Loyalists Vs Rebels, The Gonner Chapter.

I won’t start with an apology for my absence, rather will start by saying that I need a co writer(s). Interested parties should contact me via twitter (@pitseh_poghie) or face book (Pitseh Ndonga Poghie).

I also won’t touch on our recent form or lack thereof instead I’ll give you what most if not all gunners are looking for..a distraction. What better way to distract yourself than look into a mirror? (the last part of this statement is completely relative lol!) I once read a while back think it was on ‘Untold Arsenal’ that there are three types of Arsenal fans namely Pessimists ,Realists and Optimists. The names are self explanatory, since then I’ve classified my fellow gooners as mentioned.

We all know Kenyans are a special brand of human beings, and in typical fashion we do not have a middle ground. You are either a pessimist or an optimist at any given time. This led to my re branding of the titles to sort of localize them, hence a Kenyan gunner is either a Loyalist or a Rebel! This is not Libya, but it sure does feel like it right now, our Gaddafi being Le prof.

Who is a loyalist? This is a gooner who will stick by whatever the good professor comes up with, he or she has eternal faith (blind faith if you ask me) in the bean man. The man can do no wrong, every decision he has made has been spot on, by every I mean every syllable in the word! They describe our current run as a minor hiccup on our journey to the quadruple at the end of the season. Any suggestion of sacking the gaffer will be met by a strong history based statement just short of blows. To this group of gooners, this is the best squad in the world and once it gels, Barcelona and co will be running for the bushes at the sight of the Mighty Arsenal (take a minute to absorb this…oh what a day that will be!). For the last few months every victory we manage is met by the now famous ‘we have turned the corner’ never mind that the victory was against a team named strawberry or something of the sort. Defeats are met with ‘Our Season starts here’ here referring to the next fixture, 7 weeks into the new season! This group is mainly composed of but not restricted to old time gunners, people who have supported The Arsenal Football Club pre-2006. I chose 2006 as a border line, since that is the year that we saw a real surge in Arsenal fans in Kenya. Few of the reasons being the obvious, the unbeaten run and the ease to information access i.e the internet. According to them, losing le prof would be tantamount to suicide, Arsenal would crumble into very tiny obsolete pieces before we can say ‘Come back Wenger’ A final characteristic that I’d relate to this group is their reaction to a loss..they will update or tweet something along the lines of ‘Arsenal till I die’ .I’ve never got this statement, when we lose no one is challenging your support for the team, they are just mocking it.

On the other hand, seemingly on another body completely are the Rebels. These ones I like to call ‘Manures in disguise’ I know they are not but they sure do act like it. They have no faith in this team, which begs the question why they support it in the first place! To them Wenger should face a firing squad let alone be fired and cause the same havoc somewhere else except manure, the tiny tots and barcunts. Everything the bean man does is wrong, his transfer policy, the formation he plays yes everything. As much as they do admit the man has brought success to the club, to them he has outlived his relevance some refer to him as expired. He is a stubborn old man who has lost touch with the football world, whose sole purpose is to bring this arsenal team down. Their solution to our crisis is to sack the gaffer and overhaul the team, come January, the likes of Gibbs, Djourou, Ramsey, Chamakh, Arshavin et all are not football players. This group is fueled on by the media, an article sighting the doom of our beloved Arsenal is gospel unto them, they live off the press. Their expectations for the season, we will be very fortunate to finish in the top 10. With our current form do you blame them? This group I like to dub ‘the glory hunters’ outside Arsenal they are staunch Barcunts, (How do you support those ***?). Majority started supporting Arsenal post 2006 and for one reason..we all know what that is. Statements like ‘Hii season nassuport Man city’ are not a surprise coming from them.

A meeting between these two individuals makes the Libyan uprising look like a Christmas carol. Now some of you understand why I prefer watching games by myself right? There is another rather small group, of intellect gooners, very few Kenyans among this elite group. I call them ‘Like minded gooners.’ They make more informed calls, you’ll hear them mention the board, wage structure and deep lying problems that have finally started showing up. They know a bit more than the ordinary fan. e.g they Know who Boro Primorac is. Forgot to mention that most of the loyalists and rebels have one thing in common, ignorance.To them Arsenal is a one man Guitar and our Mike Rua is Wenger. Back to the realists, these ones have been Arsenal supporters since time, and have seen it all (well mostly). Most still have faith in the prof. though this faith is quickly fading in most, but one thing is for sure, they

know it’s still not time to let the bean man go. I won’t go into this group much because I’ll get carried away, and am sure you get the point I was driving at maybe even put yourself and some of your friends into their respective groups..very good.

