Sheffield Utd 0 – 3 Arsenal
October 31, 2007 | 37 Comments
Eduardo da Silva scored twice, including a thunderous opening goal just eight minutes in, and Denilison added the icing to the cake, as Arsenal beat Sheffield United 3-0 at Bramall Lane this Halloween night. The win means the Gunners are now in the pot for the quarter-final draw which takes place on Saturday. Also this Saturday is the “biggest game of the season so far,” as an in-form Manchester United pay a visit to the Grove.
Happy Halloween! – T-shirt giveaway contest
October 31, 2007 | Comments Off
Happy Halloween everyone. Thanks to our friends at Arseshirts.com, we have three t-shirts to give away to three random Premium members who can answer the following questions:
Arsenal play Sheffield United in the Carling Cup tonight, Halloween. Prior to this evening, when was the last time Arsenal played on Halloween? Who did they play? What was the score?
If you know the answers, send an email to: contest AT arsenalamerica DOT com. Use the subject header “Halloween”.
Contest ends tonight at midnight eastern.
Three correct answers will be chosen at random and announced tomorrow morning.
Good luck!
Sheffield United
October 30, 2007 | 35 Comments
With the Blades looking distinctly blunt at the moment – 19th in the second division and falling – this is a great opportunity for Wenger’s other batch of Youngsters to dish out a pasting in the style.
Admittedly, Sheffield beat us 1-0 last season thanks to a moment of Lehmanic impulsiveness, but they also had to resort to various nasty unpunished tricks like punching VanP in the stomach.
This year, as we all know, we can deal with the physical stuff. So, yes, it is another grim, cold, probably wet, Up North kick-fest — think Liverpool with no class – but with Denilson, Diarra, Diaby, Bendtner etc. all raring to showing their stuff, I predict we can romp this 3-1.
Over to you tacticians…
Goals, Goals, Goals!!!
October 30, 2007 | 23 Comments
Goals wins football games. It’s as simple as that. But finding goal scorers is not that simple.
Arsenal have scored 22 goals in 10 league games. That’s a great record. Yet I believe our fortunes lie in finding more goal scoring options. Why? Read on.
Our current scorers are
Ade – 6
RvP – 5
Cesc – 5
Rosicky – 2
Hleb, Diaby, Sendy, Toure – 1
The trend suggests that, for now, we are relying on three players for goals. RvP is out for some time. Ade is not the best when it comes to converting chances and can go through rough patches (as he is now). Cesc is in fine form but how long can he keep it going?
We really need one, preferably two more players to step up and take on more of the goal scoring responsibilities. Who can it be?
Eduardo – A natural goal scorer who is still settling in. Has looked out of depth in the two league games he started – Derby and Bolton. But has score twice in the CL. Needs more games to sharpen up. The sooner the better.
Walcott – Has shown that he can play up front and score. But yet to open his league account. Will get used on the wings often and it remains to be seen how many he can score from there.
Bendtner – Has scored in the Carling Cup but is struggling to get games in the league. A good player but needs time and may not get too many chances.
Rosicky – Is capable of scoring but struggles with injury. His injury record means we cannot rely on him.
Hleb – Scored two goals when he started up front but back to old ways when he returned to the wings. Did score against Slavia but cannot be relied upon to increase his tally much. Let him continue raking in the assists.
Eboue – Has a good shot but needs to learn to place the ball as well. Missed a golden chance vs Bolton and hit the post at Anfield.
Flamini – Has surprisingly not come close to scoring the goals he did last season. Maybe he is concentrating on his defensive skills.
Before the Anfield game, I wondered who will score. Cesc answered brilliantly. The same question remains for the ManU game and for the next two months in which we play 6/10 games away from home.
Who will score the goals? The answer to that question will shape our season.
S.F. Branch: Arsenal-ManUre and other future meet-ups
October 29, 2007 | 12 Comments
Thanks to everyone who turned up at Maggie McGarrys. We had a small but loyal group of Bay Area Gooners for the weekend match against Liverpool. Despite a congenial atmosphere, the only person in a Liverpool kit departed at half-time. Unfortunately, the pictures came out a bit blurred (impaired photographer methinks), so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
The report from Mad Dog In The Fog was that they got a good turnout, which was split down the middle in terms of Arsenal and Liverpool supporters.
