Arsenal 6-1 Southampton: Saints Desecrated

Well, what a win that was, huh?! We left Southampton reeling after a 6-1 hammering at the Emirates and now sit in 3rd in the table on 8 points, behind United on 9 points and Chelsea on 10. It's a good look. It's a really good look. Any talk of Arsenal being unable to find the net this season after the sale of yer man, van Stapleton to United has been well and truly put to bed after our last two performances where we definitely didn't look shy in front of goal.

The scoring got underway as early as the 11th minute as Hooiveld put the ball beyond his own keeper as a shot from Kieran Gibbs deflected in off him. Podolski got on the scoresheet in the 31st with a cleanly struck free kick which Kelvin Davis could do very little about. It took only 4 more minutes for Arsenal triple the lead when Mik Arteta saw Gervinho making an unmarked run into the box and played a great pass which saw the Senegalese through on goal to finish with aplomb at Kelvin Davis' near post. Two minutes later? Another own goal. Southampton's Nathaniel Clyne unfortunately bundled the ball into his own net after great work from Kieran Gibbs to get the ball into a dangerous area of the box. At this point we were 4-0 up and we seemed to lose concentration. We let Southampton's fox in the box (no really, his name's Danny Fox) pull one back when poor handling from Wojciech Szczesny saw him drop a ball played in by them, to Fox's feet and he fired home into the gaping net without any trouble at all. That's how the half ended and the disappointment of conceding our first goal of the season in such a manner was all too clear to see on Wenger and Bould's faces.

Southampton came out and looked a lot livelier in the second half and threatened our goal a bit more but they couldn't really make their spell in the final third count. The game was put to bed in the 71st when second half substitute Aaron Ramsey powered his way into the box and took a shot from a tight angle. The ball came back off the far post and was easily tapped in by an onrushing Gervinho. At 5-1 Southampton were pretty much done and dusted and Arsenal took charge of the game once more. You could sense there was more on the way. Gervinho, who was given a standing ovation, made way for Theo Walcott while Lukas Podoski came off for Olivier Giroud. Walcott came on and gave the Southampton left back hell on the right wing, with Alex Oxlade Chamberlain switching to the left, giving the Southampton right back hell on that side. The final goal of the game came in the 89th when new signing Santi Cazorla played a cheeky pass to skipper Thomas Vermaelen who made his way into the box and took a shot but the keeper parried it back to Cazorla. He took a slight touch and played it to his right to Walcott who blasted the ball into the unguarded net. It was a nice show of respect by him, not celebrating the goal, but applauding the Southampton fans because that's where his football career started out. It was another example of why people always say Walcott is a well behaved young man.

Post match, Wenger had this to say:

We had a good combination of pace, speed in our passing, quick combinations, and the movement was excellent. We were a bit lucky as well because they conceded two own goals, but overall I think it was a level of continuity with what we have shown at Liverpool and today. The game was very interesting to watch. In the second half we lost a bit of urgency, that is human, but we controlled the game and remained serious.

I think one of the main reasons for our continued momentum in our team play from game to game is that the team now has belief in themselves and belief that they can achieve something big by playing together. This could be the main reason for Wenger not succumbing to pressure to sign more players as the transfer window came to a close last month. He wants to do away with the days of the team being heavily reliant on one man and as such, coasting through games because they know he'll come up big at some point. To see the goals spread around the pitch in such a performance yesterday suggests that if we can keep this going, Wenger's plan will succeed and we'll have a much more consistent crop of players this season. We can only benefit from more consistency.

It's interesting to note that Wenger started with the much maligned Gervinho as the centerfold of the attack, rather than playing him in his usual left wing spot. He said he did it to exploit his speed against the central defenders and it was a very smart move. It paid dividends as he looked a lot sharper in front of goal with his finishing and you'll hope to see him continue to finish with such confidence since he's only had 2 goals this calendar year. Another reason to note why he chose to start with him as a center forward is that he felt Giroud needed a bit of pressure off him:

I felt that he is under much pressure at the moment and sometimes to get a little breather is good. What I will do on Tuesday I honestly don't know. I just felt that the time has come for him to not be under too much pressure.

