A Quiet Arsenal Day

Well there's really nothing going on in the Arsenal world today. I think people are still reeling from the 6-0 masterclass against Sheffield... that second Vela goal was sexy...

Speaking of Vela, the lad has really got his head screwed on right. Just listen to this:

"We are very close as a group. We have a strong friendship - it's almost like we are a family. You can see that from the way in which we are playing. All of the players looked as if they have a great future."

Wow! Very cool!

The rest of the Carling Cup fixtures were played out last night... I was pretty dissapointed that Spurs won... bastards... I was banking on another loss! They have been pretty consistent this season... LLDLLD or something before this shocking win. Never mind. They're still bottom of the table and I'm not sure whether that will change this weekend.

The Weekend... hmmmm.... televised Arsenal again... This time we play Hull City and some ealy team news suggests Mikael Silvestre could start with Clichy not having trained this week due to the tackle he received from some scumbag last weekend at the Reebok, no prizes for guessing who. Samir Nasri could also return and take his rightful place on the left wing...rightful anymore? A full preview tomorrow...

The Kindergarten Kids

Arsenal's latest crop of Kindergarteners will do amazingly well if last night's 6-0 rout of Sheffield United was anything to go by. Now the game wasn't shown in Singapore and as I understand, it was the same in the UK and I've read that some Gooners overseas were pretty pissed off about this, as was I. Nevertheless, I managed to catch all the goals on my iPhone and what a phenomenal performance from what I saw. The team wasn't afraid to go forward and just attack, attack, attack in true Arsenal style. The pairing of Djourou and Song at the back seemed pretty solid and the likes of Keiran Gibbs and Gavin Hoyte (who is apparently faster that Theo Walcott... is it possible?) contributed both in the attacking and defensive departments. Here's a little summary of each goal:

Bendtner '31- After some fantastic work between Fran Merida and Carlos Vela, Bendtner popped up outside the box to fire a stinger past keeper Paddy Kenny. 1-0 to the Arsenal!

Bendtner '42- After some fantastic running and a clever backheel from our
£5 million signing Aaron Ramsey from Cardiff City, Nicky B finished cleverly. 2-0.

Vela '45- Bendtner turned provider for this one, lobbing the ball over the Blades' defence for Vela to run and expertly finish past the keeper. 3-0 at half-time.

Vela '50- An insane goal by Vela who chips the keeper from close-range and leaves the keeper, Paddy Kenny on his arse. 4-0 to the ARSE-nal!!!

Wilshere '57- Lil' Jackie collects the ball from a corner and drills it home from just outside the box. Delightful! 5-0!

Vela '87- The irresistable Mexican picks up Ramsey's smooth pass and slots it home. 6-0 to the Arsenal! The Game's Done!

What a fantastic game from our young guns! I genuinely believe this young crop can go on to ridiculous heights. Bendtner has been irresistable based on Saturday's and yesterday's performances. Ramsey has slotted into the side seamlessly. In Jack Wilshere I feel that we have the biggest talent in English football in progress. Djourou has looked really solid when he has played for Arsenal at centre back while Gibbs has continued to impress since we first saw him against Inter Milan in the Emirates Cup in 2007 when he made a fool of the Inter right wing. Vela is just... fucking unbelievable. There's a reason why I printed his name and number on my Arsenal home kit and he is just proving what a class act he is. To think he can get better is pretty scary at this point and he will really be pushing RvP for a starting berth in a couple of months once he has got a few more games under his belt. I leave you with the Class of 2008:

Wearetopoftheleaguesaywearetopoftheleague!

WOOOOHHHOOOOO!!!! The euphoria of being back on top feels just... I dunno... euphoric to say the least. The weekend pretty much complimented Arsenal's needs in terms of results for the team and for the rest of the Premier League. A 1-1 draw between Chelsea and ManU and a pretty hilarious 0-0 stalemate between Liverpool and Stoke catapulted us to the top. To round it all off I woke up this morning to find out that Spurs drew 0-0 to Wigan! Fantastic! Now what would happen if they got relegated?.... just food for thought....

BOLTON GAME ANALYSIS: Overall it was a good performance from the team. Coming back from a goal down to score two quickfire goals in a couple of minutes really saw the team drawing on their reserves of desire to win the Prem. The player ratings really sum it up:

Almunia-9 MOTM- I know many people won't agree with this one but I felt that Almunia made a string of top-notch saves. Without him, we could have conceded even more.

Clichy-8- Mr Consistent... what can i say? I'll put my money down on him as the best LB in the Prem at the moment. Suffered a terrible challenge that reminded me of Birmingham February but luckily it's nothing serious.

Gallas-5- A pretty horrible display from the captain. He needs to improve his attacking of the first ball and his aerial ability. Was partly to blame for the Bolton goal.

Toure-6- See above except that he's vice-captain.

Sagna-6- Not the greatest display from Sagna... understandably a little unsettled when moved to the LB position but he coped OK.

