Author Archives: Michael Roberts

Am I The Only One Worried About Tonight’s Game?

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Newcastle United (St James’ Park)
Wednesday 5th December, 2007
Kick Off: 7.45pm – Live On Sky Sports 1

Everyone is banking on Arsenal to cruise tonight against Newcastle, who have been pretty toothless recently under Sam Allardyce as he proves how much of an overrated manager he actually is.

But against Arsenal, his record isn’t bad.

With Bolton, he would be direct and that would cause us real problems. Obviously he is not getting results in the North East because he is forced to make a team actually play decent football, which is a far cry from his tactics at the Reebok.

But with only 4 points from their last 6 games Newcastle – and Allardyce in particular – are desperate.

And with this desperation it could signal trouble for Arsenal.

With injuries to Diaby, Fabregas, Hleb and Flamini our midfield is pretty bare, and with the Walrus urgently needing something from this game to keep the fans and board off his back who says he won’t try to kick Arsenal out of the game?

It looks like Diarra, Denilson and Gilberto will figure in tonight’s game and they will have to be on top form if they are to withstand the physical approach from Newcastle.

I think tonight will be a tough game and I’m just not comfortable with everyone putting 3 points in the bag before the game has even kicked off.

Newcastle have played poorly of late, but against the unbeaten league leaders they will raise their game tenfold.

Let’s make no mistake about it, tonight will be a fight.

I think we’ll just about edge it but I don’t think it will be as straight-forward as most people are making it out to be.

Villa – Newcastle – Cesc – Hleb – Lehmann – Spurs

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Arsenal remain top of the table after winning at Villa Park, with goals from Flamini and Adebayor. Flamini has so much drive and that alone help him score the vital equaliser, while Adebayor ended his goal drought with an excellent header. Hopefully that goal will be the first of many in a very hectic December.

The first half was almost exhibition football, with Villa struggling to get the ball. They did score the opener against the run of play though, after a fortunate deflection put the ball into the path of Gardener. Villa did push us all the way in the second half, playing balls to Carew who caused all sorts of problems and even managed to hit the bar. The second half was encouraging though, as Arsenal showed the resolve to hold onto a lead and finish the game with 3 points.

Arsenal will travel to St James’ Park without Alexander Hleb, who was injured by a tackle from behind from Carew. Arsenal seemed to lose their flow when Hleb was replaced against Villa so hopefully we can still put in a winning performance on Wednesday. Van Persie, Cesc and Diaby are also probably a little short for the Newcastle game.

Meanwhile Adebayor calls for ‘focus’, and not the car apparently.

The obvious talk of Lehmann leaving in the January transfer window has started, and it is Wolfsburg which is the current club the German is linked too. I’m sure Jens will be linked to many clubs over the next couple of months, and he would probably fancy a move back to Germany. His relationship with Almunia has always been frosty, and the two don’t even speak anymore. With the togetherness and team-spirit playing a huge part in the young team’s success this season you wonder if it would be better for everyone if Arsene let the German leave. The only problem is if Almunia gets injured, but Fabianski is highly rated by the Arsenal staff.

And a note about last night’s Tottenham/Birmingham game.

Congratulations to Arsene’s former young guns Djourou (on loan), Muamba and in particular Sebastian Larsson, who scored a simply stunning winner in injury time to take the 3 points. I managed to catch the last 15 minutes and Alex McLeish’s side really pulled a smash and grab at White Hart Lane.

Spurs currently sit one point above the relegation zone.

Funny how everyone wrote us off and the so-called ‘experts’ said Spurs would finish above us isn’t it?

Arsene must be quietly satisfied inside. I know I was!

And Arsenal were drawn away to Burnley in the 3rd round of the FA Cup.

And before I forget, also congratualtions to Cesc who won the Young Footballer of the Year Award at the BBC London Sports Awards last night. Looks like yesterday was a great day in London for everyone!

My Arsenal DVD Clearout – Grab A Xmas Bargain!

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I’m having a clearout of my Arsenal DVD collection to raise some money for the cold winter months and some sort of festival apparently called Xmas. I’ve never heard about it before either, but apparently it can cost money and hence these auctions.

So I thought I’d let you guys know that they are up for auction on eBay, and all of them are in brand new condition and only been watched once. Also there seems to be a few rare ones in there too, like the Italian Job, Centurions (Dennis & Titi’s 100 goals) and few others which are apparently no longer in production.

Here is the list of Arsenal DVD’s available:

It’s Up For Grabs Now!
Centurions (Dennis Bergkamp & Thierry Henry – 100 Goals)
Arsene Wenger’s Magic Hat (Includes Boring Boring Arsenal feature)
Classic Victories Over Manchester United
The Italian Job – Inter Milan 1, Arsenal 5
Arsene’s Eleven XI

Arsenal Season Review 2002/2003
Arsenal Season Review 2003/2004 (The Untouchables)
Arsenal Season Review 2004/2005 (See Cristiano Ronaldo Cry!)
Arsenal Season Review 2005/2006 (Farewell to Highbury)

And you can see the auctions by clicking here.

