Wenger, a Contract and a Honduran

In a big rush today, with the houses and whatnot. Starting straight away with the news that Wenger is very close to signing a reported £9m pound, 3-year contract with Arsenal. There is also no room for that silly get-out clause that was mentioned every now and again in the past: Wenger’s committed, and we have the genius at our disposal for the next few years yet. In the same article, it is mentioned that Wenger may insist on Gallas being treated by Arsenal physios, and not France-Football ones. Here here, Monsoir.

Wenger has also mentioned that criticism towards Arsenal over the past season or two has motivated is players. He says: “You always have your pride and you want to give a response to people who don’t believe in you. But the real strength has to come from inside the team with the values we have to be faithful to, the football we want to play and the trust we have to put in each other.“

Finally, Gunneblog reports that Palacios, the Honduran winger/wing-back is on trial with Arsenal, and may sign as early as tomorrow for £2m. Always someone you dont know about, eh?

Anyways, I really have to run. Hope that will sate you all for the time being. If not, discover the avocado.

Jens, Willie, Theo are Dunn

Starting the day off with David Dunn feeling rather holier-than-thou in a modestly satanic way: the Blackburn-thug (not a dying breed by any means) is pleading with Wenger to ‘shut it’ for the sake of human kind, Keynesian economics and root-beer. In response to the violent-tag, he says: “Committed, yes, aggressive, yes, but they have better players than us with more ability going through the team so we have to close that gap and make it into a little bit of a battle. It’s getting a little bit funny because every time we play Arsenal, they’re the ones who say we’re violent. But we’re not, we’re committed and that’s what you would expect from any team.“

Whether our own biases are clouding our judgments as to how aggressive their team really is, at least the talk got to them a bit. I frankly don’t care anymore, as we dont have to play them for any time soon to come. Of course, his whole argument is defunct with Robbie Savage being anywhere near their first XI.

The articles coming out on William Gallas’ injury are fairly misleading, given that the interview is assessing him in a France-football context. “Out ’til October” is Gallas’ verdict, which is probably correct, knowing the fixtures for Les Bleus. For Arsenal, which is all we care about, it’s about 3 weeks. Which I hope is all it stays, no more.

Jens Lehmann reckons he’ll keep his place in the Arsenal side for the next few matches, given that his mistakes were ‘simple’ ones that – I’m guessing on implication – can be corrected by the experienced pro. With Gallas now out for the next few matches, the last thing the defence needs is a new goalie to get used to as well. Jens must stay, and I’m fairly sure he’ll at least cut out on the blunders in the ‘horrendous’ category.

Finally, Wenger is surprised that Theo Walcott has not been included in the England squad, given their depleted strike force. All I can say is that such a call up might have given him the shot of confidence the kid needs, but other than that, I could not give a flying fig about the English football team. Nup. Not a sausage.

And that’s all for today. More househunting, halfway houses and hatchets. For the anger management, of course. Au’voir.

New Signing? “Far Away, (So Close!)”

The ether is still in regards to Arsenal.

Wenger has remained coy on the subject of new signings, saying he is ‘nowhere near’ finalizing any deals. He says: “I have not found anybody. Either they do not exist, or if you go into the market and want to buy someone tomorrow, it will be at a very high price.” It’s notoriously difficult to read into most of what he says, but there could be more of an uncomfortable truth in what he says, in that frankly, we wont be buying anyone.

If it’s a matter of cost, then the £9/10m cited for Luka Modric means he’s just a fantasy signing that a) We dont need and b) Bayern Munich will buy for the hell of it. I’ve heard plenty of frustrated calls of “Why haven’t we signed Modric, yet?”, which is very contradictory. Although a very accomplished central midfielder, purchasing yet another of said accomplished midfielders to play on the wing would be back to square one. That, and he’ll cost a fortune anyway. The hunt for a winger goes on – I’m sick of the name ‘Quaresma’, because it sounds like another Nani signing now: Full of hype, with very little substance to anything. We may buy a winger, I think it’s a glaring necessity in the team. But it will more than likely be one for development who can at least give us some immediate width, and I would not be surprised if that meant an English signing. Not that that ever really mattered.

Staying with Wenger, who believes that the title race will be very close this year, and that it will include us. He says “I am confident we will be up there but with whom I don’t know. I still think [Manchester United] will recover and come back. Three games played is not a lot.” And he’s bang on. Laugh at Man Utd now, (please, do – it’s very enjoyable), but expect them to come back at some point, somehow. They’re famous for doing it. We have to concentrate on ourselves as a team, and not others. One game at a time was Wenger’s famous motto in the unbeaten season, and the next game is Manchester City at home. A winnable game – yes, they’ve been playing defensively of late, but they’ll be forced to play even more so at the Emirates, which means a change of game plan for them. For us, same old business. It may be a scrap, but it still puts us as favourites.

