Not a vintage performance, but getting three points from games like this is a necessity.

Green, the bar and post were stopping everything we threw at them, but we made the breakthrough in the end.

A third clean sheet on the trot is also a very welcome development. With Utd and Chelski winning, this keeps us in the chase for the title.

Now we start our most testing month of the season yet. . . . keep the consistency and drive and we'll come out on the other side smiling.

Gooners tenhutt!

Damn, some stupid Green peas tried to spoil my dinner. Pheew.

3points in the bag, very shady performance though, I'd put it down to all the friggin bodies in the middle of the park, us and them playing 4-5-1.

Wigan at home for Carling cup. . .me likey. . .Ooooi, stop faffing around!! Gunners Tenhutt!!!

Nice performance but adrenaline, still trying to get some fresh breath.
Robert Green could have cost us the vital 3 points , thanks to song and clichy.

The guys gave their all and deserve the win. I saw AW smiling profusely when the goal came in at 88th minute.
Next?

It's kinda weird but is Man Utd becoming the new Arsenal??
First Rooney was almost leaving because he didn't see potential to challenge for trophies a la Henry.
Now Ferguson just adopted Wenger's 'I signed two new players from Physio FC policy'.

''You have five months left of the season, I will have Antonio Valencia back hopefully towards the end of February, which is a new player coming back. If Michael Owen gets back, it is another new player coming back. So with the squad I've got, I don't see any reason for us to buy anyone.''

^^ LANS syndrome.

That's the effect of the new financial constraints facing clubs at present.

hard-earned win yesterday but well deserved fab4 still not quite 100% but still showed class theo that boy, sorry MAN has really tweaked his game came on as a sub and could have easily got a brace AA23 who r u n wat hav u done with the real assasin? holla @ all my gunner pips. cannons blazin

Is anyone watching the "war" going on between Sunderland and Newcastle.Similar to those "karate flicks" witnessed between Egypt and Algeria.

@eldee

reality has bitten Fergie on the butt cheek, the days of free money from vain benefactors are a long time agone, its only Man Shitty and Real Madrid bucking the trend at present and their days are numbered, FFP rules will catch up with City and the common purse negotiations in La Liga will soon force Real Madrid to live in the real world.
Barca already have a productive academy and should do fine, Real have gone for young stars like Oezil and Khedira to stem the tide but IMO, they are living on borrowed time, their culture in that club is just totally wrong and elitist, its a wonder its perpetuated it for so long in these times.

On another note, I have a sneaking suspicion Fergie will leave Manure soon not to soil his legacy, the signs are already there with this Rooney debacle, by the time Austerity really starts biting at Manure, people go hear weeeeehn. I know Fergie will cooly negotiate his way out and get his fawning media admirers to do his dirty work for him by placing all the blame with the Glazers by accusing them of breaking promises they made to keep Rooney.

^^^^Yet more gibberish from Doodooface

How does Dudu and Dayo escape the bot?They keep spamming the thread with the same lines every time.

When would Wenger gather the cojones or just plain common sense to bench that Danku! Its clear that Arshavin's form is lost in the tundra of Siberia

kay_pumpin:

How does Dudu and Dayo escape the bot?They keep spamming the thread with the same lines every time.

I've got friends in high places and I think DK has friends in low places.  

@duduspace

I do agree with you on one thing . . . Man United is in financial tumoil, these new signs we're seeing are different from what we saw in the past.
I think it's the global economic crisis that caused this, you can't just keep borrowing money these days, the banks are less generous.
The fact that the Glazers are not just money bags that have football as a hobby but actually do want to make money in the short term isn't helping either.

Now Rooney told them of his intention to leave on the 31st of August, that's a whole month . . .if it were August 31st 2001 you'd have seen the replacement waiting right next to Fergie at the next press conference.
Since when did United start begging players to sign contracts?? Since when did Fegie start 'leaving the door open'?? That day, we saw a defeated Fergie, it was unbelievable.

The Glazers have borrowed way too much, they've seen Liverpool and they don't want that ish happening to them. At the end of the day, a couple of bad seasons and they would have had to sell the club cheap.
Right now, Arsenal is where the smart investors want to be, hence the 'mawoju uche' clause in the stakeholders board.
Our debt to value ratio is more attractive than United's or any other team in England.

