LadyArse<![CDATA[LadyArse Has Moved]]>

But don't worry, I'm not going far.

Some might see it as sad, some excititing, most won't care, but I am moving my blog to Blogger permanently. I've always posted on blogger, but the lack of personalisation available on Ole, plus the fact that I can't see my stats, subscribers or make any money means I'm heading to blogger permanetly. If it all goes tits up no doubt I'll be back, but as it is I'm spreading people around Ole, Blogger and Ladyarse.com so I'm streamlining.

So make sure you bookmark www.ladyarse.com which will take you directly to the blog, no website, no other distractions, just blogs...and maybe some Tshirts.

And don't forget to update your RSS feeds.

Don't make me come looking for you!

If you have problems with ladyarse.com just use http://ladyarse.blogspot.com

]]>2010-01-24 08:31:07<![CDATA[LadyArse Arsenal Caption Competition No 1.21 NOW WITH (little) PRIZE]]>

Caption 1.21, three points for the funniest, one for the second, and the league table will be published with every Friday competition from now on.

I've decided, since you're all so dedicated, that the grand winner will not only win the uberKudos which goes with winning the league, but a funky TShirt as well. How's about that then?! I haven't decided which one yet, but as beggars, you cannot, by law be choosers.

Ok, so it isn't the hugest prize in the world, but it's the thought that counts, right?

So let's have it you witty weebles:

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]]>2010-01-24 08:00:00<![CDATA[Stoke It Up]]> Morning all. Seeing as I did my match preview yesterday, I'm going to scramble around to find something to fill some paragraphs. Should be interesting. At least I hope it will.

So what shall I talk about? Injuries and press paranoia seem very tedious today, an ongoing theme to our season that I think we are just going to have to learn to accept somehow lest it drive us insane.

Schadenfreude was the order of the week last week and it returned with aplomb yesterday courtesy of the Spuds once again. Leading 2-1 against Leeds in the FA Cup they conceded a 95th minute penalty which Beckford blasted home. Twitter was a hoot.

Man united leapt over ourselves and Chelsea by way of their home banker against Hull. Sorry, should that be Wayne Rooney leapt over us? And they call Arsenal a one-man team!

With news that they are to reduce debt by paying loans with £500m through bonds which will leave them somehow paying £45m per year in interest as opposed to the £41m they currently pay, they are somehow supposed to be out of immediate trouble. The bonds will run until 2017. Now, I'm no merchant banker, but I did decide I quite wanted to know just what the fuck bonds where. I'm not going to try and describe it, Google 'what are bonds' if you have a spare five minutes of your life to throw away, but I understand what's going on. I think.

In seven years time United will have to pay back £500 million, while paying £4m a year extra for the pleasure. Leaving aside that their debt currently peaks at £716m, that doesn't even clear that. To me, it seems like nothing more than life-support, because if Man U are only able to turn a profit by selling £80m players, and that's when they're winning most things, how can they expect to make more? Even if they did have an £80m player to sell every year, at current profit levels, taking in the extra interest, they will only have made £272m and I'm sure the share holders will be wanting their dividends. That's a mighty big shortfall. Old Trafford may yet be up for sale. What odds Man City's owner buying it for his kids to play in?

Blurgh. Why am I taking about United? My own fault for getting ahead of myself yesterday I suppose.

So Stoke today and we all have a pretty good idea of what squad we should expect. While the press are bleating about out total lack of respect for the FA Cup no doubt they will completely miss how many English kids are starting for us. Bartley, Eastmond, JET, Wilshere, Walcott, Campbell (ok, so not a kid, but you know what I mean). By my reckoning, that's more than 50% of the starting line-up. Not that we'll get any credit for five of them being future England wonder-stars.

I know, I know, I said I wouldn't moan about the press. They just make it so fucking hard not to.

