Arsenal have signed 24 year old Croatian striker Eduardo da Silva for the usual "undisclosed" fee. In this case, I would think it is lower, rather than higher... probably in the range of £6-8 million. Arsenal have finally signed a "Fox In The Box", because that seems to be this guy's speciality - headers, left footers, right footers, he seems very composed and clinical in the box, and that is what the Arse have been missing. They don't need anymore players to dribble past 3-4 guys and hit a curling wonder goal, they need someone to pick up the scraps from all of that, and this guy seems like the business. Here:

Da Silva, who came to Croatia from Brazil when he was 15, has been prolific in the Croatian league, scoring 73 goals in just 104 appearances for Dinamo Zagreb, and 10 goals in 15 games when on loan at Inter Zaprešić. Since taking Croatian citizenship in 2002, his national team career has been very impressive as well - he's scored 7 in 12 games for Croatia, and previously had 8 in 12 for the Croatian U-21s. Incidentally, Eduardo was also the first player to score at the Emirates Stadium in a competitive match, when Dinamo Zagreb played Arsenal in Champions League qualifying.

A lot of fans will be underwhelmed by this, when they were expecting an Eto'o or Torres or someone big (that's not to say that no one else will be signed), and despite his goalscoring record, he obviously is not a proven talent. Still, I have a good feeling about this, because from what i've seen, he really does know how to score goals... and remember, the problem for Arsenal has not been creating chances, it's been putting them away. In Da Silva, Arsene has bought the most conventional striker he's seen in years.

There's also of course the worry that he might be another Bosko Balaban. Yes, the wonderfully alliteratively named Croatian, who top scored in the league for Dinamo Zagreb, and scored 5 goals in 8 matches in World Cup 2002 qualifying. Aston Villa snapped him up for £5.8 million, and he scored precisely ZERO goals for them, got homesick, and ended up leaving on a free transfer a year later. Buttttttttttttttttt, let's try and be optimistic.

In anycase, Balaban might not be the only striker signed. Arsenal lost 3 forwards this summer (Thierry Henry, Jeremie Aliadiere and Julio Baptista), and they have only brought 2 in so far (Eduardo Da Silva, and Niclas Bendtner has returned from his loand spell), so there is certainly room for one more.

And this interview with Cesc Fabregas's agent seems to indicate the same. He was being asked about whether Cesc wanted to join Real or Barca, or leave Arsenal because of Henry's departure, but said that Cesc wanted to stay and was looking forward to the new season, because Arsenal were going to sign lots of new players. Quotes are below:

"Thierry was a very important player for them and it is normal that now he is no longer there, everyone thinks it is very bad news for the club.

But Arsenal are going to buy a lot of good players and they are going to be a major team both in the Premier League and Champions League.

Without Thierry, Cesc is one of the best players at Arsenal and this is fine for him, he is happy with the responsibility."

Barca's radio station, Cadena Ser has announced that Henry has signed for Barcelona for 4 years, for €24 million.

Sad if it's true, and many Arsenal fans will not be very happy with Henry.

The most frustrating thing is that there doesn't seem to be any sign of Eto'o coming the other way, and the fee that we're receiving for Henry is pitiful considering a player of his stature. He signed for just under £11 million, and he's being sold for about £16 million.

I don't think there's any question that he needed to go, because he was making his position at the club very difficult with his comments about David Dein and all the goings-on. It's not what you expect from a player committed to the club, and most definitely not the captain of Arsenal Football Club.

Last season, when Henry wasn't injured, he seemed to not care much. Many speculated that his heart was elsewhere, but by the end of the season, with both our top strikers out, fans were desperate enough to believe whatever excuses were on offer.

I can't really hold any grudges against Thierry for what he's given to the club, but the way in which he's behaved over the last year has been awful, and a bit reminescent of Patrick Vieira. He's openly flirted with other clubs, made vague and misleading statements, and set an awful example for the younger players. His comments about people within the club (and allusions to some of his teammates) have been very destabilising, and it's hard to take many positives from these events. He had almost become another Mr. Arsenal, and his lack of honesty more than anything else has been most frustrating.

I'm sure Arsene Wenger has a plan, and to be honest after his absences over the whole of last season, the team has learnt how to play without Henry, and to be honest, played better without him on many occassions.

