Arsenal-Blackburn: Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie Set To Start

Arsenal makes the trip up north today to face Big Fat Sam and his bunch of cloggers.

I read an interesting statistic on Twitter yesterday that said Blackburn had the lowest pass completion rate in the Premier League so far this season at only 56 percent and of course Arsenal, had the highest rate at 87 percent.

It would be interesting to see who has the most fouls committed and who are the most fouled team by the end of the season.  My money would be on the same two teams and we know which team would be doing the kicking and which team would be getting kicked.  That brings us to the differing tactics to be employed by both teams tomorrow and how they will affect the outcome of the game.

Blackburn will look to get set pieces and get the ball right in on top of Manuel Almunia and test out his ability (or lack thereof) on crosses under pressure.  You can be sure Christopher Samba will be right in there with him for all corners and free kicks, and he's going to need as much help as possible from his teammates and the referee when required. 

Blackburn will also look to do anything they can to prevent Arsenal from creating chances and any Arsenal player that gets into a dangerous position can expect to feel some studs on any part of his body that the Blackburn players can reach.  To counter that, Arsenal will need to move the ball as quickly as possible and make it hard for Blackburn to tag their targets.

When Blackburn players get yellow cards, as they are bound to do, we need to target the players with the cards and run at them with the ball.  They will hopefully have a choice of fouling us and risking a second yellow card or letting themselves be beaten and their team suffering.

On the other hand, Arsenal will look to play our usual fast passing and high tempo game and force the opposition into mistakes or just carve them open.  It's dependent on everyone playing their part and giving it their all. When we play like that, there are few teams that have a chance of living with us, and Blackburn is  certainly not one of them.  

With all of that in mind, I think the boss has to pick his strongest team tomorrow to lay down a marker before most of our players head off to play for their countries twice in the next two weeks.  The chances are that not all of them will come back fully fit from that international break, and there is no point in easing players into our season when their countries will expect them to play full games for them and give their all. 

The first-choice goalkeeper is Almunia, whether we like it or not, and until we sign a new keeper or he makes a complete mess of things for at least five games in a row, he will keep that jersey.

The fullbacks will be Bacary Sagna and Gael Clichy, with Thomas Vermaelen and Laurent Koscielny in the centre of defence.  That's the easy part of the team selection out of the way, as Sebastien Squillaci isn't in the squad and despite what the boss said about Kieran Gibbs getting game time, I very much doubt it will be in this game.

In midfield, things get a little more complicated, as the trio that played against Blackpool all did fairly well and don't really deserve to be dropped.  However, with Alexandre Song to come back into his holding role and Cesc Fabregas surely to come back to his favoured position at the head of the midfield three, it only leaves room for one of them.

If I had to choose the player who had performed best it would be Rosicky, but the chances are that he will lose out as Fabregas will play and Abou Diaby will get the nod ahead of him and Jack Wilshere.  I think Diaby will play, because he will be seen as offering us more in terms of defensive height at set pieces. If he does play, I just hope he doesn't put in one of his lazy performances.  The attacking trio will also be hard to pick as the players who played against Blackpool score five of the six goals between them and all deserve to be included again.

However, Robin Van Persie must be ready to return and when fit he has to be the first forward on the team sheet.  I think Arshavin will play on the left, too, which means that the last place is between Theo Walcott and Marouane Chamakh.

I don't know how well Chamakh can play in a wide position, but RVP can certainly play there; and I think they will both play and switch positions throughout the game.  Chamakh showed that he is prepared to work very hard for the team and he also offers a lot in the air at both the front and the back, which will be important today.

I know Walcott doesn't deserve to be dropped after scoring a hat trick last Saturday, but in a game like this I think he could have a big impact from the bench in the last half hour.  With Blackburn starting to tire after chasing Arsenal around for an hour, he could find the time and space to cause them real problems. It's good for Arsenal to have so many choices, and our bench should look quite strong.

On that bench, we should have Rosicky, Walcott, Denilson, Djourou, Gibbs, Wilshere, and Fabianski, although personally I think Eboue will make it instead of one of them.  With Samir Nasri due back after the international break and Nicklas Bendtner not long after that, the boss will have trouble picking a match day squad and even more trouble picking a team.  Of course that's all assuming that we stay relatively injury free, and that's an awfully big assumption to make about Arsenal.

It does mean that players can be rested when they have a knock and that we hopefully won't have to risk players who should be on the treatment table.   I'm starting to get a positive feeling about this season, and I'll do my season preview after the transfer window closes and when the international break is in full swing.

As for today's game, I'm continuing on that positive note and predicting a 2-1 win for Arsenal with either Cesc or RVP scoring at some stage.  I'll be watching the game in The Strand in Bray along with my fellow Wicklow Gunners and hopefully we'll get another good turnout as we did in the previous two games.

I've started a facebook page for "Cesc Is God" and I'll post my blog there every day as well as goals from Arsenal games, highlights from games in the past and some pictures too.

Feel free to take a look and comment too if you feel like it. Tht's the lot for today. 

Here's a good goal by Henry against Blackburn a few years ago.

See You Tomorrow.