I am somewhat touched by the hand of *boilk* this morning. A few early beers, a couple more beers, and then a short Bourbon interval left me playing FIFA online with just one eye open. Never conducive to a good performance that, but I have to say that I hope when they release the new game they randomise the weather a bit.
It’s 90% rain, 5% sunny, 5% snow. Is it because I have the Irish edition of FIFA that it’s always raining? If that’s what it is then the geo-marketing of video games has gone too far, I say. The last thing I need is to be constantly reminded by a video game that I’m in Ireland, especially as some whizkid teenager does Cruyff turns and flip-flaps and somersaults before he scores and then does that annoying Sturridge celebration.
Anyway, onto matters more related to Arsenal, and Arsene Wenger has been talking about Aaron Ramsey’s return after confirming that he’d be back in the squad for Sunday’s game. It was interesting to hear him say he’d been back in training, and working hard, for a ‘while’ when only last week he’d mentioned setbacks. Maybe they were being super-cautious about announcing anything in case something else went wrong, but maybe too there’s something to be said for giving everyone a little boost going into a difficult part of the season.
He’s an all-round midfielder who can score goals and always drives the team forward. He’s a real box-to-box player so it’s good to have him back. It’s an area where we are short because we have many midfielders out. We have Wilshere and Ozil out in this area, so of course it’s good to have him back.
And also compared him to Frank Lampard:
The number of goals he has scored is tremendous for a midfielder. He turns up in the box and he is a bit ‘Lampardish’. He gets in the box at the right moment.
I will grudgingly admit that as a football comparison it’s a decent one. Lampard has been consistently excellent in the goal-scoring stakes down the years (even if he has had a bit of help along with the way with a deflection or two). All the same, I find anything to do with that club pretty grotty so I’m going to forget he said that now.
There’s some other stuff from the manager about the injuries we’ve suffered and he has suggested there could be a link between muscle injuries and supplements (legal ones), that players might take on the side. He says:
Some of them muscle injuries are down to the medication that the players take that you don’t even know about. Then you realise afterwards that they took this medication but that’s not prudent.
Which all sounds a bit odd, and even odder is the example he gave when asked what kind of supplements he was talking about:
If you lose your hair and you’ve taken something to make your hair grow, it might not be good, especially for the rest of your body.
Wouldn’t that mean Wayne Rooney is always knackered? I remember when I was given the tour of the medical facilities a couple of years ago, and one of the things Gary O’Driscoll, the club doctor, showed us was a cupboard packed full of pills and supplements that each player needed. But they were very strictly handled by the club themselves to make sure that a) a player didn’t inadvertently take something that was on the banned list or b) just go popping pills all over the place which might well have an effect.
One player in particular, we were told, wanted to make sure he was stocked up on all the stuff he was used to taking when playing back in his own country, but everything had to go be approved, and dispensed, by the medical staff. Of course you can’t monitor a player 24/7 and what they do at home is more or less impossible to keep track of, but it would seem as if this, as a source of our problems, is probably unlikely.
All the same, if the investigation into why it’s happening is leading us down many roads, perhaps as a process of elimination we might find our way to something approximating the truth in the end.
The real truth, as we all know, is to be found in bacon. And more coffee, so if you’ll excuse me that’s what I’m going to partake of. Back here tomorrow with a full preview of the Everton game, a live blog and all the rest.
In the meantime, have yourselves a good Saturday.
