Vintage Arsenal (Arsenal 6 - 2 Blackburn)

What a delightful victory. Took an early flight as didn’t want to miss the game when in transit. And boy it was every bit worth it. What brilliant display of attacking football. Something with which has been associated with Arsenal over the years. And what a time to do it when the Professor has completed his 13 years at the helm. I don’t think it would be wrong if I say it was vintage Arsenal.

Defensively we weren’t great. In fact I would go as far as saying that Vermaelen had his poorest outing in terms of his defensive duties. His goal was pure class though. We have now scored 24 goals in the PL that too playing a game less. Its incredible given that our top scorers are tied at 4 apiece. 6-1 against Everton was a thrashing, but that was nowhere near a classical Arsenal display. This was it. Breathtaking.

And this shows what we can do going forward if we have our full strength team. The first time in PL we got to play our full strength squad right from the beginning. Still I would replace Diaby with Nasri once he is back. And you will have Walcott, Bendtner, Dudu, Vela, Ramsey, Diaby, Denilson. Obviously not all would even get a place on the bench. This is what we were missing in the past. Good bench strength. Cesc is still irreplaceable, but Rosicky can play in the middle. And Ramsey is getting better with every game. He has all the traits that Cesc possesses. And who better to hone them than Wenger.

A word for Cesc. What a performance. 4 assists and 1 goal. He wasn’t there for the 6th else he would’ve played a part in that as well :). Song is having a good season so far and it brings defensive stability, and thus, Cesc is able to build play from further up the field than last season, which is good offensive as well.

I think Wenger has decided not to play Bendtner in the wide right position. And IMO it is a right decision. With RVP leading the lines, the midfielders are going to get more goals this season. Unlike Adebeyore, RVP is comfortable playing the ball with the goal behind him, releasing the onrushing midfielders. wingers (rosicky, arshavin, walcott) cutting in are going to benefit from this link up .

The international break is coming at the wrong time, but cant help it. Hoping to see similar scores for Arsenal once the PL resumes :)

Hard to take defeat ...

Took a 25-30 km to and fro trip home to watch the game. Was disappointed that we lost, but not disheartened. The players deserved at least a point from the game after the heart they showed.

The referring was poor to say the least. Darren Fletcher made at least 5-6 tackles that could’ve been a yellow card, including the penalty incident which was never given. Yet no yellow cards for him. And the likes of Sagna were yellow carded for dissent, when actually he was right. There was no yellow for Rooney in the initial stages of the game when he shouted at the referee. The funniest was when RVP was given a yellow for almost an identical tackle that Fletcher made on Arshavin just minutes earlier.

Coming to the play, I think we played with grit and determination. We started both the halves very brightly, but the goals actually pinned us down. And dare I say, my fears about Almunia came true. Though I don’t blame him for the penalty, he could hardly have done anything about it, he should’ve taken charge of the situation from which Diaby scored the ill fated own goal. There were no ManU players near the ball and Almunia could easily have come out to collect the ball, anyway.

Arshavin’s strike was brilliant, trilliant and more. What power this guy possesses. Hardly any back lift, still the ball rocketed into the goal. Though I must admit that he was not at his best apart from this goal.

Diaby, apart from the og, had a brilliant game. Now he is starting to live up to the promise that he showed intermittently. He has lovely ball control, and his long legs aid him to get away from defenders.

Song was not great. Was scrappy and lost the ball at times. Denilson had a quite game, was in oblivion most of the time. Eboue showed glimpses of brilliance, but on the whole was average. RVP didn’t have a good game by his standards. I somehow felt that the captain’s arm band didn’t make him very comfortable.

Vermaelen again had a very steady performance. His consistency is showing that he is class and not just temporary good form. Gallas has had better days. Still, didn’t give much room to Rooney to move about with the ball. Clichy had a good game defensively, though he didn’t venture forward much. Sagna had to do a lot of work. Was not supported much by Eboue defensively.

Almunia, well I am having serious question marks about him. I read somewhere that Ricardo, the Portugal international GK is for sale, with Betis gone down last season. Just a thought. Because even our backup doesn’t inspire much confidence.

I have always believed that good GKs are the ones which can inspire confidence in the defenders. And we lack this kind of confidence at the back. I think we should address that. We need to have better defense if we have to challenge for the title. Last year both Arsenal and ManU scored 68 goals, the difference was the goals conceded, which was 37 and 24 if I remember correctly.

Now we have a international break. I just hope none of our players get injured in this time. Hope to get back Walcott, Cesc and Rosicky after the break to face Money City. But boy, what a MF that will be, options all over. Can play 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-1-2-2 or whatever formation required. Not sure if Rosicky will be part of the Czech squad. I hope not.

The seasonal reviews...

Two very engrossing events ended on the very day, the 24^th of May. One, a nine month long, emotional, at times excruciatingly so, journey of the EPL. The other, a less emotional, but enchanting for various reasons, the IPL. Was wondering what to write on first, settled for the IPL for no other reason than that soon the hue and cry of the impending T20 WC is going to fade the IPL in the dusk. On the other hand, the EPL never really loses its charm, does it? So I thought the EPL review could wait, so here I am with the IPL review J

 This IPL didn’t spring too many surprises in my opinion. What I felt was, it were the usual suspects that came to the party. Well, usual suspects not in the sense of their international stature, but in the sense of what was expected of them based on their previous year’s showing. For all you can say, there were surprises in the other sense of the word in some glaring failures. Be it the destructive Albie Morkel, the cavalier Piertersen, or in my opinion, the much hyped Jesse Ryder. Even the likes of Yusuf , Jayasurya and the opening duo of Delhi didn’t perform as well as they would’ve liked to do.

