Aaron Ramsey's cameo appearance in our "class versus cash" victory over Abu Dhabi Oil Inc was
not his greatest moment in an Arsenal shirt.
He had slotted in pretty well after coming on in the 78th minute to replace Yossi "Busy Bee"
Benayoun.
But what we will all remember is the moment at the death where he was through on goal with a
chance to make it 2-0 and with Oxlade-Chamberlain and van Persie waiting in the middle to side foot
the ball into an empty net.
The 2011-2012 Season started in the worst way imaginable for everyone associated with Arsenal.
Cesc Fabregas Left Arsenal For Barcelona, When the announcement was made Arsenal fans hoped it was
a terrible joke, I know I did.
But it wasn't and we all had to move on, Arsenal had to move on.
Written by fatgingergooner
With 3 defeats in the last 4 games and an unconvincing win against Leeds in the last round of
the FA Cup, Arsenal fans were feeling far from optimistic ahead of this 4th round clash against
Aston Villa.
Rumour had it that the Gunners injury list was starting to ease, and so it
proved with Sagna, Henry and Arteta all named on the bench and also the young Frenchman Coquelin
was deputising at right back.
Me and the machines
First of 2 trips to Wearside, starting with the league match tonight and the FA Cup the
following week. Beginning of a very important 7 days for Arsenal Football Club according to Arsene
Wenger. 3 matches that will decide our season. An European cup tie against AC Milan sandwiched in
between 2 meetings with Martin O'Neill's Sunderland.
There was a point yesterday – just before Sunderland scored their freak goal – when I was
thinking: we need to change this game from the bench, but who can we bring on? We have no quality
on the bench!
Silly me.
All it took was one Ramsey pot shot, one sublime cross from Arshavin and one trademark Henry
finish to prove that Arsène Wenger still knows what he's doing.
Aaron Ramsey by KJ Arsenal signed the young Welshman Aaron Ramsey in June 2008 for a reported £4.8
million. There was a lot of competition from other parties including Manchester United as well as
Everton. However, the opportunity of first team football with a big club as well as learning under
Wenger seemed the deciding [.
Down one goes and out the other goes
Ok, that's a lame title. Well, they are Wolves and we didn't lose, you get my drift. In essence,
that's what it was. Wolves were a side low on confidence and the slightest change completely offset
them. The red card ended the game as a contest and Arsenal strolled to a 5 point lead over the 4th
place team.
So, the great goal droughts are finally over.
Liverpool's Andy Carroll (£35m, 9 games without a goal, 4 EPL goals so far this season) netted
against Blackburn on Tuesday and Robin van Persie (£2.75m, 4 games without a goal, 27 EPL goals
this season) scored against Wolves last night.
Not much to choose between them really.
Match Report Video -
It was a game that potentially could have been a banana skin. In the end we took the skin off
the banana, ate the banana, then put the skin under Wolves who seemed unaware of the danger of a
banana skin, thinking that oranges were the only fruit.
It was over as a contest in the first 11 minutes.
Three games to go in this extraordinary season.
Three games to secure third place and a guarantee of Champions League football next year (not to
mention the increased likelihood of retaining the services of a certain Dutchman who finds the net
at moments of his own choosing).
Or three games to slip to fourth, maybe even fifth and re-ignite the poisonous debate about the
future of our club and its most successful modern manager.
If Aaron Ramsey wasn't entirely sure whether he was out of form, he knew now. Because it had
quite literally, snuck up behind him. Fernando Torres, desperately out of form himself and hoping
he would be rewarded through hard-work, dispossessed Ramsey on at least two occasions and the
Emirates crowd quickly grew restless at his lack of urgency early on in the goalless draw with
Chelsea.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger believes that the strong criticism unleashed at youngster Aaron
Ramsey in recent weeks will only make the midfielder emerge as a stronger player.
Wenger, who signed Ramsey from Cardiff City in 2008, has helped the Welshman gradually developed
into one of the regulars in the Gunners side but despite the player's tremendous promise, certain
sections of the club's supporters have lost patience with the 21-year old.
