Saturday 18 December 2010

Arsenal match postponed

That was annoying.
I came in from building a snowman of epic proportions to watch the match, but i found out it was cancelled. Its a shame, but Chelsea vs Man Utd is also off, so we're not the only* suffering fans.
Its going to be a long week.

*I am aware there are many sports fans suffering because of this cold snap, but the word 'only' in this situation helps the sentence flow.

Friday 17 December 2010

Arsenal draw Barcelona!


The draw for the last 16 was made this afternoon, and I think all of the Arsenal nation suspected this was coming, from the manager, players and the fans.

Was the draw rigged?...I think so.
Although I was at school at the time, I can just imagine what it looked like - bright lights, loads of suits, a stage, some bowls and balls - the perfect ingredients for a master crime!

Arsenal have got Barcelona at the Emirates for the first leg and you get the feeling we would need to give ourselves a cushion going into the second.

Anyway, this article is premature. The match takes place in Feburary (its December right now by the way), so we've got things much higher on the priority list for a while.

Which brings us to the premierleague, Arsenal play Stoke tomorrow and theres been the standard media rubbish about Shawcross being a victim. It makes me sick, so I'm not going to talk about.

If Arsenal win we'd go straight back to the top of the table, with Chelsea playing Man Utd on Sunday. It's a crazy league! You just get the feeling though, that we're dropping to may careless points and if we'd played our matches on another day, we could be out of sight by now. But I suppose every team feels that way, so let's forget that and look forward to the next half of the season.

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Man Utd 1 - 0 Arsenal

Yesterday, we were meant to see the top two teams in England battle it out to be top of the league.

We were meant to see bloodthirsty hunger, a never say die attitude, an epic match on a grand occasion.

Arshavin, Nasri, Van Persie, Nani and Rooney.
The best players in the league, head to head.

The fact is though, none of this materialised.
Arsenal and Man United were both poor and the home team can consider themselves lucky to have stolen the win, it was a match that deserved nothing more than a draw.

It's made even sadder by the way I left the comfort of my own laptop stream and made a late dash to a pals house to watch the match in HD. The best part of the two hours I spent there were the pringles (or maybe the popcorn) and pitifully the loudest cheer was that which accompanied Rooneys disastrous penalty attempt. Why did he run up as if heplanned to run in a circle? Was he playing imaginary duck duck goose and inconveniently found a ball in the way which he hastened to clear out of the way? We shall never know.

This is an Arsenal blog, so I will now talk about them - however much I don't actually want to because its depressing.

Arsenals most solid player in my opinion was Szczesny and even he messed up a few a kicks - still a good prospect.

Clichy made too many mistakes. Gibbs really needs to stay fit.

Koscielny and Squillaci were both both incapable of managing Rooney. Its always the same tactic played by United - play on the counter against Arsenal. They keep Rooney on the centerbacks and play off him in the counter - why does it always work?!?

Sagna was okay.

Song should have stayed back and protected the back four

Wilshere was okay.

Arshavin tried some things, but they didn't come off.

Nasri was bright but the players around him were not.

Rosiscky was bad, should have started Fabregas (although he didn't make much of a difference)

Van Persie is not back on it.


The table currently looks like this:

P PTS
1 Man Utd 16 34
2 Arsenal 17 32
3 Man City 17 32
4 Chelsea 17 31

Man Utd and Chelsea play each other next. A draw will put Utd on 35 and Chelsea 32. A Chelsea win will put them on 34.

If Arsenal were to beat Stoke and either of these two results occur we'll be back top! Let's stay positive....


Monday 13 December 2010

Showing no inclination to go back to work any time soon, the miners enjoyed watching AFC lose.

Arsenal lose to ManU

Yes, sadly for the second time in this premier league season Arsenal have lost to Manchester United - only this time, 26 of the 33 miners trapped in Chile were there to watch - HOW EMBARRASSING!!
Unfortunately, Arsenal cannot say they fought a dignified battle, picking up 3 or 4(depending if you got your stats from BBC sport or Arsenal.com, lol) yellow cards, and Manchester receiving 0 yellow cards.

I watched the match in HD on a 32" LCD television, with some akhis, and happiest moment was when Wayne Rooney skied his penalty into the stands. I wonder if a miner caught it; a gift of true sentimental value - a premier league ball of which a replica could be bought for £5 in a local Sports World store.

Sunday 12 December 2010

Full circle

I began this blog with a review of Arsenal vs. Manchester United in February 2008.
I write this post almost three years later as Arsenal prepare to face their bitter rivals in what is set to be a mouthwatering clash.
After the dust has settled, the Gunners put away their Arsenal, and Shrek returns to the swamp near Farquaad's kingdom, the winner of this match will be three points clear at the top of the Premier League table.