El Capitan is a 'Gunner for life'

We all know of the Star Wars saga; multiple movies that stretch out over a long period of time. And eventually those characters grow old. Gooners have been involved in a different type of saga, the Cesc saga, where multiple transfer rumours have stretched out over a few years. And the rumours, too, have grown old; to the point of frustration for all Arsenal fans.

Conor Valentine in tandem with 11G; explains how FC Barcelona have taken their CQ (C*nt Qoutient) to previously unknown levels. Follow him on Twitter @Gunnerman911 Read on..

The worst part is obviously the fact that FIFA have allowed the Barca players get away with such blatant tapping up, and even ignored a few newspaper articles about how Cesc has been tapped up. I personally don’t understand how they can themselves get away with ignoring it. And if Arsenal weren’t such a dignified club, I’m sure we would have reported the Catalans.

The biggest culprits in this crime are Pique, Xavi, Puyol and one certain Lionel Messi. Messi was one of the first to speak out, but has kept quiet since talking about how he was texting Fabregas and telling him that he wanted Cesc at Barcelona, which is pretty obvious tapping up.

Then came Pique, who has basically not shut up, at any time. He’s constantly talked about Barca being in Cesc’s heart, and that he belonged to Barca, almost like telling Cesc he has to go, or he’s not being a good person, or something.

Xavi is actually not a footballer. We’ve found out that he is in fact an expert on DNA. And of course he has found out that Cesc actually has a Barca DNA; he’s made that information public. But I’m also a DNA expert and I’ve discovered that Messi, Pato and Joe Hart, all have an Arsenal DNA. So they rightfully belong to Arsenal FC, right? On field, he may be good, who cares. But off it, he’s a knob. A bigmouth who’s more into others than worry about his shit-like hair-do.

Puyol has just been his typical self, ugly and stupid. Yes, he even speaks like an idiot. He’s accused Cesc of spending the last 6 weeks of the World Cup action complaining about how he wants to join Barca. And said that he will come and that he would be perfect for Barca; which isn’t true because ‘check your mailbox Carles, you didn’t recieve your paycheck, did you’!?

Iniesta has joined in as well. He’s been talking up a move for Fabregas & said that he would “love Fabregas to come to join him at Barca”.

Pedro, the Spanish winger has also been talking, because according to him “Cesc would be fab at Barca”.

Guardiola, the main man, the manager, however, has been quiet on the issue; Until today ie. “I think bringing in Cesc will cost a lot” was the official quote, kind of assuming that the deal would happen, right? Well, I can at least say that Pep is perfectly correct. And if Barca even want to dream about taking Fabregas back to Spain, it would cost a lot more than the £40 million maximum bid limit they have in mind. But they appear to be under an impression that we need to sell to him in the first place. Unfortunately for them, that’s wrong.

So basically the entire Catalan entourage has been talking almost non-stop over a whimsical matter. It’s their brainchild to try & unsettle Cesc. The important thing for fans, however, is that we should not be angry at Cesc for all this. It’s the Barca players who have annoyed us; and for that reason, we have to give him the correct reception when he returns for next season. Or else we’ll be pushing our captain away. So remember, we hate Barca, we love Fabregas.

Also Read by Conor:

8 Players Wenger Should Consider Signing For Arsenal

6 Players Wenger Should Consider Kick’n Outta Arsenal

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Note: If any of you want to share your views/opinions on the club from N5 (read: Arsenal!), leave Us a comment at the bottom. We’ll get back right away & be glad to give you a chance. Keep Gunning..

STOP, it's Eboue!

Some players just pull on their jocks, ride on the pitch, do their bit & happily recline once the final whistle blows. While the other few prefer divide opinions while they are at it. Be it their on-field demeanour or off-field persona, the media just can’t have enough of them. Emmanuel Eboué is one such kind.

Conor Valentine explains.. (Follow him on Twitter @Gunnerman911)

Emmanuel Eboué. Full-back/Right Midfielder. He has come in leaps and bound since the infamous game against Wigan, last season where, having come on as a first half sub, Eboué played so poorly that Wenger was forced to take him off. The fans were not afraid to show the Ivory Coast man how they felt, a loud chorus of booing while he exited the pitch.

Since then, Eboué has come along massively, every single aspect of his play has improved, and that includes him tripping over the grass less often, looking for free-kicks. Eboué is the kind of player, who fans do love to see, the footballer who will literally run his socks off, giving every ounce of strength and energy for the team. Eboué is a player who simply loves to have a ball at his feet, and run at defenders, or on the overlap when played as a full-back.

As fans of Arsenal, we have all seen players who will give everything for their club, and I don’t recall one who the fans did not admire for it. Eboué may not be the best passer, but, taking a game like the one against Sunderland, on Saturday, Eboué showed how well he can play when given the ball to run with, his passing game was up to the mark, and, of course played the ball into Bendtner waiting at the back post for the first goal.

