Rambo guns down Utd, New home kit & Fergie's a comedian.

Good Morning Gooners,


I have been away for God knows how long due to personal reasons that I'm not going to harp on about but what a time to not be blogging, I've missed the depression of the Carling Cup final, the ecstasy of knowing the title is in our own hands and the misery of watching that control disappear with a run of miserable results including that ludicrous run of draws, but enough of all that, it's all in the past, I've missed my chance to rant over them and like everyone else I must move on.

So what a welcome back to the blogsphere. The unbeatable Manchester Utd that people were seriously considering could finish the season with four trophies and unbeaten in the Premier league but yesterday saw them  lose their fourth game of the season to ............... hold on a second, just let me check my notes.......... Oh yeah, Arsenal!!

The team deemed not good enough to be crowned champions all the way through pre-season and the year so far spent 90 minutes dictating to the almighty red devils how football should be played. We showed them that Arsenal are not a team that rolls over to die and can compete with the very best teams in world and we can even do this without our best centre back and one of the best midfielders in the world.

There are times I am truly proud to be a Gooner, yesterday was one of those days. The commitment, togetherness and passion shown by our players was immense, the point proven by Arshavin's second half performance. The magic little russian (although didn't really offer much going forward) showed how much he seems to be concentrating on improving the defensive side of his game and produced no less than four crunching challenges to regain possession from Utd.

Szczesny has continued to grow in his role as Arsenal's new number one and produced yet another faultless performance. Koscielny was seen wandering around the Emirates at about six 'o' clock in the evening, apparently he still had Hernandez in his pocket, where he had spent all afternoon, and Kos was wondering who to return him to. Djourou was solid throughout and I really hope his injury isn't too bad. When Vermaelen returns, which could of course now be much sooner than expected, he can rest assured he will have a top class partner in defense regardless of which player Wenger gives the nod to.

We beat Utd in the midfield yesterday and if you asked anyone to pick a midfield that will win that game at the beginning of the season I guarantee no one would have given the answer Song, Ramsey and Wilshere. All three were immense throughout the full 90 minutes Ramsey dictated the play for the whole game and Wilshere's forward runs were sublime, yet again proof of just how good the depth of our squad is.

Walcott has really started to discover himself this year and when he suffered his injury in the middle of the season I fully expected to see him whither up for the rest of the year but sweet Jesus has he proved me wrong. Theo has gone from strength to strength this year and did anyone else notice he was rotating with RVP  when it came to central duties? He spent a lot of time in the first half in a central possesion and although I hate to draw comparisons between players new and old, a lot of his movement was very Henry like.

So, in achieving this and realising 2011's 'Happy St Totteringham's Day' as we secure yet another season where the Spuds need to look up the table and stare at our arse and dream of reaching our heights and also secured Champions League football for another season. (Both points are assuming we avoid complete catastrophe of results and really need another point to be certain but as a Gooner I'm nothing if not optimistic)

My final comment today is on the new kit which is now available for preorder and here it is:



Now in all honesty, I actually quite like it. It celebrates our 125th anniversary and has the simple motto 'forward' below the badge which is rather fitting for the current stage of our club but was also the motto on the kits from our early years. I saw a lot of 'potential' designs floating about the internet and the big issue with me was those bloody leaves on the crest however, they have actually grown on me and if you look at some of the other images available it looks a lot better on, now yes I would prefer to have kept the white collar but we can't have everything we want.

Even though I know our title challenge is over, yesterday's result can't help but make me go over all the mathematical possibilities of how we can still be crowned champions and regain a little bit of (realistically unfounded) hope. You will read a lot today about "why couldn't we perform like this all year" and "it's only one game" and other negative rambling but I urge you to ignore them and just enjoy making Fergie sulk.

I'll finish with a joke. A Skysports presenter goes up to SAF after the game and asks him about the game and when talking about the penalty decision says "We're not going to get decisions like that in a major game" when questioned on his statement he continued "it's too big a game and we don't seem to get these decisions"................. That is all. Is Fergie serious? Ah well whether it's the real world or Fergie's fantasy land one fact is the same, Utd lost, Arsenal won!!

Until next tme Gooners,
Goonerfish.

The future is bright, the future is Arsenal.

I'll start today's blog with a confession. From 11.15pm last night I was queuing at my local Asda for my copy of Fifa 11, I finally got home at about 1:00 in the morning, popped it into my Playstation and started my first FA Cup with the mighty Arsenal.

Now this isn't a game review, but one thing that made me think, was the quality of our squad. As I chose my starting 11 I couldn't help but notice the quality I was leaving out. If everyone is fit the the likes of Rosicky, Chamakh, Wilshere, Vela, Denilson, Bendtner, Gibbs, Eboue, Diaby would all struggle to get into our team, then if you consider who is in our team, Vermaelen, Fabregas, Van Persie, Walcott, Nasri, Arshavin and so on you have to ask yourself the question "do we have the strongest squad in the Premiership this year?"

I can't think of another team that has so much quality in depth, ironically the one thing that Arsenal have been criticised for in past seasons. If we look at our rivals for the league title, Chelsea obviously have quality in their first 11 in the form of Thug Terry, Fat Lampard, Malouda, Anelka and of course Didier 'must score twice against Arsenal' Drogba, Essien and as much as it hurts to say Cashly, but who do they have that can step in in the case of an injury? No-one. Man Utd are even worse on paper, they have Rooney as the only real big talent in their team, not one other player in their squad would be a regular in Arsenal's starting line-up, they have a few players starting to emerge like we did 3-4 years ago but I think they are entering their transition stage now, once Scholes, Van der Sar and Giggs admit defeat to old age we could see a new era for Man Utd and not in a way their fans are going to like. It'll be interesting to see how much stick they get when they go a few years without silverware.

Next down the league is Man City who have attempted to buy everyone available aka Chelsea when Roman Abramovich was still interested in owning a football club so obviously they have a lot of talent but talented individuals do not make a quality team as i think they'll find out this year. Liverpool don't even warrant a mention, and the I'll let the spuds keep thinking that they have a decent squad.

I know that I am biased in my opinions, but what other team has a bench full of players that have all been capped at full international level and then a group of youngsters waiting in the wings with the ability of the Arsenal kids, no-one else has a Frimpong, JET, Lansbury etc etc.

My point is, that with the squad we have available to us surely we are scarily close to a fantastic era in Arsenal's history. Our team have been playing together for years now and that can only help the team as a unit (something Man City will not benefit from for a couple of years at least) and silverware cannot be far away.

Keep the faith Gooners, Other clubs are already copying our youth structures and financial plans, it won't be long until they wish they could copy our success too.

Lets hope our squad players can come in on Sunday and prove me right by spanking Chelsea at the bridge.

Back with a match preview tomorrow,
Goonerfish.