SoccerBlogs

Tonight's game has never been too far away in every gooner's minds eye since the draw was made last December in Nyon, Switzerland.

There is no point in making far reaching rally calls..... my take is to sit back and hopefully enjoy a festival of Total Football, played out by the two purest footballing sides on earth.

Tonight's game has never been too far away in every gooner's minds eye since the draw was made last December in Nyon, Switzerland.

There is no point in making far reaching rally calls..... my take is to sit back and hopefully enjoy a festival of Total Football, played out by the two purest footballing sides on earth.

Roman Abramovich may have done the biggest favour to all connected with Arsenal Football Club this January transfer window.

By spending £50M on Fernando Torres, a player who was woeful at the World Cup and unwanted by Barca or Real, the Russian oligarch has priced Cesc out of the reach of Barcelona for at least a couple of seasons.

Forget that he played in the World Cup, he was rushed back to lead the line for the Dutch but never actually looked quite right.

Moreover, the lone striker role is just not playing to the strengths of the spikey former Feyenoord man.

I am hugely excited about the new deep lying forward and or roaming number 10, tip of midfield trio, free role thingey he has going on for him now.

Good enough to have it known as the Nasri role.

So we are on a low ebb at the moment, if Spuds was not bad enough, we get humbled by a poxy pub team from Portugal who caved in a mountain to build their stadium.

Fair play to the lad who got both their goals, nicely done son... credit where it's due.

In that he decided that he would build a team, whilst up against the Russian, Spanish and Arab billions, on a shoestring, that was capable of dominating the greatest club tournament on the planet.

I am of course talking Champions League football.

Having written about my beliefs for this team in said competition in previous posts, I am forging ahead with my view of this squad being built with a large focus on winning the only major trophy to have eluded Wenger.

The much derided gooner, Piers Morgan, makes his final post for the Mail on Sunday today... and he goes out in a blaze of glory!

The article makes as much appeal to AKB's, as it does to the Anit-Arsene Mob, who Morgan owns up to being a part of, before his foolishness abound.

So.

Having watched the whole 90 minutes again, on ATVO, one thing struck me about this match that nobody anywhere has mentioned.

How many reading this right now thought we were stick on's to get a red card in the 2nd half?

Denilson? Song? Fabregras? Djourou?

I went for Denilson, as I thought he was the reckless type to lunge into a half cocked tackle.

This is how I feel on this crisp, sunny, yet cold Sunday morning in London Town.

Not.. Can Arsenal beat City.

Our midfield today will be comprised of a Steely Cameroonian hitman, accompanied by the elegant rangey skills and power of a Parisian box-to-box man and the trio are completed with a touch of Spanish genius to bring it all together.

Cesc was fit for the Brum game, yet not even on the bench.

Theo was definitely fit, but rested for Tuesday night's massive Champions League match against the very, very decent Shaktar Donestk.

I don't think Chavski are untouchable, but there is a growing problem in the Premiership right now, United have faced it, and we faced it for a few seasons.

Yup, you read it correctly, I am bored of reading all the monotonous crap knocking us, so I am going to focus on the glowing positives from the 90 minutes played out at ramshackle of a ground.

Jack is ready, more than ready, to give world-class performances on a weekly basis, he is no longer a work in progress, the boy is a man nowadays.

Well done young Mr Szczesny, you may have just fast-tracked you're way into the Arsenal first team with that little outburst last week.

I am firmly in the camp that rates our 20 year-old Polish keeper as a future legend at the club.

Having seen him play live for Brentford, I have witnessed just what an awesome keeper he already is and what an incredible talent he is blessed with.

Dissect the West Brom game as much as you want, but it won't make any difference to the result.

I sat through the whole game in the Clock End Upper (love saying that as opposed to the South Stand), right smack behind the goal, so had a wonderful vantage point over the course of the miserable afternoon.

Right gooners, making my preparations to head off to the Emms for the WBA game... got a feeling we may draw the same team in the Carling Cup at lunchtime today aswell(?)

3-0 should do it today and there is a real possibilty of JET getting a game today, which is not the worst idea ahead of Belgrade and West London.

Apparently Koscienly was not going to be any good, who was this 3rd rate defender, plucked from relative obscurity to ply his trade in the Premiership?

That bloody Wenger, buying duds all the time, hey..huhh!

Chamakh can't score goals... came the cry from the moaning morons... a few goals and a month down the line and not a peep, as per the norm.

I like the format of the Carling Cup, where the job is done on the night, no piddley replays etc, extra-time then penalties if needed.

