The North Bank – “It’s got va-va-voom” (An Arsenal blog)

Tonight’s game will tell us a lot about this squad and what they are capable of. Will they rise to the challenge and book their place in the semi-final? Or will they succumb to the pressure and have this game as the catalyst to the falling-apart of the tail-end of our campaign. Let’s hope it’s the former as a positive result tonight would set us up nicely for the game against Chelsea at the weekend, a team that has conceded seven goals in their last two games.

Apologies for no posts over the last few days, suffice to say that things were exceptionally hectic and there just weren’t enough hours in the day to get anything written.

Looking forward to tonight’s game, we are again without Gallas, Clichy, Almunia and Djourou joined that list following his injury in the game against Wigan at the weekend. We are stretched to breaking point in defence and can’t afford another injury in that area. Arseblogger talked about possibly playing Eboue at right back and switching Sagna to the left instead of playing Gibbs there for such an important game. I have to say that I don’t think that’s such a bad idea at all as Gibbs didn’t really set the world on fire at the weekend and Eboue has a fair amount of Champions League experience and so would be more mentally ready for the task at hand. Though according to the Mirror Gibbs is set to play in defence, so let’s hope that he rises to the occasion.

On a positive note, both Diaby and Eduardo are both set to return to the squad. It seems that we are getting all of our attack-minded players back at the same rate as we are losing defensive players. Looks like that’s something else Arsene will have to try and sort out in the summer, we have been caught a bit short of decent defensive cover. Now, I know that you can’t really legislate for losing Almunia, Gallas, Djourou and Clichy all at the one time but, having said that, letting Senderos go to Milan and not adequately replacing him was always going to leave us a bit short in the centre of defence should any injuries or suspensions strike during the season. Granted, this is a bit of a ‘perfect storm’ of a defensive crisis.

From an attacking point of view, there are few teams in Europe that can touch us when all players are fit. The summer should be a time for defensive signings, including a holding midfielder (but not Inler if the ridiculous price his agent has been spouting are to be believed.)

I can’t wait for tonight’s game and it could really be a game which helps this squad move to the next level. There are plenty of negative things you could say about the squad, but the fact is that they are knocking on the door of a Champions League semi-final, have an FA Cup semi-final coming up and are sitting in a nice position in the league (compared to 4wks ago), while all the time being ravaged by injuries. So, you really have to give credit where it’s due to this group of young players. They have probably over-achieved, in terms of their collective experience, this season.

It’s easy to forget just how young and inexperienced this team is. It’s easy to say they are rubbish and we won’t win anything with them, but the fact that they are young means that they will continue to improve and grow. It bodes well for our future if we can keep the important players at the club.

Just a mention of Diarra and how he didn’t learn anything from Wenger. Well, I can exclusively reveal that the reason for that is because dolphins don’t have ears. Dolphin-headed cunt.

I don’t really want to say too much about the game tonight. we all know how important it is and right about now our bowels are beginning to move a bit faster. Anyone reading this will already have checked out the myriad of stories on NewsNow. What matters tonight is the result. That’s all.

I fancy Theo to have another ‘Liverpool moment’ tonight.

Come on you Reds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 at 20:39 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.