Reina’s Goof
August 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Liverpool v. Arsenal
By Kailei Higginson
The 2010/2011 season is finally under way. The Gunners traveled to the remote part of England known as Liverpool to take on Anfield’s finest (which isn’t say much these days). In my humble opinion, it was less then a thrilling match but we escaped with a point. Read more
Arsenal Review USA Podcast – ArseAm Featured
February 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Arsenal Review USA is quickly becoming the must-listen weekly podcast for all American Gooners. This week Arsenal America is featured in the Post-Stoke podcast. Check it out!
2009 Comes to a Close
December 31, 2009 | 2 Comments
Good morning Gooners! A wet and cold London morning to you. Before I begin, I want to apologize about the lack of “visual stimulation on the past few posts.” I am using the Mrs. computer (which is not a PC), and I have had one heck of a time loading pictures of the Road Trip, updates, and so on. With that being said, please sit tight, and know that I will have lots and lots of pictures for you all early next week.
So, on to Portsmouth. Arsenal took on Pompey last night in what proved to be a great end to 2009. You can read a great write up about the match on Arsenal.com. With Cesc and Robin out, we have had to get “creative” with our goals. November was a tough month for us, with a tough loss to Chelsea at home. Our title credentials were taking a hit from all sides, and you could see that the lads were in need of some direction and support. With some consistent play, and some luck, we have pulled ourselves right back into title contention. With our game in hand to be played on January 6th against Bolton, we could see ourselves within 1 point of the league leaders Chelsea. We take on West Ham in the FA Cup on Sunday. I would imagine that Arsene will rest those players that are not heading off to the African Cup of Nations, and the likes of Song and Eboue will be played to their fullest before heading home.
So, let’s get back to this Portsmouth match. I have been to several home games before, but I have never had the opportunity to go to an away match. What an amazing experience. We had 15 Arsenal Americans heading down for this trip. We went down to Portsmouth on the Arsenal coach buses. We met up at Emirates, got a bit of shopping in (some more than others . . . Arsenal dog bowls, Arsenal garden gnomes, Arsenal tooth brushes . . . that is total commitment, and I love every minute of it!), and loaded up on the coaches.
Half way on our 2 hour journey to Portsmouth, we were offered a selection of hot beverages. When was the last time Greyhound offered you hot English tea or coffee? Exactly. Once we arrived in Portsmouth, we headed over to the Good Companion to meet up with the other Gooners from far and wide. The pub was packed with chanting and singing Gooners, ready to take on Avram Grant’s Portsmouth. When you walked in, you needed no introduction, as your scarf, jersey, or Arsenal pin were all that was required for entrance and acceptance. A few pints were drank, and a few songs were sung (What do you think of Tottenham? . . . ), and we were on our way to Fratton Park. Unlike many stadiums in England, and in Europe, Fratton Park is quite old, and has never been updated or modified. The seats were simply bolted in place over the old terraces. You could smell the musk of the ground as you walked through away supporters gate. Once we got up the unevenly spaced (and sized I might add . . . and yes, I almost tripped going up the stairs twice . . . and no, I was not drunk . . . they were very uneven in size and height . . . it was very confusing . . . and you can stop laughing now) stairs, we found our way to our seats. The seats were small, but we didn’t need them anyway, as we stood the entire time.
The experience at an away game is truly unique, and very different than that of Emirates. I have found that Arsenal supporters at Emirates ride the roller coaster of emotions with the players, which can result in long moments of silence. The Gooners at Pompey did not stop singing until we were on the busses to go home. There was a true sense of passion and purpose with our singing and chants. We learned songs, and even made up a few . . . “We are standing on the new Portsmouth Flats, the new Portsmouth flats, the new Portsmouth flats (this was sung to “we all live in a yellow submarine” by the Beatles)” . . . it was a great night!
Fratton Park is a very small stadium, so the away supporters are very close to the action. The players could see us and reacted to our songs. We even got Arsene to give us a wave in the middle of the game. You could feel the tackles, and could see how truly fast Premier League players are. It was truly amazing to see how fast and powerful each of our players are. At one point in the second half, Traore was running straight at us, and I thought to myself, “if he doesn’t slow down, he is going to end up next to us in row N.” Arshavin had a glorious chance in the beginning of the second half, and was blocked soundly by the Portsmouth defense. In a moment of sheer amusement, he turned to the away supporters, smiled, and shrugged, as if to say, “Niet . . . I will score next time . . . dosvedanya.” He’s five foot four, he’s five foot foooooouurrrrr, we’ve got Arshavin, $&#@ Adebayor!
