Strength In Depth? The Week Shall Decide
Nov 29th, 2007 by 'holic
‘Come and celebrate my birthday on Friday’. My mate is persuasive so it’s a day on the golf course for me and doubtless a night and most of Saturday morning in oblivion!
That means I have to do my preview of the trip to Villa a day earlier than I would like, and without the benefit of the Friday press conferences.
I do have the Arsenal.com take on the injury situation though. Robin van Persie remains an absentee, and Cesc has to be considered extremely doubtful. If there is any question mark over his hamstring then I would sooner see him miss the three away games in the next week than the Chelsea and Tottenham home games that follow.
If the Spaniard is left out, perhaps even just benched as a precaution, there could be no better time for Denilson to deputise, having just appeared twice running against Wigan and Sevilla. He is young, and achieving a degree of match-fitness that would normally be denied him. I have no doubt he could play a significant role in the next few days.
In the continued absence of van Persie it will also be an important spell for Emmanuel Adebayor. He needs a goal or two to raise his confidence levels and enable him to see off the very real challenge of Nicklas Bendtner, so impressive in the last couple of games. I would like to see Arsene give him support in the shape of Eduardo, or Walcott, in a return to 4-4-2. The five man midfield could be retained against free-scoring Villa, but should certainly not survive for the trips to the north-east that follow.
There will obviously be more about Newcastle and Middlesbrough next week. In the meantime the ‘holic pound for Saturday is being somewhat hopefully planted on a 2-1 away win. Villa has been a happy hunting ground for us in big seasons, and this is turning into a big season. This has also turned into the huge test of our ability to bounce back that we have wondered about for so long. Fingers are well and truly crossed!
The fallout from the Sevilla game mainly surrounds the potential ‘additional’ suspension for our sent-off manager (tsk,tsk!). I love the Wenger quote, “I am not saying I am an angel on the touchline, but I have done much worse than what I did on Tuesday night.” He may be many things, our boss, but he is not a liar! I have knowledge of one of his less than angelic exchanges in the tunnel last season. Yes, he really is human, and it would be more than a little frustrating if UEFA decide to make an example of him this time around. Let us hope that Platini keeps his nose out of this particular process.
Have a great weekend all of you. Repeat after me, ‘No love, doing the Christmas shopping is not more important than watching the game at Villa Park’.
10 Responses to “Strength In Depth? The Week Shall Decide”
I was wondering why there was a new Goonerholic blog at this strange hour.
Goodnight, enjoy the golf!
Hi I was wondering what the hells going on with van persie? Wenger said he might return for the Wigan game before, now he’s saying he’ll be out for another 2-3 weeks????
If anyone knows whats happening with this please email me samtodd14@hotmail.co.uk
Thanks
Hi I was wondering what the hells going on with van persie? Wenger said he might return for the Wigan game before, now he’s saying he’ll be out for another 2-3 weeks????
If anyone knows whats happening with this please email me
well i think the whole Van P thing was jus that… a long term injury but he has slowly broke it to us gently week by week. if you think back when Van P firstly got injured Le Boss said it wasnt as bad as he thought so he would only be out for six,because if it had been bad then we would have been looking to eight weeks or more.well the truth of it is there is no way Van P is going to make Villa and i think we should really consider him in the palns for the second north east game(m’boro) because Wenger has tried to break this news to us gently__psychologically_there would be a little more agitation if news had come out that Van P was out for up to eight weeks or more..fans would be restless and that would transfer to the team..its the same with Chelsea and Didier Drogba,the true length of an injury is never revealed,its always a week by week basis….not sure i have made my point clear,but um jus basically saying Van P has not suffered a set back at all he is on schedule except we have been told a different date in order for us not to panic
Thank you Ollie, I may be missing in body but I have arranged to haunt you another way tomorrow. The spirit is strong!
Very sensible analysis casicky, I think you are right.
Enjoy the golf ‘holic and I hope you are right about the score. If we want to win something this season, we have to believe we can cope without the injured players. The fringe players are on a very steep learning curve and need to step up and be counted.
hey guys go check out skysports saying RvP out for 2-3 weeks and tally with what Arsene said on arsenal.com. IThe dont match cos Arsene never said that; he only said vP would be out for the villa game. Utter bollocks and fabrication i think
Gonnerholic, you were great on the Arsecast.
Thanks 433, but I can assure you it was nearly all down to Blogs’ producing skills.
Good job on the arsecast.
As for lolz, you should check Arsenal.com, because this is what Wenger had to say about Robin.
“Van Persie is out,†said Wenger ahead of Saturday’s game at Aston Villa. “It will be two or three more weeks.†The manager said the problem was bigger than first thought, adding: “There is still pain. He is not close, he has no chance at all for next week.â€off.
http://www.arsenal.com/injury.asp?thisNav=news