I stuck the audience with Tony Adams onto mp3 and listened to it on my way home today, it was quite interesting more interesting than I thought it would be. Adams was a great player, a true legend.
Happy funky Friday evening to you Gooners out there,
I have missed the boat on much of the news that has been going around in the last couple of days so I shall skip all the Van Persie, Wayne Bridge and all the rest that stuff.
My mind is fully fixed on the Stoke game tomorrow so I thought I’d write a quick pre pre match preview, god only knows what I am going to write about tomorrow.
It looks like we will be missing the services of Andrey Arshavin, Abou Diaby and William Gallas for our rather important trip to Stoke on Saturday. I am not very pleased with that, I must say.
Not only is Diaby in very good form right now, his goals and his height will be difficult to replace. Stoke can only play one way and we have to be ready for that. Diaby is tall and wins headers so it is a crying shame that he looks to be ‘short’ for the game.
Hopefully Campbell can come in for Gallas and meet some of Delap’s throws. Campbell is one of the best if not the best in the air at our club so his presence could be a blessing in disguise and all that.
Although Arshavin has been out of form of late (much of late as well) I think his creativity and eye for the final pass could be hard to replace. Rosicky and Nasri work harder the other end and probably contribute to more of our build up play but if you want to make something happen in a split second then Mr Arshavin is your man. Just hurry up and get back fit and in form please Mr. Time is ticking and we need everyone at their best.
The good news is that Eduardo could be back in the squad after a ‘small small’ hamstring that set him back for a couple of years. Imagine if it was a serious hamstring, wow.
Arsene has been deflecting the talk about Delap’s throws and is more interested in how his own team will play and to some extent that is true. Everyone knows that if Arsenal raise their game to their best then Stoke City will be chasing shadows and will not even get in the position to take long throws because they will be at the wrong end of their pitch.
We haven’t been playing at our best for a little while now and I am almost viewing it as a race to click into our early season form rather than trying to claw back points because personally, I feel that it will go hand in hand. I do not think we will win all our games without going up gears but we are good enough to beat all the teams in front of us.
Question for you? Which game is the more difficult, Stoke away or Manchester City at home? I think I would rather take on City at the Emirates rather than going to Stoke on a crappy bobbly pitch (not that I have seen it recently)
A good victory tomorrow could give the players the confidence to really go from strength to strength.
I stuck the audience with Tony Adams onto mp3 and listened to it on my way home today, it was quite interesting more interesting than I thought it would be. Adams was a great player, a true legend. I have not always agreed with some of his views and some of his comments have been pretty amusing even though they were not supposed to be serious. But you know what? I admire his honesty. He comes across as a take it or leave it person, not afraid to show the sensitive and vulnerable side of his personality and that is quite rare coming from a professional footballer and all their millions.
If you are a member of Arsenal TV online and you haven’t had a listen then.. what are you waiting for?
I have just heard that Portsmouth have gone into administration after racking up debts in the region of £60-£70 million. It is just madness. They have been docked points and are fighting to survive. It is pretty sad really. All basically for the FA Cup. If teams are chasing trophies then was the FA Cup worth jeopardising their future?
Those who want us to spend big money that we do not have will probably not link the two together and praise will not be heading Arsenal’s way for being self sufficient and being in the hunt for major honours.
Imagine if we went the route of borrowing vast amounts of money to invest on experienced players without any resale value and we picked up a couple of league titles in the process but we were in the same situation as Portsmouth, where we could not afford to pay our debts, those 28-29 year olds were either on the decline or jumped ship to sunnier climates. How would we feel being in the shoes of the Pompey supporters? Would those titles be worth it? Not for me, that is for sure.
There is a balance between buying players and being stingy and I think the signings of Arshavin, Nasri, Vermaelen, Sagna, Eduardo etc show that we are striking that balance pretty well.
Are we perfect?, no of course we are not but I do not even think that our problems are anything to do with the transfer market. The goalkeeping question is open to debate but we have a great squad full of players on the upward curve. Teaching some sections of the team to correct their mistakes is in my opinion Wenger’s priority come the end of the season, regardless of our finishing position.
I am proud of how we are running our club and hopefully the rewards for great management all round will lead to the inevitable trophies.
Ok, gotta hajduk, Back again tomorrow.
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