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Today’s transfer rumors sees Swansea’s left back Neil Taylor being linked with us.  Have not seen Swansea play much this year except when we played them and I don’t recall Taylor being anything memorable but Swansea did play well defensively against us, so who knows?

I just don’t think this move makes long-term sense since Kieran Gibbs is young and Andre Santos has just come in this year.  Granted both are injured but Gibbs is due back soon and a long-term signing would only add 3 places at left back which sounds too much.  Unless Santos will turn around be sold in the summer.

The other rumor of the day is Lille’s Moussa Sow being linked and valued at £20 million and that we supposedly face Sp*rs head to head for his potential signature.  If we were after him, I would think we would have the upper hand over Sp*rs as we have Sow’s former teammate, Gervinho, already playing for us and we’ve been a long time suitor for Lille’s other star, Eden Hazard.  Plus, there’s the whole “French Connection” thing with Wenger/Arsenal that may put us in the driver seat.

What would you rather if you were a player?  Go to a club with a solid pipeline form France over the years or a club that is punching above it’s weight and crumbles at the 1st sign of dodgy catering?  Seems a pretty clear choice to me.

An Arsenal reserves side that include Ju Young-Park, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ryo Miyaichi fell to Sunderland, 2-0, yesterday.

Wins are hard to come by for the Arsenal sides the last few days.

Ryan Noble and Billy Knott notched goals for the Black Cats.  I guess you better Knott mention that again…

The Gunner reserves are currently in 4th place in the Reserve League South.

Goalkeeper, Vito Mannone, has gone on loan for the remainder of the season to Championship side, Hull City.  This is not a surprise really as the Italian as fallen down the pecking order behind Wojciech Szczesny, Lukasz Fabianski and even Manuel Almunia recently.

Mannone spent a stint last year at Hull City where he appeared 10 times in the Championship.  Mannone’s loan is the first Gunner to leave during the Winter transfer window but soon may be followed by young Japanese winger Ryo Miyaichi.  Ryo is supposedly a loan target for Martin Jol’s Fulham.  Ryo lit up the Eredivisie on loan at Feyenoord last year and his lack of opportunities so far this year has been disappointing to me but perhaps that just shows a shift in focus from Wenger moving away from potential based sides to more experience based sides as the pressure mounts to end the trophy drought.  Either way, a loan where Ryo gets action wouldn’t be a bad thing.

In actual transfer news, the Lukas Podolski to Arsenal rumor seems to be laid to rest for now.  The German striker looks to be staying at Köln as the player seems to think that a move now may hinder his chance in Germany’s starting lineup with the emergence of Mario Götze and Marco Reus in Germany’s pecking order as Euro 2012 approaches.  Not to mention, the old Wenger valuation argument rears its head as Wenger’s assessment apparently doesn’t meet Köln’s.

Finally, as far possible fullback targets, Milan’s Taye Taiwo and Sunderland’s Kieran Richardson are allegedly transfer targets but I have doubts.  I doubt seriously that Milan would loan Taiwo to us as we face them in the Champions’ League next month.  Even though he wouldn’t play for us against them it highly unlikely to me that they would loan him.

Richardson on the other hand, I’m not sure what to make of.  He has played fullback, wing, midfield, etc. in his time at Manchester United and Sunderland, so he’s very versatile.  He’s been capped by England before so he has a bit of quality, however, as anybody who knows me knows, I’m not to high on the overall quality of the majority of England internationals, generally.  He could be a useful player but I think if he were signed it would likely mean the end of Tomas Rosicky (he’s supposedly a target for Germany’s Wolfsburg) and would definitely mean not re-signing Yossi Benayoun (on loan form Chelsea).  Time will tell, I guess.

Emmanuel Frimpong made his Wolves debut over the weekend in the team’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea.  The young midfielder’s loan to fellow Premier League side was/is unpopular in some Gunner circles but as he’backup to Song, it can’t hurt provided he gets plenty of 1st team starts with Mick McCarthy’s side.

Kyle Bartley once again started and went the whole way for Rangers in their 3-0 win over Motherwell.

The rest of the loanee news can be found here.  Nothing too notable outside of Frimpong and Bartley, especially as the boys on loan in Spain are still on holiday break.

