Labels: Chelsea, League Cup

Arsenal defender Lauren feels he can finally see an end to his injury nightmare.

The veteran Cameroon full-back has been sidelined since undergoing knee surgery at the start of 2006, but is set to return to the squad for the first time in Wednesday night's Carling Cup quarter-final at Liverpool.

The 29-year-old admits is was a day he thought may never come.

Lauren said: "After so many months out, I am the happiest man at Arsenal.

"It has been so long and sometimes has been very painful.

"I can now see the light and getting back in the squad is a big step for me."

Labels: injury, lauren, nightmare

Labels: Arsene Wenger, Fa, trouble

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Writer: Nick Simmonett Date: Sunday December 17 2006 Time: 7:40PM

Labels: arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Ljungberg's

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Labels: Fa, Fine, Wenger

Arsene Wenger says Thierry Henry is on the road to recovery, but has ruled out the possibility of the striker turning out for Arsenal before Christmas.

The France international has missed Arsenal's last three games due to a nerve problem in his

neck.

Wenger feels the club have got to the root cause of Henry's neck problem, but says he is also being troubled by a hamstring injury which is set to keep him on the sidelines until after

Christmas.

"Thierry Henry has started his rehabilitation, but he is still not completely free with his hamstring," Wenger said on Sky Sports News.

"He starts to work again and we hope to slowly build him up and get him competitive again.

"The neck problem is sorted out. He had a sciatic nerve problem and a hamstring problem and that is the most troubling at the moment."

The Gunners have taken four points from games with Tottenham and Chelsea in Henry's absence and Wenger will not rush his captain back into action.

"I would not set a precise timescale because it is difficult to predict how long it will take," added Wenger.

"We will take the needed time. Christmas certainly he will miss."

Henry's international team-mate William Gallas has been sidelined since the middle of November with a thigh complaint, but Wenger hopes to have him available for the busy festive period.

"William will be one week, maximum two," added Wenger.

Labels: Christmas, henry, out

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You can read it here. In the article Mr. Tatchell claims that this item on Arsenal World has encouraged fans to take inflatable mobile phones to Chelsea in order to taunt Cole about his sexuality. A review of the article will reveal that Arsenal World does not encourage homophobic abuse therein or indeed within any other article. There appears to be an implication that the mobile phone waving will represent an instance of homophobia in itself. This simply isn't true. We would point out that the kind of activity this alludes to, isn't solely the preserve of the homosexual man. As the esteemed journalist Henry Winter argues in this article, this is a mild taunt in the scheme of things. Mr. Tatchell mentions the beautiful game, but if he is indeed a fan, he should be aware of offensive homophobic chanting that has been aimed at Arsene Wenger over the last 10 years. This chanting has been widespread from fans of Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, but has been curiously ignored. Why is this the case and can we expect to see some comment from Mr. Tatchell on this subject? He also notes that Arsenal fans have described Cole as a rent boy as a homophobic comment. This merely demonstrates his lack of understanding of the football vernacular. The term rent boy is directed at all Chelsea players. It is not used to insinuate any role in sexual prostitution, but as a mark of abuse for their acceptance of Roman Abramovich's money. Prostitution of a kind perhaps, but not of the sort that Mr. Tatchell refers to. The article goes on to describe a £20 note with Ashley Cole in 'drag'. Again, this is untrue. Cole's face has merely been used to replace the Queen on the spoof note. There was every opportunity to make a reference to the previously alleged homosexuality in the text on the note. There is no such reference. These notes are not homophobic and yet Mr. Tatchell would have football fans banned for what is a rather peaceful and humorous piece of banter. We read this particularly line with interest. "To his credit, Cole denied the gay rumours but took the trouble to say that while he is not gay, he doesn't think being gay is wrong or shameful. This is a very commendable stance". At Arsenal World we would consider that to be the absolute bare minimum with regards to tolerance and hardly worthy of commendation. It is disappointing that Mr. Tatchell has chosen to attack Arsenal fans and Arsenal World when it appears to he is not in full possession of the facts. We look forward to his response.

Labels: arsenal, Chelsea, Ill

For many years Arsenal had the Indian sign over Chelsea with the latter annually underachieving despite spending vast amounts of money under Ken Bates, before he very nearly ran the club into the ground. In fact, before, the arrival of the oil money Chelsea had just the solitary league title under their belt way back from 1955. But with their new found wealth and under the guidance of the self-lauded special one (TSO) they have won back to back titles and will be looking for the hat-trick this season.

