So all the news today is about our ‘cheat’ Eduardo, now i did say i wasn’t going to comment on the penalty decision or the dive but after reading arseblog this morning i’ve found myself strangely pumped up about the situation. Basically it’s a big joke, yes he dived so what? How many times have player’s dived before this? Loads and when has anything been done about it? Never. Why now? Because the scottish people as a whole don’t want to feel inadequate to the English, this game was made out to be something which it wasn’t a ‘battle of britain’ and sore loosers will be sore loosers. Anyway Eduardo has been charged with ‘intent to deceive the referee’ Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger was fuming, he told Sky Sports News.;

“I find it a complete disgrace and not acceptable,”

“We will not accept the way Uefa treated this case. Having seen the television again nothing is conclusive from that and it singles out a player in Europe to be a cheat and that is not acceptable.

“I have seen some obvious cases where Uefa didn’t intervene and that is on and off the pitch. Things have happened in Europe on and off the pitch where Fifa did not act at all.

“I believe that this is the first time in my time in football where a situation that has been judged and assessed by the referee and that the referee’s decision is not accepted by the football bodies.

“Normally a situation that has been assessed and judged by the referee cannot be touched again.

“So that means we have opened a door that means that every single decision that is seen by a referee can be changed. They have opened a very dangerous door there.”

“I am not disappointed, here it is a witch hunt,” he added.

“Eduardo has been touched by the goalkeeper we can prove that. One thing – is it a penalty or not? I am the first to say it doesn’t look obvious to be a penalty but it is another thing to judge with intent he did go down and I wish you good luck to prove that after seeing the pictures again.

“To single a player out like that who has come back from injury like he has, been hit like he has been, for going down I don’t blame him. When you see his leg first time I don’t blame him getting out of the way of the goalkeeper.”

“He feels he has done nothing wrong. Of course the timing is not ideal,”

“It is funny football, you can break a player’s leg and it doesn’t cause a debate for anybody but this case has been all over the world and treated like Eduardo has killed somebody.

“Do you know that this penalty had no outcome on the result, we were 2-0 up anyway and we would have won this game at home.

“We have been victims of players diving in England who were English but were never treated like that, so the media have to ask themselves to treat every case the same.”

 Interestingly Celtic Midfielder Donati had this to say after calming down;

“We lost because Arsenal are one of the best teams in the world, in the last few years they have made the quarters, semis and final of the competition so we knew it would be hard.

“We tried our best but it wasn’t good enough and they were better than us. It was definitely not a penalty, he dived, but that is part of football and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

Champions League Draw

We got a pretty good draw on thursday we avoided all of the teams that you wouldn’t really want to face. Not a lot more i can say about it but i expect it will be a bit harder than it looks.

Arsenal-AZ Alkmaar-Olympiacos-Standard Liege

Arsenal Vs Manchester United Preview:

Today at 5.15 is the biggest game of our season so far, two heavy-weights of english football going head to head at old trafford, we are already in a better position than United they’ve played 3-6 points, we’ve played 2-6 points and if we can win tonight we could open up a six point gap if we win our game in hand.

Before the game Arsene Wenger said;

“I am happy to go to Old Trafford because it is the first big, big test,”

 ”You want always to have a high level of confidence when you go to Old Trafford, we have that at the moment.”

Possible Starting Line-up

Almunia,

Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy

Song, Diaby, Denilson

Bendtner, Van Persie, Arshavin

Bench: Mannone, Gibbs, Merida, Wilshere, Eduardo, Eboue, Rosicky (i’m not sure if he will be involved but he has recovered)

 Match Prediction

I’m going to say 2-1 to the Arsenal, Bendtner and Van Persie for us. Rooney to put United in the lead.

Big game today or as Wenger likes to say at the moment ‘big test’, i think we have to win today to keep our confidence up, and to make us all feel better than when we lost our virginity, and i’ll tell you now if Eduardo dives and gets a penalty in the last minute and we win i’ll be as happy as Larry (Larry must be an Arsenal fan)

 Lets Do This Shit.

Another good win for the Arsenal with goals from Eduardo, Arshavin and Eboue and Donati with a consolation goal in the 92 minute after Ramsey had gone off injured leaving us to play out the game with ten men. I won’t go into the penalty incident because it’s been gone over with a tooth comb thousands of times already and at the end of the day if it was Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard nothng would be said, once again the anti-arsenal media and pundits try their under-handed tactics to disrupt us and once again they will fail.

