Arsenal 4 - 1 Reading - Royals Rumbled By Gerv-could have been more-inho

Good Evening Chums!

This blog is brouht to you via Mr. Lateton on Late Town Tennessee purveyors of anti-ageing cream.

So yesterday Arsenal played Reading at the Home Of Football and ran out 4-1 winners!! Hooray!!

The game was a good comfortable victory for the gunners and carried on our good run of form in the Premiere League. Reading were out played and out manoeuvred in what ended up being a good comfortable victory for the super gunners.

Before the game we all met up in the pub and the banter was of a confident manner. Chatting about the night before activities and how many we could win by. So often this season that sort of confidence has been the back drop to a misfiring gunners and points lost to underlings of opposition. Today wasn't go to be one of those days.

The game kick off and almost immediately from the start arsenal began to play with confidence and desire. Keeping the ball well and winning in back with good organisation and control.

Rocky Rocastle was remembered after seven minutes with a chorus of his song and his picture up on the big tv screens around the ground. A great tribute to a fantastic footballer who was sadly taken from us.

Ooooh Rocky Rocky, Rocky Rocky Rocky Rocky Rocastle!!

After eleven minutes gerviniho scored his first and so became gerv-one-inho. He connected with a fast low carzola cross from the left. Darting between the centre backs he smashed it in from 5 yards. 1-0 to the arsenal and the traditional song rung out around the stadium.

The rest of the half was dominated by arsenal with reading not really having much of a look in. Arsenal  should have had a penalty when Taylor, the reading keeper, smash into giroud when clean through on goal. The ref gave nothing.

Gerv-superman-inho

At half time the lead seemed slender for our dominance and contol. The nerves weren't prominent but a second goal was definitely desired by the faithful.

It didn't take long and three minutes after the break Santi gave us the presents we wanted, taking the ball down and curling it round the keeper from just outside the box to make it two nil. Gervinho turning into gerv-assist-inho for that one. A much better position and always important to score soon after the break to stop any sort of resurgence from a poor reading team.

The game continued in much the same vein until 67 minutes when gervinho broke from a reading corner ran half the length of the pitch, drew two defenders, he was certainly gerin-taking your time-inho and played it square for giroud to smash it first time across the keeper into the bottom of the corner. 3-0 and arsenal were cruising.

Cruising is always a difficult thing to do and a lapse in concentration gave Reading a way back into the game. A crisp long ball chipped over to the back post with nacho dipping in concentration left a man whom for the purpose of this blog has no name free to score. 3-1 and the a little sigh from the home fans. Unless we cut this sort of stuff from our game i=we'll always find it difficult to be competitive enough. Dropping off at 3-0 up is forgettable but doing the same at 0-0 will cost us as it has this season already. We need to be full alert all the time , whatever the situation.

Nacho crumpled into the post during that attack and left the field with gibbs replacing him. Great to have some proper replacements on the bench now we have a fitter squad.

On 77 minutes the Ox, on as a substitute for gerv-man of the match-inho, won a penalty which Arteta dispatched away.

4-1 to the arsenal. A comfortable win and a god performance from a more solid and in tune arsenal team.

I'm sure pumpkiii will run through any points in might have missed-inho in tomorrow blog so please come back and read his thoughts then.

With Chavski losing and smurs being a one man team (and hes not even a man) I don't think third place is that far away. Lets keep winning and playing the way we can and really push on for the rest of the season.

Have a good one Tony Adams Magic lovers.

Until next time.

Snips

Arsenal V Reading - Show time

We have a very important match today, we are playing Reading and on paper this looks like an easy 3 points. unfortunately nothing in recent Arsenal history has been done the easy way so we must go into this match with full concentration and as fully committed as possible. I believe this match will set the tone for the remainder of the run in, so we need to play on the front foot and mustn't for a second underestimate the opposition.

We have been guilty of overlooking 'lesser' opposition a number of times this season and it has, quite frankly, ruined the prospect of us picking up any silverware.

4th place is not an achievement of any great standing and we shouldn't aim for it as a target, 4th is the bare minimum. This season we are fighting for our bare minimum expectation. We still have to give it everything to get there. What ever the motivation is to get there doesn't really matter, Nacho and Rambo were saying it was because they didn't want to go down in history as the first Wenger team not to be in the CL. I would defiantly be motivated by beating spurs to 4th and then mocking them for being a bunch of chokers! Lets put them in the sleeper hold! What ever the motivation we need it, lots of it!

We have to win this match and fly into the final 8 matches of the season. Put pressure on the chokers and the chavs and see where we end up. That all starts today against a team we have scored 12 against this season.

I'm going for a conservative 2 - 0 Snipster is saying 4 - 0. It will probably be more like132743 - 1843 which would be a fun but confusing match I'm sure.

I'm really looking forward to getting back into the stadium. We will be having a beer or two locally before the match so give us a shout if you are around, it's probably your round ;)

Later on

Pumpkiii 

Posted by Snips

We're on our way - PodCast - Reading

Prior to the Arsenal home match against Reading Snipster and I got together to discuss:

The match
Abu Diaby
Jack & Theo
And a load of other stuff

Give it a listen, we hope you enjoy it! We're on our way - Arsenal v Reading

@Pumpkiii and @Snipster

you can also find us on facebook  http://www.facebook.com/TonyAdamsMagic and twitter @tonyadamsmagic

EXCLUSIVE: Thursday is the new Friday

We have been saying it here on Tony Adams Magic for a long time (a few months) and today, finally, Thursday is the new Friday... And so is tomorrow... And the next day. We have a four day bank holiday with a home Arsenal match smack bang in the middle of it on Saturday (or Friday night number 3), could things get any better?... Oh yeah, it’s only flippin pay day!!!

