Morning all, how nice to go into a week concentrating solely on the football and not anything else. The weekend’s win over Burnley has restored a bit of the feelgood factor and provided a timely boost ahead of tomorrow’s crucial Champions League game over Porto.
The injury to Cesc Fabregas will be assessed today and Arsene Wenger says he’d be prepared to take some risk with the captain:
It depends how big the gamble is. I’m ready to take the gamble but, if it is more than 50% chance that his hamstring goes, I will not take it. He has a little chance of playing.
The good news is that his hamstring just felt tight, there was no tear, so maybe that’s a good thing. On the other hand it could be a warning sign. He’s played a lot of football this season and although the Champions League is important we have to look at the bigger picture. There’s the league still to go and win and with his goalscoring exploits this season – already 14 in the Premier League alone – he’s got a massive role to play.
If he didn’t make it I wouldn’t be too worried to be honest. And I think the man to replace him is Samir Nasri. They’re both quite similar in the way they keep possession in tight areas and both have that eye for a pass to set someone free. Nasri’s deft chip for Cesc’s goal on Saturday was rather splendid and I think he could slot into that role with Song and Diaby alongside him. With more available up front (taking three from Eduardo, Arshavin, Bendtner, Walcott, Rosicky and perhaps even Vela … heh), then I think we can move him back into midfield without a problem.
Obviously it’d be better if Cesc was fit but I’d be against taking any kind of risk with him at all. Let’s face it, this Porto side is not brilliant by any means. We gifted them the game in Portugal and we should have enough quality and goals in the side to win the game without him. The last thing we need is for him to do his hamstring properly and spend three weeks out when we really need him, his leadership and his goals and assists.
Porto play a fairly attacking game, quite how much of that they’ll bring to London when they’re defending a lead we’ll have to wait and see, but if they can’t curb their natural instincts too much you fancy it might be another good chance for Theo Walcott to show what he can do. The performance against Burnley was a huge step in the right direction and that’s the Theo Walcott we need to see more of between now and the end of the season. He responded to some of the critics, in particular Chris Pelanty, saying:
Chris Waddle? I heard what he said, but I don’t listen to people on the outside of football. I listen to those around me – the boss, Mr Capello and my family. Maybe if I keep performing like that it will shut people up.
No maybe about it, that’s exactly what it will do. When you think about how long he’s spent out injured this season then maybe he’s coming good at just the right time for us. Arsene Wenger described him as a ‘fighter’ and maybe that’s part of him growing up a bit too. He’s always struck me as very nice, down to earth young man, perhaps lacking a bit of that cocky self-belief that players need. Not saying it’s a bad thing but he clearly thrives on confidence and you could see how he grew into the Burnley game. The goal will have done him a great deal of good, it was an important goal too, so fingers crossed he can start doing this on a more consistent basis. Certainly Porto will be more worried about him now than they would have been a couple of weeks ago.
In terms of the other team news it looks as if Sol Campbell will be back to partner Thomas Vermaelen, which is very much a good thing, but William Gallas is still out with his calf problem. Arsene meets the press today so we’ll get fuller team news later on and we can look at that in tomorrow’s preview of the game. Fingers crossed there are no further niggles from Saturday.
So for today that’s about that. I just want to say thanks to all the people who have taken the time to email in the last week, either normally or through the OleOle PM system. I’m doing my best to get through them all but please forgive me if one or two slip through the cracks. If you don’t get a reply feel free to send again.
Right then, time to ease ourselves into the week. More tomorrow.
