The ArseNole

France Away Kit and Adidas Copa Edge Backpack

2009-10-20T12:07:00.005-04:00

Morning everyone. A fantastic Tuesday to you all. Hope you all enjoyed the win over Birmingham at the weekend, which I missed because I was out of town at my cousin's first birthday party. Good result though, and we're right back in the title race with Chelsea losing. But on to other things.

A while back I talked about receiving an offer from SoccerPro.com when they allowed me to review a pair of Nike Talaria IV's. Well their generosity knows no bounds because they have given me the opportunity to yet again use some of their fantastic products, including an Adidas France away jersey and an Adidas Copa Edge backpack. I've gotten the privelage of using both of these products for the past week and a half or so and I want to share with you all my opinions on them.

I'll start with the France kit first because that was what I tried on right away as soon as the package came in the mail. I had never gotten an Adidas kit before so this was my first experience with the brand, and it's probably already one of my favorites now. The shirt feels great when you put it on, whether it's for playing a match or just wearing it to watch a match on tv. The embroidery is perfect and if you saw me wearing it you would most likely mistake me for being William Gallas or Thierry Henry, that's how authentic it looks. The shirt has Adidas' Clima365 technology so it is perfect for any weather, hot or cold, rain or shine. It really looks great and if you're a fan of France or any other nation, I highly recommend you check out the wide variety of club and country soccer jerseys they have available at SoccerPro.com.

The other product they let me use was the Adidas Copa Edge Backpack, which I was extremely excited about. As you know if you read the blog regularly, I coach a team of Under-9 year old boys, and it is a real hassle carrying my ball, cleats, socks, keeper gloves, keeper shirt, cones, whistle, and other stuff to practice and to the games. Well with this backpack, I can fit everything I'm carrying all into this one bag. It's got a pocket with ventilation for your ball and cleats, a large pocket for carrying any other stuff you have like your jersey, shorts, or shinguards, or for coaches like me your cones, keeper gloves, and anything else you need. It even has a cell phone pocket on the inside to keep your phone safe while you're out on the pitch. I really don't know how I ever lived without it now, it really is an amazing product. And on top of that, for all you Arsenal supporters, it's available in a variety of colors, including red and white, which I got of course. It makes transporting all of your soccer gear extremely easy and I highly recommend it to anyone that plays or coaches. You will not be dissapointed and I guarantee that this product will make your life easier and less hectic when you're trying to get ready on match day.

SoccerPro.com has been good to me, and they will be good to you. They have great prices on a variety of soccer gear, including cleats, balls, soccer jerseys, and anything else you could possibly need. They also give out regular discounts and clearance sales where you can find great products for real bargains. I recommend you conduct all your football related business with them, as you will not ever be dissapointed. Cheers!

The Latest On Charlie "Stanky Leg" Davies

2009-10-14T10:53:00.006-04:00

Hello everyone. It's been kind of a sad last 24 hours or so for fans of the US Men's National Team, with the news that Charlie Davies, USA and Sochaux striker, was seriously injured in a one car crash Tuesday morning. A woman, named Ashley J. Roberta, was killed in the accident. Davies and Roberta were both passengers in the car, and the name of the driver has not yet been released. At 3:15 am Tuesday morning, the car Davies was in crashed into a railing in the suburbs of Washington DC, and the pictures of the crash are really frightening.

Yes, that is half of a car being taken away on a tow truck. The other half was carried off on another truck. Davies was airlifted to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery on his many injuries. First, doctors had to repair his ruptured bladder, then they inserted titanium rods into both his tibia and femur bones in his leg. The emergency surgery took about five hours, and National Team team mates did not even know of the accident until he was entering surgery at about 11 am, because there were no team functions before lunch on Tuesday.

Davies also suffered facial fractures and a fracture of his left elbow that could require more surgery in the coming week that he will be spending in the hospital.

The best news for Charlie Davies right now is that he was a young, fit, athlete, which greatly improves his chances of making a full recovery.

"Injuries of this nature usually require a recovery period of six to 12 months and extensive rehabilitation," said Dr. Dan Kalbac, a U.S. team doctor who collaborated with the doctors at the hospital. "Due to Charlie's fitness level, his prognosis for recovery and his ability to resume high-level competition is substantially improved."

There is, as of yet, no word on whether or not the driver of the vehicle or any of the passengers were under the influence of any substances, but the best we can all hope for at this point is the full recovery of Charlie Davies and pray for the girl's family who was killed. Apparently Charlie did break the curfew set for the National Team when he was out until 3:15 though. His injuries mean that he will almost certainly miss the 2010 World Cup.

National Team coach Bob Bradley had this to say:

“Obviously, as a team we were saddened to learn this news. Our thoughts and prayers are with Charlie and his family, as well as the people in the car and the families of the others involved. As a team, we are relying on each other in a moment that has for sure hit us all hard.”

As a tribute to Charlie Davies, fans have come up with the idea to have a full minute standing ovation in the ninth minute to recognize Charlie in the match tonight against Costa Rica. Davies wears number 9 for the National Team and his club team, so that is why the ninth minute was picked. The game will be televised at 8pm Eastern Time on ESPN2, and I encourage everyone to watch and give their support if you aren't able to get to the match.

If fans want to send cards their best wishes to Davies, they can mail them to:

Washington Hospital Center
110 Irving St. NW
Washington DC 20010

Also, you can email your wishes to charliedavies9@yahoo.com, and his family will be printing them all out and bringing them to him. Show him the love guys.

There are times when we all act like football is the most important thing in life, but things like this make you realize that it's not even close to that in the grand scheme of things. Get well soon Charlie, and I hope everyone will send their best out to him and keep him in your prayers.

Cescual Chocolate, Barcelona are Cunts (Still)

2009-10-12T12:35:00.004-04:00

Hello there everyone. A fine Monday to you all. Hope everyone had a good weekend even though there was no Arsenal. Mine was pretty good. My Under-9 boys team got their first win of the season in our third match of the year. We won 6-1 after losing 8-0 and 7-0 in our first two matches. So it was a big victory for us and we'll be looking to keep that run going.

I didn't really watch any of the internationals this weekend. Why? Because the USA match wasn't on tv and I was watching American football most of the weekend honestly. International Qualifiers interest me about as much as Cesc to Barcelona stories, which is not at all really. But seeing as there isn't shite to write about at all besides Cesc to Barcelona stories, that's what I'll be writing about today.

In a week where Cesc had to leave the Spain squad to be with his seriously ill grandfather, Barcelona thought it would be a prime opportunity to reiterate their desire to sign Fabregas in January. Stay classy, eh Barca? Check out these quotes from the cunt Txiki Begiristain:

"He's a player who fits the Barca profile. He was born suckling on football here and one day he will end up playing at the Camp Nou. I am sure."

What in the hell does that mean? I don't want to picture Cesc suckling on anything, much less Barcelona football. I'd think he could do a bit better than that honestly. I have some advice for Txiki, laid out in a few steps.

1. Get a real name. I cannot pronounce Txiki, nor have I ever met anyone else who would name their son that.

2. Stop talking about Cesc Fabregas. He's said at least one hundred billion times that he's happy at Arsenal. If he does go to Barcelona one day, then it will be when he and Arsene both decide that it's that time, and when it is you'll fork over about a kajillion dollars to us for him. So until then, just leave him alone.

3. When someone's grandfather is really sick, sick enough that you have to leave your team to go be with him, it's probably not the best time to talk about a transfer bid for him. It makes you look like the piece of shit that we all know you are.

4. Next time you think about opening your mouth, shoot yourself in the leg instead. That will probably make you reconsider, because I'd imagine that would really hurt.

Follow those steps and life will be better for all of us. I promise.

In other news, Senderos, Fabregas, Gallas, Vela and Gibbs all scored for their countries this past weekend, and the injury front isn't looking too bad either. Theo Walcott suffered a dead leg but hopefully he'll be back soon enough. Also, Alex Song's Cameroon beat Togo 3-0 so they only need one win to reach the World Cup and Adebayor's team lost which makes it even better. So a good weekend for the Gunners on the whole.

