The arrival of the beetle-headed dung-munching orcs from Stoke will be the first real test of our newly found confidence. Can Arsenal overcome these mutants and gain 3 points without a slew of injuries? Furthermore, can Arsenal get through 90+ minutes of  battle with 11 players on the field – another red card for the good guys would not be a huge surprise.

Shawcross, Delap and Hoof go forward for a corner

Stoke are a different team this season having spent heavily in summer on another bunch of giants. With an average height of 1.83 they are the tallest team in the PL, and it is working for them, they lie in 7th, 2 points ahead of us. Stoke have also cleaned up their act (or more probably have become cleverer at rotational fouling) – they have yet to receive a red card and have only 16 yellows in 8 PL games; we have received 3 reds and 19 yellows.

Tactics are normal Pulis – long ball,  focus on set plays, Delap’s throw-ins and a solid defence allied to the pace and power of Kenwyn Jones who really should be in better company. The signing of Crouch says it all, with his thrust Stoke have managed to score just 6 goals in 8 games. Walters is a Pulis favourite and we can expect him to cause his usual problems. Pennant has been injured but could be back to test our full backs.

A depressing stat is that since we last beat Stoke 1-0 at the Emirates we have not won 2 PL games in succession (according to OPTA), a better one is that Stoke have not beaten us at home since 1981.

Which brings us to Arsenal’s team. Let us start with a positive, Thomas Vermaelen is back and available for selection; I do not expect him to start but perhaps he will get some minutes later in the game. Problems abound at right back with both our squad RB’s injured, as such we will see Djourou continue, I wish him well. At left back Gibbs is out for a minimum 2 weeks with a stomach strain, so Santos gets the shirt. Santos has been both superb and a liability in his short AFC career, he has pace, good control, can cross and has already scored, but he was lucky to stay on the pitch in Marseilles, has been prone to pass to the opposition and his positioning has been suspect, that said, he is learning the Arsenal way and IMO will prove to be a fine signing.

We looked better at Marseilles when Ramsey came on and despite Rosicky’s good form I would start the Welshman in a game which will have strong resonance for him. To make Shawcross look even more stupid will complete Aaron’s recovery. He will score if selected.

My team:

Despite Mr Wenger’s statements, Arshavin’s recent performances have been, what’s the word?  OK …. crap. A 10 minute cameo aside, AA has  been our most frustrating player. I would not even put him on the bench and allow him some time to recover his vim and vigour, because I can only assume his focus has been upon getting Russia into the Euro’s.

RvP or Chamakh? Sure Robin needs a rest, but now is not the time. We need pace to break down Stoke because we will not out-muscle them, however, Stoke have a poor record when returning from Europa Cup duty so we can hope they will tire.

An inventor from Stoke? Not many but stand up Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge. Involved in the development of wireless telegraphy, he also invented electric spark ignition for combustion engines.  Had a fine beard as well ….

This is a winnable game against a team who in recent years have become possibly more disliked than any team outside of Manchester and N.17. Despite being unconvincing we have been getting back on track, let us continue today.

Don’t forget the Victoria line is not working today. Stay and watch the Under-18’s strut their stuff ….

COYRRG

Big Raddy

Written by MickyDidIt89

After logging off last night , I became the recipient of some most disturbing news. I have been ousted as The Chairman of my local Wiff Waff Club (Ping Pong to some). It is a very small select club which makes pinpointing the bad seed very straightforward. You see, a minor incident took place at a less than sober gathering of the local Cider Circle on Thursday night at which a close friend and member of the Whiff Waff Club let slip to Mr Baxter (husband of Mrs Baxter) that two last minute re-scheduling of Wiff Waff Club meets were as a direct result of my Arsenal commitments. Now call me vindictive, but I can assure you the next time I am swinging the bat with Mrs Baxter, I shall not hold back. I only reluctantly let her join as a result of her very fine nibbles (which have turned out to be, shall we say, at best inconsistent) and certainly not as a result of either her conversational skills nor those of bat and ball.

This tale brings me nicely on to the subject of today’s post. How far have you been in the line of duty?

Like many here, I eagerly await a new seasons’ fixture list for two reasons. One is to see how the run-in looks and whether we are likely to become Champions on home soil, and the second reason is to head straight for the diary thus rendering myself “unavailable” for other distractions for one or two days of the year.

