Arsenal 2 - 0 Reading

Finally, a win! It's only been our second in nine Premier League games, but if you can get over the fact that we're going to end the season empty-handed, then it still feels pretty good. The crowd wasn't really into it for the first quarter of the game and the players looked like they hadn't really shaken off the Red Devil blues. But around the 20 minute mark, they moved into a different gear and were suddenly all over Reading. There were a number of chances before Adebayor used some lovely control on a Toure cross and coolly finished for the opener. There were plenty of chances for the home team after that, and even ol' Gilby had something like 3 shots on goal, converting the first with a neatly calculated angle off Bikey's head.

There were some other positives during the match which the highlights package wont necessarily cover. Fabregas and Van Persie had an interesting new approach to their corners. RVP took the right and Fab took the left, but at each corner the other would be present for a lay-off. Reading had no idea what was going on, but then again that was throughout the entire match. Van Persie also smacked in a gorgeous curling free kick which was sadly denied by the crossbar and upright. He also came in for some punishment from Reading when they realised that they were out of the game. We're used to it... all the crunching tackles and physical bullying being handed out to some of the more fragile Gunners... but today Hleb decided to take matters into his own hands, giving Murty a sly sock in the jaw when the ref wasn't looking. He had a wicked little chuckle when he slammed a shot (which wouldn't have counted because the whistle had been blown) into the centreback, leaving him in a heap in front of goal. I never realised he had that in his personality, but he'll probably be banned now for a few matches by the FA. Lehmann made some good saves, and looked safe and assured in goal. Theo started, and he had his moments too... just couldn't find that final pass.
But apart from the win, the best thing that happened in this match was that Eboue played at right back today! Hopefully this is a trend that will continue for the rest of his career. Wenger seems to have seen the light... although I still believe we need to get another quality winger, and let Theo play up front.

I'll leave you with the goals now.

Arsenal 2 - 0 Reading Adebayor Gilberto Goal 19.04.08
Uploaded by yuksel7

I'm not going to comment much on the Arsenal ManU game, because it was never actually the league decider that Wenger made it out to be. He says he felt a dizziness like a boxer getting knocked out, with it completing a week where we exited the Champions League and were put out of the EPL race. But actually we were knocked out the day that Eduardo was taken out and Theo Walcott's first EPL goals were nullifed by a ridiculous defensive error and subsequent penalty decision. It dented the spirit and confidence of the squad.. and really, the squad itself. I know people blame Gallas as well, for behaving the way he did, and also that Wenger is undecided on whether he will retain him as captain next season, but I'm a bit of a Gallas fan. He has a real passion for the club, and he wants us to win, and he shows it. Nothing wrong there. He has come up with crucial goals in big games during the course of the season as well, and I can't help but think that it's the responsibility of being captain that has sparked this passion in him. He's a leader and he owns the team. Nothing to beat Vieira, though.

The Arsenal website has been releasing a lot of articles of late, which is ironic because there really isn't much to talk about now. The Reserves side hammered 5 into the back of the Derby net, but does it really matter? The issue is that we've gone 3 years now without silverware. This year saw the best opportunity we've had to win the league since the Invincibles, and we've fallen short for reasons all too familiar to us Gooners by now

Injuries chipping away at a wafer-thin squad and crucial refereeing decisions going the wrong way. Maybe we can't really do anything about the latter, but at least the squad can be strengthened! We can forgive le boss during this period, because with the stadium costs still being recouped, Wenger hasn't had the money available to him to spend until this January, when there were reports of a 70 million pound warchest at his disposal. Obviously he never expected Eduardo to be put out of action like that, but maybe he could have taken a more conservative approach to Van Persie's and Rosicky's injuries, and spent on some cover for them.

So it's time now to look towards the summer transfer window, and once again a highly rated player has made known his desire to join the Arsenal -- David Villa. The classy Spanish identifies with Arsenal's touch play and has said that he would choose Arsenal over any other Premier League team. Wenger, though, has immediately crushed all our hopes with his usual "younger players need room to grow" excuse. Agreed, it worked with Adebayor, who was a revelation in the first half of the season, but Wenger has to realise that Arsenal is not a school. It's a club. That needs trophies. It's not going to be possible to compete with squads with the size and quality of Liverpool, Chelsea, and Manchester United with a 11 players and a bunch of kids. He has to invest in a few really good players, not just 1 (like he said last week) or 2 (the latest amendment).

