1-1, Premier League, St Andrew's Stadium, 27/3 -10
Nasri 81
In the end really disappointing, and pretty much a reminder of the last game at St Andrew's, with Birmingham equalizing in stoppage-time, but thank god no broken legs this time, though Fabregas recieved a harsh tackle in the first half, and hobbled basically the remainder of that half, but came back in for the second half and looked much better, still though, it didn't really feel like he could give everything he had, so perhaps another injury concern...
The game was quite uneventful to be honest, I believe that comes down to the pitch, it was so small! We hardly got any space at all, and Theo didn't get those amazing runs that he usually do, but he created our best chance of the first half when he stole the ball right between goalkeeper Hart and a defender, but Hart got a leg out and the chance was gone.
We couldn't really play the way we are used to due to the space issue, we fought hard, but just couldn't get close enough for a goal, until Arshavin and Nasri came in for Rosicky and Walcott in the 68th minute.
That substitution made some difference, we got some real chances but Bendtner headed just outside and Arshavin missed the ball, so things didn't come easy for us.
But in the 81st minute Nasri made a great move from 40 yards, and when he approached 20 yards, he took a shot that went straight for the bottom corner! A piece of art!
But to our great disappointment Birmingham pulled one back minutes before the end, and we lost two valuable points in the title-race, but I'm certainly not giving up just yet, even though I have to admit that we need a hell of a lot luck to make it through now...
Perhaps Wilshere could help out a bit as Bolton play United at the Reebok, I watched the first half and the bloke was brilliant! But a Samuel own goal gave United the lead before the end of the first half.
Now we have to look ahead to the Barcelona game, it will be massive, but let's just give it a go and see how things turn out, you never know in football!
Injury Update;
-Gallas joined training recently, but it will take some time for him to get back to match fitness.
-van Persie actually came back this week, Wenger said that it will be at least two weeks left for him, but that means that he might be back for the Man City game! It would definitely be amazing to watch him back in action!
-Still too soon to know more about the lads after the game that has just been, but hopefully everyone will be fine for the Champions League on Wednesday.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Arsenal vs. West Ham
2-0, Premier League, Emirates, 20/3 -10
Denilson 5,
Fabregas 82(pen)
Vital to get the three points, but once again it wasn't a comfortable win, it started so well, when Denilson and Bendtner exchanged passes before Denilson managed a perfectly located shot, that went straight for goal.
Then the game slowed down a bit, we had some chances and most of the possession, but when the end of the first half was approaching, Vermaelen was sent off! Completely wrong decision from the referee, replays show that Vermaelen hardly touched Franco, and to make things worse, it all happened in our box, so West Ham was given a penalty.
But an amazing save from Almunia saved us and the loud complain from the fans turned into cheers!
When the second half began West Ham had some chances, but we returned to our free-flowing play and started to dominate the game, even though we were down to ten men.
Diaby came in for Bendtner almost fifteen minutes into the second half, and the game settled down a bit, with us having most of the possession.
There weren't too many chances, but eventually our perseverance payed off, Fabregas' shot touched Upson's arm, and we got our penalty.
Fabregas, like so many times earlier this season, converted from the spot, and that pretty much ended the game.
But now we are in for some trouble, if Vermaelen's penalty will stand, he will be out for three games, Song was completely outstanding in his new position, central defence, but I would still rather see Song in the midfield and Vermaelen at the centre-defence, but I definitely feel confident in Song as a central defender!
Injury Update;
-Gallas looks to be out for quite some time, no news for how long, but at least the Birmingham clash.
Denilson 5,
Fabregas 82(pen)
Vital to get the three points, but once again it wasn't a comfortable win, it started so well, when Denilson and Bendtner exchanged passes before Denilson managed a perfectly located shot, that went straight for goal.
Then the game slowed down a bit, we had some chances and most of the possession, but when the end of the first half was approaching, Vermaelen was sent off! Completely wrong decision from the referee, replays show that Vermaelen hardly touched Franco, and to make things worse, it all happened in our box, so West Ham was given a penalty.
But an amazing save from Almunia saved us and the loud complain from the fans turned into cheers!
When the second half began West Ham had some chances, but we returned to our free-flowing play and started to dominate the game, even though we were down to ten men.
Diaby came in for Bendtner almost fifteen minutes into the second half, and the game settled down a bit, with us having most of the possession.
There weren't too many chances, but eventually our perseverance payed off, Fabregas' shot touched Upson's arm, and we got our penalty.
Fabregas, like so many times earlier this season, converted from the spot, and that pretty much ended the game.
