Arsenal On The Brink? Summit To Look Forward To
Jan 19th, 2010 by 'holic
For the second time in four days we find ourselves looking forward, if that is the correct expression, to doing battle with Bolton Wanderers. The prize up for grabs is the leadership of the Premier League, but so many times this season big clubs have dropped points to lesser lights that nothing should be taken for granted.
Those who yearn for evolution to herald an end to anti-football will be delighted that old mother Bolton has had a Coyle fitted. A better product should be conceived by the Scot, but for now, as we saw on Sunday, we have to deal with the bitter and ineffective pill of previous partners.
The visitors have no new injury worries, but unsurprisingly we have lost another player. Fran Merida might have expected another opportunity after scoring at the Reebok but the ankle injury he picked up rules him out. There is some rare good news as both Denilson and Theo Walcott should be fit to return.
I expect the Brazilian to feature at the expense of young Craig Eastmond, but Walcott may start from the bench if Tomas Rosicky is thought to be fit enough to play twice in quick succession. The only other likely change would be a recall for Gael Clichy at left-back, with Armand Traore missing out.
Once again the weather promises a slick playing surface, which should be to our advantage. I see no reason for not being bullish again with the ‘holic pound. I am splitting the difference between the four goals I predicted on Sunday, and the two we actually scored. 3-1 to Arsenal attracts a best offer of 11/1 from Victor Chandler.
Of course were that to come to fruition it would give us a double reason to celebrate, for the two goal margin of victory would take us above the bus stop in Fulham at the top of the table on goal difference. That would be quite an achievement for a side so widely tipped to struggle for a top-four berth back in August.
It would also provide the perfect springboard for the four huge Premiership fixtures that follow. The team and the manager have to concentrate just on this next match, but as supporters we are peering over mother Bolton’s sloping shoulders at the visits to Villa and the bus stop in Fulham, plus home games with the Salford bankrupts and Liverpool. That won’t quite be make or break, but it is a doorway of opportunity to what could be a relatively straightforward run-in.
Keep everything crossed, ‘holics.
47 Responses to “Arsenal On The Brink? Summit To Look Forward To”
Well I’ll have a glass of Margaux then, please, ‘holic.
2nd drink then!
Got any Cashew Feni, barman?
Good taste, but I shouldn’t have expected anything else, Ollie 😉
Cheese and Onion or plain?
Que?
No fancy muck here, mate. Cheese and onion or plain 😉
I’ll have a double Glenfiddich 12 years old with soda, ‘holic. And hold the soda.
If Ollie goes for the Margaux, I’ll go for the Latour. Cheers!
I’ll be nuts and ruin it with some nuts – plain please, I’ll save the Cheesy ones for the black stuff later.
manc city are muck
getting run by a poor utd team
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Shit on ’em both. Though a bit of credit to the red mancs for taking the piss. Anyhow I hope they go through as another game for the skintos will only advantage us.
Pint of G&T on a drip please barman.
Heh. Salford Bankrupts.
Nice.
LETS DO IT, I FEEL IF WE CAN LEAD THE TABLE, THEN THERE’LL BE ADDED PRESSURE ON US TO DELIVER ON EVERY GAME, IT WILL BE VERY INTERESTING TO SEE, HOW THE BOYS REACT.
Feeling a bit sweet. D’Yquem 2001 for me, and have you got any 24 month old Roquefort?
I’m loving the Bordeaux recommendations, and the 12-yr Glenfiddich, but if the sky’s the limit, then I’ll start with the 18-yr Macallan and move on to the 2000 Petrus.
Thanks as usual for the write up! I’d love to see Tomas get some run out- I think he will provide a powerful element in the games to come, if he can stay fit. Theo has really struggled this year to get any momentum worth recognizing, IMHO.
Caol Ila- 18 year, if you don’t mind!
i think we shouldnt risk rosicky because he will be vital in comong weeks therefore we should play lively but battling side
my opinion without ones that are coming from injury like clichy why risk him when traore isnt so horrific
almunia
sagna gallas vermaelen traore
diaby
arshavin denilson cesc vela
eduardo
diaby in the centre cause denilson cant hack the diffiulties of bolton while injured
And the good news is Walcot could be back…………..whats irony ?
Good warm-up `Holic!
@ayub: totally agree on Traore. All the Bolton attacks but one were on his side and he did pretty well considering. If at LB, Clichy is our best defender, Traore is certainly our best offensive LB. Like Eboue he could well evolve in a dual-position player as he would certainly perform well as a left midfielder too.
