Arsenal v. Celtic: Team News

Verm is giving a great impression again. Gallas is jealous and giving his best again. What a deflection (a deliberate one for me)! :D :D

im impressed with the fact that we dont seem to mind a challenge - we are pressing all over the park getting a foot in

The Verminator was brilliant in that half. He single-handedly stopped 3 great opportunities for Celtic. It's nice to have a CB with such a fighting spirit who still has good technique with the ball. Alex Song has done very well too, breaking up play, covering for Gael and keeping us ticking when Cesc gets forward. It's a tough ask for a guy not blessed with too much pace to cover the huge pitch tonight. Arsh still doesn't look that happy in his new position, but has still shown some nice touches.

We're only winning 1-0 at halftime. WENGER OUT!!!

Verminator has really been so good. As usual Arsene knows. I now like the way Song fills in for Gallas automatically when Gallas goes forward. Am beginning to gain more confident with our quality especially after the few games we have played. But then it is just the beginning of the season. Can you just imagine I had no butterflies during the Celtic corners unlike last year. Theteam has really mtured. But then it is just the beginnig.

We have stated the 2nd half well 3 attempts already

Not really blaming them, but a lot of our boys are looking tired out there,...

the beginning of our lucky season?

We're clinical in front of goal today

EIN Gallas goal was a deflection off his back as he was trying to dodge the free kick from Fabregas

End of game Celtic 0 Arsenal 2. Fabregas has found his shooting boots this season. Saga and Nk has not been neat at all. I like the wa Song got stuck in through out. Arsene really needs to get into Abou Diaby's head. Impressed wt the whole team especially Verminator for me he is the man of the March. Celtic hv not ben too good today though the commentators here say they have not done much wrong.

We got two lucky breaks for the goals, but it was still a good team performance. TPowell, I really don't know. I would've liked to see Ramsey come on for Fabby, who had run his arse off, but maybe Arsene didn't think he had enough of an engine to link up the midfield with the strikers. phreddy, I thought Bendtner played decently. He didn't have a match-winning impact, but he did well dropping deep and keeping the ball moving. Clichy and Sagna both had a couple of dodgy moments, as they did vs Everton - I'd like Arsene to increase the pressure on them a bit by giving Eboue and Gibbs more time at full back. It's really important that we can relax a little more at The Grove now, with some tough games coming up.

ArsenalRob I agre about NB, I thought he had a good game and I must say that AA has not been at his best in the last two games, not that he has played badly, just not as well we know he can, mayby this system takes time to get used to.

I am getting ready for the match at Emirates on saturday. After 20 minutes of tonights game with the score at 0-0, I started booing. I then shouted at AW, urging him to ' spend some money ' . I then stormed off to bed before half time, muttering ' this is rubbish '. I feel fully prepared now for Portsmouth !!

Lou, there's no such thing as luck. You should know better by now lol

Denilson - Song - Fabregas is a perfect combination in my opinion. I would not like to see Nasri/Rosicky disrupt it on a general basis, but I can see how you would play a more advanced player in certain games. Well done in (almost) proving me right lads.

The defnece is STRONG, the MIDFIELD is strong, the attack IS EXTREMELY WEAK. okay let me touch on the few major Problems, Robin Van Persie, I remember there was a period when you Arsenal fans would have a go at Adebayor, You'd say he's Lazy And he was always offside, But Now looking at it, You arsenal fans are starting to regret your words. Van Persie is NOT SHARP, he falls down A LOT. The grass is magnetic to his jersey, A big Man like Van Persie spends a lot off the time on THE GROUND! And today He did not look like scoring, There are many times when Van Persie can take a shoot, but he's lack off confidence always ends up on him passing the ball, What Van Persie fails too realise is that by trying to cheat Wenger and passing the ball, he's also cheating himself, arsenal have scored 8 goals, 3 from defence, 3 from midfield 1 own goal and 1 from the attack which was from eduardo, We have two BIG games after Porthsmouth, A MASSIVE ONE manchester city and onther big one Manchester United, the defence and midfielders can not keep on scoring and getting lucky goals, In Big matches the midfields job is to work hard, penetrate and pass, NOT to be doing the dirty work for the strikers, And it's understandable that Celtic FC had more ball possesion. Becuase there was No attack, Nicklas Bendnter TRIED his hardest, but guys lets be honest, we can't take him to United, Chelsea, Liverpool or a big champions league match like Madrid or Barcelona and expect anything outta bendtner, NOT YET he's getting there, And Arshavin, He goes In the game then Out off the game, against everton he played poor, today He played poor, I'm beginning to have doubts, And I've had doubts on van persie for a long long time. And you Arsenal fans are very soon going to realise that with van Persie as the chief striker, NOTHING will come out off it.

