The Home of Football - opened to arsenal fans today !

20,000 lucky arsenal fans grabbed the opportunity today to see the first team squad practise at the Emirates stadium for the very first time as part of the 'Members' Day'.

The Emirates Stadium - a sneak preview...

Some 20,000 arsenal fans will get the chance to have a first look of the fantastic, brand new Emirates stadium as part of "Members' Day' before the stadium hosts its first match in the form of a testimonial to arsenal legend Dennis Bergkamp on Saturday.

Lilian to Barca.
Buffon an excellent signing by all means.
Curtis too expensive.

The new arsenal jersey

The new Arsenal jersey shall be on sale from today.
Senderos has been sidelined for 3 months by a shouldr injury he suffered in the World Cup.

Mondays...

Ashley releases his book...

Cole to Chelsea

Cole not inviting Wenger to his marriage party.
Has talked about his fallout with then Vice Chairman in the Chelsea tapping-up case..
Looks more likely to move to Chelsea against a 16M pounds buy-out clause in the contract rather than stay at Arsenal

Has invited Sol and Henry though.

Thursday titbits!!

Cesc staying...
Agent denies Ribery bid...
Sol asking huge wages..
Saviola and Curtis Davies

after the world cup...arsenal

Now when the dust has finally settled after the World Cup , its time to cast our minds and eyes back to the events and happenings related to the Premiership....

The Zidane issue has taken a huge portion of the news and headlines and attention and FIFA is to probe into this matter now.

Italians the World Champions

Italy won the World Cup in a penalty shot out when the scores remain levelled after 120 minutes of play.

Zidane red carded for head butting Materazzi and had an abrupt end to his final international game for France. Though scored one thru a well taken penalty to give France the lead as early as the 7th mnute.

Henry and France in Finals

Henry to fight in the Finals..
Confidence high in France squad
Lehmann to give place to Kahn

Arsenal - o7July, 2006

A bitter defeat for Jens
Henry earns a penalty for France

Thursday Titbits

Not much arsenal related news though today...

More soon...

Try, try try but all in vain! Only Pain for Spain

Patrick Vieira scores a neat header. Ribery too and then Zidane makes it fabulous.
Henry passes into the area. Ribery & Pat miss it.France made to pay for miss. Spain earns penalty. David Villa puts it in. 1-0.Zidane passes. Henry passes. Ribery takes it. Ribery scores. 1-1. Possible target Ribery. Scored by now how many goals/ hw many assists. Evaluation!
Puyol hurts / fouls Henry. Henry earns a free kick from a vital position. Zidane takes it. Pat heads it. 2-0.
Henry is called off. Wiltord comes in.
In 92+’ , Zidane wraps it up.Its pain fr spain. They head home. Bow out. Crash out. But the odds r reduced now fr france. And they take on brazil now in the quarters.
Another game Brazil Vs Ghana. 3-0.
Gilberto plays for ? mins.

Ghana played well. Came close. Second goal offside fr brazil. Poor refereeing throughout. Gana debutants. Africa proud. Essien doesn’t plays.

2 days off in the Wcup

Arsenal at the World Cup - Day18

Big Phil is out injured for 2 months with a dislocated shoulder but the Swiss couldnt help much to avoid to add disappointment to his injury as they lost out 3-0 on penalties to the Ukrainians yetserday and consequently bow out. The swiss conceded their first goal since the start of the tournament when that first penalty went in after either side failed to score for as long as 120 minutes. The swiss ended poorly as they couldnt drive in even one penalty.

The other match where there wasn't any Arsenal interest was the one between Italy and Australia. The Italians won 1-0.

Now for today.

Today we have Gilberto, Henry, Reyes and Fabregas involved amongst the few arsenal players left now in the tournament apart from Jens, Sol, Cole and Theo.

Gilbertos Brazil take on Ghana and Henry & Co take on Spain wherein we have Reyes and Farbregas in todays knock-outs. The match between Spain and France is of particular interest to me as Spain have been scoring goals after goals right from the begining of the tournament and France just got into their grove by beating Togo 2-0. Spain seem to have an edge but you never know if the game goes to extra time or even to penalties.

