Hannover 0 -1 Arsenal, and Bye Bye Kolo, thanks for the memories.

An absolutely flawless first half by Arsenal was matched by an embarrassingly poor second half. The team started off in a 4-3-3 formation.

Mannone

Eboue Gallas Vermaelen Traore

Song Denilson

Fabregas (c)

Bendtner v.Persie Arshavin

The game was marred by some incredibly dirty and malicious play by the German team, especially considering this is pre-season, as well as some shameless diving. The worst culprit was some angry guy called Haggui, and unfortunately his inability to make a tackle, and apparent want to hurt people frustrated RvP in particular, thus forcing the Boy Wonder into a bit of retribution. The Arsenal goal came from a delicious lob by Nik B followed by an equally sumptious through ball by van Persie. Cesc got there before the keeper, rounded him cooly and slotted home.

The first half was absolutely flawless. Literally nothing went wrong. Apart from a Bendtner miss, which was tricky as he was stretching for it anyway. Everything was amazing. Then came the second half, which was literally the worst thing I've ever seen. Hannover were crunching into everything, and Arsenal missed the guile of Cesc who came off at half-time. All in all though, a good test for Arsenal, and le Boss would have been encouraged by what he saw in the first half.

Onto to Kolo, who has now officially left the club for surprise-surprise an undisclosed fee. It is thought to be around £16million. When you consider he was bought for £250,000, this is absolutely amazing business by Wenger. Fans will understandably want the money to be spent on strengthening the squad. As do I. Unfortunately though as I've said in a previous article, I honestly don't expect AW to buy in anybody else, unless it is a Diarra or Silvestre situation, where a player he wants becomes available on the cheap. By the way, whisper it quietly, but Silvestre may not be a bad left back. Awful centre back. Let's hope Wenger plays Silvestre as a backup left back, and backup left back only. But anyway I digress. All the chat about Kolo has already been bandied about. So all I will say is, he was the only player left from the invincibles, his work rate was incredible, his grin was amazing and he was Mr. Professional. I understand why the boss has sold him, he honestly has not been the same since the last African cup of nations. I think his best years are behind him. Still, it'll only be really worth it if we strengthen.

So bye bye Kolo, thanks for the memories, and we wish you luck on international duty in the future (not for Man City though).

Next game is on saturday against Atletico Madrid, I'll be there. Can't wait.
'Til then Gooners.

Szombathelyi 0 - 5 Arsenal

Despite the scoreline, it was a tougher test today than it has been so far in this pre-season campaign. Szombathelyi (from now on I will say 'the other team') were quite tough in the tackle, perhaps more so than they should have been in this stage of the season. In fact Wenger was seen on an occasion chatting to the referee, most probably to keep an eye on the tackles. The other team did start the better team but tired themselves out almost immediately. The first 4 goals all came in the first half. The first goal came about from excellent play by Armand Traore who continued to impress throughout the first half, not only offensively but also defensively. Traore's whipped cross to the near post was met by a wonderful glancing header by Nik B. More good play by Bendtner ended with a great finish by Eduardo into the bottom far corner. Eduardo's second was a nicely taken low freekick, although you would expect a premiership keeper to save it. The fourth, a lovely reverse pass by Wilshere offered Bendtner a chance to shoot from just outside the area, and he did so with aplomb, placing it around the keeper into the corner.

The second half brought many many changes. One sub who came on was van Persie, and he bagged our fifth from the spot. Throughout the game Wenger was playing a 4-3-3 formation, and I think it worked well once we settled into our game. In this particular game the stand-out players for me were Bendtner, Traore, Senderos and Ramsey. Despite looking lost in the previous game, today Senderos revelled in the defensive midfield position. He didn't do much offensively, but he was always there to cover and collect stray passes. Ramsey played with a maturity the belies his tender age. His passing range was phenemonal, his driving runs caused havoc in the opposition's defence, and the defensive aspect of his game also stood out (as this was a game in which he had less freedom than he did against SC Columbia). Honourable mentions should also go out to Eduardo, Vermaelen, Song and Szczesny. Vermaelen has an eye for the incisive pass out of defence as well as tracking runners behind Gallas superbly. A couple of his tackles were Bobby Mooreesque. He may well be the best defender in the premier league. Nothing like a bit of hyperbole. Song played a slightly more offensive version of the second half Senderos, and just as good. His anticipation was superb, as was his calmness in front of the back foor. Szczesny managed to unravel his massive frame to make a couple of wonder saves. Although he appears to be another one of those 'rush out off your line keepers' of which we have enough. It would seem that aspect of goalkeeping is very much a part of the training rota.

