Crystal Palace vs Arsenal 0-2

Huge win for us today! Many will think "well if we don't beat fucking Crystal Palace, who will we beat?" but to Palace's credit they put in a very good performance and made it extremely tough for us today. If it wasn't for Szczesny, the scoreline could have looked much different.

We struggled for big periods of the first half. Palace were very organized at the back and we were having a very tough time breaking them down. Except for an early header from Giroud and a strong Ramsey shot that was blocked, we didn't create too many chances. On top of that, our passing was a bit sloppy and we weren't passing the ball around freely. On the other end Crystal Palace weren't shy to shoot the ball and Bannan missed a great chance, just curling his shot wide.  

The second half couldn't have started any better for us: Gnarby made a great move in the penalty area and was brought down. Arteta took a great penalty and we were up in front.  We really needed that goal to change the flow of the game and calm us down a bit. Unfortunately and inexplicable if you ask me, 20 minutes later, we had a corner kick and Arteta was one of only two players back in our half of the pitch. In contrast Palace had 3 players charging towards our side of the field and when Chamakh got the ball and Arteta brought him down, shit got real with a red card for the Spaniard. After the red card there were 10 minutes where we were fortunate not to get scored on with Ward hitting the crossbar and then Szczesny coming up with a phenomenal save from Jedinak's shot.

But to be honest, after we weathered the storm, we played much better with 10 men than we did with 11. It's true that Palace had to go forward and that opened up space for us, but we were passing the ball so much better and eventually got a second goal from Giroud after an unbelievable pass from Ramsey.

Winning today was vital for us if we want to stay in contention for the title. The tough matches are coming up and we needed to have all the points that we can get before we go into that tough stretch of fixtures. Not long ago we would have folded and probably tied or lost in a game like today's, but we showed some big balls and desire to close out the game!

Notes:

The defense looks shaky which is not good considering Suarez and Co are coming to town next week.  The diving Uruguayan is in great form (scoring a hat-trick today) and we will need to be rock solid at the back to keep him and Sturridge at bay.

Ozil really needs to improve physically so he can be even more dominant in this league. In the first half he was getting pushed around constantly and it affected his passing. He was much better in the second half, but was running out of gas towards the end.

Cazorla is still struggling to find his form. Showed flashes of his abilities at times today, but a lot of his first touches were off, also missed a lot of passes. We need him to find his form soon, because he can be deadly when he is playing well.

Flamini hobbled off early with what looked like a groin strain, we need him back ASAP because only him and Arteta are playing like true defensive midfielders for us.

Wilshere really livened things up after he came on as a sub, same could be said for Monreal who made some great runs going forward.

I would like to see a lot of changes for the Capital One Cup game against Chelsea. Guys like Vermaelen, Bendtner, Rosicky, Monreal, Gnarby, should be starting. We have good enough players who are not playing regularly, to play and get a result against Chelsea.  

Big games coming up, let's hope the team can keep rolling. C'mon You Gunners!!!

West Brom vs Arsenal 1-1

Tough game for us today. From the start we didn't look as composed and as fluent as we have been in the last 9 matches or so. Going forward we were uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball, even though we had a good amount of possession we never really created any chances in the first half. West Brom did a great job of closing us down and making it difficult for us to find any space in their half of the pitch. On top of that, when they got the ball, they weren't scared to pass it around and put us under pressure. Our defense was struggling all day long, Sessegnon and Amalfitano were consistently threatening, sending crosses and making dangerous runs. After one of those crosses Yacob scored a nice goal, but you have to wonder why no one was even close to him. After what both teams showed in the first half, West Brom were deservedly in front.

We played much better in the second half, but the game could have been out of reach for us had Anelka scored the great chance that he got, being one vs one with Szczesny. It was a simple pass on the wing and bad defending by us, but luckily Anelka missed a bit wide. We started playing better going forward and Wilshere scored a nice goal after good link up play between Giroud and Rosicky. We created a few more chances after that with Giroud being close to scoring in two situations. West Brom also had their chances in the second half and the game could have gone either way up until the end.

I felt Gnarby could have provided us with a spark today. We needed someone with pace to take advantage of the gaps that were starting to open towards the end of the game. Ozil and Wilshere had some nice through balls for Giroud and even though he did well on some of them, he is not the fastest guy out there. Having Walcott, Cazorla and Podolski back will be a great boost for us and it's games like today when we are not playing our best, that you wish you had some of those guys on the bench.

Notes:

Wilshere was awful in the first half. Constantly complaining and arguing with the refs; lost the ball a lot of times; kept slipping and falling and never looked comfortable out there. He played much better in the second half and credit to him, but he is still pretty far from his best form.

Ramsey looked a bit tired and burned out. I don't blame him given the amount of games he has played lately. He seemed bothered by an injury as well, i hope it's nothing serious.

Rosicky looked very lively, but his first touch was missing the whole 35 mins that he played. He set up nicely Wilshere for his goal, but the rest of the game he had trouble controlling the ball which is surprising coming from him.

Jenkinson's ability in the air is very questionable. On more than one occasion he headed the ball in bad areas and he just doesn't look as comfortable with his head as he is with his feet. Koscielny also had a rough game and was VERY lucky not to give away a penalty at the end. Not so much that he can't bump Long in the penalty area, but his timing was horrible: he bumped him, way before the ball got there and it could have easily been a penalty. I think Mason showed some leniency because earlier he denied us a penalty against Wilshere, which was a 50-50 call but could have easily been given as well. Mertesacker also struggled at times, he was the one who tried to get Anelka offside in the beginning of the second half, but was a bit late in doing so and the Frenchman was alone vs our keeper. 

Szczesny was great today. He made a tremendous save in the first half after a deflected shot. He was also pretty good at coming out of his goal for high crosses.

At the end, considering our performance, a draw is a good result for us even though we need all the points that we can get before we start playing the top teams. Hopefully we will take care of business against Norwich and Crystal Palace in the next two rounds before some tough games against Liverpool and Man U. C'mon You Gunners!

Swansea vs Arsenal 1-2

Another good day for the Gunners nation! I can easily get used to this :) ! Look, there is no doubt that there are a lot of things we can improve on, but the simple fact is that this team is finding ways to win and looks much tougher mentally then any of the teams we have had in the last few years. They play with confidence and belief and you can't teach those, you either have them or you don't.

There were times during the game today, when Swansea were dominating possession and preventing us from imposing our style of play (another big reason i am a huge admirer of Michael Laudrup), but we never looked panicked or rattled. We limited them to very few chances in the first half and towards the end of it, we were starting to look more like ourselves with Giroud missing a great chance, just before halftime. That confidence and calmness is what stands out to me the most so far this season. We waited for our time to come and then hit Swansea hard with two quick goals, which could have been three, if Ozil had scored his chance. 

