I know what you're thinking, WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN? 

Well, to answer that question completely honestly, I haven't had time to reach down and tie the shoe on my right foot whose strings I keep tripping on, on a daily basis let alone update the SSCannon (which grieves me deeply I must say).  Hopefully, you all have been keeping well in my absence though.  The good news is that the one thing I have been able to, miraculously, is catch the US games.  Sadly, I was  unable to find a stream for my mac for the Arsenal game, but I did follow along through espn's gamecast feature and managed to see highlights thanks to FootyTube.com.  

Anyway, I'm so far behind that I really shouldn't waste anymore time in explaining why I'm so far effing behind, and should just really get into the news of the day/days gone by.  So here's a summary of the week's international goings on and my quick thoughts about the US national team.  Tomorrow I will get into everything Arsenal. 

Well I'm in a generally good mood today and its more than likely that this extra boost is being caused by the USA's double at the weekend.  The boys held off a talented El Salvadorian team to secure all three points in a crucial home fixture as well as a staunch performance in Port-of-Prince.  Sure, we were supposed to win and were supposed to qualify for the World Cup.  But my relief and excitement at all six points taken is fully justified all the same.  Another thing that isn't quite minor was the atmosphere in the stadium Wednesday night.  Too say nothing more, it was amazing from start to finish.  From what the announcers said, there were apparently 70% Salvadorian fans at the Rio Tinto Stadium.  Honestly, I doubt it.  For my evidence I present the fact that John Harkes = moron and arm-chair quarterback.  Secondly,  From the one or two views of the whole stadium that we got, it seemed that most of the crowd was wearing pro-America red with only pockets of blue.  Anyway before I digress any further, back to the amazing atmosphere.  The singing of the national anthem before the game set the pace for as much of a pro-American crowd as its been in a long time.  Even from the television feed, you could hear the crowd singing along, noisily and off-key, but oh so beautifully all the same.  Then throughout the game when the Salvadorian fans tried their "Si se puede" chant, US fans drowned them out with "USA, USA!!".  And they yelled it from start to finish, spurring on the boys.  It was simply majestic.  For anyone reading this that was at the game cheering on the boys, the bud light I'm cracking open's for you (yes, I drink and study at the same time).  A job well done.   

Concerning the game itself, something that I didn't know going into the game was that we had some 9 players sitting in yellow card suspension trouble, which is more than concerning when you look at the number of cards players from the US seem to pick up, warranted or not.  Add to this the number of fouls being called at the beginning of the match, and a midweek game against Trinidad and Tobago without star players Bocanegra, Donovan, Bradley, Dempsey, and Altidore just to name a few was looking more and more likely.  Fortunately for us, we broke our propensity for getting needless yellow cards and had a full strength team available for the second match in T&T.  

I'm basically going to just group my concerns and feelings into a few major talking points I felt as I watched both of the games, so I apologize ahead of time for all of you that expected a comprehensive look at each game.  In all honesty though, the boys pretty much played the exact same way in both fixtures.

1).  Bocanegra really needs to step up his game

I cannot tell you how shocked I was at the two performances Carlos put in last week.  I'm not going to go off my rocker and call for his head, but his return to the CB position is a constant reminder of why we need Jay DeMerit and Oguchi Onyewu to be healthy come next June.  I know the backline wasn't exactly sturdy in either game, however I don't think there would have been half errors at the back had we seen the normal starters take their place.  In the  second match up with Trinidad, Gooch's physical presence alone I thought had a calming effect on not just the defense, but also the team in general.  Most balls that were even semi-threatening that came his way were quickly ushered into safety by the Milan man.  Thats exactly the type of defending we need to see at the heart of the defense.  Solid, consistent play that allows the team to build from the back.  

2).  Jonathan Bornestein's Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde show

Speaking of uneasy defending, Bornestein's performance at midweek was nothing short of dreadful.  He was beaten constantly and was given a hiding by ex-American youth Arturo Alvarez who was even carrying a hamstring injury.  Thankfully for the US, Alvarez had to be subbed at the half which led to a slighty easier time for Bornestein in the second half.  Besides being made to look like a 3rd grade girl playing in a competitive college men's game, Bornestein then had the audacity to try the stupidest clearance I've ever seen in a US game to date.  Instead of taking the ball down and playing it up the side, he elected to kick the ball backwards over his head, from a standing position.  Unfortunately for Jonathan, he "cleared" it straight into our own box, where it was promptly crossed to the far post and a lazy header somehow found a way past Tim Howard.  After his horror showing, you would have bet your house that Cherundolo would get the call on the left side over Bornestein.  However,  Bradley thought otherwise and to his credit and my utter shock, it completely paid off.  Bornestein might have been one of the better players in the team for the US on Saturday night.  He seemed to be everywhere breaking up tackle after tackle and even finding some time to harry forward and swing in the odd cross or two.  How could this be possible you ask yourself? It really just doesn't make any sense. Against a smaller, more nimble team you would expect an athletic, small fullback to perform decently well.  And using that same logic, against a bigger, stronger, more physical team in Trinidad you would think that a smaller fullback wouldn't be ideal.  Well, fuck our logic apparently.  Again, it just comes down to consistency, and for me Bornestein isn't reliable at the back.  Imagine if he would have pulled that type of performance against Germany or England in the World Cup.  There has to be better options at backing up Bocanegra on the left.

