Jens Der Supermann

I was going to post something late last night, but it would have been an incoherent mess after one of the most emotional nights I have ever witnessed – obvious comparisons with Anfield 89’ and on the other side of the scale the FA Cup Semi Final against United at Villa Park a few season ago.

At the final whistle I almost cried it was so emotional!

It couldn’t have been a more tense game. I was frozen for the first 85 minutes – I couldn’t believe what I was watching. It was basically a performance that was a carbon copy of last seasons FA Cup Final against Manchester United.

But could we defend for most of the game and would our luck eventually run out?

Then Jose Mari, who made his appearance after 63 minutes won a, f*ck it I’ll say it, a penalty for a cheating the referee. Yes, there was contact, but if you’re going to give a penalty for that then it wouldn’t be an exaggeration if Arsenal were awarded 10 last night for what can only be called wrestling in the Villarreal box.

And this was it. On 88 minutes Villarreal get a penalty to equalise, and none other than the mercurial Riquelme is the man to even the game.

And you know if this goes in its over.

Arsenal haven’t been any kind of an attacking force all evening and if anyone is going to get another goal in extra time it’s going to be Villarreal!

But then Super Jens Lehmann stepped up and saved against all odds!

Unbelievable!!

Some of you might argue that there should have been a penalty in the first leg, but I’d also point out that Henry had a perfectly good goal ruled out at Highbury as well.

Plus, that Jose Mari is a f*cking diving tw*t anyway.

YEEEESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!

When that full-time whistle went I was bombarded with text messages, mostly saying “What a f*cking save from Super Jens!!”.

What a f*cking save indeed.

I still haven’t got over what happened last night, and it could not have been a more tense game and the roller coaster of emotions was intense.

Jens was clearly the best Arsenal player on the pitch, but you cannot deny Arsenal defended well, as well as of course we rode their luck at times.

What a night for Arsenal, what a night for football and what a night in El Madrigal!

[Enter Expletive Here…]

I’ve had a lot of time to think about what happened at the weekend – and most Arsenal fans will be disappointed how the last ever North London derby at Highbury panned out. Although Wenger rested key players you can see why he did, with a huge, huge game against Villarreal tomorrow night – but like we saw against Pompy making wholesale changes is a big risk.

Despite that, Arsenal were second best in the first half even though Spurs failed to take their chances so we were lucky to be in 0-0 at half-time. But how many times has that happened to use this season?

Then it all kicked off on 66 minutes.

You all know what happened.

Eboue and Gilberto collided into each other and the ball ran to Michael Carrick, who obviously hesitates while the Arsenal players seemingly stop – expecting the ball to be played out (after all, that’s in keeping with the spirit of the game right?). But after Carrick dwells on the ball, he clearly continues with play, after deciding to see what has happened.

Now at the time, I was incensed because of what just happened and it was clear that they took advantage of a situation while players were injured on the floor.

After all, Davids fed the cross to Keane from where Eboue would have been!

And Arsenal actually put the ball out for Spurs later on in the game when their player was injured.

People will say who are we to take the moral high ground, but the fact is we put the ball our several times against a diving Villarreal team, against the cheating Spurs at the weekend – and when we did score a dodgy goal against Sheffield United a few years ago we offered to replay the game!

The most annoying thing to come out of all this is the BBC’s coverage of the whole incident, and the blatant lying of Martin Jol and his ‘team’.

Sky Sports revealed yesterday that when Carrick recieves the ball, Martin Jol can be heard quite clearly shouting ‘Play!, Play!’ – so you didn’t see the incident you cheat?

You can download an actual clip of the incident on Arsebloggers site.

The BBC were taking the moral high ground again last night on MOTD2, with Gavin Peacock saying Wenger must apologise for the comments he has made.

Is he a total idiot? Surely being a pundit he would have heard about Martin Jol urging his players to cheat?

And anyone who would have read Goals on Sunday would see that Chris Kamara tells us all what really happened.

After the game I heard all the b*llsh*t about the Spurs players ‘not seeing the incident’ and ‘not knowing a player was injured’ – and I actually believed it! 

Carrick, Jol and the rest of the f*ckers just blatantly lied to everyone.

But the facts are that Spurs had to cheat to get a result against Arsenal, and even then they couldn’t beat our second team.

