Eduardo Da Silva, Arsenal's Number Nine!
Oct 19th, 2010 by 'holic
Did I watch a different first-half to Andy Gray and the Sky pundits? Presumably, being a cautious and nervous old soul I did. I try to give an impression, rather than a match report, and tonight my opinion of the opening forty-five minutes varied wildly from those who are paid a fortune for the benefit of their wisdom and experience.
Andy, bless him, couldn’t understand the possession stats just before we scored our second goal. I know from the comfort of the sofa you don’t get an appreciation of what is going on across the entire playing area, but the camera does follow the ball and the visitors owned that for long spells.
“They didn’t hurt us”, I hear you say, and you are right, but that was mutual. We owed our half-time lead to our only two goal-bound efforts, both of which were gifted by horrid defending mistakes. The first of which also owed much to a huge slice of luck as Alex Song attempted something beyond him! He made up for it by providing the assist for little Samir to give the interval scoreline a more comfortable look than perhaps was warranted.
Having said all of that, the second-half truly was a demonstration of just what we can achieve having got ourselves in the driving seat. If before the break had belonged to the rejuvenated Tomas Rosicky, the second was all the work of one Jack Wilshere.
On the hour the result was put beyond doubt when Johan Djourou was hauled down by the previously-warned Adriano, and the returning skipper placed his penalty high to the ‘keeper’s right. Shakhtar may have retained the ball well in the opening period, but now it was Arsenal’s turn, and far more positive we were with it too.
This was the cue for Cesc Fabregas to depart, Denilson to appear, and Eduardo to finally take his place in the visitors attack, thank you God! Those who follow the drinks will know why I had good reason to see him on the pitch this particular night. It was great to see the reception from the Arsenal support for the Crozilian, but not a surprise.
The unstoppable Wilshere exchanged passes with the excellent Rosicky for number four in the trademark move of the half. Am I the only one delighted to hear Ruud Gullit attempting to dampen down absurd comparisons with Paul Scholes as son of Twitchy pushed Jack’s England credentials at the final whistle?
The tally became five as the again-impressive Marouane Chamakh found himself unmarked, and played onside by a dozing full-back, in front of just the goalkeeper. He even needed a double take at the linesman before setting a Champions League record of scoring in six consecutive appearances.
I needed something else to happen to complete the perfect night, and never doubted it would occur! Eduardo had not had a sniff until the 82nd minute. If anybody should know not to give him a virtually free shot in the box it should have been us. Bless his little cotton socks he knocked in a consolation and Gooners in North London, and a small corner of Wiltshire, screamed their approval!
For some, the final eight minutes were more tense than others. Finally the whistle blew, and experts expressed their disappointment with the visitors. We’ll know in a fortnight if they have every reason to berate the 2009 UEFA Cup winners.
Until then, I have an appointment or two with a Mr Bushmills. G’night ‘holics.
80 Responses to “Eduardo Da Silva, Arsenal's Number Nine!”
first?
what a game…something cold…something with an umbrella !!
Dammit
Glass of Red please
Drinks are on the house tonight, gents π
Does that mean I have to get it myself?
Was fucking chuffed when Eduardo scored tonight.
Enjoy the Bushmills Shadders!
G&T for me, please, ‘holic.
I didn’t know you were a Wiltshire man ‘holic! Whereabouts in the fine county are you from?
To be fair to Andy Gray I did get the impression that he thought the possession was pretty even in the first half. Having said that I was watching his commentary on an internet stream half way round the world so I may have misheard!
If it’s on the house I’ll have an Old Timer please…
Although I love EDu I was dissapointed by us conceedding a goal. I’m very happy with EDu reception from fans and players as well. I hope those who drove EDu away by calling him a cheat, they will now appreciate how is being loved by the fans it was great o give him farewell.
Now , can I have Hansa Pilsner please! how many are there in the house ‘holic?
Steve, you didn’t hear the sonic boom in Swindon tonight on 82 minutes? π
I thought Gullit told Jamie off cos he was being unethical by saying Wilshere should be protected for rash tackles, in fact he should be encouraged. And then Gullit rightly told him
that is a wrong thinking and it was funny to see Jamie couldn’t find any words to defend himself.
Also Jeff was quite rude and disrespectful to Gullit cos he told Jamie off for being a wanker.
Thank you Tim, in the preview, for the song of the day!
What bet did you place, ‘holic?
Just a beer, please.
Cheers “holic….Enjoy the Bushmills tonight!
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I wish you were there to share the proceeds, her Nellieness!
BtM is MIA tonight…. π
Evening ‘Holic & ‘Holics
I fancy a late one, anything left in that Bushmills bottle for a returning regular?
