Norwich Preview + Lineups, Jenkinson, International Scoop, Cuntalona and more!

It’s been nearly week since I last blogged, and we are finally done and dusted with what has been a really really long and dragged out Interlull. The last two weeks seemed like two years, and this time off some real football has given me some time to take a break from blogging, and to catch up on my studies, and I have been able to do a fair bit of it.

But, all that will go out the balcony for some time today, as I finally can watch my beloved Arsenal in action today. The West Ham game seems like a distant century now, and finally life can go on.

Much of the week was dominated by the international games of course, and there were of course many of the Arsenal bloggers themselves expressing gloomily during the last two weeks. In fact there was so little to talk about, that Arseblog decided to reminisce about a long forgotten reserve fixture, from years back, precisely the days of Kanu, the centra figure in the story, Elton John and Peter Ndlovu!

So, to the news then. The long drawn out courting of Carl Jenkinson by the Finnish and the English FA’s finally seemed to have ended, with the English FA finally looking close to lay their hands on the right back. There will be the massive competition for places in the near future, with Glen Johnson, Micah Richards, Kyle Walker, and even the likes of Phil Jones and Chris Smalling looking to compete.

The Finnish national side, however, would have been an easier and much straight forward for Jenkinson, however, but I feel there will be a need to constantly improve and remain consistent if he wants to make the right back spot his own, and that is always a good thing. Moreover, he will have to deal with the returning Bacary Sagna, to deal with, to hold on to his place in the Arsenal spot.

While some may feel it is a straight swap, and Sagna should come to the starting lineup when he is fully fit, I would like to see Jenkinson continue, because he has been a standout feature of the defence so far, and rarely put a foot wrong. There will be a cartload of games coming up, now with the Champions League group phase games, and the Carling Cup rounds as well, which will give the manager plenty of time to chop and change.

Laurent Koscielny, who has been kept out of the side, by a booming central defensive partnership of Per Mertesacker and Thomas Vermaelen, injured himself, after a tackle from Frank Ribery, or was it the other way round. He, however, did feature in the away game at Spain, which may have slightly aggravated matters, and gone on to prove what a prick Didier Deschamps is. He is definitely out of the Norwich game, which means, we are again an injury away from Johan Djourou strutting his stuff.

The other main injury concern was Theo Walcott being hit a San Marino bus, in the form of a goalkeeper, which was supposed to be terrifying, because he later concussed in the dressing room, and spent a day in the hospital. Luckily, he has recovered, but will still be unavailable for selection, and is expected to be out for around 2 weeks.

Fear not, as Alex Oxlade Chamberlain put up a fine performance, in the same game. Yes, it was San Marino, and even my Sunday League team could beat them, but it goes to show how deep the squad has become these days.

Olivier Giroud scored in the very dying moments against Spain, a header, which not only ended Spain’s record breaking streak of not dropping a points. Giroud will surely be high on confidence after that goal, and admits he wanted to kiss Lukas Podolski, as well, after scoring against West Ham couple of weeks back. As the comments suggest, most would like that to happen, with Arteta, whilst both are draped in red velvet. Yes, let’s not go there for now.

Most have lost count, and some can’t even seem to remember the last time the Spanish drew/lost a game. Of course, there was a clumsy challenge on Pedro by Koscielny, in the same game, which won the Spanish a penalty. Our very own Francesc Fabregas took it, but it was saved by Spurs’ goalie Hugo Lloris.

Maybe, Koscielny has found a new power within him, or being able to spot out a cunt. Barcelona’s president has recently been talking shite about Arsenal in the recent past. He says he finds it horrendous that Arsenal raid Barcelona’s alien academy again and again, and take players from them, while he finds it perfectly ok that Barcelona raid Arsenal’s first team over and over again.

All we have taken away from them in the past is Fabregas, Merida, Toral and Bellerin, most of whom were deemed unfit to fit into Barcelona’s philosophy if crapology. Whilst they have raided us from all over. van Bronkhorst, Sylvinho, Overmars, Petit, Henry, Hleb, Fabregas and Song.

