Apologies for the preview not going up on the website yesterday, I went out on Friday night and then was not feeling great yesterday. Arsenal travel up to Swansea today and i have to admit, i am not looking forward to this game for some reason and am fearing that it could end up as a draw. Swansea are a good footballing team and with our current defensive injury crises, i believe they will be able to get at us, especially on the wings. Our own wingers are going to have to provide cover for our novice full backs.
They played well when they visited the Emirates earlier in the season and were very unlucky not to get a 1-1 draw out of that game. Since then the squad has improved and there is more confidence running through the team but we have also been struck down by a lot of injuries since then too. Gervinho is going to be a big miss, so it will be up to Walcott and Arshavin to step up to the plate and offer the support to Van Persie. I would also like to see the full backs pushing up to provide us width and hopefully provide some more space in the middle of the park for Ramsey to pick out the final ball.
The team news is that we nobody is back either apart from Djourou who has served his one match ban against Leeds. Mertesacker and Rosicky will have late fitness tests after being ill on Monday night and not training this week. Rumors started circulating yesterday that Arteta picked up an injury while training which hopefully is not true as he has been one of our star performers lately and we will need his experience in the middle of the park. Henry has been doing extra training to get match fit, which is a good thing as you could see from the Leeds game that he was already quite tired after his 20 minutes. Wenger says he is fit enough to start a game but not last the full 90 minutes, which i would assume means, he will not start against Swansea. I believe Arshavin will start after his slightly better showing against Leeds on Monday night, with Miquel at left back.
Predicted line up
Szczesny
Djourou Mertesacker Koscielny Miquel
Ramsey Song Arteta
Walcott Van Persie Arshavin
In other news, Frimpong had a good game against Spurs for Wolves in which Spurs dropped 2 points. Great news for us as we look to reign them in ahead of what is a really tough couple of months for them. Sunderland couldn't manage to get a point against Chelsea which would of set us up for a perfect weekend but it sounded like they had a host of opportunities, so i do not think Chelsea's blip is over, although they will get Cahill in before their next game which must be a better option than Luiz.
Arsenal have apparently taken a player called Saad Al-Mukhaini on trial. He is an Oman International that is a full back. Now i expect nobody to know who he is and probably a lot of people to complain if we do sign him, but he has been recommended to Wenger, so he must be doing something right. We shall have to see how the lad does over the next couple of days. Wenger has ruled out the signing of Kalou and Martinez Suarez, while he has also stated that Chamakh will not be sold in the January transfer window, which pretty much leaves it open for the summer exit.
Diaby has gone off to see another specialist and you have to feel for the lad, who has had nothing but injuries during his Arsenal career. There are suggestions he wont be back until March and that is without any further set backs. I would imagine that is his season over and that he will be the name taken off the list, to make room for Henry in the 25 man squad.
Right i am going to leave it at that, as i have stuff to get on with today before the game. I hope we can start a new run in the premier league today as the 4 points from the festive fixtures was not enough. I am hoping that with Van Persie rested that he will be firing on all cylinders up front and we will have too much for Swansea, but my gut feeling is saying something along the lines of a 1-1 draw.
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