Forces of evil fail to derail our Champions League ambition
Add comment August 28th, 2009
It is a miracle that a Champions League draw ceremony that involved princes of darkness like Michel Platini, Edwin Van Der Sar, and John Terry resulted in such a kind group for us.
AZ Alkmaar, Olympiacos, and Standard Liege join us in Group H. The fact that two of those sides are competing in their first ever Champions League group stage tells you something about the quality of opposition we will face. When you consider that we could have drawn a group with Inter Milan, Athletico Madrid, and Wolfsburg you begin to realise how lucky we’ve been.
One man who might miss two of the six group games with suspension is Eduardo. Frankly, I don’t understand why Eduardo should be banned when so many before have gone unpunished. A two-game ban for what is a yellow card offence seems absurd. As Ivan Gazidis eloquently put it:
“I’m sure Uefa will look at it and if Eduardo should have been awarded a yellow card they will take whatever action they think is appropriate.”
Like, say, a yellow card.
Eduardo will, however, be eligible for Saturday’s huge match at Old Trafford. A positive result there and our promising start to the season will suddenly seem more than just, well, a promising start to the season. Cesc Fabregas has a 50:50 chance to be fit, whilst Aaron Ramsey is almost certain to be out after tweaking his knee on Wednesday.
There are a matter of days left in the transfer window and it’s all quiet on the Arsenal front. Everton’s move for Sylvain Distin perhaps suggests that they’re no longer after Philippe Senderos, whilst Villa’s signing of Richard Dunne is yet another potential destination for the Swiss defender ruled out. At this stage, with time to replace him so limited, I’d be inclined to let Senderos stay. He’s been a good servant to the club and potentially losing him on a bosman at the end of the season wouldn’t be the end of the world. Who knows – he might even start to fulfill his potential and earn a new deal: if Alex Song can turn into a first-choice holding midfielder then anything is possible…
Finally today, a new Nike piece on Theo Walcott. Walcott will be absent at Old Trafford on Saturday, but will hopefully be back in time for when our Champions League group kicks off on the 16th September against Liege.
Race back, Theo.
