The last time Abou Diaby played 90 minutes for Arsenal was over 12 months ago, in the 3-1 win over Blackpool. This season injuries have restricted the midfielder to a little under 90 minutes of total playing time, but despite this both Arsene Wenger and Thomas Vermaelen hope the Frenchman can play a part in Arsenal’s final three games.
With a physical game coming up this weekend against Stoke, and with their penchant for chucking it and hoofing it long at every opportunity, Diaby’s height might be important, something Vermaelen is concious of.
“He can be really valuable for us I think”, he said. “Mikel Arteta is injured now but Abou brings some physical presence in midfield as well. He is a good player for us so I am happy he is back.
“It is good for him that he is now back and has put a difficult period behind him.”
While Arsene Wenger, clearly a huge fan of Diaby’s talent, said, “I hope Diaby can play a significant role. I am a bit cautious because he just played 25 minutes but in the last three games I hope he can help us, yes.”
Our midfield options do increase with the return of Yossi Benayoun who was ineligible for the Chelsea game, and Francis Coquelin likely to be available again, but with Wilshere and Arteta out any additional bodies in the mix can only aid the cause.
Especially against the horrendous drooling Orcs of Stoke.
Oh fuck it looks like he’s injured his neck now looking at that pic…..
Actually, I think it looks like you might have to check for a pulse in that pic…..
He has finally turned into a Zombie.
That’s the look my Great Dane gives me when he doesn’t understand something.
Wenger: “Don’t get injured Diaby! Don’t!”
Dibay: head tilts sideways
Diaby and Gervinho to start against Stoke I hope.
Diaby and benayoun for me
gervinho looked far better than walcott did last game
This guy has SOOO much potential. It’s just that he is.. kinda injury prone.
The PFA award for understatment of the year goes to…
I think he can play as a striker too. He’s got everything to be a pretty good striker.
We looked better on Saturday when he came on. He could be a major influence in our run in.
All the best Abou.
Completely agree. Against Liverpool he looked nervous and physically a bit weak. Saturday he had that confident stride, carried the ball well and linked play. I honestly think if we can get him back to match fitness and keep him there, he could be a huge player for us next season. Have a look at this video, I forgot how good he can be: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVOlyGvZVC8&feature=related
I liked the bit where he munched Modric 😀
Great to have him back.
With Diaby, Gibbs and RVP, I can understand the wait when they are injured as we know if they have run of games injury free, they are just class players.
Big, big fan of Diaby, I know we joke about LANS. But if Diaby fit for next season, with few run of games under his belt, he is a REAL 25/30 mil signing.
I just hope that French leaves him alone this summer and yes Mr Blanc, Rami and Maxi are better than Kos. Keep resting him for us!!!!!!!.
It looks like he’s practicing the dead-in-the-eyes look the Verminator has perfected.
It’s the thousand yard stare.
Stroke? Oh f*ck not those neanderthals again. Why exactly haven’t they been relegated yet?
they get every single questionable call
http://www.debatabledecisions.com/
we don’t get jack shit
I thought he did ok on Saturday and better than that even when he came on (for a while) against Liverpool. Fingers crossed he can stay fit this time because he has massive potential. People wrote him off but then people did the same with both Rosicky and RVP at times in the past and look how they turned out. I’m keeping the faith with Arsene.
Hope ab-ouch!dearby delivers this time around…lol.
I really hope Diaby can stay healthy for an extended period of time as he could be a truly great midfielder if he was just able to play consistently. He has all the technical and athletic ability in the world but these consistent injuries just keep holding him back. Hopefully he can get a good run these last three games and come back fully healthy next year, although if he does stay healthy I wouldn’t be surprised to see Blanc push him for the Euros which he shouldn’t be a part of.
I think you’ve actually covered ALL the clichés there, so great work! Oh, wait, you missed out “mental strength”.
its cliche for someone to wish success on one of our players? most people who have seen him play will tell you that he’s got the skills and athletisism so I can’t see the cliches here and its deffinitely not aALL of them as he’s talking about 1 thing
No need to put the lad down, he was only expressing his desire for Diaby to develope.
…you should try putting the handbrake on sometimes when you criticise others.
if he’s fit, he’s going. laurent blanc said so himself
I hope Diaby makes the type of come back in the next year as Rosicky did this season…..Cheers Abou!
Great- we are going to wait on a player with major injury history instead of buying quality to make up for the midfield players we sold last summer!
I think Diaby is of more use to us in these final 3 games than any quality signing that you might wish for at the moment who can’t be registered until 1st June
It might have escaped your notice but we can’t buy anyone for the final three games of the season
good point I should have read the article first LOL
I’d have Arteta over Nasrat any day. And who would replace Cesc, seriously?
He’s one of a kind. We’ve adapted and moved on, and if you hadn’t noticed we’re in a higher position than we were last season (touching wood as I say that).
no problem with the Arteta signing but we should have signed Erikson?mAta etc for creative options in midfield
we could put in a cheeky 10 million bid for messi perhaps
I don’t think a tin of Quality Street is going to entice Fabregas back from Barca. Keep coming up with ideas though.
i’d rather him stay at barca and have a team of totally committed gunners…
Yep.
Like we waited for rvp before him.
