London's Burning

Wednesday, 05 November 08, 08:45 AM · Comments(0)

Exactly five years have passed since Ashley Cole's late, late fireworks extended Arsenal's Champions League campaign to matchday five. Tonight Arsenal can make sure that matchday five becomes an opportunity to give further exposure to the likes of Aaron Ramsay, Carlos Vela, Keiran Gibbs and co.

If they can provide half the fireworks that Arsène Wenger did in his prematch conference yesterday, they should manage it comfortably. Opinion amongst Arsenal fans appears somewhat split over not just the timing of these comments, but the validity. Reading around messageboards, there is a sense that Wenger should just shut up and get on with it, I felt like that when I heard his comments last night. I also heard Perry Groves say that he felt there was one bad tackle on an Arsenal player at Stoke on Saturday.

However, do we really expect the manager to watch 3 of his players leave a stadium injured and not speak out about it? Is this what we want, in fact? That he watches his team decimated by injuries and says nothing? I don't think so. Wenger's comments must also be taken in the context that having said his piece on Saturday evening, he's then had to listen to Thomas Sorensen gloat about Arsenal's lack of spine, with that player having shown a singular lack of spine himself in getting Robin van Persie suspended. It must all be getting a bit difficult to take, we can all accept that tackling is part of the game and that at the pace the game is played at, inevitably bad ones will happen. And we've seen more than few this season, yet only one red card handed out to an opposition player. But when you are consistently losing players because the only way to compete with them is to take them out (and there's quite a list), then that says something about the state of our game. Almost as much as ITV's complete refusal to call Steven Gerrard's cheating as it was last night.

The squad depletion that Arsenal have suffered means that we should see Carlos Vela tonight, Arsène describing him as one of the best finishers he has seen. High praise indeed. Though, as always with a youngster, it was qualified with the statement that he must also adapt to the physical side, he will get his chance over the next week.

Meanwhile Tony Adams seems to be trying to further establish the Arsenal veterans home that is Portsmouth FC. He's after Dennis Bergkamp...

Enjoy the game, whereever you're watching it, if you're going get behind the boys and let's have something positive to talk about tomorrow!

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