talkingOfArsenal.com

At the end of the Everton game, was making my way down the ramp towards the front of the Armoury Shop to meet an old mate of mine, when I see a copper with a hailer about to make a racket. When he pipes up, I hear this: "WILL ALL LIVERTON FANS PLEASE MAKE THEIR WAY ONTO QUEENSLAND ROAD, WHERE YOU CAN BOARD YOUR COACHES". Eh!? Did I hear right? I listen again...

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Groan! Sigh... This is probably the first time I've managed to squeeze three players names in a single blog title to make a sentence, and although I accept that it's probably one of the more dodgier headings I've conjured up, I couldn't think of anything else so unfortunately you're stuck with it. So Flamini is off to Italy. Just when he seemed to have won many-a-fan over (this blogger included), and established himself as a regular in the first team, Flamini's gone and left Arsenal. Not many people appear to know this, but the Frenchman has...

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It really is going down to the wire! So just like everyone predicted, this season really, most definitely, is going down to the wire. This weekends game between Manchester Utd and Chelsea saw the Mancs play at their worst, and concede their first penalty in the league. Chelsea on the other hand, seemed to play at their very best since 'The Loud-Mouthed One' unceremoniously left the West London club at the beginning of the season. Fergie's moaning again, this time about the penalty - the Manc penalty against Gallas is certainly no worse than the penalty they conceded against Chelsea at the weekend. Myopia rules supreme...

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Ok, a tabloid headline if you ever saw one, but close your eyes, suspend your belief and imagine for a minute life after Wenger. Three years ago, after a period of time out of the game, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger accepted a job at French league two club Montpellier, and standing alongside the club president, announced that turning this club into a European powerhouse will be his primary project for the foreseeable future. This year, the Frenchman has delivered on his promise, after having taken the club to top of French league one (2nd position), and are now vying for a Champions League position. The fate of his former club Arsenal, has not been rosy. Since Mr Wenger left the North London Club, and after an initial buying spate, virtually all the existing players have left, and the squad is no longer recognisable from just a few years ago. In five short years, Arsenal have become a buying club, in spite of the fact that just a few years ago, they were the amongst the least spenders in the premiership. After six trophy-less seasons, the North London Club is now more exposed to a hostile take-over, and finishing outside the Champions League berths...

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In the last week or so, I've heard a couple of so-called Gooners make quite surprising comments regarding Wenger and his tenure at Arsenal, and if I don't admit to being surprised, then I would be telling a lie. The first I heard of this nonsense was when, driving home after the recent Champions League first leg game against Liverpool, a so-called Arsenal fan called talkSport to say that after two years of winning nothing, Wenger should go and give someone else a chance. When asked who he thought should replace Wenger, he said...

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The long haul that is the Premiership has thrown up a lifeline for the two-horse chasing pack in this seasons title race. Barely a day passed between Wenger confidently predicting at his Friday news conference that Manchester Utd would drop points before the seasons end, than United duly obliged with a draw at The Riverside. Yesterday, the seemingly impregnable Manchester Utd defence showed frailties in places we'd all forgotten existed. Middlesborough were rampant, and had their finishing been better, or, putting it another way, had Alves joined the premiership club just two weeks earlier, United would have probably come away with, in the best French accent Le Boss can conjure up, nil point. As far as I'm concerned...

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Another month, another poll. This time, your thoughts on what type of player is our most pressing need would be most welcome. Undoubtedly, Le Boss will at some point grandly announce that he sees no reason to sign any new players, and that he is very happy with the current personnel. Those who hear this and annually let out a long groan really needn't worry. Contrary to popular belief, I'm fairly certain that every summer that Wenger has made such a pronouncement, we've ended up acquiring one or two players, albeit low-key ones. The signings of...

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Oh the irony of it, would this weekends brilliant comeback by Arsenal at the Reebok be to commit Bolton Wanderers to relegation. Far be it for me to rejoice in another clubs demise, however I do have to admit to prejudicial leanings, considering the footballing philosophy (if one can call it that) that us Arsenal fans have had to endure at the hands of this Bolton team. For the last 5-6 years, Bolton have come to represent the exact opposite of what Arsenal stands for. A trend started by the now...

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The last few weeks has seen us claw a 6-point deficit back from a 5-point lead and it's got me thinking in terms of the whys and the wherefores. Hot on the heels of last weeks Question Time, this week I find myself in Tomorrows World (groan!), peeking into the future and contemplating what I think lies ahead in the next few years of life as a Gooner. Many have written this season off, finding it hard to look beyond the current stage of the Champions League and a second place (possibly even third) in the league, and who can...

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It feels like a thousand years since my last post, it seems like so many things have happened. This weekend, we dropped to third position in the league after losing 2-1 to Chelsea, and with Liverpool being immediate neighbours below us, it is to say the least, a position we haven't had to suffer for virtually all of this season. And I've been asking myself all kinds of questions. And once it started, I found I couldn't stop, it really was like a gushing well - included here are a few of the 'publishable' ones. Like, why is it that this season, we've gone from seeming to have strength-in-depth, to appearing to have an impossibly thin squad compared to everyone else? Is our bad form solely down to the double...

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