Arshavin was exceptionally disappointing as he has been all pre-season. To me, he looks like a big-game player, so perhaps he will be better against Hannover in two days time. That's my excuse anyway. He still looks unfit but there's plenty of time to work on that. It was also a shame and a surprise not to see Rosicky, but there's no point in rushing. It was also good to see Denilson not play the whole game for once. Although that did not seem to stop Wenger from bringing back on again in the second half after being subbed at half-time.

Well that's all for today. Only two days to Hannover where we'll get a better idea of where Arsenal are at.
'Til then Gooners.

Rumours, Szomb....Szombathl....the hungarian side, and more

Yesterday was Sunday, and as we all know, these days Sunday brings about rumours of embarrassing validity in embarrassing quantities. In terms of incoming player news, there were stories about Wellington, Huntelaar and Kalou. First off, we know all the stories about Wellington. He came on trial around December time and played for one of our youth sides against Norwich bagging 4 against them. He's 17, and will be yet another wunderkind to challenge in the reserves, although he may be fast-tracked to the first team. The Huntelaar stories don't have anything to them. I have been surprised by the perceived lack of interest in a striker I consider to be one of the best finishers in the world. But, there we are, something's wrong, and I really don't think Arsenal will go in for him. Especially at £15m. The Saloman Kalou rumours seem to be stories purely because Wenger made a bid for him a year ago. This article states that Kalou only has a year left on his contract. He's obviously angling for an extension, so his agent just picked a story from last year about a team that was interested in him, and said it's happening again. Thus hopefully panicking Chelsea into offering him a new contract. NoTW reckon we'll get him for £7m. Generally, whatever NoTW say, the opposite happens.

Now, there are some interesting rumours concerning Kolo Toure circulating. The Sunday Times suggest that Man Citeh have already agreed personal terms with Toure, with the fee likely to be £15m or £12m depending on whether you believe the Sunday Times or the Independant. Firstly, the fact that these stories have surfaced in papers with a fairly good reputation immediately catches the attention and secondly, Adebayor has been gobbing off to the press saying he wants a re-union with Kolo (someone's not happy with their new team then?). Let's get things straight first and foremost. Toure is an absolute legend, and a player that I will always love because of his work rate, professionalism, and the fact that he's always smiling. But since the African cup of nations a year and a half ago, he hasn't been the same player. He's lost a yard of pace, and an inkling of anticipation. 2 years ago I would never dream of saying he wouldn't be in my choice of starting XI yet recently I have found myself thinking those exact thoughts. Toure himself also handed in a transfer request in January, just as Kolo to City reports were first coming to the fore. £15m is a lot of money, especially for a player who perhaps is not as good as he used to be (although still one of the best defenders in the league). If I were Arsene, I would seriously consider selling Kolo if I already had a defensive midfielder lined up. However, I'm not Arsene, Arsene's Arsene. Plus I honestly don't think we'll be buying anyone else this Summer (unless it's a Silvestre/Diarra situation) therefore there won't be an incoming defensive midfielder, and thus if we sell Kolo the money will only go to paying off the debt caused by the purchase of a new fangled drinks machine we bought for the training ground.

Speaking of Citeh, Lampard has said (whilst sipping Champagne in a 5 star hotel in Hollywood during Chelsea's American tour) that Chelsea don't need to spend huge amounts of money to compete with the best. Lampard's little dig at Man City obviously came at the expense of his memory.
News of the World have reported that SHOCK HORROR, Henry had recommended Redknapp to Vieira. According to the NoTW, Redknapp chatted to Henry, and Henry recommended Vieira. Firstly, why would Redknapp talk to Henry? Their paths would never cross, unless he purposely contacted Henry for an opinion over Vieira. A secondly, if he did contact Henry over Vieira, it doesn't appear to be much of a recommendation when Thierry just told him what everyone who has watched the Premiership the last decade knows.

'The man would give you so much presence'.

That's it. Shows how desperate Redknapp is to add to his squad if he buys someone purely on that. It's not a recommendation by Henry, it's just what everyone already knows, and just the NoTW being a sensationalist tabloid. My gut feeling is that Vieira won't go to the spuds. He knows exactly what it would mean to us Gooners if he went. I can't imagine it would be great for the spuds either, buying a player that their rival's Manager 3 years ago deemed no longer necessary to the club.

