The Soccer Blog: Arsenal - Huddersfield (FA Cup) Preview; Afobe, Eastmond, Lansbury, Vela Sent Out on Loan

Saturday, 29 January 2011

Arsenal - Huddersfield (FA Cup) Preview; Afobe, Eastmond, Lansbury, Vela Sent Out on Loan

Arsenal – Huddersfield (FA Cup) Preview; Afobe, Eastmond, Lansbury, Vela Sent Out on Loan - The Offside - Arsenal blog

« Crucial Run of Games Coming for the Gunners | Home | Arsenal – Huddersfield (FA Cup) Preview; Afobe, Eastmond, Lansbury, Vela Sent Out on LoanBy: Martin | January 29th, 2011
Tweet

Arsenal back in action tomorrow as we take on Leeds in 4th Round FA Cup action.

Yep. I’m still alive. The blog did go a little dormant this week, so apologies for that, but I had one of THOSE weeks at work. Where work was Diaby’s foot, and I was John Terry’s face. But I managed to get through it without getting fired (yet) or having a nervous breakdown (yet), so I guess it’s all okay.

So what did we miss? Well, a bunch of guys going out on loan. Craig Eastmond stays local to play with Milwall, terrorizing the London populace with his drunken exhibitionism and horrific grammar, like an ill-spoken hoodlum Godzilla. I hope he does well, there, but honestly, I have to say that my reaction to the news was an overwhelming shrug. I’ve never quite understood why he got promoted to the first-team at such a young age, because I don’t ever remember him being that highly touted coming out of the reserves. And nothing he’s done since being promoted has really impressed me, either. He’s had some decent enough games here and there, but I’ve never once thought “Eastmond has a bright future at Arsenal.” And being the naive optimist I am, I’ve had that thought about a LOT of pretty poor players (Aliadiere will score 100 goals for Arsenal, etc.).

Elsewhere, Henri Lansbury extended his loan to Norwich City for the rest of the season, which is good for him, as he was getting real opportunities to play there. 17 year-old Benik Afobe also extended his loan to League One Huddersfield Town. Apparently they really don’t have many options at all at striker, so he’s pretty much guaranteed to get a lot of playing time so long as he’s healthy. I think getting used to the grind and physicality of English football there will do him a world of good, and if he continues to develop and has a good spring, look for him to possibly make a real push for a first-team spot in August.

The other big loan story was that Carlos Vela, so long rumored to be headed to Bolton, who couldn’t have been more open about their interest, is actually headed to West Brom. I think it’s a good fit — West Brom are struggling, but they like to get the ball down on the ground and play it, so it’s not completely dissimilar to Arsenal. I imagine the difference in the end came down to playing time. Bolton wanted him, but he probably wouldn’t have started over Davies and Elmander, although Elmander has turned back into Elmander after doing a creditable Fernando Torres impersonation the first few months of the season. I can’t imagine Owen Coyle could have honestly claimed that Vela would be much more than a late sub for Bolton if the squad is healthy, whereas Roberto Martinez has less creditable strikers at his disposal and could honestly claim that if he got Vela he’d at least roll the dice on Vela starting a game or two to see if he could help the team out that way. Carlos is a guy whose star has been rapidly falling at Arsenal over the last couple of years, so it will be interesting to see what he makes of this loan spell, because it really could be make or break time for him with guys like JET and Afobe coming up through the ranks to challenge his place.

Oh, and we’ve got a game tomorrow. The FA Cup 4th Round matchup with Huddersfield Town is the early match tomorrow, kicking off at 7:00 EST in the United States and noontime in the UK. (Television information = Setanta Sports in Canada, Fox Soccer and Fox Deportes in the USA, and on ESPN in the UK.)

Huddersfield are having a good season, currently sitting in 3rd place in League One (and only one point out of 2nd place, which would mean automatic promotion to the Championship). They’re a solid side, with a good attack and good defense for that level.

Their main threats will be young Irish winger Anthony Pilkington, who’s scored 8 goals for Huddersfield this season. Their real talisman this season has been promising young English striker Jordan Rhodes, who has 16 in all competitions, but he hurt his ankle last week and will be out for this match. The rest of the team is a mix of lower-league veterans (defender and captain Peter Clarke, defender Lee Peltier, midfielder Antony Kay) and guys who you may remember from the Premiership (former Aston Villa, Wolves, and Burnley midfielder Joey Gudjonsson, former Sunderland, Everton, Wigan and Hull man Kevin Kilbane). Benik Afobe will NOT be available to play for Huddersfield, but it’s not because we haven’t released him to play, apparently FA Cup rules only allow a player to play against his parent club in the competition if he’s on a season-long loan, which Afobe technically isn’t. You learn something every day.

They’ll be up for it, and I’m sure their fans will be looking forward to traveling to the Emirates and making their presence known, but honestly, this is a match that shouldn’t really be a problem for us, and I suspect we’ll see quite a bit of squad rotation for this one. Although after the loan moves, there’s a lot less first-team players around to use in any rotation.

In team news for us, the big news is that Squillaci is back, and I expect to see him play, probably in place of Djourou. Diaby is also back in the squad, and I suspect he’ll definitely play, and Wenger will start him if he can get away with it. Rosicky and Almunia are both potentially back, too — I don’t see Almunia playing any part (also, interestingly, Wenger said this week that Wojo is now Arsenal’s # 1 keeper), but if Rosicky is healthy enough to play, I think he’ll play a lot of minutes. Sagna is recovering well — Wenger said he’s still having headaches, but should be available tomorrow, but if not, for Tuesday against Everton. Still out are Flaps, Vermaelen, and Frimpong.

