Big game #1 as Arsene says…
“I have never known a run of four League games as significant as these in all my time here. Never. Not four on the trot. It is a real coincidence that we have games – one after the other – that are all decisive. ’If we win them all we are in a very strong position for sure, so let’s start with the first one and ignore all the others for now. ’It is a great opportunity to send a message to the rest of the Premier League. We want to take it and I am very confident that we are in a good position. So let’s go for it.”
Exactly what I want to hear and we’ve been boosted by the return of a few players for tonight’s fiery encounter.
The team news ahead of tonight’s game is that Bacary Sagna is still suffering from a shoulder injury and is a doubt for tonight – but apart from that we have our back line back and we’ll also have a strong bench with Niklas Bendtner and Nasri added to the squad.
Almunia
[Sagna / Eastmond]* – Gallas – Vermaelen – Clichy
Denilson – Ramsey
Rosicky – Cesc – Arshavin
Eduardo
With a bench of Fabianski, Silvestre, [Eastmond / Coqulein], Walcott, Nasri, Vela and Bendtner.
The [] brackets indicate the choice if Sagna is fit and if he isn’t…
As it’s a big game, let’s have a look at the possible Villa line up:
Friedel
Cuellar – Dunne – Collins – L Young
Downing – Petrov – Milner – A Young
Agbonlahor – Heskey
We’ll have to be careful of Villa, no doubt, but we did them over at the Emirates and we can do the same tonight! Young and Agbonlahor offer pace and Heskey offers power. Milner and Downing offer craft, and our back 5 + DM have to be alert and aware of the counter attack.
Aaron Ramsey is looking forward to the next couple of games, and in the absence of Alex Song tonight, I think he’ll start and of course he’ll definitely play some part in the next few games.
“Obviously we are playing Villa, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool straight after each other so it is going to be a difficult period but these are the things you want to be a part of. These are the occasions you look forward to the most. Hopefully we can make the most of the situation we are in and take maximum points from all the games to put ourselves in a really strong position. I think Villa have been a solid, strong team this season, and they have a good spirit. They have caused a number of teams problems and that shows from their position in the League. They have done well and it won’t be easy for us but these are the games we all want to play in and hopefully we can get the right result.”
So, let’s start with Villa tonight and make a statement of intent. Let’s not worry about the other three right now.
Come on you Gooners!
