ZimGooners

I think I have been one of the people most excited by the emergence of Cesc Fabregas. I remember the first time I saw him, at the age-group championships and I could scarcely believe how good he actually was and I quietly hoped he would come to Arsenal. And he did. But if there ever was a player who deserved to become the next leader of Arsenal this is it. He is a leader in the fashion of the American Football quarterbacks. He directs a midfield through play. Now he is still only 18 so perhaps he is a bit too young to impose himself on players. But this is not only a highly skilled but highly motivated player. A lot of people will talk up Rooney or Messi who both are very very special players but you have to put Fabregas in that category. His leadership qualities in an offensive play are exceptional. Of course it would be helped if Thierry Henry led the line but he is putting in a special effort. The disappointment for me has been Thierry. Now I am a fan of the great man as much as the...

So today they cut off my line. Or maybe they cut it few days ago. Will just let it be for a few days so that I don't use the phone. Will use the other line. This weekend there is a lot of sport to watch. And I am getting worried that I might be turning into a junkie. So will skip some of the sport and watch movies. They are showing the Arsenal match on a channel I can't get vbecauise i am in the wrong country. So do those in another country pay more so they can get the extra channel? Multichoice is really turning into rubbish now. They are taking the aspect of choice away from viewers.

After all the things they put Barca through Chelsea have been beaten by one thing they can't control, football. They allowed a pitch to deteriorate to sub-standard levels, then they don't allow Barcelona to play on the pitch. Which if you have to be perfectly honest was pretty daft given that the likes of Ronaldinho, Messi, Eto'o and Deco honed their footballing skills on pitches worse than the one they gave to the catalans. Man for man, it is no competition on a skill level. While Chelsea can get away with bullying the likes of Colchester and Liverpool they can't do the same with knights of Catalunya. Now I am not a big fan of red cards but if you carry on the way that bloke Del Horno had been last night the ref has to do something to protect the players. People will say the lad looked up and engaged a wee-bit of gamesmanship but let's suppose he had stayed down and let the chelsea left back clatter into him with his knee probably to the ribs. Del Horno had gotten ...

Arsenal went into last night's match on the bakc of a very poor run. I didnt think they could pull it off. I just thought well if they keep it down it one goal in it and get an away goal then they could make a fight of it at Highbury. I mean who wasn't good last night at the Bernabeu in the Arsenal colours. I guess in short if asked to play football there are very few teams that can match the Arsenal including the famous Meringues. Real let's face it were not given a chance to play and how does a team play without a right back? Yes you say Cicinho but how many times did you even see him at the right back position. In fact he was anywhere but at right back. He was floating in, going to the left, up front and you wionder why they can't defend. Look at the ages last night on the pitch Manu Eboue, 22, Kolo Toure, 24, Philippe Senderos, 20, Mathieu Flamini, 21, Aleksandr Hleb, 24, Alexander Song, 18, Abou Diaby, 19, and Fabregas, 18. They said the results in the group stage ...

Sometimes you just wonder where life is going? Anotehr week just went by and how many of us notice anymore. I mean life has no milestones now. You just wake up one day and you realise that it is possible you may be classified as old now. And then you look around and you feel as if you have not done anything that should make you feel our age. Is it just a denial, refusing to accept that one is no longer a youngster that one is old now? I have no idea but either way it sucks.

Last season Arsenal were losing because Gilberto wasn't there. Now they are losing because he is there? Make up your minds. Gilberto's game has not changed since he came, and he played the role he is playing right now that he plays with Brazil and the role that made him such a commodity after the world cup. Gilberto is not a tackler. When he tackles he misses and loses his position and Arsenal are exposed. He is a player who picks his positions very well and that is his strength. What did you expect? That he would suddenly become the enforcer he has never been? Arsenal played a unique style of football because they had a unique midfielder in Vieira. He is a one-off and anyone compared to him is a knock-off. He was a player who could take the ball off a centre back with three players hounding him and find his way out. That is the missing thread in the Arsenal play. So now that they do not have him Arsenal have to learn to play different. Some peopel say the long ball is a plan B...

News of the World(TM) has a story from Patrick Vieira running off at the mouth again about how Thierry might still leave. He says that he had private conversations with the TH14 in which the skipper says he doesnt know. Now if I am having private conversations with someone I dont expect them to sell them on for money. So I would be worried about being friends with Paddy I say. But that is besides the point. I think it is a bit off the way this story is going on and on and I am now ready to have him just say I am leaving, thank you very much. And it is having an effect on the squad. I mean the squad loses direction if they can't feel the skipper isn't on the same page as them and you can see in the play. Before the ball was always aimed in Thierry's direction and he was the focal point of attack and the team benefited that way. But now the team is relying more on the options. This may not be intentional but I think some of the lads have sort of given up on Titi. They are jus...

So you're Theo Walcott, everyone with at least two brain cells reckons you are the next big thing and you're playing for a bunch of impotent larks in the second tier of english football and who are certain to be there in the next season at least. Then in come one of the top four teams in the country and they offer you a contract to come and play with the most exciting striker in the history of the premiership. What do you do? Well if Rupert Lowe had his way then young Theo should have said, sorry mates, I want to stay in this dump for another two years and then give me a call then. Now in another two years Theo might not be so hot and because he plays with odd-jobbers he might be only good enough for that level. But if he goes to a team with greater concentration and expectation, in those two years he could become super-human. Add to that too that Arsenal have been very decent about this. They knew Theo wanted to come over and they still offered Southampton a fee for the boy. A...

As the young man rode challenges and kept the ball the fans started singing Diaby-OOOOH replacing the legend's name with the fast-improving new midfield stalwart. And not only will this kid be strength in the mid he will score more goals than Paddy. I am genuinely excited about this lad after three matches. He has the tenacity, awarenessand guile. And he is 19 which means he can only improve from now on. Arsene Wenger says he is amzed at how quckly he has adapted and most of us share the same sentiments. He is becoming difficult to leave out of the team after so few games and the style that Arsenal like to play seems to be coming back a bit because they have that fight and that drive in mid. Obviously you can't get a new paddy cause he is a one-off but these are promising times for the Arsenal faithful. And as for Adebayor, he adds a bit of guile as well as steel, a stronger, faster kanu so to speak. Interesting weekend and the superbowl was a disappointment. Was Big Ben's...