Blackburn given the spanking they so richly deserve

Well, wasn't that bags of fun? The only annoying thing is that I was about half an hour from getting tickets to yesterday's game, and what a game to miss.

I don't much care what Mark Hughes had to say in his post-game interview, that the final scoreline flattered us and didn't bear a true account of the game. Yes, we scored three goals in the final ten minutes. Yes, Blackburn pegged us back to 3-2 and gave us a nervy five or ten minute period. However, we should have been 6 up before they scored their third, let alone after.

It is absolutely no exaggeration to say that we could have made double figures in goals scored yesterday, and quite comfortably too. Rosicky missed a good chance and had one cleared off the line, and I can't emphasise what an impact his attitude, passion and exuberance have on the rest of the team when he plays. Hleb should have scored a second, Fabregas could have had at least two, and despite bagging a brace, Dobin should really have taken a hat trick from the game.

The goals we did score were fabulous in their football and in their variety. After David "you can tell I'm not good enough for Arsenal, can't you" Bentley won a dubious penalty after Toure fell/was pulled over by Bentley and landed on the short arse Blackburn forward, Shabani Nonda stuck away the resulting spot kick. We equalised through a fantastic header by Gilberto from a very well struck corner from RvP. Blackburn had no one on the far post (and for some reason didn't remedy this at subsequent corners) and that was 1-1.

Hleb scored the next in what was quite simply a beautiful interchange of passing between him, the remarkably improved Adebayor, and the mercurial Fabregas. Once into the penalty area Hleb took two beautiful touches to beat his man and calmly sidefooted it past a stranded Brad Friedel. 2-1.

The third was a penalty, won by the impressive Robin van Persie and converted by the equally impressive Manu Adebayor. It was the lanky Togolese forward who put Robin in with a delightful flicked pass after receiving the ball from Fab, and after taking a touch and waiting to pull the trigger, van Persie was clipped by Neill and went down. I think it was a penalty. There was definite contact, enough to alter van Persie's stride and ability to strike the ball, even if his tumble might have been excentuated. Adebayor calmly slotted the spot kick. 3-1.

Then, at the start of the second half, we peppered them. We tore them apart. We should have had ten, as mentioned above. But we didn't, and after going to sleep at the back a header from Derbyshire came back off the bar and Nonda scored an overhead strike from close range. 3-2.

We then endured an anxious passage of play, during which RvP blazed over a relatively easy chance and a rather more difficult one, before he took possession of the ball in the right hand channel, moved inside into the penalty area, dummied to shoot on his left, dummied to shoot on his right (leaving Ooijer in a heap) and then curling a lovely left-footed daisy cutter into the bottom left hand corner. It was no more than he deserved from an outstanding performance in which he linked the play so impressively and seemed to be able to bring even the most wayward and overhit passes under his control. 4-2, but he wasn't finished there.

Some more lovely interplay between Adebayor and Cesc let the young Spaniard into the box, and instead of shooting, as he had done earlier in the half when he had an irate van Persie waiting for a pass, he found the Dutchman with a simple square ball and Dobin gratefully put away his second from eight yards. 5-2.

But the boys still weren't done. Cesc took a pass into the left hand channel, and proceded towards the corner flag, kicking out a few stepovers and body feints on the way. Robbie Savage obviously thought that Fab was intending to run time down in the corner, and wasn't having any of that, so he made a beeline for Cesc and looked like he was going to remove his left leg from it's socket. Seeing him coming a mile away, Fabregas simply stepped inside to his right whilst playing the ball through Savage's legs. It was a moment of beauty and a fantastic visualised metaphor for the different approaches to the beautiful game, one obviously being more beautiful than the other. Cesc then feinted inside another Blackburn player before taking the strike he was certainly entitled to. Friedel made a good save, but the ball fell to goal machine Mathieu Flamini and he put it away for his fourth of the season.

It's this kind of performance that makes an Arsenal fan so hopeful of the promise that this team holds for the future, but which also makes days when we don't perform so frustrating. I don't think it's possible to argue, even from a Man Yoo fan's perspective, that we don't play the best football in the Premiership, when we play. However our consistency is our downfall and we can only hope as the kid's progress and gain experience, they'll learn to grind out the wins, and not the draws, that you need when you're not firing on all cylinders.

It was a great display of what we are capable of, and with Watford on Boxing Day, I can only hope we get another emphatically won 3 points.

In other news (because I havn't posted for so bloody long) Mourinho is going to get away with what Arsene was punished for when he called van Horseface a cheat, Middlesbrough are looking to take Aliadiere on loan, Stokes, Bendtner and Lupoli all havn't scored in bloody ages, we're not going to buy anyone in January even though the papers won't stop talking about who we are going to sign, Paul Scholes scored the goal of the season yesterday, and Chelski seem like they have magical last minute goal-scoring powers. A deal struck with Satan no doubt

Lucky, lucky boys

Well, that was a painful evening's entertainment wasn't it?

