Daily Archives: January 13, 2014
CanonCrested Arsenal Prediction League Season 2

Amazing prices up for grabs
Being a Gunner has its benefits, you know…
For starters, it’s an honor supporting the greatest team in the world with a rich tradition that dates back to the days Merlin was the Chief Wizard in Camelot. Being an Arsenal fan also offers you the chance to interact with fellow Gooners that love the team with all their hearts.
That’s where a Gooner like Canon Crested comes in. With a website that offers a platform for many Gooners to interact with each other, the folks at Canon Crested have come up with an ingenious competition that offers Gooners to make predictions on Premier League matches with a lot of prizes up for grabs, like the beautiful Big F*ckin’ German Tee shown above.
The site also has a Fanzone page were celebrate Arsenal fans weekly giving Gooners an opportunity into the minds of other Gooners. I have been featured in the page and it was cool sharing some of my personal info about Arsenal using that platform.
Canon Crested is using the Prediction league as a platform to add some spice to the Arsenal Match Day experience. There are a lot of Prediction games on social media but we have ours in a sustained league format where players earn points per game and an accumulation of points see you top the league and earn the bragging rights of being the ARSENAL OCTOPUS!
Imagine predicting the scoreline and who you think would score first in tonight’s game against Aston Villa and everything pans out just the way you wanted it to. Arsenal’s win would have given you some satisfaction but your correct predictions would make you even happier.
All you have to do is to register to play the Prediction League and bring extra fun to your match day experience. After you’ve completed your registration with the site, go to the predictions page and make your predictions.
Listed below is a simple explanation of how it works. (culled from Canon Crested)
How it works
Before any Arsenal game, log in to the site and predict the score of the game. Also remember to choose the first Arsenal player you think would score to give you extra points. The League is open to Arsenal fans anywhere you are in the world.
Scoring System
Correct Prediction (outcome of game -Win, Draw , Loss) – 2 Points
Perfect Prediction (Scoreline ) – 3 Points
First Goal Scorer (correctly predicting the First Arsenal player to score) – 1 Point
Maximum points you can get per game is 6 points and every game previous points earned are added to your new points earned and you move up or down the table like a regular football league.
Prizes
We are working on getting a sponsor for the league and the deal is almost signed so it should be something super at the end of the season. However until then the winner of the league gets the official Arsenal Puma Jersey once it is unveiled and available on the Arsenal store, 2nd and 3rd place get Puma sponsored Arsenal gear also.
We would have weekly competitions and we would be giving out Arsenal merchandize, movie tickets, meal tickets and Gooner hangouts with Canoncrested crew on match days. If you live outside Nigeria and the weekly competitions prizes would be converted. The value of whatever the weekly competition point is would be credited to your paypal account. Fair enough right? Above all the idea is to bring a little more fun to your match day experience.
For the First week Canon Crested is giving out this very cool shirt from our friends at Clean Sheet Designs, whoever tops the league in our first week gets this shirt. You can follow @_CSD_ on twitter. They have some cool designs you might want to check out.
So what are you waiting for?
Sayonara.
You can download the Gooner Daily BlackBerry App to receive notifications on your Smart Phone when a post is published.
You can follow Gooner Daily on Twitter @goonerdaily. I’ll follow back
Feel free to visit Gooner Daily’s Facebook page and click on the like button.
You can also join Gooner Daily’s Mailing List to get notifications of new posts by email by clicking on the Follow button
Aston Villa Preview: Team News, Injury Updates and Predicted Lineups



