Arsenal 4-0 Porto

We love a schizophrenic team. More when I watch the Tivo'd game, but you know life is good when Robin scores.

Arsenal 1-2 Hull City

In an effort to not let (Arsenal) football take over my life, I decided to Tivo the Hull City game and go to the Bodies exhibition with a friend, with Dave helpfully providing e-mail updates on my BlackBerry. I was nervous before the game (to be fair, I'm ALWAYS nervous before a game), and as it turns out, with good reason. 1-2 at home!

I was pretty down all day -- I was looking at slices of preserved cerebellum and spleen thinking, I just can't believe it, it's all over. Even not having watched the game (no way I'm watching now), my reaction was more like Arseblogger's:

Well, that was a bit fucking shit, wasn't it? Not exactly the 83 nil we were hoping for, and perhaps it's reward for exactly that kind of attitude...We huffed and puffed, and had a lot of possession (as did Hull; one of the stats during the first half gave them 85% possession in five minutes), but we couldn't break them down. The most frustrating aspect of it wasn't the same old story that we just couldn't unpick their defence. It was that we didn't look like we really cared about unpicking their defence.

What actually concerns me even more is that we went up a goal and couldn't hold on -- can you imagine any other top club doing that? We could have played shit, we could have had a bad attitude, whatever -- but we shouldn't be the kind of club that can't hold on to a lead when we're facing the likes of Hull City.

A day later, I'm a bit more philosophical, and feel more like Gunnerblog:

Whilst I’m not going to suggest we were particularly good, there is a marked difference between yesterday’s performance and the one that saw us lose at Fulham. Fulham was not a freak result...[w]e could play like we did at Fulham 100 times, and we wouldn’t win once. Play like we did yesterday, and the majority of the time we would come away with something.

It’s vital we put a run of wins together now to get our points tally back on track. People will say, “We only lost three times last season and now we’ve already lost twice”, but Man U lost more games than us last season and won the title: we simply drew too many games last year. If we can increase our win percentage accordingly and be in the race come January, who knows what might happen.

So. Onward and upward, I suppose. Let's see what happens with Porto this week.

And thanks to Arseblog and Gunnerblog for telling me how I feel.

Arsenal 6 - 0 Sheffield United League Cup Match

That says it all.

Arsenal put out a team of mainly 2nd team and reserves on the field as they always do and they just crushed Sheffield United.

It may have taken until the 31st minute, but Bendtner scored the first one followed up by a second at the 42nd minute. Carlos Vela put one in before half to lead 3-0.

The second half, it didn't take long for Vela to get another one and in the 57th minute Wilshere brought us up to 5-0. Now with Ade and Walcott having hatricks, one in the league and one for England, why not finish the match off with Vela scoring a hatrick in the 87th minute. Glad to see us scoring some goals.

The youngsters played well and really took it to Sheffield United. Paddy Kenny is a great keeper and he got schooled in this one.

Here were the line-ups:

Arsenal: Fabianski, Hoyte, Djourou, Song Billong (Lansbury 70), Gibbs, Randall, Ramsey, Merida (Coquelin 71), Wilshere, Bendtner (Simpson 71), Vela.

Sheff Utd: Kenny, Halford, Morgan, Kilgallon, Naysmith, Cotterill (Naughton 46), Speed (Hendrie 73), Quinn, Montgomery, Beattie (Robertson 76), Webber.

West Ham To Appeal On Tevez Issue

This is an intersting story. I guess I should have followed the whole issue with West Ham and Carlos Tevez a little closer.

Sheffield United sued West Ham over the fact that they, on the last day of the season were relagated and West Ham stayed in the EPL. This all having to do with the fact that Sheffield United claims Carlos Tevez was not eligible to play for West Ham as they broke FA rules in signing him. They were awarded £30 million by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

So now West Ham is appealing this, but if they are not successful in getting it overturned it could put a huge financial burden on the club and may cause them to have to sell off key players resulting in the relagation of the club once again.

I can't say I understand the whole thing at all, but it was weird that on the last day of the transfer window, Tevez and Mascherano ended up at West Ham and the even funnier thing is that both have since left the club as they had issues playing there.