 

We face Reading and I am expecting us to beat them convincingly. They have caused us a few hairy moments this season though. We went 4-0 down to them before turning it around to win 7-5. It was in the COC and there was a bit of squad rotation in that match, but we should not be conceding 5 goals in any match.

 

In our last prem meeting we beat them 5-2 at their place with Santi bagging his first hat-trick for The Gunners. Let’s hope that having only played one half of two matches on international duty he is well rested and bangs in another few goals.

 

I haven't heard any injury news regarding our players apart from the Theo thing. Let’s hope they all got back unharmed and if they played lots, then the break was as good as a rest.

 

Reading has a new manager, we spoke earlier in the week about the new manager effect and how it might transform them into a team of world beaters. I doubt it, but we have to be wary. They are in a relegation battle, they have a new manager, and they have scored seven goals against us already this season. We will need to keep our defensive focus and build the goals on top of that. We need to be cautious and play with our heads in every game till the end of the season.

 

I read somewhere that Chavski have a million games in three days or something… They are in cups with two legs and have a replay or something… I don’t really remember and I’m not going to look it up but their run of congested fixtures ends with a match against spurs. Where one of them will drop points and that’s a fact.

 

I'm getting excited about Arsenal again and I'm really looking forward to Saturday. Over the last few months it has been a bit gloomy, we have been knocked out of all the cups when we really should have done better and progressed further. The 4th place spot is all we have left and it’s not good enough, we expect more. Saying that, we won our last few matches and that put me in a better mood. Combining our recent wins and the international break being such a fun sponge, I am looking forward to meeting up with the lads for pre match beers and watching The Arsenal continue their recent winning form.

 

In other news, I have been entered into something called the Bolney pram race. It is a charity fancy dress race that you take part in teams of two. Me and a mate will be competing as undertakers with our home made pram being fashioned out of a real coffin, our team name is “six pints under” he he! The race course has 7 check points, each checkpoint is a pub and at each pub we have to down a pint of beer. We can take it in turns to push the pram but one person must always be pushing (no free wheeling) and there must always be someone in the pram / coffin. I’m not telling you this to raise money or ask for sponsorship, I just thought you might like to know why the blog on Tuesday probably won’t make much sense. I will let you know how we get on even if I have broken both of my hands and am nursing a hangover the niagara falls wouldn’t be able to rehydrate. Fingers crossed I don’t end up needing the coffin as a permanent place of residence…

 

Have a great Thurs/Friday day

 

We will be back tomorrow and we should also have a ‘We’re on our way’ podcast Friday afternoon / Saturday morning.

 

Pumpkiii

Wednesday - Proper Football Soon & Sporting Cromwell Are Heros

Today is Wednesday and the international break is basically behind us. We can look forward now to the Arsenal v Reading game this Saturday kick off 3.00 pm.

I can’t wait to get back to the emirates. It seems like a million years since I had the pleasure of the Gooners. I had to miss the Bayern Munich games due to matters of life or death and so I was robbed of the last nourishment many of you have had.

We wait with baited breath to find out who has been savaged on their travels and who will return to Hill-Woods’s wrinkled bosom full of health and vitality. Apart from Walcott who has torn is groin while over stretching I can’t think of anybody else I know about.

I’m sure the exact nature and number of causalities will become more obvious as Arsene gather’s his flock.

England played Serbia last night. 1-1 was the fnal score. England were good in the first half talking the lead ,terrible in the second half conceding the equaliser with 15 to play.

In other news Sporting Cromwell FC were confirmed as runners up in the league today. It was a great team effort by all the lads. Pumpkiii got player of the season for his fantastic displays between the sticks and as a out field player, a fantastic personal achievement.

In his honour I have found this list of goal scoring keepers. Well done Pumpkiii.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_goalscoring_goalkeepers

Have a good day.

Snips

ENGLAND, ARSENAL & CROMWELL, bish, bash, bosh!

Today is the last international break day, it has been a dull break, most of the Arsenal related news has been a bit tedious. We had the Szczesny’s dad thing. We had a number of EXCLUSIVES quoting our players saying they were happy at the club and didn’t want to leave, shock horror. Walcott picked up an injury on international duty, shock horror. There was the announcement Faye White will retire from our Ladies team, she had an amazing career at Arsenal and I’m sure she will be missed from the set up. In the NextGen series the young guns have beaten Milan away and CSKA Moscow at home, they now face the young chavs in the semis.

Looking further back in history and on this day in 1987...George Graham brought Leicester hit-man Alan Smith to Highbury in a £750,000 deal.

Sooooo… If we chuck in a potential new shirt, some snow and a conspiracy theory we can summarise the last week.