And yeah, you can count this as a personal victory . . . but you have to understand that a lot has changed since the last time I talked about football finances with you.
Liverpool, Portsmouth and Rooney, EPL's 25 player clause and most importantly, new UEFA regulations.
If this were a year ago, I'd be saying sumn entirely different.

A-40:

When would Wenger gather the cojones or just plain common sense to bench that Danku! Its clear that Arshavin's form is lost in the tundra of Siberia

How are the mighty fallen? see as A-40 dey blast Arshavin who was our hero 2 seasons ago. I think he needs time to find his form, its not gonna be easy to just bench the russian captain like that and you know Arshavin will still have his moments of magic only that they are now seemingly few and far in between in recent times.

Dudu is chatting bollocks in two languages.  

duduspace:

Gloating aint my thing and I don't expect Debo to own up to being wrong about the direction Arsenal as a club took and pioneered since after the invincibles, I understand it simply aint the African way.  

Gloat about what? If and when Arsenal wins 2 or 3 titles because on AW's direction to the detriment of other teams then there'll be something to gloat about. To gloat now is simply delusional. Beating teams in the CC and being second in October is nothing to be excited about. No one on this thread has argued that Wenger's direction was wrong, what we've commented about is his abject failure to make small modifications to his theories that will bring success.

That is why he remains a very good coach and not an excellent one.

Secondly, I see no reason for Utd to sign players in January either. They are winning games now with their biggest players on the sidelines judging by last season - Giggs and Rooney. Those players are coming back, and we all know Utd get better in the second half of the season so it's extremely premature to b commenting about a lack of signings at Utd.

eldee:

And yeah, you can count this as a personal victory . . . but you have to understand that a lot has changed since the last time I talked about football finances with you.
Liverpool, Portsmouth and Rooney, EPL's 25 player clause and most importantly, new UEFA regulations.
If this were a year ago, I'd be saying sumn entirely different.

To be honest, one thing I could never understand is why more people didn't see it coming, It dawned on me a while ago when Arsene made a statement that you cannot continue to spend 2 pounds everyday if yu only make 1 pound. My personal experience of getting burnt in the NSE during the Bull run prior to the 2008 bubble bursting also taught me a great lesson that if the fundamentals don't look right, no matter what the media and others are saying or how much others are profitting, just run for your life and don't get involved or play it smart and get out fast.
For every Chelsea that is successful, there are 3 or 4 portsmouths either in trouble or tethering on the brink.

The Abu Dhabi group could continue spending that money without breaking a sweat for the next 10 years and would eventually have overtaken everyone but even Abramovic had to come to the conclusion that it was a bridge to nowhere after some time and writing off some of his personal fortunes, I told someone once that A billionaire at 40 might not remain a billionaire in his life time if he continues to bleed .5 billion every 2-3 years. We would have seen more Portsmouth like meltdowns if not for the FFP rules, there has to be a levelling of grounds somehow or football was headed for some serious problems.

duduspace:

To be honest, one thing I could never understand is why more people didn't see it coming, It dawned on me a while ago when Arsene made a statement that you cannot continue to spend 2 pounds everyday if yu only make 1 pound. My personal experience of getting burnt in the NSE during the Bull run prior to the 2008 bubble bursting also taught me a great lesson that if the fundamentals don't look right, no matter what the media and others are saying or how much others are profitting, just run for your life and don't get involved or play it smart and get out fast.
For every Chelsea that is successful, there are 3 or 4 portsmouths either in trouble or tethering on the brink.

The Abu Dhabi group could continue spending that money without breaking a sweat for the next 10 years and would eventually have overtaken everyone but even Abramovic had to come to the conclusion that it was a bridge to nowhere after some time and writing off some of his personal fortunes, I told someone once that A billionaire at 40 might not remain a billionaire in his life time if he continues to bleed .5 billion every 2-3 years. We would have seen more Portsmouth like meltdowns if not for the FFP rules, there has to be a levelling of grounds somehow or football was headed for some serious problems.

One thing you have to understand though, is that the Uniteds and the Milans won't sit and watch a Liverpool drop every year.
I see them using their power to influence UEFA, especially when the next election comes around, it's bigger than investment for teams like Milan and Barcelona, it's national pride . . . the UEFA regulations won't last, you'll see.

debosky:

Dudu is chatting bollocks in two languages.  

Gloat about what? If and when Arsenal wins 2 or 3 titles because on AW's direction to the detriment of other teams then there'll be something to gloat about. To gloat now is simply delusional. Beating teams in the CC and being second in October is nothing to be excited about. No one on this thread has argued that Wenger's direction was wrong, what we've commented about is his abject failure to make small modifications to his theories that will bring success.

