http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god A blog about Arsenal & their best player Cesc. http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/i-want-the-one-i-can039t-have http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/i-want-the-one-i-can039t-have <p> Today is supposed to be the first day of my well earned 6 week break over Christmas but I have already been asked to go to work tomorrow and I have to go back 2 weeks earlier than I was supposed to as I have to cover for someone else who is going into hospital for an operation on his knee. Witha shopping trip into the city planned today things are off to a very busy start and I can't see me getting too many lie ins this side of Christmas but such is life. That's enough of my life and it's time to see what's happening in the world of arsenal. </p> <p> After Saturday's victory over Stoke it would seem our injury worries are getting even worse as we have lost Rosicky for a month and Eduardo has a slight knock which should not keep him out for too long. With Djourou, RVP and Gibbs long term absentees we should at least have Theo back on Wednesday night and Diaby and Bendtner could possibly be available for Sunday's trip to Anfield. There's still no news on possible injuries to Gallas and Traore but Clichy should be available for the Christmas programme and he will be&nbsp;welcomed back as Traore still has a lot to learn defensively. That trip to play Liverpool is a very big game for both teams and it's possible that they will have both Torres and Aqualini available which should strengthen their team a lot. We need to get a win up there to continue our recovery from our November slip ups and I feel that we can do it even with an injury list that's almost as long as Everton's. </p> <p> Ahead of the transfer window reopening in January the boss has ruled out a move for Van Nistleroy apparently which is music to my ears as I detest him and it would genuinely hurt to see him in an Arsenal shirt. We are linked with Dzeko but the manager said, only a few days ago, that he would be too expensive and I can't see him spending the amount of money that Dzeko would cost even though it is available to him. There's no mention of a goalkeeper coming in but the manager must know how desperately unhappy the fans are with the current keeper and hopefully he has an ace up his sleeve and will surprise us all when the time comes. There isn't a whole lot of other Arsenal news about today but with a dead rubber match in the Champions league away to Olympiacos on Wednesday night I would imagine we will see some news with regard to the squad we will be sending later today. I think we will see Champions league debuts for a few of the youngsters on Wednesday night and I hope they can make the best of it. </p> <p> I had a relatively good weekend in the fantasy football as my team made a bit of a comeback led by Sorensen, Dunne, The Verminator, Dempsey, Cesc, Rooney and Saha who all scored well for me. I made up ground in almost all the leagues I'm in and I managed to cut IAWWT's lead by 20 points in the Oleole league which means he's only 25 points ahead of me now. With him still away in the Caribbean hopefully the addition of Lennon(I know he's a Spud) or Milner to my team will help me to make up that gap or at least part of it. </p> <p> Having read the fixtures in the fantasy football I have just realised that our home league&nbsp;game against Bolton that we didn't get to play in August has been rearranged for Tuesday January 5th and it means that after our trips to Liverpool and Burnley in our next 2 league games we will have 4 out of 5 league games at home between December 19th and January 9th. They're all games we should be winning although Villa won't be easy and the away game in the middle of them is against Portsmouth who are bottom of the table. It's a great opportunity for us to put some pressure on the teams above us and it's vital that we get 4 points in the upcoming trips to Liverpool and Burnley to set us up for that run of games. By the 10th of January hopefully things will be looking up for us and we will be back in the title race with a couple of new players added to our squad as well. That's it for today. </p> <p> Here's a reminder of what happened the last time we went to Anfield. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgjefP8OpSU">LINK</a> </p> <p> And to finish here's today's title track from The Smiths. It refers to my desire for us to sign Dzeko but I know we won't get him. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ1RsKMWXHc">LINK</a> </p> <p> See You Tomorrow. </p> Mon, 7 Dec 2009 07:30:00 +0000 http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/the-key http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/the-key <p> We got the show back on the road yesterday with a well deserved 2-0 victory over Stoke at the Emirates after a couple of league defeats in a row had dented our title ambitions in a big way. It was the type of game that worries us fans as we were 1-0 up with a little more than 10 minutes left,&nbsp;despite the fact that it should have been a lot more, and 1 goal from Stoke would have ruined all our good work. Thankfully Rambo stepped up and got the second goal to calm all our nerves and ensure that we moved above The Spuds into&nbsp;3rd place unless they can beat Everton at Goodison Park&nbsp;later today. It also means that we are 8 points behind the leaders Chelsea with a game in hand and if we had drawn with them last week we would have been in the exact same position. </p> <p> After Chelsea did a number on us last Sunday we had to listen to so called experts telling us that the league was as good as over as "the Chelsea