Written by Double98

Is everyone delighted with the return of the King?...

I am not so sure. Maybe it is the Gooner DNA in me that requires that I suffer even in triumph, I must temper joy with regret but I just can't forget how we parted...

Do you remember?

Hopefully you're still feeling a warm glow from Saturday's impressive win over Blackburn Rovers.

It has certainly calmed some of the pitchfork-and-torch brigade who were on the march after the 0-0 at Bolton.

They may not have had the imagination or panache to use pitchforks and torches, but they had their bin bags and were still determined to march on Castle Emirates and demand the head of Baron von Wengerstein.

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.

Lightning may never strike twice, but cheating scumbags certainly do.

It beggars belief that less than a week after Gareth Bale pulled off a forward pike with tuck to win a penalty against us, Luis Suarez went and did exactly the same thing with the same effect.

Both executed perfect examples of what's known in coaching circles as "The Rooney.

On 28th August 20011 we lost to Manchester United 8-2. It was the heaviest defeat in our 125 year history. Two of our best players wanted out. We were 17th in the league with 1 point and heading for our worst start in years

The press were scathing

Ollie Holt from the mirror said:

"Liverpool have strengthened while Arsenal have gone backwards"

On Talkshite Adrian Durham started using this slogan when referring to Wenger:

"he used to be good, now he's rubbish"

The press were unanimous that Wenger had lost the plot

The blogs were worse.

On 28th August 20011 we lost to Manchester United 8-2. It was the heaviest defeat in our 125 year history. Two of our best players wanted out. We were 17th in the league with 1 point and heading for our worst start in years

The press were scathing

Ollie Holt from the mirror said:

"Liverpool have strengthened while Arsenal have gone backwards"

On Talkshite Adrian Durham started using this slogan when referring to Wenger:

"he used to be good, now he's rubbish"

The press were unanimous that Wenger had lost the plot

The blogs were worse.

Do you ever expect to win the league again while Wenger is manager at Arsenal?

I was listening to Talk Sport the other evening (I know, I know) when suddenly they posed that question and it struck me like a bolt of lightning. I don't usually take too much notice of the anti-Arsenal rhetoric that Adrian Durham spews out.

Milan was the venue for Arsenal's travelling support as they went to Italy to cheer the boys on against a genuine European giant in AC Milan. Unfortunately, some of the travelling hoard managed to take things a little too far, and there were nasty scenes before the game between fans and police, after which one Arsenal fan was arrested.

On Wednesday night the planets were clearly aligned in a perfect pattern to benefit Arsenal.

We got a hard-fought win at Goodison Park, a ground where Chelsea, Manchester City and the N17 Reprobates have all crashed and burned recently.

And while we were doing that the Spuds, with their enduring sense of comedy timing, were dropping two points at home to Stoke and the Chavs were losing at the Oil Refinery.

First may I say it would be great if someone could find the time to list all the players we are linked with in the months ahead as we did last year it would give us all a damn good laugh.

What is not so funny is to try to decide who will stay and who will leave if Arsène goes ahead and buys a number of exceptional or experienced players for immediate inclusion in the first team squad whilst at the same time extending the contracts of a number of current players.

Ryo

"No Japanese player has ever made a lasting impact in the Premier League, but everyone is excited about Miyaichi. Our young high flyer seems to have become a house hold name back in his native Japan.

Japanese writer Mori Masatoshi wrote that He is only second to Kiesuke Honda in Japan.

I don't want to talk about the game, as the result turned the whole event into a disaster. Dropping three points for the second time in 10 days in the run-in is really poor form for a team hoping to consolidate a Champions League place. Losing Mikel Arteta to an injury that might keep him out of the team for the rest of the season is a double disaster.

I'm sure you have all heard of the "Canary Test".

In 19th century coal mining there were no automated ventilation systems, leaving the pit workers at risk of perishing from toxic gases.

So they used to bring a caged canary down to the coalface with them. Canaries are especially sensitive to carbon monoxide and methane and would keel over dead soon after inhaling them.

I think we need a new "Man". Someone who knows about tactics, defence, motivation and substitutions. Trouble is this: I like Arsène and want him to stay. So what's to be done?

Some say that behind every great man there is a great woman. To that I say "whatever". However, I do think that behind many great men there is "His Man".

Football on New Years Eve!? Do the FA not give any thought to the bloggers having to write match reports?

Anyhow, QPR were the latest visitors to the Emirates during this crazy Christmas period. With Liverpool already picking up 3 points a day earlier against Newcastle, and with United, Chelsea and Spurs all expected to win against relegation fodder (see what I done!

If it had not been for such a difficult start to the season, Arsenal would now be fighting for the title.

And, that includes the loss of points against Wolves at home (unfortunate) and Fulham away (well deserved). The last few games have been disappointing, but Arsenal have gathered 29 points in their last 13 games and during the process it was able to pre-qualify for the CL against a very good Udinese, and win their CL-group against strong opposition with style and dominance.

Almost a year ago, in the Evening Standard of 20 January 2011, Arsene Wenger was quoted at saying:

We have a shared leadership in our team, but I believe Fabregas is an outstanding leader, especially when you consider he is 23 years old, with personality and character and Van Persie as well.

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.

Well, what a difference a day makes.

Emotionally we've gone from disappointed and disillusioned to euphoric over the result of one game. Beating Blackburn 7-1 was the sort of result we needed to awaken our supporters.

Arsenal played the sort of football that we all love to watch and for once the end result substantiated the level of our overall performance.

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.

