Arsenal Down To Bare Bones in Defense; Blanc Calls Up Gunners for France

By: Sairax | March 17th, 2011

Wenger held his pre-match press conference today. Most of the information is not new, but rather just confirmed what most of us have been speculating. Vermaelen is out for the season and Djourou is out for at least six weeks. That means we really only have Kos and Squillaci for the run-in, plus Iggy, who I assume will be promoted to the first team bench, and Song, who really should only be used as a centreback in an emergency as his presence is sorely needed in the midfield. This is most certainly not good for us. We know that with Djourou we can at least hope to keep a clean sheet, whereas with Squillaci and Kos, we just hope they can keep the calamities to a minimum. I don’t even want to think about what will happen if Squizz or Kos gets injured, but for now, we are left with, what Martin calls, the “Unholy Trio” of Almunia, Squizz, and Dave to get us through the rest of the season. It’s ok though. It’s not like one is our third choice goalkeeper and the CBs are both in their first PL season and can’t speak English. Inhale. Exhale.

Wenger also confirmed that Lehmann is more or less signed and is expected to be on the bench against West Brom. Let’s hope he threatens the entire team with bodily violence if they lose on Saturday. Perhaps being frightened for their lives will wake them all up and push them on to that “winning mentality” they need. Or, maybe he can just show up with all of those winners medals for club and country around his neck as he struts around naked in the dressing room. Just a few ideas.

We will also be without Cesc and Theo against West Brom, which we pretty much knew already. I suspect Arshavin will take Theo’s spot, unless Wenger opts to play Bendtner out wide. That is, if Bendtner is over whatever illness kept him out of the Manchester United game. With Cesc out, we are left again wondering who will play in his position this weekend. We use the 4-2-3-1 system to get the best out of Fabregas, so when he’s out, I don’t see why we can’t change it up. Perhaps we could try more of a 4-4-2. I say this because no one has effectively been able to fill in that “Cesc role”, so we may as well shake things up a bit. It’s not going to happen though. I’ll leave Martin to speculate as to who will deputize in his match preview tomorrow, but I suspect Wenger might opt for Jack again. I still think it’s a bit early for him to play that role with any authority, but Wenger seems ok with fasttracking him right now. Many of you would like to see Nasri play there, but I would opt for Arshavin. Granted, with Diaby and Denilson behind him, that leaves us pretty exposed in the midfield, but at least Arshavin tries those penetrating passes whenever he can, not to mention he’ll have a pop at goal from outside the box every now and again. When Nasri has played there this season, he tends to distribute more out wide and not find as many of those key passes. On top of that, he has had his best performances out on the wing and has become very effective at using his dribbling skills to get past defenders or win corners. At the end of the day, Arshavin has 11 assists in the league and 18 in all competitions while Nasri has 1 assist in the league and 4 in all competitions. Even if we don’t look defensively solid through the middle, at least we would have a better chance at scoring if Arshavin was playing there. Just my take on it.

Honestly, this West Brom game has ended up being our biggest game of the season. Win it, and we still have a realistic shot at the title. Lose it, and people are going to be up in arms. There has already been plenty of talk as to who should be in and out of this squad come summertime and whether Wenger has taken this team as far as he can. Drop any points this weekend and expect a bit of hell to break loose amongst fans. I can’t believe I’m so nervous about an away game against a relegation team, but the fact is, we lost to them at home this season, and our team is brittle on confidence and lacking some of its best players. Listening to “The Tuesday Club” podcast, Alan Davies (who goes on a pretty big rant, most of which you’d be hard-pressed to disagree with), said that these players need to realize that their time is now. You have to win it now. The league is not going to get easier next season, it will just get more difficult. The title is up for grabs and you have to take it. Stop dallying and carpe diem a little bit!

Apologies if I’m not sounding as optimistic as I usually do. At the beginning of the season I had a nice big bottle of optimism from which I drank. With every loss and failed attempt to close the gap I drank from that bottle once again. After losing the Carling Cup, there was but a few drops lingering at the bottom. Now, we’ve dropped out of all competitions but one, have injuries piling up, and I’ve got my lips curled around the mouth and I’m sucking it dry. I’m desperately trying to keep hope alive. We’ll see where we are at come Sunday morning.

