Some Arse related Interlull action last night and what a way for Theo Walcott (OleOle link) to make his mark on the international stage.
A hat-trick against Croatia as England won 4-1. Despite it being rather unsightly seeing him pawed and mauled and kissed by the likes of Lampard, Ferdinand, PenalTerry and others, it was absolutely great for the young man and great for us as well. It’s another sign that his game is developing the way everyone hoped it would and it will fill him with confidence and other stuff similar to, or exactly the same as, confidence.
Check out the goals here – goal 1, goal 2, goal 3 (via 101greatgoals). So while the press will go crazy with headlines like ‘Threeo Walcott’, ‘Threesey does it for Walcott’, ‘Theo Walshot’ and ‘Threeo, threeo, daylight come and Thee wanna go home’ the young man isn’t going to get suckered in. He says:
I’m not going to get ahead of myself. I know what people will be saying about me but I will just be ignoring it and keep taking positives from the game. My family and friends have brought me up well, look after me and help keep my feet on the ground. That’s what I’ve always been like and I won’t change at all.
Splendid. And we need to make sure we don’t expect too much from him either but I’m expecting at least a hat-trick against Blackburn on Saturday. Seriously though, well done Theo.
As far as I can tell the only other Arsenal scorer last night was Nicklas Bendtner for Denmark as they beat Portugal while Johann Djourou was in the Swiss team beaten 2-1 by Luxembourg. Remember the days when Luxembourg couldn’t beat their way out of a wet paper bag? Mad.
So it’s time to start looking ahead to the weekend and the return of proper football. We may have Abou Diaby available for the first time this season but he may find himself pressed into service on the left hand side as we might be missing Samir Nasri who was pulled out of the French team because of a knee injury which may need treatment. I think from now on we need to do a knee smash in our medicals. Only players whose knees can withstand 6 blows from a lump hammer should be signed. No doubt we’ll get a fuller update later on about who’s fit and who’s not.
The next week or so is going to be tough going. We’ve got three tricky away games. Firstly Blackburn on Saturday, then a trip to the Ukraine to play Dinamo Kiev on Wednesday followed by a trip to Bolton. I think that’s what you call pure slog but that’s all part of the game. We need to get ourselves going again.
Gunnerblog speculates that our new Chief Executive could be Paul Donovan, who has left his post as CEO Central Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Affiliates of Vodafone Group Plc. An announcement is expected shortly from the club.
Right, that is about it. More tomorrow with an Arsecast of some description.