West Ham were already found guilty of withholding vital documentation as far as the ownership of the two Argentinian players in 2006. They were fined £5.5 million for this. Now Sheffield want their fair share in lost revenue for getting relagated.

Funny thing is Sheffield still sucked and deserved to be relagated, but with out Tevez, West Ham would have more than likely been the ones going down.

Personally I can't wait until Sheffield Wednesday make their way back to the EPL. It might not be in my lifetime, but you can always hope. For Sheffield United, they will always be one of the teams contending to move up. £30 million certainly would give them the buying power to get there.

We will see what happens on this one.

Arsenal 6-0 Sheffield United

No commentary since I couldn't watch, but you've got to be f'ing kidding me. Another hat trick! I only wish I could have watched this game. You know it's really something when even the Daily Mail says, "They were exceptional." And this on a day when Liverpool struggled against Crewe (who?). I remember watching the SheffUtd-Arsenal game in Waukesha...was it 2006?...when we lost 1-0. So much for that, eh? SIX-NIL!

Reason to Believe

Bolton 1-3 Arsenal

Chelsea 1-1 Manchester United

Liverpool 0-0 Stoke City

Well well well. Eboue, Bendtner, Denilson, and we're top of the table. Eboue! I thought the goals were great, but the scoreline is a little misleading -- we played well without playing great. We really, really do need to work on our defense.

That said, Bendtner was good. I can't figure Denilson out -- so far this season, he has played the range of terrible to okay but then manages to score. Cesc was Cesc and Ade was Ade. Gallas, oy. I do like Kolo Toure though. Theo was good when he came on, and should have come on earlier. I always wonder if AW waits until the last third so he can wear out the defense with his fresh legs and pace. The run he made that led to the goal was pretty amazing -- how many white shirts did he leave behind? Six?

I had to watch the game on Sunday night, but it was great -- I opened a very nice bottle of French wine, and since I knew we won, sat back and enjoyed. I was disappointed RVP didn't play, but I guess we need to protect his legs against teams like Bolton, especially when we've got Bendtner -- who's what -- 6'5"? I'm really looking forward to having Nasri back, and I'm curious to see what this guy Silvestre is made of.

Fulham aside, I think we look better this season. Granted, the start of the season has been pretty easy -- no Aston Villas -- but it seemed to me that last season (and the one before that) our game tended to sink to the level of our opponents' -- see Sunderland. This year it seems like we're more...what? Ruthless? Whatever it is, I like it. I like the goals, I like the confidence, I like the beauty, I like it all. Still, it's early, very early.

Now watch us fall to Hull City.

Arsenal v Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League Preview

Arsenal are off to play Dynamo Kiev in the first match of the group play today. The match is at 2pm EST and will be on Setanta. That blows because I really wanted the match to be on ESPN 2, but Real MAdrid gets it again.

The squad was announce for the match, with only Silvestre and Nasri out we should be playing with a good side today.

The Full Arsenal Squad:
1 Manuel ALMUNIA (GK)
3 Bacary SAGNA
4 Cesc FABREGAS
5 Kolo TOURE
10 William GALLAS (c)
11 Robin VAN PERSIE
12 Carlos VELA
14 Theo WALCOTT
15 DENILSON
16 Aaron RAMSEY
17 Alex SONG
19 Jack WILSHERE
20 Johan DJOUROU
21 Lukasz FABIANSKI (GK)
22 Gael CLICHY
25 Emmanuel ADEBAYOR
26 Nicklas BENDTNER
27 Emmanuel EBOUE

Dynamo Kiev have not done particularly well in the CL, but should not be taken lightly. We are on the road and it's a long trip. So hopefully we will pull off a win, but if not let's at least try to get a point today. Maybe Theo and Ade will be up for some scoring.

The top two from each group move on and if there is a tie the following rules apply:

Teams level on points are separated by:
1) The results of games between the teams in the tie (if tied, by goal difference and then by away goals counting double).
2) Goal difference in all group games.
3) Highest number of goals scored in all games.
4) Highest Uefa ranking over the previous five seasons.

So let's see some big goals tonight and let's start off this group stage on a good note.

