Morning all, it’s a bit grey and miserable here in Dublin this morning.
I think this is because the weather knows that after this weekend’s game against West Brom there’s another Interlull coming. Ostensibly this is because there are play-offs to see who gets the final places in Euro 2012, but in reality it’s just UEFA being dicks.
I know Ireland are one of the teams in the play-offs but apart from that I haven’t got a clue which other countries were too terrible at football to qualify from their group in the first place. Now, for some reason, it’s deemed acceptable to make a load of terrible teams play each other to decide who can bring their own brand of terribleness to the tournament next summer.
Because of this Arsenal, and many other teams, will have to let their players go on international duty. It seems making the terrible teams play against each other isn’t enough. Oh no. The rest of the teams have to play too in the most meaningless of friendlies. Personally, I think the play-offs should be decided by the flip of a coin or, at least to make it vaguely fair, a couple of rounds of Trivial Pursuit between specific delegates from each side, but the idea that we have to send our other players away to play for their countries when there’s absolutely no need is a huge irritant.
Firstly, because there’s no Arsenal, and secondly, they are all going to come back broken. Now, you know me, I generally look on the bright side of things but I’ve got the fear this time. If I were a religious man I’d praying to St Lewin, the patron saint of injuries, to bring them all back safe and sound but I’m having visions of plaster-casts, snapped tendons and life-support machines. Maybe I’m being melodramatic, maybe this is just gallows humour – a coping mechanism if you will – but anything that provides a break to our current momentum is a bad thing as far as I’m concerned.
I bet Holland are playing a Prison XI whose central-defender, Studsy McShinsnap, is a Sp*rs fan who hates van Persie. Surely our medical staff can come up with a quick, 10 day plague that would prevent them from travelling but be in perfect shape for the first post-Interlull game. Perhaps there’s another training ground investment we could make – a germ warfare lab. Worth thinking about, Ivan. Anyway, I’ll complain some more about the Interlull as and when it happens, ready to shake my Internet fist at the heavens, shouting “Nnnnnoooooooooooooooo!!!” at whatever piece of bad news comes in.
Let’s move on to Thomas Vermaelen whose injury absence worried Arsenal fans but not the Belgian. Despite all of us thinking ‘Oh, there goes another season before he has to have his leg lopped off ‘, Vermaelen says he was a cool cat about the whole thing because he was down with the whole thing, daddy-o:
I was not too stressed about it, as I knew what it was. I had experience of it from last season, so I knew that it would only take six weeks for me to come back. I was not worried.
And he says criticism of Arsenal’s defence doesn’t bother him one bit:
There is always criticism and complaining about Arsenal‘s defence. What can I say about it? It does not worry me at all. I am confident and don’t care what people say. I think that the most important thing is that, for the most part, we win games – we have won eight from 10 and drawn one. That is the most important thing.
Certainly that’s the situation at the moment but there are days, like the one not so long ago at Ewood Park, when our ‘defending’ costs us games. Thankfully, we seem to have become a bit more solid, as well as having our luck change a little bit, and results have reflected that.
Vermaelen goes on to talk about how better organisation of the team in general has played a part and that’s no bad thing. I’ve long said it’s not just the job of the back four to defend – especially when they’ve been vulnerable – but I also think we need a few more clean sheets before we can say we’ve really become a solid defensive unit. Both Jenkinson and Szczesny were talking up the clean sheet after Tuesday but let’s get a few more of them under our belt and then see where we are.
As for Vermaelen himself, I think the team has missed his character. He’s got the cold-dead eyes of an assassin and he adds something to the team beyond his defensive skills. He looks like he doesn’t want to lose, that it hurts him to do so, and if that can transmit itself to those around him then all the better for us. It gives us real competition at centre-half too. Vermaelen, Mertesacker the big important signing, Koscielny is ever improving, so if we can utilise them in different partnerships, rather than being reliant on one, it augurs well.
Other than that not much else going on. I know there are stories around this morning with Gervinho talking about Eden Hazard but, you know, fuck that shit. It’s just the start of November, the transfer window doesn’t open until January 1st, and there’s plenty of time before we have to go mental about who might possibly be coming in January before we sign Bob Nobody on Jan 31st.
Think of transfer window not so much as a window but a stagnant lake, filled at this moment in time with effluent and floating nappies. If you want to plunge into those grimy depths, getting a used johnny up your nose into the process, then be my guest. I’m having none of it though.
Finally for today, the Arseblog book is now very much in the final stages. All the editing has been done and it was sent yesterday to be typeset. Next week it’ll go to the printers before the launch takes place in London in early December. I’ll give you more details on that, as well as the fantastic line-up of writers, very soon, but this particular print run is a bit special. It’s going to be a very limited edition hardback, a real collector’s item. As I said though, more details to come very shortly.
Right, that’s yer lot, have a good Thursday, back tomorrow with an eye on the weekend’s football and, of course, an Arsecast. Till then.
