Wenger the Tactician

So Wenger has finally revealed his true feeling regarding the decision of selling PV. He said:
"It is always difficult to tell a player he is no longer wanted when you have been in battle together and given everything together."

So you would expect PV to be extra motivated when he comes to play against us. You can only hope that Gilberto is good enough to handle his ex partner.

The Juventus game will be very interesting. I feel that both teams will be playing cautiously, trying to exploit the opposition's mistakes.

Trezeguet and Ibrahimovic are no Drobga but they will nonetheless pose serious physical threat with their size. With Sol not playing against Porsmouth, Wenger would logically play Senderos. While Senderos is quite good against aerial attack, he must remain alert for the whole 90 minutes. Both strikers are extremely dangerous once they got inside the box. You can't even allow then half the chance. They are no Peter Crouch. Kolo's pace will be essential. I am afraid we will have to endure some last ditch tackles and desperate clearances from our young back four.

This is the kind of game that requires Wenger's tactical ability to bring us through.

Ljungberg won't play against Porsmouth so there is chance he will play against Juventus and, fingers crossed, score against them one more time! This is probably the best time for our Super Swede to break the duck. His presence will be massive against the Italian. I would expect him starting in the left with Hleb taking the right wing position.

We will be missing Henry's partnership with Adebayor but probably van Persie will take the chance to prove that he is more than a match for the Togolese. Competition is always good.

I have concerns for Cesc though. I will hope that we don't need to play him for 90 minutes tomorrow. He needs to be at his best physically and mentally against Juve. His passing can be the key to our attack.

So I will hope the formation to be this way (R to L):
The back four will remain the same, i.e: Eboue, Kolo, Senderos, Flamini.
The midfield will be: Hleb, Gilberto, Cesc, Ljungberg.
And van Persie partners Henry upfront.

Of course Wenger may well start with his now preferred 4-5-1 formation. But Juve is not Real. Their players are capable of sending out quality long balls if they are given room. They don't need to go through our midfield barrier to launch an attack. We must pressurise them from the front (if only Adebayor can play). We must make use of Highbury's narrow space to force them into making mistake and counter attack.

And therefore, we need van Persie and Henry to be aggresive and alert upfront. van Persie, the king of cage, is often amazing playing in narrow space.

If it remains 0-0 for the first 45 minutes then we can probably send in Reyes to replace Ljungberg. The Spaniard at his best may just be the right player to change the game. But I would still favor Ljungberg to start if he is fit.

As for tomorrow's game, I will expect us to win. Not because Porsmouth is not good enough, but Arsenal are not in the position to let any point slip off their hands. We just have to win each and every remaining league game.

Adebayor will score again tomorrow! Well, I hope so.