Clichy Gets First Call Up

And nobody deserves it more than he does. Raymond Domenech finally decided to see what the rest of the world could see and picked him for his squad to face Congo and Spain. I'm absolutely thrilled for him. He's been talking about it quite a bit the last two years and he's finally going to get his chance it looks like. With the exception of Cesc and Adebayor arguably, hasn't he been our best and most consistent player of the last two seasons? I'm of the opinion that we have both of the best full-backs in the Premier League in Sagna and Clichy, and both will be playing for France.

Doesn't this again show the brilliance of Arsene Wenger? I was against the signing of Sagna because we had Hoyte and Eboue and I thought we needed other positions more than we needed another right back but he has been brilliant for us and contributed so much to the team that I was once again proved wrong by the master. Clichy we bought for almost nothing, 250,000 quid, and look where he is at today. People accuse him of not working with the English talent and buying English players but how can you argue with that price for what he gives us game after game?

Mathieu Flamini was also called up to the France Squad, as well as William Gallas, and both of them also deserve it. Flamini had just an amazing game against Newcastle on Tuesday. Bloody brilliant goal with a superb assist as well. Gallas has been a fierce leader and has come up with some big plays for us.

So for news OUTSIDE of the France national team, we have a few other things.

Abou Diaby has signed an extension which will keep him at Arsenal until 2012. He's a bit on and off for me, never really brilliant but sometimes quite good. He seems a bit lazy to me though in a lot of games. Great game against Newcastle though and I like resigning him.

Kieran Gibbs is going on loan to Norwich for the rest of the year. He's a good young player and the first team experience should do him well, although playing for a team called the Canaries must be a bit rough.

Luke Freeman signed for us from Gillingham. He's only 15 so he won't be in the first team for quite a while at least, but hopefully he'll be good and I reckon if Arsene says he will be then he will be.

“He is only 15, of course, so we need to be patient but he is a very interesting prospect. He is another one for the future.”

Today is Transfer Deadline day. I'm not expecting any signings at all and surprisingly I haven't really seen too many rumors of potential signings. Of course we always end up signing someone when nobody thinks we will and it is usually someone nobody has ever heard of. I can't really think of a place where we don't have solid cover besides maybe the wings if Hleb and Rosicky are injured. Diaby and Walcott don't really do it for me out there. But yes if there are any signings you'll hear it here.

Cheers.

Flamini's Wonder Goal

Check out this wonder goal by Mathieu Flamini against Newcastle. Cheers.

2-0 flamini Arsenal vs Newcastle

Transfer News and a Man U Cup Draw

Well hello everyone, sorry I've been gone the last two days. I was down in Orlando watching my beloved Boston Celtics lose to the Magic. However I did get to see highlights from the big 3-0 win against Newcastle.

Emmanuel Adebayor scored two more impressive goals and let me have a few words on him. There are still people out there that do not think he belongs in the side. He has scored eighteen goals this season and we aren't even out of January yet. He has already passed Henry's total from last year, and even though Henry was injured a lot of the year, there were people saying it was impossible to match his production. Adebayor has gone a long way to ease this transition just by himself and if he keeps scoring at this pace he'll easily score 25 goals in the league. Eight more in four months should be child's play for him. He could even get close to the 33 total that Henry scored two years ago. He's been outstanding for us and anyone who says he doesn't belong in the team should start watching matches.

In other news, the FA Cup draw threw us up a tough one, as we have to go to Manchester United. That will certainly be a tough game and now we have to play there twice before the end of the season, once in the cup and once in the league. Should be a dandy.

Now for some transfer news, Arsene Wenger says he didn't bid for Jonathan Woodgate. Well thank God.

A twenty-one year old Wolfsburg player, Edin Dzeko, is apparently a target for us as well. Never heard of him but he plays forward. I don't think there is much to the story, they only wrote it because Boro Primorac had a quote about him.

In injury news, Kolo Toure was injured at the ACN but it is just a thigh strain and shouldn't be any big problem. Tomas Rosicky was injured in the first ten minutes Saturday but Wenger says he should only be out, "days not weeks." And some very good news, Robin van Persie is expected back in training on Tuesday. Let's hope he isn't rushed back too early this time as we could really use him for the last part of the season.

Cheers to beating Newcastle again.

Lots of Rubbish From Eboue

So Emmanuel Eboue, off at the African Cup of Nations, apparently doesn't watch Arsenal while he's away yet still feels the need to comment on events that transpire in his absence. I don't know who asked Eboue for his comments or if he just felt like running his yap but somebody interviewed him about what happened between Bendtner and Adebayor in the match the other day. He had this to say about it:

"I don't know what happened. I tried to call my friend and he said to me that Adebayor punched Bendtner. But I didn't ask him why. I am going to call Ade and speak to him about it. It is no good for a young player to see that on the pitch. For me, you have to take care when you are on the pitch and be careful because a lot people are watching the game. I am hungry when I am playing, but I hope I would never punch someone."

So I guess his friend doesn't watch the match either, because he certainly didn't punch Nick. I think if Eboue isn't even going to bother watching the match he should keep his mouth shut about anything that happens and concentrate on his own game. Just my opinion.

But that isn't all Eboue said. He's also saying that Milan and Juventus both want to sign him.

"I didn't want to talk about that. What I can say is that many big clubs spoke to Arsenal about a transfer in the January transfer window."

