Arsenal: Two Cups Two Many….

Feels nice to be an Arsenal fan, it’s just the community shield and in the grand scheme of things it really doesn’t matter but you can only say that when you have won it. To be honest, I didn’t celebrate the win as much as I thought I would, maybe I’m getting used to this whole trophy winning thing as its beginning to feel expected. (believe that at your own peril).

It’s funny how some people who celebrate madly when they beat you on FIFA will accuse you of celebrating needlessly when your favourite team wins a real life trophy. The win itself felt enjoyable, it didn’t seem as if we needed to dig any deeper to secure our victory. Who remembers when some section of the media tried to rubbish our run to the final of the FA Cup on the basis of us not playing Man City. We have played them now, and whether they had players out or not, we beat them and aside the fact that we also had players out, have you seen Man City’s balance sheet? They can field a world eleven as their second team if they wanted to.

Click to Play Prediction League

Its early days but if anyone had any doubts about Arsenal being genuine title challengers then they would need to have their IQ’s checked on scale from Micheal Owen, Samir Nasir to Albert Einstein. (I don’t need to tell you who is on the lower end of that scale). Intelligence isn’t a problem Yaya Sanogo seems to be having as he is looking like a player who knows where his position is in the team now, the strength he showed holding up the City defender and laying the perfectly weighted pass for Ramsey’s goal shows that he really has put in some work in training to raise his fitness. Giroud must have gotten the memo when Wenger spoke about his fitness last week on the back on a faltering display at the Emirates Cup grabbing a goal that even Thierry Henry would admire.

It is always expected that with games like these once the many substitutes start coming, it loses some shape but however the Arsenal defence in the second half marshalled by Calum Chambers was not in the mood to let any goals in. (marshalled by Calum Chambers, let that sink in for a few seconds). Playing in the BFG position, the youngster didn’t seem like he was troubled by the amount of responsibility that was dropped on him. With BFG just returning and Koscienly picking up an Achilles injury it seems Calum in set to be thrown into the sea against Crystal Palace, and swim he must. We have some talent on our hands and there is not a better goldsmith than Arsene Wenger when it comes to bringing golden results from young talent.

This weekend also saw the departure of now former Arsenal Captain Thomas Vermaelen to Barcelona. It has to be the least acrimonious captain sales we have ever had and this is largely down to how Thomas handled himself while at the club. Even when we sold Henry, there was a section of fans that didn’t understand why that deal had to take place. Gallas, Cesc and RVP afterwards all had their varying amount of fan disgust and what can one do but wish Thomas a great time at Barca. I’m a little worried for him as recent history of Arsenal players going there has not proven to be very successful but Thomas at Centre Back would be a great addition for them.

Arsene has confirmed the Captaincy will move to Mikel Arteta. If a poll was taken as to who the band should be given to, I believe BFG would have won it clearly. However, Arsene has his ways and if he trusts Arteta with the band, who am I to complain. Wenger sees these players every day, even in a world where every single detail is out on the Internet, Wenger alone would see some qualities he desires in who he gives his captains band to.

The worry however is that yet again we are going to lose another captain at the end of the season. Mikel has just a year left on his contract and I would really doubt if it would be up for a renewal. Mikel’s legs are already beginning to fail and Wenger seems to be in the hunt for defensive midfielder even this transfer window, with rumours linking us to William Carvalho growing. Listening to Andrew Mangan of Arseblog last week and he raised a very important point when he said asked should Wenger go all out to get Carvalho in, it means Carvalho would have to start. You don’t spend the kind of amounts being bandied about for Carvalho to put him on the bench. Another school of thought would be that Carvalho would come in and share the space with Arteta and Flamini knowing fully well that at the end of the season the position would be his, therefore giving him enough time to get to know the league. All these are nice problems to have; at least we are not asking how soon Diaby will recover.

To some totally unimportant event as CanonCrested.com has turned One Year. So 142 blog posts published, a little over 2000 amazing followers on Twitter, almost 20 fans featured as Fans of The Week, and a prediction league and now added to that we just opened our Store for Arsenal fans in Nigeria. It’s pretty amazing how a small idea can crystallize into something that is growing strong. We would love to say thank you to every single person who has visited the site, read the blogposts, followed on Twitter, shared and re-tweeted our posts, featured on our fan zone etc etc etc …Thank you .

So, it’s the week our darling EPL returns and we all can’t wait to see Alexis Sanchez grab his first hat trick. Can’t wait! Can’t wait! Can’t wait! Have a great day friends.

Comments on the Community Shield win, The Arsenal Captaincy, Micheal Owens IQ or anything Arsenal related welcome below or on Twitter @canoncrested.

This post is dedicated to all medical officials fighting the Ebola scourge in West Africa. You guys are HEROS!