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Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Flamini out of Newcastle clash. More midfield headache for Wenger


By 1970’s Gooner

It's reported that Arsene Wenger’s problems with injuries are continuing. Midfielders Fabregas, Hleb and Diaby are known absentees for the away game at St James Park. Now Sky is reporting that Mathieu Flamini is out with a thigh injury he picked up at Villa Park.

This is a pity as Mathieu was in inspiring form against Aston Villa scoring the equalizer in a more advanced midfield role due to Fabregas’s absence.

Wenger is now faced with a similar decision he had to make prior to the home game against Wigan where again the first choice central midfielders, Fabregas and Flamini were out injured.

Will he go with Diarra and Denilson again or will he call back the experienced Gilberto.

But it wasn’t till Rosicky was moved into the midfield in the later stages of that game that Arsenal became more creative scoring two late goals.

Wenger therefore has the option to pair Rosicky with either Gilberto or Diarra in central midfield and play the impressive and improving Eboue and Walcott on the wings.

He has another option. And that is to play a three man midfield, Gilberto, Diarra and Rosicky in a 4 3 3 formation with Adebayor flanked by Eboue and Walcott.


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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would have Denilson and Diarra in the middle with Rosicky ahead of them. Walcott and Eboue on the wing, Ade up top. if not, 442 with edu up front instead of Walcott.

Anonymous said...

I have not seen anything on Sky Sports website about Flamini being out??

Anonymous said...

It's official now!

Hleb is definitely out now! Damn!

http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=484924&lid=NewsHeadline&Title=Hleb+and+Flamini+join+Cesc+and+Co+on+the+injured+list

Anonymous said...

As soon as Flamini was out of the team (vs Sevilla) Arsenal looked like they lacked something huge in that area. As soon as he came back he was in stunning form and looked easily one of our best players (again). Now he's injured that's really pissed me off. It's not like we can't beat Newcastle without him, but rather he's becoming more and more influential with ever performance and atm he seems to have a divine right to play against everyone considering how well he's been playing. Flam, Fab, Hleb, RvP, Toure. Those are without whom we are no longer the best side in the league and like I said it's not the end of the world so long as we still win, it's just really annoying we're missing almost all of our best players.

Anonymous said...

I've always considered Flamini to be a fabulous worker and an extremely good all-round utlity player. But he's never looked like he's quite good enough to challenge the first team seriously.

I must admit him staying was a revelation. He's perhaps been our most consistent player this year playing everywhere from right back to CM and has time and again proved his mettle. Now he's even contributed a useful couple of goals when we've needed them and I must admit against Villa I thought he looked like the biggest leader on the pitch (and that's coming someone from a devout Kolo worshipper!). If he can hold this consistency for a long time to come he can be seen as one of the truly great players in this squad and his presense adds untold benefits. Basically I just pray for his sake that he will keep this up, because frankly I think atm he's our player of the season, as well as being our most improved player.

Anonymous said...

He might not add the flair or technique of Fabregas, Ade, Hleb etc. but he makes SUCH a difference in stopping us conceding so many weak goals even though ironically the first goal at Villa was his fault. But I'll forgive him for his superb performance and great strike.

Anonymous said...

Truly said