Manchester City Vs Arsenal Preview | City Vs Gunners Preview | Man City Vs Arsenal Line Up

Manchester City vs Arsenal, the match that gonna define the Arsenal season. City sitting in the 2nd spot with 17 points and Arsenal a place behind them with 14 points so a win can push the gunners to the 2nd spot and a defeat can down them to 7th this explains the criticality of this away fixture for Arsenal. But traveling to city and getting 3 points is a tough nut to crack, even the leaders Chelsea have gone there and came empty handed.
Differences of Manchester City and Arsenal:For me these are two most different clubs in the world. The one who had spend 400 million and the other 40 million on player transfers over the past two years. The one who plays the old school type of football and the other a most attractive football. The who's team chemistry is not so good and the other its the best in few seasons.

The Key Players:Manchester City:

The Key players for obviously would be their captain Carlos Tevez, he is in a tremendous f

orm this year, i see him as one of the contenders for the footballer of the year 2010. The wingers Adam Johnson and David Silva will be a cause of worries for the full backs of Arsenal. Yaya Toure, the players who Arsene should have brought could be the different between the teams.
Arsenal:

Again the obvious key player is the Arsenal captain Fabregas, he ca change the fate of any match he is in. Samir Nasri one of the stars of the season so far. Marouane Chamakh the bosman who is turning to be a key player in the gunners side.Andrei Arshavin even though he is not playing to his best, he is a match winner. Last but not the least Theo Walcott.
Verdit:
My heart say Arsenal but my head says Manchester city.

Fabregas back to his Fabulous Best | Fabregas's 50th goal for Arsenal | Francesc Fabregas Is Back | Fabregas's 50th Arsenal goal vs Braga Video

It was always mater a of matches for Fabregas to get back to his fabulous best. After his injury in the late last season he was a more of a bench warmer in the world cup and his form had hit a new low in the opening couple of matches, but with his commending performance in the last couple of matches he is well and truly back to his fabulous best and full stops all the rubbish regarding his commitment for Arsenal.

In his last night's heroics he also recorded his 50th goal for Arsenal, a tremendous achievement accounting his age into consideration and a self less player like him. Arsene Wenger in his post match conference hailed his star playmaker and expressed that "Fabregas had taken an another dimension". Andding more to it he shared hes pleasure when he saw how Fab choose to play Vela insted him slotting a Hat-Trick. I was always a greate admirer of his self-less play, he always plays everyone in, his captain's arm it also added to this i guess.

Bizarre weekend for Bookies and Predictors | All League results of the week | Premier League Results for the week

This week in Barclays premier league certainly will go down as one of the bizarre weekend for bookies and predictors as we got to seen the exact opposite of what we all thought that would happen. Just run through the all league results of the week...

West Ham United 2-2 Arsenal
Manchester City 2-2 Fulham
Liverpool 2-0 Manchester United
Bolton Wanderers 3-2 Everton
Chelsea 5-0 Blackburn Rovers
Burnley 1-3 Wigan Athletic
Birmingham City 2-1 Sunderland
Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Stoke City
Hull City 0-0 Portsmouth
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 Aston Villa

Of all the 10 results Chelsea's win is predicted rest all are a real surprise. Bookies would have been bank robbed if they had recent results and form as criteria. Starting from Spurs Vs Stoke, who would have bet for Stokes away win, considering Spurs form and dominance in home ties. Burnley, lost their first home match. Manchester city drew 2 2 with Fulham, who a not a great away side. Arsenal drew West Ham away, after leading 2 nill for 2/3 of the match. Boltan conquered Everton in one of the most entertaining match. Sunderland lost to Birmingham after their last week heroics against Liverpool. To some extent Liverpool's 2 nill win against Man u was also a surprise result, where odds where completely tilted in favor of Man U.

I have seen some surprise here and there in the week, But never a week full of surprises like this. This goes on to show how competitive the league is, even competitive than last year. I predict that the champions will be determined in the final day with 2 or more teams in contention.

Arsenal Vs Blackburn Post match review | Arsenal 6 Blackburn 2 | Fabregas’s fabulous show | Watched by Thierry Henry, the future Arsenal Manager ?

