Baptista could come in for Flamini at Wigan
IN THEIR LAST SIX GAMES, Arsenal, Wigan and Manchester City are similar.
All three have won two games, drawn two and lost two.
Wigan boss Paul Jewell is a street-smart scouser who is doing so well in the Premiership that The Guardian reckons Wigan are joining the middle class.
Arsenal won 3-2 there last season in a ding-dong game in November.
Wigan, for me, had two main problems last season.
One, that the strikers didn't have the technique to control passes and shots at the pace the team wanted to play at.
Two, they had dodgy keepers, one of whom, Mike Pollitt, will face Arsenal if Chris Kirkland is ruled out after leaving the Middlesbrough game at half-time with concussion. Pollitt was recalled from a loan spell at Ipswich three weeks ago.
Wigan drew at Boro 1-1 and were leading 1-0 until Yakubu scored in 67 minutes.
Henry Camara is fast and dangerous, left back Leighton Baines can score from distance, and big Austrian Paul Scharner is good in the air.
There is a whisper that Julio Baptista is ready and could feature in an attacking midfield role, replacing Flamini.
It would be nice to see him and get some return on the Brazilian that Arsene swapped for Jose Antonio Reyes. Baptista has started one Premiership game and come on in five but has not scored a league goal. Reyes has started six La Liga games for Real Madrid, come on in six, and scored one goal. Reyes has played 571 minutes in the league against Beckham's 464.
After 16-17 games, how does the Premiership table look ?
The top five are Man United, Chelsea, Portsmouth, Liverpool and Bolton.
Arsenal have 26 points from 16 games, Wigan have 22 from 16 :
| Arsene Wenger | 16 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 16 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 9 | 26pts |
| Steve Coppell | 17 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 26 |
| Martin Jol | 17 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 14 | 25 |
| Martin O'Neill | 16 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 24 |
| David Moyes | 17 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 12 | 24 |
| Paul Jewell | 16 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 11 | 22 |
| Stuart Pearce | 17 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 19 | 20 |
Wigan lack pace at the back and that's why I fancy Arsenal to beat them.Especially with Toure restored to the defence.
If AW is a softie, and doesn't want to hurt the feelings of Senderos, he will use Senderos, although on form it should be Toure-Djourou at centreback
If Arsenal are serious they have to beat Wigan and then keep winning against Portsmouth, Blackburn, Watford, Sheffield United and Charlton.
So this is a key game. If Arsenal are any good, if they're gonna do anything this season, we will find out at the JJB.
If they build on Chelsea, they can beat Wigan. They need to start climbing away from Reading and Spurs. But if Arsenal under-perform at the JJB then 2007 could be bleak prospect for what has become a low-scoring team. Arsenal have scored 26 goals and those 26 goals have earned 26 points. Man United have scored 38 goals for 44 points
Typically, Mourinho has moaned about Sunday's 1-1 draw and said that Arsenal were not trying to win and have no chance of the title. He is right about the latter.
But his task looks much harder now, and not just because he dropped two points to Arsenal.
Shevchenko isn't a great striker any more. Hate to say it because I love the guy. Sheva has been an awesome footballer and, over the last eight years, one of the first names into the team that plays for my life, way ahead of Ronaldo, always. Not any more. But we will still see flashes.When you are as great as he was, you can never completely lose it.
And Lampard and Ballack are too similar. Neither will change his game to provide service for the other. Playing 4-4-2 for 65 minutes and then switching to 4-3-3 has worked well at times, and Robben's raids almost beat Arsenal. But Chelsea have mislaid their balance and penetration. Drogba's only scored in one of their last 9 league games and Robben hasn't scored since Elvis died.
Why? Because they don't get the ball forward quickly enough and they don't get men forward quickly enough either.
Chelsea's surrounding of the referee to contest decisions was quite ugly against Arsenal. This dissent, usually led by John Terry, will be noted by foreign referees. It won't help England.Terry was doing the same thing in Croatia.
THEO WALCOTT must be embarrassed to receive the BBC Young Sports Personality of 2006 Award. The lad knows he has not done anything yet. Another reminder that the Dianafication of Britain is complete and apparently permanent.That is not a criticism of Walcott, merely a comment on the state of our nation.
A FEW WEEKS ago we were told that the Premiership wasn't providing as many goals as Serie A.
Well, this week ten games in Serie A produced 19 goals.
Milan-Torino was 0-0 and so was Cagliari-Parma. Also : Sampdoria 0 Siena 0.
Our ten Premiership games gave us 32 goals.
Three goals per game isn't too bad.
Dec 11, 2006