Jan

31

Sp*rs preview - Wenger’s revenge on Pardew

Filed Under The Arsenal | 655 arses

Looks like the reports that said Julio Baptista would miss tonight’s game were on the money. His absence was confirmed yesterday and it looks like he’ll miss the Boro trip on Saturday. The boss is hopeful he won’t be out much longer than that but we’ll certainly miss the man who has made the Carling Cup his own so far.

One man who’ll be back though is Gilberto and he’ll start having served a three match ban for slightly kicking Robbie Savage a few weeks back. Cesc will probably get a rest so it’ll be Flamini alongside him, I’d imagine, with Denilson left and Walcott on the right. Unless he plays Eboue on the right and plays Walcott up front. Although I wouldn’t be surprised to see Aliadiere and Adebayor play. The back four picks itself so Kolo and Phil will start as we don’t have any other centre-halves fit, Hoyte and Traore will be the full backs.

Anyway, we’ll wait and see what the team news is. The boss says it will be a young side with an experienced bench and given the amount of injuries we have at the moment he doesn’t really have as much to play with as he has in previous rounds. Obviously it’s a massive game though. It might only be the Carling Cup but it’s the first ever semi-final at the new stadium and it’s against the oldest enemy there is. This competition has been a bit cruel to us at this stage before so let’s hope it’s our turn to smile at the final whistle tonight.

Theo Walcott, wherever he plays, will be looking to break his Arsenal duck. He’s been struggling a little bit in recent games but that’s only natural. He’s only 17, still very raw and still learning the game. The boss is confident that he can come through this tricky spell though, saying:

You forget that this boy is not even 18 years of age. Just let him play, give him the needed confidence. He has made big big improvements in the last six months. That will come out very shortly.

Certainly a goal would do wonders for him and the support of the home crowd could really help him too. He burst onto the scene as a ’supersub’ and has been involved in some very good moments this season. Crosses for goals for Gilberto and Baptista, off the top of my head, a super bit of play at Watford to set van Persie on his way, but he hasn’t been able to find the consistency as of yet. Perhaps people’s expectations of him are too high but he’ll come good and people getting behind him and not giving a very young player a load of unnecessary stick will help.

Kolo Toure talks about how proud he is to be given the honour of captaining the side and how Arsenal will try and attack Sp*rs tonight. Sometimes when I hear the word attack I think of the Arsenal boys with spears and clubs waiting around a corner and then setting upon our North London rivals until they lie twitching on the ground. I’ll be happy enough with just a few goals though.

The manager talks about how he can attract good young players to Arsenal because they know they’ll be given a chance.

What club gives players of 18 or 19 a chance in the Champions League? Do we see that at Milan or Madrid, or anywhere else? That is why players join us, because they know if they are good, they get a chance.

It’s a good point. I remember a question in one of the recent Arsecasts where it was suggested that we might find it difficult to attract good young players when they see the likes of Stokes being sold before really being given a chance. My thinking on it though is that young players can look at the players that don’t quite make it Arsenal and see that they get the kind of footballing education that allows them to go on a make a good career at a good level, whether that’s in England or abroad.

One young player who has never really made the grade is Alex Song and yesterday Arsene Wenger took his revenge on Alan Pardew by sending him on loan to Charlton until the end of the season. I know it’s not his fault when he gets picked but one performance against Liverpool aside he has looked completely out of his depth at Arsenal. You compare his first games to those of Denilson and it’s like chalk and cheese. With the Brazilian obviously a better player and with Diaby, Gilberto, Flamini and Cesc all ahead of him it would seem that the loan is a way to put him in the shop window for a permanent deal somewhere because his first team chances at Arsenal are slimmer than Karen Carpenter. Good luck to him though.

Speaking of Denilson the Guardian has a nice piece on him this morning and he says that he’s happy to play anywhere for Arsenal but he’s happiest in the centre of midfield. Robert Pires says that being substituted in the Champions League final was what convinced him he had to leave Arsenal and he says Arsene Wenger never thought he’d leave. He’s on the road to recovery after snapping his cruciate again and could be back in action for Villarreal next month.

And staying with Spain José Antonio Reyes has been warned by Real Madrid that they may not buy him permanently which would mean his return to Arsenal unless another buyer can be found. It would also make a permanent deal for Julio Baptista more complicated if the boss decided to keep him. The fact that Reyes picked up an injury - thought only to be a sprained knee though - might hamper the deal as well. We want him to stay fit and play well for Madrid. Until we’ve sold him.

