With the FA cup letdown behind us, our focus should now be on the upcoming league fixture against Stoke City. I expect Stoke have been waiting for this game ever since our manager colourfully described them as playing more rugby than football on the field. These comments infuriated a lot of people associated with Stoke… and they won’t need much more firing up for this game.
The manager said it depends on improvement of our home form if we’re to win anything, and this season the home performances have been… questionable to say the least. However, Arsenal has won the last 8 times they’ve met Stoke in a home fixture, so we can go into this match with some kind of confidence.
We’ve been playing so many matches recently that sometimes, it might be confusing for outsiders to know which competition we’re going to play in next. That’s what we have to cope with if we want to go all the way in all competitions. Fixture congestion has to be coped with and the squad is looking pretty thinned out, especially at the back. Ignasi Miquel started the last game- it was his first senior start for the club- but it’s clear that he still may not be ready for the league. So, at present it comes down to Djourou, Koscielny (out for the next match though) and Squillaci to share the responsibility until Vermaelen is back… which should be for at least another 2-3 weeks. In other team news, Diaby will be serving the last of his 3-match ban, and Fabianski is out for the season with a calf strain.Van Persie (hamstring) and Koscielny (back strain) are out for 2-3 days, but they should be fit for the Carling Cup.
Coming back to the match at hand, the team should be looking to get all 3 points from this fixture as we won’t be playing a league game for another week and a half (until March 5). Stoke are known to be a physical team: their disciplinary record speaks for itself (46 yellow cards and 2 red cards in the league). Then again, we’re no saints ourselves with an abysmal, and arguably worse charge-sheet (44 yellow cards and 6 red cards in the league).The ‘fair play’ trophy is one cup we’re definitely not winning this season, which I personally don’t mind: it’s about time the team grew out of the 'Little Kids' tag and started playing a bit rougher.
Back to the game, I don’t think scoring will be a problem for the team as we’ve averaged nearly 3 goals per game for the past 10 matches. A win would be the right way to respond to the weekend and also good preparation for the appointment at Wembley this weekend.
Wenger claims that possession is the key to this game. He said "What is important for us against Stoke is we make sure we have the ball. The more we have the ball, the less they will be dangerous in the air (referring to Delap)."
Possible starting XI: Szczesny; Sagna, Djourou, Squillaci, Clichy, Fabregas, Song, Wilshire, Walcott, Bendtner, Nasri/Arshavin.
Some of the players from the weekend will warm the bench. If needed, there are some big names we can call upon. They all have a lot of firing power, but for lack of playing time it’ll be tough to be in the sublime form we expect them to be… which was proven on Sunday. The fringe players should get one more go in the FA cup replay (whenever it’s played) to prove their worth.The pre-match interview with Arsene can be found here.
In other news Arsenal have seemingly 'plucked' (that's the word used in the reports) another La Masia student from right underneath Pep Guardiola. His name is Jon Miquel Toral Harper (quite a mouthful). Apparently, the kid Miquel has agreed terms with the club and a report in ESPN says that Arsenal are paying Barcelona a compensation in the region of €350000. Now that's a lot of money for a 16 year old (just a thought). Here is a video of Miquel scoring a headed goal.
Also, the Daily Mail reports that former Arsenal shot-stopper, Jens Lehmann, is set to coach Arsenal youth players before he undergoes his coaching qualification tests in the latter part of 2011. He went on to say, "I have plans for March and this one, to coach Arsenal youth players for a few days, is already guaranteed."
Yesterday, Aaron Ramsey scored in Cardiff's win over Leicester. He latched on to a ball from Kevin Mcnaughton with his left leg and shot a decent ball into the left corner of the goal from 12 yards out. His loan stint ends this Saturday. The boss says he will be in contention for the FA cup replay against Leyton. If that's to happen, it will be his first start in over a year after that horrendous tackle from one cunt named Ryan Shawcross.
Today is the beginning of a very busy schedule for Arsenal: a run of 5 games in 14 days. It starts with the visit from Stoke, then the Carling Cup final against Birmingham on Sunday, then the darn FA cup replay, again back to the league with visitors, Sunderland, ending with a Nou Camp finale. The squad's season could be decided by this run of fixtures and how they come out of this will go a long way towards deciding who's going to win the league this year.
That's it for today people. The match is at 19:45 (GMT). Be sure to watch it and look out for the match review tomorrow!!
©goonerburgh
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