One last thing: it definitively looks like the point against Everton was a point salvaged. With their players back they look like the team that deserves the 4th spot the most. If they stay fit, Liverpool, Chelski, ManUnited, Spuds and Villa will pray for a point too…
Bubbly water today. Still recovering from the week-end..
here we go, come on arsenal lets get up there and stay there till the end
Pint of the black stuff please, ‘Holic…
Good points all around. I do think that while we may miss Traore’s ability to cross when replaced by Clichy, we won’t look nearly as shambolic defensively in that area of the pitch. I thought Eastmond had the spirit of the holding role down (break up attacks, collect the ball, pass it on), but seemed to wilt when pressed by the opposition. He’s young and inexperienced, so I expect he’ll improve. Hopefully Son of Denil can step in and do the job without crashing to the ground as though taken out by a high-powered rifle.
As Monsieur Wenger is fond of mentioning the mental strength of the squad, it would be interesting if we can keep the focus for the match tomorrow night in order to gain those three points on KGB Fulham. Should they do the job, I do wonder how being top would affect the lads (I say all of this while feverishly knocking on wood). Do you reckon the boys can maintain their level of focus? Cheers.
Please pardon the Canadian but could someone please explain to me the “bus stop in Fulham” reference to Chelsea?
Chelsea Football Club has its grounds at Stamford Bridge, in neighbouring Fulham, not Chelsea. It’s just a bus stop in SW6.
Feeling good about Wednesday night. We have gained more players than we have lost from the weekend which is definitely a novelty. That has to be a good sign.
I think Rosicky will start and probably be rested at Stoke this weekend. Theo can come on at the end. If he plays for 20 minutes I will consider that a plus. Even more of a plus if Denilson manges to last the full 90. He will be needed in the coming weeks.
4 – 0 to the mighty Gunners.
One last point. The will he won’t he buy a striker debate continues to rage on in the media. My opinion is this. Why don’t we look for a loan deal for 6 months? Allows RVP to get back to fitness. Allows others time to return as well as providing cover. Van Nistlehorse and Huntalaar both want out on loan. I know the horse may not be massively popular with some but he does score goals. I am sure no one would moan if he helped us take points in the coming weeks.
Pedigree, cheese and onion and a trip to the jukebox for me please.
Keep the faith.
It’s taking the piss out of the rents (Chelsea). Chelsea and Fulham are very close together geographically. So referring to the rents as a bus stop in Fulham is indicating how small a club they are.
It’s the same as singing to the rents “you’re just a small town in Fulham”
Oops, I see da boss beat me to it, more succinctly than me!
Nicely pun holic,
Our cut and thrust should be potent enough to penetrate this Coyle you speak of. If we p(l)ay well enough they should drop to their knees.
A win is a must, but we will be saying that from here on in for every home game at least. As you say it is nigh on impossible not to look beyond tomorrows match. I pray the players are more focussed than us, I pray for three points, and I pray for a healthy squad to remain afterwards.
A pint of holy water please
I received a french letter from a pal in Paris this morning. He’s a real Trojan and works in a missionary position over there. The writing style was strange, filled with pregnant pauses. He pointed out the fact that the delivery of ugly twins, i.e. back to back games with Bolton, was an regretted conception, resulting from an unfortunate frosty injection which caused a mid-term crisis outside the ground last fortnight. Late withdrawals, it appears, can often have nasty outcomes.
He wondered if Bolton would show more penetration tomorrow? If they do will our fans go natal? Should Arsene buy a new keeper, a sort of “buy me and stop one” campaign to dull Bolton’s thrusts, he queried? Personally, I think this was born of a misconception that Manuel is off his eggs, and possibly likely to drop them at the first ask. Arsene sitting crossed legged on the bench won’t provide sufficient protection. We’ll need a strong sheath around the penalty box to provide a shield.
I think our lads will need to be up for it and totally inviagriated. Wilting under the pressure won’t be good. It’ definitely not a rush of blood to the head we need if the holic pound is going to hit the mark and multiply.
There’s much more fertile ground to plough here, ‘Holic but this note has been cradled for a long enough time in pre-delivery and I think it’s time to push it out. Hopefully the conditions won’t be too sterile when the teams run out tomorrow. I’m hoping for triplets for the home team with no penetration at the back.
Stiff whisky for me and a coconut juice with beetroot oil and rose petals for Her Nellienes. Funny, she hasn’t asked for that since….No! She can’t be.
BTM you need your own blog mate!
Predicting Arsenal 2 (Eduardo, Rosicky) Bolton 1 (Taylor) but we may get one from Fabregas to please ‘holic at 3-1. Taylor is due one after his series of shocking misses over the weekend.
For all the Bolton idiots:
http://arsenalist.com/
Arsenalist has the MOTD highlights on…Bolton show just how classy they can be around the 4:35 mark. That Taylor idiot shouldn’t even be on the pitch today.