Times Change Patrick…

Arsenal in Europe have been simply immaculate. Partly this is because no-one gives us a chance, and then when we get a fanastic result we don’t get the credit we deserve. It might be annoying now but it can actually work in our favour…

Before the huge matches against Real Madrid, we were favourites to go out. Real were on an awesome run in the league and were scoring for fun. Robinho, Beckham, Zidane, Guti et al were all in great form and they were pitched against a side that couldn’t win back-to-back league fixtures against midtable opposition, couldn’t win or score away and had major injury problems.

So how were Arsenal going to fare in the Bernabeu, the place no English side has ever won before?

We pulled off a great team performance and left with a 1-0 win – and we should have had more. Even in the 2nd leg against Real Reyes was guilt of missing several guilt-edged chances and we had the clearer opportunities. Still, we progressed after defeating one of Europe’s superpowers.

Then to the tie against Juventus.

As you will have heard from almost everywhere, they are 8 points clear in Serie A with 7 games remaining, and cruising a league which includes a great team like AC Milan.

And Arsenal are 6th in the Premiership.

But Arsenal dominated the entire game against the old lady, who supposedly had our best player of recent times – Patrick Vieira – at their disposal.

But football is a team game – and as we have shown against Real we play together to devastating effect.

Across Europe, teams think that we are just a one man team with Henry. They don’t realise how efficient and effective the rest of the team are. Players like Hleb, Reyes, Fabregas and Pires will make those runs that create holes in any defense.

Juventus were surprised at Arsenal’s approach, and from the first minute could not cope with the pace of the game. Arsenal have a team full of young, hungry, determined and energetic players. While the Juventus team are full of experienced players who have won the World Cup, European Championships and countless domestic titles.

That is the difference.

Arsenal wanted it more last night, and you can talk about the absence of Pavel Nedved and Del Piero, but they wouldn’t had made a difference. Anyway, we had Ashley Cole, Sol Campbell, Lauren, Ljungberg and loads of others out.

We had Flamini our 8th left-back this season in the 1st eleven! But to be fair, the young Frenchman has been brilliant every game he has played, and as stupid as this sounds I wouldn’t be bothered if Wenger got £15 million for Cashley and kept Flamini at left-back!

He has hunger, pace, determination and has proven himself in the Premiership, as well as against Real Madrid and Juventus.

He’s been a fantastic player for us.

Anyway, here’s my player ratings for the match last night…

Jens Lehmann: 7/10
Nothing to do except intercept a couple of crosses midway through the second half. But did well when called upon, which was hardly ever because of the solid defensive unit.

Emmanuel Eboue: 7/10
Did well again, and it’s hard to believe the kid only made his Premiership debut 6 weeks ago! I think Lauren is a really good player but I can’t see him getting back into the side the way the young Ivory Coast international is playing. As usual, made great forward runs and had Mutu in his back pocket.

Kolo Toure: 9/10
Exceptional. The tricky Ibrahimovic managed to get the ball on several occasions but Toure made some awesome tackles. A real captain’s performance.

Philippe Senderos: 8/10
His partnership with Toure just keeps getting better and better and so much so that I’m not bothered if Sol Campbell ever returns. So hungry against last night and he even chased a few lost balls all the way to Buffon in the first half. Threw himself at everything and made Trezeguet look like pedestrian.

Mathieu Flamini: 8/10
Is this guy a left-back? So assured again you don’t want this guy to be on the bench when Cole returns. Made those attacking runs to support Reyes and they work well together on the left. Camoranesi look frustrated all game which ended in a cynical red card.

Alexander Hleb: 7/10
Struggled against Zambrotta in the first half but picked up his game into the second. Never really captured his form against Real or Charlton but played some nice passes, including the beautifully weighted ball for Fabregas to assist Henry’s goal.

Gilberto Silva: 8/10
Covered well to give Fabregas and Pires attacking freedom, and helped out the back four superbly. A couple of mislayed passes now and then but he’s there to keep Juventus quiet, and Vieira and Emerson didn’t get a sniff.

Francesc Fabregas: 9/10
Made Vieira look small. The pre-match hype was all about Vieira and he told everyone that time moves on at there is no time for regrets. How right our old captain was. Times change Patrick, and unfortunately you’re not part of it anymore. Great assist for Henry’s goal. Cesc was absolutely Fabregas!

