Saturday, September 11th, 2010 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does
By Gordon Driver and Tony Attwood
We thought today that we might do a sort of match day Untold programme, complete with special feature (the interview with Cesc), plus an updated preview of the game, and the like. (Phil is currently installing himself in his new university in France, and so can’t make it this week. He sends profound apologies).
So here we go…
Gordon: So Cesc, how long do you think Arsenal will keep you?
Cesc: You will need to ask the boss.
Gordon: So Arsène, how long will you keep Cesc?
AW: There are so many imponderables that it is impossible to predict what the future holds.
Cesc: (To AW) May I?
AW: Of course.
Cesc: In central midfield we have Alex, Abou, Deni, Tomas, Sami and me. There is no other team that can match this quality in depth. No other team in the world. This, however, will only play a small part in his decision. The large part will be that in Aaron and Jack we have players, one or both of whom will become better than I am now. When that happens, it would make sense for Arsenal to cash in on me.
Gordon: When do think that will happen?
Cesc: Probably 2 years, possibly 3 years, outside chance for 1 year.
Gordon: You say “better than I am now”. Please elaborate.
Cesc: I am better today than yesterday. Tomorrow I will be better than today. I do not know when that process will stop, but I’m sure it will continue through this season. Then an improvement in consistency and I will become a finished product!
Gordon: Thank you Cesc.
Wakes up………………….
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The Grand Match Preview
Wild scenes on the Holloway Road today as Billy the Dog and his lady are carried by anti-grav machine to the stadium and installed in the O2 bubble. Police will be called and there is a chance the match could be abandoned. A full report later.
As reported earlier, we’ve had internationals so everyone is injured.
The team is
Manuel Almunia
Sagna, Koscielny, Squillaci, Clichy (Gibbs, Djourou)
Alex Song, (Diaby, Denilson)
Cesc Fabregas, Youngboy Wilshere (Nasri, Eboue, Lansbury)
Tomas Rosicky, Andrey Arshavin, Marouane Chamakh (Vela)
The injury crisis
- Vermaelen (achilles, 18 Sep),
- Bendtner (groin, 15 Oct),
- Van Persie (ankle, 15 Oct),
- Walcott (ankle, 15 Oct),
- Ramsey (broken leg, Nov),
- Frimpong (knee, May).
I (that’s Tony at this point) was in my own little way wondering what effect the injury situation had on the Lord Wenger in terms of his philosophy, the other day, and as you will know if you have been paying attention we are now doing a series after every game comparing the injury crisis of each club.
Some bright spark wrote a piece on a blog (not this one) pointing out Wenger’s failure in buying another forward when he had the chance.
But the point is, it ain’t just us. Look at Man City. Wallet the size of a planet and they still can’t find a centre forward.
Tevez returned from Argentina with a calf injury, the old Wallet himself, Mre Adebayor has a hamstring problem and the young Turk Balotelli is out for six weeks following a knee operation. Oh woe! Oh crisis! Oh bugger! They now have to use the 8 thousand million pound man Jô, starting an EPL game for the first time in 2000 years.
Tottenham also lost some “players” (although in their case I use the word lightly).
The League Table
- 1 Chelsea 9 points
- 2 Arsenal, goals for 9 against 3, 7 points
- 3 Man Utd 7 points
- 4 Aston Villa 6 points
- 5 Bolton, goals for 5 against 3, 5 points
So bit of a top of the table clash on September 11th, while in the lower reaches Liverpool and Tottenham hope against hope that this might be their day to creep into the top half of the league.
Top news in Bolton
According to the local paper’s web site it is Plea to end this parking misery My goodness they know how to live tup norf.
With the regular keeper suspended Bolton have got a reserve Hungarian 22 year old “between the sticks” as the local papers say. Apparently he is a “lanky Beatnik crime-solver from the Scooby Doo cartoons.” Now you know
Elsewhere in the Bolton News there is the story that Owen Coyle reckons he turned Jack Wilshere from a boy into a man at the Notlob school of hard knocks. (Although to be fair Mr Coyle has done a very respectful article about oor Jack, and praises him to the heavens. Indeed by and large I would agree that the loan session in the far and dim wastelands of the industrial revolution actually did him a lot of good.)
So far Bolton has drawn 0-0 with Fulham, beaten WHU 3-1 away, drawn 2-2 with Birmingham, and beaten Southampton 1-0 in the league cup. The crowd for the last home game (Birmingham) was 18,139 so it is possible that the team might be a little put off by the number of ticket touts outside Arsenal station, and positively petrified by the number inside the ground.
Bolton last beat Arsenal in 1962 – George Swindin’s last as manager. Today, 7-0 to Arsenal.
Now, off to the rickshaw ride.