The Sun newspaper is suggesting that van Persie has picked up a knock in training and is set to miss the showdown with Manchester United on Sunday. It would be a terrible blow for the young Dutchman, for Wenger and for Arsenal. He offers something very different to the other strikers and I feel that his passionate tackling, his threat from free kicks and his penchant for scoring spectacular goals will be missed.
There is no way that you can remove your team's top scorer and not be upset by it but there is still hope. On the face of it Adebayor would take his place alongside Henry and the tall striker's workrate will be of value to Arsenal when the two teams meet on Sunday. We know he'll run non-stop and he played so well in the match at Old Trafford that he'd be the one they feared most anyway. If Adebayor does start then there would be a space on the bench for Aliadiere as Baptista would already be set to start the match from the bench.
Lets hope the rumours of the injury are false and that Wenger has his full compliment of strikers to choose from.
