Welbeck

11th December 2015: Injury latest, Welbeck on recovery and Wenger on Giroud

Posted on by TremendArse

Happy Friday folks. Arsene Wenger held his usual pre-match press conference this morning, as we prepare for Sunday’s trip to Aston Villa, and revealed the latest team news ahead of the game.

We have no fresh injury concerns following Wednesday night’s win over Olympiacos, but none of our injured players are yet ready to return either. The closest, says the boss, are Mikel Arteta and Alexis Sanchez but the others are some way off a comeback yet. He said:

We came back Thursday morning, so we will see the players today. We have no injuries after the game. (Alexis Sanchez and Mikel Arteta are) short-term injuries, neither will be available for Sunday. No Arteta and no Alexis – who is the shortest one. The others will be (available) after Christmas. If you ask me if he (Jack Wilshere) will be fit before the end of December, no chance. He (Tomas Rosicky) is quite positive. He is running outside but not ready yet. End of January.

There were reports a few weeks ago that Wilshere had provisionally penciled in the Boxing Day trip to Southampton as his comeback game but the boss’ update today was pretty emphatic in ruling the midfielder out until the New Year, so that’s obviously disappointing, particularly with Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla ruled out until March at the earliest.

Our only other ‘long-termer’ is Danny Welbeck of course, and there was no word from the boss on the former Manchester United man’s likely return date from a knee injury which had ruled him out for the last seven months or so. But the player himself spoke to Arsenal Player recently, discussing his injury lay-off and also his ‘honour’ at being able to cite both Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger as managers he’s played under. He said:

Both (managers) have that presence and both are legends in the modern game. What can I say? They have won plenty of trophies between them and I have worked under Sir Alex and Arsène Wenger and it is a great honour to say that, but I want to be the best that I can be. I definitely feel free. Before we go out against a team we have analysed before hand (Arsène Wenger) gives the team a few pointers of what he wants us to be doing on the pitch and the lads stick to that. But he also gives you the freedom to express yourself and play the way you want to play. It is my first injury that has kept me out for so long. I had my operation and once that is sorted you can be out for a few more months. For the first month, in a leg brace, not being able to do anything, on a machine six hours a day, it was very difficult. But you have to try and see the positives. Luckily I had my family around me, my friends came down to London and I had my brothers. It was good to have people around me and have that support. You wake up in the morning and know you have double sessions in the gym it is hard but you have to see the positive side and I have learnt a lot more being injured on how to look after your body and prevent injuries. I have to see the positive side and hopefully when I come back, I will be flying.

I have to say Welbeck’s return is the one I’m most looking forward to, simply because I rate him higher than most others seem to and as Arsenal fans we’ve not seen much of him since he joined. He made an impressive start to his Arsenal career, then got injured, came back briefly, got injured again, and we’ve now not seen him play since April. Obviously I’m not saying he’s more important than Sanchez or Cazorla or Coquelin, because he’s not, but I genuinely think he could develop into a prolific striker for us given time to learn under Arsene and providing he can stay injury free.

Speaking of strikers, our current incumbent Olivier Giroud will go into the game at Villa having just scored his first-ever hat-trick for the club, in the most important game of our season so far, and Arsene discussed his fellow countryman’s qualities earlier today, saying:

He has gone through this calendar year with ups and downs but overall it is typical Olivier Giroud. That means when it doesn’t work, he puts effort in. I believe recently he has come back with an improved game and with his finishing. Wednesday was one of his best performances on all fronts, I must say. If you look at his record, I believe he has special qualities that are difficult to find. You want him to be efficient as well. Where he has improved a lot is his link play with the other players, and that’s very important in our team. He’s a guy who wants always to improve and he has a positive mentality, and a strong one. You want him to be efficient as well. Where he has improved a lot is his link play with the other players, and that’s very important in our team. He’s a guy who wants always to improve and he has a positive mentality, and a strong one. I think that’s why he has come back in a very strong way. We are in a job where you have to accept that in every game, you are questioned. In his job, as a centre forward, [it’s] even more. If you don’t score for three games, you’re questioned again. That’s part of the job. If you look at the number of games and the number of goals, you have to give him credit. He’s not only a goalscorer, he’s a guy who puts work in for the team. I think he’s among the best strikers in Europe.

I really like Giroud and appreciate what he brings to our side, but let’s not get carried away, hey. He’s not in Robert Lewandowski’s class, for instance, and probably never will reach that kind of level given his age, but than he’s also not a clumsy lump like some would have you believe. He’s a very, very effective lone striker for us but one I still think can be improved on.

