Le Grove

Ok we lost to Seville, we did have a second string team out though, I didn’t say second string players as there were more than a few first teamers, but the team was second string.

We’ll be missing Cesc, Robin, Clichy and possibly Hleb, I say possibly as Wenger said there is an outside chance he’ll be fit, which is fantastic news given he was a 3 weeker three days ago.

I expect him to come of the bench, I expect Ade up top with Eduardo and Theo and Bendtner on the bench.

We’ll need our back four ready for the high lob to Carew, so we’ll need Traore in the right frame of mind, so it also wouldn’t surprise me to see Diarra or Hoyte drafted in the left back slot.

Midfield I expect Gilberto, Denilson or Diarra to partner Flamini with Rosicky out left.

Almunia

Sagna Kolo Gallas Traore

Eboue Diarra Flamini Rosicky

Ade Eduardo

That would be my preferred team but Gilberto in there for height would not be a major surprise.

What’s important is we don’t lose, that’s what can happen after a midweek Euro loss and if that does happen a mini collapse is on the cards.

Villa have won four on the spin but two of those were against Birmingham and Middlesbrough, the Blackburn win though was impressive, but Agbonlahor is out and he is their dangerman, so all is not gloom and doom.

They’ll be more frightened of us than we are of them and we have a good record against the Villa.

Every time we’ve needed a performance this season, we’ve risen to the challenge, so I expect us to nick it.

ManU stuffed them, so it’s a benchmark, if we don’t win ManU will believe they can go on and win the title, if we do win, they may trip up again soon.

I think we’ll be like wounded bears and Gallas for one will be having none of it.

Prediction 2-1 Arsenal.

We have a tough December, 9 games, but one of those will be the rub-a-dubs against Blackburn, one is the champions league game and again the second string will play that one, the other six are all against teams that will have the same amount of games to play, so in theory we will play depleted squads as well.

I fancy our depleted squads against theirs don’t you?

And finally, as a bit of Friday fun we have teamed up with the guys from the Clockenders and they have sent us a guest blog! Feel free to check it out and post your thoughts!

Have a grovetastic weekend!

Seen as transfer gossip has been the theme of the comments section this week, I thought I’d do a run down of potential buys this coming transfer window.

Michah Richards:

The dream buy, a rarity in the footballing world - English and talented. Micah is only 19, he is fast, powerful and has an eye for goal. He plays Right back and Centre back. He has the versatility that Wenger likes in his players and he is an avid gooner. He would come at a premium though and would Man City part with him considering the financial clout they have? Would Micah accept being behind Kolo and Gallas?

Wish list Chance: 30%

Nicholas Anelka:

Our old favourite Nic Anelka. We know all about this man, good and bad. He has electric pace, silky skills and a thunderous shot. Many Arsenal fans see him as the perfect signing to bolster our attack this winter. We all know the potential problems with Anelka. His attitude stinks a lot of the time. But as Arsenal fans, we are quite forgiving. I would take him back, but would Le Boss? Do we have enough striking options? Would Anelka hinder youngsters like Nikki B and Theo? Is he too old?

Wish List Chance: 20%

Tresor Mputu:

Top scorer in the African Champions league. He is bulky, fast and a good finisher. According to reports, he is a better prospect than Sammy Eto’o. Wenger has confirmed that he has been on trial with us and he also confirmed that he was impressed. I would think that Wenger is cautious of making another Yaya blunder… sign him up Wenger!

Wish List Chance: 80%

Luca Toni:

The big Italian is unsettled at Bayern Munich; he is home sick. So the obvious choice for his next club would be Arsenal or Spurs apparently. The guy is class. He is powerful, good in the air and has a World Cup winners medal behind him. Bayern paid £17 million for him in the summer and I doubt his valuation would depreciate that heavily. I think his age and his cost would be a huge factor in his chances of joining us but ManU signed Larrson for a season. Stranger things have happened.

Wish list Chance: 40%

Jussi Jääskeläinen:

Many of you want us to sign a top class goalkeeper in the transfer window. With Bolton looking decidedly shite this season, and his contract expiring in June, could Arsenal be ready to pounce with a bargain bid in January? He is a solid keeper who is 32. He also has the advantage of looking 9 years old… good for the 4 year contract when he hits 31 (Don’t show Wenger you licence!)! The only stumbling block with this one is that Almunia is playing well and Fabianski is the new Cech. He has never had Champions League experience, which can only hinder his transfer.

Wish List Chance: 60%

Luca Modric:

Dubbed the best midfielder in the world by, err? His agent! I don’t really understand the hype around him to be honest. He is small, not overly fast and hideously ugly. Not that being ugly makes you a bad player, but imagine the nightmares young Bayern Munich fans are have over the posters of Franck Ribery? I don’t want young Gooner’s having the same issues. I think the price being touted is £15 million. I doubt Arsenal will stretch to that.

