This match was supposed to be a title decider. But that was before we imploded and started dropping points at home in a sloppy fashion. Nonetheless, this will be an intriguing matchup. We can see how far away we are to United and how we need to improve to catch them next season. The Red Devils will be looking to clinch the title. A point would be enough for them in this matchup, escpecially if Chelsea drop points later today against Spurs.
The focus at Arsenal has been on Arsene Wenger. Wenger has been under a tremoundous scrutiny from supporters and the media alike. Perhaps rightly so, given the amount of collapses this team has had. Many are already focusing on the summer but I would like to see how we perform against the league leaders with minimal pressure on us.
United are coming off of a 2-0 vicotry over Schalke in Germany in the Champions League semifinal first leg. In their last league game, Javier Hernandez grabbed the winner over Everton. As much as I hate both Chelsea and United, I would love to see United collapse and fail to win the title.
Everyone talks about how United are a team of winners and leaders. Apparently, these traits are the same ones missing from our team. United have “mental strength” and we do not. They have a tough backbone, and we do not. The media loves Alex Ferguson’s side and I would love to see these pundits eating their words.
Arsene Wenger does not plan on selling any key players this summer. Cesc Fabregas has been in rumours recently and when has he not. Apparently a rumour started a couple of days ago said that Arsenal were ready to sell Cesc and put a £35 million price tag on him. Samir Nasri, whose contract is running out, has also been rumoured to leave. Here is Wenger:
Wenger does not want to sell his stars in the summer.
”We do not want to sell our players. Our players have contracts and they will stay here unless we decide otherwise.
“This is a subject that is not creative, we have answered it in 80% of press conferences. This is a subject that has to stop because the past has shown the question is useless.
“I do not want to go on about the transfer market now, and whether we will buy or not buy.”
Wenger will not talk about the summer transfer market during the season and he shouldn’t. His team have to play United on Sunday and are trying to secure that third place spot while also chasing down Chelsea who are sitting at number two.
Fabregas has still has a few years left on his current contract. Wenger is right, and he has said this before, that a player should play out his contract unless their is some extenuating circumstance. For instance, West Ham may be relegated. Scott Parker will leave even if his contract extends for multiple years.
In recent days, most Arsenal fans have been looking towards the summer transfer market. Many media outlets are pushing out stories like, “Who Wenger Needs to Buy to Make Arsenal Champions Next Season.” These kind of articles should be viewed with a grain of salt. These writers do not know football like Arsene. Anyway, many Arsenal fans have been crying out for a centre half like Gary Cahill. Buying someone like Cahill is not going to solve all our problems.
Vermaelen could have made a difference this season.
Thomas Vermaelen is set to play in a reserve match tomorrow. Hopefully, if all goes well, he should rejoin the first team in the last few games of the season. Vermaelen was our best defender last season. There is no telling whether this serious Achillies injury will linger with Thomas for years. Could he be the RVP of the defence? Maybe, but if he is back and as good as ever, then do we really need Cahill?
Johan Djourou, however awful he was against Bolton, has emerged as a quality player. He is big and strong and possibly him and Vermaelen could combine to make a very formidable duo. Wenger may not have to overpay Cahill if this occurs. No doubt that this team needs some experience, grit, leadership, etc.
Let us move on to Wenger now. Arsenal fans have been flooding radio phone-ins like 606 expressing their frustration with the manager. We have the right to after so many disappointments this season. Some have called for him to be sacked. [...]
Bolton effectively ended our title chances with a late winner. Arsenal battled back to equalise after Szczesny saved a penalty and looked to have the momentum. We needed all three points to have a realistic shot at the league title. Now, Wenger must rally his players to make sure we qualify for next season’s Champions League by finishing in the top four.
Arsenal target Gary Cahill was excellent today.
We started the match well. Cesc was actually taking some shots from distance and Wilshere was superb driving through the midfield. Bolton countered this by aggressively tackling any Arsenal player in sight. The referee did a good job of controlling it by issuing a couple yellow cards in the first twenty minutes.
Bolton striker Daniel Sturridge, on loan from Chelsea, really started to bother our backline. Sturridge has great touch on the ball and has great vision. He started splitting our defence right open.
Bolton broke through in the 38th minute to take the lead. Daniel Sturridge got the goal and he certainly deserved one with his level of play. A Bolton corner was swung in and was met by Gary Cahill. The header was saved by Samir Nasri, who was standing inside the goaline when he did so. It was hard to see whether the ball crossed the line but it did not make a difference because Sturridge was there to head home Nasri’s clearance.
We went into halftime down a goal to a team we hadn’t lost [...]
The Gunners will travel to the Reebok to take on Bolton Wanderers tomorrow afternoon in a key contest if they want the opportunity to catch Manchester United. The Red Devils are now 9 points ahead after their win over Everton in the early match today. Bolton are looking to rebound after getting embarrassed by Stoke City in the FA Cup semifinal. It will not be an easy match, unless Bolton play like they did against Stoke, of course.
Bolton, despite the poor performance in the semifinal, have had a successful season so far. They are sitting comfortably in 8th place. Owen Coyle’s side were soundly beaten at the Emirates, 4-1, earlier in the season. But that was in September and we have been having a lot of trouble grabbing the three points.
Here is some of Wenger’spress conference: “The Arsenal supporters can be very proud of their team and the experience I have is that they have turned up with a fantastic mentality since the start of the season,. We created a huge hope because we were fighting on all fronts, and the first quality a club wants to have is a fighting spirit.
“We did fight beyond the expectation of everybody. If I listen to the expectation at the start of the season, nobody expected us to be where we are. Sometimes I would like you [the media] to acknowledge that.”
What a bit of rubbish! Why can’t he just take the blame, or [...]