3).  Benny vs. Clark

With this morning's news from Schalke that Jermaine Jones might require another operation to fix his broken leg meaning that he possibly could be out of contention for a World Cup place, the battle for the starting spot next to Michael Bradley is starting to sizzle. The decision between these two really depends on where you want to play Bradley.  Michael has shown himself to be successful in the holding midfielder role, but has also show glimpses of his playmaking capabilities when he gets into an advanced position.  Plus, he's never afraid to pull the trigger when the chance presents itself.  Benny Feilhaber was one of the US's better players for me in the first game against El Salvador.  He showed an eagerness to get on the ball, and then great vision to pick out passes to his teammates.  He also is probably one of the most technical players in the US player pool.  From what he showed against El Salvador, his defensive presence has also improved.  I don't remember a time when he wasn't tracking back to help cover rushing attackers, or a time when both him and Bradley got caught up the field at the same time.  One more check mark in his resume is that he is a threat off of set pieces.  When he's on the field, I think he should be the one bending balls into the box, not Donovan who is hit or miss with his set piece delivery.  Ricardo Clark however, is completely opposite to Feilhaber.  He likes to sit back and cover for Bradley, allowing Michael a little bit more time in the offensive side of the pitch.  Usually he's not known for his offensive ability, but at the weekend it was his superb strike that was the difference in a hard fought win against Trinidad and Tobago. Still, don't expect him to be popping up on the score sheet very frequently, even for an assist.  While he has the edge when it comes to defensive tenacity and positioning, he lacks the technical ability and vision that Feilhaber can bring.  Its a hard call to make between the two, but purely out of what I have seen, I'm going to have to pick Clark to start over Benny.  Why?  Because to me Benny is the best option off the bench for the US.  He might not bring overwhelming speed like Holden or Rogers, but his sublime passing and vision could be just what the doctor ordered in a tight match in the world cup.  

4).  Who needs a midfield anyway?

Did anyone else notice that we completely bypassed the midfield in both second halves of both games?  Yeah, it was stupid.  After taking the lead, that is precisely when one of the team leaders needs to step up and tell everyone to calm down and possess the ball.  We needed to slow down the tempo of the game, but instead we decided to try to hit our opponents on the break....every single time we got the ball.  The only thing thats going to come of that is that our midfield will tire, and lead to more bypassing of  the midfleld.  

Thats all I got, mainly because I can't remember anything else.  I probably need to start taking notes or something.......Ahh, i hate taking notes.  I'm well aware this is a shyte post, more quality next time.  

Hello to you all again.  Hope this long weekend has you longing for some good soccer.  What to watch, what to watch?  France-Romania, Portugal-Denmark, Argentina-Brazil?  Fuck that, how about some USA-El Salvador?  Ok, so maybe not as, erm, marque but still important nonetheless.  Tomorrow the United States' finest face off against El Salvador for the return leg of the qualifying round.  For those who have chosen to selectively forget (and I don't blame you), the USA's initial trip down to Central American country didn't exactly go as planned.  Fresh off an opening qualifying win against  Mexico at home, the boys stumbled to a late 2-2 draw needing 2 goals in the dying moments by veteran Frankie Hedjuk and then young boy Jozy Altidore. 

Things will definitely be different this time around, at least when it comes to the environment of the game, but hopefully the outcome as well.  The US will be playing in the 20,000 seat Rio Tinto stadium in Salt Lake City, and this time will more than likely have a largely pro-American crowd on hand.  As of this moment (the evening before the game), there is still available tickets which tells us two things.  One, that there won't be 20,000 screaming Salvadorians there.  Two..... well, maybe it tells us just number one.  