And, of course, Chelsea were at the centre of one of the most sordid transfers of all time which, unfortunately, involved Arsenal and a certain Mr. Cole. I’m not going to go into details about the Ashley Cole affair as there has been a wealth of material written about it but, one thing is for certain, Ashley is going to get a barrage of abuse from the crowd like he has never known before, and I for one will have absolutely no sympathy for him. Whatsoever. By the way, has anyone even bothered to read his book? No? Thought not - me neither. The whole thing still makes my blood boil… ggrr…

Gallas may also be susceptible to some sort of abuse from the Chelsea fans as, he too, left his former employers under a cloud of storm. Although, unlike Ashley who was willing to sell ‘his side of the story’ to the highest bidder, we have yet to hear Gallas’s point of view. But from what I gather from my Chelsea supporting friends (poor lads) Gallas is still held in high regard amongst the fans as he was a player who always gave 100% and had a genuine grievance about being played out of position. Nevertheless one suspects there will be a few jeers heading his way.

Which brings us nicely to the game itself. Like I have said it is a shame that Arsenal are out of the title race as this would have been an absolute cracker of a game and the media (Sky especially) would have hyped it up no end. But, Premiership positions aside, the game still has the potential to be one of the season’s best. Make no mistake, Arsenal have a point to prove and Arsène will want to get a result at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. He feels there is not a 10 point difference between the 2 teams and will see this weekend as the perfect opportunity to demonstrate this.

Unfortunately for Arsène he has, yet again, another defensive crisis as injuries and suspensions have taken their toll. Toure is suspended, Gallas is a huge doubt and Djourou has picked up a knock in Portugal. I’m hoping Djourou will be OK and a part of me thinks that Arsène might be playing mind games when saying Gallas is only 20% fit (I’m hoping so anyway!). If not then the defence could be severely weakened with perhaps a midfielder slotting in at centre back. Attacking wise we are without Henry and Rosicky who along with Fabregas are our most creative players. So is it time perhaps to finally unleash Julio Baptista? We have only seen him in fits and starts so far but this could be the perfect stage to finally let him loose and and to prove what he is truly capable of.

As far as I know Chelsea have no major injury worries (except their keeper problems) ahead of the game so they will be at full strength. And Chelsea at full strength at Stamford Bridge makes for a formidable outfit. In fact Chelsea have never lost in the Premiership at home whilst TSO has been at the helm. Whatever you say about Chelsea; that is one incredible record. The key will be in midfield where Chelsea have an enormous wealth of talent and are able to close down the opposition extremely quickly - Fabregas needs to find room so he can put Chelsea under pressure with his clever passing. The back 4 will need to work as a solid unit and not make any silly mistakes that have been so costly in previous games. Defending sensibly from set pieces is an absolute must with both Terry and Ballack more than capable of scoring with their heads.

All in all, the players needs to be at the top of their game to get any sort of result. And I for one think that Arsenal are more than capable of getting a result; we have beaten Spurs, Liverpool and Manchester United, and I know Chelsea away is extremely tough, but I honestly think that Arsène will have the players so motivated for this game that I have a sneaky suspicion that the Arsenal might just get all 3 points…

Labels: arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Chelsea, EPL, Mourinho

After a scintillating and in no way foreseeable 0-0 draw in Portugal, both Arsenal and their opponents Porto have advanced to the next round of the Champions League.

CSKA Moscow, which was hoping for the Gunners or Porto to win outright, lost it chance to whinge after losing to dreadful, heretofore winless Hamburg, 2-3. Interestingly, all of the British teams have advanced to the next round.

I haven’t seen the match yet, but am about to sit down and watch it. More later of course. What were your impressions?

Labels: arsenal, Porto, premier league

Arsenal will be without talismanic striker Thierry Henry, as well as Tomas Rosicky. Interestingly, it looks as if Theo Walcott may replace Henry. Walcott, who is 11 and fast, could then get a chance to shine on a stress-packed stage.

The ‘Henry needs to leave Arsenal because Arsenal sux’ crowd has been out in force lately, by the way. And it’s true that Henry’s career has been littered with failure. Two Prem titles including an Undefeated Season (!), plus two World Cup Finals, one World Cup Title, the European Championship and last year’s Champions League Final as captain of Arsenal. How he can show his face around North London is a mystery.

i guess Arsenal win againts Porto 1-0

Labels: Champion League, henry, Porto

Rumours abounded before kick-off of a disagreement with Arsene Wenger reported in a tabloid splash in the morning. Henry duly spent all day on a PR offensive that Max Clifford would have admired. He gave interviews to explain how upset he was to miss such a game, spent the match down on the touchline as a very visible cheerleader in chief and ambled on to the pitch at the end to embrace and share jokes with Arsenal's jubilant players. He certainly looked a lot happier than he has while playing of late.

