december 18th
The Christmas party was quite a timid affair really. One player ended up in hospital because of a peanut allergy, the rest of us felt like we needed to poo after the food and I was home by 2am. Not quite the debauched night I was thinking of. Still, we won 3-1 and now have a three week break to grow large with food and Guinness.
All the focus today is the game against Chelsea when Benitez and Demento will be hoping we can peg Chelsea back a bit for them. Arsene Wenger says “‘I want to beat them because I want to show we are a very strong team, that we are going the right way and that we can fight for the championship.”
Not this season but next season for sure, given the right signings.
What else can we say about today’s game? It’s a must-win to, perhaps, knock Chelsea out of their stride but also for the belief it will bring to the team. Surely they can take the fact that they have beaten Chelsea at home, if they do, and know they can go anywhere else and win. That’s if we win though. I don’t really want to think what a defeat will do so I won’t think about it. What I do think is that we have to play a high-tempo game, not allow Chelsea time anywhere on the pitch and that means the forwards running their socks off and pressuring the Chelsea back 4. We need Flamini to do what he does best and that’s run around making a nuisance of himself and we need something from our wide midfielders – likely to be Pires and Ljungberg – who have not contributed as much as we have come to expect from them this season. We need a big performance from Sol Campbell at the back too. If those things come together, and they have done at Highbury this season, then there’s no reason we can’t take three points from this game.
Thierry Henry knows what’s needed today. He says “I think it is clear we have to win.
We have made some mistakes in the league which we are not used to but we know we have the players here to turn things around.”
Read interviews with Cesc and Robin van Persie.
Sadly there is no interview with Philippe Senderos so I could casually mention how much I want him to kick Drogba up in the air all afternoon so I’ll just have to find some other way to fit that in.
In other news The People reports Southampton wonderkid Theo Walcott will join Sp*rs in a £9m deal.
And there you go. I’m off to get some breakfast, the newspapers then bite my nails until kick-off.
Have a good one and come on you reeeeeeeeds.
