Up For Grabs Now

Hello all, sorry for yet another hiatus in the blogtrain. Grabs and myself are, unfortunately, both hilariously busy. And, quite genuinely, we don’t particularly want to interrupt all of your interesting lives to deliver any old slice of codswallop when it’s not necessary. Aside from the mighty Arseblog, we feel that there are too many Arsenal blogs delivering daily rubbish rather than concentrating their might into less frequent but more prescient postings.

Goonette – I’m sorry you are disappointed, I hope you keep coming back, and forgive us for prioritising quality over quantity.

Anyway some bits and bobs to discuss. Ivan Gazidis has given a little interview, in which he reiterates that Arsene has money to spend. I’m not sure anyone’s ever doubted this. Perhaps it’s true that we can’t compete spending-wise with United and Man City, but I don’t think that’s been the obstacle; rather Arsene has not seen fit to spend it. And as we saw with Arshavin, a bit of shrewd manoeuvering can get you instant results: remember how close Spurs were to spending waaaay more to get him fresh out of the Euros.

We also haven’t yet spoken about the Usmanov situation, which is a tad worrying. It seems unlikely you get a blocking vote in a company unless you want to, er, block votes, or at least carry the threat of doing so. At the same time, however, you’ve got to agree that there’s no point owning 24% of a company when 25% gives you a much more important role, and despite the drop in equity prices Boss Nass Usmanov is still not a poor man, although he doesn’t seem to have spent much on his gym membership, the Gungan-looking bastard. All we can really do is wait and see, and hope that Fiszman keeps his word RE selling. I’ve got a lot of confidence in the board. Perhaps one thing the supporters could do is each bake a cupcake and send it to Red & White holdings, and hope that after eating 60,000 cupcakes he finally explodes like Mr Creosote.

Fun article here in the Mail about dream teams. These lists are always bollocks, more or less, but it’s good for a nostalgia trip. Carrick? Really?

Sunderland’s next up: what team would you pick? I really hope to see Carl and Andrey get a start, but I’m not sure it’ll happen this weekend. This is a huge run of games for us, let’s hope the boys keep their scoring boots on, and that Villa lose to Chelsea. Is it just me or are Chelsea becoming much more pitiable of late, somehow? All that money and they’re still crap, and they still bin world-class managers. You’ve got to think Mourinho goes to sleep every night with a huge grin on his face…

Don’t forget our fabulous Philosophy Football competition, and to sign up for the mailing list below. Until later, Grabbers.

Thank you Arsenal. Thank you Arsene. It’s games like yesterday that remind me why I love this club so much, and why I will defend our boss through thick and thin (and occasionally something viscous).

On paper it was always going to be tricky – only the very brave would have put serious money on our essentially striker-less Arsenal against arguably the strongest club-side defence in the world, but the boys proved that they’ve got whatever that thing it is you need to challenge the best.

On the evidence of yesterday, that thing is a combination of other, smaller things. Of course, a big part of it is attacking flair, as Theo and Sammy, and a bit of Diaby demonstrated. But the notable addition yesterday was that this was mixed with a midfield that started running and kept running until the 96th minute, harassing, tackling and generally making a nuisance of themselves against players who themselves love nothing better than making a nuisance of themselves. Finally, a backline prepared to fling themselves around all day to stop the opposition’s ball going in our net.

Arsene’s vision of football, and what he has been correctly appraised as a visionary for, is that it is, finally and crucially, entertainment. This entertainment takes many forms, and includes the tough away draws as well as the Champions League finals, but what originally draws people to the game is that it’s a way to get away from it all on an afternoon, to gather together with family and friends and become involved in a different world with heroes, villains, excitement, victory and defeat. This is why we have the Emirates, this is why we play young players and this, when the dust has settled, is why we spend so much time, money and emotion following this team. Yesterday he was vindicated.

It was end-to-end stuff – it could have been four all by halftime, but from the start it looked, it felt, like Arsenal wanted it and deserved it more. We fought, we moved, we passed beautifully; the second goal summed it up really, as Nasri looked up and smacked it crisply past Van der Sar. having been given the opportunity by a beautifully slipped little ball from Cesc. To be fair they had a few good chances: Ronaldo could easily have snuck one at the far post (quick poll – if the best player in the world is coming into your penalty area do you a) mark him or b) not?), but Wayne Rooney had evidently left his shooting boots in a granny brothel, rather a sad state of affairs for him which culminated in a shot going for a throw in. I haven’t seen anyone do that since Martin Keown, and Keown was under far more pressure. Their goal, though a good strike from Rafael (who incidentally looks like he’s going to be a complete chief for a good white), didn’t surprise many. It was United, they always score. But though the last ten minutes were deafening.

Sammy was the pick of the bunch, but special mentions to Clichy, Diaby, Silvestre and Gallas, the latter two of which who looked (thank the Lord) like a central defence. A small quibble with Gallas though, and this is going to sound ridiculous, but at the very end, whilst the TV cameras were swaying around Ronaldo’s lithely disappointed torso, Gallas went to the Redaction end of the Emirates and beat his chest to the crowd’s adulation, as if he had won the whole match on his own. Clearly it’s ridiculous to complain about a celebration, particularly after such an important win, but you couldn’t help but feel that whilst he revels in the attention, it was exemplary of the fair-weather captaincy which has disappointed so many fans this season. We need him to feel that imperious all the time, not just when he’s won.