Looking forward to the Reading match (yes I am, lots!) this weekend and they have appointed a new manager in the shape of Nigel Atkins. Teams often respond well to the appointment of a new manager. Players who were out of favour with the previous manager want to perform well for the new one. That intern puts pressure on the starting 11 to play to the top of their game and the overall team performances are improved.

We can’t take our foot off the peddle for a second until the end of the season. We have got ourselves into a good position, where a win would put us a point behind spurs, who have a tricky away match against Swansea. We also have a game in hand. I’m sure we will talk more about the Reading match in days to come. The new manager thing shouldn’t matter too much really, as we need a win, we need 3 points, we know what we have to do and we shouldn’t under anticipate them.

You will be pleased to hear that Sporting Cromwell, our 6 a side team have managed a 2^nd place finish in the league. We came from 1-0 down to grab a late draw 1-1. It wasn’t enough to guarantee our position as second and should the team in third have won in the match after us last night, they would have been in second due to goal difference.  But they were beaten 3-0. So we go to our third awards ceremony in four seasons.

The first two awards ceremonies have resulted in some serious casualties. The first almost ended my marriage and the second almost ended Snipsters life!! What will happen at the third? HOLD ME BACK!!

A result of all this, is the release of the top 25 managers list as you can see Will “the Maniac” our player/manager has made it into 7^th following our glorious few years.

1. Sir Alex Ferguson [180]
2. Jose Mourinho [174]
3. Arsene Wenger [165]
4. Fabio Capello [147]
5. Vicente del Bosque [124]
6. Marcelo Alberto Bielsa
7. Will “the Maniac”
8. Carlo Ancelotti
9. Luiz Felipe Scolari
10. Rafael Benitez
11. Joachim Low
12. Marcello Lippi
13. Frank Rijkaard
14. Sven-Goran Eriksson
15. Karel Bruckner
16. Pep Guardiola
17. Roberto Mancini
18. Ottmar Hitzfeld
19. Carlos Alberta
20. Dunga
21. Otto Rehhagel
22. Giovanni Trapattoni
23. Bert van Marwick
24. Carlos Bianchi
25. Muricy Ramalho

 

That’s it for today. See ya!

Pumpkiii

Mondai Morning Arsenal - Next Gen, Walcott & Inspirational Managers

So the first day of the week is upon us once more, but this is a 4/5^th Monday. What with their being a bank holiday here this Friday, which I suppose doesn’t make it your usual Monday, more like a Nonday or a Monda or a Mondai or something like this.

Arsenal news around today is very much a function of the internationals. We heard a little about Walcott’s injury from everybody’s favourite granddad Roy Hodgson. It sounds like he’s partial torn his groin, which I assume will be three weeks injury time, fortunately the first 10 days will be taken up with the rest of the international break and with any good fortune he’ll only miss the Reading game and be back in time for the W.B.A. match on the 6^th April.

Looks like The Ox will take his place in the England team and hes making the usual positive noises, like a old saxophonist gently playing some jazz late night under their lovers window, he has lyrically been caressing the assembled press.

He’s forms been a bit up and down this season. The game against Milan in the champs league last season really raised expectations which completely understandably he hasn’t been able to reach every game. I think he’s got a fantastic future is he keeps on going.

There’s a game at the Emirates in the Next Gen series this evening, Arsenal play CSKA Moscow. Tickets are at a discount, the teams look strong and a lot of the Arsenal players in the youth set are being looked at as the new set of players that might take up positions in the first team. Never having played anywhere near that level its impossible for me to give an experienced opinion but the step up seems to be massive and many really promising players never quite make it.

Arseblog has a reasonably interesting piece about it here: http://arseblog.com/category/arseblog-arsenal-blog/

And theres a little bit from one of the lads who will be playing tonight on the main site here: http://www.arsenal.com/news/features/entertaining-the-emirates

Sporting Cromwell, the 6-a-side team Pumpkiii and I play in, play their final game of the season tonight. A win will secure us second in the league.

I should be playing after a long injury which  I’ll either inflame and have to come off after one minute or play a game that will be remember for generations to come. One or the other, no middle ground. Pumpkiii is moving up the field from goal to striker, from goal keeper to goal poacher, inspirational stuff from the manager.

One of us will let you know how we get on tomorrow and we’ll have a quick look at how the next gen boys got and coupled with all the up to date Arsenal stuff.

Come back and suckle from our red and white newsy bosom then.

Have a great Mondai y’all.

Sunday Snooze Up - Form & That

Sunday Snooze Up!
Nothing happening in the world of Arsenal today.

Had a little look at the form table, where the Arsenal are second. That's good to see. We are building a little momentum in the league and if we win our game in hand we will be 1 point behind the chimp lovers and then the choke is massively on.

I would love for us the sail past them while they implode but I have a feeling it might not be as easy as that.

In other news born again Gooner George Graham has put a little bit more pressure on the humanzee worshipers by claiming they will miss out on one of the top four spots. I agree.

The rest of the other stuff doing the rounds is basically made up. You can see quite a useful list of it here:

http://www.teamtalk.com/papertalk/8594080/Paper-Talk-Arsenal-eye-QPR-duo

Talking of teamtalk, remember those premium rate numbers you used to hear all the up to date transfer gossip. £1.50 a minute and it was always flashing at the bottom of ceefax (RIP)

Arsenal: Duo Arriving Tonight Shock

15 minutes later when you had doomed yourself to no pocket money for the rest of your life you were still none the wiser.