Right onto today's match. According to the Austrian News Bulletin on ATVO, both Eduardo and Rosicky will get little run-outs today. Cesc came back to training about a week ago aswell. Will it be too much to ask to have Eduardo, Rosicky and Cesc all in the same XI? Anyway, the match should be an interesting affair as the teams will gradually get stronger and stronger as it nears the start of the season. There is no news on whether Walcott and Gibbs are back in training yet, so I guess neither of them will be involved today. Another person who won't feature in pre-season for Arsenal is Fran Merida. I feel so sorry for him. Every summer he gets the chance in pre-season to prove he can play with the best of them, yet every summer he is selected for international duty. Don't get me wrong, it must be an honour to represent your country for every age group since toddler years, but he must be getting seriously frustrated that it comes at a time when he should be forcing his way into the first team.

Anywho, I've just remembered it's my Mum's birthday so I must be off. I'll be back later for post-match chat, and after that it's only two days to Hannover, and 5 days to the Emirates cup. I'll be there, hope you will be too.
'Til later Gooners.

Week Roundup

There isn't much happening at the moment. Oh apart from Nasri having fractured his Fibula. Initial thoughts were bad, then it was only going to be 3 months, now according to Wenger it could be as little as 6 weeks. If it is that little, then that's fantastic news, as he wouldn't miss any competetive matches. Some people have been calling for Wenger to dip into the transfer market to sign a replacement. That's unnecessary. We already have Rosicky, Walcott, Arshavin, Traore, Barazite and Merida who can play there. Diaby is also occasionally played on the wing on desperate occasions. Let's hope we're not that desperate.

Cesc is back at pre-season training in Austria, pictures of which can be found at the dot com. It looks like he's been given an intensive workout by himself before being allowed to join the rest of the team. Elsewhere, Wenger says Senderos' future is 'open' (what we already knew), and Arshavin says we must put the excuse of youth behind us, and fight in all competitions to win.

Arsenal played SC Columbia on Tuesday and won pretty emphatically 7-1. It started badly for Arsenal, as they failed to break down their opponents in the first half an hour. Then Silvestre passed back to Almunia (admittedly not the best back-pass but manageable nonetheless), Almunia took a first touch instead of hoofing it, and his first touch went about 5 metres in front of him. This allowed a Columbia forward to slide tackle Almunia, and the ball spewed into the goal. This was the incentive Arsenal needed. In fact, one could see it as a tactical masterstroke by Almunia. It's like Arsenal thought 'hang on, we're not losing against a fourth division Austrian team', and they promptly went up the other end and scored. I was mightly impressed with Bendtner, whose second goal was the epitome of cool. Ramsey also had a very impressive match. For his first goal, any other Arsenal player would have played a reverse ball into Nik B, but he shot instead. That kind of urgency and directness is what most other Arsenal players are lacking, and it's good to see (as long as it doesn't happen too much).

Arshavin still looked a bit overweight and he was huffing and puffing since the word go. Senderos played the second half in defensive mid, and he spent the whole half looking like a lost little lamb. He played there before, in a match of similar stature last pre-season, and I thought exactly the same thing then. Wenger looks to be continuing the burning-out of Denilson philosophy he started last year, by playing him every minute of every game. It's a shame Barazite wasn't taken to Austria with the first team, and instead stayed with the Reserves. That's a bit of a waste. And that's it.

'Til there is something noteworthy Gooners.

Emmanuel Ade-no more.

The transfer of Emmanuel Adebayor from Arsenal to Manchester City is now official. The fee is thought to be around £25 million. I'm not going to say anything anymore about Adebayor because I think everyone has heard too much about it this summer, and to be frank, I'm a bit sick of thinking about him.

I will say that at times he was skilful and showed tremendous talent, however his work ethos and attitude last year was unacceptable. His transfer could be beneficiary to the club as long as we spend the ca. £25 million. There have been replacements up front touted, but as I've said many times, the need for a dominating central midfielder must be paramount.

Right, hopefully that's the last time I will ever talk about Emmanuel Adebayor.

'Til tuesday Gooners.

