the link at the top of the page hand after admitting we were lethargic at times today he also revealed that Djourou’s injury may keep him out on Wednesday:

“Johan Djourou has a knee problem and that’s the bad news of the day. It looks as though he’ll be out for Wednesday. We lost two central defenders in two games, we have a few more games to go and we haven’t got enough of them to lose one every game.”

If we lose another centre back we are screwed, Gallas and Djourou are now out, that leaves the injury ravaged and frankly crap Silvestre, Toure and Song who does not convince in that position. After that the only other alternate is Sagna who can play there with Eboue filling in at right back. After that we have Ayling and Bartley from the youth/reserves.

Coming up next we have Villarreal, then Chelsea in the FA Cup semi at Wembley followed up with a midweek trip to Liverpool. At this point it looks like our attack will have to be on song for all three games, we have to really outscore the opposition because personally, I think we will concede in every game. A defence of Fabianski in goal Sagna at RB, Toure and Silvestre at CB and Gibbs at LB just does not convince, other teams will look at that defence and feel confident about scoring, the likes of Torres and Drogba, two of the worlds best strikers will think: ‘oo i fancy a goal or two here’. Both sides can be weak defensively at times, especially Chelsea after the Bolton near comeback yesterday so there is hope there for our strikers.

There has been an interesting interview with Arsene Wenger in the NOTW, I’m not sure where it originally came from but I’ll try and track it down and give it a good read through, there will be more on that tomorrow along with a Djourou injury update hopefully.

I have been negative today but we have to be realistic, we have been poor in the first half of the past two games, we have conceded goals and looked generally unstable with the majority of our defence missing.

On the plus side the team are scoring well and generally looking dangerous. We are an underdog in the FA Cup and the CL, that works in our favour and if we keep plugging away and grinding out results I’m confident we will be victorious in one of those competitions. Lets just keep looking at the next game though. There’s many a mile left to be walked.

Right, I’m in desperate need of some catching up sleep.

’til tomorrow.

Morning.

Lassana Diarra is a little dolphin headed cockmuncher isn’t he? I don’t know how he has the nerve to say Jose Mourinho is a better manager than Arsene Wenger, and after that, have the nerve to say that Wenger took no notice of him!

Diarra said:

“I didn’t learn anything from Wenger, all he taught me was how to doubt myself, how to doubt everything. Wenger never said a word to me until the day I left. He spoke to the others but not with me.

“I played only fifteen games and I did not have a good relationship with him [Wenger], I respect the way he coaches but I learnt more with Mourinho. He looked me in the eyes when he talked to me. Mourinho showed me how to fight. If he had any problem, we discussed it. I feel like I never played at Arsenal. If people don’t remind me of that fact, I just forget it. It has been wiped from my mind.”

Look my dolphin headed Arsenal reject: 1) You shouted your head off about not getting any games. That’s really going to endear yourself to Wenger isn’t it? 2) Did Wenger actually have a chance to talk to you? You were in and out faster than a sex addict in Amsterdam.

No player is bigger than Arsenal FC, not even a little scroat like you so enjoy your six months in Spain. Diarra, you are not a big enough name for Real Madrid and you will be replaced by a big name sooner or later, then its back to Portsmouth for you.

Less about that little rat and onto one player who is the exact opposite of Diarra, Andrey Arshavin.

He has barely been at Arsenal three months and he already wants to stay for life. To be totally honest I think its a message to the media as much as its a commitment to Arsenal, the underlying message is: ‘look, NOTW, The Sun, Daily Mail and all you gutter journo’s. I’m a gooner, I’m staying here and your little bullshit stories can’t change that. Stick that up your hole.’ From a fans point of view this is exactly what we want to hear from one of our best players, something tells me he is going to become a legend at the Grove, its early days but the potential is certainly there for him to become an Arsenal great. His words were:

“At Arsenal I feel at home. I like everything here, the friendly team, a wise and experienced manager, and fantastic fans, I won’t leave the club for any money. That we are fourth in The Premier League is an achievement of the whole team, not my own. I hope my real successes with Arsenal are still to come.”

I love you, Andrey.

Talking of fatigue Wenger is defiant that the team is able to cope with the tough schedule for the rest of the season, whilst it is true that some players (notably Denilson) will start to feel the strain, Arsene is convinced its more a matter of mental strength to overcome fatigue:

“Tiredness is more mental than physical. Sometimes when players come into the team they look as tired, if not more tired, than the players who played the game before. It is very unpredictable.

It is something you don’t want to talk about. My experience from France is that they always talk about ‘fatigue, fatigue.’ When you talk about it you are tired.

“The mysterious nature of football means that on any day the team can look flat as a unit. Even if you are rested sometimes you can look tired because we don’t really master how our body turns up.”