I haven't heard any more news about Samir Nasri's recovery, but hopefully he'll be back before the Sp*rs match at the end of the month.

That's about all I've got for the day, so I'll talk to you tomorrow or Wednesday. Thank God the international break is almost over. Cheers.

International Break Gives Us Time To Get Healthy

2009-10-07T16:07:00.009-04:00

Yeah I probably just jinxed the team, because since I said that they'll probably all get injuries playing for their international teams. So if Fabregas, Sagna, Gallas, Song, Theo, and Arshy all come back with injuries, you know where you can point the blame. Right here. But really, think about it. After this break is over, we'll probably have Nasri back, hopefully Theo will be fit enough to go the full 90 minutes, and while Denilson is going to take longer to recover, it's at least 2 weeks worth of matches that he won't miss, if that makes any sense, which it probably doesn't.

Apparently there are some big football nations that could miss out on the World Cup, which I think is fantastic. Why? Because it makes it somewhat easier (hopefully) for the US to get out of the group stage. I think it'd be quite nice if we didn't have to play France or Portugal. Honestly though I like France because they always have so many Arsenal players, so I do hope they make it. Portugal can choke on dog shite and die though.

I've been rocking out to the Miley Cyrus song "Party in the USA" for like an hour. Yeah, I'm a 22 year old male listening to Miley Cyrus, so what? I'm a fan. You should like her too. Plus she's ballin rich and if it doesn't work out with me and Carlota Fabregas then I'll most likely go for Miley. Tell me you don't think she's hot and you'd be lying.

So after the international break our next five league matches are home to Birmingham, away to West Ham, home to Sp*rs, away to Wolves, and away to Sunderland. You'd like to think that Birmingham and Wolves would be three points pretty easily. If it doesn't work out that way you have to look at that as a disappointment. Sunderland and West Ham aren't nearly as good of a team as we are, but they are tricky teams to play on the road. You'd like to think we'd get six points from those as well, but I think I'd be happy enough with four.

The key match though is the one at home to the scum. Obviously Sp*rs are shit cunts and they almost never beat us. However, this year they are making an attempt to be less shit than they normally are and are currently ahead of us in the table, which makes this match really f'ing important. We also have a game in hand on the top three teams in the table right now, so if we won that we'd be in third right now. But about the Sp*rs match again, it's one that we have to win. A draw is not acceptable, and a loss should simply be out of the question. If we beat them, they turn right back into pretenders who aren't going to ever get near the top four. If they get a good result at the Emirates though, and we have to go to the shithole later in the year, they're going to get a real confidence boost and have the belief that they can hang in the top four. The best way of making sure we win would be if Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe were hit by busses, meteors, or a turtle-eating-pigeon before the match. So if you drive a bus, you know what to do. We'll all thank you later.

In other news, Mikael Silvestre says the best is yet to come from him. I suppose it's easy for him to say that since he's never been very good anyway. Also, Sol Campbell could start training with Arsenal to keep up his fitness while he has no club. I say he shouldn't be allowed to. Don't go sign with Notts County saying you "embrace their ambtion" and quit after one game. Sol's a looney.

"It will be great to train here and get fit. I've spoken to Arsene, hopefully we can get everything right and speak to the right people and get a couple of the physios and fitness guys to help me and train. My overall fitness is OK. But something else might happen before then."

That last part is him saying that he hopes Arsene will sign him. That's not going to happen. We have Djourou and Senderos who are both better than him and still can't get in the team. Sorry Sol, every since you left at halftime of that match a couple of years ago you lost all credibility among most Arsenal supporters. Piss off please.

On to other business besides Arsenal now.

If anyone knows about computers, this one is for you. My monitor shows everything giant now, and cuts off like half of what should be on the screen. I tried adjusting the display settings and resolution, but it hasn't fixed anything. I don't want to wait on the phone for hours with customer service if I don't have to, so if you know how to fix this then please get at me.

So I've been out of work for about three weeks now since baseball season ended (at least in the minor leagues.) If anyone knows of any job availability for someone with no real skills, hasn't gotten their college degree yet, and doesn't want to work long hours, then please let me know.

That's about all I've got for the day. Leave comments on any of this stuff and I promise I'll write back unless you are an absolute cunt. Peace!

Thoughts on the Season So Far

2009-09-22T12:35:00.004-04:00

Hello all. It's been a bloody month since I last posted, and I'm quite ashamed of it actually. Sometimes, when you write every day, you just get burnt out and feel like what you write isn't that interesting anymore and just don't really get in the mood to write very much. That's what happened to me, and I feel like I'm not doing my job as an Arsenal blogger when I go that long without writing. So I apologize and I'll try to get back to it. So for today I'm just going to write a bit about what I've noticed from the season so far.

I really like the 4-3-3 formation, I'm just not sure we have the right players to run it at the moment. I think ideally we'd have Theo as the forward on the right and Arshy on the left with RvP or Bendtner as the center forward. I don't think Bendtner is good as a wide player and I don't think he ever will be. He's a center forward, and he's the second or third best center forward at that, so I don't like seeing him start on the right. Theo can't get back soon enough for me. It's a bit weird how long he's been out. Same with Vela. I worry that they were supposed to have little injuries and now they've been out for quite a while. Hopefully they get back soon because we could use the depth. When you look at the bench we've had for some of these matches, it's just pathetic. I think when we get Nasri back, he should probably start next to Cesc to add some more creativity in the midfield.

Thomas Vermaelen is a fucking beast. The guy is a strong defender who spends most of his time smoking fools and lighting up chumps, while also making time to get up the field and score goals to the point that right now he's our leading scorer. Now it's not really good that a central defender is our leading scorer mind you, but it just accentuates the fact of how brilliant a signing he was. I can't get enough of the guy. Keep it up Verminator.

Alex Song needs some help. He was good the first few games but against both Manchester teams he looked like he was in a little bit over his head. It'd be nice if we could rest him every once in a while without having a drop off. And also, what has happened to Manuel Almunia? He's been pretty terrible this season so far in my opinion, and Clichy, even though he's one of my favorites, has also been sub-par.

I worry a little bit about Cesc. I think sometimes his head is in Barcelona. We really, really need to win something this year. Other than the Manchester games though, you'd say the season is looking pretty decent. We're beating the teams that are weaker than us, which has been a problem in the past, so maybe we're on the right track. Remember that we still get City and United at home to make up for those losses, and we still have a lot of players coming back from injury. I think the season still is looking bright. Keep the faith Gooners.

Cheers.

PS: Adebayor is a cunt.

I'm Going to Marry Cesc's Sister, Portsmouth Preview

2009-08-21T14:07:00.006-04:00

Hello everybody. How's your Friday going? First home match of the year is tomorrow, and we're playing Portsmouth, who are shite. In face, they're probably going to get relegated. I've put some money on Arsenal to win -2 goals, so we pretty much need to win by three for me to get paid. I'd very much appreciate it if you could pull that off Arsenal.

Theo Walcott, Rosicky, Djourou, and Nasri are all out with injuries, and Carlos Vela is apparently sick at home with Spattergroit. I really have no idea what has happened to Vela, but I wish he'd get a chance to play sometime, yet there's been no sign of him. Eduardo is passed fit for tomorrow's match though and he could maybe make a start.

We need a win, simple enough. For one, I can't handle seeing Sp*rs at the top of the table, and for two, we need to keep ahead of Man U after their loss to Burnley. We play them next weekend too so this match is really important to take all three points from. I don't think that sentence even made sense but you know what I'm getting at.

There's really not a whole lot more to say about the match. Let's just get three points and get it done and get out of there. That's like the shortest preview I've ever done but I really can't think of a lot to say about it. I'd expect to see most of the same team we've had for the other two matches to play, but maybe we'll give Song or Denilson a rest along with RvP. Diaby could start or Ramsey could start, but we'll see.

Now on to more important topics.

