Morning all, I have the most outrageous hangover considering I didn’t have very much to drink. I think one of the bottles of Paulaner must have been triple distilled and then condensed like orange juice. *boilk*
So, on the Arsecast yesterday we were wondering how Arsene would have spent his time during the Interlull. What would have been on his mind? How would he approach the Everton game? Well, he’s been talking and he sounds positively bullish about the team, insisting they can get the big prize this season (the league title). He also addressed the lack of experience in midfield. He said:
We have talent, we have youth, therefore I believe we have enough quality to do it. We lack experience in some areas, I would not deny that. But you can’t have everything. I believe we can compensate for that with desire to win.
It is right we are young but I don’t believe we lost hard games because we were young, it was because of defensive mistakes.
That’s absolutely true. It was the experienced players that caused us problems so far this season but my counter argument to that would be that with a better midfield it gives you a better to chance to recover from those mistakes. But that’s neither here nor there and we’ve said as much as we need to say about that in the last little while.
If we can cut out the mistakes at the back then we’re going to be in a much better position to win, or at least not lose, games. With Gallas out for the next two games it means a chance for Sylvester to come in and add some open-mouthedness to the centre of the defence.
It looks as if Theo is going to start from the bench after playing two games for England. Arsene says:
Theo came back from England available to play but I might rest him. We play Tuesday again, that’s four games in 10 days. I felt that Walcott went away with England already tired after the Sunderland game. He’s the kind of player who plays with a lot of energy. Every time he goes, he goes 100 per cent.
From the way things are being reported on the official site it looks as if Denilson will move to the right hand side and Alex Song will play in the middle alongside Cesc. It does leave us a bit unbalanced but we’ve often seen Arsene play a central player on the right of midfield. Cesc has done it, I remember a time when Gilberto was played out there quite a bit.
Nevertheless the boss has been bigging up Theo, saying he’s more advanced at his age than Lionel Messi was and that he’s much stronger than he used to be. The comments about Messi will raise some eyebrows no doubt. The boss cites Theo’s movement off the ball as being better than the Argentine but Messi is outrageously gifted with the ball which, I suppose, more than makes up for it. It’s exciting to think that Theo might develop into a player as effective as Messi though. I’m a little wet thinking about that.
Both Cesc and Robin van Persie are available today and we need our strikers to step up. The form of Adebayor and van Persie has been somewhat patchy and we really need them, as two of the more experienced players in the team, to find their not just their shooting boots but their hard working boots too.
Three points are absolutely vital today, that almost goes without saying. As the manager says we’ve given ourselves a bit of a handicap in the race for the title and he knows we can’t have any more slip-ups. Especially at home. As the Breakfast Club said we have to get right on track. And words of wisdom from the 80s don’t come any more succinct than that.
Celtic’s Peter Lawwell explains why he turned down the chance to become Arsenal’s Chief Exec. I suppose as a Celtic fan it must be hard to think about leaving. I’d be more interested in hearing his explanation about why he feels the need for two Ws in his name though. Talk about ostentatious.
The Mirror links us again with Welsh goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey. He currently plays for Wolves.
Right, well that’s about that in terms of news. It’s all about positive thinking and getting those three points on the board.
Till tomorrow.
