Hammer blow! Gael Clichy is out of the side for the next two months, according to Le Boss.

A stress fracture reportedly worsened in the match against Spurs means we’re without our best left back for six weeks and upwards, as injuries continue to rob us of key players.

Gael now sits on the treatment table alongside Denilson, Bendtner, Fabianski, Walcott and Djourou, and other vital players like Rosicky and Nasri are very touch and go at the moment. So it’s all rather telling how deep our squad is that we’re able to handle this at the moment. Touch wood.

Arsene Wenger, however, is confident that young Kieran Gibbs can step up to the plate, and I don’t think many will disagree, neither. The young Brit had a fantastic spell near season’s end last time round, and despite his slip against Manchester United, showed enough promise to leave us all purring over the depth we have at left back.

Speaking of Manchester United, the Old Trafford injury-time debacle could not get any more rediculous, could it? Fair play to the bastards for getting back to 3-3, but after Rooney blazed over on 3 minutes of injury time, I walked out of the lounge to get some breakfast. Only later when I returned to the lounge to see what else was on the telly, did I see they were still playing with on 7 minutes injury time. Just rediculous.

Anyways, screw them. Clichy’s lengthy spell gives Gibbs the chance to do what little Ashley Cole did when Sylvinho got crocked in 2001. Yes, he’s a toss-pot of epic proportions now, but there was a time when we were all mad for the boy who came through the ranks.

Within a season, he was in the England team, and while I don’t care too much for them either, Gibbs has a big, big opportunity to make a real showing for himself in this side. He will have pressure to perform as well, mind you. Armand Traore looks like he’ll never get a look into this side ever again, but he is still technically competition, while both William Gallas and Mikael Silvestre can play left back if the situation calls for it.

But Kieran has my full backing and if it means that Clichy is forced to improve his crossing, then I’m all for the competition.

In a quick news round up, Robin van Persie speaks of his time as centre forward and Fabregas has been voted PFA Fans Player of October. Top stuff from our captain and a hearty congratulations to him.

Onto the match, and as already mentioned, we’re without a few players going into the Alkmaar game, but we should still have too much strength in depth, even for a Ronald Koeman side.

Arsene Wenger has urged his team to go into the match like they did against Spurs but has warned against arrogance – and I’m sure somewhere in the back of his mind, he’ll be concerned about how to manage his players in the difficult month that is November.

I’m without my trusty graphics today as I’m up the coast and away from ‘the mothership’ that has all my files and programs. Nevertheless, we’re all literate, so the team I’m envisioning against Alkmaar will be:

Almunia.
Eboue, Gallas, Vermaelen, Gibbs
Song
Fabregas, Diaby
Eduardo, van Persie, Nasri

SUBS: Mannone, Sagna, Silvestre, Rosicky, Arshavin, Ramsey, Watt

It’s a team that should end our hoodoo against Koeman and as Arseblog rightly points out, his streak against Arsenal by playing some really yawn-tastic football needs to come to a grinding halt.

I reckon Alkmaar might hold us for a bit in this match, but like the Olympiakos game, we’ll eventually prove to have a bit too much. Whatever way Wenger scrambles these players between the starting XI and the bench, we’ll have plenty in reserve for AZ and nothing less than a win will do.

It’s not like this is a do-or-die fixture of Liverpoodlian standards, but dropping points here will put unnecessary pressure on us and prove an unwelcome distraction to the league campaign.

So three points, three goals, and a last ditch yellow card for van Persie so we can sacrifice him for the upcoming group games. It’s all in the clever thinking, you see.

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Right. I’m off to tap my nose in that know-it-all way, then to sit down and watch the game. Come on you red and whites!

Filed under: Arsenal, Champions League