But Arsenal is a big club, and needs its star power, so a big name will have to come in. Will it be Torres? Will it be Eto'o? At least we know what Arsene Wenger was meeting Barcelona for, but hopefully he will not be following TH over there.

It's a testing time for Le Professeur as well... he's lost his main ally David Dein, he's lost his two major protegees in the last two years (Vieira and Henry), and with all the politics at the club I suspect there might be doubts over his future as well. Maybe Henry knew that Wenger wouldn't be there to take care of his future after this season?

 

Various sources have proclaimed that it's a done deal, and to be honest this rumours has been rumbling on for months, and seems like a quite likely one.

He's French, he's very experienced, he's won loads of titles in France, and made great progress in both European and international football. He's left-footed, and can scrap and work hard just as well as he can charge forward. He's a decent finisher, if not a prolific goalscorer, and is a classy player, even if he is underrated by many (mostly because they are busy complaining about how overrated he is).

He's played a lot with Thierry Henry, and is a determined character. He'd probably be everything that Reyes wasn't, and i'm sure he'd love to work with Arsene Wenger. Plus, he's been linked many, many times before as well. Before he joined Lyon in fact, so Wenger has seen his potential ages ago.

If rumours that Gerard Houllier is going to take over as Director of Football at Arsenal are to be believed, then that makes this story even more likely than before.

A pacy, energetic winger with a bit of steel and no small amount of ability - sounds like he's needed, especially with him being left-footed (there's no one left in that department apart from Van Persie and Clichy, and of course Armand Traore in the reserves; compare that to a few years ago over overlapping periods when Edu, Silvinho, Overmars, Cole, Upson, van Bronckhorst all gave the team great balance).

Manchester United and Chelsea both advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League today. Whilst Arsenal haven't managed to score against either West Ham or Newcastle, United thumped 7 goals past Roma at Old Trafford to win the tie 8-3 on aggregate. Chelsea dominated slightly superior opposition away in Spain, coming back from a goal down to win 2-1 in stoppage time, and 3-2 on aggregate. Gutting stuff really.

Not only that, but assuming they overcome their semi-final opposition, there is the distinct prospect of a Manchester United vs Chelsea Champions League final, and FA Cup final. YUCK!

To add to that, if things stay as close as they are, then Wednesday May 9th might very well see the Premiership title decided in 1 game, when Manchester United play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It's almost like 3 cup finals in a row, and the only thing that could make it worse would be if Spurs reach the UEFA Cup final.

Meanwhile Arsenal, with 2 wins in their last 11 games in all competitions are still trying to figure out how to score a goal and not let the season completely fall to pieces. I don't think a single person is in Wenger's corner anymore, and certainly no one is going to put up with another "The boys have shown tremendeous spirit, and you can see that the quality is there, and they are learning and next season we will see the benefit of that and the team will be much stronger". It's a dangerous game to play, to keep building up the merits of the next season, because too long without success and the entire project will have failed, because the youngsters will want to leave.

Millions of fans around the world aren't paying hard-earned money to see a team be slowly educated, they are doing so to see a challenge take place. The education of youngsters is supposed to be something that's happening in the background. Maybe it's just the frustration of today, and maybe i'm ignoring the big picture, but Arsene has left himself with far too much to do, and unless there is serious rebuilding in the summer, a lot of people will have no faith at all come next season. All deficiences have been clearly exposed this season - the inexperience, the lack of goalscorers, and the lack of effective players - and Arsene Wenger, with his fondness for youngsters, perception that goalscorers aren't important, and penchant for buying technicians, dribblers and passers, is to blame for all of them.

But deep down I think we all still suspect, despite his best efforts to confuse us, that Arsene still knows. Make it happen next season Boss. Please.

Those of you who've watched Arsenal this season, will have known the eventual outcome within 15 minutes of the start of yesterday's game against West Ham. It was the same old story. Arsenal created a glut of chances and didn't score. You wondered whether West Ham would pinch one off a counter-attack, and sure enough on the stroke of half-time they did. And then Arsenal continued to create a glut of chances but to no avail. SAME. OLD. STORY. One-nil not to the Arsenal.

