Wednesday 16 September 2009

Rooney Chucks His Toys

Both Manchester United & Chelsea got their Champions League Group Stage campaigns off to winning starts with routine (but hard fought) 1-0 victories.

The goals were scored by Scholes & Anelka and neither side came out with any real injuries. John Terry was knocked unconscious, but being the lunatic he is he still went on to play the full 90 mins & is expected to be fine for this weekend.

The only real news of note from the United game was the substitution and subsequent tantrum from Wayne Rooney, who threw his boot and had an argument with some fans. The fact United went on to win the game AFTER Rooney was replaced shows that Sir Alex is still the master when it comes to making big decisions to turn games & I’m sure he’ll forgive Wayne for his strop given the form he’s shown so far this season.

More interesting news comes from Arsenal and their squad for tonight’s game in Liege...

Arsenal must cope without goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, striker Robin van Persie and midfielder Denilson in tomorrow's Champions League tie against Standard Liège.

Almunia has a chest infection, and with reserve goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski also unavailable due to a knee injury Arsenal must choose between Vito Mannone and Wojciech Szczesny.

Van Persie has a knee injury and Denilson a back problem, however Eduardo is available after Uefa overturned his two-match ban for diving.

Arsenal have also not listed England forward Theo Walcott in their squad, with Russian midfielder Andrey Arshavin (groin), defender Johan Djourou (knee) and winger Samir Nasri (broken leg) also absent.

Arsenal provisional squad: Mannone, Szczesny, Sagna, Clichy, Gallas, Vermaelen, Silvestre, Gibbs, Eboué, Song, Fàbregas, Diaby, Ramsey, Rosicky, Wilshere, Bendtner, Eduardo, Watt.

Could this be a precaution for Wigan on Saturday? It's a match Arsenal MUST win to bounce back from the City defeat & I suppose Liege is a game Arsenal should win without their top stars, so Wenger could be taking a calculated risk by resting any players carrying knocks.

Obviously this news has got me feeling a bit uncertain on my Van Persie pick but I’m also thinking he’s simply being rested because of a minor injury & could well get the full 90 minutes on Saturday. We’ll have to wait for team news closer to the time.

Cheers,
AM

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

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@ AM -

Are you playing the Yahoo Fantasy Europe Cup??

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BTW.. You've got a GREAT blog running here...

Heads up!!

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Cheers,
~ Keith

Assistant Manager said...

Hi Keith - thanks for the kind words...no I'm not playing the Europe Cup, it's tough enough writing the blog and running a team in the normal game without having another team to worry about! :)

Cheers,
AM

Mike D said...

Any thoughts would be appreciated:

Option 1
Myhill, Verm, Heitinga, Sonko
Stevie G, Fabs, BFAY, Hunt, Cohen
Drogs, Tuncay

Option 2
Myhill, Verm, Heitinga, Warnock/Dunne
Fabs, BFAY, MTay, Hunt, Cohen/Milner/Rodwell
Drogs, Tuncay

Option 3
Myhill, Verm, Heitinga, Warnock
Fabs, BFAY, MTay, Hunt
Drogs, Tuncay, Eduardo

Option 4
Myhill, Verm, Heitinga, Sonko
Stevie G, Fabs, MTay/BFAY, Hunt
Drogs, Tuncay, Eduardo

Any input would be greatly appreciated

Thanks so much!!!!

Douchebag United said...

Do you have any players at discount. I like the looks of you option 3 but if you have Gerrard at a discount I wouldn't suggest selling him?

Option 3 and 4 are relient on Eduardo getting the starting nod which with Arsenal is very hard to predict. I like to stay away from those headache and heart breaks when I can.

I'm trying to decide between Fabs, Ashley Young and Matty Taylor myself and it isn't proving easy...

Fabs - Great player in a game where Arsenal needs a W and he is the playmaker but a lot of other players are stealing his points it seems, cas in point the Pompey game.

Ashley Young - Hasn't done anything this year and in fact when he did score on a penalty kick he got himself a yellow card to go with it, will he reclaim his form of last year?

Matty Taylor - Has been scoring the best out of the three, but who can figure out Bolton? Plus they have a tougher fixture on their hands against a game Stoke side.

I'm not sure which one is the best it is a tough decesion to make.

Mike D said...

Thanks d-bag...its definitely a tough one.

I dont have gerrard at discount, but hes been my most consistent player along with drogs...afraid to drop him and lose out on 15-20 pts.

Im liking option 4 actually...but the BFAY/MTay?Eduardo decision is killin me.

I like Fabs...have a feeling he'll come through...leaning towards MTay just because hes been consistent....but again I dont know.

Thanks again

Cheers

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