Archive for the ‘Team News’ Category

On Saturday we face newly promoted Swansea and it’s our first competitive game since the 8-2 defeat to Man United – hopefully that’s the last time I’m going to have to mention that this season, well, until we play them again – and the team need to bounce back. We’ve got 1 point from our first 9 available this season, we sit in 17th position, have seen a lot of players go out the door… BUT… have seen quite a few come through too…

Our five new recruits, Mertersacker, Santos, Arteta, Benayoun and Park may all be included in the squad for Saturday’s game – with suspensions to Gervinho and Song and injuries to Wilshere & Vermaelen. So without further ado, here’s my predicted line up for the weekend’s game:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Mertersacker – Koscielny – Gibbs

Frimpong – Arteta

Walcott – Ramsey – Arshavin

Van Persie

With a bench of Fabianski, Jenkinson, Coquelin, Djourou, Benayoun, Oxlade, Park, Chamakh

In yesterday’s blog, we took a look at where Arteta would play and based on his role at Everton and the players available, I think he will be deployed in the Jack Wilshere role – a role which is a little deeper than many think he will play in – as it’s his first game, he may rotate a little with Ramsey, who can play a little deeper too. Gervinho looks like he will be our first choice for the left of midfield and perhaps even the likes of Park and Benayoun will provide more adequate cover than Arshavin, but for the  moment, I think he’ll get the nod. Walcott was rested for England’s second game mid-week, but rumours are that he is fine to play on Saturday.

At the back, we’ve got another two newbies in Mertersacker and Santos – although Santos could be a very good signing – most of our attention is falling on our new centre back. International centre back. With 76 caps. We all thought he’d feature alongside Vermaelen for an ideal back two – but for the moment, whilst our vice-captain is out of action – he will surely be deployed next to Koscielny. Mertersacker has been saying all the right things and more recently, gave his account about Tony Adams…

“We didn’t get many pictures of him on the television but Adams was a legend here. He is a special one for me. 
 When I was looking at English football I always looked to Arsenal and he was one of the great defenders when I was ten or 12 years old. I knew he was the centre-half for Arsenal.
 I like the players [like Adams] very much – I have enjoyed seeing them over the years. I hope I can improve my performances here and get better and better – I want to be useful for the team.”

Sounds like our new centre back is a bit of a footballer – and I mean that in the sense as a real footballer, someone who loves the game, someone who prefers to read, watch and play than club, drink or party…

Our number one goalkeeper was in scintillating form for Poland when they played and beat Germany mid-week, I know quite a few people who were simply amazed at his performance, a performance which won him man of the match. If you’ve not seen it yet, take a look at these highlights:

The key thing for the weekend is to break down the Swansea defence – their 5-1 defeat by Man City means that they’ll be looking to shut up shop and play us on the counter attack. We have Arteta joining the ranks and the very attacking left side of our team with Santos & Arshavin, so let’s hope we have enough to break down their defence….

Come on you reds!!!

[Update]

Arsene has given us some further team info this morning, this is what he said:

We have Diaby and Wilshere (both ankle) out. Vermaelen has had his surgery, which went well. So there are three players out there. The other one who may not be available is Rosicky, who came back with a kick on his knee. We’ll see how he is tomorrow morning. Kieran is back. Theo has been working hard and is fit. All the others players came back from international duty in good shape. Everyone else is available. Emmanuel Frimpong is back too. Santos is a bit short because he has not had competition since the Copa America. He is practicing well though. We also have Gervinho and Song suspended but it is their last game out from the Newcastle match. Jenkinson is suspended as well after two yellow cards at Manchester United. Squillaci (calf) is not back yet.

And that should clarify everything… (I’ve updated the team news above too!)

It’s been a long summer. We’ve seen some players leave whom we didn’t want to see go, and we’ve seen some players leave that we did want to leave. We’ve seen a handful of players come in through the last couple of weeks, but in the last 2 days, we’ve signed 5 big players, 3 first teamers and have finally added a little depth to our squad too.

After the huge defeat against United, with missing players and injuries galore, it showed quite obviously how thread bare our squad was – the back four against United, Jenkinson, Djourou, Koscielny and Traore will be replaced with Sagna, Mertersacker, Vermaelen, Santos… In fact our new first XI and bench could well be:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Mertersacker – Vermaelen – Santos

Song – Wilshere

Walcott – Arteta – Gervinho

Van Persie

With a bench of 7 from the following Fabianski, Jenkinson, Djourou, Koscielny, Gibbs, Coquelin, Frimpong, Diaby, Ramsey, Benayoun, Oxlade, Ryo Miyachi, Chamakh, Park, Rosicky, Arshavin

Suddenly from going from a very weak squad, the signing of 5 players has completely changed our squad.

