This morning, between snoozes on my alarm, I had a dream I was about to play a game of football for Spanish side Xerez. I have no idea against who. Perhaps Real Madrid. Then somebody stole three footballs I had been put in charge of and the coach was really upset with me. It wasn’t my fault though but still they tried to delete my profile from their official iPhone app. Bastards.
Back to the real world and as we don’t have a game this weekend the injury news might not be as bad as it would be normally. Alex Song has hurt his medial knee ligaments while Andrei Arshavin has a bit of hamstring problem. There’s no timeframe been put on either of them just yet but you can only imagine they’re both out until mid-2015. More on those as and when but we really can’t afford to lose either of them for any length of time. Song has been a revelation this season, Arshavin more a frustration as he has failed to deliver in big games over the crucial period, but to keep things going we need as many fit and healthy first teamers as possible.
Manuel Almunia has been doing some talking. Firstly about the dressing room meeting that saw some of the elder statesmen have their say. According to the keeper:
When I was younger, the most experienced player would tell me about things sometimes. I was talking to William, Sol Campbell and the others – everyone was helping each other and it is a good attitude in the dressing room. We talked more with the players individually because they are young. They are mature but they need to be told things clearly.
Gallas, I can understand. Campbell too, to a certain extent. I can’t really imagine Almunia, given the form he’s been in, having a great deal to say in that meeting.
“Concentrate lads … don’t just boot it up in the air wildly when given an easy back pass to deal with, certainly don’t play it straight to an opposition forward and … erm … I’ll shut up now. Over to you, Sol!”
Still, whatever kind of meeting they had before the Liverpool game it worked. We weren’t so much good ourselves as less crap than Liverpool but I’m not complaining. Three points are three points, no matter how you get them. Almunia, at least, is somewhat realistic, saying of our title chances:
If we are still in the title race it is because the other teams didn’t win. We will be back in the race if if we win three or four games in a row. We saw the results and it is one more positive for us. We accept all the criticism. Arsenal is a big club and we deserve to be criticised because we have been playing for many years without fighting for the title. Critics are good sometimes and we accept them.
With Andrei Arshavin echoing my thoughts that we’re going to have to win almost every league game between now and the end of the season the size of the task ahead of us is a bit daunting. All the same, it’s better to have that kind of challenge in front of us than simply winning enough points to stay in third position. Interesting though to note that the team are willing to accept criticism as part and parcel of life as a footballer and as one at a big club where expectations are high. The Arsenal blogosphere is so large and varied that there are sites which operate at the ridiculously critical end of things, and those for whom criticism of any kind, no matter how well measured or constructive, is a no-no. If the team are realistic enough to accept it, then perhaps they ought to as well.
Almunia goes on to talk about Cesc and suggests Barcelona ‘talk too much’. And on that I don’t think the Spaniard would have anyone who would disagree with him. Again, I’m not getting involved in any more of it until the onslaught closer to the summer, when they really crank up their campaign, at which point it will become impossible to ignore.
Cheers to the lads from the Facebook Arsenal group for linking to Arseblog yesterday. It provided some wonderful comedy moments in the comments as people who hadn’t heard of the site before reacted to the name. My favourite:
yes arseblog… worst name ever may as well called it analblog
Classic. You can read more here, if Facebook is your thing.
Now, on to this week’s Arsecast which happens to be episode 150, which is some kind of landmark in the podcasting world, I’m sure. I’d love to tell you which special guest graces the airwaves, so to speak, but that would quite ruin the surprise (which isn’t much of a surprise at all, really). There’s just a lot of waffle this week, obviously some talk of the Chelsea and Liverpool games, and the usual bits and pieces including Andrei Arshavin, AWH and some vintage news.
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 (20mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.
And that’ll be about that for this particular Friday. Have yourselves a good one. More tomorrow as we try and muddle through an Arsenal free weekend.
