We had to fight for the right to party at the Emirates yesterday but fight the ten men did taking all three points to send us to the top of the league which was the cue for party songs to begin: say we are top of the league, say we are top of the league.
A confusing team selection: did the threat of West Ham really warrant two defensive midfielders? On the face of it the choice of Denilson over Diaby made little sense. I put it down to Wenger wanting to try the team he has ear marked to start against Barça, either way, it took precisely four and a half minutes for Wenger’s choice of Denilson to be vindicated. The Brazilian found himself in a position on the edge of the box which he is making more and more his own; he played a nice one two with Bendtner before firing a controlled low drive into the corner past the helpless stretched hand of Robert Green.
One nil up early on and Arsenal’s well oiled collective passing game slid into action establishing, after only fifteen minutes, a gulf in class between the two teams of Grand Canyon proportions. We were so superior creating chance after chance that four up after half an hour would not have been unjust. Even the West Ham fans seemed to give up on getting anything from the game and tried to salvage a bit of fun from the afternoon by singing “We hate Tottenham more than you”, this was funny.
But just when we were thinking it was going to be a romp Vermaelen was wrongly adjudged to have fouled Franco in the box leading to his sending off and West Ham being awarded a penalty. Justice was done when everyone’s new best friend Manuel Almunia made a fantastic save to keep the title dream alive.
West Ham came out in the second half with the silly idea that just because they had an extra man that they might get some thing from the game. It took the Arsenal’s ten men just fifteen minutes to organise themselves into their unfamiliar ranks before realising (and this I thought was hilarious) that our ten were still superior to their eleven and then started pinning West Ham back in their own own half.
West Ham had a couple of quarter chances which made a few ripples but not a splash, although, even at one nil it seemed difficult to imagine anything other than an Arsenal victory , this was made even more obvious when Upson gave away a penalty for hand ball. Why, oh why are there Arsenal supporters that still think he should be brought back to the home of football, Silvestre is better than he is. Anyway I digress, a penalty was awarded and up stepped our Captain to coolly slot it home, it was job done, the party could begin and everyone’s favourite songs could be sung.
Player ratings:
Almunia: I have a theory – there are two Almunias, there is the blond haired one that is crap and there is the dark haired one who is not bad at all. 8
Eboue: a fantastic second half, one of those solo runs is going to lead to a goal that takes our breath away which in turn will raise him to even higher levels of respect. 7.5
Campbell: used his energy very cleverly today enabling him to give yet another very professional performance. 7.5
Vermaelen: although it should never have been a penalty he should never have allowed the ball to get that far. We got away with the pen if we get away with a one match ban we can console ourselves in the knowledge that things could have been whole lot worse. 6
Clichy: a commanding performance. Gibbs and Traore are keeping him on his toes. 8
Denilson: earned his wages this week, made some good tackles, some good passing, some good positional play and scored the important first goal, not the finished article but at 22 there is still plenty of time.
Song: Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the “Black Franz Benckenbaur”; a first half master class in the midfield. 8.5
Fabrégas: no one gives more than our captain in the quest to reach to the promised land known as Silver Ware. 9
Nasri: playing out on the right wing is not his best position and therefore I expected slightly less than usual but nevertheless he was still put in a shift. 7
Bendtner: a quieter game by his recent heroic standards. 7
Arshavin: he is taking this winning the title malarkey a bit too lightly for me; I want to see him absolutely destroy teams like West Ham. 7
Subs
Diaby: he is like a cross between the Harlem Globetrotters and a younger Patrick Vieira the result is a joy to watch.
Sagna: this Sagna – Eboue right back thing is really working, his fresh legs were exactly what was needed
Eduardo: may still yet have an important part to play in our run in.
Wenger: top, top team selection and great substitutions.
Have a great day in AA folks
Arsenal News 24/7
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Morning All
This is the second report I have written, being tired last night I pressed no when Word asked if I want to save two hours of work AAAAAAahhhhhhhhhh.
Still, we are top of the league, say we are top of the league. If that isn’t a panacea to cure all ailments I don’t know what is.
While I thought we played well, your rating are a bit weird!
Eboue was one of our best, yet rated lower than Song, Fabregas and Mooney? Fabregas as 9? He was poor compared to his usual standards last night. Yess he won and scored a penalty… but his immediate retrun from injury showed. He was a 7. And Arshavin a 7? I can only rmember one time he did aything special and that was his through ball to Fabregas in the first half. Arhavin was poor last night.
All in all though, a good performance. I thought Eboue and Song won us the match last night. Top showing from hose two!
