So more points dropped when we couldn't afford to, and we may not just be out of the race yet though. Overall I have to say I'm confused. The game just had far too many emotions to describe it in one way. I was extremely happy with our goal for instance, Nasri's pinpoint ball to find van Persie amongst three Liverpool players was absolutely sublime. And Robin's skill to chest the ball and finish with his weaker foot was a joy to behold. From there I thought we would be able to go on and win it. We were playing positive, attacking football, and looking for a second goal. Then came the anger and disappointment and sadness. Alonso smashed the ball upfield, with no particular premeditation as to its course, and Keane managed to muscle through and score. It was disheartening to see us concede such a weak goal, especially considering how much dominance we had. If we hadn't conceded that, I honestly believe we would have won this game by 2 or maybe even three goals. Nethertheless we went into half-time with the scores tied, and came out minus a captain. This was very worrying, at this stage I have to say I was hoping for a draw considering the lack of flair we had on the pitch now, but we soon got our act together and found our attacking football. The score was to remain that way for the rest of the match and this is where the confusion comes in. 

I really have no idea whether I am happy or sad or content with the result. Of course we needed the win, but considering the circumstances, a draw is still a good result. Regardless of this though, it must be mentioned that after the match I was angry at only one person: Howard Webb. How on earth this fuckhead is still a top-flight referee is puzzling to say the least. He gave a yellow to Ade for a challenge that hardly deserved a free-kick, much less a booking. And then in the second half gave him another yellow. The reason is not entirely certain, but I think it may have been for the supposed slap that Ade gave Carragher. There was in fact minimal contact and certainly no malice whatsoever. So I thought then that maybe it was because Ade played on after the whistle, but that would be an extremely weak second yellow card to give. Whatever the reason, it still stands that Howard Webb has, and always will be, extremely biased against us. We saw it in the Man Utd. game and we saw it again against Liverpool just then. He is a disgrace to the game and deserves to be sent to referee in an obscure and unimportant match, like the A-League here for example.

Anyway, the shockingly one-sided refereeing from Mr. Webb left us with 10 men, and we were also without a captain at this time. By now I was just praying for the full-time whistle, expecting an absolute slaughtering from the men in grey. But it just never came, in fact, we came out full of steam and looked the more positive of the sides. And this was absolutely heart-warming. 10 men, without their captain, and having just had a team-mate unfairly banished, were playing with the kind of spirit and determination that has been lacking so often this season. But it wasn't just the team I was impressed with, the fans at the match must also be commended for their extraordinary part in the game. No matter what was happening on the pitch, the chant of "Arsenal, Arsenal", was everpresent, and I believe that it was kept us in the game. The fans were also very good at the end, when Eboue was brought on. He received not only a round of applause but a brilliant roar that must have done wonders for his confidence. 

Despite all this however, we still managed only 1-1. And I have to say I am also extremely pleased with the way Wenger handled the situation. We didn't get any of this fancy-pancy rhetoric about how refs are just doing their job and that we were to blame. Wenger came out with a blatant blow against Howard Webb, and full credit to him for doing so. In my opinion he was absolutely right to do that, and I don't think any gooner will be angry with him if he gets a touchline ban. Wenger said after the game:

“It was very soft. Today was Be A Gooner, Be A Giver, but you cannot say the referee was a Gooner, he was a giver, giving yellow cards that we didn’t deserve. Every week when we play away from home, we are told people get in our faces and we cant cope. I should show you our players after some games we play away from home; it is a joke. Neither of the bookings were justified. It is just an unbelievable decision; if Adebayor goes off, then [Robbie] Keane has to go off in the first minute. It seems we have different rules. The decision cost us two-points today, and I do not agree with it all.”

And he is absolutely right, we were dominating and we would have won had Howard Webb not been so unbelievably stupid. The next time that man makes his way into the Emirates stadium again I expect an egging, or booing at least. 

Anyway, we will now have to face Villa, who are now 3 points ahead of us, without Ade and Fabregas. Just a trifle troubling. But I think if the team can show the commitment and enthusiasm and willingness to play football, then we should have no trouble at all. 

So we are now still 8 points off the top and at risk of that increasing to nine, and I am happy with the team, happy with the fans, happy with the manager, and absolutely fucking distraught with anger over Howard Webb.  