You won't often getting me going in to an Arsenal match wanting a defeat, and I don't in this instance. But I think I would, at the minute, prefer a defeat to a draw. Ask me again should we lose. That being said, there will be some 'fans' who go a bit mental should we exit at the hands of Stoke, screaming at Wenger for not risking the three fit first-teamers we have left. I suppose we can deal with them when and if it happens.

The team we are sending to Stoke should have more than enough to hold their own, and I can't imagine too many of the Stoke players kicking Campbell, Bartley, or the JET. I wonder has Ricardo Fuller seen the size of Sol lately when he made his comments about kicking us? And will his comments make any difference to the way the match is refereed? Why would it? It hasn't in the past.

And that's all I have to say today. If you're about, join us in the LadyArse chatroom where you should find quite a few other like-minded Gooners.

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If your so inclined, there's some new Arsenal Tshirts available on pre-order, more info on which can be found here

And you can find loads more Arsenal 6x4 prints here

]]>2010-01-24 00:00:00<![CDATA[LadyArse Arsenal Caption Competition No 1.20 NOW WITH (little) PRIZE]]> Caption 1.20, three points for the funniest, one for the second, and the league table will be published with every Friday competition from now on.

I've decided, since you're all so dedicated, that the grand winner will not only win the uberKudos which goes with winning the league, but a funky TShirt as well. How's about that then?! I haven't decided which one yet, but as beggars, you cannot, by law be choosers.

Ok, so it isn't the hugest prize in the world, but it's the thought that counts, right?

So let's have it you witty wilderbeasts...to absent heroes...sort of:

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]]>2010-01-23 08:00:00<![CDATA[Kick me baby one more time]]> Another Arsenal-less Saturday.

So some things never change.

Stoke, and namely Ricardo Fuller, were all over the papers yesterday saying they were going to 'rough Arsenal up' to get a result. Now you would think that since he has stated this publicly that the ref would be on the look-out for it, but history has taught us that this is not the case. In fact, should one of our players dare take exception to this treatment it will no doubt be him taking the early bath and not the thugs who's only aim was to maim a fellow professional because they couldn't handle their technical ability.

Wenger made a point of raising how it was ok to say these things before a match with Arsenal. And how we don't get penalties. And how no-one cares. Just to hammer home the point, the press mentioned none of it, so if you haven't watched his press conference, you won't even be aware of what he said. Unless your a Daily Mail reader in which case you'll be thinking Wenger started throwing journalists around the room such was his fury at the injustice of it all, all delivered with that snide tone that only the Daily Mail gets 'just so.' Which you deserve, by the way, for reading the Daily Mail.

In loan news, wonder keeper in waiting Mr. Chesney (spelt Szczesny) has extended his loan spell at Brentford until the end of January with talks supposedly in place to keep him there until the end of the season. Hopefully, he'll be back at Arsenal next year as number two behind Fabianksi. I hear Wenger is preparing to take Almunia in to the woods in the summer and have Pat Rice put him out of his misery. And it seems that finally, Senderos might have got his move. It's the long-touted Everton and I'm sure it's a relief to all involved. I wish him well, especially as we don't have to play Everton again this season.

Strange transfer rumour of the day, Spuds to pay £10m to Portsmouth for Kaboul. All I'm going to say is £10m, Harry, and seriously?

So, Stoke, masters of that wonder game called 'throwball.' Quite how they made it to the Premier League in football when the only thing they know how to kick is other players and need their hands to score most of their goals is beyond me. And this is the FA Cup so why I'm talking about the league I'm not entirely sure.

I've covered Stoke's tactics in the above paragraph somewhere, but to recap, it shall be kick-off (that usually confuses them as it involves a slight touch as opposed to a giant hoof) then kick, kick, kick, kick, foul, kick, dive, long ball, throw in, kick, kick, kick, kick, throw in, fall over. If you're struggling to work out what that means for Arsenal on the pitch, then here's a little visual reminder for you:

And I should also point you to this article from November 2008, entitled "Furious Wenger says 'cowardly' Stoke set out to injure Arsenal players."

