Rambo To The Rescue

Arsenal left it late last night to record a win in Marseille, an Aaron Ramsey goal in the 92nd minute making the difference and taking the Gunners to the top of Group F in the Champions League. With time almost up I was content with a 0-0 draw; a clean sheet and a point away from home would have been a good result, especially against the team who currently sat top of the group. However our Welsh midfielder Mr Ramsey didn't want to settle for a draw and so he popped up unmarked on the edge of the box and delivered Arsenal all 3 crucial points and well-deserved victory in the south of France.

To be honest there's not a great deal to write about. We were never seriously troubled in defence all game. There was the odd panic moment but Szczesny didn't have any miracle saves to make all evening. Altogether we looked unusually steady and secure at the back, a sentence I didn't expect to utter after Marseille had beaten Dortmund so convincingly only a couple of weeks ago. Going forward we lacked that cutting edge, Walcott squandering our best chance in the second half, firing an off-balance shot which Marseille keeper Mandanda parried away with his outstretched leg. It really did seem like Marseille's clean sheet would remain intact. But Arsenal wouldn't relent. Djourou swung a hopeful cross into the box from the right which fell to Gervinho who couldn't quite get control of the ball; intentionally or not the Ivory Coast winger knocked the ball out to Ramsey who had cut in from the left and was completely free and unmarked. The Welshman calmly controlled the ball, switched it onto his right foot and rifled a shot past Mandanda and into the corner of the net. 1-0 to the Arsenal and game over, gotta love those last minute winners! The win puts us top of the group and in a very good position to progress to the knockout stages; just have to keep grinding out results like this one. 

Altogether a satisfactory night. Not a classic by any means but an away win in the Champions League is still a fantastic result.

Thanks for reading.

The Verminator Commits

Thomas Vermaelen, our quality but often injury-ravaged defender, has committed his immediate future to the club it was announced today. It's believed that the Belgian centreback has put pen to paper on a deal that will see him remain at Arsenal until 2015. Good news for the club and a boost to hear that our best defender on the team has reiterated his commitment to the club with the signing of this contract. In this age of football the length of these modern contracts are meaningless, as has often been proven over the past two decades. If a player wants out, he merely has to say so and then can proceed to pursue a move to a new club, regardless of how long term his previous contract was. Nonetheless this is still excellent news and its good to know Vermaelen has his head in the right place. Now all we need is for him to shake off this injury curse and have a prolonged spell in the starting eleven, because our defence plays like an under 11's side when he's out of action.

Can't wait to see him back on the pitch. Thanks for reading.

Can't Live Without The Captain

What would we do without our captain? This afternoon Robin van Persie put this Arsenal team on his back and carried them to victory single-handedly, scoring both goals in a crucial 2-1 win against Sunderland. It was essential Arsenal walked away with all 3 points today at the Emirates; any other result against this lacklustre Sunderland squad would have been disastrous. The Black Cats are really struggling this season and lack any significant firepower up front so anything but a win would have sent the Arsenal faithful home shaking their heads and muttering curses once again.

In the programme before kickoff van Persie put an end to the speculation concerning his future at the club: 'I am committed to Arsenal, and that's how it is, despite people (in the media) making up stories.' It's wonderful to hear those words from my favourite player but I haven't been losing any sleep about the prospect of him joining Manchester City in the near-future. Stories like this are 99% gossip most of the time and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it anyway. I have no worries that Robin will leave us and I expect him to sign another contract. You can read more about his pre-game programme notes here.

It didn't take the Dutchman long to back up his words: 29 seconds to be precise, the fastest goal of the Premier League season and what I believe ties the record for fastest goal in Premier League history. Van Persie let a sharp pass from Gervinho roll across him until he got it onto his right foot before unleashing an unstoppable drive into the bottom corner leaving Sunderland 'keeper Mignolet helpless. 1-0 to the Arsenal and just the start we needed. Ten minutes later and the captain nearly doubled the lead, and in the most spectacular way imaginable. On the edge of the penalty area, van Persie received the ball onto his left foot with his back to goal, before suddenly spinning away from Kieran Richardson and audaciously chipping the ball over Mignolet with his right foot. The ball hung in the air for an age before it hit the inside of the post and crawled away from goal to save Sunderland's blushes and preventing what would have been an absolute classic of a goal. The move to free himself from Richardson was incredible, Bergkamp-esque in every way, and if the ball had just drifted slightly to the right it would have been one of the best goals in Arsenal's history. Watch it here, mesmerising stuff...

