Good morning all, here we are then, the first home game of the season. Teams of busy little Arsenal volunteers have been Arsenalising the stadium, scarves are being left on seats, the stadium has been Gunnerfied and we’re ready to go.
The manager’s press conference took place yesterday and as always some interesting stuff emerged. Firstly he dismissed out of hand any deal with Barcelona regarding Cesc, saying:
The only thing I can say that the day I will agree to sell a player one year in advance, I will not be in this job any more
He rightly criticised the candidates for presidential roles at Spanish clubs who try to garner votes by saying they’ll sign particular players. When those people fail to get elected they are not accountable to anyone and when they use their pals in the Spanish papers to help propagate their fiction it does become a problem for clubs. And as I mentioned earlier in the week the idea that we’d do a deal with Barcelona now for Cesc to leave next summer is just ludicrous beyond belief.
Theo Walcott’s football filled summer has caught up with him, it seems. Arsene appears less than impressed at the back injury he’s suffering with. Earlier in the day he said he might be back for the United game but appears to have ruled him out of that since. He says:
That’s why last year I didn’t want him to play for the Under-21s. I know how it works. The player comes back later than everybody else, he doesn’t have a decent preparation, you are under pressure to rush him back, you play him earlier than you should, he gets an injury, and you see him again in October. That’s what usually happens and that’s why I was adamant that he does not go with the Under-21s.
To be fair he could well have picked up an injury with a full pre-season behind him but you can understand his frustration that it’s happened under these circumstances. He seems a bit peeved with England too who called him and said the back injury would only take a couple of days but surely he knows by now Gary Lewin actually exists in a plane where dog years are the measurement of time.
There was further bad news on the injury front when the club announced that Carlos Vela would be out for a month with an ankle problem. Again the manager appears less than impressed that Carlos got the old cortisone injection to help him play but at least we know he’s still alive and not being held captive by some rebels in the hills above Mexico City.
The subject of transfers always comes up at these things and he admitted that while there’s unlikely to be ‘much’ movement there might well be something stirring, particuarly in the defensive areas. He says:
Offensively I don’t think we need to strengthen the squad. Defensively, number-wise, maybe we could still do with one.
He ruled out a move for Fulham’s Brede Hangeland but said trying to find the right player was difficult as every other manager is looking for centre-halves and central defenders. I suppose we’ll just have look harder if we really want one.
The improvement of Alex Song was also on the agenda, the manager saying:
I brought him here aged 17 and worked very hard with him, we worked hard because I felt he had the talent to become a good player. I know that the opinions are changing about him now. He had to swim a little bit against the stream, and he did that very well.
There’s no doubt the Alex Song of now is very different from the Alex Song of 6 months ago and I’ll hold my hands up and admit I never thought he’d make that kind of improvement, fair play to him. I hope he continues in the same way and perhaps he’ll be more focussed without certain other influences around him this season. All the same I thought Goodplaya made a good point yesterday:
I still can’t and won’t accept the pain and general hopelessness of last season was necessary for this. An older head in there would have helped a lot… and probably not least for the then out of his depth Song.
Can’t argue with that and I really believe we need a signing in central midfield for a number of reasons. One because Song is the only candidate we have for that anchor role, two because we have to take into account his time off at the ACN, and three because without competition for places players can become somewhat complacent. As well as that if we brought in somebody experienced there’s a lot Song could learn from that player and ultimately that’s good for Arsenal, first, and for Song who is still a very young man. We’ll see what happens and the whispers about the return of Vieira have not gone away completely.
The manager’s belief that the transfer window should close as soon as the season starts does make some sense but with different leagues starting at different times it’d be a huge headache. Frankly, I think we should revert to the old system. If a club wants to buy a player they can do so whenever they want with a deadline 2/3rds of the way through the season.
Gael Clichy talks to the Mirror about the season ahead, their desire to win something and to repay the faith the manager has shown them. I liked the comments about the arrival of Vermaelen and how he was just remembering the big row (pictured here) the new boy and Robin van Persie had in a pre-season game a couple of seasons ago.
So that’s about that. In terms of today’s game I expect the same team as against Celtic and Everton although the manager has hinted that Eduardo might be in from the start today. Maybe he might consider Diaby in the Denilson role as well. I know everyone is expecting a comfortable win and while this might be a good time to play Portsmouth we have to be mindful that it was games like this last season that were our Achilles heel.
All the same with an expectant crowd, a good atmosphere and a load of free scarves I expect the boys in red and white to be happy come 5pm.
Till tomorrow.
