Villa Preview – Is It Carlos Time?
Nov 14th, 2008 by 'holic
Perhaps ‘The Wonder of You’ should be replaced for the visit of Aston Villa in favour of a rendition of ‘The Great Pretender’. One of the sides strongly tipped to challenge for Arsenal’s top four berth provide the second stiff challenge of a difficult Premiership month.
Those of you who have listened to the one hundredth Arsecast (congratulations Arseblogger) will know I am looking forward to seeing the formation we adopt. Do we keep the 4-5-1, and the personnel who played so well against Manchester United last week, or perhaps consider incorporating Carlos Vela in a 4-4-2 after his magnificent performance against Wigan in the Carling Cup?
That decision has since been complicated by the fact that Emmanuel Adebayor has made a faster than expected recovery from his ankle injury, and now comes into the equation. That affects my preference little to be honest. I would love to see the little Mexican given his chance alongside either of the big lads.
If that does happen though it will probably mean a return to the bench for Abou Diaby, also outstanding against United. Given that ‘Le Boss’ also has to perm any two from Gallas, Sylvestre, Toure, Djourou, and Song in the heart of the defence, this is a week where Arsene will definitely have to earn his salary. He hasn’t had so many options available to him all season.
Villa have one or two injury concerns ahead of the contest. A mate at work is a Villa fan and he thinks their chances will revolve around whether or not John Carew passes a fitness test. ‘In his absence the attack has lacked a little balance, and we’ve lost the last couple of games as a result.’ I resisted the urge to remind him of that tackle by Carew on Alex Hleb. Karma, maybe.
The destination of the ‘holic pound is still in the air, to be honest. I would like to think that the Gunners will approach this with the gusto displayed by both sides in the last week. Villa will certainly look to play on the break from a solid platform and try to deny us space. They will not be as expansive as United were, I’m pretty sure. That often makes for a frustrating afternoon at the Grove.
I’m going to go with the heart a little bit. The atmosphere and spirit around the squad must have been sky-high this week so I am going to nibble at 2-0, available at 13/2 at one of my accounts.
As usual, I hope those of you with tickets have a great day, and those without find a quality stream to watch. Have a great weekend ‘holics. Come back after the game and share your thoughts with us.
20 Responses to “Villa Preview – Is It Carlos Time?”
Get in, mine’s a Jameson.
I want a word with you about this wheelchair business 😉
Did somebody mention wheelchairs?
Evening daft. It’s like a Saga reunion in here tonight 🙂
sunny in spain holic, will be over for the liversausage game with a nice drop of curry after
I’m off to the gym, but you can fix me a pint of your heaviest ale when I return.
Thanks.
Great stuff, dizzy. Thanks for rubbing it in about the sun mate.
I can recommend the Arkells 2B, snaily.
I need to be here more often.
I’d expect to see Adebayor and Bendtner upfront, therfore diaby being demoted to the bench. Silvestre and Gallas will be the CB pairing and every other position id expect to be vacated by the usual suspects. 3-1 to the Arse. Adebayor,Denilson and Bendtner with the goals.
Vacated or Occupied? Let’s hope it is the latter, or we’ll lose.
Arkells 2B? That sounds like a heavy draw indeed. Lovely.
Personally think it will be really stupid to bench Diaby. He is looking very good right now. Think Ade will start on bench & come on as an impact sub if its still goalless after 70 mins. If he is fit that is.
i think wenger will have huge and good headace when edwardo comes back, with 5 strikers,i realy vela ,he looks very cool infront of goal but he will have to be patientand will be used in carling cup.the ruturn of edwardo cant come soon enough and thwt will push bretna down the pecking order for me and vela should played in prem more often
Trollied. Coffee please….
As much as I’d love to see Vela in the first team, I’m sure Arsene will break him in gently with the odd 10 to 15 minute sub appearance here and there. Once he’s got a couple of goals, he’ll settle nicely – just like Eduardo did last year.
I’m expecting the starting line-up to be the same as the team that beat United. A 4-5-1 formation that’s set up to attack, with Theo, Diaby and Nasri looking to get forward.
Hopefully our defence will ensure Villa don’t get to do the smash-and-grab thing again.
Very hung over. Another coffee please……..
Up the Gunners
make mine a fizzy water please
Yep, occupied is what i meant. Thanks for the correction Snail.
Oh dear that was not what I expected. Yet another poor home performance.
Mr wenger
i would rather hear you say..look we are not good enough to win the title..&its all over..&THEN if..if..a big if..the top 3 slip up..&we miraculously do something..&we fans look like cunts..&eat humble pie..
i dont mind this situation at all..than you sound like a broken record of belief in your policies,principle, hope & bull shit
nice predition .A Villa!!!!!!!!!!!