But now we are in for some trouble, if Vermaelen's penalty will stand, he will be out for three games, Song was completely outstanding in his new position, central defence, but I would still rather see Song in the midfield and Vermaelen at the centre-defence, but I definitely feel confident in Song as a central defender!
Injury Update;
-Gallas looks to be out for quite some time, no news for how long, but at least the Birmingham clash.
Champions League Draw
Well, it feels like the biggest football news of the week!'
We are going to face FC Barcelona in the quarter final! It certainly was the toughest opponent, but we are going to put up a hell of a fight for that spot in the semi-finals!
If we were to beat Barcelona, we would be up against Inter or CSKA Moscow in the semi-final, well, that's basically the road to Madrid for us.
It certainly won't be easy, but in the previous draws in this competition we have had lots of luck, so it was expected that we would get one of the tougher teams.
We will play at Emirates on the 31st March, my birthday, and the return at Nou Camp is to be played on the 6th of April.
But for now it is West Ham in our focus, tonight looks to be a fight to stay in the title race, both Cesc and Rosicky is back from injury and Song is no longer suspended!
But Gallas is 80% out of the Barcelona clash, and certainly out of both the West Ham game and the Birmingham game.
We are going to face FC Barcelona in the quarter final! It certainly was the toughest opponent, but we are going to put up a hell of a fight for that spot in the semi-finals!
If we were to beat Barcelona, we would be up against Inter or CSKA Moscow in the semi-final, well, that's basically the road to Madrid for us.
It certainly won't be easy, but in the previous draws in this competition we have had lots of luck, so it was expected that we would get one of the tougher teams.
We will play at Emirates on the 31st March, my birthday, and the return at Nou Camp is to be played on the 6th of April.
But for now it is West Ham in our focus, tonight looks to be a fight to stay in the title race, both Cesc and Rosicky is back from injury and Song is no longer suspended!
But Gallas is 80% out of the Barcelona clash, and certainly out of both the West Ham game and the Birmingham game.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Hull vs. Arsenal
2-1, Premier League, KC Stadium, 13/3 -10
Arshavin 14,
Bendtner 90+3
What can I say...? To say that I enjoyed the game would be a lie, I felt like hitting something or someone during most of the game! The worst thing was that their goal shouldn't even have been allowed since the guy was clearly offside.. But we really shouldn't have lost our pace just because we conceded one.
But to be fair Hull defended really well, even though their captain Boateng got two yellow in the first half and was shown the red, first he poked Bendtner in the eye and then he roughly tackled Sagna, but when a team is reduced to ten men, usually it's even harder to score, since then the entire team defends, so it didn't make things easier for us.
We started the game completely brilliant, had good chances and eventually Arshavin worked his magic and fired us to 1-0! Then things looked great, we had good chances, solid defence and lots of possession, but then some guy is offside, continues to run and unfortunately Campbell made enough contact for him to fall and the ref gives Hull a penalty!
After that I basically grew more and more impatient, Arshavin had some great chances, but only managed to shoot the ball over the bar.
Eventually Walcott came in and immediately gave us some pace and chances, but sadly not enough, and as the 90 minutes got closer and closer, we just honestly didn't..
But it only takes one chance to produce a goal, and in the 93rd minute, Denilson's shot was blocked by the Hull keeper, but it bounced right into Bendtner's path, and he shot us right back into the title race!!
Last night when I was reading through the match report, I noticed that Hull scored their penalty in the 28th minute, somehow I recognised that, and looked into the Burnley game from last year, the one that ended 1-1 after Cesc gave us the lead, but in the 28th (!?) minute, Graham Alexander equalized from the spot.. But it did end better this time!
Injury Update;
-Rosicky and Fabregas both missed this game, but is likely to feature in next weeks derby against West Ham at the Emirates.
-As I mentioned earlier Gallas will be out for quite some time now, so he is certain to miss the West Ham clash.
-Song will be back next week though, he's been suspended in the last two Premier League games.
Arshavin 14,
Bendtner 90+3
What can I say...? To say that I enjoyed the game would be a lie, I felt like hitting something or someone during most of the game! The worst thing was that their goal shouldn't even have been allowed since the guy was clearly offside.. But we really shouldn't have lost our pace just because we conceded one.
But to be fair Hull defended really well, even though their captain Boateng got two yellow in the first half and was shown the red, first he poked Bendtner in the eye and then he roughly tackled Sagna, but when a team is reduced to ten men, usually it's even harder to score, since then the entire team defends, so it didn't make things easier for us.
We started the game completely brilliant, had good chances and eventually Arshavin worked his magic and fired us to 1-0! Then things looked great, we had good chances, solid defence and lots of possession, but then some guy is offside, continues to run and unfortunately Campbell made enough contact for him to fall and the ref gives Hull a penalty!
