WEDDING WISHES

Latest Couple in town – Back in the day

We wish our CEO, Founder, Initiator, etc etc a Happy Married life as he ties the nuptial knot today.

 

Check this lovely site out http://www.folaketoks.wedsite.com/

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We pray the God of Love blesses  the marriage abundantly.

We pray that the Lord would make the marriage ‘unbeaten’ / unbeatable like the Arsenal side of ’03 – ’04

We pray the marriage be as prolific as Thierry Henry, with Toks scoring goals upon goals upon goals

We pray the marriage would not be frustrated like the present day Arsenal/Arsene.

We pray that God teaches Folake and Toks the grace to skillfully master their union like Dennis Bergkamp masters the football.

We pray that like Wenger, they would always have money to spend, but unlike Wenger, they’ll spend the money and  it would make their lives better.

We pray for these and many more.

Happy Marriage.

You may kiss the bride… mwah!

Guys (babes too), feel free to make these Arsenal related wishes to the newly wed in the comment box!

 

 

IS THE STUTTERING ‘GUNNER’ CONTINUE?

Here we go again. Another game. Another chance for the team to redeem their image which is fast rotting away. Another chance for the manager to reduce the  tempo of criticism coming his way. Whether the criticism is justified or not, is an issue for another post.

We need a spirit-lifting performance tomorrow. And there are many spirits that need lifting.

The fans. The fans are tired, majority of them. There are still a  few ones that are keeping the faith, but the number is fast thinning out.

The players. Morale is low in this team. It is clear. There was a slight rise in the spirit when we went 2 goals up against Schalke, but the fact that we ended up drawing that game would be a real blow to the team. A combination of low morale, low confidence and bad form can kill any football team, and that’s the exact combination this Arsenal team is battling.

The Manager / Assistant Manager. So much was said about Bould and the defense, but we’ve been conceding goals like there’s an award for it. The Manager is being ridiculed by fans and critics. They say his time is up. He looks sad. The both of them look forlorn on the bench. I pity them sometimes sef. 

So what’s the  solution to all the hullabaloo? Wenger reckons the solution to lies with the players. Said he;

“We just have to play good games. The atmosphere comes from the team, not the fans, and we have to think like that.

The vibes come out with the quality of our game, the fans are behind the team. That is what is about us.

I agree we had one or two flat games at home, especially against Schalke, even the game against QPR.

I believe that it is down to the quality of our game – that is our responsibility.”

The big question is, can this team produce a non-flat game at the  moment? The answer is; they don’t have a choice in the matter, they must!

TEAM NEWS
In goal, Sczcz returns to the bench if he survives the U-21 game, so Vito continues in goal.

Vermaelen should continue at left back. He’s shit out of luck now, he needs to exorcise all the demons haunting him, while we await Gibbs to return and continue his masterful  handling of the left back position. The other spots in defense maintain status quo. I don’t think Wenger would rest Sagna.

In midfield, the new signing, Jack Wilshere will sit this one out, so we might see Coquelin in midfield, as there’s no Ramsey, Diaby, Rosicky or The Ox. Or maybe we might see the young German Eisfeld. Who knows, Wenger knows. Arteta and Cazorla need to assist whoever it is that plays with them. I feel those two are not carrying as much weight as they should. But that again is a story for another day.

Guess who’s back in training?

In the attack, the game against Schalke showed that finally, there’s a burgeoning cohesion between our front 3, Podolski, Giroud and Theo. Hopefully they would continue the good work on Saturday.

The bench would have people like Arshavin, Gnabry, Chamakh waiting to come on and help if/when we need them.

I am going for a 2-1 victory for the Gooners.

Lets start building our fate. Let’s try like last season to put together a good run of games that will lift all the spirits that need to be lifted.

This team can do it. Hopefully, we’ll start tomorrow.

Up The Arse!

 

RANTS ABOUT ARSENAL! Post-Schalke, Pre-QPR

Before I go into today’s rant.. Barka Da Sallah! to all our celebrating Gooners! May you celebrate many many more Sallahs in good health and prosperity, In sha’Allah. Amin

Back-to-back defeat.

I have no idea where to start from. This will be a very formless post. Like the topic says, it’s majorly me ranting.

Bear with me.

