Rumors have been flying around lately about our former captain, Patrick Vieira. Harry Redknapp, manager of Spurs (boo) has publicly declared his interest in him. Surprisingly, Arsenal great Ian wright has also come out and said that Patrick Vieira is going back to Arsenal. In a summer where we have lost two rather important Africans (and are on the verge of selling another, although he is somewhat less valuable), it is unquestionable that we need to bolster our squad. But the question arises - will resigning Vieira be a good move?

Pros-

- Definitely experienced, proven Premiership player

- Low risk, high reward situation (as a contract offered would be a 1-year, pay-as-you-play deal. And he's a free agent.)

- Stuffing tottenham in their faces

- Ideal leader, one of the big things we have lacked over the last few years

- Fills the defensive midfielder void, which ironically was created by him. Adds some much needed depth/quality to center-midfield 

- The fans will welcome him back with open arms - fan favorite

Cons-

- Is he still good at the age of 33?

- Arsene Wenger will need to eat a lot of humble pie if he decides to resign Vieira

However, it is unsure whether the manager thinks we need to sign a defensive midfielder, although we did apparently have some interest in Felipe Melo. Despite this, I believe that Patrick Vieira is a somewhat tempting solution to our midfield woes.

Read the title. I am not in a good mood.

I just finished watching the Chelsea - Arsenal semifinal at my Chelsea fan friend's house, so you can imagine how ballistic he went when Chelsea won.

Chelsea 2 - Arsenal 1 : Thoughts, and maybe some ratings!

We got off to a decent start, but then Chelsea started to impose themselves unto us. Fabianski had one horrible error saved by Gibbs off the line - a sign of things to come.

We drew first blood through a good pass by Adebayor to Gibbs, who, looking impressive, crossed into the box where Walcott quite weakly struck it on the volley. It hit Ashley Cole, and went in the net. Oh, the irony.

But after that, it was all Chelsea. And predictably, in the 33rd minute, Eboue got beaten by Malouda, whose weak shot beat Fabianski at the near post. All in all, it was really a shot the keeper should have saved.

 We were lucky to escape the 1st half without going a goal down - Anelka hitting the post was pretty close. The game starting to get dirtier, with Walcott and Cole having goes at each other. Ballack was also in it.

---- 2nd Half ------

2nd Half started out better. We got a lot more chances, yet the game got progressively dirtier and dirtier. We should have been awarded a clear penalty when Fabregas was shoved by Malouda inside the area, yet the referee someone did not give. Silvestre was also guilty of a very suspicious handball inside the box, so I guess that evens it up. Denilson was very lucky not to get sent off after having a go at the ref. We started to lose our calm.

And then that's when it happened.

Long ball forward by Chelsea, Drogba and Silvestre competing for the ball, Fabianski stupidly charges out of the area, Drogba goes round him and finishes with his left foot. Fabianski had no right to be there. AAARRRGHHH.

Ratings:
Fabianski: 4. Poor, poor, poor. I think this has screwed his career. Mistake after mistake after mistake. Mainly responsible for both of the goals.

Gibbs: 7.5. Started brightly by saving off the line, and provided the cross for the opening goal. A good performance by the youngster.

Silvestre:  6.5. Guilty for some of our horrible defending.

Toure: 6.5  Showed more calm than Silvestre, yet was still partially responsible.

 Eboue: 6. Not very solid defensively, and his offensive runs usually had no end product.

Denilson: 5. Torrid afternoon. Misplaced passes, lost possession cheaply, and was lucky not to get sent off.

Diaby: 4.5. Torrid as well. Was guilty of many of Denilson's mistakes. His loss of possesion almost gifted Anelka a goal in the 1st half. I was surprised he was not taken off at halftime.

Fabregas: 7. Was a key figure in our attacks, but often had no end product.

Walcott: 7.5. Involved in almost every one of our attacks. His electrifying pace was key, but he needs to work on his crossing. Scored our only goal.

Adebayor: 6.5. Helped setup the first goal. Otherwise, he was pretty anonymous.

Van Persie: 7. One of our main threats. I did not get why he was taken off.