What puzzles me though, is how our passing style disappears as soon as we have to protect a lead. It's in our DNA to look for quick counter attacks when a team is pressing us hard, but once we go two goals up on a team, i expect us to just start passing the ball around and frustrate them, instead of continuing to look for quick counters and giving the ball back to the opposition. The last twenty minutes of the Swansea game were a perfect example of that: we gave them the ball and simply defended - for the most part, very well. But every time they missed a chance or we won the ball, we immediately tried to run a counter or just boot the ball up field. The more we did that, the more possession they got and eventually created a good enough chance to score. Don't get me wrong, i thought our defensive display today was very solid. I just feel that with our passing skills, instead of booting the ball forward, or looking for a counter, we should simply pass the ball around and make the other team expand energy and patience to chase us around.  

We still recorded a tremendous victory. The games like today are the ones we need to win - when our main rivals are losing or drawing, we are collecting points. We are going to need all the points we can get because we will have a very tough stretch of games in November and December when we play back to back some of the top teams in the league. The more points we can get now, the better it will be for us. It's a very long season, but we have definitely made a promising start and i think this team looks good enough to keep going!

Some quick notes on things that i noticed:

- Some of our passing moving forward today was sublime: very accurate passes done in very high speeds without losing composure or awareness of where your teammates are. Both goals were great examples of that!

- The defense was very good for long periods of the game. Some tremendous challenges from Gibbs and Koscielny. Mertesacker was solid in the air too, and even though he could have done a bit better when Swansea scored, it wasn't all his fault - Bony gave a great pass.

- Ozil's vision and passing are unreal. He needs to improve the physical aspect of his game though, he got bullied of the ball more than once today.

- Szczesny had a great game and looked very comfortable coming out and catching crosses in the box. He just needs to stay grounded and keep working and not get too cocky after a few good games.

- Gnarby is starting to settle in and is showing some great qualities. After a quiet first half, he bursted through the middle and set up a great chance for Giroud at the end of those first 45 minutes. He then showed great composure in scoring his first goal in the Premier League. He is strong physically and not afraid to go into a challenge. If he keeps working hard, the future looks bright for him.

- Ramsey continued his hot run, it seems that he is always at the right spot and his scoring boots have been ON since the beginning of the season!

Seeing Arsenal on top of the table is something i have been waiting for a long time, i want to see them stay there until May and if we stay healthy and keep performing well, this team looks good enough to achieve it. C'mon You Gunners!!!

Arsenal vs Stoke City 3-1

I am not going to lie, beating Stoke City in an ugly game with three goals - all from set pieces - brings me great satisfaction! All these years of dealing with these clowns and all they did was play physical and score on us from a set piece, today was the ultimate revenge in that regard: we didn't play that great, we weren't completely outplaying them, but we scored three goals, all of which, were almost out of the blue.

The game itself wasn't great. Even under Hughes, Stoke were their usual rough and physical team. They definitely pass the ball more than they used to, but when it comes to pressing, they are not shy to foul you.  We started well with an early goal from Ramsey who scored after the keeper had blocked Ozil's free kick into his path. After the goal not much was going on, until the 26th minute when Gibbs had pushed too high up the pitch and lost the ball, a quick counter followed and Cameron was able to score after a scramble in our penalty area. After Stoke's goal we tried to create some chances, but the only memorable one was a blocked shot from Giroud after a great through ball by Ozil. Then out of the blue we scored another goal. Ozil took a corner kick and Mertesacker headed the ball in. Not much more happened until the end of the half.

In the second half, Stoke had a lot more possession than i would have liked. We definitely didn't dominate the game and at times out defense was opened up pretty badly. Luckily we managed to score another goal from a set piece: Ozil crossed a free kick into the penalty area and Sagna (out of all people) lobed the keeper with a nice header. We were able to close the game out without conceding more goals and now we sit top of the table!

If there is an area in our game that really concerns me, it's the defense. We continue to allow teams to pass the ball freely in our half of the pitch without pressing enough as a team. On many occasions today, our defense was beaten, but Stoke didn't have the personnel or the final ball to finish the job and score. I know you can't be perfect in the back and not allow any chances, but we have to be much better than we currently are. Gibbs had an OK game. If he has a weakness in his game, it's his eagerness to always go high up the pitch in an effort to press the opposing players, but when he gets beat and no one is covering  behind him it puts us in tough situations. He did that at least twice in the first half and on one of those occasions we got scored on. He played better in the second half and had some timely interventions. Mertesacker was pretty good today. He scored an important goal which gave us some breathing space and he was alert and on time in most of his tackles. Koscielny did OK as well. He wasn't rock solid, but he didn't make too many mistakes either.  Sagna scored a great goal and was very active on the right side.

Our midfield wasn't great today. Except for Ozil and Flamini, who i thought had a pretty good game everyone else was average. Ramsey scored a nice goal, but his performance was nowhere near close to his quality of the last few games. I think Wenger has to manage him smartly so he does not burn out from playing too many games. Wilshere was pretty active throughout the game and was fouled quite a bit. He had some really good moments but is yet to start impacting the games with decisive passes or goals. Flamini continues to make me happy every time i see him on the pitch. He is playing very solid football and is key for us in his defensive role. Ozil obviously had the three assists, but he also had some great passes throughout the game. I enjoy how fluent and effortless his movement is and i was quite surprised when i heard the TV commentators stating that he didn't play that well.

Giroud had a blank game, but that was bound to happen at some point. He still played pretty well, had some shots blocked and won a lot of high balls. He was constantly getting fouled throughout the game and i was getting worried that he will lose his nerves and do something silly. Luckily, he didn't. Gnarby, came in for Walcott who had some sort of a pelvic injury, and played pretty well in his first start for the club. He looked very comfortable with the ball in his feet and didn't show any nervousness. He didn't create too many chances, but had a few good moments during the game. For a young guy, i thought he did well. It was great seeing Arteta back on the pitch, hopefully he will get some playing time in the Capital One game during the week.

So great result for us today. With Liverpool chocking at home, we are now top of the table at least until next week. I feel that the team is grinding out results when needed and we look strong offensively. With the likes of Rosicky, Arteta, Cazorla, Podolski and Chamberlain after they get back from their injures, our midfield and attack looks very impressive. My worry is that defensively we are not as strong as i would like us to be, but if we stay injury free at center back we should have enough cover with Jenkinson, Monreal and Vermaelen. I would like to see most of this guys start against West Brom on Wednesday, so we have some fresh bodies for the visit of Swansea on Saturday. C'mon You Gunners!    

Sunderland vs Arsenal 1-3

What a nerve wrecking game today! My mood changed from joy, to anger and then back to joy in the matter of 30 minutes. I guess that happens during most of our games anyway, but i felt this game should have been done and dusted in our favor by the end of the first half! That's why when Sunderland leveled i was so pissed, i wanted to break something. We did well to win at the end, but not without some edgy moments.

