Arsenalist

These are the types of games that have proven to be problematic for Arsenal, and that’s why these are three great points to pick up. Arsenal weren’t at their best in terms of stringing those passes together, but the defensive steel they displayed is reassuring, and something different from years past. I’d like to think we beat Blackburn at their own game: for every strong Blackburn tackle, there was one from Arsenal and then some. Theo Walcott had another good game at the right wing, he always looked to be a threat and got rewarded with a goal via a precise far-post finish. Bacary Sagna deserves huge credit for the second goal as he was the one that kept the ball in and made the play possible.

Robin Van Persie was taken off after picking up an ankle injury (out for ten days which coincides with the interlull, so that’s good), so Chamakh was introduced. As I said on Twitter, he is simply magnificent at helping out in his own half and tracking back. His goals will come, but it’s good to see a striker who’s not scoring use his height and physical presence to be a factor elsewhere. Final comment is on Arshavin, he gets slagged a lot because of his effort levels, but I think the criticism is too harsh. He is a wonderful player who is always thinking a step ahead, I think it’s just a matter of time before he finds his mid-season form and becomes effective for the full 90 minutes.

The MOTD Highlights are below, or you could just see a clip of Hansen eat his words.

Here are the goals:

Walcott 1-0, 20′: Watch :: Download

Douchebag 1-1, 27′: Watch :: Download

Arshavin 2-1, 52′: Watch :: Download

Wenger Interview :: Walcott/Almunia Interview

In the interview, Wenger says, “For us, the transfer period is already over”.

As for Carling Cup, Wenger says he will play the young team against Tottenham.

BBC Wenger and Fat Sam Interview

Twitter – @arsenalist

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Great second half performance. 9 points clear of Villa who are playing Everton tomorrow. If Arshavin weren’t cup-tied I’d feel a lot more confident about the Champions League. Silvestre and Djourou make me a little nervous, not exactly stable components in a back four. We were poor in our set pieces and that’s something that needs to be tightened for Wednesday. Let’s just enjoy this win for now. MOTD Highlights will be posted when they become available. Here’s the Match Report. Here’s the sponsor.

Arsene Wenger’s post-match interview. :: Another with Sky Sports

MOTD Highlights

First Half Highlights and their goal: Watch :: Download

Walcott 1-1: Download

Silvestre 2-1: Download

Arshavin 3-1: (Adebayor’s pass didn’t have enough weight but another Wigan mistake sets it up for Arshavin) Download

Song 4-1 (horrible defending): Download

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First Half Highlights: Watch

Arshavin Interview: Watch

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MOTD Highlights

A very routine Arsenal win against Reading, the team’s still putting out the effort even though there’s no chance of a return from this season. We’ve played some great football this year and were competing for the title up until mid-April, that’s a huge improvement from last year where we were out of it in November. This team’s a striker and an experienced defender away from a title, Song’s a nice enough player but he’s not close to being our first-choice CB. Senderos is a great guy but I’m not sure he’s even Premier League worthy. Wenger needs to address those issues.

Walcott started this game and looked like he deserves to be named first-team starting next season. I just don’t see what exactly Eboue does great that would warrant a starting spot. At least with Walcott you know you’re getting pace and creativity and the expense of some control. Eboue’s a hard worker but he always makes me nervous about getting sent off with his ill-advised antics.

We’ve had a lot of injuries this year but by far the one that hurt us the most was missing Bacary Sagna against Liverpool and Manchester United – I would even say he is the anchor of our defense ahead of Toure or Gallas. As Wenger said, we were unlucky, hopefully next season that changes.

I was excited to hear about David Villa wanting to play for Arsenal, he’s a composed striker that could help finish off those chances we end up wasting. However, Wenger denied any interest.

Anyhow, a nice Arsenal win. Enjoy it.

Robin van Persie is the Top Gun.

• BBC Match Report: Ends up having interviews.
• Arsenal.com Match Report
• This blog’s Arsenal feed.

MOTD Highlights: Download :: Watch

Adebayor 1-0: Download :: Watch

Gilberto 2-0 + some great Arsenal chances: Download :: Watch

Stretch of play where Robin van Persie hits the bar and a minute later, Walcott does the same: Download :: Watch

This is Chinese commentary but good quality. I can’t bear listening to English hyperbole anymore, I prefer chipmunks instead.

