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8-10 days, it’s a minor tear. If he’s not back for Villa he’ll be in the squad for Pompey.
Traore:
Should be ready for Villa
Denilson and Eboue:
Both are fit and will play tomorrow.
Rosicky:
Out at least until Jan 6th against Notlob.
Clichy:
Another three weeks, Everton maybe?
Bendtner:
Could be back for the West Ham FA Cup match.
Jack Wilshere:
Evidently, muscle-necked club bouncer/Burnley manager Owen Coyle spoke to Wenger about possibly taking Jack Wilshere on loan. Wenger admitted that his is thinking about loaning him under the condition that he gets to play. Wenger still needs to speak to Wilshere, who will have a say in the matter but Wenger likes the idea because Burnley plays football.
On Telly?
The world’s least reliable web site, Fox Soccer Channel, is broken, still. But I managed to find a listing for the Arsenal v. Hull game: it’s live on FSC in the U.S. and kickoff is 9:30am PST. In England, the match is available on ESPN, enjoy.
For those of you who have internet but no television, stop by here tomorrow at 9am (PST) where I’ll be liveblogging the match. It promises to be a Yule-Tide carol of jokes, rants, observations, and silliness. Hell, this will probably be bigger than Viagra, do join.
As usual Wenger’s playing the starting lineup close to his chest; only giving out little bits and bobs of who will be included today. From the article linked above, we can see that Fabianski and Gibbs (who have featured in the FA Cup) are the only two who are certainly being included in the starting XI. From there on out it’s a matter of fitness, rotation, and tactics that will decide the squad.
For fitness, the boss spoke of Arshavin’s desire to get on the pitch despite suffering a gash from a Ooijer tackle (link possibly NSFW) that required 8 stitches on Saturday. The Fonz spoke openly about the events of Saturday saying of the wound
It’s like a knife cut – not very deep but quite painful. Ooijer tore my boot and the skin, too. At half-time, our doctor had to do a lot of work on my foot. So when I scored the second goal, I ran over to thank him for a job well done.
That explains why he was late coming out of the tunnel and his sort of tearful hug of the team doctor after he scored, I was wondering about that. Arsene wants to include him, Arshavin wants to play, but ultimately, he’s going to be a game-time decision.
Rambo, on the other hand, has been ruled out owing to the fact that he is “growing in stature” and needs a rest. I remember some talk from Arsene about Rambo’s lack of fitness when he came in to the squad and so I’m guessing the boss means that and not that Aaron has literally grown and needs rest. 17 year old’s sometimes do have growth spurts and they are very painful. Either way, he’s not even included in the team.
Robin van Persie hasn’t played since the 11th so I expect him to get the start, no sense leaving him to rot on the bench, but after that the Gods only know who Arsene will pick. He could play a 4-5-1 with RvP as the lone striker, Vela and Arshavin on the wings, Nasri in the middle (or switch Nasri and Arshavin) and the two-headed-hydra in central midfield. He could put Diaby in the middle, could start Djourou and rest Gallas, etc. etc. Wenger has a lot of choices today and that’s a good thing. If he rests those folks and starts Vela and Bendtner up front, that leaves him RvP and Theo Walcott coming off the bench.
Win this – and don’t forget we’ve already won at Arsenal this season – and we’re at Wembley playing Chelsea, win that we’re in the FA Cup final
…our performances were good, but results were hurting. The Cup run reminded us of how good we can be. It meant players were still bouncing, still coming into training looking forward to the sessions we were putting on. A smile on a player’s face is priceless to me. There’s no question that the FA Cup maintained spirit.
Hull will be up for this game and we should expect a spirited, attacking team who see the FA Cup as a light in the dark tunnel of Premier League survival. Buoyed by their surprise result at Emirates at the start of the season and their run of form to get them this far in the FA Cup this is by no means a walk in the park. Arsenal will need to closely mark danger men like Giovanni in open play, be prepared for Hull to mark them closely in return, and defend well from set pieces: three things we didn’t do well last time.
Hull will want to score early in order to take some pressure off so, look for them to come out hard in the first 5 minutes. This isn’t the same team that Hull shocked earlier in the season and I expect that this Arsenal team can handle that pressure — considering that they just got back from Rome and played a world class team in an unfriendly stadium, Hull, at Emirates, should be considerably easier.
So, for our part, Arsenal will look to soak up their pressure and hit them on the counter early.
What are the odds for van Persie to get a goal in the first 10 minutes?
Right, that’s it, I’ve been sick basically since I got back from London (two different colds I think) and finally got on antibiotics for this crud that settled in my chest. I am feeling a lot better and need to get in and put in a half day at work… which is perfect since kickoff is 12:45 PST.
The match is being shown live at Doyle’s so come on down and join us if you’re in town. It should be a cracker!