Arsenal at the World Cup - Day17.

After Adebayor, Freddie, Van Persie exit.
A game with 4 red cards and 8 yellows...
Reyes gets a game.. finally. And puts in a free kick to be headed home.
Today Swiss Vs Ukraine.. Senderos out injured. Johan Djourou in...

Rosicky Czechs Out!

Rosicky joins the list of arsenal players who have had to face the disappointment of an early World Cup exit as the Czechs lost 2-0 to the Italians yesterday. Rosicky played his part well for a full 90 minutes but couldn’t do much for his team which played with 10 men after Jan Polok was red carded.

Even with 10 men the Czechs looked like scoring but in the end the Italians made their extra man count. The dismissal of the Czechs is highlighted more from the fact that the Czechs have a FIFA ranking of 2 just after Brazil who are No.1. The arsenal player is obviously sad heading home and his disappointment is clearly reflected in his words – Tomas Rosicky

I am very sad and very disappointed to be going home. The Italians were not that
good, they didn’t have too many chances. We still were in this game even through
we only had ten players for a long time. I don't want to think any more about
the World Cup right now, for me it's finished.

Materazzi and Inzaghi scored for the Italians to top Group E and will now play Australia who drew 2-2 with the Croats in an another fixture. And Ghana who after having won 2-1 in another group E fixture yesterday finished second to Italy in the group E to clash with Brazil in the knock-outs.

Gilberto Silva played a full 90 minutes in the 4-1 spanking of Japan by Brazil who finished their group F with maximum points.

Whats for today?

Courtesy of the fact that France has not won a game yet in this World Cup - in fact not any since their last World Cup triumph in 1998 – they now face a must win fixture against Togo, losing which will see them out of the tournament. Speaking of Togo we have another arsenal player there in Adebayor who is not worried to face France or the club skipper Henry and ready to swap his jersey with Henry after a Togo win. Joking, but here are Adebayors’ true words –

This match against France is very important for me, the team and the whole country. There's a lot of pressure on us, so we have to stay calm. I'm not worried. We have a good team and we can win.

We'll both play the way we can and we'll see what happens. I'll even try and swap shirts with him at the end of the game!

Another match where there is arsenal interest is the match between Spain and Saudi Arabia wherein we have our very own arsenal wonderkid Cesc Fabregas. After his brilliant and undisputed contribution in Spain’s win against Tunisia its time that the lad is given a start for Spain.

Also the Swiss take on the South Koreans today. Therein we have Senderos involved.
The Swiss will do with a draw but the Koreans need a win here. Also lot depends on this one for France who failing to beat Togo today will finish third and the Swiss and Koreans will go through.

Hoping that the Swiss beat the Koreans 5-0 and Senderos gets 3 out of them while France wins 5-2 with 3 for Henry and 2 for Adebayor!!

A for Arsenal, A for Aston Villa, E for Emirates

3 arsenal players were involved yesterday at the World Cup as Holland took on Argentina and the Ivorians played their last match of this World Cup against Serbia and Montenegro.

The match between the dutch and the argentines was expected to be the more interesting one out of the two but it turned out to be otherwise. Instead Ivory coast came from two goals behind to defeat S & M 3 - 2 and recorded their first victory in the tournament with a gripping performance. Emanuel Eboue played a full 90 minutes but Kolo Toure was an unused sub. Both the teams had crashed out already. So Toure and Eboue now head home. They played well their part and Toure felt that it was a difficult group to be in for the Ivorians:

It was a great match, a really exciting one, and we proved that we’ve got some great players. We found ourselves in a really tough group with some big teams, which is why we’re not that disappointed – not that we’re totally happy either. In any case, this win was a good one for our fans.

In the other match RVP played for 67 minutes and was then substituted. Neither sides manged to scoe and it was a stalemate.

