Full backs should fight it out.
By Andy Strouthous
January 14 2005
Pat Rice did the pre Match Conference this week on Arsenal Plus. Faced with the usual tough grilling from the plus correspondent questions such as “Why did Arsene drop Jens?”, “what players are Arsenal trying to buy”, were amongst those not asked.

However, my old school chum did update on some of the other issues of concern to Gooners as the Bolton game approaches.

Nobody ever won anything in January

For starters, Pat is not giving up on the title race and does not expect the team to do so either. There are still hard games to go for Chelsea, and with the Champions League resuming, points could be dropped. However, Arsenal’s focus will be all-important and the team must get as many points as possible. Pat gave the impression he is expecting blood sweat and tears over the next few months. I hope his expectations are realised.

 

More specifically things are looking good for Gilberto, and MRI scan permitting he could return by April.

 

Freddy, Sol, Henry and Ashley will all be in contention for a place against Bolton, but Lauren, Cygan and Flamini need another week.

 

Full backs should fight it out.

Pat was pleased with Eboue’s debut, in particular he thought he looked good going forward, and expects him primarily to play at full back He believes that Lauren and Hoyte will benefit from the pressure, and should be prepared to prove themselves by fighting it out.

 

 Finally, he believes that the set pieces problem has been solved – the team needed to attack the ball more, and this is now happening.

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