Friday morning, the end of another week, and no league action until next weekend. We’ve got double cup goodness against the Scousers starting tomorrow in the FA Cup.
What is good news is that our injuries are beginning to clear up. Eboue should be available for tomorrow’s game, Julio Baptista should be back too, Lauren is ‘ready to play’ according to Arsene Wenger, William Gallas and Theo Walcott are in contention for the Carling Cup, Freddie Ljungberg is on track too. The most encouraging news is the fact that Abou Diaby took part in his first competitive training session since he was put out of the game for 9 months by some witless Sunderland hacker. The manager said:
It is great news. He is so happy to play and his performance was very positive.
He certainly adds a physical presence to the midfield and it will be nice to have the options we’ll have when everyone is up and running again. William Gallas says the FA Cup should be a priority with the league title so far away. He says:
It’s true the title is a long way off. Now, apart from the Champions League, the FA Cup has become a big target for us.
On to matters disciplinary. Sheffield United’s Chris Morgan got a three match ban for punching Robin van Persie in the ribs. Good enough for him, the sly cunt.
However, Alan Pardew has escaped without charge for his ‘bust-up’ with Arsene Wenger. I’m flummoxed, I have to say. If Wenger deserved a £10,000 fine for reacting to Pardew’s juvenile provocation then the former West Ham manager and soon to be relegated Charlton manager deserved just the same. Perhaps they overlooked the fact that for Arsene to shrug off Pardew, about which he should have known better, Pardew had to have his hands on him, in Arsene’s technical area, to do it. A load of shite if you ask me but then that’s the FA.
Nothing really to concern us with regards the transfer window. Young defender Joe O’Cearuill has gone to Brighton on a month long loan while Ipswich Town are the latest club to express an interest in Anthony Stokes although some reports, from not entirely credible sources, suggest Charlton will pay £2.7m for the young Irishman.
If it is true then you have to say it’s probably a good bit of business by the club. £2.7m is a hefty chunk of money for an 18 year and while I, more than anyone, would have liked to see Stokesy make it at Arsenal we have to be realistic. While he can’t have done any more to prove he’s got a big future in the game it’s hard to see him get a game ahead of the strikers we have at the moment and one of the good things about Arsenal and Arsene Wenger is that he won’t stand in a player’s way if a decent opportunity comes his way. His chances of first team football are far greater elsewhere.
That said it is a shame we won’t have an Irishman in the team and it’s a shame he has to work with that despicable fuckbag Pardew but if it’s true I wish him all the very best. All week I’ve been receiving emails about Stokes and Bendtner and it’s something that I’ll touch on briefly in today’s Arsecast but something I’ll try and go in depth with a bit for next week’s. Are we as fans guilty of overhyping the young players and underestimating how big a step it is from reserve team football or even from Falkirk or Birmingham to Arsenal’s first team? Do we just take for granted that all our young players will become good enough? It’s something that needs more thought and preparation than I was able to give this week.
Now onto this week’s all action Arsecast.
As always the Arsecast is sponsored by classicfootballshirts.co.uk and this week features a blogchat with my Liverpool supporting brother, the mug smasher as we kind of preview the FA Cup game, Arsene Wenger Hawkins responds to a sinister threat made against him, there’s a bet of the week from www.bluesq.com and there’s some more idle waffle as you might expect.
To subscribe to the arsecast in iTunes – click here. To download this week’s arsecast directly – click here. You can find the arsecast archives here.
And that’s about that. One final thing to mention today though. You might remember some months back I mentioned a bloke called Rob Marsden, a Gooner, who’s going to climb Kilmanjaro to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. Well, he’s heading off at the end of this month to begin his mighty trek and he’s still looking for sponsorship. Arsebloggers have been very generous already but if you felt like you could throw another few quid his way and raise money for a cause which must be close to everyone’s heart then click here and do what you can.
Cheers, all.
