Early and rather brief blog this morning as I’m off to the airport and heading for London.
The main news is that Thierry Henry is fit to start if the manager so chooses and I think he will so choose. He was talking up the importance of the captain yesterday, saying:
It is vital because he can score us a goal at any minute. The players feel stronger when he is with us. He brings the capacity to make the difference. When you know that you want to score goals, a player like that is vital.
Perhaps his couple of weeks off will have recharged his batteries. Let’s hope so because we need a big performance from Thierry as much as anyone. In the absence of both Eboue and Hoyte we’ll probably see Djourou at right back. Abou Diaby is fit but Philippe Senderos misses out with a hamstring strain.
Freddie Ljungberg is confident we can go through despite the feeling that PSV will play a defensive game and make it difficult for us to break them down. He also says he doesn’t really want to play for any other team than Arsenal. He’s another one who could do with a big performance and hopefully the goal he scored against Bolton will give him the confidence he needs.
No question we can’t have another profligate night in front of goal like we had against CSKA. We have to take our chances and an early goal will settle things down although it won’t really change the way PSV are going to play. If we go ahead though they’ll have to come at us which should be to our advantage but we have to be careful of the danger of conceding. An away goal for them means we’ve got to really get our scoring boots on.
I think it’s going to be an exciting night at the Grove. I’m really looking forward it. Right, I’m off. Tom will be here with tomorrow’s blog. I’ll talk to you again on Friday.
Come on you reds.
