Wake up...

WAKE UP...!


Arsenal supporter... aaahhhhh... not the right time to tell that you are an arsenal fan.! Bradford, Swansea, bla bla bla... we have seen it all.. there is no need for me to get into this.! With all the outrage that followed after the Bradford tragedy i was amazed to see the reaction of our fans.!

Should we be dissapointed and angry.? YES ..

Should we call for Mr.Arsene Wenger's neck.? HELL NO..!!

There have been few amazing posts that instill positive belief, the bright side of the picture. I hope people,especially arsenal fans do read them. This one though is going to talk about the ugly picture.!

How easily has the media conquered the sporting world, the passion of football, just for money making purposes, they put words in our mouth like (Wenger Out) that we would never say , seed an idea in our minds just like inception that we would never think of. Where has our thinking gone in all this.?

As a matter of fact in these barren 7 years of no trophy at Arsenal , we have achieved a lot.! We have won trophies, which nobody can see. Instead of Mr. Wenger being sacked i'll introduce you to the main culprits who ought to be sacked from whatever profession they are into.! Football Pundits.! Time and again they said Arsenal will not qualify for the champions league, in-fact they said that almost every year. We did qualify for the champions league in all these years, some of them in crunch situations and some wonderfully. Why should we fans go with all these football pundits opinion when they have a track record of 7 years of consistent failure.? It was Arsene and Arsenal who had the success all these years. the score line reads

ARSENAL & ARSENE 7 - 0 FOOTBALL PUNDITS

Somehow we still want to use the words that these pundits put in our mouths.? I mean,seriously..???

Next, If you all are aware of all the boardroom politics that has been going on at Arsenal for all these years, the best thing to have happened to us in all this, is Mr.Arsene Wenger. He has been the only constant . With no money, no players(departing stars), no support (us, fans the culprit here) , full criticism , humongous competition levels - he has still managed to deliver.! I dont think there is a single manager that could perform like our manager. We as Arsenal fans should not forget all these variables. It was an easy decision for Mr.Wenger to have left Arsenal like all the players, but he stood by his ground , like the captain of a sinking ship. He has been our real captain , someone who we should thank for these 7 years and i'm sure for the years to follow. 

I know trophies count and nothing else, but if it were not for these barren years in which i think Arsene has brought us more success by keeping us stable, consistent champions league place, very good financial position we could well be fighting the relegation battle. 

One last thing, Losing one's own creation is the worst feeling that a man can have. Our manager, has had it all. His creation .. sorry... creations... Flamini, Helb, Adebayor, Nasri, Cesc, Van Persie, Alex Song have left him.! If all of these players owe something at all for everything they have achieved , its Arsene Wenger. All the hurt that we fans have suffered to see them leave Arsenal, i'm sure its Arsene who felt the worst pain.! I fear that the decision of all the above mentioned players and also of the one's i've forgotten , Arsene might well lose his faith on youngsters forever and all other consequences that would follow.

This post is not to force you to think about what i said, its just to make you open your eyes and see the world as it is and not what the pundits,media portray us to be.! 

Thank you.

True Love .!

This past week has defined today's football. It has not exactly defined the sport , but everything that is wrong with today's football. Starting off with Arsenal's FA cup match against Aston Villa at the Emirates. At Half time the scoreline read Arsenal 0 - Aston Villa 2. Shocking ? yes.! But to me and also to a few other people more shocking was the boo's with which the Arsenal team was greeted when they were leaving the field. The Emirates Stadium , One of the best stadiums in the world, home to One of the Greatest team in the world (some faithfuls would tell - By far the Greatest team in the whole wide world) has become a not so happy place because of all the boo's.

It is understandable that things are not going right , we are not used to this , but there is a time and place for everything. In spite of all odds and boo's Arsenal came out and won the game 3-2. Fantastic job by the team. What happened in the dressing room might be a secret forever but what happened on the pitch was there for all to see. Big win and a Big leap to the next round of the FA cup. But this match reminds me of Arsenal's game against Newcastle last season. At 4-0 we were cruising at Half Time, the final score read 4-4. It was very bad for Arsenal and also for the refereeing standards, but it was great for football, what made that possible.? It was the fans. The Newcastle supporters on that day defined what supporting a team means. Something to learn for us Gooners. Such a moment with Arsenal came after the 8-2 defeat against Manchester United, where the away fans showed real love for the team. What they did , made me feel a proud, proud Gooner. I wasn't scared of my friends anymore who would jeer me about the scoreline. It was the fans that gave me enough strength and reason to feel proud to support Arsenal Football Club and forget the score.

