Hose are ya? Premier League groundsman pride themselves on their slick passing surfaces to keep the action at break-neck speed. But we cannot help but feel that Birmingham's groundsman might be taking things a bit too far. Their draw with West Ham at St Andrews last weekend was interrupted mid-match when the sprinklers went off.

Birmingham were horrible in their tackling and Howard Webb's refereeing was nothing short of woeful. Still it was quite expected and we should have overcome these challenges but it was not to be.

I'm concerned mainly because we have been struggling with our football. Apart from the home win over Porto we haven't got our game going in most of the recent matches.

As fans of a team that plays some amazing football, we are used to our players being kicked on the pitch and picking up all kinds of injuries. But the surprise I got today was of the worst kind. I was looking forward to watching Fabregas in action against Birmingham but Arsene has all but ruled it out.

What should have been a practice game is now a real fight thanks to the lacklustre performances by the second string in the previous two Champions League away games. But I'm confident we should get through to the next phase.

Interestingly though, I'm wondering if getting knocked out of the Champions League would be that bad!

Arsene Wenger says, "It's Arsenal's title to win." And I agree. The stage is well and truly set for the second Act of the season and it's up to the manager to direct and the players to perform.

Birmingham away is not an easy game for any team. None of the top 6 have won at St. Andrews in the last 18 months.

Alex Mcliesh has made his intentions fairly clear. In yesterday's post I mentioned his comments about the game and the role of the referee. I'll just quote one line that sums up what he wanted to say,

We are the small team going to play the mighty Arsenal and you hope that the referee's fair.

The Game It wasn't the most spectacular games of the season at the Emirates but Arsenal were brave enough to hang on and win three very important points on a day which saw Manchester United and ...

At this stage of the season three points seem more important to me than anything else. For that reason, I'm quite happy with the result of this game. On the whole it seemed like a patchy performance as some good, dominant possession football was interspersed with dull moments and the ending was more nervy than I'd have liked.

Bad bad Wilshere

A win was what we all wanted after the 2 defeats in as many games in our recent matches in the Premier League. A win was what we got but not without plenty of controversies surrounding the game. Conceding first, a dive and a red card are just some of the major talking points which we will get into.

As I write this, the Premier League game between Birmingham and Man United is still going ahead, only one of two Premier League games, which hasn't fallen foul of the weather. Man United were...
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(video gol highlights 1° tempo)
(2-0. Lampard)
(3-0. Lampard)

For most people in Europe, January with its long and cold nights is a quiet time after the excesses of Christmas and New Year Holidays. Football is different however as the January transfer window may not always ensure activity but it at least delivers thousands of reports and rumours about possible deals and moves.

Arsenal fans, even those with the poorest of memories, will struggle to forget that fateful day at St. Andrews. Life though, has come a full circle and while that was a day to forget, this Saturday could well turn out to be a day to remember. All three title chasers have tricky fixtures. Will this be the day when Arsenal bury the ghost of Birmingham as United and Chelsea falter!

There was a small sign on the horizon for Mexican hitman Carlos Vela as he returned to the bench in Arsenal's shocking draw against Birmingham City on Saturday afternoon.

The young 21 years old got the call by Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger for the 18-man strong squad, but Wenger never had in his mind to let the young Mexican play against the Blues.

I don't think many would disagree with the opinion that Arsenal have a shaky defence and struggle to hold on to a lead. This doesn't mean that we have a relegation quality defence, just that we are not as good as some of the other top teams.

The goal we conceded against Birmingham is a perfect example of how poor our defence actually is.

1. Steven Gerrard dispelled those 'Liverpool will let Chelsea win the title' myths with his assist for Didier Drogba. 2. Yes, Wigan have beaten Chelsea once this season but the chances of lightning striking twice are pretty slim. 3. Goodbye, Hull. Not being able to hold on to their vital win in the closing seconds probably [.

Day three at the World Cup saw three results and three red cards. It was certainly more entertaining than the previous two and we finally saw a team that looks like it belongs in the latter stages of the tournament.

Germany had the combination of slick passing and seamless movement, almost like Arsenal on a good day.

Visa debit Ex-Birmingham loanee Chucho Benitez's hopes of a Premier League return have been dealt a blow after he failed his work permit English test for the second time. The Blues wanted to re-sign the Ecuadorian and West Ham were reportedly interested. Despite living and working in the country for a year, Benitez failed the required test [.

It's one of the biggest arguments all non Manchester United fans have against United, that none of United's fans are from Manchester and that where all glory hunting supporters that don't truly follow the club, well here's my retaliation in defence of myself and United's foreign fans all around the globe.

