Gooneriffic Returns? Man Utd Preview.

Back again. Mostly because I can't stop thinking about the match tomorrow night, and I thought writing this might help me concentrate on revision for my finals (which start tomorrow).

Obviously, a good result in this first leg would be fantastic, it goes without saying really. There isn't too much speculation going about the team at the moment; we know who is and isn't going to be fit (Silvestre aside), and we know which players will probably make up the majority of the starting line-up. It seems veyr likely that Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Gibbs, Nasri, Song, Cesc, Walcott and Adebayor will make up 9 of the first 11. Either Silvestre or Diaby will play in central defence alongside Toure. If he is sufficiently fit after his lay-off, I would take Djourou every time. His pace gives him a definite edge over Silvestre, who has not covered himself in glory in recent games.

The final place, in my opinion should go to the much maligned Nicklas Bendtner. I doubt this will be a particularly popular opinion, but it could be a very effective move. Presuming we continue with the 4-2-3-1 formation we have used in recent weeks, positioning Bendtner on the left of the three players behind the striker would help us gain the initiative in this match. Man Utd are likely to be playing Rafael at right-back, and Bendtner's height and power would trouble the young Brazilian, who is certainly more assured going forward than defending. Utd are likely to target Kieron Gibbs at left back and with Rafael overlapping Ronaldo, it would be a huge challenge for the youngster. Playing Bendtner on the left would help keep Rafael pinned back, and thus ease the burden on Gibbs.

If I was the manager, the team would line up thus:

-------------------Almunia----------------
--------Sagna---Toure--Djourou---Gibbs-
-----------------Song----Cesc-------------
---------Walcott----Nasri----Bendtner----
------------------Adebayor----------------

However, I expect Nasri and Cesc's role to be reversed, and on the evidence of our last performance against Middlesborough, this would not necessarily be a bad thing.

We need to gain the momentum early on in this matchin order to prevent Utd taking advantage of our weakened defence. Walcott should be able to prevent Evra from getting forward too often, Adebayor has the capacity to keep Vidic and Ferdinand busy all night long, and the Song-Cesc axis is able to dominate Man Utd central midfielders. If Bendtner is able to restrict Rafael's role on the right, we can cut off the supply to Utd's fearsome forward line and give ourselves the advantage.

News Roundup + Gooneriffic's Super Season Summary: Part 1!

Good morning boys and girls.

We'll start with a little of bit of news and gossip today, then the first instalment of my three part season summary.

Lots of exciting transfer rubbish today, we have been linked very heavily with Samir Nasri of Marseille in the last couple of days, in much the same way that we were with Hatem Ben Arfa this time last week. He is a very good player, so it would be good if it's true, but well, the isn't how Arsene normally conducts his transfers.

Other tired hacks wanting easy copy space link us to: Roque Santa Cruz, who is apparently coming in to replace Adebayor, who is Barcelona bound. Bollocks. The usual crowd of Jean Makoun, Lilian Thuram, Kranjcar, and a lot of reports suggesting Alberto Aquilani of Roma is on his way for £23 million. That's another I can't see happening, as far as i recall, he plays in pretty much the same position as Cesc, and so is not a player we need really. Sounds like an agent trying to help with contract negotiations to me.

Interestingly, we have some news coming from Tony Adams at Portsmouth about everyone's favourite gutless mercenary, Lassana Diarra. It seems there may be more to his departure than we imagine. Admittedly the only source is Tribalfootball, but there are direct quotes from Tony. I can't think what this other reason might be, unless either Wenger decided he wasn't going to make it here, or he somehow discovered that he goes under the nickname "Diarra the Ripper" for a reason.* Any other suggestions?

And now, drum roll......

Gooneriffic's Super Season Summary!

Part 1:

First things first. This has been a very good season for Arsenal F.C. The way it ended may have been very painful, losing out in the latter stages of both the league and the Champions League, followed by the loss and potential loss of two important players (Flamini and Hleb). However, considering that the majority of (admittedly moronic and ill-informed) pundits and journalists predicted that our season would end only in the ignominy of finishing below Spurs, it can only be regarded as a success. The CL quarter-final second leg against Liverpool seemed to encapsulate the season in about 5 glorious, and then heartbreaking minutes. The squad as a whole performed far better than in either of the two previous seasons, and many players improved dramatically.

In my view, there is only one reason why we were not able to continue the high level of football we played right through until the end of the season. Referees decisions were not to blame (not to say that we were not at the sharp end of quite a few dodgy ones), nor were embarrassing, but ultimately isolated cup defeats to Man Utd and Spurs, and neither was the Birmingham game, with Eduardo's injury and Gallas' antics, that many have pointed out as a turning point. The lack of depth in our squad was the key factor in the loss of form that saw us drop crucial points to Middlesbrough, Wigan and Villa. At that late stage in the season, key players were not performing at anything near their peaks, most obviously for me, Hleb, but due to the fact that we had a few injuries to big players, we were not able to shuffle the squad around and bring in on-form players. At either Man Utd or Chelsea, if a player is not performing, they normally have the squad depth to replace them, even if they have a few players injured. Yes we were unlucky to have players like Van Persie, Eduardo and Rosicky out for large parts of the season, but we never had more than a few injuries at a time. To compete domestically and in Europe these days, you need a bigger first team squad than we (currently) have.

Despite all this, I feel that there are far more positives than negatives to draw from this season. The players have shown a great team spirit, and proved their doubters wrong on many occasions. We recovered from the late 2007 slump that many of our doubters thought would prove the end of the title challenge, we proved that we can cope with teams who try to bully us out of games, as well as showing that we can mix it up a bit if necessary. The team is still a work in progress, but it has come on so much over the last season. Even with the possible departures, it won't take more than a couple of tweaks to see us in the silverware this time next year!

Coming up next: player by player squad summary!

Don't go changin'!

*I have no evidence to suggest that this is Diarra's actual nickname, or that he is a mass murderer of any sort. On the other hand, I have no evidence that he isn't....