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Great news ahead of tomorrow's game at Charlton, it
looks like William Gallas's injury picked up
against
Porto on Wednesday isn't nearly as
bad as feared. Initial reports, the way it looked at the time with
Gallas clutching his hamstring area and Gary Lewin applying
ice immediately, together with Wenger's post-match
interview, all made it look like the kind of hamstring injury
that'd keep the player out for a few weeks at least.
And with Johan Djourou also being a doubt after
aggravating a foot problem in Wednesday's warm-up, yesterday we
were being told
that either Gilberto or Alexandre Song
was likely to have to play alongside Kolo Toure tomorrow.
It was looking like centre-back might be this year's
left-back.
But today it's been
revealed that both players' scans came back far better than hoped.
Both players face late fitness tests but are in definite
contention to play tomorrow, with
Gallas being the more likely.
Lauren, Gael Clichy, Philippe Senderos and
Abou Diaby are all still out. Wenger says that the
first player back will be either Senderos or Clichy,
with Senderos being most likely. But it could still be 3 to 5 weeks
according to the official
injury news page.
I can see Emmanuel Adebayor coming back into a 4-4-2, and perhaps
:Freddie-Ljungberg: will start again having been rested
for most of Wednesday. But apart from that the selection will be
totally dependent on who's fit out of Gallas and Djourou. If neither is,
we have to choose between moving Gilberto back (and probably
bringing in Matthieu Flamini alongside Cesc Fabregas) or
leaving Gilberto in position and giving Alex Song his chance. Song
has apparently looked good for the reserves but he's yet to
impress in the first team... not that he's had much chance to.
The Addicks are struggling big time under Iain Dowie. He's brought in
Andy Reid and Djimi Traore, hardly names to strike fear. And while
their other significant signing Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink still has
a cracking shot on him, he's lost enough pace to make him considerably
less of a threat than in the past. Arsenal's pacy defence ought to be
able to cope.
Dowie reckons Charlton are not going to play defensively, "We've got to
make sure we get the ball and demand that they defend their goal. That's
very key: we mustn't sit back and allow them to come at us."
Reid is likely to be back from a hamstring injury, having managed to train
for a few days this week. Diawara - their most expensive defender ever,
got injured in his debut at Chelsea. Uruguayan Omar Pouso also got
injured on his debut. These absentees are joined by Traore, Gonzalo Sorondo,
and former Arsenal youngster Jerome Thomas. Traore and Diawara have returned to training but it's thought that the Arsenal
game will come too soon for them. Hasselbaink up front with
Bent ought to be a danger, but they don't really have the players
to support or supply from midfield.
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