We should be alright, we have a wealth of attacking cover and that is probably most important. Defensively with Gallas out we have only Gibbs and Silvestre in reserve, that could be a problem but I’m sure the team will be rotated giving key players a rest when its needed. Remember Adebayor and Fabregas will be fresh, along with Eduardo and Silvestre.

Moving onto the game today and I feel we will win the game, we should do it comfortably but with the Villarreal game midweek and the Chelsea game after that we may see some players rested.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Denilson rested with Song and Fabregas in the middle of midfield and Bendtner partnering Adebayor. In defence Fabianski will start in goal with Sagna, Djourou and Gibbs certain to start, the only question is will Wenger rest Toure and play Silvestre? We will have to wait and see.

This is where the squad player really do earn their money and its timely that Wenger has backed his squad. One thing that they will need is confidence but we are on this unbeaten run and in that regard, there is no better time to come into the team. Looking at the fixture list however its probably the least convenient time this season.

Lets hope it pays off and on tomorrow morning there is a cheery post here celebrating another win and hopefully….no new injuries. We can hope..

Can’t we?

’til tomorrow.

Happy bank holiday, but this won’t make for happy reading.

As we already guessed, William Gallas will be out for the season after that accident against Villarreal. It has been confirmed that it is indeed medial knee ligament damage and that is not a few weeks on the sidelines, its months. As it turns out we have also lost Almunia for what looks like three weeks with an ankle injury that was originally sustained from that despicable excuse for a human being…El Hadji Diouf.

Gael Clichy is also going to be on the sidelines for a couple of weeks with a back injury sustained in Tuesday’s game as well…  At this rate Bakary Sagna’s head is going to fall off after the Wigan game whilst Kolo Toure suffers an influx of Gout after next weeks return leg in the Champions League.

Wenger said this at his press conference yesterday:

“Gallas is a quick recoverer but we think he will be short to come back before the end of the season, It’s a big, big blow but that’s where the squad come in. I believe as well we have lost Manuel Almunia for three weeks and we lost Gael Clichy for two weeks with a back problem. We lost three players on Tuesday night so we have to once again rely on the depth in the squad – that is quite strong. As well we have to rely on our mental strength because until now we have dealt well with all our injury problems. Robin van Persie and Eduardo will have tests tomorrow morning. They might be available. And of course we have Andrey Arshavin available for Saturday.”

This could not come at a worse time. We could face Man United potentially FOUR more times this season, add that to two clashes against Chelsea (exc. CL) and a game against Liverpool (exc. CL), it means we need our strongest defence out there. With all due respect to Kolo, Sagna et.al. Gallas is our best defender, he is better than Kolo, better than Bakary, better than Gael, Djourou and Silvestre. Its a massive loss. In my view no player has redeemed himself more this season than Willy Gallas.

Take a look at the oncoming fixtures:

One down, six to go in the month of hell. It might just be a month of glory too if we keep our form up.

Following speculation around the contracts of van Persie and Theo Walcott, Wenger has stopped all contract negotiations until the end of the season as it all starts to hot up. Its a brave move because its sure to mean a deluge of stories about other clubs eying up moves for our players, it has to be said if that is the price to pay for glory this season, I’m willing to pay it. Wenger said:

“My thinking is that we focus completely on the short term and not long term, we have such important targets in front of us that we have to show maturity and get rid of all the talks which are not helping us to win the games. We have to because we play every three days and we cannot sit around with players. It does not affect anything, because we can always talk to the agents, but I believe when a player comes back from an away game you do not want to be sitting around the desk at eight o’clock in the morning. You want him to recover, rest and prepare for the next game. We have taken this approach because we have a tight schedule.”

There is enough time for that in the summer, I’m sure we will announce a flurry of new deals for players when the season is over and there is time to sit down and talk. Arsenal have not had this kind of run in for many a year…. Its not about the teams we are facing, its about whats at steak. When was the last time we were fighting for the Champions League and FA cup at this stage of the season, whilst also looking to cement a top four place at the same time? This season could still be great for the club, even with all the misery so far.

One man determined to make it happen is Emmanuel Adebayor who had a rather good weekend, he was back to his old self and whilst it is too early to judge whether he is back on song like last season, it must me said that he will be vital in the next nine weeks. The Tognator said:

“When I came to this club from Monaco in 2006, I was told by my friends and team-mates I had a great chance of winning something but for the last three years I’ve gone on holiday having not won a trophy and with an empty heart. So now it is time to achieve things, starting with two games against Villarreal. We have to believe we can do it.”

He really wants to win something, you can tell. The team is desperate for a trophy and the fans are as well, its not his desire that is welcome to hear here, its this:

“There is a feel-good factor back at the club and the fans are pleased to see us playing with fast movement and good football again.”

After murmurings of infighting earlier in the season this is a delight to hear. We don’t want a team at each other throats because we need them to pull together and win us something, i have said many a time that one trophy…any trophy…will be the making of this side.

