Indeed, the gaffer has learnt a thing or two very recently – the withdrawals of Van Persie and Cesc from their meaningless International friendlies is a text book Ferguson move, and finally Arsene has done it! Van Persie is suffering an upset stomach and Cesc has a bout of the flu… so both need to rest it out! However, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were both fit at the end of the week and take their place in the starting line-up against Wolves…
In fact, Ramsey, Djorou and Gibbs have all withdrawn too, in what is finally some consideration from the players for the club – we need them all to be fit and these International friendlies are not very friendly at all…!
It is even more important as we have Wolves on Saturday and then Barcelona next Wednesday – can you believe it’s come around so quick. Having a game at home against the bottom placed team is something you kind of want before Barcelona come to town – but Saturday’s game will be no walk over, look at what Wolves did on the weekend, ending United’s unbeaten run!
The key thing on our mind and Arsene’s mind is to recover from the weekend’s result and focus on this weekend and then Barcelona.
The gaffer saying:
“[We will repair the damage] by focusing on the game, it’s part of our job. We want to do well in the next game. Time helps, focusing on the next game helps and that’s all we can do. We can take a lot of encouragement from Saturday’s game as well. We have played 12 games since January 1 and we have played outstandingly well but to go down to ten men had a psychological impact and certainly a physical one as well. I don’t remember that [losing a four-goal lead before]. But in the second half, you must say that we were really unlucky with some decisions.”
I think we need to really focus on Saturday – if we turn up with a good performance and a good win, we will be raring to go against Barcelona in the week. The news regarding injuries to Vermaelen and Djourou aren’t great – Vermaelen is out for a further 3-4 weeks but an interesting tweet from John Djourou today…
Hello. Thanks for the support. I was hit on my knee on saturday as you saw it. I’m feeling better.
He is feeling better? That means it may not be serious? If he can be ready for Barcelona, then we will have a huge chance of getting a result!
A very quick one today as I’ve got to head down to the Arsenal Supporters Trust meeting later – I’ll give you as much info as I can in tomorrow’s blog – if you want me to ask any questions, give me a shout in the comments and if you want to follow me live during the meeting, follow me on @worldofarsenal or JAT on @j1mm7t…
Til tomorrow my friends…