We got to experience two goals at the far end of the pitch (Eduardo and Nasri), and two more right in front of us (Ramsey and Song). Portsmouth pulled back a goal late in the second half, but the damage was done, and we were only minutes away from our forth and final goal of the night. Portsmouth have much bigger issues to worry about now, the least of which is a loss to Arsenal. It was truly awesome to see the Portsmouth defense scrambling to cover our players, as they moved the ball with such mastery, it was as if they were painting the very pitch beneath them. I would say football, much like many sports, is straight forward to play, but very difficult to master. Arsenal make it look so easy, which reminds us all as to how truly difficult it is to be a professional footballer.
Ramsey was so precise with his movement on the pitch, it was as if he could have done the very same move with the lights off, and blind folded. You could see in person how powerful and important Song is to our team. He marshalled our midfield with strength and spirit. Patrick Viera would be proud. About an hour into the game, we started singing my new favorite Christmas song, which I thought you all might enjoy:
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All The Way
Oh What Fun It Is To See Arsenal Win Away, Eh!
Once the game had concluded, we marched back to the bus to embark on our journey home. The game was a fantastic display of the ability and prowess our team possesses, and an indication of the months to come. I for one believe that this is our year! This is the year that we win some silverware! This is the year that we say started our run of silverware. 2010 and beyond is for Arsenal.
Well, I must get cleaned up. We are off to the Armoury to spend more money on stuff that I don’t really need . . . Arsenal bath mat anyone?
From all of us at Arsenal America, I wish each of you a very prosperous New Year. The decade wrap up will be awaiting you tomorrow! Road Trip Day 6 . . . here we come!
COME ON YOU GUNNERS!
AA San Francisco Branch enjoys 6-1 rout!
August 16, 2009 | 2 Comments
And so it begins…
Arsenal’s season got off to a brilliant start with a 6-1 dismantling of a very good Everton side (though you might not have recognized them as such yesterday).
Arsenal America’s San Francisco Branch AKA the Bay Area Gooners had a tremendous turnout at Maggie McGarry’s for the Gunners’ first match of the season. Seasoned regulars as well as first-timers, were joined by several traveling Brits, all of whom enjoyed goals by Denilson, new boy Vermaelen, Gallas, Eduardo, and two by Cesc Fabregas. Official match report can be found here.
San Francisco Branch enjoys a rout!
Feasting on breakfast, including coffee cake baked by the SF Branch Manager (I kid you not), the Gooners celebrated the first of the goals with a rousing “One Nil To The Arsenal”. As the scoring torrent continued, enthusiastic (if not in tune) renditions of “Ooh To Be A Gooner”, and “By Far The Greatest Team” could be heard at different intervals.
The SF Branch also introduced a 2nd shirt for the new season, featuring Maggie’s revered Gooner bartender, Patrick on the back.
As just one of many branches Arsenal America has around the U.S., the Bay Area Gooners are looking forward to a season of lively get-togethers. Check out the Arsenal America Branches page for the Branch in your area.
C’mon you Gunners!
Second Successive Home Defeat Marks Symbolic End To Season
May 11, 2009 | 76 Comments
Just 22 short days ago, things were looking very promising for Arsenal Football Club. Gaining in momentum on a number of fronts, the Gunners were heading into both the FA Cup and UEFA Champions League semifinal rounds with some major confidence.
At the time, the team’s unbeaten league run was building impressively, a number of injured stars were seemingly returning at just the right time, and the opportunity to make something out of a disappointing season looked promising.
Boy, what a difference a few weeks can make!
Yesterday’s 4-1 home league defeat suffered at the hands of Chelsea will probably be remembered not only for the game’s final margin, but for symbolically bringing a very frustrating season to a close for Arsene Wenger’s young side.
The loss Sunday has ended Arsenal’s 21-match unbeaten streak in the league, ended the Gunners’ chance to finish third in the Premiership this season, and also ended one of the worst weeks in recent memory for the club—having been eliminated five days earlier in the CL Semis by Manchester United.
Things looked rather promising for Arsenal in the opening half hour of Sunday’s match, with the Gunners basically dominating things. If not for some subpar finishing from Theo Walcott, Abou Diaby and Alex Song, the home side could have been a couple goals up on Chelsea.
But like we have seen far too many times lately, a goal from the Gunners’ opponents against the run of play turned the match around and in Chelsea’s favor.
On this occasion it was Alex heading home off a free-kick for the Blues in the 28th minute. Disgusted and already running a bit late for a family gathering I had to attend, I turned the match off and left home, retaining the hope that Arsenal would come back to win and keep alive its slim hopes of finishing third in the league.