Roll on to the next fixture. Bolton vs Arsenal . We played well, good enough to get 3 points but for our finishing standards on that night. The chances we created were awesome , we could've scored atleast 3 goals. Somehow we managed to finish the game at 0-0. The reaction after the match from the fans was not good, just to remind you "yet again". I agree that the team hasn't been doing enough to get a comfortable finish in the top 4, but there are 15 more games to play for. I'm more than confident of a top 4 finish. The problems have been accumulating for quite a few seasons now, but i dont see any reason to panic. We have such a strong foundation now that we are on the brink of success. Jack Wilshere, Walcott, Ramsey, Ox, Miyachi, Coquelin, Frimpong, Szczseny, Jenkinson, Gibbs, etc., all still very young have shown us enough quality to be enthusiastic. Its only a matter of time till they start firing on all cylinders with consistency. They are all going to become Superstars. Which other top team can boast such high class up-coming talent.? that's not all, Which team with such talent can also boast that they are financially stable and strong.?

All in all , ask yourself this question which an Arsenal Legend, Dennis Bergkamp rightly stated “I really like Arsenal. But you, do you really like Arsenal? Or just with trophies?”

The team may not finish in the top 4 this season , may not even win any trophy this season , but none of this is going to stop me from supporting Arsenal. I love Arsenal because of the way they play, the way they advertise the sport called Football (for me its the best , better than Barcelona, claimed to be the best team in the world , because we do not deceive the referees) , we play the sport with the spirit it requires, we have rather been punished several times for being honest. I am sad when we are not playing well, and not the times when we are not wining anything. I would love to see our team coming back to winning ways but definitely not at the cost of the scintillating stuff on the field. I'm angry when we are betrayed of a deserved victory only because of a foolish mistake by the referee who is unbelievably consistent in his job and not when the team is struggling.

We have been struggling , but it is not due to the methods implied by Mr.Arsene Wenger , neither is it due to the lack of transfer activity. We have been killed by the injuries and players who have opted to leave Arsenal when they started to achieve stardom(there are a lot of names in this list). For all that is on Earth we cannot do anything to just get away from this Injury Curse.We have not won a trophy for so and so years, but its not that we have not been competing for top honours. Arsenal have definitely suffered from all the boardroom politics, and have still been performing very well. With all that's going wrong at the top level management , we could've miserably finished outside the top 4 before a few years. Thanks to Arsene, we have still been in the top 4 , competing in the top competitions and unfortunate for missing out on them by a close margin. The sad part is that the fans dont even know where we could've ended but for Arsene Wenger.


Its not the time to boo your team when it is going through a tough phase, its not the time to fight among ourselves, its the time to make ourselves count, its the time to cheer for them and play the role of motivator, the role which the team played in our lives. Hats off to the Away Fans you make us proud, as for the home fans - now its your turn to make us proud and show your love. keep it classy people, cause when Arsenal wins, it wins with style.!

Come on you Gooners.!

WHY..?

January 3, 2012. What a journey this has been for Arsenal Football Club this season. From being low down in the table at the start, to fighting it out for the 4^th place now. One victory yesterday night against Fulham at Craven Cottage would’ve lifted us and may be given us a chance back in the title race just 6 points behind the leaders. That was the stature of the game played last night, and how does all this end after the final whistle.? Dejection, Frustration – every gooner running through different thoughts, trying to give his opinion, and not to forget the blame game.!

Most of you would agree that after the 1-0 defeat against Manchester City, you felt proud of the team, for their performance and spirit. Not the same after this game. But since that game against city I’ve been amazed by the consistency shown by the referees. Its not that it has happened all of a sudden. Witnessing all this for the last 4-5 years, and even before that but yesterday was the day I’ve run out of all my patience and calmness to this issue. Its just unbelievable to see how at the expense of a particular group of men’s decision making the course of history has to be something that is, and what could’ve been.

