Morning all.
Arsene Wenger has held his press conference ahead of tomorrow and the main points are:
- Laurent Koscielny will be available for Hull
- Gabriel will be out for another week
- Jack Wilshere will return in three or four weeks
- David Ospina will start against the Tigers, as could Mohamed Elneny
Jack Wilshere is still four weeks away from returning and my guess is he means training so it’ll be a while yet before we see him.
Talking about Elneny and our match winning striker last weekend, the boss reckons both are ready to show just how good they are.
On Welbeck:
I think he became a stronger man after what happened. He is back to his best.
And the new man:
Elneny has a good chance to play tomorrow. He is ready and is fighting for a regular place.
Having Danny Welbeck and Mohammed Elneny fit and healthy at this stage of the season is a huge boost imo. I’m not sure we’ve seen the best of the Englishman yet but if last weekend is anything to go by, then he’s likely to score plenty of more goals before the season is out and we certainly need them.
Similar for Elneny as none of us really know what he’ll bring to this side but he’s certainly not afraid to shoot from distance which is always been our achilles heel. Tomas was never afraid to shoot but all too often in recent seasons there’s been too much passing in and around the area when a pop at goal might just reap reward.
Anyway, hopefully both will start tomorrow and do well, very well. As for the rest of the team, all the manager has said is he’ll field a strong side but with Barcelona waiting in the wings, I expect we’ll see quite a few changes.
I’ll leave you with something funny. Nicklas Bendtner is contemplating a move to the Chinese League where he’ll triple his alleged £35,000 a week wages. It’s never about the money though is it……?
Have a good Friday…
Thank you for the Press Conference update, Rico.
At first I thought Danny Welly was more seriously injured than I thought, when I read in your headline that you were ‘digging up Danny Boy’ — when I saw it was a ‘B’ not a ‘D’ – I am still not used to all the colloquial sayings! 😀
Ha ha Henry…
Bit of a cop out this morning with the press conference, busy day for me, TGIF doesn’t exist for me.. lol
Good Morning Lovelies and Hunkies.
That was a nice press conference you gave Rico. 😉
Adam, I apologize….mixed up Barkeley with Delph.
So would you be willing to change JW with RB???
Are there enough Englishmen who can be bought or bought in to satisfy the quota but at the same time hit the ground running??
HRD,
If Jack was able to avoid any further injuries I would not want to swap him out for any other ‘home grown’ player (they do not need to be English) but that is like hoping wasps would leave a summer’s picnic alone.
At the moment I think Jack’s career with Arsenal is on the line, as I cannot believe Arsene will permit another Diaby-type debacle to occur
Why do you want to get rid of Ox Devil?
£105k per week, for a plank like Bendtner…
You couldn’t make it up…
Morning All
Morning Rico.
Nice post
Morning Kev, I had to laugh….
Devil. Barkley strikes me as having enormous potential, as does Stones. Whether either will reach the heights under windbag Martinez I don’t know. He talks a good game and the team looks powerful, but..
There is going to have to be a decision taken on Ox, Theo and Jack soon I suppose. I would imagine that Wenger will persevere with all three unless Jack comes back and suffers a serious injury almost immediately.
I wouldn’t want Delph at any price. He has lost his game and is now just a cruncher in the Fernandinho mould.
I’d imagine all three will stay Adam, after all, replacing them means making a decision and spending money….
ManUre now have 13 players injured…
De Gea could be out for next weekend…
Fingers crossed
Seems that Gibbs is ok now….
So hopefully he’ll play at the weekend and give Monreal a break…
Jack should be back 19th March.
Santi hopefully on the 26th March.
No return date for Tomas,
would be nice if he’s back in time for an FACup Semi-Final and Final…
Arsène Wenger has confirmed that he blocked Manchester United’s loan move for Mathieu Debuchy in January and the Arsenal manager expressed his surprise that the Old Trafford club should even have tried.
