Well here we are, just hours from football. Let’s hope all this waiting is worthwhile.
As usual there’s plenty going on with the manager’s pre-game press conference having taken place yesterday. We’ll start with team news which affects today and Tuesday’s game against Villarreal. For today he confirmed the absences of Eduardo, van Persie and Diaby with their injuries and the bed-ridden Nasri who has flu.
He said that for Tuesday Nasri had a ‘small’ chance to be fit while the others had a ‘little, little, little chance’ but said they’d probably be short. The returns of Adebayor, Walcott and Cesc are timely then.
He was at pains throughout his press conference to point out that the team were focussed only on what lay in front of them in the short-term. The only important thing is the next game. You’ll read some stuff this morning about how he refused to commit to Arsenal beyond 2011 but that’s just pure and utter shit-stirring. When asked about it he said he ‘didn’t rule it out‘ but stressed that it wasn’t important at this moment in time. Which is quite right, it’s two years away, we’ve got 6 weeks of crunch games coming up.
The return of Cesc was on the agenda too and while he obviously welcomes the captain back he stressed that the ‘team’ was the important thing. There was rather intense questioning about Barcelona’s reported interest in the captain which he dealt with perfectly. He spoke about how things like are out of the club’s control and anyway, the team and the games ahead are the most important thing.
When asked if Barcelona’s behaviour (Laporta’s public admission of interest and the leaking of an entirely fictional £45m bid) disappointed him, he said:
Why would I be disappointed? If I was disappointed it means I would expect another behaviour … which I don’t.
ZING. Stick that up your filthy chuff, Laporta. The sort of stuff we’re seeing from Barcelona is so typical, so transparent and so pathetic. It’s designed to unsettle our player and although you might be tempted to say it’s unbecoming of such a big club but it’s just par for the course. They’ve done it time and time again, not just to us either.
AW did grow a bit irked when repeatedly asked about Cesc, saying quite reasonably:
I will not answer any more questions about one player. Only about the team.
The instant reaction from the press pack? One journalist asked ‘So are you confident Cesc will stay?’
Twats. The way Wenger rolled his eyes and looked at him was classic though. Worth checking out via the TV thingy on the official site. The press conferences are great.
So back to today and we’re likely to see Cesc link up with Arshavin for the first time, which is a tasty proposition. It’ll be interesting to see how we line up. With all the absences you have to think Arshavin will play on the left hand side of the midfield with Bendtner and probably Adebayor up front.
City will be without dangerman Stephen Ireland who picked up an injury in training but they can call on Robinho to replace him. As I’ve said we need to hit the ground running after the Interlull. If we win today we open a 6 point gap on Villa who play Man United tomorrow.
It also gets the momentum going again ahead of Tuesday’s game in Spain. The most important thing today though is the result, the performances might take a game or two to pick up again.
I’ve had a little €5 on Cesc to score and Arsenal to win at 7-1. So that’s about it. I’m all excited now about having football back.
Up the Arse today! More tomorrow.