machine" had gone into overdrive and were about to sweep away all in front of them. I was in 2 minds before they played City yesterday as&nbsp;I dislike both teams&nbsp;and I thought I wanted them to draw with each other but when it came to the crunch I was delighted to see City win and Lampard miss that late penalty. I heard one of the Chelsea players&nbsp;on the radio yesterday before the match claiming that they had regained the steel and morale&nbsp;they had under Mourinho and that this could be their season if they kept playing like they are now. With 3 defeats away from home already it would seem that maybe they are believeing their own hype and finding it hard to get up for some games. If I'm not mistaken their manager was in charge of AC&nbsp;Milan when they suffered from the same affliction and ended up finishing&nbsp;5th in Italy and failed to qualify for the Champions league.&nbsp;Unfortunately Manure managed to win at West Ham and stay 6 points ahead of us with our game in hand still to come. At least they suffered injuries on the scale that we have being suffering them recently and they have some real problems in defence now&nbsp;as a result. </p> <p> It was great to see how Arshavin played down the middle yesterday after Eduardo picked up a knock on Friday and was unable to play. <a href="http://www.oleole.com/profile/LadyArse">Lady Arse</a> had been calling for Arshavin to play that role ever since RVP got injured and it would appear that she was right all along. His ability to make space for himself and turn players when the ball was played to his feet created problems for Stoke all day and he should have had more than just the 1 goal he managed. We created countless chances or so it seemed anyway but with Sorensen in great form and a combination of Cesc missing a penalty and Eboue clearing a Cesc shot off the line we only led by Arshavin's well taken goal at half time. We eventually added to that goal on 79 minutes as Ramsey finished from outside the box with a curious effort which looked like he may not have meant it. </p> <p> The performance was very good and with some better finishing we could have thumped Stoke by at least 5 goals. Unfortunately it would seem that Almunia was very poor again yesterday and he is a real liability at the moment. Arshavin was a revealation in a central role and it meant he was involved in the game a lot more often and he looked like he loved it to me. Maybe his problems this season have been due to the position we have played him in and now he can excel in a position he says he prefers. With Liverpool to come next Sunday I hope he can play that well again and if so he will give their defenders some real problems with Carragher a prime candidate for an early bath when faced by a player as good as that. </p> <p> Today's post is more than a tad late but after getting in from another Christmas do at 3.30 this morning I got a call this morning to tell me we had to go to a celebration party for my wife's sister whose boyfriend proposed to her yesterday. It's amazing what 2 months working in Egypt will do to a man. After a few hours in The Golden Ball pub, I didn't touch a drop, I'm eventually home again and back to the serious work of blogging and watching Everton hopefully beating The Spuds. I haven't read any other blogs yet besides Lady Arse's typically brilliant contribution but I intend catching up on all the usuals later. </p> <p> Our injury problems seem to get worse by the minute as Eduardo missed out yesterday and we had Rosicky, Traore &amp; possibly Gallas injured too. At least our midweek game is meaningless and we can play a much weakened team as all our injured players get a chance to recover before that trip to Anfield next Sunday. It would seem that Rosicky will be out for up to a month as it's a groin injury he suffered yesterday but there's no news as yet on the others. Our under 18s managed a 2-0 win over Chelsea yesterday morning with late goals from Freeman and Henderson doing the damage. Our ladies were beaten in the Premier league cup by Everton today after extra time but they did at least manage a 6-2 win in the league against Watford last Thursday. We're now 7 points off the top of the league with 7 games in hand and our biggest rivals Everton are 6 points behind us with 2 games in hand. That's it for today. </p> <p> Here's the highlights from yesterday's game. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/4117195/">LINK</a> </p> <p> And to finish today's title track from UB40. Arshavin was the key to our win yesterday and hopefully he will be the key to us coping with RVP's injury. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pZE_J98hOg">LINK</a> </p> <p> See You Tomorrow. </p> Sun, 6 Dec 2009 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/rally-round http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/rally-round <p> Today we have a chance to get our season back on track as Stoke visit The Emirates(I wonder how long we will keep our stadium name considering the financial woes of the owners of Emirates airlines) in an absolutely must win game for Arsenal. After last Sunday's 3-0 home loss to Chelsea we are 11 points off the pace albeit with a game in hand. If we are to be considered title challengers we need to regain the swagger we had before the last interlull. Of course we have lost RVP to injury since then and that has coincided with us failing to score in our last 2 league games after having scored 36 goals in the first 12 games. Our other injury worries are well documented as is our inability to keep clean sheets but while we can do nothing about the injuries occuring the clean sheet issue is one that can be fixed by getting a goalkeeper