RotorGoat on August 6th, 2010

The good news this morning is that it seems certain that Cesc Fabregas is staying at Arsenal. He pitched up at Member’s Day yesterday, and he apparently had a chat with Wenger during which he confirmed that for the next season at least, he’s going nowhere. Great news, in fact. He’s a once-in-a-generation footballer. He’s [...]

Continue reading about This is not football, it’s a soap opera

RotorGoat on June 3rd, 2010

Remember how Wenger stated he’d like to get his transfers sorted before the World Cup began? He’ll be lucky. Most high-calibre players are content to wait until the tournament ends before thinking about what happens next – even if their agents are busy doing stuff in the background. So when the tournament kicks off a [...]

Continue reading about Fab, Theo and Brazil nuts

RotorGoat on April 2nd, 2010

Injuries, injuries, injuries. Arseblog this morning reiterated some of the snaps, twangs, fractures, strains and pings that have blighted us this season. It is indeed a minor miracle that, with the injuries we’ve had and got, we’ve arrived at the beginning of April still in contention both in the league and in the European Cup. [...]

Continue reading about Burden on Bendtner as injuries bite

RotorGoat on April 1st, 2010

Arsenal 2-2 Barcelona North Bank flags What an unbelievable game of football. My mind is still boggling. I’ve seen some good teams at the Grove in my time and I’ve seem some defiant comebacks too, but both on the same night? As a spectacle, this one was epic. Let it be said that Barcelona were [...]

Continue reading about Arsenal strike back in epic encounter

RotorGoat on March 28th, 2010

Birmingham City 1-1 Arsenal At the risk of repeating myself, a draw yesterday did indeed end up feeling like a ‘hammer blow’. Wenger merely called it a ‘big blow’, but if you squinted you could read the word ‘hammer’ in the furrows of his brow during the post-match interview. The nature of the draw made [...]

Continue reading about Missed chances, dropped points

RotorGoat on March 20th, 2010

Guardian squad sheet BBC preview Another weekend, another match we can’t afford not to win, but for the time being at least we dream of Catalonia. Yes of course, the draw for the European Cup could have pitted us against CSKA Moscow or Bordeaux, but where’s the fun in that? To me, the European Cup [...]

Continue reading about Arsenal v Barcelona: the best draw of the lot

RotorGoat on March 13th, 2010

I was listening to the Guardian’s Football Weekly Extra podcast the other day, and Rob Smyth stuck his neck out by stating he’d be “astonished” if Arsenal didn’t win the league this season. A pretty bold prediction if you ask me. You won’t catch me sticking my neck out on such matters – in fact, [...]

Continue reading about Match preview: Margin for error = practically zero

RotorGoat on March 7th, 2010

Arsenal 3-1 Burnley As I was heading to the game with my brother, crossing Highbury Fields, we saw a clown driving a car. He was in full clown regalia, including wig, make-up and huge red nose (though I assume he’d removed his oversized shoes by that stage, unless he had 2-foot wide clutch, brake and [...]

Continue reading about That’s Bendtnertainment [Part 2]

RotorGoat on January 17th, 2010

Morning all. I did the classic thing of waking up in the middle of the night, and in the course of trying to get back to sleep thought of something particularly noteworthy to blog about this morning. Sure enough, when I woke up, I couldn’t remember a jot. I remember once being advised by someone [...]

Continue reading about Match preview: Time to tighten the defence

RotorGoat on December 28th, 2009

Arsenal 3-0 Aston Villa Some thoughts: • Was it worth risking Fabregas? Two goals and a game-changing performance answers that question. You can only beat the team you are currently pitted against so it has to have been worth the risk. • Our best 45 minutes of the season? I think it probably was given [...]

Continue reading about The wonder of you, Cesc Fabregas