I hope the change from 1 to 2 is not because Flamini will have to be repaced. The Flam has little more than a week to decide whether he wants to stay a Gunner next season. Cesc has been trying his best to convince him to stay, but is it enough? If his priority is money, there is no way Arsene can keep him with the current salary caps at the club.

In other news, Palermo striker Amauri has been linked with Arsenal. He's been valued by his own club at about 25 million and Arsenal are reported to be "willing to pay" 4 million. I found this quite amusing. Do they actually expect to make signings by publicly insulting the club and the player? Forget it anyway, this one's not coming to Arsenal.

Ben Arfa, however, just might make his way to the Emirates. The talented Lyonnais has been in Wenger's sights for some time, and his development from an individualistic player into a team man has increased his chances of success at Arsenal. Of course, Wenger would have to pay around 10 million for a teenager, and he really isn't used to making signings like that.

Now tomorrow is the game against Reading, and how I hope that Eboue is moved out of the right midfield position! With Vela coming back (hopefully) next season, Eboue should be used as backup RB to Sagna, if he is still in the team. Lehmann is back in goal, and personally, I have more confidence in him than Almunia. Almunia is an alright backup goalie, somewhere along the lines of Hilario, but where's our Cech (and Cudicini)? Hopefully Theo will start, Adebayor will look to catch up with Torres in the goals chart, and Hleb will actually shoot and not scuff the shot.

Yeah, today's posts are rather late to cover the two games that I missed, and honestly, didn't get to watch live: Arsenal vs Manchester United, which ended 2-1 to the Red Devils, and the third and final test between India and South Africa which India won in 3 days, in swift and stunning fashion.

South Africa started well enough, winning an important toss on a pitch that Graeme Smith thought had started crumbling before the first ball had been bowled. The openers did their job, but Harbhajan and India fought back to restrict them to 265. On the second day, Ganguly and Laxman played a couple of gems to help India to around 280/9, but the game was still evenly balanced with South Africa releasing press statements that they would be quite happy to concede a lead in the range of 20-30 runs. Though what followed on the final day could not have been predicted by anyone, Sourav almost did - he said that he hoped Sreesanth and Ishant create some magic the next day - and that was exactly what they did. They edged, poked and occasionally clobbered their way to a mischievous 46-run partnership, with Sreesanth ending on 29. It totally took the steam out of the Safs, and Dhoni had a little surprise for their openers when they walked out to bat for the last time in the series... Harbhajan with the new ball! It didn't exactly pay instant dividends, but it eliminated any initial loose balls, and forced the Safs to work to erase the lead. Circumspect batting and brilliant flight bowling from Sehwag took out the big guns, and Bhajji and Ishant completed the job with finesse and efficiency, leaving India with a friendly target of 62. With even Jaffer scoring at a strike rate of over 90, you could see India's intent to finish it quickly, and it was all over all too soon for Smith & Co.
With the win, India retained their no.2 position in the ICC Test Rankings behind Australia. Harbhajan picked up the Man of the Series award, though Dale Steyn couldn't have been far behind.
One thing that I was happy about was seeing Ishant Sharma deliver some beauties in his comeback match. India has had so many promising fast bowlers just fade away after injury, and I really don't want us to lose this one. Six and a half feet tall, and probably still growing, the kid had the talent to bowl in the high 140s in Australia and make Ponting look like an amateur.
Incidentally, I believe this is the first time that 2 successive tests have ended inside 3 days, and credit to the groundsman, Harbhajan, and Gary Kirsten for sticking up for India's right to prepare near-dustbowls to protect their home record. The green wicket in the 2nd test would only have made sense if India had a fully fit, full strength pace attack.. But the best bowlers were sidelined and we chose to play unfit bowlers instead of people like Praveen Kumar. Anyway, that series is done with, and it's time to turn our attention to the IPL.

It'll be interesting to see international superstars playing in the same XI as untried youngsters, as well as teammates now having to compete against each other.

Theo's goal & Liverpool's 12th Man

Congratulations to Liverpool... on your new twelfth man - the Ref. The Reds would not have drawn the first leg if Hleb's penalty had been given, and obviously would not have won the second leg had if the Babel penalty had not been given. Wenger and Toure have both been quoted in the press complaining about these decisions that gave away the semi-final berth.

I hate the fact that we didn't get the decisions our way on those penalties too, especially the Hleb penalty because that would definitely have been given on any other day. Or maybe if the referee simply had not been from Kuyt's hometown, and old buddies with the Dutchman.

