Arsenal To Play Their Strongest Team Against Birmingham

There was plenty of good news in Arsene Wenger's press conference yesterday.

First of all, he told us that RVP is in good shape fitness-wise but to get him back to full team fitness will take a maximum of two to three weeks.

The boss thinks he will be playing again in two weeks, but it will take a few games for him to get back to his best.

Does that mean that we might see him make his comeback from the bench away to the Spuds in our rearranged league game on April 14?

That's almost three weeks from yesterday's press conference and I have a funny feeling if all goes well we might get to welcome him back that night.

The boss also said that he won't be resting any players that are fit to play tomorrow against Birmingham as we are taking things one game at a time, and the next game is the most important game.

He said that we have fought like mad to get into the position we are in now.

We want to win the game against Birmingham.

It has taken 10 months of preparation, fight and work to get into the current position  and the best way to prepare for Barcelona is to win the game before.

With that in mind, I would expect to see Campbell playing in the centre of defence, but it's anybody's guess who will play with him.

I'll discuss that tomorrow in my preview of the game, but I will say that I don't see Campbell and Silvestre as a viable partnership.

At least Vermaelen will be available to play against Barcelona on Wednesday night and the Saturday after that at home to Wolves in the league as his suspension will be over.

The other player who was a doubt for tomorrow's game was Bendtner, but the boss expects him to be able to play despite the fact that he hasn't trained all week with an ankle knock he picked up last Saturday against West Ham. 

That's good news as we all know what happened the last time we travelled to play Birmingham in the league.

To start the game might have been a bit too much for Eduardo, although the boss says he is mentally tough enough to deal with the occasion.

The boss also revealed that Gallas will not play tomorrow or Wednesday.

It's too early to say if he will be available for the Wolves game next week.

If he makes the Wolves game, it would mean that he might be able to play the away game in Barcelona three days later and I would welcome the sight of Gallas partnering Vermaelen in the centre of our defence in that game.

The boss also said that all contract talks have been stalled for the next few weeks as we play every few days, but he feels we are winning the battle to keep Gallas at the club.

He is aware that if an offer of massive wages was made to him, Gallas might well be on his way this summer.

He did say that Gallas knows we want to keep him, but that the deal has to be within the club's set budget.

I'm not sure whether that means he's staying or going, but I do hope it's the former.

Our youngsters continue to exit the club on loan to various teams in England and abroad.

The latest player to go is Sanchez Watt who has joined Leeds United on loan until the end of the year.

JET has also decided to extend his loan spell at Doncaster until the end of the season and I'm sure Doncaster must be very happy with that as he has being playing very well for them. 

Finally, the boss agreed with what I said yesterday about the Arshavin interview.

He said that he thought it was an old interview that has resurfaced in newspapers that could find nothing else to talk about and that Arshavin made the comments after RVP got injured.

The point I made yesterday was that it sounded like a statement from a player during a transfer window rather than at a time when the club could not sign players.

Here's a look at what we have being missing while RVP has been injured.

See you tomorrow.