Why, top of the morning to you, and you, and you with the crooked nose as well. May a squadron
of Twix bars find their way into your mouth by day's end, and may time go by as smoothly as
Thierry's first touch. The day has gone by that smoothly in fact; exploding capacitors and
leaking transformers having taken up so much of my time that this review is sinfully late (A word
of caution- never put the positive pin of the capacitor into the negative pin of the battery,
unless you want the electronic equivalent of the Vietnam War in your face)
The FA Cup game against Leeds can broadly be divided into two storylines playing out in
parallel- a feel-good fairytale with returning Kings, and a tragicomedy about knights whose swords
have been replaced by rubber ducks.
A real 3 pointer today, what with Spurs and Liverpool dropping points at home.
We all know that Swansea are a very difficult side to beat at the Liberty Stadium, in fact only
MU have won there this season. The Swans have conceded just 4 goals at home (compared to AFC's 6)
and have drawn half their home games (5/10) Spurs gained a very squeaky point a couple of weeks
ago and Swansea will go into the game full of confidence.
It's Monday, which means it's time for your Premiership Party! Maybe
you'd be hopping a little higher on the streets today if you were a Swansea
futbolita (pass the bread kindly now, love) but what's football if there are no
upsets involved?
Match report Video -
If defeat to Man City was as honourable as defeat can be, and defeat to Fulham as good an
example of self-implosion as you're likely to see, yesterday's loss to Swansea is one in which we
ought not to be churlish straight away and offer congratulations to our opponents for the way they
played (in general).
Fine margins
February and all we've collected from 2012 is a solitary point in the league. Unfortunately for
a club the size of Arsenal and the ambitions that we harbour, that is not good enough. 7th is where
we are right now in terms of the league standings and hopes of staying with the top pack and
clinching that vital Champions League position is not mathematically out of grab.
Henry to start?
Horrible is the word to describe our last meeting against Blackburn Rovers. Steve Kean's side
only had two shots on goal and still managed to beat us 4-3. That was a dark day in our season but
nothing compared to the run of form we are in now. The draw at Bolton was the first league point we
picked up this season and we're now facing an uphill battle to find our way back into Champions
League spots.
Written by fatgingergooner
With 3 defeats in the last 4 games and an unconvincing win against Leeds in the last round of
the FA Cup, Arsenal fans were feeling far from optimistic ahead of this 4th round clash against
Aston Villa.
Rumour had it that the Gunners injury list was starting to ease, and so it
proved with Sagna, Henry and Arteta all named on the bench and also the young Frenchman Coquelin
was deputising at right back.
What a game in store for us this afternoon. As was said earlier this week a barometer game. A
resurgent Sunderland looking to continue their very surprising run against an Arsenal team
confident as a result of last week's big win.
And yet, in my opinion both appear to be skating on thin ice.
Time to upgrade his statue to silver
If you're a Arsenal fan today, you'll be buzzing. Nothing beats coming from behind and winning
by scoring in the final minute of the game. Especially when it's an away game and we weren't firing
on all cylinders. Especially when the winning goal was scored by one of the club's greatest ever
player.
As far as starts to difficult weeks go, that turned out to be half-decent, yeah? After eons of
bumbling around in the wilderness every time our rivals slipped up, Arsenal finally took advantage
of dropped points around them yesterday by squeezing past Sunderland with very little toothpaste in
the tube to spare.
Match Report Video By the numbers
Despite the fact this was Thierry Henry's final Premier League appearance for the club, despite
the fact he capped it with an injury time winner, and despite the fact he goes back to New York
after our Champions League game against Milan in midweek, it's hard to think that the Henry Arsenal
story is completely written.
What an excellent day of football we all had yesterday, starting with the controversial
Manchester United, Liverpool match at Old Trafford , and a result that went our way with Liverpool
losing 2-1.
I am not so sure about all the Suarez, Evra hype though as it is obvious that there is bad blood
between the two of them, but to the credit of Evra he was willing to shake Suarez's hand before the
match, but Suarez refused.
From an interview by Simon Hattenstone with Paul Gascoigne, The Guardian 7 October:
But no, he's [Gascoigne] not thinking about going back into football, either as a manager or as
a pundit. He says he's not got the constitution for it. "I've been told when a player's playing
well praise him, and when he's having a bad game fuckin' slaughter him, and I couldn't do that.
