Position: 8th, 5-2-5 (17 points, +1 goal differential)

Recent Form: DWLDL

Home Form: 4-1-1

Last Meeting: Arsenal 0-Sunderland 0 (2/21/09)

Back in action at the Stadium of Light tomorrow, for what I expect to be a very tricky match. Seriously–this match scares the hell out of me. For one thing, it’s a road match against a top half side with a very good home record–those matches are always tough, no matter what. But throw in the fact that nearly half our first team is injured, and that everyone is already talking about next weekend’s matchup with Chelsea, and this has all the makings of an Arsenal stumble. I dearly hope I’m wrong.

Sunderland is a quality side, much improved from last season. This is due mainly to the hire of Steve Bruce as manager–Bruce did wonders at Wigan, bringing in quality bargain buys like Valencia and Palacios, as well as youngsters like Lee Cattermole, who followed the gaffer north to Sunderland. The club also gave him a bit of money to play with over the summer, and he appears to have spent it wisely–his main transfers were Darren Bent, who has already shown himself to be a bargain (honestly–compare his production with strikers who were much more costly, like Berbatov, Santa Cruz, and Pavlyuchenko); Lorik Cana, who was immediately appointed captain and has become a mainstay in their midfield; and the aforementioned Cattermole, one of the more promising young midfielders in the Premiership.

Sunderland still plays a very English brand of football–disciplined, tight at the back, and relying a lot on toughness and physicality. But they have opened up a bit under Bruce, who has brought in some skilled players and installed a little bit of an attacking mentality in the club, which is in stark contrast to the way Sunderland played under Roy Keane and Ricky Sbragia the last couple of seasons. And even then, they managed a draw in both their games against us last season.

You wouldn’t necessarily characterize Sunderland as an explosive team per se, but they do have two quality strikers who complement each other well in Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones, who have combined for 13 goals this season. Their midfield is full of battlers like Steed Malbranque and Lorik Cana, and their backline is anchored by Anton Ferdinand and Michael Turner. We catch a little bit of a break tomorrow, though, as starting keeper Craig Gordon and Cattermole are both out injured, and Kenwyne Jones and Turner are both out on suspensions–in particular, Jones is exactly the kind of bruising physical striker that has given us problems in the past, too.

Their home record is very good–they’ve only lost once, to Chelsea, in 6 matches at the Stadium of Light. In their two best results of the season, they beat Liverpool at home and drew at Old Trafford in a match they very easily could have won. I watched that match in its entirety, and I can definitively say that this is a team that will make us pay if we expect to just show up and win. That happened with alarming frequency last season, but with the exception of the West Ham game, we’ve so far been able to avoid that pitfall this season. But hopefully the team isn’t suffering from too much of an international hangover and comes out focused and motivated.

In squad news, obviously the injuries are a big concern. van Persie is out for a while, and while Gibbs’s injury is apparently minor and he may be able to play on Tuesday against Standard Liege, he is out tomorrow. In better news, Theo Walcott is back in the squad–I still doubt he’ll start, but don’t be surprised to see him come on as a late substitute. Denilson, Traore, Wilshere, and Vela are also supposedly going to be available, although I don’t see any of them starting unless Wenger is really convinced that they are match fit–the midweek Champions League fixture would be a much better chance for them all to get a run out. It will also be interesting to see how those who played full matches on Wednesday fare. Fabregas and Arshavin played the entire match, as did Eboue, and Sagna and Gallas both played a full 120 minutes against Ireland. I’m sure there’s others I’m forgetting, too. For example, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sagna get a breather this game.

Lineup:

Almunia

Eboue-Gallas-Vermaelen-Silvestre

Fabregas-Song-Nasri

Rosicky-Eduardo-Arshavin

(UPDATE: So it sounds like Wenger is thinking that Vela will start, and that Arshavin may not play because of the fatigue from internationals. Honestly, I have no idea what to expect in terms of a starting XI tomorrow.)

