Villa Preview
Aston Villa, one of the teams tipped to take over a spot in the “big four” are the visitors to the Emirates tomorrow. Villa is a very good team but seems to have a real problem getting results against the “big four” clubs, bring only able to win once in 35 attempts. They will be hoping for a better result tomorrow, but I don’t think now is a good time for any team to visit the Emirates.
Smiles all around after a good week for Arsenal.
The mood in the Arsenal camp must be bullish after the last 2 results, and the changes made for the Carling Cup tie has allowed the players a full week rest. A week to recuperate should see the team full of energy and zest tomorrow, confidence is running high and everyone should be hungry for a win.
Villa on the other hand are visiting on the back of 2 games where, not unlike Arsenal, they were expected to win points but ended up losing 2-0 to Newcastle and 1-2 against Middlesborough. This is not the best of form for a team aspiring for a champions league spot. My worry is the team goes into the game with a similar attitude to that of Fulham, Hull, Sunderland, etc.
We need to be in top gear for the game, as I’ve posted before , the win against Manchester United will stand for nothing if we don’t get a victory against Aston villa. What this team needs more than anything else is a bit of consistency, two wins will be seen as the beginning of a good run, anything else and it’s back to square one.
On the injury front we still have Adebayor rated at 50-50, Almunia at 70-30 and Eboue along with Eduardo and Rosicky out. Although Ade and Almunia are to undergo late fitness tests I doubt that we will see either in action against the Villa.
Wenger is positive on Thomas Rosicky. I don’t share his optimism, there must be cause for concern about the health of Rosicky as reports of his imminent recovery as proved time and time again to be false. Like all gooners I am hoping for a full recovery, but I wouldn’t at all be surprised if this happens much, much later than we thought.
Eduardo is reported to be in training according to Setanta according to Croatian press, again I don’t share this optimism. At the moment there is no need to rush any of our strikers back into action, let’s be patient Eduardo will be back whether it is next week or next month he needs to be completley fit before he sees any action.
My prediction for tomorrow wil be a 3-1 win for the Gunners, I Bendtner will come good, but we will let in the odd goal. What do you think?
