Olympiacos Tonight

We face Olympiacos tonight at the Grove. I really don't know anything about them except that they have Olof Melberg and Matt Derbyshire. I used be a closet fan of Matt Derbyshire but never understood the hype about Melberg. I suppose at the end of the day it's not really important since they're both really just OK.

We'll be without Fabianski, his knee still not having recovered, Almunia, still suffering from the gnarliest chest infection ever, Djourou, who'll of course be out for the bulk of the season, Sami Nasri is still out for at least another week with his leg break, Denilson is out with a slight back fracture, which is a shame because that's the type of injury that can really hamper a career later on, Theo won't play as he's short of match fitness and Bendtner crashed his Aston Martin and will miss the game.

Mannone will again deputize in the sticks. This'll be another chance for him to prove himself and you have to imagine that another great performance will allow him to hold his place for another game. He was fantastic in that entertaining match at Craven Cottage and should he have much to do we'll have to hope he does the same in the CL. Even if he doesn't hold his place, you have to imagine that with his performances and the imminent return of Fabianski, Almunia might get his finger out and get it together. Last season was certainly his best and he still wasn't that good and I really wouldn't mind Fabianski or even Mannone turning good and taking his place.

I expect our regular back 4, although I can see either one of the full backs being given a rest, maybe Clichy, as Sagna was recently given a break. Diaby will probably stand in the middle along side Song and Cesc again, hopefully he can have a good game and get some consistency down. You have to imagine that Eduardo will come in for Bendtner up front and with Theo out too, there may be room on the bench for Carlos Vela. I'd like to see him get going this season and this seems like a good opportunity, as it's a high profile match that doesn't seem too difficult or of great consequence.

A good performance and a win will again keep us moving in a run of very winnable matches that lead up our meeting with Tottenham on Oct. 31st, which should be a good test for us, but again a very winnable game. After that we have another series of games we should be winning and then we meet Chelsea at the end of November. There are 18 points to grab before November, which includes the Spurs match, and then another 6 before Chelsea. If we can take something like 22-24 points in that run we'll be in great position in the league and in good form to take on Drogba and co.. Another 3 points against Chelsea and we'll have pegged them back to 2 losses and have another 3 points in our bellies, which'll basically, you have to imagine, even out the league at the top.

In between those games we have a few others in the Carling Cup and Champions' League, which can go a long way to giving us momentum should we win them.

A win tonight will also put some daylight between us and the rest of the group, which'll relieve some pressure later on in the group stages and allow Wenger to rest some players and get some youngsters some Champions' League time. A draw in the other group game would go a long way to helping that. We'd be on 6 points, Olympiacos 3 and the others would have a point a piece. Another win and a draw in the other fixture would sew up qualification.

Now, onto the actual game, I think we shouldn't have a problem tonight at all, and I know I said that about the Liege game, but we shouldn't have had much of a problem there either. I think we'll have enough for a comfortable home win and hopefully we'll avoid any more injuries and our squad will stitch itself back together in a couple of weeks, with the exceptions of our long termers, who we'll just have to wait on.

Until tomorrow,

Highbury86