Today’s blog is brought to you with a slight *boilk* but nothing more than that.
It’s West Ham later on at Upton Park. You all know the squad news already. I suspect we’ll see the same team that played against CSKA Moscow and the boss will be hoping they finish better. We’ll all be hoping they finish better apart from West Ham fans. Surely we just cannot be that profligate in front of goal again.
One man hoping to get a goal is Jeremie Aliadiere who talks about his loan spell at West Ham. When it became obvious Alan Pardew was going to play him only when his 5 other strikers were unfit or dead he asked why he bothered bringing him to the club at all. The Frenchman says:
I sat on the bench all the time, coming on for five, ten or 15 minutes. So I’d love to put one over them on Sunday.
That’s what I like. Some good old fashioned bitterness. While I’d much prefer a comfortable win an Aliadiere winner in the last minute which made him run over to Alan Pardew and do some kind of Alan Partridge style dance while sticking his fingers up at him repeatedly would be one of the moments of the season.
If we do have problems scoring goals today then there appears to be a solution north of the border from just across the Irish sea. After 6 goals in a month in October Anthony Stokes has kept his impressive form up with another hat-trick yesterday in Falkirk’s 3-0 away win over Dunfermline. He’s on loan there until Christmas but Falkirk manager John Hughes would love to keep him longer.
It’s great that he’s taking his chance up there and showing what a good striker he is. With Lupoli and Bendtner at the club Stokesy, the new Frank Stapleton (without the cunty bits), was often played on the right hand side of midfield. When he’s played up front he’s now showing how effective he can be. Let’s hope Arsene Wenger is taking note. It’s obvious he’s the natural successor to Thierry Henry. Obvious I tell you.
AW talks about José Antonio Reyes and his statement that he’d never return to Arsenal. The boss says that if Arsenal’s interests coincide with those of Reyes then all the better but he should be under no illusions about who makes the final decision about him. He also says he’s been very impressed with Julio Baptista even though he’s hardly played.
And that’s about that. Time for breakfast (god bless you Aunt Jemima), the papers then the match. More tomorrow.
