january 28th
Yesterday Arsene Wenger confirmed that Philippe Senderos would be missing from the squad to face Wolves in the FA Cup. He’s got a knee ligament problem and is likely to be out for up to 3 weeks. With Kolo suspended for three games that leaves us walking on thin ice when it comes to centre-halves. Cygan will play in the cup but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sol rested ahead of Tuesday’s mega-clash with United – although quite who the boss would play alongside Cygan is a bit of a puzzle. No doubt Jens will come back in goal and we could see run-outs for Gael Clichy and Manu Eboue as well. I can’t see too many changes in midfield either, we don’t have very many options anyway. The boss is promising a strong line-up.
At one stage yesterday the BBC reported the Edu to Valencia deal as done but it seems they were jumping the gun a bit. I’m a bit sad to see him go actually. He was always a bit of a favourite and I think he’s an underrated player who we’ll miss from the squad. Good luck to him in Spain.
Thierry Henry launched a new initiative against racism in football yesterday, joining up with Rio Ferdinand (what is with his Alice in Wonderland hair?) along the way. There’s a non-story about José Reyes and Real Madrid and Manuel Almunia reckons there’s no chance at all of catching Chelsea in the league. A bit like him catching a high ball then. Nothing like a bit of positive thinking, is there? Tearfully I read this morning that we were interested in Peter Cech but couldn’t get a work permit for him at the time. Couldn’t we just have got Silvinho to call up his people to get one made up? Arsene Wenger talks about that, how ‘Latin’ goalkeepers get ‘slaughtered’ in England (tell us something we don’t know), Jermaine Pennant, his confidence in Pascal Cygan and how he’s not thinking of bringing anyone in to replace Edu who hasn’t gone yet anyway. You’ll find this wonderful all-in-one article here.
And that’s about it? I reckon it’s a quiet weekend ahead, recover from last week’s Londinium shennanigans. What are you up to then?
