Sunderland 0 -3 Arsenal

Wenger was probably right when he said that Sunderland might find it easier to face our first string. Despite lack of experience and maturity in playing together, our second string played with passion that players such as Robert Pires may like to take note of. After all these youngsters know that Carling Cup is their only chance to shine. Be it for their career at the Arsenal or, more likely, for their chance of impressing the other club's manager.

Robin van Persie's properly taken penalty and fine second goal ensured our superiority in the match where both teams field their weakened side. It should be clear to Wenger by now that Robin van Persie can be the man who scores for us. He can play with Henry given that we don't focus our passing too much on the Frenchman. van Persie is an intelligent player who knows how to position himself to score. He may not have that kind of awareness Pires, Henry, Bergkamp and Ljungberg share with each other. But he will better them given time and opportunities.

Eboeue is a fullback who possess more skills and pace than Lauren does going forward. He can be an option when Ljungberg is injured. Ljungberg's ability to time his run into the box is incomparable within our squad but Eboeue has proven that he has got ability to score from outside the box to offer us different option. His winning goal in the Sunderland match was a 25-yard-screamer by the way.

I am glad to see Cesc rested. He needs that. Larsson seemed to play part in our goals and Lupoli earned us the penalty van Persie converted. Quincy showed his usual frightening pace but he lacks the finishing skill as usual.

I have not watched the match but I would love to. I would like to see Lupoli given another chance to lead the line along with van Persie. I sense that the Italian striker has something really special in him. We'll progress well into probably the semi-final stage in this competition as long as we don't get to meet Chelsea or Man Utd I reckon.

Way to go kids.

Reflection

It took Pires' penalty mess-up to open my eyes. I've lambasted Pires and Henry in my previous posts and I think I need to apologize.
I've forgotten what it means to enjoy football.
We've been so competitive in the last 9 years that all I could think of was how we could reach higher ground.
But I am only a fan who at best could only follow the Arsenal's matches on TV, whose biggest sacrifice to date has only been some sleepless nights to watch our midweek games.
I couldn't change a thing by pointing out all the weaknesses we have. If those fans who have been season ticket holders for 20 or 30 years could do nothing to change things, what makes me thing that getting mad over my beloved club's board, manager, and players could do wonder?

So I might as well take everything in moderation. There's no need to be frustated when I witness another suicide substitution move by Wenger. There's no need to be amused when I read the name 'Cygan' on the line-up list the next season. There's no need to pull my hair when I see no one coming during the January or end-season transfer window.

That's the board's job. The frustation and hair-pulling part belong to the board and the shareholders and the manager and the players. And if they couldn't give a damn, why should I?
I should savour my part as a fan. Enjoy it when we win. Forget it when we lose.
Yes those Man Utd and Chelsea supporters would mock at us for probably one or two days. So what?
And I can be grateful that Spurs don't even have enough supporters in Asia to claim their existence.
Yes those press will have their fun in attacking us. So what? I would just avoid reading football news for a week.

Talking about press- I believe they're the reason why we have so many bitter fans nowadays. The papers always blame it on the manager or players. They do their best to twist every word a player says. And football players, to be honest, are not among the most intellingent folks in the planet. They could easily be trapped into saying something they don't really mean.
And we, the Sky generation fans, would buy those craps.
We would discuss and argue like mad in the forums or blogs nowadays.
That's wasting time. We've been manipulated.

The truth is that football, and especially the Premiership, has turned into an unthinkably huge business. There's so many hidden agenda within the whole structure that not even the players themselves may know what's going on. What makes us think the press would have a single clue? And us? We are just speculator at best.

It's nice to analyze what went wrong or right in the last match. It's fun to speculate on who we should buy the next summer. It's interesting to come up with all those fantasy team ideas but that's it. In the end it's up to those who run the club to decide.

Our part, as fans, is just to support and enjoy the football our Arsenal are playing. If we come to the point where we really couldn't take it anymore, well, just switch to other team. Those Man Utd fans who couldn't stand the sight of Glazers just walked away from Old Trafford and made their own club. They are Red Devils to the bone but there is no point in forcing yourself in supporting a club that has gone so far from the day you began to identify yourself with the club.

After all, becoming a club's supporter isn't anything like getting engaged with a woman. No one has the right to say anything to you if you decide to support West Ham from today on. That's your choice. Football is, as Henry put it, just a game.
Anyone who tell you that football is his religion is a sad creature.

As for this moment, as far as I am concerned, I am still a gooner.

