ARSENAL'S SEASON STARTS NOW

Oh wow I can’t wait! I’m so f*ckin’ excited! I know we’re probably going to get smashed but I can’t wait to watch our boys! I’ve missed this feeling since watching Spain with my Dad in the World Cup! Even watching the Scum and the big spenders was kind of exciting. Even though, although it’s only the first game, they both showed me that we’ve got nothing to be scared about!

This is my first post of the season so forgive me if it’s crap and a bit rusty.

Arsenal take on Liverpool today and I am so looking forward to it that there’s about 2 hours left till kick off and I haven’t got a clue what to do! I’ve played my PS3, I’ve watched Goals On Sunday and now I’m just checking out Arsenal news. There’s nothing left for me to do but write on this blog and try and get it up and running again.

I’m pretty sure I know what most of the team’s going to be today but I’d rather not say anything about it because as you’ll discover, I am an absolute jinx. There’s a lot of talk about who’s going to be the number one and to be honest, we know it won’t be Szczesny as he is just too young at the moment so I think it’ll be a toss up between Almunia and Fabianski. I think it’s going to be Almunia, personally, but we’ll see. That’s it for team news and predictions for me. Although I am curious to see how Wenger will play it with regards to the midfield because at the moment I’m not actually 100% as to who’s fully fit at the moment and who’s raring to go. I thought Frimpong did well against Celtic when I went to the Emirates Cup with my girlfriend, but this is a whole different ball game. Well, it’s still football, but that was an expression, it’s a complete Step Up… 3D… Sorry!!!

Liverpool are going to be in our faces today as I watched a bit of their 2nd leg qualifier against Sonic’s arch nemesis and they didn’t give the opposition any opportunity to play. That’s how Hodgson always did it with Fulham against us and off the top of my head I think we only beat his Fulham side a couple of times. Gerard also said that they can’t let us play, on TalkSport, which is true because we can destroy anyone on our day so with all this in mind we have just got to be on it!!! We have to be quick, we have to be precise and we all know we can’t let Gerard play, or Torres, if he starts or comes on late in the game.

And just before I go (I told you this blog was shit, don’t say I didn’t warn you) I want to add my two pence (I think that’s the expression) on Wenger’s new contract because I've seen quite a few negative articles flying arouns News Now. I think it’s fantastic. I think it’s f*ckin’ brilliant that he wants to see how this team gets on. For me it almost proves that he really does think this team are so close to something amazing. He could have just said bollocks to any new contracts and left us with a team that no other manager would probably be able to deal with, but no, he’s staying until 2014 and I’m happy with that. All my mates that support the Scum are annoyed that he’s signed on as them pricks down the road seem to think that when Wenger goes, they can finally take our name of the best team in London (f*ck Chelsea) but it looks like they are going to be waiting a long, long time for that to happen!

I’m glad he is staying on and I am glad that Fabregas will be with us for at least one more season and I am glad that we’re as stable as we are under Wenger’s wing. Arsenal can win nothing for 6 more years for all I care. I’m still going to be a Gooner and proud!

Best of luck to the boys today. Let’s hope they kick start our season the same way they did in Merseyside last season!

RRREEEDDD AAARRRMMMYYY!!!

ARSENAL KITS FOR 2010/2011

As you probably all know, I absolutely love my kits! I love my Arsenal kits, I love my Deportivo La Coruna kits (that’s where my Dad’s from) and I love making the kits on my laptop! Here you can see I’ve created the new kits for the 10/11 season so see what you think.

I love the fact that the home kit is plain and in long sleeve it almost looks identical to the 1970s shirt. The white round neck is back which I love and the cuff on the sleeves are chunky which I haven’t seen for a while. The shorts are a bit plain but they will always be with Arsenal, not much you can do with plain white shorts I guess, not that I’d put it past Nike to make something whacky! I was very disappointed with the socks. Plain white socks with a red Nike tick on the front. Seriously? Why not RED SOCKS!?!? I love Arsenal in red socks and at the moment there is just too much white. Even if they were hooped like the white away kit in the 07/08 season, I’d have loved that. But oh well, I’m just getting the shirts this year so it doesn’t really matter what I think.

Which leads me on to the yellow and redcurrant away kit. Lovely chunky V neck, lovely chunky cuffs for the short and long sleeves again and lovely redcurrant lines going down. That just finishes it off perfectly. I am impressed! Again, I don’t think too much of the shorts and socks but I’m not getting those either so again it doesn’t matter. But overall I love the redcurrant theme that Arsenal have taken on since 07/08 with the white shirt and I think they have definitely come up with another genius kit that is gonna make our away victories at Old Trafford, Anfield and the Nou Camp look even more beautiful. Haha, I wish!

They have been pre-ordered over the Arsenal website, £94 for both of them and they’re both size S so I’ve got to lose all my World Cup beer/BBQ/let-my-self-go weight! That’s going to be fun.

My opinion on England

It’s apparent to me that most Arsenal supporters don’t care about England and to be honest I can totally understand why. We haven’t had many English players under Wenger and when he buys English they don’t turn out to be worth it. But we all know that Wenger’s philosophy is if they’re good enough, they’re old enough, and he doesn’t look at where they’re from, just as long as they have what it takes to make it at Arsenal. Also, why would you want to support 11 players (10 players if Walcott’s there) during an international tournament that you would otherwise hate during the Premiership season? It’s a perfectly logical question and I always ask myself that.

But then when England qualified and Walcott was involved I was lapping up all the success from the qualification group and I was well up for seeing Walcott possibly help England to win the tournament. Especially his hat-trick in Croatia. I was in a Spurs pub with my Arsenal shirt on, Walcott printed on the back and I was going MAD! No matter how much I hate all those players, when they come together as England I just support them. Because I’m passionate about football and my country.

Well, what a fucking let down that was!!! Walcott wasn’t even included in the fuckin' 23 man squad and not long before he was axed I had ordered my fuckin' limited edition England shirt. I was gutted. More for the fact that I didn’t think I’d be able to support England as much without a single Arsenal player involved. I got over it and watched all the games with my mates and had a quality time watching them. And when I say I had a quality time, I don’t mean the actual football England played, if you could even call it that, but just getting pissed up with my mates and singing the songs and chanting for 90 minutes. The atmosphere was brilliant.

Another reason why I love supporting England in the big games is because it gives me that knock-out round feeling. That feeling where if you lose, you’re fucking gone. You’re going home. There’s no way back. And that is what football is all about. I feel it for Arsenal in the Champions League and the big games in the Premiership and I feel it for Spain in the World Cup and the 2008 Euro’s. Plus, all my mates are Spurs fans unfortunately so because they’re my mates and I get to support a team with them it feels even better. I'm awlays desperate to support something or someone with my mates and because they're all scumbags (no offence boys) it's quality that we're rivals until we watch England.

Anyway, England were shit. Cappello SHOULD have taken Walcott in my opinion, not that I think he deserved to be there as he was inconsistent during another injury plagued season, but because he would’ve been another brilliant wild card. Lennon deserved to be in the first team as he was very effective for the scumbags down the road for the first half of the season before his bad injury, but if Lennon is ineffective (like he was for the whole fuckin’ tournament), who are you going to bring on? Wright-Phillips? Are you fuckin’ joking? That’s like for like therefore will STILL be ineffective. Joe Cole? Ok, maybe for the games where England have to try play football and not just run round people. Milner (unless he’s already on the field)? Yea, maybe, again for the same reason as Joe Cole, therefore another player that is too similar to make a real change to a game.

Walcott can play in the big games, he’s proved it. Not consistently enough I know, I can admit that, but he’s shown plenty of flashes of pace and precision and on the big stage. He scares defenders and as shown in the Japan and Mexico friendlies teams stick 3, sometimes 4 players on him and shut him out of the game. So when there are 4 players hovering around Theo, USE THE SPACE AVAILABLE PROPERLY AND YOU WIN GAMES!!!