Anyway, the game tomorrow is the perfect chance for the Americans to get back on track after a bitter loss to rivals Mexico, who now look posed to make a late run to qualify for next year's main event.  For the US, tomorrow's match is important because we just can't afford to eff things up at home.   So far our home record has been superb and its mandatory that we take all points from any fixture inside the United States.  We need to keep those points to stay ahead of the surging Mexico in qualifying ranking so that we can have an extra edge in the seeding for the World Cup draw.  Last week coach Bob Bradley named his squad, so lets have a look at what we'll be sending into the fray (not the band).

Goalkeepers:

Tim Howard and Brad Guzan

Defenders:

Carlos Bocanegra, Jonathan Bornstein, Steve Cherundolo, Jay DeMerit, Clarence Goodson, Chad Marshall, Oguchi Onyewu, and Jonathan Spector

Mifielders: 

Landon Donovan, Kyle Beckerman, Michael Bradley, Ricardo Clark, Clint Dempsey, Benny Feilhaber, Stuart Holden, Robbie Rogers, and Jose Francisco Torres

Fowards:

Jozy Altidore, Conor Casey (apparently Bob Bradley's other son), Brian Ching (fuck), Charlie Davies, and Robbie Findley

By the way, for all those wondering, yes this squad is going to be the one used for both the El Salvador match at the weekend ane the Trinidad and Tobago game next Wednesday.  A small squad if I don't mind saying myself, but it'll have to do. A few matters of significance before we get into who's going to start and where.  First off, Gooch is suspended for tomorrow's match due to yellow card accumulation which sucks.  What sucks even worse is the possible injury to the other center back Jay DeMerit.  I've been searching all the websites I can think off to get some clarification on his injury, but there seems to be some discrepancies as to what exactly he  injured, when he'll be fit again, and if he's injured at all.  As of 9/3/09, the Watford FC website has our star man listed as fit and I'm sure they wouldn't have let him go if they had doubts as to his fitness.  Hopefully Jay can get over whatever is bothering his back/hip/groin/badass gene in time for the game.  

Then there's the two newboys: Robbie Rogers and Robbie Findley.  For those of you who have been keeping tabs on the former Robbie, its no real surprise to see him called up after his stellar performances in the Gold Cup and I think there's more than one US soccer fan that thinks this is another step in the right direction for Bob Bradley and US soccer in general.  Rogers brings blinding speed with a great natural left foot.  Oh, did I mention the kid can strike the ball?  Throughout the last two years some of his goals have been nothing short of outstanding, here's to hoping he can bring the same energy and skill to the US 'A' team.  

While Robbie Rogers is a name that many US soccer know, Robbie Findley may be one that doesn't strike a cord.  For those of you that don't know him, here a brief history (no, not from wikipedia).  Back when the U-20 team was headed to the U-20 World Cup headlined by stars like Freddy Adu and Jozy Altidore, Robbie Findley had to watch from his couch in England after breaking his ankle just prior to the tourney.  He was at that time, plying his trade with Bolton's reserves and on the cusp of breaking into the first team from all accounts.  Unfortunately, after his injury, the speedy forward struggled to regain his form and after some time made his way back to the MLS, where I believe he signed for Toronto FC before moving to Real Salt Lake.  Had things not gone sour right before the World Cup, he may have established himself as an up and comer much like Jozy Altidore, Robbie Rogers, and Stuart Holden at the time.  I confess that I've stopped following him after he moved back to the MLS, but apparetly he's shown good enough form to get a call up to the full national team.  Now don't expect him to be in the starting line-up, but a late cameo for a tiring Charlie Davies or Jozy Altidore when the game is locked up might be in order.  Either way, its a great chance to see if he's really got back on track to being the star he can be.  

My final point before announcing my starting 11, is that Brian Ching and Conor Casey made the US roster, again.  I'm still not sure what any US coach has ever seen in either of these two.  They are good MLS strikers, but can't hack it in the international game and surely aren't two of the four best forwards the US has. Whatever. 

This might be an abrupt transition, but here's our probable starting line up for El Salvador:

Tim Howard

Cherundolo, Marshall/DeMerit, Bocanegra, Bornstein

  Dempsey, Bradley, Clark, Donovan

               Altidore  Davies

Nothing too crazy, just the standard 4-4-2 we've been seeing.  Tim Howard has had a rough start of the season to put it lightly, but I have no doubts that he'll be starting for us.  Old boy Cherundolo will again take his place on the right hand side, even though I think the job should have been Spector's to lose after the Confederation's Cup.  If DeMerit's not fit, expect to see Chad Marshall slot in along side Bocanegra in the middle and Bornstein will come in to fill the gap on the left.  I'd like to see Spector given some time at left in these two games, but I've come to realize that Bob Bradley and I don't exactly see eye to eye on many things.  Midfield is unchanged, and shouldn't be until Jermaine Jones gets stateside.  Finally, our sharp shooters up top have been on absolute fire with their new clubs this season.  Jozy already has a goal and an assist to his name, assisting on a goal 28 seconds after his making his Premiership debut.  Davies isn't exactly struggling either with Souchaux, opening up his French account with two goals from four appearances.  

