october 28th
09.01 – Here’s an interesting statistic – at the same point last season Arsenal had 4 points less than we did now. The 11th game of the season was a 4-2 home defeat by Charlton. It seems that after the game on Saturday, Arsene Wenger kept the players in the dressing room for an hour for a post-mortem on the game and current form of the team.
Taking it as simply as I can, I reckon we need to focus more on how we play without the ball. The midfield need to protect the back 4 better, and the forwards need to hassle the opposition defenders more. Defend from the front and all that.
Dennis Bergkamp will not travel to Dortmund for the game on Wednesday and looks set to be charged by the FA for allegedly stamping on a Blackburn player. I saw it on TV and it’s pretty innocuous, so expect a 3 game for Dennis – which might itself not be a bad thing, because every time we’ve done the double, he’s picked up a 3 match ban somewhere along the way. Seems a bit odd to leave Dennis at home though, especially when we need a result against Dortmund and we don’t play in the Premiership again until Sunday.
This is from The Sun – “… there is little doubt they [Arsenal] require some sort of result in Dortmund on Wednesday to prevent a series of hiccups becoming a seizure. Especially since the coming month is traditionally known at Highbury as Black November. To do that, they will be helped no end if certain of their so-called supporters stay at home. There can be little argument that a section of the Arsenal crowd in the East and West Stands are an uncouth, bully-boy lot whose knee-jerk reaction to things not going their way is to pick on the easiest targets.”
I don’t think I need to add to that.