After the defeat on Wednesday, I tried to console myself with the fact that all of Madrid, Man City, Milan and Chelsea also lost their matchday 3 games.

I also tried to console myself that almighty Barca almost dropped points, and that Man Utd wouldn’t have come back from 2 goals down against Schalke, and that if we were the ones 2 goals down against Braga, we’d still win the game.

But all these consolations don’t help me.

It’s like, there’s a trend the team has been following for the past few seasons.

We either start well, then crumble when the race heats up. Or start badly, then pick up when its too late to catch up.

This season however, already feels like a mixture of both scenarios. We started well, then we started badly. Either way, our season is not looking good at all. I sincerely hope this seasons end better than the past 7 ones. (I know, I know, I’m being melodramatic)

Some more faithful fans would say, “Hey, we’re just 6 games into the season, our opponents will drop points, watch and see“… Errrm, I know that, Chelsea will drop points, Man Utd will lose games, Man City will go on a bad run, but so will Arsenal! So let’s start facing some reality here, eh?

To tomorrow’s game now.

We play QPR tomorrow. And I’m worried. I’m worried because, when we play these teams that are on a bad patch, on a losing streak, they somehow manage to end their losing streak, then they play Wigan the next week and continue their losing streak. Its baffling! And it occurs too often. Truth is, despite their bad run, QPR have many players that can hurt us if we continue to play the same way we’ve played in our last two games.

Good thing is we have players that can hurt them too. Hurt them more than they can hurt us, but the team needs to wake the sugar (I stopped swearing) up!

I can’t even lie. I’m not too confident about tomorrow’s game. I know I’m sounding all doomy and gloomy now, but don’t blame me. Yes, I’m fickle. I’m a fan.

When I look at the team, its like we’re back on the inglorious path we’ve been towing.

We’re back to having players on our payroll that Wenger doesn’t trust or even if he trusts them, they can’t/don’t/won’t bring anything to the team.

We’ve started to play round pegs in square holes. Ramsey as a right winger? Come on!

All the things we successfully managed in the past trophyless  seasons appear to be back to haunt us.

As a pro-Wenger guy, I won’t blame Wenger just yet! It’s the players I have problems with, I just need these players to step up their games. If not for the fan’s sake, at least they should step up for the Manager that keeps putting all his faith in them’s. Blindly, if I may say. I’m tired of seeing players play like there’s nothing to lose. Like we’re still in pre-season.

I’m just here, ranting today. Maybe because I’ve not had any salah meat to eat, or maybe because Arsenal matter don reach rant matter. I dunno.

As a fan, I really hope this team steps up over the course of the season. I hope I’d be ashamed of the post by the end of the season. I don’t mind the shame. Lets just step up!

But what I hope isn’t what I think will happen.

What do I think will happen? Against QPR? I hope we win.

And I sincerely hope a win here would turn our season around. We still have serious fighting chance in all the cups we’re in. I hope the players and the managers have the fight in them. Because, it’s been a very very very very long time since I’ve seen a Wenger team play like a team that has fight in them. I really hope so.

Let me talk a little about the game.

Saviour, please save us

Its annoying when people just keep insisting Wenger starts Jack Wilshere. Or they allude that if Wilshere had started the last two games, we might have won them.

I like Jack Wilshere, but please please please.

These same people would be the ones to ask Wenger to sub Jack tomorrow when his match rustiness is exposed.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against starting Jack tomorrow, but lets not assume he’s the savior that’ll stop us from conceding those cheap goals, or help us become more forthcoming in front of goals. No, he’s not the Messiah.

As per injuries, Most of the injured players are still out, so we still have a stretched squad. So, we’ll be expecting a starting line up of… I don’t even care.

Just get on the pitch and make QPR go back empty handed.

See you after the game all.

*sigh*

 

P.S: I wonder why the sugar (Like I said, I stopped cussing) they were all shining teeth in training? The situation wey we dey, na laughing matter?

Arsenal vs. Schalke 04: Match Preview

Unlike in the EPL, where we languish in 9th position, we welcome Schalke to The Emirates sitting comfortable at the top of the group in Europe.

Schalke have come to England to hit us out of our comfort zone and we need to prevent them from doing that.

After the disappointment at the weekend. The players have no choice but to impress us! The fans insist on a stellar performance to act as Novocane for the pain inflicted on Saturday.