Ball has to go in the back of the net for us to win too. Thought Denilson was MOM…scored the goal and had a tremendous midfield performance.
Song was great too defensively and Eboue was a sparkplug down the right hand side…covered so much ground, much more than Sagna can cover.
Eboue is a better footballer than Sagna and he is really pushing to be 1st choice Right Back again.
Well done London,nice read good of you to rewrite it mate
I did think that it was a penalty, although how the linesman could see from where he was I really don’t know. The sending off on the other hand was ridiculous, that rule has to be revisited and reworked so that the punishment fits the crime a penalty is enough, for a comming together like that, with a yellow card if the ref feels it is a professional foul. red cards should be for violent and dangerous play.
But job done and I do think the panel will say one game ban only.
And as you so rightly say we are top of the pile yessssssssssssssss
Ditto london.
Has Almunia played himself into the England goal 😉
The Sunday supplement is about to start, what price we are about to see the start of the crucifixion of Saint J Terry
A real gusty performance by the Arsenal. Vermaelen’s sending off was debatable but there is a new found team spirit which was more than evident today. Bedntner, Fabregas,Nasi and Arshavin were not on top of their game but the unsung players came into their own. Song was magnificant, Clichy back to his best, Eboue added to the resolve and the much maligned Almunia brought off a good penalty save at a crucial time.Denilson, at least when going forward has the ability to score from outside the box, as he did once again, but he does have the tendency not to track back.Some of our football, in the first half especially was sublime though although West ham are a poor tream, you can only beat what is in front of you. 6 straight wins is no easy task, so don’t discount us just yet.
Slightly different to your apprasil,but just my view.
My main gripe is that although Arshavin ran himself into the ground, he never celebrates with his team mates when we score.Is it a Russian thing ?
There is a split opinion if Vermaelen gets one or three match ban.the rules as dandan pointed out last night say one match, hope he is right.
Excellent report London. You will always get disagreements on individual player ratings and as we know, those at the game get a completely different perspective to others watching on TV. I thought Song was immense and was my MoM. I was disappointed with AA, and would put it down to the fact that he took a heavy tackle early on and looked to be nursing an injury.
Goonerholic has definitively said it is a 1 match ban – we should probably contest that as well because the initial coming together was outside the box, TV had his eyes on the ball at all times, it was 50/50 shoulder to shoulder, the player did not have control of the ball and he went down like a sack of s**t 👿
Morning all
Great read London and you are a star for writing a second post having deleted your first one 🙂
There were some great things that I noticed during that game yesterday…….
Watching Song is like watching one of those kids wearing a velcro suit – when the ball hits any part of his body he controls – he was awesome yesterday, he came away with the ball in so many situations where it looked impossible.
I thought that the Diaby/Bendtner substitution was inspired – Diaby’s coming on changed the game, we picked up more urgency and the passing was sublime. At one point Diaby made a run with the ball, skipped passed three players in an ‘Henryesque’ way that made my heart sing. Vieira like? Hes going to be a cross between the two.
Also, I found myself smiling in admiration when there was a passage of one-touch football – 15 passes at least – that almost had the crowd on its feet. I love watching Arsenal play.
Abou Diaby is consistency away from being one of the premier footballers in the world. There are times when he is simply unplayable.
LB – he was pretty unplayable yesterday thats why the game changed when he came on. Hes so strong with the ball at his feet.
Hi LB,
I haven’t always been impressed with Diaby, but I am a total convert now. He was originally hailed as the new Vieira, but I actually think he’s emerging as a mixture of Vieira and Henry. He has the ability to receive the ball at pace, surrounded by defenders and with technique and strength leave them all for dead. I wish sometimes he would keep going when on a run and get into the box instead of looking for the ‘Arsenal pass’
Rasputin 😉
I hate to be down on any of our players but what was up with Arshavin yesterday???????? He just appeared to be strolling around – I know thats not unusual for him, often he just plays for Arshavin but he wasn’t even doing that………………
I refer to my Meerkat article peaches, I do believe he may well be replaced in the summer, Jack is going to need a place and Nasri as well. AA is a mercenary and older than most of the team.
arshavin-5 to me.he was poor no appetite to run after the ball was surprised why he was on the pitch after we were down to 10 men
walcott should have come on for arshavin with his pace to offer the width that was lacking after we went 1-0 up
wenger must start nasri on the left and walcott on the right against barca
if arshavin plays on the left dani alves will kill us like cashley cole did at the emirates when arshavin was switched to the right
Oh and dont forget the returning RV and maybe Marouane Chamakh
Hi gunner, I think AA was out of sorts yesterday. I know he has a foot problem and AW has said that he admires hin for playing through the pain. He had to have stitches in his foot at half time and yet played the second half when the injury first occured. I think he has genius and I don’t want him to go, but like you, I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t subbed yesterday – it was like we were playing with 9 men.
