Following on from yesterday’s post about the need for a new striker in the January transfer window, it’s apparent that there are a couple of alternatives to the list that could be viable options – viable, mainly because they’re free…

In yesterday’s comments, Nick mentioned the possible signing of Huntelaar, but you’d have to imagine that we would have gone in for him in Summer when  he was more available then he is now and additionally, the fee Milan paid for him was in the region of £18m and I doubt we’d pay that for him now… but more interestingly was a comment by VJ, citing two players – Pazzini – who is very highly rated – and Gignac who again is also very highly rated. The question would be how much they would cost and whether we’re looking long term or short term…

Apparently, Adriano (ex Inter) may be available on a free too and of course, if we do have money (as Francis pointed out yesterday), we could look at strikers from the Premiership – indeed Carlton Cole is one of those players, but you have to think how far Cole and Simpson or Watt are, and if one our youngsters was given a run out, then whether or not they’d show their true abilities…

Onto today’s slice of the pie and it gave me great pleasure to see that Hull have had an FA charge brought against them for misconduct in the game against us… wow, how times have changed… let’s take a listen to Phil Brown…

“There was an incident for some reason, and I can’t answer the accusations against Nasri. He decided to light the touchpaper. It was there for everybody to see. It needed to be dealt with more severely and hasn’t been. Why we are up for a charge I don’t know. I defend the players to the hilt. As far as I am concerned that lad has gone in there with the intent to start a fight, to start a ruck. Maybe it was because Arsenal were hitting a brick wall in terms of the way they were playing, I don’t know. We were doing our job to the best of our ability and maybe that’s why they’ve decided to light the touchpaper, I’ve no idea. For us to come under criticism yet again is absolutely scandalous, and we’ll be defending it.”

To sum it up for Mr Brown… it’s because you asked your players to kick us for the whole game, you asked them to waste time, to frustrate us – Brown, you asked them to play anti-football and you made sure your players were confrontational… you’ve turned Hull from everyone’s second team to a team that everyone hopes goes down. You made up stuff against Cesc last year and so did half of your staff and they you have the audacity to be blind to the FA charge… okay, yes, I didn’t see it coming, but ha, Merry Christmas Mr Brown.

Ok, rant over…

Let’s switch to Arshavin as he tells us how hard the Premier League actually is…

“I expected before I moved to England, if you are a good player if you play for a big team it is easier. But even if you play against Burnley or Wolverhampton, it is not easy – you don’t have time to turn or do any dribbling, if you get two touches you’re lucky. We have had some chances to be very close to the top but we have not taken them so I am a little disappointed. But now if we win games in hand we are still in the race but at the same time we cannot lose more points.”

Damn right, starting at Villa and then continuing at Portsmouth, we have to ensure that we pick up 6 points from the next 2 games. If we don’t drop any points and we play our game in game (at home to Bolton) on Jan 6th, we could be top if Chelsea can drop two point over Christmas… fingers crossed.

Back to Arshavin, and Arsene’s changed the formation to accommodate the player and the Russian fox in the box (and of course, out of the box) acknowledges this.

“He gave me freedom, he requires of me to play as I see on the pitch.”

Which is a great thing to be given to any player, and it’s giving us that extra dimension at the moment, so it’s definitely working. As Eduardo returns to match fitness, I’m sure we’ll see a bit more swagger in our play as we have players that compliment each other….

And let’s not forget us, the fans… Arshavin loves us, we love him too…

“I am happy, I sometimes think they like me more than my wife.”

You’ve got to love the little Russian, don’t you…

Okie dokie, wishing you all a very Merry Christmas for tomorrow. Relax, enjoy and tune in to WOA for a festive post lunch blog if you’ve got time…

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