Good morning kickers, Aveline and the family had a wonderful Christmas and the Misses and I even got to get away for some drinks last night. I hope everyone had a great day yesterday irregardless your religious/celebratory beliefs.
Brief blog today, I don’t want to bore you all with 1,000 word diatribes so soon after yesterday’s festivities. Besides, there isn’t much Arsenal news ahead of tomorrow’s important clash with Villa.
The great news is that Traore will be included in the side. Silvestre is more experienced but Traore is markedly quicker both going back and going forward. We’ll need speed on both sides of the pitch to help contain Villa’s pacy wingers.
Le Boss said that Cesc is 50-50 and I’m of the mind that if he’s not 100% I don’t risk him. A small hamstring pull can become a full on 8 week hamstring tear remarkably quickly and as important as tomorrow’s match is the next 8 weeks represent the bulk of our season. Do you risk it?
It’s especially a risk when you consider that one thing Arsenal have plenty of is creative midfielders. While Cesc’s quality and new found power is in a sense irreplaceable you can’t deny the quality of the players who could fill in for him, when they are on their game. Diaby showed some flashes in the last match of the player we’ve all wanted him to become, Denilson is a good player, and when Rosicky gets healthy he can do the business there as well.
With Villa on a 4 match win streak (and a 7 match unbeaten run) plus a 3 match unbeaten run over Arsenal and a 2-0 win at Emirates last year, Villa are going to be supremely confident of coming in and getting a result. So, tomorrow’s match was always going to take a huge team effort and while Cesc’s quality would be missed, all XI Arsenal players will need to put in a massive performance with or without him.
The good news is that Arsenal have shown up for all but one big clash this season and they are all on 7 days rest, so they can make no excuses tomorrow. Are we a title contender or are we a team which will fight for second place?
Arsenal have 35 points from 17 games which puts them on pace to end the season with 78 points. Chelsea, even though they dropped points today against Birmingham Leg Breakers, still have 42 points from 19 games which puts them on pace for 84 points. Win the two games in hand, no easy task, and Arsenal will be at 41 points in 19 games. That would put us 1 point off current leaders Chelsea at the half-way mark and really announce our title hopes.
First, we’ve got to beat Villa, no easy task, but I think we can get the right result.
Not sure exactly what I’ll write about tomorrow, kickoff is at 5:25am local time, none of the pubs around here are showing the match live and I don’t have Setanta. I can’t very well do my normal 7-8am blog, now can I?
So, I may not even do a blog at all tomorrow and go straight in to a Good, Bad, and Ugly on Monday morning. Unless you all have an idea?
Arsenal News 24/7
are you still planning on watching the match on delay? not sure i could go an entire day without a blog, (especially on game day!)as lately they have been plentiful, but i’m a self admitted selfish bastartd!
I myself may have trouble getting up at 8:30 (indiana time) to watch it, but have my dvr set just in case!
December 26th, 2009 at 10:17 am
@Kevin, I’m planning on it, though I have recorded stuff successfully off of one of the streams before and that would be a neat addition to the site…
Tim, I think and hope you can watch it online at http://zulu.mk/live/sitel. This is a site that broadcasts several national channels in our country, and one of them is showing the match. I think it is available outside our country, so hopefully, you can catch the game there.
December 26th, 2009 at 10:53 am
@Teampossible, interesting option. I just checked the Liverpool match and it was pretty close to live and damn good definition.
December 26th, 2009 at 11:27 am
@Tim, It always is, the channel has the rights for broadcasting the PL, and every weekend they are showing all of the Big Four’s teams games, and also the Liverpool games as well:)
AV is an important game but we don’t need to shoot ourselves in the foot with a long term Fabregas injury. Fabrgas still had pain while training late this week and we just can’t risk him.
Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea, another draw, my, my, my. You lose Malouda for a game after 2 yellow cards. Chelsea are having problems at the worst possible time w/ players going off and Anelka injured.
Mancini’s Man City got off to a good start. Tevez remains the real deal and between him and C. Ronaldo, SAF will come to rue the loss of their goals.
Jay Simpson get his 9th goal in 20 appearances for QPR.
December 26th, 2009 at 10:12 am
@ctpa, sound “like a new signing” to me!!!
December 26th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
@Kevin, The new Bendtner? =)
December 27th, 2009 at 12:39 am
@Tiki, Bendtner is one of a kind!
Honestly? I’d be happy with a draw.
Prediction: 2-2
Although, with 90 minutes from Fabregas, it could be 3-2.
December 27th, 2009 at 7:28 am
@me, how about 27 minutes from Fabregas?
Still going with ‘irregardless’, eh? Merriam–Webster says to stop that now you numpty.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless
December 27th, 2009 at 5:07 am
@Patrick, I think I’m going to create a lexicon of 7amkickoff language.
Lampard seems a bit out of sorts with Chelsea at the moment, yeah? I noticed they took him out with about 15 minutes to go. Gonna be a very interesting January, but let’s get two wins to finish out the year and really breathe down their necks.