-- Subs --

Arshavin: Did not really have enough time to make an impact. 

Nasri: Same. Too little, too late.

Bendtner: He has scored vital goals, but I did not think that he would have helped anyways.

I sense that Wenger will be very heavily criticized tomorrow.

We might be seeing this guy in an Arsenal shirt pretty soon...

Yesterday, I was full of despair. Our one and only transfer hope walked away from us. I am, of course, talking about Andrei Arshavin.

BUT

Today, I am full of hope. That's because of:

 http://www.goal.com/en/news/1712/arsenal/2009/02/02/1090613/andrei-arshavin-to-arsenal-move-confirmed

Seemingly only after a few hours, this twisted transfer story got even more twisted than a pretzel. 

Instead of Arshavin leaving London, it appears that he will be staying, for 4 years on a 70k p/w contract. And for a 12 million pound fee! This is a real transfer coup in my eyes. After all, Zenit were demanding up to 30 million! 

All we have to do now is wait for Arsenal.com's official confirmation.

Oh wait!

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1712/arsenal/2009/02/03/1091374/breaking-news-zenit-confirm-arsenals-andrei-arshavin-signing

Surely he is an Arsenal player now.

This will greatly increase our Champions League hopes, and may even put us back into the title race. Come to think of it, our starting formation could be:

Almunia

Sagna - Toure - Djourou - Clichy

Walcott - Arshavin - Fabregas - Nasri

RvP - Adebayor

Now that's a world-beating line-up.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1712/arsenal/2009/02/02/1089662/breaking-news-andrei-arshavin-leaving-london-as-arsenal-talks-br

Oh.

Thats the first thing I thought when I saw this article.

Its not true

The 2nd.

SH*T!

The 3rd.

With 5 hours to go in the transfer market, the Arshavin deal has broken down. Apparently we couldn't "afford" Arshavin, which is probably one of the biggest pieces of bull I think I have ever seen. What happened to that almost world-beating turnover we saw last year? Once again, Wenger has taken a risk and I do hope that it pays off. If it doesn't, I imagine that Wenger will be in very hot water come this summer. I do appreciate what he's done for this club, and how he turned it world class, but the failure of champion's league qualification, along with another trophy-less season, could spell bad trouble for the wiley Frenchman.

Side thoughts:

It enrages me when spurs are linked with the likes of balotelli, keane, etc. They have no trouble throwing money around.

Adebayor... what happened?

Bendtner.... more of a super sub than a starter

Maybe Wenger killed off the Arshavin deal after the news that Cesc could return early?

Clichy... ok last time out, not returned to his form last year.

Flamini.... relegated to the bench at AC Milan! oh I bet he wishes that he were back at Arsenal playing first-team football... come to think of it, I do too

Veloso... going to Bolton? We should be right here in the middle of this deal.

More later

First post in a long long time, but here goes.

Predicted Line-up:

Almunia

Sagna - Gallas - Djourou - Clichy

Eboue - Song - Denilson -  Nasri

Van Persie - Adebayor

 WHAT I really hate is the fact that Mr. Wenger HAS HAS HAS to play Eboue and Song, even when they are obviously not up to the standards of Arsenal. 

Last minute team news: apparently Andrei Arshavin will NOT feature in today's game against West Ham.

 Onto the preview:

Tough matchup, with West Ham on a good run of form, and coupled with our apparent lack of creativity they could pose a genuine threat to our fragile team. 

 BREAKING TEAM NEWS:

Almunia

Sagna - Toure - Gallas - Clichy

Eboue - Diaby - Denilson - Nasri

Adebayor - Bendtner

I am very surprised at this particular selection of forwards, and who isn't? Mr. Wenger has relegated our top striker, and probably the best form player in the team, van Persie! Suffice to say, I expected Adebayor to be dropped, after his shambolic display against everton.

Hopefully this surprise change will come out for the best!

Predicted Final Score:
Arsenal 2 - West Ham 1

Own goal from one of the gunners gives West Ham the lead, but Nasri scores and finally van Persie comes off the bench to grab the winner.

Go Gunners!