october 1st
08.51 – Another new month, I don’t know where the time goes. Hopefully everyone this morning will be seeing this on the new server, rather than some lost souls in one Arseblog, some other ‘lost souls’ in another Arseblog.
So a first Champions League point after a scintillating 0-0 draw with Lokomotiv Moscow.
It was a pretty uninspired performance by Arsenal, typified by the head-in-clouds running around of Sylvain Wiltord. He looks bored. He looks like he’s thinking about where to play next season. How about he looks on from the bench and watches Jeremie Aliadiere play with some enthusiasm and spirit?
Still, it’s a clean sheet, a point away from home, both good things. You do kind of have this feeling that you expect Arsenal to beat a team like Lokomotiv Moscow, but because it’s in Europe, you’re not especially confident. That’s kind of how Arsenal played. They knew they probably should win, they just weren’t sure how to do it.
Defensively we looked pretty solid overall, Ashley got in some good tackles, Kolo was all you could ask for again and Keown looked as sharp as he has for a while. I do wonder why Lauren insists on falling over all the time though.
So there’s 20 minutes to go and Arsenal have Jeremie Aliadiere and David Bentley on the bench. Two forward prospects that Arsenal fans badly want to see make it in the first team. Wiltord is having a shocker. Nobody’s saying take off a defender and put on another striker. Just take off the striker who’s playing like that bloke in your class who always got picked last at lunchtime. Give one of them a chance. Sometimes I think AW might be a little too cautious with the young players.
Introducing Bentley or Aliadiere will, at the very least, make Wiltord (and Bergkamp when he’s fit) realise that there are two talented, hungry young players who want a place in the team. They don’t care that Bergkamp has done all he’s done in his career, or if Wiltord has scored in a European Championship final, they want to play football and score goals for Arsenal. If they get a chance and score goals, bingo, winner. If they get a chance and make the others buck up and score goals, bingo, winner.
Of course you just know it’ll be Henry and Wiltord against Liverpool on Saturday.
Le Boss said “I feel frustrated as we felt that we had enough chances to win the game and that’s what we came here to do. The spirit in the whole squad was fantastic. The boys gave everything and I can’t fault their commitment, desire or spirit.”
Martin Keown speaks about the Old Trafford saga. “It was a very unfortunate situation but I don’t think I really hurt anyone. I think we were a little bit intoxicated in the last three minutes and we’ve been hammered ever since.”
Ok, today is an ‘induction day’ for my new job. I’d like an induction of morphine, please.
