Has anybody bothered to ask Cesc for his opinion lately? In the last couple of months, each time a strong speculation comes up he always chose to refute it by both declaring his commitment, but also great affection for the club. We know the elections in Barcelona are just around the corner so it’s very possible that it’s the propaganda machine at it again. Apparentlywe wrote a very nice letter to Barcelona asking them to desist from their very public attempts to both unsettle and sign the player. All I care for is the fact that until 2014, Cesc is an Arsenal player and unless the club decide to sell him which is highly unlikely, they will have to wait until he runs out his contract.
But then on the flip side, what if he decides to leave. How does that affect us? Does that mean we’ll slip out of the top four and finish miserably in 8th without him. He might be a talisman, but a team clearly doesn’t make a forest. Don’t get me wrong here as I’m not saying he is overhyped. The contributions of Cesc are made more meaningful with the presence of the other players in the team and his departure will only create a void which realistically can be filled by any of Diaby, a maturing Aaron Ramsey or a shiny £25m replacement from Europe. That is of course expecting that we get a minimum of £40m in transfer fee from whichever club he chooses to sign for.
I will be the first to admit that supporter apathy is growing over our failure to deliver on the big stage and the fact that the basis of judging our achievements is debatable. One section of the fans want silverware of any sort while another section are content with us being competitive and being right up there with the lot fighting it out for the title. Personally, I think as at this morning that £30m is burning a hole in Wenger’s pocket as he weighs up the options of what could have been if his bluff calling in the summer and lack of haste in January had paid off.
One man however who seems to be speaking my language is Maraoune Chamakh…by the way is he that good or what? He seems to have confirmed that he will be joining Arsenal in the Summer when his contract with Bordeaux expires. He said;
“My future? Well, I hold all the cards,” he said. “I have no reason to be under pressure but, every day passing by, I am a little less a Bordeaux player. My choice is to join a Premier League club and, if I could choose, I will go to Arsenal. Bordeaux have brought me so much. I will soon clearly state things so the club can prepare to find my replacement peacefully.”
I think I shall also leave speaking on this till he states things clearly so we can prepare to welcome him to the Emirates! I won’t bore you by telling you that we missed out on both Brazilian starlet Zezinho and Olympiques Lyonnais defensive midfielder Maxime Gonalons. You can read about that in the papers or somewhere else. Don’t ask me.
If you don’t know we lost to Chelsea on Sunday, then you must be living under a rock. It was a much improved performance by the Gunners but still showed that there exists a gulf in class between Manchester Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal. A little more could have proved the difference and as always, Didier Drogba returned to haunt us. He’s scored something like 12 in 12 against us and after the goals went in, I remembered my comments on the blog earlier that day. If you missed it, let me refresh your memory.
I came across an interesting comment on a website and I’d like to share it with you;
“In training its obviously Arsenal v Arsenal. All the team are short, all a like therefore no tackling is done, no headers practiced just lots of fancy passing in the middle of the park with no one shooting at Almunia – probably one of many reasons why he is so shite. Shots to saves ratio before yesterdays game put him ranked 19th in the premiership. That statistic speaks volumes.”
I’ll leave it at that even though 13 year old Karun Singh thinks we don’t have much to worry about as shown in the comments below.
“Looking at the title race, Arsenal is the only team out of the three teams in contention, who have played both the other teams. In other words, there is a Chelsea – Manchester United clash coming up, where it is obvious that either team will drop points. Meanwhile, Arsenal now have just about three teams to be vary of in the next three months – Sunderland (who beat them earlier in the season), Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium (where the Gunners were knocked out of the FA Cup), and the big spenders, Manchester City (who will look to become the third side to complete a double over Arsenal this season).”
“For Chelsea, there are tricky fixtures against Manchester City, United, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Stoke City. Meanwhile, United might just drop points at Villa Park, or against Fulham, Liverpool, Chelsea, giant killers Sunderland, Manchester City or Rory Delap’s Stoke City. So Chelsea have 5 tricky fixtures, United have 7, while Arsenal have just 3. People might say that Chelsea ‘thrashed’ and ‘mauled’ the ‘helpless’ Arsenal side, but I urge you Arsenal supporters to look on the flip side: It is very likely that Arsenal don’t drop points, and their rivals’ do, out the North Londoners in the title race, hence relieving all the pressure, while the pressure has piled up on United and Chelsea. Thus, the Chelsea loss might just be a blessing in disguise. So there is still a lot for the Gunners to cheer about, they are not yet out of the title race.”
All this from a 13 year old? That kid should be on Analyse This!
Till tomorrow…Victoria Concordia Crescit!
