A quick Saturday morning round-up for you.
As usual the boss had lots to say in his pre-match press conference, most of which you can find on the offical site homepage.
Some points worth mentioning briefly:
He says Eboue has learnt from his red card at Sp*rs. That remains to be seen. The manager says he’s sorry, I’m sure he is sorry, but it’s too soon to say if he’s learnt from it. He’s never been the kind to learn lessons in the past so I’m not sure why we should give him the benefit of the doubt this time. It strikes me that this is another little bit of propaganda ahead of Eboue’s inevitable start today.
Despite being only 3’10 the boss thinks Andrei Arshavin will make a big impact at Arsenal. He says:
Yes, he is quite small. It is amazing that in football people are always concerned about size but one of the best players in the world was Maradona, who was the same size as Arshavin.
He goes on to say:
His biggest problem is that he is not completely match fit at the moment. So we must give him time to adjust.
Once again softening the blow of Eboue’s immediate return to the side. Obviously I’d like him to start today, I think he’d scare the Sunderland defence to bits and what better way to build match fitness than actually playing a match? Given the fact he’s cup-tied for the midweek game I don’t see why he shouldn’t start today.
There’s an article about how we’ve emerged from a ‘sad period‘ and how ‘Monday marks the anniversary of that fateful day in Birmingham when Arsenal lost a clinical striker – and lost their momentum in the title race’.
That’s the kind of mawkish bollocks you’d expect to see on a Liverpool site. Boo and not Boo-urns, I say.
Obviously today is vitally important. We need three points, our two closest rivals are playing each so at least one is going to drop some points. It’s crucial that we capitalise and continue where we left off against Cardiff, especially with the CL game against Roma coming up.
Robin van Persie has apparently turned down a new contract with the club until he’s sure we’ve got a team that can challenge for trophies. He says:
Financially the club’s last offer is fine but that is not everything to me. It’s about my ambitions and how they can be fulfilled in the coming years. Arsenal have promised me they will do everything possible to make that extra step to a level where we win prizes on a regular basis.
On the one hand he’s an intelligent guy who can see this team has problems and isn’t quite up to scratch. On the other hand he’s an injury prone player who has yet to complete a full season for the club since joining over four years ago (he has some thoughts on his current injury free campaign here).
But how can we complain when a guy says money isn’t everything when we lambaste guys whose only motivation is how big their pay packet is? Keeping Robin van Persie is hugely important if this Arsenal team wants to win trophies in the years to come. If a little bit of pressure from him plays a small part in the manager adding some quality to the squad then I’ve got no problem with it, really.
I fancy him to score today and I’ll put some money on that.
Now, speaking of players for whom money seems to be the primary motivation, Emmanuel Adebayor was involved, apparently, in a ‘furious bust-up’ with an Arsenal fan at the airport in Lagos. The Sun takes up the story:
He (the Arsenal fan)screamed ‘You get paid £80,000 a week to put the ball in the back of the net and you’re still f***ing rubbish. I pay good money for a season ticket to pay your wages.’
Emmanuel completely lost it and had a right go back. He said ‘I get £110,000 a week if you must know’. It just made the guy even more angry.
If it wasn’t for security dragging him away, it could have got a lot worse.
Now, there’s no knowing quite how much truth there is in a story like this. Chances are bells and whistles have been added by the time it’s been published. It’s still kinda funny though, in a kinda sad way. When you’re in the public eye putting up with abuse is part of the job. It’s not nice but it’s a fact of life. Reacting in that way is hardly the best way to go about it.
Chances are the exchange was more like:
‘Hey Ade’.
‘Howsitgoingthere?’
‘Cool. See ya’.
‘Okbyehaveagoodflightbelieveinjesus!’.
Still, it does nothing to change the perception that since his new contract Adebayor has been much less willing to do the work that gained him that extra money. Let’s see how he goes on his return from injury.
Ok, that’s about it. I’m outta here. Tom will be here with tomorrow’s blog so until Monday have a great weekend, fingers crossed we can do the business today.
Cheers.
