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!