“Son of Twitchy”… phnaar. He’s such a weasel faced little toe-rag. He looked like a slapped arse when Gullit countered his bullsh*t comments and he couldn’t string enough sensible words together to give a coherent reply. I bet he wishes that he paid attention when he was being taught comprehension a couple of years back. Looked like he took it personally too. What a prannie – quadruple heh!
Fabulous result. Everything was pretty much perfect. Eddie’s goal was my second fave of the night. Jack’s was a beaut. Nasri’s finish also pure class.
Dear Arsene & The Boys: Please, please, please, please, please, please can you fix it for us all and step and repeat that performance on Sunday in Middle Eastlands?
Cheers all!
Just got home from the game and agree totally with your assessment. First half I thought was quite lack lustre. My recollection is that it was a half of very few chances. Got some luck with the first. Little Samir reminded me a tad of Mr Bergkamp with his touch and finish for the 2nd.
2nd half went exactly to plan. Cesc got 60 mins under his belt. I thought that Rosicky and Nasri were outstanding again. Nice to see Theo get a run out and great to see both the goal and reception that Eduardo got.
Special praise for Jack again. I find it hard to believe his tender years. Also praise for Chamakh. He works so hard and gives us something special. Now why when we signed him did we not keep Eddie and give it a go for just one more season?
For all of those who sit and watch the games from many miles away I hope you thought there was a better atmosphere tonight. I certainly enjoyed myself. The welcome for Eduardo brought back memories of the Pires return. It was quite emotional at times. It was well deserved and I am sure appreciated by Eddie.
I hope we do not rest on our laurels after this result. I did think again at the back we did not look that solid. We will need to sharpen up for the visit to Citeh. Until then I will enjoy a nice Adnams please????
Just time to give my wife her present of some Liverpool knickers. Could not resist them. 2 yanks and they are down.
Keep the faith.
PS: If no Bushmills, a John Daniels is preferred…. π
Wow.
I fell in love with our pressing high up the pitch. We didn’t have possession in the first half but that was because of our pressing, we didn’t let them do anything else than pass from the LB to CB to RB and so on for about 40 minutes.
I thought Chamakh’s touch was a bit off (apart from the build up to Jack’s goal), maybe he’s tired from playing too much.
Was very pleased with Djourou and actually with Clichy’s defensive performance as well.
This was 5 goals scored in a game we scored with “the handbrake on”, imagine what we can do with it off…
Steve T – I apologize if you think I’m criticizing you by any chance, I was not. That’s just my opinion of a fan’s “job” while attending a match. I haven’t met you but judging from your posts here I can say I wish most gooners would be like you.
Barman, give Steve T whatever he wants, and I’ll settle for a pint of Carling.
Good Champions League form continues and hopefully will spill over into the Premier League, but I’m starting to put more and more hope into our Champions League chances this season based on our performances so far.
I’ve absolutely no complaints with the results thus far in the Champions League.
‘holic, when I turned off the television the score was 5-1 but if you say it finished 80-1 I’ll take your word for it!
The eduardo reception still gives me goosebumps. A very emotional day for me as a gooner.
Don’t want to go into the what if questions again. Just wish him all the good luck in the world.
Great read as usual. A bit early for a heavy drink for me in this part of the world, a Hoegaarden pls, maybe 2!!……thx
Snir.. 1-0 mate. Eran Zahavi is god.
Peaaaaaaaaaaaaace.
i’m not sure people noticed this, just before eduardo came in, the crowd went silent waiting for his name to be announce, and when it did, they all cheer him for standing ovation. what a moment for eduardo.
Still waiting until 10:30 pm before the Fox Soccer Channel plays the match. The C*nts showed Real – Milan live at 11:45 this morning so I missed out. Sometimes I can manage to stay off the computer but not for 12 hours! I’ll take a shot of whatever you’re pouring Holic ….
It’s not a big surprise with the UCL results. For the most part, the continental sides try to play more football. That is right up our alley as opposed to getting kicked and bullied all match.
Charliegeorge – I thought we agreed that you were too influenced by the wrong side of the city and we’re gonna leave it there for a while (unless you wanna email me and learn a bit more from the other side and try to be objective), didn’t we :)?
It’s a shame we can’t retire the number 9.
i kno… jack aint scholes
he is more like gazza mixed with cesc ( or cesc mixed with gazza)
son of twitchy even had the nerve to imply that scholes can tackle unlike Jack
hmmm ok… on recent matches it looks like thats the thing they have in common, some bad late tackles
It looked from my seat exactly as you wrote it, Holic. Remarkable that the view from a sofa in Swindon and that from Block 134 were the same. On my way to the land of Hans Christian Andersen, which on another day would have been sufficient of a prompt for a long fairy tale, but unfortunately, time is flying.
