the monday before the storm

Good morning, well I don’t really mean “good” morning because I’ve been up since 1am and now I’ve spent the last 6 hours watching bad movies and horrible television.  Regardless, I shall soldier on.

Ahead of the Carling Cup match against Tottenham on Tuesday there’s very little team news. Probably most significant is Wenger’s admission that he will be forced to use “first team” players due to injuries and whatnot. He won’t say who but a blind man could see that Arsenal are missing three central defenders. So, let’s take a wild guess at who might cover at that spot? Hmmm… Mowhawk… Captain… French… I can’t for the life of me guess who.

I don’t see Wenger starting Adebayor or Cesc or Clichy or really anyone from the first team unless there is an injury. Wenger approaches the Carling Cup as a means of bringing up young players and also is wary of picking up an injury. And As I was writing that he updated who will be playing; none of the first team players (except Gallas) from Saturday (link above).

Spuds, of course, will be playing everyone — hell, they’d borrow someone if they thought it would help them win. Because they think the Carling Cup is the most important tournament in the world. I would feel the same way if I was a mid-table club with an insanely optimistic outlook but no real chance of winning anything. Their attitude toward the CC is what sparked the ticket dust-up in the link above. Fortunately, the ticket situation has been sorted out and tickets will be sold at the lower “B” rate.

I love David Bentley, don’t you? How about Aliadiere? Both players essentially level the same complaint: Arsenal take the game too seriously. How is that a fault? Is that like one of those trick answers that you give at an interview? “What would you say your biggest fault is, Mr. Wenger?” “I’d say it’s that I ask my players to be professional, work hard, and take football seriously.” “That’s a real shame, don’t call us, we’ll call you!

Fuck off Bentley. If you want to play recreational football with your friends, go ahead I’m guessing there’s a pickup match every weekend. But if you want to be a professional footballer, you’re going to have to put in hard work. Al lot of hard work.  And even then, you might not make the grade. As for Aliadiere, I think he’s just piling on. Wenger gave him, literally, dozens of chances to show what he could do and he just wasn’t good enough to play at a top team. He has to know that, when, after 16 appearances for Middlesborough he has only one goal. That would be a poor tally for an Englishman.

Anyway, enough about those two. There’s a Carling Cup match tomorrow and I know it’s playing at Doyle’s in Tacoma. Head down there if you don’t have Setanta.

See you all later!

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