Hello.
It's been a rather uneventful period of several days, but today football returns with an away game against Mareseille. It presents a good opportunity to pick up the points on the road (not a simple thing in our group) and keep our wonderful run going.
What makes this run even better, is the fact that we haven't dropped a single point away from home in all competitions for nine games already. This succession of wins started all the way back to March, when we've beaten current Champions' Cup holders, Bayern Munich. A monumental achievement, come to think of it.
The scale of this achievement is further underlined by the fact, that should we win our two next away games (starting today), we'll set a new club record.
The team should be more focused on the task at hand, though. It's much more important to get the points not for the sake of record, but because, as I've already said, it'll be hard to pick up those precious points elsewhere.
Thankfully, it looks like we come into this game with no new injures, while Mertesacker, Ozil and Giroud, who were all doubts, made the trip and should start. Beyond that, it's hard to see, where help may come from, seeing as our bench will be full of youngsters. The players we have will have to, once again, rely only on themselves to get a result.
While a lot of people write that deficiency down to Arsene not bringing in more players, it's hard not to be amazed by our bad luck. The manager after all, has brought four players in and only a injury crisis, which struck us, prevents our bench from being more competitive.
It'll be hard for any team to make do without five senior players. I'm not sure, I should count Diaby in, but with him, it'll be six. Six players, most of whom would have started, had they been available. While the manager could have done better by bringing in more players, it's a really unlucky turn of events, that keeps us from being a better team, not only Arsene's decisions.
There is good news, however, as Arteta and Podolski should become available once more, the former being ten days or so from full fitness and the latter recovering from his injury at a much quicker rate, than originally expected. So at the beginning of October these two (plus Cazorla) should be gunned and ready to fire again. And let's not forget about Rosicky, who may not be that badly injured after all. So fingers crossed that in three weeks or so, the Ox and Diaby will be the only absentees.
Returning to the game at hand, I still think we have enough to beat our current opposition. There most likely won't be any rotation in midfield or attack (hard to see, where it might come from), but our back four may give the manager something to think about.
Given that all of our defenders are fit, I'd stick to the tried and tested Sagna-Mert-Koscielny-Gibbs, but I won't be surprised, should Vermaelen, Monreal and Jenkinson all start. Our captain and the Spaniard need some playing time, while Jenkinsom played some good games against Spurs and Sunderland and, on top of that, needs some experience at this level.
Whoever starts though, I'm sure they will be completely focused and ready to do everything in their power to help the team. The bonus of getting rid of all the deadwood, is that only dedicated players remain and we can be certain, they'll give everything for the shirt.
Finally, I'd like to wish all the luck to Theo Walcott. Things have not been going his way recently, but he deserves to score one or two and break that unfortunate run. Everyone else should just play the way they do and we'll be celebrating a win come tomorrow.
Back later with a review
It's been a rather uneventful period of several days, but today football returns with an away game against Mareseille. It presents a good opportunity to pick up the points on the road (not a simple thing in our group) and keep our wonderful run going.
What makes this run even better, is the fact that we haven't dropped a single point away from home in all competitions for nine games already. This succession of wins started all the way back to March, when we've beaten current Champions' Cup holders, Bayern Munich. A monumental achievement, come to think of it.
The scale of this achievement is further underlined by the fact, that should we win our two next away games (starting today), we'll set a new club record.
The team should be more focused on the task at hand, though. It's much more important to get the points not for the sake of record, but because, as I've already said, it'll be hard to pick up those precious points elsewhere.
Thankfully, it looks like we come into this game with no new injures, while Mertesacker, Ozil and Giroud, who were all doubts, made the trip and should start. Beyond that, it's hard to see, where help may come from, seeing as our bench will be full of youngsters. The players we have will have to, once again, rely only on themselves to get a result.
While a lot of people write that deficiency down to Arsene not bringing in more players, it's hard not to be amazed by our bad luck. The manager after all, has brought four players in and only a injury crisis, which struck us, prevents our bench from being more competitive.
It'll be hard for any team to make do without five senior players. I'm not sure, I should count Diaby in, but with him, it'll be six. Six players, most of whom would have started, had they been available. While the manager could have done better by bringing in more players, it's a really unlucky turn of events, that keeps us from being a better team, not only Arsene's decisions.
There is good news, however, as Arteta and Podolski should become available once more, the former being ten days or so from full fitness and the latter recovering from his injury at a much quicker rate, than originally expected. So at the beginning of October these two (plus Cazorla) should be gunned and ready to fire again. And let's not forget about Rosicky, who may not be that badly injured after all. So fingers crossed that in three weeks or so, the Ox and Diaby will be the only absentees.
Returning to the game at hand, I still think we have enough to beat our current opposition. There most likely won't be any rotation in midfield or attack (hard to see, where it might come from), but our back four may give the manager something to think about.
Given that all of our defenders are fit, I'd stick to the tried and tested Sagna-Mert-Koscielny-Gibbs, but I won't be surprised, should Vermaelen, Monreal and Jenkinson all start. Our captain and the Spaniard need some playing time, while Jenkinsom played some good games against Spurs and Sunderland and, on top of that, needs some experience at this level.
Whoever starts though, I'm sure they will be completely focused and ready to do everything in their power to help the team. The bonus of getting rid of all the deadwood, is that only dedicated players remain and we can be certain, they'll give everything for the shirt.
Finally, I'd like to wish all the luck to Theo Walcott. Things have not been going his way recently, but he deserves to score one or two and break that unfortunate run. Everyone else should just play the way they do and we'll be celebrating a win come tomorrow.
Back later with a review
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