Before I scatter (hehe) I have to talk about my revelation of the season this far..Francis Coquelin, you know the kid who wears the #39 shirt, you know our man of the match against the tots? Yes that one. If you have not noticed this kid by now, you are either blind or just blind. In this kid we have the long term partner to Jack, if and when he gets here. Initially I had thought that Rambo was it, but my faith in him has all shifted to the COQ! I’ll pick two performances to show you how good this kid is, against Shewsbury he had a 93% (72 out of 78) pass completion rate, made 6 interceptions and conceded just 2 fouls. I have a video here that shows his performance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh60eUyCdKAtt

Then at the Lane he made ‘Rambo’ look like his understudy, when Ramsey was busy giving through passes to Scott Parker, Coq was clinical in his passing completing 87% of them, worked his socks off (oh Ramsey also does that!) but did a bit more with 6 attempted tackles (5 won) and made 2 interceptions. Ramsey made 1 interception and 2/3 tackles. We are all on the same page that Ramsey cannot make a long pass if his life depended on it, no? you are still giving him time. One question for you, if Ramsey was Korean or Russian would we even know him? I doubt it, am afraid his case mirrors Andy Caroll's and all other over rated english lads! He should have chosen manure..

Back to the Coq, the only thing standing between him and a permanent place in the first XI is one man Frimpong. This should not be much of an obstacle for the Coq, since the only pass that makes a Ramsey pass look good is a deeench one (For those in Timbuktu, dench is a word Frimpong uses a lot!). Frimpong is good, he can tackle like a mad man problem is after he has tackled he makes a Ramseysque pass that puts us under pressure. Coq on the other hand makes a few tackles but when he does, he can pick out Theo’s run and BAM we have a goal! The tsckles part can be coveresd by a CDM who we already have. Right now I see Frimpong as a destroyer, a player who comes in at the 78^th minute when we are one nil up to break up everything that is not in an Arsenal shirt! Coquelin is one of the many outlets to the goal. Speaking of outlets, has anyone noticed how Song has grown going forward? So much that he is our most valuable player right now if you ask me. He’s picking out passes that Cesc would be proud of. Now him in the holding role, Arteta and Coq ahead of him..SIGH! Coquelin can also play at RB, he has been used there before. I don’t know about you but I’d rather play Chamakh there than Jenkinson. I hope I’ll see the Coq there more often, if not then we should go beg Galatasary to loan us Eboue, even use Ramsey as bait hehehe! What is happening with our Park?!! (the player not the field!)

With that Ladies and Gentlemen…..

KWISHA!!!!

OUR SEASON STARTS HERE!!

Well we are back from the international break, a very successful one for most of our players. Park Chi Young and Van Persie scored four in two, Ramsey and Gervinho getting one each, Arshavin and Rosicky were all instrumental for their nations, Sczcesny put in a hell of a performance against Germany, Per had a decent performance in this game too. AOC came from the bench to lead the England U-21’s to victory. He had a total of 5 assists in the two games he played. In terms of injuries only Rosicky has a knock (Knee) and will be assessed later tomorrow, he always seems to have a knock! Our greatest injury concerns came from players who did not feature in the break, the Verminator and Jack. TV5 is set to be out for a month or so, after surgery to his left ankle. Jack could be out for upto two months after a procedure to deflate a bone in his ankle. Le prof says we have the world’s best specialists looking at him, the last time he said that he was referring to Vermaelen and we all know how that went. Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that. 

 Game : ARSENAL vs SWANSEA CITY

 Venue : The EMIRATES STADIUM
  Date : 10th September

  K.O time : 1700hrs (Kenya time)

 

Our season starts here.. it sure does. We go into this game looking for our first victory in this campaign and in six over all. Our worst form since 96. It’s the first time we are meeting Swansea in 30 years, last meeting (1981-82) they beat us 2-0 both home and away. A lot has changed since then, they have just been promoted to the league, we should be able to beat this Swansea side. It won’t be a walk in the park though, I saw them on opening day against Money Shity and they were good but eventually they were hammered 4! They play a very courageous style of football, for a team that has just been promoted, they attack a lot and can string together a number of passes. With the pace we posses, we should beat them every time they try that on the counter. The kind of game F1 piki piki dies for. If however they decide to come and pack the bus, it’s going to be a long 90 minutes for them, we could match the shity score line. 

Look at the size of this german!

We have Sagna and Gibbs back from illness and injury respectively, Frimpong is back from suspension. Song and Gervinho are serving their last match, Diaby is still out. I see debuts for Arteta and Per the giant, (Prof confirmed this) Yossi and Park should make theirs from the bench. The players we are bringing in have a wealth of experience and should be fine, we are at home after all. Santos is still short of match fitness so he also should make the bench. With that here is my predicted 11.

