As I remove my hands away from my eyes, a quick nervy scan around the place and it seems as if all is currently fine in the world. I don’t want to count the chickens just yet until Arsene Wenger gives us the full run down. The last time I counted a chicken was the one that likes standing on a ball and he got smacked upside his head *bwahahahaha*
For the first time in my life I didn’t want Robin van Persie to get any of the ball last night, the Dutch coach who I am having more and more time for took van Persie off at half time. Theo Walcott only played a few minutes at the end. Stuart Pearce is clearly not a big fan but that suits Arsenal. Benayoun also played 45 minutes for Israel but Vermaelen, Song, Gervinho and Szczesny played the full 90 minutes and with Rosicky doubtful for the weekend you would think that all of those players will play.
While ‘Scotty’ Parker was captain of England, ‘Stevie G’ hobbled off with a tight hamstring. As much as I have my hopes up that he will miss the weekend, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him make the game. Daniel Sturridge also picked up an injury towards the end. Daniel Agger is also out for a few weeks so who knows, maybe the footballing gods answered my calls yesterday. You do know that footballing gods exist right? Why else do you think that bad decisions even themselves up? That has, as you know been scientifically proven to be the case.
Another Gooner was amongst the action last night one that hasn’t made the Arsenal shirt just yet as he is on loan to improve his chances of obtaining a work permit. Costa Rican Joel Campbell scored for erm Costa Rica against Wales. A very tidy finish it was as well. I have only watched the odd highlights as well as the obvious YouTube compilation and one thing is obvious, he doesn’t suffer from the Gervinho syndrome. In fact quite the opposite he looks like he could wash up the dishes, work out a complicated trigonometric equation, learn Japanese through his headphones and still find the bottom corner in the crowded penalty box. That is something difficult to teach. Yeah the complex trigonometric equation but I meant the natural finishing.
Should he make it to the classier side of North London next season then you would imagine that a certain Park could move on to make a space for him. Maybe that was the reason for signing Park in the first place. Perhaps Arsene expected Campbell to get his permit and then when that did not work out, we needed a short term squad filler. A squad filler with extra global appeal as a bonus perhaps.
Lastly Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain aka the Ox has been talking about the importance of end product and his desire to improve that side of his game.
That was the one thing that was instantly clear to me when I watched his Arsenal debut. His crossing technique, whether that be floated crosses, fizzed or bending crosses he could do it all and it looked comfortable and natural.
I also watched his England under 21 video of shooting practice and was amazed at his technique and power.
He can probably cross a ball better than Walcott and shoot better than Gervinho and he is still 18 years of age. When a player has so much ability at that age then the chances of improvement are just huge and if you cannot be excited by that then a slap is very much needed.
Still looking forward to watching Wilshere and Chamberlain together. That said, Chamberlain surely cannot get into the starting line up after what we did to the inferiors and rightly so but I also guess that is down to Rosicky’s fitness and Gervinho’s possible jet lag.
Anyhoo, now I can wash my dirty underwear and look forward to the Liverpool game with what could be mostly a clean bill of health.
Back tomorrow.
EXAMPLE OF AD POSITION
