Hello everyone,
A lot going on, little of it good, so I'll start with the good tidbits.
Yesterday all friendlies and qualifiers were played, meaninig the players have all returned by now and will start prepping themselves for the opening game against Villa. Quite a few of them were involved too, with Cazorla and Walcott scoring some very nice goals, while Whilshere's appearance was restricted to 45 minutes only, which is a good thing. It's refreshing to see the national manager (Hodgson, that is) making good on his promise, understand the delicacy of the player's situation and listen to Wenger all at once. And just a few more words about Walcott. His goal encapsulated everything good about his game in recent months (a year, maybe). Firstly, it was an equalizer. A crucial goal, that needed scoring in a match so hotly contested for obvious reasons. He stepped up, took the responsibility and delivered. Secondly, the goal was all about timing the run from behind the defender, and Theo nailed it. We all can recall, how often he was caught offside, when failing to time one of these runs even last season. Now, however, he seems to have got the hang of it, and even when caught offside, isn't miles away from being onside. And thirdly, the finishing. The english winger waited for the defender to run past and slotted the ball into the bottom corner, while making it all look ridiculously easy, when it was anything but. A true masterpiece of a goal.
Everything good ends here, however. The slew of matches not only brought beautiful goals, highlighting individual skill, but also a fresh batch of new injures. The manager added Arteta to our growing list of fallen soldiers, while also saying Monreal's injury is worse than expected and our left-back will be out for ten more days. Wenger also portrayed Arteta's injury as "a doubt", rather than something, that's going to keep him out of the forthcoming match. However, just a few short hours ago, Goal.com reported that Arteta's "knock" is much more serious, than initially expected and, not only is it going to affect Arteta's chances to feature on Saturday, it is to keep him out of action fot three to four weeks.
This is currently unconfirmed by the manager and I pray the site messed it all up (or just made it all up), but it seems unlikely. This is not another debated transfer, so I see no reason to make it up, while the silence from the boss can easily be explained by him not knowing the seriousness of the situation, when holding a press-conference. If this news is indeed true (and I've given my reasons, why it looks that way), we're stretched to breaking point in terms of players availability. Ramsey is a doubt, having not featured for the national team, Rosicky is even more so, being an absentee during our trip to Helsinki and Cazorla has just returned from a meaningless friendly, held at the world's end and we all know about Wenger's reluctance to play, eh, players after long flights. Which only leaves Jack Whilshere as our only fit and able senior. One player for three positions, not bad, is it?
The situation is further worsened by the fact, that Sagna and aforementioned Walcott seemed to have sustained ankle and knee injures respectively, which leaves us with no real options in defense and on the flanks. Such is the threadbareness of our squad that a knock here and a bruise there leaves the manager with no choice, when it comes to picking the starting eleven. The whole situation doesn't scare me anymore, it leaves me completely downhearted.
A lot going on, little of it good, so I'll start with the good tidbits.
Yesterday all friendlies and qualifiers were played, meaninig the players have all returned by now and will start prepping themselves for the opening game against Villa. Quite a few of them were involved too, with Cazorla and Walcott scoring some very nice goals, while Whilshere's appearance was restricted to 45 minutes only, which is a good thing. It's refreshing to see the national manager (Hodgson, that is) making good on his promise, understand the delicacy of the player's situation and listen to Wenger all at once. And just a few more words about Walcott. His goal encapsulated everything good about his game in recent months (a year, maybe). Firstly, it was an equalizer. A crucial goal, that needed scoring in a match so hotly contested for obvious reasons. He stepped up, took the responsibility and delivered. Secondly, the goal was all about timing the run from behind the defender, and Theo nailed it. We all can recall, how often he was caught offside, when failing to time one of these runs even last season. Now, however, he seems to have got the hang of it, and even when caught offside, isn't miles away from being onside. And thirdly, the finishing. The english winger waited for the defender to run past and slotted the ball into the bottom corner, while making it all look ridiculously easy, when it was anything but. A true masterpiece of a goal.
Everything good ends here, however. The slew of matches not only brought beautiful goals, highlighting individual skill, but also a fresh batch of new injures. The manager added Arteta to our growing list of fallen soldiers, while also saying Monreal's injury is worse than expected and our left-back will be out for ten more days. Wenger also portrayed Arteta's injury as "a doubt", rather than something, that's going to keep him out of the forthcoming match. However, just a few short hours ago, Goal.com reported that Arteta's "knock" is much more serious, than initially expected and, not only is it going to affect Arteta's chances to feature on Saturday, it is to keep him out of action fot three to four weeks.
This is currently unconfirmed by the manager and I pray the site messed it all up (or just made it all up), but it seems unlikely. This is not another debated transfer, so I see no reason to make it up, while the silence from the boss can easily be explained by him not knowing the seriousness of the situation, when holding a press-conference. If this news is indeed true (and I've given my reasons, why it looks that way), we're stretched to breaking point in terms of players availability. Ramsey is a doubt, having not featured for the national team, Rosicky is even more so, being an absentee during our trip to Helsinki and Cazorla has just returned from a meaningless friendly, held at the world's end and we all know about Wenger's reluctance to play, eh, players after long flights. Which only leaves Jack Whilshere as our only fit and able senior. One player for three positions, not bad, is it?
The situation is further worsened by the fact, that Sagna and aforementioned Walcott seemed to have sustained ankle and knee injures respectively, which leaves us with no real options in defense and on the flanks. Such is the threadbareness of our squad that a knock here and a bruise there leaves the manager with no choice, when it comes to picking the starting eleven. The whole situation doesn't scare me anymore, it leaves me completely downhearted.
To be honest with you, never have I entered a new season with my spirits being so low. We gave ourselves a wonderful platform last season, by beating Tottenham to fourth place, securing Champions League football by the skins of our teeth and getting 26 points out of 30. Given our newly-found financial resources, I saw no reason not to improve our squad and really kick on next season. I still don't. I looked in quiet awe all summer, how we got rid ourselves of all the deadwood with ruthless efficiency, so that with two weeks to go we only have Bendther and Park to take care of. Yet we remained inexplicably ineffecient, when it came to bringing players in. Even in previous transfer windows we weren't so apathetic. A year ago we lost van Persie and Song, but quickly brought in quality replacements long before the deadline day. Two years ago Fabregas, Nasri, Eboue and Clichy left us all at once, but again we brought players in to replace the ones that went (if, in some cases, a little late. Well, not a little, but still.) We even did more. Prior to this deadline day madness, which saw us sign Arteta, Mertesacker and Santos, we bought Gervinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jenkinson. Yes, we've mostly been proactive, but this time around we don't see even that. Sure, the players we've lost are nowhere near as good in terms of quality as van Persie and Fabregas, but what they lacked in quality, they made up in numbers, at the very least. And now, beyond 18 (plus poor Yaya) senior players we have a bunch of kids queuing up for the Villa game. I don't know in how bad a mess we should find ourselves, before we bring in reinforcements we so acutely need.
I'll leave it at that. Back tomorrow for a full game preview.
No comments:
Post a Comment