The Curtain Raiser: Everton Away

So it begins...

The season begins in just over 12 hours and we face as tough a test as ever: the mighty Everton in their domain. With the season not even started there is a lot of negativity in the press with the annual Fabregas to Barcelona rumours pulsating and the "Arsenal will lose its fourth place spot and end up trophyless" comments throbbing. There is much to be positive about though. The signing of Thomas Vermaelen and the return of Eduardo and the delayed return of Tomas Rosicky are things to be gleeful for.

Key Battles to watch:
Vermaelen vs Saha- Thomas Vermaelen looks to be an immense defender and will be able to prove himself tomorrow. Saha will be a difficult test for Vermaelen.

Fellaini and Cahill vs Song and Fabregas- Fabregas' creativity and playmaking will be watched closely by Fellaini while that of Cahill will be marked by Song.

Van Persie vs Lescott
Van Persie will look to start his season strong and he will be marked by one of the best English defenders.

Arshavin vs Tim Howard
Arshavin will be Tim Howard's biggest problem and there is not much the American's defense can do to stop the phenomenal Russian.

Prediction: 1-2 to the Arsenal.
Won't be able to predict the goals but I expect the Gunners to star the season off with a bang at Goodison Park.

The Summer

So I start my blog on the eve before the new season.

This summer has understandably worried fans as they saw players like Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor off to Manchester City and only signing Vermaelen. Gooners should not worry as Kolo Toure had not touched the same form since he picked up his injury at the African Cup of Nations and he was a wantaway since January with Manchester City the suitors the whole time. Adebayor had had one great season and one horrible season and seemed disinterested since he signed his new and fat contract. With Eduardo coming back to full fitness, the Gunners have enough firing power up front.

There is still a possibility of signing Brede Hangeland, who could patch up some defensive weakness we may have.... More to follow...

The End of the Obscure Winter Drought: Thoughts post-West Brom

The match against West Brom had a lot of positives. Nicklas Bendtner had a great double which once again reaffirms his potential of becoming a great player to all his naysayers. The West Brom goal was our wall’s fault, which is frustrating as we lost the second Manchester match off a free kick that was not protected by our wall. Arshavin’s great cross aiding Toure’s goal was outstanding.

Arshavin playing 90 minutes and looking even less tired than he looked in the match against Fulham, let alone Sunderland, is reassuring that he has the mental capacity to break his body into the EPL quickly. Arshavin’s inclusion in the starting eleven allowed us to keep Van Persie out of it and thus keeping him from exhaust and possible injury for the FA Cup match this weekend, and more importantly, the Champions league tie against Roma. Arshavin’s role this season is to help us get into the top 4 and our fight for the FA Cup. So far, his performances have been outstanding, creating opportunites for himself by his extraordinary dribbling skills, nearly scoring with accurate, powerful shots while creating opportunities for his teammates with accurate passes and incredible vision that reminds of when Cesc was on the pitch (!!).

The most important part of Tuesday’s match was the breaking of the chains that kept us from scoring. Breaking the mental block of not being able to score and going ahead and, well, score, is critical.

Today, Manchester City gifted Arsenal by beating Aston Villa without Robinho and Bellamy. If Barcelona can dramatically drop 8 points in La Liga, Villa can easily drop enough points to let Arsenal back in the Top 4. Although most of the squad and Wenger say the pressure is on Aston Villa, it is clear we need to get ourself into the top four. We need to take the goalless draws as warnings, and begin winning matches consistently.
Arsenal sits only three points beneath Aston Villa and hope is more “reasonable” and “realistic” again. Talks were beginning again that Wenger has “lost the plot” and other premature talks of Arsenal’s greatness being tapped out. ETC ETC ETC.

Arsenal will be in the Champions League next year…. Trust in Arsene.

Beginning of a New Era- The Return of Eduardo da Silva

The second leg of the replay of the 5th round of the FA Cup versus Cardiff is the beginning of a new era. The first leg can potentially mark the end of the rebuilding, trophyless era.
The first game against Cardiff came in a time when we were still 5th, losing points in games like West Ham home. A lot has changed. Now we have Eduardo and Arshavin and are in sight of the return of Cesc, Theo, and Tommy boy.

At first sight, the game marks the comeback of Eduardo.
Before beginning my Obama-esque rhetoric that will piss off a lot of “realist” Arsenal fans who are calling for Wenger’s head, let’s rejoice. Let’s rejoice as Arsenal fans for the return of our fallen comrade, the fox in the box, Eduardo. Let’s rejoice as football fans at the return of a world class finisher who‘s career was almost lost because of a malicious, dirty tackle. Let’s rejoice as human beings for the return of a wounded athlete who’s injury almost cost him his foot not to mention his career. The fox in the box hadn’t played a single game in almost one year, but what a comeback! Two goals before coming off as a substitute just after having a hat trick denied by the keeper: This was a moment that brought tears to many football fans and his comeback is a human triumph.

