Morning all, a bit of time has passed now since Chelsea which might enable us to look at things with a bit more perspective. Lots of reaction from our players, the gist of which is that we need to pick ourselves up and get on with things.
We haven’t stopped fighting for the championship. I think that if we manage to win the next couple of games, then everything will fall into place. After all, Chelsea can stumble, too. But we have to win ourselves
The next match is vital. After a defeat like this, you need to have a good reaction, if not it will be even more difficult. The only thing you can do is carry on and try your best again.
There is a lot of disappointment but we can’t remain focused on that, otherwise we could sink lower. We have a postponed match that we must win. Then, the situation could quickly change
From Rosicky and Sagna there’s also the opinion that Chelsea are going to be hard to catch, which is undoubtedly true, but football is a funny game. This time last year Chelsea were 5 points clear of Man United and we know what happened in the end. What we have to do is ignore them, ignore everyone, and just concentrate on our own form. December is a month in which 18 league points are up for grabs, take the bulk of them and things could look an awful lot different, so let’s try and do just that.
One point to make – Eduardo and Vela have both been disappointing in their recent run-outs up front, but let’s remember it took Robin van Persie a good few games at the start of the season to get used to that particular role. I’m not suggesting either of them are as suited to it as van Persie has proved to be but it’s worth bearing in mind.
In the meantime there’s a Carling Cup game tomorrow night against Manchester City. There’ll be a fuller preview in tomorrow’s blog, after we get the squad list and so on, but I think this is going to be a very tough test for the kids. We might see a bit of experience in there, Theo Walcott and Carlos Vela to name two who could clearly do with getting some time on the pitch, but for the most part I think it’ll be the youngsters. City go into the game on the back of 7 consecutive league draws, their fans must be getting a bit restless, and Hughes is going to play a strong team, I reckon. Anyway, more on that tomorrow.
The FA are set to investigate an incident during the Chelsea game in which a camera, or a fake camera, was thrown onto the pitch as Frank Lampard was about to take a corner. There’s no likelihood of serious problems for the club but it’s not clever to chuck stuff on the pitch, is it?
Denilson says we have to win a trophy this season and that the manager believes in the players. Obviously Denilson’s Brazilian ankles have bewitched Arsene.
Jay Simpson, currently on loan at QPR, reckons he’s got what it takes to step into van Persie’s shoes. He’s got 8 goals so far this season – however, as he’s on a season long loan I don’t think he can be recalled anyway. The best he can do is have a good season on loan and see what happens next summer. In the meantime though Arsenal might have signed another striker.
Dubai’s financial crisis may see Emirates Airline up for sale, according to the Guardian. Quite how that would affect us if it did happen I really have no idea.
Transfer guff? The Mirror links us with Sevilla winger Diego Perotti – obviously our record of buying young wingers from Andalucia would fill one with absolute confidence – while the Express says Celtic want Jack Wilshere on loan.
The club have detailed the payments made to agents in the period from Oct 2008 to Sept 2009 – £4.8m. Agents might well be voracious cunts but they’re good at it.
Now, because there’s no Arsecast this weekend, here’s a midweek Arsecast special kinda thing. In the wake of the Chelsea game I chat with Goodplaya, GilbertoSilver and the man from East Lower about where we stand, how we react and the general state of play at the club at the moment. It’s a straight-laced, round-table job, and it might just pass half an hour if you’ve got nothing better to do.
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 (19mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.
And that’s about that. I bid you all a most splendid Tuesday.
