Competition: English Premier League Date: Sunday 2nd September Kick Off: 0830 EST, 1330 GMT Venue: Emirates Stadium It's another Super Sunday as Arsenal take on 8th-place Pompey at the Grove. Coming off the high of a rousing 3-0 Champions League win over Sparta Prague – guaranteeing group stage football for the 10th consecutive year – can the boys take all three points and keep up with Chelsea's first-place pace, or will the team of ex-Gunners steal some points? Several key players got some rest on Wednesday and will be ready to go for Sunday's game – including Diaby, who may see his first Premiership action of the season. (Sorry Skizz, you weren't around to make this one!) ON TO VICTORY!
i think we should manage this one okay right? pompey are an up and coming side, however... home match, coming on the heels of a string of good results... 2-0 with almunia keeping his shutout string rolling along!
I'm feeling another frustrating 75+ minutes capped by a late Arsenal winner. Modric with the goal...errrr I mean Ade with the goal.
We have Sagna coming back for this game .. Phew .. I'd be pretty happy with the backline of Clichy-Senderos-Toure-Sagna ..
That sounds awesome, especially with Alumina not flubbing balls into the goal. They just can't get complacent and it ought to go well. I'm going with 2-0 to the Arse. I'm interested to see who the starting strikers will be. Please start Eduardo again.
i can see two things happening. One, we blow out Pompey by the score of 3 or 4 nil because it seems everyone has their scoring boots on, and i hope they don't change them for Saturday. Or i can see us conceding late on in the first half and equalizes in the 70th with a free kick, and having a million and one chances to win the game and messing up all of them. I hope for the first, and i believe its the time to really get a good run of wins to keep up with, or over take Chelsea. It took Fabregas until April to get to three goals, this season he doesn't have to wait until September to reach that tally, i think/hope we will see him on the score sheet often this season. I think we will go with something like this Almunia Sagna----Senderos----Toure-----Clichy Hleb(Walcott) -----Gilberto (Diaby)----Fabregas---Rosicky Eduardo (Adebayor)-----v.persie A great line-up, and once Gallas comes back, it will be a line-up that looks worthy of a Premier League trophy.
Physio room says Lehmann is out until 15th Sep .. Almunia has to grab this chance .. I don't think he had too much to do in the 2 games he played .. This game, against a decent opposition, will actually test his potential as the replacement for Lehmann ..
They caused Chelski a LOT of problems last week. This is the first "hmmm" game of the season in my eyes. I do think we will edge it though. Still not making a prediction!
Question is....who will start up front. Im sure Ade will, thats why he was rested (came on as a sub) for the Prague game. RVP played 2 games in a row now. Will Eduardo play again or RVP and Ade play up front? Also does anyone know if there are any Portsmouth injuries at the moment? I cant seem to find anything.
My eyes tell me Pompey got lucky against Derby, ManU and Chelsea, catching the latter two on bad patches. My head tells me that's too much fortune to assign just to luck. And I'm amazed Kanu is still in the league. Arsenal's form of late has shown more of the flair and speed we've longed for the past couple years. It also helps that Wenger seems to have the boys focused on getting results from these types of games. Games last year the club would've found a way to settle for a draw. Arsenal may not have controlled Sparta yesterday, but they also didn't let it get out of hand, either. Helps that the attacking players should be rested. Arsenal are faster than Portsmouth, and if the defense is on should shut the visitors down comfortably. Fluidity from the midfield seems much improved over last season. Arsenal 2-0, with the possibility for a third.
We can't sit RVP... but I think Eduardo should start. I say have Ade as a sub. And Hleb should be CAM, with Rosicky on the left and Theo on the right.
Why can't van Persie be benched? He's not exactly been performing well, and NO player should be indispensible to the side and guaranteed a slot. Wenger said that himself.
Tough choice who should start upfront. Adebayor looked good yesterday & so did Eduardo. Van Persie however is Van Persie. I am going to leave this decision to Le Boss. Thats why he gets paid & we don't.
Why do I have to be Hleb? This will be an interesting match, but playing at home will be a benefit. Their defense is a bit older, so I'd love to see Walcott and RvP go straight at them.
Probably because he's our best striker, and because he had one or two bad games in a row doesn't mean we should sit him. You disagree? Maybe if he had a few more matches where he struggled, but I don't think the last few have been enough.
ooo I duno, im still more comfortable with RVP starting. I think games like this are the type of games where we can make statements to the rest of the top 4. I reckon a 2-0 win is a strong possibilty. RVP will get a goal and itll be a bloody blinder Skizz!