Evening everyone.
In a few hours time, Everton comes to town to try and take points from a big club fro the second time inside four days. Which, I hope, they'll be unable to accomplish.
Both City and Chelsea dropped points yesterday (ha!) so a win will elevate us seven points above the second place. Which means even if we lose to BOTH Chelsea and City in upcoming games, we'll stay top. Not that I think we have any intention of dropping points in these matches. It's merely to demonstrate, how good the start of our season is.
In terms of team news, we are without Sagna and will be without him for at least one more game. Far from ideal, but either way we cannot expect him to play every single minute in every single game. The fact, that his contract situation is not getting any better, is not helping too. It looks like the Frenchman's last season with us (which is both sad and wrong), but the reality is, we need to learn to cope without him. I still think, Jenks isn't ready for such a weight of responsibility, but I've heard some talk of us being interested in Johnson. Don't know, how much truth there is to this rumour. The way Sagna has been playing this season needs to be rewarded with a new deal, in my opinion, but the manager may have a different opinion, based on his own observations. Still, I'll hope for the better. For the Frenchman staying, that is.
Apart from Sagna, everyone else is available. Giroud should come back into the side after his midweek rest and Arsene has a pretty good dilemma, choosing between Monreal and Gibbs at left-back. Apart from that, I fancy an Arteta-Flamini partnership in central midfield to counter the threat of Lukaku and Co. This way, the Spaniard will provide cover for Mertesacker and Koscielny, while Mathieu will patrol the flanks to help our full-backs.
The manager has once again warned the players of the dangers, this Everton side poses, but I don't think the players need that. There seems to be a maturity to this group of footballers I have already talked about, so we won't take anyone lightly. Everton may have a good recent record (five clean sheets in six games), but we've already showed, what we can do to teams with low good defences. Let's pull this trick off once again.
Elsewhere, Arsene seems to be on the brink of signing a tree-year contract extension, which can see him become second-highest manager in the Premier League. The sum is rumoured to be around £8 million a year. What is interesting, is that the man himself doesn't want to sign until next year. I remember him saying, he will first see Arsenal through to the knockout stages of the Champions League, so, should everything go well, Arsene will put his signature on the dotted line in four days time. Fingers crossed.
Not much else happening, but you can have a read on how Ozil has adapted to his life in London and also, what the manager thinks about Bendtner. It's well worth your time.
Here's for the (seventh straight home) win later and I'll be back tomorrow with a review
Until then
In a few hours time, Everton comes to town to try and take points from a big club fro the second time inside four days. Which, I hope, they'll be unable to accomplish.
Both City and Chelsea dropped points yesterday (ha!) so a win will elevate us seven points above the second place. Which means even if we lose to BOTH Chelsea and City in upcoming games, we'll stay top. Not that I think we have any intention of dropping points in these matches. It's merely to demonstrate, how good the start of our season is.
In terms of team news, we are without Sagna and will be without him for at least one more game. Far from ideal, but either way we cannot expect him to play every single minute in every single game. The fact, that his contract situation is not getting any better, is not helping too. It looks like the Frenchman's last season with us (which is both sad and wrong), but the reality is, we need to learn to cope without him. I still think, Jenks isn't ready for such a weight of responsibility, but I've heard some talk of us being interested in Johnson. Don't know, how much truth there is to this rumour. The way Sagna has been playing this season needs to be rewarded with a new deal, in my opinion, but the manager may have a different opinion, based on his own observations. Still, I'll hope for the better. For the Frenchman staying, that is.
Apart from Sagna, everyone else is available. Giroud should come back into the side after his midweek rest and Arsene has a pretty good dilemma, choosing between Monreal and Gibbs at left-back. Apart from that, I fancy an Arteta-Flamini partnership in central midfield to counter the threat of Lukaku and Co. This way, the Spaniard will provide cover for Mertesacker and Koscielny, while Mathieu will patrol the flanks to help our full-backs.
The manager has once again warned the players of the dangers, this Everton side poses, but I don't think the players need that. There seems to be a maturity to this group of footballers I have already talked about, so we won't take anyone lightly. Everton may have a good recent record (five clean sheets in six games), but we've already showed, what we can do to teams with low good defences. Let's pull this trick off once again.
Elsewhere, Arsene seems to be on the brink of signing a tree-year contract extension, which can see him become second-highest manager in the Premier League. The sum is rumoured to be around £8 million a year. What is interesting, is that the man himself doesn't want to sign until next year. I remember him saying, he will first see Arsenal through to the knockout stages of the Champions League, so, should everything go well, Arsene will put his signature on the dotted line in four days time. Fingers crossed.
Not much else happening, but you can have a read on how Ozil has adapted to his life in London and also, what the manager thinks about Bendtner. It's well worth your time.
Here's for the (seventh straight home) win later and I'll be back tomorrow with a review
Until then