GET WELLY!!!!!!

Don't have a terribly good feeling about tomorrow but, this photo of Martin Keown about to eat Ruud van Nistlerooy after Ruud missed a penal, gives me a warm feeling inside.

Come on you Gunners!!

Last Season at Anfield: A Tale of Two Arsenals.

All I know is, on our day, that we can DESTROY Liverpool. Last year we trounced them in the cup games, away from home, 1-3 in the FA Cup and 3-6 in the Carling Cup.

Our last league trip in the spring, however, ended in an embarassing 4-1 defeat, following a week of confidence-sapping performances in the Champions League and the FA Cup.

You have to fancy Arsenal's chances though after the 7-0 midweek exhibition over a crap team and Liverpool's 2-1 loss to another crap team during the Matchday 3 of Champions League.

Anyways, learn some songs, as it should be a cracking game, and hopefully the atmosphere at Nevada's will match.

UP THE ARSE!

...before I go allow me to set the scene for perhaps the greatest moment in Arsenal history.

Anfield 1989:
Last game of the season. We're one game back of Liverpool. Liverpool are unbeaten all season at home. We have to win by two goals to nick the title off of them. We're 0-1 up. Time is fast running out... (Note: Arsenal are actually in the yellow away strip and 'Pool in Red, so dress accordingly this weekend)

Perfect Football. Arsenal 7-0 Slavia Prague

Nothing more to say really. Witness it for yourselves:

Arsenal 7 - 0 Slavia Prague highlights + theo's interviews
Uploaded by ManuHerer

UPDATE:

Few articles that some up last night very well at Arsenal News Review, International Herald Tribune and Vital Arsenal. Check 'em out.

When Can I See You Again?

For those of you that have been missing since the Man City game (KTL, this means you) here are some gems. Hope you can join us at Nevada's some time in the next few weeks as we've got Liverpool away and Man U at the Grove:











But first, bring on Bolton!

For the two people that read my blog

The long and overdue fixture list can be found here. Join me at Nevada's

Haven't forgot about ye

Ticket Update:

The short of it is we're close to getting our precious tickets. The following email train to Arsenal America is the long of it:

Me:

Hello,

I PMed Rick B Jul 30 about getting four tickets for the Dec 15 home match against Chelsea on behalf of premium members goonertron, goodtobehleb, chocwhitman, and shulgun1.

Saw the new post regarding ticket questions and rather than pestering Rick B, I wanted to follow up with the "ticket bot" about the best way to go about learning of the status of my request.

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

DeVon Jackson

ArsenalAmerica:

DeVon,

I'm going to say we don't have an exact answer to give to you right now because we're unsure on the amount of tickets we will be receiving for the match at this moment. Because this is a match many AA members would like to go to it would all depend on your spot in the request line. Rick B will contact you back when he can confirm with you he has your tickets secured and ask you to pay for them. Until then I'd ask that you continue to hold tight. It's good that you requested them early so hopefully we'll have positive news when we can CONFIRM your ticket request

Me (trying to be pushy without actually being so):

Thanks so much for your quick reply. It sounds like you guys are working extra hard to make this happen for us.

One last question: Can you give me a sense of time or thereabouts when I should rule out the possibility?

Promise I won't bother you all again 'til (fingers crossed) confirmation.

again, many thanks,
DeVon

ArseAm:

DeVon,

I know this can be an anxious wait period because i'm not sure if you guys have made all travel arrangements yet, but hopefully we should be able to let you know as soon as possible. Rick B will look though this when he's available and if he can give you an answer right away he will and will ask you to post in the proper thread that you're confirmed. If you don't hear back right away it means he's sorting his allotment for the tickets to see if he's able to accommodate your request. So again i'm sorry I can't give you any more solid details then that. Rick B is the only one dealing with the club directly for tickets so it would be only him that could give you the green light for confirming your ticket request. But like I said your request is in early as recommended so hopefully you're set, but Rick will need to confirm this to you. So please continue to wait until you hear back from Rick. We haven't forgotten you or lost your request so don't worry!

So there you have it. In the meantime we should have our flight and hostel sorted by this weekend. Found some great tickets on BA and will probably purchase those tonight.

Did I mention we've started the season on a world defining 2 game win streak? More on that later.

