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Would you call me mad if I say this? If Cesc Fabregas has signed a new deal that will keep him at Arsenal until 2014, it is most likely that Arsene Wenger will also be at Arsenal until 2014 (and hopefully, beyond). My reason? Consider what Cesc's agent Joseba Diaz said following the new Cesc deal:

"Cesc feels really happy how he is valued by Arsenal and to know that the Arsenal of the future will be built around him."

Now if this whole idea that we're going to build the team around Cesc is not far from the truth, then there is no better football manager than Arsene Wenger to make it happen. If true, then it'd be a double fabulous news for Arsenal FC and the fans for the Boss is going to stay for a long time to complete the Cesc Fabregas project. I mean, why would Cesc wants to commit himself to the club for such a long time if he is not given a guarantee of sort by the Boss that the Boss will be there for him, too?

The future is red and white!

In this post dated March 3, 2006, I implicitly predicted that Cesc Fabregas will stay at Arsenal until 2015. Well, here's the breaking news: Cesc will remain a Gooner until 2014. Whilst it is far from a certainty that the last year he will be with us is 2014, my prediction is just one year too long. But allow me to quote myself :

I can understand why Arsenal fans got extremely upset with losing especially when the referee was wrong to disallow Henry's goal, but I see the defeat to CSKA Moscow as a minor blip in our Champions League campaign. We have lost the battle but I'm more than confident that we can win the war come May, 2007.

I'm inclined to agree that CSKA Moscow played very well especially in the first half. They defended collectively, they fought for every ball, they neutralized Cesc Fabregas in the middle of the park. When they hit us on the break, they always looked dangerous. They got a plan, they sticked to it and it paid off. Whilst I couldn't agree more that the referee was inclined to favor them which proved to be decisive, I disagree with Henry that they didn't play better than we did.

When their manager (sorry, I can't remember his name) said as much as we have quality all over the place, he reckoned that we also have a weakness. I wondered what it could be but watching the game, I think I know what he was getting at. I hope I don't sound harsh but I got a creepy feeling that the CSKA Moscow identified our Hoyte as weak link in our game. No wonder all of CSKA's dangerous attacks were right-sided. Our third-choice right-back was a bit nervous, which capitalized by CSKA Moscow.

Hopefully, our young Gunners would learn one thing or two about defending a free-kick. Arsenal bloggers and fans are right to point out that Djourou and Fabregas were wrong to show their backs on the ball. We don't have United's Smith whose determination to stop the ball at any cost is well evident with his broken leg. It is this area that we miss Ljungberg. I remember in the Real Madrid game at Highbury, Ljungberg put his foot in the path of Roberto Carlos's freekick.

For some reasons, it looks like we played a bit better when Adebayor came on for Van Persie and Rosicky switched to the left-side position. It's not coincidence that Fabregas played better in the last 25 minutes of the game when Rosicky played wide and cut inside. I'm a big fan of Van Persie but the CSKA Moscow game appeared to demonstrate that, apart from Henry missing in an important game again, Van Persie is part of our offensive problem. He doesn't look like he's a team player--just yet--despite of recent comments of how he has learnt to play as a team.

But I'm not worried that much about that. Sometimes watching Van Persie on the field, I don't know what to make of him. Either he gets himself sent off for stupid mistakes or he creates a goal-of-the-weak material. I'm confident that he will be a great Arsenal player, though

I was down with a fever on Wednesday. It took me three days to recover, just in time to have myself prepared for the Manchester City game. But when the referee blew the final whistle, I was like, "I'm going to get sicked again."

I don't know what version of match review I want to write here.

Should I be a little bit rational and calm myself down with a self-servicing remark like "It is disappointing; yes it is but we will pick ourselves up"?

Or should I write from the bottom of my heart and vent my frustration on the binary system: "What's the matter with you guys? Can you just fucking shoot when you got the chance? And Eboue, what the fuck is that pass for?"

I'm not sure if I can understand the remark that we were a better team yesterday. If we were that good, how come we lost? Well, we lost not because we didn't play a better passing game, not because we didn't have more shots on target, not because our team didn't exude style but because we didn't score more goals than our opponent.

And why didn't we score goals? Well, we have a legend on the pitch who says his body is ready by October. And whilst we're waiting for his body to feel right again, perhaps we can forget September because if it is true that the legendary body will be ready on October and if the last two matches tell us anything, perhaps we should not expect too much that the goal will come from Arsenal's greatest legend anytime on September. Just wait for October.

This is not to say Henry should be entirely blamed for our ineptitude upfront. Robin van Persie didn't convert two or three great goal-scoring opportunities over the weekend. Hleb and Rosicky should be a bit selfish in front of goal. Just why they need one more stride to make a shoot is depressing to watch.