Great fight back by the Gunners. All seemed lost at halftime, we were dominating play but Bolton was the one in the lead. Bad defending on their first goal and a giveaway led to the other. Diaby was sent off (rightfully) for a similar tackle as the one on Eduardo. We were creating half-chances all through the first half but it was embarassing to be down two goals to a relegation threatened Bolton side who are basically a bunch of talentless gypsies.

The outset of the second half was dominated by Bolton much to everyone’s shock but Arsene Wenger responded by replacing Bendtner for Emmanuel Adebayor and mixing in Theo Walcott. Immediate dividends followed. Adebayor has been taking a lot of heat since the goals have dried up but his pace was a key catalyst in this one.

Gallas who was having a terrible game scored off a poorly defended corner which should be enough for him to keep his captaincy for another week. Soon after, Adebayor’s run in the box was followed by a nifty back heel to Flamini who’s shot was blocked but Hleb was fouled trying to get to the rebound. RVP smashed one in from the spot and the Gunners were back. The final goal was sheer desire to not settle for a tie, a bit of luck on the deflection but the run by Fabregas was something to relish.

Gunners come back from the dead. Is it going to be enough to win the league? Probably not but it’s exactly what we needed going into the big Champions League clash against Liverpool.

Arsenal.com Match Report

BBC Match Report – Ends up having post-match interviews.

This blog’s Arsenal Feed. If you happen to be a Raptors fan, get that feed too.

Matthew Taylor ’14, 0-1: Download :: Watch

Matthew Taylor ’43, 0-2: Download :: Watch

William Gallas ’62, 1 -2: Download :: Watch

Robin van Persie ’68, 2-2: Download :: Watch

Jlloyd Samuel (OG) ’90, 3 -2: Download :: Watch

MOTD Highlights (English): Download :: Watch

Low Quality Highlights (Korean): Download :: Watch

Finally, if you enjoy free Arsenal highlights, buy an Arsenal ticket, if you can’t afford one, just click here to say thanks.

I don’t want to sound all doomy but the chances of winning the league are pretty slim. This is our fourth straight league tie, that’s 8 dropped points against some teams threatened by relegation. We have a very tough April where we play away to Manchester United and Chelsea and at home to Liverpool. This is not counting the two Champions League ties against Liverpool. We haven’t been able to get complete points from fixtures that should be routine for us, that’s what’s going to be the difference in the standings.

The only thing to take solace in is that we had a legit goal disallowed and they scored on a clearly offside play. Tough luck yet again.

Champions League beckons. Here’s the Arsenal.com Match Report and here’s the BBC Match Report with some PG comments.

Adebayor goal that was incorrectly given offside Download :: Watch

Aliadiere Offside Goal Download :: Watch

Toure Equalizer: Download :: Watch

MOTD Highlights: Watch :: Watch

[digg=http://digg.com/soccer/Video_Pictures_of_Eduardo_breaking_leg_Bad_Penalty_Given]
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Eduardo Injury Update from Arsenal.com:

All being well, Eduardo will have his leg in plaster and using crutches for the next six to eight weeks. After that time, partial weight-bearing exercises will be scheduled into a slow rehabilitation process. It is hoped that Eduardo will be running again in six months time and making a full recovery after nine months. Eduardo will be released from hospital in a few days.

That’s great news.

—

That was not a penalty. Clichy got all ball, the video below shows that. That’s about all the analysis I’m willing to make. That and Taylor should never play football again.

I feel dirty dropping 4 points to the Brums. We played like shit against them in January but this time around, deserved to win. Two set-pieces gift-wrapped by the ref resulted in two goals. Horrible night for the Gunners, if there’s a silver lining, it’s that Walcott finally broke the ice and scored two league goals. Bad result in FA Cup followed by mediocre result in Champions League followed by a bad result in the league. This is when things started to go south for us last year but this year is different. We played awful last year during this time period, but this year it’s a question of injuries (RVP, Rosicky), bad luck (Adebayor and the crossbar) and bad refereeing (penalty today).

