This Blog will return in May/June

Due to University commitments, I had to stop writing this blog.  I will return in May/June as I will have finished my University education!

See you then!!!

This is all about Revenge!

Apologises for the delay in posting till now, I have had a hectic week at Uni. I should be back to posting regularly now, I hope!

Let me just start off by saying that was a great result against Bolton last week, I’m happy for big Nicklas Bendtner, I have always defended him!

As for today…I don’t know how you guys felt when Hull City came to the Emirates and shocked the world by winning, but I felt a great deal of embarrassment.  I really do not want to feel that today, thankyou very much!
As for the team news:

Arsenal are without defenders William Gallas (hamstring) and Mikael Silvestre (thigh), and give a fitness test to Alex Song, who has a thigh problem.

Theo Walcott, Cesc Fabregas and Tomas Rosicky remain sidelined.

Great……the performance against Bolton last week demonstrated how badly we need a creative spark in our side, despite all the dominance we just scraped out the three points.

Talking of a creative spark, how many of you guys are bored shitless with the Arshavin transfer news? Is he coming, is he signing for someone else? It seems everyday something new is conjured up, it seems one minute he is about to sign for us, the next minute Man City and Jose Mourinho’s merry men of Inter Milan are ready to pounce.

The Sun claims:

RUSSIAN billionaire Alisher Usmanov holds the key to Arsenal’s £12million move for Andrei Arshavin.

The Gunners’ majority shareholder is helping to broker a deal with his close ties to Zenit St Petersburg’s owners.

Russian side Zenit are owned by oil giants Gazprom and Usmanov is the chairman of Gazprominvestholding, who manage their international investments.

Usmanov is not on the board at the Emirates having been frozen out — so has no official capacity in any deal.

Forward Arshavin, 27, was the star in Russia’s march to the semi-final of Euro 2008.

Zenit turned down Arsenal’s initial £10m bid last week but are still keen to reach a deal.

Club spokesman Alexei Petrov said: Zenit have invited Arsenal officials to come to St Petersburg next Tuesday.

Zenit does want to find an acceptable option for everyone.

That’s deadly interesting, it seems the that buffoon is the key to us signing the lad who could prompt some sort of creative influence in the team right now, what has the world come to. Even with the signing of Arshavin, we still need a defensive midfielder, I just wonder who Wenger is targeting….your guess is as good as mine!

The game is at 5.30pm today, lets all hope for a victory and lets all hope the teams around us somehow slip up! By the way who was laughing at the dismal performance of Spurs and Chelsea last week? I certaintly was.  Come on you Gunners!

Arshavin Deal or No Deal?

Im sure you have all missed your daily dosage of VTH, I have been busy for the past few days, so here’s an update on today’s news!

Apparently we have been in talks with Andrei Arshavin for the past two days and Wenger is trying to woo him by showing him the London Conley facilities. The issue the papers state however is that Zenit are determined to receive £20 Million for him whilst Arsenal are only prepared to spend £12 Million…Great!

The Independent states:

Zenit St Petersburg are determined to inflate the price tag Arsenal must meet for the midfielder Andrei Arshavin, according to his agent. The Russians have suggested a £20m deal for the 27-year-old playmaker, who shot to prominence during Euro 2008, with both the Gunners and Juventus understood to be leading the chase.

Arshavin, a long-time target for Arsène Wenger, is reported to have visited the Premier League club’s Hertfordshire training ground during a trip to England earlier this year, while it has also been claimed the player is in fact already in London.

“There are no negotiations yet,” Arshavin’s agent, Dennis Lachter, said. “It is the people of Zenit trying to initiate some kind of interest. They are trying to use the media to make the price of Arshavin £20m.”

The Russians, though, may well be forced to offload the unsettled player at a cut price, with Arshavin having threatened to invoke new Fifa regulations and buy out the remaining 18 months of his contract to become a free agent.

So it seems this could be a long drawn negotiation which could end in Arshavin magically being signed by Juvenus or someone else on the final day of the transfer market.
More importantly the Daily Mail states that

Andrei Arshavin last night partied with his Zenit St Petersburg team-mates for what he believes will be the last time before sealing a move to Arsenal.

The Gunners may be furious that their far-from-concluded negotiations have become public but the Russia forward hopes any problems can be overcome so that he can achieve his dream of playing for one of Europe’s elite clubs.

It would be the perfect Christmas present as the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the festival two weeks later than in England.