If at all the refereeing standards were above decent say 75% for all these years I don’t see us facing this long trophy drought, I certainly don’t see Manchester United winning trophies and Barcelona being such dominant force as they are. To err, is to human. I can accept the fact that mistakes do happen. But what boils me up is the impact that it makes. Managers have lost their jobs, Teams have been kicked out of competitions which is worth millions, trophies being won by teams who have unfair treatment given by the man with the whistle, millions and millions of people having mood swings (majority of which is negative) , all this and still no reaction by the concerned authority.!

It is a well known saying that when someone is patient, tolerating all the unfair treatment that is being directed towards him/her , not showing any anger or dissent and just waiting for the right thing to happen naturally – that person is treated more badly. There is a limit for everything. Unless some retaliation is shown, they will be tortured and are mistaken to be powerless.! The time to get some answers has come. I’m not talking about this just as an Arsenal supporter. It’s for the game that we all love so much.

Refereeing Consistency :

I’ll highlight a few incidents that I remember as well as I remember my name.

v 2004 – Manchester United vs Arsenal – award of a penalty to Rooney, who knows how long our unbeaten run would’ve lasted.

v March 2008 – Birmingham vs Arsenal – last minute penalty being awarded, again who knows how our that particular season would’ve ended, also the psychological impact that it left behind.

v April 2008 – Arsenal vs Liverpool in champions league – denial of a blatant penalty for pulling Alex Helb.

v 2009 – Chelsea vs Barcelona – several penalty decisions not given. 1 thing for certain is that Barcelona wouldn’t have won the champions league for sure.

v 2010 - The World Cup- England vs Germany – Lampard scores to equalize but referee missed it. Nobody knows how that game would’ve finished.

v The list seems short but trust me there are a few thousands more, but due to my limited memory power I cant remember them all.

I’ve attached a video about how much refereeing decisions cost Arsenal last year. This doesn’t have the Rooney elbow to a wigan player and a no-show from the FA.

Now to this season. It started with the same consistency levels displayed by the referee’s and the FA in previous years, I’m talking about the Grevinho-Barton incident in the very first game. We have been lucky once. Szczsney not being given red in the 3-5 win against Chelsea. But More recently 4 matches in a row we have been denied clear penalties. If u r an Arsenal supporter u r pretty angry by now that u could’ve got at least 9/12 points , now we r at 4/12 points from these games. What really killed my calmness was the false yellow card being given to Vermaelen in the game against QPR and not a single word spoken about it. It did not affect the game, but that’s the sort of silliness you don’t want to see. Referee’s blunders have just multiplied over the years. I am no expert to give ideas to solve this, but the people who can make a change are still quiet.! Why does a player/team/manager have to suffer for a mistake of the ref.? Why is the referee given so much protection from the media.? Why does the FA hide always? Why cant managers talk about the ref, if the ref is doing everything possible to ruin his team? Why cant a manage let out his anger on the ref’s bad decisions, when his neck is on the line? Why is there no change? Why does a team face so much criticism for something when its all happening because of the ref.?

“Respect the Ref “ campaign was started by the FA.. Well, I cant respect the ref because he is literally killing my faith in the game and in fair play.! The season is just entering into its exciting phase. A single refereeing decision could make or break any team’s season undeservedly. I’ve been hoping for good refereeing all these years, now I’ve lost that faith. I am pretty sure that even this season referees will ruin the season for a team – be it Champions League or Premier League.

I know a few readers will tell I’m blaming the ref for the drought, every defeat. Yes there are days when the team plays so bad that they just don’t deserve to win, but there are majority of days when a deserving team or even a tight game with no clear forerunner is decided by bad refereeing decision. All I want is the game to be decided by the god damn performance of the players on the pitch and not by the highly mistake prone man in black, wandering around the pitch with a whistle in his hand.

I wanted to write this blog just to let out my frustration and hope that somehow it is read by people who can make a real change to the consistent refereeing performance. Here’s someone hoping for a positive change so that my love for the game doesn’t die because of the consistently wonderful performance of the ref.!!

Finally the start of our Season

Arsenal 2 . Sunderland 1

Our fortunes got a little better. We got the 3 point. That was a lot relieving than watching man utd , liverpool, newcastle , spurs drop points. The game started at a blistering pace. Arsenal on 5th gear from the whistle. RVP scored within 30 seconds. What more do u need for settling your nerves. We were rampant. RVP's next chance a beautiful Vela style chip, that deserved to be a goal. Just for the sheer brilliance. And then after 20-25 mins we were back to first gear. I dont know why but the comments from Arsene Wenger before a few weeks about playing with a hand on the brake annoys me. We are too nervous. We lost the plot again. Looked completely out of our way. Concentration of just 25 mins.? Seb Larsson then scored a wonderful free kick. Only thing nice about that goal was his no-celebration after the goal. Showed a lot of respect for the team that made him and also about his character.

