Lehmann’s elbow explodes + other injury news 14 September, 2007

Yes you heard it right, as a result of this week’s internationals Jens Lehmann’s elbow has exploded and it can’t have been a pretty sight. It has to be one of the most incredible injuries I have ever heard of. This surely will end Lehmann’s career as a goalkeeper, as I do believe arms don’t grow back. However, if he could get some sort of extendable robot arm then he might just be the greatest ‘keeper ever. Although Gary Lewin will have to consult the FIFA rulebook before creating his Frankenstein’s monster. This is how manager Arsene Wenger broke the news:

“Jens Lehmann pulled out of the second German game. His elbow has blown up.”

A really quite remarkable story, I will get some pictures up as soon as I find some. Keep your eyes peeled on though as the German fan who caught Jens’ forearm is set to make a killing on eBay. It’s must for any Arsenal fan’s mantelpiece.

Apart from that there are no other new injuries to report. Sagna returns from his knock, which is great news. Wenger says “he still has some pain but he should be OK if needed” which doesn’t sound 100% convincing but I expect him to start. Gallas, Senderos and Eboue are all still out though which means Gilberto is expected to play in central defence along with Toure. A good pairing but Arsene says his back up is Alex Song, which is terrifying.

Apparently Van Persie only played 45 mins, not 90 of Holland’s game so hopefully that means he’s a little fresher for tomorrow’s game. With all that news here’s my prediction of the team for the first North London derby of the season:

I think that 11 is quite predictable and I’d be surprised if it’s much different from that. The only possible differences I see is maybe Hleb playing through the middle with just RVP up front or maybe Eduardo will start after his performances for Croatia.

I think that those players are by far good enough to beat this struggling Tottenham side but we all know this game has nothing to do with the teams on paper; it’s about who fights to the very end, who gets nervous, who relishes the challenge and who has the belief. Last night I started getting goose bumps and hairs standing up thinking about this one, that’s tells you how excited I am.

I did think that if we won this we’d be top of the league but with Man United and Liverpool both in early kick offs it depends on the results in those games. We haven’t been top of the table once in over two years (except at the beginning when we are alphabetically), which is terrible for our standards.

Right that’s it for the Arsenal vs. Tottenham preview. It’s off to the Shithole for me tomorrow and I cannot wait. A match report will come Sunday I guess, until then.