One last thought, completely un-US vs. El Salvador.  It actually is about karma.  Now, I'm not one of those "don't do that, it'll give you 7 years of bad karma" type people.  However, many of you are aware of Adrian Mutu's completely unfair court order to pay chelski 14 million pounds.  For those of you that aren't, here's a brief dossier on the situation, bear with me.  In 2003, Mutu did coke, failed a drug test administered by chelski and was promptly booted from the team and had his contract nullified.  They did this because they are uncaring bastards, because if they had actually cared about their player, they would have tried to rehabilitate the player.  Anyway, they let him go for free.  He was then signed on a free by Juventus and completely turned his life around.  Now with Fiorentina and in high demand, chelski are now seeking 'damages' from him.  The stupid morons that run that club don't realize that if they didn't like the player that much, they should have sold him on the next transfer window instead of axing him.  To the point of my story, this morning chelski have been banned from signing any players for the next two transfer periods because of the way they lured some youth player.  HAHA.  How's that for karma you west London pricks?

Ok, lets just cut to the chase.  Yesterday's game was gut-wrenching.  We controlled the game for the most part and really should have had Manchester United dead and buried early in the second half.  But we shot ourselves in the foot, yet again. 

As predicted, United got off to a bright start with an early chance landing to Darren Fletcher inside the box, but the Scot could only send his volley soaring into the stands.  Soon after though, Arsenal got into the flow of the match and settled into a good groove of possession passing.  Speaking of Fletcher, both Wayne Rooney and Alex Ferguson called him the player of the match, however, I'm not really sure they were watching the same game I was.  Because the game I saw, saw Fletcher repeatedly kick, shove, and foul Arsenal players.  For awhile there I thought someone had slipped Lysergic acid diethylamide into my drink because referee Mike Dean apparently had not been seeing the same thing.  A quick phone to a fellow Arsenal buddie in San Francisco assured me that I was definitely not hallucinating and that there indeed had been many 'ghost' fouls.  

Now I knew we were mostly likely not going to get any penalty decisions from the start in leu of last week's Eduardo antics.  And for any potential appeals, it had definitely better be a rock solid case.  The thing that bothers me is that we didn't just have one of those, we had two.  The second was the easiest call to make and Mike Dean should have been able to call it from a lawn chair while talking to Almunia on the other end of the field.  We'll get to the second appeal in just a bit, but first lets move to van Persie's.  

With Arsenal dominating the game with fluid ball movement from side to side, the ball found its way to Robin van Persie's feet on the right hand side of the pitch.  After a few sideways moves, he cut into the box where he was confronted by both Patrice Evra and Wes Brown.  He feigned to the left (Evra's side) and cut right taking on Brown.  As he glided away from Evra, the Frenchman stuck out a foot and caught Robin on the left leg, tripping him in the box.  Robin, the stud he is, trips, maintains possession of the ball, takes on Brown, cuts away from him and is tripped AGAIN by Evra who just hacked at his left leg.  Mike Dean, who has now had two chances to give the penalty from his position which had a clear, unobstructed view of the incident, instead says (and now I'm quoting), "Fuck you Arsenal, you're going to have to do better than that", before screaming "play on".  Ok, if you read the laws of the game, the referee only says the words "play on" when there has been a foul committed and the team who had been fouled maintains an advantage.  So obviously RvP fouled Evra by leaving his leg out there to be kicked, and we were fortunate to not have him be booked for this grievous offence. 

After moments later, the ball was driven down the field by Denilson who fed the Diaby down the right after out-muscling Michael Carrick.   Diaby picked his head up and served a delightful ball to the back post to the unmarked Andrei Arshavin.  Yes, Man U left him unmarked.  

He collected brilliantly and as Fletcher slide in to cover his lapse, AA knocked the ball to the side.  Of course you don't exactly need a major in physics to tell what happens next.  Fletcher went straight past the ball with his feet and right into Arshavin.  Excuse me, I mean Fletcher lunged, and with both feet completely off the ground came straight through him in a scissor movement.  To add to this, in his moment of madness, he extended his arms (to stabilize his flight through the air because he thought he was an air plane) and CLEARLY handled the ball inside the box.  