Barnet 2 - 2 Arsenal

So pre-season has officially started, and the game was a fairly entertaining 2-2 draw. It was also a chance to see us play in our new away kit. I like it, I know others don't. The starting line-up was slightly different from the one I had predicted. It was:

Almunia

Djourou Gallas Vermaelen Silvestre

Rosicky(c) Frimpong Randall Wilshere

Arshavin Watt

To be perfectly frank, I thought the second half team had a better game. These were:

Mannone

Eastmond Ayling Vermaelen(c) Cruise

Sunu Coquelin Henderson Barazite

Emmanuel-Thomas Simpson

Both teams started their respective halves well, but soon settled into a slump, the reason for said slump to me appeared to be the length of the grass, which made it very difficult to maintain a passing game. Towards the end of the first half though, good link-up play between Watt (who was impressive throughout the first half) and Wilshere, led to a clever cross from Watt being turned in with ease by Arshavin. The only worrying thing of note in the first half was that this was potentially our strongest central defence partnership, and it did not cope well defensively at all from set pieces. There is however plenty of time to work at that. Barnet capitalised on this frailty to equalise. During the first half, I thought the stand out players were Djourou, Rosicky and Watt. And this brings me nicely on to Rosicky. Although perhaps not match fit, his passing was fantastic, and he covered the pitch well. Strangely, the injury has seemed to make him stronger and more aggressive in the tackle. Go figure.....

Arshavin was the scorer of our goal, but all round I thought he was pretty poor. Perhaps a tad on the selfish side and stopping runs before teammates had a chance to pick him out. Also did not seem match-fit, although that is no surprise.

The second half started fantastically for Arsenal, with Barazite dominating things, and his goal was rather special. Running away from goal at an angle, he managed to wrap his foot round the ball, and the shot flew with plenty of curl and dip into the far corner. Barazite really reminds me of Pires, not just because of the slim build and long dark hair, but because of the way he cuts in from the flank, his passing, and his late surges into the box. Plus we've seen that goal a fair few times from Bobby. That goal incidently was the third year in a row Barazite has scored against Barnet.

Thomas Vermaelen, along with Rosicky was one of the major talking points before the game. It was good to see him have 90 minutes, and just as well, for I thought that after a slightly shaky first 45, he really grew as the match progressed. Vermaelen's second half was of the highest order, and seeing that kind of performance with the captain's armband was almost reminiscent of Tony Adams.

So overall, a fairly competent performance. Although it was difficult to keep stringing passes together due to the length of the grass, we certainly tried. The defence was shaky at times, and this led to the two goals Barnet scored. Having said that, I was also impressed by Luke Ayling at the heart of our second-half defence.

In other news, Emmanuel Adebayor is now undergoing a medical at Man Citeh, and Wenger has apparently told Sky Sports that he expects Adebayor to sign shortly, assuming everything goes swimmingly with his medical.

Only 3 more days to the next game, which is against SC Columbia, and I for one cannot wait.
I'll be back with Adebayor talk (hopefully for the last time) should he sign for Citeh, following that it'll be the next pre-match tittle-tattle in 3 days.
'Til then Gooners.

p.s. Arsenal have signed a 16 year old Swiss defender, to go along with Martin Angha-Lochter, named Sead Hajrovic from Grasshoppers. He has already been training with the first team, and as soon as the season starts, he'll link up with our Under 18s, and Under 16s. More details can be found at Jeorge Bird's Arsenal Youth.

OMGosh, it's finally here!!!

This is the day I've been waiting for all summer. Yes, I know it may only be a friendly, but it's a chance to see our beloved, almighty, incredible Arsenal play for the first time this season. I was at a birthday gathering last night, and I was banned by my mates from talking about The Arsenal. If I mentioned them 5 times, I was allowed to be punched in the face. It's safe to say I lost that pretty bad. Towards the end of the night, I was going up to anyone who would listen (whether I knew them or not) and babbling on, in a rather excited giggle, about the game tomorrow. The dot com have announced a 21 man squad for this game, and my predictions for the starting XI are listed below:

Almunia

Djourou Gallas Silvestre Vermaelen

Arshavin Randall Rosicky Wilshere

Barazite Simpson

I'll start with the goalkeepers. The two keepers are listed in the squad are Almunia and Mannone. Almunia will almost certainly start with Mannone coming on at half time. Pretty standard stuff for a pre-season friendly at Underhill. Onto the defence, and there's not really a proper right back in the first team listed by Wenger. Djourou has played there before, although if I'm frank, I think he's dreadful there. He'll try his best, because he's a decent hardworking player, but really Djourou should only be centre back, or at a push defensive mid. On the other side, I really hope Silvestre plays left back instead of Vermaelen. Perhaps Silvestre would be best suited out on the side, where he can cause less harm, plus he did play most of his games for ManUre there. However, a lot has been made of Vermaelen's ability to also play at left back as well as his favoured position of centre back. So my hunch is Silvestre will be centre back. (Let's hope I'm wrong). Onto the midfield. It's great to see Rosicky back. Cesc said he couldn't wait to see him play again, and I think it's the same for all Arsenal players, and supporters. He was such a talented, gifted player, who offered Arsenal a lot of variety in their play. It would be fantastic if he still had that ability. Wilshere and Randall are the most established midfielders other than Rosicky and Arshavin, so it is likely they'll start. And I plumped for Barazite and Homer Jay upfront. Barazite is slightly more comfortable inbetween the midfield and forwards, so expect a lot of switching of position between him and Arshavin. In fact it wouldn't surprise me to see Barazite start on the right. Barazite also has a good goalscoring record against Barnet, and Simpson netted their too last season.