        W.SCZCESNY

SAGNA        KOSCIELNY      PER      GIBBS

         FRIMPONG

       RAMSEY             ARTETA

WALCOTT             VAN P           ARSHAVIN

Fabianski, Santos, Djourou, Rosicky, Yossi, Park, Chamakh, Ryo, AOC making the bench. My biggest worry is Frimpong, this kid has red card written all over him. Don’t get me wrong, I like the kid, he adds the steel to the style, but I think he should be abit more careful going into challenges. Or like I was telling some friends, now that we have Song and Frimpong (The ONGS) We can play one each half, Song starts and clears everyone and everything in his way gets booked in the process for the first 45, then Frimpong gets in and does his part for the other 45, no this sounded way better in Swahili…’Song anafagia first half, aumwe kardi, alafu Frimpong anakuja kumalizia second half. See..That way we minimize the red card problem, but that way they will accumulate the 5 yellow cards really fast..lol! Back to the game, As I said earlier we should win this one, prediction? 2-0, but if we score within the first ten minutes it’s going to be a massacre out there. What is it they say about a wounded lion? 

Finally we put out our 25 man squad for the league, this does not include players under the age of 21. We can use an unlimited number of them though (U-21's).Here it is, don’t mind the homegrown stat it just means that the player, irrespective of nationality or age, has been affiliated to the FA or Welsh FA for a period of three seasons or 36 months prior to their 21st birthday.

Homegrown players

Johan Djourou
Kieran Gibbs
Vito Mannone
Alex Song
Theo Walcott

Non-homegrown players:

Manuel Almunia
Andrey Arshavin
Mikel Arteta
Yossi Benayoun
Marouane Chamakh
Abou Diaby
Lukasz Fabianski
Gervinho
Laurent Koscielny
Per Mertesacker
Tomas Rosicky
Bacary Sagna
Andre Santos
Sebastien Squillaci
Robin Van Persie
Thomas Vermaelen
Chi Young Park

As I leave I hear $amir Na$ri broke a metacarpal (bone in the arm) while he was counting his money, or was it his wallet that fell on his arm no he must have been fapping. Whatever he was doing..am having a great laugh!!

With that Ladies and Gentlemen..

KWISHA!!!

Here is a clip of ma s na ma z mingi's performance aganist Germany 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4y6SHVFKxY&feature=youtu.be You will note among other things..his distribution is spot on!!
Before I go.. here is a photo that cracked me up..hope it starts your weekend with a great laugh too..

PER vs ARSHAVIN

5 IN 48!!

Quite a description from 'She Wore'

It is like a breath of fresh air, all of a sudden we can’t wait to see the team play. Five experienced players in 48 hours, that is what an 8 goal drubbing can get you. Oh sorry for reminding you, I had forgot that we had already forgotten what had happened this past Sunday. Well it’s not about how we got here, let’s just be happy that we are here. Most of us would have liked these signings earlier on in the window, to give them time to adapt to our game play and all. But we live in a world where we rarely get what we want, when we want it and how we want it. It’s funny though that the excuse throughout had been that we could not find players of ‘super quality’ yet we managed to get 5 of them in 48 hours, panic buying, anyone?

Typical Shrewd Arsene signings, non above £10M though not so typical when you look at their ages, Per 26,Park 26, Santos 28, Arteta 29 and Yossi at 31. Each of them brings in a wealth of experience and leadership in their own respect. Per and Park are captains, Per was at Werder Bremen and Park at South Korea. The rest bring in much needed experience. How many captains do we have with us now? Park, Ramsey, Vermaelen, Rosicky am forgetting someone am sure! 

Per the Giant!

My pick of the lot would be the German giant Per Mertesacker, at 6ft 6 he has all you need in a centre back, to me he is the most vital signing we made. The CB position is one that has been dogging us for ages, and in him we might have just found the solution we were longing for. How quickly he adapts to the pace and grit of the EPL will be vital, I understand the reservations some of you have with his pace coupled with high defence line we play. Look at John Terry, I pick him as many refer to him as one of the best CBs we have in the league, and they also play a relatively high line, how fast is he? Vidic, Carragher, Ferdinand too. My biggest joy is that he is good at both defending and attacking set pieces, finally we have an answer to Peter Crouch, Andy Caroll and the likes. I don’t know much about his injury proneness but I do know that they don’t come any harder and tougher than the Germans, I hope it also applies to him. 

Mikel Arteta

 My next pick, right next to the Per giant, is Mikel Arteta. With the departure of Cesc, we really needed a new creative source. The options we had with us were not up to the standard we were used to, in Arteta we have the next best thing in the Epl to Cesc. He should adapt quite quickly to our game play, my only concern would be his injury record. Apart from that, he is a great set piece taker, we have lacked that for a while now, if he is able to stay fit he can have the impact we all know he can. 