‘I want to play at a good European club and I want to prove how good I am,’ he said.

Interesting stuff, his desire to play for us is obvious, its just a matter of whether we can afford him. Then again the likes of Manchester City might just hop along and offer him £100,000,000 a week, who wouldnt sign for that?

I must just say, I would be delighted if we sign Arshavin, but he wouldn’t be the answer to all our problems. Yes he can play as a winger, an attacking midfielder and behind a striker, with a player like that  he is already at home with Arsenal. Wenger likes nothing better than a versatile player, and he would offer us more options. If we sign him we will have another winger along with the likes of Nasri and Walcott. You have to remember Man Utd have 5 wingers in their squad, we currently only have two, Rosicky is not a natural out and out winger! Arshavin however would not fill that void we are missing when Flamini left, that no nonsense, full of energy, charging midfielder. So I still feel we need one more midfielder and a new central defender, because if we just make one signing this window and its Arshavin, our defensive problems wont just vanish!

Some other news which im sure you are all aware of Jack Wilshere has signed professional terms with the Club.

Jack, who turned 17 on New Year’s Day and was therefore eligible to sign his first professional contract, has already started to make an impact with his performances for the first team as he continues his excellent development at the Club.
Arsène Wenger said: “We are delighted that Jack has signed a professional contract with us. Jack is a player with great potential, with an ability to find the final ball and also score goals.

“Jack is a passionate and committed young player, he is not afraid of tackles and I am convinced he will have tremendous penetrative power in a few years.

“We have already seen Jack’s qualities in both his first team performances and in training on a regular basis, and we look forward to Jack being an important part of our first team for years to come.”

Ok…good stuff. Thats all for now, thanks for reading.

The FA Cup Assault begins…

A good performance yesterday saw us beat Plymouth 3-1, as expected….and it was  great to see RVP claim two goals, he needs to gain some consistency.

After the game Wenger said:

On securing passage through to the Fourth Round…
“We have done the job in a serious way. If we weren’t completely focussed and up for it we would not have gone through today. I give credit to my team for doing the job seriously with good focus and I give credit to Plymouth who had a great game as well.”

There are reports that Theo Walcott is crying because Arsenal have not offered him a new contract.

The News of the World says:

There is no doubt Theo is frustrated at the lack of action over a new deal. The club said talks would start in October because they wanted to see how Theo started the season. The fact is, he feels as if he’s being taken for granted at the moment, as if people simply expect him to sign a contract.

This is probably all utter rubbish, Im sure he will sign a new contract.

The News of the World also states:

ARSENE WENGER has made Manchester City star Stephen Ireland his main transfer window target.

The Gunners boss has virtually accepted defeat in his bid to sign Everton’s Mikel Arteta and has turned his attention to in-form Ireland.

Wenger raised his interest in the City midfielder when Eastlands boss Mark Hughes made an inquiry for Arsenal’s Kolo Toure.

The Arsenal boss was given no encouragement that Ireland would be made available. But he could use Toure as bait in a player plus cash exchange bid to tempt City to sell.

I would not mind Ireland coming Arsenal, at this rate I wouldnt mind anyone beinging signed as long as they strenghten the midfield, but it would be a shocker to see Toure after years of loyal service being tossed away. I honestly believe Wenger should use Toure as a defensive midfielder rather than let him go.

The Sunday Mirror claims:

West Ham will attempt to use Matthew Upson as bait to land Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner.

It also claims that Mark Noble has caught Wengers eye. It would be great to see Big Upson back at Arsenal, I do rate him. But I cant see it happening, I cant see Wenger re-signing a player. Further, although Bendtner’s form this season hasnt been great as he hasnt produced this season what we expected considering the way he performed last season, I just feel Wenger has invested too much time in him to let him go to West Ham. I could see us moving for Noble though, he would do a decent job and I could see him becoming a Ray Parlour like character for us.

Thats all for now…..thanks for reading.

Happy 2009 from VTH

Happy New Year……hope you all had a good night!

Not much to say today but I am sure there will be alot to say in the coming weeks, I hope!  Surely we will sign one or two players? Please!!!

Watford have signed teenage Arsenal defender Gavin Hoyte on loan for the rest of the season and Arsenal midfielder Nacer Barazite has extended his loan spell with Derby County for the rest of the season. Thats great no?

Arsenal’s Johan Djourou believes he needs to get nasty in order to become a better defender.