I've figured out how to be related to Cesc Fabregas. It's going to be tricky, and take a lot of work since she lives in Barcelona, but I've got the right attitude and resolve to see that I complete this goal of mine. You see, I've decided I'm going to marry Cesc's sister, Carlota. How am I going to pull this off you ask? Well. That's the tricky part. I suppose I'll just move to Barcelona and woo her with my delightful American charm. I haven't really thought it through much more than that, but that's the plan anyway. I can cook pretty well too, seeing as how I do attend culinary school. Now I just have to learn to speak Catalan. I believe with hard work and perserverance and a lot of luck, I'll soon be related to the Arsenal captain. Love it.

Wish me luck.

C'mon you Gunners.

Cheers.

Celtic 0-2 Arsenal Thoughts

2009-08-19T12:34:00.003-04:00

Hello all, two posts in two days, bit crazy isn't it? It's lucky I'm in a good mood, probably because Arsenal has put me in a constant good mood with their performances. We had another win yesterday, 2-0 over Celtic in Glasgow, which is a great result. We've been to two very tough venues this year already, and we've won both fairly easily. It's fantastic. Today I'm just going to give you all my thoughts on the match yesterday, and my thoughts on whatever else pops into my head as I'm writing, because I can't very well write just about the Celtic match for thirty minutes.

I thought we controlled the game for the most part. Song was once again fantastic, winning the ball back over and over without fouling, and his distribution was pretty good as well. He'll never be a passer like Cesc, but he's good at getting the ball to the attackers quickly and winning it back when we lose it. Vermaelen was once again immense in defense, and I think almost 100% of the Arsenal supporters have already fallen in love with him. When he tracked back for that Celtic counter attack when it could have been an easy goal for Scott Brown and made the tackle, I cheered out loud I'll admit. He looks like a great signing and like Wenger said, it's interesting having someone left footed back there and it really makes a nice contrast to William Gallas. I also really love the way he isn't scared to smoke fools and light up chumps in the tackle. He's all business when he's going for the ball. I wanted someone on the team that kills people, and he sure does that. Love the Verminator already.

On the attacking side, we weren't great. RvP, Arshy, and Bendtner did ok at times, but I didn't think any of them really stood out today. Arshy eventually came off for Diaby, who didn't really have a great game when he came on, except for one shining moment of brilliance where he evaded the defender and fed the ball to Clichy who crossed for the own goal. It's typical Diaby, he has a rare moment of brilliance then he loses the ball because he dwells on it too long. I think he's one of the weakest players in our squad honestly.

The weirdest thing this season so far (yes it's still really bloody early, but still) was the goal from William Gallas off of Cesc's free kick. He tried to duck to get out of the way of it, it hit off of his ass and into the net. But nobody complained, the away goal was important and the second was even more so. It means Celtic have to score at least 2 goals without reply to even force extra time at the Emirates. It's a great position to be in, and I'm supremely confident that we'll be going through to the group stages. That was crucial, and we got the job done.

Bakary Sagna had thoughts on the atmosphere, saying:

"I think the atmosphere is one of the most amazing in Europe and it was great to play in front of those fans. It was hard to stay focused on the pitch. It's difficult to play against this kind of atmosphere."
"It is one of the most amazing I have ever witnessed. But we did quite well with it. The danger was to come here after such a good win and take it easy but we stayed focused and defended as a team and played as a team."

And that's the bottom line, is that our defense is playing well and we're playing as a team. We look dangerous. It's early and I don't wanna set my expectations too high yet, but God it's exciting to look this good so early in the season isn't it? When you think of how we still have Walcott, Nasri, and Rosicky still to return, it's just scary.

That's about all I've got for the day. If you have a facebook and you like the blog, click here to become a fan of it. I'd appreciate that. Cheers all.

Thoughts on the Everton Match, Celtic Preview

2009-08-18T11:53:00.003-04:00

Morning all, hope you're well. Been a bit busy over the last week or so so I haven't had much of a chance to write quality articles, and in my opinion it's better to post a few quality articles than post shite ones all the time.

What a start to the season we've had then, eh? I'll admit I was worried that we might draw or even lose at Everton to start the season. It's a tricky fixture every year and I'd say by far the toughest first match of the season out of the big four clubs. Some would argue that Liverpool had it tougher but since we haven't lost to Sp*rs in the league since about 2000 I don't really think of them as being any good. What a performance though by the Gunners. 6-1, and the 1 was in the 90th minute. I will say that I was a bit pissed off when we allowed that goal right at the end, because 6-0 looks just ridiculously good and a clean sheet would have given Almunia and the defense a lot of confidence going forward. But 6-1 is still bloody good and we're top of the league!

Just a couple of thoughts from the match then. I thought Alex Song was absolutely terrific, his work rate exceptional, his passing good, and his closing down extremely good. Something happened to Alex last year that completely turned him around and now he's become almost essential to the team. The problem is, he'll be leaving for the African Nations Cup in January...

I love the 4-3-3 system that we're using now. While I'd maybe consider putting Bendtner up top and RvP on one of the wings, I'm not Arsene Wenger so I have no say. I thought having Denilson and Song in there as defensive players behind Cesc was fantastic, because you saw what Cesc can really do when he can play openly and not worry about tracking back quite so much to cover in front of the back four. Cesc was immense, as he always is when we play well, and it's amazing to think that we scored 6 goals yet none of them came from RvP, Bendtner, or Arshavin. 2 from Cesc, 1 each from Gallas and Vermaelen (who had a very solid debut), an absolute gem from Denilson, and a late one from Eduardo who came on as a sub. That's what we've been missing the past few years is goals from players other than our strikers, and we really got it done against Everton.

Everton were clearly not at their best, and yes it was only one match, but it's just what we needed to start off the season. It should raise the squad's morale and confidence in the team, and push us going forward. Top of the league is a nice place to be, so let's keep it that way lads.

So in just over two hours we play Celtic in Glasgow. An intimidating place to go for sure, but you'd have to say that we are the better team if each team was playing their best on a given day. Injury worries are for Sagna, Denilson, and Cesc, who are all questionable according to Arsene Wenger. It's a problem if both Denilson and Cesc aren't able to go, although I suspect that Cesc at least will be out there. If neither one of them are able to go, who plays in the center of midfield? Song and Diaby, most likely with Aaron Ramsey, who looked good in the preseason but Celtic Park is a tough place to play for anyone, especially someone as young as Ramsey. He and Jack Wilshere exude the same confidence though in almost any situation you see them in, so if he is in there I have all the faith in the world in him to get the job done.

Walcott, Rosicky, Nasri, Djourou, and Fabianski are all still out for sure. The best news of all though is that Andrey Arshavin can finally make his Arsenal debut in the Champions League. Of course last year he was cup-tied after playing in the CL for Zenit St Petersburg, so this will be his first taste of contenental action for the Gunners. I'm going to go ahead and pick Andrey and RvP to score goals as Arsenal win 2-1. Looking forward to the match immensely, and I'll try to get a match report up tomorrow.

Cheers all!

Arsenal Draw Celtic, Arsenal Ratings By Position

2009-08-08T11:33:00.003-04:00

Morning all. Let's get right to it then. Yesterday was the Champions League 3rd Round Qualifier draw. The general consensus was we wanted to avoid Atletico, Fiorentina, and Celtics. Well, two out of three's not bad, we drew Celtic. Seems to me that a lot of people are worrying when I don't really think they need to. Yeah Celtic are a decent team but with fresh legs, another year of experience under our belts and a good preseason, we should be able to beat any Scottish team. Atletico and Fiorentina would have been much worse draws than Celtic in my opinion, and I do think that we'll get through Celtic fairly easily. If we don't, then you can blame it on me for being so confident, but I just don't see us struggling that much.

The first leg is supposed to take place in Glasgow on Tuesday, August 18th, but due to a U2 concert there on the same night, they may have to move the match to Wednesday the 19th. Isn't that just wonderful, we have a match later in the week because of f'ing Bono.

So we've got seven days, just one week, until the Premier League season kicks off away to Everton. How we got that as our first match I haven't the slightest idea, because that's a pretty tough one. So while a lot of the transfer talk has died down, yeah we still may sign Chamakh or maybe someone else out of the blue, we pretty much know the squad we're going to have for the new season. So I wanted to try and break it down a little bit and see where we think our strongest/weakest areas are heading into the new year.

