Normally the Carling Cup is for the kids but circumstances are not normal. Firstly we’ve got players away trying to catch the rains down in Africa. Secondly we’ve got a load of players injured. This means that our pack has to be shuffled and players who wouldn’t normally take part will go to White Hart Lane tonight.
We knew Johann Djourou was out with a groin problem but Philippe Senderos suffered a broken nose against Fulham and has been forced to miss the game, much to his disappointment I’m sure. That means William Gallas will play and I suspect it’ll be alongside Justin Hoyte with Bacary Sagna at right back. The other option is to play Gilberto which would mean playing one of Cesc of Flamini alongside Denilson in midfield. Unless, of course, Denilson plays on the right with Walcott starting up front with Bendtner which would mean one of Rosicky or Hleb would play on the flanks. Unless… well, there are lots of possibilities.
Update: Here’s the 16 man squad.
In some ways I suspect the manager didn’t have to think too long about bringing in the more experienced players. I think the bench would have been stronger than in previous rounds in any case. This is a semi-final, against Sp*rs, and the club has gone quite long enough without any silverware. As much as this competition is one to blood new talent and allow them to gain experience when a trophy is within touching distance it’s hard to resist the temptation to make your team as strong as possible. That said there could still be space in the 16 for Kieran Gibbs and Henri Lansbury.
It promises to be an interesting game though. Sp*rs will obviously want the Wembley appearance, their last success coming in this competition under George Graham nearly 10 years ago now. Lukasz Fabianski will continue in goal in the competition while Arsene says he’s happy with Theo Walcott, claiming the youngter’s struggles on the right hand side of midfield will help him become a ‘fantastic striker’.
They’ll go into this game knowing that they could have put the tie to bed in the first leg. Will that inspire them or worry them? They rested some players at the weekend, Ledley King in particular who does make a big difference to their defence, and at home against the old enemy they’ll be rightly up for this one. We’ve certainly got to play better than we did in the home leg but then I think if we sent out a team of arthritic, one-legged gnomes we’d manage that. I’m looking forward to this, I have to say.
Let’s not forget there are some in this team who will feel they have unfinished business in this competition after last season’s final defeat, so if the Sp*rs boys think they’re the ones with the scores to settle and the motivation to give it ‘110%’ then they’re even uglier, stupid looking cunts than I think they are. And I think they are really ugly, stupid looking cunts. Who smell of cat shit. The cunts.
In the African Cup of Nations it was bad news for us as the Ivory Coast beat Nigeria 1-0. Not that I want Kolo to be upset or anything (don’t care about Eboue – I suspect he doesn’t have the brains to feel emotions anyway) but the sooner they get knocked out the sooner he’s back where he belongs. And that is not where love lifts him up, oh no.
Right, that’s your lot. Here’s to a 54-0 win tonight. Come on you reeeeeeeeeeeds.
