Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Phil Gregory

After Nasri’s recent departure, Arsenal travel away to Udinese for a hugely crucial tie. The Italian side took some –myself included – by surprise in the first leg, but there’ll be no risk of them being underestimated this evening. The Liverpool result wasn’t the best preparation for this tie, but positives can be drawn from the game. After turning up to work after that game and being the butt of jokes from some Mancunians, I pointed out £100m of Liverpool, beating a depleted Arsenal side via two offside goals – one of which was a lucky own goal to boot – wasn’t the worst thing in the world. As is clear to see, the luck just isn’t going for us at the moment, and with a depleted side as well things have been tough recently.

That said, some of it is of our own making. Frimpong made two very bad tackles during the game, and the one he eventually got sent off after collecting a yellow was a potential horror challenge. Gervinho’s slap, Song’s stamp and now Frimpong’s rashness: all could be avoided and I hope there has been some form of internal disciplinary action to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Thankfully those three suspensions don’t count in Europe, and we also have the excellent Robin Van Persie back from a farcical suspension.

Mr Wenger too, has had a stay of execution in regards to his ban from UEFA. The whole situation is ridiculous: Wenger cleared what he was doing with UEFA, who then changed their minds during the game. As with the “Eduardo dive ban”, Arsenal’s lawyers strike me as fairly meticulous: they know exactly where they stand when they act, whereas UEFA seem to bumble around and look daft at the end. No doubt UEFA’s rules were half baked, and we found a loophole via Arsène not communicating with the bench directly or some such. UEFA then clamped down, banning Arsène again, but seem to have realised that if Arsenal were to crash out of the Champions league and Arsène not be on the touchline, then if UEFA subsequently lift the second ban on appeal, they would be looking at a substantial lawsuit. That’s been my take on affairs: UEFA are stepping back from the controversy for now to cover themselves from their own stupidity and will deal with it during the time between the qualifiers and the group stage.

Anyway, onto the game. There’s been some more disappointing injury news, in that Jack Wilshere has had a setback in his recovery from an ankle injury. With Koscielny hobbling off during the last game we’re down to the bare bones in terms of centre backs, but fortunately Djourou is back and could be involved. Rosicky is in the squad to give us some numbers in central midfield, whilst Traore gives us a possibility at leftback.

Szcznesy

Sagna Djourou Vermaelen Traore/Jenkinson

Song Frimpong

Ramsey

Walcott Van Persie Gervinho

So the rough team line-up that I’ve gone for is above. The only really question mark in defence surrounds the leftback position. Traore is available after injury and a specialist leftback, but there are question marks over his defensive ability. Given that Wenger might go for Jenkinson there, or even pop Jenkinson on the right and Sagna on the left as he did versus Liverpool.

In midfield I expect a defensive duo of Song and Frimpong in front of the back four, allowing Ramsey to play higher up. With a lead to defend, that would make good sense but it would also mean we’re not forced to start Rosicky and risk his fitness with the United game approaching.

Further forward we’ll exploit Gervinho’s availability and put him on the left after a disappointing display from Arshavin against Liverpool. Van Persie’s return could be crucial after he missed the first tie.

Despite there being such a negative attitude around the club, that line-up isn’t too shabby and should be able to do the job. Walcott’s early goal could well prove crucial, but more importantly we know that Udinese have to attack us, yet a goal from us effectively kills in the game off. The pace of the front men could be crucial in this tie, hitting the Italians on the break or even simply forcing them to leave more men back than they would like to. As for score predictions, it’s a bit of a tricky one for this game as the complexion of the tie is defined by who scores first. I’ll stick my neck out though and go for 1-1, with Udinese to score first and give us a bit of a scare. That’s pretty much how our season has gone so far, so it feels like a safe bet.

Amazingly, this game is one ITV in the UK, which means I won’t have to drag my hangover to the pub. Fantastic.

Enjoy the game Gunners!