West Ham 0 – 1 Arsenal

September 29, 2007 | 85 Comments

Robin van Persie’s headed goal in the 13th minute was enough to see the Gunners earn a tough three points away to West Ham at Upton Park this afternoon.

This is the kind of game that would have been a draw or loss last season, but this year, there’s a different attitude in the side, and it’s great to see. We’re having connectivity issues here at my house, so I’m forced to keep things brief. Dan, if you want to add more, please, feel free!

Posted by mikek | Filed Under Match Report 

West Ham – Arsenal

September 28, 2007 | 80 Comments

A cracking win in the Carling cup with our so called B team. Couldn’t have done the confidence any harm whatsoever. Back to the business side of things this week at Upton Park where we’ve surprisingly lost to a team that does “play football” too many times. Maybe its time to set the record straight then.

I watched West Ham v Newcastle, and Dean Ashton is on form. He’s a very clever positional player who scores goals when fit. Norwich City’s record signing at 3m, and I quite like him. Carlton Cole has done nothing for as far as I can remember, so I guess Bellamy will start along with Ashton and Etherington to form a 4-3-3 of sorts. Lee Bowyer is another player I dislike — much like Robbie Savage in the tackle and too much blah blah. Matty Upson will be charged up against us and if Freddie plays I hope he doesn’t score against us.

I miss Freddie… I loved him :(

Now that Eduardo is out with a groin strain I think it’ll be back to a Robin van Persie/Adebayor partnership. What is it with these muscle pulls?? Last time we had a groin strain the player concerned was supposed to be a week away, and now AW doesn’t want to put a time on it. So I guess Dudu is out for a month sadly. Unconfirmed, obviously, but its just a gut feeing I have about the damn groin strain.

Mozart is still down but Hleb makes it which is good. It’s also bad because Hleb rarely turns it on immediately after an injury return. It takes a game or so for him to be back. Let’s hope he does turn up tomorrow. Cesc has to start and I’m not at all sure what’s happening with Gilberto. I think Arsene’s gonna sell him — just because the players coming through have more potential. I’d love Bert to stay but I don’t know if he can accept a bit part role. His attitude has been spot on, his commitment unquestionable and his performance reasonably decent considering the circumstances. I’d hate to see him go. He’s had a fair enough rest it doesn’t look good for him to start this one alongside Cesc. I mean, how do you drop Flamini??? He’s been very good this season. Problem of Plenty — its got to be a Hleb-Cesc-Matty-Diaby/Theo?? midfield (mostly Diaby). The back four pick themselves with a Clichy-Sendy-Kolo-Sagna and Almunia in goal again.

So effectively this is what it will be….

Almunia
Sagna Kolo Sendy Clichy
Hleb Cesc Flamini Diaby
RVP Ade

We’ll have a bit too much in the tank for West Ham. Predict a high scoring win for AFC with Freddie and Ashton scoring for them.
West Ham 2 – Arsenal 3

Posted by live_dont_exist | Filed Under Game Preview 

The Schedule Helps Us

September 27, 2007 | 24 Comments

Like all Gooners I am delighted by our start. All of the pro and con inputs regarding the team and players are great to read.
I have an observation regarding the Gunners schedule. I think we should be thankful that for most of the season the Home versus Away schedule favors us. If I have done the Math correctly it is 3-1,7-4,9-6,11-8,13-10,15-12,17-14, and then the crunch hits with a 2-5 run in.

If we had started out in reverse and suffered a start like last season, I am not sure that we would have recovered.

I feel our ACHILLES HEALS are Central Defense (what if K Toure gets a season ending injury) and Goalkeeper ( a great save is nullified by a complete screw up and Mad Jens and Mad Almunia have done both).

Posted by vailgunner | Filed Under Mailbag 

Arsenal in North Jersey?

September 27, 2007 | 4 Comments

I am a South African Arsenal (14 years ) fan currently visiting the USA.  I’ve been here for 3 months and the only soccer I get to see of our team is online… after games!

I’m missing the excitement of the live games, especially since we’re ROCKING this season.  It would be nice to share the fun with fellow Arsenal fans.  Please let me know if any games are shown live in bars, clubs, etc., in and around North New Jersey.

HHHHeeeeeeeelllllpppppp :(   lol

Posted by ahmedamla786 | Filed Under Mailbag 

The Rightful Return of Dein

September 27, 2007 | 54 Comments

[ed note: The following mailbag submission is solely the opinion of its' author, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Arsenal America board, or those of our membership as a whole. On a personal level, I think Dein can go to hell, but I digress.*]

I am a huge supporter of David Dein. Let’s not forget that it was Dein’s vision and not the custodians that brought Arsenal into the future. If it was left up to the so-called “custodians,” Arsenal would still be playing at Highbury and trying to find another Scottish manager. The truth of the matter is that the current custodians are benefiting from Dein’s work. Dein also did capitalize: he sold his shares over a hundred times from their original purchase price. He increased the valuation of Arsenal. Dein’s business acumen was spot on!