There was all the intricate passing, pretty football, and scintillating build-up play and movement that you'd expect of Arsene Wenger's sides, but nothing at the end of it. To take Arjun's “just can't score” metaphor a step farther, this Arsenal team have all the foreplay imaginable, but when it comes down to getting the job done, they just can't raise themselves to the task. There's far too much fannying around, and the look completely impotent without their big guns. Excuse me for that series of puntences please. I just couldn't help myself.

The point is that Arsenal can't really find a goal from anywhere at the moment with Robin Van Persie and Thierry Henry both out for the rest of the season. Judging by his overall lack of mobility and effectiveness, Julio Baptista has proved to be more of an “immovable object” than an “unstoppable force” - talk about the biggest let down of the season.

Emmanuel Adebayor, is always a threat, but is not prolific, and can't be expected to shoulder the goalscoring burden alone for long periods. He does so much, so well, but needs people around him to finish. Aliadiere? Well he's quick, slippery, works hard and holds up the ball well, but has all the threat and accuracy of a water pistol. And that's about it.

It was a 3^rd straight league defeat, and things are becoming pretty serious now. They are 5 points behind Liverpool, and 3 ahead of Bolton, and barely clinging onto that last Champions League spot with a game in hand. The problem is that there is absolutely nothing to look forward to in terms of personnel, because everyone who could be fit right now is fit, they're just not good enough to score goals, and ultimately that is the basis of football. Wenger might wax lyrical about how Cesc, Hleb, Rosicky, Denilson and Freddie pass and move and dribble, and how unlucky Arsenal are to not be winning, but he's not fooling anyone. It's the old cliché of “goals win games”, except by having a team devoid of finishers, he's in a way responsible for them being unlucky. Some solution will have to be found to solve this problem for the remaining league games, then come the summertime, it's time for some investment.

1997-1998 The Double - Premiership & FA Cup (beat Newcastle 2-0)
1998-1999 Lost the Premiership on the last day of the season, and threw away an FA Cup semi to Man United)
1999-2000 Uefa Cup final (lost on penalties after missing numerous chances)
2000-2001 FA Cup final (lost to Liverpool 2-1 after Michael Owen scored twice in the last 10 minutes)
2001-2002 The Double - Premiership & FA Cup (beat Chelsea 2-0)
2002-2003 FA Cup (beat Southampton 1-0)
2003-2004 The Unbeaten Season - Won the Premiership without losing a game
2004-2005 FA Cup (beat Manchester United on penalties)
2005-2006 Champions Leage final (lost to Barcelona 2-1 after they scored twice in the last 15 minutes)
2006-2007 Nothing (out of all cup competitions, and in 4th place in the league with 10 games remaining, 20 points off leaders Man United)

That is the story for Arsenal with 10 Premiership games left. It is the first time since Wenger's first full season that we've ended with nothing to play for, and things look quite dire. Yes, the team is young and full of promise, but if we win nothing, then the players will never reach the next level. 20 points off 1st place, and having lost in the Carling Cup final, and been knocked out of the FA Cup, Arsenal went into the second leg of their Champions League tie against PSV 1-0 down from the first. It was the biggest game of their season, and they needed a good win. But despite going ahead 1-0, the game ended 1-1, with PSV going through 2-1 on aggregate. Sad stuff.

Arsenal worked hard and got their goal without ever looking brilliant, but wasted many chances. PSV had nothing from open play, but late on, Hleb gave away a stupid foul, and you just knew that PSV were going to score from the free-kick... and they did. 1-1 on the night, Arsenal now needed 2 because of away goals, an unfit Henry had just come on for Baptista and gotten injured again, and it was all over.

With 10 games to go, Arsenal have nothing to play for except a Champions League spot. So how does Arsene Wenger motivate a bunch of experienced players who are used to challenging, and a group of exceptional, but unproven youngsters whose inexperience and self-doubt might make their season self-destruct? It's tricky, because for the first time in years, Wenger himself is under tremendous pressure, and everyone is doubting his abilities. Other managers have been having a go at him, the FA and referees don't exactly like him at the moment, and this is his 3rd consecutive year of not challenging seriously for the league.