TEAM NEWS

The team would not change much, the likely new inclusions ruled themselves out of contention when they played 90 minutes against Everton in the U-21 games.

Wilshere, Sagna and Frimpong played 90 minutes in the game we won 2-1.

So Ramsey, Jenkison retain their positions in the team, at least for now.

Koscielny is back in contention and I think he might start, ahead of Mertasacker, as Wenger will continue to try to prove to the world that Koscielny-Vermaelen is the new Maldini-Nesta, NOT!

In attack, we have no Ox, no Theo. So the strike trio that failed to click on Saturday have a chance to redeem themselves. A goal from any or all of them would be a good thing.

So we might see a line-up like

Manonne ( 😦 )

Jenkinson Koscielny Vermaelen Santos

Arteta Ramsey Cazorla

Gervinho Giroud Podolski

I will not be talking about the opposition today because, given the disgraceful performance against Norwich, this team should be ready to give it to any opponent, whether na Barcelona or na Bayern!

Thankfully now, majority of the our players are all experienced guys. The few young ones like Gnabry and Jenkinson will need to be encouraged by the older legs. Confidence things!

Assistant Manager enjoys another chance on the hot seat. Perfect record he has, so far. Long may it continue, even when he goes back to the warm seat.

Mannone? No comment

Here’s to a good game of football.

Up Ze Arse of Ze Germans! 

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Hi people.

Sigh.

We apologize for depriving you of posts and posts and posts. We sincerely do. It was out of our hands.

You see, we were sued to court and we couldn’t blog/talk/post about it lest we’d be charged with ‘interfering with the judicial process’, or at least that’s what our lawyer told us. (He’s a Man Utd fan by the way)

We also asked if we could go ahead with our regular posts. We promised not to mention anything about the pending court case, but the defense Lawyer (an Arsenal fan *strange*) had an order placed on us to restrict us from posting posts from this blog, as this was the reason behind the suit in the first place.

Let’s not bore you with more where that came from.

The good news is, WE ARE BACK. And we can continue posting anything about our beloved Arsenal now.

However, we still cannot give details of the said lawsuit, as part of the settlement deal is that a gag order was placed on us.

So we have to let  it slide, dust ourselves up and start churning out post after posts to compensate for all the posts we missed during this trying period.

During our moment with the law, we didn’t just fight the suit, we also took the moment to look for more writer, quality writers. You’ll be excited by the new additions to our contributory arsenal.

In the coming days, we will do a recap of all the Arsenal matches and events we missed in the past few weeks. Topics like

Are we still in title contention?

The loss to Norwich; Same old Arsenal, not coming to the party when we play weak opposition? Or just a blip as a result of an international break that did not seem to affect our title rivals??

Are we missing RVP already?

Why’s everyone touting a LANS Wilshere as the savior?

The upcoming games against Schalke?

All these things and much more in the next few days is what we promise you, starting with a review of the Schalke game. 

We thank all those who sent us DMs, emails and tweeted at us. Sorry we couldn’t reply all of them (once again, we didn’t know what reply would jeopardize our court case.)

We appreciate the concern.

See you in the coming few days.

 (Errrmm… We hope you believed everything above about the court case?)

 

Back to Winning Ways, Just.

He Scores When He Wants?

Another Champions League night, another 3 points.

Not a totally convincing performance. But hey, who cares? Remember the days when we had convincing performances, but 0 point. Which would you rather? Maybe that’s a mediocre way of looking at it. But still. Who cares?

The starting line up surprised me. But then again it’s Wenger or is it Bould? Boulger or Wengould?

The much maligned pairing of Koscielny and Vermaelen had a chance to redeem themselves as Per

Also in midfield, Arteta made the team, but there was still space for Coquelin in the midfield. Ramsey was on the bench and Oxlade was deployed on the wings.

Giroud continued his role on the bench, while the in-form goal-scoring machine of life, Gervinho continued his role as our free roaming top 9.

The first half wasn’t too nice, but we scored a goal.

Nice work by Cazorla and Podolski on the left, the ball broke to Arteta and he lost the ball, but it fell kindly to Gervinho, and the Ivorian took a touch and placed a shot the keeper should have saved, but the ball found the back of the net, and it was 1 – nil to the gooners.

