• Arsenal 3-0 Wigan
• Van Persie Hatrick, he also missed a penalty, and Wigan’s Gary Caldwell was sent off
• Probably the most one-sided game ever. Even on Match of the Day there was not one wigan attack.
• Possession: Arsenal 58%-42% Wigan.
• Shots: Arsenal 23-3 Wigan. Plus I cant even remember Wigans shots
• Wigan goalie Al Habsi stopped the score from being embarrassing for Wigan, if it weren’t for him it would have been AT LEAST 6-0. Why do goalies always do against us?

• Van Persie ’21 : Good through ball from Song, beating the whole defence, outside of the box to RVP who slotted it past Al Habsi easily.
• Van Persie ’58 : Fantastic pass over the whole Wigan defence by Fabregas and a great sliding volley into the back of the net by RVP. Great Goal
• Van Persie Pen: Song through ball to Fabregas, who was taken out from behind in the box. Had to be a penalty and Caldwell was rightly sent off. RVP on his hatrick- blasted over.. bad penalty.
• Van Persie ’85: Another great through ball over the top by Cesc, met by Theo who ran it into the box, then shielded the ball for RVP to bang in near post.

Team Ratings:

• Schezney: 6  Nothing to do all game
• Sagna 7.5
• Djourou 7
• Koscielny 7
• Clichy 7.5
• Wilshere 7.5
• Song 7.5
• Fabregas 8
• Nasri 7.5
• Theo 6.5
• RVP 9 MOTM
• SUBS: Arshavin, Denilson, Chamakh

Good performance from Arsenal. We didn’t even really need to play that good being how bad Wigan were. They never looked like scoring, and 3-0 is more than a fair result for them. It really should have been 7-0 at least. RVP was great, and good to see his back to his best, and theres more to come.

Elsewhere in the league Man Utd thrashed Birmingham 5-0. Spurs were held at Newcastle for a point, 1-1. And Man City lost 1-0 to Villa thanks to £24million striker, Darren Bent. So now Man Utd are 2 points above us, with a game in hand. Man City are 1 point behind us, and we have a game in hand. Tottenham and Chelsea are both 8 points behind us, Chelsea having a game in hand.

Home Leg of Carling Cup to Ipswich this week were we NEED to win by at least 2 to progress to the final, followed by a nice easy cup game also at Emirates against Huddersfield.

Cheers

What are you meant to do with 11 men behind the ball all game? We done everything we could to try and break them down, giving 100% effort and a top quality performance, but the goal never came. Arsenal played some top notch stuff at times, and if it wasn’t for luck not gong with us we could have easily BATTERED City. Man City are a disgrace to the Premier league for their set up last night considering they’re starting line up cost around £200million and they claim they are challenging for the title. All that money spent and they’re scared to give any sort of attack to us. Blackpool gave more than them, and they lost 6-0! The one City player that looked okay was Yaya Toure. Our team played fantastic, and really if we decided to shoot a bit more we would have spanked them.

RATINGS:

Fabianski 6.5- little to do all game, but gathered up a few balls into the box.

Sagna 6- extreme work rate, but stupid to get sent off at the end.

Djourou 8- quailty perfomance from center back. Really should partner Vermalean when he returns

Koscielny 7.5- another good performance from him, and its starting to look like his put his woes behind him

Clichy 7.5- didn’t stop running the whole game, attacked and defended brilliantly

Wilshere 9- showed Ballotelli who should have won that shit award

Song 9 MOTM- All them defensive mids city have spent big money for, and Song showed them whos really value for money. He was an animal in midfield, defended superb and also gave a lot attacking

Fabregas 8- Great passing and loads of good runs. Looked like he would win it for us, but it wasnt to be

Nasri 7- Fairly quiet game compared to normal, and looked menancing at times, but man city marked him out the game

Theo 7- Good runs, but didnt get the ball quite enough. Maybe should have been used as a sub, but who knew before the game

RVP 7- Proper good runs all game, scaring the backline, but apart from his shot in open play, his shooting wasnt how it normally is

Subs: Arshavin 5, Bendtner 5.