The game started pretty even, but slowly we took control and started putting Sunderland under pressure. We didn't have many chances, until the 11th minute, when a great long ball by Gibbs to Ozil, allowed the German to run on the left and he gave a nice pass to Giroud who had a great one time finish! After we scored, we stayed in complete control of the game and created and missed a chance after chance! First Ozil gave a phenomenal pass to Theo who had only Westwood to beat but got his shot blocked; Walcott was the guilty party again towards the end of the half, when he had another shot blocked by Westwood and then missed an open header wide of the goal. When we went into half time only 1-0 up, i was fuming, because you know that when you don't finish a team off when you have the chance, things can get complicated later on.

Just as expected, Sunderland got a goal back pretty much out of the blue, after a very clumsy challenge from Koscielny. Gardner took the penalty well and all of a sudden, a game we completely dominated was tied at 1-1 with the Sunderland crowd going nuts! It took is 15 minutes to recover from this goal. We looked shaky at the back and Sunderland were all of a sudden, all over us. Thankfully we didn't concede another goal (Fletcher got one disallowed) and around the 60th minute we started to get back to our football by dominating possession. We put Sunderland under quite a bit of pressure and eventually Ramsey scored a brilliant volley after a great cross by Jenkinson!

The goal was a big boost for us, but our midfield was getting a bit sloppy. Ozil made a few bad passes which led to counters for Sunderland. In one of them, Altidore out-muscled Sagna on the left, but luckily for us the referee blew his whistle and didn't give an advantage, otherwise the ball was already at the back of our net. I understand why Di Canio and the Sunderland players were frustrated, but if you watch the situation carefully, Atkinson blew his whistle way before Altidore got one vs one with Szczesny! That was a huge break for us, but we still struggled at the back until after a great move, we scored a third goal! Great one touch passing allowed Ramsey to be one vs one against Westwood and he didn't miss from there. At 3-1, the game was all but done, but Sunderland tried to score until the end and had some half chances.

The defense today was so-so. They went from having no work and looking very solid in the first half, to looking super shaky after they gave away a cheap penalty. Koscielny as i mentioned, had a very clumsy tackle when he fouled Johnson, other than that he played OK for the most part. Sagna was clearly out muscled by Altidore during that controversial decision in the second half, but then again Altidore is a huge guy and any defender would struggle with him. Jenkinson had a pretty good game, was very active and gave a great cross to Ramsey for our second goal. Gibbs was also solid most of the game, even though at times in the second half, there were some threatening runs on his side of the pitch. It was great to see Vermaelen back even if it was only for a few minutes! We are going to need all the bodies that we have, because Champions League football is starting next week and our squad is not that big right now.

Our midfield was strong today. As anticipated Ozil made his debut, there were reports that he was sick and his involvement was questionable but with the unavailability of Cazorla, he pretty much had to suck it up and play. He made instant impact with his assist for Giroud's goal. He looks like the player we expect him to be: good vision and movement, great passing skills. He gave Walcott a phenomenally weighted pass to get him alone against the keeper. Not many players have that touch and accuracy. Physically he struggled at times, especially in the second half when he gave away some cheap balls and got pushed around a bit, but he will get used to the physicality of the league and will be a huge player for us! Ramsey was obviously our best midfielder today. Not only did he score the two goals, but he was very active all over the pitch. Wilshere also had a strong game, i think he will really benefit from Ozil's presence because it will take some of the attention away from him. He is also a fucking straight up guy man, in the 84th minute, he cramped after a collision, he was about to ask for the doctor to come in and maybe waste some time, but he heard the crowd booing, so he sucked it up and got up and got on with the game. Not many players will do that, most of them would fucking act like they are injured even if they didn't cramp. Flamini was rock solid in his defensive role. This guy brings experience and passion with him and really throws himself out there. 

Walcott was the most disappointing of our midfielders. He wasted three really good opportunities to score and towards the end of the game either got tired, or just got lazy but there were a few moments where he didn't even bother chasing the Sunderland players with the ball only a few feet from him. Then in the 87th minute when Jenkinson broke away on a counter and delivered a cross from the right side, Theo was jogging towards the penalty area, not really trying to get in there and maybe get his head on the ball. For him to build on last season, he has to score when he has clear chances, especially when there are more than one or two.

Giroud was in top form again. Scored a very nice goal with a first touch shot, which looked much easier than it actually is. He also assisted for Ramsey's goal and is getting better at releasing players with one touch passes when he is being pressured by defenders. The only negative for him was that he jammed his knee when he tried to go back for a cross, considering we don't have too many options at striker right now, let's hope he is alright.

So, a great win for us! We need to get better at finishing teams off when we have their backs on the wall, but the good news is that this team looks resilient. We have a lot of players who are maturing and are ready to take responsibility on the pitch. Adding Ozil to the mix should increase our creativity even more. My only worry is that Wenger might overplay the squad. I really hope he rotates players and creates a good balance so we don't burn out this core 13-14 players that are available right now. Arsenal top of the table at least until Monday! What a pretty sight for my eyes! C'mon You Gunners!

Arsenal vs Tottenham 1-0

I know this post is a day late, but i wanted to wait and let the transfer madness finish so i can hopefully write about our new signings if we got any. Luckily for us, we did!

Let's start with the Tottenham game. I thought it was a pretty even game. There were moments when we definitely struggled at the back, but we also played some great attacking football and we could have scored at least two more goals if it wasn't for the fine play of Loris. What i really didn't like were the last 10 minutes of the game, when we were defending for our lives. Letting Tottenham cross ball after ball and just throwing bodies in our own penalty area instead of trying to press them up the pitch and prevent them from crossing the ball in the first place was very frustrating. I understand that playing with 6 defenders at the end, we were just trying to hang on, but a lot of times when you let a team cross enough balls in your penalty area, eventually they get lucky. Hopefully this was just an incident and it won't be the way we will defend every time we are up 1-0 and we are trying to close out a game.

I thought our defense had some very shaky moments, especially on both wings in the first half and overall towards the end of the game. We did however, keep a clean sheet and won a very important game, so i have to give them some credit as well.Szczesny had a very good game. He made some important stops and he was decisive and on time when coming out to catch crosses. He needs to keep his level up for the whole season. Jenkinson started a bit slow. Chadli beat him more than once on the left wing, but luckily for us Spurs couldn't convert. Eventually, Carl settled in and Chadli didn't do much the last 60 minutes of the game. Gibbs was in a similar situation in the first half. Townsend was making some great runs on the right wing and had some dangerous shots on goal. Gibbs didn't help himself much because at times he was pressing way too high up the pitch and leaving big spaces for Townsend to run at. Eventually he also settled down and closed down his side for the reminder of the game. Mertesacker was very solid the whole game. He made a very important block on Soldado's shot after Townsend had set him up in the 12th minute. He also won A LOT of headers throughout the game. Koscielny was also very solid. At times his tackling was a bit rough, but he made sure to let Soldado know that he was in for a tough afternoon.   