You'd have to think that he chose to give him a break here because he feels with Montpellier our next opponents, Giroud has a higher chance of scoring since it's his old club and no one in the team knows their weaknesses better than he does.

Another player whose performance stood out, but for the wrong reasons, was Wojciech Szczesny. He let in our first goal of the season due to butterfingers and Wenger said:

I think he was disappointed. That's the negative of the day, that we conceded a goal, but we can swallow that. You have to concede at some stage but it happened like it happened.

Szczesny's biggest problem is he can't stay focused when he doesn't need to be. Yeah, when he doesn't need to be. What I mean is, it's all well and good making save after save after save when the opposition is camped out in your half. Most lower table goalkeepers can do that and do that alone. What sets apart a top level goalkeeper from those is how alert he is when he can basically take a nap on the pitch because the opponents aren't posing much of a threat. Szczesny, tends to switch off when a lack of pressure allows him to then sometimes he struggles to regain focus quickly. He is a young goalkeeper though and this is not something hard for him to correct about his game so I'm confident he can improve in this area. He should be looking over his shoulder though because there are two very hungry goalkeepers who were planning to leave the club for regular playing time, who now realise there might be a three way fight on for the #1 jersey.

So our attention now turns to Montpellier on Tuesday then Man City on Sunday. There's no doubt there'll be heavy squad rotation midweek as we look ahead to City. Check back in for more thoughts on that game later this week. Until then, dust!

Challenging Start To The 2011/2012 Season For Arsenal

You know, when last season ended I looked back at it and thought:

"You know what, screw this! I don't want to be led on like this again. Damn you, Arsenal!"

 Another season of Arsenal flattering to deceive had me thinking that I want to just hibernate throughout majority of next season and wake up at the tail end of it where I'll know where we stand. Season after season I watch and think "This might be our year". This is because of how well we perform throughout the first half of the season (although we usually seem to stumble for a short period in November). I've always noticed that whenever the Champions League knock out stages roll around, that's when every thing starts getting pear shaped and going tits up. It always leaves a bitter taste in my mouth when the critics start coming out in droves talking about how right they were all along that Arsenal can't hack it or that Arsenal haven't improved enough to really challenge for anything. I hate always holding that naive belief that that particular season will be the one we've turned a corner and then seeing everything fall apart when it matters most.

The FA have released the official fixtures list for next season and thankfully I might not have to go off to a dark cave for a six month slumber. We start the season with what many would deem three tough games.

The first has us travelling up to St. James' Park to face Newcastle. Arguably this fixture last season was what saw the beginning of the end for us from as early as February last season. That 4-4 draw pisses me off and still leaves me baffled as to how we allowed that to happen to us.

The following week sees us take on L*verpool at home. Personally this is a huuuuuuge match for me because, Barcelona aside, there's no team in the world I hate more than them. Arsenal have done me a great disservice by dropping points to them a few months ago, not only because we chucked away vital points in the title race that day but also because anything but a win against these grunting, drooling, knuckle draggers just won't do for me.

The third game will be against Manchester United at Old Trafford. This game is obviously one of our most massive games because it will show us whether our victory against them last season was merely a fluke or whether we've actually developed in ways to exploit their weaknesses. Also, three points for us that day could effectively hurt their title defence very early on.

I much prefer having our harder games towards the start of the season to see if Arsene Wenger has done his homework over the summer and to see whether the team has improved and will mount a serious challenge for the title. We'll clearly have to be very focused and not be complacent from early on. It will force us to start the season in the right attitude or be doomed to have a repeat of recent history where we come up short in the hunt for a title once more.

Then again, with all this change to come in the summer, we could just as well start the season without a proper team and crash and burn early on. Sorry, the pessimist in me had to notice that. I guess it all really depends on how wisely we do our business in the transfer market this summer and also on the tactical changes Wenger will be making.

