Celtic Preview
Champions League time and a visit to Celtic for the first time in a competitive match. In fact, it is the first competitive fixture against a Scottish club in any European tournament. Which is nice. The performance at Everton will have boosted confidence as I am sure Celtic’s cruise to victory on Saturday at Pittodrie will have done.
Previous seasons have seen Arsenal cruise through at this stage. It is hard to envisage such a comfortable passage as has previously been experienced but nonetheless, Arsenal start this tie as favourites. Celtic has a decent record in recent seasons against the so-called bigger European sides, a condescending turn of phrase used against the first British winners of the European Champions Cup.
Arsene spoke of the atmosphere that is expected:
You expect a massive support at Celtic. Scotland is always a very special atmosphere, a special noise in the stands. But we have played everywhere in Europe and we can deal with that. It will be down to us and how well we play.
That is the key to this. This squad has been to a number of stadia in the Champions League where the atmosphere is described as hostile and yet to freeze because of that reason. Tonight should be no different.
In terms of the line-up, there seems little point in making changes to the starting XI from Goodison Park. The midfield worked well as did the attack and defence. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it so a team of:
Almunia, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy, Song, Fabregas, Denilson, Arshavin, Bendtner, van Persie
should be expected. I guess the only change Arsene may be tempted into would be putting Eboue on the right and withdrawing Denilson more to the left flank, making the formation more of a 4-4-1-1 than the 4-3-3 which was so effective at the weekend. Whilst I can understand a certain amount of caution in his thinking, there has to be a question of whether the benefit of such caution is outweighed by the effectiveness of the performances to come. That would suggest an element of fear in his preparation, something which he was at pains to point out did not enter his mind.
Wenger will be facing quite possibly the simplest team talk that he will ever have to give;
“Remember what you did on Saturday, you know the good defending, the pressing all over the pitch and the sharpness in front of goal? Can you do that again, please.“
Whilst Celtic will no doubt provide more endeavour than Everton, if Arsenal hit the same form as Saturday, then I do not believe Celtic will come through this game unscathed.
For those looking for omens, try your local Blockbuster. There simply aren’t any for this fixture. Celtic have lost once at home to an English team, Nottingham Forest winning 2-1 in 1983/84 in a UEFA Cup third round tie. Overall, they have played 8 matches against English sides at Celtic Park, winning four, drawing three and losing the one.
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Enjoy the match wherever you are watching it. ’til Tomorrow.
Posted on August 18, 2009, in Arsenal, Champions League, Football, Premier League, Premiership, Soccer and tagged Arsenal, Celtic, Champions League, Football, Soccer. Bookmark the permalink. 488 Comments.
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first? Me?
I really hope we just stay with the same formation we used at Everton. The team talk after Everton should be quite simple. But the team talk after Man U smacked us in the semi’s last year could have been just as simple :”see what those guys did? you guys are just as good. you just need to believe.”
I always feel apprehensive when Arsenal lines up ‘not to lose’. A 4-5-1 has worked well in the CL because we play attacking teams and are able to hit them on the counter-attack. But in general I think that conservative formations send the wrong message to the players and they play scared. We need them to play with swagger.
Can it be 19:45 tomorrow already!!!
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/diaby-returns-but-trio-face-fitness-tests
It’s official.
With reports of Denilson and Cesc injured for Tuesday night – I’m a bit sceptical. Both were seen training (running) at London Colney Monday (Sky news live on TV). So maybe AW is confident enough to rest his top 2 midfielders. With many games next week there is some logic to this. I also think that playing Merida/Diaby and Song in the middle will confuse Celtic. They will have little idea of Diaby’s qualities and Merida similarly they will have no idea about, and his penetrating passing could be key, as it was against Rangers recently. Keep it tight at the back and try and nick an away goal or two.
How will we play now?
You just answered my question!! Thanks JBH.
I can’t wait.
CL league football is back and with it a chance to wow Scotland with some much belittled Wengerball!!!
Looks like it’ll be a straight swap of Diaby for Denilson with everything else unchanged. As long as Diaby can keep disciplined in the 4-3-3 and he doesn’t lose possession with wayward passing, we should be able to outplay them. Would still love it if we can keep the same side that destroyed Everton. Don’t be shocked if Ramsey gets the nod ahead of Diaby, though. Retaining possession will be key and after Denilson, Ramsey is the obvious choice.
Nice to see United being hounded now.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=668411&sec=transfers&cc=5901
LOOOOOOOOOOL
Just deserts I say. Would love to see Rio without that flat nosed thug!!
maria
what are u up to
Bloody handbag.
lagooner
i think our chances of qualifying are high againts the celts.but it depends if we keep our high flowing footaball and do well.
maria
are u going to watch the celts game on televison later on.i think its going to be an interesting game and i tip arsharvin for hat-trick.
and one more thing do you only like the looks of vela or the type of footaballhe plays?
We should put Wilshire out there just to scare them senseless. Maybe Song,Ramsey,Wilshire in mid, with Eboue,Verm,Gallas, Clichy in back,and Eduardo,Bendtner, Vela up front. I’m not worried about Celtic. Go Gunners!!
Prediction for Celtic-Arsenal 1st leg….1-1, with Arsenal scoring first.
This is a result that both teams can live with. Celtic can maintain their pride in getting good results against English teams and Arsenal will get the away goal and return as favorites. 3-0 at the Emirates and on to the group stages.
Sometimes teams can go into a game with a probable result and/or expectation in the back of their minds.
Of course, I also predicted a 1-1 draw or 2-1 Arsenal win against Everton!
the energgy level of celtic would be much higher than at everton. either merida, ramsey or wilshere would be playing if fabregas cant, song and diaby would be there. arshavin on the right, v. persie on the left and eduardo upfront, bendtner comes in the 2nd half.
the back remains the same
predition, 1-1 to arsenal or 3-1 to arsenal
look out for arshavin!
19th!
Probably swap Denilson for Diaby, and Cesc for Ramsey. Though they will still make the bench. All else, remains the same
I think the important thing is maintaining a clean sheet, while seeing if we can hit them on the counter.
We have tons of options but it all depends on what Wenger’s mentality is..too bad there was no press conference before the game.
Eduardo is bound start. What about Vela?
Celtic 0 – 2 Arsenal
prediction 0 – 0
So Soccernet says:
“The Gunners have injury doubts over Bacary Sagna, Cesc Fabregas and Denilson, with captain Fabregas given only a 50-50 chance of playing”.
Arsenal.com says:
“Arsène Wenger allayed fears when he described Fabregas’ chances of playing as “much more” than 50 per cent but the manager still faces an anxious wait for news on the morning of the match”.
Fabregas will definitely be playing. Arsene saying it is much more than 50% chance means that it’s 100% unless something nasty happens in the pre-game warm-up. Shoddy reporting from Soccernet and others it seems.
I have to think that it’s probably true that Arsene is waiting until the outcome of the Celtic game to buy more players. I was hoping that he would keep hold of Senderos, but that might not be the case considering Silvestre was preferred to him on the bench against Everton.
It’s possible Senderos leaves before the 26th, in which case it becomes probable that Silvestre gets called into action in the event Gallas or Vermaelen are injured. That to me would be an unacceptable risk for what could be two huge game against Celtic and Man United. Arsene could always move Song back but that weakens are midfield.
As others have said, as much as Silvestre seems to have fitted in socially as an Arsenal squad player, the thought of being one injury away from him starting for Celtic or Man United is not a heartwarming one.
Enough of the ‘what ifs’. Gallas and Vermaelen only have to make it through 2 games before the return leg with Celtic and 3 games before we play Man United. Fingers crossed they get through those games and then it’s two weeks to get the new signing(s) acclimatized before our trip to the Eastlands.
‘our’ not ‘are’.
0-0 would be an awful result for us. Arsene hates not scoring in these away games, and I’m not convinced he wouldn’t take a 3-2 defeat or even 2-1 over a 0-0 draw.
We will score at least one tomorrow. I am so confident that I will even give a few people a thrill and not post on here again if we go scoreless.
How do you do it Yogi? Posting at this ungodly hour? Good post as usual! After a magical opening day performance , progression at Celtics expense is a neccessity. Doomers are waiting at every turn for us to slip up. Its time for the media to get over themslves and cut out the crap .Wenger is not above criticism but some of the brainless twaddle we have 2 endure is disheartening…No ‘strength in depth’, ‘mentally weak’, ‘whingers’. ‘cant win it’, ‘Too short’
Winning the Man U or Chelsea way becomes a maxim for successs. It is conveniently forgotten we have won the leagues 3 times in 10years the Arsenal way. Liverpool none in 20 years and Chelsea twice in 50 years . With all the money pumped into Chelsea and Liverpool every year you would think they should suffer a regular flogging in the press. But strangley this honour is always Arsenals.All doomers beware humble pie is hard to swallow. Starting with the demolition of Celtic.
rosicky is out sadly along with nasri, fabianski, djouru, sangna, now denilson and fabregas a possibility. we need more debth, yes we have enough for celtic, but the season has just begun and we are already reaching into the pits of arsenal. Subotic, hageland, veloso, banega, chamahk,matuidi, tasci, hitzelsperger, Van Der VAART have all been linked.
cana has gone to sunderland, bassong to spurs i believe. martins has left new castle as well. wenger plz bring in a Df player. plz bring SUBOTIC and CHAMAKH, van der vaart can come if he wants but strickly on a profit basis
can someone tell me what was the last thing Liverpool won?? im a young football fan and really cant remember that far back??
This i loved!
Things to hate about Chelsea…“[Is it] the big, bronze-coloured academy that never produces any players? Or the man inside the academy, Frank Arnesen, who buys lots of kids who aren’t good enough to play for Chelsea? Or is it the mural at Stamford Bridge which had Luiz Felipe Scolari in it? Then, every now and again, you get the reminder. It’s Andrei Shevchenko. The £30m waste of money who is still hanging around the club three years on, the man who reappeared this summer on Chelsea’s American tour looking even more out of place than Claudio Pizarro.”
carib. We have a squad that’s around 27 men strong.
We have 5 players definitely out, and of those only Djourou’s absence leaves us vulnerable. Rosicky, Nasri and Walcott are excellent players but luckily we are completely stacked in the creative midfield area and Bendtner is shining where Walcott would be expected to play in the 4-3-3. Rosicky is a player that at this point would just be a lovely bonus to have around.
Almunia getting injured would make for an interesting selection dilemma for Arsene, as the expected third-choice Mannone has looked shakier than Szczesny.
This is a very, very strong squad but being greedy we could do with one more central defender. Overall, we are NOT reaching into the pits of Arsenal. That’s way off base.
@carib
debth = debt?
debth = death?
debth = dearth?
debth = What the f is this?
arsenalkabisa
and to think that there wasn’t even a need to mention Ashley C***…
@carib
How young are you?
@lagooner
arsenalkabisa
I think based on what Carib says later on, the only logical conclusion is that he mistakenly added the ‘h’ to the word and thinks we need more debt.