So rather than taking their lead and using up more of your precious time I'll leave it there.

If you are at a lose end, do feel free to *like* us on facebook: www.facebook.com/tonyadamsmagic or follow us on twitter @tonyadamsmagic

Have a good Sunday

Walcott out - England blast 8 past San Marino.

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twitter: @tonyadamsmagic

It's the weekend and you know what than means? As Snipster quite rightly pointed out, I treated Thursday afternoon like it was a summers Saturday. A long pub lunch, followed by a afternoon down the boozer and then onto a local for a few more jars. The trouble with treating a Thursday like its a Saturday, is that it's not. Like night follows day, Friday follows Thursday and on Friday morning I was faced with a 8am meeting followed by a day in a busy London office. The other problem is that Friday night is still the old, the current and the new 'Friday night' and so I was dragged (couldn't stop me with a cattle prod) back to the pub for another excellent night out. It's now Saturday morning and I'm a bit fuzzy. 

I watched a small part of the match, it was 0-0 then I turned to chat to a mate and when I looked back it was 8-0. No idea what happened. I believe The Ox scored?!?

The bad news is that Theo picked up an injury in the warm up / training session before the match and was flown home to England for treatment. It's a bit of a blow as Arsenal need all of our players to be hitting top form for the run in. Theo has not been in great form recently so missing the second England qualifier and the home Reading match might not be such a bad thing. He can rest and hopefully get back some of the hunger he had when he was playing to get a huge pay rise. His form towards the end of 2012 was the best we have seen from him. We could do with some of that for the remaining matches. 

I'm guessing The Ox will step in or perhaps we will see Santi play out on the right. Two good options, in my opinion.

Not much else going on at the moment, I'm going to get another bottle of Lucozade Sport Isotonic Performance Fuel (or Hangover Recovery Juice) and prepare for Saturday the old Thursday afternoon.

Hope you are having a good weekend

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog. You can like us on facebook:www.facebook.com/tonyadamsmagic or join us in twitter land @tonyadamsmagic

Pumpkiii

Friday Fun - Fathers, Financials & Football Shirts

A very happy happy Friday to you All. I would think some of you are a little worse for wear this morning after the ‘Thursday is the new Friday’ excess for going out and getting drunk. My friend and yours, Pumpkiii, continued his Thursday lunch time is really the new Saturday afternoon time in to Thursday evening which is really the new Friday night time and he maybe feeling a little foggy this morning.

He is well known for being made of sterner stuff so I’m sure he’ll push through and complete a day of tasks that mere normies could only dream of.

On to the red and white stuff, I have looked a little on line and through some hard copy press, mainly just from a nostalgic point of view. Talking of hard copy press, me and my dad used to go for fry up/breakfast in a place called Perdoni’s on a Saturday morning before the game, I always remember him reading those massive broad sheets, I had a comic, it was almost testament to masculinity he could wrestle and manipulate these giant swathes of paper.

Anyway, nothing much going on that anybody will be talking about this time next month but the things that are more stand outy for me are as follows…

Our man Wojciech Szczesny, has moved to calm the waters after his dad rather annoying used a polish tv programme to have a dig at Le Proff. Szczesny Snr went on the moan about how Wenger had played his son whilst injured at the end of last season and again in August. This has lead Szczesny Jnr taking to the official website to say he loves the old man but thinks he needs to keep his thoughts and opinions to himself. He went on to reiterate his love for The Arsenal and Wenger and, although he didn’t do it by name, his massive love for this blog and me but not so much Pumpkiii (he can take or leave Pumpkiii).

I don’t think he has been quite as good as I was hoping he would be this season but he’s very young and he looks assured in goal and he seems to have that arrogance top class professional sportsmen need. His distribution is a concern. He needs to progress some before he can claim the number one jersey as his own but I hope he can do it.

Secondly, Arsenal got a big write up in Sport magazine today,

http://www.sport-magazine.co.uk/features/arsenal-club-decline-or-one-step-ahead-3670

As the web address suggests it begs the question and looks to identify whether arsenal are ahead of the game with their infrastructure and ideology around self sustainability or indeed in terminal decline. My opinion would be that we’re somewhere in between the two.

The players aren’t at the same level currently as the previous teams Wenger has managed at Arsenal. The stadium does seem to be a burden at the moment but if that’s a burden other clubs will have to take on or risk loosing out on top players when the Financial Fair Play stuff comes in then we’re are ahead in that process.

Ultimately the bottom line is we weren’t good enough to compete for the league or the champions league this year or over the last few. Something needs to change if we are to do that. However we do finish in the champions league places ever year, we do have a brand new massive stadium and increased revenue as a result and we do have some really excellent players at the club at the moment. Our midfield is as good as anybodies. Sometimes I think we as fans are guilty of accepting that as given when 99% of other clubs and their fans would give their chocolate leg for a bit of that. I have faith that Wenger knows what he’s doing, how long that faith will stay is depending a fair amount on whether we finish top 4 this season and what happens next. It’s getting close to make or break for me. I love the bloke but I love Arsenal FC more and he has to be the right man for the job today, not the brilliant man of yesterday. I hope he brings it all home.

