With less than 30 min substitute appearance, Captain Fabregas changed the game for us by scoring two wonderful goals! And I especially liked that celebration he had after the first goal, where you can clearly see how passionate he is.

The first half was rather boring with few actions from both teams. Our midfield trio of Denilson, Diaby and Song were decent but clearly lacked ideas on how to penetrate Villa’s defence despite having superior possessions. The introduction of Cesc at second half immediately changed the tempo of the game and we started to become more threatening and penetrative in our attacking moves.

Our front three once again was quite disappointing. Eduardo really looked rusty and if he don’t step up his performance soon, I reckoned he would lose his place in the starting lineup despite the absence of RVP. Arshavin and Nasri were over elaborate in their moves sometimes, and the front three didn’t really work as a compact unit. Vermaelen had done a fabulous job of keeping Argbonlahor quiet and was surprisingly fast enough to keep up with the pace. Traore had a very good game, defensively solid and much more dangerous going forward than Sagna. Its amazing that our third choice left-back is this good.

Diaby scored a wonderful solo goal. I loved the way he run at defenders. Diaby is clearly an central attacking midfielder with excellent dribbling skills, very good shooting ability and superb physical strength. It is always his defensive ability and work rate that were suspecting. It is nice to see him on the pitch offering a more direct aspect to our attacks, but the lack of defensive skills might work against him if he were to claim a spot in central midfield beside Cesc and Song.

We are now four points behind Chelsea with a game in hand. That’s a rather good position at the end of the year and hoped we can keep up the good form and beat Portsmouth in our next game.

After a disappointing draw away at Burnley, our lads responded with a convincing victory at home against Hull City. With Man United registering their 5th loss (against Fulham) and Chelsea forced to draw against West Ham, we found ourselves back at third place with only 6 points behind leader Chelsea with a game in hand. If we win our game in hand, we shall overtake Man United and only 3 points behind Chelsea. This season is really getting exciting, with so many teams racing cloesly and the top 4 teams dropping points even before halfway through the league. And once again, Liverpool dropped further down with a lost against mighty Portsmouth. Its gonna be a long season for them.

Ok back to the Hull City game. We were playing without two of our best players (RVP and Cesc) and we did reasonably well. Eduardo got a tap-in goal and I really hoped it would do good to his confidence and he can finally prove to us that he is the lethal finisher that we bought him for. Arshavin and Nasri were quite average in this game. Diaby and Denilson, both heavily criticised by Arsenal fans, each scored a goal. Denilson scored a very good free kick. I believed this is the third time in the season that he scored from long range shots. Diaby was very good in his dribbling and forward runs, offering something different from our usual passing game. I do understand why Wenger liked to play Diaby, as he brought something different to the team. He has the strength, the pace and the dribbling ability. The only thing I questioned about Diaby is his consistency, his work rate, his decision making and his attitude. He could be a great asset to us if he can sort out all those issues.

Its good to keep a clean sheet. Gallas and Vermaelen did reasonably well. Silvestre was too slow to play as leftback. Hoped Traore can return for the Villa game. Eboue was very dangerous offensively, offered us much more variations in attack than Sagna. Almunia managed to save a penalty, but I still have my reservations regarding his calibre as our first choice keeper.

Its a great weekend in terms of our results and our opponents’ ones. Firstly, Man City was again back to their drawing routine, this time having a 3-3 draw with Bolton. Then, Chelsea was held to a 3-3 draw with Everton, while Man United lost to Aston Villa at home. And lastly, Spurs also lost to Wolves 1-0 at White Hart Lane.

The win over Liverpool at Anfield brought us back to third place, with a game in hand and six points behind leader Chelsea. Which means, if we win our game in hand, we would be only 3 points from the top of the league.

Frankly speaking, we didn’t have a great game at Anfield. Our first half was horrible, and were lucky only to be down by one goal. Almunia, once again, caused us a goal. I had always thought that Almunia is an average keeper. He is never confident in his handling of aerial balls, and this is especially important considering the height of our centre backs.