So Theo wasn’t taken, he got a well needed rest and England were shocking and all those players I hate in the Premiership that I supported for England, I hate even more! So that’s what you get for supporting England. NOTHING! Get rid of them all! No more big egos, no more players that are ONLY successful for their clubs. We now need competition for places, make Lennon, Joe Cole, Milner, Walcott & Wright-Phillips compete for ONE place, not just include them all for the sake of it. If Lampard and Gerrard can’t play together, no matter how much they’re fuckin’ paid, get rid of one, better yet, both. Forget Barry, play a different system. Forget Heskey, which was an absolute joke pick, and to be honest, forget Rooney, not a single world cup goal to his name. Use Crouch if you’re gonna take him, use Bent if he’s the second highest English goal scorer, or whatever his stats are, get a team of 11 players and stick to them.

What does the future hold for England? God only knows! BUT, I do like the fact that Capello apparently mentioned Wilshire and Gibbs. This got me thinking, we have a few more youngsters at Arsenal that are English and are good prospects, then it got me thinking deepers, we have LOADS of young, English quality waiting in the wings in the reserves or lower league loan spells.

I will always watch and support England in the major tournaments, even more so with Arsenal players in and I would lov’ it (Kevin Keegan style) if we won England the World Cup at the Emirates and Wembley in 2018, LOV’ IT!!!

Fabregas – Is he staying or is he going?

If you ask me, I’d say keep him, not just for this season, but until his contract runs out. Seriously! Let him rot on the bench (ok, maybe ‘rot’ is too strong a word, let’s use ‘look beautiful’). Not to spite him, but just to fuck Barcelona over. Cesc can save his well earned pennies and buy out his own contract if he wants, I just don’t want Barca getting their own way. AGAIN! And yes, if you can’t already tell, I am the sort of person that would cut my nose to spite my face. No nonsense mate, regardless of the consequences.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore Cesc, I love him! I got his autograph after he won the FA Cup in 2005 and my love for him has grown every day and every season since. His passion fills me with so much confidence that he really does love us and the way he acts is so mature considering he is just under a year older than me! The fact that he’s Spanish, as well, makes me love him even more. Plus just watching him play football is almost as good as... erm... well, it’s better than anything!!! I just hate Barca and I don’t want them getting their way just because they think they can get away with it.

We all know the move is inevitable, and if you don’t, you’re in denial. However, I just want him to give us one, possibly two more seasons, to help us lift a trophy. Because let’s all be honest, we’re better off with him in our team pulling the strings than warming the Barca bench as he does with Spain. And I genuinely believe that he is absolutely desperate to win something with us. I reckon he will probably leave the second we win a major trophy. It’s probably a personal goal of his to end his Arsenal career with a great squad that dominate the Premiership, the Champions League or equal Man Utd’s record of 11 FA Cups.

I personally believe that we’re not that far away from a trophy winning squad, whether it’s the Premiership or Champions League I’m not sure, but I’m confident we’re not that far away from winning something. We’ve already proved that if our squad was larger last season we could’ve possibly coped with the injuries we had. We were in the title race for a lot longer than people believed we could be and we had so many important people missing in big games that I thought we did well considering.

Fabregas is probably at legendary status with Arsenal, if not officially, then in my opinion it’s a definite. And I know that word gets thrown around too often in football but not with me.

With England out of the World Cup I have Spain to follow. And although Fabregas is not being used they’re still doing the business and I think the same will happen if he went to Barcelona. He is a similar sort of player to Xavi so when he becomes too old then that’s when Febregas will probably go! But until then, I hope he stays and helps us achieve things that I haven’t seen Arsenal achieve for a while, TROPHIES!!!

A NEW START

I started this blog towards the end of last season and I never really got into a proper swing of it. I think what happened was I started writing it just as we entered a slump. To be honest, since I started writing this blog (Wolves game, 1-0, Bendtner last minute) I think we only won one game (if you don’t include the Wolves game that we just about scraped anyway) and even that was the very last game against a Fulham side that were just about to contest the Europa League final.

