It’s a very misty morning here in Dublin. I would look out the window of my office to see across the back garden and the houses behind but I’m pretty sure a face would appear on the other side – it’s all a bit Stephen King or something. Once there aren’t any giant clowns I think I’ll cope until the sun comes up though.
It’s still quiet as we’ve yet to hear any kind of team news ahead of the weekend. There is some talk of a Danny Welbeck hamstring issue, which would be a blow, but Roy Hodgson said he’d be fine and a man like Roy Hodgson wouldn’t lie. He just doesn’t have the chops for it. Other than that I think the only return to the team might be Mikel Arteta as his hamstring wasn’t too badly damaged against Anderlecht.
Laurent Koscielny won’t be back just yet and there’s an outside chance of Olivier Giroud making it, but he would be bench at best if he were deemed fit enough to take some part. Anyway, I’m sure there’ll be team news leaking out throughout the day.
Having been quite vocal about his Arsenal situation during this Interlull, Lukas Podolski went into more depth about it after Germany’s friendly with Spain this week. Once again he expressed his unhappiness at not playing, saying:
I have to speak to Wenger because the situation at the moment is not good for me because I have to play, so we will see what happens. I know that only eleven can play but when you always play 10 or 15 minutes and it happens every week then you cannot be happy. I am happy with the team and the coach and the club but I don’t play. That is the only thing.
To be fair, less experienced and more self-entitled players than him have expressed the same sentiment in the past and done so in a much more confrontational way. Podolski has been pretty reasonable there all things considered. He’s not having a strop or throwing a tantrum, but there’s no doubting his honesty either.
There was an interesting piece in the Guardian during the week by Amy Lawrence which highlights the issue he’s having though. He’s not a player who can lead the line like Giroud or even Welbeck can; he’s not a traditional wide player; and in the systems we usually play he finds himself as something of a square peg in a number of round holes.
As we discussed on the Arsecast Extra this week he’d be best off playing as part of a front two, but even with the manager a bit more open to that now, it’s hard to see how he’d replace either Welbeck or Alexis for any reason other than injury or some other kind of unavailability. So he’s in a position where he finds himself in a difficult situation at Arsenal but also one that might be replicated elsewhere if he does get a move.
I suppose the thing is for him to try and find a club willing to play to his strengths but whether or not we’d be willing to let him go in January remains to be seen. He didn’t just speak about himself though, he also touched on the team and he reckons the competitive nature of the Premier League might just leave the door open for a title challenge (gotta love that optimism).
He says any team can take points from any other team in England (unlike certain other leagues), but says that unless we find some form quickly it won’t matter too much:
Home and away every team is hard to play. You can never say that the three points are easy to get. There is always pressure when you are at a big club and you are not in the top four. So we have to start winning games and start picking up points. We lost our last game and it’s a big match against Manchester United so we have to win it and then we have a big game against Dortmund straight after that. We have start winning games now.
As I mentioned yesterday, we could be sitting here a week from now content and perhaps even optimistic. Ok, maybe that’s a stretch, but not pessimistic. Or we could be in the depths of despondent doom and despair and disenchantment and dejection and and distress and desperation and man there’s a lot of words with the letter D that have a negative connotation. It’s kinda depressing.
I’m all for Podolski sparking back into life this weekend with a late rocket of a winner which deflects in off van Persie’s face but I’m absolutely not choosey. It can be anyone’s late rocket of a winner which deflects in off van Persie’s face.
Anyway, more to come, including an Arsecast tomorrow – news throughout the day over on Arseblog News.
Have a good one.
ps – sorry for the earworm, I know it’s stuck in your head.
