Yesterday was a decent day of football – I say that in comparison to a day without football – albeit not the results we wanted…
We saw Arsenal Reserves take on Wigan Reserves in a game which saw Jens Lehmann start and saw an outing for ex Arsenal player Jérémie Aliadière… who is back at the club training with us whilst he tries to find a new club. Don’t worry, I’ve been assured that he hasn’t or won’t sign for us! It was also an outing for Miquel, who has recently been in the first team, as well as the rising stock of Conor Henderson – a player we all saw recently at the Emirates.
That game didn’t go too well, with Miquel being sent off after 20 minutes and Lehmann making a few misjudgements – the German stopper did make a few very good saves and showed that he is still at the right level. Having seen and heard a few bits and bobs about the game, I am beginning to feel a little bit more confident that if called upon, he could do a job… I did wonder why Arsene didn’t put Miquel into the mix along with Koscielny after his initial debut but on this performance, you could start to see why – as a defender, mistakes need to get out of your system and perhaps Miquel needs a bit more time in the reserves…
In the Internationals, England took on Ghana in a decent friendly – the result was 1-1, with Andy Carroll scoring for England… Jack Wilshere played about 70 minutes and was quite influential. He did look a tad tired and had a few bad tackles both for and against – I hope he recovers in time for the weekend – but I have to say, an all round pleasing performance. Holland vs Hungary was the stand out game of the night, with the scoreline 5-3 in favour of the Dutch – a game which saw Robin Van Persie start for Holland, score a goal and then was substituted at half time with an injury – let’s hope it’s nothing serious.
* gulp *
I’ve just saw a report saying that it is a serious knee injury….
* gulp *
Trying not to panic…
* phew *
Just read this from the Dutch coach:
“He got kneed in his thigh. But he can play with Arsenal again this weekend.”
Okay, let’s hope that’s that – I’d hate to have him out again this season – when we have Robin in the team with Cesc, we know we can score at any time…
In other internationals, I did manage to catch some of the France vs Croatia game – which was a decent game – Nasri was being industrious as usual… but I have to make two points – first, Gael Clichy looked terrible – caught out of position, caught with the ball in dangerous positions – and secondly, Alou Diarra is actually worse than Diaby!
Tomorrow is Thursday, which means we’ll be able to start focusing on the Blackburn game – until then, party on!
