ONE - NIL

2002-11-15T08:23:00.000-06:00

Ahh, so the CL draw has occured, and I had a bad feeling we would draw Valencia. You remember Valencia, don't you? The team we played in the knockout stages 2 years ago? We lost on a John Carew header away, losing on aggregate 2-2 due to the away goals rule. So wouldn't you know it, we draw them. The group (Group B) is made up of: Valencia, Arsenal, Roma, and Ajax Amsterdam. Not an easy group by any means. Valencia is shit-hot right now, Roma will be tough as well. At least DB10 will be able to make it to the away match at Amsterdam, assuming he isn't injured.

For a full breakdown of the groups and matchdates, click here.

2002-11-12T16:50:00.000-06:00

Arsenal 0 - PSV Eindhoven 0 - Well, what can you say? We didn't lose, and that's about as much as can be expected. We were never really up for it, although floppy-ears could have scored inside of five minutes. Shaaban seemed to have a decent enough game, and Toure got sent off. Of course, like always, we played better with 10 men then with the full 11.

PSV Eindhoven, however, can go fuck themselves. Their squad put on a horrible display. Pires was hacked down every time he touched the ball, as were many of the other Gunners. I understand being physical but when you have nothing to play for (other than a UEFA cup spot) you could show some sportsmanship. PSV committed 24 fouls (to the Arsenal's 13) and had five players carded. It was funny to see PSV scramble to actually play some footie after it was announced that Auxerre were one-up over Dortmund, knowing that if the results stayed as they were they wouldn't even see the UEFA cup. And the results did stay. Of course it pleases me to no end that these fuckers won't be in Europe anymore, and judging by Holland's performace I'm glad that tosser never came to Highbury.

Finally, in other CL news . . . after Houllier promised something special in Basel, and even though this fan says Pool were playing a yoddling version of Sunderland, they still could only draw and go crashing out of the competition. Question: why does it take Houllier 45 minutes and being down 3 goals to realize that Owen can't play alone up front and that Heskey is crap???

2002-11-12T08:42:00.000-06:00

Well I've been away for a while, apologies to anyone who stumbled onto the site only to see no updates for a week. It's been busy times around here, but hopefully I can get back to posting once a day or so. Anyway, onto tonight's match with PSV Eindhoven in the CL. Rami Shaaban will start as Seaman is hurt and depending on today's performance may make his Premiership debut against Sp*rs at the weekend. Campbell and Lauren are both out, meaning Igor and Oleg get starts. Expect Bobby Pires and GvB to start as well as they get back to match fitness. Bergkamp and Kanu will probably miss out, so we may see old floppy-ears Franny get the nod up front.

2002-11-04T08:44:00.000-06:00

Fulham 0 - Arsenal 1 - Well, we could use a little luck after our horrible run we've been on . . . only an own-goal after a shank by Steve Marlet and two gratuitous referee decisions (when is the last time that has happened?) helped us secure the one-nil away win and stop the winless streak. A win is a win, but let's get down to brass tacks here . . . this was a pretty pathetic performance. Cygan and Campbell are proving to be shaky in the heart of defence, and it's clear that TH14 and some of the other boys are gassed and need a rest. Let's hope for everyone's sake that we see a boat load of new faces (where are you Franny, Rami, Pennant, etc.?) starting in the CL match on Nov. 12, as that is sandwiched in between two important home matches with the Barcodes and Sp*rs.

2002-11-01T09:22:00.000-06:00

Not much today then, except the expected load of shit we can read in the press about how all of a sudden Arsenal are crap and should be playing in the second division and such . . . nevermind that. PV4 thinks we'll turn around our losing ways soon, let's hope he means Sunday against mini-Arsenal (aka Fulham). I had a nightmare last night that Inamoto scored late and we lost 1-0 . . . nothing could be worse than that.

2002-10-30T13:59:00.000-06:00

Dortmund 2 - Arsenal 1 -

PRE MATCH THOUGHTS: Arsenal's confirmed lineup: Seaman; Lauren, Campbell, Cygan, Cole; Pires, Vieira, Gilberto, Ljungberg; Wiltord, Henry;

A draw is enough to see us through to round 2. And Arsenal haven't lost 4 in a row for 19 years I think. There can be only one result . . .

RUNNING GAME UPDATE: I feel nervous already . . . Dortmund hit the post after 90 seconds, uh-oh! . . . Thierry Henry lines up to put one in Row Z from a free-kick, but wait, he's shanked it and it's gone in for a goal after 18 minutes of play . . . Game on, One-Nil to the Arsenal! . . . 22 minutes and the Gooners chant, "You're not singing anymore" . . . FUCKING HELL, 38 minutes in and Dortmund equalize after an exact replay of Zola's goal against us at Chelsea (Free-kick takes a slight touch off Gilberto's head but Seaman was stuck on the goalline . . . again.) FUCK! . . . Halftime, 1-1 . . . Second half begins, Dortmund controlling possession . . . Long ball from Dortmund splits the defence and Koller is through 1-on-1 with the keeper . . . It's a fucking penalty . . . Rosicky scores and Dortmund go up 2-1 after 62 minutes . . . better news though as PSV are up 3-0 on 9-man Ox Hair . . . and if the results stay the same Arsenal will back door their way into the 2nd round . . . Bobby Pires comes off after a subdued performance, Toure comes on . . . Kanu and Edu come on for Super Sylv and Gilberto . . . 4 minutes of added time . . . And it's over. Our 4th successive 2-1 loss, yet we slip into the 2nd round through the back door. BULLSHIT! As I said above there can only be one result, of course this isn't the one I was hoping for. However, considering we had lost three in a row by a 2-1 scoreline, I guess it makes sense . . . .

2002-10-25T08:38:00.000-05:00

Uggh . . . it certainly hasn't been a great week if you are an Arsenal fan. Although secretly I support Soton . . . but nevermind. Anyhow, here's a quick recap of the Arsenal-fucking that us fans have witnessed over the past 7 days:

Saturday, October 19, 2002 - Lost our first game since 1960 to a 16-year old, 1-2.

