Morning all. It’s bloody freezing here today. I thought we’d escaped the worst of winter but it’s brassers out there.
Not a huge amount going on. We’ll start with Cesc who revealed a frank discussion in the dressing room following the defeat to Sheffield United has sparked Arsenal’s great start to 2007 with 5 wins in a row and 17 goals scored in those 5 games. He said:
We had a talk in the dressing room and said something had to change in our mentality and we need to be stronger in every part of the game. Since then we have been showing everyone we have changed and nobody can stop us if we carry on playing the way we do. The team believes we can do a lot of things together and last night [againt United] it was one of them.
Shades of that team meeting after a 3-1 home defeat to Blackburn in the 97-98 season which saw us go on a mighty run and end up as champions. Perhaps that’s a step too far this time, back then we had some games in hand, but the return to form and the spirit the boys have shown is welcome. Thierry Henry says the team now needs to find consistency which is what many of us have been saying all season long. We’re capable of beating anyone on our day, at the same time we have been capable of losing to anyone – and that includes Bridlington Rovers.
Mathieu Flamini revealed that the manager’s team talk at half-time gave them the confidence to keep at United. According to AW United would tire after 70 minutes and with our two late goals he may have right.
In transfer speculation we’re being linked heavily with Southampton’s Gareth Bale after an unnamed Premiership team made a bid of £10m for the Welsh left back. I can’t imagine it’s us. The manager has said countless times we won’t be buying anyone. We’ve got Clichy, we’ve got Gallas who can play there and Armand Traore is very highly thought of so the capture of Bale would see his Arsenal career finished before it began. Elsewhere we’re linked with young Czech defender Ondrej Mazuch.
Arsenal’s reserves lost 3-0 to Sp*rs reserves last night. It was a very young Arsenal team with a number of the regulars not involved due to the fact they’ll probably be involved in tomorrow night’s Carling Cup semi-final first leg which I’ll preview more tomorrow.
Don’t forget the competition to win £100 of credit for the Arsecast sponsors, classicfootballshirts.co.uk. Simply answer the very easy question in this week’s Arsecast for more.
Right, that’s your lot. Until tomorrow.
