Up For Grabs Now

I love European nights, don’t you?

I think on reflection no Arsenal fan can be unhappy with getting away with 1-1 last night. In a tense match we were absolutely bossed for the first 45 minutes, particularly after Marcos Senna scored a stonker of a goal that Almunia, injury or no, didn’t really have a chance with. People will say Song should have closed him down but you can’t really legislate for that kind of strike, and on the whole Song had a good game. There’s something of the Gilberto about him, in that he doesn’t appear to do a whole lot but is very often doing something sensible, and appearing at useful moments. He’s also got a nice line in the subtle robust-clatter-from-behind-on-skillful-opposition-midfielder, which we’ve been missing in the middle of the park for some time now. Good to see. Man’s game, and all that. We’re seeing there’s more to Song than just a fragrance-modeller.

Other than that the first half didn’t have much to recommend it from an Arsenal point-of-view. Their lot passed it around neatly, and were getting in behind the defenders quite effectively. I wonder if that’s a tactical thing about European sides that’s not a problem in the domestic league – anyway, we looked quite vulnerable, and Gallas and Toure were doing a bit of their terrifying ‘you get it’ ‘no, you get it’ double act. We were pretty lucky only to be one down – Fabianski when he came on made a great save at his post – was my conclusion from the first half.

We did manage to get the ball in the net, after Cesc took a quick free quick, but he promptly got booked for his trouble, though that was only because Ray Wilkins was refereeing, and as we all know, Ray Wilkins with his Chelsea allegiances was after revenge for Thierry’s successful use of the quick free quick all those years ago.

The second half was much better – we came at them much more convincingly, and then, all of a sudden, we scored. I thought it was very good of ITV, given that I was watching the game in order to see it live, to show, rather than the scoring of the goal, Adebayor wheeling away in celebration. However, the replays confirmed that it was  a cracking finish – a quasi bicycle kick, and the third Cesc-Adebayor combo goal in two matches. Those two must have been having secret practise sessions while they were injured, building up a ‘relationship’.

When I was a boy I tried heavily to emphasise the importance of having a ‘relationship’ with a strike partner. I saw myself playing in the hole, banging balls in from behind so my chum only had to balance himself, pull the trigger and finish the job. As I got older I tried to stop choosing my words so poorly, but it is nice to see the direct stuff working. In fact if anyone was guiltiest of Islington Shuffle last night it was the Spaniards; thankfully they won’t be able to do that sort of thing when they come round our gaff, as they have to score, which means that we’ll have more chances. Yum. 

So in conclusion. Positives: 1-1. Cesc. Song. Ade(bits), Toure/Djourou looking ok. Fabianski. Pires’ reception from the away gooners – I can’t wait for when he appears at the Emirates. Last minute Porto equaliser against United.

Negatives: Ray Wilkins being the referee. Injuries to Almunia and Gallas. Marcos Senna being excellent at football. Villarreal looking pretty competent generally.

More tomorrow. Thanks for reading. Tell your friends.

Just a super-speedy shifty at what’s going down today:

Bendtner is injured, and could miss the City match. But we could have Cesc back, Theo and Eduardo shouldn’t be far away, and both Robin and Ade (touch wood) will be good to go. Not too big a blow, you’d think?

Cesc feels we can still win the league. I really really like Cesc, in fact I might go so far as to say that I love him. But that’s absolute cobblers.

Adebayor, who scored an outrageous goal against Cameroon (outrageous because before he scored he appeared to give Reading’s gargantuan defender Andre Bikey a sound thrashing,) disagrees with Tony Cascarino (see rant in previous post) and instead wants to stay at Arsenal. Sorry Tony. 

On balance, I reckon that’s probably a good thing. This season hasn’t been his best, but at his age and with his ability, he’s certainly worth hanging onto  as a player who could turn into something very special. Plus, while it’s extremely tempting to fantasise about what you’d do with £30 million and a hole in our strike-force (Villa, Aguero, Benzema, Bent etc), you know in your heart of hearts that if we got that money Wenger would spend £2 million on a 17 year old Austro-Hungarian full-back of Burkinabean extraction, extend Nicky Bendtner’s contract to 2034 and trouser the remaining £28 million.

Financial climate, young team, complete faith in Jay Simpson, etc.

Yet more rumblings and sudden, shifty goings on in The Boardroom. Danny Fiszman has sold about 5% of the club to Stan Kroenke (marvellously photographed here), who now has roughly 20%. Not that sure what to make of it, except that it’s probably a good thing that Usmanov isn’t having things all his own way as he tries to buy the club, and at least our Boardroom doesn’t contain a snarling Suralun Sugar, the man who sold all his shares in Sp*rs in 2007, describing his 16 year involvement with the club as “a waste of my life”.

