Boring Boring Mondays… 5 March, 2007

Absolutely fuck all going on this morning. I was going to do a piece on Alex Song’s impact at Charlton but I’m so knackered and can’t be arsed. I missed quite a bit of news last week and I was hoping there’d be a bit for me to talk about this week. We’ve got the vital Champions League tie against PSV on Wednesday but then at the weekend there’s no games for some reason. So apart from Europe it’s going to be pretty dull around here. Hopefully we’ll manage to turn things around against PSV otherwise things are looking pretty gloomy around Arsenal Football Club.

Gilberto has been trying to lift spirits by saying there is still the chance of success this season. Here’s what he had to say:

“We are very aware of what we are capable of doing. The rest of the season is in our hands and when you are in that situation it sounds good because we know we can control it. Everything is down to us. We just want to fight for the victories. It won’t be easy but we just have to do our job and play like we did against Reading. We must fight for every ball for 90 minutes or 95 if necessary. We were a bit down and frustrated recently because of the results. The performances have been good, but this win against Reading now helps us set up for a massive match against PSV. It is the biggest game of our season because if we lose the season will be over in terms of trophies.

We know that we can win against PSV because we played well there. It was only the result that was missing. They will have to change the style they played at home. I was surprised at the way they played there. We watched a few videos of them and they behaved completely different during those games. They sat back against us, waited for our mistake and they capitalised when we lost concentration. But we have 90 minutes to win the game so it is important to remain calm. We have to score when we create chances but we are going to have to be patient as well.”

If we play like we did against Reading we won’t progress in the Champions League. Gilberto hasn’t really told us a lot we don’t know there but you can’t blame him for trying to say something cheerful. I think that Adebayor, Eboue and Toure are all available in Europe, which makes things a bit better. It’s a must win game, if we don’t, well…our season’s over in my opinion. There will be a late decision on Henry’s fitness this week as Wenger decides who to partner with Ade. Honestly, I’d rather an 80% Henry than Baptista or Aliadiere but I’m expecting to see The Beast and Adebayor up front come Wednesday night. I’ll build up more to the game tomorrow.

Wenger has praised his team and is not bothered if we don’t win anything for the second year in a row. Also he talked about how his youngsters have improved so much this season and his pride in reaching the Carling Cup final.

Adebayor wants a new deal and says he’s not interested in anybody but Arsenal. More on that when I hear it.

Reading’s Dave Kitson reckons Denilson tried to break his leg. I really can’t imagine him doing something like that. Kitson thinks the Brazilian went in with intent to hurt him but my guess it was nothing more than Denilson’s passion and desperation to win the ball.

That’s about it for today folks. See ya.