That is why he remains a very good coach and not an excellent one.

I wasn't really referring to gloating in terms of results, what I was referring to was our arguments last season about Arsenal embarking on a youth project post the invincibles regime. According to you at that point Arsene had just lost the plot and wandering in the dark while I insisted there was a deliberate plan taken at the board level to shift the focus of competition from buying the best available players to developing the best available youth instead and giving them opportunity to progress into the first team.
To be honest and give credit where its due, Fergie was the first to make a success of this with his Fledglings (though he did have the leverage to get the best youth in England at that time before the FA introduced the 10 mile rule and Arsene wasn't in the picture) but he didn't have the balls to go up against Abramovic's billions with the same plan while Arsene was.

debosky:

Secondly, I see no reason for Utd to sign players in January either. They are winning games now with their biggest players on the sidelines judging by last season - Giggs and Rooney. Those players are coming back, and we all know Utd get better in the second half of the season so it's extremely premature to b commenting about a lack of signings at Utd.

You are right, it is still early days, but like they say if yu wait to hear the sound of the bullet before yu dodge it, then you'll likely never get the opportunity to dodge it. Foresight is a very scarce commodity but we all have the benefit of hindsight, only its never of much use than for story telling.

^^

Till Wenger finds a way to win with his 'project', he will still be wondering in the dark. He'll simply be a corporate stooge making good profits for the board and keeping them comfortable.

duduspace:

You are right, it is still early days, but like they say if yu wait to hear the sound of the bullet before yu dodge it, then you'll likely never get the opportunity to dodge it. Foresight is a very scarce commodity but we all have the benefit of hindsight, only its never of much use than for story telling.

What bullet? Season after season, even when they've failed to win, their second half is always better than the first. If they can be at par with Arsenal despite their so called 'bad start', then things are ominous for us in the new year if we don't stop our perennial 'March crash'.

debosky:

Secondly, I see no reason for Utd to sign players in January either. They are winning games now with their biggest players on the sidelines judging by last season - Giggs and Rooney. Those players are coming back, and we all know Utd get better in the second half of the season so it's extremely premature to b commenting about a lack of signings at Utd.

It's more complicated than that . . . the time United starts listing people like Scholes and Giggs as their star players, then there's something wrong.
A team's success on the pitch is not about how many top stars you have but how often can those top stars go on top form.

Nani and Rooney will stay on form for long, but will that be enough to blot out the inconsistency of Giggs, Ferdinand and Scholes??

Another reason I said Man Utd is ticking all the boxes, struggling without Rooney the way we struggle without Fabregas is a sign.
Their star players will be knocked out cus of tiredness, like how our go down to injury, players threatening to leave because the team is not investing enough, in-house fights . . . etc.

These are all speculative though, we'll only truly see the full effect of Glazer in about 2-3 years.

eldee:

One thing you have to understand though, is that the Uniteds and the Milans won't sit and watch a Liverpool drop every year.
I see them using their power to influence UEFA, especially when the next election comes around, it's bigger than investment for teams like Milan and Barcelona, it's national pride . . . the UEFA regulations won't last, you'll see.

I think Milan has already waned as a European super power, their financial muscle was reduced immediately Serie A went with the PL common pot system, when last can you recall Milan making a major signing unlike those times in the past they and Juve along with RM and Ajax with their impressive youth academy were the world powers.

Actually most of them supported the FFP rules, but like you say I expect them to find ways to circumvent it, it is still a step in the right direction though and we are not likely to see a brazen buying of success again in the future like happened with Chelsea.

RM and the other big guns will always be powerful even if it is only the player pull they have with their historical success, but they've also got to be more realistic with their spending now and there will be enough room for the prudent and smart to give them bloody noses every now and then rather than chasing useless dreams that will only lead to ruin.

@duduspace

Forget that . . . Milan is still a super power, you don't get Robinho, Becks, Ronalidinho and Ibrahimovich if you're not spending on wages.
They've held on to players like Kaka and Pato, Pirlo without even flinching.
You do know that player wages never come down right??

There were allegations that public funding was going into AC Milan's purse, now that shows how far they'll go to keep power . . . and their agreement to support the thing was a knee-jerk reaction to Chelsea and Man City, when it starts hitting them, they'll find their way like they always do, I think United will too.
This just mirrors Formula One.