The Sun, whose (very ugly) sister paper News of the World incensed the Arsenal community yesterday with a story about Cesc which used Barcelona’s rumour-mongering in the Spanish press as evidence for Cesc’s actual unhappiness at Arsenal, pulled out a belter of a headline on the share deal, a headline which achieved that rare fusion of top-notch punnery and bare-faced xenophobia: KROENKE BUYS MEATY STAKE!

Superb, I think we’ll all agree. If only the tabloids could stick to what they do best – idiotic witticism and the harmless libelling of celebrity chefs – rather than feeling the need to dabble in racism, nationalism, war-mongering and the general effort to terrify and intimidate their unfortunate readership into a violent, howling rage of misguided hatred and confusion. Everything would be much more chilled out, wouldn’t it?

Finally, former professional footballer Alex Hleb has been whingeing to anyone who’ll listen about his lack of playing time, being as he is in a competition for places with the best player in the world (’lil Lionel Messi), the guy who used to be the best player in the world (big Thierry Henry), and the guy who keeps Fabregas on the Spanish bench (’lil Andres Iniesta).

UpForGrabsNow would like to extend our condolences to Mr Hleb, adding that he is a complete moron. Honestly, you thought you could rock up in Catalunya and oust those 3 with your pernicious brand of Islington Ubershuffling?

Nonsense, I tell you.

Don’t forget to enter our Herbert Chapman t-shirt competition. According to the Sun newspaper, they are this summer’s “must-have” item and you can get your mitts on one really easily. See www.upforgrabsnow.com/competition for full details.

Internationals weekend and a deathly hush around the Premiership as the press feign interest in England’s game against Slovakia. Just as the Prem was getting good again, too.

One man who is never silent is Tony Cascarino.

Periodically, Mr Cascarino is asked his opinion on all things Premiership by Goal.com, an institution of dubious journalistic credentials which has ballooned into a worryingly popular site, peddling information plagiarised from other sources under the guise of being a credible news-gathering organisation.

Cascarino provides Goal.com with virtually its only original material, and as such his comments are trumpeted loudly enough to occasionally make their way into the mainstream press. Always, Cascarino is said to have spoken “exclusively” to Goal.com as though they have savagely beaten off competition from the New York Times, FourFourTwo and the Sydney Morning Post in gaining the entirely uninformed opinion of a hairdresser turned footballer turned part-time poker player, who  enjoyed the best years of his career at Millwall.

Yesterday he gave his opinion that Adebayor should be sold at the end of the season. Gee, thanks for the input, Tony.

Wenger, who is known to have consulted Chelsea and Russia boss Guus Hiddink over the recent signing of Andrey Arshavin, is sure to heed former Party Poker commentator Cascarino’s advice and offload Ade post haste.

I think you see what I mean. Bog off Cascarino, bog off Goal.com.

A bloke whose opinion I was much more interested in was Senor Fabregas, who did Cesc’s job for him this week with a “pleased that all these huge clubs are interested but I’m staying here thanks very much” sort of assessment.

The press (particularly the Daily Mail, who seem to have a real hatred for all things hooded) were really quick to jump on top of Fabregas’ one-man pitch invasion against Hull as a sign of his impending departure. For me, it was much more indicative of his passion and commitment towards the club.

What is certain is that the summer will be full of stories of Fabregas’ departure. What is most likely is that he will be staying put.

In the short term it will be fantastic to have him back, hopefully for Villarreal. The boys have done really well without him, by and large, with the dreadful run of 0-0 draws made up for by our recent good form and cup success. Fab’s return will be crucial if we’re to win anything, and if we can have him, Eduardo and Theo (Rosicky still seems a bit unrealistic in my opinion) back to their best by the start of May then I wouldn’t bet against us.

In fact, I’ll be betting for us, with Betfair’s wicked free bets (see banner at the top). Let us know how you get on!

Don’t forget to enter the Herbert Chapman t-shirt competition. I wore mine yesterday and a very attractive young lady in Sainsbury’s giggled naughtily at my shirty wit. See www.upforgrabsnow.com/competition for full details.

Well, that was angry, breathless, and, purely as a football game, a bit bollocks wasn’t it?

You all saw the key incidents, I’m sure.

An explosive goal of rare grace and ingenuity from Van Persie. The sort of goal only he can score. The kind of footballing brilliance where you pretty much punch the ceiling as the net bulges, your mouth hangs open and your guts jump for joy, but part of you can’t help thinking “why can’t he do that all the time?” Probably because it’s really really hard to do – even for him.

Liverpool hit back with their first decent attack of the game - a high-bouncing hoof caught out Djourou as Keane snuck in front of him and finished magnificently. The guy’s a pillock, but what a well taken goal. I won’t blame Djourou or Almunia. Keane hit it so early that there was little they could do from their starting positions, where normally a touch or an extra bounce would have allowed them to recover.

Cesc hobbled off and will be a major concern. The TV cameras showed him holding his shirt to his face and the great man looked very frustrated. Let’s hope it was just a heavy knock and he hasn’t sustained a profound injury. His frustration could simply have been because he knew he wouldn’t be able to play the second half, not necessarily anything longer. Fingers crossed. We need him.

In the first half Arsenal had a surprising amount of joy playing high, direct balls for Adebayor whose knock-downs into the midfield gave us several decent attacking platforms in an advanced area of the pitch. This seemed to dry up in the second half as the reshaped midfield struggled a bit without their injured General.

Adebayor had been looking pretty pissed off all game and put in a really stupid challenge considering he was on a yellow. Of course the Liverpool prat made a meal out of it so big you could have added a few sprouts and called it a Christmas Dinner, and our fans were rightly outraged (as was Arsene). Still, a silly thing for Adebayor to do when he’s on a yellow card. Very silly in such a big game which looked there for the taking with 11 men. The boy needs a rocket up him if you ask me, and fast.

From then on the game got even scrappier, the moronic Howard Webb booking our players at every possible opportunity and Liverpool showing the kind of lack of ambition which could well deny them the title. Pretty much 35 minutes against 10 men missing their captain and heartbeat. A chance, you’d think, to kill off a rival’s fading title hopes and compound their Christmas lead. No attacking substitutions until Babel on 70 minutes and still no real thrust to their attack. !Rafa, no me jodas! Donde esta los cojones?

Finally, a word on the performances of Song and Denilson, two players much maligned who will doubtless have to face all kinds of misguided criticism after this result. Rarely has there been such a gap between Arsene’s belief in a player and the fans’ suspicion of them as there currently is with these two.

Well, I’ve got news for their haters. I’m not saying that they have both been consistently outstanding this season or anything like that, nor am I saying I’d want them in a first-choice midfield every week. But today they played superbly against a vastly more experienced Liverpool midfield and both of them out of their natural position. Where was Stevie G? Song had him. 

For once, let’s just stand up and give them a bit of credit, shall we. Two battling performances (not perfect, by any means) but certainly well worthy of the shirt in my opinion.

What did you think of the match then? Post your views underneath and we’ll have a right old chinwag.

Eboo-gate has, I think, rumbled on long enough. Enough mud has been slung across these forums and it has again shown the many fractures and rifts which exist across the Arsenal fan-base, and how quickly these come apart. On these, I share many of the excellent thoughts of Goonerholic. Enforcing labels for groups of fans who may be particularly pro-Arsene or otherwise smacks of a perverse tribalism which can only harm the club as a whole.

And you know who’s really to blame for all this? T*ttenham. No, they didn’t infiltrate the stadium to cause tension, nor (believe it or not) are they paying Eboue on an each-time-he-plays-a-delightful-through-ball-for-the-opposition-midfield basis. No, they caused this whole sorry affair by being really really shit for such a long time. If they had even a scrap of quality you’d soon see the Gooners closing ranks, but as they have been crap for such a long time now, we lack a common foe and those Gooners with aggression to vent are increasingly turning on their own.

Unlike Grabber (see yesterday’s post), I still feel the booing was destructive and pointless. I’m not really interested in arguments about whether your season ticket does or does not entitle you to a few throaty grumbles over the season. The main point for me is that the booing doesn’t help the team, of which Eboue is a part, and so it’s probably a bad plan. It pisses the team off, and when you’re having a difficult season it’s made a whole lot more difficult if there is significant beef between the crowd and the team.

Right. Enough on that, I’m drawing a line under it (so to speak).

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Champions’ League Wednesday ahoy! Despite being one of the most universally poorly punctuated leagues in the world – the League belongs to the many Champions from around Europe, so surely UEFA should enforce the apostrophe with greater rigour – we have generously agreed to contest the competition regardless. Calling it the “Champions League” is confusing for all of us and sounds suspiciously like these “Champions” are a corporate sponsor a la “Barclays Premiership”. Maybe they should call it the “League of Champions” or something to clear up the whole sorry saga.