Lets just count the amount of fouls on this 3 second play.  Fletcher never made contact with ball with any part of his body except for his hands, which by the way is illegal in soccer, while then tackling the opponent.  So there's one.  He handled the ball, there's number two.  He deliberately left the ground and with two feet, attempted to tackle the opposing player in a scissor motion.  I can't even begin to count the amount of times I've seen a red card given immediately for that.  Its a miracle that Arshavin saw Fletcher's stupidity in time and jumped right before Fletcher hit him, or he could have been seriously injured.  To add to that, a ball that's handled in the box by a defender leads to an immediate yellow card for the offending player, and a red card if it directly stops a goal scoring opportunity.  Now everyone's favorite Russian is lethal inside the box and it can be argued that handling is stopping a goal scoring opportunity, but lets give Fletcher the benefit of the doubt because, I mean, he's the player of the game and all.  So count that as a yellow card.  To recap, Fletcher committed two fouls, earning both a red card and a yellow.  Or should have, anyway.

So what did Mike Dean think of this stonewall penalty call from his vantage point 10 yards away?

"HAHA, you Gunners really think you'll fool me with that blatant dive? Fletcher is going to be the player of the game"

Fuck you Mike Dean.  

And AA, fuelled with Russian fury with a trace of vodka, immediately recovered possession and rifled the ball into the net from 23 yards.  At this point Manchester looked to be in a whole world of trouble and at the brink of falling apart.  Too bad we couldn't muster a second goal before the end of the second half.  Still, Arsenal 1-0 at half is something that I would have taken before the game.  

We started the second half with same passion and fire as we ended the first, and some excellent work by our Russian maestro (I'm still trying to figure out a cool Russian nickname for him) teed up RvP from 5 yards.  His first time effort was magically turned aside by United keeper Ben "I wouldn't be starting for a MLS team" Foster.  I'm still not sure he did that intentionally as I've seen him play on numerous occasions and he is terrible and has never pulled off a save as crucial.  The law of averages I guess.  

Moving along, Manchester finally started putting a few chances together.  Then Ryan Giggs who was absolute drivel for most of the match, put through a ball that should never have amounted to anything.  I'm not sure if Almunia was just bored as he hadn't been called into any action up until then, but he inexplicably came out.  And just like that, Rooney took a touch and a tumble which may not be the correct order in which things happened.  But Rooney would never go to ground easily, he's English.  Nonetheless, Almunia's minimal contact was spotted by referee Mike Dean from 45 yards away through a sea of players.  That makes sense.  If you think I'm exaggerating the yardage go and watch the highlights from footytube.  Its lunacy that he can make that call from there, but not see four separate fouls in the box from inside 15 yards.  

Rooney turned in the ensuing penalty and sent an otherwise quiet United crowd into pandemonium.  Then Giggs floated in a completely harmless freekick from the left after a nic-knack foul by Denilson.  What should have been a routine, uncontested defensive clearance was botched so badly I don't know what to say.  Diaby somehow headed into his own goal and left millions of Gunner fans scratching their heads not really sure what just happened.  

The players must have been shell-shocked as well,  because United started to dominate the proceeding from then on.  Diaby did have a chance to atone for his mistake but slid his shot wide of the far post after doing all the hard work to get past 2 defenders.  Berbatov and Nani showed how worthless they both are near the end of the game, both players missing chances to seal the win.  Arsenal continued to push for the equalizer and with 5 minutes of added time giving us some hope. And then in the dying moments of the 95th minute, Gallas  flicked the ball to RvP who crushed the ball into the net causing Arsenal fans to go crazy. His celebrations were cut short though as he saw the linesman's flag rightly raised for offsides on Gallas.  Honestly I never thought in a million years we would have a goal ruled out because Gallas was offside.  

In his exasperation, Arsene Wenger kicked a water bottle in the Arsenal dug out.  Apparently the fourth official found fault with that, called over Mike Dean who then promptly sent Wenger to the stands.  WITH 20 SECONDS LEFT.  To compound problems, they made Wenger get up from his spot in the stands to stand with United supporters, who jeered him the entire way.  Absolutely unacceptable.  That is atrocious from the referee.  Imagine if he had done that to Sir Alex Ferguson.  Unbelievable.  

So we lost to United not because they were better, but because they had a very fortunate penalty and an own goal.  Their only two shots on target, one of which was from one of our players.  As much as it hurts, we shouldn't lash out at Diaby.  He had a terrific game in my opinion with the exception of the own goal.  United got away, but the boys put in a fantastic performance and with lady luck on our side, the game could have easily been 3 or 4 to 1.  And what of our player of the match?  Oh well despite his numerous fouls and sloppy finishing, Fletcher escaped without a card.  Wenger even mentioned him, although not by name, when he talked about a player who got away with over 20 fouls without as much as a caution.  When asked to specify, he responded by saying "if you watched the game you know who I'm talking about".  Yes, I know exactly who you are talking about Mr. Wenger.  

