The mid week European game is now over, and we've all got to switch our minds back to the Premier League and the game against Birmingham. No doubt it will be a difficult game against Alex McLeish's side, but I think we'll definitely be motivated for this - we've kind of had two dissapointments in quick sucession with the FA cup exit and the scoreless draw at home to Milan.

No doubt, the Premier League is the best chance of winning a trophy this season and I hope we can take the 3 points and start the weekend 8 points clear! (Yes, we have a 12.45 kick off!)

As you may already know Toure suffered a calf injury after 9 minutes during Wednesday’s game so he will be missing against Birmingham. Senderos had a great game replacing Toure, but consistency is the tall Swiss’s downfall. We will see on Saturday how he fairs. Matt Le Tissier, has somewhat harsher critism:

“Don’t get me wrong, Senderos is not a bad player, but we’re talking about a team at the pinnacle of the Premier League and he’s maybe a little bit short of the quality needed to be a regular at Arsenal.”

I’m not sure if I agree with him in the way he says what he says, he has shown that his has the quality, but we need to see it week in and week out.

Better news on Toure, though as he should return possibly for the game in Milan. Arsene said today:

“For me on Wednesday night it looked like he would be out for two to four weeks. The way he was walking perhaps four. But today the medical staff said to me it would be closer to two than four.”

The line up may see Almunia’s return to the first team. With Eboue suspended, Walcott, fresh from his cameo against Milan will start and I hope he makes an impact – here’s my initial first XI

 I’ll be back in the morning with more… until then, evening all.

Update: Arseblog has a link to to this: Adebayor’s miss down to a foul!

Update: devday.wordpress.com is now arsenalchat.com]]>

Tags: Arsenal, birmingham, match preview, premier league

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Arsenal, Team News, premier league. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.