But actually what I hate more is that every time we lose, there is some stupid external factor like a foul, penalty or an offside decision that is to be blamed for the entire match's result. Clichy's comments in the press differed from those of his coach and his Ivorian teammate. After being within 7 minutes of moving to the penultimate round, and not being able to defend from the kickoff after our goal, he said, was just "ridiculous". And he's right. We shouldn't even have been in that position (2-2). Theo's magical 70-yard run (maybe one of the best runs made by an Arsenal player) should have given us the lead, not have just created the equaliser.

Adebarndoor proved that he deserves his new name by missing a complete sitter being one on one with the goalie, and Emmanuel Eboue screwed up once again, getting into the box and opting to shoot at the side of the net instead of crossing for his teammates at the goalmouth. I watched the match with a (French) friend of mine, Nicolas, and when he saw Ade miss the sitter, he said 'typical Arsenal'. Of course, we don't get the EPL out here in Marseille on the local network, so he couldn't have been following Arsenal's devastating game last year, but he was talking about Arsenal of 2005 and 2006. Dominate, pass beautifully, get into great positions, and find ways to miss the target.

We've been slipping into that game again this year, and without Henry we don't have those brilliant individual players who can produce a goal out of nothing. Gerard did it to us in the first leg, and Torres produced a stunner in the second. He's well worth the 26 million pounds they paid for him, and as most of you know, is the second highest scorer in the league despite Benitez's rotation policy. We'll never know if Eduardo was to be that player for us, but we certainly know now that he wont be back till December, and it's really looking like it's time to actually use some of that 70 million quid Wenger has at his disposal.

I mentioned Theo Walcott's incredible assist earlier on, and here is a little treat for you.

So this is that talent that everyone has been talking about for the last couple of years. You can see Ade doing his celebration dance but then realising that the goal really belongs to Walcott, and he directs the crowd to the 19 year old. Theo has shown he can combine his amazing pace with brilliant light touches to leave the opposition eating turf, and I think the time has come to shift him to a central striker's role. The wings don't give him the space he needs to unleash his attacking game. His assist was the best part of the game, and it eased the pain of getting dumped out of the Champions League.

So now all hopes of silverware are pretty much gone. We can only fight for second place, and I doubt we can lose third place to Liverpool who are way behind the Big Three. It may be time now to experiment with the team, and try out something new. Like dropping Eboue, for instance.

Make or Break

Well, this is it, folks! It's make or break for Arsenal tonight. The Premier League is nothing more than a dream, and Rafa is right, Europe is the last hope for us.

After being heavily criticised for his rotation policy early in the season, Benitez looks like he might have the last laugh. His players are fighting fit and look the favourites to go through against a feeble and fatigued Arsenal team. Cesc seems to have lost his spark since that magical moment at the San Siro, but Wenger still believes he "has enough in the tank" because the Arsenal game doesn't tax individual players as much.

We're going to need much more than a fit Fabregas to overcome this Liverpool team though. Crouch has a great history against us, with a goal in the last game, and remember the hattrick? Gerrard will have a load of confidence after leaving Toure in a sorry heap to create that goal in the first leg. Reina can always be relied upon to stop at least a couple of 'certain' Arsenal goalward shots.

But hopefully Adebayor can produce something. He's definitely a threat to the Liverpool defence. They aren't equipped to defend against him, especially on set pieces. For Walcott, it's just a matter of time before he becomes that lethal weapon we need so badly. He was really incisive in the first leg when he came on as a forward, and I hope he gets his chance here tonight. RVP is back, though I have my doubts over his fitness. He hasn't looked really ready since his return and has been making mistakes in the box.

Here's how we line up (from the arsenal.com match menu)

Arsenal squad to face Liverpool:

1 Jens LEHMANN
2 Abou DIABY
4 Cesc FABREGAS
5 Kolo TOURE
6 Philippe SENDEROS
10 William GALLAS
11 Robin VAN PERSIE
13 Alexander HLEB
16 Mathieu FLAMINI
17 Alex SONG
19 GILBERTO
22 Gael CLICHY
24 Manuel ALMUNIA
25 Emmanuel ADEBAYOR
26 Nicklas BENDTNER
27 Emmanuel EBOUE
31 Justin HOYTE
32 Theo WALCOTT

There's everything to play for, especially if Fenerbahce manage to keep Chelski out. Keep your fingers crossed for this one.

