Fulham 2 Arsenal 1 – Yet Another Away Day to Forget

 

It’s almost midnight, I’m cold, gutted, frustrated and dieing for a wee. I have just rerutned from The Fulham game, which all in all was an absolute shocking performance from Arsenal. Just by analysing our starting XI you could see Arsene was taking Fulham lightly. I have no clue why Clichy and Eboue were not included. They did have poor games up at Bolton but I dont think they were dropped? But most notably of all, was the absence of Cesc Fabregas, replaced by the hapless Alex Song. I have never rated Song at all, and when I saw him come out for the warm up with his shorts on, I felt a giant shudder througout the Putney end. Now I cannot understand why Wenger didn’t put Flamini in the middle and Stuck Djourou at left back, or Hoyte could have played left-back. Even if its not your favourite position, you are selected to play to play for Arsenal because you a decent football player. Or supposed to be a decent footballer, Alex Song does not fall into this category. Dare I say it, neither does Phillipe Senderos, now I’m sure there will be some people who slate me for this, but if you was at the game tonight like myself, then you would have seen how bad he was. I thought he was poor at Bolton, and I was really hoping he would bounce back this evening and prove me wrong. He did the opposite, after getting sent off for two ridiculous challenges. Phillipes passing and distribution is very good, but his defending and his ability to win headers isn’t so good. Now I’m very, very frustrated tonight and felt I had to post tonight, so perhaps I will see it differently in the morning. My dad told me that Tony Adams went through a bad patch during his early days at Arsenal, obviously he turned out to be the best Defender and arguably the Best player to ever pull on the red and white, but I really dont see Big Phil in the same category. He will be out of the North-London derby on Saturday, so Johan Djourou will play in his position. Whom I think has a much greater potential.

The goals were typical of Arsenal defending, a corner and a cross. It’s as simple as that.

Our goal came from Robin Van Persie, a stunning free kick it was. Something to hold onto for the second half, very similar feelings that were felt at the Bolton game after Gilberto’s header.

We came out at half time and really didnt get going, it wasnt the usual Arsenal onslaught with no reward, we did create but no where near enough, Fulham looked the more likely to score, they deserved the win.

I’ve just watched it on Match of the day, and it looks more of a shambles than it did live, horrifying. We did have a suspect offside decision given against us, but we can’t keep using officals as excuses, we were not good enough.

I could go on all night, I wont. I really am finding it hard to motivate myself for Saturday, I’ll think more about Spurs come friday.

The only thing that does keep me going, is other Arsenal fans. We sang before the game, a hell of a lot. We sang for the whole 90 minutes, everyone was singing, it was an incredible atmosphere. It’s always much better at away games, but after the Bolton defeat you think it wouldnt be as enthusiastic, but it was, everyone slags off our home support, which at times can be rather dyer, but knowone should fault our fans, our real fans, when they know how much noise we create on our travels. The Cannon asked in his report, why don’t we make that kind of noise at the Emirates, It would be incredible if we did. The worse thing we could do is not get behind the players. We have to give them as much encouragement on saturday as we did tonight, we will get what we deserve in the end. Having said that, I was one of thousands taking part in the ‘We want Cesc Fabregas’  song.

So hats off to all gooners who went tonight, it was great to be part of, even if we did lose to Fulham for the first time in 40 years.

Thanks for reading.

Fulham v Arsenal Preview

So, it’s off to the cottage tonight. For our 2nd league game in 4 days. You should see our fixtures for the next month its mental, we have about 8 league games, Fulham, Spurs, Chel$ki, Wigan, Pompey, Blackburn, Watford and then Sheffield United. Not to mention the small matter of Porto in the Champions league and the trip to Liverpool in the Mickey Mouse cup, there will be plenty to talk about over the coming weeks.

Its our 6th visit ever to Fulham in the Premiership tonight, the previous 5 have seen us victorious. So we should expect no less than the 3 points. I went to this game last year, we won 4-0. It was a big game then and its a big game now. It was just before the Real Madrid home game and this trip is just before the Tottenham home game. So it’s vital that we win for confidence amongst other things. For myself I see Fulham away as tradition for myself. Its easy to get to, we have a great record against them, and they give us the whole end. A cracking atmosphere. There will be 5,000 of us tonight and I can’t wait for it.