But given those tired from internationals and those returning from injuries, it wouldn’t surprise me if our lineup was significantly different from that. Between injuries and fatigue, the Emirates is basically a field hospital right now, and Wenger’s just going to have to check with the players and trainers on an individual basis to see who’s really ready to play.

This is a tough match, and given all the surrounding circumstances (injuries, internationals, etc.), it’s the kind of match that last year’s club would have either lost or drawn. But these are exactly the kind of matches a team has to be able to win if it’s a serious title contender. Tomorrow could reveal a lot about what kind of team this Arsenal squad is. A win keeps us clear of United and keeps the pressure on Chelsea going into the the showdown at the Emirates a week from Sunday. Let’s get those 3 points.

Come on Arsenal.

FELIPE MELO Arsenal were probably linked with Felipe Melo this summer more than any other player. The biggest difference between Arsenal’s 2007-2008 season and our 2008-2009 season, which saw the club take a large step backwards, was the absence of Mathieu Flamini. He did a great job protecting our backline and winning possession, and freed up Cesc to roam a little bit and probe for weaknesses in the other side’s defense. It was only logical, then, that the area many people thought Arsenal should address was a defensive midfielder. Melo seemed a logical candidate–the young (26) Brazilian impressed at Fiorentina and for the Brazilian national team, but was ready to move on to a bigger stage. Arsenal were clearly interested, but apparently were unwilling to meet Fiorentina’s high asking price, and Juventus swooped in and scooped him up.

allesio from Juventus Offside:

Juventus pursued deep-lying playmaker Gaetano D’Agostino of Udinese for much of the summer. On paper, it looked perfect; he was a childhood Juventus fan, a playmaker that was sorely missed in midfield, and fairly young. Udinese played hardball, and rumors exploded one day that Juve had given up and focused on Felipe Melo. It was the opposite with him; Juventus does not have a history of signing Brazilians, his previous club, Fiorentina, has a very bitter rivalry with Juventus, and everyone wondered if we needed another defensive midfielder having signed Sissoko and Poulsen recently.

Felipe Melo, for the most part, has integrated brilliantly into the team. Typically, he sits just ahead of defense and breaks up play, though he has many qualities that defensive midfielders generally lack, ie- good shooting ability, some dribbling skills, and a decent passer of the ball. Sissoko generally runs around after the ball, but Melo is a great reader of the game instead. He has been generally top-notch, although he has a very dangerous and annoying habit of trying to dribble out of defense, which has punished Juventus several times. He has scored two excellent goals, to boot. Despite his occasional stupid plays, the fans have taken very warmly to him.

Was he worth the money? No, €24.5 million is quite excessive for a transfer in Italy (EPL market seems generally inflated), somewhere around €15-16 million would have been more appropriate, but he had just come off a successful Confederation’s Cup and that was the recission clause in his contract. That said, he has integrated very well into the team very quickly and is a constant in the Starting XI, picked ahead of Sissoko and Poulsen. If we can get him to stop mucking around the 18, I have no doubt he is going to be considered one of the best midfielders worldwide. I think he would have played very well at Arsenal and though I am a very casual viewer of the EPL, (at best) I think he would have added something significant to the team. The team, since Vieira’s departure, seems to me to be lacking grit and steel in midfield.

MAMADOU SAKHO Young? Check. Unknown? Check. French? Check. It’s unclear whether Arsenal were ever actually interested in Sakho, but if they weren’t, you can understand why the rumor started, since he seems like the archetype of an Arsene Wenger signing. Arsenal were rumored to be sniffing around the 19 year old French center half. He’s big, he’s talented, and he’s a leader–he is the youngest player to ever have captained a Ligue 1 side, having worn the armband for the first time at the age of 17. He’s represented France at numerous youth levels, and seems a good bet to play for the senior side someday soon. He also seems unlikely to stay at Paris St. Germain for too long if he continues to develop. But no deal ever materialized, and that native Parisian started the season with his hometown club.