Arsenal are tired

A massive pile of work and a bit of speechlessness kept me from posting after the last two horrific games...

India submitted meekly to the Safs... At least Sreesanth and Pathan gave the crowd a bit of fun towards the end, but it was shocking how the end had come in just 3 days. This has been one of our worst losses in years! You know it's all gone wrong for the selectors when India's best batting performance of the match comes from Irfan Pathan [Yes, Ganguly scored more... but test batting(especially this test) is about staying at the crease, and Ganguly couldn't do it. ] and the Indian seamers took 2 wickets compared to the South African seamers' 19!!

Somehow, Arsenal has put on a similar showing over the past month or two with 8 pathetic points from the last 7 games. With Manure dropping points this weekend, it looks like the title could even end up in Chelsea's hands! What an insult that would be to Arsene, that Jabba the Hutt, in his debut season, after copping the kind of flak he has, could end up winning the league, when the Arsenal manager backed by the "Arsene Knows" brigade will be left with nothing for the third year running.

How much does that say about Arsenal? Are we a top flight club that believes that it deserves to win major competitions every year? It seems more like the mentality of a mid-table club where a manager is praised for pulling his team into the top 4, defying all those naysayers etc etc
It's really no better than a club like Newcastle, or dare I say, Tottenham...

What on earth is wrong with Arsene Wenger? Can't he see that all we have is 13 or14 first team players worthy of playing in championship-winning side?

Let's look at the team... It's my first Arsenal post, so maybe you should know what I think of them.

GK
Lehmann: Still capable of the odd brilliant save, but no longer an invincible.
Almunia: Popular within the team. Merely an average goalie by Premiership standards.
Fabianski: Haven't seen enough of him to make a judgement. But he's Polish, and that counts for something if you're a goalie.

CB
Gallas: Seems to embody the spirit of the fans. World class, but slowly and steadily losing pace.
Toure: The African Lion. Arsenal in his blood. Strong, fast CB, with a great tackle.
Senderos: Decent cover at CB, but wouldn't make the bench at Man U or Chelsea.
Djourou: See Senderos.

LB
Clichy: Incredibly fit. Classy LB
Traore: Just a kid who likes to show off. Has the physical presence of a feather. Would make the Chelsea Reserves if he was English.

RB
Sagna: The best player to come in this season, and one of the biggest reasons for our early success.
Hoyte: What is he really? CB? RB? How enigmatic :-/
Eboue: I'll come to him later.

CM
Fabregas: Quality through and through. Stays relatively injury-free. World class, with a massive future (hopefully at Arsenal).
Flamini: The new Gattuso, a revelation this season. Great partnership with Fab. Is he going to stay at Arsenal next season? We'd like him to... Juventus wouldn't.
Gilberto: Once part of the Invincibles, but ever since he decided to take that break after captaining Brazil at the start of the premier league, his career has been on the decline. For all the experience he has, the only thing he could teach Fab and Flam now is the Samba. Time for him to take that walk into the sunset.
Denilson: Carling Cup specialist. Potential (well, he is Brazillian), but has had nothing to write home about this entire season, apart from maybe one long-range deflected goal. Can he possibly replace either Fabregas or Flamini? Not at this level.
Song: An utterly useless player! Sometimes played at CB, where he's hopeless, and sometimes in midfield, which I'm guessing is his position. But he's just so bad, I don't know what Wenger sees in him. Probably costs nothing. He played well at lower levels but has been unable to do anything this year.

