Gallas Out? Saturday's Gonna Be Huge!

The latest reports coming out are that Gallas has been stripped of his captaincy and dropped for tomorrow's match against Man City. This could well be true, but before you either start celebrating or lamenting this fact (depending on your opinion of the Frenchman), I would look at the validity of this argument first of all.

The article came out of French Football who also claim that the replacement for Gallas this weekend will be either Almunia or Clichy. This alerted right away to the fact that this might now be true. Although Almunia is second vice-captain (behind Toure), Clichy has never once been mentioned as a possible captain. Also casting doubt on this particular piece of news is the fact that Arsene Wenger surely knows that if Gallas loses the captaincy he's probably out the door in January, and contrary to what some believe this is not a good thing: goodness knows we can't afford to lose any more central defenders as we're desperately short already, and wouldn't Arsene Wenger realise this?

While quite revealing, Gallas's comments were rather unnecessary. What kind of leader announces their group's internal struggles to the public? Certainly not a good one, and I don't really see what Gallas was trying to accomplish by doing so. I can only think that this is just a reflection of Gallas's character. Here's what I mean.

Gallas is someone who can get rather emotional and isn't afraid to "wear his heart on his sleeve" when he gets upset. He speaks his mind and is very open and frank. He tries to be a good and effective leader but isn't naturally cut out for it. He may have a very assertive personality but his tendency to speak what's on his mind makes him less than effective sometimes. This comes out in interviews a lot as well. Gallas will get so fed up with one thing or another that he will say just what he's thinking to the media, not thinking beforehand about the consequences of doing so.

Does this making a horrible person? No, it's just his character, and that cannot be easily changed. Does this make him unqualified to be the Arsenal captain? That is where the debate lies, and if the reports are true, Arsene Wenger may have finally decided that it means he is indeed unqualified. Come February, Gallas may well be off.

But where does that leave us for Saturday? It appears that it is tomorrow that we will find out if French Football was telling the truth. If Gallas is playing however, then he and Silvestre will likely lead the backline with perhaps Song or Djourou slotting in at right back. We have now Walcott and no Fabregas in midfield tomorrow which leads me to believe that we will be highly ineffective. Other than the fact that they are the only two players who this season seem capable of changing a game, Man City are very susceptible to quick wingers this season, as their fullbacks are not equipped to handle them.

We have lost that particular advantage and we'll have to deal with who we've got. With Van Persie I believe returning tomorrow we may play either a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2 like the one below:

Almunia
Djourou-Gallas-Silvestre-Clichy
Denilson-Ramsey-Song-V. Persie
Adebayor-Bendtner

Will we win tomorrow? We'll see, but one thing is for sure: it will be a game filled with goals. Neither of the two teams know how to defend and neither can help attacking with all their might. We will be in for one entertaining afternoon. Until then,

Fab 4