Our midfield play in this game was at times breath-taking. Some of the passing and the movement in our attacks were great. The goal itself was a good example: after some great passing and quick transition, we got a nice cross and a great finish. After the goal, in the span of 7 minutes we had three more chances to score with Cazorla's sublime through ball to Walcott being the best one. In the second half we weren't as active going forward but we were dangerous on the counter attacks. I thought Cazorla was our best midfielder. He was passing the ball great and always seemed in control. He created numerous chances for Theo, Giroud and Ramsey and was close to scoring with some good free kicks in the beginning of the game. Ramsey was up and down throughout the game. At times, he was brilliant: he created chances and was battling for the ball like no other. But he also missed some good chances to score and gave away A LOT of balls. I have written down in my notes, at least 4 times when he lost the ball in bad positions. This is the only part of his game that he needs to be more consistent with. Regardless, he put in another great performance and he is becoming even more important for this team. I thought Rosicky was solid but nothing more. He has a bad habit of conceding silly fouls and got a yellow after a needless tackle. He showed his experience though, by toning down his aggressiveness after that and he made sure he didn't get another booking. That's something that Wilshere should take example of. Speaking of Wilshere, i felt he wasn't his normal self. I don't know if it was the stomach bug that he supposedly had, but he didn't have the commanding presence that we are used to seeing from him. I am just glad he is not injured and let's hope that would be the case after the international break too.   

The man who replaced him - Flamini is the type of player that we definetely needed this season (and in seasons passed). He is your typical defensive midfielder and it was good to see him back in an Arsenal shirt! He is not the most imposing player physically, but he is very energetic and determined. He got a yellow for being a bit too aggressive after he came on, but the rest of the game he was solid.

Our forwards had a good game. I thought Theo was very good. He made some great runs on the wing. With one of them, he set up Giroud for the goal. He also kept switching positions and making runs through the middle which created problems for Tottenham's defense and he was unlucky not to score in this game. Giroud continued his great play this season with another important goal from a very tight angle. He has been playing with a lot of confidence and i hope he will keep scoring and playing well.

And finally, to our transfer activity on deadline day. We made only two signings, but one of them is definitely a top class player! Signing Mesut Ozil from real Madrid for 42 million pounds is a lot, but he has the class that we are looking for and i think that he will quickly become one of our main players. He has a lot of experience having played for Real Madrid over 150 times and having won the Spanish Cup, the Spanish Super Cup and the La Liga. He is also a German international with 47 caps for his country. I definitely think that he is a great addition to this team and hopefully he will prove that, by playing well for us.

Our second signing was goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano from Palermo. To be honest i had never heard of the guy, but he has 6 caps for Italy so he must be decent. He is definitely better than Fabianski, because Flappi  is a joke. I think Viviano's arrival will also motivate Szczesny to not have any let downs like he did last year, because he can lose his starting position.

I would have liked to see us get another central defender and maybe another defensive midfielder in this transfer window. Especially another central defender. Vermaelen will hopefully be back to full fitness soon, but he is the only other true central defender that we have. If Mertesacker or Koscielny get injured, we will be in trouble. And with only 3 central defenders, even if we rotate them, there are still too many competitions that we are involved in, so those 3 guys will have to play a lot of minutes. Flamini does gives us some cover in the defensive midfield area but someone like Gareth Barry would have been perfect for us with his experience. Anyway, for now i will just enjoy the fact that we got Ozil and hope that we stay healthy this season! Let's see if we can keep rolling, with a good win at Sunderland! C'mon You Gunners!

Fulham vs Arsenal 1-3

It was a busy week for Arsenal with a Champions League qualifier game in Istanbul and an early Saturday game away at Fulham. Thankfully it was a successful week for us! Very important convincing win in Istanbul and another solid performance against Fulham is making a lot of Arsenal fans breathe a sigh of relief. As a fan, i am very happy with both results. I think that it was very important for the team to bounce back. But i am also cautiously optimistic, because i still believe that our squad needs improvement in the next week or so left in the transfer market.

The win and especially the scoreline in Istanbul was a bit shocking, but to be honest, i thought Fenerbahche looked awful the whole game. They didn't impress with anything and the result was deserved. Ramsey was our most impressive player and is finally starting to look like the player he was before he had his leg broken. Our midfield also looked much better than against Villa. The only negative was the kick in the face that Koscielny took, but from what i hear he should be OK. I hope given the great result we got, Wenger will rotate some players for the second leg against Fenerbahche on Tuesday and we will have a few fresh legs for Sunday's game against the Spurs douche bags. 

Yesterday's game against Fulham was another good result for us. I really liked that Wenger made some changes (miracle!) and especially the fact that Podolski was playing on the left, which allowed Cazorla to move all over our midfield. I have been repeating this so many times at the end of last season: Cazorla should not be stuck on the left wing! He is way too good to be playing on the left wing. Meanwhile Podolski's left foot is perfect for that side. Even though sometimes he gets lost/isolated there, i think that's his best spot to suit the team needs. Podolski is a class player and it was good to see him start a game after two games sitting on the bench.

 The weather conditions were pretty tough, it was raining hard throughout the game and that made the pitch quite difficult to play on. Fulham started very compact at the back and were pressing us well. Eventually we started creating some chances and Giroud scored a great goal even though he was a bit lucky to get the ball into his feet. The rest of the 1st half we kept giving the ball away sloppily and there a few moments where our defense was getting opened up too easily. Luckily for us, in the 40th minute, we played a brilliant counter attack and after Theo's shot was blocked by Stockdale, Podolski put the ball in the back of the net with a great finish from a tricky position.

The second goal really settled us in and allowed us to have a lot of space to work with on our counter attacks. Fulham had a few more chances in the beginning of the second half, but another great counter in the 67th minute pretty much killed the game over, Podolski scoring his second goal of the game with a cool finish. Fulham did manage to score - Berbatov showed a piece of brilliant skill and Bent scored an easy tap in after Szczesny had blocked the Bulgarian's shot. The last 10 minutes Wallcott and Cazorla continued to threatened Fulham's goal but the score stayed 3-1.

Our defense was decent throughout the game. We were opened up quite a few times, but considering the tricky conditions we had an ok performance. Szczesny had a really good game for a first time in a while. He looked solid and made some teriffic saves on this wet surface after shots from Taarabt and Berbatov. Jenkinson was pretty good for the most part. Mertesacker and Sagna had some shaky moments but still put in a good performance. Gibbs was also solid on the left and i was glad to see him back healthy, we need all the bodies that we can get right now.