Anyway, given he’s just bagged a treble and played brilliantly to win us a crucial game, perhaps now’s not the best time to talk about his perceived defects as a striker or potential replacements. I’ll just say that with him, Theo Walcott and Welbeck all fit, I’m actually quite content with our striking options, especially with the mercurial talent of Sanchez backing them up from the left. Defensive midfield is where I’d like more options …

Back with a preview of the Villa game at some stage tomorrow.

Have a good one.

12th November 2015: FA want Wenger explanation, Welbz can’t wait for return, Grimaldo linked

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. Some actual news to begin with this evening after the FA today asked Arsene Wenger to explain recent comments he made in an interview with French publication L’Equipe regarding ‘doping’ in football.

The gist of his remarks, as I’m sure you’ll have read by now, were that whilst he was proud that in 30 years as a manager he’d never had his players injected to make them better, he has faced teams who were “not in that frame of mind.”

Those comments were of course made some time after it was revealed a Dinamo Zagreb player had failed a drugs test following the Croatian club’s Champions League victory over Arsenal in September this year, and the FA have now invited the boss to expand on those remarks and provide any further information he may have.

An FA Spokesman is quoted as saying today:

The FA, in conjunction with United Kingdom Anti-Doping (Ukad), operates one of the most comprehensive anti-doping testing programmes in the world. We have exceptionally few cases of positive tests for performance-enhancing drugs, which reflects the findings from drug-testing in football worldwide. All positive cases for Wada-prohibited substances are published by Ukad and the FA.

Now I have to admit, I’m far from the foremost authority on this subject, but it does make you wonder about performance-enhancing, and even recovery-speeding, drug use in the game. Some players never seem to get injured whilst others are perennially prone to spells out. Is that always down to nature, or sometimes, to a science lab? Who knows, but I’m certainly looking forward to hearing Arsene expand on the subject as the FA have asked him to.

Elsewhere, contrary to reports I discussed in yesterday’s post suggesting Danny Welbeck had suffered a setback in his recovery from a knee injury and may be ruled out for the rest of the season, the player himself has told Arsenal Player that his recovery is “slow and steady but it’s coming along”, and that he’s chomping at the bit to make a return to action. He said:

It’s slow and steady but it’s coming along. It’s difficult to see the lads when you’re still in the gym, doing double days, but once I get back out on the pitch and start running I will be much happier. It’s a difficult period for me but I’m looking forward to coming back strong. I want to get back out on the pitch, keep on improving, keep training and keep fit – that’s the main thing. I just want to get back to playing football. I’m trying to build to muscle and it’s hard, but it’s something that I’ve grasped with two hands and I’m really looking forward to my return.

He certainly sounds bullish, which is encouraging considering how long he’s been out for now, and as you may have guessed from yesterday’s post, I can’t wait to see him back playing and having an extended run as our central striker.

The worry for Welbz must be that seeing as we were obviously looking for a new striker last summer, unless he can prove his worth between now and the end of the season, he may find himself competing with Oliver Giroud, Theo Walcott and a new signing by the start of next season. It’ll certainly be interesting to watch how we line up if and when everybody is fit.

Finally for today, The Mirror have linked us with a move for Barcelona B left-back and captain Alex Grimaldo, who they say is reluctant to extend his current deal with the Catalans which expires this coming summer, but who is also being eyed up by Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich.

I’ve never seen him play live but having just YouTube’d him (classy, and with a speed of thinking that is typically quick for Barcelona players), and based on how our recruitment from Barcelona has gone over the years, I say sign him up Arsene!

If he’s free and willing, why the hell not? Maybe you can mould him into a defensive midfielder, a centre-half or even tap into previously unnoticed goalkeeping potential. Plus, most importantly of all, his surname’s just two letters away from Grimandi, the Gunners’ double Double-winning legend.

Right, a bit short today but that’s me done.

See you on Friday.

11th November 2015: Wolves, Welbeck and Ozil

Posted on by TremendArse

A warm Wednesday welcome to you. When the only live football on TV on a midweek evening in November is Chelsea Ladies v Wolfsburg Women, you know you’re in the middle of an international break.

I actually quite like the women’s game, and I’m a big fan of Arsenal’s very own Kelly Smith, who has a left peg in a million, but that said, tonight’s offering on Eurosport was about as enticing as a trip to the dentists.

