Vermaelen out for Birmingham game is a joke, the goddamn review panel is a joke, how can they say that is worthy of a red card and missing a game.

Riddiculous

It was always going to be a little controversial whether he got off or not.

Despite the fact that there wasn't much and there was a bit of a dive, there was contact, and there was no guarantee that Campbell would have managed to get across.

What a crap decision, being sent off and a penalty is punishment enough and the West Ham player milked every inch out of that one - while there may have been a little contact it was closer to a dive than a foul. Anyway, who would have predicted a few years back that we would be in the title race at this stage of the season - in 2010 - fielding a centre back pairing of Sol Campbell and Mikael Silvestre? You would be locked up.

I actually think Song will partner Cambell at the back but whatever, if we score lots of goals any potential floor in defence is irrelevent so hopefully Arshavin has his shooting boots on this week (I think he has forgotten what colour they were).

i find it incredible that some ppl want to 'rest' sol for barca. its like as if the CL is a sure thing n PL isnt. brum is our biggest game of the season, n sol's physical presence would be huge for us. i dont want that c*nt silvest anywhere near our defence come saturday. sol should be able to pull up for barca midweek, if not, there is a chance gallas can come back n if worse comes to worse song can fill in with deni/diaby/nasri assisting in shoring up that DM role against barca. if silvest plays against brum because we are tryin to caution with sol, i will be furious! brum are excellent at home, n will pose a huge huge threat!!!

Maybe if Vermaelen had of had a cry when he walked off everybody would be saying how nice he is and how he is not that type of player and in sympathy the FA would have let him off.

mash wrote:i find it incredible that some ppl want to 'rest' sol for barca. its like as if the CL is a sure thing n PL isnt. brum is our biggest game of the season, n sol's physical presence would be huge for us. i dont want that c*nt silvest anywhere near our defence come saturday. sol should be able to pull up for barca midweek, if not, there is a chance gallas can come back n if worse comes to worse song can fill in with deni/diaby/nasri assisting in shoring up that DM role against barca. if silvest plays against brum because we are tryin to caution with sol, i will be furious! brum are excellent at home, n will pose a huge huge threat!!!

I agree that Silvestre shouldn't be playing, but I don't think we've got much of a choice.

Gallas is definitely out of the first Barca tie, so we've got a couple of options:

Brum: Song & Campbell or Silvestre & Song

Barca: Song & Vermaelen or Vermaelen & Campbell

id go song-campbell for brum n then gamble on either gallas-verm, sol-verm being available n if not song-verm. gallas is a chance according to his physio so lets no rule that out, n if sol can do PL n porto, he can push that extra bit for the TWO BIGGEST games of our season...

You might be right with Song-Campbell, although I expect Wenger will use Silvestre and Song

I'm a little worried about playing Song at CD against Barca, as he'll be needed more to break up Barca's passing play.

man this ref (for the west ham game) has seriously f*** us over n put us in a mother of a predicament!!! with these season ending injuries, penalties and now red cards, we seriously cant cop a break can we?

I have considered several times the effect that Eduardo diving for the penalty against Celtic had on us.

You have to wonder how much the refs have considered that and decided not to give a penalty as a result.

It may have only happened once, but if we drew that game, that two points would make a huge difference.

I think we have done pretty well with penalties this season, much better that in previous years. In fact, we have got 2 or 3 late ones the last month or so (West Ham, Stoke, Sunderland) - I'm not saying we didn't deserve those but we have not been on the recieving end of these kind of decisions for some time. Apart from the Rooney one early in the season - and perhaps one against Hull before Christmas (someone may correct me), we havn't been on the end of too many bad penalty decisions either. In the Vermaelen case, I understand why he gave the penalty - but those incidents are not always given, nor is a red card handed out. Still, although the draw was dissapointing, there is still some way to go yet this season.

bad penalty decisions..... did you see the one in blacburn v burnley? fully shocking decision in that one.

Two conflicting reports about how long Vermaelen is out for:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/footbal ... 114966.stm?

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 71,00.html?

So Vermaelen is back in training and therefore we won't buy another CB

FFS

Wenger, if your willing to pay the money for a CB when Vermaelen is injured do it even when he's not. Its the place we are really lacking. Djourou is starting to come good but we still ideally want a Vermaelen/New CB starting line up with Djourou then Koscielny as back up.

Wenger spent 10m on Koscielny. He's not going to make him 4th choice that quickly unless he thought Koscielny was a longer term buy.

If there's a quality defender available at the right price and we're short on numbers, then Wenger may buy in order to challenge for the title, but he's not going to waste money for a player to sit in the reserves or on the bench.

Koscielny is already a waste of money, hence the need to cut our losses and spend again on a new CB. If the right player becomes available we have to go for it - so what if Koscielny has to spend time on the pine, the cost of a player should have no impact on whether they are a in our best XI. Mistakes can be made, or is it possible Wenger needed a short term solution - a stop gap until the right player came up - and Koscielny was that player? Probably not, but who knows.

You can't describe Koscielny as a waste of money simply because he hasn't made an immediate impact.

He's shown good touches and seems to time his tackles well, he just need to cut out the errors and build up a bit more strength. In time, he'll get better.

I agree that the cost of a player shouldn't dictate if they're in the starting XI, but to relegate a decent player who has shown potential to permanent bench warmer and prevent him from improving isn't the answer.

If Vermaelen is out injured then we can look at getting in a new CD, who will replace Squillaci when Vermaelen is back.

Vermaelen has had another injury set back - what will this mean for our chances of winning some silverwear? We have got this far without him but his return and his leadership at the back would be a massive massive bonus? If we can stop the leaks at the back - particullalry against lower sides (we have looked solid against the better teams recently) bring on the challenge.

Wenger is looking for a new CB.

Hopefully he'll shell out a fair bit for a quality CB rather than some cheap almost 30 player to fill the gap.

Upson linked in some papers to return.

He ticks all the boxes

1.Wenger wants a player with Premier League Experience
2. He wont demand a huge transfer fee (out of contract at end of season)
3. Shouldnt be too bad on wages
4. Lives in London etc
5. An ideal backup (ie 4th defender)

Could be an option, but I'm not sure if West Ham want to let him go, as it may mean relegation for them without their best defender.

There are a few options who have played in England.

Samba, Cahill, Jagielka even Campbell are all possible options.

good to see him back ,hard to judge him on first game but looked dangerous at set plays

He was understandably rusty early in the game, but after that, got back into it and did well. He took a couple of knocks and came through them. Yeah, certainly was great to see him back.

I rate Kosielny..... I think he is committed and has that will to want to work hard.. If I was Wenger I would look at getting a big centre half to partner Vermaalen and f*** the liability that is clichy off and try Kosielny at left back... he is fast, good in the tackle, works hard and would be worth a go at LB....

chrisl wrote:I rate Kosielny..... I think he is committed and has that will to want to work hard.. If I was Wenger I would look at getting a big centre half to partner Vermaalen and f*** the liability that is clichy off and try Kosielny at left back... he is fast, good in the tackle, works hard and would be worth a go at LB....

Great to get TV back. The most important MIA for us this season IMO. I agree that Koscielny has looked better and better as the season has progressed but I think he is still a little too undisciplined to be a regular starting player. A top qual CB to partner TV and mentor Koscielny would be ideal. As for Clichy, I don't agree. Gibbs has been crap in the last couple of games and putting LK at left back is asking for trouble.