Fabregas, is the word I should start for this post match review. He created all the goals until he was out there, making this his best performance statistically on the “d day” for Arsene Wenger. 4 assists and 1 lovely left foot volley and nearly 100% passing, what more you can expect a playmaker to do? And his emotional celebration of kissing the badge was icing on the cake, showed how much he loves the club and how much he is committed to the club. This match marks the land mark for Arsene Wenger who is now the longest serving Arsenal manager. But he didn’t have the perfect start as gunners went a goal down inside 10 minutes and after Vermaelen’s equalizer Blackburn Rovers again went down thro a Gallas deflected goal. But Blackburn was never a match for the quality of gunners as they could only watch Arsenal storming ahead. There was never a question on the quality of Arsenal, we all admire the kind of football gunners play, but today they showed immense character and determination, we have to thank Blackburn’s players for scoring the goals and putting the pressure and bringing the best out of the lads especially from Fab.
Player Ratings
Mannone 5: Made 1 or 2 diving saves. He has all the talent of representing a top premier league team, all he needs some experience, his lack of experience in decision making resulted in 1st goal. A lone spell to a lesser team in premiership will come good for him and the club
Sagna 5: Didn’t cover his ground resulting in a goal, may be not his fault it might be the team tactics of over attacking the full backs making him and Clichy look stupid at times.
Clichy 6: Made few cross here and there, luckily he didn’t have a swift attacking winger to mark.
Gallas 6: Solid, but unlucky to get a touch in Dunn shot that resulted in 2nd goal.
Vermaelen 7: Showed determination to make up for his mistake by scoring a fabulous 30 yard strike and continuing his scoring form for which he should thank Arsene Wenger for giving a free role, not many managers will give a free role to a center back.
Song 5: Lack of determination in defending a counter attack resulting in 2nd goal.
Diaby 7: Even though his passing wasn’t upto gunners mark, he did well in role he played thanks to Wenger for not playing him wide. He made life easy for Fabregas.
Fabregas 10: Brilliant with his killer passes and deft touches as usual. This is his best performance statistically.
Rosicky 7: Played as expected in his first start of the season, he was brilliant with his swinging balls and runs into the box and he also came very close to score.
Arshavin 7: Converted a brilliant ball from Fabregas
Robin van Persie 7: I liked the way he touches past the defender to score, he is doing it quite often these days.
Walcott 7: Scored in his first start of the season
Ramsey : Wasn't out their enough to rate
Bendtner 7: Scored a stunning goal in the dying minutes

Man of the match: Fabregas quite easily

All this watched by Arsenal all time top scorer, Thierry Henry, Who is in the headlines after his comment on returning to Arsenal. And all the football pundit and football tabloids across the country hint him to succeed Arsene Wenger. Which would in fact be great for the club and Arsenal loyal Henry. It was really wonderful to see him laugh with satisfaction and clap to salute the performance of the gunners. I cant see any other to succeed Arsene Wenger.

And the best goal celebration of FIFA World Cup 2010 Goes to...

FIFA has announced that it will award for the best goal celebration of the coming world cup. This news came just one day after Craig Bellamy goal celebration cost Manchester city 2 points (according to officials). I really felt sorry for Man City and Bellamy, that they went on to lose the match, even though they are arch rivals to me the Arsenal fan after that 4 - 2 thrashing, simply because they were brilliant that day, they came back 3 time to equalise and Bellamy was simply outstanding with his cool finishes, hope that Robin Van Persie saw the video and took a cue of how to finish!

So, coming to the goal celebration award, will it be the baby act of Torres or the job done of Gallas or acrobatics of Nani or archery of Guiza or boxing of Tim Cahill or rounding the ears act of Toni or any samba dance (definitely not the Adebayor's celebration) could win the award. I started to believe that players would also practice for goal celebration. But they have to remember not to take their shirt off (which results in yellow card) or celebrating in front of opposite fans (which will result in match bans) and make it short and simple (avoiding Bellamy incident).

