Robin Van Persie is set to return to training and this has been translated into him starting and scoring five against Tottenham. I would be a little worried about throwing Van Persie in so early
Another week has flown by in the football season, all the late goals and consequently late victories have been erased from the memory. Bendtner’s late header to thrust Arsenal back in contention has been consigned to history at least until the Gunners travel to the not so nice part of North London.
The best player in the world and probably the best club side for a good few years have shown that Arsene Wenger’s troops are not yet at the very top of the ladder. Some have held their hands up, admitted defeat and are hoping that the similar path that Arsenal have taken to Barcelona will mean that the Gunners will reach that benchmark in the future. Others have been horrified by the gulf between the two sides and want immediate signings regardless of the transfer window being slammed firmly shut until the end of the season.
I do not deny that the better team over the two legs won the tie and they deserve to go through but I do not apologise for feeling somewhat let down that two great footballing sides were not able to play at full strength. I even said this before the first leg. I was disappointed that Iniesta wouldn’t be available for the game at the Emirates and he hardly featured much in the second leg. It would have been nice to see how far we have come with a fit Gallas, Arshavin, Cesc, Van Persie and Song. Not half fit players being rushed back for the first leg and then hobbling off with half of the first half still to play.
Injuries are indeed a part of the game but surely that is only the average amount of injuries. We have the highest injury count in the league. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was in the whole of Europe.
Colin Lewin has been speaking on Arsenal.com about our current injury record. I got the sense that he was playing down the problem. If this was one season of a bad run then I would play it down also but this has happened for the last two or three seasons. It is an interesting read though.
Robin Van Persie is set to return to training and this has been translated into him starting and scoring five against Tottenham. I would be a little worried about throwing Van Persie in so early. I suppose it all rather depends on his training sessions but William Gallas was training and was thrown in against Barca and now we will not see him again this season if at all.
Bendtner is in good form right now so there is no need to rush Robin back just yet, a couple of 15 minute cameos might be what the doctor ordered. What will be needed is patience. We have seen what happened to Gael Clichy after being out for so long, so the same could well happen to Robin.
I hear that both Djourou and Gibbs are close to joining in with the squad which is good news for the players and unfortunately a little too late for the team I am guessing. How we could have done with a fit Djourou in recent weeks.
At the end of every season I end up thinking the same thoughts. ‘hopefully next season we can keep these guys fit for most of the season’
I am going to hope and believe that season 2010-11 will be the year that our luck changes.
It is great to see Clichy back to his best and his tussle against Alves was something he should be very proud of. It was one of the battles that we actually won in the Camp Nou and do not be at all surprised if we see the Barcelona press pushing and probing new Clichy to Barcelona rumours in the summer. I think he would have caught the eye of the management with his high energy pressing, pace and ability.
Unless Barcelona want to offer us Messi then I suggest they stay well away from Arsenal come the summer because Arsene’s main priority is to keep his squad together and rightly so.
I am wondering what more I can say about Marouane Chamakh. Everything has already been said. Apparently he is close to signing a pre contract or has already signed a pre contract or is in the middle of a pre contract.
Personally I would like this sealed or denied, it is getting a little tiresome reading exactly the same thing as I did 6 months ago.
There are more bits and pieces of transfer mumblings going on but it is the wrong month to be talking about that sort of thing, so I shall leave it there for now.
Back again tomorrow.
EXAMPLE OF AD POSITION