The Other Midfielders (You never know where they might play next!)
Hleb: Usually RM, CM, or CAM (in the hole). On his day, brilliant touches, skills, through balls, winning penalties.. But when it's not his day, you'll find him falling down all on his own, getting tiny little injuries, giving the ball away, and passing to the wrong people.. Luckily for us, he's usually good. However for a midfielder of his class, it's amazing how poor a shot he is. It's like he freezes in front of goal, and can't seem to get off a decent shot unless he has 10 seconds alone on the ball. I would never let him take a penalty. How good is he exactly?Well, Barca want him.
Rosicky: We used to have this player, Rosicky.. He had the speed, the powerful shot, and of course fit right into his slot in the Arsenal's perfect passing game. He was picked as replacement for Pires, coming in just as Robert left. Nowadays you can find him in hospitals, doctors' waiting rooms or on the physio's table. Nowhere near a premier league game, though.
Walcott: Billed as "the next Henry" when he came in. Sizzling pace (100m in 11 seconds when he was 14) and had the skills to back it up. After more than 2 years with Arsenal, this 19 year old has made it to the England team, and makes a definite impact every time he comes on as a sub. However, I don't think Wenger does him justice with the number of starts he gets.
Eboue: If it wasn't for Wenger, there was no way in hell any manager would have allowed Emmanuel Eboue to make it to the Midfielders' section! He's an athlete, that's for sure. He's got pace, stamina, and aggression. However, he has no brains. And he really really can't shoot. Gives away the ball too much these days, and somehow manages a start almost every time. Makes some really bad tackles. Most likely to be voted out by Gooners, he is the man seen to be keeping Walcott out of the team. Might be considered a decent player at Portsmouth.
Diaby: When he came in as a 19 year old, Wenger thought he had found the next Vieira. In fact, he probably thought he had found Vieira. He was great at the start of this season, and had come back nicely after a horrible injury similar to Eduardo's. If you see him playing lately, there's nothing he really has in common with ol' Patrick except for that red card he got in the last game.

ST
RVP: The Flying Dutchman. He does it all. Free kicks, corners, powerful long range shots, neat finishes, even some good defending on corners... Arsenal's talisman. Can't seem to keep him away from the injury ward for too long though. Not match fit right now.
Adebayor:
2007: "Adebayor Adebayor! Give him the ball, and he will score!"
2008: "Adebayor Adebayor! Give him the ball, he'll miss a barn door!"
After his tremendous surge to the top of the goalscorers charts, he cut his hair and was never the same again.
Eduardo: World class finisher, with pace, power (yes, refer to his League Cup goal against Sheffield) and a bag of tricks. Sadly had his leg broken in two by a brutal tackle. (We hope Taylor recovers well)
Bendtner: Chosen over Sebastian Larsson to graduate into the first team, while the latter was sold to Birmingham. An imposing physical presence, a great target for set pieces but seems to have ego problems with Adebayor in particular. Was wanted by AC Milan, but he would have been nothing but a bench warmer there.


So that about covers it for the first team. Let's look at what we've really got now for the remaining games. The premier league is over for us, but Wenger will keep persisting, trying to win it, and by doing that he is putting our best players at risk, jeopardising the only real chance at silverware this season -- the UCL.

So what is this great championship-deserving side we have? An average goalie. 2 CBs: old, but a decent pairing. One good LB. No one at RB. Toure tried and we all saw what Gerard did with him in the first leg. A horrible RM in Eboue. A class partnership in middle (Fab & Flam) that is growing increasingly fatigued with lack of cover. Hleb wasted on the left, or Diaby wasting the opposition on the left (and thus getting sent off). Adebarndoor and Bendtner up front.. a volatile partnership at best. Walcott wasted on the bench.

Is this team expected to mount a serious challenge for any silverware at all? Agreed many of the players are qualite but the reason we have been unable to sustain our style of football over the length of the season is that there isn't any quality backup for these players... and when you don't have backup, you end up overworking the noes you have, leading to further injuries than you would normally expect.

Now, Wenger laments the loss of Eduardo, RVP and Rosicky, saying that IF we had all 3, we would be top. The only way we would be on top with all 3 fit, is if we had more players on the bench, and better players on the bench. Can you imagine what would have happened if Clichy had been injured? Gallas or Traore would have to switch to LB, and what a disaster that would have been! Sagna left for just one game when his brother died, and we immediately felt his loss. In more ways than one. Wake up, Wenger!

It will be Fabregas who burns out soon if nothing is done about this. Nobody wants change the core of the team, but do bring in some class players... and rotate, for God's sake! Gilberto has to go, and Eboue is no RM. At RB, being cover for Sagna, there's a basis for his continued existence as part of Arsenal, but otherwise we're better off selling him on the cheap.

India vs South Africa 2008, 2nd Test, Stumps on Day 2

Stumps on Day 2 of the I'm-the-bad-test

A first innings lead of over 400, and they're not done with us yet! It looks bad for India. I still wouldn't say we've lost it yet, because the pitch is certainly flattening out, and the South Africans have no spinners of note, so if there are a couple of batsmen ready to gut it out in the middle, they might be able to take us to a draw.

But what went wrong? How did we get here, neck deep in the shite?

Let's try to answer that under a few neat heads...

