Scoreless Draw at Ninian Park. Replay Time!

The Cardiff City footballers hold the Gunners to a scoreless draw at Ninian Park and force the replay at Emirates.

Dave Jones' team, beaten finalists last season, really took the game to
Arsenal in the opening half, playing with a desire absent in their more
illustrious opponents, and the high-flying Championship side should
have taken at least one of their chances.

I'm getting a wee bit tired of seeing the game reports where Arsenal is portrayed as less hungry than the other team. What's up with this team? There are other football clubs than Liverpool, ManUre and Chelsea to play!

Eduardo Ready for Return

Good news for a team that can really use some good news, as pretend-Croatian Eduardo is ready for return. Meanwhile the team faces Cardiff in an FA Cup clash.

Arshavin What He's Havin'

More rumblings of a possible Arsenal swoop for Zenit St. Petersburg middie Andrei Arshavin. No word yet on whether he will withstand the physicality of the English game.

One foreign player who has had no trouble adjusting, is Arsenal fullback standout Bacary Sagna. I did not realize that about his brother passing away last year prior to the Stamford Bridge match. What a poignant moment for the right back.

Belated ManU-Chelsea Ramblings

The ManU-Chelsea match did not disappoint. Both teams went at it like heavyweight prizefighters trading blows.

Meanwhile, Arsenal got a badly needed 3 points over a Bolton team set up to defend. The Gunners outshot Bolton something like 14-2, but only found the net in the 84th minute thanks to a quick stab at the ball by Nick Bendtner (who had just come on the pitch), after a good set-up by RVP's cross.

According to Goal.com, while Arsene's tight-fisted ways may be angering Gooner Nation, Le Professeur is ensuring the club will avoid the financial crises that will afflict other EPL clubs.

Interesting tidbit:

and even Roman Abramovich, who has personally bankrolled Chelsea since
2003, is said to be contemplating the choice between selling his £200
million yacht or selling the Blues. Abramovich's losses on the Russian
stock exchange mean manager Luiz Felipe Scolari can’t splash out this
January, while 15 scouts have been sacked.

What a problem to have!

4 Points From 2 Games. Am I Happy or Sad?

I really don't know the answer. Color me red, white & ambivalent.

There I was, Friday, Boxing Day, bedecked in my new Arsenal scarf and "Property of..." tee that Santa had brought me, all ready for the injury-depleted, character-challenged Arsenal 08-09 to get its rear kicked by Aston Villa. The game started out much as I thought, with a Cesc-deprived midfield unable to do much in terms of possession against a well-organized, purposeful Villa team.

The Gunners really should've been down 3-0 by half, as Villa hit an incredible 3 sure goals off the post. early on Sidwell had a wide open, unmarked header off a corner that epitomized this Arsenal squad's woeful set piece defense. Gallass and Song were having a bit of a discussion about defensive philosophies when the corner was taken and Sidwell marched off goalward while the conversation continued. Sad stuff there.

As it turned out, though, the Gunners were a lucky squad, on offense as well as defense, as Denilson got a late first half goal that was equal parts brave fortune and good work. The Arsenal doubled that nearly an hour in with an absolutely brilliant string of work between Abou Diaby and Emanuel Ay-Boo-Ay (sorry. Nice to see him get the assist).

But, most Arsenal fans knew what was coming. William Gallass saves the day for Villa with a shocking foul in the box (why, Billy, why?!) and more shocking defense (or lack thereof) at the death afforded Villa a 2-2 draw, despite having outplayed Arsenal for much of the game.

Today's match against Portsmouth (and former Gunner great Tony Adams) was not televised and it sounds like that was a good thing. The Gunners eked out a much-needed 1-0 win (with Gallass scoring the winner - this guy drives me crazy. I think he's given up as many winning or equalizing goals as he's scored for us) at home but failed to score until late, late in the day despite playing Portsmouth. Need I repeat they were playing Portsmouth!

From a numbers standpoint, I guess 4 goals in 2 games is decent enough. They're still within 10 of league leaders Liverpool and are very much alive in the battle for what's becoming Arsenal's historical fourth place slot in the league. However, the most recent games underscore everything that's wrong with Arsenal today: crap defense (2 excellent fullbacks, tho), a midfield (again, injury-depleted, I know) that probably is better suited for the Champions League, and strikers (with the exception of the outstanding RVP) who seem to be playing for a different team and on a different pitch, than the rest of the team.

Oh, yeah. And a manager who either doesn't see what's gone wrong with his decisions, or is so busy spinning the fans about how the team is coming together, that he is losing his ability to detect reality from his spin.

Next up is Plymouth in the FA Cup on Jan. 3rd and Bolton the following Saturday. Go Arsenal!

Fabregas Out Four...Who's In?