8
no one answered the liverpool question. when last did they win something and what did they win?
really bad typo depth,sry
maybe that little competition called the Champions League, carib?
@lagooner
He supports the wrong club. Tell him to try, Chelski, pool, Mancity…
@Carib
Liverpool last won the women’s volleyball worldcup
chelsea are boring, man city are just a bunch of names, no team chemistry.
Sorry for the long post, but I have just found the ultimate doomer (doomer who pines for 442 no less).
This was sent to the football365.com mailbag:
“Wenger Should Go Now…
I’m not saying Conrad Wiacek is wrong – I agree with his theory that a win like this simply convinced the deluded Wenger he’s correct.
The one thing I disagree with was how good Song was, he wasn’t good, he was completely and utterly average except still gave away three or four completely retarded free-kicks. At one point he hacked at the legs of the solitary Everton player with no less than five Arsenal players surrounding the ONLY Everton player in the half. There wasn’t any danger at all, nothing could have possibly happened but he gave away the free-kick, as he did all last year.
Song wasn’t good, Everton simply didn’t challenge him. This winds me up no end, players getting credit for simply not screwing up, he didn’t do anything significantly wrong, he didn’t cost us the game as he has so often, but he didn’t do much right either. Yes Denilson got his yearly shot on target, but other than his shot, also did very little. Also if anyone noticed it was Fabregas in the first half who was deeper than both Denilson and Song very frequently, while the game was 0-0 and we didn’t stamp our mark it was Fabregas running the defence in midfield (as he did against Liverpool last year before being injured, and many other games you see Fabregas drop deep to cover for those two). Only when the game was, let’s be honest, over at 2-0 and into the second half did he start to push forwards and look what happened.
We play two defensive midfielders because one alone isn’t good enough, even then our other CM drops deep to cover, Rosicky, Fabregas, or Nasri last year. So we add a second DM at the expense of a striker to cover for two poor players and we still have to drop our best players deeper to make it work? Until Fabregas moved fowards RVP had little of the ball, looked entirely isolated and Song/Denilson couldn’t find him with a pass if their lives depended on it.
But yes, this will convinced Wenger he doesn’t need to buy, and yes, that will screw us this year again. Everton didn’t show up, remember Everton early last year, with everyone convinced Moyes made the worst buy of the transfer window. Fellani adjusted and became their second best player of the year and the most crucial going fowards. He’d been ill, is visible smaller and wasn’t in the game, who else was going to outmuscle our team the dynamic pass and strength of Pinear and Osman, not on your life.
Our best games last year were against midfields that couldn’t pressure Denilson and Song, in those terrible hard games where huge behemoth speed demon players such as…Danny Murphy, put pressure on those two we fell apart completely.
Offensively I think we have the best line-up in the league, bar none, we have more strikers than any other top four side and more depth in offence, we’ve got two incredibly good centre-backs and good wingbacks and cover. We suck for defensive cover, but it’s the DM position we have no-one for at all.
In EVERY big game, Denilson and Song were poor, they aren’t good in those roles and can’t be good in those roles. Song started his career as a striker, was so poor he moved to AMC, was so poor there he became a DM, was so poor at that we put him in defence, right back, not good enough, centre back, nope, back to his least poor position at DM. Crediting him for not screwing up doesn’t help anyone. Denilson was a great AMC, he’s a poor DM, I still think he could be a great AMC ‘if’ he gets time to practice that position again and get his passing game back. Really he needs to move to a Wolves or a Birmingham and play AMC full time and he could become great again.
Against better opposition, more in form, our midfield will crumble, Fabregas will be stuck too deep and RVP will continue to be completely isolated with no service as he looked for the first 30 minutes.
Simon, Gooner, hoping Wenger steps down with a good record rather than leave in shame…which is awfully close to happening”
What a loser
A R S E N A L
The Premier League is the Holy Grail for Liverpool. The Champions League is the Holy Grail for Arsenal. As much as it would be deeply satisfying to win the Premier League, I think Arsene would leave Arsenal a fully satisfied man with the Champions League.
It’s the only big club trophy he has yet to win. I can then see him take over the French job and try to win the World Cup as his last big challenge before he retires from management. Then he’ll come back to Arsenal as a special consultant. There-I just mapped out the rest of his life!!!
Arsene Wenger:
1987-88: Winner Ligue 1
1990-91: Coupe De France
1996: Emperor’s Cup, J-League Super Cup
1997-98: Premier League, F.A Cup
2001-02: Premier League, F.A Cup
2002-03: F.A Cup
2003-04: Premier League
2004-05: F.A Cup
2009-10: Champions League
2010-11: Premier League, Champions League
2012: European Championship
2014: World Cup
Oh, and he drops Diarra from the French squad and Sagna lifts the World Cup in 2014. Don’t worry, Wilshere lifts it in 2018.
@andyE
is that guy demented?
Or he was watching a different match from what we were watching?
ak, I’m sure he’s demented
The best part is he says Song gave away three or four retarded freekicks.
Well Song had 3 fouls in the entire game. Unless he means EVERY one of Song’s fouls is retarded. Or maybe he means that fouling is retarded.
Who knows huh?
Denilson and Sagna are only minor doubts.
Liverpool haven’t won the league since the unrated Alan Hansen left.
No worries for possible absence of Denilson in the starting line-up: according to many professional armchair managers, Denilson played only because either Nasri or Diaby was unavailable and his goal was just a fluke.
Imagine how successful Liverpool would have been if Paisley, Fagan, or Dalglish had possessed the penetrating judgement of Ole Gunner, and had noticed what a piss-poor defender Alan Hansen was. That must go down as one of the great missed opportunities of football. Instead of saying, “sorry, Alan, I don’t rate you as a player or a man,” they let him play 620 games, thereby giving him the false belief that he knows something about defending.
AndyE, that guy should just top himself now.
His biggest fallacy is to suggest that Denilson and Song were both playing as ‘DM’s. The term DM is a total over-simplification when it comes to Denilson who is a many-faceted box-to-box player, who can be asked to play to various plans, i.e. sit deep, or push up, cos he’s a grown-up, unlike that retarded delusional depressive.
AndyE
Its hard for the Wenger/Denilson/Song/Bendtner… haters to eat humble pie.
The shame about their criticism is, former greats like Vieira and Henry were in the same boat at 1 point in their careers at Arsenal. They were not great from the start in any respect.
Den, Song, and Nikki are definately on their way to greatness, Wenger nurturing them at such a young age will put them in even better shape than our former crop. Its a shame some can’t sit back, admire his work, and support. Instead everyone seems to have a chip on their shoulder that we have had to watch and wait for these youngsters.
I think its fascinating, and im very proud seeing all of them lineup for the Arsenal… and most importantly thumping teams like Everton 6-1.
It is also hilarious how some ‘experts’ are now saying Everton didn’t turn up! I think 1st game of the season everyone is fired up, we just put out their fire very very effectively.
Proof that Arsenal do not have the sole rights to complete dickheads as supporters: (from yesterday’s Fiver email)
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“While I was in the pub one night I was saying how I thought we’d win [Big Cup] next season and my friend turned to me and said ‘if you’re so sure why don’t you have it tattooed?’ He was obviously joking, so you can imagine his face when I turned around and said ‘OK then’” – supporter Kirk Bradley shows off his new ‘Manchester City 2011[Big Cup] Winners’ tattoo to the world. The fool.
YW
LimparAssist
What the Denilson and Song bashers fail to see is that Cesc will only come good when he has a strong basis beside him. The 2 goals on Saturday were down to the team functioning well, not only Cesc’s brilliance. Cesc excelled because Denilson and Song performed very well, like they have been doing for a while in fact.
It isn’t a revelation that Denilson and Song looked very good. Its just some fans fail to take notice of their less favourable players, instead they point fingers at them when no trophies are lifted. I would even say last season Cesc was no better than Denilson, but in our 4-3-3 all of them are starting to look equally alot better and comfortable.
The comment about Cesc needing to track back… was also very funny because i thought a midfielder’s job was to help the team attack and defend? especially CM’s. Also Denilson helps Cesc going forward, same as Song who occasionally joins in. Why shouldn’t Cesc track back!? if he didn’t i would be very worried about his commitment and role in the team.
Well said ChrisGoona, they make me proud too
Regarding formation: if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Even if there’s no Fabregas or Denilson, we’ll take Celtic apart without leaving 3rd gear.
Phil Scolari isn’t really in a mural at Stamford Bridge is he?
Please, please say that’s true….
Denilson is everywhere, constantly on the move, constantly offering an option for defenders, attackers, and fellow midfield.
Maybe Denilon will be saved to play all the PL games where the pace is quicker and having that option, that constant way out of trouble, is most necessary.
It’ll be interesting to see how we look with Diaby in the side.
My team prediction for tonight
– - – - – - – Alumnia – - – - – - –
Eboue – Gallas – Verm – Clichy
– - – Cesc – Song – Diaby – - -
Bendtner – - – RvP – - – Arshavin
I think Wenger isn’t quite willing to throw Eduardo in just yet, but if one of our front 3 are to be rested he may get the nod though.
Diaby i think will start, even though Ramsey came on and done well against Everton Wenger has a track record of favouring Diaby away in Europe. It is has proved a success I might add. Diaby will excel this season in a 4-3-3 my opinion is. Cesc should play if fit enough, he is vital to the team.
Eboue being the straight swap for Sagne if def out. Not a bad replacement.
LimparAssist
Thats a very important part of Denilson’s game that helps our team alot to function at its best. While replacing Denilson with Diaby will give us a bit more height and surging runs forward from the lanky frenchman.. we will lose Denilson’s workrate and option he gives others over the pitch. If hes injured we have no choice of course.
Maybe Wenger expects us (or we are being forced to) have less possession and hit them on the break more?
Ramsey is another box-to-box midfielder, i just doubt wenger will throw him in just yet in such a big game. If he does it will show alot of faith in the young lad.
None of our players will expect an easy match. At the beginning, every match is hard. If, at the end, we come away with a convincing victory, we can say we had an easy match, and begin preparing for the next hard match.
“Phil Scolari isn’t really in a mural at Stamford Bridge is he?”
No. He’s the star of a mosaic floor under the urinals.
Quick! Somebody tell me what’s wrong with this article? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/arsenal/6047337/Arsenals-morale-boosted-by-Emmanuel-Adebayor-and-Kolo-Toure-departures.html
If we batter them the media over here will just use the excuse of the SPL being shite again. Building up to the game though their perception is we should have a hard game. So either way, they will play our performance down. It doesn’t bother me really because the longer teams fail to see the quality we possess, the more teams we will turn over.
West Ham are supposedly going to sign Chamakh for £7 million. I can’t understand that. What was our offer? I thought it was about the same. Despite Bordeaux’s claims that they wanted to look after their player, they seem to be planning, as Muppet would say, to fook him with a 12-incher.
Ok Poliziano.
