This weekend brings a return to the Premier League after the exploits of the first team in the F.A. Cup and The Kids™ in the Carling Cup semi-final. The team visiting Ashburton Grove is the Arsenal B team - Birmingham City whom so many of our 'up and coming' starlets get loaned out to. You might remember such players as Seb Larsson and Fabrice Muamba being loaned out to the northern monkey club and deciding they liked it so much that they wanted to stay. Only Nicklas Bendtner who was part of the trio that went to Birmingham City came back to North London's finest as he was the only one who had a realistic chance of breaking into The Arsenal first team, which he has done with positive effect. Also more recently Johan Djourou had a stint up there and returned to the fold and played in his Arsenal comeback game against spurs in the Carling Cup semi-final and promptly got himself injured - great! A big shout out must go to Seb Larsson who scored that last minute screamer against Trottenham in Birmingham City's 3-2 win there a couple of months back. Let's hope the silky Swede wing man and Muamba don't have any thoughts about scoring against The Arsenal and haven't been thumbing through that well read tome 'How to score against your old club'.
Any road up, the big news is that given our injuries Le Gaffer Arsène Wenger OBE has said that he might end up putting himself in the team, and you thought he was joking! The biggest miss (again) and not the one Jermaine Defoe inexplicable put into row Z in the dying minutes of the Carling Cup semi is Robin van Persie who seems to be modeling his career on Darren Anderton's of late. Once again the Dutch Master is waving his sicknote around and will be sitting this one out. With him on the sidelines van Persie is joined by Johan Djourou and possibly Philippe 'Stepanovs'. Who would of thought that Gooners (me included) would wanted a certain Alex Song to be in England rather than going to the African Cup of Nations to be a back up centre back? Given our injuries and Gilberto's alarmingly poor performances, you could well be seeing Monsieur Wenger donning the Arsenal shirt and shorts.
The Arsenal defence looks likely to be a bit of a patchwork effort especially if Phillip 'Stepanovs' is ruled out, but young Justin Hoyte or even Bacary Sagna can play in the middle of defence if needs be - I just hope Birmingham City don't bring their shooting boots. What with Manchester USA playing mangerless, football laughing stock, 10 managers in as many years Newcastle United and therefore dead cert for three points The Arsenal need to pick up all the points on offer which many people see as a 'home banker.' CSKA Chelsea's match up with N17 chav scum spurs at the bridge should also see the Russian ruble fueled team take all the spoils as spurs always capitulate against them. However what with Juande Ramos dropping comedy keeper Paul 'Fatty Arbuckle' Robinson after a bust up, anything is possible I guess, but then again if spurs can't even beat our kids who played badly and under performed in the Carling Cup semi I don't hold much hope of them stopping the Russians. Anyhoo it's up to The Arsenal to do what they need to do and hopefully everything will fall into place.
Any road up, if you want to know a bit more regarding the possible team line ups and trivia, the folks at the Beeb have done all the stats and that malarkey, so have a butchers to get yourself up to speed. The Tale of the tape: The Arsenal vs Birmingham City
Latest news today
'Ze German mentalist' Jens Lehmann: Well he's still here much to the 'surprise' of Borussia Dortmund who said a deal had been struck. Mad Jens has now said 'if' he does choose to sign up for the Bundesliga outfit it will only be for six months as he wants to have his options open in the summer.
Lassana DIarra: Apparently Ronald Koeman's Valencia are interested in the egotistical megalomaniac 'its my ball and I'm going home' midfield man.
No one as yet, but given our injuries and personnel a couple of centre backs wouldn't go amiss.
| In (yeah really) | ||
| Player | From/To | Readies |
| Out | ||
| Matt Connolly | Queens Park Rangers | £1m (apparently) |
| Vincent van den Berg | Go Ahead Eagles | Loan |
| Fran Merida | Real Sociedad | Loan |
Here's your chance to start the new year with some brand new clobber, which is nice. Allgoonerdup is once again running a win a t-shirt competition and the chance to win this fab Cesc Fabregas t-shirt. Available in different colours.
To have a chance to win this Arsenal inspired number and get picked out the magic hat just tell us who The Arsenal got the Spanish midfield general from?
Send your answers, name and postal address plus your choice of t-shirt, colour and size to:
iwannafreebie@allgoonerdup.com
Competition closes Monday 4 February.
Good luck Gooners.
James Cooper is still setting the standard and it looks like he will take some beating moving into the second half of the season - but remember gents it's a marathon not a sprint.
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Got something to rant about? Want to see what the discussion of the day is? Well jump on board The Allgoonerdup Forum and register if you haven't done so already and have your shout about Arsenal and general football topics.
It's a head to head, they both have their qualities although Gilberto's seem to be on the wane given his recent performances. However is it time to cut the great Brazilian's losses and attempt to get Diarra on side? Gilberto's 'performance' against spurs in the Carling Cup semi-final was putting it lightly abject - how do you Gooners see this one?
Topic of the day - Diarra or Gilberto
More Da Silva-ware: Like what I done there? Any road up, our 'fox in the box' Eduardo Da Silva has been named Player of the Month for December on the official Arsenal FC site - good work Gooner...That's your lot, we out of here, au reviour mon amis...
We are Arsenal.
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