Tuesday, October 22, 2002 - Lost our first Champs League game of the year, signalling the first time we have lost two games in a row since 1937, failing to comb the Ox Hair, 1-2.

Tuesday, October 22, 2002 - As if losing to Ox Hair wasn't enough, it's announced the cost of the new stadium in Ashburton Grove is £100million over budget.

Friday, October 25, 2002 - Finally, PV4 gets banned 2 games and fined for telling a ref that he has 'no personality.'

Saturday, October 26, 2002 - Edu scores twice in the Blackburn match, however one goes past Seaman into his own goal, and Dwight Yorke grabs the winner as Blackburn take the 3 points, 1-2.

To continue on about Paddy, here's my take: If he was going to be banned he should have made damn fucking sure he DID call him a 'Fucking Wanker' which the FA determined he didn't do, even though fuck-face D'Urso said he did. So the FA punish PV4 for telling D'Urso he has no personality, however I'm sure the FA will do nothing about D'Urso's false match report. Make sense? Of course it does. Alan Smith and David Beckham can say anything they want to the refs, because let's face it, they play for the English national team and they would have to literally kill someone on the pitch for them to get banned. However foreign players are not their concern so they don't give a fuck. Tossers, nothing but tossers in the FA.

Finally, this string of bad luck follows Arseblogger changing the logo on his site. He has since changed it back, but the damage done is irreversible. I BLAME ALL OF THIS ON YOU ARSEBLOGGER! That and the fact I didn't wear my kit for either of the past two matches.

2002-10-23T08:30:00.000-05:00

Are you truly an Arsenal fan . . . or do you subconsciously support another team? BBC has the quiz for you to find out. And after all was said and done, your's truly is . . . A SOUTHAMPTON SUPPORTER. Fuck me.

2002-10-22T16:08:00.000-05:00

Arsenal 1 - Ox Hair 2 - Not an impressive performance by any means, with the result being that we've now lost two games in a row for the first time since 1937. Ox Hair took a shock lead through Olivier Narcisse Kapo Obou (yes, that's his real name) after only 8 minutes and doubled it 20 minutes later from Fadiga. The second half looked more promising with Kanu pulling one back, but we never could unlock their 11-man defence for the equaliser. Still . . . all is not lost. 9 points from 4 games is a decent haul, and we've still got a damn good shot of going through to the second round.

Tough match against Blackburn coming up. Nothing other than the 3 full points, or else . . . ???

2002-10-22T09:06:00.000-05:00

Ahhh . . . sorry for the lack of updates over the past few days. I felt like I took a two week nap during the international break. During which time I had a nightmare that we actually LOST to Everton on an injury-time wonder goal to some 16-year old kid named Rooney. But now I have returned and so too, hopefully, has Arsenal's great European form when they take on Ox Hair . . . erm, Auxerre, tonight at Highbury.

On the injury front, Bobby Pires is back although I don't think we will see much of him other than a quick runout to get his match legs back. However, Dennis Bergkamp and Franny 'Floppy Ears' Jeffers are out up front, along with Parlour, Keown, and GvB. PV4, TH14 and Sol are slight doubts, but they figure to play.

Lineup Prediction: Seaman; Lauren, Campbell, Cygan, Cole; Ljungberg, Gilberto, Vieira, Wiltord; Henry, Kanu

Match Prediction: The clean-sheet streak continues. 2-0 to the Arsenal, courtesy of Henry and Wiltord.

2002-10-15T13:39:00.000-05:00

KEANE FOUND GUILTY - Earlier today the twats at the FA found Roy Keane Fucking Wanker guilty of two counts of misconduct and has been ordered to serve a 5-match ban and pay a £150,000 fine. Both counts are subject to appeal.

2002-10-15T09:15:00.000-05:00

Arsenal 5 - QPR 1 - No, you didn't miss a Worthless Cup match. This was a hastily arranged friendly to test Robert Pires' fitness, much like Arsenal did with Freddie Ljungberg playing in the Reading friendly. By all accounts Pires had a nice match, he played the full 90, scored Arsenal's 2nd goal and set up another. After the match he said, "Physically I feel very good. I'm not tired, although obviously it will take a while for the technical side of my game to come back. But I'm very happy with how it went today." Let's hope he can make an appearance soon, preferably one of the next two CL matches (at home against Auxerre and away to BV Borussia Dortmund).

2002-10-11T16:24:00.000-05:00

FERGIE'S A PERV - Well, maybe not, but when checking the news outlets I stumbled upon two very interesting articles. Apparently Fergie got sauced up (again) and got into a car with a woman and went to make move and she told him no. At least that's my take. But I have to think there was more to it then that because this woman has filed a complaint with Cape Town police and Fergie is facing an allegation of indecent assault in South Africa! WOW! After all the mind games and shit he's piled on to the Arsenal in the past . . . I'd love to see him end up in the clink sharing a room with two 300-pounders named Biff and Rocky who would like to indecently assualt him. That should teach him, fucking tosser.

Here are the article links: one from the BBC, and another one from FoxSports.

2002-10-10T08:36:00.000-05:00

International weeks blow . . . obviously there isn't much going on that is just Arsenal related . . . so expect little updates over the next few days until the buildup to the Everton match on October 19 starts. Unless of course I post updates on any number of our international players getting injured, which undoubtedly will happen.

2002-10-07T08:48:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: Peter Reid has been sacked following the 3-1 loss at Highbury. This coming after his side has scored just 4 goals through 9 league games and have amassed only 8 points in those matches.

Arsenal 3 - Sunderland 1 - This game was over after 9 minutes, Kanu bagging two quickies to, in all reality, put the game away. Vieira headed in a rebound right before the half time whistle, and the Arsenal took a 3-0 lead into halftime. It was a stroll in the second half, and the back 4 weren't ever really troubled, although Sunderland did grab a consolation goal late on. No matter though, the full 3 points, and all our record runs are extended another game. The only downside was watching Mikey Owen grab a late winner for Pool and stay only 2 points back at the table. Damn him.