The FA Cup should also be run in a similar fashion from say Round 4 or 5, let the replays stay in the earlier rounds for the smaller clubs to earn some money, but in the latter rounds, with the Champs league and other comps all hotting up, the transfer fixture pile up can cause our clubs issues.

Have you noticed the difference in the team morale this season?

I certainly have, they all celebrate together, no big sulksters mooching around playing for themselves.

No bawling at your left-back and killing his confidence.

Gallas was a liabilty, he might have been a handy defender, but was he not at the heart of the defence that leaked all those goals?

It's only Braga in the ECL Matchday 1 tonight, not Real or Barca, but I am just so god damn excited about watching this Arsenal team right now.

Cesc and Tomas are really orchestrating a beautiful symphony that gets played out on the Emirates pitch, with Chamakh leading the line to perfection and bringing others into play with his 100% unselfish play, it's just a pure piece of heaven when we see our beloved team play.

I am very surprised we have not heard more on how his scans/x-rays etc have gone.

As I am sure most of you have seen already via all the pics and vids up on other gooner blogs, surrounding the diabolical challenge by the northern monkey from Bolton, it aint pretty.

If the news from AW during the champs league press conference tommorw afternoon is out for 4-6 weeks, it won't surprise me.

Exaggerate them, make them seem worse than they are, really stretch out the time it will take for the player to come back.

Why?

Is it not obvious?

This new Walcott injury and the manager's comments on the official website seem not quite fitting to me, on one hand the injury is not as bad as expected as the scan is clear, but then he says it will be up to 6 weeks till we see him again in an Arsenal shirt.

I love the live draw for the Champions League, more so the knockout rounds, yet the group stage still heralds an air of magic about it.

There is no doubting the glamour and mysticism of this great competition, the annual world cup for club teams.

London get 3 representatives this season, and with the final at Wembley next May.

The player has been reported, by various sources including a few emails I have recieved from readers, to have been at London Colney last week.

The deal is inevitable, as many gooners have already worked out.

The stumbling block is as reported by the wider press, the transfer valuation of the keeper, a week remains to meet in the middle before the window closes.

Can you recall the last time Arshavin actually played well?

I think he may of had a decent half in the fateful game up at the Brittania last season, aside from that, are we going back to Anfield away and Blackburn at home?

If he is not fully fit, rest him, and play the lively Vela down our left attacking flank.

A prominent Arsenal Group have an insider amongst their ranks, and an email this afternoon suggests Mark Schwarzer is due at Arsenal this Thursday for his medical, prior to completing his protracted, and long overdue, transfer to the the Reds of Norf London.

No news on the transfer fee, but it will be between the 2.

It was the feeble and not fit Arshavin that misused The Arsenal, not the other way around you fucking chavski cunt.

He played in midweek for the Russians and was appalling, appalling enough for the national press to ask for his Captaincy to be stripped off him.

Bet you didn't know that did you?

Right, first thing's first... How bleeding good is Kosceinly?

Verminator and Kossy are going to be a fine central defensive partnership over the course of this season, we know all about TV5, and I can certainly see elements of pure class in Kossy.

His reading of the game, coupled with searing pace make him a truly wonderful addition to our first eleven.

Straight duel between Almunia and Fabianski for the goalie starting position in our opening Premiership game at Liverpool this afternoon.

I would be flabbergasted if the Polish youngster does not get the nod, actually, scrap that, there is no point debating it... he clearly starts today.

Just a quickie.. but Joe Hart will not be displaced as the City number 1, especially after his barnstorming display at Spuds today.

Given will be not be a Number 2 for anybody.

City will not sell Shay Given to any team that directly competes with them in the league, therefore..

Wenger has never been right.. has he? (note to the simpletons: tongue is firmly in my cheek here)

When he helped guide our beloved club to doubles, season's unbeaten, cups galore... the issue was "too many foreigners" or "Wenger is killing England"... etc (you know the guff, some of you so-called goons even participated in such guff talk)

We now see every successful team in Europe, full to the brim with overseas players, Inter Milan won the treble last year with maybe a pair of Italians in the starting eleven at most, the large majority of the time, they played eleven "foreigners"

Was Mourinho labelled a killer?

So Cashley blanked Fabio at Wembley yesterday? haa

Regardless of that, Capello will see, what us Gooners have seen and known about for some time, Kieron Gibbs is the best left back at Arsenal right now, sorry Gael, but he is.

Cole seems to be coming to the end of his playing curve, off the field problems continue to blight the little bugger, young Gibbs will never have a better chance than this to grasp the England Number 3 shirt.