News round up & Stoke FA Cup Preview 23 January, 2010

I’ve missed quite a bit in my recent absence. A spirited comeback against Bolton has put us top of the league and things are looking good going into our next four league games. However it hasn’t been the strength to come from 2-0 down to win 4-2 with an injury hit squad that has made the news – A nothing William Gallas foul is the only story that has been talked about and it’s not the first time we’ve seen something like this.

There’s no point in me going over this in depth, this has been covered really well on other blogs and if you haven’t read Arseblogger’s take on it, well you should’ve done.

The reaction to it has astounded me. We’re top of the league, with this squad, has no one noticed that? Wenger has obviously been asked about the incident and said he thought we were right to play to the whistle – just as Everton did when Denilson went down the weekend before. He’s also spoke about how incredible it is teams get away by saying ‘we’re going to be physical, kick Arsenal off the park and not let them play’ before they play us and no one raises an eyebrow. I also really liked this:

“Fabregas had two clear penalties at Bolton and one or two here. At Bolton there was what happened after [the penalty claim] when they [Bolton players] pulled his hair and stood on his neck. Why is no-one sensitive to that? Does that not make a story? You wonder why. We saw it three or four times when we watched the tape afterwards and we spoke about it. How can that not be a penalty?

Today, we are all brainwashed by one or two main medias who decide what we have to talk about and we talk about that. When it becomes the main story you have to give your opinion about it. I can accept that but it doesn’t always mean they are right. Some incidents they [the media] have not picked are sometimes more important than that. But I don’t get upset any more. It just glides over me.”

After the game Owen Coyle described Gallas’ challenge as ‘assault’, which is just laughable if you’ve seen the incident. He’s since retracted his comments surely in a bid to keep alive his hopes of taking Jack Wilshere on loan. Haha.

Lets move on then shall we. Gallas has been in the news today for more positive reasons, contact talks are ‘going well’ as he looks to sign a new two-year deal. He could be off on a free this summer but we need to do everything to try and keep him, he’s been a rock since he passed on the captaincy to Fabregas and is very important to our defence. Arsene usually has a strict policy of one-year deals for over 30s but I think he might bend the rules in his exception.

Philippe Senderos has joined Everton on loan until the end of the season and will complete a permanent move either there or elsewhere in the summer (Good luck to Big Phil, hope it works out for him). Sol Campbell is unlikely to sign on next season unless there’s some sort of de-aging miracle machine developed in the next six months. That will leave us quite short at the back so we really need to keep Gallas. We can look forward to the return of Djourou next season but I think we need another addition in the near future.

Chris Smalling is being talked about a lot as a possible option. Wenger looked very smug and didn’t give anything away when he responded to the rumours by saying nothing is happening ‘at the moment’. Man United are reported to be interested in the Fulham defender too so if Wenger does want him he better act fast than getting in a bidding war. This story could develop in the next few weeks so news on that when I get it.

Right, We have a game tomorrow so about time I turned attention to that. With Liverpool and United out, on paper it’s a straight fight between us and Chelsea for the cup. The holders are really up for it this year, Carlo Ancelotti has said the FA Cup is high on his priorities and fielded a strong side against Preston today.

I’m not sure how serious we are about it though. With all our injuries and with the upcoming league schedule we’re going to have to rest a few. Sagna and Diaby are forced to sit out, the latter will probably miss the Villa game too. As for that it’s down to Wenger who he thinks needs a rest.

Wilshere and Campbell are in the squad and could both start. We also saw the return of Theo Walcott (again) against Bolton so he could probably do with a game. Clichy has recently recovered from injury too, whether he needs a game for fitness or a rest so not to push him I don’t know – I’m not the manager!

Therefore, here is my complete guess at tomorrow’s team:

Fabianski
Coquelin – Campbell – Vermaelen – Traore
Eastmond
Wilshere – Rosicky (c)
Walcott – Eduardo – Vela

What do you think? Post your own team in the comments below if you think we should field a different XI

Stoke will be well up for the game and have even done just the thing Wenger was talking about a couple of days ago saying they will be physical! They don’t need to tell us though; we’re expecting a tough match up there. Hopefully the side we do put out is strong enough to win because this really is a competition we can win.

We’ve been beaten at the Britannia with our first choice XI before so it’s by no means a certain win. A draw would be a frustrating in terms of fixture congestion but I’d fancy us at home. Hopefully we won’t need to think about that though, a goal or two in the first half and I think we’ll win this.

Should be a good game though, we’re live on ITV1 again which I’m still finding a bit odd. Make sure you tune into ITV2 after the game for FA CUP XTRA with behind the scene interviews with Cesc Fabregas on his favourite toppings for pizza throwing and how Bacary Sagna has perfected his braiding technique.

That’s it for today then. Enjoy the game, come on you Gunners.