Goalkeepers: Manuel Almunia, Lukasz Fabianski - I'd give us an 7 out of 10 here. I think Almunia is pretty solid. He's shown over the past two seasons that he is an above average Premier League goalkeeper who generally makes the saves he's supposed to make. If you were ranking him among Premiership goalkeepers, where would Almunia rank for you? I think I'd have him behind Reina, Van der Sar, and possibly Robert Green and Petr Cech, but nobody else. That's not that bad considering for a long time he was a career backup for us. Fabianski is a good backup, who with some playing time can be good for us down the road.

Right Backs: Bakary Sagna, Emmanuel Eboue - 9/10 for me. Sagna is clearly one of the best if not THE best right back in the league. Solid defensively and good going forward, even if his crosses are sometimes a bit lacking. Eboue is also a much more effective right back than anywhere else on the pitch.

Center Backs: William Gallas, Thomas Vermaelen, Mikael Silvestre, Johann Djourou - I'm going to go with a 7/10 here, although I'll say it's still an incomplete judgement on this group. We haven't gotten to see enough of Vermaelen to know how he'll do when he's up against players like Drogba and Torres. Without Toure on the team, Djourou needs to make this be his breakout year, and Gallas needs to really step up and be a leader on the back line. I just hope they glue together and we find a good partnership in there.

Left Backs: Gael Clichy, Armand Traore, Kieran Gibbs - Before last year I would have said this was a 9, but this year I'll say it's an 8. Clichy had some sketchy moments last year, but I still think he's a great player for Arsenal. He's great getting forward (even if he hasn't ever scored for Arsenal yet) and he's pretty good defensively, not to mention he's still definitely young enough to improve. Gibbs and Traore are both super pacey players who are in the same mold as Clichy and Cole before him. I think they can both be great, although Traore may be moved up to the left wing.

I'll get to the midfield tomorrow, so we can make this process last through this week that will undoubtedly be full of anticipation for next weekend, and it'll culminate with my season preview, which will probably come on Thursday.

Just one more thing today. I went to see Green Day in Orlando this past Wednesday, and we had tickets in the pit. Amazingly, I ended up right next to a fellow Gooner, Dan from London. So it was great to be able to talk Arsenal in such a random place so far away from London. He even wore an Arsenal wrist band, so I have to give him a shout out. Cheers Dan, and up the Gunners!

Vieira Coming, Senderos Going, Toure and Wilshere

2009-08-04T10:39:00.006-04:00

Morning all. I'll be the first to admit I haven't been posting nearly enough this Summer, but I've been reinvigorated by the upcoming start of the season and so I'm back and I wanted to give my thoughts on everything that has happened in the past week or so while I've been in New Hampshire.

So first off we had the Kolo Toure transfer to Manchester City. My thoughts on this are that, while it's a shame that Toure left after all these years, he hadn't been at his best ever since he contracted Malaria on that African Nations trip. So I think it was good business to sell him. When you look at our center back situation now, do you feel that it is a strong enough area without him? Arsene is clearly convinced that Thomas Vermaelen is the real deal and is ready to go right away, and he also must have a lot of faith in Johann Djourou as a back up for both him and Gallas. After that I think it's a little weak, as Silvestre is just terrible and Senderos looks to be on his way out. (more on that later) Of course Alex Song can cover at the back if need be but that isn't ideal. So while in terms of numbers I don't think we have a lot of cover at the back, but I think in terms of quality, losing Toure isn't a huge deal. He's been a great servant to the club and always had the right attitude, but it was time for him to go. I wish him the best of luck when he's playing United, Sp*rs, the scousers, and Chelsea, and of course horrible luck when he plays us.

Speaking of great servants for the club, there's been a lot of talk in the past week about Patrick Vieira returning to Arsenal! This one is a really tough one for me, because I love Patrick Vieira. He's probably in my top three players of all time. But didn't we sell him 4 years ago because he was getting older and wouldn't be able to play at the same level much longer? And now he's 32 years old, has a lot of trouble staying fit, and Arsene is saying he may bring him back. No offense to the legend that is Patrick Vieira, but is he good enough at this point? Even on a pay as you play deal, surely we should be able to find someone younger, healthier, and better to play as a defensive midfielder? Maybe Wenger thinks Vieira can still get it done, or he just wants him to play sparingly in some of the big matches, which I'd love. To clarify, I would love to see Patty back at Arsenal, I just wouldn't want to leave the midfield too thin if Vieira gets injured or isn't up to the level we need to compete for honors.

So earlier I mentioned Philippe Senderos, and it looks like he may be on the way to Everton. There have been lots of reports that the deal has already been done, but I won't believe it until it's on Arsenal.com. I kind of think we'd be better off keeping him, but if we can get 7 or 8 million quid for him I wouldn't be too upset about it. I do think he's always gotten a bad rap though even though he's a pretty decent player, but it doesn't look like he'll be an Arsenal player much longer.

So on to what everyone is talking about at the moment, and that's Jack Wilshere, who's performances in the Emirates Cup were nothing short of magical. And they would still have been magical if he was 27 instead of 17. The guy is just so far ahead of his time it's ridiculous. Arsene Wenger has moved to calm everyone's expectations about Jack, seeing as he hasn't even made it onto the pitch in many first team matches yet. At the same time though, you've got to wonder how long we can afford to keep this boy off of the pitch. He brings so much to the table, that especially with Nasri out early on, I think we need to get him on the field. His composure and skill on the ball rivals that of Cesc and Arshavin already, and frankly I'm obsessed with him. I've already put in my order for a Wilshere kit for this year. At the same time, we need to not do like we did with Theo Walcott, and put unneccessary and unrealistic expectations on Jack at a young age. He's not always going to have fantastic games and score crazy goals and make much more experienced pros look like schoolboys. We can still be excited for one of our home-grown talents though!

That's about it for the day. I'll probably post again tomorrow, amazingly, and I intend to keep that going too. A couple more quick things, make sure you sign up to win tickets to World Cup 2010! It's really easy so don't pass up that chance. Also, I recommend you all have a look at ThirdGen's Portal e-mag. It's good already and it's only going to get better. Alright everyone, have a good one. Cheers!

Win Tickets to the 2010 World Cup!

2009-07-31T09:46:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone. Today I have a really fantastic offer for all of you, a chance to win a free brand new SE W995 handset courtesy of Sony Ericsson. It's a £500 value, and all you have to do to win is answer a simple trivia question! Even better is that one of the handset's will come with a golden ticket (Willy Wonka style) and if you find that, you could win a trip to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa! The prizes are as follows:

Grand Prize: 1 x 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Golden Ticket
This golden ticket entitles the winner to a pair of tickets to every game their country plays – including the final. This once in a lifetime prize includes flights and 4-star accommodation are included.

Weekly Prizes: 2 x pairs of tickets to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™
Winners will see the drama unfold. Each week we’re giving away two pairs of tickets to a 2010 FIFA World Cup™ match. Flights and three nights in 4-star accommodation are included.

Daily Prizes:1 x Sony BRAVIA TV
Every day a stylish 40-inch Sony BRAVIA TV will be won so fans can follow all the action live for edge of the sofa viewing.

I don't think it gets any bigger than that for a football fan really. Imagine taking your new phone on your trip to South Africa to watch every match your country plays at the World Cup. I think that's something everyone wants to do.

So how do I enter you ask? All you have to do is answer this trivia question by emailing me at ArseNole[at]arsenole.com. The question is: Who scored the first goal in the 2006 World Cup in Germany? The winner will be randomly drawn from all of the correct answers and you'll receive your handset from Sony Ericsson in the mail shortly after. The contest runs until August 23rd.

So get to answering! Remember, all entries must be receieved and in my inbox by August 23rd. If you win, I'll contact you for your shipping details and then your handset will be sent to you shortly after.

I hope everyone enjoys this contest! Start entering!

I Like Turtles

2009-07-21T01:53:00.002-04:00

Yeah, I could talk about Adebayor leaving, or who his potential replacement could be, or even about tomorrow's friendly match. But instead I'm going to show this video, because I haven't been able to stop laughing at it, even after watching it at least a hundred times. Enjoy.

