It's all happening this morning…

I reckon it’s going to be a fairly quiet week. Lots of our players will be going off on international duty. Some of them won’t. Instead of training the lads will sit around and play Battleships and keep a close eye on Mathieu Flamini as he is always moving his patrol ship when he thinks people aren’t looking. I’m told Denilson prefers Yahtzee while Mart Poom is the Mouse Trap champion of the squad. He hasn’t been beaten since 1987 in any competition and is the Estonian record holder after he thrashed former President Lennart Meri in a worldwide invitational which took place in the Dorchester Hotel two Septembers ago.

Arsene Wenger will stand with his arms folded looking at how his players react to the various situations these skillful games throw at them. From time to time he will make notes and whisper things to Pat Rice. This always makes Manuel Almunia nervous as he is not really one for board games preferring instead to doodle lots of little heads with varying hairstyles.

Thierry Henry won’t be there. He’ll be away with France, getting involved in Cluedo marathon with Vieira and Makelele, and he says he doesn’t know if he’s going to play in the Carling Cup final. Speaking to reporters in Dubai yesterday, he said:

The so-called kids have been doing tremendously (in the League Cup). Whatever is the decision of the boss, I have to accept it.

I can see him being on the bench though. Let’s face it, Chelsea are going to play Drogba and Shevchenko and the rest of their motley crew. While I firmly believe the likes of Aliadiere and Baptista deserve to start the game it would be slightly foolish not to have as strong a bench as possible to augment the team if needed.

And after fresh speculation about his future by witless, talentless hacks in yesterday’s newspapers the captain said:

You know my commitment to the club. That is the most important thing. You know where my heart is.

It was the Sunday Express who said that the Arsenal board had decided that the club should cash in on Henry and sell him to Real Madrid or Barcelona. Utter nonsense of course despite the fact that Henry has bought a house in both those cities, found a school for his kid, organised to have the newspapers delivered each morning and has a sign outside each property saying ’1 pint semi-skimmed, half a litre of fresh cream. Thanks!’

As well as that the suits in the boardroom have decided to negotiate a takeover offer which came from American crooner Michael Bolton. His attempt to take over Bolton Wanderers was dismissed out of hand by Sam Allardyce who is a huge of fan Kenny G, Michael Bolton’s sworn enemy. The two fell out when G, at the last minute, refused to play the sax part of Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street at a Bolton concert at Madison Square Garden. An emergency solution of finding an audience member with a kazoo meant the once bemulleted crooner was roundly mocked in the music press and his previous pristine reputation was in ruins.

It’s thought that Bolton has told the board they should sell Henry and replace him with Cobi Jones and Roy Wegerle’s son, Roy Wegerle II – The Son of Roy, so Henry can be sold to raise funds for a new concept album he’s putting together.

Sources close to one particular board member said: “Get your Arsenal shares here! Come on D-D-Down!!”

What a busy morning.

Tired Arsenal cheated by Yakubu and Riley

A 1-1 draw with Boro yesterday was, given the circumstances, a decent point but the game will be remembered for Mike Riley’s decision midway through the second half rather than anything else.

A tired looking Kolo Toure missed a header and the ball bounced between Senderos and Hoyte who was too slow to react. The Swiss international came across, there was minimal contact, at best, with Yakubu who went down like a shot and Riley, unable from his position to give a penalty to his beloved United at Old Trafford, did the next best thing and gave a penalty to Boro and a red card to Senderos. Both decisions were totally wrong, in my opinion. Firstly there was no foul worthy of a red card and secondly, even if there had been, Yakubu’s dive started from outside the penalty area.

Then I read a quote on ANR and they claim Yakubu said:

He didn’t touch me but fortunately we had the penalty.

So not only did Riley get it wrong Yakubu has admitted it wasn’t a penalty and as Senderos didn’t touch him it shouldn’t have been a red card. I hope two things happen now. Firstly the red card should be rescinded and secondly Yakubu should be fined, at least, for admitting he cheated. Up to that point Senderos had been playing well and Boro had done nothing to merit a goal.

I would also like very much to see someone kick Mike Riley’s teeth in then, months later, when he’s had thousands of pounds worth of dental work done to have the same person kick his teeth in again and film it and put it up on YouTube and then I’ll give that person a free Arseblog t-shirt. Honestly, he is a fucking joke. Naturally though, even in light of Yakubu’s admission, the FA will probably do fuck all and back their useless, pissbag referee. It will be interesting to see the media reaction to what Yakubu said. No doubt James Lawton will somehow find a way to blame it on Robert Pires.

After a very dull first half Arsenal were beginning to pressure Boro before that incident and I think had it been eleven v eleven we would have won that game. Arsene Wenger feels the same. As it was we showed great spirit and character to get the equaliser through Thierry Henry and that’s not the first time we’ve done that this season. In fact, we’re becoming quite the experts at coming from behind. As worthy as that is I do miss the days when we started so quickly we could finish a team in the first twenty minutes.