“You have to be nasty, not in the way of breaking legs, but in being aggressive on the pitch because that is what makes strikers scared,” he told the club’s official website.

Good for you Djourou…….

The Daily Mirror claims Wenger wants to buy a new centre-back before he allows Gallas to leave. The Arsenal boss is considering making bids for Fulham’s Brede Hangeland and West Ham’s Matthew Upson but is not interested in bringing Senderos back into the fold.  Interesting stuff….

The same paper also claims Arsene Wenger has been offered £25m to take charge at Real Madrid in the summer and the Spanish side also want to sign Gunners midfielder Cesc Fabregas.  Utter nonsense…

The Sun states:

ARSENE WENGER is fighting to hold on to William Gallas after AC Milan stepped up their interest in the French defender.

Gallas is desperate to quit Arsenal after being stripped of the captaincy by boss Wenger.

But Wenger will only allow Gallas, 31, to leave when he has signed a top-class centre-half as his replacement.

AC Milan are ready to throw Gallas a lifeline after San Siro legend Alessandro Nesta was told he needs a back operation, which is likely to rule him out for the rest of the season.

Cheeky Milan bosses have also indicated they are willing to let Philippe Senderos return to the Emirates to speed up the deal.

Senderos, 23, is on loan at the San Siro although he has failed to impress in Serie A.

But Wenger is not interested in bringing back the accident-prone Swiss defender and will wait for a decent alternative.

Another interesting story is Arsenal are weighing up a deal for Torino winger Alessandro Rosina.

The Times says Rosina has been offered on loan to Arsenal by Torino.

The 24-year-old Italy attacking midfield player, who has been watched by scouts from the North London club, has been tipped for a great future and has been nicknamed “Rosinaldo” for his Brazilian style.

I personally do not know anything about this player, Wikipedia states

After a dazzling 2006-07 season, many pundits have hailed him one of the brightest future stars of Italy. A regular in the Italy U-21 squad, his Brazilian-inspired flair and technical skills have earned him the nickname Rosinaldo, a portmanteau of his last name and Ronaldo’s name

Hmmmm…doesnt sound bad, we certainly need more midfield options.

I dont know how much truth there is in any of these stories, you can never trust these tabloids.

Anyway, thats all for now..thanks for reading.

Update

UPDATE, YOU CAN ACCESS THIS BLOG USING THE EASIER WEB LINK:

http://www.victorythroughharmony.tk/

Arteta to fill Fabregas gap??

I didn’t do a post yesterday, there wasn’t much to say and I was trying to study. ….sorry. But I will begin with yesterdays news and then move on to today’s.

Gallas has suddenly gone from public enemy number 1 to hero of the hour, Almunia and Diaby are his biggest fans. Almunia states

“I think he is playing better than before. I spoke to him last week and he told me that now he is playing better because he is not losing too much energy because he is not worried about other things and other players or other circumstances off the pitch.”

Maybe he is right, maybe being captain was too much for responsibility for Gallas to handle.

Whilst Diaby told L’Equipe: “I am very happy for him, above all after everything that happened….William has the soul of a captain. During difficult moments, he is always present. Today, he helped us to get through that mess.”

Also I must add and I’m sure many of you will be delighted to hear this, Young striker Jay Simpson has signed a new deal with Arsenal. He is off to WBA on loan in January, if he can impress there, who knows where his future is with this club.Good on him!
OK as for today’s news, the Guardian and the Sun are reporting as my title suggests that we are moving for the little Spaniard Mikel Arteta. Now this is an interesting story, who knows what to believe, but he would certainly do a job for us. He is creative, has bags of experience in the premiership and when Cesc returns, they in my opinion could form a great partnership.  The Guardian states

“Moyes and his chairman, Bill Kenwright, have stressed that they will be dismissive of interest in their players in the transfer window. “None of our players is for sale,” said Kenwright this week in the wake of potential interest from Manchester City in Arteta and Joleon Lescott. Yet Arsenal could test that resolve and would be prepared to pay up to £12m for an experienced creative midfielder who will improve their squad and, potentially, be able to work effectively alongside his compatriot Fábregas when the Spaniard returns to full fitness.”
I would be delighted with the signing , but would i prefer Alonso to Arteta, probably yes…….would Liverpool now sale Alonso to us,  I highly doubt it.

