Return of the King: (Arsenal 4 Charlton 0)

Hello gooners, sorry for the late post, had some internet problems. I was lucky enough to be at the match last night and Arsenal did not disappoint. I awoke to news of 2 fresh injuries, Baptista and possibly Van Persie were going to be out of the match. I struggled to find an attacking solution and came to the conclusion that we would have to play Aliadiere by himself up front(what a scary thought). When I arrived at the Emirates, the announcer presented the team and boy was I surprised, Hleb back, Van Persie not injured and THIERRY RETURNS.
The atmosphere was electric and we dominated the opening 20 minutes but wasted our early chances with Thierry heading onto the post. On the stroke of the 30th minute, we were awarded a penalty for a blatant push on Van Persie when he was free on goal and Sankofa was red carded. Pardew was crying as usual and the abuse he was receiving from the Arsenal faithful was hilarious. Rings of "It's pardew's fault your going down" and "Pardew is a ******" filtered round the stadium.
Just before the break, Thierry and Hoyte linked up with a 1-2 and Hoyte slipped the ball into the corner of the goal to put us 2-0 ahead and to give him his 1st Arsenal 1st team goal. The 2nd half demonstrated what we are all about, exquisite 1 touch passing football and Charlton were made to look like a Sunday league team. We got another penalty in the 76th minute and this time Thierry let Robin take it and he scored to bring his total to 9 league goals for the season. We then brought Aliadiere and Denilson on and continued to dominate and in the final minute, Van Persie chipped a cheeky goal into the net to put him 3 goals from being the leading goalscorer in the Premiership.
In all honesty Charlton were rubbish and if it wasn't for some great saves from Scott Carson this could have been a 7 or 8 nil thrashing.
In a quick rumour update, the Gazzetta dello Sport has stated that Inter Milan are said to be interested in Gilberto to try and link him up with Vieira again. I can't see us selling Gilberto in his present form and with there being no back up until Diaby returns, this seems to be a misplaced rumour.
What a way to start the new year. Let's hope it carries on.

A poor away trip to the North again (Sheff.U v Arsenal, lost 1-0)

Yet another horrible performance against a half strength Sheffield United team. It is definitely a recurring theme, we come close to scoring on several occasions early on and then the other team score and we get bullied for the remainder of the game. In truth we were lacklustre with no-one making anything more than an average performance and 2 or 3 players significantly under par.
Admittedly we were severely under-strength with Gallas, Henry, Diaby, Ljungberg, Eboue, Hleb and Adebayor injured but we made the situation even worse by leaving Cesc on the bench. Wenger has done this on 3 occasions this season and we have drawn twice and lost once, we cannot afford to leave out players of his calibre even if he has a cold. We started with Aliadiere up front and Baptista on the left which, with the benefit of hindsight, was a colossal mistake. Aliadiere is useless and Baptista, a much more proven goalscorer was put in a position where he regularly failed at Real Madrid last year. Please Arsene, give him a chance up front and I'm sure that he wont let you down. I would love to see us play Baptista and Henry up front with Van Persie just behind. Baptista's shooting and heading ability combined with Van Persie's vision and Thierry's overall unselfishness would be lethal. People will say that Baptista isn't good enough from yesterday's performance where his 1st touch was admittedly poor but here is a player who is recovering from injury and a season of few performances, playing on a boggy pitch, playing out of position. Give him a chance!
The complete joke of the evening was Jagielka, a midfielder, replacing Paddy Kenny in goal in the 63rd minute. You would think that we would shoot as much as possible for the following half an hour but it took until the 80th minute before we tested him with a shot from Van Persie where, in all honesty, Robin should have done better. I watch matches now with an extreme sense of pessimism. Whenever Chelsea play, I watch them concede a goal early on but know that they will end up winning the match, mainly due to their set piece ability. When we concede a goal, teams shut us down by pressing and using underhand tactics (e.g. Morgan's punch on Van Persie yesterday) but that is to be expected and we need to cope with this or just stop conceding the 1st goal. (The latter would be nice)
In other news, Anthony Stokes scored another hat trick for Falkirk yesterday and Arsene said that he wants him to stay on loan for another 6 months before he comes back to Arsenal which is fair enough what with competition being high with Adebayor, Henry, Walcott, Van Persie, Baptista and Aliadiere fighting for places. The signs are very good for the future though and I believe that Stokes and Walcott will, in time, be the future forward line.
Right I'm off to start New Years celebrations, have a good one all.

Apologies

I am really sorry for my absence for the past week. As explained I was in France. I feel that I have lost credibility as an arsenal supporter having had to find out about our amazing 6-2 performance through WAP on my phone. I will write a proper report tomorrow but in short, very good Xmas period so far, the future looks promising with Gallas and Henry soon to return and Lauren and Diaby to follow.

See you tomorrow all.

Updates

Hello people,

Im in France at the moment and having trouble with their stupid keyboards but thought that I would give a quick update,

Anthony Stokes; who should be returning from his very impressive loan spell at Falkirk on the 31st December has said that he wants to give Arsene a selection headache when he returns and I believe that he deserves a few cup appearances at the very least. We have allegedly rejected a £700,000 bid from Celtic and Sunderland are also said to be interested but I think that it is important that we keep this lethal striker in our ranks.

In squad news, we will be without full-back Emanuelle Eboue for Saturday's crunch clash against Blackburn due to an ankle injury but Lauren isn't quite match fit so Hoyte will get the call up. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because Hoyte knows what is involved in the defensive part of the field, an attribute that Eboue is still lacking. Rosicky will be back which is a big boost for us and Flamini is out which is, in true honesty, another boost. Wenger has stated that Diaby will be back in action in late January after his absence since May due to that **** Dan Smith's horror tackle that broke and dislocated his ankle. This will be important for us because from Diaby's performances last year, he showed himself to be a very strong presence and a potential replacement for Gilberto.

Paul Jewell, one of the few managers that I like in the premiership has said that he cant stand in the way of Leighton Baines moving to a top 4 team but that he will cost much more than 4 million which in my opinion is fair. He is a huge prospect and should be valued as such at about 7 million.

It seems that Theo is starting to win over Wenger with Arsene saying,

“I feel 2007 is a big year for Theo,” said Wenger. “He has made big steps forward already this season.
“What I like about him is, in every game, he is decisive and creates chances. He has played a few matches and done well, but, even more than that, in training he looks a different player to what he was six months ago.
“His power and personality in the game has improved so has his determination to pass people. Before it was only with pace, but now he forces the decision and shrugs people off.
“I must say he will be a candidate for England now. He is ready to handle that now. He has the personality and the intelligence. He will play more and more for us as well.”

I think that this shows the faith that Arsene has in Walcott and we are going to see Theo a lot more as the seasons progress.

I am not going to be able to write match reports while in France so I will give a quick preview of our upcoming matches. To cut it short, if we don't beat Blackburn and Watford, I will break down and cry.

1st Blackburn. Their top scorer McCarthy is out and they have lost 2 of their last 3 Premiership games. Even though they usually give us a tough game, I would like to think that this time we should beat them convincingly. They always look very frail when confronted with pace and Walcott, Hleb and Rosicky can cause them problems. I predict a thrilling (cough cough) 1-0 to the Arsenal.

2nd Watford. If we don't destroy this Championship side, we don't deserve to be considered as anything but a top 6 team for this season. They are having a shambles of a season and their defence is the worst in the premiership barring Charlton. It is vital that we win our next 4 matches against the teams from the foot of the table if we are to reclaim 3rd spot and put a very small bit of pressure on the top 2. Prediction 3-0.

I will be back on the 30th. Until then gooners.