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England vs Bulgaria

Yes, the player famously dropped by Fabio Capello… Theo Walcott… is now the main man tonight – the man who all eyes will be on… It’s a rapid turn around for Theo – who really was at an all time low when he wasn’t included in the World Cup squad – things have certainly turned around for him, and tonight he will be the first name on the team sheet. With so many dropouts, we will not see the likes of Terry, Lampard or Crouch and the two Chelsea players are two whom I don’t really mind not seeing in an England shirt…

Let’s have a quick look at the likely line up for the game today:

Hart

Johnson – Jagielka – Upson – Cole

Barry

Walcott – Gerrard – Milner – Johnson

Rooney

It will be interesting to see the front 5 – against the likes of Bulgaria at home, one has to think we’d play 2 strikers… but I suppose Capello is trying to push through the 4-5-1  / 4-3-3 and in that case, he wants to start now… which kind of makes sense. It will be interesting to see how Theo fares as he will be the first to put his hands up and admit that he didn’t play well against Japan and Mexico in the lead up to the World Cup… Nothing much more to add for now, so tune into the game and I’ll be back tomorrow with some reaction…

An interesting stat from the Daily Mail… if we go on to win tomorrow… He will become the first player in The FA’s history to win his first 13 internationals! Can you believe it? Despite winning his first 12 caps and thus 12 internationals in a row… he wasn’t taken to SA… let’s hope he goes down in history…!

Bacary Sagna, the new France captain?

Yes, it’s surprising, but apparently, he is very much in the running – when you look at the squad, he does become an obvious choice. He’s not disruptive, is very good, is experienced and has been in the squad for a while. He’s not going to retire soon and of course, he plays for Arsenal. Squillaci and Gallas aren’t first choices for France under Blanc, and none of the other players are really fixtures in the first eleven nor are they stable, settled, experienced players either. Sagna fits the bill perfectly – we’ll find out a bit later today who is chosen.

Nasri Returns

Yes, despite having surgery not too long ago, rumours are that Samir Nasri was back in light training after a successful operation. There is no reason why the player – who had an outstanding pre-season shouldn’t be back in the squad after the International break. The funny thing is – pre-season, Nasri was one of our best players, but since the season started, who would you not start in the team to ad him back in? Cesc, Walcott and Arshavin aren’t being budged out of the team, Rosicky currently doesn’t quite make the first XI, so out of Song and Diaby, it has to be the latter that would make way… knowing Arsene, Nasri will probably be on the bench against Bolton… easing his way back into football…

The 25 Man Squad…

As we discussed in yesterday’s post, our 20 man squad plus 56 youth players were announced, and the sheer fact that none of our make up of home-grown players were actually English was quite funny – many people saying it was making a mockery of the rule, but I certainly don’t think so. If a club is wise enough and good enough to find kids and bring them through their academy than surely that is what the rule is for – training players and training them for years rather than buying a ready made replacement from somewhere?

A testimony to the foresight that Arsene had can be seen when the likes of Szczesny, Gibbs, Nordtveit, Ramsey, Wilshere, Walcott and Vela still qualify as under 21s. As each year goes by, these players will eventually need to be included in the main squad and that’s the beauty of it. Arsenal as a club, have more chance of promoting our youth players than any other team in the league. Out of our youth players, the likes of Jay Emmanuel Thomas, Wilshere, Frimpong, Gibbs etc, represent the future of England.

And Finally…

With the International scene taking away the real stories… I’ll leave you with Paul Merson’s thoughts on Mark Schwarzer…

“I played with Mark Schwarzer and he’s a good goalie, but I don’t know if he’s that much better than Manuel Almunia. He has played for Middlesbrough and Fulham, but playing for Arsenal is a different kettle of fish.”

Which makes me feel a little better – he did go on to say that he wanted Given at the club, but all in all, Almunia is the player we’ve got and the player we will support…

Til tomorrow…

One day after the transfer window closed, the next day of football hype was yesterday’s Premier League 5pm deadline and each team had to submit a 25-man squad, including a maximum of 17 foreign players over 21 and a maximum of 8 home grown players over 21.

It had all the suspense of a transfer window – well, actually quite a lot less than the day before – and it was very clear who we would name. A simple look at the squad and it was clear whom we had, who was over 21 and who was foreign. The teams trickled in and the world was astonished when Man United named Owen Hargreaves. A quick look at their website told me that in fact they actually included everyone they could and no-one was left out – hence, why both leaving Hargreaves out if there was a space for him? Creative journalism by half the media!