At half time, there will be SOOOO many changes. However, the younger lads will still cope well, and I'm going for a match prediction of 2-0 to the Arsenal.

Onto other things, and Adebayor is still an Arsenal player. I'm so bored of Adebayor stories, so I'm just going to say that I think he'll realise today or tomorrow that no other clubs want him, and he'll decide that Man Citeh are his best (only) option. Now, it's gone beyond the point of no return as far as stories of him leaving are concerned, and should he stay, it'll certainly have an affect on the Feng Shui in the dressing room.

Bordeaux want Silvestre plus cash for Chamakh. They must be crazy. Mind you, it wouldn't surprise me if their manager had a penchant for over the hill defenders, having been one himself. We have adequate cover for centre back, especially now as it is looking increasingly like Senderos is staying. Hence, it shouldn't be a problem, for Silvestre to leave. That's the understatement of the year. I'll try again. It'll be detrimental to the team should Silvestre stay. That's better. Chamakh himself has said that playing for Arsenal would be a dream, however talks with the club are not in as advanced a stage as talks with Sunderland and Blackburn. Let's see how that one turns out.

No news on any defensive midfielders. Weep.

That's all for today, I had a look at Barnet's ticket prices, and they were rather more than I expected/could afford. I will of course be watching Arsenal TV online, however those of you who aren't going or do not have ATVO, someone will almost certainly be streaming the game online.

Enjoy the match gooners, and I'll see you here afterwards.

Adebayor

So unless you've been living in a hole somewhere far far away, like Aberdeen, you would have heard the news that Adebayor has undergone a medical and been granted a work permit for a proposed move to Manchester City (according to Sky sports sources). I was going to wait until it was official before writing about it, then I thought, 'Meh, what else am I going to do?' (apart from watching this year's excellent edition of the Tour de France). Oddly Adebayor had undergone the medical and work permit hearing before Arsenal and Man City had finalised a price. However as the latest news is that Adebayor is waiting to see if another club comes in for a bid, indications are that the two clubs have agreed a fee, and the rest is down to Adebayor. I don't think another club will bid for Adebayor. Those clubs that had expressed interest last year, have now turned their noses up at the Togolese-goal-post-marker. Even AC Milan who still haven't signed a replacement for Kaka are no longer showing interest in Adebayor.

So it seems that before long, Adebayor will be at the door of Ashburton, with only a pause and a last sad look back at Emmanuel Eboue, before becoming a Man City player. Although, the fact he wants to wait to see if another club comes in for him, can't be very nice for a City player/manager/staff/supporter to see. If I were Mark Hughes I would say 'Alright f**k it then, if you'd rather play for someone else, then we're not gonna sign you'. We've already seen how Adebayor plays when he'd rather be doing something else. Like flirting with Italian clubs, or counting his money.

Before I go any further, I must just mention that all of this started with 'Sky sports news sources understand that...'. Those are precarious words. Right, now I can go further. I was watching a youtube video of Adebayor the other day, before all this broke, and there's no doubt he's talented (although a youtube video can make anyone look good). Even in this last season, with him being lazy, and a disruptive influence, as well as being injured a great deal of time, he managed to bag 16 goals. That was a goal every 2.31 games. That's pretty good by anyone's book. However, most of the time it looked like he'd rather be somewhere else. Also do you remember a goal he scored against Everton in the 07/08 season, when there was a mix up between Howard and (I think) Yobo? Adebayor pounced and scored with an open goal. That only came about because Adebayor charged it down as quickly as he could, even though ordinarily it would have been a lost cause. I cannot remember a single example of this last year.

