The day finally arrived. “Test” day. Everyone has been talking about Arsenal, and how they had 12 straight wins (in all competitions), but that they hadn’t been tested. Well, Liverpool at Anfield is always a test, no matter what Liverpool’s form is like. Their rather loud crowd is always behind them. I believed it would be a draw before the game, but deep down inside I thought we could get three points. There has been a lot of talk about Arsenal’s form lately, how they have mostly played at home, they haven’t played any of the top 4 teams yet, and so on. I do agree with some of the things, some it’s just crap!! I DO think we will have much harder games coming up. But remember, the team is still very young. Players of 19, 20, 21 playing at that level is really something special. The problem they have is their confidence can be a roller coaster. The key to beating the big teams is quite simple in my opinion; we cannot concede so early in games. That was our demise last season I think. Playing attacking football while level is a completely different matter from chasing a lead. And when it seems the best we can do is hit the post a few times, confidence visibly drops. They lose organization. They can get it together for a few spells, and can make things level (like against Liverpool, Fabregas collecting Hleb’s great ball). I think if the wall hadn’t broken up for Gerrard’s free kick, and hadn’t conceded so early on today, things would have been different. Tuesday’s game with Slavia is what this team is capable of doing when their confidence is up. They connect so well, and achieving that after the past few years, with the departure of iconic players (Bergkamp, Edu, Pires, Henry), is fantastic, and we must thank Wenger for that. He’s nailed his strategy I think, and with confidence, we can kill off the major teams. Let’s see how we do against United next week. We are playing at home, so can we keep our perfect record at the Grove?

Sven Goran Erickson has done some great stuff with City this season (Elano and Petrov scoring me some wicked points in me fantasy football league!), but they got hit pretty hard on Saturday. A visit to Stamford Bridge, with or without ‘The Special One’ is never an easy task, and Sven learned that the hard way yesterday. 6-0 hurts. That’s a confidence booster for the Blues that has been building up these past few weeks. Let’s see how they do for the rest of the year. Onto another manager: Jol! Goodbye good sir, thanks for the laughter at seeing Spurs at the bottom of the table! But it would be nice to see Spurs lift their game a bit. Ramos is a fantastic manager, he’s really done great stuff at Sevilla. Let’s see what he can do in North London. United also collected 3 points yesterday. Rooney and Tevez are really linking up well up front. So, Arsenal stays on top because of number of goals scored, but we do have a game in hand. Next weekend’s game is a key one.

Still a long way to go before the end of season, but I honestly think that with some tweaks, Arsenal could be serious title contenders. Keep it up lads, and RVP, please hurry up! Oh, and fuck you Jens. Thanks for the service, but I think it’s over. Bring Fabianski up Arsene. If you bought him, he must have talent! Laters everyone.

Popularity: 16% [?]