Somewhere in amongst all of the above we will have hopefully found the back of the net, though I wouldn't expect it to happen in the first 15 minutes as we've only scored one goal in the first 15 (again with the league) and it usually takes us half an hour to get going. What the result will be I don't really know. What I do know is that in years gone by I have wanted us to take the FA Cup very, very seriously. Not so this year. Let me tell you why. I want the league. If we had only had a quarter of the injuries which we've experienced this season I would be expecting us to mount a challenge in the league, Champions League and FA Cup, but we have to be realistic here. Yes I know it's a dangerous game putting all your eggs in one competition basket (Champions League aside),  and with Man U and Liverpool both out of the cup it makes it a lot more straightforward, but do we have the players to stretch to three competitions? Not with things as they stand. Off course I would love us to win the FA Cup, but will I be devastated if we lose tomorrow? Only if the players who take the field haven't given 100% for the full 90. If they do that, I'll applaud them off whatever the result.

That being said, this team will be quite different to the League team. Carling Cupesque one could almost say. With the boss being no-so-sheepish in mentioning Sol and Silvestre's names when talking about players, we can assume they'll start, cause really, why mention them at all otherwise? I assume Campbell has recovered from his injury, obviously gained by wearing an Arsenal shirt for 30 minutes. Perhaps that's it, it's got something to do with that damn stripe running down our arms where our beautiful white sleeves used to be? Maybe that's where Man United's £716million went - bribing Nike into manufacturing a life-sapping kit for the Arsenal. Reverse Go-Faster-Stripes. Go-Fall-Over-Stripes.

It's a theory.

So, how are we going to line up? Right back is anyone's guess, could be Coquelin, Bartley, Gallas (though I doubt it) or Eastmond. Where Eastmond plays will no doubt depend on who Arsene wants as the holding midfielder. As he was Wenger's first-choice from all the other midfielders we have at kiddie level to cover Song, it would seem sensible to continue him in that position.

With our injuries, this is how I think we'll line up:

Fabianski
Bartley/or Coquelin Campbell Silvestre Traore
Eastmond
Denilson JET
Walcott Vela Wilshere

I would like to point out that there are three current internationals, two retired internationals, and (I may be wrong here) six who represent their countries at U21 level. Hardly inexperienced.

But, a la West Ham I feel Wenger will hold a couple of aces in place on the bench. We don't have Nasri or Diaby to turn things round, but we might very well see Clichy, Rosicky, Eduardo and maybe even Arshavin on the bench. He might even put Cesc on it with no intention of playing him, just for the fear level his mere presence brings with him. That would be a great move. And not because it was mine. Well, maybe just a little.

Why I'm doing a match-preview today and not tomorrow, I'm not quite sure. Actually, I am, I forgot we weren't playing until Sunday, even thoughI acknowledged that fact at the start of the blog. That is how my memory works - crappily! Ah well. Feck knows what I'm going to have to say tomorrow now.

Maybe this explains my mindset some - Thinking about our right back, I found myself missing Eboue. Who'd have thought that huh? So on to YouTube I went, and just because I know you secretly miss him to, and because you have to wait for Arsenal until tomorrow...let's have some Eboue



 
So that's that for today. Til tomorrow, and if you're online, make sure you head to the chat room for the match.

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If your so inclined, there's some new Arsenal Tshirts available on pre-order, more info on which can be found here

And you can find loads more Arsenal 6x4 prints here

]]>2010-01-23 00:00:00<![CDATA[LadyArse Arsenal Caption Competition No 1.9 NOW WITH (little) PRIZE]]>

Caption 1.9, three points for the funniest, one for the second, and the league table will be published with every Friday competition from now on.

And as it's Friday, the league table is below the photo...but wait, before you all go, there's more!

