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Team against Bolton :

Lehmann

Eboue
Toure
Gallas
Emanuelson

Hleb
Gilberto
Fabregas
Guardado

Asamoah
Henry

Subs :

Adebayor
Baptista
Rosicky
Richards
Moutinho


Richard’s replaces Van Persie on the bench but otherwise it is an unchanged squad from the one that beat Portsmouth.

English Premiership 4/10/2006
Reebok Stadium, Bolton

Bolton V Arsenal


Most teams have a so called ‘bogey team’ and it would seem Bolton are Arsenal’s. Trips to the Reebok rarely bear fruit for us, although this is my first game against them. There is much logic behind bogey teams though. In the past Bolton closed Arsenal down quickly, played physical and didn’t shy out of tackles, they also played the long ball game.

Today Bolton were slightly less organised as they adopted ‘kick the sh*t out of them’ tactics. Thierry Henry was the worst victim, a poor tackle from Abdoulaye Faye resulted in a yellow card for the Bolton player, but also an injury to our star striker. He wasn’t forced off, but it didn’t look nice and I worried that he might be out for a bit after the match. Henry got revenge in a much more civilised manner opening the scoring a few minutes before half time with an accurate finish. More was to come from the Frenchman, and on the hour mark he scored a second to put us close to a rare win at the Reebok. Bolton made sure that any win would not be achieved without sacrifice though, Nicholas Anelka dived in on Andres Guardado to crock another of his former clubs staff. The Mexican was taken off to be replaced by Tomas Rosicky who played well.


I decided to take Henry off as well and his replacement Emanuel Adebayor scored a third with a header from a Rosicky cross to seal an emphatic win. Barr the injuries, it was a reverse of what Arsenal normally receive here. Another impressive win, and I let the team know how pleased I was with them.

Bolton 0

Arsenal 3
Henry 44, 57
Adebayor 81

Man of The Match : Thierry Henry (Arsenal)

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Good and bad news could be found in my office today, the board are delighted with the win over Bolton and sent a message of congratulations, I later received a visit from Peter Hill Wood to say well done, but the news on Andres Guardado is not great. The Mexican winger is out for a month with strained knee ligaments. Thierry Henry is fine however, once again it was just a slight knock and he doesn’t require physiotherapy. I am planning to play Tomas Rosicky out on the left while Guardado is injured, despite my thoughts about playing him down the middle earlier in the season although I could move Emanuelson to left midfield and have Clichy at left back (as he is nearing recovery).

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International fixtures have begun and England continued their good form in the Euro qualifiers with a 6-0 win over FYR of Macedonia. None of my players were named in the England squad, that is unsurprising as I share my predecessor Arsene Wenger’s view that if you are good enough then nationality, so I would rather have players from other countries that play more my style than players from England who play a different way. Although, unlike Wenger, I do feel concerned at the often spoken about problems with youth in England and I would be quite proud to see some of my Arsenal squad playing for England, that is why I am pleased to have got Micah Richards. He is the sort of player I could do with at the club and also a likely future England regular. Theo Walcott will also one day be a regular fixture in the team as well, I am confident of that.

Two Arsenal players who did play for their nations, both scored. Aliaksandr Hleb and Tomas Rosicky were both on target as Belerus lost 2-1 to Romania and Czech Republic were held to a 1-1 draw by minnows San Marino.

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The injuries are now starting to flood in as international matches take place, Joao Moutinho is out with a thigh strain he received in action for the Portugal Under 21’s and is out for about a week, he should be better before too long though and hopefully the break will not provide any more irksome injuries.

The Premiership team of the week has been released and I was pleased to see William Gallas and Gyan Asamoah included. Gallas has been very impressive on his return to first team football.

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England improved yet again to romp to a 3-0 win over Croatia at Maksimir. France came up with the biggest win though, managing a 9-1 over the Faroe Islands with Thierry Henry on target twice.

This is the end of the International break, thankfully, I never enjoy them as they result in too many injuries, and the team returns to action against Aston Villa in a few days.

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Team against Aston Villa

Lehmann

Eboue
Toure
Gallas
Emanuelson

Hleb
Gilberto
Fabregas
Rosicky

Asamoah
Henry

Subs :

Adebayor
Baptista
Richards
Van Persie
Obertan

Moutinho’s injury paves the way for a place on the bench for Robin Van Persie, who has just recovered from injury, while Gabriel Obertan is named in an Arsenal squad for the first time as Tomas Rosicky replaces the injured Guardado at left wing.

English Premiership 14/10/2006
Villa Park, Aston Villa

Aston Villa V Arsenal

Tomas Rosicky made the perfect start in his first competitive game for the club, opening the scoring after eleven minutes with a pinpoint diving header. If the Czech was looking to stake his claim for a first team place on the wing then he had done well. Another eleven minutes had passed when Thierry Henry scored his seventh league goal of the season and tenth in all competitions, this was arguably his best so far as he took the ball out wide and curled in a half volley that Thomas Sorenson barely saw as it flashed past him.