Most Arsenal fans have a sense of relief and a renewed sense of faith in the squad. Arteta, although not a Cesc, is the closest thing in the Premiership to him and a proven quality player. The fee is believed to be in the region of about £8m – £10m, and considering the impact of the player and need for such a player in our squad, it’s a very good signing and something I am very pleased about. Arsene has had to act after the sales of Cesc & Nasri and also after the mega-rich clubs have bought their players and the deal for Arteta is very good in the circumstances.

If you look at the eleven above, that’s competitive and if you look at the players outside of it, there is some strength in depth… for each position, we have two players…

In fact, let’s take a look at our second XI / options for each position:

Fabianski

Jenkinson – Djourou / Miquel – Koscielny – Gibbs

Rosicky / Ramsey – Frimpong / Coquelin

Oxlade/Arshavin – Diaby – Benayoun/Ryo

Chamakh / Park

Not a bad bunch, hey? What are your thoughts on the transfers? Are we good enough to compete? Are we good enough for a title tilt? Has Arsene done the right thing? The right players? Are you excited?

Over to the comments, but I am definitely very excited now!

It’s time for the second round of Premiership games this weekend, and the mighty Arsenal take on the mighty Liverpool… in what is a key game for supremacy and a real test for both teams to see how far they have both come…

In summer and January, Liverpool have spent over £100m bringing in players like Suarez, Carroll, Henderson, Downing and Adam, whereas Arsenal have done the opposite and sold Cesc, Eboue, Clichy and most likely Bendtner & Nasri, whilst loaning out a few players too…

Down at the Emirates, we have some serious injury concerns and some serious suspensions too, meaning the following players will miss the game:

• Djourou (injury)
• Gibbs (injury)
• Traore (injury)
• Song (suspension)
• Rosicky (injury)
• Wilshere (injury)
• Gervinho (suspension)

If I said to Kenny Daglish at Liverpool that he’d face Arsenal on the 2nd day of the Premiership and they wouldn’t be able to field Song, Cesc, Nasri, Denilson, Diaby, Rosicky or Wilshere – I’m sure he would have bitten my hand off…

And coupled with the Arsenal exodus this season, a likely line up could well be:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Jenkinson

Frimpong – Ramsey

Walcott – Miyachi – Arshavin

Van Persie

With a bench of Fabianski, Squillaci, Lansbury, Nasri, Chamakh, Oxlade, Bendtner

Although, Nasri & Bendtner won’t play – that’s for sure, and I doubt Oxlade will get any game time either…

Arsene spoke about the team news:

We have Song and Gervinho suspended. Diaby and Wilshere are injured. Djourou and Traore will not be available and Gibbs will not be available. Apart from that, the moral is strong and the belief is strong. I believe we have had a decent start. We will give Rosicky  a rest tomorrow. It is not a bad injury and he should be back with us on Monday but he is rested tomorrow. Miyachi came back from Japan yesterday and is in the squad. And Nasri - He is in the squad tomorrow and available to be picked to play.

The Nasri inclusion is a strange one, as we all thought he was close to being sold and perhaps, by now, we thought he would be sold – questions are raised – is there a possibility that he will not be sold? Is Arsene playing hard ball? Will he will sold before the game… will he play?

In my first eleven, I’ve tipped Miyachi to start – he was quite good in pre-season – although I don’t know whether he will start in the middle or the left – Arshavin can come inside and play in the middle but Miyachi’s energy may make for better tracking back…

It’s a tough one for Arsene, with key players out and sales to key parts of the squad… The Liverpool game will be a big big test, and I really do hope we come away with the three points…

Another summer goes by, another season starts and it’s our very first game of the season tomorrow – Newcastle away. A ground and a game which haunted us last season after a very strange game up there saw us go 4-0 up only to draw the game 4-4. But it’s a brand new season and for the first time in a long time, a brand new squad, with old players departing and new players arriving.

The manager announced that Cesc & Nasri wouldn’t be involved tomorrow – by the time the game actually starts, they may not be at the club. The manager rightly focused on the game and commented:

“I believe the best thing for us, one day before the season starts, is not to focus on the possible transfers. What we want today is to focus on the players who play tomorrow and not the players who do not play.”