It was Dein’s vision to bring in Wenger, it was Dein’s vision as a general manager to support Wenger and isolate the Board from Wenger in order for Wenger to do his job without Board interference. Dein was a perfect buffer between the Board and Wenger. Look at what has happened at Chelsea when you examine the relationship between Kenyon, Mourinho and Abramovich. Daniel Levy has not done better when it comes to supporting Jol. Is this what we want? It was Dein who set up the new financing structure in order to make Emirates possible. It was Dein who saw the future and reached out to grab it.

We can praise Wenger for his on the pitch and development of the Arsenal football team. However, if you took Dein out of Arsenal in 1996, we might be in the same boat as Spurs.

I sympathize with Dein wanting to be chairman, off the pitch he is solely responsible for transforming and developing the Arsenal Club from a finance/business perspective. Football is a business. You have to remember, the current board without Dein would have run Arsenal like Daniel Levy has run Sp*rs…into the ground.

*The last sentence of the editor’s note was my personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect those held by the rest of the board and membership. – Mike K

Posted by dkqgooner | Filed Under Mailbag 

The In and Outs

September 26, 2007 | 30 Comments

If you pay attention, the players who fans feel are playing well are always the regular starters. Adebayor got his critics when he first came back from injury. Flamini failed to impress the first few games he played. As I said at that time, players need a run of game to get themselves into match sharpness. Both have been playing better and better as more matches they played as starters.

The best example of all is Gael Clichy. When he was the back up of Ashley Cole, playing an odd game here and there, I wasn’t entirely convinced by him. He got pace and skills, but looked having too much of a rough edge comparing to Cole. With a season’s starting role under him Clichy has gradually proved a lot of doubters wrong, and he has to be among one of the most improved players in this Arsenal side.

It’s always difficult for the “In and Out” squad players to impress, let alone making an impact. Not only physical sharpness wise, they will never be able to match the starters who have been playing regularly week in week out. Psychologically, they are under far bigger pressure than the starters as well.

Take van Persie, he had a very poor game against Spurs. But he’s a starter, he did not have to worry about getting dropped because one off game. Had it been Bendtner who started against Spurs and played poorly, on the back of his mind he would have realized that he might not have a chance to redeem himself the next match, as there would be no guarantee he would get to play at all.

So for the “In and Out” squad players like Walcott, Bendtner, Diaby, Senderos, Denilson, Song the likes, every time they get to play it’s like a trial game for them. Under the circumstance, it’s understandable they are less likely to impress. It is not a coincidence that a lot of criticism on this site are aiming towards these set of “In and Out” squad players.

I do believe, should opportunity arise and those “In and Out” players get a run of first team games, they will be able to show their worth. Afterall, like Wenger once said, not every player is able to get into this Arsenal side, even if he’s an England international. The manager and coaches have far more opportunities to access those players in training, obviously they will know the players far better than us. Bottom line is – if those players are good enough for the coaching staffs, they have to be good enough for us.

Posted by Andez | Filed Under Mailbag 

Arsenal 2 – 0 Newcastle

September 25, 2007 | 46 Comments

Two second half goals within six minutes of each other were enough to see a very young Arsenal side ease past a full-strength Newcastle in this evening’s 3rd round Carling Cup tie at the Grove.

Nicklas Bendtner’s towering header, followed shortly by Denilson’s smash from 25 yards  sees the Gunners added to Saturday’s draw for the 4th round.  Also on Saturday is a trip to Upton Park for a league match against West Ham.  The Hammers did the double over us last season, so let’s hope this good start to the season continues.  Kickoff is at 10AM ET, and the match is being broadcast live here in the US on Setanta USA.

Posted by mikek | Filed Under Match Report 

Arsenal – Newcastle (Carling Cup)

September 25, 2007 | 37 Comments

Well, its the League Cup again. Slowly now as the season rolls on, squad depth will be tested yet again. People like Fred have already declared their views on the Carling Cup ;) but I feel its a very important tournament for our young-er squad players. People like Traore, Denilson, Hoyte, Nortveidt, Bendtner, Theo even might get some well needed playing time. If we get knocked out in the first round these super talented kids will not have much playing time this season and nothing to look forward to except the odd substitution appearance. This might be fine in other clubs like Chelsea where the kids never play anyway (Do they even have any kids in the first place?) but not at AFC where youth is the flavor of the moment as has been the case for many years now. So yes I’d love to see the kids go one step further and win the thing. Lets see what happens…

As for Newcastle I watched a bit of their game against West Ham, mainly to get an idea of how they play. A lot of the play seems to switch through Milner and N’Zogbia both primarily down the left. Which means one thing — more crosses from the left side. Mark Viduka on form is a pain in the butt for any center back and he is on form now so we need to watch him and Martins who we were extensively linked with. I’m pretty sure King Kolo will play this one along with Sendy, Traore and Hoyte making up a decent back four.