Thomas from PSG Offside:

To put it quite plainly, 19 year old Mamadou Sakho has been far and away PSG’s most reliable defender this season. He has put in excellent performances against quality Ligue 1 attacks despite being played alongside the less than stellar and aging Sammy Traore. He was vital in shutting down the Lyon attack, arguably one of the best in Europe, in their 1-1 draw with PSG (replays showed that Bafe Gomis’s goal was quite clearly offside). He has played well despite coming down with swine flu in late November, which is a stunning feat in itself. He is a fan favorite at the Parc des Princes as a native Paresian, but he has also captained the side at times and has wonderful leadership abilities. I would love to see Sakho become a “franchize player” after coming through the youth ranks from an early age, but I fear that the attention from the giants of Europe may force a sale. I think hanging on to him for another two seasons is a feasible goal.

PATRICK VIEIRA We all know this name, of course. Paddy expressed unhappiness when he was dropped from the French national team. He felt it was because he wasn’t playing regularly enough at Inter, and wanted to move somewhere where he would be firmly entrenched in the first team. Sensing a prodigal son story, the media immediately began to speculate that Vieira would return to Arsenal, and it did seem like discussions took place. But my sense is that if they did speak, Wenger told him that if he did return, he would be used as a substitute/reserve, which, of course, wasn’t what he was looking for. So the deal didn’t go through. Thankfully, neither did the speculated move to Spurs.

The Arsenal legend and former captain has been playing for Mourinho at Inter Milan for the past couple seasons after his year at Juventus. He spent 9 seasons in North London, the last 3 as captain. He provided the thunder to Thierry Henry’s lightning at Highbury–he was one of the greatest holding midfielders in Premiership history, and provided toughness and grit in the midfield for Arsenal. Beyond that stuff, though, which he always gets credit for, he was a much better technical player than he gets credit for–at his best, he was flawless at always being one step ahead of his opponents mentally, and always seemed to anticipate how the play was going to develop before it happened. And his height and rangy build, combined with his technical ability, made him one of the best pure tacklers I’ve ever seen–you just could not get by him with the ball.

But enough about the player he was? What kind of player is he now? He’s still an important part of the first team at Milan, but is on the fringes of the first 11. He’s made 5 starts and 3 substitute appearances for the club in Serie A matches so far this season, and has also come on as a late sub in 2 of Inter’s Champions League matches. I haven’t seen Inter play all season, but according to Goal.com’s player ratings, which do generally run a bit harsh, Vieira has averaged just over 6 (6.06, to be exact) in his 8 appearances. That’s pretty much the very definition of mediocrity.

The bottom line is that Vieira is at the point in his career where the decline can be pretty steep, and it would seem like we’re seeing it. His international career is likely over, and if he wants to continue playing club football after this year, a move to a smaller team (possibly back in his native France) may be in order. If he’s been mediocre with Inter, it’s hard to see how he would have offered us anything more, so it’s probably just as well that the move never materialized.

But, obviously, that doesn’t take away from what Vieira accomplished with Arsenal. In a fan poll last year, he was ranked the 5th greatest gunner of all time. Three league titles and Four FA Cups in 9 years with the club. His last kick of the ball in an Arsenal shirt was the penalty which won the 2005 FA Cup. We haven’t won a trophy since, and it’s probably not a coincidence. His time has passed, but he’ll always have a place in North London.

Conclusion You know, I guess I wish we had brought some guys in, but frankly, I’m kind of glad we ended up not going out and getting a big, expensive name like Melo. He’s a good player, to be sure, but at this point I’d much rather have Alex Song at his age playing that role. And I don’t think we really needed someone like Chamakh, and I’m not sure how well he’d work within our system.

But what I would have really liked to see is just to go get a couple of guys for cover. It would have been great to get someone like Lorik Cana or Blaise Matuidi who could have provided cover for Song in the middle of the field and taken his place in January when he’s gone to the ACN. I also would have liked to see another center back in the fold to provide us cover. We’ve been incredibly fortunate this season in that we haven’t suffered any injuries to our starting center backs–Gallas and Vermaelen have started all our big games. Not to be a pessimist, but we can’t count on that continuing all season. And in case of injury, we’ve got Silvestre, who is terrible, and Senderos, who is unhappy to be at the club. It would have been great to get a guy like Sakho, who is young and promising and probably wouldn’t mind biding his time and learning under more experienced players for the time being. And then in a season or two he could step into the first team for Gallas.