Here’s my best guess at a lineup:

Wojo

Eboue-Koscielny-Squillaci-Gibbs

Diaby-Denilson

Bendtner-Rosicky-Arshavin

Chamakh

Bench: Almunia, Djourou, Clichy, Wilshere, Cesc, van Persie, Theo

Basically, I think we’ll see the weakest possible squad without having to dip into the Reserves. I believe this is the first time in the club’s history (or at least during the Wenger Era) that we’ve played 9 matches in January, and the fact that we’ve done so relatively successfully, without picking up a raft of injuries, speaks well to the policy of rotating players, although I know not everyone is such a big fan of it. And with us having to play an important league match just 2 days after this one, Wenger will be doing everything possible to keep our established first-choice front six (Song, Wilshere, Nasri, Theo, Cesc, van Persie) fresh for that one, so I don’t think he’ll play those guys in this one if he can avoid it. But we’ll see. I wouldn’t be totally surprised if we did see some of the more “established” reserves players come on as substitutes late — guys like Miquel or Aneke — especially if we are lucky/good enough to be up by a couple of goals late on.

This is hardly the most crucial of matches. But failing to win would be embarrassing, and it would stop the positive momentum we seem to have at the moment. As as we’ve seen with the Carling Cup this season, funny things can happen in knockout competitions — if we win this one we’re just one step away from the quarterfinals, and anything can happen from that point on.

I’ll be back tomorrow with matchday stuff, and then on Monday with an Everton preview.

Come on Arsenal.

*************

Don’t forget to follow the Arsenal Offside on Twitter for the latest news, links, and updates

Kanye West Tweet of the Day: NO ALCOHOL BEFORE TATTOOS

Some Related Stories:Arsenal – Leeds (FA Cup) PreviewLeeds United – Arsenal (FA Cup) Preview: A Conversation with Leeds OffsideSpecial 1 TV Returns; Rooney to Leave United in January?; Eastmond Arrested; Brum Highlights VideoBig Huge Giant Season Preview, Part II; + Youngsters Head Out on Loan; The Season is Officially Here When Everyone is Already HurtBlackburn – Arsenal Preview

Category: Arsenal News, FA Cup, Fixtures, Preview

Tags: Arsenal News, FA Cup, Fixtures, Preview
Tweet « Crucial Run of Games Coming for the Gunners | Home | Homey_MillsMichael Bradley heading to Villa on loan. I know that has nothing to do with Arsenal, but I'll be keeping up with his progress. I hope he does well.
I'm watching a bit of the Man Utd game... 67th minute and 1-1. A replay would be nice for them to have to go through. It's probably too much to hope for Southampton to get another goal here.Zito_v2Now I can watch The left foot bomber as often as I watch Arsenal, though I would have preferred BoltonM PI see what you are getting at, but in practice the premier league limits your squad to 25 players, although you can have players under 21 and have been around for a period of time. In addition at least 8 have to be home grown. What man city have done cant work and they have had to send senior squad members on loan, so to answer your point, we can only have more than 25 if the rest are under 21.Darren_VLove that piece about Eastmond. Completely echoes my thoughts on him. Have never been impressed with him. To me Frimgfongfongonon.. has a brighter future, as does Francis Coqulien. Jamie Sanderson from YoungGuns LOVES Coqulien and really thinks he is the guy to challenge Song, not Frimrononng.
Finally Vela is loaned out, that took forever. I was thinking, and this is pure conjecture on my part, that the only reason it took forever is because Wenger was attempting to leverage the Vela loan to Bolton to try to get a discounted price on the sale of Cahill, which didn't pan out. Because Bolton are in desperate need of the high influx of cash Cahill could bring, being young, english, and actually potential to be good.J___VWhat is it with everyone bigging up Cahill. He's not as good as djourou or kos & for £12m? There were so many objections to the signing of koscielny for half the price. All these people who analyse every mistake our players make should perhaps do the same about some of these names bring touted around because everyone will very soon realise the deficiencies of these guys and how they don't fit our team.

Totally agree about eastmond.....no chance at arsenal, or any other established prem club I suspect.Darren_VI didn't big up Cahill. I said he has potential to be good, and guessed that Wenger was trying to get a deal for him using Vela, which failed.
I've seen him play a few times, he makes mistakes positionally and while on the ball. But he is quick, aggressive and not too bad on the ball, and has EPL experience and would be good cover for Arsenal if Wenger got him.Gigi_manha good catchGigi_manYep, hope he rotates and that we go through, we should, even with reserve players.
Still think thugh that AW, in order to rotate more, should buy more, having instead of 25 players available, like 33, so to have complete 3 teams to 4 compets.PbjWe've been pretty dire for the last 6 games, so there isn't much optimism with us Twon fans. Also, fans are split on Lee Clarke..but all are trying to be loyal. It's mainly the inconsistency that we've had for a year now, going from good to dire and back again. If and a big if, we play like we can, we might not get hammered...Not sure if tuesday nights league one game against Carlisle is not more important for us though, so expect to see abit of squad rotation with our lot too, we do have a big squad...and Lee Clarke does like to meddle around with team selection a lot, and tactics, and anything else in fact.vHFMartinez --> di Matteoblog comments powered by Disqus