Bolton Preview: Ade rested & Sagna out 28 March, 2008

Right, after a rather shit weekend we have to get our heads down and get on with it. It’s a trip up north to The Reebok which was been a hard place to go in recent times. However they’re a different side now, Allardyce’s side used to kick us off the park and nick points off us but they’re not as good anymore.

Anelka’s left for a level of greater cuntishness, Jaaskelainen is injured and Allardyce is long gone. Their ‘keeper often has the game of his life against us so I’m pretty glad he’s out.

What I’m trying to say is, they shouldn’t trouble us. I used to fear Bolton away but we really shouldn’t be having trouble playing up there anymore. After last weekend’s nightmare we really, really need to end this bad streak with a win tomorrow.

Anything other than three points, and we really are in disaster mode. We could really do with a comfortable win here, for confidence’s sake. 3-0 would do the job nicely. It seems perfectly possible, the players wont be happy about slipping up in the title race and I’m sure they’ll want to put in a good performance more than the fans might want them to.

You have to think about the possibility of the unthinkable. If Bolton we to hold us to a draw, of even win, then I think I might commit suicide. I can see Bolton scrapping out a draw too. We need to show that we are The Arsenal and we are better than fucking Bolton Wanderers. If we don’t take all three points then we truly are out of the title race; mathematically it’ll still look possible but the resulting misery from dropping points to Bolton will surely rule it all out.

I can’t actually remember the last time we won. It was against Blackburn, but it seems so long ago. A win tomorrow is vital. I know I’ve basically said this in different ways in every paragraph of this post, but that’s how important a win here is.

Team news. Sagna is out for at least three weeks from that injury he picked up at Chelsea. Fuck. He’s been brilliant for us this season, one player you can always count on. So that leaves us with three options, Hoyte, Eboue or Toure. I’m hoping Arsene goes for Kolo, he’s not a natural right back but he has a lot of power going forward and always does everything he can. That’s mean brining Senderos back into the middle and some people have been saying this week that he never should’ve left. He found a bit of form while Kolo was out but lost his place to the Ivorian, it’s be nice to see him back.

There are no other injuries or recovered players but Arsene has hinted he might rest Adebayor. Wenger said, “He would need a little breather, maybe.” and then said that he has Bendtner and van Persie. I’m going to take that hint and guess that he rests Ade. I was thinking earlier this week that it could be an option. With Liverpool coming up we need him to be as sharp as possible.

With those two changes in mind, here’s how I see the team:

I’m still waiting to see Walcott play but I don’t think this’ll be his week, I bet Eboue starts again. Theo might have trouble being pushed around tomorrow afternoon so there might be a tactical decision made there. Still, he’s good coming off he bench blah blah blah…

It’s a 3pm kick-off tomorrow so it’s not on UK television. I’m going to a local pub that has all the dodgy channels, so they might be able to pick it up there. If I do manage to catch the game, there’ll be a match report on Sunday. Thanks for reading, Happy Friday people!