Our squad was the last to be announced – probably because us as a club, always announce things much later than anyone else… but the squad you’ve been waiting for is officially announced:

Senior squad

1. Almunia, Manuel
2. Arshavin, Andrey
3. Bendtner, Nicklas
4. Chamakh, Maroune
5. Clichy, Gael
6. Denilson, Pereka Neves
7. Diaby, Vassiriki Abou
8. Djourou-Gbadjere, Johan Danon
9. Eboue, Emmanuel
10. Fabianski, Lukasz
11. Fabregas Soler, Francesc
12. Koscielny, Laurent
13. Mannone, Vito
14. Nasri, Samir
15. Rosicky, Tomas
16. Sagna, Bacary
17. Song Bilong, Alexandre Dimitri
18. Van Persie, Robin
19. Vermaelen, Thomas
20. Squillaci, Sebastien

Under 21 players

• Afobe, Benik
• Aneke, Chukwuemeka Ademola Amachi
• Angha, Martin Yves
• Ansah, Zak Andy
• Barazite, Nacer
• Bartley, Kyle
• Bihmoutine, Samir
• Boateng, Daniel
• Botelho, Pedro Roberto Silva
• Brislen-Hall, George
• Bunjaku, Alban
• Campbell, James Andrew
• Charles-Cook, Reice Jordan
• Coquelin, Francis
• Cruise, Thomas Daniel
• Deacon, Roarie
• Eastmond, Craig Leon
• Ebecilio, Kyle Stephen Joel
• Edge, James Michael
• Emmanuel-Thomas, Jay-Aston
• Evina, Cedric David
• Freeman, Luke Anthony
• Frimpong, Emmanuel Yan
• Galindo, Samuel
• Gibbs, Kieran James Ricardo
• Glasgow, Benjamin Luke
• Hajrovic, Sead
• Henderson, Conor Alan
• Hoyte, Gavin Andrew
• Lansbury, Henri George
• Martinez, Damain Emiliano
• McDermott, Sean
• Meade, Jernade Ronnel
• Miquel-Pons, Ignasi
• Monakana, Jeffrey
• Monteiro, Elton Almada
• Murphy, Rhys Philip Elliot
• Nordtveit, Havard
• Oldfield Spence-Neita, Nigel Paul
• Ozyakup, Oguzhan
• Ramsey, Aaron James
• Randall, Mark
• Rees, Joshua David
• Roberts, Philip James
• Shea, James
• Smith, Steven Robert
• Sunu, Gilles
• Szczesny, Wojciech Tomasz
• Traore, Armand
• Vela Garrido, Carlos Alberto
• Walcott, Theo James
• Watt, Herschel Oulio Sanchez
• Webb, Callum Taylor
• Wilshere, Jack Andrew
• Wynter, Jordan James Cecil
• Yennaris, Nicholas

As you can see, we’ve named only 20 people in our senior squad. Mainly because a lot of our squad still qualifies for our under 21 squad, names such as Theo Walcott, Carlos Vela, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, and of course, future number one, Wojciech Szczesny…

The squad itself is the youngest of the top tier and we actually had 4 more foreign spaces and 1 more homegrown (over 21), but Theo will take that spot next year… and that’s something to be aware of – how many of these players will be over 21 come January 2012 (the cut off point for next season)… which is probably why we’ve kept the squad dynamic as it is.

It’s amazing to see that Theo Walcott is still classified in our under 21 roster, considering how we feel that he’s been around for a hell of a lot of time, but I think we have to all realise that the boy is just 21, and like Vela, about to start an amazing career – if he’s not reached the dizzy heights yet, than that’s okay – players like Walcott, Vela, Wilshere and Ramsey have more than 10 years of first team action ahead of them.

Walcott took some time out to talk to the official site about his improvements and had this to say:

“It has gone very well so far for club and country. I had a very good pre-season, no injuries, I had a nice break over the summer and everything is going well so far. I stay behind to improve on things like the final ball, the end product, stuff like that. I practice crossing and finishing and penalties. I’m not the best at penalties. Vito Mannone goes in goal and I work with Bacary Sagna on the right, working on that combination and putting crosses in for the strikers. We get Marouane Chamakh in there, too, so he can get used to where the crosses are going to go. Hopefully it pays off in the games. If you get your body and your brain used to it, it happens. Sometimes I still like to come inside, and, hopefully, I’ll get on the scoresheet again this season. But as a winger you also want to get wide and provide assists. You want to keep the width, especially for the fantastic players in the middle. Arsène Wenger talks to me about being aggressive, running at players. So far this season I’ve been doing that. This season I’ve been going to the gym more. I don’t want to slow myself down but if I got kicked when I was younger I probably would have stayed down. Now I get up. That’s when a full back thinks, ‘I’m going to have a torrid day.’”

How inspirational is that? Walcott had a bit of a merry fall from grace last season and he lost some fans, and also lost the faith of Fabio Capello – whether or not he inclusion in the previous summer’s under 21 tournament was all too much or whether the boy just simply needed a rest – whatever it was, we’re now finally seeing the Theo Walcott than Arsene believed in from such a young age. And it’s really positive to see him knuckle down and improve.

I’ll leave it at that for now… but will be back tomorrow for a preview… hold on… oh not another International break…….. Argh!