After the good performance in Istanbul, our midfield looked really good again! This time Cazorla was unstoppable the whole game, switching his position constantly all over our midfield. His link up play and passes were spot on. It was good to see him back to the level he normally performs at. After his awesome play against Fenerbahche, Ramsey had another good game. He did give away some balls cheaply, but he was active throughout the game and continued to threaten going forward. Rosicky wasn't as active as he normally is, but this was his 3rd game in the space of 8 days and he is not 20 years old anymore, so i am just glad he put a decent shift in and didn't get injured.

Our forwards were very impressive today too. Podolski scored two great goals and it was great to see him start a game. His left foot has always been impressive and he took full advantage of the chances he got. Theo had a very good game in Istanbul and today he was very active as well. When he has space to work with, we all know how dangerous he is. The other good thing that he did was mixing things up by cutting inside on a lot of his runs instead of just running down the wing. Giroud continued his great start to the season with another well taken goal and he had a solid game.

I liked that Wenger gave Monreal and Sanogo some game time, hopefully there will be more fresh faces like Frimpong and Zelalem against Fenerbahche. I know the tie is still not won and we have to be cautious. But one or two youngsters mixed with the regulars should not be a problem for us at home. So after this great week of results for us, the icing on the cake would be the news of us signing a quality defensive midfielder and another central defender. I feel those two are more important than another striker, especially if we can't get a real quality one. Let's hope this coming week will be another week with two wins in the bag and a big spanking of the shite Spurs at our house!!! C'mon You Gunners!

Arsenal - Aston Villa 1-3

Not the start of the season that all Arsenal fans were looking for, huh? The sad part is that, because of this club's (board and manager) inability to recruit and hold on to top players, we have become a circus. Heck, top players might be a reach for us right now. It's comical when you know you have injury problems and you loan out one of the few healthy defenders (Ignasi Miquel) that you have, so we can watch good old Sagna play left back for 70 minutes today, because we have only one defender on the bench. That's straight up embarrassing....

On top of that you have a once great manager who in the past few years has completely lost his mind. In his post match press conference, our dear Arsene had the nerve to claim that "We are ready to buy the players if we find that the players are good enough for us. People always say 'buy players, buy players, buy players'. When you tell them 'tell me who?' it becomes much more problematic." I mean is he for real??? How about you had all fucking summer to buy whoever you feel is GOOD enough for us! I can give him a bunch of names! How about Mario Gomez; Gonzalo Higuain; Marouanne Felliani to name a few! As i said a few days ago, you know we have hit rock bottom when a player chooses fucking Wolfsburg over us. So if some journalist had the balls to ask: "Why did Higuain choose Napoli over Arsenal"? Arsene would probably say that the price Real Madrid wanted for him was too high. Well guess what genius? I don't care which shit players you try to bring in the next few weeks, you will probably pay DOUBLE what they are worth just because every single person who follows football knows that we NEED players! So let's just say that the mismanagement of our club is mind boggling.

Now, to the game today. In all honesty, the performance we gave wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. Some of the mistakes we had were pretty bad, but especially in the second half we had enough chances to win this game. There is no denying that the referee Anthony Taylor is an absolute cunt and overall had a very shitty game, but having said that, we still should have performed better.

We started the game very well and scored a great goal nice and early. It's as good of a start as you can ask for. The first 20 minutes Villa rarely threatened our goal and everything was one way traffic. All that changed in the 21st minute when Koscielny made a terrible decision to come out and close in on Agbonlahor who was already going to the right of our goal into the path of Gibbs. As soon as he saw Koscielny opening a lane towards the goal for him, he changed his mind, slipped the ball past him and was one on one vs Szczesny. No complaints for the penalty decision that followed and after a lucky finish by Benteke, the game was tied. The rest of the half we didn't play well, we looked nervous and way too sporadic.

The second half we started much better and actually created some very good chances. First, Theo gave a great ball to Giroud who after controlling the ball with his chest should have shot imediatelly instead of trying to have an extra touch. A minute later, a great one-two between Rosicky and Giroud got Tomas in a great position to score but his shot went high. The little things like scoring one of these chances change games and if we had a certain traitor (RVP) still in the squad, i am sure he would have scored one of those two. Which brings us back to the first paragraph of this post about mismanagement (I don't see Suarez or Rooney being sold to a direct rival). Villa to their credit, were all over the pitch, constantly putting our players under pressure and had a great chance in the 52nd min, when after Wilshere gave the ball away, Delph hit the post. A few minutes later, another bad giveaway, this time by Cazorla led to the second penalty which to me was no penalty at all. Koscielny touched the ball first, but as i mentioned earlier, the ref was a cunt. He then proceeded to sent Koscielny off for a foul that deserved a warning at best. Even with 10 men, Rosicky and Cazorla missed 2 great chances to equalize. Eventually Villa caught us on the counter and made it 1-3.   

The defense today was average. We had some decent spells, but we pretty much gave away the 1st and 2nd Villa goals with terrible mistakes. Szczesny wasn't great today and it seems, he is exactly where he left off last year: needs to be much better! Sagna wasn't at his best, but he was also played out of position for most of the game. He also took a needless fall at the end of the game that looked very, very bad. Mertesacker wasn't great either, in the 52nd min he basically allowed Delph to take his time and shoot unbothered, which could have been a goal had it not hit the side bar. Koscielny also made a bad mistake for the first goal, at times he was too anxious and was over pursuing players, but i don't blame him for the red card, that was just a bulshit fucking call. Jenkinson was solid for most of the game but he looked very rusty going forward and trying to cross.

The midfield wasn't as bad as it looked at times. Rosicky who was hands down the man of the match, was causing all sorts of trouble for the Villa defense throughout the whole game! His dribbling and his vision are tremendous. The one thing that wasn't working for him today was his finishing, but he had an awesome game. Wilshere on the other hand was disappointing to me. He was very energetic, but at times very sloppy with the ball. Going forward he wasn't as sharp as usual. And most importantly, he lost his cool on more than one occasion. Even though he is still young, that cannot be his excuse forever. He is one of the leaders of this team and he should start acting like one. Oxlade was positive for the most part. He gave a tremendous pass to Giroud for his goal and he had some good runs on the wing. At times he disappeared though and to make matters worse, he injured himself by making a stupid tackle, which the cunt ref somehow decided was a yellow for Luna. Ramsey wasn't great, but he didn't make many mistakes and was very active the whole game. Cazorla looked very rusty, especially his first touch and on top of that missed a great chance to tie the game in the 77th minute. Theo didn't have a good game. He disappeared for long periods of the game and didn't really have too many chances. I don't know if his knee injury had anything to do with his lack of involvement.

Giroud was our second best player after Rosicky. He scored a great goal and was very active upfront. Some of his one-two combinations with Rosicky were awesome. The only regret is that he didn't convert the two good chances that he had in the second half. Still, a positive start of the season for him. 