Looks like that didn’t turn out so well either. Only got a great captain and a golden boot out of it. What a waist of time.
Shitty statement…you should change your name to shitaci
shitachi? very funny NOT
Taking his time to get back in the team, but I still got love for his feet. It’s the Di-a-by.
Talk about absence making the heart grow fonder. So many people were slagging Diaby off before, and I’ll admit I was starting to run out of patience with him at one stage. Hoping the injury is behind him and he can keep his temperament in check, because he can do things that a lot of this team can’t on his day.
Oh, and, hello everyone, I’m back!
Do we really want Diaby, who is only just getting over a string of injuries, to play against the cloggers of Stoke? Isn’t that inviting another injury?
Don’t worry he can do this, remember:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5hd-RJUHIg
And this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOs2Gf0rhd8&feature=player_detailpage
As someone commented on YouTube, kicking racism out of football. 😛
That goal is straight out of the Invincibles Era. Wonderful.
I love one of the top comments; “Maybe the kick made him forget he was married?” Haha.
I’m not sure we have much choice with the midfield options we have.
Playing football is inviting injury. Can’t just leave out a valuable asset because he might get tackled.
Anyway, he looked quite fresh and mobile against Chelsea so that’s something to think about.
And Diaby went off injured at the end. Terrific…
Time to sell him.
I don’t care if Diaby has to break every bone in his body to carry him over the next three games. I don’t care if Shawcross guns down our entire squad and in doing so lets the ball trickle into his own net. I don’t care if we’re down to just Szczzers on the line against the Baggies, as long as we fucking win the next three games.
Would be good to see him doing a run of form, though.
we musn’t forget that Diaby is still only 25.
if he is now over his injuries (i expect there to be a couple more ‘niggles’ before the end of the season) then i would expect that we haven’t seen the best of Diaby yet.
not sure how good he can become, but hopefully we can all look forward now.
holy shit I swear he was older (you are right though)
Hopefully he can stay fit can be a smashing player on his day,welcome back abou
I’ve got Ramsey for the winner against Stoke. He’ll nutmeg Shawcross causing him to turn awkwardly, snapping his own leg in two, then blast it into the top corner.
and then wait for the papers the next day to tell us of some celebrity death…
Piers Morgan should stay in a bunker during the Stoke game… or should he?
We should forget about Diaby. Against Chelsea he looked like what he is: a player coming back from injury and well short of games. Some of the passes he made were awful. The good thing about the Stoke game is that Bennie will be back.
This summer, Wenger should make the difficult decision and sell Diarby while he’s fit. We have wasted a fortune in wages on him. Sadly, he is our version of Darren Anderton.
Fatgooner + fatcunt ==> nice couple.
I’m just telling it like it is. If you think that the club should waste a fortune on a crock then that’s your business, but any fool can see that Diaby is just a white elephant. It’s time to move on from him.
By the way: I am in no way related to Fatcunt – he is just a pale imitation of a brilliant blogger.
a bit full of yourself wouldn’t you say?
And any fool can see that a guy close to Diaby’s talent and physicality would cost us 30m+ on thje open market and without any loyalty and relationships built up to boot,.I’m as frustrated as anyone with him and I don’t think we can truly rely on him but keeping him around is a good gamble imo, similar to RvP and that seems to have worked out okay.
Quadruple ‘mehs’ on that statement yet again fella. From the injury prone players we’ve had, almost all turned out to be quite the gem for us when fit and diaby is no exception. Just a little more patience and he’l come good.
Hahahahhaha classic. You brilliant blogger you!!
just remember van persie and to some extent gibbs (still have to see his full potential) before writing off diaby
There are all these “Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.” And I know I shouldn’t click them to see, but what do I do? I stupidly click there to see! Sonofabitch!
Thankyou.
£30M for Diaby??? I think Fatgooner and I will have a laugh at that one, given how much we got for Fabregas. You’ve been drinking too much Gooner juice. Diaby might have potential, but if he does get re-signed, it should be on a pay-as-you-play or stipulations on being available for selection. I think that many observant supporters will realize that we have a lot of wages tied up in players who either cannot perform or just aren’t working out as intended and it puts a strain on the remaining squad members to perform. This, in turn, tires out the… Read more »
Boneheaded, sure. But bear in mind that up until he got sent off in that game, Diaby was arguably Arsenal’s best player on the pitch. And even with 10 men, shipping 4 goals in 1 half is inexcusable; while he disadvantaged the team, it’s not his fault that the rest of the team just forgot how to play football. Of course, the ref helped out a little.
I can’t really blame him too much for going after Barton. Diaby was just coming back from injury and he took a cheap shot at his ankle.
Plus, it’s Barton. Who wouldn’t like to have a go at Barton?
i just remember the time when chelsea used to bully us in midfield when Diaby abd Denilson used to play together a few seasons ago
Hey blogs, where did you get that picture? I’ve been looking for it for ages now…fabulous, priceless and…..
Oh God. I just know some Stoke player is gonna come in with a hard challenge… All the best luck to Diaby =/
I absolutely loved the game! It was exiticng, inspiring, it was simply the best! And the fact that Barcelona didn’t win it’s just because they are humans, not some robots who always win. Well done both Barcelona and Arsenal!