Arsenal : State of the Union

Resident Blogger : SimonSEEZ

It’s that time again, we all know it’s coming, we all hate the fact that it is, we moan about it, we scavenge for every piece of news Arsenal related to give us a near match day feel, over analyze the issue on any forum, watch the injury league to see if any of our players have been knackered, check the day of the week and count how many days to the next game and then we curse international football and go back to our former mood. Notice how the press conference before the game after an international break is always a bigger event on twitter than it usually is?

I am SOOOOOOOO bored!!! #NumbMind!!!

— Mr Arsenal™ (@MrArsenaI) October 10, 2013

So since we have this break let’s do a quick round up of everything Arsenal I can think of.

The League

Sitting on top after 7 games by goal difference who can complain, if anyone had even proposed the thought after the Villa defeat I would have thought the fella deranged but it now seems the Villa game was a blip. Mourinho made a remark at one of his pressers insinuating some teams are being helped by the fixture list; he did not refer to us directly so I would indirectly tell him to shut up. You can only play teams in front of you and I would love to ask him if he would have comfortably placed a bet on us winning both the Spurs and Napoli games.

Since September we have scored 10 goals and conceded 4 goals, winning four games and drawing one. We haven’t conceded more than one goal in the league this season after the Villa defeat though we managed to keep just one clean sheet. Our players have shown superb form with standout performer Aaron Ramsey winning the Barclays Player of the month award and Arsene picking up the Mangers version of the award. Wenger doesn’t seem to me like one to be too bothered about such awards and would be more interested in preparing for the Norwich game.

INJURY LEAGUE

This has got to be the only light at the end of the dark Interlull tunnel as judging from the way we have completed most of our last few games, you would notice we don’t keep as much possession in the second half of games and would rather allow the opposing team keep the ball while we mark spaces and keep shape waiting to counter. Could this be a purely tactical arrangement or it’s a coping mechanism by our players as they tire out. Injury has largely restricted the number of players available for selection by the manager and the Interlull will give our injured players a few weeks to recover and the manager would have a larger number of players to pick from come the Norwich encounter.

Players due back after the international Santi Cazorla, Sagna and Yaya Sanogo . I am not a big fan of Bendtner hence his introduction at the Hawthorns did not fill me with any interest. Bringing in Bendtner when you are looking for a goal is not going to scare any premier league defense even Crystal Palace so having Podolski back as soon as possible is important until we sign another striker in January. For games as tight as the one against West Brom, a player with special abilities like Santi was hugely missed as the team sat deep most times and if you can’t pass your way through you would need some sublime skill to break them.

Jack Wilshere

I knew he would be in the news all through the Interlull when I wrote this piece What! Jack smoking at the Emirates, what I didn’t know was that it would be totally unrelated to the smoking incident and become an issue of nationality. Everyone seems to have an opinion on Jacks stance on the issue and on whichever side of the debate you are on there are valid points to the argument but to make him seem racist for his opinion on the issue is just plain foolish.

The world is a global village and issues such as nationality are topical issues for even governments, politicians campaign and win elections on issues such as this and immigration issues. I work on foreign transactions for a financial institution and it’s amazing the number of Nigerians I come across with at least two passports and when asked to produce their passport they present a foreign one before their Nigerian passport, sincerely, it pisses me off. Migration and inter racial marriages have made identity somewhat harder to identify and competition is wiping away any allegiance to ones country of birth. Why would a country like Spain, SPAIN!!!!! With all the talent in the world still want Atlectico Madrids Diego Costa who as recently as 7months ago played for Brazil albeit in friendly encounters which make him still eligible.  Cam on!! There has to be sense to these things!!

Jack tweeted that his statements were somewhat misinterpreted so I tried to find his original comments and to be honest I don’t think his statements where twisted in any way. To be fair to him also he still stood by most part of the comments he made on the issue.

Arsenal Ladies

What better way to end a season than winning a trophy so we end this post celebrating our Arsenal ladies who lost the league title to Liverpool but won our third successive Continental Cup. To be fair to the league organizers they must have been tired seeing us take the trophy 9 times in a roll so we had to let someone else win it.

Congratulations to the team manager Shelley Kerr on this triumph and I see no reason why she shouldn’t be first in the hat when Wenger decides to leave his seat.  Nice to know the ladies won the trophy in the same month we on Canoncrested.com are celebrating female Arsenal fans. You can check it out here .

So, thanks for visiting the page, hope I saw you through some minutes of the boring Interlull. Loads of games in Europe and Africa this weekend to keep you partially occupied though so follow all the Arsenal players and see how they fare cos that’s what I would be doing. Have a great weekend mates!!!

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