Arsenal Vs Wigan Preview

It's back to domestic football tomorrow after Wednesday's bizarre Champions League victory over Liege. Let us hope we can get our domestic campaign back on track after two successive league defeats in Manchester.

The latest team news is that RvP has been passed fit for tomorrow but everyone else is still out. Arshavin hasn't made it and Almunia is, according to Arsenal.com, not match fit. Strange to say that about a player who has played four games already and missed only one due to an illness. I wonder if there is any truth to the rumours he has been dropped because of his poor early season form.

That means Mannone will continue in goal, with hopefully the first choice back four of Clichy, Gallas, Vermaelen and Sagna in place of Eboue from the team that started on Wednesday. In midfield I imagine Cesc and Song will be partnered by Diaby again. I can't see Rosicky starting again but I didn't expect him to start the other day so who knows. There is a chance that Diaby won't start, he has played quite a bit of football recently and with his injury record perhaps Wenger will decide it's time he had a rest. If Diaby doesn't start I can see Eboue joining the midfield two and RvP joining Eduardo and Bendtner in attck.

I was optimistic about the new formation early in the season but suddenly without Arshavin it looks a little unbalanced. I guess it is still early to decide if it is working or not.

It will be a tough game and coming after two defeats in the league and Wednesday's shaky victory it is important Arsenal try and get back to the early season form that brought four victories. The thing I found interesting in those games was that even though Arsenal won them and played well, we only kept one clean sheet, away to Celtic.

Yesterday I mentioned leadership and leaders at Arsenal. I'm reading Patrick Vieira's autobiography, and in it he talks about Tony Adams and his role at Arsenal. He talks about his own role at the club. He mentions that he and other senior players would sometimes approach Wenger with ideas and concerns about the team. He also said they did this for the French national team with Vieira and Henry on occasion raising concerns to the coach.

It got me thinking, especially after Eduardo's backheel, is there anyone who would do this at Arsenal? Is there anyone who would challenge Wenger? Raise concerns about the slack attitude to defending? Arshavin strikes me as the type maybe, perhaps Cesc in his role as captain. Gallas is clearly outspoken. But there seems to be very little evidence of it on the pitch. The other day when Liege came out all guns blazing nobody seemed to have the desire to try and slow the game down and take the sting out of their play. It was one speed, one way to play.

Perhaps I have judged things wrong and there are inquests after defeats and fingers pointed and lessons learnt. It just doesn't seem that way from what is witnessed on the pitch, with the same mistakes made over and over again. Perhaps that is just the consequence of having so many young players.

I'm looking forward to going to a game again after what seems like ages since the Celtic game.

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!!