Poor Outing Ends Winning Streak: The Player Ratings

Szczesny (6) – Respectable showing. Did his part. Nothing he could have done to prevent either goal.

Koscielny (5) – Average performance, reads the game well. Busy day, got bullied atimes.

Vermaelen (3) – Terrible showing. Was at fault for both goals. He’ll want to forget this one very quickly.

Sagna (5) – One cannot really complain. Did his job well.

Gibbs (5) – Decent outing.

Arteta (5) – Lacked the inspiration to move us forward. Needs to be more adventurous.

Song (4) – Poor game. That chipped effort doesn’t work out every time. He needs to keep it simple atimes.

Rosicky (5) – He was shifted to the left to accommodate Ramsey. He did not do anything worthwhile.

Walcott (6) – Good goal, did well against Taiwo. Inconsistent game though, sometimes went missing.

Ramsey (4) – Justified the fans’ complaints about him starting. Terrible performance.

Van Persie (4) – He has had better days surely. He missed a great chance as his goal drought continues.

SUBSTITUTES

Chamakh (2) – As Piers said “if the answer is Chamakh, the question should be changed.”

Gervinho (3) – Like Norwich away, this is the kind of game he should have started.

Oxlade Chamberlain (N/A)

Wenger (1) Terrible selection today. Ramsey adds nothing to the team at the moment, why start him? Why wait till the 70th minute to make a change when all is clearly not well?

In all it was a poor performance. QPR looked like they needed the win more. A lot of players were mere passengers today.

Let’s hope it’s nothing but an “off day”.

See you in the comments!

Arsenal watch Montolivo|Interesting Vertonghen news|QPR Preview

I lost my previous post, an awesome one at that. Words cannot describe how pained I feel as I try to remeber everything I wrote in that amazing missive. Now I have to write another post. Here goes.

A really boring week on the Arsenal front if you ask me, all talk no action. We get to see the team play tomorrow though, so that should give us a reason to look forward to the weekend.

Since we are out of the UCL, the only thing one can read about Arsenal is transfer story after story. So I’ll just go through the stories that have caught my attention.

Arsenal have apparently enquired about the availability of Italian midfielder, Ricardo Montolivo. Boro Primorac was in attendance in Fiorentina’s 2-2 draw with Genoa to watch the 27-year-old in action, and a deal is in the offing. He’s free, mature and is a quality player.

But we said the same thing about a certain Moroccan we got for free. Let’s hope Montolivo changes my opinion on free players.

The Daily Mail thinks we are preparing a move for Udinese forward Luis Muriel. He has been dubbed the Colombian Cristiano Ronaldo by some and if he is anything close to the Portuguese machine, we should snap him up. My fear is he may turn out to be more of Nani than Cristiano. Still worth a punt in my opinion.

As if we didn’t already know, Le Boss stressed yesterday that we cannot afford to switch off as we enter the crucial stage of the season. Said He:

“This is the period where what we do matters the most, so we just want to keep our focus on this and not worry about anybody else’s results.”

I have said this over and again, if this season has taught us anything, it is that things can change very quickly. As at the 35th minute mark against the Spuds 3 weeks ago, we were staring at a 13-point gap. Now we are 3 points ahead of the Tiny Tots.

Even though we have games against Citeh and Chelski coming up, I’m more worried about our visit to Stoke. The Brittania has not been a particularly hunting ground and seeing what they did to Citeh, we need to be on guard for 90 mins.

Let me not jump the gun, we ‘travel’ to QPR tomorrow and I expect us to pick up from where we left off. I don’t expect a lot of changes, maybe Wenger might be tempted to bring in Andre Santos for Gibbs. Other than that, I expect the same side that put Villa to the sword. Diaby may get a spot on the bench though.

Cisse is missing for them, so that should reduce their firepower; not like he stands a chance against Koscielny or Vermaelen. Anything less than maximum points is not good enough.

