Arsenal got into the knockout stages of the Champions League for the tenth straight year with a 2-0 win against Standard Liege. There were injury problems though after the match with Gibbs being sidelined for close to 3 months with a fractured metatarsal and this after he came back from a minor injury to feature in this match. Gallas had a clash of head with Arshavin and was subed midway. Wenger though in his post match interview has said

Gallas has a slight ankle problem and a swollen eye. I think he will recover from the eye and the ankle soon.

Though he didn’t mention by when, I assume he meant before the weekend match. Gibbs he said was more serious.

Nasri capitalised on a defensive slip up and slotted in the first goal. He along with Fabregas controlled the midfield throughout the match. The second came from a Denilson long ranger. Playing in his 100th match, Denilson took his chance and drilled a wonderf ul shot from outside the penalty box high into the box.

Fabregas earned a unnecessary yellow card in the fag end of the match which resulted in the Standard player being sent off for a “headbutt”.

So now all set for the season-defining sunday thriller against Chelsea.

Thanks to Arsenal TV subscription, I got to see what Wenger had to say about the most controversial football incident in recent past – the Henry Handball – that sent the French to South Africa and the Irish to despair.

Wenger didn’t blame Henry, but he did have a couple of things to say about use of video technology being used in cases like this. He did say that the ref should have sensed something when Henry did not celebrate spontaneously or when 11 Irish players confronted him!!! And the ref did not have video technology which he could have used in such situations to help him take a informed decision. Ok maybe video technology might not be helpful in all cases but in such obvious cases,it will only help. Valid point professor.

Sportscentre in ESPN with their various animation software points out that the linesman should have had a clear vision but still didn’t help in this case. Lets hope that the best thing that can possibly happen is introduction of video technology for such situations.

Regarding the weekend match, Wenger did confirm that Gibbs will be ready but will play only in the mid-week Champions League match. And when asked would it be Traore or Silvestre at left back, he did mention that there is another player who can play in that position without mentioning the name. Who could that be? Eboue?

Fabianski and Denilson are available for the Sunderland match and Denilson will start. Strange that Wenger still doesn’t have information from Russia on Arshavin. Not that he is injured or anything but I hope Arshavin is fully fit and active because against teams like Sunderland, who seems to be in some good form, we need some creativity and goals.

In a serious setback to Arsenal’s remaining season aspirations, Van Persie got injured in a meaningless friendly against Italy…Persie was regaining his best form when this nonsense had to happen…Preliminary reports say 3 months layoff which might be quite a difficult time for Arsenal with Bendtner also out injured.

Lets keep our fingers crossed and hope that he is not terribly injured and face even more time off the game.

Arsenal climbed to the second spot in the Premier League beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-1 away from home. It was not a good first half though the Gunners put in two goals or rather Wolves conceded two own goals. As my friend sent an sms, the way the Wolves set up play in the first half, they were fast becoming lambs for slaughter!!!

The Wolves matched Arsenal attack for attack in the first half and surely had a couple of chances to go ahead. And I think this season Arsenal is enjoying a bit of luck in some matches where one they didnt concede and two scored on the other end when it mattered. Eduardo was lively upfront and was instrumental in pressurising the Wolves defence in making them concede two goals in the first half. Diaby getting substituted with Song (who was rested initially by keeping him in the bench) improved the midfield play.

Ramsey making a rare premier league start was quite impressive and so was Fabregas and Arshavin. Gallas was brave at the back with some impressive tackles and Gibbs at left back was a refreshing presence. van Persie provided a sublime assist to Fabregas for the third goal,coming out of a beautiful Arsenal play and Arshavin rounded off a beautiful goal to finish off in style. We should not have conceded the goal in the last few minutes and Almunia definitely would not have liked it.

Arsenal now have 36 goals from 11 games. Van Persie has 7 goals, Fabregas 6 goals and Arshavin has 4. In terms of assists, Fabregas leads with 10 and van Persie has 7.

It is 3-0 to the Gunners!!!

For all the big talk dished out by Robbie Keane, his team just showed the opposite. They lacked in depth as they did really miss their most creative players in Luka Modric, Lennon and Defoe playing against their london rivals, who also missed a trio of creative players in Rosicky, Nasri and Walcott…it is a different matter whether they would have still made the team if they were fit.