Unfortunately the Gunners couldn't grab that important second goal and whadda you know, Sunderland go down the other end and score. Former Arsenal man and current darling of Swedish football Sebastian Larsson curled in a delicious free kick that instantly made me regret us ever getting rid of him. It really was a peach of a goal and credit must go to Mr Larsson because he didn't celebrate the goal; you could see he really made a point of showing respect to his former club. If I'd have been in his situation I'd have gone absolutely mental with joy at having scored such a brilliant free kick. Within five minutes of going level Sunderland nearly took the lead, but for a marvellous save from Szczesny, saving what should have been a certain goal, point blank stuff. The young Pole kept us in it for sure.

With Arsenal being typically wasteful and consistently suspect in defence, the game had Sunderland stealing a late winner written all over it. Yet it wasn't to be and it was the home side who were destined to grab the late lead, Arsenal scoring the winner with only minutes left. With roughly eight minutes left and the score level, van Persie had a free kick from just outside the box. He proceeded to produce a trademark beauty, curling his left peg around the ball which whipped over and around the wall and into the top corner. Cue celebrations and huge sighs of relief all around, Arsenal had finally taken the lead to make it 2-1 and it was all down to that man again, captain van Persie.

Overall a much needed 3 points and a morale lifting victory. Van Persie has been on fire this season and if he can just stay healthy this Arsenal squad will be so much better for it. Without him we are sitting ducks, dead in the water, and our hopes of playing European football next year go out the window. God forbid anything happen to our star striker and my favourite Gunner. I will literally cry...

Thanks for reading.

What I'm Reading - 14/10/11

With the always dull international break just about over and regular football back this weekend, I've had nothing at all to blog about these past couple of weeks. In the meantime I've being doing a spot of reading and have recently started the excellent A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke. We got a few copies in at work about two weeks ago and flicking through the pages and reading the odd extract, I immediately felt like picking this up. A Life Too Short has been long-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and should easily make the shortlist. Since I'll no doubt be creating a display at work to highlight the books in contention for this year's award I felt it only suitable that I actually read at least one of the books involved.

Now I'm only about five chapters in, around the time when Robert joined Benfica, but I can confidently say this is one of the best sporting biographies I have ever read. Author Robert Reng has done an incredible job retelling Robert's life story; his style of writing makes for a compelling read and it feels like reading a work of fiction at times because the book reads so well. During my browse to see if I wanted to buy the book, I read a few pages of the chapter where Reng recounts Enke's infamous time at Barcelona and it was so captivating, like you were watching the game itself, that I knew then I wanted to it. The majority of football fans that pay attention to the news know who Robert Enke is; the German goalkeeper who sadly took his own life roughly two years ago. When I heard a book was being released about his often complicated life I wasn't really that interested. Apart from knowing who he was, I had never watched Enke play and knew next to nothing about his career. Hell, my knowledge of German football is limited to say the least. However this book still appealed to me enormously; how can a man who had so much, the fame, the money, the adoration of the fans, take his own life? What level of torment and mental torture can force a man to see no other resolution apart from suicide? 

I have barely scratched the surface of this book but its already shaping up to be a fascinating read. I recommend this to all football fans, whether you knew who Enke was or not. It will certainly make you think twice about the criticism modern footballers receive every game and whether the media and fans should be so merciless in their opinions of a player's performance. Guardian writer Amy Lawrence wrote a superb piece about the impact Enke's death and Reng's book could possibly have on football today.

I can't wait to get back to reading it. Everyone connected with football should read this book, it's that good.

Thanks for reading.

