EA Sports Player of the Month
Manchester City hosts Arsenal at the Etihad. After just 10 minutes, Samir Nasri goes berserk as Arsenal fans continue to jeer him for his shenanigans at the club and retaliates by hacking Olivier Giroud in the box leaving the referee no choice but to point to the spot. As soon as Mikel Arteta takes a deep breath with Joe Hart making funny faces in front of him, I see a red horizontal bar with a green color in the middle.
Arsene Wenger has stated that Arteta plays the “Pirlo” role for Arsenal so the Spanish midfielder chips the ball down the middle while Hart dives haplessly to one end. Shortly after the game, Arteta asks Hart if he wants any ketchup…for that chip.
This is the best part of it all…I was the one controlling Arteta while playing the FIFA 13 Demo with my cousin, that chose Manchester City.
Yes, the FIFA 13 Demo is out and it’s worth every kilobyte downloaded. Arsenal India Supporters even went through the rigorous task of publishing the overall ratings of every Arsenal player in the game and it’s worth noting that Theo Walcott is the fastest player with a Sprint Speed of 96.
The full game is coming out on the 28th of September and Arsenal’s Oxlade-Chamberlain is in the cover of the game alongside Lionel Messi and Joe Hart. There was no space for Man Utd’s Shrek this time.
Moving over to the events of the real Arsenal world, I bring to you good tidings in regard to Arsenal’s treatment table that’s always occupied all season long. It’s been a very long while since I’ve heard that the squad had a clean bill of health and Wenger was having a very serious selection headache in choosing his XI for a certain match.
Starting with Le Fragile, Abou Diaby, Wenger has come out to give an update on the injury that forced him to miss out on France’s 3-1 win over Belarus,
“The injury doesn’t seem serious to me at all. He has a small chance of playing on Saturday.”
I’ve stated that Diaby’s presence is not necessarily needed against a weaker side like Southampton, and with Francis Coquelin trying to prove his worth to the squad, Wenger should use this game as an opportunity to showcase Le Coq’s talents. At least, Wenger has shown some faith with Vito Mannone and Carl Jenkinson, so I don’t see why Coquelin’s case should be different.
Wojciech Szczesny is also back to the squad after recovering from a rib injury but I still feel that he’ll have to be content with a role on the bench before facing Montpellier in next week’s Champions League’s opener. Szczesny’s return would see Mannone drop down the pecking order yet again but Carl Jenkinson is not ready to relinquish his starting berth, even when Bacary Sagna returns.
I and many Arsenal fans out there appreciate Jenko for deputizing well for the injured French right back, but Sagna is not just among the best right backs in the Premier League, he’s up there with the best right backs in the world. This means that Jenkinson can like to go back to the bench when Bac the Man returns.
Tomas Rosicky is another player that’s closing in on a return as it has been reported that he’s just two weeks away from gaining full fitness. Little Mozart was a revelation last season and I’m certain that he’ll want to build on that in the new campaign, even though age is slowly catching up with the Czech maestro.
With Cazorla winning Arsenal hearts enough to get the EA Sports Player of the Month award and a certain Aaron Ramsey eager to win Arsenal hearts back (and kill more celebrities with his goals) after a somewhat disappointing campaign last season, the competition for the attacking midfield slot will be one to savor.
Cazorla has been very exceptional since his arrival from Malaga and he has integrated himself into the squad like he has been around for years. I can remember vividly when Arsenal legend, Robert Pires, offer us a glimpse of what’s to come,
“He is a very exciting player, very gifted technically with both feet. He has an impressive creative touch and he can play in the centre or on the wings. His vision and the quality of his passing is brilliant but he can also take people on”
Well Mr. Pires, we’ve been excited since his arrival, seen him showcase his gifted technique, ambidexterity, creativity, versatility, passing and of course, his dribbling skills.
Cazorla on the other hand is grateful to Arteta for helping him to settle and he stated that his manager, Arsene Wenger, gives him the freedom he loves,
“I love the style of the team. Wenger’s philosophy is to control the game and I like to be on the ball. Furthermore, the boss has put me in a position, second striker, with all the freedom I want to have.
“He told me to be at ease and that he’d play me where I could most help the team. It surprised me in pre-season when he put me as the second striker. I’ve come to play on the wings with the freedom to move inside, but Wenger has immediately put me in this position. With Arteta, Diaby, Rosicky and Wilshere, who is recovering from injury, we’re going to have a lot of the ball.”
Cazorla will be a key component in Arsenal’s success story this season and the manager, his teammates and the fans can only hope that he’ll stay fit all season long.
Finally, I’ll give a quick birthday shoutout to Obitwyce, a pioneer of Gooner Daily and a good friend in every sense of the word. He’s the CEO of an IT company VOE Solutions, and he created the Gooner Daily BlackBerry App.
Happy Birthday Oga Jonah,
Sayonara.
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