To complete this trident of information that I’ve speared into your face, Arsenal recently struck up a shirt deal with Adidas which would, you’d imagine, see the Adidas three strips back done the shoulders. CaughtOffside are running this leaked picture:

http://www.caughtoffside.com/2013/03/17/image-arsenal-new-home-adidas-201415-shirt-revealed-leaked-kit-looks-top-notch/

Please let it be true. I think it a great kit. Reminds me of Mickey Thomas and Anfield and looks, for my money, much nicer than the one we have at the minute. Now all we need is to get the old cannon back on the crest and it’ll be suitable to wear at christening, dinner parties and wakes.

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog. You can like us on facebook: www.facebook.com/tonyadamsmagic or join us in twitter land @tonyadamsmagic

Have a great Friday peoples. And spare a thought for Pumpkiii I bet he’s hoping Friday afternoon turns into the new Sunday morning…easy!

Podcast hopefully tomorrow so come back and listen to us talk about all things arsenal, a little about life and we may have a special guest on.

UTA

Thursday, the new Wednesday? I hope not!

 

 

 

Happy Thursday guys and gals,

 

We have broken the back of the week again and we march onto another weekend, GET IN!

 

Unfortunately due to a tournament being held over 15 months away, we have a weekend without Premier league football. What do we think about that? BOOOOOO. That's what!

 

I quite like international tournaments, but only really the finals. The group stages and friendlies are a bit of a pain in the neck and makes building consistency in the league tough. It might however give the players a little break from the pressure at the club, which could be a good thing. The wind was in our sails and spurs were tipping over the worlds end of waterfalls, lets hope we come back to the same situation. 

 

Picking up Injuries at meaningless internationals is always the big concern and I hope we don't. It was interesting to read that Rio won't be going as he has training planned at Man U and he can't miss it as he might get injured. Surely that's a blag straight out of the "forgot my gym kit" book of terrible blags. No real surprise though as sir Al*hic*s, mourinho and the rest have been doing it for ages. Lampard, terry and co have missed many friendlies due to their club wanting to win cups and leagues, and who can blame them. The clubs they play for pay them fortunes and those clubs have targets to achieve with their assets. If they can't utilise their assets then maximising their returns is economically unviable. And we all know that sustainability is the real winner! 

 

This is what happens when you write a football blog while on the way to a business meeting. Busiball, the business side of football. 

 

I think we have a few players playing in the internationals, perhaps we could look at them tomorrow. Snipster?

 

Onto some other thoughts:

 

I watched Tyson (the film documentary) the other day. It was a good watch and well worth a view. Tyson came from very humble beginnings, when he was young his parents split up and his mom moved them to an area so bad women and children would be mugged and beaten up regularly. 

 

Tyson grew up in fear and was constantly bullied. He kept pigeons and one day the bullies found out where he kept them and grabbed hold of one. Tyson asked / pleaded with them to give the pigeon back. The leader of the bullies rung the birds neck and threw it back to Mike dead. This enraged Tyson and he beat the bully into a pulp. 

 

Mike Tyson got a lot of respect for this from the other youths in his area. He was still a shy and unassuming guy though. He got involved with the wrong crowd and ended up in juvenile detention. It was in jail he started boxing and on Tyson's release, the jail boxing instructor put Mike in touch with a professional boxing coach as he had seen so much promise during his incarceration.  

 

This coach trained Mike Tyson to be an excellent technical boxer. A boxer with pace, power and technique. The one thing the coach couldn't train was for Mike to be confident. Mike Tyson still had a quiet and introverted character. 

 

The coach would complement Mike all day every day, about every aspect of his personality, body, power, ability, intelligence, even stuff like his hair, his style and his dance moves & singing voice (probably). Mike didn't know until later in life why the coach did this. He just thought he had the nicest coach in the world and thought he was possibly hitting on him. Later in life he realised the coach was building Tyson's confidence. Mike Tyson was now not only the best technical boxer on the planet, but he also believed he was unbeatable and destined for world domination. 

 

Tyson spoke about winning fights before a punch had been thrown. He would be able to see in his opponents eyes if there was a glimmer of doubt. When there was be would punish them.

 

Arsenal players need to build this sort of confidence for the future. Too many times this season we have looked low on belief. 

 

Arsene, after the team have finished watching the defensive videos, chuck Tyson the documentary on but remember to press pause before he gets all messed up on drugs and women 

 

 

International break. Run in conspiracy

Good morning to all you lovely Arsenal fans, morning to fans of other teams, spuds fans I hope you have a terrible morning.

The international break rolls on and the available (made up) news stories regarding Arsenal become fewer and farther from believability. In a way it is welcome that there is nothing to talk about. Two wins and two clean sheets leave us with nothing to endlessly moan about, at least for another week or so. It does however seem as if something is going on in the press, something a bit dark and underhand.

It is probably just my over active imagination, my love for Arsenal, my hatred of tottnumb and being brought up on X-Files. But it does feel like there is a conspiracy out there to derail us in any way shape or form.

The day before the scums away derby match we were told that a huge bid was coming in to buy the club. We were told we would have A HUGE WARCHEST (well we are the Arsenal), that we would bin our current crop of players and buy international mega stars. This has come to absolutely nothing (so far), the story was quoted by an un-named source. So it seems like it was a plant, put there to unstable our players. We all agree that the margins in top flight football are very small, so something like being told by the national papers that your place of work and job are at risk, might just be enough to knock the concentration of the players slightly. Small margins, massive effect. We lost that match and the pressure mounted on the team. The plant worked.