When It Rains, It Pours

With the morale-sapping loss to Spurs on Sunday, more bad news follows with information coming through that Bacary Sagna will be out for a minimum of three months. Our reliable right-back has had successful surgery on his broken leg but its another devastating blow for our already crippled squad. This Arsenal team are made of glass, they really are, our hopes of success consistently being destroyed by the injuries the side acquire. The international break has come at just the right time as we don't play again now until Sunderland visit us at the Emirates on Sunday 16 October. Let's hope we don't collect any more casualties to our already bloated injury list. Until then...

Thanks for reading.

Strictly Business Against Bolton

Well its been a while since my last post but come on, there hasn't been much worth talking about has there? Scraping a 1-0 at home against Swansea, nearly beating German champs Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, dropping a clanger in the 4-3 loss to Blackburn and just about beating League 2 Shrewsbury this week in the Carling Cup. Not one of these games inspired me enough to write anything worth reading on here, especially after the disaster at Blackburn; I was completely disheartened with that loss.

However with Arsenal's 3-0 demolition of Bolton today, there is finally cause to write, read and rejoice in all things Arsenal. Two goals from captain Robin van Persie and a late effort from Alex Song ensured all 3 points at the Emirates this afternoon, a well earned and much needed victory for the Gunners. After a largely uneventful first half in which both teams squandered good chances, van Persie slotted home almost immediately after the half time break to give us the lead. Soon after going behind things got worse for Bolton when David Wheater was dismissed after tangling with Theo Walcott. Reduced to 10 men Bolton couldn't stem the Arsenal tide for long, let alone stage a comeback. With just under 20 minutes left the captain doubled his tally for the day and put the game to bed, making it 2-0 to the Arsenal. With the game almost over, Song capped off the win with a deliciously curled effort to make it 3-0 and job done. The only thing to spoil the day was young Theo limping off with only minutes left in the match, with what appeared to be a painful knee injury. With all the injuries we already have, and the news that Jack Wilshere will be out until Christmas, we really could do without losing Theo. Unfortunately injuries have been the bane of this Arsenal squad for many years now and things don't look like changing for us anytime soon.

Alas, lets not dwell on the negative and instead let us embrace the positive. And it doesn't get any better than seeing our captain, Mr Robin van Persie, scoring his 99th and 100th goals for the club this afternoon, joining an elite group in Arsenal history. With Robin joining the centenary club today, it marks a special occasion for our Dutch striker. He has been quality for us over the years, scoring some very important goals and winning some big games. Of course there's always been the other side to the coin, with Robin missing massive parts of his career through injury, always being struck down just when he was really hitting his stride. But during a time when the club needed a leader most, when the team needed their captain to step up, van Persie delivered today with two excellent goals, carrying the club on his back and ensuring all three important points stayed in North London. I'll never get bored of seeing my favourite Gooner smashing the ball past opposition keepers, and just pray he can stay fit for just one whole season. Let's hope Robin can keep up his incredible goals-to-games ratio and make his way up the Arsenal goalscoring leaderboard over the next few years.

So up next for the Gunners is a tricky home game against Greek side Olympiakos in the Champions League. We're at home and we traditionally do well in Europe at the Emirates so I expect nothing but a win. It's imperative to win your home games during the group stages, so we must get a win on Wednesday night. Hopefully I'll be able to tune in and after today's win, I'm even looking forward to it!

Thanks for reading.

Deadline Day: Busy, Busy, Busy

So the transfer window has closed and Arsenal had their most active deadline day in recent memory; I can't remember a transfer window when we made so many signings and at the last minute too. So let's run through who we bought and what I think:

Park Chu-Young

The first big signing we heard about was the acquisition of South Korean captain Park Chu-Young from recently relegated AS Monaco. The 26 year old striker, who scored 25 goals in 91 games for the French club, joined for a fee of under £3 million and will add some depth to our very thin forwards group. Unfortunately the South Korean has to go back to his country in 2013 for national service, which means we will lose his services for a couple of seasons. He'll wear the number 9 shirt this season.

Now I've never really seen Chu-Young play, apart from the 2010 World Cup, but I wasn't really paying attention back then because we weren't likely to sign him. Hopefully he can contribute this year but I'm not expecting greatness, so anything he can add to this squad will be brilliant in my eyes.

