I know we have appealed against Giroud's ban, but even if that is successful, I doubt Wenger is going to continue to persist with him considering his form. So, that leaves us with three options for that CF role. Lukas Podolski - Played through the middle against Sunderland in the first game of the season, and has not played there again. Gervinho - Was our CF in some of the earlier games in the season. At first he did well, but got worse with every game. Theo Walcott - Wenger played him in the central berth during that contract dispute, and his only good game was against Newcastle. The options are hardly great, are they?
PODOLSKI, only one who has regular experience of playing upfront and only one who hasn't been given a crack at it all season. It has to be either Theo or Pod as both are clinical and Utd aren't exactly going to be giving us a host of chances we can't afford Gerv's kack finshing. Personally I would take a front three of Oxo, Pod, Theo (hit them with pace) but likely to be caz, pod and theo.
I think Pod could become a new & improved RVP, but doubt AW will risk him and his ankle. I think we will be seeing Theo as CF for the rest of the season unless the red is rescinded. Not the end of the world as Theo did some good work up there earlier in the season.
off topic but Phil Dowd has been confirmed as referee for our game on sunday http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/...match-officials-appointments-27-29-april.html
would take theo tbh. Not like he will stick to the wing if we play him there. Poldi whilst a great finisher his all round game isn't quite there yet. In theos defense though hes rarely been played cf but whenever hes played there he has done a decent job. Gervinho is far too erratic to play there.
this , no quarter . from what i have read on other boards it seems Mancini was not far off when he said teams seemed to be scared of manure. I say we can beat them and we WILL beat them . COYG ! and lets give Van Judas the welcome he richly deserves .
a smack in the mouth? Good point about teams being scared. Apparently Stoke have never beaten United. A couple of other teams always seem to lose against them too, Villa being one. I'd bet a tidy sum on United winning tonight. Here's the BBC stat: "In league games only, United have lost just one of their last 34 meetings with Villa home and away since 1995 (W24, D9, L1)"
Why do you say that Grizzly? It wasn't a particularly bad challenge and upon watching the replays you can see he slips and falls over as opposed to making a bad challenge. I can see why it was given as it looked similar to the one given earlier in the game but i think on watching it back it looks like a mistake as opposed to uneccesary force.
The appeal will probably mean the suspension is suspended until the hearing is held so Giroud will be able to play against Man U. Cant think of any other reason they would bother appealing as its unlikely to be overturned. So we will proabably have Giroud and RVP on the same pitch just to give us a direct comparison of what we had and what we've got.
There is a media frenzy around high tackles and it's become fashionable to jump on the bandwagon. Even though Giroud caught some of the ball his foot went over the top studs first (whether he slipped or not is irrelevant). Even AW who says less about contentious instances than any premier lge manager has said he had no issue with the red card, Arsenal are appealing out of desperation given our lack of options up front for our final 4 games, but the chances of the appeal succeeding are zero for me. Don't get me wrong I want to be wrong, but the FA do everything possible to protect their referees and the decisions they make and generally only reverse decisions if there's been a clear error
I would rather we played Theo or Podolski up front than Giroud. The frenchman struggles in high paced games.
Problem with Podolski is that he is half-fit and Wenger is clearly being cautious with him. Also, we need to press from the front against united, and Podolski is hardly great on that front. I would personally play Walcott and maybe use Podolski from the bench.
Yes, I am not sure about Podolski's fitness. I always thought we got him a bit cheap, so perhaps that is why? I think Walcott and Ox get their chance, and everything else stays the same.
