Morning all,
I have chums from Barcelona over this weekend so there has been a measure of drinking and eating. Beyond the normal sustenance one requires not to get all dizzy and faint. There is, you might say, a certain *el boilk* to factor in to the equation.
It’s a good job there’s no special day this week in which drinking lots is the norm. I don’t know that I could cope.
Onto the football and yesterday turned out to be rather a good day for us. Sp*rs beat Aston Villa 2-1 which means we maintain our 4th position in the table. It’s quite the turnaround when you think Villa were just a couple of minutes from going 8 points clear of us at one stage.
Obviously things can change just as quickly the other way but with just nine league games left to play it’s back in our hands and that’s a much better position to be in that hoping for others to drop points. Because we’ve already done that bit.
Our next three league fixtures are Newcastle away this Saturday, Man City at home after the international break, and then Wigan away. None of them a cinch, I don’t think there is such a thing with this Arsenal team, but now that we’ve dragged ourselves back into it we have to pick up maximum points to really put the pressure on Villa, and to a lesser extent Everton who aren’t out of the chase yet.
One thing I heard on the radio this week is that from this season there’s no seeding for the qualifying rounds of the Champions League. So we could just as easily end up playing someone like Villarreal or AC Milan as FC Bollockstan. Which would be interesting. I suppose.
For the moment though our attention turns away from the league to the FA Cup. We play Hull City tomorrow night. There’s no news yet in terms of team selection but you have to think the boss will rotate again.
Fabianski, Kieran Gibbs, Gallas, van Persie and Carlos Vela are all likely to come back into the side for a game that would set up a Wembley semi-final against Chelsea should we win. More on that tomorrow.
Meanwhile the boss has been full of praise for Andrei Arshavin who showed on Saturday why we raided all our piggy-banks and searched down the back of all the sofas to get the money to sign him. He said:
The way he is playing shows why I worked so hard to sign him. I like players who give you hope in the final third and create something that you don’t expect. With the players we have and the type of game we play, we need a player like him.
And the Owl himself said:
I am very happy to score my first goal and to put on a good performance for the spectators. But Arsenal have done more for me than I have done for them. I will try to pay them back as quickly as possible.
It really is a shame he can’t play in Europe this season but since his arrival he’s added a definite spark to the team. Might his arrival have inspired others to give that bit more, the treat of competition providing motivation?
The manager says his fitness is now where it should be. I think it’s going to take him another few weeks to get properly fit, to be honest, but when he does it should be fun to watch. More fun.
As expected there’s been little or no talk about El Hajdi Diouf’s atrocious challenge on Manuel Almunia. There was a subsequent clash in the area and the only thing Sam Allardyce had to say was:
It was a silly challenge, there was no need to make it. The pair of them reacted after but that was only because Almunia nutted him. But you never write about that, do you?
Silly challenge? Try dangerous, reckless or vicious. Those are much better words. And as usual he tries to fudge the issue by claiming Almunia headbutted Diouf. I mean, seriously. Did anyone see Almunia, 6’4, headbutt 5’10 Diouf? I didn’t. He really is a piece of shit.
Sky Sports use their Goals on Sunday programme to go over incidents in the weekend’s games. Yesterday they had Allardyce as their guest. Time given to Diouf’s leg-breaker? None. Typical. The ref bottles it, Sky bottle it, yet when a player has his leg shattered by a similar challenge they’ll be tutting and pointing fingers left, right and centre. They have a responsibility to the game beyond chatting to fat, ugly, gum-chewing, Walrus looking managers like old mates. Pathetic.
Anyway, hopefully they’ll all catch fire somehow. That would please me.
Not much else to be going on with so I’ll bid you good day.