The scoreline didn’t last long though, that same pairing that caused us heartache on Saturday. The same pairing we’ve all been salivating over connived to cause us another heartache.

A seemingly innocuous  cross by the opposition found their striker, in between our centre backs, and the guy didn’t dull. Straight inside the net. Nothing the keeper could do about it. 1 – 1.

Half time. Despondency.

Wenger looked livid.

We restarted the game and I must say we improved in the second half.

The second goal came in the 56th minute, after some good work by Gervinho, the ball fell to Podolski and the German turned and neatly tucked it in the net. Relief for him as he has been on some kind of  ‘drought’.

A third goal came late in the game, and it came from my guy.  Aaron Ramsey.  Giroud won a header, Ramsey gets the ball and runs into the box, chipped the goalkeeper Vela style and cemented 3 points for us.

Nobody died.

All in all, a good 3 points, although it was not as convincing as many of us would like it, considering the opposition. But once again, who cares?

100% record in the Champions League this season.

Long may it continue.

Next up West Ham in the Premier League

LOWER CASE GOONERS GETS CHANCE TO SHINE IN CAPITAL ONE CUP

😐

That’s for the header.

Don’t punish me na. Are they not our lower case players? 😀

We host Coventry today in what was known as Carling Cup or League Cup. The Cup We Should Have Won Until We Ran Mad Against Birmingham And The Rest Is History.

Wenger has promised to field a strong side. Wenger has also promised to play his youngsters. Put two and two together and you realize  that the youngsters are the ones that would make up the strong side. Smart man. Wenger is.  Smart man, I am.

The only sign of strong I see in the 19-man squad named for the game are the likes of Giroud, Ox and maybe Arshavin. There’s a certain semi-effective WINGER that has refused to sign a contract extension because he wants to play as a striker also named in the squad.

No matter what he says, we expect Wenger to name a second string side. It is usually a chance for the guys trying to get into the team, or the ones on their way out of the team to show the manager why they should get into the team, or why they should get back into the team, or why they should be kicked out of the team, as the case may be.

He said;

“We want to put out a talented side that has a good chance to win the game. We will give a chance to some players who have not played as many games recently. The players that did not play on Sunday [at Manchester City] will get a chance and it’s a good opportunity for them to show they can do well.”

I am not trying to be boastful, but this should be sure victory for us. Why do I think so? Well, for one we are at home, we are in form, we have some exciting talents named in the squad for the game, we have some old heads that want to push for a recall to the first team. Most of all, we are the all-improved New Arsenal, that can’t put a foot wrong.. till we put a foot wrong.

It’s a sellout crowd at the Emirates today. The good start the team has had this season plus our impressive and promising performances have renewed the faith of the supporters and the Boss wants us to repay the faith.

“… we want to give the supporters back what they expect from us – and that is total commitment and complete resilience for the 90 minutes we play. I am sure the boys will do that on Wednesday night.”

I feel confident about the game, as long as they obey the boss and play with total commitment and complete resilience for 90 minutes (we won’t need extra time), we will be alright.

With the squad released, I expect a starting line up like;

MARTINEZ

YENNARIS DJOUROU IGNASI SANTOS

COQUELIN EISFIELD OX

WALCOTT CHAMAKH ARSHAVIN

You want something fairytales are made of? Yes? Introducing Nico Yennaris, he was Arsenal’s mascot against Coventry in September 2000 and today he might be starting at right-back for Arsenal against Coventry in September 2012. Isn’t that just sweet?

Eisfeld and Yennaris. Likely starters today

I look forward to seeing Eisfield and Chamakh play today. I have a soft spot for the Moroccoan and I think Wenger would have done a better job boosting his confidence this season by throwing open the top-9 position for Chamakh and Giroud to fight for, even if it’s just to restore some confidence in the lanky African. As for Eisfeld, I liked what I saw in the young German during pre-season.

Coquelin is a name on the first-team now. He should play the Arteta role in midfield without much fuss.

Does Walcott get his chance to play up front? After the public outburst, I seriously doubt that. I won’t be surprised to see him start from the bench, and Gnabry starting ahead of him.

Speaking of Gnabry. Wenger reckons he could play for the first team this year. I’ve not seen much of him, but the few minutes I’ve seen him play he seems to me as some hybrid version of Walcott and Ox…. facially too!