In our last two matches we have kept two clean sheets and I believe most fans are happy with this. But it appears in the press that there are question marks above two of our defenders playing for us in the future. The stories effectively say that Per and Kos are "Gunner stay". What a non story?!? They are contracted to the club for a good few years to come and Per has started almost every match for us this season, showing Wenger does have some amount of faith in him. How many people do you know that would put on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In or where ever, that they are leaving their job before talking to their boss? You would have to be mental!!

So why are the stories there? They have no value. Might they deflate the confidence high Per and Kos are riding on? Who knows, but whenever I read these articles it makes me wonder why they are there, and what the intended outcome is. Could there be an overwhelming number of spuds sport writers? Are the stories being funded by another club? Could there be an alien invasion happening where they have targeted the press and are starting to brain wash us…?

I’ll leave it with you to make your own minds up but the truth is out there… I want to believe.

 

Pumpkiii

England Vs Arsenal - Tuesday Slow Mo

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@tonyadamsmagic

A Tuesday morning in the middle of the nuclear winter which is the international break makes it hard work to find interesting and true news stories.

I’ve never really been in to international football. I’m a very proud Englishman but when I was growing up my passion for Arsenal was so blinding and more importantly my hatred of other teams and their players so intense I simply couldn’t bring myself to support them. How could I hate these guys one day and support them the next?

I want England (and Britain at the Olympics) to do well, don’t get me wrong. I love the England shirt but I really dislike some of the people that wear it. My dislike for opposition players in England shirts has waned and mellowed a little as the years have passed but, frankly, I still struggle with the whole concept. I would gladly throw John Terry into a pit of molten larva but when he puts on an England shirt I’m suppose to be his supporter. It seems a bit contradictory to me.

I’d still probably have England win the world cup above arsenal winning the champions league just for the national craic of it. What can I say, I’m conflicted!

There are a few stories this morning about our centre backs. I won’t bore you with the details but they all look quite tenuous and if any did leave, which I don’t think they will, it will be independent of any of these rubbishy stories.

I was reading a good article in the gooner on my way to work, and I would recommend you have a look at it too. A good piece they talks about what lies ahead for The Arsenal.

http://www.onlinegooner.com/article.php?section=exclusive&id=2897#.UUgmB_ogGc0

And I also came across these two photos when I was looking for a funny arsenal related one to send to pumpkiii.

This one is of George Graham after winning the league at Anfield 1989 in what is surely one of the most amazing games in our history.

 

It just struck me how more real it seemed back then.

And this one is of Tony Adams. Hero.

That’s it for today. Pumpkiii should be back tomorrow.

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday.

Come on you reds!!

Funday Monday

It was one of those excellent weekends that, when you’re my age, takes a week to recover from. After a really busy week at work and feeling exhausted we recorded the podcast on Friday night. Due to Snipster not being available until about 9:30, Mike and I waited in a number of bars and had a good number of drinks. Snipster eventually arrived and we ate curry, recorded the pod and drank some more. After finishing the podcast someone had the excellent idea to go to another pub for a night cap. Saturday daytime was spent recovering, snoozing and quietly celebrating the football result. Saturday night was spent celebrating a friend’s birthday. Rather cunningly I thought I would arrive late and therefore reduce the amount of drinking time I had. This in turn would mean I wouldn’t have to use my will power. It didn’t work and I eventually left the bare we were in at 3am. Yesterday was also spent recovering, snoozing and quietly celebrating the football result.

 

I have a six a side match tonight, my team is second and we are playing the league leaders. We are six points behind them and there are two matches left. Following last week’s 2-2 draw it is almost impossible for us to win the league. We would need to win tonight, they would also need to lose next week and we would need to score 26 more goals than them over the two matches… without conceding. Improbable but not impossible…

 

We start another long period without Arsenal football as there are international matches this week. The break follows a couple of good results for us and I hope it doesn’t break our momentum. We travelled to two different countries, Germany and Wales winning 2-0 both times. Arsenal have been criticised for their defending record this season but two clean sheets against attacking teams is a good record.

 

We also had some good fortune yesterday when the chokers started their annual gag reflex-athon. They lost 1-0 at home to Fulham. I think we owe a big thank you to Mike for coming onto the PodCast on Saturday and predicting them to win. It’s all about good omens and Mike is defiantly the opposite of Damien.

 

We are now 4 points behind them lot, with a game in hand. Should we be able to close it to a point we will be breathing down their red necks and the choke will be well and truly on.

 

See ya tomorrow

Swans 0 - 2 Arsenal - Nacho & Gervinho Leave Swans At Sea + Sunday Round Up

Happy Sunday Arsenal Fans,

Yesterday Arsenal played Swansea in Wales and ran out 2-0 winners thanks to goals from Nacho Monreal & Gervinho.

Arsene had kept the same back bone that had performed so resiliently against Bayern.

Nacho Monreal come in to the left back position with Gibbs on the bench. FABinaski in goal with Kos and Per at centre back and the ever improving Jenkinson at right back made the back five.

