This weekend is a double bonus for all Arsenal fans. Not alone is the international break over and The Arsenal are back in action again for the first of eight games in twenty-five days, but we also can look forward to having Cesc back in the squad again after a little over three months on the sidelines. I can’t wait to see him back in the team again and it should provide the whole squad with a huge psychological lift, too. The Catalan will undoubtedly have a huge influence on how we do between now and the end of the season. So, let’s hope that his comeback goes smoothly with no little niggles being picked up.
Speaking of little niggles, Eduardo is yet again sidelined with a slight groin problem. You have to feel sorry for him, he just hasn’t been able to get any kind of run of games going at all since his return from the year out. We should expect more of the same for Rosicky, whenever he eventually makes his long overdue first-team comeback. It’s frustrating for the fans, so you can only imagine how frustrating it must be for the player himself.
Elsewhere, Wenger talks about a ‘points for positive goal difference’ system and you can kind of see where he is coming from. Too many teams are adopting a defensive approach and it’s not really doing anything for the league in terms of entertainment. However, I’m not really sure it’s the way to go. Although, it would surely spell the end of shit-kicker manager’s like Allardyce and so, from that perspective, I would wholeheartedly support it.
It’s going to be interesting to see which teams adapt best to the return to domestic football after a two week break. The break came at a bad time for both ourselves and Liverpool and possibly at a good time for Villa and ManUre. Hopefully we can get the three points against City tomorrow and ManUre draw 0-0 with Villa. Normally, I would say let ManUre win because we can’t catch them but the joy of having a returning Cesc in the squad is making me dream that we can get closer to the top of the table.
Team news so far is that Van Persie, Eduardo and Diaby are out. Returning are Walcott, Adebayor, Silvestre and Cesc. Nasri is a doubt due to illness and there will be a late decision made over whether or not to include Vela in the squad, given that he doesn’t return from international duty with Mexico until 10:30 this morning you would imagine that he may make the bench, but would most likely only come on if we are behind. There is also a chance that Bendtner could be involved. Looking on the bright side, at least we are getting more players back than we are losing and those that are unavailable should all be back relatively quickly. Touch wood.
Bellamy looks set to miss out for City and there are question marks over the involvement of Robinho as he doesn’t return from international duty until today and also that his hateful cunt of a manager has said that he is struggling to adapt to playing week-in-week-out. Are we supposed to feel sorry for him? If he can’t handle playing week-in-week-out he shouldn’t be a professional footballer. Tomorrow will give Cesc another chance to ask Hughes how he didn’t manage to absorb any of Barcelona’s footballing philosophy during his time there…
Anyway, let’s hope that we remain the only unbeaten club in the Premier League so far this year. We’re unbeaten now in 16 games and the last team to beat us in the league was Man City, so this is a good time to get revenge for that defeat as we were absolutely hopeless in that game at Eastlands back in November.
Finally, head over to Arseblog today and check out the weekly Arsecast (podcast) as it’s always interesting and entertaining.
Enjoy your Friday.
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The North Bank - "It's got va-va-voom" (An Arsenal blog) 
[…] is amongst the Premier League’s worst. Furthermore, it looks as though Citeh may be playing without Robinho, Elano, or Craig Bellamy, meaning their offense is going to be quite anemic […]