Here's what our fixtures for the whole season looks like:

August
13 Newcastle (A)
20 Liverpool (H)
27 Man Utd (A)

September
10 Swansea (H)
17 Blackburn (A)
24 Bolton (H)

October
1 Tottenham (A)
15 Sunderland (H)
22 Stoke (H)
29 Chelsea (A)

November
5 West Brom (H)
19 Norwich (A)
26 Fulham (H)

December
3 Wigan (A)
10 Everton (H)
17 Man City (A)
21 Aston Villa (A)
26 Wolverhampton (H)
31 QPR (H)

January
2 Fulham (A)
14 Swansea (A)
21 Man Utd (H)
31 Bolton (A)

February
4 Blackburn (H)
11 Sunderland (A)
25 Tottenham (H)

March
3 Liverpool (A)
10 Newcastle (H)
17 Everton (A)
24 Aston Villa (H)
31 QPR (A)

April
7 Man City (H)
9 Wolverhampton (A)
14 Wigan (H)
21 Chelsea (H)
28 Stoke (A)

May
5 Norwich (H)
13 West Brom (A)

I'm Baaaack...Not Like You Care Anyway

Much like a player who's been injured and out of action for many months, it's been hard to get back into the thick of things right away after a prolonged period away from doing what you'd usually do on a daily basis with ease. Granted I wasn't in a car accident that saw me in a body bandage, with each limb hanging from slings on my bed, but I have been so busy over the past few months it became really hard to find the time to blog. Not that it really mattered anyway...since it seems I'm the Babu Bhatt of the Arsenal Blogosphere. This might just be a short entry today since I've got to break myself back into the habit of blogging.

Okay so where do I even begin?

The policy of this blog is to bring something different to the table from the rest of the other Arsenal blogs out there so for that reason I don't really feel like putting the season under a microscope and dissecting the hell outta it. We all know that the season's been a vast let down in terms of expectations and achievements. While there have been negatives in terms of how poorly we finished the table, given the position we found ourselves in before the massive implosion, there were definitely some positives.

1. Jack Wilshere's emergence was a joy to behold. he's played with maturity beyond his years and despite the many bad overall team performances we've seen from Arsenal this season, I don't know anyone who can honestly say they saw a bad performance from Jack. I mean he didn't win the PFA Young Player of the Year Award for nothing, did he?

2. Wojciech Szczesny: Six months ago practically all of us struggled to spell his name correctly but the young Pole has become such a mainstay in the first team now, we've all familiarised ourselves with all the Cs and Zs in his name. What's great too is that we had to pay nothing to sort out our goalkeeping troubles. Although he's had a few errors here and there he's shown so many signs of a promising future and that he'll be a world class keeper someday. The future looks bright for us between the sticks.

3. We're no longer a team that gets intimidated by big teams in big matches. That's definitely something we struggled with in the past but this season has seen us beat Chelsea and Manchester United and have one of the most memorable games in the Champions League this season which saw us beat Barcelona. The only problem now is that while we're beating the teams many see as the hardest to beat, we're stumbling over the ones that we'd normally consider the smaller ones. Something drastically needs to change about this over the summer as not only do we need more experienced and hungrier players but Arsene Wenger's approach to mentally preparing his team needs to be reworked for next season.

Another thing I want to get off my chest is that I see a lot of people online calling for Cesc Fabregas to be sold. The general consensus among people with this view is that he doesn't have the heart to play for us anymore and he's no longer committed to the cause. (This is where I roll my eyes)

If you're reading this and you're one of the many who share this view, how do you know whether or not his heart is in it? Have you ever even had a conversation with the man? How is it that you're able to tell, from your tv screen, how someone feels on the inside about something? If anything, all we can see from Cesc is his passion and love for Arsenal FC. This is the same guy that took and scored a penalty for us against Barcelona with a broken leg just to make sure we didn't exit the competition. This is the same guy who rushed himself back to fitness to face Barcelona again this season in the second leg at the Nou Camp. Sure his mistake led to their first goal, but I honestly don't think he would've made that error had he been at 100% fitness that day. Are you forgetting that this is the same guy whose cameos off the bench has saved our asses so many times with goals and assists, especially in cup competitions when we were down a goal or just seemed like we were never going to find the net at all?

