So, a chance to put the pain of the double Scouse defeats behind us as we take on West Ham at home today. In team news Eboue is fit so the boss will stick with the totally awesome back four that were totally awesome against Liverpool. He says he wants to give them a chance to show what good players they are. Let’s hope they take that chance.
As expected Arsene Wenger dismissed the stories about Thierry Henry leaving. It was so obvious the papers had seen the chance to throw in a story like that on the back of the Kroenke story and it was obvious it was all bollocks as well. He says:
I had a chat with Thierry this morning. He asked me whether I’d read the newspapers. I’d not heard about his story. But it’s completely invented. He’s clear, he wants to stay. I’m clear, I want him to stay. So that story has been created. The story is wrong.
With regards to the fact that Stan Kroenke has bought ITV’s 9.9% he called it an ‘investment‘ rather than the first steps to a takeover and described it as something positive for the club. Certainly somebody had to buy it and as we already have a partnership with one of his clubs I suppose he’s not the worst option ever. He also said though that the values of Arsenal should always be respected no matter what happens in the future.
The values are a bit of human class, distinction, respect for people and ambition to have a certain class in what you do. That’s what I felt when I came inside this football club. There was always fair play, a desire to do things well and respect for basic human values.
Possibly values that he feels are missing at other clubs who have had new owners in recent years. Anyway, we’re still no clearer about Kroenke’s investment. Some people feel it’s inevitable that we’ll be taken over. Some don’t. Again, I hope we’re not but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
Moving back to football the boss admitted that Mathieu Flamini could leave in the summer but said he could have played the whole season if he’d been interested in playing at full back. Whether he meant left or right we’ll never know and I feel he could have made a very good full back but if he wants to play in midfield then he’s going to find his chances limited at Arsenal as the boss obviously sees Denilson and Diaby ahead of him at the moment.
Elsewhere Frank Ribery says he has an agreement with Marseille that he can leave if they don’t get Champions League football while Sevilla have said Alves is going nowhere. However, the Alves thing is interesting. I expect Baptista to go back to Real Madrid in the summer which leaves us with Reyes, who is still on a long Arsenal contract, unwilling to come back to England. I think he’d jump at the chance to go back to Sevilla so he could be used for that. Whatever happens I expect we’ll try and use Reyes in a deal to bring somebody into the club this summer.
The Mirror suggests the rumour about the white away kit next season might just be a hoax by a Sp*rs fan. We’ll see but the stories keep coming and one email I received suggested that the kit is already in Nike’s industry catalogues, is totally white and that the third kit is red and blue. Who knows? I wish the marketing department at Arsenal would answer their phone or answer the emails I’ve sent them though.
Right, that’s about that. More than performance we need three points today although if we could combine the two it would be nice.
Come on you reds.