On the defensive side, Eboué may not be the best tackler, but that does not mean he will give up, in fact, most of the time, if he has been beaten, he has the pace to get back and possibly prevent a cross. And to the offensive side of things, it is commonly acknowledged that Bacary Sagna lacks the ability to deliver a pin point cross. Eboué, while not pin point, can deliver a good ball for a striker, to nod home.

We were all shocked when Wenger decided to place Eboué as a natural replacement to Hleb once he bid adieu. Eboué did struggle to settle as an attacking player, because he was used to getting up, then back to defend; now he wasn’t required to defend as much. This clearly affected his performances, but he grew into his new position, posing an attacking threat. Soon after Theo Walcott made the Right Wing spot his own, demoting Eboué to the bench a lot of the time, but amazingly, he never let his head drop, he kept at it, every appearance giving his all.

Now the focus goes to this season, an important one, since we have not had a regular Right Wing player. Theo has made few appearances due to injuries; Rosicky has been placed out there when fit. Nasri too, has played as the right winger.  Eboué has generally been the late substitute, on with 20 minutes to go, not enough time for a major impact. He ha been subjected to minimal starts, but I don’t feel that he has played a horrible game this season, a few odd stray passes, dives etc.

Last Wednesday’s loss to Porto signaled a major change in the supporter’s attitude. I heard a lot of ‘Eboué has to start, Sagna cannot cross’. And these supporters were perfectly correct, Eboué has had little chance to impress, and I believe Right Back is his best position. Wenger made his mind up, Eboué started, and was instrumental in Arsenal winning the game, 2-0. An all action performance, played with a huge grin on his face, is why Eboué is a fan favourite, and hopefully, he will be subject to more starts after his recent, and quite obvious improvements in his game play. Only this time, the Arsenal faithful would prefer crooning:

‘We Only Came To See Eboue..’

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We Miss You Robin!

Arsenal until recently, were the leading goal-poachers not just in England, but in the whole of Europe. Now that is a remarkable stat if you consider the acute paucity of goal-guzzlers at the Emirates this season. For a while Wenger had a full repertoire to choose from, in likes of Van Persie, Bendtner, Arshavin, Vela, Eduardo, & we are not even counting Walcott here! Injuries ripped right through our front-line & left us seriously short on armory. The transfer window came & bid adieu, but Arsene didn’t flutter one bit, much to the dismay of the faithful. He stuck by his guns & is now supposedly through the so-called ‘striker crisis’ facing his ranks.

Conor Valentine, a fiercely avid Gunner from Dublin, shares his views on the same right now. You can Follow him on Twitter @Gunnerman911.

Arsenal’s ‘striker crisis‘ is not so much a crisis, in my opinion. Yes, without Van Persie, who is undoubtedly one the Premier League’s best strikers, Arsenal does lack a properly proven finisher. But when you look down the entire team,  it ain’t that bad?

In every position are players who can, and will, score goals. Whether that’s Vermaelen, in the centre of defence, Diaby, in midfield, Cesc, in an attacking midfield, or even Bendtner who, despite what some fans believe, I think will have a huge future at the club. Arsenal is of a team which lacks height, but Bendtner an exception. He can head the ball alright & can also run all over the pitch, pressurizing the opposition. He may not be able to do justice to the lone striker’s job despite his strength and ability to hold the ball up, but  makes up for it with his mobility. However, I think him and Van Persie together up front can make a good partnership. And in Bendtner, we know we’ll get a triker who’d give it his all & has his best years ahead of him, is neither lazy nor selfish, unlike a certain ex-Arsenal player (Mad-e-Bye-Whore who!?).

We also have Eduardo, who, on his day is a clinical finisher and also a provider of goals. Both have lacked confidence recently, along with a surprising number of players. But back to Eduardo, who has not had many games to perform in, up until the Van Persie injury, he was mainly a substitute in the last 20 or so minutes, but when he got into the side due to the injury, he was clearly lacking the sharpness of an in-form striker. He got many opportunities to score, which he would have converted had he been playing regular football, but he just could not score. Eventually, he got off the mark, with some slightly lucky goals, but still, you could see he wasn’t confident, and when he scored, every time it required a bit of luck. But at least he was scoring, as opposed to just being on the pitch running around with no impact.

With news that Van Persie could be back by late April (if we are ever going to get any luck) then what was a crisis, has suddenly become a situation where we have 2 strikers who have been getting games (Eduardo has just a niggly injury) and one other striker who was both scoring and creating for fun, before a certain Italian tried to take his leg apart, which can only mean one thing, Goals, and hopefully, plenty for all to see.

But for now, we must make do with Bendtner probably Wenger’s first choice, and Eduardo as the backup. There is the possibility of playing Walcott through the middle, which so many Arsenal fans would like to see, considering the hat-trick versus Croatia for England. However I believe Wenger would sooner have Arshavin playing centrally, although our little Russian claims he cannot play there. Despite this crisis, Arsenal have kept themselves in the running for both the Premier League, and the Champions League, proving that life without a striker, even for a top European team like ours, is possible. And that only because of our desire to win at any cost. Keep the faith guys, this one’s not done yet!

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