Pre-match Talk Arsenal V Stoke

Hello Gunners fans!

Anyone wish we could go back to just after the Wolves game and start again? Yeah me too; but life has been cruel to the gunners in November. I salute all the Arsenal fans that went to the city stadium in Manchester; they made themselves heard and their support was amazing for our kids.

We really have to beat Stoke to get our morale back up; the Chelsea game was a bitter pill to swallow; considering that we all kind of knew by the 60mins mark, when Arsenal started crossing the ball hoping for Arshavin, Eduardo, Vela et al to out jump Terry et al to score, that Arsenal were not going to win.

For tomorrow Almunia should be in goal; the same keeper that conceded a free kick goal from Drogba – seriously a free kick from Drogba. Sagna should be fit after a bit of an injury problem, Thomas (is he still our favourite Belgian? Sure he is) and William Gallas will continue in the centre of defence while Traore would continue his cringe-worthy performance at left back.

In midfield Denilson, Song and Fabregas should continue in midfield; though there is a case for Rosicky and Nasri.

Ah Attack, what would we do without RVP? loose would be the answer. I do hate to speak (or write) against Wenger but considering his love for statistics; I am slightly befuddled that he chose to ignore the one that shows RVP has not had an injury free season in his pro career.
Wenger has said he will sign a striker; surely we’ve heard that before with no actions; well he did say he won’t let a club hold Arsenal to ransom, so he has not intention of buying a player but I’m silently hoping on Carlton Cole.

For the game, it should be Arshavin upfront; Eduardo will hope he can start contributing more in terms of uh, controlling the ball, shooting, shooting towards the goal and maybe scoring but one bad game doesn’t make him a bad player though I’m worried about him.
The Three upfront should be completed by Nasri or Rosicky maybe Vela. Theo Walcott is surprise surprise injured.

I hope we beat Stoke – which is a problem because we shouldn’t hope to beat Stoke we should be sure we’ll beat stoke.

I’ll go for 2-1 here; our inability to keep clean sheets scares me. I hope Eduardo gets on the score sheet with a brace to help his confidence.

Coach watch: Arsene should resume his duties of shaking the opposition manager’s hand after the game; I can’t believe how much news coverage this rubbish got. So what he didn’t shake Hughes’ hand, the man was disrespectful to Arsene and he’s under no obligation to shake anyone’s hand. Also, isn’t it disingenuous to shake the hand of someone you feel doesn’t deserve it.
All this bad loser rubbish is nonsense Arsenal lost 6-1 to Man u during his bad rivalry phase to Fergie and he still shook the guy’s hand. Hughes was disrespectful and doesn’t deserve his hand shake.

On a side note, I feel sad for Arsene, I see a man whose faith in the team has been betrayed by circumstances and some of his players. We’ve clawed back from a bigger point margin before and we can do it again.