Arsenal - Fans and Rivals Enter Here!

[juaninho]

Fury at Highbury.

Should be dubbing today's contest this. Can't predict outcome, so i won't. Hope for an entertaining match, though one in which both Neville's play to remind the rest of the world how crap they are. Getting tired of Ferguson, though i suspect he may be getting tired of himself. Still fail to understand how he is construed as a 'master of psychology'. WTF? Does he have a BA, MA, MPhil, PhD, and a Post-Doc in psychology?

Hope the Highbury crowd is a lively one.

[Gordon]

Well a Man U victory puts the sounds the knell on any linger hopes of challenging Chelsea. It seems as if Man U and Fergie have gotten inside of the boys heads. Also seems as if the gap between the seasoned guys and the youngsters is a problem. Lauren - Toure - Campbell - Cole is as good a backline as you get but their replacements leave something to be desired - although in fairness, all but Cygan are going to be real good in the near future.

[juaninho]

quote:Originally posted by Gordon

Well a Man U victory puts the sounds the knell on any linger hopes of challenging Chelsea.

I don't understand why people are saying this. Only two points separate Man U and Arsenal. Say this weekend Man U were to happen to lose and Arsenal win, then again Arsenal ahead by 1 point. Does the death knell sound for Man U then?

Still 13 games left, anything can happen. No need to sound any knell, death or otherwise.

[Gordon]

quote:Originally posted by juaninho

I don't understand why people are saying this. Only two points separate Man U and Arsenal. Say this weekend Man U were to happen to lose and Arsenal win, then again Arsenal ahead by 1 point. Does the death knell sound for Man U then?

Still 13 games left, anything can happen. No need to sound any knell, death or otherwise.

Practically speaking, Chelsea would have to collapse in order for Manu U to have any hope. Same for Arsenal. While mathematically there is still a chance, and stranger things have happened, I can't see either Manu U or the Gunners catching Chelsea. At the start of the year when Chelsea were winiing by only one goal, I thought they were vulnerable to losing more points than Arsenal. However, they have kept the Defence stingy, started scoring in bunches and have quality depth. I just can't see them dropping th ekind of points that Arsenal and Man U need, especially as both are a little dodgey to take all the points available to them as well.

I'd say Arsenal needs to focus on the FA cup and Champs League if they want to win anything this year. I'll take the CL and a double digit thrashing in the Prem Table any day .

[frostman]

What the heck is a knell?

Seems unlikely to catch Chelski. It sucks......I hate it....but, it's almost fact. (that really hurts to say) Chelsea was loaded front to back, built from a defensive core, that slowly edged into a more and more aggressive attack. I really respect the deep scoring too. It seems anyone on the team can pot one when they really need one!

From a Gunners fan perspective, know that the prem standings are almost spoken for, maybe the expectations will fade, and we'll see a revival in the free flowing form of last year! Everyone knows that if the Cole/Pires or Ljungberg/Anyone movement up the flanks get going again we're in for some fun. It seemed the other day that Bergkhamp and Henry started getting some magic back too! I think they can pour some extra energy into CL, and just try new things in the Prem for the rest of this year.

[beachesl]

Arsenal opt for total foreign legion

February 14, 2005

LONDON (AFP) - Arsenal fielded their first entirely overseas squad in their 119-year history with no British players on the field or even the bench for the Premier League match against London rivals Crystal Palace at Highbury.

With Ashley Cole out through illness and fellow England defender Sol Campbell injured, not even Justin Hoyte, who was also sidelined, featured on the substitutes' bench.

Of the other English players at the Premiership champions, Jermaine Pennant is on loan at Birmingham, while Ryan Smith is still a teenage prospect and Stuart Taylor is the third-choice goalkeeper.

That left their 16-man squad featuring six Frenchmen, three Spaniards, two Dutchmen, one Cameroon international, one German, one Ivory Coast international, one Brazilian and one Swiss national.

Even when Chelsea fielded the first overseas line-up in English football on Boxing Day 1999, there were four British players on the bench - Jody Morris, Jon Harley, John Terry and Mark Nicholls.

[frostman]

Yeah, I know. I really wish they'd remedy that. Cole and Campbell are great, but I wish they had a few more Limeys on the side. It would really be nice to see someone from the National team join Arsenal, but who? I think Wenger likes picking up foriegn talent, which is often very skilled, and a bit of an unknown in England. I love his picks, and really respect his decisions, but I'd still like to see a replacement for Arsenal stalwarts like Ray Parlour, or Ian Wright.

Is it a London thing? You'd think the London based clubs would wish to assemble a field of English heros. Do you think the cosmopolitan nature of London requires cosmopolitan teams?

[frostman]

Actually, here is an article to answer my own rhetoricals.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=325138&cc=5901

[beachesl]

CHERYL: I'M SO IN LOVE WITH ASHLEY COLE

Feb 21 2005

CHERYL'S PREMIER ROMANCE

By Eva Simpson

IT MUST be hard not to seem smug when there's a £50,000-a-week England footballer scattering rose petals on your bed.

