By Bulldog Drummond
Here’s a thought to kick off the day. Yesterday (Sunday) Untold Arsenal got over 100,000 page views in one day for the first time ever. Quite a lot of reading really. The average person read two pages – so just over 50,000 visitors in a day. A lot of excitement this end as you might imagine. Champagne even!
Anyway, onto the football,
And the big news is: ‘Gunners hire private jet to fly Benzema in for medical’ (Telegraph).
And “Striker could be presented before Premier League clash with Liverpool” (also Telegraph)
Of course all the world knows that Mr Wenger’s view is that there are too many clubs chasing too few strikers. But it seems it is not just us that is having a problem. The Independent came up with Goalless United left to ponder transfers as Rooney’s goal drought stretches to 10. Which really shows why buying a forward for a lot of money and then relying totally on him can go rather wrong. Better to rely on the many perhaps. Have goals coming from all sorts of people. Giroud, Theo, Alexis, Ramsey, Wilshere… oh, that’s Arsenal.
Poor Mr Wenger. He must be getting thoroughly pissed off with having to answer the same question over and over again. But still he does it with charm and insight, and a fair dash of stating the obvious, as with this week’s highlight…
“We live in a society that is hungry for news and news is good, I can understand that. But you have to absolutely be convinced that it strengthens your team.
“What is our target every day, from morning to night? We try to be as good as we can in every single department of our club. I expect a new signing, but we are not close.”
So maybe the Telegraph has got it wrong! Wow.
Liverpool’s results thus far this season give a mark of the club’s progress.
- Stoke 0 Liverpool 1
- Liverpool 0 Bournemouth 0 (but goal awarded to Liverpool because they were playing at home and you have to don’t you, it’s in the rules).
This summer they have bought
| Position | Player | From club | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| CB | Joe Gomez | Charlton Athletic | £3,500,000 |
| CM | James Milner | Manchester City | Free |
| FW | Danny Ings | Burnley | Tribunal[A] |
| GK | Ádám Bogdán | Bolton Wanderers | Free |
| AM | Roberto Firmino | 1899 Hoffenheim | £21,300,000[B] |
| RB | Nathaniel Clyne | Southampton | £10,000,000[C] |
| FW | Christian Benteke | Aston Villa | £32,500,000 |
| Total | £67,300,000 | ||
Sterling has gone and so largely due to that they have brought in £47m. Balotelli is still at the club, and the word is that if he is still there in September he will get a loyalty bonus. They have won only once at Arsenal in 15 years.
As for Arsenal, the headline on a blogetta that is the Daily Express is
Arsene Wenger reveals worrying Alexis Sanchez fitness update in boost for Liverpool
and if you believe that then best to give up on Untold and stay with the Daily UKIP.
By way of contrast Arsenal.com tells us “We have nobody back from the players who did not play against Crystal Palace. All of the players who were available at Crystal Palace should be available on Monday night.”
Specifically on Alexis he said, “On Monday night he will not be short of full fitness. It’s surprising because when he has not got the basic fitness required, he has the mental resources to dig deep and be combative to fight. He also has the talent.”
So Arsenal.com says everyone we might reasonably want, is available, while the Express says worrying doubts about Sanchez. Which should we believe? Difficult, isn’t it?
In his spare time Mr Wenger is also doing everything to try and stop Jack going to play for England and certainly he says he won’t be playing for us.
As for Liverpool, they have Henderson as a doubt, with Allen, Sturridge and Flanagan all out. Their leading scorer so far this season is the referee.
So here is the injury league top ten, from Physioroom.com and injuryleague.com
| Pos | Total | Club | Player | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Southampton | S Mane | TBC |
| J Clasie | 3 wks | |||
| G Ramirez | TBC | |||
| F Gardos | TBC | |||
| R Bertrand | 3 wks | |||
| F Forster | 7 mths | |||
| 2 | 5 | Crystal Palace | C Wickham | TBC |
| F Campbell | TBC | |||
| J Speroni | 1 wk | |||
| K Appiah | TBC | |||
| M Chamakh | 3 wks | |||
| 3 | 5 | Everton | B Galloway | TBC |
| L Baines | 3 mths | |||
| T Hibbert | 3 wks | |||
| D Gibson | 1 wk | |||
| S Pienaar | TBC | |||
| 4 | 5 | Newcastle United | M Sissoko | 1 wk |
| C Good | TBC | |||
| E Riviere | TBC | |||
| S Marveaux | 3 wks | |||
| P Dummett | 1 wk | |||
| 5 | 5 | West Ham United | R Oxford | 1 wk |
| M Zarate | 3 wks | |||
| J O’Brien | 1 wk | |||
| E Valencia | 2 mths | |||
| A Carroll | 3 wks | |||
| 6 | 4 | Liverpool | J Henderson | TBC |
| J Allen | TBC | |||
| J Flanagan | 4 mths | |||
| D Sturridge | 3 wks | |||
| 7 | 3 | Arsenal | J Wilshere | 3 wks |
| T Rosicky | TBC | |||
| D Welbeck | 5 wks | |||
| 8 | 3 | Aston Villa | J Crespo Ri’n | 3 wks |
| G Gardner | 3 wks | |||
| J Okore | 3 wks | |||
| 9 | 3 | Norwich City | Y Mulumbu | 4 wks |
| M Olsson | 3 wks | |||
| K Lafferty | 3 wks | |||
| 10 | 3 | Stoke City | J Walters | 1 wk |
| P Odemwingie | 1 wk | |||
| R Shawcross |
So, we are not doing to badly on the injury front.
