By Myles Palmer
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ARSENE says he has Freddie and Jose coming back for the Spurs game, so he might not play Van Persie, the two-goal hero at Sunderland last night.
The Carling Cup game was interesting for Arsene because it gave him a chance to give debuts to four teenagers.
He had Alex Song, 18, and Fabrice Muamba, 17, in central midfield.
Muamba came here from the war-torn Congo as an 11-year old and has played for England at youth level.
He models himself on Vieira and still watches Vieira play for Juventus, whenever he can.
Muamba is a tackler who can also play in defence.
He has played as a defender against Henry in training. So he is learning the game by being stretched and tested and turned inside out.
Muamba is now at the stage where he’s playing against Sunderland against guys who are not as good as those he plays against in training.
Since Arsenal won 3-0 they will have another Carling game and the manager will want to see how these boys cope next time, perhaps against stronger opposition than Sunderland, who fielded five of the players who beat Newcastle 3-2 on Sunday.
Fabrice Muamba may be a man to watch.
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THIS SEASON I have not been writing previews of games. But I will preview Spurs.
If Arsenal win they will be level, with a game in hand.
Many of the Man United players have won the league, so it’s hard for them to wind themselves up for second place.
Arsenal, the same.
Martin Jol doesn’t have that problem. None of his players have been champions in England, so second would be huge for them.
There’s plenty to be said on this & I’ll say some of it on Friday morning.
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CHELSEA’s Glen Johnson has broken his hand by punching a wall.
He was sent home from the England Under-21 camp for poor timekeeping last month.
It’s pathetic when players can’t even get to training on time. If they don’t care enough to organise their lives, why should we care about them?
We always heard whispers that Pennant had a punctuality problem. That’s why I never wrote about Pennant here. I never believed he would make it at Arsenal .
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NICE SUNNY DAY yesterday, so we went to see Degas at the Tate.
Lovely to see his ballet paintings, mostly at rehearsal, young girls making beautiful shapes, sitting on chairs with their feet splayed at 180 degrees.
Easy to see why Degas was fascinated with such a subject and spent countless blissful hours watching the young dancers in Paris. Sketching, painting, thinking, an artist fascinated by artistry.
I love the ballet, so I can understand why he was so absorbed by it.
Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec don’t do much for me, unfortunately.
The best painting I saw all day, just inside the entrance, is by George Clausen.
A street scene in London, composed like a frame from a movie, cropped like a modern magazine photo: a young woman in a dressy black coat, walking towards you, holding a small bunch of daffodils, with her very young daughter.
The mother is cut off at the legs, the little girl cut off across her chest, so both jolt into the foreground.
Incredibly beautiful painting. So modern.
It’s called A Spring Morning, Haverstock Hill, 1881.
THE COMMENTS are the best bit of the Turner Prize.
You look round the four entries ( I liked the Darren Almond installation) and then there is a room where you write your comment on a card and peg it on the wall.
That’s the populist, interactive, text-message world we now have.
I read some of the comments.
One man ( I’m sure it was a man) has written : NOTHING NEW – please come and see my garden shed, I hadn’t realised how great it is.
Another is : Mostly self-indulgent rubbish, as per usual. However, Carnegie shows a modicum of talent with a brush.
Best comment : Explanation kills art.
We walked down the river, along Millbank, with a strong wind at our backs. Autumn has arrived and it’s still my favourite season.
October 26th 2005