Arshavin gives me belief.
Nobody else in the team gives me the same amount of belief.
When 2008-2009 started there was a question mark over every player, except Fabregas.
Even Sagna, outstanding last term. Would he be so good again?Would we see “second season syndrome” ?
So Arshavin’s absence against Hull City in the FA Cup would be worrying.
Arsenal could play this FA Cup tie without Fabregas and Arshavin, their two best players. Two maestros who have not played together yet.
Some reports say Arshavin will have a fitness test. Others say he will play despite eight stitches in his foot. Arshavin’s Russian website says he won’t play. My guess is that he won’t.
Arsenal beat Blackburn 4-0 on Saturday and there’s a lot that I forgot to say about that game on Monday morning.
Nasri covered about 12km. He’s very energetic as well as a being a slick technician who can make the play all round the field. Song won a helluva lot of tackles and a lot of headers too. Song led the best break of the match when he zoomed upfield and found Arshavin, whose first-time Stephen Ireland-style pass gave Bendtner a marvellous one-on-one that he fluffed.
Bendtner, Walcott and Nasri were substituted and after than Arsenal scored two more goals. That was important but it tends to distort how we viewed the game. When Arsenal win 4-0 we tend to overlook the key fact of the game : it was 1-0 for 63 minutes. That’s the main thing I want to stress today : It was 1-0 for 63 minutes. And Blackburn applied some pressure and had chances in those 63 minutes.
Nobody in the Hull side is as big a slag as Gamst Pedersen or Diouf.
A couple of years ago Gamst was playing very well and scoring goals and there was talk of him signing for Manchester United for £11 million. Since then he’s done nothing. He’s been hopeless, a joke. How many goals has he scored?
Diouf’s assault on Almunia was typical Diouf.
He’s a formidable athlete and a fine technician but he’s a player I’ve always loathed, ever since his Liverpool days when he used to kick the ball beyond the left back and run past the left back and grab him round the waist and thrown him on the ground. He did things on a football pitch that I’d never seen before and never wanted to see again. I used to think he was an animal but, watching him against Arsenal, I realised he is a mutant.
He doesn’t give a damn about the rules of the sport that employs him, or his opponents, or the referee, or, as we saw vividly on Saturday, his own teammates. Diouf’s spitting and fouling have shamed our league for far too long. The mutant should be deported.
If Arsenal keep playing well, Aston Villa can’t be fourth, even though they have easier games late in the campaign. Can they keep playing well without Arshavin? I don’t know. Tonight we will probably find out.
At the start of the season, newly-promoted Hull City attacked and worked hard and won games. After that they attacked, had injuries, and their work ethic dipped.
An FA Cup tie between two teams in the same division is a 50-50 game.
Fabianski in goal? Big night for him. Without Fabregas and Arshavin, it would be a massive, mega night for Nasri.
Bendtner is due a goal. So is Nasri.
Walcott did OK his first start since November against Blackburn, so he is not quite ready to score yet. He could get a goal, of course. Any player can score in any game.
The winners play Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final.