Three Favourites Return, But The Front Line Looks Ugly
Apr 23rd, 2010 by 'holic
So the press conference today has only added one name to the equation that we didn’t mention when discussing the Arsenal team yesterday. Does anybody expect Eduardo to get a start? Me neither. So let’s consider the opponents before squandering a pound on the potential outcome.
City, like most clubs, do not have the same strength in depth to their injured list as ourselves. Lescott could reasonably be expected to start if fit, but that is about it. Most interest from us will focus on the former Gunners who have found themselves at Middle Eastlands by a variety of routes.
A personal favourite, Sylvinho, is a doubt and doesn’t get picked ahead of Veronica Perroncel’s former live-in lover too often. That’s a shame, because I would certainly be giving him a good cheer and a warm round of applause for his service to us, dodgy passport or not.
Kolo Toure was an invincible, and a dedicated multiple winner with the Gunners until he went over the hill, and he too can expect a cordial welcome on his first return to the club where he enjoyed his best years and his only successes to date.
Paddy, I can’t mention his name without bursting into song, ‘VIEIRA, OH OH OH OH, VIEIRA, OH OH OH OH’, is bound to hear that famous ditty ring out again. What can you say about the legend who briefly formed, with Emmanuel Petit, the finest midfield partnership I have ever witnessed in the red and white, and who went on to become a true Gunners legend. Let’s hope he enjoys the same welcome, and same beating, he got when he returned to Highbury with Juve.
If those three are no longer at the standard they displayed in North London, there is a fourth returning player, who apparently exhibits the same traits that we witnessed for three years if my City-supporting friends are to be believed, and I think they are. Emmanuel Adebayor, alongside Craig Bellamy, and Carlos Tevez, may not be too easy on the eye, but the threat is obvious..
The coach-tripper ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous, from devastating to abject. I made no secret last summer that I would have kept the Adebayor of 2007-8, but his absurd eyelash fluttering at Barca and Milan in the following close season set the tone for the twelve months that followed.
As his new paymasters have discovered, when he puts in a shift he is a real asset. Sadly though he blows hot and cold and I don’t think many Arsenal fans will forgive him his pitiful lack of effort on many outings last season, not least in the Champions League semi-final. He demonstrated every side of his complex and immature character in the first meeting of the sides this season. I need to say no more about that day.
Arsene Wenger has ensured his players are aware of what is expected of them at the Grove. I think even he must understand that the crowd will not be bound by the same discipline.
“I expect everybody to behave well”, he said, smiling knowingly.
The ‘holic pound is ventured very warily on an exciting afternoon, and the narrowest of victories. I will take Ladbrokes 25/1 in the ground for a 3-2 home win. Can we outscore them? I think it is our best chance. The alternative is not good to comprehend.
Those who I will be meeting at lunchtime are already gathering from the four corners of the globe, despite the best efforts of some unpronounceable volcanos. I’m looking forward to a great day, and a serious session. The ‘holic report on the game may well be delayed until late Sunday as a result. May I apologise in advance.
Wherever you are watching, have a great weekend ‘holics.
50 Responses to “Three Favourites Return, But The Front Line Looks Ugly”
his grave is ready…up the arsenal!
Song being back is very important, without him I think we would have stood no chance at all but now… well, with a bit of luck, perhaps.
Win The Next Match.
I’ve dropped the mantra, Lars. It wasn’t one of my more successful ideas 🙂
Your image of Wenger smiling knowingly is straight outta Cookson ‘Holic.
Enjoy your session.
It’s years since I read any Sidney Cookson, Lord 😉
Updated post-yesterday’s premature pistol shot by Her Nellieness.
Will the season sink beneath Caribbean waves in a triangle off Bermuda, or will it rise like a phoenix from volcanic ash like Giza Pizza Pyramid? Is it still mathematically possible? Will this game be a trigonometric classic requiring Pythagorean tactics? Will AW be squared the anguish or is Mancini more hypoten-used to defeat? It’s not a trichotomy for me, I can see it from all angles and I’m equilateral on the outcome, Isoceles, my Greek friend.