We also should have had a penalty due to a Kompany handball, and maybe the sending off’s were harsh, but i thought the ref had a good game otherwise. Any over day we would have beat them, but it wasnt to be tonight. If we keep playing like we did, however, we will defiantly give Man U a run for their money.

Another little thing: loads of arsenal fans are saying Samba from blackburn would make us league winners. This is complete bollocks. For a start he plays for BLACKBURN. His tall , okay, and strong but apart from that he is complete SHIT. All these who want him and if we did get him, and when he does do shit for us, they will just moan and carry on wanting Wenger out. Its frustrating how people would rather physical presence with no technical ability whatsoever over a more balanced defence. Enough before it turns into a rant..

All to say is Birmingham is a shit hole. The team is dirty, they stay down and moan when we do it, all the fans ever do is complain making it a hard game for the ref.- who was crap. No real match report cos I couldn’t see well. We had 3 fk’s in the first 10mins, scored one. They then missed a sitter, before we controlled the game. Second half we just took the piss out of them. Wilshere missed nearly the exact same sitter the Brummys had missed, but soon after we scored a well worked goal, which Nasri slotted in. Then a few minutes later Fab hit a ball in the box only for some tosser to put it in his own net, gibing us victory. We should have scored so many more but really just showed off our passing on the edge of the box.

Team Ratings

(Probably crap cos I had a shit view at the game)

Fabianski 7.5- A few good saves and interceptions. Best being free kick save.

Clichy 7- Good defensively! Covered well and abut also posed a threat down the wing. Yet again didn’t stop running.

Djourou 7.5- dominated our defence today. Made sure Birmingham’s tall team didn’t pose much of a threat

Koscielny 7- Good tackles throughout the game, stopped a lot of shots developing

Sagna 6.5- Nothing happened on his side due to great defending? Or Birmingham were shit but he had an excellent work rate and put in some dangerous looking crosses.

Song 8- Good all over the pitch and broke up a lot of moves

Wilshere 7.5- was everywhere on the pitch. Should have scored, but demonstrated his consistence and his strength

Fabregas 8.5- All over the pitch today and some great passes. Maybe should have shot more, and the only was Birmingham could deal with him was to hack him down

Nasri 8.5 MOTM- Great technical ability up both up ends. Scored a well worked team goal and was close to getting at least another one. Was also involved in a lot of good play today.

Theo 7- A few good runs today, looked more dangerous than normal and adding an edge to our team. However his shooting was bad, and nothing really materialised from his runs.

RVP 8- played 90 minutes very well. Some great touches, turns and passes. Scored the freekick and was also involved in the majority of Arsenals attacks.

SUBS: Arshavin 6, Denilson n/a. Both didn’t have much of a game, but Arsh had a banging shot saved, and actually ran for the ball!

Things to take out of the Game: WOW, we kept a clean sheet. Fabianski is actually a decent goalie. Wilshere is quality and will get so much better over time. Fabregas is coming back to his best, and tore holes in Birmingham today. Songs on top form and those who say we need a defensive mid need to shut up. Nasri is the best wide player in the league after another great performance. RVP made a full 90 odd minutes, and looked well good. Should be more to come frim him. Good performance from us, and the brummies looked dyer. They barely had a good shot on goal except for a freekick outside of the box.

If we can beat Man City on Wednesday night, we will be in a great spot, and I think we can go on to win the league!

Till then.

We made the game against Fulham ALOT harder than needed. In the first half we should have been 3 or 4 nil up, so drawing 1-1 at half time was a piss take. Chamakh, Arshavin, Song and Rosicky all missed decent chances making the game very very tense near the end. All looked good after Nasri banged in the first after making room past 3 fulham defenders. There were then many many chances were the game should have been finished off, but Kamara finally broke our offside trap and scored due to our unconscious defender, after Squil18 head butted Koscielny. What followed was a totally different Arsenal and Fulham team. Arsenal started off brilliantly, but after Fulhams goal didn’t look nearly half as good, and Fulham was virtually the exact opposite. I could see Fulham scoring a set piece soon enough, so we needed to pull our fingers out and score a fucking goal. Thank you Nasri. After a classy dummy pass from RVP nasri skipped round 2 defenders, rounded the goalie, and buried the ball in the back of the net from the tightest angle possible. A goal fit to win any match, but we still had a lot of work to do to drag out the win. And with some class defending by Djourou, and a very deep arsenal midfield we managed to finish the game as 2-1 winners.