Finally, Fabregas talks of Lehmann’s blunder against Blackburn, very sympathetically. Cesc says “This is a team. Since the beginning of the season we said we will always be together. We are together now and we are strong. We showed that at Blackburn. There was one mistake and we lost two very important points. But it is still very early [in the season]“. It’s very cool of him to say – the debate of Lehmann rages on in other blogs, and I am for dropping him in favour of Almunia at present. The fact remains, however, that Lehmann is still our best goalkeeper by a margin, and though age may be catching up with him, one of our all-time finest. Never let it be forgotten.

All the news available today, I’m afraid. More househunting for me, though. Stay well…

Another Gaffe, No Winner

So a 1-1 draw coming out of Blackburn, at a time when Chelsea and Liverpool draw, and Man Utd lose. Damn it all.

Eduardo made his full debut last night, as Hleb took the left wing and Walcott the right. Arsenal marginally dominated the game in the first half, though it was clearly not going to be Lehmann’s day. In the sixth minute, a Blackburn cross into the box saw Lehmann out to punch the ball, but collided with Toure in the process – he was down for the count for what seemed a while. Nevertheless, Arsenal opened the scoring with Robin van Persie exploiting poor keeping from Friedel – Walcott’s cross found Eduardo, who shot across goal. Friedel saved but straight into the path of the onrushing Fabregas, who scuffed the attempt, only for van Persie to finish. It went in, in other words. 1-0 to the Arsenal, and the first half should have seen more goals (it was this fact alone that cost us the game). Gallas was stretchered off after a challenge from Santa Cruz, and Senderos replaced him on 24 minutes. Senderos had a goal bound effort cleared off the line later in the half; Toure blocked a menacing Derbyshire attack, and Nelsen headed against the post. Very frantic interchanges, in other words.

In the second half, Arsenal were pegged back, but Blackburn could not finish their approach play. One incident saw Fabregas handle the ball on the line, to his dissapointment, but the referree had already whistled for a previous infringement from Blackburn.

And then Jens gave us ‘worries’.

A pop from ‘way out’ from Dunn was hit straight at Lehmann, who proceeded to let it slip through his fingers, and dibble in off the post and in for Blackburn’s equaliser. Fabregas had a shot blocked and Bendtner (on as a sub later) shot wide in the final minutes.

So only a point away while the ‘big four’ scatter themselves across the table with dropped points. While Man Utd remain hilarious, Jens’ errors are becoming a real cause for concern. Will he be replaced for the Man City game? Almunia will probably be the beneficiary of such a move, though Wenger has shown faith in keepers before despite the odd mistake. This is two in three games, though. Food for thought.

Overall, we definitely handled the game well, though the balance of play certainly fell to Blackburn over 90 minutes. The ‘ifs, buts and maybes’ come out with Senderos’ finish going over the line, or Bendtner perhaps finishing his move, but a 1-1 draw it remains, and we now have to beat Man City, who top the table after three games, to show any genuine intention over Man Utd at least.

After the game, Wenger criticized Blackburn’s ‘violent’ approach, saying there’s a distinct difference between violence and commitment. I wont take away from Blackburn’s performance, which was enough to dominate us on the balance of affairs, but they really are trying to intimidate us any chance they get. The way the team is playing at the moment though is very encouraging, as elucidated by Wenger here as well. He says: “Before we conceded it was not obvious they would score, so that is why we are frustrated. But it was a good performance. We were resilient and dealt well with the long ball and the physical challenge they gave us.“

No news yet on Gallas’ injury, that will be forthcoming later in the day, we hope. {Update: Gallas out for two to three weeks.} I guess all we look at now is the ‘Big Four’ table, and laugh out loud at Man Utd:

2 Chelsea 3: 7
7 Arsenal 2: 4
9 Liverpool 2: 4
16 Manchester Utd 3: 2

Here’s hoping for a longer stay down there, Sir Alex.

And a final mention to A Cultured Left Foot, who’ll get the unofficial Third-Gen Award for Excellent Redesigns™. Absolutely nothing wrong with the previous template, but the new banner and new look is a winner, mate. I miss Goodplaya’s old design, though – even if it had Thierry on it.

All for now, more news when it comes.