We could've won the game 5-1 but we could've as well lost 2-1 or 3-2 . Thats how atrocious our luck has been. Watching our team play so unlike arsenal is hurting. We were struggling and could've conceded 2 goals. Grevinho apart from the first minute assist was nowhere to be seen. On came Arshavin . His trickery , that one awesome dribble deserved to be a goal . After a while on came benayoun for rosicky , who in my opinion had a good game. Big fan of his swift turns. Got to see a lot of them . Benayoun played well. His movement was nice. We created more chances with Arshavin and Benayoun on the pitch. Then we had our captain fantastic RVP's brlliant freekick to set us en-route for the 3 points which were actually deserved. His celebration was good to see. And it finally looked as if our season has started after a delay for a few times.

Got the 3 points in the bag. Happy ending for the day. But a lot of things were in dis-array for us. Just to let you all know i'm an optimist but i'm rather worried about a few certain points.

1) The Formation . 4-3-3 worked wonders for us. That was when Cesc was there . It was exclusively designed for him. When he was there he performed well and also brought the best out of others around him. Now that he is gone, I wonder if we should carry on with our current formation. For large part of the game we looked to play 4-3-1 Grevinho and theo were a lot less involved in the first half.

2) The lack of movement. This first came to my notice when i heard a football pundit on espn talk about it and i gradually began noticing about it. Our players seem to wait at a spot for the ball to arrive. They take up positions get the ball, and as no body is making runs we pass it sideways and sideways and now a lot of times backwards too. And when there are runs made we dont pass the ball. Next time when u see arsenal play try noticing this. We were once kings because we were the masters of this trick that is when we were the Invincible's. It is our trade, we don't have to learn this outside. We know how to do it effectively , just need to find it back.

3)Fear. The team is lot scared. Scared of conceding a goal. They are not able to play the free-flowing football properly. Yes we have lot of injuries but other players are more than capable of dominating the field and help us continue our free-flowing football. The new system of playing with the hand brake on is good when its done sometimes. It is a self-destructing thing to do frequently. I mean we are the mighty Arsenal- we play the most attractive football in England., to be honest i find it more attractive than Barcelona's style. If we stop playing in our own style of free flowing , fearless football we are going to find it a long long year. We need to defend as a unit - yes but not at the cost of something that we do the best. Good thing is that for 25 solid mins we got to see the old arsenal playing scintillating stuff.

4) Free-kicks and corners - Long time since RVP scored a free kick., good that he finally scored one. We have to score more from free-kicks and corners. We had Henry who was superb at free-kicks. Now we dont have someone like him. There is RVP , he'll take it if its positioned for a left-footer but we need a right-footer too. I wonder if any of our players stay behind in the training and work on free-kicks.?

And thats about it. There are a lot of positive signs for Arsenal.

• The return of Vermaelen is not far away.
• We have finally started our new season .
• The atmosphere at the Emirates its improving every day.
• With time we can only get better. Team chemistry is improving.
• RVP the leader. We've got (Robin) "Van the man ".
• Our squad has got competition for places now.

We are rising. Everyday we are stepping up. Not to forget about the performance of certain players in the game against sunderland. Robin was phenomenal , but for me Alex Song was equally outstanding. Rosicky, Arshavin , Benayoun , Jenkinson ( apart from 1-2 sloppy moments) , Szczsney had a good day.

If you've read this blog do let me know about your thoughts about the 4 concerning points i made. Thank you.

We are the Arsenal.

This is us.

Messi, Xavi, Iniesta ... Barcelona

Many of you will be wondering what sort of title that is.? Continue reading and you'll know. Messi, Xavi, Iniesta are hailed as the best football players around the world. Ok there is Ronaldo, Kaka, the best of them all Gareth Bale (really..?) also. But when you talk about Barcelona you start hearing a lot of compliments about them. The best team in the world, The best team in the history of football, and what not.. They certainly are the best team at the moment. All the critics compare Arsenal to Barcelona. We are following a similar footballing philosophy to the best team in the world and according to pundits we are way behind them. Everyone reading this will say we know this.. what is new in your blog.? Well friends whatever I'm going to write is well known to all of you. Its just that you have forgotten it or you are too involved in something really important (criticizing, trying to scout players for arsenal for free , finding solutions for arsenal's problem, trying to calm down other fans). Getting back to my point now.