Why was AW talking to the mascot Guunersaurus when Vermaelen got sent off 🙂 and talking of Vermaelen, didn’t he take it like a man, no fuss, no complaing.Kudos to the Belgian.
kelsey – don’t you know?, David Dein is hiding inside gunnersaurus 😆
I couldn’t tell which idiotic-looking figure he was talking to. Gunnersaurus or the fourth offiial…
David Dein is hiding in gunnersaurus…..that’s hilarious
Hi Richard
Were you able to make the game yesterday?
I moved to Bangkok last September. So getting to The Emirates has therefore been problematic for me this season than last season 🙂
One good thing is that I can watch every game here. EVERY Arsenal game is on TV!
Every game? That’s just showing off 😉
Welcome Richard – at last, have we found our far eastern corespondent?
Well, I promise you this… If Mr. Wenger breaks his age-old policy of foreign tours, and he brings The Arsenal out here this summer, I’ll do a write-up of it for you!
And yes, every game! I can live without Hovis bread. I can live without my grandma’s cooking. I can live withoutmy leather three-piece-suite with reclining backs and pull out lazyboy style feet-rests (ok, that one barely). I can ven live without my Xbox. But live without The Arsenal? Never!!!!
Nice one Richard, you are very welcome in AA 😉
Thanks to Football-Talk for this definitive explanation of TV’s suspension:
Player Sent Off Under Law 12 (4) and (5) – Denying a goal or obvious goal scoring opportunity will be suspended for 1 match, fined £20 and be subject to 2 penalty points
£20??? can that really be right?
£20 you just got to laugh
TV earned more than £20 in the time it took him to walk off the pitch!
I agree with kelsey, I was proud about the dignity TV displayed when given his red and proud of the crowd for giving him a standing ovation.
Are Birmingham regarded as being better or worse than West Ham? I don’t watch either of them enough to form an opinion.
Birmingham shouldn’t be better than WHAM, but they are. Sometimes the sum of the parts is better than the whole… However, Birmingham have been on the slide recently, and I fully expect that to continue against The Arsenal. They could be good for a goal, maybe even two. But we should be more than capable of a good win!
That was the kind of answer I was hoping for, thanks Richard.
Their last 3 games in order of most recent at the end:
Portsmouth Away – won 2-1
Everton Home – drew 2-2
Sunderland Away – lost 3-1
Afternoon All.
I thought we could have scored more yesterday. I know I am being churlish but goal average could well decide the PL.
The Hammers were awful. And in particular Zola was awful.
Cole and McCarthy on the bench, TV sent off and he starts the second half with two forwards who were quite frankly useless. What was needed was power and pace against Sol and Song, but Zola didn’t react until 60 minutes…. dreadful managership.
Song was awesome. What a midfield we are developing, certainly the best in the PL and perhaps Europe.
But as has been said, what of Arshavin? Up against a really poor FB, I cannot recall him once beating his man. His crossing was poor and his all round game lacked energy. Come On Man – you are an integral member of our team, play like one.
Watching with my WHU friend, I saw the game in a different light. He bemoaned the lack of impetus of his team. Up against 10 men, they had no shots on target in the second half. Apart from Cole’s long distance effort that shaved the post, Almunia didn’t have a shot to save.
London. Another super read.
Great spot about Almiunia’s doppelganger.
Come on pool, keep us top of the league – at least until 4:00. If manu drop 3 points today, it will be back in our hands to finish above them.
go on fernando!!!!
How did Mascherano not get sent off? For incredible stupidity not because of the penalty. And is it a pen if the foul is committed outside the box and continues into it?
Come on you Dippers
Bugger 2:1 united. That’s pools chance of finishing above totnum gone unless they can get at least a draw, let alone asssisting us in winning the title.
I wouldn’t swap Denilson for Gerrard…tub of lard..slow lard at that.
Yes gerrard was totally anonymous.
By the way anyone who went yesterday, I am reading a lot of negativity about AA. He had a poor game and I actually said in commentary that he should come off and put Theo down the middle. I know he was left upfield on his own quite a bit, but he never tracks back. Thoughts.
christ torres had an almighty chance to get the draw right at the death
was an easier chance than the goal he scored.
I agree with big raddy. It was never a penalty.I have trusted these refs.Too many blunders have been made by them resulting in outcomes settled by the men in black.
