There’s a terrible, shrill noise in the air. Not the way you want to start your Friday but there it is. At first it is hard to decipher. A series of high-pitched bleating noises, like a helium voiced sheep stuck in a fence. They grow louder in pitch and intensity and soon one must clasp ones hands over ones ears to prevent the rupturing of eardrums. What is it? What is this ghastly commotion? You try and find out where it’s coming from. Which direction? You spin, listening intently. North. It’s coming from the north. Now it’s like a flock of castrati doing Jimmy Somerville impressions.
Then it hits you. You know what it is. It’s Bolton players going on about the Gallas tackle. Bolton players whining like spastic puppies who have been locked outside because they went for a poo on the one part of the kitchen floor that wasn’t covered with newspaper. You wish there was some kind of obstacle in front of them because then you could tell them, literally and figuratively, to get the fuck over it. Paul Robinson, who fouled Cesc Fabregas whenever he could get near him, says:
We all sort of stopped. It was definitely a free-kick. The referee put his whistle in his mouth, and we assumed it was a free-kick. We just couldn’t understand why he carried on playing.
Yet Robinson must have the memory of a goldfish as he said just moments previously:
Some of our players were shouting at him to kick the ball out but they wanted to carry on because they were losing 2-1 at the time.
When God was handing out brains he thought they said drains and opted to have his sluiced out by a man with a rickety ladder, a dusty donkey-jacket and a battered old bucket. He was backed up by Bolton captain Kevin Davies, himself a paragon of fair play, honesty and never a man to throw his elbows in another players face twenty times a game. He accused Arsenal of ‘screaming loudly’ last season, perhaps he might have a word with his teammate who took the airwaves yesterday to shriek and squeal like a giant, soon to be relegated, baby.
With the FA confirming no further action will be taken against William Gallas there are two important lessons for Bolton to learn. 1 – Play the whistle. 2 – Shut the fuck up and concentrate on winning your next game instead of wallowing in the aftermath of a defeat like a masochistic piglet. Owen Coyle’s chances of taking Jack Wilshere on loan are now less than zero after he threw an almighty strop at the final whistle on Wednesday night. The idea of Arsene loaning a player to a manager who acts like the spoiled brat from Willy Wonka is laughable.
And now, having discovered the source of the appalling screeching and dealt with it, one can simply choose to block it out, using the cushion of 18 league places to dampen the ghastly sound.
Tomas Rosicky says Arsenal are ‘up for the title’ and is looking for good results in the big games ahead. The floppy haired, balsa-wood kneed, Czech says:
I think everybody knows that the coming weeks are the critical ones in the whole season and I would say the win over Bolton came right on time for the team. For the confidence of the team, it is absolutely great. I think the togetherness in this side is very good. If you don’t have this, you don’t turn games around. It is very important that this characteristic is in the team.
Good point indeed. Whoever you’re playing it takes spirit and desire to come back from 2-0 down. Doing it without really having any goal threat from the bench is good stuff too and a credit to the lads who started against Bolton. The boss says we’re ready to ‘have a go’ at this title. Bring it on.
Ahead of the Stoke FA Cup tie there’s mixed, but not entirely unexpected injury news. I think it should be known as injury news now, not team news. Abou Diaby is out, and will miss the Villa game too, with a calf injury. He’s got to have a scan so fingers crossed it’s not too bad. With Song staying in Africa Diaby’s physical presence is going to be important so hopefully he can make it back for the United game. Bacary Sagna is also out of Sunday’s game, more rested than anything as he’s been carrying a shoulder injury. That will probably mean a game at right back for Kyle Bartley or Francis Coquelin. The manager has got some thinking to do about his line-up for Sunday. With Stoke threatening to ‘rough up’ Arsenal he’s got keep in mind the games against Villa and United and try and stay in the cup. With the absentees we have it’s not an easy task.
In the Mirror John Cross reports that Sol Campbell may not be available either having hurt his neck in training. Rumours that he strained it as Arshavin sped between his legs are not true, I’m told. Also in the Mirror, Wolfsburg are after Philippe Senderos.
There was sad news for Kieran Gibbs yesterday after it was revealed he’ll miss the rest of the season due to his foot injury. He needs to have another operation to try and fix it and won’t be seen again until August, which is a real shame for him and for us. Get well soon, Kieran.
And that’s about that for morning’s news, time for this week’s Arsecast. Joining me to discuss the weeks news by Julian H from Gingers for Limpar. Sylvester and Arshavin are in there as the Bolton games are dissected and we look ahead to the Villa and Stoke fixtures.
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And for this Friday, that’s that. More tomorrow with Stoke previews and all that crack. Till then, take it easy.