Debuchy, who has been supplanted by Héctor Bellerín in the right-back position at Arsenal, was desperate for regular football over the second-half of the season, with a view to forcing his way into Didier Deschamps’ France squad for the Euro 2016 finals and he ended up joining Bordeaux on loan.
But he admitted earlier in the week that it would have been “magnificent” if he had been allowed to join United, who made a late bid to take him from the Emirates Stadium until the end of the season.
Wenger did not entertain the notion of one of his players moving to Old Trafford, having previously stood in the way of Thomas Vermaelen’s proposed transfer there in the summer of 2014. Vermaelen would sign, instead, for Barcelona.
“I hope that’s not surprising to you,” Wenger said of his decision to prevent Debuchy from joining United. “It’s true. I stand up for that. There was nothing shocking in that.
“If Man United wants to buy a player‚ you loan players out to clubs who do not have the resources but not to direct opponents. I was surprised, yes [that United tried]. I can understand it but I found it logical [to block the loan].”
Arsène Wenger has confirmed that he blocked Manchester United’s loan move for Mathieu Debuchy in January and the Arsenal manager expressed his surprise that the Old Trafford club should even have tried.
Debuchy, who has been supplanted by Héctor Bellerín in the right-back position at Arsenal, was desperate for regular football over the second-half of the season, with a view to forcing his way into Didier Deschamps’ France squad for the Euro 2016 finals and he ended up joining Bordeaux on loan.
But he admitted earlier in the week that it would have been “magnificent” if he had been allowed to join United, who made a late bid to take him from the Emirates Stadium until the end of the season.
Wenger did not entertain the notion of one of his players moving to Old Trafford, having previously stood in the way of Thomas Vermaelen’s proposed transfer there in the summer of 2014. Vermaelen would sign, instead, for Barcelona.
“I hope that’s not surprising to you,” Wenger said of his decision to prevent Debuchy from joining United. “It’s true. I stand up for that. There was nothing shocking in that.
“If Man United wants to buy a player‚ you loan players out to clubs who do not have the resources but not to direct opponents. I was surprised, yes [that United tried]. I can understand it but I found it logical [to block the loan].”
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Debuchy told Canal+: “I was disappointed, obviously. If I had the chance to go to Manchester United it would have been magnificent. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the case. I discussed it with the coach, too, who said that obviously he couldn’t help out a rival.
“Yes, I’m a little bit annoyed with him. It’s his choice. I had a good pre-season. He said that I would have game time and that we would discuss it in December. Unfortunately, I didn’t have this game time.”
Wenger is preparing for Saturday’s FA Cup visit of Hull City – Arsenal are facing Steve Bruce’s team for the third season in succession, having beaten them in the 2014 final and the third round last time out – and he spoke about his affection for the old competition. He joked that after all of these years, he had been “very conservatively English” and he wants its traditions to endure. He said, for example, that he was against the scrapping of cup replays.
“I am quite a bit nervous about changing the rules because I like them now,” Wenger said. “It looks like we always get more money and want to play less games. That is a little bit of a contradiction.
“Next season, we have even more money coming in, so every single club will have 25 top-level players. I am convinced all of the clubs can compete with the number of games we have to play, so there is no real need to change the rules. This is the most traditional competition in England, so let’s respect it and keep it as it is.”
Wenger has won the FA Cup six times and Saturday’s tie will be his 100th in it. His association with the competition goes back to his childhood. “The first game on television I ever saw in France was an FA Cup game,” he said. “We had no television and we had to go to school, where we had a black-and-white screen, and we could watch the FA Cup final.
“At that time, I could never imagine I would play 100 FA Cup games. It is a privilege, because 100 is quite a big number and we have done well in the FA Cup most of the time. I want to defend my record tomorrow.
“I don’t remember the teams in that first final I watched. I was too young. It’s funny because I had an interview yesterday with some people from the FA and they asked me about the history of the English game. The first real players I remember are the 1966 players – Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore, Stiles, Hurst, all these players.