I’ll jump straight to the chase and look at who’s in and who’s out – we know Cesc & Nasri will miss tomorrow’s game, but we have a lot of good news on the injuries front – Van Persie is back and will captain the side tomorrow – Vermaelen and Gibbs are also back in contention and they are all joined by the trio of Walcott,  Arshavin and Ramsey who have all passed fitness tests. Abou Diaby is a long term absentee (how many times have I heard that?) and Jack Wilshere won’t be ready in time for tomorrow…

So, this is the predicted line-up:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Djourou – Vermaelen – Gibbs

Song – Ramsey

Walcott – Rosicky – Arshavin

Van Persie (c)

With a bench of Fabianski, Traore, Koscielny, Lansbury, Jenkinson, Oxlade , Gervinho & Chamakh

I’ve would have chosen Koscielny ahead of Djourou to partner Vermaelen as out of the two, as I think they’d work well together, but if I am correct, Koscielny didn’t feature against Benifica, so I’m not 100% sure about his fitness levels… I would definitely like to see Gervinho in the starting line up ahead of Rosicky, with Arshavin slotting in centrally, but I doubt Arsene will make such a move, he doesn’t normally introduce new players straight away…

[Update: Cesc completes transfer to Barcelona for £31m]

The saga is now complete, Cesc has moved – £31m in cash now, and then another £5m over the next 2 years based on appearances and trophies and Cesc is giving us £5m back as he’s broken his loyalty bonus, so overall transfer valued at £41m. Potential replacements are Mata, Ribery and Jadson, only time will tell.

[Update: Let's focus on tomorrow's game, not the departure of Cesc]

So Newcastle today confirmed the departure of their left back, Jose Enrique to Liverpool – that’s another high profile departure following Carroll and Nolan… so it’s actually going to be interesting to see who is going to start for Newcastle tomorrow…

The Newcastle line up could be:

Harper

Simpson –  S. Taylor – Coloccini – R. Taylor

Barton – Tiote – Cabaye – Gutierrez

Ba – Ameobi

It’s still a decent team but one we can beat with the team above!

Ramsey’s excited:

Looking forward to the first game of the season tomorrow. On way up to newcastle now! time for a bit of luther.

And so should we… time to start daydreaming – Newcastle not Cesc leaving…

Newcastle, I said, focus guys!!!

Today see Arsenal take on Benifica at their ground, a tough away game against decent opposition, and I think today we will be a good game to see how prepared we are – how are fitness levels are and to understand the shape that the squad is in. The squad for today’s game was announced yesterday and the 19 players who travelled are:

• Szczesny, Fabianski
• Djourou, Squillaci, Vermaelen, Traore, Miquel, Jenkinson, Sagna
• Frimpong, Ramsey, Rosicky, Song, Lansbury
• Miyachi, Van Persie, Gervinho, Arshavin, Chamakh

As normal with pre-season friendlies, we will probably see a lot of changes at half time, but for the first half, I think Arsene will experiment with the following line-up:

Szcznesy

Jenkinson, Djourou, Vermaelen, Traore

Frimpong, Lansbury, Ramsey

Gervinho, Chamakh, Miyachi

There were several players who didn’t travel for various reasons, the likes of Cesc, Nasri, Eboue & Bendtner have not travelled and there is a lot of speculation regarding all four of them leaving the club. The manager was in the news today and had this to say:

“Walcott is back in training but he is not ready just yet. Wilshere is injured on his ankle and it is very difficult to set a concrete deadline on his comeback. Nasri has a muscular problem. Cesc is just coming back from injury and he is not ready to play in the game. Diaby is out and Koscielny has a small muscular problem. Bendtner and Eboue are not in the squad because they might be going out of the Club. Koscielny and Nasri might be back for the start of the season. I don’t think Fabregas will be ready to start the season because he has been out for a long time and has had no games. Walcott might be back and, as for Wilshere, it is very difficult to say.”

There has been a lot of speculation on Bendtner & Eboue and proposed moves – at the same time, we’ve heard that a lot of clubs can’t afford them – the clubs that come in for them are the 2nd tier clubs, and with Bendtner on £60,000 / week and Eboue on £50,000 / week, it’s proving difficult for them to find new clubs. Galatasary and Athletico are favourites for Eboue, whilst Sporting have just signed a striker, so Stoke look favourites to land our promising and cocky Danish striker!

Looking at the news from Arsene above, I think the Fabregas saga is starting to unfold itself – it’s clear that Arsene is preparing himself for life without Cesc – there is no reason why Cesc shouldn’t be fit by the start of the season compared to the likes of Van Persie etc – but it’s clear that if Arsenal do sell Cesc for the £40m odd which is being demanded, an injury leading to a failed medical or a cup-tied Champions League player would lower the price or scupper the deal. Arsene most likely understands that he will not be able to prevent Cesc leaving so has to do the right thing by the club and play without him.