It is time for the EPL to kick off on Saturday and I for one can't wait. So we figured we do a quick little preview of each team in a four part series. Check out your favorite team and their chances for success or survival. The EPL league starts on Saturday, August 14, 2010, with an early kick off between Tottenham and Manchester City.

In the second of a four part series, AFR will be running the rule over every Premier League team in twenty individual nutshells. We move on by having a look at the Premier League's middle men: Birmingham, Bolton, Everton, Fulham, Stoke City, and Sunderland.

In the third of AFR's four part Premier League preview series, Nick Lichtenberg (writing from New York City) looks at his Premier League's Wild Cards: Aston Villa, Birmingham, and Newcastle. (Part One: Contenders. Part Two: Middle Men)
Aston Villa Football Club

"The Villans" .

Barring this evening's late kick-off between Wigan and Chelsea, another Saturday's Premier League action is in the books already. It goes without saying, this has been yet another eventful round of fixtures with different clubs experiencing different emotions around the country.

The emotions were certainly running high at the Emirates, where an early sending off for Blackpool's Ian Evatt opened the floodgates for Arsenal.

Bolton secured an exciting 2-2 draw in front of their home fans on Sunday as they came from behind to grab a point against Birmingham City. The Blues held a 2-0 lead with just twenty minutes remaining in the match, but goals from Kevin Davies and Robbie Blake frustrated Blues boss Alex McLeish.

Birmingham's Roger Johnson got things going early on for the visitors as he scored in only the fourth minute.

(Summary is not available.)

In the sixth round of fixtures in this Barclays Premier League season, things took quite a shocking turn. Saturday's theme appeared to be upsets as the underdogs hit back at the expense of their significantly more fancied counterparts.

The day's action began at Eastlands where Carlos Tevez inspired Manchester City to pick up a 1-0 win over defending champions Chelsea.

With real football returning this weekend, Arsene Wenger has big decision to make, particularly with respect to the goalkeeping situation. Although it would probably later today that Wenger sits through his customary pre-match press conference where he normally announces who's in or who's out for the next game, I'm assuming that Manuel Almunia has already recovered from his injury.

A couple of things ahead of our clash with Birmingham on Saturday:

First and foremost, Wenger has given an injury update as to the squad ahead of the match, and there is some surprising news. I'm eating a bit of crow after doubting Bendtner's confidence yesterday. Wenger has backed him up, saying that Bendtner is in top shape and will be included in the squad on Saturday.

The Game With the West Brom defeat and the way the game was approached by our players still hurting, Arsenal are back at the Emirates hoping to end a negative run in the English Premier League ...

Arsenal returns to action later today as they take on Birmingham at the Grove. We are currently on a run of bad results and form with only 1 point being picked up in the last 3 games. Losing home and away is not really championship material but the season is still young, therefore a win here would do just nicely.

Well, it's a much-needed 3 points, taking us temporarily into 2nd place. And all in all, we played pretty well today. But as usual, we had a few defensive lapses and wasted good opportunity after good opportunity. And one of our goals came on a blatant dive and we had several pretty bad challenges, one of which resulted in a red card, which is going to give Arsenal-haters plenty of ammo, methinks.

As from the start of the 2010/2011 season, The Gunning Hawk can no longer embed match video highlights inside articles so all we can provide to our readers are links to websites which have uploaded ...

None of these videos are hosted on Arsenal-Highlights or are connected with our servers in any way. For issues with the content please contact the content host.

I have an international film degree from Loyola University Chicago, which accompanies my primary degree in journalism. And while that may not seem relevant to Arsenal at all, trust me, it is. It's about the ...

In the Europa League last night Adam Johnson was excellent; again. Ask anyone who has watched the Prem this season what City lack and they'll say spark and creativity. Johnson is all spark and creativity, and not only that, he tracks back and harries far more than most wingers do.

Much has been said of Birmingham City's dramatic equalizer against Manchester United this evening. Sir Alex Ferguson has already weighed in on the topic, criticizing the officials for missing more than one infraction on the goal. The United boss believed that not only did Nikola Zigic foul Rio Ferdinand, but the Scot said the hand ball was clear.

An interesting story coming from Alex McLeish today:

"City will take Joe Hart back at the end of the season," said the Birmingham manager. "There is no chance of us signing him in January. We asked the question and they said that won't happen. We never had an option from City to buy him.

(video gol, 1-0. Jerome)
(1-1. Dann autogol)

Manchester United and Arsenal drew their matches with Birmingham City and Everton respectively in cold Premier League outings yesterday. These draws gave Chelsea, the league leaders some space to breathe and opened up an opportunity for them to consolidate with a win. The last season champions, United went to St.

Yesterday Man United missed out on the opportunity to knock Chelsea down to second in the table after drawing 1-1 with Birmingham City. Earlier on in the day Arsenal had drawn 2-2 with Everton at the...
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