We’ll be without RvP, Adebayor, Eboue, and probably Gallas and Walcott, which leaves us in quite a bind for players. This isn’t a match preview so I’m not going to predict a lineup or a score yet but the point is it’s time to really show what kind of character we have. I’d love to see Djourou get to play in the match with Toure, but the boss seems to not like playing him very much. We need our key players like Cesc, Clichy, Toure, and Almunia to really have good games if we’re going to win this one. I’m excited for the match, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous about it as well.

The good news for the day is that Arsenal are top of the table…the Fair Play table. Arsene Wenger talked about it because he was still mad about Stoke “intentionally” trying to hurt our players, which was really just playing tough.

“You can look at the Fair Play table, who is top? Arsenal Football Club. So first of all we have no lessons to learn from anybody on that front. Look at the team with the least fouls in the Premier League – it is Arsenal Football Club.

“I am responsible for the behaviour of my team and when you look at the Fair Play table, you see that Arsenal are top. And that [includes] the behaviour of the manager on the touchline and the players on the field. I do not make that table.”

A couple quick things on this point. First of all, you don’t win any trophy for being top of the Fair Play table Arsene, and I don’t think any of us fans are busy celebrating being top of that table either and thanking you for your leadership in guiding us to this accomplishment. Second, when we were winning titles, we got loads of cards. Patrick Vieira, the last real captain we had, used to get red and yellow cards all the time. There is nothing wrong with fouling as long as it leads to wins. Would anyone be mad if we were last in the Fair Play table and top of the Premiership? No we’d all be thrilled to have won the title. I’ve got a new slogan for Arsenal to use…”By Any Means Neccessary.” We should go into every match thinking that and we would be a lot better off. If you have to foul someone and pick up a card, then do it. Quit worrying about the Fair Play table and make sure you win matches you should win. Get physical and grow a pair.

That’s about all I’ve got. I may do a podcast tomorrow if you guys send some emails in, if not then I’ll just do one next week. But yeah, send some emails in or leave some comments so I can use them in the next one. Let’s hope some players get healthy before Saturday. Cheers.

Having said that, Arsenal, for the last few years, has been on the decline. In my last post I compared our current squad to the one from a few years ago and it wasn’t even close. We are much worse off now than we were a few years ago. Our best player, Cesc Fabregas, will not stick around and battle for 4th spot in the league every year when he could make more money and win trophies somewhere else. He’s been very loyal since he came to Arsenal but we can’t expect that to last forever without winning.

We’ve had some seriously confusing dealings in the transfer market, like selling Gilberto Silva because of his age and then buying Mikael Silvestre who is the same age. Arsene Wenger has ignored our deficiencies in defense and midfield, as well as overall depth, and it has hurt our squad. Now yet again our depth will be tested, with Adebayor out for three weeks, RvP suspended for an act of abject stupidity, Walcott out and Sagna out as well. Gallas and Eboue are out this match as well and who really knows what sort of squad we’ll have out there. A midfield of Nasri-Denilson-Cesc-Diaby is not acceptable at a top club in the best league in the world. While other clubs improve their squad year after year we settle for letting players leave. I’m not saying spend as much money as Chelsea or Sp*rs but it’s no excuse for sticking with a weakened team. It should be common sense that when a key player leaves you should replace them with another key player. FFS we could’ve gotten Senna to replace Flamini for pretty cheap, and what was wrong with that? He was too old? Silvestre apparently wasn’t, and Senna is a much better player than Silvestre.

Arsene Wenger’s stubbornness is causing him to continually stick with a youth policy that isn’t working. Yes, some of the youth players will one day become good key players in the squad, but not all of them are going to be great players and we shouldn’t assume that. He seems determined to prove that you can win without spending any money at all, but it isn’t going to happen. When Cesc Fabregas leaves, what do we have left then? Is that going to get other players to want to come play for Arsenal when our best player is leaving? We need to adjust this problem now, yet I can’t see Arsene going out and really spending in January to try to help our cause either.