Well if you didn't want to talk about it, why didn't you just not answer? I'm sick of this pandering to other clubs just saying everyone and their sister's uncle wants them to increase their value. It's nice when players are just happy where they play and with their pay, but I guess this is how it's gotten.

I don't think Milan or Juventus are really interested in Eboue. I can't imagine why they would be. He's been complete shite out on the wing for us this year and really wasn't that good of a defender either. He is still young and should just concentrate on improving his game and trying to succeed with Arsenal and stop talking. I think it would help.

In other news, Adebayor didn't get into any trouble with the FA. It's been reported on all the other blogs so I'm not going to go into detail on that, but it's very good news because we need him.

Looking ahead to Newcastle, it looks like Clichy and Senderos will be back for us, which is definitely an improvement. Hoyte looked bad last match and Clichy I think is one of the best left backs in the league.

Bacary Sagna has been seduced by the FA Cup. He said he would sleep with the Cup every night and run his hands all over it. No but really he just wants to win it in his first season. That would be nice.

In injury news, it looks like Denilson will be out for the next month at least and RvP and Djourou still have no real time table.

That's about all I have today. Off to Orlando for the weekend to watch the Celtics vs the Magic and go to Disney World. Up the mighty Gunners!

Adebayor Apoligizes to Bendty

So if you haven't heard, Emmanuel Adebayor and Nicky Bendtner had a bit of a row during the game Tuesday. Apparently when he came on he said to Nick, "I'm only on because you're shite," says The Sun, who is of course always 100% accurate. Gallas went and stepped in to kind of break it up. The FA are looking into it, which seems a bit stupid to me but the FA isn't known for being the smartest blokes in the world.

Yesterday though Adebayor apologized for the fight saying:

"We are a strong unit and what happened last night against Spurs will strengthen our desire and determination to compete for other targets. We are both passionate about this club and sometimes that can be projected in the wrong way. It was a mistake. We want to focus on the games ahead and rely on our squad's great togetherness to achieve a fantastic season."

So we don't really know what the fight was about but hopefully they will put it behind them as soon as possible. I think Adebayor will because that kind of thing doesn't seem like it would bother him, but Bendtner has shown that he does take his issues harshly and speaks publicly about them. He seems like a bit of a head case but maybe that is just because he is young. He is definitely a quality player though and hopefully this won't upset him too much.

Remember yesterday when I said we should send Theo Walcott on loan? Well now the Daily Mail is reporting that we are going to do just that. I think it would be good for him to get away for a bit and get some first team action somewhere else. Hopefully that doesn't lead to his departure as a lot of loans do, because I do think he will be quality. He just isn't quite there yet.

Looking ahead, we play Newcastle twice in a row coming up, in the FA Cup and in the league, and we need to win both. We already played terribly once this year against them and it's time to correct that. We can't afford it to be like last year where we went out of a bunch of cups in a row. Hopefully the team picks their heads up and goes out there with a strong performance. I'd expect to see our best team out there for both matches so lets hope for two wins in a row.

You know if I’m playing footy with my team I often call my team mates things like “shite-faced cunts” and things just to have a laugh, not because they really have faces full of shite. Maybe Ade was just trying to be humorous? And who knows what he really said you can’t believe what the press writes about it anyways. Important thing is not what happened, but what happens in the future. Adebayor has been scoring all year long and he, Sagna, and Hleb have been our best players in my opinion. It is up to Wenger and Gallas how the team comes back from an internal incident like this. Adebayor has already apoligized, which was the right step. Let’s just hope Bendtner can put on his big boy pants now and suck it up and play. Cheers to a win against Newcastle!

Come on you Gunners!

Drubbed By the Scum

Yes yes, I'm back. I've had a bit of a blogger's block if you will, but after watching the match yesterday I had to write something. If you didn't know already, we lost 5-1 for a total of 6-2 on aggregate and Sp*rs are through to the final. Bloody terrible and it made me cringe while watching it. I thought about finding a bridge to jump off of but it would have wasted too much gas.

So I'm not going to bother with a match report since it was so bloody terrible. Check out Arsenal.com if you really want to read one. I do however have some observations.

First off, this is NOT the same Cesc we saw at the beginning of the season before his injury. He was scoring goals and playing some of the best football I've seen. Lately he has been very sloppy and his passing has been off, and apparently he left he shooting boots in 2007 because he hasn't been hitting the target. I don't know if he isn't 100% healthy or if he's just in a bad patch of form but let's hope he turns this around soon.

Secondly, Theo Walcott has not looked like he is ready to play at this level. Sure every now and then he has a good game or a good twenty minute appearance where you think he's going to be great all the time but he is consistently not where we need him to be. He was miserable yesterday. I don't know what needs to be done but he isn't ready to play in the Arsenal first team yet. Maybe loan him out. Who knows?

Third and final is that we really need Kolo Toure back. Hoyte wasn't completely miserable but I don't think there was very good communication at all between him and Gallas. I just hope our league performances will still be good even with a different pairing than the preferred one at the back.

Good performances I think were from Sagna who is almost always outstanding, and Diaby who was solid with his passing and also took some shots.

Arsene Wenger spoke after the game saying,

"Of course it is disappointing because we lost. I feel that everything went against us. We were always in the situation where we were chasing the score. We were open to counterattacking and we were not mature enough to stop the counterattacking."

That's about it for this day. Feel free to write any comments about your views on any of it.