Clear a path, bitches. Thierry Henry coming through.
OMFG I WAS POSITIVELY SHITTING MY PANTS AT THIS
AHAHAHA LOL. KING HENRYYY
all hail King Henry
Forward.
This post brings us to within one point of “the enemy,” and momentum to push for the third spot. Its not so far off now, and while St. Totteringham’s day may be a little late this year, it may very well still come. What the latest surge of results has done has given our squad belief, and confidence to press on. Forward, the motto on our 125th Anniversary crest really is typifying this season as we look to build again following the departures of Cesc and Samir. Cesc, who is playing extraordinary football at Barcelona, and Samir who made the premier league “flops” list from goal this month alongside Arsenal pair Per Mertesaker and Park Chu Yung. While on the surface I agree with the Park listing, I think Per added a different dimension to the back. Albeit a slower, more methodical dimension, I think the big german — now ruled out for the remainder of the season — provided an escape route out of the back. However, I don’t think anyone can have much problem with our current preferred back line. The return of Gibbs and Sagna, and impending return of Andre Santos, has added balance and more stability in back. And with the impending return of Abou Diaby (hahahaha), and Jack Wilshere, we could have quite the selection dilemma to contend with.
I think my preferred midfield would be Song in the defensive role, Wilshere in the box to box role, and Rosicky in the Fabregas role. Encouraging though, to see the transfer rumours flying. I could see this being a ploy to encourage more season tickets, but really, the substance of some of them doesn’t lead me to think that. Podolski seems to be a done deal - and one that could properly deputize the Dutch Captain next season. I’m still holding out for a Mario Gotze signing, but I would love to see the young Dortmund star to fill in for our aging former Dortmund player in Thomas Rosicky. Then again, at the same time, I worry that our esteemed Professeur will try to play him on the wing and ruin him like he did Arshavin. Who by the way is playing in his preferred role back at Zenit and is not only scoring again, but also providing assists and running at people. I think it was a mistake to let him go back to Russia personally, and I think that he fits the third central midfielder role much much better than Aaron Ramsey. The young welshman doesn’t need so much pressure being Fabregas - because he isn’t. I think that Ramsey would be better suited to one of the holding positions in a deep lying playmaker sort of role, where his job would be to win the ball in the middle of the park and outlet it for a run at goal. Wilshere and Rosicky - and my hope is that Gotze will fill that forward role in the centre of midfield. On the wings, Alex Chamberlain is quickly being realized as the real deal, and in the future, may also deputize in that forward center role like he did against AC Milan to great success. Could we one day see a midfield trio of Chamberlain, Wilshere, and Gotze? ah. Sounds wonderful to me. I doubt we’d ever see them on the field at the same time though. Back on to Arshavin though, apparently his family is still in London and Andrei is expecting a return quickly. He wants to play, and I would love to see him play in that middle role too.
I’m rambling. I’ll talk more about it later.
Comments?
Back.
A lot has changed since I’ve had a little hiatus. A second surge of fan outrage has been quelled to the level of only a slight dip in form after heavy losses to Milan and Sunderland turned into the form that beat spuds 5-2 and Milan 3-0. Beating the scousers was also particularly pleasing with Robin at the helm.
You all know the results. Tomorrow I will write a piece on the shift in transfer policy that we may be about to witness. Gooners hold on to your seats. This is going to be a crazy ride.
iPhone wallpaper I made from a photo of arsenal supporters at the emirates during the tottenham game on saturday. If you want full res, just let me know!
Sunderland 1-2 Arsenal
When Sunderland scored, my heart dropped. Arsenal controlled most of the possession, and had many more attacking chances than did Sunderland, but the scoreline suggested otherwise. Like many of the games this season, I wondered whether or not we’d be able to find the back of the net at all. Then Ramsey put it away. I checked the New York Times to see if maybe some dictator had died (fingers crossed for Chavez), and unfortunately I had found none. I then left Aaron’s wonderstrike up to luck and right place right time because we desperately needed this win. There was no luck needed, however, for Thierry Henry’s third goal in his loan spell. Arshavin played in a wonderful ball and Thierry made no mistake. I don’t know how much New York values him at, but Wenger needs to just pay it. It’s always nice to have a legend like Thierry in the dressing room, on the pitch, or ready to come in from the bench. And you have to love his enthusiasm for the Arsenal. It really is watching a fan out on the pitch. We can all love him.
