Hello all,

Well another competition over for the season then. The young lads were taught a lesson about profligacy today by Burnley who now progress to the semis. I suppose that is what is good about this competition. It is a learning experience and, while I would have liked to see our boys go and win this cup, no-one cares too much one way or the other on the outcome.

So a lesson learnt then, hopefully. Down to mainly the unbelieve heroics from the opposite goalkeeper, Jensen I believe. Vela, Bendtner, Ramsey and I think Randall, all had clear goal-scoring oppurtunities destroyed by Jensen. Realistically, had there been any other keeper in that net, Arsenal would have been 1-3 up at half-time. But they weren't and so came out surging in the second half looking for that equaliser. Randall had an unbelievable run through the defense, dancing past them as if they were not even there, and then played the ball just past the far post for the finish. Arsenal now had a sense of urgency about them; pushing forward and holding a vast amount of possession. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Just as it looked like we might get something from this game, up pops Burnley and makes it 2-0. It wasn't a complete knockout blow for the Arsenal side, however as much as we huffed and puffed we couldn't  force a goal and were left to rue missed chances. 

So then, the fun and excitement of the Carling Cup is over for another season, let's hope Mancs and Spurs both lose their ties, and leave the cup for the championship sides. This loss may not be so bad for the league however. As many have noticed, a brilliant win for the Cup boys, has always resulted in a horrific result for the usual team in the League. So maybe this time, as the lads head back out against Wigan, we will win, and continue to win, because now there can no longer be any great Carling Cup wins. A bit of stretch maybe,  but possible.

Anyway, in completely unrelated news, on Robin van Persie's controversial goal, I was watching a replay of the match and the commentators were saying that play went on because the referee said the ball hit a Chelski player on the way through. Whether this makes it any more legal i have no idea. I have always been quite unsure of this part of the off-side rule, as I've seen many a time, players called off-side and on-side after the ball has deflected off another play from the other team. So perhaps a bit of clarification on the actual rule would be good FIFA.

Well that's it for now, have a good day and keep the faith,

Asian Arsenal.  

Hello all,

And yes it's that time of the season again. Following the extroadinary success and relative disgrace of the Carling Cup and Premier League respectively, The Carling Cup has become my favourite competition. This time our young lads are in action against Burnley. The brilliant thing about this competition is that, because of its infrequency in terms of matches, the players are always rearing to go and usually put in an unbelievable performance.

So Burnley. Whilst they are a championship side, and we have just displaced Wigan (who are although at some times also a championship side), let us not forget that they did just beat Chelsea. And yes you remember correctly, the Chelsea who say we are "ruining the competition" by playing a young side, and pledged to play a full-strength line-up in the Carling Cup. So it was burnley who beat a full-strength Chelsea team. The victory came after penalties following a 0-0 scoreline. But perhaps this should scare us. As many blogs have mentioned, teams that want to play football against us will always lose. Now 0-0 onto penalties is hardly football when your playing against one of the top teams in England *cough*. So it would seem they are capable then of playing proper, good-old-fashioned, Championship football, wherein the weaker team just sits back with 11 men behind the ball fashioning a wall of sorts. Very hard to score with, but very hard to score against as well. And seeing as how they're facing us this time, I think they may just decide to play the same game. Try and hold out for penalties.

However, let's not forget the power of this young team, that annihilated Sheffield and then destroyed Wigan. So expect another emphatic scoreline I think. As usual in this competition, we will probably play the 4-4-2, I believe with Vela and Bendtner up front. They usually provide the spark for each other, and I would not be surprised if we scored more than 3 goals tomorrow. Fabianski has also been a mixture of unbelievable and fucking disgraceful in the past games, so we'll have to see how their side of the score table turns out to be. There is however some bad news, Silvestre has been picked to play in this line-up. Not that i think he's a bad defender or anything, but it spoils the chance of other youngsters to get that valuable first team experience in them. Other than him, I think we should be seeing some of the more regular Carling Cup players; Ramsey, Wilshere, Merida, etc. So I think we should be in for another fantastic game, and it is always brilliant to see the kind of talent that is surging through the ranks at Arsenal. I predict the match will end Arsenal 3 - Burnley 0. Maybe even higher.

Anyway, have a brilliant time watching the game, and keep the faith,

Asian Arsenal.