In other Arsenal news looks like Stan Kroenke has joined the Arsenal board and will be there to help fend off a take over attempt by billionare Alisher Usmanov, who currently has a 24.9% stake in the company. Arsenal are expected also to ratify the appointment of Peter Lawwell as their new chief executive, the post that he holds with Celtic. He will basically be taking over the vacated position of David Dein. I don't know much about him, but we should see news of this shortly.

COME ON ARSENAL!

Blackburn 0-4 Arsenal

Van Persie 8

Adebayor 45, 81 pen, 90

Hurrah

Theoooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Theo scored a hat rick in the 4-1 victory over Croatia. He is the youngest English player to score a hatrick at age 19. Hope he can do more of the same for Arsenal! Great Job!

Cesc has an official site

I think it's new -- check it out. I love his letter on the home page.

He's such a good kid.

Cesc crafts winning goal, Theo does well, Domenech needs to GO

Internationals this weekend. The only game I watched all the way through was Spain v. Bosnia-Herzegovina. David Villa missed a (horribly taken) penalty; Cesc started, and he linked with Villa for the goal. Amazing pass into the box, and credit to Villa for an amazing goal. Even the annoying commentator, who kept calling him Chesc and criticizing him, said the play was pure Arsenal -- a "beautiful, piercing ball." Alonso in explicably replaced him at '65, irritating me even though we all know how much I like Alonso, and making Cesc look a bit sulky. The stupid commentators then proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes analyzing why Del Bosque would have subbed him out, but at least they took Cesc's side. (Spain really do play like Arsenal, by the way -- beautiful passing, chance after chance against an okay team and they get one flippin' goal.)

Okay enough of that. We Americans of course couldn't watch the England-Andorra game. But coverage uniformly says that England won 2-0 by playing horribly, and that Theo was one of the very few bright spots. England continues to confound me -- why are they so bad? Here's the Guardian's take. He played on the right, which is good news for us. I, maybe along with everyone else, think that he's on the brink of something, and he just needs to pull the trigger. Hopefully that happens, and soon.

Finally, sigh, France lost 3-1 to Austria. That is just inexcusable. They have so much talent -- not only the old guard of Henry, Gallas, etc., but also the the young guys -- Nasri, Benzema, Ben Arfa. Domenech needs to GO and we need to get in someone like Guus Hiddink. Who, by the way, is someone Arsenal should think about for the post-Wenger world. Come on FFF, fire him.

Belarus lost in the 95th minute to Ukraine on a Sheva penalty. Unbelievable. But since I hate Hleb I couldn't feel too bad. Holland lost to Austrailia (!), but RVP didn't get injured, so I'm thankful.

That's it for now. Let's see if anything exciting happens on Wednesday.

Of Oligarchs and Sheikhs

As I sit here tonight, listening to Cindy McCain deliver the worst speech ever written -- seriously, no exaggeration, her speechwriter needs to be fired -- I find my mind wandering...wandering...and landing on football. I have been Alonso-blue since Monday, so I haven't yet commented on the Man City thing. Allow me to do so now.

I think we're losing the soul of football. The money, the media hype, the nothing-matters-but-the-win mentality. Part of the reason I love Arsenal is that all of this is just less with our team. We're not Chelsea, or Real Madrid, or Man United, and no matter how many trophies those guys win, I'm proud of that. I want to win, but I don't want to turn into Chelsea to do it. I wouldn't say that about Obama and McCain, but the fate of nations rests on this election; I don't care how Obama wins, as long as he does. But football -- even at its most heartrending, it's a game. A game. And the way we win matters as much as the victory itself. Or it should, anyway.

It makes me sad, and mad, when oligarchs, dictators and Arab sheikhs hijack our game. It's not just about the vast amounts of money -- though that is certainly a big part of it -- but rather where the money comes from. Roman Abramovich and Thaksin Shinawatra in are essentially really rich criminals -- not any different, really, than our friend Joey Barton. If we don't want Joey in the game, we shouldn't want Roman. And that's why I just don't get Chelsea fans.