1) The brilliance of Steyn - This guy has been destroying batting lineups regularly for more than a year now. He is way and out the best bowler South Africa has. His pace, accuracy and venom are enhanced with that seeming hatred of the three stumps peeping out from behind the batsmen. With him playing you can rest assured than once the recognised batsmen are out (which probably wont take too long), the end of the innings is near. That he would make an impact was entirely expected.

2) The test specialists: Kumble, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman - The three pillars of the batting order (without Sachin) are expected to score the bulk of the runs, but with no recent competitive cricket to test their form or keep them match fit, India was asking for trouble. Anil Kumble's effectiveness has been waning noticeably this season. His strength and penetration is based on his accuracy. The words "Anil Kumble" and "nagging line" in the same sentence used to be a cricketing cliché, but he seems to be losng that edge now. All the oldies are terribly unfit and their shoddy fielding is an insult to fans like us.
Personally, I have a feeling that because they were kept out of the one day squad (and perhaps rightly so) they neglected their fitness and field drills. Something needs to be done to ensure that they are fit enough to be on the field for an entire day, even if they are not involved in the national side. They are entitled to their place in the squad, but that doesn't mean that they don't need to work their asses off to improve their fielding. Dravid has voiced (shocking) opinions when he was captain that because players of his generation are not fit enough, the youngsters need to step up and give the team the edge in the field. It is an appalling attitude, blatantly shirking responsibilities of contributing in the field, and what was worse was that not one "expert" commented on it.


3) Bewildering Bowling Selection - RP Singh has only just returned from injury and is clearly quite out of form. It is astounding that this kind of thing can't be detected in the nets and pre-game training. The ideal spearhead Ishant Sharma was denied to India through injury, but I feel the swing of Praveen Kumar should have been made available.

Irfan Pathan (henceforth referred to as Pathy) has proven time and again that (if not given the new ball) he is more about restriction rather than penetration and is best suited to the shorter forms of the game. Yuvraj or Kaif should have played in his place, though whether they would have top scored with 21 runs not out is debatable.

Kumble is nursing an injury, and as mentioned earlier, is losing his teeth of late. A genuine leggie like Chawla should have played.

Sreesanth & Harbhajan are young and energetic and while not the most consistent are the only two bowlers in this team capable of producing wicket-taking balls. Well, maybe there's Sehwag, but that's just being silly.

4) Mind-boggling captaincy - Kumble played the good host to perfection, persisting with himself, Harbhajan and Pathy in the morning session, giving nothing to Sreesanth until the new ball was available. Normally, the wait for the new ball would have been acceptable, but I think he missed a trick here. The morning moisture was completely gone by the time Sreesanth came on, and the batsmen had got their eye in. If he could get a wicket like Kallis' after the batsman was set, imagine what he could have done with the moving ball in the morning. Kumble obviously didn't. For all his statesmanly conduct, he has the creativity of an old sock.

Now a word for our tormentors. South Africa have had us on the rack and rightly deserve their position at the brink of a series victory in India. Kallis -- one of the best allrounders to have played the game -- and de Villiers -- all potential, but nothing tangible until today -- ground India into the dust, and despite the hospitality extended to them by Captain Kumble and the curator, need to get some credit for what they've achieved.


Just on the side, a lot of "fans" have been blaming the cricketers' attention being on the IPL, but I don't think we need to blame them for making money. They have performed in the past and are merely reaping the rewards for that now. It's important that we keep them motivated. Don't forget the sorry decline of the Windies team because their players haven't felt that their pecuniary compensation was enough.

Introduction

Welcome to Guns&Cricket!
...That mysterious zone where everything Arsenal FC and Indian cricket converges

After a string of short-lived topical blogs and one so general it died of boredom, I've decided to write about what I actually love and find the time to follow.

I've been an Arsenal fan from about the turn of the millenium, when ESPN introduced India to Henry, Bergkamp, Overmars, Petit, Adams playing the great game under the great Arsene Wenger, a man who, judging by his name, was surely destined to run this club.

Of course, being Indian, I've been a fan of the Indian cricket team probably since I was nothing more than a zygote, when Kapil Dev lifted the Prudential World Cup in 1983.

I'd been thinking of starting a site on at least one of these teams for some time, and the recent ups and downs that both of them have had has caused me to be especially involved in their progress of late.

Currently they're both in a bit of a slump, following a tremendous rise last year. So expect opinionated rants, desperate cries for help, hair-splitting, speculation, overanalysis and incorrigible hope for the future. This is where you want to come and let it all out when your team is down. Drinks are available in your fridge.