Birmingham vs Arsenal Preview

In a few hours Eduardo and Arsenal will step out onto st.Andrews facing one of their biggest tests in recent matches. Arsenal will be facing a Birmingham City side who are without are win in their last 3 games, and are facing the prospect of losing three on the bounce if the gunners win. Arsenal on the other hand are looking for their seventh consecutive win in all competitions, and if Arsenal can do what they’re widely expected to do the north London club will go top of the table at least until their rivals Man utd and Chelsea play Bolton and Aston Villa respectively. If you ignore the fact that the gunners are in a gripping title race the next headlines would have to be about Eduardo and Nicklas Bendtner.

Both strikers will defiantly have strong feelings about returning to st. Andrews. Nicklas Bendtner of course helped Birmingham city get promoted by scoring 13 goals in 48 appearances for the west midland club. Nick is a firm fan favorite due to this and is guaranteed to get a good reception, but as we all know Eduardo has far less happier memories of st. Andrews after getting his leg broken in a horrific challenge by ex-Birmingham city defender Martin Taylor. Since Eduardo returned from the challenge he hasn’t looked the same player at all, in fact he looks like hes lost a yard of pace and his finishing skills. A lot of people are divided as to whether the Brazilian Born Croat should even play apart in the game. I’m of the group that think this is exactly what Eduardo needs as he can return to the scene of the crime, and fully close the chapter on the difficult last 18 months he has had. In a way I see it as the ‘story’ reaching full circle, and Eduardo emerging re-born right on queue for Barcelona. Eduardo and Nicklas will also be keen to put in a good shift when called after news broke that  Robin Van Persie could be back in 3-4 weeks, which is a huge boost to Arsenal’s title challenge. The Dutch striker was easily in the worlds top 5 strikers before his injury, and he was one of the main reasons behind Arsenal’s early season form. On a not so positive note Andrey Arshavin has once again openly criticized Arsenal and their chances of winning any silverware this season. Even though  the Russian magician is a senior player of the Arsenal squad he’d be well advised to take note of his own celebration and keep quiet.

Big Mo Prediction: BFC 1 vs 3 AFC.

First half will be tough, but Arsenal’s quality will shine through in the latter stages of the game, then again I predicted we would beat Man Utd at home so…

AZ vs Arsenal line-ups

Still no place for Almunia, but star of the Spain U20’s Fran Merda takes a place on the bench. Eboue and Arshavin both start after both were placed on the bench against Birmingham. Clichy is also back after missing the home win over the weekend in the place of gibbs who drops to the bench

AZ:

Romero, Moisander, Jaliens, Moreno, Poulsen, Holman, Mendes Da Silva, Schaars, Martens, El Hamdaoui, Dembele.

Subs: Didulica, Lens, Klavan, Wernbloom, Van der Velden, Swerts, Pelle.

Arsenal:

Mannone

Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy

Song Billong, Eboue, Fabregas

Diaby, Arshavin, van Persie.
Subs: Almunia, Vela, Ramsey, Silvestre, Wilshere, Gibbs, Merida

Sagna Pre-Match

Standard Liege vs Arsenal Match Ratings

V.Mannoe 6/10

The young champions  league debutant had little to do after the manic opening 15mins arsenal had. When called upon he gathered well from the oppositions crosses, but unless I’m mistaken didn’t have a save to make in the 2nd half.

E.Eboue 5/10

Eboue provided a vintage Eboue performance. He was very erratic one minute he was missing tackles and passing away the ball, but on the flip side he did have a few runs and linked up well with a struggling midfield.

G.Clichy 4/10

Personally I thought Clichy was shocking tonight did very little right in a performance which resembled the one he gave against Man city.

T.Vermaelen 7.5/10

TV was easily the best Arsenal defender on the park. He had to constantly had to clean up the mistakes the defence made. TV also managed to score the equaliser for Arsenal. He’s always willing to get stuck in, but is sensible in his approach to doing so.

W.Gallas 4/10

gave away a penalty after he failed to stop a striker getting into the box he was skinned and decided to flick out. The striker did go down easily, but is was still a penalty. sloppy all game didn’t do a lot right in the match he wasted the vast amounts of ball that came his way, and  left it to TV to lead a below par defence

A.Song 5/10

sluggish back to his old self after some impressive performances this season. gave the ball away way too much and ended up putting a lackluster defence in a lot of trouble.

A.Diaby 6/10

I’m never confident when Abou plays as he can be one of two things fantastic or exceptionally bad, and tonight he was strangely both. His great run to setup B52 was truly brilliant, but his inability to pass was clear to see. Which was only matched by A.Song.

C.Fabregas 5/10

Cesc might as well as of been wearing a harry potter invisbility cloak that was easily his worst game as captain, and maybe even in an Arsenal shirt. Now everyone knows he never turns up for the big games, but now it looks like he can’t turn up for a trip to belgium.

T.Rosicky 7/10

Great performance by Rosicky considering this was his first competitive start in such a while. Liege struggled to pick him up as he switched flanks throughout his time on the pitch.

Eduardo 5/10

Shocking mistake to gift Standard with their first goal. After that he was very quiet until the latter stages of the match where he scored a goal and had a great shot saved by the Standard keeper.

N.Bendtner 7/10

Took his goal very well worked his socks off  all night he held up the ball very well, and was rarely out jumped or out muscled by the opposition.

