Arsene signs Diarra / Carling Cup draw / Pompey preview 2 September, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Cup Games, Premiership, Transfers.trackback
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.
1st gun
too early for diarra to play.
And Theo will start on the right if Hleb is still blowing chunks, not Diaby.
I dont think we need to worry about where he will play. Diarra has been compared to C. Makelele and Diaby to P.Viera – very high praise indeed for these 2 youngsters so we now have the future French National team midfield, playing together( they were both called up t. I feel they would probably be used when playing away- to give our midfeild a bit of aggression and strength , along with the skill they both possess.Diarra can be deployed at right-back so he is versatile to boot.
Has anyone heard if we got the young Brazilian striker on loan (Franco Dos Santos)? there is nothing on the oficial website, but I heard we had him on trial last week.
Sorry I meant Franco Di Santo and he is Argentinian.
I don’t think it is even possible for Diarra to play for us yet. Something to do with registration. But Wenger would not throw him directly into the team anyways. I have never seen him do that with anyone, even Billy Gallas had to wait a week for his debut.
As for the Carling Cup, you forget that it will be another cup match against Fat Sam. He will have a different team, but no doubt he we still result to the kick ‘em in the shins tactics. I think Wenger will field a surprisingly experienced team for that match, because he knows that the Carling Cup is important for our youngsters development and he also would want to protect them from rough house bully-boy tactics that could affect them mentally, the same way the Neville’s really shook up Reyes. If we advance, our youngsters will get chances to play. No doubt we’ll see guys like Gibbs and Traore, but we’ll also see Gilberto and Toure and maybe even Fabregas.
No way will Diarra start…
—————Almunia
Hoyte—–Toure——-Senderos—–Clichy
——Csesc—-Gilberto—–Rosicky
RvP————Adebayor———Eduardo
is my call
Would love to see more of Gibbs and Barazite in the CC
although i am sure the CD’s will be Song and Nordveit
Don’t worry about Diaby. We need 4 (Fab, Gilberto, Diaby, Diarra) strong genuine contenders for the central midfield spot. Song will be surplus to recuirements (maybe loaned out/sold) and Flamster will fill in the gaps in the defence and midfield. This is a massive signing, you’ll see.
Next year we will have Super Carlos Vela´s work permit !!!!!!!
He´s the best !!!!!!!!
Merida and Lansbury are awesome ! Don´t forget Barazite !
is is sad sometimes when well funkt. team brakes up, there are a lot of byeing and selling in sports. Is that I good thing? Or is it a bad thing? I ask because I myself dont know…
greetings sofia
http://mymixedunivers.wordpress.com/2007/09/02/santa-claus-all-i-want-for-christmans-is-a-wonderful-man-and-great-sex/
3-1 with 10 men, beautiful stuff i gotta say, cesc is turning into a goal scoring machine
i think we were absolutely brill today,shout outs to rosicky and clichy i think the latter was my man of the match,he kept utaka quiet and i have seen utaka play before he’s good,anyway getting Diarra was a completely welcome surprise because he has tanacity and hunger,those are the kind of traits we will need this season
why would chelski sell to us? do they see no possible problems with selling to title rivals? this team has very real ability now, not just potential as I expected going into the season.
Early kick-off? Try 8:30AM for me…
5:30 am on the west coast of Canada. Well worth it.
[...] recent years this day has been a busy one, last year we bought Lassana Diarra off Chelsea with about half an hour to go. The year before we completed the complicated swap for [...]