All this is making my head hurt and my heart ache, so with that I bid you adeu.  Til next time.  

Oh man, so much to say with so little time.  Ok so its not so 'little time', but I haven't been keeping to the schedule that I had proposed, for which I apologize.  So where else to begin today other than the all impressive Arsenal F.C.

In case you've been hiding behind a rock, you've heard/seen how utterly destructive Wenger's team have been.   I mean what a way to start the season: 6-1 away, 2-0 away, 4-1 at home, and 3-1 at home. Not too shabby.  

The last Wednesday's game saw Wenger make a few changes from over the weekend, with at least half an eye on tomorrow's match-up with United looming (although maybe not as much now that they are CR7-less).   After giving the fullbacks a rest at the weekend, Sagna and Clichy were restored to the line-up with Vermaelen and Gallas again forming the core of the defense.  In front of them were Denilson, Song, and Ivorian Eboue.  Up top, the gunners started Bendtner on the left, Diaby on the right and Eduardo up top.  In a usual system, I think don't think Eduardo would be well suited to life as a lone striker, but with Bendtner and Diaby roaming, he seemed more than comfortable.  

Which transitions me perfectly to the moment that "Arsenal stole the tie".  Bullocks.  Celtic opened strongly with excellent interchange and all credit to them.  They played an aggressive, pit bull-like game and seemed to trouble the back for the opening exchanges.  However, soon after Arsenal settled into the game and started to control the tempo and flow of the game.  Cue Eduardo.  Now, I'm not going to defend him.  It was a terrible dive and its awful to see something like that result in a goal. The ref can't be blamed really either, having seen the view of the incident he had (and he was in perfect position, or at least textbook position).  From the 'head-on view' of the goal, it does appear that Boruc clips Eduardo's ankle with his leg.  Regardless, expect Wenger to have a quiet word with the Brazilian-born Croat.  It'll probably go something like this, "Eh!, wtf? Don't do it again. Shit, fuck, shit."  Or something along those lines.  

Anyway, Eduardo cooly slotted through the ensuing penalty and the game was done.  Kinda, we just had 65 more minutes to get through.  I don't know about you, but watching the game after the penalty was intensely nerve wracking simply because of the fact that  the Celtic players seemed to up the ante when it came to the physicality.  In deed, according to Arsenal.com, Aaron Ramsey, who was brought on as a substitute in the second half and played phenomenally for the second week in a row, will now miss the match at the weekend against United after he was caught by a tackle late on.  By the way, for any of those who are wondering, I don't care that that was a run on sentence.  

It took us a whole 45 minutes to get going, but after we did we were irresistible.   The second goal was just classic, classic Arsenal.  After working the ball from the back, the ball was played up the left hand side up to Bendtner, whose first time backheel was right into the path of onrushing Abou Diaby.  Diaby, who again had a fantastic game, played the simple ball across the box to pick out Emmanuel Eboue, who should not be confused with greedy, lanky, dickcheek, all the fans hate me and now I'm crying, I moved to Man City because I believe in their project Emmanuel Adebayor.  Eboue magnificently turned the defender, before he rifled in a low shot that left Boruc completely stranded.  For the third goal, some good work by Denilson up the middle found its way to Andrei Arshavin who duly poked it to Ramsey.  Ramsey, after collecting nicely, faked a shot and slid a perfectly weighted ball towards AA, who of course turned his defender and finished.  

There really isn't that much to say about this game.  We dominated.  We dominated early and often, and it took Celtic 92 minutes to get a shot on frame, which happened to go in.  Celtic weren't at the top of their game, but there was always only going to be one outcome.  

Moving along, after fighting through the qualifiers Arsenal seem to be handed a Champions League draw straight from heaven.  I mean, if you were to have told me that before the start of the season that a draw with AZ Alkmaar, Standard Liege, and Olympiakos was even possible I would have thought you mad.  Seriously though, yes they are good teams.  But they are not title contenders for the CL and it would truly be a travesty if we don't get out of the group.  I'm predicting AZ to be the hardest team to beat away from home, but even that shouldn't stop us rounding out the group as the leaders.  

On to the big game.

United at Old Trafford is a game that both sets of fans get excited for.  Its the first match that I put down in my calendar, and the game that I always want to  win the most.  Unfortunately, last year we got swiped twice with loses, once in the league and once even more painfully in the Champions League.  By fucking John O'Shea.  Damn him.  