A.Ramsey 6/10

J.Wilshere n/a

B.sagna 6/10

2 trips to manchester to forget 4-2

Man 4 – 2 Arsenal

Even though I said my prediction was 2-1 to the Arsenal I never fancy Arsenal away at Eastlands, and today I was proved right. Most of the game was poor apart from the goals. Man city took the lead with Micah Richards setting up Manuel Almunia to score one of the unluckiest own goals I’ve seen. Arsenal came out in the second half and bossed the early passages of play until they Eventually equalised with Van Persie scoring a fantastic solo goal proving not all Arsenal players go down easily, but then Man City started to fight their way back into the game with both sides trading possession, and the odd chance. Man city converted their chances managing to score 3 goals in 10 mins Bellamy 74mins, Adebayor 80mins and SWP 84 mins. Tomas Rosicky then responded with a goal of  his own the 88th min, but Arsenal weren’t done there with Van persie hitting the post and narrowly missing the target after his shot was deflected and The Bendtner also saw his shot deflected wide.

Emmanuel Adebayor

Adebayor took it upon himself to seek revenge on RVP. After a RVP tackle from behind Adebayor stamped on RVP’s hand and face, but the ex- arsenal man wasn’t done there after scoring his goal he then decided to run the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of Arsenal. All I can say is I hope he gets a ban for one of the above.

Selection Issues

This is the second time AW selection policy has infuriated me. Starting Diaby instead of Rosicky. I don’t understand what goes through his head when he decides to start Diaby against the bigger clubs especially away from home. AW did this last season in the FA cup Semi against Chelsea where he replaced Arshavin with Diaby. I don’t care what people say Diaby isn’t the new Viera, and just because he’s doesn’t mean he’ll be more physical or intimdate the opposition personally I think you have to pick a side on ability and not body type.

Next 4 EPL fixtures

Sat Sep 19 Wigan Athletic H

Sat Sep 26 Fulham A

Sat Oct 3 Blackburn Rovers H

Sat Oct 17 Birmingham City H

I think those four fixtures are just what Arsenal need to get their confidence up, and you never know getting spanked by City lead us on to a great unbeaten streak hopefully we can do it again.

Preview

Well it’s another trip to Manchester for Arsenal, and they will defiantly be hoping for a different result, but if they control the game like they did against Utd I’m pretty sure they’ll come away with the result. While Man City have got to quite a good start, but there inability to secure a win is very suprising. I watched the game against Pompey and apart from the Ade’s goal I wasn’t very impressed.

Prediction

Ars 2-1 Man city

Bendtner and Fabregas – Adebayor

Possible Lineups

Man City                          Arsenal

GK – S.Given                          GK – M.Almunia

RB – M.Richards                  RB – B.Sagna

CB – K.Toure                         CB – T.Vermaelen

CB – J.Lescott                       CB – W.Gallas

LB – W.Bridge                        LB – G.Clichy

MR – S.W-Philips                   DM – A.Song

MC – S.Ireland                       MC – Denilson

MC – G.Barry                          MC – C.Fabregas

ML – C.Bellamy                     FC – N.Bendtner

FC – Robinho                        FC – Eduardo

FC – E.Adebayor                 FC – R.VanPersie

Reverse Fixture 08/09

Man City 3 – 0 Arsenal

Aaron Ramsey vs Italy u21

Great goal !

CL DRAW

Group H.

AZ Alkmaar facts

Stadium – DSB stadion (capacity 17,150)

Last League Position – 1st Eredivisie

Top goal scorer (league only) – Mounir El Hamdaoui 23 goals

Olympiakos

Stadium – Karaiskakis Stadium (Capacity 33,334)

Last League Position – 1st super league greece

Top goal scorer (league only) – Luciano Galletti 14 goals

Standard Liege

Stadium – Stade Maurice Dufrasne Liège (Capacity: 30,030)

Last league postion – 1st Belgian First Division

Top goal scorer (league only) – Dieumerci Mbokani 16 goals

Team to play Celtic

GK. ALMUNIA

LB. CLICHY

RB. SAGNA

CB. GALLAS

CB. VERMAELEN

LM. DIABY

RM. EBOUE

CM. DENILSON

CM. SONG

FC. EDUARDO

FC. BENDTNER

Celtic preview, possible line up and prediction.

GK. ALMUNIA

LB. CLICHY in GIBBS out

CB. VERMAELEN

CB. GALLAS

RB. SAGNA in EBOUE out

DM. SONG in DIABY out

CM. RAMSEY in FABREGAS out

CM. DENILSON

LWF. ARSHAVIN

RWF. BENDTNER in EDUARDO out

CF. VAN PERSIE

With Cesc injured I think Arsene should bring in Ramsey. In my opinion Ramsey gets the nod ahead of Diaby  due to his ability to pass and his excellent vision.

Diaby’s a lot more direct with his running, and needs someone like Ramsey/Fabregas to be playing beside him, so he can benefit from their passing ability. I wasn’t sure whether to play Bendtner or Eduardo, but I went with Bendtner as he will get fouled more than Eduardo. The teams Arsenal have played this season have found it difficult to deal with Bendtner, and have either fouled him which has led to a goal scoring situation from a set piece or he’s dribbled his way through and set up a goal scoring opportunity.

Here’s my prediction. Arsenal 3 – 0 Celtic

ARSHAVIN

BENDTNER

RAMSEY/GALLAS/ARSHAVIN

(Not sure on the third goal)