Wenger has always been a more psychological/motivational manager than a tactical one, and he will need to gather all his resources together now. Not qualifying for the Champions League would be 100% distastrous, and could put the club in serious trouble for the future. Arsenal can still take 3rd place from Liverpool (that would at least represent "progress" over last year's 4th place finish), fainter still are hopes of catching Chelsea in second. Also, while the others are playing in the Champions League, Arsenal will have to buckle down and focus on trips to Villa and Everton and the like, and no one knows how the players will respond.

Maybe with the pressure off, they will excel, but maybe with so little to play for, they might find it impossible to motivate themselves, and maybe see a a finished outside of the top 4. Either way, Wenger has a lot to do, and he will no doubt remind the players and fans that they are unbeaten in the league since December, so things are not all bad. Right now the best possible solution is to get behind Wenger and the team and stop criticising or doubting the club, coach or players, because really, it's a very difficult period up ahead.

In addition to Gallas and Ljungberg, Robin Van Persie, Alexander Hleb, Julio Baptista and Johan Djourou have all joined the injury list.

It's a serious problem for the Arse, because Arsene Wenger didn't start off this season having the biggest squad anyways.

Van Persie is top scorer, Hleb has been one of the most influential and important players this season, Gallas is a top, top class defender and Freddie is the longest serving player at the club, and very, very experiened. Julio Baptista has been showing tremendous signs of improvement - 6 goals in 2 Carling Cup games, and a very economical and important performance in his cameo against Bolton on Sunday. Djourou is backup to Senderos, and has put in some great performances this season.

Jeremie Aliadiere and Emmanuel Eboue were injured last week, but are fit again.

Hopefully Johan and Julio will be back for Wednesday, because their quality will be required to hold strong at home against Tottenham. Arsenal have the away goals advantage, but conceding one now would cause some serious flutters for the youngsters, so let's hope they can take things a step further than last time and get to the final.

The injury crisis is something that's potentially serious. Last season it damaged the flow of the team completely, and although the continuous injury ravages of the last year at Highbury can't be compared to this current crisis, the worry is that it will undo all the good work that this team has been doing. The run of results and performances has been excellent stretching back to that defeat by Fulham. Apart from the 1-0 loss away to Sheffield, we have been undefeated in 14 games in all competitions. The run reads like this: Played 15, Won 9, Drawn 5, Lost 1

Some of those have been "strategic" draws in the Champions League or first-leg matches in the Carling Cup. In the league, it read lie this: Played 10, Won 7, Drawn 2, Lost 1

The team is definitely on the up, but the injuries are seriously in danger of blunting this. Hleb is out for a whole month, and Van Persie is probably going to be out for close to 3 months. Big trouble. Gallas is yet to reappear. The only consolation is that Freddie will probably be back quite soon, but his form has been poor this year. I'd still pick him ahead of Theo Walcott who still lacks a lot of experience and probably is more useful as a sub coming on against tiring teams.

Anyways, i've forgotten what the basic point of this piece was. Yes, OK... Arsenal have lots of injuries. That's right.

So many injuries, that the majestically miserly Arsene Wenger has actually said he is considering buying someone before the transfer window closes, and he even went so far as to be self-analtyical and critical and say that he might go for a "panic buy"... a term he's often used loathfully in the past in refence to the cavalry of players coming in and out of England when the transfer window is about to close and people have run out of ideas.

Anyhow... let's see what happens. Hopefully Julio Baptista is declared fit, because he is getting better and better, and could have a real impact in the end to the season.

Once again the Arsenal youngsters showed their mettle, this time against a high-flying Man United team. The league leaders left their first encounter at Ashburton Grove empty handed, and it really was a super game. Various accounts have been given of the match, including a ridiculous match report in the Independent by Sam Wallace which is disgustingly biased and if you hadn't watch the game would give you the impression that Arsenal kicked and poisoned their way to a completely undeserved victory with a bunch of thugs, hooligans and charlatans, and Manchester United were a noble glorious force, cheated at the death, who basically deserved to have won 7-0 and didn't only through some self-induced philanthropic desire to throw the game away to that bunch in an attempt to spice up the title race. Nigel Spackman said post-match that it was a game that Manchester United had dominated from start to finish and that they were very unlucky to have lost. Steve McMahon rightly called him on his absurd views afterwards by saying that he didn't know what game Spackman watched, but it certainly hadn't been this one.