I usually write posts with a historical feel, stories or matches and players gone by. Wide eyed tales from the vaults of the trophy cabinets and a time of greater innocence when players could drink all night and run all day, when wistful managers had Midas touches and a loose brick in the fireplace bunged full of used twenties.

I usually write posts with a historical feel, stories or matches and players gone by. Wide eyed tales from the vaults of the trophy cabinets and a time of greater innocence when players could drink all night and run all day, when wistful managers had Midas touches and a loose brick in the fireplace bunged full of used twenties.

Following on from Rocky's finely researched post about the curse of the Carling Cup:

Another lunch time fixture, another outing for our dreadful blue away kit and a tough fixture.

I am from the generation which remembers Anfield as the toughest fixture of the season. Win up there and you were a quality team, you had to be because for many, many years Liverpool were supreme: The Liverpool side of the late 80′s was the best team ever seen on British soil until the arrival of The Invincibles.

Champions League football resumes this week with Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen facing huge uphill tasks while Benfica and Lyon will be looking to protect slender leads.

After allowing the international calendar to take centre stage for a week, the UEFA Champions League returns on Tuesday.

The year is 1849, and somewhere concealed among the windswept rocks on the The Isle of Lewis, a Chess Set was discovered. People with large foreheads and sticky out hair did some thinking, and worked out that these finely carved pieces were of Norse origin and probably made in Sweden during the twelfth century.

Only three weeks ago after the FA Cup exit away to Sunderland and the disaster in the San Siro even the most positive of Arsenal fans was starting to doubt that this team had the necessary cojones to get us back in to the Champions League qualification places. Two morale boosting wins in the Premier League against much feted domestic opposition and the demolition of the Italian Champions elect at The Home of Football and all of a sudden the despair and gloom around he club as gone, players returning from injury, the media saying nice things about the boss, and the players, life was okay again.

So for the second consecutive weekend we have no game and many like myself will be having withdrawal symptoms.

There were some interesting answers in yesterdays post so I will carry on with the theme .

After five straight wins on the bounce we are all finally bouyant about our team and if the momentum can be kept for the final ten games, third is a distinct possibility.

We have talked the Youth Policy completely to death ..... or have we?

To people of my generation the Youth Policy was the only way to establish a top team. Have a look at the FA Youth Cup winning team of 1966: Peter Simpson, Jon Sammels, George Armstrong, Peter Storey, Ray Kennedy, Sammy Nelson, Pat Rice and John Radford were all in the team, and all went on to have fine careers at AFC.

Imagine this: 2010. You support a club which has won the European Cup, your team has a wealthy American owner , they are Wembley regulars and are usually in contact with the League leaders, they are managed by one of the best PL managers (O'Neill) and have some decent players in the squad.

Move forward a couple of years to 2012.

Times change, as do football supporters, what was gloom and depression for many fans a month ago, is bright and confident today.

What's caused this change, have we shipped in all those superstars that were deemed necessary to our survival? Has that awful know nothing, worn out manager left the club, and the vital new assistant manager, you know the defensive coach we couldn't possibly survive without, has he somehow slotted in seamlessly without me noticing it?

Here are some results to put the fear of God up you:

• Losing 2-3 at home to Blackburn Rovers.
• Losing 0-3 away at Newcastle.
• Losing 0-1 at Everton.
• Losing 0-1 at Sunderland.
• Losing 0-1 at Everton (again).
• Losing 1-2 at Stoke.

The good news is that none of them are Arsenal results.

Not another kid!

We need Eden Hazard, Yoann Gourcuff, Mario Goetze, some other player playing in the French Ligue 1/Bundesliga who I've never really seen play, but a lot of people are talking about him on Twitter so I presume we really need him and am going to get really angry about it when Wenger doesn't splash out £50million on him in the summer.

Mostly unnoticed on the UK side of the Atlantic, Arsenal's majority shareholder, Stan Kroenke, has suffered a setback to his sporting ambitions in the United States.

Kroenke combines being a Trappist monk (vow of silence) with owning sports franchises in the NFL (American football), NHL (ice hockey), NBA (basketball) and MLS (soccer) as well as his stake in Arsenal.

I'm hoping the long gap between games isn't causing the players to lose focus as badly as it has me – although it is a concern after our last performance!

This is just a bit of interactive fun to fill the time before we take on city tomorrow.

One object of the exercise is to test whether your loyalty to Arsenal might just possibly cloud your judgement in matters concerning by far the greatest team the world has ever seen.

Arsenal

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Arsenal have not had stellar English Players As Consistently As Man United. Man U has had Beckham, Scholes and now Rooney At the Core of their Side for the Last 20 years, More or less.

Man United's Success is mostly a result of these players.

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The 2011-2012 Season is almost over, We still have six important matches we have to win.

Our recent form has proved that we can compete with any team when our squad is fit.

We need to buy new players this summer, One player I would love to see at Arsenal is Nuri Sahin.

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.

- 2 CL places up for grabs

- 4 teams in contention

- 5 games to play

- 29 days left of the season

Well it all comes down to a nervous final month of the EPL season.

Given our awful start to the season we find ourselves in a far more favourable position then we could have realistically hoped for, Arsène has almost pulled another rabbit out of his hat.

4-2-1-3, 4-4-2 or 4-1-2-3 and will Jack play 'in the hole'?

The current season was always going to be one of transition. Arsenal saw a number of new players arrive in every area: Mertesacker, Santos and Jenkinson in defence, Arteta and Benayoun in midfield and Gervinho, Park and the Ox upfront.

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.