Weekend Fallout / Totts Preview

As is customary following a disappointing result, I’ve withdrawn slightly from all things Arsenal (all things football, in fact) for a couple of days now.  I don’t cope well with adversity, and after Saturday the first sign that maybe not much has really changed since last season, I’ve been working hard on repressing the memory. 

As a result Arsene’s post-game shoving-match with the fourth official has passed me by almost entirely.  I switched off the second the full-time whistle was blown, and I haven’t gone back to watch the incident yet.  Needless to say though, a great fuss has been made of it and Wenger, who was already being labelled a grumpy old man, is now a bad loser, a hypocrite and a, er, bad loser.

Well we already knew that bit, Wenger hates to lose, and he’s said in the past that it makes him physically sick.  Add to that the nature of our draw/defeat on Saturday, and it can’t have improved his mood all.  Watching his interviews after the match though, I got the feeling he was most frustrated at our own failings, the timing of the goal will obviously rankle, but he knows the rule, and there was nothing wrong with the time the referee added on.  He was annoyed that we didn’t kill the game off though, the penalty being the obvious opportunity, but there were others that fell to Wilshere, Chamakh and Arshavin along the way.

There’s the possibility that the manager misses tonight’s game if he accepts the charges and the touchline ban and an £8,000 fine to go with it.  More likely he will take it for the home game against West Brom at the weekend instead.  A better option than sending a bunch of our kids to WHL for the evening and asking them to fend for themselves.  I can’t see him appealing this one, as by all accounts, he was conducting improperly.

On to tonight’s match then, it looks like it might not be such a mismatch as we first feared.  ‘Arry is facing up to the reality of Champions League football and has said he’ll rest some of his first team, while we look likely to mix in a bit of experience with the usual youth.  Denilson and Djourou look set for their first starts of the season, and Eboue his second, while one of Koscielny or Squillaci will probably have to continue in defence.  The bulk of the team will be youngsters though, so taking a wild stab in the dark, I’ll hazard:

Fabianski

Eastmond – Djourou – Koscielny – Gibbs

Randall – Denilson – Lansbury

Eboue – JET – Vela

There might be a shortage of creativity in that midfield though that sees one of Rosicky, Nasri or Wilshere draughted in.

So if it’s a match up of our second string against theirs, bearing in mind injuries and loanees on both sides, I’d say we have enough to win.  The Carling Cup team came through a difficult test against Liverpool last year, no reason why the class of 2010 can’t win tonight in similar circumstances.

Fabianski, who looks to have got the nod in goal will be eyeing up another chance to prove himself, while I think Vela has a very real chance of displacing Arshavin in the first team if he has a productive game and shows his excellent finishing again.   I certainly hope he does, because the Russian needs a bit of a rocket to get him going, his recent for should not guarantee him a starting place.

The one thing I haven’t mentioned so far is Cesc’s hamstring injury, the prognosis is now a fortnight, which makes his participation in the Chelsea game at the start of October doubtful.  Let’s worry about that one later though, first we have the Totts to deal with tonight.

Enjoy the game wherever you’re watching it, but remember it’s only the Carling Cup. Unless we win.