Friends

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Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
26 Apr	1:30 PM	P	Middlesbrough (H)	2	0	Win

Friends, huh? I have a friend, you can see half of him eating a donut at the Manyoo game in my profile pic and I've mentioned him before, His name is Gabs. Gabs recently became a father for the first time and has subsequently become one of the most unreliable people I know. Which is shit because one of his main qualities as a friend has always been reliability. After the latest bout of unreliability which contributed to my sore head on departing for Amsterdam, I made a decision. I decided that I wasn't going to arrange anything with him anymore as it was pointless. He always gets involved with something else. Life, probably. Part of me understands this and another part of me thinks you can't keep shitting on your friends.

Anyway, getting to the point, I reckon a few of might be thinking by now "Never mind shite Arseblogger, you're shite ANR" (and that would be something, wouldn't it?), he texts me this morning "Are you going to the Boro game?", "What's it to you?" my beligerent self thinks. He then rings me, I do not answer. I am, at this point, I should point out, busy at work. He leaves me a message telling me he has two tickets (from work) for the game on Sunday, all it will cost is £25 for my ticket. "Ah," think I, "I can forgive unreliability in that case!" Further into the text exchange that then ensues, I realise that perhaps these are club level tickets. Having promised me a Sunday surprise, Gabs can't hold onto that surprise and confirms my suspicion.

So, all that is left now, is to confirm the dress code for our day in the prawn circle- which we have, look forward to the free bar at half-time and the chance to "relax after the game whilst the crowds disperse". I promise you now, dear reader, that I will not miss a kick in the pursuit of free booze. The only question in my mind, how much free beer can I drink in 15 minutes and how long will I then be able to hold off on visiting the toilet? Okay, that's two questions.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the other half live, not looking forward to being surrounded by empty seats - I have to think that, for a Sunday lunchtime kick-off against Middlesbrough, there'll be a few. What I am looking forward to is seeing the areas of the stadium not accessible to the mere mortals currently inhabiting the rest of the stadium, coincidentally I'm sure, the areas of the stadium that have been "Arsenalised".

A man with rather different concerns relating to Sunday's game is Arsène Wenger. It's a familiar refrain at this time of the season, but I suppose he has a point about Manchester United having a day's extra rest ahead of the first leg next week. I think this would be less a concern for the manager if we weren't currently deploying 3/5 of a Carling Cup defence and had a full complement of strikers available. Not to mention, as the Guardian points out, the fact that Chelsea had an extra day to prepare for the FA Cup semi final last week. It feels like, again, the fates are conspiring against us. But, for me, that's when it's time to get out there and show some that "Fuck you, we're the Arsenal" attitude. Of course, it would help if we had our better players available at the back, but when, oh when, has this club ever done anything the easy way?

Another concerned man is the captain. Not for him, the excuses of first team players being absent- just the belief that the team has to improve its' defending. I wonder when talks of not being "well positioned", he is talking mentally as well as physically. I like that his gives Lukasz Fabianski due respect for the fact that for much of the first half, he seemed to be playing Liverpool on his own, but I think Cesc could possibly look at himself too. After all, it was he who gave possession away when trying to launch Theo on the counter. We've been here before too, he gifted Tottenham possession in our previous 4-4 when he might have been better trying to keep it.

Not to blame him, of course, even if he gave the ball away there, it was mistakes by Fabianski, Gibbs (under huge pressure), Sagna and Silvestre that contributed as much as anything to our not winning the Liverpool game. In the same article, Arshavin echoes the captain's concerns. Neatly summing up what most Arsenal fans already know:

"When we press, we play well and, when we drop back, it is very dangerous for us. Then we concede corners and some tall players win the ball against us and get the second ball and try to shoot. So everybody must take responsibility for the fact we conceded four goals.Not just the defence or the keeper, because everyone must help."

So, it's good to see that the creative talents realise that some spadework must be done. I remember a joke going round the Arsenal team of the Georger Graham days, that the defence would play forever as the midfield did so much running for them, whilst the midfielders would be finished by the time they were 30. That pretty much came to pass and we need to get back to something approaching that soon - without killing Fabregas and company of course.

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