Middlesbrough Preview

By: Martin | April 25th, 2009

Middlesbrough

Current Position: 18th, 7-10-16 (31 points, -22 goal differential)

Away Form: 2-2-12

Recent Form: DLLWD

Last Meeting: Boro 1-Arsenal 1 (12/13/08)

Boro visit the Emirates tomorrow. Anything less than 3 points will be a disappointment, and there are certainly plenty of reasons to think that’s what we’ll get. Boro are serious relegation candidates, and have really struggled to score goals this year. They’ve only scored 25 goals in 33 games, six fewer than any other team. They’ve been especially woeful away from the Riverside–they’ve only managed 9 goals in their 16 away matches.

But I get the feeling it won’t be as easy as all that. Boro have been playing reasonably well lately, and are fighting for their Premier League survival, and seem to be rallying behind popular manager Gareth Southgate. There’s no one more dangerous than a team with their backs up against the wall. They’re also capable of getting a result against one of the big boys–they’ve beaten Liverpool and Aston Villa, and tied us and Spurs.

Despite their scoring woes, Boro do have a fair amount of skill, and can pose some danger. Alfonso Alves, Tuncay Sanli, Stewart Downing, and ex-Gunner Jeremie Aliadiere are all capable of popping up and scoring a goal, and they’re reasonable solid in back as well. And they’ve still got Manchester United, Aston Villa, and West Ham coming up in their last four games, so I don’t think they’ll come in looking to shut up shop for a 0-0 draw–if they’re going to stay up, they need wins, so they’ll come out and give us our best shot.

There was good news and bad news from today’s results. The bad news was that Chelsea won when Peter Cech saved a penalty kick to preserve the 1-0 victory. So even a win by us tomorrow will leave us 6 points behind with 4 games to play. Even if you assume we beat Chelsea, it would take something pretty dramatic for us to finish in 3rd. Looks like we’ll be hoping to get a favorable qualifying draw to get into the Champions League next year.

On the other hand, 4th place looks pretty much locked up. Bolton held Aston Villa to a draw, and Everton lost at home to Manchester City. A win tomorrow would put us 10 points ahead of Villa with 4 to play, which would be over and done with. Remember, less than 2 months ago Villa was up 2 goals late to Stoke, a win which would have put them 8 points ahead of us. Stoke grabbed 2 late goals, we stayed within 6, and Villa folded up like a cheap cot.

There are still a lot of questions about who is and isn’t in the team tomorrow. Djourou and Almunia have late tests to see if they’ll be included in the squad; Adebayor will be in the squad but has a late test to determine whether or not he’ll start. Frankly, this isn’t that meaningful a game for us at this point, so it would be foolish to risk anyone’s health here. Assuming none of the questionable players play, the lineup will look like:

Fabianski

Sagna-Silvestre-Toure-Gibbs

Walcott-Denilson-Fabregas-Nasri

Arshavin-Bendtner

There’s a plethora of options in midfield, as Song, Diaby, or Eboue could also feature; we haven’t seen Vela in a while, either, it wouldn’t stun me if he got a start. A loss or draw wouldn’t kill us, but we really could use a win. It would keep pressure on Chelsea for what that’s worth, and sew up 4th place. Mainly, though, our defense and Fabianski could badly use the confidence boost of a good performance, and the team overall could really use the momentum going into Wednesday’s showdown at Old Trafford.

Let’s get out there and win. Come on Arsenal.