International Friendly Squad Calls : France / Netherlands

The clown, Raymond Domenech, has included three Arsenal players for the upcoming international friendly against Slovakia : William Gallas, Bacary Sagna and Abou Diaby. I wonder if Diaby can make it and if he should make it coming out of a spell after being injured.

Meanwhile, Robin Van Persie makes a return to the Netherlands national team after a lengthy absence due to his injury last season. He is set to partner Ruud van Nisteelroy up front against Switzerland.

Hope they return unharmed and without any injuries or fatigue.

UPDATE: Abou Diaby has pulled out of the France squad which is to play Slovakia 'A' and 'B' teams next week. He will be replaced by Jeremy Matthieu from Toulose.

Squad Update : Rosicky to sit out the game against Blackburn Rovers

Tomas Rosicky has been ruled out of the game against Blackburn Rovers on Sunday following knee trouble after the game against Sparta Prague. The injury is not deemed serious and he should be back for the next game.

Interestingly, before these news came out, Rosicky had this to say:

"I just want to stay healthy. I feel that if I can stay injury-free, then I can be an important player for Arsenal. Last season, whenever I felt great, I got injured which was difficult for me. Now I feel OK again and we know that we have to score from midfield more."

Get well soon, all you injured gunners ..

Cheers.

Eduardo to feature against Blackburn Rovers

Eduardo Da Silva & Denilson have been declared fit to travel to Ewood Park for the encounter with Blackburn Rovers this Saturday. Eduardo and Denilson have recovered from their ankle injuries in time for the fixture. But Adebayor (groin), Abou Diaby (ankle) and Gilberto (fatigue) are set to miss out yet again. Emmanuel Eboue picked up an ankle knock which has put him out on the sideline.

Arsene Wenger, in an interview with ATVO, said: “From last night we might have a little problem with Eboue, who is struggling a bit. I don’t know yet, we will have more news tomorrow. The players who come back available could be Denilson and Eduardo. I don’t think we’ll lose anyone else from last night apart from that little question mark over Eboue.”

On being asked about Eduardo making his full debut this Sunday, he said, “Why not? We have played two hard and physical games this season already so we need fresh legs.”

More squad news to follow.

Thursday Roundup : Wenger / Gallas / Fabregas / Clichy

* After the hardfought victory over Sparta Prague yesterday, Arsene Wenger was gaga about his team's performance and their resilience. He had the following comments after the game:

On the performance overall...
“It was a very physical game. Sparta played with a total commitment in the first half and stopped us from playing. We needed to be patient and not make a mistake. At one stage we were lucky as well because they hit the post but we needed to play with more purpose going forward and in the second half we did that a little more. That is why we were more dangerous going forward.”

On the state of the tie...
"I am very pleased with the result because it was a very difficult game. For me 2-0 is not qualified and we know we have to keep on our toes. But the second goal is a mental blow for them.”

On staying in control...
“What I am pleased about is that the team has a resilience. They fight until the last second and they have shown that again because they scored a goal late on. We have matured. What I like as well is that we got a few yellow cards but we did not get a second one.”

On Jens Lehmann...
“Against Fulham I felt he made a big mistake in the first minute but after that he had a good performance. He has shown mental strength. Today he has made some great save and on the second goal he has been very influential.”

On the scoreline being flattering...
“Possibly. Perhaps it should have been 1-0. But we scored our goals, took our chances and defended well. They had some chances as well — once in the first half and on the free kick. In fairness they did not give many chances away and we did not either. They have a good defence.“

* Arsenal captain, William Gallas, believes that the team's new found resilience and attitude can be accredited to the impressive preseason campaign victories over sides like Inter Milan, Ajax, Lazio and PSG. He insists that the young gunners are ready to take on the premier league and end the drought of silverware that has been haunting the side lately.

"When I came to Arsenal the one thing I wanted to do was win," he said. "Last year was not easy because we had too many injuries but this season everything has changed. And I can tell you it changed in pre-season - how the players train, how they fight on the pitch - and when I saw that I said 'we will do something' this season. We have shown everybody already we can fight. Maybe something will happen this year, maybe we can win something, I don't know. But the squad is very compact. They want to win and they want to fight."

Let us hope that these words actually come true and gunners will find some glory this season, proving their critics wrong and telling Henry that he made a big mistake by jumping ship just to win some medals.

* Cesc Fabregas has denied the allegations that he made a mockery of Tomas Repka's knee injury by immitating his limp after he made a tackle on the former West Ham Utd. player.

