A tricky tie coming up

England lost to Croatia 2-3 last day. Steve McLaren was sacked today. Tomorrow, we'll read how Arsenal were the sole cause for it. How Arsene Wenger brutally murders English talent. How he has something against Englishmen. How he and his foreign contingent degrade the quality of the England side and so on. I'll leave it to them to yap on.

The internationals are finally over and it's back to premier league this Saturday. We'll be playing Wigan Athletic at home. A simple tie, eh? I don't think so. Steve Bruce's move to Wigan maybe delayed, but Wigan will not be without the plan which is supposed to work well against Arsenal. It's simple isn't it? Just defend and defend and defend. With all your players.

We were up against teams with similar strategies, but then we had the creativity of Fabregas and Hleb. For this one though, we may be without both of them. Fabregas will have to watch from the terraces after he picked up his fifth yellow card in the last match against Reading. Hleb meanwhile picked up a knock while on international duty. *sighs*. The severity of the injury is unknown and the initial reports say that he could be out for two weeks. And that would be an absolute disaster. Without any doubt. Then there are injuries to Flamini and Diaby. So we'll be without our three most influential men.

Possible replacements are Gilberto, Diarra and Denilson. It could be Denilson and Gilberto if VanPersie is declared fit to play. Otherwise we might see the three of them. Presuming that Wigan will sit back and defend, it'll be a big test for our injury hit mid field. Arsene Wenger will be thinking over and over before deciding on the starting line up and formation. Will he risk Van Persie before he gets completely fit? Will he play Adebayor as lone striker with an unusual five in the mid-field? We'll have to wait to know.

There isn't much more news about Arsenal as most since my last post was reported again and again through several good blogs out there. So a short one this time around. *grins.