This weekend is the start of a double whammy of London derbies. We have of course lost the only London derby we've had so far (against Fulham) and we're usually the table toppers of the mini London only results league.
On Sunday, we travel to Upton Park to take on a West Ham side now under the guidance of Zola - and then on Wednesday we host Sp*rs at the Emirates, which should be nothing but an enthralling encounter.
We've had some good news on the injury front, with confirmation that Eduardo will be back at the end of November - roughly a month away. We all saw that Diaby's return is a welcomed one, it adds strength, guile and height to our midfield.
With Eduardo we have skill, desire and quality finishing. Whether or not the Croatian will be back to his best or not is debatable, but I think he's one of those players who couldn't accept a substandard level of performance.
Arsene said in the AGM this morning:
“Eduardo is three weeks away from playing competitive football.”
Short and sweet, but a welcomed bonus when it happens.
Ade’s been in the press too, again… and has reiterated the desire to win some silverware. It’s funny how Ade keeps on saying “I need to win something” rather than “we” and it’s also quite funny how Ade is the main disappointment this season. Offside 15 times against Hull and rarely threatening. Anyway, he’s a good thing that he’s got the belief.
“I need to win something with the club. We have been playing great football and we all know it’s the time to win something. Playing good football is good, but winning something is even better. Now all of our hope is to win something. We know it’s going to be tough but I believe in the squad that we can still do something.”
In response to this statement, I’d simply say to Ade. If you want it, then show it.
Young Theo’s been talking about the win against Fenerbahce and he’s quite happy with the performance.
“All the teams in Europe will look and see the 5-2 win by Arsenal, away and with a young team, and I think they will be scared to play us. That’s the impression we want to give out to all the other teams. We do that and we have always got them on the back foot and hopefully we can just keep performing like that. It was absolutely brilliant. The main thing was getting the three points and everyone got their jobs right today. We scored five goals and it was nice to see us taking our chances.
I’m not sure if we actually do want teams in Europe to “be scared”, as surely they’ll end up playing 10 behind the ball and hitting us on the counter – cite Hull, Sunderland… most teams who travel to the Emirates!
Finally, Cesc has reiterated that he’s staying with us for the forseable future. It’s a bit annoying to talk about Cesc’s future every single international break, but apparently Milan were in for him in the summer. From past sales, it’s clear that the big clubs still think they can prise anyone they want from us.
Cesc spoke to Sport.Es (which means this may not be true:
“Yes, it’s true. I did have offers from an Italian side which were interesting from an economical point of view. However, nothing really happened after that.”
And it’s a bit strange how Cesc can receive an offer without going through the club, but let’s not dwell on this right now.
The Arsenal AGM happened this morning, so more details will surely follow…
More later…]]>
