Team news ahead of tomorrow’s game against United to kick us off again and it does look as if injuries are going to play their part. Gael Clichy is struggling with a hamstring strain so I suspect he’ll be rested for the Milan game, Bacary Sagna misses the game for ‘personal reasons’ while Philippe Senderos is a doubt with knee/thigh problems.
So Hoyte and Traore to face Ronaldo and co. Oh well. Que sera sera. Arsene Wenger says of the team he’ll pick:
It will be as strong as possible so we have a good chance to win the game without putting the rest of the season into jeopardy by risking injuries. But I will have a busy night thinking about what I’ll do and how I will do it.
As I mentioned earlier in the week my view of this game is that it would be very nice to win it but not too devastating if we lost. We have bigger fish to fry this season, I think, and while Wenger’s teams are perfectly capable of doing doubles, as we all know, you just wonder if this squad has the depth to the cope with FA Cup games during what’s going to be a very intense run-in to the title. We should get full team news later today.
Cesc has revealed he’s in new contract talks with the club. Speaking to Spanish radio station Cadena Ser he said:
I have a contract in force until 2014 and I am talking with my club, who are interested in renegotiating it. I want to succeed at Arsenal and that the club wants me is fundamental. I only think of winning as many titles as possible here at Arsenal.
What can you say? Splendid stuff. The Sun says his wages will go from £50,000 a week to £80,000 a week. And he’s still so young. Imagine what he’ll be earning when he’s 30. Trevor Francis was the first million pound footballer when Brian Clough paid all that money for him so many years ago. Cesc could be the first million pounds a week footballer. Did I ever mention to Cesc that I have a pretty daughter who is fluent in Catalan?
Martin Keown talks about the incident with Cunt van Nistelcunt, amongst other things (thanks to Tony for the heads-up).
Now, Arsecast.
In this week’s Arsecast, sponsored by OleOle.com, I chat to Amy Lawrence about our position at the top of the table and the upcoming games against United and AC Milan, I also chat to Teo about the emergence of Alex Song in the ACN, Eboue is in there, the Man in the Bar has a plaintive player history and there’s the usual guff.
To subscribe to the arsecast in iTunes – click here. To download this week’s arsecast directly – click here (15mb MP3). You can find the arsecast archives here. And you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.
[audio:http://arseblog.com/podcasts/arsecast_episode64.mp3]Finally for today Toffs have just relaunched their website and to celebrate they have given Arseblog readers the chance to get 15% off any purchase for the next week.
All you have to do is fill your basket then use the code – leaders (please note lower case). Anyway, there’s loads of cool Arsenal stuff on there so take advantage while you can. The offer runs out next Friday.
Right so, have a good day. More tomorrow.