Andre Santos (Gilberto look alike?)

Andre Santos is next up, I’d like to see him slot right in just like I would the fore mentioned. Don’t know much about him only that he is very good going forward, but not so much defending. By this I don’t mean he is an awful defender, rather that he is attacking attributes are better compared to his defending ones. I don’t mind that, compared to what we had. He is a true Brazilian, skill and flair come naturally to him, a wicked left foot and a set piece taker. Park and Yossi you feel are mainly back up players, but who add a wealth of experience none the less.

Benayoun.

Finally our youngsters can have established players to learn from, and look up to instead of being thrown in the deep end and told to swim. From the signings the permanent and long term players are the Per giant at 26, Park and maybe Santos at 28 to some extent. The rest are just stop gap measures to salvage a couple of seasons till the young crop is ready to take over, or till we find a better player (Like Goetze). Not unless Wenger has taken a complete U turn in his policy and belief, this is a transitional squad he is assembling, one that can still challenge for titles as it gives way to the future. 

One thing that I am happy with in the just concluded transfer window is the fact that we were able to get the next player on our list after the first or second options did not go through. Mostly we tend to go for one player and only him, like was the case with Schwarzer. This time round we took in Per after failing with Cahill and Jagielka, took Benayoun when Arteta seemed to have stalled, luckily for us we got the both of them. I know it is a long shot but I am hoping that all these players live up to the expectations we have of them (looking at Chamakh and Squillaci).

We have renewed confidence in this new look side, we are definitely stronger than we were at the beginning of the season, if the players we have got in can adapt to their new environment fast enough who knows we might pull off a surprise this season. Another thing that comes with these signings is grit, who said that you can bully Arsenal? Let them tell it to Per, Vermaelen, Sagna, Santos, Song, Frimpong and Van persie. Where is that Barton character?

With the close of the Window, here is a summary of our ins and outs.

Players IN	From	Permanent/ Loan	Players Out	To	Permanent/ Loan
Carl Jenkinson	Charlton Athletic	Permanent	Cesc Fabregas	Barcelona	Permanent
Gervinho	Lille	Permanent	Samir Nasri	Manchester City	Permanent
Park Chi Young	Monaco	Permanent	Gael Clichy	Manchester City	Permanent
Joel Campbell	Deportivo Saprissa	Permanent	Emmanuel Eboue	Galatasary	Permanent
Per Mertesacker	Werder Bremen	Permanent	Nicklas Bendtner	Sunderland	Loan
Alex Oxlade Chamberlain	Southampton	Permanent	Armand Traore	QPR	Permanent
Mikel Arteta	Everton	Permanent	Denilson	Sao Paulo	Loan
Yossi Benayoun	Chelsea	Loan	Gilles Sunu	Lorient	Permanent
			Joel Campbell	FC Lorient	Loan
			Carlos Vela	Real Sociedad	Loan
			Kyle Bartley	Rangers	Loan
			Henri Lansbury	West Ham	Loan
			Wellington	Levante	Loan
			Jay Emmanuel Thomas	Ipswich Town	Permanent

I know you might be wondering where Almunia and Squillaci are, maybe even Chamakh, well if they are not on the right side of the above table, that means that they are still with us. What for you ask? The grounds man needs help, the cook also, I really hope so. Though I do think Chamakh deserves another chance, I hope he comes good when that chance comes. 

The international break is here that means we have to wait a tad longer to see this squad in action, we have 16 players doing duty for their respective conntries and they are. Van Persie (Holland), Ramsey (Wales), Rosicky (Czech), Gervinho (Ivory Coast), Arshavin (Russia), Vermaelen (Belgium), Sagna and Koscielny (France), Park (S.Korea), Per (Germany), Sczcesny (Poland),Song (Cameroon), Yossi (Israel), Chamberlain (England U-21), Walcott (England), Djourou (Switzerland) and a kid called Rhys Murphy (R.Ireland U-21), was he on the bench at OT? 

Before I leave several of you have asked me what our strongest side will be. Well it should look something like this:

SCZCESNY

SAGNA  PER  VERMAELEN   SANTOS

   SONG             WILSHERE 

    ARTETA

WALCOTT    VAN PERSIE     GERVINHO

That should do it, with Frimpong, Ramsey, Arshavin, Park, Yossi, Koscielny, Gibbs and the rest stepping in when required, now that looks like an Arsenal bench don’t you think? 