But there are many ‘greats’ I don’t rate. Terry Butcher. Alan Hansen. Even our own David Platt. More recently, David Beckham and Gary Neville. I personally think they won’t have thrived in true footballing culture. Could those jokers have played for Barcelona? Or Ajax? If they were Dutch or Brazilian would they come near the national team?
I guess there’ll be a time in 15 years that we’ll argue about how John O’Shea and Darren Fletcher must have been great players since they played so many games for a dominant Man United team.
Ole – history is always written by the winners.
I suspect all of our doubts for tonight will start as there is so much riding on this tie. SSN just love being dramatic.
I`ll be very surprised if West Ham get Chamakh for £7M. I reckon Bordeaux are bluffing & expect a deadline day deal at The Emirates.
I don’t know whether Alan Hansen is a great. He is more successful than any of the players you mention. Only Beckham and Neville come close. In 14 years at Liverpool, Hansen played 620 games for Liverpool. In 17 years, Neville has played 380 games for man utd. Hansen was therefore far more important to Liverpool than Neville has been for utd. Beckham has been an excellent player. Only you and AIC think otherwise.
Cannot wait for tonights game,i really think that if we can quieten the home fans down and dont let Celtic build a head of steam it will be quite comfortable( similar to th 5-2 in Fenerbache)this Celtic side is not in the same class as the team which has done well at home in europe recently,no Nakata,Hartson,Larsson(thank god!)etc.As for the constant knocking of Bendtner,Song,Denilson etc i have just come to the conclusion that some fans genuinley do not understand what they are watching! For instance,first goal v Everton Denilson got a great strike and the plaudits and Cesc the assist but who really made the goal? Bendtner,he took the ball on his chest,held up play and the showed fantastic pace, touch and vision to beat two players before laying the ball to cesc to tee up Denilson.If you dont understand football rather than watch something you cannot comprehend why not take up something less mentally challenging!
Arsenal forever!
QoS,
So it is, so it is. Wenger has never won a major European title….
I’m probably totally wrong but there was something amiss with the whole Chamakh thing. Wenger tret it differently than any other dealing before it. Im not sure he ever made a bid, I think he does want him but is playing a game to get him for cheap on deadline day or for free at the end of his contract.
I don’t think we particularly need him if this formation is succesful as it seems to be on first impression it leaves 3 attacking spots for RvP, NB, Eduardo, Walcott, Arshavin, Vela to fill. Not to to mention the youth we have coming through. Obviously some of those lads can play in the centre, but we are looking to have an abundance there to.
My only worry with this new formation is when we play some old school tactics with out-and-out wingers we may be to narrow to cover and Sagna and Clichy will have to be on there game.
When debating among ourselves, we would do well to remember what Wenger said:
“I do not want to make a point, I want to do what is right for the Club, the team and help this team achieve success,” said Wenger
For us fans of AFC, doing right means supporting Arsenal during games. Let’s not waste energy debating about Alan Hansen.
els
That is a fair point about wingers getting at Clichy and Sagna.
As we saw against Everton though: despite us playing 3 central midfielders in Cesc, Den, and Song.. you would have thought that left a bit of room on the wing for the opposition, but with Nikki B and Arshavin dropping when we aint got position we were very compact and organised.
I know its only one game, but this formation is looking pukkah! I know also we could be a bit light at the back at times this season if Wenger cant find another defensive player, but with Rosicky, Nasri, Walcott, Wilshire, Ramsey, Vela all yet to have an impact we are in for a treat this year.
I can see us taking the lot. Just hope he gets another defensive player with quality.
Poliziano,
Every great team had at least 4 relative donkeys. I am not in denial about where Alan Hansen’s accomplishments place him. I even call him one of the greats. But I never rated him as a footballer. But it’s just my opinion. It doesn’t have much weight.
David Beckham: What was that quote from Bestie again? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/618154.stm
Exactly how I see the panty filler.
The last time this guy had a fantastic game (man of the match performance in a consequential game) was 2000? or was it 2001? Before then maybe 1999. Even Bentley turns up more frequently than that.
els
i agree cause the new formation will make sagna and clitch run with the ball more which is good cause it will make our attacking more effective but they have to run back and defend as well
Also, I won’t even deny it’s personal. I dislike them personally, and detest what they stand for in football. Hansen for being an exemplar of the “we’re crap but we’ll scrap” mentality, and Beckham for superficiality sold as awesomeness. Seriously if the guy was born Brazilian the height of his aspirations would have been Shaktar Donetsk.
I know Wenger seems to rate him as a footballer. But even Wenger doesn’t sway me on this one.
Chris i’m really getting giddy with excitement like a little schoolgirl. The formation and squad the players fulfilling there promise. The fact that Moyes thought we bullied them was fantastic. The defence playing as a unit, attacking in numbers, closing down in numbers. All good.
And yeah would love to see another 1 or 2 signings of a steeley nature come into the squad either that or a good utility man. The thing with that is who will lose there playing time? I think that was why I was all for an aged player like vieira who could come in when needed and finish his career on a high where he belong, but long term the existing players will retain the posiition after a great example being set.
Would love either Hangelannd, Upson or Kompany. But understand that none are likely and somebody that joins could very well have not had there name mentioned with us before.
The Wenger way
OK Hansen im not to fussed about but Beckham for me despite his mancyness is a truly great player.
Beckham? What’s he done in his career? What’s he made anybody win?
I just remember that game against Columbia when he played them himself cos the rest of the team played shit, he dragged us into that competition. Just his passing nobody can touch it, but I know what youre getting at he hasn’t won anything personally but he is prone to good performances.
Beckham has always been a great player. You don’t perform week in week out for Real Madrid, AC Milan, Man Utd and be shit do ya?
Come on seriously, give the guy some credit. Even now hes moved to his 4th different league in his career and is still performing. I know its a crappy league in the States compared to others, but you got to hand it to Beckham. You still see him making amazing passes, crosses, scoring great free kicks..
Is it his fault he become so popular PR wise? Stop the jealousy ppl
Well said chris mate. He plays the PR game but as long as he cuts it on the pitch it’s ok with me. If he is at your club he brings attention and where there is attention theres cash. Just look when he trained with us, imagine the plebs buying £millions of shirts, if we signed him now even.
His style of play hasn’t suffered greatly with age he was never fast but by god he can ping them balls about.
“Life is about talent, attitude and opportunity.” Arsene Wenger
Arsene is a quality life coach as well as football coach. A philosopher too. This quote has made my day, I’m working at about 30% higher efficiency today than I was yesterday – just like our midfield this season.
BTW I think we should all start practicing modesty, cautious optimism and humility. It’s been a while and I’d hate to see us become as bilious and arrogant as the Mancs about our impending streak of glory, victory and silverware.
As AW says, it’s way too early for ‘I told you so’s. Hold it down!
Limpar if we look back to posts of a week ago, I think we’d be able to see the definition of fickle, still we got to get our highs when we can.
Beckham sums up everything that is bad about the England football team.He has never done anything in a major tournament.Its says who bad the England team is when he gets picked while playing in the original Mickey Mouse league.Just ask Sir Alex if he regrets selling him and buying Ronaldo?
Donaldinho, Football is a team game and the fact that england loses in competitions is never one persons fault. Even the game against Argentina.
Beckham does a good job and I think Sir Alex would love the prospect of a team with Ronaldo and Beckham.
Anyway i’m not spending all my time defending BECKHAM! i just think he’s good is all. Everyone is entitled to there opinion even if YOUR wrong. Haha
RE: Beckham. How Many Players can say they have played for Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan. Case Closed.
That was just a joke mate. At the end there don’t take exception
Faron I havn’t
Someone was denying Denilson, Ramsey and Diaby had put on any muscle over the summer the other day. I don’t know how their eyesight is, how their visual memory is, or whether they know what they’re looking at – but each of those three have become significantly stronger over the summer, and as a result they are now physically bigger.
It’s an obvious and vital stage in their development as footballers and as athletes.
When Wenger talks about 20 years olds improving 30% in a year, he’s not just talking about experience, tactics, touch and mental maturity – he’s talking too about physical maturity; strength, stamina and recovery rates, over 90 minutes and game by game over the course of a season.
We’re going to start reaping the rewards of these qualities this season – we’ve already seen it with the out-muscling of Everton – so it’s important not to dismiss it.
LimparAssist
Yes it is way too early, 37 games left and a champions league qualification to get through. When the day comes when I can lay down a few “I told you so’s” – Im gonna enjoy every minute of it!!
I wouldn’t call it arrogance, just a sense of revenge for all the stick we have taken, and our boss and players have taken. I’m sure we will throw it all back in their faces. Most importantly though we win a trophy for ourselves and our fine club. I will be supporting them all the way in the hope they can do it!
Out muscling everton a fairly physical team to say the least is something we couldn’t have dreamed of last season so that proves the point. I youtubed Diaby because someone mentioned the size of his frame and his kneck, it was massive.
They are bulking up.
I think its natural for the young men to do a bit of filling out, I think PZ was just mocking the assertion made by one or two that over the course of six weeks those previously considered by some as weaklings were suddenly being touted as the second coming of Hulk Hogan.
Good point, LimparAssist. I hope the Celtic team haven’t spent the weekend in the gym, or we could find ourselves out-muscled tonight.
Chris,
I will be insufferable to all but gooners if we lift something this season. Modesty and humility be damned! Until then I will be enjoying our wonderful football game-by-game, pass-by-pass. Practising cautious optimism as I go, along with infinitely silly superstitions.
I’m wearing a smart white crew neck with glorious red cannon on the chest today, walked to work without a jumper in strong winds thinking, if I don’t represent, Celtic will suprise us. Completely illogical when it comes to matchdays.
I’m also slightly worried Scott Brown’s going to try crocking Cesc in the first 2 minutes.
When Mowbray says he has a secret plan, I’m hoping it isn’t to steam into us from kick off and start taking chunks out of our heroes as souvenirs – festooning their clan huts with our entrails. And making a month’s supply of haggis out of Diaby.
Another point on the Everton game – the pundits said that when we go to Stoke will be interesting to see how we deal with long balls and a more physical opposition.
Hmmmm if they watched the game they would have seen Everton lofting it up to Cahill and Fellaini at every opportunity.
As for Everton not being one of the more pyhsical teams??? very very strange, I’d rather go Stoke than to Everton, i think every Premiership manager, player or even fan will agree.
Chris is that what they say. Everton not physical. We dealt with that and the high balls. It’s all they had and when it didn’t work they went to bits.
The pundits/sceptics are being shown as the clueless ***** that they are.
I’m sure there’s some conspiracy against us. I watched footyfocus and on the round-up for all the teams, wherever possible the clip of the team being talked about was the clip of them scoring against us. After that Hansen went on to Liverpool are the best Arsenal are the worstest.
Well according to that esteemed football pundit Alan Partridge,
“The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding in this case is a football. Eat my goal.”
Hansen is saying that because he is scared.