If it was the Chelsea men’s team versus wolves on the other hand, I might have tuned in. But actual wolves mind, not Wolverhampton Wanderers. Otherwise that too, would have been about as enticing as a trip to the dentists.

I mean, anybody can watch buses being parked just by going to their local garage, but seeing Jose Mourinho and his players being chased all over the Stamford Bridge pitch by a ravenous pack would make for superb entertainment by anybody’s standards.

After the match, Jose would no doubt have blamed an offside wolf’s tail, a distracting howl or Arsene Wenger, but nothing would have be able to detract from the fact his team had been ripped to shreds …

Meeeeeeeeeanwhile, Danny Welbeck, who I think could prove himself the best all-round striker we currently have at the club, if he can just get and stay fit, has been speaking to the Arsenal Weekly podcast about his move from Manchester United in 2014, and how his England team-mates already in north London made the transition easy for him. He said:

It makes it easier for you because, like any situation in life, if you go somewhere and see a familiar face then you can obviously bond with them. Knowing the England boys from international duty and growing up with them in the youth teams made it easy. They integrate you into the group a lot easier with the other lads as well. It was a new challenge but it was an exciting time for me to approach a new situation, move from Manchester to London and all of the stuff that goes with it. It was a whole new city, not completely new as I’d been to London before, but it was weird knowing that I was going to be calling London home and not Manchester. The thing that you miss the most is your family and that’s the most important thing. A lot of my family and friends do come to London to see me anyway. They come to all the home games so I get to see them quite a lot anyway. But I was leaving something that I knew after growing up in Manchester, coming to a new city, it’s an exciting period.

It may sound like a cliche but I think Welbeck has all the attributes to be one of the best around. I know he has a lot of doubters, who bemoan his finishing etc but I think he’s at the perfect club and has the perfect manager to help him become the finished article up front.

Of course first he has to play in order to improve and score the goals that win Arsenal games, so it was very worrying to read unconfirmed reports his injury wasn’t improving, and he may even be side-lined for the rest of the season.

The official update is that he’s still expected back around the turn of the year so fingers crossed those rumours were way wide of the mark and he’s back to provide Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott with competition in the second half of the season.

Elsewhere, Mesut Ozil, who incidentally, has shown signs of a fine mutual understanding with Welbeck in the relatively few times they’ve played together (think Villa Park last season), has been speaking to Arsenal Player about adding more goals to his game:

After training there are a few shooting drills that can help with self-belief. In general, when you look at my chances in front of goal, I’ve taken them well. Every player wants to score goals. I’m intending to score more this season than in previous years. It’s most important for us to perform well and to be successful – I’m looking forward to giving assists or scoring goals. My aim is to score more goals this season than in the last two. I think I’m on a good path and will achieve that.

His assists alone so far this season must have him in contention for the player of the year award, and if he keeps producing them at his current rate, he’ll take some stopping.

Especially when you consider that bar Jamie Vardy, there aren’t many stand-out contenders to be Eden Hazard’s successor. There’s a long, long way to go obviously, but it wouldn’t be the first time one of Arsene’s predictions proved spot on.

Back tomorrow.

13th October 2015: Welbeck on return, Man Utd battering and more

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. With Theo Walcott currently performing like a cross between Thierry Henry and Pele, people don’t seem to be missing the injured Danny Welbeck as much as they might have done.

That said, a dip in form for Theo or an injury to his current back-up Olivier Giroud would leave us with a worrying lack of options up front, so it was great to hear Welbeck say his recovery from knee surgery was going well and that he’s hoping to be back in action around the turn of the year.

Speaking from Dubai, where the former Manchester United striker was visiting the Arsenal Soccer School, he discussed a range of topics including his rehabilitation and our stunning, recent win over his former club. He said:

It’s difficult to put an exact date on it (his return from injury), around the New Year. After I had the operation, I was in a leg brace for about four weeks – which wasn’t easy. I had to do a lot of machine work, about six hours a day. Sleeping in a leg brace isn’t good. At night it’s not comfortable, it’s the first time I’ve slept on my back in years. It’s good to finally be out of the brace now and walking. It feels like I’m getting that little bit closer to getting back out on the pitch. The way we started the game (against United) was obviously crucial for the result, in the end. It was a great team performance, I thought the mentality was spot on with the way we started the match and went about things.