Good news ahead of the game tonight at the cottage is that we have 3 players returning from injury – Robin Van Persie, Thierry Henry and perhaps slightly more important is Tomas Rosicky. He has been magnificent in the middle for us so far, and even though I think Flamini is a useful player, it’s very hard to create when you have Gilberto and Flamini in the same XI as they do the same job. We knew Thierry wouldn’t be out for very long at all, so hopefully he can get straight back into the groove ahead of the Scum, a game which he is always up for, and considering he will not be making thr journey to Portugal I expect no less than a breathtaking performance. Im sure you won’t let us down Tel. Also Julip Baptista is being rested for todays game, I’m not that sure why as he hasnt played that much, perhaps Wenger is going to use him in alot of games this month and feels he is not needed this evening, I think he needs games personally. We shall see.

Fulham had a great home record last season, losing only twice I think. Only Arsenal and I think it may have been West ham?? beating them at home. This year has been less impressive, with defeats to Wigan, Reading, Chel$ki and Wycombe in the Carling cup. Now don’t get me wrong Fulham play some very good football, but they dont have a goalscorer. A proper goalscorer, if they did have that I think they could be up there in the UEFA Cup spots, which is a massive achievment for such a small club. It was a big blow to them when they lost Malbranque to the Scum, but they decent players like Papa Bouba Diop, Claus Jensen, Liam Rosienior, Ex-Gunner Moris Volz and Jimmy Bullard who wont be playing due to injury. Also Niemi is a very useful goalkeeper and he has kept them in many games, having said that I think Le Boss will have the lads right up for this one after the defeat at Bolton, the players who were missing on saturday will be dieing to help the side out. So I think we will win, and win well. If we fail to win, its a big problem. Even if it’s a dodgy ref, no luck or even if it just wasn’t our day it doesnt matter. Because no team has that many ‘Not them Day’ games like we do. Spurs do not have a game tomorrow so they will be 3 days ahead of us in sharpness and preparation. I daren’t mention defeat but after last season and the beginning of this season, who knows what will happen. Fulham are no where near up to the standard of us and if we do win it will be by 3 or 4 goals, maybe more. I hope more because that will scare the shit out of Spurs, however I dont mind nicking a 1-0 and thumping them fuckfaces on saturday.

Enough of my Ramblings. Here is my prediction.

Block 11’s Match Prediction – Fulham 0 Arsenal 4

Just like last season.

I am going, so perhaps I’ll see you there.

If you are going, make sure you reall give it some. A great atmosphere should be expected from 5,000 gooners and hopefully thats what we will give them. So here’s my Thierry Henry programme notes bit -

Create a great atmosphere inside the stadium tonight.

See ya.

Bolton 3 Arsenal 1 – Will We Ever Win at the Reebok?

Sorry about the minor lateness, as my fingers have only just thawed out, following my trip to the North-West. A very disappointing trip to the North-West might I add.

A Nicolas Anelka brace handed us our third defeat of the season, and leaves us 13 points behind Man United. It can be done yes, but Man United have to drop points, as do Chelsea, and I can’t see us going through the season without dropping more points. Incredibly frustrating for any Arsenal supporter, especially those who went to the game on Saturday. I had very high hopes for us this season, and I still do, but when you drop points to teams like Villa, Boro, Man Citeh, Newcastle, West Ham, Bolton and Everton you dont deserve to win the league, even if we do play the most attractive football. The teams I have just listed we usually always beat, It’s last season all over again. There is still a lot of Football to be played and its certainly possible but I really just cannot see it. I think we need to kick on and just try and win as many games as possible with perhaps a tiny bit of pressure off us, because I dont think I could stand a repeat of last season.

