Unchanged In Prague?
Aug 14th, 2007 by 'holic
From the look of the squad announced for the first leg of the Champions League qualifier in Prague it looks very much as though Arsenal will be unchanged from Sunday and the last gasp triumph over Fulham.
The absentees on Sunday have not made the trip which means no Gilberto, Eduardo, Adebayor, Denilson, or Diaby. Whilst it would be plain foolish to underestimate the opposition the squad that eventually overcame the West Londoners should have enough strength to get a result against Sparta.
Former Hammer Tomas Repka is the linchpin of the hosts defence, and that is as good a reason as any why Alex Hleb should be retained in his new role behind Robin Van Persie. The big Czech could best be described as ‘wholehearted’ in a West Ham shirt, but agility and pace were not significant assets in his armoury.
The hosts are likely to defend deep and look to counter on the break, tactics which Arsenal should be very familiar with. The key may well be just how solid we can be at the back. There were still suggestions at the weekend that Gallas and Toure are not a match made in heaven, although to be fair they must have had the wind put up them by mad Jens early aberration! I wonder if Kolo or Bert will take over as captain when Billy loses his place!
Tomas Rosicky will be playing against the club where he started his career, and for whom he scored a Champions League goal against the Gunners seven years ago. After a shaky pre-season ‘little Mozart’ was looking much sharper on Sunday and it would be great to see him on the scoresheet back in his homeland.
I cannot avoid expressing some appreciation that Lawrie Sanchez offered a retraction of the ‘diving’ allegations levelled at Arsenal on Sunday. It has to be said that not many bosses reconsider rash judgements in the cold light of day, at least not in public anyway. The way his side tried to attack, albeit only occasionally, in numbers was something of a surprise and deserves a better reward than the relegation I was convinced would face them this season.
While I am dishing out thanks I owe a very large beer to whoever wrote the spam filter I have employed on the comments. A thousand failed attempts in a week is justification enough for my gratitude. Cheers mate, whoever you are!
Enough of this level-headed observation though. It’s time I was hunting out my options for viewing the action from Prague. Please let that obscure Balkan channel be running a mac stream! I don’t think I could face an evening of ATVO audio only.
2 Responses to “Unchanged In Prague?”
Looks like an unchanged line-up and I think thats fine. Bendtner will probably get his 1st taste of CL football as a sub. Too much focus on Rosicky though, and I dont know how that will affect his game.
I hope Hleb has another good game. Its time he got his goal scoring confidence up consistently, and may well be the dark horse in the Arsenal team this season.
Delighted with the game and the result. I knew we would win but we did it in a way that we haven’t since Vieira was here. Delighted with the performance and the result, now let’s finish them off at The Grove!