Signing grade: B-

Andre Santos

The next signing Wenger made was to shore up that problematic left back position. With Gael Clichy moving to Man City, Armand Traore moving to QPR and Kieran Gibbs continuously getting hurt, the boss had to buy someone experienced and he did just that. Brazilian international Andre Santos joined us from Fenerbahce for a fee thought to be around £6 million. The 28 year old has won 22 caps for his country so has plenty of top-level experience and should hopefully slot in nicely in what will be a new-look back four. I'm excited about this signing and I reckon Santos will really help this team move forward.

Signing grade: B+

Per Mertesacker

Finally Wenger addressed the crucial weakness to this team, the centre back position. He had the entire summer to do it and naturally left it right to the last minute. Nonetheless the signing was made, and relief swept across every Arsenal fan in the country. The mini-saga that was Gary Cahill joining us didn't materialise and in my opinion we got someone better, and cheaper, instead. The German international and Werder Bremen captain Per Mertesacker joined us for around £8 million and will hopefully become the immovable force of our back four. Mertesacker is 6'6 and has 75 caps for Germany at the age of 26, so there is still plenty of gas left in the tank and he is already so experienced, playing and doing well in two World Cups already.

This is the signing I'm most excited about. I think Per is perfect for our team and will thrive in English football. Some people have pointed out that he's not the quickest of defenders but we've had slower players succeed in our team before and I don't expect Mertesacker's pace to hinder his performances at all. A fantastic signing, I'm just praying he and Vermaelen can stay fit all year and have a really strong partnership.

Signing grade: A

Yossi Benayoun

With the transfer window just about to close, Wenger swooped for two players to add some creativity and depth to the midfield. The news came through that we had acquired Israeli captain Yossi Benayoun from Chelsea on a season long loan. All the news before Yossi's signing told us we were close to getting the Spanish playmaker Mikel Arteta from Everton, but when news reached us that the Arteta talks were off the idea of having just Benayoun as our only midfield signing was a bit of an anticlimax. No disrespect to Yossi, but a season long loan from Chelsea was the best we could do? Especially with cash still to spend, there had to be someone else coming surely? Well it was better than nothing and I'll forever be grateful to the Israeli for that goal against Spurs on the last day of the 05/06 season. Anyway, Benayoun isn't a bad player and he should be able to chip in with his clever runs and the odd goal, but knowing we only have him for a year is a bit underwhelming. Still, we need as many experienced bodies in the squad as we can get, so Wenger did well to get him.

Signing grade: B-

Mikel Arteta

With the departures of Fabregas and Nasri, Wenger had to address the gaping hole that was left in the heart of our midfield. Even with Wilshere and Ramsey ready to step up and take Cesc and Nasri's places, with injuries and suspensions occurring all the time this season we needed another experienced body for cover. With the news that Arteta had signed, we finally filled that hole. The 29 year old Spaniard joined for around £10 million which is a great deal. Everton were reluctant to give him up, a player who had served them faithfully for many years, but the lure of Champions League football was too much for Arteta to pass up.

When I heard that we were in the running for Arteta yesterday lunchtime I got pretty excited. The talented playmaker can pass as well as anybody and won't need to adapt to the Premier League 'cause he's been over here for ages. But when I heard talks had broken down and reports indicated Arsenal weren't going to try again, I was pretty annoyed that I'd gotten my hopes up. Luckily the club persevered and we got our man. I'm pretty excited to see Arteta in an Arsenal shirt; he's no Fabregas but he is exactly what this young inexperienced squad needs. A very astute signing Mr Wenger and I'm very happy about this acquisition.

Signing grade: A-

So, all in all a very busy day for Arsenal and many new faces coming in to help bolster this very weak squad. Hopefully we can improve now and get some confidence in this very shaken team. News that our giant Dane Nicklas Bendtner joined Sunderland on loan is good news. Hopefully he can play every week and get some goals in him. This is his chance to prove he can really perform in the Premier League, there's no excuses now. If he can score 12-15 goals this season, I'd say we give him another shot at making the first team next year. Hopefully he can do well.

Anyway that's enough from me for one day. I'll be back with something after the international break. Until then...

Thanks for reading.