Eduardo is the first wave of long-term injuries coming back. With Fabregas, Walcott. And eventually Rosicky, Arsenal will enter the new season stronger than in recent teams. By eight weeks time, we could potentially have a squad like this
-----------------[Almunia]---------------------
Sagna---------Toure-----Gallas/Djourou--------Clichy

Arshavin---------Denilson-------Fabregas---------Nasri


------------- Adebayor-----------------Van Persie-----

Fighting for spots on Substitutes and/or Starting 11:
Fabianski
Gallas/Djourou
Denilson
Rosicky
Walcott
Eduardo
Pink Boots Niklas
Vela
Eboue
Song


This squad will be scary. Perhaps a bit optimistic with the injury-free utopia, but imagine. Imagine all the talent! Eduardo will bring the best out of our strikers who underperform and could become a starer, Arshavin, Rosicky, Walcott and Nasri fighting for the wings will just bring us to great form.

Of course, this is assuming we don’t have players exiting and unexpected, unusual injuries occurring again. (You happy, you realists?- or should I assume Wenger gets fired as well?) The fact of the matter is, we are better off as a team emotionally and in numbers with the return of DUDU. The main point is that the club consisting of this XI and bench looks more like a top 4 team than what we were working with at the lower points of the season. At worst it looks as strong as last season’s team. At best, it looks as strong as the Invincible.

Wow.

Derby Day Blues

Wow. What a derby! Everything you'd expect from a North London Derby was present on Sunday. Contempt, controversy, physicality... Do I even need to list them? Basically all the greatness of the most fiery of North London Derbies was present except for goals and the routine Arsenal hammering of the yids.

The villain of the day, Eboue, looked strong in the opening minutes, and even got a goal that was controversially denied by the officials. It wasn't long, however, for the hotheaded Ivorian to begin acting within his narrow character design who's main ingredients are immaturity, lack of professionalism, and utter stupidity. The first yellow card, for dissent, although a bit harsh and early, was a his fault. His demeanor towards the referee was hostile and he was pushing buttons. His second yellow was where he displayed his lack of thinking as he tripped Modric. The result of his sending off was leaving Arsenal a man down for sixty minutes and kept Arshavin from coming on as a substitute. Eboue, at the end of the day, cost Arsenal two points, leaving us within a Mr. Fantastic-arms reach of the top four.

The rest of the team delivered a great performance given that it was a ten man team. Aside from Toure, the defense looked very sharp. Both Gallas and Almunia had one of their strongest performances for Arsenal as did Alexandre Song. Song broke up play very well and marked very well. The midfield lacked creativity and obviously numbers as well.

What to say, what to say... The game was all in all disappointing... not sure what to think of it. As a result, it is incredibly frustrating, but being handicapped in your rivals' home for sixty minutes and shutting them out is a feat in itself.

Andrey "Arsha-ssin" Arshavin

Today, I write my first post on the Gooner Manifesto. I wanted my blog to begin the day we knew for sure whether or not the Andrei Arshavin transfer would be successful.

It is a historic day for Arsenal Football Club. Whether we followed the rumours and news at work or school in the midday or at nighttime during dinner or before sleep, us fans pushed F5 in jittery anticipation. There was a vast difference between signing and not signing Arshavin in the fate our beloved Arsenal F.C. would experience not just this season but next season as well (top 4?). This coupled with the fact that the outcome of this transfer was to be decided in the matter of hours and from several different factors (bizarrely including the weather!) made work, school, family and obligations distractions to the day. Major forums such as Arsenal-mania.com went down because of high traffic, leaving us to push refresh on Arsenal.com with the expectation that the next click would bring forth the confirmation. We slept feeling Arshavin’s transfer would be complete and authenticated soon, but the perturbing possibility of some sort of a collapse loomed above our heads as we dreamt of the future Arsenal squad with Arshavin in it.

Being at the crossroads of the club’s future the transfer of Arshavin will prove to be one of Wenger’s most important in the context of the club’s current. This steal (much less than what Zenit valued him after Euro 2008) will prove to be the equivalent of the captures that were Viera, Henry, Bergkamp, and Nasri (you’ll see ;-) ).

Zenit, in the end, was disgracefully greedy and malicious with this transfer and unfortunately did not respect the wishes of an icon of the club who had put ten years of world class service. No matter. Arshavin ended up at the end of all this where he wants to be with his own desire for world class, free-flowing football costing him a pay cut and an agonizing, 34 day transfer saga. Wenger’s patience and persistence with a club stubborn enough to ward off the likes of Barcelona is to be praised and this can be the turning point of the season.

Finally we can look to the future with proper lenses and put all this behind us. We can look to taking ourselves as far as we could in the Champions League (without Arshavin, as he is cup-tied). We can look to the possibility of going to the Wembley for the F.A. Cup final. Most importantly, us Gunners can look to keeping our top 4 spot.

First, we must fix our eyes onto our match at White Hart Lane and hold optimism in the whimsical possibility that Arshavin will debut and maybe, just maybe, even score and cement himself into the future of Arsenal F.C. Ooh to, Ooh to be, Ooh to be a...