Ian Henry
The hard-fought, scrappy but highly satisfying win over Stoke highlighted a number of things about Arsenal today; undoubtedly the team has matured and they coped well with the Delap long throws and lumps like Carew and Shawcross throwing themselves around in the area. Chesney made one excellent save and coped with the aerial bombardment; Djourou also won countless headers and a few misplaced passes apart, I thought he did really well. Let’s hope for the same at the Britannia later in the season.
However, the injuries to Walcott and Cesc, plus the precautionary resting (I hope it was anyway) of RvP and Koscielny and the presence of the Spanish waiter on the bench, worry me, and many others I know. We can bemoan the lack of squad strengthening in the transfer window all we like, but there’s precious little we can do now … except sign players who are available as free agents (that won’t happen and no one who meets Wenger’s expectations will be available on a free – although I gather Jeremie Aliadiere has been released by someone or other), but we do have a huge number of players on loan. Bring ‘em home I say.
I am sure we will need more bodies in the squad between now and the end of the season. Ramsey will be back soon and we have to hope he will leapfrog Denilson and Diaby in the pecking order pretty fast. Lansbury has shown he is more than good enough for the Championship; is he really going to learn much more at Norwich between now and the end of the season? Surely he would gain more from being part of a squad going for four trophies? I for one would rather have him on the bench than Denilson or Eboue.
But why not bring Mannone back too? Surely a top team needs three keepers? And surely he is a better alternative to Almunia, especially after the goal he conceded at Orient? “Don’t let the ball go between your legs Ian” – so said a PE teacher to me in my heyday as goalkeeper at Fitzjohn’s Primary back when being the next Bob Wilson was my ambition. Someone needs to tell Manuel that too.
If I had the choice, I would exercise the option (assuming we have one and if we don’t why don’t we?) to bring Vela, Bartley and JET back too; we will pick up more knocks and short term injuries in the coming weeks. We should have bought, we didn’t – so now we need our manager to manage his resources effectively. The thing is does he have enough bodies? I don’t think so, and while they may be recovering from injury (ie Ramsey), in need of game time (Vela) or relatively inexperienced (Lansbury, and the others), we will need bodies and at least these players have some experience of top level football. As someone once set – “fail to prepare, prepare to fail”.