Wenger has lost the plot. Instead of saying “yeah we fucked up and lost to Stoke and Fulham” he blames them for trying to injure our players intentionally, which is absolute BS. Just because they try to play tough doesn’t mean they’re trying to injure us. Even with my Under 8′s team that I coach, before every match I tell them to “Man up!” I think a lot of the current Arsenal squad could use someone telling them to man up. Beautiful football is wonderful and I love it as much as the next guy but it makes little difference when you don’t win anything. A state of decline for Arsenal is not acceptable.

Somebody needs to tell Arsene Wenger that he isn’t guaranteed a job forever. If bad results continue then something has to be fixed. If players can be sacked, then managers can be too. This isn’t a call for his head, but it’s a call for the board to tell him to wake up and realize that this isn’t cutting it.

So I ask you all the question, will Arsenal win anything while Arsene Wenger is still the manager?

As almost every single Arsenal fan knew over the summer, when we lost Gilberto, Hleb, and Flamini we needed to sign some replacements. Arsene, however, decided he didn’t need replacements for any of them. While Walcott has been better than Hleb on the right side, it still puts more pressure on him to play more games with little to no cover behind him in the squad in the form of Eboue. Gilberto was our experienced leader and a good defensive midfielder who had seen just about everything there was to see in the Premiership, yet he was let go for a minimal fee. Flamini you can’t do much about because he could leave if he wanted, but after he does leave, a replacement needs to be brought in. The squad just isn’t deep enough to have three key players leave and everything be ok without getting replacements for them.

Arsene continually says this is the most talented squad he has ever managed, but this clearly can’t be the case. Let’s compare the starting eleven from the invincibles team to the team Arsene says is his most talented team, the current one. The one in bold is, in my opinion, the better player at the position. Left back for me is a toss up because they are/were both brilliant.

If you didn’t get to see the match, in which feelings went from distress to glee to absolute disaster, then you missed one hell of a match, if you were a neutral supporter. I, however, am not a neutral so the match was absolute shite for me. We were up 4-2 with 2 minutes to go in the match and managed to let them score 2 goals in those two minutes to tie it up, which was as good as a win for them. Let’s face it, Tottenham are not a good team, they were way behind us in possession, never really looked that threatening, and yet came into our home and came away with an undeserved draw.

Some people will say that I should maybe give Sp*rs some credit for their comeback, but let’s face it, it wasn’t their efforts that created this result, it was mental mistakes by Arsenal players that let them come back and snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat.

Manuel Almunia has been a fine keeper for the last year or so, but yesterday he went back to the Almunia that was from a few years back. He pretty much gifted them their first two goals. The first one he should have been able to get back and make the save on. The ball was so high in the air it seemed like it took an hour to come down yet he couldn’t get back for it, and Lord knows what he was doing that far off of his line anyway.

Then we got back in it through Silvestre of all people and it seemed like order would be restored. This proved to be the case when we came out and scored early in the second half through William Gallas who seems to be able to attack set pieces much much better than he can defend them. We got another on a great play from Nasri and finished by Adebayor and you figured that 3-1 up at home was going to be a win.

We didn’t want to make it easy on ourselves though so we let them get a goal on yet another gift from Almunia. Huddlestone shot from outside the box and Almunia just let it drop in front of him after making the save and Darren Bent knocked it in after just coming on. It was a save he really should have been able to hold on to and it made you a little nervous at 3-2. Robin van Persie made it 4-2 just a minute later though and it was comfortable again.

What happened next was absolutely shocking. Arsenal went into a period where we held almost all of the possession, just trying to run the clock down, and it was working. Heading into extra time with a 2 goal lead and they couldn’t even get the ball. Then the unthinkable happened. Gael Clichy had the ball stopped and was looking around for where to pass next and came under some pressure from Jenas, the cunt. Next thing you know Clichy trips over the ball, Jenas steals it, dribbles 25 yards or so and knocks another past Almunia. So 4-3 at this point but still almost know time left…we’ll be fine right? Not so. A header dropped to Luca Modric who had a shot come back off the post which we failed to clear or save and Lennon came in to snatch a draw. They celebrated like they had won the league and I wanted to kill myself.