Song and Vermaelen were solid as usual. Denilson was ok, while Walcott really needed to up his game to live up to his hype. Arshavin once again, provided us with the magic upfront that we badly needed since the departure of Thiery Henry. The shot was powerful and Reina simply had no chance.

Now, hope this win will give us the boost we needed and pushed for the trophies which had been lacking for the past few years.

After three straight losses (including the one in Carling Cup), the lads have a point to prove against Stoke City. The players started brightly, launching attacks wave after wave. Arshavin’s cool strike gave us the lead. But subsequently, when we saw Cesc’s penalty being saved, while another shot at open goal blocked accidentally by Eboue, I feared that we might eventually loses points undeservedly. Ramsey’s late goal somehow settled the nerves of the fans, and ended Stoke City’s hope.

Arshavin was great in this match, and hope to see more from him. Cesc was dispossessed quite a number of times, and seemed frustrated at Stoke’s physical approach. Rosicky had a quiet game, Eboue offered some directness apart from all our central playmakers, while Nasri was pretty good with the ball too. Denilson was awful, and incredibly weak for a defensive midfielder. The defence stood their ground though I feared for the worst everytime Delap was doing his long throw-ins. Traore was very good offensively and didn’t make any mistake defensively either. Hoped his injury wasn’t serious. And finally, Almunia was still the average keeper that he always was. We really could do with a better and more commanding keeper.

Two straight losses in the league. It’s a very disappointing display, and to lose by such a big margin at home is somehow embarassing. Arsene Wenger and his players had once again let the fans down. But why am I not surprise?

Our team is just not good enough to pit against the very best. We can have some consolation moments against the weaker teams, but we are still at best a third-placed squad full of mediocre players. Eduardo is probably the most over-rated player by Arsenal fans. He wasn’t shit. He is a good finisher, a good striker, but he isn’t in the same league as Drogba, Torres or Rooney as claimed by some fans.  He is easily pushed off the ball, his first touch isn’t that amazing, and now he seems to lose his composure in front of goal.

We had more possessions than Chelsea, but we never really looked threatening. In contrast, Chelsea looked dangerous every time they went forward. We were back to those pointless passing game where no one seemed to take responsibilities and all were just happy to pass the ball around the midfield. And once again, Sagna showed how one-dimensional he was in attack by keep aimlessly crossing the ball to no man’s land. And Almunia also once again showed that he was just an average keeper who only deserved to be 2nd choice.

This team is not going to challenge for the league title. They are too soft, too immatured, too sloppy, and too mentally weak. We have no fighters, let alone winners, at the moment.

A very disappointing loss straight after the international break. An away game to Sunderland is always gonna be tough, especially when most of your players were just coming back from their international games.

The injury of RVP and fatigue of Arshavin resulted in a new front three of Rosicky, Nasri and Eduardo, while injury of Diaby and Denilson opened path in midfield for a young Ramsey. The various changes in the starting line-up somehow disrupted the fluency of our game. The front three were all individually capable players, but far too often they were isolated and didn’t really combine well. Eduardo was rather disappointing this season as he kept missing those 1-on-1 chances which I expected him to put away. Afterall, he is supposed to be our most clinical finisher and I thought RVP’s injury had finally given him a chance to prove his worth. Ramsey had a bad game and showed he still had to learn about positioning and quick decision making. Song was great in midfield, and his surging run forward reminds me of a certain Vieira. Fabregas had a rather quiet game though.

Credit to Sunderland for their continuous pressing and depriving us of spaces. It worked well as our players had very little time to pick up a pass. It was game like this when you realized the importance of players like Arshavin (who came on as substitute), Diaby and Walcott, who are more direct and provided more pace and power. Apart from the loss, its great to see Walcott and Vela coming back and hoped to see more of them.

It’s not time to hit the panic button yet. We lost three games, but so did Man United. Hopefully we can bounce back and win Chelsea next game. 

After a big win over AZ Alkmaar in mid-week, we went on to beat Wolves 4-1 in BPL. Suddenly, everyone seemed to take note of us as we silently went about doing our jobs. Now, we need only one point from the remaining two matches in Champions League to qualify for the last 16.

