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.

Drooling as options start to outnumber injuries

Evening Gooners,

I still can't get over how much I've enjoyed the past week and the good news just keeps coming in. Arsene Wenger has announced that both Robin Van Persie and Aaron Ramsey should be back in training by the end of next week. He has however stressed that Ramsey is still much further away from a first team return, he said:

"Van Persie and Ramsey are very close to coming back to full training now,"

"They should be back in the group at the end of next week. Of course we should not set the same [recovery] time to Ramsey as Van Persie.

"Aaron will need a longer period to be completely match-fit. But Van Persie is not far away now."

I still can't believe how big and strong our squad is going to be once all these players return. Lets not forget we still have Vermealen watching from the sidelines too. Van Persie has always been one of my favourite players in an Arsenal shirt and I still maintain my view that if he had a full season without injury he would be proven as one of the best strikers in the world. You only have to look at his contribution to the team when he is involved, we went through a spell of about 6 weeks last season where Van Persie either created or scored every goal Arsenal scored. Chamakh has offered a huge amount to our team but I still cannot wait to see a fully fit dutch master filling out number 10 shirt again.

Ramsey is an entirely different case. Last season was supposed to be his introduction to the Premiership, playing in the Carling Cup and possibly a few sub appearances and if he really impressed a start or two in the league but this quickly turned into a season that our young Welsh wizard started to build a real reputation in the footballing world as not only a player with potential but a player that already could hold his own in a very competitive league and do it with grace, power and skill. I am really excited about Ramsey's career, especially when you imagine him playing alongside Wilshere in years to come
*drool, drool, drool - wipe mouth clean*

On the negative side of the injury world Kieran Gibbs will again miss "a few weeks" with a knee injury. It seems to be a strain rather than anything more serious so hopefully he should be fit again for the Carling Cup quarter final at the beginning of December.

Competition for places is really strong in our squad at the moment and I can't remember a time in recent history where our squad was so strong. The only players that Wenger doesn't have to think about putting on the team sheet when we have a fit squad are TV5 and Cesc, every other position has quality options and that can only lead on to good things.

I can't wait for the West Ham game to see some of these options take the field to destroy the Hammers but I'll cover that in the preview tomorrow.

Till then Gooners I'll leave you all drooling over the thought of a fully fit Van Persie returning to destroy the Spuds in a couple of weeks time.

Goonerfish.

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