Kosc & Cesc are out. Djourou & Diaby are starting.

6'8" Nicolas Zigic makes me nervous. Go back to Valencia!

**** all

Neat pass from Wilshere on that Chamakh goal, a nice finish from his as well. Jacky ruined the day by being sent off, hes on a 3 match ban now, wtf man. Fun game to watch nonetheless, I dont recall Birmingham touching the ball for more than 30 seconds at a time in the second half, I guess Rosicky gets the start next week unless Fab stops being a ninny and gets on the pitch.

Rosicky looks great.

Hleb looked so short on fitness in the 2nd half, it was saddening to see. Poor Jacky got himself sent off, but I think he'll learn from it. That was a very, very bad challenge. But he played BRILLIANTLY all day up to that point. Pinpoint passing, beautiful 1-2 that should've opened the scoring with Chamakh.

Can someone explain to me why Squillaci is the captain? I'd rather Nasri take the armband.

Now then...Song is our only holding midfielder, 4-1-3-2 formation, anybody?

Squillaci is senior in age to everyone else I suppose, Wenger also likes the Captain to shout commands from the back, so its natural he'd pick him. But as far as team seniority is concerned, I agree, Nazzy would be great.

I really would like Song to stay put, he likes to go forward too much, and while he can look brilliant at times, he dispossesses the ball entirely too much leading to counter attacks. I've never been a fan of a lone striker, so that formation would be nice to test just to see how we run it.

Mario Gomez nets 3...is he back? I sure hope so!

Was he ever there?

At Bayern no. Stuttgart? Yes!

2nd goal was the Super Mario we know and love!

maybe he'll show up for Germany one day like that.

lmao right! Germany has a pretty well balanced attack as it is with tons of depth but it couldnt hurt!

Arsenal won today from what I saw. What was the outcome again and against who?

Arsenal 2-1 Birmingham City

lulz Liverpool 0-2 Everton. Poor, poor scousers.

News is Torres may go to Inter?

news is wayne rooney wants out. SAF is an idiot, he has tossed great players to the side because they got into a little pissing contest with him. hah!

rumor is man city. god that'd be a knife in the back for ManUre.

Rooney's contract runs through the end of 2011. I wonder if they'd sell him or let his contract run out.

More than anything, I'd bet money they'd do their best to keep him. Rooney's too valuable a player to write off, even despite his recent form.

Listen to these cock gobblers:
Birmingham hit out at Arsenal players' conduct - Barclays Premier League - ESPN Soccernet

does anyone else find it amusing that its Arsenal that are labeled thugs now? I got a good laugh out of that article.

So i'm reading all these articles talking about Cesc, Theo and Dane are making a comeback from injury for the Shaktar game, and I cant help but think, wtf is with all these pansy a$$ injuries these guys are out for weeks with? I've played entire matches with a badly sprained ankle, i've played games with broken metatarsals, hip injuries, etc. Why do they baby these players like they do? If i had an issue, i'd ace it up good and tight and a quick shot of cortizone if the pain was too much, if you ask me, modern day footballers are pussies.

Cesc won't start against Shakhtar, we need him 100% fit for ManCity. That's going to be a tough game...and I'm biting my nails already with the thought of Fabianski in goal. Who, I gotta say, has turned a little corner in my mind right now, but not enough for me to be comfortable. Bendtner is an idiot, he's nowhere near fully match fit. Theo? That's the X-factor for me. If Theo is pre-injury Theo, rocking the right wing and wreaking havoc with good crosses and ridiculous runs, then we're good as gold there.

I hope we spell Arshavin. He's playing too much right now. It'd be nice to give Vela some burn too and spell Chamakh for ManCity. We can start Chamakh, then bring Bendtner on at 60 minutes, I think.

...................Fabianski

Eboue.....Djourou.....Squillaci.....Gibbs

.....................Song

.........Diaby.....Nasri.....Rosicky

...........Chamakh.......Vela

Now then, for last week...because I got REALLY pissed off during that game.

