Arsene Wenger will be hoping to steer The Gunners through their defensive woes without dropping points
With Thomas Vermaelen sidelined at the mercy of a one-match band for his alleged professional foul in the West Ham game, and long-term injury victim Gallas still far from a return, Arsene Wenger faces a difficult decision as to who should partner at the back for the Birmingham game. Campbell fights on despite natural fatigue, and he may be well deserving of a break.
Alex Song looked fantastic both in midfield and defence last week. Does he warrant selection over Silvetre for CB?
….and if so, surely this must be the tolling of the bell for Mikael Silvestre at Arsenal?
Does Wenger dare play the walking time-bomb Silvestre? The Manager’s confidence in the less-than-sturdy French defender seems deeply uprooted of late. However, if he chooses not to, Alex Song, who had a fantastic game against West Ham, will be forced to drop back, creating more problems in our midfield. Certainly if Song is picked ahead of Silvestre it will signal the final nail in the coffin of the ex-Machester United man’s career at Arsenal.
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Curt.B
Arsenal Action Blog 
Has to be silvestre & song, song is drafted in to replace super sol who needs a rest before Barcelona and silvestre replaces tommy v, those two will be good enough to stop Birmingham with denilson & diaby infront!
Don’t understimate this game. Birmingham have proven they can throw spanners into the works when they feel the mood.
With Silvestre and Song at the back, I fear we will draw or lose this game.
Interesting that there is a lot of support for the Silvestre/Song combination. this surely has to be the worst. It combines two players who are unnatural at CB, ong being predominantly a DM and Silvestre not at all a confident CB. Not only that, it Pulls song out of the midfield. Has to be the worst choic in my opinion.
Really, I would think only the first or third options as being beneficial. Option 2 does nothing but cause problems.
Campbell will be rested.Wenger said on his press conference,
You are wrong, sorry.
Campbell will play.
“I will pick him for the next game because for me the next game is an important one,” declared Wenger at his pre-match press conference.
– Wenger
yes but option 2 allows for a relatively rested sol to play on wednesday. rather than having him out there looking extremely patchy. i thought he was very off against hull a couple weeks back when it was his third game in a week, i’m not so keen to see that against messi.
There is a chance Gallas will be fit for barca, which will be a huge boost. Vermaelen and Gallas give us a much better chance
if he plays that’s going to be a hell of welcome back to the first team.
Song and Sagna
song and silvestre protected by denilson and diaby should be fine.
Denilson couldn’t protect his own genitalia he’s so uselss at defence.
If Gallas is fit for Barca, pick Sol and Song.
If not, then we have to play Silvestre and Song to give Sol a chance to recover.
It’s simple.
silvestre and song !! campbell is needed vs barca !!
almunia
sagna song silvestre clichy
denilson
fabregas diaby
nasri bendtne arshavin
something different.
Almunia
Sagna Song Clichy
Eboue
Walcott Diaby Nasri Arshavin
Fabregas
Bendtner
go for the jugular
Very odd. Sagna might do at CB but he’s short, Eboue in DM is baaaad, play him RB. Play the rest, hold possession of at least 65% and its plausible.
play song at cb with denilson and diaby in midfiled supporting captain marvel cesc…..that wat i say.
Just to share and support the logic of other above commentators: Silvestre/Song gives Sol a break before the Barca date (only four days later). We’ll need to keep possession against B’ham if we’re to win and that means reducing the demands on our central partnership: fingers crossed
COYG
almunia
eboue,sol,silvestre,clichy
song
fab diaby
samir,bentner,arshavin
Clive,
Clive,
I agree with your selection except I think we might benefit from playing Walcott for his speed, work-rate and ability to track back. This would either mean omitting B52 or Nasri. Given the opponent and my assessment of Theo’s potential, I’d probably sacrifice B52 and bring him on if things need changing. Similarly, I think Eboue offers us more going forward and I believe the battle will come down to two factors:
1. Who dominates possession in midfield (hence pairing up Song/Diaby) and
2. Who consequently exercises their attacking prowess (neither team being the best defensively).
My choice would therefore be:
Almunia,
Eboue, Campbell, Verminator, Clichy
Song, Diaby
Cescs
Walcott, Nasri, Arshavin
This formation and selection seems to me to offer speed, steel and guile: a surely winning combination against Barca
COYG
I think it is a bad choice to omitt Bedntner. We want him to keep gathering a bit of form and hopefully more goals; these are the games we want him to build up through. He needs practice upfront and needs the confidence boost of scoring goals.
Walcott will have more impact as a sub when the defence has tired out.
I think we could bring him on from the bench. However, against Barca we need to press and defend and B52 just aint going to give us what we need in this respect. I don’t believe Barca will tire as they have famous fitness levels.
However, I doubt Arsene would go for my approach as it seems to lack caution!!