There are pros and cons for Adebayor, however when push comes to shove, I have to trust Wenger. Despite the trophyless seasons, he still knows what he's doing, and if he thinks we can do better without Adebayor then so be it. I would be happy to see Adebayor leave, even if it is to another English Club, as long as Wenger spends the cash. Not even on a replacement striker, but on a defensive midfielder. Word is Matuidi is available for around £3million, and Cana for £6.5million. From what I've seen, I prefer Cana, but only Le Boss knows best. Of course, it's now common knowledge that we're interested in Chamakh aswell, as a more direct replacement for Adebayor, as well as our scouts giving Eden Hazard the eye.

However, I don't care if no replacement is bought for Adebayor should he go. Up front we have van Persie (our new player of the season), Eduardo, Bendtner, Vela, Walcott and Arshavin. With a huge talent in Rhys Murphy waiting in the wings. Anyway, Adebayor's apparently imminent departure coupled with Arsenality's recently finished poll, started me thinking what Arsenal's best eleven is. And eventually I came up with a 4-3-3 formation a la Barcelona, with some bewildering interchanging between the front three. I think this is our best eleven:

Almunia

Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Clichy

Song

Fabregas (c) Nasri

Arshavin van Persie

Eduardo

Subs: Fabianski, Toure, Djourou, Denilson, Walcott, Vela, Bendtner

Yes yes I know I left out Ramsey, but that's because I would send him out on loan with the option of recalling him. Plus I think it's about time the Boss called up Merida every now and then, he's ridiculously far above the level of the reserves. Of course there would be a place for Rosicky depending on injuries.

Speaking of Rosicky, the dot com have released an indication of who might be in the squad for the Barnet match (only two days!!!!!) and Rosicky is there which is excellent news. Of course they haven't said anything about the Adebayor saga (yes that's right I've dubbed it a saga already).

Right that's all for now.
I'll probably be back tomorrow with pre-Barnet match tittle-tattle.
'Til then Gooners.

Arsenal Fans piss me off

Ok, now I have your attention, allow me to explain myself. Of course most of them don't piss me off. Almost all Arsenal fans will support their team through thick and thin, and won't get on the backs of players. Unfortunately for the majority, there are a minority who are just horrible people. Gooners have come to expect success from Arsenal, and rightly so. We are one of the best teams in the world, and should be winning things a lot more than we do. However the success of Arsene Wenger has led to some supporters developing a spoilt attitude. And when things don't go right then all of a sudden the players are crap, the manager has lost it, the players don't care et.c. In fact this spoilt attitude can go almost as far as blinding the fans as to the ability of certain players. I am, in this case, talking about Nicklas Bendtner. I realise last year he missed a couple of sitters. However, if you understand football at all, you should be able to see the contribution that Nik B makes to the team. He works so much harder than our other forwards, he links up the play between the midfield and attack, he is actually a creative player, he is a handful for the defence, and he keeps putting himself back in scoring positions even though he might miss. That shows confidence, and that is vital for a footballer of any kind, especially a forward. Even more importantly, Bendtner achieved the same goals to start ratio as van Persie. Eventually ending up on 15 goals.

This is all in response to a 'FanZone' article on skysports.com, so I am going to name and shame a few of the commenters.

Rob V says...
My Outs will be Silvestre, Denilson and Nicklas Barndoor.

Josef Biggz says...
My biggest FLOP of the season is Bendner (He should be sold and replaced with Chamach) , he just doesn't have what it take to be an arsenal player.

Steven Haig says...
the striker i would love to see the back of is nicholas bendtner. he has showed this season he can only score against teams like west brom. could you honestly see bendtner scoring in the last 5mins at old trafford...

Jim Cahill says...
Arsene Wenger has the full support of true Arsenal Supporters I'm sure, however he has to see that the boy Bentner is shocking and has to go.

Simple Life says...
Benther for me is arsenal's most inefficient player. He has been consistently poor in the last 3 or so seasons

Ok so there are things wrong with everybody listed above's statements. Firstly Rob V, your a c**t, nicknaming our third top scorer isn't clever and it doesn't help matters at all. Josef Biggz (if that is your real name) how can Bendtner be a flop when he cost us £75,000? When a player costs £75,000 and scores 15 goals in a season for a team with the quality of Arsenal, well that's a pretty amazing deal isn't it? Also Josef wants Chamakh to replace him. Chamakh incidently scored 13 goals last season, and appeared more times than Bendtner. Possibly the statement which is least correct factually is Steven Haig, who states Bendtner can only score against West Brom, and you can't imagine him scoring in the last 5 minutes against teams like Man U. Conveniently forgetting that Bendtner scored in the dying moments against Chelsea last season, and in fact was our only threatening player when he came on. Jim Cahill obviously does not watch Arsenal games week in, week out, so only sees the misses which Match of the Day play, and Simple Life (who got Bendtner's name COMPLETELY wrong) says Benther is inefficient and has been consistently poor for the last 3 seasons. Don't tell me you were watching and judging Bendtner's performances when he was on loan at Birmingham? Yes that's right, Bendtner has only been in the Arsenal first team for 2 years, and when he played for Birmingham the year before that, he was seen by everyone as the most promising player in the championship.

