It actually looks as though we’ll be able to field something resembling a first-team side in today’s match-up against Blackburn. Walcott, Alex Song, Abou Diaby and Fabregas will all return for this one after being absent from our last league encounter against West Brom.
van Persie and Bendtner also look set to play and we pretty much need to win this one if we’re going to keep the pressure on United, who should be able to get a result against West Ham. The bookmakers are all confident that we’ll get the result today with the general odds sitting around 1/4 on an Arsenal victory while Blackburn are a lengthy 11/1.
It’s not like we’ve been playing our best stuff lately, so getting a result over this team isn’t exactly going to be a cakewalk. You can usually expect a pretty tough fixture against Blackburn.
Rovers sit a mere two points off the relegation zone in an exceptionally compact bottom half of the table. Three points separates 20th from 13th.
van Persie, Bendtner and Chamakh are all odds-on to score at any point in the match but you reckon that this one could dissolve into a bit of a stalemate and that Andrei Arshavin might be called upon to break the deadlock. With a manager under pressure, Blackburn will be looking to try to take a point off of us so you wouldn’t be surprised to see them sit back and try to grind out a 0-0.
Arshavin trades at a slim 6/4 to score anytime but his 6/1 odds to score the last goal could certainly be worth a bet.
Blackburn have shown the ability to battle back and score goals late on in the match so Arsenal certainly will have to take them seriously. You can expect us to get forward pretty frequently so backing Arsenal on the (-4) corners handicap at 5/4 could be a solid selection.