Editorial   

08:12:22 AM by geraldine choo
Arsenal claimed the Premiership title after drawing with rivals Spurs at White Hart Lane. Arsenal has won the title without any serious blip - a remarkable feat. They are still unbeaten after 34 games and have clinched the title with 4 remaining games to be played.

Thirty-three years ago Arsenal also won the title at White Hart Lane, although in 1971 they had to wait until the 88th minute before Ray Kennedy popped up to head the winner for Bertie Mee's side.

Arsenal has now won three Premiership titles in the last seven years.

I wish to take the opportunity here to extend my heartiest congratulations to the Arsenal Football Club on a job well done!!!!

08:10:48 AM by geraldine choo
In the space of four days Arsenal have exited two cup competitions and seen their lead in the Premiership cut to only four points by Chelsea.

After crashing out of the Champions League to Chelsea on Tuesday, it's possible that Arsenal will win nothing this season.

Arsenal plays fourth-place Liverpool at Highbury on Good Friday and face another tough encounter against Newcastle (away) 48 hours later.

The writings were on the wall already, when Arsene Wenger decided to field a weaken team for the important FA Cup semi-final match against Manchester United, as the morale must have dipped to a time low with the defeat.

Let's hope that Arsene Wenger will concentrate on putting out the best team to win matches, instead of engaging in meaningless mind games by tinkering with an already 'Great' Arsenal Team. It has cost us dearly so far this season but we are still leading the premiership table. It is not so much about whether Arsenal can win the title, but are we going to see another bout of needless tinkering with the team to conjure another disastrous sequence, to gift the title to the opponents.

07:09:53 AM by geraldine choo
Spanish starlet Jose Reyes suffered Carling Cup heartache as his own goal cemented Middlesbrough's passage to Cardiff against 10-man Arsenal.

He showed plenty of early pace but lacks the polish in front of goal. His left foot strikes lacks strength and composure, except when conceding a late own goal to gift the tie to Middlesbrough.

Arsene Wenger has still plenty of work to do to transform Reyes into a formidable striker. At the present moment he looks to be an expensive indulgence by Arsene Wenger, if the purpose of his acquisition is to make up for the current lack of fire power up-front.

Let's hope his performance improves as he gets more matches under his belt.

2:21 AM by geraldine choo
It was recently reportedly that -

Quote:
Arsenal could let top earners like Patrick Vieira and Robert Pires leave Highbury if they do not "get real" and lower their wage demands, according to chairman Peter Hill-Wood.

The Gunners are committed to their switch to a new £300million state-of-the-art stadium in Ashburton Grove, which Hill-Wood says has hit Arsene Wenger's transfer budget.

The Frenchman will have only around £10million available this summer, which could yet see him trying to attract new players and entice current staff to stay on with the north London club who are on course to repeat last season's League and Cup double.
Unquote.

I hope the above is a misquote of the Chairman because if he thinks fans are just going to blindly support Arsenal for the sake of a state-of-the-art stadium then he had better think again. Otherwise Arsenal will end up at the footballing wayside whilst other teams benefit from a weaken Arsenal. Too often decisions taken by non-footballing chairmen are killing the game as they are motivated by potential commercial gain and that have led clubs to be represented by mediocre players. Priorities should be towards maintaining a strong Arsenal team, with strong potential in Europe, instead of commiting huge budgets towards building fanciful stadium. What is the purpose of building a fanciful stadium if there are no paying fans to watch a mediocre team play.

It is time to get your priorites in place Chairman!!!!!!!

Posted 3:44 PM by geraldine choo
David Seaman's blunder gave Chelsea the lead, Patrick Vieira was controversally sent off and Arsenal came back to claim a 1-1 draw in an ill-tempered encounter at Stamford Bridge to extend their unbeaten run to 25 matches - just another day at the office for Arsene Wenger's double winners.

Vieira, seeing his eighth red card in Arsenal colours, left his team with 10 men and minus their captain just five minutes into the second half when his 'lunge' at Jesper Gronkjaer was declared worthy of a second yellow by referee Andy D'Urso.

His first had been for an innocuous foul on Gianfranco Zola 34 minutes into the match. And from the resultant free-kick, Zola chipped in a 40 yards cross intending to find a scoring head inside the crowded Arsenal penalty area. Instead Eidur Gudjohnsen and William Gallas both flung themselves forward and missed it - and, sadly for Arsenal, so did Seaman who had to suffer a repeat of his World Cup willies as the ball bounced almost apologetically beyond his belated, unsighted dive.

For Seaman, 39 later this month, it was yet another of those moments of horror that have occasionally spotted his distinguished career. And his rueful expression when the teams left the field at the interval said it all. He knew he had fluffed again.

And yet with Arsenal it is never a lost cause - although when Vieira went off five minutes after the break it certainly looked that way this time.

Chelsea must already have been congratulating themselves on the brilliant prospect of ending their London rivals' unbeaten run - now 21 away games without defeat - as well as Arsenal's seven-year dominance at Stamford Bridge where they have not lost a Premiership match since September 1995.

But just before the hour Arsenal proved once again that 10 men can work just as hard and as well as 11 - and they had a new name to put on the scoresheet.

