Song, Eboue, Bendtner & Nasri all to return this week + more news 26 January, 2010

Last night Alex Song’s Cameroon were knocked out by Egypt 3-1 after extra time. Bad luck for him but great news for us! Wenger expects him to return either tomorrow or Thursday but he will be a doubt for United on Sunday. We will have to assess his fitness when he gets back but I’m praying he’s alright. It’d be a massive boost to have Alex return to face the Premier League holders, especially with Abou Diaby the latest casualty to the add to the injury list.

The Ivory Coast also fell at the quarter final stage which means Eboue will be available to us again. However it also means that Chelsea should have Drogba back ready to play us.

Our long injury list is gradually shortening though as Nasri and Nicklas Bendtner return to action this week. There was no confirmation as to whether either of them might play at Villa Park but Wenger did say they are back in full training. I expect we might see one or both of them off the bench on Wednesday but if both are raring to go by Sunday we can take that as a big boost.

However with us being Arsenal, any player returning from injury must be replaced and Wenger confirmed that Diaby is out. The injury table is much less busy now though, there are just five of them in there – van Persie, Gibbs, Djourou, Merida and Diaby.

In transfer news, Jack Wilshere will leave on loan in the next 48 hours. Arsene said there’s interest from a number of Premier League sides and named Burnley as one possible option. However the decision is down to Jack as to where he wants to go, so expect news on his new club for the remainder of the season very shortly.

It looks like Man United have signed Fulham defender Chris Smalling. This morning Wenger said the race to sign him wasn’t over but United have announced a bid has been accepted and he’ll join at the start of next season subject to a medical. However they did pre-maturely announce the capture of Aaron Ramsey not too long ago just before we wrapped up a deal for him so it might not totally be off! It would be a shame if we missed out on Smalling but it’s not the end of the world, I’d rather have Ramsey out of the two anyway.

So if United have actually secured a move for him then we will be on the hunt for a central defender this summer. I have no idea who that might be yet but Wenger hasn’t ruled out a new deal for Philippe Senderos. He’s just gone on loan to Everton until the end of the season and his contract with us is up this summer so he’ll be free to go wherever he likes. However if he does well at Goodison Park we may well ask him to stay. Unlikely though.

There was some other bits and pieces spoken about today. In the midst of all our goalkeeper insecurity Wenger has said Wojciech Szczesny will be our future no.1. He’s currently on loan at Brentford and Wenger’s been bigging him up as a future Arsenal great. I look forward to the day when I learn how to spell his name without copy and pasting. Also Arsene has called for patience with Walcott reminded us he’s still only 20 and has just returned from injury. He says give him five or six weeks and we’ll see a different Theo Walcott. I hope so, he looked totally not up to scratch on Sunday.

Puma v1.10 Gloves

Before I go I should mention SoccerPro.com who have sent me these fantastic Puma V1.10 gloves. They’re pretty cool, was definitely in need of some new gloves, in last year’s Arseblog 5-a-sides tournament I totally destroyed my index finger thanks to useless gloves. Looking forward to trying out these new ones.

I’ve mentioned Soccer Pro before and they’re definitely worth checking out. They’ve got a great relationship with customers and personally check back on your order with you which I think it’s quite cool. Also they do loads insane offers randomly if you stay in touch on their twitter/facebook. Check out their other goalkeeper gloves and goalkeeper gear from those links.

Right I best be off, should be back tomorrow to preview the first of a very important run of games tomorrow. Thanks for reading.