We’ve had an interesting few weeks and quite a lot of losses in all competitions. In the Carling Cup, our youngish team succumbed to Man City – in the Champions League, our even younger team lost against Olympiakos, and in the league, we’ve lost against Sunderland and Chelsea very recently with a sultry win against Stoke and Liege (both at home) in between. So our form reads LWLLWL and that’s not very good form at all. Now, I am not writing this to depress you, but to remind you that a league win against Liverpool this Sunday is essential. We can simply not lose this game. We can simply not draw this game either.
Last season, the game finished 4-4. We had four shots on goal, all by Arshavin and the rest of the game was all Liverpool. We probably didn’t deserve the point, but then again neither did Liverpool when they came to the Emirates. That game is finished, and this is a new season. Liverpool have rested Gerrard and Torres for this game and both will start and that makes them a difficult proposition. For us, we’re without the usual suspects of Rosicky, Van Persie, Bendtner and Eduardo and also missing are Eboue, Gibbs and Clichy, so let’s take a look at a possible team line up:
Almunia
Sagna – Gallas – Vermaelen – Traore
Denilson – Song
Walcott – Cesc – Nasri
Arshavin
So, this line up seems Arshavin up front by himself with Nasri on the left and Walcott on the right and I see that as a very penetrative formation – albeit without a proper striker. News from the boss is that Diaby will also be in the squad and I’d expect Vela to be named on the bench – a player who is punching well below his weight – there is much more to come from him.
Arsene had this to say:
“The good news from the game in Greece is that Theo has come through 90 minutes. We have no new injuries from Wednesday night. The bad news is that Eboue and Rosicky were injured from the Stoke game and will not be available for Sunday. All those with long-term injuries are still out. The only one who could be back in the squad is Diaby. I will know on Saturday. At the same time we had Van Persie, Bendtner, Eduardo, Diaby and Walcott out. They are all offensive players but it looks a bit better now.”
Whether or not Arsene will throw Diaby back into the mix or give Vela a run out from the start may change the line up, but no matter who Arsene selects, we really need to turn up tomorrow and get a big game win under our belt.
I’ll be back tomorrow, until then!