Fabregas said, said: "I did not imitate him. He started insulting me and I said, 'okay, well do not' - he was saying Czech words which I do not understand. Maybe Tomas can translate for me. I thought I could win the ball. It is true, maybe I was a bit late. He did the same before, this is football, sometimes it happens to you. Of course, I am sorry for him. Sometimes in the game, you get this kind of thing. Nobody has a bad intention. I just thought I could get the ball." .

Fabregas added: "I never play football just to kick somebody. I think it is not good for football to say before the game that you will kick players, because after we will be ready for it. Sometimes when you cannot play because they are going in very strong, you have to go for a physical game as well."

On his goal last evening, Fabregas gave all the credit to Gael Clichy: "Ninety per cent of it was his goal. He made the run, he made my assist, he told me I had time, I just had to put it in the back of the net."

I hope Fabregas & Co. keep up the habit of scoring goals this season.

* Gael Clichy believes Arsenal are much better equipped to play against the more physical sides and scrap out a win this season. Quoting Clichy:

On Tomas Repka...
"Repka said it before the game, that they were waiting for us, to kick us and that is what they did. He talked a lot about it before the game - we saw it on TV - and then he got injured, which of course I am not happy about. But sometimes you have to play your best instead of talking. We know that is the way he plays and that he is a really strong defender. I hope it is not a big injury for him and that he will be back for the next game."

On this season ...
"Maybe they think this is the way to play against Arsenal. We have to show that we are not the same team as before and are ready for the challenge. Everything is about mentality and we believe we have the quality in our football. Every weekend, we play against a side like this in England. This season, we believe we have the football quality and the physical quality."

Highlights : Champions League : Arsenal 2 - 0 Sparta Prague

Arsenal 2
Fabregas 72'
Hleb 90'

Sparta Prague 0

A great victory for the young gunners !!

Review : Arsenal 2 - 0 Sparta Prague

Arsenal 2
Fabregas 72, Hleb 90+

Sparta Prague 0

Arsenal won the first leg of the 3rd round of Champions league qualifiers by a margin of 2 goals. As easy as the scoreline looks, the game was equally hard fought with tackles flying in all around the park as the ball was kicked off. Arsene Wenger fielded the same eleven from the win against Fulham. This time around though, Lehmann was one of the heroes of the day with some top draw saves.

Arsenal started slowly and found themselves under attack at times from Sparta Prague's offense with some close crosses coming in from the flanks. About 10 minutes into the game, Rezek arrived in the box to meet Horvath's cross at the far post. Rezek drilled in a low shot forcing a brilliant save from Lehmann whose foot managed to deflect the ball onto the inside of the post and out of the danger area. That was the closest Sparta Prague got to scoring a goal. Arsenal then dominated the possession for much of the first half and had some shots at goal through Fabregas and Van Persie from a free kick. Meanwhile, the game got ugly and there were lunges and tackles flying in with a couple of Sparta players getting booked. Fabregas was booked for a challenge on Repka which he seemingly didn't really regret going into.. Later during the half, the Flamster was booked for a rash late challenge .. All in all, an eventful first half ended goalless at 0-0.

After the break, Arsenal increasingly mounted attacks with Sagna going down up and down the right flank with good effect. Rosicky and Van Persie combined to orchestrate a good move that was parried away by Postulka for a corner. Quite some corners came in Arsenal's way and it just showed how dominant the side had been. But inspite of this dominance, it was increasingly looking like a 0-0 draw. But then out of nowhere, Clichy stole the ball from a Sparta player and weaved past two defenders, squaring a pass to Fabregas near the edge of the box. Fabregas then easily shot the ball across the goalkeeper to score Arsenal's first goal of the competition. There were a few anxious moments at the other end, with Lehmann being called in duty to save a couple of efforts. Riding on Lehmann's saves, Arsenal held on to the end of the game when in a classic Arsenal counter attack, Sagna picked up the ball from Lehmann and ran down the left flank skipping past a defender. He passed in to Hleb's path who just had to guide the ball below the rushing Postulka. Seems Hleb's already picked up the habit of scoring !! Two goals in two successive games and that too in the last minute !! Oh boy what a player ...

My Man of the Match : Jens Lehmann

Overall, a good gritty game getting us a well deserved first leg victory and more importantly 2 away goals.. I doubt if the Arsenal team from last year would have had the same amount of success as we did today !!

Go Gunners !! Go team spirit !!

Champions League : Arsenal 2 - 0 Sparta Prague

Arsenal 2 - 0 Sparta Prague
Fabregas, Hleb.

