Well, that just sucked. What seemed to be turning out to be a fine afternoon just went all to shit as we switched off and let a team languishing at the bottom of the table claw back and steal a point. Two points dropped.

I really thought at the beginning of the season we had learned how to kill teams off when we were ahead. Somehow, we forgot that lesson today. This seemed very much like one of the matches from last season where we started with a lead and let it slip right out of our grasp. Ah, I’m too pissed to even write about. The good news, is that the right things happened around the league so that we’ve now moved up to third place, still with a game in hand.

Update: I couldn’t put my finger on just what it was that frustrated me so much about this match, but I think Mark Vallis over at The Online Gooner has hit the nail on the head for me, when he said:

“Tactics. It was quite obvious after the first half, that the young lad who was playing alongside Upson at the back for West Ham was completely out of his depth. Why on earth wasn’t he totally and utterly punished? We’re simply not ruthless enough. I’d have got Bendtner on as soon as possible and told him to go and stand next to him and make the boy mark him. Other teams ruthlessly exploit our weaknesses, why don’t we do the same? If we’re not prepared to win at all costs, it probably means we aren’t going to win at all.”

Well put, Mark. Read the rest of his article here. If you’re not subscribed to the Online Gooner feed like I am, you probably should be. It’s consistently excellent.

I just learned about a new site, or rather a family of sites, called Greatest Player Ever along with one of its brethren, Greatest Arsenal Player. In short, it’s a very cool new web app that allows you to vote on a series of player pairs in a head to head battle. You’re presented with two players, some vital statistics on each of the players, and then you can cast a vote for one of the two players, or vote for a draw.The pairs can be two players from anytime in the teams history, right up to the current side. Care to tell who you think is better between David Seaman and Andrey Arshavin? Not so easy… and therein lies the interesting bit for me. They don’t always pair up players of the same position, or the same era, so you really have to think about the player and their value as an overall player before you cast your vote. Cool stuff.

Each vote you cast adds to their stats database, which continually grows. The more people who vote, the more accurate the database becomes. You can then peruse the stats in the form of Top lists like Top 50 Players, Top 10 Goalkeepers, Top 10 Defenders, Top 10 Midfielders and Top 10 Forwards.  The Top 50 players list for Arsenal already has most of the names you’d expect to see at the top, but I’m very curious to see how the list changes over time with more and more votes. It’s got to be more accurate than that Top 50 list that Arsenal.com put out over the summer. Plus all of this data is being collected for the other teams, as well. So, we’ll be able to see similar lists for the entire Premiership. Now that’s going to cause some contention.

I’ve been playing with it quite a bit recently, and it’s fairly addicting. You get into that mode where you just want to see the next pair of players you’ll be shown. There’s also some mention of prizes to be given away, which is quite cool, but I honestly haven’t looked into that just yet. I’m too busy voting! GreatestPlayerEver.com will tell you all you need to know, and you can select from any Premiership team from there, but for those Gooners like me who just want to vote for the Arsenal players, you can go directly to GreatestArsenalPlayer.com and start voting.

First off… I think that was a fair result. The whole grubby match you had to expect that eventually the irrepressible AZ would find a way through. It took them 93 minutes, but they did it.

Is it just me, or were our guys slipping and sliding all over that pitch? It looked cold, but I don’t know what the weather was like there last night. Our guys were running very hesitantly and looked as though their boots were replaced with regular trainers and that the pitch had been watered down with petroleum jelly. Oddly, the AZ boys seemed not to have the same difficulties.

All credit to AZ, they never gave up and seemed to possess the ball quite well. Despite our inability to remain upright and retain possession, we did manage several dangerous stabs into their box throughout. But, none found purchase until at 35′ Andrey Arshavin slid to RobinVan Persie who dumped off an absolute sitter to Cesc Fabregas. 1-0 to the Arsenal. It was as if suddenly the side we’d gotten used to this season had finally arrived on the pitch. But it wasn’t to last. The tussle in the middle of the park resumed. The away Gooners were the loudest fans in the house. But, we went to sleep in the box with mere seconds remaining and gave up two points.

So, now we still need another three to seal our ticket out of the group stage. I’m not worried, but it would have been nice to tie things up sooner rather than later. Oh well… Hammers up next.

Despite it’s shaky moments, that was a fairly tidy win. And damn, if I’m not seriously enjoying the way this Arsenal side is moving the ball around. The passing is crisp, we’re retaining possession, and the goals are positively flowing. Apart from a tad less cockups in our own area, what more could you ask for?

