Reserves Preview- Chelsea v Arsenal

Arsenal reserves travel to face their Chelsea counterparts tonight still looking for their first win of 2009.

The Gunners have drawn against Stoke and Aston Villa, whilst their two most recent results were defeats to Fulham and West Ham.

One of the key reasons for the poor results in recent months has been the inability to select a consistent starting line-up and that trend continues tonight.

The Gunners are without Jack Wilshere who misses out through injury, whilst Kieran Gibbs, Francis Coquelin and Gilles Sunu are all on international duty.

Neil Banfield makes five changes from the defeat to the Hammers, with Wojciech Szczęsny replacing James Shea between the sticks. Thomas Cruise returns at left-back, whilst Mikaël Silvestre has been drafted in in a bid to improve his fitness. Elsewhere, Fran Mérida returns to the starting line-up as well as Sanchez Watt, whilst James Dunne is on the bench.

Chelsea have some notable names on their team-sheet, with out-of-favour winger Florent Malouda selected along with Franco Di Santo, Miroslav Stoch and former Arsenal trialist Mineiro. The Blues have been through a rough patch as well recently and were thrashed 4-0 by a strong Tottenham side last weekend.

With both sides looking to get back to winning ways and some familiar faces involved, it promises to be an enthralling encounter at Griffin Park tonight.

Arsenal:

————————–Szczęsny——————————

—Eastmond—Bartley—————Silvestre——Cruise-

——————Frimpong————Mérida———-

—Randall——————————————-E.-Thomas—–

—————————-Bischoff——————–

—————————-Watt————————–

subs: Shea, Ayling, Dunne, Evina, Deacon.

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