Have an eggy day and keep the faith,

Asian Arsenal. 

Hello all,

A quick update for you on the Champions League. The draw has been done and we are to face Roma in the next round. This is probably better than Barca or Bayern but not easy by any means. Do not forget Roma beat Chelsea 3-1 in Rome, so we must be wary of their challenge. That said I am still glad that we drew them as the only other easier team would have been Panathinaikos. Things have gone well for us concerning the draw of the other teams as well. Utd have been drawn against Inter, so hopefully they will continue the 6-year tradition of the reigning champions being knocked out in the round of 16. Chelsea have been drawn against Juventus, a very strong team at the moment who will hopefully cause problems for them. Liverpool have Real Madrid, which really is brilliant, hopefully all three of the other english teams will be knocked out and we'll be the only team remaining. In other draws, Barca have got Lyon. I support Lyon as well and really would like to see them win, not only because they'd be through to the next round, but it would also eliminate a big threat to Arsenal's chances. Porto have Athletico Madrid, and I have to say I wish we'd finished first now. Also Bayern have drawn Sporting CP so a fairly easy match for the Germans. And finally Villareal takes on Panathinaikos. So it's a pretty good draw especially for the other english clubs. It means some european "heavyweights" have to be knocked out at this stage, so things are looking up for us if we can make it past the round of 16. 

That's all for now, enjoy the troubles of the other English teams and keep the faith,

Asian Arsenal. 

Hello all,

Some important news for this blog. I am currently set to move houses tomorrow, and the place I'm moving to has a string of electrical problems so a daily post may not be possible. So be prepared for infrequent blog posts from tomorrow to the 5th of January. I will try to update it every day but it depends on how possible that is. Thus I have decided to preview the Liverpool game today in the event that I am unable to tomorrow. 

So after 9 wins, 4 draws and 5 losses already this season, we find ourselves with a make of break game. I know we have said this before but today counts for everything. A win will find us a mere 5 points behind Liverpool, and as we found out horribly last year, 5 points is nothing. A loss however, and we put ourselves 11 points off the pace with half the season gone, and that quite frankly would mean that we would be out of the race altogether. 

So a game of colossal consequences then. And first the news from the Emirates. Possiubly the best pre-match news is that Nasri is 95% likely to return. This really was off unparalled importance. Without him and we would have had no wide players at all. And we have suffered dearly from playing 4 central midfielders. Nasri should bring that element back to our game that has been missing, I believe it's called width. In less brilliant news, Kolo Toure has been given only 5% of a chance to return which means we will likely see Gallas paired with Djourou in the centre of defense. Bendtner is also a slight doubt after a training mishap, but that shouldn't affect us too much considering both Ade and RvP are fit. In more promising news but perhaps not for this game, Wenger says that Wilshere can be as good as Bergkamp, so there is a slight chance that he will choose to play Wilshere on the right flank today which would be absolutely brilliant. van Persie is also doing his part to get the team motivated by talking revenge for last season's Champions' League exit. I think all the players know just how big this game is and I expect they will all be motivated and enthusiastic to go. Which should go very well I think. If this team is motivated and we have a proper wide player I think we have what it takes to win this match. And win it we must, because I don't fancy another trophyless season thankyou very much anyway. In other slightly unrelated news, Wenger is talking about transfers and this time there is a little bit more than the usual rhetoric about youth. He says he will be looking for "something special" to add to the squad. Signing, let's hope so. Now onto the line-up, here is what I wish we would play and I think it would work well:

                                          Almunia

     Sagna                   Toure(if fit)   Djourou                    Clichy

    Wilshere                Ramsey           Cesc                      Nasri

                                  RvP                 Ade

There is but one slight problem with this, well two, Wenger will never play it, and in a big game like this Wilshere  and Ramsey may be a little out of their depth. However I would far rather that we play them than Denilson, Song or Diaby. Three utterly rubbish players, Diaby may work in a 4-5-1 but otherwise he's useless. Song and Denilson are not Arsenal-grade players and do not deserve a first-team place. However, Wenger is unfortunately fond of them and so I think the team will look like this:

                                          Almunia

     Sagna                   Toure(if fit)   Djourou                    Clichy

     Diaby                    Denilson           Cesc                      Nasri

                                  RvP                 Ade

That is useless. I'm sorry but Diaby is not a wide player and never will be. The only saving grace will be that Nasri is back so we won't have 4 central midfielders. 

