‘Boro preview: Injury situation…better 3 February, 2007

At 5.15 today we kick off at the Riverside in the Premiership again after a run of cup ties. I think we lost there last year but this time round we need to win. We have a game in hand now, a position I always like to be in. The Merseyside derby is currently underway and if Everton can somehow get a result we could be 1 point away from Liverpool. Charlton play Chelsea and the only thing I can see there is an away win I’m afraid. It’s scum vs. scum tomorrow as Spurs take on Man United at the shithole. There can’t be a lot of teams changing places this weekend but we need to start closing the gap on Chelsea.

We’ve been very unlucky with injuries recently but it looks like we’re over the worst of it and players are slowly coming back. Adebayor is fit after getting a knock on Wednesday but Diaby will miss out and is back on the injury list again however his knee injury isn’t as bad as first thought and he’ll only miss a couple of games. Johan Djourou is back after a hamstring problem; he might come in for Big Phil who probably needs a rest. Emmanuel Eboue, William Gallas, Freddie Ljungberg, Alex Hleb and Julio Baptista are all out but not for long, all those names will hopefully coming back this month. Also don’t forget Van Persie who’s out for the season pretty much.

Jens Lehmann returns to the squad after his domestic cup rest and Denilson who was simply brilliant on Wednesday has been included. The young Brazilian deserves this and more and if called upon I’m sure he’ll impress. So I think the team will line up something like this: Lehmann, Hoyte, Djourou/Senderos, Toure, Clichy, Rosicky, Fabregas, Gilberto, Walcott, Henry and Adebayor. The only one there who looks a bit edgy is Theo Walcott who’s going through a bit of a dip. Possibly Denilson will play left wing but I doubt it. I know Theo can play well and I have confidence in him today.

Earlier in the week it looked like it might be Aliadiere partnering Henry today and Arsene has been saying how he nearly joined today’s opposition. Due to our sudden injury crisis Jeremie was kept at Arsenal and he will almost certainly leave in the summer. I do like the boy and has shown in the League Cup that he can play. It’ll be a shame to see him go, he’s been an Arsenal player for something stupid like 9 years but I don’t think he’ll ever challenge for a place here. Another player who might be off at the end of the season is Jens Lehmann. Last year he hit his peak and had a great Champions League run that ended in him claiming the no.1 jersey off Oliver Kahn for the World Cup. This is the last year of his contract and the German is unsure where he wants to be next season. He’s proved this season he’s still a great ‘keeper but if he wants to go we can’t stop him, here’s what Mr. Wenger had to say:

“I had a little meeting with him. At the moment, we have to sit down again to decide about that. Ideally, I would like him to stay. But I do not know yet. You have to wait. He will not get more than one year. What can change is somebody can offer him three years. What we talk about is between him and me, but we have not really sat down yet and spoken about a contract. We spoke about how the year went, what I expect of him for the rest of the season and we will speak about a contract in a few weeks.”

When the German joined as Seaman’s replacement he looked shaky and had a lot of fans to win over but now I have all my belief in him and I’ll always remember him as one of the great Arsenal players. If the defence didn’t let Eto’o through in the Champions League Final when Lehmann tripped him to be sent off I think we probably would’ve won the cup.

The other news is Wenger talking about the possibility of making a move for Gareth Bale in the future. Also he’s been talking about Gallas’ injury and guess how long he says he’s out for…

Right I’m off now. The game’s on PremPlus at 5pm, enjoy.