2002-10-04T08:37:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: The awards just keep rolling in. TH14 has been named Barclaycard's Player of the Month, and Le Boss recieved the manager of the month award as well.

Congratulations to Thierry Henry, who was named OPTA player of the month for September, after scoring 4 goals and notching 2 assists in the month.

As reported in my post yesterday, Freddie missed the Auxerre match after a bout with migraines. He goes on to detail the problems in this article, and is quoted as saying, "It's like a nightmare. The pain was so bad this week that I puked. I was very sick - but it became even worse. I lost my vision and could not feel anything down the left side of my body" Fucking hell . . . that's not a migraine, that's an LSD reaction.

In unrelated news, my '10 beer migraine' is killing me right now. Ugghh . . .

2002-10-03T08:21:00.000-05:00

Had a look this morning at the video clip of the match highlights from UEFA.com for the Auxerre match. Gilberto's goal was well taken, great work down the left flank from Kolo Toure, who crossed into the box finding Wiltord, who drew about 4 defenders and then squared the ball off for a streaking Gilberto to fire in the goal. Well taken indeed.

Just a quick comparison between last year's CL and this year's comp: Last year Arsenal's first 3 games were played 2 away and 1 home. Through the first 3 matches they scored 3 goals, while conceeding 4, and only took 3 points (two away 1-0 losses and a home 3-2 win). This year has the same setup: 2 of the first 3 matches are away matches. In this campaign, the mighty Arse have scored 7 goals, conceeded 0 (none, zero, nothing, nil . . . you get the point), and have taken the maximum 9 points of the first three games.

So what's the difference? New tactics? New players? Kanu actually doing something for once on the pitch? For me it's all mental, all about confidence. Last season the team slowly started building up confidence, we started winning away (in England, not Europe obviously), scoring goals all the time, and it culminated in a double. I think they parlayed that success and confidence from last year and have carried it over, and I think it's made them more prepared mentally when they travel in Europe this year. They go on the pitch expecting to win, and that's what they are doing.

TH14 reckons he may still be able to make this weekend's Sunderland match after tweaking his hammy last night. Furthermore that same article goes on to tell us the reason Freddie didn't get a run out last night: he suffered an overnight migraine. Apparently he has had these off and on for roughly 10 years. Funny, I've had the same condition for about roughly the same amount of time. Although mine are usually triggered by 10 or 12 beers before sleep.

2002-10-02T15:54:00.000-05:00

GILBERTO CELEBRATES HIS WINNER WITH WILTORD AND LAUREN

(image courtesy of UEFA.com)

Auxerre 0 - Arsenal 1 - I'll take it. That's about all I can say. Sounds like this wasn't a very pretty game at all. Auxerre had their fair share of possession and we didn't crush this side like some fans have become accustomed too. No matter though, a classic 'one-nil to the Arsenal' win, soak up pressure, hit back on the break, get a goal up, and then let the defense take over. To be fair to Auxerre, they did hit the bar in the later stages and forced a few saves from Seaman, but we never looked like losing this game. However, the injury bug has bit the squad . . . Henry tweaked a hammy and was replaced by Pennant early in the second half. Shortly after that Edu came on for Toure (not sure if this was an injury though). Finally Cole went down late in the match and although he wasn't replaced, he may have picked a knock up as well. We'll wait to hear what Le Boss has to say on these.

2002-10-02T09:12:00.000-05:00

Auxerre tonight then . . . My last two predictions have been 1-1 draws and we have won 4-0 and 4-1, both away matches mind you. No sense in changing anything, given that I would be happy with a 1-1 draw, Auxerre is a damn good team (even without Cisse, who will be missing tonight), and I'm superstitous as all hell. So 1-1 then with Fadiga opening the scoring (although I would like Benjamin Mwaruwaru to score just so I could hear his name announced) and Super Sylv equalising. Bergkamp, Keown, and Parlour are all still out with achillles, hammy, and another hammy injuries. However Edu makes it back to the squad, although I reckon he will make the bench. Lineup: Seaman; Cole, Cygan, Campbell, Lauren; Wiltord, Vieira, Gilberto, Ljungberg; Kanu, Henry.

In other news . . . TH14 has pledged his future to Arsenal and is ready to sign a new deal (even if it means less money) to stay a Gunner. He's quoted as saying, "Arsenal gave me a hand when I was down and as long as they want me I will never walk away." Furthermore, Bobby Pires is about 3 weeks away from making a full recovery. He is currently training but Le Boss wants to wait for the full 6 months to pass before risking him.

2002-10-01T12:38:00.000-05:00

The FA have set PV4's hearing date for October 24. Assuming a 3 match ban is imposed, which let's face it is highly likely with the wankers at the FA, he would miss matches at home to Blackburn and Newcastle, and away to Fulham. The next match after those 3 is Sp*rs, so let's hope he makes it for that match so we can see him kick the shit out of Davies, Redknapp, and the rest of their shite midfield. Funny though, if Paddy's name was Alan Smith or he played for Thuggish Ruggish Leeds or ManUre, do you think he would be on trial? Answers on a postcard to the FA . . .

2002-10-01T08:27:00.000-05:00

Not much news the day before another big CL match against Auxerre. TH14 has signed a new deal with Nike, which is a handsome little payout at £9million. This is reportedly more money than Beckham gets through Adidas . . . excellent! It's always nice to go one up on the Mancs, on or off the pitch.

2002-09-30T12:47:00.000-05:00

Paddy in contract talks . . . and it's not with Real Madrid either - Hopped onto Arsenal.com to read this interesting little article on how PV4 is currently in talks to extend his contract which expires in 2004. This coming from France Football magazine, where in an interview he said, "I am taking part in talks to find a common ground and I cannot see any reason why I shouldn't stay.”