What was the skinny with the Van der Vaart rumours at the weekend, utter tosh or any truth?
Would love to sign him, Kompany, Hangelannd.
But you know just to sit on the bench until one of our first teamers is injured hahahaa. Come on!
Back of the Net!
Its not a bad thing that the media likes to perpetuate myth about Arsenal…that we are too small, that we conceed at set plays, it might mean that lazy opponents are sucked into thinking that’s how to beat us.
What’s more concerning is when lazy Arsenal fans believe the myth too!
LimparAssist
The way we bullied Everton I ain’t that worried if they do play a physical game and attempt to ‘take chunks’ out of us.
After all it is the Champs league, the officials will not allow such fouling to commence like we see in the Premiership.
ChrisGoona,
Let the pundits make these socalled physical sides believe that we’re weak and shy away from physical contest. I think teams like Stoke will get their nasty surprise this season.
Here’s what the manager of Everton had to say after the game on Saturday:
“For me the disappointing thing was that I thought Arsenal bullied us and pushed us around,” Moyes said. “They won more contests and nudged us off the ball. You wouldn’t have known Arsenal for that. You’d probably say that was Everton.”
I believe we made Everton look bad, when we stepped up a gear after 25 minutes. They were pretty decent initially.
QoS
Thats what annoys me, I couldn’t care less about all them muppets writing us off and claiming Liverpool will win the league! Haaaa. They more or less all look like idiots in the end. Its when our own fans start believing their crap and has an affect on our club/team.
If Liverpool even challenge I will admit I was wrong, but my prediction is they will struggle to make the top 4. They have the worst squad out of top 4, and City, Villa, Everton, and even Spurs (dare I say it!) look like they can take the sword to em.
Ateeb
True, they had a pretty strong lineup out like Moyes said. If Fellaini’s header wasn’t cleared off the line could have swung the momentum around. But even when we was winning 2 or 3 – 0 you could see we was playing a good team. The tempo was high, challenges were flying in all over the place. We just won the battle, and won our right to play football. Most importantly we were very clinical and efficient going forward.
Vermaelen likes to jump about alot, really like the look of him. He got stuck in from the off, very impressed. Like a few people mentioned after we signed him – he looks like he enjoys defending.
I put him in my fantasy team today! straight swap for Sagna, can see Verm getting us a few more goals this season.
I think he enjoys physical encounters as well. In fact he said so after the Everton match.
ohhhh the injury goddess we appease you… accept this offerings
Nothing we can sacrifece to stay injury free? If we can get these players to paly at least 70% of the games… boy we onto something here. I just hope that the injuries on Cesc, Dennilson and Sagna are “Wenger” injuries to distabilize the opposition…
if verm is the rock he looks like then it has an effect on players in front of him, it’s a mental thing song and denilson are more asured and that inturn frees cesc and that well everton know the rest. Boom!
is it only me or does he resemble Vidic?
physically, not the cheat attribute…
arsenalkabisa don’t worry were just gunna whip out all the lads wisdom teeth ala van Persie, hey ho an injury free squad.
It’s just you, arsenalkabisa. None of our players will ever resemble anyone from man utd.
Gunner blog has some youtube clip, just before Cesc’s second goal, after Almunia fed Cesc, TV was screaming at everyone to move forward and keep a high line.
Massive defender that one. Not a converted defender, or a converted striker or a converted goal keeper. Just a defender.
Who seems to have very good heading ability at both ends of the field
I can think of a few so called supporters I won’t mind getting sacrificed for this noble cause.
The way I see it, after going 3-0 down, everton didn’t park the bus. If they had done so the media might have forgiven them, and might have actually given the credit to Arsenal. OR they could have stuck to their stance, and come up with others excuses not to praise Arsenal. Either way, I don’t think we should really give a f***, what they say. Doesn’t bother me at all, anymore.
I agree with Ateeb. Who gives a ****?
T.V doesn’t look like Vidic. I don’t think he’s ugly in any way, which seems to be a pre-requisite these days for good CBs. Yet again, Arsene goes againt the norms, and shows CBs don’t have to be ugly, to play good.
Els,
“if verm is the rock he looks like then it has an effect on players in front of him, it’s a mental thing song and denilson are more asured and that inturn frees cesc and that well everton know the rest.”
Song and Denilson, looked assured in the unbeaten run as well. That’s one of the reasons we have the luxury to call 21 games as unbeaten. No two ways about it.
You might want to look into the creative players stepping up against Everton. Cesc didn’t play as well as he can, last season. Call a spade a spade. He always had the luxury to go forward, even last season when he returned from injury. He’s on fire right now, and the pre-season has done wonders for the team to gel together, and know each other games. Hence, 6 goals.
LimparAssist @12.07 – Absolutely agree. I’ve been beating on about this point for ages. The improvement that any sportsman undergoes from ages 18 to 22 is immense. You only have to look at Andy Murray – physically, mentally, tactically.
Denilson, Song, Bendtner are NOT going to be outmuscled in any games this year. Ramsey is quite tall anyway and Gibbs is superfast, like Clichy, so he will compensate with pace.
@els
big haha… the irony of having a young squad. To the dentist then y’all.
@PZ Wholly get what you saying…
just the same way that i tend to look like vela…
Ateeb don’t let that comment make you think im a doubter. But I can tell you from last season the teams confidence could be improved, that was my point. Last season on occasion with 2 in midfield the onis was often on trying to brake many things down, and attack often from a deep position.
With the game against Everton the team is flowing and the Attacking play was more sustained. It’s only one game and Vermaelen is only one man but the teams assurance in a regular defender will undoubtedly have a positive effect. We struggled to maintain a regular Defensive partnership last season.
The unbeaten run was great and Song and Denilson worked damned hard im a fan of their work, again with Verm they can POSSIBLY concentrate on playing there own game breaking the play in midfield and playing in the offensive players. Call a spade a spade the unbeaten run had a few draws and with cesc attacking we leaked a few goal, but we scored more because of his play. Now with this squad and formation we should be able to have our cake and eat it.
There’s more to come from cesc’s over all game but don’t knock him he scored two and had assists.
What you talking about when you tell me to look into the creative players??? I did thanks.
Theres no two ways about it saturday was an improvement on last seasons often great team.
how in the world do you park the bus when you are faced with RVP, Arshavin, Cesc, Edwardo?
The only strategy that might work is to hoof the ball as far away from your defence as soon as possible.
Problem is the ball keeps coming back via TV and Denilson…
@els,
I understand what you are saying. Its what Wenger calls, “playing for one another”
According to the Mirror Benitez has been told there is only a £1.5 million transfer budget, if true everyone please watch out for toys that have been violently thrown from his pram.
arsenalkabisa yeah thats it why didn’t I think of that.
Didn’t see you as a doubter.
We conceded less goals after december. We were short of creative players, as most were injured. Which led to a few draws.
I didn’t knock Cesc, just said he wasn’t up to his usual high standards last season. Returning from injury to me is the only possible explanation. And he played brilliantly on saturday, just as Denilson and Song did most of the last season.
Ateeb i’m relishing the thought of Cesc and Arshavin together for as much of this season as possible for two fellahs who have there wisdom teeth.
How many games did they have together? Not that many. It’s going to awesome.
Els,
I agree with you. I think RVP might chip in a bit as well:)
RvP and Eduardo going to be banning them in with the likes of Cesc and Arshavin creating for them.
Well, well, today is the day we play Brother Walfrid’s bhoys, and, by jingo, I believe we will beat them. Actually not by jingo, but by playing better football.
….Arsenal….
Sould we consider Celtic to be a Scottish club or an Irish club. Bit of both I think?
…Arsenal….
It will be difficult for Celtic. If they try to play proper football, they know they can’t match us. No one can, really, as the last three seasons has shown. On the other hand, parking the bus won’t work either, with so many creative players on the pitch, we’re bound to score a few.
Ateeb
Makes me wonder what this marvellous plan is which they are going to try and use. I might be over confident here, but I can’t see anything over than an Arsenal win what ever tactics or way they try to play. Yes they have the backing of their supporters which will encourage them. Just can’t see them matching the quality we have.
There are an estimated 1 million Celtic supporters in the US. So perhaps we should consider it to be an American club.
Gangs of New York stuff I guess, and latterly the NYPD.
Celtic will no doubt come at us with everything and it will really be a good test of our teams strength and grit. If we come through it with a win the pundits will have to start accepting what we can do.
3 – 1 to the Arsenal today. RvP nets a free kick, Arshavin picks up an errant bounce in the box and nets one, Super Nick off a corner.
@Ateeb
can forfeiting a match be allowed? If so they can decide just not to turn up… I think its the only option that is less depressing from their point of view…
Are they all going to show us their arses before they kick off, do you think? Or have they stopped doing that now?
lol. frank.
Urggh Scotish arse. How repellant.
els
The pundits won’t be that easy to win over, if we continue smashing opponents they will feel extremely hurt by us proving their opinions and predictions wrong. So they will just continue to make bulls*it excuses that Celtic are an SPL team and are crap, Everton were suffering from the rumours of Lescott.
…
…
Later in the month if we crush the champions United, I bet a whole load more of excuses will come about before they publicly accept our quality in our squad.
Who out-muscled (as everyone keeps saying) Song or Denilson or Bendtner last season? Song is a strong player who loves to test his strength against others. Defenders always find Bendtner’s size hard to manage. James says Denilson gets “thrown around like a bitch,” but who else thinks so? Denilson is in fact also a strong player, but without the physical presence of Song or Bendtner.
Even if “the improvement that any sportsman undergoes from ages 18 to 22 is immense,” Denilson, Song, and Bendtner have been aging at a constant rate all their lives. They haven’t aged 4 years over this summer. Most sports persons falter in their late teens. Those who make it to the peak of their sports are the ones who do indeed continue into their early twenties the improvements that they have made throughout their careers up to then. A single example proves nothing. Nevertheless, the case of Andy Murray proves precisely that improvements from 18-22 cannot be taken for granted, but must be worked for. Murray has continued to improve, and has therefore left behind the majority who have stagnated.
QoS
We’ve had quite a few as Prime Ministers so we should used to them by now…
YW
Not to mention certain MOTD pundits!
Did Scottish teams show their arses before European matches in the past?
@CG
Arsenal will never be accepted ala barcelona.
we have ideologies that don’t appeal to many people. and not footbalisticaly.
Many people don’t appreciate a young man out doing an older person. Its disrespectful in certain cultures actually.
Many people also prefer excesses and being in debt, than having the discipline to plan…
Last year Arsenal won 6-0 in the Carling Cup. But in the next game they lost 3-0 in premiership. Celtic will kick Arsenal out of Champions League.
@CG. comment on goal by a fan.
I think these are the ones that need to be turned around first, then the newspapers…
Make no mistake the Celtic fans can generate atmosphere.
Back in the 1980s a work colleague and I went to a European game at Celtic Park. Celtic were playing a German team; I can’t remember who.
