Wigan 1:4 Arsenal (A)

We had a very disappointing first half but credits to the young gunners for fighting back aggressively from behind in the second half. Gibbs made his premier league debut and was very lucky not to be sent off for the foul on Valencia. In fact, we were lucky not to be down by two goals in the first half, as the freekick given away by Gibbs’s foul hit the bar. Djourou got injured and now we are really depleted of defenders. With Almunia, Gallas, Clichy and Djourou all in the treatment room, we were forced to field a rookie goalkeeper, an inexperienced leftback and an old & rusty centre back (Silvestre). Will this makeshift defense hold their ground against teams like Villarreal and Chelsea in the coming week?

Song looked good in the last few matches, both defensively and offensively. He was arguably the most improved Arsenal player in this season. Arshavin was great, had a hand in three of our goals. Walcott had the raw pace to trouble any defenders, but he needed to couple it with good decision making.

Anyway, we are now 8 points cleared of Aston Villa, who drew with 6th-placed Everton in yesterday match. I still don’t think we have the 4th place in our pocket, as we still have to face Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea in the last 6 matches.

Villarreal 1:1 Arsenal (A)

It was a night when everything seemed to be against us. A wonder strike from Senna gave the host the lead in merely 9 minutes from starting time. Almunia was later subbed by Fabianski due to injuries. Our most experienced player on the pitch, William Gallas, was also stretchered off and replaced by Djourou. For most of the time, Villarreal looked the more dangerous of the two teams.

However, we managed to hold our grounds and a stunning, acrobatic strike from Adebayor gave us our equalizer. The game ended with a draw and we came away with an important away goal. Three assists and three goals in two games from Cesc Fabregas and Adebayor. If they could carry on their form till the end of the season, we might end on a high in a subwhat disappointing season.

Arsenal 2:0 Man City (H)

After a long period of injury, we finally see the return of Adebayor and Fabregas. Adebayor scored twice, both from the assist of Fabregas. An interesting note would be that we are playing a 4-2-3-1 formation in this match, with Cesc playing in a more advanced position than his previous ones in a 4-4-2 formation. This somehow gave Cesc more freedom to attack without worrying about the defending part of the game.

Song and Denilson did well to dominate the central midfield. Arshavin was a bit quiet in this game, while Walcott was lively and his dribbles constantly threatened the Man City defence. Toure had a good game and hoped he could carry on his good form. Eboue was rather impressive when he came on, almost having an assist but only for Bendtner to shoot it wide. Ramsey had a few minutes of game and did reasonably well.

We are now six points cleared from Aston Villa, but we need to keep up the momentum as we still have to face Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea, so the fourth place is still far from guaranteed.

Next match would be a much tougher one: an away game to Villareal. And it would be great to see Pires again, but hopefully he don’t score against us.

Newcastle 1:3 Arsenal (A)

We extended our unbeaten run and have a 3-point lead over fifth placed Aston Villa, after we beat Newcastle 3-1 followed by a 5-0 massacre of Aston Villa at the hands of Liverpool. Manchester United carried on their poor form, losing 0-2 to Fulham, and the title race have now become more open.

The team now looked more confident and assured, and I believed this had much to do with the addition of quality and experienced player like Arshavin. Most of our players are still very young (including Nasri and Cesc) and at times they needed someone that has the class and experiences to look up to, just like Fabregas looked up to Hleb, Rosicky and Flamini last season. 

We will face Manchester City at home next, while Aston Villa will face Manchester United. If we win our match and Aston Villa loses theirs, we will have a 6-points lead over them.

Arsenal 4:0 Blackburn (H)

It was a great win over Blackburn and finally we are back to fourth place again. Arshavin scored a wonder goal and guess what, Eboue scored twice as a substitute! I loved the Eboue dance!

Song was instrumental in the central midfield and if he can perform like this consistently he would be my favoured partner for Fabregas in the center. Walcott offered us the pace and directness that we had been missing. Nasri and Denilson had decent games, and I think Toure was back to his best. As a striker, Bendtner was shocking in front of goal, but to be fair he did rather well to link up and play the fluid passing game with the midfielders.

Other EPL results over the weekend also went in our favour. Aston Villa suffered a loss in Spurs’ hands, letting us to overtake them in the fourth place chase. And Manchester United was trashed by Liverpool 1-4 at Old Trafford.

And finally, Blackburn’s player Pederson had a really outrageous dive:

Arsenal in quarter-finals of CL

After losing 0-1 to Roma on their turf, we eventually beat the italians on penalties. It wasn’t a great performance but at least we are not the only english team that get knocked out in the last 16s of Champions League.

So who will be our next opponent?

Arsenal 3:0 Burnley (FA Cup)

A convincing win over Burnley brought us to the quarter final of the FA Cup. Two superb goals from Eduardo and Vela, followed by a well-taken goal from Eboue (yes, it’s Eboue!).

Song was immensed in this match, playing like Cesc Fabregas. In fact, this was actually closer to his role in the Cameroon national team. Walcott showed great pace in his short appearance. RVP and Diaby were a little disappointing.

The defence was a bit shaky at times. Gibbs did well at leftback, its good to finally have a decent backup for Clichy. All in all, I think Eduardo provided us the much needed movement and killer instinct up front, while Arshavin provided the much needed creativity from a midfield that suffered from the prolonged absence of Cesc, Rosicky and Walcott.

WBA 1:3 Arsenal (A)

After four frustrating consecutive goalless league games, we finally managed to score again and register a win over WBA. Frankly speaking, its becoming more and more frustrating watching Arsenal, and its hard to imagine that a few seasons ago we were playing the most beautiful football in the world.

Whether we can finish in top four still remains a big question. There are so many problems in this team that I really can’t remain optimistic even after this win.

Players like Denilson, Diaby, Song, Eboue, Bendtner, Vela, and to a certain extent Nasri are still not ready to play week in week out in a team like Arsenal. These players are all decent squad players at the moment, and some of them have potential to become world beaters, but they are still too young and/or inconsistent to shoulder the responsibilities of a title contender’s key players.

This team has a lot of potential, but I am really tired of having to say this for years and waiting forever for them to realize their suposed potential.

Tottenham 0:0 Arsenal (A)

I guessed many gooners were cursing Eboue during and after the match. To be honest, I don’t really hate Eboue but I was quite furious about his stupid behaviours. The first yellow card I thought was rather harsh, but the second yellow card was a fair decision by the ref. And as a professional Eboue should know the importance of restraining himself especially when you were already on one yellow card.

To be fair, before the sending off, Eboue was one of the better players on the pitch. He had been running into space, making himself available and bringing the ball to danger areas. He even had a goal disallowed! Just when I thought his performance should have finally change the fans’ opinions of him, he made that stupid retaliation on Modric and caused himself to be sent off!

So now, we are five points behind Chelsea (thanks to Hull City), and seven points behind Aston Villa. Its a pity that Arshavin didn’t get some playing time, and a bigger shame that we couldn’t beat Spurs, but at least we are still not that far away from the champions league spot.

Arshavin signs!

Russian international and playmaker Andrei Arshavin has signed for Arsenal in what has been revealed as a three-year contract for an undisclosed sum.

On completing a difficult transfer, Arshavin said: “I’m a Gunner. I’m happy to be at Arsenal.”

“I like Arsenal’s style. I like Arsène Wenger as a coach. I like some of the players from this team.”

Whether Arshavin will be playing against Spurs this weekend is still uncertain, as the Russian league had ended last November so Arshavin might not be match fit. I guessed we might see him coming off the bench in the second half.