What went wrong for Arsenal and my Comparisons | Manchester City 4 Arsenal 2

Yesterday was really a disappointing day for Arsenal and me. Arsenal were thrashed 4 - 2 by the rich boys. So what went wrong not only for Arsenal but also for my comparison.

1. The inclusion of Nigel De Jong, we was completely brilliant yesterday, he used his strength to good use to keep Fabregas quite. If he didn't start, things could have been different.

2. Left Winger of Arsenal - In absence of Arshavin, his replacement Diaby was a completely waste. He failed to test the wing backs which i considered the weakness of Manchester city. I was surprised that he played full 90 min. May be he is a central midfield player thats why he lacked the qualities of a winger, in that case Arsene Wenger could have started with Eduardo he showed in the recent past that he can start in the left side of midfield also.

3. Fragility of starting line up - On the closing 30 min Arsenal players were completely fragile that resulted in 3 goals, were as citizens were full of energy even though the international break was for both the teams.

4. Joleon Lescott - He played as good for his price tag. He blocked every ball inside his penalty area. I thought he would lack confidence after the opener at Goodsion park, but he was exactly the opposite, he was full of confident and won tackles comfortably.

5. Central forward of Arsenal - Robin Van Persie is not a ideal central forward, he lacks strength. But he is the ideal Left Winger, he can do great wonders in the left side of the pitch rather that at the center, remember he was the top assisting player of 2008 - 2009 season. So arsenal definitely need a Strong, Solid Forward, hope Wenger gets some in the January transfer window.

Eventhough its a humiliating defeat for Arsenal, there are few positives. Robin Van Persie scored his first league goal of the season, the only forward to score for Arsenal this season so far. Thomas Rosicky's first goal in his first match in 18 months. And Remember last season after Man City defeat, Arsenal went on to be unbeaten for 19 games. Hope that winning streak continuous this season also.

Manchester City Vs Arsenal | Manchester City Vs Arsenal Preview | 4 3 3 vs 4 3 3 | Arsenal 2008 vs Arsenal 2009

This week end, Arsenal play with against Arsenal 2008 .. er .. Manchester City at City of Manchester Stadium. Both the club's fan will be eager about the out come of the match, as this Manchester City's first quality test and for Gunners its a match against two alums of Arsenal, Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure. It would be interesting to see Gallas marking Adebayor and Toure marking Robin Van Persie. I call this match as4 3 3 vs 4 3 3, both the teams have applied this attacking formation this season and have been successful too, but Arsenal leads in the total goals scored list and Man City have 100% win record. So rather than predicting formations or results as usual, I gonna compare the teams so that you can come to predicting terms.

Goal Keepers - Manuel Almunia Vs Shay Given, Both are very experienced and solid goolees, no one edges out.

Central Defence - William Gallas and Thomas Vermaelen Vs Kolo Toure Vs Joleon Lescott. Gallas and Vermaelen are in their form of their lives scoring goals as well and its vise versa with Toure and Lescott, Lescott especially is totally lacks confidence after the opener against Arsenal.

Wing Backs - Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna Vs Micah Richards and Wayne Bridge. Clichy and Sagna wins hands down, its like competition of the best vs the rest.

Midfield - Fabregas, Denilson, Song VS Barry, Ireland, SWP. This is the victory defining competition. Man to man comparison, Song Vs Barry, Barry wins. Denilson Vs SWP, both are different type of players difficult to compare. Fabregas Vs (Ireland)^2, Fab wins. But if Fab is not playing, Denilson Vs Ireland, where Ireland wins.

Forwards - RVP, Bendtner, Arshavin Vs Adebayor, Tevez, Robinho. Adebayor Vs Bendtner, Ade wins hands down, I'm sure he gonna score against his old club. RVP Vs Robinho, even though Robinho has all the talent he dosent have mental strengths, like determination, consistency and etcs, that's why RVP wins. Arshavin Vs Tevez, there is no comparison, Arshavin wins hands down.

Even though I'm Arsenal biased, most of the football geeks will accept the above, simply for the quality Arsenal posses. Its not about win, points, silverware its all about how you play to win, thats why we follow, love, live Arsenal forever. Money cant buy quality or Wenger, hope that the Rich Arab realises sooner before he gets transfer ban.