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Thursday 26 January 2012

Some good news at last

Sagna is on his way Bac


Yet again, following a defeat, the Club has gone in to a bit of a lock down over the course of this week. There are times when it's best to keep your counsel, and I think this was one of them. The last thing the supporters would have wanted this week was a load of guff about "spirit" and "belief" etc, especially if it had the Manager's name to it. As a result it's been a long and slow few days. Thankfully I've been at work so I haven't spent all day scouring the web for any small bits of news that might have been doing the rounds. The dust has started to settle on what happened on Sunday and we can now move on. In terms of my last post I would have to say it's the first time that I've written something about Arsene leaving, and not been subjected to abuse in the comments section. The times are changing.
Having had a very slow few days in terms of anything from Arsenal, I was delighted to log in to Twitter this morning and see the announcement from Bacary Sagna that he is back in full training with the first team today. This is Bac's first full involvement with the group since he broke his leg earlier in the season. Given that we have had pretty much non-stop misery recently this is a big boost. In my view Sagna is an outstanding full-back. He struggled in his second year at Arsenal but, since then, has got better and better. There can be absolutely no doubt that we have missed Bac immensely. As far as I'm concerned his return to the side can not come soon enough. The first leg against AC Milan may  yet come a little too soon, but I wouldn't be surprised if he made his comeback in the San Siro.
In the absence of Sagna we expected Carl Jenkinson to get a lot of game time. Unfortunately for the youngster he picked up a serious injury of his own. As a result we have since seen Koscielny (briefly) and Johan Djourou filling in for the most part. Djourou probably played his last 45 minutes in that position on Sunday. I think that Nico Yennaris will now, injury permitting, find himself in place at right-back until Sagna returns. 
I have been immensely impressed by Yennaris in the games he has played. For a small guy he is physically strong, with a great leap. He is also quick and has good ability on the ball. I would say that he has looked a far better player than Jenkinson did when he played. Of course Yennaris will make some errors, but he is more likely to be forgiven them than Djourou will. He is an Arsenal supporter (he was the team mascot at home to Coventry in 2000) and will do us proud if he gets the opportunity. It is a very similar scenario to that which gave Kerrea Gilbert his chance back in 2006. Gilbert grabbed it with both hands before picking up a serious injury at home to West Ham. That let Eboue back in and he made the spot his own until Sagna arrived. If Yennaris can make the same impact as Gilbert (whose career has since gone down hill quicker than Franz Klammer) then he could have a good future at Arsenal. He will certainly be able to keep the right-back spot warm until Sagna is ready to come back.

1 comment:

  1. Yes... Bac is coming back ... but I'm still waiting for a left back ...
    Santos is a good player (But not a TOP one...)Gibbs is always "injured despite his young age" and honestly at his age, Clichy and Cashley Cole was absolutely better...
    why I'm talking about the right and left back ??? easy; in the AW game, as well as Guardiola one and in those technicians who make the game "fast ball on the ground" and continue exchanges and overlaps, the fullbacks are damn fundamental !!! it's not easy found great players,but well,it's not my job...is AW one ;)
    Anyway,welcome back Bac !!!

    p.s. sorry for my english :P

    Teo

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