WTTGT Writer: Devon James Andre Halls (@halls_dja)
Hello, guten Tag, bonjour and the like. I hope all is well with you in week 3 of this calendar year, gameweek 22 in Fantasy Premier League football. I’m currently on 1,034 points, anyone topping that? I doubt it!
I’ve made a conscious effort to keep the first sentence or 2 positive, as I fear there is only negativity to promote from here on in. Call me Mr. Sceptical if you will, but I think we are heading into this fixture in a similarly large player crisis as we were in late august 2011. Allow me to briefly cover the areas of the pitch from front to back to see where our squad has improved since the battering we received a few months ago.
The Pole is in goal, no problems there. Sagna didn’t feature for us at Old Trafford so Jenkinson played, tried hard but wasn’t up to the job, eventually getting himself sent off. Mertesacker will step into central defence alongside Koscielny, allowing us to push Djourou out to right back. This time round we’ll have Miquel playing instead of Traore I should think, and while I am a big fan of his, he isn’t exactly an upgrade on Traore at left back yet, and struggles when contributing to attacking moves on the left.
Coquelin played in the middle alongside Ramsey and Rosicky, and with Arteta out it will look very similar. Song will come in which is certainly an upgrade over the young Frenchman Coquelin and will hopefully provide some extra cover for the defenders.
The forward 3 will be exactly the same, Van Persie up top with Arshavin and Walcott supporting from either side.
So my starting XI would be Szczesny, Djourou, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Miquel, Song, Ramsey, Rosicky, Arshavin, Walcott, Van Persie.
Therefore we have Mertesacker and Song coming in which is an improvement for sure, but our bench will be frighteningly weak. It is looking doubtful that Henry will make the bench after picking up an injury and Chamack is looking for his scoring ability somewhere in Africa, leaving us with Park to provide firepower from the bench. This is the same Park that hasn’t played a millisquillisecond of premier league football in ever before you ask. The Ox will start on the bench I should think and will be our only real threat. I’m sure he’ll get plenty of pitch time, especially if Walcott and Arshavin are as poor and average (respectively) as they were last week.
So after 3 or 4 jovial sentences I’ve hit you with about 40 sentences of moan and down-in-the-dump-aries! If you’ll indulge me then, I’ll now provide you with cause for street parties and confetti throwing. It appears as if Sagna, Wilsher, Gibbs and Vermaelen could all be returning in 2-3 weeks. Henry and Arteta are apparently suffering from trivial trifles of injuries and so should be back even sooner. If that doesn’t get you excited in areas I don’t want to know about, I’m not sure what will. Imagine having more than 1 of our best players available to play together in a football match, what a treat!
Now journey back down with me into the depths of despair and perhaps depravity as I remind you that losing this game could see us being 7 points off Chelsea and 13 off Tottenham, which be a large and pretty much unassailable hill to climb into the top 4.
Back to the positives however and we have conceded just 6 goals at home this season, the second best record in the league. That is pretty much my favourite stat at the moment and I slip it into conversation whenever I can, I suggest you do the same.
That’s enough warble from me, if you’re at the stadium on Sunday get behind the boys with every vocal cord you posses. If you’re sitting on your sofa or on a pub stool, why not do the same?
I’ll catch you all after the game for player ratings, where you’ll hear more of my opinions, you lucky things.
Adieu
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1,163 points. Its gonna be tough. Weak bench as you say, just hope a few of em have looked in the mirror this week. Could be worse, could be sme team as back in August. Up the arse! Lets put up a good fight and who knows. Chelski drew so lets take advantage
if we win he wont buy anyone, if we lose badly then he will spend…..so its a lose lose situation for us anyways