Hostilities will be renewed this weekend as the Arsenal have at it with Man United. No doubt the media will hype this up a bit and read a great deal into the result. I?m not so sure this game will be particularly indicative of what we can expect in the regular season.
Le Boss will still be holding out several key players who haven?t achieved match fitness. I hope he uses this game to find out about some of the players. I know I?d like to find out what we can expect from several potentially key squad members:
Francis Jeffers ? With Henry still resting let?s give Frannie a chance. Not to put too much pressure on the lad, but I need to see him score in this game or otherwise it?s hit the bricks time. I?ve grown tired of his injury-tease a little-injury routine. Score or shut up and sit down.
Freddie Ljungberg ? There have been times over the last three years where he was our most important player. He simply willed himself to score. We need to see if he has recaptured that form.
Gilberto Silva ? Ok, no World Cup hangover excuse. No adapting to a foreign country excuse. Time to be a rock.
Pascal Cygan ? The starting job is yours to lose. Time to get your mental sh-t together and play with the big boys.
Solid contributions from these four could be critical this season. If they can?t deliver they are going to have to step aside ? even Freddie. If he?s not 100% let?s get Pennant in there and see what he can do.
2 Responses to “Four Who Need To Impress”
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August 8th, 2003 at 10:52 am
I am not sure this match will be indicative on ANYTHING really…
I know that there are many Brit Arsenal supporters that would be up in arms if we jettisoned Jeffers…
as he is BRITISH damn it!!
but… I don’t think he is the man… I agree that he either needs to step up NOW … or we ship him…
I believe if Blackburn offered enough… we would have already…
Ljunberg… fantastic at times… and I think he is a key Arsenal player… but to me… he is not as important as a healthy Pires… I hope he can regain that magical form as well…
Silva… I like alot… I think he will be fine…
Cygan… as I have stated before…
don’t get me going on our defense… or plan for defenders… our masterplan…
Wenger has admitted that the defense cost us the title last season (Soccernet)… and then we do nothing about it… lose Luhzny … and send Volz on loan… I don’t see how that improves a weak defense at all….
with the influx of cash from Nike… and from the broadcast right money too… please… buy a solid defender… or two…
Stealing PUYOL from United would be blissful… but thats just me dreaming!
I want Pennant to get every opportunity as well…
good write up…
lets roll the mancs on Sunday for kicks!
August 8th, 2003 at 1:28 pm
I agree with all of this. I think that Pascal Cygan and the rest of the defense will be key in the league.
In the CL, we need more contribution from players other than Henry. All the teams that made it to the QF and beyond had several goal scorers. Aside from Henry, we’ve gotten the odd goal here and there. We need someone else to score 5 or more goals in the CL in order to do better.
One note about Silva: I don’t know why so many people slag him off. Over the summer, I watched a few games from last year that I had taped (to decide which ones to keep or to erase). Even in games where he was supposed to be bad/tired/etc., he played very well IMHO. He was very unlucky not to score 4-5 goals in the league (cleared off the line, hit post or bar on more than 5 occasions). If he gets better, then watch out!