From here at the Armoury and from me personally (DKD), I would want to wish all our readers a Very Merry Christmas. No, you shall not be getting your New Years greeting at present, so just hold on for a little more than 120 hours! Right, lets get straight to business…
If you thought our home form was bad, maybe our home form against Chelsea will cheer you up. Lets see, in the last 5 matches, it goes something like this: LLWDL. So out of a possible 15 points we picked up 4. We scored 3 and conceded 10.
Injury-news:
The boss has updated us on Tommy-V, and he shall be out till the end of January. Almunia is still injured, but both midfielder Abou Diaby and Luke return against Chelsea this week.
“We have everybody back,” said Wenger. “We had them in the squad for Stoke – Diaby, Fabregas, Van Persie. Fabianski too.
“They have had one more week to prepare for this game and build up their fitness. That will have helped them of course.
“So overall we miss only Vermaelen, Almunia and Kieran Gibbs now. They will not be back in the short–term – over Christmas – but everybody else is available.”
Predicted Line Up:
———————————————————Luke——————————————————–
-Sagna————————-Kosher————————————Squillaci———————-Clichy—-
———————————————————Song———————————————————–
————————————-Wilshere———————————Cesc—————————————-
—-Nasri————————————————————————————————-Arshavin—-
———————————————————RVP————————————————————
Subs: Szczesny, Eboue, Djourou, Theo, Diaby, Nikko, Chamakh.
If required I don’t mind the partnership of RVP and Marouane, as long as the former is not played as a CAM but as a striker. The best way to get points is to utilise your players completely, and I feel RVP is really not being utilised this season, as compared to last. This is because the boss does not start him and bring him on later, as we all know how he plays then. Now don’t give me all that injury, and working his way back to match fitness crap, as the guy has not had any recent knock or injury, and he started against Belgrade. The best way to get him back to form is to make him play, and if then he gets injured, MC29 is always there. Diaby can be brought on later, in case Song feels tired. This change should be done only if we require the physicality aspect in the game. As a matter of fact, I won’t be surprised, if Le Boss starts with Abou and Cesc, and plays Nasri and AA23 on the wings. In comparison, Song looks more physically strong than Jack, so I guess the former shall occupy the supposedly CDM role.
In all honesty, we do need a physical presence in midfield, as we shall be up against Essien, Lampard, Mikel & Co, so it shall be interesting to see who the boss starts with. Diaby, I presume will sit because the guy has just come back form injury.
ARMOURY SQUARE PREDICTION : ARSENAL FC 2-1 CHELSEA FC
Cheer-i-o,