I've decided, since you're all so dedicated, that the grand winner will not only win the uberKudos which goes with winning the league, but a funky TShirt as well. How's about that then?! I haven't decided which one yet, but as beggars, you cannot, by law be choosers.

Ok, so it isn't the hugest prize in the world, but it's the thought that counts, right?

So let's have it you witty wombats:

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League Table (with a runaway leader at the minute, it just goes to show that volume will win you prizes):

(TOPCORNERST10 full name is TopCornerStunna10)

]]>2010-01-22 08:00:00<![CDATA[Throwing Bodies]]> So the dust has settled on our magnificent win over Bolton, Gallas won't be charged, Bolton, to their eternal hypocrisy are outraged by the whole thing, and Davies isn't even seriously injured.

Wenger even apologised ffs. What more do these people want? When we get beaten by teams like Bolton, we're a 'soft touch,' we put in one bad tackle and we're thugs. It winds me up like crazy.

But I suppose that was the only reason that they didn't win either match. It had nothing to do with the fact that we scored six goals while they only scored two (one of which had to come by way of the penalty spot.) Our physical steel to withstand 180 minutes of abuse from every Bolton player also had no hand in our victory, nor did the three stonewall penalties we were denied, or the personal vendetta the entire Bolton team conspired in against our captain. It wasn't because of our respect for a referee who somehow managed to give more fouls against us than in our favour, we didn't even approach the referee when the penalty was given against us. Not one single player screamed in his face. Not one. There's no doubt it was a penalty, but since when does that matter? Nope. It was all because of William Gallas's tackle. Which resulted in only the injured player stopping playing. There were four Bolton players around Cesc when he scored. All of them looking at him and the ball, not their injured player.

What's also annoying is that we now head to Stoke, in what will be another intensely physical game, to play a team who are going to go all out to get as far as they can in the FA Cup while we field (out of necessity) a team of kids and stand by and wait while the press slate us for 'disrespecting' the cup because they chose to ignore our ongoing and persistent lengthy injury list. There is, it seems, absolutely nothing this Arsenal team can do right in the eyes of the press.

Personally, I think it has to do with Arsenal making them all look like muppets. Written off before the season even began they need us to fall on our faces so they can be there with the 'I told you so's.'  But that time has already passed, because even if this team fails to win the league, what they have achieved thus far cannot be ignored, no matter how hard they try.

Should we actually go on and win it, no doubt, those same people who predicted that we would fail, will be standing applauding as Arsenal do what they always believed they would do eventually. You know the ones, the ones who have pressured Wenger to buy, buy, buy for the past four years, The ones who mocked his selections and his belief in his squad, The ones who said he had taken his experiment as far as it could go, perhaps even too far.

The will be there. But we will remember.

The press's behaviour this season has been obscene. The negative attention on us out of all proportion, from Eduardo through to Gallas, and the ignorance shown to our squad and their injuries disgraceful.  What would have been made of United and Ferguson had United actually managed to win when they were going through the worst period of their defensive crisis? If they had got a result at Fulham would they have been lauded? But they didn't win. And that was down to their crisis. Even the news that John O'Shea was out for the season over-shadowed the news that Kieran Gibbs was out for ours making it, for all intents and purposes, our third season long injury.

And then the ITV podcast compared Cesc to Paul Scholes. Seriously! What a load of wank.

We will remember.

As I said, news came out yesterday that Gibbs will now miss the rest of the season, joining VP and Djourou on our 'terminal' list. Diaby hasn't managed to shake of a calf injury, the result of a foul by a Bolton player in part one of our double-header and Sagna has a 'troublesome' shoulder which will need resting. With Eboue away, we are short at right-back so we now have to turn to either Eastmond or Bartley to play out there if Wenger is to rest Gallas and Vermaelen.