As Kurt Vonnegut would say... Listen:

The story was this - a confident, good United team started brightly, at a high tempo, and tried to dominate. In the first half, they did, and they had a lot of posession against a young, nervy Arsenal who tried to stick to their game but were being pegged back under a constant barrage of pressure. Jens Lehmann had saves to make, and he did (Wallace has erroneously reported that Rooney hit the bar when Lehmann in fact had saved; perhaps he too, like Spackman, was watching a different game). United had several chances right before half-time, but were unable to capitalise, and Arsenal came into the game in the second half. They largely tried to play their way, but mixed it up a bit. They started to show what they were capable of, dealt with United and started to impose themselves. And then on a counter-attack, United created their only real chance of the half and Rooney scored from it. It was a great run off-the-ball from Evra, a good cross and an excellent diving header from Rooney to score. In the media, fingers were being pointed - Fabregas didn't pick up Evra's run, Clichy had Rooney unmarked behind him, Toure got a touch on the cross as it went by but couldn't cut it out. But finger-pointing doesn't help, and we didn't dwell on it - these things happen in football, especially on counter-attacks... if you have players charging back the length of the field all at different speeds, and the ball is in behind you, it's difficult. Crucially, I think Gilberto was missed. As Arsene says, "he smells danger", and usually picks up the supporting and overlapping runs that fullbacks or midfielders make against us. 0-1 to the Mancs.

But again, no matter. The boys regrouped, and went for it. The second half was all Arsenal possession, all Arsenal dominance, and even if it was not effective at times, the direction of the game was changed. Man United played their part as well, after going a goal up, they sat back a little deeper (wary perhaps of Henry's pace), and Senderos and Cesc's probing long passes to Adebayor were starting to push them deeper and deeper. Then the subs came on. Van Persie in attack on for the innefectual Hleb, and Baptista more latterly for Flamini, to offer some more of a goal threat and experience. And Monsieur Wenger... take a bow, because the subs worked a treat.

With 6 minutes left, Cesc and Rosicky fought doggedly for the ball. Scholes and Evra were on the ground after having put in tackles, and 3 or 4 times the ball changed hands, but our two little dynamos never gave up. Never. Finally Cesc came away with the ball, and released Rosicky down the right flank. He crossed to the near post, Henry tried a cheeky backheeled-instep Kanu-versus-Boro flick type thing that didn't come off at all, but Robin Van Persie came screaming in at the far post to lunge and bang in an equaliser into the roof of the net off that precious left foot of his. He wanted it, and he got it. He covered loads of ground, and showed great hunger and anticipation to take the chance, and of course exceptional technqiue to direct the ball high and past Van Der Sar. 1-1.

With the pressure of defeat, and their unbeaten home record off, the team regrouped and went back for more. Then in the 3rd minute of stoppage time, Eboue played a terrific one-two with Rosicky, ghosted in behind the player at left-back (Heinze had come on to supplement Evra who moved upfield, and maybe they got confused), and he delivered a pacy, accurate cross into the box. Henry was lurking behind Vidic, and he jumped perfectly to thump a bullet header past Van der Saar. Magnificient stuff, and typical of Henry this season. He had faffed around the entire game, wasted a much easier headed chance from a great ball by Adebayor, and done not very much apart from having a penalty decision go against him (probably wrongly), and squabbled with Gary Neville the entire game. But cometh the hour, cometh the man. 2-1; game over.

Baptista has not been mentioned much, but he did well when he came on. Was positionally good, and supported the team well in defence and in attack. We all expect him to be scoring goals, but it's easy to forget that he started off as a defensive midfielder, and that he understands the position. Cesc, who was majestic all game really hung around the final third towards the end of the game, and Baptista helped him to do that. Everyone was good; Clichy was superb apart from their goal, Eboue was minimally dramatic, made some good tackles, had Ronaldo in his pocket and crossed for the winner. Senderos was decent, and although had donkey moments (including falling backwards while trying a simple pass to Toure), he was always alert to danger. Rosicky was wasteful and although involved, was ineffective for most of the game, but played a crucial part in both goals. Flamini worked hard as he always does. Hleb tried but failed on the day, and was probably the second worst player on the field after Henry, but Henry scored and he didn't, and that's the way it goes. Adebayor was probably man of the match, full of running excellent control and technique, and he always managed to hold up the ball and lay it off neatly. He created good chances for Henry and Cesc, and although he didn't really have a shot to speak of, he gave them massive trouble. Van Persie as I said earlier produced an excellent finish, but fractured his foot (metatarsal #5!) in doing so and that's a big worry now.