But, as the match wore on, that was far from the case. Like Tuesday’s debacle against United, it wasn’t long before the Gunners were two down, thanks to a fine 20-yard effort from Nicolas Anelka.
The second half brought two more Chelsea goals sandwiched around a Nicklas Bendtner header for Arsenal’s lone reply, resulting in the home team’s worst defeat to date at the Emirates.
So, the lost opportunities in some big matches over these past three weeks has meant the Gunners will go trophyless for a fourth straight season. And now there is no chance for overtaking Chelsea for third, with Wenger not too disappointed in that regard.
“We had a small opportunity to come third but three months ago everybody said we would finish tenth so I would have signed at that point to finish fourth,” the manager told reporters after the match.
“I don’t feel we have to be too disappointed with that, but what is very disappointing for us is in the games that mattered in the last three or four weeks we couldn’t win. That’s where we have to analyse. But today there were a lot of positives in the game and we have to take a little distance from the defeat because it’s not a 4-1 game today.”
Citing his team’s many chances on goal, Wenger felt Arsenal “should have been 2-0 up before they had a shot on goal. On the first free-kick we made a mistake and they scored. Today we missed seven or eight clear-cut chances and on every single mistake we made we were punished.”
When questioned on his side’s defense and the number of goals let in during recent matches, the French manager did admit that “We have to improve the way we defend. You wouldn’t like to come out when you lose 4-1 and say ‘listen, we are going to buy four defenders.’
I believe we have quality defenders and it’s more a case of balancing the team defensively than the quality of our defenders.”
The two rather heavy home defeats have left many supporters voicing concerns with the current Arsenal squad and clamoring for some major summer signings to improve the team.
Yet Wenger has remained calm on the matter, telling arsenal.com’s Richard Clarke that he “does not feel his side needs major surgery. He wants improvements ‘in the right areas’ but has ruled out a raft of signings.”
“I don’t think the squad needs major investment,” said Wenger. “At the moment I don’t know what funds will be available (anyway). But I just believe we need to continue to improve. I’m not as doom-and-gloom as everybody wants to make it after a defeat.”
The trouble with normal is it always gets worse.
May 10, 2009 | 18 Comments
As an Arsenal supporter, one could be forgiven thinking the Gunners might rebound from their Champions League Semi-Final debacle and revenge their FA Cup Semi-Final loss when Chelsea visited the Emirates today. After all that’s what we do. We support. Our club.
Arsenal came out of the gate and gave the distinct impression that they were up for it, but ultimately, were weighed, measured, and found wanting. In a fashion too familiar there was pace, passing, and chances galore for the Gunners. Everything but the goals. Arsenal would end up on the losing end of a 1-4 score-line.
Losing today means nothing higher then a fourth place finish for Arsene Wenger’s squad but worse, it compounds their task next season, as they will face an open draw qualification round in the Champions League.
The rumblings from Arsenal supporters with regards to the summer transfer season are growing louder. Surely, he must buy, they say. Even Arsene Wenger is starting to sound like a manager who will go in search of some more experienced players. After all, Arsenal have the market covered on youthful enthusiasm. And dedicated supporters.
CL Semi-Final (2nd Leg) Arsenal 1-3 Manchester United
May 6, 2009 | 134 Comments
Arsenal’s Young Thoroughbreds Win On A Different ‘Derby Day’
May 3, 2009 | 6 Comments
The term “Derby Day” has a different meaning here in the United States than it does in England or Europe, referring not to local soccer rivalries but to the first Saturday each May when a group of young thoroughbreds speed around a mile-and-a-quarter track at Louisville’s Churchill Downs in that most famous of horse races, the Kentucky Derby.
The annual “Run For The Roses” featured an upset winner in the 2009 edition of the Kentucky Derby yesterday. A 50-to-1 longshot named Mine That Bird waited until late in the race before impressively weaving its way through most of the field over the final stretch to win by a wide margin.
Approaching “the homestretch” of the horse race that is the 2008-09 Barclays Premier League, it seemed an outsider (either Aston Villa or Everton) was poised to earn its own upset and outlast one of the Big Four clubs to “win” Champions League status for the upcoming season by finishing fourth or higher in the final league standings.
But in the last month or so, with Villa losing speed after a strong start and Everton also fading a bit late in this race, it has been the “young thoroughbreds” at Arsenal who have made the impressive run late in the season to overcome the two challengers by a wide distance. The Gunners officially secured fourth place on America’s Derby Day by winning 3-0 at Portsmouth, with Nicklas Bendtner scoring twice and Carlos Vela notching his first Premiership goal.
