Johan Djourou will return to replace Kolo Toure during the African Nations Cup.
New Birmingham boss Alex McLeish said, “Arsene Wenger has told me he is taking him back in January. He will be a loss, for sure. It is disappointing that he is not going to be with us for much longer.”
Djourou, the 20-year old centreback, started 18 games for Arsenal last season and then went out on loan. He has started 12 of Birmingham’s 17 Premier League so far.
Carling Cup draw : Arsenal will play Spurs on Wednesday, January 9, kick-off 7.45 pm.
Spurs v Arsenal second leg will be on Tuesday, January 22, kick-off 8pm.
Chelsea will meet Everton
The Carling Cup Final is on Sunday February 24.
As Spurs improve, matches against them suddenly become more interesting and challenging. New boss Juande Ramos has given them more shape and passion and Paul Robinson is making saves again. That 1-0 win at Portsmouth was a surprise because Spurs don’t keep clean sheets, or so we thought. Then they went to Man City and won 2-0 on Tuesday night, Defoe scoring early, Zokora getting a red card for a silly tackle that was not as bad as a later one by Malbranque, which only got a yellow.
Saturday will be interesting. But it won’t be a nasty atmosphere because there will be no Cashley Cole. He was shocked by the level of animosity and his Mum, who has a box at the Emirates, must have been horrified.
What do I think of Spurs right now?
Well, Dawson will be back. Berbatov is a cute, flicky centre forward who is very good with his head. Robbie Keane is a cute, flicky half-striker whose movement is exceptional. Keane is good with the inside of his head and will be fresh after a three-match ban that was rather harsh for the tackle he made.
Last night I got home about 7.30 pm and Newstalk in Dublin phoned to ask me to chat about the Chelsea- Liverpool Carling quarter-final.
So I had to watch the whole game to give my comments to Off The Ball with Eoin McDevitt and Ken Early.
The first half was garbage, very dull. I thought : If the second half is like this, what can I talk about ? Then Lampard scored with a shot that took a wicked deflection off Jamie Carragher’s blocking leg and looped over reserve keeper Itandje, who had made two good saves.
A minute later Peter Crouch made an amazingly stupid two-footed tackle on the niggly Mikel and was sent off. The only X-certificate tackle I’ve ever seen by him and the act of a deeply frustrated man.
Peter Crouch is only picked for a game Rafa doesn’t care about – Crouch wants to win it but Rafa doesn’t. So when Chelsea score, he explodes. Crouch should leave Liverpool ASAP. He might be good at Man City, who play smoother football.
Ballack made his comeback after eight months out and two ankle operations and might be a vital player for them in the next eight weeks. Essien also, and more obviously.
Shevchenko hit a thunderous shot but Lampard, racing ahead of the Ukrainian like the glory-hound he is, blocked the shot.
In the 90th minute, Chelsea made it 2-0 after a lovely move which Shevchenko started and finished. Sheva-Joe Cole, Sheva, good cross but too far, Lampard retrieved, reverse pass to the overlapping Wayne Bridge, who is marked by two players but crosses well from near the corner flag, Ballack wins the header and flicks on, Shevchenko blasts his shot in off the keeper.
That move was a flashback of the alpha male gladiator that Andreij Shevchenko once was. What he did at Dynamo Kiev and AC Milan was awesome. He was better than Shearer, Cantona, Zola, Henry, anybody we have seen recently. He was one of the greatest footballers of that last 25 years. He’s past it now, of course. But for a minute last night we saw a polaroid of his power, drive and concentration. Sheva has never been a failure before he came to England. With Drogba out, he will show he’s still a goalscorer. Everton beware.
The guest before me on Newstalk was Xavier Rivoire, talking about new French Player of the Year Franck Ribery, who converted to Islam and after marrying a Moslem girl, and is a big success at Bayern Munich now, after leaving Marseilles. Xavier said Ribery’s style is like no other player and he’s a strong character who’s able to rise above abusive comments made about him by teammate Oliver Kahn.
At first I talked on air about how shocking Rafa’s B-team was, and Peter Crouch’s red card, and then we moved on to three young players.
Ken Early : ” I wanted to ask you, Myles, about a couple of guys in the Liverpool team tonight. He’s done a lot of talking, Rafa Benitez, about Arsene Wenger, and the amount of money Wenger’s been spending over a good period of time, bringing in quality young players, the likes of Denilson, who cost £3 million. There’s two players in that team tonight. £8 million for Lucas Leiva, the Brazilian who arrived at the age of nineteen, £11 million for Ryan Babel. Both started tonight. Worth the money? “
“Not on what we’ve seen. But I think new players have to be integrated socially – and they have to be integrated technically. And Liverpool don’t train the same way as Arsenal because Benitez is a tactical coach, whereas Wenger is a choreographer who spends every morning rehearsing the same ballet. It’s quick pass-and-move and they pass it, and rehearse it and rehearse it and rehearse it. While Rafa is a guy who likes to have 22 components which are interchangeable. He’ll go the game and put up his team-sheet the wall of the dressing room an hour before the game. Until then the players don’t know who’s playing.”
Ken Early: “There was another expensive young player out there. Chelsea paid upwards of £12 million for John Obi Mikel. Did he impress you?”
“He’s a bruiser. You need a hard man with skill. I was brought up on Dave Mackay, Graeme Souness and Graham Roberts in an era when players were allowed to put themselves about a lot more than they’re allowed to now.
“Mikel will be a good player. He will become, probably, a Nigerian Graeme Souness. Young footballers don’t generally play with authority, do they? Apart from Fabregas. Mikel plays with a bit of authority. He’s a hard case, a bruiser, but he can lay the ball off first time, accurately, which a lot of them can’t. But he’ll never give you an assist. He’ll never put you through on goal. He’s a bit like Andy Townsend.”
Ken Early: “Another thing we wanted to ask you, Myles. Last night we saw Arsenal go to Ewood Park with a team that contained no starters from their game against Chelsea, and beat one of the better teams in the Premier League, away from home, with 10 men for half an hour, scoring three goals in the process. How’s this possible in a competitive league?”
“Well, I think it’s the training. He schools all his academy players and reserve players to play the same way, so they do the same things as the first team. What they’ve added this season, since Thierry’s gone, they’ve added a fire, an aggression, a passion, they fight for 92 minutes, they scrap when they have to. They stand up for themselves. More than they did last year.
“They had a period of French philosophy there. When they lost a game Vieira, Wiltord, Thierry and Robert would go into a cafe in Hampstead and discuss it for the next four weeks. Now it’s much more old-fashioned, almost British – Flamini is like Ray Parlour. He’s got a great attitude.”