News from Liverpool now and Reina is talking about how they can beat us despite not having won since 2000. Mascherano is being somewhat more conservative and talking about how they will need to be at their best to beat us, and the danger of Cesc. Liverpool star striker Fernando Torres is unlikely to make a return this weekend which should bode well for us, He's lethal up front and any break we can get I'll take. Liverpool like to play the "score 1 and defend well" sort of game, so it's very important that we get the opening goal. It's also equally important we don't give away free-kicks considering Gerrard's ability. 

Overall this should be a winnable game if the lads are up for it and i expect a very confident performance to put us right back into the title race. Liverpool I still believe are weaker than Chelski and the Mancs so I predict a scoreline of Arsenal 2 - Liverpool 0. Without Torres I just can't see them grabbing a goal and we should win this one to complete our big-four hat-trick. 

Well, this is it then, have an unbelievable game, and keep the faith,

Asian Arsenal.

Hello all,

So the big news today is that the Arsenal Board is being re-shuffled with people in and out. First, Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith has resigned for anonymous reasons meaning she is now free to sell her shares in Arsenal. However, she is apparently a strong fan of the current way the club is running as well as a huge fan of Arsenal itself, so we shouldn't see a sale there to anyone other than the existing board members. Richard Carr has resigned from the Holding Company Board but will still be on the Football Board. It's all very confusing I know, I gather that the Holding Company is the business side of the club and the Football board is the football side of the club obviously. And finally Ivan Gazidis will start work on the 1st of January as we already knew. But the big question is, how does it affect the team? Well, realistically it shouldn't make too much difference really, the club will keep the same traditions and values as it always has. The bonus of Gazidis being here is that he takes over some the roles Wenger had been doing on a fill-in sort of role. Which means that Wenger will now have more time to focus on the football side of things. Also, with the experience of Gazidis, we may well see a greater profit and thus more spending money available for Wenger, and as I'm sure you've all heard from the emergency board meeting, Wenger is being "urged", in a sense, to spend money on transfers. So hopefully we'll see some new faces around the Arsenal camp in the coming month. 

In other more football-related news, Wenger says that Eduardo must be able to cope with the mental side of his game to return to his best. And he must really, it's no use having him physically fit if he isn't prepared to go into the contact side of the game.  Also, Fabregas has been nominated for the player of the month award. This is brilliant news, it means that Fabregas is maybe getting back to his good form of last year, and with an in-form Fabregas we can do almost anything, sort of. In another piece of optimistic news, The Times says that Gallas wants to leave us. And wouldn't it be great if for once the times actually got something right. Unfortunately I'm not too certain of that happening this time as the same article also suggests that Rosicky will retun in early January. So probably not too much luck there. 

That's it for now, have a brilliant day and keep that faith,

Asian Arsenal.

Hello all,

I have discovered, as I'm sure many others have, the solution to our problems on the flanks. He's called Darijio Srna, and I must be honest that I did find out about him through Football Manager 2009. But nonetheless he is a magnificent player. He's pacey, good at set plays and can cross, and he wants to leave his current club in the Ukrain. And for those of you who bought him in FM09, you'll know he is an unbelievable talent. Unfortunately that doesn't guarantee quality on the pitch, and I must say it is ridiculously hard to find any footage of him in action, but here is a clip of him scoring two goals, neither particularly spectacular but at least he scores, another one of him and Kranjcar here and a nice strike here. I do apologise for the complete lack of substance in terms of videos, but there really is very little on him. Another great thing about this guy is that, here at least, noone has ever heard of him, so Wenger could make a brilliant signing discreetly. Although that could just be down to the fact that Australia is sort of disconnected with the "real" world so he may well be very famous over there. I have no idea how much he is valued at but I would say he will cost us in the region of about 10-15 million pounds.So there you are, Football Manager saves the day. 

