Right, well football’s back and we can finally put the Interlull behind us. Obviously there was plenty about Thierry, Ireland and France and what have you at Arsene’s press conference yesterday but I think enough has been said on here about it.
The only thing I will comment on is his call for technology to be used to help referees. He said:
They [FIFA/UEFA] have come out with a solution with one [referee] behind the goal, but the best one is technology.
The biggest anger for me is that we are still in 2009, sitting here where millions of people see what happened but one guy doesn’t see it and we can’t help him. That is the most frustrating thing.
Hard to argue with that and I think the sooner they find a way to introduce video technology to help referees the better. Obviously it brings up many issues. When/where can you use it? How often? Can you do it without stopping the fabled ‘flow of the game’? However, I’m sure if you got enough clever people together they could come up with a system that works and can be fine-tuned after it is introduced. The fear, of course, is that with Blatter and Platini at the respective helms, their dinosaur ways will prevent it from happening for as long as possible.
Moving on, thankfully, to today’s game against Sunderland there’s some unexpected team news. After initally saying Theo Walcott would be ‘short’, Arsene announced he was back and part of the squad for the trip to the north-east. Timely news with the absences of van Persie and Bendtner and with Vela back as well it means we do look to have options up top – although quite small options.
Last season’s trip to the Stadium of Light saw Arsenal rescue a point with a Cesc header in the 90th minute, and on top of the Fulham game it was another little sign that perhaps Arsene had chosen to rely on the young midfielders a bit too soon. You would expect to see a much different Alex Song today than the one who struggled alongside Denilson last year.
Under Steve Bruce Sunderland are a better side than this time last year as well. They’ve beaten Liverpool, a bit fortuitously it has to be said, and were 30 seconds of injury time away from beating Manchester United at Old Trafford, so they certainly have something about them. We might be a bit concered with post-Interlull tiredness, especially as key players like Gallas and Sagna did 120 minutes in midweek, Cesc played 90 for Spain and Arshavin travelled to somewhere quite far away.
Eboue is a fairly natural replacement for Sagna but the big decision AW has to make is whether or not to rest Gallas, who you forget is 59 now. I suppose it’ll come down to how the player himself feels. If he can get through today then the midweek game against Standard Liege is probably the best one to give him a break. With Sylvester likely to start today at left-back, and I think Sagna rested, I would be surprised if Gallas didn’t play. Making three changes to the back four seems a little risky.
Up front the focus will be on Eduardo. After signing a new deal in midweek he’ll be full of beans and has probably gone off to buy an even bigger watch. Arsene Wenger said this week that if he hadn’t suffered that injury he reckons he’d already have 100 goals for the club, which would be quite something considering how long he’s been with us. Maybe he’s trying to boost the confidence of a player who has looked a little rusty but I think with a run of games he’ll find his form again. With support from Arshavin, Nasri, Rosicky et al, we should have plenty to trouble Sunderland today.
Rounding up the other news Arsene talked, again, about the progression of Aaron Ramsey who will be firmly in his thoughts after his fine display for Wales. I don’t see him starting today, I think Nasri or Rosicky will be given the nod, but he’s not so much knocking on the door now as battering it. His time will come very soon.
With Robin van Persie’s placenta treatment in the news the manager revealed he’s not a fan of such treatments saying modern medicine is the best medicine. The placenta thing is all a bit hubble-bubble, like some old crone cooking up a poultice, but if it does no harm then it may help a player – even if he just thinks he’s getting better more quickly.
And that’s really about that. Nothing left to do but eat bacon and fashion some kind of raft which I’m sure will be needed by the end of the day if it keeps raining here.
Fingers crossed we get ourselves back on track straight away and take the three points. Till tomorrow.