Kolo Toure, Wenger's 21-year-old signing from the Ivory Coast, who had replaced limping Brazilian Edu just three minutes before Chelsea's freak goal, started and finished the equaliser in only his third appearance as a substitute.

He ran strongly at the Chelsea defence, laid the ball off wide for Ashley Cole and continued his run into the six-yard box. It paid off handsomely when Cole's cross was volleyed by Sylvain Wiltord and Carlo Cudicini could only palm it out - straight onto Toure's head and the rest was easy.

Poor refereeing, the enigma at the 2002 World Cup Finals, seems to be spreading itself to the Premiership. Referees should adopt a more sensible approach to their flouting of yellows cards. By dishing out the cards needlessly at the start, this often transform the game into ill tempered matches when harsher tackles goes unpunished. Referees should distinguish between what are professional fouls and what are genuine attempts at tackling for the ball. Let's stop the rot and prevent poor refereeing from destroying the beautiful game.

Posted 1:09 AM by geraldine choo
Normal service was resumed yesterday as Arsenal powered their way past West Bromwich Albion back to the top of the Premiership, on Tuesday evening.

With the Gunners' rich array of attacking talent, they managed to race to a 3 - 0 lead before half-time. Their performance was awesome in the first half and restricted the visitors to mere passengers on the playing field.

However, the second half saw both teams emerging and brandishing different playing styles. The visitor showed their determination to make a go at turning the result. Whereas, the Gunners, started playing the second half looking like a team that is completely out of its depth. Some of the errors they committed were almost comical, to say the least. Martin Keown was lucky to remain on the playing field after committing what was obviously a professional foul.

The newly-promoted side managed to expose some worrying flaws in the Arsenal defence as they struck twice themselves in the second half. Against a stronger side, the Gunners may not be that lucky. Arsene Wenger has plenty of work to do in ensuring that the players give their 100% for the full 90 minutes of the game. Over-confidence at this level could be their worse enemies.

Posted 3:50 AM by geraldine choo
Arsenal's good start to the new season met with a slight hiccup, drawing with West Ham in the first away game of the new season. The Gunners showed tremendous fighting spirit in coming from a 2-goals deficit to manage a draw in the dying minutes of the game. The way Arsenal was playing at the close, we could easily have gotten away with more than a draw.

With Ljungberg and Pires still to return from their injuries, the Gunners are once again proving to be a force to be reckoned with in the 2002/03 Premiership season. If Arsenal continues to put up such resolute and resilient displays, we are sure to be in for an exciting and fruitful season.

Well done boys! Keep up the good work.

Posted 3:38 AM by geraldine choo
The Gunners kick-off their pre-season preparations at Broadhall Way with the game against a Stevenage side past and present, with former Stevenage boss Paul Fairclough aiming to enlist some of the players he guided to the Conference title in 1996, and to FA Cup successes against Cambridge, Leyton Orient and Swindon, on a Wednesday night, kick-off 8pm.

Arsene Wenger has promised Fairclough a strong team to line-up against his old club on July 17 for his testimonial.

Stevenage fans are hoping that France's shock first-round exit from the tournament means that The Gunners will field the likes of Premiership golden boot winner Thierry Henry, as well as international team-mates Patrick Vieira and Sylvain Wiltord.

The French trio will have reported back for training a week before the match, along with such players as Edu, Matt Upson and Richard Wright.

Robert Pires, Gio van Bronckhorst, Kanu and Freddie Ljungberg are all injury doubts for the new season, with the first two of those definitely out until later in the year.

Fairclough, who is hoping for a bumper crowd to swell the ticket sales, left Boro in February after a second spell at the club. He said: "Arsene has promised they'll bring a strong side and they'll be showing off the Premiership trophy and the FA Cup. So Gunners fans can get a look at both ahead of their first home game at Highbury."

The St Albans-based former teacher led Stevenage from the lower reaches of the Isthmian League to become one of the leading contenders for a place in the Football League.

Posted 7:05 AM by geraldine choo
Tony Adams' testimonial between English double winners Arsenal and Scottish champions Celtic - the unofficial Battle of Britain - ended all square.

In an entertaining game, Celtic's Alan Thompson smacked home a 20-yard free-kick in the 37th minute to give the Scots a deserved 1-0 lead. And Gunners veteran Lee Dixon stole Adams' thunder in the 68th minute - equalising with a very rare goal, a firm header from Nigel Winterburn's cross.

Arsenal's England stars David Seaman, Martin Keown, Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell were forced to miss the match as they were on the national team's flight to the World Cup training camp in Dubai.

But the sell-out 38,021 Highbury crowd did not complain, as their veteran replacements - West Ham's Nigel Winterburn and retired trio Steve Bould, John Lukic and Ian Wright - all received heroes' welcomes.

Adams, 35, has been at Highbury for 19 years and is considering whether to retire this summer. But the likelihood is that Adams has bided his farewell to the Gunners. It is only fitting that he ends his career at the high point - winning the double again. With him goes the last of the old guards as Keown, Dixon, Grimandi are also exiting the club. Whatever he may decide, I am sure all Gunners fan will want to wish him the very best for the future.