Morning all, still not a lot happening despite the hugeness of the game on Sunday. Lots to come in the next few days though and we’ll get a better idea of how injured we are, or aren’t, closer to the time.
As it stands there’s a big doubt over William Gallas whose eye is still so swollen he can’t get his contact lenses in. Who knew Arshavin’s head was so hard? It must be made of reinforced concrete. Fingers crossed Gallas recovers. I’m hopeful about Sunday but would be much less so at the thought of Sylvester, who appears to be the first replacement for either Gallas or Vermaelen, trying to prevent Drogba from carrying out his usual antics against us.
If he didn’t make it you might wonder if the boss would move Alex Song back to centre-half. It’d mean he could play Denilson in the midfield holding role and despite losing Song from midfield it’d be probably be a more secure option overall than the alternative. All the same we’ll keep fingers crossed Gallas makes it so he doesn’t have that choice to make.
The importance of the game is not in question. Undoubtedly our biggest game of the season and while I’m loath to say it’s make or break there’s no doubt a result for either side would have a big say in where the title ends up. If we lose it’s 11 points and a game in hand. That’s a lot of ground to make up and leaves little room for error for the rest of the season. Win and it’s 5 points, win the game in hand and it’s 2 and everything’s looking much better.
After last season this team needs a sustained title challenge, something which Cesc is aware of. He says:
The Premier League is the tournament I really want to win. In Spain, the Champions League is seen as superior to La Liga but here the Premier League is the pinnacle. Of course I believe we can win it. If not, there’s no point in playing football. I play to win and that’s what Arsenal fans want.
There’s always so much talk about how we’ve never won the Champions League and while it would obviously be an amazing trophy to win I always want us to win the league first. You might meet two or three decent teams along the way to a CL win and I don’t know too many fans of top European clubs. I do, however, know lots of Chelsea, United, Liverpool and even Villa fans. Not to mention some Sp*rs supporters and winning the league allows you, as a fan, to bask in that glory for a whole year at the expense of those people. And isn’t that what football is all about?!
I think the team’s priority every season should be the domestic title, anything after that is a bonus. And there’s a real danger of slipping up big time if you prioritise Europe. I think it happened to AC Milan a few seasons back. They were magic in Europe, because that was the trophy they were after, and pretty much rubbish in Italy. So much so they finished in the UEFA Cup places and if it can happen to Milan it can happen to anyone. Wasn’t whatsisface from those blue cunts in charge too? Anyway, I’m sure the importance and significance of the game on Sunday is not lost on the players.
Dennis Bergkamp says he’d like to return to England as a coach:
I would like to train and work in England. Only not as head coach but as member of the staff, so I can work with the strikers.
The obvious problem with Dennis ever being a manager is his inability to fly anywhere, which would make like difficult, but the idea of him working with our group of strikers would be tantalising, to say the least. Not only could he teach them how score and how to create, he could teach them how to fling a sly elbow into Lee Bowyer’s face, which is a talent sadly lacking in many of today’s footballers.
And that’s really about that for this morning so it’s time to move on to this week’s Arsecast. On this week’s show I am delighted to welcome, for a good old chat, comedian, TV presenter and loads of other things too, but especially Arsenal fan, Dara O’Briain.
Also in the mix Sylvester, some scientific analysis of Chelsea fans and your chance to win a Savile Rogue scarf as well as the winner of last week’s Savile Rogue scarf (and remember, if you’re doing to Crimbo shopping you can get 10% off purchases at Savile Rogue by using the code ARSEBLOG at check out before Dec 6th).
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.
Ok then, have yourselves a good Friday. More tomorrow.