The midfield was The Ox, Arteta and Diaby. Up front Walcott, Girod and Carzola.

The game started well enough. It was reasonably slow paced, which would have helped arsenal a bit get their midweek legs off. The Ox hit the bar early doors. Nice run in from the left and with his right leg hit the top of the bar.

Meat-Stew had their best chance of the half and probably of the game when his turn in the box gave him time and space enough to aim a shot towards the bottom corner. Much to mine, arsene and the rest of the arsenal fans pleasure it bobbled wide.

The half closed nil nil. I was happy with that. Resilience was being shown and arsenal, although looked a bit out numbered at times in midfield, were playing alright and had limited Swansea to nothing really. Diaby looked a little off the pace but that's only expected for a player whos must struggle with day to day living and not injuring himself every time he gets dressed. The back five seemed to be working well. Fabianski looked alright in goal with the routine stuff and his clerances and distribution always seems more assured.

Second half arsenal came out stronger. Diaby had some good runs with the ball. Carzola continued his good work and was busy in and around the box, taking corner and was a important part of the arsenal play. The clock was ticking and Arsene made some changes. On came Ramsey and Gervinho and off went The Ox (decent enough game) and Diaby (remarkably uninjured).

Arsenal continued to dominate and eventually got the bit of luck that their endeavour had deserved. Carzola had made a run with the ball from right to left shaping to shoot a few times on the way, he crossed it in the ball was bobbling around, Giroud did well and poked it back towards nacho, who shot like a man who plays left back and was desperate to score, not the sweetest of connections but it bouncer into the bottom right hand corner and into the goal.

One nil arsenal and upon such goals games are won and it was great to see Arsenal's hard work be rewarded.



The game continued with about 15 left on the clock, Swansea didn't really show much after. They hadn't really got into the game or hadn't been allowed to get in to the game and the last 15 minutes were no different.

As the clock came up to ninety minutes the ball broke to Ramsey playing on the right wing, after Walcott had been replaced by Gibbs, he squared it for an unmarked Gervinho on the edge of the box who touch one touch and swept the ball in to the Swansea net for arsenals second.

The game ended two nil arsenal. Well deserved win. Brilliant result after such a big effort in the week. A result that adds even more pressure on the teams above them who also have to go to wales.

Well played arsenal. A result that in the final reckoning will come in very handy indeed.

*UPDATE: totenumb have lost to Fulham 1-0 at home so the choke is definitely on. They are 4 points ahead but we have a game in hand.

Great result arsenal.

COME ON YOU REDS!!!!


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@tonyadamsmagic

We're on our way - Arsenal V Swansea

Hello all,

We're on our way to Swansea today.

Here is this weeks podcast to listen to on your way there...

We're on our way podcast

We hope you enjoy, we were enjoying a Curry in Truly Indian, London Bridge, when we recorded it.

3 points today

Come on you Gunners!!

Arsenal knocked out by an away goal. 3-3 Vs Bayern

Last night we went to Germany to do what Wenger rightly described as improbable but not impossible. We got close, very close but due to the away goals rule, we were knocked out 3-3 on aggregate (0-2 on the night).

The build-up to the match was painfully. We were not given a fraction of a chance of going through. Most people I spoke to said they would be happy if we left the Allianz with our dignity still intact. It was almost as if we were about to watch one of our loved ones be thrown into a pit of zombie, flesh eating bears armed with only an antiseptic wipe and some talcum powder to protect them.

Vermaelen said before the match that ‘no one believed Arsenal could turn around last years 4-0 thumping at the hands of AC Milan, but we almost did’. It was a funny thing to say, like saying ‘no one believed I could breath under water, I did, but my lungs filled with water’. Or saying ‘no one believed I could survive being bitten by a dozen cobras, I battled the poison and survived for 16 hours before I became brain dead and ate my own tongue’.

Any way Vermaelen was almost right again. We almost did it! But we didn’t. Unfortunately, almost doing it, proves almost everyone right.  We couldn’t turn the result around.

There was lots of chat afterwards, people lamenting the third goal we let in at home in the first leg. Gervinhio not shooting to make it 2-0 a bit earlier at the Allianz. The reff being poor and looking lost at times. Then there was the counter argument that Bayern already had ‘a cigar on’ for the second leg and were comfortably coasting into the last eight.

Although we went out, it was a good effort from the lads. We made the prefect start, flying out of the blocks and scoring in the first 3 minutes. There was some really neat play through the middle which came to Theo on the right, I thought he was going to take a shot but he squared it to Girrruuuude who smashed it home 1-0.

We continued to ask questions going forwards and answer our critiques at the back. I thought Fabi had a good game in goal and Kos had an excellent match in the centre of defence. We looked solid at the back and that was due in no small part to the team defending from the front. Everyone got stuck into their defensive duties. The team were obviously aware that conceding a goal would make it very difficult to win the match, so everyone defended. Funny that… don’t concede otherwise it makes it more difficult to win… its got something to it… perhaps our normal, going two nil down in the first half tactic needs rethinking…

There were a couple of instances where the ref made life difficult for us and easy for the Germans. There was an off side called on Theo when he was clear through on goal, the replays showed he was on side. The ref also liked to slow the match down for fouls rather than playing the advantage. The ref didn’t change the match though and wasn’t responsible for us going out. We needed to score one more goal and we just couldn’t find it. We looked the better team on a night where Bayern looked poor but over the two legs we out poor’d them by showing them how poor a team can look in the first leg.

