Friday, November 18th, 2011 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

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“Making the Arsenal” – the book of Arsenal’s rebirth

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By Phil Gregory

Excellent work from Tony, Walter and other valued contributors have kept Untold ticking over during the barren wasteland that is the international break. Well them, and Sepp Blatter who said some very foolish things and rightly got taken to task by Rio Ferdinand on twitter, of all places.

Not that anyone English can be on a high horse about these things given the presence of John Terry in the England squad. Of course, he is innocent until proven guilty as it should be, but any other industry would’ve put him on “gardening leave” or “review” or some such thing to avoid the controversy.

Talking of racism, it is sad to see Kenny Dalglish fully supporting Luis Suarez despite his recent FA charge over the Evra racism affair. If Kenny feels he has to back his man due to the team nature of football, he could at least not do so in the public eye of the press conference… such actions rally wider support around Suarez, and then we all miss the point that racism is racism, regardless of which team the accused come from. Good to see your little Ingerlund recruits are doing so well Kenny, by the way. So much for Moneyball and meritocracy with Damien Comolli and his American friends!

Leaving aside such debates however, the blight of international football fortunately did not add to our list of injured players, and yet bizarrely we have managed to have an increase in the number of absentees. Gibbs has undergone hernia surgery after originally having an abdominal problem, for one. I feel sorry for the lad, he’s moving towards the Louis Saha category of fragile footballers, and there is a heated debate as to who is the more injury prone: Gibbs or Manchester United’s Fabio Da Silva, who can barely finish a match unscathed.

The other injury is Carl Jenkinson, who is out for three to four weeks. That is a real shame as he was starting to grow into the right back role and was looking like a solid stand-in for Sagna. I blame Arsenal.com for tempting karma by quoting Walter’s excellent article on Jenkinson’s recent progress, personally. As for the rest, Chamakh is fit and in the mixer for the weekend, whilst Diaby is back in full training but short of match fitness after a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

Writing on Arsenal.com, Tony jested that he didn’t know much about Norwich aside from the car park. Well, he’s got me beat there, as I know even less of these Premier League newcomers. It wouldn’t however be very Untold Arsenal to offer you precisely zero insight, so let’s have a look at some numbers. Norwich are tenth in a “home” league table which is respectable for a newly promoted side, but flatters them slightly as the fixtures weren’t the trickiest (arguably the most difficult was Stoke at home, a side that travels relatively poorly).

Arsenal on the other hand have only won a single away game this year, you know, that one across London the other week I think it was? That perhaps doesn’t bode too well for the Gunners, but to be fair to us, we should’ve taken the three points from a high flying Newcastle side if the referee did his job, with similar true at Blackburn (despite some dodgy defending on our aprt) and the Spurs game neither here nor there. Either way, Arsenal’s performances on the road this year could give Norwich a cause for confidence, but if that makes them come out and attack us then all the better!

Szcznesy

Djourou Koscielny Vermaelen Santos

Song Arteta

Ramsey

Walcott Van Persie Gervinho

Injuries will likely force Arsène to play Djourou as a makeshift right back for this game. It’s not ideal as the Swiss international hasn’t the pace to deal with the league’s quickest wingers, but defensively he should do fine overall.

The real loss is going forwards – you can always spot a centreback playing fullback over a genuine right back very easily. They get forward less, wary of getting caught out through perhaps a lack of pace, and are generally less effective when they do go forward. Perhaps we’ll focus our offence down the left, with Santos bombing forwards constantly and Djourou forming more of a back three as the defence shifts across to cover for Andre? It could be worth a try to maximise Santos’s attacking ability.

The rest of the back four is as you’d expect: I don’t think there’s a need to move Koscielny away from the middle to try him at right back, so I think we’ll see him in the middle with Vermaelen. Gibbs’ latest injury setback offers Santos another start.

The midfield three is what I imagine is our first choice, given the injury to Jack. Further forward, a familiar front three take up their usual positions. As a trio, I really like all of them. Gervinho in particular offers us the penetration that we needed against some park the bus sides last year – he beats his man and gets to the by-line, causing all sorts of chaos. There were questions over his final ball at the start of the season but he’s proving to be a great acquisition.

We’ve got the early game on Sky, and for once I’ll be able to watch it given my Saturday League side have been cancelled on by their opposition. Not that I’m happy with such a cancellation, but every cloud has a silver lining as they say.

On the whole, I’m not entirely sure what to expect from this game. Norwich, are doing really well this season, but an Arsenal performing to the best of their ability should have too much for them. 0-2 to the Arsenal for me.

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