Again, to my point, tomorrow is the day that I have been waiting for ever since Ruud van Nistelroy broke our 'Invicible' record at 49 games.  I think we have the chance to absolutely blow them out.  We have been playing absolutely superbly and even our 'fringe' players like Diaby, Eboue, and Ramsey getting involved heavily.  That mixed with the onset of teen sensation and Paul Scholes 2.0 Jack Wilshere, make us a very formidible force to be reckoned with.  And honestly, United haven't been putting their best foot forward as of late.  After starting slow yet again, they crushed a sorry Wigan side by 5.  Oooo.  That was also the team that were absolutely thrashed by Blackpool 4-1, so I'm not so sure of how good of a gage the Wigan match is for United.  Are they only 1 goal better than Blackpool?  Of course not, but are they 1 goal better than the Arsenal?  I don't think so.  

One of my favorite bloggers, Arseblog, is tipping our favorite Russian playmaker to be the difference on the morrow.  A fair pick, but I've cast my own eye on another player entirely.  One whom no one would think to be the difference maker.  And who might this be? (Drum roll) 

NICOLAS BENDTNER!!!!!

I honestly think that tomorrow we will see the advent of one of the most productive strikers for our team this season.  He might not have opened his account for the season yet, but I'm predicting that a brace from Nicky plus another late on by our other leading striker William Gallas to run out 3-1 winners over the Manchester boys.  Bold and refreshing, just like the Samuel Adams in my hand.  

Not too much else for new for Arsenal, except for those pesky injuries.  According to Arsenal's podcast, Cesc Fabregas is "50-50" to make the game.  Also, Ramsey who had a positive scan on his knee, is most likely not going to be risked.   Theo Walcott is still out.  So is Rosicky, but on the positive side, Rosicky has returned to full training, but he won't be fit enough for the weekend.  Finally, don't expect to see Djourou, Vela, or Nasri on the field for the next few weeks as they are still well shy of their recovery dates.  It'll be a fun match at the Theatar of Dreams, and I expect to see a bullish ManU and an attractive Arsenal go at it.  In the end, Arsenal with their new 4-3-3 formation, will be too much.  My predictions on the starting line-up are as following:

Almunia

   Sagna, Vermaelen, Gallas, Clichy

         Diaby, Song, Denilson

   Arshavin, van Persie, Bendtner

See you at the game! Ok, not really, but come on you gunners!!

Another day, another dollar.....or pound I guess in England.  Either way, Arsenal is looking more and more unstoppable and from all the signs, this could be The Season (I don't think I have to explain what I mean by that).  Yes I know, its only two weeks into the season.  Even Le Professor himself said that it takes ten games to determine league standing, paraphrasing of course.  The point I'm trying to make though is that Arsenal were completely written off as having no chance for the title and were the most likely of the 'Big Four' to drop out of the top four.  Before jumping into Saturday's game versus Portsmouth, lets just take a look at how the other teams in the Big Four are faring. 

Lets start with Liverpool, a side that most pundits had finishing easily on top of us before the season began.  The Reds were thrashed by Aston Villa 3-1......at home.  The best part of this is the fact that it was their second loss of the season, their first coming courtesy of our own cross-town rivals Spurs.  The only team Liverpool have beaten is Stoke City, a team completely out-gunned when it comes to available talent.

Then there is much malgined Manchester United, albeit this year without their get-out-of-jail card that was CR7.  Last year, it was Cristiano who grabbed the Mancs by the trousers and dragged them to victory time and time again much to the irriation of Chelsea and Liverpool fans.  And even though he won the big games for them, he was also the inspirational difference that won the scrappy games against 'lesser' opposition, something that Arsenal lacked last year.  If their match against Burnely is any indication, they now lack that ability.  That aside, with the exception of their match this weekend, they have played largely uninspired and sometimes boring football and haven't impressed.  

Finally there is Chelsea.  In all honesty, I think it will come down to Arsenal and Chelsea for the title.  They seem to have a good system in play and Carlo Ancelloti has taken over where Hiddink left off.  Their squad is almost completely unchanged from that of last year and as long as key players such as Lampard and Drogba have good seasons, they will be challenging come May.  

With that in mind, it is utterly foolish to write off the Gunners.  Not only have they managed to play beautifully, they managed to make the scoreboard reflect it.  Their 4-1 trouncing of Portsmouth is the just the continuation of what they have been doing since preseason.  

