Good morning and good Friday to you on this good Friday which isn’t good at all due to the fact all the bars in Ireland are shut.
We shall start with injury news and it’s not great, it has to be said. William Gallas is going to miss the rest of the season with medial knee ligament damage. The manager called it a ‘big blow’ and given the form of Gallas in the last couple of months it’s hard to argue.
Regular readers will know I’m hardly the biggest Gallas fan in the world but since things came to a head and the captaincy was taken away from him he has been playing much, much better. And at this stage of the season when you need guys with experience and who have won things to lose him is a certainly not ideal. The other thought, of course, is that we may have seen him play his last game for Arsenal.
I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if he were to move in the summer so that could be that in terms of his Arsenal career. Arsene says he sees him at the club next season as he has one year left on his contract but I’m not so sure. Anyway, we’ll see.
His injury has been compounded by one to Gael Clichy who will miss a couple of weeks with a back injury. Now, Clichy’s form this season hasn’t been great but it leaves the manager with some thinking to do.
Obviously Johan Djourou is going to replace Gallas at centre-half. Does he then use Kieran Gibbs or try and replace some of the experience he’s losing between Gallas and Clichy by bringing in Sylvester? I suspect he’ll go for the latter option. We know Sylvester has been there and done that with United, he’s won things and knows what this final part of the season is all about, my concern would be that he doesn’t necessarily have the ability to play the way he did at United.
They let him go, to us, which is telling I think. I was never a big fan of him as a player when he was there and I’m worried that he might not be up to scratch. I would happily and cheerfully be proven wrong on this one. If he can come in and do a good job then fantastic, no complaints from me. I’m just a little anxious, is all.
On top of that we’ve lost Manuel Almunia for three weeks with an ankle injury. The same ankle that filthy twat Diouf tried to break so in will come Lukasz Fabianksi. It’s a good opportunity for him to stake a claim for more regular football but he is still quite raw. Fingers crossed he’s more Manninger (97-98 vintage), than Richard Wright.
So with any number of important games coming up in the next few weeks the squad is going to be be tested. Yes, we’ve certainly been unlucky this season with injuries but they are part and parcel of the game. We just have to cope with them, get on with things and hopefully the players that come in can do their jobs well.
Ahead of tomorrow’s game Eduardo and Robin van Persie have fitness tests. I’m told that of the two van Persie is the more likely to make it but even this weekend might be a bit soon for both of them. To be honest, I don’t think there’s any point taking risks for tomorrow. With all due respect to Wigan we should have enough in the squad to get a result there, leaving Eduardo and Robin more time to get fit for Villarreal and the small matter of the FA Cup semi-final the following weekend.
In his pre-match press conference, which took place yesterday due to the Easter weekend, the boss also revealed that Tomas Rosicky was ‘not close’ to coming back. Reports that he was due to play in last night’s reserve game against Sp*rs were wide of the mark it seems. I really don’t think we’ll see him until next season. After such a long time out there’s no point in rushing him and he’s probably better off with a full pre-season under his belt – provided he’s fit enough to do that.
So that’s about it with regards the news. Despite it being a bank holiday weekend there’s an Arsecast which features George with a tale of the unexpected, some news, team news, a late night TV discussion, and other stuff all around a common, twitchy, theme.
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 (18mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.
Right, that’s that. Time for toast, more coffee and possibly a beer. Nah, it’s too early for beer. A gin and tonic will do.
Till tomorrow.