With news regarding Andrei Arshavin, the Mirror states he is prepared to take a pay cut to move to Arsenal.The Zenit Saint Petersburg midfielder is on £90,000 a week but is ready to reduce his wages in order to clinch a £12million move to the Emirates.Russia star Arshavin, 27, signed a new deal at Zenit last April that included a £24m buy-out clause – which put off Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea. But Zenit have reduced their demands and they are now more in line with the Gunners’ valuation of the star.

A source close to Arshavin said: “He accepts the financial climate has changed but would still welcome a move to England.”
Right that’s fantastic news…….and most likely breeze.

The most interesting story I have come across today, which  probably has no truth in it whatsoever but made me chuckle is that it seems Kolo Toure has fallen out with Gallas and will now demand to leave in January.

A source told the Daily Star: “Kolo doesn’t want to stay – he cannot stand Gallas and Gallas cannot stand him.

“Gallas is showing him complete disrespect and Kolo believes he’s been mouthing off to Wenger about them not being able to play together and Wenger is listening to him.”

I love it when these bullshit newspapers state a ’source’ has told them, you can bet any money its pure fabrication and the tabloids want to just sell papers.

Anyway….that’s all for now, have a great New Years eve whatever you are doing and Happy New Year!

Thanks for reading!

Smash and Grab!

Three points in the bag…..that was a relief wasn’t it?  It was definitely not the greatest performance I have seen but right now performances can wait, we need the points with Everton creeping  upon us.

I think its important to emphasise that the team never gave up yesterday and I’m happy to say their heads never dropped, even when we missed chance after chance to score. Big Adebayor had two great chances yet somehow failed to score. Firstly he was denied by some heroic defending by Distin (who we are linked to) in the first half when Diaby put him through. Secondly in the second half, James made a right mess of things and Ade was unmarked, he somehow blasted the shot wide. I don’t want to be too hard on Ade today, he seems to be lacking sharpness in matches, maybe he needs a break.

I was happy with the goal because it came from a set piece and this shows we have another dimension to our game, besides the one touch magical passing we are use to.  In the 80^th minute Denilson curled in a free kick, James completely missed the punch and Gallas bravely headed the ball in.  I know I have been hard on Gallas in my last posts, but I was impressed with him yesterday. All he can do is to show why he shouldn’t have been stripped of his captaincy; as long as he keeps us clean sheets and scores vital goals like that I will be impressed.

It was interesting to see David James’ performance yesterday, he made one or two vital saves but he seem to be constantly flapping on high balls and crosses. I read an interview of James once, he admitted that Liverpool finally sold him as he admitted to his manager that his lack of concentration which conjoined up his reputation as ‘Butterfingers’ was due to his late night computer sessions. I suspect he was surely playing too much ‘Pro Evo’ and was still in the festive mode before the Arsenal game. Thankfully the Arsenal players realised he kept flapping at crosses and took advantage of this.

Another positive was the performance of Nicklas Bendtner, he was playing out of position on the left hand wing but done very well. He may lack pace and flair, however he put in a lot of effort and did some nice passing in my opinion.

Arsene Wenger said after the game:
“Yes it was a big three points for us because we gave a lot physically but in the end only got a disappointing point at Villa. It was important to get the three points today because recently, no matter what we do, we are always reading bad headlines. It is important for the belief of our team to come away with three points today”.

There was something of a positive in yesterdays match programme.

Wenger said

“The transfer window opens (on Thursday) and, although we are not close to signing anyone at the moment, if we do buy I think what we need is maybe someone with a bit of experience,”

“Cesc is a long way from playing again, so are Tomas Rosicky and Theo Walcott, and these are three creative players that we count on at the start of the season. So what we might need is someone who can create a little spark.”

Zenit St Petersburg star Andrei Arshavin has been mooted as a target, but Wenger has refused to divulge the names of his potential recruitments.

“I don’t need to announce a name,” Wenger said with a smile when asked by the French television channel Canal Plus about Arshavin.

“Because when you do that there is 50 per cent less chance of making the signing. But I need a creative midfielder and eventually another midfielder, because we are short”.

The News of the World yesterday announced we are interested in signing Given, Taylor and N’Zogbia at Newcastle, however this is just speculation and tabloid creativity in my opinion. I cant see it happening, I wouldn’t mind Stevie Taylor though, he can give us an English spine we need!

Another rumour to mention is Zenit St Petersburg defender Ivica Krizanac is interesting Arsenal. The Sunday Mirror says Gunners boss Arsene Wenger is considering a £7 million bid for Krizanac, 29.

