International Report and Arsenal Nuggets

So far there’s been no new report of International injuries to the Arsenal squad. That’s good news for the team ahead of Saturday’s Newcastle match. We’re still waiting to hear a clear report on how Walcott is doing after his hand was smashed in the U21 friendly.

Henry scored the match winner in France’s friendly with Greece. This takes him just two goals away from Michel Platini’s French record of 41 goals. It seems exceedingly likely that Henry will match and surpass this record in the years to come, adding to the already several accolades that our captain has achieved. Gallas also played a full 90 in this match.

The young and fabulous Fabregas starred in the first half of Spain’s friendly with Romania. It was only in the 58th however that Romania slotted home a surprise winner. Let’s just assume that had Cesc been on the pitch it would have gone the other way.

Fabregas is holding a live web chat Thursday where he will be answering questions from fans. I’m looking forward to see what sort of ridiculous questions the Arsenal faithful can pose to our young midfielder. It would be great to get some insight into what life is like for a 19 year old Spanish kid playing football at the highest level in London.

Meanwhile England continued to exhibit problems in a 1-1 draw with a meager Dutch team. Rooney scored the opener but the English squad was unable to hold the lead, and then gave up a goal to end even. It was a disappointing match but England showed more promise in this game than in some of their recent matches. At least McClaren has the common fucking sense to play Gerrard in the middle, where he looked god-damned fantastic.

And in Chelski news Drogba scored the winner for Ivory Coast against Sweden. This guy literally can’t stop scoring goals. It’s almost upsetting. No, it’s upsetting.

In Arsenal team news, Wenger has apparently given Birmingham permission to keep Bendtner for the rest of the season. He’s been a huge help to Birmingham so hopefully he can help them move up and then come shine for the gunners.

Both Flamini and Aliadiere have been talking about their hopes to become regulars on the first team. Aliadiere seems pretty grounded in acknowledging that he has some work to do to get there. Flamini on the other hand has almost got it, but there is just only so many good players we can put on the pitch. Hopefully he’ll find a way to be happy at Arsenal, I wouldn’t mind if it were on the pitch.

And finally I’d like to give a shout out to the ASSC based out of Edinburgh. Clearly the finest group of Scots around, one of these fine gents offered up a special honorary ticket to the match against Hamburg on Tuesday. If I didn’t have any Thanksgiving plans I’d already have tickets to London booked! Unfortunately the timing wasn’t right, but I couldn’t be more flattered and honored by their offer. If it were any other time I’d drop everything and go. God knows when I get a chance I’ll be able to write about it for weeks and have enough pictures for a million words. Bloody hell.