I'm Going to Try To Defend Adebayor (Sort of)

2009-07-16T12:09:00.003-04:00

Morning all. Hope everything is going well for you. Not much has been happening with Arsenal in the last week or so, besides the ongoing Emmanuel Adebayor to Manchester City stories. Just yesterday it was reported that a fee (25 million pounds) had been agreed and a he was given a work permit for the move. Now though it seems there has been a snag, and Adebayor has asked City for a little bit more time to think if this is the right move for him. Financially it certainly has to be, as he'd be making much more money there than he ever would at Arsenal. However, he doesn't want to be seen as greedy back in Togo, where apparently Arsenal is much more popular than Manchester City (go figure).

Everyone is eagerly awaiting this deal getting done, because nobody wants Adebayor at Arsenal it seems. And while I think 25 million for him is good business for us, I don't think he was nearly as bad for the club as most people think. I've compared him side by side with RvP, who everyone loves, in the past. Adebayor has been a more accomplished goal scorer for Arsenal, a player who manages to be in the side much more, and has lead the line on his own countless times. Sure, sometimes it looked like he was being lazy, but Bendtner looks the same way running around up top on his own. He's also been criticized for everything from being offsides too much, to missing easy chances, to kissing the badge on his shirt. (which almost every player does at some time or another) He's taken more stick from Arsenal fans than anyone I can remember that has played for this club. So why on earth would you expect him to be loyal? Can you blame him for wanting to display his talents somehwere that they might actually be appreciated? If your own fans aren't even going to cheer for you that isn't exactly a motivating factor. Do you think it's coincidence that players that the fans have loved over the years have stayed longer? If I felt like I was getting no love from my own club's fans despite scoring 30 goals in a season then I would want to be somewhere else too. So yeah, he may be a bit greedy, but it's no different than anyone that came from a poor background and made it out. Wanting to get paid for your craft isn't wrong, so yeah, when you combine the money and the fans giving him so much shit, I can't blame Adebayor one bit.

As for his potential replacement, Marouane Chamakh, he's biding his time and waiting for an offer. Sunderland is interested, as well as Arsenal, and I would expect a bid to be tabled for him should the Adebayor move go through.

"I have good contacts from clubs and the possibility to join a Premier League club. I will take my time because there is some very interesting interest and I have to make the best choice."

I don't really watch Bordeaux, but I'll expect he's a pretty good player or else Arsene wouldn't want to sign him. Either way, when we're getting in 25 million and only spending 7 million for the replacement, it should leave us lots of cash so spend on a defensive midfielder.

That's about all I've got to talk about today. I'm going to go drink some coffee, eat some goldfish, then go to the gym in a little bit. Boom, outta here.

Kroenke Leapfrogs Usmanov, Melo Goes to Juve

2009-07-10T09:43:00.004-04:00

Morning everyone. A couple of things have been happening in the world of Arsenal in the past few days so I figured I'd keep everyone up to date.

First of all, it's only 8 days until the first preseason match! We'll get to see that annual match vs Barnet, which while not an overly competitive match usually, it is the return of football each year and that is something to be celebrated. I'll get more into a preview for that match in a couple of days.

The big news I guess this morning revolves once again around one Alisher "The fat Uzbeki money grubbing cunt" Usamanov and one Stanley Kroenke. A few days ago, Usmanov offered to inject 60 million pounds into Arsenal's coffers for transfer activity. Mind you, all this money is questionable and sketchy at best. Needless to say, Arsenal rejected the offer. Ivan Gazidis had this to say:

With regard to players, the Board decided not to issue permanent capital in the hopes of signing one or two players in an inflated transfer market. Instead, the focus continues to be on securing the services of talented young players we have on long-term contracts and making very selective acquisitions, only where a new signing will add real value to our already strong squad.

Some of you will say, "Shite, why would you turn down 60 million quid to spend on the team?" Well because it's not how Arsenal does business. It never has been that way, and I hope it never will be that way. The club is built on a sound business model that, while sometimes is frustrating, is crucial to the club's long term success.

Along these same lines, Stan Kroenke has today increased his shares by 1,600 shares to now own 28.5% of the club, making him the club's largest shareholder, passing Usmanov. Some people are still skeptical of Kroenke, but I personally place my faith in the Arsenal board, who have been around Arsenal for decades. There's a reason they invited Kroenke to join the board and continue to reject Usmanov. Kroenke, they feel, is someone who has the club's interest at heart, while Usmanov is a horrible person who eats kittens for lunch and baby seals for dinner.

This increase does put Kroenke awfully close to the limit of 30% before you are obligated to make a full takeover bid. It seems almost inevitable that there will be an eventual bidding war between Kroenke and Usmanov, and I'm fairly sure the board is doing their damndest to make sure Kroenke wins that war. And I'm backing him too. While I'd rather have the ownership split up like it is right now, if it's going to be one of these two it's not even a question.

In other news, Arsenal target Felipe Melo has signed for Juventus, effectively ending that transfer saga. I did think he would be a perfect fit for us, but I guess we didn't want to spend as much as Juve did. The question is who do we look at for that holding role now? There's Inler of course, and Veloso, but my guess is that Arsene will go for someone totally off the wall that we've never heard of. Your thoughts?

That's about all I've got today. Thoughts on Kroenke, Usmanov, Melo, and Barnet are all acceptable, as well as anything else you want to say. Have at it. Cheers.

Arsenal Need A Brazilian, 8 Youngsters Leave the Club

2009-06-30T11:23:00.004-04:00

Morning all. It's been awhile yet again. I've decided I really do hate transfer season. It's the same every year for us. Teams are signing players for ridiculous fees that we would never ever pay for anyone, and we're linked with 34,592 players and don't sign any of them. It makes me not want to read about Arsenal, but I have been watching a lot of football lately in the form of the Confederations Cup, so I wanted to talk a bit about that today, so if you don't care about it then turn off your station.

First of all I have to give some credit to the US team. While I've been a huge critic of Bob Bradley, Landon Donovan, and the entire rest of the national team setup, I have never seen such a turnaround from the start of one tournament until the end of it. From losing against Italy and the 3-0 defeat to Brazil at the start to somehow getting into the semi-finals with a great show against Egypt, then going on to beat the best team in the world, Spain, was an amazing turnaround. Even in the final against Brazil, without one of our better players (Michael Bradley) we managed to go up 2-0 and had to withstand a second half barrage from a team that can attack as well as any in the world. Yes, the result was a loss, but the overall result is a lot of confidence to take forward to the World Cup next year.

Landon Donovan should have been named the player of the tournament for what he did. Off the ball he was amazing, and the counter-attack goal against Brazil was a thing of beauty. I've never seen the US score a goal like that.

Felipe Melo was a big player for Brazil in this tournament, and since he's a holding type central midfielder, he's been linked with Arsenal. I think he'd be a great addition personally. After watching him several times in the past few weeks I think he's the type of player we could really use. Problem is, he's just signed a contract extension with Fiorentina. It does say there is a buy-out clause in the contract, but who knows how much it is. If we could get him for 12-15 million though I'd be all for it.

Some youth team news today as eight of our young guns will be leaving the club and four have signed professional terms. The list is as follows:

Released:
Amaury Bischoff
Paul Rodgers
James Dunne
Rui Fonte
Abu Ogogo
Rene Steer
Vincent van den Berg
Anton Blackwood

Signed Professional Terms:
James Shea
Craig Eastmond
Luke Ayling
Cedric Evina

No real surprises there then. I'm glad Bischoff is gone. What a terrible waste of money he was. I know he was signed for free, but he still got paid, so don't leave comments telling me it didn't cost any money.

That's really about it. There's some bollocks in the paper about how Andrey Arshavin would love to play for Barcelona. So would I. But it doesn't mean they'll be signing me any second now, and the same is true for Arshy.

Leave a comment or follow me on twitter. Peace.

