april 28th
08.55 – This week could be quite insufferable as Arsenal’s title chances all but disappeared at White Hart Lane yesterday. Typically, Spurs held out just long enough to make me think they might just sneak a draw, but United had too much for them in the end. A win for United against Charlton on Saturday would put them 8 points clear and you’d have to think there was no coming back from that.
Scant consolation after such a promising season is that Arsenal players dominate the PFA Players team of the year. Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole, Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires and Thierry Henry are all selected, while we have to say congratulations to Thierry Henry who was named PFA Player of the year. Thierry says “This means a lot to me because the other players have voted for me.” It’s well deserved too.
Transfer speculation around Arsenal will be intense this summer I suspect, and it’s started already. According to Planet Football, Arsenal want to sign Banik Ostrava striker Michal Papadopulos. No, I’ve never heard of him either but he’s Czech and according to quote attributed to AW in the Czech press “He will be a star within a year.” Also on the cards is a move for his Czech mate, goalkeeper, Peter ..er…Cech. Agent Pavel Zika says “Wenger and other people can’t understand the fact that Petr Cech is the best (keeper in the world) now, when he is just 20. It’s interesting. They are not sure with Petr Cech but, with Papadopulos, they want to sign a contract immediately. Michal attended a training session with Arsenal on Wednesday, and Wenger was very pleased.”
Could well be just agent speak, but it would be no surprise to see AW shopping in Woolworths rather than Harrods this summer.
Freddie Ljungberg feared he’d broken his leg on Saturday against Bolton. Watching the replays of the challenge, I thought he broken it too. It was a nasty challenge by Okocha (of course Walrus face Allardyce had nothing to say about that coz it wasn’t spoon fed to him over a game of golf by ‘Sir’ Alex) – and as we’ve reported earlier, it seems unlikely he’ll play again this season. An interesting piece in relation to the Bolton game and some of the inconsitencies of the FA on ANR, written by Ian Grant.
Of course the miracle sitatuation is that it all goes down to the final day of the season, and in some kind of roundabout karma type thing, Wayne Rooney scores a wonder goal in the last minute to give Everton a win while a late Gilberto 40 yarder wins the title for the Gunners. The big question is, with the injuries we’ve got, can we keep it alive until the final day? There’s no point defending now, mostly because we’re not very good at it, so it’s all-out attack from here till the end of the season.
Here’s my predictions for the last 3 league games: Arsenal 8-5 Leeds; Arsenal 7-6 Southampton; Sunderland 12-15 Arsenal. Could be fun.
