Morning all. Thanks to Tom for stepping in at the last minute yesterday when NTL decided I need to pay my bills to have internet. Selfish bastards.
So the internationals are over till October and we can concentrate on real football again. It looks, at this stage, like our lads have come through injury free as there are no reports of casualties. Eduardo was on target for Croatia again so hopefully he can transfer some of his international form to real life and crack in a couple against the Sp*rs.
There’ll be a proper preview of that game tomorrow or Saturday when we have a better idea of who’s available. The big question is who’ll play in defence. With Senderos suspended, Gallas still injured (he didn’t play for France so his leg must have been hanging off for Domenech not to play him) and Gilberto not back from tarting around the world with Brazil’s money making machine till tomorrow there’s a big decision to be made there. Justin Hoyte is the next option should Gallas and Gilberto not make it. The boss is confident that our ‘remarkable spirit‘ can bring about a good result and a title challenge. I wonder which spirit it is though. Holy or methylated.
With Jens Lehmann suffering from an elbow injury it looks like Manuel Almunia will continue in goal. That means a place on the bench for Lukasz Fabianski who Arsene Wenger says has impressed him a great deal since he joined the club. You wonder if Almunia keeps his place whether Fabianski will take over the role of Cup keeper and if he does where that leaves Lehmann who needs to play ahead of Euro 2008.
Stuart Pearce talks about Theo Walcott and reckons that a run of games will help him develop. Meanwhile the Mirror link Nicklas Bendtner with a loan move away from Arsenal in January. Obviously this is based on his recent comments but he really just needs to be patient. There’s a long season ahead and he’ll get his chances. He just needs to make sure he’s one of those young players who stands out because of what he does on the pitch and not what he says to the press.
The Guardian reports that Arsenal bloggers have been on the receiving end of legal threats from lawyers representing Alisher Usmanov. Arseblog was one of those sites.
And that’s really about it. Now I must make a cup of tea, have some breakfast and think about tomorrow’s Arsecast. Laters.
