International Breaks Should Be Banned + Adebayor Fit

Hey all, just some brief news today and then some Arsenal-biased opinion (as always) to read if you'd like. First off the news. You'll know by now that Adebayor, that tall bloke who thinks he's Henry, the guy that got stretchered off against the Spuds last month, has apparently 'recovered' and is in the Togolese squad to play Saturday.

Now, when I first heard the news he was travelling with them, I thought it odd, but fine as long as he didn't play. After all, the man hasn't even returned for Arsenal yet and now he's supposed to be magically fit for his country? Well yesterday the quote came out that he will be playing Saturday, and I just couldn't believe it. But here's what Arsene Wenger said to ATVO:

''Adebayor has gone away with Togo. Will he play or not? He will have tests.
For us, he was ready to play. Ideally it is good for us and for him to have a game.
''There is no problem. I had a meeting with their manager and we
knew he would be ready for this weekend, whether it was for us or for Togo.''

So apparently Arsenal were planning his return anyway, and this match will be a sort of warm up for Man City the coming weekend. Well, it doesn't matter to me if he plays then, as long as he doesn't get himself injured again.

And that seems to be a common theme of international weeks. It's not as if you haven't heard this rant before in some form, but as Arsene Wenger once said, international teams are like your brother who takes your new Aston Martin out for a drive, brings it back crumpled and wrecked, and then expects you to fix it back up so he can drive it again next time it tickles his fancy

Honestly I don't see the point of a break at this point in the season anyway. Why interrupt the rhythm and energy of the club teams at perhaps the most vital and nerve wracking time of the season (as it draws to a close) just so you can play a couple of meaningless qualifying matches, or worse, the odd friendly? They have no huge relevance to whether a national team will win any honours, they won't dramatically increase your FIFA World Ranking (which seems to matter to national organisations for some reason) and all it will do is disrupt the players' mentality.

When they return they won't be more rested. I fear our players will instead have broken their concentration, broken the rhythm that we had built up over the past few months, and will not be focused on and as fit as they need to be to challenge for the major honours that we are still in the running for. And that's if they come back at all, presuming of course they're not injured whilst playing for their beloved national sides.

So here's my idea. Why don't we get rid of the needless international friendlies and shorten World Cup qualification to the summer months only? Instead of entering all these ridiculous tournaments alongside the World Cup (such as the EUROs, the Copa America, and so forth) let's make the major tournaments of the summer World Cup qualification. I mean, I love the World Cup, I think it's a brilliant tournament steeped in tradition. But can't we do without the long, drawn out, and quite unnecessary multi-year qualification process? I think we can.

Let's rid ourselves of all international competitions besides the World Cup, including the much-hated African Nations' Cup, and stick to World Cup qualification. No more international breaks and no more interrupting club teams during their season. Because after all, club football is so much more entertaining than international football. I'd pick watching Arsenal over England any day. There is simply no comparison. And even my adopted Spanish national team (adopted because they play some good football) would take the backseat to Arsenal. Wouldn't it for you?

Don't forget, you can get all the Fab 4 Arsenal news and views sent direct to your mobile phone for free, please Click Here for details on how to try out this great service! And also, watch this space in the coming weeks for details of our new program where you the reader can become an active participant in the running of this blog. Until next time, try not to kill yourself whilst waiting for the national teams to be done murdering our players, because then we can get back to real football.

Fab 4

Villarreal Not to be Underestimated

This is an article from our guest writer Chris Rivers, a sports writer.

Villarreal not to be Underestimated but Definitely Not Favourites for Quarter-Final Clash

Last Friday Arsenal discovered their path back to Rome and while we weren’t as lucky as Manchester United to draw Porto, the Gunners were given the runners-up prize of Villarreal. It is an old cliché but at this stage of the Champions League there are no easy teams left. However, I think everyone is as happy as you can be with drawing the Yellow Submarine of Spanish football.

Having had a bit of time to sink in though people seem to be coming to the conclusion that Villarreal are the favourites to win. This comes despite English football being stronger than Spanish football at this point in time and the second leg being held at the Emirates Stadium. I by no means see Arsenal as underdogs going into this tie and in fact would be shocked if they didn’t go through to the semi-final.

