Charlton vs Arsenal

Match Preview is written by Arsenal Vision. Visit their site here By Linus Morris All the talk has been of Wenger's fantastic 10 years in charge at Arsenal and rightly so. I remember it like it was yesterday, I was hoping that Johan Cruyff was going to take over the reins but instead in was given to an unknown French dude who looked nothing like a manager. I wasn't very happy but myself and many others have happily eaten their hat. Arsene himself has said that he hasn't paid much attention to all this talk, he is more interested in getting his side sharp and ready for out of form Charlton. Ian Dowie's side have started the season in poor form and have only picked up 1 win from 6 premiership games. Arsenal on the other hand are full of confidence and have had 4 straight wins in all competitions since the 1-0 loss against Manchester City back in August. This whole form thing makes me a little uncomfortable. Maybe I'm being a tad negative but when a side are playing like pooh and we are on a good run it always seems to change against us. Hopefully that theory can be blown out of the water at 4.45pm Saturday afternoon. The Charlton strike force of Bent and Hasselbaink are a potential threat especially as we have problems in our back line. Gallas is out, Djourou is to have a fitness test, Senderos, Clichy and Lauren are all still not ready for a return to the squad. If Djourou doesn't make it then our only real options are Song, Gilberto and Flamini. Which could mean a few switches here and there for other players. So its probably likely that he would go for Song as a straight replacement that way everyone else can stay in their positions. At the moment it looks as if Wenger has only two decisions to make. Van Persie or Adebayor to partner Henry and two of three wingers. My educated guess tells me that Hleb will be on the right with Ljungberg who was a sub against Porto to be drafted in on the left hand side in place of Tomas Rosicky who maybe rested. One potential tricky situation maybe Dennis Rommedahl running at Justin Hoyte. Rommedahl hasn't been very consistent for Charlton in his Premiership career but we know that if he has one of his good days then his pace is deadly. I just hope that he hasn't been working on his final ball the way Eboue has. If we can play the way we did at Old Trafford, with the same energy and commitment then we should brush Charlton aside with one swipe of the right hand but lets hope the boys don't see this as a walk in the park because one thing is certain, Charlton will be fighting and working hard for a result. Prediction: Charlton 1 Arsenal 3 Ljungberg's saved energy will get him a goal from an Henry pass (I'm getting a bit cocky with these prediction thingys these days) UPDATE: Good news, Wenger has stated that either Gallas or Djourou will be fit to play alongside Toure, which means we won't be seeing Song at center back.