Not wanting to depress anyone, let's list our injuries & absent players, for all those out there gearing up to have a go at us for our 'disrespect'

Injured:
Gibbs
VP
Djourou
Nasri
Ramsey
Sagna
Diaby
Bendtner
Merida


On International duty:
Song
Eboue

On loan:
Chesney
Randall
Hoyte
Murphy
Simpson
Nordtveit
Botelho (can't wait to see this kid play for us)
Gilbert
Lansbury

That's 20 players not available. TWENTY!

Even if you ignore those on loan, we still have a full 11 not available, of which, you could argue, 9 are first-teamers.

We simply can't afford any more injuries, and I will support Wenger with whatever team he puts out on Sunday, even if it's the U9's, because we might be needing more of the reserves before long.

We see the effect it is having on the first team, but the knock-on effect is there too. As holders, we crashed out of the FA Youth Cup and that has to be because so many of the youth team were bumped up to reserves as the reserves get bumped up to the first team.

Blah. When is it going to end? Seriously? We are now 6 months into the season and it shows no sign of letting up.

But neither do Arsenal. As I said yesterday, when the time came to be counted, our big guns stood up. Finally. Cesc, Vermaelen, Rosciky, Arshavin, Gallas, Diaby (with injury) all said 'I'm up for this' and you can see that spreading throughout the team. Yes there was belief after Liverpool, but I think it was Cesc's cameo against Villa when the others started to realise just how much HE wanted it. It will spread to others, but I doubt it will reach Alumina so we will hopefully become, not only the first team to score 100 goals in a league campaign (on track for 101.9) but also be the first to win it without a recognised keeper. That's pretty impressive.

But for now it's the cup. And Stoke. Win or lose, but for god's sake please don't draw. We don't need another 90 minutes in which to lose another three players. Silverware really isn't THAT important.

Unless it's the league off course. Then it's worth all the bodies we can fling at it.

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Don’t forget to check today’s caption competition for the grand unveiling of the league, and a little extra surprise too.

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If your so inclined, there's some new Arsenal Tshirts available on pre-order, more info on which can be found here

And you can find loads more Arsenal 6x4 prints here

]]>2010-01-22 00:00:00<![CDATA[I can see Heaven from up here]]> They say certain matches define your season. With us two years ago, it was the match at Birmingham. The year we went unbeaten, it was the come-back against Liverpool at Highbury. When this season's fixtures were revealed, everyone said it would be a run of games which defined ours, not that anyone expected us to be in the race off course. The run we are about to face would define, for us, if we could maintain fourth place or not.

How wrong can people be? Our season won't be defined by what happens against Villa, Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool.

It was defined last night by what happened against Bolton.

This isn't a match review. Read the papers if you want one. This is pure, unadulterated passion.

I have said all season that it won't be the results against the other, so-called big teams, that it would be the matches against the Hulls, Stokes, and Bolton's of this world that decide this title. What better demonstration of that could there have been that the display and result last night?

Bolton did what we expected them to do. They hacked and kicked and pushed and shoved. But they threatened again as well and this time, they didn't miss. Taking the lead was bad enough, but as they went two up through a penalty awarded against a Denilson challenge, you had to wonder would that be just one goal too far? Had all that talk, all that hope before the match been just a bit too much?

The first thing I did when we went two down was head to paddypower.com. What were the odds now for an Arsenal win? It's what I did the last time we found ourselves two nil down against Bolton and put £10 on an Arsenal win at 30/1. What were the odds tonight? 13/8. A bet which a few years ago won me £300 would only win me £16.25. The bookies had learnt a lesson.

And so did Bolton and the rest of the league.

This Arsenal team won't be bullied. They won't be broken. And, on current form, they sure as fuck won't be beaten. People might say Chelsea will be different proposition, but the team that heads to Stamford Bridge will be a very different one than faced up to them at the Emirates. It will be men v men this time. Don't you dare doubt it.

