Adebayor 17 – Divers: none

Although I didn’t think the performance was all that bad, we failed to get that ugly win. The goal by Emmanuel Adebayor at 17′ was well taken, although I honestly couldn’t believe they left our tallest player, and a striker to boot, go unmarked on the corner from Cesc Fabregas. Whatever, we’ll take it. But, about 10 minutes or so later, Tuncay came up the right and fired a venomous cross into the area which Jeremy Aliadiere headed home to equalize. Of course, it had to be him. It was him last time we were left disappointed by Boro. Although, I bet his ears are still ringing from that header. He’s lucky one of his eyes didn’t pop out.

The rest of the match was a lot of back and forth, some tense moments and at least one very close shot from Robin van Persie that could have put us up, but it wasn’t to be. Once injury time came around, Southgate instructed his boys to eat the clock and settle for the point, and that they did. What could have been a seriously entertaining battle was lessened somewhat by complacency. Yawn.

Next up, Livuhpyool. They’re flying high so far this season, so it will be a tough match. Although, they did draw along with the rest of the Big Four this past weekend. Is it me, or is that the second time this season? Didn’t one week that we lost, all the rest of them lost as well? Not sure… but our form against the Big Four so far has been excellent. Can we continue? I certainly hope so. We just need to find a way to treat all our matches that way. The Reds will be up for it, but I think we will too. I seriously doubt that we can blank them with our defense playing as it is. The fight in the middle of the park is going to be key. Cesc vs Xabi? It should be Cesc alongside Xabi, but that’s another matter. Perhaps it will be for the away match at Anfield. Interesting. So, without further adieu… the incredibly unreliable Scurvy Prognostication of The Match is:

Arsenal 2-1 Liverpool

RvP to open the scoring, with Adebyor adding  second late in the first half, then its a mad scramble to defend for the rest of the match. I just makes ‘em up as I goes along. Huzzah.

Sorry for the tardy posts of late. I’ve not had a lot of free time in which to write these and I’m forced to watch recordings of the games pretty late at night. That should change early in the new year, but we’ll see.

In other Arsenal News, Eduardo Da Silva is back in action with the Reserves tonight against Portsmouth. It’s only on Arsenal TV, which I do not have. Hopefully there will be coverage afterwards. I really want to see a warm reception for Eddy when he steps back on to the pitch for us. It will be even better to get him back in the first team. When that happens will probably depend a lot on how it goes tonight. Best of luck, Eduardo!

Not a whole lot to say about this one. We went in with a seriously weakened squad, played like one, and were beaten by a mediocre opposing performance. I didn’t catch more than the highlights, which weren’t very high, in my opinion.

The loss of top spot in Group G hasn’t seemed to cost us much, though. The two pools from which the draw will come for 1st & 2nd don’t seem very much different to me. But you just know we’ll draw Barça, so it doesn’t matter. They would have found a way for us to draw Barça even if we had taken first. There’s just too much press action in it for any other outcome. So Barça, here we come. Henry & Hleb… should be fun. I’d very much like a Nasri hat trick at the away leg, with Samir telling Alex, “You see? That’s how.”

At least one news outlet reported that the fans eased up on Emmanuel Eboue at Porto last night. I suppose that’s good to hear. I know he played the whole 90, but I’m not sure how he did. It’s good to know he can so quickly get on a pitch after The Ebooing and put in a decent effort. I’d still have my head in the sand.

Next up, Middlesbrough away. Not a match we’ve had very good luck with these past few years. But seeing as so many of our starters stayed home from last night’s match, we should be well rested enough and at as full strength as we can be at the moment. Although, I haven’t yet heard of Nasri’s status. Eduardo is getting closer and closer, but Rosicky appears to be going the other way. Sucks, that. What also sucks is that the match at Riverside is not being televised here. So, it’s off to troll the torrent sites for me late Saturday morning. Once again I’ll be camped out late Saturday night, squinting at the laptop, headphones jammed in, Walcott home kit on, Pinot Noir in hand and cashews at the ready. It’s tough to be a Yank.

