New Squad Numbers 23 June, 2008

Not a lot going on, as usual. However the official squad list for the new season has been announced and there have been a few changes and new additions. Here’s the list in full:

1. Manuel ALMUNIA
2. Abou DIABY
3. Bacary SAGNA
4. Francesc FABREGAS
5. Kolo TOURE
6. Philippe SENDEROS
7. Tomas ROSICKY
9. EDUARDO Da Silva
10. William GALLAS
11. Robin VAN PERSIE
12. Carlos VELA
13. Alexander HLEB
15. DENILSON
16. Aaron RAMSEY
17. Alexandre SONG
19. GILBERTO
20. Johan DJOUROU
21. Lukasz FABIANSKI
22. Gael CLICHY
24. Vito MANNONE
25. Emmanuel ADEBAYOR
26. Nicklas BENDTNER
27. Emmanuel EBOUE
30. Armand TRAORE
31. Justin HOYTE
32. Theo WALCOTT

So, Almunia’s been given the no.1 jersey after Lehmann’s departure; I bet Jens will be chuffed with that. You’ll remember that Manuel was no.24 last season, now Vito Mannone has taken his shirt. Wenger always said it’d be a 1-2-3 of Almunia, Fabianski and Mannone so it is no surprise to me that those two have been ‘upgraded’.

Our two new additions have been chosen their new numbers; Aaron Ramsey will take Flamini’s old 16 shirt and Carlos Vela is no.12.

That still leaves no.8 and no.14 left to fill. Will they keep 14 redundant as a mark of respect to Henry? Or will we see Samir Nasri take Ljungberg’s old number? Only time will tell. You can see The Cannon’s updated squad pages by clicking here. I haven’t made an image for Vela yet, I’m waiting for a decent photo of him, but that should be all up to date now.

I suppose the top story at the moment is Cesc Fabregas scoring the winning penalty against Italy to send Spain through to the Euro 2008 semis. The game finished 0-0 after extra time and Cesc was the hero. Arsenal.com say Cesc has never taken a penalty before in a professional game, which at first I though sounded ridiculous, but when you think about it I don’t really ever remember him taking one. Well he’s scored one now, sending Buffon the wrong way.

Cesc started on the bench, again. However his impact was tremendous for Spain. Both sides were lacking creativity until his introduction and he almost helped Spain win it in open play; it was only right the deciding penalty came down to him.

If the Spanish manager had any sense, he’d start him in the Semi Final against Russia. But he doesn’t so expect to see Fabregas on the bench again; I’m not bothered, less chance of him getting injured there.

I had Italy in the work sweepstakes, but when Cesc stepped up for that penalty I was always going to be supporting him. My other team was Germany though so I’m still in it!

And finally, Emmanuel Adebayor has come third in Arsenal.com’s player of the season award. You might remember that I named him my player of the season in The Cannon’s end of season awards. I’m guessing  that Cesc must be the Arsenal.com winner; he had a fantastic season too.

So that now means it’s ‘Adebayor Week’ on the official website. Lets hope the top story isn’t him signing for AC Milan.

See you later.