Contrary to what most reports and the match commentators would have you believe, Arsenal advanced to the fourth round of the FA Cup fairly easily on Sunday, doing exactly what they had to do in a trip up north. Eduardo's heights he hit over the holidays show no signs of reaching the hangover stage yet as he netted one and set up Bendtner for our second. Wenger was right about seeing the best of him come January. But, well, I don't know ... you don't suppose it may have something to do with him finally playing up front as a striker rather than way out of the left, do you? Yeah, me neither.
And while we're set to lose Kolo and the emergent Song to a month-long holiday in Ghana, I for one am not too sad to see the back of Eboue. His performance on Sunday summed up everything that's wrong with him, minus his cheap shots and lousy acting, which I acknowledge has been on the wane lately. He can look quality in our build-up, but a final ball is just nonexistent from him this season. Only Sagna and, on occasion, Walcott, can provide that from the right for us. Eboue often holds it too long, or opts for the impossible pass that not even Hleb would attempt. Let's not even talk about his attempts on goal.
But given the players who played Sunday, I'm not sure where that leaves us in terms of Tottenham on Wednesday. Presumably Wenger will go with the kids again, but a lot of them played yesterday. Luckily, the Carling Cup semifinals is a two-legged affair, so we have two chances to make things right. Regardless, at the turn of the new year it's been a season that, so far, has exceeded all of our wildest dreams I think. Top of the league and challenging in three cups! So excuse my nitpicking; I'm otherwise ecstatic!
I fully expect the Emirates to be loud and hostile to welcome our gluttons-for-punishment neighbors tomorrow. I understand the stadium was a bit subdued in our league encounter several weeks ago, but if this tie is anything like last year's, it should be a spirited affair.
Come on Arsenal! Let's do it to 'em again.
By Adam Elder
No new news today
'Ze German mentalist' Jens Lehmann: The big fella says he'll make his mind up in the next couple of days whether to return to Germany.
Lassana DIarra: Geordie boys Newcastle United are the latest team to cast an eye over the want away midfielder. The northern monkeys boss Big Fat Sam Allardyce has yet to put in a firm bid but has apparently made contact with London's finest regarding the possibility of buying Diarra.
No one as yet.
| In (yeah really) | ||
| Player | From/To | Readies |
| Out | ||
| Matt Connolly | Queens Park Rangers | £1m (apparently) |
| Vincent van den Berg | Go Ahead Eagles | Loan |
Here's your chance to start the new year with some brand new clobber, which is nice. Allgoonerdup is once again running a win a t-shirt competition and the chance to win this fab Cesc Fabregas t-shirt. Available in different colours.
To have a chance to win this Arsenal inspired number and get picked out the magic hat just tell us who The Arsenal bought the midfield general from.
Send your answers, preferred t-shirt colour, t-shirt size, and postal address to:
iwannafreebie@allgoonerdup.com
Competition closes Monday 4 February.
Good luck Gooners.
James Cooper is still setting the standard and it looks like he will take some beating moving into the second half of the season - but remember gents it's a marathon not a sprint.
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Got something to rant about? Want to see what the discussion of the day is? Well jump on board the Allgoonerdup Forum and register if you haven't done so already and have your shout about Arsenal and general football topics.
More Da Silva-ware: Like what I done there? Any road up, our 'fox in the box' Eduardo Da Silva has been named Player of the Month for December on the official Arsenal FC site - good work Gooner...That's your lot, we out of here, au reviour mon amis...
We are Arsenal.
 |
||||||
 |
||||||
 |
||||||
|
||||||
| Sky Sports One |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
| Click here for full list |
 |
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
| Click here for full list |
 |
||
 |
||
|
RSS Feed