It’s not just the result that really makes this bad though. Of course I want to beat Sp*rs, who doesn’t? But the point is the WAY that we drew the match. Mental errors and not being able to have the strong mentality to close out a game. Where is the leadership in the 89th minute when up 2 goals that says, “Let’s close this game out and make sure we don’t let them even have one chance of getting back in this.” How do we let them score on 2 rebounded goals, and trip over the ball while trying to play keep away, and let David Bentley, the talentless cunt, score from 40 yards away when no other team has had trouble with them all year? I don’t care if they got a new manager or not, it’s the same players that have them bottom of the table and we made them look like title contenders with that comeback.

How much would a player like Gilberto Silva have helped in this situation? Imagine if he came on instead of Diaby or Eboue, would he allow them to make a comeback like that? He’s the kind of intelligent, experienced player we need in these situations, and we let him go. I just can’t see him coming into the match up 2 goals with 2 to go and not making sure everyone knew to keep their heads on straight and to hold onto the ball, and if they did get the ball from us I know he’d be fighting tooth and nail to get it back.

Everyone has a few bad games but Almunia was absolutely shocking this match. I thought Theo Walcott was fantastic but of course he came off to be replaced by Eboue who did nothing. I actually thought Gallas (who you know I am a critic of) had a very good game. He looked solid at the back and scored a great header. He is the captain though and some of the blame for a meltdown has to go to anyone in a leadership role. The team as a whole was at fault though. Silvestre could have closed down Jenas on the 3rd goal, Almunia and Clichy could certainly have had better games, but the fact is we completely blew it.

Arsene Wenger was as pissed as he’s been in some time:

Well I am angry. I believe we produced an outstanding game and got the minimum result. We didn’t keep the ball. We were there for the taking. We should have had a negative passing game but instead we exposed ourselves by trying to go five or six up. The team has outstanding potential. They learn from moments like that tonight.

It comes down to leadership and experience. You have to keep the ball away from them up by 2 with 2 minutes to go, and certainly after they pull 1 back. It should be common sense. My 8 year old team knows that.

I’m absolutely sick about it is the moral of the story. I don’t want to think about the match anymore so I let all my feelings out on here. Feel free to do the same in an email or the comments and I’ll read em on the podcast tomorrow. We’ve gotta recover from this loss and get ready for the next one, it’s still a long season. Up the Gunners.

You can listen to the podcast here or download the podcast here, or you can subscribe in iTunes by clicking here. Or you can even just listen to it right here in your browser by clicking play below.

Get your emails in for the next one, leave some feedback, all that good stuff. I’ll try to get better each time. Cheers.

When I first tried them on, brand new, fresh out of the box, I just wanted to get a good feel for them and break them in a little bit, and the first thing I noticed about them was that the fit is a little tight on the arches of your feet. You don’t notice this as much after the cleats have been broken in a little bit. This was really the only downside to them though. As for appearance, I think Nike has the best looking boots by far and these are no exception, with a great seamless design that looks very sleek. I really felt like Thierry Henry while I was wearing them, and this was even before I started playing with a ball.

So after I had walked around in them a bit I wanted to give them a good run to get them in a little more broken in, and when I started running, immediately I noticed that these are as light as a feather. I felt like I could run faster and more easily, and I really felt like I was gliding. I’ve never been so fast as I was when I tried these on, and they are extremely comfortable while running as well! The inside has cushions around your ankles to keep them from rubbing up against the sides of the boot while you run which really makes them much more comfortable than any previous cleats I’ve had.

Finally I took them for a run out in a scrimmage and I really don’t think I’ve ever played better. The quality of the design allowed me to play better passes and have crisper shots. Not to mention the speed I gained from them allowed me to be more dangerous going forward and easier to track back on defense. I was so impressed with how they really did improve my game, something even my brother noticed as he struggled to defend me.

So if I was summing them up into just pros and cons, it would probably look like this:

Pros: Great looks, wonderful design, very light weight, improved control on the ball, increased speed

Cons: Tight fit around arches of feet, needs longer shoelaces as they seem to come undone if you don’t have them wrapped up

So to reiterate, these are the most amazing football boots I’ve ever worn or tried and they really allowed me to raise my game to a new level. If you’re looking to step up your game as well then I’d highly recommend you try out the Nike Talaria IV’s or check out the rest of the selection of soccer shoes from SoccerPro.com, who have all the top brands like Nike, Adidas, Diadora, Kappa, and more. Cheers!