Welbeck also revealed his frustration at not being able to play at the moment, said the squad must continually strive to improve, and outlined the importance of consistency in a very competitive Premier League if Arsenal are to be champions:

It’s frustrating being on the sidelines and watching in – you feel kind of helpless. But you just have to keep motivated. The appetite’s there, you just want to get back out on the pitch and show what you can do. So it’s difficult but you’ve got to see the positive side of things at times. Obviously there’s some days when you just want to be back out there playing, but it’s a process and something that I’ve learnt to deal with in time. But it’s hard. The most important thing, obviously, as a team and as a squad, we want to keep on improving. The way we’ve started the league we’ve had a few good results, but there’s also results where we could have done a bit better in certain situations. The most important thing is we improve on what we’ve got to set a standard. We’ve just got to keep on improving as a squad mentally going into games, making sure we’re right for every single match and not just on selected games. In the Premier League there’s teams in the lower half of the table beating teams in the top half and that just shows you the level of competition throughout the whole league. There’s not one game where you can take your foot off the gas and we’ve got to be prepared mentally, physically and tactically for every single match we go into to. It’s the same for every single team. It doesn’t give one side a better opportunity to win the league. Every three points is going to be vital. And if you get those wins and keep racking them up that’s going to be the most important thing come May.

Nothing at all to argue with in that and the bit about the squad improving mentally going into games is the standout-out comment in my opinion. As much as we marveled at our display against United, just a few day earlier we produced a very different performance against Olympiakos.

The players were mostly the same and their physical condition presumably not an issue, so the logical explanation for the defeat would be a lack of focus. But as Danny alludes to above, we need to ensure we’re tuned in for every game, big or small, if we want to lift the biggest prizes at the end of the season.

Anyway, the sooner Welbeck and our other two long-termers, Tomas Rosicky and Jack Wilshere, are back to bolster the squad the better, because when we emerge from a hectic festive period, we’ll no doubt be in desperate need of freshening things up.

Til tomorrow.

15th September 2015: Wilshere surgery blow as Zagreb boss calls Arsenal ‘frightening’

Posted on by TremendArse

Good evening. Except it isn’t really, because Arsenal have today announced Jack Wilshere will be sidelined for approximately three months as he needs surgery to repair the fractured fibula he sustained in August.

In honesty, the news isn’t as much of a shock as when Danny Welbeck was recently ruled out for a number of months, because in-the-Arsenal-know Sunday Mirror reporter Steve Stammers last weekend revealed the possibility Jack may need to go under the knife. That has now been confirmed and the midfielder will need a small plate inserted into his left leg after his injury failed to heal as expected. The full statement on Arsenal.com read:

Due to a slow healing response from a fracture suffered in August, the club can confirm that Jack Wilshere is to undergo an operation to his left fibula. The decision to intervene has been taken quickly after regular reviews by specialists, who feel that Jack’s scans show that the healing process is not progressing as well as expected. Jack will have surgery in London in the forthcoming days. This will involve inserting a small plate in his left fibula. Jack is likely to be out for approximately three months. Everyone at the club wishes Jack well with his rehabilitation.

Needless to say, it’s devastating news for both the club and a young player, who has been repeatedly sidelined by injury for large chunks of his relatively short career so far. In pre-season, Jack was playing and sounding like a man who was ready to force his way back into the first-team after an injury-ravaged campaign last time around.

It seemed this would finally be the season when the midfielder lived up to his billing as the finest English talent of his generation but with the 12 week lay-off ahead of him now ,and the inevitable period of time after that it will take him to regain match sharpness, another season appears a likely write-off.

The one silver lining I suppose, from the player’s own perspective, is that if all goes well with his recovery and he’s back to something approaching his best in the final couple of months of the season, he’s got the Euros with England to look forward to and he’ll be very fresh to make his mark in France. Hopefully, from an Arsenal perspective, we’ll still be fighting on all fronts for trophies and can welcome back both Wilshere and Welbeck in time to give our squad new impetus at the business end of the season.

As I write this post, Arsene Wenger has been holding his pre-match press conference ahead of tomorrow evening’s Champions League clash with Dinamo Zagreb and the boss is confident Wilshere’s long-term career is not in jeopardy because of his latest injury blow. He said:

Jack Wilshere is young enough to get over this. I’m confident he can make a career his talent deserves.