And that’s about that. Fingers crossed for tonight. A full review of tonight’s action tomorrow. Yeah!

Jan

30

Arsenal ‘fail’ in Puerta bid and other stuff

Filed Under The Arsenal | 444 arses

Mixed news this morning regarding Julio Baptista. Yesterday Arsenal announced that his groin injury was ‘minor’ and that he’d be having a fitness test to see if he could play against Sp*rs tomorrow night.

However, this morning the Mirror reports that Baptista is out of the game and that Arsene Wenger failed in his attempts to make a last minute purchase because he didn’t have any money. Seems strange that he would even try and make a buy if he knew he didn’t have any money. Both the Sun and the Mirror say we failed with a loan bid for Spanish under 21 international Antonio Puerta who would provide cover for the left hand side. I had a look around the Spanish papers but I couldn’t find any mention of it so it’s hard to say where they’ve gotten that story from. As for Baptista we’ll just wait and see what the official word is rather than the Mirror’s speculation.

Gael Clichy is sure the team can cope with the injury problems and despite feeling tired after so many games he’s happy. This time last year he was sat on his arse doing nothing waiting for a broken foot to heal. He said:

In the last two years we have had a lot of injuries and always coped with it. We have the players to make the injured ones relax and recover well. We just hope that they come back and we’ll try our best to stay in all the competitions.

We do seem to have been suffering a lot more injuries than normal over the last two seasons though. Incidents like Diaby’s apart there seems to be a never ending supply of thigh, groin and calf strains which keep players out for weeks at a time. Are these the sort of injuries players played through in the past? Is it a case that with the sophisticated equipment which can show muscle strain that the players themselves aren’t even aware of the club are being too overprotective of the lads? Have we just been lucky in seasons past?

As it stands when everyone is fit our squad looks very healthy. It’s just that it seems like an age since everybody has been fit.

Gilberto Silva, who looks set to return to the side for the Carling Cup game tomorrow night, says despite all the goals this hasn’t been his best season for Arsenal. Far be it for me to disagree with the man himself but I think the consistency of his performances has been excellent and the goals are like the cherry on top of the consistency pie that he’s been dishing out great slices of since August. Erm…

Transfer news. Apparently we’ve agreed a deal to sign a striker! Don’t get to excited though, he’s only 15. Gilles Sunu will sign for the club next month and then join in July. We keep getting them younger and younger. I expect to wake up one morning to see a headline “Arsenal sign French embryo” or “Sperm starlet set for Gunners”.

Finally for today the draw for the 5th round of the FA Cup was made yesterday. No surprise to see Chelsea draw top class oppostion while if we beat Bolton at the Reebok it’s another encounter with Blackburn at the Grove.

And that, my good old friends, is that.

Jan

29

Bolton pegged back, vote Arseblog in the Bloggies

Filed Under The Arsenal | 420 arses

A 1-1 draw with Bolton means another game on an already hectic schedule for a squad quite depleted by injuries but that’s all part of the joy of the FA Cup.

Continuing our trend of making the opposition feel as welcome as possible to our new home Bolton scored first just five minutes into the second half. Amazingly the second half followed the first half, which is becoming a bit of a tradition at this stage, in which not a whole lot happened. Bolton certainly had the better of it and caused us some problems without really creating any chances. We had one decent shot from Theo Walcott and an improvised Henry backheel was cleared off the line and that was about that.

Manuel AlmuniaAs I said they took the lead on 50 minutes after some nice play and it was Kevin Nolan who got the goal. He could have had a second not long afterwards but Manuel Almunia made a great save when he was trying to go around him. After that it was all Arsenal. We dominated possession and territory, again without creating too much (a Cesc shot as much as I can really remember), before we got level on 77. Cesc floated in a free kick, it came to the back post to Kolo Toure who headed into the ground as he was falling and with Jaaskelainen already committed the ball bounced over his flailing arm.

After that Baptista had a half-chance and headed wide and Aliadiere’s shot was comfortably saved before the full time whistle went. In the end I suppose you’d have to say it was a fair result. Neither side did much more than the other to deserve winning the game and the replay takes place in a couple of weeks at the Reebok.

