Archive for February 2nd, 2008

Man City Preview: We have fourteen players

Add comment February 2nd, 2008

With Gilberto and Manuel Almunia added to our expanding injury list, we now have only fourteen outfield players available for the trip to Man City. I suppose they are:

Abou Diaby
Bacary Sagna
Cesc Fabregas
Philippe Senderos
Eduardo
William Gallas
Aleksandr Hleb
Mathieu Flamini
Gael Clichy
Emmanuel Adebayor
Nicklas Bendtner
Armand Traore
Justin Hoyte
Theo Walcott

That means that all of those players, plus goalkeeping pair Lukasz Fabianski and Jens Lehmann (who will start), will be involved today. Indeed, Lehmann will be the only change from the side that defeated Newcastle on Tuesday.

Arsene Wenger has spoken about Golden Boot-chasing Emmanuel Adebayor, and called him the best striker in the Premier League. I think on current form it’s certainly true, but as much as I love Ade, he still has to show he can maintain this form for the whole season and beyond to earn that title. Arsene said:

“He doesn’t get enough credit for his touch. He has good feet, quick feet, and is a complete striker. He can still improve the timing of his runs as he sometimes gets caught offside, and, just with that, he can score 10 more goals each season.

He’s a strong character in the dressing room and a winner. He’s a guy who made mistakes at the start of his career, and has realised here that there’s another life rather than being easy.

He smells that he can win, and is a winner. When he realised that he could live in the big world of top-class football players it changed him, and today he’s a different animal, mainly mentally. He realised he wasted some time and it was time for him to be serious.”

Arsene seems to be genetically engineering his players to enhance their sense of smell to almost abstract levels. Adebayor can smell victory, and he famously claimed that William Gallas can smell goals. What can Arsene smell? Burgeoning young talent on the other side of the world? It’s astonishing stuff.

And, in a story that doesn’t surprise anyone in the know, we nearly bought Ronaldo before United gazumped us a few years back. We’d enjoy his footballing ability, which is undeniable, but I wonder how his personality and glamour-model chasing might’ve fitted in under Arsene. But then, perhaps he would’ve turned out to be an entirely different person. All ifs, buts, and maybes now.

Today is a day on which I consider it quite unlikely for all of the top three to win. So it’s vital we do. Come on Arsenal.


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