Another big game this evening then as an Arsenal team bumped down into 4th place by Villa’s win last night look to keep the momentum going. We’ll be looking for our third league win a row tonight at Burnley, but anyone thinking this is an easy game would be wise to look at Burnley’s home record.
Their home form has been excellent and it’s what’s keeping them alive this season. They’ve beaten Man United, Everton and Sunderland, amongst others, and only lost once, to Wigan. We’ve had a bit of history with them over the last few seasons. We’ve beaten them home and away in the FA Cup but last season went down 2-0 in the Carling Cup at their place.
From our point of view the team news is that Denilson and Traore are both out while Eboue comes back. The manager has to choose between Diaby and Ramsey for the midfield spot. I’d be tempted by the young Welshman, I have to say, but I think Arsene will go with Diaby, while Sylvester (who is due for contract talks in March) will most likely fill in at left back.
Up front we’ve got options. Theo’s fit again, Eduardo was fit enough for the bench on Sunday so he could well start, Vela’s fit and, of course, we have Andrei Arshavin. The boss says he can play anywhere in the offensive part of the field and hailed his recuperation abilities. He limped off on Sunday with a bruised foot but will play tonight. Wenger says:
On Monday, he was out of the game, the next day he is in. It’s as miraculous as that, I don’t know if he has a miraculous healing process at home. He is a tough boy, always wants to play and that says a lot about his spirit and determination. I’ve not met many with his pain threshold. I’ve had a few – the Nigel Winterburns, Bouldy, Dixon, Keown – tough boys. Andrey is a hard boy, especially for a forward.
He’s in good company there, you have to say. The game itself is massive. The win against Liverpool was hard fought and got us back into the mix but it’ll mean nothing if we don’t get a result at Turf Moor tonight. A lot of the pre-match talk has been about Arsene’s half-time talk on Sunday. Personally I don’t think it’s really worth talking about although I can understand the fascination. We rarely get such glimpses of life inside the Arsenal dressing room but he did what he had to do on the day, it worked, and that’s pretty much that.
The man himself admits it could have backfired and pointed to Phil Brown’s laughable on-pitch tirade against his own team last season as an example of how it can go wrong. Arsene says:
The problem with anger is that you can create damage that you cannot repair. And, even if it is not damage, other people make you feel you have created damage.
So those expecting the ‘hairdryer’ every time things aren’t going right for us at half-time will have to think again. Anyway, let’s hope there’s no need for that tonight. The players know how big the result at Anfield was and they’ll know that they’ve got to stay focussed and working hard from now on, not just the 45 minutes on Sunday. Burnley are a team who like to play, which will probably suit us, but who will work very hard at home. This is not going to be easy by any means but we certainly have the talent and the ability to get a result. And if we want to stay in this title race nothing less will suffice. The manager says this is the most open title race for years, suggesting that up to 8 teams can win it. I’m not sure I agree with the amount of teams but it certainly is very open. Let’s close it up a bit.
In other news Arsene was asked again about compensation for Robin van Persie’s injury. As he rightly pointed out the £20m figure bandied about didn’t come from him, it was something just plucked out of the air by the papers, and anyway I don’t think this is about money in the slightest. While compensation is welcome, and I think to be expected as we’re the ones that have to pay a player’s wages while he spends months on the sidelines, the main issue is clubs having more control over their players. If the £20m thing puts the shits up the national FAs then fine but we shouldn’t lose sight of what this is really about.
While again stating that he’s more interested in getting our injured players back and fit again, the manager declared himself ‘open minded‘ to transfers in January. He hinted that Philippe Senderos could leave depending on the offers open to him – his Champions League non-appearances making more sense now – but the reality of that is that we’d be left with just three centre-halves. Last week the boss said we would ‘always’ have four, so with Song away to the ACN and Djourou keeping van Persie company in the cripple’s playground, the only way Senderos can leave is if we buy somebody else. So, we’d want to be a bit more than open minded, and that’s leaving aside the striker issue.
Arsene says he sees Walcott as a striker and with Bendtner coming back in a couple of weeks I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll see a signing in this area. He obviously has faith in Vela, having handed him a new contract. He spoke glowingly of Eduardo a couple of weeks back too. You have to think those players need to repay some of that faith in the weeks ahead and score the goals which will allow him to justify not buying a van Persie replacement! Anyway, we’ll see. While we all like the thrill of a new player (kinda like a Christmas present or a new sofa), it’d be nice to go on a run of results and scorelines which do make the manager think seriously about whether he needs that player or not.
The Sun says Leicester want to sign Kerrea Gilbert.
Don’t forget the competition with thanks to Vision Publishing to win one of three signed copies of Arsènal : The Making of a Modern Superclub by Kevin Witcher and Alex Fynn as well as a copy of The Pocket Book of Arsenal. Details on yesterday’s blog and the winners will be announced tomorrow.
Right, that’s about that. Here’s to another three points tonight. More tomorrow.
