Gooner Daily

I want to express my sincere apologies for the blog’s dormant state for an entire week. BlackBerry batteries have a knack for dying faster than the way Cristiano Ronaldo scores goals in Spain and I’ve been heavily involved in many activities in my NYSC camp at Okada, Benin. For starters, I do military drills on the parade ground every morning from 5am so my day gets fucked up before it’s good to go. I’m also the manager of my Platoon’s football team and that position requires a certain degree of commitment which ranges from scouting other teams and training my own boys.

I also got involved in a contest called Mr. Pretty Face thanks to my good looks and pink lips. There was a category where I was made up like a woman and I looked way better than some girls I’ve ever known. I didn’t win the contest but my popularity within the camp kinda increased because I’m simply known as Mr. Pretty Face by girls and guys alike. 🙂 My close friends still call me Toni though.

A week is a very long time in football and missing out on blogging for a week really ate into me because I consider blogging as a part of me. Remember that it took Arsenal one week to wave their goodbyes to their Premier League challenge. Eboue’s studipity inspired a 1-1 draw with Liverpool on a Sunday. Arsenal threw away a 3-1 lead to share the spoils against Tottenham on a Wednesday and Tamir Cohen’s Saturday evening header in the Reebok closed the curtains on Arsenal’s title challenge to seal the trophy-less status for the six year in a row.

Gael Clichy said sayonara at the tail end of last week so the Asian tour squad going to Malaysia dominated proceedings. It was amazing to see how Wenger and his boys where worshiped and adored in that part of the Earth because the Asian lot came out in large numbers to cheer their Red and White heroes. Arsenal’s captain was absent, as expected, Eboue, Diaby and Fabianski didn’t travel because of injury concerns, while only the omissions of Nicklas Bendtner and Manuel Almunia raised eyebrows. Arsenal’s greedy boy Samir Nasri was forced into the squad against his will because he felt that his summer shenanigans would be enough to flare up Wenger to resign to losing him. Arsenal’s newbie Gervinho missed out on the tour thanks to visa problems. At least it was better than Carlos Vela in the 2009/10 season where he missed Arsenal’s trip to the Nou Camp because of a missing passport.

As expected, the week wasn’t going to complete without the media Vultures doing their thing. They started by linking Arsenal to Aston Villa’s overhyped one-legged winger that owns his own Downs Syndrome as Nasri’s potential replacement. Aston Villa wasted no time in placing a £20m price tag on the bloke. If waste-pipes like Milner, Carroll and Henderson could command exorbitant transfer fees, Aston Villa were not really to miss out on the fun.

The media Vultures continued linking players in and out of Arsenal because the club seemed to be their favorite topic. They cooked up stories about Hugo Rodallega and reported that Arsenal had re-ignited their plans to land Mertesacker. Bendtner was also linked with a move out and they created tales about Craig Gordon moving to the Emirates.

Moving over to Arsenal news within the week, Vermaelen promised to make up for lost time and Jack Wilshere urged Fabregas to remain at Arsenal.

He said,

“Loyalty is a big part of football and it shows if you are a real man or not. Cesc showed that last year and, hopefully, a few more players will show it this year. There have been a few players who have shown Arsenal great loyalty and, hopefully, we will get a few more like that. Then we will see if we can get a trophy or not.”

When asked about Fabregas he said,

“Robin has said he would be devastated if we lose Cesc and it’s the same for me. He has been a role model for me and he is the player I want to aspire to. It would be a shame if we lose him but, hopefully, we can keep hold of him.”

It’s really pleasing to know that Barcelona cannot afford Arsenal’s captain so all they can do is to sit their broke ass down and hope fpr Fabregas to literally beg his way out. The Barcelona-Fabregas situation can be likened to a man that wants to make love to his girlfriend but he cannot afford a condom knowing fully that she cannot make love without one.

Sir Fergie cleared the air about Man Utd’s link to Nasri so all fingers were pointed to the Blue half of Manchester while Wenger also tipped the fans that a new left back might not be signed because he’s gunning for Cahill and Samba. This would mean that Vermaelen could be deployed as a left back in some tough fixtures but Kieran Gibbs might just have his breakthrough season next season.

The match in the Bukat Jalil stadium was a simple stroll in the park for Arsenal as they ran out as 4-0 victors.
An early Aaron Ramsey penalty after Jack Wilshere had been taken down in the box opened the scoring. The second came from a lovely Ramsey pass over the top of the Malaysia defence, Theo Walcott timed his run and lobbed the onrushing keeper.

In the second Carlos Vela got his first chip of the season to make it 3-0 and right at the death Tomas Rosicky headed in from close range to seal the deal. The brights sparks of the match were seeing Kieran Gibbs play the first of many matches as Arsenal’s first choice left back. The gooners also had the chance to see new boys, Ryo Miyaichi and Carl Jenkinson.

Miyaichi shared a few words after the game,

“I am so glad to join a big club like Arsenal. So I really want to be prepared to play for them. I am a player who wants use my speed to go past defenders. So it is about making use of my speed. I hope I can contribute to the team. I just want to work hard to do my best.”

Wenger also said a thing or two,

“We have no injuries and we had a good sweat. Overall what is important for us is to get slowly ready. I believe technically we were alright for our first game. Physically we suffered a little bit but what is important at this period of the season is to find our team playback and that was quite satisfying.”

Barcelona’s talker-in-chief Xavi opened his mouth where a rat died recently to feed the media Vultures will his foul-mouthed stories of Fabregas suffering at the club but Wenger responded back to the aging bloke. He said,

“If I found Barcelona in exactly the same position, I believe a mutual respect between the clubs should stop this kind of comment. It is very disrespectful and it is not the first time that Xavi has been disrespectful to Arsenal Football Club.

What is important is that Cesc Fábregas is contracted to Arsenal Football Club. That is a fact. Arsenal want to keep him and all the rest is comment.”

Wenger hinted that it’s Arsenal’s destiny to win the Premier League after last season’s demise while he hoped that Gervinho would be a good addition to his setup.

Moving to today’s news, the media Vultures have reported that the signing that would really Mata could cost only £20m. They’ve also reported that Denilson could move back to his only other club, Sao Paulo.

As expected, we’ve been linked with another wonderkid that will win the Premier League in 2020. He’s a Costa Rican bloke called Joel Campbell.

I just broke down every important piece of info Arsenal was engaged in for an entire week in one blog post. I hope that my next post will be published tomorrow. I have 10 days left in this camp though.

The results for the award of the best Sports blog in Nigeria will be announced tomorrow by Nigerian Blog Awards.

Thank you so much for your votes.

Sayonara

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.