Ratings: Fabianski 7. Sagna 7, Squillaci 6.5, Koscielny 6, Clichy 7.5. Song 6, Wilshere 7, TR7 5.5, NASRI 9.5 (MAN OF MATCH), Arsh 6, Chamakh 6. Subs: Djourou 7.5 (Koscielny) , RVP 6 (TR7) , Walcott  5 (Wilshere) .

If it wasnt for Nasri’s class i really dont what to think what the outcome of this game would have been. Its frustrating we didnt finish the game at half time. We need to start finishing off some chances, and someone PLEASE TELL CHAMAKH AND ROSICKY TO SHOOT. Rosicky hasnt scored for ELEVEN MOTHS so its about bloody time he finishes one. I defiantly think its time Djourou starts over Koscielny now. Anyway we are top of the league, so enough with the moaning. Lets hope it stays like this…

With a great win for West Ham (4-0 vs. Manchester United) we must surely be the favorites to win the cup now! Only Arsenal, WestHam, Villa/Birmingham and Ipswich/WestBrom left in so we really have no excuse to not win it. If we are being picky avoid Villa but we’ve shown we can do them over at their own turf!

A good, comfortable performance by Arsenal, finishing just 2-0- which there should have been A LOT more goals (7-0 would have been fair on Wigan) if it wasn’t for terrible finishing by Vela and three dodgy no penalty calls by the ref. Don’t want to speak too soon, but looks like the Carling Cup is coming to North London!

Player Ratings

Szczesny: 6.5- Solid performance from the current number 2. Not really challenged, but handled the few Wigan half chances well.

Eboue: 6- Looked dodgy in the opening minutes vs. Moses, but after Moses was injured there was no threat from the right, and so Eboue had little to do. Didn’t see a lot of him in the opposition half however.

Koscielny: 6.5- No chances created by Wigan, bar a few corners, which were all well cleared. However missed another good chance with a header. Also some good passes out of defence.

Djourou: 7- Same as his defensive partner, without the easy missed header.

Gibbs: 8- Another good performance. Good in defence and good at attacking with a few good passes and crosses. Didn’t stop working the entire match. Surely will overtake Clichy soon?

Theo: 7.5- Mixed performance. Good work rate. Good passes and runs, but his shooting was bad. However good build up play earned him a good match.

Denilson: 8- Alongside Wilshere ran the midfield. Great passing and an excellent tackle against a Wigan counter attack.

Wilshere: 7.5- Ran the midfield with Den. Both stayed deep, with Wilshere being the more advanced of the two.

Vela: 5.5- So many sitters missed! Feel sorry for the lad- he needs to be played more but he won’t be missing so many good chances like he did. However an inch perfect cross for Bendtner saved some dignity for the little Mexican.

RVP: 7- Still quite quiet to what we normally see, but starting to see his form return. A few dangerous runs showed us what we’ve been missing forever so long.

Bendtner: 8 (MAN OF MATCH)- Excellent work rate with a goal (arguably two) to round it all off. Finished off Vela’s cross, and constantly closed down opposition defenders.