Under Manuel Pellegrini, Villarreal have enjoyed a sustained period of prominence in La Liga, always qualifying for either the Uefa Cup or Champions League and last season finished runners up to Real Madrid in La Liga, ahead of Barcelona. As Arsenal know from personal experience, Villarreal are no pushovers and Manchester United will also testify they are a tough nut to crack after their two goalless draws against them in this season's competition.

However, working in the industry that I do, I have been fortunate enough to see Villarreal a couple of times this season in Primera Liga action and have to say I haven’t been that impressed. Most recently I saw them throw away a two goal lead at Atletico Madrid to lose 3-2 in a game which could have been a lot worse for them if it wasn’t for their goalkeeper, Diego Lopez. Their defence, which is usually the strongest element of Villarreal, looked non-existent as Atletico managed to have 32 shots on goal according to the stats, 14 of which were on target.

A look through their squad shouldn’t frighten Arsene Wenger’s side either because whilst the likes of Marcos Senna, Santi Cazola and Giuseppe Rossi are good players, they don’t have many players of that quality to cause the Gunners too many problems. Arsenal should have the stronger squad by then with Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott and Emmanuel Adebayor hopefully all back to full fitness for at least the second leg.

The ties will be a couple of difficult games and I don’t expect there to be too many goals between the two sides come the end, although I do expect Arsenal to come out on top. The Gunners should take plenty of confidence into the tie and try to ignore the rubbish being written that they are underdogs over the two-legs, instead focusing on setting up a dream semi-final with Manchester United.

More articles like this will appear in the coming months and we sincerely hope you'll enjoy them alongside the usual posts from Fab 4. And starting in the next few weeks we'll be inviting you to join in as well and have your pieces published here on Fab 4 Arsenal. Thanks for the visit!

Slowly But Surely, We're Turning It Around...

Great win over Newcastle today and all I can say is well done lads; you've done us proud. The game wasn't an easy one, and we started the game playing very nervously; in fact the entire first half looked nervous. But then through Bendtner we got the goal that mattered, and when Newcastle scored back all it did was fire us up even more. And shortly we were 3-1 ahead and then killed off the game by keeping Newcastle chasing after the ball.

That's how to win a game. Sure, we probably should have scored earlier, and we definitely should not have let the Toons score 45 seconds after we had done, but their response after that was fantastic. The game could easily have been 5 or 6-1. And when we got the two goal advantage the team did what we've been wanting them to do all season long: when we have the lead, stroke the ball around and frustrate the other team, thus killing off the match.

We're now three points and some goal difference ahead of Aston Villa, and with them facing Liverpool tomorrow while in a terrible run of form I can't see that changing too much before the international break. So over the last two weeks our season has turned from a miserable one to a fantastic-looking one, and surely it can only get better from here.

First was the win in the Premiership over West Brom, a comfortable 3-1 win. Then a 3-0 win over Burnley where even Eboue scored. After that a fantastic penalty shootout victory against Roma really, I believe, gave the team the confidence and tenacity to push forward from there. A 4-0 thumping of Blackburn including two, yes two goals from Eboue, more than he's ever scored in one match alone in his career. Then the win against Hull (Gallas's goal was not offside if you look at the replay) and now a fantastic victory against Newcastle.

So in the last two weeks we have scored 13 goals and conceded 2. All the while taking over fourth spot in the league and progressing to the next round of both the F.A. Cup and Champions League. Add to this that Fabregas, Adebayor, and maybe even Rosicky will be back in the next few weeks, and even Theo Walcott (who was of course injured yesterday) will only be out for 10-12 days (meaning a return against Man City after the break).

With all these ingredients, including our great form, players returning, and our rivals starting to falter (just look at Man Utd today), there is no way any gooner should be anything but optimistic about the rest of the season. I believe we will finish in the top four, and we will win either the F.A. Cup or Champions League (hey, why not both?) this season. The old saying goes, "it's not how you start a season, it's how you finish." That was our problem last year, and this year it may well be our saving grace.

Don't forget, you can get all the Fab 4 Arsenal news and views sent direct to your mobile phone for free, please Click Here for details on how to try out this great service! Until next time, try not to hate life too much during the international break and let's hope our players get through it unscathed.

Fab 4

Eduardo Holds the Key to Our Style

An interesting thought struck me as I was watching the lads demolish Burnley on Saturday (great match that). Right after Eduardo scored our goal of the season I realised just what this man brings to the team. And then, looking back on the last year, I realised that Eduardo doesn't just bring classy finishing, but he also holds the key to our passing style of play.

