Opening day

Well opening day of the football season is upon us. Its the most hopeful and optimistic day of the year as anything can happen. Our opening result was an unspectacular 0-0 draw. Frankly though, I'll take it. We opened against Sunderland and I remember many many bad decisions going against us in these matches recently (particularly of the offside and time keeping type) and also I remember our opening game against Newcastle last year in which Gervinho got sent off for the stupidest incident ever. These are the sorts of things that we can really do without at the beginning of the season, so frankly I'll take nil nil. I know we all want a spectacular 6-0 win (props to Fulham and Swansea  for going close) to kick off our campaign but its not always that simple as all the players are coming off a long break and we have new arrivals who need to get up to speed. In terms of our transfer comings and goings obviously I was pretty annoyed about the whole Robin van Persie situation. But at the end of the day, there's not a lot else that the club could have done. What it all boils down to is this; either we force him to stay, he's unhappy and he plays badly and we get no money for him at the end, or we cut our losses and get a decent fee and reinvest it in the squad. Its that simple for me. And I'm pleased with our new acquisitions. I think Podolski and Giroud look exciting prospects. Lukas in particular looks like he fits right in and as if he's always been here. Santi Cazorla I think was a master stroke and fits right in with the Arsenal way. Maybe we may bring one more in, possible in defence or defensive midfield, I'd be very happy with that. Otherwise I think we've strengthened well. So while results are important, in an opening fixture its popssible that the performane of the players is more important than the actual score. Its important to get the nerves out of the way and get the team playing together and gelling. Its a long long season and there's plenty of time for spectacular 6-0 wins. Here's hoping that the Arsenal boys are listening. Happy Football season everyone!

Opening a door, closing a window

Well, well, well it was a busy old day at the Emirates on transfer day. I bet Arsene's cheque book didn't know what had hit it. Pat and Gilles must have been working overtime in the old get away van. All in all I'm pretty impressed with our dealings. Park Chu-Young or as he shall forever be known thanks to be predictive text - Paul Chu Young seems a sensible and solid signing. Experience? Check- he's south Korea's national captain. Reinforcement in a vulnerable position? Check- We've had finishing issues of late and have shall we say a history of frailty in that position. Next comes a pair of much needed reinforcements. Andre Santos at left-back, who once again has plenty of national team experience, having just played at the Copa America. Also it's a postion that needs reinforcing as Clichy has departed and Kieran Gibbs seems to be made out of glass. And then the big one. The much needed centre half. And what a big one he is. Six foot six of Bremen captaining, national team lynchpinning German engineering. Beautiful. Nice move Prof. I wasn't massively thrilled about Yossi Benayoun but you can't argue with how much top level Premier League experience the guy has. Then we were all thinking this is great but we're still missing something, a certain sunny western European je ne sais quoi, soemthing cultured, sophisticated, something that maybe has a way with free kicks. Then lo and behold with about ten minutes to go, it happened. The missing piece began to click in. Mikel Arteta is coming. Yes. THAT is precisely the kind of something we all want. So maybe that heavy loss might not have been so bad if it's triggered this lovely rebuilding right here. I for one am VERY excited to see how this goes. Plus its so fun to have to keep track of deadline day for once, its normally boring for gooner.

A play-off and a fond farewell

I watched the Champion's League play off tie with Udinese this week with interest. I must admit that when I first saw that we had drawn  them, I was slightly apprehensive, maybe even a tiny bit worried. I've seen them in Serie A before and they're quite a handy team. But all in all given all the recent circumstances and shenanigans I think the team performed admirably. I've slagged Theo off goodness knows how many times and how badly but I will grudgingly admit that his goal was a good little finish. And although the level of performance dropped in the second half, we did still manage to defend pretty well and didn't commit our old mistake of letting in a silly goal. The boy Chesney once again looked very assured, which makes me feel much more positive about our make shift squad. Also Mr Vermaelen is turning into one hell of a player, all round quality really. And I'd forgotten how ripped Bacary Sagna is. So yeah, that was a nice thing to be reminded of.

