Today I will make up for it with an in-depth overview and analysis of Burnley and our squad, who's around, who might play and what's
Arsenal v Burnley
The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON, Emirates Stadium
Sunday, March 08, 2009, 13:30
So tomorrow sees us take on Burnley in a repeat game from the Carling Cup. We were at their ground for a game which saw us knocked out of the competition. Burnley were incisive and we were woeful in front of goal. A certain Jekyll and HydeMr. Bendtner was very guilty of missing about 7 chances, about 5 one on ones and a certain youth prospect or two weren’t defending as well as they could of.
Tomorrow will see the return of the side of Walcott and Eduardo and there is a genuine sense of excitement around the squad at the moment. Arshavin has played a few games in quick sucession and you sense the gameplay and 90 minutes on the pitch against WBA is really his fitness. I did expect him to be rested tomorrow but as he is illegible for Roma on Wednesday, he may well feature. I don’t think he’ll have the legs to start three games in a row, but maybe it wil be a good opportunity to gain some more fitness against a so called lesser side.
Walcott is a player who I would expect to get some playing time too especially with Roma on Wednesday. Walcott is the type of player whose pace can cause Roma a lot of problems. We’ll be playing a defensive counter attack against them, so pace in the counter attack is always welcome. And of course, Eduardo I do expect to start against Burnley. With Van Persie rested on Tuesday, he may well be rested again today with some very important games coming up in the league and Champions League.
So, this is the line up I’d expect to see tomorrow:
Fabianski
Eboue - Gallas – Djourou – Gibbs
Nasri – Song – Diaby – Arshavin
Bendtner – Eduardo
With Almunia, Sagna, Ramsey, Vela, Van Persie, Walcott and Denilson on the bench.
Arsene had a fair amount to say yesterday, so this is what he had to say:
“I am a great believer that this team will win everything – but the earlier the better. What is most important is that I am confident we will have the complete focus to do it. We are not far from the end [of that road], but that’s where your winning attitude is tested as well, when the pressure becomes bigger and bigger. How will we respond to that? I am confident we will respond well. It is much better than five years ago and much better than three years ago,” said Wenger. It improves every year because there are so many foreign players and that means many good English players have to go down to the Championship. As a result the level has gone up so much so it is different for every Premier League clubs to beat them. Sometimes when you are away in a hotel we can watch Championship games on Friday night and sometimes on Sunday before we play. It is a good level I must say and it is a little bit like the Premier League because every team is difficult to beat.
“You know we experienced that with Plymouth in the Third Round. They are fighting not to go down but it was a difficult game for us. The gap between the Premier League and the Championship is closing. You look at the teams who have come up this year and usually all three went down straight away. Now there are 10 games to go and maybe West Brom is favourites to go down but the other two teams – Hull and Stoke – have as many chances to stay up as the other teams.
“As for Burnley, they have fantastic teamwork and good drive going forward and a good technical level. I think they have very good mobility. They play with natural width and Chris Eagles is a very good player. He has done very well against us and we need to keep him quiet. But Gibbs knows him well now and Gibbs will certainly play on Sunday. It will be a good task for him.”
So, there it is… we will win everything. Done and dusted. It’s actually so crazy but as fans we can all see the potential, but just sometimes not the results.
The game kicks off at 1.30pm tomorrow, so a perfect hangover cure…]]>