who is capable of playing at the level which we aspire to and will inspire confidence in those in front of him unlike our current custodian. </p> <p> Today marks a couple of landmarks as it is the boss's 500th league game in charge of Arsenal and Arsenal's 100th game at our new home also. The boss spoke about his failure to shake Mark Hughe's hand after Wednesday night's loss to City and he said that he would have acted the same if swe had won but he doesn't ever talk to the media about what goes on or is said on the sideline during a match. Obviously Hughes has annoyed him very much and if he feels he doesn't want to shake hands it's up to him but personally I don't think he should let the likes of Hughes see that he has got to him. We shouldn't forget the type of nasty player Hughes was or that he played under "sir shits his pants a lot" which brings him down even further in my estimation. Thr boss also said that deals for contract extensions are in the pipeline for both Gallas and Rosicky. He also spoke about his transfer options in January and said that Chamakh is unavailable as Bordeaux are having a very good season and Dzeko is too expensive in his opinion. He said that he will be in the market but that doesn't mean he will buy anyone as it's hard to find a world class player who is free to play in the Champions league. Let's hope he can do it though and even if a player has played in the Champions league he could still play in the FA Cup for us which is a trophy most fans would settle for right now. </p> <p> Back to the visit of Stoke and the problems that they will try to pose for us. I have no doubt that they will try and rough us up and the game will probably go along the usual lines of countless Stoke fouls before the first yellow card is issued to an Arsenal player. They will try to bombard us with high balls from free kicks, corners and especially from throw ins and our defence and goalkeeper will have to stand strong. However we need to concentrate on our own game and play with a pace and tempo that they will find hard to cope with. As I have said before we need to get behind their defence more and get balls cut back to Eduardo who should be playing in a central role. He is deadly in the box when he's on his game and hopefully he can rediscover that again today. Stoke have a fairly good away record with 1 win, 4 draws and 2 defeats so far this season in the league but they have only scored 4 goals and conceded 8 in those 7 games. As a result I think a 2-0 win for Arsenal is on the cards today and I'm hoping that Eduardo can get them both but if they're both own goals that will do just as nicely. </p> <p> I expect the manager to keep faith with Almunia for the moment and the defence of Sagna, Gallas, The Verminator and Traore almost picks itself with Traore the only doubtful starter among them after his defensive displays recently. In midfield with Song injured I expect to see Denilson play the defensive role which he will be trusted with during the ACN. I hope that he's up to it with Cesc and hopefully Rosicky in front of him. I would imagine that the front 3 will consist of Arshavin, Eduardo and Nasri and with such good footballers in our team we can expect a lot of intracite play in and around the box. I'd love to see our wide players taking their full backs on and beating them to draw other players out and create space but I think that I'm living in hope more than expectation. With the match not on the TV live and the&nbsp;Christmas rush well and truly underway I hope to get home in time and find a stream to watch us play but again it's a hope and not an expectation. More than likely my trusty phone will keep me in touch with everything as it happens. That's it for today but let's hope that things start to improve from today and we start to adapt to life without the injured RVP.&nbsp; Come on you Gunners. </p> <p> Here's a nice tribute to the man who is an absolute legend at Arsenal - Denis Bergkamp. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VEFTtt2kRo">LINK</a> </p> <p> And to finish today's title track from Steel Pulse. It's time for the players to rally behind each other and the fans to rally round the players to try to get things going again. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se5_P7HXumI">LINK</a> </p> <p> See You Tomorrow. </p> Sat, 5 Dec 2009 08:52:00 +0000 http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/endurance http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/endurance <p> I'm finding it tough to write this as I'm more than a little tired after a very enjoyable night last night. My daughter applied to have a Dublin radio station(Spin 103.8) broadcast from our kitchen last night and she won out. When I got home just before 7pm I had to go out and get some food and they arrived soon afterwards so it was non stop go until after 11. By the time friends and relatives had left it was well after midnight and I was knackered but it was also time to prepare my blog. So now I'm faced with trying to write something meaningfull about my beloved Arsenal while there is very little to write about. </p> <p> Ahead of Saturday's game against Stoke we have yet another injury as Theo has a short term hamstring injury and he won't play. The good news is that Sagna is back and I wonder how tempted the boss is to play him and Eboue as the 2 full backs as Traore is having a hard time defensively at the moment. I'm not sure which side he would put either player on but I'm sure he's considering his options at the moment. I also wonder how long he will continue to let Almunia remainas first choice keeper as he clearly doesn't install confidence in his defenders with his performances. If