Bumper Reading Preview
82 comments October 21st, 2006
When labelling this Preview “bumper”, I was aware that I might cause some confusion. My greatest fears were that someone would mistake the sense in which I meant that it was a “bumper” preview. “Bumper”, you see, is a word of many guises. For example:
- a person or thing that bumps
- a metal guard, usually horizontal, for protecting the front or rear of an automobile, truck, etc.
- any protective rim, guard, pad, or disk for absorbing shock and preventing damage from bumping
- as a rubber-tipped doorstop or an old tire on the side of a boat
- a cup or glass filled to the brim, as with
orange juicebeer - a person who molds bricks by hand
- (foundry) a machine for ramming sand into a mold.
- (television slang) a brief announcement about a news story to be covered later in the programming
However, of most concern was my anxiety that some readers might expect this Preview to be presented by a “Bumper“: a carangid fish, Chloroscombrus chrysurus, of southern U.S. and Cuban coastal seas. I hate to disappoint you, but it’s not.
No, I mean bumper in the sense of “extraordinarily abundant”. Unfortunately, you may have already inferred that quantity sometimes comes at the expense of quality. Still, onwards:
Previous Meeting: The last time we played Reading was last season, December 2005, in the Carling Cup. Looking back, it was only 10 months ago, and yet quite a lot has changed. Reading of course are now a Premiership outfit, for one. But within our own squad, it’s interesting how things have moved on. At that stage, Emmanuel Eboué was regarded as promising back-up, although I did ominously predict: “If Lauren is ever injured, he could make a real push for the first team”. Now, with Lauren seemingly out until January, you can all blame me for jinxing him. Perhaps my strongest memory of the game was the superb performance of the young dutch winger, Quincy. However, just a month later, he was sold following the arrival of Theo Walcott. He’s now a regular subtitute for Spartak Moscow, scoring a grand total of one goal to date. Funny how things turn out. Still, we should’ve seen his demise coming.
Team News: I haven’t got this right for a while now. The main reason it’s so tough to second guess Arsene this season is that there is a real squad mentality at Arsenal now. As he himself said yesterday, “This team now is not dependant on one player in any position on the pitch. Everybody has tough competition to stay in the side”. Add to this the flexibility in the system, and it’s a weekly conundrum to work out who’ll be on the pitch come the game. Although Emmanuel Adebayor’s performance against Watford probably warrants a place in the line-up, I think we’ll see the 4-5-1 in this tough away fixture. In that system, the personnel pretty much pick themselves. The only change could be at the back, where I certainly hope that Gael Clichy will come in for Justin Hoyte. God help us if he doesn’t.
Useless Fact: My cousin works on the coaching staff at Reading. And he couldn’t get me tickets for this game. Useless.
Prediction: An away win, although a draw would be no embarrassment considering that United and Chelsea have both had their respective troubles there. However, I strongly fancy Hleb and/or Rosicky to get on the scoresheet in a 2-0 victory.
As a final note, I hope you all enjoyed the Arseblog Arsecast yesterday: if you haven’t heard it yet, give it a listen. Funny stuff. Oh, and if you have a football team in the North or East London area and need an extra man, drop me a line through the contact section. I’m thinking of coming out of my early retirement.
Finally, the fact that this was so blogtastically bumper is basically an excuse for the fact that there probably won’t be an update till Monday. Still, I should be getting the Internet this week, which will make things a lot easier. Have a good weekend.