But we didn’t. In terms of what we may be looking at in January, expect to hear Chamakh’s name come up a lot more. He’s out of contract at Bordeaux at the end of the season, so if he still wants to leave, Bordeaux will likely be willing to let him go for pretty cheap. Other than that, it’s not clear what Arsenal’s goals will be. Barring a complete collapse in November and December, Arsenal won’t go into January in a desperate situation like we did last year, where we needed an impact player to avoid finishing outside the top 4, and Arshavin fit that bill. But Arsene has never been afraid to bring in guys in January, so don’t be surprised if we see an out of leftfield transfer at some point.

And with that, the international break is, essentially, over. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this–thanks to vespo for the idea. Sunderland preview coming tomorrow, and Saturday, we’ll have actual football to talk about.

The goal was brilliant–showing he may very well be the perfect striker: the strength of Drogba, the creativity of Henry, and the finishing of Owen. He’s the complete package, folks. But don’t take my word for it–watch it for yourself, it’s at the 1:25 mark.

Breathtaking, isn’t it? As vespo pointed out in the comments, leave it to Eboue to score a goal where he (a) didn’t even shoot; and (b) hurt himself. Well, he said he wanted to be the next Eddie Murphy–has anything Eddie Murphy done in the past decade made you laugh as hard as that?

If you haven’t: there was a cross into the box which fizzed past the far post, and looked like it was headed over the touchline for a goal kick. But off one hop, it hit the arm of Thierry Henry, and deflected back into play in a perfect spot for him to center it directly into the path of the oncoming William Gallas, who headed home the winning goal. Two former Gunner captains combining for the golden goal. Ireland, who played bravely and who would have otherwise gone to penalty kicks for the right to go to the World Cup, feel aggrieved. And I absolutely, positively sympathize with them. To come so far, to play so well against a more talented team on their home field, only to be sent home by a goal which should have been disallowed…Well, that’s just awful (not the mention UEFA’s decision to adopt the seeding system for the playoffs after qualification had already started, which was complete b.s.). And I know they’re hurting today. Just to be clear–the goal shouldn’t have counted, and Henry could very well have been (justifiably) carded.

But I’m writing this because I think once the European/English media gets a chance to react to it tomorrow, we’re going to hear terms like “cheat” applied to Thierry Henry. The state of the modern/online media and blogosphere is that whoever can write the most controversial/provocative thing is going to get the most attention, so I fully expect to read outlandish pieces calling for Henry to retire from international play, admit to cheating, be banned, etc. Unfortunately, it’s the nature of the beast. But the bottom line is this–the play we got to watch over and over again in super slow motion happened to him instantaneously. He had to make a decision, which was more pure reflex than anything else. But the media tomorrow might try to interpret this as some premeditated decision which reflects poor judgment and/or malicous intent on his part. It was not.

Now. I’m not saying he was right, and I’m not saying the goal should have stood. But I’m a full-grown adult, who probably shouldn’t have football players as role models, but I do. And # 1 on that list in Thierry Henry. And it’s not just because of how great he was on the field, but it’s because of the character and class he showed off the field over the course of many years as a Gunner. We know that. We remember that. When the Lilliputian scene of hundreds of small, petty “journalists” and bloggers trying to take down a true giant of a man takes place tomorrow, I would urge all Arsenal fans, and all football fans in general, to reflect on the fact that what happened yesterday is completely incongruous with what we’ve seen from Henry over the course of the last decade or so:

I guess all I’m trying to say is that I think the haters may be out in force tomorrow, but no matter what they say, we all know that Thierry Henry was always, is, and will always be a class act, through and through. And we’ll never forget it.

First, and most importantly, Kieran Gibbs did not break his foot, only suffered brusing, and is expected to be back and ready for action against Chelsea on the 29th. That still leaves us scrambling for cover on Saturday, but the Chelsea game will be very important, and we’ll really need him at left back. Good news.

