FA Cup Semis

case n basket

Arsenal striker Thierry Henry is out with a groin problem, and Arsene Wenger has said he will not play Sol Campbell, who is on the way back from injury.

Jose Antonio Reyes could return after a dead leg and Freddie Ljungberg also looks likely to shake off a hip injury.

Blackburn midfielder Robbie Savage also made his comeback in the reserves this week, but is likely to be on the bench.

Mark Hughes should name an unchanged side, with Garry Flitcroft playing despite eight stitches in a leg wound.

Arsenal (from): Lehmann, Taylor, Lauren, Eboue, Cole, Senderos, Toure, Cygan, Vieira, Gilberto Silva, Edu, Fabregas, Pires, Reyes, Ljungberg, Van Persie, Bergkamp, Aliadiere.

Blackburn (from): Friedel, Neill, Flitcroft, Dickov, Pedersen, Mokoena, Reid, Thompson, Matteo, Todd, Nelsen, Amoruso, Emerton, Tugay, Short, Stead, Savage, Johnson, Enckelman.

No Henry, no Campbell. Tits. Henry is a massive loss but with Senderos playing so well and having replaced Cygan, I don't mind missing Campbell so much.

Lehmann, Cole, Senderos, Toure, Lauren, Pires, Gilberto, Vieira (YES!!! They actually get to play together!), Ljungberg, Bergkamp, Reyes. I'll be extremely surprised if a team other than that lines up on Saturday (barring injury).

Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs has been ruled out of Sunday's FA Cup semi-final with a hamstring injury.

Louis Saha is out (calf) but Darren Fletcher (knee) travels to Cardiff.

Newcastle have major doubts over Titus Bramble (groin), Jermaine Jenas (calf), Celestine Babayaro (hamstring) and Aaron Hughes (groin).

Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer are suspended, so Laurent Robert may be included despite criticising boss Graeme Souness during the week.

Newcastle (from): Given, Harper, Caig, Carr, Babayaro, Hughes, Taylor, Elliott, Boumsong, O'Brien, Bramble, Ramage, Robert, Butt, Faye, Jenas, Milner, Ambrose, Shearer, Ameobi, Kluivert.

Man Utd (from): Howard, Carroll, G Neville, P Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Silvestre, Heinze, O'Shea, Fletcher, Fortune, Ronaldo, Kleberson, Keane, Scholes, Miller, Van Nistelrooy, Smith, Rooney, Bellion.

If Newcastle are missing Jenas as well as Dyer and Bowyer, I think they'll struggle. They'd struggle against United's likely back-lash anyway, but I sadly can't see a fairy-tale win for Shearer here

PHB

I thought ARsenal would struggle without Henry and Campbell, but with Gilberto and Vieria I think they'll win.

As for United, I think even without Dyer and Bowyer they'd struggle.
Van NIst to finally get on the score sheet after injury, and Shearer to cry at the end, that'd be great

_blank_

PHB wrote:

and Shearer to cry at the end, that'd be great

God I hope that happens. And I hope it is Keano who makes him cry too.

mike65

G'wan Blackburn and Newcastle.

Mike.

TwoShedsJackson

Well Bramble's injured so there's a glimmer of hope but frankly I'd be shocked if Manchester United don't win comfortably. They have to get that pathetic performance against the mighty Norwich out of their systems some time

KdjaCL

Arsenal are simply awesome vs BBurn, need a 2nd goal to finish it but taking piss out Bburn now by stringing about 56 passes together.

Sexy football.

kdjac

KdjaCL

Ahh FFS that van persie lad is unreal, 2 quality finishes.


3-0 atm

kdjac

GuanYin

yeah, I think his neg press this season has taken away from the perception of potential.

I think this season will stand to fabregas, flamini and van persie.

Now, lets see if Newcastle make as easy work of United

Villain

Van Persie got some smack off Todd, 2 quality goals from him.

PHB

That first goal from Van Persie, it was like I was looking at Berkjamp 10 years ago. ABsolutely unreal, best individual goal I've seen all season

case n basket

<--- Happy gooner. Bergkamp should have been pulled way earlier though, I was pulling my hair out waiting for it. Great goals by Van Persie, I thought Gilberto and Reyes had good games too. Yet another cleansheet is a big bonus.