So, the Scurvy Prognostication of The Match is:

Middlesbrough 0-1 Arsenal

Another ugly win, anyone? Yes? With, let’s see… our one goal coming from… (rubbing crystal balls)… CESC. It has been foretold. So let it be written. And such.

Adebayor 16 – Divers: none

Well, how about that? We won ugly. And they said it couldn’t be done. Bah. It was a tense match. One in which it seemed we just couldn’t put away, and that Wigan could level at any moment. We had several very unlucky shots which went begging. Sometimes we just have those games and things don’t seem to go our way. The good news is that this time we had one of those games and still came away with three points. That shouldn’t be ignored.

Of course, the shambling, bumbling football we were all treated to was somewhat overshadowed by what’s now being referred to as The Ebooing. After being out for nine games with an injury, Emmanuel Eboue was brought on to replace the injured Samir Nasri. It did not go well. Clearly, Eboue was not ready to be back on the pitch. His form was abysmal, even by his yardstick. I’ve seen some pretty crappy performances from him over the years, with a light sprinkling of some promising play… but this was horrendous. And honestly, no matter how you chalk it up, Wenger should not have put him on the pitch. For a manger who is usually very keenly aware of the status of his players, it boggles the mind why he would do such a thing when he had better options on the bench. But at The Grove, it wasn’t Wenger who took the heat for it. It was Eboue.

After repeatedly making mistake after blunder after cock-up, it had become clear that Eboue had actually become a threat to the tentative lead we had on the match. The crowd showed it’s anger. Wenger pulled him out of the match and put on Mikael Silvestre. The mob mentality of the crowd took over and Eboue was treated to a chorus of booing and jeers like I’ve never heard a player receive before. On television it was rough to hear, I can’t imagine how it actually felt to walk off that pitch under such a shitstorm. Honestly, I’m torn on this one. I wanted him off the pitch just as much as anyone, as a loss of two or even all three points in that match could have been disasterous for our season. At home, I cheered Wenger’s decision to take him off. A good stiff booing for Eboue and Wenger was certainly in order. But what Eboue received seemed a bit over the top. Off the pitch and on into the tunnel and even after, he was mercilessly pelted with insult. As it reached fever pitch, I was silenced and actually felt pretty bad for the guy. It wasn’t his fault he was there. It was Wenger’s. I know we’re thin on backup right now, but he shouldn’t have even been in the line up. On his best day, Eboue’s not a superstar. We all know that. Why Wenger has given him so much first team action has been a bewilderment over the years for many, myself included. But the guy didn’t go out there looking to sabotage the game. He went out there to help. That he had the crappiest performance of his career is nearly beside the point. But, I guess that’s hard to see when you’re there in the crowd, the atmosphere is tense, and you have to see that sort of performance… and attitude. I’m quite sure that Eboue’s reactions to some of his mistakes were a large part of the crowd reaction. Supposedly, he sat around and threw his hands up after giving the ball away several times. Bad day or no, that’s not Arsenal and that’s not acceptable. Perhaps giving 110% physical effort is not possible when you’re on a bad day, but that can be excused to a certain extent when your heart and mind are still giving their all.

Djourou 31(og), van Persie 60 & 62 – Divers: Denilson

I was away for the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. and couldn’t get around to watching the match live, so I recorded it. But, I had to wait until I got home yesterday to watch it. I desperately avoided any football related shows or news on the web for  nearly three days. It was hell. I had this sinking feeling that Chelsea was out to make our troubles worse, and I felt bad that I couldn’t be there live, to support my team.

Despite not being able to watch the match, my son, daughter and I all had our Arsenal shirts on Sunday. It dawned on me later that this might have been a bad move on my part. What if we ran into another Arsenal fan while out and about? What if they blurted something out about the result before I had a chance to watch the match? FFS! The day was tense, but we got home without running into any Gooners.

