Good day to you all.
Here begins day one of the Interlull. It is March 23rd and we do not play again until April 4th. That is one serious length of time to be without proper football and annoying because we had really built up some momentum in the last few games.
As Arsene Wenger waves goodbye to his players, well most of them anyway, he’s set out his aims for the rest of the domestic campaign. He says:
Realistically, we will not win the league, but it doesn’t matter what our chances are – we have to give everything to go as close as possible to the top teams.
The top of the table is very interesting now. Liverpool just a point behind United, although United have a game in hand. We’re now 6 away from Chelsea and as we still have games against all of the top three we’re going to have a say in where the title ends up, despite having no chance of winning it ourselves.
Aston Villa’s slide continued yesterday with a 5-0 thumping by Liverpool. It means we now have a three point gap over them but there’s no cause for celebration just yet. Three points is nothing, we’ve seen how quickly a 6 point gap can be hauled back and while Villa look tired and off the boil at the moment there’s no reason to think that kind of form is going to last between now and the end of the season. Let’s be pleased about where we are and how we’ve got there but I’m not counting any chickens just yet.
The boss also spoke about Abou Diaby comparing him to Patrick Vieira. He said:
He has similarities with Vieira and he is still growing at the moment. He is only 22, but he has the same stature, the same size as Patrick. There is still a lot of room for him to get where Patrick was, but he is a good role model.
He’s a frustrating player really. You watch him flick the ball over someone’s head and power on and you think ‘Vieira’ then you watch him pass it straight the opposition and amble back without a care in the world and you think ‘Not Vieira at all’. He’s capable of fantastic stuff in front of goal. He scored some crackers last season, his goal against Newcastle was fantastic, as was his goal against Villa earlier in the season, you just wish someone would have a little word about working a bit harder.
Of course he has been plagued with injuries and has never really had a chance to get 10-15 consecutive games under his belt to give him that real match sharpeness so, fingers crossed, he can do that and maybe we’ll a different player.
I know I shouldn’t, I know I should ignore it, I should not provide the troll with the oxygen of publicity he so obviously craves, but Matt Hughes – you are a twat. I’m a bit tired of all the Fabrebashing at the moment, I have to say.
The fact that the team is on an unbeaten run does not mean we have become a better team without Cesc, it’s clearly nonsense. The unbeaten run might well have been more winny if he’d been in the side and when he comes back we’ll be a better team. That he came on the pitch does not mean he’s become too big for his boots, that’s creative writing at its most creative. And that’s the end of it, as far as I’m concerned.
Not much else happening really. It does make me wonder about how we’re going to pass the rest of the week, and next week. Perhaps some games.
I spy with my little eye, something beginning with O…
Till tomorrow.