Elsewhere, the boss will probably be in hot water following his comments in the Fulham post-match interview.  I don’t really mind, to be honest.  It seems like it’s been awhile since Wenger has been feisty and lobbing barbs at the authorities.  Seems he used to do this often a few years ago.  To be fair, the ref certainly swallowed his whistle against us late in the match whilst Fulham sure got the benefit of the doubt on a lot of calls.   That’s saying that nicely too.

Finally, the reserves are in action tonight against Sunderland.  I’ll try to get a post on the result later in the day.

A Bobby Zamora goal in stoppage time proved to be a dagger in our hearts today.  A bright Fulham second half outweighed a first half where we were in control and had taken the lead through a Laurent Koscielny headed goal.

Koscielny’s goal came following Fulham’s failure to fully clear a corner and the ball came to Aaron Ramsey.  Ramsey put a cross back in to the box that looked like it took a slight deflection on the way in but the ball found Koscielny unmarked just outside the 6-yard box and Kos nodded home.

Fulham came out in the second half looking much more lively and pushing forward and put us on the back foot for extended periods.  We were defending resolutely if not convincingly until Johann Djourou was sent off in the 78th minute for a foul and second bookable offense on Bobby Zamora.  Now, if we were Sp*rs fans, this is where we’d whoop and holler about the harsh sending off but away form home and sitting on a yellow, Djourou has to be smarter and be in better position goalside to prevent Zamora’s run because you know the opposition will look to win freekicks and penalties in those positions.  Which brings me to the next point- Bobby Zamora going down by being impeded by an arm is ludicrous.  A little elven type striker like Jermain Defoe, okay, I might believe it but a striker who is known for his strength, it’s preposterous.  But you’re away from home with another “iffy” ref and there ya go.  We’re just lucky he didn’t have ref-vision and award the penalty as well.

The subsequent freekick was deflected out by Robin van Persie but it didn’t take long before Fulham had us on the rack a bit and found an equalizer five minutes from time through an old Arsenal youth and reserve player, Steve Sidwell.  From a corner, Szczesny could only knock the ball out wide where another ex-Arsenal player, Philippe Senderos met the ball and headed back across goal where it found Sidwell on the doorstep and he nodded home for 1-1.

We were reeling after that goal for sure, and as Robin van Persie was now on his own up front following Djourou’s dismissal we could not hold possession and continually gave it away to Fulham.  Couple that with RvP also not being able to win a freekick to save his life.  Some of these non-fouls seemed to be fouls earlier in the match, but whatever, I guess.

Then, in the second minute of a scheduled three of stoppage time, ex-Sp*r, Bobby Zamora finished inside the near post past a helpless Szczesny when a cross was cleared poorly back across goal by Sebastian Squillaci.  The Frenchman, who was making his premier league season debut, was forced on due to Wenger having to reshuffle the lineup because of Djourou’s dismissal.  He was trying to head clear or behind but the ball went right back across and found Zamora unmarked and bald-headed striker, who was able to stay on his feet this time, prodded home a winner as Fulham stole all three points.

So, we swap places with Chel$ki again following their late winner over Wolves earlier in the day as we fall to 5th place.  Liverpool can jump over us if they can beat Man €ity at the Etihad tomorrow.

No match ratings today as I only caught the second half but let’s just say we were disappointing in the second half all around, for the most part.  It definitely looks like it will be a battle all season long for the 4th spot and with Djourou being unavailable for the next match following his sending off, we’re back to crisis mode at the fullback spot even with Bacary Sagna and Kieran Gibbs due back soon.

Despite Wenger recently saying he might not dip into the market for a fullback, and I personally still doubt he would, but perhaps this current shortage of proper fullbacks may force his hand a bit.  Or perhaps he promotes somebody like Nico Yennaris for a few matches.  Or maybe Squillaci comes in and plays centerback and Koscielny moves out to fullback for a match or two?

Four points from nine in the holiday period is definitely disappointing especially when we certainly had our hands on six, possibly seven of them.  Our next match is a week from today against Leeds in the FA Cup.  It’ll be interesting to see who Wenger trots out to play in that match.

Hope all you Gunners had a happy and festive Holiday period nonetheless and I hope the New Year finds you and yours well.

Come on you Gunners!

As per usual, we made a home match much more work on ourselves than need be.  We had lots of pressure at the ends of both halves but only came away with a 1-0 win.  That’s not to say I’m complaining about the win, because at this point this time kind of needs hard fought wins to “learn” how to win that way, but we certainly could’ve won this match 3-1, 4-1 given all the chances and pressure we had.