In other news, Eduardo signed a new long-term contract with the club. Terms (both in terms of years and wages) were not disclosed, as is common with the club. I’ve been skeptical of how helpful Eduardo can be given that he seems much slower than he was before the injury, but given that it wasn’t that long ago that it was a question whether he would ever come back at all, you’ve got to be happy for him. And I think he’ll always be a useful guy to have around in reserve and as an impact sub. Also, judging from the picture accompanying the story, Eduardo met with Gazidis to sign the contract at what appears to be my grandparents’ house. Weird.

Young midfielder Henri Lansbury has extended his loan with Watford to the first of the year. He’s not making it into Arsenal’s first-team this season, and is playing well at Watford, so it makes sense for everyone involved.

The club is auctioning off four of the shirts featuring the rememberance poppy worn against Wolves. Cesc’s shirt is already at over £3,000. And once again I curse myself for not being an eccentric, foolish millionaire.

Eboue claims he wants to go into acting after his football career is over, and he wants to be “the next Eddie Murphy.” This is, of course, ridiculous, but you know what? (a) Eboue couldn’t possibly make movies any worse than Eddie Murphy has made the last 10 years; and (b) if anyone from Hollywood is reading this…if you remake “48 Hours” with Eboue and Bendtner playing the Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte roles, I will TOTALLY pay $10 to go see that. Probably 2 or 3 times. Let’s get on it. Between how appreciative Eboue always is of the fans who travel to watch the club on the road, the fact that he is always the first guy to sprint over and join the goal celebration with a huge smile on his face, and the fact he’s just generally a bit loony and lives on his own planet, I can honestly say he’s one of my favorite players on the club. It makes me feel guilty for writing this on my old blog. Sorry, Eboue.

Wenger has also addressed the issue of Song’s absence from the squad in January. As you know, I’m very worried about this–we’re a different squad when Song doesn’t play, and missing him for a month is going to hurt us. I had speculated about who might play the holding midfield role, but according to Wenger, it will be Denilson, not Nasri. It’s still a bit worrisome, but it’s the right choice–I never quite understood why Wenger seemed to want to play a player of Nasri’s skill and attacking capability as a holding midfielder.

Finally, there’s this:

It’s the video of the charity event I posted a pic of last week. It’s kind of cheesy, but has some good moments, even if a lot of it looks to be at least semi-staged. I liked the dog chewing Sagna’s arm (or is it wing?), and the slow-mo “badass” walking together shot cribbed from “Reservoir Dogs”–dear god, I hope they were being ironic when they included that. I also enjoyed Theo scratching his ass at the very end. The way things were going, I guess we should just be glad they didn’t find a way to injure themselves in the stunt.

Okay, unless something really monumental happens today, that’s it until tomorrow.

EDIN DZEKO Arsenal were heavily linked with the 23 year-old Bosnian striker early in the transfer window. He was coming off of a wonderful season in the Bundesliga, in which he led Wolfsburg to a surprise championship and led the league in goals, with a phenomenal 26 strikes in 29 appearances. He was ready for the big time, and many questioned whether Wolfsburg could hold onto him. However, AC Milan was also sniffing, and Dzeko made his feelings pretty plain that he’d rather play for AC than Arsenal. In the end, though, Wolfsburg managed to hang onto him, and he’s started the season with the club again.

While he’s certainly played well, he hasn’t quite matched his amazing nearly 1 goal per game ratio from last season. He’s scored 8 goals in 17 games in all appearances, including a goal at Old Trafford in the Champions League. However, 5 of those goals came in a 4-match stretch from mid- to late September. Outside of that stretch, he’s been distinctly average in his return. He’s really thrived in internationals, though, scoring 9 goals in 8 World Cup qualifying games and almost singlehandedly carried Bosnia-Herzogovina into the two-leg playoff against Portugal for a spot in South Africa.