Vermaelen Officially Signs for Arsenal

2009-06-19T13:18:00.002-04:00

Hello all. I've been on a bit of a hiatus since June 2nd. Why, you ask? Well simply because there's been absolutely nothing to write about. I don't want to write about how we might sign a 16 year old Frenchman, or about how Cesc might leave, then the next day he might not leave. It's just boring. Besides that, I've been kind of busy, so that's my excuse. But I'm back now and I'll be posting every day just like I did before. Now on to Arsenal.

I suppose there's pretty big news today. Thomas Vermaelen was introduced officially as an Arsenal player. We've been trailing him for a couple of weeks now and we've landed our man. We've all known that we need a center back for a while now so it's good that we've locked one up. Problem is, as is with most of the players we sign, I haven't seen much of him at all since I don't ever watch the Dutch league or the Belgian national team.

Arsene Wenger had this to say about him:

“Thomas is a great signing for Arsenal Football Club, and we are all delighted that he is joining us. Thomas is a solid performer with good experience of Champions League and UEFA Cup football and is also a regular with the Belgium national team. Thomas is primarily a left-footed centre back, but he’s multi-functional and can also play at left back. He is strong technically with a positive winner’s attitude and I have no doubt his arrival will strengthen our team. Thomas Vermaelen will be a huge asset to Arsenal.”

Vermaelen responded with these quotes:

“I’m just so happy to be joining Arsenal. This is a great Club with a world class manager, high quality players and a fantastic stadium. Everything is set up for Arsenal to be very successful for years to come and I joined this Club because I know Arsenal will be challenging for trophies.

“I have had a good taste of the Champions League during my time with Ajax and this is something I am looking forward to experiencing again with Arsenal. I’m also looking forward to playing in the English Premier League, which for me, is the best league in the world. Also, I just want to assure the Arsenal fans that I will give everything for this Club and I hope we can enjoy winning some trophies together next season.”

I like him already. I know everyone goes on and on about how great a club Arsenal is and how they are going to give their best for the club and the fans, but it still never gets old. If every player actually stuck to that mentality life would be wonderful.

While I can't comment all that much on the actual player we've signed, I can say that I'm pleased with the way this deal got done. We didn't wait until August 30th to start negotiating like we did for Xabi Alonso last year, we identified a target and went and got him, which is how it should be. This will allow him to get a full pre-season camp in with us and get accustomed to the style and to all of his team mates.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to not only Kolo Toure and William Gallas but also Phillippe Senderos. I forsee at least two of them being sold with Vermaelen coming in, and the only question is which two. If Milan want to keep Senderos, I'm absolutely sure we'll let them, but that is a big if. Then it comes down to Toure and Gallas. Gallas has played better than Toure as of late, but he's also older and is a bit of a cunt. We also have Djourou coming up who I think is going to be an exceptional player. Who do you think will be our first choice pairing at center back next year? It's really hard to predict.

Last but not least for today, I'm seriously considering getting an Arsenal tattoo. I haven't decided exactly what or where though yet. I may just get Arsenal down the inside of my forearm, or across my back. Anyone got any sweet ideas that I can steal from you? Let me know. Thanks. Peace.

Arsenal Linked With Matuidi, Madrid Want Alonso

2009-06-02T12:07:00.004-04:00

Hello everyone. Not a lot happening in the world of Arsenal today but I'm posting anyway. I'm pretty much starving by the way, but that does tend to happen at lunch time. I'll probably make some coffee and have a microwave pizza, because that's clearly a good combo.

First off today is Arsenal have been linked with St. Etienne midfielder Blaise Matuidi. He's 22, plays as a DM, and really wants to join Arsenal.

“I asked myself questions at the end of August after Arsenal showed their interest. An opportunity to join them is not something ordinary. It gives you great self-esteem, it is Arsenal."

I tell you, it is REALLY hard to find any videos or anything on this guy, but I did find this one of a really nice goal he scored this season. If anyone knows more about him, feel free to fill us all in.

If Xabi Alonso is really a target again this summer for Arsene Wenger, then the competition for his signature just got a lot tougher. Real Madrid are interested in signing him, and since they'll pay just about anything to get the players they want, it could price us out of the picture. I've given you my views on this subject. Xabi Alonso is a good player, one who I would certainly like to have at Arsenal, but I'd rather have someone who will knock some dudes out. The only dude I remember seeing Xabi Alonso knock out is...well, Cesc...last season. Not nice. Still, if that's the way Arsene wants to go with it I'll be quite happy to have him because he really is an excellent passer with mounds of Premier League experience.

Kolo Toure has called for the squad to stay together this summer, and says it is the key to really improving.

"I think keeping the team together is the most important thing. When you stay with your team-mate for three or four years you start to learn how he plays. That helps you for the games and I think we have been together for a while now. It's important for our improvement next season. Sometimes when you bring somebody else, these players have to settle and that can take a year sometimes. The Premier League is already difficult so if you play six months badly it's difficult to come back."

That's a really long quote but it all needed to be shown. While I agree in principle with Kolo on this, and would like to keep most of the squad together, there is no doubt in my mind that we need additions to it like Andrey Arshavin was last year. The impact he made was unquestionable, and it didn't take him six months to adjust to the league. So yes, keep the squad together, but add to it as well. Depth never hurts any team.

And last but not least today, good ol' Jens Lehmann is getting set to make his film debut. He's apparently going to play a talent scout in the movie Themba, which is a pretty weird title to me but fair play to Jens.

So yeah, that's about it. Join the forums and start talking, because it makes the world a better place. Follow me on Twitter too. Man's game. Cheers.

Arsenal's Problems All Down To Teeth, Bring in Lorik Cana

2009-06-01T11:42:00.007-04:00

Morning all. How are things? I'm doing just swell, except the whole not having any money thing is getting a little old. So when you're wondering, "Hmm, I wonder why the ArseNole hasn't posted in 3 days..." it's probably because I'm sitting around trying to think of a way to make money without getting a second job. I tried the lottery, but amazingly I did not win. I think I'm going to branch out into sketch comedy or something else that will be completely hilarious and cause people to throw kajillions of dollars at me, so I can just sit around and write about Arsenal all the time. That's the plan.

So what's new with Arsenal, you ask? Well, not a lot really. Not a lot besides discovering the cause of all of Arsenal's problems! Actually just Robin van Persie's injury problems, but if you figure we have a fully fit RvP for the full season, it could definitely solve some of the problems we have had. His doctors say that the reason he suffers from so many muscle injuries is because of his wisdom teeth.

"I fear I'll be forced to drink porridge through a straw. My osteopaths think there may be a connection between my teeth and the muscle injuries I suffer."

That's a bit odd isn't it? How bad does that suck that you get a couple more teeth in and suddenly you're pulling groins and hamstrings and every other muscle that isn't anywhere near your teeth.

"It could have an influence on the recovery time my body needs after an injury. Three of the four specialists I chose were rejected by the club."

Both of my Grandpa's are dentists, so I wonder if the club would approve either of them for the operation. I know they've done a lot of wisdom teeth in the past so maybe we can get RvP over here to Florida and get that done. If somehow this has been contributing to his muscle injuries and removing the teeth makes him stay more fit, I'll be absolutely amazed and thrilled. We all know what an important player he is when he's fully fit so let's hope he gets this done and it has the effect they say it will for him.

The other news is not really news at all, but Cesc wants Xabi Alonso at Arsenal. Of course we've heard this before, just last summer, but we didn't get him or anyone else for central midfield.

"We need someone in the middle to make competition and make a difference, plus give us a new dimension. I think that is all we need. The rest is perfect. Xabi would be great. He's experienced and can score goals. I'm sure the boss is aware of that fact."

Yes, Xabi is a good passer, he does have experience, and he can score goals. However, he does not kill people. I'd like to have someone in our team that loves killing. Patrick Vieira would not have hesitated to kill someone, and we need that mentality in the team. Lorik Cana is exactly the type of player I'd like to have. He's the captain of Marseille currently and he pretty much smokes chumps and lights up fools all over the field. He's a f***ing animal really and if you don't believe me watch this video. I've watched him in several Marseille matches and I just really like what he does on the field. Who knows if Arsene thinks he's Arsenal material though.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is all I have today. I'd like to say I'll do a podcast soon, but I pretty much can't guarantee anything with how my schedule is lately. Class every day, Karaoke on Tuesday, Poker Wednesday, the Baseball all weekend. It's hectic I tell you. I need to get a sponsor for that thing. Or sell drugs. That would make it way easier.

