Morning all. It’s gonna be a quick one today because I have much to do. It’s the Arseblog office Christmas party today so I’ve got to put the decorations up, get the cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks made, and hang the mistletoe to sit mournfully under until the Arseblog German Shepherd gives me a consolation slurp on the side of the head.
Fun times!
Let’s start this morning with Petr Cech who says that once we have everybody back Arsenal will be a genuine force in this season’s title race:
The squad is very strong and once we have everybody available, the manager can use every player the way he likes. Everything isn’t going as smoothly as we would like it to. We can’t avoid injuries – sometimes you have more, sometimes you have less – but we showed that even with the unlucky injuries at the moment that we manage to win games.
I believe we will benefit from players coming back into the team, once they are fit. The season is long and anything can happen. But if we stay where we are until March or April, then we have the chance to win the league.
‘Once we have everybody available’, Oh Petr! Maybe that was a thing where you used to work with their ‘methods’ and ‘techniques’, but you’re at Arsenal now. The concept of ‘everybody’ simply does not exist. There is only ‘some’ and then there are ‘the others’. And even when some of the some return, there are other the others. That’s just how it works.
The best we can hope for is that the some are many, and the others few, but it is literally in the laps of the Gods and the Gods do like to mess with us. Just as somebody is on the verge of a comeback a little wiggle of a mighty finger and a tendon goes twang or a ham becomes stringier than it once was. We provide them with playthings – nobody will ever know what poor Abou Diaby had to endure to secure the relative fitness of others, but one day people will understand the sacrifices he made.
Maybe I’m just being hopelessly naive, or ludicrously optimistic, but I feel really confident that we’re going to do some business in January and do it relatively efficiently. I know, I know. I’m setting myself up for a fall here, but just from what the manager said in his interview with beIN SpOrT and their weird capitalisation, there seems to be an acceptance that recruits are necessary – rather than the vague ‘We’re open to do something if somebody comes along and says “Here’s a jolly good player at a bargain price!”‘ kind of stuff we usually hear.
We’re obviously really light in midfield, everyone’s freaking out about Alexis limping, and it just feels to me like this is a squad that would really benefit from an injection of quality above and beyond what we actually need (which is at least one midfielder). Anyway, we don’t have long to wait for the window to open, we’ll find out soon enough how quickly we’re going to do what we’re going to do.
“Morning all, let’s hope that today is the day when we finally do some business. After Ramsey ruptured all his internal organs on January 1st, and Flamini was assassinated by OPEC we’ve been quite short in midfield. The problems were made worse by Jack Wilshere suffering a setback to his setback which unfortunately isn’t a double-negative that makes a positive, and since Calum Chambers was loaned to Brighton and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is required up front in the absences of Giroud, Walcott, Alexis and Danny Welbeck #RIPINPEACEDANNY, Joel Campbell is manfully holding the fort at DM but we can’t ask him to do that much longer …”
Stupid future.
Meanwhile, some good stuff from Per Mertesacker who is making sure focus remains and feet stay on the ground after the Man City win:
We haven’t proven anything yet and we haven’t been that consistent that we can talk about that. We go game by game.
I like it. And I also like the fact there’s the right amount of experience in this team to look at the position we’re in, see that it’s very promising, but also that there’s a lot to do if we want to go all the way.
Finally, Mesut Ozil says he’s very happy at Arsenal now that he’s getting more sleep, but put paid to rumours about a new deal being imminent:
My contract runs until 2018, that is for another two and a half years. There is no need to hurry. There are no talks at the moment but I can only say that I am very happy in London and that my decision to come here from Real Madrid was the right one.
There is not a single day, apart from when I was injured, that I have not felt great at Arsenal.
I mean, I would give him a contract 4EVA right now, but I don’t think it’s something we need to be worried about. He’s playing out of his skin, and that’s the single most important thing. I’m sure there will be discussions going on because when a player becomes that vital to the team, you have to do something about it, but in the meantime let’s just enjoy watching him do his stuff because his stuff is pretty damn good right now.
So that’s it for this morning. Remember, if you haven’t yet heard this week’s Arsecast Extra featuring a true abomination of a Christmas song, you can check it out here, via Acast, or on iTunes. Please subscribe, like, share, rate, review but most of all listen. And thank you to all of you who have done so during the year, it’s greatly appreciated and it’s nice to know we’re not just waffling into the void.
Catch you tomorrow for a quick round-up. Until then have a good one.