Overall this has been a good transfer window, we managed to do what was needed. And did it all while making a profit, cutting our wage bill and close to £40M to spare from our transfer kitty. Not bad at all, could have been better but am stressing on the not bad part! Here’s hoping it pays off. 

Back home the Harambee stars face Guinea Bissau at the Nyayo national stadium, this they simply must win, if they harbor any hopes of qualifying, I see them doing just that. Do you have your ticket yet? I know I haven’t, not because I don’t support them, but because I’ll probably be in Nakuru for some sevens rugby. I will be sure to catch it on tele though, we should support the boys, no matter what is happening off the pitch. They are representing us after all!

With that ladies and gentlemen……

 

KWISHA!!!

WHAT A N-E-IGHT!

“It was like waking up in the middle of a surgery and not being able to tell the surgeon that the anesthetic is worn out”

That quote explains how I felt yesterday night during the game, most of you will agree. It’s not like it was not expected. I mean, with the squad we put out there you felt that we were putting too much pressure on the young boys. We all knew it would take a miracle to get away with something from this game, but none of us saw what was coming..if you did smack yourself in the face for me, Warn a goner next time..

This was the second time we let in eight in our entire history, the last time you ask? 1896 we were thumped 8-0 by a team called Loughborough Town. Guess what happened the next time we met..we bamboozled 12 past them. Well putting 12 past this manure side is going to be a tough task, not unless they come as dilapidated as we were yesterday. History does repeat itself so let’s wait and see.

As we wait, some very tough questions must be asked. How did we let ourselves get to this? Look at who we let go this far, apart from the duo (Cesc and Na$ri) that we should have got rid off in May! Love them or hate them Eboue, Denilson and Bendtner would have helped us a lot yesterday, their experience would have at least put out a more respectable score line. I understand that the suspensions and injuries we have right now, but even with a full squad out right now, we still are not good enough. So what now? Well I am worried that we might see some panic buying over the next two days just to appease us fans. So brace yourselves for a few Bischofs here and there. We need a left back, a center back and a creative mid fielder at the bare minimum. Not kids but ready made players, then we can hold on to January so we can strengthen some more. That’s hoping that we won’t have any more players wanting to leave.

Who is to blame? I know you are all shouting Wenger, well partly yes but mostly No. It’s these monkeys we have at our board. We might get rid of the Prof but whoever comes in will be working with the same monkeys! It’s time Stan Kroenke did something as the ‘owner’ of this club! If I was to account for blame, the board would get 80% of it. Just to make it clear, getting rid of the bean man is not the solution. This board has used him as a shield and Wenger has been really civil with the situation, I wonder what Mourinho would have done with this board!

I won’t get into the game, it’s way too painful really. But just to mention, our defence was like a whore down at Huruma..open and willing! Sczcesny was left at the mercy of Rooney and Young he was not to blame really, for most of the goals. The penalty miss was what tied an anchor to our waists, after that point we tried to wiggle out with the first goal but just as the prof put it, we broke down physically. No ratings either as I’d give everyone D’s and E’s! 

Last time Manure gave us such a whooping, well close to it was the 6-1 in Feb of 2001. That squad included Henry, Vieira, Parlour, Ashley Cole, Ljumberg, Seaman, Pires and Wiltord among others. Back then I am sure most fans asked for the manager’s head and an overhaul of the team, it’s only natural. But see what the same players went on to achieve, the next time they visited Highbury that season we beat them 3-1, this was the same squad that won the league at Old Trafford the next time they went visiting. Aren’t the players I’ve mentioned there the core of the invincibles? Well I know that times have changed, but if you are anything like me, you are hoping that history does repeat itself and fast!



I hope that this will be the turning point that most of us have been looking for. Do you know that since our Carling cup final defeat, we have won just 2 of our last 14 league games, drawing 7 and losing the rest? Yes looks like the form of a team bound for relegation, time to shake this out of our system. I’m kind of happy that we have an international break after this fixture, as the players can have a welcome distraction. Then we can start our season proper on September 10^th. Surely the only way from here is up gunners, it has to be, this is rock bottom for us. 

With that Ladies and Gentlemen….It’s only a game (I think!) if there was ever a time to get behind this team..it’s now! I just pray that this is the last time I see such a score line with us on the receiving end in my life time. Now let me go look for my big brother he hasn’t uttered a word since yesterday, am getting worried!

They do make sense!!

P.S Ujinga ni kungangana kufunga bao 8 na point bado ni 3! 

KWISHA!!

Congratulations are in order to our ladies team..for winning the Womens super league over the weekend.

Manure Preview and a War Cry!

MANCHESTER UNITED VS ARSENAL.

VENUE : OLD TRAFFORD.

