Back to business + RIP Rocky 31 March, 2011

Did everyone have fun in the international break? No, neither did I. I watched England’s game with Wales and most of their game with Ghana but I still wasn’t convinced I’m much of an international fan. I mean if I can’t celebrate our goals then something must be wrong, right? It was good to see Jack Wilshere involved though but I spent most of the time worrying he’d get injured off one of the many hard tackles flying in on him. He does seem to attract bad challenges but luckily he gets up every time, I just wince every time I see someone go in though hoping that it’s not this one that breaks him. He came through it though and as far as I’m aware he’s good to go for the weekend.

There were fresh quotes on Jack’s potential involvement in this summer’s U21 Euro Championships. As you would expect Wenger doesn’t want him to go for fear of burning him out but it looks like he wants to play; and there’s not a lot we can do about that I’m afraid. He’s had a busy season this year and it’s his first full season too, the rest this summer would be really beneficial to him and we’ve seen time and time again what it can do to players who don’t get a proper rest. Fabregas and Walcott are most recent examples of our players that have devoted that extra time to playing for their country and it has affected their fitness badly. For once it looks like we have a player that can actually stay fit but I don’t want that to change simply down to a passion to play.

He says he’s going to talk to Stuart Pearce, Fabio Capello and Arsene Wenger about it but I don’t think anything will change. Stuart Pearce wants the best squad available to him and Capello will see it as beneficial for England – neither of them care one bit how it will affect Arsenal. Why should they really? England is their concern and any other team their players play for has nothing to do with them. Arsene will argue our case but I don’t see him stamping his foot down and refusing to let Wilshere go, that could piss Jack off and you don’t want an unhappy player. Maybe right now all he wants to do is play games but I don’t want this to be something he’ll look back on and think maybe he should’ve sat it out.

On the subject of Jack Wilshere, It appears he might be becoming a father at 19. No idea how valid that Sun article is but if so I guess congratulations are in order.

Any international break would not be complete without a Robin van Persie injury scare. He scored for Holland as they beat Hungary 5-3 but was withdrawn at half time after taking a knock in the first period. All our players will be back at London Colney today so we will be making our own assessments and I expect confirmation on his condition today or tomorrow. Fingers crossed because we really need him now. From what I’ve read and seen it looks like it could just be a bad dead leg but you never know with van Persie… We’re just going to have to wait and see, I’m eager for a story to pop up on Arsenal.com any minute but I guess no news is good news right? Please Robin, be ok.

If he pulls through then I think we may have passed an international period injury free. I don’t want to say that with too much confidence just yet but there is a chance we may have seen a miracle before our very eyes. I spoke previously about Bendtner twisting his ankle but it turned out to be okay and he ended up playing 90 minutes at the weekend and 76 minutes on Tuesday night.

Jens Lehmann was also in action this week, he played for the Arsenal reserves who lost to Wigan 2-1 after Ignasi Miquel’s red card. If you read our official match report it sounds like it was a solid comeback for Jens but read it anywhere else and it sounds like he had a dodgy game. Apparently he went rushing out for some ridiculous ball Almunia-style and only escaped conceding thanks to a goal line clearance. I don’t expect Arsenal.com to slate any of our own players so it’s to be expected that they reported the game in the way that they did. What should be clear though is that Lehmann is not the answer to our problems, he’s simply a reserve ‘keeper and I’d be very surprised to see him start ahead of Almunia this weekend. No matter what happened in the game, conceding two goals to Wigan’s reserve is hardly something to be proud of. Aliadiere also started for our reserves on Tuesday, he’s back at the club trying to get some fitness but some of the things I’ve read sound like he’s desperate for an official move back to Arsenal. Now as nice a guy as he might be, if Middlesbrough don’t want him then surely Arsene isn’t mad enough to be tempted by that one. I know he’s made some odd signings in recent years but Arsene, not this time please.

So in a couple of days time we play Blackburn and it’s back to the title race. I can’t wait. We’ve been away from Premiership football for too long and I’m glad there are no more pointless breaks between now and the end of the season. Going into the game we will already know how Man United have done as they play at Upton Park in Saturday’s early kick off. West Ham have a knack of getting points off them so I’m hoping they can do us another favour this weekend. If we can close the gap this weekend it will be a massive boost. More on this game in the next couple of days.

Now before I go it’s time to pay some respects. As I’m sure you’re well aware today is the 10th anniversary of David Rocastle’s death and it is a day of mourning for Arsenal Football Club. A true great of not just of the club but also the game, was lost to cancer at the age of just 33. There are many tributes doing the rounds on Arsenal blogs today but I’m afraid I can’t offer you anything as good here; as much as I try I can’t remember ever watching him live as a kid. I was quite young when he was still playing for The Arsenal and even watching back old clips of him in action doesn’t rekindle any memories. I remember his death though, it was a very sad time and I remember being told that an important Arsenal legend had died. I think it’s a real shame personally that I can’t remember his playing days because he was so highly regarded by fans it would be nice to have something to think back to. However it shows the nature of Arsenal Football Club that his name is still sung proudly around Ashburton Grove and many of those voices are probably in a similiar position to me. It is a true loss to the Arsenal family and that can’t be escaped, no matter that I cannot remember him personally I still feel a connection to him through the Arsenal family.

There is some great stuff on the Arsenal website today to remember Rocky. There are some touching videos here and a great photo album here.

10 years on and he is still remembered and celebrated as a true great of Arsenal Football Club. RIP David.

“Oh Rocky, Rocky! Rocky, Rocky, Rocky Rocastle!”