Match Preview: Middlesbrough v Arsenal (Premier League)
Gareth Southgate’s Middlesbrough take on Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal in the Premiership at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday.
Boro are in the 12th place in the table after their four-game winless run since the last success that came at Aston Villa last month.
The Gunners, on the other hand, suffered a 2-0 loss in the Champions League group game in Porto in midweek with a number of their players out through injury and fitness problems.
However in the Premiership, Wenger’s side are travelling to the Teesside club on the back of two successive league wins and also have been boosted by recovery of their top players including captain Cesc Fabregas.
Southgate though, is sweating on a number of fitness concerns in his squad with Justin Hoyte and Andrew Taylor (both knee) and David Wheater being suspended, the defence is giving the Boro boss a big headache.
With a superb record against Arsenal in the Premier League, Boro will be hoping to beat the Gunners for the third consecutive time at Riverside in three seasons.
Midfielder Gary O’Neil and striker Mido (both hamstring) are set to miss the Gunners game.
Arsenal, meanwhile, should have Fabregas, Emmanuel Adebayor, Robin Van Persie, Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna. However, Kolo Toure (calf) and Samir Nasri (ankle) are still sidelined.
Gooner Talk’s Predicted Starting XI
Almunia
Sagna – Djourou – Silvestre – Clichy
Eboue – Fabregas – Song – Denilson
Adebayor – van Persie
Match Prediction: Middlesbrough 1-1 Arsenal – A tough game on the cards and despite Arsenal’s early goal, Boro snatch a late equaliser and continue their positive record against Arsene Wenger’s men.
Gooner Talk will provide live coverage of this Premier League clash on GoonerTalkTV. Post-match highlights will be avaliable at midnight for those of you who were unable to watch the game.
Leave your views and predictions of this tomorrow’s game – which kicks off at 12:45 BST time – in the comments section below.
Are you serious, Toure is out again?
“However Kolo Toure (calf) and Samir Nasri (ankle) are still sidelined, along with long-term absentees Eduardo (leg) and Tomas Rosicky (hamstring).”
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/injured-quintet-could-return-for-saturday
Yes mate, he’s had a reacurrance of the calf injury he sustained a while back.
we will win this game 2-0
arsenal to win this 2 or 3 nil unless bendtner starts in which we will lose 1 nil or draw
and whoever is going to the game support the team instead of this booing which is not good for team morale
with nasri out injured, again we will be wingles tmr however jugding buy boro injury crisis this should be an easy win.
A bold statement but I will go for 3-1 for the Arsenal. Van persie is getting sharper and sharper, Adebayor is working hard again. Fabregas is captain and I believe that does make a big difference fir is confidence. I seriously think thst the win against Chelsea was the turning point. It was a massive win, bigger than the one against Manu. At this level the mental has a huge impact on the performance of the team. That is why I believe the real fan should not get destabilise to much by the pundit but unstead be behind the team. They are not robot, the money is not the issue. We should all be behind the team and the manager. They know better than us.
Fairly strong team starting so I’m expecting a good performance. Pessimistic predictions always work, so I’ll stick with what I put up there – 1-1. 😉
i am in an undecided mood about tomorrows game,boro always seem to cause us problems and if we do have silvestre at the back then they may cause us a few more as his partnership with djourou is untested. still though, i reckon a 2-1 will do me nicely. come on you gunnerss!!
think youll butcher them. their defence is in tatters and unless they park the bus i cant see anything but an arsenal win. but then with arsenal you never know do ya?
Why not pick Gallas in your predicted XI? He isnt injured and Silvestre is fucking useless!
We have also lost on our last 2 visits to the riverside so going for a win would be very optimistic.
I still hope we win tho. We need a big win to get some confidence back in the team.
Lack of width, like always, will kill us. I haven’t the slightest clue why with both Walcott and Nasri out Wenger wont start Vela on the left. It is the high of stupidity to lack an outlet and neither Eboue nor Denilson give us one. Fuck, even put Ramsey in there. Either way Eboue is bloody useless and I think just about any of the kids could put in a better performance. I would also rather have Gallas then Fishface in there. We need all three tomorrow. Failing to get it would once again prove how weak and think this squad is.
If Eboue starts and Vela is left on the bench, I’ll be getting very pissed at Mr. Wenger. Wilshere is much better than Eboue, Vela is miles ahead of him. I know he says he brings him in for defensive cover cause our midfield is all attack, just like the deployment of Kuyt for Liverpool. But damn it, Kuyt actually scored and does some useful things, Eboue is only good at running straight at defenders. And I mean running at them, not getting past them. I would love to see a 4-3-3 with RvP and Vela on the flanks, pretty much like against Man U, except now we got Adebayor.
And also, Djourou and Toure as our CBs for the rest of the season and Gallas over Silvestre any day. I’ve not seen a worse left back at Arsenal since the days of Cygan. I know he is better at CB but he is still average at best. I think Djourou has been our most solid CB so far, Toure hasn’t been impressive, Gallas has been utter shit but sometimes pure quality while Song created a very solid partnership with Djourou in the CC (2 games, no goal conceded is very rare at Arsenal these days).
Prediction was right. 🙁