The new season finally gets under way today as Arsenal travel to Goodison Park to play Everton in an evening kick off at 5.30 and it's live on ESPN. With that late kick off we will have to wait a little longer than most other teams to see our players doing what they're paid a small fortune to do. This summer seemed to drag on for an awful long time but we have reached the end of that long wait finally. Suddenly we will be seeing Arsenal play 5 games in 15 days with Celtic, Portsmouth, Celtic again and Manure all following in quick succession before the next international break.
With us playing Celtic on Tuesday night it means our Premier league game against Bolton had to be postponed until a later date and we will be playing catch up along with Bolton and 4 other clubs. Don't forget to keep that in mind for your Fantasy Football by the way as the second round of games comes 2 days after the first round ends. The new dates for the 3 postponed matches have not been arranged yet and I'll let you know when they are arranged. The away game against Celtic has been picked up by Sky and it will be shown on Sky Sports 2 next Tuesday night with the home tie on ITV1 eight days later.
I'll be heading to the Arsenal supporters club in The Strand in Bray to watch the Everton match today and I'll probably be there for the 2 Celtic games as well. I hope we get a good turn out as I'm looking forward to having a drink or 2 with my fellow Gooners. I put together a bit of a blog for our website and if it works out I'll probably be doing it on a weekly basis. We have a lot of activities planned for the new season and I'm really looking forward to our trips and 5 a side tournaments.
Last season I kept my season preview back until the transfer window had closed in the hope that we signed a couple of top class players and I'm going to do the same thing this season. I will however make a prediction for today's game and despite the fact that we are short of 7 players and Wilshere is not in the squad I still predict a 2-1 win with Arshavin & Eduardo scoring for us. It will be interesting to see what team the boss puts out. Personally I would play the following team in a 4-3-3 formation. Almunia/Sagna, Clichy, Gallas, Vermaelen/Song, Cesc, Arshavin/Eduardo, Bendtner, RVP but I have a feeling that Denilson will start and Eduardo will be on the bench. I think Eduardo is our best goalscorer and if he can play for his country he can start for us. I can remember him taking Everton apart up there a couple of seasons ago after Bendtner was sent off. Our bench might be looking a little sparse and that's a little worrying for the first game of the season.
The manager had an awful lot to say yesterday as usual on the Friday before a match. He is so accomidating to the media before matches unlike another red nosed manager I can think of. He explained why Wilshere wasn't in the squad and what he said was that he's only 17 and he will get chances this season but not today. I think we could have done with him in the squad at least and he seems as ready as other players who got their chance at that age. He also said what we all knew already that Cesc is going nowhere and that all the speculation was created by the press as they have to print something. He went on to joke that he was quoted a price of £125 million for Messi but the press didn't run with the story.
The boss also spoke about this being the most open Premier league season in a long time with at least 8 teams having a chance. He went on to say that this is the make or break season for the current Arsenal team and his target for the season is to win the league but that at the very worst we must finish in the top 4. When asked about transfers he said there are only 10 players in the world we can't afford and he also seemed to say that he knows who his targets are but he hasn't decided if we should sign anyone yet. That seems a little strange to me and maybe he is waiting to see how we start off our season and how our injury position progresses. What he did say was "If we buy someone we will tell you". The boss also admitted that at times he did see some of those things that he said he didn't on the pitch but he only said so to protect his players after he knew what had happened first. He now thinks that he won't be believed in future when he says he doesn't see something.
I haven't seen the whole squad for tomorrow's game but if we start with the team I want that will leave a bench of Mannone, Gibbs, Silvestre, Denilson, Merida, Eboue & Ramsey as I presume that Vela is unavailable. That means that all our strikers are on the pitch from the start so it probably means that Eduardo will be sacrificed and Denilson will play alongside Cesc with Arshavin playing in the front 3. It means our equivilant of Xavi & Iniesta is Cesc & Denilson rather than Cesc & Arshavin. One of those pairings sounds right to me and the other one will struggle to open Everton up.
That's the lot for today. If you haven't signed up for Fantasy Premier League yet you have until 11.30 this morning GMT to get your team in. You can still join my leagues at any time and the most important thing is to have your team in by 11.30. If you join the leagues after that deadline all your points will still count so I'll give you the codes to the 2 leagues that are still open to new players.
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