Short blog today because there’s no real news to “report.”
Tomorrow at 11am PST, Arsenal will be playing FC Dynamo Kyiv in the frozen wasteland of Kyiv as the first test in their Champions League qualifying round. Who knew that Kiev was now spelled Kyiv? Damn Russians are trying to change our American spellings!
The game will be live here in the states on ESPN360 and on Setanta, which means that if you’re in town and you want to watch the game, you’ll have to head on over to Doyle’s. I think a few of us are going to try to show up to watch the match and then go back to work.
On the injury front, Silvestre is supposedly healthy, Nasri is in doubt, and Clichy has declared himself fit. I’d love to see Nasri get another Champions League goal but something tells me that we’re going to see him get a rest. Same with Clichy, I mean the rest bit, if Silvestre is truly 100% I can’t see why the boss wouldn’t play him and give Gael a break. The only other player with question marks is Eboue, given the thinness of the squad in the wings right now, I’m pulling for him to be fit. That is all I’m going to say about Eboue.
From the long term injury list there’s still no word on how much longer Diaby will be out and there’s a deafening silence surrounding Thomas Rosicky. I honestly believe we will never see the latter in an Arsenal shirt again and the former’s injury is a bit perplexing: exactly what kind of thigh injury did Diaby sustain that would keep him out for three weeks?
In transfer news, Arsenal’s Indian Summer Transfer Sideshow has finally concluded with the non-signing of octogenarian and little person Mineiro. Now, watch the press re-link Arsenal to Appiah, after all his future was supposed to have been sorted by last Friday and no word on who he signed with, so HE MUST BE COMING BACK TO ARSENAL!
Finally… it warms my heart to read headlines like “The last time Spurs were this bad they beat the drop by one point but Ramos is unconcerned.” I’ve said it before, I don’t really have the intense rivalry with Spurs that the older generation has because for the majority of the time that I’ve been an Arsenal fan, Man U and Chelsea were bigger rivals but I still recognize the old antagonisms. So, of course, I get a schadenfreude chuckle knowing that the team that spend £70m revamping their squad AGAIN this year in order to break into the top four seriously looks like a relegation bound team at this point in the season (I know, it’s early). It’s especially poignant because of all the hue and cry for Arsenal to spend big this summer “or else.” Look at how much Spuds have spent and what has it gotten them? Even more to the point is look at who they bought: all of the “hot” prospects from Euro 2008. HA! Good luck in the second division, Dave!
Ok, that’s about it for the day except to say that Wenger is saying a draw will do, which he’s absolutely correct about. So, let’s try not to suck! See you tomorrow.
just curious, but why do you think the way you do about rosicky?
Because if you look at his injury history of reported injuries followed by what he really was suffering from, there’s a pattern that indicates the kid is more injured than the team ever let on.
His hamstring has been done no less than 5 times, his groin 3. Then they admitted that he needed “knee” surgery to fix the problem so he gets that done and just as he starts light training he gets a knee injury again.
Each time he’s injured, he make a very brief comeback only to go down injured again. Moreover, each injury has been worse than the last with longer times out, and more drastic measures taken to get him healthy.
In those cases, it’s almost always the kind of problem that cannot be overcome.