Arsenal’s formation seems to be a rock solid one with Diaby and Song playing ahead of the defence and Song in particular looking like an ace when it comes to breaking the opposition moves and stoppinng play. Diaby seriously needs to improve and this is where I feel a Nasri(like he did in the Carling Cup) or a Rosicky can make a positive difference to this team.

Van Persie seems to be hitting a purple patch and Arshavin and Bendtner along with our new goal-scoring midfielder captain Cesc Fabregas seems to be combinign well. Sagna is looking more attack-minded and Clichy seriously needs to get his crosses right. It is amazing that this team seems to be having so much to improve and still doing good. I wonder how it would be once they all combine well and play to their potential. Vermaelen and Gallas are strong behind and the way Vermaelen headed out all the balls to Crouch I am not worried anymore about any tall forward troubling us at the back. I just want to see how Vermaelen will play against Drogba the physically strong forward whom we have not encountered so far.

One last word about Fabregas’ goal. He was absolutely fantastic and I am sure with this one he has become more adorable to the fans…you rock Cesc!

In a wonderful display of attacking football, Arsenal scored six goals from six different players to win against Blackburn Rovers at home. This came as a fitting tribute to Wenger, entering into his 14th year at the club with this match. Thierry Henry was also on attendance with his family to see the young Gunners take centre-stage despite going behind twice early in the match.

A 10/10 performance from our Captain Marvellous, Cesc was sexy throughout the match. He made 4 assists and scored one in a match which was probably his best in the season so far. He was all over the place. And he made it a point to the Gooners in the stadium that he is dedicated to this club and is not going anywhere in his goal celebration. What a player, what an attitude and what a vision!!!

It didn’t start all that well for Arsenal, when a pretty long free-kick taken by Robinson was headed into the goal as Mannone found himself in no-mans-land, advancing to collect the ball but not able to do so. This was probbaly his in-experience showing in the starting minutes of the match and I can only see him learning from these mistakes. Otherwise he had a wonderful match, not that he had much to do. Arsenal found parity soon through our goal-scoring machine, no not Bendtner, but Vermaelen . He was felled near the centre of the pitch, but referee waved played-on and the ball was nicely played on to an advancing Vermaelen by Fabregas and he rocketed a shot to the right corner with his impeccable left foot.

Against the run of play, again Balckburn found the net, this time a deflection of Gallas into the goal. That was pretty much of what Blackburn could do, other than a legitimate penalty shout, which the referee did not give. Not that it mattered in the end though. Almost immediately after the second Blackburn goal, Fabregas put through van Persie, who seems to be taking these kind of goals as a regular fare these days. Please note that by this time, Arsenal were playing flowing football, with our flair players Arshavin and Rosicky involved in the thick of thinigs. Again a nice lay-off to Arshavin on the left saw the Russian squeeze a goal past Robinson. So at that time the score read 3-2.

It was not over and the second half was again Arsenal at its attacking best. And this time, Fabregas in trying to feed van Persie first and then Rosicky, got the ball back from the Czech, chested it and hit a loose left foot shot for a goal. This was a deserving finish that makes the captain our join top scorer in the league with 4 goals along with Vermaelen. Enter Theo, and he must have been barely in when a good counter attack saw Arshavin pass the ball to Cesc, who had the vision to see Walcott coming on the right to lay the ball on his path. A neat finish from Walcott was all it required and that was what he did precisely. 5-2.

The captain was substituted to a thunderous applause and in came Bendtner and Ramsey to play out the final 15 odd mins. Bendtner got time to increase his goal tally with a glorious finish with his right foot, which was a nearly impossible stop for Robinson. All’s well and that ends well. Despite letting in 6 goals, Paul Robinson had a decent game otherwise it would have been some 8 or 10 goals!!!

Top scorers for Arsenal in the Premier League

Fabregas, Vermaelen – 4 goals

van Persie – 3 goals

Arshavin, Diaby, Eduardo, Gallas - 2 goals

Bendtner, Denilson, Ramsey, Rosicky, Walcott - 1 goal

In a world where results and trophies count for success, Arsene Wenger is probably the odd man out. He believes in a style of play and believes more in a way of raising a team that will play that style of play. He doesn’t believe in a club where money can buy success and in that he has been at the right club. Maybe it is fate that made believe in a shoe-string budget when buying players and building a team from the ranks and building a youth team.