I would be playing Rosicky/Nasri in the posistion Bedtner is playing right now. I'm still so far from convinced he's not a ball-repellent average player. I think either of the forementioned 2 players would cause a lot more damage. Also, any news of Eduardo injury? I'd love to see getting more time. He's the best player we have for hanging around the box and knocking in the loose balls. Goal poachers are always very useful players, especially the good ones.

I'd like to see more of Dudu too FuiKaka. It's rare to have a top goal-poacher who is actually very competent with the ball at his feet further away from goal.

Still think RVP will be one of our most important players this year with his assists and goals and leadership.

Second that Hughied. How can you call our attack weak when we're 8 and 1 in 2 games? Doesn't matter who's scoring, goals win games. Against Everton 2 assists from Cesc, @ from RVP and 1 from Arsh. That's 5 Assists from our front 3. Plus a goal from Dudu when he came on. Plus like Rob said we got Vela, Nasri and Rosicky on the bench. Moving forward has never been our problem. RVP is a top class player with a whole lot to offer the team. Sorry Munasheonly7 but you're full of ***** :)

We probably have seen better performance from RVP and arshavin then what we've witnessed at goodison and parkhead. I'd rather have the likes of Fab/RVP/Arshavin/Eduardo/Nasri/NB etc. taking turns to put on virtuoso performance and win us matches then to see them suffering loss of form altogether. I agreed we shouldn't get carried away and start imagining we're favourites now, but it's 2 good wins at 2 difficult away grounds with players like RVP and arshavin not hitting the best form yet and I can't imagine there're already some having a go at our players

Well that was a good performance last night, we were not afraid to get a kick, and took our knocks. The team played well, and we are now only the 2nd team to go the Celtic Park and Win. Cesc was MOTM imo, he must have covered every single blade of grass last night more than once. Let's finish it off in style at The Grove!!!

Good question, TPowell. I thought Fab looked tired, and he got some rough treatment from the Celtic players, I was expecting him to come off after our second goal.

As I said before, I think we would have a better front three without Bendtner on the wing and one of the more typical wide players like Nasri or whatever. But I have to agree with a little of what crazy Munasheonly7 has said. Not that I think va Persie is a rubbish central striker in a three, I have been one of the guys pushing him forward in the central three or in a 4411, but it does not look like it suits him 100%. I think that is partly down to the games we have played, but we can expect more of the same. I will always prefer Eduardo, so it will be interesting to see what Eduardo can do with in a 433.

What a lot of absolute Boll*x you do talk, M7. An EASY win without even getting out of first gear. First English club to get a win there in 23 years.

A little worried about Eduardo's constant niggles.If we have any silverware hopes for this season, he has to be an important part of it. I know many people are looking forward to see Chamakh at Arsenal, but I am not one of them unfortunately. I am not at all impressed with the way he is trying to engineer a move out of Bordeaux. Reminds me of Flamoney to be honest. Right now the team looks united and we don't want any mercenaries coming in.

Also, I don't think that we can't blame the press for not appraising us enough after last night's win. Criticizing the press is a favourite hobby for fans of all clubs, and although it's true that our lack of English players and defiance in our methods do sometimes cause negativity from the journos, I've seen many very complimentary articles over the last few days. Let's find ourselves critisizing everything any journalist says by default, unless it's Mark Lawrenson.

scoring goals, 8 in 2 games, only 1 scored by a striker

I'm with you there afri-gooner. It's true that he didn't perform to the rediculously high expectations that everyone seems to have of him, but he's playing in a new position, still shows some great touches, and never gives the ball away cheaply. He'll take some time to really get used to interacting with RvP and the midfield from wide on the left, but considering it's only his first two games in that position he's done very well.