Home at last

By Boris Mellor
October 17 2008

Bloody brilliant, two weeks of tedium and second-rate football and now our squad returns home in tatters. Sagna, Gallas, and Bendtner are all out for two games. Fabregas and Djourou have head wounds and RvP a dodgy something or other. Vela will be jet lagged. You would think they have been in a war zone. But hey do not worry, the original matchstick man is back, yes Abou Diaby may be up for another possible 30 minute cameo.

Is Nasri fit? I am not sure, I carefully checked the Chinese Wall Posters on Arsenal Injury News, and he is not there, so I assume he is fit.

Wenger now has two games in four days, and one of those is away in Turkey, so I am sure he is really grateful to Fifa for organising some World Cup Qualifiers at such a convenient time.

This is one of the worst starts to a league season I can remember, and I do not mean losing to Hull, I mean the stop start nature of it. After every two games there is an international break, followed by the CL away. After two and a half months there have only been three premiership games at home so far.

The premiership does not feel like a continuous competition but just an occasional series of disconnected games. You pay over a grand for a season ticket back in May, six months later you have only seen three premiership games at home.

However, this stuttering start will finally gather momentum from October 29^th, with Spurs, Manchester Utd, and Aston Villa amongst the visitors in the following month.. Hopefully this will make it feel like a real season at last. In addition, hopefully, the injury list may well have shortened.

What Defence?

With Sagna and Gallas out how will Wenger organise the defence? I hope he does not do his usual move Toure to right back, and I am not sure about Djourou either. I know it controversial, at least with Wenger, but why not put Eboue there? As much as I dislike Silvestre, it must make sense to start him. To my mind that will be the least disruptive way of organising things. Well we only have to wait 24 hours to find out what Arsene will come up with.

One bright spot on the horizon is the rapidly developing Aaron Ramsey, who is getting rave reviews all over the place, it would be good to see him brought into the team more. With three games in a week and a long injury list Wenger may not have any other choice but to give him a role.

Prediction League

After such a long break do not forget to enter your prediction for the  Everton game. Will Arsenal be lively, or will they be hung-over? Your guess is as good as mine, anyone can be wise after the event, it is harder to get it right in advance. Especially as we don't know who Arsene will pick.