May 8th
Happy Sunday to you all. I celebrated my first goal of the season with 3 cans of beer last night. How debauched. The celebrations were slightly marred by the fact we got done 3-1 but never mind.
We’ll start this morning with Arsene Wenger’s unhappiness at the timing of the Ashley Cole – Chelea hearing which takes place a couple of days before the FA Cup final. The boss feels something should have happened before now and questions the timing of the hearing. “I have asked for the hearing to be postponed as I’m worried about our cup final preparations but the Premier League said no. If you sit down in May to judge something that happened in February, it’s better to do nothing.”
I mentioned a few weeks back that the timing of this was less than ideal and with Cole being called to give evidence it’s less than ideal preparation for the final. As for any punishment handed out to Chelsea the boss, and again I agree with him, feels it’s pretty much useless now. A points deduction now makes no difference and AW is against them being docked points from the beginning of next season. It’s typical of the FA to fanny around and try and skirt the issue for as long as possible. I do think Chelsea, if found guilty, need to be punished though but I wouldn’t hold my breath on it being anything other than a fine which is about as useful a punishment as Lee Chapman was a useful striker.
With regard to Ashley himself contract talks have stopped because of Arsenal’s reluctance to deal with his snake of an agent Jonathan Barnett. According to Wenger “There is no music between him and us now.”
The Patrick Vieira piece by Amy Lawrence in the Observer makes interesting reading. There’s also a nice timeline of his summer activities too which really does make you take everything he says, well me anyway, with a very large pinch of salt. Lee Dixon’s quotes about leadership are quite telling. Could Philippe Senderos be the next Arsenal captain? He’s seems more in the Tony Adams mould and while there’s a lot to be said for a player who leads by example with his play on the field how does he lead when he’s playing poorly? You need to be vocal as well.
I saw in one of the papers here yesterday that Robert Pires was linked with Barcelona. Given the system they play I’m not sure where they see him playing though. The People are also linking him again with Lyon and suggest we’re after Stuttgart’s Alexander Hleb.
And that’s about it. Liverpool later this afternoon. A win for us would more or less guarantee second place and the automatic Champions League spot after United’s 1-1 draw with West Brom yesterday. We owe the Scousers after their late, late hit and run at Anfield earlier in the season too. Till tomorrow.