there was a viable option I think we would see a change very soon but unfortunately Fabianski and Don Vito both seem to suffer from the same deficiencies too. </p> <p> After a great run recently I had a disasterous week last week in the fantasy football and my weekly position was outside the first 2 million. It undid all my recent hard work and I am now leading only 1 league I'm in instead of the 10 I was leading last week. With my wild card for the season already used up I will have to be creative in what I do to try to regain some ground. To be fair to my team I was a little unlucky as both Dunn and Shawcross had to go off injured and got me only 1 point each. With Saha not starting either I think that my luck has to improve this week. I think it's time to sell Richard Dunne, Matt Taylor or Louis Saha as their points tallies are not living up to what&nbsp;I wanted. I'll have to give it some serious thought as IAWWT has taken a large lead over me and he's away on holidays at the moment. I can't have him coming back in a stronger position than the one he was in when he went away. </p> <p> I'll preview the Stoke game tomorrow and give my usual prediction. Hopefully I can get it right for a change as a win is something that we really need. With November behind us hopefully December can bring us fresh hope and 15 of the 18 points on offer for the month would do the trick for me. That's it for today. </p> <p> Here's all 3 goals from City on Wednesday night. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/4086883/">LINK</a> </p> <p> Here's today's title track from Black Uhuru. We nreed some endurance from the players and fans to see us through this tough period. If you like Reggae turn the volumn and the bass up and enjoy a great song. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGQf5fowH6o">LINK</a> </p> <p> See You Tomorrow. </p> Fri, 4 Dec 2009 07:30:00 +0000 http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/bad-man http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/bad-man <p> We can consign our Carling Cup ambitions to the bin for another year after our second string were beaten 3-0 by Man City last night in the quarter finals. They had a good run and beat both West Brom and Liverpool before coming up against a full strength City team who were looking to give themselves a chance of their first trophy in over 30 years. On the night City deserved their win but Arsenal played well enough and it took 2 excellent goals in the second half to put City in full control before a late third finished off the scoring for the night. </p> <p> The team was fairly close to the one I expected with the exception of Song in for Senderos who didn't even make the squad which would point to him making an exit in the January transfer window. The only reason we didn't sell him in August was apparently because of the injury to Djourou and with Djourou not due back until March we need to find a replacement before Senderos leaves. Our first choice reserve at centre back is Silvestre and from what I saw last night he has got worse and not better and the thought of him in our team if either Gallas or The Verminator gets injured scares me. Theo wasn't in the squad either which surprised me as I thought he needed game time but maybe he's not quite right yet. With Merida taking his spot the rest of the team was as I predicted and it was always going to be a hard night. It's always hard to make a true judgement on a player when he is surrounded by the other youngsters and I would like to see the likes of Wilshere perform alongside the rest of the first team. </p> <p> I won't run through the ins and outs of the match as I didn't see most of it but City's win didn't surprise me even though I had predicted a 4-3 win for Arsenal. The major talking point afterwards seems to be the boss failing to shake hands with their manager but to be honest I couldn't give a damn if he never shook another manager's hand again. It would seem that our manager didn't want to wait around on the sideline as Hughes celebrated on the pitch and if that is the case Hughes has nothing to complain about as he should have shook hands before going on to the pitch to celebrate with his players. City will probably think that all their troubles are over now as they have ended their run of 7 draws in a row but we will see how they fare against Chelsea at the weekend. Personally I think another draw would be a great result as Chelsea would drop points and City would fall back into their wasteful ways. </p> <p> All of that will only be to our advantage if we can beat Stoke at The Emirates on Saturday and Song's yellow card last night means that he will miss that game. It would appear that the boss has earmarked Denilson for the defensive midfield role when Song is on ACN duty but I don't know if he's the right player for that role. Personally I want us to buy another defensive midfielder on January 1st and I'm sure the majority of Arsenal fans would feel the same way too. That would mean we need a new goalkeeper, centre back, defensive midfielder and centre forward in January but we will be lucky to see 1 of them coming in. My choice in goals would be Lloris, with Yaya Toure in midfield and Dzeko in attack but I don't know who we should sign at centre back unless of course we sign Hangeland. I won't be holding my breath for any of them though. </p> <p> I have heard a few rumours about Wilshere going to Celtic on loan and with our Carling Cup hopes over for another season some first team football would do him some good. We have been linked with a move for Van Nistelroy in the transfer window and I can only say that I would absolutely hate it if we signed him. I can still remember him