Anyway, away with such wishful thinking and last night Eduardo made a confident return to football. He almost got on the score sheet with a brilliant curling shot and looks to be up for it on the physical side of his game. He had no hesitation getting stuck into players and even made a sliding tackle in a striking position. He was substituted off at half-time due to a slight concern about his hamstring, however it was just us being extremely cautionary. The reserves went on to win the match 2-0 and Gibbs scored an absolute screamer in stoppage time. He looks like a very promising player and hopefully we'll see more of him as the season goes on. In other news Wenger has made me worried by talking once again about not spending too much. Also, van Persie talks about how we'll need Eduardo if we''re to have any hope of clinching the title this season.

That's it for today, more football-manager-inspired transfer speculation tomorrow I'm sure, have a good day and keep the faith, 

Asian Arsenal. 

Hello all,

So tonight is the big one of the season, Eduardo is making his full return to football tonight against Portsmouth in the Arsenal reserves. It should be very exciting to see him return and see much he has recovered, I'm sure he is physically fit, but the mental side of his game will need some work. Will he be mentally fit enough to face a tackle? I hope so, and we will find out soon. I understand that a lot of you over in England are going to this game, and that's extremely good, I encourage anyone who can to make their way to this game, and support Eduardo in his return. Unfortunately this game is impossible to find screening here, so hopefully I'll be able to find some highlights somewhere. It's very exciting for the rest of the season for Arsenal as well, because it means Eduardo will now be able to play first team football, and with the sketchy form of Ade and van Persie, we could really use him back in the side. Wenger has said it will probably take him six weeks to be back to his best, and after such a horrific injury that seems like quite a short time. So, best of luck to the lad in his comeback and let's hope he'll be playing first-team in time to save our title hopes.

In other slightly more depressing news, Walcott has now been set a return date of mid-february. This just makes it even more imperative that we sign a winger in the January window, because we cannot be playing a midfield of Denilson, Song, Cesc and Diaby. Let's face it, Cesc is the only one of those who is Arsenal standard, Diaby maybe with a bit of time. But quite frankly, Song and Denilson are just crap, and definitely not wingers. Every single time these players get on the ball, I feel a pain of dread surge through my body as I think "Oh fuck, he's got it again, let's hope he doesn't screw things up this time". It really is worrying and Wenger HAS TO BUY in the January window. We are in desperate need of three things for the moment, a defensive midfielder, a winger and a central defender. Come the winter (summer) transfer window, we should probably also look at getting a new keeper and maybe strengthening our midfield further, but for now Wenger must buy a minimum of three players to fill in those areas where we have been left wanting so far this season. However things like this, do not make me happy. Wenger has got to face facts, and facts are that we NEED signings, or our chances of any silverware are gone for another season. Although to keep those we really do need to win until our new signings are here, but more on that later. 

Anyway, have an excellent time at the match, and keep the faith,

Asian Arsenal.   

Hello all,

I have after many seconds of ponderment and thought, come to the conclusion that we cannot possibly gain any ground on our premier league rivals. The main reason for this is simple, every time they drop points so do we, and every time we win, so do they. Just take a look at these match rounds if you need further proof: 

Round 11.  Liverpool lose to Spurs       Arsenal lose to Stoke

Round 14.  Liverpool draw with Fulham, Chelsea draw with Newcastle, Utd draw with Villa
                                                             Arsenal lose to Man City

Round 17.  Liverpool draw with Hull, Chelsea draw with West Ham, Utd draw with Spurs
                                                             Arsenal draw with Boro

And is that's not convincing enough, then of the nine times we have won this season, we have gained ground on only three of those occasions. Simply not enough. So it's official then, Arsenal can not win the League. 

So it would appear that we have to get 18 points out of 18 against our main rivals, to have any hope at all. So far we're on track, signs of things to come maybe?

This is of course just a random collection of facts, but it is interesting to see the "curse" of the big four, on two occasions already, all four teams have dropped points in the same round. This probably doesn't mean anything, but it does look a little bleak for us so far.