So now, we have a Champions League qualifier on Wednesday in Istanbul of all places and i am expecting a good squad rotation for that game. Oh wait. We have no fucking players left! We are in a position where we don't have enough fit defenders; our midfield is thinner than a sheet of paper and we will have to play the same 11-12 players for the next few games. So much for "easing Wilshere into the season" so we can protect him. Heck, who are we kidding? Wenger wouldn't have rotated the squad even if he had enough players, because that's how he rolls. If we don't qualify for the Champions League group stage this year, Wenger has only person to blame: himself! p.s.Dare i say, it might actually be good for us? Shake this whole club up and make it realize that in the past few years we have been going in the wrong fucking direction and we need changes!

Summer Transfers...or lack there of !

So it's almost that time of the year again: English football season is about to start!!! People are excited and are trying to figure out their Fantasy teams; fans are excited about their club's new signings; the bookies are giving odds as to who the new Premier League Champion will be. And of course every loyal fan thinks and hopes that their favorite team will be the one holding the EPL Champions trophy at the end of the season!

So what are Arsenal fans excited about? You would think the answer to this question would be: their new signings! Well, guess what? There are NONE! Oh, wait there is Yaya Sanogo. In all honesty this guy looks like a solid player. He has good size; was a French Youth International and was instrumental in France winning the Under 20's World Cup this summer.

The only problem is that he is the ONLY signing of the summer so far. I know there are a few more weeks left in the transfer window,  but everyone knows that if you want your new signings to adapt to your team and perform straight away, it's best to get them as early as possible, not after the season starts.

Wenger is talking his usual bulshit how the team he has is good enough, but i don't think that even he believes what he is saying! We need more top class players and we need them THIS season! The sad fact is that not only some players are not interested in playing for our club, but we are targeting the wrong players.

Let's start by talking about the strikers we weren't able to bring to the club or we didn't even target! In my last blog post from last season, i mentioned that it would be awesome if we were able to sign Mario Gomez from Bayern Munich since it seemed that he is not first choice at Bayern anymore. I really believe that Gomez is a top class striker and his goals per games ratio is a good indicator i am right. Not only that we didn't sign him, we didn't even ATTEMPT to sign him!! Instead he signed for Fiorentina for about 17 million pounds. For the quality that Gomez has, 17 million is nothing.

Next on the list is Higuain, he is also a very good player and we at least attempted to sign him. But i guess Wenger wasn't willing to pay the 31 million pounds that Napoli paid for him. Instead he decides to pursue Suarez for a fee of at least 40 million pounds. I have nothing against Suarez and i do think that he is one of the best strikers in the world. The problem is that he is way too hot headed and has proven that he has a tough time controlling his nerves on the pitch. It's only a matter of time before he explodes again like he did against Ivanovic. When you put his disciplinary issues in perspective i don't think he is the right player that we should be pursuing. Not to mention that both Gomez and Higuain were way cheaper than him with very little difference in quality compared to Suarez!. So to recap: we didn't even pursue Gomez; we didn't want to pay enough for Higuain; but we are desperate to break the bank for a player who is an issue when he can't control himself. No wonder Arsenal fans are not jumping for joy before the beginning of the season.

Probably the only good news during the summer was the departures of a lot of players that should have been let go long time ago: Squillaci ("phenomenal" signing by Wenger with a hefty wage), Denilson (still can't believe someone signed him even for free), Djourou (on loan), Gervinho (sold to Roma), Santos (thank the lord that clown is gone). Now we just need to find someone to buy Bendtner and the clear out of players who are not good enough to play for Arsenal would be complete. I am sad that we sold Mannone to Sunderland because he is way better than Fabianski. I don't blame him for leaving though, because he never really got a chance to compete with Szczesny.

And to finish, let's look at our defense. Since Vermaelen is injured for a while, i guess Wenger decided that the smart thing to do is to try to play Sagna as a central defender and loan out Ignaci Miquel! Another bunch of baffling moves by Arsene. We finally got 2 good right backs and 2 left backs (Sagna, Jenkinson - Gibbs, Monreal) and instead of buying a central defender to complement Mertesacker-Koscielny-Vermaelen, we decide to loan out Miquel and play Sagna out of position to see if he can cover for us in case we need him? I mean what the fuck, at some point you have to be realistic and say that the way this club is acting doesn't make any logical sense. If we don't get a solid central defender and a good defensive midfielder, i don't think this team has a chance for anything but a top four finish next season (what's new?)! So, don't blame me if you get a lot of grumpy blog posts coming your way this year, if we are having another shitty season!

C'mon You Gunners!

Newcastle vs Arsenal 0-1

 Today's game was like a deja vu from last year's finale when we beat West Brom away:

1) Koscielny was again the man of the match
2) He scored the deciding goal
3) We won a must win game
4) We didn't play well, but we got a result

The main difference between today's match and last year's is that today we defended much better than an year ago and based on how little Newcastle threatened us in the second half, i feel we deserved to win this game.

When you think about our season, this is the first time in many years when our team has gotten so many scrappy wins. I haven't looked at the statistics but i am sure this season we probably had the most 1-0 wins that we have had in an looong time. Our victories were less flashy and less convincing, but we didn't throw as many games away, as we have done in years past. Does that mean that we are ready to win the Premier League next year? I don't think so. But it shows that we have made some improvements in the toughness area department. We are able to scrap out results when we need to and that is very important for any team that wants to win trophies. So if we make the right additions to this squad, and improve a lot of things (i will mention those later) we might have a shot at winning something next year!

Now, back to the game today. Let's just say that it wasn't the best game to watch. Both teams showed very little creativity going forward and the clear cut chances were far and between throughout the game. We started the first half decent, but Newcastle created the first chances of the game with Cisse missing a great opportunity after Mertesacker was well beaten by Mbiwa. The game continued with both teams trying to impose their will. We had cracks in the defense, especially down the left side where Gibbs were beaten more than once. Going forward, Cazorla missed a good opportunity in the 30th minute after a good pass from Gibbs. Ben Arfa had a dangerous shot over the bar towards the end of the first half.

In the second half we started well and after a mix up and a bad clearance by Harper, Theo had a good chance to score but his shot was blocked by Newcastle's keeper. Podolski was complaining that Walcott didn't pass the ball to him, instead, he should have been attacking the penalty area and maybe would have been able to tap in the rebound from Theo's shot. In the 49th minute Koscielny made his only mistake for the whole game by over pursuing Goufran almost to the middle of the pitch, which opened a huge gap in our back line, luckily Cabaye's through pass was too long and Szczesny collected it. 3 minutes later Koscielny scored a great goal after a free kick and a header by Mertesacker. We really needed this goal because i was sure Tottenham will find a way to score against Sunderland. After the goal, we pulled back a bit but Newcastle weren't able to create many chances. Theo could have finished the game off in the 91st minute, after he made a great run and beat the last defender, only for his shot to hit the side post. That miss coupled with Bale's goal, made the last 5 minutes of our game incredibly uncomfortable for me and all Arsenal supporters. Luckily we defended strongly and came away with a vital win for this team!