Arsenal Captain Cesc Fabregas is out for 3-4 months, the club revealed today. With the disappearance of Fabregas as he rehabs ruptured knee tendons, the club will have to find a new source of creativity and playmaking in a midfield depleted of well, midfielders. Tomas Rosicky is out. Theo Walcott is out. (neither of whom are central mids)

Denilson has played the holding role this season, before the injuries piled up. Can he play up the line? I don't think so. He still gives posession away an astounding number of times for a first-teamer.

In the past, people have hailed lanky Abou Diaby as the 2nd coming of Patrick Vieira. Recently, one fan commented that while he certainly looked like the 6'5" Arsenal great, it was a shame he didn't play like him.

Which is all a way of saying that Arsene must check his pockets for spare change and get out there and buy some players. Yet, he still contends that options abound.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger admitted he could now make a move for new players in the January transfer window.

"It is more likely but we also have internal solutions and we are not desperate," said Wenger.

Who? Jack Wilshere? Aaron Ramsey? Maybe, maybe two years from now, but not today.

And lest anyone think that the championship hangs in the balance, this is all about 4th Place. Positions 1-3 have been claimed and Villa is setting up the flag over 4th. With our results so far, and our leaky defense, we will do well from this point forward to fight for and capture 4th.

And I have to be a realist, we're not going to surpass Villa without a legitimate replacement for Fabregas. Even with a healthy Cesc, we were definitely having trouble.

And let's not forget that we still need a legit holding mid (perhaps Goklan Inler), and one or two tall, physical center backs. Amid the Arsenal transfer rumours, are whispers that Arsene is close to snagging Zenit St. Petersburg Midfielder Andrei Arshavin  and ludicrous hallucinations about a swoop for ManUre striker Carlos Tevez (Fergie'd never allow that, unless he'd tucked a time bomb underneath Carlito's jersey on the way out Old Trafford). The Ribery rumours are rife again. This time, with the added bonus of sending Bendtner to Germany (he may score there; I hear the goalposts are farther apart or some such thing).

Inexplicably, Milan, Juventus and PSG are among the clubs seeking the services of The Player Formerly Known As Captain. Let's get those papers signed quickly before they can get their hands on some game film!

I would hate to see Kolo Toure go, but Man City could use a top, athletic defender who occasionally forgets to mark his man and have the money to buy him.

Lee Dixon has an instructive analysis of Arsenal's defensive mistakes against Liverpool.

Costly Draw for Gunners

The Gunners nicked a point against the league leaders
Sunday at the Emirates with a thrilling, infuriating 1-1 draw. Despite a
positive result against table toppers

Liverpool

,
this one really felt like 2 dropped points, though I know I should view it differently.

 

Arsenal went up a goal off a simply brilliant strike by
Robin Van Persie. The Dutch striker made a brilliant run between the Reds’
center backs. Samir Nasri played a smart ball in, which RVP took out of the air
with his chest, directing the ball into the one place it could possible create
a chance, and slashed a right-footed shot past the diving boot of Carragher and
finding net before Pepe Reina figured out what was happening.

While they should've held the lead, it looked to me all the while that the back line was willing to see a Liverpool score. Sleepy? Somnambulent was more like it. Several times Keano got behind the napping Gallass and Djorou. Finally, with a minute to play in the first half Arsenal was made to pay as the out-of-form Liverpudlian striker got in form in a hurry.

I hate to say this about our defense, but it's true: We made Robbie Keane look like Fernando Torres!

Injury was added to insult as Captain Cesc was injured in the closing minutes of the half and looks to be out 2-3 weeks. Not what we needed to see. At the restart, our midfield looked, well, it's unfair  to say they looked like a Champsionship side midline but they certainly weren't the quality Arsenal fans have come to expect. Without Cesc on the pitch, they were shorn of creativity, out of ideas.

Before Gunners faithful had a chance to really worry about that, Howard Webb decided it was time to remind everyone who was in charge of the game, and what a travesty that was for all. Following a quite softer first half yellow to Ade, at around 55 minutes, Webbo gave him a second soft, yellow and ejected the baffled striker. (needless to say, the gaffer was not amused)

Webbhead then entertained the crowd by allowing Liverpool's fullback to continue crash into Arsenal players like a drunk at a New Year's Eve party before issuing his first yellow at 80 minutes. Amusing stuff, old man. Keep it up!

As so often is the case, the indignity of unfairly being reduced to 10 brought the team to a fever that had them looking more likely to notch another goal. The Reds seemed fearful of losing the points and never really re-oriented the lineup or the attach until much too late.

So, 10 men down, napping defense, Cesc gone, and a point is OK. But, this is another Big 4 match we should've prevailed in.

Oh, and now we're going into Aston Villa without Fabregas and Adebayor (and Walcott, Rosicky etc...)