Of course shit happens, as indeed it did this week. Twice. Firstly, I had Marseille down for the Tuesday (hence re-scheduling The Wiff Waff Club to last night), and secondly my AFC Fixture List had Stoke down for Saturday. This works in my favour as it means I can go tomorrow, but this only shows how easily difficulties can arise, thus heaving at the strings of one’s loyalties.

My own favourite took place one day in the autumn of 1997. I had recently become engaged,  and the previous day my then girlfriend and I had resolved to put a day in the diary for the momentous occasion in the Spring of the following year. She later found me on the phone to the FA enquiring about the dates of the Cup Final. When asked I merely explained that my wedding day was to be the most important day of my life (cough 26.05.89) and could she imagine how distracted I may be poncing down the aisle with ear piece in as we headed into extra time at Wembley while chasing the double. You never know, I said, it could happen.

So it came to pass that a short week after goals from Marc Overmars and DennisBergkamp against Newcastle at Wembley saw us take The Double, ‘err outdoors become ‘err indoors. So all in all a happy tale of dual commitment and loyalty.

My message to Mrs Baxter: Kiss my pert arse!

No, I haven’t been taking the Kool-Aid.

If you look at the fixture list between now and the New Year (well, January 2nd to be precise) you can see that we have every reason to be optimistic.

We have 11 games between now and then, taking us conveniently to the half way stage of our campaign. Six are at home, five are away.

The home games are:

Stoke
West Brom
Fulham
Everton
Wolves
QPR

All eminently winnable and, consequently, I have us down for the maximum 18 points from them.

Away from The Emirates we face the following:

Chelsea
Norwich
Wigan
Man City
Fulham

I’m going to be pessimistic and assume only one point from the combined Chelsea and Man City games. But we should win the other three, giving us 10 points for the five away fixtures.

That would give us a total of 38 points after 19 games at close of play on January 2nd.

To get an idea of what that means, let’s look at where we were last season at around that stage: on January 4th 2011 we were sitting third with 39 points, having played a game more (20 as opposed to 19). The Chavs were two points ahead of us and the evil empire of Darth Fergie was five points ahead.

It is perfectly reasonable to believe we will be in as good a position at the start of 2012 as we were at the start of 2011, although we may be more than five points behind the leaders.

My theory is further supported by the fact that between now and the New Year, several of our main rivals have games against each other and will take points from each other.

Man City have to play United, Liverpool and Chelsea.
Chelsea face Liverpool, Man City and the Spuds.
Liverpool have Chelsea and Man City.

Less beneficial is the fact that Man Utd and the Spuds have an easier time up to the end of the year, United having only the City game, while the Spuds face only Chelsea from among the ‘top’ teams.

Nevertheless, on the morning of January 3rd 2012 I expect the table to show Man Utd sitting top, with Man City second and us third. There won’t be many points between third, fourth, fifth and sixth (with Chelsea, Liverpool and the Spuds occupying the three places below us). Newcastle will have slipped down to mid table.

This Arsenal team has been substantially rebuilt and has struggled to find its feet quickly, but we are much better than our current league position indicates.

We have some very classy players who are only going to improve the more they play together and we should not underestimate the brilliant coaching ability of Arsene Wenger. It’s no coincidence that he has produced two wonderful, trophy-winning teams and one wonderful team that just fell short of winning the big prizes.

For all the recent criticism of him as a coach, he has a philosophy of football that is second to none and that has made him more successful than most of his peers.

I firmly believe that with the same resources as AW has had in recent years, not even the Purple-Nosed Gorbalian or the Special Needs One would have been able to keep a team in the Champions League every year.

The more he works with the likes of Arteta, Ramsey, Gervinho, Santos, Jenkinson, Benayoun and Oxlade-Chamberlain, the more they will find that Wengerball will become second nature to them and the more we will sweep away the opposition.

So sit back and enjoy our rapid climb up the table, starting on Sunday, when we grab our pitchforks and march against Baron von Frankenpulis’s Monster Army.

RockyLives

Here is just a quick thought to keep us going as frankly, we all wait for tomorrow.

In two hours Wales boot off against France, and just before the starting gun sounds, we will hear the whole of Wales joining in a round of  “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau”, or to some “Land of our Fathers”, and what a rallying anthem it is. My Welsh Mother used to make me watch the opening of a Rugby Game in Wales just for this, and she had a point.

We all know how well “You’ll never walk alone” rallies the masses at Anfield, and even that lot down the road have their slow paced “When the Saints go marching in” adaptation, which I begrudgingly admit is fairly haunting.