K.O TIME : 1900 hrs (Kenyan time)

It is here..the match that you look for first when the fixtures are released. The mother of all games, the match that decides whether you will go to work/school on Monday and how you will go! During this specific 90 minutes Nairobi indeed Kenya is divided into two..you are either a Gunner or you are not a Gunner, hakuna otherwise the rest just don’t matter. 

Before I go on, my apologies for the short absence, I had some pressing matters that I could not wiggle out of in time to write on the Liverpool and Udinese games. Back to it, Sunday sees us visiting that old stadium to face Manure. I have to say, that never have the odds been stacked against us as they are this time out..and do you blame them? (the odds). With a depleted squad, one of the worst starts to an Arsenal season, contrasting with their flying start and their star player Howard Webb at the centre of things, few will be brave enough to say otherwise. Just to make it clear from the start I am among the few. Manure fans are very confident that they are going to give us a serious ass whooping tomorrow, one even told me ‘siongei na wewe hadi after bao ya sita’ (am not talking to you till after we’ve scored the 6^th goal). This is the kind of confidence they are oozing, who do they think they are playing…Sher Karuturi? 

This squad, as depleted as it may seem..has a point to prove, and I don’t see a better opportunity to do just that than at Old Trafford tommorow. With the confidence boost they got from Italy, they are going to be a very tough match for the Manures. I do expect a cracker of a match, with very small goal margin, one goal will win this one. Not unless Howard Webb decides to pull an assist as he always does. Let me stop with the speculation. We have Koscielny back, which is good news as it should see Djorou play CDM which was a big worry for me. Djorou has played there before, when he was on loan at Birmingham so it won’t be new to him. Gibbs is still out, so I guess it will be Sagna at LB and Jenkinson at RB. The rest should pick itself, with Arshavin stepping in on one of the wings..here is my 11.

                                        SCZCESNY

        JENKINSON  VERMAELEN  KOSCIELNY  SAGNA

                                         DJOROU 

                            RAMSEY           ROSICKY

                   WALCOTT  VAN PERSIE  ARSHAVIN

Fabianski, Lansbury, Traore, Chamakh, Chamberlain, Miyaichi I think if am not missing anyone else, should make the bench. Just like Prof said, our season starts here. If we play with the heart and determination I saw us play with in Italy, am sure we’ll get something from this one. The key battle should be in midfield (as it is in any football match), how Djorou handles the likes of Cleverly will count for a lot. I expect Manure to attack us mainly down the right, targeting Jenkinson, how he handles Nani, Evra and Young down that wing will also be vital. Our defensive discipline should be at the very top if we are to come out of this game with anything, also our attack should be clinical with every chance they get. This game will not have any real impact on the title challenge, as its too early. But it will have a great bearing on the confidence and morale of the two teams going foward. On us more than them I feel, slightly though.

Finally, I have a small bone to pick with a certain clique of gunners, those that have already bent over and written us of tomorrow. How do you do that? This is war, you don’t go to war and bend over and tell your enemies ‘Okey we are here!’ You fight your heart and lungs out till the last minute. Come tomorrow and we win, these are the same fools who will be screaming out the loudest.. get a life! Either you get behind this team or you go suck on your big toe somewhere else.

So tomorrow wear your colours proudly and hold your head high, and lets go whoop some Manure ass!! But carry a jacket or sweater with you, it tends to get a bit cold on these nights..lol! One more thing people, please do not kill yourself if the results don’t go our way, it is only football after all! 

Park Chu-Young

If I were able to reach the squad in the dressing room just before they walk into the ground..I'd play them 'This is war' By 30 second to Mars. As I post this..we have drawn Shrewsbury Town in the Carling cup. We play at the Emirates on the 21st of September. And Monaco striker Park Chu-Young is set to undergo a medical with us in the next 24 hours.

With that Ladies and Gentlemen..

KWISHA!!!

UDINESE REVIEW.

A win is a win..so they say, and I agree. Not a typical Arsenal win but no less a win in any way. I’d rather win like this for the whole season really. This was a win based on team work and a whole load of discipline..defensive discipline.The fact that we held on to a lead, not just a lead, but a 1 goal lead for a whole 90 minutes is one that I am very happy with. There are those who will say that it was not such a quality attack force to begin with, to them I say that Udinese had the top scorer in the Serie A for the last two seasons in that attack force. Then remind them that last season Newcastle did not have the best of attack forces but they managed to crawl back from 4 goals down. It’s too early to get excited, I mean it’s only been two games but if our defence carries on with this form we might have great things to look forward to this season. 