The Capital One cup already has casualties like Manchester City and Everton, both of them jaboed yesterday.

Hopefully the other threats like Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham get beaten by other lesser teams for us. Lets save our strength for Champions League and Premier League abeg.

I’m not ashamed.

Fingers crossed for an easy win today. Let’s go all the way in this competition and banish the memories of the Carling Cup we have.

IN OTHER NEWS, Guess who’s back? Dench is Back!

Yes. Emmanuel Frimpong is back. Hopefully, he’d get a few minutes today.

To a 3-0 thumping of Coventry today!

Victoria Concordia Crescit

Errrmmm.. did someone mention Squilacci?

One point for the on-point Gooners

Last year, we went to the Etihad Stadium and came back with an empty kitty.

This year, with our much talked about ‘boulded’ defence, more mature midfield and an improving forward line, it was expected that we’d do better than we did last year, and that’s exactly what we did.

STARTING LINE UP

As pointed out in the preview, Mannone returned between the sticks as Szczceny’s ruled out for 2 weeks for dropping the ball against Southampton, due to injury

A virus kept captain Vermaelen out, which meant a start for Koscielny.

Wenger also opted for Ramsey in midfield.

Giroud returned to the bench as Gervinho looked to continue as the main striker.

KICK OFF

We had a sprightly start. Passing the ball around, but with no real penetration. The two teams didn’t seem to leave 2nd gear.

Then the first real good chance of the match fell to Gervinho, and the in-form Ivorian should have buried it. Ramsey weighed a beautiful, sweet through ball to him but his first touch was too heavy and the ball rolled to Joe Hart. I expect Gervinho to have nightmares for weeks for this

A few minutes later,  another good chance fell to Podolski.  Jenkinson showed strength  by out-muscling Lescott, he found Podolski with the cut back pass, but the ball fell to the German’s ‘chocolate leg’ and his nephew in Berlin would be thanking Uncle Lukas for sending an EPL match-day ball to him.

A few chances here and there, nothing too threatening, then City scored.

A needless corner was conceded by Gibbs. Not blaming the impressive full back though, he didn’t get a shout to allow the ball, so he headed out for the corner. Corner taken and we zonally marked them, Mannone came for the ball, but fabianskied it, allowing Lescott nod into the net. 1 – 0 to the home team, totally against the run of play!

Lescott’s opener.

Half time and one’s mind would flash back to the old Arsenal, all the good play, all the possession, then concede a soft goal, except this  isn’t the old Arsenal.

Second half began and City brought on Jack Rodwell to replace Scott Sinclair. Mancini needed to do something about the midfield that was totally bossed by Arsenal in the first half. I think the substitution worked, because we weren’t as in control of the game as we were in the first half.

Another chance fell to Gervinho after a nice pass from Cazorla, but he screwed it wide, again.

Walcott and Giroud came on for Diaby and Podolski.

The match got tighter, not as free flowing as it was in the first half. But you still got the feeling there was a goal or more in the game.

Then the goal came.

Cazorla called Joe Hart into action with a stinging shot. The Englishman turned it out for a corner and we scored from the corner. Cazorla (who else) took the corner, Lescott passed to Koscielny, and the Frenchman chested down then fired into the top corner! 1-1. Esctatic

Was Gervinho running to say ‘Thank you’ to Koscielny?

That was the 82nd minute, but the goal somewhat opened up the game, because both teams had at least one good chance each for a winner after the equalizer.

City’s chance fell to Aguero. Almost immediately after our goal, City had a corner, and Kompany’s acrobatic overhead kick was wonderfully saved by Mannone, the ball was sliced clear by Koscielny into the path of Aguero, but the spirit of Gervinho descended on Maradona’s son-in-law and he shot wide. *Whew*!

Arsenal’s last chance of the game fell unfortunately to Gervinho. After working out a nice shooting space for himself at the edge of the box, the spirit of Gervinho descended on Gervinho and he blasted it high and wide. Glorious chance wasted again by the Ivorian.

That was Wenger’s cue to take off Le Forehead. Coquelin came in to shore the midfield. One point was good enough.