Last season we somehow built a reputation that if you bully us, we would limp on the pitch. I don't believe that it was the case yesterday. I thought our midfielders put their foot in the game; so we're getting physically matured this season. But it looks like we have a new problem or the same old problem. Our endless, over-elaborated, mind-fucking passing game doesn't, at the moment, produce the desirable result. To play otherwise is unthinkable. It's like a habit. You can't change your habitual disposition overnight. That will mean the elimination of Arsene's Arsenal. The real problem, though, is that we don't score goals. Once the goals come in, we will be alright.

Hoyte doesn't offer us a peace of mind but I hope we will not be experimenting with the left-back situation again this season. I'm willing to swallow my pride and bring Mr. Tweedy back to the team. What is the point of training with your team-mates if you can't play? The Boss says it is not damaging but it is unhelpful when you have that kind of situation. Not to out-argue the Boss, the Cole situation is both damaging and unhelpful.

I guess we have to put up with the shit. In spite of this, I still have a feeling that we're going to win something big come May 2007.

According to the Times, Chelshit reckon that one way to solve the Cole situation is to introduce the barter system to the transfer system. Imagine the Chelshit people talking to the Arsenal people:

"Look, we want Mr. Tweedy to solve our left-back situation so that we can congratulate ourselves for having two world-class players in every position. You see, Mr. Gallas has been a pain in our arse recently. I know you people have made a bid for Mr Gallas. You know we have offered you people a load of cash up to 20 million pound but you think Mr. Tweedy is worth 25 million pound. So if we accept your bid for Mr. Gallas and we kowtow to your demand, the net transfer you will gain from the Tweedy-Gallas situation would be 20 million pound. Fuck, because we don't want you to have any monetary advantage at our expense, how about this? You give us Mr. Tweedy and in return, we give you Mr. Gallas. Call it whatever you want, don't you think it would be a cool idea?"

Well, the Chelshit people can go and fuck themselves.

Some Gooners believe the result over the weekend is acceptable but I stand by my post yesterday that the basic problem I have with our performance in the Aston Villa game is our reluctance to take a chance outside the box. I want to take your attention to the Birmingham game last season at Highbury. The Birmingham goalkeeper was having a game of his life and we found the Birmingham defense so hard to break. But we won in the end. Ask yourself, how did we win? Robin Van Persie took a chance a few yards outside the box. His shot got slightly deflected and the Birmingham goalkeeper was defeated. The moral of story is that if we find that walking the ball into the back of the net is hard to do after 70 minutes of playing, it wouldn't do any harm to just fucking shoot.

In other Arsenal development, the Boss made an interesting remark about Mr. Tweedy: "I don't know whether the fans will be against him if he decides to stay--I think it is all down to the quality of the performances the player gives." Would the fans be against Mr. Tweedy? I don't know about others but if I take the whole Cole situation very personally, the answer is yes, I'm against the idea of the little cock playing for Arsenal again. But if I want to be pragmatic, and suppose he does play again and he gets the job done, I guess Mr. Tweedy will still be useful for our Arsenal cause. That said, even if he stays and set the premiership on fire, it doesn't mean I have forgotten what mess he had dragged the club into. It's basically utilitarianistic, I guess. It's up to the Boss to make a final decision pertaining to the Cole situation.

Maybe I didn't write clearly enough yesterday (although when I read the post this morning, I can't see why it was being misunderstood). I didn't mean to belittle Gilberto's contribution to Arsenal. When I remarked that Gilberto is "Arsenal's least popular player", I was just making an observation about my fellow Gooners' perception or attitude toward the Brazillian. With respect to Gilberto, there are two oppossing camps. I have written about this in the past. Nevertheless, here we go again and I'd keep it simple. Some believe Gilberto makes too many mistakes which are some too obvious not to ignore. Others think Gilberto does lots of invincible works on the pitch which are paramount to the well-being of the team.

My own feeling about the whole Gilberto thing? Well, I can appreciate Gilberto's holding role in the midfield. I can appreciate Gilberto chasing the ball back and throwing a tackle. In fact, whenever I watch Arsenal game, I always take a mental note how many tackles we make. Not that I have a secret fetish for human foot, I noticed Gilberto was great in that department in the Aston Villa game. I can certainly appreciate Gilberto's unsung job so that Cesc can play like we all know he does. But Gilberto does have what I call, well, a weird thing in his football. Last season's statistic suggests he is one of our best passers. But I can't help noticing that he often gives the ball away when he make a long- or high-ball passing. Sometimes he makes thing a bit more complicated until he got dispossessed. That said, Gilberto is at best when he keeps thing simple. Yes, he has saved our arse that day.

Hope this helps.