Fortunately, these people are in the minority. Visiting other blogs relieves me of my worries that all Gooners hate Bendtner. A little encouragement can be taken by the fact that none of the people above can spell, therefore any opinions they have must be taken with a pinch of salt. I have a ManUre supporter mate who thinks Bendtner is crap. The reason for this is he only sees Arsenal games on Match of the Day, if he can be bothered to watch them at all. And sadly this is the same for the people above. They call themselves Arsenal fans, yet if they were like me, or the guys from Arsenality, Arseblog, Le Grove etc they would be watching every game, and they would see that he's not crap. Either that or that they are in fact just plain stupid. And see that the only thing a striker can give to a team is goals. A thing Bendtner actually can still give. Their arguments are flawed and it grinds my gears no end.

It all comes down to the fact that they're spoilt, and blinded by the anger that Arsenal aren't winning things. I am as annoyed as the next Gooner that we haven't won anything for what seems like a decade, but getting on a player's back, especially when he doesn't deserve it, is unnecessary and shows a complete lack of understanding of the sport on your part.

As I said earlier, these people are in the minority. Most people realise Bendtner's worth to the team and his immense potential. It's just the kind of people that are attracted to write comments on skysports.com that come out with this dribble. In a year or two we'll be saying I told you so. It reminds me of a few years ago, during the world cup, when all the England fans were on the back of Owen Hargreaves, purely because they weren't seeing him play week in, week out. A rational person would have watched the 20 minutes of every England game he played, and thought 'Yea this guy is an energetic, yet tidy midfielder. He can provide good cover for Lampard/Gerrard when they get forward.' Yet as it was, when England fans were interviewed before the knockout stage one of them blurted out 'Yea they're all gonna be great. Apart from Hargreaves, he's gonna go home, but the others will be great'. How stupid he must have felt after the world cup that he'd embarrassed himself so on national television. And this is what Bendtner must do, to all his critics. The minority don't understand football, the rest of us believe in you Nicklas.

Right, well that's my rant done for the day. In other news, van Persie's new contract is official. Melo looks like he's going to Juventus, and Wenger please PLEASE sign Cana. Also in the background of one of these pictures, it looks like Pat Rice is desperately trying to explain to Silvestre what a mat is. 'It's grass? I play football on it?' 'No Mikael, it's a mat, you do stretches on it.' 'So I play football on it?' '(sighs) Yes ok, play football on it.'

Well that's all for now.
'Til later Gooners.

Training is back.

As I'm sure you've all seen, the photos of Arsenal's first training session of pre-season are up on the dot com. There isn't much to say about this really. It gave us our first opportunity to see new signing Vermaelen in action, even though said 'action' is just a still of him running, and pulling some weights. Interestingly it appears that Vermaelen has the number 30 something on his shirt (it looks to be either 30 or 31). Even more interesting is the fact that Senderos doesn't have any number on the front of his shirt. Then again I don't know how meaningful these numbers are as Arshavin seems to be wearing number 28, as opposed to last season's number 23. And Lansbury is number 56, whereas as last year he sported the number 42. Surely a player touted to have a bright future, who is meant to be working his way up the team, won't be relegated 14 numbers. So this just shows these numbers may not mean much, if anything. On a positive note, it's good to see Eduardo and Rosicky back in training.

In other news, Dennis Lachter appears to have forgotten that he was dismissed as Arshavin's agent about a month ago and has told Barcelona to bid for Arshavin. Let me join the cue in wishing Lachter to shut the hell up. Lorik Cana was interviewed a while back and he stated that, although he wanted to leave Marseille, he wanted to wait until they had found a replacement. Word on the southern french street is that they have signed Stephane M'Bia, and thus Cana is available for only £6.5 million. I'm not sure how reliable this is, but wouldn't that be a bargain and three quarters?

Lastly Arseblog interviewed Ivan Gazidis yesterday, who did a very good job in recognising that the fans view on the club is important and all that.

Right I'm off. I'm still praying to the transfer gods that something interesting happens. I'm beginning to think it won't.
'Til later Gooners.

Happy Start of Pre-Season Training Day!