Interesting news on Jack Wilshere and it looks like he has suffered a bad injury which will keep him sidelined for a while – when Arsene says stuff like “it’s difficult to say”, that normally means, “it’s serious, but I can’t tell you otherwise I will shock you”… we need to keep our eyes peeled out for news on Jack. Lansbury was potentially leaving the club a few weeks ago and now we’re hearing that he may stay – perhaps related to the Wilshere injury – personally, I think Lansbury has done fantastically well on loan – and he’s a gooner, I hate see the passionate players leave!

On incoming transfers, we’re still linked with the usual crop of defenders, and a lot of our supposed targets are disappering before our eyes, but Arsene has reassured us that he is working hard:

“Ideally I would have finished all [our business] but it doesn’t work like that. We work very hard, we are non-stop working throughout the summer. I am positive because we have good quality and a style of play that is known by the players. So we want to add not quality but super quality.”

And the boss did offer a timeframe when he said:

“We hope to give you some good news soon. Next week, something might happen.”

Let’s see what happens…

Welcome back to the Football season, Benifica tonight, the charity shield tomorrow and then a the real stuff starts… Exciting times…

I often wondered why news headlines and blogs sometimes had just the name of a player in their headline, but today I understand… the headline of today’s blog is really: “A preview of the Malaysia XI vs Arsenal game, a listen to what Robin has been saying in the press, a review of comments from Nasri’s agent and a discussion around Theo’s desire for new faces in the squad…”, but that would have been a seriously long title.

Malaysia XI vs Arsenal

So let’s kick off with the game which is going to kick off at 13:45 UK time; it’s our first pre-season friendly and will give us a few insights…

• Who will Vermaelen be paired with?
• How will Gibbs fair at left back?
• Who will play on the left wing?
• Who will play in the Cesc position?

I for one, think we’ll play the following team:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Gibbs

Wilshere – Song

Walcott  - Ramsey - Nasri

Van Persie

I think the formation will continue as 4-2-3-1, despite it’s failings last year and I think Ramsey will be given a chance to shine in midfield. Carlos Vela has returned to join pre-season, we have Miyachi, Chamakh and new boy Gervinho (eventually) replacing Bendtner – so the question is – how do you accommodate all 4 strikers when you only play one? Last season, we saw Bendtner play left and right wing, and I suppose Vela can play left wing – but I secretly hope we’ll be more adventurous with our formations this year… I would mind season a bit of this in pre-season:

Walcott – Wilshere – Ramsey – Miyachi

Van Persie – Chamakh

or even this:

Miyachi – Wilshere - Ramsey – Nasri

Van Persie – Walcott

Would love to see what we can do with the Wilshere – Ramsey combination – as we all know what Alex Song offers us. I think for 2011/2012, we need to be able to play 4-4-2 at home and 4-5-1 away and / or mix both formations up as much as possible. Last season, we were simply too predictable.

Theo: We need new players!

It was very interesting to see what Theo Walcott had to say on Sky Sports News when interviewed on tour with the team. He was quite honest:

“It’s important to keep all of our best players and it’s important for players to come in as well. Knowing that we were nearly there (last season), the last couple of months it went away from us, we need to know what we did wrong there. The boss will see what the players have got in pre-season matches and see what they have got to offer this season. The boss knows what he’s doing, he’s done it year after year. Us players need to go on and win something, because it’s been a long time. I don’t like to get into talks about other players, they make decisions by themselves. You just want to keep your best players and attract players as well. Only time will tell what’s going to happen. We are just looking forward to the pre-season matches and getting the season up and running. If players come or go, we just have to go on and try and win something.”

There was an element of understanding that the players need to win something soon – they need to perform better. There was also an honesty about where we were last season and a realisation of the hard work going required – listening to him further on Sky Sports News – it was clear that the players feel they’ve underperformed – he talked of the guaranteed third ending up in fourth and the disappointments around that.

It will interesting to see Theo in action in pre-season – where will he play and how will he play – as he will be the first to admit, that his second half to the season was pretty poor!

Nasri: Should we sell?

So, now let’s discuss the Nasri situation… we all know that the player hasn’t signed a contract. We all know that he has one year left on his contract. The big question… do we sell or do we keep him for another year… or will he sign? Most people seem to think we should sell – as if he doesn’t sign, we’ll lose a very good player for free next summer.

