Unlucky Spurs. Ha! How many seasons is it now? 18 in a row I think. We have had some great teams in that time, and some pretty average ones too. Spurs apparently have their best team in ages, but here we are again looking down on them. That never gets old.

BUT, and it is a rather big but, fourth place is not really something we should be celebrating. 3rd loser is essentially what it is, and we finished miles behind the Champions, and could never say at any point that we were in the title race. Must do better. Plenty of talk about how we are gonna finally spend big this summer, but it is Season Ticket renewal time though eh? Talk is cheap, just get it done. And I don’t even wanna hear any talk of safely negotiating the Qualifying round before we make any big signings ; If we are scabbling around for last minute bargains on 30th August, I may just burst into flames with the frustrations of it all.

Anyway, enough negative talk, there is plenty of time for that over the summer. Some irony in the fact that it was Koscielny who scored the all important goal, as our season was resurrected after the Munich game when the manager finally took the big decision to drop Vermaelen and replace him with Koscielny. Since the defensive horror show at White Hart Lane, the defence has been excellent and Kos played a massive part in that. The stats were quite remarkable, in fact even when you look at the season as a whole the goals conceded compared well with our rivals. Still, we all know there is massive room for improvement.

More reflections on the season’s end next week.

Mind the gap!

So cast your minds back just over two months ago and we’d just gone seven points behind Spu*s. Since then we’ve managed seven wins and two draws and remarkably we enter the final game of the season needing one final win to secure top four and Champions League football for yet another season. Considering Newcastle have absolutely nothing to play for we should be going up north and collecting three points. If we don’t then all the hard work would be for nothing and it would be a cruel way to end what has been a brilliant transformation in the final third of the season.

There were a lot of nervous Gooners before the game last night, something that I was rather surprised about. Yes the game meant a lot to both teams but it seemed as though many people had completely forgotten that we were at home against a team who were 18^th in the table. FA Cup or no FA Cup they are 18^th for a reason. Yes at one point in the game it was very much edge of your seat stuff and we had to rely on Wojech to pull off a great save at 1-1 but we were still playing the 18^th worst team in the division. Come the end of 90 minutes it showed, and a brilliant nine minute spell which conjured up three goals was just the way to settle the nerves of the players and relax for the remaining 25 minutes. It was very much reminiscent of the West Ham game earlier in the year when we scored four goals in a similar time frame. So it’s job done and we can focus on Newcastle on Sunday. It’s in our hands and that’s all that we could have hoped for in the middle of March.

There have been some big performances from everyone in the final third and none more so that Aaron Ramsey. He’s been brilliant and although he might not have had a great game yesterday his goal and player of the month has been well deserved and he’s shown what a valuable player he is to the squad. He might not be a world beater but at the start of the season and even in January there was a lot of talk about Aaron leaving or going on loan. Now I’m sure there won’t be anyone wanted to see him in another shirt other than the red and white of The Arsenal.

Enjoy the next few days because before you know it the nerves will start kicking in and it’ll be Sunday.

Wigan equalising on half time was not in my script. I think they were even on top after half time. The only positive to my stress levels is the thought of all those shadow dwellers celebrating Maloney’s goal and then without doubt starting to believe we would lose. How gut wrenching as one after the other the goal went in during 8 minutes of second half madness.

I thought everyone played well. The keeper mad a match winning save from Kone at the start of the second half. Sagna was solid. Both Mertesacker and Koscielny worked hard and would be on your list for men of the match. Gibbs was a force going forward. Arteta was everywhere, so was Rosicky, and Ramsey had a fantastic game topped off with a classy goal (despite being miles offside). The attacking three were genius, early on Walcott kept them penned in, Podolski was a proper number 9 leading the line, and Santi, well he got just the 4 assists in one game.

But there was a lack of killer instinct early on and Wigan played quite well in patches. I think we’d all agree it’s a shame they are going down. Especially when you still have Stoke Rugby Club taking up a league spot.

Focus now turns Sunday, 1 final match day, everyone kicking off at 4pm and the only really competition is for third place. Chel$ki or Arsenal can finish third and then the Shadow Dwelling Morons waiting if Arsenal slip up. If Arsenal win 2-1 and Chelsea draw 0-0 I believe there will be a play off for third place. What a classic that could be. The main thing is, if we win we’re in, and those lot are out. Just 90 more minutes to secure the job.

People will of course say, ’4th place, it ain’t no trophy’ but it is an achievement, and our minimum target for the season. Better to achieve it than to fail at it. Then we can pick it apart however we like as fans but now is the time to go out there and be counted.

I plan to get obliterated in Newcastle Saturday night so if we are shit don’t expect any sense from me, Up The Gooners!

