It doesn’t take long to get infected by the Spurs delusional virus. Once you breathe the same air as Harry Redknapp, Ledley King and company then there is no getting away from it. Rafael Van der Vaart is the latest to show publicly that he has caught the infection

My fingers were crossed, I prayed to the injury gods above and I wore my lucky socks that Theo Walcott wouldn’t get beaten by the long term injury stick. It was to no avail. It looks like the in form Theo Walcott will be sitting out of Arsenal action for 4-6 weeks depending on how he progresses.

Theo Walcott now joins Robin Van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner in treatment room 4-6. It will be interesting to see who comes back first. I had my injury complaints yesterday, got them out of my system for the time being. Our squad at the moment is still very strong, if we get another center forward injury then there will be concerns.

Isolated injuries are not the problem, it is when we get a collection of injuries in the same area of the pitch. A problem that has happened far too often. Oh.. here I go again.

What I wanted to say was that we still have some wonderful options, so much so that I expect some quality players to be left out of the starting eleven, even with our current absentees.

With Cesc likely to come back into the side, Rosicky could be switched to the right side of attack, perhaps not his best position but while he is in form I am sure he can contribute his vast array of talent from that position. The boss also has the option of pushing Emmanuel Eboue on in that attacking wide right position.

Arsene Wenger will be speaking to the press today for his usual Friday chat about the weekend game as well as other things. He spoke to Arsenal TV online already and spoke about his disappointment with Walcott and Van Persie. He also said that Nasri could well be involved against Bolton but certainly for the Braga game.

I am hoping that Bendtner, Van Persie and Theo can make a Nasri style recovery and skip a few weeks. Another player who is ready to start is the new boy Sebastian Squillaci who Wenger said is available for selection if the manager wishes. I still see our first choice being Vermaelen and Koscielny, especially as he has had plenty more time to adapt to the team and his team mates. Having said that, Bolton’s physical presence could be perfectly suited to the no nonsense Squillaci.

Wenger was also very quick to praise Bolton for their part in developing Jack Wilshere. Wenger said that Bolton had transformed Wilshere and that he was well advanced for his age. Judging by the minutes Wilshere has played and the way that Wenger spoke of him, I can imagine Wilshere continuing to rack up the minutes. It will certainly be interesting to see if he starts tomorrow or not.

It doesn’t take long to get infected by the Spurs delusional virus. Once you breathe the same air as Harry Redknapp, Ledley King and company then there is no getting away from it. Rafael Van der Vaart is the latest to show publicly that he has caught the infection.

Van Der Vaart said:

“Arsenal have a great team also with a lot of young players but our squad is not worse than Arsenal’s. I think we will have a chance to win against them and also, over the season, we can try to beat them.”

 

It reminds me of the famous ‘our bench is stronger than your bench’ comment last season. The continued Tottenham comparison to Arsenal just shows their inferiority complex. How many times have Arsenal players come out and said that we are as strong as Tottenham? Just one example of that would be good. I cannot think of any. We don’t have to because it is bleeding obvious. The history of the two clubs speak volumes and it doesn’t really matter how many times they say that they are as good as us or have a stronger bench or will get further than us in the Champions league.

Many Gooners complain about not winning the league in five seasons. Try 50 years (also including a stronger bench)

As a former Arsenal captain once said. ‘The truth is on the pitch’ (Well, something like that)

Back tomorrow for some match thoughts and stuff.