I didn’t catch all of the match as I was streaming it here at work. From what I could see, Walcott didn’t have the best game. Rosicky was a “new signing” in midfield. Arteta was class. Song had a rough go at it today. Oxo looked lively, had a solid game, but not like it was against Blackburn. Mertesaker was at fault for the first goal, but it looks as though he’ll be out for a while. Thank god Gibbs is back (maybe only for his customary 17 minutes) but in the meantime we can have Gibbs at left, Verm and Kos in the middle, and Sagna out right. Solid - well except for Gibbo.
Oh well, lets hope we can get the same result (maybe not as stroke inducing) next weekend when we play them again! We’ve got ACMilan midweek, so lets hope for some momentum and maybe another Thierry Henry goal.
COYG.
Comments?
We all know Diaby is a very talented midfielder. He is tall, strong, and extremely mobile. He has all the potential to be the next Patrick Vieira, yet he can’t seem to stop getting injured.
Arsene Wenger signed Diaby in the January transfer window in 2006, the last season atHighbury….
Completely agree. I feel like I’ve been saying this for at least a year and a half.
An edit of the Arsenal 125 crest that I made for the background of my blog. :) I think it looks nice. :)
Arsenal 7 - 1 Blackburn
It was a positive day for the arsenal from the off. We finally controlled the ball and maintained that high pace through the game. Sure, it seemed like we dropped off a little bit after the first goal, but when Blackburn scored from the free kick, we seemed to pick it up a notch and were soon up to 3-1. When Blackburn scored, I’m sure I’m not alone when I shuddered and thought, “well, we could lose this.” Thankfully, a second from Robin and a brilliant goal from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain quelled those fears. Arteta soon joined in on the fun making it 4-1. Next was a brilliant weaving run through the Blackburn defence from Theo Walcott and a great unselfish display to pass the ball to a waiting Oxlade-Chamberlain who slotted it in cool like a seasoned veteran. Robin took the match ball with a brilliantly done tap in from a Coquelin pass. Finally, Thierry Henry capped off the scoring with a brilliantly won ball from midfield, and a deflected shot.
If I wanted to go position by position, I think there were some outstanding play from all around the pitch. Solid displays from Rosicky and Song were huge and we needed some of Rosicky’s creativity. Now, I’m not hating on Ramsey, but he has seemed a little out of sorts lately, and resting him probably did him some good. I could talk about each player for quite a while, so I’ll spare you the lengthy analysis and give out some highlights.
Some things to point out:
Theo with his hat trick of assists was finally impressive! If he continues that form, fine. Give him the ₤80k a week and sign him to a new “long term” contract. That is the form that we should be expecting of a seasoned player like Theo now. He isn’t a child anymore, and shouldn’t be coddled. He’s had several years in the premier league — and though they’ve been plagued by injury, he’s had quite a lot of playing time.
Oxlade-Chamberlain is a tremendously good player. He’s starting to play more comfortably and I believe he really will set the premier league alight. In today’s match he scored both his first and second premier league goals. The first by rounding the keeper, and the second equally as challenging, by placing it through the legs of his defender to slot it in the bottom corner. Maybe he needs a little work on his celebrations though — not sure what that was down at the corner flag. He’s only 18. That is mind boggling. Maybe Wenger pulled an Eden Hazard or Mario Götze out of the rough with that signing. For ₤12m I think we really got a bargain. Frimmers, Jack, and Alex seem to all have that wow factor, and I really hope they will soon all play together.
Finally, Robin van Persie is simply magnificent. Calm and collected, he ended the game with his second hat trick of the season, and a brilliant assist to Oxlade-Chamberlain for his first Premier League goal. The flying dutchman now has twenty-two premier league goals to his name this season, and is clear at the top of the goals-scored tables by 6 goals. RvP with 22, the next highest being Newcastle’s Demba Ba with 16 to his name.
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That said, lets not get carried away with the result. We were playing a relegation battling Blackburn side that was very poor the whole match and had a player sent off. There were a lot of positives to be taken from the match though, and that match really helped out our goal differential that has been hurting all season since the 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford.
Just checked, and it looks like we’ve had another injury blow. Frimpong has returned from his loan spell at Wolves with a ruptured ACL. Could be bad for the young midfielder as this is his second injury to his cruciate ligament. He’s supposed to undergo surgery soon and start on a rehabilitation programme.
COYG! Comments?
