Disappointed of Islington

Disappointed. We hear that word a lot as football fans. It covers all bases. When we lost to Barcelona in Paris in 2006 we were disappointed. When we lost to Messi this season it was a disappointing performance. Ryan Shawcross was disappointed by his assault on Ramsey. Their manager was disappointed by Arsene's comments! 'Disappoint' is not a word we fans use. We prefer gutted, annoyed, shocked....However we say it disappointment seems to be the main course for us fans more often than not.

My week was disappointing. It started with The Arsenal disappointing me at Wigan. That defeat left me gutted, shocked, annoyed..... So my attention turned to my mistress Cambridge City. Light relief from The Wife in red and white. City are in the Zameretto Premier League (two below the conference) with average attendances of just over 200. They are run and owned by the fans and have to leave their ground at the end of next season and play their home games 15 miles outside the city. They are skint. They have a squad of 16. They have an excellent manager and a hardcore of passionate fans. My dad took me there at an early age and it was the football team we shared. When I watch City I feel close to him and follow them in his memory.

Cambridge City had 3 games left in 6 days. They were in a great position to reach the play offs. Tuesday - Lost to Chippenham. Thursday - Beat Hemel Hempstead (a great away trip with my son.) Saturday - Last home game of the season vs Hednesford. Winner takes all. Winner gets a play off place. City lose 3-0. Gutted. Disappointed.

Dash back to London for the Man City game. Lee Dixon on the radio says at half time he doesn't want to return for the second half. He was disappointed with Arsenal's performance but more so with man city. All that money spent and they were told by their floppy haired, odd scarf wearing, more glamorous than Hughes but not really any better, manager to make no attempt to beat a very beatable Arsenal. MOTD highlights were about 45 seconds long and that included laughing at Greedybayor who had come dressed as Shirley Temple. 60,000 people in the ground and 10's of others watching ESPN were left disappointed. I hope Chavscum (North) miss out on the Champions League by a point. That'll teach 'em to be scared of flapianski and Mickey Silver.

I hope Sp*rs get 4th! There, I said it & I will tell you why. All summer they will be releasing DVDs and telling everyone who will listen that they have made it. They are finally a big club. Then they will lose to Trumpton and Chigley Town in the qualifiers and then we can have a massive laugh. If they do squeeze past the Women's Guild in the qualifiers they will be royally rogered by one and all in the groups. The group stages are full of whipping boys. Step forward Sp*ds!

So Cambridge City have shut up shop until August. Arsenal can't wait to go on holiday. It's end of term. Let's all bring board (Bored?) games to the Fulham match. Roll on World cup so I can be disappointed all over again by England.

No WiCan't

I'm sure the smart advice from seasoned bloggers after a match like that is to wait before you put your thoughts out there for all to see but I'm new to this. The other thing is my thoughts won't be radical and full of blood lust but those of a fan who can see what's wrong and hopes it can be fixed. Stop me if I state the bleedin' obvious!

It is hard to judge this team as it's not our first team. Having said that, any team 2-0 up with less than 10 minutes to go have to fall to quite low depths of crapness to even draw let alone lose. If ever there was a better example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory I'm not sure i know when it happened.

I hate using injuries as an excuse but it's all we've got. One area where we don't have injuries is in the goalkeeper department. Unfortunately they have been struck down with a bad dose of crapitis. Today our first choice, who should be our second choice, was dropped for our third choice with some people shouting for our forth choice to be our first. If anything positive comes out of today it will be a shiny new goalie full of confidence who can catch a ball. I'm so depressed by our goalkeepers anyone with a working set of gloves will do for me.

Almunia clearly had been dropped today to see what Flapianski could do and he fluffed his lines big time and proved to us all his nickname is well deserved.
I think the boy on loan who's name I'm not even going to try should be moved to reserve with an new man coming in. Manuel Faulty and Flapianski should be thanked, given a voucher for the club shop and moved on. Enough is enough.

I don't have the energy after that to talk about the rest of the team although I thought Eastmont did OK for such a young man and my Twitter about giving Silvestre another 3 years after his goal was a JOKE!

We now need to get to the end of the season the best we can. Man City and Blackburn won't be easy while I'm starting to hope Fulham get to the UEFA cup final so they go easy on us.

Chins up Gooners. The first date of Silvestre's farewell tour was off key but progress has been made, we can't see injuries this bad again (can we?) and there is money in the kitty. August can't come quickly enough!!

AW Management is Proud to Present ....

Mikael Silvestre

The Farewell Tour
Limited Dates

18 April Wigan
24 April London - SOLD OUT
3 May Blackburn
9 May London - SOLD OUT
15 May Wembley - Cancelled
22 May Madrid - Cancelled

Can We Do It? Yes Wigan!

Right, they had their day in the sun. A child scored a fluke, an extra from the Planet of the Apes scored their second and they can all run out and spend their money on a commemorative DVD. Big Club?

I sent a text to a Sp*rs friend of mine asking if he will be purchasing the DVD titled 'Once A Decade.' He replied, "No but I will be buying the DVD 'You've made our season!' Really? A home win against a very understrength Arsenal makes their season? Did anyone leave New Highbury in October when we turned them over 3-0 saying "That's made my season?" Certainly not and we didn't even get the opportunity to relive it time and again with an official DVD. Then again, that game wasn't our cup final!

