What a strange day Sunday was. Normally there’s football on the TV but as far as I could see there was nothing happening at all yesterday, and of course if nothing happened then nothing happened so there you go.
I mean, even if I was the most magnanimous person alive, there’s simply no chance that if anything did happen I’d a) acknowledge it and b) do something daft like congratulate some people in the name of decent sportsmanship. They say the league table doesn’t lie, and that’s probably as true a maxim as there is in football, but very often the league table has a pack of outright wankers at the top of it, so that’s where we are (if anything had happened yesterday. Which it didn’t).
Tonight we’ve got a game against Hull, that traditional bank holiday Monday evening kick-off that everyone loves so much. The only real injury doubt today is Mathieu Debuchy with a slight hamstring strain, although Mikel Arteta and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are also not considered quite ready for this one.
With the team on an unbeaten run in the league that stretches back to February 7th, there’s no real need for the manager to change things around – other than, perhaps to add a little freshness to the team (but with an 8 day gap between games it’s not like we’ve been run off our feet).
He’s spoken about how difficult it is for players to get back into the team, using Jack Wilshere as a specific example:
Every week he is stronger, he is getting back to the level now. This week was the first week he is sharp again. His strength is in the final third, offensively. That is where he really expresses his talent. It is difficult to get in this team, I don’t deny that. If you consider any individual case you can say you are sorry that he doesn’t play.
But who do you drop for Jack Wilshere? With Coquelin holding, and the other three – Cazorla, Ramsey and Ozil playing so well – there’s no room for him right now. Maybe some minutes here and there as a substitute will allow him to build some match sharpness, but bar injury, suspension, or a dramatic loss of form, he’s just going to have to bide his time.
It’s hard to envisage any change from the team that drew with Chelsea, although the noises he’s making about using his squad make me think he might tweak a couple of things here and there. There’s a balance to be found between competition for places, and just having a load of players who never get to play. Does the odd bit of tinkering with the selection keep players on their toes?
Hull have pulled themselves out of the mire a little bit in their last two games. It’s looking a lot less bleak than it was before they beat Crystal Palace and Liverpool, but it’s so tight down the bottom they’ll be scrapping for anything they can get from this game. Last season we went there and won pretty comfortably but at that point they had a 6 point cushion between them and the relegation zone – now they’re just one point it so I think that will be reflected in their performance today.
We currently lie third in the table, three points behind Man City but with two games in hand. A comprehensive win might see us reclaim second on goal difference but, frankly, a win of any flavour would do just nicely. We had our struggles against Hull at home in October, one of the low points of this season really, so it would be nice to put that to bed a bit with a win today.
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Meanwhile, some stuff from the manager on Thierry Henry’s comments about Olivier Giroud. He’s given his backing to the current number 12, saying:
I can accept that is an opinion, but the comment on Giroud was a bit more wrong. Especially because I heard the same thing being said about Anelka, about Thierry Henry himself and about Robin van Persie, and they all became world-class players themselves.
You’ve gotta say the man knows his strikers. But then he also bought Park Chu-Young so now I’m confused. Anyway, the only man who can really answer the criticism is Giroud himself, and that means scoring goals. Let’s see how he goes tonight.
Right, not a lot else going on right now. We’ll have full live blog coverage of the game for you later on, all the details will be on site or you can bookmark our default live blog page and updates will begin automatically.
And if you fancy a bank holiday flutter, Paddy Power are offering very generous odds for new accounts. Click the image below or this link to get in on the action.
News throughout the day on Arseblog News, I’ll catch you later for the game. Arsecast Extra tomorrow.
