Arsenal
Wenger giving away no secrets
Celebrate?
By Boris Mellor
April 18 2006
Writing these previews without knowing the team sheet is a thankless task. Wenger when asked if he could say, without giving away any secrets, would the team be similar for Wednesday’s game to the one he put out against West Brom, replied that in order not to give away any secrets he could not say.
He also felt that the team already had one eye on the semi-final during the WBA game. Arsene predicted that Fabregas would be available for the match, and that there were no new injuries.
Last year the competition was won by an outsider struggling with poor league form, and a battle for fourth place. Those looking for a sign from above should take note that this description fits both Arsenal and Villarreal. Arsenal are historically less effective against Spanish clubs, but recently the record, with victories over Real Madrid and Celta Vigo, is much improved.
The Spanish will be without two key centre backs; however, they will probably defend in depth and look for breakaways. They don’t concede a lot of goals, they don’t score many, and they don’t win many, in fact they did not win one of their last three CL matches away. But they lose even less, so Arsenal will have to hit a high tempo and score as many as possible, easier said than done, if they are to have a good chance back in Spain.
Wenger will probably pick his team from the following:
Lehmann, Djourou, Eboue, Senderos, Toure, Flamini, Ljungberg, Song, Diaby, Gilberto, Hleb, Pires, Henry, van Persie, Bergkamp, Fabregas, Walcott, Almunia.
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