april 27th
Ok, the first thing I want to do this morning is clear up something from yesterday. It turns out that when AW said “He knows I’d love him to stay but I fear he will go.” – he was talking Edu and not about José Antonio Reyes. That’s not to say José’s future is definitely at Highbury but that would surely have been all the confirmation we needed. Sadly it does look as if Edu will be leaving which is a shame because he’s one of my favourite players and he showed last night what we’ve missed during his absence.
Speaking about our poor run of results the boss thought it might have been something to do with the pitches being not as good in the winter. He said “I feel that you cannot play with the same quality of passing as you can in March or April as the grass and pitches are not as good. You need perfect pitches to play how we did against Spurs. Otherwise, you lose a fraction of a second and the opponents can get recover in time.”
Now some people might have a little snigger at that but I think he’s got a point. One thing I’ve noticed about Arsenal over the years is quite how hard the players pass the ball to each other. They rarely tap it, they fizz the ball at each other which gives them that extra bit of time before being closed down by an opponent. That can mean that if the passing is just a touch slower then maybe we lose that advantage that is part of our game. Now, I’m not suggesting that’s the main reason for our poor results when we had them, and the boss himself is quicker to point at the defensive stability we now have, but it’s not just a throwaway comment.
Some pretty unfounded transfer speculation has us linked with Parma’s Italian striker Gilardino who has scored a billion goals this month alone. With Parma struggling 2nd from bottom of Serie A they certainly wouldn’t be in any position to hold onto him if they did get relegated. Anyway, it’s just made up stuff at this stage anyway.
News of youngsters – Frankie Simek’s loan at Bournmouth is being extended for until the end of May while young Swede, Sebastian Larsson, has signed a new two year deal with the club. He told a Swedish newspaper, “It is very fun. It is a real contract this time, that feels better.”
Very fun indeed. I hope he took much photos of himself signing the new deal. Those crazy Swedes! And speaking of crazy, for those of you confused about UEFA’s new rules about homegrown players and the like you can find an explanation over at Ashburton Grove. Not the building site, the website. I have to say this made me laugh – I’d be happy to donate an Arseblog t-shirt for you to give away…heh. And speaking of prizes we may have a cool, funky mobile phone to give away in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more.
Thanks for all your nice comments about the new look site. They made me all warm and tingly like Kylie’s hotpants. And just on emails – if anyone has sent me an email about anything over the last while and I haven’t replied it’s because I hate you. Well, really it’s because I get a lot of mail and sometimes stuff just gets lost in my box. I do try and reply to everything but sometimes I just forget. Sorry.
Finally for today, come on Liverpool. Ooooh, I feel all dirty. Like Angelina Jolie’s hotpants.
