Good morning kickers, quick blog today because, well, because I feel like it.
Straight in with a two footed tackle to the shins, our opponents on Saturday (Blackburn, a pack of no talent hacks plus the greatest diver of all time) are talking shiat because they had a huge win over, erm, Fulham on Wednesday.
Half man-half shrew Stephen Warnock has sounded the alarm bells and said that they plan to run Arsenal off the pitch because both teams played on Wednesday but Arsenal played 30 minutes more than Blackburn and that means Blackburn have an advantage.
Yeah.
I just want to point out two things:
- No Sam Allardyce team has run Arsenal off the pitch in nearly 2.5 years (Nov. 2006).
- “You should have been in the dressing room after the game – it was like we’d just won the World Cup final. The atmosphere was brilliant.” — Theo Walcott talking about the team atmosphere after the Roma match.
- While Arsenal did play a bit more than Bolton, I mean Blackburn, they have better squad depth and Wenger’s rotation will see fresh, quality legs like Andrei Arsaviour coming in to the match.
Now, I know that that’s technically 3 things, but I think we can sort of conflate them into two things: Arsenal are on a three game win streak (Roma is a loss but you can’t tell me that’s not a win) and Blackburn can go f*ck themselves.
On the injury front, it turns out that Eduardo pulled his groin in the Roma match (which might account for his soft penalty) and is back out for a couple of weeks. Sad, but that’s how that works: it takes time to get your body used to playing at the top level after having your leg broken by Steven Taylor.
Who Wenger will play is up for debate, feel free to hash it out in the comments.
Finally, Diaby has said he doesn’t mind being dubbed the “new Vieira” despite looking nothing like him and playing no where near the same style of game. Yeah, sure, he’s the new Vieira. Kind of like “New Coke” was the new Coke and everyone hated it.
Actually, I like Diaby and he’s grown a bit in my estimation the last few matches. I kind of touched on this when spoke about how both Song and Denilson both seemed to play better with Diaby in there rather than each other. But look, it’s a string of three games, I’m not getting ahead of myself and hailing him as the new anything until I see some more consistency. That he says “What I must do is work as twice hard in order to improve” goes a long way toward raising my hopes that he will one day be the new Vieira. But for now, I’d settle for him just being the New Diaby.
Irregardless, the match is on Setanta tomorrow and the 3pm GMT kickoff is actually at 8am PST — remember, we should be GMT -8 but owing to the ridiculous fact that we start daylight savings early over here we are temporarily GMT -7, also, this is where I usually make a joke about how Bush ruined time for America.
I can’t make it down for the live match because I’m being a responsible father but I’ve asked Doyle’s if they can record the game for me. We’ll see, maybe I can get down there around noon and have a pint and watch the game. Drop me a note in the comments if you’re in the same boat for some reason.
Ashita Mañana.
Errm.., shouldn’t it be “Hasta manana”
Yes…
It’s an old joke between me and a friend who both speak Japanese and Spanish.
That isn’t how Ronaldo prefers to have his his tonsils checked.
Over here, people or their ideas are brilliant (or not). Inanimate things cannot be brilliant. Ahhh, those silly Brits. I’ll drink Guinness until it makes sense. Brilliant!
A light bulb can, in fact, be brilliant.
Doyle’s is recording the game, if you can’t make it to the 8am showing for some reason, let me know and we’ll try to get together for a later viewing.
It was Martin Taylor who broke Eduardo’s leg.
Sorry, I just can’t help myself.
Tim – any interest in catching the ManU-Liverpool game Saturday with me?
HOW DARE YOU POINT OUT MISTAKES???
Steven Taylor indeed… see I was looking at the box score for the last time Arsenal played an Allardyce team and it was Steven Taylor who scored Newcastle’s goal and well… that’s what happens when you write at 4am.
Alex, no can do, I have to watch my daughter tomorrow morning, which is why I’m missing the Arsenal match.
hey tim, enjoy the blog. why don’t you get setanta sports online so you can watch some matches from home when you just can’t make it to the pub(i’m assuming you can’t get setanta tv at home through your cable provider?). granted the atmosphere at the pub is better, but there are times when you just can’t make it down there. setanta online has been great for me over the last couple of weeks when i’ve been travelling. they don’t show the CL matches on the online channel, but all league and fa cup matches are shown same as on the tv channel, and they put them into archive fairly quickly so you can watch the next day, etc.
Re: Setanta.
This is the season when you should have had Setanta because for some unknown reason, they showed most of the Arsenal games. However, they are losing 1/2 of their current EPL package for next season so it will be interesting to see if they lower their rates. Most unlikely, the only things dropping are House prices and salaries.
Re: The Game
We will have a lot of tired legs on the field, but this is once instance where youth may work in our favor. Still don’t see Walcott being ready to start but Arsene may feel he has no option with that. I definitely expect to see Arshavin, Djourou, Vela and Gibbs in the starting lineup. Although I know it aint gonna happen, I would love to see Fabianski start over Almunia because of his superior box presence which will be needed against Samba and the other aerial thugs of Blackburn.
Let’s all hope we can take care of business and have our hated cross-town rivals, Tottenham, raise their game to beat Villa away. Regardless, nothing short of a win will do for us.
You’re right Tim, for the first time in his career, Diaby has played well in 4 consecutive games.
Just a thought. Last season we had three youngsters step up their game from day one and put a vice grip on their respective positions, Flamini, Clichy and Ade. Clichy left, and neither Clichy or Ade have managed to overcome the Sophomore jinx and even remotely live up to expectations.
This season I thought Walcott, Vela, Song and Diaby would step it up but they have not lived up to my expectations. And no, I purposely omitted Denilson as I don’t think he has “STAR” potential. Surprisingly, the least expected one, Djourou has cemented his place in the team and although Arsene doesn’t know it, provides a more balanced partnership with Gallas or Toure, rather than a Gallas/Toure combo. Vela was not given a chance and injury curtailed both Diaby and Walcott. Song started strong, had a weak middle season and is blowing hot and cold down the stretch.
It has really dawned on me that we are very lucky to be in 5th place and challenging for FA Cup and CL trophies with the very limited and inexperienced squad we currently have.