Good morning from a very rainy Dublin. It’s as if the whole place has been transported overnight to somewhere like Ireland … oh.
I hope you’ve got your brolly and galoshes as we step on out into the Interlull once again. You know, if I were to ever write a science-fiction novel, I would include a strange and desolate place called ‘The Interlull’, inhabited by dust and half-dead trees where the only living thing was an unnerving creature you couldn’t see, but whose breath you could hear, that was always behind you.
Anyway, there’s no need to resort to sci-fi just yet. There’s a bit of football to be going on with this morning. After slamming six past Fat Sam it’s nice to hear that we can do better and new boy Thomas Vermaelen, despite his goalscoring exploits, isn’t blind to the defensive wobbility we tend to suffer from. He says:
The first half was a little bit disappointing for us as a defence because we gave away too many chances and they scored two goals. That is something which we must improve and there are things we can work on.
As much as defenders like to score they like clean sheets better and it’s good to know that we haven’t lost sight of that. On days like Sunday we can always score more than the opposition but when faced with better opposition it becomes more difficult to win games. The prime examples, of course, are from last season. We scored 4 against Sp*rs and drew at home, and 4 at Anfield yet Arshavin’s heroics were not those of a match winner.
For all the goal scoring you need to be able to grind out a 1-0s during a season. We’ve shown we’re capable of it as the win against Fulham testifies but I don’t think anybody would complain if we became more miserly at the back.
Theo Walcott, who can now spend the week at the training ground playing Yahtzee and Mousetrap, has been singing the praises of Cesc Fabregas. After his stellar performance against Blackburn, Theo says of his captain:
If he plays like he did against Blackburn, nobody will be able to stop him this season. He is fantastic to play with.
While Andrei Arshavin says:
Fabregas performed miracles.
And I’m told from an extremely good training ground source that at half-time much needed supplies had not arrived due to traffic problems so Cesc turned water into Lucozade Sport to allow our players to rehydrate properly for the second half. Ground staff also reported finding a cupboard entirely full of loaves and dishes, which indicates he hasn’t quite got the hang of his powers yet, but never mind.
Theo went on to talk about the new system and how it suits him. In mentioning him and Carlos Vela the other day I mentioned how they should be able to make the most of the 4-3-3 so it’s interesting to hear Theo talk about it.
I also noticed a video interview with Carlos Vela on the official site where he says he’ll make his mark this season but it’s one of those interviews done in Spanish then dubbed into English and for whatever reason I find it almost impossible to watch to those. I’d prefer subtitles, to be honest, or that our players speak English, so I have no clue what he’s saying.
How about a bit of transfer speculation? The Sun is linking is with injured Standard Liege midfield Steven Defour. He’s got a broken foot at the moment but a fee of around £8m is being made-up reported. I don’t know much about him as a player but I hope we sign him for the pun value of his name alone.
“May Defource be with you”, “Steven gets Defourth as Arsenal spank United at Old Trafford”, “Defourmed – horror injury rules out Gunners midfielder”, and so on.
Come on Arsene, make it happen, then surely the fates will bring about highly unlikely situations like him scoring the 4th goal at Old Trafford. It’s cosmic, baby.
There was a good win for the reserves last night as they beat Chelsea 2-0 at Underhill. Banfield’s Boys have made a good start to this season.
And that’s about that. Have a rainy one.
