Dec 26
Just wanted to say thanks to all the staff for the site. Like i said i thought i was the only Arsenal fan in the States.
I was born here back some years “ago” but grew up in England, the first team a ever saw on TV was Arsenal, since then i have been a loyal fan.
It’s great now i dont have to bore the wife and kids (so they tell me) when i talk about the Gunners.
Once again thanks guys and keep up the good work.
26 Responses to “And i thought i was the only Gunner fan in the U.S”
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December 26th, 2005 at 10:27 am
Welcome gunnerman62.
Surely you realize you are not even close to being the only one here in the States!
There are a lot of us.
You can know give your family a break on occasion and chime in here on Arsenal America!
1-0 to the Arsenal.
We got 3 points on the road! There is a positive for the first time in a while.
Charlton are toothless. They didn’t have a decent attempt on goal all match. Having said that, they could have scored when Bent broke in on Lehmann between Kolo and Campbell, OR when they should have been awarded a penalty on a Cygan hand (arm) ball in the box.
Thats why the game is so funny sometimes. WE got the breaks today. No call on Cygan, and Murphy is the one getting a RED card when he shouldn’t have.
Poor refereeing. Murphy shouldn’t have been sent off, and it killed any real chance Charlton had, and they couldn’t muster any offense.
We moved the ball around nicely at times, and created some chances, but as usual this season, we didn’t take them. Freddie all alone with the keeper… looked like he forgot what to do!
Reyes might have been our best player today. Glad he got the goal. He ran his ass off as usual and created some chances for us with his hustle.
Central Midfield did little for us, fairly anon. Cygan was OK, but thats because Charlton have nobody to challenge him with any speed on either side of the pitch.
So a rather unconvincing win in my eyes, in that Charlton are not very good right now, and in years past, we would have completely dominated the match and probably won 3-0 or more. But this is a different Arsenal team. A win on the road is BIG, compared to us winning everywhere, because we were just that good.
I’ll take it and be happy. I thought we were lively up front and Henry Freddie Reyes and Pires when he came on… moved the ball around nicely.
OK at the back, but still they lack confidence… and weren’t challenged much.
WE WIN! I’ll take it.
December 26th, 2005 at 11:02 am
Missed the game as the wife and kids wanted to start their Boxing Day shopping early. A small price to pay to keep the family happy
Delighted that the boys chalk up an away win to break the duck - finally. Hmm, there is a replay of the match later on today….
December 26th, 2005 at 11:14 am
Stag, agree with most of your comments. Cygan was ok for him, but still probably had 10 passes to Charlton players. Same with Gilberto, countless passes to the wrong guys.
Reyes looked good. Pires was a breath of fresh air.
Not sure how you can say Murphy shouldn’t been sent off. We have no idea what he said to the ref.
December 26th, 2005 at 11:16 am
Was a “job-done” performance Stag, but wasn’t it a couple of years ago we scraped a 1-1 draw from an Henry free-kick against a charlton team that wasn’t any great shakes as well. We rarely play our best football at Charlton really.
December 26th, 2005 at 11:27 am
For what its worth, we hit the post yet again today. They said we lead the league in hitting the woodwork. Joy.
December 26th, 2005 at 11:35 am
Hi Gunner4life,
Gotta tell you, you didn’t miss much. Sure we got the win, Reyes played well and Henry even seemed not to be pissed at him for once…I put the alarm on to see the match and I don’t regret it, but certainly not a HOF game. Still 3 points on the road is big for them at this point. Hope Arsene does his shopping soon, we could use the help!
December 26th, 2005 at 11:51 am
I am happy with the win. But I didn’t see too many positives. Let’s face it - Charlton were quite pathetic. The same old problems still exist - giving the ball away needlessly, dribbling too much without shooting, trying to pass your way out of trouble, etc. Ljunberg’s 1:1 miss summed it up - we are severely short on confidence.
So we can’t get carried away with this result. We need to chalk up wins against Portsmouth and Villa, so that we can face ManU with some confidence, else we’ll get roasted again like last year.