I can't really remember the goals, Rosicky's was a screamer wasn’t it? And people say he only ever scores 'icing on the cake goals' The most important goal in our season so far? Now we started to believe again.  You've probably seen the goals already for yourself. What I do remember was how everyone in the LadyArse chat room forgot about the two goal thing until we were level, three points being the only thing we truly wanted. We believed as well. Not half-hearted, I'm a supporter so off course I believe, but true 'no fucking doubt' belief. When Cesc got the equaliser, then we wanted two more. There were no thoughts of hanging on, no fan thought that. The team didn't think that. We weren't here for the draw and we weren't leaving without that win and top place.  Could we dare think that this team could come from behind and score four against a team who got away with murder yet again?  Was that Gallas's intention when he stamped on Davies ankle just prior to the goal? You won't fucking bully us out of this one you cunt?

We dared and we did.

There is no doubt that Gallas wrecked Davies, but if you're gonna dish it out constantly you have to learn to take it. The Fox commentators never fucked up about it, like it was ANYTHING compared to what sustained attack Bolton had done to Arsenal over both matches, and the fact that Cesc went on to score while he lay in agony on the ground was just that little bit sweeter.

I'm not condoning what Gallas did. I'm just not condemning it either. (though it was a shocker wasn't it? lol)

And then it was three. The Verm, with a rifle. And four, Arshavin. All the big guns stood up and said 'COUNT ME IN.'



The only downside to the evening, apart from Almunia saving yet not saving the penalty, or not diving at all for the first (ok, so he wouldn't have got it but TRY and you might once in a while, and I know he made a couple of decent saves but he frustrates the hell out of me) was Diaby being taken off injured. I hope it isn't long-term. But it's Diaby. Hopefully he was going to be rested at the weekend anyway because without Ramsey, Nasri and Song we need him. Need him badly.

I'm not going to moan about the stonewall penalty, a carbon copy of the one at the Reebok. We don't need your penalties. Shove them up your fucking FA hole. WE.DON'T.WANT.THEM.

What I do want to know is what Owen Coyle said to Wenger at the end of the match which left le Boss shaking his finger as he walked away. Was he moaning about the Gallas tackle? More than likely, but how can he stand there and complain after what he team did to us over 180 minutes? He called it an 'assault' after the match. Hypocrisy eh? He even criticised OUR fair play for not kicking the ball out. Wenger 'didn't see it', but he challenged the interviewer to put all the tackles together from both matches and he would show him some bad tackles. He also said we never knew he was down, why should we put it out? I love this Wenger. He wouldn't have said that last year. I fucking love it. No doubt there will be more focus on Gallas’s challenge than our performance, or how Bolton assaulted us for 180 minutes, and will do the same next season, just as they did it last.

Mark Davies left the Emirates on crutches. Half the Arsenal team were lucky they didn't do the same. And whether Diaby is on crutches or not they didn't bother to mention. Or show.

So we’re top of the pile, yet somehow third favourites. That’s ok with me. I like the underdog status.

We’re top of the league and it is all in our hands. Some doubted this was possible after Chelsea, but I said it was. I knew the Chelsea defeat wasn’t a true reflection of this squad. I just didn’t think it would happen so quickly.

So next up is Stoke. You should try and join us in the chat-room, it was great craic. And what a match to launch it with.

Is it time to start gloating?

I think it just might be...just for a little while at least.

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If your so inclined, there's some new Arsenal Tshirts available on pre-order, more info on which can be found here

And you can find loads more Arsenal 6x4 prints here

]]>2010-01-21 00:00:00<![CDATA[LadyArse Arsenal Caption Competition No 1.8]]>

Caption 1.8, three points for the funniest, one for the second, and the league table will be published with every Friday competition from now on.

So let's have it you witty walruses:

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]]>2010-01-21 00:00:00<![CDATA[LadyArse Arsenal Competition No. 1.7]]>

Caption 1.7, three points for the funniest, one for the second, and the league table will be published with every Friday competition from now on.

So let's have it you witty willies:

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]]>2010-01-20 08:00:00