The Gods Are With Us: Opportunity Arises.

Those of you unfamiliar with the tales in the Holy books, there is a story of Moses, a former Egyptian prince, who leads the Jews out of Egypt, and God opens up the seas to lead them to the promised land.


Well, for Arsenal, this is happening for them now, and they better take advantage of this. Their championship rivals are beginning to have the sort of injury problems we had all season, and with 6 points the gap, there are 30 points left to play for after this weekend.


Chelsea.

Their goalkeeper Cech is injured, and maybe for a month, Hilario and Turnbull are not in the same class as him. They have Ashley Cole out for the rest of the season, and with his wife leaving him, there could be a mental strain on the squad, especially since his captain John Terry also had his own issues that have seem to have left him bewildered on the pitch. Essien is also injured, maybe for two more weeks, and he is a key player.


Man Utd.

The reigning champions have had so many injuries all season, now the chickens are coming home to roost too. John O'Shea is injured, new England captain Rio Ferdinand has barely played this season and his partner Vidic has also been injured and also had his head turned by teams in Spain meaning he hasn't been selected in many games. Brazilian Anderson is out for the season with a knee injury, Hargreaves hasn't played this year, Giggs has been out and may not make the AC Milan game with a bone fracture. Nani has been suspended just as he was looking the mustard.


Arsenal.

We are now used to injuries, and even though our list is still quite long, we don't play the opposition the other two will, we only have Man City and Spurs. We do need Gallas back asap, also we need Arshavin back asap.


Lets hope the troops believe they can pull this off.

Porto 2 - Arsenal 1: Arsenal have no keepers and no guts......again.

What is wrong with our club? Just 24 hours before, I watched Man Utd come back from a battering in the San Siro, 1-0 down, they roared back to win 3-2. What did our team do? We saw our keeper gift Porto a goal, after Clichy continued his poor form by not tackling and closing down, then we saw Campbell and Fabianski, in alliance with the rest of the team not react to a quick free kick at point blank range, and the team were buried.


What is more worrying, is Arsenal have two shits in goal, Almunia has played like shit this season, Fabianski has also played like shit, Mannone started to play like shit and cost us points. Wenger needs to get real right now and secure a keeper who will arrive after the final whistle of the season. We will not win anything with such keepers, what a joke they are. Even Sczeny on loan, he is not yet good enough to start for us, maybe in 5 years, we don't have 5 years.


Another thing, Fabregas saying we made schoolboy errors, with an apparent dig at Fabianski, well he should shut up and learn how to take a corner properly. All of them sucked bar one, and even that wasn't enough. He also dropped his head, again. He never performs in the big games, he likes to slay small teams, but the big boys show him how far he has to go to be a top level player. Talent is not enough, you need sheer will as well, what prevented him running himself into the ground to tie the game for HIS side? If this is what he wants to act like, then give us the £50m and let him leave, because you are not good enough to make us champions.


Wenger needs to shut up as well. Why not tell your team that you need to be alert for 95mins? Didn't Sagna say we had learned from being switched off? We haven't learned, same as we haven't learned that our keepers stink and that Clichy is stinking and that we suck defending counter attacks. We used to be savvy enough to do crafty things like quick free kicks, now we have kids who know nothing about these tricks and we suck, what a shame.


For ratings, Fabianski gets a 0, Rosicky a 4, the rest get 2's, Walcott gets a 0, Eboue a 3, Wenger a 0.

Man Utd and Chelsea school Arsenal, but maybe not enough

What a torrid run of games and results, having played 4 'top' teams in a row, Aston Villa 0-0, Man Utd 1-3, Chelsea 2-0, Liverpool 1-0, the team only managed to get 4 points out of 12, not good enough, furthermore, 4 games, 1 goal scored, 5 against. This is when the pendulum starts to swing for a team looking for the championship, and at the moment, Arsenal are 6 points behind the leaders Chelsea, make that 7 when you include their far superior Goal Difference and Head-to-Head count.


From the Aston Villa game, it showed that it was a big mistake to not buy players, creativity was stunted and there were no strikers. Man Utd came to London, and exposed Arsenal on the counter attack, Clichy and Almunia particularly looking like they were on loan to Man Utd for the day, Clichy owned by Nani, Almunia just ridiculous. Chelsea further exposed Arsenal, weak marking on set pieces then on the counter attack. Both games, Arsenal suffered using Arshavin as a point man to lead the attack. Liverpool also exposed Arsenal on the break, but never scored.


Only two major stumbling blocks are now in the final games, Spurs away and Man City at home, what is clear, Arsenal cannot slip up at all, no draws, no losses, they need 3 points in every game. With 12 games to go and chasing a 6 point deficit, it leaves 10 games to try win the league.


What angered me most is that Arsenal never changed tactics, Arshavin up front was never going to do anything, and why do the full backs always have to come forward, in fact, why do the central defenders come out? Ever see Vidic/Terry come forward? Look at their GA column, it explains a lot. Also I don't know what we do in training, do we know what a counter attack is? We need to stop them with small fouls and real defending, tell that to Denilson-Fabregas-Song-Clichy-Vermaelen-Sagna-Gallas. Also, teams now know we are crap on defending counter attacks, Liverpool barely play for quick breaks and looked good doing it, the team needs to react to this new reality and make teams try to win another way. Spurs and City will surely look to use this tactic and exploit the team on the break.


Match Ratings for all the games: Not much time, but here are the players who suck right now, Almunia (not a keeper or a sportsman) - Clichy (can't defend, can't attack, getting slow) - Sagna (can't cross so wastes the ball) - Vermaelen and Gallas (both paid to defend, too many goals are flying in, so they suck) - Denilson (no desire ) - Fabregas (no leadership in tough times) - Walcott (just leave) - Arshavin (talks about others not being good enough, on these showings, neither is he) - Wenger (no tactics, no new players in January, does he want us to hate him?).

Lets hope that despite those bashings, the team can do something special and fight to the bitter end for the championship.