Let's make Perry Groves better than Ashley Cole

Ahead of the Everton game the boss had his usual press conference. We discovered that Senderos and Flamini are back in the squad but Gael Clichy is rested as AW doesn’t want him doing too much too soon after being out for so long. Other than that the squad is as expected with the injuries mentioned during the week.

If you listened to yesterday’s arsecast you’ll have heard bluesq.com‘s bet of the week which involved Andy Johnson winning a penalty. Wenger revealed yesterday that he had been interested in the player and that he thought 80% of the penalties he won were genuine. So Johnson is only a diving cheat 20% of the time. Beautiful. Watch out at the back today, lads.

Wenger’s other snippets involved ruling out a move for David Beckham whose time in Spain looks to be coming to an end and his belief that West Ham should keep faith with Alan Pardew which is brilliantly sneaky. Pardew couldn’t win a fixed raffle this season and if he stays I’d put money on them going down.

While Everton manager David Moyes has been full of praise for Cesc Fabregas our Spanish midfielder is not letting the plaudits go to his head. He says:

I appreciate these comments when they come for you but I still think I am just 19. I am still growing up as a player and a person in a great club and with great players next to me and I think this is very positive.

I know it’s a point we keep going back to but the difference in his attitude to that of some other young players who they’ve got it made as soon as they get near the first team is worth pointing out again. I love that little guy.

Another game at the Grove today and it now feels like home to the players. Thierry Henry says:

The first two games were difficult, now it seems like we have a home.

Fortress Ashburton? Fortress Grove? Whatever. Let’s just make sure it’s as difficult as possible for anyone who comes to our place.

Finally for today thanks to everyone who emailed me to tell me that Ashley Cole’s book has only sold 3,500 copies, far less than the biographies of Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard and Arnold Cunthammer who lives in Blackpool and nobody knows who he is. Serves him right.

It was suggested on the forums here yesterday that more people should be made aware of this fine tome. Yes, it’s ‘We all live in a Perry Groves world’ by Perry Groves. Wouldn’t it be fun if Perry Groves’ book sold more than Ashley’s? Yes, indeed it would.

Tell your friends and family that this is what you want for Christmas. Order now. Let’s make Perry Groves officially much, much better than Ashley Cole.

More tomorrow.

Arsecast 2, the second one – quick round-up

Morning all, it’s a pretty quiet one considering we have a match tomorrow. Let’s do what we can with the little that’s there.

The Lauren story that was all over the feeds yesterday is slightly confusing. Last week Arsene Wenger said we wouldn’t see him until the new year because of his knee injury and I reported that on the blog. Then yesterday lots of stories appeared about how it was a ‘shock’ and other things because he wouldn’t be back until the new year. It doesn’t seem like he’s done anything new, they’re using the same AW quotes from the other day, but we’ll see I suppose.

Another injury shocker was the Queen who was supposed to ‘officially’ open the new stadium yesterday. It seems she did her back in, pulled a muscle in her quim and could be out for up to 6 weeks. Her place was taken by the Duke of Edinburgh who did the honours and had a bit of a meet and greet with the players. The last picture on the right hand side is just crying out for a caption, isn’t it?

In other injury news we’ll be without Adebayor for the Everton game. He joins Freddie, Julio Baptista, and Lauren on the sidelines. Also out in Abou Diaby but he’s working his way back to fitness. He’s done an interview with the Arsenal TV Online thingy but what happens is that some of the other sites, especially Sky Sports, subscribe to that then give us the story during the week at some stage. Saves us having to do it, eh? Anyway, he says:

I will work hard. I accept the competition between the players. I will give my best to regain my place.

Excellent. When he does get fit we really do have lots of options in midfield and with youngsters like Fran Merida still to come it’s going to mean survival of the fittest. The cream will rise to the top. And other clichés.

Right then, the moment none of you have been waiting for. It’s the second ever arsecast in association with classicfootballshirts.co.uk

In this episode I try and explain the difference between an arsecast and an arsecast, chat to the man from East Lower, reveal the winner of the classicfootballshirts.co.uk competition, give you another bet of the week from bluesq.com, Arsene Wenger Hawkins will be along and I make a little phone call.

You can download directly here and remember you can subscribe to the arsecast in iTunes. Just do the following: In iTunes go to advanced > subscribe to podcast

Then put in the following url: http://arseblog.com/podcasts/arsecastfeed.xml

Whenever there’s a new episode it’ll download automatically. It should also be available through the iTunes music store soon. Sound quality should be better this week although the levels in some places vary a bit. I haven’t quite figured out which filter I need to use to equalise the whole thing, advice readily accepted on that.

And that’s about it. Later on I’ll update today’s blog with the winner of the bluesq.com competition. One lucky person will be going to see the Everton game in their executive box. Stand by for that.

Update: The winner of the tickets is Aidan Finch. Well done, Aidan. And just to mention that bluesq.com paid out £25,000 extra on last week’s best of the week on the arsecast. Tune in for this week’s!

