Arsenal Vs Cardiff
Emirates Stadium
Saturday 1st Jan 2014
15:00 BST Kick Off
Referee: J.Moss


New Year. Bigger ambitions.

Arsenal start the new year with a home match against Cardiff City. An opposition who are not amongst the elite but a game we can not afford to be complacent about, obviously. But it is a game we should be winning and there is no other way to put it. We are top of the league going towards the new year and with new year, comes bigger responsibilities. A responsibility to keep the consistency. To keep our position at the top of the league. A target every player should aim to achieve. It will be difficult obviously as winning the Premier League is one of the most difficult things in football. But Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. To will is to do. We shall be victorious in 2014. It is our year.

Cardiff

Cardiff sit 16th in the Premier League with a team which is really average at every regard. We beat them 3-0 earlier on in the season with Ramsey scoring two and Flamini one. However the difficulty this time is that we have heck a lot of injuries atm and it can be difficult tomorrow. But with all due respect, we should be beating Cardiff with our B team. No arrogance, just the truth. I fully expect us to win tomorrow. Nothing else.

Team News

Arsenal have a lengthy injury list with Olivier Giroud (ankle), Aaron Ramsey (thigh) and Mesut Ozil (shoulder) out. Kieran Gibbs (calf) is also missing, while Theo Walcott (shoulder), Tomas Rosicky (calf) and Jack Wilshere (ankle) all face late fitness tests.

Cardiff are without Craig Bellamy because of a knee problem, while Declan John is expected to continue in place of injured left-back Andrew Taylor. Aron Gunnarsson and Peter Odemwingie will hope to earn recalls.

Potential Arsenal Team

-----------------------------Szczesny---------------------------------

Jenkinson---------Mertesacker----------Koscielny--------------Monreal

---------------------Flamini/Wilshere----------Arteta-------------------------

Gnabry-----------------------Cazorla------------------------Podolski

----------------------------Bendtner--------------------------------

Potential Cardiff Team

----------------------------Marshall-------------------------------

Théophile-Catherine------Caulker------Turner------------John

Noone------Mutch------Medel-------Kim-------------Whittingham

-------------------Frazier Campbell---------------------------------

Match Facts (EuroSports)

• Arsenal are unbeaten in the last 12 matches in all competitions against Cardiff City, winning seven and drawing five.
  
• Cardiff are unbeaten in three league trips to Arsenal (W1 D2), though the most recent of these came back in 1962.
  
• Arsenal have only scored 16 times in nine Premier League home games this season.
  
• Only Everton have conceded as few goals as Arsenal (18) this season in the top-flight.
  
• Only 18 different players have started a Premier League game for Cardiff this season, fewer than at any other Premier League club.
  
• Arsenal have the best shooting accuracy (54.5%) and Cardiff the worst (35.7%) in the Premier League this season.
  
• Cardiff have fashioned more attempts from indirect free-kick moves than any other side this season (20 – almost three times as many as Arsenal (7))
  
• Arsenal’s substitutes have provided four assists this season, more than any other team.
  
• The Gunners have conceded fewer fouls than any other Premier League team this season (184) but seven clubs have received fewer yellow cards.
  
• Of the seven players to have picked up a league-high six yellow cards in the Premier League this season, Mathieu Flamini has committed the fewest fouls (13).
  

Final Words

Improve GD please. Hope to see Gnabry involved.

Great thread RG

I expect big performances from Cazorla and Podolski. Those guys were pretty much the heart of our attack last year and feel as if people have forgotten how massive they have been for us because of their recent injury troubles, the ozil signing, and Ramsey's hot start

Excited to see bendtner get a pl start as well. I don't know what it is but I feel like he still is a big threat to score. He has rarely gotten 90 minutes this season, but has contributed to a goal (or would have had they not been disallowed) almost every appearance. I don't think there will be much of a drop off in the quality of our attack tomorrow despite all the injuries.

Great preview RG.

The legend of Bendtner begins.   

The number of changes we'll be making for this game has a me a little less confident of a convincing win. This is a good time to play Cardiff, what with them being without a manager, their fans protesting against Tan, and no wins in three games, and had we a full compliment of players to choose from I would be expecting a win by three or four goals. As it is, any win so we remain top will do. Chances are we're going to be 2nd before we even kick off.

An attack of Cazorla, Gnabry, Podolski and Bendtner should be enough to get that win. It'll be interesting to see how Cazorla does in the middle, should he play there. Podolski and Gnabry haven't played many games recently, so I'm expecting some rustiness from them.

As for Bendtner, he needs to look at this game as an opportunity to stake his claim for the starting role. Giroud's form isn't good and he needs rest, so a good performance from Bendtner may convince Wenger to use him more often and, more immediately, in the FA Cup against Spurs.

-----------------------------Szczesny---------------------------------

Jenkinson---------Mertesacker----------Koscielny--------------Flamini

---------------------Wilshere----------Arteta-------------------------

Gnabry-----------------------Cazorla------------------------Podolski

----------------------------Bendtner--------------------------------


Bendtner with a hat-trick.  

Great preview RG

i hope some players who are getting minutes in this one show their capabilities
get an early goal and maybe this could become easy win
Also agree with Lex about injury reports being an excuse so we can rest as many players

Thankfully fixture list in this period is kind whereas last couple of seasons we lost many points this time of the season

need to improve GD

great preview RG..
it is not a surprise that the players who played the most have all fallen down after the festive period now.. Ramsey, Ozil, Giroud, Gibbs.. and i think only Sagna is the remaining one.. but he got a small rest in between as injury..

we should still beat them easily.. we have a squad.. and many of these small teams dont have.. they have been playing the same players once every 3 days for the last 2 weeks.. so fatigue and injuries should be an excuse for them, not for us or the big teams..

any updates on the team ?

Great preview RG.

There's no doubt we should win this game. I don't see us winning it convincingly though. We never do when we are expected to. And as Jay said this many inevitable changes to the team will or might not be to the team's best benefit.

GD is important. The way the PL has been panning out so far you just wouldn't be surprised if the title and some other vital positions are decided on GD. So if we can, we should take Cardiff to the cleaners but as I said I don't see it happening. Even a slight 1-0 goal victory would suffice. At the moment it's just about staying top and taking it a game at a time.

C'mon Arsenal!!!