He has already scored against Arsenal at the Emirates playing for his former club, and I will cheer if he scores again against us… as long as we are 5-0 up. If not he can forget about it and can stay firmly in Koscielny’s pocket

A later than usual blog today, partly because I wanted to wait for the draw and partly because I spent most of my day in bed. I wish it was because I am a lazy so’n’so but in fact it is because I am feeling rather sick today. I have some hot sweats type, dizzy type, coughy, coldy thing going on and it really isn’t much fun. Yes, I am feeling rather sorry for myself today so I think I will keep this somewhat short this evening.

Lets get on with the Champions League action shall we?

So our group looks like the following..

ARSENAL
Shakhtar Donetsk
SC Braga
FK Partizan

I just knew that Eduardo wouldn’t be away for very long, it was written in the stars and all that as soon as he left the club. SC Braga who beat Sevilla in the qualifiers will not be push overs.

Eduardo is likely to receive a super reception when he jogs onto the Emirates pitch and rightly so. Always professional, always worked hard for the team and seemed a naturally nice and humble guy.

He has already scored against Arsenal at the Emirates playing for his former club, and I will cheer if he scores again against us… as long as we are 5-0 up. If not he can forget about it and can stay firmly in Koscielny’s pocket.

FK Partizan were thrown in from pot 4 to complete the group. You cannot complain much about the group as a whole, but it will certainly not be easy. Shakhtar Donetsk are a good side and most Portuguese sides are good technically but hopefully we should have enough class to beat all of them especially at the Emirates. If we can win all of our home matches then we can probably take a loss and a draw on the road as long as we win one of those games away from the Emirates.

When the season fixtures came out I was cursing and screaming about having to play difficult domestic away fixtures right after the Champions League when our rivals had easier home games following their European games. This is very much still the case and we are going to have to deal with that. Hopefully (praying rather than being hopeful) our injury situation is normal rather than insane so we can rotate the squad. That will be vital when the games come thick and fast. The difference between losing at Sunderland 1-0 and beating them convincingly.

A quick note on the other lot from down the road, it will be fun watching them being ripped to shreds in their group. It was horrible watching them celebrate last night but maybe that is a blessing in disguise. Watching them trying to juggle the league as well as getting beaten by Inter and Werder Bremen may be worth the temporary over confidence from those lot.

Earlier on in the day, Arsene had confirmed the arrival of Mr Sébastien Squillaci. Still no sign of him on the official site as yet, I am sure that will happen shortly, perhaps tomorrow at some point. Squilly will not be involved in the squad on Saturday but will take part in training tomorrow.

Interesting to see Wenger’s comments about Stoke’s tactics against Tottenham last week.

Wenger said:

“When you see how [Stoke defender Ryan] Shawcross kicked [Tottenham goalkeeper Heurelho] Gomes, how [Robert] Huth pushed Gomes in the goal, you cannot say that is football any more.

“If the referees allow that you cannot accept that because that has nothing to do with the game.

“Apart from that, when a team play long ball and head the ball and become physical I accept that completely and I respect that – but it has to be in respect of the rules, that is all.”

Wenger’s comments could well have been strategically placed to make the referee’s aware of what is likely to come at Ewood park at Saturday lunchtime. I still don’t think much will be done about their argie bargie.

Like I said before and will probably say again before the game kicks off, we have to put them to bed before any set pieces can make any difference to the game. They cannot win corners and free kicks around their box if we are cutting them apart at the other end of the pitch.

As I said, it will have to be a short one as my bed is calling me.

Back tomorrow.

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