It’s Diana and the trio of Detroit spinners who were quite Supreme and, like the Gunners, Keep Me Hanging On. It’s the little pigs oinking on their way to market, like Old Purple Nose to the press, “oink, oink, oink”. It’s Lithium’s atomic number and, to be Kurt, Nevermind if that’s Nirvana for me. It’s the Wise Men, ‘Holic, ArthurTheGooner and Steve T (who’s In Utero, trying to figure this out). It’s Matt the Musketeer, back fresh from vacation with his trusty side-kicks Chicago and Draped.
It’s Goldilocks Sagna and the leaky squabbling bears from France. It’s the Triumvirate of Triumph, Cesc, Song and Denilson, broken, busted and beleaguered. It’s the Triad of Talent, Ramsey, Gibbs and Djourou , down, damaged and disappeared. It’s the lucky prime, it’s the steps and edges on Arshavin’s haircut, it’s 3 thruppenies in a fountain of despair, 3 games to go, as the Gunners struggle for 3rd in the last 3 furlongs of a 3 legged, 3 horse race, with Horseface Hawwy coming up on the rails for a fine prime view of Arsene’s Arse. (Faaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrt!)
It’s the return of The Entertainer. The Togolese Express of great goal scoring success. The man who can score, with his head, with his feet, and with both simultaneously. Who set goals up for Robin and scored them for Cesc. Who can dance like Denilson, make me smile, and the BBB seethe. He’s not 5 foot 4, he’s MUCH bigger than that, and so’s his heart and his Gooner Goal tally. I’ll be glued to my screen to see him, once more, grace the green, green grass of home, Delilah. It’s Not Unusual to expect some fireworks in Stereophonic from our Local Boy with the Same Size Feet.
City’s tripod, their triple trio threat of Ade, Teves and Bellamy will be tough for Sagna, Sol and Silvester to master. If Wright-Philips takes on Clichy, I expect Gael, the weakest link, will be in spin-triplicate and the crosses to fly frequently from the right.
The bad news on The Rhythm King is a BIG blow. With no Denilson and no Cesc, the team loses both its Samba AND its Mojo. They are the only two who are always available for a pass; able to “make time” in a crowded mid-field; able to build then deliver the killer pass. None of that is in Diaby the Dribbler’s repertoire. Eastmond’s a very promising young fellow, but not really ready for this.
Song’s availability now looks crucial to any chance of success. IF he plays, Arsene is between a rock and a hard place. Play Song as DM and the mid-field will buckle allowing De Jonge, Ireland and Barry to run the game. Play Alex in MF to stem the flow, and that leaves Silvester wide open to Ade and Tevez. Without Denilson, I doubt if we have a mid-field combination strong enough to counter City’s.
I expect to see:
Fabianski
Sagna, Sol, Silvester, Clichy
Eboue, Eastmond, Song, Diaby
Nasri, Van Persie
I also expect Theo, Bendy and Eduardo to sub please, Monsieur Wenger.
The dice say 2 and 1 or 1 and 2, I’m hoping for 4-3 to The Arsenal with Ade scoring all 3 for City and having a ball while coach-tripping home. Imagine if he’d been playing for us in the Manure and Chelski games this season. A powerhouse improvement over 5 feet 4, and a different outcome, in all four, Gooners; not a shadow of a doubt in my mind.
Come on you Gunners! A Kolo with a Holo and some Togolese rumble to spice it up please, barman.
It seems like every time somebody says something along the lines of “Can we outscore them? I think it is our best chance.” we get soundly beaten. Let’s hope this one is the exception to the rule…
Have to say I’m really looking forward to this. Even if our season is over , we should really want rub their shitty faces in it. Especially the returning mong.
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Gooners it’s about time to help Ade remember why he left.
can any off u hooke me up wid a blackburn game ticket i really wanna go ssee my first game
because i leave in blackn n never when to see a arsenal game
so plz help me out thanks
email me :suhelbanglawala@hotmail.co.uk
It’s amazing, I am able to induce almost no enthusiasm for tomorrow. I guess I’m shitty support.
Double Jameson, if you will.
Adebayor must not be allowed to find the back of the net, else he will carry arsene wenger on his back while celebrating.song has alot of work as diaby will also had to step up his game.v.p must start. the if really want to win. up gunners (keep d faith)
Cesc scored in most games this season when we scored 3 goals or more so seeing as he is missing along with other threats such as Vermaelen, Gallas and Arshavin, I would be pleasantly surprised if we scored as many as 3 goals. Bendtner and Van Persie need to take their chances and Nasri and company do a job in creating them.