So, some of the wait is over. Arsenal begin pre-season training today at London Colney and in 12 days time we will have our first friendly: the annual Barnet match at Underhill. Of course some people won't be starting just yet. Fabregas, Walcott and Gibbs will be given extended breaks after their international adventures this summer. Vela is off in the North America and Carribbean version of the European Championships. Merida, Lansbury and Hoyte are all going to be involved in the Euro under 19 competition which starts on July 21st, and word is the African players won't be back yet either after a few international matches which also took place during the summer break. So perhaps not the raring start we were hoping for, but a start nonetheless.

In other Arsenal news, congratulations to Manuel Almunia, who came third in the Arsenal player of the season, and congratulations to Arshavin who came second. One would think that had he been at Arsenal the whole season he would easily have come first. As it is, presumably van Persie will take the honours this year. That brings me on to another point that I have touched upon before, but it annoys me so much. And that is that we find out who has been our Player of the Season a week after training starts for the next season. Surely it shouldn't be like this.

But anyway, Melo stories refuse to go away. As I stated in a previous article I can't help but feel there may be some truth in the stories of our pursuit of the fiery Brazilian. It draws parallels to stories of Nasri, Arshavin and Vermaelen, which also failed to go away. Then we signed them. Let's hope it's the same this time. Fiorentina, for some reason posted on their official website that they wanted most of the escape fee clause for Melo, along with a swap for Eboue. To which we reportedly responded 'Are you crazy?! Get out of here, we can't lose Eboue!! Have Senderos instead.' I expect this to go on for a while. More importantly, now pre-season has started, will Wenger even try to bring anyone else in for fear of disrupting team gelling? Only time will tell.

In the last week, the Werder Bremen manager actually told the press that he was looking at selling one of his players (Naldo) for about £8million, and Arsenal looked the most likely destination. I honestly don't think this is the case. Surely? What manager actually says that to the press? I mean it would be great if it did happen. I really rate him, plus he's as tall as Canary Wharf. Also Cesc is being bullied by the two Spanish superclubs and The Sun again. This time, apparently we've 'slapped' a £40million price tag on our captain (sounds painful). This evidently is in preparation for bids to come in from Barcelona and Real Madrid. We have to consider the source. It's The Sun. Therefore it is lies. Also isn't it about time Wenger reported Barca and Real Madrid? It's illegal to intentionally make a player uncomfortable in his current club so he'll move to you. What they are trying is pretty damn transparent, almost to the point that Fiorentino Perez and Joan Laporta are saying to the press 'Our aim is to grind down Cesc Fabregas so eventually he can't be arsed to play for Arsenal anymore and undergo all this speculation, and then he'll move to us.' Yet somehow they get away with it!

Oh by the way, I like the white kit. I understand it's not traditional Arsenal colours, but who on earth thinks it looks bad? How does it look bad? It looks very stylish and I for one like it, I don't care what anyone else thinks.

That's all for now. 'Til something happens Gooners.

p.s. Apparently Harry Redknapp is trying to lure Luis Figo out of retirement, so he can play for the spuds. Hahahahaha how desperate are they??

Melo has signed a new contract...so what?

So apparently our interested in Felipe Melo has ended purely because he's signed a new contract. Let me tell you, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Firstly, Melo has only signed a one year extension. Who only signs for an extra year unless they're over 30? One year is hardly commiting yourself to your club in the long-term. The only reason Melo signed a new contract was because Fiorentina wanted a 'buy-out clause' on him. To add something like that, a new contract must be signed, and the minimum extension possible is one year. Melo's contract didn't have a buy-out clause before, so surely Fiorentina moving to ensure he has one plainly means they expect bids to come in. Also, we were going to have to spend money on him anyway. It's not like Melo was previously available on a free before signing his extension. It may indeed be the case that we give up on Melo, but it won't be purely because he's signed a new contract.

Our attentions have also turned to Lorik Cana. Tabloids have sweeping headlines such as: 'Arsenal turn to Tottenham target Cana.' Thus trying to make us look embarrassed by missing out on one potential target and having to turn to a player that our arch-rivals want. As if they saw him first. Several years ago Wenger wanted to get Cana on a trial but Cana unfortunately couldn't obtain a work permit. Now he's been playing in France for several years as well as playing every game for Albania, he would be able to get one. This, coupled with the fact that Marseille seem resigned to losing him, may mean this is the most opportune moment to swoop in and get ourselves a tough defensive midfielder.

Right that's all for now.
'Til later Gooners.