Right then, hopefully we’ve managed to put the tedium of Man City behind us now. I know quite a few people justified their approach yesterday with sensible, logical arguments, and that’s what’s brilliant about football. It’s a game of opinion and if we all thought the same way then it’d be very boring indeed.
For example, there are those who think that what Robbie Savage says is worth listening to when clearly the best thing for everyone would be to beat him to within an inch of his life, tie up him, gag him, put him in the boot of a Ford Fiesta then hypnotise John Terry into driving the car off a cliff. That’s just the beauty of the game and it’s a good measure of society too. Come the revolution those who would listen to Savage would be one of the first up against the wall.
Anyway, we can sit here safe in the knowledge that our opinion is much more important than that of anyone else. And that is also the beauty of football. Everyone’s right all the time. It baffles me why there aren’t more arguments.
Ahead of the Leeds game tomorrow the manager has revealed there will be ch-ch-changes. Turning to face the strain will be the fit again Kieran Gibbs, Denilson, Wojscez©®, Chamakh, Bendtner, Rosicky, Arshavin and a smattering of players involved in the games against City and Birmingham. Robin van Persie is out with a hip thwack while Samir Nasri is a doubt and, frankly, if there’s any risk at all we shouldn’t take it because he is so important.
It’s little wonder we’ve offered him a new 5 year deal. Despite his agent mouthing off I don’t foresee any problems. And remember, that’s what agents do. They live vicariously through the players, desperately seeking a flicker of fame and the crinkle-eyed joy of seeing their name in the papers, before they go back to bottom feeding and leeching. Nasri seems happy at the club and while I’m amongst those who think new contracts are handed out rather too easily at times, I don’t think that’s the case with Nasri. He’s matured into an exciting, productive player and we’d be quite mental not to tie him down to a longer deal.
Also back from the 80s tomorrow is Emmanuel Eboue. He’ll take the place of Bacary Sagna after Arsenal confirmed they wouldn’t appeal. Speaking to Le Parisien Sagna said it was the result of ‘many things’ and said:
I lost my head, Zabaleta insulted me and I went bonkers. I speak Spanish and I understood his insults. It was a mistake, it won’t happen again.
You have to assume he’d just had enough after the kicking from Lee Bowyer etc. It is unusual for him to react like that and I don’t suppose you even need to speak Spanish to have a good guess at what Zabaleta said. Anyway, it’s water under the bridge now and if you could handpick three games for him to miss then an FA Cup game, a Carling Cup game against lower league opposition and one Premier League game is about as good as it gets. He’s been outstanding this season and perhaps a little rest to recharge his batteries won’t be the worst thing in the world.
You’ve got to love the optimism of Jack Wilshere. He says:
After the Chelsea game we all thought this could be our season. It’s a new year and a new start and we are really going to push on. We are undefeated this year and hopefully we can keep going like that.
Heh. ‘Undefeated this year’, funny. It’s like if you’re chatting to someone on New Year’s Eve and you say ‘Talk to you next year then!’. Not that I have any problem at all with the sentiment as listeners to today’s Arsecast will discover, it just tickles me to be talking about ‘this year’ when it’s just seven days old.
Beyond that not a great deal going on this morning. The magic of the cup has yet to filter it’s way down the news feeds. So let’s get on with this week’s Arsecast. Goodplaya joins me to discuss Man City, Birmingham, Lee Bowyer’s stamping, discipline and more. Internet Joe has his weekly round-up, we hear from ESPN on Talkshite Radio while someone finds a down and out with a golden radio voice, or something.
You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too. To download this week’s Arsecast directly – click here (23mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.
[audio:http://arseblog.com/podcasts/arsecast_episode183.mp3]So, have yourselves as good a Friday as you can possibly have. A fuller preview of the FA Cup game tomorrow. Till then.
