Morning all, a quick Saturday round-up as we try and get everything with the site fully sorted. Welcome back to all the Virgins and the Comcasters, the Telefonicers and … erm … I don’t know who else. I’m hopeful that by the end of today everything regarding DNS and what have you should be sorted.
Tomorrow’s game against Man City is high on the agenda now. With the money they’ve spent and the players they have there’s no doubt this is now one of the biggest games of the season. As big as Yaya Toure’s arse. From our point of view the only returnee is Bacary Sagna, Laurent Koscielny hasn’t recovered in time so that means Squillaci and Djourou will be tasked with keeping Carlos Tevez at bay.
That’s no easy job either, he might get stuck up there alone by Mancini but he does a hell of a job. In midfield and at the back City are an enormous side, hugely strong and we’re a little bit not that. Their muscular giants against our fleet footed imps. I’ll have a think about the likely team over the course of today but I’m pretty sure that Andrei Arshavin will come back into the side, on the back of some comments from Arsene regarding his contribution this season. He said:
If you look at the stats, he is the player who has created more chances than everybody else in the Premier League this season. So his numbers are quite surprising to people who think he has not done so well.
Stats don’t tell the whole story though. Arshavin’s tendency to coast through games is indisputable, that he pops up with a goal or an assist is welcome but doesn’t necessarily make the coasting acceptable. You just get the feeling he should give you more. Nobody’s expecting a whirling dervish who goes box to box but a little more care with his passing and a little more effort defensively is not too much to ask.
In big games you need your big name players. Arshavin is one of those and for me he’s disappointed too often. Whether he’s completely happy at the club, who can say? Arsene is talking about extending his contract but it’s a tricky one. Would he give you more if he were happier with his lot but if he would that raises questions about his character too. He’s got tremendous talent and in the final third is certainly one of our most effective players so let’s hope we get an Arshavin who fancies it tomorrow.
Whenever you play City the issue of money will come up and they’ve spent obscene amounts of it on players and wages and, I suppose, will continue to do so. That level of spending does increase expectation and if they don’t challenge for the title in a serious way this season then it’ll be bye-bye Mancini, so there’s real pressure on them. So far they don’t look like a side too fazed by it, they’ve bought quality and experience so they’re going to be a tough nut to crack. More on our approach to the game tomorrow.
Gael Clichy talks to The Guardian and says it’s time we won something:
It has become an obsession. Football is about trophies and, in terms of trophies, we are not there yet. We need to win trophies but it is certain that Arsenal will be challenging for many years.
The manager talking about going for the cups is a bit of a change. I fully get what he says – that in logical terms finishing third is probably better than winning the FA Cup and finishing 5th but to win the big ones you have to know you can go the distance. I wonder if we’d picked up the Carling Cup that time if things might have been different. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard players from the 89 team talk about the 87 League Cup as a springboard for the trophies they won.
Clichy’s comments are echoed by Abou Diaby:
If you look at our squad, only Cesc Fabregas has really won something big, and Gael Clichy was a member of the league-winning squad as well. So we need to learn how to win things. Once we win something, we won’t stop winning trophies
And when faced with high spending City, listen to Cesc Fabregas, a footballer whose focus is purely on winning:
I would never join a club solely for money – that would be one of the last points on my agenda. I love the game. I want to win things and would only want to play for a club that has ambition, a desire to compete and the ability to win trophies.
The keywords there for me are desire and ambition. There’s never really been any doubt about our ability, although we’ve had to wait for some players to mature, but the main issue, for me at least, was that at times we didn’t look like a team that really wanted it, a team that hated to lose. And that, more than anything, is what sparked the stuff with Cesc this summer. There was something missing in the make up of our team. Whether that’s there now is impossible to say, we won’t know until our backs are against the wall a little bit and the pressure’s on, but the early signs are good.
The summer signings have certainly brought something to the side, the emergence of Wilshere another big positive both in terms of the quality of the team and the attitude we take into games. There’s more bite about us and we’ve got to keep that going as the season progresses.
In other news Wellington da Silva has stuck the boot into his coach at Fluminense after being told his head wasn’t right. He’s all giddy about his move to Arsenal in January apparently, which is understandable. He’s looking forward to joining Arsenal though to learn from Cesc and Denilson. Smart comment? What?
Now, if you’ll excuse me I’ve got to go tinkering under the bonnet again and then send desperate messages via MSN to Tom.
Me: OMFG!! I broke it again, LOL.
Tom: *sigh* *makes G&T*
Have a good Saturday.
