Liveblogging Arsenal v. Aston Villa pt. 1

Good morning!

A quick glance at the news reports this morning has Almunia and Adebayor healthy to face the Villans (but you knew that yesterday, if you read the blog). Fiery Jack is being tipped to play in the 2010 world cup — that’s not too soon is it? Gah… what is it about the psyche of the British people that they are constantly putting this type of pressure on children? They did it with Wayne Looney, Theo Walcott, and now Fiery Jack… dudes… give it a rest!

Arsenal will take on Burnley at, whatever the name of their stadium is, in the Carling Cup. Interestingly, Stoke, Tottenham and Man U all have ties that they should win as well. That means that if everything goes according to the odds, Arsenal could face three teams that I’d love to see this youth team beat. Of course, first things first: gotta beat Burnley.

One last thing… Arsene has said Eduardo could be back in two weeks. According to my calculations, that’s the League match against Chelsea. Hmm… I laughed when someone predicted that he’d come of the bench against Chelsea and now it looks like that prediction may come true.

Ok, lineup… looks like a 4-5-1 with Diaby coming in again, Nasri and Walcott out wide, Denilson and Cesc in the middle, Almunia in the sticks, Bendtner up front, and Silvestre paired with Gallas at the back.

Right, be back for kickoff.  UP THE ARSE!

Kickoff — Woo HOoOo! 7am kickoff!

1st minute — OK… uhh, SHAKY START, plus Mike Riley is the ref.

4′ Theo is absolutely destroying his marker Denilson plays him in and Theo makes a great pass that is wasted as it went in toward the hapless Bendtner.

5′ Almunia looks uncertain as Silvestre plays the ball back to him and he simply refuses to come out and claim it. It goes across for a Villa corner. UGH. I’m very quickly becoming tired of Almunia.

8′ I love your optimism Matt…

10′ Denilson gets a yellow for a horribly mistimed tackle. I want the same yellow when Gareth Barry does that to Arsenal.

14′ This is odd, Arsenal are playing long balls up to the increasingly useless Bendtner. Route 1 football from the team that — hey, some good movement and passing sees a shot on goal from Cesc spilled by Friedel and a drop ball after the whistle blows for an “injury”

18′ Mike Riley awards a penalty and gives Cesc a yellow for his late tackle (that happened earlier), Young steps up and ALMUNIA SAVES!!! I LOVE ALMUNIA!

OK — the problem is that Arsenal look to be on the ropes here. Regroup, pull your heads out of your asses and put this team under.

23′ Villa is dominating the midfield right now as evidenced by the fact that both of our central midfielders have yellows.

25′ Diaby could have gotten a yellow for a high boot that draws blood from the forehead of the Villa defender. I really want to see the penalty again… it looked like Theo won the ball but that’s probably just sour grapes on my part, Theo didn’t complain.

28′ I have pinpointed the problem with Bendtner, he is sporting some kind of rat tail hairstyle. Never trust a man with a rat tail.

30′ Denilson is having a nightmare against Sidwell and Young. Young makes a mazy run right through the center of the park and Denilson’s response was to try to trip him. Fortunately, Denilson is having sunch a bad day that he missed his trip or he would have been sent off.  Unfortunately, this means that Denilson is still on the pitch.

35′ A whole sale change is needed at this point, take Bendtner off, take Denilson off — Arsenal escape again after getting opened up by Villa Barry’s shot is directly at Almunia. Villa deserve this match at this point. Arsenal look like they are turning in one of “those” performances.

43′ What’s left to say? Arsenal are playing like a 7th place club. This is horrible.

If you haven’t reached for the cyanide you can catch the second half over here.