Invisiblewall.net: Gilberto Silva News

Gilberto plays 90 minutes against Newcastle

Gilberto played the whole game for Arsenal on Sunday August 14th, and considering he’d only played half of the Chelsea match in pre-season, that was impressive.

He played the midfield distributor role as Vieira used to, and did his normal defensive duties.
He only made one dodgy pass, and I think he made a few good dribbles forward in midfield.
I’d rate it a solid 7/10 performance.

He was also on the end of a terrible tackle from Jermaine Jenas, as pictured below (Gilberto is on the left):

He wasn’t badly injured, but he spent 5 minutes off the pitch limping. Hopefully no long term damage was done.

Tomorrow he travels to Croatia with Brazil – I hope he doesn’t get too tired.

What did you think of his performance?

Journalist: “Will Gilberto play against Newcastle?”
Wenger: “He might be available”.

Well, that’s all the information we have about Gilberto’s status for the Newcastle game this Sunday.

Since he looked fit against Chelsea, there is a good chance that he’ll at least make the bench. Fabregas and Flamini are the two likely starters in midfielder, because Gilberto is probably only 90% fit, and he has a midweek international game with Brasil, where he travels to Croatia.

More news as soon as it is known.

After his comments about his contract renewal earlier this week, Gilberto said the following to Gazeta Esportiva (Brazilian Newspaper):

“What I want is to improve each season that I play. It could happen that I return to Brazil to finish my career, but the most important thing would be that I would return having learned something new.”

Interesting.

Taken from The Islington Gazette

LOSING does not come naturally to Gilberto Silva, but it is not something the Gunners midfielder is planning on getting used to in the coming months.

Having missed all the pre-season friendlies, Arsenal’s Brazilian midfielder replaced Mathieu Flamini at half time in the Charity Shield, and made an immediate impression.

With Patrick Vieira gone, Gilberto is set to shoulder the defensive burden in midfield and, as the 28-year-old told the Gazette after Sunday’s game, he is ready for that extra responsibility.

“We have to learn how to play without Patrick,” said Gilberto. “We know how important he was for us, but it is a definite situation – he is definitely gone and we have to adapt.

“The young players are good players, they showed that last season and on Sunday. Cesc and Flamini are good players and I will be there to support them, to help them and push them up, that is my job. It’s a bigger responsibility for me but I take it.”

There is little doubt that Gilberto will be a key player this season.

While he was injured from September to April last season, Arsenal struggled even with Vieira still in the side.

Now the former captain has gone there is a definite shortage of experienced players who can play in the centre of midfield. In fact, with Edu having also moved on in the summer, Gilberto is the only one.

The Arsenal fans seemed to finally realise his value last season, but Arsene Wenger has never doubted it.

That is why he thrust Gilberto into action on Sunday despite the fact that the player had no competitive action under his belt in pre-season.

Because of his involvement in the Confederations Cup tournament with Brazil Gilberto only joined up with the Gunners towards the end of their tour of Austria.

Wenger decided he was not fit enough to play in Amsterdam at the start of the month either, but even after just 45 minutes of action Gilberto is confident he will be ready for the big kick-off.

“I am not one hundred per cent physically but I can get that this week. I hope to be totally fit by the time we play Newcastle and to play the whole game,” Gilberto revealed.

“When you are a bit more experienced you can play a bit more with your mind if you are not fully fit and that’s what I did.

‘We played well and we had a lot of possession but Chelsea had two or three shots and scored two goals. But the team have done well and we will be better against Newcastle.”

And Gilberto is adamant that the Gunners will be challenging for the major honours again this season, despite the sale of Vieira and the lack of any replacement.

“We have to see before the window closes but if no one comes to join us we will need to do with what we have,” he added.

“Some players have left us but I tell you we still have a good team with experienced players.

“It is up to all of us to be together and we have always had that unity since I have been here.

“This season it is going to be different but we still have that unity and that strength.”

“We want to bring the trophy back to Highbury but Chelsea want to win it and Liverpool and Manchester United too.

“There will be four teams so it’s a big challenge but I want us to be in front – it’s what we all expect this season, to come first.”

This season you feel a fit Gilberto is going to be crucial to that aim.

Here is what Gilberto says:
“My contract runs until August, 2008. I am extremely calm and happy with the possibility to renew the contract. We will sit down and talk about it.

