Arsenal welcome Blackpool to Underhill this evening as Neil Banfield’s second string aim to maintain their unbeaten start to the season.
Banfield may have spoken of his delight at being able to face sides from the North, but newly promoted Blackpool will pose another interesting yet exciting challenge. The Tangerines are still seeking their first win after coming away with a total of one point from skirmishes with Aston Villa and West Brom, but coach Stephen McPhee will have experienced heads to call on tonight.
World Cup participants Richard Kingson and David Carney are both set to start while Chris Basham and Jason Euell should also feature. Winger Ishmel Demontagnac, who came on as a sub against Arsenal in the Premier League, is also in line for a run out.
The visitors may well have a wealth of potential options, but Banfield’s pool of players has decreased. Johan Djourou, Sébastien Squillaci, Denílson and Łukasz Fabiański have all turned out for the Reserve this term, but they’re all on Champions League duty in Serbia.
An injury to Manuel Almunia means one of Vito Mannone or Wojciech Szczęsny will fly out as back up to Fabiański, meaning James Shea is poised to take over goalkeeper duties. Nicklas Bendtner and Aaron Ramsey are both closing in on fitness, and are likely to turn out for the second-string in the coming weeks.
Kick off at Underhill is at 7pm UK time. The fixture is the last of Arsenal’s “good weather” games at Barnet. You can view live text updates on our Twitter feed, and a full Match Report on the full time whistle.
If one of Chesney or Mannone will fly out to the 1st team, won’t the other one start this reserves game?
Such good news to hear Rambo is nearly ready to start to play again!
Here is hoping Tech9 gets the nod. Outburst aside, he has to be the most talented keeper we have right now.
Love the new look, J! Great work on updating a really important site to a lot of people!
The reserve team looks quite stronh this term.
I like how aneke and Afobe have stepped up this level almost seamlessly from the U-18s last year
Love the new site mate!
Nice revamp but i liked the white on black background, it was different to other web sites, but still keep up the good work, i check your blog at least twice a day. more news, more info , more updates please
you cannot see this article on the front page
Great layout way better than the previous 2.
Nice layout!
Every1 is tokin bout almunia n hs flops. . . Bt we fail to realise that almunia is still one of the best goalkeepers in england. . . Whether we like it or nt almunia is a gud goal keeper. . . I dnt judge players coz i cant do wat they do. .
New layout looks great…
Any streaming on PC tonight?
Szczesny is in the squad for the European game.
Hope to be able to catch a stream of tonights encounter but i doubt it
Please jay post a stream so we can watch the match !!
Fellow gunner fans can anyone please help me with question why isn’t Arsene Wenger not using Jay Emmanuel-Thomas in the 1st team? I’m stumped he should be ahead of Eboue/Diaby would add so much more to the team? Site is great J!
Interesting point.
He’s also been replaced in the squad for this weeks game by Lansbury.
It seems he is being lined up for the lonefront man role rather than one of the 2 wide roles on offer hence why Lansbury got the game instead,I think he prefers energy on the wings above pure technique.I do think he deserves a chance in there somehow though,he needs to be given the chance to make the step up.
Anyone know the squad for tonights game?
Heading down to Barnet for my first reserve game of the season,hoping for a good attacking game.
Against City JET was getting openly frustrated when team mates gave the ball away, made the wrong decisions etc. He was a class above that night and he’ll be a class above tonight, although you can tell he believes he deserves to be in the 1st team squad. Hopefully he just keeps his head down and continues to work hard because he is close.
Cheers for all your feedback guys. Suggestions would be great etc.
No streams for tonight, although text updates as always.
Chuks, Benik and JET have been outstanding this year and i am sure they will get their chance soon. I think it is probably wise that JET is not going to belgrade. It would be hard enough for the kid to establish himself in the team, but to be subjected to racist abuse (which is likely in Belgrade). I think Arsene should start him againt newcastle.
J
Any chance of updating the player profiles. i am interested to know more about Alban Bunjaku.
sczcechny is in the champions league squad!
JV do you mean that he’s gonna start or be on the bench in Belgrade?? That would be awesome. I love the way the site is now…I liked the old ways too though.
Jay, Your probably not going to want to hear this after spending so long revamping the site, but I really liked the way it was before with the black background. It had completely different look to every other blog. Now it looks very similar to every other arsenal blog and the front page is also very cluttered with far too much going on.
Keep up the great articles though!
Lansbury is in the squad but JET isn’t :( It would have been awesome if we were up by 3 or 4 goals to put him on. He might be racially abused, but so might, Clichy, Gibbs, Sagna, Eboue etc etc. Oh well it won’t happen so it doesn’t really matter now. I hope that Szczesny plays, but i don’t think he’ll start. If Fabianski has a shocker, he might be substituted in, but I doubt it. He’s probably just there for the experience. I just hope that Fabianski doesn’t ruin everything for us. We don’t have to win, but a loss would be pretty bad. It wouldn’t ruin our Champions League campaign, but it would certainly make things a lot more difficult for us. And the most frustrating thing is, it doesn’t have to be. We have the potential solution to a few of our problems already within the club. Hopefully Fabianski has a solid match…or else i’ll go insane I think.
Sunu is on the bench. Apparently he’s been out with a cartilage injury.
Thats one mystery solved