Arsenal News: Thoughts on Sunderland Draw and Fantasy Football Update

Monday Morning is back upon us yet again and with it comes the pain of crawling out of bed to go out and attempt to earn a living. It's always that bit harder when Arsenal haven't got the result you had hoped for at the weekend but at least they got a point and remain in second place in the league. However, we now find ourselves four points behind Chelsea and level on points with "Manure" as the table starts to look very familiar to the other teams in the Premier league.

For me the most annoying part of the draw at Sunderland on Saturday was the ineptitude of the referee and I wonder if the words of Big Fat Sam had anything to do with it. He complained that our boss didn't want Arsenal players to be tackled any more and in the very next game we saw foul after foul against us go unpunished. Arsenal have quite a few players who are adept at shielding the ball while in possession and any tackle is going to get a piece of them before the ball but what we saw from Sunderland was that they just kicked through the shielding leg and took the ball time after time.

How many times did we see Arsenal players left on the ground as Sunderland pushed forward having "won" the ball off them. These tackles weren't particularly vicious but once the Sunderland players knew they could get away with them it meant that they committed them at every single opportunity. With Arsenal not at their best and the players in possession not having as many outlets as usual it meant that we ended up with a lot less possession than we would usually expect.

When we got the penalty the Sunderland players were a little shocked because it was exactly the same type of challenge that they got away with all afternoon. Unfortunately we all know what happened with that penalty and the least said about it the better I suppose. I will say that I can't understand why Samir Nasri didn't take it if he was the appointed penalty taker when both Cesc Fabregas and Andrei Arshavin are off the pitch.

It's a practice at Arsenal that the player who is fouled for a penalty doesn't take it but it makes no sense to me at all. It stretches back a few years to Thierry Henry's days and I think it's about time it ended. I suppose that it's in case the player is injured and unable to take the penalty but that's an on the spot decision that can be taken anyway. I do remember Cesc Fabregas getting his leg broken in the Champions league quarter final against Barcelona and still stepping up to score the resulting penalty but I would expect no less from someone of his mental strength.

Maybe the Arsenal players are looking to get all of us fantasy footballers more points as there are points for the player fouled as well as the player who scores the penalty but you can't get an assist on your own penalty. I doubt it very much and anyone with Tomas Rosicky in their team won't have been too happy with the loss of points for him missing the penalty either. From what I've read he has never taken a penalty before and I hope we never have to witness him taking one again.

Injury Updates:

There's still no word from the club on the extent of Cesc Fabregas's injury but we will hopefully know today or tomorrow as he has a scan scheduled. I'm hoping we will have him back for that Chelsea game and that Thomas Vermaelen and Abu Diaby will be available too as we need as many of our best players as possible. As it stands we are top of injury league table at physioroom.com and we're only five games into the new season which has a bit of a familiar ring to it.

Youth Team:

Our youth team managed a come from behind 3-1 victory over Aston Villa on Saturday with the goals coming from Philip Roberts(2) and Josh Rees. It moves them up to fourth in their league and they are five points behind pace setters Norwich after five games. Hopefully it will be a catalyst for them to push for a league and FA Youth Cup double.

Carling Cup:

We have a game away to the Spuds tomorrow night in the Carling Cup and it will be very interesting to see what teams start the match for both sides. We have treated the competition as a breeding ground for our youngsters for quite a few years now with a few experienced players who were not in the first team starting 11 the previous weekend as well to add some know how to the team.

However, the Spuds have always put out their strongest team as it was their only realistic chance of a trophy and I think they managed to win it a few years ago. With their Champions league games coming thick and fast it would make sense for them to rest players but I wonder If they will sacrifice the well being of a few of their better players in an attempt to get one over on us and sell a few DVDs on Wednesday.

Weekend Review:

I watched most the the "Manure" against Liverpool game yesterday and I was shocked that the referee bottled out of sending off both John O'Shea and Johnny Evans from the "Manure" team as they both denied obvious goalscoring opportunities to Fernando Torres when they took turns fouling him. Liverpool might have scored the resulting penalty and free kick but it would have been far better for them to have the score at 2-2 with "Manure" down to 9 men and they might not have suffered the 3-2 defeat that they ultimately did. Mind you Liverpool were desperate for most of the game and it only backs up what I have said about them all season that I can see them doing no better than last season.

Elsewhere Chelsea beat Blackpool 4-0 but for me the real winners were the Blackpool fans who were chanting "you're not as good as Arsenal" during the second half as Chelsea failed to build on their 4-0 halftime lead. With both City and the Spuds winning I think the table is already starting to shape up with the current top five the most likely to stay in those positions throughout the season. The big games start next week when Chelsea travel to City and then play at home to Arsenal the week after that. They have had a relatively easy start to their season and it will be interesting to see exactly how good they are in those next two games.

Fantasy Football:

My fantasy team had another good week this week with 70 points scored and I moved up another 250,000 places to just outside the top 300,000 overall. There's still a long way to go for me but once I enter the top 100 of the league that I'm running with 11Gunners I'll be happy enough. Currently I'm 163rd place out of 710 teams with the top 100 places only 16 points away. Here's how the top 10 looks -

1	DUO's Gunnerz	David Okere	73	350
2	Harry`s army	Daniel Messina	71	335
3	Bles FC	Ben Sloane	61	332
4	Vancouver	James C	85	331
5	Leave-Ma-Arcelona	Gurdeep Jugpal	66	329
6	RipRoarinReds	Nick Williams	53	327
7	Abba's Horse	Michelle Tilley	76	326
8	outlawz FC	beck outlawz	63	326
9	Mercenary Wanderers	david rose	69	325
10	MahindraUtd	Ankeet Mahindrakar	64	325

That's the lot for today but I'll be back tomorrow with a preview of the Carling Cup game against the Spuds.

See You Tomorrow.