Hello.
It's Spurs tomorrow, as we try to keep our title hopes alive and nothing less than a win will do.
Our recent results weren't very good. Two wins, a draw and two defeats can hardly be called the champions style, especially as we've dropped points against a hapless Stoke and the weakest United side in years. In case City and Chelsea win their respective games today, we'll wake up tomorrow sitting fourth in the league table, ten points adrift the Blues. Therefore, a win tomorrow becomes absolutely vital.
It's going to be hard to get it against Spurs, though. Whatever their recent form is, regardless of what happened before, derby is a special game and Tottenham will do the utmost to disappoint us.
As to who will be able to play at Lane, Arsene's press conference took place yesterday and there's mixed news.
To confirm what we already knew, Ozil pulled his hamstring on the 2nd minute of our encounter with Bayern and will spend several weeks on the sidelines. Wenger said it's a grade two hamstring, so the German will spend three to six weeks out. He went on to say, that we have the chance to win the title even without our star playmaker:
"It is of course a blow but I am confident we have the quality without him during that period. We have many creative players in our squad who can take over and produce quality performances. I am convinced that the team is ready, even without Ozil, to go for the challenge".
As if the situation wasn't bad enough already, Ramsey seems to have suffered yet another setback and will spend two more weeks out of the game. I hope it's more caution on the manager's part than anything serious, though it's another crucial player we'll be sorely missing for the next two games. And given how badly we need to get six points in these, Ramsey's absence can become a genuine problem.
As such, Arsene will have to find suitable replacements and introducing Flamini in the centre of the park and either Cazorla or Rosicky under the striker look like the most obvious choices. However, I think it's Cazorla who'll get the nod. I really like Rosicky, but he can no longer play for ninety minutes and it'll be risky to ask him to. The Czech will run into the ground for the team, but, in as fragile state as we are in now, another injury may become the breaking point.
This leaves our left flank exposed and Podolski will most likely be called up upon to plug the hole. His recent performance tells you he can be very effective both defensively and in front of goal, so let's hope he keeps it up and delivers when we really need him to.
In other news, Kallstrom and Monreal should be back for the clash, while Gibbs faces a late fitness test. Rumor has it the Englishman is alright, so he'll probably come back into the team at Vermaelen's expense. Our skipper has done very well, though, so it won't be a simple decision to omit the Belgian, even taking into account that left-back isn't his strongest position. A nice selection headache for Arsene.
The overall situation still looks gloomy, though. No, I'm convinced we can get a win tomorrow with the players we have, but the fact that we head into the final (and also, crucial) part of the season without Ramsey, Whilshere, Ozil and Walcott it's disturbing, especially since we'll play the big teams, like City and Chelsea, who also happen to be our direct title rivals. While Ramsey may yet feature against Pellegrini's men, others will remain out long after that.
The manager has promised to investigate the reason behind our injures, if there's any:
“I am concerned that it happens, because if you look at our overall injury list going into such a final and decisive part of the season, we have no Wilshere, no Walcott, no Ozil, no Ramsey.
“We went to Bayern without Gibbs and Monreal. We are analysing very deeply why it happens and to see if there’s a link between all the injuries.
“For some it’s bad luck. For example, Walcott is completely bad luck. Wilshere, I don’t think it is linked with his history. The rest, maybe we have to find out why it happened".
While punks like Neville and Verhejen may just talk about our injury record, because they have nothing better to do and simply because they hate Arsenal, it's hard not to see that our every season is injury-infested. This season we just happen to have a very even squad, so the effects may not be so telling, but it's still no good losing your best players. If there's any specific reason(s) for this, we have to find and take care of these.
Finally for today, Bendtner was spotted (to put it mildly) in Copenhagen and, as you might expect, it wasn't because he made a generous donation to some children's hospital or declared his desire to fight against racism.
He was involved in a drunken brawl with a cab driver, from what I gather and this seems to have finally depleted the manager's patience limit:
"I don't know exactly what happened because I haven't spoken to him yet, the only thing that is for sure is that he had nothing to do in Copenhagen," said an angry Wenger. "Nobody gave him any permission to go there so he will be fined for that. Has he created some problem there? I don't know."
The Dane had recently complained that mass media has portrayed him as a psychopath, but, even if they overdid it a bit, it's not like they didn't have reason to. Bendtner's antics off the pitch earned him a kind of fame he couldn't get on it, so I'm glad he'll be leaving in the summer. The Dane will definitely have problems finding a new club, but these won't be OUR problems.
So, that's all there is to say and I'll get back to you with a review on Monday.
