Eugh, it’s started in London, the cold I mean.
We’d sort of managed to avoid it for a while, like hitting ‘snooze’ on you alarm to get some extra minutes of peaceful and warm bed, but like all things it is inevitable and so today I find myself wrapped up in my overcoat on top of my suit. At least we’re being eased in though. No rain and heavy wind. Yet.
Saturday was also a good way of easing us in to this little period we now face, because after Red Star on Thursday, we’ve got what feels like an incredibly improbable away trip to the Etihad. As you can tell I’m not the most confident of fellows when it comes to that game. City have swept all aside so far and they even made Chelski look average so this is going to be a tough game. It’s also at the beginning of November and that usually coincides with a game on or around my birthday in which we usually drop points. So I’m not holding out much hope to be honest with you.
At least the players are talking up their spirit though, with Granit Xhaka saying that coming from behind three times in a week shows character. Certainly more character than a certain individual who decided that thumbnailing Joe Allen is what you have ‘cajones’ for. What a douchebag.
Personally though, I think the character is what the team showed when they executed a revised game plan against Chelski to get a point from a game in which the whole world had written Arsenal off earlier this season. Character will be doing it in the big games against much more difficult opposition who, when you go one down to them, you know that it won’t result in them sitting men on the edge of their box.
If on Monday next week I’m talking about anything other than a Man City win then we can talk more about the character of this team methinks. Until then I think I’ll hold fire on any more talk of it and hopefully Troy Deeney does too.
There’s also a nice piece on the official website where Arsène talks up Kolasinac and bigs up his winning mentality. We’ve all seen with our own eyes what an impact he’s made and I, like you know doubt, an already in love with the way he plays football. It’s because he appears to have almost everything in his game at such a young age. He’s only 24 yet has the obvious physical prowess matched with a vision and composure on the ball that is easy to appreciate. That goal he scored on Saturday wasn’t as routine as he made it look. How many times have we seen players sky those types of balls into row Z? But Sead took it first time, kept it low and brought us back level. That kind of composure and confidence cannot be taught and I have a feeelinf we’ve got ourselves a left back who could get into the double figures certainly on goals and assists combined this season.
It’s other things that impress me too. The weight on his passing when down in the attacking third left hand side is usually spot on and as it’s where I sit when we attack the North Bank I see it all the more closely.
This was certainly a great addition to the side by Arsenal and you have to give credit to Wenger and the backroom team for identifying him before anybody else.
There’s a little something that came out yesterday about how Arsène isn’t concerned about Alexis playing next weekend against City, but to be honest with you I’m getting so bored of all of the Alexis stuff that I’ll just leave you a link and you can have a read yourself, so have a look here.
To me Alexis is somebody we have for a while and then we can just enjoy that he scored some good goals once upon a time for Arsenal. I’m mentally preparing for his exit but I suspect we’ll still get him giving his all next weekend. I doubt there are many worries about that other than the media.
So that’s it from me for another day. Enjoy yours and I’ll see you tomorrow.
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