“Samir’s situation is clear for me – he stays. I’ve told you that we are in a position where we can say ‘No.’ And we will [in the case of Nasri]. It was put to Wenger that keeping Nasri with no guarantee that he will sign a new contract represents a £20million gamble – the fee his suitors are reportedly prepared to pay. You are the same people who reproach me for not spending money and now you reproach me for wanting to spend it! It is in the interests of the Club. Imagine the worst situation – we lose Fabregas and Nasri – you cannot convince people you are ambitious after that.”

I think there is a hidden message in that statement – and that is that we are going to lose Fabregas if the price is right. If he was really confident that we were going to keep Cesc, then surely he’d sell Nasri and then use the money to replace him with a similar player? How on earth Nasri was allowed to enter the last year of his contract, I don’t know… and in addition, Arsene doesn’t need to be stupid to prove that he spends money – if we sell now, we can get a replacement, if we don’t sell, we won’t get any money to replace him.

Of course, perhaps there is a slim possibility of him signing a new contract – but surely he would have already done so if he was going to. I hope Arsene isn’t being stubborn for the sake of it. Nasri’s agent has confirmed that United enquired and City have made a serious offer – Alex Ferguson seems to think Nasri is off to City too. We’ll have to keep our fingers crossed and see what happens in the next couple of days…

Van Persie: Invest!

Van Persie has called out to Arsene Wenger to invest (just like Theo and Sagna have done)…

“These days, proper players cost money. Sometimes you see players go for loads of money and you think, ‘Is he that good?’ It needs to be seen. Most of the time, they are. You need investment to keep up because, when you look around, Man City is buying loads of good players, Liverpool are doing it now, Man United have been doing it for years.”

When all the players start calling for investment and the manager isn’t investing and the players are being sold every summer, then eventually, we will drop down the league… and players will lose heart… and we will stop being able to attract players.

No matter what people are saying – Arsenal are more in need for a marquee signing – a big name – than ever before – for the players sanity more than anyone else!

Afternoon folks…

Today is the last day of the season, and we have just the one game left today – against Fulham away. There is a still a possibility of finishing 3rd in the Premiership – if Bolton beat or draw against Man City and we beat Fulham… although the possibility of us beating Fulham in our current form is quite slim!

Straight to team news today and there are quite a few “injuries” to certain players. I put “injuries” in inverted commas because both Nasri and Clichy are in the middle of contract disputes and Cesc is potentially leaving us and all three are absent today! Through in the out of form Abou Diaby and mistake prone Johan Djourou (although I do love the boy), the team could well be:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Gibbs

Song – Wilshere

Walcott – Ramsey – Arshavin

Van Persie

With a bench of Lehmann, Eboue, Rosicky, Henderson, Squillaci, Bendtner and Chamakh

Arsene was keen to stress the importance of today’s game and of course, the Bolton vs Man City could go our way – and I have a feeling it may – but do we have enough in our locker to win the game?

“We will try to win the game, it’s as simple as that. A draw could be good enough if Man City lose at Bolton. I do not want to have any regrets now and so I just want to win the game.”

It was interesting to hear Arsene talk about the challenge for next season and he was also keen to stress that we will challenge – he did have a dig at Birmingham on his way – I think he has to realise that other teams have different goals, but this is what the manager said:

“I promise Arsenal fans that we will give our best to win trophies. Who can guarantee that they will deliver trophies? We will give our best to do it and that is our main target.  And what is a trophy? Is to finish tenth and win the Carling Cup a trophy? No.  What I want to achieve is to keep the consistency in our quality, in our table position and deliver what I call trophies – the Premier League and the Champions League. You can say you will give the maximum to do it but you cannot guarantee that. You can only do that if you are crazy.”

But, why is finishing fourth a trophy for us – and yes, it’s hard to win, but Man United seem to win it, Chelsea seem to win it – they don’t bottle it. Fourth for me, in the manner of which we could finish fourth this season shows a massive lack of mental strength.

Arsene’s job is to challenge for the title, simple as that – and I really want to see him give it a proper go next season – play our strongest team and make it happen…

For those of you who think we’ll still have Cesc Fabregas at the club next season, as captain of our club, shouldn’t he be at Craven Cottage today? No, sorry, he should be at the Spanish Grand Prix with a whole load of Barcelona players.

Nice.

Big game today. Let’s finish the season on a positive note!

Afternoon Guys,

It’s Friday and it’s a scary, scary Friday… it’s Friday the thirteenth… Wo ha ha [scary ghost noise] ha ha…. Okay so, it’s just like any normal day… but a day where Arsene announced that Vermaelen is back and will most likely start against Villa this weekend!

