Aston Villa Preview

The picture above is the reason we are through to the 4th round of the FA Cup and my god it would be great to see that again on Sunday.

We face Villa in the cup this weekend in what should be a close game. They have quick wingers which we have not done well against recently, so i expect them to push all the way in what will be a close game. Arteta being back in the center of the park is a massive boost along with the potential return of Sagna. A week ago, Wenger said Sagna was 2 or 3 weeks away but i now have a feeling that he will be chucked straight in. That is just a feeling i have from how Wenger spoke about him. Fabianski has returned and played a reserve game during the week so i assume he will sit on the bench, although it would not surprise me if he also lined up in goal.

Many different stories have come out about how long Wilshere will be out for. It has the feeling of deja vu about it and that we are going to have the same problems as with Vermaelen. Luckily he is not a player that counts in the 25 man squad, unlike Diaby who is taking up a crucial place in the team while being constantly injured. Not only are we badly missing Wilshere's skill in the middle of the park, we are also missing the ability to give players a rest. Ramsey is in desperate need of a rest and he is only playing one game a week at the moment. Wenger has ruled out Wilshere returning in February and with the likely scenario of another set back and building up his fitness, we are looking at Wilshere returning late March. Until that stage, we have crucial league and cup games to play, so Wenger has to be looking to bring someone in on loan.

Wenger has finally admitted that he will not sign a full back. That was clearly obvious from about the end of December, but i do believe it has cost us points, especially as we were not smart enough to adopt a more cautious approach to the games in January. It would have been very easy to switch to a 4-5-1 strategy and have two defensive midfielders in there to help cover the full backs. Then have some pace on the wings in Walcott and Camberlain to quickly counter attack or put Benayoun on the wing who would be a work horse for the team. Instead we played with Song, Rosicky and Ramsey in the middle of the park with Walcott, Arshavin or Chamberlain out wide. The later 3 don't defend enough, they should have been told to help out more on that front but having Song, Rosicky and Ramsey in the middle was never going to work as Ramsey isn't a defensive midfielder. Rosicky is much happier going forward and running with the ball and Song doesn't have the discipline to be the lone defensive midfielder. This is where we missed Arteta has he covers Song much better and it is one of the reasons we have survived without full backs, but once we lost him and Song either ran forward or went to cover a full back, it left nobody in the middle of the park or helping cover the other wing.

Right i got so side tracked there with our full back issue which will hopefully be partly resolved on Sunday with the return of Sagna. I think it is going to be the first team that is put out seeming as it has been a week since our last game and we really need to get back to winning ways. Therefor i am going with the line up of...

                                   Szecesny

Sagna          Mertesacker       Koscielny      Vermaelen

                   Ramsey       Song       Arteta

              Walcott       Van Persie       Chamberlain

Subs - Fabianski, Coquelin, Squillaci, Rosicky, Benayoun, Arshavin, Henry

That team was so enjoyable to write out after putting the names Sagna and Arteta in there. The back line actually looks pretty solid on paper, actually the whole team looks pretty solid on paper. I wouldn't be surprised if Fabianski is in goal or if Sagna doesn't start as he has been out for a long time. We are going to have to work hard against a tough Villa team who always seem to pick themselves up to play against us. I imagine we will win and as mentioned in yesterdays post, we will find out who we could play in the 5th before the game kicks off on Sunday. I just hope that we avoid Liverpool, Man Utd, Spurs and Chelsea and then preferably get a home draw.

Spurs unfortunately got through last night although they were massively lucky and Watford deserved at least a replay if not a win. The Spurs team looks absolutely lost without Bale in the team providing some pace and Adebayor looked so disinterested which can only be a good thing. It will be interesting to see what would happen to them if they had a couple of injuries in the attacking department. Fulham also lost to Everton which means one less premiership team in the draw on Sunday. I hope there are no problems in the Liverpool vs Man Utd game today but i imagine there will be as some stupid people always turn up to football games. I actually had a dream last night that Suarez was racist again towards Evra and that there was a massive fight, luckily that cant happen as Suarez won't be playing.

That's it for me today, i will be back on Monday to do a review but it most likely won't be in the morning. I hope everyone enjoys the game and that Arsenal win of course. If anybody is going to the game then i shall see you there to cheer on the mighty gooners.