Photo: Paul Rudderow
Philadelphia Union
Michael Farfan talks about his training stint with Sunderland, most of which was spent with the
Sunderland reserves. "I don't think it was any change of play compared to here," Marfan says. "It
was a good level and I held my own.
Marfan says players were interested to learn more about MLS.
What an exciting and challenging game we can anticipate tonight. A return to the scene of the
European recognition of Fabregas's genius (sorry GM!). That night is etched in the memory
alongside so many other astonishing and unexpected Arsenal victories win this and we may get a
repeat of the TH inspired win in the Bernabeu!
A week is a long time in football. Just 7 days ago we were wrapped up in enthusiasm following
our last minute victory, and yet those happy days seem a long gone. Will the confidence of
the team plummet because we got spanked by a rampant AC Milan? We shall see today.
I cannot remember a time under Mr Wenger when there has been so much uncertainty amongst the
fans.
Arsene Wenger has criticised the stubborn attitudes of Belgium and Netherlands' international
coaches after revealing that Robin van Persie and Thomas Vermaelen are doubtful for their Saturday
afternoon's league clash with Liverpool due to their respective injury issues.
Van Persie was a part of the Netherlands' starting eleven in their 3-2 defeat of England in the
midweek, while Vermaelen played for Belgium against Greece in their 1-1 draw on the same night.
This evening, Arsenal won 1-0 against Everton at Goodison Park. Luckily, the other results also
went our way with Chelsea losing to Man City and the Spuds managing a draw against the Neanderthals
in the last minute of the match. Our win gave us the three points and took us to the third spot on
the league table.
Having endured the first 60 minutes of the Chavs' vs. Spuds' collective attempt to discover the
best cure for insomnia, I was extremely pleased to find a half-decent stream to watch the mighty
Red & White take on the Villains. I expected AV to put in a performance, partly based on their half
decent effort during our last encounter with them in January (FA-cup), and partly on the fact that
they have nothing really to play for anymore, which makes these sorts of games a bit of a bonus for
them.
Having endured the first 60 minutes of the Chavs' vs. Spuds' collective attempt to discover the
best cure for insomnia, I was extremely pleased to find a half-decent stream to watch the mighty
Red & White take on the Villains. I expected AV to put in a performance, partly based on their half
decent effort during our last encounter with them in January (FA-cup), and partly on the fact that
they have nothing really to play for anymore, which makes these sorts of games a bit of a bonus for
them.
Few people have wanted to write about our losses this season there have been too many sadly and
yesterday was no exception. Watching the game on a good stream it was difficult to draw any
positives from a lacklustre performance that was more reminiscent of the dark days in January than
the recent exciting football we have witnessed.
Few people have wanted to write about our losses this season there have been too many sadly and
yesterday was no exception. Watching the game on a good stream it was difficult to draw any
positives from a lacklustre performance that was more reminiscent of the dark days in January than
the recent exciting football we have witnessed.
Yossi Benayoun probably hasn't done enough to achieve cult status. His imprint is far larger
amongst the squad than the fans. When he scored the winner against Aston Villa in December the
euphoria in the celebrations said it all. It wasn't just that it was such a crucial goal, it was
scored by a popular player in the team and one of the signings who did much to improve morale
amongst the group.
So, the great goal droughts are finally over.
Liverpool's Andy Carroll (£35m, 9 games without a goal, 4 EPL goals so far this season) netted
against Blackburn on Tuesday and Robin van Persie (£2.75m, 4 games without a goal, 27 EPL goals
this season) scored against Wolves last night.
Not much to choose between them really.
So, the great goal droughts are finally over.
Liverpool's Andy Carroll (£35m, 9 games without a goal, 4 EPL goals so far this season) netted
against Blackburn on Tuesday and Robin van Persie (£2.75m, 4 games without a goal, 27 EPL goals
this season) scored against Wolves last night.
Not much to choose between them really.
Aaron Ramsey's cameo appearance in our "class versus cash" victory over Abu Dhabi Oil Inc was
not his greatest moment in an Arsenal shirt.
He had slotted in pretty well after coming on in the 78th minute to replace Yossi "Busy Bee"
Benayoun.
But what we will all remember is the moment at the death where he was through on goal with a
chance to make it 2-0 and with Oxlade-Chamberlain and van Persie waiting in the middle to side foot
the ball into an empty net.