So, there we have it… the transfer window is officially closed. It was a crazy day for any fan if you’re obsessed with your team as much as I am and I know pretty much all of you are – the signs at the beginning of the day were that Mark Schwarzer was the serious target and with Fulham looking at various alternative keepers, Shay Given, Doni (from Roma) and a few other links, it looked like as soon as they got the keeper they were looking for, then Schwarzer was all but ours.

Well, it simply didn’t materialise. Not only didn’t it materialise, it was never going to. Despite the euphoria of the deadline day, and the madness of blogs, news sites, twitter and facebook – Arsene failed to tell us that we were never going to sign a keeper on deadline day. Mark Hughes revealed to Sky Sports News reporters that we hadn’t made any contact at all on Tuesday. None whatsoever. That – for me – was the confusing part in the whole affair – personally, I was convinced that we were in for a keeper.

When quizzed earlier in the Summer, Arsene had categorically stated it was an area he was aware that need. Before the end of the season, he did come out and talk about Almunia not necessarily being his number one. With Fabianski’s form so bad, we all expected a keeper to be signed.

“I don’t think it is the best moment to talk about that. I never said that he [Almunia] will be my long-term No 1. I think he is a great goalkeeper and he is in competition with Fabianski. But I want to see how we finish [the season] now so I don’t think it is the best period to talk about individual players.”

And the strange thing about the comments from Arsene is that you feel that despite Almunia obviously being much better than Fabianski, you feel that the gaffer has some sort of undying commitment to the Polish keeper. Many people, including myself, are worried that we haven’t got a world class number one – but even more worried that if Almunia is injured, our number two in Fabianski is well below par. Personally, as it looks like now, if Almunia is number one, then so be it. But I’d rather have Mannone or Szcznesny as number two than Fabianski. Without meaning to sound like I am going on about it – to be honest – if Arsene had put in two different bids in for Schwarzer – than he’s publically made everyone aware that it was a department that he needed to improve – to see Eduardo (the goalkeeper) sign for Genoa for only £3.4m – we all thought it was just a matter of time before a Schwarzer, Given or Hart would be unveiled.

One thing I do have to say – is that Xabi Alonso had one of his best seasons after Benitez tried to move him on for Gareth Barry – so if anything, if Almunia knuckles down and proves to us all that he can win us those games and win our a title, then this summer will be a passing moment.

That’s it – I’m drawing the line on the goalkeeping situation. We didn’t sign a new keeper – Almunia will be our number one and it’s time to get behind him. Here is the line that I am drawing:

————————————————————————————-

Not the best line, I may have to draw one and scan it in, but a line it is nevertheless.

The transfer window is closed and it’s had it’s interesting moments. Good news are the signings of Koscielny, Squillaci and Chamakh and without a doubt, that Cesc has stayed with us. For the last couple of years, we had becoming quite a selling club. The double sales of Adebayor and Toure for a combined £41m was a prime example of – if the buying club pays enough – that we will sell. And we all worried that a £35m bid would be enough to tempt the club to part with talisman Cesc Fabregas. The club’s rejection of several bids and desire to keep the club captain, was impressive. And the fact that we then went on to sign three players for about a £15m outlay is good – recognising that certain improvements were required and duly those positions were filled.

We’ve not got a game until a week on Saturday and before that we have two friendlies – England will have Kieran Gibbs and Theo Walcott and our top goalscorer this season spoke about his call up to the full squad:

“He [Capello] has got me back in the squad, and it shows he has faith in me. As a player you need to deal with the ups and downs. I think now I am a much better player (than two years ago). I had a very good pre-season, no injuries, and this season has gone well so far. I have just got to keep my feet on the ground and keep working hard. That’s all I can do.

And I have to say, I have been impressed with Theo’s attitude this summer. He’s got his head down and he’s making better and better decisions. The headline on Arsenal.com yesterday was “Walcott can be as good as Henry for Arsenal”… a collection of tweets about his performances… but if he continues in the same vein, he could really become the player we all want him to become. Good on you Theo…

Til tomorrow…

Lots to get through this Monday morning. Jack Wilshere played a few minutes on Saturday against the meatheads, went out and got involved with some meatheads. Arrest and bail followed, it’s really not clear what happened other than the Arsenal clean up crew released quite a polished statement regarding the player acting as a peacemaker. Hopefully it’s a case of wrong place / wrong time. We’ll have to wait and see.

Regarding Meatheads FC, lovely win for the boys on Saturday. We looked like we struggled a touch when they kept hoofing the ball into the area, but no more than any other team would. Ironic that their goal came from a passage of smooth play including a dribble from a central defender that went past three of our players. Why someone didn’t kick him up in the air is beyond me. Koscielny looked a touch naive as Diouf #1 went past him fairly easily, and Clichey showed he still hasn’t learnt how to defend, letting Diouf #2 run past him and tap in. Why Clichey started berating big Tom in the middle I have no idea. Vermelean had three players to mark, and given recent escapades was probably half marking his own keeper as well just in case he tried to score. Bags of pace is no good if you’re not going to get yourself in the way of the striker.

