Arsenal's international curse strikes again
Arsenal received the news that every single one of their supporters would have dreaded on Tuesday night, though very few of them would have been surprised by it, as Robin van Persie was substituted at half-time with an injury in Holland's 5-3 Euro 2012 qualifying victory over Hungary.
It was a stunning match in which the World Cup finalists nearly missed out on a 14th qualifying win in a row after twice surrendering the lead, only for Dirk Kuyt to pop up with two late goals, but the Gunners' striker only got to play half of it after hurting his knee in a challenge with Vilmos Vanczak.
He had opened the scoring in the encounter however his early exit will now leave Arsene Wenger sweating over whether he will be available for Arsenal's Saturday teatime test against the Dutch forward's favourite opponents Blackburn, who he has netted nine times in nine appearances against.
That explains why, despite remaining huge favourites, the north Londoners can now be backed at [1.3] having previously traded at [1.24] to defeat Rovers, while with no news on how long he will be absent for - if at all - because of the setback, their Premier League odds haven't budged at [4.3].
It wasn't all bad news for the title hopefuls though as back-up striker Nicklas Bendtner, who was another injury concern after hobbling out of a Denmark training session with an ankle problem, participated in their 2-1 friendly triumph against Slovakia.
Jens Lehmann meanwhile made his Arsenal comeback in a reserve loss to Wigan on Tuesday yet his performance didn't receive much praise in the media, apparently almost suffering a moment similar to Paul Robinson for England against Croatia after failing to clear a back-pass.
How big a blow would missing van Persie be? Is Lehmann still good enough to start a Premier League game? Share your thoughts below, Arsenal fans...
Published: 30 Mar 2011
Aziz, KL,Malaysia (March 30, 2011 6:26 AM) said:
Any time Jens is better than this nut Almunia. Who can make worse mistakes and blunders /
No one in the EPL and CS, and Jens neither.
At least Jens has commanding presence, can organise defense, has still high reaction speed - so what more is needed for now ?
Send Almunia into the desert and ask any under-xx youth keeper to be on the bench.
As said, anything better than Almunia, since his presence only makes the entire defense more nervous.
Etm Está fixe (March 30, 2011 7:47 AM) said:
What a blow without RvP but as for Jens, give him a chance to start and see what he is capable of @ 41.
Alan Maile (March 30, 2011 8:41 AM) said:
It would have been more accurate, when describing Croatia's goal against England,to have mentioned the fact that the ball took a massive bobble as he was about to clear it. I can understand a female sports writer in the Daily Mail, who has probably never kicked a ball in her life, ridiculing Paul Robinson, but you should know better.