Happy Friday to you all from me Arseblogger, the only writer of Arseblog (apart from Tom) despite what some people might tell you. You know it makes sense! A round up the stories before we get to the good good stuff.
Ahead of the Carling Cup final there are injury concerns over Justin Hoyte and Gael Clichy. Both will have fitness tests. Clichy was talking up Armand Traore but of all the youngsters he looked by far the most raw and was skinned alive by a very average Sp*rs player whose name I can’t remember (2nd leg, not Lennon). Still, if Clichy isn’t fit he’s going to play so hopefully he’ll have learned from those games. If Hoyte doesn’t make it it’ll be Djourou at right back and that’ll be pretty much the extent of the defenders at the club so we’ll need to keep fingers crossed that none of them pick up a knock in the game.
The boss confirmed that none of Lehmann, Henry, Gallas or Ljungberg will play. That means that we’ll have Rosicky, possibly as a starter, and Hleb on the bench to give us more experience in midfield if we need it. Up front you’d imagine it’ll be Aliadiere and Baptista to start and the Brazilian wants to start more games. A good showing the final will certainly give him more a chance with Henry struggling and van Persie still out but a nightmare game like the one against Bolton in the FA Cup might make the manager think twice or even thrice.
AW is confident despite the fact he’ll be playing a ‘second string’ side while Chelsea will put out their first XI. He says:
I was asked the same questions before Liverpool and the same questions before the semi-final. The team’s always given the right answer and I’m confident they’ll give the right answer again on Sunday.
He also had a nice little dig at Jose Mourinho who was telling everyone who’d listen that he’d won the Champions League as a coach and Arsene Wenger hadn’t. The boss said:
It will not change my life if I don’t win the Champions League. A cup run is a cup run. We played a whole season unbeaten but you did not see me every week jumping on the tables.
Heh. Fantastic. Shove that up your hole, Jose. Frank Lamparse says Chelsea want revenge for the 2002 FA Cup final. Jesus, get over it already, you lardy, deflectatronic cunt.
Martin Keown has backed Arsenal kids saying they deserve to play in the final. And that, in terms of news, is about that. There’ll be more tomorrow after today’s standard press conference.
In this week’s Arsecast, which is sponsored by Savile-Rogue.com, is chock a block with Arsecasty goodness for you. There’s an exclusive interview with former young Gunner Danny Karbassiyoon who you may have read about recently. He’s had to retire from football at just 22 so we’ll talk about that and his time at Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger Hawkins is involved in a sex tape scandal, the Man in the Bar has another player history, there’s a snippet of talk radio featuring James Lawton, your comments about goalkeepers and keep listening to find out how you can win yourself one of two Savile Rogue’s great scarves plus last week’s winners. All for a bargain price of £0.00p. Can’t ask for better than that, can you?
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Download, listen, enjoy. Have a good one, talk to you tomorrow.