Since Arsene Wenger came to Arsenal we have had so many good moments to cherish about. I think we began to become a very famous club around the world because of him and his footballing principles. We played scintillating football and won trophies raising the bar for every other team and more than that for ourselves and to our fans. And hence the criticism, the hatred among pundits , fans for our trophy drought. I can't argue with everyone about it. Some of them are true about some of their comments. My point is that we should remain a little more patient with our team. And here is the reason why we should. Barcelona also endured a 6 year trophy drought recently.

Barcelona won the La Liga title for the 1998-1999 season and then didn't win anything until 2005.During that six year trophy-less run they were developing their own young talents Messi Xavi, Iniesta Now look at them..., they are talk of the whole world.!

Arsenal has been doing the same thing. I'm not saying we'll be winning 6 trophies next season, but i just found it interesting that nobody seems to mention this little bit of information. We have lot of talent in comparison to Messi, Xavi, Iniesta.. to name a few Cesc Fabregas, RvP, Samir Nasri , Theo Walcott , Jack Wilshere , Aaron Ramsey (few more) . oh wait..!! we have twice the number of good upcoming players in comparison to Barcelona during their drought. I agree that they signed Ronaldinho who changed their fortunes. He was signed in 2003 and barcelona came back to winning ways in 2005. Well we have lot of players with huge potential and we saw a few coming up with their potential this season Nasri, Walcott, Jack , so why not be optimistic about our future .? I'm sure we will see some changes at Arsenal this summer. Rio dinho ( Rio Miyaichi ) has been a huge success at Feyenoord should be with us next season. Poor lad is already under huge expectation levels, but i believe he will do well if not awesome in his first season at Arsenal . So people be a little more patient with our team.

Now to Arsene Wenger. Lots of people want Mr. Arsene Wenger out. But have you given a thought about how much this man has given to the team. I mean look at him he has started to look like a Zombie figure to me ( No Offence) . No manager in the world will take all this stress for a team when he is one of the most demanded managers around Europe. He could've very well have signed a lot of big players bring success for a short while along with millions of debt after the new stadium, after the Invincibles and left Arsenal. But he decided to stay , put his own reputation on the line for the good of Arsenal. He is the best thing that has happened to Arsenal. One of his quotes "A football team is like a beautiful woman. When you do not tell her, she forgets she is beautiful." Its the fans time to tell the team how good they are, how capable they are of becoming the best of the best and not to discourage them.

For Cesc Fabregas doubters i have two things to tell. Watch the match against spurs if u doubt his passion for the club and about his performance i would like the stats to do the talking..

xavi since 04 – goals 49, assists 65, total apps 347

cesc since 04 – goals 52 , assists 88, total apps 310

Finally my message to Arsenal fans. You have a different view, i have a different view but we all have a thing in common. We are all die-hard Arsenal supporters and Arsenal is a big part of our lives now. We should be a little more patient with our Favourite team in the whole wide world.! We should stop all the criticizing, debates, arguments and show how good Arsenal supporters really are and support the team like never before. Arsenalforever..

HOLD MY HAND ..!

With Arsenal all the football supporters are treated with a bit of history. We are history makers. With the remarkable start to his Arsenal career Mr.Arsene Wenger raised the bar for other teams. We won Doubles, we were The Invicibles. Well everyone knows this. But today I'm talking about our history in the recent past. For the last few seasons our Arsenal team has performed in certain pattern. We start the season on a very strong note. We even top the league or are around the second place in November , December but after February we seem to lose our footing drastically and go on a run of few goal-less games, drawing games which we normally would win. This is a history which keeps repeating year after year which is really annoying. And when we look to do a little better we are stopped by the Injury gods and consistent refereeing. By consistent refereeing i meant the repeated poor performance of the referee's against us. This history was yet again repeated this season and we have not performed well after February. The game against Liverpool had every bit of history in it. we were heading for a goal-less draw at home but we scored a penalty and then the referee decided that to deny us another victory as they have done for a lot of times this season.