Goals by Fabregas (Clichy stole the ball from a defender and gave it to fabregas who had nothing much to do besides put it in the net )and Hleb (a brilliant run by Sagna on the left flank .. passed the ball onto hleb's path who poked it under the keeper)

A hard fought win .. no spectacular football but a hard ground result ..

Will post the match report soon ...

Go Gunners ..

Btw .. my prediction bettered .. well i was almost right .. hleb scored in 93rd minute :)

Preview : Arsenal vs Sparta Prague

We meet Sparta Prague in the first leg of 3rd round Champions League qualifiers. Being an away game, it would be great if we come out of it with atleast an away goal .. The squad for tonight is:

Jens Lehmann
Manuel Almunia
Alexander Hleb
Tomas Rosicky
Mathieu Flamini
Cesc Fabregas
Theo Walcott
Nicklas Bendtner
Gael Clichy
Bacary Sagna
William Gallas
Kolo Toure
Philippe Senderos
Alex Song
Robin van Persie
Emmanuel Eboue
Justin Hoyte
Armand Traore

Possible starting eleven : 4 - 4 - 1 - 1

------------------- Lehman -------------------
---- Sagna - Toure - Gallas - Clichy ------
- Eboue - Fabregas - Flamini - Rosicky -
----------------------- Hleb-------------------
--------- Van Persie --------------------------

I don't see Wenger utilising his favorite formation for Champions league i.e. 4-5-1 simply due to absence of players like Adebayor, Gilberto, Denilson, Diaby and Eduardo.

Predicted Scoreline : Arsenal beat Sparta Prague by a margin of ONE goal .. either
2 - 1 or 1 - 0.

Good luck to the gunners ..

Cheers

Tuesday Roundup: Wednesday Night Squad announced | Lawrie Sanchez apologizes | Morten Gamst Pedersen

Arsene Wenger has announced the squad for Wednesday's Champions League 3rd round Qualifier against Sparta Prague. It is the same squad that faced Fulham plus Justin Hoyte and Armand Traore. Eduardo, Emmanuel Adebayor, Gilberto, Abou Diaby and Denilson all missed Arsenal's 2-1 victory at the weekend and have not travelled to the Czech Republic. Wenger said these players had not recovered in time for the fixture:

"All three of Eduardo, Denilson and Diaby have small ankle problems but big enough for them not to play tomorrow. Adebayor is still a few days short and Gilberto is not fit enough yet."

The Squad for Wednesday:

Jens Lehmann
Manuel Almunia
Alexander Hleb
Tomas Rosicky
Mathieu Flamini
Cesc Fabregas
Theo Walcott
Nicklas Bendtner
Gael Clichy
Bacary Sagna
William Gallas
Kolo Toure
Philippe Senderos
Alex Song
Robin van Persie
Emmanuel Eboue
Justin Hoyte
Armand Traore

Meanwhile, the muppet from Fulham, Lawrie Sanchez, has apologized for the "diving" jibes that he alleged against Hleb and others. He has now admitted he was wrong to speak out without seeing replays first, and concedes that Arsenal could have been awarded a penalty for a foul on Alexander Hleb in the first half.:

"I've got to hold my hands up and say I was wrong to a certain extent. The incident regarding Hleb was probably a good shout for a penalty."

"My initial instinct as a manager is always to protect my own players so, without seeing the incident, I spoke perhaps a bit too rashly. That said, the one for the penalty I've seen them given and I've seen them not given. But I was speaking too much with adrenaline. Sometimes you shoot from the hip when you should wait a little bit longer."

Mr. Sanchez, please control your adrenaline rushes and try watching some replays before you level allegations against someone .. You won't suffer from a case of "foot-in-mouth" disease if you did so !!

Elsewhere, Morten Gamst Pedersen of Blackburn Rovers has been linked to us for a transfer worth around £7 million pounds. Apparently we had a bid refused as Mark Hughes wants a player + cash deal and is interested in Niklas Bendtner and Matthieu Flamini.

I like Pedersen as a player, good left foot, good speed, tough enough to ride over tackles and worth every penny. He could be the one who can fill the void on the left wing for us. However, there is no way Hughes is gonna get Bendtner .. Flamster .. he might .. but not Bendtner .. What do you think ???

Highlights : EPL : Arsenal 2 - 1 Fulham

Alternate Version

Arsenal 2
Van Persie 83 (pen)
Hleb 90

Fulham
Healy 1

What a win !!! Go Gunners !!!

