Friday, March 9th, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

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By Dale Higginbottom

Wow, there’s a buzz about Arsenal at the moment isn’t there? After a difficult January we had a very successful league campaign in February, topped off with last week’s great win over the Spurs.

Ok, in this time we went out of the FA Cup and lost 4-0 to AC Milan but we’ll forget about those. Anyway into March and we’ve taken this form forward with a spirited win over a Liverpool team “doing an Arsenal” (lots of possession, lots of good chances and a ball failing to cross the line) and now an absolutely unbelievable performance in the second leg against Milan. I don’t usually comment on the cup competitions after Tuesday night’s game, you can’t help but have something to say.

There’s certainly an excitement around the Emirates and whilst it’s not all going our way (I’ll get onto the injuries shortly) we’re certainly back on track for a solid end to what has been (to put it mildly) a season of ups and downs.

So, onto injuries for Gameweek 27.

A = Ankle	K = Knee
B = Back	L = Achilles
C = Calf	M = Muscle
D = Dead Leg	N = Hip
E = Hamstring	R = Rib
F = Fatigue/Lack of Fitness	S = Shoulder
G = Groin	T = Thigh
H = Head Injury/Concussion	U = Unknown
I = Illness	Y = Hand
J = Foot	Z = Broken Leg

Liverpool Vs Arsenal (1-2)

Injuries	Liverpool (5 + 0S)	Arsenal (7 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	Robinson (A,18), Agger (R,4) Johnson (E,8)	Santos (A,13),  Mertesacker (A,2), Squillaci (U,8), Djourou (T, 5)
Midfield	Lucas (K,13), Gerrard (E,14)	Wilshere (A,27), Ramsey (A,3),  Coquelin (E,4)
Attack	N/A	N/A
Additional issues	N/A	Diaby returned to the squad and came on after 53 minutes, he then had to be replaced on 80 minutes. Vermaelen, Rosicky and van Persie were all doubts but started and played the whole game.
Suspended	N/A	N/A

Tottenham Vs Man Utd (1-3)

Injuries	Tottenham (4 + 1S)	Man Utd (7 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	Lindegaard (A,5)
Defence	Gallas (C,16)	Vidic (K,20), Smalling (H,12)
Midfield	Huddlestone (A,24), Bale (E,2), van der Vaart (A,6)	Fletcher (I,15), Cleverley (A,20), Valencia (E,6)
Attack	N/A	Owen (T,21)
Additional issues	King and Walker were doubts but both started and played the whole game.	Rooney returned to the squad and played the whole game. Anderson was also back in the squad but did not feature.
Suspended	Parker	N/A

West Brom Vs Chelsea (1-0)

Injuries	West Brom (3 + 0S)	Chelsea (2 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	Jones (E), Scharner (R)	Terry (K,5), Bosingwa (M,2)
Midfield	Gera (K)	N/A
Attack	N/A	N/A
Additional issues	Thomas an Brunt were both doubts but Thomas started and was replaced by Brunt after 64mins. Reid picked up a hamstring injury and had to be replaced after 57 minutes.	Sturridge and Drogba were slight doubts but both started. Sturridge was replaced on 63 minutes.
Suspended	N/A	N/A

Man City Vs Bolton (2-0)

Injuries	Man City (1 + 0S)	Bolton (7 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	Richards (U,4)	Alonso (F), Mears (Z), Riley (J)
Midfield	N/A	Gardner (K), Holden (K), Lee (Z)
Attack	N/A	K.Davies (K)
Additional issues	Zabaleta was forced off after just 19 minutes. K.Toure was his repacement, he was a slight doubt ahead of the game.	Steinsson and M. Davies were doubts but started and played the whole game.
Suspended	N/A	N/A

Now that United seem to be recovering from their bad run of injuries, it’s time for Arsenal to catch up, both teams recording seven injures for the games last weekend. Our opponents Liverpool actually tried to make things a bit more even, declaring over 4 injuries for the first time this season. The Totts had a few big name players out but only recorded four injuries, there was no change for Chelsea and we all know the City situation.

The Liverpool game was a great morale boost and maybe, had we not got that late winner, what we saw against Milan might not have been possible. The Midfield injury situation is looking pretty dire at the moment. We’re now without our 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th choice creative central midfielders, I think only United have had in worse than us in that department this season, so it’s amazing to see what we have been able to achieve in the last couple games.

In fact, since the defeat to United that’s 13 points from a possible 15 and things. Thinking back to last season, it was a defeat to United that was the catalyst to a pretty decent unbeaten run, maybe this season we could see a similar run. We have a tricky game against Newcastle to come (a game we lost last season) but the run to the end of the season looks quite kind. Fourth is looking more and more likely, third is certainly not out of reach.

So, what’s the situation now? Well, Djourou returned to the squad for the Milan game but we were without the remaining six that missed the Liverpool game. Add to the Arteta, Benayoun and Diaby and Gibbs and Rosicky were doubts. After the Milan game there were slight injuries to Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott. Thankfully there’s a bit of a gap between the Milan and Newcastle game, giving players a little bit of time to recover. In addition to that there’s a nice 9-day gap after the Newcastle game, fingers crossed for a good performance and no more injuries.

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