Seeing as these seem to be the only two options for pubs that open early and show the matches, it would be great to hear from Bay Area Arsenal supporters about a few things:
1) Do you have a preference between the two pubs?
2) Do you know of any other pubs that open early and show the matches?
3) Which upcoming Arsenal matches would you most be inclined to turn up at a pub to watch?
You can post your answers in this thread or email me if you prefer.
Personally, I like both places and have no vested interest in either, but while Mad Dog has built up a solid reputation as the place to watch footie, I’m inclined to support Maggie McGarrys in their infancy, because people turning up for the matches will make it worth the owner’s while to keep showing them, thus giving Bay Area Gooners another alternative for match viewing.
As to next weekend’s Arsenal-ManUre match-up, Patrick at Maggie McGarrys has vowed to show it live at 5:45 PT with a possible replay later. No word yet on Mad Dog’s schedule for the match. Regrettably, your Arsenal America San Francisco Branch Manager will be unable to attend.
Maggie McGarrys
1353 Grant Street
Between Vallejo & Green
San Francisco, CA
Tel: 415-399-9020
Mad Dog In The Fog
530 Haight Street
Between Fillmore & Steiner
San Francisco, CA
Football Hotline: 415-442-7994
For more information, contact: Mark Barbeau sanfran@arsenalamerica.com
Liverpool 1 – 1 Arsenal
October 28, 2007 | 74 Comments
A late Cesc Fabregas goal gave Arsenal a 1-1 tie at Anfield on Sunday and kept the Gunners at the top of the Premier League.
Arsenal had much of the possession and hit the post twice. Liverpool had chances, as well, and forced a few good saves from Manuel Almunia.
Discuss.
Arsenal vs. Liverpool – 3 Previews For the Price of One!
October 26, 2007 | 80 Comments
Editor’s note: Hmm…must be a big game coming up or something, as this week we have not one, not two, but three previews. Thanks for the contributions, here they are in the order we received them:
From live_dont_exist:
Been a while since I dropped in here due to too much work so thought tonight might be a good time to revisit and do a Game Preview. Hope this gets puts up 
First for the hosts. Liverpool and Arsenal share some great camraderie over the years with even rival fans showing some wonderful respect rare to be seen in a modern game for each other. I like Liverpool a lot and if anyone had to win titles apart from us I wouldn’t really mind it if it was Pool. As of now though I hope they lose every game they play 
Coming to the teams now Reina has not ever impressed me, I do not know why because people rate him very highly. He makes many mistakes as well coupled with the odd brilliant save. I’d say Old Jens is better..but Jens can go now so lets not talk about that. Hyppia has had a nightmare lately .. 2 consecutive own goals and Daniel Agger is still out. SO whoz he gonna play there — Mascherano?? or is he gonna play Paletta…the same guy Our rampaging Beast made a mockery of .Whats that …Senderos is a better third defender .. oh wait … Carragher will put in a monster performance and Finnan and Riise will be up for it but there’s a gaping hole at CB there right now.
Pennant will start for sure coz of his crosses and Gerrard will as well. If Mascherano is not at CB and I don’t think he will be there he will start as well. Alonso will be on the bench if fit at best and Kewell is injured as usual so Babel will start this one with Benayoun off the bench. I’m not sure Crouch will start but Voronin has been so poor lately (didnt see him against Besiktas) and Crouch scored a hatrick last time round so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him with Kuyt in a 4-4-1-1
Arsenal are rocking right now and the back 5 will not change unless there’s an injury. For that matter apart from Eduardo coming in for Theo and Mozart for Eboue with Hleb switching to the right I see nothing changing at all. Mascherano will nip at Cesc all day and it’ll be up to the Flamster , a big game player to nullify that threat. Clichy needs to get his interceptions spot on — Pennant is an excellent crosser and no one in our team is winning with Crouch on the headers if he plays. Ade is going to torture Hyppia and Carragher again and I see him and Mozart scoring on Sunday.
