Afternoon All…
Tomorrow is a bumper game for all Arsenal fans and it will be a bumper preview today to make sure we discuss absolutely everything to do with the game… Starting with the history of Arsenal… er… hmm… okay, let’s skip to present day…
So, it’s Man City vs Arsenal and in terms of the quality of the game, it should be an absolute cracker. Last season’s game was very fiery with ex-Arsenal player Adebayor going a little crazy with a couple of lunges on captain and vice-captain, Cesc and Van Persie, not exactly the most tasteful thing to do – of course, we ended up losing that game 4-2 and it was down to pure emotion getting the better of us that day. Things have changed, we’ve completely reshaped our whole defence – and of course, Man City have bought loads more players to shape their own side.
We have a few injuries ahead of the game, with two key players in Thomas Vermaelen and Robin Van Persie both missing. Arsene announced at the AGM that Vermaelen is suffering from a “long term injury” and we really don’t know how long he will be out. Last season, it was different when TV was injured, as our back up consisted of a 37 year old Sol Campbell and a very out of sorts Mikael Silvestre… at least this season we look to have 4 competent defenders…
So with the aformentioned players out, and with Sagna back in the squad, the line up could well be:
Fabianski
Sagna – Squillaci – Djourou – Clichy
Diaby – Song
Nasri – Cesc – Arshavin
Chamakh
Despite Rosicky’s excellent game against Shaktar, I feel Arsene wil opt for the Russian playmaker on the left – the manager seems to favour Arshavin in the big games. But if he plays like he did against Birmingham than I don’t think he’ll last too long in our team – surely Arshavin is due a good performance? Meanwhile Rosicky spoke about the game and said:
“It’s time to prove we can win those games and we have a great opportunity to do it on Sunday. But I’m not surprised to see City are second in the table – if you have their power, you can buy almost whoever you want, so I’m not surprised. They are tactically very good – sometimes they are not so entertaining, but they are similar to Chelsea, very solid at the back, so we will need to be clinical.”
And he’s bang on the money – we need to be as clinical as possible. Man City have a better keeper in Joe Hart and a better defence with their recent additions, so we need to ensure, when we get a chance, we take it!
Adebayor has had an indifferent start to the season up at Man City and has only got into the squad more recently, having been left out for the most of this season. He did talk about his row with Mancini affecting his chances – but he looks primed to start tomorrow against us.
The Man City line up could well be:
Hart
Boateng – Kompany – Lescott – Bridge
Barry – De Jong
Silva – Tevez – Milner
Adebayor
As you can see by the line up – both Toure’s are out of tomorrow’s game. Both teams look strong, and all the betting shops have Man City down as favourites – a change of the tide, but considering the home fixture, the positions in the league and the game last season, of course, you can understand where the bookies are coming from.
Tomorrow is a game we need to win, with Chelsea beating Wolves and going 8 points clear of us, even so early in the season, we’re on catch up! We have it in the locker, and we are totally aware of what City are all about. I have a good feeling about tomorrow’s game… but then again, I always do!
