Injury News

The shocker of the day is that Nasri is available and has been in full training when he was just supposed to be out for two more weeks, at least. The early return of Nasri (and Ramsey the other day) makes me wonder if some of these “knocks” that the players are suffering aren’t just normal playing pains and they are just throwing a wobbler. A few days ago Wenger said he was going to investigate why so many players were getting injured and it further makes me wonder if the boss didn’t take a look at the injury sheet, then the players, and just went into the training lounge, turned off the television and told the boys that if their legs hurt then they have to get in and do that upper body cardio machine which is basically just a torture device. Or if their arms hurt he’s all “Oi, Theo, shoulder hurts? Fine, three hours of stationary bike — AND NO MORE PBS SPROUT ON THE TELLY.”

Bendtner and Sagna are also available for tomorrow. The squad is starting to look quite healthy indeed. TOUCH WOOD.

Wenger is being cautious with Song and is saying that he might not even be available for the game against United. I know a lot of you wanted to see him straight into the squad tomorrow, but that’s not realistic. It turns out that he has to fly from Angola to Cameroon, then to London, and he might not even get back to London until Thursday. Even further, le Boss said that Song looked tired during the Egypt match and so they will have to look at him when he gets back and see where he’s at for Sunday. Don’t be surprised if he’s not back until the Chelsea match on the 7th.

Transfer News

I told you so. Arsene publicly admitted that he has made a bid for Chris Smalling and it looks like Arsenal are still in the hunt despite a bigger bid by Man U. I have created a special post just for the Smalling to Arsenal news, go over there to shout encouragement to the boss. It was hugely disingenuous of the boss to then moments later

Wilshere is certainly going out on loan. Either to Burnley or somewhere else and the player will decide in the next 48 hours. Good luck little fella.

Wenger has also had to re-deny that Klaas jaaan Hunetlaaaar is coming into the club, saying “we are not after any striker at the moment.” Damn, there goes my wish that he swooped for Beckford and Moses.

The FA Cup

Wenger was also asked about why he disgraced England by only playing Cesc, Arshavin, Eduardo, and Ramsey despite the fact that he had 10 men injured. My response?

“Oh for f*cks sake, didn’t we kill this story?” Arsenal played the best team available against the Rory Delap Ball Wipers. End of.

On playing Villa

Arsenal fans are used to a confident Wenger and he did not disappoint. Pointing out that the win over Villa just a few weeks ago showed that Arsenal could beat them.

Of course, the word on the street is that was a home match and Villa are much tougher at Villa Park. Those street people might be surprised to see that in their last two home games Villa have conceded 6 goals, 2 of which were against Brighton. In fact, the Villains have played 5 of their last 6 games at home and have conceded an average of 1.6 goals per on their way to a 3-1-1 record. The record is fine, but the goals against have been quite worrying.

More on the Villa game tomorrow.

Favorite Moment

The press, as usual, were asking about Theo Walcott and as usual, they had their heads planted firmly up their asses.

Dipshit: You’re obviously playing Villa tomorrow (the last fact he’ll get right), they’ve got a lot of young English players, like Theo — James Milner, Ashley Young, Agbonlahor — players who’ve kind of taken their game on. Is tha… is that the challenge that Theo faces now, to show more maturity in his game?

Arsene Wenger: Well, I think Theo was born in 1989. So, he’s 21. How old is Milner? (Smiling)

Dipshit: He’s the same age I think…

Crowd: No.. he’s 24. (Wenger shakes his head and smiles)

AW: 24… Give him 3 more years and then you will see. That’s a massive difference between 20 and 24, that’s where you see the evolution of a player. People forget how young Theo is. I believe he has improved a lot but this season he was unlucky — he’s played 3 games this year! You cannot be at the top of your game as a striker with three games in six months, that doesn’t exist. He needs a bit of luck and not to be injured at the moment.

Besides the fact that the dipshit reporter doesn’t know basic facts, Wenger is absolutely right to protect Theo here. I would like to point out that pretty much everyone has been writing Theo off at this point and while I agree that he’s had a really poor run of two games, he’s out there playing hard and working hard and he’s got the basic building blocks to be a great player. He will add skills as he gets older, if he can keep himself healthy, and if Arshavin decides to pass him the ball next time he’s wide open in front of the goal. Give him a chance.

Also, he’s not going to the World Cup this year, so let’s just stop talking about that.

And Finally, Szczesny (bless you)

The BBC are doing a write-up of Sneezy and they asked Wenger’s opinion of the young goal keeper (currently on loan). Arsene said all the usual about how great he’s going to be and he’s huge and has sparrow-like reflexes, but my favorite was when he said “give him an English passport!”

Unfortunately, he can’t play for England since, at the age of just 19 he’s already played for the Polish national team.

That’s It

That’s pretty much it for today. I do want to mention that I’ve booked my flight and hotel room and I will be in London for both the Burnley match and the Porto match in March. If you’d like to contribute to the travel fund, buy a shirt. If you’ve already bought one, thanks! More on the trip as we get closer to the date. Have to run, I’ve got to get to work!