Kiss the Crest

Them's fighting words Robin

Italian champions, Inter, the team we beat last Sunday, put 3 goals past English champions Manure in 15 minutes yesterday, to win 2-3. Granted it was a preseason friendly, but I'm beginning to feel really optimistic about the upcoming league campaign. Considering folks were saying Inter were far from full strength last Sunday (as if Arsenal were), I'd love to hear the parade of excuses for Utd's loss. And when you see interviews like the one below, I can't help but to get uncomfortably excited.....



Pure football. For the good of football. The Arsenal Way.

Oh, Robin. You say all the right things. You know, you don't have to say all this to have me...

Ahem. Anyways, we play Lazio today at 12:30 pm. Hopefully a good workout for the team. If we lose I will cry a little inside. But I will carry on. I say, I will carry on.

Arsenal sign Hollywood star

The Galaxy have David Beckham. We have Tom Cruise. Bouyah!

Funny? Please love me arsetorians.

Agggh, I got nothing for you folks. Still waiting on Rick B to get us some tix.

Anyone wanna see some live music while we're in London? No doubt we'll discover some band that'll be hugely popular in the States in five years time so we can be like, "Oh, that band? Heard 'em years ago. Five years ago actually". Should come in handy during forays to the lower east side.

The Amsterdam tourney starts tomorrow against Italian side Lazio. Hopefully Rosicky, Walcott, and Adebayor will feature heavily as they missed out on the Emirates Cup. Som'bitches got injured again during preseason. We really need these guys to stay relatively injury free this year, as the squad is a little short of depth after the departures of Ljunberg, Henry, and Reyes to pastures beige.

If anyone wants to watch the game live send me a message and I can hoook you up.

Come on ye'Arsenal!

Who needs Thierry?

For those of you that missed it, a blinding piece of skill from our new main man......

3 goals Arsenal - inter
Uploaded by Nvboy

Gotta love the replay in the reverse angle, eh. His right foot is his weaker foot mind you.

Guess what folks? I've submitted for tickets....now just waiting to hear back from Arsenal America. GoodtobeHleb, ChocWhitman, Shulgun1, and theArsenal are the lucky ones. Update forthcoming....

UPDATE: Response from Rick B " i will have to come back to you as I have a fair few for Chelsea and don't know yet what I have left. I will let you know asap."

Fingers crossed........

Introducing ChocWhitman

It's official.


Ryan has paid his Arsenal America dues. His official blog name (as chosen by him) is ChocWhitman. Kinda like Walt Whitman and Chocolate White Man. Well done on you Ry.

That leaves Shulgun1 as the last person to pay dues. Do it NOW. I plan on submitting ticket requests TODAY. Exciting times.

Once we get confirmation that our tickets are available, then we (read: me) will reserve our hostel and order plane tix.

This weekend there are some pre-season games on which can be seen at our Local Office at 11:15am both Saturday (v Paris Saint-Germain) and Sunday (v Inter Milan). I think we'll save our first visit to the the Worldwide Headquarters for the start of the season. All ArsenalAstorians are welcome to come.

Also, found some good stuff about visiting London on a budget, if anyone is interested. I'm not really, 'cause I'm a baller. I cannot believe how fuckin' rich I am sometimes.

Also, I know some of us talked about seeing Othello at the Donmar Warehouse while we were there. Tickets go on sale on October 15, so, save save save ya broke ass bitches.

And now I leave you with a song.

"Who's that team we call the AAAAaaarsenal?
Who's that team we all adore?

They're the boys in red and white,
And they're fuckin' Dynamite,
And Martin Jol's mother is a whoooooore!
She's a whooore! She's a whooore!"

Learn this song. There will be a quiz.

Bacary still kinda Scary

Arsefans,

Short post for today..

Well, it seems that all of the blogosphere/british press got the spelling of Bacary Sagna's name wrong. Don't I look quite the idiot.

We had our traditional pre-season opener against Barnet a week ago Saturday which we won comfortably 0-2, and another 3-0 stroll over Turkish side Genclerberligi, with new main man Robin van Persie scoring twice. We start every pre-season at Barnet's ground, Underhill, as that is where the reserves (think: minor leaguers) play during the regular season. The reserve games are free and usually played every week. However, there is no game scheduled during the week we are there. Boo-hoo. In the Gencler game both new signings Eduardo and Bacary made there debuts, and both looked solid. Theo Walcott in particular looks a bit hungry for the next season, also managing to get his name on the scoresheet.