Many of the people saying this seem to have very short memory about all he's done for the good of the club in the last 3 seasons. Cesc's love for Arsenal shouldn't even be in question. He may not be as vocal or as aggressive a captain as Tony Adams was but in terms of leading by example there is no doubt he's the right man to wear the armband. Furthermore, how can we complain every day that we need more experience in the team and that Wenger isn't signing experienced players then in the same breath call for Cesc to be sold? Remember, he's a European Championship and World Cup winner. No one in the team has more experience than he does. He's arguably our best player as well. Ignore the fact that this season hasn't been his best. That doesn't necessarily mean he's become a bad player overnight. All it means is that he's suffered for his talent.

He's hardly had time to get a proper rest and vacation in since 2007. In 2008 he had to go off and play in the Euros and played all the way to the finals. The following year he played in the Confederations Cup and a year later he played in the World Cup, and while you might say he didn't start all of Spain's games, he still had to go to training every day and didn't get time to go and relax on vacation and clear his mind and come back fresh for the next season. He had only two weeks to rest before he was back into preseason training for us. This is why he's also been so injury prone (are you reading this, Jack Wilshere?). For that reason, surely it requires a bit of understanding why he's experienced a dip in form lately.

Why would you say our team needs experience and then ask that we sell our best player? How much sense does that really make to you?

There's a whole lot more to be discussed but there's no need to try to get through it all right now. We have a whole summer of speculating and bitching and whinging to do so it can wait until I decide to post again. I promise, the wait won't be as long as the last time. For now lets just be thankful that this train wreck of a season is all over. Whether we're doomed to repeat it next season because Wenger's wallet is as tight as virginity remains to be seen.

Arsenal 1-1 AC Milan (Emirates Cup): Post Match Thoughts

Our first match in the Emirates Cup ended 1-1 against AC Milan today. The goals came from our new boy Marouane Chamakh and Milan's Alexandre Pato. While this competition is absolutely meaningless, I like watching it because it's very exciting. It's unique in that you not only earn points for winning or drawing, but also for each goal you score so it definitely promotes attacking football. I don't take the results to heart as this is just a meaningless preseason tournament, although it's interesting to note that in the two years we won the Emirates Cup we went on to challenge for the title in the subsequent Premiership seasons. When we won in 2007 we finished 3rd in the Premiership the season after, just 4 points behind winners Manchester United and when we won last year we went on to...well you know...push for the title.

My intention is not to dissect this match to it's minutest form but I'll talk about some of the things I noticed while watching today.

• Why did Lukasz Fabianski start? You'd figure that since we play Milan today and Celtic tomorrow, we'd field our stronger team today and a lesser one tomorrow. Manuel Almunia was our first string keeper last season and he's clearly the better keeper of the two. Is it that he's being sold? I don't want to get ahead of myself here but it just struck me as odd that he didn't feature at all today and featured only once since we started our preseason training. It's not like he went to the World Cup and needed a rest either. I'll speak more on the keeper issue a bit later.

• Marouane Chamakh has bags of skill. He shows lots of intelligence on and off the ball. He has great technique and nice touches. He roams the pitch a lot and has a high work rate. His goal came from a great finish which saw him tap the ball under Abbiati and into the net. He linked up well with Arshavin and Nasri today and I look forward to seeing more of the three of them working together as well as Chamakh linking up with Fabregas as the season progresses. He has the skills and technique I've been saying we've lacked up top since Thierry Henry left. He has that unpredictability about him that I'm sure will catch a lot of defenders out this season. To me he's a poor man's Cristiano Ronaldo. I just hope those mugs that play for teams such as Blackburn and Bolton don't resort to breaking his legs because they can't take him off the ball. I still think he needs to get rid of that haircut though. He looks like his stylist used a knife and a fork on him.

