It’s early and this is likely to be quick. Early morning, as you’ve probably guessed = travel, and even though airports are back on track we’re on a road trip from Dublin this morning. Well, mostly road a big chunk of sea. We don’t have a sea car though so a ferry will have to suffice.
Obviously the Man City game is on the agenda tomorrow and the early team news isn’t particularly promising. There’s no Andrei Arshavin, still not recovered from his groin and calf knacks, Denilson with some complaint and Manuel Almunia caught the skittering heebeejeebies which rules him out even though that’s a lot more than Fabianski has caught all season.
There’s a slight chance that Alex Song might be fit while Robin van Persie is ‘available’, according to Arsene. I have no doubt whatsoever that the Dutchman is going to start tomorrow’s game but beyond that we really don’t have too much scope to change things from Sunday’s disastrous outing at Wigan. The elder statesmen should continue at centre-half, one of whom we look on at in a kind of awe and wonder what might have been if he didn’t go a bit mental, the other we look on at in a kind of awe and wonder why we spent our teenage years drinking beer in fields because if he can play for Arsenal then by christ most of us could have.
It has been very quiet from inside the club this week and that, I believe, is a good thing. Carefully worded platitudes about the Wigan performance would have done nobody any favours. The way to make up for Sunday’s collapse is not by talking a good game, it’s by going out tomorrow and playing like the Arsenal shirt means something. It won’t heal all the wounds, not by a long shot, but it’s the only place to start. It’s an important game too – if we win and Sp*rs lose then third place in the league is secured. Even if Sp*rs draw they need to win all their games and we’d have to pick up no points against Blackburn and Fulham to miss out.
There’s a lot at stake. City are fighting for that top four finish, for Champions League football, and they know that if they do that their spending power means they can seriously improve their squad in the summer. I’m hoping, however, that the response from the Arsenal players, and the manager, will be spirited and in keeping with the way we view our club. Sunday was an embarrassing result for all concerned, we have to put things right against City.
Anyway, more on that game and as much as I can garner from Arsene’s press conference in tomorrow’s blog.
Some vague transfer news. Juventus look to be after a load of our players. Bacary Sagna is being linked with them while earlier reports say they offered us Melo and Buffon as part of a deal for Robin van Persie. We’ll take Buffon, you can keep Melo and we’ll keep Robin too. I know he’s injured a lot but the law of averages he has to have an injury free campaign at some point.
From a news point of view that’s about that so it’s time for this week’s Arsecast. Goodplaya joins me for a chat about Wigan, the defeat and the performance, Sylvester’s there, George has a tale of the unexpeted, some scientific analysis of Lukasz Fabianski and more.
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 (22mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.
I have the Mugsmasher’s laptop with me (just about, that’s a story for another time) so I’ll update the blog over the weekend.
For now though, I must sail the oceans the blue. Till tomorrow.