Undaunted by the governing body’s basic grammatical failings, Arsene’s boys have marched to the top of the prestigious Group G and have 2 points on Porto going into the clash tomorrow. Easy-peasy you cry, we duffed them at the Emirates and we’ll jolly well duff them on their own patch. Hurrah! But what’s this? Arsene says he isn’t going to try because he doesn’t give a hoot if we’re first or second:

It makes a difference to win the group because it makes you feel you have done your job better than to finish second. Does it really make a difference in the outcome of the last 16 tie? I do not know. Maybe there is an advantage to play the second game at home, but if you look at all the groups, there is not a big difference between some teams finishing first or second.

Now, is this really true? Firstly, yes there definitely certainly undoubtedly is an advantage in playing the second leg at home. We’ve seen it time and again. Secondly, if we finish top we are likely to be playing someone like Panathanaikos, Sporting, possibly Atletico, Villareal, one of Bayern or Lyon and Real Madrid. If we unleash the Song/Eboue strikeforce and lose to Porto then we’d be more likely to come up against teams of the calibre of Roma, Inter, Barcelona, Juventus and (again) one of Bayern or Lyon.

So on balance, topping the group would surely be an excellent idea. No points for originality, I’ll admit, but it needs to be said.

Other news: Ade says we need more goals and less pretty fannying about. Of course, more goals sounds like an excellent plan to me, though I am partial to a bit of Goonerish fannying about now and again. I also think this really hasn’t been our problem this year. Very rarely have we played a team off the park but not managed to make our chances count, certainly not as much as we used to, say, last season. Against City, for example, the problem wasn’t that our dashing cut and weave brand of Wengerball was cruelly thwarted by our own penalty-box vanity, it was more that we were utterly utterly mince and got shat on by the better team.

Transfer whisper: I note that the repulsive reptile that is the Daily Mail has linked the similarly tough tackling and reptilian Esteban Cambiasso with a 17 million euro move to Man City. My ingenious plan is that he should reject their vulgar overtures and instead sign for us! Cambiasso is an excellent player and the thought of him sitting selflessly in our midfield egging Captain Cesc on to more box-busting forward runs makes me salivate openly. Like the cheeky bloke who ran that headline yesterday about how Arsenal were going to sign Michael Owen I have no grounds whatever for supposing that Arsene is in any way interested. But at least we’ve got hope.

Grabs

We hired a new CEO yesterday, Ivan Gazidis, whose experience of football is mostly from America. This suggests two things to me: firstly he’s probably good with cash, and secondly that he probably knows nothing whatsoever about football. Both of these are helpful traits; I was very alarmed at some of the names being touted previously, who were men with serious experience working in football in serious footballing places, places that aren’t America, for instance. That’s the last thing you want.

What you want is somebody very good at not giving agents any money, and not giving in to people like Emmanuel Adebayor when they tell you that they’re the most valuable men in the world, even more valuable than the entire defence, say. Anyway it’s not a decision they came to slowly. You imagine the Arsenal boardroom at times to be a bit like a convergence of the ents in Lord of the Rings. They never discuss anything quickly, and they never speak about anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say.

Anyway. It’s another bit of stability in what has been a good stabilising week so far for the club. Hopefully the nous and the extra revenue he can drive will act as a barrier against evil Boss Nass look-alikes who want to use our football club as a place to rape and intimidate people.

Gael Clichy has slightly come out of my good books for his attack on Gallas. I thought he’d done so well the other day, and then he goes and is mean to poor William just when the chips are down.

Clichy out! Gallas in!

Etc.

Seriously it does seem a bit silly to suggest that Gallas ‘shattered’ moral with his comments. I imagine that losing to Fulham, Hull, Stoke, Villa and Manchester City, and drawing with Tottenham, is what damaged morale. But perhaps I’m old fashioned. To my mind the bigger issue was Gallas’ impropriety in the role of captain. Maybe that’s what Clichy means.

From now till Sunday it’s going to be build up to Chelsea. Anybody got any good ideas? I have to say, just as against Utd, I feel quite optimistic – Chelsea didn’t look convincing last night, and our lot have little to lose at the moment. I daresay we’ll start to get injury news quite soon.

I’d like to start Vela, please. And I’d like Wilshere on the bench, please, and for him to come on for at least fifteen minutes. And for Song either not to play at all or to transform into a six foot four Senegalese called Patrick in 2001.That can be a very small part of my early Christmas present. How about you?

On the BBC’s ‘Football Focus’ programme, John Motson has reported that Emmanuel Adebayor has returned from international duty with Togo carrying an injury and will be ruled out of today’s match. He gave no indication of the seriousness of the injury and it is not yet known how long he may be out of action for.

This leaves us with Bendtner and Van Persie up top, with Carlos ready to pounce from the bench. A big game for Bendtner.