Arsenal vs West Ham Preview + Lansbury To Start? + CC Draw

This Saturday promises to be very interesting for Arsenal fans.  Firstly, we have the Carling Cup draw for the quarter finals which will be held at lunchtime (around 12.20pm).  It would be interesting to see who we will get to play next.  The teams left in the cup are:

1. Arsenal
2. Aston Villa
3. Birmingham City
4. Ipswich Town
5. Manchester United
6. West Bromwich Albion
7. West Ham United
8. Wigan Athletic

I personally hope we get Wigan at home.  This time, Wenger has made it clear that he wants to go for all the competitions and this comes as no surprise as he aims to ends our trophy drought.  With all the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Sp*rs all knocked out early, it looks really possible to win this cup.

There have been criticism aimed at Wenger earlier for him taking this competition lightly by fielding youngsters, but now, he that he is looking to win this trophy, he’s playing a very nice mixture of experienced first teamers and youngsters.

Talking of youngsters, it came as a surprise to many that Henri Lansbury didn’t play the Carling Cup match against Newcastle last Wednesday.  I think the decision not to play him was because he’s going to play tomorrow against West Ham.  With Diaby out injured, Rosicky and Denilson having both played in the CC, it seems that Lansbury will be given a start as Wilshere misses this West Ham match as part of his last three-match suspension.  I also expect JET to get a some minutes in the match.  The boy has looked impressive each and every time I’ve seen him.  His body movement looks like one of a very very classy player.  I fully expect him to make a breakthrough in this Arsenal team- it’s only a matter of time.

West Ham will be a good match, because let’s not forget that it’s a derby!  They are last in the league with six points BUT they have just won against Stoke (3-1) in the CC and we know what a win can do to the team’s moral.  However, West Ham have also played more by going into extra time.  So unless the West Ham manager (Avram Grant) decides to rotates, it’s going to be a side who’s probably tired who going to play us at the Emirates.  I expect Arsenal to win convincingly this match and no dropping of points is allowed, since there is the possibility of MANU and Sp*rs to drop points themselves (they face each other on Saturday).

This would mean that a win is sure to increase the gap between us and the other two previously mentioned.  Meanwhile, Man. City are playing away to Wolves and Chelsea away to Blackburn.  I don’t expect Man. City to have any problems against Wolves, but Chelsea could drop points at Blackburn, at Ewood Park – my thought though!  Ewood park is always a difficult place to go and play.  I think this Chelsea match could end in a draw (2-2?).  We’ll see.

In other news, Ramsey and RVP is reported to be soon back in full training, which is a really good thing for them.  Ramsey is not expected to play for quite some time, but noises are coming out that RVP might be fit for the Sp*rs match in the league.  We all remember the last time he played against the spuds at he scored the opening goal followed by a wonder goal by Cesc.  RVP’s really an exceptional player and we’ll all know how much we missed him when he comes back.

Meanwhile, reports are coming out on the Gibbs injury saying that he’s  probably going to be out for a few weeks.  That’s a shame really, because he was starting to look like a very good player.  Anyway, we hope he has a speedy recovery, no need to rush him back right now.  The other injured player, Vermaelen is still uncertain when he’s set to return.  Let him take his time, so that when he comes back, he’s ready to give us a boost.

So that’s it from me today.  I will write new posts if there are any other news to report.  Till then.