Arsenal 1 - 0 Man City

People in the forums kept talking about how we shouldn't have criticized Pires and Henry that harshly for the penalty incident. Some say we should take it as an entertainment. Some say we would've plauded them had it worked. Yes, they are damn right that the press and others would've plauded the two Frenchmen had it worked.

But not me, not when we were only 1 - 0 up, not when we were more than 10 points behind Chelsea, not when it was intended to celebrate TH14's 186 goals. Did he think he own the club? And that's the part that I was most annoyed with.

I can't blame Pires for his 'numb feet', we all know how unreliable he has been lately after all. I can't blame Henry for being so cocky. I can only blame Wenger for failing to stamp his authority. When he came out few days ago too admit that he fears he would lose Henry, I thought it was a joke. That was sign of weakness. Mourinho, even if he isn't managing Chelsea, wouldn't have done that. And when Wenger came out to defend his Frenchmen, I thought he is totally hopeless in the toughness department. Ferguson, for the life of him, wouldn't have done that. Wenger has himself to blame for getting Arsenal labelled as softies.

Wenger will never learn. He will never BUILD a solid defense system. We can only hope that he can BUY a solid defense system. Defense is all about discipline after all. Give them freedom and you'll be Cygan-ed every now and then.

I think Wenger is a great manager. I think we will catch up with Chelsea the next season. I think he has what it takes to lead us to become one of European football elite by winning the CL. I think he was the key to our new stadium. But I think he can really let go his stubborn act a bit and learn something new.

Now that we've just gotten our three points, let's move on.

Sparta Prague 0 - 2 Arsenal

Still not getting any chance to watch the highlight. Will watch it soon though, thanks to the arseblogger. By now everybody are raving over Thierry Henry's amazing achievement. I wasn't surprised that he broke Ian Wright's record but I was surprised at how good he can be when he really wants it. Out for so long and seriously lacking match sharpness as well as fitness, he scored such an excellent goal in less than 10 minutes on the pitch. It was such a great day for the gooners who are suffering from our current domestic form. I don't want to spoil it by pointing out on our defensive problem.

I would instead like to point out on the good news such as..

Pires' remarkably rose from his dead once his pal was on the pitch. It's clear that Pires was kept on the side because he is one of the trio with whom Henry works best with. While Cole can still perform without Henry, Pires and Bergkamp are now two old maestro whose remaining asset is their surreal vision and imagination. They could see what others couldn't even't imagine. Unless you are of Henry or Rooney type, which is rare. And when you are that type of genius, only teammates with such surreal vision could understand where and when to find you. Having said that, I will stick to my belief that Henry needs to learn to work with others and we need to learn to play without Henry.

Reyes' injury isn't serious. He will be back and let's hope for a better partnership between our two quicksilvers this time around.

Henry mentioned how he wished to play alongside Nicholas Anelka and Ian Wright. He even saw himself playing on the wing or behind the strikers. Now that would be delicious. I always think he will do great job playing deep orchestrating the attack. That is provided we have intelligent and quality forwards who could read Henry's mind and earn the captain's respect. Someone such as Fernando Torres? Or Carlos Tevez? As if we are Chelsea. Well what matters is we are safe knowing we might still be cheering his name three or four years later when another great forward has stepped up to take his mantle. Seems like the lad is not that arrogant after all. He just needs his genius equals to share the pitch with.

Fab-Flam were sharing their responsibility to cover the midfield well enough in a CL away game which is never easy. They may still be too lightweight to face Premiership sides which are full of Savage sort of players but they mature up quickly.

We have had one of the best starts in our CL campaign and one of the worst starts in our Premiership campaign. I am sure should we be told that we are going to win the CL this season but finish fifth in the Premiership, we would take it willingly. Of course we have had a weak group but we have an extra motivation to win the CL now that the Premiership is somewhat beyond our reach. Wenger's team is anything but predictable when it comes to results. So let's just wait and see.

Meanwhile, congratulation to Thierry Henry's 186 goals achievement. Long live va va voom!!

Wind of Changes

This is the first season where Wenger's stubborness is really tested. Never had we had such a formidable title challenger in the shape of Chelsea. I will always despise their policy and the money Roman made. But on the pitch they are bunch of commited and consumate professionals who discpline themselves so much that they hardly make any mistake and when they do, they have the confidence and spirit to turn things around. I don't know what the halfime team talks were like when Chelsea were 1-0 down against Bolton but apparently whatever it is, it worked wonder. They demolished Bolton 5-1. Mourinho must have been inspirational. Without Mourinho they won't be that formidable. Without Abramovich they will be rubbish.

