Arsenal 3-1 Reading, Lupoli Brace
Friday, February 17, 2006
No match report from me on this match but you cant view one here
Instead, im gonna talk about the players who played and the chances of them playing against Real Madrid. Some players that graced The Arsenal Training Centre were Theo Walcott, Arturo Lupoli, Alex Hleb, Johan Djourou and Abou Diaby.
The surprise name on the list is Alex Hleb.The surprise is that Cole, Clichy and Robin all didnt play eventhough the match was to raise their fitness! Theo came back to the game aftyer a shoulder injury that kept him out of the Liverpool match. Lupoli and Djourou were definately gonna play anyway, as they are part of the Arsenal Reserves team that is currently second in the table. Diaby was also not a surprise as he didnt play against Liverpool earlier in the week.
It appears that Reading put out a virtually Under-19 team that caused Arsenal a few problems. Walcott and Bendtner were inpressive in the first half. Arsenal conceded early in the second half and substitute Lupoli scored 2 goals in the 69th and 73rd minute added with Fabrice Muamba's 77th minute striker gave Arsenal the win.
Back to the important stuff, chances are Theo and Hleb will be on the bench against real. Diaby MAY start, but it depends if Wenger wants to play him on the right(like he played against Birmingham) and replace Pires or in the middle and replace eaither Gilberto or Cesc. Adebayor will definately start, with injuries to Robin and Reyes and also with Begi not wanting to fly, leaves Manu, Titi and Theo as our 3 strikers that will travel to Spain.
The Reading match was a chance for us to see if Robin or Reyes would be fit for Madrid but with both of them not appearing in the match, it probably means that they have not recovered in time.
EDIT: Adebayor is cup tied so he cant play against Real Madrid.
posted by highbury1913 @ 3:00 pm | |
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