After taking a successful first step towards recovery against Swansea, tomorrow we face the tougher challenge of Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. We will at least have two more options as Song and Gervinho can play.
The other good news is that Dortmund haven’t got off to the greatest of starts this season either. Not as bad as ours admittedly, but they lost on Saturday to newly promoted Hertha Berlin.
So who will play for Arsenal? Song is bound to come straight back in. Frimpong has done OK and clearly has a big future. But he is only eighteen and still has plenty to learn. He looked tired against Swansea too and had to be subbed.
Will Gervinho come straight in? Bit more of a debate this one after Andrey Arshavin put in one of his best performances against Swansea on Saturday. In fact, of the two wide players, it was Walcott who struggled to make an impact at the weekend. Could Walcott be dropped for this game?
In the middle there is talk of Ramsey picking up a knock on Saturday and sitting this one out. So who will play alongside Arteta? Is Rosicky fit or will we see a debut for Benayoun?
To me though, an Arteta/Benayoun combo seems a little too biased towards attacking in our toughest away game of the Champions League group. Let’s not get carried away after our slightly fortuitous win against Swansea City. Fitness allowing I think Arteta/Ramsey or Arteta/Rosicky is a more likely pair. Rosicky isn’t as exciting, but as well as going forward he knows how to tackle and hold the ball – and there could be plenty of that needed tomorrow. Ramsey may be captain of Wales, but Rosicky has a whole lot more experience of this kind of game.
At the back, the only debate is Gibbs vs Santos. Gibbs didn’t have the greatest of games on Saturday, but Arsene didn’t take the option of subbing him for Santos. My guess at the moment is that Gibbs will start in the name of low disruption to the line-up. Arsenal need to keep inching their way back to form and too many changes can hinder that process more than it helps, particularly if Santos isn’t fully fit.
I guess we will see some hard news later today from the club about who is making the trip. But for now, how about something like this:
________ Szczesny ________
Sagna _ Merte _ Kos ___ Gibbs
_________ Song __________
____ Arteta ___ Rosicky ____
Arshavin _ Van Persie _ Gervinho
What do you think?