I bet with my Chelsea supporting friend over whose team will finish higher on the table, come May. I’ve been teasing him for 2 weeks now, all I ask is one more week of gloating.

Robin has not scored in a while, we need him to start doing that soon. 5 halves without a goal is a drought for someone of his class. A 3 nil win and 2 RVP goals will mean a perfect weekend of football for me.

That’s yer lot for today. Don’t be like me and have fun this Friday night. Nah, I’m not a boring guy, it’s just that I have this crucial School League game in the morning. I don’t want to pull a Balotelli on my team.

I’ll be here tomorrow with a full report and player ratings. Enjoy the game wherever you watch from. Promises to be fun.

Don’t forget to follow us on twitter @goonermemoirs. Tell your friends to follow us too.

P.S: I saw some story on twitter about a deal for Vertonghen almost done. I don’t know what to make of it. Do let me know what you think in the comments section.

Cheers!

Arsenal close in on £7m deal|Mass Clearout Planned.

Welcome to another day everyone. I hope the past two days have been good to you.

The picture above reminds me of how much I’ve missed the little Russian we once loved. I still love you very much, Andrei! Nothing sexual of course!

Whew! I’m glad I cleared my mind on that. So enough with the emotional talk.

Plenty Arsenal news this morning, let’s head straight into the post.

It looks like we’ll be making an early move for Ajax captain, Jan Vertonghen this summer.

Having seemingly sealed the deal for Poldi, it is believed we are trying to tie up a cut deal in the region of £7m for Vert, who has only one year left on his contract.

Apparently, Wenger has learned from his mistakes of last summer and is looking to conclude business very early this time around.

It can also be viewed as a ploy to make RVP sign on. A statement of intent, signaling to Robin that the club is serious about challenging for the title next season.

Talking Robin, there’s been talk he’ll be offered 120k to make him stay. We all know he’s not about the money, and while a pay rise will surely help, the team’s chance of competing for trophies is the determining factor.

A major clear out is expected this summer. It is believed some fringe players will be sold or released as the case may be to give space for quality players.

Daily Mail reports that Arshavin’s loan move is likely to be turned into a permanent deal. Naturally you’d expect me to be gutted if that happened.

Arsenal are also looking to make Denilson’s move to Sau Paulo permanent. The Brazilian side are however reluctant to pay him 50,000 quid weekly, something we paid him for how many years? Says a lot really.

It is also believed that players like Nik Bendtner, Vela, Squillaci and Almunia will be sold, freeing the club of up to £23m in annual wages. 23m we hope will go into signing new quality players.

One quality player who won’t be signing for us is Mario Gotze. News broke he signed a new deal with Dortmund yesterday, one which ties him down till 2016.

I won’t say I’m disappointed because I honestly didn’t think we could sign him. I mean, he’s valued at £35m or thereabout, way out of our fishing range.

So with Gotze a no-go and Podolski as good as signed. What player(s) would you love to see at the Emirates next season? In an Arsenal jersey of course!

Let me know in the comments!

Have a great day ahead!

3 Goals, 3 Points Clear in 3rd Place : Talking Points.

A wonderful morning it is for everyone connected to The Arsenal. The cloud of negativity that hung over the club since the start of the season seems to have vanished completely.

Yesterday’s convincing win against Aston Villa was our 7th on the trot in the League. The last time we managed this was when we were winning trophies at will. That gives you an idea of how long it’s been.

Granted, Villa were missing Bent and Dunne, arguably their best two players, but the manner in which we went about yesterday’s operation was emphatic to say the least.

I won’t bore you with a match report as I’m not really good at those and I’m sure you must have read it somewhere, if you didn’t see the game that is. So let’s look at the talking points.

Major positive for me was Theo Walcott. He gave a mature performance, was a nuisance and posed a constant threat. His goal was a joy to watch.

A couple of minutes earlier, Song gave him a similar ball, his control was on point but the ball drifted away.

On the second attempt though, he controlled perfectly, dropped his shoulder and showed good composure to beat Shay Given at his near post. His celebration showed what the goal meant to him.

