International Weeks are tedium filled at the best of times; Friendlies this early in the season have the X Factor to tip you over the edge. How many of the Arsenal squad will return with niggles and knocks ahead of Manchester City’s is unknown but think of a number, double it and then double it again. Matches such as these are to be blunt, a complete pain in the Arsenal, serving no purpose other than to boost Association coffers.
On the injury front, Physioroom reports that all of the injured members of the squad bar William Gallas will return this weekend which is a boost ahead of the City game, save for niggles picked up this week. This is an issue that the Football Authorities have to address, prior to the resolution of the Charleroi court case. There is simply too much football for the Clubs to accommodate with current squad sizes. At Arsenal, there has already been a stretch with injuries two weeks into the season. Of course, there is an argument that this is of Arsene’s own making, that it is his responsibility however the Authorities have a duty to reschedule the Footballing Calendar to ensure the highest levels of performance. If they do not then the list of those retiring prematurely may grow longer.
Well, that is not strictly true that Friendlies are entirely meaningless from a Club’s point of view. In the case of Theo Walcott, it has been his first full ninety minutes of the season and by all accounts, he was England Under-21′s best player. Well, that is what The Times and The Telegraph think anyway.
For Jens Lehmann, it is a chance to get his eye in again. He is interviewed in this morning’s Sun (it must have been hard for the Sub not to put the word ‘howitzer‘ instead of ‘howler‘ in the headline) and says,
I’m not at all concerned — because the mistakes I made were so simple that they have not made me doubt my basic ability as a goalkeeper
I can think of a fair few people who will disagree with that one, including the two visitors who arrived at this site using a search engine query of ‘Petition to stop Jehns Lehmann‘. What they wanted to stop him doing is unclear as the results were inconclusive. Conceding sloppy goals? Appearing on The X Factor? Seal Clubbing on his holidays? Who knows. Anway, back to Jens. He went on,
I know why it happened. But I’m not going to explain it because there are too many English people around and I don’t want to give anything away…After the first minute I had two very good games against Fulham and Sparta Prague.
It is this last part that is being forgotten; he did exactly that and error aside, on Sunday he looked as if he was heading back towards his best form for the Club. There is no doubt that he has the personal confidence to regain that and I suspect that Arsene will retain him as Number One on an ongoing basis, particularly as Gallas is injured, to bring in a new Centre Back and Goalkeeper could prove too disruptive for what has been an improving backline.
’til Tomorrow.
Sol
The same thought crossed my mind about the WP. Mind you, it will be the same way as everyone else – on appeal!
YW
Just woken up.
What was the score?
Yogi’s Warrior — the purpose of frendlies, one, is to the the NT play, which i would rather see than any one else, second, its to get ready for all the euro qualifiers that are on in 2 weeks time
In addition, there were a few teams playing euro qualifiers tonight
again, for a NT to ever do well, they need to play together as much as possible
and you talk about money, yet all clubs are just build on money, especially clubs like arsenal
Joe
The purpose is to what? If the friendlies mean so much and are so valuable why were the top four from last season all playing on Sunday? Even before then there were withdrawals.
Of the team that played tonight, only Richards of the new faces has a realistic chance of being involved in the ECQ.
And if there were ECQ’s tonight, why not structure the whole tournament so that they take place on the same evenings?
The Clubs are built on money. They pay the players wages and are expected to pick up the tab when those same players get injured. Yet the FA’s of this world walk away having knackered up someone else’s asset, scot free and with no comeback. Yet the same Associations claim that there is too much football being forced onto the players whilst arranging friendlies when the season is a fortnight old.
McClaren would have been better served by a Training Camp. Prepare for the forthcoming ECQ’s and work on the players, making sure that they understand their roles because a number of them tonight did not have a clue. Actually he did learn one thing tonight. Any thoughts he had about being sure his Goalkeeper was in form went right out of the window.
YW
look like i said before, say what you want, but just becasue your NT is rubbish, you guys have to have a cry
if you guys were world champs, you would be saying how the NT is the most important thing in football, but becasue you aint, you dont
what i must ask, is if you are such a patriotic english man, why is it that you support a team like arsenal, what are everything but enlglish????
dont you feel its a bit of a joke?
Joe
The problem is the club game is now so superior to International football.
International football is now so sterile that a complete football nut like me wouldn’t be bothered if I saw it or not.