Right so onto the game, a very dismal first off and the less said about it the better, however I will say that the defending was shocking. Everyone knows how Bolton play, HOOF! so our defenders would be expecting to be challenging for a lot of headers, Senderos hardly won any headers, and dare I say it, neither did Toure, I have only seen the Goals once on TV since the game so I cant say to much on the Goal apart from the Defending was awful, as usual. We cannot handle Corners at all, teams know this now and it must be sorted out immeadiatley. The second goal was unstoppable and I’ve always said that Anelka will come back to haunt us one day and he did just that, an absolte barn-stormer of a strike and Lehmann couldnt get know where near it. When it was 2-0 I really couldnt see a way back. Bolton were slow getting back for the kick of and we capitolised on it, with Walcott crossing for Gilberto who headed pass Jaaskalainen (Spelling?) back in the game, and a heck of a lot of noise and confidence coming from our end, closely followed by the half time whistle.

What followed in the second half was same old Arsenal, we were all over Bolton, they couldnt handle it all, and how we didnt score at least once is beyond me, again. The whole team played much better and we looked a different side to what we saw in the first 45, Freddie, Adebayor and finally Cesc hit the Woodwork, amongst a hat full of other chances and we paid for it in the 76th minute, which has been a very bad minute in recent times (Paris) Anelka was put through and put it past Lehmann very well, game over. By this time Hleb and Baptista had been brought on and even the added attacking power couldnt get us a goal. I left just after Cesc’s shot mainly because I wanted to get on the coach and get warm, probably the first time I have left before the end. I always stay to see the players clap the fans, stupid I know but you travel all that way and expect some acknowledgement, apparently we didn’t get that. I read some where that only Theo and Gilberto clapped the fans at the final whistle and if thats true then its very disappointing for many obvious reasons. Like I predicted the coach journey wasn’t very exciting, but you look for a positive after a defeat like that and they came in the form of Knobby’s nuts, so a shout out to that lot.

After this defeat we travel to the Fulham, a game which we usually come out on top again, there will be alot of frsutration amongst the players and I think the 5,000 travelling gooners will have a lot to shout about at the final whistle. I am going again and so is The Cannon as I imagine most of you are, the only downside to fulham is the bastard journey on the district line, Mile end to Putney bridge goes on forever. So hopefully I’ll see you there making lots of noise because we have to stick together as a club and forget the Bolton match. I’m very much over Bolton and looking forward to Wednesday.

Here are my player ratings for the Bolton game -

Lehmann – 6, Eboue – 5, Toure – 6, Senderos – 5, Clichy – 5, Block 11 Star Man  – Gilberto – 8, Fabregas – 6, Ljungberg – 6, Flamini – 5, Walcott – 7, Adebayor – 6.

Some of them rating may seem harsh, the ratings are based on the whole game not the first half, but the moments that cost us happened in the first half so thats why you may think I’m being abit negative, players like Clichy and Senderos were much better going forward on saturday but they let themelves down at the back. Eboue is fantastic at attacking but his defending is why I believe we are better with Lauren at Right back for the time being.

It was the second time we saw Walcott start for Arsenal and in the second half he tore Bolton a new arsehole, but I couldnt understand why he didnt swap Theo with Freddie, they had Campo a right back and he is shockingly slow. As much as Theo game us on the left he could have given us so much more on the opposite flank. Also I think it might be time for Freddie to go, he has lost so much pace over the past few years, and he is also abit of a sicknote now. Its a great shame because he has been a fantastic servant for the club and given us some of the best memories in recent years. You can’t complain about his effort or dedication but maybe its time for a replacement before he is remembered for the wrong reasons. I think Wenger might put Theo on the right permanently but I would rather he plays up front.

There hasnt been much reaction from the Bolton game, Wenger said before Bolton that our title hopes didn’t rest on the next game, however he said afterwards in a great demonstration of contradiciton that we were out of the title race. Okay then.

There will be a preview of Fulham on wednesday morning, hopefully it will say something like Henry and Rosicky return, I think we have missed Tomas a great deal since he has been out. I expect Henry to be playing, and Van Persie will obviously be back after his suspension.

I leave you with this picture

If that isnt enough motivation for Wednesday I don’t know what is.

Until next time.

Bolton V Arsenal Preview

At last! you say. Yes I have returned, again. Not a computer virus this time, I myself have had a virus, which isnt the greatest motivator to be honest. A hint of laziness is in there as well. Anyway, on with it.