“I will only leave Arsenal if a wonderful chance appeared to leave here. I share the will of the club, know the staff well and already I’ve made some history here.”

Good news indeed.
He will probably get a 2 year extension, even though he is worth a 20 year extension.

Gilberto played in the second half of the community shield, and even if you don’t consider that this is his first game in an Arsenal shirt this season – he did very well.

He made some good interceptions, made quite alot of tackles, and did three bits of excellent skill.
His passing seems to be 100% too.
Henry had this to say on the central midfielders during the game:
“Cesc played really well against Chelsea and Gilberto came back really late from the Confederations Cup so he was short to start. But when he came on, he looked good. I would like to think that they can cope with the departure of Patrick.”
Cool.

While this was a ‘friendly’ game, the opposition wasn’t friendly.
Basically, if Gilberto can play that well against Chelsea with no pre-season, he should be absolutely fine for the opening premiership games against Newcastle and Chelsea.

He does travel to Croatia in between those two games though – so as has been mentioned before, he might miss those two games.

Arsenal lost 2-1, but well done, Gilberto. Great to see you back in action.

Source.

Wenger said “Gilberto is doing well but he is short for Sunday.”
Basically, he will miss the community shield game against Chelsea.

This is weird news, since that means Gilberto will go to Croatia with Brasil having not played a game for Arsenal yet.

Then he will go back to Arsenal tired from playing in Brasil.

I suppose that’s the down side of being a Brasil international.

Yep, our man Gilberto Silva has been recalled to the Brasil squad for the international game in Croatia.
Ronaldo has also been recalled to the squad – a sign that Brasil really want to win this game. So really, Gilberto should start the game. It’s good for Gilberto fans, but bad for Arsenal.

The game takes place on August 17, which is during midweek – slap bang in between Arsenals two opening Premiership games against Chelsea and Newcastle. It is unlikely that he will feature in either, due to Wengers nervousness with recently played internationals such as Gilberto.
Gilberto probably isn’t anywhere near match fit, as he hasn’t played in ANY of Arsenals pre season friendlies yet. So he really doesn’t seem that well prepared to be flying off to Croatia to play.

It will be a blow for Arsenal not to have Gilberto – especially against the likes of Chelsea. Let’s hope that he is somehow fit enough to play 3 games inside a week.

His most likely opening Premiership game will probably be against Fulham on Wednesday the 24th. Silva and Hleb’s first pairing together in the league. Exciting. Then again, I am easily excited.

Back to Brasil though – the Brasil midfielders chosen for this Brasil game are all very strong. Here is the list of challengers for his place in the team:

Emerson (Juventus)
Juninho Pernambuncano (Lyon)
Ze Roberto (Bayern Munich)
Ricardinho (Santos)
Kaka (AC Milan)
Renato (Sevilha)
Julio Baptista (Real Madrid)

He will do well to start, with the likes of Kaka and Emerson available for selection.

On a seperate note: Gilberto is rumoured to be back in England, where he is probably doing light training on his own. He must be lonely. I bet he wants a hug. If anyone sees him, please, send him a hug from me.

Talking about the Tuesday night match against Beveren, Wenger said:

“No [I won’t use them]. In Beveren we’ll have six players from Sunday night. Also it will be the first game for Van Persie, Fabregas and Quincy but it will still be a little early for Gilberto.”

So, there you go.
He’s not injured, so he must be resting up at the training centre.
Source

If I get any news on Gilberto’s pre-season development, you lovely Invisiblewallers will be the first to hear it. Well, second to me, of course.

Taken from Arsenal.com

Gilberto could miss the Community Shield.

The Brazilian midfielder returned to training today because he was given time off after playing for his country in the Confederations Cup.

However that gives him only 12 days before Arsenal kick off the new campaign against Chelsea in the Community Shield. Arsène Wenger believes the 28-year-old might not be ready.

“Gilberto will start training on Tuesday, but that is not much time and he could be short. It depends on what kind of shape he comes back in.”

Here is the reaction from some other Gilberto fans….

Mind games. If he’s not injured he will start at least.

Only takes one player for our entire team to be in crisis, more than ever with vieira out. we need players.

I’m guessing that Gilberto will come back in pretty good shape and will be raring to go. He’ll be OK for the Chelsea game, even if he only plays part of it.

I think that if Gilberto isn’t at risk from injury, he should play.

If he is lacking match fitness, the last thing he needs to do is to sit out of a big match.