Won’t be surprised though if AW plays a 4-5-1 with Hleb behind Ade and switches to a 4-4-2 with Theo if and when we’re down.
Liverpool’s form means nothing going in to this one but Arsenal are on a high this time round and I’ll dare to say:
Liverpool 0 – Arsenal 2
From DannyT:
While everyone is getting carried away, and to some extent it’s hard not to, I think it’s worth focusing on the fact that Sunday’s game will NOT be easy.
In my opinion to underestimate Liverpool would be folly. It may be worth remembering that unlike Man Utd and Chelsea, Liverpool have not lost a league game this season and have only lost two at home in the last two seasons. No matter how well Arsenal are playing it is very unlikely to be a cakewalk.
Personally, I still have a few reservations about this Arsenal team despite being absolutely delighted with how the season is panning out. Maybe it’s my cautious nature, but I think this Liverpool game could be problematic.
My main concern is Benitez tactical moves vs Wenger’s. Wenger is rolling with pretty much the same team throughout this winning run, but I would like to seem a change. I think Gilberto has to play in this game. His aerial ability at set pieces might be crucial. We should know that Gallas and Toure are usually all over the place on crosses, so we will need the extra height and Gilberto’s added defensive expertise. And talking of crosses, Almunia still worries me. He’s a great shot stopper, but on crosses when he’s not making dodgy one-fisted punches he’s usually pinned to his goal line.
I think Benitez will be clever and start with Crouch who I think could be a real handful as he was in Arsenal’s 4-1 defeat at Anfield at the end of the season. Benitez will certainly try to ensure crosses are coming in from all angles and at set-pieces, and maybe this is an area of Arsenal’s defensive strength that needs to be proven. We’ll see how good Sagna is how much Clichy has improved by the amount of damage limitation they can muster in this area.
Having said all this, personally I don’t think there’s any way Wenger can drop Almunia now, especially after Lehmann’s recent comments. But I do think it’s a mistake to play Flamini ahead of Gilberto in this match. It only takes one set piece fumble to go behind and Liverpool’s confidence will be instantly restored.
This is a massive test for Arsenal’s young guns and I can’t wait to see how they cope, it will be fascinating. Something tells me this could be a high scoring classic which could go either way. Arsenal’s 7-0 thrashing of Slavia Prague will certainly have little bearing on this game, hopes of sitting back while Arsenal run rings around a team bereft of confidence just seems to fanciful. If that does happen then Arsenal have truly arrived.
And from fstanin:
On Sunday, the two remaining teams in the Premiership without a league loss meet at Anfield.
At this enjoyable moment, these are two teams seemingly headed in different directions. As we Gooners have enjoyed the performances of our squad of late, the red-colored Merseyside fandom is in a state of high anxiety. After Wednesday evening’s loss in Turkey, the Reds have made it look like the unthinkable could happen in the Champion’s League group stage – elimination – and only 3 of the 6 group stage match days have passed. Yes, the team that prides itself on being Britain’s answer to Europe’s big clubs could go down before Christmas, or even Thanksgiving.
The combantants’ respective managers also seem to be of different moods. Our leader, Arsene Wenger, just celebrated his 58th birthday in fine style (and he looks about Rafa’s age – 47). He unveiled his own bronze bust, and he led an old-fashioned butt kicking at the Emirates Tuesday night that has the British Isles’ football community, not to mention the Continent’s observers (and even a wee small fraction of us Americans) talking big about the Gunners, their gaudy record, and their beautiful style of play. Even our English lad is being reconsidered for reinstatement to the national team. What a difference a couple of goals make.
Then there is Rafa. His predicament is making him look a lot older than our man Arsene. Wednesday’s loss, combined with his decision to pull the heart and soul of Club Red off the pitch for playing with “too much passion” in the latest episode of Scouser Derby (argued by some as a brilliant, ballsy move) has got the Liverpool supporters looking at Rafa’s rotation scheme as Rafa’s Rotational Russian Roulette…and the gun is pointed at his own head.
So these two teams might be headed in opposite directions at the moment, but they are soon to collide head on at one of the world’s best venues. Let’s just hope that both clubs continue in the same direction after the match as before.