Birmingham is just pissy, but I agree with Arseblog, Birmingham is the one that's always howling about Martin Taylor's tackle on Eduardo now. We've been pretty quiet about it.

Yes, Chamakh does go down easily, but if there's contact, there's a penalty. Yes he embellished it a bit, though, so hopefully he puts a bit more subtlety in his approach, especially now that the refs are going to be watching him a bit more closely. You know, maybe a tad more than Roger Johnson (whoever the **** that is) coming out with a "perfectly good center-back tackle" and planting an elbow in Chamakh's head. And Johnson still comes out to the press with a "woe is me" story? You've got to be kidding me!

(Speaking of which, did anybody else get pissed off with the commentary? "perfectly good tackle" my ***, Trevor Francis, go **** yourself)

Nasri should have been recarded? What the ****? He knee'd Ridgewellin the arse because when Birmingham tried to do the free kick the first thing Ridgewell did was try to snap his ankle off. Go look at the video again, his leg just comes out of nowhere and kicks Nasri. I'd be pissed too, what kind of silly conduct is that? **** you Birmingham, you sorry sack of cunts. I'll be the first one in line with the baseball bat, thank you very much.


Sad side note. I think the Emirates is so much worse than the old Highbury days. It's so quiet now, there's only one corner that really screams support. The "greatest team" chant is so lazy, because the supports have nothing more imaginative. It's so...blasé now. Anybody else think so?

EDIT: I guess we won't see Don Vito this season?
Arsenal goalkeeper Mannone joins Hull on loan
So...Fabianski -> Sczesny -> Almunia. Right? RIGHT????

The sane person would do that, but this is SAF we're talking about. As soon as a player crosses him they're as good as dead to the manager. So if Rooney has already burned that bridge, isn't it as good as over?

ManU is pretty good right now with Hernandez and Berbatov up front IMO. Chicharito can be pretty special.

Poor, poor Liverpool though. What is going to happen to them? I predict Torres gone by January after demanding his way out of a bad situation. NESV will let him go for a princely transfer sum, and will begin the rebuilding project from ground zero.

In Serie A news:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...europe&cc=5901

Bahahahahaha, how did he NOT realize that at Barcelona, I'll never know.

Lol, wut? Hernandez will end up in La Liga within 3 years, I'm sure of it. Berbatov might be their best chance really.

Since it's been confirmed by Fergie himself,

Wayne Rooney to quit Manchester United: Sir Alex Ferguson admits wants striker wants to go and says 'I'm shocked and disappointed' - News - MirrorFootball.co.uk

it will be interesting to see where Wayne ends up. If he stays in the league, you can guarantee that City will be willing to write a check for him that no other club can match, and there's no bigger F U to your manager and current club than to sign for your local rivals. (See WILLIAM GALLAS) Can't really see him at Chelsea, Spurs or even Liverpool. I could definitely see him in an Inter shirt though, if he wants to leave England. Or he could do a Becks and sign with Milan. Either way, it's time to start Rooney-watch 2010. :tup:


BTW, I know this is a Gunners thread, so I wanted to say nice job thrashing Shakhtar today in the CL. London clubs represent! 3 for 3 if Spurs can defeat Inter at the San Siro tomorrow.

It's not really an Arsenal thread, it's just the three of us who post the most happen to be Arsenal fans.

what a HORRIBLE-SLOPPY showing my Milan today :mad:

I started watching the match, then without thinking cruised to soccernet.com & saw the score. I looked up, saw Real score their goals, & was happy I didn't waste my afternoon watching the match.

PS: Phelan, I agree with your honorary 6.5 for Dudu on TGH.

:tup: he's still Arsenal's No. 9 to me.

Eduardo's strike made me get all teary-eyed. I miss seeing him in the Arsenal colors, he was on his way to becoming a tremendous player for us. Then...Birmingham. Fail.