The defense was definitely shaky in the first half. Mertesacker was beaten early in the game and then was out of position on a few occasions. He settled down and played much better in the second half. Sagna was our second best defender after Koscielny. He stopped a lot of attacks on his side and was constantly going forward and even had a few decent crosses!. Gibbs on the other hand had a rough game. More than once he was way out of position and Newcastle's attacks kept going through his side of the pitch. Especially in the first half. He did make some of his trade mark runs forward and created a great opportunity for Cazorla in the 30th minute, but defensively it wasn't one of his best games. Koscielny was the man of the match, hands down! Not only he scored the winning goal, but defensively he was a rock the whole game. Made numerous very important blocks; rarely got caught out of position; he was a constant threat at set pieces!

Our midfield was average today. Cazorla continues being stuck on the left wing, so even though he was very active, he wasn't able to influence the game they way he can. Ramsey had a decent game. Made some good passes, had a few good runs, but also gave away some sloppy balls. Rosicky wasn't as sharp going forward and his game wasn't flowing today, but watching him chase players in the 90th minute and trying to win the ball was an absolute joy. What a complete professional and great competitor! He is older than most of the guys on the team but he realized how important this game was and he wasn't saving any energy for the off season. Check out the video below:

Oxlade came in and did a good job. He had some good runs/passes even though at times his final ball was a bit off. But overall he did well. Arteta was a surprise just being on the pitch, maybe they should have let him recover and not play today. Hopefully his injury is not too serious.

Up front Podolski was almost unnoticeable again. I keep repeating that he is not suited to play in the striker's position. He doesn't have the size; he doesn't attack the penalty area well enough to try to get at the end of crosses; a lot of times he goes back way too deep to get the ball. He was average at best in our last game, but just because he scored ,Wenger played him again at the same position. Walcott also wasn't great today, but he was way better than Podolski. He had some very good runs; gave some good crosses; forced two great saves from Harper and with a bit better execution, he would have been on the score sheet.

So today's result was very very important for our team and the Gunner nation! It's sad that we are so excited and happy to be 4th, but the reality is that this season, 4th place was the best we could do and we really had to earn it as well! It's great to snatch Champions League football out of Spurs's hands. It's great for our ability to attract players, that we made it to the Champions League. Now, the most important part for us is to take the next step necessary to start winning trophies. To take that next step, we need a few things to happen:

#1. We need a few good signings over the summer. I would say our main priority should be 1) a right back (in case Sagna leaves); 2) another striker but only from great quality, we don't need some random clowns. If we buy a striker it has to be someone like Mario Gomez from Bayern Munich or Jovetic from Fiorentina.3) We also need a strong defensive midfielder. Arteta has been doing a great job for us in that department, but that is not his natural position and he is not that young to play every single game. Frimpong if he stays healthy might be a good option. Getting 2 or 3 quality signings will ensure we have competition for every spot on the pitch! This way we can be competitive on a few fronts.

#2. If/After we get these signings, Wenger has to MANAGE the team correctly! What i mean by this is that guys like Carl Jenkinson, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Vermaelen; have to get playing time!!! We CAN NOT play the same exact team non stop. That is Wenger's favorite thing to do: if the team is winning, do not change anything. The problem with that is that players get injured and when the subs haven't gotten enough playing time they can't come in and play at the same level immediately. Squad rotation is and has been Wenger's Achilles heel for many years now. I can't stress how important that is.

#3. We can't continue to make players play out of position. Can Cazorla play on the wing? Ofcourse, the guy is good enough to play a fucking goalie if needed. Does that mean we take advantage of his strengths? No. He is most effective playing through the middle. Same thing with Podolski. He is not good enough to play in the striker position and he should not play there. He should be on the left wing.

#4. Do not fucking sell anyone!....except Gervinho, Denilson, Squillaci, Santos and Chamakh :)

I still have doubts about Wenger abilities to adapt to the modern game and the changes he needs to make to his style of management. But i do believe the actions mentioned above are absolutely necessary if we are to take the next step and start competing for something more than 4th place every year! C'mon You Gunners!!!

Arsenal vs Wigan 4-1

First, i want to apologize for not posting about the QPR game, but i only saw the first half of it and even though i taped the rest, based on what i saw and the final score, i didn't feel like wasting 45 minutes of watching us struggle to put QPR away.

I did watch today's game and the result is definitely very good for us. It was a must win game for both teams and the scoreline might suggest we easily trashed Wigan, but in reality i wasn't impressed with our play and the main reason the score was 4-1 were the bad defensive mistakes made by the Latics. Which is the main reason why they are getting relegated as well. They can play some good football (as Man City found out Saturday), but way too often they shoot themselves in the foot by horrible mistakes at the back and giving away easy goals.

We started the game well and dominated possession throughout the whole first half. Unfortunately we didn't create much in front of Wigan's goal and the real chances to score were missing. Our goal came after a corner kick and very bad marking by Wigan. The rest of the half we kept things under control, until Mike Dean decided to give an imaginary foul against Maloney, who scored a very good goal from the following free kick. I was a bit disappointed Szczesny didn't save it, considering Maloney had scored in the exact same manner against QPR a few weeks ago. Me and pretty much the whole stadium, knew where he was going to shoot and Wojciech still couldn't get there.

In the beginning of the second half the game was completely different: we looked a bit nervous and Wigan started playing with a lot more confidence. In the 47th minute Kone forced Szczesny into a great save and this time our keeper showed much more composure. This woke us up a bit and we started pressing again, Walcott set up Cazorla with a great cross, but Santi shot twice at their keeper. A few minutes later the Spaniard returned the favor and this time Walcott showed great pace and desire, to squeeze his shot past Robles and make it 2-1. This goal deflated Wigan and five minutes later they had another horrible mistake at the back with Scharner playing Podolski onside, the German's finish was great and the game was pretty much over. Ramsey scored his first Premier League goal four minutes later and i am glad that he did because up to that point he had played a very average game with two costly giveaways that could have been goals for Wigan. All in all, we did what we had to do - get the three points, but i feel that there are many issues that need to be addressed:

1. Cazorla should not be playing on the left wing. He is much more useful to us when playing through the middle, but Wenger stubbornly continues to make him play on the wing.

2. Podolski is not good enough playing as a striker. He should be playing on the left and i don't care if he likes that position or not, the three games that he played as a striker, he hasn't impressed me at all. He doesn't place himself well for Walcott's crosses; he doesn't make good enough runs to take advantage of Theo's pace; he is not strong enough to out-muscle defenders (same could be said for Theo but at least he has the speed to run by them).

3. We are still not decisive enough in the final third. We have a lot of possession with very little real chances to score. We need to get much better at creating and finishing chances.

