Badger

By Boris Mellor
January 26 2008

Some of the press were hoping for an implosion after Tuesday night’s defeat, the logic runs that Arsenal imploded after they lost against Chelsea in lager cup last year, mainly because of the suspensions of Kolo and Adebayor, and overwhelmed with disappointment. Therefore, with Kolo in Africa, and Adebayor found guilty, by a kangaroo court of the Sun and Mail, the theory had legs.

 However, one leg dropped off the theory when the FA found no case to answer against Adebayor. Yes, it was an unfortunate incident, but there is very little evidence that very much happened. Some Arsenal fans should know better than jump on the hang Ade bandwagon.  I watched Sky’s lurid re runs in slomo, and I just could not see anything that serious occur, nor could the FA.

   Wenger looked relaxed as he refused to exaggerate the importance of the Bendtner and Adebayor scrap. Wenger is too wise to let the press set his agenda, or the way he manages his players. Thus he refused to meet with them before today’s game. 

 Why didn’t Sky show re runs of Senderos receiving a smash in the face at Fulham, or Terry’s foul on Fabregas. No doubt, the squad is being stretched to its limit, but between now and the end of the Africa Cup there are three League matches at the most. We will then see Eboue, Song and Kolo return (hopefully without injury). Another bit of luck is that there will be an international that week so they will get time to recover. Some who enjoy slating Eboue and Song might wish to revise their views by February 20^th. 

   To me the most important thing about this cup-tie with Newcastle is not to draw and suffer fixture congestion, and secondly to avoid injuries. That is why, apart from developing youth, Wenger is not prepared to prioritise the Carling Cup, quite clearly the League and CL are far more important to him. That doesn’t mean he does not expect players to play well in all competitions.

   Rotation 

Wenger will have to rotate the team as we play Badger Bonce’s lot again on the Tuesday in the far more important league. So far, the Messiah has not had great effect on transforming a poor Newcastle squad; hopefully he will buy 10 new players and play them for the first time in the league game against us. 

Magic of the Cup  

 I want to see Arsenal win the league; I would hate to see it blown on cups. Arsenal are not imploding, but too many cup games would not help. Nonetheless, a good result against Newcastle will help bury the phoney crisis stories, and hopefully get a cup run going that will give the youngsters further opportunities to develop. 

Probable Arsenal squad:

The good news is that Senderos and Clichy are back, and Lehmann may get a rare outing.  Almunia, Sagna, Senderos, Gallas, Clichy, Rosicky, Fabregas, Flamini, Hleb, Eduardo, Adebayor, Lehmann, Gilberto, Diaby, J Hoyte, Bendtner, Walcott.