Happy Friday to you all and it’s busy busy here, hence the rather early start.
The top story this morning is the news that Jens Lehmann is set to miss at least two weeks due to an achilles tendon injury which has been troubling him. It’s a rather convenient injury for Arsene who now doesn’t have to make a public choice between Jens and Manuel Almunia after the German’s erratic start to the season.
The boss says Jens is off to see a specialist but I think if you had an opinion poll and asked how many people thought Jens really was injured I suspect the percentage would be quite low. He did get some backing from the boss about not judging a player on mistakes but he seems to have really thrown down the gauntlet to Almunia, saying:
Almunia is equipped to take responsibility because he did very, very well when he played last year. He is mature, he has all the attributes you need to be successful. It was a close decision who is my number-one keeper because of his performances last season.
To me that suggests if Almunia does well then Jens is going to have a hard time getting back into the side. Now, I know Manuel doesn’t fill many people with confidence but I think he’s a much improved and much more confident player than the one who first joined the team. Remember, he spent his life playing for teams who got battered every week. Moving to a club like Arsenal brought different pressures and expectations and it took time for him to settle down. At this moment in time I’d have more confidence in him than in Jens. That’s not slagging Jens off, because I love the bloke, but the German is all over the place at the moment and Almunia must know how big a chance this is for him now. As for Fabianski, I don’t think there was any chance of him taking over given how little part he played in pre-season but he’s going to get some bench time now at least.
With Emmanuel Adebayor back and fit it looks like we’ve got some options up front at last. Bendtner looked pretty decent against Ireland while Eduardo scored and it was good to hear the boss say he was going to be playing with two strikers in most games, despite the success Alex Hleb has had in that supporting striker role. It was obvious that Robin van Persie was altogether too isolated and with one of those three alongside him he’ll be much more effective.
Gilberto looks like he’s going to be involved to some degree on Saturday as well but Eboue, Diaby and Rosicky – at this moment in time – are all still on the injured list.
Also out is William Gallas and Arsenal have reacted to Raymond Domenech’s idea of Gallas being treated by the French national team’s doctors. What is slightly worrying is that the injury he suffered is the same one that kept him out for months last season. Given the fact our cover at centre-half now amounts to Justin Hoyte (who could be on his way to Aston Villa – ta, Smiley) and Gilberto. I don’t even want to think about Alex Song at centre-half in the same way I don’t want to think about coming home and finding my entire family butchered by a maniac.
As usual the manager’s pre-game press conference will take place this afternoon where no doubt he’ll be grilled about Lehmann and hopefully somebody will ask him about transfers as well. I can’t wait to hear him say he’s open to bringing in players but only the exact right player and the exact right price.
Now, this.
In this week’s Arsecast, brought to you in association with OleOle.com, I talk to GilbertoSilver from gunnerblog.com about the goalkeeping situation, the Man in the Bar has a player history, there’s 24 hour news and other stuff too.
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[audio:http://arseblog.com/podcasts/arsecast_episode41.mp3]Now, I must away. Happy Friday.