Subs:

Nasri (Wilshere): 7- Yet another good(but short) performance of which the only way Wigan could stop him was to hack him down

Eastmond (RVP): N/A Didn’t see much of him

J.E.T (Bendtner): N/A

Lucky Arsenal, the Gunners were at their worst while Everton were at their best, it is good that we did get the draw…
Not a good way at all to start our first premier league in 2010

Player ratings:
Almunia: 5.5 (Inconsistent form from this guy.)
Gallas: 6 (The way Tim Cahill escaped from him made me lose confidence in the defensive line.)
Vermaelen: 6 (Not his usual best.)
Traore: 6 (You can’t ask more from the third left back.)
Sagna: 6 (Most of the game he was in a battle with Pienaar.)
Denilson: 6.5 (Scoring a goal is the only good thing he did. I hope the injury is not serious.)
Diaby: 7 (The only player who was alive in the team.)
Ramsey: 5 (Good but needs more experience.)
Nasri: 5.5 (Bad passes, slowing the game down all the time.)
Arshavin: 6 (Woke up only the last 15 minutes.)
Eduardo: 7 (He had a good game.)

Subs:
Vela: 6 (Did okay the left side.)
Rosicky: 6.5 (Thank god he was not injured in this game!)
Merida: N/A

As it did happen again, 4-1, but this time without our two best players. And this time much harder because it is an away-from-home match. But the Gunners did prove again how much they learned especially
Diaby, Song and Ramsey who were our skippers tonight. If I was hearing myself saying this 6 months ago, I would be laughing at myself.
I really loved how the fans did start to cheer Diaby and Song, they are really on their way to greatness.
That proves how much they have improved.

Player ratings:

Almunia:7 (Calm night for the goalkeeper not to much to do.)

Gallas:7 (Strong in the air and on the ground didn’t let anything happen.)

Vermaelen:7 (As usual consistent performance.)

Sagna:7 (Hard working in defence and offence.)

Traore:6.5 (Good performance overall. He looked much better than before.)

Song:8 (He had his own song and he scored his first goal of the season. What a way to end a year.)

Diaby:7.5 (Another great performance from the Frenchman. I hope he keeps performing great.)

Ramsey:8 (Wow, very pretty goal and one assist. Very good game from the 19 year old.)

Nasri:8 (Another great performance, an assist and his first goal in the league.)

Eduardo:6.5 (He is coming back but slowly. He looked much more confident after his goal.)

Arshavin:5.5 (Very tired. Had a great moment but he looks in another dimension.)

Sub

Rosicky:6 (Good game from the injury-prone player.)

Vela:N/a (Not enough time)

Eastmond:N/a (Not enough time)

Firstly, many of us after the Hull city match said that we can play and cope without Fabregas. But it took Fabregas 28 minutes to prove to us that we are all wrong including me.
The bottom line of the match: “Without any doubt anymore, Fabregas is Irreplaceable”.

Player ratings:

Almunia:7 (I think he did well with crosses and set pieces against a team that most of their goals come from crosses and set pieces, good to see him performing well.)

Sagna: 6.5 (When it comes to defence, he is the best RB but still needs to work a lot on going forward.)

Traore: 7 (Cameback from injury and had a great game, produced a great pass to Walcott that did lead to the second goal.)

Vermaelen: 8 (Solid, Strong as always didn’t let anything pass him.)

Gallas: 7.5 (Made Agbonlahor and Heskey quiet, good game from him and made a great tackle against Agbonlahor in the last few minutes of the game.)

Denilson: 6.5 (Brilliant first half, had a back problem in the second half which lead to replace him.)

Song: 7.5 (The beast of the midfield, I will miss this guy, see you soon.)

Diaby: 8 (Brilliant match since he came back from injury and he has been playing very well, great game Abou.)

Eduardo: 6 (Worked hard especially in the few times that he had in the second half but he still needs a lot of time, really made me mad when he missed that chance.)

Arshavin: 6.5 (Struggled to make an impact at the beginning but when Fabregas entered he came back to life.)

Nasri: 6.5 (Busy on the Wings, good game from the Frenchman.)

Subs:

Fabregas: 10 (Came, Unleashed hell and left. Performance similar to Steve Austin in WWE. Made a great impact, scored two great goals then left as if to prove that he is irreplaceable.)

Walcott: 7 (He is coming back, not yet his best but good game from Walcott.)

Ramsey : N/A (Not enough time)