Right then, it’s one busy blog this morning so let’s get right into it.
Just moments, possibly seconds, after an article appeared on the official site with Lukasz Fabianski talking about how delighted he was to be back, another appeared advising us that Lukasz Fabianski would be out for three weeks. Apparently he’s got some kind of a thigh injury. Honestly, I think footballers are a bit too brittle these days.
He looked fine on Wednesday and if he’s got a problem let someone else take the kick-outs or give him a Juventus style injection to fix him. It means that the manager has got a big decision to make ahead of tomorrow’s game. Does he continue with Mannone, whose inexperience is beginning to show as he plays more games, or does he bring back Almunia who he clearly had no intention of playing as he’d have been back in the team otherwise?
The papers this morning suggest Almunia will return using quotes from Arsene to back that up. However, I’m not so sure. Those quotes were from the pre-Carling Cup press conference when he had every intention of playing Fabianski both in midweek and at the weekend. The Pole’s absence has caused him the kind of headache he really didn’t need and if I were a betting man I’d put money on Mannone continuing between the sticks. Of course if you’re a betting man you’d put money on Almunia because whatever I bet on generally loses, but I just think if Almunia was in favour he’d have come back before now.
Today’s press conference will probably shed some more light on things but the goalkeeping situation at the club is verging on farcical now. Fabianski aside there don’t appear to be any new injuries but maybe a butterfly will get too close to one of our players in training today and necessitate and four month absence. Full details on the squad in tomorrow’s blog.
Samir Nasri has spoken about his return from injury and I think the absence has made him a little bit mad. He says:
I was very satisfied with my sensations. After five months without playing, I had appetite. I wanted to eat the pitch.
Which kind of put me in mind of this (except in English). But maybe that’s just me. He goes on to say:
The boss asked me how I felt two or three times during the game against Liverpool. I had to make a sign if I felt the slightest muscular problem – but everything was all right. I thought that it would have been a little bit more difficult. We worked well with the physical assistant. Now, I need to play and play again.
I don’t really see him starting against Sp*rs tomorrow but he’s certainly a good option to have on the bench – especially as Rosicky’s ‘few days’ has been Rosickeyed right in the Rosicky. Another of Wednesday’s performers, Fran Merida, reveals he wants to stay at the club and sign a new deal. His current contract runs out in the summer so we’d best get things moving there if we want him to stay.
Cesc has been talking about winning things and winning them with a grandiose flourish. He says:
I can never accept that we must change our style to win. Trophies are important, but so too is the style in which you play the game. I disagree with the argument that good football can’t win trophies. We are desperate to please the fans with success, but we also want to make them happy with the way we play.
I don’t really see how the two things have become so polarised, to be honest. There’s nothing that says playing good football does not equal success. Like it or not United have played good football throughout the years on their way to various titles and trophies, we’ve done it too under Arsene Wenger. There is, of course, the whole ‘win ugly’ thing which we’ve shown we’re capable of this season. Fulham away springs to mind when we played not very well and still got the three points.
But there’s nothing that says when you’re 4-2 up against Sp*rs at home with a couple of minutes to go that hoofing the ball into the stand when it needs it isn’t good football. To me that’s excellent football. Sensible, intelligent, clever football. Trying to go score a goal you don’t need and ending up drawing the game is not good football despite the fact you thought you were trying to play good football. ‘Good’ is entirely dependent on the circumstances of the particular game. There are all kinds of ‘good’, we just need to learn which ‘good’ is best applied in the position we find ourselves in. If you get me.
As I said earlier there’ll be more in tomorrow’s blog about the Sp*rs game so for today that’s your news for the moment.
Now, all week I’ve been running the competition to win one of three pairs of club level tickets for the game with thanks to Emirates Airline. The winners will be announced this morning – but in a separate blog post at 10am. Just to keep things easy and less crowded on this post. So check back to see if the RNG has made you a winner.
All that aside it’s time for this week’s Arsecast. On the show to discuss the week’s football and a special Arsenal v Sp*rs project he’s been involved in is GilbertoSilver from Gunnerblog. There’s Sylvester, Arsene Wenger Hawkins makes a return, there’s an interview with an actual Sp*rs player and more.
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 (21mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.
And that’s about that. Enjoy your Friday, stand by for the competition winners.