Looking at the team I thought we looked a bit flat overall. At the back Clichy looks like he’s improving and Hoyte continued his decent form, Kolo and Senderos weren’t that troubled although I did enjoy big Phil flattening Anelka on the halfway line. Kolo’s enthusiasm and willingness to get forward shows how much he hates to lose. In midfield Theo showed a little bit more than he did in the Carling Cup games but still looks a bit lost or short of confidence. Hopefully though he’ll keep his place against Sp*rs because a run of games can only do him good. Cesc was as eager as ever, Flamini worked hard as usual but didn’t contribute going forward and Rosicky finished the game well after being well off the pace in the first half.

Up front I thought we were disappointing though. Henry and Adebayor didn’t do an awful lot but then sometimes you have games like that. Baptista looked better than either of them when he came on and I was surprised he didn’t start actually. However, there appears to be a doubt over his fitness with Arsene Wenger saying afterwards that he had picked up a groin problem which means:

We might have lost Julio Baptista today. A groin problem, but we hope it’s not too bad and he can play on Wednesday.

Let’s hope so too. At the rate our boys are picking up injuries there simply won’t be enough players to rotate for competitions like the Carling Cup or FA Cup. And with the replay it means the games come thick and fast. We have the second leg of the Carling Cup on Wednesday, we travel to Boro for a Premiership Plus 5.15 ‘oop norf’ kick off on Saturday and then we should have a week off but the Manchester City game was scheduled to take place the same date as the FA Cup replay so it might get moved back. We’ll wait and see about that though.

I do hope we do them in the replay though. I’m sure I’m not alone in finding the whole Bolton physical-Arsenal wimps analysis a pain in the arse. It must actually be worse for Bolton fans because not alone are they Bolton fans they’re hearing the whole time about how they use physical tactics. Their goal showed they can play a bit too, in fairness, but really in fairness the whole lot of them should be taken up in a giant hot air balloon which should reach the outer edges of space before being burst with a giant pin of some kind.

In light of the injury there’s talk about Arsenal making a ‘panic buy’ to cover the absences. Depending on which website you read the story is different. Take Arsenal-Mania for instance. They’ve gone with a headline saying ‘Wenger: Now I need to buy’ when he says nothing of the sort but that’s bound to be a few more clicks from Newsnow. Good to see standards as high as ever over there. In reality though it’s very unlikely he’ll buy anyone given that his most telling quote when asked if he would is ‘I do not think so‘.

I suppose if the worst came to the worst he could recall Lupoli or Bendtner but as it stands Henry, Adebayor and Aliadiere are fit and Baptista won’t be out that long, with any luck.

Anyway, we’ll find out about him and what the likely line-up for the Sp*rs game will be. As I said the number of injuries means the manager won’t be able to chop and change as much as he might like and he’ll be cautious about who he has on the bench after seeing subs Hleb and Eboue injured in the last leg.

Elsewhere William Gallas talks again about Chelsea and how ‘painful’ it was to leave but says he’s focussed 100% on Arsenal. If he could stop talking about Chelsea for two minutes then we might believe him.

Finally, a quick reminder if you haven’t already voted for Arseblog in the 2007 Bloggies please take 60 seconds to do that this morning. I’m up against some serious competition so all votes would be much appreciated. You don’t need to vote in any other category, just the Best Sports Blog.

Much obliged to you. More tomorrow.

Jan

28

Sunday round-up

Filed Under The Arsenal | 443 arses

A quickie for you this Sunday morning. Yes, I know, it’s the highlight of your week, just lie there and take it.

With Bolton arriving at the Grove today for an FA Cup 4th round tie Arsene Wenger has spoken about his young players and how long term their development would benefit the club despite short term problems, saying:

You need the strength to stand up because you know that when you put them in the team, they will make mistakes and you will get hammered. You can only pay for their education with points that you lose. Tony Adams at 16 made mistakes. At 30, he hardly made any.

Ahead of the game Stewart Robson offers his tactical analysis and says Arsenal must cope the diagonal balls that Bolton will pump into the full back areas for the likes of Kevin Davies who will elbow his way around the pitch all day.

Gael Clichy talks to the Independent and talks about his life at Arsenal so far and his year out of the game with injury while Gilberto Silva says Robbie Savage is a dick (in a roundabout way) but feels sorry for him because he broke his leg.