Arsenal is involved today too.. as Rosicky's Czechs are to clas with the Italians today. It would be a thrilling game as both the sides need a win to assure some sort of safety to move to the next round. Hoping that Rosicky gets some tonight to make the Czechs and us gooners pround.

Jens wins the game, Sol gets a game !

Five arsenal players involved in yesterdays happenings at the World Cup.

England who have not beaten Sweden since the last 37 years failed for one more time yesterday as the match between the two ended with two goals a side each. It was an interesting game to watch especially as England finally put up an inspired display and took the lead twice but all in vain as the Swedes attacking play paid off and they twice they came from behind to level the scores. They particluarly made England panic with their set-pieces. In fact both their goals came through set-pieces.

Freddie played his part well but couldnt get on the score sheet himself as Allback and Larsson were the scorers for Sweden.Ashley Cole played the full 90 minutes but couldnt help get himself a clean sheet as Sweden struck twice. Sol atlast got a game when he came on as a sub for the injured Rio Ferdinand in the second half to make it 50 caps to his credit now. Sadly Theo couldnt get a break again inspite of an injured Owen been led off the pitch as early as the 4th minute as he was replaced by Crouch.

As a result of the match both the teams advance to the knock-out stages with England as the leaders of group B and the Swedes the runner-up. Hence, England shall now face Ecuador while the Swedes are pitted against the mighty Germans.

Another gunner involved was Jens for Germany who got a clean sheet for the second time in a row as the Germans defeated Ecuador 3-0.

Now for today...

Toure and Eboue shall pay their last match in this tournament as they take on Serbia and Montenegro having had already crashed out of the Cup after the defeat to Holland.

The most interesting fixture today is the one between Holland and Argentina.

Its got to be an exciting match as both the teams are tough to break and are scoring goals. There is the Arsenal interest in the dutch side as Robin Van Persie is certain to be included in the first 11. He scored a brilliant goal against Ivory Coast and Van basten is confident of his capabilities. Let him score 3 past the Argentines today!

Cesc & Senderos advance! Adebayor ...

No less than five Arsenal players involved yesterday. Let’s begin!

Cesc Fabregas came on for Spain yesterday in the match against Tunisia as a sub along with Raul in the 45 minute and demonstrated exactly why he is such an important asset for the club. The Spaniards were trailing to a goal by Tunisia from as early as the 8th minute and were like that the entire half. Then our super boy Cesc appeared and made an impact soon. As soon as he came on he struck a 20 yard kick only to be fisted by the Tunisian goalkeeper Ali Boumnijel. Then Cesc played his part. In the 71st minute Joaquin Sanchez made a cross from the right of the box which was dummied well by Torres for the ball to be received by Cesc who took a first time shot on the goal but the goalkeeper Ali Boumnijel parried the ball which fell in the path of the onrushing Raul who actually did well to slot the ball home on the rebound and make Cesc’ s effort count. Spain had equalized now.

Both the substitutions had paid off but there was more to come from the arsenal player. Soon he got into the box again and his effort was blocked by the goalkeeper. Soon Spain took a lead in the 76th minute. And Cesc was to be involved in that too. This time Cesc delivered an exquisite pass from his own half to coincide with Torres excellent run and Torres rounded off the goalkeeper before he put the ball in the net to make it 2-1 for Spain. Spain eventually won the match 3-1 after Torres slotted another one through a penalty late in the game. A nice game for Fabregas but not so for Reyes as he was an unused sub in the match. Fabregas played his part very well and if only he could have scored one for himself. No worries. He will get scoring himself soon!

Later, after the game, Cesc stressed the importance of the win for Spain by saying:

We had belief and it’s always important to come back in the game like that because we knew that a win would put us into the next round.

The significance of the contribution made by Cesc wasn’t lost on the Spanish coach Luis Aragones when amongst other things he said:

We dealt with it after the break though, with Xavi improving and Cesc (Fabregas) coming on and doing a good job. In the second half, we played our quick, technical game and created danger. We don't have huge, physical players, so we have to rely on our strengths. Raul is fast and has great technique, and that paid dividends. Bringing him and Cesc on worked out very well.

