Martin Jol said he didn’t see it and Michael Carrick said he didn’t know there was a player down injured. Yet anyone who saw Sky Sports yesterday will have seen Carrick stop before being urged to ‘Play! Play!’ by his manager on the sidelines – low quality clip here (thanks, Archie). As I said yesterday there’s nothing we can do about it now but anyone who thinks our manager should apologise for calling Jol a liar needs to think again. It’s little wonder AW was so upset as he obviously heard his counterpart telling his player to ignore the convention. It doesn’t change anything but it explains a lot. Not much else to say, is there?
Onwards and upwards anyway as we have a trip to Spain and a Champions League semi-final to deal with tomorrow night. Arsene Wenger says there’s no question of his players being more motivated to win the CL because of the situation with Sp*rs and 4th place. He says “We will not be motivated to win the Champions League because of Tottenham; we want to win the trophy because it is the trophy.”
He expects Villarreal to attack more than in the first leg which is natural as they’re at home and they’re a goal down. It remains to be seen what changes will be enforced due to injury. The main concern is over Philippe Senderos and his knee. The obvious replacement is Sol Campbell but the boss says “I do not know whether Sol will come back for Tuesday. We will have to wait and see how he is.”
For a game like this though you would imagine Campbell’s experience will give him the edge over Djourou who is the only other option. Otherwise we seem to be injury free. More team news will emerge throughout the day and I’ll have a full preview of what is one of the most important Arsenal games any of us will have experienced here tomorrow.
Dennis Bergkamp, who obviously won’t take part tomorrow night, says he’ll be a taking a complete break from football when he retires. He’s not ruling out being a coach but wants to take time off firsts. It’s a shame his fear of flying pretty much prevents him from becoming a manager because he’s got that iciness you need. I’m sure we’re all dreaming of him finishing his Arsenal career with a flourish. Fingers crossed.
Finally for today thanks to forum member Thunderbird who has provided me with some great shots of Highbury to make new top images. No doubt everybody knows you get a different top image each time you visit the site and with only 90 minutes of football left at the grand old stadium it will live on in the banners for the forseeable future.
Ok, till tomorrow then.