First of all we do have some bad news regarding Kolo Toure, who will be out until November. He injured his shoulder against Everton and had to come off, and now he’s going to miss at least two weeks. While this isn’t anywhere close to our toughest 2 weeks of the season, you never want one of your starting defenders out of the squad, unless it’s William Gallas. Speaking of which, I was hoping while Gallas was injured that Djourou and Silvestre would get more time to work with Toure so we could see just how bad Gallas is, but this totally blows that whole plan.

“I hurt my shoulder badly, it was very painful but it is a job of a defender to take pain.”

“And we won the game after going behind in our own stadium, and the injury is not too bad as we think I should be fine in ten to 15 days and ready to make a challenge.”

Yes, it is your job to take pain. And to kill people. People such as Dimitar Berbatov. Get well soon though Toure.

So our back four for the match today will be Eboue, Song, Silvestre, and Clichy. Not the ideal back four but it is servicable. Fenerbache has a lot of skilled players and they aren’t as much of a “score from corner kicks over William Gallas” team, so I think we’ll be ok. We’re top of the group right now on 4 points so a win would take us to seven points with two home games still to go, which you would expect us to win. A draw wouldn’t be awful, especially with the amount of injuries we have at the moment, but I’d like to see us go out that and take the game. I think it’s certainly a winnable one.

The captain for tonight’s game will be Manuel Almunia. Good for him too. I like Almunia and think he takes way too much stick for nothing. He’s played well for us last year and so far this year and if he is the captain while Gallas is out I have no problem with it. In fact I’d rather him be captain than Gallas all the time. Actually I’d rather anyone else be the captain. But that’s neither here nor there. Almunia says he’ll feel “nothing but pride” while wearing the armband for Arsenal. Don’t really know what else he would feel but there you go.

Luis Aragones, the little shit who called our beloved Henry a couple of awful things very similar to what I just called him except with more racism involved, says he’s not worried about facing Arsenal. He’s a terrible person and I hope we run them into the ground. The only thing better would be if Thierry Henry was here to do it. Don’t get me wrong, I was cheering for Spain in the Euro’s but it was in spite of Aragones, not because of him. I can’t stand the man.

Andy Gray writes an article about how bad Sp*rs are and it pretty much says what everyone else says, that they’re moronic for letting their two best strikers leave and not replacing them. I just can’t resist laughing at the cunts though.

That’s about all I have. We’re getting some good emails in for the next podcast in so keep them coming, ArseNole@arsenole.com. Anything funny, informative, inventive, or anything else that would be interesting to read on the podcast this Friday, get it in to me. The best emailer will receive a $10 gift certificate for soccerpro.com, and maybe a little something else from me. Also I still want to hear more feedback as to what you think of the podcast, so those comments are appreciated too. Enjoy the Fenerbache match, and cheers!

“I didn’t count Nasri in here for the first six months of the season, like I do for everybody we buy at such a young age.

“When you look at the impact he had already here you can say he’s ahead of what I planned for him.”

Yes, Arsene I agree with you, he’s a really, really good player. The scary thing is since he’s come here he’s been injured a good bit. It’s a scary thought because of what has happened to the last player we’ve bought from another country and played on the left wing…When he has been fit though he’s been great, and I’ve already ordered my Nasri home kit and am looking forward to it. We need him to have a big match for us if fit against Fenerbache.

The best news heading into the match against Fenerbache tomorrow is that Johan Djourou and Nicklas Bendtner have been declared fit after missing the last match against Everton. Djourou’s return is especially key because Gallas and Toure will both be missing the match. So Djourou should slot right into the center of defense, probably along with Alex Song or Silvestre. My guess would be Silvestre.

Here’s how the lineup will probably look:

Remember to submit your emails for the podcast with whatever you want, good jokes, funny emails, rants about Arsenal or Sp*rs or some other twats, whatever you want. The best email that I read on each podcast will win some sort of prize from SoccerPro.com. So email anything you think is good to ArseNole@arsenole.com, but if it’s garbage and spam then I’m going to block you and eat your children.

But yeah, leave your comments about the podcast, or anything else you want. The more feedback I get the better the next ones will be. Cheers.

You can listen to the podcast here or download the podcast here, or you can subscribe in iTunes by clicking here. Or you can even just listen to it right here in your browser by clicking play below.