Also this week there was a massive departure from the Emirates. We all heard  about it. But there was a less publicised departure too. A much more upsetting one. Emmanueel Eboue left us. Now I know he hasn't always had it easy throughout his time at the Emirates, I know he wasn't everyone's favourite, I know he made mistaakes but don't we all. I've really developed a soft spot forr Emmanuel Eboue over the last few seasons. What I loved about hhim was his relentless optimism, his boundless energy and the fantastic way he always always cheered everyone on from the sidelines. He was always first to join in with celebrations. He is frankly hilarious. In our house we  always had a joke based on the Simpsons where when we saw him we used to say "I was saying E-boo-e" (it was boo-urns in the simpsons.) So I will seriously miss our little ray of sunshine and I would like to say: Thank you for everything Emmanuel and good luck to you.  Let's all relive the tuly wonderful 'space pimp' moment shall we?

An Open letter to Cesc Fabregas

Dear Cesc,
As a very devoted and very proud Arsenal fan I would like to make one final request of you: Please stop. Please Cesc, please stop with all the tweets and quotes telling the world how much you 'love' Arsenal as a club, how much you'll 'miss' your teammates and all your 'admiration' for Arsene Wenger. Just stop it. Who exactly do you think you're kidding with all these little declarations. Allow me to enlighten you, precisely nobody is fooled. Allow me also to explain to you just why everything you have said since your transfer is so galling to Arsenal fans like myself, because clearly nobody has explained it to you so far. When you've spent the best part of a year telling everyone how much you want to go to Barcelona, moping around looking miserable and pretending you're already at Barcelona (yes we all remember that backpass) we're seriously not going to be convinced by your little 'ooh i'm so sad' act. "I'll always carry you in my heart' 'once a gunner always a gunner' Spare me Cesc, if you cared that much you wouldn't have left. As for the whole 'its my biggest regret that I couldn't lift more trophies as Arsenal captain' blah blah, I have this to say to you Cesc, a true winner would stay and prove he deserves those trophies and fight for the team. But obviously you didn't because you wanted to go 'home' back to your 'dream' club, a home and a dream that you had no problem deserting all those years ago because you couldn't bear to wait to get into their team. So I hope you enjoy all those trophies that everyone else will be winning for you, you'll certainly have a good view. Oh and that weird voice you keep hearing? That's the last player who moved from Arsenal to Barca, and do you know what Alex Hleb keeps  saying? "I should have stayed at Arsenal"
Regards,
An Arsenal Fan

Transfers and the Tour

Its summer so the transfer window shenanigans go on. This week Gael Clichy left for man City. I was really sad to see Gael go, he's been a great player for us and he's been with us a long time. Also he's half of one of my favourite football bromances in his sweet beyond belief friendship with Bacary Sagna. Seriously Bacary wears his gloves and I've seen the Emirates dressing room they sit right next to each other, slightly apart from the others. What's Bac going to do now?
I've been watching the transfer rumours and I have been very very nervous at times. Butt thinggs appear to be moving along, Gervinho is apparently close to signing and while I would prefer a certain Columbian striker instead, this is a step in the right direction. Also I hear that Almunia and Nicky Bendtner are 'negotiating' moves. This is very good progress; to make way for new signings some people must move on, this is inevitable. And finallly it seems like the right players are being linked with moves away.
This time of the year also means the return of the annual "Where's Andy Schleck?" game to our household. Its a fun game. The game consists of my dad watching the tour de france while I periodically ask him "where's Andy Schleck?" Simple but immensely fun. Andy schleck is my favourite cyclist for a few reasons. One, he has a cool name. Two, he's from Luxembourg. Three, the lovely relationship he has with his brother, a couple of years ago one of them made a break away and the other got stuck behind so he went back for him. Mrs Schleck must have been bursting with pride that day. So along with playing the Andy game, I'll be cheering for him all the way in the tour.

