Arsenal 3 - Burnley 1: Slow but Exciting.

So, Arsenal have drawn blades with the other big knights, Man Utd and Chelsea, and are now equal on points with Chelsea, and 2 points behind Man Utd. I am bittersweet about this result, it is bitter because we took so long to seal the deal and now have Fabregas out, sweet as it increases the pressure on the other teams who know they cannot afford to slip up.


The first goal, it saw Fabregas connect with Nasri, the latter it seemed looked to have dwelt too long and looked indecisive, but Fabregas made a small run and he lofted it over the defence with precision for Fabregas to slide under the keepers legs, really nice stuff.


After that, we were treated to a Bendtner masterclass in how to miss chances, it was trully ridiculous how many chances he missed, headers, tap ins, shots, the lot, he managed to mess them up. is Luciano Moggi of calciopoli his agent, because it is madness to miss so many chances?


Nugent broke the offside trap and again we were treated to an Almunia slow motion save, 1-1, with Burnleys only chance of the game. Almunia and Silvestre were awful, even Vermaelen for that, watch the man and get the line right.


Walcott was playing decently, and he scored the second, cutting in from the right and for a change, using his left foot to guide a shot beyond the keeper, 2-1. Arshavin and Eduardo came on, they never added much urgency, the former scoring the third with a low hard drive in the box.


This game shows some flaws in the team, you cannot spurn so many chances and hope to win a championship. Added the fact they play Porto for CL qualification, the team should have had an easy last 30mins to save up energy, instead they had to play the entire 95mins to secure a result, big shame. Nice to see Nasri centrally, more of the same, Bendtner needs to learn to score, Walcott needs to learn elementary control, some of the lapses of control he showed were a disgrace for a professional footballer.


Player Ratings

Almunia 4: Not much action, but failed to save the Nugent goal, wake up.

Eboue 5: Nice thrusting play from him, he should work on his left foot though.

Vermaelen 5: Decent, at fault for the equaliser though.

Silvestre 4: Attack the player, don't stand off them.

Clichy 4: Not much work, but should add much more in attack.

Denilson 5: Decent passing and squeezing space.

Nasri 6.5: Why isn't he deployed here more often? Not likened to Zidane for nothing you know Wenger!!

Fabregas 5: Injured, but scored a nice goal, big loss for Porto.

Rosicky 5.5: I love this guy, very involved and his intelligence is key to the team.

Walcott 5: Lots of speed, but his crosses need to be more measured and he needs to learn basic control.

Bendtner 2: 1 for being present, 1 for trying, but seriously, no striker for a team looking for titles can spurn so many chances, really ridiculous performance by him.


Wenger 5: Easy game to manage, but why play Silvestre and why not take Bendtner off earlier? Forget being nice, do what is right for results, take Bendtner out earlier, the game may have been over by 60mins and the team will be less fatigued for Porto.

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.