Here’s a snippet from Arsene Wenger’s press conference today:

“We have lost Laurent Koscielny with a thigh strain from Sunday against Stoke. It opens the door for Vermaelen. I have not completely decided yet but there is a probability he will start. We have question marks against Fabregas and Nasri. They will be late decisions. During the week we lost Tomas Rosicky with a thigh strain. Diaby will be out but I believe that Clichy will be back.”

Exciting times… as Arsene likes to say, the return of Nasri, Cesc and Vermaelen will be like three new signings… Personally, I think both Nasri and Cesc will return to first team action. Ramsey will drop to the bench and Vermaelen will start… this is my line-up for Sunday:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Djourou – Vermaelen – Clichy

Song – Wilshere

Walcott – Cesc – Nasri

Van Persie

With a bench of Lehmann, Squillaci, Eboue, Ramsey, Arshavin, Bendtner and Chamakh

It’s the final home game of the season and with Man City only two points behind us, it’s essential that we win this and the next game. It’s been such a dire end to our season that we need to win our last two games to avoid finishing fourth – something we simply couldn’t conceive a possibility 2 months ago. With Vermaelen and the rest of the team back, we’re actually fielding our best team. No one who would make it in is injured or suspended, it’s a real test of this squad.

The eleven I’ve mentioned are the best we’ve got – and we’re at home, playing against a Villa team managed by Houillier… surely we must win!?! I won’t go into detail on who I think we should replace on the bench or replace in the first XI, we’ll have plenty of time for that in the summer! Chamakh has been linked with a move to Lazio, but I think there is more to come from the Moroccan – I don’t think he’ll ever be a top class centre forward. He’s a cheap man’s Adebayor, who in himself is a cheap man’s Drogba! But he has said there is a lot more to come from him too…

“It’s huge here. In the way you make a run, the way you position yourself and your defending. I’ve always been good in the air, but I can still do better. As for the physical impact of the Premier League, I was expecting it and I had prepared for it. I worked very hard in pre-season and with all the French players it was very easy to settle in. I have naturally more affinity with the French and with the Francophones in the squad, like Song or Eboue. It’s my first transfer and I was a bit worried. When I was with Bordeaux, I used to do everything I could to put the new players at ease. This time it’s they who helped me a lot. But you can’t hide from it, with the injuries to Van Persie and Bendtner, I found myself at the forefront of things from the outset. When they came back, people said I had lost my place. Well, actually it’s more that Van Persie logically got his place back! He’s an excellent player, a phenomenon. I still have a way to go yet and I’m here to learn. That said, if I can bring that little bit extra to the team, all the better!”

You’ve got to feel a little bit for Chamakh, as he did well earlier in the season when he was getting games and consistently the first choice. It’s been unfortunate for him that he’s not played much at all and of course, without games, it will make you a little unfit. If we do look at changing things around this summer, I’m pretty sure Chamakh will not leave – I’d expect more from him next season. Personally, I don’t think he is actually the perfect fit for us – I think our game is built more on pace than anything else, but he does give us an option. Our formation only allows us to play 1 striker, and for that reason, it’s not an ideal solution for him.

On the transfer mill, Scott Parker has been heavily linked with a move to us this summer. He looks very tired and quite shattered, will he be able to give as much as he gave to West Ham this season to us next season? And he’ll be a year older. Apparently, we had a table at the awards dinner – specifically for Scott Parker… yes, I know, it’s all rumours and I know it probably won’t happen – but Parker has proved that he is a leader and a work horse. No-one can deny he wouldn’t be a good player to have!

It’s a big day at the Emirates, and there is a march pre-game – many say it’s a protest, but I say it’s a march! The focus is for change at the top – for fans to be taken more seriously, appreciated more and for certain things to change! I think it’s a good idea… The “She Wore” site explains more on the march:

It is a peaceful walk, not a protest,not a demonstration. Scaremongering by certain newspapers and blogs saying the club and/or police worried about it getting heated is at best a misquote at worst its a lame attempt at undermining all the BSM’s good work over the last year, it will be peaceful. This is not Anti-Wenger or Wenger out and on the day of the march no chants of that nature will be allowed. This in not even an Anti-board march, they just need to change and not lose touch with the support.

Let’s see what comes of it…

Until tomorrow Gooners, until tomorrow…

It’s a big day today, a big game, and a short preview.

I literally want to say good luck to the team, and especially good luck to Aaron Ramsey – today is a big day for him and it’s an essential part of his recovery mentally. The gaffer took time out to talk about today’s game and the effect it will have on Ramsey and I want to just touch on that today.

“Yes [it is good for him to go back and] the earlier the better because there will always be a question mark about that At the end of the day you focus on football and you play. It is like if you have a car accident – you do you never drive again? Of course you drive again and the earlier the better.”