Alright, I'll get back to you all tomorrow. Subscribe to the website if you haven't already. Follow me on twitter, for the good of your souls. Follow Miley Cyrus too, cuz she is my future baby mama. Hit me up on my Myspace. Or Ole Ole. Or join the forums so we can get those started back up again. Just do all of the above. It will make supporting Arsenal THAT much more fun for all of us.

Arsenal Fans Let Their Voices Be Heard

2009-05-29T12:05:00.004-04:00

Morning all. What's crackin? Not a whole lot of news to go over today regarding Arsenal, except that Gareth Barry reportedly really wants to come to Arsenal. So nothing we haven't heard before. Would you rather have Gareth Barry or Xabi Alonso? That's a tough question. I'd certainly take either but I do wonder who most of you would take if you could pick one.

So yesterday I asked you all to fill out a survey about the 08/09 season for Arsenal, and the responses were really interesting to me. So today I think I'll just go over the survey results and talk about what they mean for Arsenal.

The first question was simply, how do you feel about the season as a whole, and 40.9% of responders said they were disappointed. 27% said it was acceptable, while 18% said it was neither acceptable nor disappointing. So very few people were REALLY happy with this season and not many were VERY disheartened either. I'd say that's probably a pretty accurate reflection of all of the Arsenal fan base. While there were some positives, like reaching the semi-final of the Champions League and the FA Cup, winning zero trophies yet again makes it disappointing for me.

The next question was about the player of the season, and this one really surprised me! With 31.8% of the vote, Robin van Persie was selected as Arsenal's player of the season over Andrey Arshavin and Manuel Almunia, who placed second and third. I may get bashed for this one but I think Robin van Persie gets a lot more credit than he deserves. He's a great player no doubt but if you're never fit than how useful are you really? He did a better job of staying healthy this year but if I'm asked for my personal player of the season I'm taking Almunia or Alex Song, who I thought really made a breakthrough.

A whopping 95.5% of responders said that Arsenal need to strengthen the squad before next season, so no debate there really.

50% of fans said we weren't too far off from Champions Manchester United, while 40% said there is a noticeable gap between us and the league winners. I think when you look at the squads as a whole, the gap is possibly wider than it appears. When you look at our bench on most league games, you see players like Eboue, Diaby, etc while on United's you see Tevez, Berbatov, Giggs, Nani, and others that I think are better players. Our first eleven can play with anybody, but I think we lose out in squad depth.

For the question asking which position needed strengthening the most, unsurprisingly the top answers were center back and defensive midfield. I think everyone agrees with that. Even with Song's emmergence, we could still use an experienced player like we got with Arshavin that could really lock down our midfield.

82% of fans say that Cesc Fabregas is our most important player, and he damn well is. He's our Xavi and Iniesta all rolled into one, and when he's gone our team isn't half as good as it is with him.

A really interesting one asked if it was more important to play beautiful football or to win trophies, and amazingly, the vote was split 50-50. I have a follow up question for those of you who said beatiful football is more important. Are you saying that you would rather Arsenal always be able to play good football and not ever win another trophy? Personally, I'd rather have the trophies. Arsenal used to be a 1-0 team forever but winning still felt nice.

100% of fans said that Arsene Wenger is the right man to take Arsenal forward as manager. That's right, 100%. So that should put that debate to bed. In Arsene We Trust, that's right.

So the survey did provide some interesting results, and I think most of them really showed that Arsenal fans have very similar opinions about most subjects regarding the club. We still have faith in our manager, and we know where are main weaknesses are, so let's get them fixed. Come on Arsene, if Barry wants to come, then let's bring him in.

If you have any thoughts, share them. If not, thanks for reading. Cheers.

Arsenal To Sign Two Prospects and End of Year Survey

2009-05-28T10:08:00.005-04:00

Good morning all. What did you think of the Champions League Final? If I had to guess I'd say you probably all enjoyed it immensely, getting to watch the red cunts from the north crying and getting crushed by a team that resembles a better version of our team. We tried to play that exact same game that Barcelona played, but there are just a few differences. Denilson is not Andres Iniesta, Theo Walcott is not Leo Messi, and Adebayor is not Samuel Eto'o. So as we get those slight problems worked out, we'll be as good as them! Really though, watching that Barca team is fantastic. Iniesta was man of the match for me. He was pressuring United all over the field and his dribbling and movement was astounding. Of course Messi was scary as shite every time he touched the ball, but that's just a given now. He's amazing. I was really hoping Thierry would score, and I loved when he skinned Rio Ferdinand and Rio ended up on his arse and Thierry got in a shot, but it wasn't to be. At least he finally got the medal he deserves though. I love TH14, and if it couldn't be Arsenal winning the trophy, then I think Barca deserves it more than any other team, for the way they play, the players they have, and the way they have dominated everyone this season.

Right, on to Arsenal then. It appears we're going to have two new signings, but don't get your hopes up because they are both 15 years old. Jamie Edge, from Cheltenham Town, has had a fee agreed on by the two clubs and just has to agree to personal terms. The other player is Martin Angha or FC Zurich. Edge is a midfielder and Angha is a defender. That's pretty much all I know about either of them.

This does tell us a lot more about Arsenal though. We have previously discussed which trophies Wenger prioritizes, but now we know the answer to that undoubtedly is the FA Youth Cup. We won it this year, and now he's restocking the team to make another run at it. No wonder we haven't been making many first team signings, it's because what really matters at the club is whether or not our 16 year olds can win trophies next year. Now I see the project finally coming to fruition, all this time I thought we were trying to get things like the Champions League and the FA Cup, but really it's about holding onto the Youth Cup. Everything is clear to me now. It's also being reported that we're after 16 year old Dutch youngster Luc Castagoines. We're really going to make a run at that trophy next year!

Robin van Persie has been looking to sign a new contract but says that right now there is "nothing to report." He still has 2 years left on his current deal but with the way players can leave on Webster's and Bosman's and all of that you can never have long enough contracts. Hopefully they get this one done pretty soon because we all know what an important player RvP is for Arsenal when he's healthy, which unfortunately is not enough.

And last but certainly not least today is Theo Walcott being called up for the Under-21 Championships this summer. A lot of people seem to be making a fuss about it, saying he will be tired from not having a summer break, but I'm not buying it. He's only 20, it can't be anything but good for him to play more. I hope Theo has a great time and while I'm not from England I'll be rooting for them to do well because of Theo.

That's about it for today. Hopefully there will be more news soon enough, because the last week or so has been dreadful for Arsenal news. Cheers.

I've also made a survey to poll responses from all of you Gooners to reflect back on this season. It's only 10 questions and takes all of 3 minutes, so please leave your input. It will be much appreciated. Thanks. Click Here to take the survey.

Please, Newcastle, Get Relegated

2009-05-24T08:30:00.003-04:00

Don't have a lot of time for a post this morning, but it is the last day of the season and I wanted to wish Arsenal good luck and Hull and Newcastle terrible luck. I really hope you cunts get relegated, because I hate you so very, very, much. As for Arsenal, I just want to see a good fun game, with no injuries, and hopefully a couple goals for us. I have a really funny story to tell you all tomorrow, but for today, just hope that the Geordie cunts go down. Cheers.

Relegation Battle Heats Up, ArseNole Around 1 More Year

2009-05-23T11:39:00.004-04:00

Gooood morning everyone. It's pouring for like the 10th day straight here in what is supposed to be sunny Florida. Shite is insane in the membrane. I do have some good news though. I got an email this morning telling me that the ArseNole.com domain was expiring in July, so I went and renewed it for another year, so I can at least guarantee you pretty average Arsenal coverage until July 22nd, 2010. How exciting is that? I think this summer will be a big one for the site. I'm thinking of changing some things up, adding some fun new stuff, getting a lot more and a lot better podcasts done, and maybe more. I'm calling it "taking it to the next level." I know, it's a really new and original name. So look forward to that.

