Rosicky Injured / We are Tough / Gallas is 30

August 17, 2007 on 9:04 pm | In Arsenal FC | posted by Block19er |

Arsenal have been dealt a blow for the match against Blackburn, Tomas Rosicky has been ruled out by Arsene Wenger. Tomas has a knock to his knee and joins Eboue on the sidelines. It’s a blow for Arsenal to lose both wide midfielders at the same time. Walcott is almost surely guaranteed a start from wide right and now Eduardo is likely to join Van Persie up front and Hleb will drop back to left midfield. It’s not an injury crisis but it is starting to highlight the thin nature of our squad. Eduardo may still not make the starting line-up but Bendtner will be ready to step in and give Arsenal a different option up front. These fresh injuries stem from the Sparta match and I hope the players are not out for too long following Sparta’s bullying tactics.

In Wengers pre-match conference today he said,

“Yes I believe we are mature enough to be title winners,”

Arsene is aware, as everyone is, that the season is not decided over 2 matches but in the current climate of football you need to keep winning matches all season to be up there so these first few matches are as important as any. Wenger also said,

“It will be a committed battle at Blackburn but you expect that,”

I am sure Blackburn will not get away with what Sparta did but I suppose it depends on what ref we get. The confidence that is spreading through the squad will be improved still with a win at Rovers a place where we went of the FA Cup last season, we also lost there in the Premier League the season before last.

I go along with Arsene but all this excitement about Arsenal’s first too games could be setting us up for a big fall. Although that is my pessimistic side and we should enjoy every win we get, it has been nice going into a season with a little less-pressure than usual, we have been nowhere near favourites for the title but after one game people are talking about us as contenders again. The guy at wtf even thinks we have a chance!! Football becomes stranger in that way every season, the Times even talks about Man City’s title hope today, are you sure? At the moment it’s one game at a time and we must get these injured players back in the squad ASAP.

I love The Mirrors headline today ‘The Fab Enforcer’ you’ve got to love that. The article leads on The Repka/Fabregas bust up. You could see from an early stage Repka was trying to intmidate some of the Arsenal players. The challenge that injured him with Cesc was totally his fault in my opinion his lunge was more over the top than Cesc’ and they met in the middle. Cesc said,

 “Sometimes you cannot play because they are going in very strong and you have to go for a physical game as well. You want to win for your team.”

The Arsenal players are clearly trying to point out that you can’t bully us any more. Over recent seasons Blackburn and Bolton have exposed this but Arsenal seem to have put this right. Clichy also said,

“Everybody thinks being physical is the way to play against Arsenal, but this year we are ready to show we are not the same side as before.”

Reports all over the media have again linked Juventus with a move for Gilberto, again this has been turned down by Arsenal, Gilberto’s recent comments to the press may have lead Juve to think he may be available. Wenger made it clear the other day that there is no problem with Gilberto, and the player himself said that he is totally committed to Arsenal.

On the players in front, Arsenal are being strongly linked again with Luka Modric, it is now thought Arsenal want the player before the 31st August when the transfer window closes. Luka is thought to be worth around £8Mil and has scored 3 international goals in 16 appearances, he has also proved to be a goal scoring midfielder at Dinamo Zagreb too.

It’s Gallas’ birthday today so let’s hope he can get the best 30th birthday present and lead the team off on Sunday with 3 points.