Up For Grabs Now

… that Aston Villa’s captain Martin Laursen will be out injured for 2 months.

True, this isn’t as exciting as the story where we pretend to have scooped everyone else about the Russian fella while in fact slavishly quoting from the Daily Mail’s risible attempt at journalism.

 But Laursen’s injury could be even more important.

“What?” I hear you cry. “What on earth could be more important than our signing or not signing a Strigiformic (owlish) winger who I once saw on the telly? He even scored a goal! I mean, it’s been all over the papers and blogs and everything? What could possibly be more significant than that?”

To which I would coolly reply, Champions League football next season, that’s what. I’m hoping today’s news signals a change in Villa’s (so far very good) fortunes this season.

Both clubs are now skipperless. Sure, you can argue that with Knight, Davies and Cuellar still competing for places in their central defence, their squad is rather better prepared for their captain’s lay-off than our midfield is to compensate adequately for Cesc’s absence, and you’d be right, but Laursen’s lay-off is certainly good news for Arsenal.

I don’t mean to sound morbid, or like some sort of hideous Villa-obsessed twitcher, and of course it’s never nice to see footballers getting injured, especially when they’re on top form, as Laursen is. But over a season the way these things parcel themselves out around the different teams in a league can prove critical, and often has for Arsenal in the past.

Pre-Cardiff Wengerisms:

Denilson is a really good player who doesn’t get enough credit from the media. He sure doesn’t, Arsene, though I think even some Gooners of the more Le Grumble persuasion are beginning to see what a talent he is. Of course, on UpForGrabsNow, you won’t find anybody agreeing with media hype (or the lack of it).

Man Utd have got it easy. ‘Twas ever thus.

If we sign that Russian fella, good. If not, also good. Agreed(ish). This is not going to be among the many blogs hurling its toys out of its pram and demanding a shirt-presentation ceremony or seven to save our season. Unlike Grabber, I think Arshavin would be an outstanding signing, especially if it means Eboue can return to buttock-snogging the bench on a regular basis.

On balance, I’d say “If we sign that Russian fella, great! If not, not quite as great admittedly but still no cause for infantile hair-tearing web-based sulking.

What with the last 19 hours of frantic face stuffing with chocolate coins, chocolate oranges, ham, turkey, bacon, eggs, sausages, parsnips and, well, stuffing, you’d be forgiven for feeling far too fat to make the effort to even turn on the telly for today’s top-5 tussle  at Villa Park. Never mind actually managing to open your eyes for long enough to take in any of the action. Let alone travelling all the way to bloody Birmingham to witness our Cesc-shorn midfield in action.

Word up to the travelling Gooners today – you should be proud of yourselves. Let’s hope it’s well worth the trip.

A word of warning: a source close to Alex Song (he didn’t stay very close for very long) reports that Alex Song ate between 12 and 17 brussel sprouts all by himself at the London Colney Christmas Dinner, which means he’s likely to spend at least the first half attempting to conceal the inevitable blasts of nauseating flatulence from his team-mates (apparently Denilson HATES other people’s farts) and Sky’s microphones.

Let’s hope he can lay some potent, lingering efforts in the space in behind Sagna and Clichy. Lord knows if we play our defensive line as far up the park as we did against Liverpool, we’ll need something to keep Young and Agbonlahor away from the channels. Alex, you’re our man! Get busy.

The best news this week was that Villa’s defensive cornerstone Martin Laursen is likely to miss today’s game through injury. He’s a crucial player for Villa – an excellent defender in his own right who expertly marshals the rest of his back-line, and a real threat at set-pieces too, which we really seem to enjoy conceding goals from.

His obvious replacement, the excellent Carlos Cuellar, is also struggling, so they may be forced to start with the promising but erratic Curtis Davies and the unpromising and erratic Zat Knight. Both are very tall, but neither are especially adept on the ground, so it’s a combination which would have Van Persie (no Ade today remember) licking his slick-shaven chops.

I suspect O’Neill will realise this and risk one of his main men at the back, preferably Cuellar.

Our team: Almunia, Sagna, Clichy, Djourou, Galoises, Denilson, Diaby, Nasri, Song, Van Persie, Bendtner

No guarantees from this end, however, that we won’t see a 4-5-1 against such a strong Villa midfield. The problem with that is you’d either have to play Van Persie in a withdrawn role (which would mean there would be little defensive point in having the extra man in midfield as he’d be Rob and would also mean relying on Bendtner having a blinder) or else play him up top by himself (which he’s normally pretty bad at) or else drop him (which would be madness).

Very interested to hear your thoughts on who should start today. It’s a big game – who would you pick?

Whoever’s wearing the golden cannon on their shirt today is going to have to play out of their skin. A few of them have to start playing like Top 4 players, and today would be a great day to start.

Lose, and Villa will have 6 points on us. Not insurmountable by any means (and stand fast against the Sky-eyed gloom-mongers who would doubtless prey on any such result) but certainly it would be another big blow in a week of big blows for our season. Win and we’d sneak ahead of them on goal difference. So we’ll probably draw instead.

Come on you Reds!