Btw many of them are giving decisions favouring the red faced to help win trophies. I am tired of all this and am switching to tennis where there is less bias.
Hi Striker
It wouldn’t suprise me to find out that the mancs were some how able to influnce the out come of tennis as well.
the good news is that brum are playing midweek away against fellow cloggers,blackburn-let’s hope it’s a feisty affair-with sendings off ,injuries etc.at the v.least hopefully the’ll be a bit more cream crackered come saturday-p.god!we owe them BIGTIME!
Kelsey
I haven’t noticed anything negative about Arshavin this weekend that’s not to say it is not there but whatever it is it must be an over reaction. In the first half he ran his socks off on the wing and the second we were down to ten men: an artificial situation which no one can be judged properly. I will have a little bet with anyone: if you want to see just how committed Arshavin is watch him against Barcelona.
Hi King Gooner
Yeah, fingers crossed, although, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t beat them even if they had six months rest. The problem as I am sure you can see is that the other two keep winning as well.
Kelsey
Having a quick spin around the blogs I can see what you mean. The new negativity seems to be aimed at Arshavin but I am loving the new positivity. The catchy little phrase phrase doing the rounds and gathering pace is “we have the best midfield in the league” Song, Diaby and Fabregas.
London, slight oxymoron there mate
“if you want to see how commited arshavin is, watch him against barcelona”
that would make more sense if you replaced barca for say brum
get in blackburn
Hi SFH
Yeah, you are right I realised what I had said just after I pressed submit.
Wooo I didn’t even realise that was still on.
Afternoon all
Now I don’t know whether to look or not at the chavs game……………….
Liverpool rolling over kind of pricked the bubble a little didn’t it …………… still its been a gorgeous day in North London
Yes indeedy,
job done fat sam
The Chavs drop two points
Dear Mr Stringfellow Hawke
You and I need to have a chat about the changes on your blog – it looks amazing. Red lettering too – I’m sure I can safely say that we’ll all be rather jealous when the others find out 🙂
Ooh wah – is it true? See it was much better that I didn’t look 😆
A quick peak at the table is in order.
thanks peaches, cannot take the credit for the new artwork/design/layout etc on my blog.
was owed a favour by a website designer pal, he tweaked it in line with some ideas i gave him.
Well well well – I didn’t expect that – they play their game in hand on Wednesday at Fratton Park – I don’t suppose ……. no don’t be ridiculous. Still 2 points dropped is 2 points dropped 😆
I think we might actually want the chavs to beat the mancs now. The chavs have got a far more difficult run in out of the two.
1 Man Utd 31 69
2 Arsenal 31 67
3 Chelsea 30 65
The Dippers threw a point away today, but the Chavs threw 2 🙂
On today’s performance, particularly from their FB’s, the Chavs have little chance at OT.
It was amazing to see Drogba go to the sidelines to tell Ancelloti to take Kalou off and replace him with a MF (Deco). Doesn’t show much confidence in his manager’s ability.
Could Ancelotti, like Benitez, be a dead man walking?
Good point Raddy, hopefully the chavs will take weeks to recover from being knocked out of the champs lge
Maybe its Ancelotti that’ll take weeks to recover …..
When Chelski go to Old Traf. I think they will take there aggressive wind up game, don’t expect Rooney to stay on the park, sent off or taken off IMHO he will not last the game.
Spurs will also target us, Bendy, Nasri and Fab. have short fuses, expect sending off’s in that game too.
Suspensions will play a big part in the run in.
Peaches – “he was awesome yesterday, he came away with the ball in so many situations where it looked impossible.”
Brilliant
I also love the ‘Black Franz’ moniker….!!!
Evening all……although I’m not really stopping
Denilson is related to Wenger?
Oops wrong site!
Mayank wrong site…that’s funny
Love it Mayank 😉
Hi Sharkey – didn’t you like my velcro-man aswell 😉 Bye Sharkey
Hi Peaches
I need another opinion. Do you think that the term Black Franz Beckenbauer is ok to use? It is obviously meant as a compliment, what do you think?
The “Black Franz”. If only…. but you never know!
The improvement season on season is excellent. How attached is he to the Arse?
Top quality DM’s are few and far between, BF (Black Franz) will be a much in demand player, perhaps even as valuable as Fab4
London. .. is it the B word that you fear could cause offense or the fact that FB was German? 🙂
What about the Black Bobby Moore?? (BBM)
BTW. Blackburn away is looking like a tough fixture. They have only lost at home twice this season, and will be looking for a scalp in their final home game.
