Saturday, August 18, 2007

It's all grim oop north but Arsenal can do it.

Tomorrow's game may not be entirely dissimilar to that on Wednesday night. When Arsene says, "Teams reflect the character of their managers and yes, of course, Blackburn have the aggression of Mark Hughes" you hardly have to work at Bletchley Park to decode the meaning. In our two visits to Ewood Park last year, Blackburn tried to outmuscle us, and not without a degree of success. I particularly remember Tuguay putting in several vicious challenges before being withdrawn in our ill-fated FA Cup replay.

But in the league match in Blackburn, Arsenal triumphed against the odds. We did so, after Gilberto was sent off, through superb passing and possession football from a midfield triumvirate of Cesc, Hleb and Rosicky. However, it also took a wonder goal from the Barca Boy to secure the win and another Arsenal player will need to conjure something up tomorrow if we want anything from the game.

Blackburn haven't a great deal to them, but they have enough to force a combative victory if, as predicted, conditions are difficult. They have possibly the biggest player in the Premier League in the form of the centre-back Samba who has impressed me with his sheer power on the occasions I've seen him. Striker Matt Derbyshire is a real prospect and should be knocking on the doors of the top four and the England squad soon. Friedel is a very decent keeper, and, regardless of his personality, David Bentley could cause us troubles if Gael isn't careful.

As for us, the wafer-thin nature of our squad is already apparent, with both our starting 'wingers' - Eboue and Rosicky - ruled out. What that means for the flanks is anyone's guess. Hleb on the left? Flamini on the right? Will Walcott be thrown his first start so early? Will Diaby be forced to play on the left yet again? All the injuries have shown is that we desperately need a new left winger if we are to have any depth to our squad, especially if Rosciky keeps on picking these niggling injuries.

Eduardo may be given his first start, but I would hope to see Bendtner feature: we could use his power. RvP has a very decent goalscoring record against Blackburn and there's no reason why it shouldn't continue. Despite the recent form of Hleb, it would be a shame to waste Robin by continually isolating him as we seem to be doing at present, so maybe a more traditional 442 would be an idea.

The game is a good early test in the season for the team. The North-West 'graveyard', a physical team, and bad weather should give an indication of what the squad is made of. If we're serious about the title we should win the game; a draw would be a fair result but it's imperative that we maintain a good start to the season.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

eduardo can play left wing btw!
senderos could be useful id prefer him in for flamini
lehman
sagna toure gallas clichy
hleb fabregas flamini eduardo
rvp bendtner

Anonymous said...

You think Bents will give you problems just watch mort gam peds on the left flank his work rate is unreal he runs more than any one else in the Prem Savage loves to play and beleaves in the team Santa Cruze wants ti prove him-self Roberts is strong and McCarthy knows how to score, you are right about Samba real hand full to get past or around just needs to get rid of the ball a bit quicker Rovers 2 arsnel 1

Anonymous said...

I went to the Arsenal Blackburn FA Cup game at the Millenium stadium a few years back and that's exactly the sort of speech the Blackburn fan standing opposite me on the train to Cardiff gave :D

You're going down, Blackburn!

Anonymous said...

Going down where?

On your sister?

Anonymous said...

"Blackburn havent got much to them" LMAO this is one of the funniest things i have heard in a while, firstly we are the 6th best team in england and that takes some kind of class trust me. We have a decent keeper, 2 strong centre backs, 2 awesome wingers and 2 champions league strikers in Cruz+ Macarthy. This will be a very close game and you can see by what the bookings are laying that they feel this game will be close saying that blackburn are closer to arsenal than ever before in squad strength. I think this will be a draw. But id love Blackburn to win cause Arsenal fans are so lary. UP THE ROVERS!

Anonymous said...

Hello.
I am from another country. And i came across your blog. It is very good. Probably ze best blog ever. Shame about the team though.
Bye bye.

Anonymous said...

Lehman is a joke.
Last time I'll be paying money to watch the Arsenal while that wanker has a place in the squad let alone the team.