Only comment of note, Andy Gray uses the same “rest room” in BΓΆock 134 as the rest of us peons! You would have thought SKY might have sprung a bit more for his leak.
No one more chuffed than me when Dudu scored. That must have been a very emotional return for him.
That was easy last night – the Ukraninan league must be piss poor if that mob are the best that they have to offer.
Sunday we’ll be back to the real stuff – I’ll settle for 1-0 to the Gunners right now, with an Alex Song trademark goal from 3 yards out π
Anyone found Arseblog today? I’ve tried following the link but get nowhere.
Great game to watch, but the intensity will be different on Sunday. Getting excited / nervous already!
Interesting take on the Rooney situation – chickens coming home to roost?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/danroan/2010/10/ambition_key_to_rooney_revolt.html
BtM, where in 134 were you?
Catalan,
go to arseblog.com the oleole link wont work.
Thanks Indian – will try that now
Shaktar was not shite as some of you think. They came with a plan to keep the ball away from the Arse and hit us with counter attack. They were not planning for the two first half errors. After that they didn’t have any choice, but to come out of their shell. Great result for us!
Holics, am I missing something or Clichy’s and Song’s roles have changed? They both are attacking as if there is no tomorrow. We were 5-0 up and please go back and watch where Clichy was for their goal. The high ball to Eddie came from the left side. It was fine since we were 5-0, but if it were 0-0, that could have been the difference. I just find him to be undisciplined and crazy at times.
Still loving the result and the performance. I’m among the few who think we played well in the first half, Shaktar had their plan in place and tried hard not to give us the ball.
I know Wilshere is the buzz of the moment (and deservedly so) but I thought Nasri was equally impressive. I fail to see the suppposed luck for his goal where his marvelous skills were again on display as they were with his somptuous assist in the second half. At the rate he is going he will compare favorably with Bobby Pires by the end of the season…
@Getty: Song took a bit of time to adapt but he is starting to look good going forward. Let’s not forget he had a goal and two assists yesterday. I think this is part of Arsene’s plan to rebalance offensive and defensive duties in midfield and not to have the players rely too much on Song to defend. It’s starting to bear fruits.
@Steve T: Indeed support was magnificent yesterday as for most CL games. As for Eduardo, I’m pretty sure he is better off playing for Shaktar where he scored in 50% of his games despite being a substitute most of the time, rather than watch Chamakh from the bench with Vela.
Oh dear neighbours π
How are the LWC doing tonight?? π
That’s Intertainment….. la la la la la… la la
Kerrrrching.
I’ll have some of your best cognac then please, barman.
Shakhtar are 2 years removed from winning the UEFA Cup. They are a good side. Give credit to our guys for putting on a show.
Inter nearly fucked it up at the end but it ended 4-3. They were piss-poor in the second half and simply stopped playing.
@Matt: I agree about Song, I also think that he is under orders to attack more. As you say, Arsene probably wants a more dynamic midfield to make it more difficult for the opponents to mark and/or target specific players.
Ollie, tell the arseurs I miss them all. Cannot access from here π
Another Virgin victim ‘holic
Tough fixture this weekend. We looked terrible at Man City last season, but things do change and we have key players coming back at the right time. This will either be heralded as the confirmation of City as contenders or as Arsenal finally standing up as real men not pretenders. I can’t imagine Mancini picking Ade after last year’s foolishness but maybe we’ll get to see a repeat performance?
It seems so Jackster. Horrible not having access here π
If you are having trouble accessing Arseblog, try this:
Mac owners
PC owners
The links are from todays Arseblog, so if it works then Mr Blogs is the one to thank, not me!
Hmm, just tried posting twice and the posts don’t seem to show up??? Strange.
Hi holic, 1st post but long time reader, just wanted to check everyone ok, heard you can die from laughing and was worried first 35 mins of the spuds game last night may have wiped out most of the gooner nation. Pint of the black stuff for me please barman
Great week of football so far.
virgin still doesn’t have the DNS update as I post. You can, if you like, add the address in your hosts file.
This should work for OsX
Open a terminal – Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
#Edit the hosts file
$ sudo cp /private/etc/hosts /private/etc/hosts.orig
$ sudo nano /private/etc/hosts
#add this at the bottom of the file
216.38.55.27 arseblog.com
#Flush the DNS cache
$ dscacheutil -flushcache
Lars, thanks. The spam filter must have been a bit sensitive about the links. All sorted now.
Thanks xyzzy.
Welcome Glennw. That was certainly an entertaining half at the San Siro. Twitter was alive!
Huge apologies to everybody for no AGM post tonight, which was the plan. Things have cropped up which have stolen my time, and tomorrow, if I can resolve them, I should have a new iMac to set up and get all manner of stuff transferred, so Citeh preview Saturday will be next up.