So the Champions League Draw is due to go ahead in a couple of hours, i will give you my opinions on the draw on saturday morning as i have a busy few days coming up, but we could end up with a very tough group with the likes of: Real Madrid, Wolfsburg, Juventus, Athletico Madrid and Inter Millan all possibilities in the draw, but at the end of the day you have to beat the good teams to win this competition and we all now we can beat the good teams, so i would go with Real Madrid in our group, it would be an Epic couple of games for the club.

Back on saturday with the build up to th United game and with a post about the Champions League.

Feel free to leave your comments about the blog or join the message boards where there is plenty to debate.

Yet another good result for Arsenal 4-1 versus Portsmouth at the Emirates stadium goals from top scorer GALLAS,

 Diaby(2) and Ramsey sealing a comfortable win, making it three wins from three games scoring 12 and conceding 2 not a bad start at all for our much-maligned Arsenal team.

I mentioned in my season preview that one of the players who needed to step-up this season is Abou Diaby and if he keeps playing like that every week then he could well be top-top player for us this season and fill the void that Vieira left in our midfield. Also praise where praise is due William Gallas looks like a completely different ‘animal’ this year, he’s playing out of his skin, good at the back and outstanding in attack with three goals in three games. Long May it continue.

The only bad news from the weekend is a slight injury to Cesc Fabregas Arsene Wenger said;

”If it is a little pull, he will be out for three weeks, if it is just tightness, maybe he can get away for Wednesday,”

“In 48 hours, we will have a better view.”

So hopefully he will be ok for the United game next week, i certainly don’t think he needs to play the Celtic match midweek fit or not.

 Abou Diaby spoke about winning the champions league in the evening standard;

 ”We talk about winning the Champions League.

“Arsenal are a big club and deserve to win a big title like the Champions League and as a player you want to win that trophy as well so it’s in our mind.

“I would like to be in United’s place and be in the final. It’s good for them and obviously we want to have the same success.

“We can definitely challenge everyone this season. We are ready to fight and to get something this year.”

”It will be hard against Celtic, they are a good team and now we are focused on this game. Everyone knows it will not be easy even after winning the first leg so we will have to be focused to go through.”

“We have scored 12 goals in three games, we have confidence and hopefully we can keep going. “

 ”I want to stay fit, play the maximum number of games and do really well this season.

“I know it’s a big season for me. The World Cup is in my mind, of course. We have to qualify first but I want to be there and make sure I am in the team.”

Well let’s hope so, after the first few performances this season i think we can do it, but we’ll wait and see if we beat United on saturday, or how we respond if we lose the match to see if we have true title and champions league credentials.

ARSENAL VS CELTIC PREVIEW

The second leg of our champions league qualifier is on wednsday night, and although i don’t think it will be easy by any means i think we will qualify.

Possible Line Up:

Almunia,

Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy

Song, Diaby, Denilson

Van Persie, Arshavin, Eduardo

Bench: Mannone, Eboue, Ramsey, Merida, Bendtner, Wilshere, Gibbs

Player to Watch:

Eduardo, it will be a tight game and this man is more than capable of making a difference with an assist or a goal, he looks sharp and personally i think he could win us the league this season.

Match Prediction:

Arsenal 2-0 Celtic, Eduardo and Gallas’ left nipple (how could i not choose him)

Our first home game is finally upon us, hopefullly we can get a good result tommorow against what has become a very weak Portsmouth side. 

Sorry about the lack of a post since the Celtic game, i havn’t had chance after working so many hours in the lst few days. The Celtic result was a good one for us, if some what unfortunate on their behalf, but we were the better team and deserved to win and it’s about time we had a bit of good fortune. After the win aslong as we don’t concede we should be able to make it a pretty routine qualification frome here and rest some players for the manchester united game.

Just a quick note on Thomas Vermaelen, he was immense on tuesday night he didn’t put a foot wrong the whole game, and to be fair neither did Gallas, they look like they could form the defensive partnership that we have been lacking the last few years and there is still plenty of time for them both to grow and improve together.

 Well i may aswell start off with the players we havn’t got available for tommorow; Tomas Rosicky, Johan Djourou, Samir Nasri and Lukasz Fabianski and Theo Walcott are all out but Walcott could be back for the Manchester United game next week. Good news Eduardo is available after pulling out of the Celtic game due to a groin injury.

