Dominion, Mother Russia.

Friday, 11 September 09

As I walked home from the train station yesterday evening, listening to music on my phone, I was contemplating using The Sisters of Mercey song above as a title because of the injury to Arshavin and Morrisey was singing "Everday Is Like Sunday" which is a real favourite of mine. There are over 500 hundred songs on my phone and it was on shuffle so anything could have come up next but lo and behold the very next song was "Dominion, Mother Russia" and my mind was made up for me. As "EduardoIsInnocent" commented yesterday he can understand Arshavin playing as he makes Russia tick and they had to win the game but from Arsenal's perspective it's very annoying to lose him for our next 3 games at least.

I know he was fairly quiet in our first few games but in the big game at Manure he was at his best. Virtually all of our best oppurtunities involved a contribution from him. He scored our goal, he set up RVP for the chance that should have made it 2-0, he barely missed a chance when a corner fell to him and of course he should have had a penalty when Fletcher fouled him. That's an awful lot from one player in such a big game and with City seen as a potential threat to our lofty position in English football tomorrow's game is a pretty big one too. At least we will have Cesc back and Rosicky is available too but I don't think we will see him in this game. It leaves the boss with a tricky choice as Theo might well be available too. The defence will pick itself if everybody is fit and the midfield will probably consist of Song, Cesc & Denilson but with Arshavin missing the front 3 will probably consist of RVP, Bendtner & Eduardo. That doesn't look particularly balanced to me and he might well decide to play Diaby or Eboue instead.

The boss wasn't too happy with Arshavin playing for Russia obviously and he believes that their manager should have left him out as he was carrying a groin strain which he picked up against Manure.He has also come out against the proposed ban on under 18 players being transfered as he says Arsenal give them a good education and if big clubs don't sign them they will be sold to agents. He has a point and the controversy surrounding ownership of Tevez's contract in his West Ham days still drags on now. Imagine wht it would be like if agents had ownership of all the top young players. It would result in a huge drain in the resources of clubs as the agents take even more money out of the game. He also revealed that the referee apologised to him after the ridiculous scenes when he was sent off at Old Trafford.

Speaking ahead of the City game the boss also said that he doesn't think Adebarndoor is obsessed by money and that he has started the new season on fire and we must put that fire out. Try telling that to the Arsenal fans who will roundly boo him allday long on Saturday. I don't think that Kolo will get those boos as he is still fondly remembered by Arsenal fans. The boss said that Eduardo is likely to receive more of the treatment he got in the last 2 games from the fans but that he is mentally strong enough to deal with it after the setbacks he has had in recent times. UEFA revealed that Arsenal have appealed the ban Eduardo received and after watching Serbia get a penalty, from which they scored, and get the goalkeeper sent off against France on Wednesday night I can't see how UEFA can uphold his ban without acting on that dive too.

The match isn't on the TV in Ireland tomorrow so I'll be looking for a good stream on Saturday afternoon to see it online as I react to the events in the game on Twitter. If you have a good link feel free to suggest it to me. That's it for today.

Here's that dive by Serbia against France. Thanks again Lady Arse.

LINK

And to finish today's title track from The Sisters Of Mercy. Arshavin has been loyal to Mother Russia but at our expense.

LINK

See You Tomorrow.