2002-09-28T20:26:00.000-05:00

"Men and boys" - That was the quote with about 20 minutes left from the FSW announcer as Arsenal were cruising 3-0 on their way to a 4-1 win over dirty Leeds. And that really explains it all. It's hard to explain what watching Arsenal feels like, but I know that every time they get going on the break I think they can and will score. This team carves up midfields and defences with their pace and fluiditiy (feel free to insert other adjectives here), and the defense, while not as legendary as the famous 'back 5' can certainly hold their own. For more accolades, read the Insider on Soccernet.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, Sp*rs lost 3-0 at home to Boro. That's a bit more like we expect from them, isn't it?

Time to get the beers in.

2002-09-27T10:18:00.000-05:00

Thuggish Ruggish Leeds tomorrow - and I can't say I feel very confident about this match at all. The team spent a lot of energy in Eindhoven just a few days ago, and an early Saturday kickoff is not a great way to recuperate from a Wednesday evening Champions League game. Squad news: Bergkamp is out at least three matches with an Achilles injury, while Keown's hamstring, Parlour's hamstring, and Edu's groin are all acting up, forcing them to miss the match as well. My lineup: Seaman; Cole, Campbell, Cygan, Lauren; Ljungberg, Vieira, Gilberto, Toure; Wiltord, Henry.

Record watch - A goal for Arsenal would break Chesterfield's record by scoring in the 47th consecutive Premiership match. Avoiding defeat means they will equal Manchester United's Premiership best of 29 unbeaten set in the 98-99, and would also break Nottingham Forest's top flight record of 22 away League games without defeat.

Prediction - The boys are probably running on fumes, but they are the more skilled team. Leeds will be crashing in tackles all day, and El Tel will have them fired up. Leeds have done a decent job of keeping our attack nuetralised in the past. 1-1 prediction, with Toure and Smith getting the goals.

2002-09-26T10:06:00.000-05:00

An interesting article here, regarding why BBC thinks Arsenal can and will win the Champions League. I personally think that the talk is a bit premature, I'd like to see us in the quarters or semis before we go talking about winning the thing. However, it makes for good reading. Special thanks to 'ClockEndOrange' who posted this on the Soccernet Message Board.

2002-09-26T08:24:00.000-05:00

Just got done watching the Arsenal video highlights from the UEFA site. If you'd like a look, and have Real Player, click here. Arsenal looked awesome, especially in the second half. Of course, they only show the goals in that video clip anyway, so PSV didn't get much time on the highlights at all, except when their defence was in disarray, which was quite a bit. By most accounts (including my own) we were outplayed in the first half, PSV went close several times and had several goals disallowed. No matter though, we ran them dead in the second half, and looked like scoring about every time we had posession.

It's not all good news though, Keown went down with a tweaked hamstring and had to be strechered off after only 10 minutes. Martin is expected to be out for about 2 to 3 weeks. However his sub, Cygan, got his first significant runout and played excellent, making numerous timely tackles. I must admit I was a little skeptical at first when he wasn't even making the bench for some league games, but based on this performance he seems ready.

Furthermore, UEFA is set to investigate missle throwing towards Thierry Henry during last night's match. TH14 was quoted as saying, "They were throwing coins, lighters and other stuff. I don't know whether you heard what they were saying or saw what they were doing."

2002-09-25T15:28:00.000-05:00

WOW! 3-nil now with about 10 minutes left. Arsenal just carved up PSV in the 2nd half, and goals from Freddie and Henry should be enough for our first win in years away from home in Europe. I can't contain the excitement, I'm off to celebrate. CHEERS!

2002-09-25T14:58:00.000-05:00

GILBERTO CELEBRATES FASTEST CHAMPS LEAGUE GOAL EVER

Gilberto started our match off with a bang by scoring in 20.07 seconds after the opening whistle. The previous fastest was 20.12. That staked us to a one-nil halftime lead.

2002-09-25T08:35:00.000-05:00

Our second Champions League fixture is tonight. Arsenal are in great form at the moment and look likely to beat anyone they play. However PSV is no pushover, they are top of Eredivisie and have conceeded only one goal through five games while scoring 14. This will be a great test to judge how serious we are about our Champions League cause. Although a loss wouldn't kill Arsenal's chances of reaching the second round, it would certainly demoralise the squad a bit with all the talk of our away record in Europe. I think, however, the Arsenal will have enough to get away with a point, so I'm reckoning a 1-1 draw with Henry and Van Bommel scoring. Key matchups I feel will be Van Bommel against Vieira, and Hofland against Henry. Both of those players were linked with a highbury move at one time, and they should be fired up to prove they would have been worth it.

My lineup: Seaman; Lauren, Keown, Campell, Cole; Ljungberg, Vieira, Gilbeto, Wiltord; Henry, Bergkamp. Ray Parlour is out with a hamstring problem, and Edu is still having trouble with his knee.

2002-09-24T10:06:00.000-05:00

Not much going on today . . . the only interesting news (rumors aside) that is somewhat Arsenal related: PSV Eindhoven coach Guus Hiddink recently received a death threat, and almost retired from the game after opening the letter six weeks ago. The letter had two bullets in it, and Hiddink explained: "The message was along the lines of, 'if you have the same success in the league with PSV as you did with Korea, we'll kill you with one bullet.' Or 'if you succeed in the Champions League, we'll kill you with the other.'"

Speaking of that match, it's been confirmed that Dennis Bergkamp will travel to Eindhoven to play in the match tomorrow. We'll also get a firsthand look of two players rumored to be coming to Highbury over the summer in Kevin Hofland and Mark van Bommel.