• Laurent Koscielny, so far, looks to be a good ball winner. He's not exactly the biggest of players but he can use his size to his advantage as it will aid him when chasing attackers around the pitch. He looks pretty speedy from what I saw today and he was always busy breaking up a lot of plays.

• Emmanuel Frimpong is very strong and hard to get off the ball. This is attributed to his low center of gravity. I noticed that he spreads the ball really well. I'd like to see more of him this season. I still think we need to bring in a back up defensive midfielder to Song but I'd like to see Frimpong given a chance as the third string defensive midfielder with Denilson used in a more attacking role, which he's more comfortable with.

• Johan Djourou came on in place of Frimpong at defensive midfield. This is interesting to me because I've been saying Denilson isn't a defensive midfielder and shouldn't be playing there. It's why I think we need a new defensive midfielder. I remember when Djourou returned from his loan spell at Boringham he said he wants a future role as a defensive midfielder because it's where he likes to play. Now I'm wondering if Wenger is considering him for this role.

• We conceded another set piece goal. This is something we still need to work on. Last season we conceded 41 goals and too many of them were from balls into the box over the top. Some measure of blame for the goal has to go to Lukasz Fabianski as well. He was caught wearing concrete boots and panicked when the ball came in across the face of his goal. Wenger was paying attention to his performance because he is weighing up the option of using him as our first string goalkeeper in the coming season instead of Almunia. He has also been looking to bring a new keeper in and two of the names being banded about are Mark Schwarzer and Federico Marchetti. Fabianski wouldn't have helped his cause to keep in contention for the starting spot with that goal he let in.

We play Celtic tomorrow and we're currently tied on 2 points with Milan while Celtic and Lyon are tied on 3 points. The second day of the Emirates Cup is always more exciting than the first, because it always come down to the wire and a set amount of goals are always needed for the teams playing last to try to win the cup. I'll be back with more thoughts after the Celtic match tomorrow. For now, tell me in the comments section what you think of what you saw today. Dust!

Eduardo Finds Greener Pastures In Donetsk

Brazilian born Croatian striker Eduardo Da Silva has signed a 4 year contract with Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine for a fee believed to be around £6M.

Many had expected this transfer to occur because it became a fast spreading rumour as of Saturday when he missed the first preseason match against Barnet. He struggled to get into the team last season, making 10 minute cameos here and there before Arsene Wenger eventually decided to stop playing him altogether.

Some would argue that his departure came because Arsene Wenger forced him out of the team when he switched from the 4 4 2 formation to the 4 3 3. Some say he didn't belong out in a wide position and he didn't belong in the target man role up top either and his best position was as a secondary striker. It means that his natural position wasn't one afforded a role by this formation. I see it differently though.

Eduardo's days at Arsenal became numbered on February 23, 2008. That was the day he picked up this horror tackle (don't click if squeamish). How Martin Taylor was given only a 3 match ban for that is beyond me. Eduardo spent 18 months on the sidelines as a result of the injury he sustained. A whole issue was created out of the incident when members of the British press and Birmingham City supporters made Taylor into the victim and Eduardo the villain by saying Eduardo made a meal of the tackle and some even went as far as claiming it wasn't a foul. They claimed that Arsenal players are just too soft and that Martin Taylor was the real victim because of the emotional anguish he was put through. Never in my life have I heard such rubbish!

As I mentioned before, it took him 18 months to make a full return from the injury and it came against Cardiff City in the FA Cup. He scored that night and looked quite sharp. We all thought and hoped we got back that clinical striker who had a 23.5% conversion rate in front of goal but as the months rolled on they proved that it wasn't to be. His time ever since the broken leg was spent in and out of the team due to niggling injuries which arose as a result of the initial severe one. From there Eduardo became a mentally broken man. His conversation rate fell to 6.3% after and this made it clear that it was now the beginning of the end of his Arsenal career.

