Gunnerblog

Diaby’s return releases Walcott to play upfront

306 guns February 29th, 2008

Abou Diaby is back in the squad for tomorrow’s crunch match with Aston Villa.  With Tomas Rosicky, Emmanuel Eboue, and Eduardo all unavailable, Diaby will give us a much-needed option on the flanks.  In fact, I’d expect him to start on the left tomorrow, with Aleksandr Hleb and Theo Walcott alternating between the right-wing and a supporting role behind Emmanuel Adebayor.

Robin van Persie, meanwhile, remains a tantalising few weeks away from a return:

“We will not rush Robin van Persie back but the news is quite good.  It is very difficult to say [when he will be back in the side]. We go step by step. But he should come back into normal training, very, very quickly now.”

Other than that, I’d expect the side to be very similar to the one that played at Birmingham.  Having not won in three games, victory is vital.  Manchester United are playing lowly Fulham this weekend, so it’s almost certain that we’ll need a win to maintain our lead.

Commiserations to the Arsenal Ladies, who actually lost a game yesterday - something I don’t think I’ve ever noticed happening before.  Sadly it was the League Cup Final, and they were beaten by a stoic Everton defence.

Finally today, the board have reaffirmed that a 25% stake for Alisher Usmanov would have little-to-no effect on the day-to-day running of the club.

It’s lucky we’ve performed so well this season - it’s put all those takeover stories from the Summer right out of sight and mind.  Let’s keep it that way with a win tomorrow.

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