Anybody seen Moussa Sissoko play for Toulouse? Saw this on footballfancast.com in the article “The top 10 European wonderkids that could take the EPL by storm” and if the money is available this summer maybe we can make a competitive bid.
The 20 year old Toulouse midfielder has been hailed as “the next Patrick Vieira” as his style of play has been compared to the former Arsenal legend and also Real Madrid midfielder Mahamadou Diarra. A box-to-box player with superb athleticism, Sissoko has amassed more than 100 appearances in Ligue 1 despite his age and has a keen eye for goal, scoring 7 goals in 32 games for Toulouse this season. Valued at £18 million, Sissoko has been linked with Man United and Tottenham, but has said his dream move would be to Arsenal.
wishing gunners the best of luck tomorrow but seriously it will be a miracle to win man city with the squad we have now. I still have a higher hope in this match more than barca at least provided vito is at the goal post. Gunners all the way
When you compare Arsene and the red faced,the difference is obvious.The red faced top priority is to win and pretty soccer is second. That’s why he is successful. He has hatchet men in his team and squad.He doesn’t care how goals are scored. The winning mentality is drilled into the players and woe betide any players who strays.
I’m afraid Arsesne has lost the plot. Another defeat by MC would be obvious to all except the Frenchman.You don’t find the top managers buying only kids.
The latest the frenchman is having a Brazilian nursery will worry the fans. It means the same policy which have failed. Merida,Vela,wilshire are examples.Nerida has signed for a Spanish team.What about Upson,Pennant,and ahost of others. It remains to be seen whether the kids can fulfill the role of stand in. Playing time is the problem.
To compound the problem if the kids fail its time wasted.
Fuck me. Cheer up boys. Lots of doom and gloom. Why? We are The Arsenal. Get a grip. This is not a time to show weakness. There is absolutely no reason why we should not get a result against citeh. None at all. So lets cut all this negativity shite and let’s get on with the job in hand. Us fans have a massive part to play on saturday. Let’s at least start off on the right foot.
4 – 1 to the Gunners. Keep the faith.
How about Eastmond to score a screamer to top the one by Danny Rose?
Love to see you’re back on track again, Stevie T.
Bring on Gunner legends, Gunner rejects, Gunner sons, Barca rejects, Man Utd rejects, one of the best goalkeepers in the League, thick necks and the chief of Welsh mischief. How hard can it be?
Shower time.
Warm up the tonsils.
‘Adebayor, Adebayor-or-or,
He used to like Coach Trip,
But not any more’
I wonder if AW even considered playing Sagna alongside Sol with EBoue moved to right back. Might not be a bad option, since he did try it at one point in one of our previous games (can’t remember which). Allows fans to have less heart attacks and us to d
Clichy has been pretty good lately, so expect him to deal with SWP.
This team has responded when faced with big disappointments, so hopefully we will respond well. The Ade factor, the criticism of the last game, and the home crowd should help us a great deal.
Come on Arsenal, i.e. AW’s men, – time to show (again) what you’re made of.
I’m really looking forward to the game, by the way. It’s going to be entertaining as hell, and if you’re not able to stomach a game against a mid-table team (that’s you, Man C), end of season, when you have no chance at the trophy, then you have no business being an Arsenal supporter.
We’re at the Grove, in front of our fans, and we’ve got the Soulman to get our lads going. We’ll be fine.
Time to go. Have a good one ‘holics.
COME ON YOU RIPROARING!
Break a leg adebye- whore!! No really …
Arse to win 4-0
Must remember i’m sitting behind Theo’s parents today – Will try to be positive if he fu*ks it up!!!!!
Have a great time and sing your lungs out at the game, ‘Holic. Spurs just equalized against Man U and speaking personally I would rather Chelsea win the league than see the rednosed one win it again so go Spurs (did I really say that?)
I honestly wouldn’t be that upset if we lose this evening, as we would seriously dent the spuds champions league hopes.
That is one way of seing it Sam, but meself I’m quite keen on celebrating St Totteringham’s Day today, which we will have the pleasure of doing if we do beat Man C.
It has been coming every since I sat there and watched the Spurs-Arse game with a lot of friends and loads of my tasty lasagna, waiting for the win. I’ve had the pasta, time for the day to finally come.