 The Gunners and Myself travel to Bolton tomorrow, which over the past few years has been a ‘bogey’ ground for us, we haven’t won there in the league since 2002 I believe it was a monday night, we won 2-0 I went to my dads to watch it, ‘The Turd’ and Freddie got the goals, I think it was the game before we won the league in Manchester. I didnt look that up by the way, Im just a sad loser for remembering. It’s my first away game of the season and I’ve really been looking forward to it, despite being in the knowledge that I will be travelling on my own. Never mind eh?

Rosicky was supposed to be back for this game, but its more likely he will play against Fulham on Wednesday night, which I am also going to. Bill Gallas picked up an injury on Monday and he will not be making an early return. When the news came out that he was injured, it said on Arsenal.com he would be out for a ‘few weeks’ The newspapers turned this into a month, meaning he would DEFINATLY miss the Chelsea game and then the Radio (Namely TalkSport) turned it into 6 weeks. A complete load of Bollocks from Talksport and The Tabloids as it is most likely he will return for the Porto game, 4 days before our Trip to West London. I was annoyed when he got injured because we have the worst luch with injuries. But after I thought about it, Gallas is quite a good recoverer (if thats a word) and I thought he might even be back for the Spurs game, and I was fairly close. Its another chance for Big Phil to impress again I suppose and I have no doubts he will start at the back with Kolo tomorrow.

On the Bolton side of things, they have Kevin Nolan returning after his missus gave birth to thier first child, he’s a very useful player indeed, and despite looking like some Chavvy ASBO’er he has always been a tough opponent in the middle. I believe we were interesting in him at one point, but he’s English. So no chance. Ex-Manure defender Quinton Fortune returns as well tomorrow. While Ricardo Gardner misses the game at the Reebok. A player that seem to play well only against Arsenal. There’s quite a few of them players isnt there.

I think Arsene will start with the 4-5-1 again, which in all honest I think doesn’t work. It doesnt suit Thierry at all, and any suggestion that he is playing poorly not turning up or carrying an injury is rubbish. It doesn’t work for him. I know you have to play with a formation that suits the team, but it also has to suit your best player and your goal-scorer. Arsene knows best, but I dont think this idea is up there with the likes of signing Dennis and moving us to Emirates. Maybe I’m wrong but I know of a few who agree with me, which is a nice change. Also I think the 4-5-1 shows a lack of respect to the opposing team, especially when your at home and leave your best player out, like we did against Newcastle.

Abit of news I have just found – Thierry is out of tomorrows game with a neck injury. Only seen it in one place so Im uming and arring. If its true its fucking bollocks and he never plays when I go to away games. Shit.:(

Anyway, I could say my ‘difficult away game’ bit  but I think everyone knows how hard a trip to Bolton on a cold saturday evening is.

Moving away from Bolton here is my last two Block 11 Star Man awards -

Newcastle – Block 11 Star Man – Alex Hleb

Hamburg – Block 11 Star Man -  Theo Walcott

I can hear sighs of relief all around London now that the Star Man awards have been given out for the games I was absent for.

Here is my Prediction for Tomrrows game up at Bolton -

Block 11 Match Prediction –

Bolton  1 Arsenal 2

I would like to put 1-1 but Im gonna be positive, we all know what happens when I do that. Not this time though.

So thats it for This week Today and I’ll have a match Report on Sunday, and perhaps abit fo my. Not that a coach journey will throw up any exciting stories.

Perhaps see you there, Im in the upper tier and on Coach 2 for the journey.

 Enjoy your weekend.

Oh and Henry is out, and I’ve just remembered Van Persie is suspended.

 Come on you Reds!

Round Up/International’s Week

As I couldn’t give a rats ass about the England team, I was unaware they were even playing this week, but they are, against Robin Van Persie’s Holland, Robin will not be playing though, as his wife is expecting their first child, ahhhhh.

The England team trained at Arsenal’s Colney training ground yesterday, and Matthew Connoly was ‘borrowed’ from Arsenal as he trained with the likes of Ferdinand, Lampard and a whole bunch of other extremely overrated players. Here’s what Matt had to say on the experience -

“I had just finished training with Arsenal, then Neil Banfield said that England wanted to borrow me,”

“It was great. We played a few mini-matches at the end and I was in the same team as Wayne Rooney, Joe Cole and Micah Richards. I think I did quite well.”