This might sound a bit wrong but it is meant well, there are certain players who are fantastic for Arsenal but not good enough to go to Barça or Real Madrid and they are the only two in Europe that are believed to be worth leaving Arsenal for. Clichy is one of those who is not quite good enough to go else where. For me Song falls into this category, he is good but he aint Barcelona good which leads me to think that he will be with us for ever. The funny thing about this is that Vieira was one of those players, he was one of the few midfield players who couldn’t score making him not quite perfect for others but absolutely perfect for us
That’s funny BR
The Black Bobby Moore is proabably more appropriate as they both have the same running speed
True about Song London, but you could count the good DMs in the world on one hand.
I cannot imagine Song being in more demand than Fabregas, he has everything. Song on he other hand lacks speed that doesn’t stop him being good but he will never be perfect like Cesc.
Mayank
I have said many times that by the age of 26 I expect Song to be the best in the world in his position.
Perhaps that is a contradiction, still I can’t see Song going anywhere.
Maybe one of the best would be more appropriate.
Henry on the other hand? Wenger pulled the one armed bandit and hit the jackpot. He was perfect and everyone and their dog wanted him.
Five comments on my own is sad, see you all tomorrow.
no just missed you
Sorry London I thinking about how to answer you re ‘Black Franz’and got side-tracked. I’m not sure if using ‘black’ is PC is it? Someone will jump on me no doubt. Its a fine accolade thats for sure but maybe Cameroonian Franz Beckenbauer would sit better.
And I absolutely agree with you about having players that are great for Arsenal but that wouldn’t be wanted by Barça or Real Madrid. Hleb is the obvious one and Henry of course became a sensational player under AW. Cesc would fit into any team but Song is ours.
prefer to call him pete peach’s
pete the rock
The point is that AW finds players that fit into the way he wants them to play and makes them better than they otherwise would be. Its far more exciting to have seen this team develop and show glimpses of being great – more exciting than buying a team that then don’t realy gel.
I saw an interesting quote in the paper today which I think came from yesterdays programme notes something along the lines of – when a player grows up with a club he loves the club – Clichy doesn’t want to go anywhere else and probably neither does Cesc. It would also explain why Sol was happy to come back.
Arsenal FC is Arsene Wenger for the moment whether we like it or not and I’m very happy about it. Mind you a new goal-keeper would be a great addition to the squad.
Why pete RSD?
One thing that made me laugh yesterday was that where rasp and I were sitting the guys around us were referring to Diaby as ‘Terence’ – after Terence Trent D’Arby I assumed but a fortnight ago we sat somewhere else and they were calling him Will, wicky wicky wah wah, getting jiggy with it – after Will Smith 😉
peter in full you did go to a catholic school did you pg
i like the new chant for diaby
D.I.A.B.Y.
DID=didn’t
Two penneth: Using the term ‘Black’ in this context in itself cannot be offensive. Its it in no way being negative or pandering to any stereotypes (pos or neg) so I think its cool. Not that I’m an expert or ‘owt.
I once asked on LG if a powerful young white CF would ever be called the new Drogba. I got some interesting answers (and of course some mad ones LG being what it is).
Generally it was accepted that all the ‘New Xyz’s ibviousky had to have a lot in common with the old Xyz (obviously!!), and that being a simlar colour and stature was a massive part of it.
Pedro reckoned that the white New Drogba would be the New Alan Shearer.
Pedro makes a good point.
I disagree about Song’s value, Should and it is a big should, he continue his rate of development he will become highly sought after. What he lacks at present is stature. PV4 could totally boss the MF before he got out the tunnel., and he is a natural leader. Song has yet to show whether he can do the same.
But if he can, he would be almost unique. Essien is the nearest though Essien has/had more pace.
I like the Franz/Bobby comparisons – however both were the leading defensive players of their generation.It would be marvellous (and an unbelievable story) if Song followed in their footsteps.
Somehow I doubt he can…. (actuallly there is no somehow about it)
SS. I bow to your better judgement on the Black issue. I am too old to have a valid opinion.
Your bowing is respectfully accepted Raddy.
I think ‘PC’ is about making people have a quick think before they use certain terms, it shouldn’t ban their use completely.
If it stops people of a certain age talking about ‘Paki’ shops then its only a good thing. It was (/still is?) not normally used in a derogatory fashion, but its clearly no longer acceptable in most peoples eyes, as we’re now pretty much all aware of of its negative connotations, and how it can be seen as offensive.
There’s no tax on thinking…
Ps. I liked it so much I thought of having Black Franz 17 on my shirt.
Night all
Morning all
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