I’ll have more from Arsene before the game tomorrow, including team news etc but his opposite number for our opening group stage game, Zagreb manager Zoran Mamic, has revealed he was at the Emirates stadium to run the rule over the Gunners on Saturday as we beat Stoke, and described our play as ‘frightening’. He said:

I have watched Arsenal in many games, I went to see them against Stoke this weekend and I got the impression they were playing in second or third gear, and should have won 10-0! It is frightening and fascinating how they play. I believe we will be better than Stoke. Cazorla and Ozil are key Arsenal players, but the team is so strong that danger comes from everywhere.

And he’s right, I suppose we are pretty decent at the whole playing football thing but must guard against complacency and not fall into an oft-trodden trap of thinking turning up is all we need to do to win.

Zagreb matched our unbeaten achievement of 2004 in the Croatian domestic league last term and have players such as Angelo Henriquez – once of Man Utd and national team-mate of Alexis Sanchez – in their side, so they’re likely to be a talented outfit, particularly on home soil.

Right, a bit of a short one today but I’ll be back pre-match tomorrow for some final thoughts before we get our European campaign up and running.

See you then.

10th September 2015: Wenger reveals Wilshere setback, denies lying over Welbeck injury

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. Arsene Wenger spoke to the press ahead of Saturday’s game against Stoke this morning and to the surprise of absolutely nobody, the questions posed were as predictable as his answers.

After providing an injury update, in which he revealed Jack Wilshere has had a minor setback and is definitely out of contention for this weekend, the boss was asked about the lack of new arrivals before the transfer window shut last week. Here’s what he had to say:

I have made more than 300 transfers and every time it’s a decision to make. Do you buy the player because he strengthens his squad or not? The solutions we had were not convincing at all. In the end you do not buy to give one hope, you want to buy because the players who come in can help your squad to be stronger. Buying and selling is one way to strengthen your team but that’s not the only way.

I’m pretty sure most Arsenal fans who follow Arsene’s press conferences on a regular basis will have guessed his response before it had left his mouth. That’s not a criticism of the boss, more one of the journos who take it turns to ask the same vague questions and don’t, for instance, ask the boss what he thinks of Luiz Adriano as a finisher when he says the market was bare.

But speaking of strikers, and considering the ones we have are either injured or horribly out of form, Arsene discussed his options up front and gave a vote of confidence to under-fire Olivier Giroud:

Of course, I am confident I have enough cover and enough quality. The only good news after the transfer window is that finally we can talk a bit about football. That is what we love and we want to focus now on [how to improve], which is the quality of the work that we do and the quality of our spirit and the quality of our competitiveness which is needed in every single game. He (Giroud) has my full support and I believe that is part of being a striker. There is no striker in the world who has not been questioned. When he missed a chance and is booed, that can happen.

Arsene also responded to claims in certain quarters that he’d purposely misled fans over Danny Welbeck’s knee injury and said that the forward’s fitness was not a consideration when he scoured the market for a player who could improve the squad:

It doesn’t change anything. You either find someone who strengthens your squad or not. Whether we have players injured or no doesn’t change the problem, that’s what I don’t understand from the media. First of all I am surprised that people accused me of lying when I was in the press conference on Friday morning, [at that point] I did not know Welbeck had a bad setback. I did not lie to you, I gave you the information I had.

Glad that’s sorted. The paranoia was becoming a little boring. And so what if he’s compounded a lie with a denial – if I was looking for a new striker and wanted to negotiate the best price possible, I’m hardly going to make it public that one of my current collection is out of action for the foreseeable. At times I think fans need to stop flattering themselves by thinking what Arsene says is always aimed at them.

Anyway, the boss also pointed out that Arsenal have created more chances than any other team in the Premier League this season and said he is confident we will soon relocate our shooting boots:

We have created the chances and that’s what we want to continue to do. I believe that the finishing is a bit cyclical, up and down, and we are the team who has created the most chances since the start of the season, so let’s just continue to focus on the quality of our game. It is about the efficiency and the quality of our game, we can score goals and I am not worried about that. We have Alexis, we have Giroud and we have Walcott. It is a massive opportunity for them of course.

The hope of course, is that they can make the most of that opportunity and if they could start in our next game that would be very welcome indeed. I think both Walcott and Giroud really need to prove themselves as capable of being our long-term, first-choice striker in theses next few months with Welbeck out and the market closed, because if they can’t do it now, the likelihood is they never will.

And as far as Alexis as a striker goes, I don’t see it myself. It didn’t work on the few occasions we tried it last season but more importantly, I think Sanchez is far more Eden Hazard than he is Sergio Aguero, if you know what I mean.

