Villa Preview & Transferwatch: Has Smalling signed for United or not?
Add comment January 27th, 2010
Winning at Villa gives us a cushion at the start of our nightmare run
Villa, United, Chelsea, Liverpool. Four games that will define our season. Beating Villa and Liverpool will mean that avoiding defeat against United and Chelsea will be good enough to put us in a stonking position.
Tonight’s game against Villa is as tricky as any of the other fixtures. The midlanders will still be stinging from the 3-0 defeat we inflicted on them a few weeks back, and will doubtless be looking for revenge.
There is plenty of good team news: Bacary Sagna is fit to start again, whilst Samir Nasri and Nicklas Bendtner will both be on the bench. Aaron Ramsey is probably fit to start after coming off the bench at Stoke, and suddenly our squad is starting to fill out again. I’d imagine that Ramsey will play alongside Cesc and Denilson, with Eduardo, Arshavin and Rosicky ahead of them.
A point tonight is no disaster – much as Arsene will insist we’re taking each game as it comes, he will have an ideal points total in mind for the upcoming four matches. Knowing Arsene’s ambitions it will be a non-negotiable “12”, but I think, when pushed, he might gladly take 8 or 9. Three points tonight is a big step towards that.
Transferwatch
Has Chris Smalling signed for Manchester United or not? Nobody seems particularly sure – apart, that is, from United themselves, who were equally confident they had snapped up Aaron Ramsey a couple of years ago.
Last night Sky were reporting that Arsenal had also had a bid accepted by Fulham, though if it did arrive it seems it may have been too late. Smalling is reportedly in Manchester now undergoing a medical ahead of completion of the move. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that United’s willingness to loan Smalling back to Fulham for six months may have been what gave them the edge – Arsene has never been keen on such deals.
If Smalling does end up joining United, we’ll be very much in the market for defenders come the summer – especially with confirmation that Philippe Senderos will not be returning from Everton.
All the talk this January was of us looking for a striker, but Arsene simply hasn’t seen anyone of sufficient quality to make a purchase worthwhile. Much like last year, when everyone urged Arsene to buy a defensive midfielder or centre-back and he bought Arshavin, he’s instead focused on defensive areas, with Campbell arriving and Smalling clearly a target. There are even suggestions we’ve been looking at goalkeepers, though it seems this one is Mucha do about nothing.
Arsene is sufficiently confident in our attacking options to be letting Jack Wilshere go out on loan, with Bolton the most likely destination. It will be fascinating to see how wee Jack gets on when afforded some first-team football. His talent is unquestionable, but he’s struggled somewhat this season, both with injuries and the extra attention afforded to him by defenders as his reputation grows.
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Big game tonight. Come On You Reds.