My colleague was a Manc fan and he couldn’t believe the atmosphere that night and said the Celtic players must have felt 10 ft tall so inspiring was the noise they created.We were in an area of the ground known as “the jungle” which was the terracing opposite the tunnel.
Of course even if you feel that tall you still have to be able to play football; Celtic didn’t and lost the game. By the end of the game my colleague and I were ducking to avoid beer cans full of piss being thrown down from behind us.
That aside, I’d just like to say that I expect us to win the tie tonight I am so confident. A tight disciplined performance should see us win 2-0 in tonight’s first leg. That will be good enough but we’ll put the tie to bed by scoring again in the first 25 minutes at the Grove.
May I ask who the taster was who determined the cans were full of piss?
Of course piss is considered a health-food nowadays.
Put it in a cool-bag, and perhaps Frank can sell it on his stall. Call it eau de vie.
Some of the comments on here are laughable.I remember the same things that were being said before the Man Utd semi.
Yes i believe we will win but show Celtic show respect.Imagine if we had to cope in the CL with the budget Celtic have done
Also Arsenal cannot be accepted as a Barcelona unless they win the Big one
Call it jungle folkore if you will!
Back in the 80′s things had improved at Celtic Park; rather than piss down the back leg of the person in front they started pissing into empty beer cans. Thirsty groundsmen tidying up the terracing learnt the hard way when clearing the piss full beer cans left behind on most matchdays. This was a great improvement on the previous leg-pissing practice obviously but things did take a bit of backward step if the Celts lost!
They’re ******* animals in Scotland!
Jay Emmanuel Thomas will be on loan for just one month!
He gets to drive down to Blackpool, get to visit the dressing room, see the training ground, the Stadium and then it’s back to London.
Lehman is hanging up his gloves at the end of this season apparently. Crazy Crazy ba*d
Lehman….now that’s a player i miss……..!!
Yup he was a mental but in a good way.
We’re on SS2 tonight aren’t we?
I’m looking forward to getting my ’89 retro away on, drinking some nice cold Guiness and watching the demolition job unfold.
I started out at 2-1. Over the course of the day that has sky-rocketed to 4-1.
Wow, that escalated fast!
As Ron Burgundy might say.
Limpar I hope Arsene has told the lads “you’ve got to keep your head on a swivel in a cockfight”.
On ITV1 too.
lol @ els. Quality.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-plugging-defensive-gaps-a-priority
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/dailybung/6048102/Arsenal-and-Celtic-meet-as-equals-while-Liverpool-are-less-equal-than-some.html
I don’t know what to think of Celtic. Their home record is impressive. Of course we always seem to win in those places with impresisve home records where English teams usually struggle.
I just dont know enough about them or how strong they are.
Woe is me…Chelsea just signed a 6ft 4 Serbian who can pass. We persist with 5 ft 3 crabs. We have no spine.
WENGER OUT!!
ITV1 next week
Are there any Vermaelen songs yet?
Is there any more news on the injuries anyone
‘The Damien Duff Story’
A classic tale of hype-to-riches, to mags-from-chavs, to rags and cottaging…
At his Al Capone best, “he played under current Fulham boss Roy Hodgson, before moving to Chelsea for £17m in 2003″.
To his Father Dougal worst; he was last seen scoring “…an own goal at Aston Villa on the final day of last season as Newcastle were relegated from the Premier League after losing 1-0.”
Tragedy.
Pz
Ooh Tommy, Tommy
Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy
Ver-mae-len
Could work…
Or, (to rousing and powerful strains of Hey Jude, the la la la la bit…)
Weeee’ve got Tom..
Verrrr–mae-len
Verrr-mae-len
Weee do…
And for the ‘Hey Judey, Judey Judey Judey’ bit
Hey Tommy, Tommy, Tommy Ver-mae-len
After me…
laaaaaaa laaa laaa laa laa laaaa
laa laa laa laaaa
Tommmy!
Hope nobody plays the fucking bagpipes today. Diabolical instrument. A real assault on the senses.
Scottish arsepipes
Aye, laddie. And they can keep their Rabbie Burns to themselves as well.
Are Celtic the only team in Europe to play in white hoops?
Wearing a green shirt with white hoops is a dastardly trick. To the opposition it looks like the Celtic players are hoola hooping around the pitch. Mesmerizes them. Blatter and Platini should have this sort of thing banned.
QPR
A Tam O’Shanter is a bonnet, and Scottish men wear them. Scottish men wear bonnets. Pfffft…tsssss..hehehehehehe…nancyboys….HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
In Scotland, apparently they cry “gardy-loo” before they cast the contents of their chamber-pots from the windows. Worth bearing in mind.
Reading
- if you are to avoid bearing it on your face.
Oh yes, QPR wear white hoops. I think in QPRs case to the opposition it must look like Cyril Smith hooplaing down the wing. Not necessarily an unfair advantage.
Well obviously Reading,perrygroves. OK, apart from QPR and Reading, are Celtic the only team in the Scottish and English FAs towear white hoops?
http://www.plunderguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/keeley-hazell-football-shirt.jpg
Don’t think so, Frank.
Can’t find a European one either.
You see that is the thing about the Scots. You think they would shout ‘Piss coming out the window, watchout’…but no….’Gardyloo’…French. Since no-one walking under their windows is likely to be French, everyone gets pissed on.
In fact worse. Passersby are likely to think, ‘whats that I hear? Is it French? What does it mean?’..they look up with hands on their hips and wham…a whole bucketful of piss right in the kisser.
We are dealing with deeply unpleasant people here, and no messing.
Doncaster Rovers
Red and white. Nice.
ChrisGoona:
“The comment about Cesc needing to track back… was also very funny because i thought a midfielder’s job was to help the team attack and defend? especially CM’s. Also Denilson helps Cesc going forward, same as Song who occasionally joins in. Why shouldn’t Cesc track back!? if he didn’t i would be very worried about his commitment and role in the team.”
I totally agree. Denilson and Cesc play side by side. Song is really our only defensive midfield. Denilson and Cesc take turns pushing up through the middle and they take turns covering for one another. Cesc, however, has a free role and he’s allowed to drop back and organize from deeper. It’s not like he’s told to sit infront of the holding midfielder. Our midfield is pretty awesome actually. We have a holding midfielder who is good with the ball, we have a passing midfielder who can tackle well and we have the best passing midfielder in the league who isn’t afraid of the rough stuff. I think the midfield’s balance will get better and better as the season progresses.
Alright, alright, alright…but apart from QPR, Reading and Doncaster Rovers are Celtic the only team in the Scottish and English FAs wearing white hoops?
Not just piss, either, not with all that haggis being eaten.
Don’t think so, Frank.
Darlington are wearing black and white hoops this season.
Nobody eats haggis, they just fiddle around with it on their plate and push it to one side. Try to hide it amongst the nips, or in a nearby potplant. Nips are horrible too. Only the tatties can have any claim to being edible.
Oh fucking hell, not Darlington as well. Are there any fucking teams not wearing white hoops this season?
Bayern Munich 2008-9
http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/EMP-5872866.jpg
I am not sure those hoops go all the way round, perrygroves.
Let’s not get caught up in all this hoopla.
Sorry.
If the Scotch players show their arses, we’ll soon know if their hoops are white or not.
You got me there, Frank.
Anyway, I’m off to get blootered.
Come on you GUNNERS.
Lets face it the hoopla trick can only work with green shirts with white hoops. You need the green to merge with the background. The red, blue and black shirts with white hoops would only work on red, blue and black pitches respectively. However I am wondering if I have stumbled upon a secret society of hooped shirt collectors.
…Arsenal…
Intriguingly, Vermaelen has since discovered that Arsenal even studied the way he performed in training both for Ajax and Belgium. “He [the Arsenal scout] told me afterwards that he had hidden in the forest. I don’t know whether that was a joke,” said Vermaelen.
“That’s good. They know immediately what they have. Some players do their best in the match, but do not want to work on the training. They know here at Arsenal more about me than you might think. For example, I do not drink. That was very important.”
Good bless Arsene.
*God
Vermaelen will never have a good ol’ English belly like Rooney’s.
Yeovil Town wear green and white hoops too. Pulling the same crafty trick.
“You got me there, Frank.
Anyway, I’m off to get blootered.
Come on you GUNNERS.”
Or Perrygroves.
Theo was mocked by his England teammates for not drinking alcohol.
no wonder shouted “gardy loo” on the night I referred to above.
All I heard was German f***** b******s !!!!
meant no one not no wonder but I’m drinking already
So it turns out that Rangers and Celtic would be in the top eight in the Premier League.
Thanks for the link Maria. This line about Liverpool’s transfer budget is a classic.
“Even Ryan Shawcross of Stoke is beyond them”.
Shawcross is the poor man’s Skirtel and Skirtel is the poor man’s Vidic….
And Vidic is the poor man’s Vermalean.
perrygroves.
I saw that picture that said Bayern Munich. Are you sure it wasn’t from one of those nasty German bukkake videos? You might get moderated.
Nice one, Atteb but I think Vidic is the ugly man’s Vermaelen.
oops, sorry Ateeb not Atteb
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8204266.stm
It appears Dixon agrees with us on Liverpool.
Vermaelen is much better looking than Vidic. He also doesn’t look psychotic Rhino on the rampage.
Lagooner@6:39
Man, that’s just plain naaasty!
Don’t like judging a player on one game but wasn’t it Aquilani who came on as a sub for Roma against us last season and just hit a succession of through balls straight to Almunia? I’m sure he’s a quality player, but with his injury record I can see this being a bust for Liverpool.
So far in 2009, you have Man City spending about 40 million on Adebayor and Toure, Liverpool spending about 36 million on Aquilani and Glen Johnson and Arsenal spending about 25 million on Arshavin and Vermaelen. Wenger out!
sorry Pauley, but I couldn’t resist!! Look at Ribery getting excited in the left hand corner. His teammates insist that he’s the last man in line!
Bukkake is the noun form of the Japanese verb bukkakeru (ぶっ掛ける, to dash or splash water),[8] and means “To dash”, “splash” or “heavy splash”.
Not sure what you mean, lagooner.
Might have just been a case of shouting “gardy-loo”, too.
same team as Saturday
Arseblog confirms we’re unchanged from Saturday.
thanks perrygroves.
I now know I can count on you to raise the level of discourse more quickly than I can lower it.
Glenn freakin Hoddle and Jamie freakin Redknapp commenting on an Arse game.
They’re taking the piss, aren’t they?
The morons are still going on about Denilson and Song eh?…
This is silly but I’d like to hear them talk about some other sports…
Maybe they can talk about Muhommed Ali…
“He sucked…he was always dancing about, scared to take a punch. Always ducking, and slipping punches, and moving about; he sucks at close quarter brawling. He throws 50 jabs a round because his punches are too weak to do any real damage. He gets lucky with his poncy counter-punching style. He gets mucled around the ring because he too weak to stand his ground.”