cheating to get a true Arsenal legend, Patrick Vieira, sent off at Old Trafford and I can't see how the fans would be able to accept him in an Arsenal shirt. </p> <p> I'll preview the Stoke game over the next couple of days and according to physioroom Diaby is due back on Saturday which might be a welcome addition to the squad as he always plays well when he comes back from injury. I've been very busy in work all week and I've been neglecting Oleole a bit but after this Friday I'm off work until the middle of January as I'm taking a lot of time off that's due to me. I hope in that time to eventually get around to converting some old videos to DVDs and putting them on youtube and linking them here. They include highlights of league title wins under George Graham and Arsene Wenger and some hammerings of The Spuds among other teams. That's it for today. </p> <p> Here's City's second goal from last night which killed the game as a contest. I thought that Silvestre should have stood up and tackled him at some stage but he decided to back off until Wright Phillips was within striking distance and he obliged by burying the ball into the top corner. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/4082161/">LINK</a> </p> <p> And to finish today's title track from Steel Pulse which is for RVN who is a player we should never sign. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r_63DYSdnI">LINK</a> </p> <p> See You Tomorrow. </p> Thu, 3 Dec 2009 07:30:00 +0000 http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/ambition http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/ambition <p> We travel to Man City tonight for a Carling Cup quarter final in which we are real underdogs due mainly to the manager's policy of playing a different starting 11 from the one in the previous league&nbsp;match and the addition to a lot of youth to the squad as well. The manager confirmed yesterday that youth will get it's chance again as he said players like Wilshere and Eastmond should play. It's going to make things really hard on the&nbsp;kids as City will play a very strong team I'm sure. There is an oppurtunity for the likes of Wilshere to show what he can do and with the first team struggling hopefully he will feel he has a genuine chance to make a breakthrough. Personally I think both Theo and Vela will start as well and that same oppurtunity is there for both of them. </p> <p> I imagine Fabianski will start with Eboue, Silvestre and Senderos in defence and possibly Traore too. In midfield we should probably see Ramsey and Rosicky with Eastmond behind them again and the front 3 will probably be Vela, Theo and Wilshere. I could be way off the mark but I don't think so and the only reason I have Traore at left back is that I don't know what other options there are in that position. I am of course omitting Merida who could start before Rosicky but I do think Rosicky needs some game time at the moment. We also have Emmanuel Thomas, Frimpong &amp; Randall plus a few others who can come in and do a job. When you consider that Gibbs, Clichy, Diaby, Bendtner and RVP are injured at the moment it's not a bad team for us to be able to put out. Anyone who regularly reads this blog will know that I have never predicted an Arsenal defeat in any game and I have no intention of starting today. I hope that City are lulled into a false sense of security when they see the team we have out and that they believe that it will be easy for them. If that's the case I think the youngsters can get about them and play the football they are capable of and give them a short sharp lesson in football. I'm going for a 4-3 win for Arsenal as we progress to the semi finals to join Aston Villa and Manure who both won through last night. My last thought on tonight's game concerns he who shall remain nameless and whether he plays or not. If he does play I hope our players form an orderly queue as they wait to kick him and tell him it's an early Christmas present from RVP. </p> <p> It was nice to see the Spuds lose to a Manure team with 7 changes from their weekend team although they did keep their keeper and 3 of their defenders to give them a stronger base to work with. I wonder will we see a DVD released by The Spuds today showing us how they managed to&nbsp;keep their hopes of a trophy alive all the way up to December. It's an achievement which should be marked in some way and a DVD is their usual mode for anything as spectacular as that. </p> <p> In other news the boss said yesterday that he will be looking at dipping into the transfer market in January&nbsp;but only if it suits us.&nbsp;It appears that the loss of RVP would seem to be what triggered his change of heart and hopefully&nbsp;he will decide to buy a top class striker such as Dzeko as a direct replacement for him. With any luck he has decided to look for a goalkeeper while he is at it as well. Our league games against Chelsea and Liverpool in February have been altered to allow them to be live on Sky and it means we will play away to Chelsea on Sunday February 7th at 4 pm and at home to Liverpool 3 days later on&nbsp;Wednesday February 10th at 7.45pm. It means we will face a trial by television in 10 days from January 31st as we play all of the other "top four" clubs live on the TV in those 10 days. Let's hope&nbsp;we're still in the hunt by then and 3 wins will do us the power of good. I'm not sure if I'll make it to the supporters club to watch the game tonight as it's a big day and I have other plans but you never know. That's it for today. </p> <p> Here's a look at what we did to Sheffield United in the Carling Cup last season. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB8Z_Ea8Ri0&amp;feature=related">LINK</a> </p> <p> And to finish today's title track from New Model Army. Hopefully our kids can show some ambition tonight. This is for ClownshoeVanClubFoot who likes New model Army unlike some others around him. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBtbf2LQWdo">LINK</a> </p> <p> See You Tomorrow.&nbsp; </p> Wed, 2 Dec 2009 07:30:00 +0000 http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/something-better-change http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/something-better-change <p> It's been 2 days since Chelsea stuffed us 3-0 at The Emirates and to be honest it still hurts for a number of reasons. Firstly I genuinely thought we had a chance against Chelsea but they showed that we have not reached their level of professionalism or consistency yet and indeed we have a long way to go to reach those levels. I know the title race isn't over for us yet but it's going to be a huge ask for us to get back into it now with Chelsea having an 11 point lead over us and our league form and ability to create and score goals suddenly gone out the window. Secondly&nbsp;we keep making&nbsp;excuses for defeats but we have to stand up and be counted at some stage. We should have beaten Manure but we blew it, we could have&nbsp;beaten City but we would have had to score 5 goals to do so, Sunderland were lucky to score with their only shot on target and we should have had a penalty too and the referee should not have disallowed our goal against Chelsea. There has to come a stage where we say that some of our players are either not good enough or not performing at the level that they should and the manager has to do something about it. </p> <p> Almunia has only started 8 league matches this season and we have lost 4 of them and Mannone made more saves in the 5 games&nbsp;he started than Almunia has in those 8 games. Almunia has conceded 13 goals in 8 games and Mannone conceded 5 in 5 but the manager persists with him no matter what. I'm not saying put Mannone in but maybe Fabianski could do&nbsp;better and there are certainly loads of goalkeepers out there who would do better. There's a transfer window opening in 31 days and we need to buy a keeper as soon as that window opens. We have no adequete cover at centre&nbsp;back and if Gallas or The Verminator gets injured we are faced with the prospect of Silvestre playing in the team. That is not a sight that I want to see and I don't know a single Arsenal fan who does. When the ACN starts in January we will lose Song for 1 or 2 months and we don't have anyone to replace him. If the manager thinks Denilson can do that job he is deluding himself as he was not up to it before his injury and he is not up to it now. I'm not trying to say Denilson shouldn't get an occasional game but&nbsp;not as a defensive midfielder particularly as we have to play Manure, Chelsea and Liverpool one after another in a 10 period from January 31st&nbsp;to February 9th.&nbsp;If we go into those games without a proper goalkeeper, a proper defensive midfielder and missing our top striker we are setting ourselves up for a big fall. </p> <p> At this stage last season we had 23 points from 13 games and we only have 25 now which is not exactly a whole lot better. We have scored 11 goals more but we have also conceded 3 goals more and we only have 2 clean sheets as opposed to 4 last season. It's not the form of champions or even potential champions but thankfully we have the chance to make up for it on Saturday as Stoke pay us a visit and after our dead rubber in Greece we have 3 league games in 6 days as we go to Anfield to play Liverpool, make the trip to Burnley and play at home to Hull. Hopefully the manager can work his magic and make the neccesary adjustments to the team and our style of play to make the most of the players that aren't injured so that we can get the 4 wins that are a must in those games. </p> <p> From here our second string team will make the trip to Man City for the Carling Cup quarter final tomorrow night and with City admitting that the circus that surrounded our last trip there seemed to derail their season I hope that they don't get it back on track against us. So far this season the manager has put out a different starting 11 from the one that played the previous weekend in each round and if he does that we can expect to see Fabianski, Eboue, Silvestre, Senderos, Theo, Vela, Ramsey and Rosicky start and Wilshere too if he's fit but I'm not too sure about that. City will play a full strength team and if we're not fully focussed it could be a tough night for us. The draw for the semi finals of the Carling Cup will be made live on Sky more or less directly after our game tomorrow night and let's hope we're still in it. The club announced yesterday that they had made payments to agents totalling £4.8 million in the last year and I'm sure it's no different from a lot of other clubs but it's still a disgusting amount of money to see going out of the game to people who are usually a little dodgy at best. That's it for today. </p> <p> Here's another look at the main&nbsp;highlight from our victory in the last round of the Carling Cup. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg7svJebmlI">LINK</a> </p> <p> And to finish today's title track from The Stranglers. Something has to change if we are to challenge for the title. It could be the manager's attitude to our goalkeeping options or our style of play with RVP injured but something must change. