Hello ladies and gentlemen, in the midst of a slightly awful couple days I give you the Valencia skinny. Now, these days aren't so bad on the Arsenal front, but at home, Jesus! Yesterday afternoon my girlfriend and I went out for about 4 hours and returned home to roast a duck. The old lady went to our bedroom and found our batch of "special cookies" fallen on the floor with teeth marks all over the lid of the container. This of course was worrying but we figured that the dog would have smelled the things and gone running in disgust, as they certainly aren't appetizing. So, we tracked him down and found him underneath a bed in another room staring into space and shaking like it was -1million degrees. I did some research online and eventually called a vet. They said that the "special" toxin combined with the chocolate chips in the cookies didn't bode well for poor Hunter, an 18lb Kli Kai, (tiny Huskey), so we took him in. They kept him over night doing all the things they do to dogs in this situation, which apparently isn't all that uncommon. We collected him today thinking all would be well but he's very worse for ware. We took him back to the vet and got more tests done and his liver is capable of passing the poison but man is he poorly. He's currently tucked under a bed, staring into space and drifting in and out of sleep.
And so goes my weekend, this isn't a good sign of things to come, especially since it's Jennie's Birthday tomorrow, 23 hurrah! Hopefully this won't have any affect on the Arsenal game. Valencia are a big club with a lot of history, outside the El Classico, they're the biggest club in Spain. They finished 6th last season, 25 points back of Barcalona, loosing 12 games in the league. They do however, have David Villa and David Silva, two of the most exciting players in Europe. They've been targets for big clubs as Valencia has some money issues that need resolving. Both players remain at the club however and will be testing our defense as we speak.
David Silva will be a big threat down the wing and will test Eboue and the rest on the right today. David Villa is a quality finisher, a quality player that can score an array of different goals, although he is very left footed. At one point he went to the press and basically asked Wenger to sign him, of course we didn't, as you know, and we'll see what kind of impact he'll have today.
I haven't watched much of Valencia but I think, that like most Spanish sides, they'll play a technical style that will cater to their best dribblers while attempting to move the ball over short spaces efficiently. Our speed of play might prove too much for them going the other direction and while this game will be the most competitive we've played in pre-season, I don't think we'll have too many problems. Of course, this isn't the point, it's more so to look at the players, solidify a line up and one last push to full fitness.
We travel with a deep squad, the starters being Almunia/ Eboue, Gallas, Djourou, Clichy/ Diaby, Song, Cesc/ Arshavin, Bendtner and Van Persie. The bench has all the rest of the fit boys, except for Denilson, who I have to imagine sustained an injury somewhere and isn't fit, or perhaps Arsenal.com just cocked it. Walcott is in and so is Fran Merida, which is strange as he's going on loan next week, but there's no Carlos Vela. This is slightly displeasing, as I was hoping to see more of him this season.
It looks like Eboue might be taking over at right back sooner than later and if Vermaelen doesn't get fit soon and Djourou plays well, we may not see Vermaelen get his spot until later.
There isn't much other news. A little more stuff around about Hangeland and Chamack, but nothing else, besides an Almunia interview where he comments on the former King Kolo and Cesc, which will surely be taken out of context and brandished all over.
Come on you Arsenal! Next week Everton! Until tomorrow.
Highbury86
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