And with Man United losing to Chelsea, we are now second place in BPL, five points behind leader Chelsea with one game in hand. Well done, guys!

Woohoo, a 3-0 victory over spurs at Emirates Stadium.

In actual fact, we didn’t play that well. The first 40 minutes we had a lot of misplaced passes, and players looked nervous. Then al of a sudden, a goal came from nowhere. A seemingly harmless low cross from Sagna was met by RVP and RVP scored. Its more of a lapse of concentration in Spurs defence, combined with one moment of brilliance from RVP, who missed a few easy chances earlier on.

Then, within minutes, Captain Fabregas scored a fabulous solo goal. He intercepted a pass, dribbled pass a few Spurs players and unleashed a powerful shot that went straight into Spurs’ net. From then onwards, I knew victory is gonna belong to us.

The third goal was again due to some confusion in Spurs defence, and Sagna was again the one making the assist. Good work from him, and hoped he could keep up the standard as I always thought Sagna was a bit one-dimensional in his attacking play.

In defence, Almunia didn’t have a lot to do. Gallas and Vermaelen worked hard to contain Crouch and Keane. Sagna was solid in defence and gotten two assists in attack. Clichy didn’t make any mistakes either. In midfield, Song looked a bit nervous in the first half, but slowly stamped his authority in midfield in second half. Cesc got a wonder goal, so kinda make up for the few losses in possessions he given away cheaply. Diaby was…..still the same old Diaby. The front three, Bendtner had done well before his injury, Arshavin was dangerous in the first half but faded in the second, while RVP gotten two goals. Eduardo had some terrible misses which I really expected him to put away. Substitutes Eboue and Ramsey were decent, other than that chance which Ramsey screwed up or else we would be 4-0 up. But that’s still within acceptable range for a teenage player, and Ramsey obviously had the talent and physical attributes to make it in EPL.

We were now third in league, with one game in hand which if won would have overtaken Man United to second place. The loss of Liverpool and draw of Man City would also means that we are more secured of a top four place right now.

After the 1-1 draw with AZ Alkmaar in Champions League, we drew 2-2 against West Ham in BPL after leading 2-0. The champions league match wasn’t a big issue, as we are still top of the table.

The draw against West Ham was a rather disappointing one. To draw after leading 2-0 says a lot about our fragile defence. The whole team wasn’t performing, and as usual we became sloppy after leading two goals which again tells how much we have learnt from past lessons.

Let’s see how the team respond to this disappointment. Before that, it will be interesting to see how our kids fare in Carling Cup against Liverpool.

The first game after international break is always quite dangerous due to possible players fatigue. We looked great when we scored two early goals by Van Persie and Diaby. However, soon after we slipped into our usual sloppiness and began to treat it like a training session. The goal from Lee Bowyer was a wake-up call to signal that the game was far from over, before a late Arshavin goal killed off the match for us.

Alex Song was my man-of-the-match again. This lad is improving by leaps and bounds. Now, he is certainly one of the first names Wenger put onto the team selection sheet. Diaby had a good game, making less mistake this time. With Nasri set to come back from injury, Diaby would have to work harder to keep his place. Eboue again have a great game at the right-back position, while Gibbs is becoming more and more reliable as Clichy’s deputy. RVP scored a great goal from Song’s assist, and in general had a lively game. Walcott was lively but was very unfortunate to get injured again. And Rosicky was class as usual. Hope he could stay injury free this season.

Arshavin looked unfit but it could be due to fatigue from the international match. Anyway it was great to see the third goal, which is a classic Arsenal counter attacking goal that we have rarely seen since the invincibles. Ever since the departure of Henry, Pires, Bergkamp and Ljunberg, our counter attack became literally non-existence. Quite often, we made too many passes and our passes eventually got intercepted, or our attackers just hesistated and allowed the opposition’s defenders time to reorganize. Arshavin’s goal reminded us how counter attack is done correctly.