Anyway we scored twice, Theo looked good again – confidence is an amazing thing. Anyone watch Match Of The Day? Alan Shearer counted the seconds Walcott had on the ball. In a slow motion replay. Hey Alan, if anyone passes this to you to read, just so you know, time is slower in slo-mo replays, so he didn’t really have 6 seconds on the ball. It was more like 2-3. The BBC really is assembling quite the team of footballing brains.

A few times we were climbing all over the Blackburn players in our box, With Chamakh cuddling Christopher Samba quite tightly at times. To be fair to Samba he gave Chamakh a hug at the end and seemed quite cordial. If you act like a meathead with ten elbows I guess you should expect to be held down on the ground. It was as much for his protection as ours I’m sure. Anyway, a different ref would have probably given them 10 penalties (not Chris Foy), but we simply gave as good as we got. It’s fantastic to see the Arsenal players compete physically against a team like Blackburn. We effectively nullified their aerial threat by playing them at their own game, to such an extent that the only way they looked truly dangerous was on the ground.

Almunia looked good as well. He was back to his best, again, confidence is everything. Do not underestimate how destabilising it will be for all this talk of other keepers to keep bounding around his head. Is Schwarzer any better? Really? He’s 37. The best club he has ever played for is Fulham. I’ll leave you to do the math, but considering how hard it is to find a truly decent keeper, I think anybody any good would not still be playing for Fulham at 37. Almunia got quite agitated with Diouf #1 (the twatty one) and it seemed to spur him on. Free kicks and corners, he was clapping his hands loudly, bellowing and stamping his feet. He wasn’t bullied once and he got every ball he came for. Keep your Schwarzer, Brillo head, we don’t want him.

Allardyce was fairly magnanimous at the end of the game – he didn’t mention the P word at the end either, probably because he knew he’d look a bit of a hypocrite. He defends his clubs climbing on defenders to score goals policy, so i guess he accepted the Arsenals policy of climbing on attackers to stop them scoring.

On a side note, does anyone read the Independent? I subscribe to the football blogs. Ian Holloway has been writing some good stuff about his newly promoted team Blackpool. Writing after we welcomed them to the premiership with 6 goals, he said

It was great to sit down with Arsène Wenger and talk football for a few minutes after our game at Arsenal. He had a glass of wine, I had a beer and he was lovely to speak to.

As well as being someone whom I hugely admire, he is simply a very nice man, a total gentleman. He is quietly spoken, very thoughtful and he was very complimentary about us, despite the scoreline.

Proof then that the Walrus from Blackburn was entirely wrong to start bleating on about how Arsene Wenger won’t sit with the managers after a game and have a drink all those months ago. Sorry Sam, it seems he does, it’s just the pricks he avoids. Why it’s anyone’s business other than Walrus/Wenger I’m not sure, but it’s a measure of the man that he would publicly cry about being snubbed. If I was Wenger I’d have sent him a bucket of shit. So it could have been worse.

Quite a bit of talk about Stoke/Pulis threatening to sue Arsene Wenger over his comments midweek. HA HA. HILARITY. If the Yoda faced prick didn’t send out his players with mischief on their minds, people wouldn’t criticise them. Apparently Stoke are ‘sore’ about Wengers comments. Ramsey’s leg is still quite sore. Meatheads.

Finally, Spurs provided quite a stern test for Wigan, a team who had so far conceded 10 goals without reply, who were limited to a single goal against the European Champions in waiting. Amazing. This is the team who’s fans think they’ll take 12 points from their group in Europe? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. What isn’t so funny is Jussi “Hammer Hand” Jaaskelainen getting sent off. My fantasy league team lost points for that. As someone else said, why waste it on a slap on that useless get? Why not make it something special if you’re going to get sent off and run the entire pitch to drop kick Bowyer? WAIT. Next game is Bolton right? And he’ll be suspended, arguably their best player? Lovely.

Afternoon guys, it’s a big day today, and 3 points and a good performance will get us primed for the International break…

The line up today is:

Almunia

Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Clichy

Diaby – Song

Walcott – Cesc – Arshavin

Van Persie

Djourou and Denilson didn’t make the bench, which consists of:

Fabianski, Eboue, Gibbs, Wilshere, Rosicky, Vela, Chamakh

Over to the comments for Match Day Live…

Tomorrow sees us take on Blackburn in the Premier League and it’s a game we must simply win. No questions asked, it’s a game where we need to take the 3 points. Last season, we lost up at Ewood Park and it’s more than essential that we prove to everyone that we’ve come a long way since last season. Our new defensive quartet of Vermaelen, Djourou, Squillaci and Koscielny are being judged right now – and the previous lot of Silvestre, Gallas and Campbell weren’t good enough. Tomorrow will be a test of our new defensive unit, as well as our mental resolve. Has our defence improved since last season? Has our team defensive unit improved? Are we going to be first to the 50/50′s? Are we going to be sharper attacking-wise?

