march 22nd
The games are coming thick and fast right, and speaking of which, Jermaine Pennant was having a right moan yesterday about Arsene Wenger not showing enough faith in him. Talking to the Sunday Mirror he rejected the boss’ previous claims that there may have been discipline problems, saying “I might have turned up a little late for training for a good reason. Maybe we were supposed to be at training for 10 and I’d turn up at 10 past. But there wasn’t a discipline problem.”
He seems to have overlooked the fact that turning up for training late constitutes a discipline problem, especially when it seems to have happened more than once. Add to that his breaking curfew when away with England U-21s, then hitting an opponent in the head, then getting caught for drink driving, and it’s hard to know how he said what he did with a straight face. He needs only to look at Kolo Toure and Ashley Cole to see that if you work hard and act professionally you’ll get your chance. If you turn up late for training and act like you’re a big star when you’ve achieved nothing then you end up at Leeds. How hard is it to see that? Anyway, I’m sure mouthing off about his boss when he’s trying to concentrate on probably the most important 3 weeks of his Arsenal career with be final nail in Pennant’s coffin. Expect him to ply his trade elsewhere next season.
Sunday’s game against Manchester United has had some extra spice added to it by the appointment of Graham Poll as referee. He’s going to have a tough job because United will come out kicking looking to provoke our boys. I seriously expect this to be one of the niggliest games of all time. Ferguson could send his men out looking to spark a scrap of some kind, hoping we get a points deduction, thus allowing them back into the title race. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility. And of course Poll is a wise, tough, fair referee. Pfff. Should be a larf, eh?
Arsene Wenger is worried about nerves over the coming weeks as the Bolton victory was a bit more tense than he’d have liked. He says “The players did not look at ease against Bolton and I am not the master of relaxation either. The tension was there for all to see. Maybe at 2-0 up we were already thinking about the Chelsea game.”
But the boss is convinced the players are up to the task, saying “…we have the belief and the confidence levels so that I am convinced that we will be there in the next couple of weeks. I know my players and I’m confident they will give the maximum in every game.”
And Chelsea are up next at the Bridge in the first of what’s going to be an incredibly tough run of games. Chelsea x2, United x2, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sp*rs all coming up shortly. It’s going to a bumpy ride I reckon, but there’s just something about this team this season, isn’t there?
