I know it’s the morning after Christmas but I am still full. I hope you had as peaceful and relaxing a day as I did.
Normally we’d be playing today but we get an extra day’s holidays. And also normally there’s a load of games on TV but as far as I can see there’s not one Premier League game on Sky and only Liverpool v Wolves on ESPN. What gives?
From an Arsenal point of view not much happening. Apparently we’re going to fight the ‘harsh’ FA charge of not controlling our players after the handbags against Hull. Seems entirely reasonable to me – although Phil Brown also thinks the charge is harsh so perhaps, just so as not to be aligned with a poxy orange mingespanner like him, I will just happily accept whatever the FA decide.
Ahead of tomorrow’s game against Villa the team news is that Traore returns but Cesc is just 50-50. Arsene says:
There is still an uncertainty about him. He was supposed to practice on Christmas Eve but he still had some pain in his leg. We did not get him out so we still don’t know if he will be available for the squad or not. It is 50:50.
He is a very influential player and a great player too so I want him to be with us.
It’s a risky one this. Playing a team as good as Villa you want your best players. You need the guy who can dictate the game and is capable of a match winning moment, whether that’s a goal or an assist for someone else. If he’s not fully fit though you run the risk of him doing more serious damage. So, we’ll have to just wait and see if Arsene thinks the risk of playing a not fully fit Cesc is worth it. Especially as January gets progressively more difficult.
The Sun reports we’re still in the hunt, as it were, for Maroune Chamakh, but as no deal is likely to happen in January it’s not of much interest. They also link us to Renne’s ‘hugely-gifted secondary striker’ Jimmy Briand, whose father Chateau has a keen steak in his son’s future career.
Not much else happening really. Is tomorrow Alex Song’s last game before he goes to bless the rains down in Africa? Anyone?
Right, time to fix me some breakfast.
Till tomorrow.