Arsenal’s last visit to Villa Park was rather uneventful
After the Asia Tour and the Emirates Cup, the Gunners believed that they were ready to fire all cylinders in the new campaign. Aston Villa opened the curtains at the Emirates sunshine and when Olivier Giroud scored the first goal of the game, it seemed as if was business as usual before Anthony Taylor’s poor officiating paved the way for Christian Benteke to score two goals, sending the Emirates into delirium.
Five months on, the Gunners are within touching distance of the summit of the Premier League table while Aston Villa is languishing in mid-table with a poor run of form. Villa’s shock victory back in August will have provided optimism for the club’s fans, but Paul Lambert’s men have picked up just five wins in 19 subsequent Premier League fixtures.
The Gunners ended the year with a run of poor results but they have rallied to pick up points against Newcastle and Cardiff while ousting Tottenham in the FA Cup. Aston Villa on the other hand, had lost four games on the trot before earning a draw against Southampton and defeating struggling Sunderland away to end their wretched run of results.
While the Gunners have advanced to the fourth round of the FA Cup to take on Coventry, Aston Villa was embarrassingly dumped out of League One outfit, Sheffield United. However, the Gunners still have to be wary about the counter attacking threat Aston Villa poses with Andreas Weimann and Gabby Agbonlahor identified as two players to watch out for.
Weimann plays as a kind of midfielder when Villa don’t have possession, but once they do, he springs forward in support of Benteke. Agbonlahor has also been on good form, scoring two goals in his last two games and with the goals still drying up for Benteke, the home side will look to their speedster to come up with the goods yet again. Agbonlahor’s direct running and pace will be a thorn in Arsenal’s flesh and I truly hope he doesn’t replicate the form he showed at the Emirates in August.



Szczesny hacking down Agbonlahor
No team has scored the first goal in more Premier League games this season than Arsenal (15). Conversely, no side has scored the first goal on fewer occasions this season than Aston Villa (5). The Aston Villa defense is very leaky and this is evidenced with the fact that they have kept just two clean sheets in their last 21 home league matches.
The Gunners have scored more headed goals than any other team in the league this season (9), so they are bound to pose a threat from set pieces. I hope Per Mertesacker would do a lot better in the air this time around. It’s also worth noting that Arsenal are unbeaten in 14 Premier League trips to Villa Park, winning seven and drawing seven, which is the club’s longest away run without defeat against a single side in Premier League history.
To injuries, Aston Villa will give late fitness tests to Nathan Baker (hamstring) and Ron Vlaar (calf). Both players missed Villas’ FA Cup defeat to Sheffield United along with Gabriel Agbonlahor. However, the forward is set to make a return to the squad while Brad Guzan is also declared fit to face the Gunners.
Joe Bennett and Chris Herd are still lacking match fitness while Libor Kozak (broken leg), Jores Okore (knee) and Charles N’Zogbia (Achilles) are long-term absentees.
Arsenal also have a lengthy injury list, with Theo Walcott going under the knife to mitigate his anterior cruciate ligament injury. According to the Mirror, the surgery was successful and Kieran Gibbs took out some time to see his buddy in the hospital. With Theo Walcott scoring five out of Arsenal’s last nine goals, other players will have to step up for the Gunners to ensure victory



#GetWellSoonTheo
The Gunners will also be without Nicklas Bendtner (ankle) while the game would be too soon for Kieran Gibbs (calf) and Aaron Ramsey (thigh). Abou Diaby (knee) and Yaya Sanogo (back) are probably being used as lab specimen for some experiments in a lair in Transylvania. The Ox recently returned to full fitness and he would be in contention for a starting berth.
The Gunners will arrive in West Midlands in bullish form, bearing in mind that they always get favorable results in Villa Park. Aston Villa’s cause isn’t helped with the fact that they’re in a poor run of form, while their opponents are finding their feet after a stuttering end to 2013.
I expect the lineups to look like this,
With a place at the summit up for grabs, the Gunners will have to utilize the opportunity in front of them. Chelsea won away, Manchester City won away…the Gunners have to win away as well.
Sayonara.
You can download the Gooner Daily BlackBerry App to receive notifications on your Smart Phone when a post is published.
You can follow Gooner Daily on Twitter @goonerdaily. I’ll follow back
Feel free to visit Gooner Daily’s Facebook page and click on the like button.
You can also join Gooner Daily’s Mailing List to get notifications of new posts by email by clicking on the Follow button