Arsenal are often painted as a whining club, our manager complains about officials, we all complain about the overly physical play of teams like Bolton, the fans complain when our team doesn’t beat clubs that we’re “supposed” to beat, in general we get a lot of stick for being a bunch of whiners.
What’s funny, though, is that Arsenal aren’t really that bad: if we make a mistake, we generally apologize for it (which is what adults like Pogatetz do when they make a mistake) and generally the Boss will have a word or two after the match and that will be it. What the boss never does (as far as I know) is whine about the refereeing before the match.
But that’s what Bolton, I mean Hull City boss Sam all… wait, his name’s Phil Brown? Oh. Well, whine before the match in order to get the officials to call this game their way is exactly what Hull City boss Phil Brown has decided to do. It comes as no surprise to learn that this guy, who thinks Kevin Davies’ tackle was a good tackle, is a former Bolton sub-commander under Sam Allardyce. It should also come as no surprise that Hull employ the exact same tactics as Bolton, and will go into tomorrow’s 9:30am pst kickoff looking to literally kick things off: off the pitch, out of the stadium, “up Wenger’s nose,” the tea lady, whomever and whatever gets in their way they will kick. Unashamedly.
For me, the Kevin Davies tackle, there was nothing wrong with that. If you take that out of the game Hull City might as well not play at the Emirates. If you allow Arsenal to dictate that that tackle goes out of the game, then we are finished.
We have got that tackle on our side – they have got the technical side of the game on their side. (emp. added)
If they are allowed to express that technical side without tackling, without physical contact, we might as well not turn up.
This is, honestly, the most cowardly, childish, churlish thing a manager has said all year. It is the adult equivalent of saying “if you don’t play by my rules, I’m taking my ball and going home.” What’s worse though is this insistence that if players aren’t allowed to tackle STUDS UP AND SHIN HIGH that there will be “no contact” in the game. There’s some kind of logic wormhole in effect here if people can seriously make the jump from “if illegal tackles aren’t allowed, then there won’t be any contact left in the game.”
But possibly the worst crime in this statement is the idea that all his team has is poor tackling: Arsenal play beautiful football; Hull City, they tackle poorly.
Hull City: we tackle poorly.
Arsene responded to Phil Brown with this simple statement:
A defender has to be tough and committed, for me if tough is committed I don’t have a problem with it. If tough is the desire to hurt your opponent it’s not acceptable because that’s not the game.
The beauty of sport is to win in respect of the rules. If us as managers start to say we don’t have to respect the rules then it can’t be accepted. That’s in boxing, in football, in every sport. You have to respect the rules.
Aye, and two-footed, studs up, shin high, aggressive lunges aren’t in the rules, Phil.
Since Phil Brown doesn’t understand what a proper tackle is I have designed a chart for him to show his players:
Good Tackle
Please note that while the player (Kevin Davies) is a bit behind his opponent, he’s trying to win the ball first and is not playing the man’s (Cesc) ankles or shins with a studs up lunge.
Bad Tackle
Note that Pogetetz had just won the ball in this challenge but he is very high, he leaves his left leg in, and he’s challenging studs up.
If Phil Brown would like I will give him a personal demonstration of both techniques. I’m sure he knows them though since that’s all his team has.
Enough of that, the two teams will have to play a match tomorrow and Arsenal know that they will have to play with a lot of grit, be wary of the long diagonal ball, and defend off set pieces. So far, the last item has been their weakest suit this season; while they haven’t conceded a goal off open play in 9 matches they have conceded off set pieces three times. Almunia will have a lot of work to do to command the box and the whole squad will have to pay extra attention on set pieces to make sure they clear the lines. If they don’t do that, it could turn into one of those games where Arsenal have 70% of the possession and Hull hit on a counter or a corner and steal a point.
Silvestre and Clichy are both fit for tomorrow’s match and we may see Gallas get a rest this week. I’m kind of excited to see what Silvestre can do for this team, we get a lot of criticism for being young and not doing well in the air, will Silvestre bring experience and aerial defense?
Nasri is still out, his knee is still bugging him, and Song was doubtful with some kind of hip injury but according to that link he’s available. That leaves just Nasri, Rosicky, Eduardo and Diaby in the infirmary. Not bad for this part of the season and considering that Eduardo had his leg broken. The one odd bit of news is that the article linked above says that Diaby is on the “long term injury list.” I’m not sure what to make of that as the team has been closed lipped about the whole affair.
Ok, that’s that. Like I said, the game kicks off at 9:30am local time and is on Fox Soccer Channel. I know a bunch of the locals are going down to Doyle’s to catch the Liverpool derby but I’m staying home because Doyle’s won’t be playing the Arsenal match until 11am and by then someone will have told me the score. Plus, there’s only one thing better than watching the match at home in your underwear while eating some fresh breakfast: seeing the game live at the Emirates.