BREDE HANGELAND The big Norwegian center back scored the winning goal against us last season in his breakthrough campaign, and was widely being hailed as the best defender in the Premiership outside of the Big 4. With Kolo Toure leaving and Arsenal famously vulnerable at the back, especially from set pieces, and Hangeland already in London, he seemed like an ideal fit. And it did seem like there was some interest on the part of Arsenal, but if there was, Wenger was not willing to meet Roy Hodgson’s price for the 28 year-old.

timmyg from the Fulham Offside:

Brede Hangeland was Roy Hodgson’s first signing as Fulham manager. Although the transfer price was undisclosed, no amount of money could match the signing’s effect. It would turn out to be to a harbinger of the quality, successful football to come. You could win any argument with a Fulham fan that Roy built the club around our defense, particularly Hangeland.
Although this season Brede hasn’t appeared to be as astute as last year or the year before that — silly tackles, very out of position in a few games — his pairing with Aaron Hughes remains a huge catalyst toward Fulham’s success. So much so that Fulham are currently tied with Arsenal, City, and Brum for fourth-best defense; and last year actually had the fourth-best defense while maintaining four clean sheets in 8 games against the Big Four.
On set pieces he is probably our greatest threat despite only scoring one league goal (against Arsenal last season) and one in the Europa League against Roma earlier this month.

So yeah, Hangeland has been a huge success at the club and amongst the fans. Don’t know what else to say really.

KLAAS-JAN HUNTELAAR We were heavily linked with the Dutch fox in the box after he was made surplus when Real Madrid spent all summer blowing through money like Lindsay Lohan in a Tijuana drug store. The former Ajax assassin had actually put in a relatively decent goal-scoring rate at Real, but was going to be moved anyway. Everyone mooted Arsenal as a possible landing spot, as it was speculated he could replace Adebayor. But it seems like it was almost all media speculation, and AC Milan showed interest and ponied up € 15 million for him.

In 8 games this season for the Italian giants, Huntelaar has already scored countless goals. And by countless, I mean less than can be counted. As in 0. The big zippo. And he’s yet to play a full game, either coming on as an impact sub, or, more often, starting and coming before the 60th minute–I’m not sure if this is a reflection of his fitness or his level of play. In AC’s last 9 games, Huntelaar has been an unused substitute. Yeesh.

SALOMON KALOU Granted, this seemed to be a weird one, but Wenger confirmed that he had been interested in Kalou in the past, which renewed speculation that Wenger may dip in for the 24 year-old Chelsea striker.

Our good friend Jack from Chelsea Offside:

To paraphrase a Telegraph piece I read at the end of October: Many Chelsea fans reacted to the new three-year contract Salomon Kalou inked early in the season by asking whether the Ivory Coast striker was able to put pen to paper at the first attempt.

Hilarious. Yet a genuine concern.

This article, of course, was published shortly after Kalou had netted twice against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. This performance, in particular, represented everything Chelsea supporters have come to love — and hate — about Kalou.

He bagged a brace, true. But Kalou also missed at least four fine opportunities and denied Lampard an early goal by loafing into an offside position. All these shambolics arrived before he finally found the back of the net.

So, in short, it’s been business as usual for Kalou this term. He’s scored four times in 13 appearances (8 starts). He’s provided some sharp displays, most quickly forgotten in wake of the horribly-predictable consecutive no-shows that follow.

Whether the man should be sold is up for interpretation. It’s difficult to find a player of his talent/potential willing to work from a reserve role — although Kalou typically responds to starts more so than substitute appearances. Selling to Arsenal would be a negative in any instance; selling outside the Premier League, now that probably wouldn’t hurt at all.

BLAISE MATUIDI This is the hardest one to write. Not because of any emotional attachment or wish that Arsenal had gotten Matuidi, but because St. Etienne Offside’s blogger didn’t respond to my email, and I couldn’t find any player ratings site that did Ligue 1 matches. So I’ll keep it short. The 22 year-old French holding midfielder seemed to meet a need for Arsenal, and was supposedly available at a relatively affordable price. Like Bassong, he, too, came out of the same academy that produced Thierry Henry, William Gallas, and Nicolas Anelka. He represented France at numerous youth levels and has become a mainstay in St. Etienne’s first choice eleven, representing the side in both Ligue 1 and the UEFA Cup.

