Song, Eboue, Bendtner & Nasri all to return this week + more news 26 January, 2010
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News.trackback
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.
Great to see our injury list lightening. It’s such a shame Van Persie is so long-term, though; if we had him fit I’d be very confident of winning the league. It’s hard for Gibbs and Djourou too; both are very talented young defenders and it would have been nice to have them fit and available, especially seeing as Gibbs had been making such progress. In fact, I think he would be first choice for us now had he been fit.
Nervous about tomorrow; I think we need 8 points minimum from this nightmare run of fixtures to still be in contention. If we get that, then we have a very real chance of winning the league.
chris redmond.
i think if we beat chelsea, we can afford to lose 1 other game, MAYBE draw one, but if they beat us we will have had to definitely beat the others, maybe being able to afford 1 draw.
we HAVE TO HAVE TO HAVE TO beat chelski though…we can’t afford a major slip up.
If i don’t comment on here in 2 weeks, i’m in bed dying.
http://the-cannon.com/2008/02/16/this-man-is-a-twt/#comments
chef i cant believe u said that i know it was a long time ago but mate, i dont like the way u slated him and also alex song i’m sorry
yes it’s your site and you can tell me to piss off but stick by ur players innit.
Everybody loses their patience sometimes. Eboue was the village idiot and a lot of people were of the same opinion as me at the time.
In the past year or two though Eboue has done a lot to sort his attitude out and it’s made him a better player.
As for Song, I love him now, he’s the most improved player I think I’ve seen right from the initial product. I didn’t like him back in the day and neither did a lot of people, Wenger’s persistance with him baffled me – but it proves that ‘Wenger knows’! And that’s why he’s the manager not me!
I think it will both depend on fitness and also on other injuries. If Diaby will not be ready for United, then Song is more likely to be risked. It would be awesome to have our best midfield: Song, Diaby and Cesc all available against Fletcher and those very average players around him.
it is good dat song ebue are all back from the afr’can cup of nation of which most sporters of arsenal have been shouting for that there players are in afr’can cup of nation.so let’s see what the coarch will have say at the end of theseation because those two players are just as if they have on injury for the macthes they missed and on the other hand lnjured players are also back.
so here comes a question to all te members who like reading even coments like me
do think that our team is ready to left the trophy this seasion or not ?
(send answers to hadotomoze@yahoo.com)
beat the villa, draw with united beat the pool and draw with lose to chelsea, 7 out of 12 i think is max, anything else is a bonus. We should win the next four on the bounce after that whilst all the others are playing each other. The league will be in the bag before we play the 4-b-2′s
Nasri coming back is going to be crucial, i think with him back tomorrow we can get off to a great run of 4 games without defeat
Mr wenger,pls use song on sunday against man u
wenger arsenal we need cup soga we play man utd
average points per game to win the league is just over two -
8 points would be amazing from 4 really hard games
Any two wins out of three winnable games and whatever else will leave us well positioned
so a win tonight would mean only one and a draw from the next three two of which are at home – that’s why tonight is really important
wenger pls buy player we need tropfy this year pls. i know dat u no more dan me but not wilth standing u need to buy player i have been wlth gunner sencese i was 9yearold pls we need some thing this year. like all this inprotant game dat we have head off ous we need to wt it ad we need a point in per game we pla pls do enything posible to winne the game enything posible ad just buy player top striker if wont the tropfy oky
I didn’t know you are a keeper chef!
Are you any good – maybe you could replace
ALMUNIA
FABANSKI
MANNONE
Arsene, Arsene sign him up…………
No I’m shite, we’d be better of without me trust me!
haha.