April 15th
Gah, bloody *boilk*. Morning all.
Team news for today sees Cesc and Campbell out. Cesc has had a recurrence of his foot injury which makes him a big doubt for the Champions League semi-final against Villarreal (who lost 1-0 to Barcelona last night) while Campbell has had surgery on his broken nose but the manager expects him to be out for ‘a week at most’. Some whispers that Kolo Toure will be rested today which means we’ll probably have a double Swiss central defence as Djourou moves across from right back and Eboue comes back in. Adebayor should continue up top with Henry as he’s cup tied for Europe and we’ll be hoping he can put his horror night on the south coast behind him and knock in a goal. Or eight. With Cesc out it’ll be Diaby in midfield with Gilberto and if you think that his injury had happened before Christmas we’d have had to play Song then it’s such a good job we spent money in January. Reyes is likely to play as he’s suspended for Europe and he’s another one who needs a good performance.
As Goodplaya points out this is the first of three vital home games in a week. Nothing less than three points today will do then we can start looking ahead to Villarreal and then onwards to Sp*rs at home next Saturday. We all know the situation in terms of points and possibilities.
With Cesc and Thierry Henry both nominated for Player of the Year awards Arsene Wenger may be slightly biased when he reveals his picks. “My list is very short. It is Thierry Henry and Cesc Fabregas, by miles. You cannot see anybody coming close to them.”
The Sun suggests we’re trying to add some height to our forward line as we’re linked again with 6’10 striker Nikola Zigic. As AW dismissed Peter Crouch as a ‘basketball player’ it might be a hint that he doesn’t want that kind of player in his team but you’d have to think we’d score a few more headers if he was playing. Naturally that’s assuming we learn to hit a corner beyond the near post.
Former Gunner Kevin Campbell, due to return today with West Brom, says young players today have it easy – “We had to clean Highbury from top to bottom. Shovelling snow off the terraces, putting down the salt so the game could be played and the supporters could get in the North Bank, cleaning the changing rooms, the coach, the manager’s car, and the tiles in the laundry room. You name it, I have done it at Highbury. That was a good grounding. Now they don’t do the duties that we had to do. It is too easy for them now.”
He’s probably right, I remember when Highbury was nothing but fields and my Dad would make me get up at 3 o’clock in the morning, 2 hours before I went to bed, give us a great lump of freezing cold posion and we’d have to go work 32 hours a day down’t mill. And so on.
Breakfast. Grocery shopping, then the game is on live here today so I will sit on the couch and watch that. Three points will help my hangover. Come on, lads, you do want to help my hangover, don’t you?