Not to mention pouring you champagne and preparing your scented, candlelit bath...

But for Cheryl Tweedy, the extravagantly romantic Valentine's Day gesture by boyfriend Ashley Cole was a reason to take stock of her life and recognise how much it has changed in 18 months.

Then, the Girls Aloud beauty was at rock-bottom after being found guilty of attacking a toilet attendant in a nightclub. Her career hung in the balance and she had no boyfriend to share the pain.

Today she has put the conviction behind her, Girls Aloud is the UK's top girl band and she is blissfully in love.

Life, says the 21-year-old, could not be any better.

"I've never been this happy," she smiles, as she toys with a £10,000 diamond-encrusted necklace Ashley bought her for Christmas.

"The past year has been the best ever for me. I feel like I've got a fairy godmother watching over me."

She certainly waved her wand five months ago when the singer met the 24-year-old Arsenal defender at a London nightclub. The pair live in the same gated apartment complex in North London, but had never bumped into each other until then.

Now they are inseparable. Cheryl breaks into a huge smile at the mention of his name.

"Ashley's my first proper boyfriend in two years, but I've never been in a relationship like this where I've been treated like a princess," she says.

"Maybe it's because I was much younger before, but it's more likely that I kept picking idiot boyfriends. Valentine's Day was beautiful. Ashley ran me a lovely bath with loads of bubbles and candles and rose petals everywhere. He bought champagne and chocolates. It was really magical and he wrote the most gorgeous words in my card."

Despite having a February 14 she will never forget, Cheryl has a confession to make.

She says it was her fault the Gunners ace missed Arsenal's game against Crystal Palace that day when manager Arsene Wenger fielded a complete team of foreign players.

"Ashley was really ill with this bad chest infection which I think he caught off me, bless him," she says. "It was a bit of a downer for him, but it meant I had the most romantic day of my life."

She says it is going so well with her new man that she keeps having to pinch herself.

"This is all so new to me. I keep thinking that there must be something wrong with him," she says. "I know I shouldn't think like that, but I just can't help it."

The only blip happened last month when Ashley went to a birthday party for team-mate Jermaine Pennant.

Sources claimed the star was spotted sneaking out of a nightclub with two blondes. But Cheryl, from Newcastle upon Tyne, didn't lose any sleep over the stories.

"I totally trust Ashley," she insists. "It doesn't bother me when I see pictures of him coming out of clubs with girls trying to throw themselves on him because I know he's not interested in them.

"I've had so many bad relationships. I'm not daft. I'd be able to sense it if there was something wrong. The moment I start believing the rumours and stop believing him, that's the time I'd have to end it. The most important thing is trust and honesty."

She adds: "People will always have an opinion about our relationship. It's like when I heard about Charles and Camilla getting married. It's a weird one, because I really loved Diana.But I mean, if he's happy and he loves her then so be it. Ashley and I are not about to get married, but he makes me happy." In 2003 it was a very different story. The pop dream Cheryl had worked so hard to achieve threatened to become a nightmare when she was found guilty of attacking toilet attendant Sophie Ammogbokpa in a Guildford, Surrey, nightclub.CHERYL, it was alleged, lashed out at her over an argument over a lollipop.

The attendant was left with broken glasses and a badly swollen eye. It was alleged the singer screamed: "You f***ing black bitch." Her behaviour was described by the judge at Kingston crown court as an "unpleasant piece of drunken violence".

While she was cleared of a racism charge, her conviction for actual bodily harm meant she was sentenced to 120 hours of community service and ordered to pay £3,000 costs and £500 compensation.

Afterwards she said: "The worst thing for me was to be labelled a racist. Anyone who knows me knows that's so far from the truth I find it insulting. The only thing worse is to be called a prostitute."

These days she is philosophical about the incident, saying: "I'm a human being at the end of the day and everyone makes mistakes. I don't give a damn what people think. I know the truth and I'd still rather be making mistakes and learning from them than trying to be perfect all the time."

Perfection may not have been her aim, but stardom was. The second youngest of five children, Cheryl always wanted to be an entertainer.

Before being picked to be in the band she was signed to Nikki Chapman's management company Brilliant - now part of Simon Fuller's entertainment powerhouse 19. She did end-less auditions and showcases and almost got a recording con-tract, but the deal never came off.

"I used to enter loads of dance competitions," she says. "I got into the Royal Ballet's White Lodge academy and I wrote loads of songs. My dad used to say: 'You need to get your head out of the clouds.' I was always borrowing money from him and saying I'd pay him back when I was rich and famous.

"The first time I went home after getting in the band my family threw me a surprise party. My dad said: 'I told her to go to college and have something to fall back on and she said I would be eating humble pie when she got on Top Of The Pops and I have to say I'm eating a big slice of it now.'"

Cheryl is still proving him wrong. Today sees the release of the band's eighth single. Earlier this month they narrowly missed out on a Brit Award for Best Pop Act.

