das juggernaut

bayern munich are dangerous. they may not have appeared to be in recent years, but i think there is no denying now that they are back to being one of the most dangerous teams in the world, let alone the bundesliga.

even without michael ballack they've been playing well, and even not playing to top form they've been finding ways to win. makaay and pizzaro are always dangerous, and guerrero is proving to be a scary talent -- even if he's only coming off the bench. the world cup competition for the number one shirt appears to have returned kahn to his keeping of old. bastien schweinsteiger is one of the best midfielders in the world and he's still just a baby (even hargreaves is playing well, go figure), and demichelis has been a revelation. and at the back they are almost impossible to beat: lizarazu, ismael, lucio and sagnol have got to be one of the best, most solid back fours in the world.

as much as i'd rather see the gunners as the champs league champs this year, i will be happy to see bayern pull it off. and i really think they're going to. mark my words: bayern munich v. olympique lyon in the final.

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bring the passion back to our game!

it's a sunny day

you remember how i was saying recently that we were missing sol? how much we were missing sol showed clearly today in our win against everton.

of course the two goals were great -- sol scoring a brace doesn't happen everyday -- but it was what was going on at the back that made all the difference. there was comfort back there tonight. lauren and cole could rove freely up the flanks; toure had time to settle in and stay in position, he wasn't running around covering for the black hole of cygan or the occasionally sketchy senderos; jens was relaxed and in control, and he had a free path to the ball during set piece plays. sol makes all the difference in the back.

could we have beaten everton by more? absolutely, and we probably should have. freddie, reyes and van persie all had excellent chances, and hleb should have taken a couple of shots, but today's win was the first solid win we've had all season. the return of sol made that possible. and six weeks from now we're going to look back at our major injuries -- sol and henry -- and we're all going to say that we missed the former much more than the latter. and that's not because henry isn't great, but because our options when henry is gone are much stronger than when sol is gone.

and do any other gooners agree? sol for captain!

blah

when arsenal isn't playing it's hard to get too excited, but i get excited enough to get up on the weekend at 5am to watch any old game. so this weekend i saw chelsea beat charlton, although the blues played another crap first half. then i saw a pretty decently played nil - nil draw between man utd and liverpool. but the only game that really got me excited was citeh against bolton. the wanderers crap football took its toll on pearce's attack and the 4-5-1 was victorious again -- unjustly and with all kinds of luck. citeh hit the woodwork 5 times today (yeah, yeah, they should have scored) and bolton get a shiite penalty shot in the dying seconds (it was a penalty, but what a shitty way for citeh to lose). bolton were outclassed, outplayed, but they walk away with three points. shitty. more tomorrow after everton v. arsenal.