Great to see Wigan win the cup on Saturday ; I don’t want to get all righteous and shit, but it really was ‘a victory for football’ *PUKE*.
Let’s hope they have all been on a massive bender since, and will turn up on Tuesday night in trackie bottoms and trainers ready to play. The atmosphere within the stadium could go either way ;the crowd could be behind the team all the way, even if things are not working out, or on the other hand, if we are not ahead after 20 minutes, Ramsey and Gervinho could be feeling the frustrations of the short tempered – of which there are many when we can see another limp performance unfolding before our very eyes.

I must say I am not really looking forward to the match as I normally would : the divisions within the fanbase break my heart, and they will be evident once again on Tuesday if we do not relegate Wigan by 9.45pm. As for the ‘Lap of Appreciation’ / ‘Lap of Shame’ (delete as appropriate), having that on a Tuesday night, when 20,000 people leave early whatever happens during the 90 minutes – Don’t expect a massive crowd to be applauding Diaby, Chamakh etc as they stroll around the pitch without a care in the world.

On another note, what a finish to the Watford match yesterday; Great for Almunia, proving that nice guys don’t always finish last ; I missed the game but saw the highlights later in the evening, and they sent a shiver down my spine, despite not being a Watford fan ; That is what football can do for you, and nothing else in life can even come close ; On days like that, football is the best thing in the world.

Come on you Reds

The situation we’ve found ourselves in, points are required, flowing football will have to wait. A win was made even more vital by the scum nicking the three points at the death just before we kicked off and today of course we’ve seen Chel$ki nab three unexpected points. What was is Fergiscum said last week? They’d keep it real? Hmmmm they rested four players today, their keeper, their top midfielder, and a fat cartoon character. I’m pretty sure they are out to get us too you know!

Arsenal now have two relegation threatened teams to play. Wigan at home and Newcastle away. For me if we win them both we will finish fourth, that’s not mathematical yet but it should be after the midweek game between our two closest rivals. If though Totts win that game it does feed the grey hair growth. At this rate I’ll look like the cook before June!!

I’ll be back a bit more regularly now I’m sure, Up the Gooners!

Although it was great to see Sp*rs drop two points on the weekend I still think it was a valuable point for them. We could’ve been three points ahead going into the weekends fixtures and knowing that our goal difference was far better. All we really needed to do is to beat a relegated QPR and Wigan and top four would be secured. The draw against Manchester United was frustrating because although it was a fair result I’ve known plenty of games where the fair score line wasn’t the outcome. We gifted them a goal and we left with a point. I’d have taken a point at the start of play but the way Sagna gifted them the equaliser still frustrates me. Still, at least Sp*rs didn’t win.

QPR on the weekend should, on paper be three points to The Arsenal but I’m still a little nervous. A team with nothing to play for against a team with everything to play for. It just screams a tricky fixture. We’re in a fortunate position where our next three games just so happen to be against the teams who occupy 17^th 18^th and 19^th in the table. Surely it’s nine points and CL for next season. They are games where if we turn up and give the same performance we did against Man Utd then we’ll surely win all three. This is Arsenal and things aren’t done in the easiest of manners so don’t expect this to be over before Newcastle. In seven days we’ll have a much clearer idea where we stand. Chelsea still have to go to Old Trafford on Sunday and then they entertain Spurs on Wednesday. They also have the added interest of the Europa League tomorrow so they’ll be playing four games in 9 days. It’s all to play for but I think we’re in a great position.

Have a good one Gooners.

Arseblog said this morning that ‘Walcott faded away after his goal’, but seeing as that was after 2 minutes, it doesn’t say much for his performance! It was a game for industry and tackling and breaking up play, not one for nippy wingers and technique on the ball ; Hence our best players were probably Arteta and Ramsey. Podolski did absolutely nothing to convince anyone that playing through the middle, although better players than him have struggled against the twin colossi that are Ferdinand and Vidic.

After a decent first half performance, to let in the equaliser just before half time really affected both the crowd and the second half display ; Let’s be honest, you could tell that United did not really have to win. So many times down the years we have seen a game locked in a draw with the clock ticking down, but Giggs, Rooney, Scholes and the fullbacks are streaming forward at every opportunity. Like I say, lucky for us they are still working off the WKDs drank on Deansgate on Monday night……

A good point overall, with Spurs struggling to get a point away to a team in the bottom three, with their two fortunate goals. We all knew Chelsea would make light work of Swansea, so no surprises there ; Another big weekend is on the horizon, with Chelsea away to Man United, and Spurs at home to Saints. It would have been nice to send QPR down, but they have gone already. Cheerio, and enjoy the Championship, hope you never come back ; take your £53 restricted view tickets with you. Bye! Let’s hope we send them on their way with a big defeat next Saturday tea time.

Premier League team of the year was announced last night, and inevitably there was no Arsenal player anywhere near it ; I would hope that would act as a wake up call to AW but there are many other warnings he has not heeded in the past, so don’t hold your breath.