Another positive was the defensive performance. Koscielny missed out through a minor injury and Djourou came on in his place. People wrote him off before he kicked a ball, and that’s sad to see.

Maybe he hasn’t been exactly great in his last few games but this is the same Djourou who was outstanding in 35 odd games for us last season.

Our capitulation against Newcastle last season began when he went off injured. So it was good to see him put in a great shift yesterday.

He, along with the 3 other men in defence did well. We kept a clean sheet at home, our first in the League in 2012.

I was going to single out Arteta for praise, but that wouldn’t be fair. So let’s just commend our midfield trio for yet another virtuoso performance.

Song got another beautiful assist, Rosicky continued his resurgence, Arteta got a bullet of a goal. Complete midfield performance.

Andre Santos returned to the team yesterday, Wilshere and Coquelin are not far off. Our injured players are returning at the perfect and we couldn’t be luckier.

Left to me, I wouldn’t bring Wilshere back for this season; except of course one of Song, Arteta, Rosicky picked up a serious injury.

Let him rest for Euro 2012, have a good tournament and come raring for next term.

No negatives yesterday, Koscielny had tendinitis and he should be fine. RVP didn’t get a goal for the 4th consecutive half. Worrying times. Nice to see the other players delivery the goods though.

All in all, it was a “dynamic” performance, one we needed. One made even sweeter by the failings of our closest rivals.

Spuds and Chelski played a boring goalless draw earlier. So the win saw us go 3 points clear, and with a higher goals difference.

I’d love to gloat and say we are back, but if this season has taught us anything,it is that things can change very quickly.

Have a good day wherever you read this from. Enjoy the win and share in the positivity. QPR up next, another 3 points surely?

7 Straight Wins, We Ballin’ : The Player Ratings.

Szczesny (6) – Had little to do all game. Did well when called upon.

Djourou (7) – A few scary moments. Other than that, a credible performance.

Vermaelen (8) – Solid game. Stood up to everything the Villa attack could muster. Helped up front when he could.

Sagna (8) – Did his usual.

Gibbs (8) – Good going forward as shown by the goal, but a bit suspect in defence today. Gervinho had to bail him out a few times.

Arteta (8) – Kept things ticking in the middle, a couple of attempts on target, and got his goal with a phenomenal strike from a freekick.

Song (8) – Did his job well, guilty of holding on to the ball for too long. Amazing through pass for the second goal.

Rosicky (7.5) – Continued his resurgence with an assuring performance. A joy to see him in such good form.

Walcott (8.5) – Good performance, great first touch and wonderful composure to get his goal.

Gervinho (7) – Better performance. Looked lively, got an assist.

Van Persie (7) – Started well but could not get a goal. Cut a frustrated figure late on, he’s surely had better days.

SUBSTITUTES

Santos (6) – Almost gave a goal away with his first touch. Settled well in the following minutes. Great to have him back.

Ramsey (6) – Came on with a fresh pair of legs. Added more bite to the midfield.

The Ox (6) – Good cameo. Picked up from where Theo left off.

There you have it guys! 7th straight win gives us a firm grip on 3rd place.

3 points ahead of Sp*ds, 8 ahead of Chelski. Not a bad time to be a gooner, eh?

2012/2013 kit leaked?|Latest Team News|Everton Preview

Morning fellas! An Arsenal game finally…after what seems like an eternity without good football.

The picture above is what we think Arsenal will be wearing next season. I don’t think we have seen this colour combination before and it looks pretty cool if you ask me.

The past few days have given us fans time to reflect and to recharge our batteries for the run in. I hope it did the same for the players.

We travel to Everton tonight, with one objective, maximum points. Everton are usually a tricky opponent but with the right attitude, we should be smiling to bed tonight.

Le Boss revealed some team news ahead of tonight’s encounter.

There are really no changes from the team that played Newcastle. TV5 will be alright despite picking up a knock.