And the new owner of Man City. I've been to and worked in the Middle East many times. Arab societies are rotten all the way through, and the money just makes it worse. So I worry about the infiltration of their money into our lives. I would say the same thing about Nigeria, and I do say the same thing about China. These are not places that share our values, our sense of morality, our notions of equality, fairness, freedom. I don't like that Abu Dhabi owns the Chrysler Building, and parts of iconic American companies like GE, and now Man City. Hell, I don't like it that Arsenal players walk around with "Fly Emirates" on their jerseys. And I certainly don't like trading Highbury for Emirates Stadium. I just don't like it, any of it.

I'm also worried about what Man City's money means for us, and the philosophy of Arsenal. I hear Benitez said the same thing about Liverpool. I think we'll be okay this season, but what about next? What club can realistically keep up with the inflation this will cause? £34 million for Robinho is just plain crazy.

FIFA needs to step in this summer or this game is just going to become a complete joke. Players like Cesc deserve better, and so do we.

Junior Gunner Kicking Back

He's got a little rash, but he's the Gunners' newest member or one of the newest members. :-)

Resignations, Sacking and Un-Sacking

Alan Curbishley decides to quit as boss of West Ham. He felt he wasn't given the respect he needed in making decisions during the transfer window. After all was said and done he was pisseed off and had enough. So he walked out from being the manager at West Ham.

Personally I would have done the same thing if the upper management was questioning me. You hire a coach to make those decisions and you respect his decisions. We let's say you should. Because when it comes to Arsene Wenger's decision not to but Alonso or anyone else, I'm pissed at his decision to not spend the money and keep his very thin team.

Kevin Keegan was sacked as Newcastle United manager, or was he not? At first word was out that Keegan either resigned or was sacked. Now Newcastle is saying that he's still the Boss. He wasn't at practice today, so what is it? Maybe there is some talks going on.

I'll tell you what let's just have the two teams switch managers and they will still both suck as they do today and we can move on with the rest of the season.

So much drama in the first two weeks of the season. After the tackle by Joey Barton on Nasri this past week, I would say that the next Newcastle Boss should let Barton go since prison didn't even rehabilitate him. He's still a thug.

I hope that Arsenal will prove me wrong, but at best we will probably be 4th at the mid-season transfer window. I do hope they prove me wrong.

The newest little Gunner is doing great and will have a picture posted of him in his first kit maybe later tonight, after his nap.

Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road

Like every other Arsenal fan in the world, I was obsessively hitting refresh on every Web site I could think of yesterday, waiting for the Alonso news (because who else was there, really). I really can't believe we didn't sign him. My frustration is that so WHAT if Benitez wanted £16-17 and we thought he was worth £12-14? If you have £30 mil to spend and there is a gaping hole in midfield AND Cesc wants him AND he wants to leave L'pool AND he'd be perfect for our style of play, for God's sake SPEND IT (or at least some of it)!! I honestly just don't get what AW's plan is. I really don't.

I was thinking about how disappointing this all was as I walked to work this morning and I almost got tears in my eyes. If you hadn't guessed, I really did want Alonso to sign. Anyway, here's what I think:

1) We're good enough to beat the usual suspects -- yes, even Aston Villa. Come on. Not that we will beat everyone, all of the time -- but we can.

2) We're good enough to beat Liverpool.

3) We will lose points against Man Utd and Chelsea, as well as random games where we don't show up and/or Cesc/Diaby/RVP are injured. Even Chelsea at full strength can't win every game.

4) I'm terrified of the Champions League games.

5) We won't win anything.

6) We'll lose Cesc, at which point I WILL cry.

All of this is predicated on us playing the way we are now -- majestic football and all. If Theo suddenly improves, Diaby fills Flamini's shoes and Eduardo and Rosicky come back full strength and Cesc and Robin stay reasonably fit, hell, who knows what could happen. But what are the chances of that? Plus it's unfair to put that kind of pressure on Cesc, it really is.

Still, I do think that Diaby is a good player -- beats Denilson to pieces, that's for sure -- and Song shows promise. Nasri is a *clear* improvement over Hleb (loved him tripping Joey Barton). And perhaps Djourou is an improvement over Senderos as well. We'll see.

So maybe it won't be as bad as we all think right now. I mean, people couldn't stop complaining about Flamini the season before. And I'm sure we'll sign someone in January, maybe even Alonso.

Until then, we just have to keep the faith.

But I'm worried.