Predictions? Not from me. But I had a dream. It was 1-1 after 90 and the Gunners scored twice in stoppage time to end it 3-1. The boys huddled at midfield, Wenger did a sideline jib, and Rafa ran for the nearest exit…
Seattle/Tacoma Gooners Unite!
October 25, 2007 | 14 Comments
Hello, my name is Tim and I’m a Gooner. Actually, I’m a northwest Gooner. Ok, full disclosure; I’m the Seattle/Tacoma rep for Arsenal America and I live in Tacoma.
Yesterday I received an email from some fellow Seattle/Tacoma Arsenal fans, which means that there are more than one of us up here! Well, how many are there? I don’t know, but I’m hoping this article will help me find out.
What I’d like to do is have a first ever Seattle/Tacoma Arsenal America mixer. We can get together, brag about how many times we’ve been to Highbury/Emirates (twice for me!), show off our kits, plan future parties, and generally geek out over Arsenal.
But I cannot do it alone. I need you: I need you Pacific North West Gooners to send me an email saying “hey I want to go!” That way I can add you to my mailing list and plan a really great party.
Interested?
Drop me a line at seattle@arsenalamerica.com
Should an ex-Gunner become the next boss?
October 25, 2007 | 21 Comments
It’s a tempting thought to have an ex-player managing Arsenal. But on second thought, perhaps it’s not such a good idea at all.
I mean, football manager can be a very demanding task. Fans in general are not as patient today as before. We have seen and heard people jump onto Wenger’s back on more than one occasion (in fact, plenty of occasions). This is a coach who has won us a “Double” twice!
Bergkamp, Vieira, Adams, or even Henry, et al have all left an almost perfect image in fans’ mind. They are the Arsenal legends. Perhaps it’s better for them to be remembered this way.
I look at Glenn Hoddle’s case with Spurs. As a player, he was God for the Spurs’ fans. After his spell as Spurs manager, I think he had run out his welcome there.
Same thing happened to Graeme Souness at Liverpool.
I imagine should Bergkamp or Vieira or Adams take charge of Arsenal one day, Arsene Wenger’s shoes would prove just too HUGE for any one of them to fill.
Fans have gotten used to watching great football with Arsenal, we may have taken it for granted now, yet one day if the team no longer plays the one-touch passing game, people will certainly appreciate even more the type of football we are playing right now. Whoever takes over from Wenger would almost certainly find himself in a lose-lose situation. Not only they have to get results, but also to get their team playing good football. To achieve one of those goals is hard enough, let alone both.
If it didn’t work out, it would destroy that Arsenal legend’s image in fans’ heart.
One thing about the relationship between fans and players is once a player becomes manager, before long fans tend to forget how the manager used to be as a player. So whatever good work a player had done as a player for the club, if he fails as a manager, it would all count for nothing.
Take David O’Leary, though he never managed Arsenal, since he became manager for Leeds and later Aston Villa, he started to get some stick from fans when leading his teams back to Highbury. Yet O’Leary is probably Arsenal’s most loyal player ever, and the longest servicing Arsenal player ever.
S.F. Branch Meet-Up: Arsenal-Liverpool Match Viewing
October 24, 2007 | 3 Comments
Update: I will have a couple (3 to be exact) of the brand new Arsenal America t-shirts with me for sale! First come, first serve!
OK, Bay Area Gooners . . .
The San Francisco Branch of Arsenal America invites you to turn out and cheer the Gunners on in their first real test of the season as they travel to Anfield for this Sunday’s match against Liverpool!
We’re aware that some local supporters favor Mad Dog in the Fog, but we’re going to be trying out a relatively new location for this occasion.
Maggie McGarrys, a pub in North Beach regularly shows Premiership action on their 5 flat-screen televisions, and anyone who’s heard the bartender, Patrick’s tales of the football he saw growing up in England, knows it’s a great place to catch a match!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Match time is 9:00AM PT and I’m assured doors will be open by 7:30am.
Maggie McGarrys
maggiemcgarrys.com
1353 Grant Street
Between Vallejo & Green
San Francisco, CA
Tel: 415-399-9020
For more information, contact: Mark Barbeau sanfran@arsenalamerica.com
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