Feeling a bit better this week, better than last Monday, when all hell broke lose after the Russian sub crashed on the pitch. However, after Monday & Tuesday even the week goes WTF..Hope this one doesn't, as we gear up for tomorrow's trip to Bolton. The latest news is that Ryo has joined them on loan for the rest of the season which is good, considering the playing time he had here. When you look at him, you know there is something special and wouldn't want to see it wasted on the bench just for lack of opportunities. We have enough clubs stuffing there squads unnecessarily and wasting players playing time keeping them on the bench.
But I am also concerned about our equally slim squad and looking at the injuries we have had, you just think that maybe January business could have prevented whatever potential pitfalls we might have in the rest of the season. I will be surprised if we haven't gone through the pros and cons of our team(Not Mcleish-claimed cons) and thinking that everything ahead in the season will be a bed of roses, no it won't.
We had one major position to backup and that was our center-forward position and we haven't done that business in January. I know we have our Chamakhs & Parks and we also know how much trust Arsene has shown in them at least enough to keep them in the squad. To be fair to Park, he hasn't been given much playing time to show his prowess or for that matter the lack of it. Surely Wenger has seen enough of him in training, but the fact that he hasn't played him much and on top of that signed Henry on a loan deal shows what the results of the training observations are. Or maybe, its just that, there's too much at stake this season to try him out even for a single match.
As happy as I am to see Gibbs back to full training and Sagna back in action, I would have thought that Wenger should have at least taken a fullback on loan. If Gibbs goes down again with an injury , given his history, we will again be playing TV at LB. Santos is still out for a considerably long time and then there's the period to be match-fit again. Yes, TV might have played in that position for his previous club, but I hate to see a player of his stature to play out of position. I mean if we had some decent forwards, would you expect RVP to play, I don't know, maybe, on the wings? Absolutely and unequivocally NOT!
TV's position is at centre-back and he should always play there, our best pair at the back is Kos and TV, though we haven't seen them much being paired as centre-backs. Yes, Per is definitely a decent centre-back option but considering the way he is exposed to faster attacks, TV & Kos will definitely be better in protecting each other. Look at what happened to Djourou, I though he played quite alright last season at centre-back considering our next best option was Squillaci, with TV out injured. But Djourou's performance has gone down since he has started playing RB.
January has flown by us, and while other clubs have done some dry business we have bought just one legend on loan, which lasts for another 2 weeks, by which time Gervinho should be back, hopefully one piece<touchwood>. There is some rumor about an U-19 German player, Thomas Eisfeld, who plays for Borussia Dortmund is being signed by Arsenal, though the official website has not mentioned a thing about him. As Wenger himself said yesterday, it would be a miracle if we sign someone by the end of the window. Hope we don't rue our business, or lack of it, during this window. We have AW to lookup to when it comes to optimism!
P.S.: This just in..miracle
-Team News for Bolton
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