Quite a few blogs are now reporting that Cesc, Denilson and Sagna have all been passed fit. Should be the same line up as Everton then.
Up the Arsenal!
same bench too?
Sky commentary are saying it’s an unchanged side from Saturday. Richard (the gibbon) Keyes hasn’t mentioned Manu once yet either, promising.
mannone, silvestre, eboue, gibbs, ramsey, diaby, eduardo
no wilshere! out with Wenger, he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel-popup/sleague
a good stream for anyone interested…
2-0 to The Arsenal!
If anyone has a good link please post it up!!
Gunner expat i can’t see anything coming up??
hey maria,
try this…your bound to find something that works:
http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=45940&part=sports
the other one seems to be going up and down…keep the page open and it should start automatically..
http://www. myp2p. eu/broadcast.php?matchid=45940&part=sports
Try this…bound to find something that works..
must be one on here.
http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=45940&part=sports
I am on there but can’t seem to find anything.
If someone could post a link to a good stream it would be much appreciated.
Can’t wait for this, if Wilshere can dismantle Rangers then who knows what the seniors will do to Celtic!
I should learn to use my eyes, cheers for the already posted links.
http://www.justin.tv/watchlive_3
Excellent podcast…very reasonable conversation regarding Arsenal…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/audio/2009/aug/17/football-weekly-podcast-arsenal-neil-warnock-phantom-goal
fooking hell…see that Celtic crowd
These guys are very funny…but also very knowledgeable.
God I hate that f*cking dirge.
Celtic fans singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’? What a let down!
I’m just going to spend the next 120 mins thinking good thoughts about Silvestre just in case he has to come on.
Go Arsenal!!!
Thanks PZ
Someone help in need a feed!!!
Maria, try rioja direct. Do a google search for it, then scroll down until you find Arsenal matches. It’s worked for me before.
I can’t find it!!!
How is the game going?
0-0-pretty even. 35 mins gone.
I think this game is tailor-made for Eduardo to come on in the 2nd half.
http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=45940&part=sports
go to espn china sopcast.
here you go Maria…
http://livevss.net/watch/Celtic_vs_Arsenal.php
iraqgoals is live and adthe.net
Arsenal online claim he isn’t on the bench
boys of defending admirabley!
still 0-0…lots of hard tackling
haha deflection…gallas gets the goal!!
goallllll
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLL!
Fabregas shot, Gallas deflection!
YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
GALLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS
1 to the Arsenal!!
Free kick from 35 odd yds…layed off by RvP, smashed in by Fabregas via gallas’ back in to the net!!
Maria-pretty sure Eduardo’s on the bench.
Gallllllas!!!!
What a tease modern technology is. From the moment the ball left Cesc’s foot, to the moment it found the net, my stream stopped and started about 15 frickin times.
Sunderland up 1-0 over Chelsea!
@ lagooner
“We’ve just heard that there has been a change on the Arsenal bench. There’s no Eduardo – but Jack Wilshere is on there.”
wooow
great news
Chelsea 73% possession.
Vermalean has put in some excellent tackles. Surely, the best player on the pitch so far.
i meant abt sunderland NOT eduardo and Wilshere
hope eduardo isn’t injured :s
ok-thanks. I hope he’s just taking it easy with Eduardo. It would be a real shame if he keeps dropping out for weeks at a time. Nice to have Wilshere to come in, though.
Anyone else think Song looks tired?
Vermaelen, touch wood, is a real fighter……
hehe
No OG it’s just his look. Very deceptive.
Yeah!! Some luck comes our way. This has been a tough match so far but the team has been playing well.
Ateeb, Vermaelen has been awesome! Song has been superb in the middle of the park too.
I think I heard the commentator say that Eduardo got injured in the warm-up. Not cool.
OG
A little, perhaps, but he’s still puttinghim some strong challenges. I think he’s getting kicked around a bit too.
Folks this team is something very very special!
The play is just a beautiful sight! the defense is tight and aggresive and the attack is silky smooth!
my bad Maria, I was thinking wine! The site is: http://www.rojadirecta.org/
Gallas with another big, big goal. That man is incredible.
Paul N
Not so sure about how smooth we are in attack right now. A lot of errant passes, but Celtic is applying a lot of pressure.
Fantastic effort defensively from all the players, though.
let’s hope this shakes things loose. Celtic really have to come at us now! A 0-1 loss at home would not be what they imagined.
agree gris gris although Gallas was tryin to get out of the way! I loved the celebration, haha!
“Vermalean has put in some excellent tackles. Surely, the best player on the pitch so far.”
Agree Ateeb, this guy is something else!
geez, the team just looks so fluid!
I agree Gris Gris he is amazing…..loool…and here i was thinking i was going crazy!!!
Vermaelen looks the business
LA, Its not the best offensively but you can see that there is something special about the play even with the errant passes. Its like to you can expect a goal at any moment. well, thats the feeling I get.
“A lot of errant passes, but Celtic is applying a lot of pressure.”
So are we too, lagooner that’s the great thing about it.
Gallas scored last year around this time aswell didn’t he??
Also why does Hoodle look so damn pink….!!
So when needs to invest in a fake tan methinks.
I think Celtic are gonna be dog tired towards th end of the game, I see a few more goals in our future.
http://iraqgoals.net/ch5.html
this link is rather good!
Paul N
Agreed-we have dangerous players all over. The only player who looks a little off the boil is Van Persie. His touch is not what it usually is. Minor gripe though as he always looks like he can get into dangerous positions.
love that Arsenal are trying to kill them off. A little risky, but that’s why we love them!
LA, RVP to score then!
contract extension for Mr.Gallas please!
Vermaelen!!!
tryin to rough us up huh?
Denilson!!
OG
You’re right.
Song needs a rest. Ramsey needs to come on.
1st sub Diaby for Song…
Song does look a little tired, specially on the ball.
Yeh, Songs passing is way off.
Come on Song!
Gallas is the man!
brilliant defending by Gallas
Diaby for Arshavin-makes sense. Now let’s give song a rest. Ramsey on, please
Diaby comes on and changes the game in under one minute!!!!!
Caldwell has been chatting away at the ref and our player all night. Serves him right.
Goooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaalllll!
Nice play from Abou and Gael.
OG C***well!
so when is Mowbray pulling out his ‘cunning plan’?
Diaby must be one of the weak squad members.
Denilson looks fresh as a daisy. What an engine!
i think eboue will be in next, maybe NB52 out
my stream’s gone up the river!!
bit silly from Gael to get a yellow with 5 mins to go.
Still, our first yellow this season-not too bad after 175 mins.
chelsea 3-1 sunderland
one more will allow us to really rest some players in the return leg. Arsene may do it anyway.
sounds like the yellow was totally undeserved from the comments on the text commentary I am reduced to following the game on.
Excellent win!
Gris Gris
The yellow was marginal but the challenge wasn’t in a danger area, so he could have avoided the foul.
Vermaelen looks like the Verminator!
And suddenly Clichy is crossing well.
Doesn’t matter. We just witnessed Vermaelen prove all doubter’s wrong. Man of the match, performance. Was it Tony Adam, who was doubting his abilities?
The big question now is:
With Pompey on 22nd, Celtic on 26th and Man U on the 29th, who will Arsene rest before Man U and when is it wise to do it.
Maybe he’ll rotate some players for Pompey and then try to get an early kill against Celtic and take off a couple at half-time.
One thing is for sure, it would be good to have our key players fresh for the United game.
2-0 Great result and again we were’nt in top gear!!
I lost count of the number of times those twat Sky commentators mentioned just how bleedin unlucky Celtic were!!!
Shit! Arsenal didn’t even need to turn up to win! That nasty snide b*tch lady Luck did ALL the damage on her own!!! Poor old celtic, I feel sooooo sorry for em!
Song, Cesc, Gallas, Bendtner, Robin and Vermaellen (how classy is this dude???) all had fantastic games!
Well done lads! And top top support by the away Gooners! Gutted I wasn’t there.
Yesssssssssssss!!!!!!
Great result for us. A good performance defensively which will open up the eyes of some critics. Vermaelen has added a new dimension to our play going forward as well and his understanding with Gallas looked very good again.
Cesc’s passing was not his usual standard but he won a lot of balls for us as did Song and Denilson. Our play was overall a bit flat in the second half and Van Persie could’nt punish Celtic when a few chances came our way. Well played overall though and superb result!
Our away supporters are amazing!!! I could hear them singing thoughout the game.
Once again Song was a freakin Collossus! nBrilliant game by the young CamaGoonian!
Ateeb,
Did Donkey really doubt tv?
Hilarious to hear em bleating on about how unfortunate the 1st goal was! It was deflected, oh how unlucky for celtic and soooo jammy for Arsenal!
Shit! If Fat Frank had all his deflected goals taken off him, he’d have about 3!
Sky Sports commentater; “Gary, do you think that was unfair?”
“How cruel to lose to a deflected goal and a deflection…”
Can you believe these Sky twats?
DukeG;
Tony said he felt he wasn’t ready and a bit too short.
In Wenger we trust.
Gordon Stachan:
“Arsene Wenger has got a machine gun. Tony Mowbray has got a water pistol”.
LMAO
Alex, I think our play was good in the second half, we had them on the back foot the majority of the time. we were dominant, just didnt get the goals to show for all the hard work but that will come.
Strachan
In Adams we doubt.
At Adams we laugh.
Second game in and the team are pressing the opposition, not giving em a second on the ball and really defending as a team. Brilliant stuff. They keep this up and with the attacking talent we have, with more to come back… I can smell that Brasso!
To be fair, if I were a Celtic fan I’d completely feel hard done by. If you’re playing a team that much stronger than you are, you’d expect the luck if not to go for you, to at least not go against you.
Waa waa, hard luck. Hello Champions League.
Don’t let them get to your head, Spike.
We got two goals! If we get two in every match, we’ll be okay.
Strachan thought the Bendtner ball to hand was a cast iron penalty!
Spike,
I turned the volume off and watched the game without commentary in the second half. Listening to those twats can drive anyone insane.
On another note, ita disappointing that Chelski pulled off another second half win after trailing 0-1 after the 1st half. Was hoping they would stumble. They are’nt playing well and have got two favourable results.
LOL Muppet
Very professional performance today. Gallas and Vermaelen stood out.
Gallas is on the last year of his contract. Here’s hoping he can work something out with Arsene now that he and TV have started off so well.
Ateeb;
I know, I know.
Oh and big nose Phil Thompson said we would draw tonite!
Top 3 Big Nose, Top 3!!!
I’d love it…I’d love it for us to win the league just so every fukin pundit and hack can get proven wrong about Sir Wenger. we on this site never doubted the man but alot of so called gooners did along with the usual suspects.
We played them off the park & all you hear is how unlucky they were.
If Caldwell was half as good with his feet as he was with his mouth he wouldn`t have smacked one in his own net , ha ha. He`s a dirty tw&t too.
