arsenal v. norwich

all the hopes i had of a full arsenal squad finally taking the field this season were, of course, dashed.

while we do get gilberto (who we have missed desperately) and henry back tomorrow, we'll still be without sol, and now we're missing patty, the newly impressive senderos and bergkamp (and that always hurts). and where the hell is edu?

so tomorrow's line up is looking something like this methinks:

henry / van persie

reyes / flamini / gilberto / ljundberg

cole / cygan / toure / lauren

lehmann

and while that should be enough to kick the snot out of last place, relegated norwich, i take nothing for granted this season (especially if the always unimpressive reyes gets the start over pires). plus, this is the arsenal. if something bad can happen it will.

David Trezeguet's bonehead red card, after his brilliant goal to put Les Bleus in the lead, opens the door for an Israeli comeback. Les Bleus are now in serious danger of failing to qualify for 2006. 

international games

i love the world cup, and i even enjoy watching the totally ridiculous thrashings of countries who have no business competing against the great footballing nations, but what really gets me down about world cup qualifiers is that club football disappears for a week or two.

i'm going into massive arsenal withdrawal, and i'ms scanning every site i can find for some useless news of what's going on with the gunners. following the successes and failures of gunners on international duty is okay, but it's nothing like the excitement that comes with the weekly grind.

can't we just say by now that italy, england, france, germany, the netherlands, spain, portugal, brazil and argentina all have a spot in the world cup? then we could still have club football, we could still fulfill my addiction, while good international games like mexico and the usa could continue.

Mexican striker Jared Borgetti celebrates after scoring against the U.S. during the first half of their World Cup qualifier in Mexico City today. The win puts Mexico #1 in the North American / Central American World Cup qualifying group. Ole, baby! (REUTERS/Henry Romero)