His demeanor on the pitch had changed. He no longer harried the ball in 50/50 challenges and in one particular game against Celtic last season he was so afraid to challenge for the ball in a one on one with Artur Buruc that he backed off, lost his balance, fell and won a penalty. The media had a field day with this, labeling him a diver and a cheat. These claims against him were both harsh and untrue as it happened due to the trauma from the incident in 2008. He saw himself reduced to a substitute role and when he did get the rare appearance he had ineffectual performances. Such performances frustrated Arsene Wenger who chose not to play him in the final 6 or so games of the season.

Credit should be given to Eduardo for his whole attitude, given what he's gone through. Not once did he give up hope on a return to the game and not once did he complain or show dissent in his body language because he wasn't being given playing time. He was always a class act and it's reflected in his parting message to the fans:

Before I start a new chapter in my career with Shakhtar Donetsk, I just wanted to send a message to all my friends at Arsenal.

The past few days have been very emotional for me. Although I am excited about the challenge ahead with my new club Shakhtar Donetsk, I am so sad to be leaving my home for the past three years – Arsenal Football Club.

Arsenal is a very special football club and I will miss so many people - my team mates, all the staff and of course, the wonderful Arsenal supporters.

I would just like to thank everyone for your support during my time at Arsenal. When I first came to England, I could not speak the language and knew nobody, but as soon as I arrived I was made to feel at home and part of this big family. Also, I want to say thank you to the Arsenal supporters  - you have been fantastic to me and always sung my name and I will never forget this. 

I had some very difficult times with my injury, but Arsenal was always there for me – the medical staff, the management, the players and the supporters. Thank you everybody.

Although I have now left the Club, Arsenal will always be in my heart. I will always look for the Arsenal results and of course, I wish Arsène Wenger and the great players at the Club well for next season and the future.

I can safely say that everyone associated with Arsenal Football Club - the players, management, and supporters all respect and thank Eduardo for all he's done in his 3 years at the club. He will definitely be missed by us all. We wish him and his family all the best in Ukraine and we wish him only the best in his future endeavours.

Now here's a very poignant video tribute to the former Arsenal number 9.



That's all for now. Until next time, take care.

The Great Big Cesc Scandal

So after two whole months of publicly tapping up Cesc Fabregas, those pricks at Barcelona have finally faced up to the fact that they can't afford him decided that they'd prefer to make a serious bid for him next season. Their new president Sandro Rosell claims:

Arsenal feels very hurt by Barca. They don't want to listen to offers or sell and they are not putting the player on the market. There was a strong dispute a few months ago and they have not forgotten it.

He will arrive, even if it is not now, it will be next year. We will see. One thing that is certain is that we will not go mad trying to sign him.

No shareholder would pay €60 or €70 million for him. We will not go all out for him. We would only pay his value in the transfer market.

You know what, Sandro...

First of all, no Arsenal fan feels "hurt" by this. I think the best words to describe how this whole affair has made us feel is "fucked off". Hurt suggests that their actions weren't necessarily disrespectful to our club but we are the ones who took it the wrong way. Even in their attempt to try to look amicable they can't help being disparaging. And we should do business with them?

Obviously after the way they tried to bully us into selling our player and also with the way they publicly tapped him up as well, we would strengthen our resolve not to sell him. What the hell would you expect?! We're in a situation where we don't need the money and they don't even have that much money to begin with. Who has the upper hand then? They're the ones trying to buy him and then want to call the shots. That's absolutely ridiculous. Of course we'd tell them where to shove that £40M they tried to offer us.

He claims they're going to be back for him next year and who knows, maybe they will get him depending on how our season goes and if Cesc either feels frustrated that he can't win cups with Arsenal or if we've won the Premiership and perhaps the Champions League and he feels he's done all he can at the club and it's time to move on. I'm sure when the time comes for him to go we'll be able to adequately replace him. My only concern is that Barcelona will be back with their dirty attitude next season and we're gonna be forced to go through this whole debacle again because they'll want to try to force us to accept a fee much less than Cesc's worth.