Like it or not, most of us one-club-loyal fans share a tribal mentality. Now throw in a bit of “God on our side” and you have something scarily fundamentalist. One of my first games was the Leeds v Sunderland Cup Final (A Godfather of mine was a Director of Dover Athletic FC. Sincere apologies to more deserving Sunderland fans), and I remember how moved I was by the majority of the crowd joining in to Abide With Me. Anyhow, back to the Fundamentalist element. I recently had some friends around and was given an SAS Regimental bottle of Whisky with these words engraved on the back:

We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further: it may be
Beyond the last blue mountain barred with snow,
Across that angry or that glimmering sea.

When I first read these words, on top of putting them into the context of a band of elite warriors, I nearly … myself.

Now think of the men in red and white coming out of the tunnel in the knowledge that they are going into battle serving a power greater than Stan Kroenke and the weekly envelope.

Is it time to introduce a Fundamentalist slant. A unifying anthem. Something to strike the fear of God into our enemies, or am I becoming a lunatic?

Written by MickyDidIt89

Written by 26may1989

As someone who’s retained patience with the current regime at the club, that’s a question I’ve been asked plenty of times over the past couple of months about whether it’s time for our manager to be shown the door. I’m sure I’m far from being the only one. But I’ve no interest in getting into yet another should-he-stay-or-should-he-go yack-yack; surely, we’ve all had enough of that, at least until proper football resumes and there’s more fuel for those fires.

No, the question I’d like to pose is: when does sugar daddy money reach a point where we as football fans give up on the game?

English football has the best (worst) examples of sugar-daddyism of course, most obviously in Chelsea and City, but also QPR, and Wigan and previously Leeds and Portsmouth provide examples too; in Spain, there are Malaga and Getafe; in France there’s PSG; in Germany, there’s been Hoffenheim (though Bundesliga rules restrict the scope of the sugar daddy in Germany); and in Russia, there’s Anzhi Makhachkala, current employers of Eto’o, Carlos and Zhirkov. And just to avoid the rich and pampered superstars having to slum it in far-off Dagestan by the Caspian Sea, where Anzhi Makhachkala are based, the players are all housed in luxury in Moscow and are flown in for “home” games – a round trip of 2,000 miles. Wonderful stuff.

At the more extreme end of the spectrum are two tiny clubs that hit the big time (relatively, at least): Gretna FC, founded in the 1940s, were pumped with cash, made it to the SPL and a cup final, before their owner’s illness led to their financial collapse and ultimately the dissolution of the club. And in Romania, Unirea Urziceni was a lower league team till they were bankrolled by Mr Ego in 2003; Dan Petrescu appointed manager in 2006; promoted to the top division in 2007; European qualification and cup finalists in 2008; league champions in 2009; two seasons in the Champions’ League, including a 4-1 away win at Ibrox; and then Mr Big Bucks pulled his money out, all the decent players were sold to pay off debts, and the club’s form collapsed, leading to relegation the next season.  But it didn’t end there: Mr Big Bucks decided not to enter the club into competition at all this season and the whole club was closed down.  That was it, kaput, no more football club. It might not have been the oldest, but it was still more than 50 years old. But its fans have been left with nothing but memories.

So there are examples of money being bad for individual clubs. We, the parsimonious ones, can live in hope that our (relative) virtue will one day be rewarded by the gods of FFP.

But when I look at City, I can’t help thinking the money project will succeed, eventually.  They’ll sign all the best players, they’ll win the trophies and then all the little boys and girls will want sky blue shirts.  And in ten years’ time, it’ll be done, it’ll be irreversible, City will genuinely be part of the elite. And just like Abramovich does now, Mansour will be looking at ways of shutting the trapdoor behind them.

It may look to the sycophants in the press and on TV that the assembly of an English side of galacticos at the Wastelands is a wonderful thing, but ultimately these ludicrous billionaires do nothing but undermine and destroy the game. Competition and sport were demeaned when Abramovich bought Chelsea. It was further reduced when the Government of Abu Dhabi (through its various corporate forms) selected a club of great dignity and style as their vehicle. Why would it stop there? Why would there be no more splurging on other clubs by new sugar daddies, from Russia, the US, the Middle East, China, Thailand, Indonesia, India etc? The wonder is there hasn’t been more already.

So when would I give up? I’ll never give up being an Arsenal fan, of course, too late to change that. But my taste, my passion for the beautiful game could easily be diluted to almost nothing if this sugar daddy phenomenon continues to spread.