Jose Antonio Reyes: 8/10
I loved his dedication last night. Whatever you say about Jose, he will run until his legs fall off and will always give 110%. Made Camoranesi look foolish at times and was never afraid to take on players.

Robert Pires: 9/10
Won’t get all the headlines but played out of his skin. Marked Vieira well and I was shocked as anyone when he won a header in our own area after about 20 minutes. I was even more shocked when he made THAT tackle on Vieira that started the move for Cesc’s goal. Good movement, good passing and great support play. Excellent performance.

Thierry Henry: 9/10
Really loves it when Arsenal are against it. Might not celebrate all his goals with pure rage anymore but after he scored Arsenal’s second he went ballistic! Took the goal every well on the turn and really came to life in the second half. Frustrated Juventus as the game wore on and with a few minutes to go Zebina just had enough of him and got sent off.

Vieira to Pires, Pires to Henry, Henry to Fabregas – GOAL! 

Ah, just like the good old days….

The Thierry Henry Show!

Arsenal cruised to a 4-0 thrashing of Fulham, with inspirational play from Captain Fantastic. Watch out Real Madrid!

Arsenal started with Lehmann, Eboue, Toure, Senderos, Flamini, Freddie, Diaby, Gilberto, Hleb, Adebayor & captain Thierry Henry.

Arsenal started lively, and in the first half created the better chances.

The short-passing moves were excellent, except for a few stray balls from Adebayor and Hleb. Hleb does seem to be improving a little game by game, but his passing really does have to step up if he wants a more regular place in the team.

Arsenal were again playing their narrow football, and Fulham were playing deep like Blackburn, Bolton and most of the home teams this season in the league, and letting the gunners play all their football in front of them.

But the warning signs were there, and Eboue sent a great curling ball over the top for Henry on 13 minutes, but the Arsenal captain was unable to control the ball and it went straight into Warner’s hands.

Diaby and Adebayor had a couple of efforts from outside the area, but on 31’ Henry got his chance and smashed a brilliant effort at the near post.

With Fulham camped outside their own penalty area, Diaby managed to play Henry through with a precise ball and the striker ran down the left side and cracked a sweet shot into Warner’s near post and into the roof of the net.

An emphatic finish!

After that, Fulham were rattle and Arsenal only had to wait 4 minutes until their next goal.

The influential Ljungberg played a through ball from almost the same position as Diaby for Henry, but this time to Adebayor. From almost exactly the same position, the Togo International coolly slipped the ball past Warner with his left foot.

At last, Arsenal’s intricate passing moves have paid off in the league and they went into the break 2-0 up.

Arsenal started well in the second half, and on 57’ Arsenal counter attacked and Henry played a great reverse ball that fooled the Fulham defence and played in Hleb, but the winger shot straight at Warner.

About a minute later, Adebayor almost played in Freddie from the by-line but Warner came out quick and blocked the pass.

Arsenal were really turning up the heat in the second half and on 64’ Hleb pushed the ball wide to Eboue, who made a run from the back. He cut the ball back to Diaby, who had so much space but from only 6 yards out he hit the ball into Warner’s legs.

Then just 30 seconds later, the mercurial Thierry Henry received a pass from Hleb just outside the D, swivelled and chipped the ball into the air. In one smooth movement, he turned and volleyed but over the bar.

Dennis Bergkamp made is welcome return on 70 minutes, coming on for Adebayor. Hopefully he’s getting a run out to get ready for the Real Madrid game on Wednesday.

Henry had been on awesome form all afternoon, and just after Bergkamp was introduced he played in Freddie, who waltzed through but Warner made another good smothering save with his feet.

But Henry again showed why we was on another level to everyone else on the pitch, and Freddie played him in on 75’ for Titi to calmly slot the ball into the far corner – a typical Henry finish.

Arsenal had been playing some brilliant stuff all game and it looks like Wenger has instilled some real belief into a team who can’t seem to win away from home.

The Galactikid Cesc Fabregas replaced Hleb with 10 minutes to go, to sure up the game and get a run out before the midweek Champions League game.

With 7 minutes remaining Jose Antonio Reyes came on for Henry, who came off to a standing ovation from the Gunners faithful.

But the goals didn’t dry up with Henry leaving the feel, as on 86’, Flamini found himself at the by-line and played in Cesc Fabregas in and he stroked the ball into the bottom left corner for 4-0.

Great game, great team spirit and great performance. Was there any doubt?