Central defender Thomas Vermaelen made his first start in two months having recovered from an ankle injury. However, the Belgian had to be substituted shortly before full-time after picking up a knock. Phew! Doesn't seem too bad - might be a blessing in disguise to need to rest him for Chelsea though. Mert and Kos have been doing alright, and wouldn't want TV to pick up an injury in what will be a full frenetic game at Stamford Bridge.
I got the impression he was being rushed back when I saw his name in the squad last night, very unlike AW. I think the Chelsea game will come too soon to be honest, rather him sit out a week or two and last the rest of the season that risk long term damage for the sake of 1 game...
I think we should stick with our current CB pairing for Chelsea, Vermaelen is not fit enough at the moment.
Got to agree with that Even though he's our best CB, he is still short of games. Chelsea will not be an easy game to hit the ground running in.
I think TV was rushed back into this game because wenger wanted to protect and rest Kos and mertasaker, as well as santos, as we only have one fit left back, migel would possibly have played CB if we had another LB, but I think wenger defiantly wanted to rest the back 4 that will start against Chelsea. It will be interesting to see what AW dose if kos and mertasaker have a good game against Chelsea, as it would be difficult to drop either one, I think mertasaker will probably be the one to drop out, as he has had a bit of a baptism of fire. Kos and tv have only player about 6 or 7 games together, so we still don't really know what they would be like, wenger obviously thot that they would be a good pairing, but haven't been able to play together due to TVs injuries.