“Before that, I was nine or 10 years old when I saw some FA Cup finals. But I don’t remember which teams played. It might have been Tottenham but I’m not sure about that!”
Happy Friday guys… I’d take Barkley over wilshere atm for sure, I personally think he has huge potential. I love jack but it’s a business now no time for 100k a wk to sit in the sick bay for 4-6 months every year so his next contract should reflect that imo some sort of clause etc.
If De gea is out we stand a very good chance of getting a result at utd although mourinho will probably be in charge by the time that game comes and we all know how that will go.
Kev… Pity wenger didn’t practice that theory when selling Rvp… 😉
Mine are crossed Kev, and my toes.. 😉
I reckon there’s something going on with De Gea.. The own goal v Sunderland, then dropping out last night at the last minute… Hmmm 😉
Perhaps he learned from that huge error Kel… lol
Maybe rico lol… although I think he would have sold him to utd, it’s a loan he refused.
Maybe Kel, the club does like making money.. lol
Kel, I know what you mean, but I think that Kroneke forced that RVP deal through…
Didn’t Fergie ring Arsene Kev?
Probably Rico…
I do not want to get rid of the OX Rico. Its simply that I feel that for all the potential he has he should play more regularly. Its a situation where either he leaves or else AW leaves if he is to progress. I rate the OX more than Theo for the wing role and definitely Danny more than Theo for the CF position. But I feel that the OX is stalling and he should have forced his way in and make himself an untouchable, much like Coquelin has done. Granted…..if I had a choice I would have exchanged Theo for Barkely. But seeing that AW rates Theo more than the OX than that was the logical solution.
Hi all
Would not risk Kosser tomorrow with Bast@rdlona on the horizon. Such a shame Tomas won’t be able to score his annual goal against the Spuds this season. Unless of course we meet in the later stages of the FA Cup……..
Kev, I’m like you as I think Kroenke stepped in for the RvP deal and forced the sale rather than to lose money the following summer but considering AW has so much power at the club, you’d have thought he’d have got his own way had he wanted RvP to stay…
Devil, I wouldn’t get rid of Theo or Ox just yet, certainly not before a new manager comes in..
Bob, I hope they get knocked out before any chance of us meeting them.. That’ll be the kiss of death and now we’ll get them in the next round if both teams progress after the weekend…
I think our squad depth is good enough to rest first team players. Joel, Welbeck and Ox can be a good attack with Iwobi pulling the strings.
Elneny and Ramsey (coq is too valuable to loose) at the mid
Gibbs, Chambers, Per and Bellerin behind them. Looks decents while the other guys recharge their batteries for Barca.
I reckon it’ll be Elneny and Flamini in midfield, keeping Ramsey and Coquelin fresh for Barca..
That’d work too Rico. Tried to fix Theo in the line up he just couldn’t fit in. Maybe coming on at the 65th min
Maybe ollie will get a rest Marshall with Theo up top ..
Was that the summer we signed Podolski, Giroud, Cazorla and one other?
Maybe Monreal the following January, Rico.
It’s possible that Kroenke gave AW all the RVP money to reinvest and that swung it as far as the sale of RVP was concerned…
Who knows boss, we can only guess really and go on rumours and we know how some of them start off…
The bottom line is that both AW and Syrup have long arms and deep pockets…
It was Kev.. Agree too re the pair of them.. Very deep pockets and very short arms… 😉
Dead on here so I’m off for the day…
Still dead on here so I’m off for the day… 😉
Morning.
Morning All
Morning Rico
Arsenal have previously played Hull City on 10 occasions in cup ties, and either drawn or won, and I don’t expect anything different today…
A 3-0 win should set us up for the Barca Globtrotters next week…
Ok, see ya lata Rico, have a great day…
SHE WORE SHE WORE!!!
Looks like De Gea is gonna be fit for next weekend…
Morning Kev. I was kidding… lol
Just hope LVG is still there and not the under tall git..
Hi Bt.
Morning Rico, Kev and all. .
It’s a quiet one Bt…
New post up now.