After disappointing Carling Cup final defeat, the Gunners will be looking to bounce back and show their resilience against Leyton Orient to hopefully progress to the next round of the FA cup. Wenger, Rosicky and Chamakh have already spoken out about the need to keep heads high and the next game will be vital to how Arsenal react for the rest of the season, we’ve seen the North Londoners crash and burn at this stage of the season before and players and fans alike will be hoping that they won’t have to wait another year to challenge again for major honours after a string of bad results.
Form
Prior to Sunday, Arsenal hadn’t lost a game since falling to Ipswich in the first leg of their Carling Cup semi-final tie. Whilst the Gunners have been in good form, they have shown signs of cracking such as throwing away a four goal lead against Newcastle. It’s really hard to say how Arsenal will react considering Leyton Orient will be more than up for another upset with themselves also unbeaten in 5 games.
Latest team news
Wenger may be tempted to keep Szcznesy and Koscielny out of the spotlight after their Carling Cup mishaps and bring in out-of-favor Almunia and Squillaci/Miquel. We’ve seen him protect his players in similar situations before e.g. Senderos after Arsenal Champions League exit a couple of seasons ago and it would not be a surprise if Arsene did it again especially after describing them as ‘destroyed’ in his Birmingham post-match comments.
Tactics
Wenger may choose to rotate his squad with a home advantage and it is possible that we’ll see a similar team to the first game against the O’s. We could see starts for Eboue, Gibbs, Rosicky, Denilson and Chamakh who will all want to stake their claim for a starting XI spot knowing that some players might feel fragile after the final defeat. Rosicky is likely to captain the side and will hope to put in a much better performance than the Carling Cup final, which left a lot of fans frustrated knowing he could do much better.
Possible line-up
Almunia; Eboue, Squillaci, Djourou, Gibbs; Denilson, Rosicky, Wilshere; Bendtner, Chamakh, Arshavin