Great experience for him, maybe he’ll be in the England squad all the time in a few years. I’d like to see him get a run in the First team at Arsenal first obviously, a highly rated player is Connoly, perhaps the next Tony Adams? We’ll see.

Thierry has been chatting some more, this time about the role he is playing at the moment, up top on his own, with Van Persie alternating between the wings, I think its quite negative on paper, especially at home, but it works in games, and Van Persie is switcing sides all the time, and drifts into the middle as well. Quite different to our usual style of play, I daren’t question Arsene. He knows what he is doing -

“When we used to play 4-4-2 I had another role. Now I have to learn to wait and keep the ball.

“If you look at our first goal on Sunday it was not in an Arsenal way. It was a long ball, I went to win the header, Cesc won another header, we put it down on the wing – goal. Usually you don’t see that from Arsenal. It’s another role but that’s what I have to do to make the team win.”

Now that Arsene has re-discovered his voice box, he is talking more and more now. Wenger believes that the next month is crucial, and we will get more of an idea on who is number one.

“In a few weeks we will know more. Chelsea play Manchester United and afterwards we play against Chelsea. There are Champions League games in between as well. Once that little marathon is over, the ones who survive this period will be No 1.”

He makes a very good point, but the Chelsea game, only takes us to the Half-way point of the season. So it will be clearer who is most likely to win the league, but anything can happen. As we well know, as do Man United, who threw it away in 98. We did it in 2003, so theres no reason why Chel$ki cant cock it up if they have a healthy lead by the 1st of January. Also, we have a very tricky tie up at Bolton in 12 days, also we’re away at Wigan and lets not forget our dear friends at N17 have yet to make the trip to the Emirates this season. We win all our games up until the Chelsea game, and we are in a very healthy position. Bolton and Spurs are the big ones for me until December the 10th, both of which I’m going to. I can’t wait for it all to unfold, in our favour hopefully.

A quick mention and a congratulations to Denilson, who was called up to the Brazil squad to face Switzerland, he replaces 1 of our Brazilian trio Gilberto. Just to think, he has only played twice for the reserves this season. Amazing.

Right, im gonna go and watch England under 21’s V Holland Under 21’s, Theo and Justin are the Arsenal representatives, Curtis Davies and Ashley Young are also playing, they have been linked with us recently (Who hasn’t) so it would be nice to get a good look at them.

Maybe I’ll post tomorrow, theres never any Arsenal news when the bastard Internationals are in progress, perhaps a Walcott Hat-Trick will be my headline on Wednesday?

See Ya.

Liverpool Reaction – Wenger Speaks

Technically, yesterdays post was published today. Cause I forgot to publish it. Hmm yes i know. Idiot right?

Well lets forget all that, and get on with todays real post.

Gunners Gaffer Arsene Wenger has finally spoken about last Sundays ‘Bust Up’ with West ‘Am manager Alan Pardew -

“I am sure you all saw what happened on the touchline at the end of the game, and I will say that I had my reasons – but at the moment I have been charged by the FA, so I cannot say much more about it. “

“I will give my explanations for what happened when the time comes, but I will say that there is always a reason for a reaction.”

I look forward to those explanations. He also said that he regretted the reaction and that he accepts Pardew’s apology, however Arsene hasnt actually said sorry in anyway. Ah well. At least he’s talking again.

Thierry Henry has had plenty to say on yesterdays victory over the Scousers, with Thierry saying it was a big team effort -

“The commitment today was more than 100 per cent. You saw everybody defending. It was pretty weird. Everybody was defending and we got a defender on the score sheet. That’s a team for you.”

The Arsenal skipper also talked about the future, and where he plans to end his career, at Arsenal -

“My intention is to stay with Arsenal for the rest of my career, I am happy here and could never play for another English side.”

“If by chance Barcelona wanted to sign me, the answer would still be no.”

I think we knew this already, but its nice to hear it again, but he hasnt said anything about after this four year deal, which he will be 33 years old when it finishes, quite an early retirement if you ask me, who knows?

