No Blog until Friday 23 October, 2006

I’m off to Scotland for a few days and there won’t be a post before Friday, which will mean no match report on the reserve game against West Brom on Tuesday night. I’m sure you’ll cope for a few days and I’ll try post an update this Friday with a bit of a preview of the Everton game the next day. Anyway on with what news there is today.

After our 4-0 thrashing of Reading yesterday I said I wouldn’t blame us for thinking of the title and Arsene Wenger has been doing exactly that. This is what he had to say after the game at The Madejski when asked about our title ambitions:

“I feel strongly that the hunger is there, the quality is there, the competition is of a very high level but we believe we can do it. Let’s see how consistent we can be and I think we will be, but we go from game to game now and give everything in every game like we always do, but we believe we can do it. I said that recently we have played some very good games and the team is really getting better and better, the understanding is better, the movement is better and we just want to keep improving.”

“We played well, we had a good start and then after of course our technique made the difference and once we were 1-0 up we had many chances and counter-attacks. They remained dangerous on set pieces and as well on some crosses but overall I feel we dominated the game well after. The last 20 minutes the concentration dropped a little bit and the fatigue came in after we played in Moscow but overall I am very happy with the performance.”

Nice words from ‘Le Boss’ and I’m 100% there agreeing with him. I believe this season can be a successful one, we just need a few performances like yesterday’s and a bit of luck along the way. The ability is definitely there, I just hope we can improve on last season’s fourth place. We scored some beautifully worked goals yesterday and Arsene had his comments on them too, he was asked which one was his favourite out of the four:

“Maybe the third one because it was a team goal, and coaches love them, but overall it was van Persie’s one maybe. But the first goal was a good goal as well because Thierry took the ball well from Cesc on surprise, and the Hleb one. They were all good goals but as a manager maybe you choose the one where you have most of the players involved.”

Personally my favourite goal was Alex Hleb’s; the build up was beautiful, and the bullet finish into the roof of the net topped it off for me. They were all nice goals yesterday but for me, Hleb’s was the best.

Kolo Toure picked up a little back problem yesterday and looked to be in some pain, I’m not sure yet if he’s going to be out for any period of time but if he is, Phil Senderos is back to fill in for him now but also Gallas can play centrally with Clichy out wide. So there are lots of options if Toure has to take a rest so I’m not really worried about that. He’s a massive player for us so it brought a smile to my face when he said he’d like to play here for life:

“I can see myself staying here for the rest of my career. Why would I want to leave? I love my football, my family is settled here and the club is ambitious. It is fantastic here. I have played with players who, five or six years ago, I was watching on television back in the Ivory Coast – people like Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry. One day I would love to captain the club. Thierry is doing a fantastic job, he is a tremendous leader. But one day, yes, I would love to.”

I think Kolo would make a great captain and a good successor to Henry, he is four years younger than our current captain so it is possible for him to get given the armband next. After that I think it’ll be Cesc but lets not think too far ahead. Fabregas just signed a long-term deal to stay at Arsenal so it’s great that Kolo wants to join him in doing so.

There were rumours that there was a confrontation between Henry and Van Persie over the Dutchman’s selfishness. Arsene has dismissed these reports saying there was no big argument between the strikers:

“Strikers always get frustrated, but I don’t see any problem with them. Robin has improved tremendously. When he came here he was not in the team at Feyenoord, and is now a regular in the Dutch national team. That tells you the strides he has made and I think he is a great player. He [van Persie] got frustrated on one occasion on Tuesday. He showed hesitation, touched the ball again and then it was too late as the keeper had come out. But that can happen.”

I know that Henry gets annoyed with Robin, you can see it when he’s on the pitch and I don’t blame him really. Sometimes Robin makes the wrong decision and Thierry will let him know that. He’s only young and he’ll mature which will help in striking situations but for the time being Robin just has to have a little think about his options first. I don’t think there was an argument between him and Henry but I wouldn’t be surprised if Titi told him about it in the dressing room. Especially after the CSKA Moscow game when he’s just been disallowed a perfectly good goal and most probably still angry.

There’s another quote from Wenger here, this time involving video replays. I am a big believer in this and Arsene thinks it should be a part of the game too. He spoke to the BBC yesterday but the decision in Moscow was still on his mind:

“There is not just a place for it, there is a need for it. If you love football you want justice to be respected. It becomes suspicious when people see things that don’t happen. You can question the honesty of people and we do not want that in our game. When referees see things that don’t exist it is hard to accept. With a video you can you can check that it is a regular goal. Why refuse when the help is there? It becomes a weakness from referees if they don’t accept it.”

“I would have preferred he [the referee for the Moscow game] said: ‘Video please, I want to see suspicion of a hand-ball’. “It does not look at any minute like there is a suspicion of a hand-ball when you watch the game. How can he come to that conclusion? It is very difficult to accept.”

I don’t know how the FA and FIFA feel about video technology but I think along with most footie fans it must be introduced. We all complain when referees make the wrong decision so why not eradicate that with replays? There is that argument that it’ll add long pauses in the game but isn’t that what extra time is for? I really don’t see a single valid reason why we shouldn’t have it and with all the technology we have today it would be a great way to further the sport.

That’s your lot for today and indeed for the next few days. Have a good week, enjoy the West Brom game, I’ll see you Friday I guess.