Or should I saw Wolves 3-Arsenal 2? We come away with 3 points on a scoreline which flatters us
a little bit, on the back of 2 early Wolves own goals which put us up 2-0, a vantage point from
which we never looked back.
Wolves strategy was pretty obvious, and wasn't a bad one as far as these things go.
Away to the midlands tomorrow to face Wolves at the Molineaux. Wolves are a solid side I picked
them to stay up this season, and I actually hope they do.
There's not much else to say other than that that was a sublime performance by Arsenal. The
trophy draught is frustrating, but honestly, when Arsenal plays like they did last night,
dominating another club through sheer skill, technique, and teamwork, it just reminds me how lucky
I am to root for Arsenal.
It was just announced that Cesc Fabregas edged out Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba as the PFA
Player of the Month for the month of October.
Ultimately, of course, such awards are pretty meaningless, and Cesc would probably be the first
to say so. But it is nice that his superb play all month was recognized, as he was consistently
pulling the strings for a club which was undefeated on the month.
Well, just as my preview for the first match against AZ announced a monthlong injury to Theo
Walcott, I'm afraid I've got more bad injury news to report here.
Gael Clichy reportedly has a stress fracture in his back, and will be out for about a month. Two
weeks of that month will be the international break, but he will, at the very least, miss league
fixtures against Wolves and Chelsea and Champions League matches against AZ and Standard.
That could not have gone much better. We may have answered some questions today. For one thing,
of our previous 6 wins, they have all been over bottom half of the table clubs. We just beat a club
sitting 4th in the table, and we did so convincingly. It was also great, given our recent struggles
holding onto leads, to see Arsenal finish off a game instead of sitting on the lead, we grew
stronger and more dominant as the game went along.
Just several random things going on today, none of which really deserve their own post, so I
figured I would just dump them in here together.
First, Lukasz Fabianski, who many were predicting would become Arsenal's # 1 goalkeeper when he
returned to health, hurt his thigh in last night's Carling Cup fixture and will be out until after
the international break in November.
Arsenal beat Liverpool 2-1 to go through to the quarterfinals of the Carling Cup. And look:
sure, it wasn't Liverpool's first team, either; we were playing at home; and it wasn't like this
was a purely youth team Senderos, Silvestre, and Eduardo can all rightfully be called veterans, and
Bendtner, Fabianski, and Nasri are all young but have a lot of first-team experience.
Carling Cup tomorrow, with a home matchup against Liverpool.
As I've said previously, I feel a little conflicted about the competition. Do I want to win?
Yes, of course. But I have mixed feelings about how we treat the competition. Because, to be clear,
Arsene Wenger does not really care about winning the Carling Cup.
Oof. This one stings. Remember when I said that the midweek draw against AZ would be a good
thing because it would teach players a lesson about taking other teams seriously and finishing off
games? I guess now it's fair to say that the team did not learn either of those lessons. We had
this game in hand, and then we let up, got sloppy, and dropped 2 points as a consequence.
