Utd Preview: Time to come out fighting

Afternoon Gooners,

Is anyone else bricking themselves about tomorrows game? I am a bit but mainly because I work in an office full of Utd fans. With our current squad status, this is the most nervous I have been going into a big game in the Premier League.

Manchester United haven’t won their three opening games since the 2006/07 season, when they beat Fulham, Charlton and Watford and by coincidence the 2006/07 season was also the last time Arsenal failed to win any of their opening three games, a feat which will be matched if they don’t win at Old Trafford on Sunday.

The European result midweek will lift spirits of everyone involved with the club which will be vital going into this game. Even with our vastly incomplete squad, if the players we do have put in the right effort and show the same spirit they did against Udinese then we may be able to get a result.

Our biggest concern for this game is the obvious void in the defensive midfield department with both Song and Frimpong serving their suspensions.Wenger has very little options open to him but has hit a bit of luck with the likelihood that we will have Vermaelen, Koscielny and Djourou all available which means Wenger's first choice pairing of TV5 and Kos can watch our defence and Djourou can move up a little into the DM role. I think this could work as Djourou likes to stride forward, has the pace to cover the whole pitch and is defensively aware enough not to leave the back four unsupported. It would be a huge task for Djourou and his ability to adapt and put in a performance will be vital to any result we get. Gibbs is still short for the game so I'd  expect Jenkinson to keep his starting place.

Wojciech Szczesny is now beyond doubt Arsenal’s number one. It's hard to believe that he only made his league debut at Old Trafford last season. Ji-Sung Park’s header sealed a 1-0 win for the home side that day in a tight game but I get the feeling that many people involved with Man Utd are expecting a bigger margin this year.

The rest of the midfield is honestly anyone's guess. Ramsey could continue his run of starting spots or Rosicky may well have done enough on Wednesday night to secure the start himself. Maybe both will start. Maybe Arshavin will be moved centrally?  Honestly I have no idea which combination Wenger will go for.

I am personally gutted that Gervinho is suspended tomorrow. I would have loved to see him running riot against Utd's depleted defence. His skill, pace and trickery would have been too much for Rafael or Fabio or Smalling and he would have provided a massive chance of picking up a result.

Captain RVP will lead the forward line hoping to pick up the first points of his official captaincy with Walcott and probably Arshavin supporting him from each side. As the game goes on, due to our limited numbers I think we will see a debut for either Ryo or AOC at some point, maybe even both.

My Line-up

                        Szczesny

Sagna - Vermaelen - Koscielny - Jenkinson

                        Djourou

                Rosicky - Ramsey

Walcott                 -                     Arshavin

                          RVP

As much as I am not looking forward to this game, I have a little feeling that we could surprise a lot of people at Old Trafford. We always perform best when the odds are stacked against us and no one can see us pulling out a result, if I'm honest I would happily take a draw today but if we are to achieve it there will be a lot of hard work and commitment from everyone in an Arsenal shirt.

As pessimistic as it sounds the key to tomorrows game is not to over react, whatever the result. If we lose we are only on the third game of the season, plenty of time left and we play all the big boys at home in the second half of the season. If we win, again, we are only 3 games into the season and unless we pick up other results during the rest of the season it'll mean very little but what the hell, lets enjoy it.

This is the last game of the month which means by the time we play Swansea in our next game we will know our squad. Whoever is in that squad it is our job as fans to support them as best we can. It is our club so lets show it in what will probably turn out to be our most difficult season of recent times.

Till next time,
Goonerfish

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.