As the Gunners prepare for the final Champions League group game of the season, not much in the way of Arsenal news is travelling around this afternoon. Arsene did deliver us somewhat of a shock regarding our central defenders. Laurent Koscielny has shaken off his concussion and is ready to step back onto the Arsenal bike tomorrow evening. When we all believed that he would be out for a number of weeks. His supposed replacement Johan Djourou will not be risked after picking up a slight thigh strain.
It is a shame for Johan Djourou who must be frustrated for not being able to string a run of games together even though he is in impressive form but as regular readers of this site know, I think Koscielny is a superb defender who probably suits Champions League football more than any other defender in our squad.
Arsene said that he would rotate the squad a little so a few of the fresh legs will surely start which means a probable start for Van Persie and maybe Denilson but I will go into all that in tomorrow’s pre match thoughts.
Wenger has confirmed that he is unlikely to enter the market in January for a new central defender as he expects Vermaelen to come back soon and we also have Alex Song who can come in if need be. Four central defenders and an emergency option for two slots in the team seems a reasonable amount. I think Chelsea would be pretty happy with three central defenders judging by their back ups.
Arsene was pretty defensive about erm our defensive record, pointing at our away form being the best in the league at present. Meanwhile Andrey Arshavin has taken a different approach, saying that we struggle all the time in defence. I love this part in particular.
“Sometimes I can’t run, and let defenders cross so the forwards score a goal. It doesn’t always depend on defenders. As a team we need to improve defensively.”
Ah, that might be a reason. Perhaps improve fitness and then instead of not running you can actually run and give fall guy Clichy a helping hand, as Nasri does with Sagna on the other side.
I do agree with Arshavin that it is not just down to our defence, it is about the forwards all the way down to the goalkeeper. Everyone must roll their sleeves up and work hard when not in possession of the ball.
I must admit, I am a little bored of talking about defending and goalkeeping or so called lack of it. I enjoy talking about slick football, combinations, partnerships, Nasri’s swivelling hips and rounding of goalkeepers. Speaking of Nasri, he is apparently on the verge of signing a new contract with us which is obviously a good thing is it not?
With these new rules in place that allows players to leave for a bag of soap after only being at a club for 15 minutes. (perhaps a slight exaggeration somewhere in that sentence) It seems like we are continuously handing out new contracts to keep our players at the club. What is vitally important is that we keep our group together, we have lost key players in previous squads in the past and it is a major set back to Arsene and the silverware hunt.
If Flamini and Hleb stayed for season 2008/2009 then you never know what could have happened as we were certainly the best squad in the league in the previous campaign. We had to rebuild our midfield and it took time. It takes time for players to adjust to playing our football as it did with Flamini and Hleb. Alex Song is not the same player who made his debut at Fulham, Nasri is not the same 21 year old who was superbly talented but lacked end product.
If we lost key players then it would be yet another adaptation period for the players.
In 2010, we have a squad with so much talent and I just want to see most of these players reach their peak together after years of learning and developing their own game and understanding each others game.
Nothing much else going around, certainly nothing that I can be bothered to write about.
Back tomorrow for Belgrade preview.
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