Cesspool vs. Arsenal: Preview/Is Wenger Losing It?

Pleasant good morning/afternoon/evening/night to you wherever in the world you are. Don’t see what’s so pleasant about it but for some reason I feel I have to be polite. Meh, anyway…

We travel to the city of Liverpool today to take on Cesspool FC at Anfield. Many Gooners will definitely be up for this game as it marks the 20th anniversary of when we defeated Cesspool 2-0 at Anfield. Man, what a match that was! That was nothing short of epic. Alan Smith and Michael Thomas got the two goals needed to secure the league title for Arsenal. You’d be hard pressed to find a more important goal scored so late in all of English football. If you’re a young Gooner and have never seen it then click here. 

 According to Arsenal.com Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor are both out.

“Robin van Persie will miss Tuesday night’s trip to Liverpool after suffering an injury during the FA Cup Semi-Final. “From Saturday we have lost Robin van Persie, who has a little groin problem.

“Emmanuel Adebayor is out of the trip to Anfield on Tuesday night. “Adebayor is rested. He has a little hamstring alert and we don’t want to take a gamble on him.”

I think this means we’ll see Eduardo partner Nicklas Bendtner up front. Can’t say I have a problem with that as the duo seem to be able to function well with each other, based on what we’ve seen in the FA Cup (grrr) earlier this season and last season as well. Bacary Sagna is also back in the squad but faces a late fitness test to see whether he’ll reclaim his right back spot from Emmanuel Eboue. This could possibly mean Eboue will be employed at right midfield to give Theo Walcott a breather tonight as well. That’s all there is to note in the injury returns department. Lukasz Fabianski is set to continue in goal with Kolo Toure and Mikael Silvestre occupying the center back positions and Kieran Gibbs deputising for Gael Clichy at left back.

Cesspool aren’t without their own injury problems though as their skipper Steven Gerrard remains out of action with a groin injury. Rafael Benitez reckons he’ll be out for another 7 to 10 days – not that we really care.

Apart from the fact that they’re at home, Cesspool have the advantage of having a longer rest period than us (a whole 7 days to be exact) as they’ve been out of action since that ice hockey-like 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge with Chelsea. Arsenal on the other hand played Villarreal last Wednesday then Chelsea in the FA Cup (grrr) last Saturday and only had 2 days to rest in between Saturday and today’s game.

Liver…Cesspool are aiming to wrap up their 28th consecutive home game in the Premiership without defeat while Arsenal are looking to extend their 18 game unbeaten Premiership run. It means that unless there’s a stalemate after 90 minutes something’s got to give.

Cesspool will see a win tonight as vital as they’re just 1 point behind Manchester United at the moment, with only 5 games to go. Arsenal on the other hand are looking to tighten their grip on that all important 4th and final Champions League spot. Arsene Wenger on the other hand has some rather interesting and peculiar thoughts on our league standings.

“Winning is what we live for. We want to win. We are not happy remaining fourth. We want to get closer to them. Third place is important, second place is not out of the question and why not first?”

This may seem at first that he’s just trying to build confidence in his young squad. Nothing’s wrong with that but I feel very much though that Arsene Wenger is very serious about this. I think this is exactly why we saw such a weakened squad put out against Chelsea in the FA Cup (grrr). He genuinely believes we can win the title. What in the world?! Am I the only one that sees this as very concerning. We’ve got 6 games remaining in the Premiership, 3 of those 6 games are against the three top teams in the league. We’re 10 points behind the leaders. You’re telling me Arsene Wenger really expects us to win all these 6 games and Man United, and Cesspool Chelsea are going to drop points in their remaining games? Is Arsene Wenger finally losing it? This says to me that he’s no longer the objective level headed manager he once was and this is just another bullet in the list of eccentric things he’s done and/or said this season that makes you wonder if he’s still competent at this level. He’s certainly making his own whip for his back at the moment as this kind of overconfidence had better lead to results or the backlash from the fans will be very severe should he not even succeed in winning the Champions League. I think this is another quote that can be added to the ongoing debate that Arsene Wenger is finally losing the plot and maybe it’s time for him and the board to give his position as manager of the club some serious thought. If this is his view doesn’t it make you wonder if he really knows what he’s doing anymore?

Alright enough of that…

I have no certainty of the accuracy of my expected starting line up after Saturday’s game but I’ll attempt to give one I think we’re likely to see anyway.

                     Fabianski

   Sagna   Toure  Silvestre  Gibbs

Eboue  Song  Fabregas Arshavin

            Bendtner   Eduardo

Predicted outcome: Cesspool 2-3 Arsenal. Torres will give the Arsenal defence some trouble but Andrey Arshavin will give a performance to make Wenger regret not starting him against Chelsea on Saturday. Don’t be surprised to see Eduardo on the scoresheet either.

Of all the teams in world football, nothing gets me going more than a win for Arsenal over Cesspool. God, I hate them! I’m really looking forward to this match tonight and hopefully it will help to ease the pain of  the events of last Saturday at Wembley. Don’t be surprised to see them try to kick our players out of the game as they’ll have a torrid time trying to keep up with our free flowing football. Rich man’s Blackburn Rovers? I certainly think so.

And that’s all from me for now. I’ll be back with a match report sometime after the match later. Until then, Come on you mighty Gunners!

Be sure to join our forums for more discussion on the match at arsenalaction.com