Excellent team performance with stand outs from Song, Denilson & TV. 8-1 so far this season, at two `fortresses` without RVP or AA getting a goal. Not bad for no hopers.
Shellsey look like a results-grinding machine. But it’s not mid-season yet. That’s when they usually fall apart.
Vermaelen being compared to Vidic already by Jamie Rednapp.
Damn cheek – comparing our players to mancs.
This team is the real deal. It is obvious to see that the players have gained the experience and maturity that so many were asking for. The players are full of confidence and are very focused. sweet!
Don’t worry, they don’t get to me. I just want to mention all the shite, so, later on, when the fools have to eat their words, we will have a permanent record of their crass stupidity in which to thrash em about the head within an inch of their sorry ass, lazy, cliche ridden lives!
PaulN,
I thought we played well in the first half but did’nt match the tempo we set in the 2nd. Celtic had more posession in the second half than we did atleast till the 80th minute.
No complaints though. We are looking tough and ready to go.
Scholars out there, what is the correct pronunciation of Vermaelen ?
Is it Ver-mar-lan ?
or Ver-may-lan ?
Ver-mah-len
Yes Alex, the team is on point!
Ver-mar-len
Did Redknapp think Vermaelen had a bad game?
Thanks Passenal !
LOL PZ.
Thanks OG.
Ole;
The Original Chavs have played two poor teams so far. I know, thats immaterial as they have 6 points out of 6, but they will fuck up. was being hyped up to the heavens after the chavs won their 1st 5 or 6 games. One hack (Henry “brown noser” Winter I think) called em the best team in history on the back of it!
lagooner,
Good point about Gallas’s contract. I dont know if he will sign one now though. He looks intent on getting a nice sign on fee somewhere next year atleast going by his interviews. Hope am wrong.
So thats two lucky results for us so far. Everton obviously had aa unhappy bunny in defence and tonight was two deflections.
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas made his pro debut tonight for Blackpool.
He is one (of many) I have high hopes for.
Oh dear, Gordon Strachan, let it go FFS!
Vermaelen really is excellent. I’ll stick my neck out and say he’ll be generally reckoned as the Premier League’s best defender by this time next year.
Did anyone else think that Song was just immense. For most of the game he seemed an impassible wall — and his distribution was top-class as well. That despite the rugby tackles Celtic kept throwing at him in the first half. If he keeps playing like this, we win the league. No doubt.
As for the rest the energy on defense when we give the ball away is impressive. Clearly that is what the team is focusing on most. We weren’t very precise going forward and sometimes seemed to stand around a bit too much, particularly after the second goal (I wanted a third!). But all in all, a really assured performance.
I think we look more mature and calm in possesion. We are more disicplined as well. Denilson was just awesome today..
Our passing was not so great tonight.
The stand out performers was… song, denilson,gallas, vermaelen and clichy
Alex;
What interviews? He was saying he is happy to stay, when he was supposedly going to Italy, or Marseille/PSG. Well, that was my take on it.
I think if he and the team have a good season, he may well extend his deal.
The travelling gooners held their own again tonight didn’t they?
We probably have the best away fans in the league and the worst home fans.
DukeG;
I am only going Saturday to get my free scarf!
You can hear the correct pronunciation of the Verminator’s name here: http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/thomas-vermaelen-completes-move-to-arsenal
NO BACK STABBING TOURE AND NO GREEDYBASTARDBAYOR ARSENAL ARE NOW A TEAM THAT PLAYS FOR EACH OTHER.TV COMPLIMENTS GALLAS PERFECTLY AND WHO THE FUCK IS GREEDYBAYOR
DukeGoonem,
If they can outsing the Parkhead crowd surely they can outsing our Emirates crowd? Whatcha think?
Great performance tonight. The players look like they have something to prove to all of the doubters. Vermaelen looks to be a colossus and Gallas seems to be happier, more settled as well. Cesc looks like he benefited from the lay off last season and Song, Denilson look to have grown. If we can avoid a CL hangover a week on Saturday we will have sent a statement to the rest of the league.
Can’t wait to watch Phil Thompson squirm on Soccer Saturday, especially with the media running stories that Liverpool are denying Benitez money to strengthen.
From the horses mouth ! Cheers OG.
Alex, Gallas has been pretty quiet interview wise all I’ve heard him say is that he is happy to be an Arsenal player and looking forward to the season. He has been very quiet since the loss of the captaincy and let his performances speak for him.
For someone who doesn’t know how to buy defenders according to populist wisdom, looks like Arsene might have lucked out with the Belgian midget!
These boys mean business this season – next up, Portsmouth.
Ole;
Charlie Nick thinks we need a GK too.
So, that’s it for sure then. We don’t need one!
Marc;
I called Song a Colussus tonight, so you have to find your own word to describe Vermeallen’s performance!
LOL Spike….No Charlie
What’s his case for us needing a keeper?
He doesnt think Fabianski is ready, yet.
Was Strachan sat in his full Celtic strip bedecked with scarves & badges ?
In all fairness, how is he supposed to give an impartial view on that game.
For balance I hope Charlie George does the return leg.
I like “Belgian midget.”
great result today.did not see the whole game but from what i saw celtic gave us a good fight but we came out on top .anyone else thing that maybe Wenger should rest Cecs this weekend and save him the return leg and utd next week.
I know it’s fashionable not to like Diaby….but he gives us so many tactical options.
Sawn-off stopper Thomas Vermaelen, the pint-sized Belgian.
Almunia was shit when he came to us and it is another clear case of the magical works of Wenger. I would only swap Al for one keeper and thats Cech. Al is a top keeper now.
OleG,
I think we’d get outsung by Horsham fc maybe!!!!!
TV and Song have been superb in the first 2 games but our best player has been our leader on the pitch William Gallas.Who has vindicated Wengers decision to keep him and ditch Toure
On the down side we have scored 8 goals in 2 games yet none of the strikers who have started have scored yet.Bendtner was very poor tonight.Get him back in the middle for the Pompey game.
The bantamweight Belgian.
well when i say swap cech, i would’nt coz cech is a dodgy i get payed shit loads of money to advertise a silly head gaurd wearing chav.
OG
Diaby should not start any games before Denilson and Song he is not in their class.And he is always one game away from an injury
Interesting Wenger did not bring on Eboue maybe not to get him cup tied.Hope so
TV Arsenal legend in the making
Diaby is class!
GIBTT;
The fact none of our strikers (apart from Eduardo) have scored is a GOOD thing. Not a bad thing.
Bendtner has been terrific on the right of a 3 (not on the wing), his work rate and tracking have been stunning, and he also set up Denilson’s goal v Everton.
The fact Arshavin, Robin and Bendtner have not got their shooting boots on yet, bodes well for the upcoming games.
Belgium the country that produces great defenders aswell as great beer.
Actually it is unfair to say anyone had a bad game, maybe it was not their best but thats about it. This was simply a great collective display from the team!!
I would be inclined to rest one or 2 against Pompey on Saturday, especially if they are carrying knocks like cesc and Denilson were.
Diaby can replace Cesc and Ramsey can replace Denilson, Wilshire can come in for Arshavin, maybe. Or is that being disrespectful to Portsmouth?
Spike,
In my case I just think we need a third keeper to push Fabianski to push Almunia, or to himself push Almunia
Ole;
Seeing as how Fabianski is apparantly out for 2 months, I think a GK might be worth bringing in. On loan if need be. Maybe Mart Poom again!
VERMAELEN!!
Absolutely everywhere tonight. See him bust back from attacking a freekick in the first 20mins and rinse their striker out? He covered that ground like a lynx on heat.
And I’d all but said goodbye to kamikaze kolo type forward runs when up pops TV, charging forward and looking to get on the end of one-twos in the box! Incredible. Absolute revolution. Buy of the summer from Wenger.
Denilson is a stat machine. I am surprised to see the stats show he won the ball more than Song this evening. Quietly effective.
Any news on Eduardo?
Don’t forget chocolate, Duke.
Ole;
But you know Denilson would have been getting slated for that one long sideways pass that went to a Celtic player, don’t you?
Is Eduardo injured?
Where did Diaby play when he came on??
Anyone think we’ll be back to playing 4-4-2 at home on Saturday?
I just read somewhere on here Wilshere was on the bench due to an Eduardo injury in training…
He replaced Arshavin, maria. Played on the left.
Shwed a great bit of skill with his 1st touch and helped set up the killer 2nd goal.
Spike, Mart Poom is already with us. He has come in to help our goalkeeping coach (who is injured).
Spike,
Didn’t we play the CC side away at Pompey and win 3-0 last season?
Now we are in the group stages of the CL expect Wenger to go out and sign Hangeland and Chamakh.And maybe Kalou
Fitness permitting I`d start the same side again on Saturday. If things go well AW can always take players off. Winning breeds confidence & all that.
Bedtime Charlie has a point about a keeper whilst Fabianski is out. An injury to Almunia & Mannone plays at OT. A steady, experienced one is required IMO – I just can`t think of any who may be available
I heard it on Arsenal online that Jack had replaced da Silva.
Diaby came on for Arsh and pretty much played where he’d been playing (left of centre), bit more central if anything, though the game was a bit scrappy by then. He was tracking back pretty well, and it was a surging burst from him that led to the 2nd goal
OG,
I hope we do with Vela coming in up front with Bendtner.
Who knows, Ole. It might make it easier to accomodate a couple of changes. If Walcott and Eduardo are fit, perhaps they will play.
Ole;
I doubt we’ll be seeing the 4-4-2 again. If Wenger is happy to go into his 1st 2 games of the season, away from home and play 4-3-3, then that’ll be it, I reckon, or not, as the case maybe and the crow flies.
Vermalen, how good does this guy look and their seems to be a real understanding and chemistry building between Vermalen and Gallas.
Song = Monster another terrific performance.
However the new work ethic the team seem to have found which will go completely unnoticed by the likes of Steve Claridge , Lawrenson and the rest actually is the most impressive thing for me this season. We look a proper team.
We won’t play the Carling Cup team this time.
Maria,
Yup, Pompey at home seems the perfect occasion to unleash the Vela
The 4-3-3 formation has been chosen by the boss to accomodate the likes of vela and Theo though. As Wenger thinks it suits their talents better.
It also allows him to play Song, Denilson and Cesc in the midfield.
Gawd, It almost looks like I know what the fook I am talking about!
Is Vela back from his Mum’s static caravan in Canvey Island then?
Hleb scored an almost “Wilshire-like” goal for Stuttgart today. Really a thing of beauty and a reminder of what we lost last year when he stupidly decided to fu&* off to Barca… thankfully, we seem more than fine without him this season.
http://videos.sapo.pt/pDc25EYMcpGgT0Y8Pk2M
Why would we want a 4-4-2 with the 4-3-3 working so beautifully? 4-4-2 was great when we had Henry as our main striker and Bergkamp supporting him. But the 4-3-3 seems so much more suited for our wealth of central midfielders and play-making attackers. The only player who seems ‘out of position’ is Bendtner, who would no doubt prefer to play more centrally. But he’s doing quite OK on the wing so far.
