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There's been a lot of talk over the last week about Arsenal reserves putting out a very strong side to face Tottenham tonight. Last week the official site carried a story in which Arsene Wenger admitted that "We could have all those players who are left behind [from international duty]", which has been taken to refer to such stars as Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires, Lauren, Pascal Cygan and Manuel Almunia (yes, I know... that sentence stretches the word "star" a bit as it gets towards the end).
"It is good to get 90 minutes under your belt in quite an intense game without being under pressure, especially when you have such a long break," says Wenger. Yes it is.
But it's also good to have a break sometimes, and it looks like this attitude may have won the day. Or maybe, just maybe, the original story was just a load of tosh whipped up out of a throwaway quote. The line-up for tonight's match, as published this afternoon, includes precisely one of those stars: Manuel Almunia, and that's the only change from our last reserve game (a 0-0 stalemate against Chelsea).
So it looks like the hacks trying to stir things up by talking about eg Pires being "forced" to play for the reserves might have to find some other wedge to throw their hammers at.
Meanwhile, Tottenham have announced their
line-up, and it's just as youthful with only 2 players (Cerny and Kelly) having any Premiership experience. The match is at Stevenage Borough FC, kicking off at 7pm. Go along, who knows, maybe you'll catch a bit of Pires. Or, more likely, it'll be worth it to see the likes of Lupoli, Bendtner, Muamba and Song before they burst onto the big stage themselves. Arsenal reserves top their league having scored 31 goals in the 6 games before that Chelsea draw. More of the same against the young old enemy tonight, please! |
