Its over now….

First, we lost to Spurs at White Hart Lane. We thought our season is over. But on Saturday, our arch rival Spurs managed to beat Chelsea too, and all of a sudden the race seemed to be opened again. That is, if we beat Wigan, we would be only 3 points behind leader Chelsea. And Chelsea still have to meet Liverpool at Anfield.

But we still managed to screw it up. When was the last time we threw away a 2 goals lead and got beaten by the opponent by 3 late goals? Absolutely disgusting spineless performance from the players! They played like it was a friendly match. This bunch of players don’t deserve to win anything.

So, our season is over. I wouldn’t be surprise if we got thrashed 6-0 by Man City at Emirates Stadium. These players needed a major wake-up call, since they are already used to getting thrashed by Man United and Chelsea. They needed to feel humiliated, to understand that they have not achieved anything yet.

Next season, clowns like Almunia, Fabianski and Silvestre must go. Alright, if Almunia don’t mind being a 2nd choice keeper to a truly world class keeper, he can stay. That’s where he truly belongs. But Fabianski, I really see no future in this clown. Wenger needs to strengthen the squad and not to worry about bringing in players that would “kill” the young ones. If you are good enough, you play. Else, you wait until you get your chance. No more baby-sitting players into the first team. They all have to fight for it. Our players had been in the comfort zone for too long. They had been to used to losing.

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Its not the end of the world

So we are out of Champions League, losing at Nou Camp 1-4 to perhaps the best team in europe. But it’s not the end of the world. Yes, we were outplayed over the two legs. We managed to get a draw at Emirates Stadium, but were trashed at Nou Camp. But we had to remember that, we were without the entire spine of our team: Gallas, Cesc, Song, Arshavin and RVP. I believed, a fully-fit Arsenal side would give Barcelona a run for their money.

Now, we will just have to focus on winning the remaining league matches. The title race is still open. And I believed this squad can only get better, hopefully with a couple of additions over the summer.

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Arsenal 1:0 Wolves (H)

In midweek at Emirates Stadium, we fought back from behind to claim a 2-2 draw with the mighty Barcelona in our champions league quarter final match. We were kinda outplayed by Barca in our passing game, and Almunia was the unexpected hero that kept us in the game during first half. Two goals from similar positions from Zlatan Ibrahimovich gave the visitors a two-goal lead. The pace of substitute Walcott proved to be crucial as his strike pulled one goal back for us, while a penalty from Cesc managed to force a draw at home. The draw came with a hefty price: Cesc, Gallas and Arshavin were all injured. And Cesc could be out for the season.

Saturday’s match against Wolves at home was thought to be one of the easiest match in our title run-in. However, we needed an injury-time match-winner header from Bendtner to scrapped a victory at home. Rosicky started in Cesc’s position and was one of the better performer in the match. Song and Denilson were decent in central midfield. Eboue was quite anonymous on the left forward position, while Eduardo was really awful as the central striker. His frequent misses had been so frustrating that I could no longer attribute it to lack of match fitness. He was supposed to be our most lethal striker but now he looked like a championship player. Walcott on the other hand, was very lively on the right and its no surprise most of our attack gone through him. Him and Sagna were combining very well, and hoped he could continue to improve to become the player we expected him to be.

At the back, Sol and Vermaelen were solid. Sagna did well both defensively and offensively. Silvestre was a surprise inclusion at the left-back position, and I believed he was the main reason why our left-sided attack was so ineffective, as he seldom provide any support in attack. His lack of pace also means that our left side became the weakest link during the match.

Overall,  we were rather lucky to score the winner in injury time to keep us in the title race. With Chelsea beating Man United at Old Trafford, the race was still open and we were only 3 points off Chelsea. We really need to continue to fight on, while hoping Man United and Chelsea to drop points in the last few matches.

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Birmingham 1-1 Arsenal (A)

Its a very disappointing result. And the clown did it again! I had always said that Almunia is a mediocre goalkeeper who will cost us precious points, and under the tight title race this is just intolerable. Cesc seemed to pick up an injury and would be doubtful for the Barcelona clash.

Overall, the players had let themselves and the fans down. Yet again, we seemed over confident and instead of trying to keep the ball in the final minutes, we chose to attack Birmingham hoping to have a more glamourace scoreline. Denilson was pretty bad as a defensive midfielder, losing every aerial balls and was easily bypass throughout the game.

Its a serious dent in our title hope, especially when Chelsea and Man United are on fire now, trashing their opponents at ease. Hope the lads can learn from the lessons and take one game at a time, regardless of opponents.

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Arsenal 2:0 West Ham (H)

Yet another hard fought victory. We were reduced to 10 men after Vermaelen was sent off for a foul on Franco. The lads perservered and were rewarded with a well-deserved victory.

Almunia had done well and managed to save a penalty to preserve the scoreline. However, our backline would be severely tested in the next few matches, as our two first choice centre backs were suspended (Vermaelen) and injured (Gallas). Are we going to rely on Sol and Silvestre (whom I felt is a liability) for the next few matches? Or are we going to move Song, who was very solid in the West Ham match, to centre back position and weakened our central midfield ?