Diaby played for the reserves against L’pool yesterday and got a goal for himself. Let’s hope he can return and do a Rosicky.

Andre Santos is fit so he should start. This means we are waiting on just Coquelin and Wilshere to return before the season runs out.

The team practically picks itself. Santos for Gibbs is the only change I envisage.

Everton are expected to be without Jack Rodwell (hamstring), Seamus Coleman (thigh) and Darron Gibson (knee).

They beat the Spuds, albeit against the run of play, but they bombed at Liverpool. We are on a 9-game unbeaten run against Everton in the EPL, we should make that 10 tonight.

If we get our acts right from the 1st minute, a win is just within reach.

As exciting as it was, I don’t think I want to experience what happened against Newcastle again. Let’s put this tie to bed early.

It should be an interesting one. Chelsea play Man City tonight also and as annoying as it is, I’ll be rooting for Citeh tonight.

On a happier note, it’s good to hear that Fabrice Muamba is laughing and talking to his team mates again. Huge scare he gave us all on Saturday. Thank goodness his health has improved.

Apparently, the first thing he said after regaining consciousness was “Did we lose?”, with reference to the tie against Spurs. Wonderful professional!

The road to full recovery is still long but he’ll get there hopefully.

A win for City and Arsenal tonight puts us 6 points ahead of Chelsea. Massive considering that they still have to visit the Emirates.

I’m excited, you should be. Tonight, let’s get excited together, in a large room…with our clothes on.

Vertonghen on Arsenal, RVP and Krul make up + Latest on Poldolski

Morning all. I hope you had an interesting weekend, considering there was no Arsenal game. For all my plans of a weekend dedicated to studying, I did zilch all weekend. It’s been a bit quiet on the Arsenal front as well, bar the usual transfer stories.

Meanwhile, I played footie with my mates yesterday and got injured yet again, so I’m not exactly in the mood to do anything. Straight to the post it is then.

Ajax’s Belgian captain, Jan Vertonghen makes Arsenal news again and he was on the score sheet this weekend which is good to know. He keeps talking up a move to North London but insists a move is far from done.

Joining Arsenal is certainly a prospect that appeals to Vertonghen, and it is believed he has already informed his Mr 10% that he would like to move to Arsenal, should the opportunity arise.

The only thing standing in his way is a fax letter carrying a concrete bid from London, and Vert hopes this letter arrives as soon as possible. Said He:

“If a club of Arsenal’s calibre can reach agreement with Ajax, then I will gladly go over.I have instructed my agent carefully…I haven’t signed anything with them yet.”

Good to know that we can still attract top quality players despite our failings this season. I would not mind having Vertonghen in my team, but the question is, will he be comfortable playing back up to Kos and Verm? Time will tell.

After last week’s dramatic Arsenal win over Newcastle at the Ems, RVP and Tim Krul made a good attempt at starting a riot on the pitch. According to The People however, both the Dutchmen have made up and put the incident behind them.

They have even gone as far as texting each other regularly. Apparently, Tim Krul did not realize he was wasting time and he felt RVP was trying to belittle him. It’s nice to know that episode is closed for good.

Onto more intersting news, Koln are to receive additional payments from Arsenal in Podolski’s proposed move to England. This is dependent on Arsenal’s performance on the fiels of play.

It is believed that the German outft will receive an extra €500,000 should the 26-year-old help us win the Premier League or Champions League during the 4 years of his contract.

There have been stories in the German media indicating that the Podolski transfer will be made official today. I’ll be over the moon if this happens as it sends a strong message to our competitors (and more importantly RVP) that we are ready to compete next season. Add two more quality players and we are good to go for next season.

That’s as it gets from me today fellas. It’s an unusally cold morning and I’m typing this in class as I cannot be bothered to learn anything this morning. There’s a possibility we’ll move the blog to a new domain today, all in a bid to serve you our amazing readers better.