Although they did try to play forward a bit, the Brummies were definitely trying to park the bus. How many times did our boys cross into the box only to find seven or eight blue shirts awaiting? But we were still too much for them The first goal was a thing of absolute beauty. Robin van Persie took a stiff pass and danced over it, showing brilliant control before powering it home from left to right. With each replay of that shot I gasped over and over again. What skill! A few minutes later, our ball movement was simply too much as we got it across from right to left where Abou Diaby waited to knock it in. Excellent. There was some shaky bits here and there where I just didn’t feel comfortable with a one goal lead, but then Andrey Arshavin did what Andrey Arshavin simply loves to do… he took the ball up on the left outside the area, danced around the defense and then rolled it along past the keeper for our third. Finger to lips… three points acquired.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a match against these blue twats without the usual oddness. Some of the away fans thought they’d be cute singing praises of Martin Taylor for breaking Eduardo’s leg the last time we met. Real class. But, that’s to be expected of their lot. And, I’m sure they loved it when one of their went through Theo Walcott’s legs. In all fairness, it was a completely legitimate challenge. It was rough as you can get in football, but you the player did nothing wrong. Unfortunately, Theo will be out of action for a month now, with medial ligament damage. Sucks that.

But, overall this is just what we needed to get the ball rolling again. Now, back to the Champion’s League as we travel to AZ Almaar for Tuesday night. I’m looking forward to this match. I think some are writing them off, but not I. This could be a tougher match than we expect, particularly if we show complacency.

Other bits: Did you see the Liverpool beach ball incident? (YouTube) I love it. Shit that weird only seems to happen to us. It’s nice seeing it happen to the scousers for once. That it was a Liverpool beach ball, probably thrown by a Liverpool fan is simply awesome. What a tit. Also, I can’t get enough of watching John Terry act like the boy he truly is (YouTube) We’re coming for you John. Get your best tantrum ready.

Now that was a nice display, was it not? Despite a few minor defensive niggles that saw us concede 2 and potentially another, we were simply on fire in all other aspects. Cesc Fabregas was all over the park, moving, shaking, creating… and put one heck of a shot in the net himself. Thomas Vermaelen continued his clinic on how to be a defender and score like a striker, Tomas Rosicky looked terrific, and Robin van Persie and Andrey Arshavin continued their excellent form. Even Theo Walcott came back and put one for Robinson to pick out of the back of the net. If I had to name all the players who had a good day, I might as well just post the roster.

I’d have a hard time picking which of our six goals was the best, too. Niklas Bendtner put a positively ferocious strike on the right post near the end, but Arshavin’s lightning quick no-touch left-footer could be a close second. But, I think it would have to be Cesc’s goal, not only for the build-up play between him and Rosicky (it was a like a well-rehearsed carnival act) but the goal itself and then the celebration afterward. I love seeing him kiss that badge, but I already knew he loved the Arsenal. A great moment, and a great game. Well done you Gunners!

Oddly, I thought Sam Allardyce was actually pretty decent in the post match interview. He was right about the missed penalty at 3-2, but he also had some quite nice things to say aobut Arsenal and Arséne Wenger. Not what I expected from him.

My apologies for not posting much recently. I’ve been wrapped up in some real life events (all good), one of which brought me over to the UK while Arsenal had Olympiacos in town. Although, I was up in Cambridge and watching the match in a place called The Avery. I was sat upstairs with some friends from work while the Liverpool fans were being disappointed downstairs. I did get down to Ashburton Grove on Friday though, on the way out of town. I stopped in The Armoury and stocked up on Arsenal goodies for the wife, kids and myself. As I was turning from the register to head back to the printing section (I finally got my Highbury redcurrant shirt printed with Bergkamp 10 on it) I saw a familiar face walking past me in the other direction and out the door. He saw that I recognized him, probably guessed by the stupid awestruck smile on my face, smiled back, then gave me a wink and said “Hiya mate.” And he kept on walking out the door. I stood there, slack jawed, trying to place the name to the face. Then it hit me… it was CHARLIE GEORGE! Had I only figured his name a bit sooner, I might have stopped him to say hello. But I didn’t want to seem a giant tit saying things like “Hello… who are you?” I went over to the printing fellow and asked if that was Charlie George who just walked out. He replied that yes indeed it was, and that Charlie was now the man in charge of doing tours around the stadium these days, and that a sweeter person I’d never meet. I’ll be taking that tour someday if he’s the man running it.

Another brush with football came later that day at Heathrow. Not far behind me, in the security queue, was the Manchester United Ladies team. I immediately hatched a plan. As I wasn’t wearing anything Arsenal at the time to give me away, I’d go up to them, pretend to be a United fan, and ask them if I could take a photo. As I framed them up I was going to say “Alright, ready now… on three… one… two… three… say, Come on you ARSENAL!” And then snap the picture to see what sort of expressions I got, fingers up, etc. Alas… it wasn’t to be. The queue was split at the x-ray machines, they went one way, I went another, and I didn’t see them again before boarding. Next time.