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Thierry Henry said after tonight's game that he is optimistic that the injury he sustained in the second half
would not be enough to keep him out of the team for the
visit of Sunderland at the weekend.
Arsene Wenger agreed that it was a "very minor" injury, but
rated Henry's chances of playing against the Wearsiders as only 50-50.
Henry felt his hamstring, and despite briefly trying to play on soon decided it was better to come off. Arsenal had already taken the lead at that point.
With Bergkamp probably still injured, the attacking options without Henry would most likely be Jeffers or Wiltord to play
alongside Kanu. While Henry is obviously a very important player to us, the Gunners are looking capable of scoring in
all positions on the field. So we are not as reliant on him
as perhaps we once were.
Wenger also revealed that Freddie Ljungberg was left out
tonight because he had an overnight migraine. Once again (and
especially for Mark)
Freddie was not ready, but home in beddy (see here).
Anyway, there is
no reason to doubt that Freddie will be available for Sunday. If so
it'll make it easier to move Wiltord up front with perhaps Freddie and Toure on the wings.
There may also be a slight doubt over Ashley Cole who suffered a
knock thanks to a dodgy challenge on Wednesday. If so, and
in the continued (but hopefulyl not for long) absence of Gio, we may have to
try the Lauren-Luzhny combination like last season. But we expect
Toure can play at left-back, he seems to play everywhere else. |