December 26th, 2005 at 12:20 pm
I am not for referees CHANGING the entire game on nothing. Gilberto shouldn’t have been sent off at Newcastle, nor should Murphy.
Just my opinion.
Its about football, not the referees.
December 26th, 2005 at 12:21 pm
We should beat BOTH Portsmouth and Villa.
Neither are playing very well.
United are a different kettle of fish.
They ARE playing very well in the league, they are playing confident, and they have beaten us with regularity in recent times.
December 26th, 2005 at 2:15 pm
Charlton may be going thru a tough spell like us but u could see they were up for the game. Certainly in the 1st half, they competed well and in Myhre, they have a competent keeper who kept Charlton in the game. Despite some of the stray passes from Gilberto and Cygan, it was great to see some slick passing from Arsenal - a good sign of confidence and belief creeping back into the team. Reyes was anonymous in the 1st half but in the 2nd half, he did what was expected of him. Same for Cygan who was out of position too often in the 1st half but played better in the 2nd (though I still do not understand Wenger’s fixation with him). It was great to see the confidence and flamboyance of Henry on the ball as he toyed with the Charlton defenders. I don’t think Murphy’s sending off would have made a difference to the result at that stage of the game but hey, who am I to complain?! We needed some breaks and we got them today.
I hope Wenger signs Pires for another 2 years - the team needs his experience and link play with Henry. I was disappointed to read that Wenger is not interested in Zokora. I hope he does not go out and sign another young inexperience potential as Arsenal has too many of those currently. Hopefully he is just posturing to lower the transfer price.
Lets see how we do in the next few games. This one win does not mean that Arsenal is on the mend but wins against the next few opponents will certainly set us in the right direction. As it stands now, we will be hard press to get into the top 4.
December 26th, 2005 at 6:35 pm
Stag, mate, Cygans 1st 8 passes went to a Charlton player, this bloke should never play for us again! Surely we have a reserve-youth-junior-Under 10 player better than this misfit!
December 26th, 2005 at 7:00 pm
No, I don’t think he was that bad NBG.
Not even close, perhaps you mistook him for Gilberto and Cesc on a few of those passes… because they were all guilty of doing it.
He actually was aggressive on a few occasions.
Not one bad error. Not close to costing us a goal.
He HAS to play over the 4 games in 9 days, there are no two ways about it.
December 26th, 2005 at 7:02 pm
I thought Reyes was our best player today.
December 26th, 2005 at 10:22 pm
Cygan was bad, not as bad as we have seen him but still 2nd rate. You are right about all the missed passes, don’t remember seeing so many in a match. But then we get a gem like the 4-5 passes perfectly executed that sent FL8 on his breakaway …only to miss.
Happy to see that the streak of bad luck wasn’t present today. No big giveaway or fluke goal to tie the match up, i’m sure that i wasn’t the only one fearing that at 1-0…i really liked how Reyes played today and the fact that Henry seemed okay with him. So let’s hope that they build on this with a convincing win on Wendesday and then Arsene has a few surprises for us with some needed purchases. I may be dreaming but with the heck…!
December 26th, 2005 at 10:42 pm
I agree with Reyes being our best today. As for gettiing back into the top 4, there is a long way to go yet and as bad as things have been going we are still only 5 points behind Liverpool and 3rd place. Sure they have a game in hand and they are said to be playing so well yet we are still very close to them and we all agree that we have been either terrible or average most games so far this year. Injuries have also affected the roster on most if not all games so far. This a team in transition as we all know, and hopefully the missing pieces have been identified and there will be some help added in January. There must a S.Parker or Faye type player that would be available somewhere. Seems to me that this type of player would be very useful.
December 26th, 2005 at 10:49 pm
We are DEFINITELY within reach of 3rd of 4th… I totally agree, BUT not with this current team on the pitch. I just do not see us making any kind of run as currently constituted.
A) we need Cole back, and playing well
B) we need to buy proven players in January
Who knows how Cole will play when he returns. If the rumors are true, and he’s off to Madrid anyway, then would you give your 100% coming off an injury? Very questionable at best.
Wenger has already started his pre-January non-sense, saying he won’t buy just anyone and will ONLY by if the right person is available at the right price, and that he only wants ONE player during the window.