Some more quotes coming out of that article have highlighted Cesc saying he wants to go back to Barca. Hold on now, before you get your Fruit of the Looms in a knot you should read what it says:

I have not spoken to anybody in the last few days and I want to ignore anything regarding my future for now. I want to enjoy my holidays and I don't want to talk about Barcelona at this moment.

I make no apologies for the comments I have made in the past. I have expressed my interest in returning and I stand by that, as that is my personal wish.

This is nothing that should come as a surprise to anyone. Cesc had made it no secret that he intends to return to Barca someday. With that said, there are some who are treating this as though he just came up out of the blue with these statements. He never said anything about definitely wanting to go back this season. He wants to return to play there to honour his grandfather. He wants to do it when he feels he's given all he can to us. That might still be a few years from now. What's wrong with that? His granddad took him to Barca games from the moment he started walking. He's already spent six seasons with us and the day's gonna come when he'd like a new challenge. It just so happens that he's eying a challenge back where he started and to do something for his grandfather before his time comes. There's nothing ungrateful about what he said. What's ungrateful is how fans are now turning on him. Cesc has never ever uttered a bad word about or been disrespectful to Arsenal FC or its fans yet he's somehow gone from hero to zero with some of our stupid impulsive fans.

Arsenal fans are so fickle that it's downright annoying. One minute they're praising you, naming babies after you, worshiping the ground you walk on, then the next they're badmouthing you, calling you all manners of evil and building a cross for your crucifixion.

During the season when he was scoring week in, week out he could do absolutely no wrong. As far as Arsenal fans were concerned he was the second coming of Christ. lately things have taken a 180 degree turn in terms of fan opinion of the Spaniard. With all that's happened for him this summer he should feel as though he's on top of the world and so should his fans but if he was to take all the vitriol being directed at him to heart how could he be?

Some of the things being said about him have just been absolutely appalling. I've even seen a few idiots calling for him to be stripped of the captaincy. The captaincy?! Are they serious? If Cesc was more of a captain last season, he would've bled from the ears. This is all because of that one very ambiguous video which surfaced a few days ago where people claim Pique (purposefully) spat at some old guy and Fabregas

Remember in the Barca match at home last season how Cesc slapped that penalty WITH A BROKEN LEG to keep us in the tie with a chance at the Nou Camp? He wasn't much of a captain then?

Or how about at Stoke in February when Ramsey had his leg twisted into a pretzel by that wet fart Ryan Shawcross? Who was it that shouted at each and every player on the pitch, whom I might add were very visibly shaken by the horrific injury, to not lose focus and rallied the team from scraping a 1-1 draw to win the match 3-1...scoring a goal himself? Isn't that the mark of a true captain?

Who ran the length of the Spurs half in the North London Derby at home last season to score a very iconic individual goal against our most hated rivals?

Remember when Cesc forced himself to be fit enough to make the bench for the Villa game and get on the pitch and score two goals when the game looked like it was headed for a scoreless stalemate? You're telling me that's not the mark of a true leader - knowing that he'd put his body on the line like that for the sake of the club's title chase and for the sake of the fans? How many players in the modern game would do that? Adebayor? Robinho? Berbatov?

Wasn't Cesc the skipper who captained our team to a close title race this season? Wasn't he the one who captained the team while playing through injury with a broken leg?

Who dedicated his World Cup win to Arsenal Football Club and its fans? Anyone who claims Cesc shouldn't be the Arsenal captain is just downright ungrateful.

What these people don't realise is that this is exactly the trickery Barcelona planned to get their grubby hands on Fabregas. All these incidents happening in the media that are turning the fans on Cesc will just prove to be a push factor to take him back to Barcelona. This is exactly what they want! Don't fall for it!

