Both of today’s matches offer the chance of an upset. Argentina were one of the pre-tournament favourites whilst Belgium are one of the surprise teams to reach this stage. In the second match we have, to my mind, the surprise of the tournament, Costa Rica winners of the group containing Italy, Uruguay and of course England versus Holland.

If Eden Hazard can produce his best form there is a chance, a good chance, that he can get a few good crosses in for the likes of Lukaku to get on the end of.

Of course, it will be vital for Belgium to keep Lionel Messi quiet and Axel Witsel just might be the player to do so. The problem for Belgium is that in addition to Messi they have some other very effective players. Angel Di Maria for one and perhaps the sneakiest player in the game Mascherano, he is so adept at the shirt pulls and ankle taps as well as the outright assaults that I’m amazed he manages to stay on the pitch for so long. Higuain has had a disappointing time so far, perhaps he will come good today.

I would love Belgium to do it, but fear Messi and Co. will have too much fire power. So a Germany/Argentina semi-final looks to be in prospect.

Next up Costa Rica versus Holland. Should be a straight forward win for the Dutch side, shouldn’t it?

If Arjen Robben performs to his usual standard we can expect at least one penalty, most refs seem to award one after two or three of his expertly performed tumbles. His other scoring option is to cut in from the right and unleash a ferocious left foot strike into the far corner of the goal. Costa Rica need to be aware of his proclivity for diving as well as be ready to crowed him out on the edge of the box. Junior Diaz and will have to be a bit more defensive minded than usual and will need back up from Umana and Borges. There is also the threat from van Persie, and not just from his elbows, we all know his capabilities, and he will take some stopping.

For Costa Rica, Ruiz must try to use his pace to get behind both Kuyt and the Dutch defence to feed Joel Campbell some balls to run onto, the Arsenal youngster has a good eye for goal and it would be nice if he could get one or two today.

This is going to be a tough game for Costa Rica, I think Holland may just have too much fire power and nous for them to overcome. Holland to go through.

Norfolk Gooner.

Morning Gooner’s.

World cup this, World cup that, fans all over the world are excited by the enthralling football they are seeing. The host nation Brazil was celebrating their win over Chile, while I sat and watched with not much interest. I watched a hard fought out game that went to penalties, the first game with penalties, and some good penalties too, but also some very dodgy ones as well. Like all tight matches this one was decided on the last shot of the day. The Chilean player hit the upright and the ball bounced away from the goal, the Brazilian fans went berserk.

Personally I was hoping for a Chile win, they were the underdogs but I have a heart and I was rooting for them, although I never had much interest in the result, I was surprised how disappointed I felt. Maybe being an ex footballer myself, and suffering many demoralising defeats actually makes you realise just how painful defeat can be, but of course you need to win finals as well to appreciate the victories as well, In my case not to many.

I have of course got to bring in our own club, after all this is an Arsenal blog and while we have the close season we know that Arsene will not keep us informed about the possible ins and outs. Arsene is currently employed as a pundit but he is of course watching all the top players in the world, so its like a Busman’s holiday.

As supporters we realise that some of our players are moving on, and of course Arsene knows that only to well while he is working in Brazil and recuperating on the beach feasting his eyes on all those scantily clad Babes, sorry got carried away there. We do of course hope he has his targets in his sights.

Arsene has just signed a new contract, late of course but he signed it. He has just tasted victory of the FA cup, that must have tasted very sweet for him, I can remember the look on his face as he climbed the steps at Wembley, he looked like the kid in the sweet shop left alone to chose anything he wanted. As I saw Wenger hold that trophy I had the feeling that he was never as happy as he was at that moment. Yes he had won that cup before, and he has won other cups and leagues, but that cup was a very long time coming, and the disappointments over those years was I bet how that missing Chilean player felt.

As I said before, Arsene has signed a new contract, so I can only assume that he has been given the ok to to buy replacements. Arsene brought one player last season, but he brought a record breaker to the sum of £42.5 million> Now that has been unheard of from Mr Skinflint but he did. I must admit I was knocked sideways when I heard the news, I had waited, logging into blogs and Arsenal news and the papers the  media and anybody and everybody for a snippet of news, I expected a striker, and he buys a midfielder, not just any midfielder, a £42 million midfielder.

I  felt  I knew what Arsene would do, I thought buy a striker, but no, and after I calmed down I wondered why he had done what he had.  Arsene had Giroud, Sanogo, and Bendtner and we had strikers in reserves as well, but they still had time left on their contracts. Sanogo was raw but showed promise Bendtner had one season left and Giroud had done all that had been asked of him, he must have felt that he had that position covered.

Theo was the player that Arsene was hoping would feed off of Ozil and with The Ox with his powerful runs and Gnabry who had also shown promise he must have felt Ozil was the key. As we all know we did pretty good up till Christmas but injuries to our speedy front men hit us hard, yes we scraped the FA cup but Theo missing half a season The Ox out for some time even Giroud missing a few games and hardly a show from Gnabry we struggled.

This season Bendtner will be gone  our reserve striker has been released which opens the door for a striker, Bacary leaving was on the cards I think we all knew that and Jenks is still not the finished article so another space. Fabianski leaving was also on the cards he must have had the hump when Viviani was loaned in, but Arsene used him in the cups and he never let us down in fact he showed what a fine keeper he is. Viviani has been released so we need a keeper. I hoped we would keep Kallstrom as he had something about him, but he too has been let go. Maybe Diaby getting back to fitness may have a bearing.

So my summary is that Arsene should be looking for a Striker, a Right Back and a Goalkeeper. I figure £42m for them should cover it, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see another couple of loaners, just in case of injuries.  Will Arsene surprise me again this season, Probably.

Written by Steve Palmer