ooh to be a Gooner 7 September, 2006

Looks like promising times are ahead for the Arsenal faithful. I was just looking at our squad options ahead of the ‘Boro game and we’ve now got quite a good side with back up. At the moment our defence is good but it hasn’t got any out-and-out good replacement due to injuries to Senderos, Lauren, Clichy and Djourou who picked up a minor shoulder injury last night which will see him miss a few games. SO that makes our back four at the moment: Eboue, Toure, Gallas and Hoyte/Flamini. I’d like to see Matty start on Saturday, he did so well there last season and Hoyte hasn’t been on form recently.

Now for the midfield we’ve got several options, as wingers we’ve got Rosicky, Ljungberg, Hleb and Walcott. We’ll pick two of them which I think will be Rosicky and Hleb but I expect to see Theo coming on later in the game. Also we could see Ljungberg start ahead of Hleb which is another option for Wenger. Now, for the two central midfielders which we have a choice of: Baptista, Flamini, Denilson, Song, Gilberto and Fabregas. I think Wenger will go for Cess who had a great game against Northern Ireland despite losing and Gilberto who captained Brazil at one stage and put in some great performances.

And then our options for up front are: Van Persie, Henry, Adebayor, Walcott and Baptista. Van Persie scored 2 great goals for Holland and set up one in their 3-0 win over Hleb’s Belarus. He put in two great performances in Holland’s internationals this week and I think it’ll earn him the starting place for Saturday alongside Henry; I think The Beast will start on the bench against ‘Boro but he is a great option to be able to bring on. Also I don’t think Walcott can quite play up-front yet for us although he scored for the England under 21′s again last night as they beat Switzerland 3-2. And then there’s Adebayor…well I’d rather just not see him play that’s all.

So we can field a strong positive side for Saturday and have some great talent on the Bench too. We’ve also got the option of going 4-3-3/4-5-1 with Henry the central striker with player coming in from the flanks to help. There are lots of options and problems we have which Wenger will love, lets just hope we can get the points.

There’s not much news doing the rounds today. Chelsea are interested in Bendtner and have apparently been watching him for some time. Well great, so have we, that’s why we got him. I just love this quote though from Chelsea about him, just shows what arrogant twats they are again:

“Bendtner is the only player from the Danish national team who is good enough to play for Chelsea.”

Whilst on the subject of the Russians, Bill Gallas is staying quiet over the infamous statement and just had this to say when asked about it:

“No I don’t want to talk about that. Now I speak only about the victory today, and I will see when I come back to London with my new team Arsenal. I’m very excited to train with Arsenal.”

Thierry Henry is a great friend of Gallas and they grew up in the same town together and have been team-mates for les bleus for some years. Thierry had this to say after scoring in the re-match of the World Cup final as they beat Italy 3-1:

“At the moment for me he is one of the best centre backs in the world and he showed that tonight again. That is amazing and he scores some important goals sometimes.”

I think we’re all looking forward to William Gallas being a part of this strong Arsenal side and I look forward to seeing him on Saturday. Have a good day people, see ya later.