Back tomorrow.

3rd September 2015: With Welbeck out, can Campbell be this season’s Coquelin?

Posted on by TremendArse

The rapid returns from injury of Danny Welbeck and Jack Wilshere now obviously take on added importance  – hopefully both aren’t far from full fitness.

This time yesterday, I, like all Arsenal fans, was blissfully unaware that Danny Welbeck had already undergone surgery on the knee injury he suffered in April and would be unavailable for ‘a period of months’.

The last update on his fitness had suggested the former Man Utd striker would return to the first-team fold shortly after the current international break, so today’s news combined with our failure to recruit a new striker before Tuesday’s transfer deadline, now leaves us worryingly short of central striking options.

After Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott, if you discount Alexis Sanchez – who in his few cameos in the position last term was far from convincing – we’re now left with Joel Campbell as the most natural option at the tip of the attack. I’m almost speechless at how quickly the air of pre-season optimism engulfing the club has been blown away and replaced by clouds of impending doom.

I can understand it of course. A lot of Arsenal supporters when we unveiled Petr Cech at the end of June, were assessing a squad that had finished the previous campaign third in the league and having secured a second successive FA Cup with a convincing win at Wembley and expecting us to mount a serious challenge for the title. Perhaps even manage a sustained run in Europe.

There was also the added anticipation of further ‘Gunner Galactico’ signings to follow in the footsteps of Cech, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil to Emirates stadium. After all, the new TV deals had armed the league with obscene money to strengthen squads and players all around Europe were expected to be easy prey. We were looking like a million bucks with the promise of a further lorryload of dough. Then came a perfect pre-saseon, including Arsene Wenger’s first-ever win over Chelsea to secure the Community Shield and hope had turned into expectation. Requests into demands.

Yet after two wins, a draw and a defeat from our opening four league games, in which we looked a shadow of the team who sailed merrily through pre-season, and the lack off any additions at all before the transfer window closed on Tuesday, familiar grievances about the manager’s work and the squad’s quality have come hurtling back like Francis Coquelin closing down an opposition attack.

It goes without saying that collectively we must improve to keep pace with a far stronger Man City squad to last year’s, but has any other team suggested as title-winners improved? It’s too early to know definitively of course but given the start of the league season, and looking at their transfer business with the window now closed, I’s say no.

In a very particular order; Tottenham have no chance, Liverpool have lost their influential – if past it – captain, as well as their brightest star in Raheem Sterling, Man United have certainly added a number of players but discarded at least just as many, with those arriving far from certain to be of a higher calibre, whilst Chelsea have lost Didier Drogba and Cech from their dressing room, and only really added the, admittedly undoubted, quality of Pedro to their first-choice selection. Plus the Blues have a manager who’s as likely to cause mayhem at a club, as he is to win a trophy. So comparatively speaking, when you consider all that, we’re not badly positioned at all from my perspective.

But to go back to the beginning of this this post, whilst cover for Coquelin was my personal, primary reinforcement priority, our striking situation with Welbeck out for ‘months’ means another player will now have an opportunity he’d otherwise not have been afforded to provide the ‘internal solution’ Arsene often trumpets.

I have to admit too, that as a fan, I get as much joy from seeing an academy player, or a young unestablished hopeful, go on to make a lasting impact on our first-team, as I do from seeing a world class new signing sprinkle our play with stardust. More so maybe. But I appreciate that’s just me and if you were to ask me my preference exactly as we’re struggling to score a consolation against Dinamo Zagreb, who lead five nil at Emirates stadium in added time, I’d almost certainly have a different opinion.

But until then, I’m genuinely excited at the possibility of Campbell rediscovering his Man Utd-slaying form, his World Cup scoring skills, and proving himslef a left-footed, Samuel Eto’o-style striking sensation for us. This year’s Coquelin-esque, late-comer to the fans’ conscience as a first-team starter, who’ll save us millions in the next summer market and negate the need to sign Robert Lewandowski. 

Seriously though, I still haven’t seen nearly enough of our Costa Rican to form an opinion on him either way, but it’s having the chance to do so that I’m relishing, when the real stuff returns after this international break.

Finally, good luck to Welbeck on what will hopefully be the speediest recovery from such an injury anyone’s ever seen. Just make sure you’re back in time for the Champions League semis Welbz!

Back on Friday.