Arsenal 3 Celtic 1

The 3-1 win at Emirates was tainted by the controversy of the first goal, result of a dubious "foul" by the Celtic keeper. The English press today came out in full force to say that it was not a penalty and the usually myopic AW was also quoted to say that he did not think it was a penalty either.

However, a win is a win. Shame to the Celtics player crying for a ban on Eduardo for "diving". He is not the first and definitely will not be the last to "dive". Remember CR7, who is now in Real Madrid?? It is a continental culture and until they introduced video replays, it is part of the game to stay.

Other than Eduardo, Eboue and Arshavin also scored. I am happy to see that Eboue is playing well again after the treatment last season. I somehow feel that defence is his best position although he has frequently been deployed as a midfielder ever since Sagna arrived. Arshavin can be a player who gives us 10 to 15 goals a season and I am surprised to see that Robin VP has yet to get himself on the scoresheet. Maybe next game but it is not hurting us as the other players are chipping in their bit in scoring.

15 goals in 4 games and that is almost 4 goals a game. If we can maintain the scoring stats, then conceding one per game seem ok.

Now lets bring on Man U!!!

Arsenal 4 Portsmouth 1

Any high scoring game on Saturday. Playing at home for the first time against struggling Portsmouth. Did not watch entire game as I was out for dinner and caught glimpses of it at my fren's place. I am glad that Abou Diaby is fit and running. I always think that he is wasted on the wings and his position should be a central one. He put on a good show, scoring a brace in the first half with his runs and positioning.

The other goals were scored by Gallas & Ramsey. I am hoping that Ramsey be given more air time as it will hasten his maturity as well as give him some needed experience. If you wish to rely on youth (read no money), then AW should allow him to play more often.

On a sour note, Fabregas was taken off at half time as a precaution due to a pull on his hamstring. Just hope that injuries will not come back to haunt us this season.

Stats show that goals are coming from many players. Gallas has already "scored" 3 and is currently top scorer. AW remarked that he has regained his form and I am happy to see him form a new & solid partnership with new boy Vermalaen.

This has been a good weekend and let's hope we continue our winning start against Man U this coming weekend.

Celtic 0 Arsenal 2

It is never easy playing at Parkhead with a full capacity crowd cheering the home team on. The young Gunners have done what no other Brit team had done in many years - achieve a win there against Celtic in a Euro tie. The last team that did so was Notts Forest - and I believed they went on to win the cup with big ears. Omen???

I did not catch the game due to the insane hours. Anyway, even if I had wanted to, the damn bidding war between SingTel and Starhub have left football fans worse off. One will need to subscribe to SCV to watch EPL and Mio to watch Champs League. Nowadays, the fans will need to have deep pockets to watch live football.

I did however watch the goals from Youtube after the game. It was a good reason and a fortuitous win, one is a deflected goal and the other own goal. Nevertheless, a goal is a goal no matter how they are conceded and based on the first 2 games, Arsenal have achieved a 100% record, with 8 goals for and 1 against. Liverpool & Man U have lost one game each, and had Chelsea not scored in injury time against Hull, Arsenal would have been the only time with a 100% record so far.

The days are still early to be making any predictions. I reserve my assessment until after the games with Man U and Man C, then we will have a clearer picture of the potential of this time.

Until then, we should be good enough for a win against Portsmouth at the Emirates. Portsmouth is currently a club in some crisis and ownership change and the boys should be too strong for them.

My prediction? A 3-0 win.

Tiger tamed by Korean Kim Chee

On a different sports, last Sunday saw Tiger winning streak in the Majors with a 54 holes lead coming to a halt by a relatively unknown South Korean YE Yang.

I didn't expect the result as Tiger was usually so strong in his mental play. He is quite unstoppable when he is in the final pairing on the last day of a major. Like what I always say, there will always be a first for everything. This defeat shows the human side of Tiger and that he can be beaten. To think that what Mickelson, Harrington & Ors cannot do, Yang managed to achieve it in clutch time makes the victory even sweeter.

Congrats to Yang. Noticed that he is using Taylor Made clubs and Odyssey putter. Hmm, same as what I am using. Will take it as a good omen and will play more golf to test that theory...

Everton 1 Arsenal 6

It was a good weekend for the young Gunners. I expected a win but not a windfall. I was treated to a feast of goals from defenders, midfielders & strikers galore.

This season, Arsenal played a 4-3-3 formation (or a somewhat modified 4-5-1 or 4-1-2-2-1. Vermalaen was drafted in as a centre-back partnering Gallas in a new look pairing. The left & right backs are occupied by the usually reliable Clichy and Sagna. Song is playing as a DM with Denilson & Fabregas pushed upfront. The front three are Arshavin, Bendtner & Van Persie.

After a scrapping opening 20 minutes, Arsenal slowly took control of the game. A good dribble down the right side saw Bendtner passing the ball to Fabregas, who then laid it off for the oncoming Denilson. Denilson took a first time shot and saw the ball swerving towards the left top corner of the goalpost, beating Howard completely. It was a good goal and hopefully we will see Denilson's name on the scoreboard more often. The second and third goals also came in the first half from set pieces. We are not known to profit from set pieces in the past (unlike Chelsea) and hopeful these are signs of things to come. Both goals came from the heads of Vermelaen and Gallas, who capitalised on some sloppy defending by the Toffees to notch up the goals. What a debut by Vermelaen. whom I took looked solid all afternoon with his positional play. Although not particularly tall, he looked assured and comfortable alongside Gallas.