More dominance was to follow with an own goal from Martin Laursen ten minutes into the second half ending any hopes Villa had of rescuing a point, some pride was restored in the ninetieth minute by Luke Moore when he hit in a late consolation goal, but we had already finished the game and it couldn’t detract from the win. Although he hadn’t scored it was Gyan Asamoah’s jinking run to goal and swerving shot that was deflected in by Laursen that led to a third goal and he was once again the best player on the pitch, showing he can make a big contribution even when he doesn’t score, I am delighted with him and if he can keep this up for the rest of the season he will be challenging for the end of season awards at the club and in the division.

Aston Villa 1
Moore 90

Arsenal 3
Rosicky 11 Henry 22
Laursen (og) 55

Man of the Match : Gyan Asamoah (Arsenal)

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Both Gael Clichy and Phillipe Senderos are back in full training now, though Senderos is likely to have limited chances this season due to the number of defenders available to me.

Five of the squad have been selected in the team of the week this time around, Kolo Toure, Gallas, Rosicky, Henry and once again Gyan Asamoah all made the first eleven.

Armand Traore has twisted his ankle and will be out for three weeks. I am really not at all in the know when it comes to physiotherapy, being a former scout, when Gary Lewin asked if I would prefer Armand to receive injections or not I simply stared at him, “Injections???” I said, “on a twisted ankle? I never though you could do that. Err no…. no thanks I’d prefer him to undergo the normal physiotherapy routine ”

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After leaving my office I headed for the press conference for the Arsenal - Roma match, I normally enjoyed these occasions (when not under a lot of stress) because I like speaking out and telling things my way, but it can get tiring when the media start asking stupid questions to provoke you



“How confident are you of maintaining the club’s 100% record in the Champions League against Roma tomorrow?” asked a reporter as soon as I had taken my seat next to a club official.

“The team is in good shape and I am looking forward to it, if we play our best we will beat Roma I feel, on their day they can beat anyone in Italy, on our day we can beat anyone in Europe, so I am confident”

“Roma are currently lying mid table after a string of disappointing results, do you think you can take advantage of their poor form?”

“Serie A is different to the Champions League, so I would look more at their game against Moscow and Galatasaray , Roma had a fantastic win over them earlier this season and so that should tell you what kind of a threat they pose. I am not too concerned how they did against Ascoli at the weekend, we should concentrate on our game, and if we do that we will win.”

“They are also without their skipper Fransesco Totti, who is injured, how do you think that will effect them?”

“Obviously it is a blow for them, he is a great player, but the only player I can even remember making a team is Diego Maradona and possibly Pele, both of whom sometimes dragged their teams onwards, and so Roma will still be dangerous.”

“How do you think Roma will approach the game?”

“Teams from Italy are well organised and difficult to break down. A lot of people will say attack is sometimes the best form of defence, well I think it is the other way round as well. I think they would be happy with a draw, and although I don’t expect it, I would not be surprised if they sat deep and defended, in this case that would be the best form of attack because we do not play to combat defence, we play to hit teams on the break, but however they approach it we will find a way, I have a strong squad and I can change tactics well because of that, so having a plan b should not be a problem”

“Which players do you think will be key”

“All of them, the strikers Thierry and Gyan must keep their good form and I need my defence on form as well, they are all important”

“How confident are you of qualifying and, if you do qualify, who will accompany you into the next round?”

“Very, and the team in second place” I replied

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Team against Roma :

Lehmann

Eboue
Toure
Richards
Hoyte

Hleb
Gilberto
Fabregas
Rosicky

Asamoah
Henry


Subs :

Adebayor
Baptista
Van Persie
Richards
Moutinho
Obertan
Cardenas

Justin Hoyte is given a surprise first game of the season, in for the ineligible Emanuelson, while Moutinho returns to the bench after injury, Obertan is also named in the squad.


Champions League Group C Game 3 18/10/2006 Emirates Stadium, Arsenal

Arsenal V Roma

After all the excitement in the build up to this match, it was fairly uneventful. The team kept up their handy habit of scoring early on, Gilberto Silva found the back of the net to get off the mark for the season. Moments later the Brazilian almost doubled his tally when his header cracked off the bar, but that was to be the end of the scoring as a few chances came and went amid some good passing. The only other real incident of note was Tomas Rosicky’s injury in the 26th minute, the Czech midfielder was hacked down by Daniel De Rossi and the resulting scream of pain told its own story, stretchered off and in immense discomfort, he was replaced by Van Persie, who had played most of his games in midfield this season, and not made much impact. Justin Hoyte also picked up a knock, but was able to continue. The second half was much the same but with even less incident, and the game petered out into a not boring but uneventful match, with us the winners. Near the end of the match I got a message from Gary Lewin telling me that Rosicky had broken his leg. It was devastating news, and amid sympathy for Rosicky I also felt glad that at least Guardado would be returning in a few weeks, and Moutinho would be capable of fulfilling Rosicky’s duties in the middle of the park.

The incident cast a shadow over proceedings , as we nevertheless moved a step closer to Champions League qualification.

Arsenal 1
Gilberto 3
Rosicky (inj.) 26

Roma 0

Man of The Match : Thierry Henry (Arsenal)

retired_Brandon Scott

nice installment Tom: Rosicky is extremely injury prone in this game (I've found it so too)

KUTGW fella :thup: