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QPR v Arsenal – Match preview

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Arsenal make the short trip up to Loftus Road to take on QPR later this afternoon.

Arsenal are on a run of seven consecutive victories, and if we add one more to that it will be our best run of victories since the 2003/04 season.

QPR will be without their striker Djibril Cisse, but they do have Bobby Zamora, who has posed problems for us in the past, mainly due to his hold up play and ability to play with his back to goal.

QPR are a team who should be somewhere in mid-table with the players they have in their squad so we cannot underestimate them and think they will roll over for us.

Due to the relative small size of Loftus Road, the atmosphere in the stadium can get electric and as we saw against Liverpool it can play a big part in the performance of the players, so it is important that we get the first goal in order to silence the crowd.

In terms of team news we have only Laurent Koscielny as an addition to the squad from last week, who was described by the Arsene Wenger as ‘90%’ fit, so the only change we will have is Koscielny replacing Johan Djourou at the back.

Wenger has warned his players that there is lot of football still left to be played and that he wants them to finish as high as possible:

‘We will try to give our best. What we can hope for is to be third. We can be fourth, we can be fifth, we can be sixth – we want to be as high as possible and that depends on our consistency now.

‘We are in a position that nobody expected us to be in and we want to strengthen that position from now on. That depends on our performances.

‘I see us fighting like mad on Saturday to win the game. That’s all I see, I don’t see further.’

The match will be a special occasion for one of our unsung heroes and most consistent performers over the last four years.

The game will mark the 200th appearance of Bacary Sagna in an Arsenal shirt. The right-back feels proud to reach the landmark and says how lucky he is to put on the red and white everyday:

‘Reaching 200 games for Arsenal would be a great achievement for me and a dream come true, But I must say, I have to score on my 200th game now! I have to!

‘Seriously, I’m very proud and I hope that many more games will come with Arsenal. I feel I’m part of the scenery here. It’s a real honour to play here. I am so lucky to be part of the history of this club.’

It’s refreshing to hear a player speak like this about a club, and Sagna is definitely one of the good guys in football. I for one hope he scores in his landmark appearance and sets us on our way to our 8th consecutive victory.

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2 comments

  • Gøønerlad says:

    Yea lets hope he gets on the scoresheet..plus rvp needs to reaffirm his status..c’mon gunners.

  • Gøønerlad says:

    Yea lets hope he gets on the scoresheet..plus rvp needs to reaffirm his status, score some goals will ya?..c’mon gunners.

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