Morning everyone…
Apologies for the random and sporadic articles this week include a “No post today” post… but all systems are back in action… the crazy week has nearly ended and we take on Fulham tomorrow in our first London derby of the season… Of course, being two London teams will make the game a little spicy and Fulham are a team who have beaten us at Craven Cottage in recent times. A good win over Fulham will show that we’ve improved from last season and are ready to push on. With 6 points dropped already this season, we can’t afford to drop any more points and this game is certainly a test.
The work Roy Hodgson has done down at the Cottage is quite admirable – taking a much fancied for relegation side and making them a top half and in Europe side…! Arsene was full of praise for the Fulham manager:
“There’s no surprise at all. Because I believe that he’s a man of intelligence and of big experience. Yes, of course he’s among the top English managers. You look at his CV. I believe as well this is a job where you consider the lengths at a top level of a manager to consider ‘is he top level or not’. I believe he has [spent] a long time at the top level. That’s the most difficult thing.”
And his presence, tactical nous and way he’ll put his team out against us will make it a harder than average game. The good news is that it looks like we’ll have a few players back and the ones that didn’t play against West Brom will be rested… Arshavin is back in the squad against Fulham and Rosicky is also available… throw in Van Persie, Bendtner and Eduardo and Vela in and around the squad, we’ve finally got some sort of options… Vela may not be in the squad as the manager runs the rule over him in the reserves whilst he gains some match practice, but he will definitely feature soon…
“We have had Arshavin out [since the international break] and we had a problem with Van Persie during the week,” said Wenger. “But Arshavin should be back and Van Persie should be all right too. We have a test tomorrow with him. Almunia is still short, still a week away. Normally Mannone [would deputise] but we are 48 hours away from the game.”
Which leaves us – potentially – with this team:
Mannone
Sagna – Gallas – Vermaelen – Clichy
Song – Cesc
Arshavin – Rosicky – Eduardo
Van Persie
How good does that team look? It frankly looks awesome… whether or not Arsene will play the selected team is debatable, normally he’d opt for Bendtner, Eboue and Diaby somehow in the formation, but you have the technically better players Arshavin, Rosicky and Eduardo, it doesn’t make sense to play the former three players…! With Walcott also available, we’ll have a strong team and strong bench without a doubt this Saturday…
Okay, there’s a little bit of a preview you for you, let’s get behind the team this weekend and bring back the 3 points!
In other news, you may have heard that Sol Campbell has quit Notts County… to be honest, I thought it would happen and think we all did. Getting back into the team for the World Cup is cited as his main reason… and if you think about it, Sp*rs have just lost 4 central defenders… anyone ready to put a bet of him going back to the evil side of London???
Til tomorrow…