Arsène Wenger decided to start the full first eleven save for Arshavin playing in Gervinho’s regular spot and continuing with van Persie amidst speculation the Dutchman would be rested at some point during the holiday period.

Queen’s Park Rangers, which neither consists of queens, a park, nor any rangers, played well at times and for their part looked dangerous on occasion came to play a bit which is a nice change from years past and certain other teams who come to the Emirates and look to park the bus.  Other than a blatant dive by Adel Taarabt (ashes to ashes we all fall down!) looking for a penalty and the perpetually pain-in-the-duff, Joey Barton, full credit goes to QPR for playing some football/soccer.

The first half started fairly even with both teams looking a little dangerous on the counter.  We started to take control of the match as the half wore on and by the end of the first stanza had pinned QPR back in their own half but could find nothing from a succession of corners and shots and it began to look like a day when, much like last time out against Wolves, where we’d end up ruing chances not taken yet again.

This lack of finishing came to a head early in the second half when Theo Walcott completely blew a golden chance when clean through on Radek Cerny in QPR’s goal by a lovely Aaron Ramsey pass.  Theo didn’t look comfortable and pushed his shot wide left of the near post.  If Theo ever wants to play central striker full time, he simply can not blow chances like this.  It was a shocking miss to be quite honest.

Thankfully, the man in red hot form, Robin van Persie, stepped up to the plate and finished smartly on the hour mark.  A poor QPR giveaway in their own half eventually saw Andrei Arshavin place an exquisite little ball into the box just beyond a defender for van Persie to run on to and fire home low with his marksman-like left foot.  RvP’s goal makes 35 for the calender year, breaking Henry’s club record and sees him finish one behind Alan Shearer’s top division record.

Aaron Ramsey fired just a yard over a few minutes later and Gervinho missed at the near post from inside the 6-yard box when he should’ve scored for the remaining near misses of the match.

We definitely made hard work for ourselves on the attacking end not taking the remaining chances and QPR also had a handful of good blocks inside the box on a few of our other shots.  However, I thought once again we defended pretty well again at the back despite QPR looking dangerous at times.

Also, worryingly, Thomas Vermaelen came off limping early in the second half and had to be replaced by Francis Coquelin, who is doing his best Mathieu Flamini impersonation as a midfielder who is doing a good job being forced into emergency fullback duty.

So, the win takes us up into 4th place as Chel$ki lost 3-1 at The Bridge to Aston Villa.  In other morsels of schadenfreude, Man U lost at Old Trafford and on Alex Ferguson’s birthday to bottom of the table Blackburn Rovers, 3-2, and Sp*rs “lost” to Swansea, 1-1!

Player Ratings
Wojcicech Szczesny (7); Another assured performance by Szcz.  Didn’t really have to do too much but made saves when he did have to and assuredly claimed his defended set pieces.

Johann Djourou (6.5); Djourou defended well and even had a cheeky, attacking run cutting inside and nearly put van Persie through in on goal.

Per Mertesacker (6.5); Per did ok but I’ll bump him up to a 6.5 because he had a crucial interception late in the match on a QPR through ball.

Laurent Koscielny (6.5); Kos did well and escaped a booking on a foul of Shaun Wright-Phillips when match official, Martin Atkinson, mistakenly booked Vermaelen for the challenge.

Thomas Vermaelen (6); did ok but wasn’t as effective on the left as he had been against Wolves.  Unfortunately limped off early in the second half with a knock.

Alexandre Song (6.5); was much better today than in the last couple of matches.  Even popped up in the box a few times but still is a bit too lazy with his passes for me sometimes.

Aaron Ramsey (7); Played much better than recently and looked like missing last start with a given rest, re-energized the Welshman.  Passing was terrific today and nearly scored with a long-range effort.

Mikel Arteta (6.5); Same old, same old.  Nothing too spectacular from Mikel but rarely put a pass or foot wrong today.

Theo Walcott (4.5); Easily the goat of today’s match.  Had two glaring misses with one in each half.  The second half miss when 1 v 1 with Cerny was shockingly bad for someone who wants to be a central striker.  I’d sit Theo next time out, honestly.