EPL : Arsenal 2 - 1 Fulham

Fulham opened their account for this season after just 51 seconds when debutant striker David Healy got to the end of a horrendous clearance attempt by Jens Lehman who made a mash out of a regulation backpass from Gael Clichy. Arsenal dominated the first half but for occasional spurts from the Fulham attack. Fulham defence and in particular, the backup goalkeeper Tom Warren were brave and resilient enough to ward off any Arsenal attack that came their way. Warren made some brilliant saves to deny Rosicky, Van Persie, et al. and it din't really help when we failed to deliver a good final ball and we just gave away the ball too many a times. There was a certain penalty when Hleb was brought down in the box but the ref waived play on. So with the score at 0-1 to Fulham, both the teams headed down the tunnel at the half time break. Arsenal players and fans alike were frustrated with the showing and it was that feeling of losing out to a minnow all over the stadium. Second half was lively with both teams trying to attack the ball. Davis, Fulham's new signing from Aston Villa, was playing quite well on his debut. Warren was yet again called to make a string of saves and the fulham defence just stuck on. Fulham had a chance go by when Carlos Bocanegra failed to connect to a loose ball from a corner taken, just managing to swing his leg in the air. Wenger then took off Eboue and Rosicky, sending Walcott & Bendtner to help the team search for the elusive goal. Walcott made some nifty little runs but the end product was as earlier, zilch. Bendtner, however, had a very good showing right from the start, bringing down long balls, tussling with defenders and even helping out in the defence on one or two occasions. Then came a beautiful solo run from Kolo Toure who hopskipped through the defence to the edge of the box. He was obstructed in the box and Arsenal won a penalty. Robin Van Persie was up against Fulham's unexpected Hero and it was a tense moment. But Van Persie just powered a shot under the bar to the roof of the net to level the score at 1-1. An fracas followed when Warren held on to the ball and tried wasting time. Warren, Bouba-Diop and Fabregas were booked in the aftermath. Bendtner brought down a ball in the box but almost let it go with a poor first touch. However, he battled with the defender and managed to turn and shoot but only for the shot to go directly to the goalkeeper. A good effort though, as if pointing out to Wenger that he is up for a regular squad place. Toure at the other end, almost scored an own goal when he tried to chest down an aerial ball but only for the ball to hit his shin and roll away across the goal. A mighty sigh of relief ensued. With just a minute to go, Fabregas sent out a great aerial pass into the box to Hleb. Hleb chested the ball to his feet, went across the defender and shot the ball in to the net under the goalkeeper to make it 2-1 with just 6 seconds to go off in the normal duration of play. 5 minutes of stoppage time were effortlessly spent by Arsenal in possession and we begun the campaign with a narrow victory at home.

Mentionables:
Hleb - Great game as a secondary striker. Best chance of the first half fell to him but denied by Zat Knight. Seemed like frustrating yet again with reluctance to shoot but proved everyone wrong by slotting in the winner.
Bendtner - Supersub. Brought down aerial balls, had a good fighting headed attempt at goal, helped out in the defence and a constant threat to the Fulham defence.
Toure - finally seems to have a good understanding with Gallas at the heart of the defence. A great solo run that led to the equaliser by winning the penalty. Almost scared the life out of everyone by almost scoring an own goal.
Eboue - Nothing great to write about. Did not really make a case for him to start regularly on the right wing. poor last deliveries. tended to cut inside ala Hleb. Lost the ball quite some times.
Walcott - Substitute. Came on for Eboue. Had a good run or two but lost the ball too easily. The quality of the final ball was poor. Had a great chance to score in the end but shot over the bar. could have passed the ball to Bendtner who was unmarked in the middle. Needs to work on his final crosses. He's just a kid though.. has ample time to do that.
Sagna - Good solid defensive game for him with a couple of good overlapping runs with Eboue in the first half. Made some good runs down the flanks.
Lehmann - Easily a game to forget. Gave away one of the easiest goals a player could get with a blinding howler with just 51 seconds of the game on. Had not much to do the entire game. Luckily was redeemed by his team at the end and was saved from further embarrassment and frustration.
Rosicky - A decent game. Good runs on the wing, good cutbacks to help Clichy out in the defence. Had a host of decent chances to score but foiled by Warren and the Fulham defense.

so we kicked off our campaign with a fighting win over an impressive Fulham side. Once again had to come back from behind but scrapped a win in the end. Now off to Prague for the qualifying round of champions league this midweek. Until then, goodbye and good luck.

Cheers