The big games continue, and we now have six days rest until the next test at Loftus Road ; our away record has been great recently, so let’s hope it continues on Saturday.

Come on you Reds.

Last night was very enjoyable indeed. It’s even more enjoyable when you can make the completely incomparable joke that we didn’t actually lose to Bayern over two legs. It’s wound my mates up already so I think I’ll carry it on and they manage to win the thing then I’ll be sure to make a point that we’re technically as good as the best team in Europe. We might as well clutch at straws. The amazing thing though is that Cesc and Song didn’t feature. Two players who we’d gladly take back in a heartbeat and would drastically improve our squad. I guess that’s the joys of being a top club in Europe. You can spend around 50million on two players and put them on the bench. Oh how we’d love to do that.

On Monday night Robin Van Persie wrapped up the title for the red half of Manchester which ultimately will mean we’ll give them the traditional guard of honour on Sunday. It’s gut wrenching but let’s be honest they aren’t our rivals anymore and to beat them is just a bonus. We’ve struggled to keep up the pace over the last few years and this will hopefully be a reality check to the board. We sold our best player to them and his goals have been worth 24 points to Manchester United this season. That says it all.

Anyways, let’s do the guard of honour and beat them lot on Sunday.

Simple.

The game ; We played shit, even against ten men, but we won and took all three points. THE END

Why bother analysing it anymore than that? At this stage of the season, it is all about results instead of performances; Plenty of people are getting hung up on the lack of quality against an average team with 10 men for 80 minutes. Some Gooners will moan about anything, won’t they??

It was a massive result that put our rivals under pressure for their Sunday fixtures ; Spurs showed they could handle the pressure, but Chelsea slipped up very, very late. I was amused by Spurs being bumped off the back pages by the Scouse Beaver ; A great result against the reigning Champions, but an off the ball incident in the other game has taken all the headlines. I absolutely loved his late equaliser, it looked like both our rivals were about to take maximum points, and then seven minutes into injury time…….. I am a Suarez fan, he is a magnificent player, but is quite clearly a raving mental at the same time. Not sure why he decided to nibble on Ivanovic, when Lampard was on the same pitch ; Much more meat on Fat Frank, surely?

City slipping up has opened up the possibility of United winning the title tonight against Villa, and we have to hope that they do it ; Giving them a guard of honour is much more desirable than having them win it on our patch. It’s a bit like being asked if you would rather me shot in the chest or stabbed in the face, but this is where we are. When you sell your captain and best player to one of your main rivals, there is always the chance that it will come back to haunt you. RvP deserves pelters from the fans for the way he left ; all this ‘you guys’ stuff in his statements really turned by stomach. The bottom line is that we stuck by you when you were an injury prone hothead, and as soon as you got fit and starting scoring regularly, you left town as soon as you could. We can talk about the board and lack of ambition etc as long as you like, and they clearly need to take some of the blame, but I would prefer to direct it at our ex captain. I hope the players use their heads and stay away from all that kissy kissy shit in the tunnel pre match ; The camera is watching.

Come on you Reds

The decision to award the penalty was 100% correct ; The fact that the linesman gave it from 30 yards away, when the referee did not see it from 10, is absolutely irrelevant ; this issue kept many TV analysts busy for much of Saturday evening, but I just did not understand the debate ; The officials work in a team, and if one of them sees something that the other does not, then well played him, and well played referee for trusting his colleague. The pen was struck deliciously close to the keeper’s dive, which was extra sweet as he had been annoying us all afternoon. If anyone had actually known his name, we would surely have sung ‘Mark Bunn, Mark Bunn, what’s the score?’. But he is a facking journeyman no mark of a keeper, only playing due to an injury crisis, so he can go fuck himself.

Even after we levelled it up at 1-1, it would have been a bad result still, but in the little time that was remaining, we stole all the points. Talking to my mate in the first half, I was bemoaning the lack of pace in the front three, as we never seemed likely to get in behind their lines. Only when Walcott, Podolski and later The Ox got involved did it really change. Ox got away with a terrible touch as he set up the second goal, he was just able to toe it into the path of the Bassong / Giroud tangle and it rolled satisfyingly over the line. I think I lost about six quid in change during the celebrations. If you don’t enjoy a last minute bundle then football ain’t the game for you.

Loads of bad press for Millwall and then Newcastle fans this weekend, and the media are getting stuck in to football supporters once again. Millwall have had massive problems with the animals following their club, and they have done loads with memberships and ID of everyone who buys a ticket…………and then they put tickets for the semi on general sale so they can make even more money out of the tie. As for Newcastle fans, it was a real case of ‘monkey see, monkey do’ as I am fairly certain that had the Millwall trouble not happened, there would not have been trouble on such a large scale in the North East. Idiots.

On to Everton we go, and our excellent run must continue to keep the pressure on ; I fancy another tight game, Everton are hard to beat, but we can do it.

Come on you Reds.