And because Arsenal couldn’t even buy a win I just got fed up of trying to predict games and give my opinion on games that deep down I knew we didn’t stand a chance of winning. Arsenal pretty much make or break my weekend to be honest. If Arsenal win, I’m as happy as a pig in shit, when they lose, I’m as sad as a human in shit! So when Arsenal lose 3 or 4 in a row I just roll up into a ball and don’t leave my bedroom until Monday morning arrives and I gotta take stick from everyone at work. Sometimes when it’s bad I reminisce with old DVDs of the invincibles or the Henry Legend DVD.

Ahh well. It’s all well and good chanting and singing and shouting when you’re winning, it’s what you do and how you act when you lose that’s the most important thing. Similar to when footballers and managers learn more from defeat. That’s what splits the true fans to the ones that are just in it for the glory. Not that anyone is supporting Arsenal for glory at the moment due to the lack of silverware in the last 5 years. Again, ahh well! I don’t care! I’m a Gooner for life!!!

So yea, this is a little taster for what I’ve got coming up next season. It’s probably a worse read than my last few blogs but I don’t care because when I get writing about stuff I just can’t stop. People don’t even read this anyway because I’m scared to put the blog out there. So I’m my only reader and even I’m not fully satisfied. Haha, what a twat!

So now that I’ve explained why my blog disappeared as quick as Hleb’s career the second he left us to warm Barca’s bench, I’m not feeling as guilty anymore! I can now continue my posts that only I read and carry on rambling on about the team I love so dearly!!!


I’ve got more posts coming up so stay tuned.

VERY LATE TOTTENHAM/WIGAN REACTION!

That was one of the worst weeks I've had as an Arsenal supporter! Thankfully I'm finally over it hence this late post so apologies for not writing anything sooner!

As I explained in one of my previous posts I was there to witness the Scum slip up against Pompey, literally, but I was also there to witness our boys fuck it all up at Shite Hart Lane in the box... and luckily I wasn't at Wigan!

These weeks are hard to take, in football, nothing goes right for you, nothing makes sense, you start to wonder why you even like football then you just end up sulking until you hear a voice in your head shout, "just forget it you twat, take your mind off it then in a couple of days you'll be fine!" So I did just that!

At work on Thursday I didn't get much stick. I was lucky. I did, however, explain to someone that they shouldn't take the piss out of me as I didn't say anything about the Pompey result but that was the closest I came to defending myself. Other than that I was pretty calm and agreed with most of everyone else that on that shitty Wednesday night, we just weren't at the races.

Sol Campbell was my man of the match, for both teams. I am the most biased person in the world when it comes to anything involving Arsenal so some may say Gomes deserved it but I just couldn't see past Campbell. And it seems that no one could even get past him so I think I'm right when I say he was the best player that night. If we had Van Persie on for 10 more minutes then we probably would've won as Gomes would've eventually let one in (like he did with Bendtner) and if we had another 3 or 4 characters like the Legend himself, Sol "Brick Wall" Campbell (as I called him), then we would have walked away with it without any problems. And yes, that was the view from their box!

I think it was a jammy goal from Danny Rose personally and I think Gomes would've saved it! But even though it was a total hit and hope, I'm glad I was there to witness such an amazing goal! It was still jammy though!!! I also think it was sloppy defending as well to give them a 2 goal lead and then heads dropped and I was already hoping for a draw.

And I must say, as you see a picture of him being filmed by Sky Sports cameras, that it's so great to finally have him back. I absolutely love Robin so I'm glad he's back and I hope he helps us cement 3rd place because that isn't a guarantee anymore, especially as we don't know what Arsenal will turn up next!

Even though Wenger admitted after the game that the title was all but over, along with some of the players, I still thought we could do it. Or at least I felt keeping faith would help me feel better. But yea, I still had the belief. Call it stupidity, call it blind faith, call it naivety, I call it maths! With another Spuds win against Chelsea and we win up at Wigan it was back to three points and Chelsea would just have to drop points again and again with Man Utd and we'd just stumble past the finishing line with another Premiership crown on our heads. But that all ended with the quickest 10 minutes I've ever known! And I think Wenger forgot to tell the boys that Chelsea lost the day before!!! Which leads to my next point... Wigan!