There were 2 matches that involved Arsenal players yesterday. One was the one wrote of above i.e. Spain Vs Tunisia and the other one Togo Vs Switzerland. I have finished off with the first one wherein we had Cesc and Reyes involved, now the second one. In the second we had three arsenal players taking part and they were Senderos and Johan Djourou for Switzerland and Adebayor for Togo.

Senderos played a full 90 minutes as the Swiss won the match 2-0 with a goal in each half. That gives Senderos a second clean sheet to his name in two matches until now in the World Cup. Johan Djourou was an unused substitute here. With the win the Swiss have made their qualification foe the knock-out rounds a good possibility and with that comes for Senderos more chances to play for his country.
But, as I said earlier, another arsenal player Adebayor was involved in the game. The defeat was a blow for Togo who were making their debut in the World Cup and have now crashed out on account of two back to back defeats. Adebayor himself played well but couldn’t conjure up a goal. Later Adebayor said:

The Swiss were strong on the counter-attack. We had problems with our build-up play. I was always asking for the ball but unfortunately I didn’t always receive the support. We’re not disappointed because we gave our best and could have won
the game.

It would have been fantastic to see him score some goals in the World Cup but it’s not so the case as he and Togo now head home.

Lots of news to come in tomorrow as a few more arsenal players involved in todays fixtures as Germany(Jens) takes on Ecuador and Sweden (Freddie) will fight it out with England (Ashely Cole, Sol and Theo).

Lets hope Theo gets a break today.

Robin and Henry score, Toure & Eboue ...

Henry socred an elusive goal yesterday for France against the South Koreans which was also the first goal scored by France after their World Cup victopry in 1998 as 2002 saw them head home in the very first round with the humiliation of not even scoring a goal. SO henry ends that drought thats the good news but also there is bad news atleast for me that goal couldnt gather much success for France as after taking the lead through Henry's 9 minute goal a sit-back-and-defend-approach backfired for the French and the Koreans much to the disappointment of Thierry Henry scored through ManU's Park Ji Sung late in the second half.

Later Henry felt it to be a shame to let go a goal so late and he has words to express the disappointment.

It’s a shame we conceded a goal right at the end because we were very calm and
were defending well.

Thats for Henry but theres more in terms of Arsenal players today...

Sadly enough Toure and Eboue had to face the disappointment of an early exit after all their hopes were dented by the defeat to a resilient Dutch side scoring two goals one thry RVP and other trhu ManU's RVNistelrooy. But luckily RVP is still there and have actually confirmed a place for Holand in the second round. Wat a scorcher of a free kick he scored and theres still more to come they way he is playing.. So sorry to Toure and Eboue but Best of Luck for RVP as he advances to the next round.

Also Rosicky and the Czechs face an uphill task in facing Italy after the Czechs incredibly lost to Ghana 2-0 though the Czechs played with 10 men for a large part of the match.

Freddie header makes Paraguay head for home

An 88th minute rare but brilliant header from Ljungberg sent the 50,000 Swedish fans present in Olympiastadion into rapturous celebrations and Paraguay back to home. The Swedes won the match 1-0 courtesy of Freddie's late goal and are now favourites to end second in the Group B table behind England. Freddie's goal also meant that now Paraguay will have to bear the disppointment of an early exit.

The win was very crucial for the swedes to harbour any hopes of qualification for the knock-out rounds after having been held to a goalless draw to Trinidad and Tobago in their World Cup opener. The point I want to make here is that a Gunner, an arsenal player scored THAT important goal and that makes me feel say Hhhhhuuuuurrrrrrrrrraaaahhhhhhh! And he was the Man of the Match too! Huuurrrrraaahhh!!

After seeing Rosicky drilling two past USA, Fabregas helping Torres for Spain and now Freddie scoring the all important one for Sweden its Henrys' turn now to get on the score sheet. And if only he could hammer 3 past the South Koreans on Sunday then it would start to look a perfect Arsenal up there at the World Cup.

Won't it?