FC Porto Preview: Play Eboue!

If Arsene Wenger is to prove to both the supporters and Emmanuel Eboue himself that he still believes in the Ivorian midfielder, then I think he has to play him on the right tomorrow night. Certainly in reading the comments here the last couple of days I get the sense that most gooners believe the same thing: that Eboue deserves a chance to redeem himself.

Well, I don't really think we'll have to worry much about Eboue playing Wednesday night as he will be one of the few senior player in the team. Both Clichy & Sanga have been ruled out, as well as our striking pair of RVP & Adebayor, our captain Cesc Fabregas, and both Toure and Nasri. This means that we will be extremely underhanded and may just be playing some of the Carling Cup kids against the Portuguese champions.

Our squad may well look something like this:
Almunia
Hoyte-Djourou-Gallas-Silvestre (or Gibbs)
Eboue-Ramsey-Denilson-Diaby
Bendtner-Vela
Which isn't horrible, but does leave us without either quality fullbacks or too many playmakers.

My prediction, then, is that we will struggle tomorrow night. I can only hope that Porto, and indeed Arsenal, will play like at the Emirates, but I can't honestly see that happening. In fact, were this a Premier League game, I would be predicting defeat.

However, what might possibly save us is that this is not a Premiership game but a Champions League game. We always seem to excel in the Champions League no matter who we are playing against. I can only really remember two matches in the past three Champions League seasons where we have played actually that badly, and neither of those matches were very recently.

Our style seems more adapted to Europe because teams, especially when they are at home, tend to attack us. And as strange as it sounds, when you try to attack and score on Arsenal, you lose to Arsenal. Conversely when you try not to lose against Arsenal, then you can beat them. Porto, I predict, will be coming out and trying to win so as to finish top of the group, and that will play right into our hands.

So yes, I think we can get a result from this match but it won't be easy. We will have to stay focused and some of the younger players will have to step up and perform excellently. It's time to see just what these young players are made of when they are thrown into the cauldron that is the Estádio do Dragão.

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