Reading v Arsenal. Everyone’s opinion, the teams, the result

By Tony Attwood It has been a week for everyone and his dog to have their say. Collapse and decline are the main talking points in the press, and the AAA are lapping it up. But Jack Wilshere has bucked the trend with a lot of positive talk, and even George Graham has come in, talking in support of Wenger. He made a few errors did George, saying that Vieira and Anelka were bought for moderate prices (Vieira cost £3.5m and Anelka £250,000 which turned out to be dirt cheap, not moderate) but we can forgive the old boy that because he was generally supportive. Bob Wilson also took a swipe at S. Robson, who now plies his trade with ESPN, and I suspect both ex-player and Micky Mouse TV are happy with each other. Bob particularly commented on reports that Mr Wenger was a control freak. Since Bob was goalkeeper coach for many years and Robson merely sat in a critics chair for Arsenal TV, I suspect Bob knows more than Robson. Robson’s criticisms sound increasingly like a man bitter that his career has got this low. Anyway, to the game Theo is back and so is Giroud. Which by and large has to be excellent news for everyone. It might mean we could see a front line of Oxlade-Chamberlain Giroud Walcott In the defence Koscielny is back, but presumably we’ll see the same defence as before: Gibbs, Vermaelen, Mert., Sagna with Koscielny on the beach. Watch Arsenal Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv

Returning to Jack for a moment, he has said he’ll sign a new deal which is more good news. During that interview he also said, of the Reading league cup game, “It was very hard watching that first half. First of all because I really wanted to play in it. It was just a few days after my first game back, against QPR, so the manager rested me. I was watching it with my mate and at 4-1 I said: ‘Listen, we could do this.’ He laughed at me but I said: ‘You watch, we can win this’. “To be fair, we showed great character in the end. The youngsters [this is old man Jack talking] all did really well – I think Thomas Eisfeld changed the game when he came on, he was brilliant. As was Olivier Giroud.” Kieran Gibbs also supported the manager in a similar way: “I don’t think many people in England had really heard of Thomas Vermaelen before he arrived and yet he became an instant fan favourite at the club. The manager has an eye for noticing the potential in promising players.” . In the midfield all will be much the same . Wilshere, Arteta Cazorla . with Jack at liberty to run forward and play like Dennis Bergkamp in terms of through passes. On the beach we will have Mannone, Gnabry, Jenkinson, Djourou, Koscielny, Ramsey, Rosicky, Coquelin, Arshavin, Podolski, Gervinho – well at least some of them.

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We currently have three players with four goals: Walcott, Giroud, and Podolski. In this game we’ll see Walcott move ahead as our top striker and then hopefully sign a new contract.

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The bad news is that all the omens point our way, and when that happens something usually goes wrong. We’ve beaten Reading every time we’ve met them, and Reading have only won one of their last 10 league games.

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But on the other hand we haven’t won any of our last six away games. I just hate it when all the omens go our way.

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We’ll outpass them certainly, and as long as you keep the sound of ESPN chatter turned down, I suspect you’ll enjoy this one.

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