Arsene Wenger came out with a great quote yesterday, and here it is -

“A part of a big season is to beat the big teams”

We have beaten two of the respective ’Big’ teams, the other we are yet to play, Chelsea is on the December 10th. If we win our upcoming games and Man United beat Chelsea in a couple of weeks, it will be a massive game, mahusive even. Well I dont want to come out with the ‘What If’s?’ but you could imagine what a big result it would be if things went our way. Lets think about Newcastle before we get to them Arsewipes.

One of our suprise Goalscorers yesterday was Matty Flamini and he has been talking about his chances of a more permanant role withthe first team -

“I played left-back last year, but wanted to go back into the middle to show everybody it was possible for me to play there.

“Now I want to play there all the time because it is my natural position.”

The French midfielder was booked for his celebrations yesterday, for jumping into the crowd, like I have said before, its complete bollocks, something should be sorted out, rather than rubbish about female refs and lino’s. Women should be involved in Womens football. Simple as. Thats why its there isnt it? Not just so we can all laugh at them attempting to kick a football, except for the Arsenal ladies side, who are clearly the best team in the female footballing world. Going back to Flamini he had this so say on the matter -

“I knew it was forbidden, but I did not think about that because I was so happy I just went to see the fans and jumped in,”

“However, you always have to respect the rules.”

Nice for him to want to share it with the fans, when I was a silver member, I would occasionaly get a seat at the front row of the North Bank, and I always wanted a player to come to the fans when he scored, there was a few times when I came close, but never mind.

Finally, I found a piece of new when I returned from work which was abit of a confusing shock, Reserve team Captain Matthew Connoly trained with the England first team today, training with 16 that didn’t play for their clubs yesterday, we’ll probably hear more about it tommorrow, very interesting indeed.

Thanks for reading and I’ll speak to you lot tomorrow.

Bye.

Arsenal 3 Liverpool 0/I Saw The Cannon, Dancing!

Not an actual Cannon, that would be stupid, the blogger lasagnechef is The Cannon im referring to, very close to me infact, dancing, singing and swearing he was. Lovely stuff.

Anyway onto the Match, a 3-0 win for The Arsenal, which was a convincing victory, eventually. I’ve got to stay that we started poorly, Liverpool looked right up for it, and we were misplacing passes and when we got together a nice move, we just couldnt get through the Liverpool defence, it was like a giant scouse brick wall sitting there, quite frustrating.

I thought it was only a matter of time before Liverpool would score in the first half, they didnt have fantastic chances, but they just looked like the team to score. However they did have a goal disallowed, Crouch put it away, Liverpool cut us right open to be honest and it was lucky Crouch was coming back from an Offside position and had no chance in getting onside in time. Another chance from a free kick, Zenden I think it was, who just put it over. We created a fair bit, but it was the midfield that was letting us down, Gilberto was giving away the ball alot of the time. Van Persie’s hand ball was very cheeky and he was rightly booked, Henry and Hleb had shots, but nothing really to test Reina, but on 41 minutes it was the most unlikely of scorers to put us ahead, good work from Hleb, who put in Fabregas who squared it to Flamini who just sort of chucked himself at it.

 

Next thing you know its 1 nil to the Arsenal. Flamini was booked for celebrating with the fans, which I think is the most stupid rule in football. Complete bollocks. Flamini really enjoys scoring, you can see what it means to him, his 3rd goal for the Arsenal.

So at half time, we were saying in Block 11 that it wasnt over and we couldnt sit back, as i expect every block was saying. We certainly didnt do that, 11 minutes after the break, Kolo Toure was put through on goal by Van Oersie, and cooly slotted it through Reina’s legs, The Emirates went mental. Superb.

The third, was from a corner!!!!!!. Brilliant. William Gallas got it, even more brilliant. I think Bill enjoyed his goal more than Flamini did with his, it’s great when he scores, and to see what it means to him makes you wonder if he was a Gooner all along. My favourite player at the moment.

It was game over at this stage and then I noticed The Cannon, I sort of know where he sits, and I saw the Beast number 9 shirt, saw the hair, and thought my god, its him. Obviously I wasnt going to shout, “Oi cannon, over here mate.” Look a right prat, but he was having a good dance and singing at every opportunity, which was nice to see.