So all is well, then? Hardly. Half an hour after the final whistle, Wenger struggled to emulate his compatriot's high spirits when conversation turned from a comfortable 3-0 win to Henry. Habitually loath to criticise his own players when there is another excuse to lean on, Wenger's unease was conspicuous and did little to suggest the 'Thierry bust-up' headlines were the pure fiction Henry would have us believe.

'I want to sit down with him and tell him what I expect of him when he has recovered,' said Wenger, with conspicuous iciness. How did he feel about Henry giving statements about how he felt? 'I am not happy and not unhappy,' said Wenger. 'He is tired and needs to take time to prepare to play. He cannot rest for five days and then come straight back without preparing properly and play at the level the players did against Tottenham. I don't want to talk more about it. I want to give a lot of credit to the team and the rest is internal matters.'

Henry had endeavoured to 'clear up' the story earlier. 'No one actually knows what we said to each other and still they are speculating,' he said. 'I received a call saying that they were going to run a story saying I was in France sulking. I don't know if you ever watched Star Trek but I don't have the power to teleport myself.

'Nothing that has been said in the paper is true and it's a bit of a shame that all the time you have to come out and justify stuff in this country. I did leave the training ground disappointed on Friday because I wanted to play against Spurs. Nobody forced me to not play. It was a discussi

on that we had and I was upset because I don't like to not play. I want to be on the pitch. But sometimes you have to be honest with yourself and listen to your body.'

In the meantime, Henry and Wenger clearly have some making up to do to remove what appears to be an uncharacteristic wedge between them. There are plenty of top teams seeking top strikers so they would do well to do it soon.

As an indicator of how Arsenal will fare without Henry for the foreseeable future - he is suspended from the Porto match and ruled himself out of the grudge fixture next weekend at Chelsea and possibly a good while beyond - Emmanuel Adebayor rose to the challenge.

Questions had been raised about the £7 million Arsenal spent to bring him to the Premiership. There is

no better way to make himself popular in the red corner of north London than to score crucial goals to see off Manchester United and Tottenham.

His workrate in unsettling the Spurs back four was outstanding and he merited the crucial first goal that unfroze Arsenal's dented self-belief. Last week, in cowering to successive defeats at Bolton and Fulham, Arsenal were suffering the Premiership's most extreme confidence crisis. There is no team in the league whose performances veer so wildly between inspiring and incompetent.

But then again, they were playing Tottenham, who are on a bad day as flaky as their neighbours. These affairs are usually stormy and spiteful, but that rather depends on both teams showing up. Spurs were just about there in body but not in soul.

Wenger had been looking for new leadership and the heart shown by two 19-year-olds in dominant defender Johan Djourou and midfield orchestrator Cesc Fabregas, with 21-year-old Adebayor leading the line, epitomised why he is sticking with this team even though their inexperience hurts from time to time.

Tellingly, despite their youth, Arsenal had only one player new to the club this season in their line-up compared with five newcomers representing Spurs. Some of their players are evidently still learning about the nuances of Premiership football and derbies in particular.

Judging by the dark expression worn by Martin Jol afterwards, they will want to learn fast. Despite the emphatic scoreline, both managers left the Emirates with food for thought.

Labels: henry, money, Wenger

Now comes word that UK authorities are checking the Emirates Stadium for traces of polonium-210 in the wake of the Alexander Litvinenko poisoning in London. Seems that some persons believed to be connected to the Cold War-style assassination apparently attended Arsenal’s recent Champions League match against CSKA Moscow. CSKA, of course, is the Russian army’s football club.

This is potentially serious business, but I think that the ‘Well, we were poisoned by polonium-210′ excuse has been glaringly neglected in football. It’s got to be better than the schedule, the refs, the weather, MI6, and/or the Nabisco Corporation excuses usually bandied about. Can’t be any worse than Spurs’ tummy troubles from last season, right?

So basically, rewind two years back to winter 2004, Manchester United are struggling in the Premiership (Arsenal won the title the season before, unbeaten, and along with Chelsea are ahead of United at the moment), the team’s playing like shit and everything Ferguson says is being ripped to shreds and criticised by Arsenal fans.

Fast forward two years - Arsenal are playing like shit, Wenger is putting on a brave face by blaming things left and right (and not accepting that his team have lost it in terms of morale and motivation and spirit (something Ferguson admitted to 2 seasons ago, and got blasted by Arsenal fans for it).

My point?

Get some perspective guys - Instead of twisting facts and letting emotions cloud your judgement, realise that Arsenal are in transition, will take a couple of years to re-establish themselves and will be back at the top very soon.

Hilariously enough, Arseblog gets applauded for criticising Arsenal for playing like shit, I get busted for saying that Arsenal can’t hack it for the last 4 months. Different perspectives? Oh well, at least we know one thing:

Managers (be it Ferguson or Wenger) will always talk out of their arses - and for that they’re not much different than the rest of us.

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