fastidium

There were segments in the first half and a long period of the second half – the first 15 minutes – where it looked questionable whether Arsenal could pull out this win and advance to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League. But, after going two goals down, Porto would succumb to the magic of Samir Nasri. And, at the end of the day, Arsenal stood victorious with a 5-nil victory.

ESPN: Gunners shoot down Porto
Guardian: Samir Nasri and Nicklas Bendtner fire Arsenal into quarter-finals
BBC Football

Read more  »

Understatement of the week: Thomas Vermaelen tells Arsenal to sort out defensive lapses (guardian.co.uk) and believes Arsenal must stop giving away stupid goals if they are to maintain their Premier League title challenge.

Thomas Vermaelen has become my favorite Arsenal player of the season. It was a close decision between him and Arshavin, but I think the tremendous differences for our defense between this year and last are due to Vermaelen’s influence.

At a tad under 6 feet, Thomas Vermaelen is not your typical centerback. In fact, many big teams have passed him up because of his height. But, what the “Verminator” lacks in height, he more than makes up for in his ability to leap and his timing on headers. The boy jumps like a kangaroo! His organization in defense and his tackling abilities have brought comparisons to Nemanja Vidic (Man U). I think he’s better.

So, here’s some interesting articles about Vermaelen’s history, his view of the game, and a short video on his exploits for Arsenal.

Thomas Vermaelen Loves Playing For Arsenal Due to Arsene Wenger’s “Vision”

Arsenal’s Thomas Vermaelen earns himself ‘Verminator’ nickname

Thomas Vermaelen: defender of the faith

It could have gone either way. It could have been a much needed victory for the Gunners. Yet, it wasn’t meant to be.

How did Drogba get his foot, knee, whatever it was, on the cross from Cole in just the right way? How did Vermaelen make the mistake and put the ball into his own net? You take away those two factors and let Arshavin’s goal stand, you’ve got something else. Chelsea’s last goal was just the cherry on top.

Both teams gave it all they had. It rained the whole time. Either team could have had luck go their way.

That’s the way football is. The world goes on. Its only November.

Well, it wasn’t exactly the best performance and Wigan has not gotten off to a very good relegation-avoiding season, but Arsenal did what they do and got four goals with a clean sheet. Some will say that 4-0 at home against Wigan is expected but I don’t think any outcome is expected anymore in this league. Expectations are meant to be overturned.

The hero of Saturday’s game was, of course, Thomas Vermaelen. I love the fact folks were saying that he was too short to play central defense, yet he’s scoring headers by jumping higher than anyone else on the field.

Eboue took a attacking role in midfield on the right, Fabregas and Song played in the middle, with Eduardo roaming the left. This was a slightly different midfield from last week, with Denilson sitting on the bench. I’ll assume that it had something to do with Adebayor.

Read more  »

It was systematic. It was precise. It was a demolition. Arsenal’s opening of the 2009/10 Premiership campaign at Everton, August 15th 2009, ended in a final scoreline of 6 to 1. Goals were scored by Denilson (26th minute), Vermaelen (37), Gallas (41), Fabregas (48,70), and Eduardo (89). As the main catalyst, Fabregas scored two himself, but he wasn’t the only one who’s performance assisted on the six goals. Nicklas Bendtner, playing wide right, has some dazzling runs down the side and into the box. Arshavin and Van Persie stretched the Everton defense wide open, and each should have had some goals themselves, in all fairness. Song and Denilson controlled the midfield through out the game. This was a clinical team performance by a team with everything to prove.

While Arsenal possessed the ball well, this game was settled by set pieces. The first goal was a master strike by Denilson to curl Fabregas’ side pass into the upper left corner. But, it wasn’t the dagger that ended the possibility of an Everton comeback. The 2nd and 3rd goals did that. Both centerbacks, first Vermaelen, then Gallas, headed the ball home on well-orchestrated set pieces by Arsenal, not so well defended by Everton. One team has been practicing these, the other not. After those two goals, any confidence left in Everton was gone. The rest of the goals would come on counter attacks, because Everton was pushing forward. This is what Wenger’s Arsenal does best and its been too long since we’ve seen it happen.