After that I basically grew more and more impatient, Arshavin had some great chances, but only managed to shoot the ball over the bar.
Eventually Walcott came in and immediately gave us some pace and chances, but sadly not enough, and as the 90 minutes got closer and closer, we just honestly didn't..
But it only takes one chance to produce a goal, and in the 93rd minute, Denilson's shot was blocked by the Hull keeper, but it bounced right into Bendtner's path, and he shot us right back into the title race!!
Last night when I was reading through the match report, I noticed that Hull scored their penalty in the 28th minute, somehow I recognised that, and looked into the Burnley game from last year, the one that ended 1-1 after Cesc gave us the lead, but in the 28th (!?) minute, Graham Alexander equalized from the spot.. But it did end better this time!
Injury Update;
-Rosicky and Fabregas both missed this game, but is likely to feature in next weeks derby against West Ham at the Emirates.
-As I mentioned earlier Gallas will be out for quite some time now, so he is certain to miss the West Ham clash.
-Song will be back next week though, he's been suspended in the last two Premier League games.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Arsenal vs. Porto
5-0, Champions League, Emirates, 9/3 -10
Bendtner 10, 25, 90+1(pen)
Nasri 63,
Eboue 66
What a show! Bendtner's response to the critics, absolutely brilliant! And the class on Arshavin and Nasri! Well, I really wouldn't want to pick a man of the match! Everyone was really high class, the entire game was really high class! I mean, 5-0 against the portugese champions, 5-0 in the champions league alone is just amazing! And Bendtner wrote history, the first Arsenal player to score a hat-trick at the Emirates in the Champions League.
We started really well, and we opened up the scoring when Nasri delicately passed towards Arshavin, but Helton was quickly there, and when Arshavin and Helton collided, the ball fell to Bendtner, who slotted it home.
That was only the second goal so far this season that we score in the first fifteen minutes (Fabregas against Burnley, 7').
Just fifteen minutes later Bendtner extended the lead after som amazing play by Arshavin, he just dribbled past the defence, and then ran past them, and delivered to Bendtner, who could just tap it in.
In the second half Porto began with some newly found pace, but eventually we could begin to play our way again, and when Nasri dribbled and ran past three defenders and fired 3-0, the game was punctured.
That goal is one of the most beautiful I have ever witnessed, perhaps even the goal of the season.
3 minutes later Eboue finally got his goal (after the game he said that his friends had mocked him a bit about the fact that he rarely scored), when a Porto corner was headed away, Arshavin won the ball and started running, and when he approached the box, a perfectly timed pass went to Eboue who skipped past Helton and scored!!
In the last minutes of the game Eboue went down in the box and the referee sayed penalty! Bendtner took it with confidence, and 5-0 was a fact!
Injury Update;
-Nasri hobbled off, but I haven't got any information of that at the moment.
-Fabregas is 50/50 for the Hull clash.
-Gallas is 'back at starting point', he felt just fine, but when he started to jog the pain returned, and it is most likely at least another month before he returns.
Bendtner 10, 25, 90+1(pen)
Nasri 63,
Eboue 66
What a show! Bendtner's response to the critics, absolutely brilliant! And the class on Arshavin and Nasri! Well, I really wouldn't want to pick a man of the match! Everyone was really high class, the entire game was really high class! I mean, 5-0 against the portugese champions, 5-0 in the champions league alone is just amazing! And Bendtner wrote history, the first Arsenal player to score a hat-trick at the Emirates in the Champions League.
We started really well, and we opened up the scoring when Nasri delicately passed towards Arshavin, but Helton was quickly there, and when Arshavin and Helton collided, the ball fell to Bendtner, who slotted it home.
That was only the second goal so far this season that we score in the first fifteen minutes (Fabregas against Burnley, 7').
Just fifteen minutes later Bendtner extended the lead after som amazing play by Arshavin, he just dribbled past the defence, and then ran past them, and delivered to Bendtner, who could just tap it in.
In the second half Porto began with some newly found pace, but eventually we could begin to play our way again, and when Nasri dribbled and ran past three defenders and fired 3-0, the game was punctured.
That goal is one of the most beautiful I have ever witnessed, perhaps even the goal of the season.
3 minutes later Eboue finally got his goal (after the game he said that his friends had mocked him a bit about the fact that he rarely scored), when a Porto corner was headed away, Arshavin won the ball and started running, and when he approached the box, a perfectly timed pass went to Eboue who skipped past Helton and scored!!
In the last minutes of the game Eboue went down in the box and the referee sayed penalty! Bendtner took it with confidence, and 5-0 was a fact!
