It’s been almost a week since we won at Stoke, moved closer to the top and witnessed the horrible injury suffered by Aaron Ramsey. Sometimes you just have to move on and with Burnley and Porto paying a visit to the Emirates in four days, you simply cannot relax for a second. In mid-week, both Nicklas Bendtner and Carlos Vela scored nice goals, which is always nice to see, especially for Nick who – unlike Carlos – is part of the squad and ready to impress with his club as well.

Burnley

19th in the table, Burnley are yet to win on the road and lost 13 of their 14 played games. Their only positive result away from home was against Manchester City in a 3-3 thriller so on paper, this should be an easy game for the Gunners, reason why it would be nice to see some new faces out there, especially since yes, Porto are only a couple of days away and that one will be much, much tougher.

Having said that, it would be nice if we could register a big win which would see us leapfrog Chelsea on goal average, remember Ancelotti’s side will not be in action in the Premiership this weekend as they will face Stoke City, in the F.A. Cup.

Favourite line-up

With the Champions League game on Tuesday, I believe some players will be rested and I would give a rest to Bacary Sagna and Samir Nasri, knowing that both Emmanuel Eboue and Andrey Arshavin are perfect replacements.

William Gallas is yet to recover from injury and news of today say that even Sol is ruled out so I’m afraid Mikael Silvestre will have to play at the back. Same emergency situation in midfield with Alex Song suspended and poor Aaron out for a long time. Luckily, Abou Diaby is back and he’ll surely be joined in midfield by Denilson, also back from injury.

Pre-match Interviews

It will be interesting to see how harsh tackles will fly during the game after last week though according to Burnley defender Leon Cort, the away team will not be shy to use their physical presence against the Gunners.

He said:

We are going to go there and still throw tackles in because it is a physical game and we are fighting for our lives. I don’t believe anyone goes there to kick them. People know that when they play against Arsenal they have to get in their faces and stop them from playing.

Maybe Arsene’s done it for a psychological advantage. Quite a lot of his players are small and move the ball a lot quicker so there are going to be a lot of mis-timed tackles

Not a direct reply to the above, but Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has absolutely no problem when opponents get physical. Speaking before the game, the Frenchman revealed he loves the commitment of the English game, as long as it is played fair.

He said:

I am sitting here like I am in a tribunal. What do I have to defend? Is it a football game or something else? I can understand people want to be committed against us, and I have no problem with that.

I love the commitment of the English game. I don’t want to change that and it makes the game even more attractive, but high commitment demands fair intention as well.

The Gunning Hawk Coverage

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