Arsenal-Burnley: By How Much Will Arsenal Win on Saturday?

Thursday, 04 March 10

With no midweek game for Arsenal yet again it has been another strange week as I have gotten so used to seeing and reporting on Arsenal playing twice a week. Of course even if they were still in every competition available to them they wouldn't have played this week as we had a round of international friendlies with which to contend.

It's still too early to know how all of our players fared last night, and to be honest I've no interest in how their countries did or if they had good games themselves as long as we get them all back safe and sound in time for Saturday's game at home to Burnley.

A couple of players who should have remained at the club this week are Diaby and Arshavin as they didn't play for us last weekend due to injury.

I'm sure they didn't play any part in the internationals as they attempt to regain their fitness for that game on Saturday and I'm hopeful that both will be back in the starting team as they could do with a game under their belts before we play Porto on Tuesday night.

With Song suspended and Ramsey out for the rest of the year, we will need Diaby in virtually every game for the rest of the season in my opinion. I can't ever remember him playing more than four or five games in a row without picking up a knock since he came back from his Ramsey style injury.

That injury happened almost four years ago, and while things have got better this season and his form has got a lot better too, it's still a reminder of how serious an injury like that can be. We only have to look at Eduardo's attempts to recover to see how difficult things can be and I hope they go a lot better for Ramsey.

Speaking of Aaron Ramsey, the club has received over 56,000 messages of support for him already and I hope that the support from the Arsenal fans is of some comfort. You can send your message of support on the club site and there's a link to it in the side bar of my blog (the picture of Aaron Ramsey).

I had thought that he couldn't play alongside Cesc as they didn't seem to complement each other, but he was slap bang in the middle of proving me wrong when he got injured. There will also be a huge banner supporting him unveiled at the game on Saturday hopefully, or, failing that, at the Porto game on Tuesday.

Contributions can be made towards the 18' by 15' banner here and, when he is playing football again, it will be signed by Aaron before being given to one of the people who contributed to the cost. 

There's not an awful lot more to say today as news is thin on the ground thanks to those internationals last night, but I'm sure things will pick up when the boss has his press conference.

With Saturday approaching quickly, I'm all set for my trip to the Emirates and it looks like there will be a good few of us meeting up before the game to enjoy the fare of the local hostelries. 

I can't wait and I'm sure the atmosphere at the Emirates will be great as the fans look to encourage the team to push on for the league title and to show their support for Aaron Ramsey.

I'll preview that game on Saturday morning and do my best to review it afterwards despite probably being in a pub somewhere near the Emirates.

We're having a little wager on what the final score will be on Saturday and who will get the first goal also, so feel free to give me your thoughts on both subjects before I make my predictions. That's it for today.

Here's Diaby's goal against Liverpool a couple of weeks ago.

And here's Cesc ssshhhing Tony Pulis on Saturday.

See you tomorrow.