The second half belongs to Cesc who bagged a brace of goals from some very goof runs from the deep. Last season, he did not score too many goals, partly due to his injury layoff. This season, we hope that he will add more to his goal telly as this is an aspect of his game which is still lacking, compared to someone like CR7. The last goal came from Eduardo after an opportunistic toe-poke from Arshavin. In stoppage time, we let in a goal unfortunately. Well if you had told me before the game that we will nick the game at 2-0 I will be more than happy to take it then nitpicking on conceding a goal from Everton in stoppage time by Saha.

The 6-1 win sees us sitting nicely on top of the table with a goal difference of 5. What pleased me particularly is that we see defenders & midfielders chipping in with goals. I always think that it is not the responsibilities of strikers to score. Their team mates must be able to contribute to the goal tally and looking at this young side, I must say that goals can come from anywhere.

I should not get too excited as after all this is the first game. The next game against Celtics is more important as we need to qualify for the Champions League. My prediction is that I see us coming away with a 2-1 win. Let's hope that I am correct.

Here we go again

I missed last Saturday's warm up game against Valencia as the game was not screened over cable. It was no big loss anyway as the Arse chalked up their first loss in pre-season warm ups by going down 2-0 in Spain.

The Champions League draw has been made and we are going to face Celtics in the 3rd round. Celtics is a team I support in the Scottish league although my allegiance lies with the Arse when they meet sometime this month. We should be able to clear this leg and proceed to the league stage.

On the transfer front, all is quiet after some links suggesting that the club is going to re-sign big PV. I greeted this with some skepticism as AW is not known to re-sign players he allowed to leave the club years ago. Further PV is now 33 years old and may not be suited to the more physical and robust side of EPL football. I am still hoping that we sign a big defender who will assist us in set pieces defensively & offensively. We will also need another DM as I do not think the current crop of players have the potential to fulfill the role which was filled so effectively by PV and Gilberto, and perhaps Flamini albeit for one season only. We need a big guy who bully other teams when it comes to defending and breaking up other team's play as and when we lose possession in the upper third of the opponent's half.

We believe we will be in the top 2 with a shout provided we do not run into injury problems. I am not too sure whether Rosicky and Eduardo will last the entire season without injuries. I hope AW will play Wilshere and Walcott more often on the wings to give us width and I dare to venture that Arshavin will finally show us his worth this season, after having half a season to get adjusted to EPL football and Arse playing culture.

So come on you Gunners! Go for it. The title is up for grabs.

Arsenal 3 Rangers 0

After last night's cracker, I make sure that I stayed at home for this one.

The first half was entertaining enough. Jack Wilshere justified his faith in him by his man of the match display by scoring a brace. What i like about this lad is his similarities to Liam Brady with his silky skills. He has the confidence to take on defenders and like to get past them. I was disappointed that I did not get to see him on a more frequent basis last season as I understand he went through a dip in his form. Hopefully we will see more of him, and I can certainly seer him occupy Walcott's right wing position, thereby freeing Walcott to play as a centre forward. My complaint is that due to his small built, he can be bullied by big defenders and he will also be weak in the air. What he lacks in size, he can make it up by his lower centre of gravity (kind of like Owen) and this will help him to change his acceleration and direction when he has the ball, thereby adding some unpredictability in his play. I think it is still too early for him to be touted as a full England international, after only 2 games in the new season; but he will certainly be someone to look out for. I think Wenger will use him mainly as a substitute to gain some experience.

Overall, I am happy to see Eduardo and Rosicky back in action. The former showed how good a finisher he was when he slotted in the second goal from the tiniest of angle pass the Ranger's keeper.

I was however surprised to see the man of the torunament award going to Arshavin. It is not that Arshavin does not deserve the award, especially after his brace of goals against Atletico Madrid, but rather that Jack has turned out a more consistent performance over 2 games than Arshavin. But who cares so long as someone from Arsenal receives the award.

Now I am looking forward to the last warm up game against Valencia, and hopefully by then we will get to see some new signings.

Arsenal 2 A. Madrid 1

I came home late on Saturday night and by the time I watched on the cable, the match is already an hour old. However, I did not miss anything as the score was then still 0-0. Saw some splendid play on the wings from Wilshere which underlines his potential as an attacking midfielder. Everytime he as the ball, it seems that he can take defenders on and beat them for pace and wizardry. Then Wenger made some substitutions which saw Ashavin, Fabregas and Eduardo. Initially, I was of the view that Arshavin seem anonymous as he hardly touched the ball for almost 10 minutes since he came on. However, his first time shot gave us the lead on the 86th min which I thought was the winner. Some sloppy defending saw us conceding the equaliser by A Madrid. The goal came about as the Arsenal defenders were defending very high up and failed to catch Maxi Rodrigues offside with the perfect through pass for him. Then when everything seem to head for a draw, Arshavin gave us a good display of magic as he conjured up a goal out of nothing, slotting in the ball from the tightest angle, akin to the winner scored by Kanu against Chelsea in a memorable game many seasons ago. Well done Arsavin.