Villa Park ...

An Arsenal team high on confidence and back to their fluent best take on a Villa side that have been banging in the goals for fun themselves.Both sides are suspect at the back and hence there are bound to be goals in the game. Gilberto has done a groin and will not figure against Villa or against the Red Devils. Van persie has recovered from the knock he picked up against Doncaster and is raring to go. The Arsenal captain believes that the team is back to their best and are on track. The gaffer has said that the year has been satisfactory but he would like to better next year. He also talks about the kind of players he will be looking for in the jan window especially with toure an eboue on cup of nations duty, he will have to look for back-up.
Coming to the game,Arsenal should win this but Cesc and Flamini will not be allowed to rest by an in from Davis who also comes up with the odd goal every now and then. If the battle in the mid-field is won then the game is ours for the taking.Baros and Moore will also create chances but i am hoping that our back 4 can contain them.I wont be surprised if Cygan is attacked on the flank and crosses are whipped in. Ridgewell and co. will be put under immense pressure .
This game is not only important because of the 3points but also because of the next game coming up..Manu wont have it easy against Bolton and will be made to sweat.Any momentum gained by the gunners can be taken to the Manu game.

Pompey

Damn! Those Espn Star guys are not showing this game tonight. Who wants to see the mersey side derby. I ll have to talk to Mr. Dykes about this. So much for Andrew Leci being a gooner....
Anyways, Arsenal at home against Portsmouth is equivalent to 3 points for the gooners. Harry Redknapp can have his son helping him out through a mobile from the stands or have Santa Claus refereeing the game...but i just cant see Arsenal not scoring less than 3 goals and winning.This also gives the gunners a chance to keep a clean sheet. Pompey have been given a boost with the arrival of Redknapp but they really dont have the squad and class to trouble the hosts.Also, Robert got a red against West Ham which means that he wont figure in today`s game. Henry might be rested today for important games coming up and Van persie might play up front with reyes or DB. Pires might figure in some way too. Gilberto must tighten up as he has been rather poor for the past few games and his place in the Brazil squad will also be under threat if his form continues.
Henry says that he is flattered about rumours linking him with Barca but he is thinking only of Arsenal at the moment. I feel he can do without the distraction..if only that son of a bitch Laporta keeps his trap shut. The Arsenal captain has been voted French player of the year for the 3rd time in a row. Gregory Coupet and Makelele came 2nd and 3rd repectively. Pires might get the 2 years extension he wants when he and the gaffer sit down for talks in jan.

The Valley

After the shock against Romans mob, the gunners travel to the valley for a london derby. If the away form is not sorted out starting right now then there is a strong chance of Arsenal finishing out of the top 4. The congestion of matches around this time of the year also presents a chance for the gunners to get a few points.With matches against the addicks, Aston villa and pompey before the squaring of with the red devils..Arsenal need to get maximum points from all these games. Charlton are also in a dreadful phase and cant seem to score goals and win matches. They ll again be looking at Bent to breach a very very suspect Arsenal defense.Henry s injury means that Bergie might start with van persie and reyes might play wide left.ALso, cygan is fit(is that gud or bad?) and might replace lauren at left back who in turn will revert to his natural right back position.Toure looks all set to replace Senderos ater the young swiss had a shocker against Doncaster. Having won the previous 3 meetings at the valley,Arsenal will like to make it 4 in a row.Whether they can score th goals without henry remains to be seen.

Bring on the Galacticos!

Ole ole ole o ole ole..

We have drawn Los Galacticos..its time to prepare for a game between the two best club teams in the world.ROnaldo,Zidane and co. watch out we are coming to town....
Here is the draw-

Chelsea v Barcelona
Real Madrid v Arsenal
Werder Bremen v Juventus
Bayern Munich v Milan
PSV Eindhoven v Lyon
Ajax v Internazionale
Benfica v Liverpool
Rangers v Villarrea

Other mouth watering games include Chelsea-Barcelona,Bayern-Milan and Ajax-Inter.
I expect Barca,Juve,Bayern,Lyon,Inter,Liverpool and VIllareal to go through with the gunners.

Uefa Champions League-The knockout stage

The following are potential opponents-

1.Bayern munich
2.Rangers
3.Werder Bremen
4.PSV
5.Benfica
6.Real Madrid

Except for Munich,Arsenal should nt have much trouble against any other opponent.
Even with Munich, if we can not concede more than 1 goal away, i am sure we can win it at Highbury.I hope that we meet Real.This is 1 game i have been waiting for a long long time.

Pardon me for being very sarcastic but..pleaseee lets see barca v chelsea,again.I dont give a fuck abt either team and this way one of them will be knocked out.