OVERVIEW

GOALKEEPER

Mannone had a good game. He might have had something to do with the goal we conceded, but he made other saves that assured the point we got from the game

DEFENSE

Mertasacker  impressed me again. Intercepting passes and making clearances with so much maturity and excellent positioning.  He dovetails nicely with either of Koscielny or Vermaelen.

That Vermaelen got injured and we bring in Koscielny to replace him is such an amazing thing.

Wenger had this to say about the Centre back situation;

We have three classy centre backs, and it is a very difficult choice. Koscielny, Mertesacker and Vermaelen – no matter who is left out can feel it is not right. But I will rotate them and take into consideration the strikers we will face.

No mention for poor Djourou? 😦

Gibbs and Jenkinson too put in nice shifts. Santos and Sagna will be sweating over these two lads now. I’m sure.

MIDFIELD

Cazorla again had a lovely game. We have a gem. World class midfielder.

Ramsey was exceptional. I know a lot of fans dislike the boy, but I think he put some doubts in his doubters’ minds with his display today. I trust Arsene to make the best use of him this season.

Diaby and Arteta also had good games. Keeping Silva and Yaya quiet for most of the game.

ATTACK

Podolski had a rather quiet game. I don’t recall seeing him in advance attacking positions. He was helping out in midfield most of the time. The one chance he had fell on his weaker foot.

Gervinho though. You can’t fault his movement, running and trickery. Its just his finishing that lets him down. He should convert those chances he gets. I think he needs a shrink. It seems his brain just switches off when he gets into the box. Don’t get me wrong o, I love Gervinho, but he’s too wasteful!

I’m wondering. Looking at the so-called Steve Bould effect on the defense, should we hire Wright, Bergkamp or maybe Thierry to help out our strikers with their finishing?

WENGER POST MATCH QUOTE

After the game, Wenger said;

I am pleased because [a point] was the minimum we deserved today. I am pleased also with the quality of our performance and our spirit. Also a bit frustrated because I feel there was room to do more.

We had early chances and very late chances, especially Gervinho at the edge of the box where he missed the target.

But overall I hope this will reinforce our belief and confidence and reassure us about our potential in this league.

CONCLUSION

We travelled to the home of the Champions, went a goal behind and still came back with a point. We even came back a bit disappointed not to have won the game. That says a lot about this Arsenal team now. We have now played 5 games and we have conceded just two goals and we’re undefeated. We need to keep the momentum.

This game would help our belief. At least, it tells us we’re not so far from the title contenders. And looking how we handled Southampton last week, maybe finally, we’ve exorcised the demons that hauunt us when we play ‘small’ teams.

The only sad part (for me) was seeing the players jump on each other after the game, like say we don win league with this draw. I dunno. Maybe its just me, but I don’t like such scenes. Our players shouldn’t be openly celebrating  draws.

Or maybe I’m just being a hypocrite. Because, I was celebrating and jumping after the game too.

Like @HexyDre would say, Meh!

Next up is Coventry City in the Capital One Cup on Wednesday at The Emirates. Ewo tu ni Capital One Cup?

Up The Arse!

By the way, who was your Man of the Match? Kindly let us know in the comment box.

BACK TO BUSINESS: Arsenal vs Southampton Match Preview

By @Kofo_Noni

After two weeks of international break, Premier League is back as we host newly promoted Southampton at home.  Coming back from our first win against Liverpool away and still keeping a clean sheet, it’s no doubt our boys  are ready for the battle chase. The newly signed Podolski and Cazorla opened the scoring sheet two weeks ago with notable impressive performances from the likes of Diaby and Mikel Arteta.   So I’m sure the boys have gained their confidence hoping to move up the table and still keep our sheets clean.

A lot of our players were busy during the international break for their different countries which make Southampton have a slight edge over us as most of them rested over the break. Southampton have yet to pick up a point in their last three games, but seeing how they have seriously dealt with Manchester united and Manchester city, it would not be easy for us as they have been scoring against these big teams. Will we be able to keep our sheets clean. We’ll find out soon.

We would be missing Theo Walcott for this game who picked up a virus and it would be a 50/50 chance for Diaby who picked up a hip strain and has been very impressive this season. Szczesny is back from his injury but would be able to replace the Italian who covered up for him and has been impressive?  For the visitors, Guly do Prado might be dropped after admitting drink driving.  For the home team, I expect Chamberlain to come in for Walcott and if Diaby can’t make it its likely our welsh man Ramsey will come in for him. The visitors would look into including their newly signed Gaston Ramirez and Maya Yoshida.