But Wenger, of all people, should have what it takes to at least keep Chelsea sweating over their lead. Instead, it is the old dog Ferguson who proves to be the only also-run so far. While we don't look that bad on the table compares to Man Utd, we are significantly lacking on the pitch. We have been owing our goals to our defenders of late. We are too dependant on Henry, our superstar who often run out of idea in big matches. Chelsea's key to their form has been their ability not to depend on one player. One may argue that they depend on Makelele a lot. But take Makelele out and I dare to say they will still be winning matches.

Chelsea do have unrealistic budget that result in their impressive depth of quality. Have Wenger not been given funds, I will have nothing to say. But he does have 60 over millions to spend and while it's not all wrong to be selective, he has to realize that he needs to at least throw in some experienced players, may not be world class, to sustain the team when injuries hit.

He thought that would be a bad sign to our talented youngsters. He thought this is a season to give those youngsters chance to shine. So why do I see Bergkamp, and especially Pires, playing week in week out?? A certain Dane and Italian strike partner are scoring goals for fun in the reserve league lately and why are they not featuring despite our injury crisis?? A certain Dutch forward who can operate well in the wing with his pace was doing great in the last European youth cup and why didn't he replace the useless Pires?? Wenger was just making silly excuses. The fact is that he doesn't have the gut to use them.

I don't think it's easy to manage a team controlled by some stingy board members. I don't think it's easy to compete with the world richest football club and the bank of Abramovich (sorry they are not football club) for the league title. I don't think we can call for the head of the man who constantly lead us to the top two position for 9 years. But I do there are things which he could've done to minimize the damage. I do think he is hampered by his stubborn and rigid way of thinking. I do think he needs to be brave and when it comes to give the players some sticks, he has to do it.

We are at our best when people really dismiss us. And that's the reason why I believe, for one reason or another, we will see an impressive Arsenal side very soon. I just hope that it does not come too soon. Let us be in this mess until Wenger learns.

And one last thing. Don't tell me we are pure unlucky for failing to perform in CL for years and for being in the position we are now. Champions don't blame things on luck. You can blame your luck when you are competing for a midtable position. But at the top you have to control your luck; you have to prepare your team for the season by considering the worst-case scenario.

WBA 2 - 1 Arsenal

It's only football.

Arsenal 1 - 0 Birmingham

Apparently Birmingham's biggest chance happened in the first few minutes which I missed out on. The three ex-gunners did well in their return to the Home of Football. Jermaine Pennant was easily their most dangerous player and I wasn't surprised. The boy has always been a very talented player. The kind of wide player we are missing at the moment. Reyes is our best crosser now that Pennant is gone.

Reyes was playing in Henry's position against Birmingham. His directness and pace troubled Birmingham throughout but his finishing let him down. Maik Taylor has been superb, I agree. His most impressive save was probably the one where he tipped Ljungberg's shot away. Reyed made a great run down the left and made a perfect pass for Ljungberg to shoot. I thought he would score because Ljungberg always scores in this kind of situation. But he didn't. That is probably the bigger miss than the penalty shot Pires wasted away. After all I don't expect much from Pires now that he is only probably 1/4 of his old self.

I always thought we could score before 75th minute and probably nick another one late in the game. I kept my calm until Bergkamp came on. I thought 'Wenger has again made a pointless substitution. It's clear that we are good enough to penetrate Birmingham's defence at the moment. What we lack is the cutting edge. Bringing on Bergkamp wouldn't help. He should've brought Persie in." When he eventually brought Persie in I thought it was a bit too late as Birmingham began to play 10 men behind the ball. But van Persie being van Persie, he has again proven how valuable he is as a super sub. It is amazing how often this boy came out from the bench and scored the winner for us. He can really be a great player. I just hope that he doesn't turn into another Kanu. The winner took some deflection but in truth three points is what we deserve. I don't think Birmingham would've earned anything even if Cunningham wasn't redcarded.

This was a game where Lauren played exceptionally well, much better than Hleb who was obviously out of position. He should've played behind Reyes instead and Ljungberg should roam in his usual right flank. Gilberto fought and tackled well and Cesc was so hardworking that he was involved in defense as much as he was in the attack.

It seems that Cesc-Gilberto and Kolo-Sol will be Wenger's first choice pairings for the season unless he brings in someone else during the January transfer window. The questions now therefore:
How can we accomodate Hleb who is clearly a class playmaker but not a winger in any sense?
How can we accomodate Persie who is now our best finisher?

I don't know the answer to the first question but I've given my answer for the 2nd question. As I said before, Reyes should take Pires' place when Henry plays. And Henry MUST learn how to partner Persie upfront.