Arsenal v Everton: The Turning Point?
Posted by Young'un in Arsenal | 16 October 2008
This weekend sees The Gunners entertain Everton at The Emirates. It's been a mixed start for Arsenal, with highs such as thumping wins over Blackburn, Porto and Sheffield United, and lows that make you cringe, such as a draw at Sunderland, the 1-0 loss at Fulham and of course, the simply dreadful 2-1 defeat at home to Hull. But Everton are in a worse position. They have been knocked out of both the League and UEFA Cups, and are hovering in the bottom half of the table, where a team of their quality simply does not belong. Everton have a solid keeper in Tim Howard, and on paper, the centre-half partnership of Lescott and Jagielka would rival most teams in the Premier League, but it hasn't quite clicked this season. Tim Cahill provides lots of vital goals while I feel playmaker Mikel Arteta has enough quality to play at the top level. They have a clinical finisher in Yakubu, and the likes of Yobo, Baines, Osman, Pienaar, Saha and new record signing Marouane Fellaini are all also very good players. They're overdue a good result so they could produce a shock on Saturday afternoon.
But for me, it could be the start of something beautiful for Arsenal this season. However, new injuries have come to light, and the injury list now looks like this: Rosicky, Eduardo, Sagna, Gallas and Bendtner are all out, Fabregas, Djourou and van Persie face fitness tests, while Bischoff and Silvestre are both fit, but severely lack match practice. But Arsene Wenger is boosted by the return of midfield powerhouse, Abou Diaby. The Frenchman hasn't played this season, but his presence has been missed, and he could be a huge player this season if he takes his chance in his stride. But of course, the position isn't just going to be given to him. Denilson has made a steady start to the season while young Aaron Ramsey has impressed for Wales this week; a thunderbolt from 30 yards being his high point. He could well get a look in this weekend. Alex Song has also been solid whenever he has filled in at the defensive midfield position. But I think Diaby will be given a chance on Saturday, because he's a different player to the other midfielders we have. "He's the closest to Patrick Vieira I've seen," said Le Boss himself when he signed Diaby in 2006. And, altough Mathieu Flamini's energy made up for it last season, Arsenal have been lacking that physical battler since the legendary number four left in 2005. Hopefully, Abou can provide that, and continue for the rest of the season, and he could well be that final piece in the puzzle. A win is desperately needed, in order to catch up with Chelsea and Liverpool, even at this early stage. Anything less would put our title hopes into question, despite this weekend's game being just the eighth this season. Wenger expects Djourou, Fabregas and van Persie to shrug off their niggles so I'd expect to see a team like this:
Almunia
Toure, Djourou, Song, Clichy
Walcott, Fabregas, Diaby, Nasri
van Persie, Adebayor
On paper, that midfield quartet could well be Arsenal's strongest; with Fabregas providing equisite passes and long shots, Nasri providing the tricks, and plenty of goals cutting in from the left, Walcott scaring the full backs with his pace and crossing, and Diaby with his ability to knock players off the ball, and start attacks for the team.
Comments
I think there is a bigger chance that Djourou will play at RB than Toure...
You could well be right, rob, in fact I'd like that to be the case (Toure is far more effective in the middle), but at the back end of last season, Wenger seemed to like the idea of playing Kolo at RB.
With Moyes finally putting pen to paper it could just be the kick start to our season.
Despite throwing the lead away in the Newcastle game, the signs where there of better things to come.
And Arsenals stuttering start to the season could well come to a grinding halt.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.reallifenews.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1216
