Blackpool v Arsenal – live!

• Click on auto-refresh for all the latest action • Email your thoughts to Jacob Steinberg • Follow Jacob on Twitter Aaron Lennon MKII: There’s a rumour floating about that Jens Lehmann will now start for Arsenal as Manuel Almunia has been taken ill. Mad Jens, we’ve missed you. The Carling Cup’s gone, the FA Cup’s no more, they’re fairly free this Tuesday and Wednesday and Manchester United are 10 points ahead in the title ‘race’. From the quadruple to this for Arsenal. Still, second place would be nice. Arsenal are clinging on to the faintest of hopes that they can still reel United in, but it’s looking like a forlorn task now. For starters, only four teams have managed to relinquish from this position since football was first invented by Sky in 1992 and anyway, did you see Arsenal against Blackburn last week? Lethargic doesn’t even begin to cover it. Earlier on in the day, United had recovered from 2-0 down at West Ham to go eight points ahead. Arsenal knew what they had to do, and they followed it up with that rubbish, much to the displeasure of their supporters, who let their feelings be known in no uncertain terms. Arsene Wenger’s not happy though. Journalists who have covered Arsenal for ages said they’d never seen him so angry in his Friday press conference, hitting out at his critics in the press and in the stands. “After everything I’ve done for you, this is how you repay me?” Wenger seemed to be saying. While it’s true that coming second would represent Arsenal’s best finish since 2005, the feeling remains that this season promised so much more. On 16 February, Arsenal beat Barcelona and everything was lookier rosier than Fernando Torres’s cheeks. But since then, their all-too-familiar collapse has been a thing to behold. They lost the Carling Cup final in farcical circumstances, they drew with Leyton Orient in the FA Cup, they lost to United’s reserves, Nicklas Bendtner did his Nicklas Bendtner thing at Camp Nou, Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie have all suffered injuries and they haven’t won a single game of football since February. In the seasons that Arsenal have won the title under Wenger, they have tended to bulldoze their way through the second half of the season. Not any more. Blackpool have problems of their own though. One point above the bottom three, this is the first of four home games in a row. It’s also the most difficult – the next three are against Wigan, Newcastle and Stoke. They’ve only won four at home this season though, their defensive slackness too often proving the difference. After an exceptional first half of the season, they seem to have run out of puff, and have only won twice in the league in 2011 (strangely enough against Liverpool and Tottenham). So maybe Wenger’s right; second is somewhere after all. Blackpool (4-3-3): Kingson; Baptiste, Evatt, Cathcart, Crainey; Adam, Southern, Puncheon; Taylor-Fletcher, Campbell, Varney. Subs: Rachubka, Eardley, Ormerod, Phillips, Kornilenko, Reid, Beattie. Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Almunia; Eboue, Squillaci, Koscielny, Clichy; Diaby, Wilshere; Nasri, Fabregas, Arshavin; Van Persie. Subs: Lehmann, Rosicky, Walcott, Ramsey, Gibbs, Chamakh, Bendtner. Keeping an eye on the swear jar: Lee Mason (Lancashire) Premier League Blackpool Arsenal Jacob Steinberg guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 10, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.