A look at team news ahead of tomorrow’s game, and it looks like it will be too early for new signing Sebastian Squillaci, whom is training today, but will only feature after the International break. That means Laurent Koscielny returns after his one match suspension to partner Thomas Vermaelen at the back. Johan Djourou has not recovered from his hamstring injury, so will be missing tomorrow, and that means Alex Song can revert back to his defensive midfield position – my preferred position for the Cameroonian.

With Song back in midfield, Arsene will have to choose between Denilson, Abou Diaby, Thomas Rosicky, Jack Wilshere and Cesc Fabregas for the two other midfield roles, and I can’t see him not selecting the captain, who is now back to full fitness and should be raring to go. The third spot could go to any of the other three – personally, Rosicky’s form means it should be his, but being an away game with a Sam Allardyce team, you can bet your bottom dollar than Diaby will be in based on his height alone…

Up front is a tricky one – Van Persie is now fit, but Maroune Chamakh has been leading the line so far this season. With no midweek games, Arshavin and Walcott should be ready and poised for starts too, which is a bit of a dilemma – who does Arsene start out of Van Persie and Chamakh? My gut feeling is Van Persie will get the nod… so I’d expect the following line up:

Almunia

Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Clichy

Diaby – Song

Walcott – Cesc – Arshavin

Van Persie

With a bench of Fabianski, Eboue, Denilson, Wilshere, Rosicky, Vela and Chamakh. With Djourou not being included due to his hamstring injury.

Injuries to Bendtner and Nasri look like both players will only return by the end of September and Arsene commented on them both saying:

“Three to four weeks. Nasri will have a battle [to be back first]. He could be in front of Bendtner even because he is recovering very quickly. Djourou is fit to be in the squad but he is not completely there yet. Cesc and Van Persie are back and available normally [for Blackburn].”

Koscielny did give all Arsenal fans some hope that he has what it takes

“I like one-on-one challenges because they are a physical, technical and mental challenge. It’s a big battle — part bluff, part judgement. My aim is never to let the striker open on his good foot to go towards the goal. You have to be very intelligent to win those sorts of challenges. I work hard and never give up. On man marking, I don’t let the striker breathe. Technically, I have always worked hard because, especially at Arsenal, I am the player who starts the attack so I need to have quality in my passing. I have improved a lot on how I read the game and anticipate what my opponent will do and where the ball will go.”

Even though I’ve only really seen him against Liverpool, I do like the look of Koscielny – he does look determined and does look like he is raring to prove himself at the top level.

Outside of tomorrow’s game, yesterday saw the draw for the Champions League and saw us drawn with Shakhtar Donetsk, SC Braga and FK Partizan Belgrade. Thanks goes to Debs for posting an update on all the groups in my absence yesterday. My first reaction was – yes, we’ve not drawn any hard teams, but my next reaction was – damn, we have to travel quite far for these trips. The fact that we’ve not won away in any of the countries that those three teams are from doesn’t bode well, and of course, we have 3 away games after our 3 champions league away games… Ouch.

Arsene spoke on the draw saying:

“I think it is more difficult than it looks because we have Shakhtar Donetsk and Braga who are two very good teams. Also there is a lot of travel too. We will be favourites but we start one week after the internationals when the players will have been away. We have more experience than the other teams but Shakhtar have some experience themselves and people forget Braga knocked out Sevilla by winning both games [in the Play-Offs]. I am very confident of course and I am sure we will come out of it.  But I don’t think we have an easy group. We’ll need to be on our toes.”

The Shakhtar Donetsk tie could see Eduardo play against us twice and of course, have a proper farewell at the Emirates – I’d be interested to see how his fitness and form have come along since his move, and it will be good to see him back at the Grove, one last time…

There we have it folks, a big game tomorrow… it’s Adios for now!

So the Champions League draw was made today in Monaco, and after the usual preambles, the main draw started. Pot A got drawn first, the teams being put into groups. We got Group H.

Pot 2 got drawn out next, and we were able to avoid the likes of Real Madrid, and got Shaktar Donetsk! It was bound to happen, meaning we’ll be re-united with Eduardo sooner, rather than later. I absolutely love Eduardo,was really gutted he left, and it would be emotional playing against him, instead of with him, so early after he left! I bet he’ll be feeling the same! I wonder what the odds of him scoring against us will be…

On to Pot 3, and we got SC Braga, known as the Arsenalistas! Awesome. Not a bad draw. It’s their first time in the Champions League group stages apparently, so hopefully our experience should count.

Last team to face, from Pot 4, and we got FK Partizan Belgrade from Serbia.

No real banana skins per se, but you never know. Still though, I’d expect us to progress to the knock-out round.

So to round-up our draw:

Group H:

ARSENAL

Shakhtar Donetsk

SC Braga

FK Partizan Belgrade

Other groups:

So, there we have it, our arch enemy – ye olde enemy – have somehow mangled their way into the Champions League Proper… mainly through a lot of luck, a lot of fortune, and a Jermain Defoe handball. When Young Boys were 3-0 ahead over in Switzerland, I had some high hopes, but luckily for Sp*rs, their opposition were even less experienced in European competition than them. For Sp*rs, it’s another “we’ve won the World Cup” moments, expected a DVD out very soon.

