Morning all, hope you’re in fine Saturday fettle. It’s a nothing Saturday really as we wait till tomorrow to play but as usual Arsene met the press yesterday.
The press conferences are generally very interesting – however the amount of good material yesterday was limited due to one particular questioner going on and on about Arsene being 60, asking stupid stuff like was he going to work till he was 70, was there a succession plan for his job at the club and did Mrs Wenger not want to bring him out for a nice meal for his birthday. The last question in particular was met with a polite but firm assertion that ‘I believe … we keep things private’, which is far more diplomatic than I would have been in those circumstances. Her insistence at going over insipid ‘Hello!’ magazine stuff was toe curling, to say the least.
Anyway, we did get some good stuff, the most interesting of which was regarding the goalkeeping situation. AW was asked who would play on Sunday, he told the questioner to come to the game and he’d find out. On Almunia’s position at the club he said:
I wouldn’t say Manuel is no longer our automatic first choice. But Vito has come in and done well.
He wouldn’t say that Manuel is our first choice though either and I would be very, very surprised to see the Spaniard back in the side on Sunday. As I’ve mentioned before when it’ll get really interesting is when Fabianski is back and fully fit. Then we’ll probably see the pecking order emerge. Wenger rates Fabianski highly enough to have given him a new contract at the end of last season and if Mannone continues to play well then it’s going to be tough for Almunia. But football is tough sometimes.
The team news is that Eduardo returns but Tomas Rosicky misses out with a knee problem. Hopefully it’s not related to the one that kept him out so long and I do think the club are going to be extra careful with him when it comes to knee issues, so fingers crossed they’re just wrapping him in cotton wool a bit here. Nicklas Bendtner will have a fitness test and remains 50-50.
Wenger expressed some sympathy for West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola … ‘until Sunday’ and spoke about Matthew Upson. The former Arsenal man was ‘impatient’ when he was with us but did say he considered making a move for him, although didn’t specify when.
Aside from that not much else happening so just a little teaser – there’s a great competition coming up on next week’s blog. Details to be revealed on Monday but I’ll just say it has something to do with the match next Saturday.
Right, I’m going to go into town and eat breakfast. More on the West Ham tomorrow. Enjoy your Saturday.