The comparison to a car accident is a very accurate one – mental and physical trauma.

“What I found when I was injured is you come back and for a long time you play in one gear. It takes you a bit of time to find that fraction of second extra pace which allows you to get away from people. And for a while you wonder if you have lost it and whether it will ever come back. And that takes quite a while. Today the players are better prepared in their rehab than we were and they find that back much quicker. Aaron is a quiet but strong character and I think there is no better maturing system than what happened to him – blocked at 18 suddenly when you are just flying. Being knocked down and having to wait for a year, not knowing what really will happen. He is certainly mentally stronger now. After what happened to him you have to be strong.”

His performance against United was testimony to his recovery so far – a testimony to his dedication to get back to the level that he left us at – Arsene couldn’t have put it better in his overview – to be halted in his career at such a young age is a massive blow and for him to recover and get back into the team and perform like he did last week is simply amazing.

Many people, having seen his performance – along side Jack Wilshere last week have been commenting that if Cesc left us in summer, then we would have a natural replacement to his throne – but I’d love to see Ramsey and Cesc in the same team. Just imagine if we had Ramsey fit this season – he would have given us another option, allowing others to rest and adding quality to the squad.

“Aaron is a great runner and has great timing to get into the box,” said the manager. “He is an efficient player and I think they are a good combination together – Cesc and him.”

Today, of course, he will not be joined by Cesc and it looks like we’ll see him paired with Jack Wilshere with Alex Song just behind them…

News coming in this morning is that Thomas Vermaelen may start today ahead of Koscielny – Robin Van Persie tweeted yesterday that “TV is back and razor sharp”…

That picture was from Robin Van Persie on the train to Stoke yesterday!!

Arsenal took time out to talk about Vermaelen and revealed that if he knew he would be out for the whole season, then he would have looked to buy another centre back.

“I would have tried [to buy cover for Vermaelen]. He had a setback at the end of January but we hoped he would play the second part of the season. [But] football is not a supermarket where you go and say ‘I want a good player, give me one please’. You must find them and in the middle of the season to find a player who strengthens Arsenal is not easy. We did not have Vermaelen for the whole season but, if you look at the numbers, we conceded less goals from open play than any other team in the league. So it is not all negative, even defensively.”

Interesting contradiction to the recent quotes from Arsenal saying how our defensive performances let us down! But let’s not focus on that today…

We have a big game today – it’s still mathematically possible for us to win the title – we need to start with a 5-0 win today! Yes, I know I just said that!!

Speak later Amigos…

For team news and predicted line up, see this post.

Afternoon All…

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather at the moment, it looks like it could be an awesome day of football this weekend, with a lot going on at the top and bottom of the table. The big two clashes of the day are Man United vs Chelsea and Stoke vs Arsenal of course. The question is, who do you want to win the title decider on Sunday? The optimists would say, if Chelsea win, then we’ll be three points behind the top two with two games to go and have a shout for the title (if we beat Stoke of course)… the pessimists among us would probably say a United win could help us finish 2nd.

Personally, I want both teams to lose and be docked 6 points each and for us to beat Stoke 5-0. Let’s see what the weekend brings us.

Team News

Team news ahead of the game was revealed earlier today by Arsene Wenger and he had this to say:

“Diaby, Nasri and Fabregas will be out. Nasri and Fabregas have a little chance for Aston Villa but not for Stoke. Johan Djourou had a test yesterday that looked quite positive. We have a doubt about Clichy’s hamstring. He had a test that was not completely satisfactory; both have a chance to be fit. Thomas Vermaelen is available and could be in the squad. Aaron Ramsey is likely to get another chance; I can even say that he will play.”

With Diaby, Cesc and Nasri out, the midfield can all but pick itself. The injury to Clichy and the inclusion of Vermaelen is very interesting, if Djourou doesn’t make it, the Belgian defender may get the nod. My predicted line up for the game is:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Djourou – Koscielny – Gibbs

Wilshere – Song

Walcott – Ramsey – Arshavin

Van Persie

With a bench of Lehmann, Eboue, Vermaelen, Denilson, Rosicky, Bendtner, Chamakh

Despite the injuries to four key personnel, the line up is quite decent. It looks like Ramsey will be given the nod again to face the team that broke his leg at the ground that broke his leg and face the player that broke his leg – a big big mental test for the young Welsh gunner. I hope he comes through it.

Stoke assistant manager Kemp spoke on Sunday’s meeting:

‘Ryan will play, and I’m sure they will pick Aaron Ramsey. But after that I wouldn’t really want to comment. We have enough on our plate just playing Arsenal. ’There’s a bit of history between the two clubs, so it’s going to be a big game in its own right anyway.’