Anyway, time to focus on Arsenal and focus on Arsenal we shall. Later today is the Champions League Draw and we’ll see who we’ll get in the group stages. The four pots have been drawn and are:

Pot One

Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd, Barcelona, Inter, AC Milan, Lyon, Bayern

Pot Two

Werder Bremen, Real Madrid, Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk, Benfica, Valencia, Marseille, Panathinaikos

Pot Three

Tottenham, Rangers, Ajax, Schalke, Basel, Sporting Braga, Kobnhavn, Spartak Moscow

Pot Four

Hapoel Tel Aviv, Twente Enschede, Rubin Kazan, CFR Cluj, Partizan Belgrade, Bursaspor, MSK Zilina, Auxerre

As I do every year, I’ll take a look at the possibilities of what would be our hardest draw and what would be our easiest draw and then of course, we’ll see what we get tomorrow. In Pot Two, the big team that we’ll all want to avoid is Real Madrid, with a hell of a lot of new signings and a good base to start off with and of course, Jose Mourinho in charge, you’ll want to get them in the semi’s rather than the group stage. Out of the rest, the easiest ne is probably Werder Bremen or Benfica, so I’d take either of them… but would prefer a Werder Bremen side lacking the spark of Mezut Ozil…

In Pot Three, due to the nations rule, we can’t get Sp*rs, so the hardest out of the group is probably Schalke – they finished second in the Bundesliga and have a good group of players. Ajax are also a tough team, and I’d expect them to be more disciplined in the group stages, and they’ve got enough talent to give anyone a run for their money. The weakest in the group is probably Kobnhavn, since I’ve never heard of them or watched them play, so if the Gods do look favourably on us, we’ll draw the CL newcomers.

Pot Four is much a do about nothing, with Twente and Auxerre standing out above the rest, but pretty much the whole pot are a group of weak teams. I wouldn’t mind a Buraspor or a MSK Zilina, no disrespect to those teams, but a club of the size and quality of Arsenal, you’d expect us to beat them…

Desired Draw:

Arsenal
Werder Bremen
Kobnhavn
Bursaspor

Hope we don’t get it draw:

Arsenal
Real Madrid
Schalke
Auxerre

The draw kicks off at 1700 (UK time) and will be live on the UEFA site and all the normal twitter, facebook and web channels that we all love… There will be a bit of pre-amble first, as always, so expect news nearer 1730 or 1800…

And finally… rumours regarding the announcement of the Squillaci signing is that the new defender will be announced on Friday alongside Schwarzer, but other rumours suggest some very small contractual issues, nothing to do with wages or Arsenal, just a few random things… but he has pretty much signed and will most likely wear the number 18 shirt this season…

More tomorrow my friends, more tomorrow…

So, there we have it, our squad is nearing completion, and we’ve signing 2 central defenders this summer with Johan Djourou back to full fitness (well, kind of)… we’ve let the injured Eduardo go and brought in Maroune Chamakh as his replacement and in addition, we’ve promoted the likes of Jack Wilshere into the main squad as well as having a fit Kieran Gibbs back too. With Rosicky in blinding form, we’ve got a very good set of players who can all be effective in different ways.

With Denilson injured until now, and Song back in defence covering for the injured Djourou and the suspended Koscielny (which other player has previously got sent off on his competitive debut?)… Wilshere has played some part in both games this season and he has been very impressed for someone so young. Don’t forget the boy is only 18. He had his 8 minute cameo for England against Hungary and is now in the Under 21 squad for the Euro qualifying games. Like we did with Wilshere at Arsenal, gave him a taste of the Premiership and then loaned him out, it’s a similar exercise with the full team and then the under 21′s. I think he should be in the Under 21′s for now to gain that International experience.

Under 21 manager, Stuart Pearce commented on his demotion saying:

“Jack’s had the experience of an international cap with the seniors and his development will come. Like Theo Walcott, I think having the experience of playing with the Under-21s and seniors will be a help to him and is something he will have to come to terms with. He shouldn’t feel disappointed that he’s been in the senior squad and then come back to the Under-21s and that’s the mentality he has to come to the squad with.”

The key component for our squad now… as I’ve said yesterday and the day before and the day before and the day before… and the week before… is to secure the signing of a new keeper. For those of  you who have played any footballing management games, if you try and sign a new player and constantly say it’s an area that you’re trying to improve, the existing player in that position oftens gets stroppy and performs badly and that is what we’re doing to Almunia. Considering he’s not world class, he is now mentally affected too – so if we don’t sign a new keeper, we’re going to have a very fragile confidence of a man in goal come next week.

There have been all sorts of rumours on Schwarzer, noise about him passing a medical, and then not passing a medical and then having problems with his knees, shoulder and back. He’s been left out of Fulham’s squad recently, so there may be something genuine happening there. The rumours were that paying upwards of £2m for him, but news coming out of the various sources in and around the club – is that Schwarzer had a clause in his contract for a CL club if one came along, that he would be able to move. Apparently, our original offer was < £1m, and we have offered the same in August as we had in May. Nothing has moved with him, and Fulham are reluctant to sell, so I hope we have a backup plan in mind!