Injury Update;
-Nasri hobbled off, but I haven't got any information of that at the moment.
-Fabregas is 50/50 for the Hull clash.
-Gallas is 'back at starting point', he felt just fine, but when he started to jog the pain returned, and it is most likely at least another month before he returns.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Arsenal vs. Burnley
3-1, Premier League, Emirates, 6/3 -10
Fabregas 34,
Walcott 61,
Arshavin 90+4
What a game... We had tons of chances (Bendtner in particular, but hats up for the guy, he never gave up) but we just couldn't convert them into goals, but it feels nice that in the end we got a comfortable win.
New injury tragedy though, Cesc has picked up the same hamstring problem that he got at the Aston Villa game, and we all know that he was out for a couple of games after that game, so he'll probably miss Tuesday's sooo important clash with Porto, since we lost 2-1 in Portugal, pressure is on us to deliver.
But back to today, it sure was an interesting game to watch, we began really good and built up pressure, but then Burnley had some chances and the game got quite even, but eventually some Nasri-Fabregas class broke the deadlock, Nasri beautifully chipped the ball over the defence, to reach Cesc after his run, and the captain showed pure class when his shot went under 'the beast' in Burnley's goal.
Just have to put in the game's man of the match, Theo!! What a response to all the critics! He shone every second of this game, fed everyone with more chances than they could handle, and eventually got his own beautiful finish!
But before he could score his, Burnley actually equalized, it came out of the blue, with plenty of Walcott action just before, but that is the one thing about football, every attack could turn into a goal, and this time Silvestre lost track of his player just for a second or so, and he got entirely free to chip it over Almunia.
But as I mentioned, Walcott got his goal after some nice movement towards the box, and a nicely placed shot, it really looked like a typical Walcott goal, the shot was simply superb!!
After that we kept on missing chances (!?) and Burnley actually got close to equalize near the end, but Almunia managed a save, and after that we pressed on until the end, Nasri did some great work to set up Arshavin's late winner.
So we hang on in the title race for another week, but the most important thing now is that ww focuse on the next game, Porto..
Injury Update;
-Like I mentioned, Cesc has picked up the same hamstring as earlier in the season, it is still uncertain if he will be available for Tuesday, but I wouldn't hold my breath...
-Sol picked up a groin problem ahead of the game and couldn't make it for this game.
-Gallas is still injured, and Song has begun a two match ban since he has recieved ten yellow cards.
-But on the brighter note Diaby and Arshavin made it back for this game, both started on the bench, but came in for Cesc and Rosicky.
Fabregas 34,
Walcott 61,
Arshavin 90+4
What a game... We had tons of chances (Bendtner in particular, but hats up for the guy, he never gave up) but we just couldn't convert them into goals, but it feels nice that in the end we got a comfortable win.
New injury tragedy though, Cesc has picked up the same hamstring problem that he got at the Aston Villa game, and we all know that he was out for a couple of games after that game, so he'll probably miss Tuesday's sooo important clash with Porto, since we lost 2-1 in Portugal, pressure is on us to deliver.
But back to today, it sure was an interesting game to watch, we began really good and built up pressure, but then Burnley had some chances and the game got quite even, but eventually some Nasri-Fabregas class broke the deadlock, Nasri beautifully chipped the ball over the defence, to reach Cesc after his run, and the captain showed pure class when his shot went under 'the beast' in Burnley's goal.
Just have to put in the game's man of the match, Theo!! What a response to all the critics! He shone every second of this game, fed everyone with more chances than they could handle, and eventually got his own beautiful finish!
But before he could score his, Burnley actually equalized, it came out of the blue, with plenty of Walcott action just before, but that is the one thing about football, every attack could turn into a goal, and this time Silvestre lost track of his player just for a second or so, and he got entirely free to chip it over Almunia.
But as I mentioned, Walcott got his goal after some nice movement towards the box, and a nicely placed shot, it really looked like a typical Walcott goal, the shot was simply superb!!
After that we kept on missing chances (!?) and Burnley actually got close to equalize near the end, but Almunia managed a save, and after that we pressed on until the end, Nasri did some great work to set up Arshavin's late winner.
So we hang on in the title race for another week, but the most important thing now is that ww focuse on the next game, Porto..
Injury Update;
-Like I mentioned, Cesc has picked up the same hamstring as earlier in the season, it is still uncertain if he will be available for Tuesday, but I wouldn't hold my breath...
-Sol picked up a groin problem ahead of the game and couldn't make it for this game.
-Gallas is still injured, and Song has begun a two match ban since he has recieved ten yellow cards.
-But on the brighter note Diaby and Arshavin made it back for this game, both started on the bench, but came in for Cesc and Rosicky.
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