Ah, the bloody frustration of having 600 words written only for the installation of the latest version of iTunes to restart my computer before I had saved the draft. Bye bye, writing. Microsoft, you can suck my balls for not having an auto save feature in Windows Live Writer. Why I oughta!
Anyway, I suppose I should just jump straight into the Nicklas Bendtner story that is being reported by both John Cross in The Mirror and David Hytner in The Guardian, today. In a move that simultaneously smacks of over-cockiness and a lack of intelligence, our big Dane has said that he will look to get a transfer away from the club if he isn’t given more playing time. Now, had he been fit and available for selection for the majority of this calendar year, that wouldn’t be an unreasonable thing for him to say. But, the fact is that he hasn’t been fit for the majority of this year and has only just recently returned to training following his long-term groin injury. So, for him to come out so soon after returning to fitness with a statement like this is, at best, ill-advised. I suspect that part of the frustration that has led him to make the statement is borne out of seeing a clearly unfit RvP come on as a substitute in the Newcastle game instead of our overly confident Dane. To be honest, I have absolutely no sympathy for his plight as had he not gone off to the World Cup still carrying said groin injury, he would probably have been fit to start the season and would have had more playing time by now.
“If the situation doesn’t improve – if I keep sitting on the bench at Arsenal – I must leave. It’s as simple as that. My first priority is – as it has always been – to play for Arsenal. I’ve had a lot of patience and won’t be warming the bench anymore. I want to play regularly and I hope it will be for Arsenal.”
Regardless of his reasons for making the statement, he would do well to keep his mouth shut and do his talking on the field in the form of goals, a sentiment echoed by Wenger in the same articles that I have linked to below. Bendtner is a player that divides loyalties, he is either loved or hated by the fans. There aren’t many sitting on the fence, and I have a feeling that he could well lose some of his supporters with an outburst like this. When you consider that Chamakh has made such a great start to his Arsenal career scoring goals and winning penalties, it is just right that Bendtner (and RvP) will have to be a bit patient before getting back into the starting eleven. They can’t realistically expect to walk straight back into the team. If you would like you read the Mirror’s article, click here, and if you would like to read the article in The Guardian, click here.
A piece of potentially Arsenal related news is that David Moyes has revealed that he no longer thinks that Pienaar will sign the contract offer that has been on the table for some time now and that he is set to leave on a Bosman at the end of the season. He is a player I like and he could do a good job for us. The fact that he would be going on a free would mean that we would still have a sizeable transfer kitty to strengthen the defence and goalkeeping departments.
Looking at tomorrow’s game, it will be the final game of Koscielny’s two match ban and hopefully his will be the last suspension that we pick up for a while. So, as I said yesterday, we should line up with Fabianski, Sagna, Squillaci, Djourou, Clichy, Fabregas, Song, Wilshere, Nasri, Arshavin and Chamakh.
The referee for the game is Howard Webb, who so far this season has refereed nine games in which he has given thirty-three yellow card and no red cards, which averages out to about 3.7 yellow cards per game. To be honest, I am not a fan of Webb at all. To me, both Webb and Clattenburg are the refereeing equivalent of our big Dane; arrogant, overly-confident, cocky ballbags. I don’t mean Bendtner is a ballbag, just making a comparison of their cockiness.
An interesting statistic ahead of tomorrow’s game is that, should we manage to keep a clean sheet, it will be the first time since May 2005 that we have kept three consecutive clean sheets away from home. Is it any wonder that we haven’t won anything for so long?
There was an interview excerpt with Cesc and Walcott on the BBC website yesterday and it may appear in a fuller form on today’s Football Focus, I think. Though don’t quote me on that.
Lee Dixon talks a bit of sense on tackling, here, and he is big enough to hold his hands up about MOTD not showing, or even mentioning, Karl Henry’s tackle on Arshavin on Wednesday night.
