EPL: A Good Night for Arsenal

Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010

Last night was a fairly eventful night in the Champions league and the FA Cup, and it went very well for Arsenal on a number of counts.

The first bit of good news was the red card received by "he who shall remain nameless" for Man City against Stoke in their FA Cup replay. I had also hoped that the game would go to extra time as we have to play Stoke on Saturday evening, and that wish came true as well with Stoke eventually winning 3-1.

I know that Stoke will probably get a boost from that result, but I am also hopeful that their exertions will catch up with them. With any luck their minds will be on their FA Cup quarterfinal tie with Chelsea next week, and we can go there and get the win that we desperately need on Saturday.

Speaking of Chelsea, they were beaten 2-1 last night by Inter Milan in the first leg of their Champions league tie. They will be the favourites to go through to the last eight though with the home leg in three weeks time.

However, they did suffer another injury setback as Cech got what looked like a serious knee injury and maybe the gods of injuries have decided to switch their attentions to Chelsea instead of us for a change with Mr Tweedy recently breaking his ankle as well. If that's the case, I'm sure LadyArse will be delighted as she enjoys her break in Paris. All we need now is Drogba to get injured and Shrek for Manure too, and the league will be as good as ours.

Sol Campbell was speaking on the club site about our chances of winning the title, and he believes it is possible if we "fire on all cylinders". Apparently he has a slight calf injury, but I sincerely hope he can recover in time for the Stoke match on Saturday as it would seem Gallas will miss out, and the thought of Silvestre trying to defend the continuous high balls and long throws scares the hell out of me. 

According to the Dutch national team manager, RVP might be ready to start playing again in early April although with that only five weeks away I'd be very surprised if that is the case. I've said all along that I think we will only see him at the end of the season before he goes on to star in the World Cup for The Netherlands just to prove there is no justice for Arsenal. 

I've been a big fan of Dzeko at Wolfsburg for quite a while now, but with the news that they want €40million for him I suspect that Arsenal have been priced out of the market.  I'm sure Manure cannot afford him either and the Italian clubs are all broke too, which only leaves Chelsea who claims to be trying to no longer make a loss and Man City with their bottomless pockets in the market for him. 

There have been a few pictures circulating of the proposed new jersey for next season, and it is an homage to our first double winning team of 1971. Whether these pictures are real or not, there probably will be a one off kit for next season to celebrate our 125th anniversary as there was for our last season at Highbury. 

I'm really looking forward to my trip to the Emirates next week for the match against Burnley, and I am really hoping that the weather has changed for the better and I won't be absolutely frozen in the ground.

I suppose it can't get any worse than my aborted trip to the Everton game on Jan. 9 when Dublin airport was closed due to less than an inch of snow and my flight was cancelled. Even after booking onto a new flight, I still didn't make it as that flight was cancelled too.

I hope I'm not tempting fate by booking onto the exact same flight eight weeks later for the Burnley game. I think I'll be going to the supporters club on Saturday to have a few beers while watching Arsenal as it's on ESPN and I don't have a subscription to that channel. Hopefully, we can get the win we need and I'll have an extra few to celebrate with my fellow Wicklow Gooners. That's the lot for today.

I've been running a poll recently to see who was Arsenal's greatest player in the modern era, and here's a little bit of the winner.