Just looking back over the archives and normally after the final game of the season there’s a squad assessment, each one graded like a schoolkid.
That will have to wait this time around though, as final marks will depend on the big test they have to go through on Saturday when we face Hull in the FA Cup final. I have to admit that when I think about it, I feel quite confident. I made the point on the Arsenal Fan TV podcast last night that if you’d been offered a cup final against Hull – who wouldn’t be able to play their two best strikers – at the start of the season, you’d have got a resounded ‘Yes please!’, from me.
But then I remember that we are Arsenal and situations like this have, in the past, brought out the self-destructive worst in us and I start to dread it a little bit. So, to make myself feel better, I think about the book launch on Thursday and that makes me nervous so I try and sing a song and thanks to Mrs Blogs all I’ve got in my head is that one from Frozen and the only way to get that out of my head is to sing Camouflage by Stan Ridgeway – all of which should give you a good picture of my brain turmoil right now.
“Serenity now”.
Anyway, a few bits and pieces to take our minds of things this morning. First up, Carl Jenkinson talks about his first ever Arsenal goal:
It took a while but I got there in the end. Since I was a kid I’ve been an Arsenal fan, I’ve scored that goal 100 times in my back garden and celebrated like I’m celebrating in front of the fans. I’ve done it for real today and it was the best feeling in the world. I think you could tell by my celebration.
Didn’t we all do that as kids? I know for a fact that I used to replicate the goals from the 1979 FA Cup final everywhere I could. Inside the house, outside the house, in corridors, going to the bathroom, getting ready for bed, on the way to the kitchen for breakfast, everywhere. Although I loved Alan Sunderland’s winner for obvious reasons, my favourite was pretending to be both Sunderland and Brian Talbot for the opener.
That, of course, was after I’d been Liam Brady dribbling into the box and then David Price pulling the ball back for them to arrive at the same time before Talbot got the decisive touch. I think it was something about the sliding towards the ball that I loved the most. Certainly that was something my mother didn’t like the most as I crumpled the carpet and I would then pretend not to know the answer to the question ‘What did I tell you about playing football indoors?’.
The difference for Carl Jenkinson is that he got to do it in real life too, the lucky sod, and I suspect that as we speak he’s having a duvet made with the picture of him celebrating and wallpaper made out of the picture of him celebrating and pajamas made with the picture of him celebrating all over them and possibly having that bloke who makes the Arsenal players really nice cars look ugly paint his car with the picture of him celebrating all over it. And who could blame him?
Meanwhile, as Jenko’s late run of form disgracefully fails to get him to Brazil this summer, Jack Wilshere and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have been selected in the Roy Hodgson’s squad. There may be concerns over both due to the fact they’ve had injuries, but in a way it might work out well for England.
Wilshere has had the last 6-8 weeks off due to his broken foot, so will be coming into the tournament pretty fresh, while the Ox has only played half a season after a first day cruciate injury so he’s not going to as knackered as someone like Gerrard (tweaked Slipizius), Lampard (older than a mountain) or Wayne Rooney (large with food). I can foresee both of our lads playing a big role in England’s three games …
*runs*.
I kid, I kid.
Although regular readers will know I’m not the greatest fan of the international game, I’m looking forward to this World Cup simply because there’s going to be football on late at night, and that reminds me of Mexico 86 which was probably my favourite World Cup. I don’t quite know why, but maybe it was just because I was 15, and able to stay up late to watch football for the first time – not to mention back then the fact that endless live football on television was a rarity.
So this time around I envisage some warm evenings (assuming the weather improves here and we’re not set for another ‘scummer’), a few beers, and some hilarious late night japery as the World Cup serves up a feast of liquid football and other assorted goodies. I could be setting the bar quite high here from the start, but never mind.
Back to FA Cup stuff, and all this week Tim Stillman will be looking back on Arsenal’s record in the seventeen finals we’ve appeared in down the years. The first was in 1927 and obviously our eighteenth takes place this Saturday when – ‘Whoa Camouflage … things are never quite the way they seem’. In part 1 Tim looks back on 1927 to 1952. Part two follows later this afternoon with part three on Wednesday.
Finally, if you missed yesterday’s Arsecast Extra, check it out here. We talk Norwich, Jenkinson, the cup final keeper, and exclusively reveal exactly what’s going on at the club right now in terms of our summer business. Get it into ya.
Right, many things to do, I’d best do them. Till tomorrow.