Meanwhile, let's get a win at Lane
It's Spurs tomorrow, as we try to keep our title hopes alive and nothing less than a win will do.
Our recent results weren't very good. Two wins, a draw and two defeats can hardly be called the champions style, especially as we've dropped points against a hapless Stoke and the weakest United side in years. In case City and Chelsea win their respective games today, we'll wake up tomorrow sitting fourth in the league table, ten points adrift the Blues. Therefore, a win tomorrow becomes absolutely vital.
It's going to be hard to get it against Spurs, though. Whatever their recent form is, regardless of what happened before, derby is a special game and Tottenham will do the utmost to disappoint us.
As to who will be able to play at Lane, Arsene's press conference took place yesterday and there's mixed news.
To confirm what we already knew, Ozil pulled his hamstring on the 2nd minute of our encounter with Bayern and will spend several weeks on the sidelines. Wenger said it's a grade two hamstring, so the German will spend three to six weeks out. He went on to say, that we have the chance to win the title even without our star playmaker:
"It is of course a blow but I am confident we have the quality without him during that period. We have many creative players in our squad who can take over and produce quality performances. I am convinced that the team is ready, even without Ozil, to go for the challenge".
As if the situation wasn't bad enough already, Ramsey seems to have suffered yet another setback and will spend two more weeks out of the game. I hope it's more caution on the manager's part than anything serious, though it's another crucial player we'll be sorely missing for the next two games. And given how badly we need to get six points in these, Ramsey's absence can become a genuine problem.
As such, Arsene will have to find suitable replacements and introducing Flamini in the centre of the park and either Cazorla or Rosicky under the striker look like the most obvious choices. However, I think it's Cazorla who'll get the nod. I really like Rosicky, but he can no longer play for ninety minutes and it'll be risky to ask him to. The Czech will run into the ground for the team, but, in as fragile state as we are in now, another injury may become the breaking point.
This leaves our left flank exposed and Podolski will most likely be called up upon to plug the hole. His recent performance tells you he can be very effective both defensively and in front of goal, so let's hope he keeps it up and delivers when we really need him to.
In other news, Kallstrom and Monreal should be back for the clash, while Gibbs faces a late fitness test. Rumor has it the Englishman is alright, so he'll probably come back into the team at Vermaelen's expense. Our skipper has done very well, though, so it won't be a simple decision to omit the Belgian, even taking into account that left-back isn't his strongest position. A nice selection headache for Arsene.
The overall situation still looks gloomy, though. No, I'm convinced we can get a win tomorrow with the players we have, but the fact that we head into the final (and also, crucial) part of the season without Ramsey, Whilshere, Ozil and Walcott it's disturbing, especially since we'll play the big teams, like City and Chelsea, who also happen to be our direct title rivals. While Ramsey may yet feature against Pellegrini's men, others will remain out long after that.
The manager has promised to investigate the reason behind our injures, if there's any:
“I am concerned that it happens, because if you look at our overall injury list going into such a final and decisive part of the season, we have no Wilshere, no Walcott, no Ozil, no Ramsey.
“We went to Bayern without Gibbs and Monreal. We are analysing very deeply why it happens and to see if there’s a link between all the injuries.
“For some it’s bad luck. For example, Walcott is completely bad luck. Wilshere, I don’t think it is linked with his history. The rest, maybe we have to find out why it happened".
While punks like Neville and Verhejen may just talk about our injury record, because they have nothing better to do and simply because they hate Arsenal, it's hard not to see that our every season is injury-infested. This season we just happen to have a very even squad, so the effects may not be so telling, but it's still no good losing your best players. If there's any specific reason(s) for this, we have to find and take care of these.
Finally for today, Bendtner was spotted (to put it mildly) in Copenhagen and, as you might expect, it wasn't because he made a generous donation to some children's hospital or declared his desire to fight against racism.
He was involved in a drunken brawl with a cab driver, from what I gather and this seems to have finally depleted the manager's patience limit:
"I don't know exactly what happened because I haven't spoken to him yet, the only thing that is for sure is that he had nothing to do in Copenhagen," said an angry Wenger. "Nobody gave him any permission to go there so he will be fined for that. Has he created some problem there? I don't know."
The Dane had recently complained that mass media has portrayed him as a psychopath, but, even if they overdid it a bit, it's not like they didn't have reason to. Bendtner's antics off the pitch earned him a kind of fame he couldn't get on it, so I'm glad he'll be leaving in the summer. The Dane will definitely have problems finding a new club, but these won't be OUR problems.
So, that's all there is to say and I'll get back to you with a review on Monday.
Meanwhile, let's get a win at Lane