We didn't play particularly brilliant in the first half against Martinez's men but with Totteringham beating Chelsea we still had a chance of winning something so I would've been happy with a boring 1-0 win like Wolves. Walcott scored a great goal before half time which showed he does have it in his locker, he just needs to show it more. Then when Silvestre scored for the second season running at the JJB/DW Stadium I thought to myself, "right, come on boys, let's get some goal difference back!" But for some reason it just all deteriorated!

Wigan pressed us and we just couldn't keep the ball. Arsenal barely put more than 6 or 7 passes together without a poor touch from someone, leading to a Wigan attack. The crowd became more and more up for it as the minutes slowly ticked past and as they got louder, their players got better, and as their players got better, the crowd got even louder. It was as if we just watched them destroy us without anyone doing or saying anything. Then Watson scored a brilliantly worked goal. I wasn't worried yet but I did see that we had completely lost any momentum we had. Fabianski again showed that he might just not be good enough. I say "might" because I just cannot be negative about an Arsenal player! So it was 2-2 and with so little time left I had given up on the title and the game. But no, there was more. Before I had even finished texting my brother the score it was 3-2, a cracking goal by N'Zogbia and that was it. Wigan's first victory against us in the league, another defeat for Arsenal, another shambolic display from our defence all over the pitch and another day at work where I was going to get abused.

This week hasn't been too bad though to be honest. I got over the Wigan result pretty quickly, I was over it by that night in fact and could laugh it off at work because when you're team loses a 2-0 lead in such a bad way, there's nothing to be bitter about, so I thought I dealt with it quite well!

I hope Wenger spends big BUT doesn't sell anyone! I say that because our squad just can't handle fighting on all four fronts for a whole season, so keep everyone, as squad players if necessary, bring in some top quality players, give the team a sense of competitiveness again and watch the trophies roll in!

I can't wait for the Man City game although we will probably lose and Adebayor will bang one in! Let's hope I'm wrong! I might even put a bet on that piece of shit scoring a goal against us!

Keep the faith people! Wanting players and managers out won't do anyone any good! Let's just stick together, if not for the players themselves then at least for this mighty club we all love! Because I fucking love Arsenal and I can't wait to watch us win the title and Champions League double next year when Wenger spends a shit load of dosh! Haha, let's at least hope so ay!!!

RRREEEDDD AAARRRMMMYYY!!!

SPURS SPY WILL STRIKE AGAIN!

I've done it twice before and it looks like I will have to do it again! It was tough both times but ended up being worth it both times! Tomorrow night will be even harder so I'm hoping the result will make it all worth while!

Confused? Yes, you should be! The company I work for have a box at Spurs, not just any box, but THE box! It's just above the dug out and has a pretty much perfect view that you'd expect to see at any football match. Although the standard of football seen throughout the season has nothing on what you'd see at the Emirates. Or probably even Hull!

I've been quite a few times in the last three years. I've dressed smartly, behaved properly (and being a Gooner, it's hard), kept things calm when the opposition has scored and just generally enjoyed the night or day out. I'm a football fan so when I get the opportunity to go to a box I won't ever turn it down, no matter what team it is. As you can see I've also met a few famous faces. Most notably my good friend Eduardo. This was during a Spurs v Dinamo Zagreb game that the Scum won, but Eduardo and Slaven Bilic were there to meet a few of their Croatian friends after the game. It was during Eduardo's time out after that horror tackle. I saw him, got my phone out and funnily enough the Croatian manager himself took this picture and I'm not even joking. I did of course get a picture with Bilic (and no, Eddie didn't take it) and in the bar I got a picture with Pat Jennings so I couldn't believe my luck. And just quickly before I get back to the actual point of this post, I was wearing the yellow away socks, from last season, underneath my suit just to feel calmer about being surrounded by everything Tottenham and after I got the picture taken with him I tapped him on the shoulder, lifted my trouser leg up and pointed to the socks and said, "I'm a Gooner!" I think he understood me because he laughed but I'm probably hoping he understood me as that just makes me feel better!

