Monthly Archives: November 2007

Cesc's hammy, Wenger's ban + Arsecast 54

Good Friday to you all. There’s a good few bits and pieces to get through so we shall crack on without further ado.

There’s still no definitive word about Cesc’s hamstring but it does look likely that he’s going to miss the Villa game at least. His enthusiasm and willingness to play will be tempered by the medical staff who will ensure he doesn’t aggravate his hamstring and spend longer out. With Flamini back though and Gilberto, Diarra and Denilson all there it means there’s plenty of cover, but we’ll miss him, no question.

Hleb and Clichy will have fitness tests on thigh and hamstring respectively but they too could be short. Even more worrying is the fact that according to Arsene Wenger Robin van Persie is not due back for ‘another two or three weeks’. Now that’s a bummer. There was talk he’d be back for the Wigan game but I suppose we have to wait until he’s properly mended. However, when you remind yourself of what he did to his knee I think we can count ourselves lucky it wasn’t a lot worse. Fuller team news and a preview of the Villa game tomorrow.

Arsene Wenger says he won’t appeal his touchline ban after being sent off during the Sevilla game and has called it ‘artificial’, saying there’s always a way to communicate with the players. He says:

It is a very artificial rule. If I say something to the guy next to me, he can communicate with the guy down on the bench. I don’t need to communicate directly. It is a little bit an artificial ban. You can always communicate if you really want to.

That will no doubt go down very well with UEFA who are already considering a longer ban but he’s right. Perhaps if they put him under house arrest he might have more problems. Never one to miss a chance of a dig at an old enemy Arsene also joked about increasing the size of our laundry baskets, with Mourinho rumoured to have been wheeled into the Chelsea dressing room during his touchline ban. I think he should just wear a disguise. A giant Womble suit or maybe Arsene could be Gunnersaurus for the day. The idea of the lads being given a half-time teamtalk by a 7′ green dinosaur is rather amusing.

Manuel Almunia could be on the verge of a call-up to the Spanish national squad, according to the boss. They do have a wealth of decent keepers over there. Casillas is the number 1, but Reina is on the scene and Valdes from Barcelona can hardly even get a look in, although that’s down to him being a fucking clown more than anything else.

Carlos Vela will come to Arsenal in the summer and fight for a first team place next season. The boss says:

He will straight away be with the first-team and after that it is up to him to get a place in the side. I sent him to Spain because he comes from a Mexican culture and it is easier to adapt in Europe. He has what we like here at Arsenal. He is a good passer of the ball and a finisher. He has that intelligent movement with very good technique and great pace.

He certainly looks like a good player from what I’ve seen. He’s only started 3 league games for Osasuna this season but has scored one goal and made two assists and is now becoming more regular in their squad. We’ll keep an eye on him and keep you updated as to his progress in La Liga.

Double-D offers Sp*rs advice about their new stadium. Hilarious. “Don’t do it! No. You don’t need it. What about ground-sharing at Wembley instead?” Twat.

Now, it’s 1990. Time for the Arsecast.

In this week’s chock-a-block Arsecast, sponsored by OleOle.com, I chat to Goonerholic about the Sevilla game, Philippe Senderos and the three league games coming up away from home, The Man in the Bar has a player history, AWH is there, there’s an exclusive interview with a Spanish journalist about Carlos Vela and, amongst other things, I’ll announce who the winner of the Savile Rogue scarf was.

To subscribe to the arsecast in iTunes – click here. To download this week’s arsecast directly – click here (16mb MP3). You can find the arsecast archives here. And you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

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And that’s it. More tomorrow. Have a good day, Arsechums.

Wenger in hot water and Cesc could miss 10 days

Shall we start with some early morning Cesc? I think we shall.

Young master Fabregas has defended Arsene Wenger from any criticism he’s been getting for fielding a weakened side against Sevilla on Tuesday. He said:

The only team that can do something as brave as that to develop young players is Arsenal. The manager only deserves praise for it. I have also learned from defeats like that in the past when I was a younger player.

I read some people suggesting that Gallas and Adebayor didn’t need a break and in the context of the Sevilla game only that’s probably true. However, with so many games to play in December and with the manager’s sights firmly set on the league title this season it’s completely understandable. Cesc then went on to talk about his injury, saying:

I’d say I’ll be fit for Saturday, but the doctors are always trying to be a little bit careful. We will see the reaction.

Fingers crossed he’s ok but if we do lose him for a couple of games there are worse games to lose him for than Villa, Newcastle and Boro. Not that I’m taking anything for granted. Villa’s league position is very impressive and it’s going to be a tough game at Villa park but I’d rather he missed those games than the one against Chelsea, for example. There’s been no official word from the club but various reports this morning are suggesting he’s going to miss 10 days which would encompass those three games. No point on making any real comment on that until we get confirmation from the club one way or the other.