Finally, as you may, or indeed may not, have noticed there is now a Paddy Power banner on the right side of this page. If you click on that banner, it will take you to their site and you can get a FREE £10 bet with them if you sign up for a new account. There is no pressure on you to continue betting with them afterwards. The one thing I will say is that putting a few pounds/euros down on Premier League games really helps to make the games a whole lot more fun and interesting. I’m a BIG fan of the goal scorer markets, going back to the days when Freddie couldn’t stop scoring in the season run-in way back in 2002. So, get your finger out, click on the banner, sign up and put your FREE £10 bet on Arsenal this weekend. Remember, you can get Everton/Arsenal (half-time/full-time) at 22/1. Pretty good odds! Arsenal are 5/4 to win, a draw is 9/4. Fabregas and Arshavin are 15/2 for first goal, Walcott is 8/1 and Nasri 9/1. Good luck!
You can follow me on Twitter here: @colm_smyth
That’s about all I have time for. Have a good weekend.
Arsenal News 24/7
The North Bank - "It's got va-va-voom" (An Arsenal blog) 
Del, do you not have an Irish credit card? That’s what I use for my account.
Though I don’t think they offer the double/treble your money offer for 2nd, 3rd goal scored by same player like the bookies i used to use in ‘the town.’
Those days of watching the footy in the pub on a Saturday afternoon and then going down to the bookies to collect my winnings are well in the past now! Cant for the life of me remember the name of the bookies I used to use…across from the Clanbrassil/Ridleys, hmmmm….
compare ‘the baby faced twat’ with Bendtner…..one never complained and had a great career…..the other plays for us.
Nik has always been a cocky so and so, without ever really backing it up.Why do our 2nd rate strikers moan and complain if they don’t play every week but strikers at our rivals say nothing when they are on the bench.They just work harder to get into the team.
As for Paddy Power, I would love to have an account as I too loved those days of Freddie for the first goal,sadly they don’t open accounts for people in the good ole USof A
What makes it worse is that MOTD focussed on Cesc’s tackle. Now, I am not saying that Cesc’s tackle was ok, because it was a poor challenge. But, compared with the Henry one pictured above, they are night and day. Arshavin is very lucky not to have a double compound fracture from that tackle. He could be lucky that it caught him right on the shinpad.
Agree that Bendtner has left himself wide open to criticism with his latest statement. It’s not an anti-Bendtner stance that bloggers are taking as such. The statement just doesn’t make sense given his injury record this year, coupled with the fact that he is still not 100% match fit, despite what the player himself may think.
Bendtner is fair game for me. If he was so worried about Arsenal he wouldn’t have played through his injury in the world cup, a decision which cost him over two months of the season.
Just looking at that picture of Henry’s tackle on Arshavin again. He is very lucky not to have suffered serious injury. No wonder Wolves were so quick to accept Cescs apology
The Bendtner quotes have been confirmed by John Cross from The Mirror.
You can’t blame bloggers for creating disharmony, we just comment on the stories we see. Bendtner is the one that has let his over-confidence get ahead of him. He needs to be more humble. This is a long running issue with him. His self-confidence by far outweighs his ability. His comments are out of order given his injury record this year.
Of course I would like to see him succeed with us, but I would also like him to stay quiet and do his talking on the field. He talks a good game, but he hasn’t delivered for us yet.
I am disappointed Arsenal bloggers are joining in with the newspapers and seeking to create disharmony within the squad. Bloggers need to do better than the lazy sport writers for the papers, and get off their lazy behinds and run after the facts. Has anyone spoken to Bendtner personally, and got his feedback on the story that is current running in all newspapers? Maybe if someone did, we might have a story worth featuring.
This is the kind of story I would put out if I was supporting or managing another London Club, seeing that Arsenal is beginning to find “COURAGE” and “FORM” once again. Therefore, we must create a little demon and hide it in the changing room to disturb their discipline, and seek to turn the Manage against players and vise, visa.
Well they have so far succeeded in turning fans to ask for the Managers head and to rid ourselves of certain players. But watch and see, they will be there in a rush to prise those players into their clubs. The best thing we can do is to keep still and not be to trigger happy with our pens.