Beyond that, I can’t tell you much–he’s played 11 matches (all starts) for struggling St. Etienne so far this season, although he had to miss St. Etienne’s 1-0 loss to Lyon on Halloween with an injury which kept him out of the next match as well.

Many thanks to Timmy, who has great taste in music, and the inimitable Jack, who was kind enough to contribute his thoughts on Kalou despite the fact that I lurk on his comments page and trash Chelsea at almost every opportunity. Part III to finish up this series tomorrow, and I’ll give my thoughts about which of these players I wish we had signed, and who we should maybe look at in the January window. Until then–hopefully no one else will get hurt today.

If you’re curious, we have 29 players listed in our first-team. Which means we are only a few injuries away from having literally more than half our team injured. Maybe there’s something to this November curse after all.

Our 11 players could be configured into a lineup:

Fabianski

Traore-Djourou-Clichy

Denilson

Walcott-Wilshere-Diaby-Vela

Bendtner-van Persie

An unconventional formation, sure. But Denilson could play a pretty conservative holding mid type of role, protecting the backline and trying to win the ball. Then we’d still have 4 very capable attacking midfielders to hold the ball, move it upfield, and make runs towards the goal. And then one world-class striker and one…well, the jury’s still out on Bendtner at this point, but he did score 14 goals last season as a 21-year old.

That would seem to be a solid team–vulnerable at the back, certainly, but they would be very dangerous going forward. So my question to you is this: If, miraculously, this 11-man team could stay healthy, where would they finish in the table?

(UPDATE: Frak. Kieran Gibbs left injured in the 21st minute of England’s U-21’s match against Liechtenstein. Which means he could play on the backline of our all-injured team, either bumping Traore or Vela out of the starting 11. Ummm…it also means that we don’t have a left-back at the moment, which means we could be seeing Silvestre at fullback, or Gallas sliding over and Senderos playing center half on Saturday. Neither of those options are anywhere remotely close to acceptable. I know some of you get mad at me for criticizing meaningless international matches and talk about how important it is, the glory of playing for your country, etc. I hope all the glory of playing in international friendlies was worth it when you’re watching Silvestre stumble around like a drunken Frankenstein on Saturday.)

Where Would Arsenal’s Injured List Finish in the Table?(polls)

The big news is that the injury is not quite as bad as it had been first thought. Originally, everyone was reporting 2-3 months, some of the more sensationalist English papers were saying out for the season. But Arsenal have announced that he will be out for approximately 6 weeks. Which means, basically, he’ll be out until the first of the year, and will probably need at least a week or two to get back into game shape.

So the big question is: how much is this going to impact the club? The answer is, I think, complicated–in some ways, a lot, but in other ways, not so much.

First, as is custom, the good news. Arsenal have 11 games between now and January 1. Two of those are the last two Champions League group stage games. You’d have to think we can beat Standard Liege at home without Robbie, which will clinch first place in the group, rendering the match against Olympiakos irrelevant. So those two games aren’t particularly meaningful. One of the matches is a Carling Cup match with Man City (and if he had, he probably would have brought a shiv on the pitch and given Adebayor the old jailhouse how-do-you-do in retaliation for the face stomping, which would have resulted in a suspension until January anyway), which he wouldn’t have played in anyway.

That leaves us with the 8 league games:

11/21–at Sunderland
11/29–Chelsea
12/5–Stoke
12/13–at Liverpool
12/16–at Burnley
12/19–Hull City
12/27–Aston Villa
12/30–at Portsmouth

Obviously, the Chelsea and Liverpool matches are marquee match-ups where van Persie’s absence will really be felt (although it must be said that both those squads have ample injury woes of their own). And Aston Villa will also be a tough match-up, although it is at least at home. But other than that, we have a couple of games which may give us a little trouble (at Burnley, at Sunderland) and three matches we should absolutely win without too much trouble with or without Robbie (at Portsmouth, Hull City, Stoke). In terms of scheduling, then, it could have been a lot worse–his absence will only impact our chances in one out of the four competitions, and the league schedule in his absence is not particularly punishing, so if we band together and play well, we could definitely still be hanging around the top of the table by the time he comes back.

