Finally, the wait is over.
49 comments October 14th, 2006
No, not the wait for the return of the glamorous Watford fixture. No, not the breathless excitement at the possibility of Gael Clichy’s third appearance in a year. The wait for some proper football, some club football, some Premiership football, is over. Sweet relief.
In spite of a nigh-calamitous collapse against Fulham and a failure to pick up a single league win this season, Watford are no pushovers. Just as Sheffield United proved a sterner test than many expected, Watford’s combination of strength and industry will provide a tough test for an Arsenal side missing several key players.
With Eboué out for the forseeable future, Justin Hoyte will step in at right-back. Toure and Djourou will continue in the centre, with William Gallas on the left. Clichy, the left-back-in-waiting, is expected to be on the bench.
The midfield of Hleb-Fabregas-Gilberto-Rosicky picks itself, especially in the absence of Ljungberg and Baptista. Upfront, Thierry Henry is a certainty, alongside one of Robin van Persie or Emmanuel Adebayor. Van Persie is in fantastic form, but Adebayor has freshness and physicality on his side. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Togolese beanpole installed on the front-line.
Whatever the first eleven, I firmly expect to see another cameo from an ever-improving Theo Walcott. His goals in midweek really were of the highest order, and for that reason alone, it can’t hurt to watch them again.
However much I talked about Watford earlier in the article, we really should be beating them. 11-0. Anything less, and I’m tearing up my season ticket going to be mildly annoyed.