It’s worth mentioning that the crowd, who were as good as I’ve seen them at the Emirates and who really got behind the boys, perhaps responding to the ridiculous coverage in the build-up to the game about Wenger quitting (honestly what horseybollocks), and more generally to criticism of the team. The last six minutes were amazing to witness, as 55,000 people willed Howard Webb to end the game.

It’s also worth mentioning, whilst we’re at the mentioning stand, that Michael Carrick is a twat. Perhaps not literally, but after he kicked Almunia clean in the face, his response was to gesture to the ref that because he hadn’t meant to do it, it somehow hadn’t happened and he was therefore exempt from any retribution. The twat. I hope Manu’s alright – he looked pretty groggy before he was subbed, and had been playing well.

Talking points, then, and the real test is whether we can keep it up against the smaller sides each week. Hopefully yesterday will have reminded the team just who they are, and who they’re playing for. We’re the Arsenal; of course we’re title contenders, but it doesn’t come without a fight. Please could the players remember this.

A very good early afternoon to you all. Talk today is mostly of the United match, with each side lying about tomorrow in their own ways. From our side, the injured Adebayor says he wouldn’t take any of the current United team and put them in our team. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, since if you took any of Manchester United’s strikers at the moment and put them in our team Adebayor would be out of a job quicker than you can say ‘Togo’ which is, helpfully, rather an amusing word to say very quickly. So we can conclude that whilst amusing, Adebayor’s statement is a lie. On the form of the last two weeks we would take several members of the current United side. Possibly all of them barring Cesc and Gael Clichy. If any further proof were needed, over the summer we willingly took, in Silvestre, a player who was not so much part of the United side as practising using his free bus pass to get to and from the training ground.

On the side of United Christiano Ronaldo has come out and said that he’s apprehensive about playing Arsenal. This, equally, is complete bollocks. The only thing Christiano Ronaldo’s scared of is Martin Keown, and quite right too. Given that Stoke didn’t seem that scared of playing us last weekend, it seems unlikely that the strongest club side in the world will be that worried.

Still, this could work in our favour. Had we been winning loads of matches, I’d reckon Saturday for a surefire United victory. However, since we haven’t, I reckon these are the sorts of games where players come out with their surprise hats on, and do some surprising of the opposition. Particularly in this regard I’m hoping the midfield can turn up and do some damage. I’d love to say they’re fighting for their places, but they’re not really at the moment are they? Still, it’s matches like these where players can show they mean business, and shouldn’t be put out to pasture after our Off-The-Nanger-Good-Central-Defensive-Midfielder (OTNGCDM) arrives in January. Wouldn’t it be great if Eh?Boo-him could be part of this? Wouldn’t it be great if he didn’t know what Arsene did last summer?

Anyway.

In other news, we now have a shiny new email address you can use to write abuse, share your views, and ask for any special features you’d like to see included. upforgrabsnow@gmail.com – we will enter into any correspondence.

A very good Monday to you all. Not such a good Monday for myself, but there you are. Not really your problem, I suppose.

What is all of our problem is Arsenal’s weekend. That was a weekend that Arsenal needed like I needed another beer at one last night, which was not at all. I, however, can piss out beer, whilst we cannot piss out our defence, much as I wanted to after Saturday’s ironically piss-poor display.

Before this run I was firmly in the ‘Arsene knows’ camp about our transfer policy, but increasingly it looks like it’s just not going to cut it. Aside from anything else, an injection of rock-hard experience in the middle of the park would give everyone else in the team a boost, and perhaps a bit of belief.

For the time being, however, we have to consider how we can get everyone pulling together. The midfield situation is ridiculous. Alex Song is not a Premiership starter, and if he’s ever going to be he’s certainly not going to develop into one over the next two months. Diaby, for all his flashes of greatness, is similarly erratic.

It’s obvious and also sounds stupid, but the way to start winning games is to start winning games. It would be great if this could happen against Fenerbahce on Wednesday, and then even better if it could continue into Saturday. Beating United would be exactly what the team needs – confidence from victories maketh a weak defence strong – remember the 2005 Champions League run. Admittedly there were some older heads, but the back four which conceded two goals before the final featured a much-maligned Senderos in the middle and Flamini at left back. I’d dearly like to see this lot find some of that form in the league. All it needs is a bit of that siege mentality to get everyone working together – look at Hull.

In hindsight you’ve got to say that was as important as any part of Flamini’s departure – he’d been through the fire already, and knew what the team were capable of. Denilson, for all his promise, has not had that kind of baptism. Perhaps something can be forged from the current turmoil. We desperately need to stop teams thinking they’re going to get a result against us – ironic perhaps but this won’t be such an issue against United, who probably always feel they can beat us.

Lots to ponder, anyway. Weekend is the big one but wouldn’t it be nice to polish off the qualifying round at this stage? Particularly with the injuries from the weekend I’m sure Arsene would like to be able to rest the likes of Cesc and Clichy over the next month. Van Persie has rested himself of course, the muppet – a shame, as he was very effective against spurs and seemed to be getting into the kind of form we know he’s capable of.