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohRbJJohv6Y">LINK</a> </p> <p> See You Tomorrow. </p> Tue, 1 Dec 2009 07:30:00 +0000 http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/monday http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/monday <p> The disappointment of yesterday hasn't even started to fade yet and the realisation that we are not going to win the league with RVP injured for the rest of the season is starting to sink in. No matter what anyone says we never looked like we were going to score yesterday and that was the same as last Saturday against Sunderland. The only player we have with a chance of playing the role that RVP played for us is Bendtner and he's still injured. Even if Bendtner was available to play he takes at least 5 chances to score in a game and that's not going to win us enough games. If I said that I was surprised with yesterday's result I would be lying and even though I predicted an Arsenal win there was always the feeling that we could be well beaten. Unfortunately the manager says it wasn't a 3-0 but that was the final score and to be honest we brought it upon ourselves. </p> <p> We were unable to create clear cut chances and when Chelsea created their chances they always looked like scoring. The first real chance fell to Anelka and he was held back by Sagna as he tried to shoot but we got away with it. Despite all our possession I can't ever remember Cech being really troubled or Chelsea being really stretched. As half time approached I discussed the fact that it was vital that we didn't concede with 1 of the other Arsenal fans in the supporters club. We remarked how our win over The Spuds was sealed in the last 5 minutes before half time and we hoped that something similar wouldn't happen to us but there was a feeling that the first goal would not be ours. When that goal came it was from good work by Terry and then Tweedey who crossed for Drogba to finish from 5 yards out. On another day the ball might have stayed out but it hit the bar and the post and went in and immediatly I felt that we were in big trouble. </p> <p> Only 2 minutes later things got a lot worse as Tweedey crossed again and The Verminator put the ball into his own net as he knew he had to do something with it with Drogba closing in behind him. I thought that the ball would have gone through to Almunia if The Verminator had left it but I would love to know if Almunia called for it as it didn't look like he did to me. As the second half started Theo replaced Song and I can only imagine that Song picked up a knock as he had been playing well. I thought we had pulled a goal back very quickly but the referee ruled out Arshavin's effort as he judged Eduardo to have raised his foot too high as he challenged Cech. To be honest he was probably right but at the time it didn't feel like it and interestingly enough Cech didn't complain when he lost the ball. </p> <p> After that the game seemed to peter out as we huffed and puffed but created very little. Vela came on for Eduardo and Rosicky came on for Nasri but all to no avail as Chelsea sat deep and looked to hit us on the break. With 5 minutes left Chelsea got a free kick just outside our box and it looked like it was perfectly set up for Drogba to punish us even more. To be honest again he didn't even hit it that well but with Almunia in goal all he had to do was get it on target and he did exactly that. The manager cannot have been happy with Almunia as all he had to do was keep&nbsp;his position to save it but he stepped to his right and couldn't get back in time. </p> <p> In my opinion the manager needs to buy a proper goalkeeper on the 1st of January and consign Almunia to the reserves. He doesn't inspire confidence in the players in front of him, he won't or can't come for crosses and he sticks to his line like glue when he should be coming out. We now need to win our next 5 or 6 league matches in a row to get ourselves anywhere near the title race and that will have to include a win at Anfield in 2 weeks time. We go to Man City on Wednesday night in the Carling Cup and it's probably just as well that the second string will be playing because another defeat for our 1st team would be very hard for them to take. Only a few weeks ago Cesc spoke about how we&nbsp;need to keep some clean sheets as the goals could dry up and those goals have dried up now. It's no coincidence that our goal drought has come with RVP injured and we can be sure Stoke will try to put all their players behind the ball next Saturday to try to frustrate us too. It's up to the boss to&nbsp;get things working again and in a hurry before things get any worse. Finally for today the FA Cup third round draw has been made and we&nbsp;have a tough tie away to West Ham on Saturday January 2nd.&nbsp;&nbsp;Unfortunately we may have to concentrate on the FA Cup as our only realistic chance&nbsp;of a trophy again this season if things don't get better soon.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <p> Here's the highlights(or lowlights) from yesterday. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/4053059/">LINK</a> </p> <p> And to finish here's today's title track from UB40. We have to buy a top class keeper in January and it doesn't matter what the cost is. