Morning to you on this quietest of quiet Sundays.
The World Cup final is about the only thing on the agenda today so there’s very little with regard to Arsenal. One thing we do know, however, is that Arsene Wenger is not a happy man. His colleagues at TF1 (hat tip to @TahsinOv), for whom he has been doing punditry throughout the tournament – “Er, I believe that is a pelanty” – have suggested that the boss will meet with Sandra Rosell today.
He is unhappy with the way Barcelona have behaved, believing they destabilised a player with a long term contract, and will tell them that Cesc is not for sale. While I’m fully behind that, and personally I think he should turn up to the meeting ready to administer chinese burns and wedgies galore, I think a little introspection might also be good.
Has Cesc expressed a desire to leave simply because Barcelona said they’d have him or do his motives go a little deeper than that? Perhaps it has something to do with being in a competitive team that works hard and wins things. A team that doesn’t do what we did at Wigan, for example. So while I hold Barcelona in the same contempt as most of you, and I do think we’ve been unlucky that he had that spell out injured which really allowed them to get their scabby claws into him, we can’t just point the finger of blame at them without getting our own house in order.
So the World Cup final. Holland v Spain and I’m up for the Dutch tonight. Robin van Persie speaks about the faith AW has in him and the comparisons to players like Rooney, Ronaldo and Messi, saying:
I can feel that the manager has faith in me, but I must remain lucid. I am clearly not in the same league as Leo. Moreover, I am injured too often.
I’m dreaming about a season with 30 goals and 20 assists. Wenger knows that I can do it, but my body will have to hold on.
An injury free van Persie season is something I think we’d all like to see but he’s realistic enough to know it’s a bit of a dream. I’ve always thought the ability was there but he’s been unlucky with injury. He’s had a relatively quiet tournament, tonight would be a good time to come alive.
It’s going to be tough for Holland, Spain were outstanding in the game against Germany, but it’s by no means a foregone conclusion. For all their domination of possession they’re not scoring a lot of goals – sounds a bit familiar that – and if Holland can do to Spain what Spain do to their opponents, harrass them when they don’t have the ball, it could put them under the kind of pressure they’re not used to.
I think one thing that’s overlooked when people ooh and aah over the quality of Spain’s football is how hard it is to play like that. Not just from a technical point of view, although they are exceptional in terms of their passing and control, but just how much energy it takes. It’s all well and good saying they’ve always got a pass on but that means constant movement. It requires a lot of stamina to play like that and then, when they lose it, they work even harder to get it back. It’s something that’s missing from Arsenal’s game too often even if the styles are loosely similar.
The Dutch will look to van Bommel and de Jong to disrupt and break (up) the Spanish midfield and if they can remain solid at the back Sneijder, van Persie and Robben (even Kuyt) are all capable of causing problems for the Spanish defence.
I just hope it’s a good game of football. And that Holland win.
Not much else going on. Germany finished third last night and I thought I’d won money but my bet on Paddy Power didn’t go through for some reason. Stupid iPhone. There was a horrific tackle in the game early on. Germany’s left back Aogo only got a yellow for a potential leg-breaker on Diego Perez. For all the talk of video replays for balls crossing the line it’d be much better for the game, in my opinion, if it were used to ensure these kind of challenges were properly punished. A yellow card for what he did was a disgrace and Perez is a very, very lucky Uruguayan.
Right, breakfast time. Have a good one and Hup Holland!
