Light at the end of the tunnel

By: travis | April 2nd, 2009

I can see it… the end is near. The end of the international break, that is. And while no major injuries occurred, Abou Diaby, Nicklas Bendtner and Robin Van Persie all picked up niggling knocks that may keep them out of action against Man City on the weekend. Bendtner played in yesterday’s qualifier so he may be good to go, but I’m searching for word on the others. Full recap of Arsenal players in action can be viewed here for Saturday’s and here for Wednesday’s.

Before jumping to the bad news, onto the good — Cesc is back. He’s ready to go, and while starting on the weekend may not be a given, he’ll bring a huge boost to this club. A midfield of Cesc, Arshavin, Nasri and Walcott is now close. Although that doesn’t leave much to say about defense, it could lead to an intoxicating rush of goals. Here’s hoping to seeing that quartet on the pitch and playing well.

Andrey Arshavin is the team’s Player of the Month for March. That’s no surprise given the injection of pace and skill that he has been. Considering Arsenal has won all five games he’s appeared in, it’s no surprise that he was picked. Van Persie can’t win them all. If Arshavin can keep this up, things will look better and better as the season progresses. He’s managed to stay healthy through two Russian qualifiers and will be ready to go against Man City.

Speaking of Citeh, there’s talk about Bellamy and Robinho possibly missing out due to injury. Bellamy’s been battling a knee injury and there are reports from Brazil coming in about Robinho. We’ll know more in the next day or so. The loss of those two would mean a much more toothless attack for the Citizens.

Injury news is sketchy for Arsenal as the club has yet to release an official report. Walcott will most likely still be out, Nasri withdrew himself from the French squad due to an illness, Diaby has injured his hip and Adebayor is a question mark. He did feature for Togo over the weekend, scoring a goal and missing a penalty while going the full 90 minutes. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make the bench and perhaps earn the start, especially if Bendtner is still battling a knock. Eduardo is fit and scored a goal for Croatia, so he’ll likely make an appearance. I’ll dig for more injury news tomorrow or update it when it’s available. Glad to be back, and glad that the international break is almost over.

Update: Looks like I posted too early. Cesc, Adebayor and Walcott all fit. Nasri a question mark, while Eduardo, Vela and Diaby are out. Eduardo picked up another injury in the Croatia game.