International Week 0-0 Excitement

Interminable, isn’t it? Though it’s not like our players are all sitting at home twiddling on their Wiis – we’ve got 20 away on international duty. Am I being a cynic to suggest that the chances of all 20 of those players coming back uninjured is practically nil? We can but cross our fingers.

Of course, it doesn’t take a genius to know what the boss thinks of this enforced break – which feels like about the ninth of this season already. “The timing of this international break is bad,” he said, with the usual hyperbole.

Is the timing that bad? Well it’s hard not to agree with Wenger – we came back from the last international break with Djourou and Arshavin injured (the former for eight months, the latter for three games), and promptly lost to Man City 4-2. Since then, we have racked up six straight victories, scoring 18 goals. And the most recent game saw a simply spectacular performance from Cesc, and goals from six separate players. We’re on form.

So take Fabregas as an example: he’s off all the way to Armenia to play for Spain on Saturday – who let’s not forget have already qualified for the World Cup – then a few days later he’s in Bosnia for another game. Then it’s straight back to Arsenal for our home game against Birmingham a few days later.

In fact, only one of our starting XI from our last game – Vito Mmm Mannone – is not gadding about with his country.

So really, the timing is rubbish.

And finally

Some of you have seen the excellent 2008-9 season review put together by the fellas at The Gooner Review. For those who haven’t – or for those who have but fancy a night out – there’s a charity screening of it at The Phoenix in East Finchley on Tuesday night. Paul Kaye, Perry Groves and a load of other celeb gooners will be there, but the main thing to remember is it’s for a good cause, with all the money from the tickets going to Bob Wilson’s The Willow Foundation, and to the cinema’s restoration project.

Details here