The teams and a further assortment of pre-match mishmash will follow around 1pm and the latest on the Banner.
The Ref Preview for Arsenal v Liverpool.
From today’s anniversary files
24 August 2003: Three years to the day after signing Wiltord scored two as Arsenal beat Middlesbrough 4-0. Arsène Wenger said in the press, “I feel it is very important in our minds to do this and I know the hunger is strong to do it.” He named Newcastle, Liverpool, Man U and Chelsea as the main rivals for the Premier League. It was the 2nd league match of the unbeaten season
- @UntoldArsenal on Twitter
- Arsenal Annivesaries each day on the home page
- Remember, remember. The history of Arsenal’s pre-seasons: now covering every season from 1983 to 2014, with more articles forthcoming.
The books
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal
What ever, i hope our lads are ready to start making Emirates a fortress again tonight.
I expect pool to be a little aggressive tonight, but i want us to be tough, aggressive and focused on winning the match, AND scoring some goals(our GD is appalling, what’s happened to our goals?).
On top of that we need to keep clean sheets now too.
All in all a big step up and major strength needs to come to the fore now.
COYG
I would love to see 5 goals and a clean sheet from Arsenal tonight. 🙂
If the Liverpool owner really said that football contracts are worth nothing, he was only speaking the truth.
In the professional game today, the sporting aspect has been long overtaken by the chicanery of big business.
Sadly, this hardnosed attitude has now spread to many of the top-flight players via the greed of agents.
No sooner has (say) a 4-year contract been agreed than the wheels are set in motion for a lucrative review, well before the end of the final year.
And the panic that emerges from the employing club during that final year, is a clear reflection of the way player power has become a dominant part of football today. In this respect I feel that Bosman has a lot for which to answer.
Funny piece on the BBC website has a headline “Mourinho says people love Chelsea losing”.
I suspect his lack of apparent self awareness is merely a cover for the fact that he knows the real headline should be “Mourinho says people love Mourinho losing”.
It does feel like the tide has turned and all that self serving, narrative driving crap about how he is “a breath of fresh air” is beginning to be left behind. I guess given the football media live in the sewers then even Mourinho might seem a breath of fresh air but the rest of us see him for the manipulative, self obsessed, Catenaccio playing, utterly-devoid-of-sportsmanship boor he is.
Have just read a long article in a trash UK paper that competes with the Express for readers that Arsenal must pay £50 million for Benzema.
The article is long and empty of facts except for possibly this one, it just might be true. We read, ‘Arsenal have not put in a bid for Benzema.’
It seems Benzema had a great season the one before the last but no mention is made of the last season. I wonder why.
The BBC has a link to the paper. If you have time to waste or like me just a little curious as to what extent the BBC would lower itself by providing us with this link give it a read.
I agree with Para that we should secure our fort and render it impenetrable , before making calculated forays into enemy territory to grab the spoils . 2-0 score would suit me fine.
Come on guys , get stuck in !
Up the Gunners !
Mr wenger wanted Ozil and he got him. He wanted Sanchez and he got him. He wanted cech and he got him.
If Arsene Wenger wants Benzema, he will get him.
So lets just get behind him and support/accept his decision.
CoYG
welbeck out for another 5 weeks????
what kind of injury takes recovery which becomes longer every week?
Awful performance so far. Bunch of scared players frozen in headlights. Hope for some proper focus on the second half.
Not sure why Ramseys goal was disallowed though.
Much better second half but once again too many missed chances.
Unforgivable first half really shows the players are not able to give full focus and effort over a season.
Badly need a striker. Giroud is terrible.