Andrey Arshavin – a player who has won things in his career has been praising the return of Cesc Fabregas, a player who it seems he admires:

“We managed to play good and fast football and I think it was due to Cesc’s brilliant play, he reads situations on the pitch so well and knows instantly how to organise an attack.”

He sure does make a difference, i actually forgot how good he was! What a player.

Onto a little blog news now and as you can see (hopefully!), the place has  a brand new look and i for one rather like it. I need to know you opinions on it because this site is for you readers so if you could drop me a very quick line in the comments it would be greatly appreciated! If you would like to contact me privately go to the about&contact section or mail me at goonblogger@googlemail.com

I’ll be back tomorrow with a full look ahead to the Villarreal game and the team news will be out later today. Samir Nasri sadly looks to be out of the game which will be a big miss. More on that in the preview.

’til tomorrow

We have reached half way, come on guys we can’t give up now. Please stay with me during the next seven days as the insanity of this international break continues.

Now, the title. You may think, ‘this blogger is such a twat’ or ‘not another of these idiots writing out their arse’, or along many other similar lines that are fairly unprintable on this blog. Actually its not unprintable. Its more like i can’t be fussed to write them.

You are probably right thinking it by the way because i am a twat and i am also an idiot writing out my arse, see? The last few lines prove that.

I have chosen to go with this title because it will be one you are all waking up to due to Cesc Fabregas’ dad saying his son is ‘flattered’ at interest from Barcelona. He has joined Gael Clichy and Amaury Bischoff in being ‘flattered’ this week. It seems some clubs are on the pull.

His father (Cesc’s) has said:

“Any person in a job likes it if another company tells them they are fans and that they would like them to join their company. Of course, he likes to hear that Barca or Milan or Madrid like him, anyone would.”

Now the media will twist that, i put money on it. They will ignore the fact he also said this which, unlike any agent or perma-tanned northern loudmouth may say, shows what kind of guy Cesc is:

“The only thing that I can say about Florentino Perez is that four years ago he came to us and we said no. There was a lot of money on the table and we said no. We felt that it was not the best moment for Cesc to move. He has to think of himself and it is not all about money.”

That is music to my ears. You do start to lose the faith sometimes with all the mercenaries in football today, to hear a player plays the game because he just loves playing football with his club is, sadly, a rarity these days.

Not content with winning my love with the previous statement, Cesc’s father continued:

“We are all Barca fans in the family, but everyone must understand that we are with Arsenal. At this moment, he is happy and enjoying himself there. The club values him highly,”

Oh how that has just brightened my week. Seriously! Cesc is going to be around for a long time yet so Gooners you have no need to worry, our diamond is here to stay.

Yes Phil Brown, he is here to stay and you hopefully are not. Jog along with your petty little lie filled petitions, you and your sort are not welcome in English football.

A lot has been made this week of Adebayor’s call up to the Togo squad – Even more was made when it was announced that he was going to start. Wenger kindly cleared this up for us today:

“Adebayor has gone away with Togo. Will he play or not? He will have tests. For us, he was ready to play. Ideally it is good for us and for him to have a game. There is no problem.I had a meeting with their manager and we knew he would be ready for this weekend, whether it was for us or for Togo.”

So to summarise for all you dimwitted, lazy, hypocritical hacks out there:

Emmanuel Sheyi Adebayor was FIT to play at the weekend but was not risked. Emmanuel Sheyi Adebayor ISN’T disobeying orders from Arsene Wenger and Arsenal FC.

In addition. Emmanuel Sheyi Adebayor will not be moving in a ’spectacular 34 million pound move to AC Milan. A) They can’t afford him. B) His agent says so.

I’m not quite so sure on the reliability of ‘B’ but as he signed a new contract in the summer i don’t think he will be going anywhere just yet.

Our little dancing Russian Andrey Arshavin is raking in the praise at the moment, Guus Hiddink has joined in the throng and picked up from where Dennis Lachter left off:

“One should show a stable high level of football for a long time to claim the Ballon d’Or trophy. And I am sure that Andrei Arshavin is able to do so.

“he is not only spectacular but also an effective player”

He is capable of reaching those heights, as many others have already said i wish we had brought him earlier in the season but one thing is for sure. We have one hell of a player on our hands here. Watch out. The article is a welcome read, find it here.

Nice to see this was hidden. Shameful, why don’t they put it on the back page where they misinformed an entire nation of a 20 year old’s character? One thinks they recieved a call from a certain someone’s lawyer.

Just before i bring this to a close i want to say i have it on good authority that the away kit for next season will not be green. I will bring you more when/if it is confirmed.

Thanks for you feedback – its all very helpful, if you want to add more feel free to do so in the comments section!

Right, get your mitts on that lot.

’til tomorrow

ps. Also cop a look at this fine article from our friends over there. Interesting reading.