2002-09-22T11:45:00.000-05:00

Arsenal 2 - Bolton 1 - An interesting game this, it had a bit of everything. Arsenal flowing forward, Henry missing a few chances. Then Freddie is pulled down in the box and Henry steps up and . . . wanks it. I'm becoming increaingly worried about his spot kicks, he missed a few in the CL campaign last year and to hit the woodwork yesterday, well that's not helping matters. To his credit he came back and scored a beauty, latching onto a Freddie longball before rounding the keeper and staking us to a one-nil lead. We seemed to never be threatened by Bolton until what many Arsenal fans have seen time and time before . . . Nayim, Ronaldinho, Zola, and now add the name Gareth Farrelly. Although Seaman could not be faulted for thinking it was a wayward cross, the ball managed to trick him and bend into the side netting, leaving Seaman and the rest of highbury stunned. Arsenal surged forward, went close a few times, and then saw the Bolton side open up a little with the dismissal of Campo. Then in the third minute of injury time Kanu, who played shit for the previous 92 minutes, cleated in a loose ball for Arsenal to claim 3 points.

I'd love to write more, but I just bouth a 2-month old pug (named him Gunner) and he's taking up quite a bit of time.

2002-09-20T12:37:00.000-05:00

Take the good with the bad . . . Soccernet reports that Gio van Bronckhorst is looking to resume full training next week, however Bobby Pires is now targeting November as a return date, after it was initially thought he could be available mid to late October.

The same article also mentions that our fearful-of-flying forward (say that 5 times fast) Dennis Bergkamp may drive to the away match in the CL against PSV Eindhoven next week.

2002-09-19T13:38:00.000-05:00

Everyone should get a kick out of this: The Top 10 reasons why Fergusmoan should quit ManU.

2002-09-19T08:38:00.000-05:00

"Arsenal will not beat us at Old Trafford." This was Ryan Giggs' quote before out premiership winning victory at Old Trafford last year. Seems he hasn't really learned his lesson, although he makes no guarantees in his latest quotes, claiming Manchester United are back on track after their win over Israeli club Maccabi in the CL. No offense to Giggs (erm . . . well maybe a little) but United's defending is still shit. Maccabi scored two at Old Trafford, and the second goal made the 30 million pound man Rio look ordinary at best.

Another United note . . . did anyone see Forlan pleading with Beckham to let him take the late penalty and get his first goal in 27 games for the club? Hysterical. The whole team was feeding him the ball all night and he couldn't score, so he has to beg the captain to let him take a spot kick to get on the tally sheet. (Begin Sarcasm) Marvelous player, another great Fergie buy. (End Sarcasm)

Finally, interesting news regarding those tossers in the FA . . . Dale Johnson of Soccernet writes an interesting and well thought out piece on the video panel and FA's double standards. I highly recommend clicking here and reading it. What I found most interesting is this . . . quoting Johsnon, "If David Beckham had been charged [for the elbowing incident against Lee Bowyer], he would face a disciplinary hearing in 14 days and if found guilty would have been handed a three-match ban. The England skipper would have been suspended either side of England's Euro 2004 qualifiers against Slovakia and Macedonia; you can't represent England when serving a domestic ban. Of course, that had no bearing on the FA's decision..." He wraps up by stating, "In a week we've seen fourth officials apparently unaware of touchline rules, a player nescient of a basic law of the game, the FA's double standards over video evidence and, arguably, the ineptitude of an official in David Elleray. Hardly the best of weeks for those running the rule in Soho Square."

2002-09-18T08:58:00.000-05:00

FA SEES THE LIGHT - Arsenal.com just reported that no action will be taken against Thierry Henry for the 'alleged' elbow in Charlton's game on Saturday. Thank fuck.

Also, the Haloscan commenting service is currently down. Apologies to all.

Finally, Bloomberg is reporting that Matt Upson may be returning to Highbury sooner than expected. Apparently the validity of his loan (and two other non-Arsenal players) are in question.

2002-09-17T16:28:00.000-05:00

Arsenal 2 - Borussia Dortmund 0 - Our CL campaign gets off to a great success. The Germans made us work for it, as I thought they would, but second half goals from Bergkamp and Freddie (on his return no less) brought home the win. Sounds as though the team had a good night passing and attacking, the Germans were strong in defence but never really posed a threat to Seaman and the rest of the defence. Fair play to the ref who only showed one card in the entire match.

We'll see just how strong our European ambitions are next week when we match up with PSV Eindhoven. Our away form in the CL has been piss the last few years, so it will be interesting to see how last season's unbeaten away run in the EPL will have prepared us for the CL.

2002-09-17T08:42:00.000-05:00

Every morning the first thing I do is hop online and go to Soccernet and read the headlines. Normally they are pretty predictable and have to deal with the game itself, such as "Glen Hoddle realizes Sp*rs are crap and can never win anything" or something along those lines. However today I see these two headlines . . . "FA to investigate pitch invasions at St Andrews" and "Keane handed deadline extension". The problem I have with this is two-fold . . . first, the FA seem to be getting more and more involved (and it's not all Arsenal affairs either) to the point of becoming a dictatorship. This is not good. Granted certain things need to be done and when Birmingham's fans are storming the pitch after each goal their side scores in a heated derby, I can understand looking into it. But everyday it's something, and plenty of times it's petty, such as TH14's T-shirt saga. Get a grip FA and let the players play. I had another point in here . . . oh yeah, the second headline. Seems the FA have granted 'Roy Keane Fucking Wanker' another 48 hours to get his shit straight before he has to make a statement to the FA regarding his disciplinary hearings. Do you think the FA would grant Thierry Henry a 48 hour extension for responding to his alleged elbow incident? Fuck no. Tossers.

Finally, the Champions League is here. Arsenal kick off against Borussia Dortmund at Highbury this evening. Should be a cracker and I don't expect a walkover by any means, the German squad is good and made it to the finals of the UEFA Cup last year, losing to Feyenoord 3-2. They have solid players in Rosicky, Jan Koller, Ewerthon, etc. I'm thinking 2-1 to the Gunners. And a surprise, Freddie will be back on the bench tonight. Although he won't start, he may see a runout, especially if Edu's knee problem shows up.

