Massive Fixtures Ahead : Arsenal Title Credentials On The Line

They said "Arsenal will be tested by Swansea"; Arsenal won the match. They said "It will be Napoli who will really test Arsenal"; Arsenal won the match- comfortably I should add. We lost against Dortmund but they were champions league finalists last season and Arsenal did not make it a walk in the park for them did they?

Arsenal Flying High But Tougher Tests Lie Ahead

Arsenal are 2 points clear at the top of the EPL and there still remains doubts, in the minds of the so-called football pundits at least, whether Arsenal are genuine contenders to the title. Who cares what they think, Arsenal are top of the league and Arsenal fans are loving the view from the top :). My honest opinion is that it is too early to predict who will win but we will get a better idea at the end of December.

Moving on from foretelling the title winner, Arsenal are heading into the start of a very difficult period in the season with some tricky ties coming up. Staring with the home match against Chelsea tonight in the Capital One Cup, Arsenal host Liverpool followed by a visit to Dortmund in the Champions League and then to Old Trafford to face Manchester United in the League and they face an equally daunting task against a flying Southampton side at home in the league.As if that was not enough, Arsenal will arguably have an even tougher December to follow with games against Everton(H), Machester City(A), Napoli(A) and Chelsea(H). It is incredible how these big fixtures have all been put together. No wonder people are reserving their thoughts on Arsenal's credibility, because if Arsenal get past this storm of massive fixtures unscathed, or at least not battered, the title would be Arsenal's to lose.

A short note on tonight's match. Arsene knows that a critical phase is approaching in the season and I think he will be forced to prioritize here. He would want his best players to be fit for all these fixtures ahead and I think he will take a big gamble if decides to start with any of his regulars in tonight's match. Whether he will take that risk remains to be seen.

An Appeal To Arsenal Fans

"Man City sign........Manchester United sign.........Chelsea sign.........(even) Liverpool and Tottenham sign.......Arsenal linked with......."

I think the sentence speaks for itself here.

While other rival clubs of ours are busy signing players, most of us Arsenal fans are celebrating the 'big' players being linked with moves to the club, most of which are obviously fabricated. The more worrying thing for me is that we do this during every transfer window!


Its not that we do not sign players at all. We do. Over the years we have we signed Chamakh,Squillachi, Santos, Arteta, Mertesacker, Gervinho, Giroud....... after being linked with Ronaldinho, Sergio Ramos, Yaya Toure, David Villa, Fernando LLorente among others.

People come up with fantastic stories every year and every year, most Arsenal fans fall for it; every year. The more ridiculous the story, the more popular it is. The writers get their desired number of hits on the story and the readers get their dose of  "day-dreaming".

You have to look no further than comments on such stories. Comments like "...now Arsenal will win it this year......Arsenal triple winners this year.......Invincibles again.....a new dawn at Arsenal..."..... it goes on and on. And if you reply to such comments with comments like "we have not signed anyone yet" all you get is.... don't make me swear now! 

It is not a crime to be apprehensive. Being naive and "living in a bubble" is.

I am not saying we must be pessimistic about our team. We should always remain hopeful. We should hope that it will be different this year. But, we should keep our celebrations to ourselves until we actually sign a player or risk being ridiculed by "other fans" year after year.

You also do not have suffer the disappointment of broken promises......because the promises might not have been actually made in the first place!

New Heights In Poor Defending And Bergkamp Back At Arsenal

Poor Defending Cost Us Vital Points

 Arsenal have never known what is defending...it seemed that way when you watched them in action yesterday,especially for the goals. That was no defending. That was calamity. No wonder Arsenal are lingering at sixth. No wonder Arsenal are written off to win any trophy at all.

Not that we were defending like champions before last night. But last night, it almost seemed like we were trying to beat our own mark at defending poorly! We all know that a good team is built on the foundations of a strong defense(at least I do...just read my previous posts). Based last night...we were far from a good team. Yes, we came back after going 2-0 down and created a lot in the second half, maybe we could have nicked a win. But, we have to remember that we were playing against a side that had, before last night, never won against a to 10 side in the premier league and had just lost to a league one side. Liverpool are a big club but no longer do they have a competitive team at the highest level. Sadly, nor do we.

Bergkamp Heading Back To Arsenal

In other news, Arsenal.com announced yesterday that Liam Brady, our youth coach, is leaving the club after 25 years of service to the club. He is a true club legend and had a glittering career, both as a player and as a youth coach. It is sad to see him leave. However, it has emerged that Dennis Bergkamp, the legend himself, is poised to fill in the vacant post left by Liam Brady. At least, we can be assured that our youths will be in good hands. And who knows, it could be a trial for Bergkamp to ultimately take the helm at Arsenal's first team!

MIND IT!

The human mind is programmed to support its "claims" no matter how fantastic(and often contradicting their own claims) the "claims" are. It has,like most of the things in this world,good and bad aspects.What is the good side and what is the bad side depends upon the perception of people and varies from person to person.What is "good" for one is likely to be "bad" for others.Where am I getting with this?A cousin of mine is a Liverpool fan and when Brendan Rodgers was appointed as the Liverpool manager,the first thing I remember him saying is (obviously excitedly so)"we are getting tiki-taka football at Anfield".That was obviously expected by many with reference to the type of football Rodgers was acclaimed for at Swansea last season.A few days ago,when two giants of world football in Barcelona and Real Madrid clashed,he said "Barcelona just pass the ball and that is it.It is so boring!".Oh the Human mind!

A news today has circulated that the ex-Arsenal player Hleb said that he learnt more from Wenger. Well if you play regularly at a club and don't get many games at another club even as a sub,it is obvious where you would be learning more from.

Another popular news in Arsenal blogs and forums at the moment is that Arsenal are readying an offer of 40m pounds for Falcao. Well,I do not know about that;but I do know that it will cost us 0 pounds to dream!

In other news,Wallcot and his agents are steel seeking to get a pay rise if a new deal is signed with Arsenal.

On this subject,Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood commented "We have got our general overall wage structure and we are not prepared to break it for anybody". .Well obviously Mr.Peter,this is not applicable to Ivan Gazidis who received a pay rise to 2mil pounds and though not revealed entirely,I have a feeling, among the ones to receive a pay rise is a certain Peter Hill-Wood too.Is it ethically correct then to come out and claim that another person does not deserve a pay rise when you are receiving one yourself? Oh the Human mind!