All of the auctions have no reserve, and bidding only starts from a penny so you could get a bargain for Xmas which would be nice wouldn’t it?

About half of them actually end tonight, so I really should have posted this over the weekend! But a few still have a few days left on them.

Update: The ones with lines through mean the auction for that particular DVD has ended and therefore is no longer available.

Why England & The FA Are A Complete Joke

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This will be the last thing I write about England, because the whole thing is tiresome, depressing and just a complete joke. I’ve talked about player quotas, why they don’t deserve to qualify and how everyone shouldn’t underestimate Croatia.

But what I think goes against the mainstream media.

And now, the stupidity has got even worse.

FA Chairman Geoff Thompson said today:

“Like every England fan, we are all bitterly disappointed that we have failed to qualify for Euro 2008, and I know Steve feels that disappointment more than anyone.”

Really?

I wish I could feel Steve McClarens dissapointment too, because I could do with 2 million quid in my back pocket for somehow managing England to a failed qualification campaign.

I’m sure every England fan could do with feeling ‘McClaren’s disappointment’, as you get a £2 million payoff for the privilege!

The world has truly gone mad.

I will admit though that I thought Sven was a poor manager for England, and we couldn’t do much worse. Well I stand corrected. At least Sven bloody qualified for the major tournaments.

McClaren should really refund all those England fans that turned up to Wembley with their families and watched last nights quite frankly disgraceful display from a bunch of over-hyped, over-paid and pathetic excuse for players.

They simply couldn’t be arsed!

And that was so disappointing.

Steve McClaren called for pride, passion, attitude and character from the players last night.

I saw absolutely none of that yesterday.

Croatia epitomised EVERYTHING England are not. They didn’t need to win, they didn’t have to try, but because they were wearing their national shirt they played for the fans, for their country.

They have pride, they are grateful and honoured to represent their country, and understand what international football is all about.

I’ve seen a hell of a lot more ‘passion and pride’ from Israel, Russia and Croatia in this years qualifying campaign.

It’s not about fancy sponsorships, football boot deals or money.

It’s about giving everything when you have the distinction of wearing the England shirt. Northern Ireland and Scotland might not have qualified for next summers tournament, but they did their country proud.

Can you say that about England?

Steve McClaren & England Go Out With A Bang

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Finally McClaren has realised what I’ve been saying for years. That Paul Robinson is complete rubbish. I asked a few weeks ago how many goals tubby had conceded against Arsenal and the general consensus was around the 40 mark. Good job!

There’s also been a lot of talk about Beckham and whether he’ll reach 100 caps, but McClaren has dropped him too in favour of Shaun Wright Philips.

It looks like the soon-to-be-fired England manager is going with a 5 man midfield of Gerrard, Lampard, Barry, Joe Cole and SWP, although you would assume the Liverpool man would play just behind Crouch like he’s done for his club so many times.

And the back four is rumoured to be Wayne Bridge, Sol Campbell, Joleon Lescott and Micah Richards.

I would feel more comfortable if David Beckham was playing tonight, because at least then Crouch would get some decent servce!

And I would feel even more comfortable if England needed to win the game. England play at their best when they have to win, and if that was the case I would predict a 2-0 or 3-0 scoreline – no question.

But knowing a draw is good enough can be a burden and if the scores are still level after an hour then we’ll end up sitting back and inviting pressure. Then one little mistake or one piece of magic could all but end England’s hopes of qualification.

So we know Croatia won’t have a better chance to win at Wembley.

Ever.

Ferdinand, Terry, Rooney and Owen are all out.

And with bookies offering 7/1 odds no-one is giving Croatia a chance in hell.

But surely it’s not going to be that easy is it?

And tactically McClaren isn’t exactly the best.

Arsenal’s Eduardo Da Silva isn’t setting the Premiership on fire as yet, but for Croatia that is a completely different kettle of fish. He scored the opening goal (against Paul Robinson, who else) in the game in Croatia and he has 13 goals in 20 international appearances.

That’s impressive for any nation.

He is second in the qualifying goalscoring charts only behind Northern Ireland’s David Healy.

And when you consider the teams in the European qualifying groups, and the better service their strikers get, you start to understand how dangerous Croatia actually are.

Yes, they lost to Macedonia at the weekend, but the conditions in that game were quite frankly horrendous and it was their only defeat of their qualifying campaign so far. And you would think the prestige of playing at a stadium like Wembley would spur the Croatians on to at least have a go at England.

If Israel can beat Russia, then Croatia can beat England.

Expect fireworks tonight.

Because if England don’t score in the first half then things could get edgy!