4. If we don't play Giroud through the middle, Walcott should be the striker with Oxlade playing on the right wing and Podolski on the left, Cazorla in the middle. One player i would love to see us buy is Mario Gomez! The guy is a proven goal scorer and a big upgrade from Giroud. If we have someone like him at the top of the attack, Theo's crosses will be actually useful.

The defense today was pretty solid. Both Mertesacker and Koscielny had very good games. Koscielny made a great clearance in the 24th minute when Szczesny came out unconvincingly and Kone was ready to head the ball in the empty goal. Gibbs was very good and shut down McManaman for most of the first 45 minutes. Sagna was also solid and there weren't too many attacks going through his side of the pitch. Szczesny was average. He made some good saves, but he was at fault for the goal and as mentioned above, made some questionable decisions.

The midfield was average to good. Rosicky was very active as usual, even though he was having a hard time breaking Wigan's defense down. A lot of his through ball passes were stopped but he had a good game. Arteta was solid. Ramsey as mentioned earlier had a very average game and created some dangerous situations for us with his giveaways, but he did score a nice goal and he doesn't seem to get down on himself even when he is playing shitty, which is a good trait. Cazorla had a very nice game regardless that he is playing out of position. He assisted for the first three goals and if we can win our last game, these assists might be the difference between playing in the Champions League as opposed to Europa League!

I thought Walcott was by far our best player. He constantly tormented Wigan with his runs and kept sending great crosses in the box, even though more often than not, we couldn't take advantage of them. He also showed great hustle and good positional awareness to score our second goal. The run he made for his goal is a great example of how Podolski should attack the middle of the penalty area, when Theo is running on the wing. Podolski scored two good goals, but as i mentioned earlier I don't think he should be playing as a striker.

So, great result for us. I hope we can pull off one more win on Sunday and get the fourth spot, but beating Newcastle at St James' Park won't be a walk in the park. Hopefully we will play a good game and we will make it happen!

Arsenal vs Manchester United 1-1

I am definitely a bit disappointed with the result today. I felt Man U were very poor in the first half and we should have scored more goals or at least kept the score at 1-0, on top of that Wenger completely fucked up the substitutions in the second half. But, at the end of the day, i can't be too disappointed because we could have also lost this game.

Let me address the Wenger issue first. It's not the first time and it won't be the last time that i disagree with his substitutions. What amazes me though is that Arsene is a top class manager (or he was), but sometimes his game adjustments and substitutions are very poor. Today for example, he again took out Rosicky who was one of our better players during the game. I don't mind Wilshere coming in, but the guy who should have been subbed off was Ramsey. Ramsey's performance wasn't even close to Rosicky's, but it's almost as if Wenger is not paying attention to the game and watching who is playing well and who is not. Then he had the nerve to put fucking Gervinho on; and as a striker too! Not only Gervinho is NOT the quality impact player that can swing the game in our favor, you have to give Theo the chance to play up front and use all the space that was starting to open up towards the end of the game when both teams were going for it! And in his last substitution he finally took Ramsey out and put Oxlade in, but now Oxlade was playing through the middle where his pace was not really bothering anyone. It's as simple as this: Wenger should have taken Ramsey out and put Wilshere in his place; then Oxlade should have come in for Podolski - Theo goes to the striker position and Oxlade goes on the right wing. The third substitutions should have been Jenkinson for Sagna, because Sagna was getting frustrated and was lucky not to get a second yellow.

The game itself started very well for us. Theo scored a great goal (even though it was offside) after a nice pass from Rosicky. Throughout the first half an hour, we were very aggressive with our tackling and shockingly that asshole Phil Dowd was fine with it. Not only that, but he kept booking Man U players like it was his job! I couldn't believe it. Not that i was complaining. We dominated the midfield and Man U were uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball. Unfortunately for us, we dominated pretty much the whole first half but the final ball to score another goal was missing. Slowly towards the end of the half we LET Man U back in the game. First, Mertesacker was wayyy up the pitch trying to intercept a pass and all of sudden Nani was flying on the left and put a perfect ball on the "traitor" (RVP)'s head. Szczesny made himself big and made a great save. A few minutes after that Man U put in another good cross, this time from the right side and Sagna made a great tackle on Jones to prevent him from a flying header. A minute later and all the good work from Sagna was wasted. First Bacary made a bad back pass and then he made an even dumber decision to tackle the "traitor" in the penalty area. The poor back pass was a bad mistake, but Mertesacker was covering behind Sagna and the "traitor" couldn't have done much more than maybe try a simple cross. I guess Sagna wanted to redeem himself, but instead, gave away a very stupid penalty and we went into half time at 1-1.  

The second half was more even and there periods where Man U controlled the game. Both teams had chances to win it all, Rosicky and Cazorla were both close with long range strikes, on the other side Rooney and Giggs had opportunities to score as well.

The defense was decent today. I thought both Mertesacker  and Koscielny played very well. They made some decisive and important tackles, especially in the second half when Man U were putting us under pressure. Gibbs was alright, he covered a lot of ground and was trying to go forward, but we rarely tried to attack from the left. Up until the 42nd minute, Sagna was having a good game. His crosses weren't great but they never are. Obviously the penalty he gave away was very poor. That affected his game and in the second half not only did he miss a lot of easy passes, he got away with some challenges that could have been a second yellow for him.

The midfield was OK. I was impressed with how we dominated the middle of the field in the first half. We still didn't find the final ball to take advantage of that. I thought Rosicky was our best midfielder for a second game in a row. He gave the pass to Theo for the first goal, he was very active and early in the second half came close to scoring with a good shot outside of the penalty area. I still don't understand why did Wenger take him out. Ramsey had one or two good moments in the game, but for the most part he was  very disappointing. Consistency is still the keyword for his game. A lot of games he doesn't have it. Arteta was very good. He was a threat going forward and was constantly involved. He did a lot of defensive work too. Cazorla was average. He missed a lot of passes he normally doesn't miss. His final ball wasn't there but i have nothing against him staying on the field for 90 minutes, because he can change the game with one good shot/pass. Unlike Ramsey.

Up front we were decent. Podolski wasn't great and this is frustrating because we all know he is a very good player and then he gets a start today and doesn't do much. Tough to make an argument that he should start instead of Giroud, if he doesn't take advantage of the chances that he gets. Theo scored a great goal and did a lot of work on the wing, but a lot of times with no end product. Regardless, he was dangerous and was a constant threat. He should have been given a chance up front when Podolski came out. Defensively Walcott did piss me off a few times, when he was allowing way too much space for the Manchester players on the ball, instead of closing them down. Wilshere didn't have much of an impact, but neither did Gervinho and Oxlade.

So a point won, but three would have been better. Then again, we could have had 0. The battle continues and hopefully we can finish strong and win our last 3 games!