Morning everyone.
Tonight we have another one of those midweek games, but it's the last one (at least for the next couple of weeks), when the manager can loosen his grip on the squad.
That's not to say we are to take the opposition lightly. Before the game, Arsene spoke of warning signs:
"We are lucky at the moment, we get good warnings. We had a good warning before we went to Cardiff, and we have another good warning from Hull's performance against Liverpool".
Hull is clearly a capable side, but given we are title contenders, we should be able to cope with those challenges. I always thought it's not hugely important to win every game against a big team like Chelsea or United (though the latter is getting smaller by the minute), as long as you beat lesser opposition on a regular basis. Sure, you cannot drop points against your direct rivals in every game, but a slip up or two won't hurt that much, if we won five games in a row before finally dropping points.
This year, there's no messing around. Whether we play home or away, the attitude is the same. The fact we are playing against Liverpool, Borussia or Cardiff doesn't influence our approach. We seem to take every opponent seriously, which saw us smash lesser teams to pieces, deliver convincing performances against equals and even scrape out results against sides that (at the moment of playing them, at least) looked slightly better. And that, in my opinion, is how things should be done, if we want to go the distance this season.
Back to Hull, however, and we have a freshly injured player in Sagna. The manager said, the knock is only a light one, so fingers crossed, he's not just playing it down, so as to escape the ensuing panic.
And panic is the right word, cause, however hard-working and honest Jenkinson is, he is not ready to play on a consistent basis just yet. And we have a lot of crucial fixtures up next, so keeping Sagna fit should top our priority list, at least for tonight.
The same should apply to Giroud, Ramsey and probably Ozil. They've played a lot of minutes recently, so a little breather can't hurt. All three are integral to our set-up, to lose them now would be a massive blow. This game is a last chance to rest them, something Arsene said he'll do. Flamini for Ramsey, Rosicky for Ozil and Walcott for Giroud seem obvious choices. We'll have to adjust our style of play to fit Walcott's qualities, which are quite different to those of Giroud, but we have to tackle this problem sooner or later anyway, because the Frenchman is only a human being, of blood, flesh and all that, so we can't possibly expect him to play every game. We should consider spending some money on someone like Djeko, whose play style is similar to Giroud's, so as not to find ourselves in a difficult spot, when the Frenchman is rested.
Speaking of money-spending, there already are various reports, linking us with every player on planet Earth. I try my best to not spoon-feed you this crap (honestly, the transfer window is closed, what transfers can we accomplish right now?), but even the manager has to withstand the press attacks. Arsene was quizzed on a possible move for Morata or Pato, but his response was as negative, as it was short. We are not in on them.
However, he also mentioned, we may not buy a striker at all. A bit surprising, given our current situation, but the manager's confidence was probably boosted by Walcott's return, Podolski's comeback (he may feature next week already) and Sanogo's, erm, existence. We may have forgotten about the Frenchman, but Arsene clearly hasn't. I still think, he's (Yaya, that is) not ready to play at this level, but our manager may know something we don't.
That's basically it for today. Here's for the three points later on and I'll be back tomorrow with a review.
Until then
Tonight we have another one of those midweek games, but it's the last one (at least for the next couple of weeks), when the manager can loosen his grip on the squad.
That's not to say we are to take the opposition lightly. Before the game, Arsene spoke of warning signs:
"We are lucky at the moment, we get good warnings. We had a good warning before we went to Cardiff, and we have another good warning from Hull's performance against Liverpool".
Hull is clearly a capable side, but given we are title contenders, we should be able to cope with those challenges. I always thought it's not hugely important to win every game against a big team like Chelsea or United (though the latter is getting smaller by the minute), as long as you beat lesser opposition on a regular basis. Sure, you cannot drop points against your direct rivals in every game, but a slip up or two won't hurt that much, if we won five games in a row before finally dropping points.
This year, there's no messing around. Whether we play home or away, the attitude is the same. The fact we are playing against Liverpool, Borussia or Cardiff doesn't influence our approach. We seem to take every opponent seriously, which saw us smash lesser teams to pieces, deliver convincing performances against equals and even scrape out results against sides that (at the moment of playing them, at least) looked slightly better. And that, in my opinion, is how things should be done, if we want to go the distance this season.
Back to Hull, however, and we have a freshly injured player in Sagna. The manager said, the knock is only a light one, so fingers crossed, he's not just playing it down, so as to escape the ensuing panic.
And panic is the right word, cause, however hard-working and honest Jenkinson is, he is not ready to play on a consistent basis just yet. And we have a lot of crucial fixtures up next, so keeping Sagna fit should top our priority list, at least for tonight.
The same should apply to Giroud, Ramsey and probably Ozil. They've played a lot of minutes recently, so a little breather can't hurt. All three are integral to our set-up, to lose them now would be a massive blow. This game is a last chance to rest them, something Arsene said he'll do. Flamini for Ramsey, Rosicky for Ozil and Walcott for Giroud seem obvious choices. We'll have to adjust our style of play to fit Walcott's qualities, which are quite different to those of Giroud, but we have to tackle this problem sooner or later anyway, because the Frenchman is only a human being, of blood, flesh and all that, so we can't possibly expect him to play every game. We should consider spending some money on someone like Djeko, whose play style is similar to Giroud's, so as not to find ourselves in a difficult spot, when the Frenchman is rested.
Speaking of money-spending, there already are various reports, linking us with every player on planet Earth. I try my best to not spoon-feed you this crap (honestly, the transfer window is closed, what transfers can we accomplish right now?), but even the manager has to withstand the press attacks. Arsene was quizzed on a possible move for Morata or Pato, but his response was as negative, as it was short. We are not in on them.
However, he also mentioned, we may not buy a striker at all. A bit surprising, given our current situation, but the manager's confidence was probably boosted by Walcott's return, Podolski's comeback (he may feature next week already) and Sanogo's, erm, existence. We may have forgotten about the Frenchman, but Arsene clearly hasn't. I still think, he's (Yaya, that is) not ready to play at this level, but our manager may know something we don't.
That's basically it for today. Here's for the three points later on and I'll be back tomorrow with a review.
Until then