The cover of today's Telegraph sport section features the title 'Why Zola's West Ham bubble is about to burst' - over a picture of the Hammers manager, eyes closed, head in hands, whitehead on nose. Cruel.
Wenger seems to be ignoring the Barcelona game for now, with the strongest possible team likely to appear at St. Andrews in a couple of hours. Thomas Vermaelen will be serving his one-game suspension for the offence he committed in the realms of Martin Atkinson's imagination, while William Gallas' calf injury will keep him out.
Despite the likelihood of a strong lineup, I get the feeling that Arshavin may switch with Eduardo and take up a place on the bench for an hour or so. The Russian has been ever-present recently, and there is only so much his little legs can take. Theo Walcott has a (short) history of starting against Birmingham - and a good one at that - so I expect him to feature today with Eboue possibly taking his place on Wednesday night to man-mark Messi. With Vermaelen to return against Barcelona, Wenger looks set to start both veterans at the back today and on Wednesday put his faith in whichever one of the two survives this afternoon's game. The starting XI I expect to see:
Almunia
Sagna
Clichy
Campbell
Silvestre
Song
Diaby
Fabregas
Walcott
Eduardo
Bendtner
Amongst a few news stories today is singer Andy Abraham's claim on TalkSport that after a performance at Theo's 21st birthday party last week (...) he met the team and got the feeling that there will be 'sad news' for Arsenal fans this summer regarding the future of a certain player. Read into it what you will.
Sir Alex Ferguson has, after a few years out of the game, at last returned to the United-Arsenal media battlefield with the suggestion that the FA's failure to follow up their dismissal of Vermaelen's appeal with a further one-match ban is indicative of double standards. I can't quite fathom whatever comparisons he has managed to draw between Vermaelen's slightly clumsy yet innocuous challenge on Guillermo Franco, and Rio Ferdinand's throwing an elbow at Craig Fagan. Admittedly, the FA does need to sort out its appeal system; but a quick look at the replays of these incidents is all we need to discredit Ferguson's recent claims that United are somehow being victimised by officials. Does someone need more injury time?
At least it goes to show that we're back on his mind...
Saturday, 27 March 2010
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Arshavin will be leaving. Sad very sad
ReplyDeleteDoes nobody know that Campbell only has
ReplyDeletea six-month contract. I've heard people
saying arshavin, fabregas and eduardo but
nobody can think of the most obvious person
to leave.
Funny how Ferguson never mentions the blatantly biased decisions he always gets at Old Trafford, the latest being the scandalous penalty decision against Liverpool. I do agree the FA never make consistent decisions but if any team ever gets the rub of the green, its Utd. Look at Champions League draw!!!!!
ReplyDeleteSilvestre is leaving...
ReplyDeleteV sad.
Can see why-Arshavin is the most likely candidate- having bitched about just about everything from the drivers, the tax, the city, the dullness of the English, the food, the lack of experience in the squad or number of stars at the club. About the only thing he hasn't bitched about is the climate- because its far worse in St Petersburg.
ReplyDeleteBut who knows that might be his way of saying that he is pleased to have signed for us!
It should be our two useless keepers
ReplyDeletelikely to be campbell but i think it may even be Eboue the Great
ReplyDelete