I’m not concerned, we’ll shake this off next week against Villa and finish the job in Italy. Prayers with Eduardo, he’s out for a long, long time, will miss the season obviously and is out for Euro 2008. Say what you will about Arsenal’s bad disciplinary record, we’ll argue with ref, go for a bold tackle, but we don’t try to end players’ careers. The FA needs to realize people come to watch players like Eduardo, not riff-raff like Martin Taylor. I’m very interested as to what the suspension will be for this guy, seeing how we’re the Gunners and not Man Utd or Liverpool, he’ll get off with a slap on the wrist. At what age do they teach you how to tackle? This fucker still hasn’t learned, ban this guy for a season. Wenger is pissed, and rightfully.

Arse!

Eduardo injury pictures:

There are two more, these are more gruesome, so view it at your own risk. Here’s the other one. Here’s one at a unique angle.

Finally, this one is EXTREMELY GRAPHIC in nature. The injury video is the last one on this page, scroll down for it.

My Arsenal Feed.
Match Report.
BBC Match Report – Arsene Wenger Post Match Interview.

MOTD Highlights

McFadden ’28 1-0: Flamini “foul” + goal Download :: YouTube

Walcott ’49 1-1 Download :: YouTube

Walcott ’55 2-1 Download :: YouTube

McFadden penalty + Clichy “foul” ’90 2-2 Download :: YouTube

Martin Taylor’s horror tackle on Eduardo who breaks his leg Download :: YouTube :: FootyTube video + discussion :: High Quality

Bad tackle on Hleb Download :: YouTube

Adebayor fouled, penalty not given Download :: YouTube

The Gunners look to open a up a 5 point gap at the top of the Barclay’s Premier League…stay tuned for highlights.

Senderos ’4 – 1-0: Download

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kp6Tixfi-Ds]

Adebayor ’90 – 2-0: Download

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=lMIjwD7T6Eg]

Arsenalist’s Arsenal Feed

Arsenal.com Match Report

BBC Match Report – Ends up having PG interviews

The Gunners are back on top after a dominant performance at Manchester City. City threatened midway through the second half but other than that short stretch, it was all Arsenal. Eduardo’s goal was brilliant, great composure shown by the Crozilian after chesting the ball off an Adebayor header, superb finishing. Clichy made a rare mistake on the City goal which was a bummer but the man has been solid all year so we can look past it.

Emmanuel Adebayor is The Top Gun.

What are the chances of the Spurs helping out against United today?

Arsenal.com Match Report

BBC Sport Match Report – Ends up having post-match interviews

Arsenalist.com Arsenal RSS Feed

Adebayor ’8 1-0: Download

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0d85tVP2_Y]

Eduardo ’26 2-0: Download (Overhead Bicycle Kick)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgXRTiNGTYg]

Fernandes ’28 2-1: Download

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQKOqMqHQhY]

Adebayor ’88 ’3-1: Download

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGbFu5CLKew]

1st Half Highlights: Download

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SJr4iq4Lt8]

Ho hum, we beat Newcastle again. The Flamini goal reminded me of the Rosicky goal against Hamburg in the CL last year. Adebayor missed a tough chance where he tried to wheel it in and it went just over the bar. Moments later he scored anyway. MOTM = Flamini. The Arsenal midfielders have a bet going about who’ll get the most goals, my money’s on Fabregas just because he got so many early on that it’ll be tough to catch him. Although Gattuso..er..Flamini does end up scoring late in the year and important ones too. You’ll notice in the Adebayor goal that the commentator is ripping on the referee for not allowing play to continue when Adebayor had an advantageous position. Only one of the many questionable calls all game long.

Check The Cannon for a good post-match wrap up whenever he wakes up or check out the hard working Goal Centre.

Match Report.

BBC Match Report (ends up having post-match interviews)

My Arsenal feed.

Adeabayor ’40 1-0: Download

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=W9Kfg8TyWnM]

Flamini ’73: 2-0: Download

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=FYqwQlWrGQ4]

Fabregas ’80: Download

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=5NlrR1qz1i8]

First Half Highlights Download

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yx75_2bFNy4]