UEFA Champions League Preview: Arsenal vs Braga
Arsenal will be looking to kick of their Champions League campaign as they take on Braga in the opening match at the Emirates. Arsenal will however be missing as many as six first team players from the clash, this is due to the fact that both Abou Diaby
and Thomas Vermaelen have been officially ruled out of being able to participate in the match due to injuries that the players picked up prior to the match.
Diaby managed to get his ankle injured in the teams Premier League match this past weekend against Bolton due to a late tackle that the player suffered. Thomas Vermaelen however managed to get a knock on his Achilles tendon, while he was on international
duty with Belgium.
Theo Walcott is another player who was injured during the international break. Walcott picked up a heavy knock to his ankle in a game against Switzerland and had to be stretchered of the pitch. He was expected to return to action in a couple of days; however
after some further scans it was shown that the player would be out for at least another five weeks.
Along with all those players Arsenal's seasoned injury prone forward; Robin Van Persie is also recovering from an injury that he picked up while playing for Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger was reported to have said: "Diaby is out with an ankle problem following the tackle from (Bolton goalkeeper) Paul Robinson and I do not know for how long,"
"Thomas Vermaelen is out as well with an Achilles problem coming back from Belgium, so we do not have him either.”
"We have Walcott, Van Persie, Bendtner and Ramsey already out. Now Vermaelen and Diaby, so that is quite a good team out."
On the other end, Portuguese reigning champions, Braga will be going into the match without their number one shot stopper, Quim who ruptured his Achilles during pre season training. However his replacement Felipe, who is from Brazil, has been a more than
capable fill in player so far, he has so far managed to get beaten only once in the last three games that he played and Braga will be hoping to see some more of that form from the keeper in tonight’s game.
Experts believe that this game will be an easy win for Arsenal however; due to the number of injuries the team might have some difficulties during the game. None the less the North London team is expected to come out on top at the end of the ninety minutes
unless something goes horribly wrong for them.
It seems that the Dark November has arrived very early for Arsenal. This is the time for their opponents to strike and knock them out of the tournament otherwise from the beginning of October till the mid of the month Arsenal would have revived their full
team and will be back to their Invincible path.
Tags: