Gilberto – Adebayor – Arsecast episode 14 out now!

A quick one this morning. Firstly because I’ve woken up a bit late and secondly because there’s not a whole lot going on anyway.

Gilberto talks about how the team is full of confidence after the win against Sp*rs and our recent form. He hasn’t given up on the title either which makes the trip to the North East vital tomorrow night. It’s certainly a potential banana skin and nothing less than three points are required if any title talk is to be considered.

Ahead of that game Adebayor and Eboue face fitness tests but Abou Diaby is definitely out with some strained ligaments, which is a shame for him. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious though. Those three aside it’s the usual absentees with Baptista unlikely to make it back in time so it could be Henry and Aliaidere up front which is quite ironic when you consider had van Persie and Baptista stayed fit he might well have been lining up against us.

The dancing Togonian is enjoying life at Arsenal and has backed the youngsters to do well in the Carling Cup final against Chelsea. And speaking of that Jose Mourinho says of playing Arsenal’s youngsters:

Claude Makelele is playing because he’s good, not because he’s 34. Arsenal’s team play because they are good, not because they’re young.

Which is a fair point.

Napoli claim they’ve got first option on Arturo Lupoli, currently on loan at Derby and likely to leave the club in the summer. Erm…yeah. Exactly.

Now, the moment you’ve all some of you three of you have been waiting for.

As always the Arsecast is sponsored by classicfootballshirts.co.uk and this week it’s been produced in a hurry and with me having a cold so I had to edit out coughs and sneezes but there’s plenty to keep you occupied. A blogchat with Gilbertosilver from gunnerblog.com in which we talk about Sp*rs, Boro and how strange Gareth Southgate and Glenn Roeder’s heads are, Arsene Wenger Hawkins has been hosting a quiz show, the Man in the bar has another player history, I wrote a special song for Cuntley Cunt, there’s a bet of the week from www.bluesq.com and there’s some other stuff too.

To subscribe to the arsecast in iTunes – click here. To download this week’s arsecast directly – click here (14.5mb MP3). You can find the arsecast archives here.

And there you go. Something to keep you occupied this Friday morning. Right, I’d best eat some breakfast. Full Boro preview tomorrow.

1-0 up, 3-1 up, now let's go and win the cup

What can you say about this group of players? They’re not perfect, they’ll still frustrate us from time to time as they learn the game and get even more experience, but there’s just no denying their talent, their heart and their sheer Arsenalness.

A 3-1 win, after extra-time, saw us go through to the final on Feb 25th where we’ll face Chelsea. It took till late in the second half for the first goal to go in though. Tomas Rosicky’s thunderbolt shot had been saved by Fatty Arbuckle in the Sp*rs goal, it broke back to him, he slipped a beautiful ball to Adebayor who calmly sidefooted it home. A great finish from the big man but, and I might be being picky here, I’d prefer to see him celebrate the goal with the teammates who created it before doing that silly dance with Thierry Henry.

It was no less than we deserved. What irony then that Sp*rs goal was a lot more than they deserved. Another dodgy decision against Denilson gave them a free kick on the corner of our box and when Jenas played the ball in that gigantic cunt Mido beat Kolo to the ball to head it past Almunia. At this point a lesser team might have crumbled so it’s a great testament to the boys we had out there that they didn’t.

It went to extra-time and again it was all Arsenal. Sp*rs, even though they needed a goal, couldn’t get near the ball or our goal and right at the end of the first period we went ahead. Justin Hoyte’s cross didn’t look too dangerous but new signing Rocha decided to head it when the ball was about 6 inches off the ground and it fell to Jeremie Aliadiere. His turn and finish was top class and perhaps he’s showing that he’s got something to offer the team between now and the end of the season. I was very happy for him because he worked hard all night and deserved the break he got. I lost count of how many times he made good runs but didn’t get the pass they merited.

In the second period we made the game safe. Sp*rs really couldn’t get near the ball and a nice move saw Rosicky get into the box, make room for a shot which cannoned off the post but smack off Pascal Chimbonda and go over the line before he could clear it. The linesman saw it though and it was 3-1 Arsenal and game, set and match. Despite a late shot from that gigantic cunt Mido there was no pressure and no danger of them getting back into it.