KdjaCL

Liked his one vs Villa other week .


kdjac

jank

Who needs the best forward in the league and the best defender in the league

Blackburn were just a bunch of thugs trying to boss arsenal off the field. How come Robbie Savgae didtn get booked for his challenge of Cesc... It should have been a red imo.

Van persie has buckets of potential and we say a glimmer of what he can do. He is a hot head alright but needs to keep his temper in check and concentrate on the football. His too goals were very bergkamp-esque.

All in all a commanding performance from arsenal, blackburn didnt really threaten at all. Just lumped high balls into the box hoping for something. Senderos won his battle with dickov. Anyother lad who has great future ahead of him if he stays injury free. Has started to get a good run with Arsenal and the Swiss national team. Its no surprise that in all the games he started arsenal have keeped a clean sheet in their last 7 games out of eight. If only he has been fit at the start of the season, the title race would have been much more open. Maybe we dont need a new centre back as Senderous can now fill in for either campell or toure.

Thank **** Cygan is now out of the equation.

All in all its not so bad for Arsenal. Their form is coming back and the defense seemed to have sorted things out. And by the looks of things it seems that Arsenal have some of the best young players in England if not the World!! (Senderous/RVP/Clichy/Bently/Cesec/Ali/Flamini/Eboube/Hoyte/Reyes/Quincy/ Lupoli) all 21 or under!!
If even half make it into the first team id be a happy camper This season will stand to them in the future.

PHB

Don't we have a nice glossed view of the match

Did you forget the disallowed goal and the peno not given?

2-0 for Blackburn before ARsenal would have scored there boyo

case n basket

PHB wrote:

Don't we have a nice glossed view of the match

Did you forget the disallowed goal and the peno not given?

2-0 for Blackburn before ARsenal would have scored there boyo

Last time I checked the ball has to go in for it to be a goal (or a disallowed goal). Hitting the post doesn't count as a goal i'm afraid.

Only penalty shout I recall B'burn having was when Steven Reid went down in the second half (when Arsenal were already 1-0 up), and it would've been exceptionally harsh.

jank

Don't we have a nice glossed view of the match

So are u saying blackburn diserved to win...if so say it if not then stop posting rubbish.

Regards the peno it would have been really really harsh and the tackle was just outside the box!!

PHB

Well isn't that clever, when Dickov clipped the ball over he was about to continue the run and tap it in when he saw the flag.

The Reid peno was a peno, it was a foul, it was inside the box, sure it would have been harsh in the sense poor Arsenal, but it was a foul, and Vieira knew it.

I'm not saying ARsenal didn't deserve to win, but lets not go nuts about the preformance.

case n basket

PHB wrote:

Well isn't that clever, when Dickov clipped the ball over he was about to continue the run and tap it in when he saw the flag.

The Reid peno was a peno, it was a foul, it was inside the box, sure it would have been harsh in the sense poor Arsenal, but it was a foul, and Vieira knew it.

I'm not saying ARsenal didn't deserve to win, but lets not go nuts about the preformance.

Well considering Lehmann had already stopped having heard the whistle, and had a good few metres headstart on Dickov I think it's a little bit speculative to call it a disallowed goal.

Don't agree that it was a peno. I'm not going nuts about the performance, but Blackburn deserved nothing from that game and got nothing.

jank

Well isn't that clever, when Dickov clipped the ball over he was about to continue the run and tap it in when he saw the flag

And your point is!!...it still want a goal, and no look at the replay and the intial challenge was outside the box. Reid didnt do much about and nether did the rest of the players... the ref had a clear view of it

And by your reckoning then Blackburn should have been to to at least 10 players

Come on for once in your life take off those tinted glasses of yours
Maybe 3-0 was a bit harsh but Arsenal were by the more creative and better side on the day. You cant argue with that.

PHB

I agree, they were the btter side.
But their defense imo left much to be desired.
Senderos is doing great, playing amazing, but is still a kid, and he made quite a few mistakes, e.g. playing DIckov in, but Dickov however wasn't good enough to capitalise on them, cept tha tone time
Campbell is needed back!

jank

But their defense imo left much to be desired

I thought the defense was very good, Blackburn didnt have much of a sniff at goal