We started the game with a few changes to the line-up, no doubt with Arsene thinking ahead to the midweek clash against Celtic.  Eboue and Gibbs replaced Sagna and Clichy respectively at the back, while Alexander Song was given a rest with Diaby replacing the impressive Cameroonian.  Finally, Nicky Bendtner was swapped out with Eduardo on the left hand side, moving Arshavin to the right with van Persie up top.  

The game started with a bang as Arsenal immediately got possession and after a few silky passes put Abou Diaby of all people in on goal.  While his shot was blocked away by a sliding Belhadj, the warning signs were there for all to see.  

Again Arsenal grabbed possession after Portsmouth failed to keep the ball and good ball by Fabregas picked out the Croatian Eduardo on the left.  After controlling, he pushed the ball around the defender with infinite ease and cruised on by before cutting the ball back to the top of the penalty area.  The inch perfect ball was met by Diaby who's first time, right-footed rocket found the upper corner.  Pompey, while a little deflated, searched for the equalizer.  After a trip on the left hand side of the pitch, they lauched a freekick into the box.  Diaby was highest to the ball however, and cleared with a header.  Arshavin then picked up the loose ball on the right, found Cesc in the middle, who then sent a terrific through ball to Eboue who had bombed down the right hand side of the pitch.  His first time ball across the 6 yard box found none other than Johnny-on-the-spot Diaby, who cooly slotted it past David James.  Now I must say, Diaby supposedly has been working on his physical game in the off-season, but I attribute his impressive form to his hair, or his unlack of it.  Keep the hair Abou, I think your talents growing with it.  

Credit to Portsmouth as they kept battling.  Finally after a corner from the left that wasn't properly cleared, Portsmouth were able to knock in another cross to the 6 yard box.  This time however, Almunia hesitated, allowing Kaboul to leap higher than the Empire State Building and knock it in.  While I blame the keeper for that one, the sheer height of Kaboul's jump itself should warrant a goal as I swear his head cleared the top of the crossbar.  

Moving along.  

The only remaining action that occured in the first half was a shot by van Persie, who was earlier denied by James from a freekick.  After recieving the ball in the penalty area, he wriggled around a few defenders before seeing his right-footed shot saved well by James before being cleared away.  Only a goal back at halftime, Pompey mustered a few half chances to the start the second half with Piquione wasting a golden chance when he was one-on-one with Almunia. Then came the 'moment of controversy', which in my opinion wasn't.  As Nigerian striker John Utaka was sent in on goal, he was chased by Gallas.  He ended up sprawled out on the floor as Gallas caught up to him at the edge of the box.  Later replays show that he tripped himself, but with our luck from last year along with the protestations from the Portsmouth bench, Gallas easliy could have seen himself sent off.  To add to the hiliarity (at least mine), Gallas popped up on the other side of the pitch minutes later to effectively seal the win.  Apparently City signed the wrong striker from us because Gallas has now scored in all three games so far, making him the leading goalscorer. Wtf?

With Portsmouth consigned to defeat, substitute Aaron Ramsey made a cutting run that was picked out by Robin van Persie and the young Welshman iced the game.  Fantastic play from all our players.  I'm more than impressed with the new partnership of Gallas and Vermaelen, who between them have 4 goals and one assist in three games while only letting in 2 goals on the other end.  However, what impressess me the most so far is how far a few of our players have progressed since the end of last season.  Abou Diaby had himself a fine match and earned high praise from the manager, even being likened to midfield general, Patrick Viera.  If he can stay healthy for the whole season, he could be of tremendous use, especially in the spring when the African Cup of Nations and the Champions League starts in earnest. Alex Song, who will be missing in the early part of 2010 for the ACN,  has also looked very impressive, even though he didn't see the field on Saturday.  He seems to have kicked his habit of errant passes, and his grit and physical presence in the middle of the field have come leaps and bounds in terms of where it was at the start of last year.   Both of these players must step up and become the stars in their own right if Arsenal are to hoist any silverware this season.  Above all else, they need to stay healthy, which brings me to my final point.  

Aaron Ramsey was subbed on at halftime for Cesc Fabregas, who limped out with a hamstring injury.  All fingers crossed that it's nothing more than some tightness, with the big game with ManU next week and all.  Nasri, Walcott, Djourou, Rosicky, and Vela are all still MIA with injuries so the last thing we need is for our captain to join that list.  It'll be interesting to see how Wenger will replace Cesc for Wednesday's CL match against Celtic, but from what we've seen of Ramsey so far, it may be the perfect situation to give the lad some big game experience.  Hopefully there will be some news on the situation tomorrow, and I'll have it here for the preview for the Celtic match.  Til next time.