Predicted Line-Up

Almunia

Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy

Song, Fabregas, Denilson

Bendtner, Van Persie, Arshavin

 bench: Mannone, Eduardo, Ramsey, Vela, Merida, Gibbs, Wilshere

The 4-3-3 seems like it could be a good system for us, obviously it will take a while for us to get completely used to it but if we can win 6-1 with a new formation think what we’ll be capable of when we are used to it. The only problem i have with it is that Bendtner is deployed on the right and not in the centre but maybe the boss will change that.

Player to Watch

Vermaelen: I know its not all that exciting choosing a defender but this guy is awesome to watch, he’s not afraid of a tackle, he doesn’t care if he has to take the man aswell as the ball, he’s not afraid of a header and he get forward, i’m expecting big things from him this season.

Match Prediction

I’m going to go with a 4-0 win tommorow, with Bendtner, Van Persie, Denilson and Arshavin with the goals, Portsmouth have hit rock=bottom on the pitch at the moment and i expect us to take advantage of that.

Well i don’t think any of us were quite expecting the performance that we pulled out of the bag yesterday, i’m still in cookoo land now, do you ever get that feeling that your invincible and nothing in the world can stop you after a good result? probably not but i do haha, the only down side to yesterday is that some sections of the fans will be expecting that every week, oh and we won’t be top of the league next week because we miss a game on tuesday as we have our champions league qualifier.

In brief: a 25 yarder from Denilson after good play form Bendtner and Captain Fab opened the scoring after about half an hour and then the flood gates opened with new signing Thomas Vermaelen and former captain William Gallas scoring free headers before half time. In the second half the rout continued as Fabregas scored twice (one of which he ran from our half and scored low into the bottom corner from 20+ yards) and Eduardo completed the scoring with a tap in after Arshavin had it the post, Louis Saha scored the solitary reply for Everton it’s a shame they scored as a clean sheet would have been nice but all in all  a great result.

It’s probably a bit pre-mature to be talking of winning the league but a couple of good performances and results against Celtic and Manchester United this week will go a long way to proving our title credentials.

Bring on Celtic and Manchester United!!

Samir Nasri (broken leg), Theo Walcott (back), Lukasz Fabianski (knee) and Djourou and Abou Diaby (groin injury), But i think we should be able to cope.

Predicted Line-up:

Almunia

Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy

Song, Denilson

Fabregas

Van Persie, Eduardo, Arshavin

Bench: Bendtner, Mannone, Sylvestre, Eboue, Wilshere, Vela, Merida

Pre Match Quote:

Wenger spoke about not joining Real Madrid he said:

“I want to go to the end of my job here. I built this team, I want to deliver with this team and I feel that if I left I would in some way have betrayed my beliefs,”

“It is nothing to do with what Real Madrid have done. I just couldn’t see leaving this team at this stage of their development.”

“I believe in working in our job, creating connections between the players. I believe in what makes football great,”

“It is a team sport, a collective sport. You can win because you are more a team, or because you have more individual talent. What is interesting for me is the team ethic.

He also spoke about winning things, and that Arsenal can no longer use ‘youngsters’ or ‘in-experience’ as an excuse.

 Players to Watch:

Arsenal; Eduardo and Arshavin, individually these players are amazing together they could be an absolutely devastating force in the premier league and europe.

Everton; Tim Cahill allthough i can’t stand the guy he is a very good player and i expect him to cause us some problems.

 Match Prediction:

Everton 1-3 Arsenal i know it won’t be easy but with three upfront Everton will eventually crumble, and i think Gallas and Vermaelen will concede a goal but think it could be a very good partnership.

Eduardo, Arshavin and Fabregas with the goals for Arsenal Cahill for Everton.

Good luck tommorow gooners everywhere.

Come on you gunners!!!

We’ve had some good results and a shit result in pre-season but i’m not going to start getting all doomy and gloomy about a loss away to valencia in pre-season as it doesn’t matter one bit, Liverpool have lost nearly every game in pre-season but sky sports are still up their arses, yet again we’re overlooked, touted to finish fourth if we’re lucky even fifth by some but do i care? no.

Manchester United lost yesterday in their first real match 4-1 on penalties to Chelsea and to bhe honest i thought that was their best chance of silverware this season, oh wellit was funny to watch although i do hate Chelsea just as much.