A visit to St.James`

A trip to the north east beckons as Arsene Wenger s men play a Newcastle Utd. that is in total turmoil.Their manager is hanging onto his job and the confidence of the side is down.But this game provides an opportunity for them to silence the critics for a while.Arsenal will like to get a win and get their on the road form up an running.The good thing is that they probably wont have to come face to face with trucks and huge road blocks like they did against Bolton. Arsene Wenger employed a 4-3-3 in mid week against Ajax.The game ended in a stalemate but apparently, the gaffer wanted to try out a few things and wanted to give Alexander Hleb a central role. Titi was not happy with the performance of the team and he let everyone know what he thought ala Keane. Lauren will be employed at left back again, which is onyl a good thing. Whether Eboue plays at right back or toure switches over to that position and Senderos plays in the centre with Campbell, remains to be seen.Senderos played very well against Ajax and i wont be surprised if he plays stopper again. Wenger also reveals that he was tempted to sign Owen in the summer but his confidence in Van Persie and Quincy prevented him from doing so.Also,Van persie seems to have signed an extension til 2011, which is great news for him and the club.
I expect Arsenal to put on a better show today and hopefully win the game. Newcastle will try to whip in crosses through Solano and Nzogbia and hope that Shearer gets on the end.Also, their defence will have to be careful.Boumsong and Bramble arent exactly the greatest central defense pairing.Scott parker will have the job of marking Cesc and hopefully for them Emre will be able to pull the strings in mid field.
Reyes,Cygan,Dennis join Clichy and cole on the injury list.Hleb is fit and might figure in the game at some point in time.
The game should be full of goals and i expect a close game.

Ajax at home

Ajax Amsterdam visit the group leaders in a match that is not of much importance because the gunners have already won the group.But Ajax will like to give good account of themselves, especially players like Piennar,De jong and wesley sneijder who would like to move over to a bigger club in the summer or in the jan window.Arsene wenger has announced a squad that includes many youngsters and sees man first team players rested. Gilberto,Pires,Lehman,Sol and Freddy will not be see in action and Dennis has a slight hamstring strain and hence will not figure against his former club.Arsene Wenger concedes that the away form in the league is a big problem and something that needs to be rectified ASAP. He also talks abt not being interested in joining Real inspite of the fact that he loves the club and Perez is practically begging him to come there. Mr. Florentino...go take a hike. Sebastian LArson might be throen in at some point in the game and Hleb looks to be fit again and might figure in some way.Looking forward to seeing him play again cos i do believe that he is class.
In other results yesterday, Liverpool went top after a dull draw against Chelsea in a game that saw another high tackle from Essien who is really riding his luck and its very unfortunate to see him get away.Hamann is a very lucky boy to not have broken something ..cruciate ligament damage or something.Milan went through at the expense of Schalke thanks to Kaka and also going through were PSV and Rangers.Maybe Alex Mcleish wont be sacked after all. Real lost again...damn!
Imp. games tonight ..Manu v Benfica. It ll be great to see Manu lose but i hope for the sake of the competition that they win.

Away to the Reebok

This weekend sees the gunners travel to the Reebok stadium to face a Bolton Wanderers team that has serious aspirations of making it to the Champions league.Sam Allardyce s men have always been a tough side to beat at home and the gunners have found that out over the past few seasons.Last season saw a Stelios Gianakopolous (or whatever the name is) beating Manuel Almunia with a back post header.The gunners got revenge in the FA cup quarter final with a fine win and also thanks to Diouf who will be worked on again by the gunners.Knowing this Diouf has already been warned by SAM.This contest is also a contrast of playing styles with Big Sam s 4-5-1 against Wenger s traditional 4-4-2.Also the fact that the Lancastrian Crowd at the Reebok backs their team to the core makes it tough for visitors.
Surprisingly there has been no mind games being played on the eve of the game as Wenger and Sam have been arguing about how 4-5-1 is good or bad?Sam says that Wenger preaches and lectures on attacking football but infact he is also employing a 4-5-1 as Bergkamp tucks into the midfield.Mr.Sam, if u have noticed carefully,Arsenal have attacking flank men and on most occasions,U d find that Pires and Lungberg are in an attacking position.GOt it?
I expect Bolton to play the same 4-5-1 with Davies all on his own and Stellios,Nolan supporting him.Borgetti might be thrown in because of his prowess in the air.Arsenal as usual will try to hit them early and defend the lead.

Men to watch-

Bolton-Kevin Nolan,Ralph Jaidi(Set pieces)
Arsenal-Henry,Van persie