Prague Preview: Song set for start at centre-back
8 comments November 7th, 2007
Yesterday the squad for tonight’s match with Slavia Prague was announced, and Kolo Toure, Cesc Fabregas, Tomas Rosicky and Aleksandr Hleb were all missing. Whilst Hleb and Cesc are merely rested, Kolo and Rosicky are injured. One of those is rather surprising, the other absolutely not. However, poor Tom Rosicky is expected to be fit for next Monday’s clash with Reading.
With Toure and Senderos both injured, it seems Alex Song will be given a rare start at centre-half. Arsene has been quick to re-emphasise his faith in the youngster, saying:
“He will start and it will be a big test for him. The Fulham game affected him in the minds of people, yes. Afterwards people asked, ‘how can a player like Song come to Arsenal?’ Yes, on the night against Fulham, he was not good. But he was like the rest of the team. I never had any doubts about him. There are things that you cannot cheat when you see someone everyday in training.
He is more mature now. People forgot how old he is. He is 20 years-old and that loan spell at Charlton helped him to grow up. If you ask him, he prefers to play central midfield, but I feel that he just wants to play now. He is very strong one-against-one and reads the game well. He is calm. He is good on the ball and good in the air. That will be important for us tonight.”
I have to say, it would make more sense to me to play Gilberto at centre-half and bring Diarra into midfield, but nevertheless I wish Song good luck on a big night for him.
Could it be another big night for Theo Walcott? After his outstanding performance in the 7-0 demolition of Prague a couple of weeks back, he could be given another opportunity to impress tonight.
It seems unlikely that we’ll be able to get close to a scoreline like that tonight – Prague will be desperate to prove their worth and avoid further humiliation. In the light of that, any sort of win would be highly commendable.
Come on Arsenal.