Read more  »

By finishing off Rangers 3-0 on Sunday, Arsenal won their first hardware of the new season, the 2009 Emirates Cup. Yes, its only a preseason tournament and it was on our home ground, but let’s celebrate it and look forward to good things to come.

Here are some notes that I jotted down while watching. The highlight reel from Youtube is below.

• Andrey Arshavin is so aware of things going on around him. He had several dummies and its hard to see how he knew that another player was behind him. I’m looking forward to some more magical moments from Arshavin. He might be my favorite current Arsenal player right now … no, that’s not true; although, he’s probably a close second to Cesc Fabregas.
• The last goal is a showcase of the young, young guns coming through at Arsenal. Sanchez Watt doesn’t give up and manages to get the ball off the endline where the defender should have been able to shepherd it out. The ball comes to Aaron Ramsey who has the foresight to not blast the ball at an impossible angle. He patiently waits and sees a running Jack Wilshere through a crowd of players. Then, he manages to dink it over everyone to the opposite side of the goal where Wilshere has the composure to place a well hit ball into the far corner. Its a thing of beauty. Watch the highlights below.
• Jack Wilshere!
• The biggest problem for Arsenal is the ability to clear the ball on corners or set pieces. The ball bounced around too much in the box and luckily Rangers didn’t jump on their chances. Hopefully, having Thomas Vermaelen in there will help to remedy those situations.

In terms of football, this has got to be one of my favorite times of the year. The MLS cup race is starting to come out of the duldrums of summer and pick up speed toward the finish line. There’s been some talk of a new playoff system in MLS, which, in my mind, is one step toward the ultimate goal – doing away with it. However, it is the time when players start to realize that the pressure is on and its time to step it up. “Making the playoffs” is on everyone’s mind.

On the other side of the pond, the start of the Premiership is just around the corner. After watching MLS games played in terrible heat and worse conditions, it’s almost time for the “Ahh, ha” moment when we see what club football can be like with real competition and players with extraordinary skill.

Its time to get the funds together for Arsenal TV Online and start integrating the Arsenal blogs into my daily reading. There is so many good writers out there, writing about Arsenal, its hard for me to put myself into the blogosphere as any kind of expert on the subject. I’ve followed them since 1997, so at least I have a decade under my belt. My 12th season of Arsenal starts August 15th!

We’ve been able to finally get rid of Adebayor. He really endured himself to supporters last summer with his “maybe I’m Arsenal, maybe not” remarks. Unfortunately, Kolo Toure has left as well. Both have signed with Manchester City, which should make the watching of “Citeh” finish mid-table again even more interesting. With all of the money they’re throwing around to sign players, they think they’re heading to the top four of the Premiership. I think that’s hilarious but I guess we’ll see. Arsenal has supposedly pocketed 40 million pounds on the deal, so if we just get them to take Eboue as well, the whole thing would go down as the biggest swindle ever, in the whole history of the world. Well done Arsene!

We may actually get to see Rosicky, Arshavin, Walcott, and Fabregas all in the midfield together at some point. Rosicky is said to be back after being gone for so long. Our new Belgian centerback Thomas Vermaelen looks to be a great acquisition as well. Rumors are swirling around talks to get Patrick Vieira back at Arsenal and to sign Daniele de Rossi from Roma. I’m not holding my breathe for either but just one of them would be outstanding. Vieira is past his prime but coming back to the club he loves (and we love you too Paddy) would probably throw the engine into overdrive for at least a season or two.

This weekend, as part of the pre-season Emirates Cup, Arsenal take on Atletico Madrid on Saturday and Rangers on Sunday. Then, we take on Valencia next Saturday, before opening day against Everton on August 15th. Ooh, the anticipation!