We play Everton on Tuesday night, should be a good one. I’ll be here tomorrow with a preview of the game and hopefully with a link to pictures of Arsenal’s new signing.

Have fun and have a good day wherever you read this from.

Birthday Blues : Walcott Is VERY Important To Arsenal

Theo Destroying Chelsea Earlier This Season

GOOD MORNING!!! to you all from wherever, I’ve been told if you type in caps it means you’re shouting. Now that I have your attention, its my birthday today (and the crowd goes wild!!!) so I’m feeling very good about the day. Talking of birthday’s yesterday Theo Walcott turned 23 and my oh my has he had a roller coaster professional career so far. He’s the focus of today’s post. Before that, here’s a post I wrote 2 years ago about The Real Theo Walcott , have a read if you want.

Cometh the man, cometh the hour, James Theo Walcott(like Lebron James, my favorite basketballer) would always have the spotlight on him and has become a target for angry/moody fans and the naysayers but its easy to forget he’s just 23 and he’s continually played out of position. You can’t blame him, as a teenager Sven Goran Eriksson(the then English manager) exposed him to such and should I say, he’s “never really recovered”. And being English again doesn’t help his cause.

You can argue that he’s been played in the best position where his speed can be utilized and then you’ll slate him again for being all speed and no brain, lack of ability to cut into his marker and cause damage. I’ll always defend the lad even though he’s mighty frustrating.

I followed Theo since his Southampton & England U19/U21 days and he was dubbed the “new michael owen” because of his finishing. High praise for him you might say but it was well deserved. He played off the main striker and used his pace to devastating effect banging in the goals left and right. But since becoming a first team member he’s been forced to spend time on the sideline which he’s done his job admirably without complaints.

Yes he can’t do the simple things at times, yes he overhits a cross sometimes and yes his finishing is erratic sometimes but for all this mentioned, he’s improved and gotten better. Van Persie credits him for assisting most of his goals and his hot form as a result of Theo’s selfless play and he showed that by handing the Englishman his Man of the match champagne after the NLD derby. Even Leo Messi rates him as one of the best players he’s played against.

Is Walcott really as bad as they make him out to be? Or are the fans ungrateful and too hard on him. Here’s something you should consider next time you want to boo the lad.

English Wingers In The EPL

Stewart Downing : 27 appearances 0 goals 0 assists

Ashley Young : 17 appearances 4 goals 7 assists

Adam Johnson : 21 appearances 5 goals 2 assists

Aaron Lennon : 15 appearances 3 goals 3 assists

Theo Walcott : 27 appearances 5 goals 8 assists

As you can see for yourself, only Ashley Young rivals Theo this season and Young is a proper winger while Walcott is a forward playing on the wings. Again, if you’re not impressed, try putting some of the league’s best strikers on the wings in a 4-3-3 formation or any kind and see if they flourish or do any good, Hernandez for example.

Look at Bendtner, he was played consistently out wide and did not like it and it did not yield positive results but at Sunderland, he’s the main man and he’s banging in goals, he has more goals than Gervinho/Park & Chamakh put together. That buttresses my point.

Get off Theo’s back and cheer him on, a player can only deal with so much abuse. He has 16months left on his contract, if he’s not that good, the club won’t be trying to tie him down to a new deal and RVP loves him so I see no reason why you shouldn’t.

We’re not in action this weekend due to FA Cup games, but we’ll be on tuesday at Goodison Park. That should be a great on. From wherever you’re reading, go on and have a nice day. I know I will. Cheers.

Escobar

Follow us on twitter @goonermemoirs

Ajax confirm Vertonghen move|Agent rubbishes Poldi rumours + Other stories

Morning gooners. I apologize for the lack of action on the blog in the past few days. It’s due to educational engagements. Exams are drawing nearer and work’s piling up. Sincere apologies. Straight to the stories making rounds then.

Ajax have already started preparing for life after Jan Vertonghen. Ajax scouts have been spotted watching FC Twente’s Douglas in the past couple of weeks and manager Frank De Boer confirmed the move. Said He:

“It is correct that we are keeping tabs on Douglas as a potential replacement for Vertonghen.”

