I wonder if Arsene will start him. He has been out for a little while now and Arsene will want to protect his injury

Hello again,

There is not alot to say Arsenal wise as it is International week. England are likely to get a result against Eduardo’s Croatia which will see them enter into Euro 2008.

Gabriel Agbonlahor has turned down a move to Arsenal even though its unlikely that we were interested in him in the first place.

According to the player himself we are interested in buying promising Uruguayan defender Martin Caceres.

“At the moment I’m only thinking about Recreativo, but Arsenal, Real Madrid and Juventus are interested in me,” he told Tuttosport.

Caceres, 19 is a Uruguay center half who is playing for the under 21’s. It could well be just talk so he can get a better contract but having said that he is in the Arsene Wenger age range.

Arsene Wenger is not best pleased with the Ivory Coast national FA at the moment.

They are so stubborn that there is no point in even speaking to them. We will give them the players when they are due, and won’t even speak to the Ivorian federation about it. I count them out from about 5th January until approximately the middle of February.

Luckily our fixtures around that time are quiet decent and it could well be a good time to be without our Ivorian duo. Djourou will be back and ready to play. We also have Senderos, Gallas and Song so as long as we stay free from injuries then we should be able to cover for King Kolo. Eboue’s absence isn’t really much of a problem as we have plenty cover in midfield even though we do not really have wingers in abundance.

Lets move ahead to the weekend clash against Wigan at the Emirates. As usual we play a team who have just appointed a new boss (Steve Bruce). Its amazing how many times that happens to us.

Mathieu Flamini was injured during a training session for France and could well miss our clash against Wigan. This could have been Gilberto’s chance to make his way back into the first team but he is playing for Brazil against Uruguay so knowing how Wenger feels about travelling he may have to miss out. As Cesc Fabregas is suspended for the same match it means that we should see Diarra get his chance to play in his preferred position. Unfortunately Abou Diaby does not get the chance to play alongside his buddy as he picked up an injury for the French under 21’s. So it could well be Denilson who gets the thumbs up.

Robin Van Persie is back in training and ready for a start but I wonder if Arsene will start him. He has been out for a little while now and Arsene will want to protect his injury as Van Persie is a very important player for us. Depending on the fitness and sharpness of Eduardo we may see Van Persie come off the bench to make his come back.

The rest of the team picks itself.

Although we are the home side, Arsene maybe thinking that he prefers having a link player in between the midfield and Adebayor. Against Bolton at home we played with both Adebayor and Eduardo and Wenger made the change in the second half by putting Hleb further forward and that changed the game. He hasn’t really gone back to a normal 4-4-2 so maybe he is waiting for Van Persie to come back into the side to do that.

I would like to think that we will be far too strong for them especially playing at home. So another 3 points to keep us on top would be lovely.