Wish List Chance: 20%

Caceres:

A young defender who is contracted to Villareal and out on load at Recreativo. I have read that he is a good defender on a few websites but then I read he was being kept out of the team by Big Phil’s footballing mentor… PASCAL CYGAN. I must stop writing now. This transfer is a no go. The player has also ruled out a move.

Wish List Chance: 1%

Veloso:

The Emanuel Petit look-a-like holding midfielder from Sporting. He is a classy player, who ran PV04 off the park a few weeks ago. He also has the advantage of being able to play right across the back. He would be a great asset to Arsenal, but at the end of the day we already have 6 million centre midfielders and the last thing we want to do is another player position conversion. Wenger’s latest attempt hasn’t gone to well. Senderos - Goalkeeper to Centre back… it was never going work was it?

Wish list Chance: 30%

So that is my run down of potential buys this January transfer! Lets have some of your thoughts in the comments!

In other news Adebayor has been telling jokes again. He comically said,

“But who knows? If Real Madrid comes with an offer of £100m, Arsenal might be tempted to sell me. If Wenger tells me to go, I cannot fight to stay.”

Oh Ade, you kill me! You really do!

Cesc could be out for up to three games, which would be a huge blow to us. I hope the injury is less serious. No news from the official site yet, but some interesting quotes here.

The Jew, the Christian and the Muslim. Sounds like a children’s book doesn’t it? It’s not though. They are the religions of the three Arsenal fans who are planning on suing Arsenal for breach of contract. They are suing over the racist chanting of the term ‘Yiddo’. It offends all three of them, and Arsenal don’t do enough to stop it happening (really?). I don’t really want to give my opinion on the matter as I am not religious, but if there is anyone out there who is religious and has an opinion on the chanting it would be interesting to hear what you think in the comments section.

See you in the comments sections! Happy Groving!

Oh we did, Senderos, Gilberto and Eboue (the bad one)

Cheer up Grovers, I just did!

So it’s confirmed, Bendtner starts tonight, what an opportunity for him, he must be the most experienced 19 year old in football, banging them in for Denmark has given him a confidence rarely seen in young players nowadays.

Have a great night, nay a glory night Grover’s!

Chelsea must rue the day they paid us £5mil to take Captain Billy boy Gallas off their hands in exchange for our second choice left back, Cashley Cole.
Good bit of work that Kenyon, they must have also felt sick that young £2mil midfielder Diarra also had a blinder.

We were frustrated by having 11 men behind the ball against Wigan for 80 minutes, but last season that would have been a draw, or worse, Billy boy
just doesn’t give in does he? Not only that but he scored a fabulous goal again, I was one of the detractors when he made him captain, I still think
Gilberto’s treatment was shabby, but Gallas is just awesome, so I for one admit I was wro… wron… wrong, there I said it!

Big day tomorrow and expect to see a few changes, Seville lost at the weekend to a holiday resort named Mallorca.

I think he will bring Senderos, Bendtner and Eduardo to the starting line up but otherwise keep the same team that beat Wigan plus of course Cesc.

As far as transfers are concerned I can’t see him bringing anyone in, we still need a winger on the left, but who? I hope he brings in Anelka rather
than another African hopeful as I think a bit of experience will be useful for the run in, but unless he surprises us with a Kakaesque signing, I
really can’t see any movement.

I do expect Lehmann to move on and maybe Gilberto, but I hope not in Gilberto’s case, so at best he’ll sign a keeper.

I thought Green did well against Top4tottenham, but his howler against them for the goal has made me a little cooler toward him this morning.

With three tough away games coming up in the league we need Hleb, Cesc, Flamini and Robin back sooner rather than later, but I expect Cesc to star
in his native Spain.

Newcastle and Middlesbrough are very poor sides so I expect maximum points there but Villa are finding a bit of form so we need all our boys back for that one.

It’s as well we’re not playing Everton and by the time we do I expect them to be brought down to earth by someone.

Ade needs to work on his finishing but I feel that when boy wonder returns, so will Ade’s goals.

Onwards upwards Grovers.

Well what a relief that was! We had six players out but we still won, what is it about us and shit teams, we did this with Sunderland.

We really lack a finisher, Ade will probably explode someday, I know that, but if we want to win the league this season, I feel we need to get an out and out finisher, like an Anelka, or indeed, Anelka.

We dominated for large spells but couldn’t finish, so thank goodness for another captainesque performance from Gallas yesterday.

Good to see Rosicky on the score sheet, I think Bendtner made a difference when he arrived, but I would like to see Wenger make his changes a little sooner next time, we know they’re needed, he knows they are and when he does it, it makes the difference, I just wish he would do it sooner. For my nerves!

I am beginning to lose patience with Eboue, I don’t think he gives us much, a bit like Song at the moment, he doesn’t do a lot wrong, but he doesn’t do a lot right either.

Still we won and ManU lost, I can now read all the papers and be happy, I reckon we can win our next three premier league games, Robin will be back by then and hopefully we’ll be the ones to get fat Sam the sack.

Not a lot to say today but not a lot of people read the weekend blogs either.

