It's been an interesting week, from a personal point of view I have been busy welcoming a new mini-Gooner into this world and from an Arsenal point of view we have seen a couple of rather meaningless defeats and a very important away win in the league. Strangely the only result that really mattered was the Wigan game and that means most of us have been largely content.
The Wigan game showed how much the team has come on in the past few months. We did ride our luck early on with a Santos block saving our blushes, but from then there was only one winner. Gervinho caused havoc all game long, but the opener came courtesy of an Arteta scorcher, Vermaelen then added the second with a header. RVP and Gervinho completed the rout. The confidence that resonated through the team was in mark contrast to the side that could not keep a clean sheet earlier this season for love nor money.
The Olympiakos game was another kettle of fish. Only a small handful of first team players made the trip and unfortunately one of them, Santos, picked up an ankle injury which leaves us dreadfully short of full backs for a few weeks. It was not a surprise to see us lose this game, it is no easy place to travel, but the manner of the defeat and some of the defending was pretty poor to say the least.
Fabianski was terrible before his substitution due to injury, his replacement Vito Mannone was just as bad. Squillaci was by far the poorest of our back four on the night, terribly hesitant, poor decision making and unconvincing with much that he did, Johan Djourou was also poor. Benayoun put in a good shift, and our young central midfielders tried hard, Emmanuel Frimpong was caught on the ball on more than one occasion, showing his need of more experience before being given a run of games for us. Arshavin again disappointed, as did the profligate Chamakh.
It was a reminder that we do need to do some work when the transfer window opens in January. A striker must be high up our shopping list, while replacing some of our ineffective players such as Arshavin, Fabianski, Squillaci and Chamakh must also be a priority in the coming months. We just need a bit more quality in the squad and as things stand it is pretty tough on the youngsters to have to come into a side full of such players.
Now onto last night and the failure of Manchester in Europe. I will not mock Manchester United, they deserved to go out, they had an easy group which they buggered up comprehensively, however they have taken this on the chin and don't deserve fun to be poked at them. Onto Manchester City, unlike their Manchester counterparts, they do deserve to be mocked, they have unsustainable thrown around ridiculous amounts of money in the last few years, they have behaved like spoilt rich kids and have so little respect for anyone but themselves, they have sold their soul and deserve the humiliation.
Although some in the media like to pretend that Manchester City's European campaign was a rip roaring success for their first year, it most definitely was not, they have numerous big money signings who have plenty of European and International experience, they have no excuse for their own dismal failure. The joy experienced by so many neutrals yesterday as Napoli scored their first and second goals will not be lost on City fans, they are fast becoming the most hated club in the country for very good reason. What a fantastic moment for football, it is great to see City's arrogant money bags come crashing down around their corpulent rears; perversely it is the kind of footballing moment that City's fans would have enjoyed themselves in years gone by, but now they have sold their soul it is their turn to be laughed at!
4 comments:
I have to disagree. ManU deserve a level of ridicule for making an arrogant assumption that they would beat Basle.
They were handed their usual easy group and failed to make sure of their pay day.
Their 'transitional' team deserves the same flack that has been leveled at the Gunners for so long.
Fergie is just arrogant enough to take the whole club down.
It's a truly special day. You wake up to the news that we welcome a special addition to the Gooner community. Congratulations mate! With the laughs of last night still ringing in my ear at the Manchester clubs hilarious exit, you take even more pride in the way we've turned the ship around since the groups were first announced. The way the media and pundits went on about the probability of Arsenal not reaching the knockout stage, just goes to show how premature and most often times utterly inept views of the mainstream media really is.
Have a great day fellow Gooners.
I HATE Mancscum so will never pass on a moment to give them what they deserve.
A work colleague was so arrogant the night before the match with Basel, he predicted a minimum 3 goal difference for his team.
They are all no good glory hunting pricks who need the kitchen sink thrown at them.
Citeh are to be pitied as the likeness for them is if a Chav won the Euro lottery. They cant help how they behave, just take a look at how the little Fulham mob down the road have behaved since they won the lottery.
Back to the Mancscum, they have the most arrogant and over rated players of any football team ever. How they have won trophies thes past 10 years is a mystery to me but at a guess much cheating has been going on.
The media buddies of theirs are already stirring trouble for us. There is an article on newsnow about Cesc and how he played with a broken leg for us but had to leave as he couldnt give US no more.
If Cesc has anything to do with this then I want him to know that he was a schoolboy with potential when we stole him from the cradle. We paid him a fortune to play for us and in fact it was us who were doing him a favour.
Never mind I just believe its Old Red nose pals trying to disrupt where we are trying to go with the usual dirty tricks.
There is also now a slot in my Wednesday night TV viewing on Champs league nights now they have been disposed of.
Oh by the way, the hacks were predicting we wouldnt get past Udinese in the qualifier let alone getting into the knockout phase.
Up the Arse.
It'll be interesting what's gonna happen in that ManC dressing room
now that many of their "trophy hungry superstars" will see most of their minutes on the field playing Europa League, FA and Carling.
ManU were having troubles to score now they'll be missing Hernandez for a while and I wonder how their defense will do without Vidic (out for the season), now the team is pretty much were Arsenal was at the start of the season, wondering if they will be able to stay in the top 4.
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