Robin van Persie (7); Van the Man scored our goal and scored it with aplomb.  What more can be said at this point?  He’s the only regular goalscorer we have at the moment but when he scores as many as he does, the critics can bite me.

Andrei Arshavin (6.5); the little Russian did pretty well today. After catching a stray elbow from Adel Taarabt in the 1st half I feared Andrei might disappear and he was average for most of the match but his pass led to the goal and at times was much more effective than he has been for most of the year.

Substitutions
Francis Coquelin (6.5); did very well at left back after coming on for Vermaelen and both defended well and got forward on numerous occasions.

Tomas Rosicky (6.5); Tomas nearly scored late on but for a good block by Luke Young.  Looks like his role from here on out at Arsenal is as a sub and spot starter.

Gervinho (6); was shifty and dangerous again but I’m downgrading him to a 6 (probably should be a 5.5, honestly) because he missed two good chances to score and blew another half chance after coming on.

Well, Gunners, here I am coming to you just before kickoff as it’s 6 AM out here in Anchorage and I almost overslept for Arsenal v QPR!

First up, here’s a quick stat pack from Arsenal’s official site for matches against QPR.  Let’s hope we get that 5-1 scoreline from 1978, eh?

The lineups for today’s match at the Emirates:

Arsenal (4-3-3): Szczesny; Djourou – Mertesacker – Koscielny – Vermaelen; Ramsey – Song – Arteta; Walcott – van Persie – Arshavin

Queen’s Park Rangers (4-4-2?/4-4-1-1?): Cerny; Young – Connolly – Gabbidon – Traore; Faurlin – Barton – Wright-Phillips; Taarabt; Bothroyd

Well, we come up against one of our old nemesises in Joey “Space Hitler” Barton, aka The Collie Molester, and a few Arsenal old boys in Armand Traore, Matthew Connolly and Jay Bothroyd.  Here’s to handing them their butts!

Stone Cold Lock (Unless It Doesn’t Happen) Prediction: Arsenal 3- QPR 1.  Teams are starting to try and play against us these days because of our defensive frailties in recent years and Neil Warnock’s QPR sides played some flowing football last year in the Championship and they’ve tried to continue that a bit this year in the EPL.  I think they’ll leave some space for us today and unlike against Wolves we’ll take advantage.  Goals by van Persie, Walcott, and Ramsey.  Book it!

Come on you Gunners!

Well, it’s not an officially official move yet but Arsène Wenger said in his Friday press conference that the deal to bring Thierry Henry back to Arsenal on a 2-month loan deal is all but done and dusted.  Well, Wenger didn’t say “done and dusted,” I did but you get the point.

On the move Wenger says it was his idea to bring Henry back to the club where the Frenchman is the all-time leading goalscorer with 226:

“It was my idea because I decide and he was happy with it,” said the manager. “It was his idea as well to come here, but I had to make the decision to do it.

But adds that he’s not quite sure when the legend will make his first appearance:

“I don’t know [when his first game will be]. The first game is tomorrow [against QPR] and that is the important one. He won’t be part of that at all. I don’t know if he can play against Leeds – we have two massive games before then.”

Wenger also attempted to lay to rest any notion that Henry is being brought back to lead the squad and perhaps diminish van Persie’s captaincy:

“You cannot put too much pressure on him. He is here to help out, not to suddenly be the leader, the main player in the squad,”

And finally in another article, Wenger doesn’t have any fears that whatever happens during this spell at Arsenal, Henry’s legacy will in no way be tarnished:

“You can never take away from people what they have done, that will remain forever. Nobody expects him to be what he was 10 years ago, we just want him to help out

So, with Henry coming back for a short stint to be a Gunner again, what do you fellow Gunners make of it?  Is it a good move?  A desperate move?  Will it work?  Fail?  What say you?

Triumphant return for Titi?

Well, according to both SkySports News and the BBC, Thierry Henry has indeed been offered a 2-month loan deal to return to Arsenal.  Well, technically Sky Sports says the loan has been offered and the BBC says that talks are “progressing.”

There’s no official word from the official Arsenal site yet though but often the clubs’ official sites don’t post anything until the ink is dried and all Ts are crossed and all the Is dotted.

Interesting times indeed at the Arsenal as with both the Sol Campbell and Jens Lehmann return signings in recent years, Henry’s move back to Arsenal, albeit on loan, looks more like reality with every passing moment.

Returning soon to terrorize EPL backlines again?