Pardon the creative title but that’s the only excitement I got out of today’s slaughter of our beloved Toronto FC at the hands of the lowly Chicago Fire which dealt a serious blow to our playoff hopes. A return to the friendly and very reddish confines of BMO Field didn’t help much and there was nothing U-Sector or the Red Patch Boys (join those two already) could do to prevent a drubbing that brought back memories of Ali knocking down Sonny Liston and then staring at him while he was down. TFC being Liston of course.

Now that I’ve had a chance to stomach this loss I can get a better perspective of why we lost and the reasons are quite simple. We played bad. It sounds trivial enough but those words are entrenched with profound meaning and do the best to describe our efforts. But there was one bright spot, two really. Srdjan Djankovic didn’t play which meant we might’ve had a chance to win this game but neither did Jeff Cunningham, Ronnie O’Brien, Sam Reynolds and the enigmatic Marvelle Wynne. So that was that. But we got to see U-20 Canadian goalie David Monsalve come in and do his best to stop a Chicago attack that was only being helped by the TFC defense’s tendency not to defend and just kinda wave at the ball as it goes past them. Monslave was impressive early but the Fire attack wore him and our defense down where letting in only three goals was a good thing.

But the news gets worse, Cunningham and O’Brien are probably going to have surgery and will be out 4-6 weeks which means say goodbye to our playoff chances. This probably starts the phase of the season where you at least start looking forward to next year. To quote Kramer, Stick a fork in me Jerry, I’m done. Even so, despite the missing players it was surprising to see the lack of tenacity shown by TFC in what was a six-point game against the team directly below us in the standings.

Best not to think about this game anymore. I’ll just say that it was really sad to see Ivan Guerrero outrun Chris Pozniak so easily for the first goal. Let’s look ahead to David Beckham’s debut in the MLS which is scheduled to happen this Sunday at BMO Field.

Thanks for reading.

Alexander Hleb 1-1 - Poor old Hleb blows the initial shot but makes up for it by a cheeky seeing-eye shot.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e6e_1185728429

Robin van Persie 2-1 - This is a brilliant goal, notice how he reverses the ball before firing it.

There’s also a DailyMotion video with 11 minutes of highlights. Or maybe you prefer a hot chick giving you the Arsenal highlights. The Gunnerblog and A Cultured Left Foot have excellent game reports.

Here’s some nice Arsenal moments from the game:

Subscribe to the Arsenal feed for highlights throughout the upcoming season and other Arsenal talk.

So we’re told Wenger has some money to spend and he’s just waiting to sign the “right” player. The Boss exudes the confidence he has in his youth and dismisses any claims of old farts like Anelka reappearing at Arsenal. Now that’s fine with me but Wenger doesn’t really elaborate on what kind of player he wants to sign. He’s being vague as saying:

“If I find the right player, I will take him. If I find two, I will do it.”

Fair enough but what the “right player” is only God knows because it sure isn’t Tevez, Anelka, Babel or any of that sort. Unwinding this thread a little more we learn that Kaka is being chased by Real Madrid with great zeal. Now if there is a right player by any categorization or criteria it’s Ricardo Kaka who can be considered the greatest player in football. Any amount of money being spent here would be well spent. I can’t think of a better replacement for Henry than Kaka who has continuously rivaled the Frenchman as the best player on the planet. Or we could get Anelka. The Gunnerblog has a great post on the media’s fascination with an Anelka signing and suggests Wenger’s using Anelka as a smokescreen.

There’s finally some indication that sun-worshipper Jose Antonio Reyes is finally out of Arsenal, his destination? Not the glamorous Santiago Bernabeu but the industrial wasteland that is Atletico Madrid. £9.3 million is the quoted price which I remember reading was far less than what Wenger wanted for him. Either way it’s money we can use to sure up our shot at a title run which Cesc Fabregas thinks is a realistic and quite achievable goal. Reading his comments I’m thinking he’s ready to put his hat in for the Arsenal captaincy sweepstakes:

“I have matured very much over the last two years and I am prepared to be the leader of the team.”

As this is the only Arsenal blog with an MLS flavour I’m happy to report that Freddy “Who?” Adu looks to be heading out of the MLS to Benfica. For those of you living on the Eastern side of the Atlantic, Freddy Adu is the most hyped up and under-performing player of his generation, he seems like a nice enough guy but the expectations and performances never quite added up.