Welcome to another Match preview. This weekend the boys are going canary hunting. Its been a fortnight of international football all over the world (By the way,i hope your country did well :)) and we are right back to the only genre of the game that gets us all buzzing. EPL football! We resume our quest for glory with a supposedly winnable game at home to Chris Houghton's side. I hear some say that we can't have hoped for a better team to return back to, but my reply to that is (in Podolski's voice) ''Aha''! That is Dangerous thinking indeed. History, as they say is repeated by those who choose to ignore it. Recent statistics have shown that we don't particularly do returns from international breaks too well. Without resorting to Opta joe or any other fancy data/stats provider, i can quite remember vividly that at this same time last season we were about fifth on the table. Back then we had also resumed from a similar break and found ourselves scheduled to face a Norwich side albeit at their ground. Suffice it to say, the game sucked from start to finish. Everything was bad. We never got going during the game and got well beaten. To Worsen matters, that result triggered off a massive slump in form that saw us lose to Swansea and Schalke in quick succession with our confidence in tatters. Okay okay, I know that's not the most nostalgic of flash backs, but its a timely reminder of how harsh things can turn around for any team in football if caution is not adhered to.
This season is starting to heat-up with crucial games now coming thick and fast. And its also instructive to note that between now and mid-November when the next International break will be upon us again Arsenal play 7 crucial games. Starting with this Norwich game, up next is Crystal palace, then Dortmund after which United, Liverpool and Chelsea (Capital 1 cup) follows! That's a season-defining schedule right there. One that'll go a long way in determining our true strengths. Which is why we need to ensure we bag the maximum points from our visitors in this fixture. Momentum is a wonderful thing in football and the boss describes its importance to the team in relation to consistency. The team is on a high, playing well and the injury situation is starting to look better. It is understood that the long awaited Santi-Mesut partnership in midfield may well be on show as the Spaniard is certified fit to play after recovering from ankle injury that kept him out for a month. Rosicky is in the mix as well alongside the usual suspects of Wilshere, Ramsey, Arteta and Flamini. Suddenly the Boss is awash with options and he can look to rotate liberally as his tactics demand. Bearing in mind the Tuesday Dortmund fixture, the boss may choose to give Ozil a rest and play Rosicky on the right-hand channel of our 4-2-3-1 formation. The choice to rest the German borders on allowing him time to recover fully from his knock against Sweden last Tuesday. Rosicky on his part did not travel and will no-doubt be fully rested and rearing to go. In playing the two holding guys Flamini and Arteta, this game provides a chance to fine-tune our tactics prior to Dortmund, since they are the ones expected to provide stiffer opposition than the canaries. However, playing both of them is also to guard against any slip-ups on the counter attack as Norwich do have strength on the wings which has found us wanting on a few occasions in the past. Ramsey would be my man behind Giroud centrally, whilst Wilshere plays on the left hand channel. But this is just my take on our likely lineup. Wenger quite clearly gave insight into the factors that are involved in his selections especially after international breaks. He mentioned needing to analyse how many minutes a player had played, even going as far as asking players how they felt in relation to their bodies and mental state. Therefore, it wouldn't at all be surprising to still see Ozil in the starting line-up. It'll simply mean he's fit to play.
Defensively,there isn't likely to be any change there. Sagna who was a doubt trained yesterday without problems so expect him to get back into the team. In somewhat unrelated team news, Vermaelen was talking to the local reporters in his home country and suggested he was starting to consider his future at the club following his lack of playing time. And with the World cup due this summer,he said he needs games to strengthen his chances of being selected. The boss sympathized with him on the matter, but stated clearly he could do little to help. The partnership of Kos and Per has been effective and pretty solid thus far, it'll be an unwise decision to change it now. I recall the boss tried something like that last season when he inexplicably dropped Mertasacker against Chelsea at home and paired Vermaelen and Kos. The gamble flopped badly and we got our ass whooped. Wenger must have learnt a valuable lesson on that occasion, so the captain would just have to be a little more patient.
So on to the Visitors, who to be honest ,are in a right mess at the moment in terms of current form. They have won only 2 of their 7 premiership games both by 1-0 scorelines to Southampton and Stoke. Sitting in the relegation zone, they no doubt would want to start getting points on the board as they have lost some games they really shouldn't have primarily to Hull City and Villa. Chris Houghton likes the 4-1-4-1 style that suits his team's counter punching credentials. They have an energetic holding midfielder in Alex Tettey who is hard on the tackle and breaks up play quite well. However, he gets naive at times as evident in his howler that caused chelsea's William to score against them at carrow road. I would like to see Ramsey lurk around him dangerously. In Leroy Fer and Jonathan Howson they have hardworking midfielders who are tactically disciplined and would have been drilled on how to ''soften up'' our guys (especially Wilshere) with a view to upset our rythm. I think it was Howson who scored a quite brilliant solo effort on the last day of the season to Mancity last season at the Etihad. Where he was allowed to ghost past 4 players before finishing superbly. A massive warning in case we start getting sloppy. Their wide men are Anthony Pilkington (left) and Robert Snodgrass (right). Pilkington is a doubt for the game but in him they have a guy who's very good in the air. Alongside their new striker Ricky Van Wolfswinkel (chuckle!) they've got plenty of height in the final third, so defending on crosses will need to be on point. Chris Houghton their manager is a Spurs fan, so i have no sympathies for him despite his widely acclaimed good guy personality, i hope he leaves the Emirates empty handed.
In all honesty, this one has a home win written all over it. We are in great form (W-W-W-W-W-D) whilst they are not (L-W-L-L-W-L). Last season's fixture between us was a cliff hanger for the most part. They scored first in the 56th minute and looked like they would bag all three points. Until an Arteta Penalty halted that and we ran out 3-1 winners. A quick word on the referee tomorrow, Lee Probert. I discovered a series of worrying stats regarding him and us. We are winless in the last 5 games involving him as ref. (2 draws, 3 losses) Our last win with him in charge at the middle was in 2010. ( a League cup tie with Tottenham). Now here is where it gets really weird, Norwich are unbeaten in their last 7 games under Probert. (5 wins, 2 draws) and one of those wins was the 1-0 over us at Carrow road last season. Strangely, Probert also has been at the helm of games where the biggest upsets have happened already this season. He refereed the wins of Cardiff over Mancity and West ham over Tottenham (Gulp!). Feeling confident? Its on that re-assuring note i say COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!
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