Hurrah, we can finally kiss the Interlull goodbye. And by kiss I mean smash in the face repeatedly with a lump hammer.
It has taken its toll on us, this cruel and wicked Interlull. As expected we’re without Robin van Persie (groin) and Abou Diaby (who needs a thigh transplant at this stage). Also ruled out is Eduardo with a groin problem which is a bit unexpected. Samir Nasri is a doubt with the flu.
On the plus side though we’ve got Adebayor and Walcott fit again and, most importantly of all, Cesc is fit and back in the squad for tomorrow’s game against Man City. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll start the game and with so many important fixtures looming we have to hope he can get match fit asap and not suffer any little complications after being out for so long.
He’s the captain of the side and I’m sure will be absolutely dying to play again. Let’s not forget that at the time he was injured he spoke about how he hoped we’d still be in contention for the FA Cup and the Champions League on his return. His injury came at a time when we were really struggling for form and consistency. Although we’d beaten Chelsea in the weeks previous that came after three defeats in November, to Stoke, Villa and tomorrow’s opponents Man City.
We scraped that win over Wigan, drew with Boro and he got injured in the Liverpool game – so at the time it was difficult to look at the future with too much positivity, especially as our midfield trials and tribulations seemed to be exacerbated by the loss of our best player.
But we remain unbeaten in the league since then, the arrival of Arshavin has given the squad a boost and performances, individuals and results have improved. So we have Cesc coming back right at the business end of things – and a Cesc who obviously needed a break. It was an unfortunate way to get it but let’s be thankful he’s coming back into a side with plenty still to play for this season.
In particular I’m looking forward to see him and Arshavin combine, it’s making my gooch moist even thinking about it. But that may be too much information at this time of the morning.
The manager will hold his pre-match press conference later this morning and it’ll be interesting to see what he has to say, particularly about Joan Laporta’s comments. I expect the club to be rather critical of the Barcelona president.
Of most importance though is tomorrow’s game. Heading into the Interlull we had picked up quite the head of steam, scoring ten goals in three league games, another five in two FA Cup games, and we had that confidence boosting penalty shoot-out win in Rome.
So you could certainly say the break came at a bad time for us but then the break has affected all the other teams too. We have to make sure we pick up where we left off and with Villa playing United this weekend it’s a good chance for us to extend the gap between us and them.
Of course we have to win our game and there really ought to be a measure of revenge in the air for this one. City destroyed us at their place earlier in the season. We were a shambles that day and despite the importance of this game on its own merits I’m sure some of them will want to put right what went wrong that day. More on the game itself tomorrow.
Aside from that not much else happening. Arsene is talking about awarding points for scoring goals. Pff, not sure I’m down with that, I have to say. Then you’ll get someone saying you should get more points for scoring great goals e.g van Persie’s v Charlton would be more pointiful than Gallas’s against Hull. I’m all for encouraging attacking football but I don’t think this is realistic in any way.
If you’re looking for somewhere to watch the Villarreal game on Tuesday, check out RedAction, they’ve hired the Islington Academy so you can watch surrounded by Arsenal fans of all shapes and sizes.
Right then, time for this week’s Arsecast. On the show I chat to GilbertoSilver of Gunnerblog about the Interlull, Man City and the Champions League game against Villarreal. The Man in the Bar is there, there’s some poetry from Tony Adams and other stuff too. I think.
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.
One final thing – if you’re using the Arses on Arsecast day there’s a convention where people don’t discuss the contents of the Arsecast as they may not be able to listen to it until later that day. Pour un full list de les Arses T&Cs, click here.
Right, that’ll do. Have at it. More tomorrow.