We have to take the positives from beating a big European club away from home in the CL. We need to build momentum and carry belief into the run in. There are some important matches coming up and lots of points to play for, starting this Saturday against Swansea.

 

More on that match in the coming days.

 

Well done to the team. It is always painful to be knocked out of a competition but we can hold our heads high that we gave it a good go and almost made possible the impossible. Tony Adams Magic Style.

 

Cheers

 

Pumpkiii

Arsenal v Bayern Munich - Bratwurst o'clock

Morning,

Tonight we have a big, big, BIG match against Bayern Munich. Some might say it is so big it is insurmountable. However, if Barca can turn around a 2-0 against AC Milan than anything is possible... Pfffffff ha ha ha sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!

But it could happen... but it won't! But I can still hope and dream, but them dreams might turn into nightmares... Aagghhh!!!

Is it worth going down the pub, spending all my weekend money, just to lose, then have a stinking hangover to deal with on a Thursday and be brassic for the rest of the week? If we win then I can justify it. Perhaps I should meet the situation half way. Go to the pub but don't drink alcohol. If we win I can have a nice whisky safe in the knowledge that it won't blow all my money, my mind or the rest if my week.

Champion’s league matches are always exciting no matter what the situation is. We are dining at the top table in European football, playing possibly one of the best teams we have ever played against. This is going to be a huge test for our players.

The pressure is off us slightly, because no one thinks we have a hope in hell of getting past Bayern. We still have to be at our best though, there are still 90 minutes of football to play. Technically we can still progress, I just hope we don't get our arses handed to us on a bratwurst plate covered in Sauerkraut.

If there was a glimmer of hope it was that Ribery and a couple of his pals are injured for the match and it is seen as a big loss that three of their key players won't be playing for Bayern. The glimmer was short lived though as news that Jack is out with an ankle injury. It is his other ankle so let’s hope it's just a knock and he is back, fresh and chomping at the bit for the run in.

We also have to deal with Poldi being out and Nacho being cup tied. So that glimmer of hope has been Diaby’d right in the balls. Gibbs is supposedly back but with his previous injuries it is surely only a matter of time until he is side lined again.

Just to compound the situation further there has been a VERY strange decision to leave Szcz at home and play Fabianski. I say it is a strange decision, I think it is properly mental. I am not the boss though, so hopefully Wenger has made a decision that will get the best out of everyone for the remainder of the season. Fabianski in my opinion has always looked a bit rubbish but perhaps this is his chance to get noticed by another club, put in a good display and there isn’t a much bigger shop window to be in.

I hope we play with the hand break off and even if we concede a couple and go out, I hope we can knock a few past them and make it a good match to watch. We are capable of playing excellent, attractive football. We have nothing to lose and everything to win. Anything can happen in football. It is only half time. England vs Germany.

 

We were going to do a “we’re on our way” podcast but due to illness, commitments and me starting a new job, we were unable to find the time. There will be one for the next match.

 

I wish the lads the very best of luck tonight. Be proud, be strong, be confident!

Come on you Arsenal!!

Pumpkiii

Jack Wilshere Injury/Rest Up & Diaby Makes It On To Plane OK

I can confirm Jack Of Wiltshire has been ruled out for three weeks. It would appear that he has hurt the ankle on the other side to the one that kept him out for so long recently.

Fortunately for us that period only encompasses 1 Premiership game which is against Swansea. He obviously misses the trip to Germany land, the swans game then there is an international break. It seems to be fortunate and as this is only a precautionary rest I think it been well manipulated by arsenal. It does however dent our tiny hopes of qualifying against Munich even further and belies Wenger’s opinion that qualification is almost impossible.

So more info about that on the premiere league website:

http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/2012-13/mar/jack-wilshere-ruled-out-for-three-weeks.html

It should be an exciting game tomorrow, as much as I would obviously love for us to go through (and as I write this I’m furiously thinking of permutations of who scores and when for us to go through) its almost certainly not going to happen and so a little bit the pressure is off the players and the fans. If you are spending your time and hard earned money going I hope you have a great time one way or another.

More info on the team is distilled by who gets on the plane! It looks like Gibbs and Diaby will be enjoying a few dry roasted peanuts and a tomato juice whereas as Bacary ‘The Sag’ Sagna is resting up. Good to see Gibbo back as we can pick two from our 3 centre backs.

Szczesny and Poldo have also been left at home in what now looks like a bit of a makeshift squad.

 

It surprises me that Diaby managed to navigate his passage safely over those mechanised walkways but hopefully he’ll get trapped in the toilet or under one of the seats or more likely all the duty free Per is bringing back for their mates will fall out of the overhead lockers and smash him like an old bone china plate.

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/team-news-gibbs-wilshere-diaby-sagna

I think thats it really.

Cheltenham Festival today. 2 bets and got a place and a win so not too shabby.

Pumpkiii & I are going to try and do a podcast for tomorrow otherwise it’ll be one of us on the blog tomo.

Hope you are having a great day.

COME ON YOU REEEEEDDDDDDDSSS!

(Does anybody know if we’re breaking the rules linking to other sites?)