Waiting For The Miracle
Don’t know what happened yesterday. Having not seen either full or edited coverage of Saturday afternoon’s game, I fully intended to cover what everyone else had said about it. Instead, I ended
up writing the state of the union type post I’d planned a while ago and had never found the time or the place for. Anyway, I hope you found it slightly more worthwhile than reading news you had
aready had the best part of 36 hours to digest!
Andrey Arshavin is holding out for a “miracle” in
Arsenal’s title challenge. Just what, you may ask, is this miracle we need?
Andrey says the miracle… ” is to start playing finally with our optimal line up. I do not think we have had it once so far this season.”
I’ll go you one better than that Andrey, I don’t think we’ve been able to deploy what would be considered our first chance line up since the heady days of the unbeaten season nearly six years
ago. And no, I’m not exaggerating, though if I’m mistaken, I’m quite happy for someone to come and correct me. Politely, of course. Arshavin is still suffering from a foot injury, which is
worrying because he was suffering that injury in the week leading up to the Liverpool game a month ago. Not to mention the fact that if he’s playing with an injury, he can not possibly be
functioning at 100%. Perhaps it is this as much as his diminutive stature that is causing him problems as he battles with the neanderthals of Premier League football AKA most other teams’
centre backs.
This situation with “Shavva” certainly gives credence to the likes of Mark Lawrenson who don’t believe Arsenal have the squad to sustain their title challenge. But then if one were to take a
look at the league table and see us three points behind Chelsea and then consider the players we have had out injured this season- and not just for the odd game here and there- and then
consider the fact that, contrary to all pre season predictions and talk of being usurped by Manchester City AND Tottenham Hotspur, we are indeed up there fighting for the title, then one might
reasonably conclude that we do have a squad capable of delivering the title. Though, as I said yesterday, a change in goalkeeping personnel and a centre back signing would make me feel a lot
happier about our chances. On that theme, a thought struck me yesterday, Portsmouth are skint right? We need a good short term fix in goal… David James, anyone? Anyone? Maybe not every
thought needs to be vocalised, but I think he’s a better keeper than Almunia and would therefore be a good, cheap, option (mind you I do also think I might be a better option than
Almunia).
So, yeah, Arshavin’s hoping for a miracle. And maybe whoever delivers miracles is listening because Cesc says his hamstring “feels 100% now”. Which I think means he will indeed be ready to return to the line up when we go to the Reebok for Owen
Coyle’s first game in charge there on Sunday afternoon. Will he have been able to teach Bolton’s players how to play football in the space of a week? Doubtful, I think. How lucky have Sky got
with choosing that game though? I mean, our days of struggling at Bolton are, touch wood, a few years past now, but a new manager gives the game a spice it would never have had with Gary Megson
still in charge for the home team.
You know it’s a quiet day at Arse.com when there is a link saying “Wenger- No progress on Merida
contract” . That’s almost like saying “Wenger- I didn’t sign a centre forward today”, kind of. I guess what it highlights is that, although Merida says he’s only talking Arsenal
at present; bearing in mind the contract offer was slapped down in front of him in November, the young Spaniard looks reasonably certain to be leaving north London for good this summer. If
he did so, I like to think we could all understand why and wish him well. After all, it’s not as if our midfield is staffed with Chelsea style “geriatricos”, is it?