Expect a midfield of Theo,Denilson,Song and Diaby..I’m not sure this is the best there is but I wont be shocked to see Alex out there. Though I guess Diarra might play as well instead of Song.

Its a no brainer up front with Eduardo and Bendtner starting and they’ll get a chance to show what they can do. I think Eduardo will get 1 goal at least today after his excellent but unrewarded performance against Derby, but more so because Bendtner is playing thus creating the big man – little man combination.

I think we’ll win this because Big Sam will try and go physical and Newcastle bar Nicky Butt maybe really don’t have the players to kick that much. I see us winning by the odd goal.

Arsenal 2 – Newcastle 1
p.s… Owen is injured again.. sad but I can see why all top flight managers are wary of buying the guy.

Posted by live_dont_exist | Filed Under Mailbag 

Gunners the Richest Club in Britian

September 24, 2007 | 15 Comments

Taken from BBC News:

“Arsenal have become the first English football club to break the £200m income barrier.

Their results for last season, the first in their new Emirates Stadium, sees income rise to £200.8m, a jump of £63m compared to the last year at Highbury.

The improvement brings Arsenal into the big league of European earners.

Manchester United will have to show an increase of £32m for last season to match the Gunners, while Chelsea will have to improve their income by nearly £50m, Liverpool by nearly £80m and Tottenham by £127m.”

This is indeed very good news for the club and gooners all over the world. It is another reason why Arsenal does not need a sugar daddy to bail us out in order to compete in England and in Europe.

The club has always been (and will always be) self-sufficient. The way Arsenal is operated stems from being a prudent business first, then passionate football club second. We are not like Leeds who will spend money at all costs in hopes of reaching success, and we are patient enough to develop our players into stars, rather than buying establish ones in hopes of instant glory.

Some would argue that once Wenger leaves, the next manager may need to spend more money on the transfer market to buy instead of breed star players. Not a problem, the revenue at the Emirates is sufficient to provide the next manager a healthy sum for the transfer kitty if needed, it’s just that currently the fact that wenger isn’t spending much is an added bonus and should not be expected as the norm.

Our players salary is only 50% of the revenue. I think most NHL, NFL, MLB teams pay close to 75% on player salaries, and I think Chelsea probably pays 200% (lol!)

With regards to our £345m debt, there is an annual budget to repay portion of the principal on top of the annual interest, and would be repaid within 10 years. The only worry I would have is that if Arsenal gets taken over, the new owner might do a “Glazer” and just make minimum interest payments on the loans while pocketing all profits and leave the club (and supporters) to save themselves.

What are your thoughts?

Posted by neova | Filed Under Mailbag 

We Play To Win Whilst We Entertain

September 24, 2007 | 20 Comments

I wrote this and posted it on the BBC 606 in July and got very little response. I think this site has a better class of reader and I hope you guys enjoy my scribble.
I have added a few lines to bring it up to date.

“Another great player leaves Arsenal and all around us are writing yet another obituary. The players that leave have a few comments to make but it’s only the media choice that is given visibility.

Wenger will be at Arsenal for many more years. He has created and built his dream with the training ground, the squad of young talent, the Emirates stadium. He has had one undefeated season his second is imminent. How so many seemingly intelligent pundits cannot see the quality of this composer of symphonies on a football pitch amazes me.

I am 57 and I have watched football in East Africa (and around the world) where I was born and know first hand the natural rhythm of the African footballer…his gift of physique, stamina and humility. Wenger sees in football what others occasionally hear in sound. He sees phrases of movement, cohesion of instruments, transitions of melody and character of his musicians. There are some things he misses but that is his humanity.

Wenger buys in saplings and sells trees that have shed their best fruit. Everyone that sees his forest thinks that their perspective is a better judge of its maturity. Wenger knows. His judgment of hardened or dead wood is that of a seasoned carpenter. He creates an ever-changing copse of colour and vision so that the Arsenal fans can enjoy a variety of fruit, always wondering what flavour Wenger’s next cherry.

The Arsenal is special to me and special to the Gooners who love the club and anything that tries to desecrate this football shrine of ours hurts us. We have our opinions and our favourites. We have our history and our records. We have our neighbours and we forgive them their trespasses. We have our pride and we have our future. We are the Arsenal and we are the best.

We play to win whilst we entertain.”

The Arsenal are now top of the League and are strutting their stuff. There are still a lot of media people critical of Wenger and Arsenal. This is used well by Wenger – he needs manure to nurture his orchard and nothing better than negative comment to feed his young saplings.

Posted by denbo | Filed Under Mailbag 

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