This was not always the case.
How many truly decent games were there in the last WC finals? 4 or 5 at most maybe with ALL of the England games being absolutely turgid.
If you support a good club all you worry about is are your players coming back unharmed & unknackered.
Flint McCullough —- see this is you big problem … only the english think this
you go to the true football nations of the world, and they would much rather see international football over club football
the world cup is still the biggest competition in the world
good games?? its all about winning … how many good games were played in last seasons EPL?? i watch EPl, la liga and seire A, and i can tell you that the epl produced the least number of good games compared to the othere 2 leagues
like i said, if england were the world champs, you would be saying that international football is far superior than club football
Why don’t you just stick with other nations then & leave us to enjoy our football as we like it best?
No if England won the World Cup playing as sterile football as Italy did, I would still say club football is far superior.
Joe
Absolutely the EPL produces turgid games. But you cannot watch that much if you think that Serie A and La Liga don’t produce the same number.
The English have *always* been more passionate about their club football. The only time we have not been is when the International Tournaments have been staged here.
But what was inspiring and good about tonight’s England v Germany game. The play was not technically superior, neither was there any tactical innovation to make you sit up and think ‘Wow!’ In short the game drifted because of the quality of players available to both managers.
Sure the WC is the biggest tournament. Because it is the only Global Tournament. The ECL is second behind it; hardly a recommendation for International Football.
For a man who supports a team who have been funded by corruption and are wholly foreign owned, a tad odd that you question Arsenal’s nationality…
YW
[...] Jens, Theo And A Tad More International Weeks are tedium filled at the best of times; Friendlies this early in the season have the X Factor to […] [...]
“The English have *always* been more passionate about their club football. ”
england dont know what passion is .. the EPL is a marketing tool, they overload people with it, and brain wash them at th same time
“For a man who supports a team who have been funded by corruption and are wholly foreign owned, a tad odd that you question Arsenal’s nationality…”
Corruption … im sure, where ever there is money, there is corruption …
“and are wholly foreign owned”
ummm please tell me how?
england is a bandwagon nation .. support only what they are doing well in at current time
appart from man u, liverpool, arsenal and chelsea, the rest of the 16 teams in the epl play rubbish football, with no skill or tactical or tecnical ability …. so yea, i can say la liga abd serie a, do produce much better quality football, thanthe epl
can i ask the last time you bothred to watch a game from serie a , or la liga?
and like i said before, how can you be a patriotic englishman, yet go for arsenal, when they only have one englishman in there team?????
I like most of the rest of the WORLD love most to watch INTERNATIONAL football. Truth is only a few big clubs can match up with the best 20 national teams. Honestly I love ARSENAL because of the QUALITY of play not because I’m a lifelong Gunner fan! The WORLD CUP is still THE BIGGEST sporting spectacle on the planet because MOST people (pure football enthusiasts & the millions of “others”) LOVE to watch the best teams compete on probably the most LEVEL terms! There were no frigging agents involved in perpetuating bullshit percentages, no clubsides worrying about injuries & insurance, and all this crap that nullifies the PURITY & ESSENCE of competition. The bigger values are eroding so fast from life that some of us on this blog sound so shortsighted & desperate with our need for our Gooner fix!
Again I must confess my love for ARSENAL is a love for the beautiful game. The highly intelligent, fair-minded, elegant, principled & pasionately entertaining way AW & his players conduct themselves on the football pitch.! Same reason why Brazil draws more fans than any other. LEGENDS that were and are still built primarily by WORLD CUPS! Clear as day
By the way, I’m NIGERIAN!
ps: Anelka + Left Winger still needed
Theo is mistake at this age.. he will need another 5 yrs to warrant a first team place
Joe
Quite the little fascist aren’t you. Oh dear and a tabloid one at that.
“can i ask the last time you bothred to watch a game from serie a , or la liga?”
Sadly for you, quite regularly what with being married to a Spaniard and having access to Spanish Cable TV. La Liga turns up its fair share of turgid games.
YW
Aman
What’s got lost in the diatribes from others is that I actually said I don’t like International Friendlies. I don’t have a problem with competitive International Football.
And it is not just International Friendlies that I don’t like, I am not a fan of Club Friendlies either, but at least they serve a genuine purpose in getting players ready for the new season.
YW