You’ve got to love Thomas Vermaelen, he’s a rock solid centre back who plays with the team in his heart and his heart on his sleeve. His displays for us this season have been awesome, and he’s scored a fair few too. More recently (i.e. today), the Belgian has been in the news talking about Cesc and how he really is the bees knees.
“He is the best midfielder I have played alongside. He’s really smart in his game and in training if you play against him he’s really difficult to defend against because I think he has eyes in the back of his head. He sees everything. He is a good captain too. He has a lot of qualities in football and I think that’s important for a captain. He talks in the dressing room, not too much but just enough. For us he was very important on Sunday. He scored twice in 20 minutes so he was very important. I think before he came on we were the better team but we didn’t create too many chances, and when he came on we controlled the game more and we created some more chances. He played some good passes behind the defence, they were really dangerous. He has a great vision in the game.”
So, we take on Portsmouth tomorrow and we will be without key man Cesc Fabregas. To be honest, I felt like we were very much on top at the start of the second half and that we were on the verge of going ahead – but take nothing away from Mr Cesctastic himself – that was some cameo. It does look like Cesc will be out for tomorrow’s game and I’d also expect him to be out of the game against West Ham, being an FA cup game, we may see a little rotation. But with Denilson out too and Song off to the African Nations Cup, we’re suddenly very short of central midfielders.
News is that Song won’t be off until the 4th January, so he will be available to play both tomorrow and on Sunday, but from Monday onwards, it will be interesting. Tomorrow, I’d expect to see Ramsey, Song and Diaby fill in the middle three roles, but from next week, if Cesc and Denilson are out, we may see Eastmond have a run of games in the team. More on that when he hear the injury news surrounding Denilson and Fabregas.
Of course, the quicker Cameroon are out of the competition, the better, they’re in a group with Zambia, Gabon and Tunisia… all three underdogs, so it’s all about keeping all the fingers crossed – Song has been our best player this season (disagree?) and he’s a player I want back as soon as possible.
As we’re only days away from the transfer window opening, I would have expected a host of rumours by now, but instead we’ve not really heard any – and the only target that we may have thought was on the cards insists he’s not moving this January… Maroune Chamakh…
“I’m going to finish my season at Bordeaux. Honestly, in my head I don’t want to relive what I lived through last summer. I don’t want to see my name circulating during the transfer window. I’ve had enough of reading or hearing rumours that they are lacking a centre-forward somewhere.”
And finally, I thought I’d share this hilarious clip from the now famous impressionist we featured last month – check out this exclusive interview with none other than Thierry himself…
Funny, hey? Tomorrow sees us take on Portsmouth, so I’ll be back with a preview of the game in the morning… in the meantime, let’s hope for a fiery encounter at Villa Park tonight resulting in a 0-0 of some sorts…
Adios.
