By Boris Mellor
May 1 2009
Whatever Wenger says in public he now knows that there is now little chance of gaining third place; and there is little chance of not finishing fourth whatever the result on Saturday. Wenger will now decide to throw everything at overturning the 1-0 deficit at Manchester United. That will mean resting key players. It could be a chance to give Fabianski more experience.
Failure in the second leg will mean that this will be known as the season of the fourth place. Fourth in the FA Cup, CL and League.
The second leg of the CL will be only two days away at the end of this game; therefore Wenger cannot risk more key injuries. Already Silvestre and Eduardo are new injuries, and Gibbs may have been playing over an injury. RvP and Clichy are unlikely to recover in time for the big match. Therefore, it is highly likely that Wenger will select a weakened team.
Pompey have slightly more to play for, although they have a 7 point cushion between themselves and the bottom three, mathematically they could still go down, but it is unlikely. On Monday, they held Newcastle to a nil-nil draw, which may have finished off the Toon's chance of survival. For them another draw will be a good result.
Matches between Pompey and Arsenal have not been high scoring games of late, and last years fixture ended 0-0. If my memory serves me correctly, Arsene took a weak squad down to the Arsenal Retirement Home by the Sea on that occasion too. However, it would not be great idea to lose the unbeaten record, ask O'Neil how good it is for managers to throw a game. Villa's woes began when O'Neil put out a very weak team in the UEFA Vase. The defeat began a long run of failure that has still not been flushed from the Villa system. Thus, Wenger will be walking the high wire.
It will be a sunny day with one teams mind on the summer holidays and the other team on a massive game a few days away. It could be a massive snooze fest; I find it hard to get too enthusiastic about it, except it might be a chance to see some youngsters do well. If I am wrong good, as I hate to see fans cheated for value. Possibly Arshavin will put on a one man show, but even he may succumb to the end of season torpor.
Arsenal Possible Squad: Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Djourou, Gibbs, Arshavin, Denilson, Song, Eboue, Bendtner, Vela, Fabianski, Nasri, Fabregas, Walcott, Adebayor, Diaby, Ramsey.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:05:03:15:45:31 by Padre Pio.
Eboue-----Djorou----Toure-------Gibbs
Walcott----Cesc-----Denilson----Arshavin
-------------Bendtner---Vela
No point playing diaby as he is just going to lose the ball when he is near the box and dont need adebayor who will just walk around the pitch and wait for the perfect pass to come directly at him
No silverware for 4 years, finishing 4th spot, without reaching a cup final, which is what many predicted at the start of the season, Wenger and this team has done little to change my views.
And he needs this game to give players like Fabregas and Walcott a run-out to get that Wednesday frustration out of their system.
Fabregas needs to play as he seems ut of sort since his return from injury.
Lack of match sharpness?
He shoudl rest the whole defence if necessary, especially Gibbs and Sagna, both fo 'em not fully recover from injury and illness.
It is daft to risk Almunia as well.
...................Fabianski
.....Eboue....Djourou.....Bartley....Diaby
.........Fabregas...........Denilson
...Walcott.........Arshavin..........Vela
...................Bendtner
Might as well play Diaby as LB if there is no youngster available.
Ramsey as emergency LB?
Chance for Bartley to get a run-out as SOng needs a rest too.
..he may very well surprises us all (like Flamini) as we need him to defend and tackle, not playmaking.Ramsey Djourou Song Eboue
Wilshere Denilson Merida Vela
Arshavin Bendtner
Eboue....Toure....Djourou...Sagna
Walcott..Denilson... Merida...Diaby
........Ashavern
..................Bendtner
Who, the phuck are spurs?
Neither do I want to listen to Wenger's excuse: "They were a little bit tired as I cna't afford to rest 'em....."
Baptise of Fire then to Young Guns - Bartley, Merida.
Who, the phuck are spurs?
Looks like Song is at CB
Lukasz Fabianski
Bacary Sagna
Alex Song
Johan Djourou
Emmanuel Eboue
Theo Walcott
Denilson
Aaron Ramsey
Andrey Arshavin
Nicklas Bendtner
Carlos Vela
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