 You go down the list of teams and players and may be you’ll find a Kamran Khan or a Manish Pandey in the latter stages of the tourney and may be a Shadab Jakati, but other than them, you can hardly point a finger to any player and say, ‘Boy, he was the surprise package this year’. People are going gung ho about Rohit Sharma, but I’m sure he’ll tell you that his last season was much better than this one.

 People will say DC were the surprise package this year, but not according to me. Last year they were the bottom placed team, mainly because their big guns in Gibbs, Symmo, Afridi failed miserably. But you’d got to feel that the law of averages would ensure that they perform well this year, and when it’s the averages of the likes of Gibbs and Symmonds, its got to be sooner rather than later. The best part of DC was their application, which lacked last year. Sambit Bal in an article pointed it out beautifully that Deccan lost a bit of flair to gain some discipline and on the other hand, Challangers lost a bit of their discipline to add some flair.

 And I think this write up will be incomplete without a tribute to the old warhorse, Anil Kumble. If Andy Gray would’ve been commentating, he would’ve surely said ‘What a player. WHAT A PLAYER’ J. Indeed, what a player. Not many gave him a chance this year, and it was no different than almost his entire career. He always had critics behind him that he was no longer good enough. And he always showed mettle to fight back and show that T20 may be a fast paced game, but there is always a place for the astute thinker. Watching him you got a feeling that he was there to prove a point. He wouldn’t have forgotten the rough treatment he received from his franchisee last season. And boy he proved it. Pipped for the purple cap only by RP, Anil was the best spinner on show. He never was one to shy away from a challenge, and he took this one, and lived it as no one expected him to. He took a second from the bottom team to just a hit away from winning the IPL, amazing turnaround. And even the most ignorant man would notice who was behind this.

 The worrying thing from India’s perspective is that most of their stars failed to deliver. Be it Veeru, Gauti, Yuvi or the bowling attack of Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma, all failed to make an impact on this season of the IPL. All Indians though would be hoping that the old adage of form being temporary and class permanent will hold good.

 Will finish this off with a slight preview of the upcoming T20 WC. In everyone’s eyes, India are hot favorites to hold on to their title. But while curiosity killed the cat, complacency wouldn’t let her live either. This is what Indians have to be wary of. One might even say that the failures of these stalwarts in the IPL might be a blessing in disguise as they now will be there to prove their mettle.

 We’re in for a good show people.

 Adios till the EPL review J.

My history .....

I dont think writing about the history of the club in my blog would serve the purpose as there are sites which would give a better account of Arsenal's history than what I would be able to provide. What can be a better idea is to tell how I became part of the club, its history and its present and future as well.

It was the 17th of May, 2006. When I think back, I find it ironic that the quality that made me fall in love with them is not something which we associate with them these days. May be it was the fact that even when they were fighting against the wind, Arsenal (then, it wasnt 'we', it was 'Arsenal'. It was after this day that 'Arsenal' and 'we' became synonymous :)) continued to play the beautiful football that makes them a class apart. But it was their grit and determination, more than their flair and flamboyance, on that day, which glued me to them. It wasnt a victorious performance that led me become an Arsenal fan, rather it was a narrow 2-1 defeat against the mighty Barcelona in the Champions League final of 2006. Arsenal were down to 10 men in the 18th minute when their GK Jens Lehmann was red carded. Sub GK Almunia took his place and Pires had to leave the the field to make way for him. They took the lead by a goal from Sol Campbell in the 37th minute, and fought heroicly with a man short to hold on against Barca. But when the victory seemed near, the resolve gave way and with two streaky goals in the 75th and the 81st minute Barcelona went on to become the European leaders. 

While Barca rejoiced, Arsenal quitelyadded another fan to the burgeoning community, that was yours truly :). Arsenal have never  come that close to win a trophy since then, but true fans dont leave the side of their clubs, do they. They havent won trophies, but they have won numerous hearts. I doubt any other team (excepting may be Barca) in the world at present is so unanimously regarded as the best team to watch. Their beautiful game at times can be frustrating with no end product, but on most other occasions you would feel that the word mesmerizing was invented just to describe them :)

This was my account of how it all began. Will keep coming up with more. Till then, all the best to us :)

The First Post

Hi readers,

This is my first post on blogspot, or for that matter, any blog. First things first, I'm a sports freak, so dont expect any other mumbo jumbo in here. This is purely for the love of sports and for people who love sports. So what should my first post be about. Anyone's guess. Its got to be about us, The Gunners. Sorry if this disappointed anyone :)

We are going through a season of mixed emotions. We have been everything this season, except consistent. We have beaten the likes of ManU and Chelsea, but have also lost the likes of Hull and Stoke. We have shown great fighting spirit, as shown in the game against Pool when we fought with 10 men to hold on, but we have lost focus when playing against some lowly sides. Injuries to key players havent helped, but we were never lucky with injuries, were we? Last season it was the chronic injuries to van Persie (henceforth referred to as RVP), Rosicky and the horrific one to Eduardo aka Dudu. This season, while we are still waiting for the latter two to come back, we have injury to Theo Walcott, our faster than the fastest winger, and our captain and talisman, Cesc Fabregas. Both are out till at least the end of March, which is a big blow to our title challenges.

Having said that, we have some precocious talents, in the names of the 17 year old Jack Wilshere and the Welsh, Aaron Ramsey. But it is still time before they become finished products, ready to compete with the big guns of the EPL. As far as EPL is concerned, this season seems to be over for us, but if we can get our stars back before much damage is done, then you never know. Football is a funny game.

Hoping for the best for Arsenal.