The start of crazy season

Well here I am back on the shores of dear old Blighty once more. I've been gone a week and I've returned to find crazy season in full swing with rumours flying all over the place about Samir Nasri. I've heard all sorts of nonsense linking him to Manchester United and even saying talks had been opened but I refused to put too much stock in them given the sketchy nature of the speculation and general lack of official quotes. Then lo and behold today I check twitter and there's a tweet from the man himself saying "Don't believe the newspapers and the rumours I'll let you know if something happens." To me that sounds a lot more postive for Arsenal fans than any of the nonsense printed in the papers. We've also been subjected to speculation about a bid for Gael Clichy from Liverpool and the continued, tedious debate about Cesc Fabregas. I for one hope Gael Clichy isn't going anywhere, I don't understand the amount of criticism that's been flung his way this past year. And as you all know I'm heartily sick of the Cesc saga. I wish they would just settle it already. Either sign him or shut up its that simple. I've also heard tons of supposed transfer targets that i'm not happy with; Chris Samba- NO, Gary Cahill- NO, Oxlade-Chamberlain-no, Gervinho- no. One rumour however, stood out: Falcao. Now that would be a huge and resounding YES.

Arsenal news- New signing

Fantastic news coming out of the Emirates. We have a new signing of world-class pedigree. He's only young but he has masses of potential and is definitely one for the future. What's even better is he's an all-rounder who's flexible position wise. Step right this way to check him out.....

Transfer Thoughts

I've been meaning to write about the transfer window for a little while but my cold got in the way, but nevermind I'm getting there now so (semi) regularity can resume. Obviously the main stories were Chelsea and Liverpool. I'll start with Chelsea. I think they've been ripped off. This is not just on the evidence of Sunday's less than stellar debut. Being ruthlessly honest Fernando Torres has been average for a long time. Very little in the past couple of years has indicated he is worth anywhere near £50m. When he first came to the Premier League granted he was good but he's stagnated in a big way. And we can't just blame this on the situation at Liverpool. The evidence is there elsewhere for all to see but people don't want to see it. The last two major tournaments he's played for Spain, he's been woeful. But Ruth, I hear you say what about scoring the winning goal in the final of the euros? That was literally the only useful thing he did the entire tournament so it really can't be taken as any sort of realistic sign. On top of being off the pace, he's really really sulky and petulant. Not someone I would be willing to gamble a large sum of money on. Speaking of which...Andy Carroll. Once again I hear you say but Ruth what about the hat tricks? the goal against Arsenal? They are all well and good but this is his first proper season in the premier league. And he's been injured for some it. And he's injured again. His fee is not justified either. There is simply not enough proof that he can produce the right kind of form consistently to justify the amount of money. And there's the questionable temparament question once again. He's a powder keg and the odds are on for him to cause trouble. One of the main reasons for the large fee is apparent though, he's english. Therefore he costs more. Thats how it works in our domestic game these days. How elese do you explain why he cost more than David Villa, an infinitely more skilfull player.
Another interesting issue was thrown up by the transfer window. What happens when a player you like from another team (not the one you support but one you like nonetheless) moves to a team you can't stand? This happened to me. I have a lot of affection for Everton. I like their squad and their plucky spirit. One of my favourite players at Everton was Steven Pienaar. I'm obsessed with the man. But the unthinkable happened. He went to Spurs. I'm gutted. And very confused. Obviously I still like him but I can't like the team he plays for under any circumstances. This is very difficult, I want to see him do good things but I don't want his team to do well. Ever.
And to finish just to say thank you to all the people everywhere who read this blog, especially those overseas (like the Japanese google users who linked to me through Stephane Lambiel!) I love checking my stats and seeing where my audience is from, so thanks everyone. If you have questions, comments or anything feel free to tweet me! There's a link on the main page and its moleyontheline.

Transfer News!

Another Arsenal update to report. Over the last few days we have reinforced our backline by signing Sebastien Squillaci from Sevilla (that's this cutie above). I'll admit I don't know too much about him but I believe he went to the world cup with the France squad and I know that Sevilla have been pretty decent over the past few seasons. Plus another centre half can only be a good thing given that with recent departures we only had three of them left. So bonne chance to our new frenchie and welcome to london.