Away with ye, then.

Aliadiere, Everton x 2, win stuff, some midfielder

A relatively quiet morning this morning. We’ve got Everton coming up on Saturday and the draw for the next round of the Carling Cup has sees us travel to Goodison Park. It’s a shame we haven’t got a home game so more people can see the kids do their stuff but we’ll just have to wait until the next round.

After Tuesday’s game against West Brom the injury news regarding Emmanuel Adebayor is that he’s set to miss three weeks with a thigh injury. With Theo Walcott earmarked for the wings the forgotten man, Jeremie Aliadiere, should get a chance albeit on the bench to start with. We all know he’s had problems galore with injuries but he’s determined to fight for his Arsenal future, saying:

I love Arsenal. There were times when I could have gone but I always wanted to be here. It is just a matter of training everyday, doing my best and, when I get the chance like this, just showing the boss I am ready to play.

He really does have to make the most of the opportunities he’s given and he is a topic of discussion in tomorrow’s arsecast during the blogchat with the man from East Lower. You do have one last chance to enter the competition to win the the 94 home shirt from classicfootballshirts.co.uk. Just go here, download episode 1 and send in your answer. Episode 2 will be available tomorrow morning.

Also, today is your last chance to go to win two executive box tickets to the Everton game thanks to Blue Square. Just go to www.bluesq.com, open an account if you don’t have one already, place a bet of £5 or more, then email your username and daytime phone number to marketing@bluesq.com. They’ll call the winner on Friday afternoon so you have to be able to get to the ground on Saturday morning to meet them and get your tickets.

I’ll update the blog with the name of the winner tomorrow afternoon as well.

Despite having more options in midfield than we’ve ever had before that doesn’t stop us being linked with new players – and there’s still two months till the transfer window opens. This time it’s Ghanaian Ahmed Apimah Barusso. He plays for Rimini (heh, rim) in Serie A and the Mirror says his club would be unable to resist an Arsenal bid. He can just join Cesc, Gilberto, Baptista, Diaby, Flamini, Song, Denilson and even Hleb and Rosicky who can play in central midfield. Unless we’re planning a revolutionary 2-7-1 formation I can’t see it happening.

Right, there you go. I have to go put the finishing touches to the arsecast and by finishing touches I mean record the whole thing. Till tomorrow.

Kids too good for West Brom, Kolo signs new deal

There was no TV coverage of last night’s game so there’s very little I can tell you that you can’t read yourself elsewhere. A 2-0 win, both goals from Jeremie Aliadiere and it seemed comfortable enough for the lads. As expected Philippe Senderos returned from injury for his first start of the season, Denilson made his first start for the club and Gael Clichy took another step on the road to full fitness as he played left back.

You can see the goals here (thanks to Archie). Afterwards the boss was happy with the win saying we’d now have a chance to see how good a player Aliadiere is as he’s free from injury. He also revealed his plan to play Theo Walcott on the wing as part of his education, saying:

When you have a player like Theo, it is important to let him develop on the wing. He has to learn how to dribble and gain confidence in attacking people in one-on-one situations. Then, in a year or two he can move into the middle and use those abilities to do a better job.

He also spoke about the team in general, saying:

Denilson was superb for an 18 year old and Aliadiere’s movement and mobility was first class. To bring so many young players through gives me great satisfaction. It is a wonderful feeling to see them show such great spirit

The only blemish on the night was the groin injury picked up by Adebayor which will keep him out for a while. No doubt we’ll get more info on that soon. All in all a job well done, praise from the opposition boss, and onto the next round.

We had some more good news yesterday when it was revealed that Kolo Toure has signed a new ‘long term’ contract with the club. Given that he is represented by the same company that represents Cuntley Cunt I know some people were worried but not even Jonathan Barnett would dare fuck with the Kolo. Kolo says:

I can see myself staying here for the rest of my career. Why would I want to leave? I love my football here, my family is settled here and the club is ambitious. It is fantastic.

Brilliant news and for a guy who was essentially a utility player when he first joined to have taken the opportunity given to him so well is really fantastic. Eyebrows were raised when he first started at centre-half but now he’s one of the first names on the team sheet every week. He’s a brilliant example to younger players, his enthusiasm, energy and commitment is second to none. Even when we were 4-0 up against Reading he was bombing up the field in the last few minutes to try and get another.

I love Kolo.

I just hope we see one of those rocket free kicks go in soon and Kolo is one of the things I’ll be chatting to East Lower about during this week’s arsecast. Thanks to all of you for the questions you’ve sent in, I’ll try and get through as many of those as possible. Do keep them coming though!

Don’t forget the competition to win two executive box tickets to see Everton with thanks to Blue Square. Just go to www.bluesq.com, open an account if you don’t have one already, place a bet of £5 or more, then email your username and daytime phone number to marketing@bluesq.com. They’ll call the winner on Friday afternoon so you have to be able to get to the ground on Saturday morning to meet them and get your tickets.

And that’s about that. More, as usual, tomorrow.