Well, that’s it. No more internationals and we’ll have a Euro2008 with no team from Britain or Ireland. Oh well. Hopefully England’s exit won’t reawaken all those tedious stories about foreigners but England could do worse than get a good foreigner as manager. I wonder what Christian Gross is doing these days.
Eduardo was involved in Croatia’s second last night before being taken off when the score was 2-2. No Arsenal player was involved with England (we don’t really have any, har har!) but it’s probably best if they’re not hanging around McClaren’s den with bigwigs like Frank Lampard and his ilk. In the other games it seems that Alex Hleb was taken off at half-time during the Belarus game. His coach indicated he’d be out for a couple of weeks but we’ll have to see what they say when he gets back to Arsenal.
Cesc played 45 minutes for Spain last night, not sure why he didn’t play the second half. Nicklas Bendtner scored Denmark’s opening goal in their 3-0 win, Gallas and Diarra played the full 90 for France as did Jens Lehmann for Germany. We’ll get a fuller picture of the health of the squad in the next day or so as the lads return from their jaunts abroad. Is it just me or did this international break seem really, really long?
Still not much going on in the way of the Arse at the moment. Manuel Almunia talks about the ‘privileged’ position he’s in as Arsenal keeper and he’s staying very much on his toes, saying:
I just know I have to play well in each game and do not like to look into the future too much. If I am thinking about January or February in the next game I could make a couple of mistakes and be back on the bench. Football is very cruel – and especially with goalkeepers.
Yes indeed. Just ask Scott Carson. Or Jens Lehmann who wants his place back, saying:
I have more experience than Almunia, I can cope better with pressure situations and I’m still at the peak of my powers.
You can’t really argue with the first part, you could probably make a good case for the second but I’m not sure there are too many that would agree with the last bit. As it stands Almunia will continue.
Arsenal.com looks at some of the young players who are out on loan. Of most interest is Johann Djourou who will come back in January and provide cover at centre-half during Kolo’s absence. I’ve watched him a couple of times this season for Birmingham and he’s been rather ropey looking but hopefully the experience and time on the pitch will do him some good.
And that’s about it. Hopefully tomorrow and Saturday will see a glut of Arsenal news to make up for the lack of it in the last couple of weeks. The Arsecast will return tomorrow as well with the winner of the Savile Rogue scarf competition announced and final chance to win one. Tune in, turn on, blog’s out.
Till tomorrow.
