Ouch. Not hangover, football injury. Got a kick on the outside of my right foot playing 5-a-side last night and this morning I can’t put any weight on it at all. I can hobble around using my heel but that’s about it. And it’s fucking painful, stupid foot. Reckon I have to go to the hostibal to get an x-ray. Gah. It was fine last night though, which is the weird thing.
Anyway, back to matters somewhat more important, Arsenal play Aston Villa today at the Grove. The team news it that both Adebayor and Almunia are in the squad. Almunia has recovered completely so is likely to start while the boss says he hasn’t decided whether or not to play Adebayor. There’ll be one young Dane cursing the recovery powers of the Togonian.
Whichever striker he picks I think we’ll see the same formation as against United last week. We’ve really said all there is to say about how we need to play, about how irrelevant last week would become if we didn’t follow it up with the right result today, so let’s just hope we get the Arsenal of last week and not the Arsenal that faced Stoke. We want the Dr Jekyll Arsenal and not the Mr Hyde one. I think. Whichever one of them was the good one. And by good one I’m talking about the mean-spirited, ruthless one.
Arsene Wenger reckons seven or eight of Tuesday’s Carling Cup team will play for Arsenal in the Premier League. He says:
If you look at the team that played in the Carling Cup Final two years ago our midfield was Walcott, Denilson, Fabregas, Diaby. That was the midfield that started against Man United. We have a good idea of the potential development of the players. That’s why I believe seven or eight will play.
Beyond Song and Djourou, who have a measure of Premier League experience, perhaps the one closest to making the breakthrough is Aaron Ramsey and the boss says there’s no better place for him to be than at Arsenal Football Club. He says:
I believe he has something special. He has the work-rate, he has the spirit and he has good vision. He has all the physical and tactical ingredients to become a great midfielder. He still needs to develop his technique but he has what is needed to become a top-level player.
In the bits and pieces we’ve seen of him so far he’s been impressive. He set up Adebayor’s second goal at Blackburn, he set up Bendtner with a back heel against Sheffield United and he does seem to have an eye for the crafty little pass in and around the box. That’s something that could well be vital as we come up against teams who like to get men behind the ball. His long passing is good too and he seems to have a mean free-kick on him. I’m tipping him to be semi-regular in the Premier League by the end of the season.
You can see some video of Wenger talking about the young players in The Sun today.
Lukasz Fabianski’s agent says other clubs have been asking him about the Polish stopper but says Fabianski is enjoying his time at Arsenal and is working ‘step-by-step’ to become Arsenal’s number 1. If he does make it I can’t imagine there’ll ever be a dull game. Still, his emergence and progress is a good thing. Competition is vital, especially in the keeper’s position. We saw how Lehmann responded when his place was under threat, Almunia performed excellently when he knew Jens was ready to back in at any time, and the duel between Fab and Al should keep them both on their toes.
There was good news about Eduardo who should be ready to play in about ‘two or three’ weeks, according to Arsene Wenger. I’d imagine they’d be a few reserves games under his belt before he’s reintroduced to first team action though, so if we start to see him in the squad around Christmas time then that’d be about right.
Right, that’s about it. I’ve got to go get my foot looked at. Fingers crossed we get the right performance and result. Till tomorrow.
