Expect a thrashing on Matchday 8

Home Alone... Van Persie, Vermaelen, Fabregas and Vela at the O2 arena in London while their teammates are all away on international duty

The much-derided international break is upon us once again and as football fans, we’ve been forced by the powers-that-be to accept these unsolicited and annoying interregnums in our football menu.
When it all kicks-off again next weekend in the English Premiership, we play host to those cloggers from St. Andrews - Birmingham City. If you’ve been disillusioned with the recent yo-yo form of the Gunners, occasioned by that earth-moving loss to West Brom and rubbed in by the capitulation at Stamford Bridge, despair not.
The reason? There will be a roasting at Emirates on October 16 on Matchday 8 of the premier league anyou don’t want to miss it.Birmingham will be on the end of a thrashing the types Blackpool and Braga got when they came calling very recently. Notice that all three teams share the letter B? Well, that’s got nothing to do with this bold prediction.What it has a lot to do with, is the fact that there isn’t a real international break at the Emirates.
For reasons of injury, poor form and even a suspension from the national side (in the curious case of Carlos Vela), Wenger suddenly finds himself working with a near-full cache of first team players. Unlike all other international breaks where the entire first team disappears into all corners of the world, this time around they are mostly staying behind at Colney. The ‘crèche’ as Myles likes to call it.
It must be a big blessing in disguise for Wenger. Two uninterrupted, glorious weeks to work with players like Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs, Robin Van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Nicklas Bendtner, Manuel Almunia and Vela, all of whom he ordinarily would have lost to the their national teams at a time like this.If all goes to plan, all of the afore-mentioned stand a good chance of making the starting line-up against Birmingham on October 16 and therein lies my optimism and confidence that Alex McLeish’s side will be roasted.
Outcomes of football matches are never set in stone and notoriously have a way of surprising you. True indeed. But looking at our recent reverses in the premier league and the thoughts of what-may-have-been if we had an injury-free side available to choose from, it is safe to predict that things will take an upward swing after the international break. On account of all the returnees burning to take to the pitch and show the rest of the league what it has been missing.
Even long-term absentee Aaron Ramsey is pencilled-in to make his comeback next month and if this doesn’t call for optimism, nothing else will.
After Birmingham, we welcome Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League and thereafter, we go to the lions’ den of Eastlands to face a very dangerous-looking Manchester City. There surely is no better time to have everyone fit and raring to go. But first, Birmingham feels the fury on Matchday 8.
Watch this space for the glowing match report bound to follow on October 17.