Anyway, back to the real world, and Adebayor is being an optimist, and has decided that we're going to win the Liverpool game and it won't be like the Manchester game. So good for him, it seems some of that Wenger magic has rubbed off on him. And this is what we need right now, confidence, and motivation of course, so hopefully the two come paired. In other news, Wenger has been named top French Coach of the year despite our shaky season so far, and congratulations to him, I think it still is a deserved reward and maybe it will buoy him onto greater things this season. If that makes any sense at all. And finally, Redknapp needs to learn how to keep his mouth shut before his team gets relegated. Also, quite amazingly, I have found a sensible manager in the premier league, Martin O'Neill has said that Villa aren't yet ready to challenge Arsenal. I like O'Neill, he's sensible, down to earth and realistic, and his club isn't a disgrace to the game which is more than can be said of Redknapp. I have to say, if we do fall out of the top 4 this season, I would be at least a little consoled that it was to a respectable club if Villa were to do it. And also a bit of transfer news for you, Kranjcar has come out and denied any link with us. To be honest I'm not particularly depressed about this one, he would have been a good signing but we need to focus a bit more on defense I feel. 

That's all for now, have a superstituous day and keep the faith, 

Asian Arsenal.  

Hello all,

UPDATE: Chelsea drew 1-1 with West Ham, we are now no further behind in the race than before, however we are 5th, End of UPDATE

Another 2 points dropped in the league and the title is looking further and further away. By some extraordinary stroke of luck, Liverpool and Manchester United both drew their games, so we will be only a further point behind in the league assuming Chelsea win. Realistically we will have to beat Liverpool next week to have any chance, and probably then win at least 4 or 5 games consecutively. And even then we may not be any closer. So whilst the title is still a possibility, its a remote one. 

Overall the game against Boro was pretty crap. There was an abundance of lethargy and contentness to defend. Aside from Clichy, there really was absolutely no motivation in the side, whatsoever. This game was unfortunately reminiscent of our other bad results this season, players turning up and just expecting the 3 points to be in the bag. Complaceny has got to be one of the biggest contributing factors to our shocker of a season thus far. From this complaceny stemmed our next problem, a complete lack of effort. We contstanlt gave away the ball in easy areas and had the majority of our passes intercepted. Diaby in particular was guilty of feeding the opposition with a host of chances for the counter-attack as he threw away possesion in the final third. With the combination of this lack of precision and the feeling that we would win this one easily, it was not hard for us to draw. Both the goals scored were extremely weak, in an extremely uneventful match. Ours came from some shocking defending from Boro, as Fabregas whipped a corner in, Adebayor didn't have to move, let alone jump to head the ball down and into the back of the net. And from here it looked like we might just go on and score another, but we failed to capitalise on some chances and Boro got an easy goal of their own. Once again it was down to some bad defending. However not on  the part of Clichy, who was cornered and tried to clear the ball, but the Boro player got a blockand was able to cross.The commentators were blaming itall on Clichy, which I thought was a little harsh considering the small chance of a player getting a block on the clearance. Where the bad defending came in was as the cross flew in, none of our players in the box made any effort to try and get to the ball first and Aliadiere was able to head it past Almunia. After this goal there wasn't much of any note in the remainder of the half, and the second half was much the same until about the last 15 minutes when our players finally realised they may not win this one. However, under constant pressure Boro defended well and came away with the draw. And this really is our problem of the entire season, why on earth does it take us so long to finally mount some pressure. Against Villa, we waited until we were a goal down to pile on the pressure, against Boro, we waited until the last 15 minutes. Honestly, if we could just be rearing to go right from the off, we would have no trouble winning games. It's ridiculous, every game is the same, for the first ten or fifteen minutes, our players camp in our own half and allow the other team to jsut attack at will. We MUST be ready to play immediately. And unless we get this problem sorted we are going to struggle winning anything this season. So we're not out of things yet, but we may as well be if we continue to play as appallingly as that.

Have a  good day and keep the faith,

Asian Arsenal.

Hello all,

So tomorrow we head off to the Midlands for yet another must-win game. And I think that is how we have to take this season really if we want to have any chance of winning. Just take it one game at a time, one win after the other hopefully. But this game is definitely one that we have to win. We have dropped far too many points against weaker clubs this season and that has to stop. Going by form, this shouldn't be a diufficult match, Boro have picked up just 1 point in their last two games, and we have gathered all 6. Hopefully tomorrow's performance will be slightly more inspired than the one against Wigan, however, in our current position, a win will suffice.