Tonight, Young Boys take on Sp*rs at WHL and I have to say, wheeler dealer, ‘Arry Redknapp is really a waste of space. He is probably the most dodgiest manager in football, and really lucky with his appointments, and pretty random with his signings… but after signing Gallas, our former player, he’s been ranting and raving about how he’s got one up on us. Well, ‘Arry really shouldn’t be concentrating on Arsenal the day of his biggest game of his season.  The twitchy individual said this:

“He knows he is going to get some flak from the Arsenal fans but his signing is one-up for us. Tottenham fans should be thinking, ‘Hang on, we have got one over on them here’.”

Well, ‘Arry, you have managed to sign a 33 year whinging old annoying player – good luck mate – with King, Dawson, Woodgate, Kaboul and Bassong, a sixth central defender is exactly what you needed and if this video is anything to go by, then he’ll fit in quite nicely. Paddy Power are offering 500/1 for Young Boys to beat Sp*rs 4-0… worth a punt? It looks like Sp*rs have employed Gallas to try and lure Sagna to WHL in the year 2018, doing the ground work now over dinner…. okay maybe, they’re just having dinner… but funny how this makes news…

And in the theme of recent videos…

Chamakh Rules…

Nice, hey?

Anyway, that’s enough for now… see you in the comments!

Morning folks…

Yesterday completed the second week of the Premier League and it did start to emphasize the changing face of the league – with Man City’s newly assembled multi-million pound squad taking Liverpool apart quite comprehensively – but a key component to their victory was their goal keeper. If it wasn’t for Joe Hart, Liverpool could and would have got back into the game and despite the foray of outfield players, it goes to show that an excellent goalkeeper is much required at this level. If we had Joe Hart in goal, would Liverpool have taken the lead when we played them? Debatable. But the point is, after Joe Hart’s many saves, Man City grew stronger and stronger and eventually ran out comprehensive winners.

Down at the grove, we’ve been improving our squad and with Silvestre, Gallas and Campbell out of the club, and Djourou back from fitness, Koscielny and Squillaci brought in, I think we’re stronger at the back than we were last year – all we need is the one problem position, which is the goalkeeping position – the problem? We have only 8 days until the end of the season. I noticed that Didier Zakora (former Sp*rs player) feels that Squillaci will slot into the Premier League with ease:

“He is a very strong defender, he wins every duel. He is a very good defender because he plays for the French national side. I think if he plays for Arsenal he will play easy because Arsenal play very easy football. For him, I think it is a very good option.  He plays very simple but he wins every duel, he is a very strong defender.”

In fact, our new defender was quite vocal about his move to Arsenal last night, saying:

“If a French player receives an offer from Arsène Wenger, it’s practically impossible to turn down. It was a sensational offer for me and I was happy Sevilla let me go. It was a difficult situation but I knew I had to take this chance. I knew if I played against Braga then I would not have been able to play for Arsenal in the Champions League. Arsenal were always the team I watched out for. For any spectator like me, you had to watch a squad with [Thierry] Henry, [Robert] Pirès, [Patrick] Vieira and [William] Gallas. Now, I’m happy to have my name in the history books. For me, this is a great new challenge and I’ve gone there purely to be part of that. I don’t think my age is a problem. My experience in football is great and players of my age tend to be at the peak of their playing career.”

With Gallas nearing his 33rd year of football, and his ageing legs losing pace, a good solid centre back in Squillaci is very much welcome. With Nordtveit a reserve option for the cup games, we now have 6 centre backs if you consider Song can slot in if required. A funny video I saw about Gallas signing for Sp*rs, I have to share…

It’s hilarious and it’s basically what has happened and what is most likely going to happen down at Sp*rs now they have William on board. The main question for Sp*rs is whether he’ll start ahead of Dawson, Bassong and Woodgate (if fit), as King is a certain starter, right?

Gallas did say it was hard…

“It was not an easy decision (having played for Arsenal), but I am here now and I will give my best. What is most important to me is to play games and to give everything.

…but I don’t think it was actually that hard for him. I did say that I thought he’d end up at Sp*rs even when he was still on our books. Anyway…

Back to the keeper situation and with rumours over a failed medical and Fulham, the club who has been talking about Schwarzer constantly – Arsenal have not release a word publicly – I have the feeling that the whole this is a big smokescreen and we’re actually in for someone else. But with Arsenal, Squillaci aside, it normally takes a long time to get a player in, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t have our new keeper by the Blackburn game.

And finally, for those Pro Evolution Soccer fans out there (yes, I am Pro Evo all the way!)… here’s a sneak peak of the trailer for PES 2011…

Amazing trailer, and if the game is anything like that, it will be sensational!

