Arsenal v West Brom
Carling Cup, Emirates Stadium
Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 19:45
As the Black Eyed Peas say… tonight’s gonna be a good night… and I’ve very much looking forward to the game tonight… it’s crazy to think all us Arsenal fans get so hyped up for the Carling Cup. We’re probably the only club in the League that get really excited for such a game… tonight’s going to be a very exciting night of football.
As I write this, no real squad information has been announced, but we can gage some of the starting XI by who played last season is various positions, a look at the under 18′s this season and also a look at the fringe players.
Arsene mentioned a few hints though…
“You will see Wojciech Szczesny, Ramsey, Gibbs, Wilshere and certainly Vela. Traore will play. Some experienced players will guide the team like Senderos and Silvestre. But overall it will be a very, very young team as usual.”
Arsene took out time to specifically talk about Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey and said:
“I believe last year he [Wilshere] paid a little bit of a price physically for a very demanding start. This year we feel that he is strong, more mature, and I’m sure that he will show that. It’s difficult to treat them [young English players] completely the same because you want to speed up a little bit their progress, but physically I will still treat him like anybody else because most people once they get to 19 years of age – 19 or 20 without big injures – they are over-used. A big injury can always happen because you get over-use of the players.”
“You cannot predict that too much, because for a player like Aaron Ramsey you know what can happen because he’s now physically ready. I believe you do not know what will happen throughout the season so for Jack the most objective target is to improve. There are some areas where he can improve and that is most important that you work on everything.”
You can see that both Ramsey and Wilshere have grown in stature since this time last year. Wilshere was a stand out player in last season’s campaign and it will be interesting to see how he plays tonight. His appearances pre-season also confirmed the guile and skill he has, but it will be our first time in a while to see the boy in action.
So, let’s give it a stab… The team that may play tonight… I’m thinking 4-4-2 for these guys, but maybe it’ll be a 4-3-3…
Szczesny
Gilbert – Senderos – Silvestre – Gibbs
Wilshere – Randall - Ramsey – Traore
Watt – Vela
With a bench of Shea, Bartley, Murphy, Deacon, Barazite, Eastmond and Luke Freeman
Or if it were to be 4-3-3, we’d be looking at:
Szczesny
Gilbert – Senderos – Silvestre – Gibbs
Randall - Ramsey
Watt – Wilshere – Traore
Vela
It will be Carlos Vela’s first outing this season and I’ve been annoyed that the player had been injured before the season as his cameos last season had been very exciting.
Another player who will be starting for us tonight is Philippe Senderos and if you all remember correctly, the boy was on the verge of a move to Everton after a loan at Milan and things didn’t work out for him, but now he finds himself back at the Emirates. Arsene spoke about the need for 4 central defenders, and the need to rotate and Senderos and Silvestre will both get their chance tonight. Arsene spoke on Senderos too and had this to say:
“I don’t believe he is starting his career with us again because we know how good he is but it is a new start let’s say. We have already seen his quality and he is still very young for a centre back. He’s 24 years-old and he has the future in front of him. The best 10 years are now coming for him. Philippe is an intelligent boy with a very good attitude and you don’t ever question that. His position at the moment is that we have four centre backs and he is one of the four because Djourou is out for nearly the season. In this job you have always to be ready and the day you get the chance you can do well. If you are not ready, everybody will say he is not good enough to play for Arsenal Football Club. Now he is back with us so we will just give him a chance.”
Okay, boys and girls…… I am off to the game tonight, so I’ll have to leave it up to you to update everyone of what’s going on…
Come on you Gooners!