This would not be an easy match considering how the visitors almost narrowly drew against Manchester united scoring two goals in their last match. This would be another chance to test the new Steve Bould’s defense.

All eyes would be on newly signed Giroud who has been leading the attack but has failed to make use of all the chances created for him, hopefully the goals at Anfield could be a motivation for him as they were both scored by our new purchases. It is obvious a lot of pressure would be on him, but then if we look back at our records, our past legends Henry and Bergkamp didn’t score until the 7^th or 8^th match and they both did these against Southampton. So we’ll be seeing if Giroud can also have his first PL goal against    Southampton.

On the other hand, one player to really watch out for from the visitors is Lambert who has been a handful in creating assists and scoring two goals against big teams. Hopeful the Bould touch can have its way in keeping him from making his way into our net.

I don’t expect Southampton to change their style, but I expect our boys to do well with how creative our midfield has been with the help of Cazorla, I expect us to create chances and make use of them and let the goals in as we did against Liverpool.  We would also need to keep our defense really organized as Southampton even with zero points have scored a number of goals against big teams.

I predict a 2-0 win for us with Giroud scoring his 1^st goal and either Cazorla or Podolski also scoring one.

Starting 11:

Mannone 

Jenkinson Koscielny Vermaelen Gibbs

Arteta

Ramsey   Cazorla

  Oxlade-Chamberlain Giroud Podolski.

Biola

(http://abbyadnez.com/)

Let’s Stick It To Stoke!

Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium

Not many Arsenal fans (and players maybe) fancy the trip, but hey, a team’s gotta do what a team’s gotta do… right?

I for one however refuse to believe all the Stoke hype sef.

So what, they are a physical side; they throw balls into the net; they have a guy that breaks legs. But thats all they have.

We are better prepared to face them. More than ever. Why so?

For one, we have Steve Bould marshaling our defense now… albeit from the dugouts.

Also, we have a slightly more physical team now. More than half of the team that’ll play today (importantly, our centre back pairing – considering Koscielny is out) would be of a height, decent enough to tackle the Crouches of Stoke (Not Peter Crouch, no one can tackle that one).

Also, its a new season. Stoke has not gotten into their stokey rhythm yet, just as we’ve not got into our own A(rsenal)-Game yet. But with our B game versus their B game, even though its at the B stadium, this game should be easily surmountable by us… at least we should score a B. 😐

So to the game.

I reckon we’ll assemble the same starting line up from last week. With Podolski being forced to adapt to the Centre forward role. A lot of fans be angling for a Podolski-Giroud starting line up, but no, I do not see Wenger listening to you guys. You lot don’t know shiiiiiiii about  managing a football side. Arsene Knows Best.

Sczczeny

Jenk Mert Verm Gibbs

Diaby – Arteta – Santi

Theo – Lukas – Gervinho

Not a bad starting line up. Cazorla is the only midget here, but he’s a bombshell. We’re looking good.

With the right attitude, we should conveniently dispatch Pubis and his boys on Sunday while we wait for Arsene to put finishing touches to his transfer dealings.

Talking of transfers, I ain’t Sahin’ Nuri’n about a Real Madrid midfielder. A lot of nothing has happened on that deal, but he’s not our player, so I shall not be involved in some Barca player type of tap-up talking.  I shall talk about the team when all the wheeling and dealing is done, the transfer window shut and we know for a fact that this is the team we have to work with, till January at least..

Till then, we’ll just watch football and hope to close up the gap on the top guys like Chelsea wey don run commot, and increase the gap on the dead guys like Man Utd wey dey lag behind.

I predict a 2-0 win for Arsenal. Goal-scorers to be announced after the game.

Although, it would  be nice for Ramsey to come on in the 30th minute, maybe after Diaby picks up a knock. He receives the ball from Cazorla, jinks it over Shawcross, who’s sliding in with a 2-footed-studs-up challenge, and fires the ball into the top corner for 1 – 0. This time however, Shawcross completely misses the leg but gets a red card for attempting such a dangerous tackle….  you know? something like that.

Lets banish the Britannia Stadium demons!

Up The Arse!