Noble pledges: “No toys out of pram from me”
And as he showed against Chelsea, should he be involved against Arsenal tonight he will give nothing less than 100 per cent.
“We go into the game with growing confidence after beating Chelsea here on Saturday, but we cannot allow our level to drop at all against another top team,” he wrote in his Official Programme column.
“I said after the game at the weekend that some people need to realise that we are not ‘parking the bus’, which is a lazy cliché, but that we don’t have the spending power or the overall quality of the very biggest teams like Chelsea and Arsenal, so we have to find a different way to even it up or, on a good day, beat them.”
He added: “At times like this, I relish my role as captain of this football club, my football club.
“I’ve been playing in the Premier League for more than a decade now and have given my life to this Club, as this Club has given me my life and career, so I’m going to do as I always have done and give absolutely everything.
“I’m not going to sulk or chuck my toys out of the pram if I’m not playing every minute of every game. My job is to look after the changing room and make sure the boys are happy, creating a positive environment in which we can thrive.
“Every player understands what the manager is trying to do here. We are all professionals and accept his decisions for the good of the team and the good of the Club, and that’s what every player has done.
“That is the approach we need to take to get out of the mess we find ourselves in, and Saturday showed what that approach can achieve.
“We need to start tonight’s game as we started against Chelsea, on the front foot, full of energy and purpose, not allowing our opponents to settle.
“We’ve got another battle ahead of us, but we’re at home and the crowd will be behind us for sure and, if we can get another three points, that would be massive.”