Henry, Rosicky and Van Perise all back for Fulham 29 November, 2006

Tonight we make the short trip past Stamford Bridge to Fulham’s Craven Cottage. They are one of the established Premiership teams that have struggled a bit this year but Chris Coleman has managed to bring them up to 12th but will still be desperate for points. I’m sure he’ll do his best to earn a scrappy point tonight but I feel Arsenal have just too much for Fulham; I’m expecting us to score two at least but don’t be surprised to the goals don’t come, because as you’re well aware sometimes we just have ‘one of those days’. However don’t be surprised if we slaughter Fulham 6-0 because the talent and desire is there.

We have a pretty much full team to pick from apart from Gallas, and obviously Diaby and Lauren. However Baptista is being rested for this one, more on that later. This is what I think the team should be, Wenger will probably pick something entirely different but this is my pick: Lehmann, Clichy, Senderos, Toure, Eboue, Hleb, Fabregas, Gilberto, Rosicky with two up front: Van Persie and Henry. A strong line-up and I think one or two may be rested for the Spurs game on Saturday. I think we should go 4-4-2 though, it’s hardly a threatening team we’re playing and this is a good opportunity to test the formation again before that important game at the weekend.

As I’ve mentioned millions of times before I’m going tonight, look out for my ‘The Beast – 9′ shirt. It’s a tricky tube journey with lots of stops and changes down to the River Thames on the District Line. I’ll get there eventually and have a wonder round, see what the cottage is like and get inside nice and early. I don’t think this one’s on TV but it’ll probably be on the radio I’d expect; if you can, support the boys tonight in what should be the start of some form. And as always, a match report to come.

Julio Baptista hasn’t played a great deal after his comeback from injury but has been rested for tonight’s game. The Brazilian hasn’t had alot of football in the past year thanks to some continuous injuries and I suppose getting back into it it’s tough. He’s had some iffy performances but looks to be finding his feet and scored his first goal against Hamburg last week. Wenger reckons we are about to see the best of The Beast:

“We have seen that before with players who came here, it always took them six months to adapt. I am confident he will make a big impact here. There is no basic problem with him. He has just got to adapt to the pace of the game. He has just come back from six weeks out with injury, and I feel he needs to work, maybe he will play on Saturday.”

I do hope Wenger is right, I was very exited when Baptista arrived here but was a little disappointed with some performances, but Arsene is right, and it does look like he is adapting to the game as time progresses. He’s on a season long loan from Real Madrid but it looks like the deal will be made permanent. Jose Reyes went the other way and is doing really well is Spain and I expect the ‘Galacticos’ to want to keep him too. I’d like to see Julio given the chance to play on Saturday and I feel it might be quite a physical game and we may need a little beastliness in our side.

And finally the Ballon D’Or winner was officially announced as Fabio Cannavaro on Monday. I think it should’ve been Titi this time but I suppose his year will come one day. He didn’t even come 2nd though! Buffon was runner-up and probably deserved it, I forgot about him, he had a great world cup and without him Italy wouldn’t have one it. Cannavaro won with 173 votes with Buffon getting 124 who was closely followed by Henry, and Ronaldinho came 4th, about 50 points behind Thierry. Then it went Zidane, Eto’o, Klose, Drogba, Pirlo and Arsenal ‘keeper Jens Lehmann came in 10th which I am very pleased with.

That’s all the news for today; enjoy the game tonight if you get to watch it. Have a good Wednesday.