Injuries and Suspensions Aplenty as Arsenal Goes to Ewood Park

by Joel Martin

Today we travel to Ewood Park without as many as 10 first team players today in our replay with Blackburn. The Rovers, on the other hand, are much healthier than they were when we played them only two weeks ago. Morten Gamst Pedersen, who is easily one of their best players, and Benni McCarthy should return to a side who showed us how exactly to play the most negative of football. Now that they’re at home, however, they should come at us a little more, which could be intriguing.

Of course many of our absences will be due to the ruckus at the end of the Cup Final on the weekend. Adebayor’s appeal was denied, and Eboue was handed a suspension for what the officials thought Adebayor did in the first place (how the linesman mistook Adebayor for Eboue I have no idea, but then I again I have no idea how he found Drogba to be onside in the 20^th either). Kolo didn’t even appeal his suspension, and he’s sitting out the next three games as well.

In addition, Henry has picked up a foot injury somehow; Rosicky has picked up a groin injury; and Diaby (who has proven to be magnificent when he can stay fit) is out with an ankle injury. Hoyte, Djourou, and Flamini are all uncertainties as well, and I have no idea who will play right back if the three of them are out on top of Eboue’s absence. Clichy also has picked up a slight knock, so young Armand Traore may get a character-building chance on the road in the FA Cup.

Fabregas will get a much-needed and well-deserved rest, so it looks like we’ll pair the two Brazilians, Denilson and Gilberto, together in the middle. I think Denilson will make a difference tomorrow—he’s blossoming into a special, special player.

Other than the obvious problem as to who will play right back, I think our side should look fairly solid. Of course Van Persie is out as well, which makes our choice of strikers pretty slim. I personally would like to see how Walcott could do as an out-and-out striker, but chances are he won’t get that opportunity. I expect the youngster to start on the bench and then sub in for either Ljunberg or Hleb if we need his spark. If Baptista plays, he needs to show the spirit he showed in the first 20 minutes of the Cup Final, because he did absolutely nothing the rest of the game. He is still yet to impress since his goal explosion in January, and he needs to have a game tomorrow, when we need him. Other teams’ reserve score big goals because they need to impress and earn a place in the first team. Oldie Gunnar Solskjaer and Louis Saha, neither of whom are close to the caliber of player Baptista is, showed this resilience and determination by getting goals in ManUre’s thriller of a replay yesterday, we need Baptista to do the same. I think he finally will, simply because he can’t afford not to.

My prediction: a crazy free kick from Gamst Pedersen 35 minutes in, against the run of play, followed by an equalizer right before half from Aliadiere, and lastly Baptista thunders in a header in the 75^th to win it.