February 6th
Another Monday, Arsefans and due to a move to a new office I have to get up even earlier which is a pain in the hoop, let me tell you.
The usual Monday slowness abounds. We had a story yesterday in which Alexander Hleb said how disappointed he was with his first season at the club. He said “Of course, I am disappointed about the results of our team and also the fact that I cannot convince my coach Arsene Wenger on the field.”
I suppose we can interpret the last part of his sentence to mean that he’s been unhappy with his own performances rather than it being any ‘blast’ at the coach. If that’s the case I don’t think there’d be too many people who’d disagree with him at the moment. The early promise he showed has long gone and maybe it’s a case it’s hard to find your feet and stand out in a struggling team but his inability to find a team-mate with a simple pass is uncanny. We’re disappointed too as he was our only real summer signing. Let’s hope he can pick it up but it’s hard to see where he fits into the team. He’s not really a wide player and not really a central midfield player in the system we play. I remain unconvinced.
Abou Diaby has impressed though, not only the manager and the fans, but the captain as well. After the Birmingham game Thierry was fullsome in his praise of the young Frenchster, saying “I told people what Abou Diaby was all about before he came to us. He can hold the ball and he will do us an amazing job away from home. If you look at the first goal, with his overlapping run and cross, that is what we have been lacking sometimes. What he is doing at the moment is amazing and very good for him. I just hope he can be the same player as Patrick Vieira.”
Don’t we all. David Beckham says that any suggesting of Sol Campbell suffering from a mental illness is ‘not on’ while George Graham says Campbell should play 4 or 5 reserve games before coming back into the first team as he needs to get fit again. It’s hard to argue with that as he does look like he’s carrying too much weight. Perhaps if he got properly fit he might be able to find something approaching acceptable form.
Anyway, no doubt we’ll get a picture special on Arsenal.com – ‘Sol’s first day back!!!’, or similar, with some nicely staged pictures of him (taken from his good side, of course). He’s had a nice little holiday while we’ve had two fit defenders so everything is hunky-dory again. Word is he’s already booked a couple of days in Seville starting at half-time in the Real Madrid game.
Dennis Bergkamp on our season – “It is OK to take one step back and two steps forward but we are not really sure if it is just one step back at the moment. It seems more. Somehow we got into a transitional year and it wasn’t necessary.”
To those of you subscribed to the mailing list it doesn’t seem to be working properly. The mails are being queued but there’s some delay in sending them. I’ll try and sort that out this week and get your Arseblog in your box early rather than late afternoon. Not sure what’s wrong though.
Right, off to work I go. Have a good day. Till tomorrow.
