And We’re Back

By: Martin | October 15th, 2009

Players report back to London today, and hopefully by the end of today or early tomorrow we’ll have an inventory of who picked up knocks playing in internationals. At the moment, the only one I’ve heard is Gael Clichy, who injured his thigh playing for France yesterday. This must have frustrated Wenger, who was actually commentating on the match for French television, noted that Clichy was hurt and should be substituted, only to watch him struggle through to the end of the game. That nutjob Domenech must have been too busy reading his horoscope or attempting astral projection to notice one of his players was injured.

Four more teams punched their tickets to South Africa yesterday. And it brings the list of players currently affiliated with Arsenal who will likely play in the World Cup at 8:

–Robin van Persie (Netherlands)
–Theo Walcott (England)
–Cesc Fabregas (Spain)
–Nicklas Bendtner (Denmark)
–Emmanuel Eboue (Ivory Coast)
–Carlos Vela (Mexico)
–Philippe Senderos (Switzerland)
–Johan Djourou (Switzerland)

There are others who may sneak onto their national teams (Denilson, Almunia) which have already qualified, and a number of Gunners who play important roles for national teams which still have a chance at qualifying (Clichy, Sagna, Gallas, Nasri, Song, Arshavin). I suspect when it’s all said and done we’ll have about a dozen or so players feature for their national sides in the World Cup.

But enough with the internationals. Arsenal is back, and we actually have five games between now and the end of the month. We have a triple-decker “ham” sandwich of league fixtures against Birmingham, West Ham, and Tottenham, plus a Champions League fixture against AZ and the Carling Cup match-up with Liverpool. Five important matches in 14 days will really show us what we have and dictate what happens the rest of the season, and that kind of fixture congestion can really tax the squad’s depth. Fortunately, the return of Walcott and the imminent return of Nasri (who says he’ll be back for the West Ham game next weekend), give us a few more options for substitutions and rotation.

This will be our first match-up with Birmingham since the Eduardo horror tackle/Gallas hissyfit game which was in many ways the beginning of the end of our title bid in 2007-2008. It’s a game we should expect nothing less than 3 points from, and a good chance to exorcise those demons. But I’ll be back with a full preview tomorrow.

Finally, in what could be big news, Stan Kroenke has again increased his share of ownership in Arsenal, and now owns 28.9% of the club’s shares. If he gets to 29.9%, rules mandate that he formally launch a takeover bid. In the past, he has consistently denied any intention of doing so, and has claimed that he is content to own just less than that and let the current board and management run things as they have in the past. And frankly, he has given us no reason not to take us at his word–unlike that Uzbeki d-bag Usmanov, who was transparently trying to take over the club with David Dein, Kroenke has maintained cordial relations with the board and current club management, and hasn’t criticized the club or Wenger in an obvious attempt to make fans feel like his ownership is the only chance Arsenal has to win trophies. Still, with Kroenke’s substantial stake in the club plus his substantial wealth, the fact is that he could probably take over the ownership of the club with a snap of his fingers, so it bears monitoring.