WTF!!!! NCAA women’s volleyball championship on ESPN!? and Blackburn-Wigan on ESPN+…. whatever on FSC…this sucks…
Oh well, onto the game! FSC started 5min late. I mean from 5 min onwards
Not bad 1st half. AV working hard to defend. Song has had his warning. Eduardo chance that he could/should have done better with. Arshavin chance that he didn’t get off the greatest shot. Right now we are too right sided in our attacks with the focus being Nasri. It bothers me that Almunia is not ‘quick’ enough off his line and waits for his defenders too much. We are dominating but that just means that AV can get 1 well taken chance and we will be in the shit.
Fabregas warming up!
Fabregas on for Denilson waaaay before 70″.
Carew on for Heskey.
Walcott on for Eduardo.
FABREGAS YOU GENIUS!
What a goal!!!
Goal of the season!
Fabregas goal!!!!!!! FK for a change.
Fabregas gets his 2nd from Walcott on the break and also re-injures the hamstring.
KEEP THE CLEAN SHEET!
December 27th, 2009 at 7:55 am
@Tim, Not only did we managed that but how’s that goal a game average looking, sweet.
Ramsey on for the injured Fabregas.
10 out of 10 for the ref
Easy for Diaby. Villa have nothing left. They’re shattered.
Diaby…
Well, Arsenal now score on free kicks in consecutive games and Diaby scores in consecutive games.
Awesome.
December 27th, 2009 at 7:53 am
@Tim, That has to be some kind of record on both points
Diaby strides through the middle to make it 3.
MTOM: Fabregas in 2 goal cameo. This exposes a problem as we we were threatening without Fabregas but he made our threats lethal and now he is lost for who knows how long.
December 27th, 2009 at 7:33 am
@ctpa, correction: MOTM.
i wonder if anyone has done a MoM performance in 27 minutes before…
Fucking amazing cameo from Cesc, Diaby playing well for the second game in a row, Almunia looking his more-or-less solid old self for the second game in a row…the only thing missing from my christmas list is a goal from Eddy.
Refreshing to hear the Setanta commentators slagging off the other team for once, bitching about (Petrov?) asking for a card on Song near the end.
December 27th, 2009 at 7:58 am
@b, Eddy had a shot in the 4th minute, beautifully slotted in by Diaby, exquisite turn, and fired right at Friedel.
He also had a header cleared off the line.
He’s getting there.
December 27th, 2009 at 9:01 am
@Tim, yeah that early shot really disappointed me, i was hoping the goal he got last game (freebie that it was, finishing-wise) would have given him enough confidence to curl it around. His positioning and general play are definitely much better recently games, it’s just that killer finishing that’s missing still. Fingers crossed for next game…
To those AV supporters and pundits who will say that the score flattered Arsenal. You are the very definition of delusional.
Ashley Young gets booked for a dive. Bravo Phil Dowd. (He also booked Song for a dive as well and that was spot on as well.) Ashley Young could not beat Sagna all day today and will not beat him tomorrow.
Agbonlahor is fast. That’s true if you’re playing against the Tal Ben Haims of the EPL. That’s not true if you’re playing against Vermaelen and Traore. Checkmate on that speed thing that AV has.
I hope Capello was at the game to see the ‘best’ young England talent that AV had on display: Young, Downing, Milner, Agbonlahor, not. On the other hand Walcott got an assist on the pass to Fabregas for the goal that told AV, not today son.
We will have Song for the FA Cup game with WHU and then it’s adios.
Phil Dowd gave the best performance by a referee in the EPL that I’ve seen this year. He is a referee that gets it. It’s not about him and his authority, it’s about the game. His only bobble was a not playing the advantage for a foul on AV near the half way line in the first half. I love how he gave Fabian Delph a yellow for mouthing off after he committed a blatant foul. Delph hasn’t ‘earned’ the right to mouth off to the officials.
Nutcracker time for Man U.
Hull put out an attacking line up w/ 2 up top including Jozy Altidore.
Alan (fit as a butcher’s dog) Wiley is the referee.
Cesc is just simply brilliant! He makes everyone look better when he’s on the pitch. Amazing performance. Gotta love Diaby for his last performances as well.
Let’s hope that the re-injury isn’t so bad. He came out walking with pain, but it didn’t look too severe.
Regrets, I’ve had a few. Wenger now must wait and see if the Fabregas decision will become a long term or short term regret. 3 weeks max if it’s the worst case scenario, a new tear and not irritation of his old injury.
A non-partisan observer will have to say of the big 4, we are playing the best football right now (for what that’s worth). Right now Man U are stumbling through a nightmare game having just given away a PK to Hull to level 1-1. Man U may still win today just because they are a ‘class’ above Hull but they their play of late scares no one, not even Hull.
Andy Dawson og puts Man U up 2-1.