"I would absolutely love to have won a Brit," says a disappointed Cheryl. "It would have put the icing on the cake for us.

"I hate all that false clapping that you have to do when you don't win, but I was happy for McFly to win it."

T HE band - formed on ITV1 show Popstars: The Rivals in late 2002 - are one of the few manufactured bands still going strong.

Even their manager Louis Walsh once dismissed them as "mere competition winners".

But while Hear'Say, One True Voice and solo singers Alistair Griffin and Michelle McManus have fallen into pop oblivion Cheryl and bandmates Sarah Harding, Kimberly Walsh, Nicola Roberts and Nadine Coyne are busy and gearing up for their first UK tour.

Cheryl puts part of their success down to their wide appeal. "We appeal to younger girls because we're fun-loving and they can copy our dances," she says. "Students can identify with us as normal lasses falling out of nightclubs or getting p****d and making mistakes."

She finds it hard to believe everything is going so well.

"Sometimes I yearn to wake up and be in my mum's house and see my little dogs," she says. But then I remind myself that I'm doing what thousands of young girls dream of doing.

"Life's so good, at the back of my mind I'm waiting for everything to come crashing down."

It's impossible to imagine that happening any time soon.

Girls Aloud's new single Wake Me Up is out today. Their album What Will The Neighbours Say? is also in the shops.

TOMORROW: WHY BANDMATE SARAH CAN'T FIND A MAN

mirrorcheryl

-----

Agent: "Cheryl, babe, the onla way i kin get yer career back on the rails is if you do something very visible to show you aint a rascist".

Cheryl: "oooooooooooh, like, any ideas?"

Agent: "Howzabaout finding a celebrity black boyfriend."

Cheryl: "ooooh, what about a rap star like (giggle, giggle)"

Agent: "nah, too troublesome, I waz thinking more like a black footballah."

Cheryl: "Like, I heartd that Dwight Yorke has a huge..."

Agent: "nah, even more troublesome, I waz thinking more of a freshah face, more of a genl'man like. I'll give a dingle to some of me fellow agens en see who we can arrange a meetin in a disco wit."

Cheryl: "ooooh, like, sounds like fun like(giggle, giggle)"

[youllneverwalkalone]

So what now? My affinity for former greats in decay make me want to help. Here's my advice: You guys need more Spaniards! They're very durable and they absolutely love the sideways rain of England.

It's true that French guys take their mittens off by March, but hey, fools rush in. Best to wait till April like my man Luis.

[shaku_bert]

phew!!! mighty saints steal another point off the arse!!. The 4 points you've dropped against us must be considered thrown away by you.

Arsenal are a strange team for me to watch. On the one hand, I marvel at the flowing attacking football they play. Vierra is fantastic in the middle. Cole was good going forward. On the other hand, they seem easy to dislike. Ljunberg goes to ground WAY too easy. And what was Cole complaining about on the offside goal. He was 2 yards offside! At least Arsene didn't have a problem with the Van Persie red. Did you see how mad he was at Van Persie?

All in all, I have to admit that Arsenal outclassed saints everywhere on the field. Eexcept in net. You really need to find a decent keeper.

[bettermirror]

i think vieira is one of the absolutely most overrated players on the planet. he trots around, chinces out of tackles, bitches and moans, he is a captain of a team of cheaters who get more red cards than any other club, and he rarely produces if he even plays in the big big games. i personally think vieira is useless and is only considered amazing because of what zidane did for france to win the big cups.

[Gordon]

quote:Originally posted by bettermirror

i think vieira is one of the absolutely most overrated players on the planet...i personally think vieira is useless and is only considered amazing because of what zidane did for france to win the big cups.

Everyone who is anyone in big time soccer disagrees with you on this. He may not be your cup of tea bettermirror, fair play to that, but he is a EPL player of the year and coveted by pretty much everyone. I tend to think that most of them can see past Zidane's coattails.

Don't like the yapping though.

[Gordon]

Reputation = double jepordy. So Bergkamp gets a red because the ref screws up and thinks it was him that gobsmacked the Sheffield United Player, the FA uphold that poor decision, but deems to punish the real culprit - on Senor Reyes - as well. Think that would have happened if it was Rudd and Wayne?

[frostman]

Yeah Vieira pipes up a bit now and then, but give me a break! He is a cork in the misfield! Pretty much anywhere inside ten yards in from either side, and he'll break up your play. I agree that anyone in football, that knows even a little, disagrees with a knock at Vieira. The whole Arsenal side is built around him, and for the last six years have had a stunning success story in a variety of top flight competitions!

Ljungberg goes to ground too easily!?!? The guy is a little bag of nuts and bolts! I know its always easy to make winners the villians, but of all the people to pick on at Highbury you pick Ljungberg? He never mouths off, never dives, rarely is involved in the theatrics of the other Gunner's, and always works his butt off! How can you pick on him! I'd rather go at Henry for pullin his damn socks up so high, or wearing those cute little white gloves.