"Danny Fox has trained and all being well will be in contention for the weekend" Only thing i can take from pre-match interview. Interesting note Luke Shaw has had a bad illness only returned to training midweek and will travel but i suppose a not 100% fresh Danny Fox will be picked ahead of a not 100% fresh Luke Shaw.
Arsenal have been lacklustre in front of goal this season but I hope their Anfield victory will not inspire them too much , what really concerns me for this game is that a good footballing side that passes quickly and all over the ptich will tire our players and that will lead to gaps in the 2nd half especially , what formation we are playing as well will be interesting as it will be a test of Adkins faith in the side , attacking , defensive or counter attack .
I hope your right, as it would make my weekend. I haven't got too high expecatations to be honest, I think we'll score, but beyond that, not too hopeful.
Also feeling confident, we can get something from this game to set us up nicely for the rest of September!
Going to say 1-1, Arsenal in control for the majority but unable to take their chances, one of the summer additions to bag their first goal as a Saint.
I really enjoyed the last few seasons...no sick feelings, just confidence. We are where we wanted to be and I wasn't over-worried for first few matches as we knew they would be tough games. Now am regaining that old Premier league feeling that comes with supporting Saints. However, previous experience showed that PL games are not predictable...look at our 3 consecutive home wins over ManU. We've shown we can score and Arsenal don't always win at home, so trying to keep the faith.
Said Saints would do well (who would have thought that!) and that Nigel should be given time after achieving 2 promotions. Praised Lallana. Wouldn't be drawn on kit issue and never mentioned Cortese. Think he might be trying to calm that down.
We're a fit side, but Adkins will be mindful of players getting tired and we're likely to need some difference-makers on the bench for some physical and mental freshness. In L1 and the Championship, the opposition passing game is less relentless. Our work on the training ground was enough for us to put our best 11 out who could all complete 90 minutes if we wanted them to. The games now are tough and we know we'll have to utilise the squad to stay in each game. The decision not to start Lambert against City seemed strange at the time, but it became abundantly clear why we did it when we got him on. Had we started Lambert, we probably would have collapsed after being forced to take him off and lost the game heavily. Tough decisions to make, but decisions that can make the difference between winning and losing games.
Diaby definitely out. Szceszny back in, Mannone onto the bench, as is Giroud. Arsenal team: Szcesny; Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs; Arteta, Coquelin, Cazorla; Chamberlain, Podolski, Gervinho.
Looks like their plan is to wear us out and then use Giroud later on to pick out the pockets of space that tired legs leave behind. Gervinho won't get much change out of Clyne, so Wenger is bound to be up to something.