Amy Lawrence talks to Julio Baptista who, it appears, is becoming increasingly settled and more confident at the club, which can only be a good thing. She notes his willingness to use English when he’s not comfortable yet with the language which, as I mentioned the other day, is a great sign that he’s trying very hard to integrate as much as possible.

And that’s about it. It’s going to be a tough, physical game later on and I’m sure the lads will be well and truly up for it. Bolton players have been going on about Arsenal whinging and moaning and how they put those articles up on their dressing room wall to motivate themselves.

If I was Arsenal manager I’d just have pictures of Allardyce, Diouf and Kevin Davies with the words ‘KILL. DIE. MAIM. SLAUGHTER’ and I’d use electro-shock therapy on the players to get my message across. That said my managerial style is probably a bit different to AW’s.

More tomorrow.

Jan

27

Saturday round-up, AW sure can talk

Filed Under The Arsenal | 257 arses

A very quick Saturday round-up because I have a cold and a sore throat and I feel like a bag of shite.

We’ll start with Demento getting his knickers in a twist after Arsene Wenger allegedly told his players United would tire after 70 minutes. He called the remarks ‘petty’ and ‘nonsense’. Of course this was merely a comment Mathieu Flamini had made to L’Equipe but obviously it a struck a chord. The boss clarified what he meant and said United are hardly weak if they’re top of the league but I’d suggest Flamini’s original quote is nearer to the mark.

With Robin van Persie injured Jeremie Aliadiere will be staying at the club until summer at least and the boss believes he can get goals. One man on his way out though is Alex Song. The boss said:

Diaby is back and Denilson has shown that he is ready to play so, in central midfield, we are a bit congested with Flamini, Denilson, Diaby, Fabregas and Gilberto.

It’s hard to see him getting anywhere near the first team bar an injury crisis and when see how much difference there is between him and Denilson it puts his rather limited talents into perspective. Staying with midfield the manager feels Cesc is in need of a rest no matter what he says about wanting to play every game and he’ll be on the bench for one of the upcoming games, perhaps  Sunday’s against Bolton but more likely the game against Sp*rs because we’ll have Gilberto back for that.

There’s still no sign of William Gallas coming back. Apparently he’s been overenthusiastic in his recovery and has ended up crocked again. I suppose with the team on a roll and the likes of Senderos and Djourou showing they’re more than capable he’s tried to come back quicker than he might have. Of him Arsene said:

He should be back in two to three weeks but I still would not like to put any set time on it.

Meanwhile the boss has backed Theo Walcott to overcome his ‘growing pains’ and start producing. He might get a chance of a run in the team now that Hleb and Ljungberg, his two main rivals for the right hand side of midfield, are injured. He’s looked a little lost recently and short of confidence. A goal would certainly do him the world of good.

A move for Gareth Bale was ruled out and from AW’s comments it seems it has more to do with the price that Southampton are looking for rather than the fact we have two left backs already.

Now, moving on to the game on Sunday we’ve had a mixed record over the years against Bolton. In one of this morning’s Irish papers Kevin Davies says Arsenal have a ‘mental block’ when it comes to Bolton but Arsene Wenger believes his team can cope better and has played down suggestions that Fat Sam’s men are just a bunch of cloggers.

They can play. You cannot say that Gary Speed is not a football player, or Campo, Nolan, Anelka or Diouf. Chelsea wanted Tal Ben Haim because he is a good footballer. But my team have improved a lot on the physical side. Wednesday night against Spurs in the Carling Cup was very important.

I’m expecting a good match, I have to say. There’s an edge to this Arsenal team at the moment that wasn’t there in November when we played them before and I’m confident the lads can get a result. Maybe not the 4-0 that was suggested in yesterday’s Arsecast but I think we have the players and the ability and the physicality to beat them.

The final point for today is Michel Platini’s appointment as president of UEFA. Not a good day for football, in my opinion, and while Arsene Wenger is happy that a ‘footballer’ is in the position he’s ‘scared‘ of Platini’s appointment. I really hope that this doesn’t cause the split in European football many fear but some of Platini’s ideas about the game of football would drastically change the game and not for the better.

Right, time for some Uniflu, some barbiturates, a little bit of paracetamol, some ibuprofen and some chewable morphine. I should be right as rain after that.

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