Lengthy blog, mainly about Cesc Fabregas

Evening, I did not bother writing a blog yesterday as I was still disappointed after wasting 90 minutes of my life. Now I have left it almost 48 hours since the last blog which means I have a shed load to cover, here we go…

It is not that Arsenal wasted my life, Blackburn did. They made football boring. I understand that last time they came to Ashburton Grove they had 6 put past them, I understand they had key players out but still… They defended well, I will not take that away from them. They had no ambition to win the game though. It was a cup game for god sake. Sigh..

We played ok, I am tempted to use fatigue as an excuse for our lack of tempo but we were much changed. We should have won the game of course, we had a blatant penalty appeal turned down. I am bewildered as to how the ref missed that one. On top of that Friedel made two silly saves that were just unreal. Annoying. An extra fixture which we do not really need I guess but every cloud has a silver lining they say. We will rotate and it will be further experience for our youngsters. The fact we have had so many matches this season may mean that our players’ progression has quickened. Arsene’s reaction can be read here, although I imagine you have all read that by now.

There was the incident between Cesc and Mark Hughes after the game. Cesc was peeved for a couple of reasons so had a go at Mark for the way Blackburn played. Basically he had a jibe at the fact Mark used to play for Barca and the way Blackburn played was nothing short of awful. He has apologised though –

I went to apologise. I get upset when I don’t play well. I’m a young man and I have still got a lot to learn.

Fair enough, he has apologised. He probably was in the wrong for disrespecting Mark but still, he kind of deserved it. Cesc was left frustrated, with the fact he was below par and the fact we could not really break them down. That is enough on that matter.

Arsene has discussed the matter of squad rotation –

It’s the mystery of management but I still don’t know enough about it. You never can predict how human beings are and what kind of wave the team is on.

I guess that is true. There is no guarantee that the combination will work, or if you have rested a player they will come back all guns blazing. There is an art to it. He spoke about the fact he will eventually have to rest Cesc for a few games. Completely understandable. I think we all would be happy to see Denilson or Diaby come in and do a job for a few games. I think it would excite a few people. Me included.

Fran Merida, a player we pinched of Barca, has spoken about how much he loves Cesc. Join the club. I love him too. He is only 16, the only thing I have seen from him is a little montage on You Tube. He looked impressive. He will feature in the FA Youth Cup this evening. I wish the lads all the best. Just so everyone knows I am in 2012 on Football Manager and Merida is the man. I play him wide left and he unreal. Who knows eh.

IF we beat Blackburn away we will play Manchester City at home in the next round of the FA Cup. We have had no easy draws this season have we. Plenty of Premiership teams. Oh well, so far we have come through well. Fingers crossed we turn Blackburn over and then dominate City at home.

Last but not least the squad has been announced for the trip to Holland –

1 Jens LEHMANN (GK)
4 Cesc FABREGAS
5 Kolo TOURE
6 Philippe SENDEROS
7 Tomas ROSICKY
8 Fredrik LJUNGBERG
9 Julio BAPTISTA
10 William GALLAS
13 Alexander HLEB
14 Thierry HENRY
15 DENILSON
16 Mathieu FLAMINI
19 GILBERTO
20 Johan DJOUROU
22 Gael CLICHY
24 Manuel ALMUNIA (GK)
25 Emmanuel ADEBAYOR
30 Jeremie ALIADIERE

The main discussion point is the fact we have no natural right back, Eboue and Hoyte are both out. Wenger had the following to say –

We have Eboue out and Hoyte is out with a hamstring problem, but he should be back for [the Carling Cup Final on] Sunday. Gallas has responded well to the weekend game [against Blackburn] and he is in the squad. It will be Johan Djourou or Gallas at right back. Theo Walcott and Abou Diaby have been left behind with Sunday in mind.

I really do not know who I would go with. I shall ponder on it over night and then obviously there will be my starting line-up on tomorrow’s blog. Excellent news that Hleb is back. That is it for today. I shall see you tomorrow.