Anyway, here's the real reason for the post. Becuase my boss owns the box and Spurs have somehow got to Wembley three seasons running, they're allocated 8 tickets for every match at Wembley so the boss can either buy them for customers or sell them to everyone in the office. So for Spurs v Man Utd in the Carling Cup final last year, I went. And yes, HELL YES, I was there to see Pompey sink the Spurs to another Wembley defeat this weekend just gone.

Both times I had to keep my head down as everytime I made slight eye contact with a Spurs fan I thought I'd somehow give away my true colours. Or I thought they would just be able to tell that I was a Gooner! It was all in my head though, luckily. The Man Utd game was good because I hate them probably just as much as I do Spurs so I absolutely slaughtered Rooney, Lady Boy Ronaldo and Nanny, and at the same time I wanted them to win. I just didn't want to go home with cocky Spurs fans raving and chanting about having one of those rare seasons where they win something and we don't!

The Portsmouth game this weekend was even harder! I don't hate them! And I thought Spurs were going to walk through to the final. Shit! The tickets were cheaper than the Carling Cup final and I just love Wembley so I had to go again. So this was my second time being a spy and even better, we were up against them after this game so I could get a general vibe of what they think about the derby. Portsmouth banged one in in extra time (which made me so happy, 2 hours of sloppy, slippery football against a team that were just going to contain all pressure and go for the break, excellent, especially when we were having a week to rest, train and get pumped) and seeing those Portsmouth fans go absolutely mental made me want to just shout my f*cking head off and join them but I had to keep my kool. I literally sat there and just bit my fingers.

Also, I must just quickly add how surprised I was at the Portsmouth fans being so bitter about all this Harry Redknapp business and all the players that have been traded between the two teams. Well, surprised is the wrong word to use as I know about all the problems they've had this season and I know what it's like to hate someone that's played for you and left you. I guess I just forgot about it and didn't expect them to act like that. I say "act like that" as I was on the train a couple of stops away from Wembley and we slowed down to one of the stops on the way there and you could hear all this chanting, I thought it was going to be Spurs fans, but I was wrong. This large group of early to mid twentys nutters came on and some of the shit they were coming out with was f*cking brilliant. I was surrounded by "Scummers" at the time (that's what they called Spurs fans) so I didn't say anything but I had a huge grin on my face. This is some of the shit they were singing... "HE SCORES, HE CUMS, ALL OVER HARRY'S BUM, JERMAIN DEFOE, JERMAIN DEFOE!"... "HARRY'S A CUNT, AND SO'S DEFOE, HARRY'S A CUNT, AND SO'S DEFOE!"... "WHEN SOL, WENT UP, TO LIFE THE FA CUP, WE WERE THERE, WE WERE THERE!"... And they even used one of my personal favourites... "DER DER DER DER, SOL'S A GOONA', DER DER DER DER, SOL'S A GOONA'! I've never seen Spurs fans so quiet, not since we beat them 3-1 at the Lane in the 07-08 season (Adebayor wonder goal and Fabregas from miles out!). It did kick off though at Wembley Park so it had my adrenaline pumping and as I said to my mate, who I took with me, at the time (he's a Spurs fan), it added spice to the atmosphere!

I will be spying again tomorrow! No not at Wembley because farms don't interest me, but at the Lane! Yes, today my boss personally asked me if I wanted to watch MY team play his, and believe me, he is fully aware I'm 100% RED AND WHITE!!! So I've said yes and now I've got to work out how to wear a shirt and suit with an Arsenal shirt underneathe and not look fat and blatant that I'm an Arsenal fan. Wish me luck!

I'm not going to write about the game because I'm just too nervous and scared at the moment. I know so many Spurs fans and losing to them will end my life probably, so I'm just going to say this. Van Persie is back and although I don't believe he will be involved as much as some of us would like, his inclusion in the squad will hopefully put a rocket up Bendtner's ass and add confidence to the team's performance. Not that I think the team need it!

I'm excited because I may even meet a few of both sets of players and I'm always up for a picture with a footballer, but the main thing is the result and I'm praying that it goes our way! Especially now that Chelsea are creating a bit of daylight between them and the Mancs! Enjoy the game where ever you are and just be careful! I cannot f*cking wait!

RRREEEDDD AAARRRMMMYYY!!!