Havard Nordtveit and Amaury Bischoff could both be handed starting berths when Arsenal Reserves resume their Reserve League South campaign tomorrow with a trip to the Midlands to take on their West Bromwich Albion counterparts.
The Gunners currently sit second in the table, four points behind leaders Aston Villa and beat Portsmouth 2-0 last time out thanks to second-half strikes from Mark Randall and Kieran Gibbs.
In team news, Reserve captain Gavin Hoyte has joined Watford on loan until the end of the season so won’t feature against the Baggies, whilst Jay Simpson has made a temporary switch to the Hawthorns. That means that Havard Nordtveit, who is eligible to represent the club again after a frustrating loan spell at Salamanca, is poised for a re-call. In midfield, Aaron Ramsey is likely to be rested after completing 90 minutes against Plymouth yesterday so Bischoff looks set to return as well. Likewise goalkeeper Vito Mannone, who has only made four starts out of a possible seven so far this campaign. Up front, Rui Fonte should be restored to the starting line-up to partner Eduardo, whilst Rene Steer is back after failing a trial with tomorrow’s opponents and is likely to be on the bench tomorrow.
Predicted team:
—————————————–Mannone————————————————-
——Coquelin————Nordtveit—————————–Rodgers————–Gibbs–
——Wilshere————Randall——————————–Bischoff—————Merida-
—————————— Eduardo——————————-Fonte—————————
subs: Shea, Lansbury, Emmanuel-Thomas, Steer, Sunu.
A full match preview with confirmed team news will be available tomorrow afternoon.
Jeorge Bird's Arsenal Youth 
We have lack of defenders. We have only five defenders who are available: Sagna, Djourou, Gallas, Clichy (not 100%), Gibbs and perhaps Song as well. So we might need Nordtveit, at least for the bench. Our focus to find a creative midfielder and not a defender.
Off subject I know but, on Sept 14th the U16s played against Coventry, Jernade Meade as a goal scorer for us. Who is he? I’ve never heard of him and he doesn’t feature on any Arsenal list anywhere.
He is a winger and played in the Zinedine Zidane tournament in Cannes and impressed there as well. It will be a while before he becomes a regular in the u18s though.
I wouldn’t be suprised to see this game called off with all the cold weather. Does anyone know if they play their reserve games at the hawthorns? If so then i suppose they’ll have undersoil heating. If not i think it could be in doubt.
they usually do play them there but i wouldn’t be too worried, they played an fa cup fixture there yesterday without any problems.
sorry folks next few reserve fixtures are played at Aggborough,home of Kidderminster harriers so would say there must be a big doubt about it taking place. I live about 10 miles away and the temp aint been above freezing in last 4/5 days
You think Nordtveit might be called up for the first team againt Bolton? with Toure and SIlvestre out, probably song and hoyte at watford…
no, gallas and djourou are the first-choice centre-back partnership at the moment, clichy will be back for the bolton game so gibbs will be on the bench.
Rhys Murphy should be on the bench instead of Sunu IMO. I personally think Murphy is much better than Fonte too.
Im jsut thinking of the CB covering, we will ahve none if Song is out.
Not sure about Gibbs being in the team, bearing in mind he played most of the 1st team game on Saturday.
Coquelin is too good to play right back, get him in the middle of the park. I doubt Gibbs will play after playing at the week end. Lets hope Eduardo grabs a goal.
But Gibbs needs as many games he can get. And it was very long since he played at all. Hopefully he’ll get a loan deal soon or maybe get some appearences in the first team now when Silvestre is out.
any news on if the game is going ahead?
Called off at noon ,according to Kidderminster’s telephonist ,though AFC ,WBA and Kidderminster have yet to post this information on their respective sites,for some reason .
Now “officially” off according to WBA’ s site .How long before AFC .Kidderminster (and Sanderson’s site) follow suit ,and in which order ,I wonder ?
games cancelled