West Ham Preview: More of the same please

Afternoon Gooners,

Arsenal are a team who feed on confidence and on the back of comfortable away wins against Man City and Newcastle within the last week, confidence should be the one thing we're not short of.

We bring our confidence back home this weekend and invite the troubled West Ham to join it. The Hammers are sitting on the bottom of the table and have only won one game in the league this year (quite humorously against Spurs) and considering our recent form I'm pretty sure they will not be looking forward to the trip.

Fabianski will return in goal and Koscielny should have done enough to regain his place in the centre of defense alongside Squillaci. Gibbs is out injured so Wenger's mini dilemma of who should be our regular left back can take a back foot with Clichy keeping his spot.

Alex Song recently came out explaining his ridiculous hair style, giving the credit to his girlfriend who told him there were too many players with dreadlocks and he should try something different, personally I think that's a cover a story and the truth is Wenger grabbed him by his legs and shoved his head down a recently bleached toilet and threatened to keep it there until he agreed to stop his pointless forward runs, Alex refused to agree and Wenger gave in to his losing battle once the hair turned white. Whatever really happened may actually be a good thing as his pointless forward runs are starting to produce an end product and against teams like West Ham he'll have the opportunity to continue adding to his goal and assist tallies.

Fabregas has built up game time over the last week and should now be ready to pull all our strings again and work his magic from the midfield, the question is who will be the third member of our midfield? Nasri has been outstanding recently and fully deserves a place in the team but with Walcott back, will it be a straight battle for the attacking spot or will Wenger move Nasri back into the centre of the park? I hope Nasri ends up playing next to Fabregas because that combo makes me stupidly excited.

Bendtner has come back in great form but I feel it's still to early in his return for him to start today so Chamakh should keep his place and Arshavin should return.

Goonerfish's lineup:

Fabianski


Sagna - Kocsielny - Squillaci - Clichy


Song


Fabregas (c) - Nasri


Walcott - Arshavin

Chamakh




Score Arsenal 4 - 0 West Ham

Today should be a comfortable game for a team over flowing with confidence, as long as that confidence doesn't turn into complacency but I think our players will have learnt that lesson from the West Brom game.
I fancy Walcott and Fabregas to get on the score sheet again today in a game should again give us all that feel good factor for the weekend.

Till next time,
Goonerfish.

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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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Bring on the Toon: Newcastle preview

Another day, another cup.

Tonight's game has come a little early fro my liking. I'm still bathing in the great feeling from Sunday's victory at Eastlands. Hey ho suppose we all need to move on at some point.

Arsene takes our boys up north tonight for the Carling Cup clash with Newcastle. The Toon Army beat of Chelsea in the last round and it wasn't exactly a particularly weak Chelsea either so this should not be considered an easy game.

As you read around the news stories and blogs you can tell that Arsene is taking the Carling Cup a touch more seriously this year but it won't stop youngsters being involved. The fact is the gap between our youngsters and first team is shrinking all the time the players that were the young ones are now reserves or even better, considered regulars in the first team squad.

The third goalkeeper of the season should make his debut tonight. Szczesny has been banging on the door for a while (a little too publicly for my liking, but that's a different story) and has had a lot of hype built around him, tonight will be his first chance to live up to that hype and prove he's good enough to fight for our number 1 shirt.

As for the rest of the team, we'll see a few players coming back from injury looking to regain fitness and a few players who are on the fringe of the first team looking to stake their claim for a regular spot in the starting XI.

One of the biggest questions is who will take on the 'Fabregas' role. Fab and Nasri should be enjoying a rest tonight with at least one of them on the bench, hopefully not needed. Wilshere will be serving the second of his three game ban so I think Rosicky will be given the chance to play in what seems to be everyone's favourite position. Denilson should continue in midfield and fully expect Lansbury to get the chance to carry on where he left off against Spurs.

Walcott and Bendtner should both get starts on their bid to get match fit and it'll be a battle between Vela and JET to get that final spot and considering Wenger lustful comments about JET he may well grab that spot or on the other hand it may be Wenger making him feel good in preparation for telling him he's not starting. Koscielny should also return from injury tonight

Goonerfish's Line-up

Szczesny


Eboue - Koscielny - Djourou - Gibbs


Denilson


Rosciky (c) - Lansbury


Walcott - Vela

Bendnter




Score: Newcastle 1  - 4 Arsenal

I know I said this game won't be easy but I am going on the assumption that Newcastle will rest a few of their stars such as Carroll and Nolan as they did against Chelsea and our team contains enough players fighting for a place in the starting line up to really give it their all.

This may only be the Carling Cup but we need to keep up our winning momentum and lets be honest, is there a gooner in the world who wouldn't want us to win this competition?

Till next time,
Goonerfish.

Liverpool to Manchester: Lessons learnt.

Three points, three goals and a fantastic feeling for finally coming out of a weekend beating another top team.

