Saturday, 1 January 2011

Birmingham City vs Arsenal Last Minute Preview

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!


We're up against our away bogey team tonight. Birmingham have a habit of snatching last minute draws against us. And considering we dropped points away at Wigan and our title opponents have all picked up points tonight, it is imperative that we collect the necessary three points on offer. I'm glad Arsene Wenger has reverted back to the same line up that defeated Chelsea and I'm looking forward to us producing a similar performance tonight.

Team news:

Birmingham(4-5-1): Foster, Carr, Johnson, Dann, Ridgewell, Larsson, Gardner, Bowyer, Ferguson, Beausejour, Jerome

Substitutes: Taylor, Jiranek, Hleb, Fahey, Derbyshire, Phillips, Zigic

Manager: Alex McLeish

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Formation view:

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                                                Foster

Carr                    Johnson                              Dann                 Ridgewell

Larsson           Ferguson          Gardner            Bowyer               Beausejour

                                               Jerome

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Arsenal (4-2-3-1) Fabianski, Sagna, Djourou, Koscielny, Clichy, Walcott, Song, Wilshere, Nasri, Fabregas, van Persie

Substitutes: Szczesny, Eboue, Squillaci, Arshavin, Denilson, Rosicky, Bendtner

Manager: Arsene Wenger

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Formation view:

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                                                       Fabianski

Sagna                       Djourou                                      Koscielny                  Eboue

                                         Song                      Wilshere

Walcott                                           Fabregas                                        Nasri

                                                      van Persie

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Tactics:

Goalkeeping/Defence: Glad to see Johan back. Hope he can bolster our defence and cut out chances for Birmingham. We were shaky against Wigan and we should defend better as a unit today. Clichy should perform better than Eboue who was out of place at left back in the previous game.

Midfield: Good to see our top guns in midfield back in action. We should be much more fluid than in our last match, which was really poor. The addition of Song should lend more steel to the midfield and provide a good defensive cover. Jack would be looking to keep the ball ticking in the midfield and hope Cesc produces the goods tonight.

Attack: Hope Nasri and van Persie can hit the ground running tonight. With Cesc back in, we should be able to utilize Theo's pace more often. van Persie is really due a goal, and hope he gets one today.

Subs: I'd bring on Rosicky, Eboue and Bendtner/Arshavin.

Final Prediction:

A scrappy 1-2 win will do (though if we play at the level we played against Chelsea, a similar score beckons).

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