I don’t have much time today as i have to head off to a stag night in Tokyo very soon, the alcohol she is a calling. Hopefully some scantily-clad women too, with a bit of luck!
On to today and it seems that Eduardo is out for the rest of the season with a fresh set-back with his groin injury. He really has been desperately unlucky with having all of these small set-backs and niggles since his return from a broken leg. Let’s hope that he will be fully ready for the start of pre-season. He has plenty of time now to gain 100% physical fitness before the start of pre-season training in July. Fingers crossed he will be joined in pre-season training by our other long-term absentee, Rosicky.
Today sees us travel to Portsmouth for a 3pm GMT kick-off. Coverage in Japan is on J-Sports Plus and begins at 22:55. Fingers crossed for a positive result ahead of the mid-week second leg against ManUre at the Emirates.
At the press conference yesterday the manager has also ruled Silvestre and Clichy out of the Portsmouth and ManUre game and Van Persie will have a late test ahead of the Champions League game, but he is also definitely out of today’s game.
It will be interesting to see who the managers selects for the game today. We don’t really have much of an option in defence but to go with Sagna, Toure, Djourou and Gibbs. That might not be a bad thing either because they need to work on their understanding of playing together ahead of Tuesday’s game.
In midfield, Arshavin will return and I think that Denilson and Song will line up in the centre with possibly Eboue will get the nod out right. Up front I think it will be Bendtner and, hopefully, Vela. With Bendtner being subbed for Adebayor later in the second half.
I think that the boss will rest the so-called key players for today’s game and so I expect Cesc, Adebayor and Nasri will be on the bench.
Non-pitch-related news sees our very own Kroenke Tonk Stan raise his stake in the club to 28.3% (17,613 shares) of the club having paid £41.5m for Richard Carr’s 4,839 shares. That leaves him now just 1.7% away from triggering an automatic takeover offer for the club, which apparently amounts to about 750 shares.
I think we have all known for a while now that it is inevitable that Arsenal will be taken over, the only question has been by whom and when. Given the choices of suitor currently on offer, I think that we can be thankful that it is Kroenke and not the communist that is making the move.
Of course, it would be nice for Arsenal to stay English owned, but being an Irish supporter of the club, I am not too concerned if it is no longer English owned, as long as the new owner respects the traditions of the club and acts in a manner that is appropriate for a club of Arsenal’s history and tradition.
If the club is taken over in the summer, at least it will mean an end to all of the incessant speculation of will we or won’t we be taken over, it will mean that the club can start to really move forward. To start that we need to get out important players tied down to long-term deals and then we need to separate the wheat from the chaff and get rid of the dead-weight in the summer.
Let’s hope that if Kroenke Tonk Stan does take over the club he makes some transfer funds available to the manager. He is a sporting man and he is a totally different type of person to the communist. Like it or not, he is now the clubs largest stakeholder. So, he is here to stay and should be given the fans total support in bringing in a new era in terms of ownership, should he make a takeover bid.
Right, that’s about that for today. Time for me to go home, shower and then off to a local brewery to start the day’s proceedings.
2-1 to The Arsenal today, methinks. Come on you Reds!!
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The North Bank - "It's got va-va-voom" (An Arsenal blog) 
good win with virtually a reserve team. Lets hope we can score another three on Tuesday !!