Sunday afternoon almost felt like a make or break game for many fans, had we suffered a defeat after Man U and Chelsea both winning we would have really found ourselves on the back foot for the rest of the season and with the dreaded Christmas period coming up we cannot afford to have to enter a long run of games playing catch up - not because we don't have the quality to get through them but because we would not of had the confidence or 'winner' experience to see those games through.

As soon as Man City went a man down we had to leave Manchester with all three points and our boys did not disappoint. We showed against Liverpool on the opening day of the season that we could struggle to play against 10 men, we didn't spread the play, make Liverpool work hard enough or follow any rules that apply to playing with an extra man. At City we did everything right, they could not cope with our attacking play, we moved the ball over the entire width of the pitch and the boys in blue struggled to keep up with us.

So, what have we learned between Anfield and Sunday?

We have learnt that in Fabianski we have a good keeper who can make those important saves to earn us points. We have learnt that we have two players for every slot of the back four and any one of them can put in a performance. We've learnt that we have a more mature midfield with players showing more defensive awareness and ability, in particular Diaby. We have also learnt that our future is still very bright with the likes Jack Wilshere showing the footballing world just how much of a phenomenon he is going to be.  We have learnt that we have a attacking force within our squad that would make most clubs jealous, the likes of Walcott, Nasri, Chamakh, Arshavin, Rosicky, Bendtner, Vela and lets not forget a certain Mr Van Persie give us plenty of options and all of them are quality options. Can you name another team in the Premier League with options like that? What about in Europe? We have learnt that Arshavin is lazy..... oh hold on, we knew that already but we have, thanks to Wenger pointing it out, learnt that despite his apparent laziness he has a massive contribution to our teams goals. 

Arsene Wenger has also taught us ( a lesson that I hope continues on Wednesday) that he is taking the Carling cup a little more seriously by playing reserves rather than the youth team.

We have learnt that our injury curse is not going anywhere but in all seriousness, did anyone expect it to?

Samir Nasri has taught us that out number 8 shirt has found yet another superb occupant, he showed in pre-season that he had improved as a player and has done nothing to suggest he won't continue to improve.

We have unfortunately learnt that we still fall short against Chelsea but I for one am looking forward to the return leg of that game after Christmas. We outplayed them but failed to finish our chances. We have also learnt thanks to West Brom, we cannot underestimate anyone.

Lessons will continue to be learnt as the season progresses but from what we have seen so far we can be optimistic. The Man City game is not a reason to get over excited or complacent but the difference between that game and the game at Liverpool in performance, attitude and of course result has to be a positive note and a great feeling for everyone involved with Arsenal FC.

Till next time Gooners,
Goonerfish.

Welcome home Eduardo - Shakhtar Preview.

OK Gooners, lets be honest, the only player that can dominate almost any preview for this game is Arsenal's ultimate 'what if' number 9, Eduardo.

As soon as Eduardo said his goodbyes to the Emirates in the summer we all knew that Shakhtar would join us in whatever group we ended up in for the Champions league. I am actually glad Eduardo gets a return, I'm also glad it is in the first half of fixtures where the environment will be a little more friendly. I wouldn't even mind if he scored, as long as we score three goals first. If he does score, he has said he won't celebrate because he respects the club. We love you too Edu.

On to the players that still play for us. Fabregas has been declared fit but Wenger has already said he may not start. I think Wilshere's red card at the weekend would of made up Wenger's mind for him, wilshere will not be available after tonight's game so will probably get a full 90 minutes before his three match rest.
Our defense still picks itself at the moment apart from left back. Due to injuries we should see our 2nd choice right back, our third and forth choice centre backs and to give him game time we should see our 2nd choice left back too.

Song is oddly probably the first name on the team sheet at the moment purely because he's the only player we have that can play in his position (no, I haven't forgotten Denilson, but he's too attacking). I don't see many other changes either except maybe Rosicky and Walcott being given starts unless Arsene Wenger is still playing safe with Theo in which case we'll probably see him introduces later on.
The big thing on Wenger's mind will be Man City at the weekend so for tonight expect a mix of making sure players are either ready or rested for our trip north.

Goonerfish's line-up

Fabianski

Eboue - Squillaci - Djourou - Gibbs


Song


Wilshere - Diaby


Walcott - Rosicky

Chamakh




Score Arsenal 4 - 1 Shakhtar Donetsk

Three point and we're as good as through and this should be an easy win for us as has become the norm for
home group games in the champions league but the next two games are far more important so expect to see
I'll finish today with a simple welcome home to Eduardo, lets join together and give him a massive welcome as we were unable to give him the farewell he deserved.

Goonerfish

Fair press? Brum thoughts.

Evening Gooners,

Job done. I won't go through the game minute by minute because in all honesty it wasn't great. Basically, we kept the ball, missed some chances, Birmingham scored, Chamakh dives, Nasri scores penalty. Half time. Chamakh scores, Wilshere gets sent off, full time.