After the win today we are now up to third, we should have been third last weekend but still, a big, big win over Liverpool today which pretty much leaves 3 teams in the Title race, we have a game in hand, and Chelsea play Man United very soon, which I would rather United win, because once our northern friends get a few injuries they are buggered, not much strength in depth. So we need Chelsea to lose all the games they can.

Right here is my Player ratings -

Block 11 Player Ratings – Almunia – 6, Eboue – 7, Block 11 Star Man – Toure – 8, Gallas – 8, Clichy – 7, Hleb – 7, Fabregas – 6.5, Gilberto – 7, Flamini - 8, Van Persie – 7.5, Henry 7.

Toure gets it again, a phoenomenal player. 100% effort every week. I love him, I really do.

A quiet first half for Thierry today, but I think he or Arsene might have had a little chat with him, because he was great in the second half, didnt have many chances but he was working really hard and several times chased back and won possesion. Hopefully he can add a few goals to his tally on Saturday.

Right there you go then, abit slapdash again sorry. Things come in to my head and leave shortly after then come back again, so its all abit mental at times. The 3 points is the main thing though.

Get In!

Til tomorrow or tuesday?

Update : I did this last night, and saved it, but forgot to publish it, what a wally eh?

Everton 0 Arsenal 1/Wenger

A very impressive win up at Everton for the boys on Wednesday night, Emmanuel Adebayor got the winner, 5 minutes from time, the second time he has done that this season, the other one being at Old Trafford. Like I said the other day, Everton will play their first team, and that they did, however after 20 minutes they were reduced to 10 men when James Mcfadden was sent off for calling Graham Poll the Fucking Arsehole a cheat. A decision that was shocking. But you win some you lose some. As gooners will know.

Block 11 Star Man - Jeremie Aliadiere

Because The Sun Gave it to him.

Now the goal, it was a header and it was from a corner, it was brought to my attention before the Everton game that we have had 86 corners in the Premiership, we’ve had 2 games in the League since then so we probably have had just over 100 corners, and not scored from one of them. So it would be fitting wouldn’t it, to get a goal in the Mickey Mouse cup, which I think Wenger is going for this year, which I don’t have a problem about, the League cup used to be quite a big competition, but the last two teams to win it were Chelsea and Man United, so its not necessarily a cup for the smaller teams.

Now since the West Ham match, Arsene Wenger hasn’t said anything to the media, no interviews, no match reaction, no press conferences, he has cancelled today’s one, now I’ve always known Wenger to do a conference on a Friday, It’s tradition sort of, maybe Arsene will never say anything to the press, ever?! He is gonna get asked about Pardew sooner or later, I’m really quite confused about this one, as I’m sure most of you out there are. Only time will tell.

A preview of Liverpool tomorrow then.

See ya.

P.S. How brilliant was the Southend Result! Them in the quarters would be the perfect tie for myself, the Shrimpers can get thumped 11-0 for this one though.

Round Up

Alot has been happening since my last post, so lets get down to it.

A second away defeat for the Gunners on Sunday afternoon. A late, late strike from goal-machine Marlon Harewood, scoring his first premiership goal of the season. It was a poor performance from us, however we should have had a penalty and yet again we missed the few chances that we had, now don’t get me wrong, when we played it was at its usual brilliant standard but it just wasnt frequent enough. West Ham did a job on us, like they did last season at Highbury, and it worked……again. In fairness its been our only bad Premiership display this season, so I guess we can have an off day from time to time, I would say we deserved a draw because West Ham weren’t better or poorer than us, but how many times have we not got what we deserved this season. Incredibly frustrating, especially when you live in Romford, very much a West Ham area and your they’re all out in their shirts being all cheerful, there was not one out and about 2 weeks ago, strange that. We make get our revenge when they come to the Emirates. Obviously the game was a couple of days ago so i’m not gonna go for a full on match report, and here is the ratings -

Block 11 Player Ratings -

Lehmann – 5, Hoyte – 6, Block 11 Star Man  – Toure – 8, Gallas – 7, Clichy – 6, Hleb - 6, Fabregas – 5, Gilberto – 6, Rosicky – 7, Van Persie – 6, Henry – 5

Subs -

Adebayor – 6

Flamini – 6

Eboue – 7

Another quiet performance from Thierry, it wasnt so much he had a bad game, because when he had the ball he looked his usual self, but he didn’t have the ball, hardly at all. I remember he said in a recent programme (cant remember which game) that people might have noticed that he had a bad game, Thierry said this was because he was waiting for things to happen rather than make them happen. It was the same at West Ham, strolling around, not looking interested at all. Perhaps he is carrying an injury again, something is up, you can see it in his body language. Hopefully he’ll turn it round for Sunday, another HUGE match.

