Lots to talk about this morning, as you might expect. I shall try and get through it all with as little fuss as possible.
We’ve got Sevilla tonight in the Champions League and the boss has a decision or two to make. With Senderos back he’s likely to play the Swiss alongside Kolo Toure while Gilberto, who looked a bit jet-lagged against Sp*rs, could move back into midfield. Other than that we’re without Lehmann, Eboue and William Gallas.
The boss has warned against being complacent and wants to get off to a strong start in the competition. A home game gives us a good opportunity to put three points on the board, even if the opposition is of high quality. And make no mistake, this Sevilla side is a very good indeed. They’re fast, direct and love to attack. Similar to Arsenal, I suppose. We know the danger men like Kanoute, Renato, Alves and Navas (providing he’s not too homesick), and they’ve got good options on the bench too. We’ll certainly have to be a bit tighter defensively because unlike £16.5m Darren Bent these boys could punish us.
Meanwhile Sevilla boss Juande Ramos says Arsenal have improved as a team since losing Thierry Henry. Much of that is down to the efforts of Cesc Fabregas who has had a wonderful start to the season. Arsene Wenger has compared him to Michel Platini, as a player of course and not as an annoying curly haired cunt of a UEFA President. Sevilla will be looking to stop him getting on the ball as much as possible but Fabregas is so good that it’s a hard job to do. Look at Sp*rs at the weekend, they knew all about his threat both in terms of passing and now finishing, but he has this fantastic ability to drift away from defenders and into space.
Cesc himself was talking about Sevilla and Antonio Puerta who died tragically last month. Rightly enough he said that it might act as an extra motivation for the Sevilla players, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Fabregas was an U21 colleague of Puerta. How nice it was for Sky Sports to report that Cesc was afraid of a Sevilla ‘backlash’, which to me is entirely the wrong word and gives it a sensationalist spin. But then what do we expect from Sky?
I think it’s got the potential to be a really great match and hopefully the start to our European campaign can match our domestic one.
Naturally Arsene was quizzed about the latest off-field developments yesterday and as usual his focus was entirely on the football, saying:
My job is to make sure the club does well. I am not concerned about a Russian takeover, I am concerned about tomorrow’s game. It will not disrupt anything. As we said many times, the shares are 50 percent inside the board and 50 percent outside the board. That will not change anything.
The AST remain opposed to a hostile takeover bid but when you see R&W paying £10,250 per share you know they’re hungry to increase their stake in the club. The Independent report that the club turned down the chance to buy the Lansdowne holding but you have to ask why the price was so inflated. Was it a case the club were trying but constantly outbid by Usmanov who wanted those shares no matter what the price?
The Chairman called Sp*rs decision to invite David Dein to the North London derby as ‘not a particularly sensible thing to do’. He’s keeping wonderful company though, isn’t he? Hanging around with the Sp*rs and now aligned with a Manchester United supporting oligarch. The Telegraph article makes for interesting reading, both in terms of the board’s opposition to Usmanov and willingness to deal with Stan Kroenke.
We spoke yesterday about how vital Stan Kroenke’s shares are. I’m informed that the American has no intention of selling his shares at this moment in time and does not want, and has never wanted, to be hostile to the current board. He’s been tainted by allegiance with David Dein and with hindsight and more information he’s not quite the dastardly character we thought he might be. It will be interesting to see what happens in the months ahead. There will be a meeting with the current board next month and the outcome of that could tell us a lot about the future direction of the club.
Arsenal yesterday announced the launch of an Arsenal TV channel run in association with Setanta Sports. You can find details of it here – what’s interesting is that it will come as standard with the normal Setanta Sports pack which gives you the Premier League coverage. The channel will launch in December.
Now, compare and contrast:
Arsenal Youths v Manchester United in the FA Youth Cup – Attendance, 38,000+
Chelsea v Rosenberg in the UEFA Champions League – Attendance 24,973
Oh, hahahaha. They couldn’t even give the tickets away. Classic.
And there you go. A good laugh to finish us off. Enjoy the game tonight, come on you reeeeeeds, and more tomorrow.
