Bolton Preview, Kroenke, Financial Results, and Other News

Greetings Gooners! How goes it? It's another working Saturday for yours truly. I work alternate Saturdays. Isn't that one of the biggest tragedies you would ever encounter?

Anyway, the prospect of football later on today keeps me going. The last of the three away trips on the trot for us it is today, and away we go to the Reebok to take on Bolton.

Bolton hasn't been a happy hunting ground for us. They are probably nowhere near the type of kickers they used to be, but that's not saying much. A glance at the table shows that they are lodged in mid-table with four points, having won one and drawn another while losing two of the other games away.

We on the other hand have managed to put the Fulham away disaster behind us with our away win at Blackburn last weekend. But fatigue will surely be a factor, after our more recent excursions in the Ukraine on Wednesday. But Arsene is not making room for any excuses, especially fatigue:

“It will not be an issue because we don't put that in our brain. You want just to keep the focus as we had it at Blackburn and Kyiv then let's get the maximum out of the game."

“When you are a competitor you want competition so you cannot complain when you have that competition and you are tired. This is a fantastic opportunity because when you are a football player you want to play football matches.”

All I have to say is that if we have any title ambitions it's weeks and games like this we will have to endure and come out on top off. The manager also spoke about the recent encounters at the Reebok, with special reference to the last game there between us:

“I felt it was always very good or very bad. Rarely in between. But then for years they had a very good side and to be honest they still have. Nobody likes to go to Bolton because everyone knows they give you a tough commitment.We are preparing ourselves for another away game and one where we need mental resources to get the result.

“Only this time we want to win the game without being 2-0 down.”

Hmm, while it was quite a rollercoaster last time around, I would prefer something a bit more sedate. Speaking about the team we might expect today, "Le Prof" said:

“Nobody has come back from Kyiv with any knocks. But we will rotate a little bit because it was a very physical game.”

So that still means that Nasri, and Silvestre will still be out for this one.

In news at the board room level, Stan Kroenke, who holds about 12.4% shares has accepted the invitation to become a Director on the Board. He is not party to the "lockdown" agreement which binds the other directors but, "Mr Kroenke has confirmed that he will not increase his shareholding beyond 29.9% of Arsenal's issued share capital within the twelve months."

This is the American we'd rather have and NOT Fat minus the Orange.

Arsenal have also recorded their second highest profit ever, owed largely to the new stadium, and Peter Hill-Wood speaks about this, Kroenke and more. One poignant thing he does say in this interview, which gives you an insight into the state of mind of the club, and it's this utterance by PHW:

“We are committed to operating the Club as a business which is financially self-sustaining. This is clearly demonstrated having achieved our second highest ever pre-tax profit of £36.7m."

The financial results were announced as well yesterday, and you can give that a once over here.

Wenger speaks about Gallas, Denilson, Walcott and Song, and you can read all about that at those respective links.

Will end this fairly longish one with this—Jens Lehmann has annoyed someone, and not for the first time. Man, do I miss his finger wagging and whatnots. Keep at it mad Jens!

So here's hoping we get the result today to end a fairly succesful week for Arsenal Football Club. The game kicks off at 17.30 UK time, so that makes it 22.00 and another late kickoff for us here in India.

It's on Star Sports for viewers in the sub-continent.

Come on you Gunners!