The squad for tonight’s game was announced yesterday and although we’re without Samir Nasri and Sylvester we do have Gael Clichy and Lazarus Eboue fit to take part.
Having been stretchered off against Blackburn he’s ‘recovered’ sufficiently to be involved tonight. I don’t quite know what’s worse, that I thought he was actually injured after having such a good game or that he was obviously faking. You just don’t get taken off on a stretcher and then play a game four days later. He is such a spoofer. Carlos Vela returns to the squad after his international travels.
Rather unusually the boss is suggesting that a draw would be a decent result tonight. This is a game we can win and that’s the way we should be approaching it. Yes Kiev were a very good team some years ago but they’re not that good anymore. Sure, our record in that part of the world isn’t great but that’s a record that can be broken.
Nevertheless the boss was a bit more bullish in his pre-match press conference, saying:
We have had some bad experiences in this part of Europe before, but I believe we have learned that any place in the world is difficult and I believe mentally we can cope with that better now. We know in Kiev it is always a very, very difficult place and we respect that – but it is important to start well. We are happy to play football – we are afraid of nobody in the world.
Emmanuel Adebayor is especially motivated for Europe this season as he explains:
I was on the bench when Monaco lost to Porto in the Champions League final in 2005. The following year I was with Arsenal when they played Barcelona in the final. But because I had already played for Monaco, I was not eligible that season. So I have been to the final twice and not played.
That would certainly be a bummer, all right. And none of this namby-pamby happy with a draw stuff for Ade. Oh no. He says:
We know playing in the Ukraine is going to be very difficult but we are going to Kiev to win.
That’s the stuff. Let’s be honest, the last few games have been hugely encouraging. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be going there with anything less than the utmost confidence. We’re scoring goals, not conceding (despite not defending particularly well), and the confidence among the lads must be very high. And we’re lucky that we’re going at this time of year and not in a couple of weeks time. If I recall correctly our previous games out there have been much more wintery and that is a big part of why we struggled out there. I’m confident we can get three points tonight.
The Times this morning is reporting that Stan Kroenke will join the Arsenal board but their website is acting up. This link should take you there when they get things sorted out. The same article also suggests that that the appointment of Celtic’s Peter Lawell as Chief Executive will be ratified at a board meeting but it appears as if Celtic aren’t willing to let their man go easily.
The reserves beat Portsmouth 1-0 last night thanks to a Homer Jay Simpson penalty. With Nugent and Kanu in the Pompey line-up it was a good test for the youngsters.
Finally for today you’ve read about former Arsenal and Liverpool player Ray Kennedy on Arseblog before and his struggle with Parkinson’s disease. His time as a footballer came long before the kind of wages that can support even the most average player for the rest of his life. The Ray of Hope appeal was set up to try and raise some funds for a man who had to sell his medals (imagine that, scoring the winning goal at White Hart Lane to win us the league in 1971 and being forced to sell that medal) and if you’re interested there’s an auction for a signed Arsenal shirt.
Signatures on the shirt include Gilberto Silva, Jens Lehmann, William Gallas, Philippe Senderos and Ray Kennedy himself. For more details check out this page and it is for a very worthy cause.
Right so, that’s that. I am looking forward to tonight. It’s been football overload the last few days. Arsenal on Saturday, my team’s pre-season friendlies started last night (we lost against a Div 1 team, we’re Div 10, heh, but I scored), and now European football. I might turn into a football or something.
Anyway, till tomorrow.
