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!!!