Arsene signs Diarra / Carling Cup draw / Pompey preview 2 September, 2007

Well it seems Chelsea prefer to sell us players’ at 11:45pm on 31st August; last year it was Gallas, this time round it’s Lassana Diarra. Apparently he’s signed on a long-term contract and as always the fee is undisclosed.

I never expected Arsene to make another signing, I thought the chequebook was firmly closed but this is a good signing. The news broke to me on the comments section on here and I was truly shocked. We were linked with him a couple of weeks back and it did look promising but it went all quiet and I forgot about Lassie. You might say that we don’t need any more central midfielders, and you’d be right. However when the opportunity comes up to sign a player of this quality you don’t ignore it.

Gunnerblog has some excellent quotes from a Chelsea forum, and I spoke to two Chelsea fans at the pub tonight and the overall feedback is that they’re gutted to lose this player. Similar to Gallas, he is a player that I’m sure Chelsea would’ve wanted to keep, however both players grew unhappy of the set-up behind the scenes there and made their way a few miles north to Ashburton Grove.

He’ll definitely go behind Gilberto and Fabregas in the squad, however I do worry where this signing leaves Abou Diaby; I’m a big fan of his and he had a good game the other day. My feeling is that Wenger will play Lassie out wide more often than not. We’re low on wingers at the moment and I’m sure Arsene will deploy him out there shortly and see how he performs. He’s also comfortable at right-back and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he makes his debut there today with Eboue and Sagna out injured.

I’m really pleased with this signing and I’m excited to see how he performs in the red and white of Arsenal. He takes Freddie’s old no.8 by the way.

Yesterday morning the draw for the Carling Cup was made and once again we’ve a tricky tie; our kids will be playing Newcastle the 25th or 25th September. It’s a home tie, which makes a change, but the Toon will be very much up for this one and will be a tough, tough test for our youngsters. I’ve always liked watching the kids in the League Cup; last year was very special with Spurs in the Semis and unluckily losing to a strong Chelsea side in Cardiff. Another run in the cup would be nice but I wouldn’t be surprised if we got knocked out in the first round. With the squad looking as thin as it is at the moment it might do us a favour to be out of one competition.

We play Portsmouth at 1.30pm today I’m expecting a really good game. Several ex-Gooners are set to start for the visitors and we have a few regulars out of this one. The injuries are the same as from the Sparta game; Eboue, Gallas, Sagna and Lehmann are all out however Alex Hleb is a doubt. I’m pretty sure the Belarus international would’ve started this one however he’s fallen quite ill this week and it’ll be decided whether he’s fit to play or not today. So, I’m going to guess at this team:

It’ll be tough game no doubt and Pompey have made a great start to the season. If I had to put money on the result I’d go for 2-2 but I know we are capable to go for the win. If the fans get behind the team we could be in very a very moral-boosting 3 points.

Right I’m off to bed, it’s another bloody early kick-off. Thanks for reading.