After the loss to Porto in midweek, we should be getting 4 or 5 players back. Hopefully all of them are fit to play because we will still need to play well, even if Boro are just 5 points from relegation. That is the one thing that we must not remind ourselves of. We CANNOT allow ourselves to play complacent football just because we're playing against a weaker team. It must be 100% from the off, and hopefully this is what we'll get. As long as we play motivated, enthusiastic football, we will win, comfortably. So hopefully Fabregas will be fit so he can extend his undefeated run as captain. I expect/hope Wenger will opt for a 4-4-2 formation, it really is our strongest although it is a little risky in an away game. But as I said we have to be focussed and attack-minded, so a 4-4-2 is necessary. So on that, I think the team will look like this: 

                                                      Almunia

          Sagna(if fit)               Silvestre                Djourou                 Clichy

          Ramsey                     Denilson                Cesc                Diaby/Vela

                                           van Persie             Adebayor

I really have no idea what Wenger will do for the wings, because, quite franky, we're fucked in those areas. It looks like we may be lining up 4 central midfielders across the middle of the pitch. Still no news as far as I'm aware on Gallas, so hopefully we Djourou will come in to central defence. Toure is out again unfortunately with his calf. Samir Nasri is also due back in two weeks apparently, so this means we will effectively we without any wingers whatsoever for the Liverpool game. But me may well have Eduardo back for that game after his warm-up with the reserves on the 16th of December. I think though, even with the lack of power on the flanks, we should have too much for Boro and should be looking at a 3rd straight win, something we've been without for a while. I think probably Boro 1 - Arsenal 3.

News from the other camp then, and it looks like they will probably try and push Aliadiere up on the flanks as he is their key player. They are fortunately without both their usual full-backs, which should give our make-shift flanks some chance. Afonso Alves and Stewart Downing are probably the other players to look out for, but I can't really see them posing too much of a threat. While this should be an easily winnable game, both Boro and us have had thorough incosistency in our seasons so there is the chance that this could go either way, and for Arsenal to prove they really have turned the corner, I think we need 6 points out of 6 for the next two games. So hopefully the run of form for both clubs continues and we can look ahead to the game against Liverpool with a 4th straight win in our sights.  

Oh and one last thing. The champions league draw for the next round will be held on December 19, and I am actually happy now that we finished 2nd. We can be drawn against Roma, Panathinaikos, Barcelona, Bayern or Juventus. And if we had finished first we could be facing Inter, Sporting Lisbon, Athletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Villareal or Lyon. So as long as don't draw Barca we should be fine.

Enjoy the game and keep the faith, 

Asian Arsenal. 

Hello all,

So a 2-0 loss at Porto and we finish 2nd in the group. As previously mentioned it makes little difference to the difficulty of the next round, and is probably not that unexpected considering the uncanny resemblance of the side to those of the Carling Cup matches. So a loss, and for once i was alright with it. What I was not alright with was this. Now I know the newspapers are always ignorant, exagerate facts, and often make up complete and utter bollocks just for a headline. But I mean this: 

Arsenal’s inability to raise their game in matches they are expected to win manifested itself in Portugal last night. And the defeat means that Arsenal, previously unbeaten in Europe and having beaten Porto 4-0 in North London, finished as runners-up to the Portuguese.

That is just a fucking insult to our intelligence. I mean come on! Anyone who looked at the line-up could not possibly have seen this game as an easy victory. And the way they make it seem as though this loss has dealt another blow to our already shaky season is annoying as well. Overall the game was merely a formality considering where the other teams all finished, and they make it out to appear that we're struggling. 

Anyway, enough about the annoying newspapers. I will try in future to keep them out of this, but I couldn't let this one slip past. We must now hope that we draw one of the surprise group-toppers in the round of 16, but the chances are that we'll get one of the other English clubs or Barcelona. But for now we have to concentrate on the game against Boro. Realistically for us to have any chance at the title every game is a must-win game, especially one like this one, since it's against one of the weaker clubs. More on that game later in the week, for now amuse yourself with this. There is nothing funnier than communistic accusations in the civilised world. 

Have a brilliant day and keep the faith,

Asian Arsenal.