Also…

Leeds boss Grayson insists Arsenal, Newcastle target Fabian Delph who is a young winger is not for sale

Newcastle have already had a bid rejected for the teenager, while Arsenal have been linked with a £6million New Year swoop.

However, Grayson says he has been assured Delph will not be leaving Elland Road and has been impressed by the youngster since he replaced Gary McAllister as manager last week.

“Fabian has a big reputation and he has worked ever so hard for me in the last two games,” said Grayson. “He showed his sheer quality with the goal.

“I have been assured he will not be sold, and that is where we are at.

“We do not need to sell him, we do not need to sell any of our players.”

The return of Adams…

Just a quick one today as many of you know, I work part time at the armoury and I have a long shift tomorrow due to the xmas sales! So i have to write this now…

We are playing Pompey today and I must say things are looking postive. I am being postive about today, I feel we will win, we must win!

The team news is as follows:

Arsenal will have striker Emmanuel Adebayor back after suspension to play alongside Robin van Persie.

Alex Song is likely to miss out, Johan Djourou and Gael Clichy (both calf) are doubts and Cesc Fabregas (knee) is a long-term absentee.

Arsene Wenger says : “We have to keep the belief that we have because out of Villa, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool, only Villa beat us at home.

“I believe we have improved in those last two months tremendously. We look much more solid.

“We do miss a bit of belief I think, but we are still young as well.”

Portsmouth manager Tony Adams (the legend) says: “It’s difficult regardless of our current form but we’ll try pick up the pieces.

“Arsenal have a good squad but we’ve got to patch things up on the training pitch and try get a result on Sunday.

“John Utaka’s got another injury on his thigh and Younes Kaboul took a direct hit on his injury, but we’ve got to throw them out to get on with it.”

Arsene Wenger believes Tony Adams has the necessary attributes to succeed as Portsmouth boss, he says

“He (Adams) was a great leader but there is a difference (between being a captain and manager),”

“Natural managers do not exist, I have never met one. If a natural manager exists, he must be in paradise.”

I like Tony Adams, we all do, I wish him the greatest sucess, I really hope he does well for Pompey so he can one day be managing Arsenal.  However, tomorrow I wish him no luck,  I hope we completely outplay them, and we should. We have big Ade back now….give him the ball and he will score!!! Ohh and I really hope the crowd sing the old (8) ‘Double Double Double Sol Campbell has won the Double…..(8) when he comes running out. He is a great lad, wish he was still playing for us!

“Spirit is needed but not sufficient”

I think I have one word to say about last nights game, to sum up the manner in which they played, the manner of Villa’s equaliser, Gallas’s unnecessary foul………’Bullshit’.  I am not going to discuss the ins and outs of the game….I’m a bit too pissed off to do that, if you want a review of the game read the legend himself arseblog.com

The harsh reality of yesterday is that these bunch of pricks wearing the sacred arsenal shirt cannot defend and are in no way resilient enough to perform all season for a title assault. The whole league knows now we can’t defend, we seem to have a bunch of clowns at the back now besides the likes of Clichy and Sagna. Villa should have been 4 or 5-0 up at halftime, the Denilson goal was quite lucky, but fair play to him. On the positive side the lads played some magical football to create the second goal, Diaby produced a great finish, maybe Wenger has found a new role for him in the team as a forward? And it should have been 3-0 with RVP hitting the post.

However, what the hell was Gallas thinking when he bought Gabby down? I expect more from him, it was the sort of challenge you would see from the likes of big Titus Bramble.  He was too busy of thinking about a dream move to the magical land of AC Milan where he can discuss whos more  overrated in the world of football , him or Ronaldinho  and I feel……..the sooner he goes the better.

Wenger still feels we are definately title contenders and asserted “The spirit was fantastic. Spirit is needed but not sufficient.” I think he is in dream land at times to be honest, its a battle for fourth place now and hopefully can land a good run in the Champions League and FA Cup.  The only slim chance we have of possibly fighting for the title is for him to cough up cash and bring some bodies in, at the moment we are frightenlying weak, in both quality of players and defending on the whole.  All in all, 2 points off Liverpool and Aston Villa in reality isn’t a disaster, however the fact we were leading in both games and the goals we conceded in both games were due to stupid defending and not sheer brillance, demonstrates its worringing times for us.