Strong performances from a number of its younger stars that also include Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey highlighted the victory and allowed manager Arsene Wenger to rest some of the team’s top guns for Arsenal’s Champions League semifinal on Tuesday against the “biggest of horses,” Manchester United.
And while fourth spot in the league may not seem much like a “win” to the club’s supporters who had been used to seeing their side capture league or Cup trophies earlier in Wenger’s reign, it has to feel comforting that this injury-depleted Arsenal team has confidently recovered from a mid-season slump to maintain Champions League status for next season, and still be among the European sides left with a chance to lift this season’s trophy.
Keeping that hope alive will require some doing at the Emirates Stadium in mid-week, as Arsenal have to overcome a 1-0 deficit after a disappointing first-leg semifinal performance at Old Trafford. But Wenger believes his young team has the character and skill to advance past United and into the final.
Such is the faith and belief in the overall squad that he made eight changes from the starting lineup of the CL game at Old Trafford for the Saturday league match at Fratton Park. Yet the quality shown from what some termed “a collection of kids” on the Gunners’ team sheet was evident throughout the match, with a few players perhaps even earning a spot in the lineup for the return leg of the European semifinal with United.
“I have not decided on the team for Tuesday but some could play from today,” Wenger told reporters after the Portsmouth match. “I think we were dominant apart from a patch in the second half. They had the potential to make it 2-1 but we scored on the break and that finished the game for us. We prepare now for our next game, which is a big one, but we will be ready for it and you will see a very strong Arsenal team,” he added.
The Gunners did take control of the Portsmouth match early, with Bendtner’s header in the twelfth minute getting through the hands of keeper David James to provide the 1-0 lead. The opener came off an cross from Andrey Arshavin, who was later taken down on a run into the box five minutes from the break for a questionable penalty decision against Sean Davis. Bendtner side-footed the penalty shot into the right side of the net, giving the Gunners a 2-0 halftime lead.
Portsmouth began the second half well, but a left-footed strike from Mexican Vela in minute 55 secured the victory and the points, pleasing manager Wenger. “I never have any doubts about these young players,” he told www.arsenal.com. “I see them everyday and you can see there is a good communication, a good connection and we showed some good connection play. We work a lot on that; these players have talent.”
So, on a day that Arsenal’s London neighbors Chelsea were prevailing in a “local derby” match against Fulham to remain six points ahead of the Gunners for third place in the Premiership, Wenger’s stable of young talent displayed its potential once again to remind rivals that the Emirates is still home to one of the strongest and deepest squads in the league and in Europe.
Arsenal fans may be growing upset with the prospect of another trophy-less year at the Emirates, but the late-season form for this Gunners team after an injury-riddled campaign has offered a number of positives, showing supporters that they “still have a horse in the race” for this year’s Champions League trophy, for a potential final-weekends steal of third place, and — as evidenced once again in Saturday’s impressive display against Portsmouth — as one of the favorites for trophies in the near future.
Arsenal’s pint glass semi-empty or semi-full?
April 30, 2009 | 34 Comments
With Manuel Almunia to thank for keeping yesterday’s Champions League Semi-Final defeat at Old Trafford from being a 4-0 affaire, Arsenal supporters are clinging to a very small scrap of belief that their side can get the job done next week when Manchester United visits the Emirates, for the second leg.
The Gunners got off to a shaky start and while things improved somewhat in the second half, they never really found their rhythm. Manchester United dominated possession for most of the match, and tested our defense relentlessly. The consensus amongst pub pundits seem to be that Arsenal is very lucky to still be in this.
We are hearing the usual post-match statements of belief from the players and their manager, but did Arsenal fans really see anything particularly convincing yesterday?
Now that the defeat has sunk in and the hangovers are in full effect, what do you think about yesterday’s result?
These Gunners run on Fabregas!
April 26, 2009 | 40 Comments
With a brace scored by Cesc Fábregas, Arsenal won comfortably today at the Emirates over a Middlesbrough side offering little in the way of resistance. While almost certainly securing fourth place in the Premiership, the Gunners did not appear to be looking past today’s match towards their Wednesday Champions League Semi-Final agaist ManUre.
With Ol’ Red Nose himself, Alex Ferguson looking on today, the match was never really in doubt. ‘Boro had one or two chances, but ultimately were no match for Arsenal’s pace. Fergie’s probably counting his blessings that Arshavin is cup-tied, because despite not finding the back of the net today, the Russian worked his socks off, his sheer guile and clever passing on display for all to see.
Manuel Almunia returned in goal, but was never really tested, and one might argue that the Gunners really should have converted on several other chances. All in all, it was a solid win for Arsenal, who should feel pretty good as they head to Old Trafford mid-week.
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