Morning all, whatever little chance Cesc had of playing tonight evaporated as soon as he went for a scan yesterday. Arsene Wenger revealed they couldn't even think about taking a gamble, playing him tonight could have put him out for a much longer period. Cesc said: I wanted to play but the doctors recommended I rest and avoid any risk. I am sad to miss out because Porto is important to us. I will suffer far more than usual, having to watch from the side. Obviously his absence is a blow but we have to trust that the players who are fit can do the job. Arsene hinted that Samir Nasri could be the one to take his place in midfield and certainly he'd be my choice. When the other option is Rosicky you have to say we've got good options there. Both of them are quick, creative and can score... Similar posts

In the 2006-7 season Blackburn came to the Grove and scored in the third minute. Arsenal went on to win the game 6-2. Yesterday Blackburn scored in the fourth minute and the result was exactly the same. I don't think it'd be unfair to say Arsenal might have scored more too, in what was probably their best attacking display of the season. Cesc Fabregas was the Catalan Midas, everything he touched turned to goal. His performance was simply outstanding, following on from a great display against Olympiacos he put in the kind of shift which shows why this Arsenal team needs to built around him. It comes on the back of a couple of relatively poor performances at the start of the season. Those who speculated his imminent departure to Barcelona was little more than a formality because he didn't... Similar posts

Well well well. Football is a funny old game, eh? We played well at Old Trafford and lost, last night we played genuinely badly and won. For all the pain of having to sit through a performance like that I know which I prefer at the end of 90 minutes. In all my years of watching Arsenal I can't remember us starting a game quite so disastrously so quickly. From an early Standard corner the ball was headed clear and for some inexplicable reason Eduardo decided to try a back heel to Cesc on the edge of our box. It fell to Standard defender Mangala who held off Cesc's challenge and drilled it home to put the home side ahead.  "Schoolboy error!", shrieked Alan Parry on Sky. And while he sounds like a hyperactive, hysterical old drama queen he was right. I have no idea what... Similar posts

I suspect there are students of Arsenal statistics out there who may well prove me wrong but I can't remember a start to the season so filled with goals. Another four went past a fairly hapless Portsmouth yesterday, we might even have scored more, and the positive start to the season continues. The manager made some changes, Abou Diaby coming in for Alex Song, Eduardo started in place of Nicklas Bendtner and Eboue and Gibbs replaced Sagna and Clichy. I'm not exactly sure what formation we played yesterday, it seemed to alternate between the 433 and a traditional 442 but every time I thought I'd got it sussed I'd see Diaby popping up in a different area of the pitch. He seemed to have licence to roam yesterday and that turned out to be a good thing. He scored our first two goals. The first... Similar posts