’tis the season for technical problems. I feel I have lost Blogs for ever – have cleared my cache etc etc but still nothing.
Mornings aren’t the same without the profanities!
I know what you mean, Catalan. ISP problem here, apparently. I am one of their
customersinmates.Sorry folks, it’s an issue with various ISPs. The ones I can say for sure that are having problems are:
Virgin – UK
Telefonica – Spain
Comcast – some part of the US
I know there are others too. I don’t know that there’s anything I can do about it either, it’s down to them to sort out their DNS caches.
I’ll have a Kir Royale please, ‘holic
Thanks for the update Blogs. These things just take a day or two to work through usually, I believe.
Just as long as I get to listen to the ‘cast in the morning π
Catalan, Try the RSS feed. I’m able to access the latest posts despite not being able to reach the main site (probably because Google >>>>> Comcast)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/arseblog
Yes, what Joshua said is right. The RSS feed should, at least, allow you to read the blog.
If anyone wants to be added to the mailing list, just email me – thearseblog at arseblog dot com and I’ll subscribe you manually.
The Arsecast should be fine through iTunes, H.
Arseblogger, first of all, your blog is brilliant and the Arsecast is hilarious… Way to go!
For some reason it only works on IE and not Google Chrome but in a weird resolution that I can’t see anything, is this gonna get fixed or will I just have to do with the RSS feed?
Watching the game again from ATVO, and that’s it, I’ve decided, I DON’T like Stewart Robson.
I used to like his commentary but then I noticed he says one thing on ATVO and says completely the opposite on Sky as if he wants to show he’s against Arsenal so he won’t be seen as biased but it crosses the line at times.
I just heard him say (on ATVO) that if he was AW he’d be worried cause Cesc doesn’t try to defend after losing the ball… How can you criticize Cesc’s defensive play against Shakhtar if it was one of the best pressing displays by Arsenal in recent years led by Cesc, Nasri and Chamakh?
Cheers all. Blogs, I’ve sent you the email. Not holding my breath for Telefonica (sons of Satan) to sort themselves out.
Has anyone tried accessing arseblog using the ip address??
Try typing http://216.38.55.27/ in the web browser. Problems with the DNS wont affect if you access the site using the ip address.. I tried with the ip address and it is working for me..
I’ll have a double expresso I think
I’m gutted, I’ll be on the plane for the game on Sunday π
In any case someone doubted Arsene is not aware of what is being said on the blogs, he’s launched a staunched defense of Arshavin:
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/-arshavin-statistics-would-shock-his-critics-
Many thanks to Indian Gooner as Comcast haven’t yet updated their DNS cache.
Thanks Indian!
A quickie to let Virgins know, as if they haven’t been clicking and refreshing like maniacs anyway, that their DNS problem appears to have cleared up and Arseblog is available.
Woods 100, ice, fat coke, squeeze of lime, please Barman.
It looks like ‘holic had far too many drinks on Tuesday in the house so much that he cannot be bothered to post anymore. Good night everyone!
Heh, SoE!
Been sorting out car problems in the day, and setting up a new iBeast tonight. Citeh preview will follow tomorrow as promised as everything seems to be working…
Eduardo, the iMac, is alive!
Darn, I thought I was locked and loaded, ‘Holic. Now that Rooney’s gone and changed his tiny mind, I’ll need a rewrite. So, no pressure on time for the preview.
It will be interesting to here what the pundits and press make out of Rooney’s u-turn. Will they say his mindi is somewhere or will they hail him as the most loyal English player? money hungry fool i will say he reminds me with certain ex-25 .
This whole Rooney saga is a complete pile of shit including himself and I couldn’t care less what would happened to him.
The bloke is a spoiled little brat, money went into his head with having millions already in his back pocket. He was probbably confused and they will probably hail him as the most loyal player whata pile of poo.
Since the season started he looks very ordinary to me and not worth the money they pay him, he’s an arrogant little shit who thinks he can get away with murder. He has no education and it seems to me like his head was about to pop with all that’s happened around him. In his spare time instead of spending thousands of pounds on call girls (without money none would want shag him anyway) he should spend a little time with his wife and kid. This bloke clearly doesn’t uderstand the importance of being a high profile player with kids looking up to him. He never had it in him and never will until he gets a huge kick up his arse.
I dislike him mostly for his arrogance, how many times in the game he would come up to the ref and shout at them as loudly as he could? What role model was he and will be for young tallent in England I tell you? To me if it wasn’t for Man U this bloke would be no where today.
Has anyone got a problem in accessing new Arseblog or is it only me? I did’t have a problem since it moved to the new site . But today things are different
A quick pint for me please, I’ve been a bit swamped lately so I’m popping off again, I’ll try to get to the bar for a longer drink after the Citeh game.
Come on you gunners.
Cheers.