Now, the bad news. I know there were some of you in the comments to the last post who said that you didn’t think we would miss him that much, but I would respectfully disagree. I think he is absolutely essential to the 4-3-3 formation running as well as it has, and I’m not sure there’s any obvious candidate to replace him. He has adapted his game to a kind of hybrid sniper/playmaker which suits the formation perfectly. He is a target man of a sort, but always gets the ball into his feet, and then, once he gets it, has enough skill to control the ball and make a move quickly past the defender, and can pass or shoot with equally deadly effectiveness. This puts defenders trying to mark him in a quandary–they can’t mark him too tight, because he’s capable of turning them and getting the ball behind them with one touch; on the other hand, they can’t play off him, because when he has the ball in space he’s deadly shooting from long range or using a pass to put someone else through. And, of course, he is our main direct kick taker. Honestly, other than Cesc, I’d argue Robbie is probably the least replaceable member of our squad (although Vermaelen may already be close).

Frankly, no one else on the squad really fits that role. If I had to guess, I think we’ll see Eduardo step into that role for the time being, but he doesn’t have the skill set to play that role nearly as well as RvP did. There might be an outside chance we could see Arshavin try to do it, but with his size and lack of positional discipline, it would seem a poor fit. Those are really are only fit strikers at the moment. Other than those two, I think we’ll see one of Rosicky, Nasri, or Eboue fill the other wing/forward role. Theo Walcott and Carlos Vela shouldn’t be out for too much longer, which gives us some more depth up front.

It’ll be hurt, but we knew some major injuries were a-comin’, and, like I said, Chelsea’s hurting just as bad as we are so there’s nothing to do but get out there and keep picking up 3 points until some of our injured start coming back. As the kids in PS 22 say…

UPDATE: Apparently RvP is signed up for some radical therapy from a Serbian woman which involves…well, just read it for yourself. Ick.

In what, you may ask, super-important match was he playing in to take on such an injury? Was it the World Cup? Nope. The European championships? Nope. A qualifier for one of those tournaments? Nope. It was a friendly. A completely stupid, meaningless friendly. It’s so good to know that our chances of winning the league took just took a significant hit so Holland could draw 0-0 with Italy a full 8 months before their next significant match.

I don’t really know what to say. I’m just really, really, really angry. But anger won’t actually do any good. I’ll just say that at some point the clubs are going to have to actually make a stand–they’ll never be able to absolutely stop players from playing for their countries (and I’m not suggesting that they should), but it seems perfectly reasonable that a club would have legitimate objections to its players playing in a completely meaningless match at this point in the season. It would be nice if more countries were like Mexico (NOTE: that’s the first time I have ever started a sentence with that clause), who didn’t schedule matches for this international break because it didn’t see the need to interfere with its players club obligations. Most international federations won’t do this, if for no other reason than they want the revenue. Well, Dutch football federation, I hope the money was worth it. But to them, of course it is–they’re not the ones that are going to have to pay van Persie’s wages and cover the cost of his medical care and rehabilitation for the next 2-3 months, so what do they care. And therein lies the problem. But you’ve heard me make this argument dozens of times already, so I won’t repeat myself any more than I already have.

Sigh. Arsene Wenger said it better than I ever could:

Gerard Houllier’s thoughts on the matter [international football] echo mine. He thinks that what the national coaches are doing is like taking the car from his garage without even asking permission. They will then use the car for ten days and abandon it in a field without any petrol left in the tank. We then have to recover it, but it is broken down. Then a month later they will come to take your car again, and for good measure you’re expected to be nice about it.

I know I’m probably just impulsively speaking out of anger, but you know what? I’m tired of being nice about it–at some point we need to think about getting a lock for the garage.