Morning all!
"Massive" match today against Partizan tonight at the Emirates. We should have had the group wrapped up long ago but here we are now, on the last day of the group stages with the prospect that we could not qualify to the last sixteen. It's not as bad as it might sound, we're on nine points along with Braga who are playing group leaders Shakhtar tonight. Our goal difference is slightly better than Braga's (we're on +9 to Braga's -4 !) so as long as we win we'll be going through to the next round, no matter what happens in the match between Shakhtar and Braga. This also means that as long as Shakhtar bear Braga, a draw will be good enough for us tonight.
The merry-go-round at the centre of our defence carries on. Djourou is now apparently out due to minor thigh injury and Laurent Koscielny is back after recovering from calling Squillaci's mum a prossie (or whatever the comment was which got him headbutted by Seb!).
The only other real news on the squad for tonight is that it'll be a toss-up as to whether RVP & the Eubouesaurus Rex are given a starting spots or whether they'll begin on the bench. Wenger's already stated the rest of the squad will be the same as that which started against Fulham.
Onto other news, Samir's getting ready for a pay rise. He shows that he made a good decision not to negotiate at the end of last season because he felt he had more to offer the club than what he showed last season. According to Wenger, Samir's the 'new Thierry Henry'. If this is the case then I'm looking forward to the Samir Nasri Renault Clio adverts at some time in the near future! "Bobbie?" "Sammie?" [both said in faux French accents].
Both Clichy and Arshavin (littleman/big mouth syndrome) are due to start contract negotiations with the club soon so hopefully they'll take a leaf out of Nasri's book and put a little bit more 'oomph' into their performances this season (but to be fair I have been impressed with Andrey, he might not be scoring lots but the little Russian is creating goals).
Keeping on Andrey, he's shown himself to be at least as intelligent as the rest of us by pointing out our defensive frailties. "We struggle all the time in defence", spot on Andrey. 18 goals in 16 appearances? Spot on old son. I do hope the team takes note, hopefully some pressure from our forwards will get our defenders' arses in gear. The forwards are doing what we need of them, THEY'RE scoring goals. Whilst it's correct that the entire team needs to defend better the defence need to tighten up and get a few clean sheets under their belts.
Jack Wilshere and Rio Ferdinand have been tweeting each other on such mighty subjects as 'can i have your shirt next week?', one can only wonder at the other items of intellectual note that pass between them. "Yo bruv, I got the new blue turtle Pokemon!", "Sweeeeet cha, dat da one which can breathe fire out its ass AND turn invisible yo?" or "Jaah boi! Who would you reckon in a fight yeah between like da Easter bunny & Santa?" "Geezer my money's on Santa yeah cause like you don't diss the big man BEFORE he drops your presents off, know what I'm sayin'?". Knowing what the marketing departments at Arsenal and Man United are like, get ready for the interactive DVD of their comical stylings to be available in time for Christmas.
I see little point in talking about Wenger's comments on the sacking of Chris Houghton at Newcastle, long live Mike Ashley is all I'll say. I love watching Newcastle fans cry at the end of the season. If only we could somehow contrive to get Mike Ashley to replace Daniel Levy at Sp*rs we could get to see the glorious sight of Spud fans crying at the end of the season.....
The transfer news front is on a chilled out day today. We're being linked to a deal for Zagreb's teenage defender Sime Vrsaljko. Though £10 million plus is slightly over what I'd pay for a teenager with no experience in any of the top European leagues. I'd prefer Sakho, he's a centreback as opposed to Vrsaljko who's a rightback by trade and has proven more than decent in the Italian league.
Oliver Khan, in German paper Bild, has told Manuel Neuer to join either us or Man United if the young German international wants to continue to develop as a player. I'd LOVE Neuer as our keeper, been tracking his development as a player over the past few years after a tip from a German cousin of mine and, I reckon at any rate, he'll develop into a world class keeper. Our last German keeper was good, apart from Jens moment of madness at the start of our Champions League final clash against Barca where he momentarily forgot that he was a keeper and decided he was a Panzer tank on a blitzkrieg mission. Fingers crossed on this one.
Well that's the round up for today over! Still bloody freezing in London so I hope all who are coming to Emirates tonight wrap up warm, and even if they don't, let's hope the sparks flying from tonight's contest will warm us all up!
The Afterthought.
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