We’re back… In threes…

Apologies Gooners for falling off the face of the earth, we have recently been as productive on here as Arsenal during the transfer window. And judging by all your emails, you are missing your daily(!) bite size tidbits of Arsenal news with a bit of tomfoolery thrown in. So please bear with us for the moment, we’re going through a bit of a ‘saga’ shall we call it at the moment and hopefully we’ll be giving you daily updates once more. Failing that we’ll be making more comebacks than Stan Victor Collymoore but without the wife beating antics. So I give you this and name check two old skool hero’s and two guys who are definitely hip hop legends – Eric B and Rakim.

Its been a long time, I shouldn’t have left you

Without a strong rhyme to step to

Think of how many weak shows you slept through

Times up, I’m sorry I kept you

So Gooners as I’ve said bear with us – the show will be back on the road and normal service will resume very soon. So now you’re here, get cracking and read today’s, this weeks, this months article!

In Threes… 

So apparently the fashion of the moment is hat tricks. First Theo goes and graduates on the International stage with three goals. Now, scared of missing out on the hottest new trend around The Grove, our Togolese forward has gone and got himself his very own shiny hat trick. Poor old RVP – he was inches away from being a trendsetter just a few weeks ago and now he just looks like the poor kid who can only afford goals in pairs. 

Despite the hype and deflation of the transfer window, things don’t look too shabby around The Grove of late. There was that brief aberration against Fulham but since then things have gone rather well. And the Fulham game should now be reviewed. With hindsight, though they are by no means world beaters, and still a team we should be beating if we want to win the title, Fulham are proving to be a far improved team this season, riding well up the table. So rather than being a guide of what might be to come this season, it might just have been one of those blips against a team always capable of sneaking a result. 

 

And what of Adebayor’s latest attempt to win over fans? By refusing to get on a plane to Togo, I suspect he is trying to recast himself as the new Dennis Bergkamp, whose fear of flying was well known. To think most Gooners envisioned RvP as the new Dennis, what with them sharing Dutch heritage and technical mastery of football. How foolish of us to completely overlook the lanky fellow with the crazy hair and lack of experience wearing clogs. 

Meanwhile, our new star in the making, Samir Nasri has a worrying knee injury, whilst Tomas Rosicky looks more likely to turn out for the wheelchair football team at the Paralympics than appear at The Emirates anytime soon. Without going over old ground too much here, this smells of Eboué to me. I know he supposedly ‘injured’ himself on the weekend against Blackburn, but I suspect it’s just a smokescreen. If Nasri recovers in time, we better warn Theo to steer well clear of the Ivorian anywhere in the changing rooms. And possibly train all week in medieval battle armour. Just in case…. 

So now we’re off to Kiev, home of.. erm… well.. I’m sure it’s nice this time of year anyway, as long as you don’t get caught in any radioactive dust still lingering from Chernobyl. Really, this is the best time to be playing a team out there. For what seems like 10 months of the year, they play in 20ft drifts of snow, which might suit players like Adebayor and Bendtner, but poor old Theo and young Jack Wilshere would need snorkels. Kiev are by no means a team that we should roll over, but this is a good draw, and getting them before the winter chill kicks in should negate a lot of their home advantage (though moving Kiev somewhere near the Seven Sisters Rd might have helped a bit as well). It looks as though we will be without Gael Clichy though, which starts to put a bit of a strain on the team. With Traore off gallivanting around the Arsenal Old Folks home down in Portsmouth, there is limited cover within the squad for the left back spot. Kieran Gibbs could slot in, or perhaps Gallas will be shifted left and Djourourourouou’ou will come in to play alongside Kolo in the middle of the defence. That is of course if Silvestre isn’t fit again after his entire body was rebuilt with the leftover bits of Tomas Rosicky. Either way, it will mean a reshuffle and lets all hope this is not the start of an injury crisis just when we were looking good. 

Hopefully by this time next week, we’ll have sorted out a solid start in the Champions League, and then given Bolton a good roughing up. And if nothing else, we can always just laugh at Sp*rs in last place!

By Paul Wright – Allgoonerdup roving report

Adebayor, The Cesc and other stuff..

Seems the only stories doing the rounds right now are the Adebayor to Barcelona stories, not sure if it’s going to happen but it definitely wont be today as some quarters suggests, namely The Metro. But to be honest they are just being right lazy journo’s as they have nicked the story from Spanish toilet paper El Mundo Deportivo which is the equivalent to The Daily Sport. This story will run and run even if we don’t want it to. However, one thing we do know is that Wenger said his biggest challenge and hope this summer is to keep all his players. So unless the shrewd coach has changed his mind or has a trick up his sleeve don’t believe he will be willing to off Adebayor without a fight. Adebayor will definitely not be leaving The Arsenal today and signing for Barcelona that’s for sure. Unless his time in Togo doing his fundraising and football schools was just a rouse and all this time he’s actually been in Spain negotiating, looking at houses and completing a medical. Jeez, some people write utter bollocks. 

The Cesc Fabregas Show keeps on trucking this time it’s on the international stage. I watched the Spain vs Italy match last night and when The Cesc™ stepped up to take Spain’s fifth penalty I just thought ‘Don’t be the player to f*ck it up’. And the Wonderkid didn’t disappoint, he stuck it straight in. Cue The Cesc’s™ ‘goal face’, I love it when The Cesc™ shows that ‘goal face’ you can see just how much it means to him. I really don’t know why he is on the Spanish bench, but sod it, the less he plays for them the fresher he will be for us. 

I have stuck to my word and haven’t been clicking on Caught offside’s links on NewsNow. It hasn’t been that hard I must admit. It is as if a light has been flicked on and you just know whatever story is hiding behind Caught offside’s ‘Arsenal to bid for striker – this one is really, really good!’ is just a load of old tosh. That not clicking thing goes for Sportingo as well, that is another site which just has headlines for effect without actually telling you anything you didn’t know or read somewhere because the headline was a clandestine one.

On a completely different note fair play to Paul Ince who becomes the first English black manager of a Premier League outfit. So good luck to him, well apart from when Blackburn Rovers play us. 

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven will be revealed this week. So you still have time to get your own opinions in so you can’t bang on about Gus Caesar keeping the likes of Liam Brady or Patrick Vieira out the team. Get your vote on: alltimeeleven@allgoonerdup.com.