Morning all,
the main news this Friday is that Eduardo is to be put on trial at The Hague for crimes against humanity. His dive against Celtic is on a par with the kind of genocide, butchery and ethnic cleansing and he is likely to be sentenced to death by Michel Platini later today.
UEFA have become involved and the possibility of a two match ban has been mooted. I see no problem with that at all, so long as two things happen:
1 – They explain how a yellow card offence during a match becomes a two match ban off it
2 – They rigorously enforce the same standards across all UEFA competitions so any player who dives is banned for two games.
It just strikes me that in order to make number 2 happen a lot more thought needs to go into the process and a reactionary measure because the Scottish FA have got their haggisy old bollocks in a twist about it might be setting a dangerous precedent. You’ve got to give credit to Celtic manager Tony Mowbray, he hasn’t been banging on and on about it, calling for punishment.
He understands the significance of the Eduardo penalty in the grand scheme of things, even if some of his players are deluding themselves somewhat. The pathetic comments from Celtic defender Glen Loovens about Eduardo’s alleged inability to speak English do him little credit. Anyway, until something else happens the storm in this particular teacup ought to be left alone now.
Meanwhile the draw for the Champions League group stages took place and it appears that UEFA, with all the other fuss, got us confused with Manchester United as we seem to have been drawn against the teams they had arranged to play. AZ Alkmaar (who should be managed by General Alcazar), Standard Liege and Olympiakos is far from the most challenging group we’ve ever had.
Reacting to the draw Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis said:
LOL! Thanks for that. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.
And who can blame him? Of course nothing is easy at this level blah blah blah but if we don’t get out of this group then it will be up there with the world’s biggest failures, such as the De Lorean, the new Indiana Jones film and Francis Jeffers.
Ahead of the United game the manager says Cesc’s chances of involvement are 50:50. He’s due to undergo a proper fitness test this morning to see if he’ll be included in the squad so we should find out at some stage this afternoon. Tomas Rosicky is back in full training but is unlikely to be thrown in to a game of ‘this intensity’. Interestingly both players have been called up to their respective national squads for the games next week.
For Cesc in particular this presents the manager with a bit of a dilemma. If he’s just about fit enough to be nursed through the United game then there’s no chance of a rest if he goes away with Spain and the danger of a recurrence is quite high, I’d have thought. As for Rosicky, well he’s got to play sometime. If he breaks down again it could happen with us or with the Czech team – at some point we have to just let him play and see what happens.
Theo Walcott, meanwhile, will not be available at all until after the international break as he continues to struggle with his back injury.
Emmanuel Eboue has got his local priest to thank for his goal and celebration against Celtic. More thoughts on that in today’s Arsecast, all the same he says he’s forgotten about last season and wants to stay at the club. Maybe what happened to him was a wake-up call, of sorts. I don’t think it’s as easy for fans to forget some of the stuff that went on but if he continues to perform the way he did against Celtic then nobody can have any complaints. And it’s good for the opposing fans too because we all know the only reason they turn up at the Grove, don’t we?
Jay Simpson has joined QPR on loan for the season. Although he did well enough at West Brom last time around he didn’t get a whole lot of goals. You have to think he needs a big, big season at Loftus Road to convince the manager his future lies at Arsenal.
And that’s about that so it’s time for the Arsecast. On this week’s show I talk to the Man from East Lower about the Champions League, Eduardo, the United game and potential transfers before the window closes. As well as that there’s Sylvester, Talkshite Radio, the greatest match report of all time and more – including your chance to win one of three Nike training tops. Listen for details on how to enter.
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 (25mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.
Enjoy and we’ll preview the United game more fully in tomorrow’s blog. Till then.