Next up Seville, let hope we can win that one and top the group.

Have a nice weekend Grover’s and see you all tomorrow.

I was staggered that Anelka said in the Sun that he was wrong to have left Arsenal, we play amazing football and he would love to play for us again, he also said he didn’t think he’d get in the current side.

That amounts to an apology doesn’t it? On that basis the board’s prejudice against him has to be lifted, he is just what we could do with until Theo and Bendtner come of age.

And if we sign this new young African Tresor Mputu, we would really piss those two off, unless of course Tresor’s a winger.

Anelka’s an experienced goal scorer and one that leads the line well. Go get him Arsene.

Gilberto looks like he’s now touting himself to Juve, it’s a real shame that has happened, he scored some 9 goals last season and was a great example to the team, I personally think he’s been treated appallingly by Wenger, but at the same time, players these days have very little patience.

We’ve had three players threatening to move on if their not played and four if you include Gilberto.

I think if Arsene decided in the early part of the season that there was no place in his set up for Gilberto, he should have told him, not snubbed him for the captaincy and then dropped him, he was worth better treatment than that.

Even though Gallas has made a great captain, he was out of line with his comments and seemed to get rewarded for them, Gilberto on the other hand said nothing and got nothing.

I think it’s no coincidence that we’ve now had three French captain’s on the trot, next one up will surely be Cesc.

So in short today, I’m siding with Gilberto for shabby treatment from the manager and I think we should re sign Anelka before Red nose does, one thing is for sure, Bolton won’t keep him.

We need to win trophies this season and he is the type of player that could help.

Not too many to choose from in midfield today, but Rosicky, Diarra, Denilson and Eduardo should do it with Theo and Ade up top.

But please no Song.

I expect Senderos to partner Gallas today, don’t know why, just a hunch but I think he will.

Did I mention, please no Song? If I didn’t, please no Song.

So Steve McClaren is set to pocket something like £2,500,000 for being a failure, no wonder the team are not from this planet, their manager isn’t.

Still at least they have ‘football’ and ‘another planet’ in comment with Arsenal!

McClaren said it was the most disappointing day of his life getting fired and paid £2.5million. That’s something else we have in common, it was my most disappointing day, when you received it.

Why do the F.A insist on giving managers 5 year contracts? Who was going to come in and poach Steve McClaren? In fact, when has an England manager ever been poached by another club whilst under contract with the F.A? It is bad business.

The whole situation is all a load of old bollocks if you ask me. Any man that can sit there, in front of the nation and say he won’t resign because he is looking to the future is a cunt. Does he think the public are fools? We all know McClaren stayed for the golden ‘Fuck off’.

People will say that you can’t sniff at £2.5 million, and your average Joe public would take the cash. For starters the average man has not earned the sort of cash McClaren has over the last ten years, Shat Mac’s not short of a few pennies is he? Secondly, most people who get sacked from their job can’t pocket a £2 million book deal and thirdly, most people who fail that badly at their job can’t go out and get a new job for a million pounds plus.

If Steve McClaren had any dignity, he’d donate that £2.5 million to an English Football academy. He won’t though, will he?

Onto things of a more Arsenal nature!

WE HAVE AN INJURY CRISIS!

Maybe that was a bit melodramatic. We have 6 players out for the game on Saturday.

Cesc
Diaby
Hleb
RVP
Flamini
Gilberto

That could leave the midfield looking a touch weak! Maybe Diarra and Denilson will start? Or maybe he will bring Rosicky into the middle and put Theo out wide? Who knows!

I expect us to turnover Wigan. They are a very weak side. Imagine getting rolled by the Spuds 4-0?

Patrick Vieira is back doing what he does best… Talking lots of shit. This time about Wenger taking over the England team.

“You need someone with a big character, experience and a knowledge of English football and English players. “Arsenal fans won’t be happy but I think Arsene Wenger would be a good choice. He really knows the English game.”

Hey Patrick, I reckon Adriano should start doing your girlfriend. He has more Charisma and is better looking than you. I know you’d be pissed that I’d suggest that, but I think he’s a good choice.

Anyway, Wenger had this to say,

‘If I was English then of course - but I am not so it is a ‘no’.’

So do one Paddy.

Another piece of good news is that Steve “I stole all the Arsenal Boys” Bruce wont be taking over his post until after the Arsenal game. Apparently there is a wrangle over his image rights. Birmingham want the £250,000 they paid him for the rights back. You’d have to say thats fair, I think he was obviously dealing with someone on the Birmingham board of directors when they slipped that clause into his contract!

Enjoy your Friday Grovers! See you in the comments section!

Eduardo’s wonder move and pass to set up their second goal had Arsenal written all over it, and was the only one of the three that Calamity Carson couldn’t have saved.

One more day of nothing, then it all begins against Wigan in earnest!

So Stuart Pearce, England under 21’s man at the helm, confidently says Theo will make the Euro 2008 team, if we qualify tonight.

Until tomorrow.