It’s a bit unfortunate but today we have to contend with a serious distraction to the post-transfer window moaning and outrage. Some thing called a ‘game of football’, I believe. Just go with it, put up with it, it’ll never catch on.
Arsenal face Crystal Palace today with the chance to back to the top of the table. That’s right. The Premier League table. The top. Us. Arsenal. Remarkable, eh? Man City and Chelsea play each other tomorrow night so if we win and they play out what I hope will be a horrendous draw full of red cards, ultra-violence and blindings, it’ll mean we stay top going into DEATHRUN 1.
In terms of the team, we’re without Mathieu Flamini, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere which makes midfield a place where we’re a bit light on options (more on that anon). You have to think it’ll be Arteta – Rosicky – Ozil, which is pretty all right. I think Arteta will be better after his first game back from injury, Rosicky’s good enough to play that role to link the Spaniard and Ozil, and we saw signs against Southampton (a very good Southampton as yesterday showed) that the German is ready to take this team by the scruff of the neck.
I suspect Kieran Gibbs will return at left back, assuming he’s fully fit, and I do wonder if today might be the day when Arsene finds room for Lukas Podolski in the starting XI. Serge Gnabry had a difficult time at St Mary’s, and although he could play Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the right, I just wonder if he might shunt Santi over the right hand side and play Podolski left.
Palace have been better under new boss, The Goblin King, but their good results are usually punctuated by bad ones. They’ve gone W-L-L, W-L-D,W-L-W-L-W, so they still struggle for consistency. They played very well at Manchester City a couple of weeks back and probably should have taken something from that game, so it’s a warning to us that we need to be in this game right from the start.
The tendency to begin games slowly in recent weeks is something we’ve coped relatively well with, and with reasonable efficiency, but there’s something to be said for coming flying out of the blocks and getting on top as quickly as possible. But that slowness is something the manager is aware of, and you wonder if there’s something deliberate about it. He says:
The crowd is on our side much more this season. Against Fulham, for example, it took us a while to get into the game and, last year, the fans would have been impatient. This year they were much more patient. Look at the Cardiff game as well; we had to wait until the last two minutes to win the game.
I do think there’s much more belief in the team and its ability to get the goals/results this season, but that doesn’t mean people wouldn’t prefer a couple of first half goals. Leaving it late, like against Cardiff, is hardly some kind of plan, despite the team showing the requisite fight and character to take three points.
We know Pulis likes to send his teams out to play against us in a certain way. I think that’s going to be the case again. They’ll be disciplined and physical and that’s something we’ll have to contend with. But when you look at what’s to come in terms of fixtures in the next few weeks, this is one that we have to ensure we take three points from, and unless circumstances conspire against us, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t.
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Meanwhile, the story which emerged yesterday regarding new signing Kim Kallstrom is quite extraordinary. A Swedish newspaper reported he’d been injured in his first training session for us and said he could miss two or three months – something the club seemed to back-up with quotes given to that publication and to more local sources. Then, the story changed. He hadn’t been injured because he hadn’t yet trained.
Instead, it was revealed that Kallstrom injured his back playing on the beach in Abu Dhabi while training with Spartak Moscow. He told Arsenal of the problem, we did some tests which showed the injury and the fact he’d miss ‘at least’ 6 games. Arsene Wenger was provided with this information, yet green-lit the signing anyway.
I know it’s easy to make gags about Arsenal’s injury problems – which seem to overlook the fact that every single club has injured players, players who break down again after initial problems, long-termers and everything else – but to look for midfield cover when you’ve got two players in there injured and one suspended, and then sign a player who can’t play seems remarkable to me.
It’s so bonkers it feels like there’s something we’re missing. The only explanation I can think of is that he’ll be available sooner than those reports say. He was never going to be able to play today anyway, having not been signed before midday on Friday, so it’s not really an issue for this game, but it’s just impossible to understand why you’d sign an injured player when you need cover almost straight away.
No doubt it’s something the manager will be quizzed on further today, so we might get something more definitive from him. But the way the story emerged, the spin put on it from the club one way, then another, wouldn’t exactly fill you with confidence. I guess we’ll find out soon enough, but it does feel like only Arsenal could go through an entire transfer window when there’s ample time and opportunity to actually improve the squad, then sign a pre-injured player!
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Right, that’s that. Catch you later for the game. Come on you reds.