Anyway down to what does matter: The Arsenal, not a lot to talk about for the last few weeks which is lucky because my internet problems continue to try and cripple my blogs but i’m hoping that this time i’ve got it sorted. The only real news the last few weeks has been bad news: Nasri out until october with a broken leg, Rosicky out for 6 weeks with a hamstring injury again (i feel sorry for him because he is a really good player and would really boost the team if he could stay fit but like others i just don’t think we can rely on him too much) other than that Wenger has expressed an interest in Hangeland, Vieira and Chamack but won’t sign any of them until the dying embers of the transfer window and after last season’s fiasco i ouldn’t be suprised if we had to go with what we’ve got but i’d be happy if we got any two of tyhose players in (preferably Vieira and Hangeland).

Team Prediction: My first team and bench (from the players that we have as i write this) would be:

Almunia

Sagna, Vermaelen, Djourou, Clichy

Walcott, Fabregas, Arshavin, Eduardo

Bendtner, Van Persie

Bench: Fabianski, Gallas, Gibbs, Wilshere, Vela, Eboue and Denilson

I admit it’s not the orthodox team but that’s just my personal preference i think the team is more likely to line-up:                                                                  Almunia

Sagna, Vermaelen, Gallas, Clichy

Walcott, Fabregas, Denilson, Arshavin

Bendtner, Van Persie

Bench: Fabiabnski, Gibbs, Djourou, Eduardo, Diaby, Eboue and Wilshere

To be honest6 it’s not a bad team but with Hangeland and Vieira it’s a much better team and i don’t see where Chamack would fit in really either but Arsene knows.

Season Prediction: I think we can win it this season, i also think that we have to win it this season, i think that the only way we can stay in touch with the big spending teams is if we win the league or champions league this season, and i think we will win the league it’s about time we made the doubters sit back and take notice of our club instead of just trundling along saying ‘next year’ or ‘youth polocies’, personally i think we will win the league and get to the semi’s of the F.A cup and champions league and maybe win the carling cup. I also don’t think celtic will be too much of a problem in the champions league, Paul Merson (used to be a legend in my eyes, but seems to be falling inline with the sky sports crowd recently) thinks we’ll struggle but aslong as we come away with a draw we’ll be fine, and with the negative influence of Adebay-whore now gone we can push on and i’m sure Arsene’s got a few tricks up his sleeve.

Player to Watch: Andrei Arshavin: not a hard choice, i thought last season that Arshavin could be better than Ronaldo and i think this season he will prove it, i think he is quite capable of carrying this Arsenal team if needs be so heads up gooners and here’s hoping for a good season.

Manchester City completed the signing of Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor last night on a five-year contract he told the City website:

“It made me feel really welcome and special and I can’t wait to play for City’s fans and show them what I can do,”

“I was born to play football and that is what I want to do. I have come here to make history for this club and those supporters. It what the chairman and the manager told me that they want too and I can’t wait to get started.”

So far there are no parting words about or for Arsenal, it hasn’t even been anounced on Arsenal.com as i write this, which is strange.

Anyway news that actually matters…Thomas Rosicky returned to the Arsenal first team for the first time in over 19 months, he didn’t score but looked lively and also went in for a few challenges which is great to see and he came through the match unscathed without any little niggles. The match finished 2-2 with Arsenal twice going ahead thanks to goals from Arshavin and for the third season in a row Nacer Barazite.

Back tommorow hopefully with some news about a defensive midfielder.

The boring summer has gone suprisingly quick this time around, maybe it’s because we made a signing so soon in the window and because there have been quite a few crazy spending sprees…I don’t know, who cares, Arsenal play their traditional first pre-season game against Barnet tommorow and i cannot wait.

Barnet Team News: I don’t know a single barnet player and i’m not going to pretend to.

Arsenal Team News: All i know for this one, is that new signing’s Vermaelen and THOMAS ROSICKY could both be involved tommorow i don’t know about you but i can’t wait to see tommy in an Arsenal shirt and playing football again, also the likes of Senderos, Eduardo and Arshavin are in contention, be prepared for the Arsenal reserves in the second half, i expect Jay Simpson, Mark Randall and Jack Wilshere may all play a part.

Players to Watch: Rosicky and Wilshere, Don’t be suprised to see Both of these players show off some crazy skills and grab a goal each both have different points to prove both could be great players and personally i can’t wait to see either of them play a game of football.

 Match Prediction: Arsenal 5-0 Barnet, We have to start off strong this season and for me the seaon starts with a good pre-season…we have to win and we have to win well.

Also Adebayor had a medical at Manchester City today but as of yet i don’t know if it has gone well or not but i wouldn’t be suprised if Adebayor is wearing blue by the end of the weekend