2002-09-16T12:46:00.000-05:00

An update on the 'FA hate Arsenal and have their mind made up to try and ban every one of their players' front: TH14 tells Arsenal.com that he did not elbow John Robinson in the face. The article goes on to quote Robinson himself, who told Capital Radio on Monday: "I can't believe they are turning this into something it isn't. They should let it go. If he had caught me I would have gone down. I think the FA should get on with something else."

2002-09-16T08:51:00.000-05:00

FUCK SHIT BULLOCKS FUCK . . . So if anyone is surprised by the following news then they surely aren't an Arsenal fan or they've been living in a cave the past few seasons. Seems the FA in their infinite fucking wisdom have decided to investigate Thierry Henry for an alleged elbow on Charlton midfielder John Robinson in Saturday's 3-0 win at The Valley. They are investigating because the referree didn't see it . . . OK I can live with that. Go to the tape and review it and make a decision accordingly. Fair enough. But this is the kicker . . . David Beckham can elbow a player and everyone in the fucking world sees it, the ref sees it and gives a free kick, and then the FA say they can't investigate it because the match ref (Jeff Winter) saw it and acted accordingly, and chose not to pursue it after the match. It's absolute shit. The FA have these so called 'rules' . . . however they're so god awful vague it doesn't matter, and they'll do whatever they can to make Arsenal's life hell.

Does it really matter anymore? Even with all the crap going on already, we're top of the league, and six points clear of United just six games into the campaign. Don't forget about last year: We won the Double with all the shit we had to put up with . . . Graham Poll's shite performance at Highbury when the Barcodes beat us 3-1 . . . Gio being sent off at Anfield. Countless investigations and bans and fines. Last year I felt Arsenal became stronger from all the shite they had to put up with. Can history repeat itself?

For more about the decision, read the views from Soccernet's Arsenal correspondent, and have a look at Arseblogger's thoughts.

2002-09-14T20:55:00.000-05:00

Charlton 0 - Arsenal 3 - Like Energizer, it keeps going and going and going . . . another win, more goals for TH14 and Super Sylv, the records are tumbling all over the place. Wiltord found the net again, that's now 6 in 6 games. The kid is in great form right now. Kolo Toure had a nice game, and Edu replaced him and gave a great performace as well. I'm a big Edu fan, he has great vision of the pitch and although he isn't the most assured defender, his passing and ball skills more than make up for that. He picked out Vieira on a run who then set up Wiltord for our second, then got on the scoresheet himself with a header set up by Henry. Arsenal gave Charlton (and the rest of the EPL) a lesson in how to kill off an opponent on the counter, scoring all three goals on the break.

So it's now 44 games with a goal scored, breaking City's mark. And it's a new club record of 27 unbeaten league matches. Well done you Gunners. And if Vieira is tired, I can't wait to see his performances after he gets a break. Charlton boss Alan Curbishley even called him the 'perfect midfielder' after the match.

2002-09-12T08:20:00.000-05:00

Well, not too much today then . . . yesterday was a great day to be a Gunner though with Pool drawing at home to Birmingham. Kevin Nolan became my personal hero after grabbing his second winner for Bolton at Old Trafford in two years. And then there are poor old Sp*rs, who somehow managed to turn a 2-0 lead away at Fulham into a 3-2 defeat in the final 22 minutes of the match. Old boy Junichi Inamoto scored a cracker to open Fulham's day, and two goals in the last 10 minutes saw Spurs drop 3 points, and drop from top of the table.

"I'm not just tired, I'm cooked. I can hardly stand up at times. My back hurts, my legs hurt, I hurt everywhere." That sounds like me waking up after a long night of beers. But instead that quote comes from Paddy saying he is 'unnerved' by his current form, and that he is set to ask Wenger for a break. His performaces this season have been a little bit up and down, but how can you possibly be burnt out after five games?

2002-09-11T13:24:00.000-05:00

Well it had to happen sooner or later. My first interesting search term that referred a surfer to 'one-nil' . . . and the winner is . . . drumroll please . . . a Yahoo search on 'roy keane fucking wanker'. Thanks to whoever submitted that on Yahoo and surfed on over to my site.

2002-09-11T09:28:00.000-05:00

"WE LOVE YOU FREDDIE . . . " - we may be hearing those words sung soon again. The crazy-haired midfield marauder came through fine in the Reading friendly, playing 67 minutes, after which he was taken off and replaced by Jermaine Brown in a pre-arranged substitution. Let's hope he gets back to full match fitness soon.

2002-09-11T08:46:00.000-05:00

Arsenal 2 - Man City 1 - And my prediction holds. 2-1 win with Wiltord and Henry knocking in goals, I should have made a few calls to the bookies before the game, could be a rich man right now. Nevermind that though. This was a great game, end to end stuff especially in the first half. I admire the way City played, they looked dangerous coming forward and didn't sit back with 9 men behind the ball like a lot of teams do at Highbury. And I must apologize to Oleg Luzhny . . . although I still do think he is a bit crap, I don't find him at fault for that wanker's (Anelka) goal. After watching the game on tape last night, it seems Keown clearly should have done better with that cross and Oleg probably thought he would have, so a big "I'm sorry" to Oleg if you're reading, which you aren't so I'll just stop now. So anyway The Arsenal have scored in 44 consecutive top flight matches - equalling City's mark in 1937. They are now two short of the all-time record set by Chesterfield in 1931.

Furthermore the FA have actually done the right thing for once, deciding not to subject Theirry Henry to any disciplinary action following his goal celebration and T-shirt showing at Highbury last night.

Finally, I know we've all felt arsed over some of the referee's decisions in the past years . . . Vieira being sent off for next to nothing at Chelsea, Graham Poll's awful performance at Highbury last year when the Barcodes came to town, GvB being sent off at Anfield last year, etc. etc. But thank fuck that it's never been this bad.