Anyway, we need to move on and win these last 4 games 'just in case' as Goonerholic puts it on the Arsecast. You never know but all we can do is win all the remaining games on the Silvestre farewell tour. The main news between now and Fulham will be the availability of players and it looks bad. The latest list looks like this.

1. Almunia (Glove Rot)
2. Diaby (Thought this game was on Saturday and is meeting mates)
3. Sagna (Hair appointment he just can't change)
4. Cesc (Broken)
5. Vermaelen (Calf Problem)
6. Senderos (Apparently not as good as Silvestre)
7. Rosicky (Got sick in his name)
8. Nasri (Going down Westfield with Fran)
9. Edwardo (Misplaced his bottle)
10. Gallas (Annoying leg strain)
11. Van Persie (Fit! He's FIT!)
12. Vela (Stuck at an airport, covered in ash, with no passport)
14. Walcott (Mum forgot to pack his boots or shorts)
15. Denilson (Groin)
16. Ramsey (Assaulted by a thug)
17. Song (Bad Knee)
18.Silvestre (The relentless passage of time)
19. Wilshire (Being held hostage in the north)
21. Fabianski (Strained facial hair)
20. Djourou (Security won't let him in anymore)
22. Clichy (Sunday lunch at his girlfriend's parents)
23. Arshavin (Calf problem)
27. Eboue (Tinkerbellitis)
28. Gibbs (Not finished holiday homework and it's due in on Monday)
31. Campbell (Knackered from playing on his own last Wednesday)
32. Merida (Going down Westfield with Samir)
52. Bendner (My son thinks he is rubbish)

So there you have it. One available player. Lucky for us one of our prospective Chairmen sent the boys round to the FA so now,apparently, we can play anyone who has ever sported the famous red with white sleeves. My guess is our team will be:

1. Rhys Wilmott
2. Gus Caeser
3. Pal Lyderson
4. Kwame Ampadu
5. Colin Pates
6. Chris Whyte
7. Richie Poweling
8. Steve Williams
9. Lee Chapman
10. Vladimir Petrovic
11. Robin Van Persie
Subs
13. Alan Miller
14. Alberto Mendez
15. David Price
16. Willie Young
17. Raphael Meade
18. Kaba Diawara
19. Siggi Jonsson

Needs must.

Hillsborough 1989

Yesterday afternoon my mind wandered. I was on a pitch and putt golf course overlooking the sea with my kids yet my thoughts were at Highbury. At that moment, 21 years ago I knew where I was.

I was sitting in the West Stand Upper tier near the Clock End watching Arsenal play Newcastle. I think Kenny Sansom was playing for them and we won 1-0. I don't remember who scored for us. Very early in the game people started to talk about the FA Cup semi final in Sheffield. These were the days before everyone having internet in their pocket so the news was sketchy. It started off with talk of fighting. Not too ususual in those days. later we heard the game had been postponed. Very unusual in those days. Then we heard of people being badly hurt but that's all we knew in our ground.

It wasn't until we got home that the full horror of that day was known. There we were in our beautiful stadium enjoying an Arsenal win while other supporters, supporters just like us, were herded into pens. Football fans dying inside a football ground. 96 went to support their team, just like us, but didn't return home.

So as I was being soundly beaten by two children on a holiday golf course my thoughts turned to that day 21 years ago and to the families and friends of the 96 who, just like us, just went to support their team. Rest In Peace.

An odd day to start all this!

The day after Sp*rs beat us in the league for the first time in my son's life (He's 11!) is an odd day to start blogging about this great team we call The Arsenal but somehow that defeat spurred (!) me on to put finger to keypad. I'm not sure how long I will keep this up especially as the summer is rapidly heading our way but let's see what happens.

I've been on twitter for some time now (www.twitter.com/feverpitch) which is a magnificent invention for football fans. The agony from across the globe last night was something to behold. We were all in the same boat. However, sometimes you need a bit more space to say things so here it is.

So, what did we learn last night? Not much that we didn't already know. We already knew, deep down, that the title was just a tiny bit too far away. We already knew that we need a goalkeeper who doesn't have a quota of at least one hopeless error per game. He catches the ball, they don't score. Harsh? I don't care. He's made 36 errors too many.

We already knew that bloke that was once not bad at Man U is no good anymore. The moment they let us buy him we should've walked away. But none of this is news.

We discovered what it was like to lose to them. I'd forgotten.

How did it leave you feeling? At first frustrated as we know we are so much better than that mob. We could beat them 99 times out of 100. last night was 100. However I do feel a sense of pride too. Pride at how this team has come back time and time again to push Man U and the Chavs until after Easter. Cosidering the injuries, and I've not seen injuries like this ever, the team have been magnificent. For much of this season we have lost the spine (and sometimes the arms and the legs) of our first team. We are getting better.

So with some wise Wenger investment and a desire to keep this squad together and fit next year could be special.

In other news Cambridge City beat Bedford 2-0 to go back into the play-off places in the Zamereto Southern League. It's a rare old ding dong battle down there. I'll explain my passion for them another time.

Right, there it is. My first blog. If Arseblog is David Seaman facing a Sampdoria penalty I'm Almunia trying to catch a corner. If Eastlower is a pass from Pires to Henry I'm the penalty Pires passed to Henry! This is my pre-season. I'll try to get match fit.