So today is the day – Eduardo is back. The Croatian media have block booked the press box, and there could be a larger than normal crowd… at Barnet. Yup, its reserve football time – and it is live on Arsenal TV.
The Lord Wenger says Eduardo has been brilliant in recovery and could come back even faster than before, and with all the skills that made him so special. But he also said he still needs another six weeks to put him at the top again. Hopefully those six weeks will include some cameo appearances for the first team.
Meanwhile The Tiny Fantasists did what they do best – made utter fools of themselves. At their AGM everyone was saying how wonderful the plan for the new 60,000 stadium is (ignoring the fact that they have double-counted the number of fans that they have waiting for tickets, as we discussed a few weeks back).
It was all slap-each-other-on-the-back time until bubbling over with bon homie and enthusiasm Mr Leavy asked Mr Red Napp to give a quick run down on how the team was doing.
The manager said, if you are asking if this team could get into the top four, the answer is nothing like. It’s relegation material.
Of course everyone knew that – but Mr Leavy had actually said just a few minutes before that there was no money to buy new players in the January transfer window.
Bit of a problem then.
Still, Eduardo at Barnet. That’s more like it. Bischoff on the wing, a run out perhaps for Wilshere, Merida playing at being Cesc in the middle… Looking like quite a team
so rio and harry say we’re not going to challenge. Well they could be right but when people challenge the arsenal, we seem to pull out a result. Hoping Nasri is back as he can make a great effect against the L’pool and im looking forward to the gam already. So far Cesc has a good record as captain (3 wins – kyiv, chelsea, wigan 1 draw – boro). Team to face L’pool should be attack minded and include Almunia, Clichy, Gallas, Djourou, Sagna, Nasri, Denilson, Cesc, Eboue, Adebayor and Van Persie. If Nasri is not fit rather than see an ineffective Diaby, I would like to see Vela be given a run. Come on you fellow gooners, lets hope we can prove the world wrong again and fight our way back into this as we know we can!
Something has just dawned on me regarding our team performances of late and so far this season. When we have started with a 4-4-2 formation with Song and Fabregas CM, we have actually won 10 points out of Twelve this season. (Chelsea/Wigan/West Ham/Middlesborough). I just hope this has not been lost on Wenger. He has actually played the same way in the last three games, and bar the mmissed opportunities at the weekend it would be 12 out of 12. If he maintains that spine of Gallas/Djourou, Song/Fabregas & Adebayor/VPersie or Eduardo then we might start to find we go on a run. I just hope for all our sakes he does not revert Denilson back to CM when Walcott returns and drops Song to the bench because it will definitely put us back into the same boat as before (Too weak Defensively). I actually thought Song had a good game at the weekend. He seems to put in far more tackles away from home, and at home seems to think he should be more of a playmaker. If he leaves that to Fabregas at home as well we might be in business. The one thing Wenger has been consistent with in the past is maintaining the spine of the team so hopefully this is a sign of things to come.
ok let me start by saying…… WE LOVE YOU ARSENAL WE DO…… but (you know there was one coming), looking at the PL and looking at arsenal, if we are gona be honest we cant compete unless things change. we have got issues, that i think need to be addressed and quickly if we are gona accomplish anything now a days. i can talk for ever about arsenal situation in relation to the PL but i am gona be brief. i think Mr. Wenger is letting his pride get in the way of purchsing a valued (exspensive!) player because…. well he never does.. and people know this and the specualtion around this means he is sticking to his guns. if aresenal are playing there game then no one can mess with us and everyone knows this but when we aint on our game and teams get a “little ruff” we cant manage. i believe we dont have the muscle or grit to FIGHT for the PL and with all the teams get “stuck in there”, playing with heart and ridiculous financial backing (man C)arsenal need to do something. so what do my fellow gunners think about this? PS what i do find funny is that we dont beat lower teams eg hull but we can beat the big boys man u , chelsea. reason……. arsenal play brilliant footbal (the best) against teams that are aiming for brilliant football but we cant get stuck in there to grind out results (problem?)
RVP for me is one of the most skillfull players in the world.But I’m not convinced he fits either of the moulds of a strike partnership. This in itself is not that important, as you don’t have to follow the preconceived ideas about football, but I for one am not happy with his performances week in week out. You would imagine that Ade is our target man andthreat in the box. That would suggest that RVP is the ‘provider’. I don’t reckon he does this job well as his first instinct is normally shoot, or trickery and then shoot.Sometimes his shots will come off, but normally won’t,and the opportunity he had to set Ade (or anyone else) up is now lost. Now some people may argue that Ade drags left a lot and provides many knock downs and is himself a provider. In that case, we need RVP to be the main threat inside the box. Again, I don’t think he’s particularly good at this. He’s not particually physical, nothing with his head and misses loads of chances. He seems to keep the crowd happy by scoring a few wonder goals a season (as well as some scrappy ones) but will ahve whole games where you hardly notice he’s on the pitch.I don’t need my strickers to charge around defending but he could do more of that for me, and this leads me onto the state of character which is obviously not the best. In the same way that Nasri, although less skilled than Hleb, will be a better player because of his end product (hopefully!) I see the need for a change in this position too. He is highly revered around the world and we could get a serious fee for him and go out and buy Villa or someone like that. At the end of the day, it all comes down to trophies, and while RVP may have been unlucky in his timing in playing for us, I reckon he¿s one of the main reasons we haven¿t won anything since he¿s been a regular, but he¿s such a skillfull player that its difficult to see this. Thoughts?