The fact that Arsenal developed such players like Overmars, Henry, Hleb, Fabregas and Song, before moving on to Barcelona completely contradicts Barcelona’s point. It is them who have been raiding our youth academy, and I join Arseblogger in saying, “Fuck off you deluded cunt.”

Finally, to our goody goody Germans, Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker, who have been posting pictures of their private, errm, professional life on Facebook and Twitter There’s one with and arm wrestling stance, and another one with Mertesacker and Podolski doing their best impression of Fabianski and Djourou. Things were going pretty well, until the Swedish House Mafia broke in and plundered the Germans.

How else can you explain going up 4-0 and then drawing 4-4. Oh well, it sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? Anyways, Mertesacker scored one of Germany’s goals, but was solely responsible for the draw against Sweden, according to Lothar Matthaus. Okay, sir.

Among others, England’s game against Poland was postponed by 24 hours, and the media has gone overboard about it. If it were a Spain and Germany game, they would just shut the hell up, and get on with it, and play the game the next day. But of course, it is not the case when it comes to England. Anyways, the most overrated international side managed to hang on to a 1-1 draw with the Poles.

The younger side of England, however, earned a well deserved 2-1 win in Serbia, a game marred by racist chants from the Serbian crowds, aimed at Danny Rose, and Marvin Sordell. There was a huge brawl, between Steve Wigley, some English players, some Serbian players, some English coaches, some Serbian coaches, and so on and so forth. Hopefully, FIFA will take some stern action, and probably ban Serbian crowds for a while, unlike UEFA, whose strongest punishment was to fine Lazio a paltry €40,000, for the involvement of their fans abusing Jermain Defoe and Aaron Lennon.

There have been too many incidents over the past year, and this madness has to stop. All players in the Premier League will be wearing Kick it Out t-shirts, bar Jason Roberts, prior to their games, but more steps need to be taken to get rid of this menace in the beautiful game.

Gervinho played in the abandoned game, between Senegal and Ivory Coast. The game was abandoned due to a riot created by the Senegalese fans. Anyways, our top scorer is safe and sound. Vermaelen, Djourou all played, but Ramsey missed the loss of Wales to Croatia, a game in which Eduardo scored. So, that’s that.

Closer to home, international discards Marrouane Chamakh, Andrei Arshavin, Andre Santos, and the returning trio of Jack Wilshere, Emmanuel Frimpong and Bacary Sagna, all played in the backdrop of London Colney, to Chelsea, a game which they lost 2-0, which seems a poor result, against a side, whose only known player was some racist bloke, John Terry, probably doing some community service.

But, the excercise was to keep players fit and allow them to recuperate after lengthy spells on the sidelines, and it seems to be working, with Wilshere having declared himself raring to go. Arsene Wenger, however, has urged caution, saying he is only 80% fit, but has named him in the squad that travelled to Norwich. Realistically, I see Wilshere coming on as a late sub, in the game against QPR, next week, and starting against Reading in midweek’s Capitol One Cup clash.

Apart from that, the same expected lineup is expected to start, with Giroud up front. Kieran Gibbs, who had to pull out of the England squad, with a thigh strain, will be replaced by Andre Santos. He should do fine, however, after recently revealing that the competition for spots has made him a better player.

Norwich aren’t the easiest side to beat, our fixtures against them last season prove so. But, this season, they have been pretty appalling. An opening day 5-0 loss to Fulham, has seen them lose much ground on the relegation front, and since have garnered draws against West Ham and Sp*rs, but have lost to Newcastle, Liverpool and Chelsea.

Robert Snodgrass, who scored the equalizer against Sp*rs, is expected to be fit in time for the clash, however, Steven Whittaker may not be fully fit for the game. Another absentee, Simon Lappin, is fit again. Here is how I see the two sides lining up.

Chris Hughton has had a tough act to follow, since the departure of Paul Lambert, and is clearly struggling to get some results under his belt. They will make it hard for Arsenal to break them down, and will try to break us on the counter. Grant Holt can definitely score some goals, and it will take another good performance on the road for the Gunners to secure all 3 points.

Enjoy the game wherever you are!

Jai Arsenal 🙂

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Go ahead you lazy bum, that’s all I ask of you!