More than the 2 points dropped I am worried about the behaviour of Arsenal fans. I am not able to differentiate between the (brainless) football pundits who keep writing us off and calling for the end of Arsene's era at Arsenal and the complaining Arsenal fans. The fans alike football pundits tell we are not good enough, we lack this , we lack that ,we need to buy him, we need to send him out, we need to send Arsene packing ..Too many complains..Do you lot mean we are not good enough to win the title..(which i think is a yes) I have one question for you. Why do you think that Arsenal will win the trophy when you yourself have written them off before the start of the season .?? They have already surpassed your expectation level by being at a position where they currently are.

Arsenal have silenced their critics time and again. And this time we have to shut their mouths in such a way that they are not able to open it again. This season is not over. We have 6 games left. We are capable of winning each one of them. As for Manchester United who are at the top of the table with a 6 point cushion they have to play Chelsea , Arsenal were we can expect them to earn 0 points . Its possible. Apart from those games they play Newcastle, Everton, Blackburn and Blackpool. On a bad day they can draw any of the first three games. And that's the reason I refuse to give up on our season just yet. This season can go down to the last game as well. So gooners just don't write off your favourite team this early.

And now coming back to the ever complaining fans. I know that many wouldn't read this blog but i would still like to make a point to the fans who insult our own players/manager. If we did not have Fabregas we wouldn't be playing in our 11th consecutive champions league knock out stage. He is our heart beat. Watch a few matches were fabregas is not playing and the ones in which he is playing you will know what he brings for our team. And the Wenger haters ... If Mr.Arsene Wenger had not come to Arsenal we wouldn't have had The Invincibles, about which we proudly boast to the supporters of other teams & humiliate spurs.. without him we wouldn't be sitting in a fanastic stadium with guaranteed champions league football unlike our minor fellow rivals "spurs".

I know that being trophyless for last 6 seasons is a big problem for a club of Arsenal's stature. It is not that we have struggled to challenge for a trophy. We have come close, a lot of times Champions league final 2006 , League cup runners up 2007 , Third in the league in 2007-08 why I'm mentioning this is because we were rocking the league up untill the Eduardo injury. This year we lost in the League cup finals again. Our season looks done and dusted but I wouldn't stop believing that we can turn it around. Not long ago we were not given a chance to qualify to the semi-finals in the champions league when we had to face Barcelona. Our own fans had little hope. But you all will never forget that amazing night when we beat them 2-1. All of a sudden we had a hope of doing what seemed Impossible at the start. Eventually we failed but my friends don't forget how close we were to our goal and how we were denied of it.

Its all about believing . Believing in the players, in the team, believing that it is possible. I have a point for the fans who tell look at Manchester United.. They never seem to falter like us. Had they stopped believing for their Champions league finals match against Bayern Munich they wouldn't have scored in the 91st and 93rd minute and the rest as they say is history. Our season is now at such a stage. So HOLD MY HAND and your fellow gooners and start backing the team untill the final hurdle. A single finger stands no chance against a group of fingers forming a fist. Stand up and make yourself counted.!

NEED FOR SPEED

NEED FOR SPEED FOR GUNNERS.

Every single Gunner is dejected and deeply depressed about the fact that in 14 days all the hardwork done for months has ended up in vain. Out of 3 competitions and all of a sudden we are heading towards a similar disastrous end to our season as in previous years. Though we are dead and out of these competitions the manner in which we were ousted was more hurtful. The latest defeat being against Manchester United in the FA cup Quarter-Finals. After this defeat i wasn’t as dejected as i was for the exit from Champions League. I wanted to bring to light 3 deficiencies or 3 reasons for our long trophy drought.

FIRST :- Move to the Emirates Stadium.

Well this topic has already been discussed by someone in his blog . He has done a fantastic job and i don’t think i would’ve written about it anyway near to the quality of her blog. So if you haven’t read that go ahead and read it first , here is the link and you’ll know how it affected us.

http://www.arsenalreport.com/2011/03/the-mighty-transition-why-arsenal-havent-won-anything-in-6-years/

Now to the second and third reasons..