Chelsea keeper Petr Cech said yesterday that Arsenal have blown their chance at a title. Well, all of the pundits seem to think so as well. Many believe that Chelsea will finish second and possibly put pressure on Manchester United. These are the same pundits that for weeks have said that our title hope our finished. Here is some of what Cech had to say:
"They threw it away" – Petr Cech
“They were 3-1 up [against Tottenham]. They threw it away. They’ve had plenty of chances to close the gap this season. They haven’t taken them. It will be up to them how they cope.”
I do not see what can be argued there. Basically, this is a factual statement. Cech believes that Chelsea have the mental strength needed to push United, while he believes Arsenal have blown their chances. Here is how Wenger responded:
“I’m quite open to everything, but mathematically – and I was not too bad in maths – it’s difficult to understand the logic of his statement.
“Mathematically, I can’t see a difference given they have the same number of points. We have to win all our games, add a winning mentality to the drawing mentality.”
We all know that Wenger has a master’s degree in economics. So, in theory, he should win this math showdown with Petr Cech. Chelsea are ahead of us by goal differential at the moment. They still have to play Tottenham and Manchester United this season.
What to say about this game. I needed a whole day to pass just to let it decompress in my mind. The match started out with a bang, with three goals in the first twelve minutes, and it ended with Arsenal blowing yet another lead. This has become the side’s trademark: blowing leads like their is no tomorrow. Manchester United left the door open for us to sneak up on them, but we failed miserably, and the manager is to blame.
Another draw… time to take the blame, Arsene?
Theo Walcott was magnicificent last night. He used his terrfic pace to terrorise the Spurs defence. Cesc found him streaking through the middle and the winger put it past Gomes for the first goal of the match in the 5th minute. It was a brilliant start but Spurs equalised only two minutes later.
Rafael van der Vaart scored the first goal for Spurs. The Dutchman made a spectacular strike the curled into the near post. Szczesny really should have made the save though. No keeper should be beaten at the near post.
We quickly responded in the 12th minute. Samir Nasri got a hold of a fine strike from outside the penalty area. It was a great shot, although it may have taken a deflection of a Spurs defender…. 2-1 Arsenal.
Robin van Persie showed tremendous effort to put us up by two. He first tried to head the ball in off a cross from Walcott. The header was [...]
Arsenal have to earn three points tomorrow night at White Hart Lane. Spurs will be trying their hardest to crush our hopes, while trying to qualify for the Champions League. It is a big match for both sides, as the North London derby always is. Earlier in the season, Spurs came back from two down to win the match 3-2 at the Emirates. That match was just one of the many painful moments we have had so far.
Cesc Fabregas
Tottenham are coming off a 1-0 loss against Real Madrid that eliminated them from the Champions League. They won their last league match 3-2 over Stoke City. Spurs have several very talented players but their most dangerous attacker is Gareth Bale. He play on the left side and they will look to him earlier in the match.
We will have most of our players, now that they have healed from their various injuries. Bacary Sagna will return at right back, so that will mean the Eboue will get no where near the pitch. I wonder if he will participate in another match this season.
Cesc Fabregas is frustrated, like all of us, on the lack of any trophies in the past six years. He said this to a Spanish magazine: ”From 2007 I had already started saying “we’re not winning, but we’re playing well”. And then you realise that’s no use. You enjoy yourself, during a phase of the championship – like this year, for example, when we [...]
Szczesny still thinks Arsenal can catch Man United.
Arsenal are currently six points behind Manchester United with six games to play. Wojceich Szczesny, who made his return from injury yesterday, still thinks that his side can emerge as the champions of England: “Of course we still believe we can win the title. We still have to play United and they also have to play Chelsea. They will drop points and we believe we’re good enough to win every game remaining.
“Tottenham is a very good match for us to come back from a big disappointment and we owe it to the fans because they’re very disappointed about what happened against Liverpool. We owe them a result at White Hart Lane.
“The draw was a huge disappointment because with a minute to go we scored what we thought was a winning goal. We’re all gutted. It was a cheap penalty to give away whether it was one or not. We needed to win really badly to keep the pressure on United.”
”We’re only thinking about winning the title, not who is behind us.
“We go into everything to finish first. We are Arsenal, we don’t want to finish second and we definitely don’t want to finish third.
“I still feel a little uncomfortable when I’m in goal. I wear a special protection but it didn’t cause me any trouble against Liverpool.”
Szczesny has wisdom beyond his years. The 21 year-old keeper is the future in goal for us. He covers the [...]
Two late penalties create drama at the Emirates but the home fans were left disappointed. Cesc Fabregas earned a penalty late in extra time. RVP placed the ball perfectly and the Gooners were going mad. But just a minute or two later, Emmanuel Eboue fouled Lucas in the box and Liverpool were awarded a penalty. Dirk Kuyt put the ball in the corner and stunned the Emirates. The Reds have severly hurt our chances at the title.
Kuyt deflated the Emirates.
The match started with a lot of promise. We were still right in the title race and the players look determined to score. We should have been up by a goal at half-time at least, due to the number of chances. In the 16th minute, Laurent Koscielny out jumped Pepe Reina for a corner but the header bounced off the crossbar. It was unlucky but the Gunners continued to dominate in the first half.
Robin van Persie did not have his best match. He had many chances to score, including a one-on-one with Reina but the Dutchman failed to put the ball in the net. It was a frustating day for the Gunners and it began to look as if we would have another nil-nil at the Emirates.
A scary moment occurred in the 57th minute. Outside back John Flanagan collided with his centre half, Jamie Carragher, and the two banged heads. Carragher was knocked out cold and fell to the ground motionless. The medical staff rushed out to treat Carragher [...]
