october 28th
14.00 – Exclusive: Cesc will start in midfield for Arsenal tonight.
08.46 – The other day we told you that newly poached signed youngsterling Cesc Fabregas ‘.. may feature in the Carling cup.’
It’s an extra 5 bob note for my snout man on the inside, as Cesc has been named in the squad. If he does make an appearance, he’ll break Jermaine Pennant’s record of being the youngest player to play for the first team. It’s a very young squad for the game against Rotherham. Edu, Kanu, Cygan and Wiltord the only established players with John Spicer, Graham Stack, Craig Holloway, Gael Clichy, Jerome Thomas, Olafur-Ingi Skulason, Ryan Smith, Cesc and Quincy “MD” Owusu Abeyie all called up. It should be a good test for the kids. We would have seen David Bentley, but unfortunately he picked up an injury in training.
Jeremie Aliadiere is using tonight to show AW what he can do. He started at Anfield, but hasn’t been seen on the pitch since. He says “I must do everything to show the boss I can play more and that starts with Rotherham.”
Steve Sidwell on Arsenal’s youths – “A lot of the lads met up recently for Stacky’s (Graham Stack) birthday and some of the players who were still at Arsenal were saying they wish they could move on like Rohan has done with Tottenham or I have at Reading.” Interesting stuff. Especially this bit, which is something I’ve said here before, “Nobody can argue with signings like Nicolas Anelka or Patrick Vieira, who were unknown when they joined. But what about foreign players like Stefan Malz, Igor Stepanovs and Stathis Tavlaridis who hang around for years and stop youngsters from even getting reserve-team experience.”
The boy’s got a very good point.
Graham Stack looks certain to make his first team debut, and it’ll be good to have another Irishman in the team after so long. It’s also a good chance for him to make a claim for the number 2 spot. Stuart Taylor is always injured, certainly too much so to ever be considered for the Number 1 jersey, so it’s an opportunity for a player who got rave reviews during his loan spell at Beveren. If only some Arseblog readers were going to the game, they could give me a report on how he did. Oh well.
Some bad news regarding Philippe Senderos, he’s done his leg in training (nothing too serious though), and he’s likely to be out action for another little while at least. Ladies and Gentlemen, Vivas has left the building. Ashley Cole says there’s more to come from Arsenal. Arsene Wenger talks about how the strikers are going to start scoring again soon, easing the burden on our poor pack mule Thierry. “It’s difficult to say why the other players don’t score at the moment, but I think Wiltord, Bergkamp, Kanu and Pires can all score goals and they will score again.”
And on that optimistic note…