Le prof decided to start with Walcott instead of Arshavin, to capitalise on the home advantage and inject a bit more pace to the side, an aspect that most Italians team don’t like that much. Also maybe to rest the Russian elf with the Liverpool game coming up. I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the game, a goal inside the first five minutes, I had expected us to go on from here and kill off the tie. The spirit and determination in the team was great, but we just couldn’t score another goal. The visitors turned up the pressure on us and looked more dangerous in most occasions during the game. I’ll attribute this to two things, one a rather shaky midfield and a non existant striker. We gave away possession on quite a number of occasions, pilling up the pressure on ourselves. 

Once or twice our defenders were caught out on a few occasions, Gibbs, Koscielny in the first half and Sagna, Jenkinson in the second from my recollection. The midfield was on a better level than it was at Newcastle but still not at the levels that we all expect, a notable improvement would be Rambo, he was the pick of this department for me. Song and Rosicky were all good as well, with Song doing well to cover the spaces. The attack was mainly a two man show, Gervinho continued to impress as did Walcott who was unfortunate not to get a brace. Gervinho would be better off if he tried to shoot with his left foot, on several occasions he cut in from the right but couldn’t shoot thus had to run into tight areas trying to tee up with the right foot.

Now to the flop of the match, Chamakh, he was awful. Could not keep possession, couldn’t make a complete pass, he was on a different wave length all together. But to be fair to the guy, it’s only one game. (His pre-season wasn’t all that either) I guess he is used to crosses coming into the area, which is clearly not how we prefer playing. I hope he does dust himself up and get on with it, he was quite impressive in the first half of last season. Where did that go?

We had a few additions to the ‘Arsenal hospital Fc’ (as a good friend puts it) with three players picking up knocks in the game (oh how surprising!), Gibbs and Djorou both doing their hamstrings. You have to feel for Djorou though, only 9 minutes in the game. Though he did make a great last ditch tackle on Di Natale within those minutes. That is three injuries in our defence so far, including Traore. If nothing else pushes the bean man to buy, I don’t know what will. With the Liverpool game coming up how do we line up? Do we push the Verminator to the left then bring in Squillaci, or we play Jenkinson at left back? Both are pretty risky situations, but I’ll opt for Jenkinson at LB, he’ll be out of position and you could see yesterday that he struggled. I’ll pick anyone right now over Squillaci. Rosicky is said to be also carrying a knock, fingers crossed.



Report Card.

1. Woijech Szceceny (A) – Again, the tall pole couldn’t put a finger wrong. He made spectacular saves, keeping out Di Natale and Armero. Can’t help imagine if it was Almunia between the posts. Contender for Man of the match.
2. Bacary Sagna (A-) – He was solid, kept his men at bay and defended almost faultlessly. Contender for man of the match.
3. Thomas Vermaelen (A-) – As expected, solid from the captain of the day. Made great tackles, aerial presence was spot on. Another Contender (don’t worry not everyone is!)
4. Laurent Koscielny (A-) – His contribution is most of the times overlooked. I feel yesterday he single handedly saved us on almost 4 separate occasions. He is growing on fast forward! Yes he is also a Contender.
5. Kierran Gibbs (B+) - He put in a decent 45 minutes before ‘Arsenal Hospital Fc’ came calling. Just to point out that he did his hamstring while sprinting to get back into position after an attack had broke down. (Though he did make the tackle that resulted in a corner for Udinese), see what being out of position can do to you?
6. Alexander Song (B+) – Provided great cover for the back four, especially when they charged forward. Although he should keep hold of the ball a bit better and control his forward runs, I feel.
7. Aaron Ramsey (A-) – Was much improved from Newcastle, better movement, urgency and ball distribution. More of the same and he could be the player that Cesc and I hope he will become. Yes a contender too.
8. Tomas Rosicky (B+) – Not as much of an impact as I would have liked. He can do better, maybe the Knock he was carrying restrained him.
9. Gervinho (A-) – Another great performance from the Ivorian. Like mentioned earlier just needs to take a shot more oftenly. Another contender for MoTM.
10. Theo Walcott (A-) – Gave us the goal, and threatened down the wings. He went silent though on some occasions. But a great performance over all.
11. Marouane Chamakh (D) - The only reason I am not giving him an E is well, he did try to shoot and he had some complete passes,right?
12. Carl Jenkinson – Not that much to rate, though he was called to play in an unfamiliar role and did well that being considered. Was caught out once, but recovered. He should get used to this role and fast, I see him playing there on Saturday.
13. Emmanuel Frimpong - A good run out, he needs to be a bit more cool headed with his tackles. Conceded two free kicks within the first minute of him coming in.
14. Johan Djorou – Sad for him, but did have a solid nine minutes. Wish him a quick recovery from ‘Arsenal Hospital Fc’ Gibbs too.
    