One good news over the weekend would be that Chelsea had dropped points against Blackburn. But Liverpool failed to contain Man United even though they had an early lead. The race is getting closer, and we are only two points from the leader. We would just have to concentrate on winning the remaining matches and hope our competitors drop points along the way. Keep it up, gunners!

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Hull City 1:2 Arsenal (A)

An injury-time goal from Bendtner, thanks to the rebounce from the long shot from Denilson, managed to give us a well deserved victory and keep us in the title race.

Without key players RVP, Cesc, Gallas, Rosicky and Song, we started off brightly and managed to score from Arshavin’s moment of brilliance. However, Hull was awarded a penalty through Sol’s foul and managed to equalize. The penalty was an absolutely woeful decision from the referee, as the Hull player was clearly offside and there was minimum contact from Sol. For majority of the match, Hull City basically parked their bus in their own half trying to soak up our attack to clinch a draw.  Frankly speaking, our winning goal caught me by surprise, as I didn’t really expect we would score in injury time, especially after all those frustrating attacking efforts.

Wenger started with a front three of Arshavin, Bendtner and Eboue. Arshavin and Eboue were lively and their dribblings caused much trouble to Hull’s defence. Bendtner was a bit wasteful upfront, but took his chance well scoring the winner. The substitutes Walcott added more pace in our attack, but Eduardo did not manage to impress, probably due to too little time. In midfield, Nasri was rather quiet while Denilson was very average in the defensive midfielder role. Diaby stayed deeper most of the time, perhaps to compensate for the lack of presence of Denilson.

Sagna and Clichy were solid in defence. Good to see Clichy getting back to form. Sol was still a rock in defence, while Vermaelen had put in yet another superb performance. Almunia, well, did not make any mistake but he didn’t have much to do either.

Overall, it was a hard-fought victory, because it was a tough away game right after our mid-week champions league match. Some of the players were obviously tired, and considering we were without a few key players, the lads had done quite well to keep up with the other title contenders.

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Arsenal 5:0 Porto (CL)

We are in the quarter-final of Champions League!

We managed to beat Porto at home 5:0, and doing it without Cesc, Gallas and RVP. Bendtner responded to his critics with a hat-trick, and its really good to see him hitting good form at this stage of the season, especially when our main striker is out. Arshavin had a good match, having three assists. Diaby and Song were reliable and solid. Nasri had yet another good game in the central midfield, scoring a wonderful goal after dribbling pass a few Porto defenders. I had always wanted to see how Nasri fare in central midfield, especially in Cesc’s position. Looks like we are having more options in the central midfield now.

Eboue had a good match too, scoring the forth goal and earned the penalty for the fifth. The forth goal was a classic Arsenal’s counter-attack that we had not seen much ever since the invincibles were dismantled. You could see the reaction of Wenger for that goal. He seemed so excited that the lads were able to execute a swift and decisive counter attack just like the invincibles.

Mathematically, we just need to win another three matches to win the Champions League. Of course, it is not as simple as that. The opponents will be getting tougher. But if we are going to be champions, we are gonna beat everyone. Keep it up, gunners!

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Stoke 1:3 Arsenal (A)

Its a hard-fought victory over the team that is famous for their “Delap-long-throw”. Aaron Ramsey suffered a terrible injury that would rule him out for the season, thanks to Shawcross’s reckless tackle. Hope Ramsey is able to get over this terrible injury and come back stronger.

This match somehow reminded me of the Birmingham match two seasons ago, where Eduardo suffered a similar career-threatening injury because of a “display of passion” of an opposition player. We drew the match eventually and did badly for the next few matches. Its sort of a turning point in our title race, and that match was the match that lose us the title. But this time, we responded well and showed our character and determination. Hope that at the end of the season when we looked back, this is the match that win us the league.

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2 straight wins over Liverpool and Sunderland

After two crushing defeats against title rivals Man United and Chelsea, we somehow managed to remain in contention for the title after two straight wins over Liverpool and Sunderland, although our performances weren’t that good. With Everton beating Man United over the weekend, we are now six points behind Chelsea and just two points behind Man United. And the rest of our fixtures are much easier compared to those two teams. So, it’s still early to write us off and who knows we may surprise all our critics?

Its nice to see Bendtner back but thus far he has reminded us that he is never the lethal striker that some of us Arsenal fans imagined him to be during his absence. Sol is a pleasant surprise and a very good addition to our thin defence. And Eboue has really done very well recently in right-back position. Attacking-wise he is miles ahead of Sagna.

Let’s hope the lads will perservere and showed the world their hunger for trophies!

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Chelsea 2:0 Arsenal (A)

Another disappointing result, another defeat against a title rival. We lost to Man United and Chelsea both home and away, and that somehow reinforces many people’s perception that we are not a title contender. We will have an easier fixture after the Liverpool’s game, but can we bounce back from all these crushing defeats? We will have to wait and see how the lads react at the next game.

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