By Boris Mellor
January 3 2005

Arsenal could have a very inexperienced defence playing against Man City this Tuesday. Both Hoyte and Senderos could be in the back line.

Cole also appears to be playing through injury, hence his present irritability. Lauren may return, but the bottom line is we will, almost certainly, be without Campbell.

Arsenal’s November crisis, or blip, came to an end, partially, due to Campbell’s return, with 16 points out of the last 18. I say partially because I believe that Vieira’s return to form was another important factor. Campbell’s return did not immediately stop the leaking as we saw against Chelsea. Wenger also felt it necessary to drop Lehmann to tighten up the defence.

Does the injury of Campbell mean we should expect more problems, after all Man City are an effective attacking team, Anelka, SWP and Fowler are all hitting the net. They can be a handful even with Campbell. Anyone who watched the Charlton game would have seen that one reason why we defended so well at dead balls was that, apart from the free kick we conceded, the defence organised itself well for free kicks and corners.

Organisation is the key, last season we were without Campbell for 10 games or so, and did not lose a game. Yet it was Cygan who covered for him, why the difference, to restate the case we remained organised. Will Senderos prove to be a better deputy than Cygan? We must hope so, and after the 5^th Eboue will also be available. But all these are intangibles; we have to get a good result Tuesday night.

The Arsenal defence seems to lose shape and confidence with Sol away, it is about much more than the ability of his replacement. The key to maintaining shape and confidence of the defence will be Vieira, not just his ball winning skills, and his playmaking, but his shielding and organising of the defence. That will be his most important duty, if that duty is neglected then we could end up ruing Campbell’s absence.

Tsunami Appeal

Shankly once famously said that football was more important than life and death, funny but not true. The awful and tragic events that unfolded in the last week are the worst most of us alive today have ever seen. The destruction is on the size of a nuclear holocaust.

The reaction to the tragic loss of life must not blind us to how much will need to be done to restore normal everyday life. Ordinary people in Britain have responded by giving more money than their laggard and niggardly Government.

That response is wonderful, but once the headlines die down, five or six million people will still be living with the consequences, unless even more money is raised. On Tuesday Arsenal Football Club will be holding a bucket collection for the disaster fund. Fans should make sure they pack some extra foldy stuff for the collection. If you are a member of a political party or have a position on a Council then you should raise the issue there, especially to demand our Government does more. For an example of a resolution that can be used for such purposes visit the Respect site here.