A quick Saturday round-up for you ahead of tomorrow’s crunch game against United.
We’ll start with injury news and it’s not looking good for Thierry Henry who only has a 10-15% chance of playing according to Arsene Wenger. Robin van Persie was due to have a scan yesterday on an injured hip so we should hear something about him today. Should they both miss out the manager lists his options up front as Adebayor, Baptista and Walcott.
With United having started the season perfectly it’s vital we don’t lose this one and realistically 3 points are the order of the day. AW says we’re going there to win while Demento says Arsenal are in a period of transition having lost so many experienced players.
I was listening to the radio last night and all the pundits have us totally written off for this one. We’re going as serious underdogs which might just suit us. Certainly it’s too early to say the game is make or break but to give a team like United a 13 point lead so early would be bad news however many games there are left. As the boss says if we win and win our game in hand their lead would be four points. Much nicer to look at. Here’s hoping.
In other news José Antonio Reyes has blasted HWMNBNBHIAPLCC® for saying the spirit was bad in the Arsenal dressing room. The Spaniard said:
He is just trying to cause trouble. There was a good atmosphere in the Arsenal dressing room no matter what he says.
Good for him. Meanwhile William Gallas has been speaking about how happy he is at Arsenal and how much he loves the way we play football which, I suppose, could be construed as another sly dig at his former employers. He also speaks about how he has no problem playing at left back until Gael Clichy is fit. That’ll be November 2009 then…
Johann Djourou in the Independent. He seems like a very level headed young man. And he’s a monster too.
Finally it was good to see Arsenal so quickly reject the press reports linking to the club to a take over by a billionaire looking for a club to launder his money through use as a plaything. Arsene Wenger believes the club should retain an English identity off the pitch if not always on it. He says:
Arsenal is owned by Englishmen and they are fans of the club first and I find that reassuring. It’s important for English clubs to continue to have English values. It should not just be a matter of who spends more but how we behave and how we achieve it.
And quite right he is too. I know Chelsea have fantastic players and a great manager and they’ve deserved the two titles they’ve won but you cannot argue with the fact that it would not have happened without Abramovich’s billions creating a false economy. We saw it on a smaller scale with Jack Walker’s Blackburn in the mid-90s but the difference was Walker was a Blackburn fan and put his money into a club he loved from the time he was in short pants.
Now we have Chelsea bought by a Russian, United by an American leprechaun, Villa by an American, West Ham on the verge of being sold to an Iranian and the trend is worrying. As I said yesterday I hope that Arsneal will never have to sell out in order to compete but who knows what will happen in the next 10 years.
Anyway, that’s enough of that. Have a good Saturday. Talk to you all tomorrow.