Even now,despite the lows in Manchester, this team has won more applauses than other Premier League teams. Wenger’s team generally possess a great technique, wonderful passing skills where they build triangles around opposition players and keep moving forward, which makes the spectator sit at the edge of the seat when Arsenal is on the attack. Probably the only other teams I would love to pay and watch are Barcelona and Argentina. Ok if given a chance I would even watch a championship side!!!

In the last 3-4 years, this team has been playing well in the Champions League and not doing all that great in the League. It is somewhere there and in my opinion if Wenger manages to retain this team which has a nice camaraderie among them, this team will get both the trophies very soon. In Arshavin they have a player who is probably the best thing to have happened to Arsenal in the last 3-4 years. With Cesc in the middle and Arshavin ahead of him, this team will certainly go places under the guidance of Wenger. Wenger has bred a lot of superstars in the world stage under him in this club and I don’t want to even get there now.

To me more than winning all the doubles and the other trophies, the major stand-out point has been the unbeaten run. That was something…absolutely mindblowing. And lets all hope we win the Champions League in the near future as well.

Arsenal travel to Craven Cottage for a tricky tie against Fulham. Tricky because Fulham at home is a well organised team. Arsenal have had a couple of tough matches away to Fulham.

The good news for Arsenal is that our most influential player this year, Arshavin (yes he is more influential than Cesc this season) is back from injury and should play a part in the game at some point of time. So is our English star, Theo Walcott who is back. I am looking forward to seeing him play this season and see the difference and pace that he can provide to the team.

Possible starting line up

Mannone

Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Clichy

Song Diaby

Rosicky Fabregas Persie

Eduardo

Look forward to a thrilling encounter with Arsenal emerging winners

Arsenal finished off Wigan comfortably in the end. The scoreline which should ideally have been 8-0 or something was 4-0 after 90 mintes. It could have been 5-0 after the two added minutes as Arsenal finished the match with a chance which the unlucky Van Persie could not convert. With this win, Arsenal are sixth in the league( temporarily of course as it  depends on the Liverpool result) with 17 goals so far in 5 games, which is by far the highest in the league.

Vermaelen turned out to be the star with two well taken goals, one with his head and the other with his left leg, a sublime finish. He is slowly becoming a crowd favourite with his play, both at the back and in front off set-pieces. His first was a towering header jumping above the Wigan defence and then a one two with Eboue on the left, and a finish which will make Van Persie jealous kept the Gunners two goals ahead. After that every touch of his was cheered by the crowd.

The third was again a good move of the numerous ones created by Arsenal today with Clichy taking time on the right before delivering a weighted cross to Eduardo whose strike hit the post and came off couple of players before it went to Eduardo again who smashed it towards goal and off Eboue into goal. Eboue will get credit for this goal. And a word about Eboue here, he had a good match and this is the same match last year in which he was booed out by the Gooners. Three cheers for him for his performance which will make us forget the previous one. And a word to all you Gooners, lets not boo our own player. As long as he is wearing an Arsenal jersey, lets just support him.

And before the fourth was coming there were chances galore with Van Persie missing a nice through chip from Fabregas and Song going it all alone before hitting the outside of the left post. And there were some good moves too. Diaby was replaced by Ramsey and Eboue and Eduardo made way for Bendtner and Rosicky. This ignited some new moves with Rosicky being more involved and Bendtner also getting more exposure to the passes. He combined with van Persie on the right before crossing to the near post were a limping Fabregas found the net. Hope our captain’s limp is temporary and he will be back to fitness soon.

So that was a well deserved 3 points and lets hope the team builds on this.

A friend of mine, Vicky and myself have decided to collaborate and converge our Football and Cricket thoughts together in a sports blog MTJAG. It stands for “more than just a game”. The blog was born a couple of weeks back, but we have actively started contributing only since yesterday.The way we like to say it is

MTJAG take immense pride in providing pointless analysis, meaningless and often biased opinions, polished turds camouflaged with interlectual wisdom. MTJAG aims to be the rehab for the sports addict, but in truth, we want to provide the cocaine for your pain. Because , everyone knows it’s More Than Just a Game. ( we didn’t intend it to rhyme).

So do drop in there once in a while and leave your thoughts…

Enjoy the football wherever you are

~the freekicker