The result will not matter at all to the press today, as soon as the final whistle went you could almost hear journalists sharpening their swords to point at Arsenal and start swinging. I am not going to launch an attack at the double standards of the press or raise the fact that Arsenal seem to be harshly criticised for offences that are played down, put down to bad luck or just simply ignored when committed by players from other teams. I will not mention the contrast of the reaction to Eduardo's dive in our champions league qualifier and Ashley Young's double dive the very next night. I will not mention Drogba, Gerrard, Rooney or Ronaldo because they have never exaggerated a challenge let alone performed a full blown dive. I won't mention Shawcross or any Bolton player because they are not "that sort of player"
The truth is Arsenal are just dirty, violent, thuggish cheats and thank God it has finally been brought to the public eye.

*Stop, count to ten and breath*

OK back to the game, we were not at our best at all, but we did what we needed to, we battled the opposition and dug out a decent result. Wenger went for a bit more cover for his defense allowing Diaby to keep his spot in the midfield with Nasri positioning himself in a more attacking role on the right.

Arshavin seemed miles away yesterday, he failed to really get involved in the game at all. Wenger put it down to playing two internationals in the break but we all know far too well Arshavin has too many games on the edge of the action, there has to be a point where Arsene Wenger decides he has to go for a player more reliable in the big games which could see Rosicky finally take his place as a regular starter.

I thought Squillaci and Djourou played OK together but am still very much hoping that Vermealen hurries up and gets fit, we have missed him desperately.

Chamakh had a great game, yes he dived for the penalty, but he put in a solid performance, he linked up well, held the ball up, caused the defence all sorts of issues and continued proving that he is going to be an absolute class act in an Arsenal shirt. Jack Wilshere will be slammed for his challenge, he was, late and high and it was reckless. before the red card he was the most influential player on the pitch, in all honesty, the three match suspension will actually do Jack some good, as long as Cesc is fit again Jack can now enjoy a well earned break.

The biggest thing to come out of the red card is that both Jack Wilshere and Arsene Wenger have both said that it was deserved, Not like some managers who come out and say "he's not a dirty player", "the red card was harsh" or "some players just don't like to be tackled" Our little kid did what grown men couldn't and said yep, it was stupid and high, I deserved to go. Fair play to you Jack and just to continue with my theme of not mentioning press biased, I won't mention how the MOTD team would have chuckled and said, "he never could tackle" if it was Paul Scholes.

Anywho, as long as we ignore the rest of the press we can enjoy the feeling that only a victory can bring whilst we watch Man Utd and Chelsea fans sulk.

Till next time,
Goonerfish

Bring on the Brum: Birmingam preview

Hurrah, real football is back.

Injury news seemed really positive a few days ago, but as we wake up to match day it seems we've got two in and two out.

Theo Walcott and Nic Bendtner both return to the squad but Sagna and Koscielny both miss out thanks to a thigh and back injury respectively. The scenario is far from ideal, gaining two attackers is great but in losing two defenders, the negative outweighs the positive, we have plenty of attackers available so we were not particularly short there however decent defenders are very hard to come by at Arsenal.

With Vermaelen still ten days away according to Wenger, it's going to be a big day for Johan Djourou who you have to assume will start next to Squillaci in the centre of defence. I like Djourou and think he could become a fantastic defender given a run of games and some confidence but that being said, I'm glad we're playing a team like Birmingham and not a Manchester club or Chelsea. I have a feeling he'll put in a good performance today.

Eboue is the other player to benefit from injuries. He will surely replace Sagna at right back, unless Wenger is having a look at some of our younger players ready for the Carling Cup game at Newcastle, then we may see a lesser known starter such as Eastmond or Nortveit, my money is on Eboue though.
Cesc is still short for a return so Nasri or Wilshere should take up his role joing Song in midfield. Nasri is a hard choice for Wenger when Fabregas is not in the team, not for selection because he's pure quality, but where to play him. With Fabregas in the team recently Nasri has been played on the right of an attacking three but when Cesc is not playing super Sam has proved his worth in that central position. It all depends on how Wenger shapes the rest of the side.

Although Bendtner and Walcott are back in the squad, I don't think we'll see either of them start the game. Walcott is more fragile than your Gran's finest china so Wenger will want to bring him on when the oposition are more tired and less likely to catch him and cause him as much of a physical challenge. Bendnter on the other hand will effectively be playing his pre-season over the next few games so I expect him to see no more than 25 minutes, probably replacing Chamakh who will probably be grateful for the break.

Goonerfish's line-up:

Fabianski


Eboue - Squillaci - Djourou - Clichy


Song


Wilshere - Nasri


Rosciky (c) - Arshavin


Chamakh



Score Arsenal 3 - 1 Birmingham

Birmingham will offer a physical game today as most lower clubs now seem to be doing when they come to the Emirates but they are not as strong as Bolton or Blackburn so I don't see them being able topush us about too much.

Today marks Arsene Wenger's 800th game in charge of Arsenal, I wrote my Ode to Arsene yesterday so won't go over just how much I love the man again but lets all hope that our boys can celebrate the event by sending the boys in blue back to Brum hurting from their beating.

Till next time,
Goonerfish.