The loss on Sunday also saw the first poor performance from Cesc Fabregas, who looked much slower on the ball that usual and he was trying to have to much time on the ball, and you cannot do that against a team like West Ham, because they run around like nutters for the first hour, he will learn.

Funnily enough it wasn’t Harewoods late winner that caught the headlines come Monday morning it was the touchline bust-up between Alan Pardew and Arsene Wenger, typical of the tabloids who I fucking hate when things like these happen, they’re such Arseholes it ridiculous. Now when I saw it on the TV, I couldnt believe that was Arsene throwing a fit, it is very hard to piss him off and it was totally out of character, but nice to see abit of passion, becuase 95% of the time he can be very reserved but over the last couple of seasons he has got more animated, probably because we havent had the results or the luck that we hoped for. Yes, Pardew was going to celebrate and he recongnised that and fairplay to him, because before it kicked off I didnt see him doing much wrong, its hard to defend Arsene because thats the sort of thing Mourinho would do, good to see the passion, but not shaking hands at the end and not doing interviews is not right, there has been nothing at all from Arsene or any of the players, and we the fans have a right to know, what would Arsenal or any Football club be without the fans, very un-Arsenal indeed. Lets hope we dont see anything of the nature again.

So its Everton tomorrow in the Carling Cup, which is the only game im not going to this month, and it will be a very tough test for the Young Guns, in the last round against Luton, Everton played their First Team, so a Win will be an excellent for the boys, I expect the usual bunch will be playing, and another chance for Jeremie Aliadiere who last week said he wants to leave Arsenal, having said a month ago that he wants to stay. Make your mind up. 

Another player looking to leave Arsenal is young right-back Kerrea Gilbert, which I thought was very suprising, a local lad as well, hopefully he will see the light and decide not to sign a permanant deal with Cardiff, I think its all gone to his head because Cardiff are doing very well at the moment, if they fuck up promotion we’ll see what happens then. A very promising player no matter who he ends up playing for.

Right, im very tired, been up since 8, went up to Arsenal got myself and my friend Rob our Fulham tickets and I sorted out my Bolton travel, maybe i’ll see you there, hopefully at Bolton because im going on me Jack Jones. Then after that I went to college for 4 hours to talk about Electrical shite. More tiring than you would expect, and soon I will be watching my local team Southend take on Man United, which I cannot wait for, despite the fact that Southend will probably lose 58 – 0.

Til next time.

West Ham v Arsenal Preview

It turns out I do have time for a preview as my dear West Ham friend is running late, but it wont be such a long preview.

Right, so off to Upton park tomorrow, for another tricky away tie, I built up the Reading game as a tricky away game, a potential banana skin infact and we won 4-0, so hopefully i’ve got it sort of wrong again and we can end West Ham’s run of 1 win. With Adebayor back in the squad i’m not that certain that Van Persie will start, but I think it would be sensible to put Adebayor on the bench. Also if Wenger goes for the 4-5-1 again it would suit Van persie to be on the wing. I think Clichy will start and this may spell the end of Johan Djourous run in the side, a very sucessful run in the side might I add. Perhaps not, maybe Senderos will get a run out.

Last week was a massive game for West Ham against Blackburn, I think a defeat would have put the final nail in the coffin for Alan Pardew, it didn’t because West Ham won 2-1. A lot of pressure of them to get that first win since opening day, and I think that might be good for us, maybe not. If we can get an early goal like we did at the Madjeski then West Ham can’t sit back, I dont think they will sit back if we get an early goal or not, but it certainly does help to fly out the traps.

Right sorry about the short, messy preview im rushing around like abit of a mentalist this morning, some team news tomorrow, if there is any.

Oh and my prediction -

Block 11’s Match Prediction -West Ham 1 Arsenal 3

Thanks for reading.