So after blitzing Zagreb (which was fun to watch) we turn our attentions to the game on Sunday against Norwich. This is a team we would expect to beat, but then again seeing as we also expected to win against West Brom…well.
In terms of team news, Arsene had this to say:
on general team news
“We should have everyone available [from the Zagreb game], the players that played on Tuesday night plus maybe Oxlade-Chamberlain should be back in the squad.”
Oxlade back!!!! YAY!
On the injured:
“Arteta is short-term but Coquelin as I told you is much longer. The scans are positive because he does not need any surgery but it will be 12 weeks”
That seems to have passed under the radar, Aterta that is. It’s nice that it’s short term, it’ll be interesting to see how that impacts on the team
On Walcott
“Not for Sunday. He goes through a few tests and steps but the first one was successful. He started running again on Tuesday morning and had no reaction.”
(All quotes credited to www.arsenal.com)
Meaning Walcott could be back really soon. If he was running by Tuesday, then maybe we could have him back by next week and that would be a really huge boost as many (myself included) believe that Giroud’s great form is down in part to the healthy competition with Walcott and he gives us another dimension in attack and that is quite necessary.
Going back to Francis Coquelin, seeing as he’s crocked and out for some 3 months and such, we are left with Flamini. He feels he’s up to the task and I feel he’s a decent option to have. A world beater he is not, but he could do a job in the short term and that’s what we’ll need.
As for January the boss says he’s always looking to do a deal:
“We are in a position where we want to do something,” he said today. “If I find the right quality, I will do it.”
To be fair he always says that. He always says stuff like wanting to do a good deal and that if we find quality we would definitely go for it.
I personally feel we should worry more about the immediate which is Norwich and qualifying from our group in the champions league. The transfer window doesn’t open for another month or so, so I don’t see the sense in agonizing over what may or may not be done when that time comes. What will come will come and we would be here to meet it when it does, that should be our mantra.
We are getting our players back slowly and we keep fingers crossed that we don’t lose any more of them. We should be back to something resembling a fighting force by January. It’ll be fun to see how things pan out from then.
All in all let’s beat Norwich, depending on how results go we could be top…or not, but let’s do our part and hope for the best.
Till then