As far as I’m concerned, winning is winning, and whatever that means for everyone else is secondary. I want a result today, screw Sp*rs and whatever that means for them.
Come on you Gunners.
Yeah take your point Dadric, I’m probably still a tad bitter from the defeat at the Lane the other week. I suppose it would be funnier if the spuds actually secured fourth spot and crashed out in the qualifying stages!
Spurs crushed in the final 20 minutes. Yay!! You might say I’ll find the positive wherever I look.
I don’t want to see fabianski starting (& not even on the bench really!!)
Eduardo should start to give him a last chance and also who cares about this match after all.. I also wan’t RvP to play the world cup so not risking him is best!!
Afternoon Holic & Holic`s
No great in depth review of what might happen, just a simple 4-1 victory to the Arsenal and Viera to get a consolation goal for shitty just to show cuntybayor how to show some respect to the team who took you from nothing and brought you to the worlds attention.
Come on guys 100% effort and the points will be are`s.
Vieira and Toure (the good guys) get the start against their old club but Ade (the bad guy) is on the bench. What drama!!
Wigan lose to a relegation-threatened club by an interesting score today. Can anybody name the club Wigan beat by the same score last week?
Come on you REDS!
Arsenal Arsenal Arsenal
Not a bad first half performance, I’m sorry but Nasri was onside and how Dean didn’t book Paddy is unkown to me. I know he’s our legend and all that but fair play is fair play at the end of the day.
Three points would have been nice today and certainly would have been well-deserved, a bit disappointed to come away with only one. Still, given the relative form of the two clubs going into the game, hard to feel too bad about it. I thought most of the boys played harder than they have in recent weeks (especially Rosicky) and simply couldn’t find a way through a constant crowd of nine in black. Should have been better, could have been worse. Fabianski didn’t screw anything up, so that’s always a plus. Silvestre and Campbell were efficient, Clichy showed again that he’s back on form. Good to see Robin last a full 90, hopefully he’s not too beat up. I love Theo so, and he wasn’t completely anonymous today, but I think he showed again that he’s far more effective as an impact sub. We still need to learn to pull the trigger, but today there were only a few missed chances.
All in all, could have been far worse. Not happy, but not actively complaining.
Drink, anyone?
With hindsight my 4 – 1 prediction may have been a tad optimistic. Not a great game but nice to see ade again. Bless him.
Really average…dull game.
I think Citeh changed their game plan 100% after seeing Spurs lose…they knew a draw would be a decent result and played for that.
Makes you wonder if we had to win could we have done so? I’m thinking yes….might have been better to start NB as it happens and given RVP a longish run 35-40 mins off the bench.
You do have to consider who was missing, it’s a worse result for them than us.
Glass of bland white wine please
Hello ‘Holics. Well… I think this is a great day to stand up and just say, I love the Arsenal. Not because they DID something, just because.
And I’m happy RVP played. Glass of water, kind barman.
At Paddington, praying for the last train. Shit game, great day!
You been on the sauce holic?
Good lad.
Only saw the first half but it was probably the most uneventful half we played all season. Didn’t make me regret having to miss the second half.
With our recent form I take this point kindly we didn’t fold in ten minutes which is always nice, we could have nicked it but Me Dean made sure he booked us three times and never blew the whistle in our favour. Point is a point unfotunately we have nothing to play for now so these games will look like this until the end. We need make sure we beat Blackburn away and Fulham at home.
‘Holic, hope you got home safe and sound.
I am horribly drunk right now, but I just want to point out that Silvestre and Fabianski were more or less flawless today. We have to give credit where credit is due. But that doesnät mean that I want them in a starting eleven next season…
In any case, these were two teams who were quite happy with one point. ManShitty were set up not no concede and we didn’t have the confidence to go for the kill.
Ahh, better go to bed now…
Agreed Lars….no errors at the back…also no real defending to be done…Clichy stopped their most dangerous Tevez moment
On the defence, I must say I thought AW had lost it when he said that Sol should be going to the world cup, but the more I see of him he seems to have lost very little in the kill department & even seems to be regaining some of his pace too now he’s playing regularly, I say this after seeing him track-back when he lost the ball deep in the ManC half.
He really has been a good re-signing.
It should read “in the skill department” (in case you were wondering)…..