    
    
    From the above, my pick for man of the match is (drum roll) Bacary Sagna, was tested multiple times and was solid every time. He  did not give an inch out there!

It is half time in this tie, though we should be stronger in Italy, that is if we don’t have any more call ups to ‘Arsenal Hospital Fc.’

Wenger could face further punishment from UEFA for allegedly sending messages to the dugout. It will be another major fail if they do punish the bean man, as he would have sent messages any way from anywhere. I remember Mourinho being sent to the stands and using 

his phone to send messages to his assistant, I think it was at Chelsea and I did not hear any talk of ‘further punishment’ why is this any different?

With that, Ladies and Gentlemen…

KWISHA!!! 

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A Tribute to an Arsenal Cult Hero EMMANUEL EBOUE!

The day that I’ve been dreading,yet kind off looking forward to its imminent arrival is here. Well it was here yesterday..but What day you ask? The day the news of Eboue’s departure would be made official. The statement on Arsenal.com read..

"Arsenal have agreed terms with Turkish side Galatasaray for the transfer of Emmanuel Eboue."

We could all see it coming,though I was silently hoping that he’ll be at the emirates for another season. And as I’ve mentioned here before,not necessarily for footballing reasons but for his personality and what it adds to the club off the pitch.Which I understand is rather a stupid reason,as he is a footballer and this is a football club.I’d describe Manu from my own understanding,as the gell that holds the boys together.

For those who have been in a class system,I’d compare him to the funny,social guy who seemed to have a special connection with everyone in class,the one who you couldn’t stay mad at. Sometimes referred to as the class clown,In most cases he/she (just remembered not all of us went to boys schools) was not the sharpest tool in the shed but their contribution in the well being of the class could never be overlooked. During a boring lesson they’d crack the class up with a comment or an answer,play pranks on everyone and anyone. In one way or another they made school bearable. Now imagine your class without this character..It’s not like class will grind to a halt,but it will be that much less bearable.

Back to the football. Eboue signed for us in 2004-2005 season,made his debut against stoke city in a FA cup game, he scored his first goal vs sunderland in the carling cup in 2005. He was mainly limited to reserve and cup games until January 2006 when made his first team debut as a sub vs liverpool at Anfield. He went on to cement his place at right back,replacing the cameroonian international and invincible Lauren by getting in solid performances against the likes of Juventus and Real Madrid in the champions league while Lauren was out with injuries. By the start of the 06-07 season he was a firm fan favourite winning player of the month in September 2006,his problems started when he got injured at the Africa cup of nations in 2007. As many put it,he never actually came back,was on and off for the remainder of the season struggling with injuries. The arrival of Sagna at the beginning of the 07-08 campaign meant that prof would try him at right midfield and what a disaster that was! He began going to ground way to easily,he started running out of ideas faster than you could say fast. Although this was the season that saw him score his first premier league goal against Bolton at the Reebok,it also saw him become prone to primary school boy errors and lose out on the support of many fans. But in typical prof style he turned a blind eye to his failed plan and persisted with Eboue at right midfield. Come the 2008-2009 campaign and most will remember the date 6^th dec 2008 a game vs wigan at the Emirates when he came in as a sub for the injured Samir Nasri on 32 minutes. He was coming back from injury and as always he put in 110% despite being in an unfarmiliar position on the left and at times at central mid field. Things just did not work out that day,which saw him replaced at 90 minutes with Mikael Silvestre after some nervy balls and a really harsh crowd at the ems on the day.

That day,I felt had devastating effects on the player,though he did put in some spirited performances notably his brace at Blackburn Rovers.As if to pay back,the next season (09-10)he scored against the same Wigan side at the emirates.By now he mostly came off the bench,scoring against Porto. As was with his last season (10-11) and when he got a decent run of first team appearances due to Sagna’s injury towards the end of the campaign. Which saw him score his last goal for the gunners a screamer vs blackpool at bloomfield road. It was during the same run when he conceded a penalty in the last minute (102 or something like that) against liverpool which saw our title hopes fade away yet again. It was that incident in my opinion that sealed Eboue’s fate. In total he made 214 apps scoring 10 goals and creating 25 others.

When Eboue was good,he was world class but when he dipped unfortunately the same could also be said. I’ll miss him a lot am sure most gunners will. Join me as I salute Emmanuel Eboue a CULT HERO at the Arsenal Football Club.My memories of Eboue will include the face he made (yes the one captured in title photo of this post),rather his reaction,when he conceded the liverpool penalty (A very funny one indeed) then these shots of him holding a weeping Jack Wilshere after the Carling cup final.

With that Ladies and Gentlemen...on a sad day for me..

KWISHA!