Morning all, let’s start with team news ahead of tonight’s FA Cup 4th round replay against Bolton. We have Johann Djourou available despite being nasally handicapped, Jens and Thierry Henry are rested, Mathieu Flamini misses out with an ankle problem and I’m led to believe that Cesc won’t be part of the travelling squad as he gets a rest too.
We welcome back Alexander Hleb and, after two months out, Freddie Ljungberg. His last game was against Portsmouth in the league on December 16th when he lasted a whole 6 minutes. I’d imagine after so long out he’ll be on the bench tonight but he will be looking to show that he’s still got something to offer the team after what has been a very disappointing season so far.
With our recent record against Bolton not great Arsene Wenger has admitted that Bolton are, what people might call, our ‘bogey side’. He’s not reading too much into it though, saying:
They took advantage of our weak points every time, but overall I never look at any opponents ever as being a team we cannot be successful against. I just think if you do the right things, then you win.
What has been lacking, more than quality of play or anything else on our last visits, is the sort of grit and determination we show at home when we come back from a goal down to win games. If we play with that kind of attitude tonight then there’s no reason why we can’t win – although I remember saying similar before the league game. If we go there and look sort of afraid and half-hearted like we did the last time then there’s only going to be one winner. I don’t know what it is about that ground but it has not been a happy place for us. It is time to turn that around and get a result.
Naturally Sam Allardyce has been mouthing off again. He does love to talk about Arsenal and to dole out these back-handed compliments which he thinks make him look clever. He’s been waffling again about how ‘clever’ Arsene Wenger is to try and influence referees by bringing up the subject of time-wasting. I remember Allardyce doing exactly the same when we went to the Reebok one season except he talked about how referees protect Arsenal too much. He then sent his players out to kick Arsenal off the park and we lost Ljungberg, Cygan and Lauren to injury in that game. One challenge by Okocha on Freddie was disgraceful and the referee, having listened all week to Allardyce go on and on did fuck all.
So for him to turn around now and accuse Arsene Wenger of doing what he does, what every fucking manager does for fucks sake, is just typical of a man who loves the sound of his own voice when it comes to Arsenal. I sincerely hope we beat them in the most controversial way possible. I hope they have 4 goals disallowed then Freddie Ljungberg, on as a last minute sub, gets played through while offside, handles it to control it, punches Campo in the face as he continues then hits a shot which hits the underside of the crossbar and doesn’t cross the line but the ref gives a goal. It would be only fair.
Kolo Toure wants revenge and Kolo gets what Kolo wants. Nobody fucks with The Kolo.
Anyway, enough of that Walrus looking cunt. In a quick round-up of the other stories Justin Hoyte talks about how he’s an Arsenal fan and he sings the songs when he’s not playing, Arsene says Gael Clichy can be as good as Ashley Cole and you can read a fuller version of the Robert Pires article from yesterday here.
Finally for today a quick heads up for this week’s Arsecast. As well as all the usual rubbish there’s an interview with a very special guest and I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow.