Denilson-8- I'm not a fan of Denilson but with more performances like this one, I just might start converting! He played an excellent game and his presence and dictating of play has improved tremendously. Still a little wasteful of simple balls but he is still young.

Fabregas-7- Finding his form after the lethargic display against Kiev. The channel for creativity in this team. Hopefully he finds his peak soon.

Song-7- An assured performance from Song. While he is no Flamini, he has the desire to push forward and contribute which is something I admire. Was unlucky not to nick a goal.

Eboue-7- Wow... what can I say... Emmanuel Eboue scoring doesn't happen very often but with more displays like this, I feel a little more assured about our right wing... Bravo Eboue! A commendable performance.

Bendtner-7- A solid performance by Nicky. Did well to finish off the goal. His physical presence upfront is clear and surprisingly he linked decently with Adebayor.

Adebayor-6- Not his greatest performance in an Arsenal shirt but his work rate was tremendous as is his link play with the rest of the team.

SUBS

Walcott-7- A smooth performance by Theo. He seems to be getting better with every game and his pace caused many problems for Bolton. A real gem in our team.

Djourou-5- A very shaky performance by Djourou in my opinion. Fullback is clearly not his position but I admire him for giving his all and trying. I think he has the potential to be a terrific Arsenal centre-back and I hope to see him in the line up in the Carling Cup tomorrow night.

Ramsey-6- Had some nice touches and is getting some great Prem experience.

Pork Trotters and Firing Gunners

Remember this? I sure do! The last game we played at the Reebok was a mixture of anger... frustration... hope... and joy. Was it just me or did anyone else notice Fab4 crying his eyes out after scoring the "winner" last season. He's really Mr Arsenal at the moment isn't he? Tonight though, we face a rather different prospect- a Bolton team that is just....I dunno... pure shite. I don't think they've had a decent game yet...bloody hell, they got beaten by some Northwhatsitcalled town a couple of weeks ago in the Carling cup or something like that... TEAM NEWS: Well Samir Nasri hasn't managed to shake of that niggly thingymabob that he picked up a couple of weeks ago and it seems like Micky Mouse Silvestre has only been bought to provide some company to Diaby, Rosicky and Bitch-off in the treatment room. Other than that things are looking up! I'm looking forward to seeing Carlos Vela play tonight... is anyone else? I just love the kid, he's kinda like the little speedy Gonzalez that can just tear up the big fat cat of Bolton. Arsene said that there would be a couple of rotations tonight cos it's the third away game we've played in a week! I'm looking at a team that could look like this : ALMUNIA, SAGNA, DJOUROU, GALLAS, CLICHY, EBOUE, FABREGAS, SONG, WALCOTT, ADEBAYOR, BENDTNER with Vela making a good 25-30 minute cameo towards the end. I think we're pretty free-scoring in the league right now... 7 goals in the last two games is clearly an indication of a team high on confidence and while the Kiev result might have gotten a couple of players moody (Gallas cough cough), I think the team will take it like professionals and continue their impressive league form. 3-0 to the Arsenal.

COME ON YOU GUNNERRRRRRRRRS!!!!

Chicken Kiev

Hey guys, I've decided after a gazillion months of debating to start this Arsenal blog because I need an outlet to rave, rant, glorify, support and talk about everything Arsenal, the greatest club on the planet.

Anyways, cutting to the chase, we played Dynamo Kiev two nights ago and what an absoute shite game it was. The game was pretty boring to tell you the truth. Arsenal couldn't really get their engine going and the chickens from Kiev really did play like a bunch of fucking cocks in a fight. Half the time I couldn't decide whether we had a rugby or football game going on- poor Theo was getting "destroyed" according to Wenger. Well he had the last laugh didn't he? After some terrible finishing from Ade, RvP and Fab4, Theo bombed down the right and produced a lovely little low cross that beat everybody (I honestly thought we had missed another fucking easy chance) but Gullible Gallas, who I thought played terribly the whole game, poked home a poacher's goal from close range. A refree who was mathematicaly inept pointed to some random, ridiculous amount of injury time and the mighty Gunners had to settle for a draw.

In all honesty the highlight of the game had to be this guy:

For the life of me, I really don't understand him! Last weekend, he 'fell' (dive cough cough...) to give us our third goal at Ewood Park. It was pretty clear nothing had happened to him yet the genious was writhing about like an earthworm who had just been... I don't know... smothered with ketchup or something. After being stretchered off, he's able to make the trip to Ukraine with the rest of the squad. Is anyone else smelling something funny... like a rotting tiger suit or something? But, but, we have to be fair and honest because good ol' Eboue has had a good string of performances over the last few weeks. He's no Nasri or Rosicky (when he is fit... like twice a season) but if Eboue can maintain his performance on the field (sans Olympic gold medal standard diving), it would be a huge boost to our title and cup hopes.

A Bolton preview tomorrow... stay tuned....