To be honest eldee, I think they are currently leveraging on their history which gives them the ability to still attract quality players even though they now seem to be forming an association of the washed up, disgruntled and unwanted (Ronaldinho, Robinho, and Ibra). Its been a while a trophy has graced AC's cabinet (not as long as ours though) and they are not the force they once were in the Serie A.

Alex Song believes that he is finally starting to show his best form after six years at the club.

Song scored the only goal of the game as Arsenal edged past West Ham on Sunday to underline his progress since he arrived as a callow 17-year-old from Bastia in 2005.

His excellent form of late has reinforced the belief he is one of Arsenal's top performers this season.

"When I came to Arsenal, I was just 17 years old. Today I am 23. I am more mature now and can learn every single day," he said.

"Now I am more confident, which is maybe why I try to push myself. We have a lot of players who have been here seven or eight years now.

"When you play in one team for a long time, with the best manager in the world, you want to give your best every day, that is why you can see it when we are on the pitch - we showed very good character against West Ham and never gave up, which is very good for the future for us."

Song is doubtful for the UEFA Champions League game against Shakhtar Donetsk after picking up a shin injury against West Ham.

Song began life at the Gunners as a centre-back but following a disappointing performance against Fulham in 2006, he was loaned out to Charlton.

But as Song recalls his dark days, he always maintained faith in his ability.

Learn
"I never gave up. It was a bad time for me, but I try to learn," he added.

"When you make mistakes, you have to learn to be ready for the next step. That is why I push myself.

"My family help me a lot. I have to say thank you to my wife and children because that is where my inspiration comes from."

Song feels that Arsene Wenger's latest crop of stars, who have reached the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup, have the potential to be a special bunch.

"We know this is a very important season for us which is why everyone gives their best to be happy at the end of the season," he continued.

"We just need to give everything to give our best and see what happens in the end."

The Cameroon international has developed into being a key man at the club and Wenger believes his improved levels of fitness have been central to his excellent form.

"He sees there is a big competition in midfield and that helps, because nobody is guaranteed a place," said Wenger.

"Song has improved his engine. Before he was less mobile, now he does not need a breather when he goes and comes back, that has added something to his quality.

"Since he has more stamina capacity, when we win the ball, he is on the move straight away and, when his timing is, he arrives at the right moment in the box."

Arsenal have not won the league since they went through an entire season undefeated in the 2003/2004 campaign.

But Wenger believes they have a chance to change that if they can stay within touching distance of Chelsea.

"Chelsea is the super-favourite and everybody else is chasing," explained Wenger.

"Our advantage is that we have played already at Chelsea, at Manchester City, at Liverpool and we will go to Manchester United in December.

"For us it is very important to keep in touch with the top teams knowing we will play them at home in the second part of the season, with the absolute need to beat them here.

"If we can keep in touch until the second part of the season, we have a chance."

SO SONG DON MARRY? and him don born pikin

duduspace:

To be honest eldee, I think they are currently leveraging on their history which gives them the ability to still attract quality players even though they now seem to be forming an association of the washed up, disgruntled and unwanted (Ronaldinho, Robinho, and Ibra). Its been a while a trophy has graced AC's cabinet (not as long as ours though) and they are not the force they once were in the Serie A.

Don't let anyone fool you, they came off a point deduction that coulda got them relegated . . . and then the Mourinho factor.
You don't win trophies when Mourinho is around, it's that simple.

Right now, Mourinho is gone, they'll soon get Ancelotti or sum next Italian coach and it's back to business.
AC is Italy's national team . . . they won't just go down like that, that's like Catalonia letting Barca go down.

Oo le so L'Arse di champion!
or duduspace di sauron. . .
joor-ooh!

Se o le so debosky di mamagee
abi ki Bacary sagna di brad pit?

joor-oh!

PS: I come in peace!.

FBS:

PS: I come in peace!.

Like Osama would

FBS:

Oo le so L'Arse di champion!
or duduspace di sauron. . .
joor-ooh!

Se o le so debosky di mamagee
abi ki Bacary sagna di brad pit?

joor-oh!

PS: I come in peace!.

all dis Yoruba Yoruba pple sef 

@ FBS

youdondeymadt this early morning abi?

@Gooners
10 league games played.
2nd on the table trailing Chelski by 5 points:Q-finals of the CC:One leg into the CL knockout stages.
What are your views?