I have to admit, I am a bit worried for Aaron – I really hope he can handle the game and that he doesn’t get targeted by Stoke players. Something I wouldn’t put past them!

Formal Offer Document Released

And earlier today, the formal offer document for KSE’s takeover of Arsenal was released. 64 pages long, quite detailed and discussing a lot of the points. The offer is for £11,750 and if you want to download and read it, you can do so here. Interestingly, in the accompanying letter from Peter Hill Wood, the chairman urges all of to sell our shares.

Accordingly, the Arsenal Independent Directors unanimously recommend that Arsenal Shareholders acceptthe Offer, as the Arsenal Independent Directors have irrevocably undertaken to do in respect of their own shareholdings amounting, in aggregate, to 555 Arsenal Shares (representing 0.89 per cent. of Arsenal’s existing issued share capital).

I am in the opposing camp – let’s keep our shares so we have a say in the club. I’m sure all the independent Arsenal trusts agree…

A positive statement in formal offer document was:

KSE nor anyone associated with KSE has borrowed or lent any relevent securities for this offer.

Which is obviously a massive relief. Unlike the likes of the Glazers and Hicks & Gillett, our offer seems to have a different overall angle to it.

It will take a while to digest the huge document, so we’ll discuss at a later stage…

That’s it from me today, more tomorrow…

As I write this, it’s the early hours of Wednesday morning… I’ve just got in to hear the great news that United drew at Newcastle to give us yet another chance to make it a fight rather than a wimper. The points dropped by United mean that we’re 7 points off the top, but with a game in hand. A win would see us close the gap to 4 points, with both teams having 5 games to go – not impossible, but not easy. The game in hand, of course, is tonight. We travel to Sp*rs tonight in a season which has seen our away form better our home form, and in a season where you would have to think that we have more chance of winning at White Hart Lane than we did at the Emirates…

Let’s take a look at team news – Fabianski and Vermaelen apart, we have a full compliment to choose from tonight. Bacary Sagna is back and Almunia has recovered from his knee injury. The gaffer spoke about the injury situation earlier and said:

“Basically on the injury news it is all going well. Sagna should be back in the squad and everybody else is alright. [Almunia and Denilson] will not be in the squad but they are available. Almunia is back in normal training, Denilson as well. It is more a question of decisions, of choice. Thomas [Vermaelen] is still not competitive but he works very hard and we can give him a competitive edge in training because it takes a while. Thomas is a player who works very hard, he wants always to improve and he will get that from training. There was a doubt about his knee but he should be alright to be available. He says he is now completely ready. We have now three midfielders – Wilshere played many games, Diaby and Song – so we will rotate a little bit from game to game.”

Great news that Sagna is back and with the exception of Thomas Vermaelen, this is our strongest squad:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Djourou – Koscielny – Clichy

Wilshere – Song

Walcott – Cesc – Nasri

Van Persie

With a bench of Almunia, Eboue, Denilson, Diaby, Arshavin, Bendtner and Chamakh

It’s virtually our strongest squad against their strongest – and many will say it’s a big test of our team against theirs. If then do come out at us, it means we’ll have the space to exploit – the 4-5-1 formation has worked wonders away from home. For them, the likes of Bale and Lennon will play on each wing, with a centre of Modric, Huddlestone and Van Der Vaart with Crouch the lone central striker. It is a team that are much better than they were before, with some key players in key positions.

At the moment, it looks like we’ve mentally lost it – we’ve lost the energy and fight. A win against Sp*rs in their backyard could re-invigorate our season, and it could spur us on to finish well. At the same time, anything but a win, will be the nail in the coffin.

Our new #1 – fan’s favourite Szcznesy says that the team “owes us one”, with a good result against Sp*rs…

“They will drop points and we believe we are good enough to win every game from now until the end of the season. We go into everything to finish first. We are Arsenal Football Club, we don’t want to finish second and we definitely don’t want to finish third. We just think about winning. It’s a huge disappointment because with a minute to go we scored what we thought was a winning goal. It’s still possible for us to win the title but it’s a big disappointment because we have to say we dropped two points. “It is a very good game for us to come back from a big disappointment,” he said. “We owe it to the fans as well because they are obviously very disappointed about what happened. We owe the fans a result at White Hart Lane. I’m going to absolutely love [the atmosphere]. I love when the crowd is really loud and the game is very tense so I’m going to enjoy it.”

Don’t you just love the young stopper?

All that is left to say is… come on you reds!!! Let’s show the world we’ve still got that fight in us!!