At the airport yesterday, I was beginning to think I’d make it all the way home without learning the outcome of the match. We’d just landed in the cold, dreary northeast, and I was standing outside the airport bathroom, waiting for my wife and kids to come out, when out of the crowd steps a young fellow… wearing a late 1990’s O² home kit. I froze… I wasn’t wearing anything to give my allegiance away, but I knew my six year old son would walk out of the can at any second, see this guy and yell out “Daddy, look! An Arsenal shirt!” which would no doubt illicit some dread response from the young fellow, such as “Too bad about the match at The Bridge the other day, yeah?” and my quest would be over. Sure enough, my family comes out, I see my son’s eyes light up at seeing the shirt… and I did the only rational thing: I ran into the bathroom like a scared little bitch. I had myself a good long piss, washed up, dawdled a bit, and hoped to god the Gooner was gone. He wasn’t. I stepped out, and there’s my son, jumping up and down and pointing. The fellow didn’t notice. I grabbed the boy, said “Yeah, yeah kid… let’s go.” And ushered his silly ass out of the terminal before anything could happen. A close call to say the least. Am I too tight about these things? Anyway, I digress…

Dr. Fucking Jekyll showed up at Stamford Bridge this past Sunday, wearing red & white and handing out lollipops. Three goals were scored in a 1-2 affair, and the afflicted, troubled, injured, fully in-crisis Arsenal scored them ALL. I haven’t jumped about my living room like that watching a match since we beat Manchester United. What an absolutely lovely feeling it was to beat that miserable bunch of twats. In particular, the cheating prick that is John Terry. Straight up your ass, John. Straight. Up. It.

Oh, if you came here for professional sports commentary, I think you took a wrong turn somewhere on the interwebs. It’s not to be had here. Not today.

Robin van Persie’s brace were the first two second half goals conceded at The Bridge in a very long time, according to the commentator. Although there’s no denying the beautiful wrong-footed finishing, his first seemed questionable on the offsides. But I believe the ref saw the ball come off Assley Hole’s foot somehow and let the goal stand. By the way, hats off to the traveling Gooners giving ol’ Assley shit every time the ball went near him. I could hear you taking the piss out of him all the way here in the U.S. Robin’s second was an absolutely brilliant left-footed shot which I still couldn’t believe seeing the replay. How he got that ball back so far across the face of the goal with so much opposite momentum is truly incredible. When RvP is on, he is ON, baby. If he could deliver like that more regularly, he’d… well, he’d probably get stolen by some ass-loving Italian team, but that’s another post. In the meantime, more of that shit, please Robin.

The age of Captain Cesc is well and truly begun, my friends. It has begun! I don’t know if it’s begun soon enough to save this season, but it’s going to be one hell of ride from here on out, that’s for certain. Yes, I know… the kids borked our way out of the League Cup the other night, but that’s another post, and probably a blessing in disguise. Two great results by the first team since Cesc has taken the reigns. The most recent taking Chelsea out of first place and putting us back where we belong, in the Top Four. That’s big, kids. Big. It might not seem like much, getting all excited about fourth place, but a loss Sunday might have made things a bit irretrievable. We’ve still got our consistency issues to work out, but if you needed a sign that things may well and truly be on the mend, then you got it Sunday. We were shaky to start, but slowly worked our way into the match, and eventually took all three. You can’t ask for more than that.

Before the season started, I looked at the schedule and saw this match. I remember wondering if we’d be the first to break Chelsea’s unbeaten home streak. I never would have guessed that Liverpool would beat us to it, but my dream came true. In all honesty, when I finally made it home last night and turned the match on… I was worried that I was about to witness the beginning of the end for my team this season. When the OG went in off Djourou, I despaired even more. It was just how things had been going for us. But football can spin about at any moment… this, we know. And then, with 27+4 minutes left in the match, we were up 1-2. I then stood up and watched the tense remainder on my feet, pacing. And It was then that a thought occurred to me… that young fellow at the airport had been wearing his matchday shirt a full two days after the match was over. At the time, I didn’t recognize it for what it was. It was because we had won.