Arsene Wenger is set to receive a 1 match ban from UEFA for his sending off in Sevilla. It’s a mandatory punishment although he can appeal. If upheld it would mean he’s not allowed sit on the bench or enter the dressing room and, if Chelsea have taught me anything, he can only communicate with the bench via some bloke wearing an earpiece covered by a silly looking hat. Arsene might also have his ban extended as he did not retreat to the stands, something UEFA insist on. The manager’s defence is that there was no way for him to access the stands so we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Comments from UEFA’s spokesman, William Gaillard seem to suggest further punishment will be forthcoming. He says:

If you are expelled from the technical area then you have to leave. The case concerning Arsène Wenger will be looked at again but the rules are quite clear on this. It is no excuse for a manager to say he could not find a seat.

No doubt Michel Platini will stick his oar in and have him banned for life,  the curly snotbucket. With only one group game remaining we face the possibility of Arsene being banned for at least the first game of the knock-out stages when we play Barcelona at home.

Manuel Almunia thinks we can still top the group and he’s right. We can. So there. Gilberto thinks we have to put this defeat out of minds and concentrate on the league and he’s right. We do. So there.

Not much else going on so I’ll take myself off and have breakfast and start the in-depth preparations for tomorrow’s Arsecast. Oh yes. You think I just make it up as I’m going along but no. It’s all scripted to within an inch of its life and the ‘uhms’ and ‘ahhs’ are simply there to add that made up on the spot ambience to the whole thing.

Until tomorrow.

The pain in Spain falls mainly …erm… something something

Unfortunately work meant I could only see the first 30 minutes of the game, right up until the point they equalised, so I’m not really in any position to comment on the game as a whole.

Obviously a defeat is never much fun but when you have important players rested and others coming back into the team after long absences due to injury and an inability to get in the side in the first place it doesn’t make your life any easier. A back four with one Champions League debutant (Traore), Hoyte who hasn’t played much this season and Philippe Senderos who is really struggling to become the player we all hoped didn’t help our cause.

As well as that I’m not sure quite why Arsene is so taken with the 4-5-1 at the moment. I know we’re missing van Persie but if Robin was fit we’d play 4-4-2 so I’m not sure why the manager seems to lack confidence in the other strikers in order to play that formation. Our goal was very nice though. We saw the best of Eboue with a ridiculously good backheel down the line and Nicklas Bendtner’s cross was calmly taken down and put away by Eduaro for his 5th of the season. We then saw the worst of Eboue with more over-reacting and diving and rolling. It’s made more frustrating when he follows up genuinely good play with shit like that. A mistake by Senderos gave possession back to Sevilla and when a clearly rusty Gilberto’s weak clearance fell to Keita he put it away beautifully with the outside of his foot to equalise.

And that’s as much as I saw live. Fabiano’s second was a great header but who was (not) marking him(?) and the penalty looked dodgy to me but there you go. There’s no changing it and it’s not really the end of the world. It would have been nice to keep the unbeaten run going but it had to end sometime. There’s still the chance that we can finish top of the group and while it’s certainly an advantage to have your second leg at home in the knock-out it’s not that much of an advantage that progress becomes impossible without it.

As well as that we’ll see how the team copes with defeat. While this will certainly dent our momentum I’m not sure that it’s going to derail us or anything like that so I think we need to keep things in perspective a bit. We said beforehand that if we didn’t perform Sevilla have the players to hurt us and that was the case. Still, let’s put it behind us and move on and pay little heed to the press who have been creaming themselves over us for months but now gleefully roll out headlines calling us ‘flops’. Shaddup. Thankfully the reaction around most of the main Arsenal blogs has been more measured.

Afterwards Kolo Toure wasn’t too happy with the referee. Neither was Arsene Wenger who was sent off for something he said and he branded the 4th official ‘shocking‘. According to the boss:

I do not know why I was sent off, I was really surprised. When Alves was down I said it was naïve to let him gain that time, that is all, and I have been sent off.

It remains to be seen whether or not there’ll be any further punishment because of the incident. As for the loss he said:

An unbeaten record in the Champions League is not important. We had to make decisions because we have a very important December. We had to make choices between the competitions. December for me is about the Premier League.

It’s hard to argue with that. What is telling though is that both Kolo and Arsene had no real complaints about the result, but Kolo remains positive, saying:

We knew that defeat would come but we need to start again and show character. To be a winner you need to come back from these hard things.