The Emirates gave him a great response on the goal too. Someone else mentioned it, the scoreline might as well have been 6-0 to the Arsenal because of who scored it.

There will never be songs of Eduardo like "we've got arshavin, f*ck adebayor" :rofl2:


batman_4 - Milan has itself to blame for that soft wall it put up. But the second goal? I'm less convinced, it was an ugly goal that went to Ozil. Well played all around though, Ronaldinho looked pretty energized for a while.

Anybody else see Bayern squeak by thanks to 2 own goals gifted to them by FC Cluj? That was pretty ugly, without those OGs, 2-1 to Cluj. Should have been a draw at least.

So I was watching today and couldnt help but think "why the eff cant we play like this against Chelsea and ManUre?". Our midfield was cold as ice tonight, I dont know if the inclusion of Cesc back into the team adds a spark to everyones game, but man they were lights out.

Nasri's touch on that second goal was stupid. So deft, so soft, and then a rocket. He is genius.

JDub got on the score sheet, that made my day and a hell of a one-two it was, he controlled it well and slotted ever so gently, beautiful.

Seeing Dudu back on the pitch was hard to take. Like Phelan said, he was well on his way to being one of the Arsenal greats. After that horrific injury, he just never seemed to have the pace that he once had and was afraid to go all out into challenges. I respect AW's decision but it was great to see him back on the scoresheet and to get the ovation he did.

Two things I took from today: Jacky is going to be one of the England greats. Hes a freakin kid and plays like a midfielder in the prime of their career, so entertaining to watch. And two, Cesc is a game changer, I dont care how you cut it, the mood of the team changes when he plays, they attack more, play more accurate balls, and above all else, score goals. Great game, i'm ready to have Theo back now.

Just wanted to say, fellow Gooner faithful, i'm going to be living on the border of Germany and France in July next year, and I plan on attending no less than 10 Arsenal games a season, be jealous :tup:

Don't see it happening, not without van der Vaart. Gareth Bale is special, but not THAT special.

am jealous

okay who is watching sp*rs implode against inter? gomes got sent off, had to sub modric, now down 3-0 and it's not even 20 minutes

edit: 4-0 to inter at half time. this is almost depressing. yes it's inter, but who would've thought an EPL team would've curled over and died on the pitch?

maybe this is like that 'fake Togo' team. who are these guys, and what did they do with the usual sp*rs?!

I'm not watching, but I wish I were.

dear tottenham:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1156/...de14875d_z.jpg

edit: oh sh*t they scored!

Rooney signed a new five year deal with MU.

Whut the fack?

Happy birthday, le Prof!

Probably offered him another 100,000 pds a week w/ the addition of a quick BJ from SAF and the promise he would never be benched again. That kid is motivated by greed, could see it in his earlier years when he shat on Everton, the team he promised he would finish his career at (granted he was 16 when he made the comment) but whatever, i've never been a big fan of his, hes awful at the international level. I will say this, ManUre better start shelling out some cash in these transfer windows, the teams in a rapid decline in midfield and an aging defense isnt going to help matters either.

:icon18: :roflpuke2: :owned:

no wonder Fab and everyone else falls out with injury after RvP does... its contageous!

Glazernomics = fail though. Rooney's going to have a tough first game back in three weeks too, since half of United is now thinking "wow you greedy son of a bitch" and the other half is still singing his name. Going to be weiiiiird. Hope it was worth it.

Thoughts on ManShity v. Arsenal this weekend? I'm thinking a draw. And on the RvP injury note, TGH got it bang on, he's basically a bonus when he can play, but we've made strides in playing without. Which is sad, since he's the most loyal Gunner on the squad, and absolute magic when he is on the pitch.

In other unrelated news, my fantasy soccer team is now an embarassment of riches for a starting eleven.

.....................Drogba.....Bent

Malouda....Nasri....Fabregas....Van der Vaart....Nani

.............Cole.....Hangeland....Richards