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsZjm4W7XeA">LINK</a> </p> <p> See You Tomorrow. </p> Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:30:00 +0000 http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/here-comes-the-war http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/here-comes-the-war <p> So we come to it. The battle to define our times. The battle to determine if we are genuine contenders or not. Well that's what the so called experts would have us believe anyway. While I do think that today's game is the biggest game of the season so far for Arsenal I don't think that defeat will decide our fate. A lot of what happens will come down to tight calls from the officials and who manages to score first as we all know goals change games. We have the ability to beat them but they also have the ability to beat us as was proved at The Emirates last season. </p> <p> The boss has tough decisions to make before the kick off and the ones in our defence are very important. Will Gallas recover in time and will Traore get another chance at left back or will he play Eboue there? The Gallas issue is vital as his replacement doesn't bear thinking about and Eboue worst ever time in an Arsenal shirt came when he played on the left although it was further up the pitch. The boss also has to pick players in our attacking positions who will get stuck in and fight for the cause no matter what. I hope the team will be Almunia, Sagna, Traore, Gallas, The Verminator, Song, Cesc, Rosicky, Arshavin, Theo and Eduardo but we could of course see Ramsey or Nasri in there without changing things too&nbsp;much.&nbsp; </p> <p> We lack the heigth that Chelsea have and we will find it hard from set pieces so we need our goalkeeper to be commanding but that's one thing Almunia is not. When Drogba dives to earn free kicks we need the referee to catch and book him but I don't think that's going to happen. When we get chances we have to take them and we have to punish any mistakes by Chelsea. The referee needs to be strong as no doubt their players will protest every decision that goes against them and the likes of Terry will do his best to influence the referee. We need to watch Terry at corners as he blocks our defenders from marking other players as he is an expert at it and never seems to get caught. If we approach the game in the right manner and play our own game to the best of our abilities I believe we can win but it will be very tight. I'm going for 2-1 with Cesc scoring and Eduardo too if he plays. </p> <p> I'll be in The Strand in Bray watching the match along with some fellow members of the supporters club who are brave enough to battle against the wind and rain on the seafront today. Hopefully we'll get a good turnout and the result will go our way but if it doesn't it will leave us with a lot of work to do and in need of 5 or 6 wins in a row after today to get back in to the title race. That's it for today as I have an awful lot to do before braving the conditions. Come on you Gunners. </p> <p> Here's some more good stuff from the man we will miss most today - RVP. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zlbxsSds1M">LINK</a> </p> <p> And to finish today's title track from New Model Army. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngFukHIhUu4">LINK</a> </p> <p> See You Tomorrow </p> Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:18:00 +0000 http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/no-rest http://www.oleole.com/blogs/cesc-is-god/posts/no-rest <p> The shocking news today is that RVP's season is as good as over after an official statement from the club in which it was revealed that further analysis by our medical staff on his return to the club showed the true extent of his injury. It's an awful blow for Arsenal and for RVP too and I hope that we can cope with the loss of our best striker for what the club say will be 4 to 5 months but with him needing to regain match fitness afterwards I think we can take it that we will have to wait until next season to see him perform in an Arsenal shirt again. Luckily for his country he will probably be fit to play in the World Cup but that's no consolation for us. </p> <p> The player himself is very disappointed obviously and he says he felt so strong before the injury that he felt nobody could stop him. He also spoke about his treatment in Serbia and he said that if the full extent of the injury was spotted earlier he would have had his operation immediatly instead of going there but he obviously thought it would help him at the time. You can read what he had to <a href="http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/van-persie-i-felt-no-one-could-stop-me">say here</a>&nbsp;and it's well worth a read. The treatment in Serbia didn't harm him in any way or set him back either but the original diagnosis by the Dutch was not helpfull and it has added a couple of weeks to his time out. </p> <p> I'll preview the Chelsea game tomorrow at some stage but the last thing for today is the news that Arshavin apparently is still in a bad way following Russia's exit from the World Cup. The boss left him out of the Sunderland game last Saturday as he said he was feeling down at the time and according to the player himself he feels like never playing again. He said he had a long chat with the boss and hopefully that will have done something to cheer him up. We have a huge game tomorrow and in my opinion the best way for him to get back in the right frame of mind is to play that game and take his frustrations out on Chelsea. </p> <p> Here's a little bit of what we will be missing with RVP out for the rest of the season. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is0ytmmGvdA">LINK</a> </p> <p> And to finish today's title track from New Model Army. There would seem to be no rest for our medical staff as the injuries pile up and our season becomes harder and harder. The song goes "They say there is no rest for the wicked ones, dear God what is this evil that we've done." It certainly feels that way as it was bad enough when we thought RVP was out for 6 weeks but 5 months is a different thing altogether. Maybe somebody can tell me what evil we have done. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLt4hxlFL4c">LINK</a> </p> <p> See You Tomorrow. </p> Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:48:00 +0000