Fabregas and arshavin out!

[Indianspur]

With these two out for the spurs game, we potentially have the best chance to beat them at home. add van persie to the fold then we have a better team on paper.
Its all down to bottle and mental strength. Please please please!!!

[Apples]

With these two out for the spurs game, we potentially have the best chance to beat them at home. add van persie to the fold then we have a better team on paper.
Its all down to bottle and mental strength. Please please please!!!

and...Gallas but they do have Sol

[deadleyledley]

and...Gallas but they do have Sol

all the more reason to beat them. this is the perfect oppurtunity to beat them and we have the quality to do it. it is now down to our mental strength.

[GQCoolest]

Only problem is that they play Citeh also. Fab won't play in either, but hopefully Arshavin will make it back in the 10 days between our match and the Citeh match. Also, Van Persie is headed back to full fitness, although Physio Room's injury table doesn't have him returning until the Citeh match, I figure we see a lineup of:

Almunia
Sagna--Vermalaen--Song/Judas--Clichy
Walcott--Denilson--Diaby--Rosicky/Eboue
Nasri
Bendtner

Not as dangerous as normal, but still an excellent side.

[TURKISH]

Watch us still fvck it up.

[Chewy]

We have our own injuries to worry about. Hopefully by then thougn we'll have a few of them back! Think it will come too soon for Lennon unfortunately.

-----------Gomes
Corluka----King--Dawson----Bale
Bentley-Huddlestone-Palacios-Modric
----------Pav-----Defoe

With Bassong, Ekotto, Kaboul, Jenas, Krancjar, Gudjohnsen and Crouch all options for the bench.

Hopefully Palacios can avoid that dreaded yellow card! Hopefully Lennon can make the bench as well.

Is playing them a week after they've been knocked out of the champions league a good thing or bad thing?

[Apples]

We have our own injuries to worry about. Hopefully by then thougn we'll have a few of them back! Think it will come too soon for Lennon unfortunately.

-----------Gomes
Corluka----King--Dawson----Bale
Bentley-Huddlestone-Palacios-Modric
----------Pav-----Defoe

With Bassong, Ekotto, Kaboul, Jenas, Krancjar, Gudjohnsen and Crouch all options for the bench.

Hopefully Palacios can avoid that dreaded yellow card! Hopefully Lennon can make the bench as well.

Is playing them a week after they've been knocked out of the champions league a good thing or bad thing?

I thought good coz they will go all out to beat barca only to be disappointed....

problem is they get that rest period

i mean hopefully we can brush past portsmouth with ease but its a semi final so you dont know

[Shelfside]

Well,last seasons home match against Arsenal saw us draw 0-0 against a side that had ten men from the 38th minute.Some of their key players being out is a slight advantage for us but not one that should be seen as a guarantee of victory.

[Indianspur]

well if we beat sunderland then a draw wouldnt be something i'd cry about.

Its sometimes down to luck with decisions too. Need to contain nasri and half the jobs done. i have been impressed with Song for a year now and will be happy with him at centre back rather than midfield.

[Indianspur]

On another note rooneys out for 2-3 weeks, i reckon he will probably be back for the spurs game :(

[malc123]

With these two out for the spurs game, we potentially have the best chance to beat them at home. add van persie to the fold then we have a better team on paper.
Its all down to bottle and mental strength. Please please please!!!

I thought that when we played a weaker Liverpool side in January & a weak Man U team in League Cup but we still f***** it up. We have had so many chances to beat the Scum over the last decade by leading on many occasions but it just does not happen. However it was the same with Chelsea and then finally we cracked it and one of these days it will happen but I think they still have enough strength in their squad for the result to go either way. We are on a winning streak with 5 league wins in a row and have not been beaten in last 9 matches and hopefully by the time we play this match it will be 11. When it is too good to be true we come tumbling down. I really cannot see any reason to be confident for this match with our record against them but if we are to get 4th we will need to win against 1 of the big 3.

[Apples]

I thought that when we played a weaker Liverpool side in January & a weak Man U team in League Cup but we still f***** it up. We have had so many chances to beat the Scum over the last decade by leading on many occasions but it just does not happen. However it was the same with Chelsea and then finally we cracked it and one of these days it will happen but I think they still have enough strength in their squad for the result to go either way. We are on a winning streak with 5 league wins in a row and have not been beaten in last 9 matches and hopefully by the time we play this match it will be 11. When it is too good to be true we come tumbling down. I really cannot see any reason to be confident for this match with our record against them but if we are to get 4th we will need to win against 1 of the big 3.

We have a lot of confidence at the moment which makes the two games before key games before our big build up.

Injuries or not we need results against Sunderland and Portsmouth

[mjbmedia]

shame, at least Fabregas went back on til the end of the game, Hope Cesc gets back soon to be honest simply for refusing to come off, thats proper team play .
Hope Rooney doesnt quite get back in time for us, and that Drogba gets injured this week for 3 weeks .

[olly27]

shame, at least Fabregas went back on til the end of the game, Hope Cesc gets back soon to be honest simply for refusing to come off, thats proper team play .
Hope Rooney doesnt quite get back in time for us, and that Drogba gets injured this week for 3 weeks .

Obviously digging at Lennon there, are you flipping serious?

[deadleyledley]

all we can do is concentrate on preparation for sunderland and get all 3points. we have our owu injuries to worry about. lennon and king are key players, that we will need back asap.

[Apples]

Obviously digging at Lennon there, are you flipping serious?

lol obviously - I knew he'd think about that

Although fair play to Fabregas for doing it - he might well have got back earlier and helped them at the end of the season

[mjbmedia]

Obviously digging at Lennon there, are you flipping serious?
yep serious he can come back to play V Man City and miss our game
No dig at anyone, thats done and dusted.

[olly27]

yep serious he can come back to play V Man City and miss our game
No dig at anyone, thats done and dusted.

He's out for the season. Risking players who arn't 100% is madness. He gambled on Gallas, who has also been ruled out for the season, and will now pay the price for that decision.

[mjbmedia]

He's out for the season. Risking players who arn't 100% is madness. He gambled on Gallas, who has also been ruled out for the season, and will now pay the price for that decision.

Cesc was totally right to stay on ,he used up a Barca midfielder and wanted to do all he could to send his team into the 2nd leg at worst level, and as he was already banned it was worth the risk to him
He'd probably have had the same lay off if he had gone off straight away, and., much like with Maldini in the World Cup finals a few years back when he stayed on for Italy for at least the last 20 minutes barely able to walk , he showed why he is an international superstar.
Cesc and Maldini thought of the team first.
I would always rather see that from my players , always without exception , If thats having a pop at Lennon then so be it, it isnt, but WTF
But i respect your views too, not arguing just discussing

[Gold7]

I think we may be playing arse at the worst tim as they've just been given to footballing lessons from the footballing machine that is barca . Now who ever they will play against will feel easy in comparison .

I think one aspect we should match Barca on is work rate though that's easier said than done as barca only have to win the ball back 5 times a game due to the fact they hardly give it away .

[deadleyledley]

barca are good at keeping the ball, which is why they have so many oppurtunities to score.

we have to people to pass the ball. hudd and modric are excellent passers of the ball and we should be using it to keep possesion. we need to start playing more of our possesion players and have palacios just tackling.

however the injuries are making it very hard for us to play them.