Blackburn is an away game.
Arsenal’s next three games are away : Blackburn, Dynamo Kiev and Bolton.
So Blackburn is the game after the international break, and the game before a Champions League game.
Will Arsenal be at their best? No, but Blackburn won’t be at their best either.Classy striker Roque Santa Cruz’s last two games were against Argentina and Venezuela. How jet-lagged will he be?
Manager Paul Ince has given Robbie Fowler a three-month contract to prove his fitness after a hip operation.
Centreback Andre Ooijer is doubtful after being injured playing for Holland. He limped off with a hamstring after 27 minutes in Macedonia, a game Holland won 2-1.
Arsenal have won eight out of 10 games against Blackburn in the last five seasons, and lost one.
Theo Walcott could be on the bench.
Arsene says : “I will have to rotate the squad now in the next three games. You can’t expect the players who have played in their national teams to play three times in a week. We have players who are interchangeable. When I arrived here in England 11 years ago, there were fantastic strikers in Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen.
“Their careers have certainly been damaged from what they could have achieved by injuries.They could not respond to the expectation level because they could not always stay healthy. Michael Owen has had a great career, but not completely the career he would have had had he not had so many injuries.
“People talk about Cristiano Ronaldo – and he has done fantastically well – but this guy played every game last year.
How Arsenal do in Kiev will depend partly on how they do at Ewood Park, so this is a key game. I wondering if he will start Bendtner.
Francenal beat Serbia 2-1 with goals by Henry and Anelka.
Team was: 16-Steve Mandanda; 2-Bacary Sagna, 5-William Gallas, 3-Eric Abidal, 15-Gael Clichy, 8-Yoann Gourcuff (6-Mathieu Flamini 90)21-Lassana Diarra, 20-Jeremy Toulalan, 9-Sidney Govou (18-Alou Diarra 82), 10-Karim Benzema (39-Nicolas Anelka 46), 12-Thierry Henry.
It was 0-0 at half-time, Gourcuff had replaced Nasri after the 3-1 defeat in Austria, Henry scored the first goal from a short pass by Govou, then Gourcuff’s wonderful pass allowed Anelka to accelerate and measure a tasty little shove on Vidic which sent the sprinting centreback stumbling into the box as Anelka rifled home a deadly right foot shot from the D. It’s fun to see a striker get away with a small but vital foul, as they spend half their lives being bumped, barged, held, obstructed, elbowed and punched by bruisers like Vidic.
Note that the tall Abidal moved to left centreback to partner Gallas, so Clichy came in at left back.In stoppage time Abidal was lucky to get away with a blatant handball just outside the area. Mexes was injured.
Gourcuff, on loan to Bordeaux from AC Milan, is a good-looking 22-year old who has often been linked with Arsenal. He was the best player on the field. Let’s hope Gourcuff comes over to London and signs for France’s biggest club.
Partners at Spurs, Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov are opponents today as Liverpool play Manchester United in Sky’s lunchtime game.
I can’t wait for that clash. Rafa has told Sir Alex that he paid too much for Berbatov but the Bulgarian is exactly what United need. They paid £30m for Rio Ferdinand, so why not pay £30.75m for a centre forward who has already proved he can handle the Premier League?
Rafa has never beaten United in a league game and Robbie Keane has never scored against United in 17 attempts. I fancy Keane for that reason.
Torres and Gerrard are fit. England didn’t miss Gerrard, did they?