Well, I was hooked up at work till 8.15pm yesterday and I couldn’t watch Nigeria’s win against Sudan. I had to make do with some highlights and I must say that Ahmed Musa sure knows when to turn up. With South Africa sharing the spoils against Congo, Nigeria’s away clash against the Congolese on November 14 would be a do-or-die affair and that’s what football is all about. One minute it seems all hope is lost, another minute you’re doomed.
With the international fixtures out of the way, it’s time to focus to more important things like you know, watching Arsenal play. This season has began on a rather dismal note with the Gunners struggling to find their feet in the Premier League and despite the fact that they were ‘unbeaten’ till gameweek 7, the Gunners had won just two of their previous six league fixtures. As the season has been progressing, the Gunners have faced a lot of casualties and with Matt Debuchy out injured and his deputy, Calum Chambers, suspended Arsenal would have to summon the services of the young protege, Hector Bellerin, for the third time this season for the game against Hull.
Per Mertesacker has been quick to share his thoughts on the lad,
“He’s a good addition to our squad and he can take his chance with Mathieu injured and Calum suspended. He’s got some great chances and he has to take them now because you never know what will happen in football.
“It’s tough to establish yourself as a young player at Arsenal as a lot of the positions have two players in, so it’s hard for the youngsters to impress in regular games.
“I have to encourage them to speak to me even though I’m 30 and have a lot of international caps. They have to be brave and be themselves. He needs to talk as well and that’s what I demand from him. He listens a lot and he’s a good guy, which gives him a good chance to be a regular pro at Arsenal.”
Bellerin impressed me during the preseason campaign and I was eager to see what he had to offer this season. Having watched his games in the NextGen series, as well as a couple of times when he was away at Watford, I’d had very high hopes for the lad. He’s lightning quick, has good technique and he also has a good cross in him, but physically, I think he needs to bulk up a bit.
His first game this season was that torrid affair at the Signal Iduna Park but his outing against Southampton in the Capital One Cup third round was very impressive. He’s currently playing in a position that is relatively stocked, so he’d keep wait for injuries and suspensions to pave the way for him, which is more less the current situation.
I hope he’d fare better against a team in the Premier League and this sort of match experience can he can only get better. This is another chance for the lad to prove his worth.
For his sake, I hope he takes it.
Sayonara.
You can download the Gooner Daily BlackBerry App to receive notifications on your Smart Phone when a post is published.
You can follow Gooner Daily on Twitter @goonerdaily. I’ll follow back
Feel free to visit Gooner Daily’s Facebook page and click on the like button.
You can also join Gooner Daily’s Mailing List to get notifications of new posts by email by clicking on the Follow button
