Rosenior and Routledge had short spells at Arsenal when they were both a little younger. I used to worship Henrik Larrson when he played for Celtic (who, if anyone doesn't know, are my favourite Scottish team and 2nd to favourite team next to Arsenal). I used to picture him playing for Arsenal alongside Henry, Wiltord or Bergkamp. But then he pissed off to Barca, cheated Arsenal out of the champs league final with his offside pass for the first goal and setting up the second one and now he's going to Man Utd! What a bastard.
i like Hibs, and we were pimped out so many times by celtic for a top 4 placing and they bought Riordan....BASTARDS FROM GLASGOW! anyway... Leeds better put together a good run or i cant be bothered to watch them next year... EDIT: 2-2 makes me a happy fan today, Dean you gotta be happy too because it would be what i wanted!
right im going to have a rant - so appologies for that lol hartlepool united vs. macclesfield (FA Cup round 2) not the most galm fixture there has been but thats not the point. hartlepool (my home team) had a terrible start to the season and only now are they finding there form. therefore any cup comps they are in they are wanting to perform well. there has been interest from premier league clubs for a few of our players, and they want to show off what they can do. especially on teleivised matches. with that said, the FA cup is a nice little earner for the club - and the futher we get the more money rolls in for them. however our hopes of getting too the third round took a heavy blow 45mins from the end of the game against struggling macclesfield. we are in the same league as the mac's and we are higher up the table from them too. this all suggested that pools should come out victorious. however football is a funny old game isnt it? our star mid-fielder Tony Sweeny was judged to handle the ball inside the penalty area. referees do get some calls wrong and on this occation i can take that - the lines man wasnt able to help him so he made the decsion off his own back, which is what i expect officals to do. however on the replays after the game is was quite clear to the unbias fan that the ball didnt touch his hand - in actual fact the ball hit his face, no where near to his hand. Sweeny then got his marching orders, recieving a red card. which is crazy because he didnt stop a clear goal stopping oppertunity, there were other players in the box and the goal keeper. with that the resulting penalty won the game for the mac lads wininig 0-1 on the night. what gets me though is the fact that macclesfield now progrss in the cup and face chelsea which is crazy! there estimated to get 500 thousand from it. that could have been pools, and some say should have been pools. not only did we go a goal behind we lost a man as well (for no reason at all). what im getting at is, should video be introduced in the game? the refferees in the lower leagues (and the higher leagues) IMO dont have a clue sometimes and this case proves it. sometimes they get it wrong, for the good but mostly for the bad through miss judgement. what im saying is teams shouldnt be at the hands of just one man - becasue we all know they get it wrong from time to time and another thing - we've launched an appeal. and it so wasnt a hand ball im sure the red card wont stand. but how does that help us now? we are out of the cup already? its crazy if you ask me what do you guys think? i appologise for the spelling errors i typed this up quick lol
sorry but if you sort the lower leagues out then surely the top leagues will follow suit - they' have to!
If Walsall (the only team other than Villa that I follow that closely) weren't doing so well I could rant about league 2 as well.
We're through to the last 16, somehow I just know we're gonna get Barca in the next round, in a way that would be a good thing because we have a score to settle with them but on the other hand I don't know if our current squad would be up to the task...
For a minute i thought Porto were going to punish us, but to be fair we never really got out of first gear, and im sure we would have upped the tempo if they had scored Chelsea on sunday, Toure is suspended, Gallas and Djourou are out injured, feck oh, and wenger, BAPTISTA! theres no way in hell he's still unfit, hes been training with us since the summer, fair enough he got a minor injury but that was about 2 months ago, Arsenal need the beast!
Porto were unlucky not to have won, they hit the bar twice! On each of those occasions my heart stopped beating Djourou could play on sunday which is quite good news because he and Senderos are solid together because they have alot of practice with each other when they play for Switzerland. Gallas is more than likely out, Rosicky will miss 2-3 weeks which is a big blow because he's established himself as a key player for us, and of course Henry is gonna be out for quite a while. And yeah I completly agree, Baptista seems find to me. This is the team I'd play on sunday: Lehmann Eboue, Djourou, Senderos, Clichy Hleb, Fabregas, Gilberto, Van Persie Baptista Adebayor The back four are very young right now but will be world class in a few years I reckon. I'd stick to 4-5-1 with Baptista playing as the attack midfielder playing off Adebeyor and of course Van Persie can get forward when necessary. When defending I'd just slot Baptista into central/defence midfield, we lack strength in the centre of the field but with Baptista there that's already taken care of. Unfortunatly here's the team I think Wenger will play: Lehmann Eboue, Djourou/Song (God forbid lol), Senderos, Clichy Hleb/Ljunberg, Fabregas, Gilberto, Flamini, Van Persie Adebayor I pray he doesn't set it up like that though. I have no idea what Flamini and Song are actualy doing at Arsenal but I fear he will play them on sunday. I think this season could be Freddie's last with us because he's lost his pace completly and the quality that he used to have for us is pretty much non-existant anymore... We need to sign 2 wingers and a striker and maybe even a new keeper. My suggestions would be to sign Torres, Ribery, Wright-Phillips and Buffon/Ustari somehow.
I think Ljungberg should start over Hleb after his performance against Spuds, he was instrumental and hes the kind of player who thrives in the big games
i cant see arsenal getting any of those players with the exception of Ribery, and yeah Arsenal really need a new keeper they should've snapepd up Cech when he was still in France...
Reaction to champions league draw: We're through. Man U are through. Chelsea are through. Celtic probably are going out. Liverpool will need an istanbul miracle.