2010 FIFA World Cup Preview: Part 1 And Latest Arsenal News.

Good afternoon from a very damp and dreary Dublin. It's days like this that give me a severe feeling of ennui(thanks to ReZnuK for the word) and I can only hope that things improve in terms of both weather and football very soon. I suppose I can at least look forward to playing football tomorrow night and I think there's some sort of tournament starting on Friday somewhere in Africa.

I think it's about time I attempted to put together some sort of a World Cup preview seeming as I'm running a Fantasy competition on the event. First of all, I'll get today's Arsenal news out of the way.

The stories linking Yaya Toure to Arsenal just won't go away. I will be very surprised if we sign him as the boss has had plenty of opportunities to do so in the past, and for a lot less money.

Personally, I think we are hearing so much about it as he is being mentioned as a makeweight in any potential deal for Cesc to join Barcelona. The way I see it is Cesc is going nowhere and Barcelona rate him at about the same price that they offered for Cesc. Maybe they should just keep him and give up on trying to lure Cesc as he must be every bit as good as Cesc if their valuations are so similar.

According to Sky Sports Senderos is in talks with Fulham about joining them and although he is better than the likes of Silvestre there is clearly no place for him at Arsenal. I hope he finds a club pretty soon but I don't trust a word I hear on Sky Sports and I wouldn't be surprised to see him go elsewhere.

I read a piece by their resident idiot Andy Gray yesterday in which he said that we would be better off selling Cesc and reinvesting the money in the squad as it would make us stronger overall. He also said that RVP was the most important player for us to keep. Updated news is that Senderos has in fact joined Fulham.

Far be it for me to tell an "expert" like him what the best thing for Arsenal is, but in my opinion we should keep Cesc and invest in the team with the money we have to improve.

While he is an exceptional player, RVP is very injury prone and it would be a big risk to build our team around a player who misses at least half of every season. In Cesc we have an exceptional talent and he will become the best player in the Premier league, and possibly the best player in the world if he stays. How can somebody who works for the company with the TV rights to that league think it would be good for Cesc to leave?

The latest players to be linked with Arsenal are the Palermo pair Simon Kjaer and Edinson Cavani. Kjaer is a 21 year old Danish international centreback and Cavani is a 23 year old Uruguayan international striker. These are just rumours but at least it will give me a couple of players to look out for at the World Cup which might make things a bit more interesting.

There is also reported interest in a couple of Arsenal players from Italian clubs. Roma are the latest club to supposedly be showing an interest in Eboue and Juventus are again linked with a move for Clichy. I can't see the boss letting our first choice left back go as we have no direct replacement for him.

Gibbs is still  very much an unknown quantity although he has a lot of promise but he has only just recovered from a very bad injury. As for Eboue I can't see him going either as we have no other back up for Sagna at right back and the boss isn't looking to sell players anyway with two or three leaving on free transfers anyway.

The club site are running a story from the DVD of the season review in which the boss says he will spend money  on the defence and he won't be scared to spend whatever is needed. I'm sure that I've seen the story before but it's something that I hope he will stick to because he said that we conceded too many goals last season to win the league and every single fan knows where our weaknesses are so I'm sure he does too.

So to the World Cup and my thoughts on how things will progress in South Africa for a month starting next Friday. There are a total of eight groups with four teams in each and the top two from each group will qualify for the last 16.

After that it's a straight knockout competition with the final on Sunday July 11th. I'm glad that only two teams qualify from each group as there have been some ridiculous games in the past when it was possible for the best third placed teams to qualify from some groups.

I can remember a game between Germany and Austria where a 0-0 draw put both teams through and there wasn't a single shot on goal in the whole game. It may not have been in the scenario I pointed out but it was something similar and it was an absolute disgrace.

Let's start at the start with Group A. The four teams are hosts South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay and France. With the hosts being the top ranked team because of home advantage it gives a chance to the others to reach the last 16. I've seen a little bit of Mexico and I haven't been too impressed but they always seem to fare well at the World Cup. Uruguay are particularly great either and the last 16 would probably be the summit of their ambition.

That leaves a French team who have some very good players but an awful manager. They managed to scrape through the play offs with a very dubious goal against my country and it has meant a lot of people want them to pack their bags and head home as soon as possible. 

If the authorities in football acted like they do in other sports the use of video technology would be allowed and Ireland would have gone to a penalty shoot out against France on that night in Paris but we all know that FIFA and UEFA don't exactly act in the best interests of the game. Curiously enough it was with TV evidence that Zidane was sent off in the last World Cup final as the fourth official used a TV replay to see his butt on Matteraze of Italy.

The hosts shouldn't be counted out as home advantage can make a big difference. I see this as a very open group with any two from the four qualifying. I'm going to predict Mexico winning the group with France scraping through in second place but I don't think either of them will have any say in where the trophy ends up.

Next of all is group B with Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea and Greece in it. With the current best player in the world in their side Argentina are seen as one of the favourites for the competition but with a lunatic for a manager who knows what will happen. Nigeria should put up a good show as should South Korea but I can't see Greece having too much of a say in how this group ends up.

I'm going to predict Argentina winning the group before imploding in either the last 16 or the last eight and I think Nigeria might just clinch second spot ahead of South Korea with Greece languishing in last place.

I don't see any potential quarter finalists from this group with the obvious exception of Argentina and it's only in the last eight where the tournament really picks up and the true quality shines through. It will be interesting to see exactly what impact Messi can make in a team that doesn't play the same way as Barcelona.

My last group for today is group C which comprises of England, USA, Algeria and Slovenia. I can't see past England winning this group and the runners up place should be between  the USA and Slovenia in my opinion.

I saw Algeria play Ireland recently and they were simply dreadful at the back and I expect them to concede a few too many goals to have a chance of finishing anywhere but last in this group.

If England can keep Rooney fit for the whole tournament they will have a chance. They seem to have set themselves up to defend and hit teams on the break which could prove be a dangerous tactic when they come up against the best teams in the tournament.

If they sit back too deep against Brazil, Spain or The Netherlands they might pay a very dear price especially as they have no proven goalkeeper at this level and their defence is a little creaky in my opinion.

That's it for my preview so far and I'll continue it in the next two days. Before I go here's the link to my Fantasy World Cup competition and the code to join my league is 221858-52981. You might also consider joining the leagues of a friend of mine using the codes 212147-50604 and 212147-50623. The more that play the more fun it is. There is a predictor league as well if anyone feels like predicting the outcome of each game. It can be found here and the code for the league is 154756-7741.

Here's a little bit of what RVP can do when he's not injured.

See You Tomorrow.