With the 24 year old Belgian defender having made his intentions known, only one destination seems likely.

The tables have changed slightly from last summer though; it’s no longer a question of whether Vertonghen wants to play for Arsenal (because he does), it’s a question of whether Arsenal want him.

Do we need another defender to add to those we’ve got? I doubt, except he’ll be willing to play as back-up. Since he can play anywhere across the back line, we could move Gibbs on. This leaves Andre Santos to slug it out with Vert for the LB slot.

Hey, I’m not calling for us to sell Gibbs right away, it’s only an option. I wouldn’t bet my money on us signing him though.

One player I’d bet my pension on him joining Arsenal is Podolski. A deal seems to have been struck but the journos were getting too excited when they said he had done a medical. His agent, Kon Schramm refuted the story completely.

“He was at no medical, neither in London or anywhere else.”

That was the same thing I said when the stories came up. This doesn’t mean we are less likely to sign him, the media are just getting ahead of themselves by completing the deal in the papers.

But both clubs are sensible enough to know that it’s a huge season for each. It only makes sense for each club to focus on football until the season is over.

Do I think he’ll sign? Absolutely!

So to some bad news. Per, the “Big F*ckin’ German” seems to have ended his own season according the manager. Mert4 got injured at Sunderland and he was ruled out for the long term.

He’s been penciled down to return in 6 weeks but with the season ending in about 10 weeks, Wenger does not believe he’ll be sharp enough to get fit, train and join the first team in a month.

Terrible news you say? Le Boss however laced it with some ‘feel-good’ pills. Andre Santos, Jack Wilshere, Coquelin and Diaby will be returning for the run-in.

I’m super excited to see all these players getting fit and they’ll only make our push for 3rd place stronger.

That’s it from me today. I have to get back to the books. It’s been a great few weeks on the Arsenal front.

Yes, I know we won’t be winning any trophies this season because Wenger didn’t do his bit over the summer.

But if you’re not excited about what’s going on in the club at the moment, I doubt you can ever be.

Keep Van Persie, add a couple of top signings and we’ll be pushing United off their “f*ckin’ perch!”

Have a good day ahead fellas!

See you in the comments!

Verminator delivers 3 points: The Player Ratings

Szczesny (6) -Had little to do all game. Beaten at his near post for the goal.

Koscielny/Vermaelen (8.5) -Amazing shift. Gave the Newcastle players no chance in the box. Vermaelen got the winner. Dramatic stuff.

Sagna (8) – Was full of running. Stood up to Gutierrez and helped in attack when he could.

Gibbs (6.5) – Could have done better with his tackling for Ben Arfa’s goal. Was impressive going forward. Decent game.

Arteta (7) – Back from injury and slotted in nicely. Gave a few balls away and he should have been a bit more adventurous with his passes.

Song (7) – Good game, kept moving the ball around. Didn’t get an assist today.

Rosicky (7.5) – Picked up from where he left off in the previous game. No goal this time though. Was at the middle of everything we did while he lasted.

Walcott (9) – 2 assists when we needed them the most. Was a menace throughout. Great game. Do this more often, Theo. My Man Of Match.

The Ox (6.5) – Quiet performance, not by any means poor though. It just didn’t happen for him today.

Van Persie (8) – Another top performance. Replied Ben Arfa’s opener in stunning fashion. Kept taunting the opposition defence and keeper all game. Seeing him shout “Come On” after the winner was a joy!

SUBSTITUTES:

Gervinho (4) – Did nothing of note. He needs to get his head right.

Ramsey (6.5) – Came in and brought a new dimension to the game. Was full of running. Could have got an assist.

There you have it gooners! Our winning run continues. Just one point behind the Spuds now with 10 games to go.

Jermain Defoe should get his cheque book ready as he’ll be doing philanthropic work all summer.

See you in the comments!