They did look tired though. The only fresh players from Wednesday night were Henry, Jens and Flamini who started on the right hand side of midfield. He didn’t have a great game and I know people are questioning the decision to play him there but there really wasn’t anyone else. Theo Walcott’s form has been so poor that he was never going to start the game and the only other option was Denilson who is just 18, still adpating to English football and who had just played 120 minutes against Sp*rs on Wednesday. Irrespective of Flamini’s performance he’s not the reason we dropped points.

Cesc, who makes so much tick, looked tired, Adebayor had one of those games and overall we looked like a team that was suffering from an extra-time hangover, which does make the push to get the goal back after going down to 10 men all the better. Of course, with Liverpool drawing at home with Everton today it was a chance to close the gap but it wasn’t to be. I just think a combination of a tired performance and missing the players we have out injured today cost us (on top of Riley’s bullshit, of course).

Certainly a fully fit Hleb or van Persie or Baptista would have made a difference and even Freddie, for his struggles, would have been an option on the right hand side had he been fit. Still, we now have a week to rest some tired legs, take stock and get back on track when Wigan come to the Grove next Sunday.

Actually, there won’t be rest for most of them as there are internation friendlies in mid-week. Argh. Start lighting candles now in the hope that nobody picks up an injury.

A quick Sunday round-up for you now. Cesc says the young Gunners can beat Chelsea in the Carling Cup final.  Chairman P-Diddy H to the W tells the Sunday Mirror he thinks Arsene Wenger will renew his contract. He’s got 18 months to go but the club want to extend that and it’s the potential at the club that will keep him. He says:

I am convinced he is going to want to stay. It really pleases him to see so many talented kids come through. He will want to see them fulfill their potential and become even better. I am sure we will speak in the summer and hopefully those talks will go well and he will stay.

Get ready to Sheikh your booty as Arsenal are now the target of the man who failed to buy Liverpool. The People reports that Dubai International Capital are ready to make a £450m takeover bid for the club. While I can’t see a full takeover happening the fact that certain shareholders wouldn’t mind selling their shares means that some kind of investment wouldn’t be a surprise. You wake up one morning and you’ve been Tangoed.

And Bob, as they say, is your uncle. Have a good Sunday.

Saturday round-up

Morning all, a quick Saturday round-up for you ahead of this evening’s game against Boro.

Starting with team news Emmanuel Adebayor has been passed fit to play despite picking up a knee problem against Sp*rs the other night. Also fit again is Johann Djourou but Eboue and Diaby miss out. According to the boss Gallas, Hleb, Ljungberg and Baptista are not far away from returning which will certainly give the squad a boost.

After his impressive displays in the Carling Cup Denilson keeps his place in the squad with the AW saying:

He has quickly come out and shown personality. I feel he is one of the candidates for the midfield now.

One man who could have been lining up against us today is Jeremie Aliadiere but injuries to Baptista and van Persie meant his sale was blocked. At the least he’s going to be on the bench today and should get some more time to show he’s got something to offer the team.

At the press conference yesterday the subject of Jens Lehmann came up and Arsene Wenger couldn’t say if the German would be with us next season. He said:

I do not know if he will stay. I had a little meeting with him, but at the moment we have to sit down again to decide about that. Ideally I would like him to stay, but he will not get more than one year. What can change is somebody can offer him three years.

If I had to put money on it I think he’ll leave in the summer. After initially not convincing too many he has become a real Arsenal legend. Certainly my favourite Arsenal keeper of recent times but I think his age goes against him now and I think it’s time to look to the future in terms of our goalkeeping position.

I know he spoke during the week about Manuel Almunia being a candiate for the number one position but that promotion, if it happened, would surprise me. Taking nothing away from Manuel, who has been excellent this season and far from the ‘clown’ that some people have labelled him, I just don’t think he’s number one material and the manager’s words were more of encouragement and motivation. I mean, he can hardly say he’s going to definitely buy a new keeper this summer and then try and get good performances out of one of the candidates to take over.

Tomas Rosicky says he and Thierry Henry sing from the same hymn shit, showing a spiritual side to our squad that I never knew we had. He’s also anxious to get his first Premiership goal, saying:

Nobody has said anything about me not scoring and they are all happy when I help set up goals for others. But my first goal in the Premier League will come as a relief.

Tonight against Boro would be nice. In other quick news young defender Joe O’Carrottop has extended his loan with Brighton by one month and Arsene Wenger talks about living the life of the Sumo. No, seriously. No doubt he got some advice on that from Sol Campbell. And the manager was happy Southampton’s Gareth Bale was not sold during the transfer window as it means ‘we still have a chance’. Interesting.

Right, that’s it. Here’s to a good result this evening. More tomorrow.

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.