2002-09-10T15:11:00.000-05:00

Halftime thoughts: Our defense is crap. Luzhny is crap and slow, it sounded like he was left for dead on Anelka's goal. Of course, listening on Internet Radio doesn't do the game justice really. However, if you look at my prediction below, I was spot on, as it's 2-1 and Henry and Wiltord have scored. Of course, this game will probably end up 4-3, but it's nice to be right, even if I was only half right.

2002-09-10T08:30:00.000-05:00

"I think it is petty. I can't understand how it is some clubs believe I would ask our doctors about, for instance, the state of David Beckham's toe." - Arsene Wenger after Sven Goran Eriksson replaced Arsenal doctors John Crane and Tim Sonnex with a Swedish specialist after the FA claimed some top-flight clubs were concerned with Arsenal getting 'inside information' about the fitness and weaknesses of their England's star players. Insider Information . . . is this Enron or football?

Now onto my Man City Preview: TH14, DB10, PV4, Super Sylv, and Sol have all been passed fit, meanwhile Lauren and Parlour are out with knee injuries, and Edu is doubtful. With no Lauren it's either Oleg Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuzhny or Kolo Toure to play at the back. I'd personally like to see how Toure plays at the back to see if he is adequate cover. I'm reckoning a close game and given our defensive lapses the past few games, I can't see us keeping a clean sheet. Still, we should have enough firepower to outscore Anelka and City. So, I reckon 2-1 to the Gunners with Henry netting a goal and Wiltord keeping up his red-hot form and grabbing his fifth of the young season. Any predctions from the 'one-nil' readers . . . all five of you?

2002-09-09T13:35:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Sylvain Wiltord who has won the first Barclaycard Player of the Month of the new season. Sylvain has been in shit-hot form over the first month, notching 4 goals in the first 4 matches of the new season.

2002-09-05T08:46:00.000-05:00

Not much going on at all today, Matthew Upson has joined Reading on a 3-month loan spell. To me this either means he isn't fully recovered enough from his injuries to play Premiership football at this time, or . . . and this is more believable . . . he is not ready for the Premiership at all . To be fair he looked decent enough in the games he featured in last year, but he was only seeing the pitch because of injuries anyway. Oh well, still have Luzhny and Steptoe. And don't forget about Efstathios Tavlaridis and Moritz Volz who both look promising coming up the youth ranks.

Fergie, Fergie, Fergie . . . what a fucking wanker you are. Oh wait, that's Andy D'Urso. Anyway, apparently Fergie got the FA riled up after reporting Paul Scholes unfit for international duty, then fielded him in their match at Old Trafford against Middlesbrough on Tuesday. Following this up he played Beckham for 89 minutes in that same game, then declared him unfit with a calf strain. Right then. So the FA have stood up and forced all players named to the England squad to report to international duty.

Finally, if any of you have are having trouble posting comments, I apologize. The HaloScan service which provides this is fucked thanks to a denial of service attack on them. Things should be running smoothly again in a few days.

2002-09-04T08:16:00.000-05:00

A special thanks to Darren Bowser courtesy of Arsenal-Land as he was nice enough to put a link to ONE-NIL in his links section on his site. If you haven't checked out his site before, give it a look, there's tons of content in there, and links to all sorts of other Arsenal sites. Well done Darren.

2002-09-03T17:47:00.000-05:00

The more I think about this the more fucking pissed off I get . . . how in the fuck can Andy D'Urso say that Paddy deserves a misconduct charge since he allegedly 'verbally assaulted' him on the pitch??? Is he fucking forgetting about the time he gave a penalty at Old Trafford and every single Manchester United player hunted him down and formed a circle around him, pointing and yelling at him the whole time. So why were there no misconduct charges brought against one or more of the Mancs on that occasion? I'll tell you why, because the fucking FA is in bed with Manchester United and refs find it a hell of a lot easier to level a misconduct charge whose past has (admittedly) shown he does have a bit of a temper. But Arsene and the players have worked on that, there hasn't been one Gunner sent off in 24 games up until Sunday's debacle.

Fuck Andy D'Urso, Graham Poll, and all the other useless muppets who pretend to ref games for the FA. Fuck the FA for never doing the right thing when it comes to their shite referees and fuck them for never doing shite period about any time a Manc gets out of line. Finally fuck Manchester United who get more shitty fucking penalties than any team, bar none. Fuck you, that's why we won the league in your back yard. Bitches!

2002-09-03T12:05:00.000-05:00

For fucks sake, this is a joke . . . the FA have handed PV4 a misconduct charge. Apparently he said something along the lines of "Why did you give me a second yellow and send me off you spineless, half-wit joke of a referee cunt?" Then again, I'm just making that up.

2002-09-03T09:02:00.000-05:00

Andy D'Urso and Ken Bates are two of the biggest cunts in English football at the moment. The former has decided not to review his sending off of Patrick Vieira after two yellow cards at Stamford Bridge. What a load of shite. I can understand refs not wanting to review every single card, but let's be real. Neither of those fouls were harsh and I'm not sure that either of them deserved a yellow, let alone both. Meanwhile other top notch refs (most recently Mike Riley at Highbury) have no problem reviewing and - on occasion - admitting mistakes and overturning their decisions. So why can't D'Urso? Sometimes you have to quit worrying about saving face and do the right thing for the game. D'Urso completely lost control of that game and even though the FA will be reviewing the 9 bookings and the bottle that was thrown on the pitch, its doubtful they will be doing anything about it. And to think that Graham Poll is sitting somewhere smiling over all this . . .

Meanwhile Cuddly Ken is up to his old tricks. In the pre-match programme notes before Sunday's match he took the time to welcome Arsenal, jokingly questioned how many cards referee Andy D'Urso would hand out to the Gunners, and wondered if Arsenal would finish with 10 men. Nice try Ken. Even though his predictions proved to be correct because of the the cunt referee referred to in the previous paragraph, Chelsea still wound up with 5 yellows of their own. Oh yeah, and they could only muster a draw after being up 1-0 and a man up for most of the second half. All this from the team Bates once hailed as 'the Manchester United of the South.' Top-notch!