Arsenal are through to the knockout stages of the Champions League after drawing 0-0 at Porto, and with Hamburg beating CSKA 3-2 we could even have lost and gone through. As it is we actually topped the group. But we were lucky.

We were piss poor from start to finish. Every fifteen minutes or so (although not at all for the first half hour) we'd put together a nice passing move which saw us into the box but not threaten to score. For the rest of the match we basically spent our time giving Porto the ball, and for the first 70 minutes at least they seemed well up for knocking a few past us, with Queresma hitting the post twice and looking dangerous all night.

There were appalling performances from many, abjectly average performances from the rest. Of the whole bunch I'd really only say that Kolo, Johann and Jens acquitted themselves with any degree of respectability. The midfield five, well, embarrassing is too kind an evaluation. Gilberto was particularly awful, giving the ball away once every five minutes like clockwork, more often than not by misplacing a five yard pass. Even Fabregas was giving the ball away, getting caught in possession a number of times. If you're playing five in the middle then surely you should be looking to maintain possession and dictate play. We looked lost.

In fact, some might say that we played like that because we don't know how to play a controlled, defensive, possession game, and to be honest I don't think we do. That said we shouldn't have been looking to play for the draw, which I think we did, and which worries me a lot. The approach to this game was all wrong, despite our claims that we would "go out playing to win".

I don't think having TH14 for this game would have made much difference to be honest, although it would have atleast provided us with an outlet once we regained possession, something that was shocking in its absence last night. Unless Clichy or Eboue bombed down the wing we had no one willing to overlap or make a run past the player in possession. Whilst no one wants to get caught out of position, if that were true then these two players are the LAST two you'd want caught out of position playing against a team utilising a 4-3-3 with very quick wingers, and with five in midfield you'd think that one of the men in the middle would be the one to make the run to create an angle.

Still, we're through to the last 16 and we live to fight another day. Man Yoo won 3-1 so they go through as well, and in fact all the English teams topped their groups, which is a nice statement about the Premiership. That said when you've got teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Roma and Inter Milan finishing in second place in their groups it seems it doesn't matter whether you qualify first or second, you're still going to have a tough last 16 match up.

Chim chiminy chim chininy chim chim Djourou is a doubt for Chelsea on Sunday, following a groin strain he picked up last night (you may have noticed Big Phil warming up at half time yesterday), which is a bit of a fucker as not only is he playing very well at the moment, but it means that our only fit and elligible centre half for Sunday is Senderos (who doesn't seem like he enjoys playing against Chelski, and particularly Drogba), as Kolo is suspended and Gallas is still recovering from injury. Puts us in a bit of a pickle does that.

Speaking of Sunday's game, you may or may not have seen these yet, but they're "special" banknotes to take to the Bridge on Sunday in honour of that all round nice bloke Cashley Tweedy.


I think that the mobile phone is a nice touch.

More rumours abound that we're going to spunk £6m on Glen "traffic cone" Johnson. Makes absolutely no sense when we've got four right backs (two of whom are English) who are at least as good if not better than Johnson already. So bollocks to that.

Diving, cheating bastards v Arsenal preview

It can't have been two weeks since my last post, surely?

Actually, it can and is. I was off work last week, and whilst you might think that all that extra time not doing stuff would more easily allow for writing on here, I am a very very lazy guy, and I was up til god knows when watching the Ashes.

So obviously that was all worthwile. Fucking Ashes.

Anyway, it's the return tie against the diving, cheating bastards in Porto tonight, with both teams needing just the point to make certain of qualification to the knockout stage of the Champions League, although you won't see either side setting their stall out for the draw. It is a truly massive game, and we've got to look to get all three points, not only to guard against complacency but also because I'd really like it if Porto didn't go through.

With Thierry out for the forseeable future (I really must change my fantasy team) following all of this hoo hah over a fallout with Wenger, as well as longtime absentees Ralph and Diaby, and now Tomas Rosicky for god knows how long (becoming a little injury prone this lad) I fear we'll see the 4-5-1 deployed tonight. I don't like it, especially when Rosicky isn't available as I think he's really the player which makes this formation work, so I hope I'm wrong and Wenger goes for the 4-4-2 which saw us decimate the jokers for Totteringham and which we switched to in the second half against Hamburg, which ultimately saw us win the game 3-1.

With Thierry and Rosicky out, I think that YTW is more likely than ever to get a start in a Champions League game, whilst la Bestia is likely to play if we go with the 4-5-1. There really are too many permeatations to list for tonight's game, despite the players who we have out, so I'm not going to bother.

1-0 to the Arsenal tonight. Come on you Gunners.