Quite so. It’s our first defeat since April of this year so we’re a little bit out of practice. Hopefully pride will have been stung and they’ll react in a positive way against Villa on Saturday who’ll be looking to take advantage of the situation a bit. Time for William Gallas to really earn his stripes, captaining in the face of adversity and all that.

What is worrying is the fact that Cesc seems to have picked up a hamstring strain and we’ll know how bad it is later today, I’d imagine. Even if it is just a slight tweak he could miss a week or two but hopefully they took him off before he could do any real damage to it. Anyway, fingers crossed it’s nothing too serious.

Now it’s time to dust ourselves off and get ready for the next game. December is going to be a huge month, 9 games in total, 3 away league games in a row coming up and this, more than an away game with a weakened team against decent opposition in the Champions League, will show us what this squad is made of.

Elsewhere Emmanuel Adebayor tells Jens he’s just going to have to be patient but he understands where the German is coming from. Yep, Germany.

Don’t forget, for those of you interested in your Arsenal fashion accessories, that there’s still time to enter the Savile Rogue scarf competition. Just listen to this week’s Arsecast for the very simple question and if you fancy £5 off the 1979 tracksuit top then simply go to Toffs and enter the code MK4B2 at checkout. Retail therapy, is that what they call it?

Till tomorrow.

Arsenal to make their point in Sevilla tonight

There’s an old saying about the town of Sevilla in Andalucia. I have no idea what it might be but I’m pretty sure there is one, and if you stretched it far enough you could make it apply to football in some way. I hope the traveling fans are having a fun time with the cheap beer and the great tapas.

The squad travelled yesterday but without Gael Clichy (injured), William Gallas (rested) and Emmanuel Adebayor (given time off to record his debut album which will feature a cover of Ashford and Simpson’s ‘Solid’). That means a place at left back for either Armand Traore or Justin Hoyte, Philippe Senderos should come back into the centre of defence while Nicklas Bendtner is a definite starter up front. Who partners him remains to be seen but the Champions League seems to suit Eduardo a bit better than the league at the moment so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him get the nod.

Despite the changes it’s a game the manager wants to win, saying:

We want to finish first. It’s an advantage in the draw and it means you play the second game at home in the knockout stages. It’s a tough competition and you need to arrive at the next stage in good shape.

We saw how beneficial it can be to play the second leg at home when we took our 1-0 lead from the Bernebeu a couple of seasons ago and it’s a good opportunity for the likes of Bendtner to show what they can do in a game which, although not crucial, is still of some importance. As mentioned yesterday Sevilla go into this game on the back of two successive league defeats and the home crowd will be expecting a performance tonight. They’re a team that’s capable of raising their game against big opponents as their recent 2-0 win over Real Madrid demonstrated so there’s nothing to be taken for granted tonight. If we don’t perform they’ve got players that can hurt us but I think we’re more than capable of getting a result.

Arsene thinks this group of players is capable of going one better than the year we were horribly cheated out of victory by a Barcelona team that bought the referee and was obviously on steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. He says:

We want it … we have more experience. I have always been a great believer in this group, even when everybody said that I was crazy. I believe in the players I have and I am very pleased with their attitude. We are one of the teams who can win it.

Victory tonight assures us top spot in the group, a draw means a win against Steaua Bucharest at home means we top the group, anything less and it’s out of our hands. Both teams like to play football so it could very well be an exciting, attacking game. Let’s hope so.

Away from tonight’s game AW has said he’s not responsible in any way for England’s failure to qualify for Euro2008. It’s quite incredible that he even has to address that issue. It’s like blaming him for the continued existence of Phil Collins. He’s also spoken about the number of managerial casualties this season but frankly I don’t care about that. If other clubs want to sack their managers then all the better, it makes them less good, doesn’t it? If new owners want to get into very public spats with their managers over transfers then let them on, I say.

Thierry Henry wanted Carlos Tevez at Arsenal. He wouldn’t have been alone there, I suppose. I would have quite liked Tevez at Arsenal but now he’s a Manchester United player and that means we don’t like him any more. When he’s at West Ham you can say ‘Oh, he’s a good player. Look at what he did last week’ but when he plays for United and does something good you go ‘Oh, you cunt’. It’s just the way of the world, isn’t it?

And that’s really about it. I have to admit a bit of a hangover this morning. It wasn’t my fault though. There was this man behind a wooden countertop kind of thing and behind it he had all manner of delicious drinks and the great thing was that if you gave him some money he’d give you a massive goblet of booze so as you can imagine I took full advantage of this unique situation. Who knows where you might find another place like that in Ireland.

Anyway, I’d best off and get some breakfast. Here’s to a win tonight and come on you reeeeeeeds.

More tomorrow.