2002-09-01T12:55:00.000-05:00

Arsenal 1 - Chelsea 1 - Well, nothing like trying times to show the true spirit of Arsenal. Down 1-0 at the half, then seeing Patrick Vieira sent off for a second bookable offence within 10 minutes in the second half, even I didn't think they could scramble a point away against a Chelsea team that ran Arsenal dead in the first half. But then comes Kolo Toure, and from out of the blue (pun intended) Arsenal grab an equalizer. After that we looked like scoring a second even though we were down a man, Toure was putting in a tireless performance, Chelsea were defending with everything they had and Arsenal were flying forward. All in all I think any Gooner will be pleased with this result. In the first four games we have had two tricky away derbies, and have survived with two draws when things could have been much, much worse.

So the unbeaten run now spans 25 matches. And it's now 21 away games without defeat, and Arsenal haven't lost at Stamford Bridge since 1995.

2002-09-01T11:02:00.000-05:00

First half thoughts from the away match at Chelsea: The boys are really up against it to say the least. Henry is unfit, so that gave Wiltord and Kanu the start upfront. The half started even enough, but Edu limped off in the 31st minute and was replaced by Kolo Toure. And since then Arsenal have been run ragged. It's not looking good. Oh yeah, and fuck Gianfranco Zola.

Some other thoughts: I'm not sure why Arsenal's numbers of bookings and discipline are always brought up. It seems like pretty much every game we play the opposing team picks up more bookings than us. Chelsea have three yellows in the first half and the Arse have one. Remember the away game at Manchester United (when we won the league last year) when the Mancs were haacking any time we touched the ball. Teams are hardpressed to keep up with the speed and passing of Arsenal, but the players have to stick up fr their teammates and if that means we have to send a few messages and get a few yellows to show opposing teams they can't hack us all over the pitch, so be it then.

Speaking of bookings, there's Roy Keane again. I haven't seen the incident but I would pretty much bet that the elbow was intentional. And of course Fergusmoan thinks Keane was done wrong by the decision, saying "I do not think he swung an elbow - he put an arm across his face. If the referee deems it a sending-off I do not know what we can do. The player McAteer went down quickly which is disappointing. We will see what the offence is but my gut feeling is it was very soft." Read the United's boss thoughts and more about the incident here.

2002-08-30T08:26:00.000-05:00

Fabian Carini . . . Carlos Roa . . . Ian Feuer . . . Sven Neuhas . . . Sebastian Saja . . . and in the end its RAMI! It's now confirmed by Arsenal that Rami Shaaban has signed on for a long term contract. The fee is undisclosed, which is typical Arsenal business, although specualtion is around £3,000 a week.

Robbie Keane has signed for Sp*rs apparently. Think Hoddle will let him waste away on the bench like Rebrov? Idiot.

2002-08-29T09:42:00.000-05:00

The CL draw is done. Arsenal have a decent group, with Borussia Dortmund, PSV Eindhoven, and AJ Auxerre drawn with the Gunners. I'd like to believe the Arse can get through the first stages relatively easily, but you never know in the CL. It also gives us the opporunity to play against Van Bommel and Hofland of PSV, who were both linked with Arsenal during the 'silly season.'

Seems there's always a 'Group of Death', and this year for me it's Group G. Bayern München, Deportivo La Coruna, AC Milan, and RC Lens make up what I feel is the toughest group top to bottom. You can get the full draw here.

"The Champions League is very important because we want to be the best in Europe and to do that you have to win it." - Arsene Wenger. Finally regarding the CL, UEFA.com posted an interesting article regarding Wenger's thoughts on the CL and our disappointments of the past, including detailing our away form which is . . . and this may be saying it a bit nice . . . piss.

2002-08-29T08:40:00.000-05:00

Not much going on this morning, save for the CL draw which will take place in a few hours. Arsenal's club coefficient is 7th, which means that they are provisionally ranked first in their drawn group and can't face any of the top 8 teams in the opening round, which are: Real Madrid, Bayern München, Manchester United, Barcelona, Valencia, Juventus, and Internazionale. I'll post the CL draw results as soon as UEFA does, so check back to see who we've drawn to start our European campaign with.

And a special thanks to Arseblogger who posted the link to 'ONE-NIL' from his page. Already he's generated some nice traffic to this site. See, now linking someone's page isn't that hard, is it? ARE YOU LISTENING ARSEWEB?????

Also, Arseblogger tipped me off to a potential problem with the layout for my site. If anyone else is having problems with the links on the right overlapping the main text, let me know with the comments section below and I will try to straighten out. It looks fine on IE5 and 6 on my PCs, however I know Arseblogger is using a Mac.

2002-08-28T10:50:00.000-05:00

Keeper News: Apparently Carlos Roa has signed with Spain's second divison Albacete. Read all about it here. I must say I'm happy to hear that, I never wanted Roa in the squad. For one he wouldn't play on Saturday's because of his religious beliefs, and his predictions of the world ending would make Nostradamus roll over. We're now linked with an Argentinian named Sebastian Saja. Can't say I've ever heard of him, but surely he is a better proposition than Roa. And he's only 23, so he could challenge Stu Taylor in the the next few years (assuming we don't sign Rustu Recber after this season).

2002-08-28T09:34:00.000-05:00

Let's get right down to it then, shall we? This is 'ONE-NIL' which is my blog where I will post everything Arsenal. Everything from my views on the current match, to off the pitch activity, to anything else even remotely Arsenal related (including the horrendous new away kits, but let's not dwell on that now). Some of you may be thinking, "Well it's a blog, and it's Arsenal related, what's the difference between this and Arseblog?" Well for one he's in Barcelona and I'm in St. Louis. Other than that they are probably pretty much the same concept, but can you truly ever have too much Arsenal in your life?