Trip update: The membership drive for ArsenalAmerica has started so i suggest we all pony up the 20 dollar membership fee immediately so I can put in ticket requests this week. Read more about it here.

"Meet Bakari" and "Hostels are, like, Waaaay Cheaper than the W"

'Allo Astorians,

Apparently, we have signed 24 year old French right back Bakari Sagna from Auxerre. He is rumoured to have cost around 6m GBP (the club never discloses transfer fees) and was recently called up to the French senior squad. Don't know much about him, but the arsenal blogosphere predicts that he will be used as cover across the back (Eboue and Toure are gone during the African Cup of Nations), provide Justin Hoyte some Gatorade Fierce competition at right back and possibly release Eboue up the right wing. Don't think he'll be satisfied to just ride the pine though, as he was voted into the Ligue 1 "Team of the Year" ou en francais, "L'Equipe de L'Anee" Finally, we have a defender with a scary sounding name and Predator-like hair to boot.

Kolo....refreshing! William...princely! Justin...stately.
Emmanuel...can I buy you a drink, lass? BAKARI...I've just pooped myself!

He can only see other players' body heat, which may make it difficult for him to mark Cashley Hole on Dec 15th 2007....um, December 15th? You haven't forgotten already? Our impending victory over Chelsea? at the Grove? (insert more clever segue here)

Shulgun1 (aka Teach aka the Cheat) has suggested we stay in a hostel as hotels in London are ass expensive. I've come up with a couple of thoroughly (read: the internets) researched options London House Hotel and Astor Hyde Park. They're both in the Bayswater area and within minutes of the tube, Notting Hill, Hyde Park, and a bunch of other non-Arse related things that will distract me but will entertain other Arse-torians. Both of these are independently reviewed on Tripadvisor and Hostels.com. Look em up. Tripadvisor even has some pics taken by users, which tend to be more honest than the ones on the hostels' main site. My general impression is that Astor is a bit better for meeting folks and socializing whereas London House is just a shade nicer. Prices will vary, depending on living arrangements, from $170-230 (large private room, shared bathroom) for 5 days though. Pretty awesome. Leaning towards London House myself, as they've had some recent renovations.

Four of us are confirmed to go (theArsenal, Shulgun1, GoodtobeHleb, and Ryan). Another 3 (Teddy, Hubris and Toon) are soft confirms. Most of you still (Ryan included) need to sign up at Arsenal America pronto. And you need to think of cool names so I can stop stealing names from another blog. As soon as I get one more hard confirm we will buy flights, reserve the hostel, and request game tix through the supporters club. Earlier the better. This doesn't mean folks can't join us at a later date it will just make finding game seats near us a difficult and potentially more expensive proposition. However, flyzoom is like the jetBlue of international flights and prices won't change for a while now. They also don't abuse folks who may need to reschedule their flight. In fact they may even run some special, like they did this summer, that'll save late deciders and ungodly extra $150 and make me right angry. One flight a day from JFK though, so seats are very limited.

That'll do for now. Up the Arse!!!

The Impossible Dream starts NOW

Hello all,



First post, first order of business. I sent a pretty detailed email last night, but I'll use this to sort of reiterate the finer points.

Basically, unless you definitely know you will not got to the game, what everyone needs to do right now is register at http://www.arsenalamerica.net/. Then, you need to send me your username so that I can submit ticket requests on behalf of all so that we can sit near one another. This is important. In my dream I am surrounded by my friends. This must come true.

Cannot say enough that scoring tickets for this game will be the hardest part of organizing this trip.

In the meantime, for those of us based in Queens, take a look at http://www.flyzoom.com/. Right now you can get tickets for Dec 12- Dec 18 for $498 everything included. Air Canada has good rates for that same time period but I don't think its worth going through customs twice.

For Chicago and California based Astorians, I would check out http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/. Although the layout isn't as flashy as your expedias or your travelocities I'm pretty confident you'll find the best deals there.

That's that for now. Posts won't be all business, I promise. Actually, they will mostly be business until the season starts and/or the trip details have been finalized. After that I'll prolly just talk about how anticipation of the trip keeps me up most nights. That and the fat/hideous/lame/general cunty-ness of Chelsea players and fans.

Kiss the crest!