In other news that you don’t care about, Henri Lansbury has been nominated for the Football League Young Player of the Year award. He’s been doing really well at Norwich City on loan and even scored another clutch goal last weekend:

It’s great to see from the young man, and I would love to see how he fares in the first team next season. Good luck to him for the award. The winner will be announced this Sunday, March 20.

Finally, Laurent Blanc has selected his squad for France’s upcoming friendlies against Luxembourg and Croatia. No less than 5 of our players have been called up: Koscielny, Clichy, Sagna, Nasri, and Diaby. Kos is not likely to start, I would think, and with Evra back in the fray, it’s possible that Clichy could stay on the bench as well. With Ribery also being called back into the squad, you would think that one of our midfielders would be pushed out, but this is just me speculating. In any case, what is for certain is that someone is coming back injured. I’ve got my money on Diaby, what say you?

***************

Don’t forget to follow the Arsenal Offside on Twitter for the latest news, links, and updates!

Some Related Stories:

Category: Abou Diaby, Alex Song, Andrey Arshavin, Arsenal News, Bacary Sagna, Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy, Injury Report, Johan Djourou, Laurent Koscielny, Manuel Almunia, Samir Nasri, Thomas Vermaelen, Video

« Verma Talks About His Injury Woes; Martin Makes His Podcast Debut | Home | West Brom – Arsenal Preview »

Martin

Manchester City and Liverpool both get knocked out of the Europa League today, meaning that it's down to the quarterfinal round with no English teams left -- this is a big drop-off from last year, when Liverpool made the semifinal and Fulham made the final.

Big winner of the day is Portugal -- 3 out of the last 8 will be Portuguese teams, and that league really does appear to be on the upswing at the moment.
brenton

Still surprised Man City lost to Kiev. And they're pretenders to the title.
BERTRAND

Noone cares about the Europa cup.

The financial benefits from participating are negligible.
Gigi

Hey y'all.
Greetings from Luxembourg.
Short on internet waves but still reading a lot here.
Great 2 see Mad Jens back...it can only be good, right?
Casimir

Well if Diaby comes back injured from France, who gives a crap? He's about as useless on the pitch as a drunkard with a dead leg.
brenton

Would anyone be upset if Diaby returned injured? In theory it would be a bad thing, and just another example of our players getting hurt in internationals, but if it meant he didn't start another Arsenal game this season I would be just fine.
tinomuvonga m

Diaby is already injured. To answer your question, yes I would be disappointed. I can't understand how you could think it would be just fine. You realize it's better to have a squad with healthy players? Maybe you would clarify...
brenton

Perhaps I should have been more explicit: I think Diaby is shit, and I don't want to see him play in an Arsenal shirt again this year.
tinomuvonga m

"I don't want to see him play in an Arsenal shirt again this year."

I hate to break this to you, but Wenger absolutely believes in Diaby, and if it wasn't for him being injured most of this season, he would have played much much more. Diaby will have a part to play in these remaining ten games. He will almost certainly be an Arsenal player next season as well.

I understand why you are frustrated with him. He gets on my nerves as well, but I don't think he is shit and doesn't deserve to continue being injured. He is an Arsenal player and I want him to do well.
Casimir

We're not saying he deserves to be injured. We're saying he's not of the caliber that deserves to wear an Arsenal shirt. I love Wenger, and I like how he believes in his instincts with players and sticks with them against media pressure if he sees potential in them, but Diaby has had enough opportunities for the last several years to show something, and he just hasn't. He has flashes, but he's wildly inconsistent, and most times he's not very helpful to a team on the pitch. I think he's individually talented, but he doesn't work well within a unit. He is someone we can absolutely upgrade upon.
brenton

Between your insights into players' health and your knowledge of Wenger's beliefs, you almost sound like an insider.