Gallas’ run was brilliant I have to say. William’s a genuine matchwinner.
I heard he scored thought it was a joke.
But damn!!!
It was more Vela than Jack for me.
Oh my. Hleb’s goal was gorgeous.
What a tw*t.
CaliG;
I would say he is doing better than quite OK.
That bitter stubborn old twat M Palmer tried to suggest the new formation wasnt working and the evidence was the 1st 26 minutes against Everton! You know? Before we scored the 6 goals.
Before the game, we were told that Celtic would be more than a match for Arsenal. They had put to the sword teams far far better than this group of young, unproven misfits and the crowd of partisan Hoops Fanatics would surely act like the 12th, 13th, 14th men and suck the ball into the Arsenal net at will…
Then, after the result, its; Oh if it wasnt for that cruel old biddy lady Nina Luck and all that filthy lucre at Wenger’s disposal, we’d surely have whalloped those feckin sasaknacks!
Maria, your right — more Vela than Jack. Of course it’s all a joke. I am in the minority of gooners who felt like the loss of Hleb was the main reason for our poor first-half last season; after Rangers, I believe that Jack will soon emulate Hleb’s mazy runs but add the end-product Hleb so often lacked.
Do we agree with this list???
But Wenger has had a blind spot for keepers in the past. Richard Wright and Igors Stepanovs are bad reminders of that.
However, Vermaelen alongside William Gallas looks a different proposition and, with full backs Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna, suddenly Arsenal have a back four which looks capable of keeping clean sheets.
————————————————
Oh I give up! Night!
CG,
I don’t see why you were in a minority out of our regular MF in 07/08 we lost all but Cesc in the 08/09 season this ofcause had an effect on our early patchy….imo…anyway…
“Interesting Wenger did not bring on Eboue maybe not to get him cup tied. Hope so”
Why would Wenger weaken the side by getting rid of a quality back up RB who can also play out wide?
Interesting choices there Maria – of that list Bac (beautiful smile), Cesc, Samir, Carlos (lovely smile), Aaron (also has a nice smile) would definitely be on my list! Not sure about the order though! I seem to have a thing about a smiling face and a twinkle in the eye! I would also add Denilson, Eduardo and Andrey to that list too. There you are, I’ve shown my true colours and revealed my girlie nature!
Well if we all sharing then my sister and I have always had a thing for le professor himself Arsene Wenger!!!
The smile and quiet intelligence disrupted our then minor obession our ol’ fav Anelka at the time.
I must say the inclusion of Sagna was kinda weird then Nasri as 1#!!!
Media went on about Pakhead atmosphere but all I could hear is “En-ger-land” and “you should’ve gone to see U2″.The Arsenal away fans are awesome very different from the type we get at the Emirates. After the second goal the celtic fans were heading for the exit door so I don’t understand all the fuss about the Celtic fans.
Fabregas got the special treatment they kicked him at every chance which is unusual as Mowbry didn’t normally tell his players to kick the crap out of the opposition. Fabregas was top class and so was Vermalen I’m really impressed by this player.
many pundits were saying Celtic were unlucky with the goals conceeded but to me that was nothing short of disrespectful, it was a hard earned victory through some solid defending and making those 2 goals happen.
Oh my gooooooooood just heard George Graham calling one of the Celtic players ‘colored’ these ex-Arsenal guys are a trip!!!!!!!
Any highlights??
Santa, give me a Denilson shirt for Christmas, please. Just an Arsenal shirt with his name on it, please.
God, what a player!
I LOVE ARSENALONLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOOOL…….
A little early for christmas SG no…..??
Fortune favours the brave, and Engerland (Arsenal) was brave and earned those “lucky” goals. We went for it in a high pressure game, away, and returned with a well-earned 2-goal victory. We’re almost there.
Congratulations to Arsenal!!!
maria
i think vela has to prove himself yet cause he is still young and still has alot of blood in him.but if we have players like arsharvin,nasri,rvp,rosicky,walcot the road runner then i dont think vela place in the team is safe plus vandervaat might be signing for us, vela has to pack is bags
This man knows his football:
“But Arsenal were very good on the night; exceptional with the ball but brilliant without the ball. It was a frustrating night.” Tony Mowbrary
Particularly, only “exceptional with the ball” but “BRILLIANT without the ball”.
riley8
I think you probably mean well, but to say that ‘Vela has to pack his bags’ is really not smart.
Vela is an incredibly gifted 20 year old, who could quite easily end up as one of the top 5 strikers in the world. To let him go now would be insanity and probably have us leaving 20 million on the table in unexploited transfer fees if he should ever leave.
lagoona
i think you are a good scout but time will tell if vela is to become a good player this season. if he is to play regulary football at our club.
LMAO…..
la gooner leave well alone….this guy is either 10 years old or creepy as hell!!!!
‘Shit! If Fat Frank had all his deflected goals taken off him, he’d have about 3!’
Spot on Spike…
almost all Fat Lamphart goals between 2005 and 2007 were all deflected and every one of the lunatic pundits was going crazy about the flying, lard-stuffed Midfielder.
===
Anyways…
Great performance by our lads, I wouldn’t give a flying monkey’s a$$ about how the goals were scored.
Again Song & VT were great, so was Cesc, RVP, Galls and Bendtner….oh and Clichy.
Next…
maria
i dont take girls critism seriously.and you mentioned i am 10 years old you be fucking joking
Maybe 8 years old.
fuck you!
cmon,
lay of rile8…he’s obviously older than that. At least 15…
i think maria is 15 aswel
maria…it is entirely possible that he’s both 10 years old AND creepy as hell.
ive just looked at le grove website & the idiot that runs it is still slagging of Song…that is quite unbelievable ,Song has been superb ..dont understand that at all..that site is a disgrace..!!
whats the deal with rile8 what he do? Seems like a good lad to me people. Chin up fella
Song was a rock last night. It was our defence and holding midfield that just went and got us in the champions league last night against a hard team.
SO why do people still have doubts put a chelsea shirt on song and everyone would agree how great he is. absolute blocks
Well, he’s telling Vela to ‘pack his bags’….isn’t that enough?
Els
I thought Song was good but he definitely tired towards the end. Still he’s becoming a real presence in the center of the park and is looking more and more composed on the ball too.
I really think the loan move to Charlton helped him, as he looked very comfortable as a holding midfielder there and was the best player on an admittedly weak team. Thank god Arsene ignored the majority of fans who didn’t think Song should be anywhere near the Arsenal team. I distinctly remember Arsene addressing this about 3-4 years ago and politely telling the fans and pundits that they had no #$@#ing clue. At the time, his was a pretty lonely voice defending Song, and it’s great to see Song has repaid Arsene’s faith in him.
Up the Arsh!
http://twitpic.com/eg7kh
AA, RvP ad Nic sacrificed their normal attacking prowess for the team last night. Their first objective was to harry the Celtic defence and midfield and they did that in spades. This was a great team performance. Everyone pulled their weight. Superb.
…..Arsenal…..
Song was superb from beginning to end.
We may see one or two changes on Saturday against Pompey, bearing mind the Celtic and two Manc games to come.
@lagooner
what what what… vela. Theres so much to come from him, I think he’s going to make it. How hard has he had to work to get this far into the teamwhat with the work permit sh***. It proves how much Wenger rates him and also how bad he wants to play. That goes a long way for me.
Riley8 come on think on, whats the deal.
I have to admit my faith in song and denilson hasn’t always been tip top. I never called for there heads but thought maybe they may not make it, I’m happy to eat my words, but it came apparent mid last season the pair of them could cut it.
Diaby needs playing time people are saying the same crap about him. I think all round game he’s a season behind but get him on the pitch whenever possible and next season without doubt we would have 5 central midfielders that could walk into any prem squad.
frank would love starts for Ramsey, Euardo, Vela and Diaby if he’s fit, against Pompey but probably not all of them at the same time as long as some of them get in the mix from the off.
We’ve got some depth this season.
Are there any songs for TV?
I was thinking something to the tune of Amazing Grace haha… “Verm–ae–lens pace”
If fit I think that Ramsey, Eduardo, Jack, Diaby, Eboue and Kieran may play at least part of the game on Saturday. TV and WG will figure at the back though, AW will want them to play as many games together as possible.
….Arsenal….
TV & WG looks like a beautiful partnership opening day both of them score something daft like that can really make a couple of players gel i expect. I thought providing none of the defence have knocks (Sagna was a doubt for celtic) that it would be nice to keep them all together.
I think it would be good to keep that unit together while they are flying. We lacked a definate first choice defence last season, through injury mainly. It’s a long season and gibbs will get plenty of time to shine.
Wtf is Pyles Palmer saying?
This 4-3-3 system is absolutely marvellous.
The Arsenal strikers are scoring so many goals, aren’t they?
Robin van Persie, the Dutch goal ace, is really banging them in.
Danish prodigy Nicklas Bendtner is demonstrating his versatility.
The sparky Denilson is just like Iniesta.
The whole thing is spiffing.Wonderful, really.
And Russian maestro Andrey Arshavin is doing well too. Getting the box again and again. He’s having shot after shot -he must be overjoyed to be in the game so much.
Keeper Artur Boruc must have been exhausted, diving around, making save after save after save. Well done, sir! Jan Tomashevsky is proud of you.
Myles Palmer is lashing out because he is being proven more wrong with every game we play.
It’s all a bit childish really, don’t you think?
Luke i’m confused where is that coming from? Palmer?
Bye the way I’ve always loved Redknapp jnr he recons we look like barca from last season.
We have to come up with a snappy nick name for Vermaelen. Any suggestions guys?
We’re going to crush man utd at Old Trafford. I hope Walcott plays.
just some points about the players… haters should now stop slating song.. he was excelent….he broke up play made some quality passes (screwed up a couple).. TV and WG this is the making of a solid central defence (Gallas probably feels 10 years younger and looked it).
I notice that there is some issue with ashavin and a few of the Arsenal players…(guys sort it before it becomes detrimental to the the team). Other than that we deserved to win… the Troof
Troof the problems with Arsh I didn’t see. I did see him sacrificing his usual game to play some cover down the flank and put himself about.
Same with NB.
els
Pyles is attempting sarcasm and pouring scorn over Wenger’s 4-3-3.
1 loose cannon what about simply v5
By the way, ACLF has a new article posted on last night’s game.
Cheers Luke the guy is a toss. Obviously dosn’t know the first thing but thats no revelation I guess.
lagoona
take it easy mate and its not like maria is some sort of your girlfriend or something or may be she is cause you seem to be overprotecting her.and 1 more thing i didnt mean vela to pack is bags straight away. and what i meant was with those players i meantion earlier then thats how things will look for vela cause their is other playes better than him.
Arsenal played well and deserved their win last night – there seems to be more unity in the team than in the seasons following the Invincibles era and I’m sure they’ll be in contention for some silverware if they can keep everyone fit this season.