Now wait just one minute you may be saying, what about Cesc Fabregas, "Fab 4"? Isn't he the glue that keeps this team playing well? Isn't he the one who always comes up with the perfect pass, the pass with vision that cuts teams apart? Well, in answer to the last two questions, yes. But I don't think he is the one who holds this team together, and judging by this, if he ever did leave us for Barcelona, I think we would survive.

Before I get pelted by hate mail and called a scandalous writer, let me explain what I mean. Look at the space of time from December 2007 up till now. In December '07 into February '08 we were on top of the world. Leading the Premier League and scoring goals for fun, we looked sure to win a trophy. But then on that fateful day at St. Andrews it all went horribly wrong. Eduardo was literally assaulted on the pitch and was ruled out for at least a year (if not his entire career as originally feared).

After that we began to fade away and the title slipped from our grip. Our flowing football slowly evaporated, and not only did we end last season badly, we started this in terrible fashion. And in fact by February of this year many gooners, including myself, felt that our style of play and ability to get results had so diminished that we were nothing anymore.

But then against Cardiff City, for 90 amazing minutes we were treated to a return to the Arsenal of old. It was nostalgic and emotional, and it very coincidentally (or perhaps not as we'll see in a minute) happened to coincide with Eduardo's return. He scored two goals that night but was injured for two weeks. Those two weeks saw another dip in form back to how we were playing before, and not even the win against Roma was quite as magical as Cardiff.

And then Saturday Eduardo returned again, the style returned again, and Eduardo again scored, making it 3 goals in 2 games he's played for us this season. We dominated the game, and no disrespect to Burnley, they played well, but we made them look pathetic: just like we used to do against Premier League opposition before Eduardo's injury.

Now I'm not sure if it's Eduardo's style of play or just his aura, but something happens when he plays for us: we win with style. So perhaps one way or another, Eduardo is the key to our passing style, the style we are so renowned for but have recently been unable to produce. And maybe a return to this style will signify great things for us this season, including a return to our form of old.

Remember, we're still in the running for the F.A. Cup and the Champions League, and even fourth place in the Premier League. And maybe with Eduardo back and the team playing with panache once again, we can win something this season. Let's start with Roma. Until then, don't forget, you can get all the Fab 4 Arsenal news and views sent direct to your mobile phone for free, please Click Here for details on how to try out this great service!

Fab 4

Has Our Season Turned Around? Burnley Preview

After the win at the Hawthorns on Tuesday night you must wonder if it was a turning point in our season. We finally laid to rest the record of four consecutive 0-0 draws, got three points, and three goals to boot. And whilst some are skeptical, most gooners seem to believe this could be a turning point in our season.

If this is indeed a turning point, I don't think it is so much because of our successes, but rather Aston Villa's failures. From missing out on creating a possible eight-point gap between us and them, the gap is now down to three. Now just one slip up by Aston Villa, and if we win, we're tied with them again.

Just as I and many others predicted that Aston Villa would eventually hit a really bad patch, it seems they have. It has seemingly always been the case that in the last 10 games of a season, a thin squad tends to collapse - just look at us last season. And since Aston Villa have played almost the same starting eleven nearly every game this season, their players are starting to get fatigued and tired. Now it's our turn to pounce.

But before we do so, there is the small matter of the F.A. Cup this weekend. Tomorrow we will face Burnley in the Round of 16 (we're a week behind remember) with Hull City the prise that awaits in the quarterfinals. If we can defeat Burnley, and to be honest I don't see why we can't, then we'll get a further boost to our confidence and maybe that will carry over to Roma on Wednesday where we will look to finish them off in Rome.

Obviously the exciting part about tomorrow night is that both Eduardo and Walcott are back. I'm doubting whether Dudu will play, but I'm quite sure Walcott will. This is the perfect game in which top make his return: weaker opponents, a softer team (that is, not as rough), and a match in front of the Emirates crowd. I know he'll be rusty, but I'm really hoping it won't take long for him to adjust to playing again and be the same stunning Walcott he was before his injury. If he does return, I have a feeling that he will be a major force in a serious turnaround in our season. Here's hoping for the best.

Don't forget, you can get all the Fab 4 Arsenal news and views sent direct to your mobile phone for free, please Click Here for details on how to try out this great service! Until next time,
Fab 4