So tomorrow is the last day of the Premier League season, and a pretty meaningless one for Arsenal. We play Stoke, and while it doesn't really matter and the grand scheme of anything at all, you always want to go out with a win. Fabianski will start in goal, while Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Adebayor will both miss out. Nasri has an injury, and Adebayor, well you can have your suspicions about why he is out again.

The more exciting matches take place for the teams at the bottom of the table, though, where Hull, Sunderland, and Newcastle could each be relegated on the last day of the season. Hull have a tough match against Manchester United, who even with a weakened side should be able to handle business against them. Aston Villa host Newcastle, who with a win will pretty much be safe, but Villa are tough even though they've been on a terrible run of form. Sunderland are pretty much safe, as they'd need both Newcastle and Hull to win to be worried, but they host Chelsea, so I'm expecting no better than a draw for them.

Who do you think will be going down? Obviously West Brom and Middlesbrough are doomed, but out of those three who do you think? I really hope it's Newcastle. I can't stand their fans who think they deserve to be in the Champions League just because they THINK they are a big club. I'd be bummed a bit to see Sunderland go down, as Newcastle and Hull are just filled with cunts and deserve to go down much more. Should be exciting though on Sunday.

So the FA Youth Cup first leg was yesterday, and Arsenal beat Liverpool 4-1 at home. Gilles Sunu, Jack Wilshere, Sanchez Watt, and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas all scored. So we take a hefty lead up to Anfield and I really want to thank the 33,000 Arsenal fans that came out to the Emirates to support the younglings. May 26th is the second leg, and it should be good entertainment with Liverpool needing to win by three goals at least.

The last bit of news for the day, which I personally am really excited about, is yesterday I got my tickets to AC Milan vs Club America in Atlanta July 22nd. I haven't even been able to see Kaka or Ronaldinho or Pato live and in person so it's really exciting. I'm going with my brother and we'll be painting our faces red and black. So that'll be fun.

If I don't get time for a match report tomorrow, enjoy the day full of matches, some much more important than others. Personally I'll be watching the Newcastle match, so sue me. Cheers all.

Song for the day, Rancid's "Last One to Die.":

New Arsenal Away Kit Discussion and Pictures

2009-05-22T11:48:00.006-04:00

Hello everybody and welcome to this fascinating discussion of Arsenal's new away kit for the 2009/2010 season. I am writing about away kits simply for the fact that I don't want to talk about transfers yet, which is all the newspapers are talking about already. So you're stuck with away kits today. Deal with it.

So if you haven't seen it yet, this is the picture of the new Arsenal away kit for the 09/10 season:

My first reaction is, wow, that new kit is complete shite. My second reaction is, wow that new kit is complete shite. After giving it some intense thought, I have decided the reasons that I hate the new kit. First of all, I don't want pinstripes on any Arsenal kit. It's just not Arsenal and it's a bad move. Second of all, dark blue shirt with dark blue shorts with dark blue socks is never a good fashion statement. I actually kind of liked the old blue away kits but this one to me is just awful. I'm ok with football kits trying to look retro with the collar and stuff, so that's not an issue with me, but this one is just plain boring. Even Theo looks bored to have to be wearing it.

If you take a look at the away kits over the years, I'd say this has to be right up there with the worst ones. Here's a few to compare it to. Tell me if you think it's better or worse.

The infamous 07/08 white kit. It actually sold really well, even though 90% of Arsenal fans criticized it. I'll admit that I too have one, with Toure on the back. Why is this one so awful? Simple. Sp*rs play in white. Also, if you get it dirty it doesn't wash very well. Still better than the new blue one though.

The old blue kit that I liked much better than the new one. The yellow lines down the side gave it some pizazz and it just looked a lot better with the crest in the middle I think. The color was brighter too which made it more lively. Plus we were a much better team back then...

The yellow from this past year I thought was actually kind of nice, although it definitely had to grow on me. When it first came out I didn't like the yellow they had chosen but now it's one of my favorite kits to wear, especially because mine has Fabregas on it.

Alright that's about enough on the away kits, although I do think it is ridiculous that Arsenal now comes out with a new away kit every single year. I'm sick of buying them all frankly, but as a loyal supporter, I do as I must.

The first leg of the FA Youth Cup takes place today between the Arsenal young guns and the Liverpool young cunts. The first leg is at home and it's something we haven't won since 2001. It'll be a good look at the youngsters like Jack Wilshere, Coquelin, Sunu, Frimpong, and Emmanuel-Thomas. I'm really looking forward to this match a lot more than I'm looking forward to the Stoke match Sunday. It's on at 3 pm EST so if you're in England, go support them, and if you're not, at least watch the match. You can find links to watch the match here. If you don't get to see it, I'll be tweeting about the match, so follow me on twitter.

That's about all I've got today. Let me know what you think about the new kit, and if you want to talk about the Youth Cup then I'll talk about that as well. Or even if you want to look ahead to the Stoke match we can talk about that. Have a good one everyone. Cheers.

Wenger Staying at Arsenal, Adebayor Leaving

2009-05-20T11:38:00.004-04:00

Morning all. Lack of any trophies to play for and lack of any real news has caused a severe lack of motivation for me to write blogs lately, but I figured I need to get back to it, so I'm here today. It's been raining here for 5 days straight. This is Florida, it's supposed to be sunny. It pretty much sucks.

The main topic of news the last few weeks has been about Arsene Wenger possibly taking up the manager position at Real Madrid, who have always wanted him and never gotten him. Well Wenger has again put the speculation to bed, saying he's staying at Arsenal.

"I'm staying here.
"If that changes I will let you know, but don't worry about that. It's not an issue."

To me, it was never in doubt that he would stay. Out of all the times he's been linked with another job, he's always been loyal and stayed, and I didn't really think it would be any different this time. Real Madrid wouldn't give him the control he wanted and they certainly would not allow to stay manager if he went four years without a trophy there. It's not the right job for him. It's just the press fiending for stories while there aren't any. So Wenger will be here, don't you all worry about that.

The other big stories this week have revolved around Emmanuel Adebayor, and whether or not he'll be sold in the summer. If you've read the blog for a while (and my thanks to those of you who have and are still here) then you know that I've almost ALWAYS backed Adebayor, even while 90% of Arsenal fans were bashing his head in with a mallet. However, I DO think he will be sold this summer. I don't think it's right the way he's been treated this year by the fans though. This is a guy who scored 30 goals for us last year almost by himself while RvP and Eduardo for out for large portions of the season, yet when he doesn't repeat the feat every year he gets blasted. The guy is a good striker that his given a lot to this club. No, he's not my favorite player but I do think he at least deserves some respect from fans for what he has done for us. Unfortunately I do think Arsenal will cut ties with him if they receieve a decent bid from AC Milan or Inter. Hopefully we use that money to buy a center back...

So the end of the season is almost here, which means transfer speculation will start with a rush. All I want for Christmas though is a center back and a central midfielder. I also wouldn't mind if Diaby was sold. I'll really get in depth with the transfer previews after the Stoke match. Look for a two part transfer preview starting next Monday, including potential targets, speculation, and all of that good stuff.

On a side note today completely not about Arsenal, please boycott Soulja Boy's music, because he is the worst thing to happen to music since Kanye West. Thanks for destroying rap music you two.

That's all I've got for today. I'll try to get something up tomorrow. So until then.

ArseNole Podcast Episode 6 Now Available

2009-05-13T16:30:00.000-04:00

In this podcast, I talk about the Semi-Final exits in the Champions League and the FA Cup to United and Chelsea, along with the team selection for those matches. I go over what could possibly be upcoming in the transfer window, and talk about Kolo Toure's new contract, Stan Kroenke's eventual takeover of Arsenal, and more. Let me know what you think of it because I need feedback. Try to get better each time, ya know? Cheers

You can listen to the podcast here or download the podcast here, or you can subscribe in iTunes by clicking here. Or you can even just listen to it right here in your browser by clicking play below.