Arsenal Premiership Soccer

Sparta Preview - Arsenal Not Signing Adriano - Lehmann

By gillespieroad on | From gillespieroad.wordpress.com

Tonight sees the second leg of our Champions League qualifier against Sparta Prague. A 2-0 away win stands us in good stead to qualify, but the job is certainly not over yet and we’ll need to keep things tight at the back to ensure there’s no hiccups along the way.

Thankfully, at the press conference today, AW revealed that Philippe Senderos will return to the squad so there will be no need for Alex Song to play. At all. None. With Almunia still in for Lehmann and Eboue and Sagna out, Justin Hoyte and should be the only change from the team that beat Manchester City at the weekend. I’m expecting the line-up to be;

Almunia
Hoyte
Toure
Senderos
Clichy
Hleb
Fabregas
Gilberto
Rosicky
van Persie
Eduardo

I feel Eduardo will come in for Adebayor who had a stinker against Citeh. As mentioned yesterday, we’re still searching for the striking combination that will provide the most goals and it’s fairly certain that RVP will be the mainstay, accompanied by one of Eduardo or Adebayor. From what I’ve seen of Eduardo, he looks like the best man of those 3 to link the play between the midfield and his partner up front.

In a splurge of newsy soundbite benevolence, Wenger also commented on the rumours surrounding the non-signing of Adriano. The Boss said,

“If I find the right player with the right quality I will always take him. With Adriano they wanted to give you a player and also take one from your squad. It would mean losing a player and then get one in who you were not desperately wanting. It is nothing to do with the quality of Adriano.”

I’ve got to say that really, Adriano would be a massive coup for us. He’s proven quality and plays in the style of an Arsenal player, albeit one who is a human battering ram - the sort of player we thought Julio Baptista would be. The question is who did Inter want in return for him? It would have to be someone we’d consider too important to lose. Fabregas? Rosicky? RVP? Gilberto? Your guess is as good as mine. In fact, it’s probably better. What would’ve been perfect would be to swap him for Bendtner or Adebayor and then asses the situation at the end of the season.

Wenger also commented on the Lehmann situation. With rumours rife that the German is considering his future with the club, AW was quick to play that talk down and state that Jens is still committed to regaining his No.1 spot when he returns from injury.

“I had a meeting with Jens last Friday and he is not capable of playing at the moment. I know what is happening and he is not on his way out of the club.”

Finally, have a butcher’s at this. How does Mark Hughes think people who have eyes and watch his team play using them don’t formulate their own opinion of his team (and in particular Robbie Savage), that his pathetic retaliatory finger pointing won’t change? The man is clearly deluded. I personally can’t wait until the next time we play his lot and we see Robin and Cesc both “accidentally” slide tackle him when chasing balls that are going out of play. I can see the little smirk on Arsene’s face now.

Anyway. Off to work for me. Have a good day won’t you?

Cheers

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