We ALL know we need more than one player. That is just baffling. If he doesn’t buy anyone, on your bike AW.
December 26th, 2005 at 11:03 pm
Would you really go so far as to say Wenger should leave if Arsenal does poorly this season?
I mean that honestly, I think it’s a topic worth discussing.
December 26th, 2005 at 11:09 pm
Cole will be back and it is probably in his best interest to show RM or whomever he may go to that he is worth it and still has “it”. So I expect that he will play hard.
As for Wenger, I remember him saying that he will not negociate thru the papers and will keep his cards close to his vest in his shopping. Hopefully what he has said in the papers and what he does will differ ( kind of like George Costanza in one show who did the exact opposite of what he always did
) anyways we will soon see and let’s hope that he does pick up a solid defender and an aggresive midfielder. We lose Toure and Eboue soon so AW has to be considering this…
December 26th, 2005 at 11:29 pm
Wenger can’t just come out and say that he is going to start splashing cash around. The transfer market is tight enough and prices ridiculous enough as it is.
Furthermore, Wenger is already being victimized by his own success. Prices are automatically increased whenever he shows interest in a player because no one wants to be found guilty of having sold him the next Henry, Viera, Anelka, Ljundberg, etc. for cheap. Furthermore, whenever he shows interest in a player the Chairman of that player’s club immediately alerts Chelsea, Manure, RM, Spurs, and twelve other clubs who jump into the bidding for no other reason than because they know that Wenger’s scouting network and ability to assess talent are the best in the world.
December 27th, 2005 at 12:04 am
We SHOULD beat Portsmouth and Villa. But will we? Portsmouth are on a revival under Redknapp, but we are at home so we should win. But Villa have just thrashed Everton 4-0 and we are playing them away. We can’t just bank on three points in that game considering our away form. But we need the two wins to face ManU.
December 27th, 2005 at 12:10 am
I do agree that Reyes played well, but I won’t get carried away with such a performance against Charlton. He needs to do it consistently and against better opposition.
I really fear that Wenger won’t be signing anyone (of note) in January. It’s just not his style. He wants the team to show their strength and make it to the top four. I just hope we make it. I also hope that next summer, Wenger is brave enough to dump players who are just not good enough for the Arsenal and sign some quality players.
December 27th, 2005 at 1:35 am
I think if Wenger refuses to do what is so manifestly necessary i.e. stregthen the team he should GO. Arsenal is in serious decline. It’s going to be hard climbing because I just don’t see us making the run, even Spurs are more consistent than us. Remember we have to do better than the team above us, which puts us in the position of hoping that even Wigan drops points.
When last did we beat a top five team, and that was before this year. Today Chelsea, Manu & Liverool are all better sides, no debate, and so are Bolton and Spurs, arguably. Are we even better than Wigan? Add to that the fact that an away win for us these days is a blessing. It took Liverpool years to rebuild and with no CL football it will be a disaster for us. If Wenger won’t strengthen the team and we become a midtable non-entity, then someone should be brought in to do it for him.
December 27th, 2005 at 3:10 am
…but if the players had a yellow and then tells the ref his decision was incorect using what is best discribed as ‘Truck drivers’ mouth, what else can the ref do? Everyone knows how far they can push each ref, its always discused at the pre game team talk, some stupid ‘plonkers’ obviously forget and push it to far! You gotta have that line you cant cross or the ref’s lose control completely. What happens in the NFL where you have what seems like dozens of bloody Zebras all over the show? ….Go Packers!
December 27th, 2005 at 3:21 am
I wouldn’t say he should go, but I would say he needs to be more agressive when going after quality players and I’m not sure he’s the best tactical manager out there……He put together a great team then let it be destroyed. Man UTD and Liverpool had teams that dominated season after season, we didn’t, why not…what was missing? Having said that I could have been born into a Tottenham household so I cant really complain can I!
December 27th, 2005 at 9:22 am
Brother,
You are NOT a gunenr fan. You are A GUNNER!!!
4Life I hope…:)
December 27th, 2005 at 9:29 am
Am I the only one unable to see new posts in this thread?