Despite their late goal and the touch of nerves that brought there was a great feeling during the game that their was an obvious gulf in class between the two teams. Remember, this was more or less Sp*rs first team and we started without Henry, Gallas, Hleb, Fabregas, Rosicky, Baptista, Clichy and Eboue. The fact that their first attempt on target was Mido’s goal shows how comfortable we were overall and there’s no question we deserved to win the game.

Looking at the performances of the players Almunia did well in goal again. He made a very sharp save from Keane early on and couldn’t do much with their goal. He looked assured and safe-handed again though and he deserves to take his place between the sticks for the final.

At the back Hoyte was impressive again and he, along with Gael Clichy who came on for the raw Traore, are improving game to game and it’s great to see. Senderos had a great game after getting what I thought was a nasty elbow early on and his passing was much improved. Perhaps the games are catching up with Kolo a little bit. He was beaten to the header for the goal but he’s such a great competitor he was winning header after header late on.

In midfield Denilson showed exactly why Alex Song has no future at Arsenal. He looks a player and half. Calm, composed, good vision, good from a dead ball situation and he’s got a hell of a shot on him. A real find, this boy and he was my man of the match. Gilberto was as solid as ever, Diaby looked very good but obviously tired before being replaced by the peerless Cesc. I did love Diaby nutmegging a Sp*rs player on the edge of our box, dangerous I know but fun to watch. Theo Walcott struggled again and he looks short on confidence. He had a number of occasions where he just didn’t seem to know what to do with the ball and I’m not sure why he was taking the corners as his delivery was pretty poor. He got a nice reception going off though and hopefully this tough time will serve him well – it’s certainly part of his learning curve.

Tomas Rosicky made a real difference when he came on. His close control is fabulous and he was involved in two of the goals. A shame his shot didn’t go in but making Chimbonda score an own goal is classy work. Adebayor worked hard, deserved his goal and I mentioned Aliadiere above.

At the end the Arsenal players applauded the crowd delighted with the result and the performance while the Sp*rs players ruefully clapped the half dozen or so of their fans that remained in the stadium.

Afterwards the manager praised the youngsters, and the experienced heads who gave us a bit more ‘security’, and said that he would reward the players who have taken part throughout the campaign by playing them in the final. Obviously because it’s Chelsea he’s going to have to mix it up a bit though, as he says:

I will play the right mixture of all the players involved until now. These boys played so well I want to give them the chance. We will stick to the players who were involved in the Carling Cup only. Those who have not played until now will not play the final.”

And they deserve it. They’ve played every round of this competition away from home until this semi-final second leg, they’ve pulled off some great results, put in some great performances and irrespective of what happens in Cardiff at the end of next month they’ve done themselves and the club proud. I know there’ll be a mix of youth and experience, with the balance probably swung a little the way of experience, but they have nothing to be afraid of in the final in my opinion.

There is more of the manager’s reaction and his thoughts on working with these players here. All in all that was just tremendous entertainment.

In a quick round-up of other stuff as I have to go to see a man about two dogs, a bengal tiger and a sloth, Seb Larsson finally joined Birmingham permanently for a fee of around £1m. Best of luck to him. Matthew Upson, strangley, swapped high-flying Birmingham for West Ham and given how they looked after him after yet another of his injuries you can understand their anger at his move when he could easily have gone in the summer. How funny would it be if Birmingham went up and West Ham went down. The Arsenal relevance is that we get 25% of the £6m fee. Nice work.

Thierry Henry talks to FHM and some of it is reprinted in The Sun.

Finally, Ashley Cole injures his knee quite spectacularly. I have no comment to make at all but there will be many who feels it serve him jolly well right the little cunt. Feel free to leave your comment in today’s Arses. Right, must dash. Enjoy today one and all.

Sp*rs preview – Wenger's revenge on Pardew

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!

Arsenal 'fail' in Puerta bid and other stuff

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.