SECOND :- COUNTER ATTACK

The total domination over Manchester United is pointless if we don’t score. That defaults our finishing standards , but that is different in every game. In one we score 3 and in another we don’t score at all. Manchester United destroyed us with their ability to counter attack. They do it with full speed and hence the chances to catch the opponent team off-guard. When we look at the situation in our team even if we get the ball at half court and the way to the goal is wide open with 2-3 opponent players trying to defend and others rushing to get back to their positions we tend to slow it down for our players to move ahead but it kills all the time and till then the opponent is organised and ready for us. I’ve noticed it so many times that we hold the ball back, slow it down even when there is opportunity to go ahead with full speed. Thats where the Need for Speed arises. With Walcott we get all the speed but we all know how bad our relationship with injuries is. Total dependence on him is not nice because if he is having a bad day team is bound to suffer. There are other players in our team with good pace Nasri, Arshavin, Clichy which we need to utilise.

Earlier during the times of Henry, Ljungberg, Pires, teams used to fear the pace with which we could break them. The times arsenal conceded a corner it was a reason for the opponent to get happy but it wasn’t. After the corner we would hit them for counter attack and score within 10 seconds. This is what we miss. Walcott is the sole player who leads our counter attack in the current team. You would tell that no other player possess similar speed but its about getting ahead and going real quick and not slowing it down.

We have seen the fruits of quick counter attack so many times in our old team. Also in the new team when Walcott plays. The goals at Anfield from Adebayor and Arshavin for the champions league and premier league were due to the staright forward counter attack lead by Walcott. We need to do it more often.

Now to the third :-

The third reason is the second/third player being available. In short its off the ball running. Not a single team in the world has an answer to this technique. Barcelona are very good at it now and hence the best team in the world. We exploited others with this technique when we were INVINCIBLE. This was so fruitful to us then. But the question is why not now.? The answer is simple we don’t have off the ball runs from our players , it has become a rare sight. We pass the ball quickly but our overall play is slow and easy for other teams to predict. Only with the killer runs our quick passing is useful. We have the players who can do it, they have the ability to do it week in week out. They just have to work it out. With Cesc, Nasri, we can have the killer pass always , only the killer runs are missing... We all know the big win against Manchester United when Nasri scored twice. It was the off the ball run from Walcott which created a big opening for Nasri. Thats what we need to have more and more

In the end there are signs of this team completely developing. The speed, counter attacking style and hunger which was all visible in the game against Barcelona at the Emirates. It seems that if we hold up as 1 unit with no players leaving the club we are going to rule the world for a long time.!

BIG MATCH PLAYER...?

Every single Arsenal supporter is happy with our position in the league, champions league qualification to the knock out rounds. NASRI has by his outstanding performances along with other players helped us reach there, but it doesn't end there. Walcott's celebration after the goal against Partizan was good to see, pure passion!! Now the focus to the next game.

Top of the table at the start of December , only team to be in all the four competitions- ARSENAL is doing good, but this doesn't matter if we end up winning none.We've been playing well but we seem to lose it completely when we play the Big Teams .And its about time we show the world what we are capable of. A long way to go, and next up is MANCHESTER UNITED at old trafford , a place where arsenal have not scored more than one goal for a long time and keeping in mind our current defensive form one goal will not be enough for a win. I would like to concentrate on who is our Big Match Player?

Arsenal has a very good squad with many star names Fabregas, Robin Van Persie, Arshavin , red hot NASRI who in my opinion can match the stars of Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City after their spending spree, Liverpool. But who is the one player in our squad who will stand up against the big teams, like Drogba, Rooney, Torres who always score when they play against Arsenal. Drogba has scored 13 times in last 11 games against us, Ronaldo scoring 6 , and Rooney scoring 5 goals agianst us, combined together 11 goals, torres scoring 3 and Gerrard scoring 3, and what do we have to answer them?

(read as against manu , liverpool , chelsea)

RVP - 2 - 1 - 2

ARSHAVIN - 1 - 5 - 0

FABREGAS - 1 - 2 - 0

NASRI -2 - 0 - 0 I'll include one arsenal legends stat here

HENRY -5 - 7 - 5

Henry stands way ahead in that list , ya he has played more games but others have also played considerable amount of games.Our best player in the big games has been Henry, now that he is no more with arsenal, i would like to see someone standing up to get the tag of consistent performer and a big match player. RVP leads in the current players as he has scored against all 3 , then comes Arshavin (nobody can forget his 4 at anfield) or is it the best player for Arsenal this season SAMIR NASRI. We should get a good idea at Old trafford on monday.

Records are meant to be broken and i hope Arsenal will break the record of not scoring more than 1 goal at old trafford and also hand United their first defeat of the season.