Anyway that's enough blogging for now. Leave your comments in the comments section and let me know what you think. Dust!

Where Do Cesc And Robin Go From Here? (Part 2)

Robin van Persie has yet to have his moment in the sun. The only trophy he's won in his career since his move to Arsenal was an FA Cup in 2005. Many regard him as a player who shows brilliance whenever he gets his chance. The problem is that he doesn't get enough of a chance to show us what he can do over the course of a season. In his 6 years at Arsenal FC, he's never played a full season and it's all due to him picking up some serious injury somewhere along the line. He's always been on the brink of doing what he needs to do to prove to the world that he is a world class striker but misfortune always holds him back from accomplishing this. One thing he should be given credit for is that he knows this and he's frank enough to admit that he's not quite where he should be yet and he knows what's needed in order for him to accomplish this:

I can feel that the manager (Wenger) has faith in me, but I must remain lucid. I am clearly not in the same league as Leo (Messi). Moreover, I am injured too often. I'm dreaming about a season with 30 goals and 20 assists. Wenger knows that I can do it, but my body will have to hold on.

If he had won the World Cup, he would've added the grandest title of all to his resume and that would've helped him to establish himself in world football as a winner and someone who's performed on the biggest stage of them all and been successful. Sadly it wasn't to be and the anguish of coming so close but being still so far away from it was plain to see on his face after the match.

Most Arsenal fans (who aren't Dutch) probably first got excited that Cesc is now a World Cup winner but I on the other hand initially thought "poor Robin, he really deserved this and it's a shame he's gonna have to wait at least another 4 years". I wasn't the only one though. Cesc also admitted that he felt some remorse seeing a desolate figure in van Persie after the final on Sunday. He says:

The first thing I did was go to Robin. I had to go there instead of celebrating with my friends because he deserved it as well. He was injured for a long time and if it wasn't us that he was playing against I would be on his side. Even though I was really happy, I was sad for him.I really hope he has his chance again in two or four years. He is a great guy and a great leader.

Club football aside, Robin's best chance at a trophy is in 2 years time at the European Championship in Poland. You'd think the core of the Dutch team will remain the same and he'll still be their preferred starting target man. It represents his best chance at international glory because I think it would be a stretch to think Holland will win the 2014 World Cup. Apart from that, his role in the team might not be a certainty at that time. He'll be 30 years old in 2014 and he'll face competition from younger strikers coming through the Dutch set up so that makes it much more difficult for him to not only get into the 2014 squad, (if they qualify for Brazil, which is a whole other matter) but to start consistently enough to influence any success they could have there. In order to prove himself as still able to compete at this level for Holland, he'll need to be consistently good for Arsenal over the next 4 years.

Consistency is not something you have to worry about when it comes to Robin van Persie, provided he stays away from injuries. He's one of the most driven players in our team. You could even say he's fixated on winning a major trophy, as it's been 8 years since his UEFA Cup win with Feyenoord and 5 since his FA Cup win with Arsenal. His quotes in an interview with The Guardian last year backs that up:

My ambitions are very, very high and, I think, realistic. I want to be at a level where, as a club, we are winning things, not just every four or five years, but one or two trophies each year. That's what I think this club has in its pocket. I have won the Uefa Cup with Feyenoord and the FA Cup with ­Arsenal. I saw what it did to people in our big family – the fans and the whole club – and it makes life a lot easier. Some people might think my view is extreme, but that is what I want, and I want to do it here. I am not a guy who gives up. ­Otherwise I wouldn't be here.

It's quotes like those why I'm sure he'll be itching to get back on the pitch as soon as possible for Arsenal and right the wrongs of him not achieving major football success in many years. Finishing as a runner up in the World Cup will only spur him on to push harder for success with Arsenal in the forth coming season. While it's sad that he didn't taste victory on Sunday, for Arsenal it's gonna prove to be a good thing as we have a player who'll be hell bent on proving a point to himself and his critics next season.