And finally finally finally, a massive shout out to Debs and Kieran on their latest posts, a great collection of opinions building up here on WOA… With over 100 comments a day on facebook, some on the blog and a crazy amount on twitter, WOA is growing bigger and better – and we’re only weeks away from a new redesign…!

What a bloody awesome footballish weekend! We racked up our greatest win at the Emirates in fine form (although Blackpool didn’t help themselves), Theo showed a cutting edge for the first time since that game against Croatia and elsewhere the goals flew in all weekend. The premiership saw 3 different 6-0 results. That’s 15% of all 6-0 wins in the history of the premiership (20) in 1 weekend!

Great to see Brede Hangeland score the goal that lost the mancy’s 2pts after his unfortunate own goal. Unit*d looked comfortable without ever dominating and after the first goal sat right back. Say what you like about the Brillo headed arse in charge of them, but Fulham were a class act and never gave up, whilst Unit*d looked distinctly average. Any team that struggles against an opposition containing Dickson Etuhu and John Pantsil are in trouble.  Paul Scholes goal was, as much I dislike the rat face, great. He’s in such good form, he’s carrying Unit*d’s midfield at the moment. Hopefully his legs fall off before we get there on Dec 11.

Everyone’s favourite pantomime villain Joey Barton was at it as well yesterday, inspring the vestiphobics to a 6-0 win. Thankfully now the sex pest face fuzz can go and we can go back to hating Barton for his thuggish criminal ways, rather than his mustache. Theo’s nemesis Chris Waddle was commentating, which was great for two reasons. First, he’s probably the most biased commentator I’ve ever heard which added a hilarity all of it’s own when he decided NUFC could be pushing for Europe by the end of the season, but most importantly he can’t speak properly. It sounds like he has a washing machine in his mouth and a fruit bowl for brains. “I’m not sure that was a pelanty”, no that’s right Chris, normal people refer to them as penalties. This is a man who criticised our hat trick hero for not having a football brain.

Anyway, in Arsenal-ish news it seems like we’ve nearly signed a CB. Sébastien Squillaci, a 30 year old Frenchman. I really don’t know enough about him at the moment to pass judgement – but he’s a proven winner. I saw the Copa del Rey final in which Sevilla beat Athletico 2-0, and I saw him pick up a yellow card. I don’t remember thinking anything other than Sevilla were organised at the back. I certainly don’t remember him standing out. He also played 20 minutes in the Champions League final (2004) and won the French league twice – so he knows what it takes to win. Time will tell, and a centre back is a centre back, whilst Song is not, right?

So, Sevilla have taken the odd approach of announcing that we’ve agreed a deal publicly and that the player is on his way for a medical. That’s how it works in football, you do the medical when the deal is done, just before the papers are signed. You’ll have probably seen the rumors floating about on twitter or elsewhere that Schwarzer failed an Arsenal medical on three separate criteria. There hasn’t been a medical of any kind because the two clubs haven’t agreed a deal. Anything that suggests otherwise is fantasy.

In any case, considering our squad is held together with ducktape and several of the players have legs made of Swarovski crystal, even if he did fail three elements of a medical, I wouldn’t expect that to impede the signing of Schwarzer. Knowing our track record, if he did break, we’d probably prop him up with broom sticks like a scarecrow in the goal and attach CD’s to his jersey to reflect light into attackers eyes. He’d still catch more crosses and corners than Flappy.

On the subject of the goalkeeper and in particular his current manager Brillo-head and his comments at the weekend, apparently Arsenal are ‘unsettling’ Schwarzer. As far as I’m aware we made a bid for him, which Fulham made public. Fulham then continue to not play the player, whilst talking about how much Arsenal are unsettling him. I know he likes to talk, but I’m not actually sure if it’s actually occured to Mark Hughes that he’s unsettling his own player by continually talking about it. Arsenal have been quite dignified and quiet about it. If there’s any justice in the world, Fifa will retroactively ban the hypocrite from football for life for the way he behaved at Man City before he was sacked. He didn’t seem bothered about unsettling players then. Gareth Barry. Kolo Toure. Cough cough. Arsehole.

Walcott has been speaking out this morning, deciding he’d be more than happy to do an ‘Henry’ and switch to centre forward. So would I actually as it means he can use his best asset, his speed, whilst rarely being expected to cross the ball, the weakest part of his game. We know it worked for Henry, but I still can’t help young Theo isn’t quite as gifted as the great Frenchman despite his weekend heroics. Either way, if it stops him having to cross the ball, I’m in. And I think he showed on Saturday he can finish.

Hopefully this will be the season that Walcott becomes the footballer we’ve all seen glimpses of. Injury and a lack of experience have conspired against him at times. I genuinely believe being left out of Englands shit show at the World Cup has benefited him – he looks like a player with a point to prove.

I’m looking forward to Blackburn at the weekend, I’ll be sitting in the away end alongside the other travelling gooners trying to keep my eyes on Sam Allardyce in the misguided hope that he might spontaneously combust. Fingers crossed.

Kieran