I am well aware that Wenger loves the guy, thanks, and no, he doesn't deserve to be injured. And I trust Wenger's beliefs almost all the time (Fabianski, Song, etc). But Diaby was a liability in the last couple games he has played, and if he, for some reason, was not available for the remaining games, I wouldn't be upset.
Casimir

He adds nothing to the team but lost possession. Unlike Arshavin, its not lost possession because of an aggressive pass. It's dribble, dribble, oopps dribbled into traffic again and got the ball taken off my feet out of position and now the midfield is wide open like Moses and the red sea.
Martin

Lehmann deal is official -- announced on the club site. Also, Wenger & Nasri both suspended for one UEFA match for conduct towards referee after the Barcelona match, so they will miss our first Champions League match (provided we finish in the top 4) next season.
sofreshnsoclean

I'm excited about the Lehmann signing, but what worries me is that Lehmann played with his intensity (read: psychotic behaviour) with a bunch of very confident and strong guys...guys like Henry, Vieira, Pires, and Ljungberg had a lot of swag on and off the field, and possessed a great amount of heart that could take a 'beating' here and there to fire them up. Call me a pessimist, but I don't know who on this team can really take something like that in stride. Our entire team has dealt with strings of underconfidence and/or injury, so it's a rather fragile team both physically and mentally. I, more than anyone, want Lehmann to come and knock some sense into the guys, but I just hope it does not backfire and have guys scared into messing up.

Also, Sairax's comment on how our CBs can't speak really made me laugh...lucky for them, half the current starting XI is french so it's as good as knowing English!

As for formation, I've voiced the idea of going 4-4-2 before...as Bendner is way more effective up front. Maybe even going 4-4-1-1 with RvP behind bendtner...given Robin's hold up play, and tendency to pick up the ball farther from the net than most strikers, it wouldn't be a bad look. With Arshavin and Nasri playing a little higher up, it could work well. However, knowing our faithful coach, he'll stick to the same system he employed all season. Maybe it's practice for if Cesc leaves?
tinomuvonga m

While agree with you that in Cesc's absence 4-2-3-1 is not as effective, I think we can be certain Wenger will not change the formation this season. Let's call him stubborn...

I am going to predict a midfield of Ramsey, Wilshire and Diaby. Ramsey will play in Cesc's role.
Junichi Ezechiel Bennett

I just don't think it's the right moment to gamble on a new formation...
tinomuvonga m

Apparently Diaby is out with a groin injury, so I'll revise my prediction to include Denilson.

I'd also add that, while I a big fan of the "Tuesday Club" podcast, I was disappointed with Alan Davies' rant on our defense. I think we can all agree that our defensive record since the turn of the year, has been excellent. The back 5 have done extremely well with the exception of the Carling Cup final. The Manure game seemed like an issue with the whole of the team not being actively involved in defending.
Perry S.

The only problem is, call it coincidence or what you want, each and every time we have a defensive lapse, its never minor, it always turns into a nightmare. The 2 cups you mentioned are prime examples. This comes down to the having the ability to step up when it matters most or not, and we simply have not done that all season. Outside of the cups, think about every opportunity we've had to seize the top spot or come par with it, and yet it seems that those are the very matches where we drop points due to being clumsy in our own end.
Junichi Ezechiel Bennett

For the French national team, Sagna and Diaby are starters, maybe Nasri with the armband. Clichy's situation is tricky as it will be difficult for Blanc to start Evra straight away after his return. He's far better than Clychy, but after the 2010 WC, to start him straight away could be sensitive... Kos will be on the bench for the qualification, but may have some minutes against Croatia. Diaby is sidelined for saturday, so you should bet on another player, he is to easy to predict ! :)
Hho

what me say is that if Diaby is injured......its not a bad thing, he is useless when he has played this whole season. The other 4 are too important 4 us to lose to injury. hope ribery takes nasri's place and hope someone takes sagna's place too so he does not play as well
Junichi Ezechiel Bennett

Unfortunately, Nasri will play, Ribéry or not, he is a certain starter for Blanc and guess where, behind the striker. Sagna too.
Perry S.

He has officially agreed to a deal...the mad man is back.