I know we’ve got a big game against Stoke later today and I’ll get to that shortly but first I hope you’ll join me in raising a glass, or a cup of coffee at this early stage, to … well … me. Today Arseblog reaches the grand old age of 8.
It began on Feb 27th 2002 and in some kind of a hungover haze, here we are 8 years down the line. That’s a lot of blog posts, a lot of *boilks*, bazillions of comments, many Arsecasts, squillions of emails (some of them very nice, some of them not very nice at all but what can you do?), a gansey load of Arsenal games and loads of other stuffs too. Arseblog exists not just online but offline too in a fantastic community – many friendships have been made and I hope many more will be made in the future.
For me the blog is still just awesome fun to do and that’s down to you. What can I say other than thank you? To everyone reads the blog, who listens to the podcasts, emails, comments, forums, Twitters and everything else … thank you. You are the most important part of Arseblog.
Well, apart from me like … but you know what I mean. Cheers everyone.
There’s not much more we can say about the game against Stoke today. The absences of Arshavin, Gallas and Diaby are costly but we’ll have to see a response from this Arsenal team to the performance in the FA Cup. Are they happy to let lightning strike twice? On that day three individual errors cost us goals, cut those out and we’ll be in much better shape. All the focus is on Rory Delap’s long throw. It’s certainly a dangerous weapon but if we defend aggressively from the start I don’t see why we can’t cope. Go win the ball, don’t wait for it to drop and hope for the best, that’s just what Stoke want. Assuming Campbell and Vermaelen are the starters at the back we’ll have two centre-halves who love a header so let’s hope they find their jumping boots.
I’d keep faith with Ramsey in midfield alongside Cesc and Song although you might also look to the experience of Rosicky in there. Up top it’ll likely be Bendnter, Walcott and Nasri again. Stoke come into this game in great form. Their last loss in any competition was almost two months ago – a 1-0 defeat at home to Birmingham on December 28th. You don’t go on runs like that by accident. They might not be everyone’s cup of tea but what they do they do well and we have to match it. That means we’re going to have to really scrap for the three points, they will not be easy by any means. All the same, Stoke played 120 minutes in midweek against Man City so there’s bound to be a bit of fatigue there. Get them on the back foot as early as possible and they’ll start to feel those heavy legs.
Nothing less than three points will do today regardless of what happens this morning between Chelsea and Man City. I think we need to win all our remaining games to win this title, I’m sure the players know that too, so the target is difficult but not complicated. Work hard today, put in the running and I think that bit of quality we have will see us through. Come on Arsenal.
In a round-up of other news the club announced it’s half-year financial results yesterday. On the same day that Portsmouth went into administration it’s heartening to see that we’re being run in a sensible manner. The stand out figure is that the total net debt had been reduced to £203.6m from £332.8m. Really quite incredible.
Of course the club have to balance those great financial results with football results. There’s clearly money to spend if the manager so chooses and while everyone can look at those figures and be impressed, if we fall short again in terms of trophies this season there will be questions asked as to why money wasn’t spent in January. The way for the manager and the board to avoid that line of questioning though is to go out and win something. The Arsenal world would be a much better place if that question wasn’t asked time and time again this May.
Speaking to Henry Winter in the Telegraph Arsene Wenger says of his team:
Of course, we are under increasing pressure to deliver from the media and the fans. The most difficult job I have faced in football has been in the last five years: to move into a new stadium with young players and maintain the club at the top in a Champions League position. I fight very hard to do this. We have all the assets you need: strong team, strong financial situation, a new stadium. The next step is the trophies. It will come naturally.
And of players, particularly Cesc, being linked elsewhere:
They are all on long contracts. That means we decide what will happen. All the talk about Fabregas and Barcelona is nonsense.
Certainly the most important thing is to keep the core of good players together. I don’t think anyone doubts that players improve and will be better at 26 than they are at 22 but there are other issues too. In the article Wenger says that buying players aged 27-28 is doing management the easy way. Some might also says it’s sensible. For me it has always been about balance, blend the youth with quality experience and you have a winning formula. I’m still quite patient but come this summer I think the manager is going to have a bit of rebuilding to do and I think that’s got to be done with the chequebook. That, however, can wait for then, for now we go on with what we have and get behind them.
Not much else happening really. Although there is the Brazil v Ireland friendly at the Grove on Tuesday. Some related artwork has been created to commemorate the occasion but I have to say I find this a little bit distasteful. Robbie Keane? Bleurgh. Of all the Ireland players. And how could they have overlooked legends like Keith Andrews or that fella that plays for Coventry or something?
Right, time for some birthday breakfast then hopefully a birthday on-pitch battle between Chelsea and Man City which concludes in Wayne Bridge re-enacting the opening scene of Wild at Heart with John Terry’s head.
Have a good one, Arsers.
