Good morning to you. The joy of Roma now has to be consigned to the ‘Well, that was a jolly good night but we’ve got lots of important games still to play – starting with Blackburn tomorrow’ drawer.
We need really big stickers and tiny writing to fit that on the front but there you go. We don’t know too much about the make up of tomorrow’s team only that Eduardo will miss the game having picked up a bit of a groin strain during extra time on Wednesday.
With many of the team having played 120 minutes plus penalties there’s the danger of heavy-leg syndrome (a cousin of twitchy-leg syndrome which plagues you when trying to get to sleep). All the same the legs should be heavy with glee and tired by euphoria. They’re not half as tired as they’d be if we’d lost that penalty shoot-out.
As well as that Blackburn had 90 minutes on Wednesday night too so they’re not coming into this as fresh as daisies although, it must be said, they are a pack of complete and utter cunts. Managed by Walrus-looking cunt and chock full of other cunts like El Hadj Cunt and Morten Cunst Pedersen, I have little or no time for Blackburn and would very much like it if we smashed them like we smashed them at the start of the season.
No doubt we’ll get more team news later today which we can look at tomorrow but you’d have to think there’ll be a degree of rotation. Arshavin will certainly start, Theo too probably, Song will replace one of Denilson or Diaby in midfield and possibly Vela will come in on the left to give Nasri a break. Anyway, more on the team tomorrow.
There’s some stuff in the papers about Kolo Toure talking about his relationship with William Gallas the stories that he wanted to leave the club earlier in the season. It’s all kind of stuff we’ve seen before, really, nothing new to it, only Kolo saying:
There were some problems between the players, but this must remain an internal matter because I’m not the kind of man who creates controversies.
Makes you wonder why he’s talking about it then. Other quotes from Djourou and Vela seem to indicate that something serious really happened with Gallas, no doubt related to his comments which saw him stripped of the captaincy.
However, at this point in the season, with both Gallas and Toure no longer playing like they’re both trying to get the other one in trouble, it seems churlish to go over it again. Let’s just be thankful that whatever differences there are seem to have been put to one side and that their improvement in form continues until this campaign is over.
Emmanuel Eboue says he’d sign a new deal if the club offered it to him.
Theo Walcott reveals he took penalty tips from former Southampton penalty great Matt le Tiss … erm … James Beattie. Well, it worked.
Abou Diaby, who was at pains to tell everyone he wasn’t the ‘new Vieira’, now wants to be called the ‘new Vieira’ again. He says:
I did play behind the striker and as a number six, and to be honest I feel good at this position. What I must do is work as twice hard in order to improve at this position. I wouldn’t mind being called The New Vieira again, for sure it’s very flattering.
I can see what he means though. If he improves and works hard then comparisons with Vieira are inevitable what with them both being tall and black and French and playing for Arsenal. But those comparisons won’t come unless he plays well and that is entirely down to him.
Right, that’s about that in terms of news so let’s get on with this week’s Arsecast. I’m joined on the show by Goonerholic and we discuss Roma, the performance vs the result, the penalty shootout and more.
As well as that the Man in the Bar is back and in a new local, there’s some news, more waffle, some guff and a load of old chattery bollocks.
You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too. To download this week’s arsecast directly – click here 23mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.
Ok, that’ll have to do. More, with a fuller Blackburn preview, tomorrow.