So Arsenal win 2-1 deservedly, and things become a wee bit more interesting. It's unfortunate that sections of the media have had a field day somehow managing to slam Arsenal for coming back and winning the game. In Paris, 10 men Arsenal had lots of possession and more shots, but lost. The media however had no hesitation in proclaiming Barca as worthy winners. I bet if Man United had been the ones to win that way, they would have been applauded for their "British spirit" and "never say die attitutude" and all that malarky. F*ck off.

Spackman and Wallace, you pair of twats, here are the stats (yes, yes it rhymes):

	Arsenal	Mancs
Shots (On Target)	19(11)	10(6)
Fouls	13	11
Corners	8	6
Offsides	1	2
Possession	53%	47%
Yellow Cards	1	3
Saves	4	7

Images shamelessly ripped off from the Beeb.

Let me start off by saying that I will massively miss Lauren, and that he is still the best right-back at the club. Or was. Eboue might be electric and exciting going forward, but he is too busy being an actress and believing in his own hype to focus on defensive improvement. Hoyte is ok, but it will take something special for him to be a worthy first-choice right-back. Sorry for all the hyphens. In any case, Lauren is a legend, maybe not in the legendary sense (?), but the fact that he was the toughest mo-fo on the team, he was unbelievably consistent, quick, strong, skillful and versatile. His first season at the club was in his natural position of central/defensive midfield - he scored goals, passed well, and did a good job. But his second season, the beginning of his career at right-back, also coincided with Arsenal's first leage title in 4 years, the double of 2001/2002. From then on he made the position his own and was the best right-back in the Premiership for several years. A boxer in his spare time, Lauren was the kind of player you loved having in your team - opposition players absolutely shat themselves when he stared them down, and every once in a while you knew he was just going to flatten an attacker (only ever getting a yellow card of course). From 2000-2005, there were large patches of inconsistency in the team every now and then, but it was always Lauren who would stand out for his calm and accurate passing, good link up play, and dogged defending. I think i've used up every stereotype in the book here. Anyhow, after almost 7 years at the club after arriving from Mallorca, Lauren leaves with 2 Premiership titles, 3 FA Cups, 227 appearances and 9 goals. He will never be forgotten, and especially so because he was one of the invincibles. Laureano Bisan-Etame Mayer... we salute you. I'm glad he was able to part with the club on such amicable terms (although i'm sure we will dread facing him when we play Pompey). To read a bit more about Lauren and his interesting history, click here.

And now to the main event. Arsenal vs Manchester United, on Sunday, at Highmirates Stadium. Sad to say, the emergence of Chelsea has somewhat taken a bit of the heat off this rivalry, but this will no doubt be a classic encounter. Both teams are playing excellent football, Chelsea are lost in between them and in their own politics, and funnily enough with Ferguson top, and Wenger as underdog, things are back to the way they were during those years of Arsenal and United dominance. United need the victory to keep up their title challenge and to avenge their home defeat to the Arsenal earlier this season, and we want the victory to keep up our faint title hopes. Van Persie is a doubt, Gilberto is injured (if this has a highly negative effects, someone needs to go give Robbie Savage a black eye), and Eboue or Hoyte will be an interesting question.

As for United... well it's quite amazing - they come into this game without a single injury or suspension. That's not to say that we are in bad shape, but Gilberto and Gallas, and potentially Van Persie and Eboue missing will take it's toll. It's going to be a lot of pressure on young Cesc Fabregas, and one wonders who will deputise for Gilberto alongside him. It will probably be Flamini, but the Flamster for all his effort is not really the same kind of player. Still, 4-5-1 might be an option, with Adebayor up front and Henry playing the withdrawn role that he assumed when Gilberto was sent off, or Henry might be stuck up front with Baptista or Diaby affording both more protection and more energy in midfield.

And i'll leave you with some Lauren goodness. There was another great clip where he really gives Mido a tough time, but I couldnt find it. So. Anyways: