april 19th
We’ll start with some injury news ahead of tomorrow night’s game against Chelsea. Despite Arsene Wenger saying Theirry Henry was likely to miss the game there’s some talk that he might just have a chance to prove his fitness. Henry and van Persie would cause Chelsea’s defence more problems than any combination including José or Dennis given how patch their form is. Freddie is also doubtful after a recurrence of his hip problem while the boss will make a late decision over Sol Campbell.
If Sol is deemed fit enough to go back into the team it’ll be interesting to see who makes way for him. Will it be Kolo or will it be Philippe Senderos. The young Swiss showed he’s got his head screwed firmly on as he commented “That is the boss’ decision, I have to make it hard.”
José and Lauren want payback tomorrow night. Lauren says “We want to make Chelsea suffer as they chase the title” while José says “We want to win at Stamford Bridge for many reasons, the main one being that it will increase our morale going in to the FA Cup final. But a victory at Stamford Bridge will also postpone their celebrations and please our fans.“
Ashley Cole has tried to clarify his comments made yesterday about whether or not he’ll be at Arsenal next season saying, “I find it frustrating to say the least that some of today’s newspapers are second guessing my thoughts and stating that I have indicated to them any future plans I may have. I totally understand that the fans want to know more about my situation but, with a Premier League inquiry underway, it is hard for me to talk as freely as I would like right now.”
He’s going to need to have a seriously good game against Chelsea or tongues will start wagging. He’s looked a little lacklustre recently and it’d be too easy for people to whisper and point if his performance against the Russians was not as fully committed as it might be. You have to wonder if he’d have played at all if Clichy had been fit.
I wonder if the FA are going to investigate the Robbie Savage incident in last Saturday’s game. If José Reyes and Dennis Bergkamp can get three match bans each for violent conduct after a bit of slap and tickle against Sheffield United then why should Savage not get brought to task for this assault on Cesc (see if you can spot the ball. No? I couldn’t either) – picture 1, picture 2. I’ve said before the FA have their priorities wrong when it comes to stuff like this. They’re now so quick to punish the slightest thing that might look like a slap or a push or a dive but they consistently fail to punish proper, dangerous violent tackles the way they should. Even if the ref had seen it he might only have given a yellow card and the case would be closed. ‘Tackles’ like that, where there is no attempt to play the ball and only intent to cause injury to a fellow professional, need to be punished more severely. As it is the FA should be questioning why the referee didn’t give so much as a free kick to Arsenal for the incident and Robbie Savage should count himself lucky that he didn’t cause serious damage to Cesc because if he had I’d hunt the fucker down myself and kick his bollocks out through his mouth.
The FA Cup final referee has been decided and it’s Rob Styles. The best thing I can say about him is that I’ve never really noticed him when we’ve had a game. Long may that continue. There’s still no word on who’s wearing what kit but the campaign against blue will begin in earnest as soon as necessary. Henry Winter talks about the 1979 cup final, probably my first real football memory, and speaking of the 79 cup final you could win a copy of it, along with the finals of 71, 93 and 98 by telling me who scored Arsenal’s winner that day against Manchester United. Just email the answer to [email protected] and the prizes come courtesy of ILC Sport. Winners will be announced on Friday.