I’m cautiously optimistic about tonight.
Sunday was a game we would of been bullied out of and maybe dropped points in in the previous few seasons. But this team has got more balls this term and are showing spirit and determination to fight to get a result. (another e.g. the Everton game)
With a new manager to impress and their crowd totally behind them for the first time in a while they tried to rough us up at the Reeboc but the lads stood up and our class prevailed. I can’t see them putting up the same kind of fight at the Grove.
Here’s hoping that Owen Coyle has brought his Burnley away form with him and this time tomorrow we will be looking down from top of the league.
Nothing fancy for me please barman. A lemonade and a packet of crisps.
Cheers.
Getting nervously excited by this season’s possibilities, but can’t help feel that if we had somehow, by some strange mathematical phenomenonononnn crept up a little more sneakily on Chelsea it would have been better… I get the feeling that they’ve finally noticed us and we’ve made them angry! I have no such fears about Salford though.. think they’re a spent (hah!) force.
Onwards and upwards…. BTM; surely too early for such a post!???
Beer n nuts..
When is the African Nations Cup over? We are missing Song badly. Without CF we would have struggled for the points on Sunday as we gave the ball away too much. That said I thought Eastmond had a v reasonable debut.
Am coming to end of a spell off the booze so I’ll have a pint of Youngs, followed by a few glasses of Katnook Cab Sauv followed by a nice Bas Armagnac – plus some food in there somewhere.
I am about to set off for the emirates, blagged a nice club level seat.
The good news is that i have never not witnessed us taking 3 points in the 20-30 times i have been up the grove since its opening.
I will not count the PSV champs league exit, as that was not a league match.
No joke, i had a ticket for the West Ham game a couple of seasons back.. the one where rob green was superman and zamora cheeked the chip over lemon…. we lost for the first time.. but i never made the game due to unforseen cirucmstances.
Wish me luck on my journey to the promised land. 🙂
When was the last time our opponents have such nice things to say about us?
Bolton boss Owen Coyle, whose side were beaten 2-0 by Arsenal at the Reebok Stadium on Sunday, said he hopes Wenger’s team take the title – after a positive result for Wanderers.
Cesc Fabregas
Coyle said: ‘For me, you have to recognise that Chelsea and Manchester United are good sides, but the purist in me? Yes, I would like to see Arsenal win it. They play the way I like to see football played.
‘The way they pass the ball … they don’t play in straight lines. They pop up in different areas that can hurt you.
‘When you think of the fluency they had at the start of the season before the injuries, they looked superb. Then you had people writing them off. They were 11 points behind at one stage and they weren’t so much written off as totally dismissed.
‘Their position now speaks volumes for the way Arsene has galvanised them now they are through the injury situation they had with some of their top players.
‘The purist in me would see a lot of merit in the way they play and gain success, and that success is deserved for the way they go about it.’
Since55 – the ACN ends January 31st, though Cameroon will go out if they lose to Tunisia tomorrow.
Fuckit I’m on a train home from work, I thought, yeah I’ll get home for the second half – watch a decent stream on the ‘ol’ laptop with my dinner and….somebody tell me what the fuck is going on! Are we playing a bunch of C*unt buckets? Are we playing like a bunch of C*unt buckets? Or both? How the fuck are we 2 nil down. I wanna scream!
Still not home, but Rosicky makes it 2-1. I might just have to apologise heh.
Terrible tackle from Gallas. Could have broke the guy’s ankle.
Okay, okay, it finished 4-2 to us and I should have had a little bit more faith, but come on I was on a cold train going nowhere fast. And we were just toying with them heh.
Sooth, he who lives by the sword…
@AFC: no shame, they played very well in the first half before fading away so badly we could have buried 2/3 more goals past their hapless goalkeeper.
@Sooth: yes he could have got a yellow for that one. If we’d been on the receiving end we would have been seething for a long while, even more so when the goal was scored with an injured player down. Oh well, for once it goes our way. It always went ManUre’s way when they were winning titles, now its our turn…
Great to see you lurking ‘Holic! Hoping for a quick match write-up as per usual. Sadly, I’ll have to go to bed now because going 0-2 down and having a fever has done strange things with my body. Hold the red wine please!
Speaking of holding red, yes, Gallas might well have had a red card but I’d say, sadly, that it evens out pretty well, violence-wise, with what Cesc had to go through the last game. And if you take into account that we perhaps scored a goal when the game should have been stopped… well… Three penalties not given to Cesc.
Sleep tight Gooners! I’ll be back in the new blog-post tomorrow!
And oh, Top of the League, say we are top of the League!
Great win! Back to where we belong.
Get the drinks in.
We’re on top!!!